Twitter bans all political ads, and the world waits to see if Facebook will follow suit
Jack Dorsey has announced that Twitter is implementing a ban on all political advertising on its network. The move comes after Facebook said it would not ban political ads, but Dorsey believes that the ability to reach a large audience with political messages "should be earned, not bought".
While the ban is a global one, the impact is likely to be felt most strongly in the US where spending on political campaigning is huge -- and whoever spends the most money has a tendency to fare better. The manager of the Trump 2020 campaign, Brad Parscale, has dismissed Twitter's decision as "yet another attempt by the left to silence Trump and conservatives".
Dynabook unveils thinner, lighter, and faster Tecra A40 Windows 10 laptop
If you need a Windows laptop, there are plenty of great brands from which to choose. Unfortunately, one brand is no longer available -- Toshiba. Thankfully, its notebook computers live on under a new company name -- Dynabook. You know what? As that Shakespeare dude once wrote, "A rose by any other name would smell as sweet." And yeah, the same can be said about Dynabook. Name aside, these are the same computers that many consumers have loved.
The Tecra line of business-class laptops has long been admired by in-the-know consumers, and now, Dynabook has refreshed one of the models. The new 14-inch (1080p) Tecra A40 is still beautiful and powerful, but now it is even thinner and lighter. It is just 19.9 mm thin, and weighs in at only 3.24 pounds. Despite the svelte chassis, the internal battery can last up to 13 hours -- impressive. While it does have a single USB-C port (plus two USB-A ports), there is no Thunderbolt 3 to be found, sadly.
Howard Stern and SiriusXM finally come to Google Assistant
I recently converted my home from Amazon Alexa to Google Assistant. Why did I do this? Well, after comparing them both, I found Google's results were better. Not to mention, there are many nuances that make me prefer the search giant's offering. For instance, if I ask for a baseball score, it also shares the sound of a crowd cheering and the crack of the bat hitting a ball. I even prefer the confirmation sounds it makes. When I ask Google to turn off my lamp, for instance, it responds with a more pleasant tone than Alexa does. And so, my Echo devices were replaced with Nest speakers.
Sadly, there was a huge hole left in my life by ditching Amazon for Google -- SiriusXM. You see, with Alexa, you can ask her to play a SiriusXM channel and she does (as long as your account is linked, of course). This convenient feature simply wasn't possible on Google Assistant. Today, however, this changes -- Howard Stern and the rest of SiriusXM are finally coming to Google's Nest speakers! There are even plans to eventually bring video to some Nest devices.
IBM launches mobile video streaming for business communication
With modern businesses often spread across multiple locations, effective ways of keeping in touch with a dispersed workforce are always welcome.
IBM Watson Media is launching its new IBM Video Streaming mobile application, a mobile broadcasting tool that offers enterprise businesses an end-to-end, security-rich solution for live mobile video streaming to iOS and Android devices.
Cybercriminals use enterprise-grade tools to mount phishing attacks
We know that cybercrime is increasingly a very serious business and a new report from Akamai Technologies reveals that enterprise-based development and deployment strategies are being used to create phishing attacks.
Tools such as phishing as a service (PaaS) are being used to leverage some of the world's largest tech brands, with 42.63 percent of domains observed targeting Microsoft, PayPal, DHL, and Dropbox.
New intelligence tool measures the impact of workplace communications
In today's business environment staff are more likely than ever to be physically separated from each other, whether they are operating in the field or working from home. This presents a challenge for enterprises needing to keep everyone in the loop.
Until now there hasn't been an effective way to measure the impact of workplace communication other than subjective measures like surveys. Now though communications platform SocialChorus is launching a new tool to measure the effectiveness of employee communications.
The state of stolen credentials on the Dark Web
Every time there's a major data breach it adds to the pool of stolen details available on the Dark Web, but exactly what is out there?
To find out, ImmuniWeb has been analyzing the quality and quantity of stolen credentials accessible on the Dark Web originating from Fortune 500 companies in 10 different industries around the world.
Apple's macOS Catalina 10.15.1 update adds AirPods Pro support, new Siri privacy options and gender-neutral emoji
Apple only released Catalina three weeks ago, and already there is a fairly significant update available -- macOS Catalina 10.15.1.
