Tech Thoughts Net News – Monday – August 8, 2016

Getting started with Tails, the encrypted, leave-no-trace operating system;  ‘Quadrooter’ flaws affect over 900 million Android phones;  Windows 10: You’ve got questions, I’ve got answers;  The Best Windows 10 Universal Apps of 2016;  How to solve Windows 10 crashes in less than a minute;  4 ways to repurpose your tablet – and much more news you need to know.

Getting started with Tails, the encrypted, leave-no-trace operating system – A step-by-step guide on how to download, install, and start using Tails, the world’s most secure platform.

Ed Bott: Windows 10: You’ve got questions, I’ve got answers – After a full year of public release, Windows 10 has undergone major changes. This FAQ includes details about the Anniversary Update, Windows 10 version 1607, released in August 2016.

The Best Windows 10 Universal Apps of 2016 – Windows 10 lets you easily install apps that run on all manner of devices from tablets and phones to PCs and Xboxes. Here are our favorites. And most of them are free.

Hardcore Windows: How to solve Windows 10 crashes in less than a minute – Let’s get seriously geeky: we’ll tell you how to set up your Windows 10 system up so that, when it does, you’ll be able to find the cause of most crashes in less than a minute for no cost.

Microsoft reduces Windows 10 roll-back grace period – Microsoft has reduced the I-changed-my-mind period in Windows 10 by two-thirds, cutting it from 30 days to 10, the company confirmed. Users who upgraded to Windows 10 were able to roll back to the preceding Windows as long as they did so within 30 days. To make that possible, Microsoft stored the older operating system in a special folder on the device’s drive, consuming up to 5GB of storage space. After the grace period expired, the folder’s contents were deleted. With last week’s Anniversary Update, aka version 1607, the 30 days were reduced to 10.

Microsoft says Windows 10 to receive two big updates in 2017 – The last week has been a big one for Microsoft’s Windows 10 operating system. The OS officially turned one year old, bringing an end to the free upgrade period for Windows 7 and 8 users, and shortly after Microsoft began rolling out the highly anticipated Anniversary Update, which introduces a number of new features and cross compatibility with the Xbox One. However, it seems Microsoft also quietly mentioned that it already has planned for two large updates to see release in 2017. There’s no word yet on what new features the first update of 2017 might include, but Windows Central notes that it’s believed to be codenamed “Redstone 2,” and should be released early in the year. The second update, known as “Redstone 3,” would follow at some point in the second half of 2017.

How to access a system image and restore individual files using Windows 10’s native VHD support – No one really has to tell you that it’s important to back up the data on your hard disk. With tools like File History and Create A System Image at your disposal, protecting your data is easy. The hard part often is remembering to use these tools regularly. A VHD is a virtual hard disk that is most notably used with virtual PC programs like Windows 10’s Client Hyper-V. And since Windows 10 lets you work natively work with VHD and ISO files, you can mount them simply by double-clicking on them in File Explorer. When you do, the operating system creates a virtual drive from the file, assigns a drive letter, and makes the drive available in Computer. What you may not know is that a VHD is at the heart of a system image of your hard disk. In other words, when you create a system image, the operating system actually creates a VHD file and stores the contents of the hard disk in it.

How to charge up your smartphone using a friend’s smartphone – Here’s how to make a cable that allows you to recharge your smartphone’s battery from almost any other charged device. Never let your devices go flat again!

Battery pack sales doubled after Pokémon Go’s release – People really weren’t joking about needing extra batteries to play Pokémon Go. Battery pack sales doubled in the US during roughly the two weeks that followed the game’s release, according to The NPD Group. It reports seeing a year-over-year growth of 101 percent, with 1.2 million mobile battery packs being sold between July 10th and July 23rd, just days after the game’s July 6th release. Pokémon Go really seems to be the only explanation here.

How to watch the Rio Olympics on the internet – More of the Olympics will be available online than over conventional TV. Here’s how to watch it.

4 ways to repurpose your tablet – Do you have an old tablet lying around? Or are you ready to upgrade but feel bad ditching your old one? You could make good use of it by repurposing it into something else. Here are a few easy ideas for turning your old tablet into something new — kind of.

Security:

‘Quadrooter’ flaws affect over 900 million Android phones – All versions of Android are vulnerable to these flaws, which won’t be fully patched until the September security release next month.

Hackers Make the First-Ever Ransomware for Smart Thermostats – One day, your thermostat will get hacked by some cybercriminal hundreds of miles away who will lock it with malware and demand a ransom to get it back to normal, leaving you literally in the cold until you pay up a few hundred dollars. This has been a scenario that security experts have touted as one of the theoretical dangers of the rise of the Internet of Things, internet-connected devices that are often insecure. On Saturday, what sounds like a Mr. Robot plot line came one step closer to being reality, when two white hat hackers showed off the first-ever ransomware that works against a “smart” device, in this case a thermostat. Luckily, Andrew Tierney and Ken Munro, the two security researchers who created the ransomware, actually have no ill intention. They just wanted to make a point: some Internet of Things devices fail to take simple security precautions, leaving users in danger.

The ransomware message that Tierney and Munro were able to display on the vulnerable thermostat.

Flaw in Samsung Pay lets hackers wirelessly skim credit cards – The tokens that are used to make purchases can be easily stolen and used in other hardware to make fraudulent transactions.

Department of Justice Official Tells Hundred Federal Judges to Use Tor – The US government has a complicated relationship with Tor. While the US is the biggest funder of the non-profit that maintains the software, law enforcement bodies such as the FBI are exploiting Tor browser vulnerabilities on a huge scale to identify criminal suspects. To add to that messy, nuanced mix, one Department of Justice official recently personally recommended Tor to a room of over a hundred federal judges. Ovie Carroll, director for the Cybercrime Lab at the Department of Justice, urged the judges to “use the TOR [sic] network to protect their personal information on their computers, like work or home computers, against data breaches, and the like,” Judge Robert J. Bryan said in July, according to a hearing transcript released on Friday.

Three times as bad as malware: Google shines light on pay-per-install – As some point you have probably downloaded a “free” piece of software only to find it has come with a whole host of other unwanted friends that go on to redirect your browser search bar or inject ads where there weren’t any before. This is the world of pay-per-install (PPI) and Google, along with New York University and the International Computer Science Institute, spent a year digging into the little-understood market, publishing their results in a paper [PDF] this week. What they found over the course of 12 months makes for sobering reading: the issue of PPI is three times greater than malware: no less than 60 million download attempts every week. That’s something that the authors say represents “a major security threat”. They estimate as many as five per cent of all browsers have been affected.

Having a One-Network Stand in a Short-Term Rental? Use Protection! – Using the free Wi-Fi in a sharing-economy rental could put you in a world of hurt, and the sharing renters can have their own serious problems.

Hackers Could Break Into Your Monitor To Spy on You and Manipulate Your Pixels – We think of our monitors as passive entities. The computer sends them data, and they somehow—magically?—turn it into pixels which make words and pictures. But what if that wasn’t the case? What if hackers could hijack our monitors and turn them against us? As it turns out, that’s possible. A group of researchers has found a way to hack directly into the tiny computer that controls your monitor without getting into your actual computer, and both see the pixels displayed on the monitor—effectively spying on you—and also manipulate the pixels to display different images. “We can now hack the monitor and you shouldn’t have blind trust in those pixels coming out of your monitor,” And Cui, the lead researcher who come up with this ingenious hack, told me earlier this week.

Company News:

Walmart is buying Jet.com for $3 billion and will announce the deal on Monday – Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, is set to acquire two-year-old online retailer Jet.com in what appears to be the largest-ever acquisition of an e-commerce company, according to multiple sources familiar with the transaction. The deal is expected to value Jet at right around $3 billion, according to these people. Some senior Jet executives, including co-founder and CEO Marc Lore, will have incentive bonuses on top of that. Lore will continue to run Jet as well as Walmart’s U.S. e-commerce operations after the acquisition closes. Walmart is expected to announce the blockbuster transaction on Monday, barring any last-minute hiccups. Bloomberg reported Saturday the two sides were trying to finalize the deal as early as this Monday. Walmart and Jet declined to comment.

Airbnb raising a reported $850M at a $30B valuation – TechCrunch independently verified that Airbnb indicated in a 28 page filing on July 28th that it has plans to bring in additional late-stage capital. Almost a year after its last raise of $1.6 billion, the company is said to be adding $850 million to its coffers, according to information obtained by Equidate. While $850 million is a ton of cash, it is not the largest round the company has raised. Last year, the company raised $1.5 billion in one of the largest VC rounds in history. The additional capital would only move Airbnb from the fifth to the forth most valuable tech unicorn at a potential valuation of $30 billion.

Apple acquires Turi, an AI and machine learning startup – Apple has acquired Seattle-based AI and machine learning startup Turi, according to sources, for around $200 million. Apple has not confirmed details about the acquisition, instead proffering its blanket statement that, on occasion, it buys small tech companies and generally doesn’t talk about why. Sources say the Turi team will probably remain in Seattle, but it isn’t known what exactly Apple has planned for the company.

Apple losing smartphone share in India despite big efforts – Apple’s CEO Tim Cook has described India as one of the company’s fastest growing markets and has proposed to the government a program to offer refurbished phones in the country as a way to get around the high prices of its devices in a price-sensitive market.

Games and Entertainment:

The Elder Scrolls: Legends enters open beta on PC – QuakeCon 2016 is officially underway, and Bethesda has kicked it off by making a pretty big announcement. The Elder Scrolls: Legends, Bethesda’s effort to capture some of the massive audience drawn in by Hearthstone, has entered open beta on PC. The game was previously available as part of an invite-only closed beta, but now Bethesda has opened the floodgates, letting everyone who’s interested have an early look at the game.

Pokemon Go arrives in 15 Asian countries, Niantic confirms catching difficulties are a bug – Pokemon trainers across Asia are rejoicing this weekend, as 15 additional countries in the region have seen Pokemon Go rollout to their app stores for iOS and Android. Niantic, the game’s developer, explained earlier this week that the controversial decision to shut out popular third-party mapping services, such as Pokevision, was in order to reduce strain on their servers, and give them the freedom to focus more on bringing Pokemon Go to other parts of the world.

Pokémon Go crosses $200M in global revenue one month into launch – While bugs and feature complaints are still causing a decent amount of negativity among users, Pokémon Go continues its upward trajectory in terms of overall revenue. App analytics platform Sensor Tower reveals that the game now have over $200 million in net revenue from players based on their estimates. The spending frenzy in Go compares favorably to in-game revenue generated by other huge in-app purchase-driven games, according to data also tracked by the firm. Pokémon’s star power has helped it nearly double the first month revenue of Clash Royale, the other big in-app star this year. And it’s made almost four times as much as Candy Crush Soda Saga managed during its first 30 days of availability.

Playing Early Copies of ‘No Man’s Sky’ Is a Waste of Time – All across the internet, players are managing to get their hands on early copies of the ridiculously hyped space exploration game No Man’s Sky and posting videos of what they’ve seen. For many, as should only be natural for a game that’s been burdened with so many expectations, the final product hasn’t lived up to the dream. But in that regard, the damage has been done (and the fact that Sony is forcing news sites to remove footage via DMCA requests isn’t exactly helping). But if one of those early copies manages to make its way to your door, you might be better off just waiting to play it with everyone else on the proper release date of August 9.

Hulu is developing several pop culture documentaries, including Batman and Bond – While Netflix continues to bolster its original content lineup with new series, streaming video rival Hulu has announced it’s working on a line of new original documentaries. Craig Erwich, Hulu’s senior vice president of global content, revealed on Friday that the service will establish its Limelight Documentary Series with several exclusive documentaries focusing on little-known people and stories in the world of pop culture.

Off Topic (Sort of):

IBM Watson: The smart person’s guide – This comprehensive guide covers how the IBM Watson data analytics processor works, and how it helps customers in various industries make critical decisions.

6 myths about big data – Is your organization thinking about the best way to organize and analyze data? Here are 6 myths about big data to watch out for before you dive in.

The 12 Worst Habits for Your Mental Health – Depression is usually brought on by factors beyond our control—the death of a loved one, a job loss, or financial troubles. But the small choices you make every day may also affect your mood more than you may realize. Your social media habits, exercise routine, and even the way you walk may be sucking the happiness out of your day, and you may not even know it. Luckily, these behaviors can be changed. Read on for 12 ways you’re sabotaging your good moods, and what you can do to turn it around.

Microsoft, Sony, and other companies still use illegal warranty-void-if-removed stickers – One of the ways manufacturers coerce users not to modify or even open hardware they’ve purchased is through warranty-void-if-removed stickers. These stickers are common on electronics equipment — Microsoft uses them on the Xbox One, Sony has them on the PS4, and you’ve probably owned a phone that had at least one somewhere. These stickers are almost certainly illegal, as Motherboard points out in relation to the new Xbox One S. The problem with the stickers is that they run afoul of the FCC’s rules on tying repair services to specific products. This issue is also probably why Apple agreed to change its practices regarding iPhones, when devices that had been repaired by third-party shops would then suddenly fail when upgraded to Apple’s latest operating system.

Bats Crash Into Each Other All the Time, High-Speed Cameras Reveal – The sight of bats bursting forth from caves at dusk is majestic enough to dazzle any spectator, scientist, or Gotham City billionaire orphan vigilante. Comprised of hundreds of thousands of mammalian aeronauts, these massive clouds of biomass seem to move as one organism, demonstrating the extraordinary coordination of individual bats. Or, so it would appear to the untrained eye. High-speed video cameras, however, reveal that bats are a lot more accident-prone than they look at first glance.

People look guiltier when their actions are viewed in slow motion – Viewers who watch videos in slow motion—as opposed to regular speed—are more likely to feel that the people filmed act with a willful, deliberate, and premeditated intention, researchers report. The elongation of events, it turns out, gives viewers the impression that people in video clips have more time to think over and plan out what they are doing. The findings, published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggest that jurors who view slow motion footage of an alleged crime may assign more responsibility to the accused than they would have otherwise.

How Google Analytics ruined marketing – Marketers in the high-tech world who use phrases such as “social media marketing,” “Facebook marketing” and “content marketing” do not understand the basic difference between marketing strategies, marketing channels and marketing content. And Google Analytics is to blame.

FTC sets its sights on sneaky sponsored social media posts – While some types of sponsored content are easy to spot, that kind of transparency hasn’t quite made its way into the social media realm. Tweets, status updates, Instagram photos and more dot the digital landscape with celebrities holding or using products, slyly showcasing notable brands to their thousands or millions of followers. Often times, these posts are advertisements the individual is getting paid to publish…but rarely are the statuses flagged as such.

Something to think about:

“There is a tragic flaw in our precious Constitution, and I don’t know what can be done to fix it. This is it: Only nut cases want to be President.”

–     Kurt Vonnegut

In Pursuit of Freedom – The Pushback Continues:

FBI Dumps 18 Hours of Spy Plane Footage From Black Lives Matter Protests – It’s been just over a year since amateur aviation sleuths first revealed the FBI’s secret aerial surveillance of the civil unrest in Baltimore, Maryland.

Now, in response to a FOIA request from the ACLU, the Bureau has released more than 18 hours of aerial footage from the Baltimore protests captured by their once-secret spy planes, which regularly fly in circles above major cities and are commonly registered to fake companies.

The cache is likely the most comprehensive collection of aerial surveillance footage ever released by a US law enforcement agency. The videos, which the FBI claims are its “complete” recordings of the Baltimore unrest, cover the period of April 29 through May 3, 2015, when protests and riots erupted following the death of Freddie Gray in police custody under suspicious circumstances. Last month, prosecutors dropped all remaining charges in the case, concluding with no convictions for any of the police officers involved in the incident.

The footage shows the crowds of protesters captured in a combination of visible light and infrared spectrum video taken by the planes’ wing-mounted FLIR Talon cameras. While individual faces are not clearly visible in the videos, it’s frighteningly easy to imagine how cameras with a slightly improved zoom resolution and face recognition technology could be used to identify protesters in the future.

Challenge Over UK Bulk Hacking Powers Taken to European Court of Human Rights – On Friday, activist group Privacy International and five internet and communications providers lodged an application before the European Court of Human Rights to challenge the UK’s use of bulk hacking powers abroad.

“The European Court of Human Rights has a strong track record of ensuring that intelligence agencies act in compliance with human rights law. We call on the Court to hold GCHQ accountable for its unlawful bulk hacking practices,” Scarlet Kim, legal officer at Privacy International, said in a statement.

The application has been made with UK-based non-profit GreenNet, the Chaos Computer Club from Germany, Jibonet from South Korea, US internet service provider May First, and communications provider Rise Up.

In 2014, Privacy International filed a complaint over the country’s bulk hacking powers with the UK’s Investigatory Powers Tribunal, a court which determines if public authorities have unlawfully used covert techniques. In February of this year, the IPT concluded that GCHQ’s hacking was legal under the UK’s Intelligence Service Act 1994.

Privacy International is now challenging whether the UK’s interpretation of the Intelligence Service Act for using bulk hacking powers complies with the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR).

Tech Thoughts Net News – Friday – August 5, 2016

7 Dead Simple Ways to Make Your Computer Run Like New;  Avast users, if your Windows 10 Anniversary Update is failing, here’s why;  The best second-screen apps for watching the 2016 Olympics;  Looking to build or upgrade a PC? Here are the best hardware component;  Hey Dummy, Drop That USB Drive;  Dropbox Paper, now in open beta;  BBC will broadcast Rio Olympics in 360-degree video;  GOG Releases Classic 16-Bit Disney Games – and much more news you need to know.

7 Dead Simple Ways to Make Your Computer Run Like New – The way everything runs through our computers, smartphones, and tablets these days, unchecked electronic overgrowth can grind your life to a halt without a moment’s notice. “Digital clutter is insidious,” says Valeri Hall Little, owner of Intandem, a Toronto-based productivity consulting firm. “We can’t see it, and if we can’t see it, we don’t feel it, and we don’t know it’s there.” Instead of turning a blind eye to your digital disarray, give your devices an annual checkup with these expert tips.

Avast users, if your Windows 10 Anniversary Update is failing, here’s why – Avast users report that the antivirus program is conflicting with the Windows 10 Anniversary Update’s installation, causing BSODs. A fix is on the way.

Must-have Firefox extensions for productivity and added security – Here are some goodies for all you loyal Firefox users.

Chrome for Android 52 promises speedier video load times and less battery drain – Google says the latest version can save you as much as 50 percent data usage by flipping on data saver mode.

The best second-screen apps for watching the 2016 Olympics – Thanks to that second-screen surge, Rio 2016 is poised to be the first multi-platform Olympics. To make sure you don’t miss a second of complimentary content, we’ve compiled the most essential free apps to download. Whether you just want to stay on top of stats and scores, get an insider view of events, or follow your favorite athletes, you won’t miss a moment of Olympic action once competition begins on August 5.

How to block annoying Facebook political posts – Are you sick of reading status updates from people who think Hillary Clinton is the Antichrist? Do you want to throw up when your pals sing Donald Trump’s praises? Fortunately, there are ways to silence our friends when their Facebook political mudslinging gets to be too much.

How to get started with DIY home surveillance systems – While closed-system security cameras burdened with monthly fees get most of the attention, it’s now easier than ever to set up your own professional grade video monitoring system and avoid recurring costs.

Looking to build or upgrade a PC? Here are the best hardware components – If you’re looking to build or upgrade a PC with some new components, here is a selection of the best components unveiled over the past few months. This quarter there’s a heavy emphasis on storage and GPUs, but we also have a new powerhouse CPU from Intel, and with an excellent curved display from Phillips.

1Password launches monthly subscription plan for personal use – You hear all the time that you should keep separate passwords for each of your online logins, but that’s definitely easier said than done. With the need for increased online security, we’ve seen the rise of password managers, and while some of those are free, many of the better ones require some form of payment. One of those is 1Password, which demands an up-front price of $64.99 on the iOS App Store, though family and team subscriptions are available for a monthly fee.

Google Adding Critic Reviews, Best-of Lists to Search Results – The Web giant on Thursday announced a new feature that can help ensure you never miss out on highly recommended spots. Now, when you search via the Google app for the best spots to eat and drink, the Web giant will offer up reviews from top critics and best-of lists from reputable publishers right on the results page, so you don’t have to go tapping around to find this information.

Report: Facebook Drops Snapchat-Like ‘Quick Updates’ Feature – Don’t worry, you’ll only have to split your time between Snapchat and Instagram if you’re big into making temporary images and videos of your daily life.

Dropbox Paper, now in open beta, lets teams collaborate in the cloud – Ten months after Dropbox first unveiled Paper, the collaborative writing tool entered open beta on Wednesday and is getting mobile versions for iOS and Android.

Gboard for iOS gets support for French, Spanish and more – Google’s Gboard for iOS has been updated with support for additional languages, including French, German, Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese. To coincide with the additional language support is a global launch of the keyboard app, which makes it easier to send someone a GIF or other things directly from the iPhone’s keyboard. Google has also packed some new features into the app including smart GIF suggestions.

