It’s been a long year. The Titan submersible getting crushed? That was only six months ago even though it feels like it had to have been at least two years ago considering all that has happened since then. Elon Musk, especially, has been in the news constantly and rarely for anything positive. Yes, he finally managed…
Source: Gizmodo – Elon Musk Gets the John Oliver Treatment
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the New York Times: Apple said on Monday that it would pause sales of its flagship smartwatches online starting Thursday and at retail locations on Christmas Eve. Two months ago, Apple lost a patent case over the technology its smartwatches use to detect people’s pulse rate. The company was ordered to stop selling the Apple Watch Series 9 and Watch Ultra 2 after Christmas, which could set off a run on sales of the watches in the final week of holiday shopping.
The move by Apple follows a ruling by the International Trade Commission in October that found several Apple Watches infringe on patents held by Masimo, a medical technology company in Irvine, Calif.
In court, Masimo detailed how Apple poached its top executives and more than a dozen other employees before later releasing a watch with pulse oximeter capabilities — whichmeasures the percentage of oxygen that red blood cells carry from the lungs to the body — that were patented by Masimo. To avoid a complete ban on sales, Apple had two months to cut a deal with Masimo to license its technology, or it could appeal to the Biden administration to reverse the ruling. But Joe Kiani, the chief executive of Masimo, said in an interview that Apple had not engaged in licensing negotiations. Instead, he said that Apple had appealed to President Biden to veto the I.T.C. ruling, which Mr. Kiani knows because the administration contacted Masimo about Apple’s request. “They’re trying to make the agency look like it’s helping patent trolls,” Mr. Kiani said of the I.T.C.
Mr. Kiani said that he was willing to sell Apple a chip that Masimo had designed to provide pulse oximeter readings on the Apple Watch. The chip is currently in a Masimo medical watch, called the W1, that is approved by the Food and Drug Administration. The device uses algorithms to process red and near-infrared light to determine how oxygen-rich is the blood in arteries. “If they don’t want to use our chip, I’ll work with them to make their product good,” Mr. Kiani said. “Once it’s good enough, I’m happy to give them a license.”
Apple introduced its first watch with pulse oximetry in 2020. It has included the technology, which it calls “blood oxygen,” in subsequent models. But unlike Masimo’s W1 device, Apple hasn’t had its watches cleared by the F.D.A. for use as a medical device for pulse oximetry. “The Apple Watch accounts for nearly $20 billion of the company’s $383.29 billion in annual sales,” notes the NYT. The company is the largest smartwatch seller in the world, accounting for about a third of all smartwatch sales.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – Apple To Pause Selling New Versions of Its Watch After Losing Patent Dispute
Growing up with cats could have a strange effect on your mind, new research suggests. The study, a large review of existing literature, found that cat ownership at a young age was associated with a noticeably higher risk of developing schizophrenia and related disorders—a risk possibly fueled by increased exposure to…
Source: Gizmodo – Growing Up With Cats Linked to Higher Schizophrenia Risk
If you’ve ever bought a home with the help of the mortgage and loan firm Mr. Cooper, there’s a good chance that your personal information has been stolen by cybercriminals.
Source: Gizmodo – Huge Mortgage and Loan Company Suffers Data Breach Impacting 14 Million People
Travel website Expedia wants to get people to start their travel search on its site with AI instead of using an external search engine. From a report: Expedia already uses AI for some customer service features and to help property owners describe their homes and hotels. The company hopes in the future that AI will help it recommend travel destinations to customers based on previous trips and bring more direct traffic to its site. It’s a long-term plan to shift the balance of power on the web — albeit one that’s still in its earliest stages for the company.
Rajesh Naidu, chief architect and head of data management at Expedia, says the goal is to get users started on their trips in one place. Expedia hopes to produce recommendations trained with its library of flight and hotel information and informed by users’ travel preferences. “By being able to train large language models on our data, this rich 70 petabytes’ worth of data we’ve gathered over the years, we can eventually recommend places to go and stay and do and continue to refine and personalize that,” Naidu tells The Verge in an interview. According to Naidu, when people plan trips, they often start by going to a search engine to look for a destination. Only then do they visit services like Expedia to start booking travel and accommodation. There’s nothing inherently wrong with going to Google and typing “best vacation that isn’t cold and not that far from New York,” but Naidu believes there’s value in streamlining the travel planning process even more.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – Expedia Wants To Use AI To Cut Google Out of Its Trip-Planning Business
Trevor Milton, the disgraced founder of Nikola, was just sentenced to four years in prison on three counts of fraud.
