Here comes the possibility from Vodafone to subscribe to one of the most advantageous offers of the moment also for users coming from ho.mobile. Let’s talk about the Vodafone Special 100 Digital Edition which less than 10 ?? allows you to have 100 GB of data traffic. Here is the information.
by Bruno Mucciarelli published 08 January 2021 , at 16: 21 in the Telephony channel Vodafone ho.mobile TIM Iliad Kena Mobile Fastweb PosteMobile
Vodafone tries to amaze with the new winback offers that is those rates proposed to all those who have intention to return to Vodafone coming from another operator. In this case, the most interesting proposals concern the so-called Digital Offers which provide not only a complete bundle of unlimited calls to everyone and internet traffic up to 100 GB but also the possibility of having them coming from a multitude of operators, with differences in this case of monthly price. In this case the version Vodafone Special 100 Digital Edition is offered at 9, 99 ?? per month but above all with the possibility of activating it also by whom comes from ho.mobile . And the price will be blocked by increases for at least 16 months.
Vodafone Special 100 Digital Edition: here’s how to activate it
Offers from Vodafone Digital can be activated only and exclusively through the official Vodafone page that allows you to choose the operator of origin from the drop-down menu and then discover the specific dedicated offer. In this case there are many Digital offers that can therefore be requested with the possibility of being recalled by the operator.
Vodafone Special 100 Digital Edition
Unlimited Minutes of calls to all national fixed and mobile numbers
Unlimited SMS to all national fixed and mobile numbers
100 GB of data traffic under the Vodafone 4G network with Hotspot included
COST: 9. 99 ?? per month (price fixed for 24 months)
Happy Black FREE
NOW TV Cinema FREE for 6 months
OPERATOR of ORIGIN: also ho.mobile
WHERE TO ACTIVATE IT: ONLINE HERE and in SHOPS
Activation COST: FREE
SIM: FREE home delivery (returned by
days)
HERE is the page where you can ACTIVATE it
Vodafone: here are the other offers
We remind you that there are also other Vodafone Special Edition offers that allow other operators to return in Vodafone. Here they are all:
VODAFONE SPECIAL 70 Digital Edition ( ILIAD)
Unlimited Minutes of calls to all national fixed and mobile numbers
Unlimited SMS to all national fixed and mobile numbers
70 GB of data traffic under the Vodafone 4G network with Hotspot included
COST: 7 ?? per month (9. 99 ?? for the guaranteed price for 24 months)
OPERATOR OF ORIGIN: ILIAD
WHERE TO ACTIVATE IT: ONLINE HERE
Activation COST: FREE
SIM: FREE home delivery (returned by days)
VODA FONE SPECIAL 70 Digital Edition (FASTWEB)
Unlimited Minutes of calls to all national fixed and mobile numbers
Unlimited SMS to all national fixed and mobile numbers
70 GB of data traffic under the Vodafone 4G network with Hotspot included
COST: 7 ?? per month (9. 99 ?? for the guaranteed price for 24 months)
OPERATOR OF ORIGIN: FASTWEB
WHERE TO ACTIVATE IT: ONLINE HERE
Activation COST: FREE
SIM: FREE home delivery (returned by days)
V ODAFONE SPECIAL 70 Digital Edition (POSTEMOBILE)
Unlimited Minutes of calls to all national fixed and mobile numbers
Unlimited SMS to all national fixed and mobile numbers
70 GB of data traffic under the Vodafone 4G network with Hotspot included
COST: 7 ?? per month (9. 99 ?? for the guaranteed price for 24 months)
OPERATOR OF ORIGIN: POST-MOBILE
WHERE TO ACTIVATE IT: ONLINE HERE
Activation COST: FREE
SIM: FREE home delivery (returned by days)
VODAFONE SPECIAL 70 Digital Edition (OTHER OPERATOR)
Unlimited minutes of calls to all national fixed and mobile numbers
Unlimited SMS to all national fixed and mobile numbers
70 GB of data traffic under Vodafone’s 4G network with Hotspot included
COST: 7 ?? per month (9. 99 ?? for the guaranteed price for 24 months)
OPERATOR OF ORIGIN: OTHER OPERATOR
WHERE TO ACTIVATE IT: ONLINE HERE
Activation COST: FREE
SIM: FREE home delivery (returned within 14 days)
VODAFONE SPECIAL 50 Digital Edition ( KENA MOBILE)
Unlimited Minutes of calls to all national fixed and mobile numbers
50 GB of data traffic under the Vodafone 4G network with Hotspot included
In December, the Federal Office of Justice (BfJ) published statistics for the first time on how often federal and state investigators made use of their 2017 authorization to make internet calls and monitor messenger communications when a variety of criminal offenses are suspected and conduct clandestine online searches. Accordingly, investigators use state trojans 2019 380 – times. However, the number of measures that are associated with great effort and deep encroachments on fundamental rights is apparently too high.
Wrongly interpreted The justice ministries and public prosecutors of the federal states initially insisted on their information, according to a report by WDR and NDR. In the end, however, some of them admitted that they had inadvertently provided false information. One has to “backtrack” clearly in terms of source telecommunications surveillance, said a spokesman for the Bremen public prosecutor’s office, according to the report.
