Google settles ‘private mode tracking’ lawsuit, MotorolaG32 smartphone available for £89

Chris Price News
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Google has agreed to settle a US lawsuit claiming it invaded the privacy of users by tracking them even when they were browsing in “private mode”. The class action sought at least $5bn (£3.9bn) from the world’s go-to search engine and parent company Alphabet. Large technology firms have faced increased scrutiny of their practices in the US and beyond…. Judge Rogers had rejected Google’s bid to have the case dismissed earlier this year, saying she could not agree that users consented to allowing Google to collect information on their browsing activity. BBC

China’s Xiaomi announced its first electric vehicle Thursday, predicting it is the first step toward overtaking Tesla. The SU7 will have a range of up to 500 miles, and it will compete for customers with the Tesla Model S, which has a range of 320 to 410 miles.  The Chinese-made vehicle will also feature self-driving, an entertainment system that is fully compatible with Xiaomi’s smartphones, and blistering acceleration that will take it from 0 to 62 miles per hour in 2.78 seconds. Daily Mail 


Motorola has enjoyed a resurgence in recent years, thanks to its brilliant budget-conscious phones. One of these Android handsets — the Motorola G32 — has plummeted to a record-low price in Amazon’s blockbuster Boxing Day sale. Usually £169.99, the phone is available for just £89. This is the first time we’ve seen the Motorola G32 drop below £100 in the UK. Since it’s a SIM-free model, you’ll be able to pair the handset with your current SIM and monthly plan or buy any SIM-Only deal from a UK network. GB News 

A secretive US government spaceplane has embarked on a classified mission aboard one of the world’s most powerful rockets. The X-37B craft was launched from NASA‘s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy. It has been on six previous missions since 2010, most recently in 2020, but the rocket used on Thursday can take it further into space than ever before. The Boeing-built vehicle, roughly the size of a small bus and resembling a miniature space shuttle, has stayed within Earth’s lower orbit until now – an altitude of below 1,200 miles. Sky News 

 

ChatGPT is thirsty. Every time you give it a command, it “drinks” the equivalent of a sip of water. Twenty tasks later and it has already consumed half a litre of the stuff. That’s because cooling the data centres that power it and other artificial intelligence (AI) tools is a huge task, and one that risks exacerbating a looming water crisis. It may sound implausible. After all, 75pc of the Earth is covered in water. However, freshwater accounts for just 3pc, and of that, 69pc is locked away in glaciers, 30pc is underground and around 1pc is in lakes, rivers and swamps. Telegraph 

Amazon is now letting customers “pre-order” its controversial new Prime Video upgrade. This week, Amazon announced that films and TV shows on Prime Video would now include advertising. It claimed that doing so would help it invest in new films and TV shows, claiming it “will allow us to continue investing in compelling content and keep increasing that investment over a long period of time”.  It also promised that it would “aim to have meaningfully fewer ads than linear TV and other streaming TV providers”. Independent 

Chris Price
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