Category: Tech
Chinese state hackers are infecting TP-Link routers with custom, malicious firmware
Check Point researchers have uncovered yet another advanced persistent threat (APT), which is operated by a Chinese-sponsored group identified as “Camaro Dragon.” The attack, which mostly overlaps with malicious activities previously attributed to the “Mustang Panda” crew, is designed to cover its tracks behind TP-Link routers infected by a complex…
Comedian Hasan Minhaj can now direct you through traffic on Waze
Waze, the Google-owned traffic and navigation app, announced Wednesday a partnership with comedian Hasan Minhaj, who will be the newest personal navigator, entertaining users with relatable commentary on traffic, self-deprecating jokes and other funny insights about driving. Waze is also launching new digital icons that appear on the Waze map. For instance, users can get […]
Comedian Hasan Minhaj can now direct you through traffic on Waze by Lauren Forristal originally published on TechCrunch
Amazon’s new Echo Buds are already on sale — and just a third of the price of its 2021 earbuds
SAVE 20%: Amazon announced new Echo Buds on May 17, and though they’re only available to pre-order at the moment, they’re just $39.99, down $10 from their $49.99 list price. The earbuds will officially be released on June 7.
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Amazon dropped some new Echo Buds today (along with a few other Echo devices), and already, they’re on sale. Even better — the markdown puts them at just a third of the price of the 2021 Echo Buds.
Yes, you read that right. The 2023 Echo Buds are available to pre-order at just $39.99 (instead of the full price of $49.99 Amazon announced they would be mere hours ago). That’ll save you 20%, and ensure you a pair of buds that’ll officially release on June 7.
And as we mentioned up top, it’s a huge price cut from the Echo Buds that came out two years ago (now known as the “Echo Buds with Active Noise Cancellation”), which retail for $120 with a wired charging case.
So what’s the difference? The latest buds ditch any noise cancellation, which certainly accounts for the much lower price point. They also have a completely new design, and look much more like generic AirPods-like earbuds with a semi-in-ear fit. Per charge, you’ll get up to five hours of battery life and three additional charges with the case, with 20 hours of battery overall.
You’ll also get multipoint pairing, which allows you to connect with up to two devices at a time, and customizable touch controls for your music, phone calls, and more.
Overall, the new Echo Buds don’t offer a host of exciting features, but they definitely have the foundation to be a solid pair of basic earbuds at a pretty unbeatable price.
UPDATE: May. 17, 2023, 3:05 p.m. EDT This story has been updated to clarify that the 2023 Echo Buds are brand new earbuds, not a third-generation model.
Ask Sophie: Which visas are best for US startup accelerators?
What type of visa can we get to come to the U.S. that allows us to stay there so we can grow our startup after the accelerator ends?
Ask Sophie: Which visas are best for US startup accelerators? by Walter Thompson originally published on TechCrunch
No, you’re not imagining it: TikTok changed its font
Move over Comic Sans, there’s a new clown in town: TikTok Sans.
Today (May 17) TikTok officially unveiled its very own font, TikTok Sans. Many users have already experienced the switch from the old font over to TikTok Sans. As is typical with any design update to a social media platform, users are outraged. The subtle change is enough to make any frequent TikTok user feel like they’ve lost their mind. The new font is longer and suspiciously looks like the font that’s a dead giveaway that someone uploaded a video from an Android.
According to a press statement, Grilli Type specially designed the font for TikTok, so it’s safe to assume some serious cash was invested in creating the font to deceive your eyeballs. The platform aims “to improve the user experience by optimizing legibility and reading retention, along with providing multi-language font support for our global community.” (So far, the new font has decreased my reading retention. I can’t click out of the app fast enough.)
The press statement documents the changes from the previous font: TikTok Sans letters have “bigger openings and clearer strokes” and “slicker and simpler shapes.” The font is also “visually larger and overall line height has been increased to improve readability.” It currently supports English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Italian, Indonesian, Turkish, and Vietnamese, with plans to expand it further.
Disgruntled users have taken to Twitter to complain about the change. One writes, “the slight font change on TikTok is making me want to rip my own teeth out with my bare hands.” Another says, “ew what is that new TikTok font.” Others are “breaking their silence” to reveal they actually like it.
