Is the Internet Turning Donald Trump - and You - Into an Idiot?

President Obama was viewed as the first techie presidential candidate when he launched his campaign, and he has been connected at the hip with Google for a large part of both terms. However, the brilliance his teams displayed with using analytics during both campaigns never seemed to carry over into running the country, which was disappointing. Most of the U.S. government still has systems that are decades out of date. Some, like the Veterans Administration, are so bad they are a national embarrassment.

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Apple to Enlist the Aid of a Few Good Hackers

Apple on Thursday introduced its first bug bounty program, set to launch in September. Ivan Krstic, head of Apple security engineering and architecture, announced the program during his presentation at Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas. The focus reportedly is on an exceptionally high level of service, and on quality over quantity. Participation in the program initially will be by invitation only, and it will be limited to a select group of researchers. However, Apple plans to work with other researchers on a case-by-case basis.

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Alexa Takes On Smart Home Security Responsibilities

Millions of customers using Amazon's Alexa voice assistant technology now can add locks that can be controlled remotely to the growing ecosystem of smart home capabilities. August Home last week announced that Amazon's line of voice-assisted products, including the best-selling Echo, now support its smart products, allowing users to lock and unlock their front doors and other points of access using simple voice commands. August product line includes the August Smart Lock, the August Smart Keypad and the August Smart Doorbell Cam.

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Linux Botnets on a Rampage

Linux-operated botnet Distributed Denial of Service attacks surged in this year's second quarter, due to growing interest in targeting Chinese servers, according to a Kaspersky Lab report released this week. South Korea kept its top ranking for having the most command-and-control servers. Brazil, Italy and Israel ranked among the leaders behind South Korea for hosting C&C servers, according to Kaspersky Lab. DDoS attacks affected resources in 70 countries, with targets in China absorbing 77 percent of all attacks.

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Samsung Hones Galaxy Note7 to a Fine Point

Samsung on Tuesday unveiled its latest flagship smartphone, the Galaxy Note7. It has an iris-scanning feature that combines with Samsung Knox for security, as well as a fingerprint scanner. The Galaxy Note7 has a water resistant body, a 5.7-inch QHD Super Amoled screen with a front-to-back symmetrical dual-edged curve, HDR video-streaming capabilities for immersive entertainment. It comes with an enhanced stylus. It has a rear dual-pixel 12-MP OIS camera and a front 5-MP camera, both with a focal length of F1.7.

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Apple's Switch to Squirt Gun Emoji Triggers Flood of Emotions

Apple earlier this week announced its decision to change the gun emoji in iOS 10, to be released this fall. It plans to substitute an image of a green-and-orange squirt gun for the existing image of a black pistol. The new version of the gun is one of more than 100 new and redesigned emoji characters that will be available in iOS 10. The change appears to be a reflection of Apple's stance against gun violence. News of Apple's emoji change has sparked a debate.

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Instagram's Stories Inspired by Snapchat

Everyone has a story to tell, and Instagram on Tuesday announced Stories, a new way for users to tell theirs. Stories allows Instagram users to string together images and videos for a dynamic slide show presentation that can be shared with friends or the entire Instagram community. Rather than sharing content individually with others on the platform, a user can choose to share it through a story. Someone following the story simply taps the new story icon on the Instagram interface to see the latest addition or to watch it from beginning to end.

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