Technology - Google News

The Morning After: Speak & Spell's return - Engadget
Texas bill would ban throttling in disaster areas - The Verge
How to get NewsChannel 12 on Alexa - WCTI12.com

The Morning After: Speak & Spell's return - Engadget

Posted: 09 Feb 2019 05:51 AM PST

Hey, good morning! You look fabulous.

Welcome to your weekend! The theme today is looking back, whether it's to mid-90s HTML, some of our highlight stories from the last week or quirky retro toys.

Of course it is.Speak & Spell is B-A-C-K

Basic Fun is introducing a revived $25 Speak & Spell that includes all the familiar games, that simple segmented display (albeit one based on modern LCDs) and, of course, that signature orange-and-yellow design. There's one other big difference: It's using recorded dialog processed to sound like it's synthesized, instead of generating sounds on the spot.

One last pic.Kepler beams back final image from its almost decade-long journey

Check out the space telescope's last-ever snapshot before it ran out of fuel.

Well, almost.Elon Musk: Model 3 price now starts at $35,000

Tesla has lowered the Model 3's price across all versions by $1,100, so you can now get the mid-range battery option for $42,900 before incentives. Meanwhile, the car's long-range version now costs $49,900, while the performance option will set you back $60,900. Elon Musk said that means the Model 3 now has a starting price of $35,000, though that's after you apply tax credits and fuel savings -- you'll have to wait a bit more for the long-promised Tesla car with a $35,000 base price.

Fire up the ColdFusion, Geocities is back.The 'Captain Marvel' site revisits classic 90s web design

If you remember web browsing in the days of 28.8 dial-up and web rings then the official Captain Marvel site will be an unexpected treat. The movie is set in 1995, and appropriately its official website looks like something made for viewing via Netscape Navigator (even if its code is a little too hefty to access without a modern broadband connection).

Google's new feature takes a page from Firefox Monitor.Chrome can tell you if your passwords have been compromised

Once installed, Google's Password Checkup extension will simply sit in your Chrome browser and alert you if you enter a username / password combination that it "knows to be unsafe." The company says it has a database of 4 billion credentials that have been compromised in various data breaches that it can check against.

When the extension detects an insecure password, it'll prompt you with a big red dialog box to immediately update your info. It's handy, but users might wonder exactly what Google can see -- to that end, Google says the extension "never reveal[s] this personal information."

But wait, there's more...

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Texas bill would ban throttling in disaster areas - The Verge

Posted: 09 Feb 2019 06:00 AM PST

Earlier this week, a member of the Texas state legislature introduced a bill that would make it a crime for a telecommunications company, like Verizon or AT&T, to throttle internet service in declared disaster areas, according to KUT News.

This Texas bill, HB 1426, doesn't go any further to codify net neutrality rules, only prohibiting carriers from restricting internet access in disaster areas. It does not ban behaviors like throttling in any other scenarios.

Over 100 other bills regarding net neutrality have been introduced at the state level following the Federal Communications Commission's move to roll back the protections in 2017. Republican commissioners, like Chairman Ajit Pai, have argued that even without Title II or "utility" classification protections, carriers wouldn't choose to throttle or block internet access across the country.

"The fact that this is now bubbling up at the state level is a good sign," said Evan Greer, deputy director of Fight for the Future, said. "But in reality, we need the FCC to actually do its job and ensure that these companies aren't acting in ways that put the public in danger."

Last week, the US Court of Appeals for DC heard arguments from both the FCC and several petitioners who argued that the agency's repeal of net neutrality rules was unlawful in a number of ways. Some were more convincing than others, it appeared, to the judge. However, the public safety argument that falls in the same vein as this Texas bill was the one that appeared to be the most important.

A petitioner argued that due to the FCC's repeal, Verizon was able to legally slow down device speeds for the Santa Clara County fire department in California and made it more difficult for the firefighters to provide emergency services. Due to the repeal, the FCC would have no jurisdiction as to go after Verizon for this behavior.

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How to get NewsChannel 12 on Alexa - WCTI12.com

Posted: 09 Feb 2019 01:02 AM PST