The outrage will surely blow over when the craving for bite-sized content outweighs the optical irritation, our eyes will eventually adjust to the change.
Self-driving Tesla doesn’t yield for pedestrian. Tesla fan cheers.
A seven-second self-driving Tesla video posted to Twitter this past weekend shows a likely illegal driving event in San Francisco that, unfortunately, happens all the time in ordinary situations. It’s the poster’s reaction that has left many online unsettled.
In the video, we watch from inside the car’s cabin as the robo-Tesla edges close to a pedestrian who enters an intersection. The software display clearly shows the software picking up on the presence of the completely unprotected and vulnerable human, but Tesla’s software, it appears, doesn’t trigger compliance with the relevant law that says cars have to yield to pedestrians.
The text of the tweet couldn’t be more jolly about the victimless (in this case) moving violation, calling it “One of the most bullish / exciting things I’ve seen on Tesla Full Self-Driving Beta 11.4.1,” and describes not yielding as proceeding “like a human would,” rather than “slamming on the brakes.”
Whole Mars Catalog, which posted the video, is the online identity of a Tesla and SpaceX fan apparently named Omar Qazi. The Whole Mars Catalog Twitter account has hundreds of thousands of followers, and draws approving replies from Elon Musk.
For a rundown of this not-at-all obscure law, check out the third second of the video, in which a sign can be seen which says “STATE LAW YIELD TO [PICTURE OF PEDESTRIAN] WITHIN CROSSWALK,” just to the right of the pedestrian in the crosswalk not being yielded to.
Elon Musk recently touted the latest update to Tesla Full Self-Driving beta, version 11.4.1, as a steep improvement. It’s been slowly rolling out to Tesla consumers this month, and It’s supposedly so good that it should be called version 12, except that 12 will, Musk claims, be the release of an “end-to-end AI” version of FSD, whatever that means.
The video has some Twitter users concerned:
The Whole Mars Catalog Twitter account is, so far, full-throated in its defense of FSD 11.4.1, claiming that “people who don’t live in cities aren’t getting this,” and that prior FSD updates would have caused the Tesla in question to stop within the crosswalk in this scenario. “That is wrong, continuing forward is right,” claims Whole Mars Catalog. Indeed, stopping within a crosswalk blocks it, and no, that isn’t safe for pedestrians. The issue, however, is that this Tesla quite clearly has ample time to stop well before the crosswalk.
That a California driver may well also ignore the law in a similar situation is irrefutable (the author of this article is a reluctant Los Angeles driver). However, whether or not we should program our robotic cars to also drive this way should, perhaps, be a matter for public debate, and, maybe, for the legal system to decide. Such a democratically-informed decision could perhaps be made before this new norm is rolled out as a software update, and exuberantly lapped up by fans of a billionaire who then get to experiment with it on public roads.
Nicolas Cage is coming to ‘Dead by Daylight’
Nicolas Cage will soon appear in Dead by Daylight. The actor will bring his delightful eccentricity and Billy Mays-style beard to the multiplayer survival game, developer Behavior Interactive announced on Twitter. “There is nothing more powerful than imagination,” Cage says in the appropriately campy teaser. “It can shape the fabric of reality, transforming everything you may think you know.”
Cage will play himself in the role of a Survivor, according toEurogamer. “After countless awards and over one hundred movies shot across the globe, Nicolas Cage had seen it all and done it all — or so he thought,” a brief announcement reads. “While on set filming the role of a lifetime, his performance summoned The Entity, a malevolent being of incomprehensible power. The actor soon found himself cast in otherworldly Fog, forced to Survive a host of terrifying Killers deadlier than even the most scathing film critic.”
It’s the latest quirky / campy addition to the popular horror game, following a K-Pop star, Freddy Kreuger, Leatherface, Evil Dead’s Ash Williams and a pro-surveillance tech executive. (It even has a dating-sim add-on for some reason.) The game’s developers, who describe Cage’s appearance as “the performance of a lifetime,” say we’ll hear more about the Oscar winner’s contribution on July 5th.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/nicolas-cage-is-coming-to-dead-by-daylight-174623542.html?src=rss