The Biden administration plans to bring together 30 countries later this month to discuss the threat ransomware attacks pose to global economic and national security. Per CNN, the virtual meeting is part of what the president says will become an ongoing multilateral initiative to tackle the cybersecurity problem.
National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told the network the goal of the meeting is "to accelerate our cooperation in combatting cybercrime, improving law enforcement collaboration, stemming the illicit use of cryptocurrency, and engaging on these issues diplomatically."
The alliance marks the latest effort by the Biden administration to tackle the issue of ransomware following a year in which one such attack on the Colonial Pipeline led to gas shortages across parts of the US. In the aftermath of the incident, the president signed an executive order that called for greater cooperation and information sharing between disparate federal agencies. More recently, the Treasury Department imposed sanctions on the SUEX cryptocurrency exchange for allegedly facilitating several attacks.
As promised earlier in the year, Samsung is removing ads from its first-party mobile apps. As of today, you won’t see the company advertise things to you in Samsung Pay, Weather, Theme and Health. Reports of the change first started to filter out on Samsung’s Community Forum in South Korea, with 9to5Google and TizenHelplater spotting the posts. Engadget saw the change go through when we updated the software on one of our Galaxy Flip 3 review units.
Cherlynn Low / Engadget
Almost universally across the apps, you won’t see banner ads anymore. The only exception to this rule is Samsung Pay where there’s a section of the main interface dedicated to special offers, but that makes sense in the context of the software. If you still see ads on your Samsung phone, it looks like you can push through the update by using the force stop functionality in Android to manually restart the Pay, Weather, Health and Theme apps.
The Google graveyard is getting more crowded. After announcing the Plex mobile-first bank accounts in November last year with Citibank and a few other financial institutions, Google is pulling back from the product. According to the Wall Street Journal, the company is "abandoning plans to pitch bank accounts to its users."
A Google spokesperson told Engadget that it's "updating our approach to focus primarily on delivering digital enablement for banks and other financial services providers rather than us serving as the provider of these services."
Plex was initially positioned as an easy mobile-first way to open bank accounts, with Google providing the technology and app design and banks and credit providers backing the finances. It sounded more like a way to help institutions that didn't yet have a modern, competent app to team up with Google on one, which might be why major names like Bank of America and Capital One, who already had existing apps, weren't on the list of partners.
According to the Journal, a Citibank spokesperson said it plans to recommend other accounts to people who had already signed up for the Plex waiting list. The publication reports that the waiting list numbered about 400,000 people, and that the pandemic had thrown plans off schedule. The Journal also noted that "As late as this week, several banks were under the impression that the project would still move forward."
Though the Plex branding is going away, Google does appear to want to stick around in the financial services business. The spokesperson said that "We strongly believe that this is the best way for Google to help consumers gain better access to financial services and to help the financial services ecosystem connect more deeply with their customers in a digital environment.”
You have to look past the grille of the iX. Just accept it for what it is or ignore it all together because that polarizing piece of design that actually doesn’t feed a radiator like it does the gas-powered X5. Instead it has a few sensors and it’s really a design feature. But look past it because behind it is BMW’s fifth-generation EV system, which is actually great.
While the inside of the iX carries the torch of the now-discontinued i3, the limitations of that vehicle, namely its short range, are gone. The iX starting at $83,200 has a targeted range of about 300 miles. Beyond the design, it handles and drives like a next-generation EV with a plethora of features that’ll make first adopters and those migrated from the gas-powered BMWs happy. We had a chance to drive it around Germany; watch the video above for our thoughts.
Meet the Toyota C+walk. It’s a new three-wheeled electric scooter from the Japanese automaker designed to help people with limited mobility. While it shares some visual characteristics with battery electric vehicles like the Bird Three and Segway PT, its closest antecedent is the Concept-i Walk Toyota showed off back in 2017.
Toyota
A removable lithium-ion battery allows the C+walk to travel about eight and a half miles on a single charge, after which it needs some two hours to recharge from zero to full. It can travel at a maximum speed of just over six miles per hour, though it’s possible to throttle it down to one mile per hour. Some of the more nifty features of the C+walk include an obstacle avoidance system. It will beep when it detects something on your path and slow down the vehicle if a collision is imminent.
Initially, the automaker envisions the scooter helping elderly workers travel across large facilities like warehouses, factories and airport terminals. In the future, the company hopes the Japanese government will certify the C+walk for use on public roads. Toyota dealers in Japan will start selling and leasing the scooter at the start of next month. It will start at ¥341,000, or just under $3,100 with the current exchange rate.
