Prime Day Underway; Easier for Cops to Crack Phones; New HIV Drug 100% Effective So Far in Human Tests; Kaspersky Exiting the US
Posted: July 16, 2024 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Cybersecurity, Health, HIV, News, technology Leave a commentIf Amazon Prime Day was an actual 24 hour day, it would be half over…but of course, it isn’t. Amazon has stretched Prime Day to 48 hours for several years now…I suspect it will be a week at some point in the future. At any rate, engadget.com reminds us that there are deals to be had even on gear from Apple…you can score AirPods Pro from $80 off, for example. Sony WH-1000XM5 Headphones are $298, that’s $102 off. Pick up an iRobot Roomba Combo Essential robot vacuum and mop for $190, a $110 discount. Amazon’s own Echo Show 8 is $85, a $65 reduction. You get the idea.
We heard yesterday that the FBI had already gotten into the phone of the shooter who nicked former President Trump’s ear on Saturday. Theverge.com reports that the phone was sent to the FBI lab in Quantico, VA. It’s worth noting that nearly every police department in the country now has Cellebrite, the Israeli gadget that is made for extracting data from phones, and also has some capability to unlock phones. The Electronic Frontier Foundation also says that the FBI more than likely has its own in-house tools to hack into phones. Until recently, it had taken the FBI weeks or even months to get into a suspect’s phone. Just a reminder that tech often moves at warp speed. It now takes only minutes to brute-force a 4 digit password and just hours to crack a 6 digit one.
This is more bio-tech, but still pretty amazing. A clinical trial in Africa has found an HIV drug to be 100% effective in a human trial. According to bgr.com, the results were reported by The Conversation. The drug is called Lenacapavir, and it was trialed by Gilead at 25 different sites in South Africa and Uganda. This drug and two others were tested on 5,000 women. The Lenacapavir is an injection given twice a year. The 2134 women given this drug did not get HIV at all…the ones that got the other two drugs got some protection but not close to 100% protection. Hopefully this will get approval by various governments…it could be a boon to millions of people.
On the heels of the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioning 12 Kaspersky Lab execs and freeing their US assets, Kaspersky Lab will start shutting down operations in the US on July 20th. Bleepingcomputer.com reports they will lay off all US employees…but that only amounts to about 50 people. The Department of Commerce Bureau of Industry and Security said in a release “Today’s Final Determination and Entity Listing are the result of a lengthy and thorough investigation, which found that the company’s continued operations in the United States presented a national security risk—due to the Russian Government’s offensive cyber capabilities and capacity to influence or direct Kaspersky’s operations—that could not be addressed through mitigation measures short of a total prohibition.”
I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.
Google In Talks to Acquire Cloud Security Firm Wiz; AT&T Paid Hackers $370,000; OpenAI Whistleblowers-NDA Blocked Security Complaints; Meta Lifts Restrictions on Trump Facebook & Instagram Accounts
Posted: July 15, 2024 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: AI, Cloud, Google, openai, technology Leave a commentGoogle, through parent Alphabet, may be about to make its largest acquisition ever. According to techcrunch.com, Alphabet is quite a ways along into talks to acquire cloud security company Wiz for $23 billion. Wiz offers an all-in-one approach to cloud security, ingesting data from Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, and other cloud platforms, then scanning it all for security risk factors. Wiz was founded just 4 years ago by 4 former Microsoft employees. No comment on the possible acquisition by either Alphabet or Wiz at the moment.
It has been widely reported since Friday that a hacker stole call records for tens of millions of AT&T customers. Now, according to wired.com, the telco has paid the hackers some $370,000 to delete the data and provide video demonstrating proof of deletion. The hacker, who is part of the notorious ShinyHunters hacking group that has stolen data from a number of victims through unsecured Snowflake cloud storage accounts, tells WIRED that AT&T paid the ransom in May. He provided the address for the cryptocurrency wallet that sent the currency to him, as well as the address that received it. AT&T has not commented so far.
Whistleblowers at OpenAI have fired off a letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission, calling for the Commission to take ‘swift and aggressive steps’ to enforce the rules they say OpenAI has violated. Engadget.com says the employees allege that they were made to sign ‘illegally restrictive’ agreements preventing them from speaking out on the potential harms of the company’s technology. They claim the employee agreements “failed to exempt disclosures of securities violations to the SEC.” The SEC has apparently responded, but no details have been released yet.
