TECHNOLOGY

Police in Florida have been criticised for allegedly entering a funeral home in a futile bid to unlock a dead man’s smartphone. Linus Phillip, 30, was killed while trying to escape from police at a petrol station in Largo on 23 March. After his body was released to the Sylvan Abbey Funeral Home, his family say, two police officers tried ...

Spotify, the UK’s biggest music streaming service, has started testing a way of filtering out songs which have explicit lyrics. The feature has been introduced on its iPhone and iPad apps – six years after being requested on its online forums. But some users have told BBC Radio 5 live: that the feature does not have enough controls. Rivals such ...

European regulators will investigate Apple’s planned purchase of Shazam, the music recognition app that was developed in the UK. The European Commission said Apple could encourage Shazam users to use its music streaming service rather than its competitors’ if the deal goes ahead. Apple Music has about half as many paid subscribers as Spotify, the world’s biggest streaming platform. Shazam ...

After declining for years to disclose how many people pay for Amazon Prime, Amazon (AMZN) CEO Jeff Bezos revealed on Wednesday in his annual letter to shareholders that over 100 million people globally have joined Amazon’s membership club. “13 years post-launch, we have exceeded 100 million paid Prime members globally,” Bezos wrote. “In 2017 Amazon shipped more than five billion ...

Sometimes you may receive a message saying that the Disk is write-protected when dealing with external storage devices. This may mean the registry entry is corrupt, your system administrator has placed limitations or the device itself is corrupt. It may also mean the storage device is actually write-protected. This post will show you how to remove the remove the Write Protection ...

The Government of President Nana Akufo-Addo is reviewing a number of regulations governing the Information Communication Technology (ICT) sector in order to free up the innovative talent and capabilities of already existing and start-up companies. The review would, among other objectives, also aim to make it easier to enter and invest in the sector in order to support the government’s ...

The UK’s cyber-defence watchdog has confirmed it has blacklisted one of China’s leading state-owned companies. The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has written to UK telecoms providers warning them that the use of ZTE’s equipment and services could pose a national security risk. The move coincides with a US government ban preventing American businesses from selling components to the Shenzhen-based ...

State-sponsored Russian hackers are actively seeking to hijack essential internet hardware, US and UK intelligence agencies say. The UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), the FBI and the US Department of Homeland Security issued a joint alert warning of a global campaign. The alert details methods used to compromise the networking equipment used to move traffic across the net. This ...

Facebook has banned the American white nationalist who popularised the term “alternative right”. Richard Spencer’s page on the social network was removed on Friday along with two other pages he controlled: that of his National Policy Institute think tank, and one promoting his AltRight.com news analysis website. Facebook has not commented, but the BBC understands the blocks are permanent. Mr ...

The latest warning of Russian intrusions is another sign that cyber-space is becoming one of the focal points for growing tension between Russia and the West. But so far, much of the talk about cyber-war remains hypothetical rather than real. It is true that Britain’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) is on high alert for the possibility of some kind ...