Understanding cryptography means understanding key terms, like algorithms, cipher text, or plain text. Plain text is just that, plain. It’s the message in regular language that needs encryption. Cipher text is the seemingly random mix of text that is unreadable. Specific algorithms are used to convert plain text to cipher text. The conversion process of moving from plain text to cipher text is, of course, call encryption. And moving from cipher text to plain text is called decryption....

Michelle Obama partnered with The Ellen Show and Tim Cook/Apple to surprise Randle Highlands Elementary School in Washington, D.C. with all new Macs, iPads, and a basketball court. And when she snuck in Steve Jobs’ famous “One more thing” line, the students went wild with excitement… Michelle Obama teamed up with Ellen and Tim Cook to present Randle Highlands Elementary to announce they were one of the winners of Ellen’s Greatest Nights of Giveaways (via MacRumors)....

What Mighty Networks is, exactly, is a way to create your own social network, one dedicated to the topic of your choice. That topic could be your company or brand. It could be your art or your music. It could be a cause that’s near and dear to you. Whatever it is that drives you can become the basis of a social platform powered by Mighty Networks. If that were all it did, though, there wouldn’t be much to differentiate from Ning, the much more established platform designed to create personal social networks....

Apple was the first company to create a touchscreen keyboard I considered usable. Nothing prior to the iPhone even came close, which is why in those days I stuck to phones with physical keyboards. Even today, though, I still have a strong preference for the real thing. My iPad is usually accompanied by my Brydge keyboard, but what about those whose iPhone is their primary device when out and about?...

In the latest round of iPhone 6 images, NowhereElse.fr has a new set of photos showing a selection of SIM trays, home buttons, speakers and vibrator motors. The SIM trays are once again show in the same three colors as the iPhone 5s, silver, gray and gold. It seems like the gray is of a slightly lighter shade than the Space Gray of the iPhone 5s, but the quality of the pictures makes it difficult to tell for sure....

The biggest new option is the WiFi connection; but the true techies out there knew that it was only a matter of time, as there’s always been a disabled WiFi chip inside. With this new option, you’ll be able to use your Moto 360 when you are out of Bluetooth range from your phone. The battery has been improved since the Android Wear 5.0.2 update, perhaps that’s what was needed for the WiFi support to be enabled....

Mad Men was an incredibly popular show amongst both fans and critics, and one of the reasons for that was because of how consistent it was. The show always changed things up and while it had lengthy and well-developed plots, it also gave time to shorter ones for the supporting characters. This is why the ensemble cast felt so strong because each character was given a moment throughout the show, something to work with....

Unless they’re a director taking on more responsibility or a superstar known for their specific project choices (see Kevin Feige with Marvel, Jerry Bruckheimer with explosive blockbusters or Harvey Weinstein with Oscar-baiting prestige pictures), producers are rarely the most well-known person on a film set. They’re the money men, the clear studio influence on the creative vision. This obscurity is definitely not true of Jon Peters though, who served as a producer on Batman and Superman films for over twenty years....

The trailer for The Mandalorian syncs up surprisingly well with the audio from the recent much-discussed Cats teaser. In November, Disney will launch their new streaming service Disney+ with The Mandalorian, a Star Wars adventure from showrunner Jon Favreau centered on a bounty hunter living on the outskirts of the galaxy in the wake of the Empire’s destruction. Recently, fans got their first look at the series via a trailer that, it’s safe to say, generated a whole lot of excitement....

Mark Zuckerberg has published an opinion piece in The Washington Post outlining four ways he thinks new regulation could benefit the Internet. Zuckerberg specifically points to harmful content, election integrity, privacy, and data portability. Zuckerberg calls for expanded privacy regulation, echoing similar statements from Tim Cook. In the piece, Zuckerberg says that he “agrees” with the calls for bringing framework similar to the General Data Protection Regulation to the United States....

