According to a report by CNBC (opens in a new tab)detailing employee dissatisfaction with Google’s revised review and development (GRAD) system.
Reportedly, at a recent meeting of all members, the company’s management revealed just how serious the changes could be. Most importantly, up to 6% of the tech giant’s employees could fall into the lower-ranking category, a three-fold increase from 2% previously.
The number of employees likely to score in one of the top two categories will drop from 27% to an estimated 22%.
Google performance reviews
While the percentage of employees who ultimately achieve average grades will remain almost the same, an increase of one percentage point, the change is likely to have a draining effect on motivation and satisfaction.
CNBC reports that top-tier workers had to “achieve the near impossible” and contribute “more than we thought possible”.
In the company’s December summary, it appears many employees expressed concern about the changes. While the company has remained largely untouched by the massive cutbacks that have plagued the tech industry in recent months amid global economic uncertainty, many believe the new GRAD changes could serve as grounds for layoffs.
Going forward, the company hopes to reward workers in a move that will make it “spend more on per capita wages.” This, and a 23 percent year-on-year increase in employee numbers in Q3 2022, could mean Google is looking to increase average employee productivity overall, putting low performers at risk.
TechRadar Pro contacted Google for further comments.
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It’s official: Black Panther: Wakanda Forever has a Disney Plus release date. The latest Marvel movie will finally debut on the streaming platform on February 1, 2023.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever was released in theaters on November 11, so it’s been two months since its worldwide release. Fortunately after a long wait Marvel confirmed (opens in a new tab) coming to one of the best streaming services next month.
We knew it wouldn’t be coming to Disney Plus in January, what with Disney revealing that it won’t be part of the January 2023 release plan. However, now that Marvel has finally given Black Panther 2 a formal release date on Disney’s streamer, the countdown to its release continues.
If you’re looking for more news on Black Panther 2’s Disney Plus debut, we’ve got you covered. Below you can read more about why Wakanda Forever took so long to launch on Disney Plus, as well as other important information about the film. So what are you waiting for?
When is the Black Panther 2 release date on Disney Plus?
On February 1, the worldwide phenomenon arrives on Black Panther @DisneyPlus. Marvel Studios: #WakandaForever will air on February 1. pic.twitter.com/TDefiAFwUvJanuary 4, 2023
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As confirmed by Marvel Studios on January 4, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever will debut on Disney Plus on February 4.
The film, which we ranked in the top three spots in our Marvel Phase 4 ranking article, hit theaters in November 2022, and we expected it to arrive in January 2023. This is based on what we knew about some of the best superhero movies” premiere of Disney Plus. However, Marvel has proven that’s not the case, confirming that it will instead arrive a month later.
Marvel movies do not appear on Disney’s streaming platform immediately after a theatrical release. Each film has a worldwide 45-day theatrical exclusivity. If Black Panther 2 was released Exactly 45 days after November 11, it would start on Monday, December 26.
Unfortunately, this premiere on December 26 did not take place. Marvel hasn’t released any of its post-Avengers: Endgame movies on a Disney streamer so soon after their theatrical release. The exception to this rule is Black Widow, which received a release date in cinemas and on Disney Plus in July 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Soon, Namor will be coming to Disney Plus along with the rest of the cast of Wakanda Forever. (Image credit: Marvel Studios)
In addition, Disney traditionally releases new movies and TV shows on Wednesdays. That temporarily changed when She-Hulk: Attorney at Law debuted on Thursday (August 18). This was due to the mid-week release of the Star Wars Andor television series. Apparently, Marvel and Lucasfilm didn’t want their tent franchises competing for viewers on the same day.
If Black Panther 2 follows Marvel’s traditional Wednesday launch for Disney Plus releases, it should come out on Wednesday, December 28, right? No – and Eternals has the key to explaining why.
The Eternals hit theaters on November 5, 2021, but wasn’t available to stream on Disney Plus until January 12, 2022. That’s because Marvel co-released Spider-Man: No Way Home (with Sony Pictures) in December 2021 In our opinion, Marvel didn’t want the Disney Plus Eternals release to conflict with the theatrical performance of No Way Home as this could distract fans from going to No Way Home.
