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Virtual Reality Helps Japanese Tourists See The World During COVID-19 Pandemic

Charlotte Henry ·

Much international travel is hugely restricted due to the COVID-19 pandemic. That’s not stopping some keen Japanese travellers though, Reuters reports. They are seeing the world with the help of virtual reality.

Inoue, 56, and his wife “flew” as clients of Tokyo entertainment company First Airlines, which is tapping into a growing virtual reality travel market for Japanese holidaymakers grounded by coronavirus restrictions. “I often go overseas on business, but I haven’t been to Italy,” he told Reuters. “My impression was rather good because I got a sense of actually seeing things there.” Grounded travelers sit in first or business class seats in a mock airline cabin where they are served in-flight meals and drinks, with flat panel screens displaying aircraft exterior views including passing clouds. Virtual reality goggles provide immersive tours at destinations including – as well as Italy’s cities of culture – Paris, New York, Rome and Hawaii.

APP SALE: Sci-Fi Game ‘Implosion’ is Free, Down From $10
Cool Stuff Found

APP SALE: Sci-Fi Game ‘Implosion’ is Free, Down From $10

Andrew Orr ·

A sci-fi game called Implosion just went on sale for free, down from its usual price of US$9.99. Twenty years after the fall of Earth, the remnants of the Human race are once again faced with extinction. The time has come to justify our existence. A mysterious life form known as the XADA squares off against humanity’s last weapon – the War-Mech series III battle suit. Features: Stunning console-quality graphics, first-class voice acting and Hollywood-grade audio production. Full orchestral scores masterfully mixed by Grammy Award winner and “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy engineer, John Kurlander.

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‘Threema’ Now Supports End-to-End Encrypted Video Calls

Andrew Orr ·

Messaging app Threema announced on Tuesday that it now supports end-to-end encrypted video calls.

In order to ensure full end-to-end encryption of all metadata (including real-time metadata, such as camera orientation), our team had to make corrections to the widely used base technology “WebRTC.” This security improvement will be incorporated into the WebRTC project, meaning that countless other communication services benefit from our patch in the future.

The second part to that is great, about sharing it back to the project. You can find Threema on the App Store here.

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pCloud Update Lets Users Decide Where Files are Stored

Andrew Orr ·

pCloud is an encrypted cloud storage service, and a recent update gave users the ability to decide in which server their files are stored.

All pCloud users will be able to choose the server location where their files are stored. This will give users greater control over the security of their files. Once the choice of where to store the data is made during registration – in the US or Europe – it is practically impossible to transfer them without the user’s knowledge or permission. Currently, the option to select the server location is available only to newly registered users.

TMO Deals

Newport Plus Adjustable Water Resistance Rower: $1,099

Bryan Chaffin ·

We have a deal on the Newport Plus Adjustable Resistance Rower. There’s no tech connection for this device, but it’s a cool rower that uses the properties of fluid to offer natural-feeling resistance to your rowing. It also has a maximum weight limit of 300 lbs. It’s priced at US$1,099 through our deal.

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TikTok Facing New Data Probe in France

Charlotte Henry ·

France’s privacy watchdog opened a probe into TikTok on Tuesday, Bloomberg News reported. The Chinese-owned video-sharing app is facing ongoing scrutiny of its privacy policies in Europe, alongside takeover talk in the U.S.

The French authority, CNIL, is looking at a number of issues, including how the company communicates with users and the protection of children, a spokesman said Tuesday. The questions are part of an investigation into TikTok’s plan to set up a European Union headquarters for data purposes. The EU’s data protection chiefs in June pledged to coordinate potential investigations into the Chinese company, establishing a taskforce to get a better understanding of “TikTok’s processing and practices across the EU.” The EU taskforce would also likely give the final decision on plans by the company to set up an EU base for data purposes in Ireland. This could mean that future probes would be led by the Irish data authority, which is already the lead privacy regulator for tech giants, including Google, Facebook Inc. and Twitter Inc.

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Latest Version of Android Enables Earthquake Detection System

Charlotte Henry ·

The latest version of Android includes a new worldwide earthquake detection system. Meanwhile, in California, Google is United States Geological Survey (USGS) and California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES), to provide earthquake alerts, reported Techcrunch. 

The highlight of today’s release is surely Google’s new worldwide earthquake detection system and the new earthquake alerting feature it is launching for California. With this, Google is essentially turning your Android phone into a seismometer to create what the company says is “the world’s largest earthquake detection network.” The company argues that smartphone accelerometers are sensitive enough to measure the P-waves that are the first waves to arrive after an earthquake. Whenever the phone thinks it has detected an earthquake, it will send that info to a central server which then determines whether this was really an earthquake. For now, Google will only use this data to show information when somebody then searches for ‘earthquake’ or a similar keyword. Over time, though, it expects to be able to send out alerts based on these phone-based systems.