Tech Spite

Mother’s day? Father’s day? A birthday coming up? Coming up with a great gift for someone is always a struggle, but you’ve got a solid seasonal option right in front of you with the Dreo Pilot Max tower fan. Now, you might hesitate to buy an appliance for someone. After all, appliances usually take up a bunch of space and use a ton of electricity, don’t they? That’s actually part of what makes the Dreo Pilot Max a great gift. It’s a powerful tower fan that’ll let your friends or family dial back on the heat for the summer without using a ton of electricity or taking up a bunch of space. As a tower fan, the Dreo Pilot Max just needs a little bit of space on the floor. Its height does the heavy lifting with a 42-inch impeller fan that creates a huge column of moving air that your typical box fans or pedestal fans would have a hard time meeting. The fan can move 1,475 cubic feet of air through it every minute, so you’ll be giving the gift of airflow. And airflow is key to staying cool ...

More than 20 years after they rolled onto the scene, they still suck. But they're a little bit less of a mess every year. from Wired https://ift.tt/HAnJs5C

Watch something, play something, or make something with this weekend’s sales. from Wired https://ift.tt/bGMit1A

Windows 11 just witnessed the release of a new preview build which brings a few fresh features – including enhancements for the Family Safety widget – plus a ton of bug fixes, and the news that Microsoft is seemingly closing in on finalizing the big update for later in 2022 (known as 22H2 or Sun Valley 2 ). Build 22610 improves Microsoft’s Family Safety parental control system by introducing the ability for you to see the location of your other family members who are using the Family Safety app. Also, for the rest of your family who are designated in a ‘member’ role, they get a better view of screen time usage across devices and apps. Family Safety allows not only for tracking your children, but also setting screen time limits, and applying various content filters across software and games or when web browsing. This new preview build also makes a bunch of additions on the device management and group policy front for IT admins, as well as some small tweaks to the Windows 11 interf...

AirTags are finally more discoverable - and that's a good thing. Apple is rolling out firmware update 1.0.301 to AirTags that will make them louder and easier to locate. You will need iOS version 14.5 or later to download and use this feature. If you have version 14.5 or are up to date, the firmware update should have already occurred as it downloads automatically.  You can check if you have the right firmware by going to the Items tab in the Find My app. Tapping on AirTag will let you know if you have the new firmware. If you don’t have the AirTag change, you’ll probably get it later as Apple says the firmware update will be sent out again periodically. Just make sure the AirTags are within 33 feet of your iPhone, which is the maximum Bluetooth signal range for the device. A stalking problem This firmware update is part of a series of changes coming to AirTag after it was discovered they were being used to stalk people. The purpose of the louder sound is to make finding u...

Netflix has canceled "Space Force" starring Steve Carrell, John Malkovich, Ben Schwartz, and other notable actors after just its second season, another sign of a shake-up at the video streaming giant. Space Force, which premiered in May 2020 with a 10-episode run, was picked up for a second season that aired in February 2022. The show has received mixed reviews overall and has struggled to break into the top 10 in Nielsen's overall streaming ranking, though it topped out at number 7 in the streaming originals category according to Deadline , which broke the news of the cancellation.  In addition to Carrell, Malkovich, and Schwartz, the show featured Tawny Newsome, Dianna Silvers, Don Lake, and Jimmy O. Yang. The show centered around the newest branch of the US Military, the eponymous US Space Force, and its struggles to find its footing and be taken seriously by the government that created it. Metaphors don't hit harder, folks. Analysis: Speaking of struggles......

Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger confirmed this week that Arc Alchemist desktop graphics cards will launch in Q2 2022. "AXG [Accelerated Computing Systems and Graphics Group] is on track," Gelsinger said . "And we launched the mobile SKUs. We'll have the desktop SKUs coming in Q2. And we'll have more SKUs as we go through the year as well. We'll be filling out the product line." Back in February, Intel announced that "AXG expects to ship more than 4 million discrete GPUs in 2022” in an investor press kit before confirming that their launch would be delayed until May or June of this year. Analysis: Will the Intel Arc Alchemist be worth the wait? Though it’s pretty clear that Intel has launched the Arc Alchemist mobile GPUs first in order to test them out before the all-important PC launch, Intel’s flagship desktop GPU looks promising. We saw reports back in January that Intel’s Arc Alchemist XE 512 GPU could rival the Nvidia RTX 3070 Ti in power, w...

