Tesla issues largest voluntary recall with the Model S for power steering issues

Tesla is taking a proactive stance and recalling 123,000 Model S vehicles built before April 2016 over a power steering issue. The automaker emailed customers saying none of the other models are affected by this issue and there are no injuries or crashes reported in connection with this issue. In the email, Tesla said they’ve “observed excessive corrosion in the power steering bolts” and the issue seems more prevalent in colder climates where road salt is used.

“If the bolts fail, the driver is still able to steer the car, but increased force is required due to loss or reduction of power assist,” Tesla wrote in the email to customers. “This primarily makes the car harder to drive at low speeds and for parallel parking, but does not materially affect control at high speed, where only small steering wheel force is needed.” But Tesla assures Model S owners that they don’t have to stop driving their cars if they haven’t experienced issues. And they would let Model S owners know when a retrofit for their car is available in their area. It’ll take around an hour to install. It is the company's biggest recall, affecting around half of the Model S vehicles built to date. In 2015, Tesla needed to recall 90,000 Model S cars for a seat belt issue, and in the following year, 53,000 Model S and X cars had to have their parking brakes replaced.

Source: The Verge

Samsung adds GIF support to its Always On Display

Here’s a superfluous feature that some of you might like. Samsung is bringing in one more personalization option to its Always On Display. You can now show GIFs on the screen when your phone is asleep. There are limitations to make sure you don’t go through your battery while using this feature. There’s a maximum length for the GIF you select from your photo library and it’ll only play once. But you can double tap on the GIF to trigger one more loop. This option comes with version 3.2.26.4.

Before this Always On Display will show things like time, notifications, and remaining battery percentage. You can change things like colors and clock style and in the past couple of years, Samsung even let you choose either preloaded images or your own photo to appear here as well. It seems GIFs are just the next evolution… or not. Let us know if this is something you’re planning to use.

Source: Android Police

Under Armour says data of 150 million MyFitnessPal users has been compromised

Sporting goods brand Under Armour says that 150 million user accounts of its MyFitnessPal app and service have been compromised and has asked that users with accounts and passwords on the service change passwords on other services is they are using these. Not a good look for a service that's trying to compete with the likes of Fitbit of Apple in the highly competitive fitness app space. MyFitnessPal tracks exercise and diet for a more holistic picture of a user's health.

MyFitnessPal customers got a rude awakening from Under Armour with an email stating user account information involved in the breach includes user names, email addresses, and hashed passwords, but no financial information like credit card numbers or government or identifiers like social security numbers. It seems no service is safe as millions are still reeling from the Cambridge Analytica fiasco. Companies need to do a better job at protecting user data, it needs to be a priority, otherwise the resulting loss of goodwill and trust will result in users abandoning these services in droves.

iOS 11.3 now available with battery tool, AR experiences and new Animoji

Apple has released a new major update to iOS for the iPhone and iPad. iOS 11.3 adds a battery monitoring feature which determines battery health. This is specially important for older iPhones experiencing throttling and shutdown issues.

Also available in this new update are additional Animoji characters including a lion and a dragon. Apple has also added a lot of functionality under the hood. This includes a Health Records feature for US users, Business Chat (also limited to the US), which makes it possible to communicate with people (not bots) in a business. Another timely update focuses on Data and Privacy which bolsters the security of user data

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