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Google Duo adds a 'family mode' and web-based group calls

Google isn’t done making Duo video calls more accommodating in the pandemic era. It’s introducing a handful of updates that make chats livelier, including a family mode. Fire it up and you can add cute AR effects or doodle while you keep in touch. Th...




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Apple will reopen stores in four US states next week

Apple will reopen some stores in Idaho, South Carolina, Alabama and Alaska next week. The company closed all stores outside Greater China in mid-March to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. At the start of April, it told employees Apple Stores in the US...




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This 3D-printed foam expands up to 40 times its original size

Until now, the size of 3D-printed objects has been limited by the size of 3D printers. In most cases, in order to produce large items used in, say, aerospace, manufactures have had to fasten, weld or glue smaller 3D-printed substructures together. Bu...




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Lionsgate is streaming 'John Wick' for free on YouTube at 9 PM ET

For the final night of its ‘Night at the Movies’ events to benefit people who work in the movie industry, Lionsgate is planning to stream John Wick tonight. The live stream will kick off at 9 PM ET on YouTube, hosted by Jamie Lee Curtis. The event is...




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Microsoft will fix Surface Laptop 3 'hairline fractures' for free

Microsoft will repair Surface Laptop 3 screens for free, particularly those that suddenly cracked for no discernible reason. Surface owners have been posting online about discovering hairline cracks on their new laptops’ display over the past few mon...




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NBA 2K's simulated postseason sets its finals: Bucks vs. Lakers

While potential for finishing the 2019-2020 NBA season remains in doubt, the folks at NBA 2K have moved forward with simulating the results. The 2K Sim playoffs have completed their conference championships and are ready to “play” the final round. In...




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The Morning After: Surface Go 2 review

Scary stories about Zoombombing and privacy leaks may have you feeling tense about setting up a video call. But under current circumstances there aren’t a lot of other options available, so columnist Violet Blue has some advice on what you should (an...




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Recommended Reading: Facebook's new content oversight board

We are a new board overseeing Facebook. Here’s what we’ll decide.Catalina Botero-Marino, Jamal Greene, Michael W. McConnell and Helle Thorning-Schmidt, The New York TimesFacebook announced the first members of its content oversight board this week, a...




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Canadians OK with empty sports arenas, wary of attending games, poll finds


An Angus Reid online survey conducted May 1-4 asked a randomized sample of 1,527 Canadians how they felt about sports during the COVID-19 pandemic.




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Damien Cox: Michael Jordan might have chosen to stick to sports, but LeBron James decided not to be like Mike


The former Bulls star saw himself as a basketball player. The current Lakers star sees himself as something more. “I have a responsibility to lead,” James says.




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Gregor Chisholm: Rehabbing Blue Jays lefty Ryan Borucki is making the most of a second off-season, with the help of a friend


Borucki and catcher Jansen, who usually work out together in the winter, both stayed in the Dunedin area while most of their teammates went home.




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Former CFL quarterback Travis Lulay leaves B.C. Lions organization


“My family and I have made the decision to return to Oregon,” the 36-year-old said in a video address posted Thursday on the Lions website.




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Leafs forward Alex Kerfoot has a leg up on fellow players during the lockdown — his family has a rink


NHLers aren’t used to being off skates this long but Kerfoot thinks they’ll have time to get up to speed.




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Dave Feschuk: The Brendan Leipsic misogynistic group chat is a form of violence that leaves scars


There’s a culture around the way men at their worst treat women, Dave Feschuk writes. It’s not just a problem in sports, but in society, and it requires attention.




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CFL shows it to be its own worst enemy as it goes cap-in-hand to the feds


This plan for the $150 million in aid, presented by commissioner Randy Ambrosie, comes off as so half-baked, so riddled with holes and obfuscation that it’s impossible to rally behind it in its current incarnation.




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Mailbag: Wayne Gretzky is saving the NHL again


With the league on pause, The Great One seems to be singularly keeping the league’s news-flow going. This Mailbag owes a great deal to No. 99 as well.




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Raptors to open practice facility to players starting next week


The province announced Friday it was easing restrictions on Ontario’s professional sports teams to open their doors, subject to municipal guidelines.




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South Korea’s K-League kicks off with no crowd, but big broadcast interest


The league, which paid for 1,100 tests on players and staff at the end of April that all came back negative, has shortened its season from 38 games to 27.




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NFL is ready to call an audible or two if coronavirus forces schedule changes


With the NFL heading into its next round of broadcasting negotiations, it could not afford to release a schedule full of unsightly seams and untenable sacrifices.




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Capitals cut ties with Brendan Leipsic after leak of disparaging and misogynistic social media comments


The former Leafs forward commented on the physical appearances of Vancouver forward Tanner Pearson’s wife and Edmonton captain Connor McDavid’s girlfriend. He also called Capitals linemates Garnet Hathaway and Nick Dowd losers.




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Michael Jordan’s game-worn sneakers could fetch $150,000 at Sotheby’s auction


The legendary athlete has returned to the spotlight following the recent release of “The Last Dance” documentary series.




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Leafs assistant coach Paul McFarland returning to head coaching job in Kingston


The 34-year-old from Richmond Hill returns to Kingston, where he spent three seasons as coach of the OHL’s Frontenacs.




