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The Morning After: DJI’s palm-sized drone can fly for 30 minutes

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More screens aren’t always better.LG G8X ThinQ review

Foldable phones aren’t quite ready for primetime, so LG did the next best thing: It added a case with a second screen. The only problem is that this doesn’t quite work either. As Chris Velazco explains, “the G8X and its second screen generally act like two smartphones attached at the proverbial hip.” Still, its funky setup isn’t so bad that it’s completely useless, and if you find a good deal on one it might be worth a try.

Things are going well.Nintendo Switch sales should pass the SNES next quarter

Nintendo sold 4.8 million Switch consoles last quarter, bringing lifetime sales to 41.67 million. That’s a 50 percent increase on the 3.19 million Switch consoles sold during the same period last year and includes nearly two million units of the new Switch Lite sold in just the last ten days of the reporting period. The company also told investors that its mobile efforts are currently focused its existing mobile apps, like Dr. Mario and Mario Kart Tour, as opposed to releasing new ones in the next year.

In-car systems will have a new look soon.Ford’s Sync 4 system will add wireless CarPlay and Android Auto support

When Sync 4 arrives in select Ford vehicles starting in 2020, it’ll include wireless support for both CarPlay and Android Auto. Some Sync 4 vehicles will include wireless charging, so you’ll be able to take one less cable with you when you go for a drive in one of the company’s new cars. The interface is also tuned for multitasking and has support for larger 15-inch screens.

Ford’s other announcement is that, around the same time, it will have new models ready to receive over-the-air updates.

The game launches on PS4 November 8th.The ‘Death Stranding’ launch trailer is here, and it’s eight minutes long

Sony has shared an eight-minute launch trailer for Hideo Kojima’s next opus. Don’t go into the trailer with the expectation to get a better sense of the game’s story; more likely, you’ll come out the other side with more questions than answers. It wouldn’t be a Kojima game otherwise.

The only real problem is that there are so many other speakers to choose from.Amazon Echo review (2019): Low-priced, but not low-end

The latest Echo does just about everything right: It sounds great, it’s pretty cheap at $99 and it handles voice commands like a charm.

He’s made a big donation to a YouTuber-led project to combat climate change.Why did Elon Musk just buy a million trees?

Last night, Elon Musk bought a million trees for a cool $1 million, and it wasn’t some mad luxury purchase you might expect. Instead, it’s all based on the power of a handful of YouTubers starting a project that’ll do a little bit to combat climate change. TeamTrees is a project aimed at raising $20 million by the end of 2019 to bankroll the planting of 20 million new trees by the end of 2022. Spearheading TeamTrees is Jimmy Donaldson. Better known online as MrBeast, Donaldson made a name for himself doing stunts, while also uploading philanthropic antics, using money he’s made from his channel.

So light it doesn’t need to be registered with the FAA.DJI’s palm-sized Mavic Mini can fly for up to 30 minutes

This foldable Mavic Mini weighs in at just 249 grams and comes with a bunch of features designed to make drone flying and aerial photography fun and accessible to everyone, without skimping on quality. The standard Mavic Mini package with remote controller, one battery, extra propellers and all necessary tools and wires is available for pre-order for $399 and will start shipping on November 11th.

The social network believes the ads are too prone to manipulation.Twitter will put a stop to political ads on November 22nd

Twitter has wrestled with the issue of questionable political ads and decided just to get rid of them entirely. Jack Dorsey announced that the social network is stopping all political ads outside of non-partisan exceptions (such as voter registration), whether they come from candidates or interest groups. It’ll provide the finished policy on November 15th and will start enforcing it on November 22nd.

Dorsey said the decision stemmed from both principles and practical realities. A political message on Twitter should earn its reach when people follow or share accounts and “should not be compromised by money,” the CEO said. Meanwhile, over at Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg is staying the course.

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Hackers breached some of the web’s most popular domain registrars

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Web.com said that “a third-party gained unauthorized access to a limited number of its computer systems in late August 2019, and as a result, account information may have been accessed,” adding that “no credit card data was compromised as a result of that incident.”

However, it determined that contact details like “name, address, phone numbers, email address and information about the services that we offer to a given account holder” were exposed. While Web.com asked customers to reset their passwords, it said that “we encrypt account passwords and do not believe this information is vulnerable as a specific result of this incident.”

