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Further Reading UK orders Facebook to sell Giphy, rejects Meta’s proposed merger conditions Instagram? Sure! WhatsApp? Go nuts. But don’t mess with GIFs . That’s the strange position taken by Britain’s competition watchdog in choosing to block Meta’s takeover of GIF repository Giphy. Meta, the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) ruled, must now sell all the GIFs—just 19 months after it reportedly paid $400 million for them. It’s a bold move—and a global first. Further Reading All your reaction GIFs now belong to Facebook, as it buys Giphy for $400M Never before has a tech giant been ordered to press undo on a completed deal rather than pay a fine or make promises about how the newly merged businesses would operate. Meta , the parent company of Facebook , isn’t pleased. A spokesperson says the company disagrees with the decision and that it is considering all options, including an appeal. Usually a cautious bunch, lawyers agree that the CMA’s … [Read more...] about Meta’s failed Giphy deal could end Big Tech’s spending spree

Home / News Not yet Googlers The company will wait until the new year to determine when US employees will be able to return to their offices. Jay Bonggolto 4 Dec 2021 0 Source: Android Central What you need to know Google has canceled its plan to require US employees to return to their offices on January 10. The search giant is deferring decisions on hybrid work setup timelines to its local offices. Google still encourages employees to work in the office "where conditions allow" to gain "muscle memory." Google appears to have pushed back its target date for the mandatory return to office of its US employees to next year. Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google, announced in August that employees would be required to return on January 10, 2022, but this will not be the case. In an email to employees, security vice president Chris Rackow said Google will no longer adopt a hybrid work setup come January 10 in any of its US offices … [Read more...] about Google postpones mandatory return-to-office for US employees yet again

If you want to own cryptocurrency —either because you’re looking to invest or because you want to spend money online—you’re going to need a crypto wallet. Using one will let you keep your crypto safe, while also allowing you to make transactions. What Is a Crypto Wallet? A crypto wallet is nothing like your regular, real-life wallet. Right now, you could probably reach for your wallet, open it up and either take out physical money or put some back in—or at least some kind of payment card. A wallet doesn’t protect your money in any way, except maybe from the weather or getting lost in your bag. A crypto wallet is a different beast entirely. A crypto wallet is more or less your identity when you buy Bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency: its address is how your buying and selling is recorded on the blockchain (and also the reason these currencies aren’t anonymous ). Because of this, technically you don’t need a wallet when doing anything with cryptocurrencies: you could … [Read more...] about What Is a Crypto Wallet?

When you last downloaded a torrent file, you may have been offered a magnet link as an alternative. Magnet links are very different from torrent files and offer some advantages over them that all torrent users should be aware of. How Traditional Torrent Files Work We won’t go into all the details about how BitTorrent works here. But magnet links are an alternative to traditional torrent files. Here’s how traditional torrent files work: Torrent files don’t contain any data of the files you want to download. The file contains a list of torrent trackers (if any) that coordinate all the peers participating in the torrent. It contains information about the files that are being shared, such as their names, sizes, and information needed to do integrity checks on the data. Torrent files can also contain extended information, such as a DHA (Distributed Hash Table) which allows each peer to act as part of a decentralized tracker network. The DHA is an important concept to … [Read more...] about What Is a Magnet Link, and How Do You Use One?

Border Patrol agents are arresting large numbers of Venezuelan migrants at a greater frequency than in past years. The large, mostly Venezuelan migrant groups that at one time almost exclusively entered through the Del Rio, Texas, are now spreading across the southwest border from San Diego, California, to Brownsville, Texas. The groups of predominantly Venezuelans are even crossing into the most remote regions of the border in West Texas. As reported by Breitbart Texas on Wednesday, more than 70 Venezuelan migrants crossed the border through the Big Bend National Park near Alpine, Texas, in two groups. On Thursday, an additional 60 Venezuelan migrants were apprehended after crossing the border illegally and entering the national park. The park is patrolled by agents assigned to the Big Bend Sector of the Border Patrol. The Border Patrol’s Big Bend Sector is the sector with the fewest migrant apprehensions among the nine southwest border sectors. Border Patrol Agents near … [Read more...] about Venezuelan Migrant Apprehensions Surge in All Southwest Border Sectors

