Technology

A Google Assistant feature designed to automate the time-consuming process of changing your passwords after a breach appears to be getting a wider rollout. That’s according to a tweet from leaker Max Weinbach and a report from Android Police. One of Weinbach’s screenshots shows a dialog box warning that Chrome on Android has detected that a used password appeared in a breach, and offers the option to “Change automatically.” The second includes a confirmation box, asking the user to agree to “Let Google Assistant help you change your password.” The Google Assistant feature was announced back at Google I/O last year. It only works on supported sites, but where possible the idea is to automate as much of the password-changing process as possible. When triggered, Assistant will take you direct...

“A lot of people ask if it’s like riding a rollercoaster,” says geology professor and the first black female pilot of a spacecraft, Dr. Sian Proctor, on the sensation of zero gravity. “It’s more like that idea of Peter Pan, where you just lift up, and you’re just suspended”. That same feeling is captured by ASUS’ ethereal new laptop, the Zenbook 14X OLED Space Edition. Built to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the first ASUS laptop being sent to space aboard the Mir space station in 1998, the exterior of this special edition laptop will be immediately familiar to anyone who has dreamt of slipping the earth’s surly bonds. Encased in an exclusive Zero-G Titanium color, the construction of the Zenbook 14X OLED Space Edition is certified as compliant with the US space-grade durability stand...

Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, along with executive vice president and chief marketing officer Brady Brewer, explained to investors during their Q2 2022 earnings presentation that the coffee company will add “new concepts such as ownership and community-based membership models that we see developing in the Web 3 space.” Brewer went further, saying “Imagine acquiring a new digital collectible from Starbucks, where that product also serves as your access pass to a global Starbucks community, one with engaging content experiences and collaboration all centered around coffee.” A post on the company blog does more to explain what all of that means: We plan to create a series of branded NFT collections, the ownership of which initiates community membership, and allows for access to exclusive expe...

Cameo, the company that lets you pay a celebrity to record a custom message or hop on a video call with you, has announced that it’s laying off 87 people, or around a quarter of its staff, according to The Information. According to the report, employees got the news at an all-hands meeting on Wednesday. The company’s co-founder and CEO Steven Galanis says the layoffs are a “course correction” after Cameo grew massively during the pandemic. The company went “from just over 100 to nearly 400” employees during lockdown, according to Galanis’ statement to Variety. Since then, he says, “market conditions have rapidly changed.” Early in 2021, Variety reported that the company’s revenue was 4.5 times higher in 2020 than it had been in 2019. Galanis told the outlet the success was partially becaus...

Dish Network has taken a big step forward on its journey to becoming the country’s fourth wireless carrier — one that it should have taken, oh, let’s say many months ago. As reported by Axios, its 5G network, aka Project Genesis, has finally launched to paying customers in Las Vegas, graduating from the beta program that began late last year. For $30 per month it includes unlimited 5G data, talk, text, and, uh, this: “Additionally, we include a white-glove delivery experience and exclusive access to the Project Genesis app where you can earn rewards.” Rewards including… NFTs. As part of T-Mobile’s deal to buy Sprint, Dish Network has been tasked by the FCC with taking Sprint’s place as our fourth carrier. It’s taking an unconventional route to get there, building its 5G network using...

Bluesky, Twitter’s open-source offshoot, has released early code for a decentralized social network protocol. The system is dubbed the Authenticated Data Experiment (or ADX) and is available on GitHub for developers to test, although Bluesky emphasizes that it’s incomplete. It’s one of the most substantive windows into Bluesky’s workings since the project was conceived in 2019 and formally incorporated in early 2022. Bluesky CEO Jay Graber writes that ADX will be the start of a semi-public development process. “We’re going to take a middle path of releasing work before it’s complete, but also giving ourselves time to workshop new directions at early stages,” Graber says. The GitHub repository includes an overview of ADX’s goals and design as well as some experimental code. “Feel free to pl...

Intuit, the company behind TurboTax, has agreed to pay out $141 million after it “cheated millions of low-income Americans out of free tax filing services,” in the words of New York Attorney General Letitia James. Most of that money will go to consumers that were tricked into paying for its service. This comes as the result of an agreement it made with the AG (and officials from all 50 states and DC), which will also require the company to change its marketing practices. According to the Attorney General’s press release, Intuit will owe people $30 for every year they were tricked into paying for TurboTax between 2016 and 2018. The document notes that “impacted consumers will automatically receive notices and a check by mail.” TurboTax has long been maligned for being opaque and having dece...

Today Google hardware boss Rick Osterloh confirmed that the company has acquired Raxium, a five-year-old startup with MicroLED technology that could be key in building a new generation of augmented, virtual, and mixed reality headsets. This adds to the evidence that Google’s next big AR move is growing closer: it previously acquired the glasses maker North in 2020, and is reportedly hiring engineers to build an augmented reality operating system. We learned in January that Google Labs is building an AR headset called “Project Iris,” under the same management as the Project Starline high-res video chat demo shown during its I/O event last year. Image: Raxium When The Information first reported Google’s Raxium purchase last month, it noted that MicroLED tech could be useful for building AR d...

Clippy, the beloved(?) paperclip-shaped assistant for Microsoft Office, has made an appearance in Halo Infinite as a series of unlockable items. IGN points out that it’s not quite clear yet how to unlock the decals, but it seems likely that equipping them won’t suddenly cover your screen in a barrage of “helpful” hints and tricks (which is unfortunate for total scrubs like me). The tweet that brought the character’s appearance to our attention shows both a Clippy nameplate and gun charm, but the character shows up in a few other places, too: you can spray paint them onto the hood of your Warthog or your Spartan’s chest. Interestingly, in most places the character shows up as “Clipster.” Clippy has also gone by Clippit, but “Clipster” isn’t a common nickname for them, as far as I’m aware. M...

The day has arrived: you can now spend $159 on a USB cable and actually feel somewhat justified! That’s because Apple’s three-meter Thunderbolt 4 Pro Cable isn’t just any ol’ cord — it’s still the only Thunderbolt 4 / USB-C / USB 4 cable on the market at anywhere near its length. Want a cable that can transmit 40 gigabits per second of Thunderbolt 4 and USB 4 data, up to 8K video, and 100W of USB-C PD power to a big MacBook Pro nearly 10 feet away? It’s your only game in town. Every other company that sells a Thunderbolt 4 cable — including Belkin, CalDigit, CableMatters, CTG, OWC, and Plugable — tops out at two meters (6.6 feet). Which makes those other cables roughly just half a foot longer than Apple’s previous 1.8-meter Thunderbolt 4 cord. It’s also a braided cable, which makes me happ...