International stories and articles from our Flipboard mag.
Slovenia-based graphic designer Jure Tovrljan has modified the logos of famous companies to reflect social distancing. While some are a mere play of words on that corporation's catchphrase, others are compelling visual rearrangements:
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If you’re social distancing or quarantining during the coronavirus outbreak, a good podcast can provide some virtual companionship, and perhaps even a chance to learn something new. Fortunately, there’s an abundance of pods for you to choose from. In the past decade or so, podcasts have gone from a niche interest to the mainstream.
True-crime podcasts, such as “Serial,” which premiered in 2014, became national sensations. Then there was comedian turned podcaster Marc Maron, whose “WTF” became popular enough for President Barack Obama to be a guest in June 2015.
According to the Pew Research Center, 32% of Americans age 12 or older have listened to at least one podcast episode a month as of 2019, up from 15% in 2014. That trend doesn’t show any signs of slowing, with the field set to cross the $1 billion annual revenue mark in 2021.
There are lots of great podcasts on nearly any subject you can think of, and we’ve collected some of the favorites that are perfect for those of us always eager to learn something new, whether it’s about the economy, history, or even the inner workings of Hollywood.
Here’s some prime listening material for your days of social distancing.
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In the coming months, businesses are going to become more reliant than ever on their digital strategy. Without wanting to sound too alarmist, in many cases it will be the deciding factor in whether they make it through the tough times ahead.
The unprecedented, almost-total disappearance of all channels related to live events and conferences, and the increasing barriers on face-to-face business, pose an enormous challenge. Key to resilience is the development of ongoing contingencies to mitigate against this loss.
Why Companies Turn To Digital Marketing To Survive COVID-19
Adobe StockB2B companies in particular rely on the annual circuit of trade shows and exhibitions to network and build customer relations. In industries that are not digital-native, they may also be less sophisticated in their digital growth and customer relations strategies. For smaller businesses especially, used to getting new customers through word-of-mouth referrals or on the strength of a hard-won reputation, their loss is coming as a shock.
Larger companies are also now finding themselves in the position of having potentially lost millions through cancelled events. They won’t claw back the hours of time and expense spent on preparations for this year, but insurance and flexible cancellation policies will leave them with marketing budget to reassign. Digital is likely to be the clear winner here, and companies – including ones that may not so much as had a Facebook page before – will need to move into social marketing, content marketing, SEO and influencer-led campaigns.
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The year 2010 doesn’t sound like it was that long ago, but technology moves fast. A decade ago Tinder, Uber and Instagram didn’t exist. No one wore wearables, nobody talked to their gadgets at home and the Tesla was just an idea.
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Back then, scientists were still looking for the Higgs Boson, Pluto was a mysterious blurry orb just out of sight and genetic editing was still just a theoretical concern, not a practical one.
The next decade looks set to move even faster. So here’s our tour of the new science and tech trends to look out for this decade.
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Netflix will reduce the video quality on its service in Europe for the next 30 days, to reduce the strain on internet service providers.
Demand for streaming has increased because large parts of Europe are self-isolating at home due to the coronavirus outbreak.
The video-streaming provider said lowering the picture quality would reduce Netflix data consumption by 25%.
But it said viewers would still find the picture quality good.
The change appears to include the UK but Netflix has not responded to the BBC's request for confirmation on this.
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In the wake of the global COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak, video conferencing and business messaging software and solutions have become vital tools used to keep people connected. With millions of workers new to working from home looking for the right setups and devices to stay productive, technology companies have responded by making some of their premium services available for free for a limited time.
For entrepreneurs and small to midsize businesses (SMBs) scrambling to pivot their business operations, having access reliable video conferencing and group messaging solutions helps establish some normalcy in uncertain times. Let's look at what's available, how to get it, and what you need to know for each of these available tools.
Cisco is giving its free Webex tier additional capabilities. "Effective immediately, we've expanded the capabilities on our free Webex offer in all countries where it is available, not only those impacted by COVID-19. This includes unlimited usage (no time restrictions), support for up to 100 participants, and offers toll dial-in (in additions to existing VoIP capabilities)," said Sri Srinivasan, SVP and GM, Team Collaboration Group at Cisco.
Sign up for a free Webex personal account at webex.com. Enter your personal email and you'll (eventually) receive a message once your Webex environment is ready (it took around four hours before I received an email response that my account was good to go).
When available, the free Webex Meetings plan offers meetings with 100 participants, HD video, screen sharing, and a personal room for use as long as needed. If you live in a country that is not eligible for free Webex personal accounts, Enterprise Trials for Cisco Webex are available. To find out which countries will have access to Cisco Webex meetings, check out its help center.
