Hasta La Gadget!

About a week ago, Belgian authorities launched an investigation into loot boxes found in video game to determine whether or not such features are considered gambling, and now they are back with their findings and according to VTM News (machine translation; via PC Gamer), the country’s Gaming Commission has announced that it is considered as gambling.

To that end, the commission is hoping to have such features banned from video games across Europe. According to Belgium’s Minister of Justice Koen Geens, “Mixing gambling and gaming, especially at a young age, is dangerous for the mental health of the child.” Note that this does not affect in-game purchases completely.

Rather it seems that it only affects in-game purchases in instances where you don’t know what you’ll be purchasing. For example if there is an in-game purchase for a skin for your character/weapon, that’s fine, but if the in-game purchase is for a chance to unlock a skin/item for your character, then it won’t be allowed as it would be considered gambling.

Now whether or not such a ban will be passed remains to be seen, and Geens admits that the process could take some time. In the meantime Belgium isn’t the only country that is looking into the controversy surrounding loot boxes, as over in France, a French Senator has requested for an investigation to be made as well.

Belgian Authorities Calls Loot Boxes Gambling, Wants Them Banned , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

A recent report from Bloomberg has revealed that Apple’s HomePod speakers has actually been in development since 2012, and isn’t necessarily a direct response to Amazon and Google’s own smart speakers. However with the speakers being delayed to 2018, could Apple play catchup?

According to the same report from Bloomberg, it seems that Apple is apparently relatively optimistic about the success of the HomePod, with their source claiming that Apple has told suppliers that they expect to sell 4 million units of the HomePod when it launches next year, but the question is, is 4 million units a lot?

For most companies we expect that is a huge figure, but given that undeniable comparison between the HomePod and Amazon’s Echo devices, analysts at CIRP have estimated that Amazon has sold 15 million units of the Echo speakers since it has gone on sale in 2015, meaning that 4 million for the first year pales in comparison to the Echo’s average of 7.5 million units sold per year.

It is possible that the HomePod could end up being a bigger hit than Apple expected and could sell more, or it could prove to be a huge flop and sells even less than expected. Its asking price of $350 also makes it less accessible compared to the Echo, but we suppose we’ll just have to wait until 2018 to find out if Apple has another hit product on its hands.

Apple Expects To Sell 4 Million HomePods In 2018 , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

If your account got hacked, isn’t that something you’d like to be immediately aware of right away? Unfortunately for Uber, the company is only now disclosing a year later that back in 2016, they experienced a massive data breach that saw 57 million user data stolen by hackers, according to a report from Bloomberg.

According to the report, the data breach took place back in October 2016, meaning that it has been a little over a year since it happened. The data stolen included names, email addresses, and phone numbers of 50 million Uber riders from around the world, as well as 7 million drivers, 600,000 of which are US driver’s license numbers.

However Uber has reassured users that data such as Social Security numbers, credit card numbers, trip location details, and so on were not compromised, although we’re not sure how comforting that is given that pretty much everything else was exposed. The report goes on to claim that Uber’s chief security officer and one of his deputies (both have since been let go from the company) tried to keep the breach under wraps by paying the hackers $100,000.

In a statement by Dara Khosrowshahi, who is Uber’s new CEO, “None of this should have happened, and I will not make excuses for it. We are changing the way we do business.” Clearly this is not the end of it as New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has since launched an investigation into the hack.

Uber Discloses Massive Data Breach That Occurred In 2016 , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

ONKYO has introduced another one of its upcoming Windows 10 tablet, the TW08A-87Z8. Measuring 8.7mm thick and weighing 380g, this travel-friendly tablet has an 8.0-inch 1280 x 800 5-point multi-touch IPS LED-backlight display, a 1.44GHz Intel Atom x5-Z8350 quad-core processor, an Intel HD Graphics 400, a 2GB DDR3 RAM and a 32GB eMMC.

The tablet also sports a 2MP front-facing camera, a 5MP autofocus rear-facing camera, a microSD card slot, a micro-USB port, a micro-HDMI 1.4b port, a headset jack and built-in stereo speakers.

Powered by a 4500mAh lithium-ion polymer battery (up to 6.7 hours of operating time), the TW08A-87Z8 provides WiFi 802.11ac and Bluetooth 4.1 for connectivity, and runs on Windows 10 Home 32-bit OS.

The ONKYO TW08A-87Z8 will start shipping from November 28th for 25,800 Yen (about $229). [Product Page]

The post ONKYO TW08A-87Z8 Windows 10 Tablet Introduced appeared first on TechFresh, Consumer Electronics Guide.

ProtonMail, the encrypted email service for individuals who are concerned about data privacy and security, has just announced a new encrypted contacts manager that secures your potentially sensitive contact details. The feature is most useful for those with contacts they must keep secure, such as journalists who don’t want their sources exposed to potentially prying eyes. The new manager tool … Continue reading