The reported cases had been reviewed. It turned out that a department head “apparently misinterpreted the sheets. As a result, we have no implementation.” Public prosecutors in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and North Rhine-Westphalia also announced that they had actually not initiated such surveillance. The Hessian and Saxon justice departments expressed considerable doubts about the figures and wanted to initiate a revision. From the Saarland it was said that it was a “faulty statistical record”. The responsible persons there had initially reported 12 orders, of which 24 what made no sense.
Sebastian Fiedler from the Bund deutscher Kriminalbeamter criticized the sloppiness: “The judicial administrations should have noticed at first glance that the numbers couldn’t be right.” This complicated form of monitoring is seldom successful in practice. For the German police, the source TKÜ is “not an everyday tool”.
What do Rammstein tickets, Baukindergeld and SV Werder Bremen jerseys have in common? All three were so popular that the respective websites for booking tickets, applying for funding and ordering bibs collapsed within a very short time due to the influx of visitors.
In addition to the anger and disappointment of customers and citizens and the associated loss of reputation for the providers, such failures – caused by excessive traffic – are usually also associated with massive financial losses. In some business models and application scenarios, they would be downright fatal: streaming services such as Netflix and Spotify, IoT networks in smart cities and autonomous vehicles are essentially dependent on the systems on which they are based remain operational under all circumstances, regardless of the amount of data and the required performance.
Recently, Netflix published a post-mortem on a callback problem in the software architecture: In general, the callback came after 15 Milliseconds, but not always. Occasionally it took significantly longer, which led to problems when playing. The Android scheduler framework had a callback of 15 milliseconds requested – however, this only means that the callback is at least 15 May need milliseconds (not at most, but at least, as security expert Felix von Leitner explains in a blog post). The bug might have been avoidable through a different software design. The Reactive Manifesto was created 27 from the cooperation of the companies Netflix, Pivotal and Red Hat. Since then around 27. 000 Developers signed the manifesto, and almost all Reactive publications refer to it. It defines values, non-functional requirements and principles that stand for a reactive architecture (see Fig. 1).
Reactive architectures penetrate ever more deeply into software applications that describe the goals and intentions of this type of architecture this policy paper. However, at first glance it does not seem to provide any new information. It is worth taking a look at the historical development of the architectural styles in order to better understand the concept.
Values, requirements and principles of the Reactive Manifesto (Fig. 1)
(Image: msg Group)
According to the manifesto, the most important value is responsiveness, the fast and reliable response behavior of reactive applications. Elasticity and resilience (both non-functional requirements) should lead to this behavior: Elasticity stands for dynamic scaling depending on the load behavior, and resilience for recognizing failures and correcting them independently.
The load behavior can be different. Sometimes it is access by users from the Internet, sometimes it is the sending of MQTT messages from an IoT device. For example, the elasticity in a microservices architecture can be achieved by adding microservice instances when the load increases and exiting them again when the load decreases. Resilience can be achieved in a microservices architecture by providing multiple microservice instances redundantly so that in the event of a failure another instance can take over the tasks. The system automatically detects the error and restarts the microservice instance so that it can take over the tasks again. Asynchronous communication via messaging should meet these requirements.
In the run-up to the CES, Sony announced its own video streaming service called “Bravia Core” for televisions in its Bravia series, which will apparently deliver films from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment exclusively to the manufacturer’s TVs. According to Sony “all titles are offered in the best available format”, including Standard Definition, High Definition, 4K, 4K HDR or 4K in “IMAX Enhanced” format with enhanced contrast and DTS sound.
Surprising are the data rates specified by Sony, which are used by 30 Mbit / s to 80 Mbit / s range. The maximum would be around twice as high as that of the previous front-runner Apple TV + – and with 4K / HDR it would be up to five times as high as other video streaming services.
To access the ” Pure Stream “called connection with constant 30 MBit / s, users must have an Internet speed of at least 43 Mbit / s for access in the highest available quality with 80 MBit / s over an internet speed of at least 115 Mbit / s. You can stream on up to four eligible televisions per Bravia Core account at the same time.
Single purchase and subscription service Buyers of the upcoming TV models Z9J, A 90 J, A 80YES / YES84 J, X 95 J, X 90 J, X 92 J, X 93 J and X 94 J receive, depending on the model, 5 or so-called “film credits”, which they can exchange them for one film each. According to Sony, 300 titles will be available that extend up to 23. February 2026.
Transactions in Bravia Core should only run via in-app credits. However, it is not possible “to carry out monetary transactions within Bravia Core or to acquire additional credits”. In this respect, it seems that Bravia Core is more of a demo channel for TVs than a real streaming offer.
Sony also speaks of a “video” -on-demand subscription “, the buyer of the devices 12 or 24 months from the time you registered your Bravia Core account. Access to the video-on-demand content ends at the end of the subscription period. Sony has not yet commented on whether and how the subscription can be extended. All that is known is that the service on televisions with the Android TV operating system is implemented via an app that can be downloaded from the Google Play Store. (nij)
With GPT-3, OpenAI has shown that a single deep learning model can be trained in such a way that it can complete or even create texts in a realistic way – simply by using the system receives a gigantic mass of text as start data. It then became clear that the same approach also works when texts are replaced by pixels: an AI could be trained to complete half-finished images. GPT-3 mimics how humans use speech; Image GPT-3 predicts what we will see.
