Miscellaneous Tech News
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Facebook VPN that snoops on users is pulled from Android store
Facebook also stops recruiting new users for controversial "Research" program.
Facebook's Onavo website still exists, but links to the Android and iOS apps are both broken. Facebook pulled the app from the iPhone and iPad App Store in August 2018 after Apple determined that Onavo violated its data-collection rules. Facebook purchased Onavo, an Israeli company, in 2013.
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osTicket v1.11 Released
https://osticket.com/blog/2019/02/07/osticket-v1-11-released-2/ -
Dell XPS 13 2019 review: Small and mighty, now with a proper webcam
Key fixes in this year's model mean the $899 XPS 13 has few things holding it back.
Dell gave its XPS laptop an overhaul last year, but 2019 is all about refinement. Announced at CES, this year's XPS 13 laptop looks largely the same as the 2018 model, but it has a few new and improved features that attempt to right some of the wrongs of the previous generation.
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https://krebsonsecurity.com/2019/02/payroll-provider-gives-extortionists-a-payday/
Payroll software provider Apex Human Capital Management suffered a ransomware attack this week that severed payroll management services for hundreds of the company’s customers for nearly three days. Faced with the threat of an extended outage, Apex chose to pay the ransom demand and begin the process of restoring service to customers.
A lesson in why backups aren't really backups if they are still on the network. (My own assumption in this case.)
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Sony’s latest flagship phone is the 21:9 Xperia 1, and it’s very tall
Plus two new mid-rangers. But no sign of a new compact phone, sadly.
Sales of the Japanese tech firm’s smartphones have been in free fall for the past few years, but the company is hoping to reverse its fortunes with a new top-end model (the Xperia 1) and two new mid-rangers (the Xperias 10 and 10 Plus). I was able to get some brief hands-on time with the three new devices at an event in Manhattan earlier this month.
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Microsoft puts mixed reality, high-speed 3D rendering, and Kinect vision into cloud
HoloLens 2 isn't the only part of Microsoft's plans for augmented reality.
While HoloLens 2 is undoubtedly the aspirational star of Microsoft's augmented-reality (AR) offerings, the company isn't putting all its eggs in that particular basket. Alongside the new HoloLens headset, the company also announced the Azure Kinect development kit: a new version of the Kinect sensor technology.
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Plain wrong: Millions of utility customers’ passwords stored in plain text
In September of 2018, an anonymous independent security researcher (who we'll call X ) noticed that their power company's website was offering to email—not reset!—lost account passwords to forgetful users. Startled, X fed the online form the utility account number and the last four phone number digits it was asking for. Sure enough, a few minutes later the account password, in plain text, was sitting in X's inbox.
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@DustinB3403 That's triple facepalm material right there.
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@travisdh1 said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
@DustinB3403 That's triple facepalm material right there.
It's so bad. I just finished the article, and X was communicating with a Lawyer for SEDC who made claims that storing and sending plaintext passwords was not a PCI compliance issue.
Over 180 days of back and forth according to the article, with the lawyer (Mr Cole) claiming everything X was stating was not a compliance or security issue.
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@DustinB3403 said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
@travisdh1 said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
@DustinB3403 That's triple facepalm material right there.
It's so bad. I just finished the article, and X was communicating with a Lawyer for SEDC who made claims that storing and sending plaintext passwords was not a PCI compliance issue.
Over 180 days of back and forth according to the article, with the lawyer (Mr Cole) claiming everything X was stating was not a compliance or security issue.
sadly - it probably isn't.
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@Dashrender said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
@DustinB3403 said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
@travisdh1 said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
@DustinB3403 That's triple facepalm material right there.
It's so bad. I just finished the article, and X was communicating with a Lawyer for SEDC who made claims that storing and sending plaintext passwords was not a PCI compliance issue.
Over 180 days of back and forth according to the article, with the lawyer (Mr Cole) claiming everything X was stating was not a compliance or security issue.
sadly - it probably isn't.
That is very likely the truth. PCI compliance has so many weird and stupid things that are requirements and other things that are perfectly fine on paper and abhorrent in reality.
