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Apple disables its walkie-talkie Watch app due to vulnerability

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We were just made aware of a vulnerability related to the Walkie-Talkie app on the Apple Watch and have disabled the function as we quickly fix the issue. We apologize to our customers for the inconvenience and will restore the functionality as soon as possible. Although we are not aware of any use of the vulnerability against a customer and specific conditions and sequences of events are required to exploit it, we take the security and privacy of our customers extremely seriously. We concluded that disabling the app was the right course of action as this bug could allow someone to listen through another customer’s iPhone without consent. We apologize again for this issue and the inconvenience.

Walkie Talkie is a FaceTime feature that enables push-to-talk calls between users, provided they grant permission. The feature was added to Watch with the release of watchOS 5, and gives users a fun, Dick Tracy-like way to communicate, anywhere in the world.

Facetime has been Apple’s biggest security headache of late. Early this year, a teenager discovered a vulnerability that allowed someone to listen in on a call before it was picked up. Apple failed to respond promptly to that issue, which drew the attention of a US House Committee.

The company seems to have learned its lesson, handling the bug (reported on its vulnerability portal) promptly and taking action to mitigate it. Apple also took decisive action just yesterday after a major bug was reported with Zoom’s videoconferencing software.

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Waymo’s self-driving system has driven 10 billion virtual miles

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The company runs the equivalent of 25,000 self-driving cars 24 hours a day in the simulation. Every time one of them learns something new from what it experiences, it will share its findings with the rest of the fleet. Of course, Waymo still needs to do more real-world driving, but the company believes simulation testing is a necessary step before launching and deploy self-driving technologies. Companies developing autonomous driving systems have to find creative ways to teach their technologies after all, seeing as only a small number of places allow self-driving vehicles to conduct testing on their roads.

Unfortunately, the company didn’t share what exactly its system has learned from simulation testing. But Waymo’s Chief Technology Officer Dmitri Dolgov said on stage during the event:

“The amount of driving you do in both of those is really a function of the maturity of your system, and the capability of the system. If you’re just getting started, it doesn’t matter, you’re working on the basics so you can drive a few miles or tens of thousands of miles in the real world. But as you as the system matures, and you have a system that works great 99.99% of the time, it really requires very large-scale simulation, and very large-scale driving in the real world.”



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Mozilla now curates a list of recommended extensions for Firefox

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In addition to its efforts to make the Firefox add-ons ecosystem safer, Mozilla is making the Firefox Reader View dark mode even darker, as well. The mode used to cover the text area only, changing a page’s background to black to make reading in the dark easier on the eyes. But now the mode covers all the sections of the page you’re on, including the sidebars and the toolbar.

Mozilla has also updated Firefox for iOS with a new Recently Bookmarked section and the ability to edit bookmarks, giving you a way to reorder and rename them or even to change their URLs. Another new feature allows you to specify the sites you always want to open in desktop mode — the browser will even confirm that you’re on desktop view with a badge, so you don’t have to grapple with any website’s subpar mobile versions.

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Lady Gaga’s cosmetics line is just for Amazon

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Amazon has been steadily expanding its beauty business following success in sales; health, personal care and beauty is the third-fastest growing category on the site, according to eMarketer. Still, the online retail giant is a surprising choice for the Oscar-winning artist’s debut into the world of beauty. Many luxury beauty and fashion brands have shunned Amazon due to its mass-market image and its reputation as a place for deals and discounts, rather than high-end luxury products. But according to The Business of Fashion, pricing for Haus Laboratories cosmetics appear to be more mid-range; a lip gloss is $16, a palette for eyes, lips and cheeks is $49.

Lady Gaga made it clear that Amazon would give her a degree of independence and control over her line that other, more traditional markets would not. In an interview with The Business of Fashion, the musician said Amazon would allow her to spread a message of self-acceptance and be herself, rather than conform to a corporate image. “If it’s not perfectly in line with what they do… they’ll be like, ‘Can you just change half of the equation?’ The answer is no. No deal,” she said. “No message of self-acceptance, no deal. This [deal with Amazon] was so wonderful because this was like, ‘Let’s make a deal, let’s make a deal to change the world with their beauty,” said Lady Gaga in the interview.

Pre-orders for Haus Laboratories begin on July 15, which coincides with Amazon Prime Day. The brand will officially launch in nine countries in September, including the US, Germany and Japan.

