Technology

jeudi 22 septembre 2022

How to use Focus modes in iOS 16

iPhone on a colorful illustrated background showing people using iPhones — *iOS 16 makes programming Focus modes less tedious.* | Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge

Apple added Focus modes last year in iOS 15 to help you stay on task. The idea was to keep you “in the moment” by filtering out apps or notifications that you don’t want popping up during specific times. In iOS 16, Apple has also added some new options to streamline the process. That includes the ability to silence notifications from specific apps or people, as well as link Focus modes with lock screens and watchfaces.

When you first start to set Focus up, it can seem a little daunting. There are a lot of choices and a lot of ways you can tweak it. In fact, it may take a while before you get the combination of settings that works best for your lifestyle. But in the end, it will be worth it — it will mean that you won’t be sidelined during times you need to concentrate, and you won’t be bothered by irrelevant notifications when you’ve got other activities in hand.

*You’ll find your new Focus button in the Control Center.*

*Tap on Focus, and you’ll see all your various profiles.*

Begin to focus

You access Focus mode via your Control Center (swipe down from the upper right corner). You’ll see the Focus button with an icon next to it. By default, it’ll be the moon icon. When tapped, it’ll activate your primary Do Not Disturb profile. If you tap anywhere else in the button, you’ll see a selection of other profiles that you can activate. Once you start using Focus modes more often, the displayed icon will default to the last Focus mode you’ve used.

Tap on the three dots to the right of each button, and you can set the length of time you want that Focus profile to be active. Or you can tap the Settings button to tweak the settings for that Focus.

But perhaps the best way to start is to go to Settings > Focus, where you can set up all the various Focus profiles you are planning to use.

Screenshot of list of Focus modes screen — *You can choose from a list of presets or create your own custom Focus modes.*

Set up your profiles

When you first open the Focus page in your settings, you’ll see a list of several profiles, starting with the basic Do Not Disturb and then going on to others, such as Personal, Sleep, and Work. If you tap on the plus sign in the upper right corner of the screen, you’ll find more, including Driving, Fitness, Gaming, Mindfulness, and Reading. If none of those suits you, you can create a custom profile.

In addition, there is a toggle that lets you can share the profiles across your various Apple devices.

Setting up Focus modes can seem a little confusing, but it’s really not once you get into it. Let’s start by tapping on Do Not Disturb — which was the first Focus mode that Apple ever made — and using it as an example in order to explain how these work. After that, we’ll take a look at a couple of the modes that work a little differently.

Do Not Disturb

The first thing you see atop the Do Not Disturb focus page are several submenus designed to help you figure out the people and apps allowed to send notifications when the mode is enabled. After that, you’ll see options to customize screens, an option to automatically turn the mode on and off at certain times, and Focus Filters that let you customize how apps work in a specific Focus.

Second part of the Do not disturb focus mode options — *The new options also include Focus filters.*

Allow notifications

Focus lets you specify people or apps that can continue to notify you even if you have Do Not Disturb active. For example, you may want to allow calls to come in from family members or notifications from your work Slack. In iOS 16, you also now have the option to silence notifications from specific people or apps. Keep in mind: if you want to use this method across all your devices, they’ll all need to be running the most recent software.

To make these exceptions, tap on the People or Apps boxes to get to the Notifications page. Unlike in iOS 15, this will bring you to two separate menus. That’s because you can now mix and match. For example, you could choose to allow notifications from people but silence notifications from apps. (Note that the Notifications page could differ slightly depending on your phone.)

Silence notifications screen in Focus modes — *iOS 16 now lets you silence notifications from apps and people, too.*

Silence or allow notifications from people

Tap on the People box. You should see two options up top: Silence Notifications From or Allow Notifications From.

To add people to the list, tap the plus button. From there, you should see your contacts list. Check off the contacts you want to add to your list, and when you go back to the Notifications page, they’ll appear in the box. If you want to remove someone, you can tap the minus button in the top left of their contact photo.

You can also choose who you want to allow calls from in the Phone Calls box (which is just below the box showing your contacts). Tap the drop-down box to select Everybody, Allowed People Only, Favorites, or Contacts Only. If you’ve set up specific contact groups, those should appear here as well.

Silence or allow notifications from apps

If you’re choosing one or more apps in Do Not Disturb, then tap the Apps tab and then the plus button.

You’ll get a list of your installed apps. Check off those you want to add to the Allowed Notifications From or the Silence Notifications From list, and select Done at the top right of the page. You’ll now see your chosen apps listed in the box next to the plus sign.

If you change your mind about any of your apps, you can just tap the minus sign next to each icon.

You can also allow Time Sensitive notifications to come through by toggling it on. Time Sensitive notifications are from apps you’ve individually tagged as important enough to break through any filter, no matter what. To select which apps are that important to you, you have to leave Focus and go to Settings > Notifications; select the app or apps you want to qualify — say, Calendar — and make sure Time Sensitive notifications is toggled on for that app.

Customize screens

In iOS 16, you can do more than just customize which homescreens show up in a specific Focus mode. You can also link a Focus to a specific lock screen — and to a watchface if you have an Apple Watch.

To do this, just scroll down to the Customize Screens menu for Do Not Disturb (or whatever profile you’re setting up). You should see two or three icons: a lock screen, a homescreen, and (if you have a Watch) a watchface. Tap the blue Choose link under each to select from your existing lock screens, homescreens, and watchfaces.

If you’re feeling creative, you can also create new lock screens, homescreens, or watchfaces for each mode. This is a bit more time-consuming but probably offers you the greatest customization.

When you’re selecting homescreen pages, Apple now offers suggestions based on the Focus you’re programming. You also can also create your own Focus homescreens, but it’s more time-consuming. It entails creating your own homescreens and hiding them when you’re not in a Focus. Apple’s suggestions are pretty good, but this is a viable workaround if you don’t like any of them.

Turn on automatically

Focus modes work best when they’re seamless. Some Focus modes you’ll want to turn on manually. But for others, Apple gives you the option to program when they’ll activate.

You can automate Focus modes to activate at a set time or location or when you open a particular app. Under the Turn On Automatically menu in the Do Not Disturb (or other profile) page, hit Add Schedule to access one of these options. You’re not locked into any one setting, either. For example, you can have the Do Not Disturb focus activate at a set time, when you arrive at the office, and whenever you open the Netflix app.

And if this is something that happens often — for example, when you go to read in the evenings — activate Smart Activation, which will (hopefully) learn your habits and turn on Do Not Disturb when you need it. (If it gets things wrong, you can always turn it off.)

Screenshot of the automation options for Focus modes — *You can automate when a Focus mode activates.*

Focus filters

iOS 16 also adds the ability to apply app or system filters with a specific mode. You’re a bit limited in choices as of this moment, but the ones that are available are helpful. To find these filters, scroll down on the main Do Not Disturb page.

For example, you can set a Calendar Filter so that only a specific calendar shows up. Or you can filter Messages so that you only see messages from people you want to. In Safari, you can choose to limit yourself to viewing a specific tab group. As far as system filters go, you can opt to switch to Dark or Light mode or turn on Low Power mode.

