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Millions of smartphones and tablets wide open to hacks Think about everything you do with your smartphone. It's not just a gadget for talking to your friends who live hundreds of miles away anymore. Nowadays, we also use these handy devices for critical tasks like financial transactions and storing important documents. Imagine if cybercriminals were able to get their hands on all of the sensitive information on your smartphone or tablet. That would lead to some horrifying consequences. Unfortunately, there are some popular apps that are leaving millions of users open to hackers. Is your gadget open to hackers? Researchers at the University of Michigan have developed a tool that scans apps, searching for vulnerabilities. They analyzed 24,000 apps that are available in the Google Play Store for Android gadgets and found 410 that are potentially vulnerable. The problem with these apps is they contain a security hole that hackers could potentially take advant...
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Heed warnings on overuse of smartphones Experts say more and more people are suffering from neck pain, spinal injuries and other problems as a result of excessive use of mobile devices People are so hooked on smartphones these days that they appear oblivious to the outside world. Be it lazing in bed, eating in restaurants, travelling on the MTR or crossing the street, there are always those who are glued to their phones, busily texting, browsing the internet, watching films or playing video games. Chances are that you are also one of them and are now hunching over your gadget as you read this. Such habits are likely to give you a real pain in the neck. Public hospitals in Central Kowloon receive some 25,000 new physiotherapy cases a year, 20 per cent of which are related to neck pain. The Hospital Authority warned that such patients were getting younger, with those aged 40 or under making up 30 per cent of the cases. The so-called text neck syndro...

Phone-obsessed parents may be harming family life

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Research suggests that parents who continually check their mobile phones may be disrupting family life. In a poll of 2,000 11 to 18-year-olds in the UK, more than a third said they had asked their parents to stop checking their devices, with almost half of them saying it makes no difference when they do. However, fewer than 10% of the 3,000 parents that took part in the survey thought their time spent on devices was concerning their children. The research was carried out by Digital Awareness UK and the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference (HMC). In a press release published yesterday, the two organisations said the aims of the survey were to "better understand attitudes and behaviours relating to mobile device use and further improve support given to young people in and out of school." Dr Bex Lewis, who is a christian and author of, "Raising children in a digital age," welcomed the survey's results and told  Premier ...

Apple Caught Uber Secretly Tracking iPhones With Hidden Software

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Updates to the Uber smartphone app released in November have been criticized by users for the amount of data they harvest—but the ride-hailing company ran afoul of Apple for invasive data-collection practices well before that, according to a new report. In 2015, Apple CEO Tim Cook threatened to have the Uber app removed from Apple's App Store when the company learned Uber had deployed software that could track individual iPhones even after they deleted the app,  The New York Times  reported in a profile on Uber CEO Travis Kalanick.  Uber tried—and failed—to hide this software from Apple. Tracking individual iPhones, a practice known as "fingerprinting," is prohibited by Apple. But Uber tried to get around this by geo fencing the tech giant's Cupertino, California, headquarters. Any iPhone brought within the Apple campus was supposed to hide the software, in theory shielding it from inquisitive Apple employees.  But the company found out an...