Facebook brings its social VR ‘Spaces’ to the HTC Vive

Earlier this year, Facebook unveiled Spaces, its inaugural attempt at bringing the social network to VR. And, seeing as Facebook also owns Oculus, it’s no surprise that Spaces was a Rift-exclusive at launch. But, just as Facebook is on every platform and device imaginable, the plan for Spaces was always to have it spread far and wide as well. That’s why starting today, Facebook is making Spaces available for the HTC Vive, marking the first time the app is going cross-platform.

According to Facebook, the Vive app will have the same features as the Rift version. You’ll be able to create your avatar, go on virtual photo tours, broadcast live, view videos in 360-degrees, create art, play games and, yes, take virtual selfies. And yes, it’ll be cross-platform, so users can hang out in Spaces on matter what VR headset they’re using.

Which is important, because Vive is only the beginning. Facebook plans on making Spaces compatible with pretty much every VR headset out there, which could include devices from the likes of Google, Microsoft and maybe even Sony. In the meantime, Vive users can head on over to facebook.com/spaces starting today to see if they want to partake in Facebook’s vision of the future.

Caavo’s voice-enabled universal remote ships February 14th

The Caavo universal TV control system, which is aimed at simplifying home TV setups through machine vision, is set to ship on February 14th, The Verge reports. Initially planned to ship last June, the $399 system boasts the ability to control and navigate up to eight devices — say, for example, a Roku, an Apple TV, a DVR and an Xbox One — removing the need for a bunch of different remotes, for the most part. It even offers voice control so you can say, “Watch Bob’s Burgers,” and it will start playing it through one of your streaming devices. You can also set the system to play certain services, like Hulu, on a specific device, like your Fire TV.

There are a few downsides to Caavo. One, it doesn’t support HDR, though that could change in the future. And two, it costs $399, which is outside of what many are willing to pay for convenience. However, the company says that the first round of Caavo systems — 5,000 units — are all expected to sell out. And next year the team is looking to produce a less expensive unit with fewer ports as well as a soundbar. “This is the first expression of what we can do, and it’s a high-end expression,” Caavo CTO Ashish Aggarwal told The Verge. “Our plans aren’t so big this year. The next goal is people with fewer than eight devices. But first we have to make sure it works.”

Via: The Verge

Facebook introduces new tools to fight online harassment

Facebook has been rightfully criticized for how it has handled (or not handled) harassment and abuse in the past. But today, the company announced a couple of new tools aimed at fighting online harassment and giving users more control over who can interact with them.

First, when someone blocks an account on Facebook, the harasser can often just make a new account and continue to go after the person who blocked their original one. Now, that should be a little more difficult because the site will use a number of different signals including IP addresses to recognize new accounts from previously blocked individuals and prevent them from messaging or sending a friend request to the person who blocked them.

Secondly, users will now be able to ignore a conversation in their messages, which will move it to the Filtered Messages folder. Users can then read the conversation without the sender having seen that they’ve done so. This is a tool that groups working with survivors of domestic violence have said would be quite useful as it would allow people to monitor any ongoing risks of abuse and deter offline harassment stemming from blocking an abuser on Facebook. This feature is now available for one-on-one conversations and Facebook says it will be rolling it out to group messages soon.

Social networks haven’t consistently done well when it comes to preventing online abuse. Among the recent missteps that have occured include Twitter’s decision to leave Rob Kardashian’s account active after he posted revenge porn, multiple video streams of violence being posted on Facebook and Facebook’s suspensions of Shaun King’s and Ijeoma Oluo’s accounts after they posted images of online harassment that they had received. In Oluo’s case, she said there wasn’t even an option to report the abuse she was receiving through the Facebook app and when she did report the harassment, Facebook didn’t do anything about it.

There have been recent attempts to rectify the growing online harassment problem, though there’s still plenty of room for improvement. Facebook has worked to stop ads targeted at racists and given parents more tools to prevent online bullying. Twitter has updated its anti-abuse measures a few times this year, though it has a very big problem with not enforcing rules in a consistent manner.

The new features Facebook launched today are good steps in the fight against online abuse and hopefully 2018 will see quite a few more.

Source: Facebook

Facebook and Microsoft disabled slew of North Korean cyber threats

If you ask the White House, North Korea’s WannaCry attack was just the tip of the iceberg. Homeland security adviser Tom Bossert reported that Facebook and Microsoft disabled a range of North Korean online threats in the past week. Facebook removed accounts and “stopped the operational execution” of ongoing attacks, while Microsoft patched existing attacks that went beyond WannaCry. Details of just what those attacks were aren’t available.

Facebook has confirmed its role. A spokesman told Reuters that it had deleted accounts associated with the Lazarus Group, the hacking team associated with WannaCry and other campaigns, and had notified users who’d had contact with those accounts. It recommended additional security measures in case they might be victims. Microsoft didn’t initially comment on Bossert’s statements.

