Author: GT

A U.S. postal worker delivers Amazon boxes outside of the New York Stock Exchange on Oct. 11, 2018.Spencer Platt | Getty ImagesPresident Donald Trump on Wednesday signed an executive order ending the de minimis trade loophole for low-value packages shipped from all countries.The order, which takes effect Aug. 29, will subject any shipments of imported goods into the U.S. worth $800 or less to duties, the White House said.Any goods shipped through the international postal network will be subject to tariff rates based on the value of the package and its country of origin.The move comes after Trump in May…

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg shared his vision on Wednesday for “personal superintelligence,” the idea that people should be able to use AI to achieve their personal goals.  Smuggled into the letter is a signal that Meta is shifting how it plans to release AI models as it pursues “superintelligence.” “We believe the benefits of superintelligence should be shared with the world as broadly as possible,” wrote Zuckerberg. “That said, superintelligence will raise novel safety concerns. We’ll need to be rigorous about mitigating these risks and careful about what we choose to open source.” That wording about open source is significant.…

The logo of Robinhood Markets is seen at a pop-up event on Wall Street after the company’s initial public offering in New York City on July 29, 2021.Andrew Kelly | ReutersRobinhood beat Wall Street expectations for the second quarter Wednesday.Here is how Robinhood’s results compared to Wall Street estimates, according to analysts surveyed by LSEG:Earnings per share: 42 cents vs. 31 cents expectedRevenue: $989 million vs. $908 million expectedRevenue jumped 45% year-over-year to $989 million, while net income more than doubled to $386 million, up 105% from the same quarter last year.The number of funded customers climbed by 2.3 million…

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg presents Orion AR Glasses as he makes a keynote speech during the Meta Connect annual event at the company’s headquarters in Menlo Park, California, on Sept. 25, 2024.Manuel Orbegozo | ReutersMeta’s Reality Labs, the unit tasked with building the futuristic metaverse, continues bleeding money.The social media company reported its second-quarter earnings on Wednesday and revealed that Reality Labs logged an operating loss of $4.53 billion while recording $370 million in sales during the period. Analysts were projecting that unit to post a second-quarter operating loss of $4.99 billion while generating $381 million in sales.The Reality Labs…

Hackers who breached U.S. insurance giant Allianz Life earlier this month stole reams of customer Social Security numbers, according to notifications filed with several U.S. states and seen by TechCrunch. Allianz Life disclosed the July 16 breach this past weekend, confirming to TechCrunch the unidentified hackers stole the personally identifiable information belonging to the “majority” of its 1.4 million customers, as well as financial professionals and some Allianz Life employees. The company said its customer relationship database was compromised in a social engineering attack, a ploy in which malicious hackers use deception tricks, such as impersonating an employee claiming to…

NEW YORK (AP) — A U.S. Senate committee voted Wednesday to advance President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the agency that secures the nation’s critical infrastructure, including election systems.Members of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee voted 9-6 to recommend Sean Plankey ’s nomination for director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, known as CISA, which sits under the Department of Homeland Security.The agency has been dealing with workforce and funding cuts, as well as criticism from Republicans over some of its election-related activities.Plankey, who retired from the U.S. Coast Guard in 2023, worked in the first…

A new startup called Germ is bringing end-to-end encrypted messaging to the Bluesky social network, allowing its users to have a more secure option for chats than Bluesky’s existing DMs. After over two years of development, the service is launching its encrypted DMs for Bluesky into beta this week, with plans to gradually onboard new testers ahead of a public launch. In time, the technology that Germ is building, much of which is open sourced, could allow Bluesky to introduce encrypted messaging into its own app. Germ was designed to offer an alternative to existing end-to-end encrypted platforms that dominate…

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is pushing an initiative for millions of Americans to upload personal health data and medical records on new apps and systems run by private tech companies, promising that will make it easier to access health records and monitor wellness.President Donald Trump is expected to deliver remarks on the initiative Wednesday afternoon in the East Room. The event is expected to involve leaders from more than 60 companies, including major tech companies such as Google and Amazon, as well as prominent hospital systems like the Cleveland Clinic.The new system will focus on diabetes and weight…

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta Platforms.David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesMeta is set to report its second-quarter earnings on Wednesday, with analysts eyeing any changes to the company’s costs and related guidance amid CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s recent artificial intelligence hiring blitz.Here’s what analysts polled by LSEG are expecting:Earnings per share: $5.92 expectedRevenue: $44.8 billion expectedInvestors are likely to be monitoring any comments from Zuckerberg about his company’s recent spending on AI and how that technology might benefit Meta’s core online advertising business.Meta kicked off its AI hiring bonanza in June when it invested $14.3 billion into Scale AI,…

Whether it serves as a chill escape from the onslaught of the real world or simply a way to beat vacation doldrums, a viral Roblox game about gardening has become the surprise hit of the summer. Grow a Garden, created by a 16-year-old in a few days, has shattered records for the most concurrent players of any game in history, beating out video games that take years and millions of dollars to develop. And there’s no one to shoot, fight or race. If your last attempt at cultivating vegetables was FarmVille in 2010, don’t worry — your tomatoes will grow…