Rapper Cardi B Breaks Taylor Swift’s Apple Music Record for Most First-Week Streams by Female Artist

It’s been one week since Cardi B released her debut studio album “Invasion of Privacy,” and over that time it’s reached more than 100 million streams on Apple Music. According to stats provided by Apple to The Verge, this means that Cardi B has set a new record for first-week streams by a female artist on Apple’s streaming music service.

The previous record holder was Taylor Swift and her album “Reputation,” which launched late last year. Invasion of Privacy is said to have broken Swift’s streaming numbers on Apple Music by the middle of this week, and it’s now the “fifth most-streamed album ever” on Apple Music, surpassing both The Weeknd’s “Starboy” and Ed Sheeran’s “Divide.”

Cardi B’s record breaking debut comes as Apple Music hit a new milestone in subscribers earlier this week, reaching 40 million paid users across 115 countries. Additionally, there are eight million people on the service’s three-month free trial, bringing the total to nearly 50 million users listening to Apple Music, which is closing in on its 3-year birthday this June.

Apple Music has been growing quickly since last summer: there were 27 million subscribers last June, 30 million subscribers last September, 36 million subscribers in February, and 38 million subscribers in March. Adding an additional 2 million subscribers to hit 40 million subscribers in April was Apple Music’s fastest growth yet.

Tag: Apple Music
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Telegram banned in Russia following court ruling

Russian authorities have been threatening to ban Telegram since 2017 due to its developers’ repeated refusal to give them access to users’ data. Well, they can soon make good on that threat now that a Moscow court has officially issued a ban on the secure messaging application. It all started when KGB successor Federal Security Service (FSB) demanded access to Telegram’s decryption keys last year. FSB wants those keys so it can read user messages, apparently as part of its anti-terror measures.

It’s no secret that Telegram has a terrorist problem due to the emphasis it places on user privacy — in fact, the company has been blocking ISIS channels for years, though new ones continue to pop up. But it’s also because of how much Telegram values security and privacy that its founder, Pavel Durov, wouldn’t budge no matter hard the agency pushed.

While his company eventually agreed to register with the Russian government as an information distributor that officially operates within the country, Durov refuses to comply with any request that can compromise user data. As a result, Russian communications watchdog Roskomnadzor asked the court to ban the app.

According to Russian news agency Tass, the ban will take effect immediately. However, Financial Times says the ban will likely come into effect after Telegram has exhausted all its appeals next month, and Roskomnadzor can only order internet providers to block Russian users’ access to the application if the company continues to lose in court.

Source: BBC, Financial Times, MediaZona, Tass

AMD unveils its second-generation Ryzen CPUs

With last year’s Ryzen processors, AMD made a grand re-entry into the world of high-performance desktop computing. Now its improving on those designs with its second-generation Ryzen chips, which are a bit faster and more efficient. And, due to fan demand, AMD is also throwing in free “Wraith” coolers with every CPU. The big takeaway this year: AMD is in an even better place to compete with Intel.

The highest end Ryzen model is the eight-core Ryzen 7 2700X, which replaces the 1800X and 1700X from last year (honestly they weren’t that different). With a base clock of 3.7GHz, and a boost speed of 4.3Ghz, it’s faster than the 1800X, which ran between 3.6Ghz and 4Ghz. The new chip is also a much better deal at $329, compared with the $399 and $499 launch prices of the 1700X and 1800X. In comparison, Intel’s six-core i7-8700K sells for around $350.

At the more affordable end, there’s the six-core Ryzen 5 2600, which will go for $199. It’s clocked between 3.4Ghz and 3.9GHz, and it should be a solid competitor to Intel’s similarly priced Core i5-8500. The new chips are built on AMD’s 12 nanometer Zen+ architecture, so you can think of them as a slight upgrade over last year’s models. Its true platform followup, Zen 2, is expected to debut next year.

