BrianFagioli writes: A new iOS exploit chain called DarkSword shows how attackers can break into certain iPhones, grab sensitive data like messages, credentials, and even crypto wallets, and then disappear without leaving obvious traces. It targets older iOS 18 builds using Safari and WebGPU flaws to escape Apple’s sandbox, which is pretty wild on its own, but what really stands out is how fast it works and how financially motivated these attacks have become. The takeaway is simple but important, update your iPhone ASAP and don’t assume mobile devices are somehow safer than desktops anymore.
Last week I provided a look at the EXT4 and XFS performance from Linux 6.12 LTS through Linux 7.0 in its current development form. As mentioned in that article and as requested by many Phoronix readers, benchmarks have since wrapped up looking at how the Btrfs copy-on-write file-system performance has evolved since that late 2024 period and all major Linux kernel releases past that Long Term Support version.
It’s been a while since most of you probably thought about the Opera web browser, but these days they have been catering their “Opera GX” web browser to gamers. Today they have finally delivered this Opera GX gaming-focused browser for Linux users…
Drew Fustini sent out DeviceTree patches this past weekend for enabling the HDMI display controller on the T-Head TH1520 RISC-V SoC. Additionally, there’s a patch for lighting up the HDMI display support on the LicheePi 4A RISC-V board…
With Ubuntu 26.04 LTS quickly approaching release next week, Canonical is beginning more of their road-mapping for Ubuntu 26.10 and beyond. To help in plotting future work, Canonical is interested in feedback for features or improvements that developers/users would like to see around their Mir project…
The fourth iteration of patches implementing Virtual Swap Space for Linux were sent out on Wednesday. This stems from ideas going back years for an abstraction to better separate a swap entry from its physical backing storage…
Trevor Milton, the pardoned founder of Nikola, is seeking $1 billion for AI-powered autonomous planes through a new venture called SyberJet. The Tech Buzz reports: “Autonomous planes will be 10 times harder than Nikola ever was,” Milton told the Wall Street Journal in a rare interview. It’s a remarkable admission from someone whose last venture collapsed under the weight of securities fraud charges after he overstated the capabilities of Nikola’s electric and hydrogen-powered trucks. Milton was convicted in 2022 on three counts of fraud for misleading investors about Nikola’s technology, including staging a video that made it appear a truck prototype was driving under its own power when it was actually rolling downhill. The conviction sent him to prison and turned Nikola into a cautionary tale about startup hype culture. His pardon, which came earlier this year, sparked immediate controversy in venture capital and legal circles.
Now he’s betting that AI and autonomous aviation represent a clean slate. SyberJet appears focused on developing artificial intelligence systems capable of piloting aircraft without human intervention – a technical challenge that’s stumped even well-funded players like Boeing and Airbus. […] Milton hasn’t detailed SyberJet’s technical approach or revealed who’s backing the venture. The company’s website remains sparse, and aviation industry sources say they haven’t seen concrete demonstrations of the technology. That opacity echoes the early days of Nikola, when Milton made sweeping claims about revolutionary trucks that existed mostly in renderings and promotional videos. If you need a quick refresher on the Nikola saga, here’s a timeline of key events:
June, 2016: Nikola Motor Receives Over 7,000 Preorders Worth Over $2.3 Billion For Its Electric Truck
December, 2016: Nikola Motor Company Reveals Hydrogen Fuel Cell Truck With Range of 1,200 Miles
February, 2020: Nikola Motors Unveils Hybrid Fuel-Cell Concept Truck With 600-Mile Range
June, 2020: Nikola Founder Exaggerated the Capability of His Debut Truck
September, 2020: Nikola Motors Accused of Massive Fraud, Ocean of Lies
September, 2020: Nikola Admits Prototype Was Rolling Downhill In Promo Video
September, 2020: Nikola Founder Trevor Milton Steps Down as Chairman in Battle With Short Seller
October, 2020: Nikola Stock Falls 14 Percent After CEO Downplays Badger Truck Plans
November, 2020: Nikola Stock Plunges As Company Cancels Badger Pickup Truck
July, 2021: Nikola Founder Trevor Milton Indicted on Three Counts of Fraud
December, 2021: EV Startup Nikola Agrees To $125 Million Settlement
September, 2022: Nikola Founder Lied To Investors About Tech, Prosecutor Says in Fraud Trial
Last week it was security issues with AppArmor to worry about on Ubuntu Linux while this week a “high” rated vulnerability for Ubuntu’s Snap daemon has been revealed…
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: The FBI has resumed purchasing reams of Americans’ data and location histories to aid federal investigations, the agency’s director, Kash Patel, testified to lawmakers on Wednesday. This is the first time since 2023 that the FBI has confirmed it was buying access to people’s data collected from data brokers, who source much of their information — including location data — from ordinary consumer phone apps and games, per Politico. At the time, then-FBI director Christopher Wray told senators that the agency had bought access to people’s location data in the past but that it was not actively purchasing it.
