Technology

Google Chat has replaced Hangouts and will now display banners warning you against potential phishing and malware attacks coming from personal accounts, Google announced on Thursday. This tweak for Google Chat is the latest expansion of Google’s attempts to prevent phishing. During its 2022 I/O developer conference, Google discussed several security measures it has implemented to enhance user safety, including warnings against potential security issues and recommendations to fix them. Google also laid out other plans for security measures, like expanded two-step verification, ad customization, and more data security. Warning labels about suspicious links in Google Chat.Image: Google Google’s new warning banners first appeared in Gmail on Workspace accounts to point out attempts to lure som...

The Halo TV series’ season finale premiered yesterday, bringing the first season to an interesting if incomplete end. With a full season in the tank, I’m finally able to fully judge the show as a complete entity, and I gotta say: it’s complicated. The Halo TV series is complicated like a toxic hook-up is complicated. Is this person bad for you? Yes. Is the sex great? Meh. But are you intrigued just enough to keep them around to see where it goes? Absolutely. Despite the fact that I don’t really feel Halo is either a good season of television or a good exploration of the Halo canon, I’m not ready to yeet it into the glasslands the way Netflix did my beloved but troubled Cowboy Bebop. There were just so many good, well-executed concepts swirling around in slipspace just waiting for the right...

It seems like Microsoft isn’t resting on its laurels when it comes to the system that lets Windows 11 run Android apps: on Friday, the company announced an update that upgrades the version of Android running on your computer and helps make the apps feel more at home running on a PC. The Windows Subsystem for Android update is currently only available to test for Windows Insiders, but that’s probably a good thing for reasons we’ll touch on in just a moment. The headlining improvement is an update to the version of Android that underpins Windows’ ability to run mobile apps. The current public release seems to be using Android 11 (based on some prodding I did using developer tools), but the version that Microsoft is testing is running Android 12.1, aka Android 12L. What that effectively means...

Twitter announced an update on Friday that should significantly improve the experience inside third-party Twitter apps: it’s giving developers far more access to its reverse chronological timeline. This update to Twitter’s recently launched API v2, the interface that developers use to get data from Twitter, is a new (and, in my opinion, encouraging) step in Twitter’s journey to better support developers. As Twitter notes in its announcement post, the new API v2 feature gives developers a way to “retrieve the most recent Tweets and Retweets posted by the authenticated user and the accounts they follow.” In other words, a developer can ask to see the data that Twitter shows you when you load up the first party app with the “Latest Tweets” option selected, so their app can show it to you inst...

Stranger Things’ fourth season finally debuts next week on May 27th, but if you want an early preview of what’s to come, Netflix posted the first eight minutes of the season right on YouTube. I haven’t watched the show since it first premiered, so I have no idea what’s going on in the clip, but it does seem to set up a spooky, intriguing, and bloody season 4. Netflix also revealed how many episodes will be in each of the season’s two “volumes.” Volume one, which is what premieres next week, will have seven episodes. Volume two, which debuts just over a month later, on July 1st, will have two episodes. The season is the longest yet And the season is the longest yet. According to The New York Times article profiling show creators Matt and Ross Duffer, season 4 is “five hours longer than any ...

The engineering team operating the Voyager 1 spacecraft — NASA’s robotic planetary explorer currently zooming through interstellar space — is trying to figure out why the spacecraft is sending back data readouts that don’t match what the vehicle is actually doing. It’s a mystery that does not seem to be putting the Voyager 1 spacecraft in any immediate jeopardy, but NASA is trying to figure it out nonetheless. Launched in 1977, Voyager 1 has been exploring the cosmos for nearly half a century. It has a twin, Voyager 2, that was launched 16 days prior in the same year. Both spacecraft did tours of the outer Solar System, flying by planets and photographing moons before eventually traveling outside the boundary of our cosmic neighborhood. In 2012, Voyager 1 passed the heliopause — the bounda...

