According to new research, Google is working on a new Bluetooth tracker device to compete with Apple's AirTags. 9to5Google reports: Since 2021, Google has included ultra-wideband (UWB) connectivity in its high-end "Pro" phones like the Pixel 6 Pro and Pixel 7 Pro. For now, the hardware has only been used for niche cases like unlocking a luxury car or sending files to a friend, but it's been clear that Google intends for UWB to be used more often. [...] To build up its own "Finder Network," compete with Apple AirTags, and potentially make UWB more useful on Pixel phones, Google is reportedly developing its own tracking accessory. The information comes courtesy of Android researcher and frequent Pixel leaker Kuba Wojciechowski.

The tracker is said to be in development under the codename "Grogu" -- a reference to the popular Star Wars series "The Mandalorian" -- alongside the alternate names "GR10" and "Groguaudio." The only other tidbits that have been uncovered so far suggest that the Nest team is seemingly taking lead on the development and that the tracker may be available in multiple colors. The "Groguaudio" codename suggests that Google's tracker would potentially come equipped with a speaker. On Apple's AirTags, a built-in speaker serves as both a privacy measure and a location aid, as if you move someone else's AirTag after it's been separated from them, it will beep. This is just one of many potential privacy issues that Google will need to work through before launching a tracker accessory like this one.

An anonymous reader writes: If you've searched for external SSDs on Amazon.com recently, you may have noticed something weird: mixed in with the 1TB and 2TB drives from brands like Samsung and SanDisk are a bunch of listings for 16TB SSDs, mostly around $100, and with surprisingly high user ratings. Every single one is a scam, even if they're shipped by Amazon. Josh Hendrickson -- Editor-in-Chief of Review Geek -- bought one of the "16TB SSDs" and tore it down to reveal a generic 64GB microSD card on a USB 2.0 card reader. Adrian Kingsley-Huges, writing for ZDNet in May 2022, found the exact same thing. Different packaging and different case colors, but the same trick.

The Verge confirmed that several fake 16TB drives showed up on the first page of results for "external SSD," and over half the results for "16TB SSD" were fakes -- the rest were either 16TB enterprise hard drives, multi-drive enclosures, and one actual 16TB external drive, which costs $2,400 and contains two 8TB SSDs. While the top fake had a 3.6-star rating, the next two were 4.8 and 4.2, respectively. How are such obvious fakes getting such high ratings? It's the scam Hendrickson calls "review merging," and Consumer Reports calls "review hijacking." As Hendrickson explains, some third-party sellers take old listings and replace them with new items, leaving the reviews but changing everything else. A quick scan of one fake 16TB drive listing showed five-star reviews for laptop chargers, basketball backpacks, stickers, screen protectors, Mardi Gras beads, and mousepads. The sellers gather good reviews for cheap generic products, swap in a more expensive fake, and then take it down when bad reviews start piling up.

Microsoft plans to cut thousands of jobs with some roles expected to be eliminated in human resources and engineering divisions, according to media reports on Tuesday. From a report: The expected layoffs would be the latest in the U.S. technology sector, where companies including Amazon.com and Meta have announced retrenchment exercises in response to slowing demand and a worsening global economic outlook. Microsoft's move could indicate that the tech sector may continue to shed jobs.

"From a big picture perspective, another pending round of layoffs at Microsoft suggests the environment is not improving, and likely continues to worsen," Morningstar analyst Dan Romanoff said. U.K broadcaster Sky News reported, citing sources, that Microsoft plans to cut about 5% of its workforce, or about 11,000 roles.

An anonymous reader shares a report: A viral tweet today highlights a somewhat frustrating limitation with the Apple TV software. As of a recent software update, tvOS expects users have access to an iPhone or iPad in order to do things like accept new iCloud terms and conditions, or update their Apple ID settings. Although most people who use the Apple TV 4K box are deeply ensconced in the Apple ecosystem, this doesn't apply to everyone. Up until recently, the Apple TV could be used essentially independently. It was assumed to be a standalone device, not an accessory. Not so much, anymore. Moreover, these changes mean Apple TV users who have Macs -- but no personal iOS devices -- are also left in the lurch.

