Chinese “hackers” are sending malware via snail mail

In what amounts to one of the simplest but most baffling forms of social engineering, hackers from China have taken to sending CDs full of malware to state officials, leading the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center, a government security outfit, to release a warning detailing the scam. The trick is simple: a package arrives […] https://ift.tt/2vgdCgh John Biggs July 30, 2018 at 12:01PM

YouTube may produce more original programming outside the US

YouTube is working on original programming for international markets in an effort to boost paid subscriber numbers, Reuters reports. The company plans to develop shows for customers in France, Germany, Japan and Mexico, adding to series that have alr... https://ift.tt/2Lyarvj Mallory Locklear July 30, 2018 at 12:00PM

Interior Define, the custom furniture startup, opens new location in SF

The direct-to-consumer space has some stand-out players, both in newcomers like Brooklinen and old-timers like Warby Parker. But one company, Interior Define, has maintained a low profile over the four years of its existence. The company offers fully customizable furniture, including couches, dining sets and bed frames, to customers through an online showroom. But ID […] https://ift.tt/2M3EuHx Jordan Crook July 30, 2018 at 12:01PM

Apple Music documentary chronicles the making of Kesha's ‘Rainbow’

Next month will mark the one-year anniversary of the release of Kesha's Rainbow, an album that confronts deep pain, features "spine-shivering feats" as Billboard noted and includes what Rolling Stone called the "best music of her career." On August 1... https://ift.tt/2OpZvO6 Mallory Locklear July 30, 2018 at 12:00PM

This Robot Hand Taught Itself How to Grab Stuff Like a Human

The system, developed by OpenAI, ends up “inventing” characteristic grasps that we humans already commonly use to handle objects. https://ift.tt/2M2bFeF Matt Simon July 30, 2018 at 12:01PM

Litecoin creator is helping HTC build a secure blockchain phone

Litecoin creator Charlie Lee is helping HTC make sure its upcoming blockchain-powered phone has everything to please the regular cryptocurrency enthusiast. In a tweet from earlier today, Lee revealed he will be joining the phone-maker as an adviser, spearheading the development of the recently announced Exodus smartphone. “I will be an advisor as I see having a secure crypto phone that makes [the Lightning Network” simple is needed for mass adoption,” he said. Met the HTC Exodus team last week and was really excited to hear the phone will support LTC and Lightning Network on Litecoin natively! I will be…

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https://ift.tt/2LxfWdE Matthew Beedham July 30, 2018 at 12:01PM

‘Gran Turismo Sport’ update lets you pay real money for cars

Gran Turismo Sport just released a new patch, and amid gameplay and cosmetic updates, you'll find the option to buy cars with your real hard-earned money. Developer Polyphony Digital is putting more than 200 cars on sale in PS Store and Brand Central... https://ift.tt/2vk7FyG Kris Holt July 30, 2018 at 12:00PM

Ecobee smart thermostats now save you money during peak hours

Ecobee now has an answer to Nest's peak-usage energy savings. It's launching a Peak Relief pilot program that automatically cuts down on heating and cooling when electricity rates are at their highest. It uses your comfort preferences, home energy... https://ift.tt/2LxfMTA Jon Fingas July 30, 2018 at 12:00PM

Revolut’s Nikolay Storonsky to talk shop at Disrupt SF

In October 2017 CEO Nikolay Storonsky’s Revolut raised $71 million at a valuation of $350 million. Today it’s certified unicorn, approaching a $2 billion valuation. His stake is said to be worth over $510 million. But not all success is a huge mystery. For Storonsky, working hard is his big secret. Revolut’s core product is […] https://ift.tt/2vk7p2G Mike Butcher July 30, 2018 at 12:00PM

Fabric offers an alternative to Facebook sharing with a private timeline of personal moments

Fabric, a personal journaling app that emerged from Y Combinator’s 2016 batch of startups, is relaunching itself as a Facebook alternative. The app is giving itself a makeover in the wake of Facebook’s closure of the Moves location tracker, by offering its own tool to record your activities, photos, memories and other moments shared with […] https://ift.tt/2LDAf9m Sarah Perez July 30, 2018 at 12:00PM

T-Mobile is buying $3.5 billion worth of 5G gear from Nokia

T-Mobile is gearing up for 5G in a big way: the carrier just announced a $3.5 billion deal with Nokia for 5G equipment. At this point, it's the biggest arrangement that we've seen around next-generation wireless equipment. T-Mobile says it'll be usin... https://ift.tt/2vk7i7g Devindra Hardawar July 30, 2018 at 12:00PM

Meet the daring detectives sniffing out booby-trapped Bitcoin mines

“We will make electricity so cheap only the rich will burn candles,” Thomas Edison reportedly said during the first public demonstration of his light bulb. Unfortunately, it wasn’t made cheap enough. Annually,  almost $90 billion worth of energy gets stolen worldwide, particularly in India, Brazil, and Russia. In the Netherlands, electricity theft and fraud is nothing new either. While commonly associated with weed farms, the last five years have seen a 20 percent spike in non-weed farm related electricity fraud cases. Among them is a new group of electricity thieves posing a challenge for police and distribution network operators: bitcoin…

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https://ift.tt/2OpZ8mG Joost Mollen July 30, 2018 at 12:01PM

Sorry, Nerds: Terraforming Might Not Work on Mars

If a new analysis is correct, conditions on Mars make it impossible for existing technology to turn it into a garden of Earth-like delights. https://ift.tt/2LZNRYQ Adam Rogers July 30, 2018 at 12:01PM

Fossil will sell BMW-branded smartwatches next year

BMW is moving into the smartwatch game, but it's not actually making the devices itself. Instead, Fossil has struck a five-year deal to create BMW-branded watches and smartwatches, as part of its seemingly never-ending quest to offer a smartwatch for... https://ift.tt/2Ly9x1T Kris Holt July 30, 2018 at 12:00PM

