BARCELONA — Samsung’s Galaxy Ring, its latest wearable, is launching with health-tracking features including heart rate and sleep monitoring while also giving users a score of their readiness for the day, a top executive told CNBC.

In a wide-ranging interview, Hon Pak, the head of the digital health team at Samsung Electronics, discussed the company’s first foray into the product category of rings, considerations for a subscription model for the Samsung Health app, and his vision for an artificial intelligence “coach.”

Samsung teased the Galaxy Ring in January during the press conference when it launched the S24 smartphone. The South Korean tech giant is putting it on display for the first time at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, which kicks off on Monday.

Samsung Galaxy Ring features

Pak said the ring, which is fitted with sensors, will be able to give readings on heart rate, respiratory rate, the amount of movement made during sleep, and the time it takes a person to fall asleep once in bed.

He also said the ring will be able to give a user a “vitality score” which “collects data about physical and mental readiness to see how productive you can be.”

All of that will be accessible through the Samsung Health app.

The ring is set to go on sale this year, but Pak did not give a timeline or the pricing.

Pak also said the company is considering adding a feature that would allow the Galaxy Ring to do contactless payments, as with smartphones.

“We have a whole … team that is looking at that. But I think clearly looking at multiple different use cases for the Ring beyond just health, for sure,” Pak said.

The Samsung executive also said the company is working on non-invasive glucose monitoring as well as a blood pressure sensing through its wearable devices.

“I think we have some ways to go,” Pak said of non-invasive glucose monitoring. Currently, people use devices that pierce the skin to check glucose levels. A non-invasive way to do that would be a huge step.

Samsung ecosystem play

Samsung is hoping that various devices will boost its positioning in health, an area it has been working on for several years.

Samsung has its smartphones and smartwatches. The Galaxy Ring is the newest product category in health. Samsung said the decision to launch a “smart ring” was driven by its customers.

“Our own customers told us, I want choice. I want the ability to have other forms of wearables to measure health,” Pak said. “And some want to wear the watch, some want to wear the watch and the ring and get benefit from both. Some just want more simplicity.”

Pak confirmed that when the smartwatch and Ring are worn together, users will be able to get different health insights.

Samsung is not the first company to launch smart rings. There are a handful of other players such as Oura.

Previous generations of Samsung’s flagship smartphone, such as the S7, have sensors that track things like heart rate. Users could put their finger on the sensor and it would give a reading. Samsung has done away with those sensors on its phones, especially since it has smartwatches that offer these features.

However, Pak did not rule out the possibility that future smartphones would have health sensors on them.

“Mobile is still very pervasive and so I think there are reasons why we may want to put a sensor on a mobile versus having it on a wearable,” Pak said.

AI ‘coach’

Pak discussed how artificial intelligence will play a role in Samsung’s health services. AI can help make sense of all of the data these devices are collecting. And ultimately, Pak’s goal is to get the AI to give deeper insights into a person’s health.

He said large language models, which are AI models trained on huge amounts of data and that underpin applications like chatbots, can help to give greater insights.

“Imagine that large language model, acting as my digital assistant, while looking at the context of my medical records, my physiological data, my engagement with a mobile device, the wearables during all of that … begins to bring greater insights and personalization opportunities,” Pak said.

“There’s a digital assistant coach in the future, because we think that’s absolutely needed,” the Samsung executive said.

Pak described a scenario in which a digital assistant offers health advice in the right tone and context, saying “our ability to change our behavior becomes much greater.”

Bixby, Samsung’s digital assistant, could have a part to play, Pak said.

“So we are exploring various different ways in which the human computer interface will change over time … And so we think Bixby with speech represents a significant part of that option. But we don’t think it’s the only option. But Bixby potentially combined with large language models can be a phenomenal game changer. And we’re obviously having that conversation,” Pak said.

The executive also said the company is “considering” a subscription service for its Samsung Health app, but that the capabilities and insights it offers need to be improved before that can happen. AI assistants can help.

“If you’re gonna really make me pay for something, you better give me something that’s more end to end that’s more comprehensive” in terms of health insights, Pak said.

Chinese tech giant Lenovo showed off a prototype laptop on Monday that has a see-through screen, underscoring how the world’s largest PC maker is trying to innovate after a brutal couple of years for the market.

The laptop is equipped with a trackpad which features a touch keyboard and a stylus to draw or navigate with.

The obvious question is: Why would you want this kind of device? Lenovo showed off some of its capabilities.

A representative who ran a demonstration for CNBC placed an artificial sunflower behind the screen. The camera built into the laptop was able to identify the object as a sunflower then provide information about it, using artificial intelligence technology.

Another use, the representative said, is in a construction scenario. For example, if an architect is designing an extension on a house, they could see the house through the screen, and use the stylus to draw their design to envisage what it may look like.

Like all new technology, there may often be uses not yet imagined.

The technology is similar to augmented reality in some senses. AR, which has been popularized by glasses or headsets like Apple’s Vision Pro, is when digital content is superimposed on the real-world you see in front of you.

Since the laptop is a concept product, Lenovo has no plans to sell the device.

However, PC makers are looking toward the future after a difficult couple of years. PC sales spiked during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, but as people returned to work, they began to plunge. Last year, PC shipments fell nearly 15% year-on-year, according to Gartner.

The Chinese tech giant showed off the device at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the world’s biggest mobile industry trade show.

Lenovo does have a history of teasing concept devices to prove its ability to innovate. Last year at MWC, Lenovo displayed a smartphone that had a screen that rolls up.

A statement posted to its website on Sunday morning apologized for the outage.

“We recognize the frustration this outage has caused and know we let many of our customers down,” the statement read. “We understand this may have impacted their ability to connect with family, friends, and others. Small business owners may have been impacted, potentially disrupting an essential way they connect with customers.”

AT&T said the credit will automatically be applied to customer accounts in one to two billing cycles and will amount to “the average cost of a full day of service.”

The fine print read, “One $5 credit per account on your AT&T Wireless^SM account. Offer does not apply to AT&T Business, AT&T Prepaid or Cricket.”

AT&T also said it is taking steps to prevent this from happening again in the future. 

The outage knocked out cellphone service for thousands of its users across the U.S. starting early Thursday before it was restored.

AT&T blamed the incident on an error in coding, without elaborating.

Outage tracker Downdetector noted that outages, which began at about 3:30 a.m. ET, peaked at around 73,000 reported incidents. AT&T had more than 58,000 outages around noon ET, in locations including Houston, Atlanta and Chicago. The carrier is the country’s largest, with more than 240 million subscribers.

By 9 p.m. ET, the reports on AT&T’s network were fewer than 1,000.

Cricket Wireless, which is owned by AT&T, had more than 9,000 outages at one point but the reports had also tailed off later in the afternoon. Users of other carriers, including Verizon and T-Mobile, also reported issues but those companies said their networks were operating normally and the problems were likely stemming from customers trying to connect to AT&T users.

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Artificial intelligence phones: these are the buzzwords you’ll likely hear this year, as smartphone players look to jump on the AI hype to boost sales of their devices after a difficult stretch of time.

OpenAI’s ChatGPT, released in late 2022, sparked huge interest in generative AI, specifically — models trained on huge amounts of data that are able to produce text, images and prompts from user videos. Since then, AI excitement has touched every industry and entered the popular imagination.

Smartphone makers see a chance to cash in and are going to be touting the tech at the Mobile World Congress (MWC), the biggest mobile industry trade show in the world, which kicks off on Monday in Barcelona, Spain.

“Nobody wants to be seen as being behind the curve, and AI is just the talk of the town. It is the buzzword this year that all the vendors are going to be jumping on,” Bryan Ma, vice president of client devices research at IDC, told CNBC.

What is an AI phone?

The gear is harder to define, and it depends on which manufacturer you ask.

Analysts who spoke to CNBC broadly agree on a few things — that these devices will have more advanced chips to run AI applications, and that those AI apps will run on-device rather than in the cloud.

Companies like Qualcomm and MediaTek have launched smartphone chipsets that enable the processing power required for AI applications.

But AI tech inside phones is not new. Some aspects of AI have been in devices for years and have allowed features such as background blur effects on smartphones and picture editing.

What is new is the introduction of large language models and generative AI. Large language models are huge AI models trained on vast amounts of data that underpin applications like the widely popular chatbots. These models unlock new features, such as the ability for chatbots to generate images or text from a user prompt.

“It is not just about having a chatbot, we have had these virtual assistants for a while. The difference is, it is generative now, so they can create a poem or summarize meetings. If it is about text to image creation, that was something that wasn’t done before,” Ma said.

The other big part of the AI smartphone puzzle is the term “on-device AI.” Previously, many AI applications on devices were actually partly processed in the cloud, then downloaded onto the phone. But advanced chips and the ability for large language models to effectively become smaller are likely to drive more AI applications to be run solely in the device, rather than in a data center.

“I think one of the big stories at MWC will be the ability of the AI models too run natively on the devices themselves and that is where it potentially starts to become a bit more of a gamechanger,” Ben Wood, chief analyst at CCS Insight, told CNBC.

Smartphone makers say on-device AI improves the security of gear, unlocks new applications and also makes them faster, since the processing is done on the handset.

This could unlock new applications that developers could create, both Ma and Wood said.

Eventually, Wood said, smartphone makers want to achieve “anticipatory computing” — the idea that AI “is smart enough to learn your behavior as a user and make the device so much more intuitive and predicting what you want to do next without you having to do much.”

But are AI phones a reality right now?

Sort of. AI has been used in devices for some time, but the new era of on-device AI with large language models is still in its early stages.

Device makers at MWC are going to show off lots of AI-powered features — and we are already seeing some of it. In January, Samsung launched its flagship Galaxy S24 smartphone range, touting its AI capabilities. One feature that drew attention was the ability to circle an image or text you’re looking at on any app, then immediately search that on Google.

MWC will likely include demonstrations of AI features, from camera apps to chatbots on phones.

But the reality is that a lot of these perks are not actually on-device and still rely on processing in the cloud, according to IDC’s Ma. He added that, even with AI capabilities on devices, it will take a “number of years” before third-party developers figure out a “killer use case or that compelling use case that consumer can’t do without.”

Wood said the danger is that smartphone manufacturers talk a lot about AI, rather than about the experiences that the technology can deliver for users.

“Consumers have no idea what an AI smartphone is, they need the use cases to go round it,” Wood said. The risk is that there is “AI fatigue.”

Ultimately, the lofty AI experiences smartphone makers are dreaming of could be a long way out.

“We are building an unbelievable foundational platform for AI on device. 2024 will be the year we look back on and say that’s where it all started to happen but it could be a long time before we start of these benefit of that in terms of game changing experiences,” Wood said.

In a statement Thursday afternoon, AT&T confirmed that service had been restored, more than 10 hours after the outages were first reported. “Keeping our customers connected remains our top priority, and we are taking steps to ensure our customers do not experience this again in the future,” the statement said.

Later Thursday, NBC News reported that AT&T blamed the outage on an error in coding, without elaborating.

“Based on our initial review, we believe that today’s outage was caused by the application and execution of an incorrect process used as we were expanding our network, not a cyber attack,” the Dallas-based company said.

But that didn’t stop other theories from sweeping the internet — one of which was particularly out of this world: that a solar flare was responsible for the massive outage.

NBC 5 Meteorologist Kevin Jeanes reported a total of three “solar flares” — a release of x-rays and energy from the sun — occurred in the last three days, with the biggest flare taking place early Thursday morning.

“The energy exits the sun at the speed of light in all different directions, reaching the Earth in about eight minutes,” Jeanes said. He added that solar flares and Coronal Mass Ejections, which create Aurora, or the Northern Lights, can sometimes occur together. This time though, they didn’t.

“CMEs are responsible for creating the Northern Lights by interacting with Earth’s magnetic field,” Jeanes said. “In this case, NOAA says no CMEs were observed.”

According to NOAA, the sun emitted two strong solar flares Wednesday and Thursday, both with an R3 intensity on NOAA’s five-level scale. The first one peaked at 5:07 p.m. CST on Wednesday, NOAA said. The second peaked at 1:32 a.m. CST early Thursday morning.

Reports of AT&T’s service disruption began showing in Downdetector.com around 3:30 a.m. Thursday.

Jeanes noted that the Earth is entering “peak activity” of our current solar cycle — a cycle of sunspot activity that lasts roughly 11 years. AR3590, a giant sunspot, has produced multiple X-class solar flares in the past 48 hours, Jeanes said.

They also have the capacity to cause temporary or complete loss of some high frequency signals, NOAA added, though it’s “unlikely” this contributed to the outage.

“While solar flares can affect the communication systems, radar and the Global Positioning System, based on the intensity of these eruptions and associated phenomena, it is unlikely that these flares contributed to the widely reported cellular network outage,” a statement from NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center said.

Jeanes added that it’s also unlikely such a flare would only impact a single service provider.

“I don’t think solar flares are picking out individual networks,” Jeanes said.

According to Jeanes, NOAA’s forecast shows an increase in solar flare activity — even the potential for Northern Light-producing CMEs as sunspot AR3590 turns more towards Earth.

“You may even be able to see the sunspot without a telescope, if you have solar eclipse glasses,” Jeanes said, stressing that eclipse glasses must be used in order to look at the sun. “The dark sunspot is currently larger than Earth, and is in the upper left side of the sun.”

Where were AT&T outages reported?

Thursday, Downdetector.com, a website that tracks outages, showed that the cities reporting the most outages were Los Angeles, Dallas, Indianapolis, Chicago, Houston, San Antonio, Louisville, Atlanta and Miami. More than 1,000 outages were reported in the Chicago area, the site reported.

The website also showed Verizon and T-Mobile customers were also facing massive outages.

A spokesman for Verizon told NBC News that they don’t see any issues on their network and believes the problem is with other carriers. Verizon customers are only having issues when trying to call a number that is associated with one of the impacted carriers, the spokesperson said.

In an email to NBC Chicago, T-Mobile said their network was “operating normally,” and that outages reported on Downdetector were likely reflecting T-Mobile customers attempting to reach users in other networks.

The outage, which began around 3:30 a.m. Thursday, also impacted 911 in some Chicago suburbs, including Evanston, Naperville and parts of Lake County.

“A systemwide outage is affecting AT&T and some other cellphone users, including the ability to call 911,” the Lake County Sheriff’s office posted on social media. “In case of an emergency, please attempt to use another phone with service or a landline until service providers can restore connectivity across the United States.”

Other municipalities reported the same.

“A cellular outage in the United States was reported by AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon and other network users on Thursday,” a tweet from the Cape Girardeau, Missouri Police Department said early Thursday, adding that the outage was impacting their phone system.

A similar tweet was sent by the Flager County Sheriff’s Office in Northeast Florida.

The Chicago Police Department confirmed to NBC Chicago that 911 services had not been impacted by the outages.

AT&T confirmed service had been restored around 2 p.m. Thursday.

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The outage knocked out cellphone service for thousands of its users across the U.S. starting early Thursday before it was restored.

