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Alphabet will pay President Donald Trump $22 million as part of a settlement in a class action lawsuit brought against the company over the suspension of various YouTube accounts following the January 6 riot at the US capital, as first reported by the Wall Street Journal. The suit includes other plaintiffs whose YouTube channels were banned that will split an additional $2.5 million in settlement payouts.

Trump filed the suit in 2021, alongside lawsuits against Twitter and Facebook over similar suspensions, claiming they infringed on his first amendment rights. Twitter, now known as X since its acquisition and rebrand by Elon Musk, paid President Trump roughly $10 million to settle that suit. Meta also settled its suit with the president over his suspension from the platform for $25 million earlier this year.

This settlement comes shortly after Alphabet wrote a letter to the House Judiciary Committee lambasting government pressure to moderate content on its platforms. The company also shared that YouTube would be offering a path to reinstatement for accounts previously banned for COVID-19 or election integrity related misinformation.

The settlement from Alphabet will be paid to the Trust for the National Mall, a nonprofit partner of the National Park Service, and will be earmarked for construction of the ballroom that President Trump is building at The White House. The monies from the Meta settlement were similarly earmarked.

This summer Paramount, parent company of CBS, settled a lawsuit brought by the president over claims that the network intended to “confuse, deceive and mislead the public” by editing an interview with Kamala Harris. The media company paid $16 million to settle the president’s suit. Three weeks later the FCC approved the $8 billion acquisition of Paramount by Skydance.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/alphabet-will-pay-22-million-to-settle-president-trumps-youtube-lawsuit-234611643.html?src=rss 

Sometimes when a device fails, it fails in spectacular fashion. Daniel Rotar, who leads the ZONEofTECH YouTube channel, posted on X today that the battery on his Samsung Galaxy Ring began swelling while he was wearing it. “I cannot take it off and this thing hurts,” he wrote. A few hours later, Rotar posted again that he had gone to a hospital and received help to remove the smart ring. He also shared photos of the device that showed the swelling on the interior surface.

We reached out to Samsung for comment and received this statement from a spokesperson: “The safety of our customers is a top priority and we are in direct contact with this user to learn more about their concerns. While experiences like this are extremely rare, there are a few ways to attempt removing a stuck ring, including soap and water – or submerging your hand in cold water. If these methods do not work, additional information is provided on our Samsung Support page.”

Current technologies aren’t perfect and a device’s battery can fail. When that happens, trapped gasses and heat can cause the battery to swell. It’s not a common problem, but it is a known one. There’s even a whole Reddit community dedicated to the phenomenon of these “spicy pillows.” So here’s a recurring reminder that if you’ve got old gadgets you aren’t using, consider recycling them before they potentially reach this sort of fail state.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/wearables/youtuber-reports-battery-swelling-caused-galaxy-ring-to-get-stuck-on-his-finger-223749424.html?src=rss 

In a development that should surprise no one, OpenAI is preparing to release a standalone social app powered by its upcoming Sora 2 video model, Wired reports. The app reportedly “closely resembles” TikTok, with a vertical video feed and swipe-to-scroll navigation. The catch? It will only feature AI-generated content; there’s apparently no option for the user to upload photos or videos from their phone’s camera roll.

Wired adds OpenAI will limit Sora 2 to generating clips that are 10 seconds long or shorter for use inside of the app. It’s unclear what the model’s limit will be outside of the app. TikTok, following an original limit of 15 seconds, allows people to upload clips that are up to 10 minutes long. The new app is also said to include an identity verification tool. Should a user take advantage of the feature, Sora 2 will be able to use their likeness in videos it generates. In turn, that means other people will be able to tag those users and use their likeness when they go to remix one of their videos. As a safety precaution, OpenAI will push a notification to users whenever their likeness is used by someone else, even in situations where someone makes a video but never posts it to the app’s feed.

According to Wired, the software will refuse to generate some videos due to copyright restrictions. However, it’s not clear just how robust these protections will be, with The Wall Street Journal reporting OpenAI will require rights holders to opt out of their content appearing in videos Sora 2 generates.