AMD is keeping full details about the new Zen chips under wraps until their April 19th launch. But it did reveal a few tidbits: They’ll run on its new X470 AM4 chipset, and they’ll support its StoreMI technology, which can speed up disk performance by linking together SSDs, traditional hard disks and RAM.

A look at the ad-targeting tools AggregateIQ left exposed online

Throughout discussions of Cambridge Analytica, its parent company Strategic Communication Laboratories (SCL) and how they came to obtain information on some 87 million Facebook users, you’ve probably also heard the name AggregateIQ. The Canada-based data firm has now been connected to Cambridge Analytica operations as well as US election campaigns and the Brexit referendum. Now, cybersecurity firm UpGuard has discovered a large code repository that AggregateIQ left exposed online and through that, we’re getting a better look at the company, what it does and how it does it.

Before jumping into UpGuard’s findings, let’s review AggregateIQ. Whistleblower Christopher Wylie, a former Cambridge Analytica employee who has been central to information about the company coming to light, told The Observer last month that he helped get AggregateIQ up and running in order to help SCL expand its operations. “Essentially it was set up as a Canadian entity for people who wanted to work on SCL projects who didn’t want to move to London,” he said. “That’s how [AggregateIQ] got started: originally to service SCL and Cambridge Analytica projects.” Earlier this month, Facebook suspended AggregateIQ for its connections with Cambridge Analytica and the possibility that it might, therefore, have some of the data Cambridge Analytica improperly obtained.

Though AggregateIQ and SCL have tried to distance themselves from each other lately, they worked quite closely together for some time. “AggregateIQ were the ones that took a lot of data that Cambridge Analytica would acquire and the algorithms they build, and translated that into the actual physical targeting online, they [AggregateIQ] were the bit that actually disseminated stuff,” Wylie told The Observer. And AggregateIQ co-founder Jeff Silvester told Gizmodo recently, “We did some work with SCL and had a contract with them in 2014 for some custom software development. We last worked with SCL in 2016 and have not worked with them since.” AggregateIQ’s website now says it “has never been and is not a part of Cambridge Analytica or SCL” and that it “has never entered into a contract with Cambridge Analytica.”

Of course, now we know that Cambridge Analytica did improperly obtain information on 87 million Facebook users through researcher Aleksandr Kogan and that Donald Trump and Ted Cruz both used its services during their campaigns. We also now know that AggregateIQ developed some of the tools marketed by Cambridge Analytica and that it worked with a number of British political groups who campaigned in support of the UK leaving the European Union during the Brexit referendum.

But now we also have a look into the powerful tools AggregateIQ developed and how they work and we have that information because the company left them exposed online. Last month cybersecurity firm UpGuard released a report detailing how its researchers were able to access an AggregateIQ code repository with just an email address. The registration process didn’t even require a verification of that email address.

After registering, UpGuard researchers were able to access AggregateIQ’s Gitlab subdomain. “Within these repositories appear to be nothing less than mechanisms capable of organizing vast quantities of data about individuals, measuring how they are being influenced or reached by advertising and even tracking their internet browsing behavior,” said UpGuard. The repository included data management programs, advertising trackers and information databases as well as credentials, keys, hashes, usernames and passwords, which could be used to access other AIQ assets, such as databases, social media accounts and Amazon Web Services repositories.

UpGuard’s findings also indicated that AggregateIQ and SCL worked together on the Ripon platform developed for the Cruz campaign and that AggregateIQ worked with at least seven British political groups. Some of those, like Vote Leave, the Democratic Unionist Party and Veterans for Britain were already known to have worked with AggregateIQ, but others weren’t publicly linked to the data firm prior to UpGuard’s findings. Of note, a majority of the groups with repositories in AggregateIQ’s Gitlab subdomain actively campaigned for UK to leave the European Union ahead of the Brexit referendum.

Today, UpGuard publishes the third piece of its AggregateIQ series and it’s focused on the tools the firm developed and left exposed online. As UpGuard reports, two project families dubbed Saga and Monarch “are designed to gather and use data across a number of platforms through a variety of means.” And for the first time, we’re getting a hard look at how they work and their potential applications.

