Technology news

That “critical” software update for your Asus computer may have actually been malware, planted by hackers in a targeted attack now known as “ShadowHammer,” we learned yesterday. Now, Asus says it has a fix in the form of an actual security update — one that you can download using its Live Update software tool.
In addition, the company says it has a second “security diagnostic” tool you can use to scan to see if your computer has been affected. “[W

The Age of Surveillance Capitalism author Shoshana Zuboff considers whether “data is the new oil” and explains how data collection has fundamentally changed the economy and how big companies interact with consumers. Shoshana Zuboff breaks down how to define, understand, and fight surveillance capitalism.
You can listen to the discussion in its entirety on The Vergecast right now. Below is a lightly edited excerpt from this interview between Shoshana Zuboff and Verge editor-in-cheif

Sean Duffy Contributor Sean Duffy is the co-founder and CEO of Omada Health, a digital behavioral medicine company focused on reducing costly chronic disease in employer and health plan populations.
February’s Wall Street Journal report pulled back the curtain on just how much is at stake when individuals share their personal health information with health and fitness applications. Several of these apps were (perhaps unwittingly) sharing users’ personal health information via a Face

Appledoesn’t care about news, it cares about recurring revenue. That’s why publishers are crazy to jump into bed with Apple News+. They’re rendering their own subscription options unnecessary in exchange for a sliver of what Apple pays out from the mere $10 per month it charges for unlimited reading.
The unfathomable platform risk here makes Facebook’sexploitative Instant Articles program seem toothless in comparison. On Facebook, publishers became generic providers of du

Among the most tangible announcements at Apple’s services event yesterday was also its most interesting: a credit card, aptly called the Apple Card, with both a physical and digital version that gives you up to 3 percent cash back. The product is, on the surface, a way for Apple to sell its brand on another everyday object you likely already own. But beneath the veneer of a titanium credit card with the Apple logo on it, the company is clearly charting out its post-iPhone future, one in w

Even by the standards of the often, ah, “wide-ranging” conversations on the Original Content podcast, this latest episode covers a lot of ground.
The initial focus is “Triple Frontier,” a film directed by J.C. Chandor and starring Ben Affleck, Oscar Isaac, Pedro Pascal, Charlie Hunnam and Garrett Hedlund as friends who served in the special forces together, and who reunite to rob an infamous drug lord.
The film starts off as a relatively straightforward thriller, but in i

Major music labels are suing Charter Communications for not kicking pirates off its service. Late last week, Warner Bros., Sony, Universal Music Group, and several subsidiaries claimed Charter had “knowingly contributed to, and reaped substantial profits from, massive copyright infringement committed by thousands of its subscribers.” Specifically, the complaint says Charter received notices that its subscribers were pirating music through BitTorrent and other services, but it refuse

Tesla announced on February 28th that it was finally taking orders for the long-promised $35,000 (or “Standard Range”) version of the Model 3, and at the time, the company estimated customers would need to wait about two to four weeks to take delivery. It’s now just shy of four weeks later, and it appears the company may not have shipped a single one, while customers who placed orders are being told those cars have been delayed indefinitely, according to new reports in The Dri

This morning, a publicly traded transplant diagnostics company called CareDx, along with Stanford University, sued another publicly traded genetic testing company, Natera, for patent infringement.
Much appears to be at stake, and it all centers on cell-free DNA testing, a type of technology that has already been at the crux of numerous lawsuits and looks poised to play center stage again in future corporate battles.
Loosely defined, cell-free DNA (or cfDNA) technology involves blood tests that e

Samsung’s Galaxy A-series of midrange phones now has a higher-end option. It’s called the Samsung Galaxy A70, and its teardrop-notched, 6.7-inch display has a 20:9 aspect ratio.
Phone screens are getting bigger, and the A70 aims to follow the trend while maintaining a comfortable fit by making this phone taller instead of wider. More screen real estate on the A70 means that more stuff can fit on the screen without the need to scroll. Sony’s Xperia 1 and Xperia 10 phones use an