When asked by U.S. Senator Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon, if the FBI would commit to not buying Americans’ location data, Patel said that the agency “uses all tools … to do our mission.” “We do purchase commercially available information that is consistent with the Constitution and the laws under the Electronic Communications Privacy Act — and it has led to some valuable intelligence for us,” Patel testified Wednesday. Wyden said buying information on Americans without obtaining a warrant was an “outrageous end-run around the Fourth Amendment,” referring to the constitutional law that protects people in America from device searches and data seizures.
I’ve been calling this project Cursor for LibreOffice to myself, but I knew I couldn’t use the name forever, so I researched and chose WriterAgent. It supports Calc, and Draw as well, but I didn’t like OfficeAgent, which sounds like some Soviet-era KGB job title.
During a Senate hearing, FBI Director Kash Patel confirmed that his agency has bought information that could be used to track individuals’ movement and location. “We do purchase commercially available information that’s consistent with the Constitution and the laws under the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, and it has led to some valuable intelligence for us,” he said.
Law enforcement is required to obtain a warrant in order to get location data from cell service providers following the Carpenter v United States ruling from 2018. But why bother with all that hassle when they can just buy the information from the open market?
“Doing that without a warrant is an outrageous end run around the Fourth Amendment, it’s particularly dangerous given the use of artificial intelligence to comb through massive amounts of private information,” Sen. Ron Wyden, (D-Ore.) said during the Intelligence Committee hearing. Wyden is one of several lawmakers pushing for an overhaul of when and how the government can obtain citizens’ personal information.
It’s an overhaul that’s badly needed. Patel already has a history of dubious use of government resources, such as ordering SWAT protections for his girlfriend and somehow horning in on men’s hockey victory celebrations at the recent winter Olympics, so one would hope he’s not also stretching the limits of the few privacy protections that do exist. Then outside the FBI, we have the Department of Homeland Security being sued for illegally tracking immigration raid protestors and the Pentagon’s labeling of Anthropic as a supply-chain risk after the AI company refused to let its products be used for mass surveillance of Americans.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/the-fbi-confirms-its-buying-americans-location-data-230835196.html?src=rss
The Information reported that an AI agent within Meta took unauthorized action that led to an employee creating a security breach at the social company last week. According to the publication, an employee used an in-house agentic AI to analyze a query from a second employee on an internal forum. The AI agent posted a response to the second employee with advice even though the first person did not direct it to do so.
The second employee took the agent’s recommended action, sparking a domino effect that led to some engineers having access to Meta systems that they shouldn’t have permission to see. A representative from the company confirmed the incident to The Information and said that “no user data was mishandled.” Meta’s internal report indicated that there were unspecified additional issues that led to the breach. A source said that there was no evidence that anyone took advantage of the sudden access or that the data was made public during the two hours when the security breach was active. However, that may be the result of dumb luck more than anything else.