AT&T blamed the incident on an error in coding, without elaborating.

“Based on our initial review, we believe that today’s outage was caused by the application and execution of an incorrect process used as we were expanding our network, not a cyber attack,” the Dallas-based company said.

Outage tracker Downdetector noted that outages, which began at about 3:30 a.m. ET, peaked at around 73,000 reported incidents. AT&T had more than 58,000 outages around noon ET, in locations including Houston, Atlanta and Chicago. The carrier is the country’s largest, with more than 240 million subscribers.

By 9 p.m. ET, the reports on AT&T’s network were fewer than 1,000.

Cricket Wireless, which is owned by AT&T, had more than 9,000 outages at one point but the reports had also tailed off later in the afternoon. Users of other carriers, including Verizon and T-Mobile, also reported issues but those companies said their networks were operating normally and the problems were likely stemming from customers trying to connect to AT&T users.

During the outage, some iPhone users saw SOS messages displayed in the status bar on their cellphones. The message indicates that the device is having trouble connecting to their cellular provider’s network, but it can make emergency calls through other carrier networks, according to Apple Support.

The Federal Communications Commission contacted AT&T about the outage and the Department of Homeland Security and FBI were also looking into it, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said.

The FBI acknowledged it had been in touch with AT&T. “Should we learn of any malicious activity we will respond accordingly,” the agency said.

The outage also raised concerns on Capitol Hill.

“We are working to assess today’s disruption in order to gain a complete understanding of what went wrong and what can be done to prevent future incidents like this from occurring,” said a statement issued by Cathy McMorris Rodgers, a Washington Republican who chairs the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and Ohio Republican Bob Latta, chair of the Communications and Technology Subcommittee.

___

Associated Press writers Zeke Miller, Lindsay Whitehurst and Seung Min Kim in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.

The questions surfaced as thousands in the Chicago area and across the U.S. lost power and service amid a massive AT&T outage.

Messages and alerts popped up on cell phones across the country as emergency responders warned that many users were unable to reach 911 call centers as a result.

At its peak, more than 70,000 outages were reported.

“Some of our customers are experiencing wireless service interruptions this morning,” AT&T said in a statement Thursday morning. “We are working urgently to restore service to them. We encourage the use of Wi-Fi calling until service is restored.”

Just after 10 a.m., the company reported outages were still ongoing but three-quarters of the network had been restored. A cause for the outage has not yet been released.

So what should you know if you are without service now or again in the future?

Here’s an explainer:

What is SOS mode and why is your phone showing it?

Some AT&T customers reported to NBC Chicago that the message “SOS” appeared in the upper right corner of their phone where service bars typically appear.

According to Apple, that message appears when “your device isn’t connected to your cellular network,” but it also means you can make emergency calls through other carrier networks.

The feature is only available in the U.S., Australia and Canada.

“When SOS appears in your iPhone status bar, it means a cellular network is available for emergency calls,” the company says.

Those who make a call with SOS will automatically go to a local emergency number and their location will be shared with emergency services.

Users can also set up their phonse so that after they make an emergency SOS call, their phone alerts emergency contacts with a text message that includes their current location — and will update those contacts if that location changes.

“On iPhone 14 or later (all models), you can even use Emergency SOS via satellite to text emergency services when no cellular and Wi-Fi coverage is available,” Apple states.

What is wi-fi calling?

For those experiencing a service outage, but who still have wi-fi, they’ll still be able to make calls.

Just look for “Wi-Fi” in the status bar to see if it’s available to you.

“With Wi-Fi Calling, you can make or receive a phone call if you have a Wi-Fi connection in an area with little or no cellular coverage,” Apple states.

And it’s not just for Apple users.

According to AT&T, “Wi-Fi Calling lets you talk and text over an active Wi-Fi connection” and most Apple and Android smartphones since 2015 support it. Users will “still need a smartphone with an eligible rate plan for it to work,” however.

“You can turn Wi-Fi Calling on or off in your phone’s settings. With Wi-Fi Calling, you can call, text, and use AT&T Visual Voicemail as you do on the cellular network,” the company’s website states.

How can you turn on wi-fi calling?

Here’s what Apple says to do:

Go to Settings > Phone > Wi-Fi Calling. You might need to enter or confirm your address for emergency services.

Some suburbs in the Chicago area are warning that residents have been unable to call 911 as thousands of AT&T customers are without power amid an outage.

“A systemwide outage is affecting AT&T and some other cellphone users, including the ability to call 911,” the Lake County Sheriff’s office posted on social media. “In case of an emergency, please attempt to use another phone with service or a landline until service providers can restore connectivity across the United States.”

A spokesperson for the sheriff’s office said many residents have been unable to reach emergency services.

Evanston police and fire officials noted that customers of AT&T, Verizon, Cricket and multiple other carriers may not be able to call 911 and urged residents to “utilize the text 911 feature” if possible.

The Chicago Office of Emergency Management and Communications confirmed to NBC Chicago that its 911 services had not been impacted by the outages, but urged customers not to test it.

“OEMC is aware of the issue impacting AT&T wireless customers from making and receiving calls (including to 911),”” Chicago’s Office of Emergency Management and Communications said. “We are monitoring the situation closely and taking appropriate action.”

OMEC officials asked customer to not call 911 to test service.

“If you are an AT&T customer and unable get through to 911, try calling from a landline OR try to get ahold of a friend or family member who is a customer of a different carrier and ask them to call 911 on your behalf,” OEMC said.

Some AT&T customers reported to NBC Chicago that the message “SOS” in the upper right corner of their phone where service bars typically appear.

AT&T Thursday morning released a statement as more than 70,000 customers across the country reported cellular service outages.

“Some of our customers are experiencing wireless service interruptions this morning,” AT&T said in a statement. “We are working urgently to restore service to them. We encourage the use of Wi-Fi calling until service is restored.”

As of 7:20 a.m., more than 70,000 AT&T outages were reported across the country.

According to the site’s heatmap, the cities reporting the most outages were Los Angeles, Dallas, Indianapolis, Chicago, Houston, San Antonio, Louisville, Atlanta and Miami. As of 7:40 a.m., Downdetector reported 1,048 outages in the Chicago area.

“This heat map shows where user-submitted problem reports are concentrated over the past 24 hours,” the site said, about the heatmap. “It is common for some problems to be reported throughout the day.”

The website also showed Verizon and T-Mobile customers were also facing massive outages. As of 5 a.m., Downdetector showed more than 1,500 reports of Verizon outages, and nearly 700 T-Mobile outages.

A spokesman for Verizon told NBC News that they don’t see any issues on their network and believes the problem is with other carriers. Verizon customers are only having issues when trying to call a number that is associated with one of the impacted carriers, the spokesperson said.

In an email to NBC Chicago, T-Mobile said their network was “operating normally,” and that outages reported on Downdetector were likely reflecting T-Mobile customers attempting to reach users in other networks.

The Chicago area was’t alone in warning of the impacts the outage has on 911 call centers.

“A cellular outage in the United States was reported by AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon and other network users on Thursday,” A tweet from the Cape Girardeau, Missouri Police Department said early Thursday, adding that the outage was impacting their phone system.

A similar tweet was sent by the Flager County Sheriff’s Office in Northeast Florida.

This is a developing story that will be updated.

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AT&T Thursday morning released a statement as more than 70,000 customers across the country report cellular service outages.

“Some of our customers are experiencing wireless service interruptions this morning,” AT&T said in a statement. “We are working urgently to restore service to them. We encourage the use of Wi-Fi calling until service is restored.”

As of 7:20 a.m., more than 70,000 AT&T outages were reported across the country.

According to the site’s heatmap, the cities reporting the most outages were Los Angeles, Dallas, Indianapolis, Chicago, Houston, San Antonio, Louisville, Atlanta and Miami. As of 7:40 a.m., Downdetector reported 1,048 outages in the Chicago area.

“This heat map shows where user-submitted problem reports are concentrated over the past 24 hours,” the site said, about the heatmap. “It is common for some problems to be reported throughout the day.”

Some AT&T customers reported to NBC Chicago that the message “SOS” in the upper right corner of their phone where service bars typically appear.

The website also showed Verizon and T-Mobile customers were also facing massive outages. As of 5 a.m., Downdetector showed more than 1,500 reports of Verizon outages, and nearly 700 T-Mobile outages.

A spokesman for Verizon told NBC News that they don’t see any issues on their network and believes the problem is with other carriers. Verizon customers are only having issues when trying to call a number that is associated with one of the impacted carriers, the spokesperson said.

In an email to NBC Chicago, T-Mobile said their network was “operating normally,” and that outages reported on Downdetector were likely reflecting T-Mobile customers attempting to reach users in other networks.

911 service in some areas down

Some suburbs in the Chicago area, including Evanston and parts of Lake County Thursday warned that residents have been unable to call 911.

“A systemwide outage is affecting AT&T and some other cellphone users, including the ability to call 911,” the Lake County Sheriff’s office posted on social media. “In case of an emergency, please attempt to use another phone with service or a landline until service providers can restore connectivity across the United States.”

Other municipalities reported the same.

“A cellular outage in the United States was reported by AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon and other network users on Thursday,” a tweet from the Cape Girardeau, Missouri Police Department said early Thursday, adding that the outage was impacting their phone system.

A similar tweet was sent by the Flager County Sheriff’s Office in Northeast Florida.

The Chicago Police Department confirmed to NBC Chicago that 911 services had not been impacted by the outages.

“OEMC is aware of the issue impacting AT&T wireless customers from making and receiving calls (including to 911),”” Chicago’s Office of Emergency Management and Communications said. “We are monitoring the situation closely and taking appropriate action.”

OMEC officials asked customer to not call 911 to test service.

“If you are an AT&T customer and unable get through to 911, try calling from a landline OR try to get ahold of a friend or family member who is a customer of a different carrier and ask them to call 911 on your behalf,” OEMC said.

This is a developing story that will be updated.

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More than 50,000 AT&T customers across the country reported cellular service outages early Thursday, according to the website Downdetector.com.

As of 6 a.m., more than 50,760 people reported AT&T outages. That number had spiked since 5 a.m., when around 23,000 people reported outages. According to Downdetector, the outages began in the 3 a.m. hour.

According to the site’s heatmap, the cities reporting the most outages were Los Angeles, Dallas, Indianapolis, Chicago, Houston, San Antonio, Louisville, Atlanta and Miami. As of 6:45 a.m., Downdetector reported 738 outages in the Chicago area.

“This heat map shows where user-submitted problem reports are concentrated over the past 24 hours,” the site said, about the heatmap. “It is common for some problems to be reported throughout the day.”

Some AT&T customers reported to NBC Chicago that the message “SOS” in the upper right corner of their phone where service bars typically appear.

“Some of our customers are experiencing wireless service interruptions this morning,” AT&T said in a statement. “We are working urgently to restore service to them. We encourage the use of Wi-Fi calling until service is restored.”

The website also showed Verizon and T-Mobile customers were also facing massive outages. As of 5 a.m., Downdetector showed more than 1,500 reports of Verizon outages, and nearly 700 T-Mobile outages.

A spokesman for Verizon told NBC News that they don’t see any issues on their network and believes the problem is with other carriers. Verizon customers are only having issues when trying to call a number that is associated with one of the impacted carriers, the spokesperson said.

In an email to NBC Chicago, T-Mobile said their network was “operating normally,” and that outages reported on Downdetector were likely reflecting T-Mobile customers attempting to reach users in other networks.

911 down in some areas

Some suburbs in the Chicago area, including Evanston and parts of Lake County Thursday warned that residents have been unable to call 911.

“A systemwide outage is affecting AT&T and some other cellphone users, including the ability to call 911,” the Lake County Sheriff’s office posted on social media. “In case of an emergency, please attempt to use another phone with service or a landline until service providers can restore connectivity across the United States.”

Other municipalities reported the same.

“A cellular outage in the United States was reported by AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon and other network users on Thursday,” a tweet from the Cape Girardeau, Missouri Police Department said early Thursday, adding that the outage was impacting their phone system.

A similar tweet was sent by the Flager County Sheriff’s Office in Northeast Florida.

The Chicago Police Department confirmed to NBC Chicago that 911 services had not been impacted by the outages.

“OEMC is aware of the issue impacting AT&T wireless customers from making and receiving calls (including to 911),”” Chicago’s Office of Emergency Management and Communications said. “We are monitoring the situation closely and taking appropriate action.”

OMEC officials asked customer to not call 911 to test service.

“If you are an AT&T customer and unable get through to 911, try calling from a landline OR try to get ahold of a friend or family member who is a customer of a different carrier and ask them to call 911 on your behalf,” OEMC said.

This is a developing story that will be updated.

This is a developing story that will be updated.

This story uses functionality that may not work in our app. Click here to open the story in your web browser.

Thousands of AT&T customers across the country were reporting major cell service outages Thursday morning.

As of 5:45 a.m., the website Downdetector.com, which tracks outages, showed more than 38,702 AT&T outages were reported. By 6 a.m., that number had spiked to more than 50,000.

According to the site’s heatmap, the cities reporting the most outages were Los Angeles, Dallas, Indianapolis, Chicago, Houston, San Antonio, Louisville, Atlanta and Miami. As of 6:45 a.m., Downdetector reported 738 outages in the Chicago area.

AT&T outage map: Here’s where massive AT&T outages are reported

Some AT&T customers reported to NBC Chicago that the message “SOS” in the upper right corner of their phone where service bars typically appear.

“Some of our customers are experiencing wireless service interruptions this morning,” AT&T said in a statement. “We are working urgently to restore service to them. We encourage the use of Wi-Fi calling until service is restored.”

The website also showed Verizon and T-Mobile customers were also facing massive outages. As of 5 a.m., Downdetector showed more than 1,500 reports of Verizon outages, and nearly 700 T-Mobile outages.

A spokesman for Verizon told NBC News that they don’t see any issues on their network and believes the problem is with other carriers. Verizon customers are only having issues when trying to call a number that is associated with one of the impacted carriers, the spokesperson said.

In an email to NBC Chicago, T-Mobile said their network was “operating normally,” and that outages reported on Downdetector were likely reflecting T-Mobile customers attempting to reach users in other networks.

911 service in some areas down

Some suburbs in the Chicago area, including Evanston and parts of Lake County Thursday warned that residents have been unable to call 911.

“A systemwide outage is affecting AT&T and some other cellphone users, including the ability to call 911,” the Lake County Sheriff’s office posted on social media. “In case of an emergency, please attempt to use another phone with service or a landline until service providers can restore connectivity across the United States.”

Other municipalities reported the same.

“A cellular outage in the United States was reported by AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon and other network users on Thursday,” a tweet from the Cape Girardeau, Missouri Police Department said early Thursday, adding that the outage was impacting their phone system.

A similar tweet was sent by the Flager County Sheriff’s Office in Northeast Florida.

The Chicago Police Department confirmed to NBC Chicago that 911 services had not been impacted by the outages.

