Iran faced its own spate of cyberattacks this weekend. Reuters and The Guardian report that Iran's railway train system and transportation websites suffered a "cyber-disruption" (according to state media) on the weekend. Portal sites went down, although it's not clear just how badly the train system were affected. Officials claimed that only the train displays were compromised with fake messages, but the Fars news agency claimed there was "unprecedented chaos" that included cancellations and delays.
The sites and train systems were back to normal as of Monday morning.
It's not certain who was behind the attack, although telecom minister Mohammad Javad Azari-Jahromi alerted people to the threat of ransomware if they didn't address security vulnerabilities. Iran has historically blamed some cyberattacks on the US and Israel, although ransomware is more often the work of criminal organizations.
The US and other countries have typically pinned cyberattacks on Iran, and both sides have engaged in relatively quiet digital warfare. However, it's not clear that's the cause here — this could just represent 'ordinary' hackers exploiting weak points in Iran's infrastructure, whether to make money or create havoc.
China is tightening restrictions on businesses seeking to go public overseas amid a wave of Chinese origin IPOs in the US. Regulators have thrown down the gauntlet for local companies by announcing new privacy rules for those seeking foreign stock market listings, according to Reuters. As a result, any company that has data on more than a million customers must face a review into how they handle that info in order to receive permission for a foreign IPO.
Regulators will scrutinize the risks of said data being being affected, controlled or manipulated by external governments following overseas flotations. In a broader effort to get companies to list locally, China is adding the two sets of rules that focus on data collection and data storage to its Data Security Law and the Personal Information Protection Law.
The constraints arrive in the midst of a privacy crackdown by Beijing. Regulators have previously rattled their sabres at TikTok and LinkedIn for alleged data collection violations. Just last week, authorities caused shockwaves by ordering ride-hailing giant Didi to remove its app from mobile stores in the wake of its US listing, causing its shares to initially plummet by 20 percent.
With US-China tensions still simmering, the decision will likely pile pressure on President Biden to increase scrutiny of Chinese businesses. Hostility created by Trump-era policies has eased in recent months after the removal of China's Xiaomi and Luokung Technology from military blocklists, which prevented Americans from buying and holding their shares. An expected thaw in relations under Biden likely fueled a recent surge in Chinese company listings. Last year, China-based businesses raised $11.7 billion through 30 IPOs in the US, with even more flotations occurring this year.
Samsung's Galaxy Buds Pro offer a compelling alternative to Apple's AirPods Pro. They're even more tempting when you consider the latest discount. The active noise cancelling earbuds are currently on sale for an all-time low price of $120 at Amazon-owned Woot. That's $80 off their typical price and $20 less than the previous record deal.
Maybe it's because the Galaxy Buds+ landed in February and the Buds 2 are expected in August. Whatever the reasons behind the latest price cut, the Buds Pro are still worthy of your cash due to their bombastic sound. Firstly, unlike the $150 Buds+, they boast active noise cancellation and a wider audio range that features more depth and clarity thanks to the internal 1mm woofer and a 6.5mm tweeter.
Voice calls have also been improved with the help of three microphones, an accelerometer and Wind Shield tech for when you're outdoors. What's more, battery life matches Samsung's estimates at five hours with ANC and Bixby turned on and eight hours with them off, or 28 hours total with the case — which supports wireless charging. For those looking for durability, the IPX7-rating means you can dunk them in up to 1 meter of water for 30 minutes. Overall, they're still our highest rated Samsung earbuds with an exemplary review score of 85.
Just note that before you purchase them it may be worth familiarizing yourself with Woot's terms and conditions. For the uninitiated, the online retailer mainly offers limited-time deals with a modified return policy to its parent Amazon that includes numerous exceptions, including charges for shipping costs.
Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.
Robots have plenty of potential to help people with limited mobility, including models that could help the infirm put on clothes. That's a particularly challenging task, however, that requires dexterity, safety and speed. Now, scientists at MIT CSAIL have developed an algorithm that strikes a balance by allowing for non-harmful impacts rather than not permitting any impacts at all as before.
