His headphones kept cutting out, so he read the AliExpress code
His headphones kept cutting out, so he read the AliExpress code

A developer worked out why his Bluetooth headphones kept dropping his music, and the answer was on the AliExpress homepage. The Register reported the story on Monday, drawing on the developer’s own account and a follow-up from a Firefox engineer. Conno…

Uber faces fine of nearly $1B over automated driver suspensions

The Dutch Data Protection Authority is fining Uber €825 million in the second largest penalty issued under Europe’s GDPR.

TikTok reaches $400M settlement over children’s privacy lawsuit

Two years after the U.S. Department of Justice alleged that TikTok violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, it has reached a $400 million settlement.

Meta launched Pocket in the US, and the app it came from shut down the same day
Meta launched Pocket in the US, and the app it came from shut down the same day

Meta has launched Pocket across the United States. The app it is based on shut down the same day. Pocket had been testing quietly in Brazil since July. It is now available to everyone in the US. Pocket lets people type a prompt and get back a small int…

Walmart is finally adding Apple Pay and Google Pay
Walmart is finally adding Apple Pay and Google Pay

Walmart will soon allow you to pay for your items with Google Pay or Apple Pay. In an announcement on Friday, Walmart says it’s going to bring tap-to-pay capabilities to “select” Walmart and Sam’s Club locations starting August 24th, before rolling out support to all US stores by the end of 2026 and gas stations […]

Walmart is accepting tap to pay after eleven years of refusing
Walmart is accepting tap to pay after eleven years of refusing

Walmart is adding tap to pay at its checkouts from Monday, ending more than a decade of refusing the technology. The retailer will not say so in those terms. Its announcement does not use the word Apple once. The rollout starts at selected Walmart stor…

Google wants publishers to install a button that makes readers pick them
Google wants publishers to install a button that makes readers pick them

Google is giving publishers a button to put on their own websites. Clicking it adds that publisher to a reader’s preferred sources on Google. It is one of three personalisation changes the company announced on Thursday. The other two are a chatbot for …

Apple Music will label AI songs, and the tags behind them are now mandatory
Apple Music will label AI songs, and the tags behind them are now mandatory

Apple Music will start showing listeners which songs were made with AI. The disclosure behind those labels also stops being optional. Apple emailed music industry partners on Thursday to announce Made With AI Labels, Billboard reported after obtaining …

Patreon says its discovery problem for small creators is its own fault
Patreon says its discovery problem for small creators is its own fault

Patreon has published a roadmap of new and revamped features. TechCrunch counted 30 of them. The most consequential line in the post is an admission. “To the smaller creators on Patreon: the lack of discovery you’re seeing right now is not your fault. …

Adobe Firefly can now generate music, speech and sound effects
Adobe Firefly can now generate music, speech and sound effects

Adobe Firefly’s audio tools became generally available on Thursday. Generate Music, Generate Speech and Generate Sound Effects now sit beside the image, video and design tools in its creative AI studio. Each runs on a different model. Generate Music us…