How to change your Apple ID password
How to change your Apple ID password in three different ways. | Image: Apple
Your Apple ID is your key to using the integrated services of Apple’s ecosystem, including the App Store, iCloud, iMessage, FaceTime, and Apple Music. You also need one to set up any new Apple device. As with any password, if you think it may have been compromised, you should change it immediately. It’s also a good idea to change it every few months to help keep it extra secure.
When you do choose a new password, you’ll need to think of one that’s at least eight characters long and uses at least one number, one uppercase letter, and one lowercase letter. You also can’t reuse a password from the last year.
Here are the steps you’ll need to take to change your Apple ID password. Bear in mind that these will only work if you know your current password. If you’ve forgotten it entirely, you will need to go through Apple’s reset password process, which you can initiate from any of your Apple devices.
On your iOS device
On your iPad, iPhone, or Apple Watch, go to Settings, tap on your name at the top, and choose Password & Security.
Choose Change Password.
You’ll be prompted to enter your device passcode and then enter a new password and confirm it.
Tap Change.
Back at the main Settings screen, sign in with your new password to access Apple features and services.
Image: Jennifer Pattison Tuohy
Use Apple’s System Preferences window to change your password on your Mac.
On your Mac
Click on the Apple menu in the top left-hand corner, choose System Preferences, and then click the Apple ID tile.
Click on Password & Security.
Click on Change Password.
Enter the password you use to unlock your Mac computer.
Enter your new password and verify it.
Click on Change.
Image: Jennifer Pattison Tuohy
You can also change your password on Apple’s website.
Democratic lawmakers ask federal agencies to crack down on crypto mining
Workers install a new row of Bitcoin mining machines at the Whinstone US Bitcoin mining facility in Rockdale, Texas, on October 9, 2021. | Photo by MARK FELIX/AFP /AFP via Getty Images
On Friday, Elizabeth Warren and other Democratic members of Congress sent a letter to two federal regulators, urging them to take action on the explosion of Bitcoin mining in the US.
Sent to the heads of the Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Energy, the letter was spurred by preliminary investigation from lawmakers, which found that just a handful of cryptominers use an enormous amount of energy. In response, the lawmakers ask the agencies to require that crypto-mining companies share data on their energy use and emissions.
Seven of the biggest crypto-mining companies in the US have the collective capacity to use over 1 gigawatt of electricity, according to the letter. That’s the equivalent of two standard coal plants or, as the letter puts it, almost enough to power all the residences in Houston. That’s just the tip of the iceberg, since there are no federal measures in place to capture a complete picture of the environmental impact of the recent boom in US crypto-mining.
Crypto-mining has exploded in the US over the past year, driven in part by China’s 2021 crackdown on the practice in. The US is the biggest hub globally for mining Bitcoin, typically running data centers around-the-clock to mine the currency. These data centers are filled with specialized hardware racing to solve complex equations in order to verify transactions, earning Bitcoin in return. All that computing power gobbles up vast amounts of electricity — and produces pollution as a result.
Moving from China to the US has likely made the Bitcoin network even dirtier, with abundant hydropower in China replaced by coal and gas-derived electricity from the US grid.
All this has policymakers worried about what impact crypto mining will have on the country’s climate change goals, as well as on electricity bills. The practice has already inflated electricity prices in New York, for instance. In an extreme example, residents in Plattsburgh, NY saw their utility bills rise by up to $300 in the winter of 2018 after Bitcoin miners set up shop nearby.
Last month, New York State passed a bill imposing a two-year moratorium on new permits for fossil fuel power plants used to mine energy-intensive currencies. The bill has not yet been signed into law, but the state has also taken regulatory actions to discourage mining. In June, New York also denied a renewed air permit to an embattled power plant, the Greenidge Generating Station on the grounds that its use for Bitcoin-mining “would be inconsistent with the statewide greenhouse gas emission limits.”
Greenidge was one of the companies Warren and other Democratic lawmakers sent queries to back in January, demanding information on their energy use and emissions. Greenidge was responsible for 273,326 tons of carbon dioxide emissions over a year, equivalent to the tailpipe emissions from almost 60,000 cars, according to the new letter released today.
Still, the impact of crypto-mining in the US is way bigger than what the letter details. For starters, “None of the companies provided full and complete information in response to our questions,” the lawmakers wrote.
There are other clues as to how much energy crypto mining companies are actually gobbling up across the nation. In Texas, another hot spot for Bitcoin mining in the US, the crypto mining industry collectively freed up about 1 gigawatt of energy after temporarily powering down this week. The companies ramped down operations in response to an appeal from the state’s grid operator to conserve energy as a searing heatwave threatened to overwhelm the grid.
That hunger for energy is growing fast. “There are over 27 gigawatts of crypto load that is working on interconnecting over the next four years,” a spokesperson for the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) told The Verge in an email this week (the spokesperson declined to be named). That’s an impossibly large load to add to the grid in such a short time frame, experts tell The Verge.
