‘Star Wars’ promo turns your Google account to the dark side
One downside of being a billion-dollar movie studio that owns one of history’s most popular film series is that it’s hard getting the word out about new releases. Take Disney, which is struggling to inform the population that there’s a seventh episode of the Star Wars saga coming out in a few weeks. Thankfully, the folks at Google have noticed the studio’s plight, and decided to help out by offering customized themes for everyone’s favorite internet services.
Source: Google Blog, Google Star Wars
Facebook at Work rolls out a dedicated chat app on Android
Facebook at Work caters to businesses, allowing employees to communicate and share documents on private channels, and this week it adds a new mobile feature called Work Chat. Work Chat is a separate messaging app that operates similarly to the standard Facebook Messenger service, though it’s restricted to you and your coworkers only. It’s available to select companies on Android now, with an iOS launch in the works, TechCrunch reports. Facebook at Work is still in beta, though TechCrunch says about 300 companies use it daily, from Heineken USA to the Royal Bank of Scotland. When it launches for all businesses next year, it’ll use a “freemium” model, the site reports.
Source: TechCrunch
WSJ: China’s government wants homegrown, backdoor-free phones
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that China’s government has now leant on ZTE to produce a smartphone using predominantly local hardware that’ll run COS, a homegrown operating system that’s designed to be immune to US-based hacking attempts. The paper goes on to say that Alibaba is now working with the nation’s ministry of public security to develop another operating system that’s secure enough for police officers to use. It’s all part of the country’s attempts to put water between itself and the US in a post-Snowden world after backdoors were found in numerous American-designed products.
Source: WSJ
Telegram founder knew ISIS was using his service before Paris attacks
Secure messaging service Telegram announced on Wednesday it had shut down 78 ISIS-related channels since the deadly attacks on Paris and Beirut, alongside a statement saying the company was “disturbed to learn that Telegram’s public channels were being used by ISIS to spread their propaganda.” This made the situation sound like new information to Telegram — but that’s not the case. At TechCrunch Disrupt in September, Telegram founder Pavel Durov told interviewer Mike Butcher that he knew ISIS used his app (as spotted by The Washington Post). “I don’t think we are actually taking part in these activities,” Durov said. “I don’t think we should be guilty or feel guilty about it.” The relevant conversation went down as follows:
Via: The Washington Post
Amazon offers a free screenwriting tool to discover new stories
Amazon’s original series have been on quite the run as of late, and the online retailer wants to help both aspiring and established screenwriters get their work discovered. To do just that, the company has Amazon Screenwriter: a free cloud-based app for creating screenplays for movies and television. The software provides an alternative for requisite apps that can be somewhat pricey. Of course, Amazon isn’t the first to offer a free option, with the likes of Trelby and Celtx already doing so. The Screenwriter app automatically formats as you type and supports import/export of PDF, FDX and Fountain file formats. While writers are online, work is saved in the cloud as they go and a Chrome app for Mac and PC allows for offline productivity.
Source: Amazon
Let’s have an argument about encryption
Government officials have been vexed for quite some time now that they can’t surveil communications that use end-to-end encryption. Never mind that to crack encrypted platforms open for one spy would mean to open them up for all spies. Just being able to roll WhatsApp, Telegram and iMessage into the Pentagon’s bulk surveillance programs is good enough for them, thanks. Worrying about what that might mean to the intelligence gathering capabilities of their adversaries is apparently “not in their department.”
After the devastating attacks in Paris last Friday, U.S. officials wasted no time in using fear to insist that messaging apps using end-to-end encryption be “backdoored” for surveillance access, and rolled into the Pentagon’s bulk surveillance programs.
The internet, rather than treating the officials like children who want to smash the family piggy bank to collect copper pennies, has decided to argue with them.
Google Fit gets real-time stats and grabs data from more wearables
Just in time to outfit your holiday workout regimen, Google its updating its Fit app with a few new features. First, the activity-tracking software now provides real-time distance, steps, pace and calorie stats for your running, walking and riding workouts. When you come to a stop for some push-ups, sit-ups or squats, you can use your Android Wear device to keep a tally of your reps before adding the total to your daily activity log. Google Fit also pulls in sleep and nutrition info from other apps and fitness trackers. If you’re using MyFitnessPal (and a host of others) to track meals or Sleep as Android, Xiaomi Mi Band, Mi Band 1S, Sony Smartband 2 or the Basis Peak to keep tabs on how well you’re resting, you’ll be able access those details for a more complete picture of your overall wellness. Looking to give it a shot? You can grab the latest version of the Android app from Google Play right here.
Source: Google
SeatGeek lets you easily resell tickets, transfer them to friends
SeatGeek has made a name for itself with its mobile app, which lets you snap up tickets for sporting events, concerts and the like, while also giving you a view of your seat. But starting today, you can also use the new SeatGeek Marketplace to resell tickets without much fuss. You just need to drag a PDF of your ticket onto your SeatGeek account page and the service will grab all of the relevant event details for you. The company also uses its pricing data to suggest a potential price for your ticket that’ll get you the best return. Payments are handled using Venmo, which means you won’t have to give up your bank account details to SeatGeek, and the company takes a 15 percent cut from the sale. You can also transfer tickets to friends from SeatGeek’s mobile apps and charge them at the same time (there’s no transaction fee for friend transfers).
The Dojo gateway secures your smart TV and other home devices
Two things are true about the Internet of things: it’s a fragmented mess and it’s a target for hackers. The Foscam baby monitor hack reminded everyone that anything that’s on a network needs to be secure and that includes your connected cameras, lights and fire alarms. Dojo Labs saw the security mess that’s happening in our homes and decided instead of addressing the devices individually, it would keep tabs on the entire network and the traffic going in and out of it. The Dojo smart gateway tracks devices trying to connect to hardware inside your network and when one of those smart items, like an over-sharing television, is sending information outside the network. It does this in way that makes security easy for anyone to understand and manage with an app.
Source: Dojo Labs
Tinder CEO’s ‘sodomy’ interview puts Match.com in hot water
Tinder CEO Sean Rad set the internet ablaze yesterday with a number of controversial comments made to the Evening Standard. He said he investigated a Vanity Fair reporter because he didn’t like her article, claimed to have turned down a supermodel who was “begging” for sex and drastically misunderstood the word “sodomy.” However, his biggest error may have been talking about user statistics, because Tinder’s parent company Match.com is about to file an IPO, and it’s against SEC rules for executives to make business statements in the weeks prior to a filing.
Via: Techcrunch
Source: SEC
AIVAnet 