Cheap NBN & broadband plans compared: the best internet deals in Australia

The array of internet options available to the average Aussie is getting to the point of being overwhelming, especially if you're just after the cheapest plan going. Thankfully, we've done the hard yards and sifted through all the fine-print to figure out which ones offer the most genuine value for your dollar.

Whether it's NBN, ADSL or cable, there's a wide variety of pricing tiers available and they all come with quirks and caveats that you'll need to look out for. Start up fees, lock-in contracts, compulsory modem purchases – we've done the maths to find you the best deal.

Cheapest NBN plans

• If you're in the market for a plan that packs more of a punch in the way of data, speed and inclusions, then check out our best NBN & broadband plans in Australia.

Cheapest ADSL plans

Cheapest cable plans

• Best NBN & broadband plans in Australia compared

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Best 4K TV 2018: the best Ultra-HD TV buying guide

Henry Cavill is bewitching in first official clip of Netflix’s Witcher series

Almost two months ago, it was announced that Netflix's upcoming TV adaptation of The Witcher books had finally found a super leading man in Henry Cavill, who's recently been joined by actresses Freya Allan as Ciri and Anya Chalotra as Yennefer.

Today, the streaming service has given us our first official look at the former Man of Steel in full costume as Geralt of Rivia. Lasting a succinct 23 seconds in total, the short clip features Cavill in what appears to be a costume and makeup test set against a black background. 

The actor walks slowly walks into frame, looks straight into the camera, and then proceeds to take a drink from a flask – a potion perhaps? 

Fan reactions to the short video have been mixed, with many commenters bemoaning the quality of the actor's wig and his young, clean-shaven appearance. 

It's worth noting, however, that Netflix's adaptation of The Witcher will reportedly be closer to the original source material by Polish novelist Andrzej Sapkowski, which follows a much younger version of Geralt than the one featured in the video game series from developer CD Projekt Red.

Currently in the pre-production phase, there's still plenty of time for the fantasy show's creators to fine-tune the actor's hair and makeup. We'll know more once the series officially heads into production in the coming months.

• Check out The Witcher 3 running at 8K in this new video

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Twitter tests homescreen button to easily switch to reverse chronological

Twitter is digging one of its most important new features out of its settings and putting it within easy reach. Twitter is now testing with a small number of iOS users a homescreen button that lets you instantly switch from its algorithmic timeline that shows the best tweets first but out of order to the old reverse chronological feed that only shows people you follow — no tweets liked by friends or other randomness.

Sometimes you want to see the latest Tweets, first. We’re testing a way for you to make it easier to switch your timeline between the latest and top Tweets. Starting today, a small number of you will see this test on iOS. pic.twitter.com/7NHLDUjrIv

— Twitter (@Twitter) October 31, 2018

Twitter had previously buried this option in its settings. In mid-September, it fixed the setting so it would only show a raw reverse chronological feed of tweets by people you follow with nothing extra added, and promised a more easily accessible design for the feature in the future. Now we have our first look at it. A little Twitter sparkle icon in the top opens a menu where you can switch between Top Tweets and Latest Tweets, plus a link to your content settings. It would be even nicer if that was a one-tap toggle.

Twitter’s VP of Product Kayvon Beykpour tweeted that “We want to make it easier to toggle between seeing the latest tweets the top tweets. So we’re experimenting with making this a top-level switch rather than buried in the settings. Feedback welcome.. what do you think?”

Given the backlash back in 2016 when Twitter started shifting to an algorithmically sorted timeline based on what you engaged with, many users will probably think this is great. Whether you’re trying to follow a sports game, a political debate, breaking news, or are just glued to Twitter and want the ordering to make more sense, there are plenty of reasons you might want to switch to reverse chronological.

Still, Twitter’s apprehension to make the setting too accessible makes sense. Hardcore users might prefer reverse chronological, but for most people who only open Twitter a few times per day or week, that’d mean they’d likely miss the tweets from their closest friends that could be drown out by the noise of everyone else. Twitter’s user growth rate perked up after the shift to algorithmic.

We’ve asked whether the setting reverts to the Top Tweets default when you close the app. That might be frustrating to some expert users, but could prevent novice users from accidentally getting stuck in reverse chronological and not knowing how to switch back. The company tells TechCrunch that it’s trying out several different duration options for the setting based on user inactivity to see what works best. For example, one version will revert the setting to the Top Tweets default if they’re gone for a day. That method would make sure people who’ve been inactive long enough to forget changing their timeline setting will get the default back and not end up stuck in a chronological abyss.

If Twitter gets the reversion to default situation figured out, the new button could make the service much more flexible, thereby boosting usage. You could start algorithmic in the morning or after a weekend away to see what you missed, then quickly toggle to reverse chronological if something big happens or you’ll be on it non-stop all day to get the real-time pulse of the world.

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Snapchat’s PR firm sues influencer for not promoting Spectacles on Instagram

Influcencer marketing could get a lot more accountable if Snapchat’s PR firm wins this lawsuit. Snapchat hoped that social media stars promoting v2 of its Spectacles camera sunglasses on its biggest competitor could boost interest after it only sold 220,000 of v1 and had to take a $40 million write-off. Instead Snap comes off looking a little desperate to make Spectacles seem cool.

Snap Inc comissioned its public relations firm PR Consulting (real imaginative) to buy its an influencer marketing campaign on Instagram. The firm struck a deal with Grown-ish actor Luka Sabbat after he was seen cavorting with Kourtney Kardashian. Sabbat got paid $45,000 up front with the promise of another $15,000 to post himself donning Spectacles on Instagram.

He was contracted to make one Instagram feed post and three Stories posts with him wearing Specs, plus be photographed wearing them in public at Paris and Milan Fashion Weeks. He was supposed to add swipe-up-to-buy links to two of those Story posts, get all the posts pre-approved with PRC, and send it analytics metrics about their performance.

But Sabbat skipped out on two of the Stories, one of the swipe-ups, the photo shoots, the pre-approvals, and the analytics. So as Variety’s Gene Maddaus first reported, PRC is suing Sabbat to recoup the $45,000 it already paid plus another $45,000 in damages.

TechCrunch has attained a copy of the lawsuit filing, embedded below, that states “Sabbat has been unjustly enriched and PRC is entitled to damages.” Snap confirms to us that it hired PRC to run the campaign, and that it also contracted a campaign with fashion blog Man Repeller founder Leandra Medine Cohen. And as a courtesy, I Photoshopped some Spectacles onto Sabbat above.

But interestingly, Snap says it was not involved in the decision to sue Sabbat. The debacle brings unwanted attention to the pay-for-promotion deal that brands typically tried to avoid when commissioning influencer marketing. The whole thing is supposed to feel subtle and natural. Instead, PRC’s suit probably cost Snapchat more than $90,000 in reputation.