A viral prank trying to get people to change their Twitter birthdays to 2007 is getting users locked out of the platform for being under 13. The prank tweets tell users that changing the Twitter birthdays on their profiles will do everything from unlocking new color schemes, getting them admin privileges, or even a verified check. It gives me great pain to have to narc on a solid prank, but this won’t actually happen.
It’s become big enough of an issue that Twitter Support has issue

Today at the fifth meeting of the National Space Council, Vice President Mike Pence declared that the Trump administration is committed to sending humans back to the Moon by 2024, four years earlier than NASA’s previous target of 2028.Pence, speaking at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, noted that the administration will meet this goal “by any means necessary.” He called on NASA to adopt new policies and argued that the space agency would need t

Google today announced a new external advisory board to help monitor the company’s use of artificial intelligence for ways in which it may violate ethical principles it laid out last summer. The group was announced by Kent Walker, Google’s senior vice president of global affairs, and it includes experts on a wide-ranging series of subjects, including mathematics, computer science, engineering, philosophy, public policy, psychology, and even foreign policy.The group will be called th

On Tuesday, the FAA and Department of Transportation published a proposal that greases the wheels for the commercial space industry, long bound by outdated regulations that were not created with a modern vision of private spaceflight in mind.
Last May, the Trump administration signaled its intention to ease commercial spaceflight regulations with Space Policy Directive 2. That directive called on Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao to “release a new regulatory system for managing launch a

Broadband and cable providers already have a pretty scummy reputation for hidden fees and inconvenient setup times, but I’m not sure they’ve ever committed a cardinal sin — until now. Yesterday afternoon, a Spectrum employee in the Los Angeles area apparently stole a young woman’s dog and drove off with him. Fortunately for the dog, the entire incident was caught on the family’s security camera.
Monday evening, Melissa Cortez posted the video on Twitter, tagging bo

In Silicon Valley, investors don’t expect their portfolio companies to be profitable. “Blitzscaling: The Lightning-Fast Path to Building Massively Valuable Companies,” a bible for founders, instead calls for heavy spending on growth to scale in an Amazon -like fashion.
As for Wall Street, it’s shown an affinity for stock in Jeff Bezos’ business, despite the many years it spent navigating a path to profitability, as well as other money-losing endeavors. Why? Because

Curious whether you should cancel your existing magazine subscription and just subscribe to AppleNews+?
Apple certainly seems to believe News+ is an outsized bargain for you. The company’s claim that it would cost users $8,000 to get annual access to the publications they are giving readers for $9.99 per month suggests that they see News+ giving consumers the full value of these publications’ subscriptions.
While it may provide access to most of these publications’ editorial co

The latest chapter in the ongoing and messy Apple versus Qualcomm legal battle might mean a US import ban on some iPhone models. A US trade judge has found Apple guilty of infringing on two Qualcomm patents related to power management and data download speeds. As a result, the judge — International Trade Commission Judge MaryJoan McNamara — says some iPhone models containing competing Intel modems might be blocked from shipping from China, where they’re manufactured, to the US

The Federal Trade Commission, in what could be considered a prelude to new regulatory action, has issued an order to several major internet service providers requiring them to share every detail of their data collection practices. The information could expose patterns of abuse or otherwise troubling data use against which the FTC — or states — may want to take action.
The letters requesting info (detailed below) went to Comcast, Google, T-Mobile and both the fixed and wireless sub-co

A year after Google announced it would begin supporting AMP in Gmail, the company is now releasing a beta to the general G Suite audience. AMP for Gmail is designed to make emails feel more like an interactive webpage without punting users to a browser. Users can browse image carousels, RSVP to an event, or fill out a form without leaving their inbox. Google calls these “dynamic emails.”
Support will arrive first on the web, but Google says it plans to offer it on mobile as well. Ho