If you've had your iPhone set up to unlock with your Apple Watch and recently upgraded to an iPhone 13, a software bug may have prevented you from continuing to use this. Thankfully, a fix is here and once you install it, you shouldn't have to resort to Face ID (or worse, typing in your passcode) anymore. The latest iOS 15 update (iOS 15.0.1) is here and according to the changelog, it brings bug fixes "including an issue where some users could not unlock iPhone 13 models with Apple Watch."
Apple added the unlock with Watch feature in watchOS 7.4 earlier this year to make it easier to get into your iPhone while you're out and masked up. This feature later got broken with a subsequent iOS and update and required another over-the-air package to fix. Apple recently acknowledged that this was also not working on some iPhone 13 models, and said it would roll out a solution soon. The iPhone 13 only started being available on September 24th, so this issue was at least caught early. Though it's nice that the update is here days later, it's interesting to see the trouble the company has had with this feature in the last few months.
Google Chrome is experimenting with a couple of features that could help you continue research into a topic and compare the page you're on with other search results. The Journeys feature could give you more ways to keep track of what you look up.
The tool automatically collates pages and information related to the same topic, which would save you from looking through your history manually or creating a bookmarks folder with all of those sites. Chrome will also provide search suggestions to bolster your research.
The groups are saved locally and aren't synced with your Google account, so you can't access them across devices. This may change in the future, though. You can switch off the feature at any time and clear journey-specific browsing history.
Journeys could come in useful if you spend several weeks planning a trip or trying to figure out what car to buy. The feature is only available in the Chrome Canary build on desktop for now. You can find your Journeys within the history section (or enter chrome://history/journeys on the address bar).
In addition, Google is testing a side panel for search. When you click a link after searching for something, a G icon will appear next to the Chrome address bar. If you click that, you'll see other results for that search in a side panel. That will let you compare the page you're on with other results without having to juggle multiple tabs or move back and forth between pages.
For the time being, this feature is being tested in the Chrome OS Dev channel with Google Search. If Google ends up rolling out the tool more broadly, it plans to bring the side panel to more platforms and add support for other default search engines.
Those aren't the only updates Google has planned for Chrome in the near future. Google Lens is coming to the browser in the coming months.
Facebook recently introduced its first wearable: Ray-Ban Stories, smart sunglasses with cameras, microphones and speakers built in.If that sounds familiar, it might be because the glasses are pretty similar to what Snapchat has been doing for the last five years with Spectacles. Even the name, Ray-Ban Stories, feels like a big subtweet at Snap. But despite its head start, Spectacles have yet to be a big hit for the company. And, with a $300 price tag and Facebook’s name on the box, Ray-Ban Stories may also prove to be a difficult sell.
Both Spectacles and Ray-Ban Stories represent something much bigger to the social media companies that made them. Snapchat and Facebook are hoping to define the future of augmented reality, and are betting that camera-enabled sunglasses will help them get there.
But look closely, and the companies have taken very different approaches. While Ray-Ban Stories look pretty close to regular Wayfarers, Spectacles have never looked like a typical pair of sunglasses. Snapchat has also been more ambitious about integrating its augmented reality effects into the glasses. And the company recently began experimenting with a new set of Specs that are capable of real AR, though they aren’t for sale.
Non-AR “smart glasses” are still a niche product, but Ray-Ban Stories might be one of the best iterations yet. The frames make it easy to capture first-person photos and videos, and the built-in speakers sound surprisingly good. Most importantly, they look more like designer sunglasses than a piece of tech. But Facebook’s reputation is hard to ignore, especially when you’re wearing a camera it designed on your actual face.
But if you’re excited about the future of augmented reality, and what one day might be possible, both Ray-Ban Stories and Spectacles offer an intriguing look at how two of the biggest social media platforms are thinking about getting there.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has shared what it says are the first images and video captured inside a hurricane by a surface drone. The agency placed the Saildrone Explorer SD 1045 in the path of the category-four Hurricane Sam. The saildrone overcame 50-foot waves and winds at speeds topping 120 miles per hour to capture data from the hurricane and offer a new perspective into such storms.
The device has a special “hurricane wing” to help it survive the intense wind conditions. The SD 1045 is one of five saildrones that have been in the Atlantic Ocean during hurricane season. They are constantly recording data to help researchers gain a deeper understanding into hurricanes. The information could help improve storm forecasting, which will hopefully reduce the loss of lives when hurricanes make landfall.
“Using data collected by saildrones, we expect to improve forecast models that predict rapid intensification of hurricanes,” Greg Foltz, a scientist at NOAA, said in a statement. “Rapid intensification, when hurricane winds strengthen in a matter of hours, is a serious threat to coastal communities. New data from saildrones and other uncrewed systems that NOAA is using will help us better predict the forces that drive hurricanes and be able to warn communities earlier.”
Sidenote: I can't be the only one with a sudden urge to watch Twister again.
