Apple announced Swift 5.5 in June at its annual developer conference WWDC with headline features including ‘Swift Concurrency’ for asynchronous and concurrent programming, improved package management and distribution, and standard library packages. One notable change was that developers can now grab packages from a search screen in Xcode, Apple’s IDE or integrated development environment. So-called “package collections”, or selected lists of packages, make it easier to distribute and consume collections of packages for specific uses....

Still, the choice of landline, broadband, or cellular plans illustrates the kind of variety and personalization that Protect America offers, and other home security companies don’t. And while you may pay more than the advertised price to take advantage of Protect America’s options – like the cellular plan required to control your system by app – money-saving elements are also built into the Protect America pricing structure. For example, you don’t pay for any home security equipment – you just pay for the monitoring plan – and that equipment comes with a limited lifetime warranty....

The report sent Qualtrics stock up about 2% in late trading. “It was an outstanding quarter for us,” said CEO Zig Serafin in an interview with ZDNet via telephone. “What you’re seeing is that the technology that we provide has never been more relevant, more impactful.” Serafin pointed to evidence of that relevance in the company’s 38% rate of revenue growth, year over year, and the company’s 48% rate of subscription revenue growth....

The financially motivated ransomware attacks target CVE-2021-44228, the original Log4Shell flaw disclosed on December 9, and mark one new threat posed by the critical vulnerability that affects internet-facing software, systems and devices where vulnerable versions of the Java-based Log4j application error-logging component are present. “As early as January 4, attackers started exploiting the CVE-2021-44228 vulnerability in internet-facing systems running VMware Horizon. Our investigation shows that successful intrusions in these campaigns led to the deployment of the NightSky ransomware,” Microsoft notes in an update to its recommendations for mitigating Log4Shell....

Initial Access Brokers (IABs) are individuals or groups who have managed to quietly obtain access to a corporate network or system through means including, but not limited to, stolen credentials, brute-force attacks, or by exploiting vulnerabilities. In recent years, ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) groups have taken an interest in these brokers, as by employing them directly or paying them a fee in return for access to a target system, they are able to avoid the first step of intrusion: the time-consuming process required to find a vulnerable endpoint....

We’ve seen evidence of this in the years-long success of Logitech’s G502 Hero, a 120g+ model that, to this day, includes extra weights to make it even heavier. The G502 line also just happens to be one of the Basilisk line’s closest competitors. Until recently, it had one very important leg up on its reptilian competition: its versatile free-spinning scroll wheel. That changed with the introduction of Razer’s own free-spinning wheel, the HyperScroll tilt wheel, in the corded Razer Basilisk V3 mouse....

With the survey, PwC explores why a gap exists between the C-suite’s perceived value in the cloud and the realized value, as well as how to close that gap. It starts with aligning objectives – the survey shows that, based on their role, executives have different ideas about the goals they aim to achieve with cloud computing. “As the cloud continues to change the digital fabric of so many organizations, our clients that get it right are those that have focused investment on those capabilities which differentiate them in the marketplace, and unlock value within their industry,” Jenny Koehler, US Deputy Advisory Leader for PwC, said in a statement to ZDNet....

The novel use of Twitter’s API scores S&P 500 Index components based on bullish and bearish Tweets. The scoring is done by aggregating Twitter $cashtags such as $WMT, $MSFT and $AMZN. Twitter overhauls developer platform with API v2 upgrades, expanded access. So far, the S&P 500 Twitter Sentiment Index Series will include: A sentiment index that measures the performance of 200 S&P 500 constituents with the highest sentiment scores. Index constituents are float-adjusted market-capitalization-weighted....

The South Korean tech giant said on Thursday that it posted 77.2 trillion won in revenue and 14.1 trillion won in operating profit during the quarter. The revenue figure is Samsung’s highest to date for the second quarter while operating profit increased 12% from a year ago. The Device Solutions Division, the company’s name for its chip division, contributed 9.98 trillion won in operating profit, more than two-thirds of the total quarterly operating profit....

Samsung announced the new Repair Mode on its Korean press release page, which was spotted by SamMobile. This is a potentially very useful privacy feature for those times when a customer gives someone else physical access to their device. It is unavoidable when repairs are needed and an act of faith that the people fixing your phone — which is also your main camera and key storage device — only do the required repairs and nothing more....