The Best Drones of 2016 – Drones. Love ’em or hate ’em, they’re here to stay. If you’re one of the many people who wants a quadcopter, these are the best we’ve tested, along with what you need to know to pick the right one.

Raspberry Pi 3, others get the Windows 10 Anniversary Update for the Internet of Things – After Microsoft released an anniversary update of Windows 10 for PCs, a version is now available for the popular Raspberry Pi 3 developer board.

Microsoft says it has two big Windows 10 updates planned for 2017 – Microsoft only started rolling out Windows 10’s Anniversary Update this week, but it’s already discussing future updates for the operating system. A new blog post detailing update changes for IT professionals sheds some light on Microsoft’s plans for Windows 10. “This will be our last feature update for 2016, with two additional feature updates expected in 2017,” says Microsoft’s Nathan Mercer. Understandably, Microsoft isn’t detailing exactly what features are coming just yet, but the next big feature update to Windows 10 is rumored to release some time early next year before spring. Codenamed “Redstone 2,” the Windows 10 update may coincide with hardware updates to Microsoft’s Surface Pro and Surface Book devices. Microsoft is already working on Redstone 2, with internal builds out for testing.

Why users may want a new PC to go with Windows 10 Anniversary Update – Combined with the end of free upgrades to Windows 10, buyers could upgrade PCs to take advantage of features in Windows 10 Anniversary Update

Security:

PC-nuking malware sneakily replaces popular free software on FossHub – Everything is fine now, but a few unfortunate FossHub users installed a fake Classic Shell installer that may have temporarily messed up their computers.

Hack in a box: Two thieves steal more than 30 cars using a laptop – The pair was finally caught after surveillance footage gave police enough information to work with.

Hey Dummy, Drop That USB Drive – A Black Hat presentation demonstrated that people are still plugging in unknown USB drives. Stop it, already!

Hackers unleash smart Twitter phishing tool that snags two in three users: Just. Don’t. Click. On. Dodgy. ShortURLs. People – Black Hat Twitter scammers have a new weapon with the release of an effective spear phishing tool that lands a victim almost two thirds of the time, dwarfing the usual five-to-fifteen-per-cent-open-rate for spam tweets. The SNAP_R machine learning spear phishing Twitter bot is a data-driven menace unleashed at the Black Hat security conference that is capable of consuming information from victim tweets to target users. Creators John Seymour and Philip Tully of Baltimore security firm ZeroFox say the neural network is the world’s first end-to-end Twitter pwn cannon useful to scammers, penetration testers, and staff recruiters.

Four misleading myths about the Dark Web – Combat Dark Web threats by understanding their reality. The Dark Web can threaten your data security. Don’t compound the risk by believing these misconceptions.

Tinder swipes too much personal information, says EU lawmaker – Marc Tarabella wants to swipe left on Tinder’s privacy policy. The company’s terms of use breach European Union privacy laws, according to Tarabella, a member of the European Parliament. Tarabella particularly dislikes the way the company gives itself the right to swipe the personal information and photos of its users, and to continue using it even if they deactivate their accounts. It’s not just Tinder: Tarabella is also unhappy about how much personal information Runkeeper keeps about runners’ movements, even when the app is inactive. He has the same concerns about Happn, a sort of missed-connections dating service. The lawmaker wants the European Commission to root out abusive clauses in the terms of use of a number of mobile apps, and to penalize their developers.

Report claims more than half of UK firms have been hit by ransomware – Large UK companies are amongst the hardest hit by ransomware in western countries according to a new report commissioned by Malwarebytes. The report found that more than half of large firms had been affected—and that nine percent had been left “entirely unable to operate.” Ransomware is clearly a growth industry in Britain: 58 percent of IT directors in this country have paid ransoms in the past, and the UK experiences more attacks than the Canada, Germany, and the US. American bosses are 21 times less likely to give in to hackers’ demands than their UK counterparts.

$6 device can break into hotel rooms and infect PoS systems – At DEF CON, a researcher will unveil a small $6 device which can be used to duplicate every keycard in a hotel, so an attacker could break into every room, as well as to infect point-of-sale systems.

Facebook strengthens efforts against News Feed clickbait – If you’re anything like me, your Facebook News Feed is probably a mess of posts featuring Donald Trump, babies, and articles with clickbait titles. It isn’t exactly a secret that Facebook has a clickbait problem, and a big one at that. Despite previous efforts to trim down the amount of clickbait that appears in any given user’s News Feed, the problem persists, and it’s led Facebook to implement a new – and hopefully improved – News Feed algorithm.

Iranian hacker group knows who is on Telegram – Hackers obtained the mobile phone numbers of 15 million Iranian users of the Telegram encrypted messaging app, and hacked the accounts of more than a dozen of them, security researchers say.

Company News:

LinkedIn posts a huge second quarter that really doesn’t matter – Microsoft beat out several bidders in the process, including Salesforce, and that price largely reset the damages from the company’s Q4 earnings report that sent the stock into a tailspin. But this report itself might signal why Microsoft was so interested in the company. LinkedIn reported revenue of $932.7 million and earnings of $1.13 per share.  Analysts were expecting earnings of 78 cents per share on $898 million in revenue. LinkedIn’s report today caps off a half decade-ish run as an independent company valued somewhere between a social network and an enterprise recruiting solution.

GoDaddy names new CFO as Q2 sales up 15.6 percent – The company, which provides hosting and domain registration services to small businesses, delivered a net loss of $11.1 million, or 11 cents a share, on revenue of $456.2 million, up 15.6 percent from a year ago. Of that sum, domains revenue was up 10.2 percent to $229.8 million, hosting was $167.5 million and business applications was $58.9 million. Wall Street was expecting second quarter sales of $450.5 million and a net loss of 7 cents a share. GoDaddy ended the quarter with 14.3 million customers and an average revenue per user of $125.

Amazon gets its own branded air cargo plane with 39 more to follow – Holding out the promise of quicker deliveries to its customers, Amazon.com on Thursday unveiled Amazon One, the company’s first air cargo plane.

Zynga plummets 9% in after-hours trading – Social game developer Zynga tumbled 9 percent in after-hours trading following the second quarter 2016 earnings announcement after the bell today. The company reported a net loss of $4.4 million, while still beating analysts’ expectations in terms of revenue. For the second quarter ended June 30, the San Francisco-based maker of FarmVille and Words with Friends posted revenue of $181.7 million and non-GAAP net earnings came in at $0.00. Wall Street expected EPS of $0.00 on revenue of $169.4 million, according to Thomson Reuters. The stock hit 9 percent down in late afternoon, after having closed less than 1 percent up at $2.97.

Comcast supports higher prices for customers who want Web privacy – As the Federal Communications Commission debates new privacy rules for Internet service providers, Comcast has urged the commission to let ISPs offer different prices based on whether customers opt into systems that share their data and deliver personalized ads. Comcast executives met with FCC officials last week, and “urged that the Commission allow business models offering discounts or other value to consumers in exchange for allowing ISPs to use their data,” Comcast wrote in an ex parte filing that describes the meeting. (MediaPost covered the filing yesterday.)

Games and Entertainment:

BBC will broadcast Rio Olympics in 360-degree video – Olympics fans looking forward to the 2016 Summer Games in Rio take note: the BBC has announced it’s launching a service that will allow viewers to watch a large portion of the event in 360-degree video. And you don’t need an expensive VR headset like the Oculus Rift or HTC Vive either; any unit compatible with an iPhone or Android device will suffice, giving you the opportunity to watch as many as 100 hours of sports coverage as if you were there.

How to set up, use the new Apple TV Remote app – The day has come, Apple made good on its promise and released an improved Apple TV Remote app. It’s an entirely different app from the rather old Remote app Apple that has been available for several years now. Effectively, your iPhone is now capable of replacing the Siri Remote that comes with the newest Apple TV.

GOG Releases Classic 16-Bit Disney Games, Digging Up Bitter ‘Aladdin’ Feud – The digital PC game distribution platform GOG made a lot of millennials very happy today when it announced the exclusive release of three 16-bit Disney platformers from the mid 90s. GOG (formerly Good Old Games) is much like the digital distribution platform Steam, but with a focus on making old games available on modern PCs (and DRM-free!), which is why these three Disney games—The Lion King, The Jungle Book, and Aladdin—are a great get.

Mobius Final Fantasy game finally lands on mobile – With most of its offline, pre-PS3 Final Fantasy titles ported to mobile devices (save for VIII), Square Enix now seems to be turning its focus on completely new titles built from the ground up with smartphones in mind. From Final Fantasy Record Keeper to Brave Exvius, the game publisher is now bringing perhaps one of its more ambitious attempts at an original mobile title with the launch of Mobius Final Fantasy on iOS and Android, promising console level graphics paired with easy to use gameplay.

Every AMD Radeon RX 470 you can buy: A cheat sheet – AMD’s Radeon RX 470 launched today with a full array of customized partner cards. Here’s a guide to every graphics card you can buy today.

Next-generation gaming PCs put to the test – These new desktops all feature powerful new Nvidia GeForce 1080 graphics cards for unmatched gaming and VR performance.

NFL Network, RedZone come to Sling TV’s streaming service for cord cutters – Sling TV has long been a viable option for sports fans who want to cut the cord with traditional pay television, thanks to its streams of popular channels providing sports coverage, like ESPN, Fox Sports, TNT, TBS and more. Now, you can add NFL Network and NFL RedZone to that mix, thanks to a newly announced deal between Sling TV parent company Dish Network and the NFL

Watch the first trailer for Christopher Nolan’s World War II movie Dunkirk – Christopher Nolan’s first World War II story, Dunkirk, just got its first teaser trailer. The film, which stars Tom Hardy, newcomer Fionn Whitehead, and Bridge of Spies’ Mark Rylance, also features One Direction’s Harry Styles in his first film role. It will tell the story of Operation Dynamo — a last-ditch effort to evacuate 300,000 Allied troops who were surrounded by Nazi troops in the French seaport of Dunkirk. The trailer is super short and super tense. It opens on a crowded boat of Allied soldiers who take note one by one of some sort of enemy aircraft descending on them. There are loud noises!

Pokemon GO launches in Central and South America – Pokemon GO players are still as fervent as ever, and now more gamers can join their ranks — the company behind the game has announced an expansion into Central and South America, marking the latest regions where the game is (officially) available to download. The expansion comes just in time for the Rio Olympics, and is joined by a handful of other changes, namely fixes for two big bugs players have been vocal about.

Off Topic (Sort of):

How Hackers Could Get Inside Your Head With ‘Brain Malware’ – It’s a futuristic scenario, but not that futuristic. The idea of securing our thoughts is a real concern with the introduction of brain-computer interfaces—devices that are controlled by brain signals such as EEG (electroencephalography), and which are already used in medical scenarios and, increasingly, in non-medical applications such as gaming. Researchers at the University of Washington in Seattle say that we need to act fast to implement a privacy and security framework to prevent our brain signals from being used against us before the technology really takes off.

Average US internet speeds make significant rise in first half of 2016 – With the rise of fiber internet and the amount of recognition companies like Google Fiber are getting, you’d be forgiven for feeling a little disappointed in your broadband connection. However, a new report from Ookla is showing us that the wider availability of fiber options may just be a good thing for those with fixed broadband connections, as average broadband speeds have taken a rather large jump year-over-year in the first half of 2016.

Internet of things: Early adopters share 4 key takeaways – Getting ready to launch an IoT initiative? Read these insights and advice from early adopters in aviation, transportation, manufacturing and more.

Take a tour of the 114-year old Japanese battleship Mikasa – The only pre-dreadnought battleship left in the world, the Mikasa is a step back into history. It’s now a museum ship near Tokyo. Here’s a full tour.

While the US Gets More Strict on Vaping, New Zealand Moves to Relax Its Laws – Though the New Zealand government took a hard stance against vaping early on, it also supported efforts to better understand the risks and benefits of e-cigarettes. A government-funded study in 2013 was one of the first to demonstrate the smoking-cessation possibilities of vaping, showing people who used e-cigarettes were just as likely to quit as those who use the nicotine patch. More studies have shown that, overall, e-cigarettes are much less harmful than smoking, which is partly why New Zealand is reconsidering its stance.

Architects Are Designing Buildings for the Age of Mass Shootings – Our culture of fear has changed the role of architecture in the United States. In just 2016 alone, the country has seen 221 mass shootings, and we struggle to keep up with the stream of international terrorism attacks by groups like ISIS and Boko Haram. If you listen to the news for too long, every building we enter seems compromised, from malls and movie theaters to schools. So while legislators falter over gun control laws, architects and building designers are working to rethink the concept of a safe space.

Something to think about:

“There is some magic in wealth, which can thus make persons pay their court to it, when it does not even benefit themselves. How strange it is, that a fool or knave, with riches, should be treated with more respect by the world, than a good man, or a wise man in poverty!”

–      Ann Radcliffe (1764 – 1823)

In Pursuit of Freedom – The Pushback Continues:

How to access Tor, even when your country says you can’t – Censorship is nothing new, but as many governments and law enforcement agencies tighten the noose, anti-surveillance solutions need to get creative.

The Tor Project, which runs the anti-surveillance Tor network, is one such being.

The non-profit runs a network designed to disguise the original locations of users through traffic and relay points, and is often used by journalists, activists, and those attempting to circumvent censorship.

Nima Fatemi, an independent security research and member of the Tor Project, highlighted in a recent blog post how users in countries such as China, Saudi Arabia, and Iran can still try to access the network.

This Engineer Started a Tor-Based Internet Provider to Fight Surveillance – UK lawmakers are currently closing in on their biggest expansion of government surveillance powers since the Snowden revelations—but one network engineer is determined to not let privacy go down without fight.

The Investigatory Powers bill—championed by former Home Secretary and current UK prime minister Theresa May and sometimes called the “Snooper’s Charter”—would create an expansive new legal regime for government mass surveillance in the UK, effectively legitimizing many of the programs exposed by Snowden. Among other things, it controversially proposes requiring that all internet service providers in the UK keep tabs on their customers’ internet activity, forcing them to retain so-called Internet Connection Records, or ICRs, for 12 months, and hand that data over to the authorities upon request.

But as the UK’s upper house prepares to vote on final amendments to the bill, engineer Gareth Llewelyn is readying his own technical countermeasures. Earlier this year, Llewelyn started building his own non-profit internet service provider that runs on the Tor anonymity network. His goal: Design a system that will frustrate the new mass-surveillance regime by making it technically impossible to censor content or comply with government requests for subscribers’ internet records.

When Free Doesn’t Mean Free

This guest post is contributed by my Aussie mate, Jim Hillier. Jim is the resident freeware aficionado at Dave’s Computer Tips. A computer veteran with 30+ years experience who first started writing about computers and tech back in the days when freeware was actually free. His first computer was a TRS-80 in the 1980s, he progressed through the Commodore series of computers before moving to PCs in the 1990s. Now retired (aka an old geezer), Jim retains his passion for all things tech and still enjoys building and repairing computers for a select clientele… as well as writing for DCT, of course.

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Remember the good old days when the “free” in freeware meant exactly that?

I started writing about freeware back in the days when Clif Sipe (aka Clif Notes) and Ian (Gizmo) Richards were pretty much the freeware gurus. Those were the halcyon days when innovation was rife and there was always some new and exciting freeware to write about and discuss. When good old Spybot Search & Destroy was pretty much the only antimalware – long before anyone had even heard of Malwarebytes Anti-Malware – and the awful Adobe Acrobat was the ubiquitous PDF reader.

I still vividly recall when Ian Richards first wrote about a new program called “Sandboxie” back in 2004. Sandboxie intrigued me no end and I thought it was the greatest thing since sliced bread… still do. However, back in those days, the concept of an “isolated virtual environment” was pretty much unheard of and trying to explain it, even to experienced users, was no easy chore. Alas, Gizmo’s original Freeware Newsletter is no more and Clif Sipe has long retired to a well-deserved easier life.

Fast forward to today and the freeware scene has changed dramatically. Not only has just about every avenue for freeware innovation been well and truly covered, creating a scarcity of material for freeware writers, but the entire concept of “free” has also taken on a whole new meaning.

Today, it seems very little is actually free and there is usually some sort of trade off involved  –  limited features, upgrade nag screens, download wrappers, advertising modules, bundled PUPs, toolbars, etc. Writing a freeware review today is as much about the potential safety and bundling issues as the actual program. While I can’t blame developers for seizing the opportunity to monetize all the work involved with developing and maintaining their software, I do wish they would be totally transparent about it, plus perhaps consider a system of opt-in rather than opt-out.

The trend has become so prevalent that it has actually spawned a whole new category of freeware tools – such as Unchecky and  AdwCleaner –  which are specifically designed to help users deal with bundling and PUPs (Potentially Unwanted Programs). A pretty scary indication of just how predominant this practice has become. Even the once pristine Open Source software has been sullied by SourceForge’s flirtation with DevShare, an adware supported download wrapper which was eventually discontinued after SourceForge changed hands in 2016.

There are still developers who remain true to the original spirit of freeware of course. Nir Sofer and his excellent collection of free portable NirSoft tools and utilities readily spring to mind. Unfortunately though, true unadulterated freeware is fast becoming as scarce as rocking horse manure and, sadly, today’s users need to approach all so-called freeware with a heightened sense of “let the downloader beware”.

Tech Thoughts Net News – Wednesday – August 3, 2016

Windows 10 Anniversary Update: The good, the bad and the ‘meh’ (with video);  How to watch the Olympics without paying for cable TV;  Android security software: Unique features of five popular apps;  Transform Google Chrome into the ultimate browsing tool;  Five tips to soup up Chrome for Android;  The Motherboard Guide to Not Getting Hacked;  12 Tips to Make You a Chromebook Pro;  Manchester United vs. Everton to kick off live on Facebook – and much more news you need to know.

Windows 10’s Anniversary Update is now available – Microsoft’s Windows 10 Anniversary Update is here and ready to download. The software maker first started testing its Anniversary Update back in December, and now all Windows 10 users get to experience the new features and improvements free of charge. Chief among them is a new Windows Ink feature. Microsoft has supported inking in Windows for years, but Windows Ink is a dedicated hub designed for devices like the Surface Pro 4, and other 2-in-1s with styluses. Windows Ink will work with your fingers, for doodling and inking on screenshots, but it will obviously work better with a dedicated stylus. Windows 10 Anniversary Update also includes a number of UI improvements to the Start menu, notification center, taskbar, and overall dark theme. Microsoft is also tweaking Cortana to allow the digital assistant to work on the lock screen and answer queries.

Windows 10 Anniversary Update: The good, the bad and the ‘meh’ (with video) – The Windows 10 Anniversary Update has been a year in the making, with more than two dozen public previews made available so that we could get a taste of what was to come. As of August 2nd, it is finally here. So after all the time, all the work and all the hype, how does it stack up? Will it improve Microsoft’s one-year-old operating system, or make users regret that they upgraded? I’ve installed it on a Microsoft Surface 2 tablet and HP Stream 13 laptop in order to take an in-depth look. Read on for details.

10 Cool New Features in Windows 10 Anniversary Update – Windows 10 has now been around for almost a year, and it’s off to a much better start than Microsoft’s previous major release, Windows 8. With over 350 million devices running the operating system so far, the company claims it’s experienced the fastest update of any version of Windows. It also gets the highest satisfaction level, according to customer feedback. Click through the slideshow to see what we consider the coolest new capabilities in the Anniversary Update.

How to install Microsoft Edge browser extensions – With the Anniversary Update Microsoft Edge can finally use browser extensions. Here’s how to install them.

Five tips to soup up Chrome for Android – For the first few years of Android’s existence, the stock browser was a WebKit-based affair that was only updated when the OS was. Now, Chrome ships on nearly all Android phones and tablets, and it’s updated at near light speed via the Play Store. It’s gotten a lot better over the years, but many of the best features are not immediately apparent, and a few need to be toggled on. Here’s what you need to know to get the most out of Chrome on Android.

LibreOffice 5.2 includes classified documents and a streamlined interface – The Document Foundation is today releasing LibreOffice 5.2 for Windows, Mac, and Linux PCs. Major new features include support for marking sensitive documents as classified and a function for forecasting financial data. It’s still open source and completely free to use.

Transform Google Chrome into the ultimate browsing tool – Simple hacks to make the Google Chrome browser better, faster, and more RAM efficient, as well as helping to make you more productive.

12 Tips to Make You a Chromebook Pro – They’re inexpensive and easy to use, but these tricks make Chromebooks even more user friendly.

A beginner’s guide to BitLocker, Windows’ built-in encryption tool – Here’s how to get started with BitLocker, the encryption tool Microsoft built right into many versions of Windows.

Instagram’s anti-abuse comment filter is rolling out now – As detailed last week, Instagram is now letting some of its users ban certain words from appearing in comments on their posts. The photo-sharing social network has now introduced a new filter that users can manually customize by adding words of their choosing that they want excluded, potentially allowing them to ban trolls, spammers, and other nefarious figures from leaving offensive or annoying messages on personal accounts.

