Following a warning letter from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Owlet has stopped selling its popular Smart Sock family in the US. On October 5th, the agency contacted Owlet to tell the company it was selling the wearables “without marketing approval, clearance or authorization.”

In a response spotted by Deseret News, Owlet says it’s complying with the FDA’s request. It has stopped selling the socks while it seeks clearance from the FDA. The company says it will offer a “new sleep monitoring solution” in the near future.

“With over one million babies monitored, we are extremely proud of the innovation and technology Owlet has delivered,” the company said. “We will continue to stay focused on our mission and cooperate with the FDA so we can continue to provide sleep monitoring products and solutions to parents and babies.”

If you own the Smart Sock 3 or one of its predecessors, Owlet notes the FDA didn’t identify any safety with the wearables. It also hasn’t asked the company to issue a recall. Owlet says it will continue to support those products while it works on a new device.

Source: Engadget – Owlet stops selling infant monitoring sock after FDA order

The UK has introduced the Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure (PSTI) Bill, a suite of new regulations designed to improve security on smart home devices, the government announced. The rules will ban easy-to-guess default passwords, require disclosure of security update release dates and more — under penalty of hefty fines. 

The new rules were originally proposed last year, following a long period of consultation, and are largely unchanged. The first one is a ban on easy-to-guess default passwords, including classics like “password” and “admin.” All passwords that come with new devices will “need to be unique and not resettable to any universal factory setting,” the law states.

“Most of us assume if a product is for sale, it’s safe and secure. Yet many are not, putting too many of us at risk of fraud and theft,” said UK Minister Julia Lopez. “Our Bill will put a firewall around everyday tech from phones and thermostats to dishwashers, baby monitors and doorbells, and see huge fines for those who fall foul of tough new security standards.”

Next, manufacturers must tell customers at the point of sale and keep them updated about the minimum time requirement for security patches and updates. If the product doesn’t come with them, that fact must be disclosed. Finally, manufacturers must provide a public point of contact for security researchers to they can easily disclose flaws and bugs.

The government is hoping to curtail attacks on household devices, citing 1.5 billion attempted compromises of Internet of Things (IoT) devices in the first half of 2020 alone. As examples, it cited a 2017 attack in which hackers stole data from a casino by attacking an internet-connected fish tank. It added that “in extreme cases, hostile groups have taken advantage of poor security features to access people’s webcams.” 

The rules will be overseen by a regulator that will be appointed once the bill comes into law. Fines could hit up to £10 million ($13.3 million) or 4 percent of a company’s gross revenue — with up to £20,000 a day levied for ongoing infractions. The law applies not only to manufacturers, but also businesses that import tech products into the UK. Products include smartphones, routers, security cameras, games consoles and home speakers, along with internet-enabled appliances and toys. 

Source: Engadget – New UK law will hit smart home device makers with big fines for using default passwords

A ton of Razer accessories are on sale on Amazon for Black Friday, including mice, headsets, keyboards and a gaming chair. There are all-time lows on a bunch of products too. One of the better deals is for the Viper Ultimate wireless mouse. The price has dropped to $90, which is $60 off the regular price. The Viper Wireless is available in both black and white. It’s an ambidextrous mouse that has Razer’s optical switches, a 20K DPI optical sensor and low-latency HyperSpeed wireless tech.

Buy Viper Ultimate (Black) at Amazon – $90Buy Viper Ultimate (White) at Amazon – $90

Another wireless mouse worth checking out in the sale is the DeathAdder v2 Pro. It too has a 20K DPI Optical Sensor and optical switches. You’ll get up to 120 hours of battery life over Bluetooth or 70 hours via HyperSpeed, according to Razer. It’s available for $70 at the moment, which is the lowest price we’ve seen to date. The mouse typically costs $130.

Buy DeathAdder v2 Pro at Amazon – $70

Also hitting all-time-low prices are the iOS and Android versions of the Kishi controller. It’s a gamepad that you can clip your phone into. Along with playing native mobile games, you can use it with the likes of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, Google Stadia, Amazon Luna and GeForce Now for cloud gaming, as well as games streamed from your console or PC. The Android version of the controller is $45 ($35 off) and the iPhone model is currently $60 (down $40).

Buy Razer Kishi (Android) at Amazon – $45Buy Razer Kishi (iPhone) at Amazon – $60

Elsewhere, the Kraken X Ultralight wired gaming headset is worthy of attention. It has a bendable, noise-canceling mic and is compatible with PC and all consoles. The classic black verison of the headset, which is typically $50, currently costs $30, another all-time low.

Buy Razer Kraken X Ultralight at Amazon – $30

Get the latest Black Friday and Cyber Monday offers by visiting our deals homepage and following @EngadgetDeals on Twitter.

