You can easily change your default Google account, which is associated with your Gmail address, through the web browser on your computer.To do so, you'll need to sign out of all your Google accounts, and then sign back into the one you want to have as your default.Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

A new job, a new life direction, a new priority — circumstances change, and sometimes that means a new Gmail account needs to become your top priority.

That's when it's time to change your default Google account, and therefore prioritize a certain one over any others you have. That way, you'll see those emails first, but you'll be able to switch over to your other linked accounts whenever you want.

Luckily, it's easy to set a new default Google account on your Mac or PC. It should only take a few minutes to accomplish. Here's how to do it. 

Check out the products mentioned in this article:

Lenovo IdeaPad 130 (From $299.99 at Best Buy)

MacBook Pro (From $1,299.99 at Best Buy)

How to change your default Google account

1. Go to mail.google.com on your PC or Mac computer, make sure you're logged in, and click on your profile picture icon located in the top-right corner of the screen.

Original author: Devon Delfino

Nearly three dozen brands are set to descend on your TV screens during the Super Bowl this year.

A number of them, including Facebook, pizza chain Little Caesars, and hummus maker Sabra, are first-timers, joining returning Super Bowl advertisers like Budweiser and Pepsi.

For Little Caesars, which is running a 30 second-long ad during the third quarter, the Super Bowl's large captive audience is a big draw as people are migrating away from TV. The Super Bowl drew an average televised audience of around 98.2 million viewers last year, according to Nielsen.

"While the media market is considerably evolving, the Super Bowl remains the best way to reach as many people as possible at once," Jeff Klein, SVP of global marketing at Little Caesars, told Business Insider. "It's not just about viewers, it's about engagement — there are many people that tune in for the commercials rather than the game — there's nothing else quite like it."

Others, like running brand Saucony, wanted to tap into the tentpole nature of the Super Bowl, albeit with a different strategy. The company is buying ads on Fox's streaming platforms, rather than the network, because it's seen recent success on connected TV and streaming platforms, said Don Lane, Saucony's CMO.

"We purposefully are targeting streaming viewers because our research shows they are a discerning and connected audience," Lane said. "We've had good luck with connected TV recently, it drives search interest and traffic to our site."

Other brands including New York Life, Snickers and Squarespace are returning to the Super Bowl after sitting out in recent years. New York Life was a prolific advertiser in the '80s, and is making a comeback after decades to launch a new campaign marking its 175th anniversary.

"This is a significant milestone for our brand, and one that provides us with a once in a generation opportunity to make a powerful statement about our brand and our role in peoples' lives," said Kari Axberg, New York Life's VP of brand marketing. "

Here are the advertisers running Super Bowl commercials for the first time:

Original author: Tanya Dua

You can upload a PDF to Facebook groups and business pages; however, those are the only places PDF files can be posted. If you're trying to upload a PDF to a business page, Facebook will treat it as if it's a restaurant menu.If you're on a Facebook group page that can accept PDFs, you can upload them just like you would a photo or other file.You can also convert a PDF into a photo, which you could then upload anywhere on Facebook.Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

PDFs are an integral part of visual communication. 

Flyers, menus, brochures, and newsletters are all commonly saved in the .pdf format.

Facebook does allow its user to attach and upload PDF files to posts, but there's a catch: The feature isn't available on your personal profile page. Instead, you can only use it on business pages and groups.

Here's when — and how — you can upload a PDF to Facebook.

Check out the products mentioned in this article:

MacBook Pro (From $1,299.99 at Best Buy)

Microsoft Surface Pro 7 (From $699.99 at Best Buy)

How to upload a PDF to a Facebook business page

If you have a Facebook business page, you can upload a PDF. However, there's another catch — whatever you upload will be considered a "menu" by Facebook, as if you were a restaurant.

This is great if you actually are trying to post a menu for your restaurant, but might not be what you want otherwise.

1. Open your web browser of choice on your Mac or PC and go to Facebook.com.

2. Under the "Explore" tab on the left sidebar, go to Pages, where you can create or open your business page.

Original author: Emma Witman

The National Labor Relations Board just ruled against Hearst Magazines in its fight against a union.A Hearst union would be the biggest in digital media, with as many as 550 people.Hearst argued that many of the proposed union members are actually supervisors and not eligible for the union but nonetheless are "among the most vociferous pro-union advocates."The ruling sets the stage for a union election, which some say would bring needed pay and job standards to the company but others worry would be divisive.Click here for more BI Prime articles.

Hearst employees who are unionizing got a big victory this week when the National Labor Relations Board ruled in their favor.

On November 12, Hearst Magazine editorial employees at some of the best-known titles including Cosmopolitan and Esquire announced that they had unionized, joining a throng of other media workers.

A Hearst union would be a big win for the Writers Guild of America East, with some 550 people spanning 24 brands, making it what's believed to be the biggest union in digital media.

The most recent dispute centers over who is a supervisor. Hearst has been fighting to reduce the number of people eligible to vote in an election by arguing that 86 of 550 proposed members are actually supervisors and as such, aren't eligible for the union. Hearst wanted to have those people's status decided before an actual vote.

Because Hearst didn't voluntarily recognize the union, the NLRB decides when an election will take place and who gets to vote. 

Hearst's filings to the NLRB showed its concern over the supervisors, which it called the biggest supporters of the union.

"There is no meaningful disagreement that disputed supervisors are among the most vociferous pro-union advocates — virtually ensuring that the election will lack integrity if their status is not litigated in advance," one Hearst filing read.

But NLRB wrote in a Jan. 22 ruling that Hearst's request "raises no substantial issues warranting review."

The ruling sets the stage for an election, which is expected to be scheduled in the next couple of weeks.

Hearst singled out supervisors as being the most pro-union

In a filing, Hearst pointed to employees posting their support for the union on social media, wearing pro-union pins, signing mass emails to employees in support of representation.

