Yahoo to face class action lawsuit

Yahoo will face a US class action lawsuit for allegedly accessing the content of emails sent to its mail users from non-Yahoo Mail accounts.
A Californian judge ruled that people who sent emails to or received emails from Yahoo Mail users from 2 October 2011 can sue the company as a group, granting it class action status.
There is estimated to be over one million members in the privacy lawsuit.
Yahoo is accused of using the data to boost advertising revenue.
The non-Yahoo Mail users said the company intercepted and analyzed their emails, along with attachments with the goal of creating "targeted advertising" for its 275 million mail subscribers.
Last year, nearly 80% of Yahoo's revenue came from its search and display advertising.
The judge also ruled that a group of holders of non-Yahoo accounts in California since 2 October 2012 may also sue as a group for privacy infringement.
The accusers sought an injunction banning Yahoo from allegedly spying on emails, along with damages.
In its defence, Yahoo argued that some of the plaintiffs continued to email Yahoo subscribers, despite being aware of Yahoo's activities and in doing so consented to Yahoo accessing their emails.
A class action lawsuit can make it easier for the group to receive larger damages and more wide-ranging resolutions at a lower cost.

GM CEO: Robot Cars Coming, but Don’t Hold Your Breath

Will we eventually see cars that fully drive themselves on the road? And if so, when?

That was the question that Walt Mossberg posed to GM CEO Mary Barry at the Code Conference in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif. “I absolutely see it,” she said. But when asked for a realistic time frame: “It will be a journey.”
She didn’t say how long it might take, but implied that she believes the wait will be long.
There’s a lot that has to happen both in the areas of infrastructure on the roads to support cars that drive themselves, and new laws at the federal and state level. “Autonomous is a word that scares a ton of people,” Barra said. “It’s coming but there’s a ton that needs to come together.”
In the shorter term she said consumers are more interested in “intelligent driving systems” that allow drivers to take their hands off the wheel and their feet off the pedals more than they do now. One feature includes a “super cruise” mode that’s coming to Cadillac cars next year.
“It’s farther out than some people are predicting.” And by people, she means Google, which is predicting self-driving cars will be widely seen on the roads within five years.

Code Conference 2015

© Provided by Recode Code Conference

It's Easier Than You Think To Track Your Facebook Friends

 

Want to creep out your friends with a map of their recent whereabouts? Well, if they have ever used Facebook Messenger and have left their location tracking within their phone on, you’re in luck.
A new Chrome extension called Marauder’s Map (aptly named after the magic map from Harry Potter) lets anyone pull the location data tied to individual messages sent via phone with location turned on and visualize it in a map.

Google Confirms ‘Buy Button’ Is Coming

 

 

 

Google’s next commerce effort will be a “buy button” to help people purchase products featured in its shopping ads, said chief business officer Omid Kordestani.

“There’s going to be a buy button. It’s going to be imminent,” Kordestani said onstage at the Code Conference Wednesday.
Kordestani described the product launch as a way to remove friction for users so they buy more things online. Some 90 percent of commerce is still offline, he noted.
Kordestani was Google’s first business hire and last October was tapped by CEO Larry Page to return to the leadership after a five-year break.
News of the buy button was first reported by the Wall Street Journal earlier this month. As Re/code’s Jason Del Rey described it, the button would appear on Google’s paid product listing ads. Shoppers who click on the ads on their phones will be directed to a Google webpage to make a purchase of that single item.
As Del Rey wrote,

A nagging issue for online retailers paying for PLAs is conversion — getting someone who clicked on a product image to complete the purchase. Google is positioning the experiment as a way to help retailers fix that by reducing the number of steps between viewing the ad and completing an order. It arrives shortly after Google introduced a series of ad enhancements inside mobile search in a bid to claim more of the transactions and ad dollars that have gravitated to rivals like Amazon and Facebook.

