NASA’s 12-inch wide cube-shaped robots are more like a flying Roomba than a Boston Dynamics dog or humanoid; more like Weebo, the flying assistant in the 90s’ Robin Williams sci-fi/comedy Flubber, than Terminator. NASA has sent up three Astrobee “free flying” robots to the ISS since work started in 2018. Bumble and Honey were launched to the International Space Station (ISS) in April 2019 and Queen left for the ISS in July 2019....

From today, over 50,000 FttN lines can be upgraded to fibre to the premises (FttP) provided they order a plan of 100Mbps or over. NBN said it is looking to add 60,000 FttN lines each month, and is targeting 230,000 eligible lines by mid-year, and 600,000 by year end. At the end of 2023, NBN says it will have up to two million premises eligible. Customers looking to upgrade need to head to NBN’s site to register their interest, and if eligible will be linked out to participating ISPs....

Netflix subscribers in Canada, Portugal, Spain, and New Zealand on the standard or premium plans can now add an extra member for CAD$7.99 a month per person in Canada, NZD$7.99 in New Zealand, €3.99 in Portugal, and €5.99 in Spain, according to its update on paid sharing. Also: The best movies and shows to stream right now: Our top picks for February Netflix has long made clear it would expand its crackdown on inter-household account sharing, but hadn’t revealed when it would start doing so and how much it would charge in each market....

The Bill Banning Payment of Ransoms Bill S7289, introduced by Senator Carlucci, prohibits municipal corporations and other government entities from paying ransoms resulting from cyberattacks. Ransomware attacks use malware programs that make systems unusable. Hackers then demand payment, usually in the form of cryptocurrency, in exchange for restoring the systems. The bill defines a cyberattack as a “virtual attack against the critical infrastructure, as defined in subdivision five of section eighty-six of the public officers law, of a municipal corporation or other government entity....

The issue – discovered by researchers at the NCC Group – allows someone “to create and store fake vaccine credentials in their NYS Excelsior Pass Wallet that might allow them to gain access to physical spaces (such as businesses and event venues) where they would not be allowed without a vaccine credential, even when they have not received a COVID-19 vaccine.” The researchers found that the application did not validate vaccine credentials added to it, allowing forged credentials to be stored by users....

The funding came from eight investing firms, including Pantera Capital, Castle Island Ventures and Franklin Templeton Blockchain Fund, as well as angel investors Zac Prince, CEO of BlockFi and Richard Ma, CEO of Quantstamp. Proceeds from the $15 million funding will go toward building the Arcade platform. Formed in 2020, Arcade is an NFT marketplace for lending that independently appraises, validates and curates NFT collections and that enables owners of highly valued NFTs to use them as collateral for loans....

Fake Chinese antiques aren’t only limited to Beijing’s dirt markets; they have also appeared at auction houses and in museum collections worldwide. As the incomes of China’s wealthy and middle classes rise, a mixture of national pride and get-rich-quick dreams have led to a surge in demand for antiques – and a boom in forgeries to meet that demand. In fact, the fake art market in China is so large that, according to Artron, a Chinese art research company, some 250,000 people are believed to be working in the industry....

Opera was quick to jump onto Web3 with its Opera Crypto Browser and now apparently plans to do the same with generative AI. Opera plans to roll out the generative AI features in the sidebar of the browser. Also: How to use Opera’s Pinboards feature as a kanban board It’s not the first browser to add new AI features: Microsoft has also said it is adding AI to its Edge Sidebar, allowing users to ask for a summary of a company report “to get the key takeaways” for example, and then using the chat function to ask for a comparison to a competing company’s financials and automatically put it in a table....

DuckDuckGo CEO Gabriel Weinberg details its desktop browser in a blogpost recapping its milestones for 2021, including 150 million downloads of its all-in-one privacy apps for iOS and Android, and Chromium extensions. Weinberg attempts to distinguish the DuckDuckGo desktop browser from the likes of Chromium-based Brave and Mozilla Firefox by arguing it is not a “privacy browser”. Instead, it’s just a browser that offers “robust privacy protection” by default and works across search, browsing, email and more....

As reported by The Guardian, an investigation into a data leak apparently connected to the Israeli spyware vendor implies that “authoritarian” governments are using NSO Group’s Pegasus software to compromise mobile devices belonging to human rights activists, political dissidents, lawyers, journalists, and politicians. Pegasus is a spyware tool with remote access capabilities that is able to extract handset information, harvest conversations taking place over apps including WhatsApp and Facebook, monitor email clients and browser activity, record calls, and spy on victims through their microphone and camera....

