An Israeli firm called NSO Group used a WhatsApp exploit to inject spyware on target devices. A fix for the exploit is live.
Given the stealthy way the attack was attempted, it’s impressive that WhatsApp caught it as quickly as they did. Engineers at Facebook have been busy sorting this one out over the weekend…Named CVE-2019-3568…affected versions include…WhatsApp for iOS prior to v2.19.51, WhatsApp Business for iOS prior to v2.19.51.
Apple was frustrated at the speed Intel was developing a 5G modem long before it settled with Qualcomm. A report in The Information picked up by AppleInsider outlined the growing tensions between Apple and its supplier, which announced its departure from the mobile modem market shortly after the Apple-Qualcomm settlement was revealed.
In early 2017, senior Hardware Technologies VP Johny Srouji “barked” at Intel’s Venkata Renduchintala during a meeting at 1 Infinite Loop, according to a source for The Information. Srouji was allegedly frustrated with Intel’s work on the XMM 7560, intended for 2018 iPhones. The modem wasn’t functioning properly, two sources said, even though Intel had already overhauled it four times to put it on par with Qualcomm chips, and missed multiple deadlines along the way.
Uber announced a new Quiet Drive option in which customers can request that their driver not speak. Techcrunch reported that the option is available to Uber Black customers.
Uber did extensive research of drivers’ perceptions in the three months it took to develop the feature. But due to employment laws, it can’t actually require that drivers abide by user requests for quiet, though they might get negative ratings if they ignore them. Ghajar insists “It’s not mandatory. The driver is an independent contractor. We’re just communicating the rider’s preference. The driver can have that information and do with it what they want.” Given premium rides often cost 2X the UberX price and over 3X the UberPool price, Uber could make a lot of money encouraging upgrades.
Nerd culture may be mainstream now, but it was not always that way. In a moving piece for Wired, Paul Ford details his love story with tech.
No one loves tech for tech’s sake. All of this was about power—power over the way stories were told, the ability to say things on my own terms. The aesthetic of technology is an aesthetic of power—CPU speed, sure, but what do you think we’re talking about when we talk about “design”? That’s just a proxy for power; design is about control, about presenting the menu to others and saying, “These are the options you wanted. I’m sorry if you wanted a roast beef sandwich, but sir, this is not an Arby’s.” That is Apple’s secret: It commoditizes the power of a computer and sells it to you as design.
The story I’m linking to is a bit of a behind-the-scenes look at the effort VSCO puts into emulating analog film. The company releases these special presets as part of its VSCO X membership, which costs US$20/year.
Its Film X filters recreate the look of long-gone analog films like Ektar 100, Portra 400, and Kodak Tri-X (a favorite of the late street photographer Garry Winogrand). It’s a long process that involves not just coding, but locating old film stock and reverse engineering the pictures captured on it.
It’s interesting to read, but I’d also like to take this opportunity to say that I’m a VSCO X member and VSCO hasn’t released a Film X preset since January. We were promised one new preset every month. Time to cancel?
Wi-FI 6 is coming. For the geeks, that’s 802.11ax. CNET has a great article that explains it all. But even if you buy a new Wi-Fi 6 router/base station later this year, it won’t speed up your Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac) devices, But take heart. Intel’s Ice Lake CPU supports it and so will, likely, the 2019 iPhones. Read all about Wi-Fi 6 in this excellent overview. Your inner geek will thank you.
ZombieLoad is a serious flaw affecting almost every Intel chip since 2011. Apple, Amazon, Google, and Microsoft have issue patches for it.
The tech giant said in an advisory that any system running macOS Mojave 10.14.5, released Monday, is patched. This will prevent an attack from being run through Safari and other apps. Most users won’t experience any decline in performance. But some Macs could face up to a 40 percent performance hit for those who opt-in to the full set of mitigations.
Crazy that Intel chips have had this since 2011. This is the first time I’ve heard of ZombieLoad.
Startups often appeal to talent by offering them shares in the company. It can be great for both recruits and the companies that want them. However, a report by the Telegraph highlighted some of the issues that can arise too.
