Porsche and Audi will share an electric car platform

Porsche and Audi are no stranger to sharing car innards (the Cayenne and Macan use the same basic chassis as the Q7 and Q5, for instance), and that’s holding true in the electric era. Porsche’s Oliver Blume and Audi’s Rupert Stadler told Stuttgarter Zeitung in an interview that the two Volkswagen-owned brands will jointly develop a common EV platform that will find its way into several models from 2021 and beyond. Audi is already expecting two sedans and two SUVs, while Porsche could build its first vehicle on the platform at the same factory as the Macan. This doesn’t mean you’ll see an electric Macan, but that suggests it isn’t an electrified coupe.

Which cars come first and when depends on CO2 emissions requirements, Blume said.

It won’t surprise you to hear why they’re sharing resources: money. Blume said it would cost about 30 percent more for each brand to develop their own EV platforms. It won’t be a trivial expense even then. Stadler estimated that it would require a “low single-digit billion euro sum” to develop the platform by 2025.

This is separate from the Mission E, which remains Porsche’s current focus. And this doesn’t preclude either company from building custom platforms when their goals demand something specific — we’d expect Porsche to go that route for sports cars. However, it does give you a good idea of what to expect when EVs hit the market in earnest. As with some conventional cars, the biggest differences between EVs may revolve around power plant choices and styling rather than their underlying designs.

Via: Reuters

Source: Stuttgart Zeitung (translated)

Pennsylvania requires paper trail on all new voting machines

Pennsylvania has taken a leaf out of Virginia’s book and is now looking to replace its obsolete and vulnerable voting machines with more secure ones. A new directive requires counties planning to replace their voting machines with new ones that have paper backups — problem is, the state doesn’t have the budget for them. Most of the 20,000 machines Pennsylvania has been using the past decade are purely digital, so the state will need around $60 million to replace them with systems that cost $3,000 each.

In early 2017, a Bloomberg report revealed that Russian hackers attacked voting systems in 39 states. While Illinois was the only state that found records of attackers attempting to delete or alter voter data, Pennsylvania was still in the list of targeted locations. Even if the state weren’t attacked, it’s a good idea to upgrade anyway: at last year’s DefCon, security researchers showed just how easy it is to infiltrate voting systems. Acting Secretary of State Robert Torres said the new directive will ensure that residents’ votes are secure and uncompromised, since a paper trail will allow officials to double-check votes in case they suspect that a machine has been tampered with.

Unfortunately, the directive doesn’t actually require the counties to change machines, only that they should get one with a paper backup system when they do. And since there’s no budget to replace them, The Keystone State will likely be using its old ones this upcoming 2018 election season. Pennsylvania won’t be alone if it does, though. New York University’s Brennan Center for Justice told AP that officials in 41 states plan to use older machines this year due to lack of funds.

The situation illustrates how the US knows it has major security issues it needs to address in an increasingly digital world, but that it’s not prepared to deal with them. David Hickton, founding director of the University of Pittsburgh Institute for Cyber Law, Policy and Security, told AP: “In the world’s leading democracy, we can’t take the position that we can’t afford to do elections correctly. The recent attacks on our election should concern everybody, and a priority has to be placed on doing what is necessary.”

Source: AP

Italian cryptocurrency exchange BitGrail loses $170 million

One of the biggest problems with cryptocurrency exchanges is that they’re a juicy, enticing target for high-tech criminals. Case in point, Italian exchange BitGrail, which lost $170 million worth of Nano tokens, a little-known digital coin previously called RaiBlocks. BitGrail is the second exchange that lost of massive amount of money this year — and it’s only February — following Tokyo-based Coincheck, which lost between $400 and $534 million worth of coins in a cyberattack on its internet-connected wallet back in January.

BitGrail announced on its website that it lost $170 million to fraudulent transactions and that it has already reported them to authorities. It has suspended all withdrawals and deposits “in order to conduct further verifications.” However, unlike Coincheck, which promised to give users their money back, BitGrail founder Francesco “The Bomber” Firano announced on Twitter that there’s no way to refund 100 percent of what users lost.

While BitGrail’s loss is in no way as massive as Mt. Gox’s, it’s still steeped in controversy. The Nano team said that they have no “reason to believe the loss was due to an issue in the Nano protocol” and that the “problems appear to be related to BitGrail’s software.” They also published a copy of their conversation with the exchange’s founder and said that Franceso suggested they modify the ledger to cover his losses.

It doesn’t help that BitGrail recently required users to verify their accounts to be able to withdraw their coins beyond a certain amount, and some people have reportedly been waiting for verification since December. More recently, the exchange announced that it would no longer serve non-EU users due to what it said are legal complications. Team Nano wrote in their latest statement: “We now have sufficient reason to believe that Firano has been misleading the Nano Core Team and the community regarding the solvency of the BitGrail exchange for a significant period of time.”

On Twitter, Francesco said Nano’s claims are nothing but “unfounded allegations.” He added that he told the police that the Nano team published their private convo, which could compromise the investigation.

