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'REvil' Ransomware Group Taken Down Through Multi-Country Effort

Andrew Orr ·

The FBI, working with Cyber Command, the Secret Service, and other countries, took down REvil.

According to three people familiar with the matter, law enforcement and intelligence cyber specialists were able to hack REvil’s computer network infrastructure, obtaining control of at least some of their servers. After websites that the hacker group used to conduct business went offline in July, the main spokesman for the group, who calls himself “Unknown,” vanished from the internet.

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Google Follows Apple And Slashes Play Store Fees

Charlotte Henry ·

Google is reducing the fees it takes from developers in the Play Store, CNBC reported. It is dropping the cut it takes from subscriptions from 30 percent to 15 from day one. The move from Google follows similar ones made by Apple.

Google also said on Thursday that it was introducing a program to allow e-books, music streaming services, and other apps that pay for content to access fees as low as 10%. Apple doesn’t make exceptions for those kind of apps and doesn’t offer a 10% fee to developers in its app store. Apple, which has received more regulator attention over its app store than Google, over the past two years cut its take from 30% to 15% in many cases, including for apps making less than $1 million per year, news apps, and certain premium video streamers that participate in an Apple program. But Apple still charges 30% for the first year of a subscription, meaning that Google’s app store may be more competitive for subscription-based apps.

 

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The Slow Mo Guys Look at iPhone 13's 120hz ProMotion Display

Andrew Orr ·

The Slow Mo Guys are back with a new episode, and they compare the 120hz ProMotion display of the iPhone 13 Pro models to a 60hz display. The video was shot at 2,000 fps. The team shows the screen’s refresh rate in various apps as well as the camera feed. The iPhone 13 Pro refresh rate changes depending on what’s on the screen in order to save battery.

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The Associated Press Brings Datasets to Blockchain Through Chainlink

Andrew Orr ·

The Associated Press announced a partnership with Chainlink to bring datasets onto leading blockchains.

AP U.S. race calls, economic data, sports game outcomes and business financials will be available. The data can be used to automate key processes that happen on-chain, including informing markets of election race calls, triggering an on-chain trade when a company’s quarterly financials are released, or augmenting the appearance of non-fungible tokens based on real-world events.

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Is Apple Product Design Better Without Sir Jony Ive?

Charlotte Henry ·

It’s a heretical thought for some but…has Apple product design actually got better since Sir Jony Ive left? Writing for Bloomberg Businessweek, Alex Webb argues that devices now focus on function rather than form, to the benefit of the user.

Evans Hankey, who now heads the industrial design team, has overseen plenty of other tweaks that seem to indicate a change of philosophy. Take the iPhone. The latest iterations have ditched the curved edges that made the display liable to crack if dropped on its side. Or the Apple TV remote, whose symmetry made it visually appealing, but meant that users often inadvertently pressed the wrong buttons by holding it upside down. The design was revamped in May. “Since Jony Ive left, there’s not that gravitational force driving aesthetic before function,” Paul Found, a lecturer in industrial design at the University for the Creative Arts in Canterbury, England. “Those who have taken over are now listening to what customers are saying.”

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It Costs Another US$20 to Get Fast Charging For The New 14-Inch MacBook Pro

Charlotte Henry ·

Apple has mentioned faster charging when launching a variety of devices recently, including the new 14-inch MacBook Pro, However, as iMore pointed out, getting the feature will cost a little bit extra on top of the standard configuration.

Thankfully, the 96W power adapter is available as a $20 upgrade when you are configuring your 14-inch MacBook Pro, but it still seems odd that Apple would bother with the 67W power adapter at all since it doesn’t provide the full experience that its new laptop is capable of. The new 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros feature the new M1 Pro and M1 Max processors, Apple’s latest pro-level chips that take the M1 to new heights. The new laptops feature a mini-LED display, MagSafe charging, a new keyboard with function keys, and the return of many ports.

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Airborne Drone Deliveries to Start in Dallas-Fort Worth

Jeff Butts ·

Anybody want their prescriptions airlifted to them? Walgreens customers in the Dallas-Fort Worth area will have that option soon. Alphabet-owned drone deployment system Wing has partnered with the drug store chain to make drone deliveries a reality. The drone flights have been in testing out of Fort Worth-based Hillwoods Alliance Texas Flight Test Center. In the coming weeks, the drones will launch from Walgreens parking lots. The’ll initially deliver to a portion of the Dallas-Fort Worth region including Frisco and Little Elm. If successful, the companies plan to roll the drone deliveries out even further after a few months. Alphabet says businesses can also deploy the drones from rooftops or next to buildings. UPS began testing drone delivery in 2018. The company has recently used drones to deliver COVID-19 vaccines, but this is yet another commercial application of the technology.

Until now, this type of service in the United States has been limited to smaller towns, where land usage is less crowded and complex. Wing’s reliable aircraft and advanced flight planning and routing capabilities make it uniquely capable of operating a highly automated drone delivery service in more crowded, complex operating environments.

 

‘NBA 2K22 Arcade Edition’ Now Available to Play on Apple Arcade
Cool Stuff Found

'NBA 2K22 Arcade Edition' Now Available to Play on Apple Arcade

Andrew Orr ·

NBA 2K22 Arcade Edition is the latest title in the world-renowned, best-selling NBA 2K series exclusively on Apple Arcade. Live your NBA dreams on the hardwood and run with today’s top stars like Luka Doncic, Damian Lillard, Kevin Durant, Jayson Tatum, Zion Williamson, Anthony Davis, Rui Hachimura, Karl-Anthony Towns and more – in an authentic NBA 2K experience. Choose from your favorite NBA teams and take on competitors in Quick Match featuring updated 2022 NBA rosters. Compete head-to-head with a friend in Online Multiplayer mode, or play 3v3 street basketball in Blacktop mode.