Most of the Apple TV can be used without needing access to other Apple hardware. You can set up the Apple TV from scratch completely independently, install apps, and make purchases. Typical Apple ID management duties can be performed from a web browser on a PC, if occasionally necessary. However, there are some tasks -- seemingly more prevalent than ever as of tvOS 16 -- that the Apple TV expects you to do on an iOS device signed in with the same account. This viral tweet from @hugelgupf showcases perhaps the most egregious example: accepting new iCloud terms and conditions requires an iOS device.

The Indian government has proposed making the Press Bureau of India and its other agencies the arbiter of truth on what information is misleading for social media firms and other internet companies as they oversee their users' data in the South Asian market. From a report: The proposal by the Ministry of Electronics and IT came as part of an amendment to the nation's IT rules. In the current draft, the ministry asks social media firms and online gaming companies to undertake due diligence on the content users "host, display, upload, modify, publish, transmit, store, update or share" and ensure that they are not "patently false and untrue or misleading in nature." The change proposes that the social media firms and gaming companies use the judgment of the Press Information Bureau, a nodal agency, of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting or other agency authorized by the Central Government for fact checking or "in respect of any business of the Central Government, by its department in which such business is transacted." The Press Bureau of India's fact checks have been scrtunized and found to be misleading in some instances by the local media.

Over 290 MSI motherboards are reportedly affected by an insecure default UEFI Secure Boot setting that allows any operating system image to run regardless of whether it has a wrong or missing signature. From a report: This discovery comes from a Polish security researcher named Dawid Potocki, who claims that he did not receive a response despite his efforts to contact MSI and inform them about the issue. The issue, according to Potocki, impacts many Intel and AMD-based MSI motherboards that use a recent firmware version, affecting even brand-new MSI motherboard models.

The United Kingdom wants to become the safest place for children to grow up online. Many UK lawmakers have argued that the only way to guarantee that future is to criminalize tech leaders whose platforms knowingly fail to protect children. From a report: Today, the UK House of Commons reached a deal to appease those lawmakers, Reuters reports, with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's government agreeing to modify the Online Safety Bill to ensure its passage. It now appears that tech company executives found to be "deliberately" exposing children to harmful content could soon risk steep fines and jail time of up to two years. The agreement was reached during the safety bill's remaining stages before a vote in the House of Commons. Next, it will move on to review by the House of Lords, where the BBC reports it will "face a lengthy journey."

Sunak says he will revise the bill to include new terms before it reaches the House of Lords, where lawmakers will have additional opportunities to revise the wording. Reports say that tech executives responsible for platforms hosting user-generated content would only be liable if they fail to take "proportionate measures" to prevent exposing children to harmful content, such as materials featuring child sexual abuse, child abuse, eating disorders, and self-harm. Some measures that tech companies can take to avoid jail time and fines of up to 10 percent of a company's global revenue include adding age verification, providing parental controls, and policing content. If passed, the Online Safety Bill would make managers liable for holding tech companies to their own community guidelines, including content and age restrictions. If a breach of online safety duties is discovered, UK media regulator Ofcom would be responsible for prosecuting tech leaders who fail to respond to enforcement notices. Anyone found to be acting in good faith to police content and protect kids reportedly won't be prosecuted.

The Federal Election Commission has dismissed a complaint from Republicans that Google's Gmail app aided Democratic candidates by sending GOP fundraising emails to spam at a far higher rate than Democratic solicitations. From a report: The Republican National Committee and others contended that the alleged benefit amounted to unreported campaign contributions to Democrats. But in a letter to Google last week, the FEC said it "found no reason to believe" that Google made prohibited in-kind corporate contributions, and that any skewed results from its spam filter algorithms were inadvertent. "Google has credibly supported its claim that its spam filter is in place for commercial reasons and thus did not constitute a contribution" within the meaning of federal campaign laws, according to an FEC analysis reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

