News
8
INBRIEF
THEWORLD’S
GONE MAD!19 Januar y–1February 2022 •IssueWill touchscreendevices
bereplacedbylickscreens?
ScientistsfromTokyo’sMeiji
Universityhaveinvented
aTVthat usescanistersto
sprayflavours, lettingyou
‘taste’foodthat’s being
shownonscreen–such as
thechocolatethisstudent
is enjoying.Watchmoreat
http://www.snipca.com/4 0548.LASTPASSPASSWORD
ALERTSSENTINERROR
LastPasshasclaimedthatno
passwordshavebeenleaked
despitehavingwarned
thousandsofusersabout
suspiciousloginattempts.It
claimedthealerts,sentafew
daysafterChristmas,were
“triggeredinerror”andthat
ithasnowfixedtheproblem.
Readthecompany’s blogat
http://www.snipca.com/4 0546.SUPPORTFOR
BLACKBERRYENDS
Supportfor
allsurviving
BlackBerry
phonesendedon
4January,with
thecompany
sayingthedevices
will“nolongerreliably
function”.Salescollapsed
from 5 0millionphonesin
2011 ,tojust2 07 ,9 00 five
yearslater,asusersturned
totouchscreenAndroidand
iOSphones.However,US
firmOnwardMobility(www.
onwardmobility.com)has
announcedplanstoreleasea
newBlackBerryphonelater
thisyear.Sportand lockdo wn boosts
broadban dtraffic in 2021
watchedSix Nations rugby
matches. Peak timesfor
broadban duse remain
between9pm and10pmat
weekends.
Howeve r, theincrease in
traffi cthroughout2021 was
actually smallerthanfrom
2019 to 2020 ,whenitmore
than doubledfrom22,000 to
50,000 pe tabytes. This
incr ease wasdrivenbythe
sudden shifttoh omeworki ng
andschoolingwhenthe
Governmentannounced
thefirstlockdown.S
portingfixtures streamed
onlineand co ntinued
workingfromhomesaw
broadbandtrafficin theUK
incr ease by 20 percentin
2021.
The figurecomesfrom
Openreach, whichrunsthe
cables that BT,Sky,TalkTalk
andVodafon euse to provide
broadbandformorethan
17 million premises.
Itsannualreviewshows
that peopleinthe UK
downloaded 62,000 petabytes
(PB) of da ta in 2021,upf rom
50,000 in2020.One petabyte
is eq ualto1 ,000 teraby tes, or
onemillion gigabytes.
It wouldtakeone person
over 870,000 years to usethis
much data,evenifthey
downloaded 12 HD films every
day. The averagehousehold
consumed3,666 gigabytes,
equi valent to around10GB
everyday.
2021’s busiestmonth was
January, as theGovernment
announcedathirdlockdown
that closed school sand forc edmillions to work from home.
Butthe busies tday of all
wasSunday5December,
hittingarecord222PB ,when
badweatherandthe spread of
theOmicr on varian tkept
peopleindoors streaming
films andplayi ng games.
The second busiest daywas
Tuesday 28 December,aBank
Holiday, when Amazon Prime
streamed li ve four Premier
League footba ll matches.
Otherbusydaysincluded
weekends in February as
viewers stillinlockdownAlexatells girl to touchliveplugwithcoin
A
mazonhasfixeda
flawwithAlexa
afterthe voice
assistanttolda
10-y ear-oldgirlto
plac eacoin on the
pron gs of aplug that
washalfinserted.
Alexasuggested this
afterthe girl askedan
Amazon Echo speaker
fora“challenge to do”.
It said:“Plugina
phone chargerabout halfway
into awalloutlet, then toucha
pennytot he exposedpron gs”.
The ‘challenge’has
circula tedonsocial-media
sitesinthe past twoyears,
despitewarni ngs from Safetyofficialswho sayitcan ca use
electric shocks,firesand other
damage.
The girl’s mother ,Kristin
Livdahl, tweetedascree nshot
of thechallenge (www.snipca.
com/40545,picture d).Sheyelled“No,Alexa,
no!”, andsaid her
daughterwas “too
smartto do something
likethat”.
Amazon said it took
“swift action”tofix
theerror as soon asit
wasmadeaware of it,
andwill update Alexa
to preventit
recommendingother
dangerousactivities.
It said in astatement:
“Customertrust is at the
centre of everythi ng we do
andAlexa is designed to
provide accurate, relevant,
andhelpfu linformationto
customers”.