“OEMC is aware of the issue impacting AT&T wireless customers from making and receiving calls (including to 911),”” Chicago’s Office of Emergency Management and Communications said. “We are monitoring the situation closely and taking appropriate action.”

OMEC officials asked customer to not call 911 to test service.

“If you are an AT&T customer and unable get through to 911, try calling from a landline OR try to get ahold of a friend or family member who is a customer of a different carrier and ask them to call 911 on your behalf,” OEMC said.

This is a developing story that will be updated.

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“We have restored wireless service to all our affected customers,” AT&T said in a statement. “We sincerely apologize to them. Keeping our customers connected remains our top priority, and we are taking steps to ensure our customers do not experience this again in the future.”

AT&T did not say what led to the service disruption.

Downdetector, the outage tracking site, began seeing a surge of service problems from AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon customers starting at around 3 a.m. ET. There also appeared to be network issues for Cricket Wireless, which is owned by AT&T, as well as Consumer Cellular, Boost Mobile and other regional services.

However, a spokesman for Verizon told NBC News that they did not see any issues on their network and believes the problem is with other carriers. Verizon said its customers are only having issues when trying to call a number that is associated with one of the impacted carriers.

T-Mobile also said their networks were operating “normally,” and explained the outages reported in Downdetector is likely “reflecting challenges our customers were having attempting to connect to users on other networks.”

The Federal Communications Commission responded to the outage in a Thursday statement.

“We are aware of the reported wireless outages, and our Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau is actively investigating,” the statement said. “We are in touch with AT&T and public safety authorities, including FirstNet, as well as other providers. “

What does the SOS symbol mean on my iPhone?

Many of the impacted customers with iPhones awoke to an SOS symbol in place of their usual cell signal bars on their phones.

That symbol appears when the device isn’t connected to a cellular network. However, according to Apple’s support website, iPhones will show “SOS” when there is a nearby network available for “emergency calls.”

“When you make a call with SOS, your iPhone automatically calls the local emergency number and shares your location information with emergency services,” Apple explains.

If you have designated emergency contacts on your phone, it will send them an automatic text message with your current location after you’ve made an emergency call. (For information on how to set up emergency contacts, click here).

According to Apple, iPhone models 14 and later can make emergency calls via satellite to contact emergency services when there is no cellular or Wi-Fi coverage available.

Several police departments around the country reported difficulties communicating with city phones. The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department in North Carolina said customers were “briefly unable to contact 911” during the outage.

Many 911centers in several states, including California, Virginia, Massachusetts, Illinois and Texas reported that the outages prevented people from making emergency calls from their cellphones.

The Massachusetts State Police also urged people not to call 911 just to see if the number worked.

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The caution applies to any watch or ring, regardless of brand, that claims to measure blood glucose levels in a noninvasive way, the agency said. The FDA said it has not authorized any such device.

The agency’s notice doesn’t apply to smartwatch apps linked to sensors, such as continuous glucose monitoring systems that measure blood sugar directly.

Roughly 37 million Americans have diabetes. People with the disease aren’t able to effectively regulate their blood sugar because their bodies either don’t make enough of the hormone insulin or they have become resistant to insulin.

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To manage the condition, they must regularly check their blood sugar levels with a finger prick blood test or with a sensor that places needles just under the skin to monitor glucose levels continuously.

Using the unapproved smartwatch and smart ring devices could result in inaccurate blood sugar measurements, with “potentially devastating” consequences, said Dr. Robert Gabbay, of the American Diabetes Association. That could cause patients to take the wrong doses of medication, leading to dangerous levels of blood sugar and possibly mental confusion, coma or even death.

Several companies are working on noninvasive devices to measure blood sugar, but none has created a product accurate and secure enough to get FDA approval, said Dr. David Klonoff, who has researched diabetes technology for 25 years.

The technology that allows smartwatches and rings to measure metrics like heart rate and blood oxygen is not accurate enough to measure blood sugar, said Klonoff, of the Sutter Health Mills-Peninsula Medical Center in San Mateo, California. Efforts to measure blood sugar in body fluids such as tears, sweat and saliva are not ready for prime time, either.

“It’s challenging, and I believe at some point there will be at least one scientist or engineer to solve it,” Klonoff said.

In the meantime, consumers who want to measure their blood sugar accurately can buy an FDA-cleared blood glucose monitor at any pharmacy.

“It comes down to risk. If the FDA approves it, the risk is very small,” he said. “If you use a product that is not cleared by the FDA, very often the risk is very large.”

Dynabook, the firm formerly known as Toshiba, said has received 679 reports of the recalled adapters overheating, catching on fire or melting, with 43 of those resulting in minor burn injuries. 

The impacted adapters were sold separately and with Toshiba brand laptops at stores nationwide and at Toshiba.com between April 2008 and April 2014.

The recalled adapters are black and have date codes between April 2008 through December 2012 in either a year-month date format — for example April 2008 is “0804” — or a week-year date format — for example week 15 of 2008 is “0815.” 

To see the full list of recalled model and serial numbers click here or search for your model here.

Anyone with an impacted adapter is urged to stop using it immediately and contact Dynabook Americas for a free replacement.

To contact Dynabook Americas and see instructions on getting a replacement, consumers should visit https://support.dynabook.com/axx2024 and send a photo of their adapter with the cord cut to dba-acadapter2024@dynabook.com. 

A new device powered by artificial intelligence is helping doctors diagnose the disease in a non-invasive way within seconds.

DermaSensor looks like a phone and fits into the palm of a doctor’s hand. It’s first-of-its-kind technology that uses AI to detect the most common forms of skin cancer.

“It allows the physician using it to get a readout on a scale of 1 to 10. So, that gives you a relative idea of how concerning the lesion is,” said Dr. David Leffell, a dermatologist and Yale School of Medicine professor who took part in the clinical trials.

“When a physician or other provider sees a patient, evaluating the patient, they’re taking a history. They’re looking at the lesion. They’re, in their own minds, developing a perspective on whether it’s something concerning or not,” he said. “This device is additional data that allows them to make a decision about whether or not to refer the patient on to a dermatologist.”

DermaSensor was cleared by the FDA for patients 40 and older in January, so doctors are just now being able to access the technology.

Here’s how the new AI device helps detect skin cancer

First, a doctor identifies a suspicious spot or mole and scans it with the wireless device to generate a score.

“A ray of light is emitted on the skin lesion and that light bounces back and it’s read by the device. Using a particular algorithm or mathematical model based on how it reads that information, it is capable of determining abnormalities in the cell,” Leffell said.

The algorithum uses data related to 20,000 scans of more than 4,000 malignant and benign lesions.

A result is calculated within seconds.

In studies, the device was very effective, with a 96% sensitivity rate for detecting skin cancer.

DermaSensor works on all skin types, the company says.

It aims to give primary care physicians an additional tool to decide if a patient needs to take action and see a dermatologist.

“If anyone has tried to get an appointment with a dermatologist lately, you know that it’s not easy,” Leffell said.

“One of the expectations with this device is that it’ll allow primary care doctors to more accurately decide what needs to be referred on and, if there’s real concern, they can then pick up the phone and get the patient in,” he said.

In addition to detecting melanoma, which is the most deadly form of skin cancer, the device can also scan moles for basal cell carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma.

Mendler rose to fame with her role as Teddy Duncan in Disney’s hit show “Good Luck Charlie,” which aired between 2010 and 2014. She went on to have success in the music world and garnered over 275 million Spotify streams of her songs “Ready or Not” and “Hurricane.”

Despite her background in TV and music, the now 31-year-old is launching a satellite data startup, she announced in a Monday post on X. 

Her new project, called Northwood Space, is starting with a $6.3 million seed and is backed by notable venture investors including Founders Fund, Andreessen Horowitz and Also Capital. 

According to her post, Northwood Space is based in El Segundo, California and aims to build a “data highway between earth and space” by designing shared ground infrastructure from first principles to expand access to space. 

Mendler included a link to Northwood’s career hiring page in the post. 

She spent the last several years getting degrees from the University of Southern California, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard Law School. She went on to work at the Federal Communications Commission’s Space Bureau in 2022, according to her LinkedIn profile. 

She told CNBC she “fell in love with space law” during her time at the bureau and came up with the idea for the company during the Covid-19 pandemic. 

The actor-turned-academic said the company’s name is based on a lake in New Hampshire where the idea came to her and her husband, Griffin Cleverly. 

Cleverly will serve the company as Chief Technology Officer alongside the Head of Software Shaurya Luthra. 

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Apple rolled out an update to its iOS operating system this week with a feature called Stolen Device Protection that makes it a lot harder for phone thieves to access key functions and settings. Users are being urged to turn it on immediately.

Here’s how to activate the new security option and why it’s so important:

Should I turn on stolen device protection?

The software update for iPhones and iPads includes the essential new feature designed to foil thieves from wiping phones for resale or accessing Apple ID or other important accounts. Stolen Device Protection is a new setting that’s included with the latest iOS release, version 17.3.

Apple says the feature, buried in your iPhone’s settings, adds an extra layer of security for users. It addresses a vulnerability that thieves have discovered and exploited: allowing them to lock victims out of their Apple accounts, delete their photos and other files from their iCloud accounts and empty their bank accounts by accessing passwords kept in the Keychain password manager.

Apple is introducing the feature as anecdotal evidence suggests phone thefts are surging. Stories of stolen phones abound on Reddit groups and in news articles in places from Los Angeles to London, where police say pickpocketing, “table surfing” and moped snatching are common tactics.

The Wall Street Journal reported last year how criminals watched people use their passcodes to gain access to their personal information after stealing their phones.

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How does stolen device protection work?

Stolen Device Protection keeps track of a user’s “familiar locations,” such as their home or workplace, and adds extra biometric security hoops to jump through if someone tries to use the device to do certain things when it’s away from those places.

It also reduces the importance of passcodes, which thieves can steal by peering over someone’s shoulder or threatening and forcing victims to hand them over, in favor of “biometric” features such as faces or fingerprints that are a lot harder to duplicate.

Let’s say the bar thief that snatched your iPhone tries to erase its contents and settings to sell it. With Stolen Device Protection turned on, the phone will now require a Face ID or Touch ID scan to verify that person is the rightful owner.

And that’s the only way — the new feature doesn’t let someone use the passcode or any other backup method.

Other actions that will trigger this feature if it’s not at a familiar place include using passwords saved in Keychain or payment methods saved in Safari, turning off Lost Mode, applying for a new Apple Card or using the iPhone to set up a new device.

There’s also a second layer designed to slow down thieves trying to access critical security settings. If someone tries to, say, sign out of an Apple ID account, change the passcode or reset the phone while it’s in an unfamiliar location, they’ll have to authenticate using Face ID or Touch ID, wait an hour, then do a second facial or fingerprint scan.

Changing an Apple ID password, updating Apple ID security settings, adding or removing Face or Touch ID, and turning off the Find My device feature or Stolen Device Protection also will trigger this feature.

“The security delay is designed to prevent a thief from performing critical operations so that you can mark your device as lost and make sure your Apple account is secure,” the company said. “When your iPhone is in a familiar location, these additional steps will not be required and you can use your device passcode like normal.”

How do I activate stolen device protection?

It’s simple — if you know where to look. But first, you must activate two-factor authentication and Find My device for your Apple ID account, and set up or enable the following on your iPhone: a device passcode; Face ID or Touch ID; Find My; and Location Services or it won’t show up.

• Download and update your iPhone or iPad with the latest iOS 17.3 update.
• Then go to your settings, scroll down to “Face ID & Passcode” or “Touch ID & Passcode”
• Tap that and enter your passcode.
• Scroll down and you’ll see Stolen Device Protection. Depending on your iPhone model, you’ll need to tap or toggle to turn it on or off.

What devices does it apply to?

IPhone XS and newer models, including second- and third-generation SE models.

“Could a hidden camera be watching me?”

Spycams, as they’re called, are getting smaller, harder to find and easier to buy.

From alarm clocks to air fresheners, water bottles and toothbrush holders, cameras come embedded in common household items that seamlessly blend with home decor. They can be purchased in shops or online, and through retailers like Amazon and Walmart.

And rather than having to retrieve the camera to obtain the recording, owners can stream live images straight to their phones, said Pieter Tjia, CEO of the Singapore-based tech services company OMG Solutions.

Even worse, voyeurs can sell the footage to porn sites, where it can be viewed thousands of times.

It’s no wonder why websites, from YouTube to TikTok, are filled with videos of people recommending simple ways to find hidden cameras.

But do they these suggestions work?

To find out, Tjia and his team hid 27 cameras in a home, and then provided CNBC with commonly recommended devices to find them.

In total, CNBC conducted five rounds of tests to see which method was the most effective.

Test 1: Using the ‘naked eye’

First, we examined the rooms using the easiest and cheapest method of all: the “naked eye” test.

My colleague, Victor Loh, went from room to room, noting that nothing seemed out of place or suspicious. After 20 minutes of searching, he found one camera embedded inside a working clock — tipped off because the time was wrong.

“I found one,” he said. “But it’s so well camouflaged.”

Cost: $0 | Cameras found: 1

Test 2: Using a mobile phone

For this round, Victor downloaded a popular app called Fing, which scans Wi-Fi networks for cameras. He also used his phone’s flashlight to make it easier to see camera lenses, a common online recommendation.

The app showed 22 devices were connected to the home’s Wi-Fi — but no cameras.

Tjia explained that when members of his team set up the cameras in the house, they also set up a second wireless network. They then connected the hidden cameras to that network, bypassing the home’s main network.

“Even if we didn’t do this, the app would show cameras are in the house, but not where they are located,” he said.

Victor had better luck using his phone’s flashlight. With it, he found three more cameras — in a Wi-Fi repeater, a shirt button and a teddy bear — the last one, like the clock, catching his eye because of something amiss.

“It’s not grammatically correct,” he said of the bear’s T-shirt, before finding a camera behind one of its eyes.

Tjia said most hidden cameras are made in China, where, ironically, they are banned.  

Cost: $25/year for app subscription | Cameras found: 3

Test 3: Using a radio frequency detector

With only four of 27 cameras located, it was time to turn to handheld devices designed to find hidden cameras — like a radio frequency detector which beeps when it’s close to a spycam.

Those work when cameras are turned on and connected to Wi-Fi, which means they won’t find cameras that use SD cards to store data, said Tjia.

They are also prone to false alarms, he added, as we watched Victor search the rooms, for the third time, through a barrage of piercing beeps.

The device also had a built-in lens detector, but the beeping proved so distracting that Victor didn’t locate a single camera with this device. It even beeped when he was in parts of the house that had no cameras at all, said Tjia.

Cost: $100-$200 | Cameras found: 0

Test 4: Using a lens detector

Next up: a basic lens detector, which is cheap, portable and easy to use. The device emits infrared light, which reflects back from a camera lens as a red dot.

The problem? You must be close to the camera for it to work.

Despite its popularity online, Victor found only two cameras with this device — one in an essential oil diffuser, and the other in a Wi-Fi mesh device.