Instagram launches “Stories,” a Snapchatty feature for imperfect sharing – People only post the highlights of their life on Instagram, so today the app adds its own version of “Stories” to poach goofy, off-the-cuff, everyday content from Snapchat. It works exactly like Snapchat Stories, allowing you to post 24-hour ephemeral photo and video slideshows that disappear. But because Instagram Stories appear at the top of the old feed, your followers will inevitably see them without you needing to build a new audience in a different app. Instagram Stories is rolling out globally for iOS and Android over the next few weeks.

Four US firms rule the world’s cloud infrastructure – There are plenty of companies vying for a piece of the worldwide cloud infrastructure market, but the top four — all in the U.S. — currently dominate by such a wide margin as to effectively leave their competitors in the dust.

Android security software: Unique features of five popular apps – There are a lot of antivirus apps available for Android, and like everything in the Google Play store, caution is required. Antivirus apps need lots of access to your phone, so make sure you completely trust whatever you choose to install. If you’re wondering which apps you can trust take a look at these five and some of the features that make them unique.

Security:

19 ways to stay anonymous and protect your online privacy – Whether you’re a political activist or simply someone who hates the idea of third-parties scrutinizing your surfing habits, there are plenty of tools available to keep prying eyes off of your traffic. In this post, I’m going to highlight 19 ways to increase your online privacy. Some methods are more complicated than others, but if you’re serious about remaining private, these tips will help shield your traffic from snoops. Of course, internet security is a topic in and of itself, so you’re going to need to do some reading to remain thoroughly protected on all fronts. And remember, even the most careful among us are still vulnerable to imperfect technology.

The Motherboard Guide to Not Getting Hacked – The internet can sometimes be a scary place, where hackers steal hundreds of millions of passwords in one swoop, or cause large-scale blackouts. The future is probably not going to get better, with real-life disasters caused by internet-connected stuff, smart house robots that could kill you, flying hacker laptops, and the dangers of hackers getting your genetic data. But here’s the good news. There’s actually no need to be scared. Hacking and data breaches are real, growing dangers, but there are basic steps that can keep you generally safe on the internet, and we’re going to tell you what they are.

Bitcoin exchange hit with $61 million theft – Hackers have compromised the Bitcoin exchange Bitfinex, the company announced today, withdrawing roughly $61 million from various consumer accounts. The causes of the breach are still unclear, but the attackers appear to have bypassed Bitfinex’s mandated limits on withdrawals. “The theft is being reported to — and we are co-operating with — law enforcement,” the statement reads. “We ask for the community’s patience as we unravel the causes and consequences of this breach.” Bitfinex halted trading at 2pm GMT in order to stop further thefts, and users can check the public blockchain to see if their own accounts were affected.

Google now gives you Android notifications when new devices log into your accounts – Rather than receiving an email alert from Google when a new device has been used to login to a Google account, Android users can expect to see a native notification on their smartphone asking whether they have just tried to sign in. From there, the user can tap the notification to review account activity and take action to secure their account if necessary.

People are four times more likely to review alerts in mobile notifications than in email. Image: Google

Frequent password changes are the enemy of security, FTC technologist says – Shortly after Carnegie Mellon University professor Lorrie Cranor became chief technologist at the Federal Trade Commission in January, she was surprised by an official agency tweet that echoed some oft-repeated security advice. It read: “Encourage your loved ones to change passwords often, making them long, strong, and unique.” Cranor wasted no time challenging it. The reasoning behind the advice is that an organization’s network may have attackers inside who have yet to be discovered. Frequent password changes lock them out. But to a university professor who focuses on security, Cranor found the advice problematic for a couple of reasons.

Jeep hackers at it again, this time taking control of steering and braking systems – A pair of hackers have compromised their Jeep Cherokee, fooling the car into doing dangerous things like turning the steering wheel or activating the parking brake at highway speeds. It’s the same pair that hacked their Jeep remotely last year. But, because this version of the hack requires physical access to the car — in this case, through a laptop connected to the OBD II engine diagnostic port — it may not be quite as scary, except for the fact that they’re controlling way more vehicle systems.

Hacker Dumps Sensitive Patient Data From Ohio Urology Clinics – On Tuesday, a hacker or group of hackers using the name Pravvy Sector posted a link on Twitter to over 150 GB of data from the Central Ohio Urology Group. On its website, the organisation says it is the largest concentration of experienced urologists in Ohio, and lists more than 20 locations. The data contains a mountain of apparent financial spreadsheets, human resource documents, and patient records. The files include names, addresses, phone numbers, dates of birth, and what looks like treatments patients have received, such as renal ultrasound, sperm count, or semen analysis. Some records show the insurance company patients are registered with.

Yahoo ‘Aware’ Hacker Is Advertising 200 Million Supposed Accounts on Dark Web – A notorious cybercriminal is advertising 200 million of alleged Yahoo user credentials on the dark web, and the company has said it is “aware” of the hacker’s claims, but has not confirmed nor denied the legitimacy of the data. On Monday, the hacker known as Peace, who has previously sold dumps of Myspace and LinkedIn, listed supposed credentials of Yahoo users on The Real Deal marketplace. Peace told Motherboard that he has been trading the data privately for some time, but only now decided to sell it openly.

Company News:

Bitcoin drops 20% after $70M worth of Bitcoin was stolen from Bitfinex exchange – Bitfinex, one of the most popular cryptocurrency exchanges online, has suffered a major hack. The company has posted a note on their website detailing the security breach, and while it doesn’t mention a total amount, one of their employees confirmed on Reddit that the total amount stolen was 119,756 bitcoins. That amount converts to about $77,000,000 based on a price of $650 USD per bitcoin, which is about what Bitcoin traded at over the course of the last week. After news of the hack spread the price of Bitcoin dropped almost 20%, settling in around the current price of $540 USD per bitcoin. It’s not exactly clear why the price dropped, but it’s likely Bitcoin investors got nervous about potential hacks on other exchanges and decided to sell off their Bitcoin holdings, which led to a rapid decrease in price.

Judge wipes out patent troll’s $625M verdict against Apple – A patent-holding company that won a huge court victory against Apple had its victory wiped out today, and its stock plunged by more than 40 percent. Nevada-based VirnetX won a jury trial against Apple earlier this year. An East Texas jury ruled that Apple must pay $625.6 million to VirnetX for infringing four patents. The patents are said to cover Apple’s VPN on-demand feature, as well as FaceTime. US District Judge Robert Schroeder, who oversaw the trial, published an order (PDF) on Friday that vacates the verdict and orders a new trial to begin in September.

Google Project Wing drone delivery testing will take place in US – Google has been given the go-ahead to test its Project Wing delivery drones in the United States, permission announced by the White House itself to highlight research in the field of UAVs. The Project Wing testing is set to eclipse Amazon’s own drone testing, becoming the currently largest drone delivery trials in the U.S. Google will be given access to one of half a dozen drone testing sites approved by the Federal Aviation Administration.

6 Things to Know About Uber’s Surrender in China – In a summer of big tech deals, this could be counted as the most unexpected. Uber is selling its China operations to its bitter – and more successful – rival, Didi Chuxing, which controls 80% of China’s ride-sharing market. The repercussions of the deal will be felt far beyond China, affecting everything from Uber’s prospects for an IPO to the fate of its competitors in other markets.

How Comcast convinced customers to buy “near-worthless” service plans – The Washington state attorney general’s $100 million lawsuit against Comcast, filed yesterday, uses a sales script and transcripts of chats with customers to make the case that Comcast deceived subscribers when marketing what the state calls “near-worthless” service plans. Since January 2011, Comcast made $73 million selling Service Protection Plans (SPP) for up to $5 a month to 500,000 customers in Washington. But the service plans were sold to customers under false pretenses, with Comcast describing the plans as being far more comprehensive and useful than they were, Attorney General Bob Ferguson alleged.

FCC forces TP-Link to support open source firmware on routers – Networking hardware vendor TP-Link today admitted violating US radio frequency rules by selling routers that could operate at power levels higher than their approved limits. In a settlement with the Federal Communications Commission, TP-Link agreed to pay a $200,000 fine, comply with the rules going forward, and to let customers install open source firmware on routers. The open source requirement is a unique one, as it isn’t directly related to TP-Link’s violation. Moreover, FCC rules don’t require router makers to allow loading of third-party, open source firmware. In fact, recent changes to FCC rules made it more difficult for router makers to allow open source software.

Games and Entertainment:

Manchester United vs. Everton to kick off live on Facebook – England captain Wayne Rooney’s testimonial game will be shown live from Old Trafford to Facebook users around the globe.

How to watch the Olympics without paying for cable TV – Rio 2016 promises to be the “most live Olympics ever.” It may also end up being the most-streamed, thanks to a wealth of options that enable cord cutters catch all the action. The good news is today there are alternatives for cord cutters we couldn’t dream of at the time of the last Summer Games just four years ago. And with very little hassle or expense, you can be sure you won’t miss a single medal-winning performance.

The Xbox One S heats up the HDR format war – The newly revised Xbox One S launched today and offers HDR video support as one of the primary distinctions from the original model. More specifically, the Xbox One S uses the HDR10 standard to allow your Xbox to output HDR video (assuming you’ve got one of the few compatible HDR TV sets) to offer better picture quality for supported games and videos than regular HD content. Wondering what HDR video is? What the differences between HDR10 and the competing standard, Dolby Vision are? Which TV sets support it? Read on.

Apple TV remote app turns iPhone into a remote control – Apple has launched a new app to give users more control over their Apple TV without having to put down their iPhone. The app is simply called the Apple TV Remote and is designed to give iPhone users the same sort of control that Siri Remote offers from their smartphone. Using the app, the Apple TV can be controlled with a swipe of your finger and the keyboard can be used to enter text more quickly than you can with the normal Siri Remote.

6 Games You’ll Want to Buy in August – August breaks the video game dry spell with a fantastic lineup of titles. This year’s video game releases pick up the pace as we move into the second half of the year. August kick-starts the incoming flood with a wealth of great titles for a variety of platforms. We’ve selected some of the month’s most promising video games for our list, so be sure to consult it if you’re on the hunt for a new game or three.

The NFL is the first sports league on Snapchat Discover – The NFL and Snapchat heart each other, and will continue to heart each other for multiple years to come: The two announced an extension to their “strategic partnership” today, which includes Snapchat’s first official sports league Discover channel, an NFL-programmed collection of piping hot football fan service content. The NFL is also doubling down on its existing commitment to create Live Stories, promising one produced for every single NFL official season game, including the Super bowl, and for special events like the NFL Draft. Live Stories from the NFL blend behind-the-scenes content from insiders, as well as fan-created Snaps added via location-based contributions. Also in store for NFL fans are custom-created Snapchat Geofilters for each of the NFL’s 32 teams.

Off Topic (Sort of):

MIT creates video you can reach out and touch – Strictly speaking, video isn’t an interactive medium, but a new research project from MIT aims to change that: The school’s CSAIL lab has come up with a technique through which viewers can reach out and “touch” objects in videos, manipulating them directly to achieve effects similar to what you’d expect if you were actually touching the object live in the real world. Basically, that means that using this technique, if you were watching a YouTube video of someone playing guitar and it zoomed in tight on the fretboard, you could theoretically use your mouse to drag across the strings and watch them vibrate as if you’d strummed them in real life. Or, you could even load test an old covered bridge by applying virtual stressors like simulated wind, or a truck rumbling across.

Is it dumb to trust smart technology? – How do you use something that’s fully automatic, anyway? What is the responsibility of the “user”? Can we just hand over control to the bots? Recent events in the news suggest that when it comes to using our automatic products and features, some people are doing it wrong.

Donald Trump signs pledge to crack down on Internet porn – Donald Trump has pledged to crack down on Internet pornography via corporate partnerships and possibly establishing a federal commission on the harmful effects of pornography, a nonprofit said Monday. While it appears to be coincidental, Trump’s pledge comes a day after the New York Post’s Sunday edition included a full-page nude photo of Melania Trump, his wife, on its cover. Enough is Enough, a nonprofit dedicated to confronting online pornography, child pornography, child stalking and sexual predation, published Trump’s signed pledge on Monday. Trump’s opponent Hillary Clinton refused to sign the pledge, Enough is Enough said, though her campaign told EiE that she supported its goals.

HPE CEO Meg Whitman endorses Hilary Clinton, dumps on Trump – Hewlett Packard Enterprise CEO Meg Whitman has endorsed Hilary Clinton as the next president of the United States. Whitman penned a statement on Facebook in which she unloaded on Trump. “As a proud Republican, casting my vote for President has usually been a simple matter,” she opens, before saying “To vote Republican out of party loyalty alone would be to endorse a candidacy that I believe has exploited anger, grievance, xenophobia and racial division. Donald Trump’s demagoguery has undermined the fabric of our national character.” She goes on to say Trump “lacks both the policy depth and sound judgment required as President” and “would endanger our prosperity and national security.” A vote for Hilary Clinton, she says, represents a vote for “stable and aspirational leadership” that America needs. She concludes by urging “all Republicans to reject Donald Trump this November.”

US Constitution becomes a best-seller after Trump comments – The US Constitution is hot. The document, which turns 229 years old next month, has become an Amazon best-seller after the father of a Muslim soldier killed in Iraq pulled out a miniature copy at the Democratic National Convention last week to criticize Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. “Donald Trump, you’re asking Americans to trust you with their future. Let me ask you, have you even read the United States Constitution?” he asked, shaking the pocket edition in the air. “I will gladly lend you my copy.” Since then, a $1 pocket edition of the document has climbed the internet retailer’s best-seller list, coming in second only to “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.”

US government poised to approve first private mission to the Moon – Private spaceflight company Moon Express will soon announce it has been granted regulatory approval by the US government to send a lunar lander to the surface of the Moon, according to a source familiar with the matter. If so, that means the company will be the first private company to have received permission from the government to send a vehicle beyond Earth orbit and on to another world. Moon Express is a private spaceflight company with long-term hopes of mining the lunar surface.

Something to think about:

“Ninety percent of the politicians give the other ten percent a bad reputation.”

–    Henry Kissinger

In Pursuit of Freedom – The Pushback Continues:

Judge blasts FBI for bugging courthouse, throws out 200 hours of recordings – The FBI violated the Fourth Amendment by recording more than 200 hours of conversation at the entrance to a county courthouse in the Bay Area, a federal judge has ruled.

Federal agents planted the concealed microphones around the San Mateo County Courthouse in 2009 and 2010 as part of an investigation into alleged bid-rigging at public auctions for foreclosed homes. In November, lawyers representing five defendants filed a motion arguing that the tactic was unconstitutional, since the Fourth Amendment bans unreasonable searches.

“[T]he government utterly failed to justify a warrantless electronic surveillance that recorded private conversations spoken in hushed tones by judges, attorneys, and court staff entering and exiting a courthouse,” US District Judge Charles Breyer wrote in an order (PDF) published yesterday. “Even putting aside the sensitive nature of the location here, Defendants have established that they believed their conversations were private and they took reasonable steps to thwart eavesdroppers.”

Breyer concluded that the disputed evidence must be suppressed. At a hearing next week, he’ll consider whether the recordings tainted the rest of the prosecution’s case.

Privacy Activists Launch Database to Track Global Sales of Surveillance Tech – The surveillance industry is notoriously secretive and opaque. But on Tuesday, activists at Privacy International released a searchable database on over 500 surveillance companies, including many of their brochures and export data.

“We’re trying to compile a resource which will track all the open source accounts of what technology is being used where, and who it’s provided by,” Edin Omanovic, research officer at Privacy International, told Motherboard in a phone call.

The database is called the Surveillance Industry Index (SII), and can be queried by company name and city, type of product, different surveillance trade shows, and more. The idea, Omanovic said, is to give journalists, activists, researchers, and policymakers “a better understanding of what kind of products are out there, and what the actual industry looks like.”

This is particularly important in regard to the sale of surveillance equipment to authoritarian regimes, or countries with a poor human rights record.

“In non-democratic and authoritarian systems, the power gained from the use of surveillance technologies can undermine democratic development and lead to serious human rights abuses”

Privacy International regularly sneaks into surveillance or military trade shows and obtains product brochures. The group has also collated and examined government-published export data, as well as media and NGO reports.

The top five countries represented in the SII are the US with 122 companies, the UK with 104, France and Germany with just over 40 each, and Israel with 27. In all, the SII covers 528 companies, and includes over 1500 brochures.

Census 2016: Chaos for Australians ahead of August 9 – The census next Tuesday will be the first time the names and addresses of 24 million Australians will be kept and linked to other data for four years, a change that has sparked outrage among public interest groups.

“The whole concept behind privacy is control of your personal information,” said Kat Lane, vice chair of the Australian Privacy Foundation.

“What we need to understand as a society is that it needs to be a choice whether you share your data with the world and whether you don’t.”

Ms Lane said Australians needed to be assured by the government that they would not be prosecuted and fined for not putting their names on the census if they did not wish.

“[The Australian Bureau of Statistics] didn’t factor in a large amount of media coverage over what is a significant change…the consultation process was so poor, they should be announcing that no one should be prosecuted.”

Australians that do not complete and return a census form could face fines of up to $180 a day. (recommended by Mal C.)

Data Shows How the UK Grants Licences to Export Interception Tech – Since 2015, the UK government has granted over 100 export licenses for “off the air” interception devices such as IMSI-catchers, figures show.

The data, compiled by activist group Privacy International and shown to Motherboard, highlights that the majority of applications to export these surveillance technologies to regimes such as the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia were granted.

“Such technology can be used to indiscriminately track and spy on vast amounts of people in a specific place, for example at a demonstration,” Edin Omanovic, research officer at Privacy International, told Motherboard in an email. “Without safeguards, an accountable security sector, and a strong legal framework in place, such technology can be used to undermine human rights and democratisation, and in such circumstance it should certainly not be being exported. It is therefore extremely worrying that countries with records of gross human rights abuses appear in the records.”

Most granted licenses were for Indonesia, which had 19, followed by Qatar and Singapore

UK companies have successfully applied to export interception tools to countries such as Turkey, Turkmenistan, Russia, Bangladesh and China. The data lists 64 different recipient countries. In all, 113 applications were successful, according to the data provided by Privacy International.

Most granted licenses were for Indonesia, which had 19, followed by Qatar and Singapore, with 17 and 16 licenses respectively.

Tech Thoughts Net News – Monday – August 1, 2016

Still Get Windows 10 for Free After 29th July;  How to control your Android device from Chrome with Vysor;  10 apps that can make life easier for teachers;  Instagram is building the anti-harassment tools Twitter won’t;  Backing up to the cloud? Read the fine print;  SwiftKey bug leaked emails and other personal information;  The dangerous cost of ‘free’ Wi-Fi;  Everything you need to know about Wi-Fi calling – and much more news you need to know.

A Jim Hillier article: Still Get Windows 10 for Free After 29th July – Back in May this year Microsoft announced that the free upgrade offer would continue after July 29th for customers using assistive technologies. This decision was made to allow more time for assistive technology providers to overcome any potential incompatibilities. Microsoft has now launched the free upgrade path for assistive technology users via a dedicated website. Some may see this as a sneaky tactic to keep the free upgrade offer going past the original July 29th cutoff date. However, I’m pretty sure Microsoft has left this open because there are so many different types of assistive technologies involved and the company recognized how difficult, if not impossible, managing it all would become otherwise, plus perhaps to avoid the risk of a backlash by inadvertently leaving any disabled user out of the loop.

Windows 10 Anniversary Update: Everything you need to know – Microsoft’s biggest update to Windows 10 is set to drop August 2. Here’s what you need to know to get ready for the big day.

5 important things to know before a last-minute Windows 10 upgrade – Make sure if you upgrade to Windows 10 you remember these important factors, which could make all of the difference.

Windows 10 Anniversary Update reaches Release Preview milestone – In the last step before its official rollout to the public on August 2, Microsoft has begun delivering Windows 10 version 1607 to the Release Preview branch of the Windows Insider program.

10 apps that can make life easier for teachers – Technology is transforming education just like it’s changing the rest of the world. Mobile devices and laptops are common sights in the modern classroom, and as every teacher knows they can be a bane just as much as a boon. The simple fact is that they aren’t going away, so you may as well start using them to your advantage. Here are 10 apps that are designed for teachers and students that can help you make use of the tech that’s all around you.

How to control your Android device from Chrome with Vysor – If you get tired of jumping back and forth between your desktop and your Android smartphone, stop what you’re doing and read carefully. With the help of an easy to use Chrome extension and Android app called Vysor, you can display and interact with that Android device right from your desktop. This means you can type from your desktop keyboard and work much more efficiently. I’m going to walk you through the steps of installing and using Vysor.

Google wants to be your hub for the Rio Olympics – Google today announced a set of new features to help people follow the 2016 Summer Olympic Games, which begin this week in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Users can now more easily find information on the Olympics in search, including details on event schedules, athletes, and medal counts, and can sign up for automatic alerts through the Google app for Android and iOS. They can also watch event highlights from select broadcasters in more than 60 countries on YouTube, along with mobile live streams from 15 YouTube Creators who have been chosen to cover the games. Google Street View now features highlights and landmarks across Rio as well, including both tourist destinations and Olympic venues. The company announced the features in a blog post published Monday.

