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A trip on a Waymo robotaxi is still more expensive, on average, than an equivalent trip on a human-driven Uber or Lyft. But that gap is narrowing, according to new data released Tuesday by Obi, a company that aggregates real-time pricing and pickup times for multiple ride-hailing services. Two factors are working together behind this change. Obi said Waymo has lowered prices, at least in the San Francisco Bay Area, where the data was extracted, while traditional ride-hailing services from Uber and Lyft Network have increased prices. The new data was collected from Nov. 27 to Jan. 1, and Obi…
TikTok said it is making progress in restoring its U.S. infrastructure following an unfortunate data center outage that affected the region shortly after the deal with TikTok US was finalized. Last week, TikTok announced it would form a separate entity in the U.S. with U.S. investors to avoid a nationwide ban. Before and after the migration, users reported issues with unexpected behavior in TikTok searches, watching videos, posting, loading comments, For You algorithms, content, etc. The company said on Monday that the glitch was caused by a power outage at its data center, affecting TikTok and other apps. Today, a…
Google on Tuesday announced an expanded set of Android anti-theft features aimed at making its mobile devices less likely to be targeted by criminals. Building on existing tools such as Theft Detection Lock and Offline Device Lock introduced in 2024, the newly launched update includes stronger authentication protection and enhanced recovery tools, the company said. iPhones are often targeted by thieves because of their resale value, but Android devices are also targets for theft. This is especially true for high-end Android smartphones such as Google Pixel Pro devices, premium foldables, and other top devices from well-known manufacturers such as Samsung.…
India could become the next major test case for age-based social media bans, as states consider Australian-style restrictions on children’s access to platforms amid a growing global regulatory movement. The initiative has begun at the state level, with the western state of Goa becoming the latest state to consider whether to ban children under 16 from social media platforms. “Australia has enacted legislation to ensure a ban on social media for children under the age of 16,” Goa’s IT Minister Rohan Kaunte said this week. “People in our department have already pulled those particular papers. If possible, we study them.…
Ravi LakshmananJanuary 27, 2026Mobile security/spyware Meta announced Tuesday that it is adding stricter account settings to WhatsApp to protect some users from advanced cyberattacks. This feature, similar to Lockdown Mode in Apple iOS and Advanced Protection in Android, is intended to protect individuals, such as journalists and public figures, from advanced spyware by trading some features for increased security. Enabling this security mode locks some account settings to the most restrictive options while blocking attachments and media from people who are not in the user’s contacts. “This lockdown-style feature further strengthens the security of WhatsApp with just a few taps…
Robot learns to lip-sync – YouTube watch on Are you 100% sure that the person talking to you is definitely not a robot?Soon, you may not be so sure either.For the first time, scientists have developed a robot that can move its mouth exactly like a human. This means avoiding the so-called “uncanny valley” effect, where a bot’s behavior looks unsettling because it’s uncomfortably close to natural but doesn’t quite meet that threshold.Researchers at Columbia University achieved this feat by having the robot EMO study itself in a mirror. They learned how a flexible face and silicone lips move in…
Ravi LakshmananJanuary 27, 2026Threat Intelligence/Cyber Espionage Indian government agencies have been targeted in two campaigns conducted by threat actors operating in Pakistan using previously undocumented trade channels. These campaigns were codenamed Gopher Strike and Sheet Attack by Zscaler ThreatLabz, identified in September 2025. “While these campaigns share some similarities with APT36, a Pakistan-linked advanced persistent threat (APT) group, we assess with medium confidence that the activity identified in this analysis may originate from a new subgroup or another Pakistan-linked group operating in parallel,” researchers Sudeep Singh and Yin Hong Chan said. The name Sheet Attack comes from the use of…
Rest in peace, Amazon’s convenience store is gone and will probably soon be forgotten. Amazon announced Tuesday that it will close its brick-and-mortar Amazon Go and Amazon Fresh stores and instead expand its same-day grocery delivery capabilities and Whole Foods Market locations. These stores were used to grow Amazon’s cashierless Just Walk Out technology, which tracks which items customers pick up and allows them to pay for groceries without a more formal checkout process. The company is instead focused on providing its technology to third parties, such as concession stands at sports stadiums. “While we have seen some bright spots…
Archaeologists have discovered that early humans in what is now China dated back 160,000 years and used sophisticated stone tools.”This discovery challenges the perception that stone tool technology in Asia was lagging behind that of Europe and Africa during this period,” the research team said in a statement about the discovery.At the Xigou site, discovered in central China’s Henan province in 2017, an archaeological team found more than 2,600 stone tool remains and determined that some of them were “handled,” or attached to pieces of wood or other shaped sticks. you may like “The identification of a handled tool provides,…
Help desk automation is a billion-dollar industry and one of the industries most likely to be disrupted by technology built on AI. Big players like Zendesk, ServiceNow, and Freshworks currently dominate the space, but a number of smaller startups are betting that reorganizing workflows will give them a chance to break in. Risotto is one such startup and will have plenty of runway to test its theory after today. The company announced Tuesday that it has raised $10 million in a seed round led by Bonfire Ventures with participation from 645 Ventures, Y Combinator, Ritual Capital, and SurgePoint Capital. Risotto…