☕ Good (Cyber) Monday morning! Today is more like second-chance Black Friday, plus a few new deals I'll mention below. And I’m not here from tomorrow as the looong journey to Australia begins. Nick Fernandez has your back all week.
I hadn’t heard of the Data Transfer Project until today, a rare collaborative effort between Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and Twitter that is actually yielding helpful outcomes for folks online:
To Facebook’s credit, it is first to deliver a cross-platform porting tool:
💸 Cyber Monday has a bunch of lagging Black Friday deals if you needed a second chance, but there are also a few fresh deals (Android Authority). Quick examples: Galaxy Buds for $99 is a great deal, while a 2017-era 13-inch MacBook Air for $649 on Amazon warrants a look if you don't need flashy specs.
🔓 Millions of SMS messages exposed in database security lapse: unsecured, unencrypted database left online for years by business SMS service (TechCrunch). Among login codes and password resets were university finance applications, and at least somewhat amusingly, people trying to opt-out of receiving text messages.
💉 This is scary: Dexcom says diabetes monitors malfunctioning, crucial blood-sugar data not being received (WSJ, $).
🔜 Galaxy S10 Lite surfaces on Samsung’s own website, launch not far off (SamMobile).
⚛ Quantum computing’s also-rans and their fatal flaws (Ars Technica).
🤐 China due to introduce face scans when registering new mobile phone services (BBC).
🔓 PIA VPN to be acquired by “malware company” Crossrider (nee Kape), which has many looking for a new VPN (Hacker News discussion).
📦 Uncle Sam wants to buy office supplies and the like online, too: and Amazon, Walmart, and eBay are gunning for Federal business (WSJ, $).
🗡Here is a Medieval Price List (UCDavis.edu). Interesting: a labourer made about £2 a year, yet seven books were found to cost £5, or more than two years wages.
📉 Speaking of weird modern money: The rise and fall of a teenager's massive meme empire (NY Times).
🐠 Loudspeakers used to make dead coral reefs sound healthy, so fish flock to them (WashPo).
🔡 'Laziness has won': apostrophe society admits its defeat (The Guardian).
🌠 Europe's space agency approves the Hera anti-asteroid mission (Engadget).
💸 The finalists from Red Bull's Image Quest 2019 really are something. It’s amazing that Red Bull just has infinite money?
🤔 “What are some dumb purchases you made?” (r/askreddit).
Happily, over the weekend, a friend who plays Pokémon Sword and Shield showed me their collection of Pokémon thus far, a roster entirely made of the cutest creatures that can be found in the Galar region.
Snom is life:
Yours in cute Pokémon appreciation - see you next week!
Tristan Rayner, Senior Editor.
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