It may not be apparent why you should opt for a filter. And not every mode will need them. But, for example, you may decide that in your Sleep focus, you want to switch to Dark Mode automatically. Or, if you’re in Fitness mode and worried about battery life on a five-hour hike, you can flip on Low Power Mode.

Other options

There are also a variety of other options.

In the Options menu under the Allowed/Silenced People and Apps, you can choose whether to show Silenced Notifications on your lock screen, dim your lock screen, or hide notification badges.
You can choose to share your focus status — so if somebody texts you, they will get a display saying that you have notifications silenced. On the main Focus page, scroll down until you see the Focus Status menu. Then toggle on Share Focus Status. You can also customize from which modes you share your status. For example, you can toggle it on for Driving and turn it off for Sleep.

Focus profiles

One of the reasons that Focus modes can be a little confusing to set up is that some of them can be very different from each other. Let’s look at two more: Personal and Driving.

When you tap on a profile that has not yet been set up, you are presented with a set of screens that walk you through the initial processing, including which people and apps should be allowed to notify you when the Focus is active.

Screenshot of Driving Focus — *The Driving Focus profile has different options.*

Screenshot of Driving focus automation options — *Your automation options also differ.*

After that, you are dropped into the Focus page for that profile, which will be similar to the Do Not Disturb setup described above. In Personal, you can not only tweak the allowed notifications but decide whether you want to share your Focus status, choose how you want to customize your screens or create an automation that will turn it on and off at a certain time, in a certain place, or with a certain app.

Some of the other presets are more specific. For example, when I created a Focus for driving, the opening page of the wizard told me that it was silencing alerts and notifications while I was driving, that it would turn on automatically when I was driving, and that it would arrange auto-reply to let people know why I wasn’t responding to notifications.

And the Driving Focus page had a few differences as well. Allowed notifications include people but not apps (under the assumption that you’re not playing with apps while you’re at the wheel). There is an auto-reply option that lets you edit the message that will be sent to people who try to contact you while the Focus is on. In the Customize Screens menu, you won’t have the option to select homescreens as... you shouldn’t be looking at your phone! And you can choose how the app will know you’re driving: automatically (based on detected motion), if the CarPlay app is activated, if the phone is connected to a car’s Bluetooth, or when you turn it on manually.

iPhone showing “This is Fine” Focus mode atop a desk. — *You can always create a custom Focus mode, like a “This is Fine” mode for when the internet news is too much.*

If none of the presets work for you, you can create a custom profile by tapping on the plus sign in the upper right corner of the main Focus screen and choosing Custom. You will be asked to name your new profile and to choose a color and icon to represent it. After that, the process is pretty much the same as for Personal, except that you can also tweak the name and appearance of the Focus in the profile’s screen.

So what next?

Now, when you tap the Focus icon in your Control Center, it will activate all the various features you’ve created for your profile. Note that the last profile that was active will be the one that is featured: for example, if you last used your Driving profile, the Focus button will have the car icon. Touch the icon to activate it, or touch the word Focus to switch to a different profile.

The Focus app can be very useful by helping you concentrate when you need to by letting you relax when you want to, keeping unwanted calls and texts from waking you at night, and keeping you safe from distractions when driving. It may take a while to figure out which profiles you want to set up and to discover what combination of factors works for you. But once you’ve got it working, Focus can really make things easier for you.

Inside Russia’s Vast Surveillance State: ‘They Are Watching’

Inside Russia’s Vast Surveillance State: ‘They Are Watching’ A cache of nearly 160,000 files from Russia’s powerful internet regulator provides a rare glimpse inside Vladimir V. Putin’s digital crackdown.

Meta ordered to pay Voxer $175 million for violating live-streaming patents

Meta has been ordered to pay almost $175 million in fines to app developer Voxer for violating live-streaming patents | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Meta has been ordered to pay Voxer — creator of the Walkie Talkie messaging app — over $174 million in damages after a jury in Texas federal court found the social media giant guilty of violating two live-streaming patents with Facebook Live and Instagram Live.

The patents in question were developed by Voxer co-founder Tom Katis, a US Army veteran seeking to fix the shortcomings he experienced in battlefield communications after his combat unit was ambushed in Kunar Province in 2003. Katis and his team began developing communications solutions in 2006, resulting in new technology that enabled the transmission of live voice and video communications. Voxer was then formed in 2007, and the Walkie Talkie app was launched in 2011.

Court filings state that Meta (then known as Facebook) approached Voxer soon after the app’s launch looking to collaborate and that by February 2012, Voxer had disclosed its patent portfolio and proprietary technology to Meta. When the two companies failed to reach an agreement to work together, Meta identified Voxer as a competitor, according to Voxer’s complaint, despite having no live video or voice product of its own at the time. Meta then revoked Voxer’s access to key components of the Facebook platform, behavior The Verge described as bullying at the time. Facebook Live launched in 2015 followed by Instagram Live in 2016.

Katis says he raised the issue of patent infringement during a “chance meeting” with a senior product manager of Facebook Live in 2016, but according to court documents, Meta declined to enter any agreement regarding its continued use of Voxer’s technology.

The jury’s unanimous decision in the case awards Voxer a total sum of $174,530,785, which is to be paid out via a running royalty. Meta says it will appeal the decision. “We believe the evidence at trial demonstrated that Meta did not infringe Voxer’s patents,” a company spokesperson said in response to an AFP inquiry. “We intend to seek further relief, including filing an appeal.”

mercredi 21 septembre 2022

Researchers Find Consumer Satisfaction Remains High for PCs and TVs

PCs and TVs received high marks from consumers in a new report by the American Customer Satisfaction Index. The Household Appliance and Electronics Study for 2021-2022 is based on interviews with more than 9,000 consumers. The post Researchers Find Consumer Satisfaction Remains High for PCs and TVs appeared first on TechNewsWorld.

Watch LG’s tragically-canceled rollable get put through its paces

LG’s unreleased rollable smartphone — *LG’s unreleased rollable.* | Image: 뻘짓연구소

More than a year after LG unceremoniously exited the smartphone business and abandoned plans to release a rollable smartphone, a lengthy hands-on video has given us a comprehensive look at the unreleased device. LG’s rollable cropped up in a short clip earlier this year, but this new video is far more comprehensive, showing off the phone’s design and features from every angle.

What I find most surprising is just how finished the device looks. Although LG had said it wanted to release it before the end of 2021, I’d always assumed this was an ambition rather than a concrete plan. But this hands-on video appears to show a device that’s almost ready to be shipped to stores, complete with final-looking retail packaging and a case accessory. XDA Developers notes that LG is thought to have sold its remaining rollable prototypes to its employees, which might explain where this device came from.

LG Rollable’s box. — The device is shown in what looks like near-final retail packaging.

LG rollable, front, rolled. — *The front of the device while rolled.*

Of course, the main draw here is that screen, which measures 7.4 inches corner-to-corner while fulled extended, and shrinks down to 6.8 inches when rolled. The unrolling mechanism looks similar to the Oppo X 2021 concept phone I got to try out last year, with the frame of LG’s phone gradually expanding to unfurl its flexible OLED screen. But in the case of the LG, there’s also a visible display on the back of the device, which looks like it can show notifications.