If you haven’t seen Jordan Peele’s new horror movie Us, I apologize for spoiling one minor plot point: the film features a smart speaker. We’re going to be discussing much bigger spoilers below, so you might want to avoid reading further.
If you have seen Us, you probably remember “Ophelia,” the Amazon Alexa-like voice assistant that plays a key role in one of the film’s most darkly funny scenes. Ophelia is good at playing music, but not great at interpreting

Welcome to this week’s transcribed edition of This is Your Life in Silicon Valley. We’re running an experiment for Extra Crunch members that puts This is Your Life in Silicon Valley in words – so you can read from wherever you are.
This is your Life in Silicon Valley was originally started by Sunil Rajaraman and Jascha Kaykas-Wolff in 2018. Rajaraman is a serial entrepreneur and writer (Co-Founded Scripted.com, and is currently an EIR at Foundation Capital), Kaykas-Wolff is the

Mozilla’s free password manager designed for users of the Firefox web browser is today officially arriving on Android. The standalone app, called Firefox Lockbox, offers a simple if a bit basic way for users to access from their mobile device their logins already stored in their Firefox browser.
The app is nowhere near as developed as password managers like 1Password, Dashlane, LastPass and others as it lacks common features like the ability to add, edit or delete passwords; suggest comple

The Oxford Internet Institute has published what it bills as the world’s first rating system for working conditions on gig economy platforms.
The Fairwork academic research project is a collaboration with the International Institute of Information Technology Bangalore, the University of Cape Town, the University of Manchester, and the University of the Western Cape.
As the name suggests, the project focuses on conditions for workers who are being remotely managed by online platforms and th

Linear Labs, a startup developing an electric motor for cars, scooters, robots, wind turbines and even HVAC systems, has raised $4.5 million in a seed round led by Science Inc. and Kindred Ventures. Investors Chris and Crystal Sacca, Ryan Graves of Saltwater Ventures, Dynamic Signal CEO Russ Fradin, Masergy executive chairman and former-CEO Chris MacFarland, as well as Ustream co-founder Gyula Feher also participated in the round. 
The four-year-old company was founded by Brad and

Measles appeared as the villain in the latest episode of the CBS show Madam Secretary. The story arc captured the risks of vaccine hesitancy — and it showcases the power of a fictional TV show to communicate facts.The episode is timely given measles’ presence in the news lately. Outbreaks have been spreading across the country, and tech giants Facebook, Google, and Amazon have come under fire for allowing anti-vaccine misinformation to spread on their platforms. But the timing is ju

Spotify is starting to algorithmically personalize some of its curated playlists, making a major change to how people discover music on the streaming service.
Spotify is already known for having some of the best personalized playlists in the industry, which automatically present songs based on what each listener enjoys. But it’s also known for having excellent human-curated playlists, like RapCaviar, which have become musical tastemakers due to their immense popularity.
The change could a

Microsoft is planning to hold a special work-focused press event in New York City next month. The software giant has started sending press invites to members of the media today for an event that will take place on April 17th. Microsoft’s event will include Steelcase, the same company that it paired up with to envision a Surface-powered office of the future.Microsoft’s event invite simply states “Microsoft & Steelcase invite you to experience new ways to work better, togeth

Microsoft and Adobe have been building a relationship for some time, and today at Adobe Summit in Las Vegas the two companies announced a deeper integration between the two platforms.
It involves sharing Marketo data, the company that Adobe acquired last September for $4.75 billion. Because it’s marketers, they were duty-bound to give it a new name. This data-sharing approach is being dubbed Account Based Experience, or ABX for short. The two companies are sharing data account data between

The Federal Trade Commission today announced a broad inquiry into the privacy practices of internet service providers requesting large companies like AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile to hand over nonpublic information describing how they handle consumer data. It’s a major step toward monitoring and regulating how much data ISPs are allowed to collect on their customers, and how widely that data can be shared.FTC Chairman Joe Simons hinted that he would be conducting this study last week, t

