Particularly with Sony offering only backward compatibility with PS VR for its just-launched PlayStation 5, that has left Facebook with the consumer VR market largely to itself. That has been enough to subject the company to accusations of app store manipulation that have fallen primarily on Apple. Indeed, much like the iOS app store, Quest 2’s is dominated by games. But unlike the iOS app store, it doesn’t host many of the kind of massively popular apps that have become part of the shared vocabulary of digital lifestyle infiltration such as Uber and Facebook’s own Instagram and don’t have a good place in the Oculus world until the Facebook division expands into AR....

FritzFrog is a peer-to-peer botnet discovered in January 2020. Over a period of eight months, the botnet managed to strike at least 500 government and enterprise SSH servers. The P2P botnet, written in the Golang programming language, is decentralized in nature and will attempt to brute-force servers, cloud instances, and other devices – including routers – that have exposed entry points on the internet. On Thursday, cybersecurity researchers from Akamai Threat Labs said that despite having gone quiet after its previous attack wave, since December, the botnet has reappeared with an exponential growth surge....

“The FTC intends to use its full legal authority to pursue companies that fail to take reasonable steps to protect consumer data from exposure as a result of Log4j, or similar known vulnerabilities in the future,” the agency said on Tuesday. “Failure to identify and patch instances of this software may violate the FTC Act.” The agency cited its $700 million settlement with Equifax in 2019 as an example of what could happen if customer data is exposed....

Interestingly enough, it started with my wife’s quest to digitize all her crafting books. She wanted to be able to read all those books on a tablet and carry them with her wherever she went. We started that process in 2013, chopping the spines off books with a heavy-duty guillotine paper cutter, and scanning them in. But it took seven years for it all to come together – when she finally got her much wished-for 12....

Complete novices can take “Mastering Cloud Automation using Azure PowerShell | DevOpsr 2022.” It’s designed to teach Azure concepts in a way people can learn quickly and offer enough practice exercises to help them get started on their cloud journey with Microsoft Azure. The “AZ-900: Microsoft Azure Fundamentals Exam Quick Prep” course was designed specifically to help people with non-technical backgrounds pass the Azure fundamentals exam. If you’d prefer a more comprehensive course, “Microsoft Certified Azure Fundamentals (AZ-900)” spends a little more time covering the necessary topics....

The 2022 CIO and Technology Executive Survey features data gleaned from 2,387 CIO and technology executive respondents in 85 countries, representing about $9 trillion in revenue/public-sector budgets and $198 billion in IT spending. The survey focused on “business composability”, – which involves the mindset, technologies and set of operating capabilities that enable organizations to innovate and adapt quickly to changing business needs. Monika Sinha, research vice president at Gartner, said business composability is an “antidote to volatility....

Did you know that you can create mobile apps without knowing how to code? That’s right, all you need is a good app builder. And right now, you can start building both Android and iOS apps with a five-year AppMySite Mobile App Builder Pro Plan for only $49.99. AppMySite makes app development uncomplicated. It offers an extensive library of premium designs that you can easily customize to your liking, and you can also upload your own images or artwork for a truly unique experience....

In addition to the 30% off, you can snag an extra 10% off of PowerDirector 365. You’ll have to use the code POWER10 to get the extra percentage off the annual subscription. There are plenty of ways to use the software. If you’re opting for personal use, you can buy PowerDirector 365 to build stunning video content for only $49 and, with our link, you can get it for only $44 for an entire year....

What is the digital skills gap? According to the research, the digital skills gap means there are not enough people with the right digital skills to power companies’ digital transformation now and in the future. There is a low supply and high demand for digital skills, and the gap continues to widen due to factors like: Tech talent is outpacing an already short supply (in fact, 54% of American workers believe technology will advance faster than workforce skills) Emerging technologies that amplify the need for digital skillsHigh costs and disorganized approaches to traditional education that increase barriers to learningAccess to digital infrastructure and skills limited by socio-economic status What is the cost associated with the digital skills gap?...

Google’s announcements tackle several different aspects of your privacy and security. For example, Google is working on a new virtual card tool that can be used across Android devices and in the Chrome browser on Mac or PC. It’s separate from Google Pay, and once a card is added to the service, a virtual card number will be given to the vendor whenever you purchase something online. Also: What are virtual credit card numbers and how do they work?...

