List of All Articles with Tag 'tec'

Crypto exchanges Huobi and OKX benefited after rival Binance curbed a zero-fee promotion and shed market share in

TOKYO Toyota Motor Corp said on Friday the vehicle data of about 2.15 million users was left publicly

Meta Platforms Inc. is giving marketers artificial intelligence tools to create ads and make them more effective. The

BuzzFeed Inc., the online media company reinventing itself after shutting down its news operation last month, said its

Twitter says it has launched new, more secure messages – but even chief executive Elon Musk has warned users not to “trust it”. The social network has long been working on encrypted messages, which ensure that messages cannot be intercepted while they are being delivered. That is already possible on most other major messaging platforms, such as WhatsApp and iMessage. Now Twitter has released what it says is the first step towards integrating that security technology into its own product. But it says that it is not fully safe, and that users should not rely on it to keep messages secure. “Early version of encrypted direct messages just launched,” Mr Musk wrote on Twitter. “Try it, but don’t trust it yet.” On its support pages, Twitter’s aim is that “if someone puts a gun to our heads, we still can’t access your messages”. But it says it is “not quite there yet” and still “working on it”. That suggests that the messages are not end-to-end encrypted. While messages are secured from some attackers, anyone at Twitter or with access to its servers may still be able to access them. What’s more, Twitter’s implementation comes with a host of other limitations. It is only available when both of the users are verified and pay for Twitter’s $8 a month service, and users must turn it on rather than it being enabled by default. The messages also cannot be sent to groups, include pictures or other attachments, cannot be joined by new devices, are only supported on a limited number of devices per account and do not have proper protection against certain cyber attacks. When those various conditions are satisfied, users will be informed they are having an encrypted conversation by a message that appears within the chat. The other user’s profile picture will also show a lock icon over it. Twitter said that it would be updating the feature to remove some of those limitations, and would provide more information about the technology underpinning it in releases later this year.

The actor Jared Gilman, best known for his role in Wes Anderson's 2012 film Moonrise Kingdom has branded a new AI trend surrounding the director as "bulls**t." If you aren't aware, a YouTube channel called Curious Refuge has been using artificial intelligence to create trailers for famous movies but reimagining them as if they were directed by Anderson in his typical whimsical aesthetic. Earlier this month a version of Star Wars directed by Wes Anderson went viral and immediately caused some division with many fans wishing it was a real movie while others felt that the trailer missed the point of what makes Star Wars and Anderson movies great. Sign up to our new free Indy100 weekly newsletter Now Curious Refuge have used AI to imagine what a Wes Anderson Lord of the Rings film would be like. The trailer called 'The Whimsical Fellowship' features all your favourite Tolkien characters but this time they are played by the likes of Timothee Chalamet, Ben Stiller, Bill Murray, Tilda Swinton and Owen Wilson to name a few. Lord of the Rings by Wes Anderson Trailer | The Whimsical Fellowship www.youtube.com While the clip has already gone viral again, 24-year-old Gilman, who has also starred in the Jim Jarmusch film Paterson wasn't as enthusiastic about it. He tweeted a version of the Return of the King title and instead changed it to read 'Return of the Wes Anderson AI bulls**t.' Gilman's tweet also went viral and one person asked him: "I'm assuming he texts you every time one of these comes out asking 'have u seen this?'" The actor replied: "Lmao I hope he never sees any of them." Meanwhile, Anderson's next real film Asteroid City is set for release on June 23rd and stars Tom Hanks, Margot Robbie, Scarlett Johansson, Maya Hawke and Jason Schwartzman. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

The European Union is weighing a plan that would require cloud providers to store all of their data

Italy’s antitrust authority has announced a probe into allegations that Apple is abusing its dominant position in the app market, thwarting competition

The IRS criminal investigation division is ramping up collaboration with counterparts overseas in pursuit of sanctions evaders. The

Privacy and security experts widely panned a new feature that Twitter unveiled Wednesday that encrypts some direct messages between users, raising questions about the future of user safety on the platform.

