Have you heard of GAFA? This acronym stands for the four possibly most powerful US companies: Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon. Each has taken their fair share of the Internet pie (along with Microsoft) and make billions almost unchallenged. But recently, a storm has been brewing in paradise: Google was fined 4.3 billion euros by the EU commission. What happened?
moreThere's something magical about nostalgia, and childhood memories touch us on a deeper level. Recently, China-based company Anbernic released a Gameboy clone at a small price point - and it doesn't suck, kinda! The hardware is described as "solid" and the device features 168 built-in games. The list includes classic titles still loved by millions around the world today. Reason enough to put this thing through its paces!
moreAs cellphones began to lose their headphone jacks, even Joe Schmoe finally discovered the wireless technology standard Bluetooth. It had been around since the 90s but only arrived in living rooms (and on billions of devices) within the last decade. And while this technology has been adopted by many, some users are still hesitant. Read on to learn what you should know about Bluetooth!
moreIn conversations about surveillance states, China is always mentioned. The country makes use of modern technology to monitor its 1.4 billion citizens like no other. Strong censorship of all media outlets (including the Internet) is quickly becoming old hat as the country turns towards face recognition, voice analysis and information clustering to create a "social credit system". Reason enough to take a closer look.
moreToday, messengers have mostly replaced SMS messages with WhatsApp being in the vanguard and having acquired over one billion active users to date. In most cases, the app works flawlessly and handles fairly well. So all is good, right? Hardly! WhatsApp's reputation has received quite a few dents over the years not least due to its acquisition by Facebook - and reports of a linking between Facebook and WhatsApp user profiles to consolidate their databases. Meta data (Who talked to whom?) is still considered a gold mine by data collectors and the struggle to create e ver denser user profiles is ongoing. Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram, also owned by Facebook, already enjoy a close cooperation. On top of that, WhatsApp is also regularly dogged by security issues. Time to start looking for viable WhatsApp replacements!
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