Tech Time - Technology News

Meng Wanzhou, CFO of Chinese Huawei Inc. Detained in Vancouver at the request of U.S.

* Meng Wanzhou was detained on Dec 1 in Vancouver in between flights by Canadian authorities on the request of the United States government.* Meng is charged with fraud dealing with International sanctions against Iran.  * Meng is accused of repeatedly lying to financial institutions about the relationship between Huawei and a company called Skycom that did business in Iran in violation of international sanctions.* She serves as deputy chairwoman of the company’s board and served on the board of Skycom in 2008 and 2009.* As a result of her alleged lies, prosecutors contend that the banks she dealt with were “induced into carrying out transactions that they otherwise would not have contemplated.” Those transactions put them on the wrong side of the international community.* A former Canadian Diplomat, Michael Kovrig, was detained in China earlier in the week.* Kovrig works for “International Crisis Group” an non profit. * China has not released the details of his detention but many are saying it is in retaliation to Meng’s detention.* Canada Goose (parkas) Shares have dropped by 20% since Meng’s arrest.* Canada Goose Parkas are prestige clothing in China.* A viral anti-Canadian campaign was started on Weibo (Chinese social media) and named Canada Goose as a company to boycott. * The Chinese Government followed suit and has published the boycott across China.  * Why not American? * The Chinese Government hopes to put enough pressure on Canada and Canadian companies to release Meng before she gets extradited to the United States. * What are the Concerns with Huawei’s 5G technology?* Huawei is working on advanced security technology with the “Public Security Bureau” in China.* They are working on advanced new surveillance and population-control techniques. * the use of facial recognition * digital monitoring * artificial intelligence in policing.* Chinese law requires companies in China to “support, cooperate with and collaborate in national intelligence work”.* Security experts have proven that this “surveillance technology” could be brought into other countries in their 5G telecommunications hardware and smartphones. * Five Eyes Intelligence Alliance – 3 of the 5 (US, Australia and New Zealand) have already banned Huawei from their 5G infrastructure.  Canada and Britain are still on the fence.* China also has a history of stealing intellectual property from Western countries (including Canada).  

Google Will Shut Down Google+ Four Months Early After Second Data Leak

7 Slashdot by msmash  / 1d // keep unread  // hide Google+ Bug Data Shut

* Google+ has suffered another data leak* Google has decided to shut down the consumer version of the social network four months earlier than it originally planned. * Google+ will now close to consumers in April, rather than August. Additionally, API access to the network will shut down within the next 90 days. * According to Google, the new vulnerability impacted 52.5 million users, who could have had profile information like their name, email address, occupation,

Tech Time Podcast Episode 17: Electric Scooter & Samsung Leaks

Quora Data Breach Exposes 100 Million Users’ Personal Info

Information sharing website Quora has announced a data breach which has exposed “approximately 100 million users'” personal data.

discovered the “unauthorized access to one of our systems by a malicious third party,” on Friday. Chief Executive Adam D’Angelo wrote in the blog post that Quora had alerted law enforcement authorities and was “working rapidly to investigate the situation further and take the appropriate steps to prevent such incidents in the future.” D’Angelo said

Quora was working to alert the affected users of the site, whose names, email addresses and encrypted passwords, and public content such as their questions, answers and comments, were exposed through the breach.

Mariott also was breached.  500 million people had their info compromised.

 

Electric Scooters are Sending People to Emergency

Injured scooter riders are hitting the emergency rooms at an estimated number of 1,000 per month.

Injuries can be caused by broken or malfunctioning equipment (brakes, steering, etc) or rider error (riding into traffic, walls, etc).

Lyme = 20m rides, Bird = 10m rides.  Many others.

Cost $1 + $0.15 per minute.

Many don’t follow safety rules (helmets).

Shouldn’t weigh more than 220 lbs, store in cool dry place, scooters should be inspected with each use (yeah right).

Scooters don’t come with helmets.

Bird says it will give a free hemet to anyone who wants one.

Bird also was responsible for repealing california’s electric scooter helmet law.

Are there traffic rules with scooters?  Can you ride on the sidewalk?

“If you hit the ground at 20mph [on a scooter] or a baseball bat hits your head at 20mph, that’s about the same thing.”

 

Epic Games Launches Store to Compete with Steam

Epic Games released a store today to compete with Steam.

Will be released for Mac & Windows before Android.

Steam 70/30% split (Developers/Steam)

Epic 88/12% Split.

No Required DRM on games.

