News written by James Delahunty (March, 2018)

'We could make a ton of money if we monetized our customer... we've elected not to do that," Tim Cook.

Apple chief executive Tim Cook has weighed in on the response to the Cambridge Analytica story by criticizing Facebook's use of its users' private data. During an interview with MSNBC's Chris Hayes and Recode's Kara Swisher, which will air on MSNBC soon, Cook suggested that Facebook should have regulated itself properly.

Cook was asked what he would do now if he was Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, to which he simply insisted that he would not be in this situation in the first place.

"We've never believed that these detailed profiles of people, that have incredibly deep personal information that is patched together from several sources, should exist," Cook reportedly said, warning such deep information on users can be exploited by advertisers and can even be used "against democracy."

While Cook admits that he usually gravitates toward no regulation because of unintended consequences, he believes that regulation of how firms like Facebook use data is necessary. In Apple's case, the customer is not the product, even though Cook admits the firm could make a lot more money if that was the case.

Pandora takes a leaf out of Spotify's book by introducing personalized soundtracks that are based on your listening tastes.

Personalized soundtracks are currently being tested with a small group of Premium users of the Pandora's services, but will roll out soon to all Premium subscribers. The playlists - similar to Spotify's Daily Mixes - will update every weeik to fit your moods, activities and favorite genres.

Pandora's personalized soundtracks are powered by its Music Genome.

"We apply a state-of-the-art ensemble of 75+ machine learning algorithms spanning bleeding-edge deep learning techniques, raw audio content analysis and collaborative filtering methods for listener preferences," writes Chris Phillips, Chief Product Officer, Pandora.

These new playlists will appear in the "Browse" section under "Featured Playlists" on the mobile app. The more you listen to differentiated music, the more playlists you'll get. Playlists can also be shared with friends who can check them out even if on Free tier service.

HTC's new upgraded Vive Pro is available to pre-order now ahead of its April launch, while the original bundle has had a price cut.

HTC is focusing on stepping up the technical side of its new VR producers rather than worrying about affordability for now (as Oculus seems to be focused on). The new Vive Pro, shown off at this year's Consumer Electronics Show in Los Vegas, steps up the specs and design but also increases to a staggering $799.

For the additional coin, the OLED displays increase the resolution from 2160x1200 to 2880x1600 while the headset packs new built-in headphones with 3D audio and noise cancellation. A redesigned strap almost makes the headset more comfortable to wear compared to the older Vive.

The original Vive bundle is also getting a price cut to $499, a reduction of $100.

via: Engadget

Ride-hailing service Uber has suspended its North American self-driving vehicles tests after news of the first fatality involving one of the autonomous cars spread on Monday.

Police confirmed on Monday that a woman was struck by a self-driving vehicle being tested by Uber. Elaine Herzberg, 49, was walking her bicycle outside the crosswalk on a four-lane road in Tempe when an Uber vehicle in autonomous mode struck her at around 40 miles per hour. She died from her injuries later in hospital.

"The pedestrian was outside of the crosswalk. As soon as she walked into the lane of traffic she was struck," Tempe Police Sergeant Ronald Elcock told reporters. He said he believed that the woman may have been homeless.

Uber has been testing its vehicles in Arizona, Pittsburgh and Toronto, and will suspend all testing while the investigation is underway.

"Our investigators have that information, and they will be using that in their investigation as well as the Maricopa County Attorney's Office as part of their investigation," said Elcock.

Netflix will beef up the parent controls available to users of its service to make its platform more child appropriate.

As it stands, parents can use Netflix parental controls to prevent their children from accessing content above a specified maturity rating. The content can be hidden behind a PIN altogether, or parents can available of designated child accounts.

In order to give parents more control over what their children can access on the service, Netflix will allow parents to control access to individual movies and shows behind a security PIN.

Spotify appears to be cracking down on the use of unauthorized applications that allow users with Free accounts to get benefits of its paid Premium tier.

Some users with free accounts opt to download modified Spotify apps that allow them to get around some of the limitations of a Free account, and have some benefits of the paid Premium service. While having almost 160 million users of its service, around 71 million actually pay for Premium accounts whilst the rest of the active users are limited to lower quality, ad-supported service.

Free users who have been using modified apps have been receiving a warning from Spotify that reads as follows:

Dear User:

We detected abnormal activity on the app you are using so we have disabled it. Don't worry - your Spotify account is safe.

To access your Spotify account, simply uninstall any unauthorized or modified version of Spotify and download and install the Spotify app from the official Google Play Store. If you need more help, please see our support article on Reinstalling Spotify.

If we detect repeated use of unauthorized apps in violation of our terms, we suspend all rights, including suspending or terminating your account. Read more...