Google is testing customizable calling cards for Android that show up when your friends call
If you do have access to the beta Contacts app for Android, you'll now see a note that says "Try adding a calling card" when you view a contact's details. From there, you can choose a photo you have of that contact from your gallery or take a new one of them with your camera. You can also adjust the font type and color for their name. Whenever they call, that calling card will take over your phone screen. If this sounds nothing new to you, it may be because Samsung has had a profile card feature for a while now that works just like Google's implementation. It's already widely available and accessible from your contacts' profile pages.
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Forbes
9 minutes ago
- Forbes
Google's Gmail Warning—Hackers Gain Access To User Accounts
Republished on August 17 with new Gmail hacking warning. Google has confirmed that Gmail attacks are surging, as hackers steal passwords to gain access to accounts. This also means a surge in 'suspicious sign in prevented' emails, Google's warning that 'it recently blocked an attempt to access your account.' Attackers know this — that Gmail user concerns are heightened by security warnings, and they use this to frame their attacks. 'Sometimes hackers try to copy the 'suspicious sign in prevented' email,' Google warns, 'to steal other people's account information,' which then gives those hackers access to user accounts. If you receive this Google email warning, do not click on any link or button within the email itself. Instead, 'go to your Google Account, on the left navigation panel, click security, and on the recent security events panel, click to review security events.' If any of the events raise concerns — times or locations or devices you do not recognize — then 'on the top of the page click secure your account' to change your password. If you do click a link from within this email or any other email purporting to come from Google, you will be taken to a sign-in page that will be a malicious fake. If you enter your user name and password into that page, you risk them being stolen by hackers to hijack your account. And that will give them access to everything. This is the same risk as the recent Amazon refund scam, which texts a link for a fake Amazon refund, but which actually steals login credentials. The answer is twofold. First, never click any such link in a text message or email. And second, add passkeys to your Google, Amazon and other accounts to stop such hijacks. This exploitation of seemingly legitimate emails, messages and calls that perfectly mimic the content and style of the real thing has become an alarming theme in the last year. This also includes exploiting legitimate infrastructure to add authenticity. Beyond adding passkeys and shoring up two-factor authentication with something other than SMS, the key rule is never to use links to access accounts. Always use your app or the sign-in page you usually use in your browser. Account hijacks are painful, and while there are mechanisms to recover lost accounts, these can be time consuming and will not stop the content in your account from being stolen. It takes just seconds to secure your accounts — do that now. Those same account defenses will protect you from the latest Gmail attacks, which use fake voicemail notifications to steal login credentials to gain access to accounts. Malware analyst Anurag flagged the issue on Reddit, as a 'seemingly harmless' email claimed 'I had a 'New Voice Notification'' with 'a big 'Listen to Voicemail' button.' After clicking the link, per Cybersecurity News, the attack 'systematically captures and exfiltrates all entered data through encrypted channels. The system is designed to handle various Gmail security features, including: Primary email and password combinations, SMS and voice call verification codes, Google Authenticator tokens, Backup recovery codes, Alternative email addresses, Security question responses.' Anurag says 'this campaign is a good example of how phishing operations abuse legit services (Microsoft Dynamics, SendGrid) to bypass filters, and use captchas as both a deception tool and a barrier against automated security tools. Staying alert and performing deep inspection of suspicious emails is crucial. A single click on the Gmail phishing login could have led to stolen credentials.'
