Today is Sunday, October 23rd: time for the weekly roundup of the good, the bad and the ugly tech news of the week! The Good ‘Car feature’ subscriptions are not that common in the US (except for Tesla’s Full Self Driving) and are the practice of having to pay a monthly subscription fee in order to use a feature that is already installed in the car. In the UK and Korea, BMW is selling autos with heated seats installed, however in order to use this feature consumers must pay BMW a monthly subscription (even though they have already paid for…
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Google Inc. 157,46 +0,58 +0,37% has removed 16 apps from their Playstore that have been found to be performing ad (click) fraud. In addition they were casing users device battery’s to deplete and in some cases causing users to exceeded their data caps. Furthermore, these 16 apps had a combined install base of around 20 million. The apps provided legitimate functions, including flashlight, camera, QR reading, and measurement conversions, security firm McAfee said on Wednesday. When opened, however, the apps surreptitiously downloaded additional code that caused them to perform ad fraud. From then on, infected devices received messages through the Google-owned…
Texas has filed suit against Google Inc. 157,46 +0,58 +0,37% for alleged user privacy violations. There have been a handful of states which are suing or have already settled with Google. This is case is slightly different then the one Google recently settle in Arizona for illegal Android tracking. Texas is claiming Google has been collecting and using biometric data belonging to millions of Texans without their permission. The Texas AG says that Google allegedly used products and services like Google Photos, Google Assistant, and Nest Hub Max to collect a vast array of biometric identifiers, including voiceprints and records…
Google Inc. 157,46 +0,58 +0,37% has been fined yet again for ‘anti-competitive practices’ with its Android mobile OS. This time around it is India which is their largest market by user base. The commission has slapped Google with a small $162 million fine. I say small as Google’s MONTHLY revenue works out to be around $21.5 Billion. The Competition Commission of India found the following in their investigations: Google has perpetuated its dominant position in the online search market resulting in denial of market access for competing search apps in contravention of Section 4(2)(c) of the Act. Google has leveraged…
On Tuesday, October 18th Google Inc. 157,46 +0,58 +0,37% has released an updated version of Chrome for Android. This update focuses mostly on User Interface and Quality of Life improvements with tabs in the Android version of the browser. However, this update does not include the desktop feature Tab Groups. This feature will be added to the Android version of Chrome, just not with this release. Google has turned its attention to tablets with today’s Chrome on Android update, which focuses on improving tab navigation. The update introduces a side-by-side tab design that makes swapping open pages easier, and an…
Earlier this month YouTube was asking some non-Premium users to upgrade to a Premium Subscription to view 4K content. There were concerns YouTube might be placing 4K content behind a paywall. Turns out it was just an experiment to “gauge users’ reactions”. In a tweet, YouTube confirmed the end of the experiment and said, “viewers should now be able to access 4K quality resolutions without Premium membership.” So all users can now watch videos at the highest resolution without paying for a subscription. It is not clear if their ‘experiment’ was only to last two weeks or they were able to…
Apple Inc. 168,00 -1,38 -0,81% iPhone 14 came out this fall with a starting MSRP of $799 USD. Recently an unopened first generation (2007) 8 GB iPhone went up for auction. The starting bid was $2500 USD and sold for a little over $33K USD. The very first iPhone came with a 3.5-inch screen, a 2-megapixel camera, and a web browser. When the late Apple co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs first introduced it 15 years ago, he called it a combination of “an iPod, a phone, and an internet communicator” all in one. “This factory sealed, first-release example is in exceptional…
Today is Sunday, October 9th: time for the weekly roundup of the good, the bad and the ugly tech news of the week! The Good Finally some good news with the Windows 11 2022 Update (22H2). Coming later this month….(may be as early as this ‘Patch Tuesday’ the 11th?) are the additional set of experiences for Windows 11. Two big features/experiences for those who have already upgrade to the 22H2 update will include the Tabbed File Explorer and improved taskbar. The Bad Google Chrome is one of the most popular browsers for non-mobile users. Unfortunately, that popularity makes it a…
Google Inc. 157,46 +0,58 +0,37% Chrome is the most popular browser amongst non-mobile users. With that being said so far in 2022 there have been a lot of vulnerabilities (303 to be exact). Yes, that is a lot. However, given Chrome is the most popular browser it is only natural hackers/scammers are going to go out of their way to find exploits to maximize their profits. This is the same reason Microsoft Corporation 411,84 -2,74 -0,66% Window’s has always been the primary target for OS exploits because of the larger user base. When the World Wide Web took off in…
Another day and another tech company getting a slap on the wrist punishment for illegal user tracking and other privacy violations. This time around it’s Google’s turn with the state of Arizona fining Google Inc. 157,46 +0,58 +0,37% a measly $85 million dollars. I say measly because Google/Alphabet’s revenue in Fiscal Year 2021 was $258 Billion or $64.5 Billion Quarterly or $21.5 Billion Monthly. $85 million works out to three one-hundredths of a percent (.03%) of their annual revenue. Recall Google’s Android division failed to overturn an EU anti-trust ruling and ended up with a reduced fine of around $4…