Phone-hacking device used by police sells on eBay for $100
It seems police forces have sold or otherwise disposed of some devices, which later made their way to the online auction house, according to Forbes. Worryingly, cybersecurity researcher Matthew Hickey bought several UFEDs from eBay and found details on what phones law enforcement officials searched (including specific device identifiers like IMEI numbers), when the devices were accessed and what kinds of data were obtained. While he did not delve further, he suspected he'd be able to obtain personal data including photos, contacts and messages.
The cellebrite UFED touch became EOL recently to be replaced with Touch 2 and Ufed4pc. I noticed the units have been appearing on eBay in various states of disrepair. I picked these up for $100 each just recently (yes some still work). pic.twitter.com/pVKgNhWjge
— Hacker Fantastic (@hackerfantastic) February 10, 2019
Hickey found one of the devices was used to access Samsung, LG, ZTE and Motorola phones, while he was able to use it to crack old iPhones and iPods. It seems officials are selling older UFEDs that can't access phones running newer versions of iOS or Android. More recent models were able to access iPhones running iOS 11. UFEDs use vulnerabilities unknown to the likes of Apple or Google to access the phones. Cellebrite's devices become outdated as the vulnerabilities are patched.
Cellebrite has reportedly sent letters asking its customers to destroy UFEDs that are no longer useful or return them to be properly disposed of instead of selling the devices. Its terms don't permit clients to resell UFEDs.
Article source: https://www.engadget.com/2019/02/28/ios-android-hacking-device-ebay/
Amazon Prime members can now set a weekly delivery day
To use Amazon's new feature, look for the Amazon Day option at check out on your next purchase. Once it appears, you can select what day of the week you want all of your goods to arrive. Instead of shipping a product as soon as you check out, Amazon will stack up all of the orders that you want to be delivered on your designated day and bring them to your door in a single trip.
Your future orders will only be delivered on Amazon Day if you choose that option, otherwise, you can have packages shipped the normal way if you can't wait. You'll also typically have to wait at least two days from when you place your order for your goods to arrive, so don't try to game the system by setting your Amazon Day as Friday and then filling up your cart Thursday. Most good eligible for Prime two-day shipping will be eligible to ship on Amazon Day.
Amazon began testing this feature late last year on an invite-only basis but has now opened up the Amazon Day feature to all Prime members. The initiative appears to be part of Amazon's attempt to shrink its environmental impact. The company intends to make half of its deliveries carbon neutral by 2030.
Article source: https://www.engadget.com/2019/02/28/amazon-day-weekly-delivery-day/
Spiritual successor to ‘Nintendogs’ comes to Switch this spring
If you're still suffering from Nintendogs withdrawal several years later, you might have an unofficial fix. Imagineer and Sold Out are releasing an international version of Little Friends: Dogs Cats, a previously Japan-only pet sim that embodies the spirit of the Nintendo game with a few twists. You can care for and play with six breeds of puppy and three breeds of kitten, including three pets at the same time if you're up for a bit of chaos. You can also dress up your pets if playing fetch isn't cutting it.
Article source: https://www.engadget.com/2019/02/28/little-friends-dogs-and-cats-switch-game/
CNN’s Magic Leap app lets you interact with the news, if you dare
The app allows you to create "[virtual] screens of any size, anywhere" to view Live CNN, CNN International, Headline News, on-demand shows and digital exclusives. Want to watch breaking news on your cabinets? Project Congressional hearings on your ceiling? Go for it! You'll also be able to "interact" with exclusive reporting, sidebar data and live feeds, though they didn't give much in the way of details on how that will work.
This isn't CNN's first foray into mixed-reality news. The network debuted a VR app for Oculus Rift this time last year. Competitors are working with the technology, too. NBC has partnered with Google on VR "experiences" and dabbled in Olympic coverage, and Fox Sports VR lets you turn your living room into a stadium suite, sort of. Neither CNN nor Magic Leap provided much detail on how this new app works, but it's available now if you want to go find out for yourself.
Article source: https://www.engadget.com/2019/02/28/cnn-magic-leap-ar-news-app/
Sony’s CFexpress cards will bring blistering speeds to cameras
CFExpress uses PCIe Gen tech like SD Express and MicroSD Express, but uses a larger, CompactFlash (CF) format. The SD Association recently announced that MicroSD Express cards would run at 985 MB/s, an incredible speed for a thumbnail-sized card. Other manufacturers like ProGradeDigital have also recently announced CFexpress card development.
