app

Metaverse app allows kids into virtual strip clubs

A researcher posing as a 13-year-old girl witnessed grooming, sexual material, racist insults and a rape threat in the virtual-reality world.

The children's charity said it was "shocked and angry" at the findings.

Head of online child safety policy Andy Burrows added the investigation had found "a toxic combination of risks".

The BBC News researcher - using an app with a minimum age rating of 13 - visited virtual-reality rooms where avatars were simulating sex. She was shown sex toys and condoms, and approached by numerous adult men.

David Dobrik quits app after associate accused of rape

One woman who appeared in a video on Mr Dobrik’s channel says she was raped by another person involved during filming.

Mr Dobrik, who has almost 19 million subscribers on the platform, denies any wrongdoing.

But the claim has led brands and investors to "sever ties" with the influencer.

Mr Dobrik rose to fame through prank videos, sometimes in collaboration with a number of other YouTubers called the Vlog Squad.

During the coronavirus pandemic, he stepped back from posting regularly on YouTube, in order to launch his own photo app Dispo.

A ginger haired emoji is coming soon

According to Unicode, redheads will be able to describe themselves in emoji form from June 2018 after the organisation's emoji subcommitteerecommended 67 new characters.

It's not just ginger emojis set to make their way to our fingertips though.

There'll be new emojis for those with bald heads, curly hair and silver foxes will be represented with a white-haired emoji.

Straighten up and stand right, with some electronic nagging

She did everything she could to try straighten me out as a young adult. There were the posture-correcting ballet classes, the personal trainer, the physical therapy. But all the pestering and pirouetting couldn't fight the forces of screen strain: the spine-crushing laptop and the neck-protruding smartphone.

The result? My posture is simply horrendous, borderline-gargoyle awful and I'm stuck with chronic back and neck pain.

New app uses smartphones to detect earthquakes

MyShake, available on Android phones, links users to become an all-in-one earthquake warning system; it records quake-type rumblings, ties a critical number of users to a location, and could eventually provide a countdown to the start of shaking.

Face Swap Live, the 'creepy' app

Download the app and point your phone's camera at a friend, and it will convincingly map their face, in real time, onto someone else's: yours, a baby's, Beyonce's.

Since appearing in the app store about a month ago, the app hasn't strayed far outside of Apple's most-downloaded offerings.