The Eternals gives us a good indication of when Black Panther 2 is coming to Disney Plus. (Image credit: Disney/Marvel Studios)
Add to that the fact that Wakanda Forever was still making money over the 2022 holiday season, and it wasn’t in Marvel’s financial interests to end the theatrical release and release it on Disney Plus (free, remember!) by February 2023.
Is there an end credits scene in Black Panther 2?
That post-credits scene emerging from the shadows… (Image credit: Marvel Studios)
Yes, but there’s only one post-credits scene in Wakanda Forever – not two.
We explained what that mid-credits sting means for the Black Panther movie franchise (and the wider MCU) in this Black Panther: Wakanda Forever article ending and explaining the post-credits scene. It requires a deep dive into the more spoilery elements of the movie, so only proceed if you’ve seen the movie.
What is the running time of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever?
Hey M’Baku, how long has Wakanda Forever been running? (Image credit: Marvel Studios)
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is two hours and 41 minutes long. This includes his only post-credits scene and two credits sequences.
Interestingly, this makes Black Panther 2 the second longest MCU movie of all time. It is only surpassed by Avengers: Endgame’s three-hour running time, while it is four minutes longer than the divisive Eternals movie.
For more Wakanda Forever content, check out our “Who is Namor?” and “Who is Ironheart?” explainers. You can also find out how to watch the Marvel movies in order, or see where we ranked Black Panther: Wakanda Forever in our ultimate Marvel movies guide.
According to reports, a major sports betting company, BetMGM, suffered from a cybersecurity incident that allegedly stole the data of over 1.5 million users.
A cybercriminal going by the alias “betmgmhacked” went to a hacking forum to post an advertisement for a database containing “all BetMGM casino customers as of November 2022”.
The database, according to the attackers, contains sensitive data of 1,569,310 users. Data varies by customer but includes names, contact information (postal address, email address, phone numbers, etc.), dates of birth, social security numbers (encrypted), account IDs and transaction details BetMGM – loads of information for serious identity theft (opens in a new tab) campaign.
Master Casino Datasets
“The database includes every customer of BetMGM Casino (over 1.5 million) as of November 2022 from MI, NJ, ON, PV and WV. Every customer who has placed a bet at the casino is included in this database,” the ad reads.
In addition, the attackers claim that the database contains user data for BetMGM casinos in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, as well as a “Master Casino” dataset containing customer information from all US states.
Since the announcement was made, the company has confirmed its authenticity in a press release published earlier this week. BetMGM said in it that the incident was discovered in November 2022, but it most likely happened earlier – most likely in May.
“BetMGM currently has no evidence that patron passwords or account funds were accessed as a result of this issue,” reads the press release. “BetMGM’s online operations were not affected. BetMGM is cooperating with law enforcement and taking steps to further enhance security.”
The company warned its customers that “unsolicited communications” and “suspicious activity” could be expected in the coming days and weeks.
There was no word on the methodology or tools used in the data breach, or whether malware or phishing sites were involved.
Anker has confirmed that one of its security camera products had serious security vulnerabilities that allowed unauthorized third parties to view live camera feeds. It also confirmed that it sends mobile push notifications with people’s faces through the cloud to users’ endpoints (opens in a new tab).
Security researcher Paul Moore recently discovered that the Eufy Doorbell Dual camera feed (owned by Anker) can be accessed via a web browser simply by knowing the correct URL, no password required.
Camera videos encrypted with AES-128 use a simple key that is relatively easy to crack, Moore said at the time, adding that the app uploaded thumbnails to the cloud before sending them to people’s mobile apps as notifications, and that the camera sent facial recognition data to your AWS cloud without encryption.
Confirming researcher reports
Now in A blog post (opens in a new tab) titled “To Our Eufy Security Customers and Partners,” the company addressed these claims, confirming some of them but denying others.