For start-ups, it’s a way to dangle the promise of enormous riches in front of recruits that they can’t yet afford to pay, since the shares cost nothing to give out but can be worth millions when the company matures. For established firms, it’s a way to win scarce talent away from rivals and secure its loyalty while keeping the wage bill low. But stock compensation has a dark side, and some tech workers are speaking up about it. They blame it for exacerbating the industry’s internal problems, such as inflated living costs and a lack of diversity.
Recently appointed Facebook executive Sir Nick Clegg gave his first media interview in his new role Sunday. He told Brian Stelter on CNN’s Reliable Sources that the problems facing Facebook “won’t suddenly evaporate” if it is broken up. The social network’s co-founder Chris Hughes made such a suggestion last week.
Chopping a great American success story into bits” won’t stop foreign election interference or “poison” spreading online, Nick Clegg, Facebook’s vice president for global affairs and communications, told CNN Business’ Brian Stelter Sunday in his first US television interview since he joined the company last year. “We need to do more,” Clegg, the former UK deputy prime minister, said on “Reliable Sources.” But those problems “won’t suddenly evaporate. There will still be Russian trolls.”
Video sharing app TikTok is helping relatively unknown musicians become superstars. In particular, the app has helped bring artists’ music to China and other parts of Asia. Bloomberg Businessweek spoke to some of those who benefited.
TikTok and Douyin, both owned by the Chinese startup Bytedance Ltd., are propelling songs from obscurity to ubiquity overnight, rewriting the path to stardom for some acts. While Fitz and the Tantrums had already experienced success at home, the burst of fame on TikTok persuaded the band to focus on Asia as it rolls out its new album. The list of acts that owe sudden success to TikTok grows by the day. Lil Nas X just scored a No. 1 song on the Billboard charts—and a record deal—after his song Old Town Road went viral.
Check out today’s deal on the BESTEK Mountable Power Strip. It’s a power strip with regular three AC outlets, three USB charging ports, and one USB-C charging port, but it’s designed to let you mount it to the wall or paste it under your desk. It also includes over-voltage, short circuit, overload, and over-current protection, as well as FCC authentication. It’s $23.99 through our deal.
EVE Online is an MMO where gamers can build and pilot spaceships and explore the universe. Today the company will start using direct upstream Wine versions for its Mac client.
On rollout, Mac users will no longer need to run a wrapper to execute a 32-bit client on their native 64-bit operating systems, which will allow the EVE client to make better use of system resources and resolve a number of long standing issues that pilots who are playing on Mac experience.
Using upstream Wine will also improve the speed at which updates will reach our pilots who’re playing on Mac, with a multitude of Mac compatibility improvements becoming available to all Mac users with this single release.
Apps demand our attention by sending us push notifications, but some are more important than others. David Nield has some suggestions.
One of the problems with turning your phone off, or putting it in airplane mode to avoid distractions, is that people won’t be able to reach you in an emergency. If you want to make sure certain contacts (like your kids) can always get through, you’ve got two options using the native features on your Android or iOS phone.
Adobe is officially inviting users to sign up for Photoshop for iPad as beta testers, via an email sent to Creative Cloud users.
Real Photoshop is coming to the iPad so you can create something unreal. All your familiar desktop tools and workflows are at your fingertips, from retouching and compositing to spot healing and blend modes. Layers? They’re all here. Resolution? No difference. Your PSDs are exactly the same, whether you’re working on your desktop or a mountain top.
Adobe has been emailing Creative Cloud customers, but you can join the beta program by filling this form.
Intel’s struggle to get to a 10 nm production process, its latest CPU roadmap, the new Ice Lake CPUs, and what it all means for the Mac are nicely presented by Jason Cross at Macworld. This is must reading for all Mac users.
On Wednesday [5/8], during an investor presentation, Intel extended its public roadmap through 2020 and gave an update on future products and manufacturing processes. Here’s what that means for the Mac.
Apple Support version 3.1, updated today, adds iMessage integration into the app for customers in the United States.
Apple says that this feature is limited to the United States and is available for select topics only. Today’s update also introduces an improved experience for scheduling reservations at the Genius Bar and Authorized Service Providers, and it includes other unspecified bug fixes and performance improvements.