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Windows 10 preview tests password-free sign-ins

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The feature is only available on a “small portion” of users’ PCs at the moment, so it may take a week or more to see it. And since this is the Fast ring, you shouldn’t be surprised if there are any bugs.

There are other reasons to consider the release, at least. The Your Phone screen feature now works with more Surface devices, right up to newer hardware like the Surface Pro 6 and Surface Laptop 2. You can also quickly create calendar events from the taskbar. So long as you’re prepared for glitches, this could be a meaningful sneak peek at where Windows is going in the near future.

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Foxconn’s Wisconsin plant opens next May with fewer jobs than promised

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The facility, officially announced in 2017, has yet to be built and is more than a year behind schedule. According to CNBC, Foxconn only recently began laying the foundation, and it will likely fall short of the 1,820 jobs it needs to create by the end of 2020 in order to secure $270 million in tax credits. The company already missed its 2018 hiring target of 260 people, and it’s unclear if it will reach its goal of hiring 520 employees in 2019, which it needs to do in order to receive $222 million in subsidies. Foxconn has until 2032 to reach its touted goal of 13,000 workers.

This shouldn’t come as a surprise, as the project began running into issues almost as soon as it started. Foxconn first promised a $10 billion investment, which would allow it to manufacture large-screen LCD displays. But by 2018, it changed course, opting to manufacture smaller screens. The company reportedly struggled to find enough personnel to staff the plant. It considered bringing employees over from China, but that evoked backlash. Wisconsin shelled out more subsidies, and residents started to question if the deal was worth it. At one point it considered using the facility for research and development, instead of manufacturing, but again that was met with criticism. It’s hard to say if production will actually begin in May 2020, but the project is, at least, still moving forward.

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Japan’s Hayabusa2 probe attempts its final asteroid landing at 9:15 PM ET

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Back in February, Japan’s second asteroid-exploring spacecraft touched down on the asteroid Ryugu to collect samples that it will bring back to Earth. Tonight, Hayabusa2 is making its final sample collection attempt, where it will try to collect material that was exposed by a crater it created with explosives back in April. It will once again try to quickly land, fire a tantalum bullet into the asteroid’s surface and grab some of the dust that gets kicked up — all in about one second.

Assuming all goes well, the plan is to eventually deploy a second Minerva 2 rover, and then begin its year-long journey back to Earth around November or December.

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Virgin Orbit’s first rocket drop test was a success

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Company chief Dan Hart told CNBC in an interview that he hoped the first full-fledged launch would take place “before the end of the summer.” A first commercial launch, meanwhile, could come roughly eight to 10 weeks after that. Virgin already has six rockets in progress in its factory, and thinks it can produce “beyond 20” per year, Hart added.

The relatively quick schedule isn’t completely outlandish. Unlike Virgin Galactic, the Orbit team isn’t carrying crewed vessels into space — there’s still a lot to consider, but there are clearly fewer variables. As it is, the team has plenty of incentive to hurry. Virgin expects to charge between $10 million to $15 million per flight, which is a bargain compared to other aircraft-based launches and many conventional rockets. If successful, it could become a go-to option for satellite operators that want to trim their costs.

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Viral hoax Momo is getting its own movie

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Details on the actual film are sparse, so it’s not clear how Momo will be depicted on screen. However, it’s pretty safe to assume it’ll be packed with scares. The project will pair Taka Ichise and Roy Lee, the pair that previously worked together on The Grudge and The Ring franchises.

Momo first came to prominence last year when local news reports started to warn parents about the so-called Momo Challenge. According to the reports, children would receive messages on WhatsApp and other platforms demanding they do what is asked of them or face a visit from Momo, the creepy, human-bird hybrid that is actually just a statue called Mother Bird. In some cases, those messages asked the kids to commit acts of violence or self-harm. The problem is that researchers found the Momo Challenge wasn’t particularly widespread and no children actually hurt themselves or others because of it. The Momo Challenge was essentially a hoax, but fear of it turned Momo into an actual viral sensation.



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Apple quietly updates Macs to remove Zoom webcam exploit

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Zoom told TechCrunch that it partnered with Apple to test the fix. It shouldn’t affect functionality other than requiring your permission to launch the app.

We’ve asked Apple for comment.

Apple is known to deliver quiet updates to block malware. This, however, is another story — the company is pushing an update to fix a problem with an above-board developer that has over four million users. Neither Apple nor Zoom wanted to take any chances, even if the practical threat of someone using the exploit is slim.

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