"Employees who have revoked their union authorization cards have faced retaliation and harassment from multiple supervisors," the filing said. "For example, a non-supervisory employee reported that a supervisor confronted and 'grilled' her about a colleague who had revoked his authorization card. And another supervisor has been accused of generally 'coercing and putting a lot of pressure on employees' to support unionization. At least one supervisor attended a 'Thankful for Union' party with employees, held to support representation."

The Writers Guild responded in a filing that most of the pro-union activities that Hearst was referring to were "simple expressions of support for the union, which are lawful even assuming the individuals are supervisors."

"For all of the Employer's bluster, this is a straightforward case," the guild wrote.

The NLRB sided with the guild in denying Hearst's request.

"We are pleased that the NLRB dismissed one of the company's unfounded attempts to divide our union and delay an election," the Hearst Union Organizing Committee said in a statement. "We look forward to completing these NLRB hearings and having a fair election in a timely manner."

Hearst executives haven't commented on the ruling.

Hearst's anti-union stance has rankled some staffers

It's common for management to oppose unions out of concerns that they'll introduce adversity between supervisors and subordinates and introduce processes that make it hard to be nimble. Another common concern is that contracts can make it hard to fire underperformers. 

In digital media, most companies have largely put up little resistance to their employees' efforts to organize in the past few years. 

New York magazine wrote that Hearst "adopted an especially hostile posture toward staff," though. Hearst executives Troy Young and Kate Lewis have called meetings with magazine staffs where they argued that a union would divide the company and slow its progress. 

Some employees said they felt angry and patronized by the company's stance and that its opposition "fueled the fire," as one organizer put it. Some vets meanwhile shared managements' concerns that a union will cause divisiveness and undermine the company's progress at a precarious time.

Original author: Lucia Moses

Front is taking a team based approach to email and combines a company's social media, email, texts and other messages into a shared inbox that an entire team has access to.It just raised $59 million in Series C funding in a slightly unusual round that included leading software executives from Zoom, Atlassian, Okta and Qualtrics.Here's the pitch deck Front used to convince execs like Zoom CEO Eric Yuan to participate. Click here for more BI Prime stories.

Email is used in just about every workplace, in just about every industry. Email startup Front wants to change how people use their work email, and in the process take on heavyweights like Microsoft Outlook and Gmail. 

Front CEO Mathilde Collin thinks the goal is broader than just changing email — it's about changing how people work. And she and her team just got a huge vote of confidence from several prominent software executives in the tech industry, who also focus on the future of work. 

Earlier this week Front announced that it raised $59 million in Series C funding, in the round a little bit different than most. It included funding from industry leaders similarly focused on the future of work, including Zoom CEO Eric Yuan, whose videoconferencing startup skyrocketed after seeing one of the most successful public debuts last year. 

In addition to Yuan, executives from Okta, Atlassian, and Qualtrics participated. That includes Atlassian co-CEO and cofounder Mike Cannon-Brookes, Atlassian President Jay Simons, Okta COO and cofounder Frederic Kerrest, Qualtrics cofounder and CEO Ryan Smith, and Qualtrics co-founder and CTO Jared Smith.

"If you're doing a software company or thinking about the future of work, I don't think you can pick a bigger market than email," Collin told Business Insider.

Collin said before this round, she didn't know it was possible to fundraise this way, but she'd been in touch with several of those executives for years and all had shown interest in Front. What appealed to them was the sheer size of the market Front is going after, she says.

Front takes a team-based approach to email. It combines a company's social media, email, texts and other messages into a shared inbox that an entire team has access to. The goal is to make it easier to work together and communicate with customers.

Although the company declined to share a specific number, it said its valuation has grown four-fold from its last round 2 years ago. It now claims 5,500 customers, including companies like MailChimp, Y Combinator, Shopify, Cisco Meraki, eTix, and Stripe. 

Here is the pitch deck Front used to sign companies on for its Series C round:

Original author: Paayal Zaveri

The coronavirus outbreak that originated in Wuhan, China, has killed at least 18 people and infected more than 630.The virus can pass from human to human, and experts are rushing to study it and stop it from spreading further.Some users of Douyin, the version of short-form video app TikTok that's available in China, are reporting that the platform has launched an information page to inform about symptoms, plus a video effect to show support for medical staff and patients.Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Chinese shortform video app Douyin has reportedly added features related to the spread of the coronavirus that originated in Wuhan, China. The app has launched a #FightPneumonia page that "provides updates on the spread of the coronavirus, expert reports and analysis, as well as relevant information on prevention" according to Chinese business and technology website TMT Post.

Pandaily, another Chinese outlet, reported that the Douyin page aggregated information regarding where the illness is spreading and what prevention measures people could take.

Beyond raising awareness, Douyin is also an outlet for support to doctors and medical staff fighting the virus, and for patients who have been infected. Analyst Daniel Ahmad wrote on Twitter that the app had launched a "Jiayou video effect (that signals encouragement) that people are using to leave positive messages in support of doctors, medical staff and patients." Jiayou, which literally means "add oil," was added to the Oxford English Dictionary last year. In practice, it is used to mean "expressing encouragement, incitement, or support: go on! go for it!"

 

Celebrities, influencers, and others users are reportedly posting videos with the effect to show support for patients and medical professionals. They pose with a thumbs up, smiling, while the audio plays.

Douyin's parent company, ByteDance, launched the short-form video app in China in 2016, and it skyrocketed to popularity. Within a year, the app had 100 million users and one billion views per day, and this month reported 400 million daily users. Douyin grew outside of China by a name more familiar to US fans: TikTok, and grew popular in the US after buying another short-form video app, Musical.ly. It has since become the second-most-downloaded app in the App Store and Google Play store in 2019, surpassed only by Facebook-owned WhatsApp. ByteDance, which owns both Douyin and TikTok, is the most valuable private company in the world, at an estimated $75 billion. ByteDance did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The first case in this outbreak of the coronavirus was reported in Wuhan, China, in December. The virus, with its pneumonia-like symptoms of a fever, cough, and difficulty breathing, has killed at least 18 people so far. More than 600 people have reportedly been sickened, with cases in at least seven other countries. On Wednesday, local authorities in Wuhan announced a quarantine, shutting down transportation for the 11 million residents of the region, though the virus has already traveled to other areas of the country.

