Germany confronts Russia over election hacking

Speaking with reporters at a conference in Potsdam, Hans-Georg Maassen, president of the BfV agency (Germany’s domestic intelligence group) renewed claims that Russian hackers were behind the attack on his country’s parliament. He also warned the other nation against attempting to weaponize the “large amounts of data” stolen in that breach in the upcoming national elections come September.

“We recognize this as a campaign being directed from Russia. Our counterpart is trying to generate information that can be used for disinformation or for influencing operations,” he said. “Whether they do it or not is a political decision … that I assume will be made in the Kremlin.”

This isn’t the first time that Maassen has issued a strongly-worded warning to the Russians over their electoral shenanigans. When the attack on the Bundestag (Germany’s lower parliamentary house) first occurred in May 2015, the security community initially linked it to a Russian hacking group called APT28. However, some experts have since tied APT28 to Russian military intelligence — not unlike Fancy Bear’s attacks here in the US and in France.

Maassen also told the gathered reporters that Germany was taking a multi-prong approach to the hacking threat, not only hardening its national cyber-defenses but also looking into the legality of striking back. That could involve everything from remotely scrubbing this data from remote servers or attacking the hardware directly.

“We believe it is necessary that we are in a position to be able to wipe out these servers if the providers and the owners of the servers are not ready to ensure that they are not used to carry out attacks,” Maassen explained. Unfortunately, neither of these methods are effective against another favorite Russian technique: spreading false and misleading news stories to influence the voters themselves. Hopefully the Germany people are savvy enough not to fall for such obvious falsehoods like Pizzagate.

Source: Reuters

New York City plans to track every homeless person in its borders

To assist New York City’s efforts to combat homelessness, the mayor’s office is planning to deploy a new tool to count every vagrant person within its bounds. In the hands of workers that reach out to the homeless every day, StreetSmart will help them track health, income, demographics and other figures. But unlike the siloed databases currently used by individual departments, the city wants everyone canvassing homeless populations — civic employee and nonprofit worker alike — to feed into the tool to create a comprehensive data collection.

Outreach workers need all the information they can get. It takes time to build trust with homeless persons, who won’t always be forthcoming if they recently left a detox program in one area or stayed overnight in another. StreetSmart collects that data and makes it accessible to multiple workers who might come in contact with the same person. But it’s also sensitive to homeless persons’ privacy, locking medical information away from anyone without authorization.

There’s obvious advantages to giving the city a macroscopic view of homeless patterns and activity spikes — it’s the classic data-as-a-golden-bullet method of sifting through tons of information to understand a population’s behaviors and trouble points. There are clear conclusions to reach when looking at what areas are more impacted, or which shelter locations are underperforming, or which outreach workers are having greater success at repeat check-ins with the homeless.

But it also speaks to our obsession with finding a tech solution for complex problems. StreetSmart might host a comprehensive collection of data, but it hinges on outreach workers to collect it in the first place. And once the city has amassed the info — what then? It might just confirm the positions of homeless advocates, who tell Wired that the root of the problem lies in the city’s lack of affordable housing.

Tech has tried to solve civic problems before, often with odd results, like the kewpie robot concept that was designed to beg on the street. Last September, New York shut down web browsing from its own LinkNYC kiosks because the vagrant population hogged them for both benign and indecent internet use. StreetSmart is obviously more of a structural solution than these other flops, but other shortsighted decisions could limit the effectiveness of another tech answer to a complex urban question.

Via: MIT Technology Review

Source: Wired

French candidate hacked just before presidential election

Just days before the final round of the French presidential election, a large trove of emails from one candidate’s campaign has allegedly been leaked online. In a statement on its website, the En Marche! campaign in support of candidate Emmanuel Macron confirmed the release and indicated that false documents may have been added to the official ones to sow confusion. That statement came just before midnight in France, as the election entered a silent period that is legally enforceable until Sunday at 8PM, preventing the release of any campaign statements or polling data.