OpenAI has now merged these two ideas and two new models called DALL Developed E and CLIP, each combining language and images in a way that helps AI better understand what words mean and what they refer to. “We live in a visual world,” says Ilya Sutskever, Chief Scientist at OpenAI. “In the long run you will have models that understand both text and images. AI will be able to understand language better, because technology will realize what words and sentences mean.”
GPT-3 doesn’t know what it’s doing – still With all the charm that GPT-3 has, what at comes out of the system, still listening to it rather unrealistic, as if it doesn’t know what it’s actually talking about. No wonder: it doesn’t either. By combining text with images, researchers at OpenAI and elsewhere are trying to give language models a better understanding of the everyday concepts people use to make sense of things.
DALL · E and CLIP approach the problem from different directions. At first glance, CLIP (short for “Contrastive Language-Image-Pre-training”) is just another image recognition system.
However, there is more to it here: The system has learned To recognize images not from appropriately named (tagged) examples from a data set curated by humans (as most existing models do), but from images and their subtitles from the Internet. It learns from a description what can be seen in a picture and not on the basis of a single term such as “cat” or “banana”.
Easier to generalize CLIP is trained by providing the correct description for a randomly selected selection from 32. 768 images is intended to predict. To achieve this, CLIP learns a wide variety of objects with the associated terms and words that describe them. It can then identify objects whose images are not part of the training set.
(Image: OpenAI)
Most image recognition systems are trained in such a way that they can identify certain types of objects – such as faces from surveillance videos or buildings in satellite images. Like GPT-3, CLIP can now generalize across tasks, without any additional training.
In addition, it is less likely than with other modern image recognition models that the system can be misled by contradicting images . Images that were only slightly changed would typically have confused algorithms, even if a person might not have noticed a difference.
Surreal results DALL · E (probably a play on words from the film title “WALL · E” and Dali), however, does not recognize any pictures, it paints them. The model is a reduced version of GPT-3 and was also trained with text-image pairs obtained from the Internet. With a short description in natural language – such as “picture of a water pig sitting in the field at sunrise” or “cross-sectional view of a walnut” – DALL · E generates a lot of photos that should correspond to this: dozens of water pigs in all sizes and shapes an orange or yellow background – and rows of walnuts (though not all of them in cross section).
The results are fascinating, but still a lucky bag. The description “Fogged glass window with the image of a blue strawberry” produces many accurate results, but also some with blue windows and red strawberries. Others do not contain anything that reminds of a window or a strawberry. In the results recently published by OpenAI, however, the raisins were not picked out manually, but were hierarchized by CLIP.
The model selected 32 DALL · E pictures for each of the descriptions that it believed to match the title. “Text-to-image is a challenge to research that has been around for a long time,” says Mark Riedl, who works on natural language processing (NLP) computational creativity at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta. “But this is a pretty impressive set of examples.”
Radish in tutu When the researchers wanted to test DALL · E’s ability to grasp new concepts, they gave the system descriptions of objects it had probably never seen before, like “an avocado armchair “and” an illustration of a baby radish in a ballet costume walking a dog “. In both cases, the AI generated images that combined these concepts in a plausible way.
In particular, the armchairs all look like avocado seats. “What surprised me most is that the model can take two independent concepts and combine them in a way that is ultimately functional in some way,” says Aditya Ramesh, who co-developed DALL · E. This is probably due to the fact that half an avocado is reminiscent of an armchair with a high backrest, with the core as a pillow. For other descriptions, such as “snail made out of a harp”, the results are less good – with images that combine snail and harp in a strange way. DALL E is the type of system NLP expert Riedl envisioned submitting it to the Lovelace 2.0 test – a thought experiment that he 2014 has developed.
(Image: OpenAI)
The test is intended to replace the Turing test as a benchmark for measuring the capabilities of an AI. He assumes that intelligence is also determined by the ability to bring concepts together in a creative way. Riedl believes that a better intelligence test is to ask a computer to draw a picture of a man holding a penguin and not to ask whether a chatbot – as in the Turing test – manages to appear human. Because the former is more open-ended and cheating is much more difficult. “The real test is to find out to what extent AI can be pushed out of the comfort zone,” says Riedl.
Recalls or create? “The ability of the model to generate synthetic images from rather strange concepts seems very exciting to me,” says Ani Kembhavi from the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence (AI2 ), who also developed a system that develops images from texts. “The results seem to obey the desired semantics, which I find pretty impressive.” Jaemin Cho, a colleague of Kembhavi, is also impressed: “Existing text-to-image generators have not shown this level of control in creating multiple objects or in the ability to use spatial logic like DALL · E,” he says.
But DALL · E also reaches its limits: If you add too many objects to a description, you lose track of what has to be drawn. And if you rephrase a description with words that actually mean the same thing, you sometimes get different results. There is also evidence that DALL · E is more likely to imitate images found online and not generate new ones. “I am a little mistrustful of the radish example, as stylistically it looks like that Art springs from the net, “says Riedl. He notes that a quick search uncovered some cartoons that show such anthropomorphic radishes.” GPT-3, on which DALL · E is based, is notorious for its memory performance. ” Nonetheless, most AI researchers agree that they are well on the way to making systems smarter using the CLIP and DALL · E approach by basing language processing on visual understanding “The future will consist of such systems”, says OpenAI chief researcher Sutskever. “And both of these models are a step towards such a system.”
