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If you’ve had interest in Comet, Perplexity’s AI web browser, you likely know it’s well gatekept. Perplexity has limited testing to a small pool of its Max subscribers, which costs $200 per month. Unless you’re willing to burn $2,400 a year on an AI subscription, you have likely resigned yourself to look into Comet from afar.

While Perplexity Max will remain $200 a month for the foreseeable future, you don’t actually have to pay this much in order to give Comet a spin. In fact, you don’t have to pay anything at all. That’s because Perplexity is now offering access to both Comet as well as Perplexity Pro, the company’s $20 per month ($200 per year) subscription, for free, for one year.

The deal is through PayPal and its subsidiary, Venmo. The company announced the partnership in a press release on Wednesday, spinning the news as an AI-enhanced way for PayPal users to shop. That’s per Ryan Foutty, VP of Business at Perplexity, who said, “The Comet browser is like a personal shopper and personal assistant all in one, so we’re excited that PayPal users will have early access to Comet.”

Whether users will actually treat Comet as a “personal shopper” is certainly up in the air. For its part, Perplexity pitches Comet as an AI-powered browser that acts as a both a “personal assistant” and “thinking partner.” You can look things up like you would with another internet-ready AI chatbot, but Comet is also able to perform tasks on your behalf. That reportedly includes shopping, but also things like booking meetings, replying to emails, researching, and autofilling passwords.

PayPal is offering Perplexity Pro, and Comet, through its new subscription hub: The company says this feature is designed to help users manage their subscriptions in one central location, and, to kick it off, your Perplexity Pro trial and subscription can be found here. As part of the promotion, if you link and pay for at least three subscriptions in this new hub, PayPal will credit you $50 cash back.

How to sign up for Perplexity Pro and Comet for free

If you’re interested in this offer, you have two ways to take advantage of it. PayPal says you can either find the promo in the PayPal app or the Venmo app. I didn’t find the promo in my Venmo app, but after downloading the PayPal app and signing into my account, I saw Perplexity Pro available under “Featured offers.”

You’ll need to link your PayPal or Venmo to the Perplexity subscription, and you’ll need to create a Perplexity account if you don’t have one already. If you have a Perplexity Pro subscription, you cannot take advantage of this offer.

While my Perplexity Pro subscription activated without issue, I’m not yet able to take advantage of the Comet offer. Right now, heading to the official Comet site while logged into my account, I have the option to sign up for the waitlist, or “skip the line” by upgrading to Pro. If I choose the latter, since I have Pro, it simply takes me to a page letting me know about the perks of the Pro plan—albeit, with no mention of Comet.

This might be something Perplexity is taking its time rolling out. Until then, I’ve put my account on the waitlist, just to see if that speeds things up.

The White House hosted several tech and AI leaders at an event today centered on teaching artificial intelligence in US schools. Many of the big tech companies — including Amazon, Google, Microsoft, OpenAI and Anthropic — have already issued press releases with their commitments to a pledge from the White House to help “foster early interest in Al technology, promote Al literacy and proficiency, and enable comprehensive Al training for parents and educators.” The business commitments include things like cash prizes for students and teachers who use AI in educational ways, and cheap or free access to the companies’ AI tools, trainings and certifications. First Lady Melania Trump hosted the gathering.

That sounds fine and dandy on the surface. Understanding AI and the limits of what it can and can’t do are already important as industries try to adapt to the technology. But considering the current administration has been actively trying to dismantle the Department of Education for being too woke, it seems doubtful that this is going to be a thoughtfully planned or well-reasoned rollout that has the best interests of students at heart. It’s unclear if any actual teachers were consulted in the development of these initiatives, or asked for suggestions on how best to prepare students for the sudden rise of AI.

For the schadenfreude fans out there, it appears that Trump’s former BFF Elon Musk wasn’t invited to today’s gathering of tech leaders. However Musk insists that he was asked and just couldn’t attend. Sure.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/big-tech-signs-on-to-white-house-plan-for-ai-education-in-us-schools-212646999.html?src=rss

Nepal’s government said Thursday it is blocking most social media platforms including Facebook, X and YouTube because the companies failed to comply with regulations that required them to register with the government. From a report: Nepal’s Minister for Communication and Information Prithvi Subba Gurung said about two dozen social network platforms that are widely used in Nepal were repeatedly given notices to come forward and register their companies officially in the country. The platforms would be blocked immediately, he said.

