Tech Round Up Week 3 July 2020: Twitter’s Massive Hack, 125W Phone Charging and More

A number of high-profile Twitter accounts were simultaneously hacked by attackers who used the accounts to spread a cryptocurrency scam. Accounts hacked included Apple, Joe Biden, Kim Kardashian West, Bill Gates, Barack Obama, Wiz Khalifa, Warren Buffett and more.

Those accounts and many others posted a message promoting the address of a bitcoin wallet with the claim that the amount of any payments made to the address would be doubled and sent back. Twitter has made a statement that “a coordinated social engineering attack” on employees gave a hacker “access to internal systems and tools” resulting in the massive hack.

The latest software update to the Fitbit Charge 4 includes dynamic GPS and a “smart wake” option. The new Dynamic GPS allows users to connect with the GPS in their phone if it’s in range, which helps with location accuracy and preserving battery life.

The Smart Wake feature will work along with the wearable’s sleep tracker, setting alarms to wake users at the time when they are most likely to feel most rested. The new features are now rolling out to all users.

Based on phone leaker Evan Blass’ latest leak video, the Samsung 5G Galaxy Z Flip looks practically identical to the original LTE version. According to XDA-Developers’ Max Weinbach, most features will remain the same except for an upgrade to Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 865 Plus chip.

The phone is also rumoured to come in a new “mystic bronze” colour and it has also been said that the new phone will support wireless charging.

Google’s Play Pass, a subscription app and game service for Android that’s similar to Apple Arcade, was previously only available in the US. Google has announced that the service will be available in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, New Zealand, Spain, and the United Kingdom from this week. Additionally, Google has added over 150 new apps and games to the existing Play Pass catalogue.

For certain regions, a one month trial is available for new Google Play Pass users.

Oppo announced its new 125w Fast Charge, which is said to be able to charge a 4,000mAh battery up to 41% in just five minutes and 100% in 20 minutes. Oppo also revealed AirVOOC, a 65w wireless charger that it said can fully revitalize a battery in 30 minutes.

Any Android phone that supports 125w charging can take advantage of Oppo’s Flash Charge when it becomes available for sale, but of course, there’s no such phone available at the moment. We wrote more about it here.

Zoom enters the hardware market by releasing a 27-inch 1080p touchscreen device called the Zoom for Home DTEN ME. Designed to cater to the needs of people working from home, the new device has three wide-angle cameras, an eight-microphone array and integrated speakers for video calls.

The smart camera optimizes the view of the room while the device also has echo cancellation and automatic noise reduction. The full HD multi-touch display can also be used for whiteboarding and annotation. The device is available for preorder at $599 USD.