According to Reuters, the 9GB of data were posted to Pastebin earlier, by a user named EMLEAKS. Even before the leak, there were postings teasing embarrassing data about Macron on 4Chan and, once again, Wikileaks has inserted itself into the mess. Given the silent period, it’s hard to tell what impact, if any, this is having on the election until it’s over, but given the events of the last year, a last-minute hacking and document leak is perhaps the least surprising campaign event possible.

Source: En Marche!

Polar M600 is a mighty mix of fitness tracker and smartwatch (review)

Polar is extremely well-known for it’s fitness tracking devices, and multiple models can be found at almost every retail extension. While they have tons of devices out in the market that are geared to the hard-core athlete, they had yet to really make any headway in terms of the smartwatch realm.

That delay ends with the M600 smartwatch. The M600 is Polar’s almost-flagship fitness tracker (eclipsed only by the ultimately athletic-minded V800), and the first to utilize Android Wear (and now Wear 2.0!; more on this shortly). And it does so well….so well, in fact, it’s kind of become a bit of a shape-shifter. Is it a smartwatch that does fitness tracking extremely well? Or is it a fitness tracker that has true smartwatch chops? Either way, it’s an extremely fun device to have on your wrist, particularly when paired with your smartphone. Let’s check it out!

Design

The M600 is styled first and foremost as a fitness tracker, with flat, subdued lines; no ornate or formal design cues here. Still, it does provide an air of subtle class, with an all-black band and case (white is also available, but, why?) and an almost-stealthy matte finish.

Now don’t get me wrong: while very sporty and athletic looking in its own way, svelte this smartwatch is not. It’s a rather thick slab of metal, rubber, and silicon sitting on your wrist. While wearing it I received comments both on how large it looked, and how it “looked rather size-appropriate on the wrist”. It was honestly about a 50/50 split in opinion of size from onlookers. For me, it was a similar experience. While looking at this thing on my arm thinking, “man it sure looks big”, it would just as quickly disappear from thought while I wore it.

Same goes for wearing it at night to track sleep. When I first tried lying bed with it on, I thought there was no way I was going to be able to rest comfortably with it on. But lo and behold, it almost melted onto me and I never had a single issue with comfort.

As far as using the device, it’s been simplified, utilizing the touchscreen as much as possible. There are only two physical buttons on the thing: the power/back/Google button on the side, and the “fitness” button (my term) low-and-center on the front. This front button is used to access Polar’s many fitness features, including initiating a recorded workout, reviewing your overall day’s metrics, and accessing Polar’s coaching functions.

The entire unit is completely waterproof (IP-8X to be specific), so you track your swimming workouts as you’d like.

On the backside, you’ll see the heart rate sensors and a proprietary charging connector. The charging cord that comes with the M600 is entirely too short, just short of XXX. The connector can also be a bit fiddly when tying it to the device, requiring just the right angle to make a positive connection.

Getting the charger juuussst right….

On charging, I got just over 2 full days of regular use (watch, Android notifications, fitness and exercise tracking) until I had to plug in.

The stock band (you can replace it with other options) is a comfortable and rather soft rubber. But it isn’t all good news: I regularly had issues with the band loops continuously sliding down, exposing the band to flap around. It wasn’t just vigorous exercise that caused this, either; a simple 9-hole round of golf caused this to happen at least 3 times…it started to drive me nuts.

Interface

The M600 is just a fantastic mix of smartwatch and fitness tracker. The recent addition of Android Wear 2.0 provides a bunch of new features, like the ability to download native apps

Try this on a Fitbit

from the Play Store right from the watch, better reply ability for messaging apps, and much-improved battery life.

This is definitely a step above the Fitbits of the world. The larger color screen and full Android Wear 2.0 integration see to that. Even something like navigation works well enough on the M600 that it allows you to keep your smartphone in your pocket more than you’d normally have to.

