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There are only two commissioners left at the FCC

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There are only two commissioners left at the FCC

After the departure of one Republican and one Democratic commissioner on Friday, the Federal Communications Commission is down to two members, falling below the quorum threshold for what’s typically a five-person panel.

Commissioners Nathan Simington and Geoffrey Starks stepped down at the end of the week. That leaves Republican Chair Brendan Carr and Democratic Commissioner Anna Gomez as the two remaining voting members. President Donald Trump has nominated Republican Senate staffer Olivia Trusty to the commission, but the chamber has yet to vote on her confirmation, which left the agency deadlocked even before these departures. The FCC is in charge of everything from broadband regulations and subsidies funds, to telecommunications mergers enforcement, to spectrum auctions. Without a three-member quorum, some of that work, and the agenda of Trump-aligned Carr, is left in limbo.

Starks and Simington both announced the date of their departures earlier this week, though Starks indicated in March that he planned to step down; neither offered specific reasons for their departure. Carr indicated he intends to keep up the pace, writing in a blog post that “the show must go on.”

There’s a lot that Carr can at least try to do while awaiting a quorum, even without another Republican commissioner to vote on more partisan proposals. Carr has already used so-called delegated authority to let the FCC’s various bureaus carry out the agency’s work without a vote from the full commission. Verizon’s $20 billion deal to buy Frontier was recently approved by the FCC’s Wireline Competition Bureau, for example, which Gomez criticized as a “backroom” deal that should have been brought to a full commission vote.

Gomez and Carr can also operate as a two-member board of the commissioners under Rule 0.212, allowing them to do most things they normally would besides issue final rules or actions, according to Public Knowledge senior vice president Harold Feld. That could hold up any final action to roll back a host of regulations through Carr’s “Delete, Delete, Delete” initiative, spurred by a Trump executive order, but allow for new notices of proposed rulemakings or other first steps — so long as they can both agree on them.

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Even if the commission can likely accomplish most of its day-to-day work, Feld warns that operating without a quorum under confusing legal precedents could be risky. “It puts a cloud over everything,” he says. It could also cause problems if the Supreme Court issues an awaited ruling on the future of the Universal Service Fund, which helps subsidize communications services for rural and low-income households, and requires changes that would need to be approved by a commission vote.

Though a Senate vote on Trusty’s confirmation could be scheduled in the coming month or two and officially end the limbo, Feld worries about what could happen if it stretches into hurricane season. After past natural disasters, he says, the FCC has broken red tape to get money for telecommunications networks repairs out faster. “That potentially might be a problem if the FCC doesn’t have a quorum,” he says. “How much are we handicapped in the event of a weather-related crisis? Will we just decide that the bureaus can act on delegated authority? … [Or] is the commission going to be paralyzed to act in the face of a crisis?”

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The Bumpboxx BB-777 is the ultimate in boombox nostalgia

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The Bumpboxx BB-777 is the ultimate in boombox nostalgia

Bumpboxx is fully embracing nostalgia with its latest boombox, the BB-777, which is modeled very closely on the legendary Sharp GF-777. A real deal GF-777 will set you back over $2,000 for one in working order. Plus, that vintage unit lacks modern amenities like Bluetooth or a rechargeable battery. Heck, it doesn’t even have a CD player.

The BB-777 takes the core of the GF, right down to the dual-cassette decks, control layout, and speaker specs printed above the subwoofers. It’s undeniably a gorgeous piece of gear with its vintage silver finish and extensive physical controls. But then it adds a replaceable battery pack, Bluetooth, and an LCD screen. One unfortunate loss is the analog VU meters, something that We Are Rewind managed to include on its Blaster boombox.

There are six speakers: Two Super Woofers with dedicated gain control, two coaxial speakers, and two horn tweeters. They’re pushing out a total of 270W, so volume shouldn’t be a concern. Unless, of course, you’re worried about it being too loud. The speakers are ported too, to help with bass response.

In addition to the dual cassette decks, the BB-777 has a slot-loading CD player, an AM / FM / shortwave radio, USB audio playback (MP3 / WMA / WAV / FLAC / ACC), an aux input (with an included RCA adapter), plus Bluetooth. It can even record directly to a USB drive from the tape decks, CD, or radio for digitizing and archiving. Basically, the only thing it can’t do is stream audio directly over Wi-Fi.

There are also two microphone inputs on the front in case you want to get real old school and use the BB-777 to host a rap battle in the park or MC a break dancing competition. There are also two built-in mics for reasons that I’m not entirely sure of. But it might come in handy if you just want to quickly record your kid saying something funny on cassette.

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There is a handle for lugging it around, but you’ll probably want to make use of the shoulder strap if you’re going more than a few yards, as the BB-777 weighs in at a chunky 28-pounds. Instead of going straight to market, Bumpboxx is taking the BB-777 to Kickstarter first. A pledge of $649 will secure you one when they start shipping, supposedly in June. After that, they’ll cost $1,049 at retail.

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If someone gets into your email, they own every account you have. These 3 moves lock them out for good

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If someone gets into your email, they own every account you have. These 3 moves lock them out for good

NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!

