Technology

Now Apple has followed WhatsApp and its parent company Meta (formerly known as Facebook) in suing Pegasus spyware maker NSO Group. Along with promising new information about how NSO Group infected targeted iPhones via a zero-click exploit that researchers later dubbed ForcedEntry, Apple says it’s “seeking a permanent injunction to ban NSO Group from using any Apple software, services, or devices.” Apple: NSO agreed to the iCloud Terms of Service Senior VP of software engineering Craig Federighi didn’t mention sideloading this time but says in a statement, “State-sponsored actors like the NSO Group spend millions of dollars on sophisticated surveillance technologies without effective accountability. That needs to change…Apple devices are the most secure consumer hardware on the market...

Now Apple has followed WhatsApp and its parent company Meta (formerly known as Facebook) in suing Pegasus spyware maker NSO Group. Along with promising new information about how NSO Group infected targeted iPhones via a zero-click exploit that researchers later dubbed ForcedEntry, Apple says it’s “seeking a permanent injunction to ban NSO Group from using any Apple software, services, or devices.” Apple: NSO agreed to the iCloud Terms of Service Senior VP of software engineering Craig Federighi didn’t mention sideloading this time but says in a statement, “State-sponsored actors like the NSO Group spend millions of dollars on sophisticated surveillance technologies without effective accountability. That needs to change…Apple devices are the most secure consumer hardware on the market...

After testing the platform on Amazon Fire TV earlier this month, TikTok has launched its TV interface in North America across Google TV and Android TV devices, LG Smart TVs and Samsung Smart TVs. The TikTok TV app is designed for a TV home-viewing experience, allowing for easy access to both the “For You” and “Following” feeds on the big screen. The app “includes the most liked and viewed videos across a huge range of categories, from gaming and comedy to food and animals,” according to the short-form video sharing platform. The TV app also hosts a “Discover” page, which allows users to find more content, creators and categories on the platform. Outside North America, TikTok was first made accessible on both Samsung and Fire TVs in the United Kingdom in 2020. Since then, the platform has r...

Sustainable smartphone manufacturer Fairphone has released an Android 10 update for the six-year-old Fairphone 2, a device that originally launched with Android 5 in 2015. The update is in beta for the time being, but the company says it hopes to release a stable version early next year. Alongside it, the company also plans to start beta testing an Android 11 update for the 2019 Fairphone 3 and 2020 Fairphone 3 Plus. Although getting an Android update two years after its original release wouldn’t normally be cause for celebration, it’s basically unheard of for an Android manufacturer to still be updating a handset six years after its original release. Only Apple comes close to these kinds of support periods and recently released its latest iOS 15 update for the 2015 iPhone 6S. Beta testing...

Reddit will shut down its short-form video platform, Dubsmash, on February 22nd, 2022. After February, the app will no longer be available on apps stores and will stop functioning on devices that already have the app. A competitor to TikTok, Dubsmash was acquired by Reddit late last year with the purpose of embedding its video creation tools into the larger platform. Now that the integration is nearing completion, Reddit is introducing a slew of new video creation tools to its own TikTok-like video feed, courtesy of the Dubsmash team that came over with the buyout. “Our primary focus, in terms of the acquisition, was around bringing in the expertise from the team, as well as bringing in the technology that we had built over the past five years at Dubsmash,” said Suchit Dash, the vice presi...

Croatian electric bike manufacturer Greyp Bikes has a new majority shareholder: Porsche. The sports car manufacturer’s venture capital arm, Porsche Ventures, has held a stake of around 10 percent in the e-bike company since 2018. Greyp (pronounced like the fruit) was founded Mate Rimac — aka “Croatia’s Elon Musk” — the brainchild behind electric supercar startup Rimac Automobili. The company makes highly connected, extremely powerful electric mountain bikes, including the $10,000 flagship, full-suspension G6. The company sells its bikes in Europe and recently launched its US operations based in San Pedro, Calif. The investment is another sign of Porsche’s confidence in Rimac’s business prowess The investment is another sign of Porsche’s confidence in Rimac’s business prowess. The automaker...