Thanks to the robust demand for memory chips for servers and computers in the corona pandemic, Samsung expects a significant increase in operating profit also for the last quarter 2020. The profit from the core businesses is expected to rise by percent to 9 trillion won (about 6.7 billion euros) in the fourth quarter, the South Korean company said Friday with.
Further solid growth expected That would be a Decline of 27 percent compared to the previous quarter, when especially urgent orders from the Chinese telecommunications supplier Huawei for chip deliveries had brought the South Koreans an increase. Huawei is subject to US sanctions.
In terms of sales, Samsung expects an increase of 1.9 percent for the past quarter 61 Trillion Won. As usual, the group will only present more precise business figures at a later date. Samsung is the market leader in memory chips, smartphones and televisions.
Last year, Samsung mainly benefited from the increase in Internet traffic as a result of the pandemic. As a result, the demand for memory chips for servers and PCs has increased significantly since the beginning of the crisis, as more people work from home. The company makes the most money by far from memory chips. Looking ahead to this year, Samsung had forecast solid growth in “mobile demand”, which is likely to further boost chip demand in particular.
It is the new normal for millions of employees: working from home. Before the start of the corona pandemic, working from home was the exception, now working in the living room or at the kitchen table has become part of everyday life for many. But is there more and should there be guidelines for companies instead of appeals from politics in order to curb the spread of the virus? In view of the extension of the lockdown until the end of January, the debate has picked up speed again.
New calls for a right to work from home After their deliberations on Tuesday, the federal and state governments “urgently asked” employers to create generous home office opportunities. But that is not enough to get the infection numbers under control, criticized the Green politician Beate Müller-Gemmeke: “We need a right to work from home and a home office requirement that is aimed at employers.”
The President of the Bitkom digital association, Achim Berg, told the German Press Agency: “For the entire duration of the pandemic, it is an imperative to work exclusively in the home office, if the professional activity allows it. ” All employers are called upon to create generous regulations in order to meet their responsibilities in this historical situation. “This applies in particular to public employers who have to set a good example.”
Currently, every fourth employee works exclusively in the home office, as a representative survey carried out on behalf of Bitkom at the beginning of December showed. That corresponds to 10, 5 million working people. This applies at least partially to further 20 percent. Before the start of the pandemic, only 3 percent of the working population had worked exclusively in the home office, another 15 percent partially. The most frequently mentioned disadvantage: The lack of personal exchange with colleagues.
Against new guidelines in the crisis The President of the German Institute for Economic Research, Marcel Fratzscher, told the dpa that the federal government would do more damage than help with legal requirements for home office. “Almost 60 percent of employees in Germany cannot work from home, often because their work involves serving other people. Companies to fight already now to survive this pandemic. ” The government should give companies and employees more support during the crisis.
Trade unions demand clear rules. “Nobody wants to move work on the assembly line at Daimler or care for the elderly to the home office,” said DGB chairman Reiner Hoffmann. “But where mobile working is possible, people should be given the right to more time autonomy.” This includes, for example, the right to be unavailable or regular timekeeping. “In Germany, more than a billion hours of overtime are worked annually that are not paid by employers. This is nothing more than wage theft. That must not be made worse by working more from home,” Hoffmann told the dpa.
In addition: “Employees often want mobile working, but the employer does not fulfill this wish,” as Verdi boss Frank Werneke told the dpa. This is exactly where Labor Minister Hubertus Heil (SPD) wants to start. A draft law provides that employees should be given the right to discuss a desire for regular mobile work with their employer. An originally envisaged right to work from home is no longer planned – the Union is against it.
From emergency measures to regular operations “The home office is currently more of an emergency measure,” said Oliver Stettes from the Institute of German Economy. “The discussion about regulations should relate to the home office in regular operation. This also includes questions of accessibility and technical equipment.” A legal claim is the wrong approach. “Working from home can only be productive if both sides consider it sensible, employee and employer.”
The debate is also about the side effects of working from home. For many families this means a balancing act between job and childcare – especially when schools and daycare centers are closed. Many people wanted more mobile work, said Werneke. However, many employees did not want it either, because they preferred a clear separation between work and private life, because conflicts could also arise. That is why the works councils and staff councils have to have a strong right to co-determination when working on the move.
The employers set a different focus – they want fundamental adjustments to the Working Hours Act. “Get rid of this time clock mentality and finally move forward towards the future,” said employer president Rainer Dulger. Today’s working world has very different requirements than ten years ago. “Only a company that is adaptable can react quickly to external shocks such as the coronavirus. Anyone caught in a rigid framework will quickly run into problems. The companies have acted quickly and pragmatically: They have more flexible working hours in systemically important industries, virtual works council work , and enables an unbureaucratic implementation of home office. ”
Tax relief enforced Changes to the Working Hours Act are in the coalition a “hot iron”. The Bundestag had last decided for the years 2020 and 2021 a tax home office flat rate of 5 euros per day and a maximum of 600 euros per year. The flat rate will be offset against the flat rate for advertising expenses. But is that enough, will it offset higher costs for heating or electricity, for example, for better internet connections?
Bitkom boss Berg advocated more tax relief. “Employees who work at least one day a week in the home office or mobile and thus also protect the environment should be able to deduct all costs that arise from taxation.” In order to simplify the tax processing, expenses up to the amount of 1000 Euro per year should be taken into account as a lump sum and without individual proof. Because only in the rarest of cases are employees working from home allowed to pay the flat-rate income allowance of 600 euros annually with the tax bonus Euro, which every taxpayer is entitled to.
