Spotify has been eyeing the podcast industry for a while now. With the Swedish media firms primary income being dependent on podcasts and advertisements, it is only natural to die its hands in this business. Spotify has made another significant podcasting acquisition recently. The company is buying podcast hosting company Megaphone for $235 million. The deal means that more shows will have access to Spotify’s proprietary ad insertion technology, called Streaming Ad Insertion.
The SAI functions like typical dynamic podcast ads, which are targeted based on a listener. But in Spotify’s, the ads are inserted in real-time instead of being swapped out ahead of a listen. With this system, Spotify makes real-time decisions about which ads a specific listener should hear based on their data. Also, ads are determined based on the goals of the various ad deals Spotify is currently running.
The new acquisition will allow all podcasts currently hosted on Megaphone to gain access to SAI. No other hosting services offer SAI, as Spotify does. Megaphone has over 5,500 shows hosted on its platform, and it includes shows from big publishers like Slate, iHeartMedia, Disney, and Vox Media.
With the acquisition of Megaphone, Spotify will own a fully rounded-out podcasting ecosystem. It will have a network of exclusive shows, a podcast player, podcast creation software, a hosting company, and its very own ad sales team.
The acquisition follows other big-name deals, including Gimlet Media for a reported $200 million, Parcast for $56 million, The Ringer for $196 million, Anchor for $140 million, and reportedly more than $100 million for the exclusive distribution and ad sales for The Joe Rogan Experience. Spotify is investing big in the podcast market and is building its dominance.
Sony’s PlayStation 5 is the most anticipated next-gen console of all times. Along with sporting excellent hardware and featuring exclusive titles at launch, the device is on every gamer’s list. Sony has officially announced that with enough demand from its gamers, it might consider added support for 1440p in its PlayStation 5.
Microsofts Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S already support a native 1440p resolution, but PS5 doesn’t. PS5 owners playing on 1440p screens are sure to disappoint while playing their games. However, there’s still hope for those wanting to play PS5 games on their 1440p displays. Sony Interactive Entertainment’s (SIE) Senior Vice President, Hideaki Nishino, has confirmed that support for 1440p resolution might be added in the future.
Sony's Hideaki Nishino reveals in a new (Japanese) interview that there is no PS5 1440p resolution support due to TVs being the highest priority – and he also notes that if it's requested enough, they might add it in the futurehttps://t.co/JPj4FJIdoWpic.twitter.com/mrDchTRVY5
Nishino stated that “Sony’s entry into the next-generation console war is the one that feels like a proper next-gen system. Rather than simply expanding on the existing libraries, Sony has established itself as the console that will bring gamers into a new era. The software and UI are both early on in their implementation. Still, it’s the combination of Sony’s new Tempest AudioTech, titles that can take advantage of the SSD, and the DualSense controller that truly make this console stand out among the rest”.
It is good news for the gaming community, and gamers playing games on 1440p displays are sure to be excited by this announcement. However, the update will only be provided if there are enough demands from the gamers. So if you plan on playing games 1440p, keep bugging sony to release the support in its next update. PS5 will be launching tomorrow in the United States, Canada, Japan, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, and South Korea. The console will, however, release in the rest of the world on November 19th.
A new Nokia model named Nokia 8000 4G is in the making and recently we have got a leaked poster of this upcoming smartphone which surfaces the design details of it. This phone is not that kind of a proper smartphone, but we can’t say it a feature phone either. This phone is likely to be a revamped feature phone as per the poster image. No sliding mechanism will be there on this phone as the regular Nokia 8000 series. In place of the slider design, this phone has 3D curved edges and a curved keypad as well. You can see a premium glass-like design of Nokia 8000 4G in the poster image. Right now, we don’t have any confirmed information regarding the specs or pricing of this phone. So, let’s just check out what are specifications we can expect from this upcoming feature phone from Nokia.