“The results of our investigation, which gathered data from just seven companies, are disturbing, with this limited data alone revealing that cryptominers are large energy users that account for a significant – and rapidly growing – amount of carbon emissions,” the letter to the EPA and Department of Energy says. It was signed by Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), and and Ed Markey (D-MA), and Representatives Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), and Jared Huffman (D-CA).
Energy use from US cryptomining firms is contributing to rising utility bills
An investigation revealed that companies use enough energy to power Houston, and contribute to growing carbon emissions
The largest US cryptomining companies have the capacity to use as much electricity as nearly every home in Houston, Texas; energy use that is contributing to rising utility bills, according to an investigation by Democratic lawmakers.
Cryptomining is a highly energy intensive process involving the use of specialized computers running constantly to solve complex math problems in order to create new virtual coins.
‘Hi-tech’, underwhelming: Amazon’s IRL clothing store misses the point of shopping
Customers to the online retailer’s first in-person location were disappointed by the limited selection and algorithmic picks
Outside Amazon’s first in-person clothing store in California, Diemmi Le, 22, summed up her experience: “You don’t have to talk to anybody.”
For years, Amazon tried – and ultimately failed – to translate its online book business into successful brick and mortar bookstores. Dozens of stores were shuttered this spring. Now, the online shopping giant is trying again, this time attempting to reinvent the mall clothing store.
Elon Musk files motion against Twitter’s bid to fast-track trial
Lawyers for the billionaire oppose company’s request that the trial begin in September
Elon Musk has filed a motion opposing Twitter’s request to fast-track a trial over his plan to terminate his $44bn deal for the social media company.
Musk’s lawyers, in papers filed with the Delaware Chancery court on Friday, said Twitter’s “unjustifiable request” to rush the merger case to trial in two months should be rejected.
Elon Musk wants Twitter trial to wait until February 2023
Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images
Elon Musk’s legal team has responded to Twitter’s lawsuit against him, saying that the company is demanding an unreasonably fast trial. In response, Musk’s team asks that the case not be heard until next year, according to Bloomberg.
Twitter has pushed for the trial to take place in mid-September, justifying the request to expedite things given that Musk and Twitter’s merger agreement has an October 24th “presumptive drop-dead date.” However, Musk’s team is asking that the trial not be held until February 13th, 2023 trial at the earliest, Bloomberg reports.
Twitter declined to comment on the matter, and pointed to its initial complaint filed Tuesday.
Twitter sued Musk earlier this week after he officially tried to bail on his $44 billion agreement to buy the company. Nearly immediately after he said he intended to pull the plug, Twitter board chairman Bret Taylor said the company would be taking Musk to court, and the company filed its lawsuit on Tuesday. Musk hadn’t responded via the court until Friday, though on Tuesday, he did tweet.
Musk’s primary assertion for wanting to terminate the merger is that Twitter has not given him the data to “‘make an independent assessment of the prevalence of fake or spam accounts on Twitter’s platform,” his legal team wrote last week. His team again invoked the bots issue in Friday’s filing. According to The Wall Street Journal, they said that “the core dispute over false and spam accounts is fundamental to Twitter’s value. It is also extremely fact and expert intensive, requiring substantial time for discovery.”
There will be a 90-minute hearing next week on July 19th at 11AM ET to decide when the trial will take place, according to Bloomberg and Reuters.
Watch this impressive AR demo ‘reset’ a room using latest Apple tech
Gone with a simple swipe. | Image: Russ Maschmeyer
What if you could use the augmented reality features of a LiDAR-equipped iPhone to see how a room might look with all its furniture removed? That’s the idea behind a new AR prototype shown off by Shopify’s Russ Maschmeyer on Twitter. The demo, which he refers to as a “reset button” for a room, puts Ikea’s virtual design tool to shame. But it’s just an internal experiment for now that offers an interesting peek at the kinds of experiences that could be possible with Apple’s latest AR APIs.
In a video, Maschmeyer shows how the prototype is able to seamlessly erase a room’s contents, allowing the iPhone to be used to peer around the empty space in AR. In subsequent tweets, Maschmeyer explains how the technology might one day be useful for e-commerce sites, allowing them to show customers how new furniture could look at home without existing furniture getting in the way.
The prototype is built with Apple’s RoomPlan API, a tool for developers that the company detailed at WWDC this year. It’s designed to let an iPhone or iPad equipped with a LiDAR sensor scan a room, understand its geometry and furniture, and build a 3D model that app developers can use however they want.
Maschmeyer’s thread is an interesting look at what Apple’s technology is like to use in practice. For example, he explains how the model generated from the scan is completely untextured, so Shopify’s prototype needs to gather texture data from the phone’s camera, and then work out how to extend those textures behind the furniture that might currently be obscuring parts of the walls and floors. It then overlays the resulting 3D model onto the real room.
