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The app sends alerts to people if its systems have been triggered by someone in their network potentially receiving a positive test.But the somewhat confusing notification does not necessarily mean that users have to self-isolate. The notification only means that the system is looking at a possible exposure, not that the system has definitely been triggered.The app’s official Twitter account confirmed that users will be sent a specific notification if they are judged to be at high enough risk to need to self-isolate, and that message will be separate from the one indicating that they have been subject to a possible exposure.Many users of the app – which was released last week – have reported receiving concerning messages on their iPhone or Android phones, which appear to suggest they may be at risk of having been infected with the virus.Read more“Possible Covid-19 exposure,” the notification reads. “Verifying exposure info.“The app has accessed the date, duration and signal strength of this exposure.”Given the concerning title of the notification, which reads “possible covid-19 exposure”, many have been concerned that this could mean the app has judged them to be at risk, and that they should self-isolate.But it is actually the latter part of the message – that the exposure is still being verified – that is important. The notification only means that a potential exposure has been detected, and it is only if a future message arrives that users need to take action.Apple and Google’s contact-tracing APIs allow phones to connect to other devices and take note of any they come into contact with. If the owner of one of those phones indicates that they have had a positive test, anyone whose phones they came into contact with can then be alerted, and that first notification will be sent.But further examination of the data is required before people will be told to self-isolate. That will look at further information to judge precisely how likely it is that someone may have been exposed to the person in question – if they are judged to be at risk, that is when they will be given the instruction to self-isolate, in a separate and more straightforward notification.That second message will include information about what to do when self-isolating, the app’s official Twitter account posted.“The app will send you an alert if you need to self-isolate and how long for, it’ll provide a countdown timer, and when you reach the end of your self-isolation period, you will receive a notification with a link to the latest advice for you,” a representative wrote.

Facebook has removed hundreds of fake accounts tied to right-wing group Turning Point USA, which enlisted a now-banned marketing group to flood comment sections of news stories to attack Joe Biden and Democrats while praising Donald Trump.The social media company announced on Thursday that marketing firm Rally Forge had worked with Turning Point USA to make 200 profiles and 55 pages on the platform and 76 on Instagram, beginning in 2018 and continuing through 2020.Facebook said the accounts violated the company’s polices about “coordinated inauthentic behaviour” that relied “on real people, not automation” to “create the perception of wide-spread support of their narratives by leaving comments on posts by media entities and public figures.”Roughly 373,000 people followed one or more of those pages, and 22,000 people followed on or more of those Instagram accounts.Many accounts consisted of stock profile photos, posing as right-leaning users. The company found that in 2018, some of those accounts had posed as left-leaning users.Read moreThis activity was centered primarily around commenting on news articles posted by news organizations and public figures, rather than posting their own content,” the company said in a statement on its blog. “Its election-focused behavior began in 2018 in the run-up to the midterms, it then went largely dormant until June 2020.”Recent activity involved what the company calls “thinly veiled personas” that “were slight variations of the names of the people behind them and whose sole activity on our platform was associated with this deceptive campaign.”“We assess this shift in tactics is likely due to the majority of this network’s fake accounts getting caught by our automated detection systems,” the company said.At least one account promoted false claims about mail-in ballots, as the president and his allies continue to air unfounded allegations of voter fraud, while voting rights advocates have condemned Republican efforts to suppress votes across the US.Facebook banned Rally Forge from its platforms, while Turning Point USA remains active, with nearly 2 million followers.The organisation’s founder Charlie Kirk was the first speaker at the 2020 Republican National Convention.In June, the president addressed a rally at a megachurch in Phoenix hosted by the group.Facebook latest move follows September reporting from The Washington Post that suggested a “secret campaign” to sow disinformation about 2020 elections was underway through “troll farms” from the conservative Turning Point USA. In response to its reporting, Twitter banned several accounts allegedly involved with similar efforts.On Wednesday, Facebook announced the company will temporarily block US political adverts on its platforms when polls close on Election Day.Facebook also said it would “remove calls for people to engage in poll watching when those calls use militarised language or suggest that the goal is to intimidate, exert control, or display power over election officials or voters,” taking aim at ads the president’s campaign asking for “every able-bodied man and woman to join Army for Trump’s election security operation.”In the event that the president, who commands a massive audience on social media platforms, declares victory before the results are collected, the company said it would send notifications to Facebook and Instagram users on election night with the latest results. The company “will add more specific information in the notifications that counting is still in progress and no winner has been determined,” it said.When polls close, the company will attach labels to candidates’ posts directing people to Facebook’s voting information centre.This week, the company issued a platform-wide ban on QAnon-related groups, pages and profiles, bringing its policy on the conspiracy movement closer to its policies governing “militarised social movements” such as terror groups.

