Sony has announced Project Q, a new portable PlayStation device arriving later this year. It

It's developer conference season. Google I/O just happened. Apple's WWDC is a few weeks away.

SYDNEY & SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sep 13, 2023--

The new 'omE' emote features an image of xQc's laughing face and encapsulates his larger-than-life personality

The $949.99 Lenovo Tab Extreme is an enormous Android tablet that targets would-be Samsung Galaxy

Twitter says it has launched new, more secure messages – but even chief executive Elon Musk has warned users not to “trust it”. The social network has long been working on encrypted messages, which ensure that messages cannot be intercepted while they are being delivered. That is already possible on most other major messaging platforms, such as WhatsApp and iMessage. Now Twitter has released what it says is the first step towards integrating that security technology into its own product. But it says that it is not fully safe, and that users should not rely on it to keep messages secure. “Early version of encrypted direct messages just launched,” Mr Musk wrote on Twitter. “Try it, but don’t trust it yet.” On its support pages, Twitter’s aim is that “if someone puts a gun to our heads, we still can’t access your messages”. But it says it is “not quite there yet” and still “working on it”. That suggests that the messages are not end-to-end encrypted. While messages are secured from some attackers, anyone at Twitter or with access to its servers may still be able to access them. What’s more, Twitter’s implementation comes with a host of other limitations. It is only available when both of the users are verified and pay for Twitter’s $8 a month service, and users must turn it on rather than it being enabled by default. The messages also cannot be sent to groups, include pictures or other attachments, cannot be joined by new devices, are only supported on a limited number of devices per account and do not have proper protection against certain cyber attacks. When those various conditions are satisfied, users will be informed they are having an encrypted conversation by a message that appears within the chat. The other user’s profile picture will also show a lock icon over it. Twitter said that it would be updating the feature to remove some of those limitations, and would provide more information about the technology underpinning it in releases later this year.

Ever wondered why certain people are more likely to believe conspiracy theories than others? A study has been conducted with the express aim of finding the specific personality traits that cause people to buy into certain theories – and the results go against the sentiment that it’s down to lack of education or knowledge. Shauna Bowes of the Emory University clinical psychologist expressed that there are sometimes complex reasons why people choose to believe them. "Conspiracy theorists are not all likely to be simple-minded, mentally unwell folks – a portrait which is routinely painted in popular culture," says Emory University clinical psychologist Shauna Bowes. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter "Instead, many turn to conspiracy theories to fulfil deprived motivational needs and make sense of distress and impairment." The research, which was published in the Psychological Bulletin, involved 170 studies mainly from the US, UK, and Poland and looked into the reasons behind certain beliefs. The biggest reasons they found related to a desire in the subjects to feel safe and to be socially secure, as well as to understand their environment. "Our findings reveal that motivations at large are important, perhaps even essential, pieces of the conspiratorial ideation puzzle," the paper reads. Lower analytical thinking did have a significant correlation to believing conspiracies, but it was actually individual and collective narcissism, and a need to feel unique which had a stronger link. "These results largely map onto a recent theoretical framework advancing that social identity motives may give rise to being drawn to the content of a conspiracy theory, whereas people who are motivated by a desire to feel unique are more likely to believe in general conspiracy theories about how the world works," Bowes said. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

Twitter has rebranded to X as part of Elon Musk’s plan to create an “everything app”. The tech billionaire, who took over the platform in October 2022, launched the new logo over the weekend after crowdsourcing ideas for users. He also reportedly informed employees by email that Twitter would become X, as well as redirected the domain X.com to Twitter.com. Mr Musk said Twitter’s famous blue bird logo would eventually be phased out entirely. Linda Yaccarino, who Mr Musk hired to be the chief executive of Twitter last month, confirmed the switch in a series of tweets late on Sunday. “It’s an exceptionally rare thing – in life or in business – that you get a second chance to make another big impression,” she wrote. “Twitter made one massive impression and changed the way we communicate. Now, X will go further, transforming the global town square.” Ms Yaccarino described the app as the “future state of unlimited interactivity”, incorporating audio, video, messaging, payments and banking. “There’s absolutely no limit to this transformation,” she added. “X will be the platform that can deliver, well... everything.” Mike Proulx, research director at Forrester, said on Sunday that the move would further alienate Twitter’s original, and once fiercely loyal, user base. “On the one hand, you can make the argument he would be getting rid of an iconic brand. On the other hand, he is signalling it is a new day for what was once Twitter and that the company is heading in a different direction with a different user base.” Mr Musk said in a Sunday post he wanted to change Twitter’s logo and polled his millions of followers whether they would favour changing the site’s colour scheme from blue to black. He posted a picture of a stylized X against a black outer space-themed background. “And soon we shall bid adieu to the Twitter brand and, gradually, all the birds,” he said. Under Mr Musk’s tumultuous tenure since he bought Twitter in October, the company has changed its business name to X Corp, reflecting the billionaire’s vision to create a “super app” like China’s WeChat. In April, Twitter’s legacy blue bird logo was temporarily replaced by Dogecoin’s Shiba Inu dog, helping drive a surge in the cryptocurrency’s market value. The company came under widespread criticism from users and marketing professionals when Musk announced early this month that Twitter would limit how many tweets per day various accounts can read. The daily limits helped Meta Platforms-owned rival service Threads, which crossed 100 million sign-ups within five days of its 5 July launch. Twitter did not respond to a request for comment about the latest changes. Additional reporting from agencies Read More TikTok is now most favourable single source of news in UK teenagers, research shows Apple’s next iPhone may include new battery technology, report suggests DMs may come to Threads soon as app’s user base grows to one-fifth of Twitter’s Battery breakthroughs are about to trigger a transport revolution

MILPITAS, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jun 29, 2023--

Since he was five, Clix dreamt of owning a Lamborghini someday

Google will not have to face allegations by dozens of states that the tech giant's design of its search results page has harmed rivals, such as Yelp or Expedia, a federal judge ruled in an opinion unsealed Friday, just weeks before the closely watched antitrust case is set to go to trial.

(Reuters) -Analog Devices Inc said on Wednesday that a turbulent economy would weigh on its third-quarter results, sending the chipmaker's