Technology

Ozzy Osbourne‘s new NFT project CryptoBatz has fallen victim to a phishing scam causing tens of thousands of dollars to be drained from buyers. The exploit was made possible after the project changed URLs for its Discord channel from discord.gg/cryptobatznft to just discord.gg/cryptobatz. Despite the swap, the project failed to delete previous tweets promoting the old URL, which scammers subsequently managed to register. The false Discord server brought in 1,330 users, who were then subjected to a phishing scam from links a bot sent regarding verification of their crypto assets in order to participate in the sale. According to Tim Silman, who lost money to the scam himself, roughly $400 USD in ETH was taken from his wallet, but many other users suffered worse fates. “I’ve seen at least a d...

Potential European pricing information for the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S22 series has been released by reliable leaker Roland Quandt, as reported by Android Police. Samsung appears to have carried over its prices from the previous S21 lineup, with the only inconsistency being an equally-priced S22 Ultra model that supposedly comes with less RAM than its S21 predecessor. Whoever said S22 series was to be cheaper, didn’t think of Covid, parts shortages and inflation. Actual official EURO prices:S22 8/128GB = 849S22 8/256GB = 899S22+ 8/128GB = 1049S22+ 8/256GB = 1099S22 Ultra 8/128GB = 1249S22 Ultra 12/256GB = 1349S22 Ultra 12/512GB = 1449 pic.twitter.com/QRnfrhkzTz — Roland Quandt (@rquandt) January 22, 2022 Quandt claims the S22 will start at 849€ (~$963), the S22 Plus will set you ba...

If you’ve connected your bank account to financial apps like Robinhood, Acorns, Venmo, American Express, Coinbase, and Credit Karma, you may be entitled to some cash, according to a report by Fast Company. Plaid, the financial service these apps (and 5,500 others) use to link your bank account, has settled a class-action lawsuit accusing the company of collecting more financial data from users than necessary. The suit also alleges Plaid obtained users’ bank login information “through its user interface, known as ‘Plaid Link,’ which had the look and feel of the user’s own bank account login screen.” In reality, users were inputting their information “directly to Plaid.” Plaid denies these claims and says it was transparent with its customers. Plaid has been ordered to pay $58 million to aff...

Apple has extended its deadline requiring online group and event apps to comply with the company’s in-app purchase policy once again, as announced in a post on the company’s developer’s blog (via 9to5Mac). Apps in this category can now use alternate payment options until June 30th, allowing them to skirt Apple’s 15 to 30 percent cut the company takes out of in-app purchases. “In 2020, we chose to support apps and developers that needed to adapt services from in-person to digital as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic,” Apple writes in the post. “Given the recent resurgence of COVID and its continued impact on in-person services, we’ve extended the most recent deadline.” Apple first deferred its rule targeting group event apps in November 2020 Apple introduced changes to its in-app purchase p...

Spoilers ahead for And Just Like That… and Billions. Peloton really can’t catch a break. Not only did rumors it’s temporarily suspending production of its connected bikes and treadmills send the stock plunging on Thursday, but — in a plot twist worthy of the big screen — a second TV show character has been shown having a heart attack while riding a Peloton. This comes just over a month after a beloved character from Sex and the City was killed off after a workout on one of the company’s bikes. Mr. Big’s ghost rides again to haunt Peloton In the season six premiere of Billions (available in an early release via streaming, including for free on YouTube, ahead of the show’s usual Sunday night time slot), the character Wags’ Peloton ride is interrupted by EMTs who tell him he’s having a ...

On Thursday, the European Parliament voted to approve the initial draft of a bill that aims to curb Big Tech’s invasive advertising practices (via Bloomberg). The Parliament adopted the draft with 530 votes of approval, 78 against, and 80 absentations. The Digital Services Act, which was first introduced in 2020, will prevent platforms, like Google, Amazon, and the Meta-owned Facebook, from using sensitive information, such as sexual orientation, race, and religion for targeted ads. It will require services to give users the ability to easily opt out of tracking, and pressures platforms to remove illegal content and products online, including hate speech or counterfeit goods. “With a huge majority, the European Parliament adopted the Digital Services Act,” Dutch politician and Parliament m...

CIYCE has just released its affordable gaming headset on Kickstarter. The 7.1-surround sound Evolution headset features 30 ms latency, is compatible with smartphones, the Sony PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, and Mac/PC, has active noise canceling, and is the world’s first headset that can connect via three methods — Type-C + USB, 3.5mm, and Bluetooth5.1. The headset also features removable ear pads (it comes with both synthetic leather and fabric covers), four ANC mics, and two ENC/call mics. The chat microphones are hidden inside the headset’s RGB LED housing that’s made to look like an alien’s head. Designed by gamers, the CIYCE Evolution can be backed now over at Kickstarter for $78 USD. In other tech news, mastermind JAPAN and COTODAMA reconnect for Lyric Speaker Box release. Read ...

A dangerous remote code execution (RCE) exploit found in Dark Souls 3 could let a bad actor take control of your computer, according to a report from Dexerto. The vulnerability only puts PC gamers who play online at risk and may potentially affect Dark Souls, Dark Souls 2, and the upcoming Elden Ring. The exploit was seen in action during The__Grim__Sleeper’s Twitch stream of Dark Souls 3 online. At the end of the stream (1:20:22), The__Grim__Sleeper’s game crashes, and the robotic voice belonging to Microsoft’s text-to-speech generator suddenly starts criticizing his gameplay. The__Grim__Sleeper then reports that Microsoft PowerShell opened by itself, a sign that a hacker used the program to run a script that triggered the text-to-speech feature. RCE is one of the most dangerous vulnerabi...

The United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee is telling athletes to ditch their personal phones for burners ahead of next month’s Winter Olympics in China, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal (via Android Central). “Every device, communication, transaction and online activity may be monitored” The advisory was reportedly sent out twice last year to warn athletes about the possibility of digital surveillance while in China. “Every device, communication, transaction and online activity may be monitored,” the bulletin states. “Your device(s) may also be compromised with malicious software, which could negatively impact future use.” As noted by the WSJ, Great Britain, Canada, and the Netherlands have also cautioned athletes against bringing their personal electronics into ...