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NFL schedule release winners, losers: Who’s sitting pretty for 2020 regular season?


Assuming the season kicks off as expected, the schedule dates alone have created a number of juicy scenarios to dig into as anticipation of the NFL’s — or any sport’s — return continues to grow.




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Canadian amateur sport to receive $72 million in pandemic relief money


The money earmarked for sports will go to national and provincial organizations, Canadian sport institutes and Indigenous sport groups.




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MLSE is offering to help with COVID-19 testing if Toronto becomes a hub for NHL games


The Leafs’ parent company will pay for the testing of its players, and help with public testing as well.




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Gregor Chisholm: Father still knows best as Jays shortstop Bo Bichette prepares for his sophomore season


It helps to have a former big-leaguer as a dad if you want to stay sharp during a pandemic.




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CFL, CFLPA resume talks on potential contingency plans for 2020 season


CFL commissioner Randy Ambrosie said the CFL lost collectively about $20 million last year and its future is “very much in jeopardy.”




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Column: It's called Earnin. I have no idea how the company ever turns a profit

The Palo Alto company doesn't charge for its cash advances. But tips are appreciated.




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Opinion: Worried about how facial recognition technology is being used? You should be

Facial recognition surveillance, powered by artificial intelligence, is being used — or misused — in cities worldwide.




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Newsletter: Nike tells Amazon, 'I'm just not that into you'

The sportswear giant says it will pull its products — from shoes to jerseys — from the e-commerce behemoth because it wants to create its own direct ties to online shoppers.




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Unionizing L.A. bus workers and their CEO come together over fighting climate change

Factory workers at Proterra, a Silicon Valley e-bus startup, have joined a union that also represents L.A. oil refinery workers.




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PayPal just struck L.A.'s biggest ever tech deal

PayPal is buying Honey, whose popular browser extension is used to compare prices at online shopping sites, for $4 billion.




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Uber accused of cheating the public in driver's suit over pay

Drivers being cheated out of wages and not being reimbursed for expenses causes California to lose out on payroll taxes, attorney Shannon Liss-Riordan argues in a new legal challenge to Uber's practices.




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Column: We're swamped with 182 million robocalls a day. Is a solution finally here?

Telecom-industry insiders say work is rapidly progressing on a system called "Shaken/Stir," which could go a long way toward making your phone usable again.




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Google workers protest suspensions of activist employees

Protests within Google over how the company handles employee activism continue to grow.




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Former Tinder CEO Sean Rad accused of secretly recording employees and bosses in new court filing

Tinder's parent company says Sean Rad, the dating app's co-founder and former CEO, illegally recorded conversations with executives.




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Newsletter: Those Black Friday deals? They're not as good as you think

The dirty little secret of Black Friday — and its cousin, Cyber Monday — is that the best deals are still to come.




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Google fires four for accessing internal documents. Workers say it's retaliation

Google terminated four employees for what the tech firm said were "repeated violations of our data security policies." At least one of them, Rebecca Rivers, had spoken out publicly against company initiatives including Google's past work with government agencies.




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Column: These holiday scams are heavy on naughty, totally lacking in nice

From gift-card rackets to online fraud, consumers are under near-constant assault amid what some analysts are calling the country's first-ever trillion-dollar holiday season.




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Riot Games will pay $10 million to settle gender discrimination suit

'League of Legends' maker Riot Games has agreed to pay $10 million to settle a gender discrimination suit. Every woman who has worked at the company since 2014 will get a payout.




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Google's Sundar Pichai becomes Alphabet CEO; Larry Page and Sergey Brin step down

Sundar Pichai is ascending at Google's parent, Alphabet, becoming CEO of the entire tech giant as co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin take a step back.




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Developers join call for GitHub to cancel its ICE contract

Open source developers, GitHub's power users, are joining the software platform's employees in calling for the company to cancel its contract with ICE. A boycott could be next.




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Tech recruiters were once welcomed on campus. Now they face protests

Tech firms such as Palantir, Amazon, Google and Microsoft hire huge numbers of college graduates every year. Student activists are trying to disrupt that recruiting pipeline.




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Uber's report on sexual assaults and accidents offers some answers, more questions

Uber's first-ever safety transparency report establishes a baseline from which the ride-hailing giant must improve.




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Newsletter: Privacy-minded consumer groups say the kids aren't all right

Coalition calls on FTC to review how companies are marketing to children and tracking them online.




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Column: Are extended warranties worth it? Not so much, experts say

"Extended warranties are generally a bad value," says one consumer advocate. "Rarely do they pay off."




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Newsletter: $1,000 is just too dang much for a smartphone

A new study from market researcher NPD Group reveals that fewer than 10% of consumers are willing to shell out more than a thousand bucks for a phone.




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Looking ahead: In 2020, we look to Mars, fake meat and the allure of wishful thinking

What will 2020 bring? There'll be plenty to roar about. Concerts and playoffs. Electric highways and robots that bring your pizza. The future is right now.




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California is rewriting the rules of the internet. Businesses are scrambling to keep up

A new law that will let you opt out of the online data economy goes into effect on Jan. 1 — assuming businesses can figure out how to make that happen in time.