Airbnb Adds New Wi-Fi Speed Test Feature to App

On Thursday Airbnb announced it added a Wi-Fi speed test tool to its app to let Hosts easily advertise their speeds.

While Hosts have been able to manually add wifi speeds to their listing pages for some time, we’re now providing an easy and efficient in-app solution to allow them to measure the wifi speed in their listing using the Airbnb app.

Hosts can test their listing’s connection speed right within the Airbnb app, and easily have their wifi speed information posted on their listing page, making their listings more appealing to guests looking for connected stays.

Uber Drivers to Receive Free Rosetta Stone Language Lessons

Uber announced on Thursday a partnership with Rosetta Stone to offer free language courses to drivers.

The deal is being extended to drivers and delivery workers in select markets where Uber operates. Rosetta’s digital language learning programs, which cover 24 languages, will be fully integrated into the Uber app used by its workers. And the company is working with Rosetta on developing language skills directly related to their work as ride-share drivers and delivery workers.

How Educators in Australia are Embracing Swift

Some educators at schools in Queensland, Australia are embracing Apple’s Swift programming language. The company published a feature that includes some teachers and students sharing their experiences.
At Siena Catholic College and St Augustine’s College, two high schools in Southeast Queensland, teaching students the principles of app development using Swift is unlocking their creativity and allowing them to reach new levels of innovation and problem solving. “Our decision to choose Swift was clear and based on the simplicity, versatility, and limitless creativity the language provides,” says Paul Dionysius, who teaches technology courses at Siena Catholic College. “Every day we’re seeing our students develop enterprising ideas and designing real-world solutions to problems, building the essential skills for success in the 21st century. We have future blockbuster developers here today — I am certain of that and incredibly proud.”

New App ‘Nanogram’ is a Telegram Client for Apple Watch

Nanogram is a brand new Apple Watch app that acts as a Telegram client. Features: Send, receive, and see all your messages & notifications right from your wrist – even when you don’t have your phone around. Experience the freedom of going truly phone-less with just your Apple Watch, while staying connected to your friends & family. Also supports FlickType Swipe Keyboard, for faster & more private replies on the go (vs Scribble & Dictation, respectively). Nanogram does not collect any information. Requires Apple Watch Series 3 or later, running watchOS 7 or later.

Mozilla VPN Expands to Seven More Countries, Increases Price

Mozilla has added seven additional countries to its VPN service, and raises the price for new users.

Mozilla’s virtual private network (VPN) service has arrived in seven more countries, including Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Switzerland.

It will honor the $4.99 a month price for customers from the US, Canada, UK, Singapore, Malaysia, and New Zealand, who signed up already. But from now on that price will only be available for customers who sign up for a year. Otherwise the fee rises to $7.99 a month for a six month deal or $9.99 for a month of access.

Ukraine Authorities Seize Unencrypted Windscribe VPN Servers

VPN provider Windscribe said its servers were not encrypted, enabling authorities to create decoy servers and snoop on web traffic.

The Ontario, Canada-based company said earlier this month that two servers hosted in Ukraine were seized as part of an investigation into activity that had occurred a year earlier. The servers, which ran the OpenVPN virtual private network software, were also configured to use a setting that was deprecated in 2018 after security research revealed vulnerabilities that could allow adversaries to decrypt data.

Oh come on, VPN servers that weren’t encrypted?

Twitter Tests New ‘Shop Module’ Feature for iOS Users

Twitter is piloting a new feature on Wednesday called Shop Module. It will let brands add a shopping section at the top of their profiles. The pilot is currently limited to iOS devices for people who use the service in English.

The Shop Module is a dedicated space at the top of a profile where businesses can showcase their products. When people visit a profile with the Shop Module enabled, they can scroll through the carousel of products and tap through on a single product to learn more and purchase — seamlessly in an in-app browser, without having to leave Twitter.