Monthly Archives: February 2022

Google says a fix is on the way for Pixel 6 owners who are dealing with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity issues after installing a security patch earlier this month, as reported by 9to5Google. In response to a user on Reddit, Google acknowledges the problem and says its bundling a fix in a March software update.

After some investigation, we identified the root cause and determined that it impacts a very small number of devices, Google says. Of course, we realize this is a poor experience and immediately developed a software fix that will be available in the next Google Pixel Update, rolling out in March.

Google also says to contact its support team to explore other options in the meantime, but it doesnt provide any details on what exactly that means. As 9to5Google points out, some users have found that installing the Android 12L beta 3 has solved the problem, so that may be the other option Google is referencing here. Google spokesperson Alex Moriconi confirmed the information outlined in the post is accurate in a statement to The Verge.

For some reason, Googles updates just havent been playing all that nicely with its flagship Pixel 6 and 6 Pro devices. Google pulled its first major update for both phones in December after users reported dropped and disconnected calls. Its January update fixed the bug but things broke again upon the release of the most recent patch, which has been causing some devices to randomly toggle off Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.

Read more from the original source:

Google acknowledges Wi-Fi issues in very small number of Pixel 6 phones, fix coming in March - The Verge

Internet users are taking a trip down memory lane seeing what their favorite websites looked like years ago.

TheWayback Machineallows people to step back as far as the 90s, glimpsing at the basic and awful designs once graced by the likes of Facebook, Google, Amazon and so many more.

With 654 billion pages saved, nostalgic users can enter the name of just about any web address and see whether its available.

A calendar view will allow you to virtually turn back time, clicking through some the early days of some sites.

Here are some of the best to look at:

Mark Zuckerberg wasnt first to own the facebook.com address.

A company in the US owned it before.

It was only when the social network rebranded from TheFacebook to simply Facebook, that they reached a deal to buy the web address we know today.

Anyone who was a teen around 2007 will remember this basic look.

Googles main search engine hasnt changed a great deal from its early days.

Of course, the logo has been revamped several times since being founded in 1998.

And it is so much more than a search engine now.

Most people dont even bother visiting the main google.com or google.co.uk address now, they just perform searches at the top of their web browser.

Amazon looks completely different in the early noughties.

Were sure the prices were a lot different then compared to now as well

The worlds most popular video-sharing website was founded in 2005.

Realizing its potential, Google snapped it up a year later.

Twitter looked a lot more basic in the noughties too.

It was created in 2006 and didnt have anywhere near as many features as it does today.

Not least of all, tweets were limited to 140 characters until 2017.

Before the iPhone even existed, this is what you would have found on apple.com in 2000.

Oddly, the tech giant has stuck with the top menu bar look, though it has evolved drastically.

Before Netflix even existed in the UK, and before streaming was a thing, Netflix did postal movie and TV rentals.

It still provides this service in the US, but for the most part, the firm is known the world over for being a streaming platform today.

eBay made waves when it launched in the 90s, allowing people to buy and sell their old stuff.

The site was a lot more simple back then.

Hotmail is still going strong today but didnt have a great deal to it in the early days.

Though its still owned by Microsoft, Hotmail came under the MSN banner back then.

In other news, thenaughtiest emoji combinationshave been revealed.

Tinder has revived the classicblind date experiencewith a virtual twist.

And TikTok has announcednew rules, banning users who deadname or misgender others.

This story originally appeared on The Sun and has been reproduced here with permission.

The rest is here:

Mind-blowing internet time machine reveals how awful Facebook, Google and more used to look - New York Post

Theres a bottomless pool of threats facing Android users these days, and as soon as one Android malware operation sinks to the bottom, a new one rises to give users headaches.

Discovered and detailed in areportpublished today by security firm ThreatFabric, the latest of these threats is namedXenomorph.

First spotted this month, the Xenomorph malware is a classic banking trojan that infects Android smartphones, requests access to the Accessibility service, and then uses this overpowered tool to show fake login screens on top of mobile banking applications.

The malware collects this info, along with other device data, and sends it to its owners command and control (C&C) servers.

This data is later used to access bank accounts and steal funds. In case accounts are protected with two-factor authentication, Xenomorph can also intercept SMS message notifications and retrieve the code for the attackers.

