Technology

Fossil executives Greg McKelvey and Steve Prokup said in an interview with CNET that the company’s existing Wear OS watches won’t get upgraded to the new combined Wear software platform from Samsung and Google. Instead, Fossil is planning a premium watch that Prokup said would have “pretty major hardware upgrades,” and existing watches will probably be discounted as budget options. According to CNET, Fossil’s Gen 6 watch should have features similar to upcoming watches from Google and Samsung, with faster performance, longer battery life, new chips, and LTE cellular options. “All of the software benefits that Google’s talking about and launching with the unified platform is something we’ll be building into that as well,” McKelvey said. Google and Samsung announced last month at Google I/O ...

The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), a controversial anti-hacking law which bans “exceeding authorized access” on a computer system, was narrowed by the Supreme Court on Thursday in a 6-3 ruling. The court said the law shouldn’t cover people misusing systems they’re allowed to access — and that claiming otherwise would criminalize a “breathtaking amount” of everyday computer use. The court case, Van Buren v. United States, concerns a former Georgia police officer named Nathan Van Buren. Van Buren accepted $5,000 in exchange for looking up a woman’s license plate in a police database. (The deal was actually an FBI sting operation, and the plate number was fictitious.) Because the exchange violated department rules, prosecutors said Van Buren had “exceeded access” to the system. Van Bure...

The US Department of Justice has charged a Latvian woman for her role in allegedly developing the Trickbot malware, which was responsible for infecting millions of computers, targeting schools, hospitals, public utilities, and governments, the agency said in a news release. The DOJ alleges that Alla Witte was part of a criminal organization known as the Trickbot Group that operated in Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, and Suriname. She allegedly helped develop the malware which was used to enable ransomware demands and payments. Victims would receive a notice that their computers were encrypted, the DOJ said, and were directed to buy special software through a bitcoin address linked to the Trickbot Group to have their files decrypted. According to the DOJ, the Trickbot malware was designed to capt...

The California Public Utility Commission (CPUC) said Friday (pdf) it has authorized General Motors-owned self-driving vehicle company Cruise to provide driverless passenger service to the public in its robotaxis. The CPUC said Cruise is the first entrant in its driverless pilot program, which lets companies give test rides in vehicles without drivers. Under the terms of the program, Cruise may not charge passengers for the rides, and the company must submit quarterly reports to the CPUC about the vehicles’ operations. Cruise has been testing its driverless vehicles in San Francisco, and last month applied for a permit that will allow the company to charge for autonomous rides and deliveries in the area. The company unveiled its Cruise Origin, a prototype vehicle without a steering wheel, p...

An analysis of the cyberattack on Colonial Pipeline found that the hackers were able to access the company’s network using a compromised VPN password, Bloomberg reported. The hack led to a ransomware payout of $4.4 million, and resulted in gas prices around $3 per gallon for the first time in several years at US gas stations. According to cybersecurity firm Mandiant, the VPN account didn’t use multi-factor authentication, which allowed the hackers to access Colonial’s network with a compromised username and password. It’s not clear whether the hackers discovered the username or were able to figure it out independently. The password was discovered among a batch of passwords leaked on the dark web, Bloomberg reported. The breach occurred April 29th, according to Mandiant, and was discovered ...

India’s government has told Twitter it could face “unintended consequences” if it fails to comply with the country’s new social media rules, Reuters reported. India’s technology minister wrote in a June 5th letter to Twitter that the company’s responses to previous government letters about the new rules did not confirm whether Twitter was in full compliance, according to Reuters. Under India’s Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code, which took effect in May, social media companies could be subject to legal action if they fail to follow the code’s provisions, which are aimed at regulating the platforms’ content. The new rules call for platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and WhatsApp to remove content within 36 hours of receiving a legal order. The rules also require the compani...