The Republican National Committee, the National Republican Senatorial Committee and the National Republican Congressional Committee complained to the FEC last year, citing an academic study that showed that nearly 70% of emails from Republican candidates were sent to spam compared with fewer than 1 in 10 from Democrat candidates from 2019 to 2020. The RNC and other campaign committees argued that Google's "overwhelmingly disproportionate suppression of Republican emails" constituted an illegal corporate contribution to Democratic candidates. But the FEC disagreed, finding that Google established that it maintains its spam filter settings to aid its business in keeping out malware, phishing attacks and scams, and not for the purpose of benefiting any political candidates.

Getty Images is suing Stability AI, creators of popular AI art tool Stable Diffusion, over alleged copyright violation. From a report: In a press statement shared with The Verge, the stock photo company said it believes that Stability AI "unlawfully copied and processed millions of images protected by copyright" to train its software and that Getty Images has "commenced legal proceedings in the High Court of Justice in London" against the firm. Getty Images CEO Craig Peters told The Verge in an interview that the company has issued Stability AI with a "letter before action" -- a formal notification of impending litigation in the UK.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: The Netherlands, once famed for being cycle-friendly, is facing a surprising threat: souped-up electric bikes speeding at up to 42kph (26mph). [...] Fietsersbond [is] a cyclists' union that is campaigning to crack down on speedy e-bikes and "fat bikes" -- those with extremely wide tyres. These should only use cycle paths with a maximum speed of 25kph -- but some of the bikes are designed to go faster or are being altered by the user to allow them to do so. Last June, Dutch MPs voted to ban people from boosting factory-programmed e-bike speeds, and cycling experts warn that nations rapidly adopting them, such as the UK, will soon face the same issues. Recent Dutch government research found e-bikes typically travel at almost 24kph, 3kph faster than normal bicycles, but a quarter of e-bikers exceed the limit – especially young adults. Mopeds and racers might be worse, but the Netherlands has an estimated 5m e-bikes, for a population of 17.8 million, and users include primary school children.

Esther van Garderen, director of the Fietsersbond, is campaigning for quick enforcement of the speed-boost ban and prohibiting fast e-bikes in bike lanes. "The problem is not normal e-bikes, but ever more souped-up bikes that are basically illegal mopeds," she said. "In the Netherlands, since January, moped users must wear a helmet and young people don't like this. They also need to be 16 and have a driving licence, but illegal 'fat' bikes are just sold, youngsters under 16 use them on the roads going at 40kph, without a helmet. This isn't allowed, but there is no enforcement." She added that a plan by Amsterdam-Zuid district council to research whether child cyclists should be obliged to attach a flag to their bikes to improve road safety made her blood boil: "To think that the solution is that children need to have a flag is blaming the victim to the max."

This autumn, Amsterdam will reduce speed limits from 50 to 30kph on 500 roads and the city is also researching "intelligent speed adaptation" systems to warn speeding cyclists or even force e-bikes to slow down. "Traffic safety and safe biking are areas where I really want to break ground in the coming years," said Melanie van der Horst, deputy mayor for traffic. "Two-thirds of Amsterdammers tell us they don't feel safe in the traffic. So more than 80% of roads will become a 30kph zone and we are researching a speed limit on the bike lanes. The growth of electric vehicles means there are huge speed differences on bike lanes and studies show that this creates risks." [...] The international cycling advocacy foundation BYCS believes that slightly slower cities might be better ones. "Technology is praised as progress, but it's not about progress," said Maud de Vries, the chief executive. "It's about urban health and a system where people are more active, healthy and cross each other's paths, in a good way."

According to the Wall Street Journal, citing preliminary research from LMC Automotive and EV-Volumes.com, there were 7.8 million electric vehicles sold worldwide in 2022, a 68% increase from 2021. "The uptick helped electric vehicles achieve a roughly 10% global market share in the automotive industry for the first time," reports Insider. From the report: While 10% is only a modest share of the total market, the industry is growing faster than some had predicted. In 2021, for instance, the International Energy Agency projected that it would take until 2030 for the EV industry to reach between 7% and 12% of global auto sales. Europe and China have led the way, where electric vehicles already account for 11% and 19% of total car sales respectively, WSJ reported, citing data from LMC Automotive.

