Latest Tech News

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

Filtered by: data Clear Filter

How AI on Microcontrollers Actually Works: Operators and Kernels

The buzz around “edge AI”, which means something slightly different to almost everyone you talk to, is well past reaching a fever pitch. Regardless of what edge AI means to you, the one commonality is typically that the hardware on which inference is being performed is constrained in one or more dimensions, whether it be compute, memory, or network bandwidth. Perhaps the most constrained of these platforms are microcontrollers. I have found that, while there is much discourse around “running AI

Caching is an abstraction, not an optimization

June 30, 2025 Caching is an Abstraction, not an Optimization I've always been told that caching is a tool to make software faster. That, given some careful considerations to consistency, caching makes it so that when you want to read a given piece of data, you don't have to go all the way back to some backend database or API server or SSD and can instead just read from some faster location like memory for the same data. Caching is thus a tool to improve performance. My feelings now are that t

Provider of covert surveillance app spills passwords for 62,000 users

The maker of a phone app that is advertised as providing a stealthy means for monitoring all activities on an Android device spilled email addresses, plain-text passwords, and other sensitive data belonging to 62,000 users, a researcher discovered recently. A security flaw in the app, branded Catwatchful, allowed researcher Eric Daigle to download a trove of sensitive data, which belonged to account holders who used the covert app to monitor phones. The leak, made possible by a SQL injection vu

Caching is an Abstraction, not an Optimization

June 30, 2025 Caching is an Abstraction, not an Optimization I've always been told that caching is a tool to make software faster. That, given some careful considerations to consistency, caching makes it so that when you want to read a given piece of data, you don't have to go all the way back to some backend database or API server or SSD and can instead just read from some faster location like memory for the same data. Caching is thus a tool to improve performance. My feelings now are that t

IdeaLab confirms data stolen in ransomware attack last year

IdeaLab is notifying individuals impacted by a data breach incident last October when hackers accessed sensitive information. Although the organization does not describe the type of attack, the Hunters International ransomware group has claimed the breach and leaked the stolen data on the dark web. IdeaLab is a California-based technology startup incubator that since 1996 has launched over 150 companies, including GoTo.com, CitySeach, eToys, Authy, Pet.net, Heliogen, and Energy Vault. Being o

Best Cellphone Plans of 2025: Our Top Picks

CNET staff -- not advertisers, partners or business interests -- determine how we review products and services. If you buy through our links, we may earn a commission. If you're feeling overwhelmed when evaluating all the phone plan options out there, you're not alone -- and it's not an accident. Carriers need to appeal to every type of customer, from people who want all the options to those who need only a small slice of features on a budget. We've put together recommendations from major carri

Best Family Phone Plans for 2025

If you compare the specifics of T-Mobile's Essentials and Essentials Saver plans, you might think the company forgot to update one or the other -- they're Essential-ly the same. With both, you get 50GB of fast Premium 5G data (depending on the network capabilities in your area), which drops to 3G speeds of still-unlimited data after that allotment is used up. You can use your phone as a mobile hotspot with unlimited data, but only at 3G speeds and restricted to paltry 2G speeds when you're in Ca

Datadog stock jumps 10% on tech company’s inclusion in S&P 500 index

The Datadog stand is being displayed on day one of the AWS Summit Seoul 2024 at the COEX Convention and Exhibition Center in Seoul, South Korea, on May 16, 2024. Datadog shares were up 10% in extended trading on Wednesday after S&P Global said the monitoring software provider will replace Juniper Networks in the S&P 500 U.S. stock index. S&P Global is making the change effective before the beginning of trading on July 9, according to a statement. Computer server maker Hewlett Packard Enterpri

Capital One builds agentic AI to supercharge auto sales

Want smarter insights in your inbox? Sign up for our weekly newsletters to get only what matters to enterprise AI, data, and security leaders. Subscribe Now Inspiration can come from different places, even for architecting and designing agentic systems. At VB Transform, Capital One explained how it built its agentic platform for its auto business. Milind Naphade, SVP of Technology and Head of AI Foundations at Capital One, said during VB Transform that the company wanted its agents to function

New macOS malware targets crypto and Web3 startups with fake Zoom update

North Korean hackers are behind a new and unusually sophisticated macOS malware campaign that targets the crypto industry using fake Zoom invites. Here’s how it works. Dubbed “NimDoor” by researchers at SentinelLabs, the attack is more sophisticated than the typical macOS threat, and it chains together AppleScript, Bash, C++, and Nim to exfiltrate data and maintain access in compromised systems. Here’s SentinelLabs’ executive summary of the hack: DPRK threat actors are utilizing Nim-compiled

