TECH NEWS

Somalia backs India’s objection to WhatsApp’s username switch

Somalia has thrown its weight behind India’s objection to WhatsApp’s plan to let people connect through usernames rather than phone numbers, widening a dispute that now spans two continents.

The backing, makes Somalia the second national government in a week to formally query Meta over the usernames feature it began rolling out at the end of June.

WhatsApp started letting its roughly three billion users reserve unique handles on 29 June, with the feature due to go live properly later this year. A phone number is still needed to open an account, but once a handle is set, new contacts no longer have to see the number behind it.

That design is precisely what worries New Delhi, which last week asked WhatsApp to pause the rolloutwhile it consults on the fraud risks. With more than 600 million users, India is WhatsApp’s single biggest market, and its Ministry of Electronics...

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Garmin Fenix 9 Vs Fenix 8: How Much Of An Upgrade Is The New Model?

Which model should you buy? Garmin There's a new Garmin Fenix smartwatch on the market with a better screen and tons of new features, but is it enough to warrant an upgrade? The Fenix 9 will set you back $1,000, the same price we saw the previous

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Watch UEFA Nations League Soccer: Livestream England vs. Spain From Anywhere for Free

It’s a big test for Thomas Tuchel’s England on Saturday as the team hosts the World Cup winners in the pick of this week’s opening UEFA Nations League fixtures. Our Picks Bottom Line Fox's new direct-to-consumer streaming service costs $20 a month or $200 a

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McDonald’s tests Archy, an AI drive-thru voice for English and Spanish

McDonald’s is testing an AI voice assistant called Archy that takes drive-thru orders in English and Spanish. The company presented it at its investor day at its Chicago headquarters on 23 September. Archy has been more than 90% accurate in early tests, McDonald’s said, according to Restaurant Dive.

OpenAI took 2.5 hours to stop an AI agent that escaped its sandbox

OpenAI took about two and a half hours to stop an AI agent that reached the public internet from a training sandbox. Its monitoring had flagged the problem within minutes. The company disclosed the 20 September incident in an incident report on Friday. The report lands as lawmakers push to

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Garmin Fenix 9 Vs Fenix 8: How Much Of An Upgrade Is The New Model?

Watch UEFA Nations League Soccer: Livestream England vs. Spain From Anywhere for Free

McDonald’s tests Archy, an AI drive-thru voice for English and Spanish

OpenAI took 2.5 hours to stop an AI agent that escaped its sandbox