ICYMI: March 07, 2016

Good Morning and welcome to a new week of ICYMI! 

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The biggest story over the weekend and why you should care today: 

It would appear a heavy dose of public exposure when you remover encryption from your operating system without telling your customers can result in some action - this time on the part of Amazon.

According to Mashable - a spokesperson for Amazon verified this weekend that they have decided to backtrack:

"We will return the option for full disk encryption with a Fire OS update coming this spring"

So no specific date except during Spring it seems. I wonder why returning it does not seem to be a priority?

I wonder what would happen if everyone who owns a Fire tablet stopped using their device until encryption is returned to Fire OS?

Also developing:

The father of email, Ray Tomlinson, passed away over the weekend at the age of 74.

That first version of email was on the ARPANET and he decided the use of the @ symbol was necessary to separate the username from the machine name (now the domain) in order to properly deliver the email from terminal to terminal.

Pretty amazing how small decisions like that impact us all these years later and simply become a norm and leave us often not even questioning the origin of things like the @ symbol.

#RIP

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In other tech related news: ​

Mac users are facing a ransomware threat for the first time ever.

Although this is an occurrence that impacts a lot of PC users on a regular basis, this ohe will hit Mac users who might have downloaded the Transmission BiTorrent client last Friday.

GeekWire reports that version 2.90 of Transmission had an unwelcome piece of software included in the download:

The way KeRanger works after download is to go dormant for three days before beginning to encrypt files on the hard drives of infected computers. Computer owners are blocked from accessing their files until a ransom is paid and a key code is handed over that unlocks the encryption.

Today would be the third day after possible infections via the Transmission client download.

Apple has already blocked the security certificate that was used to validate the the KeRanger code so the risk of a widespread infection is low. 

Could this be the beginning of a wider attack vector against the Mac OS which owns just over 7% of the desktop OS market?

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In entertainment tech news:

Meerkat has decided to leave behind livestreaming because the plan is not working.

As reported by Re/Code's Kurt Wagner, the companies CEO Ben Runbin shared why things did not go as plan:

“The year started on a high note. … But over the year, it became rougher waters,” the email read. “Mobile broadcast video hasn’t quite exploded as quickly as we’d hoped. The distribution advantages of Twitter/Periscope and Facebook Live drew more early users to them away from us and we were not able to grow as quickly alongside as we had planned.”

Instead they will turn their focus to becoming a video based social network with a focus on video based chats instead of anonymous viewers watching a livestream.

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What we published Friday: 

Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 14279 Released to Fast Ring - Microsoft's seventh new build of Windows 10 from the Redstone branch has arrived delivering new features and fixes for testers.

Updated: Examining the Pace of Windows 10 Build Releases 1 - Just how much improvement has there been around the release pace of Windows 10 builds for both PCs and mobile devices in 2016. Could a mobile build for all eligible devices be close.

App Tour - Deals Hub - In the Deals Hub you will find regularly updated listing for bargains on apps, music, video and games plus you can get alerts when new deals are added.