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Cloudflare cuts off extremist site 8chan after multiple shootings
Cloudflare has announced that it will no longer provide security services to the far-right site 8chan following the deadly, mass shooting by a white nationalist in El Paso, Texas. That will open 8chan up to distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, starting at midnight PDT, that could permanently disable the site unless it's able to find another security service.
'Star Trek: Picard' will have its own prequel comic and novel
Streaming shows have had literary tie-ins before, but not quite like this. CBS All Access' upcoming Star Trek: Picard will have two works that serve as lead-ins to the series -- you'll want to read them if you intend to be fully informed before the show's debut. A three-part IDW comic book series, Star Trek: Picard--Countdown, will kick off in November 2019 and center on a mission that will "change the life" of the legendary Starfleet captain. You'll have a better sense of the situation he's in as the online show begins.
Google Assistant can read out text replies on WhatsApp and Telegram
Google Assistant has long had the option to read your SMS messages aloud, but that hasn't done much good if your conversations lived in third-party apps. That shouldn't be an issue for long. Both Android Police and 91mobiles have noticed that Google is rolling out the option to read messages from non-Google apps like WhatsApp, Slack and Telegram. You can dictate or type out replies, and there appears to be limited support for languages beyond English.
Turkey requires broadcast licenses for online media providers
Turkey is extending its internet clampdown to media providers. The country now requires that all online content companies obtain broadcast licenses from TV regulator RTUK, which will also watch over their content. If they run afoul of RTUK's rules, they'll have 30 days to alter their content or risk losing their licenses for three months, or indefinitely if they don't mend their ways. The move will dictate the content for both streaming services like Netflix as well as news outlets.
Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp went down (again)
Facebook still can't avoid widespread outages, it seems. Numerous reports have surfaced of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp being unavailable to various degrees on the morning of August 4th. The failure doesn't appear to have been as dramatic as it was in July, when image services were out for several hours (we had at least some success visiting them ourselves). Still, it likely wasn't what you were hoping for if you wanted to catch up on your social feeds on a lazy Sunday morning.
After Math: Five big numbers (and one maddeningly small one)
During a week when Greenland's glaciers lost more than 12 billion tons of ice in a single 24 hour period, it seems only fitting that we take a look at the largest sums that splashed across Engadget's headlines.
StockX confirms it was hacked (updated)
StockX's warning of "suspicious activity" appears to have stemmed from a serious data breach. TechCrunch has learned through a black market data seller that a hacker stole 6.8 million records from the shoe trading site in May, including names, email addresses and (thankfully hashed) passwords. The data also included less vital info like shoe sizes, trading currencies and device version profiles.
Recommended Reading: Replacing crops with solar panels
California farmers are planting solar panels as water supplies dry up Sammy Roth, Los Angeles Times In parts of California, water is becoming scarce, and that's not great news for farmers. There is an alternative though: solar panels. Los Angeles Times explains how the renewable energy source might help replace jobs and revenue that are lost as over half a million acres are taken out of production in the San Joaquin Valley alone.
The Morning After: Razer's electric SUV
Hey, good morning! You look fabulous. Welcome to your weekend! There are some new details about Apple's credit card to pore over and an appropriately tricked-out SUV from Razer. Also, we'll recap some of last week's most popular stories like the contact lenses that zoom in and Sony's wearable air conditioner.
E3 data breach leaks info for thousands of registered journalists
Thanks to a staggering bit of negligence on the part of the organization that manages E3, the last and worst "leak" this year affects people from the media who covered the event. As pointed out on YouTube by Sophia Narwitz, a spreadsheet was available on the E3 website listing detailed contact information for over 2,000 journalists, content creators, analysts and others who applied for and received credentials to the event this year. The list apparently existed so that videogame companies could reach news media and content creators they wanted to contact about coverage, but it's obviously not intended to become publicly available. In a statement, the ESA said "Once notified, we immediately took steps to protect that data and shut down the site, which is no longer available. We regret this this occurrence and have put measures in place to ensure it will not occur again." That doesn't do much to help the people who are now at risk for targeted harassment, and, as VentureBeat points out, may cause an issue with Europe's GDPR. Narwitz noted that the list was pulled within hours of the ESA being notified, which was not soon enough to avoid people downloading and spreading the information. ESA: ESA was made aware of a website vulnerability that led to the contact list of registered journalists attending E3 being made public. Once notified, we immediately took steps to protect that data and shut down the site, which is no longer available. We regret this this occurrence and have put measures in place to ensure it will not occur again.
