Google’s Android-based earthquake detector had a false alarm

Google has disabled its Android earthquake detection feature in Brazil after many smartphone users in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro received false emergency alerts on Friday morning, Android Police reports. The alerts of a nonexistent 5.5 magnitude earthquake were sent to devices around 2AM this morning, and pinpointed earthquakes in the country’s Ubatuba and…

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Trump administration adds anti-trans notices to restored websites

President Donald Trump’s administration has ordered federal agencies like the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to add disclaimers railing against “gender ideology” to pages restored by a recent court order, The Washington Post reported. The notice reads: Per a court order, HHS is required to restore this website…

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WhatsApp is getting themed chat bubbles

WhatsApp is turning up the customization features for chats by including new theme options, custom colors for chat bubbles, and a bunch of new wallpapers to choose from. A new blog post says the feature is rolling out now and will be available globally “over the coming weeks.” There are 30 new wallpaper options to…

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TikTok isn’t out of the woods yet

Happy Valentine’s Day. I’m sending this from the NBA All-Star Technology Summit in San Francisco, where I’ve never seen so many major streaming competitors onstage at once. This week, I go inside TikTok, Google, and Meta. Keep reading for what Elon Musk really wants with his bid for OpenAI… TikTok turns up the heat —…

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