Apple is being sued for refusing to repair an iPhone, most Americans now prefer streaming over going to the theatres, and Amazon Alexa was named the most invasive smart assistant in a new study.
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That’s all the tech news that’s trending right now, welcome to Hashtag Trending! It’s Monday, October 25th and I’m your host, Tom Li.
A lawsuit doesn’t have to be in the millions to reach headlines. One San Francisco man is suing Apple for $1,383.13, or the exact cost of his iPhone 12, allegedly because the company refused to fix it under warranty. Theodore A. Kim filed the claim when his iPhone 12, purchased in Vietnam, had trouble reading a U.S. SIM card. When sent to Apple for repair, Kim said the Apple technician alleged that the phone has been tampered with and returned it with a broken SIM tray. When he pressed Apple for an explanation, the company simply said it would have repaired it if the tech broke the sim tray. It subsequently closed the ticket despite Kim offering to pay for the repair. Baffled, he filed the claim to the San Franciso superior court’s small claims court.
A new survey revealed that while Americans are willing to return to theatres, most are more comfortable watching at home. The survey conducted by Civic Science asked 60,000 Americans about their opinions on returning to movie theatres. The results revealed that although 54 per cent of respondents are willing to go to a theatre in a couple of weeks, 71 per cent of them said they’d rather watch movies at home than go out. The theme prevails across all ages, although it’s more prominent in the older generation, with 82 per cent of participants over 55 reporting that they’d rather stay home. Still, more than 60 per cent of people between 18 to 24 also prefer staying at home.
We all have a love-hate relationship with our smart assistants. Their appeal of convenience is sometimes offset by privacy concerns. But which smart assistant service is the most invasive? According to a study by Reviews.org, Amazon’s Alexa collects the most information about its users. Review.org listed 48 possible data points a smart assistant can collect from its users, and then combed through their terms and conditions to see what they recorded. According to its results, Amazon Alexa collected 37 of the 48 data points, followed by Samsung Bixby at 34, Microsoft Cortana at 32, Apple Siri at 30, and Google Assistant at 28.
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