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‘Have I Been Pwned’ Database Now Open Source

Andrew Orr ·

Troy Hunt is making his Have I Been Pwned database open source. He says it’s already a community project with companies like Cloudflare providing free services to HIBP.

The single most important objective of that process was to seek a more sustainable future for HIBP and that desire hasn’t changed; the project cannot be solely dependent on me. Yet that’s where we are today and if I disappear, HIBP quickly withers and dies.

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Facebook to Continue WFH Until July 2021

Charlotte Henry ·

Facebook has joined Google in extending its work from home plans. Staff will not return to the office until July 2021, Techcrunch reported. Apple is hoping to have employees return in early 2021.

“Based on guidance from health and government experts, as well as decisions drawn from our internal discussions about these matters, we are allowing employees to continue voluntarily working from home until July 2021,” a spokeswoman told the Reuters news agency. Facebook also said it will provide employees with an additional $1,000 to spend on “home office needs”… Earlier this month, Facebook secured the main office lease on an iconic building in New York, for example — adding 730,000 square feet to its existing 2.2 million square feet of office space.

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Twitter Pushed iPhone Update Notes on Limiting Who Can Reply by Mistake

Charlotte Henry ·

Twitter pushed an iPhone release suggesting that the ability to limit who replies was being rolled out more widely than it currently has been. However, The Verge found out that the release notes came out by mistake.

Twitter has been experimenting with this feature since May, and yesterday pushed an update to the iPhone version of its mobile app suggesting the feature would be more widely rolling out. A Twitter spokesperson now tells The Verge it accidentally pushed incorrect release notes; the feature is not in fact more widely rolling out, for now. “In May, we tested a new way to have a chat with exactly who you want, so you can create and consume more meaningful changes,” read the update text on the App Store. “Now, everyone can try this new feature and choose who can reply to their tweets.” A Twitter spokesperson says the misconception was due “to some accidentally pushed release notes,” and that “the ability to limit replies on tweets is not currently available to everyone.”

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20GB Intel Data Leak Spread on Twitter Includes Source Code

Andrew Orr ·

An anonymous leaker took to Twitter to leak 20GB of Intel data and says more is coming soon.

The poster encourages downloaders to look for mentions of ‘backdoors’ in some of the Intel source code, and even provides a sample clip of one such listing, but we aren’t sure of the intentions behind the listings in the code.

Hitting Command + F to look for mentions of backdoors, because such backdoors would conveniently  be labeled as such, right?

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Harry Potter Movies Heading to Peacock

Charlotte Henry ·

The entire set of Harry Potter movies is heading to Peacock and will be available in windows from later this year and into 2021, Variety reported. The films will even be accessible to those users with the free tier.

The octet of movies based on J.K. Rowling’s famed fantasy book series is set to roll off HBO Max as of Aug. 25, after WarnerMedia had carved out a three-month window for the popular franchise following its launch. In 2016, NBCU inked a deal with Warner Bros. locking up TV and digital rights to the Potter movies (including “Fantastic Beasts”) from 2018-2025 that also incorporated content for Universal theme parks. “The Harry Potter franchise is beloved by people of all ages and represents the caliber of quality entertainment customers can expect to find on Peacock,” said Frances Manfredi, Peacock’s president of content acquisition and strategy, in a statement. “We’ve built a world-class collection of iconic movies and shows, and we will continue to expand the film library with treasured titles from NBCUniversal and beyond that will surprise and delight Peacock customers time and time again.”

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Former Arm President Warns Against Sale

Charlotte Henry ·

Tudor Brown, the former president of UK chip-designer Arm, has warned against the sale of the company. There has been speculation current owner Softbank will sell it to Nvidia. Mr. Brown voiced his opposition to such a move in an interview with BBC News.

“I have always believed the Softbank investment and focus on growth was ill-advised, and I think Softbank is coming to accept that now,” Mr Brown told the BBC. “[But] it would be very bad news for ARM to be sold to any semiconductor company. “The company should be slimmed down and kept independent to serve the industry from a profitable position of neutrality.” ARM creates computer-chip designs that others then customise to their own ends. It also develops instruction sets, which define how software controls processors.

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Apple’s Senior VP of Machine Learning Talks Strategy

Andrew Orr ·

John Giannandrea, Apple’s Senior Vice President for Machine Learning and AI Strategy, and Bob Borchers, VP of Product Marketing, spoke with Ars Technica about Apple’s AI strategy and beliefs.

When I joined Apple, I was already an iPad user, and I loved the Pencil,” Giannandrea (who goes by “J.G.” to colleagues) told me. “So, I would track down the software teams and I would say, ‘Okay, where’s the machine learning team that’s working on handwriting?’ And I couldn’t find it.” It turned out the team he was looking for didn’t exist—a surprise, he said, given that machine learning is one of the best tools available for the feature today.

TMO Deals

Tivoo-Max Pixel Art Alarm Clock and Speaker: $149.99

Bryan Chaffin ·

We have a deal on the Tivoo-Max pixel art speaker from Divoom. It features a 2.1 speaker setup with an active sub-woofer, and the front of the device is a pixel art display you can control with the Divoom Smart app on your iPhone (or Android device). It also has alarm clock features built in, making it an all around device that is fun, too. The Tivoo-Max is $149.99 through our deal.


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Arrest Made Following $629K Apple Watch Theft

Charlotte Henry ·

The Dutch authorities have arrested a second man in connection with a major Apple Watch theft, AppleInsider reported. The haul was estimated to be worth close to $629,000.

The Royal Netherlands Marechaussee, a branch of the Netherlands Armed Forces, arrested a 37-year-old man from Bulgaria on suspicion of theft of 4,400 Apple Watches. The theft occurred on May 16, when six pallets of Apple’s popular wearable were purloined from the warehouse of a transport company at Schiphol East and driven off-site. The six pallets are said to be worth roughly 530,000 euros — almost $629,000. The authorities identified the suspect based on tips after the case was discussed on “Opsporing Verzocht,” a Dutch television program that details unsolved crimes and asks its viewers for help.