Using your favorite VPN in India may soon be impossible thanks to new regulations that will require VPN providers to collect and store a wide range of data on their customers for a period of five years. As reported by ENTRACKR , the Computer Emergency Response Team ( CERT-in ) which is under the control of the country’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has issued a new set of directions in an effort to “coordinate response activities as well as emergency measures with respect to cyber security incidents. Share your thoughts on Cybersecurity and get a free copy of the Hacker's Manual 2022 . Help us find how businesses are preparing for the post-Covid world and the implications of these activities on their cybersecurity plans. Enter your email at the end of this survey to get the bookazine, worth $10.99/£10.99. VPN providers aren’t the only companies that will be required to store customer data though as the directions also apply to data centers, c...

Verizon is working with Oracle to see how ‘ultra wideband’ 5G can be used to support industrial applications and use cases. The operator has switched on private and public 5G networks at the Oracle Industry Lab in Chicago, allowing the company’s customers and partners to identify ways next-generation networks can be applied in a variety of sectors. Although 5G networks will allow operators to offer enhanced communications to consumers and reduce operating costs, the real value is believed to be in enterprise services. Private 4G and 5G The market is currently served by Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and other LPWAN standards, but 5G promises to address many shortcomings. Unlike previous generations of mobile connectivity, the ultrafast speeds, superior capacity and ultra-low latency of 5G means mission-critical applications can be powered by cellular technology for the first time. 5G will improve reliability, availability and reduce delays. Read more > AWS wants to let all businesses...

Plus: Microsoft patched some 100 flaws, while Oracle issued more than 500 security fixes. from Wired https://ift.tt/4ziDkMY

If countless companies are going to benefit from tracking my internet activity, why shouldn't I? from Wired https://ift.tt/ZHlBUWX

The value of the nonprofit's first cryptocurrency has tanked, and users claim they've lost money, but it's still expanding to other cities. from Wired https://ift.tt/RhbKw2F

The retailer's annual sale has some good discounts, but they're slated to expire tonight. from Wired https://ift.tt/0mkXUMi

Employees and moderation advisers say loosening the platform’s rules would bring on an era of increased toxicity, causing users from marginalized backgrounds to flee. from Wired https://ift.tt/gGvnwmQ

A quarter of a billion years ago, rising temperatures emptied the oceans of life. The planet now faces a similar threat, but the outcome is in human hands. from Wired https://ift.tt/NtpU9V3

A new season has dropped in the free-to-play battle royale Warzone, but some players are reporting that they can't play without an Xbox Live Gold membership. As covered in our live blog for Warzone Season 3 , Twitter users started logging the issue and were pretty ticked off about it. Not only is Call of Duty: Warzone free-to-play, but Microsoft's rolled out an Xbox Live Gold policy change to ensure f2p titles wouldn't need a paid membership for their online multiplayer.   So the sudden requirement for a paid subscription has, rightfully, got players up in arms.       The new #Warzone update broke my game. I haven’t had Xbox live gold or any subscription for months now and I’ve been able to play free to play games including #Warzone. Microsoft instituted that policy last year. @InfinityWard please fix 🙏 pic.twitter.com/gXmhlf0PVn April 27, 2022 See more "The new Warzone update broke my game," lamented one player, posting a screenshot showing t...

An update coming to Microsoft 365 web apps will allow users to switch freely between work and personal accounts at last. Managing workloads when juggling a plethora of different email accounts can be a pain for the best of us. But with the latest update, Microsoft 365 users will no longer need to rely on finicky workarounds to switch contexts effectively. Users will now be able to sign into multiple Microsoft accounts in the same browser , and switch between these accounts without needing to sign out and back in or use private browser windows. According to Microsoft, this feature will benefit consultants who need to regularly access emails from different external companies, as well as consumer users switching between their corporate workloads and personal tasks like holiday planning to-do lists . New Microsoft 365 feature To get started with account switching, users need to access any of the Microsoft 365 web app and then click on the ‘Account Manager’ icon located in the top r...

The Overwatch 2 beta continues to flex its muscles on Twitch, hitting a staggering new peak for the game.  Overwatch 2 's beta crushed its previous record (set yesterday around 500k viewers) with the new high this afternoon shattering 1M for the first time. Leaving its own records in the dust isn't a huge surprise. While Overwatch has maintained a dedicated playerbase despite two years without much content, it's not exactly setting the gaming world alight. Even more important to the breakneck pace is the fact that you can earn access to the Overwatch 2 beta by watching enough of certain streamers. Other big fish in the pond, like Valorant, have come to fill the hole left by Overwatch, and so Blizzard is putting it in front of as many peoples faces as possible. By creating an opportunity to access the Overwatch 2 beta by viewing streams, it's got a shot at creating a temporarily captive audience to give a second (or first) look. The list of Twitch streamers involved...

