Technology

Rivian is telling customers that it won’t be building R1T pickup trucks with the “Max pack” battery option until 2023, as it’ll be prioritizing ones with the standard “large” battery pack for production throughout next year (via Electrek). In an email attributed to CEO RJ Scaringe, the company says it will work on orders for the higher-trim “Adventure Package” trucks with the regular battery first, and that the lower-end “Explorer Package” and bigger battery will come later. When the company debuted its truck in 2018, the 400-mile estimated range afforded by the 180kWh Max pack was a big selling point. The “large” battery pack that comes standard with the trucks gets an EPA estimated range of 314 miles, but for the adventurous, off-road crowd Rivian markets to, every additional mile counts...

LastPass says there’s no evidence of a data breach following users’ reports that they were notified of unauthorized login attempts, as reported by AppleInsider. The password manager maintains that it was never compromised, and users’ accounts haven’t been accessed by bad actors. Something very strange and bad is happening to a lot of people’s @LastPass accounts. I posted this to Hacker News and it gathered 192 comments, including 7 separate reports of master password breaches & login attempts from the same Brazil IP range. Uhh. https://t.co/tcM0aFdavv` — Greg Technology (@technology_greg) December 27, 2021 Reports started cropping up on the Hacker News forum after a LastPass user created a post to highlight the issue. He claims that LastPass warned him of a login attempt from Bra...

T-Mobile has suffered another cyberattack after being rocked by a massive data breach in August. This time around, attackers accessed “a small number of” customers’ accounts, according to documents posted by The T-Mo Report. According to the report, customers either fell victim to a SIM swapping attack (which could allow someone to bypass SMS-powered two-factor authentication), had personal plan information exposed, or both. The document shows that the customer proprietary network information that was viewed could’ve included customers’ billing account name, phone and account number, and info about their plan, including how many lines were attached to their account. The person who took credit for the summer hack called T-Mobile’s security “awful” This summer, the carrier confirmed that a d...

A Bored Ape Yacht Club Mega Mutant Serum sold this week for 888.88 ETH, as prices for the popular NFT series continue to rise. The Mega Mutant Serum is part of the Bored Ape Chemistry Club, which consists of 10,000 Mutant Serums that can be airdropped to all Bored Ape NFT holders. The Serums — broken up into three tiers called M1, M2, and Mega Mutant — can then transform existing apes into “mutant” versions of themselves and are burned upon use. M1 or M2 serums will result in apes that retain traits of the original ape, though Mega serums are less predictable, enhancing their value. There are two ways to acquire a Mutant. The first is by MUTATION – exposing a Bored Ape to a vial of Mutant Serum. There are three tiers of Mutant Serum – M1, M2, and Mega Mutant. MUTATION will begin after the ...

China filed a complaint this month with the United Nations, arguing that it had to conduct evasive maneuvers of its space station to avoid potential collisions with two of SpaceX’s internet-beaming Starlink satellites. The country is requesting that the UN’s Secretary General remind countries of their obligations under international space law, though China did not specify exactly what actions it wants to be taken. In the complaint, dated December 6th, China details two instances on July 1st, 2020 and on October 21st, 2021 when the nation had to maneuver the core module of its space station, called Tianhe, out of the way of two separate Starlink satellites. The three Chinese astronauts currently living on Tianhe had just arrived to the station several days before the October maneuver. China...

Samsung is starting to roll out its Android 12-based One UI 4 update again after the company paused its original release due to reports of bugs and soft bricks from users, according to XDA Developers. The update, which is hopefully a bit more stable, should soon be available for Galaxy S21 phones (including the S21 Plus and Ultra), along with the Galaxy Z Flip 3 and Z Fold 3. One UI 4 includes a visual redesign based on Google’s Material You design that debuted with Android 12. It also includes an updated keyboard. Despite a public beta process, Samsung’s initial release in November had some issues, and users said they were getting poor performance, saw some screen flicker, and experienced other bugs. Last week, the company reportedly stopped rolling out the update to South Korean customer...

Update 3:11PM ET, December 28th: Best Buy has sold out of consoles for now. Microsoft’s Xbox Series X keeps coming and going, but the next-gen console remains tricky to get a hold of. We just saw it go up for sale at Costco this morning but it did not last long before it sold out. Now, after a PS5 drop earlier, another chance has sprung up at Best Buy. Right now, you can queue up for the Xbox Series X from Best Buy. The retailer is just selling the console — no bundle required — and it is open to anyone, including those who are not Best Buy Totaltech subscribers. Just click the “Add to Cart” button and be patient while you are put in a digital line. As of right now, Best Buy appears to be releasing stock in waves, meaning you may have a second opportunity even if the console appears to be ...

The Quest Store is offering a lot of VR games and experiences at a discount for its New Year’s sale, which lasts until January 2nd, 2022. Some of my personal favorite titles like Job Simulator, Arizona Sunshine, and Gorn have their prices slashed by up to 35 percent. Job Simulator is a place where you can do your job as horribly as you want without any real consequences, while Arizona Sunshine is a zombie shooter with a surprisingly decent story, and Gorn lets you take your anger out gladiator style, complete with mace-swinging. I find all of them to be pretty therapeutic (although they aren’t the newest games to come out for the Quest). There are also a number of themed game bundles for sale, such as the Thrilling Adventures Pack, which includes I Expect You to Die 2, A Township Tale, and...

Riot Games has struck a $100 million settlement deal in a discrimination and harassment lawsuit brought by female employees. The League of Legends and Valorant publisher will pay at least $80 million to members of the settlement class and around $20 million in legal fees, and it will agree to workplace changes that include greater pay transparency and three years of third-party monitoring. The settlement covers a 2018 class action lawsuit filed by current and former Riot employees in the wake of a Kotaku report detailing systemic sexism and unfair treatment. The suit described an environment where male employees made derogatory sexual comments about female colleagues and passed them over for promotion, creating a company-wide “unwritten policy and practice of preferring men to women in the...

The Xbox Series X console has remained hard to come by, and with the holidays looming the window to get one in time is narrowing. Many retailers have turned to charging for the chance just to buy a console via subscription-based memberships, which is a game that Costco has been playing from the beginning. The warehouse retailer has gotten its fair share of console restocks, and today it has Microsoft’s flagship console available for its members. You can order the Xbox Series X from Costco right now (or the Halo Edition, if it’s available in your area), which is only sold as a bundle with an extra controller (if you’re signed in, then you can add it directly to your cart by clicking here). You need a paid Costco membership to order this, which you can get here at the retailer’s site for a m...

Amazon’s Alexa told a child to touch a penny to the exposed prongs of a phone charger plugged into the wall, according to one parent who posted screenshots of their Alexa activity history showing the interaction (via Bleeping Computer). The device seemingly pulled the idea for the challenge from an article describing it as dangerous, citing news reports about an alleged challenge trending on TikTok. According to Kristin Livdahl’s screenshot, the Echo responded to “tell me a challenge to do” with “Here’s something I found on the web. According to ourcommunitynow.com: The challenge is simple: plug in a phone charger about halfway into a wall outlet, then touch a penny to the exposed prongs.” In a statement to the BBC, Amazon said: “As soon as we became aware of this error, we took swift acti...