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Tech NewsNews
China Warns Latest U.S. Missile Test Will Trigger New Arms Race
The U.S. tested a new cruise missile in California on Sunday and Chinese officials warned today that it will almost certainly lead to a new arms race. “This measure from the U.S. will trigger a new round of an arms race, leading to an escalation of military confrontation, which will have a serious negative impact … Continued
By Matt Novak -
Tech NewsApple
Report: Apple Is Pouring Over $6 Billion Into Apple TV+, Including Nine Figures on The Morning Show
Apple’s budget for its forthcoming streaming service—previously reported to be around $1 billion, give or take—has exploded to $6 billion, according to a Monday report in the Financial Times. “People familiar with the matter” told the paper that executives Jamie Erlicht and Zack Van Amburg, industry veterans in charge of the project, have landed funding … Continued
By Tom McKay -
Tech NewsNews
Russian Man Who Tried to Burn Down Offices of Internet Regulator Reportedly Gets Probation
Earlier this month, a court in Russia’s Ulyanovsk Region sentenced a man to one and a half years’ probation after he reportedly tried not one, not two, but three times to burn down the regional offices of national internet regulator Roskomnadzor, with Interfax reporting (via TorrentFreak) that one local said he had done so to … Continued
By Tom McKay -
Tech NewsNews
Facebook and Twitter: It Sure Looks Like China’s Spreading Bullshit About Hong Kong Protesters
Social media giants Facebook and Twitter this week disclosed their responses to what they characterized as coordinated disinformation campaigns originating in China—specifically tied to pro-democracy demonstrations in Hong Kong—that they believe may be linked to the Chinese government. Facebook’s head of cybersecurity policy, Nathaniel Gleicher, said in a blog post on Monday the company removed … Continued
By Catie Keck -
Tech News
YouTuber Found SD Card Showing Man’s Final Moments Before Drowning
Before a travel YouTuber named Rich Aloha went scuba diving at a waterfall in Tennessee he filmed himself saying he planned on doing “treasure hunting” in the water, and he expected to possibly find a drone, iPhone, or GoPro. Instead, he found an SD card that may provide some closure for a family mourning the … Continued
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Tech NewsPrivacy and Security
Amazon’s Ring Barred Cops From Using ‘Surveillance’ to Describe Its Products
Amazon’s home security company Ring quietly removed the term “surveillance” from a statement law enforcement officials provided to local news outlets, according to public records obtained by Gizmodo. Emails this March between Ring and the Ewing Police Department in New Jersey show the company edited a quote attributed to the city’s chief of police, John … Continued
By Dell Cameron -
Tech NewsApple
Apple’s Borked iOS Update Leads to New Jailbreak and Vulnerable iPhones
If you updated to iOS 12.4, you might want to think twice about the apps you download. Apple has unpatched a vulnerability with the latest update, and hackers have already used the opportunity to release the first jailbreak for up-to-date iPhones in years, according to a Motherboard report. Apple, unfortunately, reintroduced a bug that was … Continued
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Tech News
So What Did Amazon Do to Piss Off Disney This Time?
Disney just announced plans to roll out its new streaming service in November. Executives announced that Disney+ will be available on platforms and devices made by Apple, Google, Microsoft, Sony, and Roku. Missing from that list is Amazon, with whom Disney has had an on-again-off-again slap fight for the past few years. This ongoing feud … Continued
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Tech NewsPrivacy and Security
23 Texas Government Agencies Knocked Offline in ‘Coordinated Ransomeware Attack’
On Friday morning of last week, nearly two dozen state agencies across Texas reported having major computer issues. The state now believes that a single hacker is behind this crippling attack. The Texas Department of Information Resources (DIR) said in a release on Friday that it is overseeing the response to a “coordinated ransomware attack” … Continued
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Tech NewsNews
Plague-Infected Prairie Dogs Force Areas Near Denver to Be Closed to Public
Plague-infected fleas affecting prairie dog colonies have forced closures in parts of Colorado, including wildlife areas and a suburb of Denver, as authorities say the fleas could spread the disease to pets and people. The Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge was forced to undergo a temporary closure as a “precautionary measure” last month while … Continued
By Catie Keck -
Tech NewsGadgets
Sonos’ New Shit Leaks—AGAIN
Say what you want about Sonos, the wireless speaker maker can’t keep its shit under wraps. The latest leak is its first-ever Bluetooth speaker. News of the device’s existence came earlier this month, but now there’s even more details and a name: The Sonos Move. The leaked photos and info comes courtesy of German tech … Continued
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Tech NewsAlternate Internet Week
Why These Social Networks Failed So Badly
Sixteen years ago, the sun set on Web 1.0, and we embarked by the light of our smartphones to 24/7 connectivity, down a road paved with corporate blunders, littered with yesterday’s top 8 friends, scrubbed n00ds, trashed chiptune tracks, bomb threats, and downy unicorn costumes. Comedic treasures were born and abandoned by parent companies; screaming … Continued
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Tech NewsAlternate Internet Week
What Would Happen If the Whole Internet Just Shut Down All of a Sudden?