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Kids aren't the only ones who can take online classes during our coronavirus-riddled time. Ivy League schools in the U.S. are offering 450 free courses for any adults who have spare time while trapped at home. And according to some of the reviews, these classes are for real. Expect to spend a good amount of hours per week watching lecture videos, completing assignments, and doing quizzes.
So if you're interested in bettering yourself while social distancing, check out the plethora of subjects and courses offered below.
Computer science is where one can learn how to understand computers and computational systems beyond 'it's a machine with the internet on it.' Instead of looking at the physical parts of a computer, this subject focuses on the software that people use — like Microsoft Word or Minecraft. If you've ever wondered how people create computer programs using different computer languages, this could be a good subject for you.
Computer science also encompasses subjects such as cyber security, artificial intelligence, robotics, and solving human-computer interaction. With technology becoming a part of nearly every industry, these skills can easily transfer to fields like manufacturing, healthcare, arts and creative design, and agriculture.
With computers comes the need to analyze the data. Data science does just that by taking a look at massive amounts of information and prying patterns and predictions from the mess. These skills can help people understand trends, organize information to present to executives, recognize opportunities for a business to pounce on, and take part in designing experiments and prototypes based on the company's data. Folks interested in playing around with math and statistics might enjoy learning more about data science and how it can apply to businesses.
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Apple has spent the past 10 years trying to convince everyone that the iPad and its vision of touch-friendly computing is the future. The iPad rejected the idea of a keyboard, a trackpad, or even a stylus, and Apple mocked Microsoft for taking that exact approach with the Surface. “Our competition is different, they’re confused,” said Apple CEO Tim Cook as he stood onstage to introduce the new Macs and iPads six years ago. “They chased after netbooks, now they’re trying to make PCs into tablets and tablets into PCs. Who knows what they will do next?”
Every iPad has transformed into a Surface in recent years, and as of this week, the iPad Pro and Surface Pro look even more alike. Both have detachable keyboards, adjustable stands, trackpads, and styluses. With iPadOS getting cursor and mouse support this week, Apple has finally admitted that Microsoft was right about tablets. Let me explain why.
Microsoft’s return to tablets was a rough ride and far from perfect. Bill Gates tried to convince the world that tablets would be a thing all the way back in 2002, but the hardware and software were far too primitive back then. The software maker eventually introduced the Surface RT alongside Windows 8 in 2012 as a clear response to the iPad, but it had an ARM-powered desktop operating system that didn’t support your favorite apps. It was slightly confused, but Microsoft’s tablet principles were clear at the time.
Microsoft’s original Surface RT tablet.“Something is different about tablets, people still do desire a physical keyboard,” wrote former Windows chief Steven Sinofsky in a detailed blog post about Windows 8 back in 2012. “Even in the absence of software like Microsoft Office, the reality is that when you need to write more than a few quick lines of text, you yearn for something better than on-screen typing ... People benefit from the highly accurate, reliable, and fast user input enabled by a physical keyboard, and we think an OS and its apps should not compromise when one is available.”
The message was clear: touch-based computing would be a first-class input for Windows 8 but not the only way to use the operating system. Microsoft insisted you needed a mouse for precision, a keyboard for typing, and a stylus for taking notes or drawing. These basic foundations led to the Surface Pro, with its variety of inputs to suit different needs.
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Facebook -owned WhatsApp is finally giving users’ eyes a break by rolling out a dark mode setting to the messaging app — years after some other tech giants figured out how to offer a “dimmer pixels” switch.
The messaging giant says the feature is rolling out globally in the “coming days” to the latest version of WhatsApp on both Android and iOS.
The setting can be enabled via system settings for users running the most recent versions of the respective smartphone OSes — or via the WhatsApp settings option on Android:
Users on Android 10 and iOS 13 can use dark mode by enabling it in system settings. Users on Android 9 and below can go into WhatsApp Settings > Chats > Theme > select ‘Dark’.
We’re told iPhone users not running the latest OS are out of luck. “Dark Mode will only be available to users on iOS 13 and above,” said a spokesman.
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Cellphones are our constant companions -- they go with us where we travel, work and sleep. But these trusty sidekicks may be selling out secrets by communicating with nefarious devices using soundwaves too high for us to hear. While previous research has demonstrated how such a one-off attack might be done through the air to secretly access our mobile devices, a new study has now demonstrated a way this can be done across different table surfaces to enact multiple, nefarious commands.
This kind of attack would be able to access your text messages and make fake calls all without you even noticing.