Without more targeted accusations or political actions, the revelations don’t accomplish much more than fueling the administration’s existing arguments that North Korea is running out of time to mend its ways. We certainly wouldn’t expect North Korea to change course. However, it does illustrate how comprehensive North Korea’s hacking campaign really is. On top of this, it shows how major tech companies like Facebook and Microsoft are effectively being drafted into a wider political conflict — in many cases, they’re first line of defense against North Korean hacks that could prove devastating.

Source: Reuters

Twitch launches a live-streaming reality show

The reality TV genre has pretty much got all bases covered — there’s even a TV show featuring people… watching TV — but now live-gaming is making its way into the fold with Stream On, by Twitch Studios. The brand’s first-ever game show features creators who have made it as far as Twitch’s Partnership program but still need a boost to make streaming a full-time career. The show pits them against one another Hunger Games-style in a series of challenges, for the grand prize of $5,000 a month for a year.

Stream On will take place across multiple channels as contestants compete throughout the week from their home streaming setups, with the action punctuated by a weekly recap and elimination show from Twitch Studios. Viewers in Twitch chat will have their say in who stays and who goes, with the ultimate victor being the individual deemed best at entertaining and leading a gaming community. Twitch is currently looking for participants, so if you’re a Partner and think you’ve got what it takes (and reside in the US, UK or Canada), apply today to be in the with chance of making live-streaming history (or at least winning a sweet cash prize).

Chrome will block the most annoying ads starting February 15th

Back in June, Google announced that Chrome would start automatically blocking annoying internet ads in early 2018. You know the culprits — ads that autoplay sound, force you to wait several seconds before the page loads, and otherwise ruin your browsing experience. But now we know when this will go into effect. On February 15th, Chrome will begin blocking these noxious ads.

As VentureBeat points out, this is date isn’t tied to the release of a particular Chrome version: Chrome 64 comes out January 23rd and Chrome 65 is scheduled for March 6th. In that case, Google will likely turn on the ad blocker remotely, though it’s unclear if that applies to every instance of the browser.

Google first vowed to block these ads after joining the Coalition for Better Ads, which spotlights these types of bad advertisements in its Better Ads Standards. By cutting the most annoying offenders out, the Coalition hopes that users will stop employing ad blockers, which stop all ads from loading, thus crippling advertisement-centric revenue models.

Per Google’s developer blog post, on February 15th Chrome will remove all ads from sites that continually violate the Better Ads Standards for more than 30 days. Affected site owners can submit their site for re-review after the violations have been fixed.

Via: VentureBeat

Source: Google developer blog

Worst Passwords of 2017 Include ‘123456’ and ‘Password’

SplashData today published its annual list of the worst passwords of the year, using data pulled from over five million passwords that were leaked across 2017 by hackers.

Despite many well-publicized major data leaks in 2016 and 2017, many people continue to use weak passwords that are easily guessed. “123456” and “Password,” for example, were the two most popular passwords SplashData came across, as they have been for several years running.

Other passwords in the top 10 of the worst passwords list included “12345678,” “qwerty,” “12345,” “123456789,” “letmein,” “1234567,” “football,” and “iloveyou.” “Monkey,” “123123,” and “starwars” also made the list this year, as new easily guessable passwords people have adopted. Passwords made up of a single word or consecutive number string are dangerous because they’re so easy to guess.

“Unfortunately, while the newest episode may be a fantastic addition to the Star Wars franchise, ‘starwars’ is a dangerous password to use,” said Morgan Slain, CEO of SplashData, Inc. “Hackers are using common terms from pop culture and sports to break into accounts online because they know many people are using those easy-to-remember words.”

With data breaches from major companies so common, a strong password that consists of multiple random words or multiple numbers, letters, and characters is essential, and it’s also important not to use the same password for more than one account.

Safari has built-in password generating features, and passwords can also be stored in the Keychain and accessed on all of your iOS and Mac devices. Password management apps like 1Password, LastPass, or SplashID can also make remembering and managing multiple passwords simple.

SplashData publishes its annual list to encourage people to use stronger passwords. This year, the company’s data came primarily from North America and Western Europe, culled from data leaks. Yahoo data and data from adult websites was not included.

In 2017, there were several major data leaks from companies that included Verizon, Saks Fifth Avenue, Deloitte, and Uber, along with a huge Equifax breach that exposed the personal information of millions of people.
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Apple Launches iTunes Sale With 4K HDR Bundles Starting at $19.99 for Three Movies

Apple today launched a new iTunes Movies sale centering around 4K HDR bundles, allowing Apple TV 4K owners to further expand — or start — their 4K film collections at a cheaper price. The bundles are divided up by studios and further split into four main genre categories under each studio: Action and Adventure, Comedy, Drama, and Sci-Fi and Fantasy.