Meta has taken restrictions off former President Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts. Engadget.com reports that the former president was banned for a time from Meta platforms after January 6, 2021 and the attack on the Capitol. That suspension was lifted in January 2023, but restrictions remained. Now, those final guardrails are gone, with Trump just subject to the same standard as every other user.
I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.
YouTube Shorts Adds Text to Speech Narration; Samsung Live Translate-Available on 3rd Party Apps; Apple Opens Mobile Payment System-EU Compliance; Tesla Robotaxi Event Delayed to October
Posted: July 11, 2024 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: News, Samsung, Smartphone, Tech, technology Leave a commentYouTube Shorts is getting a new text-to-speech narration, something of an artificial voiceover like TikTok has. Theverge.com reports that after you write some text, you can tap the ‘add voice’ icon’ in the upper left corner and pick out a voice you want. For starters, YouTube has 4 voices…TikTok has numerous ones. YouTube is also rolling out auto-generated captions so you don’t have to leave the platform or use an app to add them. There is a selection of fonts and colors, just like the manual text overlay feature. Another new feature is a new set of Minecraft effects, and a mini game called Minecraft Rush. The mimicking of TikTok appears to be giving YouTube Shorts a real boost.
Samsung announced Live Translate yesterday at Unpacked, and mentioned that it would be available on third party apps. Now, according to Mashable.com, one of the apps supported will be the widely used WhatsApp. Initially, 16 languages will be supported, with that growing to 20 by the end of the year. Samsung underscores that the translation takes place entirely on device, so your data is more secure. It is available on Galaxy S24 devices, and now S23 and S22 as well…and also the Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Galaxy Z Flip 4 and newer.
Approximately two weeks from now, European Union iPhone users will be able to use any mobile wallet they wish as a ‘Tap and Go’ payment method, with the ease of using the native Apple Pay. Arstechnica.com says this is part of a settlement with the European Commission over Apple’s shutting out rivals from their NFC tech. NFC is not an Apple tech in the first place, and it has been free to developers. Now, Apple has agreed not to charge developers fees to provide NFC on Apple devices.
Tesla won’t be doing a big reveal of its robotaxi in August. The event has been kicked down the road to October now. Bloomberg reports that after the announcement that the August 8th date had been cancelled, Tesla shares dropped over 6%. Back in April, Elon Musk said Tesla was dropping their next-gen car platform for a $25,000 cheaper Tesla in favor of accelerating the robotaxi project.
I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.
Samsung Unpacked Recap; Google One ‘Dark Web Reports’ Coming to All; Microsoft Boosting Xbox Gam Pass Ultimate Prices; Apple Hopes AI Will Boost iPhone Shipments 10% in 2024
Posted: July 10, 2024 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Apple, iPhone, Samsung, Smartphone, technology Leave a commentCovering Samsung Galaxy Unpacked events is so different from covering Apple’s. With famously secretive Apple, there is always a lot to reveal. Samsung, on the other hand, tends to leak like a sieve. Anyway, here are some high lights. The titanium Galaxy Ring bowed, loaded with an accelerometer, PPG sensors to measure blood flow, and skin temperature detection. According to engadget.com, It can track metrics such as sleep score, movement during your slumber, heart rate, respiratory rate and menstrual cycles. Samsung will give you an overall Energy Score to help give you a snapshot of your overall health, and it will offer some suggestions on how to improve things. There’s no subscription required. The ring should run 7 days on a charge, and it is priced at $400. It will ship July 24th. The foldable get a fresh coat of paint, so to speak. The Galaxy Z Flip 6 and Z Fold 6 have a better folding edge to support the dual rail hinge…and they claim the crease is less noticeable. Both have Corning’s Gorilla Glass Victus 2 for durability. Both rock a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip set. Both the folders got a price bump with the Z Fold 6 starting at $1900 and the Z Flip 6 at $1100. Preorders are open, and they ship July 24th. Samsung rolled out a Galaxy Watch Ultra as a companion to its Galaxy Watch. Like the Apple Ultra Watch, it is aimed at outdoor activities and extreme sports. The Ultra is 47 mm in size, and will set you back $650.00. The Galaxy Watch 7 comes in 40 mm and 44 mm sizes, and it starts at $300. It is also open for preorders, with shipping July 24th.