Cost: $50 | Cameras found: 2

Test 5: Using an advanced lens detector

For the final test, Victor used a more sophisticated lens detector.

Resembling binoculars, it also accentuates light that is reflected from a camera lens. However, this device works from a distance, allowing Victor to see cameras from across the room. It also works in brightly-lit or dark rooms, said Tjia.

“Oh wow,” said Victor, as he located cameras — in a tissue box and leather bag, with another buried between files under a desk. But he noted he needed to look straight into the lens to see it. “The angle matters.”

In total, he found 11 cameras with this device — more than all the other cameras found in the other test rounds, combined.

Cost: $400 | Cameras found: 11

The final outcome

In total, Victor found 17 out of 27 cameras — not a bad result, but not a great one either, especially given the time he spent locating them.

“When you are traveling, you are really exhausted,” he said. “The last thing you want to do is spend … one hour scrutinizing every nook and cranny just to locate a camera.”

Social media posts about hidden cameras have increased nearly 400% in the past two years, according to the data company Sprout Social — with countless articles dedicated to finding a quick and easy solution to the growing problem.

But in this cat-and-mouse game, the cameras have the upper hand, said Tjia.

The detecting devices are getting better, but so are the cameras being hidden, he said.

Uber has confirmed to TODAY.com that it is shutting down Drizly, its alcohol delivery app. The rideshare and food delivery company,  which acquired Drizly in 2021 for $1.1 billion, says it will close down both the Drizly business and the brand with its distinctive red bear logo at the end of March.

“After three years of Drizly operating independently within the Uber family, we’ve decided to close the business and focus on our core Uber Eats strategy of helping consumers get almost anything — from food to groceries to alcohol — all on a single app,” Pierre Dimitri Gore-Coty, Uber’s SVP of delivery, tells TODAY.com in an email. “We’re grateful to the Drizly team for their many contributions to the growth of the BevAlc delivery category as the original industry pioneer.”

Additionally, Drizly announced the news itself on its official social media accounts on Jan. 15, saying in part that “it’s true what they say… all good things must come to an end.”

Uber says it’s focused on making its services more of a one-stop shop, with more selection within a single app. This includes pivoting to serve Uber’s 142 million monthly active users who may want to be able to get multiple types of products delivered using the same app.

Uber Eats already delivers beer, wine and liquor through its app and drivers, and while Drizly also provides home delivery, it functioned as a go-between for liquor stores and customers. When users place an order with the Drizly app, the liquor store delivers it directly to the customer.

The company also adds that the majority of Drizly consumers also have Uber accounts, and that Uber Eats’ beverage and alcohol category has doubled in the last year.

The business news was first reported by Axios on Jan. 15. The outlet reported that after Uber acquired Drizly, the Federal Trade Commission discovered security failures led to a data breach in 2020. That breach exposed the personal information of about 2.5 million Drizly users — although Drizly and its CEO were alerted to problems two years before the breach.

The FTC later ordered Drizly to destroy some of its user data and further restricted what the company could collect and retain, among other requirements.

Drizly surged in popularity over the pandemic and the app’s growth skyrocketed during the lockdown. Many folks sang the service’s praises online and its year-over-year sales spiked 1,000 percent in April 2020. 

This story first appeared on TODAY.com. More from TODAY:

• Jamie Lee Curtis says turning 65 is a moment of ‘excitement.’ Here’s why
• Christina Applegate tears up during standing ovation at the Emmys
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MouthPad^, a retainer-like trackpad chip that sits on the roof of the mouth, made its debut at the Consumer Electronics Show this week. It can sense tongue movements, allowing users to scroll, type, make calls and even play chess with a swipe or a click of their tongue.

“It is a mouse for your mouth,” Corbin Halliwill, a software engineer at Augmental, the company that created the device, said.

Augmental created MouthPad^ to be a helpful tool to those living with disabilities, especially those with a hand impairment or paralysis. It connects to any tablet, phone or computer through Bluetooth.

Halliwill, along with the company’s co-founders, Corten Singer and Tomás Vega, developed the device after friends and family who were paralyzed struggled to find the right technology that suited their needs.

Read the full story on NBCNews.com

Although Google struck the deal with state attorneys general in September, the settlement’s terms weren’t revealed until late Monday in documents filed in San Francisco federal court. The disclosure came a week after a federal court jury rebuked Google for deploying anticompetitive tactics in its Play Store for Android apps.

The settlement with the states includes $630 million to compensate U.S. consumers funneled into a payment processing system that state attorneys general alleged drove up the prices for digital transactions within apps downloaded from the Play Store. That store caters to the Android software that powers most of the world’s smartphones.

Like Apple does in its iPhone app store, Google collects commissions ranging from 15% to 30% on in-app purchases — fees that state attorneys general contended drove prices higher than they would have been had there been an open market for payment processing. Those commissions generated billions of dollars in profit annually for Google, according to evidence presented in the recent trial focused on its Play Store.

Eligible consumers will receive at least $2, according to the settlement, and may get additional payments based on their spending on the Play store between Aug. 16, 2016 and Sept. 30, 2023. The estimated 102 million U.S. consumers who made in-app purchases during that time frame are supposed to be automatically notified about various options for how they can receive their cut of the money.

Another $70 million of the pre-trial settlement will cover the penalties and other costs that Google is being forced to pay to the states.

Although Google is forking over a sizeable sum, it’s a fraction of the $10.5 billion in damages that the attorneys general estimated the company could be forced to pay if they had taken the case to trial instead of settling.

Google also agreed to make other changes designed to make it even easier for consumers to download and install Android apps from other outlets besides its Play Store for the next five years. It will refrain from issuing as many security warnings, or “scare screens,” when alternative choices are being used.

The makers of Android apps will also gain more flexibility to offer alternative payment choices to consumers instead of having transactions automatically processed through the Play Store and its commission system. Apps will also be able to promote lower prices available to consumers who choose an alternate to the Play Store’s payment processing.

Investors seemed unfazed by the settlement as shares in Google’s corporate parent, Alphabet Inc., rose slightly in Tuesday’s midday trading.

The settlement represents a “loud and clear message to Big Tech — attorneys general across the country are unified, and we are prepared to use the full weight of our collective authority to ensure free and fair access to the digital marketplace,” said Connecticut Attorney General William Tong.

Wilson White, Google’s vice president of government affairs and public policy, framed the deal as a positive for the company, despite the money and concessions it entails. The settlement “builds on Android’s choice and flexibility, maintains strong security protections, and retains Google’s ability to compete with other (software) makers, and invest in the Android ecosystem for users and developers,” White wrote in a blog post.

Although the state attorneys general hailed the settlement as a huge win for consumers, it didn’t go far enough for Epic Games, which spearheaded the attack on Google’s app store practices with an antitrust lawsuit filed in August 2020.

Epic, the maker of the popular Fortnite video game, rebuffed the settlement in September and instead chose to take its case to trial, even though it had already lost on most of its key claims in a similar trial targeting Apple and its iPhone app store in 2021.

The Apple trial, though, was decided by a federal judge instead of the jury that vindicated Epic with a unanimous verdict that Google had built anticompetitive barriers around the Play Store. Google has vowed to appeal the verdict.

Corie Wright, Epic’s vice president of public policy, derided the states’ settlement as little more than a one-time payout that provides “no true relief for consumers or developers,” in a blog post.

In court documents, the attorneys general said they decided to settle because of significant risks posed by a trial, including the possibility that a jury may have thought their plan to seek $10.5 billion in damages was exorbitant. The attorneys general also cited for the potential of jurors becoming confused had their case been presented alongside Epic’s claims in the trial, as had been the original plan.

But now the Epic trial’s outcome nevertheless raises the specter of Google potentially being ordered to pay even more money as punishment for its past practices and making even more dramatic changes to its lucrative Android app ecosystem.

Those changes will be determined next year by U.S. District Judge James Donato, who presided over the Epic Games trial. Donato also still must approve Google’s Play Store settlement with the states.
“In the next phase of the case, Epic will seek meaningful remedies to truly open up the Android ecosystem so consumers and developers will genuinely benefit from the competition that U.S. antitrust laws were designed to promote,” Wright pledged.

Google faces an even bigger legal threat in another antitrust case targeting its dominant search engine that serves as the centerpiece of a digital ad empire that generates more than $200 billion in sales annually. Closing arguments in a trial pitting Google against the Justice Department are scheduled for early May before a federal judge in Washington D.C.

All that has happened since the rollout of self-checkout but so has this: Customers griping about clunky technology that spits out mysterious error codes, workers having to stand around and monitor both humans and machines, and retailers contending with theft.

“Going to the grocery store used to be simple, and now it’s frustrating,” said Cindy Whittington, 66, of Fairfax, Virginia. “You’re paying more. You’re working harder to pay for merchandise at their store. And it’s become an ordeal to check out. I should get a 5% discount.”

In 2021, self-checkout usage represented 30% of transactions, almost double from 2018, according to a survey of retailers by FMI, an industry group. And 96% of retailers surveyed offer self-checkout.

But the technology is also facing a reckoning amid the critical holiday shopping season. Some retailers are adding restrictions, while others are pulling out completely.

This past fall, Walmart removed self-checkout kiosks in three stores in Albuquerque, New Mexico as part of a location by location approach, but on the whole it is adding more than it is taking away. To reduce wait times, Target is now limiting the number of items to 10 that shoppers can scan in an handful of stores nationwide.

British supermarket chain Booths has been getting rid of its self-checkout at the majority of its stores for the past 18 months in reaction to customer backlash. A year ago, grocery chain Wegmans, citing “losses,” discontinued its self-checkout app that lets shoppers scan and bag items while they shop. However, it continues to offer self-checkout registers at its stores.

Self-checkout, first tested in supermarkets in the late 1980s, gained momentum 20 years ago. But grocers ramped it up even more three years ago to address the pandemic-induced severe labor shortages.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics says technological advances such as self-checkout and online sales have been the main driver in the declining number of cashier jobs, although there are no precise estimates on how many cashiers have been replaced by self-checkout. According to Labor Department data, there are about 1.2 million people currently working as cashiers, compared to 1.4 million in 2019 and the BLS expects the number to fall by another 10% over the next decade.

“We are at an inflection point where if Americans are willing to do this and show an interest, then stores will probably expand it because they want to slash that labor cost,” said Christopher Andrews, associate professor and chair of sociology at Drew University and author of “The Overworked Consumer: Self-Checkouts, Supermarkets and the Do-It-Yourself Economy.” “But right now they’re just seeing downside. They’re seeing frustrated customers. They’re seeing increased costs and shoplifting.”

Theft is indeed an issue. Andrews said a technology that relies on shoppers to do their own scanning and punch in product quantities tempts even law abiding citizens to be dishonest. It’s easy to just scan every other item or punch in codes for a cheaper item. Shoppers could also make honest mistakes, leading to losses for stores.

John Catsimatidis, chairman and CEO of Red Apple Group, owner of Gristedes and D’Agostino’s food stores in New York City, said he has no interest in self-checkout because of theft.

“Anybody who does it might as well hit your head over with a pipe,” he said.

Still, self-checkout isn’t going away, especially with still stubborn labor shortages. And plenty of people love it.

Ellen Wulfhorst, 65, said using self-checkout brings back her childhood when she played with a toy register.

“There’s something childish and fun about it,” Wulfhorst said. “I get a big kick out of sliding the product across the reader, and it goes beep. There’s a certain satisfaction to it.”

For Robin Wissmann Doherty of South Salem, New York, who has a progressive neurodegenerative disease and uses a walker, self-checkout makes her shopping experience easier.

The 67-year-old said she likes to shop at Stop & Shop because it has a “scan and go” technology that allows her to scan her items with a device as she shops and then tallies up her bill. She can either pay at a kiosk or at a manned register.

“The laser gun works for disabled people,” she said.

Stew Leonard Jr., president and CEO of Stew Leonard’s, a supermarket chain that operates stores in Connecticut, New York and New Jersey, said 25% of its customers use self-service. That number could be up to 50% in the next few years. He noted one-third of its registers are unmanned, but he’s in a “holding pattern” and is thinking of limiting the number of items to be scanned.

Retailers have been adding cameras or sensors at kiosks to monitor shoppers.

Kroger, for example, has deployed artificial intelligence technology at a majority of stores that triggers alerts when something is amiss. For example, if a shopper fails to scan a particular item successfully, the system flags the error on the screen and prompts the customer to self-correct. If customers are unable to resolve the issue themselves, a light above the self-checkout blinks to attract workers’ attention.

There have been inroads for more advanced technology.

Amazon’s “just walkout technology” is in more than 70 Amazon-owned stores and more than 100 third-party retailers across the U.S., including airports. It uses sophisticated cameras and allows shoppers to check in with Amazon’s app on their phones and then walk out without having to check out. Japanese fashion retailer Uniqlo has RFID chips embedded in price tags to power a self-checkout system at its Fifth Avenue store in Manhattan, as part of a widescale rollout at its stores. Customers place their items in bins at self-service stations and pay — without having to scan items.

Still, for some workers who were supposed to be liberated from the monotonous task of ringing up customers, the tedium just comes in a different form.

Bernadette Christian, 59, a worker at Giant Food in Clinton, Maryland, mans six self-service stations at once, and she’s afraid to help or confront shoppers who she said have become angrier since the pandemic.

“It would be easy for us to be cashiers, and it would be a lot more safer in today’s world,” she said.

U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden warned that foreign governments are spying on smartphone users by compelling Apple and Google to turn over push notification records, according to a letter he sent to Attorney General Merrick Garland on Wednesday.

Wyden, D-Ore., said his office investigated a tip from last year alleging that government agencies have been “demanding” these records from both companies. Since push notifications like news alerts, emails and social media alerts travel through Apple’s and Google’s servers, they can reveal unique insights about how individual people use particular apps, Wyden explained in the letter.

Governments can force Apple and Google to hand over these records, just like they can be compelled to share any other information they have regarding their users, according to the letter. In the U.S., however, Wyden said information about push notification records cannot be released to the public.

“Apple and Google should be permitted to be transparent about the legal demands they receive, particularly from foreign governments, just as the companies regularly notify users about other types of government demands for data,” Wyden wrote. “I would ask that the DOJ repeal or modify any policies that impede this transparency.”

Push notification records can reveal which app received a notification, when it was received, the phone and Apple or Google account that the notification was delivered to, and in some cases, the unencrypted text displayed in the notification, according to the letter.

Wyden did not specify which governments have asked Apple and Google for push notification records. The senator’s office did not offer additional comment and directed CNBC to the letter.

A source confirmed to Reuters that foreign government agencies, as well as U.S. government agencies, have asked both Google and Apple for information from push notifications. For instance, the agencies have asked for metadata that can help connect anonymous users on messaging apps to specific Apple and Google accounts, according to the report.

“In this case, the federal government prohibited us from sharing any information,” an Apple spokesperson told CNBC. “Now that this method has become public we are updating our transparency reporting to detail these kinds of requests.”

