Tech giant Apple has recalled two different types of plug adapter because of a possible risk of electric shock. Which Adapters? The affected plugs are the two-prong AC wall plug adapter that came with Macs and some iOS devices between 2003 and 2010, and the three prong plug that was included with Apple’s World Travel Adapter Kit.  Apple USB power adapters are not affected. The two prong AC wall plug adapter recall concerns those shipped from 2003 to 2015 with Mac and certain iOS devices, included in the Apple World Travel Adapter Kit, and made for use in Continental Europe, [...]

Many charities and other non-profit organisations that use .org, .biz or .info domains have complained that proposals to lift the price cap on those domains could lead to the price rocketing. What Price Cap? The price cap on .org domains was originally put in place by the US Department of Justice at a time when only a few top-level domains were available and offered a level of price protection to the mainly non-profit groups and organisations that used those domains. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann) oversees the web's domain name system and is the organisation that [...]

Chat App and collaborative working tool Slack appears to have given up the fight to eliminate email by allowing the introduction of new tools that enable Slack collaboration features inside Gmail and Outlook, thereby building a more inclusive ‘email bridge’. What Is Slack? Slack, launched 'way back' in 2013, is a cloud-based set of proprietary team collaboration tools and services. It provides mobile apps for iOS, Android, Windows Phone, and is available for the Apple Watch, enabling users to send direct messages, see mentions, and send replies. Slack teams enable users (communities, groups, or teams) to join through a URL [...]

California-based startup ‘ManyChat’ has raised $18 million Series A funding for its Facebook Messenger marketing bot. ManyChat ManyChat Inc. is now the leading messenger marketing product, reportedly powering over 100,000 bots on Facebook Messenger. ManyChat lets you use visual drag`n`drop interface to create a free Facebook Messenger bot for marketing, sales and support.  The bot is essentially a Facebook Page that sends out messages and responds to users automatically. The ManyChat bot allows you to welcome new users, send them content, schedule posts, set up keyword auto-responses (text, pictures, menus), automatically broadcast your RSS feed and more. The bot, which [...]

Developer James Fisher has reported that small changes could be made to Chrome for Android that could enable fake URLs to be displayed and users to be ‘jailed’ in a fake browser, thereby leaving them vulnerable to being duped into visiting fake, malicious pages. Fake URL Display Mr Fisher explains on his website about the possible new phishing method here: https://jameshfisher.com/2019/04/27/the-inception-bar-a-new-phishing-method/ . According to Mr Fisher, if you visit his page URL (as shown above) on Chrome for mobile (Android) and scroll a little way, the page displays itself as hsbc.com.  He reports that this is because, as a result of the few [...]

A study by the UK's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) into breached passwords has revealed that 123456 featured 23 million times, making it the most widely-used password on breached accounts. Top Five Easy-To-Guess Passwords The study, which analysed public databases of breached accounts to discover which words, phrases and strings were most popularly used, also found that the second-most popular string was 123456789, and that the words "qwerty" and "password", and the string 1111111 all featured in the top five most popular breached passwords. Names & Football Teams The study revealed that people routinely use Christian names and the names [...]

Microsoft has announced that if your PC has a USB device or SD card attached it will not be possible to upgrade the computer to the Windows 10 May 2019 Update because of an “Inappropriate drive reassignment” issue. The Scenario On its support site, Microsoft has announced that an attempt to upgrade a computer with the Windows 10 May 2019 Update will result in an error message being displayed if the following three factors are in place: You're running a Windows-10 based computer that has either the April 2018 Update (Windows 10, version 1803) or the October 2018 Update (Windows 10, [...]

SMEs that need to have multiple users (connecting to and using the same remote computer) but only have a (less-expensive) Microsoft 365 Business subscription have been given a boost by Microsoft in the form expanded rights with the imminent roll-out of SCA for Microsoft 365 Business. What Is SCA? Shared Computer Activation (SCA) is a service that allows a business to deploy Office 365 on a computer that is accessed by multiple users. SCA That Doesn’t Count Against The Device Limit The latest announcement from Microsoft means that Microsoft 365 Business subscribers (who would normally only be able to install [...]

After a six-month trial by the Government Digital Service (GDS) with a view to future-proofing the delivery of online services for citizens, 12,000 items of government information can now be accessed via voice-activated smart speakers and virtual assistants, such as Amazon Alexa and Google Home. Wider Plan The GDS trial that has made the information available via voice-activated smart -speakers is part of a wider plan to employ the use of third-party (voice) apps, machine learning, and other new technologies in order to simplify interactions between citizens services going forward. The millions of smart speakers now in use in UK homes means that [...]

The release date of Samsung’s new dual-screen Galaxy Fold mobile handset has been delayed after reviewers reported having removed the top layer of the display causing damage to the screen, problems with hinge areas, and debris getting trapped under the screen. The Galaxy Fold Announced as the Galaxy X last summer, the Galaxy Fold handset has two inside panels and one outside panel with the two inside panels folding out to form the 7.3-inch OLED screen, thereby giving the user a much larger screen area.  The fact that the flexible screen folds in on itself when closed also adds protection [...]