Britain’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) has announced plans to double the number of women recruits in the military by 2030. The number of women recruits in the British military will be doubled by 2030 as part of plans announced by the Ministry of Defence on Thursday. An overhaul to the way sexual offences are dealt with will also be implemented as part of a response to a parliamentary inquiry into the treatment of women in the armed forces. Sky News reports that 33 recommendations made by MPs as part of the report were accepted by the Ministry of Defence, though the ministry notably refused one recommendation that involved changing the jurisdiction of sex-related crimes from military courts to civilian ones. The Ministry of Defence also aims to bump the percentage of women recruits to 30 per cent. This number is double its previous goal of 15 per cent, and around two and a half times the current percentage of recruits who are women. The drive comes despite the fact that the … [Read more...] about Britain’s Woke Defence Ministry Wants to Double Women Recruits

Close Samsung Galaxy S21 FE NEW DELHI: Samsung Galaxy S21 FE the much-awaited Galaxy S21 series smartphone is expected to launch early next year. Now a new online report reveals that the smartphone maker is planning to launch the smartphone around the same date in India as the global launch. Samsung is expected to launch the smartphone during the CES 2022 . According to a report by 91Mobiles, Samsung is said to launch the smartphone at the same time in India. The report reveals that the Samsung Galaxy S21 FE is said to launch in January in India. The smartphone was earlier expected to launch at the October Galaxy Unpacked event. The report also claims that the smartphone will be available in limited quantities initially due to the ongoing global chip shortage. The online report further suggests that the smartphone could come in four colour options -- black, white, pink and green. Samsung Galaxy S21 FE expected specifications … [Read more...] about Samsung Galaxy S21 FE expected to launch in January in India: Report

WASHINGTON/SAN FRANCISCO: Apple Inc iPhones of at least nine US State Department employees were hacked by an unknown assailant using sophisticated spyware developed by the Israel-based NSO Group , according to four people familiar with the matter. The hacks, which took place in the last several months, hit US officials either based in Uganda or focused on matters concerning the East African country, two of the sources said. The intrusions, first reported here, represent the widest known hacks of U.S. officials through NSO technology. Previously, a list of numbers with potential targets including some American officials surfaced in reporting on NSO, but it was not clear whether intrusions were always tried or succeeded. Reuters could not determine who launched the latest cyberattacks. NSO Group said in a statement on Thursday that it did not have any indication their tools were used but canceled access for the relevant customers and would investigate … [Read more...] about nso: US State Department phones hacked with Israeli company spyware

MOSCOW: Russia's state communications regulator Roskomnadzor has filed cases against U.S. tech firms Google and Meta that could see fines imposed on their annual turnover in Russia, a Moscow court said. Roskomnadzor in October threatened both Alphabet's Google and Meta's Facebook with fines based on a percentage of their annual turnover for a repeated failure to delete content that Moscow deems illegal. Russian law allows for companies to be fined between 5% and 10% of annual turnover for repeated violations. Moscow's Tagansky District Court said court dates for both companies - neither of which immediately responded to a request for comment - were set for Dec. 24. Russia has increased pressure on foreign tech companies as it seeks to assert greater control over the Internet, slowing down Twitter since March and routinely fining others for content violations. Google has paid more than 32 million roubles in fines this year. Google, Twitter and Meta have … [Read more...] about google: Russia files court cases for fines on annual turnover of Google, Meta

The Software Freedom Conservancy (SFC) , a non-profit organization that promotes open-source software and defends the free software General Public License (GPL) , sued major TV vendor Vizio for abusing the GPL. Specifically, Vizio is using Linux's source code and other open-source software, such as BusyBox, U-Boot, bash, gawk, tar, Glibc, and FFmpegis, in its SmartCast OS TV firmware. These programs are protected under the GPL version 2 (GPLv2) and the Lesser GPL (LGPL) . Also: Software Freedom Conservancy sues Vizio for GPL violations All the SFC requires is that Vizio makes this code available to the public as per its licenses. Vizio won't hear of it. As Bradley M. Kuhn, the SFC's Hacker-in-Residence, and Karen M. Sandler, the SFC's Executive Director, wrote in a recent blog post , Vizio has not released the source code. Nor has the company proposed a Complete Corresponding Source (CCS) candidate for the SFC. With the latter, the SFC could have provided … [Read more...] about Open-source Vizio lawsuit takes an ugly turn