Latest news with #messenger
New York Times
01-08-2025
- New York Times
The Best Things to Get for Your New Laptop
Connie Park/NYT Wirecutter This effortlessly cool, feature-packed bag excels in both form and function. Every laptop needs a good bag. Elegant form and utilitarian features (such as a magnetic top closure and a plethora of pockets) make this wear-anywhere bag look more pricey than it is. Read more about it in our guide to the best laptop backpacks. Marki Williams/NYT Wirecutter This waxed-canvas messenger has a distinctive vintage aesthetic, and its smooth nylon shoulder strap is extra-comfy. $119 from WaterField Designs At once stylish and sturdy, this bag transitions seamlessly between the office and more casual settings. Read more about it in our guide to our favorite messenger bags. Michael Hession/NYT Wirecutter This versatile case is roomy, waterproof, and sharp-looking—plus, it has lots of handy pockets. The Cary is comfortable to tote, has an impressive capacity, and looks good dressed up or down. Read more about it in our guide to the best briefcases. Michael Hession/NYT Wirecutter This simple, soft sleeve comes in an almost limitless number of designs, and it's constructed with stiff canvas-style polyester, which protects against dust, scratches, and impact. A sleeve offers more protection for your laptop and allows you to carry it in any bag that lacks a dedicated computer compartment. Featuring the designs of countless artists, laptop sleeves sold by Society6 have a sturdy construction that should protect your laptop from bumps. Read more about it in our guide to the best laptop sleeves. Michael Hession/NYT Wirecutter This affordable sleeve fits laptops better and offers more protection than most other similarly priced options. It has thick, cushioned corners and a plushly protective interior that protects your laptop from most drops, spills, and scratches. Read more about it in our guide to the best laptop sleeves. Marki Williams/NYT Wirecutter If you have data on your laptop, you need to back it up, and not just to the cloud. This portable hard drive has the largest capacity available among portable drives, and it's one of the most affordable drives we considered with this much storage. It works with both Windows computers and Macs, and it comes with USB-C and USB-A connectors and a three-year warranty. Read more about it in our guide to the best external hard drive. Michael Hession/NYT Wirecutter This portable SSD is the best because it's reliable, fast, and reasonably priced, and like most of the portable SSDs we tested, it's compact enough to partly hide under a stack of sticky notes. Read more about it in our guide to the best portable SSD. Marki Williams/NYT Wirecutter With its flexible pricing options, IDrive lets you back up essential files for a low price or an enormous collection of large files for more. $70 from iDrive (per year, 5 TB) If you have only one backup, you don't have a backup. IDrive is easy to set up, and it backs up your files quickly. It offers flexible pricing, so you don't overpay for storage you don't need. Read more about it in our guide to the best online cloud backup services. Michael Hession/NYT Wirecutter A good pair of headphones sounds better than the speakers on your laptop, helps you focus by blocking outside noise, and keeps your study music, plane-movie dialogue, or game sounds private. These headphones deliver customizable sound, impressive noise cancellation, stellar call clarity, and long battery life. Read more about it in our guide to the best Bluetooth wireless headphones. Michael Hession/NYT Wirecutter Our favorite wireless earbuds provide a great fit and excellent-sounding drivers that keep up with high and low frequencies alike. Read more about it in our guide to the best wireless Bluetooth earbuds. Michael Hession/NYT Wirecutter This inexpensive, neutral-sounding pair of headphones is perfect for music, recording, or film students, performers doing session work, podcasters, videographers who need to monitor sound, and folks building up their sound booth — or, really, anyone who wants great-sounding headphones for less than $100. Read more about it in our guide to the best audiophile headphones. Marki Williams/NYT Wirecutter These earbuds have a neutral sound profile and a sturdy, detachable cable with no built-in remote or microphone. This is a comfortable pair of earbuds with a neutral sound that should have broad appeal. Read more about it in our guide to the best wired earbuds. Connie Park/NYT Wirecutter With a sound that's neither too trebly nor too bass-heavy, the Linsoul Tin HiFi T3 Plus set is a great entry point for the discerning music fan who prefers wired earbuds. Pleasing sound, comfortable fit, and a replaceable cable make this affordable pair a great entry point. Read more about it in our guide to the best wired earbuds.
