Technology

Unredacted documents in Arizona’s lawsuit against Google show that company executives and engineers were aware that the search giant had made it hard for smartphone users to keep location information private, Insider reported. The documents suggest that Google collected location data even after users had turned off location sharing, and made privacy settings difficult for users to find. Insider also reports that the documents show Google pressured phone manufacturers into keeping privacy settings hidden, because the settings were popular with users. Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich filed a lawsuit against Google last May, alleging the company illegally tracked Android users’ location without their consent, even if users had disabled location tracking features. The lawsuit suggested G...

US soldiers stationed in Europe may have accidentally exposed information about the United States’ nuclear weapons stockpile when they used flashcard apps to help them remember details about the information, according to a report from open-source intelligence outlet Bellingcat. Foeke Postma, a researcher with Bellingcat, wrote that the soldiers used study apps such as Chegg, Cram, and Quizlet to create flashcards where they stored information about bases in Europe where US nuclear weapons were likely located, secret codes, passwords, and other details about security. It appears that they forgot to set the settings for the apps to “private,” so that their usernames and photos were public-facing, and since some of the soldiers used the same photos as they had on their LinkedIn profiles it wo...

Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted Saturday that deliveries of the automaker’s Model S Plaid would be delayed until June 10th because the car needs “one more week of tweak.” “This car feels like a spaceship,” tweeted Musk, who is also CEO of SpaceX. “Words cannot describe the limbic resonance.” The company has been teasing the Plaid since 2019, and Musk tweeted on May 20th that Tesla would hold a delivery event June 3rd at its factory in Fremont, California. Model S Plaid delivery pushed to June 10. Needs one more week of tweak. This car feels like a spaceship. Words cannot describe the limbic resonance. — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 29, 2021 Tesla showed off the Model S Plaid as part of its Battery Day presentation last September. It’s a step up from Tesla’s Ludicrous trim level, and can reach 0-6...

Memorial Day is Monday, May 31st, but many of the best deals in commemoration of the holiday are already live ahead of the weekend. We’ll always give you the most essential deals you need to know about in this column. But if you’re hungry for more (like, way more), my colleague Brandon Widder compiled the best Memorial Day deals on video games, headphones, TVs, and other odds and ends you might find interesting. Here are a few of the highlights. If you own an iPhone 8 or a more recent iPhone model, it supports fast charging. But to obtain fast charging speeds, you’ll need the right hardware. Conveniently, we’ve worked with Daily Steals to secure a deal on a bundle that includes Apple’s 20W USB-C charger and a Lightning to USB-C cable. Normally $40, it costs a mere $15 when you use the code...

Our COVID-19 vaccines have passed their first tests with flying colors. They work unbelievably well, and they’re helping to slow the spread of disease in countries where they’re widely available. Now, scientists are turning to the next key question: how long will they work that well? In people who were sick with COVID-19 and then got vaccinated, new research shows that they probably work for years. That group has powerful memory cells in their bone marrow that produce new antibodies when they’re needed. And they work so well that they can even block variants of the virus, studies show. These people may not even need vaccine boosters to stay protected long term. Protection may be different for people who got vaccinated but never had COVID-19, Michel Nussenzweig, an immunologist at Rockefell...

Fitbit may soon add snoring and noise detection to its devices, a move that will likely please the spouses and partners of the snoring population and be of interest to people for whom snoring is a sign of a possible health condition. According to a report in 9to5 Google, which decompiled the latest version of the Fitbit app in Google’s Play Store, the feature allows a Fitbit’s microphone (in devices that have one) to listen to “ambient noise including your potential snoring,” after you’ve fallen asleep. Not only would the feature be a major drain on the device’s battery, the idea of a sleep tracker monitoring noise “throughout the night,” as the release notes state, is a little creepy. The 9to5 Google report says the feature is called Snore & Noise Detect, and it monitors “noise includ...

