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Yelp.com is warning that a California lawsuit targeting critical posts about a law firm could lead to the removal of negative reviews and leave consumers with a skewed assessment of restaurants and other businesses. Lawyer Dawn Hassell said the business review website is exaggerating the stakes of her legal effort, which aims only to remove from Yelp lies, not just negative statements, that damaged the reputation of her law firm. Though its impact is in dispute, the case is getting attention from some of the biggest Internet companies in the world, which say a ruling against Yelp could stifle free speech online and effectively gut other websites whose main function is offering consumers reviews of services and businesses. A San Francisco judge determined the posts were defamatory and ordered the…

What if your computer or smartphone could tell if you’re happy or sad? A new device developed by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology can detect a person’s emotions using wireless signals reflecting off a person’s body to measure human behavior. Researchers from MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory say their EQ-Radio device is 87 percent accurate in telling if someone is excited, happy, angry or sad. It’s as accurate as an electrocardiogram monitor, which uses a sensor on the body, in measuring heartbeats. They say it could one day be used by film studios and advertising agencies to gauge audience reaction, in homes to adjust temperature based on mood, or in health care. MIT’s team plans to present the work at a mobile computing conference next month.…

Comcast plans to launch a cellphone service roughly in the middle of next year, although it would be limited to areas of the country where it’s a cable provider. That could potentially make the cable giant a competitor to carriers like Verizon and AT&T for a subset of the country. Comcast has just over 28 million customers. It plans to create a service that would run on its 15 million Wi-Fi hotspots and use Verizon’s wireless network, which it has a deal to resell. Comcast CEO Brian Roberts confirmed the company’s plans at an investment conference Tuesday in New York. He suggested that Comcast was looking at the mobile service as an add-on to customer bundles, and combining wireless service with Comcast cable or internet would likely make customers stick…

Samsung says new Galaxy Note 7 smartphones will be available in U.S. stores starting Wednesday to replace about 1 million devices that are being recalled because their batteries can catch fire. The South Korean company has been scrambling to fix problems caused by faulty batteries in the latest version of its top-of-the-line smartphone, which first went on sale last month. When it first offered on Sept. 2 to replace the affected Note 7 phones, Samsung said it would swap them for models of its other phones, such as the Galaxy S7, until supplies of replacement Note 7 devices became available. Samsung followed up last week by announcing that U.S. consumers who had purchased one of the recalled phones could choose between a replacement or a refund for the device, which…

“Sully” kept afloat in its second weekend at the box office. The Warner Bros. dramatization of the Miracle on the Hudson directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Tom Hanks remained at No. 1 with $21.6 million, bringing its total domestic haul to $70.2 million. Lionsgate’s horror revival “Blair Witch” was a distant No. 2 with a $9.6 million debut. Working Title Films’ comedy threequel “Bridget Jones’s Baby” with Renee Zellweger back as the titular character opened at No. 3 with $8.6 million. Oliver Stone’s “Snowden,” which stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt as NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, debuted at No. 4 with $8 million, marking the lowest box office opening in the filmmaker’s career. The top 20 movies at U.S. and Canadian theaters Friday through Sunday, followed by distribution studio, gross, number of…

For more than a decade, members of a little-known group called the Pain Care Forum have blanketed Washington with messages touting prescription painkillers’ vital role in the lives of millions of Americans, creating an echo chamber that has quietly derailed efforts to curb U.S. consumption of the drugs, which accounts for two-thirds of the world’s usage. In 2012, drugmakers and their affiliates in the forum sent a letter to U.S. senators promoting a hearing about an influential report on a “crisis of epidemic proportions”: pain in America. Few knew the report stemmed from legislation drafted and pushed by forum members and that their experts had helped author it. The report estimated more than 100 million Americans - roughly 40 percent of adults - suffered from chronic pain, an eye-popping statistic…

So many people are registering drones and applying for drone pilot licenses that federal aviation officials say they are contemplating the possibility of millions of unmanned aircraft crowding the nation’s skies in the not-too-distant future. In the nine months since the Federal Aviation Administration created a drone registration system, more than 550,000 unmanned aircraft have been registered with the agency, said Earl Lawrence, director of the FAA’s drone office. Speaking at the first meeting of a new government-industry drone advisory committee, Lawrence said new registrations are coming in at a rate of 2,000 a day. By comparison, the FAA says there are 260,165 manned aircraft registered in the U.S. The FAA began issuing drone pilot licenses to commercial operators less than a month ago. Already, 13,710 people have applied to…

