Police across the US have sent out privacy warnings over a new iPhone feature added in the latest Apple update. But the tool – called NameDrop – is a simple way of sharing personal information with consent, and includes a number of protections to ensure that data is not stolen. In a host of warnings from law enforcement, shared largely across Facebook, police departments warn about a possible “privacy” concern from the NameDrop feature, which arrived in iOS 17. The warning was shared by a range of different law enforcement authorities on Facebook, right across the country. It appears to have caught on over the Thanksgiving weekend. It notes that the feature defaults to being on, which is true. But it also suggests that “many people do not check their settings and realise how their phone works” and suggest there is something dangerous about the fact that you can “share your contact information by being next to another iPhone”. As such, it warns that people should turn the feature off by default and do the same for their children. It is true that the feature allows two devices to share contact information when they are next to each other. But they must be right next to each other, rather than simply close – and that is just one of a range of protections built into the feature. Chief among them is that users must specifically unlock their phone and also explicitly opt in to share their data with anyone, rather than it being able to send information on its own. NameDrop was introduced earlier this summer, as part of a number of changes to the way that contacts and sharing work in iOS 17. It is intended to make it easy to quickly share details with someone just by putting your phones near each other, and in so doing avoid having to read out numbers or other more complicated processes. It is used by simply placing two iPhones, two Apple Watches or a combination of the two together. If the devices are unlocked, and then placed within a few centimetres of each other, they will vibrate and glow to the show that the connection is happening. Users are then given the option of what contact information they want to share, as well as what they want to leave out. That gives the option to share only a work number, for instance, or only an email address – or one user can opt out of sharing any data at all, and just receive it. Users then click again to share their details. It can also be cancelled at any time by just swiping from the bottom of the display. NameDrop can be turned off relatively easily if there any concern. That is done by opening the Settings app, clicking on “General” then “AirDrop” and choose the “Start Sharing By” option, where you can turn off the setting to do so by “Bringing Devices Together”. Read More Why Apple is working hard to break into its own iPhones Disney, Apple suspend ads on Musk’s X after he agrees with antisemitic tweet Apple to adopt system to improve texting between iPhones and Android devices

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Nothing is preparing to launch what it called Phone (2), the successor to its pioneering, see-through device. Like the first version, it features a transparent design that means the insides of the phone can be seen. But it improves on that same design, adding new options for the “Glyph Interface” that uses LEDs in the back of the phone to show information. On the new phone, that interface can go brighter or dimmer, and adjusts based on the ambient light. New patterns, which the company calls visual ringtones, can also be composed on the device. Nothing suggests the interface is intended in part to make people have to pay less attention to their phones, by offering important information at a glance and without having to view the screen. It also brings a new, faster chip, upgraded camera hardware, and a new much higher price. The first model of the phone costs £399 or $390, compared with £579 or $599 for the second phone. Nothing offers the new phone in two colours, white or grey. The colour option decides the hue of those internal components – since the case itself is transparent. The second version of the phone comes almost exactly a year after the first device. It also sits alongside the earphones, which Nothing calls Ear and are also transparent. Nothing, as its name suggests, has looked to make transparent devices its calling card, and says it is doing so to bring the fun back to technology. Its influence already appears to be clear: other companies such as Beats have released their own transparent devices, too. Read More £10 phone with e-wallet and streaming can bridge India ‘digital divide’, experts say ‘Diverse organic matter’ found on Mars by Nasa Microsoft’s attempt to buy Call of Duty developer reaches huge new development