The first, Saga, appears to be able to automate the creation, analysis and targeting of advertisements in a way that would make it quite easy for a small number of people to manage a large number of Facebook ad accounts. “Saga was used specifically to interface with the Facebook ad system through APIs and scraping methods and gauge response to images and messages and posts,” says Chris Vickery, UpGuard’s director of cyber risk research.

And the information Saga scripts were designed to collect was quite specific. One script suggests AggregateIQ could targe political ads to individuals based on who they were friends with. Another suggests the firm’s tools could target geo-specifically down to the neighborhood or even the household. And of course, engagements with messages and posts could be monitored — actions such as who liked it, how quickly they liked it, how many people liked it, what regions people were liking it in and so on.

“The capability’s all there to do highly advanced targeting not only down to latitude and longitude in a radius,” Jon Hendren, UpGuard’s director of strategy, told us. “But you could also combine that with age demographics and gender, for example, and really focus in on a specific type of individual.” And since it’s all automated, it could be done incredibly easily and at a large scale.

Monarch takes over where Saga leaves off. “If Saga is a tool capable of tracking what happens when someone clicks a Facebook ad, Monarch seems designed to track what happens afterward, giving the controlling entity a more complete picture of their targets’ behavior,” says UpGuard. The sub-projects within Monarch include tools like pixel tracking and can monitor online behaviors like submitting forms, watching videos, hitting the bottom of a webpage and submitting a donation. “It’s pretty advanced for what it is,” says Hendren.

Hendren points out that nearly every company does ad-targeting, but he says usually they’re trying to get leads. “This is very plainly set up not to necessarily gather leads. They don’t want your email address so they can contact you. They already know who you are. What they’re tracking is your behavior and how you’re responding to the ad,” he says.

AggregateIQ didn’t respond to a request for comment.

The UpGuard team is no stranger to finding large amounts of shockingly unprotected data. They discovered exposures of 14 million Verizon customer records, personal information on nearly 200 million US citizens as well as classified US Army and NSA data. But Vickery says this finding takes the cake. “I’ve come across systems that are marked for handling top secret information and public key infrastructure data for people at the Pentagon, and all of that pales in comparison to coming across the tools that very well could have been used to manipulate the American public and swing an election,” he says.

It’s important to note that there’s no way to determine whether AggregateIQ or its customers ever put these tools to use. But that’s not the big picture here. What’s important about this finding is that these sophisticated tools designed to gather and use data in order to specifically target particular individuals were left out in the open. And though UpGuard didn’t use the data contained in the repository to access AggregateIQ’s databases, they could have in theory, which means someone else could have in theory. There’s no way to know what might be contained within those databases but if they held sensitive information, such as psychographic profiles on US, Canadian or UK citizens, it was left open to anyone willing to grab it.

And the appeal of these tools isn’t limited to political uses. “These tools are certainly designed for political purposes but I see no reason they couldn’t be applied towards criminal ends,” says UpGuard Cyber Resilience Analyst Dan O’Sullivan. “Social engineering and phishing attacks, they can be quite effective in that regard.”

UpGuard’s analysis of its AggregateIQ findings is ongoing and it will be releasing additional reports on the topic in the future. You can read the first two installments of its report here and here. You can find today’s report here.

Images: Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images, UpGuard and Samuel Corum/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Source: UpGuard

Comcast is bundling Netflix into cable packages

It may sound strange at first, but the latest option in Comcast’s Xfinity cable bundle is… Netflix. Despite their differences, the two have forged a partnership lately, with the Netflix app included on Comcast’s X1 platform since 2016 (with access by voice, universal search and recommendations) and already available as an add-on through customer’s cable bills.

Comcast wasn’t specific about the “new and innovative” offers it will roll out, saying they will vary by market and are available to both new and existing customers. No matter how customers pay for or access Netflix streaming, though, it still counts as part of their 1TB data cap.

