General Gaming Article |
- Facebook Android App Found Collecting Phone Numbers Without User Consent
- Blackberry Loses Money in its most recent Quarter, and Breaks a Promise to Customers
- PSA: Google Reader Shutting Down at Midnight, But RSS Lives On
| Facebook Android App Found Collecting Phone Numbers Without User Consent Posted: 30 Jun 2013 02:33 PM PDT Next update to fix the issueFaced with allegations of complicity in the furtive Prism surveillance program earlier this month, Facebook strongly denied being part of any such program and vowed to keep "fighting aggressively to keep your information safe and secure." Well, its Android app tells a different story. The latest version of Symantec's Norton Mobile Security tool came out on Wednesday and got down to work straight away, flagging the Facebook app as being a privacy risk. According to the security company, the new Mobile Insight technology contained in the security app caught the Facebook Android app calling home to send the user's phone number. What's more alarming is the fact that this is something the app does right off the bat, without even waiting for the user to log in. "The first time you launch the Facebook application, even before logging in, your phone number will be sent over the Internet to Facebook servers," Symantec said in a blog post. "You do not need to provide your phone number, log in, initiate a specific action, or even need a Facebook account for this to happen." On being confronted on the issue by Symantec, Facebook promised to fix the issue in the next update (already in beta, thankfully). Further, it denied using or processing the phone numbers in anyway, adding that they have now been deleted from its servers. Follow Pulkit on Google+ |
| Blackberry Loses Money in its most recent Quarter, and Breaks a Promise to Customers Posted: 30 Jun 2013 11:05 AM PDT
Blackberry just can't seem to catch a breakBlackberry has been busy this year. They changed their name from Research in Motion to match the company's flagship brand, they launched a re-designed OS called Blackberry 10, and they made a commitment to their customers to continue supporting its struggling lineup of Playbook tablets. The world seemed to be betting against the company at every turn, but their new CEO Thorsten Heins pushed hard to reassure investors and customers to stand behind his vision. Fast forward to the company's most recent financial results and things aren't looking so great for the once mighty smartphone king. On the most recent investor call Heins was forced to report an $84 million loss on $3.1 billion in revenue, and he seemed completely unwilling to share details on how many of the 6.8 million handsets sold were running Blackberry 10. It's safe to say that if Blackberry's new operating system were causing phones to fly off the store shelves they would let us know, and it's certainly a worrying sign that the company's turnaround plan might not be working out quite as they had hoped. Heins also had to admit that despite promises, the company would not be upgrading the Playbook tablet to Blackberry 10. The only explination he could offer was that performance wasn't up to expectations, and that the company needed to focus on core products. Heins is one of the few tech industry CEO's who is betting against tablets, and went so far as to say they could be gone from the market within ten years. Despite all the bad news, the handset maker was able to report that the company had over $3.1 billion in cash reserves. This gives them lots of runway to make investments to continue turning the tide, and they need to do it fast. Microsoft has claimed that they now hold a 3rd place position in the mobile OS industry, knocking Blackberry down another notch. Can they turn it around? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below. |
| PSA: Google Reader Shutting Down at Midnight, But RSS Lives On Posted: 30 Jun 2013 10:34 AM PDT
Google lets you migrate out easily, but today is your last chanceRSS junkies have known for months now that their much beloved Google Reader web service would be closing its virtual doors on July 1st, but time moves quickly, and the end is nigh. If you are still interested in preserving your data we recommend taking a trip over to Google Takeout. Here the company will prepare you a .zip file full of everything you need to migrate out, and it's unclear if it will be available after the service shuts down at the stroke of midnight. Looking for a replacement RSS service? You've come to the right place. MarketingLand has done an amazing job of comparing the capabilities of more than a dozen different services, but the consensus these days seems to be that Feedly has the biggest head start. Feedly allows you to migrate over with just a few clicks, and not only do they have native apps for Android and iOS, but several third party RSS apps are adding support for Feedly on the backend as well. Press for Android and Reeder for iOS are among the most popular third party mobile clients, and both have expressed support for Feedly. Three possible runner up services are Digg, AOL Reader, and Feedbin. Among these options Feedbin is the only one with a monthly fee, but then again if you really love RSS, it's nice to know your Google Reader replacement has a viable business model. If you are new to RSS it's also a great time to jump in given all the renewed interest. Let us know your favorite new service in the comments below, and don't forget to add Maximum PC's uncompressed RSS feeds. |
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