Spain arrests hackers who targeted politicians and journalists

The Spanish police have arrested two individuals in the province of Las Palmas for their alleged involvement in cybercriminal activity, including data theft from the country's government. The duo has been described as a "serious threat to national security" and focused their attacks on high-ranking state officials as well as journalists. They leaked samples of the stolen data online to build notoriety and inflate the selling price. "The investigation began when agents detected the leakage of p

The Ultrahuman Ring Air Shamed Me Into Ditching Unhealthy Habits

This is a little embarrassing to admit as someone who reviews wearables for a living, but the Ultrahuman Ring Air is my first-ever smart ring. I've tested just about every smartwatch and fitness tracker on the market, but never a ring. And honestly, that probably makes me the perfect person to review it -- not as a biohacking pro, but as someone who went into this exactly how most buyers would: curious, slightly skeptical and wondering whether it would make me ditch my smartwatch. Better yet, wo

Qantas Breach Comprises Data of Up to 6 Million Customers

Qantas disclosed a cybersecurity incident on July 2 potentially affecting 6 million customers. Ryan Fletcher/Getty Images Australian airline Qantas has disclosed a cyberattack potentially comprising the data of 6 million customers. Cybercriminals gained access to customers' names, email addresses, phone numbers, birthdates and frequent flyer numbers via a third-party platform used by a company call center, it said. In the wrong hands, this data could lead to phishing attacks orchestrated by ba

Data breach reveals Catwatchful ‘stalkerware’ is spying on thousands of phones

A security vulnerability in a stealthy Android spyware operation called Catwatchful has exposed thousands of its customers, including its administrator. The bug, which was discovered by security researcher Eric Daigle, spilled the spyware app’s full database of email addresses and plaintext passwords that Catwatchful customers use to access the data stolen from the phones of their victims. Catwatchful is spyware masquerading as a child monitoring app that claims to be “invisible and cannot be

Bright Data beat Elon Musk and Meta in court — now its $100M AI platform is taking on Big Tech

Join the event trusted by enterprise leaders for nearly two decades. VB Transform brings together the people building real enterprise AI strategy. Learn more Bright Data, the Israeli web scraping company that defeated both Meta and Elon Musk’s X in federal court, unveiled a comprehensive AI infrastructure suite Wednesday designed to give artificial intelligence systems unfettered access to real-time web data — a capability the company argues Big Tech platforms are trying to monopolize. The ann

How large are large language models?

How large are large language models? (2025) This aims to be factual information about the size of large language models. None of this document was written by AI. I do not include any information from leaks or rumors. The focus of this document is on base models (the raw text continuation engines, not 'helpful chatbot/assistants'). This is a view from a few years ago to today of one very tiny fraction of the larger LLM story that's happening. History GPT-2,-medium,-large,-xl (2019): 137M, 380M

Topics: data gpt model models moe

How large are large language models? (2025)

How large are large language models? (2025) This aims to be factual information about the size of large language models. None of this document was written by AI. I do not include any information from leaks or rumors. The focus of this document is on base models (the raw text continuation engines, not 'helpful chatbot/assistants'). This is a view from a few years ago to today of one very tiny fraction of the larger LLM story that's happening. History GPT-2,-medium,-large,-xl (2019): 137M, 380M

Topics: data gpt model models moe

Spain and Brazil push global action to tax the super-rich and curb inequality

Presented during the UN’s 4th International Conference on Financing for Development – taking place this week in Sevilla, Spain – the proposal highlights a growing problem: the richest individuals often contribute less to public finances than ordinary taxpayers, thanks to lower effective tax rates and legal loopholes. “Our countries need more and more public revenues to meet their needs. Inequality is a problem everywhere and the richest pay less than the middle class – even less than lower-inco

Best Rural Internet Providers for 2025

Our picks 90001 Edit ZIP code Why we chose these providers Sort by Best rural home internet provider 87 - 415 Mbps $50 - $70 per month Check with T-Mobile Provider not available in 90001 Edit ZIP code Or call to learn more: (877) 519-7610 Best wired rural internet provider 10 - 140 Mbps $55 per month Check with CenturyLink Provider not available in 90001 Edit ZIP code Or call to learn more: (866) 671-3650 Best rural fixed wireless internet provider 25 - 50 Mbps $45 - $65 per month Check with Ris

Qantas hack results in theft of 6 million passengers’ personal data

In Brief Australian airline giant Qantas said on Wednesday it experienced a data breach that compromised the personal information of at least six million passengers. The airline said a cybercriminal targeted one of its call centers on June 30, and stole customer data from its systems, including names, email addresses, phone numbers, dates of birth and frequent flyer numbers. Qantas is the latest airline hacked in recent weeks following a spate of breaches attributed to Scattered Spider, a col