In October 2022, a jury found Milton guilty of one count of securities fraud and two counts of wire fraud. Milton faced up to 60 years in prison. Prosecutors asked the judge for an 11-year prison sentence and a $5 million fine, according to The New York Times, while the defense argued for probation.
After announcing the sentence at a federal court hearing in New York City, U.S. District Judge Edgar Ramos spoke directly to Milton. “As difficult as it may be for you or your family to hear, I believe the jury got it right,” Ramos said, as transcribed Reuters.
Milton addressed the court before sentencing was handed down, saying “I did not intend to harm anyone and I did not commit those crimes levied against me.” He also spoke at length about his rural upbringing and recited biblical verse.
Prosecutors claimed that Milton pumped up the value of the company’s stock by lying to investors about “nearly all aspects” of Nikola’s business. Among other things, Milton claimed his company had a fully functional electric truck. The company released a video that made it appear as though a Nikola One prototype was able to move by itself. However, an indictment alleged that the truck was actually rolling down a hill and that Milton was involved in the video’s creation.
In addition, Milton was accused of lying about Nikola having billions of dollars worth of pre-order reservations and that it was producing hydrogen fuel at four times less than market rates. Prosecutors also said Milton falsely claimed Nikola had developed “game-changing” battery tech.
Nikola is still in business and it plans to resume deliveries of its battery electric truck in early 2024 following a recall over battery issues that cost around $61.8 million to resolve. In the nine months to September 30, Nikola produced 96 trucks and shipped 79.
The company’s stock price has dropped by 99 percent since 2020 and investors are said to have lost more than $660 million. Milton sold around $100 million of his Nikola stock in 2020 and spent most of that on luxury goods such as a plane and real estate, according to the Times. It’s likely that Milton will appeal this conviction, as he’s already asked Ramos for a new trial following the jury’s guilty verdict.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/nikola-founder-trevor-milton-sentenced-to-four-years-in-prison-192432136.html?src=rss
Source: Engadget – Nikola founder Trevor Milton sentenced to four years in prison
Hackers stole the sensitive personal information of more than 14.6 million Mr. Cooper customers, the mortgage and loan giant has confirmed. From a report: In a filing with Maine’s attorney general’s office, Mr. Cooper said the hackers stole customer names, addresses, dates of birth and phone numbers, as well as customer Social Security numbers and bank account numbers. Mr. Cooper previously said that customer banking information was stored by a third-party company and believed to be unaffected. Mr. Cooper said in a separate filing with federal regulators on Friday that hackers obtained personal data on “substantially all of our current and former customers.”
The number of affected victims is significantly higher than the four million existing customers that Mr. Cooper claims on its website, likely because of the historical data that the company stores on mortgage holders. Mr. Cooper said in its data breach notification letter to affected victims that the stolen data includes personal information on those whose mortgage was previously acquired or serviced by the company when it was known as Nationstar Mortgage, prior to its rebranding as Mr. Cooper. The company said affected customers may include those whose mortgages were serviced by a sister brand.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – Mr. Cooper Hackers Stole Personal Data on 14 Million Customers
Enlarge / The Apple Watches Series 9 released in September 2023. (credit: Apple)
Apple will pause sales of the Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2 starting December 21, it revealed today in a statement to 9to5Mac. The move comes as the products are facing a potential import ban until August 2028, due to rulings that the watches infringe on patents from Masimo.
In October, the US International Trade Commission (ITC) upheld a January ruling that Apple Watches with pulse oximeter features infringe on two Masimo patents. Since then, the case has been under a 60-day Presidential Review Period, which ends December 25. After that date, the watches are subject to an import ban until the patents’ expiration in 2028.
Apple told 9to5Mac:
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Source: Ars Technica – Apple Watches being pulled from stores this week due to potential import ban
Light a candle for those fictional characters we lost in 2023. Characters we’ve come to know either over the years, or maybe even over just a few short hours of a movie or TV show. But these characters left an impression on us meaning, as 2023 comes to an end, it was time to give them their final moment in the sun.
Source: Gizmodo – The Fictional Characters We Lost in 2023
Enlarge / Trevor Milton, founder of Nikola Corp., arrives at court in New York on Monday, Dec. 18, 2023. Milton is set to be sentenced on Monday after being found guilty of securities fraud and wire fraud in October 2022. (credit: Bloomberg / Contributor | Bloomberg)
The disgraced founder and former CEO of the “zero emissions” truck company Nikola, Trevor Milton, was sentenced to four years in prison on Monday, Bloomberg reported.
