News

More than 22,000 signed up for labor to use free Wi-Fi

Published

July 17, 2017

Daniel Morial

Do you fully read the terms and conditions before ticking the check box and accepting it? You really should because more than 22,000 people in Europe just unknowingly signed up for menial labor just to be able to check social media, look up something on Google, or maybe find directions.

A Manchester-based Wi-Fi hotspot company called Purple inserted a “Community Service Clause” into its terms of service agreement. This additional clause states that anyone who accepts it is required to do 1,000 hours of community service. According to their blog post, this includes the following:

Cleansing local parks of animal waste
Providing hugs to stray cats and dogs
Manually relieving sewer blockages
Cleaning portable lavatories at local festivals and events
Painting snail shells to brighten up their existence
Scraping chewing gum off the streets

While a number of innocent free Wi-Fi users agreed to this, Purple said that they don’t plan to push it (thankfully!). All users were in for a prize if they pointed out the unusual terms, but only one flagged it up. That’s 0.000045 percent of the total users who agreed to it.

Do not fear as it’s just a campaign to raise awareness about properly reading the terms of service, and also a stunt to announce that they are the first Wi-Fi provider in Europe to comply with the General Data Protection Regulation. The GPDR guidelines were created to simplify terms and conditions and provide transparency about the use of personal data.

The GPDR guidelines are only applicable for countries that are members of the European Union.

So, the next time you connect to a free Wi-Fi service, or any free service that wants your personal data in exchange, think twice. Or maybe, read the fine print first.

SEE MORE: Hundreds of iPhones, thousands of SIM cards used in Thailand click farm

Image credit: Clean Delaware

News

Apple, Xiaomi lead wearable market during the start of 2018

Wearables are not dead!

Published

May 24, 2018

Daniel Morial

Smartwatches may not be as in demand as smartphones, but the top smartphone manufacturers are also in the lead in the wearable market. We’re talking about Apple and Xiaomi which both garnered 18 percent of the market share according to the latest data from Canalys.

Apple leads the whole wearable market during the first quarter of 2018 with 3.8 million shipments and most of these are the latest Watch Series 3. Xiaomi is close behind with 3.7 million shipments and their most popular watches are the basic Mi Band models.

Trailing behind is Fitbit with an 11 percent market share followed by Garmin with 7 percent. Huawei also made a significant 6 percent cut in the pie.

We might not feel it, but wearable shipments grew 35 percent compared to the same quarter last year with a total 20.5 million units. Full-blown smartwatches managed to grab 80 percent of the total revenue despite managing just 43 percent of the overall shipments.

It looks like the price is not an issue among wearable customers, especially for Apple clients. The Cupertino company’s key smartwatch is the LTE-enabled Watch 3 series which adds a new revenue stream because of the data subscription it requires.

During the same quarter, Apple has 59 percent of the cellular-enabled smartwatch market while Garmin is the second smartwatch vendor.

Gaming

Acer Predator Helios 500 can overclock its Core i9 and GTX 1070 chips

Predator Helios 300 Special Edition gets launched as well

Published

May 24, 2018

Marvin Velasco

Acer is well known for unleashing some of the most unreal gaming notebooks we’ve ever seen. And while it’s difficult to top the Predator Triton 700 and 21 X, the company is certainly continuing to turn heads with its newest Helios lineup.

First up is the Predator Helios 500, which is a follow-up to the Helios 300 we saw launched around this time last year. Acer is calling this new model “exceptionally powerful” and I can’t argue with that.

Both its Intel Core i9 and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 chips are overclockable. They’re already fast on stock speeds, so being able to go past their limits is something mobile gamers will wholeheartedly enjoy. On top of that, the Helios 500 can be fitted with Intel’s Optane memory, providing users with the shortest of load times. If that’s not enough, up to 64GB of RAM can be installed, too.

To make the most of the high-end components, the 17.3-inch IPS LCD (available in UHD or Full HD) can manage a 144Hz refresh rate along with NVIDIA’s G-Sync tech to prevent annoying instances of stuttering and tearing during intense gameplay. And so that things stay cool, the brand’s signature AeroBlade 3D metal fans are once again employed.

Since this is a gaming machine, you get the usual gamer essentials, including a backlit RGB keyboard and host of ports such as Thunderbolt 3 and HDMI 2.0.

Interested? The Helios 500 will go for US$ 1,999 in North America starting June, EUR 1,999 in EMEA (Europe, the Middle East, and Africa) beginning this month, and CNY 15,999 in China in June. Specific configurations depend per region.

Going back to the Helios 300 mentioned earlier, there’s now a Special Edition of the year-old gaming laptop. What’s different this time is the all-white aluminum chassis with gold trim — quite a unique design choice that stands out in the sea of black gaming notebooks.

It also comes with updated specs, namely an 8th-generation Core i7 processor coupled with up to 16GB of RAM (which you could still push to 32GB), 512GB SSD, Intel Optane memory, and a GTX 1060. The display is slightly smaller than its larger counterpart at 15.6 inches, but the Full HD IPS panel can handle a refresh rate of 144Hz, as well. Two AeroBlade fans are inside to keep everything in order.

The Helios 300’s regional pricing and availability will be disclosed soon.

Laptops

The new Swift 5 from Acer is a lightweight 15-inch notebook

A large notebook for people on the go

Published

May 24, 2018

Daniel Morial

One of Acer’s newest devices is the 2018 version of the Swift 5 which now comes in a bigger 15-inch variant with thinner screen bezels. The new Swift 5 is also one of the lightest notebooks in its class.

When Acer unveiled the new Swift 5, they wanted to sell it to users who want a notebook with superb portability, solid performance, and a beautiful design. The magnesium alloy body of the new laptop weighs less than 1kg, making it lighter than your typical 15-inch laptop.

To be specific, the Swift 5 has a 15.6-inch display with a Full HD resolution. It’s an IPS LCD touchscreen with narrow bezels that gives the laptop an impressive 87.6 percent screen-to-body ratio. Good thing they didn’t put the webcam in an awkward position just to achieve this.

The laptop is powered by the latest 8th-gen Intel Core processors with up to 16GB of DDR4 memory and 1TB of SSD storage. Despite being a thin notebook, the new Swift 5 still sports a full-size USB 3.1 port, HDMI port, and an SD card reader. It also has a USB-C port for 10Gb/s data transfer, display output, and charging.