What’s new
Lenovo and Intel unveiled the first PCs with built-in FIDO authentication standards
The FIDO Alliance, backed by organisations such as Samsung, Microsoft and Google, supports the elimination of passwords altogether. Lenovo and Intel’s latest innovation has debuted the first implementation of FIDO standards directly into PCs. The integrated FIDO authenticators will support both a Universal Authentication Framework (UAF) and Universal 2nd Factor (U2F), and will utilise Intel Online Connect, which is available on the 7th and 8th Gen Intel Core™ processors.
You can read more here.
A ransomware is causing major issues across Europe and Russia
A new ransomware attack named BadRabbit is spreading through Russia, Ukraine, and other Eastern European countries. Targeting corporate networks, computer systems for the Kiev Metro, Ukraine’s Odessa International Airport, several Russian media outlets, and others have been affected, with systems encrypted and computers displaying a ransom message.
More info are available here.
New products
Misfit Vapor
The smartwatch has a 1.39-inch AMOLED touchscreen, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 2100 processor, 4 GB of internal storage, and water resistance of up to 50 meters. The device also has all Wear 2.0’s features, including Google Assistant.
More info here.
BLU Vivo 8L
The phone has a 5.3-inch HD display, a MediaTek MT6753 SoC and 3 GB of RAM. It comes with a 20-megapixel Super-Selfie camera, a 4,000mAh battery and 32GB of internal storage.
More info here.
You might want to know about this
Apple acquires wireless charging company PowerbyProxi
Apple announced the acquisition, for an undisclosed amount, and senior vice president of hardware engineering Dan Riccio told Fairfax Media that PowerbyProxi was a great addition to the team. Last month Apple announced its plans for wireless charging technology at the iPhone 8 and iPhone X launch event in California.
You can read more here.
Twitter will soon label political ads and let users see current paid ad campaigns
Twitter described how it will soon start to label political ads, likely by adding a purple dot beside the account’s name along with some text along the bottom reading “Promoted by” and a small purple square. In addition, the company will limit which criteria can be used to target people and will introduce a “stronger” penalty on those who do not abide by the new rules.
More info can be found here.
Fun stuff
The iKettle is a smart way of making tea
The iKettle comes with an iOS and Android app so users can control the kettle from just about anywhere. It has the option of adjust the water temperature and make tea as soon as the user gets home from work.
You can read more here.
