Technology

Last week, news broke that IT management company SolarWinds had been hacked, possibly by the Russian government, and the US Treasury, Commerce, State, Energy, and Homeland Security departments have been affected — two of which may have had emails stolen as a result of the hack. Other government agencies and many companies are investigating due to SolarWinds’ extensive client list. The Wall Street Journal is now reporting that some big tech companies have been infected, too. Cisco, Intel, Nvidia, Belkin, and VMware have all had computers on their networks infected with the malware. There could be far more: SolarWinds had stated that “fewer than 18,000” companies were impacted, as if that number is supposed to be reassuring, and it even attempted to hide the list of clients who used the infe...

With its upcoming Galaxy Buds Pro, Samsung is planning to counter one of the differentiating features of Apple’s AirPods Pro (and now AirPods Max): spatial audio. Spatial audio crams an immersive, surround sound-like experience into a set of earbuds or headphones. And it accurately keeps the sound source anchored to your iPhone or iPad, so if you turn your head, you’ll notice that the audio stays in front of you. Wherever you move the device, that’s where it’ll sound like the audio track is coming from. But Samsung seems to be readying its own take on spatial audio. As is becoming oddly common, the company’s mobile Galaxy Buds app has prematurely spilled some of Samsung’s latest earbud tricks. As noted by 9to5Google, an updated version of the app was found on Samsung’s servers with screens...

Eero was the company that first popularized mesh networking for the home, fixing Wi-Fi for millions. It has built a reputation for its simple setup and minimal maintenance, reliably broadcasting a Wi-Fi connection throughout your home much better than a traditional standalone router could. Now that it is owned by Amazon, it promises to repeat that trick for customers who have access to gigabit internet speeds with its top-tier Eero Pro 6. Fixing most home Wi-Fi problems doesn’t have to cost a lot. A basic mesh system can provide reliable Wi-Fi coverage in most homes without costing more than $250. If the speeds you’re getting from your ISP are 300Mbps or less, there’s no real need to buy anything more. But if you do have the privilege of access to faster home internet, such as what gigabit...

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s estate and the creators of Netflix movie Enola Holmes have agreed to dismiss a copyright lawsuit over Sherlock Holmes’ emotions. Copyright Lately reported on the outcome today, noting that the court didn’t rule on the merits of the case, possibly indicating that the parties settled. So unfortunately, we don’t know if Enola Holmes’ take on Doyle’s famous detective violated copyright by showing a wider range of feelings and greater respect for women. The Enola Holmes case hinged on Sherlock Holmes’ complicated copyright status. Most Holmes stories sit in the public domain, and stories like Enola Holmes — which reimagines Holmes (played by Henry Cavill) having a younger sister — can freely repurpose their elements. But 10 of Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories are still prot...

The worst part of most Zoom meetings is the end. Not because it’s the moment when we have to lose human connection after being isolated for months during the COVID-19 pandemic. The end of a Zoom meeting is the worst because it’s so dang hard to quickly and gracefully end a call. With a typical not-Zoom call on a smartphone, you bring the phone down from your ear and tap the end call button. That’s it. On a Zoom meeting, you say your goodbye pleasantries, put your hand on your mouse, find your mouse on your screen, move it in the right direction toward the end call button, overshoot said button in your desperation to leave the meeting as soon as possible, and then finally click the button, all on video, where anyone who is still in the meeting can see the growing desperation in your eyes as...

Adobe has released an Arm version of Premiere Pro for macOS, allowing owners of new Apple Silicon M1 Macs to run the video editing software natively. The program is still very much in beta for now, however, and the Adobe post announcing its availability lists a host of known bugs and missing features. News of its release was spotted by The 8-Bit, and MacRumors adds that Adobe’s Premiere Rush and Audition have also been updated to run on the new machines. Adobe says it’s porting Premiere Pro’s features over in phases, starting with its core editing functions and workflows, as well as popular codecs like H.264, HEVC, and ProRes. Third-party integrations will need to be updated by their respective developers to work on Apple Silicon. Adobe advises that users can run the current release versio...

OnePlus has a new concept phone to show off, which is its way of teasing tech that maybe, just maybe, might make it into one of the company’s future phones. The OnePlus 8T Concept is a similar phone to the OnePlus 8T that was released a couple months ago, but it’s got a pretty unique rear design that changes color alongside a motion-tracking radar module. According to OnePlus, this color-changing effect is achieved with a film that contains metal oxide, which sits underneath the phone’s glass back and changes color as different voltages are applied to it. At its most basic, it could change color to show off the phone’s notifications, like an incoming phone call, much like the notification light that it has included on its phones in the past. But where things get really interesting is when ...

After years of speculation about whether Boba Fett would get his own spinoff of some kind, The Mandalorian’s season 2 finale confirmed that a new Boba Fett series, titled The Book of Boba Fett, will hit Disney Plus in December 2021. Executive producer Jon Favreau appeared on Good Morning America on December 21st to confirm The Book of Boba Fett as a new series (following some speculation that Book of Boba Fett was some sort of subtitle for The Mandalorian’s third season.) The new show will be an original series set within the world of The Mandalorian, with Favreau, Dave Filoni, and Robert Rodriguez set to produce the series. Favreau and Filoni already produce The Mandalorian, while Rodriguez directed the Boba Fett-centric season two episode, “The Tragedy.” Production on The Mandalorian’s t...

The year 2020 likely kept many of us inside for most of it, and it looks like that situation may last at least into part of 2021. One of the few positives is that many great movies and TV shows were released on streaming services such as Netflix. The streaming service has made available a plethora of movies and TV shows, some original to Netflix. Netflix currently offers three plans: Basic ($8.99 / month) lets you watch content on one screen at a time; Standard ($13.99 / month) brings it up to two screens and adds HD content; and Premium ($17.99) offers a total of four screens and Ultra HD content. Whether you need a new show to binge-watch once The Office leaves Netflix or something for a movie night with your loved ones, here’s a list of 10 movies and TV shows you should check out. We’ve...

In a perfect world, everything would fit under the surface of smartphone displays. That’s been the principle behind the past few years of phone design, at least, ever since the iPhone X escalated the bezel wars with its conspicuous notch. From in-display fingerprint sensors to pop-up selfie cameras, we’ve seen phone manufacturers take creative approaches to achieving the highest possible screen-to-body ratio. The latest advancement in the bezel wars is the ZTE Axon 20 5G, which goes on sale today and is the world’s first phone to integrate its front-facing camera underneath the screen. While in-display fingerprint sensors are commonplace now, doing the same for selfie cameras has proven to be more difficult. Companies like Oppo and Xiaomi have been showing off demos for years, but ZTE has ...

I can barely go anywhere on the internet without seeing yet another wild, hilarious, or downright odd bug from Cyberpunk 2077. It’s a buggy game, and developer CD Projekt Red has already released two hotfixes to try and shore up some of the problems. One issue that’s starting to pop up, though, isn’t funny at all: some players are reporting that their Cyberpunk 2077 save files are becoming corrupted if they exceed a certain file size (via Eurogamer). If your Cyberpunk 2077 save is corrupted, you’ll apparently see this prompt when you try and load up the game: “saved data is damaged and cannot be loaded.” Here’s what it looks like: The prompt shown for corrupted saves in Cyberpunk 2077. Image: GOG.com support document While it’s not clear what might be causing save files to be corrupted, it...