Humans are hardwired to accommodate and adjust to other humans, but robots have to learn all that from scratch. For example, it's relatively easy for a person to help someone else dress, as we know instinctively where to hold the clothing item, how people can bend their arms, how cloth reacts and more. However, robots have to be programmed with all that information.
In the past, algorithms have prevented robots from making any impact with humans at all in the interest of safety. However, that can lead to something called the "freezing robot" problem, where the robot essentially stops moving and can't accomplish the task it set out to do.
To get past that issue, an MIT CSAIL team led by PhD student Shen Li developed an algorithm that redefines robotic motion safety by allowing for "safe impacts" on top of collision avoidance. This lets the robot make non-harmful contact with a human to achieve its task, as long as its impact on the human is low.
"Developing algorithms to prevent physical harm without unnecessarily impacting the task efficiency is a critical challenge," said Li. "By allowing robots to make non-harmful impact with humans, our method can find efficient robot trajectories to dress the human with a safety guarantee."
For a simple dressing task, the system worked even if the person was doing other activities like checking a phone, as shown in the video above. It does that by combining multiple models for different situations, rather than relying on a single model as before. "This multifaceted approach combines set theory, human-aware safety constraints, human motion prediction and feedback control for safe human-robot interaction," said Carnegie Mellon University's Zackory Erickson.
The research is still in the early stages, but the ideas could be used areas other than just dressing. "This research could potentially be applied to a wide variety of assistive robotics scenarios, towards the ultimate goal of enabling robots to provide safer physical assistance to people with disabilities," Erickson said.
After oh so many delays, training up its founder, Sir Richard Branson, and some delightful, sometimes petty, banter with Blue Origin (love those “largest windows in space” claims), Virgin Galactic has made it into space.
Or at least, it did, depending on who you ask. Blue Origin’s first crewed spaceflight is just days away, and it’s pointed out that Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo didn't’ really fly in space. The craft reached an altitude of 'just' 53.4 miles. However, the Kármán line (the formal demarcation for space) is 62 miles.
Virgin Galactic
It’s a fair point, even if it comes across a little like sour grapes. While not quite crossing over that line, the mission was to evaluate the SpaceShipTwo’s cabin environment, seat comfort and the overall experience it will offer customers. Presumably, this was where Sir Branson’s expertise in astrophysics with his myriad companies came to the fore. Two additional test flights are set to launch before Virgin Galactic begins offering paid flights next year.
Watch Virgin Galactic’s successful flight right here.
The sting operation wasn't just limited to a chat app.
OLIVIER MORIN via Getty Images
The phones the FBI sold to crooks for a sting operation weren't just running a custom messaging app — it appears the operating system itself was customized for the sting. Motherboardobtained one of the "Anom" phones — a modified Pixel 4a underneath it all — and its mysterious ArcaneOS has a number of customizations you wouldn't necessarily expect, even for a privacy-oriented phone.
There’s no app store, and you can't toggle location tracking. You can’t flash the device with third-party firmware to make it behave more like normal phones, either — the bootloader is locked, even though the startup screen tells you the device has been “modified.”
For nefarious types you’d expect to see in Mission Impossible movies, less real-life, there’s a hidden chat app (accessed through the "calculator" when it worked) and PIN scrambling. There’s also a wipe code feature that lets you erase a phone from the lock screen — although it won’t explode. Continue reading.
You’ll only see shared media a single time before it vanishes.
After releasing the feature on Android last month, WhatsApp is debuting self-erasing media and texts on iOS, via a new beta release. If you sign up for the beta version 2.21.140.9 on Testflight, you'll be able to send photos and videos that self-destruct as soon as they're viewed and dismissed. Users with access to the "view once" feature will see a dedicated button resembling a timer in the caption input field.
Unlike WhatsApp's disappearing messages, which delete after seven days, photos and videos sent using view-once mode vanish immediately after you close them. That said, there's nothing stopping users from taking screenshots of media, and you won't be notified if a recipient has done so. Some apps, like Snapchat, make this harder to do or inform the user when screenshots are snapped. Continue reading.
It's also coming to previous-gen systems, PC and Stadia.
