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Fewer Shop Visits Due To Digital. But More Spending

British Retail Consortium (BRC) figures show that footfall in retail stores fell by 3.3% in April 2018 compared to last year, marking a further shift in consumer behaviour towards digital adoption. Two Consecutive Months The drop in footfall numbers for April was the second consecutive month where the trend away from visiting the physical high…
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Handy Location Tracker

A peanut-shaped, hand-held, smart, long-range tracking device called LynQ has been launched that can tell you how far and in what direction your friends are, all without the need for a data connection, and without monthly fees. Why? As well as being used for outdoor activities to replace traditional maps and location methods, a ‘LynQ’…
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Tech Tip – Play Almost Any File Format

If you sometimes have trouble opening and playing certain file formats e.g. for videos, free and open-sourced VLC software makes it easy to play almost any file format you throw at it. To download the app, which works with Mac, PC, Linux, Android, and iOS, and states that it doesn’t deliver ads or engage in…
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Twitter Says Change Your Password

Twitter has advised all users to change their passwords after a bug caused the passwords to be stored in easily readable, plain text on an internal computer log. The Bug – Passwords Visible Before ‘Hashing’ Twitter reported on their own blog that the bug that stored passwords had been ‘unmasked’ in an internal log. The…
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8 More Security Flaws Found In Processors

Following on from the revelation in January that 2 major security flaws are present in nearly all modern processors, security researchers have now found 8 more potentially serious flaws. Eight? According to reports by German tech news magazine c’t, the 8 new security flaws in chips / processors were discovered by several different security teams.…
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Facebook Loyalty Intact Says Survey

Even after all the publicity surrounding Facebook’s selling of the personal data of 87 million users to Cambridge Analytica, a Reuters/Ipsos survey has found that most users are still loyal to the social media giant. Just A Public Relations Problem The survey conducted April 26-30 was based in the US, the home country of Facebook…
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Cambridge Analytica Ordered To Turn Over All Data On US Professor

The UK data watchdog, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), has ordered the consulting firm Cambridge Analytica to hand over all the personal information it has on US citizen Professor David Carroll, or face prosecution. Demand Made in May 2017 The consulting firm, which is reported to have ceased operations and filed for bankruptcy in the…
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Google Driverless Car Involved In Smash

A self-driving vehicle owned by Google’s Waymo has been involved in a smash in Arizona when it was hit by a car that swerved across multiple lanes. Driverless Mode – But With Person On Board The Google car was in autonomous / driverless mode at the time of the crash, but had a test driver…
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Tech Tip – Get More Value From Your Gmail Account

If, like many people, you have a Gmail account that you regularly use and you want to improve the value you get from your Gmail setup, try features such as ‘Canned Responses’ and ‘Gmail Offline’ (ahead of Google’s planned updates). If you frequently have to send out the same email message each time to multiple…
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Amazon Challenges Google and Facebook For Ad Dominance

Reports that Amazon.com Inc has doubled its ad profits, is growing its ad business fast, and may be outselling ads on Twitter Inc and Snapchat, may soon see it in serious contention for ad dominance with its bigger rivals : Google and Facebook. Multi-Billion Dollar Program Reports that Amazon has achieved around $2 billion advertising…
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