Twitter relaunched its verification program last week, allowing anyone to apply for a blue check mark, but the company is pausing accepting new applications because of the volume of applications it has already received. “We’re rolling in verification requests,” the company said in a tweet. “So we gotta hit pause on accepting any more for now while we review the ones that have been submitted. We’ll reopen requests soon! (we pinky swear)” When it officially opened the program for applications on May 20th, the company cautioned that the timeline for requests could stretch out. “Once you submit your application, you can expect an emailed response from us within a few days, but this could take up to a few weeks depending on how many open applications are in our queue,” Twitter said in a blog. B...

Police in the United Kingdom raided an industrial unit outside Birmingham under suspicion it was housing an indoor marijuana growing operation, CNBC reported. They were surprised to discover instead an extensive Bitcoin mining setup which was illegally siphoning electricity from a mains supply. Prior to the raid, police observed multiple people going in and out of the building throughout the day, and spotted extensive ventilation and wiring. They also claim a drone was able to detect high amounts of heat coming off the building. Because indoor cannabis farms use systems of grow lights, heating, and ventilation to cultivate plants where they might not usually flourish, police believed they were looking at “classic signs” of a clandestine weed operation. What they were actually looking at, a...

Earlier this month, Facebook-owned WhatsApp said that users would lose functionality over time if they didn’t accept its new privacy policy by May 15th. In a reversal, Facebook now says that plan has changed, and users who don’t accept the updated policy actually won’t see limited functionality (via TNW). “Given recent discussions with various authorities and privacy experts, we want to make clear that we will not limit the functionality of how WhatsApp works for those who have not yet accepted the update,” a WhatsApp spokesperson said in a statement to The Verge. WhatsApp tells The Verge that this is the plan moving forward indefinitely. The new policy has been a source of controversy for months The rollout of the policy has been a confusing mess, and raised concerns that WhatsApp would b...

Twitter could be adding some new emojis to augment its formerly star-shaped, currently heart-shaped Like button, according to app researcher Jane Manchun Wong. The assets Wong found — which have been reliable predictions of future features in the past — show “cheer,” “hmm,” “sad,” and “haha” emoji reactions, though some currently only have a placeholder emoji. Facebook has had a similar set of reactions since 2016. But Wong’s leak shows that Twitter could be taking a slightly different path when it comes to which moods it wants users to express: while it has laughing and sad expressions in common with Facebook, Twitter may also include a makes-you-think and cheer option. Twitter doesn’t seem to have the “angry” expression that Facebook does, but that may be because anger on Twitter is alre...

You have reached a significant moment, perhaps not in history, or even in the grand scheme of your life’s long arc toward love and fulfillment, but a significant moment nonetheless. Do I need to spell it out for you? It’s 5PM. On a Friday. Heading into a long weekend. What is a “weekendgelion,” you may be asking? Obviously it’s the portmanteau of “weekend” and “Neon Genesis Evangelion.” You could have just Googled that, but I understand — it’s your time off! I respect your commitment to doing the bare minimum for the next three days. What does a beloved ‘90s anime series have to do with, as the above video’s creator puts it, the pursuit of COLD BEER, GOOD FRIENDS and FREEDOM? On its face, absolutely nothing, other than that its theme song — “A Cruel Angel’s Thesis”: has been memetic fodder...

Apple is delaying the launch of its upcoming Podcasts subscriptions until June, the company announced in an email sent to creators Friday (via 9to5Mac). The service was previously set to launch this month. Apple’s Podcasts subscriptions will allow people to subscribe to participating podcasts to get extra perks like ad-free listening or early access to episodes. In April, Apple said the subscriptions would launch in 170 countries, and that initial partners include Pushkin Industries and NPR. The shifted launch comes as some creators using Apple Podcasts have recently run into some issues, such as being unable to log in to Apple’s Podcast Connect portal or seeing a delay in the availability of new episodes. In its email sent Friday, Apple said it has fixed the “disruptions” that presented p...