‘Stranger Things’

Netflix

If you’re wondering why the two are taking this step, it’s important to remember that Netflix CEO Reed Hastings has talked about Netflix being bundled into cable subscriptions for years. In 2012 there were rumored meetings between the two sides, and in Europe the arrangement already exists with certain providers. Just last summer Hastings mentioned on an earnings call that the company had increased interest in the area:

Reed Hastings (7/27/17):

“…as you point out, we’re now looking at proposals for including Netflix in some services and beginning to learn the bundling part of the business. We’re doing a little bit of that in Europe already and it’s been quite successful, thus we’re interested in expanding that.”

While concerns over cord-cutting would suggest the two companies see each other as enemies, Netflix is a popular service for Comcast subscribers. In their joint statement, the two said nearly 50 percent of X1 customers are “actively” using Netflix on the platform, and that in households that use the app via X1, it’s the most-used platform for streaming Netflix.

Another factor is the potential merger between HBO-owner Time Warner and AT&T. Hastings has long positioned HBO as the competitor for Netflix, in terms of dollars and customer attention, and if Comcast needs any additional leverage in negotiating arrangements, having Netflix to swap in makes a lot of sense. U.S. antitrust officials suing to block the deal recently claimed Time Warner used HBO as leverage to put its other cable channels on YouTube TV and argued that AT&T could try to raise prices on its rivals like Comcast.

Netflix’s global head of business development Bill Holmes said: “We can’t wait to introduce more X1 customers to Netflix with Xfinity’s new packaged offers.” The sentiment is mirrored by his Comcast counterpart Sam Schwartz, who said: “Netflix offers one of the most popular on demand services and is an important supplement to the content offering and value proposition of the X1 platform.”

On Netflix’s side, this arrangement provides easy access to any customers who aren’t already signed up for its subscription service (52 million in the US and counting) with someone else handling the billing and marketing. all while coming off the quarter with its biggest growth ever. Not a bad deal for the Albanian army.

Source: Comcast, Netflix

Best Buy 2-Day Sale: Save on 12-Inch MacBook, 5th Gen iPad, iPad Pro, and More

Best Buy today launched a new 2-day sale, offering discounts on the 12-inch MacBook, 5th generation iPad, 10.5-inch iPad Pro, and iPhone X, 8, and 8 Plus. For the 2017 MacBook models on sale, Best Buy’s prices this weekend are coming in around $100-$150 cheaper than B&H Photo and Adorama, while last year’s 9.7-inch iPad is between $30-$50 cheaper than rival retailers in the new sale.

Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Best Buy. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.

As with most of Best Buy’s Mac sales, students and parents of students can save an extra $50 on the 12-inch MacBooks this weekend, amounting to savings of $250. If you’re interested in any of the items on sale, be sure to place your order by Saturday, April 14 at 11:59 p.m. CT, when the discounts will expire.

12-inch MacBook – Save $200

• 1.2 GHz, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD (Rose Gold, Gold, Space Gray, Silver) – $1,099.99, down from $1,299.99 / $1,049.99 with Student Deals
• 1.3 GHz, 8GB RAM, 512GB SSD (Rose Gold, Gold, Space Gray, Silver) – $1,399.99, down from $1,599.99 / $1,349.99 with Student Deals

5th Generation iPad – Save $80

• 32GB with Wi-Fi (Gold, Space Gray, Silver) – $249.99, down from $329.99
• 128GB with Wi-Fi (Gold, Space Gray, Silver) – $349.99, down from $429.99

10.5-inch iPad Pro – Save $50 or $100

• 64GB with Wi-Fi (Rose Gold, Gold, Space Gray, Silver) – $599.99, down from $649.99
• 256GB with Wi-Fi (Rose Gold, Gold, Space Gray, Silver) – $749.99, down from $799.99
• 512GB with Wi-Fi (Rose Gold, Gold, Space Gray, Silver) – $899.99, down from $999.99

iPhone

• Save up to $200 when you buy and activate an iPhone X, 8, or 8 Plus on a monthly installment plan

