HEROES TECH NEWS

Microsoft added its own Digital Health feature to its Android launcher app

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 23 Nov 2018 17:08:00 +0000

Microsoft added its own digital health feature to its Android launcher app, just when Google added a similar feature to its Android Pie. Microsoft’s launcher will let any Android users have the ability to track how long apps are being used for. You can track screen time, app usage, and the number of times you’ve unlocked your phone. This app is supported on Android 4.2 and above, which opens a digital health feature access to all Android users.

The latest update of Microsoft Launcher 5.1 also includes To-Do and Sticky Notes integration, which will help you to synchronize your tasks and notes from these apps. Microsoft is also adding in “Hey Cortana” support to launch the digital assistant from this Android launcher.

Microsoft Launcher 5.1 has a built in Digital Health feature :O pic.twitter.com/J6mj97QS04
— Zac Bowden (@zacbowden) November 21, 2018

Over the past few years, Microsoft has been reportedly updating its Android launcher consistently, helping the software giant embrace Android as the mobile version of Windows. Earlier this year, Microsoft added family-focused features and support for the Windows 10 Timeline feature that allows you to resume apps and sites across all devices. Microsoft Launcher 5.1 is available as a beta version from the Google Play Store and should be out to all users in a few weeks.

Amazon mistakenly streamed an unreleased episode of Doctor Who

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 23 Nov 2018 16:22:00 +0000

BBC Studios 2018

Amazon mistakenly streamed an unreleased episode of Doctor Who. All Amazon users who opened the stream Doctor Who’s latest episode, “Kerblam!” spending more time watching the episode before taking out. Instead of releasing the right episode, Amazon Prime Video evidently skipped ahead and show “The Witchfinders,” which was set to air this coming Sunday.

This mistake was spotted by io9, who also confirm that the closed captions for “Kerblam!” was mistakenly aired as part of “The Witchfinders”. This is surely a shocking mistake for anyone trying to make sense of why conveyor belts have anything to do with the 17th century.

According to a statement from io9, BBC Studios said it was aware of the error for US Amazon Prime users. io9 said, “We are investigating how this happened and have taken the steps to remove it.” “BBC Studios would like to apologize if anyone’s enjoyment of the series has been spoiled by this mishap,” the company explained further.

Sarcastically, “Kerblam!” is about a not so subtle imitation of Amazon. The company has since corrected the mistake, so everybody can now return to their regularly scheduled work.

Facebook and Instagram are unavailable for some users in US, Europe and South America

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 21 Nov 2018 09:17:00 +0000

According to third-party site Down Detector’s outage map, Facebook is said to be undergoing an unusual blackout which is making the popular social platform site along with Facebook Messenger and Instagram inaccessible to users across the United States as well as some parts of Europe and South America.

Facebook has officially acknowledged the issue on its social media networks (twitter is your best reliable source due to the outage), and the company’s support dashboard notes that it’s working to fix the issue.

We know some people are having trouble accessing the Facebook family of apps. We’re working to resolve the issue as soon as possible.
— Facebook (@facebook) November 20, 2018

Yesterday’s blackout marks the second major downtime event for Facebook this month, following a shorter outage for about a half-hour on November 12th, which the company commented to USA Today was caused by a “routine test”.

Google just added a new feature to its Find my device app, now showing indoor layouts of large buildings

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 21 Nov 2018 07:03:00 +0000

Google has just made a new update to its Find My Device app in other to display indoor maps to show you where you might have dropped your phone inside a large building. It's the outcome of a long time of recording the formats of complex spaces like retail chains, shopping centers, and air terminals.

With this new feature, when you lose your phone, you don’t just see that it’s somewhere in the building, you will be able to have a clearer idea of the exact location in the building. Apart from adding large buildings, the new update to the Find My Device app also comes with support for work profiles.

However, Google does not list out a specific building the new feature is made for, so you will have to try your luck. Since GPS is always a little bit off, this might help narrow things down a fair bit. But your phone may still not be where you think it is. In a scenario where your phone was dropped under the seat at the movie theater, you might start running after someone else thinking it was stolen from you. There is a limit to what Find My Device app can do to help with that.

The update is really great since some people will find it more useful and it might not work for some. Though it might not be up to our expectation, but I think Google is taking a step closer to improve users experience with the app.

Target’s Twitter account with over 2 million followers was hacked and used for Bitcoin scam

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 14 Nov 2018 13:16:00 +0000

Early yesterday morning, target’s twitter account was hacked with over 2 million followers and used for Bitcoin scam that has been trending over the past few months.