Staying up to date with the ever-evolving security landscape is central to maintaining the security of webservers and keeping potential threats at bay.  There are several key threats to webservers that are important to be aware of, to prevent and mitigate those risks. DoS and DDoS attacks , SQL injections, unpatched software and cross-site scripting, to name a few.  Now, a recent discovery from threat researchers at Avast has shone a light on an immediate and significant risk to web developers worldwide, named Parrot TDS. What is a TDS? Traffic Direction Systems (TDS) are not new. They have been an enemy of web-developers for several years. Used as landing pages that direct unsuspecting users to malicious content, TDS serve as a gateway for delivering various malicious campaigns via infected sites. Many TDS’ have reached a high level of sophistication and often allow attackers to set parameters which look at users’ geolocation, browser type, cookies, and which website th...

Simply uploading code won't explain the platform's inner workings—and it could introduce more serious issues. from Wired https://ift.tt/9wNFRcL

If you're tinkering with your work-from-home setup, these gadgets might help. from Wired https://ift.tt/vGYmOeh

This gripping adaptation of Marjorie Blackman’s book series continues as star-crossed lovers Callum (Jack Rowan) and Sephy (Masali Baduza) abscond from the discriminatory government of Albion. Our guide below details how to watch Noughts and Crosses season 2 online and 100% FREE for free via BBC iPlayer in the UK. Outside of the country? Use a VPN to watch from abroad Watch Noughts and Crosses season 2 online Premiere date: April 26, 10.40pm GMT on BBC One New episodes: every Tuesday at the same time Free stream: BBC iPlayer Watch from anywhere: tune in today with a 100% risk-free VPN Noughts and Crosses imagines an alternative history: one in which, 700 years ago, a collective of West African nations created the Aprican Empire and colonized Europe. That resulted in a Black political orthodoxy whose elite, called “Crosses”, live a fraught co-existence with a white underclass, called the “Noughts”. Season 2 sees the country of Albion in turmoil. A pregnant Sephy is on...

Random numbers are in demand for a wide variety of use cases, from computer encryption to lotteries and gambling, as well as for scientific research. Amazon Web Services (AWS) Marketplace now offers a quantum computing-based random number generation service, developed by the Australian National University’s Quantum Numbers project (AQN). AQN said the project, which has been operating out of ANU’s campus lab for the last 10 years, uses quantum technology to generate true random numbers in real time by measuring the quantum fluctuations of a vacuum. How can it be used? AQN researcher Dr Syed Assad said that the random number service can help meet users’ needs in “IT, data science and modeling” and that “you can’t have reliable models for forecasting and research simulation” without random numbers. Read more > Amazon will not spin out AWS > AWS gives cloud desktops an unexpected upgrade > AWS instances now automatically recover your files Assad also highlighte...

The social network's user data and more will soon be at the whims of the world's richest man. Who's worried? from Wired https://ift.tt/VSdzRU3

Arm is expanding its Total Solutions for IoT portfolio with two new solutions for its Cortex-M and Cortex-A processors. First launched six months ago, Arm Total Solutions for IoT represented a radical shift in the design approach for the IoT and embedded markets by combining hardware IP, platform software, machine learning models, tools and more to help simplify product development and accelerate product design. As part of its expanded IoT roadmap, Arm is launching the highest-performing and most secure Cortex-M chip to date in the form of the new Cortex-M85 processor. At the same time though, the company is expanding its Arm Virtual Hardware to more platforms including third-party devices to make the development process more accessible. VP of IoT and Embedded at Arm, Mohamed Awad provided further insight on the company’s decision to bolster its IoT portfolio in a press release , saying: “Developers drive the future of the IoT, but they face an ever-increasing demand for higher...

Phishing is, unfortunately, profitable, hard to detect, and relatively easy to engage in. With digital transformations expedited across the globe, phishing is bound to experience continued explosive growth. According to Phishlabs , the number of phishing attempts over Q1 2021 increased by nearly 50%. There’s no reason to believe it will stop climbing either. That means increased levels of digital harm and risk. To counteract such an uptick, new approaches to phishing detection should be tested or current ones improved. One way to improve existing approaches is to make use of web scraping . Poking phish Phishers would be hard-pressed to completely replicate the original website. Placing all URLs identically, replicating images, cooking the domain age, etc. would take more effort than most people would be willing to dedicate.  Additionally, a perfect spoof would likely have a lower success rate due to the ability for the target to get lost (by clicking on an unrelated URL). F...