Watchmen and Man of Steel director Zack Snyder was back in the news this week, defending his decision to have Batman kill people in Batman v. Superman. “It’s a cool point of view to be like ‘my heroes are still innocent… My heroes didn’t commit any atrocities.’ That’s cool. But you’re living in a fucking dream world,” he said, in a profanity-filled rant captured on video and posted on Reddit. Bat-fans reacted predictably on social media, in

The European Union’s current approach to potential cybersecurity threats posed by Huawei 5G products is caution, but not an outright ban. The topic was the subject of new recommendations issued by the EU this week in response to U.S. calls to boycott the electronics giant over fears around its connection to the Chinese government.The report rightly notes that coming 5G technologies will form the backbone of some of society’s most foundational elements, from banking, to transport

Another major e-commerce brand its expanding its business offline. Wayfair, the Boston-based online furniture retailer whose net revenue topped $2 billion in the fourth quarter, announced this morning it plans to open its first full-service retail store this fall. The store, which will be based in Natick, Mass., will connect the company’s online business to the real world, allowing customers to meet with home design experts, try out the furniture in person and order home delivery of both i

When you hit the ground running at Disrupt San Francisco 2019 — and you will — be sure to save time for a Q&A session. You’re going to hear a bevy of world-class speakers discussing a range of thought-provoking topics on the Main Stage. A Q&A Session is the place where you can continue the discussion from the Main Stage or Extra Crunch Stage — or even raise a new one.
We interrupt this message to remind you to buy your pass to Disrupt SF 2019 and enjoy significant

Almost exactly 10 years ago, I was at GDC participating in a demo of a service I didn’t think could exist: OnLive. The company had promised high-definition, low-latency streaming of games at a time when real broadband was uncommon, mobile gaming was still defined by Bejeweled (though Angry Birds was about to change that), and Netflix was still mainly in the DVD-shipping business.
Although the demo went well, the failure of OnLive and its immediate successors to gain any kind of traction or

Amazon is discounting PC gaming accessories as part of its Deal of the Day. There are a few gaming headsets, keyboards, mice, and other components in the roundup of products. This sale also includes our runner-up pick for the best gaming mouse: Razer’s DeathAdder Elite. It usually costs $69.99, but you can find it for $37.99 plus tax on Amazon.
Some other Razer gaming gear is discounted on Amazon, too, including its Razer Seiren X USB microphone, which is $74.99 instead of $99.99. The Raz

Virtually every episode of Charlie Brooker’s Netflix anthology series Black Mirror is an Atlantic cover story about how technology is either corrupting the populace or threatening the children. The episode “Nosedive” warns that the drive for social media likes will create a society of enforced saccharine smarm. “Arkangel” worries that advances in surveillance technology will enable mega helicopter parenting, leading repressed kids into meaningless lives of sex, dru

UPS is teaming up with autonomous delivery drone startup Matternet to experiment with using drones to deliver medical supplies, the companies announced on Tuesday. Starting today, the supplies will be delivered via Matternet’s M2 quadcopters to WakeMed hospital in Raleigh, North Carolina.The drone delivery program will be overseen by the Federal Aviation Administration and the North Carolina Department of Transportation. It will be small at first: Matternet’s drones can only carry p

Unmanned drone deliveries are making their way inside the UPS network. Thanks to a partnership with drone startup Matternet,UPS will start delivering medical samples via unmanned drones at WakeMed’s hospital in Raleigh, N.C.
With the approval of the Federal Aviation Administration and North Carolina’s department of transportation, UPS and Matternet will conduct routine daily flights that transport medical samples. Previously, WakeMed relied on courier cars, which were subject to road

The Daily Crunch is TechCrunch’s roundup of our biggest and most important stories. If you’d like to get this delivered to your inbox every day at around 9am Pacific, you can subscribe here.
1. Here’s everything Apple announced at its ‘Show Time’ event
Let’s see if I can get this all into one blurb: There’s the streaming service AppleTV+, the updated TV app with Channels (basically, subscriptions for other services), a $9.99 subscription for Apple News+