The scammers started by creating fake accounts imitating Elon Musk, an act that is against Twitter’s Terms of Service. The accounts would share fraudulent links under Musk’s tweets that asked users to send a little amount of bitcoin in order to receive a larger amount. It’s a complicated method that has been a profitable endeavor, making the hackers over $37,000 in cryptocurrency within a few hours, according to TechCrunch.

According to a statement from Target to The Verge, “The hacking process on the target’s twitter account last for half an hour and one fake post was tweeted during that time referring to a bitcoin scam.” “We are in close contact with Twitter, have deleted the tweet and have locked the account while we investigate further.”

Twitter revived up its efforts in July to stop these scams by automatically locking any unverified accounts that changed their display names to “Elon Musk.” This caused the scammers to turn their goal to hacking in other to avoid their accounts locked. They were able to impersonate Elon Musk by hacking verified accounts with no fear of being locked out, and the scam is even more trusted with the little blue checkmark next to the familiar name.

And now @Target.

This isn't just Target's problem. This is @Twitter's problem. They clearly haven't got a handle on these cryptocurrency scams.

As previously discussed here: https://t.co/0l44PVFPI9 pic.twitter.com/81i6GIv3qs
— Graham Cluley (@gcluley) November 13, 2018

According to Target, the account was briefly hacked, and in that time, scammers were able to come up with a tweet and the link that then approved as an advert by Twitter. With the help of the screenshot to prove that the tweet was promoted, it shows that the scammer was able to make it past the Twitter team that managed ads. However, Twitter has not responded to a request for comment.

Although, Target is the only latest example of this scam, or maybe the one with the largest followers. Other influential users like Rep Frank Pallone (D-NJ), also had their accounts hacked for use in this scam. Pallone’s campaign account was altered just a day before the 2018 midterm elections. His account did not sponsor any ads, but others like Capgemini Australia, Pathe Films, and Pantheon Books had ads for this scam approved as well.

Frank Pallone is the ranking member of the house energy and commerce committee, the jurisdiction of which includes oversight of telecommunications and the internet https://t.co/WgIw5lSLn2
— rat king (@MikeIsaac) November 5, 2018

This scam could be simply dealt with by requiring all verified users to secure their accounts with the two-factor authentication, but Twitter is yet to ask any users to do so as of right now. It’s likely that these hacks will continue if Twitter did not take any action, and many more people will be scammed into handing over their cryptocurrency to this scammer.

Facebook partner with French regulators to monitor their content moderation processes

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 13 Nov 2018 08:23:00 +0000

French President Emmanuel Macron earlier yesterday announced that regulators from France will now be allowed to study Facebook and its attempts to moderate hate speech on its platform, which will give French officials legitimate access into how the company deals with offensive content.

French regulators will have access in 2019 to Facebook’s content policies and how Facebook removes posts that may discriminate against or focus on a majority set of people or others based on gender, or religion.t

According to a statement from Facebook’s vice president for global affairs and communications Nick Clegg yesterday, “It is in that context significant and welcome that the French government and Facebook are going to announce a new initiative.” “That model of co-regulation of the public tech sector is absolutely key.”

Facebook has made many new hires in 2017 to impose moderation rules more consistent with the existing internal rules that disallow hateful speech on their platforms. With Facebook’s investment in artificial intelligence and machine learning technology, it will help the company to remove offensive content before publishing it. These are processes that the French regulators would be looking into.

This will be the second attempt for the French president Macron in regulating online speech. He makes his first attempt earlier this year when he announced that he would introduce a draft law that would ban fake news online. If this law is passed, it will allow France’s political parties to bring up complaints online, and gives the judges the ability to call for the posts to be taken down. Other European countries have also make a similar draft law. Germany launched its own law earlier this year to tackle disinformation.

However, The United States is having a more difficult time in implementing the regulation over content moderation than its European counterparts. Their First Amendment generally protests hate speech. Lawmakers like Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) have been outspoken about platforms taking down what he would call conservation leaning content, and claiming that the platforms are biased against Republican speech.

Facebook ends the forced arbitration for sexual harassment complaints

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 11 Nov 2018 13:47:00 +0000

Following a similar incident at Google yesterday, Facebook has also stopped to force employees to settle sexual harassment claims in private arbitration. According to The Wall Street Journal, Facebook reportedly made the announcement to employees internally today, and vice president of people Lori Goler told the Journal that it wants to “be part of taking the next step” at “a pivotal moment” in the tech industry.

Facebook also announced an updated policy on dating within the staffs, requiring executives to disclose any romantic relationship with another staff, even if they aren’t overseeing that staff’s work.