Such a hack might seem relatively minor, but domain name registrars sell website names like Engadget.com and assign them IP addresses. As such, they’re an essential cog in the internet — if an attacker succeeds in changing a domain name, they can take control of an entire website.

For instance, hackers once compromised the domain name registrar of a Brazilian bank and redirected users to lookalike sites that stole their credentials and installed malware. “If your DNS is under the control of cybercriminals, you’re basically screwed,” Kaspersky’s Dmitry Bestuzhev told Wired about the incident.

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Mixer drops its subscription price to $4.99 — the same as Twitch

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After snagging some top streamers — starting with Ninja — the latest change Mixer is making in its battle with Twitch is to subscription pricing. The Microsoft-owned platform announced on Thursday that it’s changing subscription pricing — a feature fans can use to support their favorite streamers while obtaining special privileges in the chat room — from $5.99 per month to $4.99 per month.

That puts its subscriptions at the same amount as Twitch’s initial level, which may make it more appealing for pro streamers considering a change to move over, since their existing subscribers won’t have to pay extra. Subscribers who auto renew should see the lower rate, and in another tweet the service said that those who subscribed within the last week can request an adjustment.

It’s unclear how this affects how much streamers can make, although the Mixer support site indicated that the split depended on their particular partnership contract, after PayPal and Stripe processing fees are deducted. That’s in addition to payments Mixer provides in place of advertising, as well as other options like Embers, direct purchasing and Xbox Game Pass purchase credits. Twitch, on the other hand, has ads that help pay partners, higher levels of subscriptions and Bits that viewers can buy and distribute.

Streaming is not just a lifestyle for those who are good at it, it’s a business, and if Mixer is going to continue to peel off top talent, it will need to guarantee them ways to keep making money. Streamers like Shroud and KingGothalion have followed Ninja’s movement over from Twitch — we’ll see if that continues.



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Uber and LinkedIn attackers plead guilty to hacking and extortion

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The duo has admitted to Judge Lucy Koh that they used Amazon Web Services logins belonging to Uber and Lynda.com employees to access their servers. They also admitted to stealing private customer information and then contacting the companies to extort them for hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of bitcoin.

When Mereacre and Glover demanded payment from Lynda.com to delete their stolen records, they included a note that said they’re expecting a big payment and that they already “helped a big corp which paid close to 7 digits.” They were probably talking about Uber, which paid them $100,000 under its bug bounty program and then hunted them down to make them sign non-disclosure agreements. The LinkedIn-owned subsidiary, however, refused to pay, notified their customers about the breach and chose to find a way to identify the hackers instead.

Even though Uber initially chose to keep the incident a secret, it eventually came to light and prompted an FTC investigation. As a result, the ride-hailing giant was slapped with a $148 million fine and had to agree to 20 years of privacy audits — the company also fired chief security officer Joe Sullivan, who arranged the payments and decided not to alert users about the breach. According to The New York Times, the duo could face a max sentence of up to five years in federal prison and could be fined up to $250,000. They will be sentenced in 2020.

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Tim Cook: Apple Pay transactions doubled year-over-year

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Apple CFO Luca Maestri has also announced that the US Census Bureau is using iOS devices for next year’s census. The agency had already developed (PDF) apps, including an address listing and mapping application and an interviewer-administered survey application, that can run on iOS, Android and even Windows. Maestri said that the shift to iPhones and iPads is part of the bureau’s efforts to make fundamental changes to the census process and that using those devices will reduce costs for the agency.

The tech giant will deploy hundreds of thousands — the exact number is unknown — for the project through Apple Financial Services. According to 9to5Mac, the devices used for the initiative may be sold afterwards to minimize costs. Finally, if you couldn’t care less about Apple Pay or the census and just really, really want a new iPhone, you may be happy to know that the company will add a zero-interest financing plan for iPhone purchases later this year.

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Vudu could be up for sale, if Walmart finds an interested buyer

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Just shy of a decade after Wal-mart bought Vudu, The Information reports that the retail giant is “considering” selling its digital video on-demand store. There’s no word on how far along in the process any potential deal is, or if will actually happen, but anyone can see that the service made more sense a few years ago, when it was one of the best ways to access DVD digital copies linked to an Ultraviolet locker. That went right along with in-store disc sales, and enabled a business selling digital copies to people who wanted an easier way to watch movies they’d already purchased on discs.

