Meta Glasses-No Ray Ban Name, Less Cost; Amazon Dumps Sam Altman Film; Apple Unpatchable Chip Flaw= iPhone Jailbreak; WhatsApp Fishing Attack Via Fake Business Documents

If you have been thinking about smart glasses, but just can’t quite bring yourself to paying the entry price…you are in luck. The price just dropped. Meta has a new line of ‘Meta Glasses,’ which don’t carry the Ray-Ban branding and designs, and start at a lower price point. 9to5google.com reports that the new glasses from Meta come in 3 styles…’Adventurer,’ ‘Fury,’ and ‘Starfire.’ The first 2 models start at $299. Starfire, which is designed in collaboration with Kylie Jenner, starts at $399. All three pack 8 hours of battery life, an additional 40 hours in the charging case, and add some perks that Ray-Ban models lack such as adjustable temple tips and over-extension hinges. But you get the same 12MP camera, 100-degree FOV, and ability to record video at 1080p/60fps or 3k/30fps. Bonus…they add a customizable ‘action button’ you can’t get on the Ray-Bans. 

Amazon MGM Studios has pulled the plug on ‘Artificial,’ an almost finished film about OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. According to geekwire.com, the studio said last week that the film would “be better served if it were released by a different studio.” Amazon has already poured about $40 million on the film, and has tested it in 4 markets. Amazon announced an $50 billion investment and strategic partnership with OpenAI in February. This may be being the backing out. Amazon says it is “working closely with the filmmaking team to find the film a new home.” The Hollywood Reporter said Netflix and Focus Features have both passed on “Artificial.”

People have reveled in jailbreaking iPhones almost since they came out. Most are folks who love the openness and customizability of Android phones, but for some reason prefer the iPhone. Apple has been notorious for their ‘walled garden,’ keeping tight control over software and hardware. TechCrunch.com says that Paradigm Shift, an offensive cybersecurity company out of Barcelona, Spain, has published a blog post about an unpatchable vulnerability in Apple chips that allows access to the iPhone. It does require physical access to the target phone. The bug found by Paradigm Shift affects the iPhone’s Boot ROM, which is the first piece of code that runs when an iPhone is turned on and, consequently, its first line of defense against hackers. To hack an iPhone with physical access to it — meaning having the ability to connect a cable to it — hackers need to first exploit the Boot ROM. Now, they can do that thanks to usbliter8, which allows them to potentially defeat and bypass further security checks. If you aren’t into hacking and this makes you nervous, keep in mind it requires physical access to your phone…so a cord can be plugged in. You are probably very safe from this right now. 

There is a new malware scam every nanosecond, or so it seems. Here’s one on WhatsApp that uses deceptive messages that push out VBScript files, giving the bad guys remote system access. Bleepingcomputer.com reports that the thugs use file names that indicate business and financial documents delivered by the victim’s contacts, whose accounts had been compromised. By downloading and executing the malicious attachments, the recipient starts an infection chain that leads to installing the legitimate ManageEngine Endpoint Central, which is used by IT administrators to manage systems from a centralized dashboard. Right now, they don’t seem to be in the US, but are hitting users in 10 countries including the United Kingdom. Just be good to yourself, and never open zip files or other attachments from unknown senders…or even your friends if they seem suspicious.

I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.