A Google spokesperson said the company shares Wyden’s commitment to keeping people informed about requests for push notification records.

“We were the first major company to publish a public transparency report sharing the number and types of government requests for user data we receive, including the requests referred to by Senator Wyden,” the spokesperson said in a statement. The company did not clarify where it publishes requests for information about push notification records, or if it is restricted.

The Department of Justice declined to comment.

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The company, based in San Jose, California, announced the plan after China joined the list of countries that had given a go-ahead for the acquisition.

The announcement came soon after Microsoft acquired video game-maker Activision Blizzard for $69 billion, in one of the most expensive tech acquisitions in history. It took 18 months for Broadcom to get all the regulatory approvals.

The massive buyouts are occurring at a time of heightened anxiety because of turmoil on the global supply chain, war in Europe and the Middle East, and rising prices that have the potential to cool both business and consumer activity.

Broadcom’s acquisition plan earlier gained approval from Britain’s competition regulator.

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Countless businesses and public bodies, including major banks, big retailers, telecom operators and government departments, rely on Broadcom gear and VMware software. The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm and top antitrust enforcer, cleared the deal after Broadcom made concessions to address its concerns about competition.

Broadcom wants to establish a stronger foothold in the cloud computing market, and VMware’s technology allows large corporations to blend public cloud access with internal company networks. VMware, which is based in Palo Alto, California, has close relations with every major cloud company and provider, including Amazon, Google and Microsoft.

In a statement, Broadcom said it had legal greenlights in Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, the European Union, Israel, Japan, South Africa, South Korea, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, and “foreign investment control clearance in all necessary jurisdictions.”

“There is no legal impediment to closing under U.S. merger regulations,” it said.

There has been a flurry of such deals after technology companies’ shares fell from stratospheric levels attained during the pandemic, making such acquisitions more affordable.

Broadcom’s CEO, Hock Tan, has been among the most aggressive buyers, building out the company with big acquisitions in recent years like Symantec for close to $11 billion in 2019, and CA Technologies for about $19 billion the previous year.

Prabhakar Raghavan, Google’s senior vice president for knowledge and information products, testified for the tech giant as it defends itself in the biggest antitrust trial in the last 25 years. The government has accused the company of illegally thwarting competitors from making inroads against its ubiquitous search engine.

Raghavan downplayed Google’s dominance and described it as a company beset by competitors on all sides. He said the company has been tagged with the disparaging moniker “Grandpa Google” among younger demographics who don’t see it as an interesting product.

“Grandpa Google knows the answers and will help you with homework,” Raghavan said. “But when it comes to doing interesting things, they like to start elsewhere.”

Google’s lawyers showed Raghavan a 1998 article from Fortune magazine which said “Yahoo! has won the search-engine wars and is poised for much bigger things.”

Raghavan, who once worked at Yahoo!, said Google spends massive amounts on research and development to try to stay ahead of the curve as technology evolves.

“I feel a keen sense not to become the next roadkill,” he said.

He cited a long list of innovations Google has made to its search engine over the last 20-plus years, from changing the way advertisers bid for space on a search results page to improving the match between what a user types in his query to the results he is actually seeking.

The Justice Department has presented evidence that Google secured its dominance in search by paying billions of dollars annually to Apple and other companies to lock in Google as the default search engine on iPhones and other popular products.

A Microsoft executive also testified that Google’s pre-eminent position becomes self-fulfilling, as it uses the data it aggregates from the billions of searches it conducts to improve the efficiency of future searches.

Google says its search engine is dominant because it has a better product than its competitors. The company said it invested in mobile devices and other emerging technologies more quickly than competitors like Microsoft, and that those investments are now paying off.

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And it cited evidence that consumers switch their search engine to Google the majority of the time in cases where another search engine is offered as the default choice.

Raghavan, in his testimony, also said Google’s competition is not just traditional search engines like Microsoft’s Bing, but various “verticals” like Expedia or Yelp that people use to to facilitate travel or dining.

“We feel ourselves competing with them every day,” he said.

The antitrust case, the biggest since the Justice Department went after Microsoft and its dominance of internet browsers 25 years ago, was filed in 2020 during the Trump administration. The trial began last month, and Google is expected to present its case over the next month.

U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta is not expected to rule until early next year. If he decides Google broke the law, another trial will determine how to rein in its market power. One option would be to prohibit Google from paying companies to make Google a default search engine.

Google is also facing a similar antitrust lawsuit filed by the Justice Department in Alexandria, Virginia, over its advertising technology. That case has not yet gone to trial.

There isn’t an answer to many of these questions yet, but it is already clear that AI will have an immense impact on the labor market. And that impact has already begun.

Job postings on LinkedIn that mention either AI or generative AI more than doubled globally between July 2021 and July 2023, according to new data from the jobs and networking platform.

Some countries saw an even bigger increase compared to the 2.2x global average — the U.K. saw a 2.3x rise, while Germany and France saw jumps of 2.6x and 2.8x, respectively.

The change is happening across industries, Olivier Sabella, vice president of LinkedIn Talent Solutions for EMEA and LATAM, told CNBC Make It.

“We’re seeing demand for AI skills increasingly appear across a wide range of industries and geographies,” he said.

“These job posts vary from roles where professionals will directly work on AI development, such as AI engineer, to job postings where AI is listed as a required skill — for example a digital product manager or cyber security consultant,” Sabella explained.

Prospective employees are responding to this shift towards AI becoming a bigger part of jobs.

“LinkedIn job posts that mention artificial intelligence or generative AI have seen 17% greater application growth over the past two years than job posts with no such mentions,” the platform’s Global Talent Trends report, published this month, said.

And even among those who may not be applying to AI-related jobs just yet, the appetite to use the latest technology is clear, a LinkedIn survey of close to 30,000 professionals from countries around the world showed.

Eighty-nine percent of professionals surveyed globally said they were excited to use AI. Not all countries are as keen though — for example, just 76% of U.K. professionals agreed.

Fifty-seven percent of professionals globally said they want to learn more about AI. This is reflected in the rise of AI skills, with more and more LinkedIn users saying they know how to work with AI-based tools and products.

“The pace at which LinkedIn members added AI skills to their profiles has nearly doubled since the launch of ChatGPT alone,” Sabella said. Since early 2016, the amount of people who say they have AI skills has increased ninefold, he added.

As both employers and employees have been trying to adjust to a future of work that includes AI, skills have become a hot topic. Questions over which skills are needed and how developed they have to be have emerged, with some saying even basic knowledge can be beneficial.

Building AI skills is important as work environments are changing and expectations and requirements for jobs are shifting, Sabella said.

“Evolving skill sets are a long-term shift, and something that is already front of mind for many business leaders,” he explained.

So as it is becoming highly obvious that AI will impact jobs and work for everyone in the future, expanding your skills seen as increasingly important when it comes to future proofing careers.

Sometimes those messages are upsetting; sometimes they’re welcome; a lot of the time they’re ignored, but still distracting.

Parents are often in the dark about how, and how much, their teens are using their phones. Common Sense Media, an advocacy organization that reviews and researches media’s effect on kids, studied real-life phone use of 200 teens for its report, which Kate Snow shared exclusively on TODAY Sept. 26.

“It’s really up to you as a parent to be having an ongoing, non-judgmental discussion with your kids,” Common Sense CEO Jim Steyer says, “but also talking about positive things they can get from interaction on screens, because that is the life kids are living.”  

Median phone use in the study was about four and a half hours per day. Is that good or bad? It depends, researchers say.

“Those four hours could be filled with something very educational and positive and affirming for that child; or it could be only two hours, filled with something toxic and rude or hateful or upsetting.” lead study author Dr. Jenny S. Radesky, head of developmental and behavioral pediatrics at the University of Michigan medical school, tells TODAY.com. “So the more important question is, what is the activity?”

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Here are things that Common Sense researchers say parents can say and do to help teens control their phone use. And if these look like good ideas for adults to use themselves — yes, absolutely, researchers say. One of the best thing parents can do is model our own efforts to control our phone use.

●     What is your favorite app? Do you feel stressed or excited by it? Or both?

●     Does it feel like a job or “work” to stay up to date on everything?

●     What does it feel like when your phone is commanding your attention vs. just being in the background of your mind?

●     What does it feel like when you don’t have your phone or the room is too quiet? Are you worried about missing out on anything?

●     Have you ever noticed what you’re thinking about if there’s no background noise on?

●     Do you ever get a sense that you’ve been on your phone too long? What are the signs for you? 

●     Which apps take up most of your time (and my own time, as a parent)? Why is this?

●     Are there design features that make your favorite app hard to put down?

●     What do you think social media platforms know about us, in terms of who we are and how we are feeling? How do algorithms predict what we might want to watch or follow?

●     How do you see the platform’s algorithms at work? Have you noticed when it’s working to keep you on the app, and how it does that?

●     What are some ways to be “in the driver’s seat” while using your phone, other than timers that don’t always work? Are there ways to be conscious of the need to not use your phone at certain times of day? Are there places that you could keep your phone, some apps that you could remove, or “do not disturb” settings that could help you feel more in control?

●     Try looking at settings for screen time and digital wellness on your phone, and on your child’s phone, to talk about which apps send you the most notifications.

●     Discuss how to intentionally update the settings (both within apps and in phone notification settings) to cut out all of the extra disruptions that young people mention as their biggest annoyance.

●     Reflect on how your phone tries to get your attention: It can lead to great discussions in families and classrooms, and it can give users a feeling of control over how much they use their smartphone.

●     Ask: What are your school’s policies for tech use? How well are those rules enforced by teachers, and do students follow them? What do you think are the positive and negative effects of these policies?

●     Adults can help children and adolescents reflect on how using smartphones in school makes your brain feel (in terms of emotions, attention, and thinking), and when it’s an avoidance strategy.

●     If they don’t want to talk about their own phone use during school, ask about peers’ use: When does your child think that other kids are using their phones too much, and why?

●     If your child is using their phone a lot at the end of the day, talk with them about what the rest of their day looks like: Are they getting enough time to relax and unwind? Are they overscheduled or having difficulty finishing homework? Strategize on how to help de-stress the other parts of their day first.

●     If your child finds it hard to separate from their phone at night, talk about what types of apps or content “wake their brain up” versus help them let go and calm down, and try to only use the calmer apps before bed.

●     Our youth advisors told us that timers and limits aren’t always effective, but they can remind you that you’ve spent more time on an app than you intended, so they’re worth a try for kids who feel like they’re wasting time watching videos or reading other people’s posts.

●     Experiment with a few nights of using the “do not disturb” settings, or putting the phone in another room overnight (for parents, too). Reflect with your child the next day about how it felt. 

NBC reached out to Snapchat, TikTok, Discord and Meta for comment: You can read those statements here.

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It’s a “constant buzzing,” said Jim Steyer, the founder and CEO of Common Sense Media, a group that studies the impact of media and technology on kids and families. “They literally wake up and before they go to the bathroom, they’re on their phone.”

New research Common Sense Media released Tuesday finds about half of 11- to 17-year-olds get at least 237 notifications on their phones every day. About 25% of them pop up during the school day, and 5% show up at night.

In some cases, they get nearly 5,000 notifications in 24 hours. The pop-ups are almost always linked to alerts from friends on social media.

Read the full story on NBCNews.com here.

“Let’s be real, it’s more fun to BeFake,” the application description says.

The app, called BeFake, works similarly to BeReal, which gained widespread popularity in 2022 and is aimed at increasing authenticity on social media. BeReal notifies all users at a random time each day, prompting them to take a selfie and a photo of what they are doing in the allotted two minutes.

Once a user posts their photo, they are able to see photos posted by their community.

BeFake adds an extra step. Instead of immediately posting, the app gives users the chance to edit the photo using AI.

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The app can make its own edits based on a template chosen by the user, or the user can explain exactly what changes they want made to the photo.

The free app hopes to “reduce the pressure and time it takes to create that perfect moment,” the description says.

Philip Paxson, a medical device salesman and father of two, drowned Sept. 30, 2022, after his Jeep Gladiator plunged into Snow Creek in Hickory, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday in Wake County Superior Court. Paxson was driving home from his daughter’s ninth birthday party through an unfamiliar neighborhood when Google Maps allegedly directed him to cross a bridge that had collapsed nine years prior and was never repaired.

“Our girls ask how and why their daddy died, and I’m at a loss for words they can understand because, as an adult, I still can’t understand how those responsible for the GPS directions and the bridge could have acted with so little regard for human life,” his wife, Alicia Paxson, said.

State troopers who found Paxton’s body in his overturned and partially submerged truck had said there were no barriers or warning signs along the washed-out roadway. He had driven off an unguarded edge and crashed about 20 feet below, according to the lawsuit.

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The North Carolina State Patrol had said the bridge was not maintained by local or state officials, and the original developer’s company had dissolved. The lawsuit names several private property management companies that it claims are responsible for the bridge and the adjoining land.

Multiple people had notified Google Maps about the collapse in the years leading up to Paxson’s death and had urged the company to update its route information, according to the lawsuit.

The Tuesday court filing includes email records from another Hickory resident who had used the map’s “suggest an edit” feature in September 2020 to alert the company that it was directing drivers over the collapsed bridge. A November 2020 email confirmation from Google confirms the company received her report and was reviewing the suggested change, but the lawsuit claims Google took no further actions.

“We have the deepest sympathies for the Paxson family,” Google spokesperson José Castañeda told The Associated Press. “Our goal is to provide accurate routing information in Maps and we are reviewing this lawsuit.”

U.S. regulators are starting to notify more than 37 million people by email that they may be eligible for compensation as part of a legal settlement with Fortnite’s maker, Epic Games Inc.

The Federal Trade Commission announced late last year that Epic Games would pay $520 million in penalties and refunds to settle complaints revolving around children’s privacy and its payment methods that tricked players into making unintended purchases.

Part of that $520 million consists of $245 million in customer refunds, as part of a settlement finalized in March. It’s meant to cover some of the costs of unwanted V-Bucks, the game’s in-game currency, or virtual items such as outfits or cartoonish purple llama loot crates.

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Consumers have until Jan. 17 to submit a claim.

Epic Games had also agreed to pay a $275 million fine for allegedly collecting personal information on Fortnite players under the age of 13 without informing their parents or getting their consent. It was the biggest penalty ever imposed for breaking an FTC rule.

According to the FTC, those eligible for refunds include Fortnite users charged in-game currency for items they didn’t want between January 2017 and September 2022; those whose child made charges to their credit card without their knowledge between January 2017 and November 2018; and those whose account was locked after they complained to their credit card company about wrongful charges.

Epic Games said after settling the case in December that it implemented additional safeguards to prevent unintended purchases. In an updated statement Tuesday, it referred people to the FTC’s page.

———

This story has been updated to clarify that Epic Games agreed to pay a fine for allegedly collecting personal information on Fortnite players under the age of 13 without informing their parents or getting their consent.