Nokia 8000 4G is will run on the KaiOS and is expected to be powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 201 SoC chipset. In terms of display, this phone is likely to feature a 2.8-inch LCD (320 x 240 pixels) display. The SD 201 SoC of this phone is assumed to be paired with 512MB of RAM and 4GB of internal storage. The storage is further expandable up to 128GB via an external microSD card.
Coming to the battery, this phone is expected to be fueled up by an exchangeable 1,500 battery. Regarding the camera, this phone will feature a single rear camera having a 2-megapixel sensor. No selfie camera is there. In terms of connectivity, by its name, it is quite obvious that this phone will feature 4G connectivity. Other than the 4G, there will be the support of Wi-Fi hotspots as well. In that leaked image, Nokia 8000 4G is visible in a black color variant. But some other color variants are expected to be there as well. Regarding the dimension, this phone is expected to measure 132.2×56.5×12.3mm. As of now, that’s all we can expect from this upcoming phone. HMD Global has not confirmed anything about the phone so far.
Digital gaming has seen an increase in popularity due to the pandemic. Gaming manufacturers are pushing forward to make their games more appealing and demanding to users. Amidst all this, a Redditor has spotted that the Aya Neo Founder Edition has gone up for preorder sales in China.
The Aya Neo Founder Edition focuses on gaming portability, and its design is similar to the Nintendo Switch. It features a transparent body and also RGB lighting. The system might be disappointing and nothing innovative to users. But the main power of the Arya Neo Founder Edition lies in its hardware.
AMD’s Ryzen 5 4500U APU is responsible for the new gaming device’s processor and graphical workloads. The Ryzen 5 4500U is a 7nm process based chipset. It’s a Hexa-core 15W chip based on the Zen 2 microarchitecture. Though the chip lacks simultaneous multithreading (SMT), it boasts a boost clock speed of up to 4 GHz.
In terms of graphics, the Ryzen 5 4500U comes with six Vega Compute Units (CUs) running up to 1,500 MHz. the pictures are more than enough to push modern AAA titles at max resolution. The Aya Neo Founder Edition comes with 16GB of LPDDR4X-4266 memory. The company has provided customers with the option to choose between 512GB or 1TB NVMe SSD. The SSD is reported to be the SN550 M.2 2280 SSD manufactured by Western Digital.
The portable gaming device features a 7-inch IPS touch display and boasts 1280 x 800 and a 215 PPI density. The Aya Neo Founder Edition also has a gyroscope and gravity sensor present in the design.
The handheld gaming device also features a pair of stereo speakers. But the manufacturer also provides a standard 3.5mm audio jack for connecting headphones, and the device also provides three USB-C ports, Wi-Fi 6, and Bluetooth 5.0. the company also allows users to pair a standard wired or wireless keyboard or mouse with the Aya Neo Founder Edition.
The gaming device comes with a 47Whr battery and supports 65W fast charging. The Operating System of the handheld gaming device is based on Windows 10, hence the complexity of navigation will be severely reduced. The device with 512GB of storage is priced at $600, while the 1TB variant comes at $680.
Insider threats are a major and increasing problem for organizations, as the human factor is often the most difficult to control and predict when it comes to data security and protection. With digitization, the amount of digital data is growing exponentially, and together with this, the number of systems and human interactions with the data is increasing too. More interaction involves exposing the data to more security vulnerabilities.
The potential risks of insider threats are numerous, including financial fraud, data corruption, theft of valuable information, and installing malware. These incidents can lead to data breaches that expose sensitive information such as Personally Identifiable Information (PII) or Intellectual Property (IP) and can result in high fines while detecting them is not an easy task for security teams.
What are insider threats in cybersecurity?
Insider threats are cybersecurity risks originating within the organization itself. They can be caused by users with legitimate access to the company’s assets ñ including current or former employees, contractors, business partners, third-party vendors, etc. Insiders can vary significantly in awareness, motivation, intent, and access level.