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The encrypting messenger signal is getting a lot of new users. The reason is that WhatsApp forces its users to approve the sharing of additional data with Facebook. Perhaps a tweet from Tesla founder Elon Musk also contributed to the growth at Signal. The inflow even overloaded Signal’s registration process for a short time.
In WhatsApp’s updated privacy policy, it says under Others: “As part of the Facebook company, WhatsApp receives information from other Facebook companies and also shares information with other Facebook companies”. If you want to continue using WhatsApp, you have to agree to the new terms of use – by February 8th at the latest. So far, WhatsApp users had the right to restrict the transfer of data.
Asked WhatsApp alternatives Many people did that Not well received by users, including Elon Musk. Yesterday he wrote briefly “Use Signal” on Twitter. That was shared more than 20. 000 times within half a day and has almost 200. 000 Get likes.
Both together apparently lead to a rush on WhatsApp alternatives like Signal. Shortly after the Musks tweet, Signals’s SMS gateway was unable to send the verification codes that are required for new registrations. However, this was remedied at short notice in cooperation with various Internet services, as Signal itself reports on Twitter.
Signal not only enables end-to-end encrypted text messages, but also secure voice and video calls . Since December, Signal has also supported encrypted video group calls, i.e. those with several people at the same time. Initially up to five participants can make fully encrypted video calls, soon there will be more.
Digital traffic management should mean that motorists in Lower Saxony are less likely to be stuck in traffic jams in the future. For this purpose, the state relies on the NUNAV navigation technology, which networks and evaluates countless data from the streets in real time. Transport Minister Bernd Althusmann said on Thursday in Hanover in Hanover.
Identify accident black spots faster ) “We cannot prevent every traffic jam, but we can make traffic much more efficient,” said the CDU politician when introducing the system. All that is needed to use NUNAV is a device with internet access. The system is available free of charge as a navigation app for Android and iOS devices. But the state traffic authority also uses the system to, among other things, recognize accident black spots faster than before.
NUNAV was developed by Graphmasters from Hanover . The company’s country 180. is responsible for the development and use of the digital traffic situation picture in real time, which the traffic authority is now relying on euros paid.
Minister Althusmann emphasized that digital traffic management is also necessary in view of increasingly digital vehicles. That saves time, protects the climate and increases security. Other federal states have already contacted us and shown interest in the system.
Immense data collection as a basis Sebastian Heise, co-founder of Graphmasters, explained that the data was based on a large number of sensors on the streets – for example cameras, radar stations or contact loops in the ground – but also on the location data from cell phones. This makes it possible to see how the driving speeds change and how busy the road sections are.
According to Heise, the measurements in the road network are updated 1.5 million times per minute. “We have thus compiled an immense collection of data with which we can actually respond to the traffic with great precision,” he said. The President of the State Transport Authority, Eric Oehlmann, announced that the real-time picture of the situation for Lower Saxony will probably be dated 14. January will be freely available to everyone on the Internet at vmz-niedersachsen.de.
For the traffic authority, the digital system means one “A quantum leap,” said Oehlmann. “Up to now we were dependent on different actors for our traffic parameters.” That led to delays. Decisions about speed limits, road closures or diversions are now possible more quickly. And tin signs could be a thing of the past at some point.
The state traffic authority is currently realigning itself because since the beginning of the year it is no longer the states, but only the federal government for planning, construction and administration the highways is responsible. However, the state authority is still responsible for federal and state roads and is setting itself a new focus – in addition to topics such as e-mobility and cycling – traffic management.
Have you ever wondered how Amazon gets your data into the AWS cloud?
(Image: monticello / Shutterstock.com)
So that Amazon AWS customers do not have to upload their confidential data via insecure internet connections, the cloud provider provides a special service: Upon request, a huge one with hard drives can be parked (100 Petabyte) loaded truck in front of the company’s own data center and copies the data to the data carrier via fiber optic cable.
An armed security guard is included so that nothing happens to the data on the way to the AWS cloud server. The “modular data center on wheels” is called “Snowmobile” and can be booked for an unknown price for AWS customers.
This information comes from an interview with a security officer from Amazon AWS on the website Logicmag.io.
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(Pocket-lint) – Now more than ever, if your child needs to do school work at home, or watch TV on a screen that doesn’t take up the main family TV, you might be considering whether to buy them a laptop pretty soon.
Best tablet for kids: Hardy devices for young people to enjoy
For most kids (and parents) a laptop makes a lot of sense in this context. Letting them work or play whether they’re at the kitchen table or at school means that they’re able to use their computer to the full. So, we’ve taken a look at the laptops currently on the market to whittle them down to a list of the best ones for you to consider for your child.
Our priorities for this list are durability, affordability and performance — so you won’t find any high-end Macbooks or ultrabooks here. These aren’t intended as powerhouses, but rather as useful machines for their young users.
Our guide to the best kids’ laptops to buy today
HP
HP Stream 11
View offer on HP Store (sponsored link)
Our top Windows 10 laptop for kids and also one of the best cheap laptops full stop. What would be a little slow for an adult using a laptop all day could be just about perfect for a kid learning the ropes. A
child is unlikely to be using their laptop for more than a couple of hours at a time (unless you’re letting them!). HP’s Stream 11 is, therefore, a great bet for a kid that needs a small laptop to get started with. You don’t get much storage or much power, but it’s extremely affordable.