Few top tech companies including Uber, Microsoft, and Lyft have dropped forced arbitration clauses from sexual harassment claims. However, Google’s change was particularly exposed because it was made after an estimated 20 percent of employees participated in a mass walkout protest last week. Arbitration was actually one of the protester’s demands, and their negotiations with Google still in process.

According to Lori Goler’s statement with the Journals, she said sexual harassment has been discussed widely within Facebook, but she apparently didn’t discuss any more sweeping changes to company. Facebook published its complete internal harassment policy late 2017, during the first months of the MeToo movement against sexual assault and harassment. But Facebook defended its forced arbitration policy earlier this year, calling the process ‘’official and appropriate.”

Anthony Harrison, corporate media relations director confirmed in a statement that Facebook was making arbitration optional. “We are publishing our updated Workplace Relationships policy today and amending our arbitration agreements to make arbitration a choice rather than a requirement in sexual harassment claims,” he told The Verge. “Sexual harassment is something that we take very seriously, and there is no place for it at Facebook.”

Mark Zuckerberg rejects the international committee invite to give proof on fake news

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 08 Nov 2018 08:24:00 +0000

The Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has declined another request to answer questions from political leaders outside of the United States, which has made up to five countries to start asking the Facebook Chief to give proof for his action in person.

Zuckerberg was invited on October 31st to give proof before a UK lawmaker committee, with political leaders from Canada co-signing the invitation. This uncommon show of international organization has since been supported by legislators from Australia, Argentina, and Ireland, with these five countries representing some 170 million Facebook users to form an “international grand committee.”

According to the UK MP Damian Collins, who made the original invitation in his role as head of the country’s Digital, Culture, Media and Sport select committee, he said that the Facebook CEO rejects the invitation request on the 2^nd of November. Collins said in a letter published yesterday that he and his Canadian counterparts were very disappointed with the Facebook unenthusiastic response.

Collins further said in an earlier statement, “Zuckerberg has set himself personal challenge of fixing Facebook this year to prevent its misuse in our democratic process.” “By being unwilling to face questions about his progress doubts about his ability to do so remain.”

Initially, two requests have already been rejected by Zuckerberg to give proof in the UK and have so far only spoken personally to three lawmakers: the US Congress, US Senate, and European Parliament. Facebook later provide reasons for Mark Zuckerberg’s refusal to speak is that “He does not have time to talk to every country’s lawmakers.” Therefore, the international appeal.

The next committee meeting which is set for November 27th will be chaired by Collins, regardless of their action. The goal of the meeting is to examine the spread of fake news and misguided information, with the UK and Canada preparing independent reports on the topic.

Collins and his fellow political leaders repeated their statement in his latest letter for Zuckerberg to attend the meeting. “We say again: the hearing of your proof is now overdue, and urgent… We call on you once again to take up your responsibility to Facebook users, and speak in person to their elected representatives.”

Apple release its latest iPad Pro, its available in 11-inch and 12.9-inches respectively

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 07 Nov 2018 16:04:00 +0000

Apple has finally released its new iPad Pro which ditches the home button in favor Face ID, gains a lot of power, and its bezels are much slimmer than previous generations. It is available in 11-inch or 12.9-inch configurations, starting at $799 and $999, respectively.

iPad Pro 12.9-inches

iPad Pro 11-inches

You can pick up the new iPad Pro from Apple website. However, a number of other trending retailers are offering the tablets a well.

Visit Apple website, Click here

Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee said he want to fix the internet

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 07 Nov 2018 12:25:00 +0000

Tim Berners-Lee, who invented the World Wide Web said he wants to fix the web. The web inventor revealed a new campaign on Monday called “Contract for the Web” at the web Summit tech conference in Lisbon, Portugal. The aim of the campaign is to promote the principles for governments, companies, and citizens to improve the internet and fight back against hate speech, privacy concerns, and political manipulation.

According to his statement during the announcement of the project which was organized by his nonprofit the World Wide Web Foundation, “Those of us who are online are seeing our rights and freedoms threatened”. He states the contract outlines “clear and tough responsibilities” for those with the power to make the internet a better place.

The contract will be published fully in May 2019, and more than 50 top tech and start-up companies around the world have signed the contract. They include Facebook, Google and the French government at the list.

The contract which includes nine principles asks the government to ensure all citizens can connect to the internet, the companies should respect the customer’s privacy and personal data and also, the citizens should create “rich and relevant content for everyone.”

Berners-Lee also said, “A lot of companies are finding it so exciting to be able to switch from trying to exploit you, trying to make you buy something you didn’t want to buy, to actually switch back to the core business model of helping the user and generating value for the user.” He stated that personal data is not as important to companies as one people might expect. Pushing back on the idea that tech companies need to collect data to be profitable, He said: “Maybe it is a myth”.