ThreatFabric said that based on the malware samples they found so far, Xenomorph could show fake login screens for 56 banks from Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Belgium.

In addition, it can also show fake login screens for 12 cryptocurrency mobile wallets and seven email apps.

But while many Android banking trojans today are being spread around using apps offered for download on third-party apps stores or via dedicated websites, Xenomorph is part of a select group of malware strains that have been distributed via the official Google Play Store.

The ThreatFabric team said Xenomorph is being offered as a second-stage payload inside malicious apps that have managed to sneak past Googles Play Store security checks.

These apps typically hide a small malware strain called a dropper that, once it gets past these checks, will download more potent and intrusive malware on a device.

In the attacks it spotted this month, ThreatFabric said it saw Xenomorph being dropped on users devices via a dropper namedGymdrop.

For now, theyve spotted Xenomorph infections only via the Fast Cleaner app, installed on more than 50,000 devices, before it was pulled from the Play Store.

While researchers said the malware still appears to be under development, it is clear that this is a new major threat thats here to stay, and they expect new attacks in the future.

ThreatFabric said it named the malware with the peculiar name ofXenomorphbecause it found clues in its code linking many of its features with an older Android banking trojan known as Alien and decided to go with a similar name inspired by the Alien movie series.

Catalin Cimpanu is a cybersecurity reporter for The Record. He previously worked at ZDNet and Bleeping Computer, where he became a well-known name in the industry for his constant scoops on new vulnerabilities, cyberattacks, and law enforcement actions against hackers.

View post:

New Xenomorph malware sneaks onto the Google Play Store - The Record by Recorded Future

Ninja Van Goes the Extra Mile with Google Cloud to Fulfill Vision of Tech-Enabled, End-to-End Logistics Management for Businesses in Southeast Asia

Extended collaboration will support Ninja Van's strategy for secure and sustainable expansion, while maximizing the potential of its technology talent

SINGAPORE, Feb. 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Ninja Van, Southeast Asia's leading logistics provider, is extending its multi-year collaboration with Google Cloud to help businesses seize digital growth opportunities and overcome supply chain disruptions. By running its platform and applications on Google Cloud's scalable, secure and open-source infrastructure, Ninja Van aims to strengthen its leadership in last-mile courier services and expand upstream into supply chain management solutions.

Backed by the likes of Europe's largest parcel delivery network GeoPost / DPDgroup and global investment firm B Capital, Ninja Van has operations in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, and the Philippines. It is now the trusted delivery partner for close to two million businesses and handles around two million parcels daily across Southeast Asia. To facilitate onshore or nearshore production and distribution for businesses, Ninja Van recently launched Ninja Direct, a procurement concierge that covers supplier sourcing and management, customs clearance, financing, and shipments tracking.

"Retailers have shifted toward e-commerce strategies as opposed to selling through physical stores, especially with the pandemic forcing consumers to shop online more than ever before. With disruptions to the traditional flow of raw materials and finished goods, there's also an urgent need for adaptive micro supply chains that allow businesses to 'make where they sell' and fulfill orders quicker," said Shaun Chong, Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer, Ninja Van. "We chose Google Cloud because of its proven ability to help us scale reliably and innovate at high velocity, as we address the region's end-to-end logistics management needs."

Freeing Up Talent to Drive Innovation and Impact

Ninja Van consistently evaluates whether it is making efficient use of its technical talent. This means determining how the cloud can empower its 150 engineers, developers and data scientists to build products that add value to the business, instead of spending time managing complex IT infrastructure.

With Google's open cloud approach, Ninja Van's technical teams are free to choose the tools they need to accelerate software development and scale more efficiently while also reducing technology risk. For instance, by using Google Cloud's open-source data processing platform which integrates seamlessly with its data scientists' preferred external data visualization tools, Ninja Van's teams can comfortably process terabytes of data daily to support the company's business needs.

To create its NinjaChat chatbot and simulate the quality and immediacy of in-person interactions, Ninja Van's developers turned to Google Cloud's open-source and pre-built virtual agents to bring the feature to life in a month, rather than spend three months building a machine learning framework from scratch.