The Independent
22-07-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
Putin's ‘digital gulag': Inside the Kremlin's attempt to construct a spy app to snoop on Russians
In just two months, every new digital device in Russia will come equipped with a brand new messenger app, named Max. Beneath its playful white-and-blue logo lies software that experts believe could allow the Kremlin to dramatically expand its capacity to spy on the Russian public. The app, launched in March by Russian tech company VK, will be installed on every new device sold in Russia from September this year. But there are fears it will work as a 'spy programme', allowing Russia's FSB security service to establish a rigid surveillance programme. The app will provide not only a space for messaging and video calls, but will be a broader information system with access to government services and mobile payments, analysts told The Independent. With servers based in Russia, Max will be subject to Russian law, which grants the FSB to have access to certain materials. WhatsApp - the global messenger app used by more than 70 per cent of Russians - is 'highly likely' to be banned as Moscow looks to push people towards using Max, Mark Galeotti, a veteran observer of Russian security and politics and director of Mayak Intelligence, told The Independent. Russian opposition journalist Andrey Okun said Max would be central to the Kremlin's dream of constructing a 'digital gulag'. Writing for the Republic website, he said in comments reported by The Times: 'This will be a sterile space in which the authorities have complete control over the leisure time, motives and thoughts of citizens.' But experts on Russian technology and surveillance say that the introduction of the app, which is said to have been developed on Vladimir Putin's orders, is only the latest step in repeated measures to ramp up its ability to monitor the entire Russian online sphere. 'This is a normalisation of Russia's surveillance of its internet use… it's part of a long, long process,' Keir Giles, author of Russia's War on Everybody, told The Independent. ' The perceived threat from Western communications technology is not something that's new. It's something that has always been a focus for the Russian security services.' Moscow's security industry has for decades been frustrated by Russian citizens using foreign software such as Google, Skype and Hotmail, all of which made it much more difficult to read their messages, Mr Giles explained. Western communications technologies have always been perceived as a threat by Russian security services. After years of trying to clamp down on services such as WhatsApp, the latest move to push Russians towards Max is 'really just tidying up at this point', he added. Popular apps such as WhatsApp - a messenger owned by Meta, which is designated as an extremist organisation by Russia - are now facing a potential ban. Mr Giles said the messenger app has been an 'anomaly' in avoiding the Russian crackdown so far, likely due to its widespread use across the country. Figures show it is used by more than 70 per cent of people in Russia. 'It would be disruptive and unpopular to [ban it] without having a replacement available,' Mr Giles added. Prof Galeotti said: 'The Russian state looks keen to be using sticks rather than carrots by either banning or putting restrictions on WhatsApp and possibly also [messaging service] Telegram in the future, just to kind of drive people towards Max. 'Whether it's a complete ban or whether it's just simply sort of slowdowns and restrictions, I think WhatsApp is going to find itself under real pressure in Russia.' Pushing users towards Max is unlikely to have a significant impact on Russian opposition and activism against the government, Prof Galeotti explained, because they tend to avoid WhatsApp in favour of 'more seriously secure' apps such as Proton Mail and Signal. But it may prompt a significant change in 'casual dissent', he added. 'That's where it might have a freezing effect: people who might be under other circumstances willing to send messages with slightly scurrilous content about the Kremlin might think twice.' Russia previously attempted to block the Telegram messaging app in 2018. But the attempt failed, and did not practically affect the availability of Telegram in Russia, leading it to be officially unblocked two years later. But Mikhail Klimarev, the head of Russia's Internet Protection Society, told The Times that he expected Moscow to renew attempts to ban it by the end of the year.