EA Sports
While English fans might not want to think about football for a bit, FIFA 22 is, predictably, on its way, and its centerpiece is a new HyperMotion system. This will apparently offer more realistic animation and gameplay when you game on a PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S or Google Stadia. The technology uses machine learning to produce animations in real-time, leading to more "organic" movement.
The game is also coming to PS4, Xbox One and PC (via Origin and Steam), while FIFA 22 Legacy Edition is coming to the Nintendo Switch, although EA didn't outline differences. Presumably, it’ll be a less graphically intense version of the game. EA has hinted at a "complete" revamp of the goalkeeper system, a new club creation experience in Career Mode and "reimagined" Volta Football. Continue reading.
The semi-autonomous upgrade has been in the works for years.
Tesla is rolling out FSD beta version 9 to Early Access Program users, and while it's still not full autonomy, it does enable numerous Autopilot driver assists, including lane changes and turns. You'll also get revamped visualizations that offer "additional surrounding information."
The update also references a recently activated feature that uses the cabin camera to make sure you're paying attention while Autopilot is engaged. Musk also urged beta testers to be "paranoid" and stay prepared to take the wheel at a moment's notice. Continue reading.
Nintendo games have been commanding massive prices at auctions this year. Just days after a rare copy of the Legend of Zelda fetched a record $870,000, an N64 classic has almost doubled that amount. A completely sealed Super Mario 64 sold for a whopping $1.56 million over the weekend.
That may seem like an insane price for a best-selling game that millions of people owned, but the auctioneer says the copy's mint condition sets it apart from your dusty old one. According to Heritage Auctions, the boxed game had a 9.8 A++ Sealed rating on the Wata Scale. That means it's immaculately preserved in the same condition as when it left the factory. Such highly rated games are often described as “Case Fresh.”
Add to that the cultural impact of Super Mario 64, the plumber's first true 3D escapade and a massively successful launch title for the beloved N64 console, and you can see why it broke the seven-figure mark. By comparison, a nearly perfect copy of Super Mario Bros. for the NES nabbed a record $660,000 in April before the Legend of Zelda auctionbeat it. While a Wata 9.4 A+ Sealed copy of Final Fantasy III pulled in $96,000 a few days ago.
Amazon has managed to develop a pretty wide range of Fire HD tablets, Echo Show devices, Kindles and Echo Glow lights for kids. Now, it has launched a big sale for all of those products with discounts as high as 40 percent on its Fire 7 Kids Pro tablets, with the latter product now available at just $60 instead of $100.
The Fire HD Kids Pro lineup features bright colors, kid-friendly cases and a two-year "worry-free" replacement warranty if it breaks, but as Amazon puts it, they're real tablets and not toys. To that end, the Fire 7 Kids Pro tablets come with 7-inch 1,024 x 600 displays, front- and rear-facing 2-megapixel cameras, Micro USB ports and 16 GB of RAM, expandable to 512 GB. You also get a 1-year subscription to Amazon Kids+ with over 20,000 apps, games books, videos, songs and Audible books from National Geographic, Rabbids Coding, LEGO and others.
The Fire HD 8 Kids Pro model boosts the screen to a 1,280 x 800 model, with 32GB of storage expandable to 1TB, while the Fire HD 10 Kids Pro offers a 10.1-inch 1,920 x 1,200 display with 2-megapixel front and 5-megapixel rear cameras. All the models come with a digital store when kids can request apps and parents can approve them.
Amazon
Amazon is also offering it's Echo Glow smart multicolor lamp (above) for kids at $20 rather than $30, for a savings of 33 percent. Paired with an Echo Dot Kids (available together for $55 or $35 off the full price), your kids can change the color of the light with their voice, or "ask Alexa to play music, read stories, and call approved friends and family," Amazon notes.
Naturally, Amazon makes the Echo Show 5 (2nd gen) in a kids version with parental controls, and that device is available for $80 or $15 off the regular price. It features a bright "chameleon" cover and allows kids to ask Alexa to play videos, help with homework and make video calls to approved contacts. As with the tablets, it comes with a year of Amazon Kids+ with access to 15,000 videos, audiobooks, games, music stations and more. You can also get it in a bundle with the Echo Glow for $95, for a savings of 24 percent.