The only cameras that really need that kind of speed are professional RAW cinema cameras from the likes of RED and Arri. Those models offer direct recording to SATA SSDs, but the new Sony CFexpress cards at least triple those speeds. While not as fast as the latest NVMe SSD drives, which can run at over 3,000 MB/s, they're about as fast as external storage gets.
In fact, the cards are massive overkill for current consumer cameras like the Z6/Z7 and S1/S1R, which have maximum 4K video data rates (400 Mbps) around 35 times less than the cards can handle. It's not likely to benefit burst RAW shooting much either, as that's inherently limited by the camera's buffer size.
Still, if you install one of these in a Z6 (once Nikon's CFexpress firmware arrives), you'll never worry about card speed again, though the cameras themselves may not support the max speeds. Sony said its first CFexpress cards will be available 128GB sizes, with 256 and 512GB versions to follow. The cards will also be tough, exceeding the CFexpress standard by a factor of three. There's no price available yet, but they'll likely cost more than XQD cards, which are already very expensive.
Article source: https://www.engadget.com/2019/02/28/sony-cfexpress-cards-blistering-speeds/
The Switch adds another comic book reader in Izneo
Like Inky Pen, Izneo is a niche service -- no DC and Marvel here -- that also charges $8 per month for its subscription pass, which gives you unlimited access to 1,500 comics spanning titles from Dark Horse and IDW to European publishers. And any comics not included in the premium plan you can shell out for individually.
Those who already have the Izneo iOS or Android app will see their collection synced across devices, so you can continue reading on your Switch what you started on your smartphone. Plus, you can download comics to browse offline and dock the console to read on your TV. Alas, a lack of touch controls mean you'll have to use the Joy-Cons to navigate the app.
Between Inky Pen and Izneo, Switch owners now have plenty of indies at their fingertips. (And, at this rate, maybe Comixology will give in and bring the mainstream fare, too.) Though it's still crazy that the console has two niche comic book apps and no Netflix.
Article source: https://www.engadget.com/2019/02/28/switch-comic-book-reader-izneo/
YouTube shuts down comments on videos with young kids
The serivce also expects to detect more of these clips going forward. It has "accelerated" the rollout of an AI-based comment classification system that will be "more sweeping in scope" and promises to remove twice as many individual comments as before.
It's an aggressive move, but YouTube was under pressure to do something. In addition to the uproar over the company once again dealing with predatory comments, advertisers like ATT, Disney and Epic Games have pulled or suspended their ads until YouTube cleaned up its act. If YouTube didn't make an effort to prevent the ad hoc child porn rings that were emerging, it risked alienating both users and ad dollars.
Article source: https://www.engadget.com/2019/02/28/youtube-shuts-off-comments-on-videos-with-young-children/
Toyota experiment uses cameras to create city maps for self-driving cars
It's not clear what will happen after the project is over, but Toyota characterized this as a "first step" toward an automated mapping system that would work with everyday cars. That, in turn, could make driverless vehicles far more practical. You could have autonomous driving maps available for virtually every road, not just those where the technology companies can justify deploying specialized vehicles.
Article source: https://www.engadget.com/2019/02/28/toyota-self-driving-car-maps-using-cameras/
Samsung is giving away a screen protector with the Galaxy S10
This way, at least you can unlock the phone with your fingerprint and still have some peace of mind, perhaps until you install a viable third-party tempered glass or polyurethane protector. Samsung has told Engadget there will be compatible third-party protectors available when it releases the phones. The included protector has a 90-day warranty, and Samsung will sell it separately for $30.
The issue does not affect the Galaxy S10e, which uses a capacitive scanner. The higher-end models have an ultrasonic scanner, which is more secure. But some screen protectors may block the soundwaves that scanner uses to read the ridge depth of your fingerprint, making it unusable. The upcoming Galaxy S10 5G also has an ultrasonic scanner, but Samsung didn't say whether that will ship with a pre-installed screen protector.
