Apple has shown off its latest product line-up in its first big event of 2021. The firm is increasing the number of products which will contain its own in-house developed M1 chip, as the sector struggles with a global semiconductor shortage. It finally unveiled its much-anticipated tracker tile, the AirTag, which will launch at the […]
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5G: Rural areas to be allowed taller and wider masts
The government is to allow taller and wider mobile phone masts to be built across the English countryside to speed up the 5G network rollout. Parliament will vote on the plans, which the government says would improve rural coverage, while “minimising any visual impact” on the landscape. Masts on public land have been limited to […]
Peloton safety: US regulators warn against using treadmill near children
Safety regulators in the US have urged owners of a Peloton treadmill to stop using the product “immediately” if they have children or pets in the home. The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) says it is aware of 39 incidents including one death, involving the Peloton Tread+. Peloton had already confirmed the death last month […]
Facebook faces mass legal action over data leak
Facebook users whose data was compromised by a massive data leak are being urged to take legal action against the tech giant. About 530 million people had some personal information leaked, including, in some cases, phone numbers. A digital privacy group is preparing to take a case to the Irish courts on behalf of EU […]
Europe seeks to limit use of AI in society
The use of facial recognition for surveillance, or algorithms that manipulate human behaviour, will be banned under proposed EU regulations on artificial intelligence. The wide-ranging proposals, which were leaked ahead of their official publication, also promised tough new rules for what they deem high-risk AI. That includes algorithms used by the police and in recruitment. […]
NHS Covid-19 app update blocked for breaking Apple and Google’s rules
An update to England and Wales’s contact tracing app has been blocked for breaking the terms of an agreement made with Apple and Google. The plan had been to ask users to upload logs of venue check-ins – carried out via poster barcode scans – if they tested positive for the virus. This could be […]
Facebook tweaks its news feed with new controls
Facebook is adding features to users’ main news feed, including letting them limit comment on their public posts to friends or even specific tagged people. The feature is similar to one rolled out by Twitter last year. Facebook will also make it easier to revert to “chronological” mode, with the latest posts displayed first. The […]
Clubhouse: Is the audio app really worth $4bn?
Live-audio app Clubhouse is creating plenty of chatter – about itself. Elon Musk, Oprah Winfrey, Kanye West, Demi Lovato and Mark Zuckerberg are among the celebrities to have popped up on the service. And you can find chats about everything from Bitcoin and Buddhism to relationships and R&B music on it. Even so, the idea […]
Should firms be more worried about firmware cyber-attacks?
“Firmware attacks are not common on a day-to-day basis, but that’s because people don’t realise they’re being infected by such an attack,” says Mr Boyd. “It’s like when ransomware first came onto the scene – people didn’t know of anyone who was infected by it, and if big organisations were, they wouldn’t tell anyone about […]
Tool checks phone numbers from Facebook data breach
People can now enter their phone numbers into a website to see if they appeared in a recent Facebook data breach. Details of more than 530 million people were leaked in a database online, largely consisting of mobile numbers. People can use the Have I Been Pwned online tool to check if their numbers or […]