LG’s phone seems to use a relatively powerful motor to unfurl its screen, with this hands-on video showing how it’s strong enough to push a small pile of books across a desk. But it’s not perfect — there are some visible wrinkles on the right side of the phone’s screen while unrolled. It’s also unclear how durable the display is, or how many rolls and unrolls it’s able to withstand. Rival smartphone manufacturer Oppo told me it wanted to reach a rating of 200,000 rolls before it turned its prototype into a consumer device, and it’s unclear how close LG got before canceling the project.

LG Display’s rear notification display. — *A notification display on the rear of the device.*

The video also reveals that the circle on its back that some previously thought was a third camera sensor is actually a fingerprint reader, which sits beneath a 64-megapixel main camera and 12-megapixel ultrawide. Another fun detail is that the phone’s SIM card slot is hidden on the back of the phone, and gets revealed when the phone unrolls. Internally the device is reportedly powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 888 processor (its flagship the year the device would have released), with 12GB of RAM, 256GB of storage, and a 4,500mAh battery.

Although LG’s smartphone division is no more, enough companies are working on rollable devices that there’s a good chance of one of them making it to market eventually. As well as the Oppo prototype mentioned above, TCL and Samsung Display have also expressed an interest in the technology. Actual handheld consumer devices with rollable screens are yet to be announced, but it feels like only a matter of time before one of them cracks it.

Why gender is at the heart of the matter for cardiac illness

Studies show that women with heart disease are more likely to be misdiagnosed than men, and will have worse outcomes for surgery. What is behind this bias and how can how it be fixed?

Heart diseases are still chronically misdiagnosed or underdiagnosed in women. With depressing regularity, we see stories of women failed by the health system when they come to hospitals with the symptoms of a heart attack. As a professor of cardiac science with 40 years’ experience, for me it has been a frustrating journey to get to the real cause of this problem: a combination of professional, systemic and technical biases. The experiences of individual patients are complex to analyse and interpret, but now we can view these effects on a much bigger scale.

Women are 50% more likely to receive a wrong initial diagnosis; when they are having a heart attack, such mistakes can be fatal. People who are initially misdiagnosed have a 70% higher risk of dying. The latest studies have similarly shown that women have worse outcomes for heart operations such as valve replacements and peripheral revascularisation. As well as being misdiagnosed, women are less likely to be treated quickly, less likely to get the best surgical treatment and less likely to be discharged with the optimum set of drugs. None of this is excusable, but is it understandable?

Nvidia’s RTX 6000 ADA professional GPU can create worlds and destroy wallets

Nvidia has announced the RTX 6000 48GB graphics card, the latest model to join its family of workstation-focused GPUs designed for content creators and enterprise-grade graphics. Nvidia describes the RTX 6000 as the perfect tool for creating content for the metaverse alongside Nvidia Omniverse Enterprise, thanks to its Ada Lovelace generation AI, massively increased raytracing and CUDA cores, and programmable shader technology.

While the recently announced GeForce RTX 4090 is the top-end Ada Lovelace generation card for most consumers, the Lovelace-powered RTX 6000 dominates it in regards to raw power. It has 18,176 CUDA cores compared to the RTX 4090’s 16,384, and will ship with 48GB of GDDR6 ECC memory — double that of the RTX 4090’s 24GB GDDR6X. The RTX 4090 does have a higher TDP rating of up to 450W against the 300W used by the RTX 6000 48GB, however, this is likely intentional as Nvidia has a tendency to lower the power consumption of its workstation-grade graphics cards to extend their lifespan.

The RTX 6000 GPU can provide up to 2X – 4X the performance of the previous-generation RTX A6000 workstation card, with 568 Tensor cores and 142 RT cores, up from the 336 Tensor cores and 84 RT cores used by the RTX A6000. You can also expect 3x the video encoding performance of the previous generation, and virtualization to support Nvidia virtual GPU (vGPU) software, enabling multiple remote users to share resources and drive high-end design, AI and high-performance compute workloads.

You certainly won’t want to add this to your basket if you’re in the market for a new gaming GPU however as all that power comes at an eye-watering cost. We don’t have the official pricing for the Nvidia RTX 6000 at the time of writing, but previous workstation graphics cards such as the Ampere-powered RTX A6000 still retail for almost $5,000. Given the price increases across both the RTX 4090 and RTX 4080 compared to previous generation releases, it’s safe to assume the Nvidia RTX 6000 will also follow suit.

So, who uses Nvidia’s workstation GPUs? Broadcasters are one example, in need of Nvidia’s latest RTX 6000 to help power TV stations. “The new workstation GPUs are truly game changing, providing us with over 300 percent performance increases — allowing us to improve the quality of video and the value of our products,” says Andrew Cross, CEO of Grass Valley, maker of television and broadcasting equipment.

Other industries stand to gain from the specialized drivers and longevity within workstation cards. The RTX 6000 will likely be used within environments such as scientific computation workloads and creating CGI for the movie industry, and Nvidia’s mention of pairing the card with Omniverse (its own real-time graphics collaboration platform) is no coincidence as we steadily march towards Web 3.0.

“The NVIDIA RTX 6000 is ready to power this new era for engineers, designers and scientists to meet the need for demanding content-creation, rendering, AI and simulation workloads that are required to build worlds in the metaverse” said Bob Pette, vice president of professional visualization at NVIDIA.

The Nvidia RTX 6000 workstation GPU will be available from December via global distribution partners and manufacturers.

TechScape: AI’s dark arts come into their own

Advanced AI is moving from the lab into the mainstream – offering a glimpse of the dangers ahead. Plus, What3Words loses its direction

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Programming a computer is, if you squint, a bit like magic. You have to learn the words to the spell to convince a carefully crafted lump of sand to do what you want. If you understand the rules deeply enough, you can chain together the spells to force the sand to do ever more complicated tasks. If your spell is long and well-crafted enough, you can even give the sand the illusion of sentience.

That illusion of sentience is nowhere more strong than in the world of machine learning, where text generation engines like GPT-3 and LaMDA are able to hold convincing conversations, answer detailed questions, and perform moderately complex tasks based on just a written request.

Microsoft Surface rumors heat up ahead of rumored October event

The Surface Pro 8 — *Last year’s Surface Pro 8.* | Image by Becca Farsace / The Verge

Microsoft is widely expected to launch its next generation of Surface devices at an event next month, and over the past week an increasing number of rumors have shed light on what form they could take. Top of the list is a new 2-in-1 device — the Surface Pro 9 — as well as the latest Surface Laptop 5.

WinFuture reports that both are expected to be available with 12th Gen Intel CPUs, up from the 11th Gen models seen in last year’s Surface Pro 8 and Surface Laptop 4. Specifically, it expects to see an Intel Core i5-1235U in the entry level models and a Core i7-1255U at the higher end, which should offer single-core performance increases of up to 22 percent and 12 percent respectively. Storage is expected to top out at 1TB, while up to 16GB of RAM should be available.

In addition to the Intel chips, the Surface Pro 9 could also be offered with an Arm-based processor. WinFuture reports that this will be branded as the Microsoft SQ3, and will be based on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 platform. The good news is the laptop should actually support 5G this time around, which is more than can be said for last year’s Arm-powered Surface Pro X. If Microsoft is offering the Surface Pro 9 in both Intel and Arm flavors, that could mean we see an updated design and the end of the Surface Pro X line.