That’s a lighter sentence than prosecutors had requested after a jury found Milton guilty of one count of securities fraud and two counts of wire fraud in 2022. During the trial, Milton was accused of lying about “nearly all aspects of the business,” CNBC reported.
From 2016 to 2020, Milton’s “extravagant claims” were fueled by a desire to pump up the value of Nikola stock, The New York Times reported. He was accused of misleading investors about everything from fake prototypes of emission-free long-haul trucks to billions worth of supposedly binding orders for hydrogen fuel cells and batteries that were never shipped. In a sentencing memo, prosecutors said that Milton targeted “less sophisticated investors,” the Times reported, engaging “in a sustained scheme to take advantage of” their inexperience.
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Source: Ars Technica – Disgraced Nikola founder Trevor Milton gets 4-year sentence for lying about EVs
Santa’s elves better hurry up and ship those new Apple Watches. Starting Dec. 21, the Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 will no longer be available for sale. Christmas Eve is the last day to buy one at the brick-and-mortar Apple retail store.
Source: Gizmodo – Buy the New Apple Watch Now Before It’s Banned
OpenAI, the AI company behind ChatGPT, laid out its plans for staying ahead of what it thinks could be serious dangers of the tech it develops, such as allowing bad actors to learn how to build chemical and biological weapons. From a report: OpenAI’s “Preparedness” team, led by MIT AI professor Aleksander Madry, will hire AI researchers, computer scientists, national security experts and policy professionals to monitor its tech, continually test it and warn the company if it believes any of its AI capabilities are becoming dangerous. The team sits between OpenAI’s “Safety Systems” team, which works on existing problems like infusing racist biases into AI, and the company’s “Superalignment” team, which researches how to make sure AI doesn’t harm humans in an imagined future where the tech has outstripped human intelligence completely.
[…] Madry, a veteran AI researcher who directs MIT’s Center for Deployable Machine Learning and co-leads the MIT AI Policy Forum, joined OpenAI earlier this year. He was one of a small group of OpenAI leaders who quit when Altman was fired by the company’s board in November. Madry returned to the company when Altman was reinstated five days later. OpenAI, which is governed by a nonprofit board whose mission is to advance AI and make it helpful for all humans, is in the midst of selecting new board members after three of the four board members who fired Altman stepped down as part of his return. Despite the leadership “turbulence,” Madry said he believes OpenAI’s board takes seriously the risks of AI that he is researching. “I realized if I really want to shape how AI is impacting society, why not go to a company that is actually doing it?”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – OpenAI Lays Out Plan For Dealing With Dangers of AI
Enlarge / Like it never even happened. (credit: Aurich Lawson / Getty Images)
Stadia might be dead, but the controllers for Google’s cloud-based gaming platform are still out there. With the service permanently offline, the proprietary Stadia Controller threatened to fill up landfills until Google devised a plan to convert them to generic Bluetooth devices that can work on almost anything. The app to open up the controller to other devices is a web service, which previously had a shutdown date of December 2023. That apparently isn’t enough time to convert all these controllers, so the Stadia Controller Salvage operation will run for a whole additional year. X (formerly Twitter) user Wario64 was the first to spot the announcement, which says the online tool will continue running until December 31, 2024.
As a cloud-based gaming service, Stadia had all the game code run on remote servers, with individual video frames streaming live to the user and showing the gameplay. The user would press buttons on their local controller, and every single individual button press had to travel across the Internet to the remote game server to be processed. These services live and die by their latency; in an attempt to reduce latency, the Stadia Controller connected to the Internet directly over Wi-Fi instead of connecting via Bluetooth to your computer and then to the Internet. Google claimed that one less hop on the local network led to shorter latency, especially since the service was originally built around the power-limited Chromecast dongle.
The official Stadia Controller in “clearly white.” (credit: Google)
With the service dead, the Wi-Fi-only controller wouldn’t work wirelessly, leaving old-school USB as the only way to use the controller. However, Stadia Controllers already came with a dormant Bluetooth chip, so Google cooked up a way to convert the orphaned controllers from Wi-Fi communication to Bluetooth, allowing them to wirelessly connect to computers and phones as a generic HID (Human Interface Device). Normally you’d expect a download for some kind of firmware update program, but Google being Google, the Stadia Controller update process happens entirely on a webpage. Google’s controller update page has a very fancy “WebUSB” API setup—you fire up a Chromium browser, plug in your controller, grant the browser access to the device, and the webpage can access the controller directly and update the firmware, without any program to install.