When it comes to access to the image from the camera – the researcher was right. “Eufy Security’s live view feature on its web portal has a security vulnerability,” the company said, adding that no user information had been disclosed. “Potential vulnerabilities discussed on the Internet are speculations,” the blog reads.
Despite this, the company has made some changes, now allowing people to watch live streams online only by logging into the eufy.com web portal 3. “Users can no longer watch live streams (or share active links to these live streams with others) outside of eufy’s secure online portal.
Anker also confirmed the use of the cloud to send users push notifications to mobile devices. While it claims the feature is “compliant with all industry standards”, it has made a few tweaks – it has updated the eufy Security app with a more detailed explanation of the various push notification options and improved its privacy statement on eufy.com 3 which should be published “yet this week”.
“Going forward, this will be a significant area of improvement for our marketing and communications teams and will be added to our website, privacy policy and other marketing materials,” the blog explains.
Finally, he addressed concerns that the camera was sending facial recognition data to the cloud, briefly stating: “That’s not true.”
“This is a key differentiator of eufy Security – all facial recognition and biometrics processes are performed locally on the user’s device. This information is never processed in the cloud.”
The company was criticized by security researchers and the media for poor communication – something it also aimed to address in this update:
“Going forward, we will need to better balance our need to get ‘all the facts’ with our obligation to inform our customers faster,” it said.
Reports claim that someone has found a way to bypass Comcast Xfinity’s two-factor authentication (2FA) security and hack into countless accounts.
Once circumvented, attackers can use compromised accounts to attempt to compromise cryptocurrency exchange accounts and cloud storage services.
On December 19, Xfinity email users began receiving notifications of changes to their account information, but their passwords had already been changed, so they were unable to enter. Those who managed to recover their account discovered that an additional email address from the one-time domain yopmail.com had been added to the account.
Bypassing 2FA
A secondary email address is a security measure used by some email providers to assist with password resets, account notifications, and similar activities.
Many victims visited the Twitter, Reddit and Xfinity forums to discuss what happened and said they had 2FA enabled. So whoever was behind the attack managed to guess the password using credential stuffing and then bypassed the two-factor authentication security. Bleeping Computer the report states that the attackers exploited “private circulation OTP (one-time) password bypass”, which allowed them to generate working 2FA verification codes.
This gave them access to the account, and adding an additional one-time email account allowed them to complete the password reset process.
Having gained full control of the compromised email accounts, the cybercriminals proceeded to break into more online services, assuming the identities of the users (opens in a new tab) to request an email reset. Dropbox, Evernote, Coinbase, and Gemini are just some of the services cybercriminals have tried to crack.
Xfinity is keeping quiet on the matter for now, but a customer said on Reddit that the company is aware of the incident and is currently investigating. The same source also said that, according to a customer service employee they spoke to, the problem appears to be quite common.
We’re entering the holiday season, the peak time of online fraud trading – but thankfully the FBI has stepped in, recommending the use of ad blockers to stay safe.
In a recent public announcement, the agency warned that fake ads can be placed at the top of search results, indistinguishable from the results themselves, and can be very persuasive when impersonating legitimate brands.
The FBI mentioned that the ads may pretend to be from cryptocurrency exchanges, and clicking them could install malware on your system, steal sensitive data, and ultimately your money.
Staying safe
Other agency recommendations include checking the URL before clicking on a link to ensure it’s legitimate, paying attention to misspellings, and typing the web address directly into the browser of the business you’re looking for instead of searching for it.
In its business advice, the FBI recommended the use of domain protection services to notify the registration of similar domain names and inform customers of any scam sites.
Ad blockers do what they say — they prevent ads from appearing in your browser. The main benefit is to stop intrusive and long-loading ads, such as videos from interrupting and slowing you down.
However, they also prevent these ads from tracking you by preventing big data collectors such as Google and Facebook from discovering your online browsing habits, both on desktop and mobile devices.
For this reason, the agency’s announcement is unlikely to please the big tech companies that seem to be walking a tightrope between attempts to invalidate their use without upsetting the large user base of such extensions.
