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Study casts doubt on the chances of life on watery alien planets

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The most hostile environment even included bogus evidence in the form of biomorphs, or nano-sized silica grains that resemble small cells. There’s a concern that rovers landing on distant worlds might inadvertently fool researchers into believing the grains are proof of life.

This doesn’t mean exobiologists should give up their hunt for life beyond Earth. Instead, the study team suggests that scientists should pursue “cautionary interpretations” when they detect possible clues. They’ll want to double-check conditions before they reach any conclusions. Of course, this also assumes that any alien life is carbon-based like it is on Earth — it’s possible that alien lifeforms might thrive in conditions that would kill anything from our home planet.

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Watch Boeing’s Starliner capsule launch abort test at 9AM ET

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There’s a three-hour window in case weather or other complications delay the test. Don’t expect this particular vehicle to carry forward — it’s not poised to survive.

If all goes well, Starliner will join SpaceX’s Crew Dragon and other vehicles as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew program, which aims to have American vehicles once more carrying American astronauts into space through cooperation with private spaceflight outfits. On top of boosting national pride, it would reduce dependence on Russia for those missions where cooperation isn’t necessary.

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The first in-the-wild BlueKeep attack isn’t as dangerous as feared

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There’s been a “spike” in traffic related to the flaw, Rendition Infosec’s Jake Williams told Wired, but it hasn’t hit “critical mass.”

This doesn’t rule out the possibility of a more serious BlueKeep attack. There were still 735,000 computers open to BlueKeep as of August, according to Errata Security. However, the window of opportunity for a large-scale attack is closing. The longer it takes for someone to develop a large-scale attack, the more people patch their PCs against it. This may be one of those precious instances where a potentially serious vulnerability fizzles out due to both slow-to-move hackers and, importantly, an effective campaign to patch people’s computers.

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German leader wants 1 million EV charging points by 2030

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Electric car charging stations are still relatively few and far between, but they might be ubiquitous within a decade — in Germany, at least. Chancellor Angela Merkel has declared that the government wants a “million charging points” in the country by 2030. That would represent 50 times more than the roughly 20,000 points available now. Not surprisingly, Merkel didn’t expect this to happen through sheer force of will. The industry will need to “participate in this effort” if it’s going to come about, she said.

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Tesla Autopilot now recognizes traffic cones

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You may not want to put all your trust in the feature just yet. Some early users have warned that Autopilot doesn’t always recognize the cones, potentially leading to dangerous lane changes — say, steering you into oncoming traffic or construction. Tesla did remind drivers that they’re “required to pay attention at all times,” though, so it knows this isn’t a substitute for keeping your eyes open.

This is still an important step for Tesla. It still intends to enable full self-driving in the future, and that will require cars that can recognize and deal with virtually any road object. A seemingly small update like this could go a long way toward true hands-free driving.



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US will grant Huawei trade ban exemptions ‘very shortly’

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Ross didn’t give hints as to which firms had applied for licenses. However, the trade ban has conspicuously affected Google more than some companies. Huawei can’t offer new phones with a version of Android using Google apps so long as the blacklisting remains in effect, and its ability to update existing phones will go away when temporary licenses expire. A more permanent license might let Google and Huawei resume their earlier business.

Telecoms might not be so lucky, though. The Huawei ban was largely prompted by concerns that China might push Huawei to spy on Americans through cellular equipment, and the FCC has even proposed banning telecoms from using Huawei hardware if they receive Universal Service Fund money. Those companies that do receive exceptions are most likely to have little to do with telecom infrastructure.

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Camgirl sites exposed data for millions of users

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The database, which mostly included users from Europe, was locked down last week. It’s not clear if any intruders accessed the database. An email to VTS Media bounced, so the company’s stance on the issue isn’t clear.

As with the database exposure at 3Fun’s dating service, the camgirl site exposure isn’t just a potential security risk. The viewing habits could be used to blackmail people worried their more socially conservative peers might learn about their sexual preferences. If there’s an upshot, it’s that the disclosure has revealed potential privacy issues. Would users be comfortable knowing that VTS is logging their ‘private’ conversations? However the company has been making use of that data, the exposure is a reminder of what could happen if that info fell into the wrong hands.

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The best external hard drives

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The most convenient drive for backups: Portable hard drive

Who this is for: People who frequently move between locations and want a hard drive to back up important documents and photos from their laptop.