In the wake of the unfounded accusations made against me by the dev team and of the dissemination of private conversations that compromise police investigations, Bitgrail s.r.l. is forced to contact the police in order to protect its rights and users

— Francesco The Bomber (@bomberfrancy) February 10, 2018

NANO on BitGrail have been stolen.

Unfortunately there is no way to give it back to you at 100% (we only got 4 MLN XRN right now).

The devs, as you have guessed, dont want to collaborate

— Francesco The Bomber (@bomberfrancy) February 9, 2018

Source: The Wall Street Journal

Equifax breach may have exposed more data than first thought

The 2017 Equifax data breach was already extremely serious by itself, but there are hints it was somehow worse. CNN has learned that Equifax told the US Senate Banking Committee that more data may have been exposed than initially determined. The hack may have compromised more driver’s license info, such as the issuing data and host state, as well as tax IDs. In theory, it would be that much easier for intruders to commit fraud.

The breach compromised about 145.5 million people, although their level of exposure varied wildly. About 10.9 million Americans’ driver’s licenses were embroiled in the hack, and just a small fraction of the exposed UK licenses (just under 700,000) had enough info to jeopardize the victims’ privacy.

Equifax stressed to CNN that the initial list of exposed data was never meant to be the final, definitive account of the scope of the problem. And that’s not unheard of — companies frequently deliver rough assessments of the damage in the immediate aftermath and refine the numbers as they learn more.

However, that explanation might not be enough for officials. Senators are already clamoring for a thorough investigation, and want to know the full extent of what happened. This update gives them more of what they want, but it also raises the question of why the company is still determining the scope of the breach nearly half a year after it was made public.

Source: CNN Money

How to Use Your HomePod as a Speaker for Your Apple TV

The HomePod offers great sound, and with AirPlay connectivity, you can set the HomePod up to function as a speaker for your Apple TV, routing Apple TV sound through the HomePod.

You can use Apple TV and HomePod together as long as you have a fourth or fifth-generation Apple TV — it won’t work with earlier models.

Pairing Apple TV and HomePod

Open the Settings app on the Apple TV.
Scroll down to the Video and Audio section and select it.
Choose “Audio Output.”
Select the HomePod icon from the list of available devices.
Once the Apple TV is paired with the HomePod, TV sound will be routed through your HomePod instead of through your TV. You can’t control playback in any way using the HomePod, such as through Siri commands, but it does relay audio.

Using the HomePod’s physical controls, you can change the volume of the Apple TV.

Unpairing Apple TV and HomePod

You’ll presumably want to use your HomePod for purposes beyond playing audio from the Apple TV, and unpairing is done through the same settings you used to pair the HomePod and Apple TV in the first place.

Open the Settings app on the Apple TV.
Scroll down to the Video and Audio section and select it.
Choose “Audio Output.”
Click on the HomePod icon from the list of available devices to deselect it.

Choosing Audio Output Device with the Apple TV Remote

You can also choose your HomePod as your audio output device using your Apple TV Remote, which is a quicker way to swap between devices.

Go to the Home screen of the Apple TV.
Hold down the Play/Pause button on the Apple TV Remote.
In the menu that comes up, select the HomePod option.
To go back to using the Apple TV audio, you can repeat the same steps above, but this time select your Apple TV instead of the HomePod.

In a future update to iOS 11, Apple plans to introduce support for pairing two HomePods together for the equivalent of stereo sound. Once dual HomePod pairing is available, you’ll be able to use two HomePods with the Apple TV for even better sound.

Related Roundups: Apple TV, HomePodBuyer’s Guide: Apple TV (Buy Now), HomePod (Buy Now)
Discuss this article in our forums

What we’re watching: ‘Star Wars Rebels’ and Marvel’s ‘Runaways’

Welcome back to IRL, our series dedicated to the things that Engadget writers have been playing, using, watching and listening to. This week is all about what we’re watching and includes an explanation of why you need to give Star Wars Rebels another look and check out Marvel’s new Runaways series. Finally, we’ll take a look back at one of our editors’ first Netflix binge-watching experiences to see if it still holds up.

Star Wars Rebels

Kris Naudus
Senior Editor, Buyer’s Guide

I loved Star Wars: The Last Jedi. This is somehow a controversial statement, but I did. I adore it enough that I’ve seen it three times now, and on every viewing I’ve found that my appreciation of the film grew a bit more as I noticed things I hadn’t before or I better saw how everything fits together. It’s also rekindled my love of Star Wars, which is why I finally sat down and gave Star Wars Rebels another chance.

I liked Star Wars: The Clone Wars, but I found its successor a bit harder to love. The art style doesn’t thrill me, and I wasn’t too happy about retreading familiar ground, especially with the Jedi. I watched the first season, but since then the episodes have been piling up on my DVR. Over the holidays I ended up watching a lot of stuff I’d been putting off, so I looked at those two seasons’ worth of Rebels and thought, Maybe it’s time.

