Facebook under fire following revelations it shared users’ personal data with Chinese company

 

MALCOLM Turnbull says he would love Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg to come to Australia and answer questions about the social network sharing personal user data with Chinese tech giant Huawei. 

Senior members of the federal Parliament’s powerful intelligence committee want the 34-year-old Facebook tsar to answer questions about the controversial data deal.

Can we trust Cambridge Analytica's cryptocurrency

Cambridge Analytica takes the advantage from the publicity of Facebook scandal and trying to introduce their own cryptocurrency.

Cambridge Analytica, which obtained the data of 87 million Facebook users, was hoping to raise as much as $30 million through the venture, anonymous sources told Reuters. Cambridge Analytica confirmed to Reuters that it had previously explored blockchain technology, but did not confirm the coin offering and didn’t say whether efforts are still underway.

As they were involved in the facebook scandal, my question is CAN WE TRUST THEM?

Mozilla Firefox takes an advantage of Facebook scandal

While Facebook is freaking out everybody with the privacy scandal, Firefox has implemented a fascinating output for iPhones and iPads to block websites from tracking your online behavior.

Mozilla's browser has an option called tracking protection that blocks tracking software embedded in websites -- from website publishers, advertising companies and tech giants like Google and Facebook. Now that option is enabled by default on mobile devices powered by Apple's iOS software, Mozilla said Thursday.

How red is iphone 8 red?

How red is red? The new "Product Red" iPhone 8 and 8 Plus won't arrive until this Friday, but I was able to get a sneak peek earlier Tuesday in New York. And I brought along last year's Product Red iPhone 7 Plus to compare. And believe it or not, there is a difference.

I don't really get excited about phone colors, truly. But some people do. And the Product Red phone does give some money to a good cause. So, here's what the new red phones are like in person.

First off, the new red iPhone 8 and 8 Plus models have black fronts, as opposed to the white on the previous models. But the whole feel is a little more dramatic this time. The red on the back is darker, too, depending on the angle, and the glossy touch makes it look even more slick than it does in the photo. White on red looks pretty decent than black on red. But it doesn't look good as iphone 7 red. Glass top made it look dodgy.

Zuckerberg says allegations that Facebook taps phone microphones is a ‘conspiracy theory’

Suspicions that Facebook (and associated apps like Instagram) are secretly recording audio through phone microphones in order to better target ads have refused to die, despite official denials dating all the way back to 2016. In today’s Senate hearing, Mark Zuckerberg addressed the urban legend yet again, issuing an absolute denial.

“Yes or no, does Facebook use audio obtained from mobile devices to enrich personal information about users?” asked Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI). 

“No,” Zuckerberg responded adamantly. 

He went on to elaborate that Facebook does have access to audio when people record videos on their devices for Facebook, but otherwise it doesn’t access your microphone.

“Hopefully that will dispel a lot of what I’ve been hearing,” said Peters, before moving on with his questioning. The senator said that he had heard the conspiracy theory from many people, including his staffers.

Zuckerberg’s full answer follows below:

Senator, let me get clear on this, you’re talking about this conspiracy theory that gets passed around that we listen to what’s going on on your microphone and use that for ads. To be clear, we do allow people to take videos on their devices and share those, and videos have audio, so we do while you’re taking a video, record that and use that to make the service is better by making sure your videos have audio, but I think that is pretty clear. But I just wanted to make sure I was exhaustive there.

Zuckerberg tries to cover his mess but doesn't seem like he is on the ledge.

WILL ZUCKERBERG RESIGN?

The Facebook scandal comes amid increasing calls for founder Zuckerberg to resign.
But when the Financial Times asked him if the board had discussed him stepping down as chairman, he responded: “Not that I’m aware of.”

An NBC reporter asked him if he was really the “best person” for the job, to which he said he was “learning from his mistakes”.

“When you’re building something like Facebook that is unprecedented in the world, you’re going to mess up,” he said.

“I don’t think anyone is going to be perfect. I think life is about learning from mistakes and what you need to do to move forward.