Even small touches, like screen sleep and wake, are well-implemented. When you bring the M600 up to your face, raising your forearm and/or twisting your wrist, the device is quick to wake, turning its display brightness way up for easier viewing. After just a few seconds of inactivity, it just-as-quickly goes back to sleep. You can also just tap the screen for a quick wake-up.

Asleep…..

….then awake with a flick of the wrist.

Again, with only two physical buttons, this device if very touch-intensive. Directional swipes take you to the notification pane, settings screen, other watch faces, fitness sub-screens, and the like. The device also allows for gestures to control your device, but honestly, it can seem pretty silly at times (waving your arm upward into the air just to ‘swipe up’…my wife was literally laughing at me when she caught me trying this out).

The screen is decent at 240 x 240 px, but it’s not the prettiest thing (visible scan lines).

Oops, I swiped to a new clock face again…

But that said, colors are very vibrant and I generally enjoyed looking at it. One niggle is that the primary left and right swiped on the device while in base clock mode is to switch around clock face options, which I did unintentionally more that once. Why this isn’t buried at least one level deep I don’t know. Maybe Polar found that peeps like messing with the faces a lot?

While the interface (and Android 2.0) is generally very good, I did get a little tired of addressing notifications via my wrist. When your phone is busy with incoming emails, messages, and notifications, I experienced general “swipe-fatigue” with all the flicking to and fro to clear these from the M600.  There is a “clear all” button to hit but I never remembered to use it. Now, this isn’t a ding on the device, specifically, it did hamper the overall smartwatch experiences for me. Do with that what you wish.

Using this device does require you to install the Android Wear app on your smartphone. This allows all the magic syncing to happen. Here you can also adjust some settings, like which apps you’d like blocked from appearing on your M600, or finding even more watch faces. You can even take a screenshot of your M600 display remotely (though I have no clue why you’d need to do this; features for features-sake, IMO).

Remote viewfinder: cool!

One interesting feature I kept playing with is a remote shutter option for your phone’s camera. Not only does it remotely close the shutter (once you press it there’s a three-second countdown), but you can also get an, albeit small, preview of the image as the phone sees it before you take the picture. This could become pretty slick in terms of landscape and low-light photography, where you are looking to minimize any and all camera shake. Heck, you could also use it to be part of the family picture, framing and taking the photo while in front of the lens.

Performance

As a “daily driver”, the M600 is a smooth operator. As stated before, the screen is bright and colorful, and responsiveness to my touching and swiping was nearly 100% spot-on. Notifications come into the watch almost instantaneously with my smartphone, and addressing them on either device updates the other just as fast. Android Wear boasts the ability to reply to messages right on the watch; you can like (thumbs-up!), try to tap on the ridiculously small predictive keyboard, or hand-write on a 240-pixel-wide screen and hope for the best. Obviously none of these are ideal, but they’re trying!

1 of 4

FB Notification

1st screen message option

If you choose “reply”

LOL, come on

As a fitness tracker I loved this thing. It does a very good job of tracking and breaking down your daily activity and workouts. It also integrally connects to Strava if you’re a biker or runner. I used it for several exercises, including weights, cardio (inside & outside), and even golfing.

If the M600 does have a weakness, it’s in the GPS, which can be a bit slow/delayed and/or inaccurate. I even noticed this when using the M600 as my navigation screen; it had trouble keeping my current location current.

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While recording an activity…

An alternative view.

After completing the workout.

Take a good look at your daily summary

Here is what you see…

Of course, with the fitness tracking comes the Polar Flow App and website. The app does a very good job of breaking down your daily activity and detailing each workout, as well as tracking your general level of activeness and sleep quality. There’s much more to this app and website than bears writing here. I took several screenshots for your viewing pleasure, to give you a feel for the interface:

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The Polar Flow website analytics of my workout.