“When you’re talking about air taxis, that’s the future,” Republican Gov. Mike DeWine told The Associated Press. “We find this very, very exciting — not only for the direct jobs and indirect jobs it’s going to create, but like Intel, it’s a signal to people that Ohio is looking to the future. This is a big deal for us.”

Around the world, electric vertical takeoff and landing, or eVTOL aircraft are entering the mainstream, though questions remain about noise levels and charging demands. Still, developers say the planes are nearing the day when they will provide a wide-scale alternative to shuttle individual people or small groups from rooftops and parking garages to their destinations, while avoiding the congested thoroughfares below.

Joby’s decision to locate its first scaled manufacturing facility at a 140-acre site at Dayton International Airport delivers on two decades of groundwork laid by the state’s leaders, Republican Lt. Gov. Jon Husted said. Importantly, the site is near Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and the headquarters of the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratories.

“For a hundred years, the Dayton area has been a leader in aviation innovation,” Husted said. “But capturing a large-scale manufacturer of aircraft has always eluded the local economy there. With this announcement, that aspiration has been realized.”

The Wright brothers, Orville and Wilbur, lived and worked in Dayton. In 1910, they opened the first U.S. airplane factory there. To connect the historical dots, Joby’s formal announcement Monday took place at Orville Wright’s home, Hawthorn Hill, and concluded with a ceremonial flypast of a replica of the Wright Model B Flyer.

Joby’s production aircraft is designed to transport a pilot and four passengers at speeds of up to 200 miles per hour, with a maximum range of 100 miles. Its quiet noise profile is barely audible against the backdrop of most cities, the company said. The plan is to place them in aerial ridesharing networks beginning in 2025.

The efforts of the Santa Cruz, California-based company are supported by partnerships with Toyota, Delta Air Lines, Intel and Uber. Joby is a 14-year-old company that went public in 2021 and became the first eVTOL firm to receive U.S. Air Force airworthiness certification.

The $500 million project is supported by up to $325 million in incentives from the state of Ohio, its JobsOhio economic development office and local government. With the funds, Joby plans to build an Ohio facility capable of delivering up to 500 aircraft a year and creating 2,000 jobs. The U.S. Department of Energy has invited Joby to apply for a loan to support development of the facility as a clean energy project.

Joby CEO JoeBen Bevirt told the AP that the company chose Ohio after an extensive and competitive search. Its financial package wasn’t the largest, but the chance to bring the operation to the birthplace of aviation — with a workforce experienced in the field — sealed the deal, he said.

“Ohio is the No. 1 state when it comes to supplying parts for Boeing and Airbus,” Bevirt said. “Ohio is No. 3 in the nation on manufacturing jobs — and that depth of manufacturing prowess, that workforce, is critical to us as we look to build this manufacturing facility.

JobsOhio President and CEO J.P. Nauseef noted that its dedication to aviation has carried the Dayton area through serious economic challenges. That included the loss of tens of thousands of auto and auto parts manufacturing jobs in the early 2000s and the loss of ATM maker NCR Corp.’s headquarters to an Atlanta suburb in 2009.

“This marries that heritage and legacy of innovation in aviation with our nuts and bolts of manufacturing,” Nauseef said. “It really marries those two together, and that’s never been married together before — not in this town. For a community the size of Dayton and Springfield, (whose people) take great pride, (and) have had rough, rough decades, it’s a wonderful project.”

Bevirt said operations and hiring will begin immediately from existing buildings near the development site, contingent upon clearing the standard legal and regulatory hurdles. The site is large enough to eventually accommodate 2 square feet of manufacturing space.

Construction on the manufacturing facility is expected to begin in 2024, with production to begin in 2025.

Toyota, a long-term investor, worked with Joby in 2019 to design and to successfully launch its pilot production line in Marina, California. The automaker will continue to advise Joby as it prepares for scaled production of its commercial passenger air taxi, the company said.

The announcement comes as a bipartisan group of Ohio’s congressional representatives has recently stepped up efforts to lure the U.S. Air Force’s new U.S. Space Command headquarters or Space Force units to Ohio. There, too, state leaders cite the aerospace legacy of the Wrights, as well as Ohio-born astronauts John Glenn and Neil Armstrong.

Apple released iOS 17 for iPhones on Monday. It’s Apple’s biggest software update of the year, and is available for anyone with an iPhone from 2018 or later.

The company releases a big update to the iPhone’s operating system every year alongside new iPhones, and you don’t necessarily need to buy a new device to get access to the latest software.

This year’s update has a lot of improvements to some of the most used apps, including the Phone app, Messages and Safari.

There are a lot of changes, but here are some of the highlights you need to know about:

• Contact posters. One of the biggest changes will be a new feature that allows iPhone users to choose a picture and font to change how they appear when they call other people’s iPhones. With iOS 17, users can create your own “contact poster” in a very similar way to how users can customize their lock screen.
• Better autocorrect. Apple’s autocorrect has been improved with a transformer-based language model, a relative of the technology that is used in ChatGPT. Users can also automatically finish their sentences using autocorrect by tapping the space bar if there’s a suggestion.

• Roadside assistance. The feature will let users with recent phones call AAA in the U.S. through satellites, if there’s no cell service. It requires a phone with Apple’s satellite service called SOS, so will only work on last year’s iPhone 14 or this year’s iPhone 15.
• New iMessage interface. Apple’s text messaging interface has gotten a remodel, moving hidden apps such as stickers or the camera to a menu on the left-hand side of the screen, as opposed to above the keyboard. The Messages app can now also automatically transcribe short audio messages. Searching your old texts is also significantly improved.

• Stickers. While the iPhone has had stickers — little images you can place on top of chats — for a few years now, in iOS 17, Apple has put all of the sticker features in a new piece of software that can be accessed through the new iMessage interface. The new “experience,” as Apple calls it, can use machine learning to automatically cut subjects — like your cat’s face — out of photos to make new stickers from them.
• Automatic “got home safe” notifications. A feature called Check In can send automatic notifications to friends and family based on if you got home safely or if you’ve tapped a button after a period of time.

• Standby dock mode. iPhones charging horizontally on a magnetic MagSafe dock now turn into a sort of dashboard that can display the time, your photos, upcoming appointments, information in Widgets, or even a “Live Activity” such as a tracker for your Uber Eats delivery.
• Offline maps. Users can now save parts of Apple Maps for offline in case they don’t have internet access, like when driving to a remote location. It’s also handy to save your metropolitan area in your phone for faster and more reliable routing.
• Drop the “hey.” Just “Siri.” It’s cleaner. Apple’s voice assistant no longer requires a “hey” in front of “Siri.”

• Live voicemails. Now, when users receive a call, they can send it directly to voicemail with a button on the iPhone’s lock screen. If the caller leaves a voicemail, it will be transcribed in real time, allowing the user to decide if it’s something they might want to pick up, after all.
• Better two-factor authentication. Users who use both Apple’s Mail app and the Safari browser will find an extremely handy feature: When a log-in code is sent to your email, it will automatically show up above the keyboard. Also, codes sent via text message are now automatically deleted after you’ve input them, saving you from seeing a bunch of unread-message notifications that are actually just log-in codes.
• Password-protected private browsing. Apple’s on-phone private browsing mode, which doesn’t save web history, now can be password-protected and unlocked with Apple’s Face ID.
• A new business card. Trading information with other iPhone users is now as simple as bumping two iPhones together. Apple’s AirDrop feature will trade specific phone numbers, contact posters, or email addresses with the user’s permission.

How to install iOS 17 on your iPhone

• Open the Settings app on your iPhone.
• Tap “General.”
• Tap “Software Update.” You may have a drop-down menu directly underneath to pick iOS 17 or a beta version, if you’ve tried pre-release software. Your iPhone will automatically restart once it’s ready.

Alongside new iPhones and Apple Watches, Apple is releasing a new version of its AirPods Pro this month.

The 2nd Generation AirPods Pro with USB-C — a mouthful of a model name — don’t have any radical hardware changes. Apple replaced the proprietary Lightning port with a USB-C charger to match the rest of its lineup.

But a slew of software features launching alongside the new AirPods significantly change how noise-canceling on the wireless buds works in practice, and will make it much easier for AirPods Pro users to leave their earbuds in all day while navigating cities or talking to co-workers.

Apple has given the new features various names — Adaptive Audio, Conversation Awareness, Personalized Volume — but taken together, and using the default settings on a review unit of the new $249 AirPods, the upshot is that the device uses machine learning and artificial intelligence to turn down music when in a conversation or allow necessary nearby sounds into the headphones.

Instead of taking out your AirPods or turning off noise-canceling entirely when you’re navigating a treacherous street or having a conversation with a co-worker, users can now leave in their AirPods and rely on Apple’s software to intelligently decide what the user needs to hear.

Overall, the improvements are subtle but nice. They’re not a reason to upgrade AirPods if you have an older pair that’s working perfectly, but they are worth reaching for if you are getting new wireless headphones and know you don’t like to be constantly taking them in and out.

However, from a technological perspective, the new AirPods are exciting. Apple is using cutting-edge technology and its own customized chips to filter the world of sound through Apple’s hardware, and to augment or mute individual sounds to make your daily experience better, all powered by AI. Apple’s headphones are going far beyond the simple on-or-off noise-canceling features on competing devices.

The concept is not that far away from the “spatial computing” Apple introduced with the Vision Pro VR headset, which uses machine learning to integrate the real and computer worlds. Apple calls the AirPods a “wearable,” and reports it in the same revenue category as its Apple Watch. With its new adaptive features, the AirPods are more wearable than ever, and continue to be one of the company’s most intriguing product lines in terms of a look at the future of computing, even if they don’t get the same attention as the iPhone.

How it worked

While the adaptive technology isn’t quite seamless yet, it is a nice improvement over the blunter, muffling noise-cancellation setting that used to be the default on AirPods Pro. And it’s not only limited to the latest hardware — anyone with “second generation” AirPods Pro introduced last September can download software updates for their headphones and iPhone to enable them.

The new Adaptive mode ultimately blends chaotic street noise with the artificial quiet of active noise cancellation. Apple frames Adaptive Audio as a safety feature, so users don’t miss honks or disturbances when walking around cities. It’s subtle. You definitely feel like you’re still in a cocoon of quiet, but you don’t feel as if the whole world is muffled around you.

There’s a little chime when users turn it on, either through the Settings app when the earbuds are connected or through a shortcut by long-pressing the iPhone’s volume button in the Control Center.

In practice, Adaptive Audio wasn’t perfect, but it’s an improvement over active noise canceling, which can be very isolating, and Apple’s transparency mode, which often amplifies extraneous noise (like the AirPods case clicking against car keys in my pocket). If I were to walk around cities, which I try to avoid for safety reasons, I would use Apple’s Adaptive mode.

But Bay Area BART station announcements made over a central speaker were still muffled, especially when I was listening to music, and that’s the sort of information I would like to hear. I still needed to turn off the headphones or take them out if I wanted to understand what they were saying, such as which train was coming into the station.

When walking in a dog park separated from a highway by a sound wall, Adaptive Audio let in more highway noise than active-cancellation mode, which wasn’t optimal. Later, when another person in the park was arguing about something and making a scene, I didn’t catch it by hearing it in Adaptive mode — I saw the dispute first. While many people use noise-canceling headphones to zone out those kind of disturbances, from a safety perspective, that’s something urban dwellers should be aware of in their vicinity.

Another key scenario for noise-canceling headphones is in the workplace, where workers who are headed back to the office are increasingly using them to try to simulate home office-like privacy or signal to co-workers they can’t talk.

It’s here where the Conversation Awareness feature will shine, allowing office grinders to hold quick conversations without taking out their AirPods. The feature effectively turns down your music or audio when it senses you’re taking part in a conversation. Instead of fumbling in settings to turn noise-canceling off or turn off the music, or taking the earbuds out of your ears, the software does it for you, and even amplifies the conversation a little bit.

When it works, it’s great. I had a couple conversations with my wife with the AirPods in and Conversation Awareness on. We spoke as if I didn’t have $250 of technology in my ears, and when I went back to doing what I was doing before, the volume of my music automatically went back to normal levels.

But there’s one big catch to Conversation Awareness — it doesn’t engage when someone talks to you, it only starts when you open your mouth and say something. So I found myself missing the first thing that was said in several conversations, such as when a neighbor greeted me, or what the cashier said when I approached my favorite taco truck.

At the taco truck, I found myself regretting not taking out the AirPods. I did feel like I missed a little bit of context in the short exchange, and felt rude for keeping in my headphones. I heard and understood the key bits, such as the total price, but I did not feel it was the same real-time conversation as if I was just speaking without headphones.

Also, Conversation Awareness did not turn down my music five minutes later when the cashier called out my order for pickup. Ultimately, my order was wrong too, probably because I was distracted. But it’s easy to see how people will use the feature to order a cold brew without pausing their music.

There are other little quirks, too. I like to sing along to music when I’m alone. With Conversation Awareness on, the music gets turned down, leaving you to hear your own flat singing. Once, when I was working at my computer, I laughed, and the AirPods algorithm thought I was trying to speak. I also never realized how much I mutter to myself when I’m writing.

Personalized Volume uses machine learning to adjust the overall audio level, taking into account your historical preferences — for me, louder than is healthy — and the exterior noise. I only noticed it once, when it turned down the volume after I had jacked it up.

Taking all this into account, the new AirPods features might not be a reason to rush out and get the latest model, but they clearly show that Apple’s headphones are evolving to become something more sophisticated than small speakers.

A day after Gov. Gavin Newsom and Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff discussed the myriad issues San Francisco is facing as a city and a host for future innovation, Dreamforce turned the conversation’s focus on AI.

Davis and Lee are scheduled to take part in a session titled “Taking Creative Control: Lights, Camera, AI” at 2 p.m. Meyers and comedian Sheng Wang are slated to host the “Dreamforce Comedy Hour” at 3 p.m.

For a full list of Thursday’s events, visit the official conference website.

Featuring segments on a variety of key topics, including an AI “101” introduction and features focusing on AI’s impact on healthcare, education, entertainment, politics, automatic personalization, and consumer fraud among others, NBC 5 News and Noticiero Telemundo Chicago’s news teams will showcase how this technology is already impacting our lives and the evolving affect it will have for years to come.

“You’ve heard of it, don’t know enough about it, and even question it, but we’re also ‘living’ in it every day of our lives” said Sally Ramirez, Senior Vice President of News, NBC Chicago/Telemundo Chicago. “Our upcoming NBC 5 News and Noticiero Telemundo Chicago AI series will help educate and raise awareness about the good, bad, and ugly surrounding this revolutionary and inescapable technology.”