This isn't the first time Douyin or TikTok has hosted public health information. In October, TechCrunch reported that TikTok was working with Indian firms and creators to make videos about health tips and mental health awareness. Despite a brief ban in 2019, India is TikTok's largest market.

Original author: Mary Meisenzahl

Jeff Bezos and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman in 2018. Embassy of Saudi Arabia

Good morning! This is the tech news you need to know this Wednesday.

Jeff Bezos' phone was reportedly hacked by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in 2018. Bezos reportedly had had a friendly text exchange with bin Salman, after which Salman sent a video file — believed to be malicious — that compromised Bezos' phone when opened.Trump and Macron declared a ceasefire on the escalating trade war over France's anti-tech tax. The fight began in July when France approved a 3% tax on revenue generated by large digital companies operating within the country, primarily targeted at Silicon Valley giants like Amazon, Facebook, and Google.China's ByteDance is courting European game developers, and sources say it's mulling a casual-games platform for TikTok to rival Facebook and Snapchat. At a gaming conference on Monday in London, a ByteDance exec dropped hints about the firm's thinking on a casual-gaming platform akin to the instantly playable games available on Facebook and Snapchat.Apple reportedly killed a security project after the FBI pushed back. The project involved an iCloud service that fully encrypted iPhone backups, locking even Apple out of the backups.Netflix crushed growth targets internationally during Q4 2018 but missed in the US, where rivals like Disney Plus emerged. Shares of the streaming company were flat in after-hours trading.Apple CEO Tim Cook subtly dinged Mark Zuckerberg by saying augmented reality doesn't isolate people like other technologies. Cook said he is "deeply worried" by technologies which do isolate people, and seemed to imply VR — which Zuckerberg is heavily invested in — was one of them.Disney Plus is finally expanding to the UK and Europe in March. Disney Plus will be coming to the UK, Ireland, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Austria, and Switzerland on March 24.Apple is launching a new feature for the Apple Card that addresses one of its biggest drawbacks. Apple will now allow Apple Card owners to export transaction data from the Wallet app to third-party apps, making it easier to manage expenses alongside transactions from other accounts.eBay has laid off at least 200 employees as a continuation of its restructuring under its interim CEO. The company confirmed the layoffs, saying they affected only a "low single digit" percentage of eBay's overall workforce.California officials say a $10 million gender discrimination settlement by the creators of the game "League of Legends" isn't enough and calculated the game studio may owe $400 million. Riot Games agreed in August to pay $10 million to settle a class action lawsuit accusing the company of gender discrimination.

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Original author: Isobel Asher Hamilton

Blossom Capital founder Ophelia Brown closed her second fund in less than 12 months to help scale European and US tech companies. Blossom Capital has raised $185 million from institutional investors, taking its total funding to $270 million. Previous investments in the fund's portfolio include Duffel, Checkout.com, and Tines. "Blossom is like a startup, we've had to convince people of the strategy," Brown told Business Insider in an interview. "We believe in the market opportunity, investors have backed us and we have done exactly what we said we'd do."  Click here for more BI Prime stories.

One of Europe's most highly regarded young investors has raised a second fund, less than 12 months after she raised her first. 

Blossom Capital, founded by former general partner at LocalGlobe and principal at Index Ventures Ophelia Brown, has raised an additional $185 million. That takes her total funds to $270 million. Blossom's original $85 million raise was previously touted as the fastest first-time funding by a female-founded venture capital firm.  

The European tech system had a strong 2019 (attracting $34 billion of VC funding) and 2020 is off to a strong start, as US investors increasingly target European startups. 

"Blossom is like a startup, we've had to convince people of the strategy," Brown told Business Insider in an interview. "We believe in the market opportunity, investors have backed us and we have done exactly what we said we'd do." 

Investors in the round weren't named but Brown indicated that the round was led by existing investors with all but one from the US. Aside from Brown, Blossom Capital's partners include former Index investor Imran Ghory, and former Deliveroo CTO Mike Brown.

In 2019 Blossom invested in European tech startups including travel tech company Duffel, Irish cybersecurity company Tines, and payments processor Checkout.com.

Venture capital funds don't tend to give open information about their returns and performance but Blossom proclaims that it's in the top 5% of funds in the US and EU. That's according to private investment benchmark data from Cambridge Associates and Preqin, cited in Blossom Capital's release. This is despite the fact that Blossom only invests in five companies a year.

"There is a clear, fundamental shift in Europe which gives rise to our belief in early-stage startups," Brown added. "Founders want to work with us because of our links to the US and our unique proposition."  

Brown appeared on Business Insider's Tech 100 2019, a list of the 100 most influential people in UK tech, at number four.

Original author: Callum Burroughs

Self-driving startup Cruise revealed its new Origin vehicle in San Francisco on Tuesday night.The vehicle is fully autonomous, all-electric, and has no traditional controls, such as a steering wheel or pedals.It's the result of a partnership between Cruise, GM, and Honda.Cruise CEO Dan Ammann continued to argue that it's time for the world to enter a post-car era, with personal auto ownership coming to an end.

SAN FRANCISCO — "We did think about reinventing the wheel," Cruise CEO Dan Ammann joked to an audience that had just seen the former General Motors president reveal the Cruise Origin, the self-driving startup's all-electric, no-steering-wheel, fully autonomous vehicle.

"This is what you'd build if there were no car," he said, building on a radical message first delivered last December, when he argued that the time has come to move past the automobile.

