Facebook fights fake news with a trio of tweaks to trending topics
The problem of fake news has been around for a little while -- particularly on Facebook -- but it's something that has been thrown into the spotlight thanks to President Trump and his continuing complaints about the media, in particular about the size of his inauguration crowds.
Facebook is one of many technology companies to announce plans to tackle fake news, and now the social network has unveiled its latest round of fakery fighting. Three major changes are coming to Trending topics: firstly, Facebook will no longer personalize news for individual users; secondly headlines and sources will be listed alongside topic headings to help give context; finally the trending algorithm is being updated.
Microsoft admits sales of 'expensive' HoloLens are 'not huge' but more versions are planned
Microsoft is not giving away too much about the sales figures for HoloLens but goes as far as saying it is "in thousands, not hundreds of thousands". With the augmented reality headset costing $3000, this is perhaps not surprising, and the company is quite happy to take the seemingly low sales figures in its stride.
Speaking at educational technology event the Bett Show in London on Thursday, Roger Walkden, Senior Director and Commercial Lead of HoloLens, acknowledged that the price tag was partly responsible for the small number of sales. Interestingly, though, Microsoft is not bothered by what could be seen as disappointing sales, despite the fact that the company seems to be betting big on HoloLens by adding headset settings in recent Windows 10 Insider builds.
Google Chrome now reloads web pages faster and more efficiently than ever before
Have you ever been extremely dissatisfied with the refresh/reload performance of your web browser? Yeah, me neither. Quite frankly, I never gave much thought to it. Google has noticed, however, and it has improved the reload performance with Chrome 56.
The search giant did not discover the deficiencies of the reload feature on its own, as Facebook apparently tipped Google off to it. You see, the social network noticed that the Chrome web browser was less efficient compared to other browsers, and now Google has rectified it.
Microsoft kills the ability to uninstall stock apps from Windows 10
Windows 10 comes with a selection of decent stock apps, but if you don’t use some (or indeed all) of them, then really they serve no purpose other than to take up disk space.
Microsoft introduced the ability to remove unwanted stock apps in build 14936 for Windows Insiders, but now it’s taken back that option.
Mid-market enterprises are too confident of their cyber security
Mid-market enterprises have very high confidence in their cyber security defenses, but in reality they struggle to defend against malicious activity which has become more sophisticated, more targeted and more severe.
Security operations-as-a-service company Arctic Wolf Networks along with research firm Vanson Bourne, surveyed IT decision makers at 200 companies with between 500 and 3,000 employees and uncovered a disparity between what IT professionals believe versus the reality of their security posture.
Security is more important than availability in app development
Security is now the top priority for app development, surpassing availability, a new report by F5 Networks states. The State of Application Delivery report is based on a poll of more than 2,000 IT, networking, application, and security professionals worldwide.
Looking at how they are deploying and managing their applications in a rapidly evolving landscape, the report also says that organizations in the EMEA region (Europe, Middle East, Africa), expect more than three quarters (76 percent) of their apps in the cloud this year.
Here, FIDO! Facebook adds security key protection
Hackers are always keen to get their hands on people's social media accounts, so adding two-factor security is a good way of keeping your login details secure if someone tries to access your account on another device.
Facebook has offered verification by SMS message or mobile app for a while but it's now going a step further by making the FIDO U2F (universal 2nd factor authentication) security key available as part of its login process.
Linux Mint releases BETA versions of refreshed Debian-based LMDE 2 'Betsy' ISO images
Linux Mint is widely known as an Ubuntu-based operating system, but that isn't entirely true. Yes, the main version is based on Canonical's distro, but one version, LMDE, is instead based on Debian. In fact, "LMDE" stands for Linux Mint Debian Edition. Of course, Ubuntu is based on Debian which makes the entire thing even more confusing for users, but I digress.
Today, the Linux Mint Team releases refreshed BETA versions of the LMDE 2 "Betsy" ISO images. What does this mean? There have been many updates since the last version of the ISO was released in 2015, meaning that new installs were very outdated and needed many updates. The Linux Mint team is packaging all of those updates into the ISO so that it is more modern for those doing a fresh install.
Cyber attacks fall in volume but grow in sophistication
Cyber criminals are employing more sophisticated techniques in their attacks, including the use of 'false flagging' to disguise their true source.
This is one of the findings of the latest threat intelligence report from NTT Security, on a positive note though it records a 35 percent decrease in the number of attacks in the final quarter of 2016.
Google Maps for iOS adds real-time updates to Popular Times feature
Google has released Google Maps for iOS 4.27, the second major update to its iPhone and iPad app this month. It follows an earlier update that improved support for Uber services.
The new release extends the live crowd-tracking feature that is already present on the maps.google.com website to the app. This is accompanied by a new feature giving users access to clipboard data, making it possible to import addresses from other apps.
Tabby Cat generates a feline friend for every new Chrome tab
There are endless Chrome extensions which replace your new tab page, typically to give you gorgeous photo wallpaper or equip your browser with productivity-boosting tools.
Tabby Cat has a simpler aim: it generates and displays a cute new cat on the background of every tab you open.
Chuwi LapBook 14.1: A surprisingly good budget laptop [Review]
I am a strong believer in the saying "you get what you pay for." It's been my experience that price is a reflection of quality (design, performance, build quality, customer support, you name it), so when I look at an affordable device I tend to lower my expectations. Case in point, before taking the Chuwi LapBook 14.1 out of the box, I thought it wouldn't be much better than the other Chinese laptop I reviewed, the Jumper Ezbook 2.
Why? Because it promises a lot of things for the money: a 14.1-inch IPS display with a resolution of 1,920 by 1,080, 1.1GHz quad-core Intel "Apollo Lake" Celeron N3450 processor, 4GB of RAM, 64GB of storage, microSD card slot, microHDMI port, two USB ports, a webcam, a 9,000mAh battery, and Windows 10 Home for a retail price of $299.99. And, boy, was I proven wrong. The LapBook 14.1 punches far above its price tag would suggest.
WayBack Machine's official Chrome extension gets a major update
It’s barely a week since we looked at the WayBack Machine’s simple Chrome extension, but it’s just had a major update which makes the add-on much more useful.
Clicking the WayBack Machine icon now displays buttons to show the first or most recent archived copies of the current URL, as stored in the WayBack Machine -- perfect for seeing how a site has changed over time.
Enterprises have the wrong priorities on security spending
A new survey reveals a disconnect between the security solutions organizations spend money on and the ability of those solutions to protect sensitive data.
The study from security solutions company Thales e-Security and 451 Research finds that while 30 percent of respondents classify their organizations as 'very vulnerable' or 'extremely vulnerable' to data attacks the two top spending priorities are network (62 percent) and endpoint (56 percent) protection solutions.
Facebook makes its privacy settings much clearer
Facebook has made lots of changes to its privacy settings over the years, usually in a bid to make them simpler to understand and use, yet many people just stick with the defaults.
Facebook’s new Privacy Basics aims to make it much easier for people to find the tools they need to control their information on the social network.
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