Twitter video app for smart TVs is 'coming'

 

Elon Musk, Chief Executive Officer of SpaceX and Tesla and owner of Twitter, gestures as he attends the Viva Technology conference dedicated to innovation and startups at the Porte de Versailles exhibition centre in Paris, France, June 16, 2023. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes June 17 - A Twitter video app for smart TVs is in the social media company's plans, owner Elon Musk said in a tweet on Saturday, a move that would be in line with the company's new plans to focus on growing video content on the platform. In response to a tweet suggesting that a Twitter video app is needed, Musk replied "It's coming". 

Understanding 5G – The backbone of the industrial Internet

The year 2019 will be remembered as the year that true cellular connectivity for the Internet of Things (IoT) finally got going. Nowadays not a week goes by without a new announcement of a new 4G NB-IoT / LTE-M network rollout. Yet the future for industry is already racing towards the fifth generation (5G) of wireless communication technology.

5G promises lightning-fast speed, barely noticeable latency (or communication response time) and vastly increased capacity. All four major U.S. carriers have green-lighted test networks and partial implementations in some cities.

The benefits of marrying the physical world with digital technologies have been discussed for what seems like a generation. Many industries could use the intelligence gleaned from connected systems to gain critical insights about their operations and how to make improvements that will make a genuine difference to their bottom line. While 4G is already creating dramatic improvements for industries around the world, it’s 5G that’s creating the greater buzz.

Data alone is not enough

TikTok named as the most downloaded app of 2020

 

 TikTok and Facebook apps on smartphone screenimage sourceReuters TikTok was the world's most downloaded app in 2020 as it took the top spot from Facebook Messenger, according to digital analytics company App Annie.

  The Chinese video-sharing platform is the only app not owned by Facebook to make the global top five of downloads. In its home country, TikTok's owner ByteDance also holds the top spot with the Chinese language video app Douyin. TikTok's continued popularity emerged even after former US President Donald Trump tried to ban it in America. 

Hackers have stolen some $600m (£433m) in what appears to be one the largest cryptocurrency heists ever

Blockchain site Poly Network said hackers had exploited a vulnerability in its system and taken thousands of digital tokens such as Ether. In a letter posted on Twitter, it urged the thieves to "establish communication and return the hacked assets". In scale, the hack is on par with huge recent breaches at exchanges such as Coincheck and Mt Gox. In its letter Poly Network said: "The amount of money you have hacked is one of the biggest in defi [decentralised finance] history. "Law enforcement in any country will regard this as a major economic crime and you will be pursued. "The money you stole are [sic] from tens of thousands of crypto community members, hence the people." 'We lost our life savings in a cryptocurrency scam' EU plans to make Bitcoin transfers more traceable Poly Network said a preliminary investigation found a hacker exploited a "vulnerability between contract calls". It urged various exchanges to block deposits of the coins, after millions of dollars in tokens were transferred to separate cryptocurrency wallets. About $267m of Ether currency has been taken, $252m of Binance coins and roughly $85 million in USDC tokens. Changpeng Zhao, chief executive of Binance, said his firm was aware of the hack, but added there was only so much he could do. He said the group was "co-ordinating with all our security partners to proactively help". "There are no guarantees," he added. Poly Network is a decentralised finance - or Defi - provider, which allows users to transfer tokens tied to one blockchain to a different network. 'All-time high' Cryptocurrency systems such as Ether and Binance were developed independently, so have struggled to work in conjunction with each other. Losses from fraud in the Defi sector hit an all-time high of $474m in the first seven months of the year, a report from research company CipherTrace said on Tuesday. But losses from crime in the overall cryptocurrency market dropped sharply to $681m, compared to $1.9bn for the whole of 2020 and $4.5bn in 2019. Last week, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charged Defi lender Blockchain Credit Partners and two of its top executives for raising $30m through allegedly fraudulent offerings.

iPhone X Reviews Agree Design And Display Upgrades Are Worth The Price

  In-depth press reviews for the iPhone X are now live after several influencer unboxings and previews days prior. The consensus is that Apple’s latest endeavor is a step in the right direction. Some of the largest gripes so far have been about Apple being more selective with how much time certain reviewers got with the device before opinions were allowed to be published. Still, many pundits have been fair, noting that while the iPhone X has many stellar qualities, it is far from perfect. Here’s what is being said.

Mashable

Lance Ulanoff called the iPhone X “the iPhone you want.” He praises its OLED display and both cameras on the smartphone. While he noted that the Face ID facial recognition is effective, he added that the feature is not 100 percent foolproof. Mashable did an experiment with two sets of twins, who were both able to unlock an iPhone X after their sibling set up Face ID.