Qualcomm Announces the Snapdragon 855 and Its New Under-display Fingerprint Sensor

 

While the company didn’t release all of the details yet, it stressed that the 855 is “the world’s first commercial mobile platform supporting multi-gigabit 5G.”

The 855 also features a new multi-core AI engine that promises up to 3x better AI performance compared to its previous mobile platform,

as well as specialized computer vision silicon for enhanced computational photography (think something akin to Google’s Night Light) and video capture.

The company also briefly noted that the new platform has been optimized for gaming.

The product name for this is “Snapdragon Elite Gaming,” but details remain sparse. Qualcomm also continues to bet on AR (or “extended reality” as the company brands it).

 

Sony patent hints smartphone with a transparent display

...

Tech Time Podcast Episode 17: Electric Scooter & Samsung Leaks

Quora Data Breach Exposes 100 Million Users’ Personal Info

Information sharing website Quora has announced a data breach which has exposed “approximately 100 million users'” personal data.

discovered the “unauthorized access to one of our systems by a malicious third party,” on Friday. Chief Executive Adam D’Angelo wrote in the blog post that Quora had alerted law enforcement authorities and was “working rapidly to investigate the situation further and take the appropriate steps to prevent such incidents in the future.” D’Angelo said

Quora was working to alert the affected users of the site, whose names, email addresses and encrypted passwords, and public content such as their questions, answers and comments, were exposed through the breach.

Mariott also was breached.  500 million people had their info compromised.

 

Electric Scooters are Sending People to Emergency

Injured scooter riders are hitting the emergency rooms at an estimated number of 1,000 per month.

Injuries can be caused by broken or malfunctioning equipment (brakes, steering, etc) or rider error (riding into traffic, walls, etc).

Lyme = 20m rides, Bird = 10m rides.  Many others.

Cost $1 + $0.15 per minute.

Many don’t follow safety rules (helmets).

Shouldn’t weigh more than 220 lbs, store in cool dry place, scooters should be inspected with each use (yeah right).

Scooters don’t come with helmets.

Bird says it will give a free hemet to anyone who wants one.

Bird also was responsible for repealing california’s electric scooter helmet law.

Are there traffic rules with scooters?  Can you ride on the sidewalk?

“If you hit the ground at 20mph [on a scooter] or a baseball bat hits your head at 20mph, that’s about the same thing.”

 

Epic Games Launches Store to Compete with Steam

Epic Games released a store today to compete with Steam.

Will be released for Mac & Windows before Android.

Steam 70/30% split (Developers/Steam)

Epic 88/12% Split.

No Required DRM on games.

Qualcomm Announces the Snapdragon 855 and Its New Under-display Fingerprint Sensor

 

While the company didn’t release all of the details yet, it stressed that the 855 is “the world’s first commercial mobile platform supporting multi-gigabit 5G.”

The 855 also features a new multi-core AI engine that promises up to 3x better AI performance compared to its previous mobile platform,

as well as specialized computer vision silicon for enhanced computational photography (think something akin to Google’s Night Light) and video capture.

The company also briefly noted that the new platform has been optimized for gaming.

The product name for this is “Snapdragon Elite Gaming,” but details remain sparse. Qualcomm also continues to bet on AR (or “extended reality” as the company brands it).

 

Sony patent hints smartphone with a transparent display

...

Google To Open Project Fi To iPhone, Samsung, and OnePlus

Google’s Project Fi mobile service will reportedly be adding support for Samsung, OnePlus, and iPhones.

“More handsets from existing Fi partners LG and Motorola will also gain Fi support,” reports The Verge.

“The iPhone experience is apparently ‘in beta,’ which is a sign that users might run into bugs or be left without some of Fi’s features.”

The lineup of “Fi-ready” compatible phones — those that Google says have been fully optimized for the network — is fairly short: Google is currently selling the Pixel 3, 3 XL, 2 XL, LG G7, LG V35, Moto G6, and Moto X4 (Android One edition) directly through its Project Fi website.

And although Google is apparently about to widen support and officially allow more devices onto Fi, those “Fi-friendly” phones will still offer the best overall user experience for subscribers, according to the report. It’s not yet entirely clear what that means, but we should know more once Google makes a proper announcement.

But while Project Fi’s plan isn’t the cheapest, it comes with a lot of perks. Pricing starts at a flat $20 per month for unlimited calls and texting and $10 for 1GB of data, but money for unused data is credited back to the user’s account. Overages result in a charge of $10 per GB used. Fi also doesn’t levy a fee on mobile hotspots — data used while tethering is deducted from a Fi user’s monthly allotment.