CBInsights Auto and Mobility Trends estimated that its global market share could reach 22% by 2030. BloombergNEF projected the industry's market share could reach nearly 40% by the end of the decade. The Biden Administration, which included a $7,500 tax credit for purchasing an electric vehicle in last year's Inflation Reduction Act, is aiming for half of US vehicle sales to be electric by 2030.

Russia's attacks on Ukraine's electrical grid are straining the war-torn country's mobile-telephone network, leading to a global hunt for batteries and other equipment critical for keeping the communications system working. From a report: Ukraine's power outages aren't just putting out the lights. The electricity shortages also affect water supplies, heating systems, manufacturing and the cellular-telephone and internet network, a vital communications link in a nation where fixed-line telephones are uncommon. Consumers can charge their cellphones at cafes or gas stations with generators, but the phones have to communicate with base stations whose antennas and switching equipment need large amounts of power. With rolling blackouts now a regular feature of life in Ukraine, the internet providers are relying on batteries to keep the network going.

The stakes are high, since Ukrainian officials are using positive news of the war, speeches by President Volodymyr Zelensky and videos distributed by cellphone to maintain popular support for fighting Russia. First responders and evacuees rely on the mobile network, and a long-term loss of communications in major cities would compound the existing problems of electrical, heating and water outages, the companies say. Labor shortages have exacerbated the mobile-network issues as many Ukrainians have been displaced by the war or gone to the front to fight. In December, the chief executive of Ukraine's Lifecell mobile operator, Ismet Yazici, went into the field himself to wheel in a generator and restore backup power at a cell tower, according to the company. But the biggest problem is power equipment.

An anonymous reader shares a report: What many of us had expected has finally happened, artist have sued for copyright infringement a couple of AI companies, as well as an art repository site {complaint here (PDF)}. Is this the end of AI tools? I don't think so, I'll try to explain why, this will not be a detailed look at the lawsuit, there will be more time for that, this is my own take on some of the technical issues that I think the complaint gets wrong, so this is not intended as an in-depth look at the law anyway, as I suspect this may not get to a trial, more on that later. I'm also aware that this is at a very early stage, things may change, and most importantly, nobody can be sure of what the result will be, this is my own early speculation on the first filing as it stands, I'll update and write further blog posts as needed.

Three artists are starting a class-action lawsuit against Stability.ai, Midjourney, and DeviantArt alleging direct copyright infringement, vicarious copyright infringement, DMCA violations, publicity rights violation, and unfair competition. DeviantArt appears to be included as punishment for "betrayal of its artist community," so I will mostly ignore their part in this analysis for now. Specifically with regards to the copyright claims, the lawsuit alleges that Stability.ai and Midjourney have scraped the Internet to copy billions of works without permission, including works belonging to the claimants. They allege that these works are then stored by the defendants, and these copies are then used to produce derivative works. This is at the very core of the lawsuit. The complaint is very clear that the resulting images produced by Stable Diffusion and Midjourney are not directly reproducing the works by the claimants, no evidence is presented of even a close reproduction of one of their works.

Bloomberg reports: After five people were killed in a 2020 arson in Colorado, law enforcement officials failed to turn up any leads through their initial investigative techniques. So they served a warrant to Google for anyone who had searched for the address of the fire, according to a court motion.

Google eventually complied with the data request, helping law enforcement find suspects. Three teenagers who had searched the address were charged with murder. But the technique also drew a challenge from defense lawyers, who are calling reverse keyword search warrants "a digital dragnet of immense proportions." It's the first case to challenge the constitutionality of the method, the attorneys say.