Conclusion

The Polar M600 is a device that I had no intention of loving at the end of my review, but that’s exactly where I’m at. I’m not even a watch guy in general, but I continually found myself putting it on once charged and using it throughout the day. In just over a week it became a staple part of my technology arsenal, I like it that much.

The M600 does a incredible job of melding smartwatch and fitness tracker functionality and looks that I can’t tell where one stops and one begins. And that’s a great thing; a “holy grail” of sorts in this niche market. If you are in the market for a higher-end wearable, please give the M600 your most serious consideration!

You can buy the M600 from Amazon.

This is what Amazon’s touchscreen Echo device probably looks like

Amazon is expected to launch a new Echo device soon, and thanks to two new leaks, we know what it will probably look like.

We’ve known for a while that Amazon is developing a touchscreen version of the Echo speaker, but it was hard to imagine its form factor. Would it be another cylindrical can with a Kindle-like tablet strapped to the side of it? Well, AFTVnews has posted a photo reportedly taken from Amazon’s servers. It shows a black device that appears to be a video monitor with a speaker and a camera. This may be the new Echo.

• 12 best Amazon Echo compatible devices you can buy today
• Amazon Echo tips and tricks: Getting a grip on Alexa
• Amazon Echo: What can Alexa do and what services are compatible?

But that’s not all: Evan Blass at VentureBeat also tweeted an image of the device, but in white, meaning if it is indeed the new Echo, you will be able to get it in a choice of colours, just like you can do with the original Echo. And because the second leak came from Blass, who has a reliable track record when it comes to leaking gadget news, we’re a little more confident about this device actually being the new Echo.

Evleaks

There’s no other details such as specs or pricing or availability to go along with these leaks, but previous reports have suggested the new Echo will be able to let users ask Alexa for something and then engage with the touchscreen for more complex interactions. You may be able to ask Alexa for the weather and then see it on the screen, for instance.

Also, because the device appears to have a video camera, you may be able to place video calls or take photos. We’ll keep you posted as we learn more. Keep in mind Amazon is thought to announce its touchscreen Echo device sometime in May.

• Buy Amazon Echo (UK), Buy Amazon Echo (US)
• Buy Amazon Echo Dot (UK), Buy Amazon Echo (US)
• Buy Amazon Echo Look (US)

‘Smite’ adds Bob Ross as a paint-throwing playable character

Bob Ross is about to do battle with the gods. The Joy of Painting host, known for his soft voice, permed afro and “happy little trees,” is coming to Hi-Rez Studios’ mythology-themed MOBA Smite later this month as a character skin for Sylvanus.

Although The Joy of Painting aired in the ’80s and early ’90s, and Ross himself died of lymphoma in 1995, the laid-back artist is enjoying a second round of fame in the gaming community thanks to Twitch. The livestreaming service hosted a marathon of his show two years ago during the launch of Twitch Creative. It was so successful Twitch launched Bob Ross Mondays a month later.

Hi-Rez showed off the new Bob Ross Sylvanus skin during a patch preview earlier this week (it’s around the 45:00 mark if you want to check it out). Ross, in all his afroed and flip-flopped glory, rides atop Sylvanus’ treant, Grover, and paints a landscape during the match. While in combat, he lobs the paint at his enemies and summons happy little trees and clouds. The skin also includes voice overs with some of Ross’ signature mellow catchphrases like, “Gotta give him a friend. Everyone needs a friend.”

Other Bob Ross cosmetic items, like a loading frame and a paint splatter jump stamp, will also be available as part of a bundle. Each one was created in a close partnership with Twitch and the Bob Ross Estate. The bundle will be available on May 9th on PC/Mac and on May 16th on console. It will cost 700 in-game gems or $9.99 on Twitch Commerce.

Via: Polygon

Source: Smite

Amazon Echo successor ‘Knight’ may have built-in display, and this could be it

Why it matters to you

The rumored successor to Amazon’s Echo may reflect the company’s response to intense competition in the personal assistant space.

