Latest Tech News

Stay updated with the latest in technology, AI, cybersecurity, and more

Hacked on Stripe–$41K Gone, No Real Help from Support. What Now?

I’ve always been nervous about using Stripe after reading horror stories here. Unfortunately, I took my chances due to the ease of integration, and now I’m here with my own nightmare. We’ve used Stripe for nearly 10 years as a marketplace, only allowing Standard Accounts—never had a major issue. Until yesterday. A hacker created six Express accounts, linked them to our platform, and drained our balance. Then, they started charging our users and funneling the stolen money to their Express accou

Scented products cause indoor air pollution on par with car exhaust

Using scented products indoors changes the chemistry of the air, producing as much air pollution as car exhaust does outside, according to a new study. Researchers say that breathing in these nanosized particles could have serious health implications. When you hear or see the words ‘air pollution,’ you most likely think of things like factories and car exhaust. That’s pollution that is out there – outside your house. But have you thought about how you’re contributing to air pollution inside of

Blow Out the Candles, Not Your Budget – NordVPN 72% Off Birthday Sale

NordVPN turns 13, so let’s wish it the happiest birthday! We say this because NordVPN doesn’t accept gifts. It’s the opposite, as it gifts its loyal user base for its own birthday, with two exclusive incentives. Users can save up to 72% on NordVPN’s 2-year plans and get up to 1 year of NordVPN Prime for free on top. This means you pay for a 2-year plan and get 3 years instead! Let’s see what’s in store for this fiery NordVPN celebration. See At NordVPN Get Up to 1 Year of NordVPN for Free We

Best Internet Providers in Maryland

What is the best internet provider in Maryland? Looking for high speed internet in Maryland? You’re in luck. Maryland has some of the fastest internet speeds of any state, and most residents have access to at least one fiber provider. CNET recommends Verizon Fios as the best internet service provider in Maryland for most households. It offers symmetrical upload and download speeds, plus unlimited data and affordable pricing. Verizon Fios covers most of Maryland's main metro areas. Just keep in

Best Internet Providers in Ontario, California

What is the best internet provider in Ontario, California? Frontier Fiber is the best internet service provider in Ontario, thanks to its fast, symmetrical speeds and competitive pricing. The service offers unlimited data and there are no extra fees for your equipment. Frontier also has some of the lowest prices in the area, and it doesn’t automatically increase prices after a year or two. Spectrum and Frontier have the cheapest internet plans in Ontario, starting at just $30 monthly for 100Mb

32 of the Best Gifts Under $100 for 2025

They say dogs are a man's best friend but so are these personalized pet pillows. Whether it's to liven up their office or home, if someone's not actually cuddling with their pet, they can do the next best thing -- cuddle with their likeness in pillow form. You can choose from eight different colorful backgrounds, from gray to mint to lavender, and all you have to do is upload a photo of the pet to Etsy seller DrawYourPortrait. I gifted this pillow to a family that I Chihuahua-sit for, and they l

The Thing and the Human Torch Are Coming to Marvel Rivals on Feb. 21

The Fantastic Four were the first new characters to join the roster in Marvel Rivals season 1, but so far only Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Woman have been added. The team will be in full force on Feb. 21 as the Thing and the Human Torch will make their debut in the hero shooter. Developer NetEase Games confirmed the addition of the two heroes on Tuesday on its Dev Talk blog. The characters' introduction to the game will conclude the first half of season 1 and bring with it some major balanc

DOGE Now Has Access to the Top US Cybersecurity Agency

Edward Coristine, a 19-year-old engineer with Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) known as “Big Balls,” is now on staff at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), WIRED has confirmed. He is joined by another member of the DOGE team, 38-year-old software engineer Kyle Schutt, who is now also on the CISA staff, according to a government source. CISA referred WIRED to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), of which it’s a component agency, when

Study of TikTok, X ‘For You’ feeds in Germany finds far-right political bias ahead of federal elections

Recommendation algorithms operated by social media giants TikTok and X have shown evidence of substantial far-right political bias in Germany ahead of a federal election that takes place Sunday, according to new research carried out by Global Witness. The non-government organization (NGO) undertook an analysis of social media content displayed to new users via algorithmically sorted “For You” feeds — finding both platforms skewed heavily toward amplifying content that favors the far-right AfD p

Saronic raises $600M to mass-produce autonomous warships

Austin-based defense startup Saronic has raised a $600 million Series C to build an autonomous ship factory called “Port Alpha,” it announced yesterday, quadrupling its valuation to $4 billion from its last round. Investor Elad Gil led the round, with General Catalyst joining existing investors Andreessen Horowitz, 8VC, and Caffeinated Capital, among others. That should make Saronic the second, possibly third, most valuable defense tech startup in the U.S. after Anduril’s last round valued it

