Miscellaneous Tech News
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UK Regulator Proposes Ban on Locked Cell Phones
Ofcom says locked cell phones create additional hassle for customers and can stop them from switching altogether, leading to an unfair experience for users.
The UK's telecom regulator Ofcom has proposed a ban on locked mobile phones - devices that can only be used on a specific carrier's network - in order to make it fairer and easier for broadband and mobile customers to switch between providers. The proposal document, published today, states that locking smartphones "creates additional hassle and can put someone off from switching altogether. We are proposing to...remove this hurdle for customers." In the UK, two of the four major providers, EE and Vodafone, as well as Tesco Mobile, sell devices that are locked and cannot be used by other networks. O2 and Three sell unlocked devices, as does Sky and Virgin Mobile. It's possible to unlock a device so that it can be used by another network, but currently this is costly and inconvenient. -
@mlnews said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
UK Regulator Proposes Ban on Locked Cell Phones
Ofcom says locked cell phones create additional hassle for customers and can stop them from switching altogether, leading to an unfair experience for users.
The UK's telecom regulator Ofcom has proposed a ban on locked mobile phones - devices that can only be used on a specific carrier's network - in order to make it fairer and easier for broadband and mobile customers to switch between providers. The proposal document, published today, states that locking smartphones "creates additional hassle and can put someone off from switching altogether. We are proposing to...remove this hurdle for customers." In the UK, two of the four major providers, EE and Vodafone, as well as Tesco Mobile, sell devices that are locked and cannot be used by other networks. O2 and Three sell unlocked devices, as does Sky and Virgin Mobile. It's possible to unlock a device so that it can be used by another network, but currently this is costly and inconvenient.I'm a bit on the fence on this.
I can see requiring lock-in on devices that aren't paid off yet. Though, this is not yester-year, where the phone was 'included' in the price of the service - you see the cost of the phone broken out on your bill, and know what your remaining balance is to pay it off.
Removing a lock should be simple - in the past it was a HUGE PITA. That said, I just went through an unlock process on AT&T and it took around 45 mins - most of that just waiting for AT&Ts system to approve the unlocking.
My main question is/was - what took so long? Did a human actually have to verify that the phone was indeed paid off before the unlock code was released? That seems like something that should be super easy to verify all by computer. -
@Dashrender said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
@mlnews said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
UK Regulator Proposes Ban on Locked Cell Phones
Ofcom says locked cell phones create additional hassle for customers and can stop them from switching altogether, leading to an unfair experience for users.
The UK's telecom regulator Ofcom has proposed a ban on locked mobile phones - devices that can only be used on a specific carrier's network - in order to make it fairer and easier for broadband and mobile customers to switch between providers. The proposal document, published today, states that locking smartphones "creates additional hassle and can put someone off from switching altogether. We are proposing to...remove this hurdle for customers." In the UK, two of the four major providers, EE and Vodafone, as well as Tesco Mobile, sell devices that are locked and cannot be used by other networks. O2 and Three sell unlocked devices, as does Sky and Virgin Mobile. It's possible to unlock a device so that it can be used by another network, but currently this is costly and inconvenient.I'm a bit on the fence on this.
I can see requiring lock-in on devices that aren't paid off yet. Though, this is not yester-year, where the phone was 'included' in the price of the service - you see the cost of the phone broken out on your bill, and know what your remaining balance is to pay it off.
Removing a lock should be simple - in the past it was a HUGE PITA. That said, I just went through an unlock process on AT&T and it took around 45 mins - most of that just waiting for AT&Ts system to approve the unlocking.
My main question is/was - what took so long? Did a human actually have to verify that the phone was indeed paid off before the unlock code was released? That seems like something that should be super easy to verify all by computer.I think locked cell phones are a bigger problem than most people realize. In many countries, rapidly switching SIM cards is a necessity of life. A locked phone is a broken phone if you are traveling, it doesn't function as designed. It's crippled. If they are going to sell locked models, they shouldn't be allowed to advertise it as the phones that they are because you look up their features, but then don't get the features you've paid for.
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@scottalanmiller said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
@Dashrender said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
@mlnews said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
UK Regulator Proposes Ban on Locked Cell Phones
Ofcom says locked cell phones create additional hassle for customers and can stop them from switching altogether, leading to an unfair experience for users.
