๐ Your car knows more about you than Pinterest needs to
Northeastern University researchers tested 21 vehicles and 30 automaker apps โ and found Pinterest, Snap and Meta receiving VINs straight from General Motors' apps. Why does Pinterest need your VIN? Nobody's saying.
GM's four apps were sending VINs to 10 companies including Microsoft and Adobe. The catch: a VIN isn't like a phone ad ID โ you can't reset it. Pair it with an email once, and ad networks have you forever.
28 of 30 apps contacted advertising or analytics companies. GM is already under a 20-year FTC privacy order over its driver-data scandal, though the testing predates that order. Of everyone studied, only Honda actually changed anything.
The rest shrugged: it's all in the vendor contracts, they said. Seven added that users should read the terms of every pre-installed service themselves. Convenient.
Engadget
Northeastern University researchers tested 21 vehicles and 30 automaker apps โ and found Pinterest, Snap and Meta receiving VINs straight from General Motors' apps. Why does Pinterest need your VIN? Nobody's saying.
GM's four apps were sending VINs to 10 companies including Microsoft and Adobe. The catch: a VIN isn't like a phone ad ID โ you can't reset it. Pair it with an email once, and ad networks have you forever.
28 of 30 apps contacted advertising or analytics companies. GM is already under a 20-year FTC privacy order over its driver-data scandal, though the testing predates that order. Of everyone studied, only Honda actually changed anything.
The rest shrugged: it's all in the vendor contracts, they said. Seven added that users should read the terms of every pre-installed service themselves. Convenient.
Engadget
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๐ก A spy inside the hardware wallet
The whole point of a hardware wallet is keeping your keys off the internet. Someone found that amusing.
Ledger's security team confirmed that devices sold by CryptoBilis โ an authorized reseller in Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines โ contained hidden implants with an embedded SIM and LTE radio. During setup, each implant read the 24-word recovery phrase off the screen and transmitted it over cellular. The security chip was never touched.
Estimated losses: $86โ103M. CryptoBilis halted sales; Trezor and OneKey both cut ties with the reseller. Ledger is now looking beyond CryptoBilis โ a user named Johannes found similar implants in two devices bought at MediaMarkt stores in Europe, CoinDesk reports.
Ledger has sold over 8 million wallets. How many passed through the wrong hands is the question that now matters most.
Cointelegraph
The whole point of a hardware wallet is keeping your keys off the internet. Someone found that amusing.
Ledger's security team confirmed that devices sold by CryptoBilis โ an authorized reseller in Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines โ contained hidden implants with an embedded SIM and LTE radio. During setup, each implant read the 24-word recovery phrase off the screen and transmitted it over cellular. The security chip was never touched.
Estimated losses: $86โ103M. CryptoBilis halted sales; Trezor and OneKey both cut ties with the reseller. Ledger is now looking beyond CryptoBilis โ a user named Johannes found similar implants in two devices bought at MediaMarkt stores in Europe, CoinDesk reports.
Ledger has sold over 8 million wallets. How many passed through the wrong hands is the question that now matters most.
Cointelegraph
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๐ Goodbye, Walter White Jr.
RJ Mitte, who played Walter White's son across all five seasons of *Breaking Bad*, has died at 34. His death has been confirmed as suicide.
Cranston's tribute landed quietly and hard:
Like his character, Mitte genuinely had the condition. After the show he became president of the Mitte Foundation and an advocate for disabled performers in Hollywood. He and Cranston had been texting just weeks ago, making plans for lunch.
If you or someone you know is struggling: 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline โ call or text 988.
Variety
RJ Mitte, who played Walter White's son across all five seasons of *Breaking Bad*, has died at 34. His death has been confirmed as suicide.
Cranston's tribute landed quietly and hard:
"He never โ ever โ allowed cerebral palsy to be an excuse for anything. I'll miss you, son."
Like his character, Mitte genuinely had the condition. After the show he became president of the Mitte Foundation and an advocate for disabled performers in Hollywood. He and Cranston had been texting just weeks ago, making plans for lunch.
If you or someone you know is struggling: 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline โ call or text 988.
Variety
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๐ค Epic's new rule: the AI writes, humans supervise
Epic Games and Disney announced a $1.5 billion partnership in early 2024 โ a Marvel-and-Star-Wars-themed shooter due in March 2027. That release now has no date at all.
The reason: a hard pivot to "AI first" development. Bloomberg obtained internal messages describing it without much poetry: "no more hand-written code," art assets "generated with full AI workflows." Models like Anthropic's
CEO Tim Sweeney moved quickly to frame it as ambition, not cuts โ the goal, he wrote, is to build more and better, not the same things with fewer people. Which is exactly what every announcement like this has said for the past three years.