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Source: Ars Technica – Google’s Stadia Controller salvage operation will run for another year
Enlarge / The fungus’ favorite food. (credit: Bishwo Adhikari, Brigham Young University)
Some of the scariest monsters are microscopic. The carnivorous fungus Arthrobotrys oligospora doesn’t seem like much while it’s eating away at rotting wood. But when it senses a live worm, it will trap its victim and consume it alive—pure nightmare fuel.
Until now, not much was known about how the attack of the killer fungus happens on a molecular level. Researchers from Academia Sinica in Taiwan have finally found out how the gene activity of the fungus changes when a nematode creeps too close to A. oligospora. Led by molecular biologist Hung-Che Lin, the research team discovered that the fungus synthesizes a sort of worm adhesive and additional trapping proteins to get ahold of its meal. It then produces enzymes that break down the worm so it can start feasting.
A. oligospora lives in the soil and is mostly saprotrophic, meaning it feeds on decaying organic matter. But that can quickly change if it finds itself deprived of nutrients or senses a tempting nematode nearby. This is when it goes into carnivore mode.
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Source: Ars Technica – What turns a fungal scavenger into a killer?
Hasbro’s Haslab series—a crowdfunding drop line that lets the toymaker make some truly wild toys it could never feasibly release to the mass market, should enough collectors actually want them—is meant to be a one and done thing. The campaign starts, and if it hits its goals, when it ends pretty much all that’s ever…
Source: Gizmodo – Hasbro Unvaulted Some of Its Rarest Toy Projects, and Sold Them Out Immediately
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has a treat to celebrate the upcoming second anniversary of its launch. NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA), which operate the craft alongside the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), shared a recent image of the icy planet Uranus. The picture, resembling a glowing blue marble rippling into a black ocean, was funneled through the telescope’s infrared filters to capture wavelengths future space travelers wouldn’t see with the naked eye.
Compared with the generic-looking images of Uranus taken by Voyager 2 in the 1980s, the Webb telescope paints a more vivid picture. Capturing light in the infrared spectrum, the craft’s sensors reveal a “strange and dynamic ice world filled with exciting, atmospheric features,” as the team operating the telescope described it.
The JWST’s image showcases the planet’s rings surrounding the planet, including “the elusive Zeta ring,” Uranus’ faint and scattered innermost one. You can also catch its north polar cloud cap, the white blob near the center.
The image also captures 14 of Uranus’ 27 moons, labeled in the photo above. Among the (mostly Shakespearean-named) orbiting bodies pictured are Oberon, Titania, Umbriel, Juliet, Perdita, Rosalind, Puck, Belinda, Desdemona, Cressida, Ariel, Miranda, Bianca and Portia.
The JWST’s photo uses four NIRCam filters, revealing detail in the near-infrared spectrum. These include F140M (blue), F210M (cyan), F300M (yellow) and F460M (orange). An image NASA shared earlier this year showed Uranus in only two filters (blue and orange), resulting in a more primitive-looking view of the icy giant.
Speaking of ice, Uranus has loads of it. The planet rotates on its side at about 98 degrees, plunging the opposite side of the planet into extreme cold and darkness for a quarter of a Uranian year. Oh, and since Uranian years last around 84 Earth years, that means, by our calendar, the planet’s dark side enjoys a blustery 21-year winter.
Astronomers believe the Webb telescope’s images will help them better understand Uranus, especially its Zeta ring, for future missions. They also view the pictures as a proxy for learning about the nearly 2,000 documented exoplanets in other solar systems that share traits with our ringed and icy neighbor.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/webb-telescopes-new-uranus-image-looks-like-a-portal-to-another-dimension-181035887.html?src=rss
Source: Engadget – Webb telescope’s new Uranus image looks like a portal to another dimension
Acura has opened reservations for its first fully electric vehicle (EV). Starting today, you can order the Acura ZDX at around $60,000 for a baseline model with a single-motor (rear-wheel-drive) powertrain. The first deliveries of the “performance SUV” are expected in early 2024.