Over on the Surface Laptop 5 side, WinFuture reports that it’s yet to see any evidence of a version powered by an AMD processor. That’s in contrast to the Surface Laptop 4, which offered a choice of Intel and AMD. However, given that Surface chief Panos Panay posed for a selfie with AMD CEO Lisa Su just days ago, it would be surprising to see a Surface Laptop 5 without an AMD option. AMD refreshed its laptop processor lineup with the Ryzen 6000 series back at CES 2022, and announced new processors for low-power laptops just days ago.

Away from specs, the Surface Pro 9 might be available in new color options, with green (aka, “Forest”) and light blue (“Sapphire”) joining the standard black and silver variants. The screen size is expected to be 13.5-inches once again, while the Laptop 5 is expected to also be available in a larger 15-inch variant.

As for price, WinFuture reports that the Surface Pro 9 should start at €1,300 (around $1,288 and roughly €100 more than the starting price of last year’s Pro 8). Meanwhile the Laptop 5 should start at €1,200 for its 13.5-inch model (around $1,189 and roughly €50 more than last year) and €1,500 for the 15-inch version (around $1,487 and the same as last year).

According to leaker WalkingCat, Microsoft’s event is currently scheduled for October 11th at 12pm ET, although this timing is yet to be officially confirmed by the company itself.

mardi 20 septembre 2022

Twitch to ban Stake.com streams and other unlicensed gambling content

As the conversation concerning Twitch and the platform’s allowance of gambling streams continues to swirl, the platform has struck its first blow. In a tweet on Tuesday evening, Twitch stated that it will ban “streaming of gambling sites that include slots, roulette, or dice games” in a policy update effective October 18th.

An update on gambling on Twitch. pic.twitter.com/lckNTY9Edo
— Twitch (@Twitch) September 20, 2022

Critically, Twitch is not banning all gambling, nor even all streaming of the gambling forms mentioned above. There will be a carveout permitting sports betting, fantasy sports, and poker, while the streaming of slots, roulette, and dice is only prohibited if the websites streamed aren’t “licensed in the U.S. or other jurisdictions that provide sufficient consumer protection.”

The gambling sites that will be swept up in the ban include Stake.com, which is one of the most popular slot gambling sites streamed on Twitch. Big streamers like xQc and Trainwreckstv frequently feature it on their streams.

Gambling on Twitch has become a hot-button topic as wealthy streamers seemingly promote their services, ostensibly to minors, and potentially feeding gambling addictions. Earlier this week, ItsSliker came forward admitting he bilked hundreds of thousands of dollars from fellow streamers to support his sports betting habit.

From that event, big-name streamers like DevinNash, Pokimane, and Mizkif, who is currently embroiled in a separate but tangentially related incident, proposed or supported a potential boycott of Twitch if the platform didn’t ban gambling from the site. Now, that action may no longer be necessary. However, sports betting, the form of gambling that started this recent conversation, is one that will be spared when the ban takes effect.

In its tweet, Twitch stated it will share more about its gambling policies ahead of their implementation on October 18th.

YouTube’s ‘dislike’ and ‘not interested’ buttons barely work, study finds

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Even when users tell YouTube they aren’t interested in certain types of videos, similar recommendations keep coming, a new study by Mozilla found.

Using video recommendations data from more than 20,000 YouTube users, Mozilla researchers found that buttons like “not interested,” “dislike,” “stop recommending channel,” and “remove from watch history” are largely ineffective at preventing similar content from being recommended. Even at their best, these buttons still allow through more than half the recommendations similar to what a user said they weren’t interested in, the report found. At their worst, the buttons barely made a dent in blocking similar videos.

To collect data from real videos and users, Mozilla researchers enlisted volunteers who used the foundation’s RegretsReporter, a browser extension that overlays a general “stop recommending” button to YouTube videos viewed by participants. On the back end, users were randomly assigned a group, so different signals were sent to YouTube each time they clicked the button placed by Mozilla — dislike, not interested, don’t recommend channel, remove from history, and a control group for whom no feedback was sent to the platform.

Using data collected from over 500 million recommended videos, research assistants created over 44,000 pairs of videos — one “rejected” video, plus a video subsequently recommended by YouTube. Researchers then assessed pairs themselves or used machine learning to decide whether the recommendation was too similar to the video a user rejected.

Compared to the baseline control group, sending the “dislike” and “not interested” signals were only “marginally effective” at preventing bad recommendations, preventing 12 percent of 11 percent of bad recommendations, respectively. “Don’t recommend channel” and “remove from history” buttons were slightly more effective — they prevented 43 percent and 29 percent of bad recommendations — but researchers say the tools offered by the platform are still inadequate for steering away unwanted content.

“YouTube should respect the feedback users share about their experience, treating them as meaningful signals about how people want to spend their time on the platform,” researchers write.

YouTube spokesperson Elena Hernandez says these behaviors are intentional because the platform doesn’t try to block all content related to a topic. But Hernandez criticized the report, saying it doesn’t consider how YouTube’s controls are designed.

“Importantly, our controls do not filter out entire topics or viewpoints, as this could have negative effects for viewers, like creating echo chambers,” Hernandez told The Verge. “We welcome academic research on our platform, which is why we recently expanded Data API access through our YouTube Researcher Program. Mozilla’s report doesn’t take into account how our systems actually work, and therefore it’s difficult for us to glean many insights.”

Hernandez says Mozilla’s definition of “similar” fails to consider how YouTube’s recommendation system works. The “not interested” option removes a specific video, and the “don’t recommend channel” button prevents the channel from being recommended in the future, Hernandez says. The company says it doesn’t seek to stop recommendations of all content related to a topic, opinion, or speaker.

Besides YouTube, other platforms like TikTok and Instagram have introduced more and more feedback tools for users to train the algorithm, supposedly, to show them relevant content. But users often complain that even when flagging that they don’t want to see something, similar recommendations persist. It’s not always clear what different controls actually do, Mozilla researcher Becca Ricks says, and platforms aren’t transparent about how feedback is taken into account.

“I think that in the case of YouTube, the platform is balancing user engagement with user satisfaction, which is ultimately a tradeoff between recommending content that leads people to spend more time on the site and content the algorithm thinks people will like,” Ricks told The Verge via email. “The platform has the power to tweak which of these signals get the most weight in its algorithm, but our study suggests that user feedback may not always be the most important one.”

Uber responding to ‘cybersecurity incident’ after hack

Ride-hailing company confirms attack after hacker compromises Slack app and messages employees

Uber has been hacked in an attack that appears to have breached the ride-hailing company’s internal systems.

The California-based company confirmed it was responding to a “cybersecurity incident”, after the New York Times reported that a hack had accessed the company’s network and forced it to take several internal communications and engineering systems offline. The hacker claimed to be 18 years old, according to the report.

YouTube’s Dislike Button Rarely Shifts Video Recommendations, Researchers Say

YouTube’s Dislike Button Rarely Shifts Video Recommendations, Researchers Say New research from Mozilla shows YouTube users have little control over what is recommended to them.

