Nielsen: Top 10 smartphone apps of 2016 -- Facebook and Google dominate
When it comes to mobile operating systems, apps still reign supreme. To highlight which ones were most popular in 2016, Nielsen conducted a study of Android and iPhone smartphone users.
Not surprisingly, two major players in the mobile space -- Facebook and Google -- lead the pack.
Google agrees to change its email scanning systems to avoid a privacy lawsuit
The fact that Google scans the contents of emails sent and received through Gmail has been known for some time now. It's just one of the ways in which the company gathers information about users to help deliver targeted advertising. Faced with a lawsuit over the privacy implications of this technique, Google has agreed to change its scanning systems.
Before you check to see whether hell has indeed frozen over, this is hardly a dramatic change of heart for Google. The change is only very slight, and in practice it will make little -- if any difference -- to end users.
Hacker discovers Gmail vulnerability that leaves any account open to compromise
A student and security researcher from Pakistan has found a serious issue with Gmail that makes it possible for a hacker to take over any email address.
The vulnerability relates to the way Google handles the linking of a primary Gmail account to another email address for the purposes of message forwarding. In just a few steps it was -- before Google fixed the problem -- possible to take over ownership of an email address by tricking the system into sending out the necessary verification code.
When is stupidity fraud?
Next month I return from my first—and hopefully last—summer sabbatical. I resume writing with a question for you: "When is stupidity fraud?" I ask because someone is using my gmail address to sign up for a humungous number of newsletters and websites. At first, I presumed someone trolled me. But that no longer appears to be the case. This guy, presumably living in North Carolina, either uses my address randomly to hide his identity, or he mistypes one that is similar. Given many of the services are for an unidentified widower looking for love, I assume the latter.
Behind my question are real concerns about identity and privacy that do not just apply to me. The email address gives me the ability to change the passwords and even cancel accounts—both of which I have done, treating his misuse of my email address as identity theft and violations of my privacy; after years of careful cultivation that reduced spam, crap is on the rise as this misuse spreads my gmail identity across dating and discount sites and sex webcams. Who knows on what mailing lists it will appear next.
Google redesigns Gmail for Android and the web
Gmail was designed to be a cross-platform email tool, but even Google recognizes the fact that it is far from perfect. With this in mind, Gmail -- and Inbox by Google -- are undergoing a redesign to improve things.
With the redesign, Google says that it is focusing on adjusting the formatting and general look so that it better suits the device emails are being viewed on. You may well have thought that this should have been the case from the beginning, but it seems that an update is in order.
Wmail is a cross-platform desktop client for Gmail
Wmail is an open-source Chromium-based Gmail client for Windows, OS X and Linux. The program supports both Gmail and Google Inbox accounts, and you can add and manage as many as you need.
You could do this with a browser, of course, but Wmail gives you much improved support for drag and drop and keyboard shortcuts, as well as providing native desktop notifications when a new message arrives.
Google Inbox makes it easier to manage links, newsletters and calendar events
When it comes to email, Google is about more than just Gmail. With Inbox, Google has looked to simplify and automate email, and today the company announces three new features that take this further.
But Google doesn't think that 'features' is strong enough a word; instead these are 'experiences'. Specifically, there are new experiences that make it easier to keep track of calendar events, manage the links you email to yourself, and view all of the newsletters you subscribe to.
Google fails Gmail users with misguided 'Mic Drop' April Fool's prank
As a tech enthusiast, I dread the stupid April Fool's Day every year. What should probably be a fun day for children to pull safe and respectful pranks, has evolved into a day when companies announce fake products. Is it all in good fun? Yes, but some of these companies are publicly traded and worth billions of dollars. It's time to grow up. Some of us are interested in legit news.
One such company, Google, provides services to billions of people -- including some for business use. And so it has a responsibility to its users, and shareholders, to not cause harm with goofy jokes. Today, the search giant does exactly that, however, with a prank called "Mic Drop". In fact, the prank was so misguided, that Google has since pulled it.
Google partners with Microsoft and other email providers to bolster Gmail encryption
If you are an email user, there is a very good chance you use Google's ubiquitous Gmail service. While there are countless other options, such as Outlook, AOL, Yahoo and more, the search giant's offering is quite popular. It is easy to see why -- it is easy to use, secure, and can double as a Google account for things such as Play access on the wildly popular Android.
Today, Google announces that it is making Gmail even more secure. With so much talk about enryption in the news nowadays, the search giant is enhancing its email service with improved TLS encryption. How is it doing this? By working with other email providers, such as Microsoft to make sure encrypted emails remain that way in transmission.
Google wants you to 'Gmailify' your non-Gmail email accounts -- but should you?
While Gmail is the most popular webmail service in the world, not everyone uses it. Plenty of people prefer to get their email through Outlook.com or Yahoo Mail.
Google would like you to use its service -- naturally -- but understands you may not want to go to the hassle of switching, or changing your email address. This is where Gmailify comes in. Link your existing Microsoft or Yahoo webmail account through it (support for other email providers is planned), and you’ll get all of the benefits of Gmail without needing a Gmail address.
Gmail now warns you if your emails are not TLS encrypted
To celebrate Safer Internet Day the other day, Google gave away an extra 2GB of cloud storage to anyone who completed a simple security audit of their account. At the same time the company also introduced a couple of important security enhancements to Gmail.
The first change sees the appearance of a simple indicator that makes it clear when an email is received through, or is about to be sent through, a service that doesn’t support TLS encryption. A broken padlock icon indicates that TLS encryption is not available, serving as a warning that there is the potential for the email in question to be dangerous or for the message to be intercepted.
Gmail and WhatsApp boast over one billion monthly active users each
There are many products that have hundreds of millions of active users in a single month, but there are few that have passed the billion mark. However, the select group, which includes the likes of YouTube and Facebook, has just gotten bigger.
And it is Google and Facebook which once again add new members to that list, with Gmail and WhatsApp, respectively, joining the pack. Both services passed that milestone in January, with one taking longer than the other to reach it.
Yahoo Mail app adds support for Gmail, Google Apps accounts
If an email app doesn't support multiple providers, chances are lots of potential users will not bother with it. Or they will seek alternative offerings that do. So, unsurprisingly, major players like Microsoft and Google now welcome those who have embraced rival services to Outlook and Gmail, respectively, even though they would much rather prefer they switch to their own products.
Yahoo has followed suit, adding AOL Mail, Hotmail and Outlook.com to the list of email providers supported in its Yahoo Mail app for Android and iOS. But, as you can probably tell, there was one major service missing from the list -- Gmail. Now, there is an update that rectifies this.
Google adds data loss prevention tool to Gmail
Google is striving to improve the security protection for its business product Google for Work by introducing data loss prevention for its popular services such as Gmail.
DLP is an enterprise technology that aims to reduce the data leakage of confidential and valuable data from the business. The common ways that data leakage occurs is through emails and storing files to employee’s personal cloud storage services.
Popular free mail services still use vulnerable versions of SSL
New research from information security company High-Tech Bridge reveals that the security of some of the most popular mail services, including Gmail, Outlook and Yahoo is lacking.
The company used its SSL checker service to test the popular email services for 31 different criteria, including the most recent SSL/TLS vulnerabilities and weaknesses, compliance with PCI DSS requirements, and compliance with NIST guidelines.
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