Sofia Elizabella Wyciślik-Wilson

Google has announced a significant update to its iOS and Android apps, introducing a new algorithm-driven feed that pushes personalized content at users. The company says that the update makes "it easier than ever to discover, explore and stay connected to what matters to you -- even when you don't have a query in mind."

The feature, known simply as "the feed", has been around since December, but this is an important update that sees Google further leaning on the algorithms it has come to love. The feed draws on machine learning to create a personalized stream of content made up not only of news, but also videos, music and other content Google thinks may be of interest.

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The day has, at long last, arrived for Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+ owners: Bixby voice capabilities for US English is now available in the United States and South Korea.

A quick software update is all it takes to bring the long-awaited voice assistant to Samsung flagship smartphones. The update means that the hitherto useless hardware Bixby button now has a purpose, and Galaxy S8 and S8+ users can start to enjoy the benefits of taking control of their phones with their voices.

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The FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) has issued a PSA warning about the potential dangers of smart toys. The bureau encourages parents to consider cyber security before bringing internet-connect toys into the home because they could risk the privacy and safety of children.

The announcement warns of the potential for personal information to be gathered through such toys. The presence of sensors, microphones, cameras, data storage components, speech recognition and GPS, coupled with cloud storage of data, is cited as cause for concern, and parents are urged to check privacy agreements.

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Anyone subject to secret surveillance by the FBI through access to their private data remains unentitled to be told about the related national security letters (NSLs). The 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled that existing gagging orders that prevent companies from advising people about NSLs relating to them do not violate the First Amendment.

A case had been brought to court by the Electronic Frontier Foundation on behalf of Cloudfare and CREDO Mobile that challenged the legitimacy of the gagging orders. EFF won its case back in 2013, but subsequent changes to the law, coupled with the appeal court ruling, means that companies are still unable to inform customers about the existence of national security letters relating to their accounts.

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A lightning-fast raid on a cryptocurrency platform's website earned a hacker $7 million in three minutes yesterday. Moments after CoinDash launched its ICO (Initial Coin Offering, the cryptocurrency version of an IPO), the attacker modified the address of the wallet it used and watched as millions poured into their own account.

The website was shut down as soon as the hack was discovered, but by this time $7 million had already disappeared. CoinDash managed to gather $6 million from investors, but funds stopped arriving with the shutdown.

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Apple is using World Emoji Day to preview upcoming emoji that will feature in iOS, macOS and watchOS later in the year. The new emoji include breastfeeding, a zombie, a woman in a headscarf, and a bearded man.

The company says that "the new emoji make it easier for users to express themselves with greater diversity, additional animals and creatures, new smiley faces and more," but not everyone is going to take it quite that seriously. Still... zombies!

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Samsung is entering into an "extended partnership" with PayPal to bring PayPal support to Samsung Pay. To start with, PayPal will be available as a payment method in the US first, but it will expand to other countries in the future.

It means that not only can PayPal be used as a source to fund Samsung Pay for POS purchases, but Samsung's Braintree merchants will also be able to accept PayPal payments for online and in-app purchases.

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Over the weekend, distress rippled around the HTC community as advertisements suddenly appeared in the TouchPal keyboard. The keyboard is installed as the default on many of HTC's Android phones, including the HTC 10, and users took to social media to voice their unhappiness and concerns about privacy.

Despite the ire directed at the Taiwanese company, HTC is not directly responsible for the keyboard, or the update that pushed ads onto people. Rather, the developer issued an update resulting in the SNAFU that upset so many people.

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If there's anything that the UK government has demonstrated in recent years it is that it not only wants to try to take control of the web, but it also fails to understand the web. These two facts make for a terrible combination -- something highlighted by the snooper's charter and the government's desire to break encryption on demand.

The latest idea -- ushered in under the guise of protecting children in a bid to win points -- is the introduction of age restriction on porn sites. The Digital Economy Act will require porn sites to use credit card verification to check that users are aged 18 or over. There are numerous holes here, illustrating that the government simply doesn’t know what it's talking about.

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The latest addition to WikiLeaks' Vault 7 cache of leaked CIA documents details an app that can be used to intercept SMS messages on Android devices. The HighRise tool can grab messages before sending them on to a CIA-controlled server.

The app itself goes by the name of TideCheck and it serves as an SMS proxy to allow for the interception of messages on a target's phone. The app itself is password protected (with the word "inshallah") to prevent unwanted tinkering. It also seems to serve a dual purpose, acting as a secure communication channel for CIA operatives.

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Time your departure time wrong, and even the simplest of journeys can end up taking far longer than it was meant to. Hit traffic, and your journey time could be doubled -- or worse. A new feature of Google Maps aims to eliminate this problem.

The nameless feature is rolling out to the Google Maps mobile app, and it lets you know how long your trip will take if you leave now, or in a few hours' time. It's a simple addition -- and one that would benefit from a little more work and refinement -- but it's a valuable one for travelers.

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The upcoming Redstone 3 release of Windows 10 has been known as the Fall Creators Update for some time now -- but in some parts of the world this name sounds nonsensical. While fall is the season that follows summer in many countries, it's not the case worldwide.

It is for this very reason that the update will bear a different name in a number of countries including the UK, Australia, New Zealand and India. Come September, Windows 10 users in these nations will be installing Windows 10 Autumn Update.

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Over the years Facebook has done plenty of tinkering with the News Feed -- and not always for the better. Like Google, the social network frequently experiments with new ideas, and groups of users are often used to beta test features. One such recent experiment saw the arrival of a new version of the timeline for some users via a rocket icon in the Facebook app.

Now this new option is rolling out on a wider scale. Known as Explore Feed -- and retaining the rocket icon from beta testing -- the idea is to encourage Facebook users to look at more content on the network rather than just the post of their friends and pages they follow. You'd be forgiven for missing the option as it's not entirely obvious.

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Perform a search on Google and you may well be greeted by the OneBox when your results appear. In addition to the list of links to appropriate websites, Google also tries to provide you with at-a-glance information related to your search, and this is to be found in the boxout known as the OneBox.

It's a great idea -- but the information is not always correct. Perform a search for the (deceased) novelist Stephen Bly, for instance, and the OneBox displays a mixture of information about him, and the (very much alive) British comedian and author Stephen Fry. Very confusing stuff! You can, however, submit corrections so other people are not given incorrect information.

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While certain corners of the software arena have been, well, cornered by a single big name, there are others in which there is choice aplenty. Case in point -- messaging tools.

The number of messaging tools vying for attention is nothing short of bewildering, with everyone from Apple and Microsoft to Google and Facebook offering ways to communicate with other users of the same platforms. Choice may be a good thing -- up to a point -- but now it seems that Amazon has been feeling left out, and may be working on a messaging app of its own, called Anytime, further adding to the plethora of options.

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