In a perspective paper published in Nature Electronics, the researchers from the partnering organisations proposed that the brain’s neuronal connection map could be copied using nanoelectrode array. They specified that the nanoelectrode array could be used to record the electrical signals produced by the large number of neurons found in the brain. The recordings could then be used to inform the neuronal map by indicating where neurons connect with one another and how strong the connections are, the researchers claimed....

For only $250, you can get a slim soundbar with Wireless Dolby Atmos – the first of its kind to have a wireless Dolby connection. Plus, it offers DTS Virtual:X to deliver 3D sound for your movies and your home. Its design incorporates four woofers and three tweeters to deliver solid audio to your home. Because it’s Samsung’s signature Q Symphony technology, you’ll get perfectly synchronized sound that’s deep and rich for your movie experience....

This smart yoga mat uses a built-in sensor layer to track your yoga postures while you’re working on your routine. When you’re off on your downward dog, the mat will let you know to correct your posture. Don’t need that handy Vision feature? You can also turn it off. It comes with a foldable cell phone/tablet holder so you can take advantage of the three months of free membership to the Yogifi app....

Teracube founder and CEO Sharad Mittal set out to solve that problem. Teracube is a phone composed of sustainable, ethically-sourced materials made by factories with the best labor conditions, that comes with a four-year warranty. Successfully funded on Kickstarter, it’s significantly more budget-friendly than new Apple or Android phones, and, thanks to the warranty and cheaper repairs, it stays with you for longer, reducing e-waste. That also means you won’t have to spend money on an expensive upgrade or replacement if something happens to your phone outside of the warranty....

The Muse S retails typically for $399. With the sale, you can get the Muse S for $340, saving you $59 on the device. It provides users a host of great features, including the ability to track your breathing to help manage stressors during meditation. You can even wear it to bed at night with its ability to provide “digital sleeping pills.” Using the brain waves that the headband tracks, it can signal to your brain that it’s time to go to sleep and stay asleep....

With hybrid work continuing to gain traction, organisations must adapt or risk losing the ability to attract and retain talent, said Geraldine Kor, Telstra’s South Asia managing director. She noted that the shift had introduced challenges for companies in terms of delivering meaningful employee experiences. “Virtual and remote onboarding processes, for instance, haven’t necessarily evolved with this new way of working,” Kor told ZDNET. “Companies need to understand how to navigate these challenges to create a positive experience for new starters....

A home delivery service would be introduced for new users of the TraceTogether wearable device, as part of “continuous effort to support” the nation’s public health requirements, said the Smart Nation and Digital Government Group (SNDGG) in a statement Wednesday. The government agency said more vending machines to issue replacement tokens also would be deployed progressively at more than 40 shopping malls, particularly those with high traffic, as well as all 108 community centres across the island, in the coming week....

When I met with Sony to discuss the new headset, the first thing that struck me was that I didn’t have to stumble across a host of letters and numbers in the name. If you aren’t a fan of saying you own the WF-1000XM4 or the WH-1000XM4, then you will be pleased to hear that the new Sony earbuds are simply named the LinkBuds. The LinkBuds name comes from linking the online and offline worlds, but before I was given the press release, I thought the name referred to the form factor that reminds me of two links in a chain....

The average consumer in the region was estimated to spend $381 online this year, compared to $238 last year. This figure was further projected to hit $671 in 2026, according to the fourth iteration of an annual study conducted by Bain & Company and commissioned by Facebook. The survey polled 16,706 consumers across six Southeast Asian markets including Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. E-commerce GMV in the region would reach $132 billion by end of this year, 1....

Also read: Databricks ups AI ante with new AutoML engine and feature storeCloudera’s MLOps platform brings governance and management to data science pipelinesCloudera Machine Learning MLOps suite generally available as it aims to manage models, analytics ZDNet spoke with Spell’s head of marketing, Tim Negris as well as its CEO and co-founder, Serkan Piantino (who previously served as Director of Engineering at Facebook AI Research, and who opened Facebook’s New York City office)....