Articles by Peter Suciu

The U.S. House Intelligence Committee last week heard expert testimony on the growing threat posed by "deepfakes" -- altered videos and other artificial intelligence-generated false information -- and what it could mean for the 2020 general elections, as well as the country's national security overall The technologies collectively known as "deepfak...

Uber Elevate, the aerial arm of rideshare service Uber, last week announced that it will start a fast food delivery by drone test service later this summer in San Diego Delivery destinations won't be houses or apartment buildings, however, but instead will be "designated safe landing zones," according to reports....

The National Museum of the US Air Force in Dayton, Ohio, is honoring the exploits and sacrifices of the Greatest Generation in a new augmented reality exhibit, "D-Day: Freedom from Above." This AR experience commemorates the 75th anniversary of the Normandy landings, which helped liberate France and Western Europe from theNazis and lead to the Allied victory in the Second World War...

Walmart last month announced that shoppers soon might see a lot more robots in its stores -- but the company wasn't referring to toy robots or even human assistant gadgets that are available for purchase. Walmart's new robots will be taking over repeatable, predictable, and manual tasks that, up until now, have been carried out by human employees A...

Baltimore officials have admitted that the city government once again has been victimized by ransomware -- the second such attack that Baltimore has faced in just over a year City computers were infected with the Robin Hood ransomware virus, The Baltimore Sun reported. Hackers told city officials that they would unlock the computers in return for p...

Many consumers in recent years have opted to cut the cord -- that is, to ditch cable or satellite TV and instead rely on over-the-top (OTT) streaming services for their viewing pleasure. Price has been one factor, but changing viewing habits has been another As a reporter who regularly covers pay-TV services of all varieties, I actually went the op...

Only a fraction of consumers are willing to pay US$1,500 or more for a flagship Apple iPhone or Samsung Galaxy smartphone, suggests an informal ECT News Network survey conducted from April 15 to 22. Fewer than 2 percent of those who took part said they'd be willing to pay such a premium for a handset Since the release of the first iPhone in 2007, t...

The Walt Disney Corporation officially announced Disney+, its direct-to-consumer streaming service, during its Investor Day webcast last week. The new over-the-top (OTT) service will become available on Nov. 12 for a US$6.99-month subscription. Disney+ will arrive with more than 25 new TV programs, as well as more than 10 new movies The service wil...

In an E-Commerce Times poll conducted from March 25 to April 1 of this year, only 4.32 percent of respondents said there was always enough information on the first page of search results to meet their needs. By comparison, 14.05 percent said they found the first-page search results were rigged and limited by algorithmic highlights More than one qua...

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg called for greater government oversight and even regulation of the Internet in an op-ed piece published last weekend in The Washington Post. Zuckerberg, who famously built the social network by playing by his own rules, said it was time for government and regulators around the world to step up and help rein in the Internet...

Apple announced several new services earlier this week. Apple TV+, the star of the lineup, will launch this fall with some high-profile original content -- something that has become key to the success of any over-the-top streaming service Apple also announced Apple TV Channels, an aggregation service that will pull together content offerings from c...

Cybersecurity experts at Microsoft's Windows Defender Security Intelligence Team this week reported their discovery of two new email-based phishing campaigns. One targets Amex (American Express) users, while the other targets Netflix customers. Both campaigns reportedly are very well-crafted, featuring legitimate logos and even fill-in forms that closely mimic those on the respective company's own websites...

Microsoft has been urging customers to upgrade from its Windows 7 operating system, while attempting to ease the transition with several options for extended support. It will stop providing routine fixes and security patches effective January 2020. Regular support for Windows Server 2008 also is scheduled to end at that time Windows 7 enterprise cu...

Verizon has a new cloud-based gaming service that is in the alpha testing stage, based on recent reports. Verizon Gaming is being tested on Nvidia Shield set-top boxes, according to The Verge The Shield devices, which were unveiled in 2015, were updated two years ago when Nvidia rolled out its own streaming service....

A new year means a fresh start, but it doesn't mean that old threats will go away. In fact, in the world of cybersecurity, things could get far worse before they get better. Cybercrime continues to increase, as it allows nefarious actors to operate at a safe distance from victims -- and, more importantly, law enforcement Because it rarely is violen...

Short-video social networking platform Firework this week released a collection of shows consisting of 12 episodes that will run just 15 seconds each. The first of these series, "Fireside Chat featuring Molly Tarlov," debuted Tuesday. Three more followed on Wednesday, and another is scheduled for release on Dec. 28 Users can download the episodes v...

BlackBerry this week introduced its new Security Credential Management System SCMS -- a free service for the public and private sectors -- could encourage efforts to develop autonomous and connected vehicle pilot programs....

Rumors circulated this week that Microsoft will be replacing the core technology in its Edge browser for Windows 10 with Chromium, the open-source software from Google that is the core of the Chrome browser Google's Blink -- the browser engine that is responsible for interpreting website coding and displaying it on a user's device -- will be the ba...

Leaders from Human Rights Watch and Harvard Law School's International Human Rights Clinic last week issued a dire warning that nations around the world haven't been doing enough to ban the development of autonomous weapons -- so-called "killer robots." The groups issued a joint report that calls for a complete ban on these systems before such weap...

After taking the popular Battlefield series to "the beginning" with the First World War-based Battlefield 1, developers have returned the action to its World War II roots with Battlefield V Anyone who's not familiar with this first-person shooter (FPS) need know only that the original game, introduced in 2002 as Battlefield 1942 (BF42), offers play...