The automaker said earlier this year it would shift to online-only sales of Acura EVs starting in 2024, and ZDX preorders appear to reflect that. The company said the EV is available through “a new, omni-channel digital sales process,” which buyers can use themselves at home, or receive assistance in using at Acura dealers (although the EVs won’t be available at the dealership itself.)
The ZDX comes in two models. The standard ($60,000 and up) A-Spec variant ships with a 325-mile range, 340 horsepower, a rear-wheel-drive single motor and 20-inch wheels. Meanwhile, the all-wheel-drive ZDX Type S has a shorter 288-mile range but a more potent 500 horsepower, 22-inch wheels and a starting price of around $70,000. Parent company Honda describes the pricier Type S as “the most powerful and best performing Acura SUV ever.”
The EV has Android Auto, built-in Google apps and Apple CarPlay integration. It includes an 11-inch driver-side touchscreen, an 11.3-inch center display and a Bang & Olufsen audio system, which is standard. Its safety features include a rear pedestrian alert and blind zone steering assist. It even has hands-free cruise driver assistance.
The ZDX supports DC Fast Charging (and can add 81 miles through a 10-minute top-off). In addition, Honda has teamed with six other automakers on a project to build a network of 30,000 stations across North America. That initiative is expected to begin in the US by the summer of 2024.
You can order your ZDX in either model in Acura’s online reservations portal. Honda notes pre-orders will include a bonus Acura Energy Key Card, which can unlock “exclusive benefits,” including “discounts to Acura entertainment partners and special events.”
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/you-can-reserve-acuras-zdx-ev-starting-today-180050726.html?src=rss
Source: Engadget – You can reserve Acura’s ZDX EV starting today
AI allowed Pakistan’s former prime minister Imran Khan to campaign from behind bars on Monday, with a voice clone of the opposition leader giving an impassioned speech on his behalf. From a report: Khan has been locked up since August and is being tried for leaking classified documents, allegations he says have been trumped up to stop him contesting general elections due in February. His Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party used artificial intelligence to make a four-minute message from the 71-year-old, headlining a “virtual rally” hosted on social media overnight on Sunday into Monday despite internet disruptions that monitor NetBlocks said were consistent with previous attempts to censor Khan.
PTI said Khan sent a shorthand script through lawyers that was fleshed out into his rhetorical style. The text was then dubbed into audio using a tool from the AI firm ElevenLabs, which boasts the ability to create a “voice clone” from existing speech samples. “My fellow Pakistanis, I would first like to praise the social media team for this historic attempt,” the voice mimicking Khan said. “Maybe you all are wondering how I am doing in jail,” the stilted voice adds. “Today, my determination for real freedom is very strong.” The audio was broadcast at the end of a five-hour live-stream of speeches by PTI supporters on Facebook, X and YouTube, and was overlaid with historic footage of Khan and still images.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – Imran Khan Deploys AI Clone To Campaign From Behind Bars in Pakistan
Yes, that’s Uranus. The giant icy orb looks more like an agatized dinosaur egg than a planet in this new image by the Webb Space Telescope.
Source: Gizmodo – Uranus Is Luminous and Ringed in New Webb Telescope Image
VF Corporation reported in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing on Monday that it had been hit by a cyberattack. The company owns a slew of apparel brands, including Vans, North Face, Timberland, Dickies and more — and it warns the disruption could affect your holiday shopping.
VF first noticed “unauthorized occurrences” on its IT systems on December 13, it said in a statement to Engadget. While it began to mitigate the damage, VF found that the hackers had encrypted some of its IT systems and stole personal data. It’s trying to come up with work arounds so that people can still buy from VF brands, but the $7 billion company said the attack messed with its ability to fulfill orders.
“At this time, VF-operated retail stores globally are open, and currently consumers can purchase available merchandise, but VF is experiencing certain operational disruptions,” a company spokesperson told Engadget on Monday. “At this time, consumers are also able to place orders on most of the brand e-commerce sites globally. However, the Company’s ability to fulfill orders is currently impacted.” VF did not confirm who was behind the attack or provide additional details on what delays customers could experience.
The hack comes shortly after VF said it was experiencing financial headwinds at its quarterly earning meeting. It’s still unclear whether customer data may have been impacted.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/major-apparel-supplier-behind-north-face-and-vans-hit-by-cyberattack-disrupting-its-holiday-fulfillments-174055214.html?src=rss
Source: Engadget – Major apparel supplier behind North Face and Vans hit by cyberattack, disrupting its holiday fulfillments