Why we like it: The 2 TB Seagate Backup Plus Slim is one of the lightest, thinnest hard drives we tested in our guide to the best portable hard drives, and it was consistently faster than the competition in our multi-file music and photo transfer tests. More important, it’s reliable—the tried-and-true Slim has been one of our picks for four years, and has an acceptable 9 percent reported failure rate across nearly 2,701 user reviews on Amazon. Seagate includes handy backup software, too.

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The 2 TB Seagate Backup Plus Slim is reliable and has fast transfer rates. Photo: Kyle Fitzgerald

Flaws but not dealbreakers: The Backup Plus Slim’s USB port wobbles when pressure is applied to the cable. If you break the port, you won’t be able to access your data until you find a new enclosure. The Slim has a two-year warranty that’s a year shorter than that of Western Digital’s drives, and we’ve read some complaints about Seagate’s customer service on Amazon, but we don’t think either of these issues are dealbreakers.

Learn more in our full guide to the best portable hard drives.

If you spend most of your time at one desk: Desktop hard drive

Who this is for: People who spend most of their time working in one place and want to keep their important documents and photos safe on a higher-capacity, faster, and more cost-effective hard drive.

Why we like it: Western Digital’s 4 TB My Book is very reliable—we found it had a 6 percent failure rate across nearly 400 reviews on Amazon—and it offers the best balance of speed and price. It was about as fast as its competition in all of our tests, it’s the least expensive drive we tested, and it has a longer warranty (three years) than the other contenders. Plus, 4 TB should be more than enough space for your future storage needs.

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A great external desktop hard drive should be reliable, fast, and inexpensive, like the 4 TB Western Digital My Book. Photo: Rozette Rago

Flaws but not dealbreakers: All of the desktop drives we tested were good, and we found the speed differences between them to be small. Because they perform so similarly, we recommend getting the cheapest desktop hard drive you can find from a trustworthy maker. Right now, that means the 4 TB Western Digital My Book. If you find a drive we’ve tested that costs less, go for it: WD’s Elements and Easystore drives are just as fast and reliable as the My Book.

Learn more in our full guide to the best desktop hard drives.

The best performance: Portable solid-state drive (SSD)

Who this is for: Photographers, creative professionals, and people who don’t mind spending a lot per gigabyte to get a compact 500 GB drive that’s between three and five-and-a-half times faster than portable hard drives or desktop hard drives.

Why we like it: The 500 GB Samsung T5 Portable SSD works reliably, and it was consistently faster than other portable SSDs in our tests. The Samsung supports faster, USB 3.1 Gen 2 speeds with a Type-C port, and it includes AES 256-bit hardware encryption to protect your sensitive data. The T5 is about as expensive per gigabyte as other external SSDs, and it’s one of the lightest and most compact. It has the most straightforward software to navigate, which makes it a breeze to set up encryption or check for updates. Plus the T5 has an indicator light that lets you know when it’s connected. It comes with a three-year warranty.

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The Samsung T5 Portable SSD works quickly and reliably, and it supports USB 3.1 Gen 2 speeds. Photo: Kyle Fitzgerald

Flaws but not dealbreakers: Compared with hard drives, the Samsung T5 Portable SSD is extremely expensive. But if you’re willing to shell out the cash, you’re safe doing so because it doesn’t have any major flaws.

Learn more in our full guide to the best portable solid-state drives.

If you have a large media library: Network-attached storage (NAS)

Who this is for: Network-attached storage is ideal for people who have large media libraries, because you can store your files in one place and stream them locally to other devices. It’s also useful for backing up multiple computers to a single location. You could also use a NAS if you have too much data to store in Dropbox or Google Drive, or if you don’t trust your data to a cloud storage provider.

Why we like it: The Synology DiskStation DS218+ is the fastest NAS we tested, and it offers powerful hardware for around $300 (plus the cost of hard drives, around $250 for a pair of 4 TB drives or around $500 for a pair of 8 TB drives). It also includes AES-NI hardware encryption acceleration for added security, has upgradable RAM, and comes with flexible software that’s easy to understand and works with a wide variety of third-party apps, such as Plex, BitTorrent Sync, and GitLab. You can use the DS218+ as a home backup device, a media streamer, a mail server, a website-hosting device, a BitTorrent box, or a video-surveillance recorder.