People won’t just give out their data once they know they have dominion over it, He stated. People can still choose to share information with their employers or companies they do business with. “The idea of control over your own data is not about me being my own silo, locking everything away,” he said. “It’s actually having the joy of being able to share it with whoever.”

Google Chrome 71 is set to be released next month: To start blocking any website with abusive ads

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 06 Nov 2018 07:14:00 +0000

As Google announces the release of Chrome 71 which will be available by next month, Google plans on stepping up its fight against the internet’s abusive ads problem its users face by blocking every ad on the site that persistently shows them.

Abusive ads come in many ways, but generally speaking, it causes your browser to misbehave by either generating fake system messages, automatically redirecting you to an abusive website, or attempt to steal personal information.

Initially, Google has tried to use Chrome to address this problem back in July when Google release Chrome 68 to prevent sites from opening new tabs or windows if they were reported for showing abusive information.

The Google Chrome 71 which is scheduled for release in December, will give site owners a 30 day grace period to clean up their site after an abusive experience is reported. Failure to remove the abusive ads will cause Chrome to automatically block every ad on the site, regardless of whether they are grouped as abusive or not.

Animation: Google

However, users will have the ability to choose whether they want to turn off the ads block or not. But majority will likely leave their settings at their default values, effectively withholding a huge portion of a flagged site’s revenue. It’s motive for sites to prevent this bad behavior, even if it’s an uncomfortable reminder of how much control Google now have over the internet.

Priyanka Chopra moves into technology: Technology gives us so much freedom

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 05 Nov 2018 17:24:00 +0000

Priyanka Chopra moves to Technology. “I am tech fan, it gives us so much freedom”. It gives us the choices to be anything you want. It gives you the ability to be creative and turn that creativity to business. She may be known as an actress, but now she is into technology.

Chopra partner with Bumble to help Indian women have the ability to make choices of their own.

According to her statement in an interview with CNN, “A lot of women around the world don’t have the ability to make choices for themselves, choices are made for them. Technology is a space which you can go to with the comfort of your phone or your laptop. My parent gave me the ability to have an opinion and make my own choices about my life. I would love for women to be able to do that within the safety of something which they know is good for them.”

Click here to watch the full interview Priyanka Chopra: Technology gives us freedom

Twitter deleted thousands of accounts that tried to discourage voters from voting

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 03 Nov 2018 10:06:00 +0000

Twitter was reportedly removed thousands of accounts on its platform posting messages, trying to dissuade and discourage the democrats voters from voting in the next week election.

According to the company, Up to 10,000 accounts were removed across late September and early October after they were first raised by the staff at the Democratic Party. “We removed a series of accounts for engaging in attempts to share disinformation in an automated fashion, which violate our policies”. “We stopped it quickly and at its source,” said by a Twitter spokesperson in an email to TechCrunch.

However, the company has not yet disclosed samples of the kind of accounts it deleted, or say who or what might have been behind the activity.

These accounts pretend to be Democrats and try to convince major demographics to stay in their home and not vote, most likely as an attempt to shake the results in the major election battleground, according to Reuters, which first reported the news.

A request for comment from a spokesperson for the Democratic National Committee outside its business hours was rejected.

The deletion of accounts is just a minor issue from a wider threats facing Twitter. The giant company also deleted up to 1.2 millionaccounts for sharing and promoting terrorist content earlier this year. Also in May, Twitter removed a number of 10 million accounts each week for sending malicious and automated messages.

According to Twitter’s latest earning report in July, it has 335 million monthly active users. But the company has faced criticism from lawmakers for not going extra miles to quickly remove content that violates its rules or spreads misleading information and false news.

With just a few days before the U.S. midterm election, this quick action is likely to raise further concern that Twitter did not automatically detect the malicious accounts.

Unlike Facebook, which recently blocked content that tried to discourage voters with fake and misleading information, Twitter does not have a strict policy on the spread of misleading information in the run-up to election season. Instead, Twitter said that its “open and real-time nature” is a “powerful antidote to the spreading of all types of fake news,” last year.

However, researchers have been critical of that method. Research published last month show that more than 700,000 accounts that were active during the 2016 presidential election are still in use till today, publishing a million of tweets every day.

According to a Twitter spokesperson, for this year election, the company has “established open lines of communication and direct, easy escalation paths for state election officials, Homeland Security, and campaign organizations from both major parties to help us enforce our policies vigorously and protect conversational health on our service.”