Article source: https://www.engadget.com/2019/02/28/samsung-galaxy-s10-screen-protector-fingerprint-scanner/
Wirecutter’s best deals: The Instant Pot Ultra 6-quart drops to $100
LG B8 55-Inch OLED TV
Street price: $1400; deal price: $1110
While the B8 lags slightly behind our top pick, the C8 (available on sale for $1335 in 55-inch size) in image processing and certain brightness measures, our guide states that most viewers are unlikely to notice any difference in image quality. At $1110, this is within $10 of the low we've seen for this size and beats much of the previous pricing we've seen from reputable retailers by a few hundred dollars. While we expected to see drops on last year's OLEDs this spring, it's a great price and one well worth your notice.
The LG B8 is the runner-up pick in our guide to the best OLED TV. Chris Heinonen wrote, "The LG B8 offers performance almost identical to that of the C8 for a slight cost savings. Because the B8 uses a less powerful system on a chip (SoC), it lacks some of the advanced video processing of the C8, but with most content you'd be hard-pressed to notice. The image-calibration options aren't quite as powerful as those of the C8, and most B8 samples look to be slightly dimmer than the C8, but again, in many cases you'd never be able to tell the difference. It's still an excellent performer overall."
Anker Soundcore Space NC Headphones
Street price: $100; deal price: $80 with code TOMSA3021
Down to $80 from their normal price of $100 when you use promo code TOMSA3021, this is a great opportunity to save on a pair of noise-cancelling headphones our guide writers thought sounded very good for the price. Getting decent sounding, well constructed headphones that offer active (rather than passive) noise-cancelling for under $100 is almost unheard of, so this is a great price whether you're seeking headphones for your flight, commute, or home office.
The Anker Soundcore Space NC are the budget pick in our guide to the best noise-cancelling headphones. Brent Butterworth and Lauren Dragan wrote, "We've waited years for a good set of wireless noise-cancelling headphones priced around $100, and we finally found one. The Anker Soundcore Space NC can't match the performance of our top picks, but it still sounds quite good, delivers a useful degree of noise cancelling, and is reasonably compact. With touch-sensitive playback and volume controls, the Space NC includes all the features that most people want and need."
Instant Pot Ultra 6-Quart
Street price: $150; deal price: $100
At just under $100, this is a solid deal for the Instant Pot Ultra 6-Quart. This model, usually around $150, saw some extremely good discounts over the holidays but this price is still a good one considering typical retail pricing and recent street pricing. The Ultra offers a more advanced display and even more cooking options (including low temp sous vide) than our top pick, so if the added features appeal to you this is a nice deal.
The Instant Pot Ultra 6 Quart is our upgrade pick in our guide to the best electric pressure cooker. Lesley Stockton wrote, "If you can spend a bit more, the Instant Pot Ultra 6-Quart is even better than the Duo 6-Quart, with more features than we've seen on any electric multi-cooker. The Ultra has an all-digital interface with a streamlined single-knob control. It also offers a pressure indicator that's more visible when engaged, and a steam-release button separate from the float valve so there's less of a chance of mild steam burns when you're quickly releasing pressure from the pot. And the Ultra cooks foods as quickly and reliably as the Duo, with some extra functions like custom temperature control and an altitude-adjust function."
Nintendo Labo Vehicle Kit
Street price: $60; deal price: $40
Usually $60 or so (though we've seen a number of sales lately), this kit for the Nintendo Switch is back down to $40. If the young or young at heart person in your life is looking for something entertaining to while away the remainder of winter and soggy spring days, this kit is a nice option at this discounted price, which matches the low we've seen.
The Nintendo Labo Vehicle Kit is the top pick in our Nintendo Labo review. Signe Brewster wrote, "If your child likes building and playing video games, we think they will get the most enjoyment out of the Labo Vehicle Kit. Our test panelists and we think it's the most fun to build and play of the three Labo kits we tested. It's the first Labo kit that builds on itself, with five projects that challenge kids to build progressively more elaborate contraptions to steer a car, plane, and submarine through a vast virtual world on their screen. You can also use the steering wheel to play Mario Kart Deluxe 8, further increasing its playtime and overall value."
Because great deals don't just happen on Thursday, sign up for our daily deals email and we'll send you the best deals we find every weekday. Also, deals change all the time, and some of these may have expired. To see an updated list of current deals, please go here.
Article source: https://www.engadget.com/2019/02/28/wirecutters-best-deals-instant-pot-ultra-sale/