Apple has responded to ruling by the Supreme Court giving the go ahead for an antitrust lawsuit. The company denies that it’s a monopoly.
Today’s decision means plaintiffs can proceed with their case in District court. We’re confident we will prevail when the facts are presented and that the App Store is not a monopoly by any metric…Developers set the price they want to charge for their app and Apple has no role in that.
Jennifer Bailey, VP of Apple Pay, announced Apple Pay NFC stickers recently.. Once tapped they trigger Apple Pay purchases, so you don’t need to download a separate app.
With the new support, an iPhone will know how to read a specially-encoded NFC tag (that can be as inert as a sticker) and automatically show the Apple Pay purchase interface when a user holds their device near it. No third-party apps or other set up required.
At launch Apple is partnering with Bird scooters, Bonobos clothing store, and PayByPhone parking meters.
Spotify Lite arrived in India Monday, adding further competition in the competitive and crowded market. The music streaming service told Techcrunch that the stripped-down Indian version is currently in beta. It first launched in Brazil in June 2018.
Today, the app is publicly available in 22 countries including, now India. It has around 2.1 million installs, according to data from Sensor Tower. India has only produced a few thousand downloads for Spotify Lite so far, as it’s just gone live. That said, India will be a key market for Spotify Lite going forward, given the heated competition for streaming music services in a region where millions of internet users are coming online for the first time. Already, Apple, Amazon, and Google are running their own music services in India, where they face competition from local players Gaana, JioSaavn, and others.
The staff of The Office look to be headed to NBCUniversal’s forthcoming streaming service, Bloomberg News reported. The show is currently one of the most popular on Netflix. However, it is not clear at the time of this writing if it will remain on the platform as well NBC’s own.
At a presentation Monday, NBC suggested that the comedy about office workers in Scranton, Pennsylvania, will probably be part of an ad-supported online channel that’s slated to debut next year. But it’s unclear if the show will appear on the new service on Day One — and whether it will remain on Netflix too. “The Office” highlights the thorny relationship between Netflix and traditional media companies, which are rolling out their own streaming services. Netflix pays lucrative licensing fees to air shows like “The Office” and “Friends,” but it’s also a competitor for viewers’ time and money.
We have a deal on the Mcdodo Lightning Bolt 3.0 Lightning Cable. This cable will halt the flow of power once the battery is fully charged to increase the longevity of your battery. It’s also 6-feet long. You can get this cable through our deal for $19.
Amazon is increasingly replacing the people that pack orders with robots. Reuters exclusively learned of the plan to boost automation. The technology will have to be vetted further before it is widely deployed but could mean thousands of people lose their jobs. Amazon said it will reinvest savings from technology and create new jobs.
The company started adding technology to a handful of warehouses in recent years, which scans goods coming down a conveyor belt and envelopes them seconds later in boxes custom-built for each item, two people who worked on the project told Reuters. Amazon has considered installing two machines at dozens more warehouses, removing at least 24 roles at each one, these people said. These facilities typically employ more than 2,000 people. That would amount to more than 1,300 cuts across 55 U.S. fulfillment centers for standard-sized inventory.
Russian network RT America recently aired a segment called “A Dangerous Experiment on Humanity” to get people to distrust 5G. The segment links 5G to brain cancer, infertility, autism, heart tumors and Alzheimer’s disease, none of which are backed by scientific evidence.
Yet even as RT America, the cat’s paw of Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, has been doing its best to stoke the fears of American viewers, Mr. Putin, on Feb. 20, ordered the launch of Russian 5G networks in a tone evoking optimism rather than doom.
Russia is definitely not the first to attempt to link certain cellular frequencies to health problems, but a it’s an interesting new twist in the matter.
We have a deal on a pair of Oomo 3D 5.1 Virtual Surround Sound Bluetooth Earphones. According to the manufacturer, they feature a patented acoustic structure that separates the sound frequencies to provide clarity and 3D Virtual 5.1 Surround Sound. the deal listing has all the details. They’re $102.95 through our deal, which is 20% off retail.
