Hasta La Gadget!

Two US-China stories seemed to occur independently of each other yesterday. First up, Best Buy and Home Depot pulled security cameras made by some Chinese companies linked to Uyghur surveillance. Both US retail giants have stopped selling products from Lorex and Ezviz, while Lowe’s no longer carries products by the former.

The US government added parent companies Dahua and Hikvision to its economic blacklist in 2019 for their role in the mass surveillance of Uyghur Muslims in the province of Xinjiang. Human rights groups believe over a million Uyghurs are being detained in internment camps, but China continues to deny the allegations. Home Depot told TechCrunch that it’s “committed to upholding the highest standards of ethical sourcing and [it] immediately stopped selling products from Lorex when this was brought to [the company’s] attention.”

Within the same 24 hours, the FCC then revoked China Telecom’s ability to operate in the US. Following proceedings that involved the Justice Department, the FCC found that China Telecom was likely to comply with requests from the Chinese government, and the commission believes there is the chance of the country affecting and disrupting US communications.

“Promoting national security is an integral part of the Commission’s responsibility to advance the public interest,” the FCC said in a statement. This follows the commission’s actions regarding networking infrastructure from Huawei and ZTE, two companies that bore the brunt of accusations of being threats to national security. The one-time Huawei subsidiary, phone maker Honor, is still waiting to see if it’s going to be labeled similarly. Officials at four federal agencies voted last month whether to place the company on the Commerce Department’s entity list. It was a tie.

China Telecom has 60 days to comply with the order.

-Mat Smith

Adobe brings Photoshop and Illustrator to the web

You’ll be able to do basic edits and collaborate with others.

Adobe has announced “a major step forward for collaboration” by bringing its Photoshop and Illustrator apps to the web, though it’s pretty limited to start with. The idea is not to let you do complex work from a web page, but to allow collaborators to open and view your work from a browser to provide comments and feedback. Think of it as Google Docs, but for graphics.

You should be able to review and add comments to files without needing to have a Creative Cloud account.

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Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition review

This is the best e-reader.

Engadget

The 2021 Kindle Paperwhite improves on its predecessor in a number of key ways, most significantly its larger and more responsive display. The Signature Edition also adds a few “nice to have” features like wireless charging and more storage space, but the standard Kindle Paperwhite remains the e-reader for most people — this edition is expensive.

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‘Dune: Part Two’ arrives October 20th, 2023

Unlikely to be a streaming debut, however.

Dune

Legendary Pictures has confirmed plans to release Dune: Part Two, saying it was “excited to continue the journey.” The studio expects the movie to premiere October 20th, 2023. The first movie only covered half of Frank Herbert’s sci-fi classic.

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Niantic’s ‘Pikmin Bloom’ mobile game starts rolling out

Ready for a new obsession?

Niantic

The creators of Pokémon Go have begun to roll out Pikmin Bloom worldwide, starting with Singapore and Australia. Similar to Pokémon Go, you’ll have to go out and interact with the real world to enjoy the game. However, it’s likely to be a little more chill. Niantic CEO John Hanke said in the game’s video announcement that the flowers the Pikmin make can be viewed by other players, so you can create shared gardens with your neighbors. Oh and there are no battles.

Pikmin is another iconic gaming franchise from Nintendo, but the appeal is likely to be a little limited in comparison to Pokémon.

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Artists can bake verification into their NFTs using Photoshop

Buyers will know digital art is authentic.

In further proof that NFTs are going nowhere, Adobe is updating Photoshop with a beta Content Credentials feature that helps to establish the authenticity of NFTs. Once artists link their crypto wallets and social media accounts to Content Credentials, buyers can check that the wallet used to produce artwork is the same wallet that minted it.

Beyond NFTs, an opt-in Photoshop feature attaches edits and identity info to images, adding transparency and should allay some concerns about deception.

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The biggest news stories you might have missed

Oura’s updated smart ring has continuous heart-rate tracking

Volvo’s 2022 C40 Recharge adds fastback style to the XC40

Master & Dynamic put its headphone expertise into a $450 gaming headset

FCC revokes China Telecom’s ability to offer services in the US

Palm pivots to audio (for some reason) with $129 ANC true wireless earbuds

Yubico’s latest security offers USB-C and NFC authentication for $29

The “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” host held the “first and hopefully last ever COVID-safe costume pageant.”

“I’m tired of trying to perform at the best of your ability and to live this double life. It’s exhausting.”

Japanese automaker Honda is heading to this year’s Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) trade show with a collection of Civic Si race cars and a few overlanding off-road vehicles. It includes the all-new Honda Performance Development (HPD) race car prototype for the Touring Car competition and a Civic Si racing car for the 25 Hours of Thunderhill endurance race. Building … Continue reading

Google has activated a safety feature that lets minors under 18 request that images of themselves be removed from search results, The Verge has reported. Google first announced the option back in August as part of a slate of new safety measures for kids, but it’s now rolling out widely to users. 

Google said it will remove any images of minors “with the exception of case of compelling public interest or newsworthiness.” The requests can be made by minors, their parents, guardians or other legal representatives. 

To do so, you’ll need to supply the URLs you want removed, the name and age of the minor and the name of the person acting on their behalf. Google notes that “web URLs (pages with both text and images) are not eligible for removal under this policy, which seeks to limit the presence of images in Google search results.” 

To that end, it also can’t remove images from websites hosting them, so “you might wish to contact the site’s webmaster and ask them to remove the content,” Google said. To aid in that, it linked a guide on how to contact a site’s webmaster. 

Until Google starts to actively remove images, we won’t see what criteria it applies for “public interest or newsworthiness.” In general, though, it seems like most images will likely get pulled if a minor or their guardian asks. However, it doesn’t appear that you’ll be able to demand the removal of images of yourself below 18 unless you’re currently under that age, as The Verge has noted.