Wednesday 29 November 2017

The Morning After: It's easy to hack macOS

Engadget Email Newsletter

It's Wednesday, November 29, 2017.

Hey, good morning! You look fabulous.

We have some unexpected news out of Essential, and a vitally important update for anyone running macOS High Sierra. It’s Wednesday.

Breaking news.

Andy Rubin reportedly left Google after ‘inappropriate’ relationship

According to The Information, Android co-founder Andy Rubin left Google in 2014 after an internal investigation determined he’d carried on an inappropriate relationship with a subordinate. Now, after the outlet started asking questions, employees at Rubin’s new company, Essential, have been informed that the founder is taking a leave of absence.

Address this ASAP.

A major macOS bug lets anyone login as admin

Yesterday afternoon word spread of a disturbingly easy-to-access security flaw in the last version of Apple’s desktop OS. A developer tweeted that on High Sierra, typing “root” as a username to login and leaving the password blank will (after a few attempts) open full access to the computer. Apple says that a patch is coming to fix the bug, but for now, users must secure their devices by enabling the Root user account and setting a strong password (that they won’t forget).

Not so fast.

HP quietly installs system-slowing spyware on its PCs

It wasn’t a great day for Windows PCs either, as Computer World reported HP users have noticed an HP Touchpoint Analytics Service appearing on their devices. They’ve complained that it’s installing without permission and sucking up telemetry data. According to HP, not only is it easy to uninstall or opt-out of, “It anonymously collects diagnostic information about hardware performance. No data is shared with HP unless access is expressly granted.”

Win a Trip to Day for Night, Houston's Experiential Art & Music Festival (featuring NIN, Thom Yorke, Solange, Justice, St. Vincent, and more...)

The difference between ‘will’ and ‘could.’

The FCC is peddling its net neutrality spin as facts

An FCC list of “myths vs. facts” about its attempt to undo net neutrality protections leaves out a lot of key information.

Check the battery level before you drive off.

Thieves tell cops ‘Mr. Tesla’ said it was OK to swipe Teslas

Thieves in Utah allegedly made off with three $80,000 Teslas by breaking into a dealership and stealing the keys. Then things got weird.

How many?

HDMI 2.1 spec arrives with support for 10K video

The focus of HDMI 2.1 is on higher video bandwidth; it supports 48 Gbps with a new backward-compatible ultra-high-speed HDMI cable. It also supports faster refresh rates for high video resolution -- 60 Hz for 8K and 120 Hz for 4K. The standard also supports Dynamic HDR and resolutions up to 10K for commercial and specialty use. Test specs will roll out next year “in stages.”

But wait, there's more...

1. Photoshop uses AI to make selecting people less of a hassle

2. Microsoft's latest Windows 10 experiment: running apps in tabs

3. Huawei says its depth-sensing tech is better than Apple's Face ID

4. Infiniti unveils a semi-autonomous QX50 for 2019

5. Google finally fixes the burger emoji in its Android 8.1 developer preview

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Tuesday 28 November 2017

Editor's Pick: Risky Scripts Pose Threat to Web Surfers, Say Researchers

Risky Scripts Pose Threat to Web Surfers, Say Researchers

John P. Mello Jr. Nov 28, 2017 11:24 AM PT
	A popular technique used by website operators to observe the keystrokes, mouse movements and scrolling behavior of visitors on Web pages is fraught with risk. The technique offered by a number of service providers uses scripts to capture the activity of a visitor on a Web page, store it on the provider's servers, and play it back on demand for a website's operators. [More...]

More Picks:

The Fake News Fueling the Uproar Over Self-Driving Vehicles
It may seem obvious that a major consequence of self-driving trucks would be a lot of unemployed truck drivers, but the reality -- at least for those who drive tractor trailers -- could be better jobs. Autonomous vehicles have massive potential benefits. Models suggest that in the U.S. alone, between 30 thousand and 40 thousand lives would be saved annually. [More...]

Black Friday Shoppers Embrace Mobile, Set New Online Records
U.S. retailers crossed a historic new threshold over Thanksgiving weekend as consumers set new records for e-commerce activity and embraced mobile shopping like never before. The record-breaking $5.03 billion spent online on Black Friday -- a 17 percent increase -- was in line with expectations. Consumers spent about $43.42 billion on e-commerce holiday shopping from Nov. 1 to Nov. 26. [More...]

