Category: United States

These articles are related to mobile commerce changes and companies within the United States. We post daily articles about US mobile shopping trends and how this is affecting America’s industry of all kinds.

Disney Happy Meal toys pulled due to McDonald’s QR code problem

Stephanie Beck
McDonald’s QR code - McDonald's sign

The fast food chain has temporarily withdrawn the “Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway” toys. An issue with the McDonald’s QR code has caused the restaurant chain to temporarily pull the “Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway” toys from their Happy Meals. Both the toys and the boxes have been withdrawn, disappointing Disney collectors waiting for them. That said, the withdrawal of the Happy Meal toys and boxes is temporary. These toys promoting the Disney theme will be returned, only without the McDonald’s QR code that had been added to the original…

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New legislation may bring vacancy QR codes to Baltimore

Sam Lambert
Vacancy QR codes - vacant building

These new municipal regulations may help hold slumlords and neglectful proprietors accountable. Under new Baltimore municipal legislation, vacancy QR codes may be required to be displayed on signs in front of the thousands of empty buildings in the city. City lawmakers are hoping that neglectful property owners will be held more accountable for wasting real estate. The goal of the vacancy QR codes is to help to make slumlords accountable for these empty buildings across the city, and to hopefully make these spaces more accessible to their neighbors. A meeting…

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Smartphone cameras aren’t capturing the same orange California skies viewers are seeing

Jorge Gonzalez
Smartphone cameras - orange sky, San Francisco

Device users faced an unusual struggle in attempting to take a picture of the orange apocalyptic skies. Smartphone cameras were having a particularly difficult time as users attempted to capture images of the Californian West Coast’s orange skies. Massive orange smoky clouds from uncontrolled wildfires changed the color of the sky in California and Oregon. People have called the look of the skies in parts of Oregon and California apocalyptic, or as though they were looking at a landscape on Mars. That said, as they raised their smartphone cameras to…

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FCC opens up more 5G spectrum for use ahead of iPhone 12

Jennifer Goula
5G spectrum - Mobile Phone

The Federal Communications Commission made the move before Apple’s first compatible phones launch. Ahead of the launch of the iPhone 12, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has made more of the 5G spectrum available. The FCC auctioned off rights to its mid-band 5G, which operates in the range of 3550 MHz to 3650 MHz. This, said the FCC, made the day an important one to the rollout of the technology in the US. The auction represented the largest number of 5G spectrum licenses that have ever received biddings from the…

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Clearview AI signs new contract to provide ICE facial recognition

Stephanie Beck
ICE facial recognition - Face Identity

The contract arrives after months of privacy practices scrutiny against the company. US Immigration and Customs Enforcement has signed a new contract with Clearview AI to provide the government agency with ICE facial recognition technology. The contracting records were first spotted by the Tech Inquiry accountability nonprofit. The purchase order for the ICE facial recognition technology from Clearview AI was labeled as a “mission support” government contract for $224,000. It lists the contracting office as “ICE mission support dallas” and the purchase as “clearview licenses”. This is not the first…

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