How a Quebec Lithium Mine May Help Make Electric Cars Affordable

How a Quebec Lithium Mine May Help Make Electric Cars Affordable The project also illustrates how difficult it is to get lithium out of the ground and break China’s dominance in processing the metal and turning it into batteries.

lundi 19 septembre 2022

Emoji statuses and ‘infinite’ reactions are among Telegram’s latest features

Screenshot of a variety of emoji reaction options in Telegram. — *A new menu allows you to quickly select most used reactions.* | Image: Telegram

Telegram’s throwing a bone to its non-premium users this month by extending them access to more emoji reactions. The feature now lets all users choose from “dozens” of emoji that they can drop onto message bubbles as an alternative way to contribute to the conversation. And if you’re paying the $4.99 a month for Premium, don’t worry, you’re now getting an endless supply of reaction options by way of the custom animated emoji packs released last month, as well as other new features.

Paying Telegram Premium subscribers can now use all animated emoji as a status, in addition to the default seven that can change colors based on the theme. For instance, you can choose a rotating controller emoji to indicate you’re busy fragging on your Xbox. It’ll appear in friends’ chat lists, groups, and on your profile page in place of the normal Premium badge, which is also where you would tap to apply the status.

There’s also a better login system now for “users who log out and log back in frequently” that can send a temporary code to your email address or can utilize Sign In with Apple or Google. Users on iOS will notice that the user interface for logging in has improved and includes the “fun animations” that Android users have already been enjoying.

Screenshot of many emoji options that can be selected for the status indicator, in this case a game controller is selected. — *Emoji status can be added by tapping the premium badge in your profile.*

screenshot of android Telegram app in the downloads section and showing a drag-able icon that can move an active download lower or higher. — *The Android app now allows for download prioritization.*

Speaking of Android users, the app will now have smother animations when handling media in the app, and also the app icon will match Android’s color and dark mode settings. And the downloads section, like the iOS version, can now have items prioritized so you can download those huge uncompressed astrophotography images before your friend’s kid’s dance recital video.

Finally, there’s now a better link format for sharing your Telegram user profile. Instead of the old t.me/username, you can now do username.t.me, which is easier to share audibly and is better for accessibility.

Telegram has been on a roll lately, adding more Premium features for subscribers, but the process has had some bumps. Founder Pavel Durov had hinted at upcoming features in June before launch, like removing ads, along with power user-targeted features like large file support and these emoji reactions.

He said that the new animated emoji feature, which includes an open custom platform to make your own versions, will “revolutionize how people express themselves.” Apple blocked an earlier update with “Telemoji” that apparently came too close to Apple’s custom designs, but Telegram eventually added “hundreds of vector-based emoji with smooth animations.”

Intel and How Autonomous Driving Will Fix the Electric Car Problem

passenger reading a book in an autonomous self-driving car

At Intel’s Mobileye facility in Israel I saw a future that suggests that a combination of electric cars and autonomous driving will lead to a far better personal transportation future. Let’s talk about that this week. The post Intel and How Autonomous Driving Will Fix the Electric Car Problem appeared first on TechNewsWorld.

Rockstar owner issues takedowns after Grand Theft Auto VI leak

Video and images posted online as hacker also threatens to leak source code for Grand Theft Auto V and VI

More than 90 videos and images of Grand Theft Auto VI, the long-awaited follow-up to 2013’s Grand Theft Auto V, one of the best-selling video games of all time – leaked online over the weekend, in one of the biggest confidential data breaches in gaming history.

The footage was posted to the GTAForums website by a user going by teapotuberhacker, who claims to have accessed it by hacking Rockstar’s internal company Slack feed and gaining access to their servers.

Student tech: the best gadgets to help you make the most of university

With students’ finances overstretched, it’s important to get the right tech at the right price. Here are some of the best deals

The end of the summer is here, and with it the start of a new semester at university. The landscape of learning certainly looks brighter than it has for the last couple of years but the need to have the right gear is just as big, with many universities offering a mix of in-person and online learning.

From laptops and phones to headphones and note-taking tools, here’s a guide to some of the tech that will help make the most of the student experience at a time of stretched finances.

Food Supply Disruption Is Another Front for Russian Falsehoods

Food Supply Disruption Is Another Front for Russian Falsehoods As the war in Ukraine has put pressure on the global markets for food, Russia has spread conspiracy theories that blame the West.

Google’s Nest Wifi Pro pricing leaks early

*The 2019 version of the Google Nest Wifi which will likely stick around.* | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

Google’s big hardware event isn’t until next month but the leaks have already begun, this time showing pricing for a new “Google Nest Wifi Pro 6E Router” courtesy of B&H Photo (via 9to5Google). The online store lists a variety of colors and combo packs starting at $199.99, each labeled as “new item — coming soon.” In other words, coming as early as October 6th when this pro version of the Nest Wifi is expected to be announced at the Made By Google event.

Unfortunately, the listings don’t include any photos or specs, but we’re not totally in the dark here. We previously saw details for what we expect to be called the “Nest Wifi Pro” in an FCC listing that mentioned Bluetooth Low Energy and Thread mesh networking radios (for Matter), in addition to 6GHz Wi-Fi 6E support for reduced signal interference and faster speeds.

The premature B&H listings mention a $299.99 2-pack bundle, $399.99 3-pack bundle, and colors that mimic other Nest products including “Snow” (white), “Fog” (pale blue), “Linen” (beige), and “Lemongrass” (yellowish green). We expect this Pro model to co-exist with the current Nest Wifi which lists for $169 but can often be had for less.

‘Gifs are cringe’: how Giphy’s multimillion-dollar business fell out of fashion

Generational divide threatens future of tech firm as it seeks approval for $400m takeover by Facebook owner Meta

It is rare for a multimillion-dollar company to explicitly state that its business is dying because it is simply too uncool to live.

But that is the bold strategy that the gif search engine Giphy has adopted with the UK’s competition regulator, which is trying to block a $400m (£352m) takeover attempt by Facebook’s owner, Meta.

dimanche 18 septembre 2022

Tom Brady just chucked another Microsoft Surface tablet

Tom Brady whips a Microsoft Surface tablet into the ground during a football game. — *Touchdown!*

Tom Brady might as well have been practicing his touchdown spike when he whipped a Microsoft Surface tablet into the ground during the Tampa Bay Buccaneers game against the Saints on Sunday night. The quarterback was visibly frustrated following an incomplete pass, tossed his helmet onto the field, and stormed back to the sidelines where he chucked the tablet.

The Buccs were losing when Brady threw the tablet, but they ended up coming back and defeating the Saints 20-10. This isn’t Brady’s first documented case of tablet abuse — he threw the thing so hard against the bench after losing a Saints game last year that it actually bounced.

Microsoft Surface chief Panos Panay responded to the incident on his Instagram story this time around, saying “Rest assured the Surface should be just fine.” I’m not so sure about that, Panos. The last tablet we saw Brady throw was destroyed, and we didn’t get to see how it fared after this temper tantrum.