Other Sales

• LifeProof Cases for iPhone 7 and 7 Plus – Save up to $70 / as low as $19.99
• Beats Studio2 Wireless Headphones (Titanium) – $199.99, down from an original price of $379.99
• Insignia 4.8A 4-Port USB Charger Outlet – $14.99, down from $34.99
• Sphero – Save 40-55 percent on select toys / as low as $79.99 for BB-9E
• Nanoleaf Aurora Rhythm Smarter Kit – $209.99, down from $229.99

In addition to the 2-day sale, Best Buy is still offering savings of up to $200 off the 2017 MacBook Air from earlier this week. To check out this offer and more, head over to our full Deals Roundup.

Related Roundup: Apple DealsTag: Best Buy
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Cryptojacking is the new ransomware. Is that a good thing?

Making money from mining cryptocurrencies isn’t just something that people do with their own hardware, malware authors have also been creating malicious software to have other people do the hard work them – and we don’t mean cloud mining. While this represents a new fad in the realm of malware authorship though, it may not be around in this guise for long.

“Cryptojacking is outpacing ransomware reports by a factor of 1 to 100, and these numbers will continue to increase …”

In our history of malware feature, we looked at how malware tends to come in waves. While the latest and most dangerous in recent memory has been ransomware, it’s been pushed far from the top spot of common attacks in recent months by the advent of cryptominers, which look to force infected systems to mine cryptocurrency directly. While it may have been riding high recently though, like the value of cryptocurrencies themselves, it’s a malware type that already seems to be on the decline.

Digital Trends spoke with some prominent digital security experts to find out what this means for the near future of malware and what they think cryptomining malware might look like in the months and years to come.

No crowned king lasts forever

“Since cybercriminals are always financially motivated, cryptojacking is yet another method for them to generate revenue,” said Liviu Arsene, senior E-Threat analyst at BitDefender. “Currently, it’s outpacing ransomware reports by a factor of 1 to 100, and these numbers will continue to increase for as long a virtual currencies remain popular and the market demands it.”

These stats were backed up by MalwareByte’s quarterly malware report. It noted that cryptomining had become one of the most common malware in recent months. It suggested that it had increased by as much as 4,000 percent in the consumer sector over the last quarter. It was also growing in the business space, with a 27 percent increase in overall detections during last quarter.

That increase made it the second most common digital infection. MalwareBytes noted over the past three months, falling only just behind adware. In comparison, ransomware, which has been a major threat for the past few years, saw a notable decline in the consumer space, falling by 35 percent.

Part of that could be to do with the more sophisticated targeting of ransomware at businesses and larger enterprises, but it may also be that the top producers of the ransomware software have been halted in their tracks.

“I wish there were miners everywhere, that [it was] all we had to deal with.”

“There was a big arrest last year, that was likely the creators of cerber, the biggest ransomware family at the time,” MalwareBytes head of malware intelligence, Adam Kujawa told us. “If that was the case, it makes sense that that particular malware family would drop off. After that we’ve seen a couple of new families, but nothing that’s being distributed at the same sort of level.”

Since that happened, Kujawa noted that MalwareBytes had seen a general drop off in ransomware distribution and that this was indicative of the marketplace shifting direction.

Profile of a new predator

Although old standouts like adware and spyware are still more prevalent than cryptojacking, the new kid has quickly become one of the most common threats seen. Malware authors will take a freely available cryptocurrency miner that is aimed at consumer usage and modify it so that it runs silently on a system, making it harder to detect and therefore giving it longer to generate income for the author before it’s discovered. The malware is then usually distributed alongside some other form of malware like an exploit kit which allows it to be installed in the first place.

But even if you don’t download a malicious file or click a dodgy link, websites themselves can force your machine into the crypto mines, like the extremely prevalent CoinHive incident from earlier this year.

A Coinhive javascript program injected into a web page’s code

“Browser-based cryptojacking is becoming very popular amongst cybercriminals, especially when end users are concerned,” explained BitDefender’s Arsene. “Deploy it within legitimate and high-traffic websites after they’re breached their security, it has immediate return-on-investment as each visitor will mine cryptocurrency for as long as the script-based miner remains on the server.”