How to switch phones without losing anything

A new smartphone model—from Google, Apple, or another manufacturer—catches your eye, and all of a sudden, your old handset won't cut it. But don't leap into an upgrade without taking precautions. After all, you store a lot of important information on your smartphone, and you don't want to lose any of it during the excitement of a switch.

Luckily, upgrading from one phone to another is a lot easier than it used to be, because we now store most of our digital possessions in the cloud. Plus, you can find some key apps to help you switch from one device to another. Here's what you need to know.

Automatic backups

Samsung’s Android Oreo beta is now live for Galaxy S8 owners

The Samsung Experience 9.0 is now live bringing a beta version of the Android Oreo operating system to Galaxy S8 or S8 Plus owners in the US, UK, and South Korea. Testers provide feedback about performance, stability, and usability in return for being first to use the new OS tweaked to Samsung’s liking. The program helps Samsung develop experiences across mobile software, apps, and other services before their official release.

The 5 most common online scams to watch for

The internet can be a scary place. Misinformation, false promises, and fake news lurk behind every clickbait headline and questionable link. Entire industries are built to profit from deceptive tricks to con the naive.
They say a sucker is born every minute, and online scam artists are counting on it. Their tricks are built to prey on trust. In addition to regularly changing the passwords for all of your accounts, the best way to protect yourself from being swindled is to remain skeptical and vigilant of anything that seems out of the ordinary.

The most common online scams

1) “There’s a problem with your account!”

You get an email from what appears to be PayPal or your bank with a message along the lines of: “There’s a problem with your account. Click this link to fix the issue or your account will be suspended.”
Once you click the link, you’re taken to a page that looks exactly like the login page to your account. So you enter your information, hit enter, and then… it doesn’t go through. Maybe just a browser glitch? Probably not.
What’s likely happened is that you’ve just given your valuable account information to scammers who now have free reign to do whatever they please with it.

How to use your Android Wear watch with an iPhone

If you've got a smartwatch rocking Android Wear 2.0 then you don't have to pair it with an Android phone - you can use an iPhone instead. You won't get quite the same level of functionality, unfortunately, but it means you're not stuck with one phone platform.

Samsung's extra-stretchable display can survive dents

Flexible displays are nothing new. However, most of them don't live up to the dreams of flexible tech -- they may only bend in a limited way. Samsung thinks it can do better. It just unveiled a 9.1-inch prototype OLED display that's stretchable in seemingly every way imaginable: you can bend, roll and even dent it (up to half an inch deep) knowing that it'll revert to its original form. The technology is still very young, but Samsung believes the stretchy screen will be useful for everything from wearables to in-car displays. Imagine a very thin smartwatch that can take some knocks without smashing into pieces.

Facebook Safety Check activated after deadly Manchester blast

Facebook's Safety Check activated after Manchester, England, explosion. Facebook's Safety Check was activated after the explosion in Manchester, England.

Facebook's Safety Check feature was activated Monday in the wake of an explosion at a concert in Manchester, England, that killed 19 and injured about 50 more.
The explosion occurred at the conclusion of an Ariana Grande concert at the Manchester Arena just before 10:35 p.m. local time. Greater Manchester police said it was "currently being treated as a terrorist incident until police know otherwise."

Everything points to Apple launching new MacBooks next month

Apple will unveil the next big thing for its various software operating systems at WWDC 2017, including iOS 11 and the next macOS major update. But the iPhone maker is also tipped to launch a variety of new products at the show, including the Siri speaker, a 10.5-inch iPad Pro, and new MacBooks. A new report says that Apple is indeed expected to launch new laptops this quarter, and there’s reason to be excited.

In a new research note to customers, TrendForce said that notebooks are having a little moment, again. Shipments for the first quarter of the year grew by 6.1% compared to last year, totaling around 37.81 million. That’s a 15.6% decline from the Christmas quarter, but still an impressive result for the period.

3 reasons why Google Lens won I/O

There were plenty of cool announcements at Google I/O, the company's annual developer conference. But the one that got us really excited is Google Lens. Lens is not a piece of hardware, but rather a behind-the-scenes piece of software that can recognize text and objects from a picture or camera. It analyzes and contextualizes what it sees in real time and shares that info quickly.

It sounds pretty dry on paper (Google uses phrases like "machine learning," "vision-based computing" and "artificial intelligence" to describe it), but when it was demoed at the conference, it was actually pretty neat -- even garnering some "oohs" and "ahhs" from the audience.
Here are the three ways Google Lens works, as well as a few real-world scenarios where it may come in handy, and why we're excited about it.

Antivirus firm warns of cyberattacks on home appliances

Internet security became a hot topic when a ransomware attack hit more than 300,000 computers worldwide. Avast, the company behind the leading antivirus software, warned Thursday against attacks on home appliances connected to the internet, calling hackers targeting home routers a major threat to consumers.

