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No one likes getting hacked, and it’s generally true that the quicker you can spot something has gone awry, the better your chances of minimizing the damage. These are the main warning signs to look out for, what they might mean, and some quick pointers about what you should do next. 1) Unexplained financial transactions…
At some point, Magic Leap is going to have to let people play around with its ultra-secret mixed reality device. Dev kits are now shipping to select partners, so it would seem that time is now. But the chosen few are required to take extra security precautions that make it unlikely you’ll bump into one…
Alongside yesterday’s big update to iOS 11.3, Apple also quietly pushed out an update for macOS High Sierra. Included in the new update (version 10.13.4) are a number of helpful, but not super exciting improvements, such as the addition of new privacy icons and data management, additional sorting functions for bookmarks in Safari, and the…
For years, internet service providers have maintained that they support net neutrality while the industry spends hundreds of millions of dollars to destroy it. The big guys still make that claim while they fight efforts to enshrine the open web into law. Now, a Comcast exec has given us a little more clarity on what…
Earlier Wednesday, a California Superior Court judge issued a proposed ruling that’s bound to stress out lots of java drinkers—even if it probably shouldn’t. Companies like Starbucks will have to tell customers that their coffee can potentially cause cancer. The case was first brought before the Los Angeles County Superior Court in 2010 by the…
In 2016, a top Facebook executive wrote in an internal company memo that said Facebook may be used to coordinate terrorist attacks and that it might cause deaths from bullying, but that those effects were justified in the name of corporate growth. After BuzzFeed published the memo on Thursday, the executive, Andrew “Boz” Bosworth, VP…
Under Armour-owned nutrition and exercise tracking app MyFitnessPal has experienced a data breach affecting some 150 million users. The Baltimore Sun reports that information exposed by the breach includes usernames and email addresses, as well as encrypted passwords. It’s unclear at this time how much, if any, users biometric data was also affected. MyFitnessPal alerted…
Loretta Lee, an ex-Google engineer who filed a lawsuit against her former employer last month, posted a blog to her website Unicorn Techie today decrying the state of gender inclusion in software engineering and the tech industry in general. “The reason there are so few women in tech,” she writes, “is because it sucks to…
President Trump’s obsession with Amazon has reportedly cost the US business $53 billion, but right or wrong on any one point, his stance on Amazon’s penchant for dodging federal taxes reeks of hypocrisy, and his latest accusation about failing to pay state taxes simply wrong. The president, who repeatedly promised to release his own tax…
Facebook has started fact-checking photos and videos, as a part of a larger plan to prevent foreign agents from using the platform to spread propaganda and influence elections. Executives on Thursday explained Facebook’s plans in a blog post and on a conference call with journalists. Some of the plans had already been announced—for instance, verifying…
Apple has finally released iOS 11.3, an update granting users the option to enable or disable Apple’s controversial battery management feature responsible for an epidemic of old iPhone slowdowns. You can also turn your face into a cartoon bear now, so that’s nice. If you’re one of the many people suffering with a pitifully underpowered…
Adnan Syed, the man whose murder conviction became the subject of the wildly popular Serial podcast, was granted a new trial by Maryland’s second-highest court of appeals on Thursday. Whether that trial happens, however, still remains in limbo. Syed has been behind bars since 1999 when he was accused of murdering his ex-girlfriend Hae Min…
Airbnb China notified users Wednesday that, as required by law, guest information will soon be automatically logged with the government. Previously, hosts were required to submit passport and other travel information to Chinese authorities, but now data is shared automatically and, as the email to users mentioned, without notice to guests. The new policy goes…
“We are dealing with a hostage situation,” Atlanta’s Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms told reporters this week as her government, the target of a malicious cyberattack, ground to a halt. Residents were kept from paying their bills, and those trying to go online to switch on water services at new homes have been left with dry…
A study published a week ago about an enigmatic, six-inch-long skeleton found near the Atacama Desert is causing serious upset among Chile’s scientists and government officials, who are now claiming the specimen was illegally obtained by grave robbers. As Carl Zimmer reports in the New York Times, the Chilean National Monuments Council, a government agency,…
After 21 years leading the server, Exchange, and most recently the Windows and Devices teams, longtime vice president Terry Myerson is leaving Microsoft as the company pursues a major restructuring of its entire business. According to CNBC, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella sent an email out to employees thanking Myerson for his service while also outlining…
To ensure the safety of larger aircraft carrying pilots and passengers, unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones, can’t be flown higher than 400 feet so they don’t enter national airspace. Regulations in Russia, however, aren’t as strict, enabling drone pilot Denis Koryakin to fly his homebuilt, 2.3-pound craft to a staggering height of almost 33,000 feet.…
With politicians, users, and even its own employees furious with Facebook in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, it’s hard to imagine that a company could be more screwed than the social network. But we live in Trump world now, and his “obsession” with punishing Amazon is causing investors to flee at a cost…
No, your calendar isn’t wrong—it’s not the year 2010. But if a report from Android Police is to be believed, the once legendary phone brand Palm is going to make a return to stores sometime in the second half of 2018 on Verizon. Some might say this was an inevitability when smartphone and TV maker…
What would happen if a nuclear weapon fell in your backyard? You and everything around you would be destroyed, of course. But how many casualties would there be in the surrounding area? And what would it look like if it was a North Korean nuke versus a Russian nuke? There’s a new interactive map that…