The Disney shooter waits. Nobody knows for how long.
Ars Technica
Epic Games and Disney announced a $1.5 billion partnership in early 2024 โ a Marvel-and-Star-Wars-themed shooter due in March 2027. That release now has no date at all.
The reason: a hard pivot to "AI first" development. Bloomberg obtained internal messages describing it without much poetry: "no more hand-written code," art assets "generated with full AI workflows." Models like Anthropic's
Claude do the coding and the visuals; human developers steer and review.CEO Tim Sweeney moved quickly to frame it as ambition, not cuts โ the goal, he wrote, is to build more and better, not the same things with fewer people. Which is exactly what every announcement like this has said for the past three years.
The Disney shooter waits. Nobody knows for how long.
Ars Technica
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๐ Apple's smart home era, take two
The original HomePod underwhelmed, Siri lagged, plans kept slipping. On Tuesday Apple announced HomeView โ a
๐ธ A cuboid HomePod with a screen, counter or wall mount.
๐ธ 7-inch display, FaceTime camera, mics and speakers in the base.
๐ธ Updated Siri recognises family members by face and shifts the interface automatically.
Amazon and Google have owned this space for years. Apple arrives late but with the deepest ecosystem โ and Bloomberg says a robotic-arm version is already in the works. The humble cube has ambitions.
Pre-orders open today; ships November 13 in four colors.
TechCrunch
The original HomePod underwhelmed, Siri lagged, plans kept slipping. On Tuesday Apple announced HomeView โ a
$299 smart display that feels like a genuine second attempt.๐ธ A cuboid HomePod with a screen, counter or wall mount.
๐ธ 7-inch display, FaceTime camera, mics and speakers in the base.
๐ธ Updated Siri recognises family members by face and shifts the interface automatically.
Amazon and Google have owned this space for years. Apple arrives late but with the deepest ecosystem โ and Bloomberg says a robotic-arm version is already in the works. The humble cube has ambitions.
Pre-orders open today; ships November 13 in four colors.
TechCrunch
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๐ Daily Recap ยท Oct 15
๐ Your car is quietly feeding Pinterest your VIN
๐ก Authorized Ledger reseller shipped wallets with hidden implants
๐ RJ Mitte, Breaking Bad's Walter Jr., dies at 34
๐ค Epic goes AI-first and loses its own release date
๐ Apple's HomeView is the HomePod redemption arc nobody expected
Send this to whoever had back-to-back meetings all day โ they missed a lot
CHEATKOTT - Your Daily News
๐ Your car is quietly feeding Pinterest your VIN
๐ก Authorized Ledger reseller shipped wallets with hidden implants
๐ RJ Mitte, Breaking Bad's Walter Jr., dies at 34
๐ค Epic goes AI-first and loses its own release date
๐ Apple's HomeView is the HomePod redemption arc nobody expected
Send this to whoever had back-to-back meetings all day โ they missed a lot
CHEATKOTT - Your Daily News
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๐ฎ GTA 6 is one month out โ and the world is already calling in sick
Economists put a hard number on it: $1 billion in lost productivity during launch week alone.
Car tuning shop Burger Motorsports is closing on November 19 โ staff claimed the day before management could react. Australia's government issued official PSAs on citizens' rights to take time off for the release. The U.S. Army offered soldiers four days leave upon re-enlistment, timed to launch week.
Thirteen years between entries. PS5 and Xbox Series X|S on November 19. Keith Richards on the soundtrack, Lana Del Rey hosting a radio station โ and a PC version rumoured for Q1 2027, per IGN.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qq76pQsI1iw
Economists put a hard number on it: $1 billion in lost productivity during launch week alone.
Car tuning shop Burger Motorsports is closing on November 19 โ staff claimed the day before management could react. Australia's government issued official PSAs on citizens' rights to take time off for the release. The U.S. Army offered soldiers four days leave upon re-enlistment, timed to launch week.
Thirteen years between entries. PS5 and Xbox Series X|S on November 19. Keith Richards on the soundtrack, Lana Del Rey hosting a radio station โ and a PC version rumoured for Q1 2027, per IGN.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qq76pQsI1iw
YouTube
Grand Theft Auto VI: An Extended Look Coming August 27
Grand Theft Auto VI: An Extended Look will premiere on Netflix Thursday, August 27 at 3 p.m. ET and will also launch on the official Rockstar Games YouTube channel and the Grand Theft Auto VI site at 9 p.m. ET on August 27.
https://netflix.com/GTAVI
Grandโฆ
https://netflix.com/GTAVI
Grandโฆ
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