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The DS218+ was the fastest, most powerful NAS we tested, with more security than other models, and easy-to-use software. Photo: Kyle Fitzgerald

Flaws but not dealbreakers: A NAS is larger, bulkier, and pricier than other external drives we recommend, and it requires setup and management, as well as a dedicated Ethernet line.

Learn more in our full guide to the best network-attached storage.

If you frequently move data between computers: Flash drive

Who this is for: People who need to quickly move large amounts of data often—large media files like raw photos and video—from one computer to another, without relying on the Internet for convenience, speed, or privacy.

Why we like it: The 64GB Kingston DataTraveler Elite G2 combines a low cost with one of the most consistently fast speeds in a flash drive we’ve tested. It has a metal casing with an excellent build quality but is not so overly bulky that it will end up blocking any other USB ports on your laptop. It also has a blinking activity light that indicates when data is being transferred—a neat feature that other flash drives tend to lack. The Kingston DataTraveler comes with a five-year warranty, which is less than SanDisk’s lifetime warranty, but we still think this is plenty of time to find any issues with the drive.

External hard drive

Photo: Kyle Fitzgerald

Flaws but not dealbreakers: The small cap that protects the USB plug is easy to lose, but USB-A connections are durable, so it’ll work fine without it. A tethered cap would solve this issue easily.

Learn more in our full guide to the best flash drives.

Further reading

If you’d like to learn how to reformat your external drive to work with your operating system of choice, check out our guide.

When was the last time you backed up all of your important documents and photos? Check out our step-by-step guide to backing up your computer for an easy way to get started.

This guide may have been updated by Wirecutter. To see the current recommendation, please go here.

When readers choose to buy Wirecutter’s independently chosen editorial picks, Wirecutter and Engadget may earn affiliate commissions.

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After Math: It’s sequel season

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We knew this was coming, what with the footage leaking earlier in the week. But Blizzard executives nevertheless took to the Blizzcon stage on Friday to confirm that, yes, its massively popular competitive shooter will soon have a successor. From what we saw in the trailer, players are in for a treat with 4-person missions, unlockable abilities and even a few new faces to the game’s already expansive character roster.

NY Premiere of Amazon's "Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan" Season Two

You just can’t keep an international man of mystery down. Amazon gave its viewers a decidedly unspooky surprise on Halloween, the second season of its spy drama, Jack Ryan, a full 24 hours early. Bring in the candy bowl and turn off the porch light, it’s time to watch Jim from The Office save America from super-ISIS, or whatever ham-fisted terrorist tropes they’re using this year.

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Here’s one throwback that I’m legitimately excited for. The original Razr was the very first cell phone I ever owned (pretty sure I’ve still got it tucked away in a drawer somewhere). Now Motorola is bringing it back for a new generation. Fingers crossed it won’t suffer the same design flaws as the Galaxy Fold.

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Even with the Playstation 5 peeking over the horizon, Sony’s current generation console is still dominating the gaming market. The company announced this past week that it has sold a total of 102.5 million units since the PS4’s release, handily beating out anything from Nintendo, Sega or Microsoft. But even with its commercial success the PS4 doesn’t look like it will take the sales crown from the current titleholder, the PS2, which sold more than 155 million units during its production run.

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Blizzard is taking us back to Sanctuary, though we know not when. Confirming yet another leak from last week, the gaming company confirmed last Friday that it will soon release the fourth installment of the hack-and-slash RPG. With a seamless world map (read: fewer loading screens), deep character customization and “endless playability and progression,” this gruesomely gothic vision of hell is sure to keep players enthralled for ages.

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Recommended Reading: The ‘fingerprints’ of bourbon

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Whiskey webs: Microscale “fingerprints” of bourbon whiskey
Stuart J. Williams, Martin J. Brown, VI and Adam D. Carrithers,
Physical Review Fluids (PDF)

Finish up your weekend with glass of your favorite bourbon. And while you imbibe, these findings from researchers at the University of Louisville (because of course) will keep you company. A team from the school’s department of mechanical engineering observed web-like patterns or “fingerprints” when a drop of American whiskey evaporated. The same characteristic isn’t present in Scotch whisky or other liquors. What’s more, each pattern was a unique indicator of both whiskey type and age.

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