Amazon’s next Fire 7 tablet will come with a new version of the company’s Fire OS operating system, called Fire OS 8 (h/t to Liliputing and AFTVNews). It’s based on Android 11, which is a pretty significant upgrade to the foundational tech currently powering Amazon’s tablets; the previous version, Fire OS 7, is based on Android 9, which was released in 2018. According to Amazon’s developer documentation, the update could bring a few new user features. For one, it brings a system-wide dark mode to the OS that developers can make their app follow. Mostly, though, it’s good for privacy and security. Along with various updates to the permissions system, the upgrade should also make it easier for Amazon to push security patches. Google isn’t providing updates to Android 9 anymore. Currently, th...

After introducing its Blend playlists last year, Spotify announced Friday that it’s expanding the feature to include K-pop artists — and yes, that includes the mega-popular boyband BTS. Spotify’s Blend playlists are an easy way for users to create shared playlists based on each user’s listening preferences. In March, the company released updates for the music discovery feature that include the ability to “blend” with up to 10 people or with musical artists. This new K-pop expansion is an example of the latter. The K-pop Blend artists include BTS, Stray Kids, ENHYPEN, TOMORROW X TOGETHER, Nmixx, and AB6IX. The feature will mix your favorite tracks with those of the aforementioned bands. Of course, it wouldn’t be a Spotify feature if it didn’t include some data, either. After blending playli...

Futuristic home-robotics brand, Roborock has launched its latest series of self-cleaning vacuums to add to its growing roster. The Q-Series boasts many of the smart features from its flagship S-Series model including LiDAR navigation, multi-level mapping and customizable app controls. The latest range now includes an Auto-Empty Dock Pure technology for its 2.5L dust bag, built for up to seven weeks of hands-free cleaning as well as a higher suction capacity from 2700Pa to 4200Pa, this ensures a deep clean and protection from allergens. Speaking on the new series and necessity for the current times, Roborock’s founder Richard Chang says, “Besides the obvious benefit of reduced manual emptying, customers are less likely to be exposed to allergens.” With an internal system compatible with Ale...

You might not know it from glancing at a Chromebook, but Google’s Chrome OS is in a constant state of evolution. The operating system receives minor updates every two to three weeks and major releases every six weeks. And, at any given moment, Google’s staff is working on features and software enhancements that most people won’t see for a matter of weeks — or months. Here’s a little secret, though: if you’re feeling adventurous, you can gain access to those unreleased enhancements. All it takes is the flip of a virtual switch in your Chromebook’s settings, and you’ll have all sorts of interesting new options at your fingertips. First, it’s important to understand exactly what’s involved so you can make an educated decision about which setup makes the most sense for you. Understanding the C...

Though it’s only been a few weeks since Netflix’s live-action adaptation of Alice Oseman’s Heartstopper graphic novel began airing, the streaming platform’s already made the move to renew the show for two more seasons. Variety reports that Netflix has greenlit Heartstopper for two more installments with Oseman slated to return as writer and executive producer. Like the graphic novel, Heartstopper tells the story of how Charlie Spring (Joe Locke) and Nick Nelson (Kit Connor) fall in love while attending an all-boys grammar school. Heartstopper’s first season focuses on the beginning of Charlie and Joe’s romance with plot points pulled from the graphic novel’s first and second volumes. There’s currently no word on when production on Heartstopper’s next seasons will kick off, which means ther...

The 2021 Lenovo Legion 5 Pro was my favorite gaming laptop of last year. I loved its keyboard, its 16-inch QHD 16:10 aspect ratio display, and, of course, its powerful RTX 3070 GPU. What I loved the most was that Lenovo achieved in a $1,599.99 machine what most competitors charge close to $2K or more for. The 2022 version of the Legion 5 Pro brings more of the same but with an as-tested $1,999 price that costs $500 more than the AMD-based version that we tested last year. It still delivers one of the best typing experiences that I’ve experienced on a gaming laptop, and Lenovo improved on its display by adding variable refresh rate support to keep games looking smooth. As for what’s new, it’s faster, with support for the latest 12th Gen Intel processors and AMD’s Ryzen 6000 H-series process...