The UK's telecom regulator Ofcom has proposed a ban on locked mobile phones - devices that can only be used on a specific carrier's network - in order to make it fairer and easier for broadband and mobile customers to switch between providers. The proposal document, published today, states that locking smartphones "creates additional hassle and can put someone off from switching altogether. We are proposing to...remove this hurdle for customers." In the UK, two of the four major providers, EE and Vodafone, as well as Tesco Mobile, sell devices that are locked and cannot be used by other networks. O2 and Three sell unlocked devices, as does Sky and Virgin Mobile. It's possible to unlock a device so that it can be used by another network, but currently this is costly and inconvenient.I'm a bit on the fence on this.
I can see requiring lock-in on devices that aren't paid off yet. Though, this is not yester-year, where the phone was 'included' in the price of the service - you see the cost of the phone broken out on your bill, and know what your remaining balance is to pay it off.
Removing a lock should be simple - in the past it was a HUGE PITA. That said, I just went through an unlock process on AT&T and it took around 45 mins - most of that just waiting for AT&Ts system to approve the unlocking.
My main question is/was - what took so long? Did a human actually have to verify that the phone was indeed paid off before the unlock code was released? That seems like something that should be super easy to verify all by computer.I think locked cell phones are a bigger problem than most people realize. In many countries, rapidly switching SIM cards is a necessity of life. A locked phone is a broken phone if you are traveling, it doesn't function as designed. It's crippled. If they are going to sell locked models, they shouldn't be allowed to advertise it as the phones that they are because you look up their features, but then don't get the features you've paid for.
can't say 'swappable' sim was ever a feature I read on any of these phones.
instead just - sim slot -
@Dashrender said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
@scottalanmiller said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
@Dashrender said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
@mlnews said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
UK Regulator Proposes Ban on Locked Cell Phones
Ofcom says locked cell phones create additional hassle for customers and can stop them from switching altogether, leading to an unfair experience for users.
The UK's telecom regulator Ofcom has proposed a ban on locked mobile phones - devices that can only be used on a specific carrier's network - in order to make it fairer and easier for broadband and mobile customers to switch between providers. The proposal document, published today, states that locking smartphones "creates additional hassle and can put someone off from switching altogether. We are proposing to...remove this hurdle for customers." In the UK, two of the four major providers, EE and Vodafone, as well as Tesco Mobile, sell devices that are locked and cannot be used by other networks. O2 and Three sell unlocked devices, as does Sky and Virgin Mobile. It's possible to unlock a device so that it can be used by another network, but currently this is costly and inconvenient.I'm a bit on the fence on this.
I can see requiring lock-in on devices that aren't paid off yet. Though, this is not yester-year, where the phone was 'included' in the price of the service - you see the cost of the phone broken out on your bill, and know what your remaining balance is to pay it off.
Removing a lock should be simple - in the past it was a HUGE PITA. That said, I just went through an unlock process on AT&T and it took around 45 mins - most of that just waiting for AT&Ts system to approve the unlocking.
My main question is/was - what took so long? Did a human actually have to verify that the phone was indeed paid off before the unlock code was released? That seems like something that should be super easy to verify all by computer.I think locked cell phones are a bigger problem than most people realize. In many countries, rapidly switching SIM cards is a necessity of life. A locked phone is a broken phone if you are traveling, it doesn't function as designed. It's crippled. If they are going to sell locked models, they shouldn't be allowed to advertise it as the phones that they are because you look up their features, but then don't get the features you've paid for.
can't say 'swappable' sim was ever a feature I read on any of these phones.
instead just - sim slotThat implies that you can use it as a slot rather than as a hard wired card. If the slot is disabled, it's not really a slot.
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@scottalanmiller said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
@Dashrender said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
@scottalanmiller said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
@Dashrender said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
@mlnews said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
UK Regulator Proposes Ban on Locked Cell Phones
Ofcom says locked cell phones create additional hassle for customers and can stop them from switching altogether, leading to an unfair experience for users.
The UK's telecom regulator Ofcom has proposed a ban on locked mobile phones - devices that can only be used on a specific carrier's network - in order to make it fairer and easier for broadband and mobile customers to switch between providers. The proposal document, published today, states that locking smartphones "creates additional hassle and can put someone off from switching altogether. We are proposing to...remove this hurdle for customers." In the UK, two of the four major providers, EE and Vodafone, as well as Tesco Mobile, sell devices that are locked and cannot be used by other networks. O2 and Three sell unlocked devices, as does Sky and Virgin Mobile. It's possible to unlock a device so that it can be used by another network, but currently this is costly and inconvenient.I'm a bit on the fence on this.
