eBay takes aim at Amazon with 'Guaranteed Delivery'
I shop at Amazon a lot. Is it because the prices are the lowest? No, actually. Quite often, I pay a bit more at Amazon compared to other online retailers. Why would I choose to spend more money? Shipping time. As a Prime member, I get guaranteed free two-day shipping. For a few extra bucks, I can get one-day shipping. In other words, the guaranteed delivery is worth the premium for me. Saving a few bucks but not knowing when my order will arrive is simply a bad deal -- for me at least (and I am guessing many others too).
eBay might be feeling the pressure from Amazon, as today, the company announces that it will be introducing "Guaranteed Delivery" this summer. eBay promises that certain products can be received in 3 business days or less. It is not available for all items, however, but more than 20 million products will be eligible.
Organizations remain vulnerable to brute force attacks
Gaining access to accounts is often done the old-fashioned way, using brute force guesses, but a new report reveals that many devices and accounts still have default usernames and passwords.
The study from visibility and testing company Ixia shows the top five username guesses as root, admin, ubnt, support, and user -- ubnt being the default username for AWS and other cloud services based on Ubuntu.
Consumers know apps are insecure, but they do little to protect themselves
Once again, an urban myth turns out to be true. People know mobile apps can be targeted by hackers, they fear the scenario, yet they’re doing very little to protect themselves from such potential attacks.
The confirmation was released by F5 Networks, in a study into the UK’s app-centric society and consumer behaviors.
Ahead of the Galaxy S8 launch, Samsung officially announces its virtual assistant, Bixby
There have been so many leaks about Samsung's upcoming Galaxy S8 that, come launch day, there will be nothing new to learn. One of the features that slipped out a little earlier than planned was news of Samsung's own virtual assistant called Bixby. Now Samsung has officially unveiled its take on Siri and Cortana.
Drawing on artificial intelligence and deep learning, Samsung describes Bixby as "a new intelligent interface." But what makes Bixby any better, or different, than any other virtual assistant on the market? Samsung says that "completeness", "context awareness" and "cognitive tolerance" are the keys to its success.
Archiving partnership aids financial services compliance
For the financial services industry, compliance is a major issue as there's a need to archive communication from many different sources.
To provide a solution to the industry's unique demands, financial services software specialist IPC Systems has announced a collaboration with communications compliance and archiving company Actiance. This will use Actiance's Alcatraz solution to offer IPC's financial services customers a holistic archival solution across a range of digital communications, including voice.
Microsoft's Mac to Surface Assistant makes it easier to switch to a Surface
Moving from one operating system to another -- be it Windows to Linux, Mac to Windows or whatever -- can be fraught with tension. Microsoft wants to make life easier for anyone who has decided to ditch their Mac, by releasing the Mac to Surface Assistant to help migrate data to a new Surface Pro, Surface Book or Surface Studio.
For some time, Microsoft has featured detailed instructions on the Surface support pages that explain how to backup and transfer different types of data from one computer to another. With the Mac to Surface Assistant, however, all of this is taken care of by a wizard-led interface.
M-Kavach is an Android security app from India
M-Kavach is a versatile Android security app from the Center for Development of Advanced Computing, a research and development arm of the Indian government.
The app offers several modules and security layers to protect you from a range of threats. M-Kavach can restricts app access to key resources, including Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, camera and mobile data.
Microsoft Teams vs Slack -- how do they compare?
Last week Microsoft rolled out its Teams collaboration app to Office 365 users. Teams has been widely billed as a competitor for Slack, but how do the two big players in this space measure up against each other?
Internet marketing company TechWyse has put together an infographic giving an easy-to-follow overview of how the features of Teams and Slack compare. Slack is the more expensive option for paid users, but it does offer a Freemium model which Teams lacks.
Despite raising over $1 million in funding, iPhone E-ink case creator popSLATE closes down
A year ago, I wrote about popSLATE 2, a crowdfunded case for iPhone that looked amazing. The proposed product put a second shatterproof E-Ink screen on the back of the phone, and doubled as a battery pack.
I was so impressed with it, I immediately backed the campaign. There’s always a risk when funding products on the likes of Indiegogo (which this was) and Kickstarter, especially when it comes to technology devices, and sadly despite raising over $1.1 million (1371 percent of its funding goal), popSLATE has announced that the company has gone bust, meaning that backers won’t receive the new product and there will be no refunds.
WikiLeaks holds tech companies' feet to the fire before helping with zero days revealed in CIA leaks
The CIA's hacking tools leaked in the WikiLeaks Vault 7 disclosure revealed vulnerabilities in a range of popular software titles. Julian Assange has said that his organization will share details of the zero days revealed in the documents with the respective technology companies, but it now transpires that there are certain conditions to meet first. It’s a situation that has more than a slight air of "ransom" to it.
Microsoft has initially complained that after the initial leak there had been no contact from either WikiLeaks or the CIA, but it seems that contact has now been made with the Windows-maker and other companies. Mozilla is among those to have been contacted and to have responded, and sources suggest that Assange has attached conditions to disclosing details of vulnerabilities.
Google attracts criticism for hiding LGBTQ videos in YouTube's Restricted Mode
LGBTQ+ videos are effectively being censored by Google, say a number of high-profile YouTubers. The accusations surround YouTube's Restricted Mode and the belief that this is hiding videos with LGBTQ+ content from view, leading some to suggest that active censorship is taking place.
Google says that this limited mode exists to give people the option to avoid "videos that discuss more sensitive issues." The blocking is supposed to be triggered by "community flagging, age restrictions, and other signals," but YouTubers complain that even "innocent" videos that reference same-sex relationships, "queer perspectives" and other LGBTQ+ topics have been restricted.
Qualcomm: Snapdragon is more than a processor, it's a platform
Qualcomm no longer refers to Snapdragons as processors, but rather as a platform. It says it is changing the terminology because "Snapdragon is more than a single component, a piece of silicon, or what many would misinterpret as the CPU."
According to Qualcomm, the Snapdragon is an anthology of technology, composed of hardware, software and services. Looking at it that way, the word "processor" is unsuitable, and therefore had to be nixed.
Kdenlive is a powerful video editor for… Windows?
Kdenlive has been a popular non-linear video editor in the Linux world for a very long time, but the developers have also recently released a first Windows port.
The build doesn't skimp on functions: there's a full multi-track timeline and an array of effects and transitions to explore.
YouTube kills off video annotations in favor of mobile-friendly Cards and End Screens
Things are changing at YouTube. Having previously announced plans to drop 30-second unskippable ads from videos, Google has now also revealed that it will be dropping another annoyance -- the annotations that blight many videos and distract from the actual content.
Annotations have generally been used to link to related material, push merchandize and so on, but there has been something of an issue: annotations are not very mobile-friendly. Google says that Cards (which can be displayed at any point during a video) and End Screens (which, funnily enough, appear at the end) provide the same functionality as annotations, work on mobile, and are more user-friendly.
Super Mario Run for Android launches 23 March
It is quite some time since Super Mario Run arrived for iOS and took the world by storm. Right from the start there were questions about when the Android version would appear, and the delay from Nintendo saw the springing up of a batch of malicious fakers.
Pre-registration for the Super Mario Run for Android opened up in late-December, and now Nintendo has finally revealed the launch date for one of the most eagerly-awaited Android games of all time. The Android version of Super Mario Run will launch on 23 March -- just days away!
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