The Digital Services Act has granted the European Commission unprecedented power over tech companies in times of war. from Wired https://ift.tt/lNcp8hP

Everything you never wanted to know about the future of talking about the future. from Wired https://ift.tt/gLcqtDZ

Oracle has patched a nasty vulnerability in the Java framework, the severity of which cannot be overstated, security experts say. Tracked as CVE-2022-21449, the flaw was found in the company’s Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA) for Java 15 and newer. It allows threat actors to fake TSL certificates and signatures, two-factor authentication codes, authorization credentials and the like.  As explained by ArsTechnica , ECDSA is an algorithm that digitally authenticates messages. As it generates keys, it’s often used in standards such as FIDO’s two-factor authentication, the Security Assertion Markup Language, OpenID, and JSON.  Share your thoughts on Cybersecurity and get a free copy of the Hacker's Manual 2022 . Help us find how businesses are preparing for the post-Covid world and the implications of these activities on their cybersecurity plans. Enter your email at the end of this survey to get the bookazine, worth $10.99/£10.99. Forging SSL c...

The “urban heat island effect” creates extra-hot temperatures that kill. But cities can prescribe powerful treatments, like green spaces and reflective roofs. from Wired https://ift.tt/VYFL2tu

The Google Pixel Watch hasn’t even been announced yet, but we’re already hearing that it could get a sport-focused spin-off called the Pixel Watch Fit, which may or may not land at the same time. According to leaker @VNchocoTaco on Twitter, Google is either working on a separate model with this name, or possibly planning to call the standard Pixel Watch the Pixel Watch Fit. In any case, this wearable apparently has very thick bezels and could cost around $400 (roughly £315 / AU$555). For reference, the Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 starts at just $249.99 / £249 / AU$399, and the Galaxy Watch 4 Classic starts at $349 / £349 / $549. So in the US at any rate the Pixel Watch Fit could be the most expensive mainstream wearable without Apple in the name. Pixel Watch could have the name or another model with the name “Pixel Watch Fit” Very Thicc bezels Price could sit somewhere about ~$400 According to my source after they saw the leaked images. pic.twitter.com/HMeAjJ3TVk April 24, 2022 ...

Older iPhones only get new iOS updates for a certain amount of time before Apple decides to put them out to sea, and a report has suggested which devices could sail out into the sunset when iOS 16 launches later this year. This comes from a site called iDropNews , in a report written by a leaker called AppleLeaksPro with a limited track record. Take the information with a pinch of salt, due to the source, but what's stated does make sense given Apple's habits. Apparently, iOS 16 won't be compatible with three iPhones that did receive iOS 15: those are the iPhone 6 , iPhone 6S and the original iPhone SE. These devices are from 2014, 2015 and 2016 respectively so they are pretty old. Apple drops support for older iPhones with new builds of iOS because the older hardware simply doesn't have the power or space for the newer operating system, and it's something that happens in the Android space too. That's not to say Apple will completely forget about these pho...

Whether you’re skiing in the backcountry or trampolining in the backyard, we have an activity tracker for you. from Wired https://ift.tt/MiBW9gL

If you've got an old gadget you love to use even though it's a struggle because of its age, then using one of the best power banks might help you extend its lifespan. This is something I discovered when trying to eke extra mileage from my iPad Pro 12.9 , because while I still like using it for creative and professional tasks, several years of intensive use has made it hard to rely on for stints of work. That is, until I employed a portable charger to help me improve the way it works. Taking a battery-ing The thing that most affects a gadget over time is its battery life ⁠— constant cycles of discharging and recharging can greatly reduce its power capacity, meaning it lasts less and less time while unplugged. You might not notice it from day-to-day use, but over several years of use, the power drain will become noticeable. If you've got an old iPhone that seems to burn through the battery percentages, you'll know what I mean. I used to take my iPad for days out w...

Put some precautions in place, just in case you need them later. These steps will make it easier to get your data back if something bad happens. from Wired https://ift.tt/32LVMdi

We've been covering Google Pixel Watch rumors for years now, but it seems that the smartwatch is finally about to see the light of day: Google just filed a trademark application for the Pixel Watch name. As reported by 9to5Google , the trademark filing doesn't really tell us too much apart from the name of the long-awaited wearable. The documents submitted by Google to the United States Patent and Trademark Office are described as relating to smartwatches and smartwatch accessories. It's another sign that the device is going to be unveiled in the not-too-distant future. Earlier leaks have suggested that the wearable might be announced in May, although we've also heard that it might not go on sale until October. Set your watches We've certainly got a decent idea of what to expect from the Google Pixel Watch at this stage. It looks as though the smartwatch will have a sleek, rounded design , and there might be a physical crown button on the wearable as well. ...