TecQ: Escobar Phone, WhatsApp Pay, End of BlackBerry Phones & More
TecQ is our weekly round-up of the top technology stories.
TecQ is our weekly round up of the technology stories
1. Major Data Breach Exposes Card Details of Half a Million Indians
A cybersecurity company on Friday revealed that a database of over 460,000 payment card records has been posted on one of the most popular darknet card shops, on 5 February.
The worrying bit about the report shared by a Singapore-based firm called Group IB is that over 98 percent of records detected belonged to some of the biggest Indian banks. And it also mentions the market value of this database on the dark web is estimated at more than $4.2 million. The source of this batch currently remains unknown.
This is the second major incident to have been reported in less than six months involving data of Indian debit or credit card users. Interestingly, in both the incidents, the common pattern has been the same darknet card shop called the Joker’s Stash.
Read the story here for more details.
2. BlackBerry Phones May Die As TCL Will Stop Production by August
If you’ve been wondering about the future of BlackBerry phones and whether we will be seeing another device from the company, the chances look slim. BlackBerry on Monday confirmed that 31 August 2020 onwards, TCL, its licensed partner will no longer be manufacturing or selling BlackBerry-branded mobile devices.
The Canadian mobile giant mentioned this through its tweet, which also puts a question mark about the future of BlackBerry phones for the consumers.
The last BlackBerry phone was launched in 2018, and it’s safe to say the Android-powered device didn’t garner a lot of attention from the market as well as the sellers. According to the latest IDC data on mobile phone market share, BlackBerry doesn’t even get a mention, which paints a gloomy picture for the brand.
Read the story here.
3. Google Introduces New Logo & Features to Mark 15th Anniversary
Google Maps has unveiled a new look and product updates to mark its journey of mapping the world over the past 15 years.
More than 1 billion people now turn to Google Maps to see and explore the world, the company said.
The new Google Maps icon is based on a key part of the tool since the very beginning— the pin — and represents the shift it has made from getting people to their destination to also helping them discover new places and experiences.
Read the story here.
4. Is the Escobar Foldable Phone Another Scam Like Freedom 251?
Notorious Columbian drug lord Pablo Escobar’s brother Roberto De Jesus Escobar Gaviria has launched a Foldable smartphone dubbed the Escobar Fold 2 which is strikingly similar to the Samsung Galaxy Fold.
The company has bundled the phone with flagship-level specifications which match the Galaxy Fold at just $399 which is one-fifth of what the actual Samsung Galaxy Fold costs.
Since this bargain seems too good to be true, international media believes this to be a scam.
Remember the Freedom 251 smartphone? The smartphone which was supposedly being sold for Rs 251 in India. Seemingly even that was too good to be true and the whole thing turned out to be a scam.
Read the full story here.
5. WhatsApp Pay Returns to India, Gets NPCI Nod After 2 Years: Report
WhatsApp Pay is coming back to India.
The National Payments Corporation of India (NCPI) has given its nod to WhatsApp’s parent company Facebook for launching the payments feature in India, a Business Standard report says.
The Business Standard report states that WhatsApp Pay will be rolled out in a phased manner in India. "The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has granted WhatsApp a license to operate its digital payment service in a phased manner," the Business Standard quoted an RBI executive.
Read the story here.
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