Techflier

There’s no doubt that Apple’s self-polished reputation for privacy and security has taken a bit of a battering recently. On the security front, Google researchers just disclosed a major flaw in the iPhone, finding a number of malicious websites that could hack into a victim’s device by exploiting a set of previously undisclosed software bugs. When visited, the sites infected iPhones with an implant designed to harvest personal data — such as location, contacts and messages. As flaws go, it looks like a very bad one. And when security fails so spectacularly, all those shiny privacy promises naturally go straight out the window. The implant was used to steal location data and files like databases of WhatsApp, Telegram, iMessage. So all the user messages, or emails. Copies of contacts, photos, https://t.co/AmWRpbcIHw pic.twitter.com/vUNQDo9noJ — Lukasz Olejnik (@lukOlejnik) August 30, 2019 And while that particular cold-sweat-inducing iPhone security snafu has now been patch...

“The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance” returns viewers to the world of Thra — a distant, magical planet ruled over by the sinister, long-lived Skeksis, who have lied their way into ownership of the titular crystal and dominance of the elf-like Gelflings. The series is a prequel to Jim Henson and Frank Oz’s 1982 film “The Dark Crystal” — but two out of your three hosts at  the Original Content podcast haven’t seen the original movie, so our opinions weren’t colored by nostalgia. Like the Henson/Oz film, “Age of Resistance” relies on sophisticated puppetry to bring a complex fantasy world to life. It’s genuinely dazzling, with sprawling cities, steampunk machinery and all manner of fantasy creatures all fully realized, and often captured in fast-moving scenes of kinetic action. On the other hand, for some of us, the puppetry wasn’t quite up to the task when the show got darker and more serious. It’s hard to care about family drama and romance when your lead characters have limited...

Labor Day is Monday, September 2nd, in the US. Whether you have the day off or not, we salute our hard-working readers, and we’re here to share the best Labor Day-themed deals from around the internet. Compared to the holiday season, opportunities to save on tech gadgets during the summer and fall are sparse. But if you’re looking to spend a little cash, these discounts will help you get more for your money. We’ve pulled together deals from brands like Ring, Dyson, Google, and retailers like Best Buy and Amazon below. If an end date is applicable for any these sales, you’ll find it appended to each discount. Everything that Satechi makes, including its new dual HDMI USB-C hubs (shown in the image above), is 20 percent off on Amazon for... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2ZINdou via IFTTT

Friday afternoon, Jack Dorsey’s 4.2 million Twitter followers got an unpleasant surprise. A group of vandals had gained access to the account , and used that access to blast out a stream of offensive messages and plugs for their group’s discord channel. Within 15 minutes, the account was back under control and the group was banned from Discord, but the incident was a reminder of the serious vulnerabilities in even the highest-profile accounts, and just how insecure phone-based authentication has become. The hackers got in through Twitter’s text-to-tweet service, operated by the acquired service Cloudhopper. Using Cloudhopper, Twitter users can post tweets by texting messages to a shortcode number, usually 40404. It’s a useful trick for S... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2PvYOaR via IFTTT

From afar, Olli resembles many of the “future is now!” electric autonomous shuttles that have popped up in recent years. The tall rectangular pod, with its wide-set headlights and expansive windows nestled between a rounded frame, gives the shuttle a friendly countenance that screams, ever so gently, “come along, take a ride.” But Olli is different in almost every way, from how it’s produced to its origin story. And now, its maker, Local Motors, has given Olli an upgrade in hopes of accelerating the adoption of its autonomous shuttles. Meet Olli 2.0, a 3D-printed connected electric autonomous shuttle that Rogers says will hasten its ubiquity. “The future is here; it’s just not evenly distributed,” Local Motors co-founder and CEO John B. Rogers Jr. said in a recent interview. “That’s something I say a lot. Because people often ask me, ‘Hey, when will I see this vehicle? 2023? What do you think?’ My response: It’s here now, it’s just not everywhere.” Whether individuals will adopt ...

Photo: Disney Netflix announced this week that a number of its fall films will have exclusive theatrical runs before they start streaming. This isn’t the first time Netflix has debuted its films in theaters — a few hit theaters first last year, too — but this year’s theatrical slate is much larger and seems to indicate something of a shift in strategy. This year, Netflix is putting 10 movies in theaters ahead of time, up from just three last year (though a fourth was added later). It’ll range from a quiet relationships drama (Noah Baumbach’s Marriage Story ) to an over-the-top comedy (the Eddie Murphy- led Dolemite Is My Name ) to prestige fare (Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman ). That’s a significant portion of Netflix’s fall film slate, and it includes... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2MNMyQK via IFTTT

Photo by John Tlumacki/The Boston Globe via Getty Images Earlier this week, incoming Harvard freshman Ismail B. Ajjawi found himself blocked from entering the US. Ajjawi, a Palestinian resident of Lebanon, had landed in Boston before the start of classes. But The Harvard Crimson reported that after hours of questioning, US Customs and Border Protection agents revoked his visa. Ajjawi said a CBP agent searched his phone and laptop while asking questions about his friends’ social media activity. Then, she “started screaming at me,” Ajjawi said. “She said that she found people posting political points of view that oppose the US on my friend[s] list.” CBP hasn’t revealed what actually got Ajjawi’s visa revoked. “Specific information on individual travelers cannot be released due to the Privacy Act... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2Ln6uXD via IFTTT