iPhone 12-Smaller Notch & 3D Cam Rumor; WhatsApp Limits Forwarding Viral Videos; Facebook Launches ‘Tuned’ App; Nasa- ‘Exponential’ Jump in Malware Attacks with Working at Home

A couple of leaked images showed up on social media today indicating a couple of hardware changes for iPhone 12. Macrumors.com reports a Twitter user called Fudge posted drawings of the front and back of the handset. The front shows a notably smaller notch, which is in keeping with the prediction of analyst Ming-Chi Kuo that the iPhone 12 will have a smaller front camera lens and smaller notch. The front screen drawing also shows different sized boxes, which may mean that widgets are finally coming to the iPhone’s home screen. The back drawing shows 4 similar sized circles and a smaller one in the center of the camera bump. This may point to a new 3D camera that has been rumored.

Beginning today, WhatsApp is putting limits on forwarding messages. The software looks for ‘highly forwarded’ messages….those sent through a chain of 5 or more people…and limits them to being forwardable to a single person beyond that. According to theverge.com, they think this may put truth and fiction on a bit more even footing, by slowing down the rate at which some items travel through the app. Previous efforts had already slowed down WhatsApp messages about 25% as they traveled around the world. The company is particularly concerned with so-called ‘cures’ for COVID-19, and hopes the new action will cut those down.

Facebook’s dating feature hasn’t exactly exploded, but that isn’t keeping the social media giant from rolling out new products. The New Product Experimentation team has launched an app called Tuned, which is designed to be a ‘private space’ for couples to connect. It is iOS only right now, and The Information says it can be used to share mood, exchange music, and even create a digital scrapbook. It connects with Spotify to facilitate music sharing. While the app doesn’t require a Facebook account, it utilizes their data rules…that means it will get the same ad targeting as Facebook has.

It shouldn’t be much of a shock with so many people working from home, but NASA says there is an ‘exponential’ increase in malware attacks since the onset of sheltering in place and working from home. According to arstechnica.com, they have noted a doubling of email fishing attempts and double the amount of their systems’ mitigation attempts to block malicious sites. Putting it simply, NASA says this all indicates that employees and contractors are clicking on malicious links sent in email and text messages at twice the rate as normally occurred in the office. Many have suggested VPN use to cut down on malicious attacks, but NASA workers practically all use VPN due to the nature of their work. The space agency notes that using a VPN to get to your work desktop does not add any additional protection from phishing scams or malware attacks. Just do yourself a favor and avoid clicking on links in email. If you copy and paste the link into your browser, and have good security software, it may alert you to the fact that it’s a bogus link.