The case could solidify the need for influencer marketing contracts to come with prorated payment terms where stars are paid fractions of the total purse after each post rather than getting any upfront, as The Fashion Law writes. PRC’s choice to chase Sabbat even despite the problematic publicity for its client Snap might convince other influencers to abide more closely to the details of their contracts. If social media creators want to keep turning their passion into their profession, they’re going to have to prove they’re accountable. Otherwise brands will slide back to traditional ads.

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Twitter’s spam reporting tool now lets you specify type, including if it’s a fake account

Twitter is adding more nuance to its spam reporting tools, the company announced today. Instead of simply flagging a tweet as posting spam, users can now specify what kind of spam you’re seeing by way of a new menu of choices. Among these is the option to report spam you believe to be from a fake Twitter account.

Now, when you tap the “Report Tweet” option and choose “It’s suspicious or spam” from the first menu, you’re presented with a new selection of choices where you can pick what kind of spam the tweet contains.

Here, you can pick from options that specify if the tweet is posting a malicious link of some kind, if it’s from a fake account, if it’s using the Reply function to send spam, or if it’s using unrelated hashtags.

These last two tricks are regularly used by spammers to increase the visibility of their tweets.

Often, high-profile Twitter users will see replies to their tweets promoting the spammers’ content. For example, check any of @elonmusk’s thread for crypto scammers’ tweets – a problem so severe, that when Elon played along one time as a joke, Twitter locked his account.

Using hashtags, meanwhile, allows spammers to get attention from those people searching Twitter’s Trends.

And of course, spammers are often posting prohibited content, like malicious links, links to phishing sites, and other dangerous links.

Activity that attempts to manipulate or disrupt Twitter’s service is not allowed. We remove this when we see it.

You can now specify what type of spam you're seeing when you report, including fake accounts. pic.twitter.com/GN9NKw2Qyn

— Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) October 31, 2018

But Twitter users will probably be most interested in the new option to report fake accounts.

There’s been a lot of name-calling on Twitter today following the emergence of reports of Russian bots and trolls flooding Twitter, in an attempt to influence U.S. politics with disinformation. Often, users in disagreements on the site will call someone “bot” as a way to shut down a conversation.

Twitter itself has been suspending real bots left and right in recent months. It deleted 200,000 Russian troll tweets earlier this year, for example, and suspended more than 70 million fake accounts in May and June, according to reports.

Now users will be able to report those accounts they believe to be bots, as well.

To what extent Twitter will rely on these user-generated reports over its own algorithmic-based bot detection systems, or other factors (like IP addresses or suspicious behavior), is unclear.

It’s also unclear if people can ban together to mass report an account as “fake” in an attempt to remove a real person’s account. But someone will surely soon test that out.

Prior to the change, users were able to report spam but not the type of spam, Twitter’s documentation today still confirms.

Twitter tells us the updated reporting flow will simply allow the company to collect more detail so it can “identify and remove spam more effectively.”

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Lendix is now called October

French startup Lendix is changing its name to October. The company is using this opportunity to redesign its branding assets and refresh the design of the website for new users. The product remains the same — a lending platform connecting individual and institutional investors with small and medium companies.

From what I’ve heard, October had to change its name due to some trademark issue. But the company used this opportunity to move away from its original, pretty boring name. Lendix is a straightforward name that suggests that it’s all about lending money.

But there are so many companies with “lend” in their names that it quickly became a disadvantage — Lendopolis, Unilend, Lendosphère, LendingClub…

October is easy to understand and to write down in a casual conversation. If the company wants to branch out and start offering other financial products, it won’t be awkward.

That’s about it. I just wanted to note the change given that I’ve covered October a few times over the years.

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IBM and RFU team up for technology grand slam

Rugby fans will soon be able to get even closer to the action using their mobile devices thanks to a new partnership between the RFU and IBM.

The technology giant has revealed it will be providing rugby’s governing body with a wealth of new services that will boost the game at all levels, as well as bringing fans closer to the action than ever before.

• What is AI? Everything you need to know

“Fan experience and customer experience doesn't stand still and we want to continue to raise the bar,” Drew Crisp, IBM technological expert, told TechRadar Pro.

“Many organisations think that just buying some technology will be a silver bullet, but it really isn't...you have to blend what technology can offer with what fans really want to experience.”

IBM has been working with the RFU for the past five years, but is now looking to bring even more of its technological expertise to the sport.

The company has recently partnered with the All England Lawn Tennis Club to help boost fan engagement and technology integration at the Wimbledon tennis championships over the past few years to widespread acclaim.

Now, IBM is looking to do much the same for rugby, in time for next year’s 6 Nations tournament, as well as the looming 2019 World Cup in Japan.

This includes bringing “a world-leading experience” for fans both inside and outside the stadium, including a redesigned matchday hub and mobile apps to keep track of all the action, as well as personalised offers, alerts and more.

Players will also benefit from greater analysis and insight into their own performance, with IBM’s systems using video and match data to track every second of play to spot particular strengths and areas to be improved on.

At the grassroots level, IBM will also be providing technological expertise to build a database of players and teams to help the RFU manage the development of rugby across the country as it looks to boost player numbers.

All of this engagement will help feed into the growing excitement around rugby, IBM says, and hopefully encourage more people to play the game.

"Everything we're going to do with the RFU is about changing the experience and changing the game of rugby,” says Crisp, “it's not just the elites at all, everybody should be getting the benefit of it!"

“It's not about whether or not our technology can help England win the World Cup,” he adds, “it's about how we can help them find the small differentiator in their performance...something they could do or try that they might not have thought of before.”

“This is for all teams...this is about changing rugby for the better.”

• How IBM Watson helped Wimbledon serve up the best viewer experience

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Best TV 2018: which TV should you buy for big screen action?

Pornhub tries to unblock India's website ban but forgot its own VPN

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Best cloud storage of 2018 : Free, paid and business options

The true cost of a data breach

From the implementation of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) back in May, which fundamentally changed the rulebook for storing data of EU citizens at least to the Butlin’s hack, 2018 has been a very significant year for cybersecurity.  

One of the biggest changes centred around transparency, specifically businesses being forced to reveal within 72 hours if they have suffered a breach. While the US has had this type of policy for a while, businesses in the EU were not required to publicly state when a breach occurred, leaving them free to keep significant news like this from their customers. But now that things have changed, and it’s starting to heat up in the EU.