Amazon’s next Echo speaker might look radically different from any that has come before it. On Friday, May 5, AFTVnews pulled a thumbnail of an unannounced device from Amazon’s servers, and it appears to have a touchscreen.

The low-res image doesn’t give much away, but it does show an Echo-like, Alexa-assistant-powered stand with a 7-inch embedded touchscreen. It sits vertically, like a desk clock, and has a rectangular speaker that’s much larger than that on the Amazon’s Echo Dot, Echo Tap, and first-generation Echo.

Nearly a year ago, The Wall Street Journal reported that Amazon was working on a next-generation Echo, code-named “Knight.”

AFTVNews

The rumored device, which was reportedly developed by Amazon’s Lab126 (the Silicon Valley-based research and development arm responsible for Amazon’s Dash, Fire TV, and Kindle Fire devices), is said to be functionally identical to the current Echo lineup. Newer reports suggest the device could have a camera, like Amazon’s new Echo Look camera, and that it will boast a high-quality speaker system and allow users to pin items such as photos on the speaker’s screen.

It could launch as soon as May — reportedly at a price higher than the $180 Echo speaker.

“Knight” is said to respond primarily with voice, like the current Echo speakers, but would be accompanied by interactive elements from the built-in touchscreen.

They might look a little like the card-like Alexa interface on Fire TV, Amazon’s line of set-top boxes. Asking Alexa on Fire TV about the weather brings up a seven-day forecast. Starting a a music playlist brings up album artwork. A search for nearby businesses pulls up top-rated places on Yelp. And questions about movie showtimes brings up a list of nearby theaters.

Questions about less specific subjects get more generic visuals. If you ask Alexa on Fire TV when the Golden Gate Bridge was completed, you’ll see the San Francisco landmark. And if you ask where American Eskimo Dogs originated, Alexa will serve up a pic of the breed in question.

It’s unclear how the new Echo will handle third-party integrations. Amazon’s current-gen speakers integrate with skills, or apps, that extend their capabilities — they let you place pizza delivery orders, for example, and reserve rides from Uber and Lyft. Presumably, Amazon will encourage developers to add visual aids to skills going forward.

Rumors of a new Echo come as Amazon faces increased pressure from rivals like Google. The company was said to have gotten a “wake-up call” when Google Home, Google’s eponymous smart home assistant, gained support for multiple users — a feature which Echo devices lack.

And even fiercer competition could be on the horizon. Apple is said be “finalizing” the design of a home speaker powered by Siri. It’s rumored to carry some form of Beats technology and support for AirPlay, Apple’s wireless music-streaming standard.

U.S. Marines can pilot this machine gun-wielding mini tank from a tablet

Why it matters to you

The U.S. Marine Corp is testing a versatile robot mini tank equipped with a .50-caliber machine gun for use in future battlefields. It could help support marines in combat situations.

If there’s one thing we can probably all agree on it’s that it is a terrible idea to pick a fight with a robot tank equipped with a .50-caliber machine gun. That’s something that the U.S. Marine Corp is clearly hoping qualifies as a self-evident truth, based on its current testing of just such a vehicle for use in future battlefields.

Called the Multi-Utility Tactical Transport (MUTT), the vehicles are being developed by General Dynamics. They’re around the size of an ATV, and are available in four-wheeled, six-wheeled, or eight-wheeled tracked variations — providing a maximum of 1,200-pound payloads. The MUTT can function in one of two modes: either semi-autonomous, which means as a “controller-less small unit robotic follower,” or remote-controlled using a tablet or joystick.

However, the ambition is that over time they will evolve to be smarter in a way that will make them even more valuable for working alongside humans.

“Eventually, what we hope to do is go to systems that are more truly autonomous, that I can say, ‘Hey, go cover my right flank,’ and it’s going to go do the things it needs to do in order to make that happen,” a senior marine told Business Insider. “Then if it does get in the situation where the weapons systems malfunction, it can either fix itself, or then I’ve got to send a marine to go fix it.”