If you’re in the market for a high-end phone, then Google’s latest Pixel 7 Pro and Apple’s iPhone 14 Pro should be near, if not at, the top of the list. Both devices offer the best of their respective brands, including unique features and strong after-sales service, and have proven to be worthy of their Pro labels. Review: Google Pixel 7 series shines with impressive new cameras To help you decide between Google’s latest and Apple’s greatest, I’ve listed below the key reasons to buy each model so you can pick the one with the most desirable features to you....

The new program tackles a major problem in the software community – a spike in supply chain compromises. Citing a report from the software firm Sonatype, Google noted that attacks targeting the open-source supply chain grew 650% year-over-year in 2021. Even single vulnerabilities, like the severe Log4j vulnerability that was discovered in December 2021, can wreak widespread havoc. Google’s new program encourages bug hunters to look for issues in up-to-date versions of open-source software (including repository settings) stored in the public repositories of Google-owned GitHub organizations (such as Google, GoogleAPIs and GoogleCloudPlatform)....

Heliconia targets n-day vulnerabilities, meaning that there are already patches available for the vulnerabilities. The new frameworks go after vulnerabilities previously found in Chrome, Firefox and Microsoft Defender. All of the vulnerabilities were addressed in 2021 and early 2022. However, Google’s research suggests these exploits were used as zero-days – in other words, before the vulnerabilities were spotted. Also: How to find and remove spyware from your phone To ensure you’re protected against Heliconia and other exploits, it’s important to keep all of your software updated....

Called Hawaiki Nui, the network system will begin construction next year and is expected to be ready for service in 2025, according to Hawaiki. The Auckland-based cable network operator said in a statement Friday it had roped in telco Mora Telematika Indonesia (Moratelindo) as a partner for the deployment. Describing Hawaiki Nui as the first and largest space division multiplexing (SDM) cable to link the three regions, Hawaiki said landings also were planned for Jakarta and Batam, giving Indonesia links to Singapore, Australia, and the US....

Now that the dust has settled and some investors are seeing big balances in their checking accounts, there’s one important thing to consider: taxes. Do I have to pay taxes on money earned while investing? Yes. If you bought and profitably sold shares of GameStop (or any other company), taxes will need to be paid. The brokerage(s) you used to buy and sell shares will report that information to the IRS, and you will owe income taxes on it....

The challenge was coordinating times and time zones. In this super-quick article, I’m going to point you to an excellent online resource for coordinating teams across continents: timeanddate.com. This site has a lot of great tools for doing time zone calculations, but the one that saved us this week was their meeting planner. The way it works is that you pick the date for your meeting and a set of cities, like, for example Brisbane (in Australia), Portland (here on America’s west coast), and London (in the UK)....

Having been around for decades, APIs today define the new normal. They decompose software monoliths and transform businesses by bridging the gap between new and old applications. More companies are funding digital transformational programs with APIs at the core of their strategy. IDC predicts that overall spending on these projects will reach a historic high totaling $6.8 trillion between 2020 and 2023. It is worth pointing out that this trend not only touches software companies but also applies to all industry verticals as well....

Discovered on August 28, 2021 by the Mount Lemmon Observatory, north of Tucson Arizona, 2021 QM1’s discovery was initially innocuous – after all, about a dozen new near-Earth asteroids are discovered every night. However, routine follow-up observations from telescopes around the world slowly began to reveal a very salient threat. Richear Moissl, the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Head of Planetary Defense, said, “These early observations gave us more information about the asteroid’s path, which we then projected into the future....

Also: How to use the free PowerToys FancyZones in Windows (and why you should) With Color Picker, you use an eyedropper to select a specific color on the screen. From there, the app identifies the color and translates it into different values, including RGB, HEX, and CMYK. The default value is copied to the Windows clipboard, where you can paste it into a graphic or web design program or insert it into your code....

However, you’re not totally out of luck, as Apple includes a tool that makes it pretty simple to create your own Quick Actions to the Finder context menu. That tool is called Automator, and I’m going to show you how to use it to create custom Quick Actions. Requirements The only thing you’ll need for this is a device running an updated version of MacOS. This can be done on a MacBook Pro, MacBookAir or an iMac....