Google Maps for iOS gets multi-stop road trip capability – iOS users with Google Maps on their devices haven’t been able to use something that Android users of Google Maps have taken for granted for a while in the form of the ability to setup navigation for road trips that have more than one stop. iOS users can now make those multi stop road trips using the iOS Google Maps apps so you can route yourself to stores, restaurants, or other points of interest on your way to your final destination.

Reverse image searching made easy – TinEye and Google Image Search are both good for doing reverse image searches, and the two websites are different enough to be complementary. But there are other options including browser extensions and smartphone apps.

Instagram is building the anti-harassment tools Twitter won’t – Instagram has been building a series of anti-harassment tools and plans to roll some of them out to all users in the coming weeks. According to The Washington Post, Instagram will let each user create their own banned words list, which will stop unwanted comments from being posted on their photos. Users may also gain the ability to turn comments off on a photo-by-photo basis, so someone could potentially disable comments entirely if they wanted to. While harassment on Instagram hasn’t been as much of a story as harassment on other social networks, like Twitter, the development of these tools is still a big deal.

Philips’ new Health Watch tackles chronic disease instead of fitness – Inside the $250 watch is a Philips-developed continuous optical heart rate monitor, as well as an accelerometer. In addition to basic metrics like steps, calories, and heart rate, this sensor also tracks resting heart rate, resting respiration rate, active time, sedentary time, and sleep. Even though the Health Watch is not a fitness device, it can automatically track running, walking, and biking so you don’t have to manually start tracking those exercises. The watch’s heart rate monitor is smart enough to know when your heart rate is consistently high, so it will register when you’re doing other kinds of workouts as well.

Backing up to the cloud? Read the fine print – Some things never change. Back in July 2007 I had a “mad as hell and I’m not going to take it any more” moment regarding cloud based file backup services. One thing that backups are supposed to protect against is deleting a file by accident. Yet, multiple reviews at the time (Wall Street Journal, Ars Technica and the New York Times) failed to consider this.

Everything you need to know about Wi-Fi calling – Wi-Fi calling is nothing new; apps like Skype, Google Hangouts, Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp make it easier to use a phone to place calls and send texts over the internet and forgo mobile networks altogether. Carriers are also adopting Wi-Fi calling themselves. Whether it’s because they want to bolster their network coverage or improve user experience, several networks have phones that have this service baked in. To help you make sense of what Wi-Fi calling is, why it’s important and what you can use it for, CNET put together a handy guide to walk you through everything you need to know.

Security:

New Android Trojan SpyNote leaks on underground forums – A new and potent Android Trojan has been leaked on several underground forums, making it available for free to less resourceful cybercriminals who are now likely to use it in attacks.

iOS Pangu Jailbreak accused of unauthorized credit card access – Jailbreaking iOS gets a lot harder with every new release, so when a popular jailbreaking tool like Pangu releases one for the current iOS 9.3.3, there is unsurprisingly no small amount of rejoicing and excitement around it. Unfortunately, it seems that the euphoria was premature, as a number of jailbreakers discovered to their shock that there have been unauthorized accesses to critical private information, like credit cards, PayPal, and Facebook after they have jailbroken their iOS devices using the tool released by Pangu. Most of the accesses were traced back to China, Taiwan, and Vietnam, but could also just have been the result of proxies.

Serious privacy flaws discovered in Glow fertility tracker app – There are scores of startups making fertility tracker and family planning apps today, but a Consumer Reports investigation has singled out Glow Inc. for serious security and privacy flaws. First, Consumer Reports’ team was able to access very personal information including data and comments about users’ sex lives, history of miscarriages, abortions and more, through a privacy loophole having to do with the way the app allowed couples to link their accounts and share data. Additionally, Consumer Reports found that Pregnancy Glow community forums transmitted personal data about its users including their full name, e-mail address, approximate location, birthdate and number of other health details they’d logged within the app.

The dangerous cost of ‘free’ Wi-Fi – So you go to a political convention. Do a little politicking and listen to some speeches. While taking a break from the handshaking and schmoozing you decide to do a little work on your laptop. Then you get hacked.

SwiftKey bug leaked emails and other personal information – People use SwiftKey because it helps predict the words they’re trying to type, and usually, the service works pretty well. However, over the past week, some users reported that their keyboards were populating with other people’s email addresses and searched phrases. The bug relates back to SwiftKey’s cloud sync service, which has since been suspended. The incorrect predictions spawned multiple Reddit threads. In one, an English speaker was getting someone else’s German suggestions; in another, someone received NSFW porn search suggestions.

Tor may remain anonymous, thanks to Selfrando – In response to the FBI’s ability to bypass Tor, security researchers are beefing up the Tor Browser to keep those who use the Tor Network anonymous.

Chinese hackers take down Vietnam airport systems – Chinese hackers have reportedly compromised announcement systems at major airports in Vietnam. According to local media Tuoi Tre News, on Friday, flight information screens at both Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi and Tan Son Nhat International Airport in Ho Chi Minh City were compromised, resulting in the display of profanity and offensive messages in English against Vietnam and the Philippines. Glitches and errors were also noticed at other airports.

Company News:

Microsoft will lay off 2,850 more people this year – Microsoft revealed Thursday that 2,850 people will lose their jobs by the middle of 2017, on top of the 1,850 cuts that Microsoft announced earlier this year.

Facebook: We will fight IRS over billions in possible owed back taxes – Facebook has formally informed its investors that it could be on the hook for billions more in back taxes if the Internal Revenue Service’s legal efforts are successful. This notice comes weeks after federal investigators asked a judge in California to force Facebook to open up its financial and business records for 2010—the year that the social networking giant established a subsidiary in Ireland largely for tax reasons.

Made in China: The coming iPhone apocalypse – Today it’s the $100 value handset. Tomorrow it will be the $200 premium smartphone. There’s nothing left for the traditional device OEMs with those kind of margins. Huawei, ZTE, Xiaomi and Lenovo are coming, and Apple and Samsung can’t stop them.

Uber is planning on investing $500 million to map the world’s roads – Uber relies heavily on Google’s extensive maps, but it appears that the ride share company is getting ready to stand on their own. According to The Financial Times, it is planning to invest half a billion dollars into creating its own worldwide maps, a crucial step towards using autonomous cars. The Financial Times reported that the company is looking to “pour $500m into an ambitious global mapping project,” which would allow the company to create their own detailed maps.

Uber China gives up fight, will merge with local player, Didi Chuxing – Uber Technologies has decided to cooperate rather than compete in China, with the ride-hailing app company set to announce a merger of its local operation with arch-rival Didi Chuxing, the largest ride-hailing company in the country.

Sony financials reveal PlayStation accounts for 78 percent of profits – Sony Corporation has detailed its financial results for the three-month period spanning April 1 to June 30. The Game & Network Services division, under which PlayStation operates, was revealed to be one of its strongest, having reported increases in both sales and profit. During the period, the G&NS division cited sales at $3.2 billion, which is a 14 percent improvement over the same period in 2015. Operating income was $427 million, which is a 126 percent increase over 2015. Sony Corp’s overall profits were stated as $546 million, which means the games division accounted for about 78 percent of it.

Games and Entertainment:

Xbox One system update arrives with Cortana and more – If you’ve been eager to try out Cortana, Microsoft’s digital voice assistant, on your Xbox One, the wait is finally over. The console’s summer system update has started rolling out this weekend, and as has been promised for months, players will be able to use voice commands to navigate and use Xbox One features and settings. The update also introduces background music options and additional integration with Windows 10 desktop apps.

New Doom DLC multiplayer maps can be played for free – Earlier this week, developer Id Software announced a pair of updates for the recently released Doom. The first, which is available now, is a free download that introduces two new multiplayer modes and several new customizations for the SnapMap mode, where players can create their own maps and game types. The second update, “Unto the Evil,” however, is the first of three planned premium DLCs, which will cost money but include new multiplayer maps, weapons, and more.

Diablo 3 patch 2.4.2 brings three new difficulty levels – Diablo III owners will be getting patch 2.4.2 very soon, and with it will come a trio of new difficulty levels — levels XI, XII, and XIII. If that’s not enough to satisfy you, the patch will update existing items and add new items, including updates to a lot of Legendary and Set goods and additions to the Legendary items and powers. The update goes on from there, including some UI tweaks and some enhanced Adventure Mode rewards.

Chased Off of YouTube, Leaked ‘No Man’s Sky’ Footage Runs to Pornhub – I always feel a little dirty when I look at leaked footage of any kind, but rarely so much as when I brought up Pornhub yesterday to check out a video featuring the hyped space exploration game No Man’s Sky. I watched as some dude blasted some rocks with a laser while a porn star squeed with joy in an orbiting video ad. I had to go to Pornhub, as this corner of the web was the only place I’d been able to find the footage after it’d been yanked off of DailyMotion, YouTube, and almost every other video hosting site.

Nvidia offers $30 to GTX 970 customers in class action lawsuit over RAM – A class action lawsuit brought against Nvidia over a slow RAM partition has resulted in a proposed settlement (PDF) that could pay $30 to anyone who bought the company’s GTX 970 graphics card before its troubles came to light. After a year’s worth of negotiations, lawyers representing customers and Nvidia came to an agreement. Besides offering $30 for each unit purchased by a customer, Nvidia will also pay $1.3 million in legal fees and plaintiff’s attorneys fees. The motion explains that the $30 per unit should compensate customers for the missing data speed they thought they were getting. The GTX 970 cost approximately $350 on average between the day it went on shelves in stores and the day the lawsuit against Nvidia was filed. “A cash payment of $30 for each Unit would constitute approximately 8.6 percent of the purchase price,” the motion reasoned.

Niantic Shuts Down ‘Pokémon Go’ Tracking App, and Players Are in Revolt – Niantic, the studio behind Pokémon Go, isn’t too happy some of you have figured out how to find the rarest of pokémon with tracking apps like Poké Radar. In an interview with Forbes on Thursday, Niantic CEO John Hanke claimed he was “not a fan” of such tools and that players “might find in the future that those things may not work.” The future, it seems, is now. Earlier today the popular tracking apps Pokevision announced that they were no longer offering their services for the time being, out of a desire to follow “Niantic and Nintendo’s wishes.” More are expected to follow.

Disney Infinity servers close in March 2017, PC & mobile versions unplayable in September – Back in May, Disney announced that it was ending production of its expansive Disney Infinity game series as it exited game publishing entirely. Now the company has detailed the shut down process for the game’s online services, and simply put, it’s a bit messy. Disney Infinity was released on so many different platforms, with several ways to buy it on PC alone, and it seems like there’s different stages of the shut down for each version.

Off Topic (Sort of):

A Visual History of Microsoft Windows – Windows 10 Anniversary Update is upon us. Do you remember what Windows 1.0 looked like?

Windows 1.0

Zero Days: Why the disturbing Stuxnet documentary is a must-see – Zero Days is a documentary by Oscar-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney about the cyberwarfare Pandora’s Box that was opened with the Stuxnet malware. Find out why Jack Wallen highly recommends the film.

WikiLeaks’ methods questioned by whistleblower Edward Snowden – Former U.S. National Security Agency contractor, Edward Snowden, has censured WikiLeaks’ release of information without proper curation. On Thursday, Snowden, who has embarrassed the U.S. government with revelations of widespread NSA surveillance, said that WikiLeaks was mistaken in not at least modestly curating the information it releases. “Democratizing information has never been more vital, and @Wikileaks has helped. But their hostility to even modest curation is a mistake,” Snowden said in a tweet. WikiLeaks shot back at Snowden that “opportunism won’t earn you a pardon from Clinton & curation is not censorship of ruling party cash flows.”

Tech trends that will impact your home – High-tech homes are about to revolutionize the way we live. While interior design once relied on color schemes and playful accents, new tech trends are completely revamping how we design, build and live in our spaces.

Kaspersky so very sorry after suggesting its antivirus will get you laid – Kaspersky has apologized for displaying a sexist pop-up advert in its security software. It’s not sorry about showing adverts on people’s PCs, however. The Russian giant’s desktop software suite flings adverts, er, news items about Kaspersky products at users who have already paid for its applications. On Friday, one of these fine articles appeared on PCs, with a cartoon that many have found offensive.

(Source: Adam Hay)

Free ways to learn about IT, security and hacking online – There are many ways to begin your career in the cybersecurity field, from free courses to learning on the job — but you should understand something of the systems, networks and core computing processes involved. A great place to start is Coursera, a Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) provider of free programs to give you a grounding in IT.

Why the Rumor That Facebook Is Listening to Your Conversations Won’t Die – Not long ago I watched a video in my Facebook timeline—I don’t remember what it was, only that it was something very sad. Whatever it was, I felt overwhelmed, and I put my head down on the bed beside my computer and did about sixty seconds of crying. When I lifted my head I saw something new at the top of my timeline: some garbage ad, like any one of thousands of garbage ads that speckle my social media usage with background noise. But this one was worrying: It was for “online counseling services”, or something like that. I was alarmed. Did Facebook hear me crying? No, Facebook has said clearly, but it really felt like it did, which is probably why this rumor won’t die.

Ex-Apple store employees reveal how customers try to fool them – Technically Incorrect: In an entertaining exposé, three former Apple store workers explain what customers fail to mention about their malfunctioning iPhones.

Justin Bieber turned down $5 million to perform during the RNC – Canadian singer Justin Bieber was offered $5 million to perform during the Republican National Convention, according to TMZ, but only passed after his manager threatened to quit. The multimillion dollar offer would have been the largest the singer had ever received, and it appears to have come with some strings attached: he would have been forbidden to hang banners reading Black Lives Matter (All Lives Matter were acceptable), and wouldn’t be permitted to say anything negative about the GOP or of its presidential nominee, Donald Trump. The money would have been paid to the singer up front.

Something to think about:

“Once the game is over, the King and the pawn go back in the same box.”

–     Italian Proverb

In Pursuit of Freedom – The Pushback Continues:

The RCMP Is Trying to Sneak Facial and Tattoo Recognition Into Canada – In November of 2015, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police had a problem.

At the time, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation had been using its massively controversial database of biometric information—photos of people’s faces, tattoos, iris scans, and more—at “full operational capacity” for about a year. The RCMP, on the other hand, was stuck with a national fingerprint database that didn’t allow officers to scan and search people’s faces or other body parts. Canada’s federal police force was falling behind its southern counterpart.

The RCMP had “no authority” to support new capabilities for its nationwide Automated Fingerprint Identification System, or AFIS, according to an internal presentation from November 24 of 2015 that Motherboard obtained through an access to information request. Still, the police felt a pressing need to improve “interoperability with international partner systems”—in other words, to make sure their system meshed with what police in other countries were doing—but lacked an opportunity to do so.

Undeterred, the RCMP went ahead and began working to procure a new AFIS system that could analyze and capture faces, fingerprints, palm prints, tattoos, scars, and irises—all without clear authorization or approval by the country’s federal privacy watchdog, or even a plan to implement it.

Internet provider-backed groups appeal net neutrality court defeat – Trade groups CTIA, USTelecom, the National Cable & Telecommunications Association, and the American Cable Association on Friday asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to rehear their challenge of the net neutrality rules after a three-judge panel upheld the rules in June.

The challenge isn’t to the FCC’s rules prohibiting broadband providers from selectively blocking or slowing web traffic, but to the agency’s reclassification of broadband as a regulated, common-carrier service, the NCTA wrote in a blog post.

“We believe this action is necessary to correct unlawful action by the FCC,” the NCTA wrote. “Dynamic Internet networks do not resemble or deserve to be treated like archaic telephone systems.”

The appeal of the ruling was expected. “It comes as no surprise that the big dogs have challenged the three-judge panel’s decision,” FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said in an emailed statement. “We are confident that the full court will agree with the panel’s affirmation of the FCC’s clear authority to enact its strong Open Internet rules, the reasoned decision-making upon which they are based, and the adequacy of the record from which they were developed.”

A rehearing of the case would be before nine judges at the appeals court.

Tech Thoughts Net News – Friday – July 29, 2016

Free Windows 10 upgrades end today;  WhatsApp isn’t fully deleting its ‘deleted’ chats;  Windows 10: The smart person’s guide;  Must-have mobile apps to encrypt your texts and calls;  YouTube Gaming update;  LastPass browser extensions reported to be vulnerable to exploits;  Will your PC run Windows 10?  Five ways to stay safe online while playing Pokémon Go – and much more news you need to know.

Free Windows 10 upgrades end today – You only have one day left to upgrade to Windows 10 for free if you’re currently running Windows 7 or Windows 8.1. After July 29th, Microsoft will start charging $119 for upgrades to Windows 10, and if you upgrade during the free period you’ll also get the Anniversary Update (launching August 2nd) free of charge. The upgrade is an easy process which you can initialize from the taskbar upgrade notification on eligible machines, or you can follow Microsoft’s guide. If you’re planning to upgrade over the next 24 hours, make sure you’ve backed up all your important documents and data.

Windows 10: The smart person’s guide – This comprehensive guide covers must-know Windows 10 details, like features, system requirements, upgrade options, and Microsoft’s Windows-as-a-service strategy.

Will your PC run Windows 10? Use the official compatibility checker to find out – The Get Windows 10 app lets you register for a free upgrade from Windows 7 or Windows 8.1. But it also keeps a list of potential upgrade issues you might need to deal with. Here’s how to check your own compatibility report.

How to stay connected while traveling with cheap and easy mobile access – You don’t have to leave your phone in airplane mode throughout your trip anymore, as there are plenty of ways to get online and make calls.

Must-have mobile apps to encrypt your texts and calls – What are the best apps which offer strong encryption to keep out spying eyes?

WhatsApp isn’t fully deleting its ‘deleted’ chats – WhatsApp retains and stores chat logs even after those chats have been deleted, according to a post today by iOS researcher Jonathan Zdziarski. Examining disk images taken from the most recent version of the app, Zdziarski found that the software retains and stores a forensic trace of the chat logs even after the chats have been deleted, creating a potential treasure trove of information for anyone with physical access to the device. The same data could also be recoverable through any remote backup systems in place.

Google Docs and Sheets get third-party Android add-ons – Google just made Docs and Sheets a bit more attractive with the launch of Android add-ons — that is, third-party tools on Android that add extra functionality to Google’s office software. Assuming you’re viewing a particular document using your Android mobile device (and that you’ve downloaded the appropriate add-on), you could do things like sign a sheet or document using DocuSign, scan a document into Docs using Scanbot, and more.

A new app from Channels brings live TV to your iOS device – Channels has grown to become one of the more popular applications for cord cutters who want to watch, pause, rewind and fast-forward live television on their 4th-generation Apple TV. Now that same functionality is arriving on iOS in a new app, launched this week. In addition to letting you watch live TV, the mobile application also lets you see what’s on in a full-grid TV guide.

Facebook must refund purchases by minors upon request, court rules – Way back in 2012, Facebook was hit with a lawsuit over real-world currency children had spent playing games on the social network. The issue revolved around Facebook Credits, which gamers could buy using a credit card; the currency, then, would be used to buy virtual goods of one sort or another in Facebook games. This quickly became an issue as kids charged huge bills on their parents’ bank accounts without realizing what they were doing. The issue has dragged on in various legal matters since, and now a judge has ruled that Facebook must refund parents.

Tumblr rolling out ads on blogs, users to get cut of revenue – With little warning, Tumblr has announced that advertisements are coming to all user blogs — starting today. This shouldn’t come as a huge surprise, seeing as how Yahoo has struggled to turn a profit from its $1.1 billion purchase of Tumblr back in 2013, and it comes just after the announcement that Verizon will purchase Yahoo for $4.8 billion.

With Yahoo on the skids, here’s how to get your photos out of Flickr – For those with many precious photos stored on Flickr, Yahoo’s purchase may inspire some concern. Here are some tips for backing up your images, including ways to automatically save your images to cloud services and get more reliable backups.

Security:

LastPass browser extensions reported to be vulnerable to exploits – Passwords are the first and last line of defense against getting hacked, which is why users are strongly advised to use strong and different passwords for each service. Keeping track of those, however, is more than our little brains can handle, which is why password managing services have thrived. But what if those services themselves become vulnerable? That was the situation LastPass found itself in when its web extensions were discovered to be exploitable and can be used to trick users into giving away their passwords. The good news is that LastPass has already addressed those issues, but should still serve as a warning to everyone.

How to make sure you’re using the latest version of LastPass for Firefox – LastPass just patched a major security flaw that allowed an attacker to remotely compromise an account. Here’s how to make sure you’re not vulnerable.

Infographic: The 5 phases of a ransomware attack – Ransomware is the most profitable type of malware attack in history—and attacks will only get worse in the future, according to Cisco Systems’ midyear report on the state of cyber security, released Tuesday. It’s now important for employees to understand the different phases of an attack and best practices to prevent them.

