Business, Financial & Legal News - Page 95

YouTube has published an official blog post that talks about its expanded fact checks for YouTube in the United States. The video service says that over the last two years, more and more people have begun coming to YouTube for news and information. That information runs the gamut from election coverage to perspectives on different topics and information about breaking news events.

One of the events that have brought more people to YouTube in recent months is the coronavirus/COVID-19 pandemic. YouTube says that it's continuing to improve the news experience on the service, including raising authoritative sources of information across the site. YouTube is now expanding its fact check information panels that were launched in Brazil and India last year to the United States.

The fact check feature will expand on other ways that YouTube is using to connect people with authoritative sources. YouTube says that it started introducing information panels in 2018 with a wide range of contextual information from links to sources like Encyclopedia Britannica and Wikipedia for topics that were prone to misinformation. More recently, that has been expanded to cover coronavirus and includes links to the WHO, CDC, or local health authorities.

A new malicious campaign on the Google Play Store targeting Android devices dubbed PhantomLance has been discovered. According to the security researchers, the campaign has been active since at least 2015 and is ongoing. The campaign features multiple versions of sophisticated spyware that was created to gather the data of victims and targeted devices.

Another hallmark of the campaign is that it used smart distribution tactics such as distribution via dozens of applications on the Google Play store, according to researchers at Kaspersky. The spyware campaign also used alternative Android app stores for distribution such as APKpure and APKCombo. Kaspersky researchers say that the PhantomLance spyware overlapped with other attacks that targeted Windows and MacOS that were attributed toa hacker group known as OceanLotus believed to be based in Vietnam that was also tracked as APT32.

Researchers say that the malware used in this particular campaign is a lot more complicated than the typical malware used by cybercriminals to steal financial information and credentials from Southeast Asian Android users. The majority of users impacted by this campaign are located in Vietnam, with a small number located in China. Information that the malware campaigns are targeting included information about geolocation, call logs, contacts, text messages, lists of installed apps, and device information.

A court filing surfaced earlier this week that shows Apple has settled a class-action lawsuit brought against it by users of older iPhone models. According to the lawsuit, Apple intentionally broke FaceTime on older iPhone devices. Apple has agreed to pay out $18 million to the claimants who argued that Apple had disabled FaceTime on iPhone 4 and 4s smartphones as a cost-saving measure in 2014.

The $18 million common fund covers nearly 30% of the total average damages estimated by expert witnesses the plaintiffs called in the case. Apple is worth such a massive amount of money that $18 million is nothing to the company, and the settlement really means nothing to those involved in the class-action lawsuit either. Each of the class members will receive about $3 from the settlement.

The $3 could increase if other claimants in the suit fail to cash their checks. Honestly, $3 isn't worth a trip to the bank, so a number of participants in the suit may not cash the checks. The two-class representatives in the lawsuit will come out much better than the average iPhone 4 user. Christina Grace and Ken Potter, the class representatives, stand to gain $7500 each for participation in the case.

The sale of RuneScape developer Jagex has been rumored for quite some time now, and now it's finally happened.

According to GamesIndustry.biz, Jagex, the developer of the popular MMO RuneScape, has been officially acquired by a US-based global management firm, Macarthur Fortune Holding. Jagex was previously owned by Shanghai Hongtou Network Technology, a subsidiary company of Shanghai Fukong. Macarthur Fortune Holding has now purchased Jagex through one of its funds called Platinum Fortune.

Macarthur plans on investing in the future of Jagex by implementing marketing strategies that will hopefully continue the slow growth of its MMOs. Macarthur plans on increasing the player base of Jagex's MMO's, and will also be keeping Jagex's management team at its Cambridge headquarters the same. If you are interested in checking out RuneScape, head on over to the Old School RuneScape website here.

Google just reported its Q1'20 earnings, and the results see strong growth across the company's key billion-dollar segments.

Google recorded stellar Q1 results driven by earnings spikes in key advertisement and search segments. The company pulled in $4.028 billion from YouTube advertisements in the three-month period ending March 31, 2020, up a significant 33% from last year. This jump is likely caused by COVID-19 stay-at-home orders issued across the globe in late March, leading to a massive influx of viewers watching ads placed over videos.

The titan's main breadwinner is of course monetizing searches across its juggernaut search engine. The company raked in a tremendous $24.5 billion in search revenue in Q1, up 8.67% from last year, and total advertisement revenues across YouTube and search tallied up to $33.7 billion, up 10.38% from Q1'19.