 

5G Will Cover Roughly 1.5 Billion People By 2024, Researchers Say

By the end of 2025, 5G will reach more than 40 percent of the world’s population and cover 1.5 billion people, according to the latest mobility report [PDF] from telecommunications company Ericsson, which says its networks currently carry nearly half the world’s mobile traffic.

5G, short for fifth-generation network technology, promises a massive boost in speed and responsiveness.

Industry watchers expect the first 5G smartphones to come out in the first half of next year.

Researchers forecast that mobile data consumption will reach more than 21GB per month by 2024, which is nearly four times the consumption in 2018. 5G networks will carry 25 percent of global mobile data traffic, according to Ericsson. North America and North East Asia are expected to lead the 5G rollout, followed by Western Europe.

 

Half of all Phishing Sites Now Have the Padlock

You may have heard you should look for the padlock symbol at the top of a website before entering your password or credit card information into an online form.

It’s well-meaning advice, but new data shows it isn’t enough to keep your sensitive information secure.

Recent data from anti-phishing company PhishLabs shows that 49 percent of all phishing sites in the third quarter of 2018 bore the padlock security icon next to the phishing site domain name as displayed in a browser address bar.

That’s up from 25 percent just one year ago, and from 35 percent in the second quarter of 2018. This alarming shift is notable because a majority of Internet users have taken the age-old “look for the lock” advice to heart, and still associate the lock icon with legitimate sites.

Google To Open Project Fi To iPhone, Samsung, and OnePlus

Google’s Project Fi mobile service will reportedly be adding support for Samsung, OnePlus, and iPhones.

“More handsets from existing Fi partners LG and Motorola will also gain Fi support,” reports The Verge.

“The iPhone experience is apparently ‘in beta,’ which is a sign that users might run into bugs or be left without some of Fi’s features.”

The lineup of “Fi-ready” compatible phones — those that Google says have been fully optimized for the network — is fairly short: Google is currently selling the Pixel 3, 3 XL, 2 XL, LG G7, LG V35, Moto G6, and Moto X4 (Android One edition) directly through its Project Fi website.

And although Google is apparently about to widen support and officially allow more devices onto Fi, those “Fi-friendly” phones will still offer the best overall user experience for subscribers, according to the report. It’s not yet entirely clear what that means, but we should know more once Google makes a proper announcement.

But while Project Fi’s plan isn’t the cheapest, it comes with a lot of perks. Pricing starts at a flat $20 per month for unlimited calls and texting and $10 for 1GB of data, but money for unused data is credited back to the user’s account. Overages result in a charge of $10 per GB used. Fi also doesn’t levy a fee on mobile hotspots — data used while tethering is deducted from a Fi user’s monthly allotment.

 

5G Will Cover Roughly 1.5 Billion People By 2024, Researchers Say

By the end of 2025, 5G will reach more than 40 percent of the world’s population and cover 1.5 billion people, according to the latest mobility report [PDF] from telecommunications company Ericsson, which says its networks currently carry nearly half the world’s mobile traffic.

5G, short for fifth-generation network technology, promises a massive boost in speed and responsiveness.

Industry watchers expect the first 5G smartphones to come out in the first half of next year.

Researchers forecast that mobile data consumption will reach more than 21GB per month by 2024, which is nearly four times the consumption in 2018. 5G networks will carry 25 percent of global mobile data traffic, according to Ericsson. North America and North East Asia are expected to lead the 5G rollout, followed by Western Europe.

 

Half of all Phishing Sites Now Have the Padlock

You may have heard you should look for the padlock symbol at the top of a website before entering your password or credit card information into an online form.

It’s well-meaning advice, but new data shows it isn’t enough to keep your sensitive information secure.

Recent data from anti-phishing company PhishLabs shows that 49 percent of all phishing sites in the third quarter of 2018 bore the padlock security icon next to the phishing site domain name as displayed in a browser address bar.

That’s up from 25 percent just one year ago, and from 35 percent in the second quarter of 2018. This alarming shift is notable because a majority of Internet users have taken the age-old “look for the lock” advice to heart, and still associate the lock icon with legitimate sites.

Black Friday Discussion

Black Friday is this Friday and Cyber Monday.

I just bought an NVIDIA Shield TV Box (22% off).

my old Minix isn’t supported anymore.

I also bought dress shirts (50% off).

Dan, do you buy clothes online?

Do you return clothes that don’t fit?  Zozosuit?

Deals

You can buy a real christmas tree!

