Technology

Twitter says it has “no evidence” user passwords were accessed as part of yesterday’s massive attack targeting the company’s internal tools, but it is still working to restore access to locked accounts. The updates were shared as part of a series of tweets posted Thursday afternoon. Yesterday, attackers hijacked the accounts of some of the most-followed people on Twitter, including President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, Elon Musk, Bill Gates, and Kanye West, to post bitcoin scams. The company made the decision to lock many accounts last night as a precaution to reduce further damage from the attacks, and it provided more detail about why accounts were locked in this afternoon’s tweets. “Out of an abundance of caution, and as part of our incident response yesterday to protect peo...

Logitech announced the Folio Touch, a new keyboard case for the 11-inch iPad Pro model (both the 2018 and 2020 versions). It’s a more affordable alternative to Apple’s Magic Keyboard and is similar to the Logitech Combo Touch for earlier iPad models. The case features a foldable keyboard with a full row of shortcut keys for iPadOS, which are notably missing from the Magic Keyboard. The keys are backlit and adjust their brightness based on ambient lighting. The Folio includes a touchpad as well, which supports multi-finger gestures, including swipe, scroll, pinch, and double tap. Logitech The kickstand is adjustable, tilting up to 40 degrees, and you can fold the keyboard behind the back of the iPad (something you can’t do with the Magic Keyboard). You can use a connected iPad in four modes...

As the pandemic continues to keep people inside, some jobs have shifted from office culture to working from home. For developers adjusting to this new reality, many say they’re struggling to stay focused and productive under the new conditions, according to a new survey published by GDC. The results, released today, include almost 2,500 developers. Of those who responded to the survey, 70 percent say they’ve switched to working from home. Workers cited specific problems around child care, communication, distractions, as well as general anxiety over larger troubles. “The biggest overall team challenge has been managing ambient stress,” wrote one respondent. “Everyone has been affected by the pandemic in some way, even if not directly, and the general atmosphere of anxiety is impossible to i...

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are demanding more details on Twitter’s massive hacking attack yesterday. Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) said in a statement Thursday that “Twitter must fully disclose what happened and what it is doing to ensure this never happens again.” On Wednesday, Twitter accounts belonging to major companies like Apple and Uber and high-profile individuals like Vice President Joe Biden, President Barack Obama, Elon Musk, and Bill Gates were all compromised as part of a coordinated bitcoin scam. According to Twitter, the accounts were compromised by hackers who “successfully targeted” employees who had access to internal systems and tools that provided access to these accounts. The specifics are still unknown, but Twitter said late Wednesday evening that it was still inves...

Instagram plans to launch its TikTok clone in the US and more than 50 other countries within weeks, NBC News reported this morning. Instagram later confirmed to TechCrunch that the feature will launch in “early August” in the US and more. The feature, called Reels, is Instagram’s attempt to recreate the short musical video format that thrives on TikTok. Reels will let users record and edit 15-second video clips set to music, or users will be able to reuse audio from another person’s video, as is commonly done on TikTok. So far, the feature is only available in a few countries, including India and Brazil. Reels will be part of Instagram Stories Instagram — like its owner, Facebook — has a history of replicating popular features from other apps. Its Stories feature was taken from Snapchat, a...

T-Mobile said Thursday it is once again moving to tackle robocalls by scammers, repackaging several features it’s had in place for a while as a program it’s calling Scam Shield. It includes free caller ID and call blocking, free enhanced caller ID to let people know when a number calling is verified, and a free second “proxy” number to filter out scam calls from coming to personal phone lines. The proxy number can be shared among members on a family plan. Customers can also change their phone numbers for free if they’ve become inundated with spam calls. Scam Shield will be available to all T-Mobile, Metro, and Sprint customers. The new protections can be activated via a free Scam Shield app which will be available July 24th. Former Sprint customers and existing T-Mobile customers who have ...

Instagram is making it easier for people to shop inside its app. Today, it’s starting to widely roll out a dedicated Shop page under the Explore tab that’ll highlight different brands and items that people can purchase. The Shop page will also give users personalized recommendations on things to buy, with everything being able to be purchased from within the app. Instagram is also making Facebook Pay, which lets people insert most debit or credit card information into the app and save it to easily share money. Facebook Pay is available for both shopping purchases and donations, which has been planned since the product debuted. Both these features are coming to the US first. Combined, these features make shopping on Instagram more seamless, especially when it comes to paying. People don’t h...

Uber announced that it will acquire Routematch, an Atlanta-based company that develops software for public transportation agencies. The news comes amid the ride-hail company’s broader push into public transit. Uber didn’t disclose the terms of the deal. Routematch, which was founded in 2000, sells software to public transit agencies for data management, dispatching, trip booking, and ticketing. Uber said the acquisition will help bolster its own efforts to integrate more public transportation services in its app, like route planning and ticket purchases. The news comes on the heels of Uber’s announcement that it would begin selling the software that powers its ride-hailing business to transit agencies, with California’s Marin County transportation agency as the first customer. But the deal...

Apple made waves at WWDC this year when it announced that it’d be making its own Mac chips, switching away from the Intel processors the company has used across its laptops and desktops since 2005. While Apple may be new to computer chips, it’s been making its own processors ever since the original iPad and the iPhone 4. In fact, it’s one of the biggest advantages to Apple’s approach to design: Apple builds the chips, Apple makes the software, and Apple designs the hardware — every part of the process is under Apple’s control. Now, Apple is potentially poised to bring those same benefits to its Macs. The switch to ARM — which the company refers to as “Apple silicon” — is the third major hardware platform for Macs. The most recent one was the 2005 transition from PowerPC chips to Intel, whi...

Leica has announced the latest variant of its M10 rangefinder, the M10-R. The M10-R is visually similar to the prior M10 and M10-P models, with the same overall design and handling. What’s different is under the hood, specifically the new 40.89-megapixel CMOS sensor. Similar to the 40-megapixel black-and-white sensor found in the M10 Monochrom, the new chip has a significant jump in resolution over the 24-megapixel sensor in the M10 and M10-P. The M10-R will be available in July in black or silver for $8,295. As it is still an M10 at its core, the M10-R has the same body, same touchscreen, same interface, same battery, same processor, and same quiet shutter as the M10-P. Its new sensor has an ISO range of 100 to 50,000, and Leica claims that it has one to two stops better dynamic range tha...

The White House has hinted at a timeframe for taking action against TikTok, the popular social video app owned by Chinese internet company ByteDance. Last week Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the Trump administration was “certainly looking at” banning the app, and now Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows says a move could come within weeks. “There are a number of administration officials who are looking at the national security risk as it relates to TikTok, WeChat and other apps that have the potential for national security exposure, specifically as it relates to the gathering of information on American citizens by a foreign adversary,” Meadows told reporters traveling from Atlanta on Air Force One. “I dont think there’s any self-imposed deadline for action, but I think we are looking a...

Twitter has shed some light on the unprecedented attack on Wednesday that resulted in numerous takeovers of high-profile accounts including those of President Barack Obama, Democratic candidate Joe Biden, and Tesla CEO Elon Musk. In a series of tweets posted this evening under its support channel, Twitter said that its internal systems were compromised by the hackers, confirming theories that the attack could not have been conducted without access to the company’s own tools and employee privileges. “We detected what we believe to be a coordinated social engineering attack by people who successfully targeted some of our employees with access to internal systems and tools,” the first tweet in a multi-tweet explainer thread reads. “We know they used this access to take control of many highly-...