Apple announced on Wednesday it will loosen some of its App Store policies, allowing media apps to steer customers directly to their websites without paying commission. The change, to be implemented early next year, is being introduced to end an investigation by the Japan Fair Trade Commission. The modification will spare so-called reader apps that provide digital content such as newspapers, books, music or video from having to use the App Store payment system and thus avoid paying a 30 percent commission. “We have great respect for the Japan Fair Trade Commission and appreciate the work we’ve done together, which…
Author: Abiodun A.
The police authorities in Kaduna state say they have arrested two suspects in connection with the abduction of 39 students of Federal College of Forestry Mechanisation, Afaka, in Igabi Local Government Area of Kaduna State. The Public Relations officer of the command, Mohammed Jalige, told reporters in a telephone interview that the suspects were arrested around Askolaye area of Nnamdi Azikiwe bypass in Kaduna metropolis on Tuesday. He noted that police operatives were able to arrest the two suspects through credible intelligence information following the incident, which occurred in March. The police spokesman also said that the suspects are in…
The Defence Headquarters (DHQ) says troops of Operation Hadarin Daji have killed 15 bandits and arrested 66 criminals alongside their collaborators within the North-West Zone in the last three weeks. 9 Defence spokesman, Brigadier-General Bernard Onyeuko, disclosed this while giving an update on the operations of the armed forces across the country on Thursday in Abuja. General Onyeuko while stressing that the figures are for operations between 12th August and 2nd September 2021, further disclosed that no fewer than 33 kidnap victims were rescued by troops during the period. He added that two armed robbers were neutralised and 13…
Police in Katsina State have arrested 18 suspects in connection with banditry, kidnapping, cattle rustling, and other related crimes. One of the suspects simply identified as Abdullahi Mai-Rafi is a notorious bandit who according to the police conspired with two others and disguised as government officials to commit armed robbery and indulged in the rustling of cattle numbering up to 20. Prior to his latest arrest, Mai-Rafi had allegedly repented from his old ways and was working with the state government under the office of S.A on Security matters, Ahmad Ibrahim Katsina. While parading the suspects before the command headquarters…
Facebook-owned WhatsApp has been fined a record 225 million euros ($267 million); by Ireland’s data watchdog for breaching EU data privacy rules. Ireland’s Data Protection Commission said Thursday; that WhatsApp did not tell citizens in the European Union enough about what it does with their data. The regulator said WhatsApp failed to tell Europeans how their personal information is collected and also used; as well as how WhatsApp shares data with Facebook. It has ordered the platform, which is used by 2 billion people worldwide; to tweak its privacy policies and how it communicates with users so that it complies…
The Department of State Services (DSS) has released eight of the 12 aides of Yoruba Nation agitator, Sunday Adeyemo, also known as Sunday Igboho, in its custody. Lawyer to the detainees, Pelumi Olajengbesi, confirmed their release on Monday at a press conference in Abuja. The detained persons have been in the custody of the security agency 61 days after they were arrested by security operatives in early July. Those released on August 30 are Abdullateef Onaolapo, Tajudeen Irinloye, Diekola Ademola, Ayobami Donald, Uthman Adelabu, Olakunle Oluwapelumi, Raji Kazeem, and Taiwo Tajudeen. The DSS, however, refused to release the remaining four…
Yesterday, we wrote how Microsoft’s Windows 11 won’t technically leave millions of PCs behind;— the company told us it won’t actually block you from installing Windows 11 on a PC with an older CPU; so long as you download and manually install an ISO file all by yourself. But it turns out even that technicality has a technicality. Microsoft is now threatening to withhold Windows Updates from your copy of Windows 11 — potentially even security updates — if you take that route. We’re not sure why the company didn’t mention it in our original briefing; but Microsoft has…
China’s regulators announced a new set of tighter regulations over the country’s games industry, including limiting the number of hours that minors can play. The new rules are aimed at curbing excessive indulgence in games and protecting minors’ physical and mental health. Online game providers can only offer services to minors for an hour on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, Xinhua reported, citing a notice released by National Press and Publication Administration. They can also play only an hour a day during holidays. The new rules are part of a broader government crackdown on technology companies in the country. Tencent Holdings…
Finally a fun iPhone 13 rumor! If Apple holds to its traditional schedule we’re mere weeks away from a new iPhone; and until now the rumors have been slight and, dare I say boring. Yet noted Apple prognosticator and analyst Ming-Chi Kuo is now claiming the iPhone 13 could have the ability to make satellite calls built right in, according to MacRumors. In a note to investors, Kuo claims that; the iPhone 13 will be able to connect directly to low earth orbit (or LEO) satellites thanks to a customized Qualcomm X60 baseband chip. LEO satellites are probably best known…
Clubhouse began rolling out a iOS app update on Sunday that enables spatial audio support. The Android update is “coming soon,” according to the company. The feature works by introducing subtle spatial cues that position speakers on Clubhouse calls into three-dimensional space around your head, making the remote listening experience a better approximation of being in a room full of people. It works best with headphones, either Bluetooth or wired. Clubhouse tweeted out a video allowing you to hear for yourself how it sounds. Hear ye, hear ye spAAaAaAatial audio on Clubhouse! It’s like surround sound, but w/ your own…