The versatile robots are primarily designed to transport food, water, and assorted other supplies, although the addition of a powerful machine gun opens up a variety of possibilities for engaging enemies or providing cover.

As with any area subject to automation, military applications require examination about exactly which tasks we’re happy to hand over to machines. No-one would suggest that a marine can be replaced by an ATV with a .50-caliber machine gun. But the advantages of a battlefield ally that doesn’t ever get fatigued, doesn’t need water, and can constantly support you with equipment in the field are also pretty clear.

Because some combination of the world’s best-trained military commandos and a gun-toting robot have to intimidate any possible opposition, right?

Snake, the latest MacOS malware, makes its way over from Windows

Why it matters to you

If you’re running a MacOS machine, then the latest malware attack serves as a reminder to follow safe-computing practices.

Increasingly, the idea that MacOS does not suffer from the same malware threats as Windows is going out the window. MacOS suffers from some of the same kinds of attacks which make their way over from Windows.

One recently discovered example of a cross-platform attack is a fake Adobe Flash Player installer that bypasses the Gatekeeper feature introduced in MacOS Lion. Dubbed “Snake,” the malware injects malicious backdoor files into the MacOS file system, makes them persistent, and then uses them to access and pass along sensitive materials, the Fox-IT blog reports.

Gatekeeper uses a certificate-based system to differentiate between apps installed from the presumably secure Mac App Store and apps that users might want to install from outside that walled garden. If an application has a legitimate Gatekeeper certificate, the theory goes, then users can trust that the app is safe. Snake leverages this system by using a valid developer certificate that is likely stolen from a legitimate developer.

According to Fox-IT, Snake could be tied to Russian hackers and is highly targeted at government and military institutions and large companies. It has been around on Windows for years and a version was ported to Linux in 2014. Now, the malware can infect MacOS machines using essentially the same framework that Fox-IT describes as “significantly more sophisticated, it’s infrastructure more complex and targets more carefully selected.”

Interestingly, Snake does actually install the Adobe Flash Player but at the same time, it installs backdoor code that is kept as persistent by Apple’s LaunchDaemon service. It is installed using a Zip file called “Adobe Flash Player.app.zip” and appears valid to the user.

Fox-IT notified Apple about the compromised certificate and it is likely Apple’s security team will have revoked it within the Gatekeeper system. That means it will no longer make its way through Gatekeeper as if it were a legitimate Mac App Store application and should be more difficult to spread for users who make use of Gatekeeper’s protections.

More than anything, Snake serves as a reminder that MacOS users should maintain the same diligence as users of other operating systems. Keep Gatekeeper turned on and fully enabled, only install applications from known sources, and utilize anti-malware software to keep your systems monitored and periodically scanned. Apple might like to poke fun at Windows for its allegedly less secure nature, but the reality is that nobody is completely safe from attack.

Everything we know about Samsung’s Galaxy Note 7 recall

In January 2017, after a months-long independent investigation involving three quality-control and supply-chain analysis firms, Samsung completed its investigation into the cause of the Galaxy Note 7’s battery fire — and revealed the ultimate causes of the billion-dollar fiasco.

According to DJ Koh, the company’s chief mobile executive, there were problems with batteries from two different suppliers. Those sourced from Samsung’s own SDI division short-circuited as a result of damage to the separator, a component within lithium-ion batteries that prevents the negative and positive electrodes from coming into contact with each other and generating a dangerous amount of heat. Batteries from Hong Kong-based Amperex Technology, meanwhile, experienced failure as a result of protrusions in the battery and other quality issues that occurred when Samsung increased its order substantially.

The company is putting in place preventative measures going forward. It’s introducing an eight-point inspection process, adding staff dedicated to overseeing each battery feature’s safe implementation, and making intellectual property around battery safety and standards freely available.

“For customers, we have to develop innovation, but customer safety is the priority,” Koh said. “In the end, we can win the customers’ trust back.”

