Steam hits big security snafu in midst of winter sale

This isn’t something any company wants to happen to them, especially during such a busy season. Valve’s Steam gaming platform is experiencing a big security lapse as some users were able to access other people’s accounts. Some players reported they got to see things like email addresses, credit card information, and previous purchases. It’s more disturbing that this happened in the midst of the platform’s winter sale, which means more players are logged on and possibly seeing information you don’t want other people to see.

The glitch doesn’t seem to affect all users and it seems the Steam store is up and running already. But Valve hasn’t addressed the issue just yet so we can’t say what caused the issue.

Source: Kotaku | Via: Engadget

Google Inbox helps make replying easier with Smart Reply

You may or may not have noticed but Google’s Inbox email app on Android and iOS has a new feature that makes it easier for you to reply to messages. The Smart Reply technology is rather similar to canned phrases you send but it promises to use more “natural-sounding” language. This is able to do so because it scans and recognizes different message types and then suggests possible phrases to use. You can then just select the appropriate phrase, if typing one out gets too cumbersome, and then hit send. You can’t disable the feature at the moment but you can just tap into the message box and type in your own reply. Or you can edit the suggested replies to fit your needs.

How this works is it supposedly uses a “deep neural network that writes email” and it simply analyzes the message content while applying a complex set of programmed rules to create the response. It’s purely machine though and it uses a kind of artificial intelligence called machine learning to make its decisions. Google researchers emphasize that they follow strict privacy standards and no human reads your email.

Source: The New York Times

Twitter to take on trolls in its 10th year

As the social network/microblogging site Twitter enters its 10^th year, it promises to clamp down on trolls as they affect the legitimacy of the site in the online news market. Bruce Daisley, Twitter’s European head, said they are committed to cleansing its site as it enters a milestone year. They reportedly plan to introduce measures that will spell out to trolls how their choices affect not just the online but offline world as well. They want victims to expose their abusers and publish their names to help the brand get rid of these trolls and improve their brand.

The company’s value is reportedly only a fraction of that of Facebook at £22bn. Facebook’s is currently valued at £167bn.

Source: The Guardian

Introducing 'Sesame Street' on HBO

Back in August, Sesame Workshop struck a deal with HBO to allow them to host the next five seasons of the iconic children's program. Now, we get to see what the new move has done to Sesame Street. We're glad to see it hasn't really changed much. We're having trouble embedding the trailer but you can watch it here. The trailer does show some big stars like Pharell, Tina Fey, and Jon Hamm celebrating the move. And of course we get a Star Wars skit.

The show will premiere on the service on January 16th with back-to-back, 30-minute episodes. The workshop is also planning more episodes for the year and they're targetting 35 episodes, which will be available on PBS in the US nine months after they air on HBO. Aside from that, the deal includes two new spinoff series and over 150 old Sesame Street episodes.

Source: The Verge