Current News/Innovations

WhatsApp is giving business accounts verified green badges if their contact information checks out. So far, business verification is limited to the small number of businesses that are participating in the pilot program. If the phone number of a contact belongs to a business account, it earns a green check. WhatsApp is also going to let you know if you’re talking to a business by showing a yellow text bubble in the chat. These texts can’t be deleted, according to WhatsApp . In general, users are able to delete messages and chats from a regular conversation, but WhatsApp seems to be forcing users to keep records of chats with a verified business. The green badges are an effort to make businesses appear more trustworthy on the messaging app, and could encourage more businesses to get on the platform. It’s also another feature that WhatsApp’s parent company, Facebook, already incorporates on its own platform — Facebo...

Diesel is starting to release the first of its debut line of Android Wear watches, after announcing them back in March . The watches will all go under the name Diesel On Full Guard, and the first of them is being made available today, only through Macy’s. That model will have a black case and a brown leather strap and will sell for $325. The rest of Diesel’s Android Wear watches will come out on September 25th. There will be four other models, and they’ll all just have some basic style differences. There will be two with black leather bands, one with a gold metal band, and one with a black metal band. They’re all running on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Wear 2100 processor, have a 48mm case, support IP67 water resistance, and promise a day of battery life. Diesel is also releasing an Android app that’s meant as a companion to the watch. It’s supposed to send updates on things like your agenda, the weather, and fitness goals. The app is called T-ON-I, which is app...

If you check your smartphone for your daily decisions, you’re not alone. But are you looking in the wrong place for answers?Have you ever sought the advice of internet strangers? Whether it’s buying a toothbrush or diagnosing a health issue , we often treat online reviews and ratings as informed truth. It’s no secret that these assessments can be flawed, faked or guided by hidden special interests. We often can’t trust them, but can we trust our own reviewing skills?

Fitbit has put on sale its first fully-featured smartwatch. The Ionic differs from the firm's existing Blaze watch in that third-party developers will be able to release apps and watchface designs that can be installed on the device. It also introduces a sensor that can detect blood oxygen levels. Fitbit has also announced a forthcoming "special edition" in partnership with sportswear firm Adidas, mirroring the Apple Watch tie-up with Nike. Until recently, Fitbit was ranked the world's bestselling wearable tech brand. However, market research firm IDC reported in June that it had been overtaken by both Xiaomi and Apple in terms of shipments over the first three months of the year. Fitbit recently reported that its second quarter sales were 40% down on 2016's equivalent figure, leading to a $58.2m (£44.9m) net loss for the period. "It's a tough market for Fitbit - not least the dramatic drop in North American sales it has experienced -...

The head of the Bitcoin Foundation, Llew Claasen, has urged people to invest "no more than they can afford" in the crypto-currency. He was speaking at the TEDGlobal conference in Tanzania about the potential for Bitcoin in Africa. Billions lack access to formal banking, but the uptake of mobile money means many are willing to embrace alternatives. Bitcoin had been adopted in Nigeria, South Africa and Kenya, he said. The digital currency had particular resonance in countries with volatile economies, he said. "It offers people a chance to protect their savings from government abuse of monetary policy. "A lot of people in Zimbabwe are interested in it as an alternative financial system, but that is not an easy thing to do formally as we don't want to be perceived as wanting to disrupt economies," he told the BBC. Small businesses The Washington-based Bitcoin Foundation is a non-profit organisation that promotes the use of Bitcoin around ...

It has been confirmed that ransomware was behind a cyber-attack on a Scottish health board which led to some appointments and procedures being cancelled. NHS Lanarkshire said it was a new variant of Bitpaymer that infected its network on Friday. The board said staff worked over the weekend to reinstate IT systems. Work is ongoing to establish how the malware was able to infiltrate the network without being detected. The cyber-attack started on Friday . Operations were cancelled and the work of GPs was disrupted. Ransomware is a particularly destructive form of malware that catastrophically struck the NHS earlier this year. While this new infection is not the notorious Wannacry variation, which caused global chaos, it is yet another demonstration of how disruptive ransomware can be. What it does is encrypt the data it finds on a host comput...

EE's UK home broadband customers have been affected by a fault that has prevented them from using the internet. Down Detector indicates the nationwide problem began at about midnight . EE's own site acknowledges the fault but gives little detail . Several customers have suggested the fault was due to a glitch with the company's domain name system computer servers. They reported that manually changing their computers' DNS settings had rectified the issue. EE told the BBC that it had addressed the malfunction but subscribers might still need to take action themselves to restore their service. "We've resolved an issue that has been affecting some of our broadband customers this morning," a spokeswoman told the BBC. "Any customers still having trouble getting online should try turning the power to their router off and on again. We're sorry for any inconvenience this has caused." DNS servers are used by net providers to maintain l...