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Tech NewsPrivacy & SecurityQualcomm Chip Flaw Could Leave 30 Percent of the World’s Phones Vulnerable to Hackers
A recently discovered vulnerability inside Qualcomm-produced phone chips could be exploited to gain access to data on affected devices, allowing an intruder to snoop on phone calls and text messages. The bug, which was discovered and disclosed by security firm Check Point Research, may be exploitable on a whopping 30 percent of the world’s phones. … Continued
By Lucas Ropek -
Tech NewsGoogle Is Launching Its Own Version of Apple’s Privacy Nutrition Labels
Google is taking a page from Apple’s playback with a new safety section in the Google Play Store to help users better identify the kinds of data access and permissions that Android apps have in the background. It’s not immediately clear what the section will look like or where you should look for it, but … Continued
By Florence Ion -
Tech NewsGoogle Assistant Is Getting a New Family Broadcast Feature Just in Time for Mother’s Day
Mother’s Day is coming up this weekend, so to help make it just a bit easier to organize the family for a celebration, Google is giving the Google Assistant a handful of new features including Family Broadcast. While users can already use the Google Assistant’s standard Broadcast feature to send voice clips to other Google … Continued
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ReviewsHome Entertainment & Smart HomeAsus’ First Wi-Fi 6E Router Is a Beast for Gaming, but Struggles Everywhere Else
It seems like only yesterday that Wi-Fi 6 routers really started to hit the market, and that’s true—the first products trickled out in late 2018, and the new 802.11ax standard is only now going mainstream. But the FCC has opened up the 6 GHz band to unlicensed use, so router manufacturers are taking the ax … Continued
By Wes Davis -
Tech NewsBillboard Is Partnering With Twitter to Rank Music in a New, Fun Way
Billboard — the music industry’s stalwart chart resource — announced plans on Wednesday to team up with Twitter to give the people what they want: more charts. The latest chart, dubbed “the Billboard Hot Trending Powered by Twitter,” will do exactly what its name implies: gauge how many Twitter conversations are happening around a particular … Continued
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Tech NewsGadgetsGoogle Is Bringing a Google TV-Like Experience to Android Tablets
Google is revamping its Android tablet interface with what it calls Entertainment Space, which offers quick access to movies, shows, games, and books in the Play Store. Entertainment Space will be available for Walmart’s Onn tablets later this month, with launches slated for existing and new tablets from Lenovo, Sharp, and other manufacturers. Google said the … Continued
By Florence Ion -
Tech NewsOversight Board Finds Facebook Took the Coward’s Way Out With Trump Ban, Also Takes Coward’s Way Out
America may have to wait another six months to find out whether Facebook has the capacity to make a good decision. On Wednesday, Facebook’s Oversight Board announced that it would uphold the social media network’s decision to suspend Donald Trump from its main site and Instagram after he rallied his supporters to attack the Capitol … Continued
By Tom McKay -
Tech NewsPrivacy & SecurityYou Should Definitely Update Your Dell Computer Right Now
A public service announcement for anyone who, like me, is using a years-old Dell computer as their primary machine: Dell has released a security patch for a security vulnerability affecting close to 400 different computer models manufactured between 2009 and right now. That’s, uh, a lot of laptops. The vulnerability was discovered by security research … Continued
By Florence Ion -
Tech NewsArea Man Wants You To Check Out His Blog
After threatening for months to disrupt social media with a bespoke platform that would allow him to bypass community guidelines (and the embarrassingly long list of platforms he’s been banned from), our big patriotic boy has finally made good on his promise. Folks, the wait is over — the future is now, and it’s a … Continued
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Tech NewsGoogle May Have Inadvertently Just Spilled the Beans About the Pixel Buds A on Twitter
Google I/O 2021 is just a couple of weeks away, but in the run-up to its annual developer conference, Google may have just accidentally confirmed the existence of the Pixel Buds A on Twitter. In a tweet from the official Android Twitter account that has since been deleted, Google showed off a new version of … Continued