You can buy CBD products in Canada

Pot Advent Calendar – 25 days of different CBD experiences. Binging?

Doggie DNA

Cell Phone Plans + 100GB or 120 GB (are some limitations).

Freedom Mobile – 100GB anytime.

Rogers/Fido + 5GB every month for 24 months.

What about cyber monday?

Where are the best deals?

Websites that track the flyers.

What are the best tools?

Camel Camel Camel.

Honey

Facebook Now Faces a Massive Backlash. But Will Anything Change?

 

Slate argues that Facebook “is a normal sleazy company now,” saying the company “obscured its problems and fought dirty against its critics” — but that now its failings are being publicly aired. And Reason provides yet another example:

The Times also reveals that Facebook chose to support FOSTA (and its Senate counterpart, SESTA) — legislation that guts a fundamental protection for digital publishers and platforms, and makes prostitution advertising a federal crime — not as a matter of principle but as a political tactic to tar opponents and cozy up to Congressional critics.

Even Steve Wozniak has joined the critics, saying this week that Facebook should “stop putting money before morals,” adding later that “I haven’t seen them do one real thing.”

Woz also suggested that Facebook should allow users to export their data so they could upload it onto competing social networks.

Now long-time Slashdot reader pcjunky reports that the same scammy ad has been running on Facebook for a full two months after it was reported. But maybe they’re just understaffed?

Engadget reports that over the last six months Facebook has discoverd and eliminated 1.5 billion different fake accounts — which is 200 million more than the 1.3 billion accounts it removed in the previous six months.

On the Blind app, one Facebook employee reportedly asked the ultimate question: “Why does our company suck at having a moral compass?” So where will it all lead?

According to Fortune, Senators Chris Coons and Bob Corker “warned Friday that Congress would impose new regulations to rein in Facebook unless the social-media company addresses concerns about privacy and the spread of misinformation on its platform.” But will anything change?

 

Bitcoin slump

Pokemon let’s go

Julian assage

 

Department of Commerce Could Be the First US Entity To Broadly Regulate an Aspect of AI

 

Artificial intelligence technology has the capability to be the most impactful software advance in history and the US government has no idea how to properly regulate it.

The US does know that it doesn’t want other countries using its own AI against it.

A new proposal published this week by the Department of Commerce lists wide areas of AI software [PDF] that could po...

Black Friday Discussion Black Friday is this Friday and Cyber Monday. I just bought an NVIDIA Shield TV Box (22% off). my old Minix isn’t supported anymore. I also bought dress shirts (50% off). Dan, do you buy clothes online? Do you return clothes that don’t fit?  Zozosuit? Deals You can buy a real christmas […]

Samsung Reveals a Foldable Phone – Samsung Galaxy F

Last Wednesday (Nov 7) Samsung revealed a prototype of the Foldable phone.

It was “camouflaged” in a bulky case.  We expect the phone to be slimmer.

There were two screens (one on the outside and a large one on the inside) and opened like a book (as opposed to other designs where there is one screen on the outside).

The ‘book style’ will protect the large screen.

The screen was beautiful and didn’t appear to have a crease (unlike other prototypes shown by smaller companies).

Front 4.58” display 1960×840; middle 7.3” 2152×1536

The phone also could tell which screen you were looking at and automatically rotated, adjusted the apps you were working on.

Samsung will call the phone the Galaxy F (for foldable).

It will release in March of 2019 for about $1,770.

Most likely to be fully announced at CES 2019.

LG plans to release a foldable phone at CES 2019.

 

Leaker says Samsung S10 will have an O-Shaped Camera Cutout

UPS – Under Panel Sensors does not appear to work for the camera.

A leaker “Ben Geskin”, claims the S10 screen will have an O-shaped cutout for the camera.

Screen is called Infinity-O

It will be small & minimal but still technically a notch.

The S10 will also come with a triple camera option like the recent Galaxy phones (standard, wide angle & telephoto).

Apple iPhone X, Samsung Galaxy S9 and Xiaomi Mi 6 Smartphones Hacked At Pwn2Own Tokyo

wiredmikey writes:Apple iPhone X, Samsung Galaxy S9 and Xiaomi Mi 6 smartphones were all hacked on the first day of the Pwn2Own Tokyo 2018 contest taking place this week alongside the PacSec security conference in Tokyo, Japan. Pwn2Own Tokyo 2018 participants earned a total of $225,000 on the first day of the event. On the second day, at least two teams will make additional attempts to hack the iPhone X and the Xiaomi Mi 6.