With this release, Apple adds support for the newly announced AirPods Pro as well as fixing a number of bugs. There are also new HomeKit options, enhanced privacy in Siri, and the arrival of more than 70 new or updated emoji, including gender-neutral options.
Keeping the DevOps balance between security and speed [Q&A]
With DevOps gaining in popularity at many companies, the tension between speed and security is an ongoing issue. This tension exists because the common perception is that security slows down agile development and the CI/CD pipeline.
We spoke to Manish Gupta CEO of continuous application security platform ShiftLeft to discuss the dynamics within DevOps that create this tension and how IT organizations can achieve both speed and security.
Microsoft releases Windows 10 20H1 Build 19013 with more ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
With October coming to a close it won’t be long until the Windows 10 November 2019 Update -- 19H2 -- starts to roll out to users. That’s more of a service pack than a feature update however.
If you want new features, it’s builds on the 20H1 branch that you’ll likely be more interested in. This week’s new flight, Build 19013, comes with more kaomoji and a welcome update to Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) 2.
Linksys unveils MX10 Velop intelligent mesh Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) system
Google recently launched its latest home Wi-Fi product -- Nest Wifi. It looks like a great networking solution for those that want to utilize mesh to extend coverage in their home. Hell, it even has Google Assistant built in! You know what it doesn't have though? Wi-Fi 6.
What exactly is Wi-Fi 6? It is the official name for 802.11ax -- the latest and greatest wireless networking standard. Despite Wi-Fi 6 devices being fairly rare, it is still strange that the search giant chose to not include it. Oh well. Google isn't the only game in town. TP-Link, for instance, recently announced some affordable 802.11ax routers. If you want both Wi-Fi 6 and mesh, however, today, you have a new option -- the Linksys MX10 Velop. Before you get too excited, please know the price is rather high.
Fedora 31 is here -- download the world's best desktop Linux distribution now
Is Fedora popular? Well, is any desktop Linux distribution truly popular in the grand scheme of things? I mean, look, Windows holds an insurmountable lead in the desktop operating system space -- it cannot be denied. Amongst Linux distributions, however, yes, Fedora is very popular comparatively. Why do people choose it over other distros, such as Ubuntu, MX Linux, or Manjaro? It's simple -- Fedora is a no-nonsense operating system with a genuine focus on free and open source software. Not to mention, it is fairly bleeding edge while remaining stable.
So, yeah, Fedora is wonderful. Today, however, the Linux distribution gets even better. You see, following the beta period, Fedora 31 is now available for download. Is it an exciting release? No, not really. Sure, enthusiasts will find themselves thrilled withe inclusion of the GNOME 3.34 desktop environment (with Qt Wayland by default), Linux 5.3 kernel, and Mesa 9.2, but otherwise, it is fairly boring. You know what? That's not a bad thing. In 2019, Fedora is simply a mature and stable operating system that only needs to follow an evolutionary path at this time -- not revolutionary. It stands alone as the world's best desktop Linux distribution.
You can now read cited books directly through Wikipedia
Wikipedia is an incredibly useful resource, even if not every entry is as accurate as it could be. If you’re using it for research, it’s best to perhaps view what you read there as a jumping off point.
Today, diving deeper into a subject just got easier, as when you find a citation to a book in a Wikipedia entry, you might now be able to go straight to the page of that actual volume with a single mouse click thanks to the Internet Archive.
Microsoft releases updated PowerToys with new PowerRename tool -- and dark mode!
It has been a couple of months since Microsoft unleashed the first build of the Windows 10 version of PowerToys with the promise of more to come.
Now this day has arrived. Today, Microsoft has released PowerToys v0.12 which includes not only improvements to the existing utilities, but also a brand new tool in the form of PowerRename.
Happy birthday, Internet! 50 years old today
50 years ago, on October 29 1969, a packet was sent between two computers -- one at UCLA and the other at Stanford Research Institute -- on the ARPANET. This doesn’t sound hugely exciting, but it was first step in the creation of the Internet.
In the half century since then, the world has transformed beyond recognition. The arrival of the World Wide Web in 1991 showed what the Internet could be and ultimately changed everything, bringing us online shopping, up to the minute news, social networking, and more.
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