Amazon's new opt-out keeps people from 'reviewing' your Alexa recordings
Over the last few days Google and Apple have begun to address their use of real people that listen in on recordings to help improve voice AI like Assistant and Siri. For Amazon, these revelations surfaced months ago, and now it's added a toggle that people can use to opt out of potentially having their voice recordings and/or recorded message transcripts "manually reviewed" by people. While Amazon has said that only a small sample of recordings are manually reviewed, people may not want to have someone listening in on what they were saying just because their speaker or remote thought it heard the wake word.
'The Man Who Fell to Earth' will get a TV remake on CBS All Access
CBS is continuing its habit of reviving classic franchises as streaming shows. The broadcaster has ordered a series version of The Man Who Fell to Earth based on both Walter Tevis' novel and the legendary movie starring David Bowie. The premise remains largely the same -- an alien lands on Earth at a "turning point" for humans and learns what our species is like while trying to protect his own. There's no casting or release info at this stage, but the show will have strong production talent.
Facebook releases tools to flag harmful content on GitHub
Facebook wants to rid the internet of garbage. But it can't do that alone. So today, it's making two of its photo- and video-flagging technologies open-source and available on GitHub. It hopes the algorithms will help others find and remove harmful content -- like child exploitation, terrorist propaganda and graphic violence.
YouTube tweaked its algorithm to surface 'quality family content'
YouTube has quietly made some changes to its algorithm in July, and according to Bloomberg, it led to a significant decrease in views for a number of creators. A spokesperson for the platform told the publication that it rolls out "hundreds of changes every year," admitting that the company recently "made one such change that improves the ability for users to find quality family content." As Bloomberg noted, though, the company hasn't explained how it defines "quality" content and how its algorithms determine which videos to promote.
The Morning After: Top Twitch streamer 'Ninja' switches to Microsoft's Mixer
Hey, good morning! You look fabulous. Just as summer begins to fade and the back to school push ramps up, Intel is finally ready to deliver its 10nm, 10th-gen Ice Lake mobile chips. In other news, Burger King's not-meat Whopper is about to go nationwide, and Twitch's #1 streamer changed teams.
StockX forced password resets after 'suspicious activity' alert
For all the sneakerheads and hypebeasts out there, if you received an email from StockX asking you to reset your password, then it was probably authentic. The online marketplace told Engadget in a statement that it was "recently alerted to suspicious activity involving our platform." Exactly what that included is unspecified, but "out of an abundance of caution," it's updated security and is asking users to reset their passwords while an investigation continues. As usual, we'd hope you aren't sharing passwords across different services, and if you haven't already set up a password manager or started using two-factor authentication wherever available, this is a great time to start.
FCC hopes to fix its broadband maps with more precise data
More than a few people have qualms with the accuracy of the FCC's broadband coverage maps, and the regulator appears to be taking those objections somewhat seriously. It's ordering the creation of a Digital Opportunity Data Collection that would obtain "more granular" geospatial coverage data from fixed broadband providers. The knowledge would inform higher-accuracy maps and help the FCC determine where it can improve internet access through the Universal Service Fund.
Top 'Fortnite' streamer Ninja is ditching Twitch for Mixer
Tyler "Ninja" Blevins is one of the most popular streamers on Twitch. Or at least he was. He announced in a video posted Thursday he'll be streaming exclusively on Microsoft's Mixer from now on.
Sony and Samsung resurrect ultra-wideband to improve location tracking
When it comes to short range wireless technology, there are certainly a couple of stand-outs. WiFi and Bluetooth, for example, are an integral part of everyday life. Others have come and gone, with some serving niche purposes or fading into oblivion entirely. Now, one that got a lot of hype in the 2000s but didn't quite have a breakthrough moment -- ultra-wideband (UWB) -- is having a resurgence thanks to a consortium of major names hoping to give it a new lease of life.
Giphy is bringing GIF stickers to TikTok
TikTok, the app of choice for teens today, is adding another tool to its arsenal: stickers. The short-form video app owned by Bytedance is joining forces with Giphy. Users can add GIF stickers to their videos by simply hitting a button. Many of the stickers are inspired by memes that started on the platform itself, such as the expression "Here's the Tea" or the Blanco Brown-coined #thegitup.