• We've also highlighted the best antivirus

A financial hit

The first thing anyone thinks of when considering the cost of something is how can it be calculated in monetary value. Up until now, it’s been difficult to pinpoint the exact cost of a data breach, given many companies are not too willing to unveil the money they’ve spent cleaning up the mess left behind after being hit, or the drop in sales figures. There are some indications though that can help give a guidance. Studies such as the annual Ponemon Institute’s Cost of a Data Breach report aims to paint a clearer picture – indicating the average cost is currently $3.62 million globally ($141 for each piece of data) and as much as $7.35 million in the US.

However, that may be considered the average, with some financial hits being much bigger. According to its most recent SEC filing, Equifax has spent $242.7 million and counting since its data breach, which exposed the sensitive financial and personal information of nearly 148 million of its customers. To add a bit more context to this, Equifax spent nearly as much in just seven months, as Target ($252 million) did in two years after its 2013 data breach. That’s a big hit to the bottom line for simply leaving consumer data unencrypted and out in the open for hackers to simply walk up and take.

Moving forward, we should start to see a clearer picture of the tangible financial cost of a data breach through legislation like GDPR, which can fine companies up to 4% of their global turnover, if they are found to have suffered a breach.

The reputational impact

As well as business suffering from a clear financial hit, the transparency aspect of GDPR has increased the potential for companies to suffer reputationally as well. As consumers become more aware of the increasing number of breaches out there, they are starting to understand they have the power in the relationship, particularly with GDPR enabling points like the ‘right to be forgotten’.

Companies need to realise that if they get breached, consumers will simply go to another brand they consider to be more secure. Take the case of TalkTalk as a great example. Following its well-publicised data breach, the company lost around 100,000 customers, who simply deemed that they could not trust the business to keep their details safe. In this case the CEO also had to step down, a growing consequence that is beginning to develop with senior management usually in the firing line when a breach occurs.

It’s not just a reputational hit with customers that can affect a business either. Yahoo! had to lower its asking price by $350 million for its acquisition by Verizon, after it suffered a huge breach that affected millions. 

Mitigating the risks and costs of a breach 

So, with regulation making things more transparent and media headlines making consumers more aware, how can businesses avoid being the next Equifax or TalkTalk?

The simple answer is there needs to be a change of mindset when it comes to security in the business world. Businesses can no longer adopt a ‘it won’t happen to us’ approach or ‘my perimeter can’t be breached’ mentality. The focus must be on securing the most sensitive data a business has at its core. Too many companies attempt to secure the outside and leave the data exposed, meaning if a hacker was to break in, they can almost help themselves. Encrypting data at rest and in motion, securely managing the encryption keys and storing them securely, while also managing and controlling user access, are vital steps for businesses to take to protect themselves.

With nearly every business using the cloud and the continued emergence of IoT, businesses have never had such opportunities to grow, but with that comes an increased attack surface to defend against. By implementing the solutions such as encryption, businesses can essentially adopt what is known as a ‘secure breach’ strategy, whereby if they are attacked, their data can’t be accessed.

Investing in this strategy moving forward is the only way businesses can protect themselves from the financial and reputationally hitting consequences that are being seen more frequently now. The true cost of a data breach may still be up in the air and vary depending on the business, but companies shouldn’t be running the risk of finding out what it will cost them.

Jason Hart, CTO of Data Protection at Gemalto 

• Been hacked? This is what to do next

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The best green web hosting of 2018

Plusnet's amazing new broadband deal comes with a £75 Amazon.co.uk Gift Card

There are so many broadband deals out there promising different incentives and freebies and it can be really hard to know which ones are worth it. But Plusnet has a new broadband deal with a perk you will really want to get your hands on.

Until Wednesday November 7 Plusnet is offering a £75 Amazon.co.uk Gift Card with its Unlimited Broadband plan. Along with this bumper Amazon.co.uk Gift Card you' also be getting internet with average speeds of 10Mb and free landline calls to Plusnet customers. 

The package will cost you £18.99 per month and is a 12 month contract. You will have to pay an upfront fee of £5 but this is a fixed price offer so you are guaranteed the same price throughout your contract. 

More on this brilliant Plusnet deal:

What if I want a faster broadband deal?

If the 10Mb speeds of this deal just aren't doing it for you - maybe you rely on high quality 4K streaming, or just have loads of people in the house always looking to use the internet at once - Plusnet has other faster broadband deals that could be perfect for you that also come with an added bonus.

Upgrade to its Unlimited Fibre plan for an extra few pounds a month and you get some beefed up average speeds of 36Mb for faster internet use. This deal costs £23.99 a month and maintains that £5 upfront fee. This deal doesn't have the Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to sing about, but does come with £50 cashback instead which helps to make it one of the best value fibre broadband deals out there. 

If you need even faster speeds, Plusnet also offers Unlimited Fibre Extra broadband with massive average speeds of 66Mb - that equates to downloads of over 8MB per second. This one will cost you £28.99 a month and a fiver upfront, but you still get that £50 cashback. Those kind of speeds for less than £30 per month are almost unheard of.

• All of today's best broadband deals in one place

More on that Amazon.co.uk Gift Card

Once your broadband and line rental have been activated, Plusnet says you'll be sent an email with the details of your Gift Card - then you're free to spend away to your heart's content.

It can't be traded for money but you can use it to buy anything on Amazon.co.uk. And the best bit...you'll be happy to know that the card should be with you in plenty of time for Christmas so you can use it to power through your Christmas shopping!

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Handshake, a LinkedIn for university students and diversity, raises $40M on a $275M valuation

LinkedIn has created and — with 562 million users — leads the market in social platforms for people who want to network with others in their professions, and look for jobs. Now a startup that hopes to take it on in a specific niche — university students and recent grads, with a focus on diversity and inclusion — has raised a substantial round to grow. Handshake, a platform for both students looking to take their early career steps and employers who want to reach them, has raised $40 million in a Series C round of funding, after hitting 14 million users in the U.S. across 700 universities, and 300,000 employers targeting them.

The company is now valued at $275 million post-money, according to figures from PitchBook, a big leap on its valuation at the Series B stage two years ago, when it was valued at $108 million.

The funding is notable not just for that valuation hike — and the implication that many think it could give Microsoft-owned LinkedIn a run for its money among 20-somethings — but for who is doing the backing.

The round was led by EQT Ventures, the investment arm of European holding company and PE firm EQT, with participation also from several investment organizations that have put a focus on backing interesting startups in the education sphere, including the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Omidyar Network, Reach Capital; as well as True Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Spark Capital and KPCB Edge. Several of these are repeat investors and the total raised by Handshake — not to be confused with the B2B e-commerce platform of the same name — to $74 million.