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Tech NewsSocial MediaTwitter’s Upcoming Subscription Service Looms Following Latest Acquisition
While Twitter has yet to officially outline plans for its upcoming subscription service, the social media giant continues to prep for its release with the acquisition of Scroll. In a blog post announcing the buyout, Twitter says it’s planning to enlist Scroll’s tech to create a better way to read news stories and articles “without … Continued
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Tech NewsPrivacy & SecurityUpdate to iOS 14.5.1 Right Now or Your iPhone Is a Sitting Duck for Hackers
Apple has rushed out fixes to two major vulnerabilities in iOS and iPadOS 14.5, last month’s update that implemented its App Tracking Transparency feature. Both bugs could have allowed malicious parties to remotely execute code, possibly leading to the takeover of an affected device. That means you need to update your devices as soon as … Continued
By Tom McKay -
Tech NewsPrivacy & Security60% of School Apps Are Sharing Your Kids’ Data With Third Parties
Over the past year, we’ve seen schools shift to digital services at an unprecedented rate as a way to educate kids safely during the covid-19 pandemic. We’ve also seen these digital tools slurp up these kid’s data at a similarly unprecedented rate, suffer massive breaches, and generally handle student’s personal information with a lot less … Continued
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Tech NewsMicrosoft Is Cutting the Adobe Flash Cord in July
Adobe Flash officially reached end of life at the end of 2020, and now Microsoft is removing Flash from Windows 10 this summer. While Microsoft had already started to remove support for Flash from a number of its apps, including its Edge browser, there is still some native support for Adobe’s Flash Player built into … Continued
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Tech NewsApple Mulled Lowering Its App Store Commissions Way Back in 2011, Emails Show
At the heart of Epic Games’ case against Apple is the company’s 30% App Store commission and its iron rule over in-app purchases. We now know, thanks to internal documents unearthed through the Epic’s lawsuit, that Phil Schiller, the top executive in charge of App Store, had floated the idea of cutting its infamous Apple … Continued
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Tech NewsChild Sexual Abuse Site With 400,000 Users Shut Down by a Multinational Task Force
An international task force has shut down a large-scale dark web child sexual abuse platform, along with several similarly aligned dark web chat sites. According to an announcement from Germany’s Central Office for Combating Internet Crime (ZIT), “Boystown” had 400,000 registered users and was “one of Europe’s most prolific child sexual abuse platforms on the … Continued
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Tech NewsHardware Hacker Breaks the DRM on a Mini Dishwasher
In what amounts to a very clever bit of hardware hacking, developer dekuNukem (the hacker who created a little device that automatically switches your screen to work when a boss walks by) has detailed a methodology for refilling the DRM-protected detergent cassettes for a $486 portable dishwasher called Bob. Trust me, it’s more interesting than … Continued
By John Biggs -
Tech NewsClubhouse Is Losing Steam
Clubhouse—the company that was making headlines just a few months back for drawing major celebrities (and Elon Musk)—seems to have reached a tipping point. In April, the app reached a grand total of 922,000 downloads, new research found, a sharp downturn after bringing in millions of new users just a month earlier. These numbers come … Continued
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Tech NewsThe Epic vs. Apple Hearing Is Already a Disaster
The Epic v. Apple trial kicked off on Monday morning, and it’s already devolved into a giant, internet-fueled mess. First, the court had issues getting both teleconference lines up and running, and even when they were humming along fine, everyone’s lines seemed to be unmuted. On the main line, one person chanted, “Epic Games! Epic … Continued
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Tech NewsNeuralink President Announces That He’s Left Elon Musk’s Brain-Computer Interface Company
Max Hodak, the president of Neuralink, a company that aims to connect human brains with computers which was cofounded by Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, has said he left the company a few weeks ago. Hodak did not provide any reason for his departure. In a post on Twitter on Saturday, Hodak, who is … Continued
By Jody Serrano