Long-running malvertising campaign infected thousands of computers per day – Security researchers have shut down a large-scale malvertising operation that used sophisticated techniques to remain undetected for months and served exploits to millions of computers.

Malware Explained: Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) – An Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) is a prolonged, aimed attack on a specific target with the intention to compromise their system and gain information from or about that target. The target can be a person, an organization or a business.

Google beefs Linux up kernel defenses in Android – Future versions of Android will be more resilient to exploits thanks to developers’ efforts to integrate the latest Linux kernel defenses into the operating system. Android’s security model relies heavily on the Linux kernel that sits at its core. As such, Android developers have always been interested in adding new security features that are intended to prevent potentially malicious code from reaching the kernel, which is the most privileged area of the operating system.

Company News:

Alphabet’s huge Q2 shows its ads business may not be so challenged after all – Alphabet reported a second quarter that continued tech’s hot streak today, handily beating Wall Street’s expectations and boosting its shares by as much as another 5 percent. Google reported earnings per share of $8.42 on revenue of $21.5 billion. Analysts were expecting earnings of $8.03 per share on $20.76 billion in revenue. (Again, that 5 percent may seem small, but that’s adding tens of billions in value to the company.)

Amazon shatters earnings expectations – Amazon shattered expectations when it reported second quarter earnings after the bell on Thursday. Adjusted earnings per share came in at $1.78, when Wall Street was forecasting $1.11. Amazon also beat revenue predictions, posting $30.4 billion for the quarter when analysts were expecting $29.55 billion. Shares ticked up 2 percent in after-hours trading. The company saw a significant increase in sales and profit from the same period last year. Net sales were up 31 percent and net income was $857 million, a large jump from last year’s $92 million. Amazon also spent many years unprofitable, while it invested in growth.

Apple sold its billionth iPhone last week – It would have been a nice piece of information to share during yesterday’s earnings report, but Tim Cook and Co. were clearly too preoccupied with service revenues and R&D. And hey, no better way to kick off a midweek meeting than a little positive news — particularly if you can carry some of yesterday’s expectation-beating positivity into the following day to help rally the troops.

Facebook crushes Q2 earnings, hits 1.71B users and record share price – Coming off an all-time high stock price of $123.34, Facebook in Q2 2016 smashed earnings again. The social network continued steady growth just slightly slower at 3.63% compared to last quarter’s 3.77%, adding 60 million monthly users this quarter to reach 1.71 billion. It scored $6.44 billion in revenue and $0.97 EPS, blowing past estimates of $6.02 billion and $0.82 EPS. Revenue growth was 59% year over year, which looks favorable compared to competitor Twitter, who yesterday announced its YOY revenue growth sunk to 20% from 60% a year ago. With 84% of ad revenue from mobile, total ad revenue was $6.24 billion.

LG Display invests $1.7 billion to produce flexible OLED phone screens – LG Display will spend around $1.7 billion to build a new production line for making flexible OLED smartphone screens. Flexible smartphone screens, which go into phones like the curved Galaxy S7 Edge, are becoming increasingly popular, and they seem likely to become a dominant style in a few years. The investment is meant to let LG become a leader in this display tech — it may have buyers lined up already, or LG could be planning to use the displays itself.

Report: Apple’s negotiating tactics sunk its long-rumored TV service – In the months leading up to the announcement of the new Apple TV box last year, there were multiple reports that said the company was also working on a streaming TV service as a way to entice cord-cutters and “cord-nevers” into its ecosystem. Those reports suggested that the service would include some 25 channels and cost $30 or $40 a month, and it would stream live content as well as offer a Netflix-esque back catalog of shows on demand. But it never came to pass. When the new Apple TV launched, Apple pushed apps as the future of TV rather than an all-in-one service. A new report from the Wall Street Journal today says that Apple’s negotiating tactics were to blame and that the service didn’t come to pass in part because Apple was offering too little money and making too many demands.

Games and Entertainment:

Five ways to stay safe online while playing Pokémon Go – No one has expected to see a mobile gaming app become so popular so fast and affect people the way it has. Indeed, the introduction of Pokémon Go—plus the sharp rise of popularity of augmented reality—has opened a lot of opportunities for cross-industry innovation and growth. Unfortunately, it’s not all fun and games for every player and those caught in the experience of others. What we have below are surefire ways one can play Pokémon Go safely while avoiding potential threats online:

Pokemon Radar downloads: the app everyone is cheating with – Cheating at Pokemon GO isn’t especially difficult, as a rabble of Android and iOS developers will tell you this week. Today the quickest rising app on either app store is an app called “Poke Radar” which, as you’ll soon find out, isn’t what it suggests it is. It works just how it says it’s supposed to, but if you’re looking for a Pokemon Radar that works, you’ll need to look elsewhere. Meanwhile, there’s an app called “Poke Scanner” that’ll do just what you want it to.

DOOM’s big free update tomorrow brings two multiplayer modes – Bethesda Softworks will release a big free update for DOOM (2016) tomorrow, the second of its kind for the title. This particular update adds a pair of new multiplayer game modes, addressing the mostly justified criticism about the game’s lackluster multiplayer experience. The new game modes are comprised of capture-the-flag with a single flag and moving bases and a capture-and-hold mode where gamers take control of specific zones.

YouTube Gaming update packs in landscape mode, new chat layout, and other improvements – A few features are getting polished, such as subscribing to new channels and changing which part of the world you want to see videos from.

AMD will release two new entry-level graphics cards for gaming – The company is continuing to stick with its low-price / solid-performance model today with the announcement of two new GPUs — the RX 460 and RX 470. These aren’t meant for VR, but Radeon is billing them as an affordable way to get into gaming while not compromising quality. The 470, which is designed for 1080p gaming and video streaming, can reach up to 4.9 teraflops of power, has a memory bandwidth of up to 211 Gbps, and has 4GB of GDDR5 memory. The 460, which is meant for the vaguely defined purpose of “e-sport gaming,” reaches up to 2.2 teraflops, has a memory bandwidth of up to 112Gbps, and either two or 4GB of GDDR5 RAM.

Star Trek VI and 11 other movies are now streaming online – Night of the Hunter, the Explorers, Blade II…. Pick your genre, sit back, and enjoy.

Off Topic (Sort of):

We Need to Change the Psychology of Security – There are a wide variety of opinions on how to fix security and stop the seemingly endless parade of breaches. Like many, I believe the problem is multi-faceted: it’s more than just a lack of encryption, the inability to block malware, or that IT professionals don’t do “the basics,” though these all contribute to security failures. I believe we have a people problem, but not in the same way that most might think.

Trump’s hacking comments rattle cybersecurity pros – Donald Trump’s muddled stance on hacking has disturbed security experts at time when the tech industry is looking for clarity on the U.S.’s cyber policy. On Wednesday, the outspoken presidential candidate seemed to call on Russia to break into rival Hillary Clinton’s email system. Some security experts are concerned that Trump is taking the matter so lightly when the country is trying to halt a rash of cyberattacks against it, not promote them. “Whether he was sarcastic or not, it was an open invitation to hack,” said Justin Harvey, CSO with Fidelis Cybersecurity. “And I guess I’m deeply disturbed by that posturing.”

Online activist group petitions to keep Trump out of security briefings – Credo Action is seeking 10,000 online signatures on a petition that urges the government to not let the GOP presidential nominee attend security briefings.

This Website Is Changing How Politicians Communicate – Medium is taking over the political realm—at the media’s expense. You might not have heard of Medium, but you’ve probably visited the site without knowing it. The blogging platform, which launched in 2012, is focused on one thing: providing a beautiful, custom way to present text to an audience. That simple focus has convinced political stars from Hillary Clinton to Sen. Chuck Schumer to start making major use of it.

Riley roving camera is a home sentry robot – A company called iPatrol has a new HD camera robot called Riley. The little bot cruises around your home on two-rubber tank-tread like strips. It is able to see in the dark with night vision tech and can alert the homeowner when motion is detected.

 

Dark Patterns are designed to trick you (and they’re all over the Web) – It happens to the best of us. After looking closely at a bank statement or cable bill, suddenly a small, unrecognizable charge appears. Fine print sleuthing soon provides the answer—somehow, you accidentally signed up for a service. Whether it was an unnoticed pre-marked checkbox or an offhanded verbal agreement at the end of a long phone call, now a charge arrives each month because naturally the promotion has ended. If the possibility of a refund exists, it’ll be found at the end of 45 minutes of holding music or a week’s worth of angry e-mails. Everyone has been there. So in 2010, London-based UX designer Harry Brignull decided he’d document it. Brignull’s website, darkpatterns.org, offers plenty of examples of deliberately confusing or deceptive user interfaces. These dark patterns trick unsuspecting users into a gamut of actions: setting up recurring payments, purchasing items surreptitiously added to a shopping cart, or spamming all contacts through prechecked forms on Facebook games.

What’s this whole email thing about, anyway? – What do you know about the Clinton email scandal? If you’re anything like me, not much — yet! Let’s take a stroll into our political Swamp of Sadness where both parties are currently mired. One candidate became stuck there while trying to beat the dead horse of the Crooked Hillary meme and the other candidate is sinking simply because government email is just so damn crappy.

Apollo astronauts dying of heart disease at 4-5X the rate of counterparts – Apollo astronauts who have ventured out of the protective magnetosphere of mother Earth appear to be dying of cardiovascular disease at a far higher rate than their counterparts—both those that have stayed grounded and those that only flew in the shielding embrace of low-Earth orbit. Though the data is slim—based on only 77 astronauts total—researchers speculate that potent ionizing radiation in deep space may be to blame. That hypothesis was backed up in follow-up mouse studies that provided evidence that similar radiation exposure led to long-lasting damage to the rodents’ blood vessels. All of the data was published Thursday in the journal Scientific Reports. The study, while not definitive, may add an extra note of caution to the potential hazards of future attempts to fly to Mars and elsewhere in the cosmos.

Something to think about:

“You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.”

–     Winston Churchill

In Pursuit of Freedom – The Pushback Continues:

Phone hacking: What the FBI won’t reveal could hurt users, experts argue – We already know that law enforcement agencies can hack our phones. But we don’t know what they find, how they find it, or even who helps them discover the information. Top cybersecurity experts and lawmakers argued about how much should be revealed at a July 11 meeting of the Congressional Internet Caucus.

“Government hacking has already happened. The question of whether it should happen is actually way past the point,” said Harley Geiger, director of public policy at Rapid 7, an Internet security company.

Geiger and others cited the FBI-Apple encryption dispute as a troubling example. Apple refused to help the FBI unlock the iPhone belonging to one of the terrorists involved in the December, 2015 attack in San Bernardino, California. The agency sued Apple, then dropped the lawsuit when it used a third party to crack the passcode in the phone instead. The issue of whether law enforcement should be able to take advantage of vulnerabilities remains unresolved, and government hacking is still unregulated.

EU recommends outlawing backdoors, while UK pushes for them – A review of European privacy rules has concluded that any effort to weaken encryption across the bloc of member states “should be prohibited.”

A preliminary report by European data protection supervisor Giovanni Buttarelli, the leading figure in ensuring data protection and privacy rules are enforced across the European bloc, said that nation-state governments should not be allowed to monitor, reverse engineer, or decrypt communications that are deliberately scrambled.

It added that encryption providers, internet and phone providers, and “all other organizations” should be prohibited “from allowing or facilitating ‘backdoors’.”

The report also called on end-to-end encryption to be “encouraged, and when necessary, mandated” in line with the bloc’s principles of data protection by design.

That will come as good news to the security and privacy community, which has persistently pushed back on any notion of backdoors in products, services, or cryptography, and has long promoted the use of encryption across products, services, and technologies.

But the report’s findings fall in direct conflict with efforts by the UK government to expand its decade-old surveillance laws.

Don’t use a VPN in United Arab Emirates – unless you wanna risk jail and a $545,000 fine – A royal edict from the president of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) may have effectively made it illegal for anyone in the country to use a VPN or secure proxy service.

Those caught could face jail time and fines of between 500,000 and 2,000,000 UAE dirham (US$136,130 and $544,521). The change was announced this week by the UAE President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan in a proclamation that amended federal laws.

The wording is ambiguous and technologically illiterate. Essentially, it seems, you are not allowed to use systems that hide the fact that you’re committing a crime or covering one up. If you’re routing your network traffic through a secure VPN or proxy server, you could be evading the eyes of the state while breaking a law, and that’s now a big no-no.

You could claim you were using the VPN or proxy for legit reasons, and that no criminal activity was being committed or concealed, but since your packets were encrypted, you may have a hard time proving your innocence.

Amazon saw spike in US demands for customer data – The total number of government requests for data on Amazon customers has doubled over the past year.

The retail and cloud giant quietly announced the latest figures for the first six months of 2016 ending June in a report, published Thursday evening, which showed a total of 1,803 different requests from the US government.

On the same period a year earlier, the company received a total of 851 different requests.

The number of search warrants the company received went up by more than eight times on the same period a year earlier.

Dozens of Lawyers Across the US Fight the FBI’s Mass Hacking Campaign – The US Department of Justice has a battle on its hands, as dozens of lawyers question evidence the FBI obtained using hacking techniques across a string of ongoing cases.

In 2015, the FBI used a piece of malware to identify suspected visitors of a dark web child pornography site. Now, nearly 30 legal teams across the country have pushed to get all evidence thrown out of court, and many attorneys have decided to pool their efforts in a “national working group.”

The cases revolve around Operation Pacifier, in which the FBI briefly assumed control of the “Playpen” website. The agency hacked computers all across the world—including over one thousand in the US—based on one warrant that has become legally contentious.

In the wake of the operation, many defendants quickly pleaded guilty, likely because of the wall of evidence presented before them: The FBI’s malware grabbed a suspect’s IP address, MAC address, and other identifying system information when they visited specific child pornography-related threads.

“The more that we coordinate and we can get our arguments and pleadings out for other people to use … the better the overall legal products are going to be”

But some lawyers have successfully argued that all the evidence should be suppressed. In others instances, the government’s case has fallen apart after the FBI would not hand over the full code for its malware, even when the judge said the defense had a right to see it. Even suspects who have already had guilty pleas accepted are now successfully having them withdrawn.

Tech Thoughts Net News – Wednesday – July 27, 2016

LastPass unpatched zero-day vulnerability;  Windows 10’s Anniversary update is just what everyday users need;  How to clean your Windows registry and speed up your PC ;  Removing Windows 10’s default apps isn’t easy, but CCleaner can help;  Slimmed down 2TB Xbox One S hits stores August 2 for $399;  Flaws in wireless keyboards let hackers snoop on everything you type – and much more news you need to know.

LastPass unpatched zero-day vulnerability gives hackers access to your account – The security flaw was one of “a bunch of critical problems” discovered by a prominent researcher who simply took a quick look at the software.

Cybersecurity firm offers users reimbursement for ransomware infections – Security firm SentinelOne is confident it can beat any of today’s ransomware — and is willing to put money behind that claim.

Here are the key security features coming to Windows 10 next week – Here’s a look at Windows Information Protection and Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection, two new features that will be launching next week with the latest major update to Windows 10.

Windows 10’s Anniversary update is just what everyday users need – It can’t be disputed: Windows 10 has been a wild success for Microsoft, after being installed on more than 350 million devices. To mark this, August 2nd is the release of the Anniversary Update which brings a slew of tweaks, fixes and new features. Before I move on, fun fact: it took 25 PC builds and 16 mobile builds for Windows Insider Program participants — the highest engagement from both testers and Microsoft ever seen with this version of the OS. If you care for nothing else of this update, just know that there’s a “dark mode” in Windows now (finally). However, with an update this big it might be worth updating your computer, for once.

The Anniversary Update’s most exciting features: Windows 10 users weigh in – We know Microsoft’s spin on the Anniversary Update for Windows 10, but here’s what users say they’re most pumped about.

Removing Windows 10’s default apps isn’t easy, but CCleaner can help – Microsoft makes it hard to remove its built-in apps in Windows 10, even if you really don’t want them. CCleaner gives you a way, though, and we’ll show it to you here.

Remix OS for PC moves to Android 6.0, new features in tow – Android Nougat is around the corner and with it comes split windows. But while Google is still adjusting to having more than one app window on the screen at the same time, Jide is already perfecting its craft. With Remix OS for PC, it has brought desktop-like Android computing to PCs and Macs running on Intel and AMD chips. Now with the latest update, the giving those same computers a taste of Android 6.0 Marshmallow, as well as improvements to its window management features.

How to clean your Windows registry and speed up your PC – A cluttered registry can slow Windows to a crawl, but cleaning it effectively isn’t easy. We put several registry cleaners to the test and offer tips to help you get your registry down to size and improve your PC’s performance.

Opera Mini on Android gains video download feature – If you are one of the folks who loves to watch video on your phones as you spend time out of the home or office, you might not like the fact that the video uses up a bunch of your data. A new version of Opera Mini for Android has launched and it has a feature that will allow you to download your favorite videos and take them with you on the go.

Android’s new Emergency Location Service could save your life – Google is rolling out a feature that will give your exact location to emergency services if you dial their number.

BlackBerry ditches the physical keyboard for its second Android phone – The Canadian hardware company’s second Android handset features a 5.2-inch full HD display, in place of BlackBerry’s trademark physical keyboard. The rather formally named DTEK50 runs Android Marshmallow coupled with a slew of security features aimed at maintaining the company’s long-standing privacy focus. Among them is the titular DTEK app designed to monitor account and hardware access, a secure boot process, full disk encryption, and a variety of additional security patches on top of Google’s mobile operating system.

Twitter for Android adds a night mode option – Do you like browsing Twitter before bed? If so, the Android app was just updated with a feature that makes doing so a bit more friendly: night mode. When activated, the bright Android app for Twitter is toggled over to a theme that’s much easier on the eyes in a dark room. Turning the night mode on is as simple as flipping a switch; you can turn it off whenever you want, as well, to get the light theme back.

How to turn off web notifications in Chrome, Edge, and Firefox – Web notifications are great, except when they aren’t. Here’s how to disable them off on a site-by-site basis.

Google Maps gets color coded visuals, areas of interest – Map and navigation apps, be they from Google, Apple, previously Nokia, or even Microsoft, can be life savers, especially when venturing into territory unknown. But that only works if you can actually make heads or tails of the information crammed within. Making something look prettier isn’t just a matter of aesthetic enhancement. It can also be about whether you’ll be able to tell one road or area from another at a glance. That is why in its latest Maps update, Google is splashing some new colors and removing a few lines for the sake making Google Maps easier to “read”, even when you’re mind is stressed out from getting lost.

Security:

Say Farewell to SMS-Based Two-Factor Authentication? – If you’ve used text messaging for two-factor authentication, it might soon be a thing of the past. The U.S. National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) says in a new draft of its Digital Authentication Guideline that SMS-based two-factor authentication should not be used due to security concerns. “[Out of band verification] using SMS is deprecated, and will no longer be allowed in future releases of this guidance,” the documents reads. … in the guideline, NIST argues that it’s too easy for people to obtain a cell phone and there’s no way for the site operator to know whether the person who receives the verification code is even the correct recipient. The technology, in other words, isn’t nearly as secure as some had hoped.

New attack bypasses HTTPS protection on Macs, Windows, and Linux – A key guarantee provided by HTTPS encryption is that the addresses of visited websites aren’t visible to attackers who may be monitoring an end user’s network traffic. Now, researchers have devised an attack that breaks this protection. The attack can be carried out by operators of just about any type of network, including public Wi-Fi networks, which arguably are the places where Web surfers need HTTPS the most. It works by abusing a feature known as WPAD—short for Web Proxy Autodisovery—in a way that exposes certain browser requests to attacker-controlled code. The attacker then gets to see the entire URL of every site the target visits. The exploit works against virtually all browsers and operating systems.

Flaws in wireless keyboards let hackers snoop on everything you type – Your wireless keyboard is giving up your secrets — literally. With an antenna and wireless dongle worth a few bucks, and a few lines of Python code, a hacker can passively and covertly record everything you type on your wireless keyboard from hundreds of feet away. Usernames, passwords, credit card data, your manuscript or company’s balance sheet — whatever you’re working on at the time. It’s an attack that can’t be easily prevented, and one that almost nobody thought of — except the security researchers who found it.

Over 100 suspicious, snooping Tor nodes discovered – Over 72 days, computer science PhD student Amirali Sanatinia and Guevara Noubir, professor at the College of Computer and Information Science at Northeastern University uncovered nodes on the network which were not behaving as they ought. The nodes, otherwise known as Tor Hidden Services Directories (HSDirs), servers which receive traffic and directs users to hidden services, are a crucial element needed to mask the true IP of users on the network.

The Internet of Things Will Turn Large-Scale Hacks into Real World Disasters – Disaster stories involving the Internet of Things are all the rage. They feature cars (both driven and driverless), the power grid, dams, and tunnel ventilation systems. A particularly vivid and realistic one, near-future fiction published last month in New York Magazine, described a cyberattack on New York that involved hacking of cars, the water system, hospitals, elevators, and the power grid. In these stories, thousands of people die. Chaos ensues. While some of these scenarios overhype the mass destruction, the individual risks are all real. And traditional computer and network security isn’t prepared to deal with them.

