NPR Archives - Rafail

Apple Unveils iPhone 12 With 5G, But Most Won’t Feel Faster Speeds Anytime Soon : NPR

Posted on October 13, 2020 / by [email protected]_84 /

Apple CEO Tim Cook announces the launch of the iPhone 12, which is the first iPhone enabled to harness the power of the 5G network.

Apple

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Apple

Apple CEO Tim Cook announces the launch of the iPhone 12, which is the first iPhone enabled to harness the power of the 5G network.

Apple

Apple on Tuesday announced the iPhone 12, the first Apple smartphone with 5G-enabled technology that eventually will let data flow at much faster speeds.

“Today is the beginning of a new era for iPhone,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said. “This is a huge moment for all of us.”

But not exactly a huge moment for most consumers, at least not yet.

Eventually, smartphones with 5G capabilities — expected to be 10 to 20 times faster than 4G speeds — will make a big difference for gamers and people who stream videos on mobile,

How To Protect Your Privacy Online In 8 Tips : Life Kit : NPR

Posted on October 13, 2020 / by [email protected]_84 /

Jackie Ferrentino for NPR

Before I became a reporter at NPR, I worked for a few years at tech companies.

One of the companies was in the marketing technology business — the industry that’s devoted in part to tracking people and merging their information, so they can be advertised to more effectively.

That tracking happens in multiple senses: Physical tracking, because we carry our phones everywhere we go. And virtual tracking, of all the places we go online.

The more I understood how my information was being collected, shared and sold, the more I wanted to protect my privacy. But it’s still hard to know which of my efforts are actually effective and which are a waste of time.

So I reached out to experts in digital security and privacy to find out what they do to protect their stuff – and what they recommend most

Astronauts Prepare To Receive Cosmetics And A New Toilet : NPR

Posted on October 11, 2020 / by [email protected]_84 /

Northrup Grumman’s Antares rocket lifts off from the NASA Wallops test flight facility in Virginia on Oct. 2. The rocket was scheduled to deliver supplies to the International Space Station.

Thom Baur/Northrup Grumman /AP

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Thom Baur/Northrup Grumman /AP

Northrup Grumman’s Antares rocket lifts off from the NASA Wallops test flight facility in Virginia on Oct. 2. The rocket was scheduled to deliver supplies to the International Space Station.

Thom Baur/Northrup Grumman /AP

Hygiene and self care are vital — even in zero gravity. Which is why astronauts on the International Space Station are preparing for a fun delivery: a skincare serum from the cosmetics maker Estée Lauder, as well as a new and improved toilet.

Astronauts won’t actually be using the brand’s Advanced Night Repair Synchronized Multi-Recovery Complex, says Robyn Gatens, the acting director of the International Space Station. Instead, the plan is for them to

Idaho TikTok Star Who Sent Fleetwood Mac Sales Soaring : NPR

Posted on October 11, 2020 / by [email protected]_84 /

Nathan Apodaca, whose TikTok video longboarding to Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams” has catapulting him to viral fame. Here, he is standing in the pickup truck donated to him by Ocean Spray. In his video, Apodaca sips a bottle of Ocean Spray’s Cran-Raspberry juice.

Ocean Spray

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Ocean Spray

Nathan Apodaca’s truck had already logged some 320,000 miles. One morning last month, it couldn’t go a mile more. The truck broke down on a highway in Idaho Falls, about two miles from the potato warehouse where he has worked for nearly two decades.

Luckily, he had a skateboard in his truck, along with a bottle

Tiny Changes Let False Claims About COVID-19, Voting Evade Facebook Fact Checks : NPR

Posted on October 9, 2020 / by [email protected]_84 /

Facebook labels posts that its fact checkers have found false, as in the screenshot on the left. On the right, a similar post had no label applied.

Screeenshot via Avaaz

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Screeenshot via Avaaz

Facebook labels posts that its fact checkers have found false, as in the screenshot on the left. On the right, a similar post had no label applied.

Screeenshot via Avaaz

Something as simple as changing the font of a message or cropping an image can be all it takes to bypass Facebook’s defenses against hoaxes and lies.