Cryptomining has a few unique features too, compared to other commercial malware solutions. For starters, it’s almost platform agnostic, with infections cropping up on Macs and Android devices, as well as Windows PCs. Kujawa told Digital Trends that as many as 1,000 new Mac-targeted cryptominers had appeared in the past three months alone.

So, what’s the problem?

If cryptomining isn’t particular smart or targeted then, is it something we need to be too concerned about? If a victim’s computer runs slow while they’re on an infected website, rather than having their files encrypted or identity stolen, would it not be better for everyone if malware authors focused on that kind of attack than more traditional ones?

“The fact that the victim is running cryptocurrency mining software is the least of their problems.”

“The spread of cryptominers is no where near the ‘everybody panic’ state [like] when encrypting ransomware first came out,” Kujawa said. “I wish there were miners everywhere, that that’s all we had to deal with, and no ransomware or information thieves.”

BitDefender’s Arsene agreed, to a point, suggesting that on the surface cryptojacking was relatively benign. However, as much as this sort of malware might be less of a threat than other types, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have potential to damage — or mask more serious threats.

A bitcoin mining farm NurPhoto/Getty Images

One such threat facing businesses is a loss of productivity, as MalwareBytes’ CSO and CIO, Justin Dolly, explained. If left unchecked, cryptominers also have the potential to cause damage to hardware. As MalwareBytes found when one of its malware-trap systems was infected with a number of miners.

“After the cryptomining craze [last year] one of our systems had its graphics card fried, because of how many miners were being loaded up in analysis of this system,” Kujawa said. “[They] would rev up the GPU cycles and CPU and just kill it, so we had to replace the graphics cards.”

Perhaps the biggest risk with cryptomining though, is that it can be used in tandem with other types of malware. Imagine a ransomware attack  the user is scrambling to figure out how to decrypt their files, their PC is mining away and earning the attackers even more money.

“This will likely fuel the need to create mining rigs made of large botnets.”

“If a victim has been compromised using an unpatched vulnerability or via a fileless attack, the fact that the victim is running  cryptocurrency mining software is the least of their problems,” said BitDefender’s Arsene. “Technically, the attacker could have deployed any payload – ranging from keylogging malware to data exfiltration malware.”

Even if cryptomining malware doesn’t bring with it a whole host of other problems too, there’s always the chance that it will not be detected for months or even years in the case of some systems.

How long is the wave going to last?

Cryptomining might be more dangerous than it appears, but like all other types of malware, it is likely to have its heyday. Indeed, as cryptocurrency values have fallen since the end of 2017, the instances of cryptojacking have been falling too. While the overall numbers might be higher than last quarter, they are lower than their peak, as Malwarebytes’ latest malware report shows.

Bitdefender Senior Analyst, Liviu Arsene. Bitdefender

“Cryptojacking is definitely here to stay,” BitDefender’s Arsene said. “These numbers will continue to increase for as long as virtual currencies remain popular and the market demands it.”

Another interesting wrinkle he raised was that as the difficulty of mining of various cryptocurrencies increases, it could be much more lucrative to get others to do the hard work for you.

“Since mining for cryptocurrency will become increasingly more expensive to mine using someone’s own private hardware, this will likely fuel the need to create mining rigs comprised of large botnets, hence fueling the cryptojacking threat,” he said.

That’s something that MalwareBytes sees as having a lot of potential too. Especially when you consider some of the enormous IoT driven botnets we’ve seen in recent years. But ultimately that all depends on whether it’s actually worth it to keep investing in that avenue of malware authorship.

If anything, it’s easier for digital security companies when a new trend is breaking. They know what they need to focus on in the immediate future. But now that cryptominers may have peaked, the experts are unsure of what to expect next.

“This is an anomalous time right now, and that’s the scariest part,” Kujawa said. “The scary part is not knowing where the criminals will go when cryptocurrencies no longer interest them.”