We can now use inpainting techniques to fill in the redacted texture. We were pleasantly surprised by the results produced by off-the-shelf tools like Photoshop and https://t.co/vMbvV0Fa92. [11/12] pic.twitter.com/jGOdZ7it0b
The results, it has to be said, are a lot more impressive than what I experienced when I tried out a similar virtual design tool from Ikea. Although Ikea’s app is also able to erase furniture from a room, it’s only able to present the results as a 2D image. In contrast, Shopify’s prototype seems to allow you to continue looking around the (now empty) room in augmented reality. But, in fairness to Ikea, its approach doesn’t require a LiDAR-equipped iPhone (any iPhone will do). It’s also a real piece of technology that people can download and use in their own homes, rather than an internal tech demo.
Apple has been showing off its AR tools at developer conference for years, but I think it’s fair to say that we’ve yet to see a killer app for the technology emerge (I don’t count Pokémon Go because of how so many people play without the AR mode enabled). But prototypes like these make me hopeful that interesting uses for the technology could be just around the corner. Like, maybe January when Apple’s AR / VR headset is rumored for release.
Twitter sues Elon Musk over bid to exit $44bn takeover deal
Company seeks to force completion of sale, saying billionaire ‘refuses to honor his obligations’
Twitter sued Elon Musk on Tuesday to force him to complete his $44bn takeover of the social media giant after he announced on Friday he would withdraw his bid.
“Musk’s exit strategy is a model of hypocrisy,” the lawsuit said, accusing the billionaire of making “bad faith” arguments against Twitter and carrying out “public and misleading attacks” on the company.
‘They were taking us for a ride’: how Uber used investor cash to seduce drivers
Firm faces ongoing battles over workers’ rights and unpaid waiting times after drawing in drivers with huge subsidies
In the middle of the national rail strike last month when demand for cabs was sky-high, a group of Uber drivers decided they, too, would strike for 24 hours. A few hundred of them marched in protest to Uber’s London office in Aldgate Tower, complaining of poverty pay and arbitrary management by algorithm.
It was a typical day for Abdurzak Hadi, an Uber driver, although he has to pinch himself to believe where he has ended up. The 44-year-old father of three arrived in England on his own in 1992 as a teenage refugee, having fled Somalia’s brutal civil war. When he was old enough, he became a minicab driver. Then he signed up with Uber in 2014.
Today I learned Amazon has a form so police can get my data without permission or a warrant
Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge
Here is something I didn’t know when I purchased Amazon Ring cameras and Amazon Echo Dots: there is a webpage where law enforcement can fill out a form, say there’s a life-threatening emergency, and get access to your data without your consent, a court order, or any kind of warrant. There’s nothing in the Terms of Service about this, and the company has maintained for years that it helps police get consent first, but it’s happening anyhow.
Over the past seven months alone, Amazon has provided private Ring videos to law enforcement 11 times, the company told Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) in a letter dated July 1st and provided to press this week.
Here are Markey’s questions and Amazon’s answers about that specifically:
(Markey is focused on Ring, which has its own specific form (pdf) that law enforcement can fill out, but we discovered parent company Amazon has the same policy and a request site of its own. While Ring’s best-known products are cameras that face the outside of your home, both Ring and Amazon sell gadgets that can see and hear inside your home.)
Maybe Amazon’s answers seem totally reasonable to you? It’s possible that each of these 11 times in 2022 (and however many times in 2021 and earlier) was a legitimate life-threatening emergency, the police knew it, Amazon knew it, and perhaps the company may have even saved lives by doing so.
But that requires you to trust that both the police and some unknown department within Amazon have everyone’s best interests in mind. Trust in police and their surveillance tools isn’t high these days for obvious reasons — and Markey suggested to The Intercept that Amazon has also lost the benefit of the doubt.
“This revelation is particularly troubling given that the company has previously admitted to having no policies that restrict how law enforcement can use Ring users’ footage, no data security requirements for law enforcement entities that have users’ footage, and no policies that prohibit law enforcement officers from keeping Ring users’ footage forever,” he told The Intercept.
It does seem to be true that federal law lets Amazon give this kind of information to a government agency — “if the provider, in good faith, believes that an emergency involving danger of death or serious physical injury to any person requires disclosure without delay.” That’s a direct quote from 18 US § 2702 (b) (8). But it says that providers “may” do so, not that they must do so, and it’s not clear if anything would keep bad actors at Amazon or in law enforcement from abusing a system which has no obvious oversight.
As of today, it’s not clear whether owners would ever know that their Ring camera footage, as one example, was accessed by police and potentially saved for months or years afterward. Do they get told afterwards? It’s not clear who at Amazon would make these good faith determinations, or whether Amazon employees watch the footage or just trust law enforcement to do so.