Lenovo’s new laptops are ready to scan your face in Windows 10

Lenovo has announced a pair of new mid-range laptops that are unremarkable apart from one detail. The Lenovo Z51 — a 15-inch device with a price tag starting at $499 — offers Intel's RealSense 3D camera as an optional extra. RealSense uses a trio of lenses (a conventional camera, an infrared camera, and an infrared laser) to measure depth, allowing users to control their laptop using hand gestures, or even scan objects for 3D printing. The camera costs an additional $100, but with a free upgrade to Windows 10 coming this summer (the Z51 ships with Windows 8.1), users will be able to sign in using their face as a password.
Prices start at $599 for the Z51 with RealSense
The rest of the specs on the Z51 and Z41 (the 14-inch version, which doesn't offer the option of RealSense) seem fairly standard. Both notebooks come with up to 16GB of RAM and a 5th generation Intel i7 processor, a 1080p resolution screen, and up to 1TB of storage — either as a hard disk drive or a solid state hybrid. Unfortunately, Lenovo has only published the highest specs for both devices and their lowest starting prices, making it difficult to get a full picture of what sort of value the two laptops offer. However, it does state that the $599 Z51 with RealSense comes with 8GB of RAM and an i5 processor.
The Chinese company also showed off the new ThinkPad 10 during its Lenovo Tech World event in Beijing today. This is the next generation of Lenovo's "business tablet" — a 10-inch Windows 10 device that comes with up to 128GB of internal storage and a pair of keyboard accessories to get work done on the move. There's an Intel Atom quad-core processor powering the thing, and Lenovo is promising a hearty 10 hours of battery life. Prices start at $549, though you'll have to spend at least an additional $110 for a keyboard accessory. As with Microsoft's Surface, we found that this extra was a must-have in one of the ThinkPad's predecessors.
© Provided by The Verge The Lenovo ThinkPad 10. (Lenovo)

The 9 most highly-anticipated features in Windows 10

Back in February, Business Insider's Steve Kovach declared that after years of being an Apple kind of guy, he was ready to love Microsoft Windows again.
"Even though we're months away from the final version, Windows 10 already feels seamless, friendly, familiar, and actually kind of fun to use," he wrote after trying Microsoft's free Windows 10 preview.
Now, we're a few months closer to the launch of Windows 10, and the anticipation is building.
In my own tests with Windows 10, there's a lot to like — I'm still not sure if it'll be enough to get me to switch from my own Mac and go Windows full-time, but there's a lot to like in Windows 10, and the heat is on.
Here are some of the coolest features you should be looking forward to in Windows 10.

Cortana, the digital assistant

© Provided by Business Insider Cortana, Microsoft's digital assistant (based off the character of the same name from the Halo video game series), has been available for Windows Phone for a while now.
But by building it in to Windows 10, it makes it a lot easier to get answers to simple questions, like "Hey Cortana, what's the weather today?" from the desktop — something that Apple's Siri can't do. Plus, since Cortana is coming to iOS and Android phones, too, it's a new way for your Windows computer to play nicely with your existing smartphone, whatever it happens to be.

Keeping Your Classic Tech Devices Running

What if planned obsolescence does not fit into your personal plans? Because of pragmatism, frugality, nostalgia or all of the above, some people just do not — or cannot — upgrade the latest version of a device or program, even when the manufacturer stops supporting its old products to focus on developing sleek new hardware and state-of-the-art software to sell.
For those who fall into that group, there’s good news. There are mechanics who can keep your gear going. Solutions include experts who will pay a visit to fix devices like iPods, as well as mail-in repair services. Plus there are a host of how-to sites so you can solve problems yourself.
Fans of the iPod Classic may feel particularly concerned by the obsolescence trend, especially since Apple quietly discontinued the model last year. If Genius Bar service at a nearby Apple Store is not an option, the company’s support site still offers battery replacement and repairs, but said services for “vintage and obsolete iPod products” were limited to California customers — leaving owners elsewhere to find their own way through an inevitable future of dying batteries, failing hard drives and other symptoms of electronic old age.