Disney Plus Drops What If…? Trailer and Launch Date As its name implies, the series will showcase different versions of the MCU and bring up questions like “What if Peggy Carter got the Super Soldier Serum instead of Steve Rodgers?” or how about – “What if Yondu kidnapped T’Challa instead of Peter Quill when he came to earth?” It will explorer different scenarios that didn’t “officially” happen in the live-action MCU on the big screen or official Marvel shows like WandaVision or The Falcon and the Winter Soldier....

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings star Simu Liu likes Birds of Prey, but he still has one enduring gripe against Suicide Squad. As part of Marvel Studios’ Hall H panel at last year’s San Diego Comic-Con, Liu was announced to headline the upcoming MCU film directed by Destin Daniel Cretton. Known for being quirky and vocal on social media, he’s recently talked about disliking the David Ayer film....

The 10 businesses will get six weeks of training from Meta about how to market their company on Instagram and Facebook as well as “$100,000 in ad credits and creative support.” The businesses will also be given access to a digital marketing skills certificate created by Meta. “The ten businesses I’ve nominated are dear to me because they embody determination, community, empathy, and empowerment. The success of Black-owned small businesses is key to wealth building in our community, which is why connecting Black owners to these opportunities is so important to me,” Ciara said....

It is annoying when smartphones behave abnormally or weirdly in any sense and the Walton restarting and freezing problem is one of them. In fact, when the system crashes or freezes, it either stops a particular app from working (at least for some time) or it freezes the screen preventing the user from doing anything on the phone unless the screen is back to normal which could be either automatically or requires reboots or resets to get back to normal state....

DDoS attacks harness the connectivity of many compromised devices and direct packets of data at a specific target, such as a website or internet service, with the aim of knocking it offline. Massive DDoS attacks measured in Tbps are becoming more common. According to Alethea Toh, a product manager on the Microsoft Azure networking team, Microsoft stopped two other DDoS attacks that exceeded 2.5 Tbps in December. SEE: A winning strategy for cybersecurity (ZDNet special report) The record-breaking 3....

While Apple’s Christmas ad brought Stevie Wonder and Andra Day together this year for a warm performance of ‘Someday at Christmas’, Microsoft decided to take to the cold streets of New York City this year for their holiday commercial … right in front of the iconic 5th Avenue Apple Store. Taking a rather cheeky approach to celebrating the season while naming the competition, Microsoft Store employees from a nearby location traveled down the block to sing ‘Peace on Earth’ to “some old friends” decked in red shirts … Apple Store employees....

Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen passed away today at the age of 65 after revealing earlier this month that he was being treated for non-Hodgkin lymphoma. The tech pioneer and incredible investor and philanthropist is being remembered across the world this evening. The announcement was made by Allen’s company Vulcan Inc. Allen cofounded Microsoft in 1975 with Bill Gates. Allen left the company just 8 years later while being treated for Hodgkin’s lymphoma, though he remained a board member through 2000....

Introduction Network Access Protection (NAP) is a platform to check for all incoming requests to access an internal resource. It allows administrators to establish and develop specific levels of controls to allow network access based on requester identity. The level of access that has been granted to requester and a check against the requester must be in compliance with the organization. Components of Microsoft Network Access Protection (NAP) Below are the components of a Microsoft NAP solution....

Update: Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and Outlook are now live on the Mac App Store. Microsoft Office appears to finally be headed for the Mac App Store as soon as this week, based on a couple of clues. Apple first announced that Microsoft would bring Word, PowerPoint, and Excel to the Mac App Store back in June 2018 as part of its Worldwide Developer Conference. The announcement was made as part of Apple’s macOS Mojave operating system keynote demonstration....

Microsoft has updated its cloud-based file and photo storage OneDrive iOS app to offer full support for the iPhone XS Max and XR. Spotted by AllThings.How, Microsoft updated OneDrive for iOS last night with the sole change of offering full support for the new 6.5-inch XS Max display. Although not mentioned, this also brings full support to the XR with the same resolution, but smaller 6.1-inch display. This update comes after Microsoft made the same upgrade to Outlook for iOS earlier this week....