Apps and Software

Lenovo's chief technology officer admitted that Superfish adware is a security vulnerability during an interview with Mashable Friday. He maintains, however, that the software has not been used to attack any users — and that it was preinstalled on machines for the benefit of customers

"It's important to understand that not all pieces of software are going to be interesting to all people," Lenovo's Peter Hortensius said. "We did this because we thought it would be interesting to some people. Obviously, it had a lot of side effects that were undesirable, so we started taking steps to remove it. And then a security vulnerability became clear." ...

IFTTT is taking its automating superpowers to a whole new level.

The company expanded its automation platform in a big way on Thursday with three new standalone apps and a rebranded flagship app.

IFTTT, which stands for "if this, then that" (pronounced like "gift" without the "g"), allows users to create "recipes" that link various apps and services with very specific triggers. (For example, I can set up a recipe that saves any picture I post on Instagram to my Dropbox account.)

The company's three new apps more closely integrate its automation with the core functions of your smartphone. Do Button, Do Note and Do Camera — all of which are for iOS and Android — alyo low users to create recipes around specific themes. But unlike the traditional IFTTT app, which is set up to constantly run in the background (i.e., "If there's rain in the forecast, then send me an email the night before") the Do apps' recipes require users to initiate the recipe. ...

LONDON — For the first time in the UK, customers at two banks will be able to access their accounts using a fingerprint.

Royal Bank of Scotland has introduced the service Wednesday for its RBS and Natwest customers who use an iPhone 5s, 6 and 6 Plus, which all have Apple's Touch ID technology.

Nearly half of RBS' 15 million customers use online banking, with three million of these accessing the services via the company's mobile apps

For the 880,000 RBS customers with Touch ID-enabled iPhones, they can opt to log into their accounts almost instantly with their fingerprints instead of typing in passwords ...