All products recommended by Engadget are selected by our editorial team, independent of our parent company. Some of our stories include affiliate links. If you buy something through one of these links, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Source: Engadget – Razer Black Friday deals include huge discounts for Kishi phone controllers

Virgin Galactic has announced the winner of its Omaze giveaway. Announced in July, the sweepstakes saw the company give everyday people a chance to earn two tickets to the edge of space. The winner is Keisha S, a health coach from Antigua and Barbuda. She plans to give the second ticket to her daughter, who, it turns out, is an astrophysics student.

Roblox is suing a person it banned years ago for allegedly terrorizing the gaming platform and its community of developers. The Roblox Corporation wants Benjamin Robert Simon to stop his alleged harassment of employees and users on Roblox and elsewhere, and to pay $1.65 million in damages.

In the filing, which was first reported by Polygon, the company claims Simon, an alleged “cybermob” leader, “commits and encourages unlawful acts designed to injure Roblox and its users.” Roblox banned him years ago, allegedly for using homophobic and racist slurs, harassing others and sexual harassment. Simon is said to use accounts created by others and hacks to maintain access to the platform.

The suit contains several examples of purported misconduct on Simon’s part. Among them is an allegation that he posted “false and misleading terrorist threats” last month that led to a temporary shutdown of the Roblox Developers Conference in San Francisco. Roblox claims it cost $50,000 to investigate the threat and secure the venue.

In addition, Simon is accused of “glamorizing the April 3, 2018 active shooter and murder at YouTube headquarters in San Bruno, California and threatening/taunting a copycat act of terrorism at Roblox headquarters in nearby San Mateo, California.” Roblox also claims he tried to upload a mostly nude photo of himself and images of Adolf Hitler, and attempted to upload a sex game to the platform.

Simon, a popular YouTuber known as Ruben Sim, allegedly profited from videos of stunts that were uploaded to that platform and Patreon. The Roblox Corporation is suing him for, among other things, breach of contract, fraud and allegedly violating both the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and the California Comprehensive Computer Data Access and Fraud Act.

Roblox has tens of millions of daily users, many of whom are kids. Keeping trolls as far away as possible from the platform is important to help protect the platform’s young audience. The lawsuit follows an outage that knocked Roblox offline for three days.

Source: Engadget – ‘Roblox’ sues long-banned user for allegedly terrorizing the platform

Pinterest will no longer enforce former employees’ nondisclosure agreements when it comes to cases of racial and gender-based discrimination, according to NBC News. That’s part of the terms the company has agreed to in order to settle the lawsuit filed by its shareholder, the Employees’ Retirement System of Rhode Island, for allegedly enabling a culture of discrimination. In addition, it has committed $50 million towards increasing diversity and inclusion within the company.

The shareholder sued Pinterest after allegations made by former employees Ifeoma Ozoma and Aerica Shimizu Banks became public. In a series of tweets, Ozoma detailed how she fought for a year to be paid and treated fairly. She said Pinterest responded inadequately when one of her white male colleagues shared her name and phone number to racist/misogynistic parts of the internet. Her colleague reportedly doxxed her after she suggested adding a warning on content from Ben Shapiro, whom she’d described as a “white supremacist.”

Meanwhile, Banks said her manager made disparaging comments about her ethnicity (she’s Black and Japanese) in front of colleagues. Both Ozoma and Banks said they were paid less than their manager, a white man, despite having similar workloads. 

The Employees’ Retirement System of Rhode Island argued that by allowing those events to take place, executives perpetrated or knowingly ignored “the long-standing and systemic culture of discrimination and retaliation at Pinterest.” Thus, they breached their fiduciary duty. Rhode Island General Treasurer Seth Magaziner said:

“We pushed for these sweeping reforms to support Pinterest’s employees with a fair and safe workplace, and to strengthen the company’s brand and performance by ensuring that the values of inclusiveness are made central to Pinterest’s identity.” 

As NBC News notes, the fact that Pinterest agreed to release employees from their NDAs reflects the work Ozoma has accomplished since she left the company. She co-sponsored the Silenced No More Act that will make it easier for workers to speak out about racism and harassment in the workplace even if they had previously signed NDAs. California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed it into law in October, and it will be enforced starting on January 1st. 

Ozoma and Banks aren’t the only former employees who spoke out against Pinterest. Former COO Françoise Brougher also said that she was fired after she told CEO Ben Silbermann that she was being given gendered feedback and was being paid less than her male counterparts. She sued the company last year and settled for $22.5 million.

Source: Engadget – Pinterest will no longer force former employees to keep quiet about discrimination cases