Recently, the popular uBlock Origin ad blocker complained about upcoming API changes in Chrome that appear to be set to prevent this and other ad blocking extensions from working on Chromium browsers. Browsers built on chrome include Microsoft Edge and Opera.
Google also confirmed in the summer that ad-blocking VPN apps for Android devices will no longer be available on the Play Store.
Shoemaker Ecco has been operating a misconfigured database for over a year, exposing huge amounts of sensitive information to anyone who knows where to look.
This is according to a new report from cybernews (opens in a new tab), whose research team recently identified 50 Ecco indexes made available to the public. In total, the database contains over 60 GB of sensitive data, which is available as of June 2021.
“Millions of confidential documents, from sales to system information, were available. Anyone with access could view, edit, copy, steal or delete the data,” the researchers said.
API requests
While Ecco has meanwhile stepped in to address the issue, it has not commented on Cybernews’ findings. The database now appears to be locked, researchers say.
While scanning the network for insecure and misconfigured databases, the research team found an exposed instance hosting Kibana, the ElasticSearch visualization dashboard, for Ecco. Kibana, the researchers explained, helps to process ElasticSearch information.
The instance hosting the dashboard was protected by HTTP authentication, but the server was (wrongly) configured to allow API requests. Using this vulnerability, researchers searched for index names in Ecco’s ElasticSearch, seeing 50 exposed indexes with over 60GB of data.
The data contained all kinds of sensitive information, from sales and marketing to logging and system information, the researchers said. One index, sales_org, contains over 300,000 documents. A directory called market_specific_quality_dashboard contained over 820,000 records.
There are many ways cybercriminals can exploit the database, they further explained, saying that the visible code could have been changed as well as the naming and URLs, all for phishing campaigns, identity theft (opens in a new tab)or trick people into running malware and ransomware.
Moreover, the database is not intended for the local Ecco site, but for the global ecco.com site. In the hands of an experienced cybercriminal, files can be the main tool in a global attack on a company. Ecco stores, its employees, as well as customers and contractors.
The end of the year is usually the time when people reflect on what happened in the previous year, and the same goes for Apple software, especially iOS.
Since 2007, with the debut of the iPhone and iOS, there have been new software updates each year that bring big changes or small improvements, such as a redesign in iOS 7 or home screen widgets in iOS 14.
However, with iOS 16 bringing widgets to the lock screen, users seem to want to extend the existing features rather than the new ones for iOS 17.
With this in mind, we thought and came up with seven features of the iPhone platform that can benefit many users.
Home screen showing new features
(Image credit: TechRadar)
This is something I hear a lot, “I didn’t know my iPhone could do that.” Working in an open office, I’ll notice iPhones updated to iOS 16 but still on the old lock screen, or others still running iOS 13 on the iPhone 11 Pro.
Apple believes that design should be invisible, that you should intuitively know that a feature will be available, ready to use, but that’s not how it works for everyone. A friend had no idea you could answer calls on your Mac via your iPhone, for example – a feature that’s been around since 2014.
Therefore, after updating to iOS 17, an additional start screen should appear. Like when you launch one of Apple’s apps and a screen appears showing what’s new. Instead, display this program when you get to the home screen and explain that the Tips app can help you try out these features.
The Tips app is a lesser-known Apple app, but for a new user it’s great – it’s just that the company doesn’t talk much about it and you most likely don’t know that you can go into the app and, as the image above shows, take a look at an overview of all the new features.
Let’s see how it will become more ubiquitous – perhaps a random tip will pop up on Dynamic Island during the first day of the iOS 17 update, or even an email showing what you can do.
Redesigned control center
(Image credit: TechRadar)
This is something that was long overdue, but it is a difficult challenge to overcome. It first appeared in iOS 7 with a major redesign to a flat methodology, swiping up from the bottom of the iPhone to access some settings. It was later moved to the top right corner when the iPhone X and beyond use the swipe up gesture to go back to the home screen.
Nearly a decade later, the Control Center has deteriorated, largely due to the number of new features that have come out, which in turn has filled up the menus so much that it can be difficult to exit the screen when you try to swipe up.