The Origin is the fifth generation of vehicle that Cruise has developed since it was acquired by GM in 2016. Then-CEO (now CTO) Kyle Vogt and his small team had developed a promising self-driving system that could handle the complicated urban environment of San Francisco. Their work caught GM and Ammann's attention. Since then, Japan's SoftBank and Honda, as well as other investors, have raised Cruise's valuation to about $20 billion. 

The Origin, which looks very much like the boxy transportation pod that some auto execs have been expecting, is the result of a collaboration between Cruise, GM, and Honda that started in late 2018. It's constructed on a new all-electric platform, the company said, and should form the basis of a shared-mobility service that Cruise hopes to launch in coming years (a 2019 roll-out was pushed back).

A production-ready vehicle, not a concept car

Dan Kan and Kyle Vogt, Cruise co-founders, with CEO Dan Ammann (right). GM Cruise

The vehicle — which Ammann said isn't a concept, but is actually going into production, with a plant to be named shorty — is intended to bring over 100 years of individual car ownership to an end.

Ammann said that it could also conclude an era of unfortunate trade-offs caused by long commute times, expensive auto ownership and maintenance, and, of course, the sacrifice of safety. Almost 40,000 people die in car-related accidents every year in the US alone.

"What if we didn't have to choose?" he asked. "What if we could create a different transportation system entirely — one that is safer, better and more affordable for us, for our cities and for our planet?"

The Origin, according to design director Stuart Norris, enabled the Cruise-GM-Honda group to get back to design fundamentals. 

"There was no first sketch," he said.

Instead, designers considered how the Origin would be used and experienced, and that informed their approach. "We moved away from styling," he noted. "It was a complete paradigm shift."

Vogt pointed out that, while the box-like Origin might seem large, it's really no bigger than a typical car. But it has no engine, nor conventional controls. The twin doors slide open, minivan-style, to avoid taking out cyclists. Inside there's a pair of bench seats, accommodating six riders, along with dual screens and a cargo area. Four sensor arrays at the corners enable the information flow that enables the vehicle to navigate what Vogt characterized as the entropic and random San Francisco streetscape.

A million-mile vehicle

Cruise's first effort at a no-steering-wheel design. GM

According to Ammann, Cruise's service could provide $5,000 in yearly savings for customers who would be liberated from the cost of car ownership. The vehicles would operate around the clock and be updated on ther sensor and software fronts. But the vehicle itself could operate for a million miles. 

"We're close to cracking the human performance barrier," Vogt said. 

He said the Origin could deliver what he called "superhuman" performance, and that the vehicles could be affordably deployed on a larger scale — at half the cost of an electric vehicle in the current market. 

Cruise relies on an integrated-manufacturing process to distinguish itself from other self-driving companies, such as Waymo (part of Alphabet), which wants to develop a robot "driver" that could operate anything from a minivan to a big semi-trailer rig, and has been supplied with vehicles by Fiat Chrysler and Jaguar Land Rover.

By building its own vehicles, at GM factories, with self-driving technology engineered into the car itself, Cruise hopes to be able to vindicate the $1 billion a year GM is spending to fund the company's growth.

And Cruise doesn't appear to be limiting itself to ferrying just passengers. Ammann teased the prospects for a cargo-delivery service, as well. 

Critically, none of it would require business-as-usual.

"What we came up with isn't a car that you buy," Ammann said. "It's an experience that you share."

Original author: Matthew DeBord

The Financial Times reported on Tuesday that Saudi Arabia's possible hack of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos' phone may have led to the extraction of dozens of kilobytes of data that continued on for months. The Guardian first reported on Tuesday that Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had covertly stolen data from the Amazon CEO's phone after sending an unsolicited video that contained a malicious file. According to the Financial Times, the scope of the attack was much larger than previously reported.Saudi Arabia responded to the Times report, calling for the disclosure of the analysis and any additional evidence. Bezos' attorney said that Bezos is "cooperating with investigations." Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

More details have emerged about the alleged Saudi hacking of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos' phone and indicate that the operation likely went on for months without detection and resulted in dozens of gigabytes being stolen. 

The Guardian first reported on Tuesday that Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had covertly extracted data from the Amazon CEO's phone after sending an unsolicited video that contained a malicious file, citing unnamed sources with knowledge of an international investigation into the hacking.

The Saudi government has called the report "absurd" and called for an investigation into the claims. 

Bezos' attorney told the Guardian that Bezos is "cooperating with investigations." 

According to the Financial Times, the scope of the attack was much larger than previously reported.

A forensic analysis conducted by FTI Consulting, a business advisory firm hired by Jeff Bezos, said that within hours of the file being sent to Bezos from the Crown Prince's personal number, a "massive and unauthorized" amount of data began to be extracted in a campaign that escalated "for months." 

According to the Times, which reviewed the FTI Consulting report, dozens of gigabytes of data were extracted, "compared to the few hundred kilobytes daily average in the months before the video file was sent." 

Saudi Arabia responded to The Times report, calling for the disclosure of the analysis and any additional evidence. 

"Saudi Arabia does not conduct illicit activities of this nature, nor does it condone them," a Saudi official told The Times. "We request the presentation of any supposed evidence and the disclosure of any company that examined any forensic evidence so that we can show it is demonstrably false."

A spokesman for FTI Consulting told The Times that its client work is "confidential," and it refused to comment.

The hack is believed to have happen after the two men exchanged friendly messages on Whatsapp on May 1, 2o18, weeks after they had met at a dinner in Los Angeles while the prince was in the US on official business.

Bezos' team began investigating his phone in January 2019 after The National Enquirer published a story about him having an affair, after which Bezos accused the tabloid's parent company American Media Inc., of blackmailing him by threatening to publish his nude images.