When 343 Industries set out to create Halo Infinite, it says one of its goals was to make the game more accessible to as many people as possible. As part of Microsoft’s recent Xbox Accessibility Showcase, the studio detailed the lengths it went to make that vision a reality. The included accessibility options that will come with Halo Infinite don’t look as comprehensive as they were in The Last of Us Part II, but they come close.
For example, in addition to the usual UI and subtitle options you find in many other games, Halo Infinite will include a feature called Linear Navigation. You can enable it to move through the user interface without the need to see how controls are positioned on the screen. Another new enhancement called Movement Assisted Steering allows you to use additional controls to steer vehicles if the traditional look-to-steer mechanic isn’t doing it for you.
Outside of those, there are options that allow you to tweak the colors of friendlies and enemies beyond the usual red and blue. Another setting lets players enable menu narration, and adjust the reading speed of the feature. It’s also possible to enable text-to-speech and speech-to-text tools to make party chat more accessible. The included options probably won't cover every accessibility need, but they should help make Halo Infinite playable for a much broader group of people when the game comes out on December 8th.
During the same showcase, Microsoft announced it adding introducing accessibility tags to the Microsoft Store on Xbox. At launch, there will be 20 of these tags, with the company planning to add more with time. Each one will denote a specific accessibility feature.
Some of the currently available tags include “Narrated Game Menus,” “Input Remapping” and Single Stick Gameplay.” Each one comes with specific implementation requirements. For instance, in the case of a developer that wants to point to the subtitle support in their title, they’ll need to allow players to resize them by up to 200 percent. Members of the Xbox Accessibility Insiders League (XAIL) will see the tags appear in the Microsoft Store starting today. In the coming months, the feature will roll out to Xbox.com, the Xbox app on PC and Xbox Game Pass apps.
Discord says Stage Channels is a hit, but the Stage Discovery platform that was designed to make it easier to find servers with live speakers still needs a lot of work. After evaluating whether or not the portal has actually been helping users find communities broadcasting audio content relevant to them, Discord has decided to kill Stage Discovery on October 4th.
Stage Discovery is an interface within the app populated with Channels broadcasting at that moment, including those from servers the user is already a member of. Based on some users' initial impressions, though, it tends to be full of random shows they don't particular care about. "In listening to our communities and admins directly, we’ve learned that we still have work to do in regards to server onboarding and moderation," the company writes in its announcement.
Since Discord plans to continue investing in and expanding Stage Channels, it's bound to roll out other ways to find audio broadcasts in the future. The company says it's taking some time to rethink the discovery aspect of Stages and how it can better connect users with communities that are relevant to their interests.
According to the company's announcement, almost a million communities have run a Stage as of today. People have been using it to host AMAs, conferences and even beatboxing competitions. For now, it will focus on introducing more features for Stage Channels itself, including better moderation tools. Discord also recently rolled out Scheduled Events for Stage, which allows users to plan events ahead of time so they can reach more potential attendees.
These royalty free meditation music tracks are guaranteed to help you relax; grab a green tea, find yourself a quiet space, and hit “play” on our mediation music videos.
You’re in the woods, enveloped by oxygen-rich moist air, with the presence of building clouds standing tall over the distant mountains. Well that’s how I see it when I close my eyes anyway.
The closing track of our first video is a piano composition, with the natural sounds of woodland and meadows to accompany it. A long meditation music track at nearly 9 minutes, this gives the listener a perfect chance to unwind.
Playful piano notes, but this track is certainly sad. Lending itself to self-reflection and much needed meditation, this track builds slowly with its full orchestral accompaniment.
The woeful sound of the cello is something we haven’t heard in these meditation tracks yet, but (whilst dramatic) this will certainly evoke a form of meditation within the listener.
The town Sheriff stood alone, staring with reddened eyes down the dirt track as the rain grew in intensity. The battered child’s toy in her hand hid a tragic secret, but one which would have to wait for another day.
Microsoft's software suite is getting an upgrade on October 5th with the rollout of Windows 11, and this includes Office Home and Student 2021, and Office Home and Business 2021. Office Home and Student, which unlocks Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote and Microsoft Teams, will cost $150. Office Home and Business adds Outlook to that list and grants the rights to use these apps for commercial purposes, and it costs $250.
With this year's launch, some extra tools from the Microsoft 365 subscription service are making their way to Office, such as collaboration features like co-authoring and the ability to send out automatic updates when files are edited. Many of the apps are getting a new look, too, with rounded window corners and a neutral color palette. Programs receiving a digital facelift are Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Access, Project, Publisher and Visio. The updated look will also go live for Windows 10 users.
Microsoft 365 and the Office bundles will feature Teams, the company's video-chat app. Windows 11 already includes Teams, but this move brings the app to Windows 10 and macOS as well.
