Facebook will warn you if governments are spying on you!

A new tool from the social network will notify you if you are being targeted by 'state-sponsored actors' and help you secure your account

                             

In a move to take security more seriously, Facebook has said it will roll out a new feature that warns users if they are being spied on by government agents like the NSA or GCHQ.

Chief Security Officer Alex Stamos wrote in a Facebook blog, "Starting today, we will notify you if we believe your account has been targeted or compromised by an attacker suspected of working on behalf of a nation-state."

This is what the notification looks like.

Facebook doesn't specify exactly how it identifies such perpetrators. Stamos said, “To protect the integrity of our methods and processes, we often won't be able to explain how we attribute certain attacks to suspected attackers.” He also said, “We plan to use this warning only in situations where the evidence strongly supports our conclusion."

If users get the notification, the company recommends rebuilding or replacing systems that have been infected by malware.

Additionally, turning on login approvals is a good practice to help keep other individuals from logging into other users' accounts. Whenever accounts are accessed via new browsers or devices, Facebook will send codes to users' phones.

Facebook hopes the notification will help those who want to protect their data, according to Stamos. In addition, it promises it will constantly enhance its capability to detect and prevent attacks against its users.

The announcement comes at a time when Chinese President Xi Jinping told U.S President Barack Obama that his country would not "knowingly support" cyber theft and promised to abide by "norms of behaviour" in cyberspace. Facebook's new tool could cause some awkwardness if it starts pointing fingers at foreign governments. Mr. Xi arrives in the UK today for a four-day visit.

Best of luck Microsoft, but the Surface Book isn't going to save the PC

Microsoft has unveiled the pinnacle of laptop design as the format faces a terminal, and possibly unstoppable, decline

                          

Three things happened in the space of two days last week that explain perfectly the state of the market for personal computers.

On Wednesday morning, at a glamorous Apple-style event in New York,Microsoft unveiled its first laptop, a breathtaking combination of design and function called the Surface Book that the company, without a hint of humility, dubbed “the fastest laptop on any planet”.

Then just a few hours later, it emerged that Dell, a computer hardware giant with its better days behind it, was in talks with data storage company EMC over a $60bn deal that would be the biggest technology takeover in history.

And finally on Thursday, IDC, a research company that tracks worldwide sales of tech products, said that sales of PCs in the third quarter of the year had fallen 10.8pc against the same quarter a year ago, a much worse decline than expected.

To understand these events, it is best to look at them in reverse-chronological order. First, the IDC figures. Sales of PCs – laptops and desktop computers combined – have been on a downward trend since 2012 after a decade of unbroken growth, and now sit at roughly 2007 levels.

Reasons for this include stretched corporate IT budgets, diminishing returns from upgrades and Microsoft’s lacklustre software releases, but the main factor has been the rise of mobile. Touchscreen smartphones and tablets have redefined personal technology, combining the internet with portability and ease-of-use to become the dominant platform.

This brings us to Dell. Once the world’s biggest PC manufacturer, whose low-cost manufacturing and fashionable designs allowed it to disrupt lumbering giants such as Compaq in the 1990s, it has suffered more than most from the decline of the industry. In 2013, its founder, Michael Dell,took it into private ownership, saying a radical strategy to turn it from a hardware company into an enterprise-focused services group would be easier out of the public glare.

Buying EMC, a move that reports suggest could be announced this week, is the clearest manifestation of this. “Selling PCs isn’t working for us, we need to try something else,” the company is saying.

Similar things are happening at HP, which is splitting into two next month to free its growing data and infrastructure unit from its declining hardware operation, and Lenovo, which bought Motorola’s mobile business from Google last year. In other words, the world’s PC manufacturers are getting ready for the demise of the PC.

More than 7m iPhone 6s models have been activated in China

                         

Apple's popularity within China shows no sign of slowing, after more than 7m new iPhone 6s and 6s Plus models were activated within days of going on sale, new data has found.

More than 5.5m iPhone 6s units and 1.63m iPhone 6s Plus phones were activated by October 11, after the new iPhones went on sale at the end of September, according to Chinese data monitoring firm TalkingData.

The iPhone 6s sale marked the first time China acted as a launch country for the new generation of phones. Previously, customers in China had to wait several weeks or months before the new models were approved for sale.

The phones swiftly shifted more than 13m units within three days of availability, easily surpassing last year's 10m models within the same period. Of the 13m sales, China is estimated to have accounted for between 2 and 2.5 million unit sales, meaning non-China sales rose by between 5 per cent and 10 per cent, according to analysts FBR & Co.

The phenomenal popularity of the iPhone in China is particualarly interesting when viewed against the cooling wider market - smartphone sales in the country fell for the first time in August by 4pc year-on-year.

TalkingData claims the number of activated iPhone 6s phones actually fell slightly compared to figures for the iPhone 6, witnessing a drop of 14.6pc.

Of all the iOS devices within China, the iPhone 6 is the most popular, it said, accounting for around 23.8pc of all devices, followed by the iPhone 5s at 18.8pc and the iPhone 6 Plus at 16.9pc. The iPhone 6s edged into the top 10 devices at number eight, equating to 1.8pc.

Native brands including Huawei and Xiaomi are also extremely popular across the country, and are proving stiff competition to more established brands including Samsung, Microsoft and BlackBerry.

