Technology

Apple has filed a lawsuit against the maker of Pegasus spyware, the Israeli-based technology firm NSO Group. The company announced the news of the lawsuit on Tuesday, responding to alleged surveillance abuses carried out against Apple users by NSO Group. According to Apple’s complaint, NSO Group has “sophisticated, state-sponsored surveillance technology that allows its highly targeted spyware to surveil its victims.” NSO Group’s Pegasus can be downloaded on most phones running iOS and Android and allows for various forms of exploitation and surveillance, including reading text messages, tracking calls, collecting passwords and location tracking. Apple describes attacks in which NSO Group or its clients had created Apple IDs to send malicious data to devices, which then enabled hackers to ...

Chris Pratt’s voice as Mario is “phenomenal,” says one of the men who has the most to gain if that’s true. But Pratt likely won’t be putting on Mario’s familiar fake Italian accent for the majority of the film. When asked to defend the casting of Chris Pratt (a white American man best known as the Guardians of the Galaxy’s Star-Lord) as Mario (a denizen of the Mushroom Kingdom previously voiced by a white American man of French descent attempting to sound like an Italian plumber from Brooklyn at the request of the character’s Japanese creators, just so we’re clear), producer and Illumination CEO Chris Meledandri suggested to TooFab that it’s OK because: Meledandri himself is an Italian American. Charlie Day, the actor playing Luigi, “actually comes from Italian heritage,” so they’re covere...

Apple’s digital driver’s license / ID feature won’t be coming until “early 2022,” according to an update to Apple’s iOS 15 page that MacRumors noticed. The change comes after news broke that Apple was looking for strict control over how states roll out the feature, which was previously listed as coming late this year. Originally announced at WWDC 2021, Apple says that the feature will let you use its Wallet app to store your digital identification for use at airport security checkpoints. Of course, the system is dependent on your state supporting it — the company announced that Arizona and Georgia would be the first to let citizens add their licenses to their phones (with Connecticut, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Oklahoma, and Utah following later) but didn’t specify when exactly that would b...

According to a report by Deadline, Amazon isn’t relying on the just-launched Wheel of Time series and its upcoming Lord of the Rings show to pull in sci-fi/fantasy viewers. The entertainment news outlet reports that Amazon is “nearing a deal to develop a series” based on the Mass Effect games. While Electronic Arts and BioWare have not announced a series, there have been more than a few hints. Earlier this year, the project director for EA’s remastered Mass Effect: Legendary Edition trilogy set told Business Insider that it’s “not a matter of if, but when” a movie or TV show project appears relating to the game. There was also that interesting Instagram post in February from Henry Cavill, who may want to add male Commander Shepard to his geeky resume along with Superman and Geralt from The...

Twitter verified a fake account for Norway’s new Minister of Finance, but apparently, it’s not Twitter’s fault. As first reported by Norwegian tech site NRKbeta, the Prime Minister’s Office and Norway’s Security Authority (NSM) mistakenly passed along a fake account for verification. Norway’s Minister of Finance, Trygve Slagsvold Vedum, has never had a Twitter account. The report states that several fake accounts impersonating Vedum cropped up since he was elected into office this September, so much so that the Ministry of Finance sent out a tweet last month warning that the Minister of Finance doesn’t actually have an account. The translated tweet reads, “We want to inform that Minister of Finance Trygve Slagsvold Vedum does not have private Twitter. Accounts that appear in his name are t...

The home security experts at Simplisafe are offering big discounts on their home security systems during a Black Friday sale that runs until December 1st. This sale is marking down any new security system by up to 60 percent and will throw in a free indoor camera for your trouble. (If you’re still shopping around, make sure to pay a visit to our Black Friday hub with ongoing coverage of the best early Black Friday deals.) Our own smart home expert, Jennifer Pattison Tuohy, says that “Simplisafe is a good, easy-to-use smart security system that doesn’t rely solely on an app — you can manage the whole system from its keypad. It also has a decent selection of smart home devices to add on to your system, including an excellent door lock and new outdoor camera.” We largely consider Simplisafe p...

The home security experts at Simplisafe are offering big discounts on their home security systems during a Black Friday sale that runs until December 1st. This sale is marking down any new security system by up to 60 percent and will throw in a free indoor camera for your trouble. (If you’re still shopping around, make sure to pay a visit to our Black Friday hub with ongoing coverage of the best early Black Friday deals.) Our own smart home expert, Jennifer Pattison Tuohy, says that “Simplisafe is a good, easy-to-use smart security system that doesn’t rely solely on an app — you can manage the whole system from its keypad. It also has a decent selection of smart home devices to add on to your system, including an excellent door lock and new outdoor camera.” We largely consider Simplisafe p...

The organizers behind ConstitutionDAO have decided to shut the group down after raising $47 million in cryptocurrency and then failing to win an auction for a rare copy of the US Constitution. Many members of ConstitutionDAO had expressed hope that the group could live on, albeit with some alternative goal given that there are currently no other famous copies of the Constitution at auction. Group leaders initially floated launching a new token for members who wanted to take part in the group’s continuation, called We The People tokens, but later backtracked, saying they should have given it more consideration. It was never made clear what, exactly, the group might focus on if it were to continue. “The community has taken all actions that it was organized to accomplish.” Now, five days afte...

The organizers behind ConstitutionDAO have decided to shut the group down after raising $47 million in cryptocurrency and then failing to win an auction for a rare copy of the US Constitution. Many members of ConstitutionDAO had expressed hope that the group could live on, albeit with some alternative goal given that there are currently no other famous copies of the Constitution at auction. Group leaders initially floated launching a new token for members who wanted to take part in the group’s continuation, called We The People tokens, but later backtracked, saying they should have given it more consideration. It was never made clear what, exactly, the group might focus on if it were to continue. “The community has taken all actions that it was organized to accomplish.” Now, five days afte...

PlayStation has been hit with a lawsuit that alleges gender discrimination and wrongful termination, as first reported by Axios. According to the details of the lawsuit, former IT security analyst Emma Majo is seeking to establish a class action suit to represent other women who might’ve been affected by PlayStation’s alleged gender discrimination. The lawsuit claims that “Sony tolerates and cultivates a work environment that discriminates against female employees,” alleging that women were denied promotions and weren’t paid equally to male workers who held similar positions. This comes less than a week after PlayStation boss Jim Ryan sent out an email to employees condemning Activision Blizzard’s response to reports of CEO Bobby Kotick’s alleged abusive behavior and history of harassment ...

PlayStation has been hit with a lawsuit that alleges gender discrimination and wrongful termination, as first reported by Axios. According to the details of the lawsuit, former IT security analyst Emma Majo is seeking to establish a class action suit to represent other women who might’ve been affected by PlayStation’s alleged gender discrimination. The lawsuit claims that “Sony tolerates and cultivates a work environment that discriminates against female employees,” alleging that women were denied promotions and weren’t paid equally to male workers who held similar positions. This comes less than a week after PlayStation boss Jim Ryan sent out an email to employees condemning Activision Blizzard’s response to reports of CEO Bobby Kotick’s alleged abusive behavior and history of harassment ...