tech

WhatsApp beaten by one of its biggest rivals (Image: FACEBOOK) WHATSAPP continues to be the most popular messaging platform on the planet but one of its biggest rivals just made it look massively inferior. WhatsApp continues to be the biggest app in the world when it comes to messaging. Around 1.5 billion people now use this Facebook-owned service with some 65 billion messages sent every single day. With an array of features and regular updates, it's not surprising why so many people love WhatsApp but one of its biggest rivals has just pointed out why it's so much better. Related articles WhatsApp challenged as rival could offer fans something completely new WhatsApp upgrade gives Android users one handy advantage over Apple In an attempt to boast how good it is, WhatsApp recently tweeted the message, "Need to send an email but the attachment is too large? Try using WhatsApp instead, where you can send files of up to 100 MB." However, it appears WhatsApp has scored an own goal … [Read more...] about WhatsApp beaten as rival reveals why it has such a big advantage

New York (CNN Business)If you walk around Long Island City on any given day, you'll see cranes everywhere and new apartment buildings popping up seemingly overnight. Improvements are being made to multiple subway stations. And new businesses are opening, including a liquid nitrogen ice cream shop and a dance studio for kids. But there is another side to this neighborhood in the New York City borough of Queens. Many parts remain very residential and quiet. Vernon Boulevard, essentially the area's Main Street, can look like a ghost town on some days. That was supposed to change when Amazon opened a massive headquarters nearby. There would be thousands of new workers looking to spend their tech money on drinks and haircuts and groceries and apartments. Then it all fell apart. "Business is horrible. It's hard. We don't have foot traffic," said Gianna Cerbone-Teoli, a Long Island City resident who has owned Manducatis Rustica, a restaurant on Vernon Boulevard, for 11 years. "It was a … [Read more...] about Long Island City tries to move on after Amazon HQ2 debacle

NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden hacked a nuclear laboratory during his teenage years, reporting its vulnerabilities to the authorities. An official from the lab later thanked him for the hack, which helped it fix its security issues. Snowden wrote about the incident in Permanent Record, his new memoir, which trace his evolution from teenage hacker to NSA contractor and whistleblower.In the book, Snowden writes about his fascination with technology during his teenage years. He was a gamer, a fan of 1990s games like the Legend of Zelda. And he also dabbled in hacking — after he successfully hacked the Los Alamos Nuclear laboratory, the same facility that developed the atom bomb, he reports its vulnerability to the authorities. This was an early example of “white hat” hacking. Also known as “ethical hackers,” white hat hackers break into information systems in order to alert their owners to security vulnerabilities. White hat hackers are … [Read more...] about Edward Snowden Hacked Nuclear Facility in Teenage Years

Whistle-blower Edward Snowden, who revealed the mass surveillance of Americans in his 2013 leaks about the National Security Agency (NSA), has issued a warning about the rise of AI-driven policing in the near future. Snowden spoke to The Guardian’s Ewen MacAskill, the same reporter he worked with to release his bombshell NSA revelations in 2013.The western dissident, now living in exile in Russia, condemned western governments for using the threat of terrorism to justify undermining Americans’ civil liberties. Snowden spoke of “a litany of American destruction by way of American self-destruction, with the promulgation of secret policies, secret laws, secret courts and secret wars” following the September 11 attacks in 2001. He also warned of new technological threats to freedom and privacy in the future, including “the refinement of artificial intelligence capabilities, such as facial and pattern recognition.” “An AI-equipped … [Read more...] about Edward Snowden Warns of AI-Driven Tyranny

Auto manufacturers Ford and General Motors are reportedly working hard to bring their electric pickup trucks to market ahead of Elon Musk’s Tesla. Reuters reports that Ford and GM are working hard to design a radical new take on their most profitable vehicle models, the Ford F-150 pickup truck and the Chevrolet Silverado. These are the two top-selling vehicles in the U.S. market, an now Ford and GM want to offer all-electric versions before Tesla can bring a pickup truck to market.Ford Chairman Bill Ford told Reuters in a recent interview: “This is going to be a real watershed for the whole industry.” Few details have been released about the new vehicles, but Bill Ford hinted that the vehicle could have load-carrying space under the hood as well as a traditional truck bed in the back. “You pick up all that extra space where the engine compartment has been,” Ford said. Ford believes that an electric F-Series could be a powerful work truck with the … [Read more...] about Ford, GM Boost Electric Pickup Truck Plans to Beat Tesla