Microsoft has announced that it has issued a patch for a severe flaw in Microsoft Teams that could have allowed a user's account to be taken over simply by viewing a GIF. The security issue stemmed from the way that Teams handles images and could allow data theft and account hijacking. The security flaw was discovered by a security firm called CyberArk over a month ago.

CyberArk worked with Microsoft Security Research Center using the Coordinated Vulnerability Disclosure to fix the flaw. Repairing such a sensitive flaw was a priority with the massively increased number of users who are utilizing Teams for education, work, and healthcare during the coronavirus pandemic. CyberArk was able to show Microsoft how it was possible to use a compromise subdomain to host images and steal security tokens by merely getting the user to view an image.

One of the most serious aspects of this particular attack was that it was invisible to the user. CyberArk said that it found that two Microsoft subdomains were vulnerable to takeover, including aadsync-test.teams.microsoft.com and data-dev.teams.microsoft.com.

A lot of people out there looking forward to the launch of a new streaming service from HBO called HBO Max. New details on the service and a deal that WarnerMedia has going with Apple have surfaced that some subscribers to HBO Now will appreciate. WarnerMedia has announced that it's teaming up with Apple to launch the HBO Max service and to specifically ensure a seamless experience for iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple TV users.

HBO Max will be available through the Apple TV app at launch on May 27. The best part is that customers who are currently paying for HBO Now through the Apple App Store or Apple TV Channels will be upgraded to HBO Max at no additional charge. Those needing to sign-up will pay $14.99 per month for HBO Max via Apple platforms or other services.

The announcement also confirms that customers who own a second or third-generation Apple TV will be able to stream HBO Max content from their iPhone or iPad directly to their TV via AirPlay. The fourth-generation Apple TV and iPhone and iPad devices will also get an HBO Max application. The older Apple TV devices will need to stream using AirPlay.

WhatsApp has announced a new update for its service meant to cater to people trying to work from home and keep in touch with friends and family during the coronavirus pandemic. WhatsApp says that since the pandemic started to hit the world, it has seen people globally turn to voice and video calling on WhatsApp more than ever before. The service says that group calling has been particularly useful, and users have asked to connect with more people at once.

WhatsApp says that starting today, it is doubling the number of participants that a user can have a WhatsApp video or voice call with from four people to eight people at a time. While talking about doubling the number of people who can participate in a voice or video call, WhatsApp also says that over the last month, people have, on average, spend more than 15 billion minutes talking each day on WhatsApp calls. The company says that number of minutes is "well above a typical day before the pandemic."

WhatsApp points out that just like its written messages, all voice and video calls are protected with end-to-end encryption. The new group calling feature is also built in a way to make it available to as many users as possible, including people using lower-end devices and hose on slow networks. WhatsApp says that it's also available on Portal, and users have said that is a great way to share the living room family during the quarantine.

A new rumor making the rounds that suggests the next-generation Samsung Galaxy Note smartphone, thought to be called the Galaxy Note 20, will receive an updated chipset. The new chipset would be a change from the Exynos 990 chipset that Samsung is using right now. Some Samsung devices use the Exynos 990 chipset, but the Snapdragon 865 is used in the Galaxy S20 series of smartphones in South Korea.

According to the rumor, the chipset used in the Galaxy Note 20 will be the Exynos 992. That chip is expected to bring improved performance and improved power efficiency compared to the current generation Exynos 990. This change would also reportedly see Samsung switch back to Exynos processors in South Korea.

Samsung's new chipset is expected to be based on the Samsung 6nm fabrication process. Chips using that fabrication process are scheduled to go into mass production in the second half of 2020. The current-generation Exynos 990 processor uses the Samsung 7nm EUV process that has been widely criticized for being unable to compare in performance to the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865.

Like virtually all retail locations around the United States, Apple's retail stores have been closed down due to the coronavirus pandemic for over a month. Apple's retail chief recently told employees in a video briefing that Apple expects that the company will reopen many retail locations in May. Apple's retail stores have been closed outside of China since March.

Word of the store openings in May came from Deirdre O'Brien, vice president of retail and people for Apple. Word of her comments surfaced from unnamed retail employees who viewed the video. According to the employees, in the video, she said that "we are continuing to analyze his health situation in every location, and I do expect we will reopen up many stores in May." She failed to announce any specific stores or regions that would be reopening in May.

O'Brien had previously told Apple employees that some locations in the United States would resume operations in early May. Many states around the country are getting back to work as stay-at-home orders are being lifted around the nation. In some states, such as Georgia, some businesses have already reopened.