TikTok, Viber and three other social media platforms would be allowed to operate in Nepal because they have registered with the government. Nepal government have been asking the companies to appoint a liaison office or point in the country. It has brought a bill in parliament that aims to ensure that social platforms are properly managed, responsible and accountable.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Sextortion-based hacking, which hijacks a victim’s webcam or blackmails them with nudes they’re tricked or coerced into sharing, has long represented one of the most disturbing forms of cybercrime. Now one specimen of widely available spyware has turned that relatively manual crime into an automated feature, detecting when the user is browsing pornography on their PC, screenshotting it, and taking a candid photo of the victim through their webcam.

On Wednesday, researchers at security firm Proofpoint published their analysisof an open-source variant of “infostealer” malware known as Stealerium that the company has seen used in multiple cybercriminal campaigns since May of this year. The malware, like all infostealers, is designed to infect a target’s computer and automatically send a hacker a wide variety of stolen sensitive data, including banking information, usernames and passwords, and keys to victims’ crypto wallets. Stealerium, however, adds another, more humiliating form of espionage: It also monitors the victim’s browser for web addresses that include certain NSFW keywords, screenshots browser tabs that include those words, photographs the victim via their webcam while they’re watching those porn pages, and sends all the images to a hacker—who can then blackmail the victim with the threat of releasing them.

“When it comes to infostealers, they typically are looking for whatever they can grab,” says Selena Larson, one of the Proofpoint researchers who worked on the company’s analysis. “This adds another layer of privacy invasion and sensitive information that you definitely wouldn’t want in the hands of a particular hacker.”

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Germany has already met its 2028 goal for reducing coal-fired power generation, so won’t need to order the shutdown of any plants for a second year running, the country’s regulator said. From a report: Germany has an interim 2028 target of reducing coal-fired power by 8.7 gigawatts, and as of Sept. 1 it had exceeded this level by about 10%, the Federal Network Agency said on its website on Monday.

Almost two thirds of Germany’s electricity comes from renewables and excess solar power production has frequently pushed prices below zero, making burning coal less profitable. Yet Europe’s largest economy remains heavily dependent on the fossil fuel and is still the European Union’s biggest polluter.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Sesame Street creator Sesame Workshop and YouTube have announced a new “extended partnership” that will bring episodes of the iconic children’s show to the platform and a series of workshops for creators on “how to create content that is entertaining while also promoting learning.” This new YouTube partnership joins an existing Netflix deal to stream new episodes of Sesame Street starting in November.

According to YouTube, it’ll now have a catalog of “hundreds of full episodes” of the show, on top of “content created especially for the YouTube audience” featuring beloved Sesame Street characters. The fact that Sesame Workshop will help train the next generation of kid-friendly entertainers as part of the deal is also a direct acknowledgment that some children know Ms. Rachel before Big Bird. Of course, Sesame Street becoming even more of a presence on the platform fits larger trends. YouTube has firmly established itself as a home for kids entertainment and educational content, and that doesn’t seem like it’ll change anytime soon.

With distribution deals with Netflix and YouTube, Sesame Street seems like it’s in a much more stable position than it was previously. The future of the series and its availability through free public broadcasters seemed uncertain after Warner Bros. Discovery opted to end its partnership with Sesame Workshop in 2024. As a beneficiary of government funding, cuts to public media made by the Trump administration also impact Sesame Street. These new partnerships guarantee there’ll still be multiple ways to watch the show for free, and it might even reach new audiences in the process.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/sesame-streets-new-partnership-with-youtube-will-bring-hundreds-of-full-episodes-to-the-video-platform-203245293.html?src=rss

OpenAI plans to launch a new AI-powered jobs platform next year to help match employers with candidates who have AI skills in a bid to accelerate the technology’s deployment across businesses and government agencies. From a report: The ChatGPT maker will also introduce a new certification program in the coming months that will teach workers how to better use AI on the job. OpenAI is working with multiple organizations on the program, including Walmart, the largest private employer in the US. OpenAI said it plans to certify 10 million Americans by 2030. […] For the jobs platform, OpenAI plans to use AI to help match local governments and companies of all sizes with potential candidates.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The start of the COVID-19 pandemic is now five years in the rearview mirror, but its effects continue to reverberate. While those leading the US healthcare system have embraced conspiracy theories and junk science to justify a reduced focus on vaccines (particularly the COVID jab) many people are still seeking out immunization. Google Maps isn’t a good way to find it, though. In recent days, almost all search results for COVID vaccines have vanished from Google Maps.

In both the mobile app and website, Google Maps returns zero results for terms like “COVID vaccine” and simply “vaccines.” We’ve tested and confirmed this in multiple US regions, as well as internationally. In some places, these searches will return no local results but may include links to facilities hundreds of miles away. Meanwhile, searches for less-contentious injections like “flu vaccine” and “shingles vaccine” continue to get local results.