In the fight against ongoing allegations of harassment, discrimination, and complaints of insufficient action to address such allegations, Activision Blizzard’s board of directors has announced that the publisher is forming a new committee. The Activision Blizzard board of directors today announced that it has formed a ‘Workplace Responsibility Committee,’ initially comprised of two independent directors, to oversee the company’s progress in successfully implementing its new policies, procedures, and commitments to improve workplace culture and eliminate all forms of harassment and discrimination at the company. The press release — delivered at an extremely late hour during an employee holiday week granted hours before the release of a damning Wall Street Journal report — seemingly reaffir...

Microsoft is making its Fluent-style emoji available in Windows 11 this week. A new optional update for the OS is rolling out that includes a number of important bug fixes and the new emoji Microsoft previewed earlier this year. While it’s a totally new style, it’s not the 3D look that Microsoft previously promised — the company opted for 2D instead. The new emoji in Windows 11 includes the return of Clippy, as Microsoft has replaced the standard paperclip emoji with its Clippy character. The emoji have also been redesigned to include bright and saturated colors, but lack the 3D aspects that made them pop. “The new emoji style is only available in Windows 11 and is 2D,” explains Microsoft in a quiet update to its design blog from July. “We still offer an assortment of emojis [sic] for Wind...

Samsung is expected to officially announce a new advanced chip-making plant in Texas later today, that’s estimated to cost around $17 billion and could create 1,800 jobs, The Wall Street Journal reports. The new plant will reportedly be located in the city of Taylor, roughly 30 miles away from Austin, where Samsung has an existing facility. The new site is roughly 1,200 acres in size, making it larger than Samsung’s Austin plant, the WSJ notes. The announcement could come as soon as 5pm local time today, when Gov. Greg Abbott is due to make an “economic announcement.” However, the plant isn’t expected to actually start producing chips until the end of 2024, according to previous filings. Eventually, Samsung is expected to begin using the new plant to produce processors, for its own uses an...

Qualcomm reportedly has an exclusivity deal with Microsoft for Windows on Arm licenses. The pair launched Windows on Arm laptops in 2016, and so far we haven’t seen any devices launch without a Qualcomm chip. XDA-Developers reports that Qualcomm has had an exclusivity deal on Windows on Arm, but that it’s set to expire soon. The report comes days after MediaTek held its executive summit with members of the media last week, where it shared its ambitions to build its own chip for Windows on Arm PCs. If Microsoft’s exclusivity deal is about to end with Qualcomm, this could open the door for many more vendors supporting Windows on Arm. Samsung, MediaTek, and even Apple’s M1 chips could eventually support Windows on Arm. Microsoft’s custom SQ1 Qualcomm chip for the Surface Pro X (right).Photo b...

Sony, Microsoft, Nvidia and AMD say they’re doing everything in their power to put a console or graphics card in your hands. But judging by eBay resale prices, their best won’t be nearly good enough this holiday season. One year after the next generation of gaming was supposed to arrive (narrator: it did not) people are still forking out hundreds of dollars over MSRP for a PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X, and and they’re often still paying double what a new PC graphics card was originally supposed to cost. Remember March 2020, when I told you how the two graphics cards in the photo above were worth a combined $2,570 on the open market? That was a shocking leap compared to the $1,660 total they could fetch in December 2020, already well above their $1,078 MSRP. But eight months later, that s...

Like most PC gamers, I split my time between playing using a mouse and keyboard and a console controller. Nothing beats the precision of a mouse in first- and third-person shooters, but for me, a keyboard is no match for an analog stick in racing games or platformers. They both have different strengths. Wooting’s Two HE keyboard, which starts at $174.99 without keycaps, is the company’s latest attempt to bridge that gap, offering some of the benefits of analog control in the form factor of a keyboard. This time around, it achieves this with Gateron-manufactured “Lekker” switches, which use magnetic Hall effect sensors rather than typical metal contacts to detect when they’ve been pressed. It’s an interesting idea, and Wooting has more or less nailed its implementation, with a design and so...