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Tech News Flash

Tech News Flash: Tuesday -- November 28, 2017

TechNewsWorld -- All Tech - All The Time
http://www.TechNewsWorld.com
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Headline Scan
The Fake News Fueling the Uproar Over Self-Driving Vehicles
AWS to Help Build ONNX Open Source AI Platform
Facebook Messenger Promises Speedy Delivery of 4K Pics

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Today's Story Highlights

The Fake News Fueling the Uproar Over Self-Driving Vehicles

It may seem obvious that a major consequence of self-driving trucks
would be a lot of unemployed truck drivers, but the reality -- at least
for those who drive tractor trailers -- could be better jobs. Autonomous
vehicles have massive potential benefits. Models suggest that in the
U.S. alone, between 30 thousand and 40 thousand lives would be saved
annually.
http://www.technewsworld.com/story/84969.html

AWS to Help Build ONNX Open Source AI Platform

AWS has become the latest tech firm to join the deep learning
community's collaboration on the Open Neural Network Exchange, recently
launched to advance AI in a frictionless and interoperable environment.
Facebook and Microsoft led the effort. AWS made its open source Python
package, ONNX-MxNet, available as a deep learning framework that offers
APIs across multiple languages.
http://www.technewsworld.com/story/84971.html

Facebook Messenger Promises Speedy Delivery of 4K Pics

Facebook on Tuesday raised the ante for messaging apps photo quality
with the announcement of 4K support for Messenger. Starting Tuesday,
"people can send and receive photos in Messenger at 4K resolution -- or
up to 4,096 x 4,096 pixels per image -- the highest quality many
smartphones support," wrote Facebook Messenger product managers Sean
Kelly and Hagen Green.
http://www.technewsworld.com/story/84967.html

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The Morning After: The Substitute Phone

Engadget Email Newsletter

It's Tuesday, November 28, 2017.

Hey, good morning! You look fabulous.

Tuesday has arrived, and as you await delivery on any Cyber Monday splurges, we’ve got a substitute phone for app detox and an otherworldly combination of lightning and a volcano. Airbnb is also accused of involvement with money laundering.

It doesn’t seem like Epic knew it was trying to sue a 14-year-old.

Alleged ‘Fortnite’ hacker’s mom fights anti-cheating lawsuit

Don’t mess with mom. Epic Games is suing 14-year-old Caleb Rogers for allegedly modding the game and causing the developer to lose profits from his activity in Fortnite’s free-to-play Battle Royale mode. Rogers’ mother filed a letter with North Carolina’s US District Court saying that Epic “has no capability of proving any form of modification” because her son merely installed cheats he downloaded from Addicted Cheats and didn’t alter the game’s source code himself.

Swipe, pinch and scroll your way to a smartphone-free future.

Kick your smartphone habit with the Substitute Phone

Cigarettes are hard to kick not just because of the nicotine but because they give you something to do with your hands. The Substitute Phone from Vienna-based designer Klemens Schillinger works on the same principle, if you think of content as the drug and your phone’s touchscreen as the tactile addiction. The five models look and feel like phones, but instead of a screen, there are stone beads embedded in slots at various angles. You can just grab it and swipe, pinch and scroll, satisfying that physical need without the nicotine/content.

Boom.

The Big Picture: Catching lightning in a volcanic bottle

Lightning and volcanoes, together at last.

TUMI Global Locator: The wireless tracking device designed to take the hassle out of travel. Shop all tech gifts from TUMI.

It must be coming soon, surely?

‘Black Mirror’ trailers preview episodes, leave out release date

Netflix continues to drive internet fans of Black Mirror crazy by releasing buzzy new trailers, while still not saying when we can actually watch the damn thing. The first one is for Arkangel, an episode directed by Oscar-winner Jodie Foster, showing the hazards of trying too hard to protect your precious snowflakes.

One more thing to watch out for.

Airbnb is reportedly being used to launder money

According to a Daily Beast report, Russian scammers are leveraging Airbnb to launder dirty cash from stolen credit cards with the help of corrupt hosts. After creating or purchasing the Airbnb accounts, the scammers use them to request bookings from colluding hosts, who then send back a cut of the profits despite no one staying at the property. Sneaky

It called record Black Friday sales ‘a testament to the free and open internet.’

Over 200 companies including Twitter and Reddit warn against undoing net neutrality

FCC chairman Ajit Pai seems determined to go ahead with his plan of removing net neutrality protections, but many businesses that depend on internet connections are speaking out against the move. Twitter, Pinterest, Reddit and Airbnb were among hundreds of firms that signed a letter which said “This would put small- and medium-sized businesses at a disadvantage and prevent innovative new ones from even getting off the ground.”

Sync your scribbles wirelessly.

Moleskine’s smart notebook will work with Microsoft Office

Now there’s a Windows 10 app for Moleskine’s Smart Writing System, a quill with a tiny camera that tracks your scribbles on specially marked paper. It sends a digital version to the PC via Bluetooth, where the app converts your charts, ramblings and doodles into a Word document. Assuming you have a Surface, adding on the pen will cost $100.

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