As for why OpenAI would release a social media app, Wired suggests the company saw an opportunity after President Trump repeatedly extended the deadline for ByteDance to bring TikTok’s US business under American control. By adding a social component to Sora, OpenAI may also be hoping to dissuade people from trying other models since leaving its new app would mean abandoning whatever community forms around it.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/openai-will-reportedly-release-a-tiktok-like-social-app-alongside-sora-2-205842527.html?src=rss 

Tomorrow, Amazon will host an event in New York City to unveil some new hardware. The showcase kicks off on September 30 at 10AM ET. Based on what we can see in the invitation and the most common cadence of product news, we are expecting to hear about developments to the Echo line of smart speakers, at least one new addition to the Kindle collection and an update for the Fire TV. 

Normally this is where we’d have an embed of a YouTube link so you could watch along on Tuesday, but this event is a little unusual in that Amazon doesn’t provide a stream for those of us at home. However, Engadget will have reporters at the event, and they will be liveblogging all the details as Amazon announces them. The liveblog will be up and running around 8AM ET. 

In past years, this fall showcase has also been when Amazon shares news from the Ring, Blink and Eero companies, so we might have more than just its own-brand products being discussed tomorrow. And with AI the buzzword of the day, there’s also a good chance that Amazon execs will spend some time discussing the Alexa+ voice assistant.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/how-to-follow-amazons-big-hardware-event-tomorrow-211105336.html?src=rss 

Reporter Marisa Kabas, founder of The Handbasket, posted on Bluesky today that more than 1.7 million subscribers canceled their paid Disney streaming plans between September 17 and September 23. The total allegedly includes subscriptions to Disney+, Hulu and ESPN. That falloff reportedly marked a 436 percent increase over the usual churn rate for the service. We’ve reached out to Disney+ for comment on this claim.

Disney also chose to increase subscription prices last week, which could prolong the wave of cancellations. Kabas’ source also claimed that Disney sped the return of the late night show because it had planned to announce the price hike last Tuesday.

In case you need a reminder of the entertainment news that dominated headlines for the past two weeks, Disney-owned ABC suspended the late night talk show Jimmy Kimmel Live on September 17 after President Donald Trump and members of his administration accused the host of making inappropriate comments regarding the assassination of right-wing influencer Charlie Kirk. Although Disney then announced on September 22 that the program would be reinstated the following night, it seems a lot of viewers were not impressed with the company’s actions. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/disney-reportedly-lost-17-million-paid-subscribers-in-the-week-after-suspending-kimmel-201615937.html?src=rss 

Researchers have discovered major security flaws with Tile tracking tags, according to a report by Wired. These flaws could allow both the company itself and tech-savvy stalkers to track a user’s location. The security issue could also let a malicious actor falsely frame a Tile owner for stalking, as the flaw can make it appear as if a particular tag is constantly in the vicinity of somebody else’s tag.

The issue pertains to how Tile tags transmit data during use. Tile tags transmit a lot of data beyond that of other trackers, including the static MAC address and the rotating ID. According to reporting, none of this stuff is encrypted. The rotating ID changes all of the time, but a MAC address doesn’t.

Researchers believe that all of this information is stored in cleartext, making it easy for hackers to get ahold of. This also would theoretically give Tile itself the ability to track its users, though the company says it doesn’t have this capability.

It gets worse. Anyone with a radio frequency scanner can allegedly intercept all of this information as it’s being transmitted, creating another potential security hole. Also, this problem might not even be solved if Tile decides to stop transmitting the MAC address. This is because the company generates its rotating ID in such a way that future codes can be reliably predicted from past ones.

“An attacker only needs to record one message from the device,” one of the researchers behind the findings said, adding that a single recorded message will “fingerprint it for the rest of its lifetime.” The researcher said this creates a risk of systemic surveillance.

The security researchers, who are involved with the Georgia Institute of Technology, reached out to Tile’s parent company Life360 in November of last year to report the findings. Wired said the company stopped communicating with the researchers in February. The company did say it has made a number of improvements to its security but didn’t elaborate further.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/tile-trackers-reportedly-have-a-security-flaw-that-can-let-stalkers-track-your-location-183949165.html?src=rss