Here’s what you need to know.

The Galaxy Note 7 is coming back as the Galaxy Note 7R

The Galaxy Note 7 as we knew it is long dead and gone, but a new variant of the ill-fated phone is now on its way. Named the Galaxy Note 7R, the brave new handset (which is to say, its buyers will be brave) is a refurbished version of the spontaneously combustible smartphone. The battery will be smaller than the original at 3,200mAh (the original was 3,500mAh), but otherwise will look very similar to its namesake.

When it becomes publicly available, the 7R will be priced around $600, though it won’t be for sale in the U.S. or Canada. But if rumors are to be believed, overseas carriers could be stocking the Galaxy Note 7R as early as June. The phone has officially passed through the FCC, so while you may not be chomping at the bit to get one just yet, it seems as though all systems are go.

Samsung to remotely kill all unreturned Galaxy Note 7 units

Well folks, this is the end of the road. While Samsung and most carriers have all made various attempts at getting customers to return the Samsung Galaxy Note 7, there are still a few rogue units out there — so Samsung has to take a new approach.

To do this, the company will begin forcing software updates — which is different than previous attempts. Before, technically users could choose not to accept the software update, but now they won’t have a choice. The news comes from Korean publication The Korea Herald, in which Samsung confirms it will begin forcing updates in the next week.

The goal here is obvious — these new software updates will spell the end of the road for the Galaxy Note 7 once and for all.

Verizon takes a new approach to killing the Galaxy Note 7

Verizon is taking a new approach to ensuring customers stop using their Galaxy Note 7 — by forwarding all non-emergency calls to Verizon customers service. The new approach comes after an update that was supposed to render the phone completely useless, but some users seem to have evaded that update altogether.

“In spite of our best efforts, there are still customers using the recalled phones who have not returned or exchanged their Note 7 to the point of purchase,” said Verizon in an interview with Fortune. “The recalled Note 7s pose a safety risk to our customers and those around them.”

On top of the call forwarding, Verizon is also considering charging some users with the full retail cost of the phone — that’s because it seems as though Verizon issued refunds to some people even though they hadn’t returned the phone.

It’s important to note that the vast majority of people have indeed returned their device. However, it seems that Samsung and carriers won’t rest until all devices have been returned.

Airlines no longer need to notify passengers

The Federal Aviation Administration has issued a statement saying airlines no longer have to notify passengers about bringing the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 on board. The ban is still in place, but airlines are not required to make a pre-boarding notification. It’s still up to airlines if they want to keep repeating the message or not, though.

“The Department of Transportation removed the requirement for air carriers to specifically notify passengers about the Note 7 phone immediately prior to boarding due to the high degree of public awareness of the ban since issuance of the emergency restriction/prohibition order, as well as the extensive efforts by Samsung and U.S. wireless providers to make all Note 7 users aware the phone is recalled and banned from transport on U.S. aircraft,” according to the statement.

Samsung says it has “successfully recalled” more than 96 percent of Note 7 devices.

T-Mobile is shutting down the Galaxy Note 7

T-Mobile is officially putting an end to the Galaxy Note 7. As promised, the company has started rolling out an update to Galaxy Note 7 devices on the T-Mobile network that disables the battery on the phone, rendering it unusable.

The changelog for the update says that it will offer an on-screen reminder to bring the device in for exchange, and that once it’s installed the phone will not be able to charge.

Samsung is disabling the Galaxy Note 7 starting on December 19 — Verizon gets update on January 5

Samsung has confirmed that it will disable the Galaxy Note 7 in a software update set to begin rolling out December 19. “To further increase participation, a software update will be released starting on December 19 that will prevent U.S. Galaxy Note7 devices from charging and will eliminate their ability to work as mobile devices,” Samsung said in a statement. “If you have not yet returned your device, you should immediately power it down and contact your carrier to obtain a refund or exchange.”