Lenovo
Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 3
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This convertible Chromebook is one of the best laptops in its class and the device will adapt to pretty much every scenario.
It’s not a powerhouse of course, with Intel Celeron, 64GB of storage and 4GB of memory but it really does offer a lot for the price point.
Pocket-lint
Acer Chromebook 314
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Acer’s 14-inch Chromebook has a solid list of specs for the outlay, including the Intel Celeron N4000, 4GB RAM, 32GB of storage (like other Chromebooks you’ll need to take advantage of cloud storage). There are also two USB-C ports.
You should be able to get a full day of battery life from it, while the HD display works well in all lighting conditions.
Asus
Asus Chromebook C223
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Completing a hat-trick for Asus, it’s another Chromebook, but this time an extremely dinky one. If your kid wants a bit of a smaller machine, this could be the answer. Despite its 11.6-inch size, it’s still got a decent keyboard squeezed in, and being small makes it super portable.
It’s not got much power under the hood, but it’s also almost jaw-droppingly inexpensive, and in the computing world you do generally have to pay for performance.
With Chrome’s system prioritising cloud storage, if you’ve got a decent internet connection to work with, your kid should be able to do most things they’ll need to on this tiny little number.
Pocket-lint
Surface Go 2
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The 10.5-inch Surface Go 2 is a super-portable machine designed for gettings bits and pieces done when on the go – emailing, taking notes in a class, watching a bit of Netflix on the way home – rather than trying to be an all-powerful Surface product.
While the basic cost matches the 2-in-1’s small-scale you need to add a Type Cover and Surface Pen that cost extra.
Microsoft Surface Go 2 review: A portable little Windows package
Writing by Max Freeman-Mills. Editing by Dan Grabham.
Sony is launching a high-bitrate video streaming service alongside its 2021 Bravia TVs. It’s called Sony Bravia CORE (the ‘CORE’ stands for ‘Centre of Real Entertainment’) and it exists to offer the latest box office films to Sony 2021 TV owners at bitrates beyond those of many 4K Blu-ray discs.
CORE – a collaboration with Sony Pictures Entertainment – will offer hundreds of classic titles and brand-spanking new box office release, as well as the largest IMAX Enhanced catalogue available on any current service.
The platform is the first in the industry to leverage Pure Stream technology, which Sony claims delivers near-lossless content at an equivalent of up to 80Mbps. That’s far in excess of the 25-30Mbps that other industry players, such as Netflix, operate at with their premium 4K content – meaning undoubtedly high quality pictures but, yes, big internet demand. In fact, to access the highest quality, you’ll need a minimum internet speed of 115Mbps.
This is something of a soft launch, however, as Bravia CORE will only be available to owners of the just-launched 2021 Sony Bravia XR TVs, specifically the Z9J, A90J, A80J, X95J and X90J.
Owners of the first two TV models listed (Z9J and A90J) will get access to the service for 24 months and receive 10 credits to exchange for fresh-from-the-cinema movies that can otherwise be streamed on a pay-as-you-go basis. Buyers of the other three XR models (80J, X95J and X90J) get five credits and only 12 months to stream any purchased movies as many times as they like.
It seems Bravia CORE is just a toe in the water for Sony for now. The company currently has no plans to extend the service beyond the two-year timeframe. That said, should it prove successful, making it a more permanent and perhaps more widely accessible service will surely be on the agenda.
Until then, it’s another good reason to consider a Sony TV for 2021. We look forward to putting both Sony’s TV hardware and this service through their paces later in the year.
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Just about any account you own on the internet is prone to being hacked. After numerous widespread breaches through the past few years, tech companies have been working together to develop a standard that would make passwords a thing of the past, replacing them with more secure methods like biometric or PIN-based logins that do not require transferring data over the internet.
But while those standards are still being adopted, the next best way to secure your accounts is two-factor authentication, or 2FA. This a process that gives web services secondary access to the account owner (you) in order to verify a login attempt. Typically, this involves a phone number and / or email address. This is how it works: when you log in to a service, you use your mobile phone to verify your identity by either clicking on a texted / emailed link or typing in a number sent by an authenticator app.
What are authenticator apps?
Authenticator apps are considered more secure than texting. They also offer flexibility when you are traveling to a place without cellular service. Popular options include Authy, Google Authenticator, Microsoft Authenticator, or Hennge OTP (iOS only). These apps mostly follow the same procedure when adding a new account: you scan a QR code associated with your account, and it is saved in the app. The next time you log in to your service or app, it will ask for a numerical code; just open up the authenticator app to find the randomly generated code required to get past security.
While 2FA — via text, email, or an authenticator app — does not completely cloak you from potential hackers, it is an important step in preventing your account from being accessed by unauthorized users. Here’s how to enable 2FA on your accounts across the web.
Apple
Two-factor authentication is currently offered to Apple users on iOS 9 and later or macOS X El Capitan and later.
iOS
The steps are slightly different depending on how updated your iOS software is. For those using iOS 10.3 or later, you can enable 2FA on your Apple ID by going to Settings > [Your Name] > Password & Security. Turn on 2FA to receive a text message with a code each time you log in.
