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People are mortgaging their houses to buy Bitcoin
Bitcoin is sitting at $16,674 at the time of writing, after rocketing from $1,000 to more than $19,000 in the course of this year. Those types of eye-catching numbers (and the resulting media hype) are bound to draw the interest of casual folk. But, unless you've got money to burn (like Bitcoin billionaires, and Zuck's Harvard-era nemeses, the Winklevoss twins), most analysts will tell you the same thing: steer clear of the hyper-volatile currency. (Even those dabbling in it have lost tons of cash to cyberattacks on Bitcoin wallets).
Uber paid off a 20-year-old Florida man to destroy hacked data
More details are coming to light about Uber's huge data breach. Reuters is reporting that a 20-year-old Florida man was behind the 2016 extortion-oriented cyberattack and was paid through the firm's bug bounty program. We know that the individual, whose identity Uber refuses to disclose, received $100,000 for destroying the info, which exposed the personal data of roughly 57 million customers and drivers. The ride-hailing firm then kept quiet about the breach for more than a year. You can bet Congress and the five states investigating Uber will be paying close attention to any new nuggets of info.
Tesla’s Gigafactory might be behind a global battery shortage
Tesla has been besieged by reports of production delays and quality control issues lately, and now it's coming under fire for problems at its Gigafactory, which have led to a global shortage of cylindrical batteries. According to sources quoted by etnews, it's now "impossible" to purchase cylindrical batteries in Japan -- where most of the world's electronics manufacturing happens -- because Gigafactory has hoovered up the supplies needed to create them, but has failed to do so.
The iPhone 8 goes up against the Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus
Before you start throwing down cash for new phones like a Grinch post heart-expansion, watch our video to directly compare more factors than just name brand and price on two of the most popular phones. The iPhone 8 and Galaxy S8 Plus are both less than $1000 (no thanks, iPhone X) but still expensive, beginning at $699 and $825, respectively.
Google will enlist 10,000 employees to moderate YouTube videos
YouTube had its hands full lately, dealing with disturbing channels and videos masquerading as family-friendly offerings. Now, YouTube chief Susan Wojcicki has explained how the platform plans to keep a closer eye on the videos it hosts going forward by applying the lessons it learned fighting violent extremism content. Wojcicki says the company has begun training its algorithms to improve child safety on the platform and to be better at detecting hate speech. To be able to teach its algorithms which videos need to be removed and which can stay, though, it needs more people's help. That's why it aims to appoint as many as 10,000 people across Google to review content that might violate its policies.
Facebook rolls out a Messenger app just for kids
It's no surprise that kids are using technology at a pretty young age these days, and a key part of that is using it to communicate with friends and family. But most kids tend to use tablets or iPod Touches that don't have phone numbers, so normal texting and video chats are a no-go (unless it's with mommy's phone, which isn't always great for mommy). Sure you could use an app like FaceTime or Hangouts, but most of them don't offer the kind of control that parents want, especially for really young kids. Facebook, however, has come up with a solution. It's called Messenger Kids and yes, it's basically a standalone child-friendly Messenger app with parental controls baked right in.
Coinbase must share users' cryptocurrency data with the IRS
Coinbase will be forced to share the financial information of 14,355 users with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), following a California federal court ruling. The move follows a year-long battle between the cryptocurrency company and the IRS, which believes a high number of customers are failing to report holdings on their taxes. Coinbase has some six million users, but fewer than 1,000 have officially declared cryptocurrency activity.
HP quietly installs system-slowing spyware on its PCs
Lenovo has only just settled a massive $3.5 million fine for preinstalling adware on laptops without users' consent, and now it seems HP is getting in on the stealth installation action, too. According to numerous reports gathered by Computer World, the brand is deploying a telemetry client on customer computers without asking permission.
Twitter and others warn FCC of 'disastrous' net neutrality reversal
Twitter, Pinterest, Reddit and Airbnb were among 200 firms that signed a letter warning FCC Chairman Ajit Pai not to roll back net neutrality, according to Broadcasting & Cable. Dated on Cyber Monday (November 27th), the letter notes that record Black Friday sales are "a testament to the power of the free and open internet to encourage entrepreneurship, drive innovation, make our lives easier, and to support a healthy economy."
Intel's latest Core processors have serious security flaws
Intel has confirmed previous reports that its recent PC, internet of things and server chips are vulnerable to remote hacking. The problem is with the onboard "Management Engine," which has multiple holes that could let remote attackers run malicious software, get privileged access and take over computers. The vulnerability affects sixth, seventh and eighth generation Core chips (Skylake, Kaby Lake and Kaby Lake R), along with Pentium, Celeron, Atom and multiple Xeon chips.
