News you need to know
Lenovo Caught Installing Adware On New Computers
Earlier this week, Lenovo was caught installing adware called 'Superfish' on user's computers. As the week has gone on, it's emerged that it's far more sinister than just adware, as it installed a certificate to snoop on secure connections. Lenovo and Superfish have maintained that it wasn't ever dangerous, but it was incredibly so.
The CEO of Superfish said in an interview with me that he had no idea how bad the certificate problem was until yesterday, which I find hard to believe. Both companies have been playing dumb all week, until Lenovo admitted that it "messed up" and "missed it on this one."
Even the US government has issued a warning about Superfish, so it's a serious problem, but highlights the state of Windows machines being bundled with crapware out of the box. Can Microsoft step in and stop this?
The NSA Hacked SIM Cards So It Can Snoop On Anyone
As if one big security problem wasn't enough, it also emerged this week that the NSA had hacked the world's largest SIM manufacturer to steal the encryption keys for millions of SIM cards. With these keys, the NSA can easily spy on user's phone communications without being detected. A scary reality.
Samsung Acquires LoopPay To Jump Into Mobile Payments
With Apple Pay now gobbling up 1.7% of all mobile transactions, Samsung doesn't want to be left out. This week, the company announced it will acquire LoopPay, a mobile payments startup that allows phone owners to make payments even at retail terminals that haven't been upgraded yet. If Samsung announces its own mobile wallet at its Galaxy Unpacked event next week the payment wars may truly begin.
Twitter Finally Has A Solution For Company Accounts
Twitter has been a pain to deal with for companies and teams that need to share access to a single account, but this week it finally announced this feature that allows you to share an account with another person without sharing the password.
Must reads
Why Startups Want This 28-Year-Old to Really Like Them
A great profile of my friend Ryan Hoover who runs Product Hunt. My favorite quote: "People shouldn’t be so damn judgmental about people creating things—a silly app is just something fun."
What It’s Like to Try Magic Leap’s Take on Virtual Reality
Magic Leap is a secretive Google-backed startup that's working on next-generation virtual/augmented reality experiences. We don't know much about them, but this piece gives good insight into what it's working on and how it might change the world.
This is Your Brain on Twitter
A fascinating study by Twitter looks at how people's brains reacted to using the service versus other things like browsing the internet or opening physical mail. The results were particularly surprising.
Jonathan Ive and the Future of Apple
This incredibly long profile of Apple's lead designer, Jony Ive, is one of the first times such a deep amount of information about him and Apple's workings has been published. It's a huge read, but there's so many great tidbits in here if you're interested in the company at all.
From 0 to $1B: Slack's Founder Shares Their Epic Launch Strategy
This quote is astounding: “Somewhere between 20 to 30% of our users — and this is just an estimate — come from some other centralized group-messaging system like HipChat, Campfire, or IRC,” Butterfield says. “When we asked the other 70 to 80% what they were using for internal communication, they said, ‘Nothing.’ Also worth reading about how Slack uses Slack.
How Japan's Line App Became A Culture-Changing, Revenue-Generating Phenomenon
LINE messenger in Japan is extremely popular and does far more than just messaging; it's the hub for everything from listening to music to playing games. To many outside Japan, it's hard to understand why LINE is so profitable, so this read does a great job of explaining just why it's so huge.
Trending Products
Atomic Is An Interface Design Tool, Entirely In Your Browser
A fun profile I wrote this week about a design company here in Wellington, New Zealand that's trying to redefine the interface design tool space. While I'm not a designer and don't know much about such things, those that have used this tool seem impressed with its capabilities and the fact that it's entirely built on the web.
Astropad turns your iPad into a graphics tablet
While we're talking about graphic design tools, this one's release this week was particularly interesting. Astropad turns your iPad into a high-accuracy, responsive graphics tablet alternative. Built by ex-Apple engineers, the software could mean some designers can ditch their dedicated graphics tablets.