Now, Ultraviolet is dead and Disney’s Movies Anywhere setup has largely taken over that space. While it also connects to Vudu, it’s not exactly what Wal-mart had in mind back in 2010. Increasingly, video watching hours are devoted to subscription streaming services, which are using inflated budgets to swallow up exclusive content. There was a rumored plan to try and do the same thing for Vudu, but that appears to have fallen through, while Apple, Disney, Comcast/NBC and AT&T/Warner/HBO are all preparing to launch new subscription options.

In a statement to The Information, a Walmart spokesperson cited the service’s 100 million-strong install base, and said “We’re constantly having and [are] open to conversations with new and existing partners to explore opportunities for continued growth; however, we never share details of those discussions.”

Maybe a potential buyer will see benefit in a service that many people already use to get movies and TV shows, with some included free options, a small selection of original content like Mr. Mom, and a history that stretches back to 2007 when it launched on a $400 set-top box.

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DeepMind AI now keeps up with ‘StarCraft II’ Grandmasters

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AI in reinforcement training is normally set to maximize its chances of winning, but that doesn’t necessarily make for strong training. The software may only learn to excel in a narrow set of conditions and leave itself open to exploits. Much like human experts, DeepMind’s new approach has one of the AIs focus on exploiting the other’s weaknesses. AlphaStar gradually learned to try a wider variety of strategies that could do more to counter unconventional, highly exploitative tactics (aka cheese)

The technology still has its limits. It needs much more training than a human to match a comparable level of skill, for a start. This is still no small feat given the complexity of StarCraft, and it bodes well for DeepMind’s long-term plans. As with the company’s earlier game research, the ultimate plan is to translate AlphaStar’s progress into real-world applications. A more robustly-trained AI could help self-driving cars and robots handle unusual situations they wouldn’t otherwise be prepared to handle.

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Apple re-releases HomePod update to avoid bricking speakers

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Relax, HomePod owners — it’s now safe to update your speaker again. Apple has re-released the HomePod’s multi-user update (now 13.2.1) to fix the problem that bricked some users’ speakers, particularly after they tried to solve the issue by rebooting their device. You’re still asked to contact Apple Support if your speaker is dead in the water, but everyone else should have personalized responses, audio handoffs with iPhones, relaxing ambient sounds and support for music in HomeKit scenes.

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Lyft’s stricter safety policy could make it harder to ban bad drivers

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Under the new system, Lyft also requires its Trust and Safety team to follow a strict set of guidelines that is displayed on their computer as they work through a case (the company also made the role an hourly position instead of a salaried one). Under Lyft’s previous system, Trust and Safety team members had leeway to exercise their own judgment. They could, for example, preemptively ban a driver if they saw a pattern of unsafe behavior. The new guidelines, which are less open to interpretation, create the potential for drivers to stay on until they’re involved in a more serious incident. Moreover, drivers who were previously barred from driving for Lyft can appeal a decision made under the old system. If they do so, they’ll be judged based on the company’s new guidelines and an SPCC member, not a Trust and Safety employee, will decide their fate.

A spokesperson for Lyft said the new team and system “ensures consistency and prevents bias when permanently banning drivers from the platform for serious offenses and violations of our Community Guidelines.” The company is also adamant the new safety system isn’t a cost-cutting measure. However, current and former employees The Washington Post spoke to say they worry the updated guidelines are too rigid.

To be clear, Lyft’s old safety system was definitely in need of improvement. The company recently became the center of a lawsuit that alleges it didn’t do enough to protect its female passengers from predatory drivers. That lawsuit includes almost 100 sexual assault complaints that date between 2014 and 2016. In a separate report from earlier this year, The Washington Post also detailed a variety of situations in which the company’s Trust and Safety employees didn’t ban drivers for sexual harassment. Just because its employees could make a judgment call didn’t always mean they made the right one. Without knowing the exact contents of either the new or old set of guidelines, it’s hard to say just how much of an improvement or regression the company’s new rules are.

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Steam’s redesigned Library is available to everyone

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This is also a big update if you miss the days of multiplayer games on the couch. The new version expands the Remote Play Together beta to everyone, not just people using the beta client. Again, this lets you play local multiplayer games across the internet. Only the host needs a copy of the game — everyone else just needs a mic and a gamepad, if a title doesn’t revolve around shared access to the keyboard or mouse. It’s not as special as playing in person, but it beats having to delay playing a game with your friends until everyone can meet.

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