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Facial recognition startup Clearview AI says its full client list was stolen

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That same intruder also knows how many accounts those organizations set up, as well as how many searches they’ve conducted in the past. The company claims its servers weren’t breached, and that it was able to shore up the vulnerability. Thankfully, it doesn’t appear the intruder was able to access Clearview’s database of three billion images.

“Security is Clearview’s top priority,” Tor Ekeland, an attorney for the company, told The Daily Beast. “Unfortunately, data breaches are part of life in the 21st century. Our servers were never accessed. We patched the flaw, and continue to work to strengthen our security.”

Clearview came under intense public scrutiny earlier this year when The New York Times published a report on the company. Clearview reportedly built its database by scraping publicly available photos from websites like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Venmo. Following the report, the companies that operate those websites, including Google and Facebook, sent cease-and-desist letters to Clearview. CEO Hoan Ton-That told CBS This Morning the company plans to challenge the letters in court by arguing that it has a First Amendment right to public information.

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Ava DuVernay teams with ‘Star Wars’ veteran on Amazon sci-fi series

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This isn’t Amazon’s first Octavia Butler adaptation. It also tapped Viola Davis, Nnedi Okorafor and others for a Prime Video version of Wild Seed. It is, however, relatively new territory for DuVernay. She’s more closely associated with Netflix projects like When They See Us, and she’s not known for straight-up sci-fi. When she branches out, it’s for fantasy titles like A Wrinkle In Time.

It’s not surprising that Amazon would go this route, at least. It’s not only adapting a well-known book with accomplished creators at the helm, it’s pursuing a project that could appeal to a broader audience. Butler’s Afrofuturist elements and explorations of issues of gender, race and sexuality may help reach people who might not be interested in the usual sci-fi fare. Amazon’s strategy of the past few years has been to produce as many global hits as possible, and Dawn might fit that bill.

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Starbucks embraces fake meat, starting in Canada

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The lab-grown, plant-based meat trend is a product of science and tech, but it’s also driven by a growing awareness of the environmental impacts of meat production. Earlier this year, Starbucks said it was committed to a “resource-positive future,” which includes expanding plant-based options and creating a more environmentally friendly menu. The upcoming egg, cheddar and Beyond Meat sausage breakfast sandwich is the first major step in that direction. The company has also pledged to phase out plastic straws.

While the Starbucks-Beyond Meat partnership is limited to Canada for now, it’s a major win for Beyond Meat, as Starbucks is one of the largest chains in the world and Beyond Meat faces tough competition from Impossible Burger. Yesterday, Disney dubbed Impossible Burger the “preferred plant-based burger” of Disneyland, Disney World and the Disney Cruise Line, and the alternative meat patty is already available at Burger King and grocery stores in the US.

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PlatinumGames’ first original project looks like Ant-Man meets Godzilla

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There’s no release date for PlatinumGames’ new endeavor, and Kamiya stressed that this is just the beginning. “With Project GG, we’re stepping up to a starting line,” he said. “The finish line is still a long way away. But I know I’m looking forward to running the race! I hope you’ll cheer us on.”

PlatinumGames’ newfound freedom is likely tied to a fresh deal with Tencent, one of the largest and most influential companies in the video game industry. Tencent fully owns League of Legends studio Riot Games, and it has a financial stake in several major publishers, including Epic Games, Activision Blizzard, Ubisoft, Bluehole, Paradox Interactive, Supercell, Grinding Gear Games, Yager, Sumo Digital and even Discord. Tencent also has a 5 percent stake in Tesla, it’s the majority shareholder of Snap, and it’s the owner of WeChat.

Not only does Tencent have billions of dollars to throw around, but it’s also entrenched in the Chinese video game market, which is the largest in the world. The United States has an estimated 164 million players, while China has 640 million, according to Statista. Publishers are hungry for this audience, but the Communist Party of China imposes strict rules on content creators, banning games based on rigid standards of patriotism, violence and sexuality. The most popular franchises in the world can’t avoid China’s censors, even with a local company’s help — Activision partnered with Tencent to develop Call of Duty: Mobile, and even though it’s a massive hit around the globe, the game still isn’t available in China. However, this hasn’t stopped companies like EA and PlatinumGames from signing deals with Tencent.

PlatinumGames is keeping busy. On top of Project GG, the studio is building Babylon’s Fall for Square Enix and Bayonetta 3 for Nintendo, and it’s in the middle of an extremely successful Kickstarter campaign for The Wonderful 101: Remastered. The fundraiser has nine days left and it’s already secured more than $1.7 million of a $50,000 goal.

Clearly, players can’t get enough of PlatinumGames, which might be why the studio is going big with its first original IP. Like, kaiju big.

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GrubHub+ gets you free deliveries and cashback for $10 a month

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Even if you use Grubhub frequently, you’ll want to check if your favorite take-out joints are participating in the program; both free delivery and cashback rewards are limited to restaurants that have enrolled in the program. The company told Restaurant Dive approximately 100,000 restaurants across the US are currently taking part in Grubhub+. Another thing to keep in mind is that the minimum to qualify for free delivery is $12.

