LG at MWC 2017: LG G6 liveblog at 6 a.m. ET Feb. 26!

LG is shaping up to hold the biggest announcement of MWC 2017.

With many of its competitors choosing over time to move major announcements away from shows, LG is sticking with its plan of launching the LG G6 at MWC 2017.

LG’s presentation gets going at noon CET on February 26, which means you’ll be waking up pretty early to catch this one stateside — 6:00 a.m. in New York and 3:00 a.m. in San Francisco. If you wake up for it, you can follow along right here with our liveblog!

LG G6

• LG G6 rumor roundup
• LG forums
• All the LG G6 news
• What the LG G6 needs to succeed

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PSA: That Razer esports sponsorship email is a scam

So, you stream your gameplays and recently received a lucrative sponsorship offer via email from popular esports platform Team Razer. Exciting, right? Unfortunately, it’s nothing but a scam — that email is actually from a cyber criminal and not a “scouting agent.” Team Razer has sent out a notice that scammers are using its brand name to spread malicious software.

[Image credit: Forbes]

As you can see, the email reeks of fraud: in addition to its questionable grammar, it came from a Gmail account with a misspelled username. Take note of the word “razor” in the sender’s account name. We’re sure those red flags are enough to give you pause, but to be safe, Team Razer is asking everyone not to click on any of the links. It also wants people to know that it (unfortunately) doesn’t send out sponsorship deals via email, and you’ll have to send in an application through its website if you’re interested.

Source: Team Razer

Google Responds to Reports of Unexpected Account Sign-Outs

Google has responded to multiple reports of users being unexpectedly logged out of their Google accounts, in order to assuage fears that the logouts were security related.

The unexpected sign-outs began on Thursday night and continued through Friday, affecting multiple services including Gmail, Chromecast, YouTube, and Google Play.

During routine maintenance, a number of users were signed-out from their Google accounts. This may have resulted in you being signed out of your account or seeing a notification about “A change in your Google account” or “Account Action Required”.

We hear your concerns that this appeared to potentially be phishing or another type of security issue. We can assure you that the security of your account was never in danger as a result of this issue.

Google said the issue with its Google Accounts engine also caused some Google Wifi and OnHub devices to automatically revert to factory settings. “Unfortunately, these devices need to be set up again,” said Google. “We’d like to share our sincerest apologies for the inconvenience.” Instructions on re-setting the Wi-Fi devices can be found here.

We know some of you had issues signing in today. Please try again now. Rest easy — your account’s security was not affected.

— Google (@Google) February 24, 2017

The reports initially caused some concern among users, coming in just hours after it was revealed that content delivery network CloudFare had been informed by Google of a bug that leaked memory, which could potentially contain private information cached by search engines.

Cloudflare worked with the affected search engines, including Google, Yahoo, and Bing, to erase any remnants of the sensitive data from their caches, and the bug has since been patched.

Tag: Google
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Periscope Producer now lets anyone try their hand at live-streaming like a pro

Why it matters to you

Anyone can now broadcast professional live-streams on Twitter using a variety of hardware devices courtesy of Periscope Producer.

Twitter’s Periscope expanded its live-streaming capabilities in a big way with the introduction of its “Producer” program in October. The venture allowed popular creators to host live Twitter broadcasts from a plethora of new devices, including HD and 360 video cameras, VR headsets, webcams, and desktop streaming software. At the time, the company promised it would be rolled out to all users in the future. Well, that day has arrived.

On February 23, Periscope announced that its update of its iOS and Android apps makes Producer available to the masses. Once you download the latest version of Persicope, you’ll see the “advanced sources” option in settings. A full guide on how to use third-party devices to live-stream on Twitter is available on the Periscope website.

The Periscope app will show a preview of your stream when you start broadcasting, allowing you to publish when it is completed. Additionally, creators will have the ability to incorporate graphics and footage from external sources, bringing the final product closer to what you’d expect to see on YouTube.

Related: Twitter safe search will now automatically hide “sensitive” content on Android

The ability to create professional-looking live video should appeal to frequent users of the service, especially seeing as you can publish your streams to Twitter, opening them up to a bigger audience. It also gives the social platform an advantage over its rival Facebook, which has restricted its live-streaming application programming interface to its media partners.

In regards to Periscope, it proves that predictions of its “death” may have been shortsighted. Yes, the service is firmly integrated into Twitter’s apps, but you still need to go to through it to be able to expand beyond mobile live-streams.

Casual Twitter users also stand to benefit from the influx of professional content. With Twitter increasingly looking to artificial intelligence to help surface more relevant topics to match its users’ interests, that content could now also include a diverse amount of live video going forward.

Updated 02/24/2017 by Saqib Shah: Added info on general rollout of Periscope Producer

Apple, other tech giants will support transgender student’s case

Several tech titans plan to sign an amicus (friend of the court) brief in support of a 17-year-old transgender student’s fight in court, according to Axios. Apple, Microsoft, IBM, PayPal, eBay, Airbnb, Box, Yelp, GitHub, Salesforce, Slack and Tumblr are expected to back Gavin Grimm’s legal battle against his school board for the right to use the bathroom that matches his gender identity. The amicus brief, created by LGBT organization Human Rights Campaign, will be filed in favor of Grimm for the Supreme Court hearing scheduled to take place on March 28th.