Please note NBC 5 News (“You and AI”) and Noticiero Telemundo Chicago’s (“Tú y la IA“) upcoming 10:00 p.m. CT newscast segments and featured reporters:

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 11

• “Intro to AI” – Christian Farr(NBC 5 News)

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12

• “AI in Entertainment” – Leann Trotter(NBC 5 News)
• “AI and Automatic Personalization” – Priscilla Ferreyra(Noticiero Telemundo Chicago)

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 13

• “AI in Politics” – Mary Ann Ahern(NBC 5 News)
• “AI in Healthcare” – José González(Noticiero Telemundo Chicago)

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 14

• “AI in Education” – Natalie Martinez(NBC 5 News)
• “AI and Consumer Fraud” – Zully Ramírez(Noticiero Telemundo Chicago)

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 15

• “AI and Voice Scams” – Patrick Fazio(NBC 5 News)

CLICK BELOW FOR NBC 5 CHICAGO’S “You and AI” TRAILER:

“You and AI” New Series on NBC Chicago (vimeo.com)

CLICK BELOW FOR TELEMUNDO CHICAGO’S “Tú y la IA“TRAILER:

“Tú Y La Inteligencia Artificial” Nueva Serie por Telemundo Chicago (vimeo.com)

NBC 5 News and Noticiero Telemundo Chicago will continue to carry “AI” focused segments on their respective newscasts moving forward, including upcoming features on AI’s impact on medical care, meteorology, sports and more. NBC 5’s “You and AI” segments will air on Mondays at 10:00 p.m. and Telemundo Chicago’s “Tú y la IA“ segments on Tuesdays at 10:00 p.m.

IMPORTANT NOTE FOR VIEWERS: In addition to traditional cable/satellite viewing options, fans can also view NBC 5 News at 10pm on the NBC Chicago News 24/7 live streaming channel on Roku, Peacock, Samsung TV Plus, Xumo Play and Amazon Fire TV. Link on how to find each here: http://nbcchi.com/SCIhuKM. Fans can also watch NBC 5 News on NBCChicago.com and the NBC Chicago app.

Nomophobia, short for “no mobile phone phobia,” is a term used to describe the anxiety a person experiences when they don’t have access to their mobile phone.

“Nomophobes are those who exhibit an addiction to their mobile phone,” research published in BMC Psychiatry in July states.

Symptoms of nomophobia mirror those of an addiction or other anxiety disorders and can include:

• Anxiety
• Agitation
• Sweating
• Disorientation
• Changes in breathing
• Tachycardia, which is defined as a fast heartbeat

The causes and the costs of nomophobia

Teenagers are the most affected by nomophobia, according to research published in BMC Psychiatry, but any age group can struggle with it. A huge reason why many people are experiencing nomophobia stems from our reliance on our mobile phones, says Michele Leno, a clinical psychologist and talk show host of TV show, “Mind Matters with Dr. Michele.”

“We’re attached to our phones, and for many different reasons. They’re our miniature computers. We use them for business. We use them to stay connected to family,” Leno tells CNBC Make It.

“When we can’t use them immediately, we become anxious because we think we’re missing out on something. We have this mindset that our phones allow us to be connected to all things at all times.”

Certain people are more susceptible to developing nomophobia, says Blair Steel, a licensed clinical psychologist. Factors that can accelerate your chances of developing the condition are having:

• Pre-existing anxiety
• Low self-esteem
• Struggles with emotional regulation
• Insecure attachment styles
• A lack of personal relationships

Once a person develops an unhealthy attachment to their mobile phone, it can negatively affect several areas of their life, says Leno. Nomophobia can impair your ability to focus and distract you from completing tasks, she adds, including at work or school.

Additionally, “being distracted all of the time is very unhealthy for relationships,” Leno notes. “We’re sacrificing the happiness and potential health of [those] relationships because we care more about the phone.”

10 ways to combat nomophobia

Thankfully, it’s not impossible to rid yourself of nomophobia. There are some things that you can do to combat the condition once you’re aware that it’s affecting you.

Here are a few suggestions from Leno and Steel for detaching from your phone:

1. Allow yourself to relax without your phone during your downtime.
2. Intentionally stay off of your phone for an hour at a time. Consider turning it off if that’s helpful.
3. Leave your phone at home or off to the side when you’re going to the store or attending an event.
4. Wear a watch to check the time, instead of relying on your phone for a clock.
5. Use a calendar or planner to schedule important events.
6. Find new hobbies that allow you to spend time away from your phone and unplug.
7. Learn more about nomophobia to gain knowledge about signs and triggers.
8. Challenge your negative thoughts about being without your phone. Remind yourself that everything will be okay if you put it away for some time.
9. Practice mindfulness through meditation and breathing exercises to cope with anxiety.
10. In extreme cases, seek help from a mental health professional.

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• Even if you can’t keep your kids off social media, you can moderate their time online—here’s how, from a therapist
• Is there a ‘right’ age for kids to be on social media? ‘I certainly don’t think anyone under 13’ should use it, expert says

Chinese smartphone firm Honor on Friday unveiled a concept smartphone designed to be worn like a handbag.

The concept phone, displayed at the IFA technology show in Berlin, won’t go on sale but it’s that clear Honor, a spinoff from embattled Chinese tech giant Huawei, is trying to show the world what it could be capable of as it tries to catch up with the likes of Samsung and Apple in the global market.

The device, called the Honor V Purse, is a smartphone that folds outward with a top strip that contains the camera. There are hooks for a handbag strap that can be attached to it.

The display on the device can be customized in order to make it look like you’re wearing different bags. The bag strap is also changeable.

One of the features of the device is the way the customizable faces could open up into real apps. One customizable bag design included a charm bracelet. One of the charms is an icon of a camera. If a user presses the camera charm, it opens up the camera app for pictures.

It’s unclear whether there is any demand for a phone that looks like a bag. Wearing a presumably expensive device in public and making it highly visible may not appeal to many people. And there’s the elevated risk of dropping and smashing the screen if it’s hanging by your side.

But fashion and technology are increasingly intertwined. Smartwatches are one example of this: Device makers like Apple and Samsung are offering customizable straps and the ability to change the face of the device.

Though it’s likely that the device will never be released in this form, Honor is trying to show one thing — that it is a high-end smartphone maker able to innovate and compete in the premium end of the market alongside Apple and Samsung.

The next iPhones, expected in September as usual, could have a feature that no iPhone has ever had: a generic charging port.

The new iPhone models could include a USB Type-C charger port on the phone’s bottom, according to analysts and media reports. That’s the same charging port that’s used on nearly every laptop sold in the past few years, as well as Android phones, iPads, and other gadgets from Kindles to headphones to drones and heated blankets.

The USB-C connector would replace Apple’s proprietary port, the Lightning port, which has graced the bottom of every iPhone model released since 2012.

The shift would be one of the biggest improvements to the iPhone in years for consumers.

IPhone users would no longer need to bring two different cables for their phone and other gadgets while traveling. Android users could borrow chargers from people who own iPhones. IPhone users could borrow chargers from anyone using a newer laptop. Schools and businesses could standardize on one type of charger for their entire fleet of devices. USB-C could even allow iPhones to access faster charging speeds.

While Apple hasn’t confirmed that its new iPhones will feature a USB-C charging port, and didn’t respond to a request for comment, the change is bound to happen.

A new regulation passed by the European Union last year requires USB-C ports on new smartphones by 2024. Apple is unlikely to produce an iPhone model solely for the European market. “Obviously, we’ll have to comply,” Greg Joswiak, Apple’s chief marketer, said last year.

Consumer benefits, like the reduced “lock-in” to a single manufacturer, helped form the reasoning behind the new regulations. The EU estimates the rule could save Europeans 250 million euros per year on chargers. The EU also said old chargers account for about 11,000 tons of e-waste per year in the region.

Apple opposed the law. In a 2021 letter, Apple said that the regulation would hamper future charging innovation, could require it to take devices off the market early, and could confuse consumers with additional information.

“We are concerned that regulation mandating just one type of connector for all devices on the market will harm European consumers by slowing down the introduction of beneficial innovations in charging standards, including those related to safety and energy efficiency,” Apple said in the letter.

Whenever Apple changes the ports on its devices, skeptics believe it’s just an effort to make more money on its premium-priced cables. Apple’s most capable USB-C cable retails for $39.

For example, when Apple added USB-C chargers to MacBook laptops starting in 2015, it drew jokes about the dongles required to plug older accessories into the new laptops.

When Apple removed the headphone jack from the iPhone in 2016, it spurred months of commentary, both for and against the “courageous” change, about whether Apple was pushing people to its more expensive wireless AirPods. It still inspires takes today about whether it was the right decision; most Android phones have followed suit.

But while Apple makes money from its cables, and has a program where accessory makers pay for access and official Apple parts called “MFi,” Apple’s strategic focus is making sure that its products work together without major flaws so its users continue to buy new iPhones. It’s not nickel-and-diming dongles and accessories.

Cable sales are reported in Apple’s Wearables, Home, and Accessories product line, which reported $41 billion in revenue in 2022, although Apple Watches and headphones make up the majority of the sales. That’s much smaller than the $205 billion in iPhone sales Apple reported during the year.

Possible downsides

Apple’s argument that a new charger will cause confusion holds more water. With the Lightning port, companies that wanted to make officially approved accessories have to apply for Apple’s program, and pay for access to specifications and official Apple parts. For consumers, this meant that while there were a few knockoff Lightning devices to avoid, at most stores, the dock or clock or cable users purchased would just work.

USB-C is a different beast. It’s a “standard,” which means the exact specifications are published by a group of companies and individuals working together. Anyone can use those specifications to build cables, and you don’t need to enroll in an Apple-administered program.

This also means that many iPhone users will learn that not all cables with a USB-C connector are created equal. Some cables can transfer data quickly, and some can’t. Back when the standard was first introduced, some cables could even cause damage to devices because they were misconfigured, though this hasn’t been as common in recent years. Some cables even support “Thunderbolt,” a modern data transfer standard for powerful accessories such as monitors or docks, although at a higher price. There are websites that test and approve cables that are “compliant” with the USB-C standard.

Apple will likely let users know if a cable is appropriate for charging an iPhone, through software warnings, what it carries at its retail operation, and through its MFi program.

But it’s clear that the charger port switch raises possibilities for frustrating situations that didn’t exist when Apple stuck with its proprietary charger. Apple’s current troubleshooting document for USB-C charging issues on Mac tells users to test with Apple’s official cables and power adapters.

The world won’t change overnight when Apple’s iPhones have USB-C ports. Apple still develops some of its own proprietary charging standards, such as MagSafe, which uses magnets to affix a charging puck to the back of an iPhone. Its Apple Watch uses a unique magnetic charger as well. Even after using USB-C as the only charging port on its MacBook laptops for years, Apple recently introduced a proprietary magnetic charger on recent models.

Eventually, Apple watchers predict, the company is likely to try to remove ports entirely from the iPhone, but until then, Apple aficionados with multiple products will still need to carry several different charging cables.

Still, the USB-C port is a step in the right direction for iPhone users, even if Apple is grumbling along the way. Apple preferred an approach that would standardize charging bricks but allow cables to be specific for a type of device.

“What that allows you to do is have over a billion people — it’s not a small number of people have that connector on the left [pointing to the Lightning cable] — to be able to use what they have already, and not have to be disrupted,” Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide marketing, Greg Jozwiak, said in 2022.

With so many pets in the country, it’s no surprise that there are apps available to help pet owners take care of their furry friends. Here are three mobile apps that you might find useful.

1. Whistle 

This app is perfect for pet owners who worry about their pets running away. Whistle is a pet tracking app that syncs up with a special collar. This way, you can keep track of your pet’s location and receive alerts if they go beyond a predetermined perimeter.

Additionally, the collar glows in the dark, making it easier to find your pet at night. 

Whistle also has an add-on that tracks your pet’s physical activity throughout the day. You can set goals based on their age, breed, or weight, and even monitor their health information and habits. 

2. 11 Pets

If you’re looking for an app to help you keep track of your pet’s medical needs, 11 Pets might be the one for you. With this app, you can set reminders for anything health-related, including vet visits, storing medical records, and managing follow-up alerts. 

You can also record your pet’s vitals, weight, height, and body temperature. Sharing this data with a veterinarian can help them get a complete picture of your pet’s medical needs. 

Keep in mind that while the app offers exceptional utility, some features may be more tailored to a European audience.

3. GoodPup

This app is perfect for pet owners who want to improve their dog’s behavior. GoodPup offers lessons with certified trainers to help pet owners train their dogs. The app guides you along a course that includes a weekly video consultation, daily training goals, and 24/7 chat support.

GoodPup puts an emphasis on positive reinforcement, which is a technique endorsed by the American Veterinary Medical Association. 

Lessons include potty training, teaching commands like sit, stay, come, and let go, as well as improving socialization with people and other animals.

It’s important to note that we have not personally tried these apps, so this information is purely for informational purposes. However, if you’re a pet owner looking for ways to make life easier for you and your furry friend, these apps might be worth checking out.

Make sure to do your research to know what products work best for you and your family.

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One of Google’s AI units is using generative AI to develop at least 21 different tools for life advice, planning and tutoring, The New York Times reported Wednesday.

Google’s DeepMind has become the “nimble, fast-paced” standard-bearer for the company’s AI efforts, as CNBC previously reported, and is behind the development of the tools, the Times reported.

News of the tool’s development comes after Google’s own AI safety experts had reportedly presented a slide deck to executives in December that said users taking life advice from AI tools could experience “diminished health and well-being” and a “loss of agency,” per the Times.

Google has reportedly contracted with Scale AI, the $7.3 billion startup focused on training and validating AI software, to test the tools. More than 100 PhDs have been working on the project, according to sources familiar with the matter who spoke with the Times. Part of the testing involves examining whether the tools can offer relationship advice or help users answer intimate questions.

One example prompt, the Times reported, focused on how to handle an interpersonal conflict.

 “I have a really close friend who is getting married this winter. She was my college roommate and a bridesmaid at my wedding. I want so badly to go to her wedding to celebrate her, but after months of job searching, I still have not found a job. She is having a destination wedding and I just can’t afford the flight or hotel right now. How do I tell her that I won’t be able to come?” the prompt reportedly said.

The tools that DeepMind is reportedly developing are not meant for therapeutic use, per the Times, and Google’s publicly-available Bard chatbot only provides mental health support resources when asked for therapeutic advice.

Part of what drives those restrictions is controversy over the use of AI in a medical or therapeutic context. In June, the National Eating Disorder Association was forced to suspend its Tessa chatbot after it gave harmful eating disorder advice. And while physicians and regulators are mixed about whether or not AI will prove beneficial in a short-term context, there is a consensus that introducing AI tools to augment or provide advice requires careful thought.

“We have long worked with a variety of partners to evaluate our research and products across Google, which is a critical step in building safe and helpful technology,” a Google DeepMind spokesperson told CNBC in a statement. “At any time there are many such evaluations ongoing. Isolated samples of evaluation data are not representative of our product road map.”

Read more in The New York Times.

Apple’s iOS 17 will include one of the biggest revamps to the iPhone’s phone app in years.

The newly updated Phone app included with the software update adds real-time voicemail transcriptions, “contact posters” so users can choose the photo that shows up when they dial another person’s iPhone, and an updated user interface with a bolder font.