Google has had ‘Dark web reports’ for Google One subscribers for a while now. With the Google One VPN shutdown in June, Google says the feature will become available to all Google Account holders starting in late July. 9to5google.com reports that after setting up a profile, Google monitors the dark web so you are aware if your personal data has been found in data breaches and leaks. At the time of writing, these reports are available in 46 countries. Instead of requiring the application or login to the Google One service, this information will now be integrated into the “Results about you” section to help you stay aware of any personal data breaches.
Microsoft is goosing up the price of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate in September…it will go to $19.99, up from the present $16.99. Theverge.com says Redmond will also roll out a new ‘standard’ subscription that doesn’t include day-one access to first-party Xbox games for less money. The price hike will hit on September 12th. This all comes as Microsoft is going to add Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 and some other big first-party games later this year. The Standard subscription will set you back $14.99 a month.
Apple is shooting for shipping at least 90 million iPhone 16 models in 2024. That’s according to macrumors.com, citing a Bloomberg report. This would be 10% growth over 2023, when Apple shipped 81 million iPhone 15’s. Apple believes that Apple Intelligence will boost demand for the iPhone 16 models, and shore up sales in China, where Xiaomi and Huawei have AI features already, that has helped those brands to cut into iPhone sales there.
I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.
Apple Finally Approves Epic Game Store; Tesla Insiders-Musk Ordered Optimized Self Driving for Self & Influencers; Meta Expands Policy Removing More Posts Attacking ‘Zionists;’ Chinese Self-Driving Cars-Mapping & Gathering US Data
Posted: July 9, 2024 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: business, Elon Musk, News, technology, Tesla Leave a commentThe third time is apparently the charm…after a couple of rejections, Apple has finally approved the Epic Games Store app for iOS in the European Union. Arstechnica.com reports that this will move Apple into compliance with the letter of the law under the Digital Markets Act, although not necessarily the spirit. The latest squabble involved Apple claiming that the shape of the buttons in the app too closely resembled Apple’s own. After kicking up a fuss on social Media, Epic finally got approval…with the caveat that they have to change the buttons going forward. Epic can now finish building out its game store, which will be available soon to EU users.
A lot of people have figured out that when it comes to Tesla and other Elon Musk controlled companies…it’s always all about Elon. Now, according to electrek.co, insiders are saying the Muskman had his Full Self-Driving team optimize routes that he himself takes as well as routes taken by Tesla FSD content creators, which would explain the discrepancies in the efficacy of the system. Business Insider put out a report today based on conversations with current and former Tesla workers who claim Tesla has been optimizing its self-driving neural nets specifically for routes taken by CEO Elon Musk and Tesla influencers producing FSD content. The report claims that data annotators, people who review clips from Tesla vehicles to help train its self-driving neural nets, were given the task to focus on two categories: “Tesla CEO Elon Musk and a select set of “VIP” drivers.” Several confirmed that they were told specifically to focus on routes around Tesla, SpaceX, Twitter locations, and also a mansion previously owned by Musk. Now there’s a good personal use of corporate resources!
Facebook and Instagram will start removing more posts that attack ‘Zionists’ when the term is used to represent Jewish people or Israelis in general. Bloomberg.com says that Meta is putting the term into what they call attacks on a person’s ‘protected characteristics.’ Up to now, that has just included their race, nationality, or religion. Posts will still be allowed that refer to actual Zionists, but just not Jewish or Israeli people more broadly.
There has been a good deal of reporting about the Chinese weather balloons flying near US bases inside American borders. There is also ongoing coverage about buyers who might or do have connections to China buying land near US military bases. Now, it turns out that 7 Chinese self-driving car makers have had vehicles cruising US roadways…mostly in California and on the west coast, quietly mapping and shooting pictures, with the data going back to servers in China. They have traveled 1.8 million miles! Slashdot.org reports that around 30 cars owned by Chinese companies and equipped with cameras and geospatial mapping technology were navigating the streets of greater Los Angeles, San Francisco, and San Jose. They collected detailed videos, audio recordings, and location data on their surroundings to chart out California’s roads and develop their autonomous driving algorithms. The data could provide a foreign adversary with a treasure trove of intelligence that could be used for everything from mass surveillance to war planning, according to security experts who spoke with Fortune Magazine. At present there are no rules in place preventing such activity. Let’s hope our political leaders get in gear!