To date, Handshake has only been active in the U.S. The company was founded in 2014 originally named Stryder by three graduates of the University of Michigan — Garrett Lord (currently the CEO), Scott Ringwelski (CTO) and Ben Christensen (a board member). The plan is to use the new funding to expand into more markets like Europe, using EQT’s network of businesses in the region to help it along.

LinkedIn has been making a lot of efforts over the years to court younger users and bring them into the LinkedIn fold earlier.

In 2013, the company lowered its minimum age for users to 13 and launched dedicated pages for universities. In 2014, LinkedIn started to add in more tools for younger users to connect with universities and their university-related networks on the platform. And through various e-learning efforts, LinkedIn has been trying to create a bridge between the kind of learning you might do at university, and what you might do after you leave to further your career.

The behemoth also started to take baby steps into providing more insights into diversity for those doing hiring, by letting recruiters examine search results by gender; and by providing bigger insights into the wider pool of people on LinkedIn.

Part of the reason for the baby steps, I’m guessing, is that LinkedIn simply lacks the data from its users to do more faster, and so that leaves a lot of room for a rival to step in.

In that vein, it seems Handshake is trying to position itself as a platform that is considering and thinking about how to address diversity from the ground up, as a native part of its platform while it is still small and growing.

One of the ways that Handshake gets more details about its members is through its partnerships with universities, which helps to populate information about their profiles, rather than relying on a person filling out the details manually. (To register for an account, you use your university address, similar to how Facebook worked when it first launched.)

Handshake also has relationships with more than 100 minority-serving institutions, which include Historically Black Colleges and Universities, and Hispanic Serving Institutions in the U.S., to bring them and their students more closely into that fold.

On the side of employers, it includes more search features for recruiters to search using more specific parameters in the effort to make more diverse hiring choices. “Candidates who might not have the right connections or privileged background can get in front of Fortune 500 companies,” the company notes.

“Our Handshake community is tackling the so-called ‘pipeline problem’ head on. Skilled students are on every campus in every corner of the country and we’re proud to help employers discover, recruit and hire up-and-coming talent from all backgrounds,” said Garrett Lord, Handshake Co-Founder and CEO, in a statement. “Students around the world experience the same inequality in the recruiting process, so we’re excited to partner with Alastair Mitchell” — the EQT partner leading the investment — “and EQT Ventures to expand our impact beyond the United States.”

That’s not to say that inclusion and diversity are the only issues that Handshake is tackling.

The company cites a 2018 Strada-Burning Glass Study that says more than 43 percent of graduates are underemployed — either not earning their full potential, or doing a job that doesn’t utilise their skills — in their first job out of college . “Of those who graduate underemployed, 50% remain underemployed 10 years after graduation.” There is, in other words, a big employment gap specifically with recent grads, and while many will land plum positions, many others flail, and the idea is that Handshake will help specifically to address that by improving how well people are matched to positions that are open.

This is, in fact, an interesting counterpoint to the fact that we also have a lot of ageism in certain fields, where older people are often overlooked — perhaps another niche market that is ripe for tackling?

Handshake today makes money much in the same way that LinkedIn does: it offers paid usage tiers for its users to unlock more features. In the startup’s case, a Premium employer tier called the Talent Engagement Suite was recently launched to let organizations search by diversity parameters and other more specific criteria. That appears to be the path that Handshake plans to follow going ahead, doubling its team to 200 with more people in product and engineering roles to build out more analytics and search and recommendations algorithms.

It’s also making some key hires for the next age. Christine Y. Cruzvergara, ex-Associate Provost and Executive Director for Career Education at Wellesley College, is joining as VP of Higher Education and Student Success, to work with institutions precisely on more inclusive initiatives and products.

“CZI is thrilled to support Handshake as it connects talented students to career opportunities that enable them to reach their full potential,”  said Vivian Wu, Managing Partner of Ventures at the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, in a statement. “Handshake’s approach – expanding access, building student community and support, and showcasing accomplishments beyond college and degree – produces real results, especially for young people from communities that haven’t had access to high quality job and life opportunities.”

 

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Zuckerberg gets joint summons from UK and Canadian parliaments

Two separate parliamentary committees, in the UK and Canada, have issued an unprecedented international joint summons for Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg to appear before them.

The committees are investigating the impact of online disinformation on democratic processes and want Zuckerberg to answer questions related to the Cambridge Analytica-Facebook user data misuse scandal, which both have been probing this year.

More broadly, they are also seeking greater detail about Facebook’s digital policies and information governance practices — not least, in light of fresh data breaches — as they continue to investigate the democratic impacts and economic incentives related to the spread of online disinformation via social media platforms.

In a letter sent to the Facebook founder today, the chairs of the UK’s Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) committee and the Canadian Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics (SCAIPE), Damian Collins and Bob Zimmer respectively, write that they intend to hold a “special joint parliamentary hearing at the Westminster Parliament”, on November 27 — to form an “‘international grand committee’ on disinformation and fake news”.

“This will be led by ourselves but a number of other parliaments are likely to be represented,” they continue. “No such joint hearing has ever been held. Given your self-declared objective to “fix” Facebook, and to prevent the platform’s malign use in world affairs and democratic process, we would like to give you the chance to appear at this hearing.”

Both committees say they will be issuing their final reports into online disinformation by the end of December.

The DCMS committee has already put out a preliminary report this summer, following a number of hearings with company representatives and data experts, in which it called for urgent action from government to combat online disinformation and defend democracy — including suggesting it look at a levy on social media platforms to fund educational programs in digital literacy.

Although the UK government has so far declined to seize on the bulk of the committee’s recommendations — apparently preferring a ‘wait and gather evidence’ (and/or ‘kick a politically charged issue into the long grass’) approach.

Meanwhile, Canada’s interest in the democratic damage caused by so-called ‘fake news’ has been sharpened by AIQ, the data company linked to Cambridge Analytica, as one of its data handlers and system developers — and described by CA whistleblower Chris Wylie as essentially a division of his former employer — being located on its soil.

The SCAIPE committee has already held multiple, excoriating sessions interrogating executives from AIQ, which have been watched with close interest by at least some lawmakers across the Atlantic…

NOT TO BE MISSED –
We'll produce a video highlights (lowlights) thread later of AIQ's performance today at the Canadian Parliament, but here's a flavour…prepare to be shocked! pic.twitter.com/Phl6KFnySK

— Brexitshambles (@brexit_sham) April 24, 2018

At the same time the DCMS committee has tried and failed repeatedly to get Facebook’s CEO before it during the course of its multi-month inquiry into online disinformation. Instead Facebook despatched a number of less senior staffers, culminating with its CTO — Mike Schroepfer — who spent around five hours being roasted by visibly irate committee members. And whose answers left it still unsatisfied.