FCC chairman reveals plan to kill net neutrality
As expected, tomorrow, the FCC will release its plan to undo the net neutrality protections put in place during the Obama administration. Despite plenty of opposition, the FCC and Chairman Ajit Pai will go forward with the proposal, which will be voted on by the commission on December 14th. In a statement released today, Pai said, "Today, I have shared with my colleagues a draft order that would abandon this failed approach and return to the longstanding consensus that served consumers well for decades. Under my proposal, the federal government will stop micromanaging the internet."
Uber orders up to 24,000 Volvo SUVs for its self-driving fleet
Uber has just taken another big step from a ride-sharing service to a transportation provider. It announced that it will buy up to 24,000 Volvo XC90s, marking the first major vehicle fleet purchase by a ride-hailing service. Uber will take delivery of the SUVs between 2019 and 2021, then equip them with its own sensors and tech, allowing it to do fully autonomous, driver-free passenger rides. "This new agreement puts us on a path toward mass-produced, self-driving vehicles at scale," Uber's Jeff Miller told Bloomberg.
This week's tech titan 404s | Engadget Today
If you tend to work in Google Docs, you already know about it being down for hours on Wednesday, but only AT&T users had the pleasure of realizing their phones also didn't work for a good portion that same day. To fix it, AT&T told users to restart their phones, and that it might take multiple restarts to get it working again. T-Mobile, never one to miss a diss, jumped right into the same Twitter thread to offer frustrated users a chance to switch carriers. Ouch.
Hollywood strikes back against illegal streaming Kodi add-ons
An anti-piracy alliance supported by many major US and UK movie studios, broadcasters and content providers has dealt a blow to the third-party Kodi add-on scene after it successfully forced a number of popular piracy-linked streaming tools offline. In what appears to be a coordinated crackdown, developers including jsergio123 and The_Alpha, who are responsible for the development and hosting of add-ons like urlresolver, metahandler, Bennu, DeathStreams and Sportie, confirmed that they will no longer maintain their Kodi creations and have immediately shut them down.
Denver will test its own Hyperloop-inspired transport system
Colorado's Department of Transportation has teamed up with Arrivo to use Hyperloop-ish technology to connect the city of Denver. The partnership is looking at ways to use vacuum tubes to reduce congestion and create a local transport area that bridges distances far faster than at present.
30 governments are interfering with democracy online
Political mudslinging is a concept as old as politics itself, but in recent years it's found its way off the podium and onto the internet, and a new report now shows the extent of the problem. According to findings from Freedom House, governments in no less than 30 countries are now "mass producing their own content to distort the digital landscape in their favor". Furthermore, these manipulation efforts may have affected elections taking place in 18 countries.
Amazon may be prepping a free ad-supported video service (updated)
Amazon Prime Video is a decent bargain when you're getting unlimited streaming video and a host of other perks, but it has some fresh competition: Roku, Vudu and others are starting to offer some content for free. How do you compete with that? By offering your own free service, naturally. Ad Age sources claim that Amazon is developing a free, ad-supported streaming service as a "complement" to Prime Video, reviving an idea that had surfaced back in 2014. It would reportedly give creators a lot of power and viewer data in exchange for content guarantees, although the material wouldn't compete with what Prime offers.
Twitter halts verification after backlash over Charlottesville organizer
Over the last month, Twitter seemed to finally wake up to the need to fight the rampant hate speech and abuse that happens on its platform. That made yesterday's decision to verify Jason Kessler, the leader of the white supremacist rally that took place in Charlottesville, VA this summer, incredibly odd (or incredibly foolish). Regardless, the blue checkmark is firmly in place on Kessler's account, and users pretty quickly told Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey they weren't happy about this move. This morning, Twitter responded -- not by revoking Kessler's verified status, but by saying it was pausing all general verifications to resolve confusion around what being verified really means. "Verification was meant to authenticate identity & voice," reads a tweet on the company's support account, "but it is interpreted as an endorsement or an indicator of importance."
Uber works with NASA to get flying taxis ready by 2020
They say the best revenge is living well, and so in the midst of its ongoing and messy breakup with London, Uber has proven it's doing just fine thank you very much by signing an agreement with NASA to develop software for its proposed flying taxi project, Elevate.
Apple defends moving offshore profits to the tax haven of Jersey
A set of leaked documents from offshore law firm Appleby has revealed that Apple stashed $250 billion in Jersey, a tiny island off the coast of France known for being a tax haven. The tech titan apparently secretly moved its pile of overseas profits to the island after the US and various European governments cracked down on the tax strategy it's been employing since the 1980's. Apple used to rely on an arrangement called the "double Irish," which took advantage of Ireland's business-friendly tax policies.
