The thanksgiving day

Did you get a Valentine's Day text message on November 7? If so, you can blame a company called Syniverse, which provides text-messaging services to major mobile carriers. Syniverse helps deliver text messages via its intercarrier messaging service and boasts that it is "Connected to more than 300 operators" and processes 600 billion messages per month. Syniverse says it delivers 99.8% of messages within one second. But a server failure caused many messages—exactly 168,149, according to The Washington Post—to be delivered nearly nine months late. (Update: Syniverse later acknowledged that the actual number of late messages was higher, but isn't saying exactly how many there were. See the update later in this article for more.) "The texts appeared to be sent or received from cellphones with different operating systems and a wide range of carriers, including Sprint, T-Mobile, AT&T, and Verizon," the Post noted yesterday. The incident highlights how mobile carriers … [Read more...] about Why more than 168,000 Valentine’s day text messages arrived in November

Greetings, Arsians! The Dealmaster is back with another round of deals to share. Today's list is headlined by a deal on Google's Pixel 3a and Pixel 3a XL phones, unlocked models of which are both $50 off. That brings them to $349.99 and $429.99, respectively. While some retailers bundled the phones with $100 store gift cards when they first launched, this marks the biggest outright discount we've seen for the devices from reputable stores to date. Further ReadingGoogle Pixel 3A hands-on: The only Pixel phone to buyThat's notable, since the Pixel 3a was already a great value at its normal price point. We've recommended it a few times in the past, but the gist is that it gives you most of the better features of the full-fat Pixel 3 for half the original price. Namely, its camera is tremendous for a sub-$500 phone and still rivals those from higher-end Android flagships. Its OLED display is good for the money, it works with all the major US carriers, and you get first priority on Android … [Read more...] about Dealmaster: Google’s Pixel 3a phone is a better value at $350 today

LOS ANGELES—Without its direct console rival Sony anywhere in sight at this year's E3, the team behind Xbox took advantage with a Sunday press conference that revolved around games, games, and more games. In particular, Microsoft finally began paying forward its investment in various acquisitions over the past couple of years to make a huge Xbox Game Studios statement in the form of legitimate gameplay variety. Further ReadingMicrosoft reveals first details on “Project Scarlett” game console for 2020Even with that in mind, nobody in the room was surprised to see one game elicit the loudest response: Halo Infinite, now confirmed for "holiday 2020" as a launch title for the code-named Xbox Scarlett console. "We lost. We lost everything." Unlike the game's E3 2018 tease, this year's reveal revolved around "game engine footage" that bordered on the kind of stuff you'd expect from a pre-rendered sequence. This quality came primarily from lengthy zooms on an unnamed … [Read more...] about Xbox at E3:

Every so often a story comes along which is unremarkable on its face but erupts into wider attention because it seems to represent some larger social fracture zone. …And then there’s the recent story of mismanagement and malfeasance at Away, which has caught the tech world’s attention because it seems a shibboleth for all the industry’s fault lines. This story is whatever you want it to be. It’s a tale of exploitation of the poor and struggling by executives born rich and privileged; of the unfair, disproportionately harsh and negative scrutiny that women CEOs get; of the inherent cultural toxicity of constant surveillance (Away banned emails and DMs, insisting that all communication took place in public Slack channels); of the need for tech workers fo unionize; of the need for young workers to toughen up and live in the real world, which sometimes has asshole bosses. Fine, I’ll take a paragraph break, but I’m not done: a tale of how not to … [Read more...] about Away with them

The Internet of Things (IoT) is an essential part of enterprise IT infrastructure, so it's only natural to include IoT projects when planning budgets for 2019.IoT is long past the hype stage; now it's time to implement projects, according to Richard Mark Soley, executive director of the Industrial Internet Consortium. Special Feature Special report: Tech Budgets 2019: A CXO's Guide (free PDF) This ebook, based on the latest ZDNet/TechRepublic special feature, explores how decision makers will get the maximum benefit from their IT dollars. Read More "Companies that ignore industrial IoT today will be laggards, no question, and that means they have to budget at least a test project for 2019," he said. The most effective way IoT projects will have an impact on 2019 IT budget planning is by demonstrating the needs they have the ability to address, whether it's solving business challenges, driving revenue, saving costs or most importantly, solving security issues, which is the … [Read more...] about Five ways IoT projects can power your 2019 IT budget planning