Microsoft 365, the company's top-tier all-inclusive option, costs $70 a year or $7 a month, with the Family plan for up to six people running $100 a year or $10 a month. It includes PC, Mac and mobile versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, OneDrive, Microsoft Editor, and Microsoft Family Safety, plus Access and Publisher for PC.
Apple, Amazon, Microsoft and Disney are among the major companies backing corporate lobby groups and organizations that are battling a US climate bill, according to a report. That's despite those companies all making pledges to reduce their impact on the environment.
The United States Chamber of Commerce, the Business Roundtable and the Rate Coalition are three of the lobbyist and business groups that oppose the Democrats' $3.5 trillion budget bill, which includes measures to fight climate change. The Guardianreports that watchdog Accountable.US analyzed the groups to learn which companies have connections to them.
The Chamber of Commerce, the biggest lobbying group in the US, has said it would "do everything we can to prevent this tax-raising, job-killing reconciliation bill from becoming law.” The group's board includes executives from the likes of United Airlines and Microsoft.
The board of the Business Roundtable includes Apple CEO Tim Cook, Google and Alphabet chief executive Sundar Pichai and Amazon CEO Andy Jassy. The group has said it's “deeply concerned” about the bill and the increased taxes it would lead to for the rich. Google has also made political contributions in the past to individuals and organizations that have denied climate change.
The report notes that The Rate Coalition is set to release attack ads against the bill. That body's members include Disney and Verizon (Engadget's former parent company).
The support of lobbying groups that are attempting to kill the bill conflicts with the tech companies' attempts to tackle the climate crisis. Apple, Google and Microsoft have all backed the Paris Agreement, for one thing. Apple and Microsoft promised to become carbon neutral and carbon negative respectively by 2030.
In 2019, Amazon and founder Jeff Bezos launched the Climate Pledge, which has a goal of hitting net zero carbon emissions by 2040 and meeting the Paris Agreement benchmarks a decade early. Microsoft is among the 200+ companies that have joined the pledge. Disney, meanwhile, is aiming to reach net zero emissions for its direct operations by 2030.
Engadget has contacted Apple, Google and Microsoft for comment. The Guardian said that none of the companies it contacted rejected the stances of the groups they're members of. None of them said they would re-assess their connections to those bodies either.
As Congress considers a vote on the #IIJA, we urge action to modernize the transportation network, reduce emissions and address the climate change crisis. The climate-focused elements included represent significant strides to turn ideas to reality. https://t.co/J1nHUGs1yC
On Friday, Amazon expressed support for the infrastructure bill and the climate aspects of the Build Back Better reconciliation bill. A spokesperson provided the following statement to Engadget:
Amazon believes both private and public sector leadership is required to tackle the global issue of climate change. That’s why we actively advocate for policies that promote clean energy, increase access to renewable electricity, and decarbonize the transportation system. In addition to advocating for these issues on a local, state, and international level, we have a worldwide sustainability team that innovates sustainable solutions for both our business and customers, as well as co-founded The Climate Pledge – a commitment to be net-zero carbon 10 years ahead of the Paris Agreement.
Amazon has made bold commitments to reduce our carbon emissions, and we continue to encourage other companies to join us. We support investments in the Infrastructure and Build Back Better bills to lower emissions in key sectors like energy and transportation, and we believe these investments will help advance America’s carbon reduction goals. As we said earlier this year, we support an increase in the corporate tax rate to pay for things like infrastructure, and we look forward to Congress and the administration coming together to find the right, balanced solution that maintains or enhances U.S. competitiveness.
After coming to public blows earlier in the week, YouTube TV and NBCUniversal have come to terms on a “short-term” agreement for the streaming service to continue carrying the broadcaster’s content. With the extension, YouTube TV subscribers won’t lose access to more than a dozen channels, including NBC, Bravo and the Golf Channel, while the companies attempt to negotiate a longer-term pact.
“NBCUniversal and YouTube TV have agreed to a short extension while parties continue talks,” a spokesperson for NBCUniversal told Variety. “NBCUniversal will not go dark on YouTube TV at midnight eastern tonight.”
When the dispute first went public, YouTube said it would reduce the monthly price of its service from $65 to $55 per month if subscribers lost access to NBCU content. It’s currently unclear just how long the current extension is slated to last. What appears to be at the center of the disagreement is just how much YouTube should pay for content from the broadcaster.
“For the duration of our agreement, YouTube TV seeks the same rates that services of a similar size get from NBCU so we can continue offering YouTube TV to members at a competitive and fair price," the Google-owned service said at the start of the week. A spokesperson for YouTube also told Variety NBCU had asked the company to bundle Peacock Premium with its TV service, a demand they said would have effectively double-charged customers for the same content.