I can see requiring lock-in on devices that aren't paid off yet. Though, this is not yester-year, where the phone was 'included' in the price of the service - you see the cost of the phone broken out on your bill, and know what your remaining balance is to pay it off.
Removing a lock should be simple - in the past it was a HUGE PITA. That said, I just went through an unlock process on AT&T and it took around 45 mins - most of that just waiting for AT&Ts system to approve the unlocking.
My main question is/was - what took so long? Did a human actually have to verify that the phone was indeed paid off before the unlock code was released? That seems like something that should be super easy to verify all by computer.I think locked cell phones are a bigger problem than most people realize. In many countries, rapidly switching SIM cards is a necessity of life. A locked phone is a broken phone if you are traveling, it doesn't function as designed. It's crippled. If they are going to sell locked models, they shouldn't be allowed to advertise it as the phones that they are because you look up their features, but then don't get the features you've paid for.
can't say 'swappable' sim was ever a feature I read on any of these phones.
instead just - sim slotThat implies that you can use it as a slot rather than as a hard wired card. If the slot is disabled, it's not really a slot.
I know what you're getting at - but the slot isn't disabled. it works fine for any SIM on the specified carrier.
All this back and forth, at least in most US cases, it seems much easier to get your phone unlocked that it was in the past.
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@Dashrender said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
I know what you're getting at - but the slot isn't disabled. it works fine for any SIM on the specified carrier.
That's at least partially disabled. It works for them, but not for the phone owner.
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5G deployment stands ready to supercharge the Internet of Things
5G for me and 5G for thee—especially if thou art an IoT device.
It's true that inorganic users don't yell at customer-service reps or trash-talk companies on Twitter. But connected devices can also benefit from some less-obvious upgrades that 5G should deliver—and we, their organic overlords, could profit in the long run. You may have heard about 5G's Internet-of-Things potential yourself in such gauzy statements as "5G will make every industry and every part of our lives better" (spoken by Meredith Attwell Baker, president of the wireless trade group CTIA, at the MWC Americas trade show in 2017) and "It's a wholly new technology ushering in a new era of transformation" (from Ronan Dunne, executive vice president and CEO of Verizon's consumer group, at 2019's Web Summit conference). -
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Warcraft III: Reforged will release on January 28, not in 2019
Remaster brings new online features, gameplay tweaks, and overhauled visuals.
This week, game developer and publisher Blizzard Entertainment emailed customers who had pre-ordered its upcoming 4K remaster of strategy classic Warcraft III announcing that the game will become playable at 3am PST on January 28, 2020. The game was previously slated for launch before the end of 2019, but players had begun to suspect some kind of delay when Blizzard didn't provide a firm release date for the game at its otherwise packed BlizzCon conference in early November. The company explained the short delay in a blog post. As recent controversies over crunch in game development have made clear, making triple-A video games is complex and fraught with unexpected roadblocks and ever-shifting scope. Delays like this are common. Some excited players may be frustrated that they have to wait a little longer, but others will be happy to see a focus on quality or saner worker conditions for developers, whichever (if either) the case may be here. Warcraft III was arguably one of the most influential games of the past 20 years because it birthed both World of Warcraft (which defined more than a decade of massively multiplayer online games) and, via community-made modifications, the MOBA genre (League of Legends, Dota 2, Blizzard's own Heroes of the Storm), which in tandem with battle royale games, drove the esports and livestreaming revolution of the gaming industry. -
Giant surveillance balloons are lurking at the edge of space
Balloons in the stratosphere snap images of Earth with unprecedented resolutions. Cheese!
It’s a brisk December morning at Spaceport Tucson, America’s premiere (only?) dedicated launch pad for stratospheric balloons, and a small army of technicians in reflective vests is milling around on the concrete and thawing out after a long, cold night. Nearby, a white metal tripod the size of a smart car is tethered to two dozen solar panels and hundreds of feet of clear plastic that stretches across the pad. -
Russia 'successfully tests' its unplugged internet
Russia has successfully tested Runet, a country-wide alternative to the global internet, its government has announced.