Finally, for any young readers in the family, Amazon is offering the Kindle Kids Edition for $70 rather than $110, for a savings of $40 or 36 percent. This model is a 10th-generation Kindle (again, not a toy) with a kid-friendly cover and 2-year worry-free guarantee. It offers a black and white glare-free display, weeks of battery life and a 1-year subscription to Amazon Kids+, with access to the complete Harry Potter series and others like Artemis Fowl.
The latest in a series of leaks ahead of Samsung's upcoming Unpacked event is the most comprehensive yet. We already had a firm grasp on what to expect — folding phones, a couple of Wear OS smartwatches and new earbuds were outed — but now we can see more of the new products including new color variants. Prominent leaker Evan Blass has tweeted a bunch of GIFs of the purported Samsung devices set to make their debut at the virtual event, expected to take place August 11th.
On display are the foldable Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Galaxy Z Flip 3, which Blass previously shared pics of in late June; the Galaxy S21 FE, Samsung's follow-up to the solid sub-$700 phone that was glimpsed in April; the Galaxy Watch 4 and Galaxy Watch 4 Classic smartwatches that were leaked recently, too; and the Galaxy Buds 2, the latest addition to the company's growingrange of wirelessearbuds.
If history is anything to go by, we'll probably see more leaks and teasers (including from Samsung itself) in the run-up to Unpacked. By the time the actual event rolls around, you should be well-versed on what to expect.
After releasing the feature on Android last month, Facebook is debuting WhatsApp self-erasing media and texts on iOS via a new beta release, according to WhatsApp info site WABetaInfo. If you sign up for the beta version 2.21.140.9 on Testflight, you'll be able to send photos and videos that self-destruct as soon as they're viewed and dismissed. Users with access to the "view once" feature will see a dedicated button resembling a timer in the caption input field, as shown in the WABetaInfo screen capture below.
WABetaInfo
Unlike WhatsApp's disappearing messages, which delete after seven days, photos and videos sent using view once mode will vanish immediately after you close them. The sender will be notified when their media has been viewed.
As WABetaInfo notes, there's nothing stopping users from taking screenshots of media and you won't be notified if a recipient has done so. As a recipient, you can't block the sender from being notified after opening the message, either.
WhatsApp has promoted the feature as a way to encourage more authentic and intimate conversations. Parent Facebook previously said that select features would be blocked from users who didn't accept its divisive new privacy policy, but it later backtracked on that decision.
On Monday mornings, I send out a story via email: ultra-brief tales of 1,000 words or more, usually in genres including science fiction, horror, and the supernatural. Those stories collectively are called Once Upon A Time. I’ve also published four ebooks and one paperback anthology of those stories so far.
I’d love to have you as a subscriber to the weekly free story. You can subscribe via email here, or use the form below. Unsubscribe any time, from the link in every issue.
It could be a while before in-person TED talks resume in earnest, but you're about to get an alternative of sorts. The Vergenotes that TED has struck a deal to offer exclusive drop-in audio chats to Clubhouse. The first, the weekly series Thank Your Ass Off, debuts through the platform on July 12th at 11AM Eastern.
The arrangement lets TED sell ads and sponsorships for its conversations. Clubhouse won't take a share, either. It's not clear if the chats will be available as podcasts or other on-demand recordings, although it won't be surprising if there's a way to listen later.
TED already has a thriving podcast business, with over 1.65 million episode downloads per day.
This is a logical agreement for Clubhouse, where some of the more philosophical conversations have already been likened to TED talks. It's also a shrewd move to keep Clubhouse relevant in the face of stiffer competition. Clubhouse's NFL deal lost some of its thunder in light of the league's Twitter Spaces chats. The TED pact reclaims some of that ground, even if the audience doesn't entirely dovetail with that for American football.
Foxconn and TSMC are solving a political drama even as they serve their own tech manufacturing interests. The Wall Street Journalreports that the two companies have agreed to buy 10 million Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine doses on behalf of Taiwan's government. The two are purchasing the shots from Fosun Pharmaceutical, the vaccine's exclusive distributor across the Greater China region, after China allegedly "spiked" Taiwan's bid to directly buy the vaccine.