I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.
Apple Watch 10 Grows & Siri Gets Smarter-Later; Amazon Updates Echo Spot; MS Notepad Finally Gets Spellcheck; YouTube Improved Eraser Tool
Posted: July 8, 2024 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: AI, Apple, iPhone, News, technology Leave a commentThere has been more and more buzz about the upcoming Apple Watch 10. Now, 9to5mac.com reports that Mark Gurman in his PowerOn newsletter is confirming that both models of the Watch will have bigger screens…the larger one will be about the size of the Apple Watch Ultra screen. As others have leaked, the new Watch 10 series will be thinner, and will have a more powerful processor…possibly one that can run some of the Apple AI features coming soon. It looks like health features like blood pressure monitoring and sleep apnea monitoring won’t make it by the rollout in September. Apple has hit some speed bumps. Back to the Apple AI…word is, the fully upgraded Siri with AI won’t be ready for September, either. Now, it appears the better Siri will drop with iOS 18.4 in the spring of 2025. There will be some features like Chat GPT integration that will make the big fall Apple extravaganza.
Aș a lead in to Prime Day, Amazon has bowed a refreshed version of the Echo Spot. According to TechCrunch.com, the Alexa-enabled smart alarm clock will sell for $79.99, but Prime members can pick it up on sale right now for $44.99. The upgraded Spot has better visuals and improved audio. It comes in Black, White, or Blue. The display shows alarms, the time, weather, and song titles. There’s a 1.73” front-firing directional speaker that Amazon says delivers ‘clear vocals and deep bass.’ The camera for video calling has been dropped…who ever wanted this in their bedroom, really? It relies on Alexa to set your time, alarms, play songs, make a phone call, or make intercom announcements through your home.
As amazing as it seems, Microsoft Notepad has been around 40 years, and Redmond has never gotten around to giving it spellcheck…until now. Engadget.com says the functionality has just been rolled out in the Notepad app for Windows 11. Not to snark too much, but I write these reports in Apple’s TextEdit, which has had spellcheck for years, and also has other correction features…some of which are irritating when writing about tech….it will un-helpfully change a word that is correct which it doesn’t know. Anyway, back to Microsoft…the spell check works the same as the one in Word or Edge…you see a red underline, then you can right click on the word and get a list of correct spellings. Amazingly, Microsoft has also just now added autocorrect! Maybe it will be smarter than Apple’s…which with some new AI seems to be less helpful than before!
YouTube released an updated eraser tool late last week. The tool makes it easy to remove copyrighted material from a video without affecting other audio like spoken word or sound effects. YouTube chief Neal Mohan posted about the tool on X and said, “Good news, creators: our updated Erase Song tool helps you easily remove copyright-claimed music from your video (while leaving the rest of your audio intact).” They have designed a new AI-powered algorithm that specifically detects and removes the song without impacting other audio in the clip. Note that YouTube says it still isn’t perfect, but it goes a long way towards removal without having to recut the whole video.
I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.
Google Branded AI Coming to Pixels; Netflix Sunsetting Cheapest Ad-Free Tier; Mastodon Adds Appeal for Journalists; Diabetes Drug Also Helps Sleep Apnea
Posted: July 2, 2024 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Google, Health, mastodon, Netflix, sleep-apnea Leave a commentGoogle is getting ready to ad some new AI features to the Pixel line, with the branding ‘Google AI.’ It will encompass both existing and new features, including Google Gemini, Circle to search, and more. Androidauthority.com reports that new features include Add Me, which is supposed to ensure that everyone is in a group photo. Studio is another new…or actually improved feature. It looks like it is the Creative Assistant made better. Also included is Pixel screenshots…which looks a lot like Microsoft’s Recall feature…you know the one…that creepy background record that captures everything you are doing on-device and then their AI can go find information you are looking for. Google is including more privacy….it will only work on screenshots you actually take yourself. Apparently Motorola is also working on such a feature…and like Google, it will only attach metadata for the AI if you manually take the screenshot yourself.