This new kind of attack is called a "SurfingAttack" and is described in a study presented Thursday at the Network and Distributed System Security Symposium in San Diego. The authors write in the study that the name takes its cue from the way the ultrasonic waves used in the attack "surf" across a table's surface.
These ultrasonic waves, called Lamb waves, are designed to be delivered in a frequency range of 20 to 40 kHz and can use previously established methods to mimic voice patterns of a potential target in order to access voice printed devices. To put that frequency in context, a human's average hearing range is only between 2 Hz and 20 kHz, putting this signal just out of range.
The researchers say that the attack is as simple as encoding short messages like "OK Google" or "read messages" into these indecipherable waves and sending them through surfaces to a nearby phone. This SurfingAttack was tested on 17 phones, four different surface types and took primarily two forms: first, having the target phone read a sensitive text message aloud, and second, having the device make a fraudulent phone call.
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Coronavirus: How hackers are exploiting the epidemic to steal your information Karen Roby interviewed a cybersecurity expert about a different threat than COVID-19 brings.
While each of us certainly hopes that coronavirus won't become a major health event in their part of the world, the reality is that businesses are already considering every contingency plan with a close eye towards avoiding serious disruption of their operations.
Remote working, or the practice of working for an extended period outside the formal office, is growing steadily in popularity, enabled by a whole host of digital tools of virtually every description, from Web conferencing and e-mail to mobile collaboration applications and virtual event platforms.
In my long experience with digital productivity and collaboration trends, when it comes to remote work I find that most organizations are still either in the fairly early stages or have not committed enough yet to invest in full blown strategies and enablement. Consequently, no matter who you are, there is usually considerable room to improve the digital employee experience when working outside the office.
So, to help organizations as they prepare for a surge in remote workers as the coronavirus story unfolds around the world, I've put together a fairly comprehensive quick start guide below. This guide will help those organizations just getting started as well as those who may already have existing remote work programs but would like to significantly upgrade their effectiveness to minimize impact to their customers, workers, and suppliers.
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Malware: Mac attacks outpace those on Windows PCs There's been a big jump in cyber criminals going after Mac users, although many of the attacks are limited in scope.
Raccoon might not be the cheapest option on the market but the malware had gained popularity among cybercriminals for its ability to target at least 60 applications, many of which are browsers we use today.
The Raccoon infostealer, also known as Racealer, has attracted a following in underground forums thanks to the aggressive marketing of its wide range of capabilities, use of bulletproof hosting and an easy-to-use backend. The malware is offered at a price of $200 a month and was first spotted by researchers from cybersecurity firm Cybereason in 2019.
While more expensive than other standalone, bareboned offerings, Raccoon's subscription-based model -- which includes technical support, bug fixes, and updates at a relatively cheap Malware-As-A-Service (MaaS) price point -- as well as its overall capabilities have made it a worthwhile investment for cybercriminals seeking to steal data and cryptocurrency.
A new analysis of the malware from Cyberark notes that many infostealers aren't generally sophisticated and use the same variety of techniques to steal information. However, in Raccoon's case, the C++ malware is able to steal data from 35 browsers and 60 overall applications.
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“I had given my heart and soul to the company for 20 years,” Jamie McMahon, 43 from Kingscliff told Tracks. “I thought it was a job for life, and now the rug has been pulled from under my feet.
Speaking from his three-story holiday house at Byron Bay where he has been holed out since the sacking, McMahon said he was more surprised than anyone about his sudden unemployment status.
“I mean we had a massive mainstream company behind us who said surfing was a key strategic pillar of their future growth yield,” he said. “And even when the hedge fund guys took over after the sale, I was certain they’d put surfing first. I can understand getting rid of the athletes and the factory workers, but it’s us marketeers who hold the whole thing together.”
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PC gamers have a time-honored tradition of flexing hard on console peasants who, in their opinion, play on inferior hardware. Microsoft’s Xbox Series X is about to put that tradition to the test, and I’m not sure the PC’s hardware superiority will survive.
The Xbox Series X, now confirmed to have a GPU with 12 teraflops of compute performance, is much quicker than any previous console. It doubles the GPU performance of the Xbox One X, and nearly triples the PlayStation 4 Pro. At the same time, performance gains in PC hardware have stalled. New CPUs and GPUs are quicker than their predecessors, but the gains are slim.
This creates an unusual situation. The Xbox Series X is almost certainly faster than your gaming PC, and the new Xbox will maintain its dominance for years to come. What does that mean for PC gaming?
12 teraflops.
That number, confirmed by Xbox head Phil Spencer on February 24, 2020, is a big deal. The raw compute performance claimed by a component signals roughly (and I do mean roughly) how it stacks up to the competition. It’s a number that puts most of today’s PC gaming rigs to shame.
