Miscellaneous Tech News
- 
 Facebook 'failed to protect’ health data in private groups 
 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-47308655
- 
 Guidemaster: The least-awful Android phonesOver 400 Android devices were released last year. Here are the good ones. It's often said that a strength of the Android ecosystem is the sheer number of manufacturers out there producing devices, but that also means there is an absolutely intimidating amount of devices to pick from. Over 400 Android devices were released just in 2018—and the idea of buying a single device and then living with it for years can be daunting. Throw in tons of different price points, carrier compatibility, and user preferences, and "What Android phone should I buy?" can be a very complicated question. 
- 
 Google Play apps with >10 million installs drain batteries, jack up data chargesDrainerBot can download gigabytes worth of hidden videos to infected devices. The apps catered to a wide variety of interests, from makeup and beauty to mobile gaming. Under the hood, the apps download hidden video ads to the phones that consume as much as 10GB per month of bandwidth. While the videos are never viewed or visible by anyone, the downloads generate fraudulent advertising revenue each time a legitimate end user device appears to view a video while visiting a spoofed but legitimate publisher site. 
- 
 @scottalanmiller said in Miscellaneous Tech News: Facebook 'failed to protect’ health data in private groups 
 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-47308655If anyone is surprised by this, I have a bridge to sell you in Brooklyn. 
- 
 
- 
 Does it fold in half?! If not I'm not interested! Plebeian technology is rigid, my phone MUST FOLD! 
- 
 @DustinB3403 said in Miscellaneous Tech News: Does it fold in half?! If not I'm not interested! Plebeian technology is rigid, my phone MUST FOLD! Not this one. 
- 
 @NerdyDad Announced  
- 
 @NerdyDad said in Miscellaneous Tech News: @DustinB3403 said in Miscellaneous Tech News: Does it fold in half?! If not I'm not interested! Plebeian technology is rigid, my phone MUST FOLD! Not this one. It will... once. 
- 
 Samsung Galaxy S10, S10+, and S10e hands-on: Samsung is slowly getting betterOur brief experience with three phones, two wearables, and a tablet. Samsung presented not one, not two, not three, but four new phones at its Unpacked event in San Francisco yesterday. The devices included three variants of the conglomerate's S-series flagship phones—the Galaxy S10 as the default model, the S10 Plus as a larger variant, and the S10e as an iPhone XR-like lower-priced alternative, though in this case, the more affordable one is smaller than both of the other two. Samsung also introduced the radical (and extremely pricy) Galaxy Fold. 
- 
 Samsung officially debuts Galaxy S10 smartphone after weeks of rumors, leaksThe Galaxy S10e starts at $749, the S10 at $899, and the S10 Plus at $999. 
- 
 Facebook VPN that snoops on users is pulled from Android storeFacebook also stops recruiting new users for controversial "Research" program. Facebook's Onavo website still exists, but links to the Android and iOS apps are both broken. Facebook pulled the app from the iPhone and iPad App Store in August 2018 after Apple determined that Onavo violated its data-collection rules. Facebook purchased Onavo, an Israeli company, in 2013. 
- 
 osTicket v1.11 Released 
 https://osticket.com/blog/2019/02/07/osticket-v1-11-released-2/
- 
 Dell XPS 13 2019 review: Small and mighty, now with a proper webcamKey fixes in this year's model mean the $899 XPS 13 has few things holding it back. Dell gave its XPS laptop an overhaul last year, but 2019 is all about refinement. Announced at CES, this year's XPS 13 laptop looks largely the same as the 2018 model, but it has a few new and improved features that attempt to right some of the wrongs of the previous generation. 
- 
 https://krebsonsecurity.com/2019/02/payroll-provider-gives-extortionists-a-payday/ Payroll software provider Apex Human Capital Management suffered a ransomware attack this week that severed payroll management services for hundreds of the company’s customers for nearly three days. Faced with the threat of an extended outage, Apex chose to pay the ransom demand and begin the process of restoring service to customers. A lesson in why backups aren't really backups if they are still on the network. (My own assumption in this case.) 
- 
 Sony’s latest flagship phone is the 21:9 Xperia 1, and it’s very tallPlus two new mid-rangers. But no sign of a new compact phone, sadly. Sales of the Japanese tech firm’s smartphones have been in free fall for the past few years, but the company is hoping to reverse its fortunes with a new top-end model (the Xperia 1) and two new mid-rangers (the Xperias 10 and 10 Plus). I was able to get some brief hands-on time with the three new devices at an event in Manhattan earlier this month. 
- 
 Microsoft puts mixed reality, high-speed 3D rendering, and Kinect vision into cloudHoloLens 2 isn't the only part of Microsoft's plans for augmented reality. While HoloLens 2 is undoubtedly the aspirational star of Microsoft's augmented-reality (AR) offerings, the company isn't putting all its eggs in that particular basket. Alongside the new HoloLens headset, the company also announced the Azure Kinect development kit: a new version of the Kinect sensor technology. 
- 
 Plain wrong: Millions of utility customers’ passwords stored in plain textIn September of 2018, an anonymous independent security researcher (who we'll call X ) noticed that their power company's website was offering to email—not reset!—lost account passwords to forgetful users. Startled, X fed the online form the utility account number and the last four phone number digits it was asking for. Sure enough, a few minutes later the account password, in plain text, was sitting in X's inbox. 
- 
 @DustinB3403 That's triple facepalm material right there. 
- 
 @travisdh1 said in Miscellaneous Tech News: @DustinB3403 That's triple facepalm material right there. It's so bad. I just finished the article, and X was communicating with a Lawyer for SEDC who made claims that storing and sending plaintext passwords was not a PCI compliance issue. Over 180 days of back and forth according to the article, with the lawyer (Mr Cole) claiming everything X was stating was not a compliance or security issue. 