Defense lawyers filed a motion Wednesday to challenge the judge's decision to use evidence from the warrant to charge their client, Gavin Seymour. They're asking the Colorado Supreme Court to review the matter, after the judge earlier denied their motion to suppress the evidence. The keyword search warrant "is profoundly different from traditional search warrants seeking data belonging to a suspect," the defense argued in the court filing. "Instead, the process operates in reverse — search everyone first, and identify suspects later."
One defendant's lawyer points out Google must review the activities of billions of innocent searchers to respond to keyword search warrants, arguing this has "tremendous implications...for everyone in the country who uses Google to run searches."

Though the state of Wyoming is home to one of America's largest wind farms, "Wyoming's legislature is considering a resolution that calls for a phaseout of new electric vehicle sales by 2035," reports Engadget: In the proposed resolution, a group of lawmakers led by Senator Jim Anderson says Wyoming's "proud and valued" oil and gas industry has created "countless" jobs and contributed revenue to the state's coffers. They add that a lack of charging infrastructure within Wyoming would make the widespread use of EVs "impracticable" and that the state would need to build "massive amounts of new power generation" to "sustain the misadventure of electric vehicles." SJ4 calls for residents and businesses to limit the sale and purchase of EVs voluntarily, with the goal of phasing them out entirely by 2035.

If passed, the resolution would be entirely symbolic. In fact, it's more about sending a message to EV advocates than banning the vehicles altogether. To that point, the final section of SJ4 calls for Wyoming's Secretary of State to send President Biden and California Governor Gavin Newsom copies of the resolution. "One might even say tongue-in-cheek, but obviously it's a very serious issue that deserves some public discussion," Senator Boner, one of the bill's co-sponsors, told the Cowboy State Daily. "I'm interested in making sure that the solutions that some folks want to the so-called climate crisis are actually practical in real life. I just don't appreciate when other states try to force technology that isn't ready."

"Thousands of CES 2023 attendees tested out the Las Vegas Convention Center Loop tunnel transit system," reports Fierce Electronics, "for quick 1.7-mile trips offering them a prelude of more of the efficient tunnels to come." The service was free during the early January event, offering 115,000 CES attendees a chance to reduce a 45-minute LVCC cross-campus walk time down to 2 minutes, not including short waits for Tesla vehicles with drivers. "I call shotgun!" one gleeful CES attendee said while waiting in line. Once inside the white Tesla vehicle, the man used his phone to video the entire trip, marking its sudden acceleration to maximum speed in the single lane white tunnel, an experience the design engineer likened to a slick amusement park ride over a tunnel race track....

Construction is expected to begin in 2023 on the 29-mile Vegas Loop tunnel network approved by the county in 2021 to ultimately connect 51 stations throughout the resort corridor. In 2022, the city of Las Vegas unanimously approved bringing the Vegas Loop to city limits, which increases the system to 34 miles and 55 stations in all.

The dream is for Vegas Loop to eventually connect to Los Angeles, a distance of 270 miles.

Contrails — the wispy ice clouds trailing behind flying jets — "are surprisingly bad for the environment," reports CNN: A study that looked at aviation's contribution to climate change between 2000 and 2018 concluded that contrails create 57% of the sector's warming impact, significantly more than the CO2 emissions from burning fuel. They do so by trapping heat that would otherwise be released into space.

And yet, the problem may have an apparently straightforward solution. Contrails — short for condensation trails, which form when water vapor condenses into ice crystals around the small particles emitted by jet engines — require cold and humid atmospheric conditions, and don't always stay around for long. Researchers say that by targeting specific flights that have a high chance of producing contrails, and varying their flight path ever so slightly, much of the damage could be prevented.

Adam Durant, a volcanologist and entrepreneur based in the UK, is aiming to do just that. "We could, in theory, solve this problem for aviation within one or two years," he says.... Of contrails' climate impact, "80 or 90% is coming from only maybe five to 10% of all flights," says Durant. "Simply redirecting a small proportion of flights can actually save the majority of the contrail climate impact...."