The latest software update for Mac computers, MacOS Sierra, brings iPhone services to Apple laptops and desktops and further breaks down walls between devices. It also borrows an iPad feature for watching video while you work and offers ways to automatically free up storage space. The free update is available Tuesday through the Mac’s app store. If you have any crucial third-party software or accessories, you might want to hold off until you verify that they will work properly with Sierra. Check with the software or accessory maker, or look for any complaints online. Be sure to back up your data before upgrading. Once you have Sierra, here are things to look for: iPHONE COMES TO THE MAC Sierra brings two features already found on iPhones: the Siri virtual assistant…

CUPERTINO FIRM KEEPS PACE IN THE SMARTWATCH MARKET Earlier this month, Apple unveiled its new Apple Watch Series 2, and the early reviews have been positive ones. With a whole host of improvements and additions – including water resistance and GPS tracking – it is clear that Apple means business and wants to dominate the market after a lukewarm Watch launch last year. Initial reviews for the second iteration included that of TechRadar, which said that the new Watch “refined” many of the core features that Apple Watch owners already know and love - so does Apple have another winning device on its hands? HEALTH AND SPORTS TAKE CENTER STAGE It is clear that Apple is placing an even greater focus on fitness for the second edition of the Apple Watch. Two…

Saying they were doing something no other government has done, Obama administration officials rolled out a plan Tuesday they say will enable automakers to get self-driving cars onto the road without compromising safety. In drawing up 112 pages of guidelines, the government tried to be vague enough to allow innovation while at the same time making sure that car makers, tech companies and ride-hailing firms put safety first as the cars are developed. Only time will tell whether the mission was accomplished, but the document generally was praised by businesses and analysts as good guidance in a field that’s evolving faster than anyone imagined just a few years ago. “How do you regulate a complex software system?” asked Timothy Carone, a Notre Dame University professor who has written about the…

The Shallows A surfer becomes stranded 200 yards from the shore, and soon finds herself under threat from a great white shark in a struggle for survival. FIVE FACTS: 1. The movie was partly shot on the  Australian Gold Coast, with other filming taking place in a giant swimming pool. 2. The screenplay for the movie appeared on the 2014 Black List, a list of the “most liked” unmade scripts of the year. 3. The film’s original title was In the Deep. 4. Nancy’s nickname for the film’s seagull character is Steven Seagull, a pun on actor Steven Seagal. 5. Nancy makes her stand for survival on the number “42” buoy - significant, given that 42 is considered in pop culture to be the answer to the meaning…

Finally, the computer hackers of the world have a TV show they can call their own. “Mr. Robot,” a mind-bending drama in which a morphine-using computer-security drone gets enmeshed in a revolutionary plot against corporate domination, is notable for many things - unreliable narration, an ominous Christian Slater, hallucinatory plot twists, a foreboding and dystopic atmosphere shot through with black humor. (There’s also the star turn by Rami Malek as young hacker Elliot Alderson; he took home an Emmy for best lead actor in a dramatic series Sunday night. Malek opened his acceptance speech with a callback to one of his character’s first lines: “Please tell me you’re seeing this, too.”) But the show is also unusually dedicated to getting the details of hacker culture and computer vulnerabilities right. That’s…

esla announced that it will build a battery storage system at a California utility substation that will have the largest output of any existing lithium-ion storage facility. Southern California Edison selected Tesla to construct the storage project in Riverside County, the company said in a statement. The facility will store 80 megawatt hours of electricity, or enough to power more than 2,500 households for a day, Tesla said. The system is designed to increase electrical grid reliability by taking a charge from it during off-peak hours and delivering power to customers during peak hours, the Los Angeles Times reported. It is expected to go online by the end of this year. Edison and other California utilities are under a 2013 order by California’s Public Utilities Commission to install 1.3 gigawatts…

