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Ryan Finnie

Court Denies Vizio’s Request To Dismiss Users’ Privacy Lawsuits

We learned back in 2015 that while all smart TVs collect data on your viewing habits, Vizio was going above and beyond, collecting more information than most, and telling you even less about it. As you might expect, loads of folks who owned Vizio TVs were deeply unhappy about this, and sued the company. And now, a judge has denied Vizio’s motion to dismiss that suit, meaning it will indeed have to defend itself in court. [More]

Mike Mozart

AT&T To Start Using DirecTV Now To Test 5G Tech

The future is wireless. At least, so all the wireless companies say. Sure, running actual cables to houses and apartment buildings brought broadband this far, but the always-on, always-streaming future is just going to get more and more mobile. And so the current era of 4G LTE wireless connections will eventually give way to 5G, which promises to be faster, better, and stronger in every way. But before you can use 5G tech, first you have to make it, you know, work. [More]

Pebble

Fitbit Buying Smartwatch Maker Pebble’s Software, Hiring Engineers

Smartwatches and other wearables just haven’t caught on as much as the electronics industry assumed that they would. Pebble — a smartwatch company most famous for pre-selling its products on Kickstarter only to then make sure that Best Buy shoppers got their orders first — has confirmed that it is shutting down and selling off its various assets. You can now count Fitbit among the scavengers picking at Pebble’s bones. [More]

Katherine McAdoo

Microsoft Buying Its Own Game Streaming Service To Take On Twitch

Game streaming is big business. And like TV streaming before it, everyone with two wires to plug together wants a slice of that delicious viewer pie. (Ew.) Which explains why Microsoft is hopping in the pool with its own streaming service acquisition. [More]

Netflix Wants You To Tell All Your Facebook Friends What To Watch

Netflix Wants You To Tell All Your Facebook Friends What To Watch

Everyone’s got one — the movie that makes you who you are, the one that turned on all the lights in your brain and opened your mind to a new reality, one that can only exist upon viewing that particular film. So when your best friend/boyfriend/wife/second cousin Thurman admits to have never seeing The One Movie Essential To Your Being, you insist they must watch it and be enlightened. And now Netflix wants you to put that pressure on your Facebook friends with a new social recommendation feature. [More]