Original author: Rosie Perper

There's a good chance Apple CEO Tim Cook, Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, and venture capitalist Peter Thiel are having their phones examined right about now, in the wake of new reports about the hacking of Jeff Bezos' phone.

A forensic analysis commissioned by Bezos suggests that it's likely his phone was hacked in May 2018 via a file sent from a WhatsApp account used by Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, according to reports in The Guardian and the Financial Times.

The hacking attack came just weeks after Bezos, the CEO of Amazon and owner of The Washington Post, met in person with bin Salman during the latter's tour of Silicon Valley and the US. The two swapped phone numbers during a dinner meeting and later connected via WhatsApp.

But Bezos wasn't the only tech luminary or celebrity who met with bin Salman on his three-week tour. So too did Cook, Page, Brin, Thiel and plenty of others. There is no evidence that their phones were also compromised, but given the stunning allegations about how Bezos' phone was hacked, it's not unreasonable to wonder whether others may have swapped phone numbers with the crown prince and could be at risk.

The Saudi US embassy called the allegations of hacking "absurd" in a tweet on Tuesday.

Here are some of the tech executives and other notable figures who met with the Saudi crown prince on his 2018 trip, according to The New York Times:

Original author: Troy Wolverton

On Tuesday, the Guardian reported an international investigation had concluded that Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos' phone was hacked via a link in a May 2018 WhatsApp message from Saudi Arabia's crown prince Mohammed bin Salman (known as MBS in the West). Cybersecurity experts hired by Jeff Bezos to investigate the leaks after details of an affair were leaked to the media also reported similar findings, the Financial Times reported. The hacking fills in a missing chunk in a timeline that links the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who wrote for the Bezos-owned Washington Post, and Jeff Bezos himself, who announced in January 2019 that he was getting divorced.But many issues still remain unresolved. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The Guardian published a bombshell report on Tuesday: That Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos' phone was hacked by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. 

According to the report, a WhatsApp message that Bezos received from bin Salman's phone number in May 2019 is believed to have included a "malicious file" that compromised the Amazon CEO's phone. Bezos and the crown prince had previously exchanged a few friendly messages on WhatsApp, according to the report. But within hours of receiving a video file in May, Bezos' phone began to surreptitiously transmit large amounts of data. 

Months later, Saudi Arabia was accused of the brutal murder of Jamal Khashoggi, a high-profile Saudi critic and columnist for the Washington Post, which is owned by Bezos. 

And in January 2019, Bezos' affair with TV anchor Lauren Sanchez was reported by the National Enquirer, and intimate selfies and text messages that Bezos had sent Sanchez were leaked. 

The Saudi US embassy called the allegations of hacking "absurd" in a tweet on Tuesday.

The report of the hacking by the Saudi Kingdom's crown prince would seem to fill in a lot of the missing pieces to this puzzle of intrigue and deception. But there are still a lot of things we don't know. Here are some of the top unanswered questions:

What data from Bezos' phone was accessed in the hack?  

The nature of the data taken from Bezos' phone remains unknown to the UN investigators looking into the hacking, according to the Guardian's report. A subsequent report from the Financial Times citing sources from Bezos's own investigation into the matter suggests that the breach was substantial, allowing hackers to access "dozens of gigabytes."

Is Saudi Arabia behind the leaks of Bezos' intimate selfies to his lover?

Whether the Amazon CEO's private photos and texts were leaked to the National Enquirer from the Saudi Arabian government has yet to be determined by international investigators, the Guardian reported. 

But there have been speculations that a foreign government was involved in the leaks. A Medium post published by Jeff Bezos in February 2019 accused the National Enquirer's parent company AMI and AMI CEO David Pecker of "extortion and blackmail," unless he stopped referring to the leaks as politically motivated. Bezos also hinted at ties between the media organization and the Saudi Arabian government. And Amazon security consultant Gavin de Becker penned a personal account in the Daily Beast that concluded that the Saudi government had hacked Bezos' phone and gained access to his private information well before the Enquirer story was released. 

What was in the video file that MBS sent Bezos?

Likely some sort of malware, but we don't know for sure yet. The Guardian reported that a digital forensics analysis found it "highly probable" that Bezos' phone was breached after he clicked on an "infected" video file sent to him from MBS' WhatsApp account. However, we don't know what exactly the file was infected with — and therefore, what type of information it might have been capable of accessing.

Did bin Salman himself send the compromising text?

It's unclear. While The Guardian's report said the video was sent from bin Salman's personal WhatsApp account, that doesn't definitely prove that the crown prince himself sent the video. Bin Salman could have authorized someone else to send the video on his behalf. Alternatively, an unauthorized third-party could have surreptitiously accessed his account and sent the malware, though there are no indications so far suggesting that someone successfully hacked bin Salman in order to hack Bezos' phone.

Was Israeli cybersecurity firm NSO Group responsible? 

We don't know yet. But the Israeli cybersecurity firm, NSO Group has a history of selling software that hacks phones using WhatsApp. Crucially, the company has been linked to Saudi Arabia's alleged assassination of the Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

A lawsuit filed by the Montreal-based Saudi dissident Omar Abdulaziz  accused NSO of helping Saudi Arabia's government spy on his communications with the murdered Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi back in December 2018. NSO denied all allegations that its software helped lead to Khashoggi's death, the Associated Press reported. 

Almost a year later, WhatsApp parent company Facebook sued the Israeli group. NSO Group had exploited vulnerabilities in WhatsApp's video-calling system to send malware to the devices of over 1,400 users, to allow governments and intelligence organizations to spy on them, Facebook alleged in October 2019. 

Who else has accused MBS of hacking?

Bezos and MBS exchanged numbers during the crown prince's visit to the United States in April 2018, apparently during a trip  where the Saudi crown prince met with several prominent tech executives and investors, including Apple CEO Tim Cook, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai (who was running Google at the time), and investor Peter Thiel.

