Big Brother's crystal ball: China developing software to monitor citizens and predict terrorist activity
We've become used to the idea of online surveillance thanks to Edward Snowden blowing the lid off the activities of the NSA and GCHQ. While it's easy and natural to bemoan the infringement of privacy such surveillance entails, no one ensures as limited and controlled an internet as the Chinese.
There's the famous Great Firewall of China for starters, and as part of a counter-terrorism program the country also passed a law requiring tech companies to provide access to encryption keys. Now the Communist Party has ordered one of its defense contractors to develop software that uses big data to predict terrorist activity.
Samsung buying Tidal? It seems that's not happening
Despite the publicity that music service Tidal has received recently thanks to the exclusive release of the Kanye West album, it has continued to struggle. Rumors the past few weeks have swirled around a potential sale of the streaming service, with Samsung being front and center among the candidates as a possible buyer.
Samsung has already shuttered its video service and there's a chance its Milk Music service is on the chopping block. While Milk has seemingly gained some footing with the free version of the Pandora-like radio, it has little in the way of paid subscribers.
Anonymous hacks Donald Trump's voicemail and leaks the messages
In the run-up to the presidential election, few days go by when Donald Trump isn't hitting the headlines for something he's said or done. The bombastic billionaire looks set to become the republican candidate, and his journey towards the White House is littered with offense and controversy, and back in December Anonymous declared war on him.
The loose collective of hackers and activist made its declaration after Trump announced plans to ban Muslims from entering the US. One of the alleged first strikes in Anonymous' war sees the group hacking the businessman's voicemail and leaking the messages. The messages appear to show that Trump had a surprisingly cosy relationship with the more left-leaning section of the media than one might imagine.
While the government searches for an iPhone backdoor, researchers find another way in
While the news about the dispute between Apple and the FBI rages on, security researchers continue to look for other ways into products, not just the iPhone. But as a prominent device it becomes a big target and deserves extra scrutiny.
The security experts from Israel and Australia decided to test out the electromagnetic radiation emitted by devices, in this case using an iPhone. The results were interesting, though they won't help in the case of phones in the custody of law enforcement.
Popular WordPress plugin pulled after discovery of password-stealing backdoor
The precise number of websites out there running on WordPress may not be known, but one thing is for sure -- there are a lot of them. Two reasons for the popularity of WordPress are the ease of set up and the availability of a huge range of plugins. One popular plugin, Custom Content Type Manager (CCTM), has just been pulled from the WordPress Plugin Directory after a backdoor was discovered.
The plugin has been installed on thousands of websites, and a recent update -- automatically installed for many users -- included a worrying payload. In the hands of a new developer, Custom Content Type Manager made changes to core WordPress files, ultimately making it possible to steal admin passwords and transmit them in plaintext to a remote server.
Windows 10 Insider Preview Redstone Build 14279 arrives on the Fast ring, with a few noteworthy changes
After tweeting that Microsoft tends to avoid releasing new Insider Preview builds on a Friday so the team doesn’t have to work over the weekend dealing with potential issues, Microsoft’s Gabe Aul pushed the button to release a new Windows 10 build on a Friday.
Fast ring releases sometimes have a lot of new features and changes, but can often just deliver a few internal tweaks. Insider Preview Redstone Build 14279 falls into the former camp, with improvements to Cortana, logon, and apps.
Want to score 50 percent off a Google Play movie rental? You need to act fast
It is snowing once again in New York today -- won't the winter madness ever end? This dreary weather has largely kept me indoors; reading magazines, watching TV, and enjoying the occasional movie. Nothing's better than getting cozy on your couch with a warm blanket and cup of tea to watch a good film.
With that said, this weekend is looking like a good candidate for some movie watching. Unfortunately, picking a movie can be daunting -- there are so many to choose from. Even worse, paying to rent a movie that ends up being bad can make you feel like you've been robbed. If you share my concerns, I have good news -- you can score a Google Play movie rental for 50 percent off. It is a limited offer, however, so you must act fast.
