Technology

The FBI partnered with an Australian security firm called Azimuth Security to gain access to an iPhone linked to the 2015 San Bernardino shooting, a new report from The Washington Post reveals. Before now, the methods the FBI used to get into the iPhone were kept secret. It was only clear that Apple wasn’t involved, as the company had refused to build a backdoor into the phone, kicking off a legal battle that only ended after the FBI successfully hacked the phone. The phone at the center of the fight was seized after its owner, Syed Rizwan Farook, perpetrated an attack that killed 14 people. The FBI attempted to get into the phone but was unable to due to the iOS 9 feature that would erase the phone after a certain number of failed password attempts. Apple attempted to help the FBI in othe...

A city in France has had a real rollercoaster of a week, after its Facebook page was accidentally deleted for violating the terms and conditions of the site. Of course, the city of Bitche, France (in the Moselle department in northeastern France) hadn’t done anything in particular to violate any of Facebook’s rules — it just sounded a whole lot like it did. According to a report from Radio Mélodie (via Politico), Bitche’s troubles first began on March 19th, when the city’s official page — titled “Ville de Bitche,” which translates to the perfectly normal “City of Bitche” — was suddenly removed. Valérie Degouy, the city’s communication manager, attempted to contact Facebook to try to appeal the decision but was unsuccessful, and she eventually just made a new page titled “Mairie 57230,” aft...

After a public break with Facebook and Twitter, MyPillow founder Mike Lindell is getting close to the launch of a new conservative-focused social network, giving more detail on the project in a video posted online this week. Called simply “Frank,” the social network plans to open its doors to a limited set of users on April 16th. Developed in the months since the 2020 election, Lindell has described the project as a combination of “print, radio, and TV,” offering both text posts and live stream capability. Perhaps the strangest promise is that conservative personalities will have significantly more followers on the fledgling network. “People are going to have more followers,” Lindell said in a March interview with Steve Bannon, “10 times more followers.” In the more recent video, Lindell e...

Parallels is releasing an update to its Desktop virtual machine software that allows M1 Mac owners to install Windows 10 on Arm. Parallels Desktop 16.5 now includes the necessary native support to run the Arm version of Windows on M1 chips, following Apple’s decision not to support Boot Camp on M1 Macs. The latest version of Parallels Desktop for Mac now allows M1 Mac owners to run Windows 10 on Arm apps or traditional x86 apps side by side with Mac or iOS apps on Big Sur. There will be some app limitations on the Windows 10 on Arm side, thanks to its own app emulation, but Windows 10 on Arm will soon support x64 app emulation, too. Windows 10 running on an M1 MacBook Pro.Image: Corel Parallels Desktop maker Corel says its latest update also results in some impressive performance and batte...

The pandemic has made ordering restaurant takeout a little less of a guilty pleasure, both because it’s safer and it helps support local businesses. Google is now trying to make the process faster, too, by having Google Assistant fill in contact information and payment details automatically on Android phones after you find a restaurant via Google Search. To use the new feature, you have to search for whatever restaurant you’d like to order from in the Google app, then select the “Order Online” button on the restaurant’s information card. After making your food selections, you can tag in Google Assistant to complete the order using your stored contact and payment information from Google Pay and Chrome Autofill. Assistant then confirms you’re ready to pay, and the order is placed. There are ...

Nintendo broadcast its latest “Indie World Showcase” today, and the 20-minute event was pretty packed full of announcements for upcoming Switch games. There’s a good amount of variety, too: everything from fantastical skateboarding worlds to procedurally generated road trips to a puzzle classic that’s available later today. If you missed out on the presentation, here are the highlights. Road 96. Road 96 Described as “a narrative-focused game with a mix of adventure, exploration, and puzzle-solving,” Road 96’s story features procedurally generated elements, meaning no two road trips will be exactly alike, and choice will also play a big part in how it unfolds. It’s expected to launch on the Switch later this year. Oxenfree II: Lost Signals A surprise sequel to the incredibly surreal adventu...

TCL is once again teasing a foldable phone concept — and it’s a Frankenstein’s monster of some previously showcased flexible concepts. Called Fold ‘n Roll, it combines the company’s “dragonhinge” technology with an extendable display panel. The result is a 6.87-inch phone that can expand to an 8.85-inch phablet size or fully extend to a 10-inch tablet. Outside of that, the company isn’t offering any other detailed information. TCL says it’s “still exploring the technical specifications” of this type of device, which doesn’t inspire a lot of confidence that the Fold n’ Roll will hit the market anytime soon. But TCL did say it plans to launch some kind of foldable phone before the end of 2021. The company has offered no shortage of foldable display concepts; most recently, it had several to ...

Sony’s new PS5 software update is live right now, and includes some surprise improvements to HDR and 120Hz support. While Sony already detailed a big new feature to let players store — but not play — PS5 games on an external hard drive, there’s also a new option to automatically switch video output to non-HDR when you’re using a game or app that doesn’t support HDR. This is a key improvement for those using HDR on the PS5, as it now means you no longer have to dig into the settings menu to manually disable HDR when you’re viewing SDR content. Alongside these HDR changes, this update also adds two new HDMI controls in the system part of the PS5 settings menu. You can now toggle one-touch play, which will automatically turn on a connected TV when you power up a PS5 and switch it to the corre...

Urbanista’s new wireless noise-canceling Los Angeles headphones have a solar panel integrated into the length of the headband, allowing them to draw power from both indoor and outdoor light, Wired reports. Although its built-in 750mAh battery can be charged traditionally via USB-C and offers up to a respectable 50 hours of battery life, the real appeal to these headphones is the solar charging. They’re due to ship in early summer for £169 (around $232), according to Wired. Although Urbanista’s site promises “infinite playtime” from the headphones, the exact amount of power these headphones can generate while solar charging varies. One hour spent in the sun should generate enough power for three hours of playtime, but on a cloudy day that drops to just two hours, the company says. In a wors...

USB microphones are great for creators starting out in podcasting — until they have to mic more than one person in a room. There hasn’t been an efficient way to simultaneously record multiple USB mics on one computer, so now Rode is introducing an app that starts to offer a solution. Rode’s new app, Rode Connect, lets you record multitrack or mixed stereo audio when plugging up to four USB microphones into your computer. There’s one big catch, though: for now, you can only do this with one model of USB microphone — Rode’s $99 NT-USB Mini. You can think of the app as a virtual version of Rode’s $599 hardware mixer, the Rodecaster Pro, which allows you to plug in multiple XLR microphones, play audio clips, and record locally. The Rode Connect does that in an app on your computer with USB mic...

When Daniel McGloin decided to trade in his mid-2017 Apple MacBook in February of this year, he thought he was getting a pretty good deal. The software engineer and San Diego native initiated the trade-in with Apple through the Apple Store mobile app, where he was quoted $350 for his used laptop. He felt it was in pretty good condition, with no apparent damage to the case and a fully functioning display and keyboard. So McGloin packed up the device and shipped it in, expecting to receive his money in the coming weeks, which would help offset his purchase of a MacBook Air carrying Apple’s new M1 chip. The situation soon changed after his laptop arrived for inspection. Suddenly, McGloin was told his MacBook was worth just $140, less than half what Apple originally quoted. The mysterious culp...