Messages

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General Mayhem / Cable keeps losing customers, but not as fast as you might have thought

« on: May 18, 2018, 07:34:49 AM »

A constant topic of discussion in the tech world is how internet video will mean the end of cable companies, however, while subscriptions are dropping, it really isn't as bad as predicted. Since 2012, 3.4 million people have cut the cord but it hasn't bankrupted any of the major players. The first quarter in 2018 saw 285,000 users which is once gain about the average over the past couple years. DSLResports has the full story.

   The cord cutting phenomenon saw a slight slowdown during the first quarter, with the nation's biggest pay TV providers losing "just" 305,000 subscribers during the first quarter. According to the latest study from Leichtman Research, that's a notable improvement from the half a million subscribers the industry lost one year earlier. That said, Leichtman's numbers tend to be notably lower than many Wall Street analyst estimates, and the cord cutting phenomenon is expected to heat back up during the second quarter, when many college students go home for the summer.

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General Mayhem / IBM bans all removable storage for staff

« on: May 10, 2018, 05:32:44 AM »

   We talk pretty regularly on our podcast about data breeches and hacks, however, the biggest liability is still your users when it comes to security weak points. IBM is taking things to a new level by banning all removable storage for their staff members which seems a little extreme but quite frankly isn't the worst idea in the world. Unfortunately for IBM and any other big company, it's nearly impossible to actually enforce a policy like this. The Register has the full story.       IBM has banned its staff from using removable storage devices. An advisory to staff penned by IBM global chief Information security officer Shamla Naidoo said the company “is expanding the practice of prohibiting data transfer to all removable portable storage devices (eg: USB, SD card, flash drive).” The advisory says some pockets of IBM have had this policy for a while, but “over the next few weeks we are implementing this policy worldwide.” Big Blue’s doing this because “the possible financial and reputational damage from misplaced, lost or misused removable portable storage devices must be minimised.” IBM has banned its staff from using removable storage devices. An advisory to staff penned by IBM global chief Information security officer Shamla Naidoo said the company “is expanding the practise of prohibiting data transfer to all removable portable storage devices (eg: USB, SD card, flash drive).” The advisory says some pockets of IBM have had this policy for a while, but “over the next few weeks we are implementing this policy worldwide.” Big Blue’s doing this because “the possible financial and reputational damage from misplaced, lost or misused removable portable storage devices must be minimised.”

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General Mayhem / Twitter profitable two quarters in a row

« on: April 29, 2018, 08:08:51 AM »

Somehow Twitter remained profitable for a 2nd quarter in a row. Not going to lie, I didn't see this one coming after Twitter lost money for many years consecutively but seems to have at least temporarily stopped the bleeding. CNET has the full story.

   The company, meanwhile, has had a hard time finding growth, both in terms of profits and in terms of users. So its latest numbers may offer a ray of hope.   For the quarter that ended March 31, Twitter counted 336 million users who log in at least once a month. That's less than a sixth of the more than 2 billion that Facebook counts, but it's up from 330 million in the final quarter of 2017.   The question is whether that'll amount to anything more than a blip. In a March note to investors, analysts at Oppenheimer Equity Research declared that even if Twitter regains user growth momentum and increased advertising, "long-term utility" is "still unknown."

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General Mayhem / Yahoo fined $35 million for data breach

« on: April 25, 2018, 06:20:05 AM »

Remember that time that Yahoo failed to disclose one of the biggest data breaches of all time? Remember how they then sold to Verizon for $4.48 billion dollars? Well as a result of an investigation of federal regulators' charges, they've been fined $35 million dollars. I'm sure other $4+ billion dollar companies will be super worried about fines when the numbers are that low and everyone will learn their lessons, right? 

The LA Times has more on this story.

                  The company formerly known as Yahoo is paying a $35-million fine to resolve federal regulators' charges that the online pioneer deceived investors by failing to disclose one of the biggest data breaches in internet history.                     The Securities and Exchange Commission announced the action Tuesday against the company, which is now called Altaba Inc. after its email and other digital services were sold to Verizon Communications Inc. for $4.48 billion last year. The Sunnyvale, Calif., company, which no longer is publicly traded, neither admitted nor denied the allegations but did agree to refrain from further violations of securities laws.   

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5

General Mayhem / Amazon Prime reaches 100 million subscribers

« on: April 18, 2018, 06:26:20 PM »

Amazon has always been pretty tight-lipped about just how many Prime subscribers have, but thanks to a letter to their shareholders they revealed that they've reached the 100 million mark which is a pretty big accomplishment. 2017 was a good year for Amazon and it doesn't appear that they're about to let up anytime soon. The Verge has more on this story.

   Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has revealed in his annual shareholders letter today that his company has over 100 million Prime members, marking the first time in the 13-year history of Amazon offering its Prime membership that the company has ever revealed its number of subscribers.   Analysts have speculated for years as the scope of Amazon’s premium service, which Amazon has kept secret for years. According to Bezos, Amazon Prime also saw its best year ever in 2017, with the company shipping over five billion products with Prime and signing up more new members than in any previous year.

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6

General Mayhem / Facebook admits data mining might be even worse

« on: April 05, 2018, 08:27:48 PM »

Not surprisingly, Facebook has admitted that their Cambridge Analytica data mining/breach was worse than the 50 million users that they originally thought claiming the number could be now closer to 87 million. 

Chances are good it'll probably end up being even more, seeing as they don't really know how many accounts were used chances are good this number will continue to grow. BGR has the story.

   Facebook’s ongoing charm offensive following the Cambridge Analytica scandal took a hit this week as the company revealed in a blog post that far more users than originally reported may have been affected by the breach.   Initial reports, such as this one from the New York Times, estimated that more than 50 million users had their private information harvested by the political data firm. But now Facebook says that up to 87 million people may have been affected. We don’t have to do any complicated math to see how shocking of a correction that is.

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7

General Mayhem / Tesla on the verge of bankruptcy?

« on: March 29, 2018, 06:17:31 AM »

Analysts are scratching their heads on Tesla right now and some are even predicting that Tesla might be bankrupt in a matter of months. Tesla has had major issues getting their Model 3 cars to market in a timely matter, has seen their demand for their higher end vehicles decrease, and overall just keep losing money.

Interestingly enough, with Tesla's current stock prices, they are currently valued more than Ford. Here's another fun fact, in 2017, Ford produced 6 million vehicles and made $7.6 billion profit. Tesla produced 100,000 vehicles and lost 2 billion.

Markethingych has the full story. 

   Unless Elon Musk “pulls a rabbit out of his hat,” Tesla will be bankrupt within four months, says John Thompson of Vilas Capital Management.   “Companies eventually have to make a profit, and I don’t ever see that happening here,” he told Markethingych. “This is one of the worst income statements I’ve ever seen and between the story and the financials, the financials will win out in this case."

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General Mayhem / Now would be a good time for Zuckerberg to resign

« on: March 22, 2018, 10:50:52 AM »

This week has pretty much just been Facebook news thanks to a couple scandals that they are involved from and the fact that shareholders are dumping stock causing their value to plummet.

The guys over at TechCrunch look at the issues that Facebook is faceing and ask the question, whether it might be the time for Mark Zuckerberg to resign?

I've got a funny feeling this will be a topic of conversation on an upcoming WeeklyTechUpdate episode....

   Facebook is at the center of a dozen controversies, and outrage is peaking. The social network has failed again and again at expanding beyond a handful of core features. Doubts of its usefulness, and assertions of its uselessness, are multiplying. A crisis of confidence at multiple levels threatens the company’s structure and mission. Now is the time for Mark Zuckerberg to spare himself the infamy and resign — for Facebook’s sake and his own.   I’m not calling for his resignation, and I don’t say this out of any animus toward Zuckerberg; I personally believe him to be genuine and driven in his stated desire to connect the world — but likely increasingly frustrated by the unexpected consequences of this naive ambition and the haste with which he has pursued it. I just think that it has come to the point where the best way for him to advance that ambition is to leave.

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General Mayhem / Facebook stock plummeting

« on: March 22, 2018, 10:46:36 AM »

Thanks to Facebook's privacy crisis, shareholders have been dumping stock and so far in just 2 days Facebook has seen a $60 billion dollar drop in their value. To put that drop in perspective, Tesla is worth $52 billion.

Bloomberg has the details.

   Facebook Inc.’s privacy crisis has turned into a shareholder crisis.   The social media giant has lost over $60 billion in market value over the past two days, following revelations that personal data of millions of users was obtained by a data analytics firm. That’s more than the market capitalization of Tesla Inc. at around $52 billion or three times that of Snapchat owner Snap Inc. at about $19 billion.

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General Mayhem / Geek Squad working with FBI

« on: March 08, 2018, 06:28:05 PM »

Best Buy's Geek Squad is coming under fire for working with the FBI to tip them off when customers have things on their computer they shouldn't have. Catching 'bad guys' is of course the rationale for them working with the FBI, however, there are some privacy issues that are being raised as undoubtedly many peoples privacy was invaded. This one could turn into a big deal for Best Buy when it comes to asking customers to trust them with their computers that they are fixing.

