With the rise in popularity of Virtual Reality (VR), this is a significant step forward, since the tools used by video game developers and film producers to generate high-quality virtual content are now available to businesses and charities at the multi-million pound complex.
One of the advantages of working with extended reality is that it allows companies to host and attend events without having to travel. For example, one could have a business meeting in a neighbouring country and in a normal situation, would have to travel out but with VR, one could attend the business meeting from wherever one is, thus significantly reducing carbon footprint.
Hence, I believe that VR is the future and an exciting space to be.
Reading Time: 2minutesImage retrieved from The Sun
What is worse than getting scammed online? Helplessly watching the scammer steal from you via a screen sharing.
In the United Kindom, there has been a rise in the number of cases of people getting scammed through a screen sharing tactic. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the United Kingdom is urging the people to be wary of persons who pose as investment advisors and promises to assist them to set up new schemes using online meeting platforms as there have been about 2,100 cases have been reported to the FCA since July 2020 with more than £25m was stolen in the 15 months from January 2021.
The scammers invite their victims to share their screens and allow remote access, giving them control of their devices and maybe their bank account. People who utilize popular online meeting programs in their workplaces have gotten accustomed to screen-sharing. Remote access software is a genuine technique for IT support services to troubleshoot problems without having to be there. However, fraudsters are now using this familiarity to persuade victims to give over more than simply a screenshot of their screen. They are then convinced to hand over control of their computer to the fraudsters by either increasing permissions or downloading remote access software, allowing them direct access to their online bank accounts.
In order to avoid becoming a victim of this scam, online users should:
Not rely on your caller ID.
Hang up if someone calls asking to get on your computer or mobile device together, or if they ask for money or personal info.
Never give an unsolicited caller remote access to your computer or mobile phone, and do not give them personal info.
Delete any unknown or unwanted apps from your phone.
Let us all be smart on the internet to prevent such scams to happen.
Reading Time: 2minutesImage retrieved from Unsplash
Microchips enable us to communicate within the internet using our smart devices. Therefore, this move that Apple is planning to work on might pave the way for future smart glasses and augmented reality, as well as more wearables with their own cellular connections, Mac computers with 5G connectivity, and faster-than-ever downloads and streaming on the company’s flagship iPhones.
Currently, Apple is using mondem-chips made by Qualcomm, who has been the world’s dominant modem-chip maker for decades. By making its own chips, Apple could save a lot on cost. According to a recent cost-of-materials analysis of the new iPhone SE, the first version of the more affordable iPhone model with 5G capability, the chips that allow the phone to connect to cell networks cost as much as or more than the chips that make up the phone’s “brains”—the A15 processor and its attached memory chips.
That’s the polar opposite of what’s been the norm with smartphones and comparable mobile devices for decades: Typically, the device’s core CPU has been more complex and expensive than the components that allow it to interact wirelessly.
Additionally, it will also free Apple from relying on its suppliers as despite their benefits, they have occasionally been a source of friction and problem for Apple. For example, Apple concluded a long-running legal battle with Qualcomm over patent licensing costs in 2019, agreeing to pay at least $4.5 billion and to buy Qualcomm modems for several years.
This is very interesting news and I wonder what do you think about Apple’s plan to move towards producing its own chips? Is it a good or a bad idea?
Reading Time: 2minutesImage retrieved from IMAGINIMA
Recently, I read an article on BBC news that acontroversial facial recognition company, Clearview AI, announced it had given its technology to the Ukrainian government to help identify the dead in Ukraine.
The controversial part comes when it is known that the company has scrapped billions of photos from social media companies, like Facebook and Twitter, to create an enormous database of what its CEO and founder Hoan Ton-That calls “a search engine for faces”, something like how Google has scrapped billions of information and is now one of the most reliable search engines. And of course, due to the privacy laws, the company has faced multiple legal challenges, with the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office even fining the company for failing to inform people it was collecting photos of them.
However, I believe that there are ways to ensure the ethical use of this technology and the company could adopt the following principles proposed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU):
Collection: Institutions should obtain informed, written consent from citizens before including their biometric data in the facial recognition database.
Usage: Users should refrain from using facial recognition systems to determine an individual’s skin color, race, religion, national origin, gender, age, or disability.
Disclosure: The results of a facial recognition system shouldn’t be traded or shared without the informed, written consent of the data subject.
Security: Organizations should have dedicated security professionals to host, manage, and secure facial recognition information.
Transparency: Organizations must define policies for compliance and use of data while offering the necessary technical measures to verify accountability.
All in all, I believe the use of facial recognition has been revolutionary but users of such technology should be more careful with how they collect and use the photos of people.
Reading Time: < 1minuteImage retrieved from Getty Images
Just two days ago, Brazil’s Supreme Court banned the popular messaging service, Telegram in hopes of stopping the spread of fake news and hate speech leading up to the presidential elections later this year.
However, I believe that this may not be the most effective way to stop the spread of fake news as netizens can still flock to other social media platforms and continue to spread misinformation and falsehoods. And in order to successfully combat the spread of fake news, it must be a joint effort between both the social media company and the government. However, this might be an issue in this situation as Telegram is “notoriously known for its stance of not cooperating with judicial and police authorities in several countries”, this can be seen from Telegram’s unresponsiveness as it did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent to its press team. Thus, the government could have reached out to other more responsive social media companies as these companies would have valuable user data which the government does not have, and the government could leverage this data to find the root cause of the fake news, ultimately nipping the problem in the bud.
All in all, fake news spreads like a virus and we should stop the spread of fake news before we are faced with a full-blown pandemic.