NBC News
an hour ago
- NBC News
Samsung taking market share from Apple in U.S. as foldable phones gain momentum
In 2014, Apple and Samsung were duking it out to rule the U.S. smartphone market. Samsung was selling devices with large screens, and iPhone fans were demanding a response. It took Apple some time, but the company finally released the iPhone 6, breaking with previous iterations and giving consumers a large-screen option. The iPhone won. But more than a decade later, recent smartphone sales and shipment figures signal that the Apple-Samsung fight has returned. And once again, it's all about the screen. In the second quarter, shipments from Samsung surged in the U.S., with its market share rising from 23% to 31% from the prior period, according to data from Canalys. Apple's market share during the quarter declined to 49% from 56%. Apple remains on top of the U.S. smartphone market, taking the majority of new smartphone sales in the U.S. It's often in second place around the world, but the recent slips point to turbulence for Apple for the first time in well over a decade. That's one reason investors have sent Apple shares down 7.5% this year, underperforming all of the U.S. megacap tech companies other than Tesla. Samsung's stock, meanwhile, is up about 35% in 2025. Apple reported a 13% increase in year-over-year iPhone sales in its July earnings. In July, Samsung introduced a pair of innovative new phones that feature foldable screens. One model, the Z Fold 7, can effectively turn into a tablet, while the Z Flip resembles an old-school flip phone with modern smartphone features. They were added to Samsung's catalog of phones released this spring under its Galaxy brand, including a thin-and-light phone called the Galaxy S25 Edge. The devices are also getting a lot of traction on social media, particularly around durability tests. One user posted a livestream that showed him bending the Z Fold 7 over 200,000 times in a row. The video has been clipped and shared widely on social media, with one version of the clip accumulating more than 15 million views on YouTube. In the past month, Samsung's premium devices, including the Z Fold 7, were mentioned over 50,000 times on social media, and 83% of those mentions were positive or neutral, according to data from Sprout Social, a social media analytics company. The market share numbers aren't just the result of user preferences. Much of the shift in shipment figures in the June quarter, analysts said, can be attributed to tariffs, which are causing 'disruption' in the industry as smartphone makers use different strategies to minimize the impact on their business. But Samsung's gains also reflect the company's ability to offer a much wider range of products at different prices compared to Apple. That includes low-end phones, which accounted for much of Samsung's second-quarter U.S. improvement, as well as high-end devices that cost more than any individual iPhone. Samsung's Galaxy and Z phone lineup 'stretches from $650 up to $2,400. That is a massive span of devices,' said Canalys analyst Runar Bjorhovde. 'There is an idea that you can target people at every single price point, and you can meet them at every spot.' The iPhone has pretty much looked the same since 2017 — a rectangular piece of glass with a touchscreen on the front, and a few cameras on the back. These days, the company offers a series of four slates ranging from $829 to $1,599. Samsung and others are starting to go beyond the so-called candy bar shape and experimenting with new form factors. Apple is expected to start doing the same — beginning with a potential launch next month of a slimmer iPhone that will compete with Samsung's Galaxy Edge. 'Apple is clearly betting that its 5.5mm Air model is going to lift its fortunes as testing suggests a strong desire for the new form factor,' wrote Loop Capital managing director John Donovan in May. JPMorgan Chase analyst Samik Chatterjee wrote in a report last month that Apple may release a folding phone next year to compete with Samsung's Z Fold. 'Investor focus has already turned to the 2026 fall launches with Apple expected to launch its first foldable iPhone as part of the iPhone 18 lineup in September 2026,' Chatterjee wrote. Trying new form factors offers Apple the opportunity to sell devices at higher prices, according to Bjorhovde. Apple's most expensive phone, the iPhone 16 Pro Max, currently starts at $1,199 for 256GB of storage and can go up to $1,599 for a version with 1TB of storage. The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7, which was announced last week, starts at $1,999 for the 256GB version and tops out at $2,419 for the 1TB version. Chatterjee said he thinks Apple's version of a folding phone could start at $1,999. Folding phones finally mature Samsung's first folding phone was released in 2019, but got off to a rocky start. The initial launch was delayed after reviewers — including CNBC — discovered that the early devices would break along their folding crease. But Samsung says this time is different, and that folding phones are finally ready to go mainstream, especially with respect to durability. 'There really are no longer trade-offs towards owning a foldable device,' said Drew Blackard, vice president of mobile product management at Samsung Electronics America. The South Korean company doesn't provide sales numbers, but Blackard said the Galaxy Z Fold 7, the latest version, had 25% more preorders than any previous Samsung folding phone and that sales are outpacing the device's predecessor by nearly 50%. 'Samsung with the foldable is able to actually optimize for innovation,' said Bjorhovde. "Try to be ahead, show that something is different, and there's a certain halo effect from that.' According to Counterpoint Research, a firm that estimates smartphone sales to customers, Samsung's sell-through increased 16% during the June quarter, thanks to demand for high-end devices, including a 'slight boost' from the slim S25 Edge. The rise of artificial intelligence is also heralding new form factors for consumer electronics that could one day replace the iPhone. OpenAI in May acquired the startup of former Apple design guru Jony Ive for $6.5 billion. The AI startup plans to develop the next generation of hardware, and other AI startups have released pins, pendants and glasses that rely on users' voice to control the devices. Samsung devices, as well as other Android phones, get access to Google's Gemini, which is widely considered to be one of the best AI models alongside OpenAI's ChatGPT. Gemini has several features that users can't get with Siri and Apple Intelligence. Blackard said folding phones, with their larger displays, are well suited for AI. Google's circle-to-search feature, which allows a user to simply circle something on the screen that they'd like to learn more about, is an example, Blackard said. On a Samsung folding phone, he said, users can still see the original screen with the content they circled, as well as another screen with supplementary information. 'It's much more productive being able to go back and forth,' Blackard said. Investors have worried that Apple's AI delays, including its next-generation Siri that's now scheduled to come out next year, could start hurting sales. But many analysts say that Apple's brand loyalty and lock-in will give it a period of years before iPhone customers start defecting for competitors. Chatterjee told CNBC that Apple's strategy with devices is to wait until a technology is ready for the mainstream before embracing it. That time may be now for foldable devices. Apple has 'never been about trying to be the first to market,' Chatterjee said. 'It's about being watchful, seeing a technology mature, knowing that there are no big roadblocks to that technology adoption, and then moving ahead.'