Yet as political concern about election interference has stepped up steeply this year, Zuckerberg has attended sessions in the US Senate and House in April — to face (but not necessarily answer) policymakers’ questions.

He also appeared before a meeting of the EU parliament’s council of presidents — where he was heckled for dodging MEPs’ specific concerns.

But the UK parliament has been consistently snubbed. At the last, the DCMS committee resorted to saying it would issue Zuckerberg with a formal summons the next time he stepped on UK soil (and of course he hasn’t).

They’re now trying a different tack — in the form of a grand coalition of international lawmakers. From two — and possibly more — countries.

While the chairs of the UK and Canadian committees say they understand Zuckerberg cannot make himself available “to all parliaments” they argue Facebook’s users in other countries “need a line of accountability to your organisation — directly, via yourself”, adding: “We would have thought that this responsibility is something that you would want to take up. We both plan to issue final reports on this issue by the end of this December, 2018. The hearing of your evidence is now overdue, and urgent.”

“We call on you to take up this historic opportunity to tell parliamentarians from both sides of the Atlantic and beyond about the measures Facebook is taking to halt the spread of disinformation on your platform, and to protect user data,” they also write.

So far though, where non-domestic lawmakers are concerned, it’s only been elected representatives of the European Union’s 28 Member States who have proved to have enough collective political clout and pulling power to secure a little facetime with Zuckerberg.

So another Facebook snub seems the most likely response to the latest summons.

“We’ve received the committee’s letter and will respond to Mr Collins by his deadline,” a Facebook spokesperson told us when asked whether it would be despatching Zuckerberg this time.

The committee has given Facebook until November 7 to reply.

Perhaps the company will send its new global policy chief, Nick Clegg — who would at least be an all-too familiar face to Westminster lawmakers, having previously served as the UK’s deputy PM.

Even if Collins et al’s latest gambit still doesn’t net them Zuckerberg, the international coalition approach the two committees are now taking is interesting, given the challenges for many governments of regulating global platforms like Facebook whose user bases can scale bigger than some entire nations.

If the committees were to recruit lawmakers from additional countries to their joint hearing — Myanmar, for example, where Facebook’s platform has been accused of accelerating ethnic violence — such an invitation might be rather harder for Zuckerberg to ignore.

After all, Facebook does claim: “We are accountable.” And Zuckerberg is its CEO. (Though it does not state who exactly Facebook/Zuckerberg feels accountable to.)

While forming a joint international committee is a new tactic, UK and Canadian lawmakers and regulatory bodies have been working together for many months now — as part of their respective inquiries and investigations, and as they’ve sought to unpick complex data trails and understand transnational corporate structures.

In the process of cutting the session down into 'Tweetable' clips – here's a quick taster you may find interesting…….

Well played Canada – and @DamianCollins and Liz Denham @ICOnews #AIQ #SCL #CambridgeAnalytica #VoteLeave #Brexit pic.twitter.com/jW27f8l7V4

— Brexitshambles (@brexit_sham) April 24, 2018

One thing is increasingly clear when looking at the tangled web where politics and social media collide (with mass opinion manipulation the intended outcome): The interconnected, cross-border nature of the Internet, when meshed with well-funded digital political campaigning — and indeed buckets of personal data, is now placing huge strain on traditional legal structures at the nation-state level.

National election laws reliant on regulating things like campaign spending and joint working, as the UK’s laws are supposed to, simply won’t work unless you can actually follow the money and genuinely map the relationships.

And where use of personal data for online political ad-targeting is concerned, ethics must be front and center — as the UK’s data watchdog has warned.

https://ift.tt/2P0eYZe

Zuckerberg gets joint summons from UK and Canadian parliaments

Two separate parliamentary committees, in the UK and Canada, have issued an unprecedented international joint summons for Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg to appear before them.

The committees are investigating the impact of online disinformation on democratic processes and want Zuckerberg to answer questions related to the Cambridge Analytica-Facebook user data misuse scandal, which both have been probing this year.

More broadly, they are also seeking greater detail about Facebook’s digital policies and information governance practices — not least, in light of fresh data breaches — as they continue to investigate the democratic impacts and economic incentives related to the spread of online disinformation via social media platforms.

In a letter sent to the Facebook founder today, the chairs of the UK’s Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) committee and the Canadian Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics (SCAIPE), Damian Collins and Bob Zimmer respectively, write that they intend to hold a “special joint parliamentary hearing at the Westminster Parliament”, on November 27 — to form an “‘international grand committee’ on disinformation and fake news”.

“This will be led by ourselves but a number of other parliaments are likely to be represented,” they continue. “No such joint hearing has ever been held. Given your self-declared objective to “fix” Facebook, and to prevent the platform’s malign use in world affairs and democratic process, we would like to give you the chance to appear at this hearing.”

Both committees say they will be issuing their final reports into online disinformation by the end of December.

The DCMS committee has already put out a preliminary report this summer, following a number of hearings with company representatives and data experts, in which it called for urgent action from government to combat online disinformation and defend democracy — including suggesting it look at a levy on social media platforms to fund educational programs in digital literacy.

Although the UK government has so far declined to seize on the bulk of the committee’s recommendations — apparently preferring a ‘wait and gather evidence’ (and/or ‘kick a politically charged issue into the long grass’) approach.

Meanwhile, Canada’s interest in the democratic damage caused by so-called ‘fake news’ has been sharpened by AIQ, the data company linked to Cambridge Analytica, as one of its data handlers and system developers — and described by CA whistleblower Chris Wylie as essentially a division of his former employer — being located on its soil.

The SCAIPE committee has already held multiple, excoriating sessions interrogating executives from AIQ, which have been watched with close interest by at least some lawmakers across the Atlantic…

NOT TO BE MISSED –
We'll produce a video highlights (lowlights) thread later of AIQ's performance today at the Canadian Parliament, but here's a flavour…prepare to be shocked! pic.twitter.com/Phl6KFnySK

— Brexitshambles (@brexit_sham) April 24, 2018

At the same time the DCMS committee has tried and failed repeatedly to get Facebook’s CEO before it during the course of its multi-month inquiry into online disinformation. Instead Facebook despatched a number of less senior staffers, culminating with its CTO — Mike Schroepfer — who spent around five hours being roasted by visibly irate committee members. And whose answers left it still unsatisfied.

Yet as political concern about election interference has stepped up steeply this year, Zuckerberg has attended sessions in the US Senate and House in April — to face (but not necessarily answer) policymakers’ questions.

He also appeared before a meeting of the EU parliament’s council of presidents — where he was heckled for dodging MEPs’ specific concerns.