For those using iOS 10.2 or earlier, the settings are under iCloud > Apple ID > Password & Security.
macOS
Again, steps are slightly different depending on your version of macOS. If you’re using Catalina, click the Apple icon on the upper-left corner of your screen, then click System Preferences > Apple ID. Click on Password & Security under your name, and then select “Turn On Two-Factor Authentication.”
For Mojave and earlier, after you click the Apple icon, click System Preferences > iCloud > Account Details. (You can shorten this step a bit by typing in “iCloud” using Spotlight.) Click on Security, and you’ll see the option to turn 2FA on.
The remainder of the steps, from either iOS or Mac, are the same. You can opt for Apple to send you a six-digit verification code by text message or a phone call. You can also set up a physical security key here.
Instagram
Instagram added 2FA to its mobile app in 2017, but now you can also activate it through the web.
To activate 2FA on your mobile app, head over to your profile and click the hamburger menu on the upper-right corner. Look for “Settings” > “Security,” where you’ll find a menu item for Two-Factor Authentication.
Here, you can choose between text message-based verification or a code sent to your authentication app.
GIF by Amelia Krales / The Verge
To turn on 2FA using the web, log in and head to your profile. Next to your profile name and the Edit Profile button, there is a gear icon. Clicking this will pop open a settings menu, where you can find the same Privacy and Security section as on the app. From here, you can turn on 2FA and, just as in the app, choose your method for verification.
Clicking on the gear icon will pop open a settings menu.
Facebook
The way to access Facebook’s 2FA settings is a bit different on the app and the web (and Facebook tends to update both layouts often).
You can access your privacy settings on the mobile app on both iOS and Android by clicking the hamburger icon on the upper-right corner and scrolling down to the bottom to find the “Settings & Privacy” menu. Tap “Settings” > “Security and Login” and scroll down to “Use two-factor authentication.”
Like Instagram (they are part of the same company, after all), you can opt for a text message or an authentication app.
On the web, click the down arrow in the upper-right corner, and select “Settings & Privacy” > “Privacy Shortcuts.” Look for the “Account Security” heading and click on “Use two-factor authentication.”
Facebook lets you authenticate via text message or authentication app.
Additionally, for apps that don’t support 2FA when logging in with a Facebook account (such as Xbox and Spotify), you can generate a unique password specifically associated with that account. From the original down arrow, select “Settings & Privacy” > “Settings” and then, from the menu on the left, “Security & Login” > “App passwords” (under the “Two-Factor Authorization” subhead). After resubmitting your Facebook password, you’ll be able to name the app, click generate, and save that password for the next time you have to log in.
Twitter
On the Twitter mobile app, tap the three-line “hamburger” icon at the top left of the screen and find the “Settings and privacy” selection. Go to “Account” > “Security.” Click on “Two-factor authentication” and follow the directions.
On the web, click on “More” in the left-hand menu and find “Settings and privacy.” Click on “Security and account access” (or you can just follow this link). Select “Security” > “Two-factor authorization.”
Once you’re all set up, Twitter will either ask for verification through an authentication app, or you will text a code number to your phone number when you want to log in. Twitter has also added security key support.
As with other services mentioned above, you can generate a backup code to use when you’re traveling and will be without internet or cell service. You may also see an option to create a temporary app password that you can use to log in from other devices. This can be used to log in to third-party apps if you have them linked to your Twitter account. Note that the temporary password expires one hour after being generated.
Amazon
Go to the Amazon homepage and log in. Hover over “Accounts & Lists” and click on “Account.” A box labeled “Login & security” will be at the top of the page; click on that and then click the Edit button on “Two-Step Verification (2SV) Settings.” (You may be asked to reenter your password first.) You can also navigate directly to that page by following this link.
Click Get Started, and Amazon will walk you through the process of registering your phone number, or you can opt to use your preferred authenticator app by syncing it through a QR code.
You can activate 2FA on both the Android and iOS Amazon app by tapping the hamburger menu on the left side and finding “Your Account” > “Login & security.” The same “Two-Step Verification (2SV) Settings” selection should be available for you to edit and toggle on 2FA.
Once your phone number or authenticator app has been verified, you can select trusted devices to bypass 2FA or generate a code to log in via a mobile app.
Google
The easiest way to turn 2FA on across your Google accounts (i.e., Gmail, YouTube, or Google Maps) is by heading over to the main 2FA landing page and clicking “Get Started.” You’ll be asked to log in then select your mobile device from a list. (If you have an iPhone, you may have to download a separate app.) Google will try to send a message to that phone; if it succeeds, you will be asked to enter a phone number; you can then choose whether you want to receive verification codes by text message or phone call. Again, Google will try out your chosen method.
After that, Google will first send prompts that allow you to simply click “Yes” or “No” when a login attempt occurs. If that doesn’t work, it will send the text message or phone call.
You can also generate backup codes for offline access. Google generates 10 at a time and they’re designed to be single-use, so once you’ve successfully used one, cross it out (assuming you’ve printed them out) as it will no longer work.
Snapchat
From the app’s main camera screen, tap your profile icon and find the gear icon to access your settings. Select “Two-Factor Authentication” and choose whether to receive a text message verification or hook it up to your authenticator app.
Once 2FA has been enabled on your Snapchat account, you can add trusted devices or request a recovery code for when you’re planning to be somewhere without cellular service. Snapchat does not seem to currently support security key logins.