Financial services firm Square Inc. will partner with blockchain technology provider Blockstream Mining to build an open-source, solar-powered bitcoin mining facility, Blockstream announced in a press release Saturday. Square confirmed the news in a tweet, saying it was “committed to driving further adoption and efficiency of renewables within the bitcoin ecosystem.” According to the release, Square will invest $5 million in the facility, which will be a “proof-of-concept for a 100% renewable energy Bitcoin mine at scale,” and will be built at one of Blockstream’s sites in the US. “We hope to show that a renewable mining facility in the real world is not only possible but also prove empirically that Bitcoin accelerates the world toward a sustainable future,” the release states. Together, w...

This week’s best deals are all over the place, but in a good way. There’s the ever-handy GorillaPod tripod shown above, as well as excellent deals on Sony noise-canceling headphones and the PC version of Resident Evil Village. You can also find other deals that are likely still up for grabs here, including the first notable discount on the Apple AirPods Max, as well as hefty price cuts on the Fitbit Charge 4 fitness tracker and Sony’s Back Button attachment for the PS4. If you’ve been browsing the web for some Father’s Day gift ideas, check out our gift guide that’s full of fun — but thoughtful — suggestions. Also, Prime Day 2021 is coming up soon. Amazon recently confirmed it’ll take place over two days, spanning from Monday, June 21st, through Tuesday, June 22nd. We’ll have more extensiv...

Twitter is suspended “indefinitely” in Nigeria, “for the persistent use of the platform for activities that are capable of undermining Nigeria’s corporate existence,” according to a statement (threaded on Twitter) from the country’s minister of information and culture. The move comes days after the platform removed a threatening tweet by president Muhammadu Buhari which Twitter said violated its “abusive behavior” policy. The statement from Minister Lai Mohammed did not mention the deleted tweet, or what form the suspension would take. The Federal Government has suspended, indefinitely, the operations of the microblogging and social networking service, Twitter, in Nigeria. — Fed Min of Info & Cu (@FMICNigeria) June 4, 2021 In Buhari’s deleted tweet, he suggested he would punish secessi...

How can we possibly memorialize the brutal toll of COVID-19? It’s something I’ve been thinking about this week. The US observed Memorial Day on May 31, honoring people who died in military service. Artists, politicians, and activists are now starting to think about how to memorialize the more than 3.7 million people around the world who have died of COVID-19. Temporary memorials have already sprung up over the past 18 months, with flags, painted hearts, and pictures honoring the dead. But plans for new, more permanent memorials are starting to take shape. Some are massive structures, others are quiet gardens, and still others will be incorporated into spaces already dedicated to memorializing people who have died. In the UK, plans are being discussed for a memorial in London at St. Paul’s ...

The FBI is trying to get a list of IP addresses, phone numbers, and other information on people who read a USA Today article about the deaths of two of its agents (via Politico). The subpoena (PDF) says it relates to a criminal investigation, and is seeking the information of readers who accessed the article in a specific 35-minute timespan, but it’s unclear who or what the Bureau is trying to track down. USA Today is fighting back against handing over the information, calling the request unconstitutional. “We were surprised to receive this subpoena particularly in light of President Biden’s recent statements in support of press freedom. The subpoena is also contrary to the Justice Department’s own guidelines concerning the narrow circumstances in which subpoenas can be issued to the news ...

On October 2nd, 2020, then-President Donald Trump and the first lady tested positive for the coronavirus. As we were all waking up to the news, I got into my car and tuned in to The Breakfast Club on Power 105.1 FM in New York, where Charlamagne Tha God, its most outspoken host, wasn’t having it. “I got a few thoughts and one of those thoughts is the reason I’m saying ‘allegedly,’” he said. At the time, the country was accelerating into the third wave of the pandemic, and the president had been appearing at large, mask-less rallies. But the news didn’t sit right with Charlamagne. “The conspiracy theorist in me simply doesn’t believe it,” he said. As I listened, he seemed to build a conspiracy theory on the fly. According to Charlamagne, the president was pretending to get the coronavirus s...