Новости за 22.05.2019

Google today announced it’s making a visual change to Search on mobile devices. Behold: Can you spot the difference? The “visual refresh,” as Google calls it, is a small one. But it’s also an important one: It makes sure the first thing you see in a search result is where information is coming from, including the site’s favicon/logo. In Google’s own words: With this new design, a website’s branding can be front and center, helping you better understand where the information is coming from and what pages have what you’re looking for. Читать дальше...

Alienware‘s m17 is a hard laptop to pigeonhole. For all appearances it’s just a bigger version of the m15, but in practice it’s something entirely different. Sure they look the same, but the smaller one only really competes against other gaming laptops. The m17 feels built to take on all-comers. The size Bigger is usually better, but it’s also … well, bigger. Alienware and other manufacturers have wrestled with the giant end of gaming laptops for years, but only recently have we seen these new slimmed-down... Читать дальше...

Welcome to TNW Basics, a collection of tips, guides, and advice on how to easily get the most out of your gadgets, apps, and other stuff. Did you know you can adjust the brightness of your iPhone’s flashlight? If you’re like me, and have owned an iPhone for years without realizing that fact, let me walk you through how it’s done. According to Lifehacker, Apple added the flashlight brightness adjustment option (try saying that five times fast) with the iOS 10 update in 2016, so obviously this will... Читать дальше...

I just got off the phone with Adam Mikkelsen, founder and CEO of shared mobility startup Cangoroo, who insists that his company is totally real. Wait, I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s back up. Cangoroo is a pogo stick-sharing startup that hails from Stockholm, Sweden. It operates on the same basis as Bird and Lime, with users paying based on their usage. The main difference is, well… pogo sticks. That alone raises eyebrows. And then there’s the fact that the company is owned by ODD Company, a branding... Читать дальше...

There’s a new form of artificial intelligence that mimics Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin with alarming accuracy. Vitalik Boterin is a bot powered by machine learning (ML). It regularly tweets unique nuggets of wisdom that read eerily similar to the real deal, like this one. The idea that *all* problems can be solved by "maximalism" is to many people a familiar theme of this space; I call it "optimism as a store-of-value" — Vitalik Boterin (@VBoterin) May 14, 2019 Unlike the organic version, Boterin doesn’t need to eat and sleep... Читать дальше...

An online petition to remove Craig Wright’s name from a copyright claim submitted earlier this week has surfaced after his latest effort to lay claim to the fact he authored the original Bitcoin white paper. In an attempt to scratch his latest patent filing fetish itch, the Satoshi Nakamoto impersonator tried to put his name against the Bitcoin white paper and code by filing a registration with the US Copyright Office, CoinDesk reported yesterday. Naturally, the cryptocurrency community hasn’t taken this lying down. Читать дальше...

Huawei is having a horrible week, and it’s only Wednesday. Last Thursday, the Trump Administration placed the Chinese technology conglomerate on an Entity List, preventing US companies from doing business with it. And now we’re seeing Europe-based companies flee from Huawei, perhaps in an effort to avoid running afoul of the American authorities. Based in leafy Cambridge for all 28 years of its existence, and owned by Japan’s SoftBank, Arm Holdings’ designs form the basis of every smartphone processor in existence. Читать дальше...

According to Dr. Roselyn K. Akombe, Chief of Policy Planning and Guidance at the United Nations and ex-commissioner of Kenya’s Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), the country’s government is going to sell all the citizen data collected through the Huduma Namba exercise to the highest bidder. Her statement came after President Uhuru Kenyatta extended the deadline for Huduma Namba registration by another week. Kenya’s Huduma Namba initiative, which the government has stated is to... Читать дальше...

Welcome to TNW Basics, a collection of tips, guides, and advice on how to easily get the most out of your gadgets, apps, and other stuff. While it’s kept a tight grasp on most details on its next-generation gaming console, Sony has unveiled a few details about the next PlayStation. Given that the company is going to skip E3 this year, we’re not likely to see the console in 2019. Still, it’s exciting to see what’s next from one of gaming’s biggest companies. Here’s everything we know thus far about the so-called PlayStation 5. Читать дальше...

This past holiday season, AI-powered devices like the Amazon Echo and Google Home were among the hottest gifts across any product category – a trend that speaks to the rising popularity and acceptance of smart home technology in the U.S. But as innocuous as it all seems on the surface, does a darker reality exist beneath the surface? Some would say yes – and that it’s only a matter of time before our smart homes become too smart for our own good. Smart Home Tech Adoption Rates on the Rise It’s estimated... Читать дальше...

