Facebook Messenger sends 'creepily' precise location data, as revealed by Marauders Map Chrome extension

Facebook sends out such precise data to people you chat with that your location can be tracked to individual streets, a new Chrome extension shows.

Every time a person sends a Facebook message from a phone, it sends out their location to the person chatting with them. The extensions scrapes all of that data and overlays it on a map, meaning that a precise chart of people’s movements can be done using those conversations.

The creator of the extension, Aran Khanna, said that he had made it to demonstrate the creepiness of the information that people might be unwittingly sharing.

Some of the data sent out makes it possible to pinpoint locations to less than a meter, he said, and that can be used to figure out people’s regular schedule or to spy on them. Khanna points out that it doesn’t take many messages to work out people’s habits, especially if a number of people collude to share their data.

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Android M unveiled at Google I/O: 6 Cool new ways your Android just got better

Google has announced the latest version of Android, called Android M, at its annual Google I/O developer conference on May 28. The pre-release version for developers will debut today and the full version will be made available later this year.

According to Sundar Pichai, the Android M operating system will concentrate more on improving the stability and usability of the platform. There will be a lot more emphasis on the quality of the platform rather than a radically new look.

Just like last year’s Google I/O where Android L was teased, the Android M platform hasn’t yet got a codename. Also, the preview will only be available for Google Nexus 5, 6, 9 and Nexus Player.

Speaking at Google I/O, David Burke, the vice president of engineering at Google, said that Google is planning to integrate a lot of the features that they have seen device makers add on to Android. According to him, with Android M there are six major areas where Google is focussing.

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Microsoft developing Cortana app for iOS, Android

Microsoft is bringing Cortana to iOS and Android smartphones, extending the voice-controlled personal assistant to platforms beyond Windows 10 and Windows Phone.

Using the Cortana iOS and Android apps people will be able to dictate emails, set appointments and conduct Web searches by speaking commands, among other features. The app will also let people arrange to receive notifications like sports scores and flight information.

Windows 10 will include a program called Phone Companion to help people set up on Cortana and sync their PCs with their smartphone, whether it runs iOS, Android or Windows Phone. The Phone Companion program will also let users sync OneNote, Music, Office and OneDrive between their Windows 10 PC and their Android, iOS or Windows Phone smartphone.

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Invite-only: OnePlus Two release date teased for next week

The overdue OnePlus Two release date is about three to four business days away, according to the budget Android phone maker.

"We're always looking for ways to shake up the tech industry," tweeted OnePlus' official Twitter account. "And we think it's time for change. Find out more June 1."

It is about time. It's been 13 months since the OnePlus One launched and became an Android sleeper hit on our best phones list.

Come Monday, the much-anticipated OnePlus Two is expected to also introduce a sequel to the company's whacky invite scheme.

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Overkill - America’s Epidemic of Unnecessary Care

It was lunchtime before my afternoon surgery clinic, which meant that I was at my desk, eating a ham-and-cheese sandwich and clicking through medical articles. Among those which caught my eye: a British case report on the first 3-D-printed hip implanted in a human being, a Canadian analysis of the rising volume of emergency-room visits by children who have ingested magnets, and a Colorado study finding that the percentage of fatal motor-vehicle accidents involving marijuana had doubled since its commercial distribution became legal. The one that got me thinking, however, was a study of more than a million Medicare patients. It suggested that a huge proportion had received care that was simply a waste.

The researchers called it “low-value care.” But, really, it was no-value care. They studied how often people received one of twenty-six tests or treatments that scientific and professional organizations have consistently determined to have no benefit or to be outright harmful. Their list included doing an EEG for an uncomplicated headache (EEGs are for diagnosing seizure disorders, not headaches), or doing a CT or MRI scan for low-back pain in patients without any signs of a neurological problem (studies consistently show that scanning such patients adds nothing except cost), or putting a coronary-artery stent in patients with stable cardiac disease (the likelihood of a heart attack or death after five years is unaffected by the stent). In just a single year, the researchers reported, twenty-five to forty-two per cent of Medicare patients received at least one of the twenty-six useless tests and treatments.

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LG'S NEW G4 PHONES WILL HAVE LEATHER BACKS

Optional leather backs and manual camera controls are two ways LG is seeking to distinguish its new G4 phone from Apple's iPhones and Samsung's Galaxy smartphones.

Mark Lennihan

Juno Cho, President and CEO of LG Corp., holds the LG G4, during an event Tuesday, April 28, 2015 in New York. LG is making smartphones with leather backs as it seeks to distinguish its phones from Apple's iPhones and Samsung's Galaxy smartphones. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

LG's mobile chief, Juno Cho, said a wireless trade show in Barcelona, Spain, last month confirmed LG's belief that smartphones have become clones of one another.

"I was almost shocked," Cho told The Associated Press. "Almost all the phones on display and introduced looked very (much the) same — the same metal casing and emphasis on thinness, overall form factors that are very similar."

The message at Tuesday's announcement of the new G4: We're not like the others.

Apple and Samsung dominate the smartphone market, with LG Electronics Inc. and other companies vying for third place with market shares of less than 5 percent each.

LG will make phones with traditional backs, too — using metal or ceramic. Prices weren't announced, though LG said leather models will cost more in some markets. The G4 is available immediately in LG's home country of South Korea. It will debut around the world in the coming weeks and is expected to reach the U.S. in early June.

Here's how the G4 stacks up:

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THE DESIGN

Apple has long made design a priority, while Samsung began to embrace that this spring with phones that sport a metal frame and a glass back, rather than the plastic used in previous models. In many ways, Samsung's new Galaxy S6 came to resemble Apple's older iPhones. (The iPhone now has metal backs.)

At Tuesday's announcement, LG made a dig at Samsung, without naming it, by pointing out that glass backs can be marred with fingerprints. The G4 will have a choice of leather finishes. Some of Samsung's older phones had imitation leather backs. The G4 uses real leather and has stitching down the middle — for looks, more than anything.

If leather isn't for you, metal and ceramic backs are options. Motorola's Moto X phone offers leather, wood and other non-traditional materials as made-to-order options. With LG, they are part of standard models.

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