Dawn Chmielewski

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai immediately shot down a request to investigate Sinclair Broadcasting Group for distorting the news, and to pause the review of Sinclair's pending acquisition of Tribune Media. Chairman  Pai said the FCC doesn’t have the authority to revoke licenses based on the content of newscasts.

Donald Trump used his favorite hailing frequency, Twitter, to confirm his selection of Gov Mike Pence (R-IN) as his vice presidential running mate. The choice is bound to make conservatives within the Republican party happy — though the he’s unlikely to win the hearts and minds of anyone in the tech industry. Indeed, his selection is likely to provoke the ire of many leaders in Silicon Valley, 70 of whom aligned against an anti-LGBT measure that Gov Pence signed into law in 2015. Some of the technology industry’s most prominent executives — among them Apple’s Tim Cook and Salesforce’s Marc Benioff — vocally protested the state’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act, a “religious liberty bill” that they warned would open the door to legalizing discrimination against minority groups.

Of course, Trump isn’t courting Silicon Valley with his choice of Gov Pence. The first-term governor and former congressman is there to make the GOP’s evangelical wing happy. He’s a guy who described himself as “a Christian, a conservative and a Republican, in that order.” For Silicon Valley, which has aggressively used corporate muscle on issues of LGBT rights, it seems Trump’s likely pick might be the worst possible selection he could have made.

Gov Jerry Brown (D-CA) has signed into law a bill that will require all smartphones sold in California to come equipped with technology that would render the devices useless if stolen.

The “kill switch” measure, proposed by Sen Mark Leno (D-San Francisco), applies to all smartphones sold in the state after July 1, 2015.

AT&T has developed “Cascade,” which routes a wireless subscriber’s calls and messages to an array of devices -- flowing from a smartphone to a wearable device to the car.

Theoretically, you would be able to leave your smartphone at home while jogging with your smartwatch or wearable and still remain in touch.

Overtime, wage and other violations were found at two facilities in China operated by one of Apple’s suppliers, Quanta, according to a new report from the Fair Labor Association.

The non-profit organization conducted inspections of plants in Shanghai and Changshu in August 2013, and interviewed hundreds of workers. The longest consecutive work period stretched to 16 days, without a break.

A California bill that would require cellphone makers to install a “kill switch” to render stolen devices inoperable has passed the state legislature, and now moves to the governor’s office for consideration.

The bill won Senate approval by a vote of 27-8. If Gov Jerry Brown (D-CA) signs the bill, it would be among the first such laws in the nation.

While it’s not clear if T-Mobile’s owner Deutsche Telekom is taking seriously a $15 billion bid from French telecommunications firm Iliad, one thing is certain: The deal would be a lot easier to get approved than any merger with Sprint.

Antitrust regulators wouldn’t likely have many issues with an Iliad deal since the French company doesn’t have any US telecommunications assets and its purchase of T-Mobile wouldn’t consolidate the industry by lowering the number of large wireless carriers from four to three.

The Federal Communications Commission would consider whether the deal is in the public interest as well as ensuring it falls within foreign ownership limits. The foreign ownership issue likely wouldn’t really be much of an sticking point, however, since T-Mobile’s current majority owner is German telecommunications giant Deutsche Telekom. Transferring ownership to a French company wouldn’t really be a big deal -- unlike, say, an acquisition by a Chinese or Russian company with government ties.

A recent survey sponsored by Motorola Mobility and B2X found that one in seven Americans would rather give up their best friends for a week than part with their smartphones.

An even greater number -- 40 percent of respondents -- said it would be difficult, if not impossible, to surrender their phones for a day, even if offered $100 to shed their cellular handcuffs.

The 518 people surveyed said they keep their devices within reach, day and night. The desire to remain in constant contact is so great, they frequently don’t turn off their phones. The survey is intended to provide insights into customers’ needs and “pain points” when it comes to delivering services.

Some T-Mobile subscribers turned to Reddit to complain about problems with the mobile carrier’s new music freedom program, which allows customers to listen to streaming services without incurring data charges.

A few customers wrote that they had been racking up data charges while listening to Spotify -- a problem they hadn’t encountered while tuning in to other streaming services, such as iHeart Radio or Pandora.

T-Mobile said it doesn’t have any indication that Spotify or any other music applications included in its program are drawing down customers’ high-speed wireless data buckets. A spokesman urged customers who are experiencing problems to contact T-Mobile’s customer care.

T-Mobile’s provocative chief executive, John Legere, couldn’t resist taking a Twitter shot at corporate neighbor Amazon for reportedly striking an exclusive distribution deal with AT&T for its forthcoming smartphone.

Legere tweeted, in a seeming fit of pique, “Really, @Amazon? What happened to home-town pride?”

Both the un-carrier’s US operations and the retailer’s headquarters are in metropolitan Seattle. AT&T will reportedly be the exclusive carrier for Amazon’s much-anticipated smartphone, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The carrier declined comment, and Amazon won’t even confirm it is indeed launching a phone -- though it has scheduled a press event in Seattle where the smartphone is expected to be unveiled.