Engadget has more on this story.

   When the defense in a California doctor's child pornography case accused the FBI of paying Geek Squad's crew to look for evidence in the defendant's computer, Best Buy denied it enjoys close ties with the agency. Now, according to the EFF, the big-box retailer's team of IT technicians are even closer to the feds than previous reports indicated. The non-profit has received the results to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) it filed last year and found that Best Buy has been enjoying "a particularly close relationship with the agency" over the past 10 years, at least. 

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Operating Systems & Software / Android beats iOS in smartphone loyalty

« on: March 08, 2018, 06:16:02 PM »

According to a new report, Android users are more loyal than their iOS counterparts. Both smartphones have a loyal following with Android having a 91% loyalty rate and iOS trailing with a still impressive 86%. TechCrunch has the story.

   Samsung’s new Galaxy S9 may not quite live up to the iPhone X when it comes to Samsung’s implementation of a Face ID-style system or its odd take on AR emoji. But that’s not going to matter much to Samsung device owners — not only because the S9 is a good smartphone overall, but because Android  users just aren’t switching to iPhone anymore. In fact, Android users have higher loyalty than iOS users do, according to a new report today from Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP).

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12

General Mayhem / Coinbase sends info to the IRS

« on: February 27, 2018, 10:10:15 AM »

Coinbase is one of the larger cryptocurrency exchange sites and has been making news thanks to a legal battle with the IRS. The IRS is wanting information on people using their service and may not be paying tax on their cryptocurrency and Coinbase took the stance that it wasn't up to them to share that information. Long story short, the IRS has prevailed and Coinbase was forced to turn over tax information on 13,000 people who have been trading cryptocurrency all the way back to 2013. Even longer story even shorter, some people are going to be getting a tax bill for their "anonymous" cryptocurrency. ArsTechnica has the details.

   After over a year of legal wrangling, Coinbase has now formally notified its customers that it will be complying with a court order and handing over the user data for about 13,000 of its customers to the Internal Revenue Service. The company, which is one of the world's largest Bitcoin exchanges, sent out an email to the affected users on Friday, February 23.

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13

General Mayhem / OnePlus' fix for HD Streaming

« on: February 27, 2018, 09:59:48 AM »

Good news: OnePlus has finally come up with a fix to their lack of HD streaming problem.

Bad news: You've got to ship it to them so they can do the update from an "authenticated" machine.

I'm going to take a wild guess and say that OnePlus users aren't going to be super excited about this "fix". PCMag has the full story.

   Smartphone manufacturer OnePlus has had a rough go of it lately. Minus the problems that are mostly the company's issues—a bout of stolen credit card information, potential backdoors that could allow hackers to access almost every OnePlus device, and privacy issues surrounding its smartphones' data collection capabilities—you're left with the smartphones themselves, which have their own pecularities.

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General Mayhem / Samsung Galaxy S9

« on: February 23, 2018, 09:22:35 AM »

The Samsung Galaxy S9 is going to be announced in a couple of days at the MWC show in Barcelona, and like any other smartphone release, it's not a very secret to keep as details leak out before it becomes official. As far as Android flagship phones go, the S9 will be one of the top dogs and while it might be a huge leap over the S8 it still looks to be very promising. Engadget has all the details ahead of their official February 29th announcement date.

   Samsung is primed to unveil its latest flagship, the Galaxy S9. Fortunately for anyone desperate to hear what's coming on February 25th, there's been no shortage of leaks and renders before the big day. It's not good news for the secret-keepers at Samsung but gives us plenty of threads to pull at ahead of the big reveal in Barcelona. How will the Galaxy series fare against the latest trio of iPhones? Can it best the talking-poop emoji?

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Operating Systems & Software / Snapchat's redesign isn't so popular

« on: February 13, 2018, 02:42:26 PM »

Snapchat just completed their biggest redesign since it launched in 2011. It unfortunately isn't all roses and sunshine as a "fake" tweet that said if it was retweeted 1.3 million times they'd revert back to the old design. Long story short, that fake tweet has become the 6th most retweeted tweet ever. 

It will be interesting to see if Snapchat caves or if the people that are upset actually leave. History shows that most likely people will accept the change and we won't hear about this in another week or so, but maybe Snapchat users are different?

TheDailyBeast has the story.

   Last week Snapchat rolled out its biggest redesign since the app launched in 2011.   The company split the app into two sections, consolidating friend content on the left side, media content on the right, and installing a slew of other design changes.   Snapchat’s massive teen userbase is outraged at the update, and already desperately trying to get the old version back. 

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