Ben Lovejoy is a British technology writer who started his career on PC World and has written for dozens of computer and technology magazines, as well as numerous national newspapers, business and in-flight magazines. He has also written two novels.
He thinks wires are evil and had a custom desk made to hide them, known as the OC Desk for obvious reasons.
He considers 1000 miles a good distance for a cycle ride, and Chernobyl a suitable tourist destination. What can we say, he’s that kind of chap.
He speaks fluent English but only broken American, so please forgive any Anglicised spelling in his posts.
Android grew its market share in China by a massive 9.3 points year-on-year, reports Kantar, hitting a commanding 83.2% in the quarter ending January 2017.
Growth was slower in Europe, where it grew 1.4% to hit 74.3%. The platform saw a further fall in the USA, where it dropped 1.8 points, but remains comfortably ahead of Apple’s iOS at 56.4% of the market.
Things are getting interesting when it comes to emerging smartphone brands, says Kantar …
Waze and Spotify have announced a partnership to provide integration between the two apps. If you have Spotify in the foreground, Waze alerts and directions will be displayed while driving. Conversely, if you have Waze in the foreground, you’ll be able to pause Spotify music as well as hit previous and next track buttons …
Re/code found that Google’s mobile messaging app Allo can reveal your search history and other personal information when you include the Google Assistant bot in chats. Associate editor Tess Townsend made the discovery during an Allo chat with a friend.
My friend directed Assistant to identify itself. Instead of offering a name or a pithy retort, it responded with a link from Harry Potter fan website Pottermore. The link led to an extract from “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,” the fifth book in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series. But the response was not merely a non sequitur. It was a result related to previous searches my friend said he had done a few days earlier.
And search history isn’t the only private data the Assistant can reveal to anyone you chat with …
Somewhat careless wording by Wikileaks has led to widespread reports than messaging apps that use end-to-end encryption – like Signal and WhatsApp – had been compromised by the CIA. There is in fact no evidence that this is the case.
For the sixth year running, Google has been named the world’s best company to work for by a Fortune 100 ranking. It’s the eighth time in eleven years that Google has taken the number one slot.
The $75 billion tech titan is famous for luxe perks like free gourmet food, haircuts, and laundry services, of course. But it also takes a rigorous analytical approach to morale. It boosted its parental-leave policies, for example, after finding that mothers were leaving at higher rates—the result was a 50% reduction in attrition for working moms. And then there’s the culture: Town halls held by black Googlers and allies, support for transgender workers, and unconscious-bias workshops (already attended by more than 70% of staff) help foster what employees say is a “safe and inclusive” workplace at this hive of high performers …
The full ranking allows you to sort companies by such factors as compensation, perks and time off …
Google has issued a statement stating that ‘many’ of the Android exploits reportedly used by the CIA have already been addressed. Google’s statement used similar wording to one issued earlier by Apple.
As we’ve reviewed the documents, we’re confident that security updates and protections in both Chrome and Android already shield users from many of these alleged vulnerabilities. Our analysis is ongoing.
But the WSJ reports that they and other tech companies are being hampered by two factors …
If you’re a fan of British TV shows, the BritBox streaming service – launching in the U.S. today – offers access to both old-time classics and brand new series’ for $6.99 per month. You can watch it on Android devices and the web, with Roku and Chromecast support coming soon, reports Variety.
Alphabet’s Nest is developing remote sensors for its smart thermostat to allow temperature to be controlled on a room-by-room basis, reports Bloomberg. Competing smart thermostat products typically use units attached to radiators that detect the room temperature and adjust the flow to each room.
The company is also said to be working on a lower-cost version of the company’s smart thermostat, with a target price of under $200 against its current price of $249. That price reduction may, though, be reflected in the finish of the product, says the paper’s source …
Wikileaks claims that the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency has a specialized unit within its Center for Cyber Intelligence that is devoted to developing and obtaining zero-day exploits for Android devices, in addition to one targeting Apple’s iOS. A zero-day exploit is one unknown to Google or security researchers, so cannot be protected against.
A similar unit targets Google’s Android which is used to run the majority of the world’s smart phones (~85%) including Samsung, HTC and Sony. 1.15 billion Android powered phones were sold last year. “Year Zero” shows that as of 2016 the CIA had 24 “weaponized” Android “zero days” which it has developed itself and obtained from GCHQ, NSA and cyber arms contractors.
The CIA is also said to have teams working on attacking Windows and Samsung TVs, ‘which are turned into covert microphones.’
Wikileaks further claims that the CIA recently ‘lost control’ of the majority of the malware it uses to attack devices …
It’s hard to think of a job more important that determining whether or not a patient has cancer. Yet the magnitude of the task facing pathologists is so vast that agreement between different clinicians studying the same slides can be as low as 48%.