Google to use geolocation data to block Right To Be Forgotten links around the world
Google is updating its approach to delisting search results in Europe under the Right To Be Forgotten. At the moment, people are able to request that search results do not link to articles that are "inadequate, irrelevant, no longer relevant or excessive, and not in the public interest" but there have been ways for searchers to bypass these delistings.
While Google may remove a search result from all European Google domains, there's nothing to stop people from using non-European versions of the search engine to access otherwise-hidden data. Starting next week, Google is going to start using geolocation data to crack down on this practice.
How would a Brexit impact UK's tech sector?
With the UK’s EU referendum less than four months away, the UK’s thriving economy of fast-growth, tech, and digital business are weighing up the pros and cons of leaving the EU and what a Brexit would mean for the sector.
Without doubt, the main fear of the UK tech and digital sector, if the result of 23 June is to leave the EU, is the adverse impact this would have on the ability to recruit and retain tech talent from within the EU.
Developer criticizes Microsoft's 'monopolizing' approach to apps and gaming in Windows 10
A walled-garden approach to apps for operating system is something we've become used to in the mobile world. Apple, in particular, has been incredibly successful in creating a closed-off eco-system that ensures it remains -- broadly speaking -- in control of what hits the App Store. With Windows 10, Microsoft is trying to blur the boundaries between mobile and non-mobile, and developers -- especially game developers -- are not happy.
Windows 10's Universal Windows Platform (UWP) is described by Epic Games founder Tim Sweeney as a "closed platform-within-a-platform". More than this, Sweeney says that it is the "most aggressive move Microsoft has ever made", warning that the company is trying to monopolize app distribution to the detriment of consumers and the entire PC industry. Writing for the Guardian, Sweeney bellows out a call to arms saying that UWP "can, should, must, and will die".
NooG is a compact web search bar for your PC desktop
NooG is a lightweight internet search bar for the Windows desktop.
We watched the installation process closely, because this is just the kind of app to trash your system with a pile of adware, but no -- the entire program is under 2MB in size, nothing intrusive at all.
Amazon values encryption so much that it drops support on Kindle Fire tablets
Amazon has came out in support of encryption, following Apple's recent legal battles with the US government, saying that it "plays a very, very important role" in protecting customer data.
But you might be surprised to learn that Amazon has also decided to quietly drop support for full disk encryption on its Android-based Kindle Fire tablets. Since it is portraying itself as an encryption and consumer advocate, its decision to go in the opposite direction strikes me as sheer hypocrisy.
Yahoo joins the club, throws its support behind Apple against the FBI
For the past couple of weeks the tech news has circled around Apple versus the FBI, after the iPhone maker refused to comply with a court order to unlock a phone used by one of the terrorists in the San Bernardino shootings. That handset may or may not hold data relevant to the case or perhaps reveal plans for future attacks.
We'll possibly never know, given the agency changed the Apple ID and there are claims that even the iPhone maker cannot now get into it. The FBI, for its part, has acknowledged that it made a mistake in changing that ID.
Why does Oculus Rift not support Macs?
To be on the cutting edge of technology you sometimes need to make some hard decisions. If you are a Mac user who is interested in Oculus Rift, you will have to choose between your love of Apple's computers and enjoying the virtual reality headset. That is because the two do not go hand in hand, as Oculus Rift only supports Windows PCs. Ouch!
Your Mac is not held back by Windows per se, because it can be easily installed via Boot Camp or Parallels -- and you get pretty much the same user experience as a PC user. The reason why Mac support is currently out of the question boils down to hardware limitations.
popSLATE 2 adds a smart second screen to your iPhone -- and it looks amazing [Updated]
Update: Despite raising over $1 million in funding, iPhone E-ink case creator popSLATE closes down
At BetaNews we get bombarded with Indiegogo and Kickstarter campaigns on a daily basis, the vast majority of which we never cover. Occasionally though, we see something that really makes us sit up and pay attention. popSLATE 2 is such a project.
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