Editors’ Recommendations

• Millions of Android users are at risk from ‘drive-by’ cryptomining
• From pranks to nuclear sabotage, this is the history of malware
• The best free antivirus for Mac
• The best keyboards for Android will have you texting faster than a 13-year-old
• Windows Defender thwarts major malware attack directed mostly at Russian users

Google code offers hints that Android Messages is coming to a desktop near you

While we previously knew that Google was working on turning its Android Messages app into a true iMessage competitor to take on Apple’s iPhone, we now have more details on how that will work. Google will soon allow Android Messages users to send and receive text messages from a computer using a web browser.

Source code within the Android Messages app show that texting from a PC or Mac requires users to navigate to the messages.android.com portal, which is not yet live, to link their phone, according to XDA-Developers.

Once users navigate to the site, they’ll be presented with a QR code that can be scanned on the phone for pairing. A Google account is required, and users will be able to seamlessly send and receive messages, switching off between their phones and desktop. This is similar to how Apple allows iMessage to work between an iPhone, iPad, and a Mac. Being able to use a desktop keyboard will hopefully allow you to type faster and more accurately, eliminating those embarrassing autocorrect mistakes.

The setup process to link the Android Messages app on your phone to your computer is similar to how Google Allo for web currently works. Given that there will be a lot of overlap between Messages and Allo, it’s unclear if Google intends on phasing out the latter. Google also supports Hangouts and Google Voice as its other messaging platforms.

While the service is expected to work with traditional text (SMS) messages and picture and video messages (MMS), it will also support the Rich Communication Services (RCS) protocol. Google is positioning RCS as the successor to today’s text message since it comes with more advanced features, such as the ability to show read receipts, see typing indicators, and send larger image and video files, up to 10MB in size. It’s Android Messages RCS support that gave away hints of a desktop client, according to Android Authority

All modern web browsers are supported, and you’ll be able to switch between your phone and your PC to send and receive messages. Given that the source code is there, it’s just a matter of time before Google makes this feature official.

A messaging client on the desktop will allow Google to tie the Android experience into other computing platforms. While Mac and Windows users will be able to use their laptops and desktops to message on a larger screen, the new messaging capabilities would integrate nicely with Android tablets and Google’s Chrome OS products, including new Chrome OS-based tablets.

While there are existing third-party solutions, like Pushbullet, that allow users to send messages from their computers, a native solution from Google promises to be more seamless. PC manufacturers, such as HP and Dell, are also building clients on some of their laptops to allow business users to easily send a message from their PCs using a paired Android or iPhone.

Editors’ Recommendations

• You may soon be able to text from your laptop with Android Messages for web
• Is Google working on an iMessage competitor?
• Google introduces Allo’s Smart Replies on Android Messages
• How to send a text message from a computer
• More than 40 companies working on new generation of text messaging

Everything you need to know about Firefox Reality browser, the VR future of the internet

New ways to browse.

Anyone who’s browsed the internet in VR understands that new ideas are needed to keep it fresh. Simply moving the 2D windows into our headsets creates something functional, but it’s nowhere near optimal. Mozilla hasn’t been sitting back, creating the likes of WebVR, a browser add-on that transforms it into a VR platform for Gear VR, Daydream, Cardboard, and the PC-based VR systems.

Now, with Firefox Reality, a browser designed from the start for standalone VR headsets like Oculus Go and HTC Vive Focus is on the way.

What’s new with Firefox Reality browser?

Mozilla released a news brief April 3, 2018 announcing Firefox Reality, a “new web browser designed from the ground up for stand-alone virtual and augmented reality headsets.”

The news brief includes information about upcoming updates and what we can expect from the team behind this new browser. According to Mozilla, these update include:

• Details of the design process, from paper sketches to headset prototyping
• Sneak peeks of Firefox Reality running on a variety of pre-release headsets
• New capabilities for artists, designers, and developers of immersive experiences
• Integration of Servo, along with experimental extensions to the WebGL graphics APIs
• An experimental computer-vision pipeline using WebAssembly
• Device, gesture, and voice-interaction features

How can I use Firefox Reality?