There was pressure to make a deal. Taiwan has largely kept COVID-19 levels low throughout the pandemic, but new cases started surging in late April and prompted rare restrictions on the island. While infections are dropping, Taiwan has only vaccinated about 14 percent of its population. It will need many more doses if it's going to lift restrictions while keeping cases low.
Tech companies like have offered to buy vaccines for employees and contractors before. Apple helped TSMC buy vaccines for its staff, for instance. A purchase this large for the general population breaks new ground, however — the companies are buying enough doses to inject over 40 percent of Taiwan's 24 million people.
Foxconn and TSMC have strong incentives to step in. Outbreaks could hurt their operations, even for those factories and other facilities beyond Taiwan. That could be particularly dangerous amid a global chip shortage and other manufacturing headaches — mass infections and shutdowns could cause further snarls. A vaccine purchase like this could save the companies money in the long run.
Now that Virgin Galactic has flown its founder to the edge of space, it's ready to give everyday people a chance at a similar trip. Virgin and Omaze have announced a sweepstakes that lets you win two seats aboard "one of the first" commercial spaceflights. While you can enter for free, donating to Space for Humanity (a charity making spaceflight more accessible) will give you more entries.
The sweepstakes ends September 1st, and the companies will reveal the winner on September 29th. Just be ready to take some time off from work if you do win. You'll have to go through the same training as any other Virgin Galactic passenger. You do get a tour of Spaceport America for your trouble, though.
Yes, this is a not-so-subtle way to capitalize on Virgin's spaceflight and drum up hype for the company's space tourism efforts. All the same, it's a significant moment for private spaceflight. The notion of winning tickets to space wasn't imaginable in the days when NASA and other government agencies were the only organizations traveling to space — now, it's entirely logical.
Disney+ has been shy about divulging sales for Premier Access movies like Mulan, but it's now eager to brag. As AV Clubreports, Disney has revealed that Marvel blockbuster Black Widow raked in more than $60 million in estimated revenue solely from customers paying $30 each for Premier Access. That's more than a quarter of the roughly $215 million Disney expected to make from all sources, including US and international box office sales.
The company also bragged that Black Widow was the largest US box office opening during the COVID-19 pandemic, just besting F9. That wasn't difficult, though, given that movie theaters have routinely struggled to attract viewers when they weren't dealing with widespread closures.
We wouldn't count on Disney providing Premier Access figures on a regular basis, especially as the pandemic continues to (hopefully) subside and more people are comfortable venturing to theaters. To some extent, the media giant needed the $60 million number to make Black Widow's debut sound more impressive. We'd add that it's difficult to compare this against data for rivals like Amazon and Netflix. They don't have equivalents to Premier Access, so they measure success for original movies largely in terms of viewership and new subscriptions.
Nonetheless, this represents an important milestone for Disney as it shifts toward streaming. It's now comfortable mentioning Premier Access numbers after months of staying quiet. Even if Premier Access fades into the background, it's now a significant part of Disney's movie release strategy.
Even people who don't own Samsung devices can now enjoy its ad-supported streaming service. According to Protocol, the tech giant launched TV Plus — something that used to be exclusively available on the the brand's TVs and mobile devices — for the web in May.
It was likely a soft launch, as the publication called it, seeing as Samsung has yet to formally announce its web version and has yet to include it in any marketing material for the streaming service. While there was zero fanfare surrounding TV Plus' web expansion, a company rep confirmed to Protocol that Samsung did indeed roll out a web version of the service in the second quarter.
Samsung launched TV Plus back in 2016, and it has since evolved into its current cable-like free ad-supported form. It's accessible in 23 countries, and in the US, it gives viewers access to 140 channels that include ABC News Live and Vice. Samsung Electronics SVP Sang Kim told Protocol that the company streams "billions of minutes every month," so it's clearly pretty popular with users. Its reach has been limited to Samsung customers up until now, though, and it remains to be seen whether the web version's availability can add a substantial number of new users to the service.