Billions of piece of Venus could be waiting to be discovered on the Moon, scientists have said.Venus has long been of interest to researchers, who suggested that billions of years ago it could have had an environment like Earth’s, with a thin atmosphere and the presence of water.But it is difficult to know much about the planet’s history without the ability to examine geological samples. That is difficult because just visiting the planet is difficult – it is a hot and acidic world that has been likened to hell – let alone staying there long enough to collect samples or bring them back.A new solution proposed by Yale researchers, however, suggests that such complicated work might not be necessary. Bits of Venus could be sitting much nearer and more easily accessible than we had realised, astronomers Samuel Cabot and Gregory Laughlin suggest in a new paper to be published in the Planetary Science Journal.Watch moreAs asteroids and comets slammed into Venus, they could have sent as many as 10 billion rocks into orbit around our solar system, the researchers suggest. Eventually, those orbits would cross over with Earth and our Moon, and some of the rocks would land on the lunar surface as meteorites, they suggest.Such collisions would be rare. But the Moon’s surface would be a good place for even ancient pieces of Venus to stick around, laying ready for human visitors to find.”The moon offers safe keeping for these ancient rocks,” Cabot said in a statement. “Anything from Venus that landed on Earth is probably buried very deep, due to geological activity. These rocks would be much better preserved on the moon.”The researchers suggest that future trips to the Moon – including the Artemis missions that Nasa plans to launch this decade – could allow for more lunar soil to be picked up and brought back than ever before. Chemical analysis would be able to indicate where those rocks originally came from, including if they were from Venus.”An ancient fragment of Venus would contain a wealth of information,” Laughlin said. “Venus’ history is closely tied to important topics in planetary science, including the past influx of asteroids and comets, atmospheric histories of the inner planets, and the abundance of liquid water.”

The individuals believe the baseless conspiracy argue that an unidentified individual called Q is posting secret codes to inform people that president Donald Trump is a waging a secret war against paedophiles and Satanists, who are harvesting children’s blood to become immortal.Searching for “QAnon” on eBay returns over 7000 results. Numerous products included are clothes, furniture, collectables, books, and more.It comes at a time when other online shopping sites are removing such items from their platform.

The first teardown of the PlayStation 5 has confirmed that the console can be safely laid on its side.Both the new Sony console and its rival the Xbox Series X have attracted considerable comment on the fact they are much larger than their predecessors. Many have noted that the two next-generation consoles are so large that finding an appropriate space in many living rooms could be difficult.But a new video – the first to show the inside of the PS5 – confirms that it can be at least rotated so that it lies on its side, and that it will safely work in that orientation.The base that keeps it upright in its normal vertical position can be removed and safely stowed away, the video confirmed.To rotate the console, users must however undertake something of a complicated process. The stand can be unscrewed and removed; that screw can then be placed inside of the stand, which in turn can then be clipped onto the side of the console.Watch moreThat process was mocked by Xbox in a tweet in which it pointed out that all a user had to do to rotate the new Series X was simply pick it up and turn it on its side.“How to switch the Xbox Series X from vertical to horizontal,” a tweet from the Xbox UK account read, next to a picture of the console in its two orientations. That post appears to have since been deleted.

