Those of us that use social networks on a regular basis are well aware of the fact that even though we frequently delete status updates, tweets, photos and other such fodder, they're probably stored in a vault somewhere to incriminate us at some point in the future. But in the case of Facebook, messages you thought you deleted by hitting that 'x' button in the corner have actually just been archived, and as such, are still easy to go back, recover and re-read. If you want to find out how to locate this secret archive and recover your messages which you thought soared into oblivion, we've got a little tutorial below.
Popcorn Time, a torrent movie streaming site, dramatically closed its doors only recently amid a swirl of legalese, with users and observers uncertain as to whether the site was in breach of the law. But as is so often the case when these kinds of sites disappear - either by choice or by force - Popcorn Time has been resurrected, and with the site now being run by developers of torrent site YTS, the 'whack-a-mole' nature of shutting down these purportedly illegal sites has once more been underlined.
With Apple having recently thrown together a video clip to celebrate the 30th birthday of the Mac a couple of weeks back, Facebook has done likewise after hitting a landmark of its own. For yes, despite the fact that it feels like the social network has been around since the Internet began, Facebook is now ten years old, and naturally, there's a nostalgic clip for every single member providing a scrapbook-like take on their lives from signup to present day.
Spotify is an immensely popular audio streaming service, boasting a mammoth 20 million songs with more being added all the time. But while some artists have amassed millions of plays apiece, around one-fifth of the extensive library has never been heard - at least, not through Spotify. This equates to, as those with solid math skills will have already established, around four million tracks collecting dust, and it is at this point that Forgotify, a service that has collected all of these unheard tracks, steps in. The site, which doesn't appear affiliated with Spotify, lets you sign in and listen to some of these forgotten 'gems,' and whether you want to discover new artists or simply help with the initiative, you can log right in now and get listening!
Whenever a significant piece of software has a lapse in security, we cannot wait, as a people, to take to the blogs, the boards, and the Twitters to lodge our unofficial, knee-jerk complaints. But as research compiled by SplashData has found, many Internet users are very blasé about security and the protection of their data, and although steps have been put in place by the likes of Google and Microsoft to ensure that our passwords meet an acceptable standard, the most popular choices remain incredibly easy for potential hackers to guess.
When Jeff Keacher decided that he wanted to try and get his 27-year-old Mac Plus online, he knew the challenge that he had set himself would require a substantial amount of time and effort. Things have advanced a great deal since the antiquated Apple desktop was released, and to try and connect it to the TCP/IP Internet we enjoy today was a pretty ambitious task, to say the least. But with a little perseverance, he managed it, and although the result isn't quite the Safari / Chrome / Firefox-injected, seamless browsing experience of this Digital Age, it's still a very commendable achievement.
The recent wave of data breaches on a number of popular sites and Web service providers should definitely be a cause for concern to most users. Malicious attacks on the likes of Yahoo!, Facebook and Adobe should act as a catalyst for us to review our current account setup and make changes accordingly to improve the strength of passwords, even if your data wasn't amongst the batch that was compromised in any of the attacks. Microsoft Research is well aware that password strength is one of the most vital components in combating such breaches, and as such has created the Telephathwords tool to try and guess the next character of a password based on a large database and complex query patterns.
Web security is of paramount importance to most Web users, and every now and then, something occurs that reminds us of how the determination of a hacker can result dire consequences. In a report that does make for quite disconcerting reading, someone, using a keylogger, managed to obtain over 2 million passwords of the likes of Facebook, Gmail, Twitter, Yahoo, and LinkedIn.
Google has wrapped up its Morning with Google+ event, and the Internet is abuzz with news and reviews surrounding the announcements. Amongst several other features, Google’s social network is getting a slew of new photo and video enhancement features, that intend on not just making the sharing experience better, but put Google in a position where the Mountain View company can compete directly with dedicated filter and photo-enhancement apps that are available for Android and iOS. Let’s take a look at what they announced for Google+ today.
Any Twitter user will be more than aware that the San Francisco based company isn’t shy when it comes to making changes. Historical amendments around their developer focused API caused more than its fair share of controversy when introduced earlier this year. The many millions of registered Twitter users have also been subjected to various changes over the company's lifespan with the introduction of sponsored tweets showing up in timelines. After a period of public inactivity, the changes are happening again, but this time involving a relatively minor tweak on how direct messages currently work.
