Author: Tapiwa Matthew Mutisi

For obvious reasons, Google has a vested interest in reducing the time it takes to load websites and services. One method is reducing the file size of images on the internet, which they previously pulled off with the WebP format back in 2014, which shrunk photos by 10 percent. Their…

Apple’s Live Photos are a neat trick when done well, but in practice they tend to be a wobbly mess. Last year, Google showed off a much more elegant solution with it’s Motion Stills app for iOS, which converted shaky Live Photos to smooth looping GIFs or movie files that…

A minor, but handy update comes to Gmail on the desktop today: videos sent as attachments can now be played right in your browser window, eliminating the need to actually download them to your hard drive and play them through a media player. Of course, you’ll still be limited to…

It seems Uber’s most recent progress down the road to autonomy has met a few safety and quality of life speed bumps, if recently obtained reports are any indications. Autonomous cars are of particular interest to Uber. Removing the human driver from the ride-hailign equation means also removing that human’s…

Google is giving thousands of contractors who normally evaluate search results a new, additional task: help the company downrank blatantly upsetting, offensive, and false content. Search Engine Land has a thorough explainer on the updated guidelines used by Google’s quality raters. Those are the people who rank the usefulness and…

Sir Patrick Stewart has opened up about his struggle with arthritis and how he turns to marijuana on a daily basis to combat its symptoms. The 76-year-old “X-Men” actor shined a light on his green regimen this week while endorsing the U.K.’s first program aimed at exploring the benefits of…

Check your kid’s phone for this app, ASAP: Wishbone, a popular quiz app for kids, tweens and teens, has been , according to a report from Motherboard out this morning. The hack involved 2.2 million email addresses as well as 287,000 phone numbers, many of which are from kids under…

Swatch Group AG said it’s developing an alternative to the iOS and Android operating systems for smartwatches as Switzerland’s largest maker of timepieces vies with Silicon Valley for control of consumers’ wrists. The company’s Tissot brand will introduce a model around the end of 2018 that uses the Swiss-made system,…

A computer security firm on Wednesday revealed a flaw that could let hackers break into WhatsApp or Telegram messaging accounts using the very encryption intended to protect messages. Check Point Software Technologies said it alerted Telegram and Facebook-owned WhatsApp last week, waiting until the vulnerability was patched before making it…

It was June 2013, and U.S. law enforcement thought they were finally getting their hands on a slippery target: Russian hacker Alexsey Belan, indicted in Nevada and California for computer intrusions at three U.S. e-commerce companies, had been arrested in Europe. Instead, Belan escaped to Russia, where the U.S. charges…

One of the longest-running rumors in the mobile industry is Samsung’s foldable smartphone. Samsung is believed to have been developing a smartphone with a screen that can fold and bend for years — but so far, it has never seen the light of day. However, according to a report from…

Even if the smartphone world is now officially dominated by iOS and Android, there could still be a niche for Nokia. The latest Kantar Worldpanel data, published Wednesday, shows the iPhone 7 is the world’s most popular handset; that Samsung is still the biggest handset maker; and Android still dominates…

In many ways, the news that The Matrix is going to be rebooted for a new series of movies feels, if not overdue, then at least particularly timely. In the 18 years since the release of the Wachowskis’ original, fashion may have moved on – no-one really wants to dress…

Thousands of Twitter users had their accounts hijacked this morning, thanks to a third-party app. Big brands and verified accounts were affected, with tweets featuring the Nazi swastika and pro-Erdoğan propaganda. While Twitter wasn’t breached itself, it’s important to check what apps have access to your account. This hack is…

To say that Facebook has some egg on its face right now would be an understatement. The social network not only didn’t take down some sexualized images of children, but reported the BBC when it drew these images to its attention. However, the company now says it has turned a…

You can already send messages, photos and files over email, so why not money too? Google now lets you do precisely that with Gmail on Android. To be clear, the feature was already tucked away into the Web version (click on the little $ icon in the compose Window), but…

Google has officially brought a Pocket-like Read Later feature to the latest version of Chrome for iOS. The feature works a lot like Apple’s Reading List feature in Safari — there’s a new “Read Later” icon that appears on the share sheet in Chrome, which saves articles locally on the…

Early Wednesday morning, several high-profile Twitter accounts were compromised, displaying messages featuring swastikas. BBC North America, Amnesty International and the European Parliament were among the Twitter accounts impacted by the hack. According to a tweet from Twitter support, the company identified an issue caused by a third-party app affecting some…

Social Cues is our look at what people are talking about across social media. Here’s what is trending on Wednesday. Snoop Dogg has seen it all when it comes to rap beefs. At the height of his career, the “Gin and Juice” rapper was deeply embroiled in the East Coast…

Security researchers have come across a new kind of Android malware, which purports to be a well-known app but then exposes your phone to root attacks—and is virtually impossible to remove. The new malware has been found in software available on third-party app stores. The apps in question use code…