We asked these questions, but Amazon spokesperson Mai Nguyen said they couldn’t answer them, instead writing that “It’s simply untrue that Ring gives anyone unfettered access to customer data or video” — something we didn’t suggest — while repeating the company’s belief that it’s authorized to provide this information if it believes there’s a life-threatening emergency or the threat of serious injury.
Amazon has been increasingly cozying up to law enforcement across the United States with its Ring doorbell cameras, at one time using law enforcement as a marketing tool to help sell more of them. It’s partnered with 2,161 law enforcement agencies to date, in addition to fire departments. It is not at all clear that obtaining Ring footage has actually helped law enforcement with cases: in 2020, an NBC News investigation suggested they largely hadn’t.
If you have a wired Ring camera, you can turn on the company’s end-to-end encryption for your video streams, but Amazon does not offer that feature on its popular battery powered models. Amazon also refuses to make end-to-end encryption the default for its Ring cameras. “We are committed to giving customers options so they can choose the Ring experience that is right for them,” Brian Huseman, Amazon’s VP of public policy, writes, as if making encryption opt-out instead of opt-in would somehow give people fewer options.
It’s ChromeOS now, not Chrome OS
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Chrome OS, Google’s Linux-based operating system for its Chromebook devices, has been around for more than a decade, but the company has made a small but notable branding change: it’s now called ChromeOS, with no space in between. James Croom, Google’s senior director of marketing for ChromeOS, confirmed the change to The Verge.
You can see the change for yourself all over Google’s ChromeOS dev page (though the official logo at the top appears to have a lowercase c.)
Screenshot from Google’s ChromeOS dev pageThat’s three entire spaces saved just in this screenshot. (And four if you count the logo.)
The change hasn’t rolled out everywhere just yet. On this ChromeOS page on Google’s Chromebook site, for example, Google still spells the operating system as two separate words. According to Croom, the company is aware the change isn’t reflected everywhere but is working toward making it appear more consistently, so it sounds like the new ChromeOS branding will be switched over eventually.
I know this isn’t the biggest deal in the world, but we here at The Verge love to look at branding and logos. Apple long ago moved its operating systems to the “thingOS” branding, and I’m wondering if Google might do something similar. Wear OS still has a space — maybe Google will drop it in favor of WearOS when the Pixel Watch launches this fall? I’m also going to write the word “AndroidOS” so that we can collectively manifest it into existence. Or better yet, “FuchsiaOS.”
I’m kidding (mostly) with those last two, and we don’t have any indication that Google plans to change anything but ChromeOS. But if you’ve gotten used to writing Chrome OS with that space, it’s officially time to stop.
Crypto lending company Celsius Network has filed for bankruptcy
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
The crypto crash has claimed another corporate victim: Celsius Network has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The crypto lending company’s future has been in question ever since it abruptly halted all withdrawals and transfers exactly one month ago. It now hopes to continue operating with its remaining $167 million in cash while bankruptcy courts restructure the company.
According to Celsius Network’s filing, the company has between $1 billion and $10 billion in assets but owes a similar amount. The five largest claims range between $20 million and $80 million each. The company was valued at $3.25 billion last year, according to Fortune, and managed as much as $24 billion worth of assets before this year’s sell-off. That had reportedly dipped to around $12 billion before it locked withdrawals, but the bankruptcy filing suggests it has less now.
There have been... questions, to say the least, about Celsius’ business model and operations. We describe some of those here.
Celsius now says it halted withdrawals last month to avoid a bank run: “Without a pause, the acceleration of withdrawals would have allowed certain customers—those who were first to act—to be paid in full while leaving others behind to wait for Celsius to harvest value from illiquid or longer-term asset deployment activities before they receive a recovery,” reads a portion of the company's press release today.
Tesla’s head of AI is out
Photo By Michael Macor/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images
Andrej Karpathy, Tesla’s head of AI and a key leader in the development of Autopilot, its driver assist feature which requires supervision by a human, announced on Twitter Wednesday that he’s leaving the company.
“It’s been a great pleasure to help Tesla towards its goals over the last 5 years and a difficult decision to part ways,” Karpathy wrote. “In that time, Autopilot graduated from lane keeping to city streets and I look forward to seeing the exceptionally strong Autopilot team continue that momentum.” In a follow-up tweet, Karpathy said he has “no concrete plans for what’s next” but wants to revisit “my long-term passions around technical work in AI, open source and education.”
I have no concrete plans for what’s next but look to spend more time revisiting my long-term passions around technical work in AI, open source and education.
The departure seems to be amicable, as CEO Elon Musk replied kindly to Karpathy on Twitter. In March, Karpathy said that he was on a sabbatical to “rest & travel,” but had said he planned to come back to Tesla this month, according to Bloomberg.
Thanks for everything you have done for Tesla! It has been an honor working with you.
