Tag Archive for: Alternative

Google’s alternative billing, Instagram’s chronological feeds, digital driver’s licenses – TechCrunch

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Welcome back to This Week in Apps, the weekly TechCrunch series that recaps the latest in mobile OS news, mobile applications and the overall app economy.

The app industry continues to grow, with a record number of downloads and consumer spending across both the iOS and Google Play stores combined in 2021, according to the latest year-end reports. Global spending across iOS, Google Play and third-party Android app stores in China grew 19% in 2021 to reach $170 billion. Downloads of apps also grew by 5%, reaching 230 billion in 2021, and mobile ad spend grew 23% year over year to reach $295 billion.

Today’s consumers now spend more time in apps than ever before — even topping the time they spend watching TV, in some cases. The average American watches 3.1 hours of TV per day, for example, but in 2021, they spent 4.1 hours on their mobile device. And they’re not even the world’s heaviest mobile users. In markets like Brazil, Indonesia and South Korea, users surpassed five hours per day in mobile apps in 2021.

Apps aren’t just a way to pass idle hours, either. They can grow to become huge businesses. In 2021, 233 apps and games generated over $100 million in consumer spend, and 13 topped $1 billion in revenue. This was up 20% from 2020, when 193 apps and games topped $100 million in annual consumer spend, and just eight apps topped $1 billion.

This Week in Apps offers a way to keep up with this fast-moving industry in one place, with the latest from the world of apps, including news, updates, startup fundings, mergers and acquisitions, and suggestions about new apps to try, too.

Do you want This Week in Apps in your inbox every Saturday? Sign up here: techcrunch.com/newsletters

There is no bigger news in the world of apps this week than that of Google’s announcement that it would begin to pilot a third-party billing system in various markets. To be clear, this is only a pilot program for the time being. And Google so far has only announced one partner: app store agitator and noted critic, Spotify. But ultimately, Spotify says it aims to roll out this third-party billing option in all markets where it sells Spotify Premium, which is 184 worldwide markets.

There are…

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The co-founder of WhatsApp becomes the director of Signal, its safer alternative – CVBJ

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Related news

The helm at the forefront of Signal changes hands. The application is not as popular as WhatsApp in Spain, but it is known to rival it in terms of security and privacy, even the European Union uses Signal. Precisely, the co-founder of WhatsApp is the one who assumes the position in place of Moxie marlinspike, the one who has been CEO of Signal until now.

This transfer is not entirely surprising, since Brian Acton, one of the creators of WhatsApp, has been on the board of directors of the Signal Foundation for years and has been very critical of the evolution of WhatsApp since leaving the company. Since 2018, Acton encourages on its social networks to delete Facebook (now Meta), current owner of WhatsApp.

However, from the statement issued by Signal it appears that Acton will not hold the position permanentlyRather, it will serve as a bridge until the company finds a more suitable candidate for this task. Moxie Marlinspike encourages interested parties to submit their applications for the position.

New Signal address

“I will continue to remain on the Signal board, committed to helping to manifest Signal’s mission from that role, and will transition as CEO over the next month to focus on finding candidates,” states Marlinspike on his website blog. by Signal.

Marlinspike has been a tireless advocate for internet security and privacy, flag that flies in Signal as the most secure messaging application against all types of attacks or espionage, whether from cybercrime groups or governments. It has even promoted where the company’s engineers have hacked a police tool used to enter mobiles in order to demonstrate that this technology was not reliable.

Now this task falls to Brian Acton, who in an interview for Forbes in 2018 showed sorry for selling WhatsApp to Facebook years agowith which he and his partner, Jan Koum, received millions of dollars. “I sold the privacy of my users (…) I made a choice and I compromised. I live with it every day,” he said at the time.

“Brian Acton, who is also on the board of the Signal Foundation, volunteered to serve as interim CEO during the search period,” Marlinspike says the transfer of…

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The Modern Alternative to Prevent Ransomware Attacks

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Zero-Trust model

In the world of cyberattacks, ransomware attacks are not a new thing. But over recent years, the rate of such attacks are increasing at a tremendous rate. The attacks have risen by 40% to 199.7 million cases across the globe, as reported by cybersecurity experts. Such attacks create tough and complex challenges for growth as every industry whether it is a technological company or healthcare organization, is not safe from these attacks. These have been constantly adding more and more losses to the organizations. Thus, to avoid the loss which is resulting from such attacks, every organization must take crucial steps such as adopting the Zero-Trust model which includes significant security regulations.

Ransomware attacks take place 4,000 times every day across the globe. The process includes malware that infects a target computer and an attacker that encrypts valuable data and then sends the victim a notification demanding a ransom payment to release access to it.

In such circumstances, A zero-trust model is an important defense mechanism that helps in blocking ransomware. Therefore, the adoption of the zero-trust model is one of the most effective ways to prevent ransomware attacks. The zero-trust security is built on the principle “never trust, always verify”. This security strategy would help in preventing the attacks of ransomware by preventing it from spreading across the operations while keeping the operation running.

The Zero-Trust model also ensures that the customer IT assets are completely hidden away from the customer and only the applicable internal and external users will be provided access to what they require. The other users on the internet or network would be unable to get knowledge about the presence of these IP addresses.

The Zero-Trust model helps the IT managers to fully conceptualize the systems and resources to secure appropriate least privilege and safe access to accurate devices. It also provides controlling powers and threat investigation skills which are required to prevent systems from ransomware.

Ransomware Zero Trust security model intensifies the IT protection posture through the following:

  • Blackening of private applications
  • Network Segregation
  • Zones of…

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Download WhyNotWin11 as a PC Health Check alternative

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Vlad Turiceanu
by Vlad Turiceanu

Editor-in-Chief

Passionate about technology, Windows, and everything that has a power button, he spent most of his time developing new skills and learning more about the tech world. Coming from a solid background in PC… Read more

  • Now that Windows 11 has been officially released, everyone wants to know if they can run it.
  • Performing a compatibility test requires downloading a simple tool and running it on your device.
  • As an alternative to Microsoft’s PC Health Check App, you can use WhyNotWin11, which offers an even more detailed system view.
  • You can get this application by heading over to the GitHub dedicated page and downloading it from there.

Windows 11 compatibility

Diagnosing if your device is ready to actually run Microsoft’s new operating system is the first step that we, as users, must take before making any plans involving the software.

But how can you know for sure if your PC or laptop are compatible with Windows 11?

Instead of reading the requirements list and going through your system, checking items off your list, which can be a slow and boring process, you can just use an app, designed to do it for you.

WhyNotWin11 will quickly diagnose your system

To begin, once you get passed your computer’s security concerns regarding this foreign software, the application itself is blunt and straight to the point.

It’s safe to say that WhyNotWin11 delivers a very detailed look at where your PC may be lacking when it comes to Windows 11 requirements.

In total, there are 11 categories that the app checks, among which are boot type, CPU architecture, generation, DirectX support, RAM, Secure Boot, and TPM Minimum.

You can get this awesome tool by heading over to the GitHub dedicated page and download it from there.

The details that this app offers, in regards to the CPU information, architecture, generation, core count, and frequency, are much more comprehensive than Microsoft’s PC Health Check app.

Another very important feature the app is the ability to automatically check for the latest updates.

Know that the current version of this app, which is…

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