But the UK parliament has been consistently snubbed. At the last, the DCMS committee resorted to saying it would issue Zuckerberg with a formal summons the next time he stepped on UK soil (and of course he hasn’t).

They’re now trying a different tack — in the form of a grand coalition of international lawmakers. From two and possibly more countries.

While the chairs of the UK and Canadian committees say they understand Zuckerberg cannot make himself available “to all parliaments” they argue Facebook’s users in other countries “need a line of accountability to your organisation — directly, via yourself”, adding: “We would have thought that this responsibility is something that you would want to take up. We both plan to issue final reports on this issue by the end of this December, 2018. The hearing of your evidence is now overdue, and urgent.”

“We call on you to take up this historic opportunity to tell parliamentarians from both sides of the Atlantic and beyond about the measures Facebook is taking to halt the spread of disinformation on your platform, and to protect user data,” they also write.

So far though, where non-domestic lawmakers are concerned, it’s only been elected representatives of the European Union’s 28 Member States who have proved to have enough collective political clout and pulling power to secure a little facetime with Zuckerberg.

So another Facebook snub seems the most likely response to the latest summons.

“We’ve received the committee’s letter and will respond to Mr Collins by his deadline,” a Facebook spokesperson told us when asked whether it would be despatching Zuckerberg this time.

Perhaps it will send its new global policy chief, Nick Clegg, instead — who would at least be an all-too familiar face to Westminster lawmakers, having previously served as the UK’s deputy PM.

The international coalition approach the committees are now taking is interesting, though, given the challenges of regulating global platforms like Facebook whose users bases scale bigger than some nations.

If the committees were to recruit lawmakers from additional countries to their joint hearing — Myanmar, for example, where Facebook’s platform has been accused of accelerating ethnic violence — such an invitation might be rather harder for Facebook to ignore.

After all, the company does claim: “We are accountable.” (Though it does not state who exactly it feels accountable to.)

While forming a joint international committee is a new tactic, UK and Canadian lawmakers and regulatory bodies have been working together for many months now — as part of their respective inquiries and investigations, and as they’ve sought to unpick complex data trails and understand transnational corporate structures.

In the process of cutting the session down into 'Tweetable' clips – here's a quick taster you may find interesting…….

Well played Canada – and @DamianCollins and Liz Denham @ICOnews #AIQ #SCL #CambridgeAnalytica #VoteLeave #Brexit pic.twitter.com/jW27f8l7V4

— Brexitshambles (@brexit_sham) April 24, 2018

One thing is increasingly clear when looking at the tangled web where politics and social media collide (with opinion manipulation the intended outcome): The interconnected, cross-border nature of the Internet when meshed with well-funded digital political campaigning is now placing huge strain on traditional legal structures at the nation-state level.

And national election laws reliant on regulating things like campaign spending and joint working, as the UK’s laws are supposed to, simply won’t work unless you can actually follow the money and genuinely map the relationships.

https://ift.tt/2P0eYZe

From a start-up to a multinational - make the right business decision by moving to the cloud

Until some years ago it happened that the majority of companies had to create their own IT based up on their own small on-site data center, and not because it was the best solution, but because it was the only available one. It was due to several reasons, from the low level of the broadband connection to the traditionalism of the technical practice, from the lack of technical standards in the market to the lack of specific technology. Among the several solutions, today the cloud represents an alternative to this ‘on premise’ model that is reliable, affordable and possible on the different purpose. 

That’s why organizations have started moving data centres and software to the cloud: cloud could be seen as the ‘IT-as-a-commodity’, a new way to accelerate and facilitate a business.

As a result, many companies continued to deploy cloud solutions in silos, while maintaining their traditional core systems, but little by little the digital transformation has shifted the argument. There has been a step ahead in the mentality of the companies and now we can see that is the ‘best solution’ and not the ‘cheapest one’ to drive the final choice, overpassing any uncertainty or doubt. 

The cloud is not only an enabler for making businesses more digital, it’s also an essential business driver for growth. 

Moving away from the data centre

Simple, self-service, pay-per-use, scalable - there are many reasons to move to the cloud, and yet 65 percent of enterprise workloads are still running in owned or onsite data centres. Colocation data centres only host 20 percent of systems and just 9 percent are cloud-based.

For a business with an innovative tech-focused model, choosing the right cloud is an important step. By making this choice, you’ll ensure that technology is not a barrier that slows your business down, but rather a springboard for your go-to-market strategy. However, too often, businesses find a reason to convince themselves that moving to the cloud is not the best decision for them. On one hand you have large organizations talking about the supposed complexity, and on the other you have small businesses saying they are too small for the benefits to have a real impact.  

This couldn’t be farther truth. From scalability to disaster recovery and digital transformation, the benefits of moving to the cloud are available to organizations of all shapes and sizes.

Moreover, let’s bear in mind that cloud is one of the possible ideal solution, but there is enough room for colocation, dedicated servers or managed dedicated servers and infrastructures too.  Each provider has to find the right solution and it could also mean to integrate those services and approaches, by taking the best part of each of them, and at the same time, being able to hide their complexity so that the end user should only focus on his own business, and do not take care of the IT.  

Making scalability easier

Moving to the cloud gives businesses the ability to adapt to business growth. With the cloud, scalability can be achieved in two ways: horizontally, by manipulating the infrastructure to add or remove cloud servers and vertically, by increasing or reducing the individual components (vCPU, RAM, HD etc.) of a server. 

Businesses of all sizes can achieve scalability needs, such as start-up CercaOfficina.it – a website through which you can choose a repair shop to fix your car. After only four years in business, CercaOfficina.it crossed the threshold of 100,000 requests. For this start-up, scaling up needed to scale fast and it also was the only way to stay in business. Another example is Tommigame.com, a startup aimed at supporting hospitalized children: it is a business realized by a digital health company using virtual reality and artificial intelligence in order to create immersive VR experience for those little patients. By using cloud solutions, it is possible to collect data about their psychomotor behavior, monitor and personalize their treatments. Also, in this case, the business growth so fast that it was necessary to scale up and provide tools and resources very quickly.

Cloud-based solutions enables businesses to find the perfect solution for every stage of growth. You can expand your IT infrastructure by increasing or decreasing the resources you need, depending on how the business is developing. You can start off with a relatively small infrastructure, then gradually scale up, eliminating latency that results from dormant physical IT infrastructure. 

More effective disaster recovery 

Over two-fifths (43%) of SMEs have no contingency measures in place to deal with an IT crisis. For businesses that don’t have a specialised IT department, disaster recovery (DR) generally means relying on a third-party provider. This is the case for most businesses, either because they think they’re too small to need DR, or because they are not able to justify the cost and resources needed to maintain traditional DR. For businesses that do have DR in place, a recent survey found that one in five (18%) lack confidence in their DR plans and almost half (46%) are not testing those plans on an annual basis. 