The company said it’s working with carriers in the U.S. to notify customers at “multiple touchpoints” that they should return their Galaxy Note 7. And it reaffirmed that exchange incentives introduced earlier this year would remain in place.

Verizon has announced that Galaxy Note 7 devices on its network will start to receive the update a bit later, on January 5.

There’s no word yet on whether the company will extend the disabling of Galaxy Note 7s to additional countries, but it has employed other techniques. In Canada and Australia, for example, the phone is limited to a maximum battery capacity of 60 percent.

The following is a list of reported incidents so far, all involving Galaxy Note 7 phones that were replaced

• A Kentucky resident suffered lung damage after his phone filled his bedroom with smoke on October 4
• A Note 7 caught fire on a Southwest Airlines flight on October 5
• A woman in Taiwan noticed that her phone was emitting smoke in her pocket on October 7
• A 13-year-old girl in Minnesota suffered a burn on October 7 when her phone became extremely hot under her thumb
• A Virginia man reported that his Note 7 caught fire on his nightstand and filled his room with smoke on October 9

Following this string of incidents, Samsung issued an official statement saying that it has asked all carriers to stop sales of the phone, and that all Galaxy Note 7 users should power down their phones and either get refunds or replace their device as soon as possible.

“Samsung has received 96 reports of batteries in Note 7 phones overheating in the U.S., including 23 new reports since the September 15 recall announcement,” according to the US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). “Samsung has received 13 reports of burns and 47 reports of property damage associated with Note 7 phones.”

Before that, an official at a supplier for Samsung told a Korean news agency that production had been temporarily halted. “This measure includes a Samsung plant in Vietnam that is responsible for global shipments,” the official said. The move follows the decision of U.S. carriers AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile to temporarily suspend the phone’s sales.

The crisis began in late August, but reached a head on September 15, when the CPSC, the federal agency charged with overseeing product reports and alerts, issued a formal recall of the more than 1 million Note 7 devices shipped to consumers in the U.S.

Since the recall, Samsung had begun issuing replacement phones. But even those have issues: A replacement phone caught fire aboard a Southwest airlines flight on Oct 5. And on October 7, a woman in Taiwan suffered a scare of her own while walking her dog in a local park when she heard a bang from her jeans pocket. She discovered that her Galaxy Note 7 was emitting smoke. She claims to have replaced her original Samsung device on September 27.

On Friday, 13-year-old Minnesota resident Abby Zuis discovered her replacement Note 7 was no safer than the original. She told local newscasters that she felt a “weird, burning sensation” in her thumb while holding the phone, ultimately suffering a minor burn as a result of the fiery Samsung device.

Most damning is the report that a replacement Galaxy Note 7 caught on fire, and that Samsung knew about it and withheld everything from customers. Kentucky resident Michael Klering told a local news station that he awoke at 4 a.m. on October 4 and realized his new phone had spontaneously combusted and filled his entire bedroom with smoke. Klerig wound up in the hospital with smoke-induced acute bronchitis.

“The phone is supposed to be the replacement, so you would have thought it would be safe,” he told WKYT. “It wasn’t plugged in. It wasn’t anything, it was just sitting there.”

When Klering reported the incident to Samsung, he accidentally received a horrifying text response from a company representative clearly not meant for him:”Just now got this. I can try and slow him down if we think it will matter, or we just let him do what he keeps threatening to do and see if he does it.”

Digital Trends reached out to Klering and we are waiting to hear back.

A fifth replacement Galaxy Note 7 in the U.S. reportedly caught fire over the weekend: Shawn Minter of Virginia reached out to The Verge when his replacement, just over two weeks old, caught fire on his nightstand in the wee hours of the morning.

“My Galaxy Note 7 replacement phone just burst into flames,” Minter said in his emailed statement. “It filled my bedroom with a smoke. The same as the Kentucky man. I woke up in complete panic.”

Under no circumstances should you buy a Galaxy Note 7, or continue using one that you already have.