Sophia Lewis, Author at Hounia

Hard Fork: We Tried the Apple Vision Pro + Can Congress Protect Kids Online? + Cruise’s Crash

02

Feb

Science and Technology

Hard Fork: We Tried the Apple Vision Pro + Can Congress Protect Kids Online? + Cruise’s Crash

Listen and follow ‘Hard Fork’Apple | Spotify | Amazon | YouTubeApple’s Vision Pro headset is now for sale in stores. Will it live up to the hype? Kevin Roose and Casey Newton tried it out to see. Then, in a high-profile congressional hearing on child safety and social media, Mark Zuckerberg, the Meta chief executive, made an apology to families of victims of online child abuse. Is new legislation on the horizon? And finally, what the collapse of Cruise, the autonomous vehicle company, means for the future of self-driving cars.Credits“Hard Fork” is hosted by Kevin Roose and Casey Newton and…

India’s Quiet Push to Steal More of China’s iPhone Business

02

Feb

By Sophia Lewis

Investments and Business

India’s Quiet Push to Steal More of China’s iPhone Business

India is quietly grabbing from China more manufacturing of Apple’s iPhones and other electronics gear.It is happening in South Indian industrial areas on muddy plots that were once farmland.In Sriperumbudur, people call Apple “the customer,” not daring to say the name of a company that prizes its secrets.But some things are too big to hide. Two gigantic dormitory complexes are springing up from the earth. Once finished, each will be a tight block of 13 buildings with 24 rooms per floor around an L-shaped hallway. Every one of those pink-painted rooms will have beds for six workers, all women. The…

Kids Online Safety Act Is a Bipartisan Push to Protect Children on Social Media

31

Jan

By Sophia Lewis

Science and Technology

Kids Online Safety Act Is a Bipartisan Push to Protect Children on Social Media

Members of Congress have introduced a number of different bills intended to boost protections for children and teenagers online.One is a wide-ranging measure, the Kids Online Safety Act or KOSA. It would require online services like social media networks, video game sites and messaging apps to take “reasonable measures” to prevent harm — including online bullying, harassment, sexual exploitation, anorexia, self-harm and predatory marketing — to minors who used their platforms.It would also require the services to turn on the highest privacy and safety settings by default for users under 18. And it would allow young people to limit or…

Walmart to Add 150 U.S. Stores in Five-Year Expansion Drive

31

Jan

By Sophia Lewis

Investments and Business

Walmart to Add 150 U.S. Stores in Five-Year Expansion Drive

Walmart will add 150 stores in the United States over the next five years, a major expansion drive for the retail giant.The company said the move, which it announced in a statement on Wednesday, would involve millions of dollars in investment. Walmart employs roughly 1.6 million people in the United States, and said it hires hundreds of people each time it opens a new store.Walmart had just over 4,600 stores nationwide at the end of October 2023, down from more than 4,700 a year earlier. The company has not opened a new U.S. store since late 2021.Most of the stores…

Elon Musk Spreads Election Misinformation on X Without Fact Checkers

30

Jan

By Sophia Lewis

Science and Technology

Elon Musk Spreads Election Misinformation on X Without Fact Checkers

In the spring of 2020, when President Donald J. Trump wrote messages on Twitter warning that increased reliance on mail-in ballots would lead to a “rigged election,” the platform ran a corrective, debunking his claims.“Get the facts about mail-in voting,” a content label read. “Experts say mail-in ballots are very rarely linked to voter fraud,” the hyperlinked article declared.This month, Elon Musk, who has since bought Twitter and rebranded it X, echoed several of Mr. Trump’s claims about the American voting system, putting forth distorted and false notions that American elections were wide open for fraud and illegal voting by…

Philips Suspends Sales of CPAP and Other Breathing Devices After Recall

29

Jan

By Sophia Lewis

Investments and Business

Philips Suspends Sales of CPAP and Other Breathing Devices After Recall

Philips Respironics announced on Monday that it would halt sales of all of its breathing machines in the United States after reaching a settlement with the Food and Drug Administration over continuing problems with the devices.Millions of the company’s ventilators and CPAP machines, used to ease breathing at night, were recalled after reports that they blew bits of foam and potentially toxic gases into consumers’ airways.Under the settlement, Philips said it would have to meet a list of standards in a “multiyear” plan before it could resume business in the United States. The company said further details would be disclosed…