My friend Lisa called me last night, voice shaking. Someone had cleaned out her PayPal. Then her Amazon. Then they tried her bank. Three accounts in 40 minutes. The criminals never touched her passwords. They didn’t have to.

They had her email.

10 SIMPLE CYBERSECURITY RESOLUTIONS FOR A SAFER 2026

Think about what lives in yours right now. Bank statements. Medical results. Your retirement account, your mortgage company, every streaming service, every store you’ve ever bought anything from. And here’s the part that should stop you cold: every password reset link on the planet gets delivered straight to your inbox.

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A criminal doesn’t need to hack your bank. They just need your inbox. One account. Every other door swings wide open. That’s not a flaw in the system. That’s how email was designed to work. And most people protect it with the same password they’ve been using since the Bush administration.

Nope. Not anymore.

Online criminals prowl the web for information on your banking, personal documents and other related accounts. Experts say your email could be a gateway for this activity. (Sergei Supinsky/AFP via Getty Images)

Here’s how fast it actually happens

The criminal goes to your bank’s website. Click “forgot password” and type in your email address. The bank sends a reset link to your inbox. The criminal, already inside your email, clicks it, creates a new password and walks right in. Then they do it to your Amazon. Your PayPal. Your brokerage. Your health insurance portal.

Each account takes about 60 seconds. It’s less effort than ordering a pizza.

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The FBI calls this account takeover fraud, and it cost Americans $2.7 billion last year alone. The part that should really bother you: 81% of victims said they thought they were “pretty careful” about security beforehand. (Their words, not mine).

BE AWARE OF EXTORTION SCAM EMAILS CLAIMING YOUR DATA IS STOLEN

Three moves. No excuses

1. Get a real password for your email right now.

If your email password is under 16 characters or reused anywhere else, change it today. I use NordPass ($1.43 a month) to generate passwords that look like a cat walked across my keyboard. You remember one master password. It handles the rest. That’s the whole deal.

Experts say that securing your email can limit your exposure and vulnerability to cybercrime. (Cyberguy.com)

2. Turn on two-factor authentication. But not the text message version.

Two-factor means even if someone steals your password, they still can’t get in without a second code. Good. But here’s what most people don’t know: SMS text codes can be hijacked through something called a SIM swap attack. A criminal calls your cell carrier, sweet-talks a customer service rep and transfers your phone number to their device. Now your “secure” text codes go straight to them.

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Use Google Authenticator instead. It generates codes on your physical phone, not through your carrier. Go to your email account’s security settings and swap SMS verification for an authenticator app. Takes five minutes.

NEW EMAIL SCAM USES HIDDEN CHARACTERS TO SLIP PAST FILTERS

3. Audit every app connected to your inbox.

Every time you clicked “Sign in with Google” to access some website or app, you handed that app a key to your email. Some of those apps can read your messages. Some can send emails posing as you. I did this audit last year and found 34 apps with access to my Gmail. Thirty-four. Apps I’d completely forgotten existed, still holding a master key to everything.

Go here right now: myaccount.google.com > Security > Third-party apps with account access. Revoke anything you don’t recognize or actively use. Gone.

Experts say taking a few simple steps to audit apps and emails will protect you from cybercrime vulnerabilities.  (CyberGuy.com)

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Your bank has a fraud department. Your credit card has zero-liability protection. Your email? Nobody’s covering that one but you.

Twenty minutes. Three moves. Lisa wishes she’d done it on a boring Sunday afternoon instead of a panicked Tuesday night.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

Your inbox is either a fortress or an open door. There’s no in between. And unlike your front door, this one doesn’t even need a deadbolt. Just strong security.

Kim Komando is America’s Digital Goddess, heard on 510 radio stations nationwide. For more tips on staying safe online, visit Komando.com.

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Apple launches iOS 26.4 with AI playlists, purchase sharing, and more

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Apple launches iOS 26.4 with AI playlists, purchase sharing, and more

iOS 26.4 is here, and it comes with a bunch of small but notable updates. That includes a new Playlist Playground launching in beta in Apple Music, which uses AI to generate a song playlist — complete with a title, description, and tracklist — based on a text prompt.

Apple Music is also adding a new concert discovery feature, allowing you to find nearby shows featuring artists from your library, as well as new ones recommended by the app. Other updates include full-screen backgrounds for album and playlist pages, along with a new Offline Music Recognition tool that “identifies songs without an internet connection and delivers results automatically when you’re back online.”

Apple’s Family Sharing feature, which allows you to share Apple subscriptions with up to six other people, will now let each adult member add their own payment methods to make purchases (instead of just using the method belonging to the group organizer). Additionally, iOS 26.4 adds eight new emoji, including an orca, trombone, landslide, ballet dancer, and distorted face. It also improves the accuracy of its keyboard when typing quickly, according to Apple.

There are a few new accessibility features, too, including an update to Apple’s “reduce bright effects” setting that now minimizes flashes that occur when tapping on certain elements like buttons. Apple is making subtitle and caption settings easier to find as well, and says its “reduce motion” setting now “more reliably reduces the animations of Liquid Glass.”

Apple released its macOS 26.4 update as well, which introduces a new compact tab bar option in Safari and the ability to set charging limits from 80 to 100 percent to help preserve the lifespan of your device’s battery.

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