While there is no evidence of other hacking attempts carried out against these tech executives, there are several reports of hacking attempts carried out Saudi Arabia's dissenters around the same time Bezos' phone reportedly began transmitting data, including Abdulaziz, the Financial Times reported. 

Original author: Bani Sapra and Tyler Sonnemaker

LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner said the Microsoft-owned professional social network still has work to do to address sexual harassment and scamming on the platform, after a user wrote on open letter calling for greater measures to combat the problems.

LinkedIn user Amy Perkins in a Jan. 17 post on the website said that she's experienced harassment and attempted scams on the social network intended for professionals. The post had more than 6,200 reactions and 1,000 comments at the time of this writing.

Perkins said she uploaded a video to LinkedIn about her decision to quit her job after 25 years in education. The video went viral, she said, and soon she started receiving inappropriate comments from other users — some of them, she said, saying things like "hey sexy," "call me," and "you're hot." Perkins also said she was the target of an attempted scam by another LinkedIn user claiming to have a business opportunity.

"Here's the thing Jeff, I'm a middle-aged mom of two. I uploaded a video on a business platform, not a dating site. I was terrified and confused," Perkins wrote. "I was sick to my stomach, ready to delete my account."

Perkins has yet to respond to a request for an interview from Business Insider. However, LinkedIn users, particularly women, have reported experiencing harassment on the site for years, suggesting that her story is not an uncommon one on the site.

Weiner responded in a comment on Perkins' post, writing LinkedIn's efforts to address the problems have "room for improvement."

"It is completely unacceptable for you or any member of LinkedIn to experience this and runs completely counter to our values and expectations for community interaction," Weiner wrote. "We continue to invest aggressively to combat this kind of behavior, both through people and technology, but clearly still have room for improvement."

Perkins in a later post said LinkedIn followed up Weiner's comment with a call from a LinkedIn manager.

In a statement, LinkedIn reiterated its stance on the issue: "Abusive behavior is not tolerated. It's absolutely not acceptable for a member to harass others on LinkedIn. We have strong systems in place to monitor and keep members safe. We encourage anyone and everyone who has experienced harassment to report it to us."

The company in November released for the first time data about its efforts to eliminate harassment and fraud on the site. LinkedIn did not include the number of reports it received, only what it actually removed.

LinkedIn said it removed more than 16,000 instances of harassment from the website in the first half of the 2019. Harassment made up the largest category of content removed by LinkedIn. The company defined other categories as "adult" (11,019 removals), "violent or graphic" (1,933 removals), "hate speech" (1,637 removals), and "child exploitation" (22 removals).

Scams – or, as LinkedIn refers to then,  "untargeted, irrelevant, and repetitive communications or invitations, often for financial gain" – required most attention from LinkedIn during the same period. The company said it removed 60.5 million instances of this type of content, detected 99.8 percent of which it said it automatically detected. Around 100,000 were removed after being reported by individuals. 

Examples of the removed scams include recruiters offering high-paying jobs for little work or job postings that mirror an application to a reputable company. 

LinkedIn also said at the time that it removed 21 million fake accounts, most of which the company said it detected during registration.

Original author: Ashley Stewart

The US has been launching spacecraft since 1950, but NASA formed in 1958.Vintage photos show the space agency's earliest missions — from training the first astronauts to creating the golden record it sent beyond our solar system.These 24 vintage photos give a peek into NASA's early years and missions.Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

NASA is preparing to launch its astronauts in the first commercial spacecraft ever built. 

But it took decades of experimenting, tinkering, and groundbreaking missions to reach this point. The US has been launching spacecraft since 1950 ⁠— before NASA even existed.

The agency keeps a library of historical photos from its earliest projects, including the Mercury missions that launched the first astronauts and the creation of the golden record sent into the cosmos on the Voyager mission.

The images are a window into the long and journey of US space exploration. Here are 24 remarkable vintage photos of NASA's early work.

Original author: Holly Secon and Morgan McFall-Johnsen

Just six months after IBM bought Red Hat for $34 billion, it looks like the acquisition is paying off for the tech giant. "It appears that the Red Hat 'goodness' is kicking in," analyst Patrick Moorhead told Business Insider.The company reported better-than-expected results, boosted by Red Hat revenues. IBM shares rallied more than 4% in after-hours trading.Click here for more BI Prime stories.

It looks like Red Hat is turning out to be a really smart buy for IBM.

The tech giant's shares rallied late Tuesday after posting strong results on robust Red Hat numbers.

IBM said Red Hat revenue exceeded $1 billion in the quarter, up 24% year over year. IBM itself posted a modest revenue gain, which exceeded Wall Street's expectations.

"We're off to a great start with Red Hat," IBM Chief Financial Officer James Kavanaugh said on a call with analysts on Tuesday.

Clearly, Red Hat was a factor for this, analysts said.

"It appears that the Red Hat 'goodness' is kicking in," analyst Patrick Moorhead told Business Insider. IBM also got a boost from sales of its flagship mainframe products, which Moorhead attributed to "pent up demand."

The earnings results are good news for a tech behemoth which has repeatedly posted slumping revenues as it struggled to adapt to the rise of the cloud. IBM dominated the enterprise market by selling hardware and software that businesses used to set up and run their in-house data centers.

Like other traditional tech companies, it has had a hard time adapting to the cloud, which allows businesses to set up networks on web-based platforms run by the likes of Amazon, Microsoft and Google.

IBM has said it's banking on a new trend called hybrid cloud, in which businesses run networks in the cloud, while keeping huge chunks of the data and applications in private data centers.

The company says it expects hybrid cloud to grow into a $1 trillion market that Big Blue will dominate. Buying Red Hat for $34 billion was part of that game plan.

The IBM report shows that the tech giant may be on the right track.

The company's results shows that the tech giant is making "good progress" in its bid to be a stronger player in the cloud era, IDC President Crawford Del Prete told Business Insider.