The Surface tablet has become a punching bag for players and coaches alike since they were first introduced to the NFL in 2014. Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers was one of the first to get caught on camera tossing the tablet, and even Patriots coach Bill Belichick smashed it on the sidelines, albeit for reasons other than gameplay (he just couldn’t stand using tablets).

NFL’s website says Microsoft designed the Surface tablets specifically for football games, ensuring they can “stand up to the occasional drop.” Maybe Microsoft should make sure they withstand a throw from a quarterback’s throwing arm, too.

Correction September 18th, 6:16PM ET: A previous version of the article stated Bill Belichick was the former coach of the Patriots, when he is the current coach. We regret the error.

Why gender is at the heart of the matter for cardiac illness

Studies show that women with heart disease are more likely to be misdiagnosed than men, and will have worse outcomes for surgery. What is behind this bias and how can how it be fixed?

US charges Iran trio with orchestrating vast hacking and extortion scheme

Men allegedly tried to extort hundreds of thousands of dollars from groups in US including domestic violence shelter

Three Iranians have been charged with trying to extort hundreds of thousands of dollars from organizations in the United States, Europe, Iran and Israel, including a domestic violence shelter, by hacking in to their computer systems, US officials said on Wednesday.

Other targets included local US governments, regional utilities in Mississippi and Indiana, accounting firms and a state lawyers’ association, according to charges filed by the justice department.

How Russian Trolls Helped Keep the Women’s March Out of Lock Step

How Russian Trolls Helped Keep the Women’s March Out of Lock Step As American feminists came together in 2017 to protest Donald Trump, Russia’s disinformation machine set about deepening the divides among them.

Will Smith’s ‘Emancipation’: What Will Apple Do?

Will Smith’s ‘Emancipation’: What Will Apple Do? The Civil War drama “Emancipation” finished filming early this year. Now, Apple faces a quandary on what to do with the movie.

South Korean founder of failed cryptocurrency Terra denies he is ‘on the run’

Do Kwon’s whereabouts are still unknown since a South Korean court issued an arrest warrant earlier this week

Do Kwon, the South Korean founder of the failed cryptocurrency Terra wanted by police, has denied he was on the run after Singapore investigators said he was not in the city-state as had been believed.

Kwon’s whereabouts have been thrown into question after a statement from Singapore police late on Saturday, and his tweets did not reveal where he was.

samedi 17 septembre 2022

Fortnite’s new season adds Spider-Gwen and goopy chrome

*Spider-Gwen in Fortnite.* | Image: Epic Games

A new season of Fortnite is upon us, and it’s dripping with chrome. Today sees the launch of Chapter 3: Season 4 for the battle royale game, dubbed “Paradise,” and the big change this time around is a mysterious new substance. It’s called chrome, and it appears to be able to change just about everything it touches: you can splash it on walls to go right through them or splash it on yourself for temporary fire immunity and faster sprinting.

Other additions this season including new locations, like a floating condo, and other points of interest that have, naturally, been infested with chrome. Sniper rifles have received a big buff, increasing both damage and headshot multipliers. There’s also a new kind of vault, which can be opened by finding various keys located across the island, giving players access to high-level loot.

And a new season means a new battle pass, with lots of characters to unlock. Highlighting this season’s battle pass is Spider-Gwen, and players who purchase the pass will immediately get access to a new skin called Paradigm. Other additions include a hipster cat, a strange bear creature, a werewolf (?), and yet another very cool anime skin. Here’s the full battle pass lineup in trailer form:

This season follows the light-hearted vibes of Paradise, which kicked off in June following a mech battle live event. That season of Fortnite was notable in particular for a huge Dragon Ball crossover event that let players give Goku a gun. Fortnite in general seems to have received a big boost this year following the introduction of a Zero Build mode in March.

TP-Link’s latest smart light strip goes with everything

The Tapo L930 has gradient RGB and tunable white light, and works with Apple Home, Google, and Alexa for under $50

TP-Link’s newest light strip, the Tapo L930-5, is a great addition to any smart lighting setup. The full-color gradient LED strip has almost everything you could want in a lighting strip — from tunable white light and dimming to music sync and some neat lighting effects, all for under $50. It’s the first lighting product from TP-Link to work with Apple Home, it also works with Alexa and Google Home, and it uses Wi-Fi, so it doesn’t need a hub.

Smart LED light strips are an easy, plug-and-play way to shed some light on a troublesome dark spot in your home or add some cool lighting effects under your cabinets, counters, or even around your bed — if you’re into that kind of thing.

The Tapo L930-5 is an RGBWIC LED strip — that alphabet soup means it has both RGB (with up to 16 million colors) and tunable white LEDs (up to 1,000 lumens). The separate white LEDs give it brighter and higher-quality white light than strips that only have RGB LEDs. The IC part means it uses an integrated chip, so it can display different colors along its 50 different lighting zones instead of a single color at a time. Very few LED light strips have both tunable white LEDs and addressable lighting, fewer still have all that and Apple Home support, and all of those are far more expensive than the Tapo L930-5.

I’ve tested several smart light strips, from high-end Eve and Philips Hue versions to budget strips from Feit, and the Tapo feels like it should cost more than it does. Even if you don’t need Apple Home support, it’s still better than anything else in its price range.

I installed the L930-5 along the underside of my kitchen breakfast bar, where I could use blue light to highlight the blue cabinets and make the bar an architectural focal point or switch to white light to brighten up my dark living room.

*The Tapo light strip installed under a breakfast counter.*

The 16.4-foot (5-meter) LED strip comes with a small controller with an on/off button and an AC adapter. I connected them, positioned the strip, and stuck it to the underside of my counter (literally stuck; it uses 3M tape). The biggest challenge was finding a spot with an outlet nearby, and I had a bit of trouble getting a smooth fit when going around a tight corner. I ended up cutting the strip instead (the strips are trimmable but can’t be re-connected).

The whole process took less than five minutes, and the end result was wow-worthy. I say that confidently: my teenagers said, “Wow, that’s cool,” when they came home from school, and they are very hard to impress.

The Tapo app, which I’ll come back to, is better than most. But the real power of smart lighting comes from connecting it to a smart home platform like Apple Home (previously known as HomeKit), Google Home, or Amazon Alexa, and Tapo supports all three.

In my kitchen, I have smart light switches from Lutron Caseta and Aqara and smart bulbs from Philips Hue. Using Apple Home, I added the Tapo light strip to a Scene with all those other lights, linked that to a Philips Hue motion sensor, and had them all turn on when someone walked into the kitchen. You can also set up an Alexa Routine to do this. Google Home doesn’t let sensors trigger routines but does support voice control, as do the other two.

TP-Link recently announced the Tapo line will support Matter when the new smart home standard launches later this year. It’s unclear whether existing devices like the L930-5 will be upgraded or whether it will launch new Matter-compatible products, but as Tapo products use Wi-Fi there’s a clear upgrade path. A new version of the Tapo app is coming later this year that Tapo says can “integrate all Matter-supported devices within one ecosystem.”

The Tapo bopping along to some tunes.

Unlike most smart lighting control apps, the Tapo app is well laid out, easy to use, and offers lots of features. I could set the lights on a schedule, create six preset light scenes, choose from 17 effects (as well as create my own), and sync with music. The app also monitors energy usage, has an Away Mode (to turn lights on and off randomly to mimic someone being at home), and a timer that will turn the lights on or off after a set period.

