Sofia Elizabella Wyciślik-Wilson

Facebook is currently under investigation for displaying advertisements placed by Russia to try to influence the 2016 presidential election against Hillary Clinton, but Donald Trump is convinced that the social network is against him.

In a tweet, the president set out a simple accusation: "Facebook was always anti-Trump." Dredging up his bugbear of "fake news" he also made the same claim of television networks and newspapers. More than this, he suggests that there may have been collusion between those he regards as being "anti-Trump."

Continue reading →

If you have heard Alexa utter the message "Currently, Google is not supporting YouTube on Echo Show," you'll be aware of the issue: Google has pulled YouTube from the Amazon Echo Show.

Google says that Amazon's Echo-with-a-screen creates a "broken user experience", and it seems the company would rather there was no customer experience than a broken one. A war of words has erupted between the two companies, and neither is particularly forthcoming with detail.

Continue reading →

Kodi has had a rough time of things lately, and the same can be said for a number of companies and addons associated with the media center software. In particular, addons site TVAddons has been fighting legal battles, and in its case with Dish Network the operators of the site have been identified.

An amended version of Dish Network's complaint says the site is owned and operated by Adam Lackman from Canada, and they also identify the developer of the ZemTV Kodi addon as Shahjahan Durrani from London. In the complaint, both Lackman and Durrani are accused of copyright infringement, but TVAddons insists it "is not a piracy site, it's a platform for developers of open source add-ons for the Kodi media center."

Continue reading →

A number of iPhone 8 owners have complained of a crackling sound in their phone's earpiece during calls. The problem is not specific to any particular carrier, and it also affects the iPhone 8 Plus.

Apple says that only a "small number of cases" of the audio problem have been reported, but there are lengthy threads on Reddit and Apple support forums with comments from those suffering with the issue. The good news is that there is a fix in the works and it's going to be delivered as a software update -- so it would seem there is not a physical problem with hardware.

Continue reading →

Twitter's distinctive feature -- the 140-character limit -- has been both a blessing and a curse, but out of the blue, however, the company has decided to double the limit to 280 characters. Unfortunately, the 280-charcter limit is now -- like the blue tick of verification -- some of the Holy Grail of Twitter thanks to a slow rollout.

There's no need to wait however! You can send tweets of up to 280 characters right now -- it just takes a little setting up. Here's what you need to do.

Continue reading →

Microsoft continues to show its support for open source software, and now the company has joined the Open Source Initiative (OSI). Joining as a Premium Sponsor, Microsoft will help to promote open source development, communities and software.

The company joins the likes of Facebook, Google, GitHub and IBM, and it says that it will increase its advocacy for the use, contribution and release of open source software. The sponsorship is described as "a significant milestone for the OSI."

Continue reading →

Facebook -- like many companies who exist solely online -- is highly reliant on ad revenue. As such, it goes to great lengths to outwit ad-blocking tools that seek to rob it of income by giving users a more enjoyable experience.

Adblock Plus is a well-known name in this field, having already had something of a back-and-forth with the social network as Facebook took steps to block adblockers. But now Adblock Plus has a new filter available to block ads on Facebook -- and improve privacy -- and it says it is more resilient than ever.

Continue reading →

Having recently added Live TV and DVR features to its media server software, Plex is now adding personalized news. The new feature pulls in news from "some of the most trusted sources on the planet," and it comes after Plex's acquisition of Watchup.

Working with over 190 partners, Plex News is tailored to suit individual users, taking into account which stories they watch and which they skip. The new feature integrates with an existing Plex media library and it will be available to all users free of charge.

Continue reading →

At Microsoft Ignite in Orlando, Microsoft today announced Office 2019. The next version of the office suite is scheduled for release sometime in the second half of 2018, with preview builds being made available in the middle of the year.

Despite Microsoft's love of the cloud, the company recognizes that not all customers are quite ready to go all-in. With this in mind, Office 2019 includes numerous new features that are not cloud-specific, and the suite is described as "a valuable upgrade for customers who feel that they need to keep some or all of their apps and servers on-premises."

Continue reading →

It has been quite some time -- nearly a year in fact -- since we were talking about the Dirty COW vulnerability affecting the Linux kernel. Now the vulnerability is back, but this time it is Android users who need to be concerned.

The privilege escalation vulnerability has been exploited by a piece of malware by the name of ZNIU, or AndroidOS_ZNIU. The malware uses the Dirty COW exploit to root devices and install a backdoor which can then be used to collect data and also generate profit for the attackers through a premium rate phone number.

Continue reading →

With the launch of macOS High Sierra, Apple is making some changes to Safari. One of the key changes is the introduction of differential privacy technology which gathers data about the websites users visit in order to identify those that are problematic because of high memory usage or crashes.

As the name of the technology implies, as well as gathering useful data from users, one of the key features of differential privacy is that it respects the privacy of individuals. The AI-powered technology keeps, according to Apple's Craig Federighi, "the information of each individual user completely private" while still collecting data that will enable Apple to decide the priority with which it should tackle problematic sites.

Continue reading →

Apple has only just released macOS High Sierra, but before the update was even out of the door, a 0-day vulnerability had been discovered. A flaw in the Mac keychain makes it possible for malicious applications to steal the contents of the keychain, including plaintext passwords. It affects not only High Sierra, but also older version of macOS.

The way keychain works means that it should not be possible for the keychain to be accessed without providing the master password, but the vulnerability bypasses this requirement. The problem was discovered and demonstrated by security researcher Patrick Wardle from Synack, who is also a former NSA hacker.

Continue reading →

Donald Trump has been a divisive character for many years, and this trend that has continued with his presidency. On Twitter, his unique approach to dealing with world issues and global leaders has caused, to varying degrees, amusement, disgust and horror. In particular, his recent handling of North Korea has raised concern.

His continual references to Kim Jong-un as Little Rocket Man, and his suggestion that the leader and Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho "won't be around much longer" and that the US may have "no choice but to totally destroy" North Korea has been seen by the Asian country as "a clear declaration of war". People are asking why Twitter has not taken action against such naked threats on its platform. Now the company has spoken out, explaining that the "newsworthiness" of Trump's tweets is why they have been left untouched.

Continue reading →

Apple is switching from Microsoft Bing to Google search to power Siri and Search in iOS, and Spotlight in macOS. The changeover is taking place right now, and should be complete by the end of the day.

The search switch coincides with the launch of macOS High Sierra, but Mac users will find that Bing will still be used for image searches in both Siri and Spotlight.

Continue reading →

Global accountancy firm Deloitte -- known as one of the "big four" -- has been hit by a sophisticated hack. With echoes of the Equifax data breach and CCleaner hack, the cyberattack went undetected for months and results in confidential emails being accessed, as well as company plans, and the private information of high-profile, blue-chip clients.

Deloitte says that only a small number of its clients have been affected, but the size and importance of those that it deals with -- including US government departments -- means that even a limited number could have great impact. The firm is said to have discovered the hack in March, but it is possible that attackers gained access as long ago as October 2016.

Continue reading →