Cloud-based DR offers solutions adapted for all types of firms. Whatever your size, cloud based DR offers a way to build up your resilience at a price that’s relative to the size of your business, and with smaller resource overheads when creating, implementing and testing your DR plan. 

Accelerating digital transformation 

As part of an overall five year and 3.5 million Euro investment plan, Nexive, Italy’s number one provider of private postal services, decided to digitize all of its operations, moving from on-site to cloud-based data centers. 

By moving to a cloud-based model, Nexive was able to ensure reliable physical and digital services. This also put Nexive one step ahead of its competition, with a flexible and secure solution for its data.

Before moving to the cloud, Nexive’s data was stored on a private server. This approach was a costly one, requiring significant investment in human resources to manage processes, constant manual upgrades and high maintenance costs. The regulatory requirements and activities involved in ensuring compliance were also significant.

Moving to the cloud eliminated the maintenance and compliance costs from Nexive and offered a solution that could instantly scale up in case of an activity peak.

Moving to the cloud, and staying one step ahead

From start-ups to multinationals, moving to the cloud is the best insurance against downtime – whether that be due to natural disasters, or human errors. It’s also the best way to respond to activity peaks and free business leaders concentrate on running their companies, rather than these potential concerns. 

What’s more, having the right cloud solution provides protection for IT resources, the data the business holds and for the business processes it supports. 

As the cloud becomes an everyday part of how we live and work, it will become increasingly difficult to not have it as an essential part of your business process. Businesses that fail to take this leap risk missing out on the many opportunities that cloud presents. And ultimately, they risk losing their customers, many of who now expect cloud-transformed experiences as the norm, to competitors that provide these experiences. 

Stefano Cecconi, CEO of Aruba S.p.A

• We've also highlighted the best cloud computing services

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Cybersecurity: The latest news and statistics

In our increasingly digital world, cyberattacks are a daily risk for businesses and consumers alike. 

While installing an antivirus is an essential first step for staying safe online in 2018, being informed regarding the latest cyberattacks will ensure that you’re prepared for when not if the next attack comes.

We’ve compiled a collection of recent security headlines and statistics to keep you up to date with the latest developments. The list will be regularly updated, so be sure to check back often.

Got an addition for us? Contact mike.moore@futurenet.com

• We've also highlighted the best antivirus of 2018

"Cyberattacks against businesses rise 55 per cent during last three months"

While the first half of 2018 was relatively uneventful in terms of cyberattacks, Malwarebytes identified a 55 per cent increase during the last three months as cybercriminals increased the number as well as the severity of their attacks. This includes a major rise in the number of ransomware attacks carried out as well as an 84 per cent increase in banking trojans compared to the previous quarter...

Read more here

"One in six businesses unprepared for data breaches"

A significant portion of organisations are ill-prepared for the event of a cyberattack and four in ten have gone through such an event in the last 12 months according to a report by BSI’s Cybersecurity and Information Resilience division...

Read more here

"4.5bn files compromised in first half of 2018"

New data from Gemalto found that 4.5 billion records were compromised during the first half of 2018 as businesses were busy preparing for GDPR to go into effect. The US was hit the hardest with 3.25bn of breached data entries while the UK was the highest country in Europe with 22 data incidents during the first half of 2018...

Read more here

"Two thirds of German manufacturers have fallen victim to a cyberattack"

A survey published by Bitkom found that two thirds of the country’s manufacturers have fallen victim to a cyberattack costing Europe’s largest economy around $50bn. A third of the companies reported having their employees phones stolen while a quarter said they had lost sensitive data...

Read more here

"Quarter of cyberattacks hit ordinary users"

Research from Positive Technologies revealed that cyberattacks increased by 47 per cent during Q2 2018. Data theft has grown in popularity as hackers move away from mass campaigns with personal data (30 per cent) and credentials (22 per cent) being the most attractive targets...

Read more here

CipherTrace: Almost $1 billion in cryptocurrency was stolen in 2018

Cryptocurrency thefts have risen to almost $1 billion over the course of 2018 according to a study by cybersecurity firm CipherTrace. The majority of thefts come from cryptocurrencies and trading platforms being hacked, with smaller, more frequent attacks becoming increasingly common...

Read more here

"Worldwide AI investment to top $200bn by 2025"

A new report from KPMG estimates that investment in AI, along with machine learning and robotic process automation (RPA) technology, is set to reach $232bn by 2025. This is a significant increase from the $12.4bn spen today as more and more organisations adopt AI in their business...

Read more here

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Microsoft fixes Windows 10 October 2018 Update ZIP file bug in latest cumulative update

Microsoft has just released a cumulative update for Windows 10 Insiders in the Slow and Release Preview rings which addresses several problems, including the ZIP bug in Windows 10 October 2018 Update that was causing people to lose data.

The update is Build 17763.107 (KB4464455), and is available for Windows Insiders who have signed up for early versions of Windows 10.

While the ZIP file bug, which allowed people to accidentally overwrite existing files when moving .ZIP files into folders with files of the same name without warning, is the headline fix in this update, another problem has also been addressed.

Roaming profiles

According to Microsoft’s release notes for the cumulative update, “We fixed an issue causing roaming profiles to not work correctly.” For anyone who has encountered issues with their profile when logging into Windows 10, this fix should hopefully sort that out.

Other fixes include fixing wrong details being shown in Task Manager, compatibility issues with anti-virus software and driver compatibility problems.

If you’re a Windows Insider you can install the update by going to Settings > Windows Update and checking for updates.

Hopefully these fixes will be brought to regular users soon.

• Windows 10 October 2018 Update problems: how to fix them

Via Wccftech

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Cybersecurity: The latest news and statistics

In our increasingly digital world, cyberattacks are a daily risk for businesses and consumers alike. 

While installing an antivirus is an essential first step for staying safe online in 2018, being informed regarding the latest cyberattacks will ensure that you’re prepared for when not if the next attack comes.

We’ve compiled a collection of recent security headlines and statistics to keep you up to date with the latest developments. The list will be regularly updated, so be sure to check back often.

Got an addition for us? Contact mike.moore@futurenet.com

• We've also highlighted the best antivirus of 2018

"Cyberattacks against businesses rise 55 per cent during last three months"

While the first half of 2018 was relatively uneventful in terms of cyberattacks, Malwarebytes identified a 55 per cent increase during the last three months as cybercriminals increased the number as well as the severity of their attacks. This includes a major rise in the number of ransomware attacks carried out as well as an 84 per cent increase in banking trojans compared to the previous quarter...