Slack
To enable 2FA, you’ll first need to find the Account Settings page. There are two ways to access this:
Click on your username on the upper-right corner of the Slack app to open a drop-down menu and select “View profile.” Your account information will now display on the right side of the chat window. Under your avatar and next to the “Edit Profile” button, click the three-dotted icons for additional actions, and find “Account settings.” You can also head straight to my.slack.com/account/settings
You should immediately see the selection for “Two-Factor Authentication.”
If you do not see the option for 2FA, check whether your Slack account is for work. Some employers may use single sign-on services that bypass the need for 2FA, which eliminates this from Slack’s Account Settings page.
Like most other apps, Slack lets you use either SMS or an authentication app.
If this is a personal Slack, however, then click “Expand” on “Two-Factor Authentication” to verify your information by an SMS or authenticator app. If you have multiple email addresses, you may need to select a default one before you can decide on your preferred 2FA method.
Microsoft
Log in to your Microsoft account and find the “Security settings” menu (there are several ways to get there; click on the link for the easiest). Look for the “Two-step verification” section and click on the setup link. You’ll be walked through the steps needed to use either the Microsoft Authenticator app or use a different authentication app. You’ll also be able to create passwords for apps that don’t accept 2FA.
Dropbox
From your Dropbox homepage on the web, click your profile avatar and find Settings; then go to the Security tab. Find Two-Step Verification; it will tell you the status of your 2FA. Toggle to turn the feature on and choose to receive 2FA through a text or your authenticator app.
WhatsApp
Open up WhatsApp, and find the Settings menu under the upper-right hamburger icon. Look under “Account” > “Two-step verification” > “Enable.” The app will ask you to enter a six-digit PIN to use as verification and optionally add an email address in case you forget your PIN.
Having an associated email with your WhatsApp account is important since the service won’t let you reverify yourself if you’ve used WhatsApp within the last seven days and have forgotten your PIN. So if you can’t wait a week to reverify for whatever reason, it’s helpful to have entered an email address so you can log yourself in or disable 2FA. In the same vein: be cautious of emails encouraging you to turn off 2FA if you didn’t request it yourself.
PayPal
On the main Summary page, click the gear icon and find the Security tab. Look for the section called “2-step verification” and click on the Set Up link. You’ll get a choice to have a code texted to you or use an authenticator app. (PayPal also offers to find you an authenticator app if you want one.)
If you lose your phone, change numbers, or decide to revoke authorization rights, come back to this menu to make adjustments.
Note that the interface is different if you use PayPal as a business account. From the main Summary page, click the gear icon to be taken to the Settings page. Under Login and Security, look for the Security Key option to add your phone number or a security key as your 2FA method.
Nest
Smart home products like Nest are not exempt from getting hacked — in fact, Nest now strongly encourages its users to enroll in 2FA. For Nest, make sure your app is up to date on all of your devices. Then, on the home screen, go to Settings > Account > Manage account > Account security, and select two-step verification. Toggle the switch to on. A series of prompts will ask for your password, phone number, and the verification code that will be sent to your phone.
Keep in mind that all of your devices will be automatically signed out, so you’ll have to sign in again using the two-step verification.
If all your family members don’t have their own logins and have been using yours, it’s a good idea to set them up with separate logins using Family Accounts. Otherwise, when they try to log on using two-step verification, the necessary code will be sent to your phone, not theirs.
Ring
Like with Nest, make sure your Ring app is up to date. Swipe over from the left, then go to “Account” > “Two-Factor Authentication” (you’ll find it under “Enhanced Security”). Tap the big “Turn on two-factor” button. A series of prompts will ask for your password, phone number, and the verification code that will be sent to your phone.
From then on, you’ll need both your password and an SMS verification code whenever you want to log in to Ring from a new device.
Signal
Rather than traditional 2FA, Signal uses a PIN. Click your profile icon on the upper-left side and find “Privacy.” Look for “Registration Lock” to require your PIN (which you were asked for when you originally registered) to be entered each time you re-register your phone number. Signal requires your PIN to be at least four digits long, and up to a maximum of 20 digits.
When you first enable Registration Lock, Signal will ask you to type in your PIN in the first six and 12 hours after being enabled. The company says this is designed to help you to remember it through random repetition. So after the first day, it will ask you to enter it in the next day, then in three days, and finally one last time after a full week.
If you happen to forget your PIN and can’t log in to Signal, you will have to wait seven days of inactivity for your registration lock to expire, after which you can log in to your app again to set up a new PIN. Those who are already actively using Signal won’t have to worry about the Registration Lock resetting, as that clock only starts when the app isn’t open.
Did we miss your favorite apps?
For services not listed on this guide, check out TwoFactorAuth.org to find the app or service in question. This helpful site links to every official guide for companies that support 2FA, and gives you the option to message the company on Twitter, Facebook, or email to add 2FA if it currently does not have it.
On a final note: while adding 2FA is great for an extra layer of security on all your accounts, remember that you should be changing and updating your passwords regularly even with 2FA enabled, just to stay in tip-top shape. If that’s not your style, you can also use a password manager to automatically take care of it for you.
Update January 7th, 2021: This article was originally published on June 19th, 2017, and has been checked and updated several times so that the instructions for adding 2FA to these apps remain current. This is the latest update.
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