A Doctor Used Snapchat Spectacles To Film A Surgery; Here’s The Video

Dr. Shafi Ahmed is a surgeon at the London Independent Hospital, and on December 9th, 2017, he had to repair a hernia. Ahmed also had to provide step-by-step visibility into the surgery for a number of medical students. This time, instead of using a 360 degree 4K camera–like the setup he used back in April when he got all fancy-schmancy while removing a colon tumour–he just slipped on a pair of Snapchat spectacles and had one of his assistants manning the recording and the uploading (one click each). Ahmed just sliced and diced while providing commentary throughout the series of 10 second clips. About 200 medical students followed the surgery as it occurred.

According to Ahmed, the 10-second clip limitation was quite effective in helping him reconsider and refine how he teaches students during procedures. “It’s like you’re presenting a recipe,” he told Time. “You’re training people in a structured way…The Snapchat platform is really interesting because it mimics who we are. It thinks on a 24-hour, short-term basis, and we, as individuals, work in short-term basis.”

According to Ahmed, both the device and the medium were a hit; in the next few weeks, he will publish the “results” of the Snapchat tutorial trial, but regardless of those results, expects to continue using Spectacles regularly going forward.

Enjoy the video:

Apple unveils groundbreaking new MacBook Pro

Cupertino, California — Apple today introduced the thinnest and lightest MacBook Pro ever, along with a breakthrough interface that replaces the traditional row of function keys with a brilliant, Retina-quality Multi-Touch display called the Touch Bar. The new MacBook Pro features Apple’s brightest and most colorful Retina display yet, the security and convenience of Touch ID, a more responsive keyboard, a larger Force Touch trackpad and an audio system with double the dynamic range. It’s also the most powerful MacBook Pro ever, featuring sixth-generation quad-core and dual-core processors, up to 2.3 times the graphics performance over the previous generation, super-fast SSDs and up to four Thunderbolt 3 ports.

Apple is a loud cracker

Facebook-owned WhatsApp reaches 900 million monthly active users

WhatsApp has grown tremendously from the time Facebook acquired it in 2014 for $19 billion. The messaging app's founder, Jan Koum, has just announced on Facebook that the service has reached 900 million monthly active users (MAU). That means it has gained 100 million new ones in less than five months since Koum celebrated reaching 800 million subscribers in April. That number isn't too far off from its parent company's either, which announced 1.49 billion MAUs as of June this year. In comparison, Facebook's own Messenger app reached 700 million MAUs in June, mostly due to its split from the social network's main application. Considering the app has been installed at least a billion times on Android, the new user count isn't that surprising. We just hope its continued success doesn't lead to even more divorces in Italy.

Not meeting online user expectations is costly

• Lost Revenue

Every second of delay will lead to a 7% decrease in web conversions. Additionally, 75% of shoppers who experience a website that freezes, crashes, is too slow, or involves a convoluted checkout process would no longer buy from that site.

• Productivity Losses

Under performing web-based internal systems severely hinder employee productivity. 68% of managers surveyed in a recent study cited “slow internet” or “inability to access documents from a network” as affecting their productivity.

• Brand Damage

Poor web experiences generate social media negativity and deter other prospects, jeopardizing future revenue. In fact, 4% of unsatisfied customers (such as those impacted by an outage or a slow loading page) will complain.10 And just one negative review can cost you 30 customers.

• Additional Marketing Costs

Inbound marketing leads will be lost when your site underperforms and frustrated visitors leave without completing conversion goals. As a result, you will need to increase your marketing spend to drive additional web traffic to recoup lost leads.

