In March, Mark Zuckerberg shared his grand vision of Facebook’s future that included encrypting all messaging services. It seems that the company is slowly working on making that happen. According to app researcher Jane Manchun Wong, Facebook is testing encrypting video and audio calls over Messenger in Secret mode. However, this doesn’t mean your calls
Read MoreWWE’s most controversial show is back. WWE Crown Jewel 2019: Start times, first women's match, how to watch and why you shouldn't – CNET Source: CNet
Read MorePlaying classic games on the real hardware is an experience many of us enjoy, but sometimes the hardware is just a bit too retro for modern sensibilities. A case in point is the miserable monochrome LCD that was originally installed in the Amstrad PPC640 portable 8086 PC that [Drygol] recently picked up. He decided that
Read MoreJessica Huseman / ProPublica: An in-depth look at ES&S, which controls around 50% of the US voting machine market and retained its position over the years despite several mishaps — ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up for ProPublica’s Big Story newsletter to receive stories … An in-depth look at
Read MoreSecurity researchers have found a new phishing campaign that leverages fake voicemail messages to trick victims into stealing their Office 365 email credentials. The scam — uncovered by cybersecurity firm McAfee — made use of fraudulent email attachments, which when opened, redirected users to a phishing website that siphoned the login information with an aim
Read MoreKif Leswing / CNBC: Tim Cook suggests iPhone upgrade plans are akin to the idea of a “prime subscription”, says Apple sees it as a major growth area — – Some investors want Apple to sell its iPhone on a subscription basis to shift more of Apple’s revenue from transactional sales to recurring revenue. Tim
Read MoreSteven Musil / CNET: Samsung posts Q3 operating profit of $6.6B, down 56% YoY, on revenue of $53B, while the revenue from its mobile division grew 17.4% YoY to ~$25.2B — Declining demand for chips hurts the electronics giant’s bottom line. — Samsung was hit hard in its third quarter by the slowdown in tech.
Read MoreKara Swisher / New York Times: Dorsey’s political ad ban is a worthy dare to all social networks, which have become hostage to abuse and manipulation with their growth-at-all-costs mentality — Twitter will no longer allow political advertising, a move that places Twitter and Jack Dorsey in stark contrast to Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg. Dorsey's
Read MoreAn 8-inch sickle-shaped claw from the Cretaceous period hints at a new species of megaraptorid. Scientists unearth huge claw from 110-million-year-old carnivorous dinosaur – CNET Source: CNet
Read MorePhoto by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Samsung Electronics has reported third-quarter earnings that show sharp declines year-on-year due to the ongoing slow performance of the global memory chip market, which had been the company’s biggest profit driver. In other areas, however, Samsung is doing pretty well. Overall, the company made 62 trillion won
Read MoreJust because something is newer than something else doesn’t automatically make it better. Of course the opposite is also true, but when it comes to displays on bench multimeters, a fancy LCD display is no guarantee of legibility. Take the Hewlett Packard HP 3478A multimeter; the stock transflective display with its 14-segment characters is so
Read MoreTwitter CEO Jack Dorsey says political reach should be “earned, not bought.” Trump’s 2020 campaign called it a “very dumb decision.” Twitter's decision to halt political ads puts more pressure on Facebook – CNET Source: CNet
Read MoreSmall changes can make a big difference if taken up by enough people. Climate change: 9 ways you can make a difference – CNET Source: CNet
Read MoreAt least eight writers and editors resigned on the day after the firing of the interim editor in chief. Stick to Sports? No Way. Deadspin Journalists Quit en Masse. Source: NY Times Tech
Read MoreChance Miller / 9to5Mac: Tim Cook says Apple Pay transactions more than doubled YoY to 3B+ transactions in Q4, exceeding PayPal’s volume and growing 4x faster — Apple Pay has been growing at a brisk pace recently, and Tim Cook is making a point to emphasize that fact. During Apple’s Q4 2019 earnings call today
Read MoreThe men demanded money from companies in exchange for agreeing to delete data they had stolen. Hackers plead guilty to extorting Uber, LinkedIn – CNET Source: CNet
Read MorePhoto by Sean O’Kane / The Verge The US Interior Department, which oversees federal land and resource management, says it’s grounding its entire aerial drone fleet of more than 800 UAVs out of concern for Chinese spying and drone-aided cyberattacks. The news was first reported by The Wall Street Journal today, and the department confirmed
Read More{$inline_image} Casey Newton / The Verge: Cognizant, which provides content moderation services for Facebook, Google, and Twitter, says it’ll exit the business in 2020 after completing current contracts — Moderators complained of filthy offices and severe mental health strain — The professional services firm Cognizant will exit … Cognizant, which provides content moderation services for
Read MoreIllustration by Alex Castro / Th The professional services firm Cognizant will exit the content moderation business after two Verge investigations into working conditions at sites dedicated to Facebook, the companies said today. Cognizant had hired thousands of moderators around the world to remove hate speech, terrorism, and other inappropriate content from platforms including Facebook,
Read MoreEric Newcomer / Bloomberg: The Department of Interior, the agency responsible for maintaining federal lands, is halting the use of Chinese-made drones except for “emergency purposes” — The decision comes after pressure from lawmakers — The the federal agency responsible for maintaining America’s vast federal lands … The Department of Interior, the agency responsible for
Read MoreThe organization pitted 16 midsize cars against one another to find out which systems were best. Not all cars' pedestrian detection systems created equal, so the IIHS tested them – Roadshow Source: CNet
Read MoreText editors are typically apolitical affairs. Developers use them to write code, and that’s about it. But yesterday, the makers of the popular open-source text editor Notepad++ released an update with the codename: “Free Uighur.” This fateful decision has incensed many Chinese netizens, consequently turning a bland utilitarian tool into another fracture in the already-fraught
Read MoreThe ride-hailing company delivers amid a California bill on gig workers and lawsuits over alleged sexual assault by its drivers. Lyft's third-quarter earnings beat expectations – CNET Source: CNet
Read MoreThe study of graphene was starting to go out of style, but new experiments with sheets of the ultrathin material revealed there was much left to learn. A Physics Magic Trick: Take 2 Sheets of Carbon and Twist Source: NY Times Tech
Read MoreSyringes have all kinds of useful applications in the workshop, from injecting fluids to helping pick up tiny components. There’s always room for a bit of levity however, and [Tom Stanton] decided to have a play with some syringe rocket builds. The basic idea involves blocking the end of a syringe, and then pull the
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