The event will also probably see the unveiling of yet more products too, however, with new accessories and hardware widely rumoured to be coming during the virtual event.Apple has only described the event with the title “Hi, Speed”, and confirmed that it will take place on 13 October, at 10am local pacific time, taking the form of a virtual presentation live streamed from its Apple Park campus.The rest remains unconfirmed. But here’s what Apple is likely to announce during the event.New iPhonesIt would be an incredible shock if the event doesn’t see the launch of the iPhone 12. But most likely there’ll actually be four different iPhone 12s: two different sizes of the normal phone, and two different sizes of the Pro model, together adding up to the most iPhones Apple has ever announced at once.Watch moreAll of those various sizes mean that Apple could well announce both the smallest and largest phones it has done in recent years, and that features will be spread across the line.In addition to the new sizes, the iPhone 12 is expected to come in a new design, with a more rectangular body of the kind used on the newer iPad Pro and Air. They are also expected to come in more colours, just like the new Air. Colours such as blue might be added to the line-up.Inside will almost certainly be a faster processor. The iPad Air was updated with a new A14 Bionic chip, more than 20 per cent faster than its predecessor, and so the iPhone is almost certain to a get similar upgrade.The iPhone 12 is also expected to have a LiDAR sensor so that it can more accurately estimate depth, which would be another feature borrowed from the iPad.There is also a clue to the iPhone’s features in the “Hi, Speed” name of the event. It’s likely a reference both to that faster chip and the 5G connectivity that will arrive in the iPhone for the first time – though it could mean other things, too.It is not clear how those features – and the other ones that have not yet leaked – will be spread across the four different iPhones. In recent years, Apple has distinguished the Pro models from the normal iPhones with both a different exterior design and extra features such as more camera sensors, and the same is likely to happen this year.Apple has already been forced to delay the release of the iPhone 12: it would usually be expected in mid-September, but the company announced over summer that it would be a few weeks later, apparently as a result of global lockdowns. If it follows its usual schedule, the phone will be shown off at the event and then released the following Friday, which would put its release date on 23 October – though it might choose to stagger the release, as it did with the iPhone 8 and X.Likelihood: Apple hasn’t explicitly said that this event is for the iPhone, but it would be a disaster if the iPhone didn’t turn up.New audio hardwareApple has long been rumoured to be working on a variety of different audio products. Chief among those rumours have been an earphone version of its AirPods – with the same smarts but a design that will sit on the top of the head – as well as a cheaper, smaller version of the HomePod.Apple already makes headphones under the Beats branding, and already has the chips to power them from the AirPods. And so the combination of the two feels somewhat natural, in a product that has been rumoured to be called something like AirPods Studio.Likewise, Apple already makes a bigger version of the HomePod, but it is rumoured to have had trouble selling, in part because of its higher price when compared to smart speakers from companies such as Amazon and Google. A smaller one could help settle those concerns, and might work to bring people into its smart speaker ecosystem.Those rumours were spurred this week when it emerged that Apple had removed third-party audio products – from speakers made by Sonos to headphones from Bose – from its store. It might simply be an entirely unrelated move, but speculation has suggested that the company could be making way for its own new audio hardware.What’s more, Apple is almost certainly removing the earphones from the box of the new iPhone 12. As such, it may see an opportunity to encourage people to upgrade by buying wireless headphones instead.But recent rumours have also suggested that Apple could wait until another event in November to reveal at least some of those products. So they might arrive very soon, even if they don’t come at the iPhone event.Likelihood: New audio products certainly seem to be coming – but they might do so in November, rather than at the iPhone event.Long-rumoured, but never spotted, Apple has been said to be working on special tokens that could be added to important objects such as keys so that they can be easily discovered with a phone. Similar to the functionality offered by Tile, the tools might have the option to make noises, as well as being tracked by an iPhone.Apple already has the “Find My” app, which would be perfect for this, and its recent devices have included a U1 chip that can precisely locate objects, and whose function is still largely unused. Add those developments to the ever-present leaks about the development of the tags and it’s nearly impossible to deny that they must be on their way.It would make a lot of sense to introduce them alongside the iPhone, since they will presumably operate as an accessory for that product.Likelihood: There can’t be this much smoke without fire: AirTags are surely coming. We could have said the same for all of the other recent Apple events, too, however.New wireless charging pucks and capabilitiesThe circles that make up the central design of the Apple event invitation are familiar in another way, too: they look a little like the charging pucks that have become prevalent since Apple introduced wireless charging with the iPhone 8 and X.That chimes with rumours that Apple is working on faster or more capable wireless charging capabilities. If those are introduced with the iPhones 12, then Apple could offer some sort of wireless charger to harness them, too.Apple has announced a wireless charger before: AirPower, which promised to charge your iPhone, Apple Watch and AirPods, all just by placing them on top of a large pad. It never arrived, and became something of a running joke, with rumours suggesting that Apple just couldn’t get it working safely enough to bring to market.Likelihood: If it is coming, it is surely coming at this event.Macs with Apple siliconWe know this is coming at some point because Apple said so. When it introduced “Apple Silicon” – the decision to stop using Intel chips and instead design its own, like it does for the iPhone and iPad – at its Worldwide Developers Conference event in June, it set itself a deadline of the end of the year.That deadline is fast approaching, and so there might be some mention of the device at the event. But Apple might also choose to give it more time, and avoid it being overshadowed by the release of the iPhone, and so it might come at that same November event.We still don’t know what that Mac will look like. It could be an updated version of an existing computer such as the MacBook Pro, or Apple might use the opportunity to release an entirely new design, or revive an old one such as the now-cancelled MacBook.We also don’t know what exactly it will have to offer. While some computers running MacOS on Apple’s silicon have been sent out to developers to get them ready, they are under strict confidentiality agreements, and don’t represent the final product – so the exact performance, speed, and efficiency of those computers is still mostly a mystery.Likelihood: It’s coming at some point. But probably not alongside the iPhone.