What's trending in tech? From the big boys to tiny startup, we talk about the best and sometimes the worst tech trends. Let's get started with the latest and most important technology headlines that transpired this week. Tesla may have stolen the show this week - Elon Musk's Telsa company unveiled and an almost indestructible electric pick-up truck. While DuckDuckGo wants to encrypt the sites you visit automatically with its smart encryption, privacy-based cryptocurrency Monero suffered an embarrassing hack. Facebook, Apple, Google and Samsung were all in the radar. Stay tuned for insightful analysis and commentary.
1. Tesla's CyberTruck which got smashed during its presentation
Tesla introduced the Cybertruck on Thursday, a futuristic pick-up truck powered by electricity. The Cybertruck's design and looks are probably going to be its most attractive feature as it looks like something out of a sci-fi movie. The presentation may not go as planned but Mr Musk's Cybertruck revved up memes and jokes all over the internet. Familiar with "going to tell my kids" meme, where users post a photo of something that's definitely not what they claim it is? Yeah, that got a workout thanks to the Tesla Cybertruck. Read more.
Gonna tell my kids this is Knight Rider. #Cybertruck pic.twitter.com/e4Oqr6UJeS— Reed S. Albers (@ReedSAlbers) November 22, 2019
i’m gonna tell my kids this was the new tesla #Cybertruck pic.twitter.com/7ctpzQZuEa— yadeer (@yadeer_) November 22, 2019
The car's simple look attracted a lot of comparisons on Twitter
Wow the new Tesla #Cybertruck is sweet. pic.twitter.com/cW0yUbTVuD— Windows Central Gaming (@WCGamingTweets) November 22, 2019
live look at elon musk #cybertruck pic.twitter.com/fhk6sEbfGW— NeoN: Automataster (@neontaster) November 22, 2019
2. Facebook improves effort to appeal young users with its new meme-making app called Whale
The internet is full of memes and the company wants to capitalize on the jokes alongside messaging, photo-sharing and anything cool. This could be good for Facebook's resurrection. Currently, the app allows users to decorate photos with text and stickers in order to create memes that can be shared to social media or texted to friends. Read more.
If this leaked information turns out to be true, it will mean the Galaxy S11 will be Samsung’s biggest display in a phone not counting the Fold. All the variants of the S11 will come with curved displays and that can be good news or bad news depending on how you view curved displays. Samsung has patented a design that shows a device with a smaller display at the back(courtesy of LetsGoDigital). Read more.
4. Your Connection is Secure with DuckDuckGo Smarter Encryption
I started using DuckDuckGo a couple of years back and they keep impressing me. The latest update is its smart encryption that will protect your connections. An official documentation was released by the company explaining the benefits of the smart encryption - With Smarter Encryption, your browsing will use encrypted connections more often. That means fewer prying eyes on your browsing history, like from your Internet provider or wi-fi snoopers. The way it works is we continually maintain a list of sites that support encryption. When you try to go to an unencrypted site that we know supports encryption (i.e. is on our list), we first automatically upgrade your connection to use the encrypted version of the website. It's seamless!
Today, we're proud to share more on DuckDuckGo Smarter Encryption:-How it can make 80% of website connections encrypted (HTTPS)-How Pinterest is using it on their site-How the code behind it is open source-How it works!https://t.co/2Sz0U68GJT— DuckDuckGo (@DuckDuckGo) November 19, 2019
5. Monero’s Embarrassing Website Hack: What You Need to Know
MoneroManz warned of the possibility that the infected code could carry out other malicious actions affecting other files on a user’s machine. They also published a copy of the malware for anyone to download and study. Cyber sleuths should be advised not to run these infected binaries on anything but a secure test computer without access to cryptocurrency wallets.
Warning Monero users: If you downloaded Monero in the past 24 hours you may have installed malware. Monero's official website served compromised binaries for at least 30 minutes during the past 24 hours. Investigations are ongoing. https://t.co/geqA4dIPar— dark.fail (@DarkDotFail) November 19, 2019
6. Apple fixed the obvious things on MacBook Pro 16-inch
In short: the performance is there, but unless you definitely know your software can take full advantage of the new GPUs in the new MacBook, you might not see life-changing improvements. It’s the no-drama MacBook Pro. And thank god for that because for people who want a big-screen, big-power Mac laptop, it’s also the only option around. This year, it’s a very good one. - The Verge.
7. You can now hide replies to your tweets — here’s how
Although Twitter keeps reiterating that this feature gives control back to the user, it simultaneously takes the pressure off Twitter to control what is said on its platform. It seems like an easy and cheap win for Twitter when more needs to be done internally to moderate what appears on the platform. - TNW.
8. Google is shutting down its Cloud Print feature in 2020
In a support document, Google recommends using the printing experience that’s baked into Chrome OS or, if you’re on a different OS, using “the respective platform’s native printing infrastructure.”
RIP to Google Cloud Print!— Lukas Karlsson (@lukwam) November 21, 2019
This is a disaster. All my printers use this. My parents' printers use this. All our printers at work use this. Hosed. pic.twitter.com/eeYafb0Mx3
9. Why you need to be aware of your data privacy especially when it comes to your kids
Google recently agreed to pay a US$170 million fine for illegally gathering children’s personal data on YouTube without parental consent, which is a violation under the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). Our digital identities comprise data collected across our activities, making personal identifying information irrelevant. Children today are subjugated to a scale of data collection and targeting that we cannot fathom. Right now, we also have no clue about the consequences, and regulatory protections to data-proof their futures are far from certain. Check out the value of your digital data.
10. Microsoft Teams now has 20 million daily active users
Microsoft has announced today that Teams now has 20 million daily active users, up 7 million from July. Microsoft Teams is the firm’s answer to Slack, a collaborative tool used in workplaces to boost efficiency. Teams is available as a free add-on to Office 365 users which is great if you need an office suite and want to cut back costs by not having to take on a Slack subscription.