American tech giant Microsoft will be changing its famous Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) to a black one in its upcoming Windows 11 operating system. According to The Verge, the software giant started testing its new design changes in a Windows 11 preview earlier this week; but the Black Screen of Death isn’t fully enabled yet. This new switch for Windows 11, is in pace with the new black logon and shutdown screens. It’s the first major change to the BSOD since Microsoft added a sad face to the screen in Windows 8 in 2012, and QR codes in 2016.…
Author: Abiodun A.
A factory-fresh Tesla Model S Plaid flared up, with its driver barely escaping; before turning into a giant fireball and lighting up skies in a Philadelphia neighborhood for about three hours. The electric car burst into flames on Wednesday in Haverford, Pennsylvania. It ignited around 9pm local time, according to the Gladwyne Volunteer Fire Company; who said in a now-deleted post that the crew battled the raging fire for about three hours. Fortunately for the neighborhood and the firefighters; the two fire engines that responded had undergone Tesla-specific training and were able to “deploy hand lines to extinguish the fire;…
The Department of State Services (DSS) claims men suspected to be guards of Sunday Igboho engaged operatives of the agency in a gun battle during a raid on the home of the Yoruba Nation agitator in Ibadan on Thursday morning. This is according to the DSS spokesman, Peter Afunanya, who stated this during a press conference on Thursday following the arrest of 13 of Igboho’s armed men by a team of joint security operatives. The raid, according to Afunanya, followed intelligence that Igboho was stockpiling arms to cause chaos within the southwest region. “On approach to his residence, the…
TikTok, the short-video social-media platform popular among teens; said it removed more than 7 million accounts belonging to children under 13 during the first quarter; taking a significant step in enforcing the required age of users on the app. Of more than 11.1 million accounts that were removed for violating the app’s guidelines, 7.26 million of them were from users suspected of being under the age guidelines; the company said in a blog post on Wednesday. It was the first time TikTok published the number of underage accounts it expunged. In the US, internet sites are required to obtain parental…
In yet another setback for Twitter in India, the messaging platform has come under attack for its actions here. Twitter had blocked accounts of Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and Congress MP Shashi Tharoor without any warning. Now, according to PTI sources, a Parliamentary panel has given the micro-blogging app just 48 hours to explain why it had taken such an extreme step. This newest development has further added to the already simmering row in which Twitter is involved with the government over its acts of omission and commission; including interpretation of new IT rules and for not following local…
Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State has challenged the Federal Government to also arrest members of armed Fulani groups for carrying out attacks on farming communities in parts of the country. Ortom said such a move is imperative even as the country’s food sufficiency policy is currently being threatened by the willful killings across the nation. Governor Ortom who made the call in Makurdi, during the flag-off of the 2021 subsidized fertilizer sale at 50% per NPK 50kg bag from the initial twelve thousand Naira to Six thousand Naira, said he has no problem with the arrest of the leader…
Dozens of satellites launched to space on Tuesday in SpaceX’s second in-house “ride-share” mission from Florida; bringing the total number of orbital objects carried by Elon Musk’s space company this year to nearly 900. A reused Falcon 9 rocket launched 88 satellites total for the “Transporter-2” mission; including the first five for a new Pentagon agency and dozens more for various companies, countries, and schools. SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket lifted off at 3:31PM ET from Cape Canaveral, Florida; marking the company’s 20th launch this year and the eighth flight for the rocket’s first stage booster. That booster returned to Earth…
India’s central bank warned about the growing presence of technology giants in the country’s digital financial services as well as payment systems which could pose a financial stability risk. In its semi-annual financial stability report, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) flagged concerns over what it called ‘Big Techs;’ saying they have the potential to become dominant players in financial services that risks them becoming “too-big-to-fail.” “Specifically, concerns have intensified around a level playing field with banks, operational risk; too-big-to-fail issues, challenges for antitrust rules, cyber security as well as data privacy,” the RBI said in the report Thursday. While…
Apple Inc. plans to test a hybrid in-store and work-from-home arrangement for retail employees; acknowledging that consumers may continue to prefer online shopping even as the pandemic eases, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The Cupertino, California-based technology giant will begin a pilot program later this year dubbed “Retail Flex” with a small number of store employees. The arrangement will allow employees to work some weeks at their retail store location and other weeks remotely. From home, workers will handle online sales, customer service and technical support; said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing company…
In what will horrify users, a massive LinkedIn data breach has been reported and almost everybody on it has been impacted. A new report suggests that the networking site for professionals has been hit by another breach. This time, over 700 million users appear to have been affected; accounting for over 92 percent of users on the platform. Amazingly, the first anyone heard about this data breach; was when the hacker himself announced it! The users need to be very worried indeed as email addresses; full names, phone numbers, physical addresses are being offered on sale and perhaps, passwords too.…
