Here are the latest posts from The Washington Posts ‘The Switch’.

Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg visits D.C. to talk bias, immigration and the next phase of Lean In

Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg is in Washington this week, meeting with politicians and speaking about bias at Facebook, immigration and — of course — women in the workplace. Sandberg met with several politicians on both sides of the aisle Wednesday and Thursday, including the members of the GOP’s High-Tech Task Force, Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Charles […]

Volkswagen agrees to pay billions to drivers over emissions scandal

Volkswagen has agreed to pay $10.2 billion to settle its U.S. emissions scandal case, according to the Associated Press, citing two anonymous people briefed on the matter, in what would be one of the largest payouts by an automaker in history. The case stems from the carmaker’s 2015 admission that 11 million vehicles worldwide had cheating software designed to […]

A new algorithm could predict ISIS attacks

It was September of 2014, and machine gun and artillery fire had erupted in small villages just west of Kobani, Syria. The Islamic State had started a siege on the border town, strategically entering through nearby villages. That same week, researchers at the University of Miami who were tracking online extremist groups saw a flurry in activity. “It […]

This cable company is expected to overcharge Americans $2 million this year alone

Sick and tired of dealing with your cable company? You’re not alone. Some top members of Congress are with you — and they’re calling out the industry in a blistering new report finding that tens of thousands of Americans are being overcharged for their service and may not even know it. The report, published Thursday by Sens. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) and Claire […]

Ditching the iPhone headphone jack is annoying for everyone except Apple

Look. I didn’t want to get into this. I feel like we probably have better things to talk about. But the furor continues over reports that Apple is doing away with its standard 3.5 mm headphone jack, a piece of technology that has existed in a recognizable version of its current form since the late […]

Whom are you voting for? This guy can read your mind.

Neuroscientist Ryan McGarry swabbed a brain activity headset with saline solution and lowered it onto Brian Hazel’s head, connecting circular prongs gingerly to different spots on his skull. Then he showed Hazel 40 minutes of presidential debates and commercials as Spencer Gerrol tried to read his mind. Which of the candidates did Hazel, an African […]

Why this year’s iPhone may be kinda lame

Rumor has it that Apple’s going to seriously shake up the way it updates the iPhone — and you probably won’t like it that much. For nearly a decade, Apple has alternated between releasing big overhauls and smaller upgrades to its phones. Citing a top Apple analyst, the Wall Street Journal reported that the firm […]

N.Y. kills right-to-repair bill that could make it easier to fix your phone

A bill that could make it easier to fix broken phones, computers and tablets was killed in the New York state legislature on Saturday when the session officially ended. Opposed by tech giants such as Apple, Cisco and Xerox, the bill would have forced companies to release electronic parts and design manuals to independent repair shops. If passed, the […]

This is why Elon Musk is buying SolarCity

Trust Elon Musk to bowl people over with a wild idea when they’re least expecting it. The entrepreneur announced Tuesday that his electric vehicle company, Tesla, is offering to buy out SolarCity, one of the nation’s biggest names in solar energy, for an all-stock deal worth $2.8 billion. Musk is describing the deal with words such as […]

This app wants to spy on bad drivers, but it’s really all of us, too

The idea behind app Nexar is ambitious: create a type of air-traffic control system for the road. Catalogue the cars in a given location, track dicey behavior and help drivers avoid dangerous intersections and even bad drivers. Nexar is a free dashcam app that, using artificial intelligence, creates a database of an area’s roads and […]

What a ban on online porn can teach us about Internet law

When New York City first started replacing its public pay phones with free Internet kiosks, it probably didn’t expect homeless people to start watching porn on them. So the company behind the Internet service, LinkNYC, has now installed a software filter to prevent people from accessing adult material from each of the 180 Web-enabled kiosks scattered around Manhattan and the Bronx. “It sucks, man. It was […]

The reasons that the company behind ‘Clash of Clans’ is now worth $10.2 billion

Supercell, the maker of wildly popular mobile games including “Clash of Clans” and “Clash Royale,” is now a part of Tencent, the Chinese mobile and media conglomerate that bought an $8.6 billion stake in the gamemaker from the Japanese tech giant Softbank. The jaw-dropping acquisition, announced Tuesday, brings Supercell’s total valuation up to $10.2 billion, […]

