JesWill

US Army and CDC remove code from apps after finding out it was Russian-made

The US Army and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have removed several “public-facing” apps, citing security concerns over Russian-designed code within their programs. The developer in question is Pushwoosh, which provides software and data processing support to other app makers for marketing purposes. Pushwoosh is headquartered in Novosibirsk, Siberia, with about 40 employees,…

Meta fires workers for taking bribes to hijack accounts and serving to others recuperate accounts

The Wall Street Journal reports that anonymous sources claim Meta has fired or disciplined over two dozen employees and contractors for improperly taking over user accounts over the last year. In some instances, hackers bribed people with account access. When most people think of account stealing, they likely imagine hackers using tactics like phishing, malware, and social engineering. However,…

Microsoft’s November 2022 Patch Tuesday fixes 6 zero-day safety flaws

Every second Tuesday of the month for the last 20 years or so, Microsoft has released a new salvo of security updates for its widely popular (and still supported) software products. The November 2022 Patch Tuesday is a rather important one, as it includes individual patches for six zero-day security vulnerabilities which have already been exploited in the wild. The November 2022 Security…

AI-powered Amazon warehouse robotic performs the “repetitive duties” carried out by human employees

As reported by CNBC, Amazon unveiled Sparrow on stage at the Delivering the Future conference near Boston, where it showed off several new technologies. Sparrow is the first robot in the Amazon warehouse system able to detect items of different sizes, pick them up, and handle them without significant human intervention. A video showed the arm selecting and grabbing a board game, a bottle of…

New lawsuit alleges Apple and Amazon have engaged in “worth fixing” since 2019

A lawsuit was filed on Thursday alleging that Apple and Amazon entered an agreement in 2019 to purposefully restrict the number of third-party resellers on the storefront to eliminate competition and engage in price fixing. Hagens Berman, the law firm representing the case, says that the two companies explicitly targeted resellers offering Apple products under MSRP. The claim filed in US District…

Twitter roundup: chapter risk, prime workers go away, Musk’s cost system plans

A lot has happened at Twitter since Musk arrived, including the billionaire laying off half of its employees and suspending accounts for impersonating others (often Musk himself). Talking to employees for the first time, Musk warned that “bankruptcy isn’t out of the question,” according to several reports. Musk has other problems to deal with: three of Twitter’s top security officials—chief…

US Justice Division lands conviction in $3.36 billion Silk Highway Bitcoin heist

The haul was valued at around $3.36 billion at the time of the seizure (which just happened to be right around Bitcoin’s all-time high). At the time, it was the largest cryptocurrency seizure in the history of the DOJ and remains the department’s second-largest financial seizure ever. The US Department of Justice on Monday announced a conviction in a case involving the seizure of $3.36 billion…

YouTube removes WWDC archive channel after Apple points copyright notices

The owner of Apple WWDC Videos, Brendan Shanks, tweeted that Apple had issued a number of takedown requests due to copyright infringement against his channel. YouTube’s Terms and Conditions state that any channel subject to just three copyright strikes is subject to termination, will have all its videos removed, and its owner can’t create new channels. Shanks tweeted that his channel contained…

Facebook within the Metaverse of Insanity

 Over the past year, the idea that we will all be living in virtual worlds become a foregone conclusion among the investing universe. With the stock market no longer in the mood for Story Stocks, the heated rhetoric about the metaverse has died down considerably, but we know many still feel that the metaverse story resonates strongly. How many people remember the last time the idea of a second…

Twitter suspends high-profile accounts after introducing permabans for impersonations

Musk yesterday tweeted one of the rules he’s implementing as Twitter’s new overlord: “any Twitter handles engaging in impersonation without clearly specifying ‘parody’ will be permanently suspended,” he wrote. Musk added that Twitter currently issues warnings before suspensions, but now that it is rolling out widespread verification, there will be no warning before it takes action. Previously,…

Starlink provides a daytime knowledge cap of 1 TB for residential customers

After the new policies come into effect in December, standard residential users will start each month with 1 TB of “Priority Access” included in their $110 monthly fee for use during “peak hours,” 7 am to 11 pm. Data used outside of those hours won’t count toward the cap. If a subscriber uses more than 1 TB they’ll be transitioned to “Basic Access,” which is unlimited but potentially much slower…

Elon Musk pronounces $8/month Twitter Blue will embody verification, precedence standing, and fewer adverts

Musk confirmed over the weekend that Twitter’s entire verification process was being revamped. Reports claimed it would require a subscription to Twitter Blue—the optional $4.99 per month service that gives users extra features—which would increase to $20 per month. It appears that had been Musk’s plan, but author Stephen King was one of many verified users to speak out against it, warning he…

Amazon Prime members can now shuffle play whole 100 million track catalog

The full catalog is being made available ad-free but only for shuffle play. That means you can add any song or album from the catalog to a custom playlist (or listen to a curated playlist) but you can’t choose the order in which tracks to play. Up to this point, Prime members have only had access to around two million tracks as part of their subscriptions. For small playlists, Amazon will mix in…

Samsung is releasing an “8K” successor to the Odyssey Neo G9 subsequent 12 months

AMD’s Together We Advance Gaming Livestream, which you can watch in its entirety here, focused heavily on the 8K capabilities of the Radeon RX 7900 XTX. Illustrating the benefits of DisplayPort 2.1, Team red showed off graphs claiming the card can hit 96 fps@8K in the next Assassin’s Creed Valhalla expansion, though the caveat is that it is using FSR, not natively. With an 8K ultrawide display,…

Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard acquisition faces nearer examination from the EU

Sources told Reuters and Politico this week that Microsoft opted not to provide any concessions to European Commission regulators regarding its plans to acquire Activision Blizzard. As a result, the EU’s examination of the bid will enter phase 2 by next week, echoing the deeper scrutiny UK regulators are placing on the acquisition. A Microsoft spokesperson said the company would keep working with…

Steam for Chromebooks reaches beta, broadening compatibility

Google released the beta Steam client for Chromebooks this week. It still only supports a few devices, but the beta system requirements are lower than the alphas. The Chromebook Steam alpha only supported seven hardware variants, requiring at least an 11th-generation i5 CPU and 8GB of RAM. The beta adds compatibility with AMD’s Ryzen 5000 C-Series and 12th-generation Intel processors. It also…

YouTube launches a new streaming hub referred to as “Primetime Channels”

YouTube is no stranger to paid subscription services. The website launched YouTube Premium (formerly called YouTube Red) in 2015, introducing many perks and features to users who decided to pay for it. The service has proven successful for Google, gaining over 50 million subscribers by Q3 2021. Google also launched YouTube TV to compete with cable companies and other live-television streaming…