Hasta La Gadget!

Facebook is currently in some pretty serious hot water with regards to its recent privacy scandal, but it looks like things are about to get worse. This is because according to a tweet by New Zealander Dylan McKay, it has been discovered that Facebook has been collecting data on your calls and text messages via Android devices for the past few years.

This has also been reported by other users and has also been verified by the folks at ArsTechnica. Note that Facebook doesn’t actually know the contents of your phone calls or text messages, but rather the information is more along the lines of who you’ve contacted and when you have contacted, as reported by McKay who shared a log which showed the different times he contacted his partner’s mom.

Downloaded my facebook data as a ZIP file

Somehow it has my entire call history with my partner’s mum pic.twitter.com/CIRUguf4vD

— Dylan McKay (@dylanmckaynz) March 21, 2018

While this sounds alarming, it seems that this is something that users might have unknowingly granted Facebook access to. In a statement made to ArsTechnica, a Facebook spokesperson said, “The most important part of apps and services that help you make connections is to make it easy to find the people you want to connect with. So, the first time you sign in on your phone to a messaging or social app, it’s a widely used practice to begin by uploading your phone contacts.”

This seems to only affect Android devices because iOS has never allowed silent access to call data. That being said, the good news is that if you’d rather not give Facebook access to said information, there is a way to delete your uploaded contacts from Facebook.

Facebook Has Been Collecting Call, Text Message Data From Android Phones , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

Just the other day Google released “Routines” for Google Assistant which was launched with a handful of presents. However according to a report from 9to5Google who did a teardown on the latest Google app, it seems that it looks like custom routines are an upcoming feature to Google Assistant that users can look forward to.

This is based on a string in the app which reads, “Have your Assistant do multiple things with just one command. Use ready-made routines you adjust to fit your day, and create custom ones from scratch.” However it is unclear as to when the feature will be rolled out, but it does hint that it will be an upcoming feature.

For those who are learning about Routines for the first time, it is basically a combined set of commands that you can activate all at once. For example there is an existing routine for the morning when you wake up where you could get Google Assistant to turn on the thermostat, maybe get that pot of coffee brewing, read you the morning news, and so on.

However like we said, what’s available right now are presents which means that if you wanted to be able to better customize your routines, it will be a tad limited for now but as the APK teardown hints, customized routines could be in the cards in the future.

APK Teardown Reveals Custom Routines For Google Assistant , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

Due to Facebook’s recent privacy gaffe, companies such as Mozilla have decided to pull their ads from the platform. It looks like Mozilla is not alone in this because in an announcement by Sonos, it seems that the audio company has also decided to take their ads down from the likes of Facebook, Google, Twitter, and Instagram.

According to Sonos, “Big digital platforms offer us incredible opportunities to personalize and contextualize the advertising we deliver to you. But with the power of those capabilities comes a great responsibility that can’t be neglected. That’s why—starting on Monday—we will pull our advertising from Facebook, Instagram, Google, and Twitter for a week and make a donation to support RightsCon, a digital rights conference created by our Listen Better grantee Access Now.”

However as Sonos points out, this will only be temporary as ads and social media is expected to resume after a week. As to why not make it permanent, Sonos claims, “We have found Facebook, Instagram, and other online platforms to be incredibly effective ways to reach our customers and to share our mission as a company—Not to mention stay in touch with friends and family in our personal lives.”

They add, “The gesture we are making this week, while small, is meant to meaningfully support the growth of an ecosystem of groups working solely for the social good when it comes to tech. We believe that our industry—and society as a whole—will be healthier if companies like Sonos and Facebook exist in an ecosystem that includes a vibrant activist community focused on advancing the social good.” In the meantime companies such as Tesla have pulled their Facebook pages, although whether or not this is permanent remains to be seen.

Sonos To Also (Temporarily) Pull Their Ads From Social Media , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

Trump “knows I’m telling the truth,” Daniels said.

While we have seen our fair share of smart devices in the past that rely on voice commands through Amazon’s Alexa or Apple’s Siri and other equivalents, the future might not just rely on speaking to your devices and appliances around the home to get them going. Perhaps some of them might work just as well through the use of gesture controls, and this is the main idea that fueled the creation of the AIUR 360° Air Gesture Control Hi-Fi Speaker that has just launched on Kickstarter recently. Touted to be the most advanced gesture control Hi-Fi speaker in the market when it arrives, it is said to be jam-packed with features and functions that will elevate the music listening experience.

The AIUR 360° Air Gesture Control Hi-Fi Speaker is very different from your regular set of speakers that will be able to take advantage of perhaps one or two gestures at most. This is because AIUR will make use of an advanced core technology that boasts of 3D infrared sensing which is more nuanced and sensitive compared to other competitors. With complex pattern recognition algorithms embedded into the software, working alongside a high tech 15mm sensor module, this enables the AIUR to accurately detect more than 10 kinds of hand movements as well as gestures, as long as these are performed within a range of 11 inches. To make things more interesting, there is an LED light that adds a life-like quality and conveniently informs you of any changes visually made via gesture control.

Since it is primarily a speaker, sound quality is of utmost importance, so rest assured that the AIUR will be able to outperform other speakers in its class. This is because it has been specially developed using the patented technology of “F-Round” when it comes to echo cancellation and noise reduction, while making use of DSP Technology and 3D Surround Sound in order to offer powerful and clear sound through its pair of stereo speakers. It hooks up wirelessly via Bluetooth 4.2, and the rechargeable 6000mAh onboard battery delivers approximately 12 hours of streaming music. To sweeten the deal, the AIUR has a water-resistant exterior, making it safe for anyone to enjoy music even while they’re taking a shower.

Press Release
[ AIUR 360° Air Gesture Control Hi-Fi Speaker copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]