Traditional security measures such as firewalls or antivirus systems focus on external threats and are not always capable of identifying threats emanating from inside the organization. Besides being invisible to traditional security solutions, insider attacks can be harder to detect or prevent than outside attacks and go unnoticed for months or years.
Types of Insider Threats
Malicious insider or Turncloak: This is someone who uses their access privilege to exfiltrate or steal data and use it with the goal of personal or financial gain. Malicious insider threats include accessing and disclosing confidential information without authorization, carrying out fraudulent transactions, and sabotaging the organizationís systems, network, or data. Departing and disgruntled employees, as well as those with high-level access, can cause these types of incidents.
Negligent insider or Pawn: A negligent or careless insider has no malicious intent but mistakenly gives away sensitive data or inadvertently puts company data at risk. These threats include misusing assets, mishandling data, and installing unauthorized applications (shadow IT). Negligent insiders may be well-intentioned, but they can become victims of phishing attacks or social engineering.
Collusive insiders: This type will collaborate with malicious external threat actors to compromise the organization. These cases usually involve fraud, data theft, or a combination of the two. Although it is the rarest form of criminal insider risk, it can still come with high costs.
The most common type of insider threat is a negligent employee or contractor, while the most costly incidents threats were credential thefts.
Insider threat motivations
Motivations can vary and malicious insiders might act out of a grudge towards their employer, might simply want money, or it could be an act of corporate or nation-state espionage. Unintentional insider threats could happen due to a lack of knowledge, out of curiosity, or convenience as well as misplaced technology. By understanding the motivations, security teams can be more proactive in their approach to insider threat defense.
Insider threats in the era of work from home
The coronavirus pandemic has set the remote work revolution on a fast track, and many companies have been forced to shift to work from home policies and enabling remote staff overnight.
Remote work is opening up new insider security threats, and companies are scrambling to keep up with these unprecedented risks. The new norm of remote work means no face-to-face supervision and little to no training for handling new security risks. Employees can also face more distractions in their home settings, coupled with the overlying stress of the pandemic and regular work pressure. Accidental disclosures can easily happen, as the lines between work and home, professional and family are more blurred than ever.
Remote working can also offer many data theft opportunities, including the loss or unlawful appropriation of physical devices, the possibility of sharing passwords, encryption keys, and company laptops with unknown third parties.
Employees can accidentally share a customer database, intentionally disclose a trade secret or share Social Security numbers in the public cloud. The increased data portability is another threat factor, posing a high risk of data loss or theft. Employees working from home can easily transfer, share or remove data, and cause the organization to lose revenue, get a penalty for non-compliance or damage the reputation.
Thus, working remotely, especially for organizations with no solid remote work plans, means that their assets and confidential data are more vulnerable during the global pandemic. Implementing the right tools and technologies and paying closer attention to company data can decrease the risk of cyber incidents.
Common types of insider attacks
These are the most prevalent internal incidents and practices that represent a threat to a company’s data security.
Social engineering
Recognized as one of the biggest security threats facing companies, social engineering is a malicious threat that implies human interaction. Usually, it involves tricking someone inside the organization to make a security mistake or reveal sensitive information. Social engineering attacks have different forms, including phishing and baiting. Malicious actors who engage in social engineering manipulate human feelings, such as curiosity or fear, and compromise their targetsí information.
Data sharing outside the company
Employees sharing confidential data, either publicly or with unauthorized third parties, can cause serious problems. This type of incident usually happens out of carelessness: information is sent to the wrong email address, a reply all button is hit instead of a simple reply, confidential data is accidentally posted publically.
Shadow IT
The use of unauthorized devices, software, applications, and services in the workplace is often hard to trace by IT departments and this is where the term shadow IT comes from. While it can improve productivity and drive innovation, shadow IT also poses a serious threat to data security and can lead to data leaks, compliance violations, and more.
