Amazon to delete MP3s from its Music Storage service for some users
Subscribers to Amazon's Music Storage service have less than a month to access their music before it is lost forever.
The company has announced that as of April 29, there will be no new subscriptions accepted for the service, and any existing subscriptions will be allowed to expire. If you do not opt to save your MP3s before this happens, you will lose access to them completely.
Bookmark syncing service Xmarks to close on May 1
If you're a user of Xmarks, there's some bad news for you -- the service is closing down in a month's time. The bookmark syncing tool, which is available as an addon for Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer and Safari, is to be shuttered on May 1.
Very little fuss is being made about the closure by the company behind it -- something which is perhaps indicative of the level of interest there is in the service these days. A banner at the top of the Xmarks website reads: "LogMeIn is retiring Xmarks from its line of products as of May 1, 2018. After this date, you will no longer have access to Xmarks."
'Where's Waldo?' comes to Google Maps for some reason
Today, Google announces that it is bringing the "Where's Waldo?" franchise to Google Maps. If you aren't familiar, this is a picture book series in which the reader has to find "Waldo" -- a man wearing a striped sweater. By design, he is hard to find -- he is hidden in plain sight by blending into his surroundings. Exactly why Google is doing this is a mystery, but OK, whatever.
Tomorrow is April 1, a date that represents "April Fool's Day" -- a holiday where people play pranks on each other. In recent years, technology companies -- including Google -- have used this date to announce fake news; usually an absurd product or other silliness. Surprisingly, this Where's Waldo? announcement is real and not an April Fool's Day prank.
Microsoft releases Windows 10 Spring Creators Update Build 17133 to the Slow ring, but not for all
Microsoft only released Windows 10 Spring Creators Update (Redstone 4) Build 17133 to the Fast ring a few days ago, but it’s already been cleared for the Slow ring.
However, as part of some deployment testing, not everyone on the Slow ring will receive it immediately. You will be able to force the update if you want to though.
Less than half of Android security apps offer effective protection
A new study from independent testing lab AV-Comparatives reveals that of over 200 Android security apps tested the majority are dubious, unsafe or ineffective.
The company downloaded 204 apps from the Google Play store in January this year and found 84 of the apps detected over 30 percent of malicious samples, and had zero false alarms. 79 detected under 30 percent of malware samples and/or had a high false alarm rate.
What's the probability of a data breach happening to you? Or is that the wrong question?
Correctly calculating the probability of risk is becoming critical to organizations. And it’s not just because it is essential and fundamental to good Risk Management practice, but also because new laws such as GDPR are mandating it. Security measures must be appropriate to the risk, and the risk is suffering a data breach. So, calculating the probability of a data breach happening, regardless of scope, is vital to determining appropriate security measures.
ISACA, previously known as the Information Systems Audit and Control Association but now known solely by its acronym, talks about the probability of risk as:
Best practices for effective Privileged Access Management
It feels like almost every week, we hear of a new breach, and each week, we’re thankful it wasn’t our company. But how long can we dodge the breach bullet? No one wants to be the next headline, but what can we do to ensure that we aren’t?
The common denominator in virtually every breach is that somehow, someone who shouldn’t have access to your company’s system and data sources has found a way in. The bad guys are smart, creative and motivated, and can use even the smallest opening.
Apple releases iOS 11.3 with a massive focus on privacy
Ahead of GDPR in Europe, Apple has released iOS 11.3, complete with a selection of privacy-focused tools. But while privacy is at the heart of the release, it is far from being the end of the story.
The recent Facebook scandal has focused attention on privacy, and this is something Apple will be more than happy to capitalize upon, bringing GDPR-prompted tools to the world -- not just Europe. But iOS 11.3 also includes an extensive changelog with a range of fixes and updates.
Best Windows 10 apps this week
Two-hundred-and-seventy-six in a series. Welcome to this week's overview of the best apps, games and extensions released for Windows 10 on the Windows Store in the past seven days.
Microsoft added the new Edge Extensions page to the Store recently. The Store page lists recent and popular Edge extensions, and also extensions by category.
Leaked Facebook memo: 'so what if the social network's growth leads to terrorism and death?'
A leaked memo written by Facebook's vice-president, Andrew Bosworth, entitled "The Ugly" gives a glimpse into the attitude the social network has towards its own growth. "Boz" Bosworth says the "ugly truth" of Facebook's growth is that connecting people could lead to deaths -- but so be it.
In the memo, Bosworth says "anything that allows us to connect more people more often is *de facto* good". He goes on to say: "That's why all the work we do in growth is justified. All the questionable contact importing practices. All the subtle language that helps people stay searchable by friends. All of the work we do to bring more communication in. The work we will likely have to do in China some day. All of it". With the criticism that has been leveled at Facebook recently, the leak could hardly have come at a worse time.
Microsoft releases update that fixes problematic Meltdown patch
As if the Meltdown and Spectre chip vulnerabilities weren't bad enough in their own right, the patches designed to fix them caused a further series of problems. A Swedish researcher recently discovered that Microsoft's Meltdown fixes lowered security in Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2, and now the company has issued a fix.
As the new patch is being released outside of the usual schedule, it is indicative of the importance of the security update. KB4100480 is a kernel update for Windows 7 Service Pack 1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 that addresses CVE-2018-1038 problems.
CloudBerry offers 50 percent discount for World Backup Day
This Saturday's World Backup Day is set to raise awareness of the importance of backing up important documents.
Backup solution specialist CloudBerry is marking the day by offering a 50 percent discount until April 2nd on its CloudBerry Backup program for Windows, Mac, and Linux.
Under Armour MyFitnessPal suffers data breach, becomes MyFitnessFoe
Geting in shape can be very hard. Not only do you need the means to get fit -- education on what to eat, for instance -- but you also need time. Sadly, so many people put in long hours at work -- sometimes toiling away at two or more jobs -- that finding time (and energy) to exercise can be a near-impossibility. Luckily, technology can help with these deficiencies, as software can educate, while hardware -- such as wearables -- can (potentially) motivate and track progress.
While technology can be good, it can also be vulnerable, leading to stolen user data. Under Armour's 'MyFitnessPal' is the latest platform to experience a security breach. If you aren't familiar with it, Under Armour calls it a "Free calorie counter, diet, and exercise journal." Unfortunately, hackers have made off with the data of 150 million users. I guess you could say MyFitnessPal has become MyFitnessFoe!
Microsoft releases Windows 10 Redstone 5 Build 17634 for Skip Ahead
The Redstone 4 branch of Windows 10 -- the Spring Creators Update -- has reached RTM, and will begin rolling out to non-Insiders around the April 10.
For those users already looking to the future, Microsoft is already pushing out builds for the following feature update, codenamed Redstone 5. Build 17634, for users on the Skip Ahead ring, adds search functionality to the calendar and a number of other improvements and fixes.
NirSoft launches a software Easter Egg challenge -- can you track down 10 new programs on the site?
Prolific software developer Nir Sofer has created 10 more new tools, but they aren’t currently linked to on his site, or anywhere else.
They are somewhere on the NirSoft site, but finding them won’t be easy. Do you have what it takes?
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