GREENGROUND

Indian financial services firm Paytm sent shockwaves through the industry on Wednesday after it disclosed that it plans to issue fewer personal loans under 50,000 Indian rupees ($600) in a move that has already started to rattle many fintech investors. Paytm’s move followed the RBI recently tightening norms for consumer loans and publicly expressing concerns
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Fast Travel Games brought several announcements to the UploadVR showcase, including its Vampire: The Masquerade game, Justice, for SteamVR.

Establishing commercial markets on the moon is going to require thinking a little differently. That’s DARPA’s hunch, anyway. DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) is the U.S. Department of Defense’s R&D arm, which has just selected fourteen companies to participate in a new study to develop technological frameworks for a lunar future. “The next decade
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A number of popular mobile password managers are inadvertently spilling user credentials due to a vulnerability in the autofill functionality of Android apps. The vulnerability, dubbed “AutoSpill,” can expose users’ saved credentials from mobile password managers by circumventing Android’s secure autofill mechanism, according to university researchers at the IIIT Hyderabad, who discovered the vulnerability and
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Ubisoft’s Rocksmith+ guitar-learning platform just got an update that’s sure to please ivory ticklers, as the app now teaches piano. A single subscription allows access to every instrument under Rocksmith’s umbrella, including acoustic guitar, electric guitar, electric bass and, now, piano.
The newly-updated Rocksmith+ already boasts 400 piano arrangements to practice, with at least 40 more arriving each month. These songs include pop hits like Elton John’s “Rocket Man”, Adele’s “Make You Feel My Love” and titles culled from a diverse array of genres, including classical to soundtracks and beyond. These piano-based compositions join over 7,000 pre-existing songs for guitar and bass players.

The app’s available for both mobile devices and PCs via the Ubisoft store, and the update lets you use a digital piano, keyboard or wired MIDI controller. It supports keybeds with 25 keys up to the full complement of 88 keys. You’ll have your choice of practice methods, as the app offers an interactive 3D interface or traditional sheet music. Also, you don’t need any extra gear to get going, like a dedicated microphone.
Reviews for the guitar and bass elements of Rocksmith+ have been mixed, with some publications praising the intuitive interface and others decrying the limited song selection. The app offers a free trial for a week, but subscriptions cost $15 per month, if you go with a monthly plan, or $100 per year. The free trial is only available for the yearly subscription, so exercise caution when signing up and be sure to set a reminder to cancel before the week is up if you aren’t jiving with the software.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ubisofts-rocksmith-guitar-learning-app-now-teaches-piano-184530282.html?src=rss

With the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) authorising what’s believed to be the first time a company can provide solar panels and batteries on a subscription model — without subscribers needing to pay a lump sum upfront — the stage could be set for a new boom in solar subscription services. This will provide useful
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U.S. senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) has warned in a letter to the Justice Department that unidentified governments are spying on Apple and Google phone users through their push notifications. The letter says his office received a tip last year that government agencies in foreign countries were “demanding” push notification records from the tech giants. Push
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Foreign governments likely spy on your smart phone usage, and now Senator Ron Wyden’s office is pushing for Apple and Google to reveal how exactly it works. Push notifications, the dings you get from apps calling your attention back to your phone, may be handed over from a company to government services if asked. But it appears the Department of Justice won’t let companies come clean about the practice. 
Push notifications don’t actually come straight from the app. Instead, they pass through the smart phone provider, like Apple for iPhones or Google for Androids, to deliver the notifications to your screen. This has created murky room for government surveillance. “Because Apple and Google deliver push notification data, they can be secretly compelled by governments to hand over this information,” Wyden wrote in the letter on Wednesday.
Apple claims it was suppressed from coming clean about this process, which is why Wyden’s letter specifically targets the Department of Justice. “In this case, the federal government prohibited us from sharing any information,” Apple said in a statement obtained by Reuters. “Now that this method has become public we are updating our transparency reporting to detail these kinds of requests.” Specifically, Wyden asks the DOJ to let Apple and Google tell customers and the general public about the demand for these app notification records. Apple and Google did not respond to a request for comment by the time of publication.
It’s even more complicated because apps can’t do much about it. Even if there’s an individual pledge for security, if an app delivers push notifications, it must use the Apple or Google system to do so. In theory, this means your private messaging could be shared with a foreign government if you’re getting push notifications from the app. That includes any metadata about the notification, too, like account information.
The revelation about push notifications come at a time when privacy and security have become a selling point. Companies advertise how they’ll keep your information safe, but as more loopholes come to light, it’s becoming harder to suss out what’s actually trustworthy. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apple-and-google-are-probably-spying-on-your-push-notifications-154543184.html?src=rss