Microsoft, Google, Twitter and Facebook to offer data transfer service
working to make it easier for customers to transfer their data between services without needing to download it, change the format or re-upload it to the new service.
Called the Data Transfer Project, the scheme builds upon Google’s Download Your Data service, which was developed as Takeout back in 2011. That service allowed users to transfer their information to their Dropbox, Box, Microsoft OneDrive, and Google Drive accounts, but the open source Data Transfer Project will take this one step further by letting any business support the service.
Being able to transfer customers’ data to other services is a key legal requirement under the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), but the Data Transfer Project would offer a similar capability to non-EU citizens.
Any firms who want to get involved in the scheme must agree for data to move both to and from thei service, and each account must be authenticated independently. Data is encrypted using a form of perfect forward secrecy, which generates a new unique key for each transfer.
Australia’s first computer moves into Melbourne museum
Melbourne’s Scienceworks museum has brought in Australia’s first ever computer, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation Automatic Computer (CSIRAC), to its Think Ahead exhibition.
The computer, which is half the size of a shipping container and about a millionth of the speed, computing power, and volume of a smartphone, was one of the best of its kind when it was built in 1949. It is Australia’s first stored-memory computer, and the fourth in the world to ever be built.
The one move that made Fortnite creator a billionaire
Between the release of the current version in September and the end of May, Fortnite brought in more than $US1.2 billion ($1.62 billion), according to SuperData Research. As of early June, it has been played by 125 million people
Fortnite alone is on track to generate $US2 billion this year, making the North Carolina-based gamemaker worth $US5 billion to $US8 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Sweeney, 47, is the controlling shareholder.
Instead of shelling out upwards of $US40 for the game, players buy online V-bucks, a virtual currency they can exchange during play for outfits, called skins, celebratory dances or special missions that can cost as much as $US20 each.
Google Translate warns of apocalypse in bizarre ‘end times’ message
The language-translation app is telling users that we’re “approaching the end times” – and no one’s quite sure why.
Typing the word “dog” into Google Translate and translating from Yoruba (a West African language) to English spits out the exact same word, “dog”.
But type “dog” 22 times in a row and a sinister message appears instead.
“Doomsday Clock is three minutes at twelve,” it begins.
“We are experiencing characters and a dramatic developments in the world, which indicate that we are increasingly approaching the end times and Jesus’ return.”
Steve Jobs was shocked by how successful the App Store was
After the release of Ios 2.0 apple launched the app store. first few weeks had passed and Jobs invited a journalist from The Wall Street Journal to the company’s headquarters for a rare on-the-record interview.
Now 10 years later, the full transcript of that interview has been released and it contains some revealing insights at a crucial time for the company.
“We didn’t expect it to be this big. The mobile industry’s never seen anything like this. To be honest, neither has the computer industry,” he said.
The rate of app downloads far outstripped the rate of song downloads during the early years of iTunes — a fact that really surprised Apple.
“We have over 1500 applications on the App Store today. We thought that the input would start to slow down from developers, but it’s accelerating,” he said.
n 2017 alone, Apple’s App Store generated more than $US38.5 billion ($A51 billion), a 34 per cent increase from the previous year, according to a report from app intelligence firm Sensor Tower.
Since its inception a decade ago, Apple has paid out more than $US80 billion ($A107 billion) to app developers.
“I would not trust any of our predictions because reality has so far exceeded them by such a great degree that we’ve been reduced to spectators just like you, watching this amazing phenomenon and just doing our best to try to help everybody get their apps done and get them on the store,” he said at the time.
Joe’s Show Notes – 26/07/18
https://fossbytes.com/how-to-unlock-windows-10/
Google Employees have Stopped Phishing by Ditched Their Passwords and using a $20 USB Device.
- Google says that they have not had a single successful phishing attack for about 18 months after they started using a physical usb security key.
- These physical USB Keys are used in place of all thier passwords and one-time codes, rather than using tools such as The Google Authenticator.
- Google has given thier employees a US $20 Security key, a YubiKey as its known to all of its 85,000 Staff to use and since using it for the last 18 months have not reported 1 successful incident of a phishing attack.
- Basically the way it works id you insert the USB device into your computer , laptop, whatever your using and pressing a button on the security key “. So, rather than asking users to enter a password or use a code generated by an app like Lastpassword, keepass and onepassord apps like that , the user credentials are provided using a specific piece of hardware witch is the usb security key
- Many of the major breaches start with the compromising of a user’s account, then attackers can move from one system to another system once they have compromise a user account, by using this USB Security Key thing it makes it that much harder for them.
- Google is also making its own version of this key, it’s called the Titan Security Key.
- Proceed to discuss with glenn and jordan if they would use a key like this or stay with lastpass or use both
Amazon is making it easier for all Alexa devices to work together
https://www.theverge.com/2018/7/25/17613832/amazon-alexa-echo-spatial-perception
- ESP – Echo Spatial Perception is now available on all Alexa devices.
- ESP makes sure that only the Echo device closest to you in your home will respond when you talk to it, that’s a great idea if you have multiple Echo devices .
- see a demo in the link below of multiple alexa devises working together…lol https://twitter.com/rycrist/status/927978825723662336
- While Amazon has been trying to expand this feature to third-party devices, most Alexa-enabled devices don’t support ESP natively so Amazon is changing that today, and moving ESP to the cloud.
- This means that every Alexa-enabled device can now support ESP without any software changes
- Amazon says that Cloud-based ESP will also include improved accuracy for noisy environments, making Alexa more accurate at understanding commands and questions
- The biggest benefit is that all Alexa-enabled devices will now work together more intelligently in a multi-device environment.
- While Amazon has solved this particular limitation for the third-party Alexa devices, the company still has limits on how multiple devices work together.
- Also Alarms, timers, and reminders are still limited to each Alexa device they’re set on, and we’re hoping that Amazon is working on a more intelligent way of managing these across multiple devices.
Apple may exclusively use Intel modems in 2018 iPhone models
Apple and Qualcomm have officially broken up.
- Apple’s has an ongoing legal dispute with Qualcomm which looks like it will have a big impact on the components used in this year’s upcoming iPhone models.
- According to Qualcomm’s Chief Financial Officer George Davis…… George has said, “Apple intends to solely use our competitor’s modems rather than our modems in its next iPhone.
- Apple say Qualcomm is overcharging to use its LTE modems, which are essential to helping smartphones connect to the internet.
- Apple is also said to be distancing itself from Intel components as well in other areas, like Bluetooth and Wi-Fi mobile chips and MacBook processors.
- That all being said, Apple could still use another partner like MediaTek, or there is the small chance it could repair its relationship with Qualcomm if Apple feels like it’s missing the boat on 5G, although that seems increasingly unlikely at this stage.