‘For You’ feeds are not for creators, Patreon says

Patreon has continued on its crusade against algorithmic feeds with its latest State of Create report, a look at trends in the creator economy based on internal data, and it’s an effort creators can get behind. In its survey of 1,000 creators and 2,000 fans, the membership platform reported that 53% of creators think it is more difficult to reach their followers today than five years ago. This doesn’t come as a surprise. Celebrities have fought against Instagram’s video-centric, algorithmic fe

AI-coding startup Codeium in talks to raise at an almost $3B valuation, sources say

Codeium, an AI-powered coding startup, is raising a new round of funding at a $2.85 billion valuation, including fresh capital, according to two sources with knowledge of the deal. The round is being led by returning investor Kleiner Perkins, the people said. The new round comes just six months after Silicon Valley-based Codeium announced that it had closed a $150 million Series C at a $1.25 billion post-money valuation led by General Catalyst with participation of Kleiner Perkins and Greenoak

DRAM makers set to halt DDR3 and DDR4 production in 2025

Rumor mill: The DRAM industry could be in for a major shake-up this year. Sources claim production of mature DRAM solutions may be winding down as the largest memory manufacturers shift their focus almost entirely to high-performance chips. If true, the move could have significant consequences for the market and end customers alike. The "big three" in the DRAM industry are preparing to end production of DDR3 and DDR4 memory solutions this year. Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, and Micron are repo

Make-A-Wish is auctioning off the chance to become an NPC in The Elder Scrolls 6

In a nutshell: Bethesda has remained mostly radio silent regarding The Elder Scrolls 6 development since announcing the project in 2018. The silence ended on Monday when the studio revealed it would be developing an NPC based on the winner of an auction to benefit charity. In a partnership with the Make-A-Wish Foundation, Bethesda has agreed to "immortalize" one fan as an NPC in The Elder Scrolls 6. As part of a charity event, the chance isn't free. Interested fans must participate in a silent

New open-source AI for game developers interprets footage and player input

In brief: Despite the controversy surrounding generative AI, some game designers use the technology to brainstorm concepts during development. Microsoft's new open-source model aims to make this practice feasible for interactive content. It focuses on maintaining consistency across many frames while recognizing and integrating player input. Microsoft researchers recently introduced Muse, a generative AI model designed to extrapolate interactive video game scenarios from images, clips, and recor

Microsoft deploys new state of matter in its first quantum computing chip

Microsoft on Wednesday announced Majorana 1, its first quantum computing chip. The achievement comes after the company spent nearly two decades of research in the field, but Microsoft claims that building Majorana 1 required that it create an entirely new state of matter, which it is referring to as a topological state. Microsoft's quantum chip employs eight topological qubits using indium arsenide, which is a semiconductor, and aluminum, which is a superconductor. "The difficulty of developi

Researchers Find Elon Musk's New Grok AI Is Extremely Vulnerable to Hacking

Researchers at the AI security company Adversa AI have found that Grok 3, the latest model released by Elon Musk's startup xAI this week, is a cybersecurity disaster waiting to happen. The team found that the model is extremely vulnerable to "simple jailbreaks," which could be used by bad actors to "reveal how to seduce kids, dispose of bodies, extract DMT, and, of course, build a bomb," according to Adversa CEO and cofounder Alex Polyakov. And it only gets worse from there. "It’s not just ja

Killer Asteroid Could Be Headed for Some of the World's Most Populous Cities

According to NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab, near-Earth asteroid 2024 YR4 now has a 3.1 percent chance of colliding with our planet on December 22, 2032. That makes it the highest-threat asteroid ever detected, as Euronews reports. As of late January, the probability was sitting at just 1.3 percent, which then rose to 2.1 percent last week before rising yet again. Worse yet, the space agency suggests the asteroid could hit densely populated areas of our planet — if it were to make an impact just un

Trump Orders Musk to Get Air Force One Finished Quickly, Even If It Isn't Fully Safe Yet

What's the worst that could happen? President Donald Trump is running out of patience with Boeing, which was supposed to deliver two new Air Force One planes by the end of his predecessor's term. And guess who he's turning to to speed things up? Elon Musk, who Trump has "empowered" to take measures to get the beleaguered aerospace company to stop dragging its feet, the New York Times reports. Trump's pick for the task isn't surprising, since he's asked the world's richest man to do everything