There can be many slides per patient, each of which is 10+ gigapixels when digitized at 40X magnification. Imagine having to go through a thousand 10 megapixel (MP) photos, and having to be responsible for every pixel. Needless to say, this is a lot of data to cover, and often time is limited.
Which is why Google is working on automating the task with a Deep Learning AI project – with incredibly exciting results …
Facebook is testing a City Guides feature in its app. When you’re visiting a city, the feature points you to popular attractions, upcoming events and places locals visit – but with the friend focus you’d expect from Facebook. The app highlights places friends have visited, and events friends are attending …
The AI system supplements the existing tool allowing friends to report worrying posts
Facebook has begun using artificial intelligence to identify those who may be at risk of committing suicide, reports the BBC.
Jay Y. Lee, the effective head of Samsung, is to be indicted on multiple charges, reports Bloomberg. South Korea’s special prosecutor’s office says that the charges against him include bribery, embezzlement and hiding assets overseas.
Lee will stand trial over accusations he participated in bribes made in exchange for government favors, with formal changes to be filed Tuesday against him and four other executives. The Samsung Electronics vice chairman allegedly directed tens of millions of dollars to entities controlled by a confidante of President Park Geun-hye, in return for government support of a 2015 merger that cemented his control of the group.
Indictment is the process of formally charging someone with a crime, and prosecutors say they have strong evidence to support the charges …
User data from 3,400 websites has been leaked and cached by search engines as a result of a bug in Cloudflare, a content delivery network. Sites affected over the course of several months include major ones like Uber, Fitbit and dating site OKCupid. 1Password also uses Cloudflare, but says that end-to-end encryption means that no customer data was exposed.
ArsTechnica reports that the leaks were spotted by Google security researcher Tavis Ormandy.
We observed encryption keys, cookies, passwords, chunks of POST data and even HTTPS requests for other major cloudflare-hosted sites from other users. Once we understood what we were seeing and the implications, we immediately stopped and contacted cloudflare security.
Cloudflare has admitted that the breach occurred, but Ormandy and other security researchers believe the company is underplaying the severity of the incident …
More areas of the country are likely to see gigabit LTE, say carriers, as the FCC has approved the use of the 5GHz spectrum for mobile data.
The 5GHz band is currently used for WiFi, and there had been concerns that there would be conflicts between the two, but the FCC accepted that equipment manufacturers had demonstrated that LTE and WiFi could co-exist in the same spectrum …
Studies cited by the WSJ show that sexist attitudes are alive and well when it comes to preferences for gender in the voices of intelligent assistants.
Google has announced that it will cease allowing 30-second unskippable preroll ads on YouTube videos from next year, reports Campaign.
Google explained that its aim is to provide a better advertising experience for online users. “As part of that, we’ve decided to stop supporting 30-second unskippable ads as of 2018 and focus instead on formats that work well for both users and advertisers.”
While it’ll be great to lose the most unpopular ad format, it isn’t all good news …
There’s no shortage of options for virtual meetings these days, from Skype and WebEx through Facebook, WhatsApp and many others. But Amazon believes that there’s room for one more, aiming Chime specifically at businesses looking for an easier and more manageable way to host video meetings.
Meetings start on time because they’re easy to join – meetings call you and you can join with a single tap. Lengthy pins are a thing of the past. A visual roster shows who has joined the meeting and who is running late, and allows anyone to mute background noise. Amazon Chime offers rich apps for iOS, Android, Windows, and Mac, and your chats are always synchronized across your devices. You can switch seamlessly between devices anytime, even in the middle of a meeting …
If you use Google Maps to find your way around, then an app update today makes it much easier to both plan itineraries and bookmark your favorite places. The company is today adding the ability to create lists of places you want to visit, and to share them with friends …
Nintendo’s latest mobile game Fire Emblem Heroes has today hit the Google Play store as expected. As with Super Mario Run, it’s a freemium game, but in theory at least you can unlock all the features for free through game play.
Executive chairman of Google parent Alphabet Eric Schmidt last week told employees that the Trump administration will do ‘evil things,’ reports Buzzfeed.
Schmidt’s remarks were made during the company’s weekly meeting at its headquarters in Mountain View, California, on January 26 [when he said the Trump administration] is “going to do these evil things as they’ve done in the immigration area and perhaps some others” …
Viber has announced that is is allowing users to make free Viber Out calls to both landlines and mobiles between the U.S. and the seven countries affected by Trump’s travel ban.
On the same day that we learned of Google creating it’s largest ever crisis fund to deal with the ongoing impact of Friday’s immigration order, Bloomberg suggests that Trump’s next move could be to target foreign workers employed by Google and other tech companies.
His administration has drafted an executive order aimed at overhauling the work-visa programs technology companies depend on to hire tens of thousands of employees each year …
