This week, get in early for Google experiments with Area 120, and celebrating a 10-year-old iPhone. But first, what’s really going on with the Petya virus?
This week’s Petya virus is not ransomware; it’s worse
Experts in digital security believe that the attack on computer systems this week is not actually designed to hold systems and data for ransom.
Instead, it seems as though it was designed only to “spread fast and cause damage” according to one researcher.
The latest attack started in the Ukraine on the day before the country was to celebrate its breakaway from the Soviet Union, so some suggest Russian hackers are to blame.
What we do know is that the tools that were used to conduct this attack and the WannaCry ransomware attack in May, came from the National Security Administration in the U.S. Not that they’re taking responsibility for anything.
More on this from:
Google opens up an early access program for Area 120 initiative for mobile experimentation
If you’re one of those people who love to mess around with your smartphone, you might want to think about signing up for early access to Google’s Area 120 initiative.
It’s a division of the company devoted to experimenting with mobile products and applications. The name of the company comes from the fact that people working on an Area 120 project spend 100% of their time on 20% projects.
What’s a 20% project?
Twenty percent time was a concept laid out by Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page in a letter from 2004 in which they claimed that employees have “‘20 percent time’ – effectively one day per week – in which they are free to pursue projects they are passionate about and think will benefit Google.”
At Area 120, the people go in knowing that most of the things they’re going to build and iterate on will fail. But this is an idea that is central to success these days: fail early, fail often, and learn from what didn’t work.
If you’re interested in what it’s like, and you’re using an Android or iOS mobile device, you can participate as an early user and tester by signing up.
Happy birthday, iPhone!
This week marks ten years since Steve Jobs unveiled the first iPhone, and the Internet is full of reflections on the impact the mobile device has had.
Some of my faves:
- Vlad Savov in The Verge: Apple gets too much and too little credit for the iPhone
- Alex Hern in The Guardian: iPhone at 10: How it changed everything
What today’s iPhone can do is mighty.
Apple Canada this week debuted the short film, “A Portrait of Canada,” which celebrates the diversity and optimism of the country.
With words by Humble the Poet and music by A Tribe Called Red, the visuals were captured with iPhones. Photographer Caitlin Cronenberg anchored the images, which are interspersed in the 40-second film with iPhone photos taken by people from across Canada.
And because nothing ever disappears from the Internet, you can watch Steve Jobs introduce that original iPhone back in 2007.
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