Karpathy joined Tesla in 2017, taking over the top AI job after former Apple executive Chris Lattner’s six-month stint in the post. As AI chief, Karpathy has overseen the growth and development of Tesla’s controversial Autopilot driver assist software, though the software is currently under investigation from the federal government after Teslas using Autopilot crashed into parked emergency vehicles.
6 Signs Cybercriminals Infected Your Phone and How To Fix It
Be suspicious at the first sign of your phone behaving oddly. Both the Android and iOS smartphone platforms present the same set of common symptoms to indicate malware may be at play inside your device. The post 6 Signs Cybercriminals Infected Your Phone and How To Fix It appeared first on TechNewsWorld.
Amazon Prime Day 2022: the best deals under $25
The fourth-gen Echo Dot is on sale for just $19.99, which is a 50 percent discount. | Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge
Even with Amazon Prime Day going on, deals on inexpensive tech can be hard to come by. Nevertheless, they do exist, and some products are currently on sale on Amazon for less than $25. These deals encompass a range of products, from great smart speakers and Bluetooth trackers to 4K streaming sticks and popular video games like Forza: Horizon 5, some of which are on sale for the lowest prices to date.
Below, we’ve curated a list of just some of the best tech deals under $25 so even those on the tightest of budgets can save big this Prime Day. And don’t forget: for even more sales, be sure to also check out our guide to the best Amazon Prime Day deals available. We’ve also put together guides to the best anti-Prime Day deals at Best Buy, Target, and Walmart.
Smart speaker deals
The spherical, fourth-gen Echo Dot is currently going for just $19.99 ($20 off) on Amazon — you can tack on an Amazon Smart Plug for $5 more. The latest model may not have as great sound quality as the more expensive fourth-gen Echo, but the small smart speaker still sounds great for its size. Plus, the Alexa-enabled device makes it possible to set timers, control other smart home devices, and so much more hands-free. Read our review.
Not a fan of the fourth-gen Echo Dot’s orb-like design? The smaller, puck-shaped Echo Dot from 2018 is also on sale today for $17.99 ($22 off) as well. Sure, it’s not Amazon’s latest and greatest smart speaker, but it still offers a surprising amount of sound and can be used to set alarms and carry out a range of tasks via Alexa. Read our review.
Streaming stick deals
If you’re looking for a streaming stick, Amazon’s older Fire TV Stick 4K with the third-gen Alexa remote is on sale for $24.99 instead of $49.99, which matches its Black Friday price. While not as good as the more expensive Fire TV Stick 4K Max, it’s still plenty fast and offers support for Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos, HDR10 Plus, and HDR10. Read our review.
Roku’s Express 4K Plus is Roku’s entry-level streaming stick, one that is on sale for $24.99 ($15 off). The 4K streaming device supports HDR10, comes with a remote for hands-free commands, and works with Amazon Alexa, Apple’s Siri, and Google Assistant.
Location trackers and accessories deals
The 2022 Tile Mate is on sale for $17.99 instead of $24.99, which matches its best price ever. The simple Bluetooth tracker works with both iOS and Android and can help you keep track of your keys and other items from up to 250 feet away. Plus, it comes with a built-in hole — something you won’t find on Apple’s AirTags — allowing you to securely attach it to your belongings. Other perks include water resistance and user-replaceable batteries.
You can buy Apple’s AirTag loop in blue, orange, and yellow right now for $9 instead of $29.99, which is a new all-time low on Amazon. As we previously mentioned, you’ll need a lanyard to attach your AirTags to luggage and other accessories, given that the AirTags lack a built-in keychain loop. Amazon is also selling Apple’s Leather Key Ring in yellow and orange for $19 instead of $35.
For those who own a Samsung Galaxy smartphone that runs Android 8.0 or higher, you can buy the standard Samsung SmartTag tracker that lacks UWB for $17.99 instead of $29.99.
Also, while not technically Prime Day deals, Amazon has recently discounted some video games and other gaming accessories to both Prime and non-Prime members. These include Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy (Xbox and PlayStation), which is on sale for $24.99 ($15 off). You can also buy Forza Horizon 5: Standard Editionfor Xbox for $21.99 instead of $59.99, as well as Sea of Thieves for Xbox and Windows for $19.99 ($20 off). Read our reviews ofMarvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy,Forza Horizon 5, andSea of Thieves.
Skullcandy’s Dime are also on sale for $19.49 ($7.50 off). Like the Jib, these also feature IPX4 water resistance, although — on paper — they can only last up to three hours on a single charge or 12 hours with the included charging case.
You can easily add voice control to any outlet with one of Kasa’s smart plugs, which are on sale as part of a two-pack for just $12.99 ($7 off). The handy devices work with both Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, as well as IFTTT, even without a hub.
Various services like Paramount Plus, Starz, Showtime, and more are just $0.99 per month for up to two months if you’re a Prime member. Amazon’s also offering discounts on a variety of movies like The Batman, which is half off at $9.99.