Use of unauthorized devices
With the rise of Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD) policies and the proliferation of mobile devices, organizations encounter many internal security problems, including the risk of losing data due to employee negligence or malicious intentions. Portable devices and USBs, in particular, although convenient to use, are easy to lose or steal. Thus negligence can easily lead to disastrous data breaches, such as the infamous Heathrow Airport security incident in which a careless employee lost a USB device with over 1,000 confidential files.
Physical theft of company devices
Nowadays, it is becoming increasingly common that employees take their work computers or portable devices out of the office. This can happen for several reasons, including remote work, attending an industry event, or visiting a client. By leaving the security of company networks, work devices become more vulnerable to physical theft and outside tampering.
The seventh edition of Indian Super League is set to commence on 20th November in Goa. A bio-secure bubble has been created to handle the situation due to the Coronavirus pandemic.
All the ISL matches will be played out across three venues in Goa – the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium in Fatorda, the Tilak Maidan Stadium in Vasco and the GMC Athletic Stadium in Bambolim. The matches will be played behind closed doors. It will be broadcasted on Star Sports channels and will also be live-streamed on Hotstar and Jio TV.
All the 11 teams have already arrived in Goa and have spent their quarantine days and are now training and playing friendly games in order to be prepared for the ISL 2020-21 season. ATK Mohun Bagan will take on the Kerala Blasters in the inaugural match of this ISL season on 20th November.
via ISL
In this ISL season, there will be 115 games, up from 95 last season due to the league being expanded to 11 teams from this season.
All the clubs will play each other in a double round-robin format. After the league stage is over, the the the top four clubs will qualify for the playoffs.
In accordance with the rule put forward on world football, ISL will also allow five substitutions instead of the previous three. This has been done keeping in mind players’ health and safety during the ongoing pandemic. Teams can use their five substitutes over a maximum of three intervals excluding the changes at the half-time break.
All the clubs should have at least five foreign players and the number could rise up to seven foreign players at maximum. Among the foreign layers, at least one of them will have to be Asian Football Confederation (AFC) affiliated.
A maximum of five of these foreign players can be on the field at any point of a game along with a minimum of six Indians. Along with that, all clubs are required to have a minimum of two ‘Developmental Players’, players who were born on or after January 1, 2000, in their matchday teams.
Honor has launched various deals & discounts on its products regarding the holiday season. Alongside these offers, the company has also launched the global availability details of the Honor 10X Lite smartphone. It carries a price tag of €229.90 and now you can get it at an even lesser price, courtesy of the special discount from Honor.
In terms of specifications, the Honor 10X Lite features a 6.67-inch display with a big battery of 5,000mAH. This phone is powered by a Kirin 710A chipset. These specs are quite similar to Huawei Y7a and Huawei P Smart 2021. In terms of availability, this phone has already been selling in Russia. But from now, it can also be found in other countries, such as France, Germany, and so on. If we check the pricing of different countries, France is discounting the phone for €199. In this case, the buyer will get an Honor Mini Bluetooth speaker or Honor Sport earphones in the bundle. So, it is definitely a great deal from Honor. As per the German market, it is carrying a price tag of €229.90. In Germany, the buyer can get an Honor Mini Bluetooth speaker or Honor Sport earphones, or an Honor Band 5 in the bundle. So, it is an extra choice for Honor Band 5 comparing with the Russian market.
Apart from the Honor 10X Lite, let’s talk about some other products having exciting discounts. In the market of the United Kingdom, the Watch GS Pro is down £30 and the Honor Sport Bluetooth earphones are also bundled with it. In terms of purchasing a Magic book 14 or Magic book 15, the buyer will get a £70 coupon that can be found in the devices’ listings. The smartphone market in France is offering a deal for the Honor 9X Lite for €180 and the Honor 9A for €130.
