World News: Talking Tech: A bad week for Facebook, plus new features for your iPhone

Thursday, October 28

Halloween is in three days, which means October is almost over.

If there's one entity that wants to shed this month faster than a Halloween costume after trick-or-treating, it's Facebook.

This week alone, we had the following:

► Whistleblower Frances Haugen, who unleashed a flurry of documents detailing how Facebook works from the inside, testified before British Parliament. Her message: Facebook has cultivated a platform for hate and misinformation, with little incentive to change.

► Documents obtained by USA TODAY revealed Facebook knew it was profiting from sex trafficking but took limited action to stop it.

► Also unveiled through these documents: how Facebook struggles to rein in hateful and divisive content against Black Americans.

► What does Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg have to say about all this?

What else happened in tech this week

Remember 3G? Back in the day when we still had flip phones and BlackBerry was the hot smartphone, 3G took off. Now it's about to go away.

A new way to redeem your MasterCard reward points. Want that in Bitcoin?

iOS 15.1 is out. If you love FaceTime, you can now watch NBA games, movies or listen to music with others on a call.

A device just for reading 📚📚📚? Seems wild, considering we have smartphones that do everything. But in the case of Amazon's Kindle Paperwhite, it's worth it.

Your Thursday tech tip

Guess what you can add to iPhone's Apple Wallet next to your Starbuck's card and your grocery store rewards card? Your COVID vaccine info.

On this week's Talking Tech

On the Talking Tech podcast, we discuss the Fisher-Price toy phone that actually takes calls, the end of 3G, and more on Facebook.

While I sneak mini-M&M's from the stash of Halloween candy I bought for trick-or-treaters, you enjoy your Thursday. And happy Halloween. 🎃 🎃 🎃

Follow Brett Molina on Twitter: @brettmolina23.

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