Google will clamp down on financial fraud on its platform in Britain; saying on Wednesday that all financial services will need to be verified by the regulator before they can advertise. Britain’s financial watchdog issued 1,200 consumer warnings last year about scams advertised via social media platforms by fake companies; double the number in 2019. Google, which is part of US tech giant Alphabet Inc, said in a blog post it will begin enforcing the new policy; which follows calls from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to vet paid promotions, from September 6. “While this is an important step from…
The National Security Adviser (NSA), Major General Babagana Monguno (Rtd), has stated that in order to deal decisively with the complex nature of terrorism and other transnational organized crimes, the international community must see the threat of terrorism to a particular country as a threat to global peace and security. The NSA made this statement earlier in the week, at the ongoing Second United Nations High-Level Conference of Heads of Counter-Terrorism Agencies of members states, convened by the United Nations Secretary-General, Mr. Antonio Guterres, at the United Nations Headquarters in New York. General Monguno said terrorism has continued to manifest…
It was another bad day for some criminal elements operating in Kogi State as two kidnappers were gunned down in the early hours of Tuesday while collecting ransom from the families of their victims from one of the neighboring states. Following an actionable intelligence report, professional hunters in the Okehi Local Government Area of the Kogi ambushed the kidnappers who came out in the Abobo area behind the Nigerian Iron Ore Mining Company, Itakpe, to collect the ransom demanded before the release of their victims. Two of the three kidnappers were killed in the process while one escaped into the…
Zoom has announced that it’s acquiring a company known as Kites (short for Karlsruhe Information Technology Solutions); which has worked on creating real-time translation and transcription software. Zoom says the acquisition is a move; to help it make communicating with people who speak different languages easier, and that it’s looking to add translation capabilities to its video conferencing app. According to its site, Kites began at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, and its technology was originally developed to act as in-classroom translation for students; who needed help understanding the English or German their professors were lecturing in. Zoom already has…
Many WhatsApp users on Android have been reporting that they’ve been losing their media content on the app. This issue seems to have affected some users and has been seen post the latest WhatsApp update. Users with WhatsApp version 2.21.9.2 and 2.21.9.3 on Android have been impacted and also those with the latest update. While WhatsApp is yet to acknowledge the issue and provide a fix, there is a way to work around this and bring back your media content. As WABetaInfo pointed out on Twitter, some users have noticed that they have been unable to find their media content,…
Microsoft announced last week that Windows 11 would start rolling out to Windows 10 users this holiday season; with the company also working on PC OEMs to start shipping new Windows 11 PCs at the same period. While the software giant is planning to release the first Windows 11 preview build to Windows Insiders later this week; many signs are currently pointing at an October release for the new OS. First of all, sources familiar with Microsoft’s plans have told The Verge that “the company is aiming to release Windows 11 in October; ready for new devices from OEMs.” Microsoft…
The Leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu has been rearrested and brought back to Nigeria. He was intercepted on June 27. Kanu is expected to be re-arraigned before the Federal High Court for the continuation of his trial. This was made known at a briefing in Abuja on Tuesday by the Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami. According to Mr Malami, Justice Binta Nyako of the Federal High Court in Abuja has granted the Federal Government’s application to detain the IPOB leader in a DSS facility ahead of the continuation of his trial. Justice Nyako also granted…
Qualcomm announced its next generation Snapdragon 888 Plus smartphone chipset; set to bring a “Premium Tier” upgrade to phones from Asus, Motorola, Xiaomi, and more arriving in the second half of 2021. Revealed during the MWC Barcelona 2021 conference; the Snapdragon 888 Plus 5G model offers up an increased Qualcomm Kryo 680 CPU Prime core clock speed; with an “exact” CPU clock frequency at 2.995 GHz — a bump up from the Snapdragon 888’s 2.84 GHz. According to Qualcomm, the new smartphone chip’s 6th generation Qualcomm AI Engine will offer a 20% improvement over the last chip; with up to…
In this day and age, even if a small company’s app crashes, it becomes kind of unacceptable. When that happens to a mega corporation, it really goes beyond that. We are talking about the Snapchat app which was crashing every time you clicked on it. While those carrying an Android smartphones were safe and could go on their merry ways and share snaps at will; but those who have Apple iPhones, iOS to be precise, were facing a tough time. The issue stemmed from the fact that every time a user wanted to boot up Snapchat by clicking on it;…
Amazon has announced a new feature for its Kids Plus service on Fire tablets and Echo smart speakers called Reading Sidekick. Designed to help kids improve their reading skills and ability; the Reading Sidekick allows kids to read either physical or digital books along with Alexa by taking turns at reading the books aloud with the digital assistant. The Reading Assistant is included in the Kids Plus service that comes with the Kids edition Fire tablets and Echo speakers or as a $2.99 per month ($4.99 without Amazon Prime); or $69 per year ($99 without Prime) subscription plan and is…