Tim Bajarin of Creative Strategies Inc said the report "confirms that their purchase of Red Hat and their  commitment to the cloud, AI and and investments in R&D are paying off for them." 

"They appear to be on much better footing over last year at this time and given the direction they are headed," he told Business Insider. "it is very possible that their growth will continue into the new year."  

Moorhead agreed saying: "I can see in a quarter or two that IBM gets back to overall growth. It has one of the better cloud value propositions, and what appears to be a growing Red Hat asset."

Not all analysts were impressed. Marty Wolf, president of Martinwolf M&A Advisors, said, "Expectations were so low that a nominal revenue beat of $150 million is causing speculators to do gymnastics after hours."

The "trend line" for the company still points to "revenue decline," he told Business Insider.

IBM reported a fourth-quarter profit of $3.67 billion, or $4.11 a share, compared to $1.95 billion, or $2.15 a share, for the year-ago quarter. Adjusted profit was $4.71 a share. Revenue edged higher to $21.78 billion from $21.76 billion. 

Analysts were expecting the company to report earnings of $4.68 a share on revenue of $21.64 billion. 

IBM's stock was up more than 4% in after-hours trades.

Got a tip about IBM or another tech company? Contact this reporter via email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., message him on Twitter @benpimentel or send him a secure message through Signal at (510) 731-8429. You can also contact Business Insider securely via SecureDrop.

Original author: Benjamin Pimentel

Riot Games, the company behind "League of Legends," agreed in August to pay $10 million to settle a class action lawsuit accusing the company of gender discrimination.However, the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing says the company could owe as much as $400 million for denying women equal pay, according to the LA Times.The DFEH's objection has blocked the original $10 million settlement from being approved.A Riot spokesperson described the $400 figure number as a "click-bait number with no grounding in reality."Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The State of California says one of the country's biggest gaming companies could be responsible for paying more than $400 million to female employees as a result of an ongoing sexual harassment and gender discrimination investigation.

In December 2019 Riot Games, the creator of "League of Legends," agreed to pay $10 million to settle a class action lawsuit that accused the company of fostering a sexist work environment. Two Riot employees, one former and one current, filed the suit in California Superior Court in November 2018 accusing Riot of denying them equal pay and blocking their career advancements on the basis of gender.

However, according to a report from the Los Angeles Times, the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing has objected to the settlement, preventing its approval in Los Angeles Superior Court. California's DFEH says that women at Riot could be entitled to more than $400 million in back pay based on the calculations used in the settlement. The department also said the settlement failed to incorporate "enforceable changes" to Riot's employment policies, the LA Times reported.

A Riot Games spokesperson told Business Insider it planned to file a legal rebuttal to the DFEH objections, calling the agency's $400 million number "absurd."

"It's a click-bait number with no grounding in reality," Riot spokesperson Joe Hixson said in an email.  

Hixson said the DFEH used a flawed methodology that is inconsistent with similar cases and failed to take into account important factors like job duties, skills and experience. 

The original class action suit alleged that Riot created a sexist work environment by fostering "bro culture" that normalized sexual harassment and misogyny aimed at employees of both genders. In December 2018 Riot suspended Chief Operating Officer Scott Gelb for upholding that culture of toxic masculinity, following reports that he had farted on employees and repeatedly hit their genitals as a running joke.

According to reports from ESPN, plaintiffs Jessica Negron and Gabriela Downie are due to receive the highest payouts from the settlement, $10,000 each. After accounting for legal fees and litigation, approximately $6.2 million in settlement payments will be distributed between the remaining members of the class.

An attorney for the plaintiffs, Ryan Saba, told ESPN that the case had resulted in one of the largest gender inequality settlements in California's history.

Riot announced the class action settlement in a joint statement with the plaintiffs on August 23. At the time, Riot said it chose not to pursue litigation in favor of progressing past the dispute as a company. 

"While we believed that we had a strong position to litigate, we realized that in the long run, doing what is best for both Riot and Rioters was our ideal outcome," the company said in a blog post at the time. "Therefore, rather than entrench ourselves and continue to litigate, we chose to pivot and try to take an approach that we believe best demonstrates our commitment to owning our past, and to healing the company so that we can move forward together."

Riot has been overhauling its internal policies and company culture since reports of gender discrimination surfaced in August 2018, but some employees have remained critical of its approach. In May more than 100 employees participated in a walk-out of the company's Los Angeles studio to protest a newly introduced forced arbitration policy for workplace disputes.

Original author: Kevin Webb

Original author: Steven Cohen

Electronics are banned from Trump's impeachment hearing.Some senators reportedly flouted this rule, and wore smart watches to the proceedings.Trump is facing two articles of impeachment alleging that he engaged in "high crimes and misdemeanors" to interfere with the 2020 election.Visit Business Insider for more stories.

As many as eight senators could be in violation of senate rules during President Trump's impeachment trial, Roll Call reported.

According to decorum guidelines given to senators before the trial began, electronics are not allowed in the room at all. The rules read "No use of phones or electronic devices will be allowed in the Chamber. All electronics should be left in the Cloakroom in the storage provided." The rules prohibit tools that senators would typically use to connect with the outside world and share information on social media, although it seems likely that Trump himself will be on Twitter.

Sen. John Cornyn, one of the senators who reportedly wore an Apple Watch during the trial, told The Hill last week "We will not have our electronic devices. I just saw a piece of cabinetry in the cloakroom where we will be required to turn over our iPads and our iPhones."

Along with Cornyn, Roll Call reported that Sens. Mike Lee, John Thune, Jerry Moran, John Barrasso, Tim Scott, Michael Bennet, and Patty Murray were reportedly spotted with smart watches. They also published a photo showing an Apple Watch on Lee's wrist. Sen. Mitch McConnell's aide was also reportedly spotted wearing an Apple Watch. A representative for Sen. Bennet told Business Insider that the senator doesn't own an Apple Watch, and wasn't wearing a smart watch, and a representative for Sen. Barrasso told Business Insider that he was just wearing a square watch, and doesn't own an Apple Watch. Representatives for the other senators did not immediately respond to request for comment. 