A new analysis by the international advocacy group Avaaz shines light on why, despite the tech giant’s efforts to stamp out misinformation about the coronavirus pandemic and the U.S. election, it’s so hard to stop bad actors from spreading these falsehoods.

“We found them getting around Facebook’s policies by just tweaking the misinformation a little bit,

Judge Orders Twitter To Unmask FBI Impersonator Who Set Off Seth Rich Conspiracy : NPR

Posted on October 7, 2020 / by [email protected]_84 /

A federal judge has ordered Twitter to reveal account information related to an anonymous user who allegedly peddled a fake FBI report pertaining to the death of Democratic National Committee aide Seth Rich.

Jeff Chiu/AP

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Jeff Chiu/AP

A federal judge in California has ordered that Twitter reveal the identity of an anonymous user who allegedly fabricated an FBI document to spread a conspiracy theory about the killing of Seth Rich, the Democratic National Committee staffer who died in 2016.

The ruling could lead to the identification of the person behind the Twitter name @whyspertech. Through that account, the user allegedly provided forged FBI materials to Fox News. The documents falsely linked

McAfee Founder Arrested In Spain And Accused Of Tax Evasion : NPR

Posted on October 7, 2020 / by [email protected]_84 /

John McAfee gives a speech in August 2016 at a Beijing conference. McAfee has been arrested on tax evasion charges in Spain.

Visual China Group via Getty Images

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Visual China Group via Getty Images

John McAfee gives a speech in August 2016 at a Beijing conference. McAfee has been arrested on tax evasion charges in Spain.

Visual China Group via Getty Images

Computer antivirus pioneer John McAfee tweeted last year that he hadn’t filed a tax return in eight years.

It was OK, he explained. He was “done making money.” His “net income is negative.”

“Taxation is illegal,” he said.

Now McAfee has been arrested in Spain on tax evasion charges. The U.S. Justice Department has accused him of failing to file tax returns from 2014 to 2018 despite making millions, according to an indictment unsealed Monday.

He is accused of making money from “promoting crypto-currencies,

Time Travel Theoretically Possible Without Leading To Paradoxes, Researchers Say : NPR

Posted on September 28, 2020 / by [email protected]_84 /

A dog dressed as Marty McFly from Back to the Future attends the 25th Annual Tompkins Square Halloween Dog Parade in 2015. New research says time travel might be possible without the problems McFly encountered.

Timothy A. Clary/AFP via Getty Images

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Timothy A. Clary/AFP via Getty Images

“The past is obdurate,” Stephen King wrote in his book about a man who goes back in time to prevent the Kennedy assassination. “It doesn’t want to be changed.”

Turns out, King might have been onto something.

Countless science fiction tales have explored the paradox of what would happen if you do something in the past that endangers

The Air Force Struggles With Diversity. Can The Space Force Do Any Better? : NPR

Posted on September 26, 2020 / by [email protected]_84 /

The Space Force has touted its fielding of the first ever all-female space operations crew as a sign that it is living up to ideals of diversity and inclusion. The crew gained satellite control acceptance of GPS satellite SVN-76 in July 2020.

Dennis Rogers and Kathryn Calvert/U.S. Air Force

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Dennis Rogers and Kathryn Calvert/U.S. Air Force

When 1st Lt. Kelley McCaa found out she would be part of the American military’s first all-female space operations crew, working alongside a team of women she considers close friends, she knew it would make a bold statement for the newly

What You Need To Know : NPR

Posted on September 21, 2020 / by [email protected]_84 /

President Trump said he approved a deal struck with U.S. companies Oracle and Walmart to keep TikTok alive, but the agreement does not accomplish what the president sought to achieve.

SOPA Images/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Gett

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SOPA Images/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Gett

President Trump said he approved a deal struck with U.S. companies Oracle and Walmart to keep TikTok alive, but the agreement does not accomplish what the president sought to achieve.

SOPA Images/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Gett

Since July, President Trump has turned a wildly successful viral video app TikTok into his favorite punching bag.

Trump’s logic went something like this: Since TikTok’s corporate parent company ByteDance is headquartered in Beijing, TikTok could be used as an arm of the Chinese Communist Party to spy on American citizens or cause other mischief.

So the president repeatedly declared that TikTok needs to free itself from ByteDance’s control, or be