Google hit with $314m fine for collecting data from idle Android phones without permission

Joe Maring / Android Authority TL;DR Google has been ordered to pay $314.6 million to Android phone users in California for collecting and sending their data. The lawsuit argued that Google collected data from idle Android phones without the users’ permission, consuming cellular data in the process. The company said it would appeal the verdict. Google undoubtedly collects plenty of user data from Android phones. However, a California jury has found that the search giant must pay $314.6 milli

From 30 days to 1: Chevron’s cloud migration ROI in real numbers

Join the event trusted by enterprise leaders for nearly two decades. VB Transform brings together the people building real enterprise AI strategy. Learn more The No. 1 way AI is changing 150-year-old energy giant Chevron? How technical practitioners engage with data. Offshore in the Gulf, Chevron is drilling for oil resources miles below the ocean floor in pockets and reservoirs that may or may not yield results. Agentic architectures need to be able to process petabytes of critical data — whi

Pentagon may put SpaceX at the center of a sensor-to-shooter targeting network

The Trump administration plans to cancel a fleet of orbiting data relay satellites managed by the Space Development Agency and replace it with a secretive network that, so far, relies primarily on SpaceX's Starlink Internet constellation, according to budget documents. The move prompted questions from lawmakers during a Senate hearing on the Space Force's budget last week. While details of the Pentagon's plan remain secret, the White House proposal would commit $277 million in funding to kick o

Ultra Mobile raised its data caps without a price increase

T-Mobile is bringing some of its Uncarrier energy to Ultra Mobile, the carrier’s international-focused MVNO that operates on its network. It announced that its plans now have slightly higher data caps and more international perks, but with the same prices as before for new and existing subscribers — a rare thing to see these days. The plan with the most notable increase in data cap is its $39 per month tier, which jumps from 15GB to 24GB per month. It also includes 5GB of data you can use in Me

Google’s data center energy use doubled in 4 years

No wonder Google is desperate for more power: The company’s data centers more than doubled their electricity use in just four years. The eye-popping stat comes from Google’s most recent sustainability report, which it released late last week. In 2024, Google data centers used 30.8 million megawatt-hours of electricity. That’s up from 14.4 million megawatt-hours in 2020, the earliest year Google broke out data center consumption. Google has pledged to use only carbon-free sources of electricity

Google’s data center energy use doubled in four years

No wonder Google is desperate for more power: the company’s data centers more than doubled their electricity use in just four years. The eye-popping stat comes from Google’s most recent sustainability report, which it released late last week. In 2024, Google data centers used 30.8 million megawatt-hours of electricity. That’s up from 14.4 million megawatt-hours in 2020, the earliest year Google broke out data center consumption. Google has pledged to use only carbon-free sources of electricity

T-Mobile’s Ultra Mobile brand revamps its plans, but who are they for?

Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority TL;DR Ultra Mobile has updated its plans to include more data and enhanced international calling and roaming features. Customers can save even more by choosing 3, 6, or 12-month payment options, which offer discounts of up to 30% per month. Ultra Mobile is a strong option for those who frequently call or travel internationally, though there are other options that might be worth considering, like Google Fi. T-Mobile has been gradually updating its plans acr

Kelly Benefits says 2024 data breach impacts 550,000 customers

Kelly & Associates Insurance Group (dba Kelly Benefits) is informing more than half a million people of a data breach that compromised their personal information. The Maryland-based health and life insurance agency has issued an update on a security incident it suffered last year between December 12-17, when unauthorized actors breached its IT systems and stole files. On April 9, 2025, the company stated that the incident impacted 32,234 individuals. The figure was revised multiple times until

Benchmarking Postgres

Want to learn more about unlimited IOPS w/ Metal, Vitess, horizontal sharding, or Enterprise options? Benchmarking Postgres By Benjamin Dicken | July 1, 2025 Today we launched PlanetScale for Postgres. For the past several months, we've been laser focused on building the best Postgres experience on the planet, performance included. To ensure we met our high standard for database performance, we needed a way to measure and compare other options with a standardized, repeatable, and fair method

Can Sensing Be Safe? Designing Privacy-Aware Wireless Systems

Introduction From fitness trackers to smart speakers, mobile sensing has quietly become ubiquitous, embedding itself into our daily lives. These devices are capable of monitoring motion, detecting presence, identifying user activities, and even inferring health conditions, sometimes without any user interaction. As these applications grow and become central to smart environments, a critical question arises: Can sensing systems be designed to be both safe and ethical? While mobile and wearable