Author Archives: Carol Edwards

Flipboard is the latest company to fall foul of a data breach.

The news aggregation app announced in a post that it had identified unauthorized access of some of its internal systems, which contained some Flipboard users’ account information and credentials.

For more than nine months, the unauthorized person had access to Flipboard’s systems, potentially able to obtain copies of databases which hosted users’ information. 

It’s unclear yet how many users were affected by the breach, but an investigation commissioned by the company revealed there was unauthorised access between June 2018 and April 2019. Read more…

More about Tech, Cybersecurity, Data Breach, Flipboard, and Tech

As if you didn’t cram enough game time into your waking hours, Pokémon is launching a new way to catch ’em all… while you sleep.

The Pokémon Company announced the perplexing new app, Pokémon Sleep, at a preview event in Tokyo on Wednesday.

According to the announcement, the game will be paired with a device developed with Nintendo called the Pokémon Go Plus Plus, which uses an accelerometer to track your sleep time and sends this information to your smartphone via Bluetooth.

All this, the company says, allows you to catch Pokémon in your sleep. “Several Snorlax were consulted on this, in case you were wondering,” Pokémon tweeted. Read more…

More about Nintendo, Pokemon, Mobile Games, Entertainment, and Gaming

Instagram may be looking to ramp up its shopping features.

A new “order” sticker recently appeared in the app’s Stories, alongside existing stickers as well as location and music features, according to a screenshot tweeted by social media consultant Matt Navarra. 

It’s not clear exactly how it would work, but there is a green dollar sign on the icon, suggesting it could incorporate payments in some way.

Navarra, who has previously spotted unreleased features in Instagram and Facebook, also tweeted a similar screenshot with a “product” sticker appearing in Stories. Read more…

More about Tech, Instagram, Social Media Companies, Tech, and Social Media Companies

Who do the ladies love the most? Trump and Biden are hoping it’s them.

Donald Trump’s re-election campaign has been pouring money into Facebook ads, particularly those targeting older women, according to Facebook data recently highlighted by the New York Times. There’s only one candidate who can hold a candle to the Trump campaign’s Facebook spending: Joe Biden.

Thanks to Facebook’s Ad Library, anyone is able to see just how much cash each campaign is spending on Facebook, what kind of ads they’re buying, and who those ads are reaching. This year, President Trump’s campaign has spent about $5 million on Facebook ads. Not until mid-March did all twenty-freaking-two of the democratic candidates combine to spend as much as Trump on Facebook advertising.  Read more…

More about Joe Biden, Donald Trump, Facebook Ads, Tech, and Social Media Companies

Google yourself. Go ahead, we’ll wait. Include some easily discoverable details: the city where you live, the name of your employer, and maybe your middle name. 

If you’re like most people, the results page will be full of data brokers offering anyone doing a cursory online search a host of information including your address, your phone number, your email, the names of your relatives and their addresses, and so much more. In a world rife with random doxxings, swattings, and scams, this is a problem. 

Thankfully, there’s something you can do about it. 

While removing all personally identifiable information from the internet is extremely difficult, there are a few simple steps you can take in your spare time to snip the low-hanging fruit. To be clear, if you have a specific reason to be concerned about a stalker or threats to your safety, then you’ll want to take steps above and beyond what’s laid out here. However, if you’re simply worried about your privacy in general and want to clean up your online footprint, then this act of privacy hygiene can go a long way.  Read more…

More about Privacy, Tech, and Other

The same scientific agencies that rocketed Neil Armstrong to the moon and forecast the landfall of hurricanes that pummel the U.S. coast also expect dramatic changes to Earth’s climate this century, should humanity continue to heat the planet. 

But the Trump administration no longer wants many federal scientists to consider longer-term consequences of saturating the atmosphere with the potent heat-trapping gas carbon dioxide, now likely at its highest level in millions of years.

As The New York Times reported on Monday, the head of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) ordered the agency’s researchers to only project climate change impacts through 2040, as opposed to the end of the century. What’s more, The Times reported that the Trump administration might not include future high carbon emission scenarios (which are quite likely) in forthcoming climate reports, including the congressionally mandated National Climate Assessment — a major report closely reviewed by The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.   Read more…

More about Science, Global Warming, Climate Change, Trump Administration, and Science

An Australian student who was one of two teens charged with hacking Apple twice, once in 2015 and once in 2017, caught a break this week.

Read more here. Read more…

More about Tech, Apple, Mashable Video, Law, and Hacker

Lady Freethinker, an animal rights advocacy group, recently published the report, stating that dog fighting videos and content are easily accessible on the social media site. Read more…

More about Facebook, Mashable Video, Dogfighting, Culture, and Mark Zuckerberg

IHOP changed its name to “IHOb” as a promotional strategy for their new burgers in June 2018. They took to Twitter recently to share a video that teases a new name, and it’s a familiar one. Read more…

More about Mashable Video, Ihop, Ihob, Ihop To Ihob, and Business

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