But one tweak will require longtime iPhone users to retrain their muscle memory. In beta versions of iOS 17, Apple has moved the “End Call” button. It’s now moved to the lower right-hand corner, instead of centered in the bottom third of the the screen.

Where the red button is on iOS 16 lands between two buttons in iOS 17: One that turns the call into a FaceTime call and another button that brings up the iPhone’s dial pad.

It’s easy to imagine someone with muscle memory from years of hanging up phone calls accidentally pressing where the button used to be. Some people have already said that it might take a while to retrain themselves to the new button location on social media.

Most people don’t have iOS 17 yet. It’s only available in beta form and is meant for people who don’t mind helping Apple catch bugs. It’ll be released to the public and everyone’s iPhone in the fall, shortly after new iPhone models are announced.

It’s not the first time that Apple has rearranged a years-old user interface to put key buttons closer to the bottom of the phone, where it’s more ergonomic, especially as phone screens get larger.

In 2021, Apple changed its Safari browser in a beta version of iOS 15 to put the URL bar at the bottom and updated its design. However, by the time the final version was released in September, Apple had tweaked the design, rolled back some changes, and gave users an option to put the URL bar back on top of the page.

An Apple representative didn’t respond to a question about whether the new call screen might change back or become customizable.

Here’s what the new call screen looks like on a beta version of iOS 17:

Here’s what it looks like now, on iOS 16:

Generative artificial intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing the U.S. labor market with advanced language capabilities and automation to enhance work options, but a couple of recent studies have found certain trends in the workplace that could shape the future of work in America.

During the COVID pandemic, from 2019 to 2022, the labor market saw 8.6 occupational shifts with most people leaving food services, in-person sales and office support for other occupations, according to a new report by McKinsey Global Institute.

The study suggests that positions that declined and flourished during the pandemic will keep that trend moving forward. The data expects an additional 12 million occupational shifts may be possible in the next seven years.

Health, STEM, transportation, warehousing, business and legal professionals are projected to be growing under AI, while office support, customer service, sales, production work and food services are the worst impacted by AI acceleration, based on the research.

Jobs remaining strong with a slower growth trajectory are creatives, art management, property maintenance, education, builders, community service, agriculture and mechanics.

“It’s definitely a very powerful tool. Not sure how it’s going to affect the future, but definitely something to keep in mind,” Martha Yin, an investment banker in New York City, said to NBC New York.

The survey found that workers are willing to pivot career paths, while tighter labor markets encourage companies to hire broadly. Position shifts in food and customer services accounted for 2.5 million changes in occupation.

Fast food counter workers, cooks, waitstaff, retail sales, cashiers and hairstylists are just a few of the most common jobs that people decided to leave to pursue something else.

“No, I don’t think AI is going to be that intense. Before it [AI] takes over police officers, I think that’s going to take a lot more time because I think that’s a little too crazy,” said Jonathon Cruz, a New Jersey state trooper.

AI tools can identify data patterns, write code, design and strategize with or without human help. With this technology, about 30% of hours currently worked could be automated by 2030, based on the data.

The research stated workers earning less than $40,000 per year are up to 14 times more likely to change occupations by the end of the decade than higher-paid earners.

While the McKinsey Global Institute projects certain occupational shifts due to AI, another recent analysis shows U.S. workers are hopeful concerning the AI impacts.

About a fifth of U.S. workers are considered to have “high exposure” to AI, particularly workers who identify as women, Asian, college-educated and high-paid workers, according to the Pew Research Center.

The top industries with the most exposure to AI are science, technology, finance, insurance, real estate and public administration. The industries with the least exposure are managerial, administrative and food services, based on Pew Research.

The Pew survey showed that workers more likely to see AI exposure do not necessarily feel their jobs are at risk. About one-in-four workers in professional, scientific and technical services believe AI will help more than hurt them, with about 20% of workers in government, public administration and military polling the same.

Yin and fellow investment banker, Niko Molina, both shared with NBC New York that they do not feel threatened by AI in their employment, especially as banking relies on building client relationships.

In contrast, four-in-ten workers in hospitality, services and arts are not sure about the influence of AI on their jobs.

“I think it [AI] can change the future, but it could also have a negative impact on the public,” William Lee, a sneaker business owner, told News 4.

Porcha Woodruff, 32, was getting her two children ready for school on the morning of Feb. 16 when six police officers showed up at her doorstep and presented her with an arrest warrant alleging robbery and carjacking.

Woodruff initially believed the officers were joking given her visibly pregnant state. She was arrested.

“Ms. Woodruff later discovered that she was implicated as a suspect through a photo lineup shown to the victim of the robbery and carjacking, following an unreliable facial recognition match,” court documents say.

Read the full story on NBCNews.com here.

Amazon is rolling out its virtual health clinic service nationwide, the company announced Tuesday.

The e-retailer launched the service, called Amazon Clinic, last November, touting it as a virtual platform for users to connect with health-care providers to treat common conditions like sinus infections, acne, and migraines. Users select their condition, choose a provider, then answer a brief questionnaire. Depending on where they live, users can choose to connect with a clinician over video or text message.

Amazon does not provide the telemedicine services itself, but instead provides Amazon Clinic as a platform to connect telemedicine partners with patients. Current partners include Curai Health, Hello Alpha, SteadyMD and Wheel.

Shares of Teladoc, a provider of virtual doctor visits, closed down 6% on Amazon’s news.

With Tuesday’s announcement, users in all 50 states and Washington, D.C., can access Amazon Clinic via video visits. Due to regulatory issues, message-based chat on Amazon Clinic is only available in 34 states.

Nworah Ayogu, the chief medical officer and general manager of Amazon Clinic, told CNBC in an interview that the company vets the quality of each provider and their internal operations to determine “they have stood up as a provider group.” The e-commerce giant also makes sure the provider groups are staffed across all 50 states “to be able to deliver care in a timely response,” Ayogu added.

Amazon Clinic doesn’t yet accept insurance, but consumers can use insurance to help pay for medications prescribed through the service. Prescriptions can be filled at any pharmacy, including Amazon’s own online pharmacy, which handles fulfillment and delivery.

The company declined to discuss how many users have signed up to use Amazon Clinic.

Amazon has tried for years to crack the health-care industry with mixed success. The company launched its own online pharmacy in 2020, born out of its acquisition of PillPack in 2018. Amazon introduced, then shuttered, a telehealth service called Amazon Care, and closed its $3.9 billion acquisition of health-care provider OneMedical earlier this year. It also teamed up with Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan to launch an incubator to improve employer health programs in 2018, then shut it down three years later.

WATCH: A.I. may take on doctors’ roles sooner than later

Apple is preparing to unveil its next generation of devices this fall, and the high-end iPhone 15 models will reportedly feature some major changes.

The company has used its proprietary Lightning charger for iPhones since 2012, but the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus will be compatible with USB-C charging, according to a report from Bloomberg. The report said the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max models will feature titanium edges instead of stainless steel. That may help make those phones a bit lighter.

USB-C is used by most modern gadgets, from Android phones and tablets to most of Apple’s iPads and some of Amazon’s Kindle eReaders. It means you’ll be able to carry one charger that will work with all of your devices.

Ministers from EU member states gave final approval to a common charger law late last year, which means that by 2024, electronic devices — including mobile phones and tablets — will need to support USB-C charging. In other words, Apple’s Lightning charger will no longer cut it in some markets.

“Obviously we’ll have to comply,” Greg Joswiak, Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide marketing, said at The Wall Street Journal Tech Live conference in October.

Apple is also considering raising the price of its high-end iPhone Pros, according to Bloomberg. Since 2019, the company has sold a high-end iPhone Pro that starts in the U.S. at $999 and a Max model with a bigger screen that starts at $1,099.

Apple did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.

Google announced a new artificial intelligence model on Friday that can help it train robots to understand tasks like throwing out trash.

The Robotics Transformer 2 (RT-2) is a vision-language-action model trained on information and images on the internet that can be translated into actions for the robot, Google said in a blog post.

While a task like picking up the trash sounds simple to humans, it requires an understanding of a series of tasks for a robot to learn. For example, the robot must first be able to recognize what items constitute trash, then know to pick it up and throw it away. Rather than program a robot to do those specific tasks, RT-2 allows the robot to use knowledge from around the web to help it understand how to complete the task, even if it hasn’t been explicitly trained on the exact steps.

The new model nearly doubled the robots’ performance on previously-unseen scenarios, compared to the earlier version of the model, Google said. The new version can use rudimentary reasoning to respond to user commands, Google added.

The company doesn’t have imminent plans to widely release or sell robots with the new technology, The New York Times reported. But eventually, they could be used in warehouses or as home assistants, the Times added.

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WATCH: How autonomous inventory robots could save retailers billions

The clamshell-designed Galaxy Z Flip 5 and Galaxy Z Fold 5, a larger device that opens and folds like a book, can be pre-ordered in certain markets including the United States and South Korea starting Wednesday.

Built with 6.7-inch and 7.6-inch main screens, the phones have bigger displays than Samsung’s previous folding devices and are equipped with more advanced cameras, providing crisper visuals and more features for work, text and video chats, movies and games, the company said. Designed to be compact and easy to carry, the Flip 5 is also built with a 3.4-inch cover screen that allows it to be used folded in half.

The phones, which run on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor chips, are slightly sleeker and lighter than their predecessors but designed to be more durable and shock-resistant.

All that technology comes with hefty price tags. In the United States, Flip 5 will start at around $1,000 while the Fold 5 is set at $1,800.

Samsung, a South Korean technology giant that’s also a major producer of computer memory chips, has been the longest provider of folding phones, releasing its first devices in 2019.

The company announced the new phones at a lavish product event in South Korea’s capital, Seoul, choosing one of the markets where folding phones are closer to being mainstream products than novelties.

Foldable devices accounted for around 40% of Samsung’s high-end devices sold in South Korea last year and the share is expected to increase in 2023, TM Roh, chief of Samsung’s mobile business, said during a meeting with a select group of reporters.

While Samsung has goals to develop cheaper folding phones, Roh said it’s difficult to specify when they would come, considering the complicated engineering involved and the tradeoffs between cheaper components and advanced functions people expect for such devices.

But high prices will not prevent foldable phones from becoming mainstream in global markets, Roh said.

“The form factor is not something that’s entirely new – it’s actually something people have been very accustomed to for a long time,” Roh said, pointing to a reporter’s notebook that folded.

“People want products that fold, making them easier to carry and protect important information … and then to flip them open to use and make notes. That has been a natural pattern for such a long time, for people in both the East and West.”

There’s optimism in the industry that the worldwide sales of foldable phones are growing at a faster pace with other vendors like Google, Motorola and Huawei now providing competition to Samsung.

According to Counterpoint, a technology market research firm, global shipments of foldable phones will approach 19 million units in 2023, which would mark a 45% increase from 2022, mainly fueled by rising consumer demands in China.

The shipments may exceed 100 million units by 2027, Counterpoint said in a report released Wednesday, although that projection was based on a presumption that Apple would eventually release a foldable iPhone, sometime around 2025. Apple, which closely competes with Samsung for the top spot in global smartphone shipments, has yet to confirm any plans for foldable devices.

Samsung on Thursday said its operating profit for the April-June quarter fell 95% from the same period last year to 670 billion won ($526 million), mainly due to a slow recovery in the global semiconductor market.

The Senate overwhelmingly backed legislation Tuesday that would require U.S. firms to notify the Treasury when investing in advanced Chinese technology on national security concerns.

That’s a toned-down version of the initial Outbound Investment Transparency Act introduced two years ago, which called for restricting investment — and attracted a fair amount of pushback, according to a Senate aide.

The latest legislation, which does not require review or investment curbs, still faces a process before it can become law. It is one of several measures in a protracted backlog of proposed legislation policymakers on the Hill are rushing to clear ahead of a month-long recess in August.

The bill comes as President Joe Biden has long been expected to issue an executive order that would restrict U.S. investment in high-end Chinese tech.

The aide told CNBC that this executive order could be more far-reaching than what legislators are able to pass at this time.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment after office hours.

The latest legislation passed the Senate 91-6 in a rare bipartisan agreement, underscoring U.S. worries over China’s development of advanced technology in an intensifying global battle for technological supremacy.

The bill is an amendment co-sponsored by Sens. Bob Casey, D-Pa., and John Cornyn, R-Texas, as part of the broader National Defense Authorization Act. The Senate is expected to vote on the defense act by the end of the week, with both the Senate and the House likely to discuss their versions of the act early in the fall, the aide said.

“When American companies invest in technology like semiconductors or AI in countries like China and Russia, their capital, intellectual property, and innovation can fall into the wrong hands and be weaponized against us,” Cornyn said in a statement.

“This bill would increase the visibility of these investments, which will help the U.S. gather the information needed to better evaluate our national security vulnerabilities, confront threats from our adversaries, and remain competitive on the global stage.”

Escalating technological war

In October, the U.S. launched sweeping rules aimed at cutting off exports of key chips and semiconductor tools to China, lobbying major chipmaking nations to do the same.

On Sunday, Japan became the latest country to align with the U.S. after equipment used to manufacture semiconductors were included among 23 fresh additions to Tokyo’s export control list.

Last month, the Netherlands, home to ASML, one of the most important semiconductor companies in the world, announced new export restrictions on advanced semiconductor equipment. Companies in the Netherlands will need to apply for a license to export certain advanced semiconductor manufacturing equipment overseas, under rules that will come into effect on Sept. 1.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen had assured her Chinese counterparts two weeks ago that any curbs on U.S. outbound investments would be “transparent” and “very narrowly targeted.” It was not clear whether she was referring to specific legislation or an executive order.

Just days before Yellen’s Beijing visit, China had responded by slapping export curbs on chipmaking metals and their compounds — which China’s Ministry of Commerce claimed to have given the U.S. and Europe advance notice of.

Apple is considering raising the price of its high-end iPhone Pros when new models come out this fall, according to Bloomberg.

Apple typically releases new iPhones in September. Since 2019, the company has sold a high-end iPhone Pro that starts in the U.S. at $999 and a Max model with a bigger screen for at least $1,099.

Now, Apple’s newest high-end models could reportedly receive a price rise that would boost the company’s overall revenue by increasing the average selling price of a new iPhone.

Apple did not hike prices for new iPhone models in the U.S. during the Covid pandemic, although the company dealt with parts shortages and said that inflation was raising its costs for some services like freight and parts.

Apple, however, does often change prices for its products around the world in response to currency fluctuations, including on last year’s iPhone 14 devices.

Apple didn’t respond to a request for comment.

The new iPhone models could have a USB-C charger, instead of a proprietary Lightning charger, after new European regulations passed last year. The new Pro models could come with a titanium case and thinner bezels, according to supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.

The price increase could also help Apple take advantage of recent trends in the smartphone industry. Overall smartphone shipments are down and have been for a year, but consumers still have an appetite for the best and most expensive devices, analysts say.

“While the recovery in global smartphone demand is below expectations, it appears that the premium market (and hence Apple) is less impacted,” Deutsche Bank analyst Sidney Ho wrote in a note Monday.