Tech Digest daily roundup: Twitch announces partial gambling ban
Twitch has announced a partial gambling ban, targeting slots, roulette and dice games. The Amazon-owned livestreaming platform will bar videos of gambling sites not licensed in the US or “other jurisdictions that provide sufficient consumer protection”. The ban includes cryptocurrency gambling sites such as Stake.com, based on the Caribbean island of Curacao. It will take effect from 18 October 2022. In a statement posted to Twitter, Twitch said: “While we prohibit sharing links or referral codes to all sites that include slots, roulette or dice games, we’ve seen some people circumvent those rules and expose our community to potential harm.” BBC
Britain’s £15bn cloud computing market is being investigated by the regulator over concerns that just three US companies dominate more than 80pc of the sector. Ofcom is examining the dominance of US technology titans Amazon, Microsoft and Google as part of a wider study into digital communication markets. The regulator, which is gearing up to regulate the wider internet as part of plans under the Online Safety Bill, is set to launch a market study in “coming weeks” that will examine the strength of competition in cloud services and barriers to new entrants into the sector. Telegraph
The Apple Watch Ultra is the best Apple Watch ever. It’s an easy thing to say, as nearly every part has been an upgrade, and all for the better – in fact it’s easily one of the best smartwatches out there. As a response to the growing power of the ‘premium fitness watch’ segment, which Garmin watches were starting to dominate, this was the Watch Apple had to make – although it says it’s been years in the making. With a new, more rugged design, better screen and better GPS tracking, it’s the first design change in eight years… but it’s also incredibly expensive at $799 / £849 / AU$1229. Tech Radar
Optus has suffered a massive cyber-attack, with the personal information of customers stolen, including names, dates of birth, addresses, and contact details. The telco suffered the data breach when hackers, believed to be working for a criminal or state-sponsored organisation, accessed the sensitive information by breaking through the company’s firewall. The Australian Cyber Security Centre is working with Optus to lock down its systems, secure any data against further breaches, and trace the attackers. The Australian federal police and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner have also been notified. The Guardian
A NASA-built spacecraft will deliberately crash into an asteroid as part of a test mission later this month. The spacecraft, known as Double Asteroid Redirection Test (Dart), is expected to collide with a 170-metre wide (560ft) asteroid named Dimorphos at 12.14am UK time on 27 September. Dimorphos is no threat to Earth but it has been chosen to help prove that dangerous incoming rocks can be deflected by intentionally crashing something into them. Dimorphos orbits Didymos in around 11 hours and 55 minutes but astronomers at NASA hope that Dart will destroy itself and cut about 10 minutes off this time. Sky News