John Oliver made his own version of Facebook’s ‘we're sorry’ video

In April, after the Cambridge Analytica scandal erupted, Facebook put out an ad that was meant to reassure users about how their data would be treated going forward. Dubbed the "Here Together" ad, the video points to some of the issues that have come... https://ift.tt/2vk75B0 Mallory Locklear July 30, 2018 at 12:00PM

Serverless, Inc. lands $10M Series A to build serverless developers platform

Serverless, Inc came to the serverless game early, creating an open source framework for developers back in 2015. Today, they want to build on that earlier product to give developers more control over deployment and delivery of serverless applications. To that end, they announced a $10 million Series A round led by Lightspeed Ventures. They […] https://ift.tt/2Ly8JKp Ron Miller July 30, 2018 at 12:00PM

Apple Pay to account for 1 in 2 contactless mobile wallet users by 2020

The number of mobile payments users who tap to pay using a contactless payment solution provided by their mobile device’s maker will grow to 450 million people worldwide by 2020, according to a new forecast from Juniper Research. This includes mobile payment solutions like Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, Google Pay, and others. By this time, […] https://ift.tt/2vk714e Sarah Perez July 30, 2018 at 12:00PM

Feature.fm offers free “pre-save” tool for upcoming releases on Spotify, Apple Music and Deezer

In an age where people stream music instead of buying it, how do you build something equivalent to a pre-order campaign for upcoming releases? The answer is to create a “pre-save” campaign, akin to a landing page where fans can authorise you to automatically add a new song, EP or album to their steaming library […] https://ift.tt/2Otyiu4 Steve O'Hear July 30, 2018 at 12:00PM

Video for all — so give it to them easily with a year of Wave.Video at over 90% off

Assuming you don’t have the time or talent to attend a prestigious film school, Wave.Video Pro is here to help make creating sharp, attractive videos easier. Right now, you can score a one-year subscription to Wave.Video’s Pro service for over 90 percent off, just $49 from TNW Deals.

https://ift.tt/2vjYLkL TNW Deals July 30, 2018 at 12:01PM

The best desktops for students

For some of you, picking up a MacBook like the rest of your peers just won't do. If you're willing to trade portability for power, desktop computers are the way to go. Since it's probably the biggest-ticket item you'll buy for your apartment througho... https://ift.tt/2OpYWDY Engadget July 30, 2018 at 12:00PM

Dell ComfortView and Flicker-free technology

See everything comfortably with Dell's ComfortView and Flicker-free technology. For More Information: https://ift.tt/2NVWLH7 https://ift.tt/2uYD9Lo Dell July 30, 2018 at 12:01PM

Someone Taught Amazon's Alexa Sign Language

Abishek Singh, a software engineer and generally awesome person, created a mod that let's Alexa understand language. Watch it in action! ► Subscribe for more tech & culture videos: http://on.mash.to/subscribe ◄ MORE FROM MASHABLE ‌• Video - https://youtu.be/6ElleCub6uM ‌• Video - https://youtu.be/jAu1ZsTCA64 ‌• Video - https://youtu.be/W8T6fYt9-tA  Subscribe to Mashable: http://on.mash.to/subscribe  Best of playlist: https://on.mash.to/BestOf  MASHABLE ACROSS THE WEB  Mashable.com: http://on.mash.to/1hCcRpl  Facebook: https://ift.tt/2I7KIYV Twitter: https://ift.tt/2IgAQIf Instagram: https://ift.tt/2I6suXD Mashable is for superfans. We're not for the casually curious. Obsess with us. https://ift.tt/2vfZiEx Mashable July 30, 2018 at 11:07AM

How Ecobee is building the smart home of the future

A chat with CEO Stuart Lombard on the company's origins and future plans. Ecobee's vision: A hive mind of smart devices - https://ift.tt/2uZYWT8 Subscribe to CNET: https://www.youtube.com/user/CNETTV CNET playlists: https://www.youtube.com/user/CNETTV/playlists Download the new CNET app: https://ift.tt/2fmiQ6l Like us on Facebook: https://ift.tt/1930vfU Follow us on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/cnet Follow us on Instagram: http://bit.ly/2icCYYm https://ift.tt/2LZb3Gu CNET July 30, 2018 at 11:00AM

MSI ESL One Cologne 2018 recap

"MSI is proud of being the official gaming partner of ESL. Let's go behind the scenes and relive some of the best moments from ESL One Cologne 2018 in case you missed it. Thank you, Cologne! We will see you soon in MGA in New York â–ºhttps://mga.msi.com/" https://ift.tt/2uZrLiA MSI Gaming July 30, 2018 at 10:07AM

Jon Oliver makes an honest Facebook ad

There’s NSFW language in the video above. Enjoy. https://ift.tt/2K7T530 Matt Burns July 30, 2018 at 09:00AM

This is the leaked DJI Mavic 2 drone

Here is the DJI Mavic 2 before you’re supposed to see it. Just like the original, it’s a small, foldable drone with amazing capabilities. This time around, there will two different version, the Zoom and the Pro, though both will reportedly have the ability to fly at 45mph with a range of five miles. DJI […] https://ift.tt/2mSeXpK Matt Burns July 30, 2018 at 09:00AM

Twitter turns to academics to improve conversational health on the platform

Twitter is partnering with two groups of academic researchers to figure out how to measure the health of conversations happening on the platform. It’s all part of the company’s continuing long game for social relevance. Despite the fact that it lost 1 million users, the company also posted $100 million in profit during last week’s […] https://ift.tt/2K7Y7w5 Jordan Crook July 30, 2018 at 09:00AM