Do you think and act like your phone is secure?

Discussion about mobile security (online banking/bitcoin/social media/documents/pdfs)

WIFI phishing.

Even these new phones with modern operating systems can be hacked.

Comic Book Genius Stan Lee, Spider-Man Creator, Dies at 95

Stan Lee, the creative dynamo who revolutionized the comic book and helped make billions for Hollywood by introducing human frailties in Marvel superheroes such as Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four and the Incredible Hulk, died Monday. He was 95.

As the top writer at Marvel Comics and later as its publisher, Lee was widely considered the architect of the contemporary comic book. He revived the industry in the 1960s by offering the costumes and action craved by younger readers while insisting on sophisticated plots, college-level dialogue, satire, science fiction, even philosophy.

Millions responded to the unlikely mix of realistic fantasy, and many of his characters, including Spider-Man, the Hulk and X-Men went on to become stars of blockbuster films. He won the National Medal of Arts in 2008.

Some say he’s the writer of modern mythology.

 

Android Vs. iPhone Battle:

Android:

More open: can change UI/backgrounds/icons/themes

Samsung Reveals a Foldable Phone – Samsung Galaxy F Last Wednesday (Nov 7) Samsung revealed a prototype of the Foldable phone. It was “camouflaged” in a bulky case.  We expect the phone to be slimmer. There were two screens (one on the outside and a large one on the inside) and opened like a book […]

iPad Pro Apple Event Oct 30

iPad Pro

11” $799, 12.9” $999 (same price as previous MacBook Air)

Face ID (266 ppi), Slimmer Bezels, rounded corners, Liquid Retina Display, 4 speakers, no home button, 1 USB C

Storage tops out at 1TB, 8 core A12X Bionic processor (same as new phones).

Claim 92% faster than i7 chips.

Apple Pencil wirelessly charges.  

Old Pencil won’t work on new.  New pencil won’t work on old.

Support for USB-C

Cannot connect directly to Monitors yet.  Needs Dongle.

Output for 5K displays

only mirrors but 3rd party can extend.

Can buy Magnetic Keyboard $200 (That’s $1,200 with 12.9” iPad Pro).

Max $1899 + Pencil + Folio + BT Headphones (no HP Jack). $2,200

Just get a Surface Pro 6 or MacBook Air!

MacBook Air

13.3” laptop, 2.75lbs, Retina Display, Touch ID (17% smaller and 10% thinner).

8th Gen i5 dual core, 128GB – 1.5TB SSD

$1,199

Mac Mini

Up to 6 cores, 64GB of memory and 2TB of storage.

$799 (previous $499).

 

Apple lowers forecast for iPhone XR by 30% and Stock Tumbled Below $1 Trillion.

Apple announced that they will miss forecasted earnings.

Specifically around the iPhone XR which is their budget friendly iPhone X.

Stocks dropped 6.6% on Friday and is the fifth week in a row of declines.

Interestingly, they increased production of the iPhone 8 due to greater demand.

It looks like Apple users are getting $$$ fatigue and want cheaper iPhones.

 

Blizzard getting booed for the first time at their own event.

As soon as Chang opened and used the word mobile the whole crowd let out an audible groan.

Later during the QA someone asked him if this was an out of season April fools joke.

 

There’s exactly three problems with Diablo Immortal.

1: People spent real money- 200 bucks for the tickets, probably around one grand in travel and lodging expenses- to go to Blizzcon. The convention for Blizzard. The company best known for it’s PC titles. No one is going for the next big cell phone game announcement. Hearthstone was announced at Pax for a reason, you know?

2: This is a core franchise title. Hearthstone was spun off from Warcraft, but Immortal is straight up the plot of the Diablo universe in between 2 and 3.

3: This isn’t even a Blizzard game. They’re not developing it, a Chinese mobile cell phone game developer is.

 

The Year OnePlus Started Ignoring Fans

OnePlus has made a name for itself selling devices that punch above the price class. The Chinese smartphone maker has also built a loyal fanbase by proactively reaching out to its users and incorporating the changes and suggestions they make in its product lineup.

But as the company grows bigger and embarks on a new journey — entering the United States — it is increasingly turning a blind eye to its community.

OnePlus releases two phones per year, and it makes sure to hype these before each debut. This year was the same in this regard, except for the obvious fan backlash.

notches and headphone jacks.

In March, OnePlus cofounder Carl Pei tweeted that users should “learn to love the notch.” The outcry was so great that Pei deleted the tweet.

The OnePlus 6 of course launched in May with a notch.