The Food and Drug Administration under Robert F. Kennedy Jr. recently approved the updated COVID shot, but the agency only recommends it for those with underlying health conditions and people over age 65. That makes boosters harder for many Americans to get—and the first step is often finding a nearby provider of immunization. For at least the last week, Google Maps has returned no results for those vaccine-related queries.

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Netflix has shared a pair of updates about its animated Tomb Raider show. The second season of Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft will air on the streaming service on December 11. However, that second season will also be the final one for the project. Legendary Television is behind the show, which premiered in October 2024 on Netflix and stars Hayley Atwell of MCU fame as the titular Tomb Raider.

If you simply can’t get enough of Lara and her adventures in archeology, you have other options on the way. For viewing, Amazon will begin filming in January for a live action take on the series. Although there’s no release window for it yet, we recently learned that Game of Thrones actor Sophie Turner will play the lead. And for gaming, although Crystal Dynamics recently announced some layoffs, it is still working on a new Tomb Raider title.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/netflixs-animated-tomb-raider-series-is-ending-with-its-second-season-193502328.html?src=rss

On Wednesday, a global antipiracy group, which included Apple TV+, Netflix, The Walt Disney Studios, and Warner Bros. Discovery, announced that it had assisted in a sting operation that took down Streameast, described as the “largest illicit live sports streaming operation in the world.”

Now, accessing websites from the thwarted Streameast brings up a link from the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) that explains how to watch sports games legally. However, people have reported that they can still access illegal sports streams from a different Streameast, which is the original Streameast. The endurance of the popular piracy brand is a reflection of the entangled problems facing sports rights owners and sports fans.

Sting operation kills Streameast “copycat”

Yesterday, ACE, which is comprised of 50 media entities, said the Streameast network that it helped take down had 80 “associated domains” and “logged more than 1.6 billion visits in the past year.” The network had 136 million monthly visits on average, The Athletic reported.

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An anonymous reader shares a report: Adobe is bringing its video editor Premiere to iPhone, promising “pro-level” editing on the go for free. The app will launch later this month, with an Android version also under development.

The Premiere app features a familiar multi-track timeline, with support for an unlimited number of video, audio, and text layers. There’s automatic captioning, 4K HDR support, and one-tap exporting to TikTok, YouTube Shorts, and Instagram — including automatic resizing that frames content for each platform.

The iOS version of Premiere will be free to download and use, though Adobe says there will be charges for additional cloud storage and generative AI credits. Speaking of, it includes support for Adobe’s generative sound effects and AI-powered speech enhancement, plus a wider range of AI assets generated through Adobe Firefly. If you’d rather not use AI content, there’s a selection of Adobe fonts, along with images, sounds, music, and video assets that are free to use.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

A new peer-reviewed study alleges that 18 of the 100 most-downloaded virtual private network (VPN) apps on the Google Play Store are secretly connected in three large families, despite claiming to be independent providers. The paper doesn’t indict any of our picks for the best VPN, but the services it investigates are popular, with 700 million collective downloads on Android alone.

The study, published in the journal of the Privacy Enhancing Technologies Symposium (PETS), doesn’t just find that the VPNs in question failed to disclose behind-the-scenes relationships, but also that their shared infrastructures contain serious security flaws. Well-known services like Turbo VPN, VPN Proxy Master and X-VPN were found to be vulnerable to attacks capable of exposing a user’s browsing activity and injecting corrupted data.

Titled “Hidden Links: Analyzing Secret Families of VPN apps,” the paper was inspired by an investigation by VPN Pro, which found that several VPN companies each were selling multiple apps without identifying the connections between them. This spurred the “Hidden Links” researchers to ask whether the relationships between secretly co-owned VPNs could be documented systematically.

Starting from the list of the most-downloaded VPNs on Android, the researchers compiled data from each VPN’s business paperwork, web presence and codebase and sifted through it for connections. Primarily through identifying suspicious similarities in the code, they were able to sort 18 VPN apps into three groups.

Family A consists of Turbo VPN, Turbo VPN Lite, VPN Monster, VPN Proxy Master, VPN Proxy Master Lite, Snap VPN, Robot VPN and SuperNet VPN. These were found to be shared between three providers — Innovative Connecting, Lemon Clove and Autumn Breeze. All three have all been linked to Qihoo 360, a firm based in mainland China and identified as a “Chinese military company” by the US Department of Defense.

Family B consists of Global VPN, XY VPN, Super Z VPN, Touch VPN, VPN ProMaster, 3X VPN, VPN Inf and Melon VPN. These eight services, which are shared between five providers, all use the same IP addresses from the same hosting company.