TikTok is now the most used single source of news across all platforms for teenagers in the UK, new research from Ofcom has found. The regulator’s News Consumption In The UK 2022/23 report found TikTok is the favoured single news source among 12 to 15-year-olds. TikTok is most popular with young people and used by 28 per cent of teenagers, followed by YouTube and Instagram, both at 25 per cent, according to the figures. But, taking into account all news content across its platforms, the BBC still has the highest reach of any news organisation among this age group – used by 39 per cent of teenagers. Over the last 12 months we've seen most major publishers refocus their strategy, partly as otherwise there's more risk of young people seeing unreliable news Nic Newman, Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism It comes after the UK Government banned ministers from using TikTok, which is a Chinese-owned video-sharing app, on their work phones following a security review. The House of Commons and the Lords also cited security concerns as they decided to ban the app across the Palace of Westminster. TikTok, owned by Chinese internet company ByteDance, argues it does not share data with China. However, Beijing’s intelligence legislation requires firms to help the Communist Party when requested. Nic Newman, senior research associate at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, said there is a big shift taking place in terms of how people consume news and that more publishers have been joining TikTok. He said: “TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, the people younger people are listening to tend to be influencers, personalities, they film for a range of reasons – in some instances you have specific news creators, in other cases it’s just personalities, comedians, talking about issues including free school meals. “In terms of the implications for the industry, one of the things we’ve really seen in the last 12 months is we have publishers who are very reluctant to go into TikTok, but over the last 12 months we’ve seen most major publishers refocus their strategy, partly as otherwise there’s more risk of young people seeing unreliable news. “That’s more challenging as there’s no business model for TikTok, so it’s very hard. “It’s just starting to build relationships with young people. “There’s been surveys that show TikTok is amongst the least trusted platforms, partly as it’s one of the newest.” He added: “During the war in Ukraine we saw young people going to traditional news brands – but not for very long, it depends what the subject is to some extent. “Covid was a big change because people were at home and people were talking about Covid on TikTok and people had a bit of time. “That’s a case of very serious news being carried on TikTok. “Passions and celebrity news, that’s a big part of what’s going on with the younger people, but there’s also serious news, that’s the wider big shift.” When considering perceptions of trust, teenagers rated traditional sources better than their online counterparts, as BBC One/Two was trusted by 82 per cent of its teenage users, compared to TikTok at 32 per cent, Instagram at 38 per cent, Facebook at 41 per cent and Snapchat at 31 per cent. Twitter was the exception, with a 50 per cent rating on trust, Ofcom found. The news topics of most interest to younger teens generally are “sports or sports personalities” (23per cent), “music news or singers” (15 per cent), “celebrities or famous people” (11 per cent), “serious things going on in the UK” (8 per cent) and news about “animals or the environment” (9). Meanwhile, those aged 16-24 are much less likely than the average adult to access news from traditional media sources, such as TV (47 per cent vs 70 per cent), radio (25 per cent vs 40 per cent) and print newspapers (16 per cent vs 26 per cent). Social media platforms dominate the top five most popular news sources among 16-24s. Instagram is the most-used single news source at 44 per cent, followed by Facebook at 33 per cent, Twitter at 31 per cent, and TikTok at 29 per cent. Coming in joint second, BBC One at 33 per cent is the only traditional media source to feature in the top five. But Ofcom said its figures show broadcast TV news maintains its position as the most popular source among adults in the UK, used by 70 per cent, which rises to 75 per cent when broadcast video on-demand news content is included. BBC One remains the most-used news single source across all platforms at 49 per cent, followed by ITV at 34 per cent – although both channels have seen gradual declines over the past five years as they are down from 62 per cent and 41 per cent respectively. Similarly, Facebook – the third most popular news source among adults – is showing signs of decline, from 33 per cent to 30 per cent over the same period. TikTok’s popularity as a source of news for adults is growing, with one in 10 adults saying they use it to keep up with the latest stories – overtaking BBC Radio 1 and Channel 5, both at 8 per cent for the first time. TikTok, at 55 per cent, along with Instagram, at 53 per cent, is particularly popular among adults for celebrity news. Twitter is the favoured destination for breaking news, with 61 per cent of adults choosing it, and political news, at 45 per cent, while Facebook is the preferred source for local news, at 59 per cent. Among users of the platforms, news sourced via social media is rated lower for trust, accuracy and impartiality than the more traditional sources of news, but is rated moderately well on “offers a range of opinions”, “helps me understand what’s going on in the world today” and being “important to me personally”. One in ten (10 per cent) 16-24s claims to consume no news – twice the figure for all adults. After a long-term decline in the use of print newspapers – with overall reach of these news brands being supplemented by their digital platforms – Ofcom’s most recent data shows print newspaper reach was consistent between 2022 and 2023. Just over a quarter of adults (26 per cent) accessed news via print newspapers, increasing to 39 per cent when including their online platforms. The Daily Mail/Mail on Sunday and The Guardian/Observer were the most widely-read print and digital news titles overall. Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Talk of AI dangers has ‘run ahead of the technology’, says Nick Clegg Eurostar passengers can avoid UK passport checks by having faces scanned ‘Hostile states using organised crime gangs as proxies in the UK’

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We could shoot lasers at the lunar soil to help us live on the Moon, scientists have proposed. By melting the lunar soil into a more solid, layered substance, we might be able to build paved roads and landing pads on the Moon’s surface, a new study suggests. Many space agencies including Nasa have plans to establish semi-permanent bases on the Moon, which would both allow us to better study it but also serve as a stop off on the way to Mars and elsewhere in the solar system. The Moon’s surface is a tough place t land and live, however. The dust of the soil tends to get kicked up by landers – and the low gravity means that it floats around after it is disturbed, potentially finding its way into equipment. As such, future Moon colonies may require robust roads and landing pads to allow for us to travel both to and around the Moon. But it is unlikely we would be able to transport materials to build them, given the cost of doing so, leading scientists to look at what is available there already. In the new study, scientists examined whether lunar soil could be turned into something more substantial by using lasers. And they had some success, finding that lunar dust can be melted down into a solid substance. They used a variety of different sized and types of lasers to see what they would produce. The best used a 45 millimetre diameter laser beam to make hollow triangular shapes that were about 250 millimetres in size. Those pieces could be locked together to create solid surfaces that could be placed across the Moon’s surface, they suggest, and then used as roads and landing pads. On the Moon, the same approach would require a lens of around 2.37 metres squared, which would have to be transported from Earth. That could then be used to concentrate sunlight, rather than using a laser, and so allow the material to be created with relatively small equipment. The plan is reported in a new journal article, ‘Laser melting manufacturing of large elements of lunar regolith simulant for paving on the Moon’, published in Scientific Reports. Read More Nasa opens up pieces of a distant asteroid transported back to Earth Earth hit by a huge solar storm that would devastate civilisation, trees show Incels using TikTok to spread ‘hateful beliefs’, research suggests

FREDERICK, Md.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 8, 2023--

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