Microsoft Corp. says its board has approved a dividend increase and a new $40 billion stock buyback plan. The Redmond, Washington, company said Tuesday it will pay a quarterly dividend of 39 cents on Dec. 8 to shareholders of record Nov. 17. That’s up 3 cents, or 8 percent, from its previous payout. The technology giant also said it’s on track to complete its existing $40 billion stock buyback plan by year-end. The new plan has no expiration and may be terminated anytime. Shares of Microsoft are up about 30 percent in the past year. In after-hours trading, the stock rose 67 cents to $57.48.…

Obama administration officials previewed long-awaited guidance Monday that attempts to bring self-driving cars to the nation’s roadways safely - without creating so many roadblocks that the technology can’t make it to market quickly. Traditional automakers and tech companies have been testing self-driving prototypes on public roads for several years, with a human in the driver’s seat just in case. The results suggest that what once seemed like a technology perpetually over the horizon appears to be fast approaching, especially with car companies announcing a string of investments and acquisitions in recent months. Federal officials have been struggling with how to capitalize on the technology’s promised safety benefits - the cars can react faster than people, but don’t drink or get distracted - while making sure they are ready for widespread…

Many people in the New York City area were alerted Monday (19) morning to a screeching, buzzing message about a man wanted in connection with explosions in the area over the weekend. A Saturday explosion in Manhattan injured 29 people. Other devices were found in the New York City area but caused no injuries. The alert read, “WANTED: Ahmad Khan Rahami, 28-yr-old male. See media for pic. Call 9-1-1 if seen.” Police had him in custody later Monday, after a New Jersey bar owner reported a person asleep in the bar’s doorway. What are these alerts and how do they work? WHAT ARE WIRELESS EMERGENCY ALERTS? According to the Federal Communications Commission, these text-like messages let cellphone users in a particular area receive notices about what are deemed critical emergencies.…

A wildfire burning at a central California Air Force base on Sunday forced the postponement of a satellite launch, officials said. An Atlas 5 rocket was to carry a satellite known as WorldView-4 into orbit from Vandenberg Air Force Base. The satellite is designed to produce high-resolution images of Earth from space. The fire burning in a remote canyon didn’t immediately threaten the space launch complex, Col. Paul Nosek said on the base’s Facebook page. But he said the blaze required firefighters to be redeployed from standing by at the launch. Nearly 800 firefighters were trying to corral the fire that was nearly 2 square miles in size. The launch will be postponed until at least Sept. 26, according to United Launch Alliance, a joint venture by Lockheed Martin and…

Skeleton Tree Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds The infamous and inimitable singer-songwriter’s 16th studio album is his most experimental, chilling and heartbreaking yet, but still offers the enticing songwriting for which he is known. FIVE FACTS: 1. Cave’s son Arthur, 15, died after falling from a cliff at Ovingdean near Brighton, England on July 14, 2015. 2. One More Time with Feeling, a documentary film about the aftermath of Cave’s son’s death and the recording process of Skeleton Tree, accompanied the album’s release. 3. The album debuted at number two on the United Kingdom’s midweek albums chart, selling 17,600 copies in its first three days of release. 4. A film about Cave’s life, titled 20,000 Days on Earth and directed by artists Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard, was…

In the waters off the coast of Hawaii, a tall buoy bobs and sways in the water, using the rise and fall of the waves to generate electricity. The current travels through an undersea cable for a mile to a military base, where it is fed into Oahu’s power grid - the first wave-produced electricity to go online in the U.S. By some estimates, the ocean’s endless motion packs enough power to meet a quarter of America’s energy needs and dramatically reduce the nation’s reliance on oil, gas and coal. But wave energy technology lags well behind wind and solar power, with important technical hurdles still to be overcome. To that end, the Navy has established a test site in Hawaii, with hopes the technology can someday be used to…

The company that made the camera and computer system for Tesla Motors’ semi-autonomous Autopilot says the electric car maker ignored its warnings of safety problems. Israel-based Mobileye said Friday (16) that last year, prior to the release of Autopilot, it warned Tesla not to allow drivers to use the system without their hands on the steering wheel. The system Tesla rolled out in the fall allows drivers to remove their hands from the wheel while the car takes control of steering and other functions. Mobileye’s statement escalates a public spat with Tesla and will almost certainly draw the interest of two federal agencies investigation the death of a driver while using Autopilot in a May crash in Florida. At issue is whether Tesla rolled out the system before it was…