In today’s Bulldog wrapup of the latest technology news:

  • Facebook reduces human editors’ roles in ‘trending topics’ changes
  • NASA to help with drone traffic plan
  • Kim DotCom wants to live stream his appeal
  • Gears of War 4 score has big “Game of Thrones” connection
  • Iran unveils its intranet

The details:

  • Facebook reduces role of human editors in ‘trending topics’

Facebook is taking new steps to reduce the role of human judgment in its “Trending Topics” feature, which drew controversy earlier this year over claims the service was suppressing conservative views.

Although it denied bias, Facebook has sought to reassure users that it’s not showing favoritism when it highlights stories that are drawing comment on the social network.

Facebook says topics are selected by an algorithm that considers how often users post or share articles. Editors will still vet the list, but the feature will no longer include headlines or summaries written by editors. Instead it will show a selection of user comments and an excerpt from a news article.

Earlier, Facebook said editors would stop relying on outside news outlets to help decide which topics should be highlighted.

  • Feds turn to space experts NASA for small-drone traffic plan

America’s space agency is entering the second phase of a four-step plan to draw up rules of the road for small drones that fly under 500 feet.

The NASA project is meant to develop performance standards for drones that would be used for commercial purposes by companies such as Amazon and Google. It is a virtual system designed to help drone operators deal with weather conditions, restricted air space, airport congestion and other obstacles.

NASA is looking to present its research to the Federal Aviation Administration by the end of 2019. By that time, it estimates there will be seven million small drones in operation, including 2.6 million aircraft for commercial use.

The second phase of the project will include testing flights beyond visual line-of-sight of the operator.

  • Kim Dotcom wants to livestream legal fight against the US

Internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom wants to livestream his legal battle against the United States on YouTube.

Dotcom’s lawyers have asked if they can film his extradition appeal, which began Monday at New Zealand’s High Court in Auckland. The U.S. opposes the plan. The New Zealand judge criticized Dotcom’s request for coming at the last-minute but said he’d let other media discuss it before making a decision, the National Business Review newspaper reported.

A New Zealand judge last year ruled that Dotcom and three of his colleagues could be extradited to the U.S. to face conspiracy, racketeering and money-laundering charges.

The ruling came nearly four years after the U.S. shut down Dotcom’s file-sharing site Megaupload, which prosecutors say was widely used to illegally download songs, television shows and movies.

  • ‘Game of Thrones’ composer creating ‘Gears of War 4’ score

The composer for “Game of Thrones” is swapping the sword-filled realm of Westeros for the monster-plagued world of Sera.

Emmy- and Grammy-nominated Ramin Djawadi has crafted the score for “Gears ofWar 4,” the forthcoming fifth installment in the action-shooter series for Xbox One and PC. The prolific film and TV composer says he put his own spin on the game’ssoundtrack while remaining faithful to the nearly decade-old “Gears” series.

“Obviously, I wanted to make it very different from ‘Game of Thrones,'” said Djawadi. “Whenever I approach a new project, I want to make sure I’m setting up a new sound — even through we’re still using a lot of orchestra and percussion.”

Djawadi described the score, which was recorded at Sony Pictures Studios, as emotional and orchestral with synth elements. He said the music will also feature a few unique acoustic instruments he’s collected in his travels.

“There are some really nice scenes that are probably unexpected for ‘Gears,’ where we’re really pushing the emotional undertones with strings,” he said.

Note: Watch the latest Gears video with in-game action at:

  • Iran inaugurates its homegrown National Network of Data

Iran’s official news agency is reporting the country has inaugurated first phase of its “National Network of Data.”

Iran has long sought to create its own national Intranet. The Sunday report by IRNA says the network aims to promote online Islamic content, and encourage less dependency on the Internet while providing safer data transfer and protection against cyber-attacks.

It said the second phase of the decade-old project will go online in February 2017 and it will be completed in August 2017.
Critics say the network may eventually lead to more restrictions for users, but officials deny that.

Earlier in August, Iran targeted hundreds of social media users following a May crackdown on women modeling on Instagram.

Users inside Iran often access sites like Twitter and Facebook though proxies and VPNs.