The Federal Communications Commission has fined AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile and Sprint a combined $200 million in penalties for illegally sharing access to customer location data without their consent. The FCC brought the claim against the US carriers in 2020 and is serving the fined judgment now. The agency stated that the carriers sold access to customers' location data to aggregators, which in turn sold that information to third parties, and in doing so "attempted to offload its obligations to obtain custome ...

Google parent company Alphabet said Thursday that it would issue its first-ever dividend to shareholders. The dividend is just 20 cents a share, but it was notable as a first-time event. In addition to investors receiving a dividend, Google's co-founders, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, will receive a dividend of $146 million and $78 million, respectively.Since its founding in 1998, Google has returned money to its investors through outsized performance and growth in its stock price. But now it's changing thing ...

Bargain hunters can start preparing for Amazon's next big Prime Day sale. Prime Day is the company's biggest event of the year, with thousands of discounts across every category from tech to home goods and more. The 10th iteration of the event is set to kick off this July, offering exclusive savings for Amazon Prime subscribers.  Amazon has announced that there will be plenty of back-to-school supplies available as well, helping early shoppers get everything they'll need before classes resume, so plan accor ...

In the wake of the European Union's Digital Markets Act, Apple is required to allow users in the region to install rival app stores on their iPhones. After a lengthy process including implementing various security checks, the first Apple-approved third-party app store, Altstore PAL, is available now for download in the EU. Altstore, which went live on Wednesday, is priced at 1.50 euro (plus tax) per month, to offset the new Apple tax on third-party app stores. Installation is easy enough, although Apple tri ...

Tesla is recalling all of the Cybertrucks it has shipped to date because its accelerator pedal can get stuck, increasing the likelihood of a crash.The recall affects all 2024 model year Tesla Cybertrucks, according to a notice the company filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (PDF). That's a total of 3,878 vehicles.It's the latest in a series of awkward moments for Elon Musk's attention-grabbing electric vehicle, which was announced in 2019 and looks unlike any other car on the road. ...

Meta AI, an open-source generative AI tool by Meta, is now powered by the more robust Llama 3 large language model, the company said in a press release Thursday. There are two varieties of Llama 3 available: Llama 3 8B, which has 8 billion parameters, and Llama 3 70B, which has 70 billion. Generally, the more parameters an AI model has, the better the outputs. Meta's goal is to create the best open model available, one that can compete with the finest proprietary AI models on the market. Meta said that beca ...

Apple is preparing to push even further into artificial intelligence with its next generation of M-series chips for Mac computers and iPads, according to a new report. The chips, likely to be called M4, are expected to launch later this year.Though Apple has included an onboard "neural engine" for years in its chips for iPhones, iPads and Macs, Bloomberg reported Thursday that the company plans to "highlight the AI processing capabilities" of its chips, and "how they'll integrate with the next version of ma ...

We now have a clearer idea of when the Disney Plus password-sharing crackdown will begin. Speaking with CNBC, CEO Bob Iger said Disney will be "launching our first real foray into password sharing" in June, first bringing the clampdown to "just a few countries and a few markets, but then it will grow significantly with a full rollout in September."During Disney's first-quarter earnings call in February, the company announced plans to enforce new account-sharing policies by implementing a fee for Disney Plus ...

Apple is reportedly moving on from cars to... robots? After nixing its electric vehicle project in February, the iPhone maker is now eyeing personal robots that could follow you around your home, according to a report from Bloomberg.The project is reportedly in its early stages, and it's not clear if the products will ever become a reality. But now that Apple has called off its decade-long effort to build an electric car, home robots could be the company's "next big thing," people familiar with the matter t ...

Google agreed to destroy or remediate billions of Chrome Incognito mode data records as part of a proposed class action settlement filed Monday. The lawsuit accused the search giant of violating California privacy laws in collecting Incognito mode data, a mode in which users might be led to believe is more private.The proposed settlement in Brown v. Google will require the company give more detailed disclosures on how it collects information in Incognito mode. For the next five years, Incognito mode will bl ...