Let’s see the redesign where we can change the size of the options, like the widgets on the home screen, and give third-party apps access to the Control Center.
And by the way, let’s also see how the Control Center is part of the multitasking menu on the iPad, instead of having its own section.
Stream iOS games to Twitch more easily
(Image credit: Ink Drop / Shutterstock)
Apple made a big push for gaming at WWDC 2022, where it announced that Resident Evil Village would be coming to Mac and No Man’s Sky for Mac and iPad, but if you want to stream iPhone games via Twitch, you’re out of luck.
Granted, SharePlay allows users to stream what they’re doing in certain apps, but that’s done over a FaceTime call. Instead, let’s see a feature where you can press a button to load up your Twitch account and stream an Apple Arcade game.
Let’s also let you view the chat box of people watching your broadcast and track your subscriptions with notifications on another Apple device you may have.
(Image credit: TechRadar)
We live in a time where many users own multiple Apple products, and while iCloud helps manage files on these devices, some details such as performance and battery life can only be found on certain Apple products.
For example, if you want to peek at your Move goal in the iPad Fitness widget, you can’t.
If you want to check the battery of all your devices, you are out of luck. The only way to know if they are low on power is to load the Find My app, go to Devices taband select each of your Apple products to see how charged the battery icon is for each one.
If one app can do it, surely a battery widget in iOS as well as macOS and iPadOS is possible.
(Image credit: TechRadar)
The home screen in iOS has hardly changed since 2007, so when iOS 16 finally came with a redesign with widgets, it was great to see it. However, let’s see how this effort will expand even further in iOS 17.
Six widgets and the Live Activity widget on the lock screen aren’t enough for some – there are plenty of opportunities to see more widgets in more sizes and more places.
For example, time should be replaced with another widget, next to another row of widgets below the three that we can already select.
More widgets is always a good thing, so let’s see more of them and in more sizes.
Better picture-in-picture control
(Image credit: TechRadar)
While the ability to watch a video anywhere on your device didn’t debut on the iPad until iOS 9, there have been hardly any improvements since then, with the exception of coming to iOS 14 in 2019.
However, the ability to better control videos, such as scrolling through the timeline and selecting other videos, has still not arrived, so they should come in iOS 17.
There’s also a hidden feature when using this on macOS – if you hold option while dragging the video, you can place it anywhere on the screen. Let’s see how this will also appear in iOS 17, so we have more control over its size and position.
Restore landscape mode
(Image credit: TechRadar)
When I had the iPhone 8 Plus, I loved being able to rotate the phone horizontally and have the home screen rotate along with everything else.
The keyboard would have added features like punctuation keys and shortcuts like copy and paste text, and would use the extra length so some keys were wider, but this was removed on future models by the time of the 2018 release of the iPhone XS.
Almost every iPhone available today, from the iPhone 13 to the iPhone 14 Pro Max, has the same or larger displays than the regular iPhone 8 Plus, thanks to the different design that covers all the screens. So let’s see how iOS 17 takes advantage of this and extends it to other apps as well, such as Apple Music and even the lock screen with some useful widgets.
Missing your wish?
(Image credit: Disney)
We’re at a point with iOS where Apple has been pushing high feature demands for years – from custom keyboards to redesigned home screen widgets.
Here are seven things that can improve someone’s iPhone experience, but individuality is something Apple knows is important, which is why we can customize our redesigned lock screens in iOS 16 to make them our own.
Is there anything you think we missed in iOS 17? contact us (opens in a new tab) to tell us what you’d like to see in a future Apple release.
Google’s latest flagship phones are the Google Pixel 7 and Google Pixel 7 Pro, but the leaked roadmap gives us an idea of the tech giant Pixel’s plans for the next few years – until 2025. seems to be seeing foldable phones, spec upgrades and more.
This is an intriguing glimpse into the future courtesy of you Android Office (opens in a new tab)though keep in mind that this is by no means official and it’s not beyond the realm of possibility that Google will change its plans, even if this report is currently accurate. Even the source itself says that the plan of action is not fixed.
