Twitter Hacks, Lenovo Tech World, and More News This Week
It’s been a big week in tech news, though next week is going to be a huge one as well, thanks to Apple’s WWDC which will take place on Monday night India time. This week though, the big news of the week probably was about Twitter getting hacked – the company denied reports of a system breach that exposed the passwords of 32 million users. Though Twitter denied a hack, the company has locked passwords of users whose accounts might have been exposed, requiring password resets. Earlier this week, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s Pinterest and Twitter accounts were hacked after hackers allegedly obtained his credentials from a LinkedIn breach in 2012. Twitter co-founder Ev Williams’ account was also reportedly hacked, among other high profile accounts.
The moral of this story is exceedingly clear – don’t reuse passwords, use strong passwords, change them frequently, and use a password manager like LastPass or 1Password.
There’s a lot more happening this week, and you can catch up with it all below, and as always, check out our Orbital Podcast – this week, we’re talking about FIFA 16 and PES 2016.
One of the big events of this week was Lenovo’s Tech World 2016. Lenovo showcased a lot of cool stuff at the launch, and after a couple of years of phones being mostly the same, we got to see some really cool ideas. For one, Lenovo showcased a foldable phone that could transform from smartphone into wearable, and it also showed off the Lenovo Phab 2 Pro, the first Google Tango phone.
This phone uses Google’s Project Tango technology, which uses sensors to track motions and map building interiors. This technology could really change the way we interact with our devices. And if that wasn’t enough, Motorola showed the Moto Z and Moto Z Force with Moto Mods, its take on modular phones. Like the LG G5, the phone can be augmented with mods which can be bought separately and swapped out to meet your needs – mods include speakers, a battery pack, and a projector – and the company wants third parties to develop their own mods.
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LeEco launched a couple of phones in India, specifically the Le 2 and Le Max. Another launch this week is the Lava X81 with 4G LTE support; there’s also the Oppo A59, yet another new phone with VoLTE support. And if you’re an Asus ZenFone 2 Laser or Asus ZenFone Max user, then good news, your phone will soon get the Android Marshmallow update. The Lyf Wind 5 VoLTE phone was also launched this week, as was the Lava x46 with VoLTE support, and the Intex Cloud Glory 4G launched at Rs. 3,999 It’s becoming clear that 4G and VoLTE isn’t a high-end feature anymore, and is quickly becoming the norm.
There were a couple of other launches this week, but nothing really caught our eye as much as LG’s Mosquito Away TV series – televisions that can apparently drive the mosquitoes out of your home.
Since WWDC starts Monday, we’ve got a lot of reports coming about what Apple will announce. It seems that iMessage might go multiplatform. There are also reports that Apple will launch a new MacBook Air, and more details have emerged about the Apple Watch 2 and iPhone 7. Right now, it’s also looking likely that OS X is going to be rebranded as macOS.
Facebook has been a big backer of virtual reality ever since it acquired Oculus in 2014, and the company has now brought 360-degree photos to the News Feed, which can be seen in virtul reality on compatible devices. Oh and just in case you maybe felt there weren’t enough videos all over Facebook? Well, good news! You can now post videos as comments, from Android, iOS, or the Web. The social network is also taking on Twitch and YouTube with live game streaming.
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Microsoft set up a cyber security center in Gurgaon, something the company had first talked about in December, saying it would be used to protect India’s critical infrastructure. The Department of Telecom has decided that all phones must get a panic button – as a software feature for existing phones as well. And the Home Ministry denied permission to Google for Street View. This follows on news about the draft bill for maps data that the Home Ministry had talked about, which could have a major negative impact on any number of companies that we’ve all come to depend upon.
Meanwhile, after Xiaomi reportedly withdrew an application for waiving local sourcing requirements for setting up retail stores, and the same was rejected in the case of Apple, Chinese smartphone maker LeEco is the latest brand to seek exemption from this requirement on the grounds of being cutting edge technology. And while we don’t know what the eventual outcome is going to be, for foreign companies, India remains an attractive market, as Amazon increased it’s investment here to $5 billion.
As usual, we got up early on Monday to catch up to the latest from Game of Thrones, and apparently the season finale is going to be the longest in the series yet. We’ve still got three episodes to go this year, and hopefully, the next book in the series will come out before Season 7 starts. Netflix announced its first original series from India, based on the novel Sacred Games, and we also played the mobile game based on Salman Khan starrer Sultan. It’s not bad, but could be better, we felt. The Warcraft movie isn’t looking too promising sadly, so it’s not the best week for games based on movies, or movies based on games. We also tried out a leaked build of the canceled PSP port of The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion and it really seems unfortunate that the game got canceled, based on this experience.
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With E3 around the corner it’s no surprise that there’s some interesting gaming news to catch up on. Destiny: Rise of Iron now has a release date although gamers who have the game on the PS3 or Xbox 360 will be unhappy to know that they won’t be able to buy this expansion. And there’s some India specific news too, with pricing for Injustice 2 and Watch Dogs 2 confirmed. In case you’re wondering what to expect from E3 2016 we have a few picks, and if the big names don’t matter to you, we have some highlights from the non-AAA world too.
There’s also a release date for Watch Dogs 2 and its special edition has been announced; Injustice 2 has been announced for the PS4 and Xbox One but not the PC; a retailer leaked the release date for a remaster of Skyrim; and XCOM 2 was announced for the Xbox One and PS4. We also have a release date for Fifa 17, though unfortunately, PS4 exclusive Horizon Zero Dawn gets a delay. This comes shortly after another PS4 exclusive, No Man’s Sky, was also delayed.
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Tags: 360 degrees, Android, Apple, DoT, Facebook, Google, Government, Hacks, Home Ministry, India, Lenovo, Moto Mods, Motorola, Passwords, Project Tango, Twitter, WWDC, WWDC 2016
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