The newly launched payment method Initiative Q offers free money for signing Up

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 02 Nov 2018 11:45:00 +0000

Initiative Q is an attempt by ex-PayPal guys to create a new payment system instead of credit cards that were designed in the 1950s.

The system uses its own currency, the Q, and to get people to start using the system once it's ready they are allocating Qs for free to people that sign up now (the amount drops as more people join - so better to join early).

Signing up is free and they only ask for your name and an email address. There's nothing to lose but if this payment system becomes a world leading payment method your Qs can be worth a lot.

If you missed getting bitcoin seven years ago, you wouldn't want to miss this.

Here is the link to get invited: https://initiativeq.com/invite/SGw6JhF3Q

There is no limit on sending the link, but you can only verify 5 friends in total.

Initiative Q will succeed only if many people join. The more people invite their friends, the greater the likelihood of reaching the goal of each Q being worth around one US dollar.

Top Tech companies sign letter opposing Trump’s plan to redefine gender

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 02 Nov 2018 08:09:00 +0000

Top tech companies and others joined forces this week to write a letter opposing the US President, Donald Trump’s administrative plan to narrow gender definitions.

The letter was drafted by Google, Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Intel, Cisco and more in response to an earlier New York Times story about a planned federal rollback of Obama-era civil rights protections for transgender citizens.

The move by the Trump administration raise an outbreak protests around the world in support of transgender rights, which later followed by the tech companies opposing letter.

The note reads, “We oppose any administrative and legislative efforts to erase transgender protections through reinterpretation of existing laws and regulations”. “We also fundamentally oppose any policy or regulation that violates the privacy rights of those that identify as transgender and intersex.”

The earlier Times report rise from a memo proposing that the gender of individuals be solely based on their biological traits at birth.

According to the memo, “Sex means a person’s status as male or female based on immutable biological traits identifiable by or before birth”. “The sex listed on a person’s birth certificate, as originally issued, shall constitute definitive proof of a person’s sex unless rebutted by reliable genetic evidence.”

This is not the first time tech companies like Google and Apple among others will spoke against Trump administration. These two companies also make a move in early last year, against the administration’s plan to roll back Obama-era guidelines surrounding transgender bathroom use in public schools.

Below is the full text of the written letter against Trump’s plan:

We, the undersigned businesses, stand with the millions of people in America who identify as transgender, gender no binary or intersex, and call for all such people to be treated with the respect and dignity everyone deserves.

We oppose any administrative and legislative efforts to erase transgender protections through reinterpretation of existing laws and regulations. We also fundamentally oppose any policy or regulation that violates the privacy rights of those that identify as transgender, gender no binary or intersex.

In the last two decades, dozens of federal courts have affirmed the rights and identities of transgender people. Cognizant of growing medical and scientific consensus, courts have recognized that policies that force people into a binary gender definition determined by birth anatomy fail to reflect the complex realities of gender identity and human biology.

Recognizing that diversity and inclusion are good for business, and that discrimination imposes enormous productivity cost (and exerts undue burdens), hundreds of companies, including the undersigned, have continued to expand inclusion for transgender people across corporate America.

Currently more than 80 percent of the Fortune 500 have clear gender identity protections; two-thirds have transgender-inclusive health care coverage; hundreds have LGBTQ+ and Allies business resource groups and internal training efforts.

Transgender people are our beloved family member and friends, and our valued team members. What harms transgender people harms our companies.

We call for respect and transparency in policymaking, and for equality under the law for transgender people.

WhatsApp to start showing ads on its Status

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 01 Nov 2018 17:01:00 +0000

The WhatsApp messaging service is said to start showing ads alongside its popular Status feature, according to Chris Daniels, WhatsApp Vice President. Speaking at an events in New Delhi, Chris Daniels said that the ads would be the service’s primary monetization mode for the company and would offer an opportunity for businesses to reach people”.

No timeline was given, but a report said the ads service would begin to showcase by 2019.

Earlier last year, the WhatsApp Status was launched as a kick out of the stories feature found in Instagram and Snapchat. Since then, the update has gone viral, even ruled over Snapchat usage.

The feature allows you to add a couple of text, photos, and short videos to your profile, which also encrypted in the same way as your messages.

The Status updates are visible to all your contacts up to 24 hours before they disappear.

Enquiries on how the WhatsApp messaging service would monetize itself have been ongoing since it decided to drop its subscription fee back in 2016. The company said, “You can still count on absolutely no ads interrupting your communication,” in adherence to the service’s original principles. But this sentiment was primarily pushed by the app’s co-founders, who left Facebook, Inc. within the past two years.