With those caveats out of the way, we can dive in. Around the time of Google IO 2023 in April or May, we apparently get the Google Pixel Fold (priced at $1,799, which is around £1,495 or AU$2,675) and the Google Pixel 7a (apparently priced to match this year’s Google Pixel 6a at $449 / £399 / AU$749 ).
By 2025
We’ll still have the Google Pixel 8 and Google Pixel 8 Pro later in 2023. This roadmap suggests the Pixel 8 will be smaller than its immediate predecessor, although the Pro model is said to match the Google Pixel 7 Pro in terms of dimensions and display size. Reportedly, both phones will be powered by the Tensor G3.
2024 will apparently bring three Pixel 9 models with the Tensor G4, with two Pro editions: the existing 6.7-inch size and the new 6.3-inch size (to better match the Apple iPhone series). However, the launch of the Google Pixel 8a is contingent on sales of the Pixel 7a – Google could switch to a two-year cycle for a mid-range phone.
That takes us all the way to 2025, and here the planning is more fluid – a lot depends on how sales of the 2023 and 2024 phones go. The report says Google may release a foldable to compete with the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip series, may expand the Pixel 10 range to four phones, and may introduce the Google Pixel Fold 2.
Analysis: after Apple and Samsung
As also indicated by the Android Authority, informing about its measures, Google clearly wants to follow in the footsteps of Apple and Samsung – the two phone manufacturers that dominate sales in the US. By 2025, Google could have two foldable models (like Samsung) and four flagship phone models (like Apple).
Switching the Pixel A series phones to launch every two years would also suit Apple – that’s what’s happening with the iPhone SE. When power and performance aren’t as important, updates aren’t as urgent, and changing the cycle could help Google keep these phones priced right.
It remains to be seen whether Pixel’s increased efforts lead to more hardware sales for Google. It has worked hard to build its ecosystem of devices – this year we launched the Pixel Watch and next year we will get the Pixel Tablet, giving consumers more devices that work seamlessly together.
Meanwhile, the main advantages of Pixel phones have remained the same for years: excellent photos and videos and a clean and constantly updated version of Android. However, at least in the US, Google still needs to do something about people’s dependence on iMessage to get a significant number of users to switch.
An exclusive TechRadar Pro study found that social media users are becoming more adept at spotting fraud, but many still need to stay vigilant.
First, respondents were asked which social media platforms they use. Facebook took first place with almost 80% of activity on the social networking site. Instagram was next with 68.1%, with Tiktok and Twitter battling for third place with almost 50% of users (49.8% and 47.5% respectively).
LinkedIn and WhatsApp rounded out the last two of the major platforms with 35.8% and 33.4% respectively. 6.6% said they used other social media platforms and 3.7% did not use them at all.
Fraud detection
The results for the frequency of encountering scams on social platforms were fairly evenly split. Just over a third met with them once a day and just over a quarter once a week. Only 15% said once a month and less than a third said less than a month.
Fraud on social platforms has been on the rise since the pandemic, peaking in 2021 and remaining prominent this year as well. It is not surprising that during the best sales periods, such as Black Friday and the holiday season, there is often an increase in scams.
Fortunately, most felt confident or very confident – 30.9% and 34.4% respectively – that they could identify them. A quarter said a little, and only 10% said not much.
However, this certainty may be inaccurate, given that other reports have shown that a large number of users fall for popular social media scams, such as phishing campaigns and fake gift card offers.
Cryptocurrency scams have also grown in popularity on social media in recent years. Advertisements for fake exchanges will promote “investment opportunities” with the promise of significantly increasing the victim’s wallet. Some even used videos of Elon Musk discussing cryptocurrencies to lure people in.
However, there are many ways to detect social media scams. One of the telltale signs is that if a deal looks too good to be true, it probably is. Another is to check the address of each link before clicking on it to make sure that it actually leads to the official website of the company in question.
Making sure your site looks professional and free of glaring spelling and grammatical errors is also key to spotting fraudulent sites.