Prime members can currently buy the Rocketbook Fusion erasable notebook, which comes with a Pilot Frixion Pen and a microfiber cloth, in select colors aslow as $21.35 ($15.65 off). The 42-page notebook offers seven different page styles, including a weekly planner, task list, monthly calendar, a dot grid, and more.
If you’re in need of a basic charger for your phone, Anker’s 511 Charger is on sale for Prime members for $13.99, or about $5 off its typical list price. It only offers a single USB-C port, but the 20-watt offering provides enough power to fast charge most smartphones.
Ex-CIA engineer convicted for sending classified hacking tools and info to WikiLeaks
Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
On Wednesday, a jury in New York convicted ex-Central Intelligence Agency engineer Joshua Schulte on all nine charges he faced (as first reported by @InnerCityPress) as a result of the single largest leak in agency history. Dubbed Vault 7, the files and information shared by WikiLeaks in 2017 exposed a trove of tactics and exploits the CIA used to hack its targets’ computers, iPhones or Android phones, and even Samsung smart TVs.
CIA spokesperson Tammy Thorp said in a statement given to The Verge, “Today’s verdict affirms that maintaining the security of our nation’s cyber capabilities is of the utmost importance. It’s critical to the security of the American people, and it’s critical to our advantage against adversaries abroad. As set forth in the trial, unauthorized disclosures not only jeopardize US personnel and operations, but also equip our adversaries with tools and information to do us harm.”
Schulte, the subject of a lengthy profile in the New Yorker that described him as “abrasive” and then went into far worse details, was arrested in 2018, initially charged with possession of child pornography, and has been in jail ever since.
The article details Operations Support Branch (OSB), where Schulte worked and reportedly built hacking tools by quickly turning prototypes into actual exploits that could monitor or steal information from the targeted person’s devices. It reports that investigators obtained evidence against Schulte through his own lapses in personal security, like storing passwords on his phone that could be used to access his encrypted storage.
It even goes into the trouble investigators had obtaining the Vault 7 documents — they remained classified despite being leaked and publicly available on the internet, leading FBI officials to download the cache over Wi-Fi at a Starbucks to a freshly purchased laptop that immediately became officially classified, stored in a supervisor’s office, and only accessible with Top Secret clearance.
Additional charges accusing him directly of stealing classified national defense information and sending it to WikiLeaks were filed later. In 2020, the government’s first attempt at prosecuting Schulte ended in a mistrial as a jury convicted him on contempt of court charges as well as lying to FBI investigators but couldn’t agree on the rest.
That spurred the second trial that just ended, where Schulte opted to represent himself. The charges he was convicted on are all specifically related to gathering, stealing, and transmitting classified information and obstruction of justice for lying to investigators about it. He has not yet been sentenced, pending the resolution of the other charges he still faces for possessing and transporting child pornography.
The Associated Press reports prosecutors argued that after feeling ignored and disrespected over his complaints about the work environment, Schulte took revenge on the CIA by stealing and leaking the same exploits he’d been a part of creating. In his defense, Schulte argued unsuccessfully that he was being used as a scapegoat for the government’s failure to protect dangerous hacking tools. There is some evidence to support that argument, as The Washington Post reported in 2020 that an internal investigation by the CIA’s WikiLeaks Task Force found security in the unit was “woefully lax,” with users sharing admin-level passwords and a lack of controls over access to historical data or the use of removable USB thumb drives, and this was years after the Snowden leaks. Schulte claimed there was no reasonable motive established and that hundreds of people had access to the information who could’ve been behind the leaks.
In a statement released after the verdict, US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams said, “When Schulte began to harbor resentment toward the CIA, he covertly collected those tools and provided them to WikiLeaks, making some of our most critical intelligence tools known to the public – and therefore, our adversaries.” His statement ended by saying, “Schulte has been convicted for one of the most brazen and damaging acts of espionage in American history.”
Elon Musk just couldn’t help himself on Monday morning. Having announced the termination of his $44bn (£37bn) takeover of Twitter, he took to the platform he no longer wants to buy and mocked its likely legal response.
Musk’s tweet to his 100 million followers stated: “They want to force me to buy Twitter in court.” Twitter does indeed have grounds to seek an order requiring Musk to buy the business, despite him pulling out in a dispute over the number of spam or bot accounts on the platform.
A who’s who of CEOs is begging every school to teach computer science
Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
More than 500 notable people in business, education, and the nonprofit sector are calling for governors and education leaders to update K-12 curriculums to allow “every student in every school to have the opportunity to learn computer science,” according to a new letter posted publicly at https://www.ceosforcs.com/. The list of signatories includes many prominent figures in technology, including Apple CEO Tim Cook, Amazon founder and executive chair Jeff Bezos, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates, and Meta founder, chairman, and CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
“The undersigned commit our support by collectively creating employment opportunities for computer science students in every city in the USA, and in every sector, from manufacturing to banking, from agriculture to healthcare,” the letter reads. “Many of us offer internships to help these students find their career pathway. Many of us have funded efforts in CS education, to support underserved communities. But there is only so much industry can do by ourselves.”