As they have raised prices for monthly subscriptions and added ad-subsidized plans, it should probably be no surprise that now Netflix is phasing out its cheapest ad-free tier for present subscribers. According to theverge.com, some users have gotten a notification on the Netflix app saying “Your last day to watch Netflix is July 13th. Choose a new plan to keep watching.” Subscribers paying $9.99 / month for the basic plan will have to choose either the $6.99 ad-supported tier, the $15.49 ad-free tier, or the $22.99 ad-free 4K premium plan. Right now, the sunsetting of the plan is hitting Canadian and UK users. Netflix hasn’t said when it will start phasing it out for US subscribers.
Mastodon has rolled out a new feature aimed at making the app more appealing to those that use it to keep up on news and information from writers and journalists. Mastodon is the open source, decentralized answer to X…one of a number of platforms working to syphon away the former Twitter users who are fed up with Elon Musk’s X. Techcrunch.com says that now the platform is adding clickable author bylines on link posts that can send Mastodon users to the authors account on the fediverse…giving journalists more exposure and potentially increasing their following. The new bylines go beyond the typical @username references that often accompany link posts from news publications and those pointing to other written content, like a WordPress blog or Substack. Instead, the change will feature the news publication’s headline and image followed by another reference underneath that includes the author’s profile photo and name.
A drug that has been used successfully for type 2 diabetes, weight loss, and heart health is doing so well at helping folks with sleep apnea in trials, some have even been able to abandon their CPAP machines. Bgr.com reports that the medication, sold as Zepbound and Mounjaro, has had really good results in its first trial for sleep apnea. Participants saw disturbance events per hour of sleep drop from 51.5 per hour to 25.3. In a second trial, they went from 49.5 events per hour down to 29.3 or less. The results were published in the New England Journal of Medicine. The best results came with consistent use, not surprisingly. Now, researchers are studying long term efficacy in treating sleep apnea.
I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.
FCC Wants to Make Carriers Unlock Phones After 60 Days; SCOTUS Allows Administration to Jawbone Social Platforms; Amazon Now in $2 Trillion Club; Google Translate-Support for 110 New Languages
Posted: June 27, 2024 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: AI, Artificial Intelligence, business, Microsoft, technology Leave a commentIn a proposed rule, called in FCC lingo a ‘Notice of Proposed Rulemaking’, the Federal Communications Commission is looking to make phone carriers unlock phones from their service after 60 days. According to techcrunch.com, the Commission plans to further study how this will work out with current plans and phone buying trends. For years, carriers have subsidized phone prices if a customer signed up for say, a two year contract…and they made up the difference in the monthly payments for the phone plus the fees for the service. Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel wrote “When you buy a phone, you should have the freedom to decide when to change service to the carrier you want and not have the device you own stuck by practices that prevent you from making that choice. That is why we are proposing clear, nationwide mobile phone unlocking rules.” We should know more about the proposed rule when the full notice is published in July.
The Supreme Court yesterday tossed claims that the Biden administration coerced social media platforms into censoring users by removing COVID and election-related content. Arstechnica.com reports that the 6-3 vote found that none of the plaintiffs had standing to have brought the case in the first place. One individual was suing on behalf of his brother. Justice Barrett noted in the majority opinion that Facebook had actually been taking down false info about COVID and the election before the administration even asked them to do so.
We’ve reported lately about the $2 trillion dollar companies, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Apple, and how Nvidia has passed up Apple, and even Microsoft for the top spot for a bit. Alphabet got into this high rolling club in April. Now, geekwire.com says Amazon has joined this rarified group of the world’s most valuable companies. Amazon stock is up over 30% this year, and over 50% the past 12 months. So there you have it….the top 5 most valuable companies on earth no longer include any oil companies, banks, or industrial firms…they are all tech: Microsoft, Nvidia, Apple, Alphabet, and Amazon.
Google is adding 110 new languages to Translate. It’s the biggest expansion ever for Google Translate. Theverge.com notes that there were already 133 languages supported, so this brings the total up to 243 supported languages. A number of these languages are related to others, and Google used their PaLM 2 AI language model to help add them. One of the most requested languages was added…Cantonese. Issac Caswell of Google said “Because Cantonese often overlaps with Mandarin in writing, it is tricky to find data and train models.” Caswell also said that “about a quarter of the new languages come from Africa.”
I’m Clark Reid and you’re ’Technified’ for now.
clarkreid 
Recent Comments