Details of what the test involved were vague but, according to the Ministry of Communications, ordinary users did not notice any changes. The results will now be presented to President Putin. Experts remain concerned about the trend for some countries to dismantle the internet. "Sadly, the Russian direction of travel is just another step in the increasing breaking-up of the internet," said Prof Alan Woodward, a computer scientist at University of Surrey. "Increasingly, authoritarian countries who want to control what citizens see are looking at what Iran and China have already done. "It means people will not have access to dialogue about what is going on in their own country, they will be kept within their own bubble." -
@mlnews said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
"It means people will not have access to dialogue about what is going on in their own country, they will be kept within their own bubble."
So... replicating what America does voluntarily. JAJAJAJA
I kid, I kid.. Kind of.
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Sangoma CEO:
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Samsung Accidentally Confirms 5G-Ready Galaxy Tab S6
5G tablets are on the way, and Samsung's Galaxy Tab S6 could be repackaged as one of the first. The South Korean company accidentally listed the 5G-ready model on its website. Now, it's only a matter of time before the Galaxy Tab S6 5G goes official.
Samsung appears to be developing the world's first 5G tablet. The Galaxy Tab S6, according to SamMobile, will undergo some tweaks in order to offer compatibility with next-generation wireless networks. Rather than an insider obtaining the information, Samsung accidentally published a listing for the 'Galaxy Tab S6 5G' on its website. The listing is light on details, but it at least confirms what the South Korean company has in the pipeline. Known by model number SM-T866, the Galaxy Tab S6 5G surfaced on Samsung's website with a generic "coming soon" label. Its shown alongside Samsung's regular Galaxy Tab S6, the Galaxy Tab S5e, Galaxy Tab A, and Galaxy Tab A with S Pen. All of them are currently available; however, the Galaxy Tab S6 5G still needs to be announced. -
YouTube admits error over Bitcoin video purge
YouTube has reinstated hundreds of crypto-currency related channels after admitting it had removed them "in error".
A wave of YouTubers received notifications that their videos were in breach of the platform's terms of service earlier this week. The move appeared to target smaller channels and publishers that focused on Bitcoin and crypto-currency content. The Google-owned video sharing platform has since apologised for the mistake. Video-makers initially took to Twitter to share their frustration, after many well-established channels claimed that YouTube had been ignoring their complaints. Alex Saunders, founder of Nugget's News, told his followers that the incident felt "really scary," and claimed YouTube was failing to communicate with its users. He wrote on Twitter: "Hi @TeamYouTube, with over 100 videos removed and two strikes in 24 hours I have still not even received an email from you. This is really scary. We've hired new staff. I have a wife and baby to support. I can't fix the problem if I don't know what I've done or who to communicate with?" Several other crypto-bloggers echoed his complaints, with some suggesting that they intended to boycott the platform completely. -
A thief took Facebook hard drives with payroll data from a worker's car
A thief broke into a payroll worker's car and stole hard drives that reportedly contained unencrypted payroll information for around 29,000 current and former US employees.
How the hell can it be that a company like Facebook is working with this kind of information locally on their device, and not via SaaS or something. And why the hell are the drives not encrypted? No wonder nobody trusts their data in the U.S.
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@Obsolesce said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
A thief took Facebook hard drives with payroll data from a worker's car
A thief broke into a payroll worker's car and stole hard drives that reportedly contained unencrypted payroll information for around 29,000 current and former US employees.
How the hell can it be that a company like Facebook is working with this kind of information locally on their device, and not via SaaS or something. And why the hell are the drives not encrypted? No wonder nobody trusts their data in the U.S.
Absolutely no one trusts Facebook.
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@scottalanmiller said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
@Obsolesce said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
A thief took Facebook hard drives with payroll data from a worker's car
A thief broke into a payroll worker's car and stole hard drives that reportedly contained unencrypted payroll information for around 29,000 current and former US employees.
How the hell can it be that a company like Facebook is working with this kind of information locally on their device, and not via SaaS or something. And why the hell are the drives not encrypted? No wonder nobody trusts their data in the U.S.
Absolutely no one trusts Facebook.
Yeah, there's no real data governance or protection enforcement. It's up to the company.
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Chinese start-up Mobike loses more than 200,000 bikes
Chinese start-up Mobike has announced that it lost more than 200,000 bikes in 2019.
The company said in a blog that 205,600 "dockless" bikes were lost to theft and vandalism. In 2018, it pulled out of Manchester after a series of incidents. Shared dockless bikes, which are hired via an app, have become commonplace in cities worldwide over the last few years. Companies like Uber, Lime and Ofo have all put shared bikes on city streets, as have some local councils. In China, thousands of shared bikes have ended up in huge scrapheaps, leading to questions about whether there is demand for them.