The Tapo app’s lighting effects take advantage of the light strip’s fifty individually addressable lighting zones. My favorites were the Rainbow effect for some vivid pops of color and the Aurora for a more soothing light show. I did try to create some of my own effects, which was easy to do in the app, but the presets looked a lot better than anything I came up with. I’m definitely going to be using the Bubbling Cauldron and Haunted Mansion options for my Halloween setup this year.

A light strip under a counter next to chairs — *The Tapo light strip installed under a kitchen countertop.*

The Tapo also includes an Auto White mode, which sets the light to white and automatically adjusts the brightness based on available light — though I’m not sure how it does it as I can’t find an ambient light sensor anywhere on it. This is a nice feature, though, and means you don’t end up with a bright light shining at you when you dim other lights in your house. Unfortunately, while it did dim automatically, it stayed at one color temperature, despite the app saying it should adjust from cool to warm. In my testing, the light strip also didn’t work with Apple Home’s adaptive lighting feature. I’ve reached out to TP-Link about both features.

The Tapo light strip can sync to music or ambient sound, which it did relatively well, if a bit more robotically and less smoothly than Philips Hue’s music sync feature. However, it uses the microphone on your smartphone or tablet, not a built-in microphone, as Nanoleaf lights and some Govee strips have. This was annoying, especially as you need to keep the app open on your phone for it to work, and it kept disconnecting. But that might be for the best if you’re not keen on your light strips having a microphone.

If you have multiple Tapo products, you can link them together in the Tapo app with Smart Actions. These are Scenes that let you control multiple devices at once by tapping a tile in the app or Automations that can run based on time of day or when triggered by another Tapo device. The Tapo app only works with Tapo products, not TP-Link’s other smart home line, Kasa. The Tapo line also has an Apple Home-compatible smart plug, and earlier this year, TP-Link announced an Apple Home-compatible power strip, dimmer switch, and color bulbs are coming soon.

Kitchen counter with pink lights — *The Tapo light strip produced rich, bright colors.*

At $49.99 for 16.4 feet of addressable lighting zones, RGB, and tunable white LEDs, the Tapo L930-5 is by far the best, least expensive light strip that works with Apple Home. But if any one of those features is negotiable, or you really want the Adaptive Lighting feature, you have other options to consider — though most still cost much more.

One thing to note is that the L930-5 only comes in one length right now: 16.4 feet (or 5 meters). That’s much longer than most smart light strips, which usually start around six feet, or two meters, though many can be extended up to 32 feet (10 meters) or even longer. TP-Link doesn’t sell extension kits for the L930, but it says a 32-foot version of the L930 is launching next month.

Single-color Philips Hue light strips start at around $100 for six feet, and its gradient light strips start at $180 for six feet and 1,800 lumens. You will also need the Hue Bridge to support Apple Home’s Adaptive Lighting. The Nanoleaf Essentials Light Strip ($50, 2,000 lumens) and Eve Light Strip ($80, 1,800 lumens) also support Adaptive Lighting but are expensive to extend and limited to one color at a time.

Even if you don’t want Apple Home support, the L930-5 is compelling. Most light strips in this price range can’t produce high-quality white light because they don’t have separate white LEDs. Losing the white LEDs is not worth the $10 or $15 you’d save by getting the Tapo L920-5, Govee, or Kasa smart light strips.

Unless you’re dead set on Adaptive Lighting or holding out for a light strip that’s guaranteed to work with Matter and Thread, this is the best, most affordable addressable light strip option right now.

Photos by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge

The PS Vita’s time is now, again

The PS Vita revision facing the camera with its screen on, displaying its bubble-filled user interface. — *The 2013 PS Vita still looks and feels surprisingly modern.*

Every couple of weeks, I exhume my gadget graveyard from underneath my bed. I look at my iPods, old phones, and some other stuff. Most of it doesn’t stir me anymore, but the PS Vita is another story. It’s the device that I pull out most frequently, charging it up to, well, just to feel like it’s a part of the modern world.

I keep mine in a svelte Waterfield Designs soft case that cleans off fingerprints when it goes in so that it’s smudge-free when I pull it out, revealing design details that I apparently have an unshakable affinity to seeing over and over: gorgeous translucent shoulder buttons; the big (but not too big) display; and the sturdy yet elegant build quality. Almost everything going on with the look and feel of the Vita is still serviceable today, even if it’s daringly tiny compared to the size of, say, the Nintendo Switch.

You’ve probably heard this a million times, but the Vita, announced in mid-2011, was Sony’s compete-with-everything device, unenviably poised to take on mobile phones and Nintendo’s 3DS with console-like controls and graphics as well as forward-thinking (though, ultimately ill-advised) features like 3G support, apps of its own, and a rear touchpad meant to be a playground for innovation in gameplay.

A PS Vita’s display showing that it’s connected via 3G to AT&T’s service in 2012 — *Yep, there was a first-gen version of the Vita that supported 3G via AT&T.*

Ten years later, the Vita is very dead outside of a vibrant homebrew scene that I’m continuously impressed by. It only took a fraction of those 10 years to seal its fate, and it deserved it. Or rather, parts of Sony’s vision for the Vita did. Remember its godforsaken proprietary memory card that cost a fortune and its Micro USB port? Yeah, goodbye. But there’s plenty about the Vita that can be reimagined for 2022; I just like to pretend that the concept of a handheld isn’t so dead to Sony.

I have, um, specific desires.

A new Vita shouldn’t have a brand-new ecosystem for exclusive games and apps built up around it, nor does it need to deliver high-end performance. Really, I would just like a modernized Vita with USB-C charging and a lightweight OS that’s built to supplement Sony’s PlayStation Plus plans, with cloud streaming and all of that. Remove some of the frills of the hardware and ship it. Just give me a reason to stop obsessing over this dead gadget.

The PS Vita sitting on a table, nested between an Akira manga and several other books. — *Tell me a new Vita with USB-C, microSD, and Android wouldn’t be the hottest device of 2022.*

What else do I want in a next-gen PS Vita? I’m so glad that you asked. Using the late 2013 Vita revision as my reference, I’d be willing to accept a slightly wider and taller handheld to accommodate more buttons (just to reflect what’s on the PS5’s DualSense controller). I really like this Vita’s thickness, which is about as thick as a deck of cards, though I’d be cool with it taking on a few extra millimeters to incorporate a proper set of L2 and R2 triggers. Otherwise, just leave the rest of the design alone — I still love it.

As for the OS, slap Android on it for all that I care. Keep the bubbly user interface, or just make it stock Android. The latter would make it more practical for me to use it for other forms of entertainment, and I’m sure a relatively midrange Snapdragon chipset could get the job done. You can take or leave the game cartridge slot, but a microSD card slot, a headphone jack, and an OLED screen would be nice. I mean, it’s gotta be modern, right? Even the debut Vita model had an OLED. Sony switched it to LCD in the second iteration.

