Tech Talk

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge A sophisticated spyware campaign is getting the help of internet service providers (ISPs) to trick users into downloading malicious apps, according to research published by Google’s Threat Analysis Group (TAG) (via TechCrunch ). This corroborates earlier findings from security research group Lookout , which has linked the spyware, dubbed Hermit, to Italian spyware vendor RCS Labs. Lookout says RCS Labs is in the same line of work as NSO Group — the infamous surveillance-for-hire company behind the Pegasus spyware — and peddles commercial spyware to various government agencies. Researchers at Lookout believe Hermit has already been deployed by the government of Kazakhstan and Italian authorities. In line with these findings, Google has identified victims in both countries and says it will notify affected users. As described in Lookout’s report, Hermit is a modular threat that can download additional capabilities from a command and control (

The company says it could suffer “irreparable harm” if it can’t sell its products while the court considers its case. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Juul can continue selling its e-cigarettes despite the Food and Drug Administration ordering them to be removed from sale on Thursday, according to the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ( via TechCrunch ). In its order on Friday, the court says it’s issuing the temporary stay to give Juul time to file an emergency motion, which it can then consider along with a response from the FDA. The FDA says the reason for the ban is that there’s “insufficient evidence to assess the potential toxicological risks of using the Juul products.” Juul had petitioned for clearance to sell its tobacco and menthol flavored vape products, but the FDA turned down the application. The regulator notes that it’s only illegal to sell the products, not to own or use them. The court says its order “should not be construed in any wa

Image: Marshall B. Mathers III The last couple of weeks have had a lot of bad news for some in the “web3” space, but you wouldn’t know it by looking at announcements in and around the recently-ended NFT.NYC and ApeFest 2022 events. The Bored Ape Yacht Club’s (BAYC) annual event in particular brought in musicians like The Roots, LCD Soundsystem, Haim, Lil Baby, Lil Wayne, and others to perform for its members. On the final day of the event, guests saw the premiere of this video from two of the celebrities who’ve purchased tokens, Eminem and Snoop Dogg. The video is for a new song, From The D 2 The LBC , that isn’t the most memorable of collaborations and is mostly about smoking weed, but it constantly splices in images of the cartoon apes. Many BAYC members were disappointed in February when both men performed in the Super Bowl halftime show, and despite appearing during an event that featured crypto ads seemingly every few minutes, failed to highlight their web3 endeavors.

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge In the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision on Friday to overturn Roe v. Wade , Google’s chief people officer Fiona Cicconi sent a staff-wide email to employees on Friday informing them of Google’s response to the ruling. Among other things, the email states that Googlers that they can “apply for relocation without justification,” and that people in charge of the relocation process “will be aware of the situation” in assessing their requests. The Supreme Court’s ruling does not make abortion illegal throughout the US — instead, it leaves the decision up to individual states. A number of states have immediately restricted abortion rights , including Louisiana, Missouri and Kentucky. Other states, including California, where Google is headquartered, have vowed to protect abortion rights within their borders. Here’s the letter in full: Hi everyone, This morning the US Supreme Court issued a ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organiza

Patch management for the latest versions of Windows might the concern of most of us located here on Earth, but meanwhile, the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Mars Express spacecraft has received the first update to its Window 98-based system in 19 years. The mission was first launched to discover of signs of liquid water on Mars , including a suspected 20x30km lake of salty water buried under 1.5 km of ice in the red planet’s southern polar region. The updates were conducted by engineers from the  Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica  (INAF), Italy, and were fully funded by the  Italian Space Agency  (ASI). What does this mean? The agency said the upgrade will enable the spacecraft to view Mars and its moon Phobos with better levels of detail. The Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionospheric Sounding ( MARSIS ) instrument on Mars Express sends low-frequency radio waves down towards the planet using its 40-metre long antenna. Most of these waves are reflected from the planet’s

T-Mobile knows what apps you’re using. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge T-Mobile’s advertising business is offering a new way for marketers to pry into your app-using habits. Ad Exchanger reports that the un-carrier’s new program is called App Insights, and it’s now fully operational after spending a year in beta . The program allows third-party marketers to buy T-Mobile customer data and centers around a key piece of information that it has unique access to: what apps you use. Customer data is anonymized, and it’s pooled together with others of similar interests and behaviors, so companies can’t buy a specific user’s app history. Still, it’s creepy. The company’s advertising segment touts this offering loud and clear on its website , with the phrase “Apps speak louder than words” splashed across the top of the page. It also invites prospective clients to “leverage app insights, the strongest indicator of consumer intent.” That’s gross. Thankfully, you can opt out. Ima

Meta and a group of researchers from the University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin) are working on bringing realistic audio to the metaverse. As Kristen Garuman, Research Director at Meta AI, explains , there’s more to augmented and virtual reality (AR and VR, respectively) than just visuals. Audio plays a very important role in making a world feel alive. Garuman says “audio is shaped by the environment that [it’s] in.” There are various factors that influence how sound behaves like the geometry of a room, what’s in said room, and how far someone is from a source. To achieve this, Meta's plan is to use AR glasses to record both audio and video from one location, then using a set of three AI models, transform and clean the recording so it feels like it's happening in front of you when you play it back at home. The AIs will take into account the room that you're in so it can match the environment.  Looking at the projects, it appears Meta is focusing on AR glasses. Meta