Google staff walkout to protest over sexual harassment

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 01 Nov 2018 12:05:00 +0000

Google staff all over the world are walking out of the offices today to protest over the sexual harassment cases in the company.

Google Walkout Photo from Singapore Office

According to the organizers of the Google Walkout for Real Change team, “more than 1,500 employees, mostly women, are planning to walk out from more than 60 percent of Google’s offices at 11:10Am as time zones roll around the world”.

A YouTube product marketing manager, Claire Stapleton also said: “We don’t want to feel that we are unequal or we are not respected anymore”. “Google’s famous for its culture. But in reality, we are not even meeting the basics of respect, justice and fairness for every single person here.”

The walk out is already taking place in Asian countries like Tokyo and Singapore offices with photos being posted on the organizers official Twitter and Instagram pages using the hashtag #GoogleWalkout.

Google Walkout Photo from Zurich Office

The organizers of the walkout are demanding that Google should make the following five solid changes to its company policy:

An end to forced arbitration in cases of harassment and discrimination.
A commitment to end pay and opportunity inequity.
A publicly disclosed sexual harassment transparency report.
A clear, uniform, globally inclusive process for reporting sexual misconduct safely and anonymously.
Elevate the Chief Diversity Officer to answer directly to the CEO and make recommendations directly to the board of directors, and appoint an employee representative to the board.

Below is the flyer that all staff who choose to join the walk out are leaving at their desk:

The cause of the protest among employees has been the fallout around allegations surrounding Andy Rubin, the creator of the Android operating system, who left the company in 2014 after receiving a $90 million as exit package that Google wasn’t obligated to grant. The Alphabet CEO Larry Page, who headed the Google before its organization, asked Rubin to resign following claims that he had coerced an employee into performing oral sex on him in a hotel room the previous year.

Earlier this week, Former SVP of search Amit Singhal was also reported to have received an exit package worth millions after his resign with the allegations of sexual misconduct, while Rich DeVaul, Google X director was allowed to keep his job when Google decided to take proper action following claims made by a prospective employee. DeVaul also later resign earlier this week after being named in the Times story.

Alex Jones sues PayPal on viewpoint discrimination

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 03 Oct 2018 08:31:00 +0000

InfoWars publisher and US radio host, Alex Jones, is suing PayPal, claiming bias against conservative views was behind its decision to ban his website.

After the banning of the conspiracy theorist on most major web services like YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Mr. Jones alleged PayPal’s ban is “viewpoint discrimination”, calling it a “hazardous precedent”. PayPal later said the case was without merit and that it would vigorously defend itself.

PayPal makes the decision to stop processing payments for InfoWars in September, saying it violated their policies on promoting hate and violence. The ban affected revenue Alex Jones made from selling InfoWars-branded goods and right-wing literature.

According to a 15 page complaint statement from Mr. Jones’s company, “It is at this point well known that large tech companies, located primarily in Silicon Valley, are discriminating against politically conservative entities and individuals, including banning them from social media platforms like Twitter, based solely on their political and ideological points of view.”

It added that “Having effectively cornered the market, PayPal is now using that market power to restrain conservative trade and commerce”.

Mr. Alex Jones is also being sued over alleged defamation by the parents of two children killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting, which he has claimed to be a hoax.

Alibaba’s Jack Ma to step down for Daniel Zhang in September 2019

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 11 Sep 2018 13:32:00 +0000

The executive chairman of the giant Chinese e-commerce Alibaba, Jack Ma, has announced his plan to step down this month next year. Mr. Ma makes this announcement in a letter to Alibaba customers and shareholders, following the conflicting reports over the weekend on the timing of his exit.

Jack Ma: Executive Chairman of Alibaba.

The Chinese second richest man, Jack Ma will be handing over the reins to Daniel Zhang, currently chief executive. Mr. Zhang who is 46, developed the company’s Singles’ Day promotion, which is the world’s biggest one-day online retail event.

Alibaba is known as one of the most valuable companies in the world. With its share nearly doubled in value last year.

Daniel Zhang: Chief Executive of Alibaba.

Mr. Zhang will take charge as the new executive chairman of Alibaba on 10 September 2019 which is approximately a year now, the company said in a statement. This one year handover period aimed at achieving a smooth and successful transition.

Jack Ma was previously an English teacher, later co-founded Alibaba in 1999 and has seen it become one of the world’s biggest internet companies. Mr. Ma is now the third richest man in China with a net worth of $38.6 bn, according to Forbes.

Mr. Ma said in a letter released on his 54^th birthday, “Teachers always want their students to exceed them, so the responsible thing to do for me and the company to do is to let younger, more talented people take over in leadership roles”.