Most of the bundles are $19.99 for three movies, although some rise to $22.99 and $24.99 depending on the studio. For the most part, sale prices haven’t hit the SD versions of each collection, with some SD price tags still as much as double the price of the 4K versions of each bundle. Below we’ve listed each collection and the movies you will find in each:

Warner Brothers
– Action and Adventure ($19.99): The Accountant, Argo, Into the Storm
– Comedy ($19.99): Central Intelligence, CHiPs, Get Hard
– Drama ($19.99): Sully, Collateral Beauty, Live By Night
– Sci-Fi and Fantasy ($19.99): Blade Runner (The Final Cut), I Am Legend, Jupiter Ascending

Sony Pictures
– Action and Adventure ($19.99): Bad Boys, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, The Professional
– Comedy ($19.99): Ghostbusters (1984), Rough Night, Sausage Party
– Drama ($19.99): The Bridge On the River Kwai, Concussion, Inferno
– Sci-Fi and Fantasy ($22.99): Starship Troopers, Life, Passengers (2016)

20th Century Fox
– Action and Adventure ($24.99): Independence Day, Hitman: Agent 47, Assassin’s Creed
– Comedy ($24.99): Keeping Up With the Joneses, Snatched, Spy
– Drama ($24.99): Life of Pi, The Martian, The Revenant

Universal Studios
– Action and Adventure ($24.99): Lone Survivor, Everest (2015), The Great Wall
– Sci-Fi and Fantasy ($24.99): Warcraft, Snow White and the Huntsman (Extended Edition), King Kong (2005)

Lionsgate
– Action and Adventure ($24.99): John Wick, The Hunger Games, Saban’s Power Rangers

For the new sale, Apple said: “We’re so excited about movies in 4K HDR on Apple TV 4K that we want to help kick-start your collections. Explore a variety of specialty priced bundles,divided by studio and genre, and start building your library in this amazing picture quality today.”

iTunes Movies sales are frequent around the holidays, and there are also a few Christmas-themed movies in 4K being discounted right now, like Home Alone, How The Grinch Stole Christmas, and The Holiday ($9.99 each). You can visit iTunes Movies on macOS or iOS and the new 4K HDR collections should start appearing on the store’s carousel today.

Related Roundup: Apple TVTag: 4KBuyer’s Guide: Apple TV (Buy Now)
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Shazam Updates iOS App With Offline Mode

Shazam today updated its iOS app [Direct Link] with a new way to save song snippets when your iPhone or iPad is offline, automatically identifying them once your device is back online. To try out the new feature, place your iOS device into Airplane Mode, open Shazam, tap the central button to start listening for a song that’s playing, and then the app will prompt you with a message saying the Shazam has been saved.

Then, when Airplane Mode is deactivated and you open Shazam again, the app will automatically name the song and add it to the “My Shazam” section of the app. The company noted in the version 11.6.0 release notes that it will also send you a notification to let you know that the Shazam is ready when you are back online.

Shazam saves the song offline, then recognizes it and adds it to My Shazam when you’re back online

Keep Shazaming, even when you’re offline! Next time the music’s on but the WiFi isn’t, simply tap the big blue button and we’ll name that song as soon as you’re back online. Now we’ll notify you immediately, even it you don’t have the Shazam app open.

Shazam is continuing to be updated following Apple’s announcement last week that it intends to acquire the music recognition company. Although Apple did not disclose financial terms of the acquisition, a source speaking with TechCrunch said the deal could be worth around $400 million. Shazam is already integrated with Apple Music (saving songs you Shazam to a specific playlist) and it also has an iMessage app, so Apple is expected to further bolster its music services with the new acquisition.

Tag: Shazam
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Apple Seeds Second Beta of iOS 11.2.5 to Developers

Apple today seeded the second beta of an upcoming iOS 11.2.5 update to developers, one week after seeding the first beta and a week after releasing iOS 11.2.1, an update that introduced a fix for a HomeKit vulnerability.

Registered developers can download the iOS 11.2.5 beta from Apple’s Developer Center or over-the-air once the proper configuration profile has been installed from the Developer Center.

It’s not clear what new features, if any, will be included in the iOS 11.2.5 beta. We didn’t discover any noticeable outward-facing changes in the first iOS 11.2.5 beta, so it’s possible this update focuses mainly on bug fixes and security improvements.

If that’s the case, we may not know the extent of what’s in the update until it sees a public release. Apple is supposed to be releasing an iCloud Messages feature that was pulled from the iOS 11 release, but there has been no indication of when we can expect iCloud Messages to be reintroduced.

Should new features be found in the second iOS 11.2.5 beta, we’ll update this post. Apple has also released new beta firmware for the HomePod, which will be available to employees currently testing the device.

Related Roundup: iOS 11
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