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It's Monday, October 07, 2019.

Hey, good morning!

Welcome to your week! Over the weekend, the state of California cracked down on deepfakes, New York’s East River has floating LEDs to show water quality and a torrent of Star Trek shows get release dates and teasers.

The perpetrators may have Russian government support.

Russian hackers modify Chrome and Firefox to track secure web traffic

Internet security company Kaspersky has detailed attempts by a Russian group, Turla, to fingerprint TLS-encrypted, secure web traffic by modifying Chrome and Firefox. The team first infects systems with a remote-access trojan and uses that to modify the browsers, installing their own certificates (to intercept TLS traffic from the host) and then patching the pseudo-random number generation that negotiates TLS connections. That lets them add a fingerprint to every TLS action and passively track encrypted traffic. Why do all that when you’ve already got the victim to install a trojan? It might be a failsafe that lets intruders spy on the traffic of people who manage to remove the trojan but don’t reinstall their browsers.

Plus POOL Light shows whether or not it's safe to swim.

Floating LED art illustrates the quality of NYC's water

You don’t need to check Google to check if it’s safe to swim thanks to this floating art installation, + POOL Light. It displays the water quality in NYC's East River using LED lights, glowing blue if all is well, turning teal if a sensor detects pathogens and going pink when those levels venture beyond safe swimming levels. The 50x50 feet sculpture uses brightness, frequency and sharpness of the lights to indicate the oxygen, cloudiness and pH levels.

Residents can now sue anyone who puts their image in porn without consent.

California cracks down on political and pornographic deepfakes

The state of California is doing something about deepfakes, with two new bills signed into law last week by Governor Gavin Newsom. The first makes it illegal to post any manipulated videos that could, for instance, replace a candidate's face or speech to discredit them, within 60 days of an election. The other will allow residents of the state to sue anyone who puts their image into a pornographic video using deepfake technology. The state is tackling two of the biggest issues with deepfake technology, which is able to make increasingly realistic videos of things that, well, never happened.

See where the future of finance is going when you watch this groundbreaking event

It’s just the start of a lot of Star Trek.

'Star Trek: Picard' debuts January 23rd, 2020

CBS has confirmed that its All Access series Star Trek: Picard will premiere on January 23rd, 2020. The network will dribble out one episode every Thursday until the 10-episode first season is complete. Before then, CBS has surprise-released the first of its Short Treks mini-episodes -- you can watch "Q&A" right now. The short tells the tale of Spock's first day aboard the Enterprise and the headaches that ensue when he's stuck in a lift with Number One. Future episodes will appear October 10th, November 14th, December 12th and January 9th. Oh, and there’s a teaser for the third season of Discovery, too.

But wait, there's more...

1. Tesla will let you customize your car's horn and movement sounds

2. Early OnePlus 8 leak hints at hole-punch display and wireless charging

3. Vodafone tests open cellular radio tech that could lower the cost of calls

4. How to set up your own 'streaming service'

The Morning After is a new daily newsletter from Engadget designed to help you fight off FOMO. Who knows what you'll miss if you don't subscribe.

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Engadget Email Newsletter

Now available on your smart speaker and wherever you get your podcasts

Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Play | iHeart Radio

It's Saturday, October 05, 2019.

Hey, good morning! You look fabulous.

Welcome to your weekend! After Microsoft’s whirlwind Surface event, New York Comic-Con is now in full swing. We’ll recap some stories from the past week as well as a few highlights from Friday, including some Star Wars-related cookware that might find a place on your holiday wishlist.

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A weekly news show chronicling our crippling collective addiction to technology.

The Engadget Podcast returns!

Get your headphones ready folks, because the Engadget Podcast is back in action! Early next week, Devindra Hardawar and Cherlynn Low will host our first new episode in nearly two years, diving in with reactions to Microsoft’s massive Surface event. After everything that we’ve seen, is Microsoft making better PCs than Apple now? Subscribe now to listen in as soon as it drops.

Coming to a Williams-Sonoma near you.

Le Creuset's Star Wars collection includes a $900 dutch oven

The “Han Solo in Carbonite Signature Roaster” is only $450.

Our dual-screen future is here… next year.

Surface Neo and Duo

Microsoft’s Surface Neo, the larger laptop-sized device, and Surface Duo, a more svelte phone, are bets on the future of dual-screen devices. They hearken back to the original Surface, which paved the way for the plethora of 2-in-1 and convertible PCs we see today. Devindra Hardawar even got some hands-on impressions of both -- unfortunately they weren’t turned on for him to use.

The Surface Duo will run Android across two 5.6-inch screens that provide a total 8.3 inches of space for multitasking or comfortable thumb typing. It can fold 360 degrees to help you take a phone call, too. Currently scheduled to ship for the 2020 holiday season.

The Surface Neo tablet packs two 9-inch screens that combine into a 13-inch area that helps with multitasking. And if you need to type a long message, there's a compact wirelessly charging keyboard that effectively turns the Neo into a laptop. This is the first known device to use Intel's Lakefield processor, too, and it'll be the flagship hardware for Windows 10X. It’s also scheduled to ship late next year.

See where the future of finance is going when you watch this groundbreaking event

More stable than iOS 13, too.

Apple iPadOS review: More like a laptop than ever

Beyond a handful of visual changes, the platform’s biggest improvements come in the form of desktop-class web browsing in Safari, key changes to Apple’s multitasking tools, a new approach to file downloads and more. According to Chris Velazco, "We're still not at the point where iPadOS turns iPads into full-blown computer replacements for most people, but the update is a big step down that path."

Avoid installing strange apps.

Google found a serious Android flaw affecting Pixel, Samsung and Huawei phones

Google researchers have discovered an unpatched vulnerability on its own Android OS that affects the Pixel 1 and 2, Huawei P20, Samsung Galaxy S7, S8, and S9. It disclosed the problem just seven days after finding it, as the exploit is a "zero-day" that is already being exploited in the wild. Other devices affected are the Xiaomi Redmi 5A, Xiaomi Redmi Note 5, Xiaomi A1, Oppo A3 and the Moto Z3.

This is the series’ first new entry since 2014.

Microsoft ‘Flight Simulator’ hands-on

Microsoft is now accepting applications for a pre-alpha Flight Simulator Insider program due to kick off later this year. The full game will launch on PC in 2020 and on Xbox after that. To find out what the ultra-realistic sim has to offer this time around, read Jessica Conditt’s impressions.

"Flight Simulator offers a new perspective on the world, period. Developers are committed to holding a mirror to reality, researching and recreating accurate atmospheres, cockpits, wind patterns, flight maneuvers, weather and locations. Even the stars in the night skies are accurate."