“Now is the time for action, and the stakes couldn’t be higher. Together we urge you, for the sake of our students, our economy, and our country, to work together to update the K-12 curriculum, for every student in every school to have the opportunity to learn computer science,” it continues. You can see the full list of signatories on the letter’s website.
Separately, some of the signers also expressed their support on Twitter. “Coding is one of the most valuable skills a person can learn,” Tim Cook wrote. “It can open new doors, jumpstart careers, and help big dreams seem like achievable goals.”
“When I was 13, computer science changed the course of my life,” Bill Gates tweeted. “I was really lucky to have access to a computer that early on. I hope this initiative will give every student the same opportunity.”
When I was 13, computer science changed the course of my life. I was really lucky to have access to a computer that early on. I hope this initiative will give every student the same opportunity. https://t.co/If2bV8YVFM
The best anti-Prime Day deals happening at Walmart
Illustration by Kristen Radtke
We’re in the midst of Amazon Prime Day, and yet some of the best Prime Day deals to be had aren’t on Amazon’s site at all. While Best Buy is calling its sales “Black Friday in July” — which makes even less sense than calling a two-day event Prime Day, singular — Walmart is running deals of its own. It’s commonplace to see Walmart and the others matching many of the deals Amazon throws out there, as well as promoting some unique ones of its own.
Some of these deals can be a little unexpected and especially good, while some are just what we’d call a fine discount on any other day of the year. However, if you happen to be a Walmart Plus subscriber, there may be added incentive to find these deals at your retailer of choice, like taking advantage of free, faster shipping. So along with all our extensive Prime Day 2022 coverage, we’re pooling together all the good deals at other retailers, like these here at Walmart.
The older iPad Air from 2020 is available at such a steep discount that it’s almost in base-model iPad territory, at least in terms of pricing. You can get the 64GB, Wi-Fi model at Walmart right now for $379 ($220 off its original price) in silver, space gray, or sky blue. It may not have the M1 CPU like the newer model, but its A14 Bionic is still very speedy. Read our review.
Apple’s 64GB iPad Mini with Wi-Fi is on sale for $409 ($90 off) at Walmart. In some ways, it's like an 8.3-inch iPad Pro with USB-C charging and gesture controls, one that now lacks a 3.5-millimeter audio jack. Sadly, the 2021 Mini doesn’t normally get much cheaper than this, as it doesn’t have much competition in this space. Read our review.
The Bose Sport Earbuds may not offer noise cancellation like some of the pricier models out there, but they are suited for an active lifestyle given their IPX4 sweat and water resistance. Right now, Walmart has them for $149 ($30 off).
Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 4 is down to an all-time low price of $149.99 ($100 off) in the silver colorway at Walmart. The base configuration is a GPS-equipped, 40mm model, which is approachable for most wrists. The Galaxy Watch 4 is one of the best smartwatches for the Android ecosystem thanks to Samsung’s collaboration with Google on its software. Read our review.
Oh, and the black Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 is just a little more, priced at $165.30.
Read the memo Google’s CEO sent employees about a hiring slowdown
Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge
Google has told employees that it’ll be “slowing down the pace of hiring for the rest of the year,” according to an internal memo Tuesday by CEO Sundar Pichai obtained by The Verge.
Pichai says the company will have to “be more entrepreneurial” and work with “greater urgency, sharper focus, and more hunger than we’ve shown on sunnier days.” You can read the full memo below.
According to the memo, the company isn’t freezing hiring entirely; it’ll still hire for “engineering, technical and other critical roles.” But Pichai says that the pullback will mean “pausing development and re-deploying resources to higher priority areas.” Insider first reported Tuesday that Google had slowed its hiring plans.
Google isn’t the only company that’s had to recently pump the brakes on hiring people: Uber has said it’ll have to be “hardcore about costs,” Meta sent a memo to employees warning of “serious times” and fierce headwinds after implementing hiring freezes for some teams, and Spotify and Snap have also announced plans to slow hiring. Other companies, like Twitter, Netflix, and GameStop, have recently decided to lay off employees.
Hi Googlers,
Hard to believe we’re already through the first half of 2022. It’s the right opportunity to thank everyone for the great work so far this year, and to share how my Leads and I are thinking about H2.
The uncertain global economic outlook has been top of mind. Like all companies, we’re not immune to economic headwinds. Something I cherish about our culture is that we’ve never viewed these types of challenges as obstacles. Instead, we’ve seen them as opportunities to deepen our focus and invest for the long term.
