A prominent US lawmaker is urging Washington to strike back against China for its decision to bar Micron

Criminals are exploiting the analogue to digital switchover in the UK’s telephone network to scam elderly and vulnerable people, councils have warned. The Local Government Association (LGA) said it had issued the warning after becoming concerned the transition was creating new opportunities for scammers. Specifically, the LGA said it was concerned about the around 1.8 million people who use healthcare telephony devices, and which may need changing as part of the digital switchover. It said it had seen recent reports of scammers who call residents with healthcare devices and claim the resident needs to hand over bank details as part of the switchover, or they will be disconnected. As the digital switchover date approaches, sadly we fear that further cases will arise Councillor Heather Kidd, from the LGA The digital switchover will see most UK telephone providers move their customers from old analogue landlines to new, upgraded services which use digital technology, with the changes taking place up to 2025. Councillor Heather Kidd, chair of the LGA’s safer and stronger communities board, said: “We are very concerned by a rise in criminals taking advantage of the digital switchover to trick vulnerable residents into giving out personal information such as their bank details. “As the digital switchover date approaches, sadly we fear that further cases will arise. “Councils will always act swiftly with the police where any incidents are reported, but we also urge people to be vigilant and help to raise awareness of this crime. “The digital switchover is free of charge and residents should be aware that councils and their home care alarm providers or contractors will never ask for personal or financial information over the phone.” The LGA said anyone who is the victim of a scam or fraudulent activity should report it to Action Fraud as well as their local trading standards team. Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live

Apple is to adopt a messaging standard that will make texting between an iPhone and an Android device a better experience. The US technology giant has confirmed it will adopt the rich communication services (RCS) “later next year”. RCS is considered an industry standard for messaging and allows users to send and receive high-quality photos and videos, chat over wifi as well as mobile data and users are able to see when messages have been read – a range of features that currently do not exist or work to the same standard when messaging between an iPhone and Android. Until now, Apple has focused on its own messaging system – iMessage – which allows for seamless communication between iPhone handsets. Later next year, we will be adding support for RCS Universal Profile, the standard as currently published by the GSM Association. We believe RCS Universal Profile will offer a better interoperability experience when compared to SMS or MMS Apple spokesperson Adopting RCS alongside iMessage will likely make the experience of chatting to an Android user from an iPhone closer to the iMessage experience. In a statement given to industry news site 9to5Mac, Apple said: “Later next year, we will be adding support for RCS Universal Profile, the standard as currently published by the GSM Association. “We believe RCS Universal Profile will offer a better interoperability experience when compared to SMS or MMS.” The announcement of the proposed change also comes as EU regulators have continued to pressure Apple to make iMessage more interoperable with other services under its new Digital Services Act – legislation designed to rein in tech giants, improve competition and ultimately provide better, more accessible services for consumers. Earlier this week, smartphone maker Nothing also revealed its Android phones would begin to support iMessage via a new app. Read More ICO seeks permission to appeal against Clearview AI tribunal ruling Users of iPhones can now check bank balance from Wallet app VR tool aims to help rail passengers spot and safely tackle sexual harassment

British antitrust regulators have cleared Amazon’s purchase of robot vacuum maker iRobot

EWING, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug 29, 2023--

The chief executive of US software firm SolarWinds told employees Friday that "we intend to vigorously defend ourselves" in the face of potential legal action from US regulators over the firm's handling of a sweeping 2020 breach by alleged Russian hackers, according to an internal SolarWinds email obtained by CNN.

Workplace messaging app Slack is retiring its status update account on X – formerly Twitter – where it previously shared updates about issues such as outages on the platform. “We made the decision to retire the @SlackStatus account,” the company posted on X. “We’ll continue to share other Slack news and provide support through our main account, @SlackHQ,” it said. The X account had been a useful source of information about ongoing issues with the platform and about problems being investigated by the company. Slack said it is consolidating news related to incidents in its status site. “Moving forward, the Slack Status site, https://status.slack.com, will be the source of truth for all incident news,” the company noted, adding that users can also reach out at feedback@slack.com “with any questions or feedback.” “Alerts will also be available through the RSS and Atom feeds linked at the bottom of the Slack Status home page,” Slack noted. Slack has undergone a number of technical issues this year with the app going offline during the workday for many users globally multiple times. The latest move by Slack to stop providing updates via its status account on X comes as the number of daily active users has declined on the social media platform following Tesla chief Elon Musk’s purchase of the company last year. X chief Linda Yaccarino said earlier this year that the company had about 225 million daily active users at the time – marking a decline of over 10 per cent of users from just before Mr Musk acquired the company. Market intelligence firm Similarweb also noted in a report recently that X’s global traffic is down by about 14 per cent year-on-year in September. Similarweb said the drop in user retention is “a bad sign for app user loyalty” for Twitter following the launch of rival app Threads by Instagram. Mr Musk also noted in July that the platform’s ad revenue was down 50 per cent as social media competition mounts. Other companies, including American Express and Air France have also stopped providing customer service over X. American Express had made its @AskAmex account private, while AirFrance said in April that it would stop offering support to customers via direct messages on the social media platform, The Verge reported. Read More Tesla’s profits dip as Musk goes on rant about staff working from home Elon Musk’s X may charge some users $1 a year to post on platform EU to investigate X’s handling of disinformation over Hamas attack on Israel Could X’s creditors push the social media company into bankruptcy? Slack down: Work chat app goes down as the working day begins Why taking a mental health day could be bad… for your mental health

A cold air front crossing Lakes Erie and Ontario could drop 12 to 18 inches (30.5 to 45.7

Ford is pausing a $3.5 billion electric-vehicle battery plant, Thor Industries' fiscal 2024 outlook disappoints, and Costco is scheduled to report earnings Tuesday.

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Gamers saw this autumn's biggest new releases, including Call of Duty, Starfield and Assassin's Creed

By now you probably have heard the big news: Elon Musk is passing the baton