Jack Ma will still remain a director on Alibaba’s board until its annual shareholder meeting in 2020. He is still a permanent member of the Alibaba Partnership. Mr. Ma said he wanted to return to education. “The world is big, and I am still young, so I want to try new things” also plans to continue in his role as founding partner.

Mr. Ma also said in a statement, “The one thing I can promise everyone is this: Alibaba was never about Jack Ma, but Jack Ma will forever belong to Alibaba”. “Mr. Zhang, who has been with Alibaba for 11 years, had demonstrated superb talent since taking over as chief executive,” he said.

Google Launches New Search Engine For Scientists And Journalists To Help Find Datasets

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 07 Sep 2018 16:41:00 +0000

Google announced a new search engine that has the ability to find the needed datasets for scientist, journalists, policymakers and other groups based on their work.

This platform was launched on Wednesday, trawls the millions of open data repositories on the web for desired datasets. It looks on digital libraries, publisher websites, and on author’s personal web pages, among other places. However, it relies on publisher’s dataset to correctly label their datasets with the appropriate information, or metadata tags, as their otherwise known.

In a blog post written by Google AI research scientist Natasha Noy: “To create Dataset search, we developed guidelines for dataset providers to describe their data in such a way that it helps Google and other search engine better understand the content of their pages”. “These guidelines include salient information about datasets, like; who created the dataset, when it was published, how the data was collected, what are the terms for using the data, and so on.”

Moreover, “We then collect and link this information, analyze where information versions of the same dataset might be, and find publications that may be describing or discussing the dataset. Our approach is based on an open standard for describing this information and whoever publishes data can describe their dataset this way. We encourage dataset providers, large and small, to adopt this common standard so that all datasets are part of this robust ecosystem.”

This new Google Dataset Search Engine is available in multiple languages and can be found here.

According to Noy, “Simply enter what you are looking for and we will guide you to the published dataset on the repository provider’s website”.

Apple is set to launch its global web portal for law enforcement requests later this year

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 07 Sep 2018 11:24:00 +0000

Apple just makes an announcement to launch a global web portal for processing and tracking requests from law enforcement officers for data, through MacRumors. This will serve as a replacement to the old email-based system.

This is a change from the current system where by law enforcement officers submit requests by messaging an Apple law enforcement email account. The website would make it suitable, centralized hub for requests that will make it easier to track current inquiries and manage replies.

According to Apple, a team will be built to help train law enforcement officials around the world, with the goal toward helping smaller police forces and agencies that may not have the same resources as larger organizations.

Apple is working on these changes in response to recommendations from a recent report from the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said in a letter from Apple’s senior vice president and general counsel Katherine Adams.

Apple has been publishing transparency reports twice a year detailing request for information from law enforcement and government agencies, and has a severe publishing guidelines about what information it does and doesn’t give to law enforcement officials both within and outside of the US.

Apple also limits what it can give and cannot give access to on its system. The best example and most famous one was the case of the 2016 San Bernardino shootings when Apple decline to build a backdoor into the iPhone in other to allow investigators have access to information on the device.

Twitter permanently suspended InfoWars and Alex Jones on its platform

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 07 Sep 2018 10:15:00 +0000

Twitter has permanently suspended InfoWars and Alex Jones, just a month after all other giant tech companies like Facebook, Youtube, and Apple removed the conspiracy theorist and his blog from their platforms. Following the recent suspension of both accounts for a week, Twitter said that the InfoWars creator had violated its “abusive behavior” rules.

Twitter finally realize that Jones went too far after he tweeted a video of himself confronting a CNN reporter, calling him an equivalent of “the Hitler Youth” and using other illegal imagery to disparage him.

Twitter has been hesitated with what to do about Jones for some weeks. In August, Facebook wiped out multiple pages Jones manage, Apple banned Jones podcast (but still kept InfoWar app in its App store), and YouTube deleted his channel due to his hate speech toward immigrants and minorities. Twitter was the only tech company that still hesitating on what to do.

Today, we permanently suspended @realalexjones and @infowars from Twitter and Periscope. We took this action based on new reports of Tweets and videos posted yesterday that violate our abusive behavior policy, in addition to the accounts’ past violations. https://t.co/gckzUAV8GL
— Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) September 6, 2018

In response to Twitter’s decision to suspend Jones account for a week in the mid-August, users on Twitter mobilized and started a campaign by Grab Your Wallet founder Shannon Coulter. Users decided to block a list of Fortune 500 companies through a tool and prevent their ads from appearing on timelines, as a way to push Twitter to act faster.

