Turning up the beets

Turning up the beets: Watch out for an Indian content farm behind over 60 domains impersonating huge sites like the BBC, Forbes, The Guardian, Washington Post and CNN. They copy articles word-for-word, sell ads and boost SEO links to gambling sites. They even run phony Facebook pages and sneak into Google News. Why are there no checks in place for this junk?

Tags: advertisements (ads), Facebook, Google, Google News


Make your smart home smarter with a smart lock 

Today the average home has 10 times more technology than NASA used to land humans on the moon. That’s a lot of tech to secure! That’s why we’re sharing the Ultraloq U-Bolt Pro Smart Lock to upgrade your Apollo 11-era keys. 

Continue reading

Go smish! Texting scams impersonate these brands the most

Here’s a fun fact you can use to win a bet: 19.2 billion spam texts were sent this January. That works out to every person in the U.S. receiving around 19 spammy texts in just one month. Crazy, right?

Crooks have taken full advantage of how much we text by relying on SMS phishing, or “smishing,” the term for scam texts. They often pose as big brands to get you to give up personal info like credit card numbers and passwords.

Continue reading

Trivia

The first Google Doodle was created in 2000 when founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin asked intern Dennis Hwang to make a drawing to commemorate a holiday. Was it … A.) The Fourth of July, B.) Bastille Day, C.) Chinese New Year or D.) Diwali?

Find the answer here

80% drop in readers has Meta saying, “So long” to Facebook News

It’ll disappear from Facebook in the U.S. and Australia in April. After regulators said Meta would have to start paying publishers for news stories, the Big Tech powerhouse is routing its money into content like short-form videos.

61% of Americans are on their phones within 5 minutes of waking up

And one-third of us open our phones within one minute! I usually talk about avoiding phone use at night as the reason to keep your phone out of your bedroom, but let’s add this to the list.

42,324 people laid off 

Big Tech’s “contribution” to the U.S. workforce so far in 2024. Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Discord, Salesforce, eBay and PayPal have all cut jobs, even as the overall economy is booming. So far, this number just about tracks with last year’s total tech layoffs — 263,000. Ouch.

Trivia

How long was the longest spaceflight ever taken by an American astronaut? In days, was it … A.) 365, B.) 665, C.) 204 or D.) 225?

Find the answer here

Trivia

Which of the following smartphone charging facts is actually a myth? Is it … A.) Charging your phone overnight damages its battery, B.) Using your phone while it’s charging can make it explode, C.) Charging only when it reaches 0% extends your battery life, or D.) You should only use the charger that came with your phone?

Find the answer here

5.8Gbps is the top speed of Wi-Fi 7 

The new standard was certified this month. Routers are available, but most devices don’t support it yet. Once we do connect, expect faster downloads, more stability and less latency.

700 customer service agents laid off and replaced with AI 

Klarna says its customer service AI bot “is doing the equivalent work of 700 full-time agents” — yep, the number of customer service personnel it let go in 2022.