"It's a trivial thing to do and there's nothing the user can do to fix it, other than to throw the router away and put in a new router," Avast chief executive Vincent Steckler told reporters.
Avast chief technology officer Ondrej Vlcek said that more and more people were using internet-enabled appliances which he described as "a total nightmare when it comes to security".

Their code was used to hack Sony and create 'WannaCry.' Meet the 'Lazarus Group'

On Feb. 4, 2016, as employees left work to enjoy their weekends, the central bank of Bangladesh began firing off dozens of transfer orders to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, asking to remove money from its accounts — almost $1 billion.

It was a heist. The robbers hadn't walked in with guns or tunneled into a vault to get the money. They'd hijacked the bank's computer systems to access an international financial network, SWIFT, which shunts around billions of dollars a day. The invisible thieves made off with $81 million before officials halted the geyser of cash.

Samsung rumored to resell Note 7 as 'Fandom Edition' phones

In a move to make lemonade out of lemons, Samsung may sell refurbished editions of its infamous Galaxy Note 7 under a new name: the "Galaxy Note FE," or "Fandom Edition."

As you recall, Samsung ceased production and recalled the Note 7 (twice) after users reported in summer 2016 instances of the phone catching fire. In March of this year, Samsung stated that it will recycle returned Note 7s in an "environmentally friendly way," and listed turning the devices into "refurbished phones or rentals phones" as one of its three core methods. Today, a report from Korean news outlet ETNews said these handsets may be called the Galaxy Note FE, with FE standing for "Fandom Edition."

Microsoft to sell mixed-reality headset, controllers for $399

 Microsoft just added a pair of motion controllers to its recently announced mixed-reality headset, and the combo price of $399 beats a similar hardware pairing from Oculus Rift by $200.Developers working on applications for this forthcoming product, due to hit consumers around Christmas, can immediately begin ordering the tethered headsets made by partners Acer ($299) and HP ($329), Microsoft mixed reality chief Alex Kipman said Thursday at Build 2017, the company's annual developer conference running through May 12 in Seattle.
Mixed reality, also known as augmented reality, layers holographic images over the real world. Many experts say that eventually this technology will lead to the next generation of computers that will do away with physical laptops and keyboards.
That leap requires a significant shrinking in the format of mixed reality goggles, which at present are still bulky and tied to a computer due to their image-processing power requirements.
  

Verizon outbids AT&T for nationwide “5G” spectrum

Spencer Platt Verizon has outbid AT&T to buy spectrum-holding company Straight Path Communications for $3.1 billion after "an unusually intense bidding war" between the top two wireless carriers in the US, The Wall Street Journalreported today.
AT&T announced its own $1.6 billion acquisition of the company on April 10, saying that Straight Path "holds a nationwide portfolio of millimeter-wave (mmWave) spectrum, including 39GHz and 28GHz licenses," and that this spectrum will support development of AT&T's 5G wireless network. Straight Path's 735 licenses in the 39GHz band and 133 licenses in the 28GHz band "cover the entire United States, including all of the top 40 markets," AT&T said last month.

Are you ready to forfeit your laptop when flying?

  Since 9/11, airline passengers have had to deal with the full panoply of security measures: bans on liquids, inspection of laptops at security gates, taking shoes off, not to mention coping with shrinking legroom and most recently, passengers getting dragged off planes.
Now, the Trump administration and the Department of Homeland Security are contemplating a laptop ban that could cause even more tension between passengers and airlines.

In March, the US prohibited bringing laptops and tablet computers (all electronic devices larger than a mobile phone) into the passenger cabins of US-bound flights originating from airports in the Middle East, Turkey and Morocco. The Trump administration cited fears that terrorists might try to hide a bomb in those devices. Laptops aren’t completely banned. They can still be carried as checked luggage. Nine international airlines are directly affected, including Royal Jordanian, Royal Air Maroc, Turkish Airlines, EgyptAir, Kuwait Airways, Saudia, Emirates, Etihad Airways and Qatar Airways.

Apple reportedly set to start shipping iPhone 8 in October despite delay rumors

  Rumors about the next-generation iPhone are spreading at such a fast pace that last week CEO Tim Cook claimed they’re practically causing sales to drop – and today we have another one.
Despite conflictingreports over the past few weeks, Chinese media Economic Daily News (EDN) reports the Big A will unveil the new iPhone during its traditional hardware event in September, with shipping set to start on schedule later in October.
While earlier this year supply analyses from Deutsche Bank, UBS and KGI Securities’ Ming-Chi Kuo speculated the upcoming iPhone will likely see a little delay in shipping until November and perhaps even next year, EDN suggests the Cupertino behemoth has worked out its scheduling with partners and will deliver the new handset on time: