The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment says the phone functionality will be decommissioned on Thursday
Apple
Posted inOpinion
Zornio: Has Big Tech caught Colorado Senators Bennet and Hickenlooper by the tongue?
These days it’s hard to find bipartisan support for almost anything — it seems even the color of the sky might be up for debate. That’s why it’s all the more impressive that Congress has reached broad bipartisan support for two antitrust reform bills targeting Big Tech. There’s just one small surprise: Among support from […]
Posted inCOVID, News
Remember Colorado’s COVID exposure system for smartphones? It’s getting a lot of use during the recent surge.
As the seemingly never-ending coronavirus pandemic escalated this fall, cellphones in Colorado started buzzing more frequently with an alert: “You may have been exposed.” The state’s opt-in COVID-19 exposure notification system has been around for a year, but a system upgrade — combined with the latest wave of cases — recently made for a busy […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Opinion: Voluntary, piecemeal actions by online companies to cut down on misinformation are not enough
Ever since the attack on the U.S. Capitol by right-wing extremists on Jan. 6, social media and online platforms have been scrambling to take action. Twitter permanently suspended and Facebook blocked President Donald Trump’s accounts, while Amazon removed Parler from its cloud hosting service. Stripe, Apple, Venmo, Paypal, YouTube, Telegram, and more deleted and suspended […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Opinion: Embracing technology will propel Colorado’s economic recovery from COVID-19
The year 2020 began with a global pandemic that crippled the economy, upended daily routines, and saw heightened political and cultural tensions. But all this has made clear that, second to the coronavirus, Colorado’s economic recovery is the top of mind for voters across the state. With the election behind us, we need political leaders […]
Posted inCOVID, Health, News, Politics and Government
A half-million Coloradans have already signed up for the state’s new coronavirus-tracking notification tool
More than 500,000 Coloradans have already signed up for the state’s new tool to notify people if they have possibly been exposed to the coronavirus. The tool, called Exposure Notifications, runs in the background on smartphones to exchange non-personally identifying information with other phones it comes near that also are running the app. If a […]
Posted inCOVID, News
Coronavirus exposure-notification service for smartphones won’t be rolled out in Colorado until October
A smartphone system informing Coloradans when they have been exposed to someone infected with the coronavirus will not be available in September as state officials initially said. The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment and Gov. Jared Polis’ office now say the “Exposure Notifications Express” system being created in partnership with tech giants Apple […]
Posted inElection 2020, Politics and Government, Technology
Big Tech asserts its influence in Colorado, but the U.S. Senate candidates aren’t willing to discuss it
When Boulder-based phone accessory company PopSockets decided it was tired of being “bullied” by Amazon, the company terminated its relationship in 2018. It cost them $10 million in lost revenue. David Barnett started the company that makes collapsible phone grips and stands in 2014 while still a college philosophy professor. Now, he thinks powerful tech […]
Posted inBusiness, Environment, News, Technology
Consumer gadgets are getting harder to fix and that’s creating a disposable culture
Independent repair shop TechHub in Denver finds it harder to make a decent living fixing Macbooks, iPhones and other consumer electronics. As devices — looking at you iPhone — have become more technically complex, so has the ability to repair them. New tools, like the pentalobe screwdriver, were invented. Software locks were created partly to […]
Posted inBusiness, Environment, News, Technology
Thousands of usable iPhones trashed by one Colorado firm because well-meaning donors forgot to turn off “Find my iPhone”
In neatly sorted stacks and bins in a warehouse in Lafayette, 3,378 smartphones and tablets are waiting to be trashed. They are all used, all donated in the past three weeks, and most are in fine working condition. There are even four Apple iPhone Xs. But this batch of iPhones and iPads won’t join the […]