How to see if you have free tickets from Ticketmaster

Have you signed into your Ticketmaster account lately? You may find you’re in for a surprise. Any Ticketmaster customer who has purchased tickets between Oct. 21, 1999, and Feb. 27, 2013 could be eligible for free ticket vouchers, a $2.25 discount on tickets or a $5 discount on shipping. The unexpected credit (for most of us, anyway) […]

Why Apple can take a bigger stand against Trump than its rivals

Whatever happens at the Republican National Convention next month, one thing is clear: It won’t be brought to you by Apple. The firm won’t be providing any funding or support for the convention, according to news reports. Apple has been more outspoken on public policy issues than many of its peers in Silicon Valley. A report […]

This one step by the government may unlock the untapped speed and power of mobile technology

When you use the LTE connection in your smartphone, that mobile data travels over invisible airwaves that support everything from Google Maps to FaceTime. But not long from now, all sorts of devices will be connected wirelessly to the Internet, from home appliances to automobiles to virtual reality headsets — and they’ll all need lots of […]

Flying cars just took a big step closer to being legal

It looks like a goofy mosquito, its fat cockpit shoving through the wind while aloft, its wings folded up like a dragonfly while grounded. And it marks the biggest step toward a real, commercial flying car. The Terrafugia Transition earned an exemption Sunday from the Federal Aviation Administration as a “light sport aircraft,” meaning the […]

Why Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen is building the world’s largest airplane

MOJAVE, Calif. — The latest entrant into the new space race has a wingspan longer than the distance traveled by the Wright Brothers in their earliest flights. Its landing gear has a total of 28 wheels. And the local county had to issue special construction permits for the scaffolding needed to build what would be the world’s […]

Behold, Rolls-Royce’s truly bizarre self-driving car

Ultra-luxury automaker Rolls-Royce debuted its self-driving concept car this week, called the 103EX, and it looks, well, odd. It’s nearly 20 feet long and 5 feet tall, and has some — interesting — features. See for yourself: The futuristic-looking vehicle seats two passengers on a silk-covered sofa in the car’s “Grand Sanctuary,” or interior cabin. Instead of a steering […]

How a Walking Dead spoiler website became an AMC target

Fans of a spoiler website centered around TV series The Walking Dead were met with shocking news this week via Facebook post. The website, which crowd sources eerily accurate predictions for the mega-hit show, would not be posting their latest spoiler due to legal threats by AMC, the show’s network. “Well Buttercups, we have some sad news to share today. […]

Apple wants to kill a bill that could make it easier for you to fix your iPhone

When Jessa Jones found out her kids had submerged her iPhone in her toilet, causing a clog, she thought her phone was a lost cause. It powered on but didn’t seem to be taking a charge anymore. The Apple store warns against water damage, which is not covered by the warranty. It wasn’t until Jones started poking […]

A cable industry compromise would let you ditch your cable box forever

For weeks, cable providers such as Comcast have been resisting a federal proposal that would force them to make their channels available to anybody who wanted to design new user interfaces for them. Instead of browsing the channel lineup through cable-provided menus and devices, consumers should have access to a greater variety of choices, argue the regulators who proposed the […]

Family of ISIS Paris attack victim sues Google, Facebook and Twitter

The family of an American student killed by the Islamic State during a November 2015 attack in Paris is suing Twitter, Facebook and Google for providing, “material support” to the terrorist group. Nohemi Gonzalez, 23, was the only American victim among 130 killed in coordinated attacks at a Parisian soccer stadium and concert venue. In […]

Are you still a VR skeptic? So is Nintendo.