Many tech leaders and companies have touted the benefits of artificial intelligence, this is just the latest incident where human employees have lost control over an AI agent. Amazon Web Services experienced a 13-hour outage earlier this year that also (apparently coincidentally) involved its Kiro agentic AI coding tool. Moltbook, the social network for AI agents recently acquired by Meta, had a security flaw that exposed user information thanks to an oversight in the vibe-coded platform.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/a-meta-agentic-ai-sparked-a-security-incident-by-acting-without-permission-224013384.html?src=rss
Unseen Diplomacy 2 makes excellent use of roomscale play that’s let down by a finicky inventory system and a few unpolished details.
Unseen Diplomacy 2’s big party trick is “Environmental Redirection,” a roomscale design system that has players physically walking around their real-world space while the game subtly changes the environment around them. The result is that the player feels as if they’re moving through a massive continuous level without requiring a massive real-world play space. And it (mostly) works.
After setting up a roomscale boundary in-game, and once the game confirmed this boundary to be large enough to suit, I spent the next few days jumping into and out of underground bunkers, maximum-security mansions, and bases of insidious villains across the globe without ever leaving my home office.
The Facts
What is it?: A unique roomscale espionage game with fun gadgets and full-body immersion. Platforms: Meta Quest, Steam Release Date: March 16, 2026 Developer: Triangular Pixels Publisher: Triangular Pixels Price: $18.99
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Unseen Diplomacy 2 gameplay clips captured by UploadVR
Design and Mechanics
Unseen Diplomacy 2’s game field is presented as a honeycomb map, where players select individual missions involving espionage, infiltration, and other covert ops. In one stage you might be tasked with finding a stolen artifact from an ancient civilization, while another might have you hacking a terminal to disable a super-villain’s nano-bots.
The game’s overall objective is multifaceted; you’ll need to clear individual missions to acquire intel, then use that intel to uncover the location of the game’s final showdown. Reach that space before the countdown timer reaches “Zero Days Until Armageddon” and you earn your chance to save the world.
Traversing these stages demands constant physical movement, and this physicality is the core of Unseen Diplomacy 2’s gameplay. You’ll duck through crawlspaces, sidle along narrow ledges, squeeze into hiding spots, and scamper up and down ladders and ropes. At the same time, you’re sneaking past cameras and patrol bots, hacking security systems, and avoiding deadly traps such as spinning saw blades and swinging axes.
It’s worth noting that the game doesn’t strictly require roomscale play, nor excessive physical movements. There are plenty of accessibility and comfort options, such as thumbstick movement, snap-turning, button-based crouching, and even seated play. These alternative controls work reasonably well, but they also introduce a level of jank that makes the experience noticeably more tedious.
Your espionage is aided through a suite of gadgets and tools. Screwdrivers allow you to unscrew grates to access vents, or open panels to remove batteries from the security system. Wire cutters allow you to snip cables and shut down electrical systems. A blow dart helps you disable enemy patrol bots and cameras. And there’s plenty more.
Visually, Unseen Diplomacy 2 uses a bold, comic-inspired art style that will remind older gamers of the cel-shaded games of the early 2000s (XIII and Jet Set Radio). Thick, black outlines, flat colors, and exaggerated designs fit well, bringing vibrancy and life to the game’s heightened Cold-War world of secret agents and cartoonish spies.
Audio design is strong, with a soundtrack throwing back to that same Cold-War era. Horns swoon in spy motif, sneaky twangs tip-toe in your ears, while crunchy analog tech clicks, whirrs, and rattles.
The intriguing game design, interesting roomscale controls, and pleasing audio-visuals combine so that, at its best, Unseen Diplomacy 2 feels like a perfect spy fantasy. You’re not just playing a game, you’re physically sneaking, ducking and working your way through a stealthy adventure, gathering intel to save the world from certain annihilation. There’s a real thrill in that, especially early on, when each new mission feels like a fresh test of your spatial awareness, wit, and dexterity.