SOURCE : The Ultimate Guide to: Improving Web Performance with Monitoring

7 real-life cyborg implants

Medical technology advances faster than the speed of light, or at least that's the way it seems sometimes. These days, there are implants to treat all sorts of afflictions, and researchers are developing new medical devices that can help a person become a little more human than human. You can implant a bionic lens to get superhuman eyesight, get a tattoo to manage diabetes and -- someday soon, hopefully -- use a wireless device to control fertility. Read on for more amazing medical implants that can enhance your life in ways you never thought possible. 

by Cat DiStasio

Android 'M' is for Marshmallow

As is tradition (Lollipop, KitKat, Jelly Bean, Ice Cream Sandwich, etc.) Google has revealed the version name for the upcoming sixth version of Android with a new statue in front of its Mountain View, CA HQ. The "polish and quality" focused Android M will stand for Marshmallow, and while it's still not available for public consumption (check out our preview from June), the company is encouraging developers to get their apps ready now, with a new SDK and "near-final" preview versions to use. The name shouldn't be much of a surprise however, since it's the one most of you guessed in our poll, where it nabbed 37 percent of the votes.

SOURCE: Android Developers

Two-factor system uses ambient sounds to verify your login

Two-factor can keep your Gmail, iCloud and other accounts from getting hacked, but it's unfortunately rather tedious to use. That's why a team of researchers from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, Switzerland has developed a tool called "Sound-Proof" to make the process less painful. Any app or program with Sound-Proof integrated can authenticate your logins by listening to ambient sounds. That's it -- you don't need to pick up your phone, generate a pass-code or wait for a text with one, so long as you've already installed the tool's mobile app.

For instance: if you sign into the app on your laptop browser, the app fires up on its own, and both your computer and phone will start listening for sounds. Once the system determines that both devices are hearing the same background music, AC hum or the rhythmic snoring of your dog, then you get logged in. According to the researchers, the tool only uploads the "digital signature" of the sounds around you and not the sounds themselves in order to protect your privacy. Plus, it doesn't need extensions or any other additional downloads for computers, so it works even if, say, you're using a roommate's laptop.

While it's definitely a lot easier to deal with than traditional two-factor, it's also clearly imperfect. Determined hackers who already have your password can follow you around until you're in the same place to access your account. Since the app starts listening in on its own, you might not even know that someone's trying to hack you until it's too late. Some elements might prevent sounds from matching up, as well, and don't forget that you need a data connection in the absence of WiFi. We hope the team finds a way to make Sound-Proof more secure before releasing the tool as an actual product. As it is, it's just a research project, which the team will present at the Usenix security conference this August.

VIA: Wired

SOURCE: Arxiv

Apple's 'Move to iOS' app makes it easy to switch from Android

Apple's upcoming mobile platform apparently comes with a new app called "Move to iOS" that wirelessly transfers data from Android devices to iPhones and iPads. It was curiously skipped over during the company's WWDC keynote earlier, but Daring Fireball points it out buried underneath all the new features on the iOS 9 preview page. The page doesn't go into details, but "Move to iOS" will presumably be available on the Play Store, so you can download it on an Android device -- right next to Apple's other upcoming Android app -- to enable wireless transfer.

Apple says the process can securely copy over "your contacts, message history, camera photos and videos, web bookmarks, mail accounts, calendars, wallpaper, and DRM-free songs and books." Plus, it marks your free apps like Facebook as suggested downloads in the App Store, adds paid ones to your iTunes Wish List and "helpfully" suggests recycling that old Android phone. It's unclear when the app's Android part will hit Google's app marketplace, but you might be able to check the iOS 9 version as soon as July if you sign up for public beta access.

Windows 10 is coming to the Raspberry Pi 2 for free

Over the years, the Raspberry Pi has helped children learn to code and has powered many homebrew projects around the world, but some users have often lamented at the lack Windows support. Luckily, now that the Raspberry Pi 2 is here, that's all about to change. Microsoft has announced that it will support the Raspberry Pi Foundation's latest board, making a specialized version of its Windows 10 operating system available to the wider Pi community for free via its Windows Developer Program for IoT (Internet of Things).