Family C consists of X-VPN and Fast Potato VPN. Although these two apps each come from a different provider, the researchers found that both used very similar code and included the same custom VPN protocol.

If you’re a VPN user, this study should concern you for two reasons. The first problem is that companies entrusted with your private activities and personal data are not being honest about where they’re based, who owns them or who they might be sharing your sensitive information with. Even if their apps were all perfect, this would be a severe breach of trust.

But their apps are far from perfect, which is the second problem. All 18 VPNs across all three families use the Shadowsocks protocol with a hard-coded password, which makes them susceptible to takeover from both the server side (which can be used for malware attacks) and the client side (which can be used to eavesdrop on web activity).

Ultimately, a VPN provider being dishonest about its background and a VPN client running on slapdash infrastructure are symptoms of the same problem: these are apps designed to do something other than keep you safe online. Since all 18 were listed as unrelated products, it’s also clear that app stores are not an effective line of defense. The “Hidden Links” paper makes it all the more imperative to never download a free VPN without vetting it first, and to only use free VPNs that are supported by paid subscriptions, like Proton VPN.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cybersecurity/vpn/researchers-find-alarming-overlaps-among-18-popular-vpns-191828342.html?src=rss

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If you want to kit out your outdoor security setup, this Reolink 4K wired outdoor camera is currently 26% off from Amazon—a $47 discount. It’s a durable metal cam with sharp HD resolution, bolstered by smart features that make it easy to keep an eye on your property from afar.

REOLINK 4K Wired WiFi Outdoor Camera

$135.99
at Amazon

$182.99
Save $47.00

$135.99
at Amazon

$182.99
Save $47.00

The dual-lens set-up combines an 8 MP telephoto with a 360-degree wide-angle lens. It also has pan-tilt-zoom capabilities with auto-tracking and a 6x hybrid zoom. The wide angle, combined with the PTZ functionality (355° Pan and 90° Tilt), allows you to monitor large outdoor areas and follow moving subjects. That said, those features, and the fact that it’s wired, also mean it will require more setup than a battery-powered, fixed-camera model. On the plus side, unlike some other Reolink cameras, this one doesn’t require an Ethernet cable to establish a connection.

The zoom feature lets you capture closer details without sacrificing image quality, so you can pick up small details like license plates or distant subjects. Its 4K color and infrared night vision can capture details in low light up to 100 feet away. 

Smart detection is also a plus: AI algorithms distinguish vehicles and people, reducing the number of false alert notifications from animals or wind. Like most outdoor cameras, two-way audio allows for real-time communication when you’re not home. It works on both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz wifi networks and is compatible with Amazon Alexa and Google Home. It records to a microSD card of up to 512GB and can be accessed through the app. 

Some Amazon reviewers note that the setup process can be confusing, with many turning to online video guides for setup help. That said, if you’re looking for a long-range security camera that covers a large area with accurate auto-tracking, a comprehensive field of view, and strong zoom capabilities, the Reolink 4K wired wifi outdoor camera is a reliable choice.

Honda is preparing to announce its first electric motorcycle with fast charging, based on a new teaser video the company shared on Instagram. The video shows off the new e-motorcycle on test rides in Europe and teases the date, September 16, when Honda will presumably introduce it. Plans to expand Honda’s lineup of electric motorcycles have been in the works since at least 2022, when the company announced it would release “10 or more” e-motorcycles by 2025.

The new motorcycle is under a wrap of black and white camouflage in the video, but Electrek writes that it shares a striking resemblance to the “EV Fun Concept” motorcycle Honda introduced at EICMA 2024, a motorcycle trade show in Milan. At the time, Honda said the boxy concept was designed to offer “performance equivalent to a mid-sized internal combustion engine (ICE) motorcycle” and be compatible with CCS2 quick chargers, an EV fast charging standard in Europe. It also has “a cruising range of over 100km,” according to Honda.

Honda

Leaning on fast charging is one way the company could address possible range issues on the motorcycle. An electric motorcycle naturally offers less room for batteries than electric cars do. Honda’s video doesn’t get into any of those nitty gritty details, so we’ll have to wait until September 16 to know for sure. 

One thing that does seem certain is the e-motorcycle’s regional availability. Based on the fact the video was shared on Honda’s UK Instagram page and specifically mentions it was “tested on European streets,” it seems highly unlikely the motorcycle will be available outside of Europe and the United Kingdom.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/evs/honda-teases-its-first-full-size-e-motorcycle-with-fast-charging-185116652.html?src=rss