In 2021, scientists calculated that addressing the contrail problem would cost under $1 billion a year, but provide benefits worth more than 1,000 times as much. And a study from Imperial College London showed that diverting just 1.7% of flights could reduce the climate damage of contrails by as much as 59%.
Durant's company Satavia is now testing its technology with two airlines and "actively looking for more airlines in 2023 to work with, as we start scaling up the service that we offer."

Truly addressing the issue may require some changes to air traffic rules, Durant says — but he's not the only one working on the issue. There's also the task force of a non-profit energy think tank that includes six airlines, plus researchers and academics. "We could seriously reduce, say, 50% of the industry's contrails impact by 2030," Durant tells CNN. "That's totally attainable, because we can do it with software and analytics."

UpNext, Airbus's future technology-focused subsidiary, reported on Thursday that it has entered the final three months of testing tech it hopes will automate the process of getting a plane from the air to the gate. The Register reports: The system, called DragonFly, tackles automated operations like diversions, landings, and taxi procedures through a combination of sensors, computer vision algorithms and robust guidance calculations. Airbus pitches the system as an extra layer of safety for emergency operations. "In the unlikely situation where a crew is unable to control the aircraft, DragonFly can redirect the flight to the nearest appropriate airport and facilitate a safe landing," enthused the aerospace corporation. The eventual hope is for the technologies to pave the way for automated landing -- or at least compensate for a less than perfect pilot during an emergency situation. If the captain had the fish, for example.

A marketing video of the Airbus UpNext DragonFly details that a safe landing feature is included in the Automated Emergency Ops application. It works by detecting the most suitable airport for landing and calculates a trajectory to get there, with consideration for weather, military zones and other factors. Airbus assures viewers that Air Traffic Control (ATC) and Operations Control Center (OCC) communication links are in place. The video does not, however, explain how the aircraft communicates with air traffic control for clearance into controlled airspace if the pilot is incapacitated, as that task is completed through human verbal interaction. An automated landing is assisted by sensors that enhance the view of the runway, computer vision algorithms, and guidance computation.

Furthermore, the demonstrator is kitted out with a pilot taxi assistance application to manage its maneuvers on the ground in a heavily trafficked airport. Air traffic control clearance is interpreted and translated into taxi guidance cues. Crew receive audio alerts in reaction to obstacles, assisted speed control and an interactive airport map. The taxi assistance element was tested at Toulouse-Blagnac Airport. The subsidiary reckons one day DragonFly will allow for automatic landing at any airport, regardless of whether the ground equipment is equipped for such landings.

Google is launching its final Stadia game today and is promising to release a tool next week to enable Bluetooth connections on its Stadia Controller. The Verge reports: The last Stadia game to launch on the service is Worm Game, a test game that was technically available on Stadia before Stadia launched publicly in November 2019. Developers at Google have decided to release the game just before the streaming service disappears next week. [...] Alongside the new game, Google is also committing to enabling Bluetooth on Stadia controllers. Google Stadia owners will be pleased to hear there's a self-serve tool coming next week that will enable Bluetooth on the Stadia Controller. "We'll share details next week on how to enable this feature," says a Google Stadia community manager in a forum post.

Google originally launched the Stadia Controller as a device that connects directly to Stadia services and had the Bluetooth chip disabled. After news broke of the Stadia shutdown, fans have been finding ways to save the controller from an e-waste fate by using workarounds to connect it wirelessly to other devices. Workarounds like connecting to an Android device will no longer be required thanks to this new tool. It means that most Stadia players that purchased a Founders or Premiere edition will have been effectively gifted a free Bluetooth controller thanks to Google's refunds.

Crypto exchange Crypto.com is cutting its global workforce by 20%, it said on Friday, as it navigates ongoing economic headwinds and "unforeseeable" industry events. From a report: This is the second major layoff at the Singapore-headquartered Crypto.com, which cut 250 jobs in mid-last year -- though a report suggested that more than 2,000 people were either let go or left at their own will. The company did not say what roles were being eliminated in the new round of layoff but blamed the collapse of FTX, whose misappropriation of customers' funds and bankruptcy "significantly damaged trust in the industry."