As part of the trial, NSW photo card holders who live in certain postcodes in Western Sydney and the Blue Mountains were able to sign up and use the digital version of their photo card as a form of identity at participating venues and businesses within the trial area. These included bottle shops, supermarkets, convenience stores, pharmacies, tobacco retailers, selected Service NSW centres, NSW Police, and local council. The digital version is accessible via the Service NSW app, which the state government assured is hosted securely on the app and locked with a pin for “additional levels of security and protection against identity fraud, compared to the plastic digital photo card”....

The progress stands in contrast to early attempts to bring Android to desktop environments (including HP’s circa-2013 SlateBooks). Nonetheless, as was the case for Android with phones, Chrome OS is struggling to break out of its pigeonholing as the go-to OS for sub-$300 bundles of hinged mediocrity. Google tried to shatter that perception itself with a progression of aspirational Chrome OS devices, including the MacBook-like Pixelbook, the Pixel C, and the Pixel Slate, before launching the more mainstream and less inspiring Pixelbook Go....

Propel Software recently conducted a U.S. consumer survey to understand how consumers define brand loyalty in today’s market, and the news is mixed for product companies. Consumers are likely to remain loyal to brands that continue to meet their needs, but they are also fast to switch brands to find the products and experiences they want. As with most shifts in consumer behavior, this represents both an opportunity, and a threat, to product companies....

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), an independent body that oversees information rights in the UK, has published the results of initial deliberations that were carried out on end-to-end encryption (E2EE), in light of a years-long debate that has divided governments, social media platforms and freedom-of-speech activist groups. E2EE has long been seen as a way to protect users’ online privacy, by encrypting content in communications channels so that only the sender or recipient can access the information....

1. Belonging is the foundation for success. Students make it clear that their institutional experience depends heavily on their first few weeks on campus. Students who have a great onboarding experience are 35 times more likely to have a great overall university experience. Providing holistic support and communicating how their degree will pay off as soon as students arrive can help students feel that they belong and improve their overall experience....

There are 72W, 60W and 30W wall adapters, with the two highest watt models support laptop charging – a first for Otterbox. The 72W adapter has a single USB-A port with up to 12W of output and two USB-C ports that are capable of 30W each. The 72W adapter will retail for $69.95, with the 60W adapter priced at $59.95 and the 30W adapter priced at $49.95. Also: What is Gallium Nitride (GaN) next-generation charging technology?...

Oura provides solid integration with Apple HealthKit and Google Fit, so the data collected by the Oura Ring is not locked into the Oura app. The most requested integration from Oura wearers has been Strava, and now your activities will flow seamlessly between Oura and Strava so that nothing will get missed. Oura will include these activities in its key metrics, and Strava will support sharing of rest and recovery metrics with your Strava network of athletes....

Gaevoy said the company is still open to the idea this was a white-hat ethical hack, though the actor has not yet communicated their intentions. Wintermute CEO Confirms $160 Million Stolen Wintermute, based in London, is self-described as a leading digital asset “Market Maker” and provides liquidity across across fifty crypto exchanges and trading platforms, including global leaders Binance and Coinbase. Though the Sept. 10 theft saw over $160 million in cryptocurrency assets stolen from Wintermute’s decentralized finance (DeFi) operations, the CEO said the company was still solvent following the incident....

In a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing, GoDaddy’s chief information security officer (CISO) Demetrius Comes said they’ve discovered unauthorized access to its managed WordPress servers. To be exact the breach opened information on 1.2 million active and inactive managed WordPress customers since September 6, 2021. This managed service, according to WordPress, is streamlined, optimized hosting for building and managing WordPress sites. GoDaddy handles basic hosting administrative tasks, such as installing WordPress, automated daily backups, WordPress core updates, and server-level caching....

COVID-19 has caused severe economic and societal disruption, not to mention the impact on both our physical and mental health. Lockdowns, shielding, and stay-at-home orders imposed worldwide forced many of us to turn to online sources for everything from our groceries to banking and entertainment, and this led to what IBM calls a “digital reliance” and the need to create more online accounts than ever before. In a new global study of 22,000 participants, conducted by Morning Consult for IBM, the technology vendor examined the impact of the pandemic on consumer security behaviors....