You can try out Grubhub+ for free through a 14-day trial. If you already subscribe to a competing service, you can check it out without paying for 30 days instead.

For Grubhub, it will be interesting to see if this new service can avoid the type of controversy the company has courted in the past. Last summer, for instance, a Motherboard report found Grubhub had replaced the phone numbers listed on some Yelp restaurant pages so that it could get a referral fee from those businesses. More recently, the company was caught allowing people to make orders from restaurants that hadn’t even signed up for its service. At the very least, those types of practices make it challenging to build out a service like Grubhub+.

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Surface Duo may let you ‘peek’ at notifications

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A leaked video shared on Twitter shows a Surface Duo opened just slightly. The time and notifications are clustered on the right side of the screen, and you can swipe to dismiss them. You’ll also be able to preview and decline or accept calls.

This “peek” feature could be an alternative to adding another screen, as the Galaxy Fold and Galaxy Z Flip devices have done. Microsoft hasn’t confirmed this feature, but last month it released a preview toolkit to help developers prepare Android apps for the Surface Duo, so it’s not unreasonable to believe that it’s in the works. Microsoft clearly wants developers to come up with innovative dual-screen experiences, and it could set an example with this peek-to-preview function.



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Eero’s mesh WiFi routers now support Apple HomeKit

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Eero has acted on its promise of supporting HomeKit for Routers. You can now add any Eero, Eero Pro or Eero Beacon device running eeroOS 3.18.0 (or later) to Apple’s Home app, letting the mesh WiFi routers firewall your smart home devices so that a vulnerability in one doesn’t compromise your entire local network. You can allow gadgets to communicate automatically with the devices their manufacturers approve, limit them to HomeKit or remove all restrictions if necessary.

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Harmonix’s next music-making puts your DJ skills to the test

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The game will come with over 100 songs, with additional downloadable content available. Eventually, the tracklist will include pop, hip-hop, R&B, dance, rock, country, Latin and Caribbean music. The game will offer multiplayer and freestyle modes, plus live challenges.

Unlike most other music-making games, users won’t need a special controller to play. When the game arrives on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and Windows PC this fall, users will only need a standard gamepad.

Harmonix will offer hands-on demos at PAX East in Boston beginning tomorrow, and it’ll show the game off at EGX Rezzed in London next month.

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Everything you missed at Toy Fair 2020

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The biggest hype at this year’s show was over Baby Yoda, who was everywhere… mostly because there hasn’t been a lot of merch until now. That’s because Disney kept The Child’s existence a closely-guarded secret before The Mandalorian premiered on Disney+ back in November. Now we have Baby Yoda figures, dolls and costumes. But the most anticipated product is the animatronic Baby Yoda, which can laugh, coo and uh, sell out within hours before it’s even released.

Hot Wheels RC Cybertruck

Also sold out? The new 1/10-scale Hot Wheels RC Cybertruck. If you don’t have $39,900 to spend on the real thing, you could have gotten pretty close with this detailed replica capable of speeds up to 25 miles per hour. If that amount is still too rich for your blood (or you just missed the pre-order window), there’s a 1/64-scale version of the Cybertruck for $20, too.

It may have been primarily a toy show, but video gaming also reared its digital head in some unexpected places. Remember those terrible handheld Tiger Electronics LCD games from the ’80s and ’90s? Hasbro is bringing them back for some nostalgic “fun.” Minecraft Earth is getting NFC-enabled minis. And, for fans of FPS games, Nerf now has Halo-themed weaponry, including the iconic MA40 and Needler.

Tech manifested itself in all sorts of other ways at Toy Fair, from ninja robots to digital dollhouses. But few were as charming as KidKraft’s new Alexa 2-in-1 Kitchen and Market. Yes, we mean the real Alexa — you can attach an Amazon Echo for sound effects and cooking instructions. A lot of the pieces are equipped with RFID chips so Alexa knows what your kids are up to and even banter with them. Do you like dad jokes? Alexa will tell a lot of dad jokes.

Most of these products were given rather nebulous release dates of “some time in 2020” but rest assured we’ll update you throughout the year, as well as taking these into consideration when we release our holiday gift guide this fall.

Check out all the news from Toy Fair 2020 here!

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Google’s image results will soon tell you more about what you’re seeing

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The new icons indicate whether the image you’re clicking leads to a page with products for sale, to a page with recipes or to video content. They appear small and unobtrusive at first glance, but mousing over them shows the tags in full, even the video’s length. While the icons’ addition isn’t a huge change, it could make it easier to sift through hundreds of results and find what you’re looking for. If, say, you’re doing an image search to find a particular product to buy, you can simply just check out all the photos marked with the product tag.

Google isn’t killing image dimensions completely, though. You’ll just have to select the thumbnail of a photo you want to know more about and then mouse over it to see the size tag at its usual place in the bottom left corner.



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