Robotics Video: Evan Rachael Wood Meets Sophia

Mashable writes about an upcoming short film featuring two famous robots, one of whom is an actress and one is real.

Unless you live under a rock, you might know of the world’s most famous real-life humanoid, Sophia, the robot…

An enticing trailer for has recently come out for a short film called SophiaWorld starring HBO’s Westworld actress Evan Rachael Wood…

Television’s most famous Robot, actress Evan Rachel Wood, and arguably the world’s most famous real-life humanoid, Sophia the Robot, have a chance encounter in a swanky NY hotel bar…

The short film will premiere on September 4 on Futurism.com.

AT&T, T-Mobile Rolling Out Call Authentication

AT&T and T-Mobile are starting to roll out the call authentication feature based on T-Mobile’s SHAKEN/STIR technology.

Call verification won’t eradicate the issue, but it’ll give subscribers the choice not to answer potentially illegal calls, which could be scams or attempts to steal their identity…An AT&T spokesperson also told us that the carrier is testing a way for the SHAKEN/STIR protocol to work for everyone at no extra cost. To be precise, the company is developing a way to make the protocol work with AT&T Call Protect, which can block fraudulent calls for free.

It better be free. Security shouldn’t be an optional purchase.

Using Two-Factor Authentication on Old Apple Devices

Glenn Fleishman has a good tip on how to use Apple’s two-factor authentication on older devices that don’t support it.

But 2FA and outdated versions of Apple TV, iOS, and macOS don’t mix. You try to log in on those devices with your Apple ID and popups with codes may appear on other devices, but there’s no way to enter it on the piece of equipment from which you’re trying to log in. Fortunately, there’s a simple workaround.

I always forget about the manual method.

Darwin Mail Pro Lite Plan 1-Year Subscription: $9.99

We have a deal on a 1-year subscription to Darwin Mail Pro Lite, a secure inbox tool designed to help you be more productive when dealing with emails and to-dos. You can organize and sort your inbox by category, sender, or subject, and it has a Reminders feature for tasks so you don’t forget them. 1-year of this service is $9.99 through our deal.

Edit Button Not a Priority For Twitter, Says Exec

In news likely to disappoint lots of users, a Twitter executive admitted Tuesday that an edit button is not a priority for the social network. The company also said it would allow users to follow topics, not just people, Techcrunch reported.

At a press event in San Francisco, Twitter Product Lead Kayvon Beykpour talked about a number of product changes coming to the company’s service, he also addressed the oft-memed user request for an edit button. Long story, short, you shouldn’t expect to see the button anytime soon. “Honestly, it’s a feature that I think we should build at some point, but it’s not anywhere near the top of our priorities,” Beykpour said. “That’s the honest answer.”

Researchers Expose Breach in Biometrics System Used by UK Police

Israeli security researchers discovered that a company used by the UK Metropolitan police, defense contractors and banks left millions of records unprotected. Data included biometric information. Noam Rotem and Ran Locar handed their research to the Guardian. The loophole had reportedly been closed by the time of this writing.

In a search last week, the researchers found Biostar 2’s database was unprotected and mostly unencrypted. They were able to search the database by manipulating the URL search criteria in Elasticsearch to gain access to data. The researchers had access to over 27.8m records, and 23 gigabytes-worth of data including admin panels, dashboards, fingerprint data, facial recognition data, face photos of users, unencrypted usernames and passwords, logs of facility access, security levels and clearance, and personal details of staff. Much of the usernames and passwords were not encrypted, Rotem told the Guardian. “We were able to find plain-text passwords of administrator accounts,” he said.

Apple Customers Get Weird Email About Apple Card

Last night, Apple sent the next wave of invitations for Apple Card, but there seems to be a goof in the system. The email said that the early invitation is waiting, but the email address Apple has on file is wrong. You can click a link in the email to supply the correct one.

There are multiple reports on Reddit of people receiving the email who are 100 percent sure they signed up with the correct Apple ID email address…Several users have contacted Apple Support, who are apparently aware of the issue and it has been forwarded to the Apple Card engineering team. Still, it’s worth noting that some users may have also received the email for the right reason – because they didn’t use the email address associated with their Apple account.

I too got the email last night, but since it arrived at an address no longer associated with my Apple ID, my email was probably legitimate in that I didn’t sign up with the correct one.

Facebook's Digital Currency, Libra, in Trouble

The pushback against Libra is increasing. BBC News writes:

Financial bigwigs are upset because Facebook, a corporation, appears to want to take on a government-like role, creating a currency and perhaps even setting monetary policy.

Big Money is power. Facebook is trying to seize power at a governmental level. Sparks are gonna fly.