Serious security flaws found in Osram smart bulbs – The smart home tech company reportedly won’t patch all of the vulnerabilities.

Ransomware 2.0 is around the corner and it’s a massive threat to the enterprise – The profits from ransomware are making it one of the fastest growing types of malware and new versions could negatively impact entire industries, according to a Cisco report.

10 tips to avoid ransomware attacks – As ransomware increasingly targets healthcare organizations, schools and government agencies, security experts offer advice to help IT leaders prepare and protect.

Keys to Chimera crypto ransomware allegedly leaked by rival crime gang – Sometimes, the fierce competition in the booming crypto ransomware market works in the favor of the victims whose priceless data is held hostage. That appears to be what played out on Tuesday when the criminals behind a package known as “Mischa” published what’s purported to be the secret crypto keys for the rival Chimera malware.

Company News:

LogMeIn merging with Citrix’s GoTo business – Remote access software maker LogMeIn is merging with Citrix’s GoTo business, the companies announced Tuesday, in a deal valued at $1.8 billion. Citrix said back in November that it would spin off its GoTo family of products as a separate company — by combining the spinoff with a merger, the transfer (in the guise of a merger) is tax free for Citrix. This sort of transaction is called a “Reverse Morris Trust.” The deal has been unanimously approved by the boards of directors of both Citrix and LogMeIn.

Qualcomm has agreed to pay nearly $20 million to settle sex discrimination claims – The proposed settlement, which was reached before a suit was filed, requires Qualcomm to set up new policies and procedures to ensure women working in technical fields enjoy the same job opportunities as their male counterparts. “While we have strong defenses to the claims, we elected to focus on continuing to make meaningful enhancements to our internal programs and processes that drive equity and a diverse and inclusive workforce which are values that we share and embrace,” Qualcomm said, adding that it can’t comment further since the deal requires court approval. The deal was reached following months of negotiations as well as two mediation sessions earlier this year.

Apple’s profit fell 27 percent in Q3 2016, but earnings beat expectations – Apple’s quarterly profit fell 27 percent in Q3 2016, to $7.80 billion from $10.68 billion a year ago, but the company’s shares rose today as the earnings beat analysts’ expectations. Quarterly revenue was $42.36 billion, down from $49.60 billion in the year-ago quarter, a drop of 14.6 percent. When Apple announced its previous results three months ago, the company said it expected to make between $41 and $43 billion in revenue in the third quarter of fiscal 2016, with profit margins between 37.5 and 38 percent. Actual results were near the top end of the estimates; gross margin was 38 percent. “Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters estimated that Apple would post earnings of $1.38 a share on revenue of $42.1 billion,” The Wall Street Journal reported. Actual earnings per share were $1.42.

Investors realize Nintendo didn’t develop Pokémon Go and shares plummet – Nintendo’s shares plunged after the company said late Friday that the worldwide success of Pokémon Go will not significantly impact its financial results. Nothing Nintendo disclosed about the ownership of the game was new information, but markets were shocked anyway. The stock sank 18 percent to 23,220 yen at the close in Tokyo, the maximum one-day move allowed by the exchange, noted Bloomberg. After the drop, Nintendo’s stock remained flat. In morning trading today, the Kyoto-based company’s shares were down $2.36, or 8.14 percent, at $26.64.

Vizio acquisition by Chinese TV and content powerhouse LeEco could shake up U.S. market – The $2 billion purchase of Vizio makes LeEco the number-two player in the U.S. smart TV market, and provides an opportunity for its many content holdings.

Twitter is adding users, but its biggest problems still remain – In its fiscal second quarter earnings report released today, Twitter says it added 3 million users, about 1 million more than Wall Street was expecting. The service now counts 313 million total monthly active users. It also posted profit of 13 cents a share on revenue of $602 million, which is better on EPS and yet worse on revenue than what Wall Street was looking for. Analysts surveyed by Thompson Reuters had Twitter at a profit of 10 cents a share on revenue of $607 million. The big takeaway, however, is the year-over-year percentage growth, which at only 20 percent is at its lowest since Twitter went public. A year ago, the figure was 61 percent. Two years ago, it was 124 percent.

Games and Entertainment:

Slimmed down 2TB Xbox One S hits stores August 2 for $399 – After leaking and then confirming news of the slim, white, Xbox One redesign just over a month ago, Microsoft today announced that its Xbox One S console hardware refresh will hit retailers on August 2. A 2TB system will cost $399 and will be available in “limited quantities” in the US, Australia, New Zealand, and most of Europe on that day. Versions with 1TB and 500GB hard drives will be available for $349 and $299, respectively, at a later date.

Sonic the Hedgehog Is Really Trying to Get His Act Together for 25th Anniversary – Sonic the Hedgehog has had a rough time lately. Sega’s fast furball may have shared a degree of the fame of Nintendo’s Mario in the ’90s, but for more than a decade the scores for the games he starred in have been so low they could pass for autumn high temperatures in Fargo, North Dakota. Worse, an outrageously snarky official Twitter account consistently proved more entertaining than the actual games. But something wonderful happened last night during Sonic’s 25th birthday celebration at the San Diego Comic Con: Sega revealed not one but two upcoming Sonic games, and they look like they might actually be good.

No Man’s Sky hit with last-minute delay on PC – PC players excited for the release of No Man’s Sky are going to have to wait a little bit longer to cruise around the universe. Originally scheduled to launch alongside the PS4 version on August 9, the PC version of the highly-anticipated game has been hit with another delay. That’s going to be disappointing to hear for eager gamers who have already had to deal with delays, but it’s not as bad as you may initially think.

Tim Sweeney claims that Microsoft will remove Win32, destroy Steam – Tim Sweeney doesn’t like Windows 10 or Microsoft’s Universal Windows Platform, the common development platform that allows developers to create software that can run on Windows on PCs, phones, tablets, HoloLens, and the Xbox. In March he published an op-ed in The Guardian saying that UWP “can, should, must, and will die” because, he claimed, Microsoft could use UWP to create a walled garden, with UWP games not available through competing stores such as Steam. Still apparently concerned with the health of the PC gaming industry, Sweeney is now claiming, through in an interview with the print-only Edge magazine, that Microsoft will use Windows updates to kill Steam.

Sega Mega Drive console with 80 built-in games goes up for preorder – Nintendo recently announced plans to capitalize on nostalgia with the NES Classic Edition, and now Sega is doing something similar. Now available for order is the Sega Mega Drive, as well as a Mega Drive/Genesis handheld console, to commemorate the 25th Sonic anniversary. The console costs about $65 USD, as does the handheld version, and comes packed with 80 integrated games including Mortal Kombat 1 – 3, a handful of Sonic games, Golden Axe 1 – 3, and a bunch more.

Nintendo NX detailed in new leak as a portable, cartridge-based console – Nintendo’s NX is still a console shrouded in mystery, but today a massive new leak might is dishing a lot of details about what it will offer when it arrives next year. Falling in with previous rumors, this leak also tips the NX as a portable console, but Nintendo is taking a more daring approach to handhelds this time around. Apparently, the NX will feature its own screen and detachable controllers that are housed on the device itself.

Free Xbox One/360 Games With Gold for August 2016 revealed – WWE 2K16, Spelunky, and more coming for Xbox Live Gold members.

Off Topic (Sort of):

The Motherboard e-Glossary of Cyber Terms and Hacking Lingo – One of the challenges of writing—and reading—about hacking is that it’s a world full of jargon and technical terms. It’s our job as journalists to translate this lingo and make it understandable to the average reader. Still, accuracy is important and sometimes you have to use the right terms. To help you navigate our stories during our special week on cybersecurity, The Hacks We Can’t See, (and our future and continued coverage of hacking) we thought it’d be good to have a little glossary. Here it is.

California to Require Registration of 3D-Printed Guns – California isn’t playing around with 3D-printed guns. As Motherboard reports, Governor Jerry Brown on Friday signed legislation that will now require anyone who 3D prints a gun to obtain a serial number or “other mark of identification,” and affix it to the weapon within 10 days. In addition, owners will need to have a background check and no 3D-printed guns can be sold or transferred to another party.

Judge Says Bitcoin Isn’t Really Money – Bitcoin is not money, according to a Florida judge. Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Teresa Mary Pooler ruled on Monday that since bitcoin is not backed by a nation or bank, and that it can’t be “hidden under a mattress like cash and gold bars,” it cannot be considered money. The case in question accused a man of selling and laundering $1,500 worth of bitcoin to undercover detectives, who said they wanted to buy stolen credit card numbers, according to the Miami Herald, which reported on the ruling.

Australian Dropbears win the Quidditch World Cup – The fictional game invented by JK Rowling has turned into a global competition between 21 teams, and this year Australia has taken home the gold.

Facebook open sources Surround 360 camera with Ikea-style instructions – Facebook needs you to fill its News Feed, Oculus Rift, and Gear VR with 360 content. So today it put all the hardware and software designs of its Surround 360 camera on Github, after announcing the plan in April. Thanks to cheeky instruction manual inspired by Ikea’s manuals, you can learn how to buy the parts, assemble the camera, load the image-stitching software, and start shooting 360 content. Essentially 17 cameras on a UFO-looking stick, the Surround 360 camera can be built for about $30,000 in parts. The 4-megapixel lenses can shoot 4K, 6K, or 8K 360 video, and fisheye lenses on the top and bottom remove the blindspots. Facebook forced a random engineer to try to build the Surround 360 from the open source instructions, and found it took about four hours.

MIT Researchers working on glasses-free 3D for cinemas – Viewing digital images in 3D, whether it be in a theater or with something like a VR headset, operate on the same principles of separating what the left eye sees from what the right eye sees. Coincidentally, both those cases also have something in common: the need to use some eyepiece or, worse, headgear, to experience “true” 3D visuals. Glasses-free 3D has been a holy grail, especially in the entertainment industry, where solutions like that found on the Nintendo 3DS are too expensive to put on a giant screen. Luckily, researchers from MIT are working on such a solution and are calling it, what else, “Cinema 3D”.

Something to think about:

“The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.”

–       George Bernard Shaw

In Pursuit of Freedom – The Pushback Continues:

Illinois to Cops: Want to Use Stingrays? Get a Court Order – If law enforcement wants to track you down, one option is the stingray. It can mimic cell phone tower signals and trick devices into connecting, allowing police and investigators to find you or snoop on your conversations.

It’s a powerful tool, which is why the Illinois governor just signed a law that will require a court order before law enforcement can use stingrays, or cell site simulator devices, effective Jan. 1.

Under the Citizen Privacy Protection Act, “a law enforcement agency may not use a cell site simulator device, except to locate or track the location of a communications device or to identify a communications device, [and] a court order based on probable cause…is required for any permitted use of a cell site simulator device.”

“It is important that we take steps to enable police to effectively investigate and solve crimes using the latest technology, but it is equally important that we protect innocent people from unnecessary and unwarranted invasions of their privacy,” bill sponsor Daniel Biss said in a statement.

An Internet Censorship Company Tried to Sue the Researchers Who Exposed Them – Netsweeper is a small Canadian company with a disarmingly boring name and an office nestled among the squat buildings of Waterloo, Ontario. But its services—namely, online censorship—are offered in countries as far-flung as Bahrain and Yemen.

In 2015, University of Toronto-based research hub Citizen Lab reported that Netsweeper was providing Yemeni rebels with censorship technology. In response, Citizen Lab director Ron Deibert revealed in a blog post on Tuesday, Netsweeper sued the university and Deibert for defamation. Netsweeper discontinued its lawsuit in its entirety in April.

If the suit was successful, Deibert wrote, damages would have amounted to more than $3 million.

“It should be pointed out that this is not the first time a company has contemplated legal action regarding the work of the Citizen Lab,” Deibert wrote. “However, it is the first time that a company has gone so far as to begin litigation proceedings. I suspect it will not be the last.”

Europe gives Privacy Shield one year to work – Europe’s data protection authorities will hold fire for one year on the new Privacy Shield agreement, withholding any potential legal challenges until mid-2017.

In a statement [PDF] by the Article 29 Working Party (WP29), the influential body noted it was still unhappy with the final text of the agreement – which replaces the previous Safe Harbor agreement between Europe and the United States and covers transatlantic data flows – but that it would wait until the first annual review before putting forward any formal challenges.

The decision will come as a huge relief to US corporations who rely on the agreement for billions of dollars of trade.

The group had previously said the draft Privacy Shield agreement was “too complex … and therefore ineffective” and so overall was “not acceptable.”

Those criticisms led to changes being made – which the group acknowledges in its letter – but it remains skeptical that they will be sufficient.

Verizon’s Yahoo deal creates tracking powerhouse, privacy groups warn – Verizon’s planned US$4.8 billion acquisition of Yahoo will create an international consumer tracking powerhouse that raises serious privacy concerns, some privacy advocates said.

Tech Thoughts Net News – Monday – July 25, 2016

Prisma is now out on Android;  Would You Pay a Subscription for Windows?  Tricks that ransomware uses to fool you;  11 Secret Codes That Unlock Hidden Features on Your Phone;  Redbox is giving streaming another shot;  Pokemon Go Already on the Decline in U.S.;  Microsoft cuts Xbox One price to $249;  More than half the world is still offline – and much more news you need to know.

Prisma is now out on Android – Prisma, the sensationally popular iOS photo manipulation app that’s been second only to Pokémon Go in terms of summer hype, has now arrived on Android. The Google Play Store has been plagued by sketchy knockoffs of this excellent new app, so it’s a welcome relief to have the authentic app now up and running. Prisma’s makers say they’ve ported over all the iOS functionality, so there shouldn’t be any difference in user experience or capabilities. With more than 400 million pictures “prismed” and over 10.6 million installs on iOS, Prisma is arriving on Android having barely been able to sustain its popularity among iPhone users.

Google Play starts showing apps’ actual download sizes: No more guessing games – Google Play now displays the actual storage space a whole app or an upgrade will take up, so you don’t accidentally download anything too big. If an update is only 2.91MB, it will show that exact figure right there in each app’s detail box. That will give you the chance to reconsider your download or to free up some space before getting a particularly large game or VR experience. Besides displaying more accurate file sizes, Google also tweaked its Play Store algorithm to make updates even smaller.

Digital advocates call DMCA copyright restrictions unconstitutional – The Electronic Frontier Foundation is suing the government, arguing the Digital Millennium Copyright Act has outlived its usefulness in protecting copyrighted material from pirates and stifles free speech.

A Jim Hillier article: Would You Pay a Subscription for Windows? – Speculation surrounding the possibility of Microsoft introducing a subscription based option for Windows 10 has been doing the rounds for quite some time. We even wrote about it way back in 2014: Subscription Based Windows OS – Is It On The Cards? Now, it seems, Microsoft has taken the first step in this direction by offering a subscription based Windows 10 option to enterprise consumers. On Tuesday, Microsoft confirmed that it will be offering Windows 10 Enterprise E3, a special enterprise tier of Windows 10, which will cost $7 per user per month.

11 Secret Codes That Unlock Hidden Features on Your Phone – The USSD protocol allows you to access hidden features you didn’t know about right from your smartphone’s dialer. But there is some trickiness you’ll need to know about.

This simple tool tells you if Amazon Prime is worth it (or not) – Amazon Prime is pretty great, but is it worth $99 per year? That varies depending on how you use Prime, of course, but there’s now a really simple way to figure it all out. Slice is an app for iOS and Android that tracks shipments for you based on shipment confirmation emails. It’s new tool, My Amazon Report, breaks down exactly how much you are (or aren’t) saving on shipping costs.

How to customize the Bubbles, Ribbons, and Mystify screen savers for Windows 10 – If you’re a fan of traditional Windows screen savers, these simple HTA apps are for you. They’ll make it easy to access and configure three screen savers that dropped off the map with Windows 10.

iPhone 7: All the rumors on its release date, specs, design and features – As July turns to August, it means that summer is winding down — and that new iPhones are imminent. With an announcement expected during the first or second week of September, we’re now officially in the homestretch — less than 8 weeks away from the big day when rumors turn to vapor or crystalize into reality. Here’s an updated rundown of the things we may see with the iPhone 7.

Verizon will cut off unlimited data users who use too much unlimited data – Verizon is forcing heavy data users to get off its unlimited plan or get off the carrier’s network entirely.

9 Chatbots You Can Talk to Right Now on Facebook Messenger – You want to talk to bots instead of people? These are the most useful you’ll find on Facebook.

Security:

Tricks that ransomware uses to fool you – Ransomware quite often targets businesses (for example hospitals) rather than individuals. Corporations have more valuable data and more money for ransom (ransom increases from roughly $500 per computer to $15,000 for the entire enterprise). Cyphort has examined different variants of ransomware to help users get an idea of what might be coming down the Internet pipeline. So keep an eye out for these characteristics before your network is taken hostage.

Is Computer Security Becoming a Hardware Problem? – In a new piece for the Communications of the ACM, Paul Kocher, chief cryptographer at semiconductor firm Rambus, argues that current computing devices are similarly vulnerable: “Today’s computing devices resemble the Silver Bridge, but are much more complicated. They have billions of lines of code, logic gates, and other elements that must work perfectly. Otherwise, adversaries can compromise the system. The individual failure rates of many of these components are small, but aggregate complexity makes vulnerability statistically certain.” To Kocher, this is a scaling problem. While the complexity of our machines increases exponentially, the development of new, reliable security schemes has not kept pace. Instead, security engineers take comfort in the complexity itself.

Company News:

Nintendo’s Stock Plummets Because It’s Not Making Enough Money Off of Pokémon Go – Earlier last week, Nintendo was basking in a dewey post-Pokémon Go glow, its stock doubling in value because of the game’s wild success. But what goes up must come down—thanks, Newton—and after the market closed on Friday, Nintendo revealed in a press release that “the game’s financial impact will be ‘limited’ and that it doesn’t expect to revise its annual forecast higher based on ‘current conditions,’” according to Bloomberg.

Your privacy at risk: Verizon reportedly close to purchasing Yahoo’s Internet business  – A major report suggests that Verizon may be about to buy Yahoo’s internet business. It’s unwelcome news for anyone concerned with privacy, but a potentially great move for Verizon’s bottom line.

Redbox is giving streaming another shot – After unceremoniously putting the old kibosh on it Instant service back in 2014, your friendly neighborhood DVD dispenser Redbox is ramping up to give streaming another go. The movie distributor, whose vending machines have become a supermarket mainstay across the US, is taking another shot at Netflix with a small beta roll out for “a small subset of [its] customers” From the sound of things, this is all still very early stages. No definite pricing or timing, but the Redbox Digital app has been published in the App Store, and screen shots reveal a UI pretty on-par with what’s offered up by Netflix and its ilk, albeit with a download option entered into the mix, along with a cast button to stream it to compatible devices.

Cyanogen Inc. reportedly fires OS development arm, switches to apps – Cyanogen Inc. seems to be in trouble. A report from Android Police cites “several sources” that say the three-year-old Android software house will be laying off 20 percent of its workforce. One source said the company would “pivot” to “apps” and away from OS development.

PonoMusic Taking a Break While it (Frantically) Switches Providers – Neil Young’s high-definition song store is down for a number of weeks, as its music service provider, Omnifone, was recently acquired.

Games and Entertainment:

SurveyMonkey: Pokemon Go Already on the Decline in U.S. – Has Pokemon Go peaked in the United States? Probably. Is it still going to mint a lot of money and have millions of players running around parks? Probably.

Microsoft cuts Xbox One price to $249 – Microsoft is cutting the price of its Xbox One console to $249. The new price marks the third price cut in less than two months, ahead of the new Xbox One S launch on August 2nd. 500GB versions of the Xbox One are now $249, and this includes bundles with games like Gears of War: Ultimate Edition, Quantum Break, Forza Motorsport 6, Rise of the Tomb Raider, and Rare Replay. Retailers like Best Buy and Amazon will be selling Microsoft’s Xbox One console at the new $249 price point immediately, and the software giant says the consoles will be available at $249 “while supplies last.”

‘Gears of War 4’ will have plenty of PC-specific features – The history of Microsoft-backed Xbox One games coming to the PC isn’t exactly stellar. When Remedy’s Quantum Break reached Windows, it was saddled with limitations that were partly dictated by the Universal Windows Platform’s own limits, such as frame rate issues and an overall lack of features. You shouldn’t run into those problems when Gears of War 4 rolls around, though. As part of a Eurogamer interview, The Coalition has revealed that the cover-based shooter will have ample PC-specific features. You’ll get much deeper video settings that include dynamic resolutions, so your ultra-wide display won’t go to waste. It’ll also take advantage of many-core PC processors, higher-resolution textures and UWP’s recently unlocked frame rates, offering a distinct visual advantage to playing on a brawny computer.