"From a chatbot that enhances customer experiences to algorithms for fuel-saving route optimization these are amongst the hundreds of new features released by Ninja Van each day. By automating application deployment and upgrades using Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE), our technical teams can avoid engaging in manual backend configurations and stay laser-focused on innovation," said Chong.

"We're actively hiring to bolster our technology teams in the region. Once we have the talent in the door, it makes zero sense to have them recreate code that exists and is ready-to-use, or manually select servers with the right vCPUs or RAM to deploy each application. Google Cloud puts open-source at the center of its solutions, while GKE does a great job at making sure things happen automatically. These allow us to avoid lock-in, reduce costs and truly give our in-house talent the ability to make more meaningful contributions to the business," added Chong.

Security and Zero Downtime to Enable 24/7 Operations

Southeast Asia's e-commerce gross merchandise value is expected to reach US$234 billion by 2025. As Ninja Van continues to help retailers compete in this fast-growing market and expand its services upstream, reliability and data protection remain top priorities.

The demand for Ninja Van's services have grown by three times during the pandemic. Whether it is preparing for major online sales events like Singles' Day, responding to sudden surges in demand because of merchants running ad hoc campaigns, or making thousands of software upgrades each year, Google Cloud's dynamic autoscaling capabilities enable Ninja Van's website and mobile applications to handle 10 times the normal traffic with a smooth user experience, before scaling down to reduce costs when additional computing resources are no longer needed.

"Having benefited from security solutions that are designed by default into Google Cloud's infrastructure, such as end-to-end encryption and automated patching, we will now work with Google Cloud's security specialists on additional ways to reinforce our zero trust security model," said Chong.

"We're proud to have played a part in Ninja Van becoming a leading end-to-end logistics management provider and one of the most admired technology unicorns," said Ruma Balasubramanian, Managing Director, Southeast Asia, Google Cloud. "By investing in world-class talent and relentless innovation, the company is well-positioned to deliver the just-in-time production and distribution capabilities that businesses need to satisfy contemporary consumers' desire for product variety and immediacy. Google Cloud will continue to uphold our high standards in reliability, collaboration, openness and security, as we support Ninja Van's vision of connecting Southeast Asia to a world of commerce possibilities."

About Google Cloud

Google Cloud accelerates organizations' ability to digitally transform their business. We deliver enterprise-grade solutions that leverage Google's cutting-edge technology all on the cleanest cloud in the industry. Customers in more than 200 countries and territories turn to Google Cloud as their trusted partner to enable growth and solve their most critical business problems.

About Ninja Van

Ninja Van is a leading tech-enabled express logistics company providing supply chain solutions for businesses of all sizes across Southeast Asia. Launched in 2014, Ninja Van started operations in Singapore as a last-mile logistics company. Since then, it has become one of the region's fastest-growing tech logistics companies, powering businesses with innovative solutions that optimize e-commerce opportunities. Today, Ninja Van has grown its network to cover six countries: Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, and the Philippines. For more information, visit http://www.ninjavan.co.

SOURCE Google Cloud

See the rest here:

Ninja Van Goes the Extra Mile with Google Cloud to Fulfill Vision of Tech-Enabled, End-to-End Logistics Management for Businesses in Southeast Asia -...

Google Assistant is available on the Nest Mini.

You ask your smart speaker a question, like "What's the weather like today?," or give it a command to play a song from your favorite album. The speaker springs to life and begins talking to you, but it just won't stop. It keeps going and going, rambling on, and you just want it to end. If it's aGoogle Assistant-powered speaker, like theGoogle Homeor Nest Mini, you can say "Hey Google" and then any number of commands to shut it up, but now there's a quicker way.

Thanks to a recent update that Google announced on Twitter, you no longer have to use a two-part response to get Google Assistant to hush. You only have to say one word: "Stop."

Now playing: Watch this: HomePod Mini vs. Echo Dot vs. Nest Mini: Finding the...

11:40

If Google Assistant is talking to you, all you have to do is say "stop" and it will cease from speaking. It's a useful new feature to prevent Google Assistant from blabbing incredibly long directions to a destination, for example, or giving you a too-thorough weather forecast. It's similar to the feature that allows you to stop an alarm or timer by simply saying "stop," except now you can do it while Google Assistant is talking.