“It worked in staging!” says the dev team. And the ops team replies: “it must be a code issue.” Developers and ops people sometimes have different perspectives on why a deployment went wrong. Was it the code? Or the infrastructure? In the end, it’s the user that suffers, and that user doesn’t care about why your product was broken. They just want it to work, so they can do their work. It really did work in staging Everyone on the team wants to get things right the first time, deploying a quality product with every feature release. Читать дальше...

In a parallel universe, 12-year-old me is crying. Why am I crying, you ask? Because The Sims 4 is free. Yes, that’s right. Complimentary. Gratis. Ókeypis. FREE. The fourth installment of the life simulation game was launched in 2014, and six expansion packs — which allow for a wider scope of gameplay, like added actions, furniture, clothing, and more — have been released since. You have until May 28 to get yourself a copy. All you have to do is go to the Origin store and click “Download for FREE now for a limited time.” To play... Читать дальше...

This week, Google announced its plans to crack down on misleading advertisements from anti-abortion groups that present themselves as abortion clinics online. Google updated its “Healthcare and medicines” policy after recent allegations that it provided $150,000 in free adverts to an anti-abortion group known for running misleading ads designed to discourage women from terminating their pregnancies. starting in june, ppl looking to advertise abortion services via google search will actually be *required*... Читать дальше...

A Brazilian cryptocurrency crime cartel has been shut down after conning over 55,000 investors for over $200 million. The cartel ran an unlicensed financial institution without authorization from Brazil‘s Central Bank. The scammers claimed to offer cryptocurrency investments and promised investors 15-percent returns on their capital, local news Correio Do Povo reports. The Federal Revenue Service said the company had managed to raise around R$850 million ($210 million) by February 2019 from would-be investors. Читать дальше...

Google revealed that it recently discovered a bug that caused a subset of its enterprise G Suite customers to have their passwords stored in an unhashed — albeit encrypted — form for about 14 years. “This is a G Suite issue users only — no free consumer Google accounts were affected — and we are working with enterprise administrators to ensure that their users reset their passwords,” Google said in a blog post disclosing the security lapse. The company failed to specify exactly how many customers were affected this way. Читать дальше...

After a long wait, privacy-focused browser Tor is finally on Android with a stable release. Last September, the Tor project team launched an alpha version to test the waters, but according to a new blog post, the browser is finally ready for action: Mobile browsing is increasing around the world, and in some parts, it is commonly the only way people access the internet. In these same areas, there is often heavy surveillance and censorship online, so we made it a priority to reach these users. The... Читать дальше...

It appears that contrary to its marketing promises, Tether – a cryptocurrency pegged to the US dollar – used some of its dollar reserves to buy Bitcoin. The stablecoin issuer, which shares management and ownership with cryptocurrency exchange service Bitfinex, has admitted it used its reserves to invest in Bitcoin and other “assets,” according to court transcripts obtained by The Block. The court documents further show New York Supreme Court Judge Joel M. Cohen is growing increasingly suspicious of Bitfinex’s and Tether’s dealings ... Читать дальше...

AI-powered voice assistants from Google, Amazon, Apple, and others could be perpetuating harmful gender biases, according to a recent UN report. The report, titled “I’d blush if I could” — Siri’s response to provocative queries or flirtatious statements — says the female helpers are often depicted as “obliging and eager to please,” which reinforces the idea that women are “subservient.” Worse, it states, is the way in which they give “deflecting, lacklustre, or apologetic responses” to abuse or criticism. Читать дальше...

Keeping to its promise of semiannual updates, Microsoft today announced it’s made the next big version of Windows 10 available. The simply-named Windows 10 May 2019 update isn’t as packed with features as its predecessors, but there are still a few things to note. In particular, it includes a new ‘Light’ theme; dark mode haters rejoice. The Light theme was first announced back in November, but it was only available to members of the Windows Insider Program – essentially beta testers. While Windows... Читать дальше...

Most people play games like Dungeons & Dragons to get away from their problems. But Megan Hardy isn’t most people. She used it to solve hers. When her husband was laid off in 2016, she signed up to teach D&D classes on Outschool, an online learning platform for kids up to age 18. Hardy told TNW “I was just trying to think of some way to make ends meet. I thought maybe a handful of kids would be interested.” She was wrong in the best possible way. Hardy’s classes were an instant hit and proved... Читать дальше...

Disney’s finally lifting the veil on its Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge attraction set to debut at Disneyland on May 31. And while we were all expecting a glut of rides and properly attired characters roaming about, its the souvenirs that have us most excited. Who goes to Disneyland just to buy overpriced souvenirs aimed at drooling tourists? Normally that sentence would have answered the question it asked. But the opportunity to relive the best part of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic – designing and building your own Lightsaber ... Читать дальше...