Rocket builder Astra Space on Saturday launched its first rocket since the company went public. After a wobbly liftoff, the rocket failed to achieve its goal of reaching orbit. At liftoff, the rocket appeared to move sideways rather than straight up. Astra founder, chairman and CEO Chris Kemp told CNBC that about a second into the flight; one engine shut down. The company is currently investigating the reason. Astra founder and Chief Technology Officer Adam London added that the system performed relatively well under the circumstances. The rocket had sufficient thrust even with one engine out to very slowly lift…
Snapchat had introduced Scan two years ago to make it easier for its users to access the world around them with the Snap camera. Now the platform is rolling out its next generation of Scan with increased functionality that will allow users to find helpful experiences across categories like fashion, food, plants, etc. The next generation Scan has already begun rolling out globally to iOS users and Android users will be getting it over the next few weeks. Initially, when Snapchat rolled out Scan, it was restricted to scanning Snapcodes to unlock AR experiences. The company realised that this was…
About a week ago, T-Mobile experienced a data breach in which a lot of customer data was stolen. How much data? It was initially said to have affected over 100 million customers; but later T-Mobile’s official figures put it around 50 million, which is still a lot of users who have been affected. That being said, T-Mobile’s CEO has since stepped forward and publicly apologized to the company’s customers. In an open letter on its website; T-Mobile’s CEO Mike Sievert apologized to customers while sharing additional details of the attack and what they’ve learnt so far. According to Sievert, “Attacks…
As I reported recently, WhatsApp has got a lot of great new functionality over the past six months, and looks set for more great features; too, with emojis reportedly coming to the messaging app shortly. And, talking of the WhatsApp application; another really exciting piece of news that has just dropped this week is that; the app is reportedly coming to Apple iPad models and Android tablets. The news comes courtesy of WABetaInfo, who stated earlier this week that not only is the WhatsApp development team working on multi-device 2.0 functionality; but also that when the new functionality is ready…
The official Twitter account for the British Embassy in Afghanistan has been deleted without explanation; with the page suddenly disappearing just as UK forces wrap up chaotic evacuation efforts in Kabul. The embassy’s Twitter handle, created in 2013 and boasting more than 109,000 followers; appears to have been deactivated sometime on Friday; leaving observers online baffled as the government has yet to offer any reasoning for the decision. The official website for the embassy notes that operations at its Kabul mission are “temporarily suspended in response to the deterioration in the security situation” in Afghanistan; though it’s unclear why the…
After Amazon took aim at his Starlink satellite internet project, SpaceX’s Elon Musk fired a verbal shot at Jeff Bezos; sarcastically claiming he retired to take up a “full-time job filing lawsuits” against the aerospace firm. The latest salvo in an ongoing one-sided war of words was prompted by a letter an Amazon subsidiary sent this week to the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC); in which it urged the agency to reject SpaceX’s plans to deploy another group of satellites to power Starlink. Earlier in the month, Blue Origin – the rival space firm headed by Bezos; – sued NASA…
Three of the world’s largest internet companies have been hit with hefty financial penalties; after a Russian court ruled they had fallen foul of rules requiring them to process users’ private data exclusively within the country. On Thursday, media watchdog Roskomnadzor issued a statement confirming that; Moscow’s Tagansky Court had slapped steep fines on three American social platforms, microblogging site Twitter, messaging service WhatsApp and its parent company, Facebook. “By court order, WhatsApp was fined 4 million rubles ($54,000),” officials said. “Facebook – 15 million rubles (around $200,000); Twitter – 17 million rubles. ($230,000) for repeated violations of the requirements…
Microsoft says it has warned thousands of its cloud computing clients of a recently discovered flaw that left their data vulnerable for y8an extended period. The problem involved keys used to access Azure’s flagship database service Cosmos DB, and was discovered two weeks ago by cybersecurity company Wiz. “Imagine our surprise when we were able to gain complete unrestricted access to the accounts and databases of several thousand Microsoft Azure customers; including many Fortune 500 companies,” Wiz said on its blog Thursday. Companies including Coca-Cola and Exxon-Mobil use Cosmos DB “to manage massive volumes of data around the world in…
A person claiming to be behind the T-Mobile data breach that exposed almost 50 million people’s info has come forward to reveal his identity and to criticize T-Mobile’s security; according to a report by The Wall Street Journal. John Binns told the WSJ that he was behind the attack and provided evidence that he could access accounts associated with it, and he went into detail about how he was able to pull it off and why he did it. According to Binns, he was able to get customer (and former customer) data from T-Mobile by scanning for unprotected routers. He…
With the COVID-19 lockdown, we realised that our smartphones and laptops have become integral parts of our lives. We have been spending most of the hours of our day looking at our laptop screens; which is why we need to ensure that the display technology that we are using is the best. Asus wants to solve this by introducing a wide range of OLED panel laptops. The company has already launched two OLED laptops in India under its ZenBook series. With such a surge in OLED based laptops, we were excited to get answers to some of our questions. Mr.…