Sonic Mania is a new game straight from the Sega Genesis era – It’s hard to remember the last decent Sonic the Hedgehog game — most would agree Sega’s once iconic series took a drastic turn downhill following the Sonic Adventure titles on the Dreamcast. With each disappointing games’ release in the years that followed, all fans asked for was a Sonic title that played like the originals from the early ’90s: 2D graphics and fast gameplay. It may have taken them over 15 years, but it looks like Sega has finally gotten the point.

That new ‘Mystery Science Theater 3000’ series is hitting Netflix – That Mystery Science Theater 3000 reboot you backed last year – you remember the one, right? Jonah Ray, Felicia Day and Patton Oswalt all signed on and you threw your screen like an angry Fry from Futurama meme (helping the project reach $5.7 million on the crowdfunding service). It’s finally got a home. The 14 new episodes of the show will be, perhaps unsurprisingly, arriving on Netflix, which has long served as a second (or, like, fourth or fifth) home for older episode of the series.

‘This is the Police’ Is Like ‘SimCity’ for Dirty Cops – This Is the Police is part comic book, part SimCity, and part crime noir detective story. The city in the game is full of robberies, purse snatchings, false alarms, domestic murders, and the slow, steaming simmer of a pending race war. A mentally-ill kid breaks into a museum, draws dicks on all the paintings, and threatens to kill himself in a toilet stall—and all that’s before lunchtime. As police chief, players manage rosters of cops and detectives, dispatching senior officers to attempted murders and junior beat cops to chase teenage vandals. The game plays mostly in an overhead map of the city itself, letting players click on incoming emergency calls, hire new blood, and take reports from homicide detectives.

Off Topic (Sort of):

This short documentary shows how astronomers hope to find the next habitable planets – Just a couple of decades ago, the very idea that there were other planets orbiting stars throughout the universe was something that belonged to science fiction. However, recent research has shown not only are there other planets out there, but that they’re extremely common. The short documentary The Search for Earth Proxima outlines the breakthroughs that have led us to these discoveries, and how a group of astronomers plan to look for habitable planets in our neighborhood.

NASA releases new video showing the globe age one year – Last year around this time, NASA released the first image of Earth taken by the EPIC camera on the DSCOVR satellite. Since then, that camera has captured a full year of our planet from its location at Lagrange Point 1 about one million miles away. Compiling over 3,000 images, NASA put together a video showing a sunlit Earth age one full year.

Beer Is Getting Nutrition Labels and It’ll Probably Bum You Out – The last thing you probably want to think about before starting a weekend in July is how many calories are in your favorite beer. But it will soon be something you can’t easily avoid. The Beer Institute—the trade association representing more than 3,300 US brewers—recently released voluntary guidelines directing beer makers to list nutrition information right on the label. And multiple major brewers have agreed to do just that. In fact the six largest brewers in the country, which collectively produce more than 81 percent of beer sold in America, have all agreed to the new label standards.

Machine learning is about to change how corporations are run – When you’re a big acquisition-hungry corporation like Google, sometimes you make mistakes — you pay billions for bug-riddled Nest technology, for example. But really, you’ve got accept such losses as inevitable when you’re pursuing the big, infrequent pay-offs that only modern technology can provide. Increasingly, it’s becoming clear that the $500 million acquisition of DeepMind, which signaled to many observers the true beginning of AI as a major technology industry, is one such winning investment. Not only can Google rent out the company’s services for enormous profit, competing with other major machine learning entrants like Amazon for a quickly growing market share, but it can also use DeepMind’s insights to improve its own competitive advantage.

More than half the world is still offline – While it may seem like half the world is chasing Pokemon right now, the other half is not even on the Internet. About 3.9 billion people, or 53 percent of the population, will still be offline at the end of this year, the International Telecommunication Union estimates. Even in Europe, the most connected region, 20.9 percent of all people aren’t online. In Africa, the least connected continent, 74.9 percent are offline. Those figures are part of the annual statistical report from the agency, which is part of the United Nations.

Federal regulators says car makers “cannot wait for perfect” on automation – On Friday, head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) Mark Rosekind told an audience in Detroit, Michigan that car makers “cannot wait for perfect” when it comes to developing and deploying self-driving car technology. The Wall Street Journal reported that Rosekind said automation would “save people’s lives” in a time when auto fatalities have been up 8 percent since 2014. Rosekind’s comments come after a man using Tesla’s autopilot system fatally crashed into a left-turning truck in Florida.

Something to think about:

“Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose wisely. The real safeguard of democracy, therefore, is education.”

–     Franklin D. Roosevelt

In Pursuit of Freedom – The Pushback Continues:

Apple’s Touch ID blocks feds—armed with warrant—from unlocking iPhone – A Dallas, Texas man accused of prostituting underage girls was secretly ordered by a federal judge to unlock his iPhone using his fingerprint, according to federal court documents that are now unsealed.

It’s rare that we see a case demanding that a phone be unlocked in that manner, but we should expect more as the mainstream public begins embracing fingerprint technology. Ever since 2013, when Apple popularized this form of unlocking technology, legal experts have predicted that these types of government demands would slowly become more common. Experts also warned these demands are probably not a breach of the Fifth Amendment right against compelled self-incrimination.

As an aside, some courts don’t necessarily think that compelling a suspect to reveal their computer passcode is a constitutional violation. A Philadelphia man accused of possessing child pornography has been behind bars on a contempt charge for more than seven months for refusing to divulge his password. The man’s attorney claims it’s a constitutional violation to compel his client to assist the authorities with their prosecution. A federal appeals court has tentatively agreed to hear the case in September as the suspect (who has not been charged with a crime) remains in prison.

Judge Orders Yahoo to Explain How It Recovered ‘Deleted’ Emails in Drugs Case – A judge has ordered Yahoo to present a witness and provide documents explaining how the company handles supposedly deleted emails.

The move comes in the appeal case of a drug trafficker who was convicted, in part, because of emails Yahoo provided to law enforcement that conspirators believed had been deleted.

Defense lawyers in the case claim that six months of deleted emails were recovered—something which Yahoo’s policies state is not possible. The defense therefore speculates that the emails may have instead been collected by real-time interception or an NSA surveillance program.

United States Magistrate Judge Maria-Elena James, from a San Francisco court, granted the defense’s motion for discovery in an order filed on Wednesday.

Tech Thoughts Net News – Friday – July 22, 2016

Windows 10: The smart person’s guide;  Firefox to start blocking Flash content in August;  Android June 2016 Security Bulletin: What you need to know;  No-cost decryption tools released for two ransomware programs;  The 10 step guide to using Tor to protect your privacy;  The 5 best budgeting apps for tracking and planning your financial life –  and much more news you need to know.

Lab Tested: The Best Security Suites of 2016 – Just what products and programs do you need to ensure your PC’s security? Antivirus is essential, to protect your system against all kinds of malicious products, not just viruses. And a firewall, to prevent network-based attacks probing for vulnerable computers. If your email provider doesn’t filter out spam, you need an antispam tool. If you have small kids, you may want a parental control system. And of course, if anything should happen to the PC, you’ll be glad you backed up your data. If you don’t install protection, you could lose your data to ransomware, or lose your credit card to a data-stealing Trojan. But wow, finding the right products for all of these distinct purposes could be a pain.

The procrastinator’s guide to free Windows 10 upgrades – The year-long free upgrade offer for Windows 10 ends in a matter of days. If you’re on the fence, it’s decision time. Here’s how to streamline the upgrade process to make it fast, simple, and nearly foolproof.

Windows 10: The smart person’s guide – This comprehensive guide covers must-know Windows 10 details, like features, system requirements, upgrade options, and Microsoft’s Windows-as-a-service strategy.

How to get out of Windows Safe Mode – Safe Mode is a useful tool, but it’s not a desirable working environment. If your PC only boots into that limited environment, here’s your way out.

Firefox to start blocking Flash content in August – Firefox will begin retiring Adobe Flash on August 2 with the release of Firefox 48. In 2017, probably with Firefox 53, Flash plug-ins will require the user to actively click-to-play. In Firefox 48, Mozilla will enable a new Firefox plug-in blocklist by default. Initially the blocklist will be small, mostly containing URLs of Flash SWF files that have been identified by Mozilla as supercookies (i.e. cookies that are very hard to shake off) or fingerprinting files (i.e. they scan your system and create a unique fingerprint, again usually for tracking purposes).

BBC iPlayer Radio app now available in the U.S. – BBC does radio well, and now Americans can experience the full effect of the UK broadcaster’s audio content expertise with the iPlayer Radio app for iOS and Android. The app contains all of BBC’s radio feeds, including Radio 1 through 6, as well as the World Service. It also has offline support for BBC podcasts, and curated collections of past content. The app was originally released for iOS back In 2012 (and on Android in 2013), but the native app experience was limited to UK-only listeners. Today marks the first time it’s been available to people in the U.S.

Periscope adds tweet embeds, replay highlights to its list of features – Periscope has signaled a significant update to its live streaming platform today, announcing three new features that users will almost certainly get some mileage out of. The first is the ability to watch replay highlights from streams you missed. Now Periscope will automatically create highlight “trailers” covering the broadcasts you missed over the last day and put them in your home feed, meaning you don’t need to watch entire streams just to get caught up.

WhatsApp beta update brings voicemail and call back options – WhatsApp is bringing even more features for its users, and those taking part in its Android beta testing can get access to the newest ones as of today. Chief among the new features being tested is voicemail, a welcomed addition considering how many people have replaced their phone’s voice and texting services with feature-rich dedicated apps like WhatsApp.

The 5 best budgeting apps for tracking and planning your financial life – Whether you want to save more, pay down debt, or become a better investor, there’s a financial management app that can keep you on course.

6 Gadgets to Keep Your Home Safe From Intruders – Summertime, and the living is easy — especially for burglars. While you’re out of town chasing the sun, it’s easier for thieves to case your house for a quick plunder. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, burglaries are around 10% more likely in the summer than in the winter, a number that makes sense when you think of people leaving windows and patio doors open to let in the fresh air. Unfortunately, they also give bad guys good opportunities to get in and out. Technology will rarely stop a bad guy from breaking into your place. But are six ways that smart home devices can either scare them off or alert you to a burglary in progress.

Review: 4 mini-PCs give you full power in a very small package – There is a new generation of mini-PCs out there — small, inconspicuous but powerful. They offer a number of advantages for businesses over laptops or more traditional desktop systems.

Microsoft ordered to fix ‘excessively intrusive, insecure’ Windows 10 – A French regulator has issued Microsoft a formal warning over Windows 10, saying the operating system collects excessive amounts of personal data, ships that information illegally out of the EU, and has lousy security. The warning comes from the Commission Nationale de l’Informatique et des Libertés (CNIL), an independent data privacy watchdog with the power to levy fines against companies. The CNIL has been investigating Windows 10 since its launch and has now drawn up a damning list of criticisms.

This amazing search engine automatically face-swaps you into your image results – Ever wonder what you would look like with long, wavy hair? I think you’d look great. But how can you try on a few looks without spending a fortune at the salon, or hours in photoshop? I’m glad you asked. All you need is a selfie and Dreambit, the face-swapping search engine.

Best indoor digital TV antennas: Our top picks for cord cutters – Ready to cut the cord? You’ll need a quality antenna to pick up digital broadcasts. Here are our recommendations.

KickassTorrents resurfaces online, as all piracy sites do – The alleged founder and operator of the most popular torrenting site in the world, KickassTorrents (KAT), has been apprehend by the US authorities and the site’s domains seized. However, as we learned with the campaign to stop The Pirate Bay, you just can’t keep a good pirate site down. We’ve already spotted at least two clones of KAT, including one created by IsoHunt (KickassTorrents.website — a fairly limited mirror), and a second located at KAT.am.

Smartwatch shipments drop 32 percent in the second quarter – According to new numbers posted by IDC, smartwatch shipments are down for the second quarter of this year, marking the first drop of its kind. And it’s not insignificant falloff – moving from 5.1 million a year ago to 3.5 million this quarter. That’s a 32-percent decline. The culprit seems pretty clear for the research firm. IDC lays the blame squarely at the Apple’s feet.

Security:

The 10 step guide to using Tor to protect your privacy – Here are 10 easy steps to show you how to use the Tor network to mask your browsing habits.

Android June 2016 Security Bulletin: What you need to know – The Android Security Update for June 2016 includes a number of critical issues. Jack Wallen has the highlights, and shows how to find out if your device is up to date.

Free your files! No-cost decryption tools released for two ransomware programs – Security researchers have released tools this week that could help users recover files encrypted by two relatively new ransomware threats: Bart and PowerWare.

Snowden designs device to warn when an iPhone is ratting out users – Working with renowned hardware hacker Andrew “Bunnie” Huang, Snowden has devised the design for what the team is calling the “Introspection Engine.” For now, it’s aimed only at iPhone 6 models, but eventually the pair hopes to create specifications for a large line of devices. Once built, the “field-ready” accessory would monitor various radio components inside the phone to confirm they’re not transmitting data when a user has put the device into airplane mode. The hardware is designed to be independent from the mobile device, under the assumption that malware-infected smartphones are a fact of life in high-risk environments.

GOP delegates suckered into connecting to insecure Wi-Fi hotspots – A Wi-Fi hack experiment conducted at various locations at or near the Republican National Convention site in Cleveland, US, underlines how risky it can be to connect to public Wi-Fi without protection from a VPN. The exercise, carried out by security researchers at Avast, an anti-virus firm, revealed that more than 1,000 delegates were careless when connecting to public Wi-Fi. In its day-long experiment Avast saw more than 1.6Gbps transferred from more than 1,200 users. Some 68.3 per cent of users‘ identities were exposed when they connected, and 44.5 per cent of Wi-Fi users checked their emails or chatted via messenger apps. The researchers scanned the data, but did not store it or collect personal information. Avast learned the following about the Republican National Convention attendees:

Maxthon browser is a wolf in sheep’s clothing – You may have installed the Maxthon browser on your mobile devices. If so, here’s why you should remove it. Immediately.

These figures show cybercrime is a much bigger menace than anyone thought before – The first official cybercrime figures from the Office for National Statistics suggest one in 10 adults have been victims in last 12 months — a much higher figure than previously thought.

Company News:

PayPal ticks up 2% on earnings, Visa partnership – PayPal reported earnings after the bell on Thursday, showing $2.65 billion in revenue for the quarter, when analysts were expecting $2.6 billion. Adjusted earnings per share was also in line with Wall Street estimates at 36 cents. Shares ticked up 2 percent in after-hours trading, in part because of a Visa announcement that was timed with earnings.

eBay shares up 5% after beating earnings expectations – eBay reported second quarter results after the bell on Wednesday and saw its stock rise over 5% in initial after-hours trading. The company beat expectations, posting earnings at an adjusted 43 cents per share, when analysts were forecasting 42 cents. The company also brought in $2.23 billion in revenue, compared to the $2.17 billion expected by Wall Street. Investors were also pleased to see the company raise its full year guidance. eBay expects between $8.85 billion and $8.95 billion in revenue for 2016.

AMD beats Q2 expectations – AMD on Thursday reported a net loss of $40m for the second quarter, or 5 cents a share, on revenue of $1.027bn. The semiconductor maker posted a non-GAAP operating income of $3m. The second quarter earnings report beat Wall Street expectations, which predicted a loss of 8 cents a share on revenues of $951.6m.

Troubling signs for companies using Twitter for marketing – The largest Twitter profiles are suffering from a “massive” decline in new followers and interactions, reports Quintly in its first semi-annual report.

Reddit is still in turmoil – It’s been one year since Reddit revolted. When the company cracked down on revenge porn and subreddits containing offensive content last summer, the backlash was swift and ultimately led to the ouster of interim CEO Ellen Pao.

Games and Entertainment:

Nintendo NES Classic Edition a great deal. Numbers prove it – The Mini NES isn’t the only place you can get some of these classic video games — but it’s far and away the best overall value.

Here’s what classic games will actually look like on the HD NES Classic Edition – New trailer shows improved color matching, sharpness over previous official downloads.

Catch ’em all for longer: Quick tips to reduce Pokemon Go battery drain – Nintendo is working on a fix, but there are things you can do in the meantime to help.

Nvidia announces the new Titan X, an absurdly powerful $1,200 graphics card – While the recently released $599 GTX 1080 impressed by outperforming last year’s $999 Titan X, the new card goes all-out with Nvidia’s latest Pascal architecture, 12GB of GDDR5X memory, and 3,584 cores at 1.53GHz delivering a quoted 11 teraflops of performance. The new Titan X, which Nvidia calls “the biggest GPU ever built,” has 12 billion transistors in total — and you’ll be paying about $100 per billion. The card will be available on August 2nd in the US and Europe for $1,200, with an Asia release forthcoming.

Hulu’s universal Windows app quietly appears on Xbox One – Mere weeks after Microsoft tested the waters of the Xbox One’s newfound capability to run universal Windows apps with retooled Blu-ray player software, it looks like a much more notable service is ready to take the plunge, too. Late yesterday, users on the Xbox One subreddit noticed a new version of the Hulu app available in the console’s store, with support added for Windows Phones, the Surface Hub, and even Microsoft’s HoloLens augmented reality headset.

Netflix Users Waste Ton of Time Searching for Something to Watch – Unless you have a list of shows already queued up, you’re spending upwards of 57 minutes a day searching.

Off Topic (Sort of):

Tech reacts to Trump’s RNC speech – Trump’s RNC speech was long, so we here at TechCrunch cut it down for you with 10 quick reactions from investors, executives, and engineers.

Twitter reacts swiftly to Donald Trump’s acceptance speech – Trump’s usually hyperactive Twitter account was, naturally, radio silent, but others had their say on social media during the GOP presidential nominee’s acceptance speech.

Fact check: Donald Trump’s speech at the Republican National Convention – Donald Trump does not exactly have a record in public office that can be used to assess his likely performance going forward. Nor does he really have a policy platform in a traditional sense. And his nomination acceptance speech, delivered Thursday night in Cleveland, is the biggest, most important speech he’s given yet. “I will present the facts plainly and honestly,” Trump said. But did he? We counted dozens of factual claims in the speech, and fewer than half scored as true or almost true. But there were also plenty of falsehoods, misleading or disputed claims, or baseless accusations.

The 7 steps of Elon Musk’s “Master Plan” – Why did Tesla buy SolarCity? To make your solar panel roof battery power your self-driving electric pickup truck. Elon Musk just revealed the second phase of his “Master Plan” and we broke it down so you can see the future too.

Smart Stitches Can Monitor Wounds as They Heal – Tiny sensors and electronics on threads create smart sutures that can monitor wounds as they heal.

You booze, you lose: Study confirms direct link between alcohol and cancer – Newly published research has found even moderate consumption of alcohol carries risk of seven types of cancer.

Tweeting trolls: Without tools, Twitter will remain a cesspool of abuse – We have no real tools to effectively manage the flow of information, and by shutting down the third-party client ecosystem, trolls have been enabled to run rampant.

Heinz reveals the secret way to get ketchup out of a bottle – Technically Incorrect: The company says only 11 percent of people know this secret.

Something to think about:

“My IQ is one of the highest — and you all know it! Please don’t feel so stupid or insecure; it’s not your fault.”

–    Donald Trump

In Pursuit of Freedom – The Pushback Continues:

EFF declares anti-piracy DMCA unconstitutional in new legal showdown – The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has launched a lawsuit claiming that a controversial anti-digital-piracy law in the US is unconstitutional.

Section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) – which became law 18 years ago – has long been controversial due to its heavy restrictions on what people are allowed to do with software. It was originally intended to protect the movie industry from piracy.

But the expansion of software – and corresponding digital protections – into an enormous range of devices including cars and medical devices has put increasing pressure on the law.

Although the law does include a safety valve in the form of a review by the Copyright Office every three years in which it receives proposals for exemptions, the EFF argues that it has failed to keep pace with the modern world. And that disparity has effectively made the law unconstitutional.

The EFF brings the lawsuit in Washington, DC on behalf of two plaintiffs: a computer scientist and a security researcher.

Petition urges Apple not to release technology for jamming phone cameras – More than 12,000 people have signed an online petition asking Apple not to deploy technology that would allow third parties like the police to use it to disable cameras on user phones under certain circumstances.

Apple received a patent for the infrared technology in June but bagging a patent does not necessarily mean the company is going to use the technology in its new devices.

There is considerable anxiety that the technology, which appears to be designed to prevent people from recording copyrighted and prohibited material, could also be used by the police to remotely disable cameras that could be recording misconduct by law enforcement.

“The release of this technology would have huge implications, including the censoring of political dissidents, activists, and citizens who are recording police brutality,” according to the petition.

WSJ Reporter: Homeland Security Tried to Take My Phones at the Border – On Thursday, a Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reporter claimed that the Department of Homeland Security demanded access to her mobile phones when she was crossing the border at the Los Angeles airport.

The case highlights the powers that border agents purport to have, and how vulnerable sensitive information can be when taken through airports in particular.

“I wanted to share a troubling experience I had with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), in the hopes it may help you protect your private information,” Maria Abi-Habib, a WSJ journalist focused on ISIS and Al Qaeda wrote in a post on Facebook. (Abi-Habib confirmed to Motherboard that the Facebook account was hers, but declined to comment further.)