Google's Android operating system was running on 78pc of smartphones in China during August, compared to Apple's iOS system's 19pc, according to Kantar.

Tesla Autopilot Mode Will Let Car Switch Lanes

                        

Electric car company Tesla has launched an autopilot mode that will let a vehicle change lanes by itself.

Chief executive Elon Musk said the Model S and the new Model X will be able to automatically steer, change lanes, and adjust speed in response to traffic.

They can also find a parking spot and parallel park.

While other car makers such as Mercedes, Audi and Volvo have their own semi-autonomous systems, lane-changing is an industry first.

Cameras, sensors and mapping data will be used to navigate, and the update will be available via an on-board software update to customers who paid for the full autopilot system.

But he warned drivers to exercise caution when using it.

He said: "It should not hit pedestrians, hopefully. It should handle them well. The driver cannot abdicate responsibility. That will come at some point in the future.

"It can see and sense cyclists and pedestrians. It should brake before hitting them. But I wouldn't want to say today, don't worry about it."

A future update could see cars being able to exit and enter garages when summoned by the owner.

Mr Musk said fully autonomous, hands-free driving is at least three years away.

APPLE PAY COMING SOON TO A STARBUCKS NEAR YOU!

Finally, one of the most overlapping Venn diagrams in the world, with Starbucks drinkers in one circle and potential Apple Pay users in the other, will officially and fully merge. Starbucks and Apple have announced that very soon that pumpkin spice latte will be buyable with Apple Pay.

Further bonus, if that doesn’t quite fill you up, Apple Pay is also extending into KFC and Chili’s, so the whole experience can be rounded off by a bucket of fried chicken or a guacamole burger as needed.

The news came care of Apple Pay’s vice president, Jennifer Bailey, who announced the Starbucks integration, along with the others, at the annual Code/Mobile conference in San Francisco.

“I have to say, in the last year of working on Apple Pay, we’ve seen a sea change in momentum around acceptance at the merchant level,” Bailey noted during her remarks. She further stated that, among Apple Watch owners, Apple Pay has been particularly popular.

Starbucks will see its first pilot of Apple Pay in the last part of 2015 and will roll it out to Starbucks’ company-owned stores — about 7,500 — next year.

The news of the pair-up with a big player like Starbucks — one that independently has its own extremely popular mobile payments brand — comes at an opportune time for Apple, as the headlines this week have been dominated by reports of Apple Pay’s weak performance in its first year out of the gate. The week has also seen Apple’s efforts to give its payments platform (and its wearable, the Apple Watch) a different and more practicality-centered push through an obviously rethought out marketing campaign.

The last few weeks have also seen high-profile launches of Apple Pay competitors, the also NFC-based Android Pay and the universally (or almost universally) accepted Samsung Pay.

Why Apple wants Starbucks is obvious; why Starbucks wants Apple is less so. Starbucks is the creator of America’s most popular mobile payments platform. It just hired a new head of digital, and its mobile momentum is massive. Its willingness to share some of that mobile magic with Apple is indicative of its great confidence in its own mobile offering (which is tied into its rewards programs and has been extremely popular) and its ability to let Apple safely play in its sandbox.

Microsoft unveils its first ever laptop!

                                   

Microsoft stunned the world on Tuesday by launching its first ever laptop, the Microsoft Surface Book.

Over the past few years, Microsoft (MSFT, Tech30) has said that its Surface tablets would replace traditional laptops, but now the company has a backup product -- just in case.

"Some people prefer this form factor," Ed Giaimo, a senior lead on the Surface Book team, told CNNMoney at an event in New York.

The Microsoft Surface Book looks like a MacBook at first glance, but how it works is much more interesting -- and intuitive.

Just like the Surface, the new Surface Book can be used as a full-powered laptop or as a tablet. You can also snap the display screen to the back of the keyboard so it acts like a clipboard, thanks to a unique mechanical hinge.

                   

The Surface Book is noticeably sturdy. The tablet portion of the laptop weighs 1.6 pounds, and the whole unit weighs about 3.5 pounds.

The 13.5-inch Surface Book will go on sale on October 26, with pre-orders starting Tuesday. A base model will cost $1,499.

                   

The Surface Book was just one of several Windows 10 products announced on Tuesday. Microsoft also launched a new Surface Pro and two Lumia smartphones.

The new Microsoft Surface Pro 4 has a bigger display -- 12.3 inches -- but is the same size as the Surface Pro 3. Microsoft also updated the accompanying keyboard to include a fingerprint reader, larger touchpad and a better keyboard.

The stylus also got an upgrade: It has a one-year battery life, magnetically attaches to the Pro 4 (and Surface Book), works with different pen tips and has a digital eraser on the other end.

Saudi prince now owns 5% of Twitter

                               

Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal has given Twitter a big vote of confidence just months after suggesting CEO Jack Dorsey should step aside.

Alwaleed has increased its stake in Twitter over the last six weeks to 5.17%, making him the second biggest shareholder after former CEO and co-founder Evan Williams.

The announcement comes just days after Twitter (TWTR, Tech30)named Dorsey as its permanent CEO.

Alwaleed, one of the richest men in Saudi Arabia, bought a 3% stake in the company in 2011 before it went public in 2013. The current stake of 35 million shares is worth $1 billion, and includes 30 million shares owned directly by the prince and five million by his Kingdom Holding Company.