Flurry Report Reveals U.S. Consumers Now Spend More Time In Mobile Apps Than Watching TV

Mobile Apps

At yesterday’s Apple event in San Francisco, CEO Tim Cook spoke about the need to bring apps to the TV’s big screen, while introducing the new Apple TV. Today, a new report from Flurry also highlights how apps have edged their way further into our lives, noting that, for the first time ever, the time spent inside mobile applications by the average U.S. consumer has now exceeded that of TV. Traditional cable TV has already been suffering in recent months, as more consumers are cutting the cord or opting never…

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Lightning strikes, major power outage wipes out data in Google ‘s European Computer Engine datacentre

Google

Google has told Cloud Engine customers to build in redundancy to their cloud apps after a major power outage hit its European datacentre. Google said the outage at its European Google Compute Engine (GCE) datacentre was caused by four consecutive lightning strikes that hit the grid powering it last Thursday. While the company has taken full responsibility for the outage, it has also told customers who suffered downtime they shouldn’t be relying on a single compute zone. The incident also caused the permanent loss of some data from ‘persistent disks’…

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Twitter removes the 140-character limit from Direct Messages

twttr

Twitter has today removed the 140-character limit on direct messages (DMs) for all users. The move was first flagged in June, hours after CEO Dick Costolo announced he’d be standing down as CEO of the social platform. From today, the change becomes reality, as the update is rolled out to users across the world. The changes referred to here being the removal of restrictions on who can DM whom – previously you could only DM those following you, now users have the choice to receive direct messages from anyone –…

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Enter ABC.xyz: Google will now be part of Alphabet

Alphabet abc.xyz

Google announced a new holding company called Alphabet today, and it’s using the domain name ABC.xyz. This is a huge win for Daniel Negari’s .xyz, and new top level domains in general. Reports Domainamewire “For Sergey and me this is a very exciting new chapter in the life of Google — the birth of Alphabet,” Larry Page, the chief executive of Google, wrote in a blog post on Monday. “We liked the name Alphabet because it means a collection of letters that represent language, one of humanity’s most important innovations,…

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U.S. Senators introduce DHS Cybersecurity Bill to Protect ‘Dot-Gov’ Domain after breach

Liquid Telecom

A bipartisan group of U.S. senators introduced legislation on Wednesday to give the Department of Homeland Security more authority to protect government Internet addresses in Cybersecurity bid. The goal is to prevent more cyberattacks like recent massive breaches at the government’s hiring office. Hacks targeting the Office of Personnel Management put the personal data of some 22 million Americans at risk and prompted the resignation of OPM chief Katherine Archuleta earlier this month. The cyberattacks prompted calls in Congress for huge improvements in monitoring and protection of government systems. Reports…

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Data Breaches: First half of 2015 saw venture firms invest $1.2 billion in cybersecurity startups

Data Breaches Boost Funding for Cybersecurity Startups Extract: In the 2015 first half, venture firms invested $1.2 billion in cybersecurity startups, according to researcher CB Insights. That is down slightly from $1.4 billion a year earlier but up sharply from $771 million in 2013’s first half. The shift is particularly notable at Andreessen Horowitz, which used to view security companies as necessary for Internet safety but less lucrative than other technology niches. One reason is that cybersecurity startups were often acquired prior to an initial public offering, says Scott Weiss,…

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Ethiopian Entrepreneur Sophia Bekele spoke on #GES Panel in San Francisco

DotConnectAfrica speaks at #GES-Global Entrepreneurship Summit #AfricanEntrepreneurs #SiliconValley

Sophia Bekele, Founder/ CEO DotConnectAfrica, Yes2dotAfrica was invited to speak on Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES) forum, hosted by the White House and USAID on “African Entrepreneurs & Silicon Valley Forum: Bridging Gaps and Making Connections” The forum held at the Silicon Valley Bank’s WeWork Golden Gate location, San Francisco, California, and hosted over 100 delegates comprised of VCs, impact investors, African diaspora entrepreneurs, tech leaders, policymakers and U.S. government members from Washington DC and San Francisco, focused on spurring and supporting innovation ecosystems and investment in Africa. Various high-level panel…

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WhatsApp could be BANNED in the UK if ‘Snooper’s Charter’ legislation passes

The popular messaging service WhatsApp could be BANNED in the United Kingdom if the controversial ‘Snooper’s Charter’ legislation is passed. The online messaging services like WhatsApp, iMessage and Snapchat encrypt the communication between users, they fall under the cross hairs of the bill. Prime Minister David Cameron is pressing ahead with new legislation that plans to stop people from sending any form of encrypted messages. “In our country, do we want to allow a means of communication between people which we cannot read?” said Prime Minister Cameron earlier this year. “My answer to…

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AT&T hit with a $100 million fine after slowing down, “throttling” its ‘unlimited’ data

Washington Post reports that the Federal Communications Commission slapped AT&T with a $100 million fine Wednesday, accusing the country’s second-largest cellular carrier of improperly slowing down, throttling Internet speeds for customers who had signed up for “unlimited” data plans. The FCC found that when customers used up a certain amount of data watching movies or browsing the Web, AT&T “throttled” their Internet speeds so that they were much slower than normal. Millions of AT&T customers were affected by the practice, according to the FCC. The fine, which AT&T says it will fight, is the largest ever levied…

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Microsoft opens a ‘No Back Door’ Transparency Center to allow European governments a look at its source codes

Microsoft

Microsoft has opened a Transparency Center in the Belgian capital, offering European governments a look at its source code. The center, opened in Brussels last week, will “enable governments to review and assess the source code of Microsoft products and to access important security information in a secure environment,” Microsoft said. The center is the second such facility the company has built – the first was opened in Redmond last year – and will be open to governments that have signed up to the company’s Government Security Program, which lets…

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