Abi-Habib says she had arrived in town for a wedding, when an immigration officer approached her, and took her aside from the main queue. This by itself was not unusual, Abi-Habib writes: because of her job, she has reportedly been put on a list that allows her to bypass the usual questioning someone with her travel profile may encounter.

But things changed quickly, and Abi-Habib was escorted to another part of the airport.

End-to-end encryption: What does the government really want to do about it? – During scrutiny of the Investigatory Powers Bill in the House of Lords last week the government took a rather vague stance on whether end-to-end encryption would be allowed to be used in the UK, suggesting that while it did not want to ban it, it wanted tech companies to have some way of decrypting those communications.

While some tech companies do have the ability to decrypt their customers conversations – largely because they need to analyse it themselves so they better-targeted their customers with advertising, not all can.

Companies such as Apple and Whatsapp offer end-to-end encrypted communications to customers, which means only the sender and the recipient are able to read it. This worries police who say they need access to all communications to stop criminals plotting in secret. But privacy campaigners warn that undermining encryption would hurt security online and damage UK businesses – and that criminals would simply use encrypted services overseas.

When questioned by Labour and Liberal Democrat peers in the House of Lords, Earl Howe, defence minister and deputy leader of the House of Lords said: “If we do not provide for access to encrypted communications when it is necessary and proportionate to do so, we must simply accept that there can be areas online beyond the reach of the law, where criminals can go about their business unimpeded and without the risk of detection. That cannot be right.”

Tech Thoughts Net News – Wednesday – July 20, 2016

How to remove malware from your Windows PC;  Microsoft Launches YouTube-Like Stream Video Tool for Business;  How to safely access and navigate the Dark Web;  Mini computers that fit in the palm of your hand;  How to Access Your Wi-Fi Router’s Settings;  Flaws found in security products from AVG, Symantec and McAfee – and much more news you need to know.

How to remove malware from your Windows PC – Is your computer running slower than usual? Are you getting lots of pop-ups? Have you seen other weird problems crop up? If so, your PC might be infected with a virus, spyware, or other malware—even if you have an antivirus program installed. Though other problems such as hardware issues can produce similarly annoying symptoms, it’s best to check for malware if your PC is acting up and we’ll show you how to do it yourself.

How to safely access and navigate the Dark Web – Is your business data on the Dark Web? Learn how to find out if you’ve been compromised in this step-by-step guide to accessing the underbelly of the internet.

Microsoft Launches YouTube-Like Stream Video Tool for Business – Sharing video at work is about to get a lot easier, thanks to Microsoft. The software giant on Monday introduced Stream, a new tool that lets you upload, share, and discover videos in the workplace. Anyone with a business email address can sign up now; it’s free during this preview period. At this point, the service is pretty basic, letting you drag and drop videos you want to upload, then organize them into channels like you would on Slack. You can, for instance, create channels for specific teams, groups, or topics.

Plex’s new universal Windows app powers up media playback with key Windows 10 features – Plex has a very nice universal Windows app built specifically for Windows 10, but only for PCs and tablets for now.

5 awesome Google Keyboard features you probably don’t know about – Google’s official Android keyboard used to be the basic option, something you’d replace with a more capable app as soon as possible. Maybe you haven’t been paying attention, but that’s no longer the case. The Google Keyboard has stealthily become a fantastic input method with a series of impressive updates. However, many of the coolest things are hidden in the settings or just not obvious. Here are the five coolest features of Google Keyboard you probably don’t know about.

Mini computers that fit in the palm of your hand – It wasn’t that long ago that a computer was something housed in a huge beige box that weighed as much as an engine block and took up half your desk. Now you can get a powerful computer that can fit in the palm of your hand.

Chromebooks: Tips and tricks to make offline use practical – Google recently announced that Chromebook sales have surpassed MacBooks. But before you run out and buy one make sure you know what the latest Chromebooks can do when not online.

6 ways to take charge of the stock Android keyboard – There’s a growing list of customization options available on the “stock” Android keyboard. You can change the color of the keypad; you can also create your own background using an image from your camera roll. Read on for more.

How to Access Your Wi-Fi Router’s Settings – Your router stores the settings for your home Wi-Fi network. So if you want to change something, you have to log into your router’s software, also known as firmware. From there, you can change the name of your network, the password, the security level, create a guest network, and set up or change a variety of other options. But how do you get into your router to make those changes?

The Best Wireless Routers of 2016 – With the gaggle of connected home products, smartphones, smart TVs, and other mobile devices ruling our lives, it’s more important than ever to outfit your home or business with a wireless router that can handle the increased demand for Wi-Fi connectivity. We guide you through choosing a router that will handle your current and future wireless networking needs, and offer our top picks to get you started.

Deezer finally opens its music streaming to all in the US – Spotify, Apple Music, Google Play Music, YouTube Red, and even Tidal. Those are just some of the biggest names in an already saturated music streaming market in the US. So why not add one more? That is exactly what French company Deezer is doing, finally opening its doors to anyone and everyone in the US willing to tack on another subscription to their monthly expenses. Of course, the service has its own perks and unique features to try and make that worthwhile.

Want a Verified Twitter Account? Now You Can Apply – Dying for a little blue check mark next to your Twitter name? Now it could be easier to get one. For the uninitiated, verified Twitter accounts — denoted by a blue badge icon — are reserved for celebrities and other public figures and organizations like Kim Kardashian, Oprah, Justin Bieber, NASA, the FBI, and, of course, PCMag. Until now, Twitter has been pretty opaque about how users can get their accounts verified, and there was no way to apply. Today that’s changing.

Seagate unveils hard drives with up to 10TB capacity – Seagate today announced a new line of hard drives with up to 10TB of capacity for desktops computers, network-attached storage (NAS) and surveillance systems. The high-capacity drives, dubbed the Guardian Series, represent a 2TB increase over the capacity of previous Seagate hard drives in the consumer and small business category.

Security:

Flaws found in security products from AVG, Symantec and McAfee – Hundreds of security products may not be up the job, researchers say, thanks to flawed uses of code hooking. The research is the handiwork of EnSilo duo Udi Yavo and Tommer Bitton, who disclosed the bugs in anti-virus and Windows security tools ahead of their presentation at the Black Hat Las Vegas conference next month. The pair say 15 products including AVG, Symantec, and McAfee are affected. Scores more may be vulnerable thanks to their use of Microsoft’s Detours, code Redmond says is used for “re-routing Win32 APIs underneath applications [and] is licensed by over 100 ISVs and used within nearly every product team at Microsoft.” The researchers did not specify if Microsoft’s enhanced mitigation experience toolkit (EMET) is affected. Attackers would already need access to a system to reap the benefits of the vulnerabilities and neuter the security platforms running on the target system.

Oracle security update patches record 276 vulnerabilities – Oracle’s latest patch update was released on Tuesday, containing a record 276 fixes for vulnerabilities across an array of Oracle software. According to the tech giant’s security advisory, the July Critical Patch Update (CPU) includes security fixes for 84 products in total, including Fusion Middleware, MySQL, Java and Enterprise Manager software. As noted by Qualys, in 2015 Oracle fixed an average of roughly 161 vulnerabilities per update, and in 2014, the average was 128 fixes. What makes things worse is that out of the 276 vulnerabilities in the July update, 159 can be exploited remotely without authentication, most often over a vulnerable network and without any requirement for user credentials. In total, 19 of these security issues have been assigned CVSS scores of 9.8 — and considering the top danger rating is 10, it cannot get much worse. In addition, many of the flaws have a score of 9 or above.

Software flaw puts mobile phones and networks at risk of complete takeover – A newly disclosed vulnerability could allow attackers to seize control of mobile phones and key parts of the world’s telecommunications infrastructure and make it possible to eavesdrop or disrupt entire networks, security experts warned Tuesday. The bug resides in a code library used in a wide range of telecommunication products, including radios in cell towers, routers, and switches, as well as the baseband chips in individual phones. Although exploiting the heap overflow vulnerability would require great skill and resources, attackers who managed to succeed would have the ability to execute malicious code on virtually all of those devices. The code library was developed by Pennsylvania-based Objective Systems and is used to implement a telephony standard known as ASN.1, short for Abstract Syntax Notation One.

How a healthcare hacker is pressuring victims to pay up – TheDarkOverlord claims to have stolen 10 million patient records and is selling them on the black market. But in the meantime, the hacker has also been trying to extort his victims with the promise that the data will never be sold, if a ransom is paid.

Delilah malware secretly taps webcam, blackmails and recruits insider threat victims – Delilah malware taps computer and webcam to get dirty little secrets, then blackmails victims into becoming an insider threat and coughing up a company’s secrets.

OurMine is now hacking into Minecraft accounts – The same hacking group that took over Mark Zuckerberg’s Twitter account has now found a way to break into accounts connected to the hit game Minecraft.

Report: 80% of businesses can’t properly manage external cyber attacks – A new report by the Ponemon Institute shows that cyber attacks are costing companies $3.5 million per year, but the majority of businesses don’t have the proper strategies to manage these threats.

Company News:

Windows surprisingly strong in Microsoft’s $20.6B fourth quarter – Microsoft posted revenue of $20.6 billion (£15.7B) in the fourth quarter of its 2016 financial year, a decline of 7 percent year on year. Operating income was $3.1 billion (£2.4B), compared to a $2.1 billion loss in the same quarter last year. Net income was also $3.1 billion, as compared to a $3.2 billion loss, and earnings per share were $0.39. The full 2016 financial year figures were revenue of $85 billion (£64.9B), down 9 percent year on 2015, operating income of $20.2 billion, up 11 percent, net income of $16.8 billion, up 38 percent, and earnings per share of $2.79, up 42 percent. Those 2015 losses were substantially a result of the $7.6 billion write-down of Nokia’s assets. 2016 also included a further, final Nokia-related write-down but this one was a mere $950 million.

Yahoo reports another big loss and Tumblr write-down – Yahoo’s latest earnings report leaves no doubt the internet company is stuck in a downward spiral. The company managed to beat Wall Street’s limited expectations for revenue in the April to June quarter. But after subtracting commissions paid to its partners, Yahoo said its revenue fell 19 percent from a year earlier, while its loss widened to $440 million from last year’s $22 million. The company reported $1.3 billion in GAAP revenue for the second quarter compared to $1.24 billion for the same period last year, however, the cost of revenue more than doubled from $200 million last year to $466 million this year. Yahoo also reported that it’s writing down $482 million in charges related to the declining value of Tumblr, the social-blogging service that Yahoo acquired for $1.1 billion in 2013.

EMC shareholders approve Dell merger – EMC’s shareholders on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved the company’s merger with Dell, bringing the two companies one step closer to creating the largest privately held technology company. About 98 percent of shareholders voted in favor of the merger, EMC reported, representing about 74 percent of EMC’s outstanding common stock. The deal, which is still contingent upon regulatory approval from China, is expected to close within the expected timeframe and under the original terms. Dell announced in October that it would acquire EMC, in a deal valued at the time at $67 billion.

Wearable maker Fitbit must face lawsuit over sleep-tracking claims – A proposed class-action lawsuit accusing Fitbit of misrepresenting the ability of its wearable fitness products to track sleep can move forward, a federal judge has ruled. The San Francisco federal lawsuit claims that Fitbit materially misrepresented on its packaging the ability of the Flex product to track users’ hours slept, times woken up, and sleep quality. The suit alleges false advertising, unfair trade practices, fraud, and a host of other claims.

Pokemon Go pushes Nintendo market cap to $42 billion – Love it or hate it, one of the most popular mobile games to launch in a very long time is Pokémon Go from Nintendo. The game has players wondering around their city and getting exercise in many cases all while trying to catch Pokemon and level their characters up. Nintendo has ridden the wave of popularity that Pokemon Go has generated quite literally to new heights with shares soaring another 14% in trading on Tuesday.

Games and Entertainment:

The Best Gaming Monitors of 2016 – Whether you’re a serious PC gamer or a casual after-hours warrior, your hardware can mean the difference between victory and defeat. To get the most out of the latest first-person shooter (FPS), sports, racing, and other fast-action games, you’ll not only need a gaming PC with a powerful graphics solution, you’ll also need a monitor that can display the action without subjecting you to blurred images, flicker, tearing, and other motion artifacts. In this guide, we’ll help you choose a display that will give you an edge over your opponents while delivering a smooth, immersive gaming experience. We highlight the factors to consider when choosing a gaming monitor, and give our current favorites.

Original Dead Rising titles will be re-released on Xbox One, PS4, PC – We recently learned that Dead Rising 4 is in the works, but for those who are new to the series and want to see how it all began, Capcom has you covered. The developer confirmed today that the original Dead Rising will be coming to Xbox One, PS4, and PC, while Dead Rising 2 and its spin off, Off the Record, will be getting the same treatment, only without a PC release. Capcom confirmed the existence of these re-releases after a PS4 trophy list for the original Dead Rising was leaked.

Microsoft’s slimmed-down Xbox One S launches August 2 – When tech companies say a product will launch in a particular month, rather than on a specific date, it usually winds up meaning the end of the month—but not with the Xbox One S. Microsoft’s new slimmed-down version of the Xbox One will hit the streets on August 2, the company announced today, in a launch that coincides with the release of the big Windows 10 Anniversary Update. Unlike the powerful Project Scorpio console slated for holiday 2017, the Xbox One S largely features the same basic technical capabilities as the original Xbox One, but in a package that’s 40 percent slimmer than the original.

How to level up fast on Pokémon Go: love the weaklings, love the grind – Play Pokémon Go for any length of time, and you soon internalize its rigid hierarchy. On the top are the elites — the rare and high-powered pokémon — and on the bottom, the commoners — low-level and of little interest to most players. However, unlike many people, I can’t get enough of these weaklings. I go absolutely wild for Weedles, I cater only for Caterpies, and I’d rather pick a Pidgey than a Pidgeot. And why? Because these are the pokémon that you need to succeed.

Rise of the Tomb Raider hits PS4 with VR support on October 11 – Rise of the Tomb Raider is coming to the PlayStation 4 on October 11, Square Enix announced today, and it’ll be bringing PlayStation VR support with it. We heard last summer that the PS4 version of the game would be arriving in time for this year’s holiday season, and mid-October gives enough time to target those early Christmas shoppers. The October 11 release will be for Rise of the Tomb Raider: 20 Year Celebration, and it’ll bring with it a new story chapter dubbed “Blood Ties,” all the DLC that has already been released, and more.

Off Topic (Sort of):

This angry man wants Pokemon Go players to get off his lawn – Technically Incorrect: A highly amusing (in its way) sign outside an apartment building demands that Pokemon Go players think about their life choices.

Lying scientists and the lying lies they tell – When you read academic papers, you aren’t looking for treachery and deceit behind the stolid prose. Don’t be so trusting: universities can be a wretched hive of scum and villainy. Here’s help.

Twitter finally bans Milo Yiannopoulos, one of its most notorious trolls – Twitter has permanently suspended Milo Yiannopoulos, an editor at the conservative news outlet Breitbart and one of its most notorious trolls. The expulsion of Yiannopoulos, who counted more than 300,000 followers on the service, comes just one day after he urged on a hateful mob that harassed ‘Ghostbusters’ actress Leslie Jones to the point that she quit Twitter.

Harassment of Ghostbusters’ Leslie Jones shows Twitter needs to change – Leslie Jones, the star of the new “Ghostbusters” reboot and a cast member on “Saturday Night Live,” announced she was leaving Twitter after trolls bombarded her with racist comments. “I leave Twitter tonight with tears and a very sad heart,” Jones tweeted before going silent on her account, where she’d spent the last several days battling trolls.

Terrible excuses for Melania Trump’s plagiarism, ranked – When Melania Trump apparently plagiarized first lady Michelle Obama in a speech at yesterday’s Republican National Convention, for example, she could probably have brushed it aside with a quiet non-statement. But in its trademark fashion, the campaign has responded with a series of increasingly belligerent justifications, proceeding from merely vague to downright bewildering. Some would (and do) argue that this is a brilliant form of misdirection, taking attention away from the virulent xenophobia that was on display yesterday at the convention. But unlike blatantly ugly sound bites, plagiarism is lazy and unethical behavior that the campaign can’t spin as bluntly pragmatic or bravely iconoclastic or “politically incorrect.” A mortal sin at least shows motivation and initiative. A venial one is just sad. And it’s only gotten worse.

How’s this for irony? US Navy hit with $600m software piracy claim – A German software developer has accused the United States Navy of illegally copying $596m worth of its product. Bitmanagement Software GmbH claims that the Navy has copied “hundreds of thousands” of copies of its 3D modeling and tracking software BS Contact Geo without paying. They have filed suit [PDF] in the US Court of Federal Claims asking for damages of “not less than $596,308,103.” Designed for 3D meetings, training, and collaboration, Bitmanagement touts the BS Geo software “uniquely enables interactive collaboration among multiple users in one virtual environment simultaneously, with high-quality graphics that appear crisp and sharp even on simple computers.” According to Bitmanagement’s claim, it first began working with the Navy on a pilot program in 2011 that called for 38 copies of the software to be installed.

Something to think about:

“If you steal from one author it’s plagiarism; if you steal from many it’s research.”

–    Wilson Mizner

In Pursuit of Freedom – The Pushback Continues:

WikiLeaks under ‘sustained attack’ after announcing release of Turkey docs – WikiLeaks on Monday said its site is under an ongoing attack after announcing it would release a trove of documents detailing Turkey’s political power structure.

“Our infrastructure is under sustained attack,” read a tweet sent by WikiLeaks, perhaps best known for the release of classified government and military documents.

The document-leaking organization said earlier Monday it was preparing to release 300,000 emails and 500,000 documents related to the failed Turkish coup Friday. WikiLeaks went on to suggest that the Turkish government might be behind the attack on the organization.

“We are unsure of the true origin of the attack. The timing suggests a Turkish state power faction or its allies,” WikiLeaks said in a subsequent tweet. “We will prevail & publish.”

FBI accused of using outdated IT to foil FOIA requests – The FBI is using antiquated computer systems to deliberately foil requests made under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act, a new lawsuit alleges.

Ryan Shapiro, a national security researcher and Ph.D. candidate at MIT, has been studying the Freedom of Information Act for years with a particular focus on noncompliance by government agencies. He already has multiple FOIA lawsuits in motion against the FBI, and earlier this month he filed a new one.

In it, he describes numerous attempts to obtain information over the past two years, and the FBI’s frequent response that it can’t locate what he’s looking for.

“When it comes to FOIA, the FBI is simply not operating in good faith,” Shapiro said via email. “Since the passage of the Freedom of Information Act, the FBI has viewed efforts to force bureau compliance with FOIA as a security threat.”

The FBI has established “countless means” of foiling FOIA requests, he alleges, including a process by which searches fail “by design.”

Google’s latest transparency report shows record government data requests – Google saw a record number of data requests from law enforcement agencies worldwide during the second half of 2015 as the request total passed the 40,000 mark for the first time. That’s up from 35,365 in the first half of the year and 30,140 one year previous, according to the tech giant’s latest transparency report.

Google’s transparency report is an important resource since it provides a glimpse at how international governments and states are trying to use and access our data. And also, importantly, it is an indicator as to how much information Google — one of the world’s biggest holders of internet data — gives up in these cases. It is fairly high level in detail, but it is definitely a start and Google’s efforts have triggered similar reports from other consumer tech companies, including Twitter, Facebook and chat app Line, which handle potentially sensitive user data.

“Google is proud to have led the charge on publishing these reports, helping shed light on government surveillance laws and practices across the world,” the company said in a blog post.

In more detail: the U.S. led the pile with the highest number of data requests. The American government made 12,523 requests for data from 27,157 Google users, with Google providing some form of data — not necessarily the full request — in 79 percent of cases. That total is up from 12,002 requests in the first half of 2015.

WhatsApp blocked once more in Brazil for failing to hand over user data – One of the wonderful things about end-to-end encryption in messaging apps is, as long as it’s implemented correctly, nobody but you or the person you’re chatting with should be able to see those messages. Unfortunately for WhatsApp, judges in Brazil don’t seem to understand how that works. Yes, Brazil’s at it again, as the office of Judge Daniela Barbosa Assunção de Souza in Rio De Janerio has ordered five carriers to block WhatsApp until it turns over data associated with a criminal case.

Bulk data collection only lawful for fighting serious crime, says Europe’s top court – The European Court of Justice has issued a preliminary ruling on a data retention case brought by UK MPs and privacy rights groups seeking to challenge the government’s data retention regime under DRIPA.

The advocate-general’s opinion, published today, suggests governments may be able to apply general metadata retention obligations without falling foul of EU law — but it sets the bar for doing so at combating serious crime, and places renewed emphasis on respecting fundamental privacy rights.

The AG’s opinion is not legally binding but is highly influential, feeding into the deliberations of the ECJ judges who will pass final judgement — and whose opinion will undoubtedly influence and shape European legislation in this area.