.@Jack, from the bottom of my heart: thank you. This will make the lives of a lot of people tangibly better. I will now unblock every company on the #BlockParty500 list. All: if you've been manually blocking as a part of this effort, pls. manually unblock. https://t.co/axHcdBu9f9
— Shannon Coulter (@shannoncoulter) September 6, 2018

Yesterday, after Twitter announced the permanent suspension on Jones and his associated accounts, Coulter tweeted that she was unblocking the Fortune 500 companies on her tool that users were using. She later asked others to unblock those companies as well.

Facebook to launch its first Asia data center in Singapore

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 06 Sep 2018 12:54:00 +0000

Facebook has decided to use Singapore for the location of its new data center, which is expected to be launched in 2022. This new facility is estimated to cost more than $1bn (£773m) and will be located in the western part of the country.

Facebook new data center design

The data center has been designed to be 11-floor structure in other to conserve space in the crowded nation, according to Facebook. This data center with 170,000-sq-m (1.8 million-sq-ft) will support hundreds of local jobs.

Facebook also said it expected the building to be powered by 100% renovated energy and noted that it would come along with a liquid cooling system that minimized water and power use. “The system can reduce the amount of peak water used by 20% in climates like Singapore’s,” according to Facebook.

According to an India tech blogger, Pankaj Mishra, the move was an insult to India which is one of the Facebook’s largest user markets. But Adam Simon at analyst firm Context said Singapore is an ideal location for the data center.

Adam also said Singapore is the recognized technology hub in Asia, where most of the technology companies have their headquarters. “It’s sensible since you want to be able to attract all good talent and they’ve got a whole recruiting ground of technology companies based there” he also added.

The country was centered in Asia for connections with China, Hong Kong and Australia with a decades-long history of attracting technology companies to it shores which could boost good infrastructure.

Google launched its new Chrome with a design rounded tabs, new mobile layout, and updated password manager

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 05 Sep 2018 10:38:00 +0000

Google launched a new version of Chrome yesterday, which came with a new look and some amazing features. This marks 10 years after Google first launched its browser in 2008. The new design came with rounded shapes and tabs, a fresh color palette, and updated icons.

Google update the whole of Chrome to add this new user interface, and altering prompts, menus, and URLs in the address bar to fit the new design.

However, the new rounded tabs features are perhaps the most notable change, moving Chrome away from the trapezoid-like shaped tabs that have been available for years. The new tabs features are designed to make it easier to see at a glance, which will be useful for those who like to have far too many tabs open in their browser.

Google also made some changes to its address bar by displaying answers to results directly in the bar without opening a new tab. Some information on entertainment, sports and weather will automatically appear in the address bar and will allow the users to use the address bar to find an open tab and switch to it.

The new Chrome also is getting an updated password manager that will automatically generate and suggest a strong password for websites whenever you sign up to them. Chrome will then save this password and make it available on both desktop and mobile device.

Chrome for iOS is more so getting a significant renovating as Google is moving the toolbar to the bottom in other to make it easier to reach items in the browser.

While Google has been integrating machine learning into Chrome to detect phishing and malicious websites, the company has also plan to make Chrome faster with the of artificial intelligence.

According to a statement from Google’s vice president of product management, “When we first launched Chrome, Sundar said: ‘We think of the browser as the window to the web,’”. “A decade later, it’s still the tool people use to access all the websites and applications that help them do what they want to do. As Chrome moves into the next 10 years, we want to expand that window in other to improve the user’s experience.”

Amazon briefly hits $1 Trillion market value

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 04 Sep 2018 17:06:00 +0000

Amazon market value hit $1 trillion earlier today, becoming the second U.S tech company to reach this milestone. Apple was the first to reach this 13-digit number back in early August.

The giant tech company’s shares rose nearly 2 percent to a high of $2,050,50 earlier today, which makes it more than enough to reach the $2,050.27 threshold needed to reach the $1 trillion mark, with the outstanding share count of 487,741,189 shares according to the company’s most recent quarterly report in July.

Although the has since dropped back down, given the unstable nature of the stock exchange and the fact that markets are still active, it is possible for Amazon to rise back to the $1 trillion marks soon.

Apple first reached the $1 trillion in early August after posting a heavy quarterly report. However, it took Amazon just five weeks to reach the milestone.

These two giant tech companies had been racing to this trillion dollar market value. Apple had a great significant head start by surpassing $900 billion in market value eight months prior to Amazon, which reached its $900 billion in July with its biggest prime Day ever.

Amazon is now the second US Company to hit a market value of $1 trillion and the third worldwide after PetroChina briefly reached the 13-digit market value back in 2007.