A world in which the internet suddenly stops: surely the TV show’s already in development. Sprawling cast, gorgeous visuals, tediously on-the-nose themes. Some handsome B-lister tearing around the country in pursuit of his wayward kids, or the shadowy sect that pulled the plug in the first place. A patch of prairie in Kansas with a … Continued
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Tech NewsFacebook
China’s Biggest Propaganda Agency Buys Ads on Facebook and Twitter to Smear Protesters in Hong Kong
China’s largest state-run news agency, Xinhua News, is buying ads on Facebook and Twitter to smear protesters in Hong Kong, a new tactic being used to influence how the rest of the world perceives the pro-democracy demonstrators. An estimated 1.7 million people in Hong Kong, roughly a quarter of its population, took to the streets … Continued
By Matt Novak -
Tech NewsBest of the Week
Semen Smugglers, Spreadsheets, and Laughing to Death: Best Gizmodo Stories of the Week
It’s been a weird one this week at Gizmodo, folks: From hacking buttplugs and realizing our dog photos have personally identifiable information in them to smuggled boar semen and an Arctic weather station hitting nearly 95 degrees Fahrenheit, we’ve been hard at work churning out the content you crave and that makes our heads hurt. … Continued
By Tom McKay -
Tech NewsGadgets
Nintendo Says That Rumored Switch Exchange Deal Doesn’t Exist
So you know all those reports earlier this week about a Nintendo Switch exchange program? Yeah, turns out it was all a bunch of crap. The Verge published an official statement from a Nintendo rep on Saturday debunking the deal. The unofficial (and now, unfortunately, confirmed untrue) offer was first noted on Reddit, where users … Continued
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Tech NewsPolitics
To Curb Hate Speech Online, Beto O’Rourke Says Hold the Platforms Hosting That Shit Responsible
Presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke wants to stem the spread of hate speech on the internet after several recent mass shootings, including one in O’Rourke’s hometown of El Paso earlier this month, have been linked to online extremism. One solution proposed in a recent blog post on his campaign website would hold online platforms accountable for … Continued
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Tech NewsNews
Report: FTC, FCC Squabbled About Who Is Responsible for Cracking Down on VoIP Robocalls
As automated Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) systems fueled a national robocall epidemic estimated at tens of billions of bogus calls annually, the Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Communications Commission argued over who should actually do something about it, according to a Sunday report in the Wall Street Journal. “Relatively few” of the calls … Continued
By Tom McKay -
Tech NewsApple
Apple Sues Corellium for Selling Access to Cloud-Based ‘Perfect Replicas’ of iOS
Apple is suing a company, Corellium LLC, that it says is illegally reselling virtual copies of its iOS operating system under the pretense of legitimate security research, Bloomberg reported on Thursday. Corellium advertises itself as “the first and only platform to offer iOS, Android, and Linux virtualization on ARM.” Per TechCrunch, the company allows users … Continued
By Tom McKay -
Tech NewsFacebook
Report: Facebook Content Mods Say Company Therapists Were Pressured to Share Session Details
Adding to an already ridiculously long list of complaints, now Facebook’s content moderators say a higher-up asked company-appointed counselors to share information from their sessions, according to a new report from the Intercept. Numerous investigations have described this workforce as notoriously underpaid and overworked in crappy working conditions that require them to scan through some … Continued