Wednesday, July 10, 2024

Google now lets Advanced Protection Program users set up with a single passkey, using Android or iOS biometric authentication, instead of two physical keys (Wes Davis/The Verge)

Wes Davis / The Verge:
Google now lets Advanced Protection Program users set up with a single passkey, using Android or iOS biometric authentication, instead of two physical keys  —  Google has made it a little easier for those at more risk of targeted online attacks to enroll in its Advanced Protection Program for Google accounts.



Elliptic finds a Cambodian online market offering the crypto scam industry products and services, including money laundering and victim data, with $11B in sales (Wired)

Wired:
Elliptic finds a Cambodian online market offering the crypto scam industry products and services, including money laundering and victim data, with $11B in sales  —  Deepfake scam services.  Victim data.  Electrified shackles for human trafficking.  Crypto tracing firm Elliptic found …



A US judge rules in favor of X in a lawsuit alleging X owes $500M+ in severance pay to ~6,000 laid-off staff, saying the claims were not covered under ERISA (Robert Burnson/Bloomberg)

Robert Burnson / Bloomberg:
A US judge rules in favor of X in a lawsuit alleging X owes $500M+ in severance pay to ~6,000 laid-off staff, saying the claims were not covered under ERISA  —  The suit alleged that X, formerly known as Twitter, and Musk owed at least $500 million in severance pay to about 6,000 laid-off …



Tuesday, July 9, 2024

Remittance startup Nala, which lets users in the EU, UK, and US send money to 11 African markets, raised a $40M Series A led by Acrew, after a $10M seed in 2022 (Annie Njanja/TechCrunch)

Annie Njanja / TechCrunch:
Remittance startup Nala, which lets users in the EU, UK, and US send money to 11 African markets, raised a $40M Series A led by Acrew, after a $10M seed in 2022  —  Nala, a remittance startup that is now widening its portfolio through a new B2B payments platform, has raised $40 million equity …



Australia, backed by the US, the UK, Japan, and other allies, accuses a Chinese state-backed hacking group of targeting government and private sector networks (Financial Times)

Financial Times:
Australia, backed by the US, the UK, Japan, and other allies, accuses a Chinese state-backed hacking group of targeting government and private sector networks  —  US, UK, Germany and Japan back report alleging APT40 conducted ‘malicious’ cyber espionage activities



Sam Altman and Arianna Huffington announce Thrive AI Health, a new startup backed by OpenAI and Thrive Global to build a "hyper-personalized AI health coach" (TIME)

TIME:
Sam Altman and Arianna Huffington announce Thrive AI Health, a new startup backed by OpenAI and Thrive Global to build a “hyper-personalized AI health coach”  —  A staggering 129 million Americans have at least one major chronic disease—and 90% of our $4.1 trillion …



Monday, July 8, 2024

Microsoft quietly adds spellchecking and autocorrect to Windows Notepad, 41 years after launching the app, following testing the features in March 2024 (Mark Tyson/Tom's Hardware)

Mark Tyson / Tom's Hardware:
Microsoft quietly adds spellchecking and autocorrect to Windows Notepad, 41 years after launching the app, following testing the features in March 2024  —  Feature rolled out to insiders back in March, now available to the masses.  —  Microsoft tested an updated Notepad app with integrated spellchecking back in March.



Nothing unveils the $199 CMF Phone 1, with swappable parts, a 6.67" display, MediaTek SoC, and Nothing OS, alongside the $69 CMF Watch Pro 2 and $59 Buds Pro 2 (Julian Chokkattu/Wired)

Julian Chokkattu / Wired:
Nothing unveils the $199 CMF Phone 1, with swappable parts, a 6.67" display, MediaTek SoC, and Nothing OS, alongside the $69 CMF Watch Pro 2 and $59 Buds Pro 2  —  Nothing's sub-brand is bringing its first phone to the US—the $199 CMF Phone 1—along with the Watch Pro 2 and Buds Pro 2.



Internal memo: Microsoft tells staff in China that from September 2024 they can only use iPhones for work, including to verify identities, affecting hundreds (Bloomberg)

Bloomberg:
Internal memo: Microsoft tells staff in China that from September 2024 they can only use iPhones for work, including to verify identities, affecting hundreds  —  - Windows software maker is standardizing employee cybersecurity  — Company will block corporate access from Android in China



Galaxy Unpacked 2024: New foldables, smartwatches and everything else we expect Samsung to announce

On July 10, Samsung's Galaxy Unpacked in Paris may introduce the Galaxy Z Fold6 featuring Dynamic AMOLED 2X displays, 120Hz refresh, and a 50MP camera. Also expected are the Galaxy Watch and rugged Ultra with Exynos W1000, Galaxy Ring with better battery than Oura, and Buds3 Pro with semi-transparent case. https://ift.tt/ySnfi8b

Sunday, July 7, 2024

How Saudi media group MBC's Shahid has become the biggest streaming service in MENA with a 22% share, ahead of Starz Play Arabia at 18% and Netflix at 17% (Financial Times)

Financial Times:
How Saudi media group MBC's Shahid has become the biggest streaming service in MENA with a 22% share, ahead of Starz Play Arabia at 18% and Netflix at 17%  —  Wide range of Arabic-language shows and films helps media group compete with Netflix  —  Media group MBC is competing hard with Netflix …



A study of GPT-3.5-based ChatGPT's ability to solve 728 coding problems: fairly good at solving problems that existed before 2021, but struggles with newer ones (Michelle Hampson/IEEE Spectrum)

Michelle Hampson / IEEE Spectrum:
A study of GPT-3.5-based ChatGPT's ability to solve 728 coding problems: fairly good at solving problems that existed before 2021, but struggles with newer ones  —  This article is part of our exclusive IEEE Journal Watch series in partnership with IEEE Xplore.



Sources: Apple Watch Series 10 will be thinner and have bigger screens; main Siri upgrade will be part of iOS 18.4, with a dev beta in Jan. and a spring release (Mark Gurman/Bloomberg)

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple Watch Series 10 will be thinner and have bigger screens; main Siri upgrade will be part of iOS 18.4, with a dev beta in Jan. and a spring release  —  As the Apple Watch approaches its 10th birthday, the company is preparing a big update.  Also: AirPods with cameras …



A look at Apate, a conversational bot developed by Macquarie University's Cyber Security Hub in Australia to keep scam callers on the line while collecting data (Tory Shepherd/The Guardian)

Tory Shepherd / The Guardian:
A look at Apate, a conversational bot developed by Macquarie University's Cyber Security Hub in Australia to keep scam callers on the line while collecting data  —  New scambaiting AI technology Apate aims to keep scammers on the line while collecting data that could help disrupt their business model



A look at the growing prevalence of LLM-written posts that have been backdated and attributed to human authors on Physics Forums, which was founded in 2001 (Hall of Impossible Dreams)

Hall of Impossible Dreams : A look at the growing prevalence of LLM-written posts that have been backdated and attributed to human authors...