A video showing an early build of Firefox Reality.

There are still no official releases of Firefox Reality. However, developer build source code for a number of VR headsets, including Daydream, Gear VR, Oculus Go, and Vive Focus can be found on GitHub. It’s still a relatively barebones experience, but it is definitely in a working state.

Why is Firefox Reality necessary?

How people access the internet is always changing, and Mozilla wants to be at the front line of development for new browsing solutions. 2D and 3D content need to coexist, and solutions for currently awkward features, like something as simple as typing, need to be implemented to keep people engaged.

Firefox Reality is a browser that works across multiple VR and AR platforms without losing speed ― check out Mozilla’s Quantum updates ― and it’s meant to be as future-proof as possible. Like the standard Firefox, this is an open-source project. That means there’s less friction when a VR or AR headset developer wants to add it to their creation, and it also means better transparency in a time when we really don’t know where our data is going.

What will Firefox Reality eventually look like?

An early look at Firefox Reality.

It’s tough to say at this stage what Firefox Reality will end up looking like, but expect a platform that resembles in some way a classic browser, but with the ability to easily transition between VR and AR experiences.

I think the main goal here is to deliver those experiences in a timely manner, in the casual way many of us currently absorb content from our phones and PCs. As it stands now, many quality VR and AR experiences take some time to set up, but with Firefox Reality it’s expected that you’ll be able to jump quickly into one thing and be on to the next without hardly noticing.

When can I start using Firefox Reality?

This project is in its infancy, and there’s no word yet on any sort of official release for Firefox Reality.

You can test out Firefox Reality now by visiting the GitHub page that contains developer builds for Gear VR, Oculus Go, Vive Focus, and more. There are also versions for Daydream and standard Android phones, though these are for testing only.

See Firefox Reality at GitHub

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What screen protector should you use for the Galaxy S9?

Tempered glass is the way to go.

As pretty as the Galaxy S9 and S9+ may be, there’s no denying the two phones will quickly show signs of wear and tear if you use them without any form of protection. The all-glass front and back make the S9 prone to cracks and scratches, and along with a trusty case, a screen protector will go a long way in ensuring its good looks remain for months and months to come.

One of our forum users recently said that they were having touch sensitivity issues with the tempered glass screen protector they’re currently using on their S9+, and a lot of folks were quick to rush in with recommendations of other protectors they should try using.

Here are a few of the suggestions.

legin111
04-11-2018 08:11 PM

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Hands down go with the Whitestone dome glass protector. You’ll never use another, it’s available on Amazon. It’s a little more expensive then the others but well worth it. You can look up reviews, they are all over YouTube. The work with a lot of cases as well

Reply

KP8819
04-11-2018 11:38 PM

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Whitestone Dome glass, as mentioned above, is what I use & works great. Feels like original screen. No touch sensitivity issues & compatible with every case I’ve used(Otterbox, Bodygaurdz, Spigen).
Bodyguardz just released their full adhesive curved tempered glass too.

Reply

rjack22
04-12-2018 06:17 AM

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I am using amFilm tempered glass protector and I am very happy with it. Very easy to install and I have had no problems with it. I did enable touch sensitivity setting. Best of all it is not expensive. About $10-12. Lifetime warranty too!

Reply

tadpoles
04-12-2018 06:22 AM

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I’m using the Body Guardz and am very happy with them. No touch issues and installation is easy (unlike White Dome). …so there’s an alternative.

Reply

Whether you’re currently rocking a Whitestone, amFilm, or something else entirely, we’d love to know – What screen protector are you using on your Galaxy S9/S9+?

Join the conversation in the forums!

Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+

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• Complete Galaxy S9 and S9+ specs
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• Galaxy S9 vs. Galaxy S8: Should you upgrade?
• Join our Galaxy S9 forums

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