Apple Watches and other smartwatches can perform many functions of a smartphone, like text, download apps, and make phone calls. Senators can even tweet from their watches.

The rules for the trial do not specify who will enforce them, or what possible repercussions there might be.

Original author: Mary Meisenzahl

Patrick Stewart returns as Jean-Luc Picard. IMDB "Star Trek: Picard" will premiere on January 23 through the CBS All Access streaming service.The show stars Patrick Stewart, who is reprising his iconic role of Jean-Luc Picard from "Star Trek: The Next Generation."In order to watch the series, you'll need a subscription to CBS All Access.CBS All Access is available for $5.99 per month with limited commercials, or $9.99 per month without commercials.

 

Trekkies rejoice, the highly-anticipated "Star Trek: Picard" series finally launches on January 23. But you won't be able to watch it through your regular TV package.

The series features the return of Patrick Stewart as Jean-Luc Picard. Stewart previously played the character of Picard on seven seasons of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" and in four theatrical Star Trek films. "Picard" picks up 18 years after the events of Stewart's final film in the franchise, "Star Trek: Nemesis," and finds the character coming out of retirement after a mysterious woman seeks his help.

"Picard" also stars Santiago Cabrera, Isa Briones, Alison Pill, and Harry Treadaway. A few familiar faces from other "Star Trek" shows will make appearances as well, including Jeri Ryan as Seven of Nine, Brent Spiner as Data, Jonathan Frakes as William Riker, and Marina Sirtis as Deanna Troi.

Although CBS is producing the show, "Picard" will not air on the CBS network. Instead, you'll need to have a CBS All Access streaming subscription to watch it.

Here's everything you need know about streaming "Star Trek: Picard" on CBS All Access.

How can I watch "Star Trek: Picard" on CBS All Access?

Patrick Stewart and Isa Briones star in "Star Trek: Picard." IMDB

In order to watch "Stark Trek: Picard," you'll need to sign up for a CBS All Access subscription. CBS All Access is a streaming service with live CBS programming and a growing collection of on-demand titles.

When you sign up for CBS All Access, you can choose between two subscription plans — a limited-commercials plan or a commercial-free plan. Both plans include monthly and annual payment options. The annual subscription method will save you over 15%. New subscribers can also receive a free 7-day trial. 

The limited-commercials plan costs $5.99 per month or $59.99 per year. This option features regular commercial interruptions during live TV, as well as commercial breaks while watching on-demand content.

The commercial-free plan costs $9.99 per month or $99.99 per year. Under this plan, live TV still includes regular commercials, but most on-demand content does not. This means you'll be able to watch "Star Trek: Picard" without ads.

What devices can I watch "Star Trek: Picard" on?

"Star Trek: Picard" is available to watch via the CBS All Access app on a variety of mobile devices, media boxes, and smart TVs.

The service is supported by Roku players, Apple TV, Fire TV, Chromecast, Android TV, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Samsung smart TVs, LG smart TVs, and Vizio smart TVs. You can also watch CBS All Access through a web browser on a PC or MAC.

When will new episodes of "Star Trek: Picard" premiere?

Patrick Stewart is joined by Jonathan Frakes in "Star Trek: Picard." IMDB

The first episode of "Star Trek: Picard" will premiere on Thursday, January 23 at 12:01 a.m. PT.

Unlike other streaming services like Netflix, CBS All Access does not release entire seasons of its shows all at once. Instead, new episodes of "Star Trek: Picard" will debut every Thursday. There will be a total of 10 episodes in the show's first season, with the season finale set to premiere on March 26.

If you're signing up for CBS All Access just to watch "Star Trek: Picard," you'll need to remain a subscriber through March in order to watch all the new episodes as they premiere. Alternatively, you could also wait until March 26 to subscribe in order to binge-watch the entire first season.

"Star Trek: Picard" has already been renewed for a second season, but a release date has not been announced yet. 

What else can I watch on CBS All Access?

In addition to "Star Trek: Picard," CBS All Access features a ton of other great live and on-demand content.

Other original on-demand titles produced exclusively for CBS All Access include "Star Trek: Discovery," "The Twilight Zone," and "The Good Fight."

The service also includes a library of more than 12,000 on-demand episodes from many current and classic TV shows. You can watch new episodes of shows like "Young Sheldon" and "NCIS" the day after they air on TV, or you can enjoy episodes of old favorites like "Cheers" and "I Love Lucy" whenever you'd like.

Finally, when it comes to live TV, CBS All Access lets you stream your local CBS station, as well as CBSN, CBS Sports HQ, and ET Live. Live local CBS coverage through CBS All Access is available in over 200 markets nationwide. 

 

Original author: Steven Cohen

You can easily unblock someone on Facebook Messenger in the "People" preferences section of the app.You can also block the person's phone calls and messages on Facebook Messenger using basically the same process. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

You can easily block — and just as easily unblock — anyone on Facebook in the Messenger app with a few simple taps.

To do so, you'll have to access the "People" section of the app's preferences by clicking on your profile picture. After navigating through the menu, you can block and unblock friends by selecting a name from the list or by searching for a specific person.

It's also important to note that blocking someone on Messenger does not block them on Facebook as well. The two have separate functions, though you can view both settings in the same place. Blocking on Facebook removes the person as your friend and also blocks them on Messenger, while blocking on Messenger only blocks the person's calls and messages.

The process to block and unblock someone is very similar. Here's how to do both. 

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1. Open the Messenger app on your iPhone or Android device.

2. Tap your profile picture, which is located in a circle in the upper-left corner of the screen.

Original author: Marissa Perino