Shiny snippets: Google releases first smartwatch, the Pixel Watch
Technology company Google has released the Google Pixel Watch which has a sleek circular face and includes a Fitbit activity tracker. The Google Pixel Watch is the latest edition to the company’s Google Pixel collection of digital devices, which includes smartphones, laptops and tablets. The Google Pixel Watch is the company’s first smartwatch. Comprising a bulbous dome-shaped glass watch face mounted on a recycled stainless steel case, the smartwatch comes in colours including silver, charcoal and matte black. The watch face can be attached to 20 different bands in a wide range of colours and materials such as leather or woven designs. Dezeen
WhatsApp is back with yet another exciting and much-awaited feature for its users. The instant-messaging platform is testing a feature where the application will not allow users to take screenshots or record the media sent on one view. WABetaInfo, which is known for being a WhatsApp watchdog for keeping an eye on the newest updates in WhatsApp betas and its latest releases, said that some beta testers will witness the feature. Last year, WhatsApp introduced an option where any image could be sent to “View Once” allowing the image to disappear after being opened, which is similar to Instagram and Snapchat. Geo News
Facebook is notifying 1m users that their login details may have been stolen thanks to fake Android and Apple programmes posing as legitimate mobile apps. “Our security researchers have found more than 400 malicious Android and iOS apps this year that were designed to steal Facebook login information and compromise people’s accounts,” said David Agranovich, Facebook’s director of threat disruption. The malicious apps were uploaded to the Apple and Google Play app stores and posed as innocent, unrelated programmes. Some appeared to be photo-editing software, Facebook said, while others posed as free games or music players. Telegraph
Fans of Tesla and Elon Musk were enthralled by the unveiling of Optimus (pictured above), a prototype humanoid robot, in California last week. I also enjoyed the theatrics – but I’m not alone in wondering why, apart from the wow factor, Optimus had to be human-like. And while the fans hate any perceived criticism, Mr Musk himself has said Optimus is nowhere near market-ready. The argument made for humanoids is they are best equipped to work with human tools, in human environments. People may feel more comfortable interacting with something that looks like a bit like them. And of course, they look great. But how practical are they? BBC
Now, you may already know that Amazon hosts its huge Prime Day in November just after Black Friday, but this year, the online marketplace kindly treated us to another Prime Day in July… and oh, there’s a second one taking place next week. The second Prime Day sale is taking place on October 11 and 12, and with over 2 million deals, you won’t want to miss out. For the bookworms out there, Amazon has just dropped an epic early deal on their Kindle e-book subscription service which gets avid readers three months free access to Kindle Unlimited – how good is that? Mirror