As per a recent report, we’ve just come to know that the OnePlus 9 series will not include the third model. That means, there will be only two models in the upcoming OnePlus 9 series. A previous leak has suggested that the OnePlus 9 will bring a whole bunch of three smartphones. But the record of OnePlus tells that it launches two flagship segments in one series. Just like at the time of the OnePlus 7, the company launched OnePlus 7T and the 7T Pro. Both of them have come as a mid-year refresher to the OnePlus 7 series.
So, the same thing falls on the OnePlus 9 series as well. It is expected that OnePlus will launch one regular variant OnePlus 9 and one Pro variant OnePlus 9 Pro. Both of them are likely to make the debut in the middle of March 2021. The third model that was expected before is said to be the OnePlus 9 Ultra or OnePlus 9T. In terms of model numbers, tipsters have claimed that the OnePlus 9 will be available with model numbers: LE2110, LE2117, and LE2119 whereas the OnePlus 9 Pro will be available with model numbers: LE2120 and LE2127.
After all those things, let’s just talk about some of the expected specifications of the upcoming OnePlus 9 series. This series is expected to be powered by an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 875 SoC chipset. Regarding the display, it is assumed to feature 144Hz of refresh rate. The charging should also have some improvement in this series, like in terms of wired and wireless charging.
iPhone 12 series has been launched and after checking each and every model of that series, we can say that in some cases, Apple has exceeded our expectations whereas in some cases, things could go better. For example, let’s talk about the display of the iPhone 12 series models. Before the launch of this series, every iPhone lover has expected that Apple will bring its first-ever 120Hz display in any high-end variant of this series. But, that thing did not happen and Apple liked to stick with its regular 60Hz display for another year. The reason could be something to preserve the battery life of the models as we know that Apple does not provide powerful batteries in its iPhones comparing to recent days’ Android smartphones.
Recently we have got news regarding the upcoming series of Apple that is the iPhone 13 series. That report claims that Apple is looking to use low-power LTPO OLED screens in its upcoming iPhone 13 series. In fact, this news has also come out that LG itself is currently in preparation to mass-produce LTPO OLED panels exclusively for Apple. The main advantage of this LTPO OLED panel is that it is more energy-efficient compared with conventional OLED screens. LTPO stands for Low-Temperature Polycrystalline Oxide. Apple uses this technology on its smartwatches. But it is not for the first time any phone will possess this LTPO OLED panel, the previously launched Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra also features an LTPO display.
Now the question is in which iPhone 13 models we can see this LTPO OLED panel. As per the report, the upcoming iPhone 13 Pro and the iPhone 13 Max are the probable candidates to behold this LTPO OLED panel. Apart from the energy-efficiency, these LTPO displays will bring more advantages which may not be possible in just high refresh rate facilities. Always-on-Display (AoD) functionality is one of those advantages. Moreover, we may see improved battery life as it is energy-efficient. But to get clarified in these things, we have to wait a long time as it is expected that Apple will launch its iPhone 13 series in the month of September of 2021.
The current pandemic has brought forth many changes in the world. The significant change which was brought forth by the epidemic was our dependency on technology. With this comes various challenges as technology is both beneficial as well as comes with its own risk.
Considering the recent developments, the government of India made a new announcement. The government-supported telecom sector event India Mobile Congress (IMC) will be held through virtual mode between December 8-10.
Telecom Secretary Anshu Prakash said, “We have to rise to the occasion. I am told that this (is the) largest technology event in South Asia. We should build upon it. DoT is funding at least 30 SMEs (small and medium enterprises) and start-ups to participate in this event”.
Sources claim a considerable debate about whether the event must be postponed or skipped to be conducted in 2021. But considering the profound changes brought forth by the pandemic in the technology market, the congress was mandatory.
Minister of State for Communication Sanjay Dhotre said, “Telecom sector has emerged as the backbone of digital infrastructure. COVID-19 has brought many challenges, but the telecom sector has proved its mettle. We believe IMC 2020 will showcase technology-driven initiatives”.
In a video message, he also said that the number of base stations has grown by 220 percent in the last six years, and mobile telephony has reached all corners of the country.
