Apple adopts a 'cautious approach' and cuts iPhone parts orders by 20 percent

Metallic Apple logo

Apple has reportedly warned suppliers that there will be a 20 percent drop in orders for new iPhone parts. The news comes courtesy of the Nikkei which cites industry sources.

Factoring in a drop in orders of one fifth, it seems that Apple expects to sell 80 million new model iPhones this year, down from 100 million. Apple is thought to be planning to launch three new iPhone models later this year, and it appears the company expects to sell fewer than it did with the iPhone X and iPhone 8.

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Cryptomining still tops the malware charts for May

mining-bitcoin

Currency miners continue to top the malware charts according to Check Point Software's latest Global Threat Index.

May 2018 marks the fifth consecutive month where cryptomining malware has dominated Check Point's index. The Coinhive cryptominer impacted 22 percent of organizations globally during May -- up from 16 percent in April, an increase of nearly 50 percent.

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Oath is killing off Yahoo Messenger on July 17

Yahoo Messenger icon

Yahoo Messenger is to be discontinued in just over a month. Yahoo owner Oath has announced that it is killing off its famous Messenger service on July 17.

After this date, chatting will no longer be available, and users have just six months to download their chat histories. At the moment, there is no direct replacement for Yahoo Messenger, but users are being advised that they can request an invite for the beta version of the invite-only group messaging app Yahoo Squirrel.

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Google says it will continue to work with the military on AI, but won't get involved in weapons or spying

Google logo on laptop

Google has published new guidelines describing its principles for the development of artificial intelligence.

The document -- entitled "Artificial Intelligence at Google: Our Principles" -- the company sets out its objectives for the future of AI. As well as saying it will incorporate its privacy principles into AI, Google says that it will continue to work with the military, but commits to avoid helping with the development of weapons or other technologies that could injury or kill.

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Ticketfly says hack exposed private data of 27 million accounts

Ticketfly logo

Last week event ticketing company Ticketfly suffered a cyberattack which saw the site taken offline for a number of days. The site is now back up and running, and Ticketfly has revealed the extent and impact of the hack.

The company says that data from 27 million Ticketfly accounts was accessed, including names, addresses, email addresses and phone numbers. Customers are assured that passwords and credit card details remain safe.

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Facebook bug makes millions of users' private posts public

Facebook logo with angry icon and thumbs down

Facebook is in the process of contacting 14 million users after it emerged that a bug led to private posts being made public. A problem with the company's "audience selector" tool between May 18 and 27 meant that millions of posts meant for a limited audience were actually made available for everyone and anyone to see.

The social network has apologized for the incident and says that it will notify everyone who was affected by the bug. The SNAFU comes at a bad time for Facebook, as the company tries to rebuild a reputation tattered by the Cambridge Analytica scandal, and the news that the social network had data-sharing agreements with Chinese firms.

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Google is very proud of LGBTQ YouTube creators, launches #ProudToCreate hashtag

YouTube is a place where people can upload content with differing opinions and thoughts. That is what's so great about Google's video service -- you can find many points of view on various topics. Of course, the search giant can't leave all content up -- messages of hate, violence, and discrimination have no place on YouTube and are removed regularly.

That's why it was so sad when some creators were claiming recent discrimination, pointing to demonetization for no other reason than their content being LGBTQ-related. This followed a disappointing discovery last year, where some such content was being "restricted" in error. Thankfully, Google is quick to quash any such perception. Today, the company releases a statement to say it is "proud" of LGBTQ creators on its platform.

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BlackBerry KEY2 is 'the most secure Android smartphone'

There was once a time where most smartphones had hardware keyboards. There were BlackBerry and Palm Treo devices that were an absolute joy to type on. Apple's iPhone wasn't the first smartphone to forgo a physical keyboard entirely, but it is responsible for popularizing it. As a result, Palm and BlackBerry lost almost all of their marketshare, ultimately becoming a footnote in smartphone history. And now, most smartphones are touchscreen-only for typing.

While BlackBerry no longer makes smartphones, it does license its name to a company called TCL which makes Android devices that carry the branding -- and sometimes, a physical keyboard. It isn't just slapping the BlackBerry name on a random low-quality Android phone, however. Actually, these TCL devices have been fairly well received thanks to an adherence to traditional BlackBerry designs. Today, TCL unveils its latest such smartphone, called "KEY2," and it looks quite nice. In fact, the company says it is "the most secure Android smartphone." A bold claim!

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ZTE agrees to pay $1 billion fine to stop US Denial Order

ZTE building logo

ZTE has been persona non grata in the US for some time now, with the Trump administration having slapped a Denial Order on the company preventing it from operating in North America. The president expressed a desire to get the Chinese firm "back into business" and today that is a step closer to happening.

Today the US Department of Commerce has come to an agreement with the company, which will pay a $1 billion fine for violating sanctions. In addition, ZTE will make changes to management, and put a further $400 million in escrow to cover possible future fines.

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Google brings Wi-Fi to 400 Indian train stations

For many in the USA, having access to the internet is a given -- we don't give it a second thought. When you are home, you have broadband and Wi-Fi, and when out and about, your smartphone has LTE.

In other countries, however, access to the internet isn't as ubiquitous. India, for instance, has many locations where getting online is a hardship. Google has been looking to change this with its "Next Billion Users" initiative, and one of its projects -- "Google Station" -- has seen tremendous growth. You see, the search giant has been gradually adding free Wi-Fi hotspots to Indian train stations, and today, it announces a huge milestone -- there are now 400 stations with Wi-Fi.

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71 percent of IT pros believe they can hack any organization

Hacking

Using one of four common attack vectors, 71 percent of surveyed IT professionals believe they could successfully hack any organization.

Based on a survey carried out among attendees to the RSA Conference in April 2018 by vulnerability management specialist Outpost24, 34 percent say that they would use social engineering, 23 percent say they would enter via insecure web applications, 21 percent via mobile devices, while a further 21 percent say they would enter via a public cloud.

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Keep track of the World Cup with Google

World Cup Russia 2018

With just days until the 2018 FIFA World Cup kicks off in Russia, Google is rolling out a series of tools to help football fans keep track of what's going on.

A range of Google services -- Search, News, Assistant, Trends and more -- have been updated with World Cup-specific bits and pieces to help enhance your enjoyment of the tournament. From match streams and detailed reports to behind-the-scenes footage and tips about where you can watch games, there's something for every fan here.

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Amazon wins rights to show some Premier League matches

Football

Starting next year, Amazon Prime subscribers in the UK will be able to stream some Premier League matches. The company has won the right to show 20 games per season between 2019 and 2022.

The online retailer managed to muscle in on territory dominated by BT and Sky to secure the right to show all 10 Boxing Day matches, as well as the first round of mid-week fixtures.

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Operations management platform delivers improved visibility and control of hybrid IT

Cloud server

As more systems move to the cloud, companies often struggle with factors like costs and incident response due to a lack of visibility.

Operations management platform OpsRamp is launching an update to its SaaS platform that delivers greater visibility for multi-cloud environments and features a new Artificial Intelligence for IT Operations (AIOps) inference engine for more powerful alerting and event correlation.

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When artificial intelligence goes bad: Reddit made 'Norman' a psychopathic AI

Norman AI

AI is, of course, one of the latest big buzzwords in the tech industry, but here’s something new: Norman, the world’s first "psychopathic" artificial intelligence, as concocted by researchers at MIT.

So, you might wonder, how do you make a psychopath in the world of machine learning? Simple -- you pack the AI in question off for a vacation on Reddit. Or the "darkest corners" of Reddit, as the MIT researchers put it.

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