Know everything about Google, from breaking news to reviews and Android tips. Delivered Wednesdays.

If Google Assistant won't stop talking, just say "stop."

Unfortunately, the "stop" feature currently only works on smart displays like the Google Nest Hub or the Lenovo Smart Clock, as well as on smart speakers like the Google Home or the Sonos One. That means that the feature is currently unavailable on smartphones, watches and tablets that have Google Assistant, but that could eventually change.

If you want to learn more about Google Assistant, check out how to make your Google Assistant less annoying by turning off these 5 settings and 32 cool things you need to try with Google Assistant.

See more here:

Google Has Fixed the Most Annoying Thing About Your Google Home or Nest Speaker - CNET

Big tech stocks have seen their stellar pandemic-era run abruptly end in early 2022.

With geopolitical turmoil in Ukraine, high inflation around the world, and expectations of rising interest rates, the entire market has started the year sharply lower. But shares of Meta (FB), Apple (AAPL), Amazon (AMZN), Netflix (NLFX), and Alphabet (GOOGL) are faring even worse than the rest of the market, begging the question: are these top growth stocks now cheap enough to buy?

For JPMorgan, the answer is no. Strategists Mislav Matejka, Prabhav Bhadani, Nitya Saldanha and Karishma Manpuria have examined the market in forensic detail for their latest equity strategy report.

The FAANG stocks or Meta (n Facebook), Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Alphabet (Google) are all lower, even relative to the wider US equities market, which is down over 9% so far in 2022.

Shares of Meta crashed after the company reported its first-ever decline in daily active users last quarter, while Netflix took a similar dive when the company announced it believed subscriber growth will slow next quarter. As a result, shares of Meta are down over 39% year-to-date, while Netflix is down 36%. Meanwhile, Apple shares are down 7%, while shares of Amazon and Alphabet are both down over 9% this year.

But according to the team at JPMorgan the issue isn't the price of these high-growth stocks it's the timeframe. When looking at the big picture the JPMorgan team is unconvinced growth stocks are a bargain right now.

"Despite recent underperformance, growth continues to trade near highs, in a multi-year context," they wrote. "In a longer term context, the recent underperformance of growth is much less stark, as it comes on the back of years of outperformance."

"Similarly, the recent underperformance of FAANG relatively also appears muted, considering its large outperformance over the last decade. In fact, the price earnings differential between technology and banks is still close to the widest on record."

Given this, where should investors put their money? The JPMorgan team said that despite its recent rally, value investments continue to trade "outright cheap relative to growth."

"As growth stocks weakened of late, they derated, but are still not outright cheap," they wrote. "On the other side, financials and commodities in particular had a strong rally, but are far from expensive, especially relative to underlying commodity prices and relative to the magnitude of potential rate changes by central banks."

JPMorgan noted that the earnings of growth companies "might not be exceptional anymore," while the earnings of certain value sectors are "bouncing." They also said the forward earnings of value appear to be "bottoming out" versus growth stocks.

"The big driver remains the direction of bond yields," the JPMorgan team explained. "Over the past 10 years, growth style benefitted from negative real rates and subdued bond yields, rerating vs value sectors. If bond yields show a more persistent upside, as central banks undergo a series of rate increases, and as the demand-supply for bonds changes, then the large valuation premium that growth sectors have over value will keep reducing."

Inflation peaking might not be a "durable reason" to go back and buy growth stocks, they warned, but it could offer a short-term tactical bounce.

"We believe one should look through the widespread 'slowdown' calls that are currently in vogue, and stay bullish on banks, mining, energy, insurance, autos, travel and telecoms. The year-to-date market performance is tracking these well."

"The question is whether one should buy back quality, especially if one sees a potential peak in inflation," the team continued. "In our view the key is the direction of bond yields we expect them to continue moving higher, and that was always consistent with cyclical leadership."

The team also gave a nod to one geographic part of the equities market that looks attractive. "Regionally, we reiterate our upgrade of the UK to overweight, after six years of a cautious stance."

Read more:

Are Google, Amazon, Apple and Meta Cheap yet? JPMorgan Has the Answer - Business Insider