Google

Twitter Blue Re-Release Pushed Back (Again)

At this point it is uncertain when Musk is going to re-release Twitter Blue which had been slated for this Friday. What is for certain is the price will go up by 1¢ to $8 USD and he does not like giving Apple a 30% cut. This is a continuation of Musk’s current quarrel with Apple Inc. 251,04 +2,91 +1,17%. which Musk had Tweeted about this on Monday claiming Apple ‘threatened to withhold Twitter‘ from the Apple app store (but they would  not say why). Mush hasn’t provide much details about this nor about his below Tweet also from Monday….

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Google News

Still trying to get caught up with the postings after last week’s holiday break. We have a couple items from Google in regards to their Chrome browser and Android (mobile) operating system. Google pushes emergency Chrome update to fix 8th zero-day in 2022. This update was pushed out late Thursday so most users if they have already restarted Chrome will already have the newest patched version. If you are in doubt click the three dots in the upper right and go to Help > About Google Chrome.  If your Google Chrome is up to date you will see the below…

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More Troubles for Android and Apple

It seems like nearly every week the UK or EU are investigating Apple Inc. 251,04 +2,91 +1,17% and/or Google Inc. 189,70 -0,45 -0,24% Android for being ‘anti-competitive’. Earlier this year, the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) was looking into further investigating Google and Apple’s dominance in the mobile phone market “Many UK businesses and web developers tell us they feel that they are being held back by restrictions set by Apple and Google,” said the CMA’s interim chief executive, Sarah Cardell in a statement. “We plan to investigate whether the concerns we have heard are justified and, if so,…

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Fake Android File Manager Apps Removed from Google Play

Once again scammers are getting creative in findings way to get their fake and malicious apps on Google Play. Unsuspecting users install said apps with false sense of security since the apps is offered on Google Play it must be safe (which in most case is true). In the past, most of these malicious apps were more of an annoyance serving adware and performing (ad) click fraud. However, these new fake Android ‘File Manager’ apps are a lot more serious and dangerous. These apps are “clean” when they are uploaded to Google Play, but once install will later ‘phone home’…

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Have You Tried Restarting?

It is a running Tech Support joke: The user is asked if they have restarted their device. It is recommended you restart your devices (phones, tablets, music players and even PC’s) at least once a week. The 2-5 minutes it takes for the device to restart will save you a lot of time in the future with the increased performance. This is even more important for PC’s. A little background: Last week as I normally do towards the end of the week I pre-order our weekend pizza on Dominos. However, this time around Chrome refused to load the site and…

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Google to Settle 40-State Android Tracking Lawsuit

Google Inc. 189,70 -0,45 -0,24% has settled with 40 US State Attorney Generals for tracking Android users since 2014 without their knowledge or permission. All said and done Google will pay out $391 Million USD. Besides the monetary payout, Google has also agreed to make changes to Android privacy settings to make it easier for users to opt-out. While Android users were misled into thinking disabling the “Location History” in the device’s settings would disable location tracking, another account setting—turned on by default and named “Web & App Activity”—enabled the company to collect, store and use the customers’ personally identifiable location…

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Gmail No Longer Allowing Users to use old Layout

First off, while I have several personal and one educational Gmail account, I was not aware Google Inc. 189,70 -0,45 -0,24% had made changes to the interface. I manage all my Gmail accounts via Mozilla Thunderbird email client (which ironically I also use to manage my Google Calendar). I might actually access the web interface maybe once or twice a year if I need to access one of the Gmail accounts on my laptop (not sure why I don’t have Thunderbird installed on that machine). When the new interface was rolled out earlier this year, users could go back to…

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Beware installing Extensions outside of Chrome Web Store

A new malicious Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge browser botnet named ‘Cloud9’ is infecting systems across the world. Users are unknowingly installing this botnet via malicious extensions downloaded from outside the Chrome Web Store. More commonly, users are blinding installing an update to Adobe Flash Player via malicious and faske pop-up when visiting certain none-reputable sites. A reminder, In case you were not aware Adobe ended support for Flash Player nearly 2-years ago on December 30, 2020.  Also, Google Chrome had its own built-in Flash Player support which did not require the user to install any plugins. The malicious Chrome…

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Four More Malicious Adware Apps Discover on Google Play

Here we go again, more malicious apps serving adware, preforming click-fraud and trying to trick mobile users into installing malware were discovered by Malware Bytes. These fours apps are on Google Play in a developer’s account: Mobile apps Group.  These four fraudulent apps have accumulated over 1-Million combined installs. A set of four malicious applications currently available in Google Play, the official store for the Android system, are directing users sites that steal sensitive information or generate ‘pay-per-click’ revenue for the operators. Some of these sites offer victims to download fake security tools or updates, to trick users into installing…

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Chrome Ending Windows 7 & 8.1 Support Next Year

Well, we knew this was bound to happen: Google Inc. 189,70 -0,45 -0,24% has announced starting with Chrome version 110 (expected release early February 2023) the browser will no longer be supported on machines running Windows 7 or 8.1. Users will need to be running Windows 10 or newer in order to use the newer versions of Chrome. Google’s decision to drop support for these platforms matches Microsoft’s Windows lifecycle policy, which lists the Extended Security Update (ESU) program for Windows 7 and the Windows 8.1 end of support on January 10, 2023. Currently, Windows 7 is still running on over 10% of all…

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