An iPhone 12 Pro sitting inside of Backbone’s One controller that has a Sony PlayStation-like design. — *Traces of Vita DNA exist in Backbone’s Sony-approved iPhone controller.*

Holding the Vita in my hands makes me feel like a revised version would find a bigger audience today than in the early 2010s. Sony seems to agree, in a way, that handhelds are an unavoidable part of the business today because it plans to make its own phone games based on its popular franchises. I mean, Sony even partnered with Backbone, a third-party accessory maker, to make an officially licensed PlayStation controller that wraps around an iPhone. As for what Sony’s doing internally in terms of handheld hardware, it’s making niche gaming accessories for its niche Xperia phones.

The last five years in tech have supplied more handhelds than I (and apparently Sony, too) could have ever predicted. Several products have capitalized on the Switch’s dominance in their own way, including multiflavored Aya Neo consoles, the Steam Deck, the Analogue Pocket, and soon (if the rumors are true), Logitech’s own handheld. Some reimagining of the Vita seems like an obvious idea. It belongs in the here and now with all of the other portable consoles, even if Sony doesn’t see it that way.

Dutch town takes Twitter to court over unfounded satanic paedophile claims

Bodegraven-Reeuwijk has been plagued by a conspiracy theory and wants tweets spreading it removed

A small Dutch town took Twitter to court on Friday to demand the social media company take down all messages relating to a supposed ring of Satan-worshipping paedophiles alleged to have been active in the town in the 1980s.

Bodegraven-Reeuwijk, a town of about 35,000 inhabitants in the middle of the Netherlands, has been the focus of conspiracy theories on social media since 2020, when three men started spreading unfounded stories about the abuse and murder of children they said took place in the town in the 1980s.

‘So many people tell me they wish they could get out!’ Can we escape the tyranny of WhatsApp groups?

Group chats were a lifeline during lockdown – but for many, the constant messages have become an oppressive distraction. Leaving, however, is not so simple

As I write, I have 101 unread WhatsApp messages, 254 unread iPhone messages and 46,252 unread emails across three separate accounts. For me, Inbox Zero is a faraway goal, as unachievable as mastering the perfect cat’s-eye flick, or learning how to cook.

But it is the WhatsApp messages, specifically the WhatsApp group chats, that terrorise me the most. If I were a woman of courage, I would simply exit these chats as soon as I am added to them; but I feel the weight of social obligation, and so I remain.

vendredi 16 septembre 2022

US scientists to test advanced, real-time algae sensor at water treatment plant

US scientists to test advanced, real-time algae sensor at water treatment plant As danger looms in bodies of water globally where toxic algae blooms, a small plastic storage tub in Toledo sealed to protect against splashes, spiders and bird stool may contain a game-changing technology in the fight against the growing environmental problem.

Biden talks up electric vehicle revolution – but is America ready to give up gas?

President appears at Detroit auto show, where EVs are this year’s stars – but the road to electrification promises to be a bumpy one

Fresh off signing legislation aimed at propelling the nation’s electric vehicle (EV) transition, Joe Biden was in Detroit last week to reaffirm his support for electrification ahead of the opening of the US’s largest annual car show.

“The great American road trip is going to be fully electrified, whether you’re driving along the coast, or on I-75 here in Michigan,” he declared as the first North American International Auto Show since 2019 prepared to open its doors.

Splatoon 3 review – Nintendo’s new squid game is ink-redible fun

Nintendo Switch; Nintendo
Never mind the spectacularly colourful paint battles, this is quietly one of the best and most inventive action-puzzle games around

Nintendo’s offbeat hit Splatoon has been around since 2015, but the idea is still so charmingly bizarre that it feels fresh: human-cephalopod hybrids splatter each other and their surroundings with colourful paint on ink-splashed battlefields. You transform back and forth between human and squid (or octopus), swimming through ink, emerging to chuck paint out of a bucket or shoot it from a squirt-gun or spread it with a roller, claiming territory with your own team’s colour. The arenas are city alleyways, abandoned factories, warehouses and urban landscapes – they have the feel of real-life underground skate spots, derelict yet cool.

Splatoon 3 does not change much about this premise, but it’s irresistibly stylish and gives you absolutely loads to do, from those chaotic trademark team battles to co-operative sorties on to industrial islands where you shoot at goggle-eyed fish to steal their shiny golden eggs. The more you play, the more you want to play, as new modes and weapons open up. A triple bow with exploding paint arrows, a transforming sword, an umbrella … they all beg to be toyed with, and they’re all gently hilarious.

Splatoon 3 is out now; £49.99

Uber apparently hacked by teen, employees thought it was a joke

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Uber says it’s investigating a “cybersecurity incident” amidst reports that the company’s internal systems have been breached. The alleged hacker, who claims to be an 18-year old, says they have administrator access to company tools including Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud Platform. The New York Times reports that the ride-hailing business has taken multiple internal systems, including Slack, offline while it investigates the breach.

When contacted for comment by The Verge, a spokesperson for the company declined to answer additional questions, and pointed to its statement on Twitter. “We are currently responding to a cybersecurity incident. We are in touch with law enforcement and will post additional updates here as they become available,” the statement reads.

Honestly kind of a classy way to hack someone @Uber pic.twitter.com/fFUA5xb3wv
— Colton (@ColtonSeal) September 16, 2022

The hacker appears to have made themselves known to Uber’s employees by posting a message on the company’s internal Slack system. “I announce I am a hacker and Uber has suffered a data breach,” screenshots of the message circulating on Twitter read. The claimed hacker then listed confidential company information they said they’d accessed, and posted a hashtag saying that Uber underpays its drivers.

The Slack message from the alleged hacker was so brazen that many Uber employees appear to have initially thought it was a joke, the Washington Post reports. Employee responses to the post included lighthearted emoji like sirens and popcorn, as well as the “it’s happening” GIF. One unnamed Uber employee told Yuga Labs security engineer Sam Curry that staff were interacting with the hacker thinking they were playing a joke.

“Sorry to be a stick in the mud, but I think IT would appreciate less memes while they handle the breach,” one employee’s response read, according to The Post.

Apparently there was an internal network share that contained powershell scripts...

"One of the powershell scripts contained the username and password for a admin user in Thycotic (PAM) Using this i was able to extract secrets for all services, DA, DUO, Onelogin, AWS, GSuite" pic.twitter.com/FhszpxxUEW
— Corben Leo (@hacker_) September 16, 2022

The hacker claimed to the NYT to be 18 years old, and told The Post that they breached Uber for fun and is considering leaking the company’s source code. In a conversation with cybersecurity researcher Corben Leo, they also claimed to have gained access to Uber’s systems through login credentials obtained from an employee via social engineering, which allowed them to access an internal company VPN. From there, they found PowerShell scripts on Uber’s intranet containing access management credentials that allowed them to allegedly breach Uber’s AWS and G Suite accounts.

“This is a total compromise, from what it looks like,” Curry told the NYT. “It seems like maybe they’re this kid who got into Uber and doesn’t know what to do with it, and is having the time of his life.”

As Driverless Cars Falter, Are ‘Driver Assistance’ Systems in Closer Reach?

As Driverless Cars Falter, Are ‘Driver Assistance’ Systems in Closer Reach? With investigations and lawsuits over accidents adding skepticism toward fully driverless technology, car companies are betting on systems that take some, but not all, control.