Microsoft says that Windows 10 will be made available "later this year," offering it to "Makers" in the same way it delivered Windows builds for developers tinkering with Intel's Galileo board. The key thing here is price: tinkerers can grab the new ARMv7 board, which is said to deliver at least six times the performance of the old Model B+, for just $35 and begin building their own home automation tools. Microsoft says it will share more details on what its new version of Windows 10 can do in "the coming months", but it shouldn't mean that you wait until then before buying one.

Source: Microsoft

First Tizen tablet launches in Japan, caters exclusively to developers

Despite absorbing MeeGo, learning to run Android apps and pushing through a significant UI overhaul, devices running Tizen are notoriously hard to come by. Developers eyeing the platform in Japan, however, just got one more option: the Tizen build kit, from Systena. It's a package that includes developer tools, manuals and technical and consulting services from Systena, but the real star of the kit is the included 10.1-inch developer tablet. Packing a quad-core 1.4 GHz ARM Cortex-A9 processor, 2GB of RAM and 32GB of storage underneath a 1,920 x 1,200 display, this slab offers a Tizen 2.1 experience built specifically for app development and product demonstration. The company hasn't publicly posted a price for the kit, but interested developers can request more information through the company's website. The rest of us will have to settle for flashing our own devices.

[Image Credit: S-Max.jp]

Source: Systena

HTC One gets bonus Google Drive storage as Sense 5.5 update rolls out abroad

Google is taking a page out of Dropbox's book and offering free extra storage for certain HTC One handsets. The HTC One Max got 50GB of storage space out of the box, but we've been tipped that those with the handset's smaller sibling will net an additional 25GB of room in the cloud,all thanks to the international Sense 5.5 (and Android 4.3) update that readers have already started receiving in Europe. These expansions are in addition to the complimentary 15GB of Drive space available to all Google users, bringing the allotted storage totals to 65GB and 40GB for the One Max and One, respectively. There are a few caveats, though. According to Mountain View, the HTC One Developer Edition isn't eligible for this due to its unlocked bootloader. Furthermore, you can only activate this promo once per Google account, which rules out gaming the offer to get even more space. Got all that? Good -- there's a quiz later. 

Source: Google Support, LlabTooFeR (Twitter)

iFixit tears apart Apple's new 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Pro

It's only been a couple of days since Apple released its shiny new MacBook Pros and iFixit has already torn them apart, in more ways than one. Just like its older sibling, the new 13-inch Retina notebook didn't perform that well on the repairability scale, scoring a one out of 10 -- dropping one point from its predecessor's less than impressive two. That's largely down to the same restrictions as before: a glued battery that has been positioned to cover important screws, a Retina display that is fused inside a whole unit, soldered RAM and a non-standard SSD drive. Apple's also reduced the size of the battery, relying on Intel's Haswell processor and Mavericks' improved power management to boost battery life. The same fate befalls the 15-inch model, meaning it'll be almost impossible to upgrade either of Apple's latest notebooks when they start suffering from the effects of entropy.

Source: iFixit (13-inch MacBook Pro), iFixit (15-inch MacBook Pro)

Automatic Link promises to be personal driving assistant, available now for $100

First Automatic said its driving assistant dongle and related iOS app would be ready in May, and then it said the app needed until August to fully bake. Well, it's now October, and at long last, it appears the San Francisco-based startup is finally ready to launch its connected car platform to the general public. As a reminder, Automatic utilizes a piece of hardware called the Link that attaches to your car's OBD-II port -- most cars built after 1996 have one -- along with an iPhone app that communicates with it via Bluetooth LE and translates that onboard diagnostic information into usable data. For example, the app will monitor your driving habits and let you know when you're riding the gas pedal too hard or hitting the brakes too aggressively. If your car's Check Engine light shows up, it'll give you its best guess as to what caused it and even lets you clear it if you've managed to solve the problem. There are other uses too, like dialing 911 if you've been in an accident or finding a parked car. Have a peek at our hands-on for more info, and if you feel like picking one up yourself, Automatic's Link hardware is on sale for $99.95 on Apple's online store and retail locations starting today.

Source: Automatic, App Store