Read more here

"One in six businesses unprepared for data breaches"

A significant portion of organisations are ill-prepared for the event of a cyberattack and four in ten have gone through such an event in the last 12 months according to a report by BSI’s Cybersecurity and Information Resilience division...

Read more here

"4.5bn files compromised in first half of 2018"

New data from Gemalto found that 4.5 billion records were compromised during the first half of 2018 as businesses were busy preparing for GDPR to go into effect. The US was hit the hardest with 3.25bn of breached data entries while the UK was the highest country in Europe with 22 data incidents during the first half of 2018...

Read more here

"Two thirds of German manufacturers have fallen victim to a cyberattack"

A survey published by Bitkom found that two thirds of the country’s manufacturers have fallen victim to a cyberattack costing Europe’s largest economy around $50bn. A third of the companies reported having their employees phones stolen while a quarter said they had lost sensitive data...

Read more here

"Quarter of cyberattacks hit ordinary users"

Research from Positive Technologies revealed that cyberattacks increased by 47 per cent during Q2 2018. Data theft has grown in popularity as hackers move away from mass campaigns with personal data (30 per cent) and credentials (22 per cent) being the most attractive targets...

Read more here

CipherTrace: Almost $1 billion in cryptocurrency was stolen in 2018

Cryptocurrency thefts have risen to almost $1 billion over the course of 2018 according to a study by cybersecurity firm CipherTrace. The majority of thefts come from cryptocurrencies and trading platforms being hacked, with smaller, more frequent attacks becoming increasingly common...

Read more here

"Worldwide AI investment to top $200bn by 2025"

A new report from KPMG estimates that investment in AI, along with machine learning and robotic process automation (RPA) technology, is set to reach $232bn by 2025. This is a significant increase from the $12.4bn spen today as more and more organisations adopt AI in their business...

Read more here

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With a new branding, 1&1 IONOS wants to be more than just a hosting provider

1&1 recently announced that it would be joining forces with ProfitBricks, the German specialist for cloud infrastructure solutions, to form a new united brand called 1&1 IONOS. 

The change is meant to accelerate the firm's ambitions to move beyond just web hosting and it will give customers the opportunity to use a personal consultant free of charge as their central contact person for all questions related to products.

TechRadar Pro sat down with 1&1's Achim Weiss (the founder/CEO of ProfitBricks) to learn more about 1&1 IONOS and how the new entity will benefit its customers.

• We've also highlighted the best website hosting

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Chat app Line’s games business raises $110M for growth opportunities

Messaging app firm Line has given up majority control of its Line Games business after it raised outside financing to expand its collection of titles and go after global opportunities.

The Line Games business was formed earlier this year when Line merged its existing gaming division from NextFloor, the Korea-based game publisher that it acquired in 2017. Now the business has taken on capital from Anchor Equity Partners, which has provided 125 billion KRW ($110 million) in financing via its Lungo Entertainment entity, according to a disclosure from Line.

A Line spokesperson clarified that the deal will see Anchor acquire 144,743 newly-created shares to take a 27.55 percent stake in Line Games. That increase means Line Corp’s own shareholding is diluted from 57.6 percent to a minority 41.73 percent stake.

Korea-based Anchor is best known for a number of deals in its homeland including investments in e-commerce giant Ticket Monster, Korean chat giant Kakao’s Podotree content business and fashion retail group E-Land.

Line operates its eponymous chat app which is the most popular messaging platform in Japan, Thailand and Taiwan, and also significantly used in Indonesia, but gaming is a major source of income. This year to date, Line has made 28.5 billion JPY ($250 million) from its content division, which is primarily virtual goods and in-app purchases from its social games. That division accounts for 19 percent of Line’s total revenue, and it is a figure that is only better by its advertising unit, which has grossed 79.3 billion JPY, or $700 million, in 2018 to date.

The games business is currently focused on Japan, Korea, Thailand and Taiwan, but it said that the new capital will go towards finding new IP for future titles and identifying games with global potential. It is also open to more strategic deals to broaden its focus.

While Line has always been big on games, Line Games isn’t just building for its own service. The company said earlier this year that it plans to focus on non-mobile platforms, which will include the Nintendo Switch among others consoles.

That comes from the addition of NextFloor, which is best known for titles like Dragon Flight and Destiny Child. Dragon Flight has racked up 14 million users since its 2012 launch, at its peak it saw $1 million in daily revenue. Destiny Child, a newer release in 2016, topped the charts in Korea and has been popular in Japan, North America and beyond.

Line went public in 2016 via a dual U.S.-Japan IPO that raised over $1 billion.

Note: the original version of this article was updated to clarify that Lungo Entertainment is buying newly-issued shares.

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Panasonic AMP display is part TV, part picture frame

The idea of having a TV act as more than just a movie-viewing slab in your room has taken off in recent years, with Samsung’s the Frame TV positioning itself as much as an interior design piece as a display, presenting works of art when it’d otherwise be in standby mode.

At the Panasonic Innovation Forum, celebrating the company’s 100th anniversary, it showed its own intentions to spruce up your living room with a new type of display, the Panasonic AMP.

As much a picture frame as it is a TV, the AMP can be free standing, balanced against a wall or hung, displaying both static works of art and video art works. In fact, the Panasonic engineers on hand to explain the purpose of the screen spoke of how it was not really intended as a product to view shows or movies on – and that’s in part due to its unusual size.

Picture perfect

The work of a new internal incubator project for fast-tracking design concepts at Panasonic, the AMP is unique in its screen ratio, being a near-perfect square, rather than the 16:9 widescreen displays we are more familiar with.

A 4K-equivalent LCD panel, its size allows for varied types of art to be displayed, as well as giving it just as varied options for placement in your home.

As an incubator project, there’s no street date for the AMP yet – it’s more an opportunity for Panasonic to gauge interest in the idea. And there’s room for some seemingly obvious features to be included – though the screen also includes speakers designed to disperse audio in a wide stage to envelope a room in relaxing ambient sounds, there’s no way to upload your own pictures or videos. All content is piped in over the internet from Panasonic’s archives – which seems a missed opportunity for a piece that would work wonderfully as a large-scale digital picture frame.

But it remains an interesting idea that would be well worth exploring for the company – though that early rush for digital photo frames was let down by cheap, low quality screen technology (and equally primitive smartphone camera tech), it’s now possible to make slimline 4K panels of excellent quality with relative ease. And, with smartphones offering near-pro level cameras in our pockets, there’s no end of personal, high-quality imagery with which to populate them.

• Samsung Frame TV review: here's what Panasonic's concept is up against

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