Some of the companies expected to sign the brief recently spoke out against the Trump administration’s decision to roll back a federal law that gave transgender students the right to access whatever bathroom they want. Apple told Axios that it believes “everyone deserves a chance to thrive in an environment free from stigma and discrimination.” IBM, Airbnb, GitHub and PayPal expressed the same sentiments. Google, Facebook and Twitter also spoke out against the decision, but they have to reveal whether they’re also signing the brief.

Source: Axios

First Unity-built cartoon proves the engine isn’t just for games

As the NBA’s eSports league proves, video games are quickly becoming mainstream. Games are having a moment, and so are the tools used to make them. Case in point, the Unity game engine recently reached a big milestone. French animated show Mr. Carton just became the first cartoon TV series made with Unity.

Mr. Carton is premiering its first 13-episode season on public TV station France Télévisions this week. Six episodes have aired thus far, and are available on YouTube. The two-minute adventures follow the titular hero, a cardboard man in a cardboard world. The language barrier doesn’t apply here, since the protagonist doesn’t say much beyond “Ooh la la” when his exploits don’t go as planned.

While other animation programs are designed specifically for making cartoons, Unity is geared more towards, well, making games. Still, Mr. Carton creator Michaël Bolufer, who works in both gaming and film, found Unity more than suitable. In fact, he said that sequencing was a lot less challenging in Unity than it is with traditional methods. Steps like storyboarding and mastering were handled with other applications, but virtually everything else (set building, lighting, rendering, etc.) was done at least in part with Unity. It ended up being easier to do things like compositing and adjusting the camera and lighting directly in Unity instead of going back and forth between platforms.

Bolufer said using Unity actually saved time and money, adding that he never considered making the show any other way. Although not explicitly created for making television, Unity seems more than willing to cooperate with animators on some serious projects. Disney’s use of the game engine in the live action remake of The Jungle Book is just one sign that Unity’s mainstream appeal is real.

Source: Unity

Twitch will let you change your username every two months

Starting today, you can change your Twitch username. What’s more, you can do it every 60 days, and, seemingly as a shot at Microsoft and Xbox Live, it won’t cost you a dime to swap from “FluffyJungle9991” to something a that’s easier to commit to memory.

“Once you’ve changed your name, the abandoned username will be held by Twitch for a minimum of six months,” Twitch’s Emily Halpin writes on the company blog. “After which, we may decide to return it to the pool of available usernames for the community and new users.”

Halpin also says that some streamers will lose access to their streamer stats after changing their names. To sidestep that, you’l have to export your stats ahead of time.

The whole process sounds simple enough. Just hit your profile settings page and go from there. See PlayStation? This is how simple it could be to let everyone change their PlayStation Network handles.

Source: Twitch

Security error leaves NY airport servers unprotected for a year

In this day and age, hacks and subsequent leaks of user data would seemingly shock everyone into keeping their security up to date. Not so for New York’s Stewart International Airport, located 60 miles north of Manhattan, which left its server backup drives exposed to the internet. They were apparently misconfigured back in April 2016 and were left wide open without password protection until now.

The 760 GB of exposed data included TSA letters of investigation, social security numbers, internal airport schematics and emails, according to Chris Vickery, lead researcher from MacKeeper Security Center. He’d discovered the lapse, noting that the backup drive “was, in essence, acting as a public web server.” If someone had found their way in, they could access a particular file with usernames and passwords for various devices and systems, which security experts confirmed to ZDNet would open up every component of the airport’s internal network to a malicious user.

Apparently, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey contracts out management of Stewart Airport to a private company called AvPORTS, which uses a single IT professional to set up and maintain its networks. Obviously, having one person show up twice a month per location to make sure each IT setup is watertight presents opportunities for lapses that go unnoticed. A Port Authority spokesperson noted that an investigation was ongoing, but that no information was believed to have been compromised during the near year-long exposure.

Via: ZDNet

Source: MacKeeper Security Center

Here’s how to stream the 89th Academy Awards online

The Academy Awards are a time of year when movie stars are celebrated and internet-breaking selfies are taken. Late-night personality Jimmy Kimmel will host this year’s gala, which promises to be a must-watch affair. There is an epic Best Picture showdown between La La Land, Moonlight, and Hidden Figures. Lin-Mauel Miranda, John Legend, Justin Timberlake, and Sting will also perform their Best Original Song nominees. And who knows if the award show will produce another viral moment that shatters the internet the way Ellen Degeneres’ star-studded selfie did in 2014.

More: Academy Award nominees: La La Land ties all-time record for Oscar nominations

If for whatever reason you’re not planning on watching the 89th Academy Awards on television, not to worry, Digital Trends has you covered. We’ve compiled the best ways to watch Hollywood’s biggest night when it kicks off Sunday at 7 p.m. ET, both on and off your living room TV.

TV

ABC has broadcast the Academy Awards for the last 40 years, and will do so until at least 2028. Once the awards ceremony is underway, ABC will be the only TV channel showing the Oscars. Where ABC falls on your channel list, however, is determinant on your cable or satellite package, as well as your location.

If you’re not a cable customer, or just want a new way to watch the Academy Awards, then you should look into picking up an HD antenna. There are numerous digital antennas that will allow you to pick up ABC, and we’ve recently rounded up the best of them. After you get your antenna set up, enter your address here to find out which channel ABC is being currently being broadcast over in your local area. An antenna might not be as stable as cable, but often times, the broadcast signal might offer higher quality video than what your satellite or cable provider serves up.