In these moments, I turn to our mission: to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful. It’s what inspired me to join the company 18 years ago, and what makes me so optimistic about the impact we are able to have on the world. Knowledge and computing are how we drive our mission forward. That’s the lens we use to decide where to invest — whether it’s in areas like Search, Cloud, YouTube, Platforms and Hardware, the teams that support them, or in the AI that enables more helpful products and services.
We help people and society when we focus on what we do best, and do it really well. The investments we’ve made in the first half of the year reflect this vision. In Q2 alone, we added approximately 10,000 Googlers, and have a strong number of commitments for Q3 start dates which reflects, in part, the seasonal college recruiting calendar. These are extraordinary numbers, and they show our excitement about long-term opportunities, even in uncertain times.
Because of the hiring progress achieved so far this year, we’ll be slowing the pace of hiring for the rest of the year, while still supporting our most important opportunities. For the balance of 2022 and 2023, we’ll focus our hiring on engineering, technical and other critical roles, and make sure the great talent we do hire is aligned with our long-term priorities.
Moving forward, we need to be more entrepreneurial, working with greater urgency, sharper focus, and more hunger than we’ve shown on sunnier days. In some cases, that means consolidating where investments overlap and streamlining processes. In other cases, that means pausing development and re-deploying resources to higher priority areas. Making the company more efficient is up to all of us — we’ll be creating more ways for you all to engage and share ideas to help, so stay tuned.
Scarcity breeds clarity — this is something we have been saying since the earliest days of Google. It’s what drives focus and creativity that ultimately leads to better products that help people all over the world. That’s the opportunity in front of us today, and I’m excited for us to rise to the moment again.
Liquidators for crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital say they can’t find founders
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Where in the world are Su Zhu and Kyle Davies? The founders of the cryptocurrency hedge fund Three Arrows Capital (3AC) are nowhere to be found, according to officials charged with liquidating the bankrupt company (via Reuters).
According to a court document filed Friday, Zhu and Davies’ whereabouts are currently unknown, and its liquidators say they have not received “any meaningful cooperation” from the two. On Tuesday, a judge granted 3AC’s liquidators full control of 3AC’s assets, preventing them from transferring any money out of their accounts.
Russell Crumpler and Christopher Farmer, two senior directors at Teneo, claim they have been unable to get in touch with Zhu and Davies. In the court filing, Crumpler and Farmer allege they joined a Zoom call with “persons identifying themselves as ‘Su Zhu’ and ‘Kyle,’” but “their video was turned off and they were on mute at all times with neither of them speaking despite questions being posed to them directly.”
During the Zoom call, the two founders communicated through representatives from the Singapore-based legal agency, Advocatus and Solitaire. Farmer alleges that he even tried locating Zhu and Davies at the 3AC headquarters in Singapore — only to find a locked door and a pile of unopened mail. The filing notes Zhu may be trying to sell his $35 million mansion in Singapore, citing various rumors.
Crumpler and Farmer claim there’s an “imminent risk” that the duo could attempt to transfer the company’s remaining funds elsewhere. “Here, that risk is heightened because a substantial portion of the Debtor’s assets are comprised of cash and digital assets, such as cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens, that are readily transferrable,” the filing reads. “The Foreign Representatives [Teneo], the Debtor [3AC], and its creditors as a whole would be irreparably harmed if any disposition of the Debtor’s assets were to occur during the provisional period.”
Sadly, our good faith to cooperate with the Liquidators was met with baiting. Hope that they did exercise good faith wrt the StarkWare token warrants. pic.twitter.com/CF73xI8r6n
After Crumpler and Farmer made the filing, Zhu accused the liquidators of “baiting.” In a post on Twitter, Zhu attached two screenshots of email correspondence between Crumpler and Advocatus and Solitaire representative Christopher Anand Daniel, who claims the liquidators were “keen to ask if the discussions were on a ‘without prejudice basis,’” so they “could use the discussions in Court filings without notice to” Zhu and Davies.
“It appears, therefore, that contrary to your representations that you were seeking to engage our clients in good faith, and constructively, you had already prepared to make that application, and were in fact baiting our clients,” Daniel adds. He goes on to explain that the founders and their families have “received threats of physical violence” and have also been “working under a lot of time pressure” to answer questions from the Monetary Authority of Singapore.
That’s the explanation given for Davies and Zhu allegedly not being all that cooperative with the liquidators. But they still don’t plan on meeting with Teneo’s agents — Daniels declined to participate in a phone call on their behalf. “Depending on your response, we will let you know when our clients can reasonably be expected to speak with you.”
The collapse of major cryptocurrency firms like 3AC has caused a lot of damage to the crypto market that likely hasn’t been fully realized yet. Crypto lending firms Babel Finance and Celcius have also been rocked by the turbulent market, with both companies freezing transactions amidst a “crypto winter.”
Update July 12th, 6:57PM ET:Updated to add a response from Su Zhu and his legal representation, as well as to note that a court has given liquidators control of 3AC’s assets.
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