Facebook is no doubt keen to let the Cambridge Analytica scandal fade into history, but its problems with third-party companies and data misuse continue. Crimson Hexagon is the latest analytics firm to be suspended by Facebook, pending an investigation into its use of data for “surveillance” purposes.

Exactly what Facebook means by “surveillance” isn’t clear, but it seems Crimson Hexagon has questions to answer over how aggressively it’s been tracking users on Facebook and Instagram. The company monitors social media sentiment for a roster of blue chip clients, and also has links to platforms like Twitter and Tumblr.

For now it’s just a suspension – there’s no evidence of wrongdoing yet – but Crimson Hexagon was blocked from the Facebook and Instagram feeds after the Wall Street Journal raised questions about its connections to the US government, a Russian organization linked to the Kremlin, and the Turkish government.

Follow the data

“We don’t allow developers to build surveillance tools using information from Facebook or Instagram,” said Facebook in a statement, the Guardian reports. “We take these allegations seriously, and we have suspended these apps while we investigate Based on our investigation to date, Crimson Hexagon did not obtain any Facebook or Instagram information inappropriately.”

Whatever the outcome of the investigation, it’s a data privacy headache that Facebook could do without. On the other hand, Mark Zuckerberg and his exec team will want to be seen to be being tough on companies that don’t follow the rules in regards to harvesting personal information from social media.

“Crimson Hexagon is fully cooperating with Facebook, who has publicly stated its investigation to date has found no wrongdoing.” said Crimson Hexagon’s Chris Bingham in a statement. The company has also put up a blog post explaining some of its data collection practices, which it says only include public data available to anyone on the web.

http://www.techradar.com/news/facebook-suspends-another-analytics-firm-over-potential-data-misuse

Through a combination of functionality, style, features, design and price, the Moov Now is currently in the top place in our best fitness tracker guide. It has been a long time since TechRadar first reviewed it, but it’s still a solid bit of health tracking kit.

TechRadar Editor Gareth Beavis said in his original review, “The Moov Now is still incredible value for the breadth of tracking that it offers. It might lack a screen but for the low price you can run, swim, cycle, box and do crossfit with accuracy.”

That still hasn’t changed – the affordability of the Moov Now is how it has fought off new additions like the Samsung Gear Fit 2 Pro, Huawei Band 2 Pro, Garmin Vivofit 4 and many others. 

All of those are great products, but the combination of the value that the Moov Now offers paired with everything it can do makes it our number one… for now.

The Moov Now was announced three years ago this week, when fitness tracking tech was in a very different place. Fitbit was obviously a big name, but its main rival in 2015 was Jawbone and that’s a company that’s now nowhere to be seen in the fitness space.

Despite that three year gap, we’ve yet to hear even a sniff of a follow-up product from Moov.

You don’t need to update your fitness tracker every year or two like some people do with their phone, but it’s curious that the company hasn’t seen fit to update its wearable considering it received almost universal critical praise and – at least from the outside – it seems to be a popular product.

If Moov made another fitness tracker in 2018, I think the company could make a far more impressive product that would be an absolute must-have for those starting out in the world of activity tracking. 

What could come next?

One of our biggest criticisms of the Moov Now was the repetitive exercises it supports.

HIIT and circuit workouts on the Moov Now were one of the highlights as the tracking for reps is so good, but the selection of exercises it provided wasn’t that plentiful.

The original Moov Now is limited to just six exercises, but we believe Moov could now include more on a future release.

GPS technology is also becoming more ubiquitous with fitness trackers and smartwatches. It allows you to track your location without taking your phone on a run or cycle, and it would be a great addition to the Moov Now 2.

It’s not an unrealistic addition either. The Huawei Band 2 Pro (which includes GPS) may have been fairly expensive at launch, but now it’s almost a year old the tracker is a lot less and around the same price that it would cost to buy a Moov Now.

So that might mean that Moov would be able to put GPS tracking into a new wearable without pushing the price up too high.

The same goes for heart rate tracking tech. The new and very affordable Xiaomi Mi Band 3 has a heart rate monitor, so surely Moov would be able to include the tech on a new product?

It’s not just Xiaomi either. Many cheap trackers with screens can now monitor your heart rate, so we’d love to see the Moov Now get a successor with this sort of tech, making for a fuller fitness tracker.

Will it ever happen?

Fitness trackers and smartwatches don’t always come on a yearly basis like a lot of smartphones and other gadgets.

Fitbit, for example, often announces new products when it sees fit. The Fitbit Charge 2 – one of the company’s most popular fitness trackers – is going to be two years old next month, and there’s no guarantee the company will release a Fitbit Charge 3.

Moov is even more of a mystery. The company announced the Moov HR in October 2016, but that’s a different product that works like a sweatband that wraps around your head and has fitness tracking tech built-in.

Moov hasn’t yet confirmed anything for a future release, but I have my fingers crossed we’ll one day see a brand new tracker from the company. If we do, let’s hope for expanded HIIT workout tracking as well as GPS, a heart rate monitor and perhaps even a complete left field surprise.

http://www.techradar.com/news/why-im-desperate-for-our-best-fitness-tracker-to-be-replaced

The leaks keep on coming ahead of the official Samsung Galaxy Note 9 launch on August 9, and the latest one to cross our desk is an authentic-looking render of the phone in lilac purple. As we heard previously, that’s one of five colors that you’ll be able to pick up the handset in next month.

Dutch site Nieuwe Mobiel has the scoop, and a look at how the Note 9 design differs from the Galaxy Note 8 (spoiler: not much). It would appear that the side bezels are going to be slightly thinner, and of course there will be brand new wallpaper, and that’s about it.

Around the back of the device, the dual-lens camera system and fingerprint sensor have been slightly repositioned – we’ll probably have to wait for the Samsung Galaxy S10 for a sensor that lives under glass on the front of the phone. As for the color itself, we think it works rather well.

From everything we’ve heard about the Note 9 from the rumor mill so far, it would appear that the S Pen stylus is going to be the star of the show: there’s speculation that it’s getting a speaker, a microphone, and Bluetooth support, making it altogether more useful. Oh, and apparently it’s going to come in yellow.

We’ve also seen a few pictures of the upcoming phone, which seem to confirm that the device keeps the 3.5mm headphone jack and a design that is very close to the one we saw last year. The screen size is tipped to stay the same at 6.3 inches.

We’ll know for sure when the Samsung event gets underway on August 9, and of course all the news you need will be right here. There has been talk that this is going to be the last of the Note devices, with Samsung reportedly deciding to focus on the two Galaxy S phones from 2019 onwards.

Via SamMobile

http://www.techradar.com/news/take-a-look-at-the-samsung-galaxy-note-9-in-lilac-purple