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Cat soap operas and babies trapped in space: the ‘AI slop' taking over YouTube
Babies trapped in space, zombie football stars and cat soap operas: welcome to YouTube in the era of AI video. Nearly one in 10 of the fastest growing YouTube channels globally are showing AI-generated content only, as breakthroughs in the technology spur a flood of artificial content. Guardian analysis of data from the analytics firm Playboard shows that out of the top 100 fastest growing channels in July this year, nine were showing purely AI-generated content. The offerings include channels featuring bizarre narratives such as a baby crawling into a pre-launch space rocket, an undead Cristiano Ronaldo and melodramas featuring humanised cats. AI video generation has surged amid the release of powerful tools such as Google's Veo 3 and Elon Musk's Grok Imagine. The channels have millions of subscribers in total, including 1.6 million for the space-stranded infant and 3.9 million for Super Cat League, which features human-like cats having affairs and, among one of many bizarre scenes, the felines shooting down and dismembering an eagle. Many of these videos qualify as 'AI slop', which refers to low-quality, mass-produced content that is surreal, uncanny or simply grotesque. But some contain a brief, rudimentary plot – in a sign of the growing sophistication of AI-generated content. YouTube has tried to stem the slop deluge by blocking the sharing of advertising revenue with channels that post repetitive and 'inauthentic' content – a policy targeted at AI content. 'All content uploaded to YouTube is subject to our community guidelines – regardless of how it's generated,' said a spokesperson for YouTube, which is owned by Google's parent company. After being contacted by the Guardian about the channels – which included channels in the fastest growing list for June – YouTube said it had removed three of them from the platform and blocked a further two from receiving advertising income. It did not specify which channels had been sanctioned. One expert said AI video generators herald the next wave of internet 'enshittification', a term first used by the British-Canadian author Cory Doctorow. Coined in 2022, Doctorow used it to describe the decline in quality of users' online experiences, as platforms prioritise profit over offering high-quality content. 'AI slop is flooding the internet with content that essentially is garbage,' said Dr Akhil Bhardwaj, an associate professor at the University of Bath's school of management. 'This enshittification is ruining online communities on Pinterest, competing for revenue with artists on Spotify and flooding YouTube with poor quality content.' 'One way for social media companies to regulate AI slop is to ensure that it cannot be monetised, thus stripping away the incentive for generating it.' Ryan Broderick, the author of the popular Garbage Day newsletter on internet culture, is scathing about the impact of AI video, writing last week that YouTube has become a 'dumping ground for disturbing, soulless AI shorts'. Instagram's Reels video feature is also flooded with AI content. On the platform, a video of various celebrities' heads attached to animal bodies has gained 3.7m views, starring the 'Rophant' (Dwayne Johnson and an elephant) and 'Emilla' (Eminem on a gorilla). On TikTok, many AI-generated videos have gone viral, including a video of Abraham Lincoln vlogging his ill-fated trip to the opera and cats competing in an Olympic diving event. However, the Lincoln and cat Olympic videos are more in the spirit of the internet's pre-slop era of playful wit. Instagram and TikTok said they require all realistic AI-content to be labelled. Videos suspected to contain AI from these channels were cross-checked with deepfake detection service provider Reality Defender. The channels featuring AI videos for July are: Super Cat League (3.9 million subscribers) বজল মিয়া 767k (2 million subscribers – this account has since been closed) LSB POWER GAMING (1.7 million subscribers) Amite Now Here (1.4 million subscribers) Starway (2.8 million subscribers) AmyyRoblox (2.4 million subscribers) Again Raz Vai (1.8 million subscribers) Cuentos Facinantes (4.8 million subscribers) MIRANHAINSANO (4.9 million subscribers) Sign in to access your portfolio