A study commissioned by Apple has highlighted the work of its small developers, amid ongoing questions about the future and fairness of the App Store. The research showed that small developers have seen strong growth in their revenues, and that they have outpaced larger developers in finding new customers. Smaller developers – those that earn up to $1 million per year and get fewer than a million annual downloads – saw their revenue increase 71 per cent between 2020 and 2022, according to the research, conducted by Analysis Group. In Europe, revenues among those developers were up 64 per cent. Announcing the results of the study, Apple pointed to the work it has done to support those smaller developers. It highlighted initiatives such as its “Small Business Programme”. That gives those smaller developers a larger proportion of their revenues, with Apple taking less of a cut, in an attempt to encourage independent businesses on the store. Many of Apple’s initiatives come amid an increased focused by regulators on its behaviour in relation to the App Store. Larger companies have accused it of using its control over the iPhone to benefit itself, while smaller ones have complained about the difficulties of finding new customers given the vast number of apps that are available on the store. The new report looked to address that latter belief by pointing to the small developers who were able to flourish on the App Store. As well as seeing an increase in revenues, those smaller developers were going on to become large ones quickly, the study noted – 40 per cent of those earning more than $1 million in 2022 earned less than $10,000 five years ago or were not on the App Store at all. It also looked to show how the global reach of the App Store meant that developers were able to show their app to users in a variety of countries. In 2022, almost 80 per cent of small developers were active on multiple storefronts, and about 40 per cent of total app downloads for those small developers came from users outside of their home country, the research showed. Apple has commissioned a range of studies from the Analysis Group that have examined the nature of the App Store amid that increasing regulatory scrutiny. The latest comes amid particular pressure over the position of the App Store on the iPhone and iPad as the only way to download apps, with some arguing that Apple should allow “sideloading” so that new software can be installed from other sources. Rumours have suggested that Apple could be preparing to allow at least some version of that sideloading in future versions of its iOS operating system, at least partly in response to regulatory pressure in the US and Europe. The company will host its Worldwide Developer Conference early in June, and is expected to make a range of new announcements about the App Store and its software more generally. Ahead of that conference, Apple’s head of developer relations Susan Prescott hailed the importance of having apps “built by everyone” in an interview with The Independent last month. Read More Apple finally launches two professional apps on the iPad Apple announces shock results Tim Cook reveals his thoughts on AI – and Apple’s plans to use it

There’s a “runaway” black hole which has been speeding through the universe and mystifying the scientific community – or so we thought. Now, a possible explanation has been found that could explain the unusual, long star structures which have been observed over recent weeks. Last month, scientists thought they’d discovered something very unusual, with a trail of stars observed by the Hubble Space Telescope. Some believed then that they were the result of a black hole creating eye-catching formations. Yale University researchers also posited the theory that the formation after two galaxies merged together millions of years ago. Sign up to our new free Indy100 weekly newsletter However, a new possible explanation from scientists at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) suggests that it is in fact just a flat or thin galaxy. “The motions, the size, and the quantity of stars fits what has been seen in galaxies within the local universe,” said Jorge Sanchez Almeida, an IAC researcher who is the first author of the article, in a statement. “It’s a relief to have found the solution to this mystery, the new proposed scenario is much simpler. In one sense it is also a pity, because the existence of fleeing black holes is expected, and this could have been the first one to be observed.” The team published its findings in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics under the title “Supermassive black hole wake or bulgeless edge-on galaxy?”. They compared the unusual feature to a galaxy IC5249 and found it to be similar. They found that it was surprisingly similar. The stars were moving in similar ways to those found in closer, comparative galaxies, researchers said. “We also looked at the relation between the mass of the assumed galaxy and its maximum velocity of rotation, and discovered that indeed it is a galaxy which behaves like a galaxy,” said Ignacio Trujillo, an IAC researcher who worked on the study. “It is an interesting object, because it is quite a large galaxy at a very large distance from Earth, where the majority of the galaxies are smaller.” Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.