Diplomatic Faux Pas
The longer you play, the more the cracks begin to show. Most egregious is a general lack of polish that manifests in ways that are hard to ignore. While the core tech of Unseen Diplomacy 2, its environmental redirection and procedurally generated mission spaces, is extremely cool and works as advertised, and while movement itself feels engaging and fun, several systems layered on top of that foundation don’t always work.
The inventory system is a constant source of frustration. Tools are awkwardly mounted to your chest, wrist, and shoulders, and retrieving or storing them often feels imprecise. In theory, this physicality enhances immersion. In practice, I dropped my screwdriver more often than I used it.
Simple actions can feel clumsy while others are outright broken. Wire cutters jitter in midair, while your main offensive tool, a blow dart gun, often fails to fire for no discernible reason. And these aren’t just occasional hiccups. The problems happen frequently enough to really disrupt the flow of play.
Halfway through my first mission, it was very clear that a more traditional inventory system would have been far more effective (especially considering the inventory tools are generally pretty fun to use, when they work).
Hacking terminals can also feel tedious. These mini-games play out like the classic game Pong or Breakout, where you must bounce a ball to eliminate blocks. It’s an interesting idea that falls a bit flat, since we have to physically interact with the buttons on the terminal to move our paddle, which can be finicky.
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Unseen Diplomacy 2 gameplay clips captured by UploadVR
And then there are the more unforgivable game-breaking issues. In the few days I spent playtesting, there were several instances where levels extended beyond my established roomscale boundary in ways that the system simply could not reconcile. In a few instances this left me unable to physically progress through the mission, soft-locking me so that I had to fully reset. This is especially frustrating in a game built around immersion. When the illusion breaks, it’s hard to justify climbing back in.
Mission design also can become overly familiar, with much of the experience boiling down to squeezing through tight spaces, searching drawers or panels, retrieving some object or another, and then moving on through the uncanny environment. The structure doesn’t evolve enough, so that what begins as a novel experience gradually begins to feel like a series of procedurally generated chores.
This impression wouldn’t be quite so unfortunate, if only the game’s other systems worked perfectly. If the inventory system was better, if the environmental interaction was more polished and direct, I’d be happy to spend far more time in the game’s neat environments, be they repetitive or not.
Comfort
Unseen Diplomacy 2 features full roomscale play, plus accessibility and comfort options such as thumbstick movement, snap-turning, button-based crouching, and seated play.
Unseen Diplomacy 2 – Final Verdict
All things considered, there’s something undeniably clever about Unseen Diplomacy 2. When it all comes together, when a mission is particularly interesting and the gadgets all work and the procedurally-generated levels don’t back us into a corner, it delivers a kind of immersion that few games can match.
But the delivery of those moments is inconsistent. The lack of polish in key systems makes it difficult to fully recommend in its current state. With a couple of patches, who knows? As it stands, Unseen Diplomacy 2 is a fun diversion, one that’s just a step or two away from being truly great.
Unseen Diplomacy 2 is available now on Meta Quest and Steam.
UploadVR uses a 5-Star rating system for our game reviews – you can read a breakdown of each star rating in our review guidelines.
If you’ve been using the Internet for any length of time, you’ve probably used a tool like Google Translate to convert webpages or snippets of text to and from languages ranging from Uzbek to Esperanto. But what if you want to translate into more esoteric “languages” like “LinkedIn Speak,”“Gen Z slang,” or “horny Margaret Thatcher”?
This week, many people across the Internet have been bemused to find that the AI-powered Kagi Translate can perform these and countless other unlikely “translation” tasks. And while the collective discovery highlights the playful, creative side of large language models, it also exposes the risks of letting users play with generalized LLM tools.
What is a “language,” really?
While you might know Kagi best as the paid competitor to Google’s ever-worsening search product, the company launched its Kagi Translate tool back in 2024, saying at the time that it was a “simply better” competitor to tools like Google Translate and DeepL. At launch, the company said Kagi Translate “uses a combination of LLMs, selecting and optimizing the best output for each task,” a fact that “can occasionally lead to quirks that we’re actively working to resolve.”