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A new study indicates the upward trend and far-reaching benefits of remote work for both employee and employer in a wide-range of industries.
Managers have to rely on trust without transparency with remote workers Managers have to change their tactics when people who don't usually work from home start doing so.
Businesses and their employees benefit greatly from the increasingly popular choice of remote or flexible work, a new study from FlexJobs and Global Workplace Analytics revealed. "Most of the discussions about remote work centers around the positive impact that workers and companies experience, but there are also a number of compelling broader economic, societal, and environmental benefits to this future of workplace trend," said Sara Sutton, founder and CEO of FlexJobs, in a release. "In fact, remote work helps support eight of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals. As more and more people join the remote workforce, its impact on people, communities, and the environment will only continue to increase."
SEE: Telecommuting policy (TechRepublic Premium)
The study chronicled the accelerated growth of remote work, which grew 7.9% in the span of a single year, from 2016 to 2017. For the last five years, remote work grew 44%, and over the previous decade, it grew by 91%.
And the increase in preference for remote or flexible work has continued.
Between 2005 and 2017, there was a 159% increase in remote work.
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You've got a brand-new passport and you're ready to finally leave your home country to see something new. Overseas travel can be a ton of fun, but there are also a bunch of considerations you need to make before doing it. One of these is making sure your phone works.
A smartphone is a great way to find things to do, maneuver your way around, and generally document your journey abroad. How are you going to get those Instagram posts off if your phone doesn't work? Maybe you'd like to call a loved one and tell them how things are going, too. That's probably more important.
Unfortunately, you can't just bring your phone as-is to another country and expect it to work without a hitch. That's not how the world works. You probably won't need to get a brand new phone just for your trip, but the options for using your normal phone vary by both convenience and price.
Thankfully, this is something people do every day. As such, there are some well-established and fairly simple ways to just keep using your regular phone in another country. You just have to know what to do, and that's where we come in.
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SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Google is planning to move its British users’ accounts out of the control of European Union privacy regulators, placing them under U.S. jurisdiction instead, sources said.
FILE PHOTO: The Google internet homepage is displayed on a product at a store in London, Britain January 23, 2016. REUTERS/Neil Hall
The shift, prompted by Britain’s exit from the EU, will leave the sensitive personal information of tens of millions with less protection and within easier reach of British law enforcement.
The change was described to Reuters by three people familiar with its plans. Google intends to require its British users to acknowledge new terms of service including the new jurisdiction.
Ireland, where Google and other U.S. tech companies have their European headquarters, is staying in the EU, which has one of the world’s most aggressive data protection rules, the General Data Protection Regulation.
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Avoid these common but costly mistakes to save yourself headaches and cash.
February 10, 2020 9 min read
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Recently, I got a call from a small business owner who was wondering when all the money he was spending on marketing would show returns. His company was running Google AdWords and Facebook ads, they were active on social media, they’d paid a website company to run their website and do their SEO.
I asked him how long he’d been executing his strategy. “Six months,” he told me. My jaw dropped to the floor. “Are you serious?” I said. This guy has flushed over $50,000 down the toilet with nothing to show for it.
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Celebrity influencers like Kylie Jenner reportedly receive around $750,000 USD per sponsored post on Instagram, and Ad Standards notes that around 35% of Canadians between the ages of 18 and 35 have purchased an item because of an influencer’s endorsement. As a reaction to the growing influencer marketing industry, The Fashion Law reports that the Canadian Competition Bureau recently discussed the steps it is taking to better regulate the growing industry and to hold companies accountable for false representation.
Two main concerns of the Bureau are the spreading of false or misleading information like unconfirmed scientific benefits and the failure to disclose material information – both of which mostly apply to beauty products. For all industries, Canadian law requires influencers to disclose any “material connection” between themselves and who/what they are promoting. Material connections include: “received payment in money or commissions, received free products or services, received discounts, received free trips or tickets to events, and has a family or social connection.” Influencers are expected to use specific hashtags like #ad or #sponsored at the beginning of their captions to ensure transparency.
Now, the Bureau has confirmed that it will be enforcing these rules much more strictly, specifically in the health and beauty, fashion, technology and travel industries. In December 2019, it reportedly sent formal letters to around 100 brands and advertising agencies asking them to “review their marketing practices to ensure compliance with the law.” Additionally, the Bureau told the companies that influencer reviews must be based on actual experience using the product or service, otherwise they will face false advertising action.
Elsewhere in business, Twitter has announced a record Q4 revenue of $1.01 billion USD.
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