Topics: force musk new nyt trump

Xbox’s AI initiative with Muse is an attempt to read the tea leaves, not the room

Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More Earlier today, the heads of Microsoft’s Xbox division revealed Muse, a generative AI model that intends to create both visuals and gameplay for games. The model, which was trained on the largely forgotten Ninja Theory multiplayer game Bleeding Edge, is not a shocking leap for Microsoft’s Xbox division. The company as a whole, from CEO Satya Nadella down, has wholeheart

Breaking down Grok-3: The AI model that could redefine the industry

Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More Less than two years since its launch, xAI has shipped what could arguably be the most advanced AI model to date. Grok-3 matches or beats the most advanced models on all key benchmarks as well as the user-evaluated Chatbot Arena, and its training has not even been completed yet. We still don’t have a lot of details about Grok-3, as the team has not yet released a paper

Topics: ai grok model models xai

Your Android Automotive dashboard just got a lot more fun with these new apps

C. Scott Brown / Android Authority TL;DR Google has announced a wave of new apps for Android Automotive, promising better in-car entertainment for cars with Google built-in. This expansion is part of Google’s car-ready program, which adapts large-screen Android apps for safe use in parked vehicles, removing the need for special automotive versions. The apps will first roll out to certain Volvo and Polestar models, with more makes and models set to join soon. Last year, Google teased a major

Google Translate gets a strange new vibe in latest makeover

Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority TL;DR Google is testing out a new effect for the Translate button in Google Lens. The Translate button has a bluish-purple ring that will pulsate when there’s text to translate. The change appears in the latest beta of the Google app. Google often likes to tinker with the UI of its products. So you may occasionally see something like a button moved to a different location, a new tab in a Google app, and so on. However, these tweaks don’t usually go against

Google Meet will now create your post-meeting to-do list

Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority TL;DR Google Meet is rolling out a new “next steps” feature that uses AI to identify and organize follow-up tasks discussed during meetings. The update builds on Google Meet’s existing “Take notes for me” feature, which captures key discussion points during meetings. The feature began its gradual rollout on February 18, 2025, and is available for Google Workspace Business and Enterprise plans, as well as the Gemini Education Premium add-on. Google is takin

FREE: Blink giving away doorbells and cameras if you pay for a 1-year subscription

Roger Fingas / Android Authority All of these offers are available straight from Amazon, which happens to own the Blink brand. Again, you can only get these free products if you pay for a whole year of the Blink Plus subscription up front, which costs $100. Is the Blink Plus subscription worth it? Since you’re basically only paying for the Blink Plus subscription, it’s worth investigating whether it’s worth your $100 bucks. We would say it definitely is if you were already considering getting

Google Meet’s scrollable captions let you catch up after zoning out in calls

TL;DR Google Meet is adding the ability to scroll live captions and translated captions. Users will be able to scroll through the last 30 minutes of conversation. The rollout is currently in progress. Google Meet is getting a handy new function related to captions. If you use the service, you’ll now be able to scroll through live captions and translated captions. In a new blog post, Google announced it is adding the ability to scroll through live captions, as well as translated captions. Pre

Want an electric bike? The HiBoy EX6 is $805 off!

This is not the type of stuff we usually cover, but I couldn’t ignore this offer when it came across my desk. Electric bikes offer commuters a new form of easy, clean, and fun transportation, but they tend to be a bit pricier than I would hope. How about getting an $805 discount on the HiBoy EX6 Electric Bike? This brings the price down to a much more reasonable $774.99. Get the HiBoy EX6 Electric Bike for just $774.99 ($805 off) This offer is available from Best Buy. The discount is applied au

Apple shares video with more details about the new iPhone 16e

As expected, Apple on Wednesday announced a new iPhone called the “iPhone 16e,” which aims to be a more affordable option for those who want a more modern phone at a cheaper price. After publishing the press release on its website, the company also shared a video with more details about the iPhone 16e. Introducing iPhone 16e The 13-minute video is presented by Apple CEO Tim Cook and Kaiann Drance, VP of iPhone marketing. The video follows the same pattern as Apple’s other short videos to intro

Apple says Severance has become its most popular show ever, overtaking Ted Lasso

The latest Nielsen charts showed that Severance was performing well with audiences, and now we have official confirmation from Apple itself. Via Deadline, Apple TV+ says that Severance has become its most popular show ever, even overtaking its hit comedy Ted Lasso. The service recorded more unique viewers for Severance than any other title in its history, based on viewership in the first month after season two premiered. With Apple TV+ continuing to decline to share concrete numbers about the