LOS ANGELES — Everywhere you look at E3 — the annual Electronic Entertainment Expo gaming conference — there seems to be something pitching virtual reality. Well, almost everywhere. At the Nintendo booth, there’s only calm, traditional video game playing. In fact, there is only Zelda, and it is totally wrapped in fantasy. I asked Reggie […]

Microsoft becomes the first big tech company to get into the legal weed industry

America’s burgeoning weed industry just seems to be climbing higher. Tech giant Microsoft announced Thursday it is partnering with a cannabis industry-focused software company called Kind Financial. The company provides “seed to sale” services for cannabis growers, allowing them to track inventory, navigate laws, and handle transactions all through Kind’s software systems. The partnership marks the first major tech […]

Reddit makes some changes in the wake of the Orlando shooting

As the shooting in Orlando unfolded Sunday, the biggest news on Reddit — the self-proclaimed “front page of the Internet” — wasn’t the crime taking place in Florida. It was, instead, about how Reddit was messing up the news about the shooting. As my colleague Abby Ohlheiser wrote, the problems started when users began posting […]

You could be in this FBI facial-recognition system and not even know it

Whenever you upload a photo of yourself or your friends on Facebook, the social network uses a facial-recognition algorithm to identify who’s in the picture — and then suggests that you tag them. This might strike some as a little creepy, but at least it’s relatively transparent. The same may not be true of a […]

Why back-up cameras haven’t stopped drivers from backing into stuff

With or without eyes in the back of their heads, drivers keep hitting things. Despite the growing prevalence of back-up cameras, federal data shows that this technology hasn’t significantly cut down on cars backing into people and causing them harm. That research on so-called “back-over incidents” comes as the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration moves to make back-up cameras […]

Did Microsoft royally flub its new console launch?

Microsoft this week announced not just one but two new consoles in development. The firm unveiled the Xbox One S — a 4K-compatible, slimmed-down version of the Xbox One that’s coming in August. But at the same time, the company also announced the Xbox One S’s successor, a souped-up console called Project Scorpio that supports both 4K […]

The net neutrality court decision, in plain English

You may have heard something Tuesday about a court and net neutrality and something about the Internet. Maybe it didn’t make much sense. And that’s a good thing! If we all spent our time trying to decipher the Web, we’d never get around to actually using it, or creating awesome new things with it. That said, some […]

SpaceX’s latest rocket landing ended in a ‘rapid unscheduled disassembly’

Elon Musk’s SpaceX failed to complete what would have been its fifth landing of a reusable booster rocket Wednesday, a down note on what appeared to be an otherwise successful mission to deliver two Boeing-built communication satellites to high orbit above the Earth. “Falcon 9 was lost in this attempt,” the company said in its webcast. […]

Senate reaches compromise on Russia rocket engine controversy

After years of controversy, the Senate has come to an agreement on the use of Russian rocket engines, announcing a deal that would allow the United Launch Alliance to use as many as 18 of the engines over the next several years. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz), chairman of the Armed Services Committee, had fought to […]

D.C.’s board of elections makes it shockingly easy to snoop on your fellow voters

A little-known law in the nation’s capital is leading to complaints over the way it lets anyone on the Internet find out D.C. voters’ names, addresses, voting history and political affiliations, with little more than a click or two. The political list, known as a voter file, was published on the D.C. Board of Elections’ website in the […]

Cable and telecom companies just lost a huge court battle on net neutrality

A federal appeals court has voted to uphold a series of strict new rules for Internet providers, handing a major victory to regulators in the fight over net neutrality and ensuring that one of the most sweeping changes to hit the industry in recent years will likely remain on the books. The 2-1 court ruling Tuesday forces Internet providers such as […]

This hacker is fighting ISIS by spamming its Twitter accounts with porn

It started years ago, when at age 16 he bought his first computer, took it home and disassembled it. When he put the machine back together and it refused to run, a local big-box store tech guru taught the teen who would eventually take the alias “Wauchula Ghost” how to hack. Now he’s exercising those […]

Apple’s announcement on artificial intelligence is a big shift for the company

Apple’s sweeping new artificial intelligence play takes a page from features introduced by rival tech companies in recent years — but adds the polished, user-friendly twist that consumers have come to expect from the electronics giant. At the company’s annual developer’s conference in San Francisco on Monday, Apple executives announced a raft of features in the company’s soon-to-be released desktop […]

Microsoft is adding LinkedIn to its professional network

Microsoft is buying LinkedIn for $26.2 billion, a deal in which one of the world’s biggest social networks will join a software and computing giant as it tries to lengthen its reach in online services. Under the agreement the two companies announced Monday, LinkedIn will continue to operate independently, and LinkedIn chief executive Jeff Weiner […]