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Lenovo introduces the ThinkVision M14—a 14-inch, portable, USB-C monitor
The company brought new laptops to MWC, but they're mostly spec bumps.
Labeled the ThinkVision M14, it's a 14-inch monitor with an IPS panel. The resolution is 1920x1080 pixels, which is plenty for 14 inches. It's built with modern laptop trends in mind, so it connects to your computer with USB-C. In fact, it has two USB-C ports, and both can be used for passthrough, provided you connect the monitor to an AC adapter. You can power the monitor from your laptop, but that doesn't seem like enough for passthrough, and Lenovo hasn't specified just how much power it needs from said laptop.
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Apple Watch may finally gain sleep-tracking abilities in 2020
And that may mean big gains in battery life to support the feature.
Apple is reportedly working on bringing a feature to the Apple Watch that has been noticeably absent since the wearable's inception: sleep tracking. According to a report by Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, "people familiar with the work" claim the iPhone maker has been testing a native sleep-tracking feature for its smartwatch over the past several months. Apple reportedly plans to introduce the feature by 2020, likely in a new model of the Apple Watch.
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@mlnews said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
Lenovo introduces the ThinkVision M14—a 14-inch, portable, USB-C monitor
The company brought new laptops to MWC, but they're mostly spec bumps.
Labeled the ThinkVision M14, it's a 14-inch monitor with an IPS panel. The resolution is 1920x1080 pixels, which is plenty for 14 inches. It's built with modern laptop trends in mind, so it connects to your computer with USB-C. In fact, it has two USB-C ports, and both can be used for passthrough, provided you connect the monitor to an AC adapter. You can power the monitor from your laptop, but that doesn't seem like enough for passthrough, and Lenovo hasn't specified just how much power it needs from said laptop.
With all their other issues, I wouldn't trust even a monitor from Lenovo.
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@mlnews said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
Apple Watch may finally gain sleep-tracking abilities in 2020
And that may mean big gains in battery life to support the feature.
Apple is reportedly working on bringing a feature to the Apple Watch that has been noticeably absent since the wearable's inception: sleep tracking. According to a report by Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, "people familiar with the work" claim the iPhone maker has been testing a native sleep-tracking feature for its smartwatch over the past several months. Apple reportedly plans to introduce the feature by 2020, likely in a new model of the Apple Watch.
They are going all Microsoft on us, getting stuff years and years behind.
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Oppo’s foldable smartphone is another futuristic wraparound display device
Oppo's foldable features an interesting looking "bike chain" hinge design.
Mobile World Congress is happening this week, and so far it has definitely been the foldable smartphone show. Samsung and Huawei have so far wowed the world with their folding smartphone demos, offering a tantalizing future in which a smartphone can open up into a tablet. Next up in the foldable smartphone wars is Oppo, with the company's vice president, Brian Shen, showing off this unnamed prototype foldable on Weibo, a Chinese social media site.
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@scottalanmiller said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
@mlnews said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
Apple Watch may finally gain sleep-tracking abilities in 2020
And that may mean big gains in battery life to support the feature.
Apple is reportedly working on bringing a feature to the Apple Watch that has been noticeably absent since the wearable's inception: sleep tracking. According to a report by Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, "people familiar with the work" claim the iPhone maker has been testing a native sleep-tracking feature for its smartwatch over the past several months. Apple reportedly plans to introduce the feature by 2020, likely in a new model of the Apple Watch.
They are going all Microsoft on us, getting stuff years and years behind.
Apple is usually not first to market. They let 3rd party stuff go first and potentially fail. and then roll out their version.
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Energizer’s brick of a smartphone uses “world’s most powerful” phone battery
18mm-thick smartphone goes just a bit overboard in the quest for more battery.
Mobile World Congress has been home to some truly unique smartphone designs this year, and one of the strangest has to be the Energizer PowerMax P18K Pop, an attention-grabbing brick of a smartphone with an 18,000mAh battery.
I know what you're going to ask: "Wait, Energizer makes phones?" Yes, this is something like the 45th announced Energizer phone. Energizer Holdings licenses its brand to Avenir Telecom for mobile phones, and this French company has been using the brand to pump out generic-looking feature phones and smartphones since 2016.
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