The show really found its stride in its second season, fleshing out the backstories and relationships of Ezra, Kanan, Hera, Sabine, Zeb and even the droid, Chopper. It delves further into Star Wars lore and brings in iconic characters like Darth Vader and Princess Leia, as well as fan favorites from The Clone Wars like Ahsoka Tano and Captain Rex. It even has Grand Admiral Thrawn, from the Expanded Universe novels! But I think the greatest thing the show does is teach us about the origins of the Rebellion.

When we first see the Rebel Alliance onscreen in A New Hope, it’s already a full-fledged military force with ships, personnel and a base that needs protecting. The Galactic Empire may vastly outnumber the Rebellion galaxy-wide, but in each individual conflict, it always feels like the Rebels have a chance. The fights never feel lopsided or desperate. When we first meet the Resistance in The Force Awakens, it feels the same: These people have the resources to fight the First Order. But things change by the end of that movie, and by the start of The Last Jedi things have taken a big turn. The Resistance is struggling to hold on to what little it has. It just wants to survive to fight another day. It’s hard to watch. It’s depressing.

By the end of The Last Jedi, we don’t know how the Resistance will bounce back, but Rebels actually holds a big clue. The series revolves around a small group of people struggling in their own small way against the vast Empire. A lot of what they do is about tiny victories and just trying to make it to tomorrow. But as the show progresses, we find out they’re not alone. There are other groups out there that want a better future, one that doesn’t involve the Imperials. So these different forces and crews come together to form something bigger. Now our heroes are going on missions that aren’t just about themselves. They’re serving a higher purpose in building a military organization that we, the viewers, know will someday challenge the Galactic Empire and win.

Marvel’s Runaways

Billy Steele
Senior News Editor

A few of Marvel’s latest TV shows, at least the ones on Netflix, haven’t been nearly as good as the first seasons of Daredevil, Jessica Jones and Luke Cage. Sure, The Punisher is solid (and, as expected, superviolent), but Iron Fist was awful, and just having to put up with Danny Rand made The Defenders a chore. Enter Runaways, Hulu’s team-up with Marvel and a welcome breath of fresh air for fans of the comic-based television series.

Let me make a caveat from the jump: The acting on this show is pretty bad in parts. However, the story is good enough to overcome the overacting from a lot of the characters. The writers didn’t waste any time with introductions either. The first episode introduces the main conflict — a group of kids trying to figure out if their parents are a group of murderers — and builds suspense quickly. After the first episode, I was hooked. That’s quite different from some of the other Marvel shows that took a few episodes to get going.

Runaways also manages to create compelling television without a lot of big-name stars. There’s Annie Wersching (24, Bosch), Kevin Weisman (Alias) and Julian McMahon (Nip/Tuck, Fantastic Four), but other than those three, I didn’t recognize any of the other actors. Of course, that has little to do with how good a show is, but the ABC and Netflix Marvel series have their fair share of familiar faces.

Unlike Netflix, Hulu is releasing new episodes on a weekly basis, and I’m writing this only five episodes in. Runaways has begun to tell the history of the so-called Pride organization the parents all belong to (through flashbacks, naturally), and the teens are all discovering their abilities. With the season halfway over, things should start escalating quickly, and the show is already slated for a second season. Based on what I’ve seen so far, I’ll be eagerly checking out the next five episodes.

Spooks/MI-5

Richard Lawler
Senior News Editor

This week, Netflix decided to push a theme of “What was your first binge watch?” and after checking my viewing history, I found that mine was MI-5 (originally called Spooks). Almost exactly nine years ago, I spent a few cold February days burning through the first four seasons of this BBC One series on my Xbox 360. As a Jack Bauer fan, I figured MI-5 could fill the terrorist-fighting hole for a few seasons, but it did more than that. Looking back, both are embarrassingly soapy renditions of national security and counterterrorism, but where 24 leaned toward the spectacular, MI-5 makes everything personal: surveillance, violence or moral gray areas.

The series was already a few years old when I watched it then, and the technology included is an early-aughts time capsule of candy-bar cellphones and laughable laptops. Its hacking scenes are almost universally hilarious, running at about a CSI: Cyber level of complexity, with people staring at loading screens most of the time. Still, watching now, it’s an interesting look back at the state of surveillance presented in media years before Edward Snowden’s revelations.

Sadly, Spooks/MI-5 followed the path of most American shows by sticking around for a few too many seasons, but I still think the early ones are worth watching. In a sign of the times, they’re not streaming on Netflix in the US at all these days; instead, the easiest way to watch is on Hulu. If you find yourself snowed in and haven’t seen this one before, then take a look — at least you’ll get to see a Motorola RAZR in action again.

“IRL” is a recurring column in which the Engadget staff run down what they’re buying, using, playing and streaming.

Siri on HomePod Correctly Answered 52.3% of Queries in New AI Test

In a new test shared today by Loup Ventures, Apple’s HomePod was put through its paces in categories including Siri, sound quality, and ease of use. For Siri, Loup Ventures’ Gene Munster reported that while the AI assistant understood 99.4 percent of queries asked of it, it answered only 52.3 percent of them correctly. Loup Ventures tested three separate HomePods and asked 782 queries total.

Compared to previous tests of rival speakers, HomePod is “at the bottom of the totem pole” in the AI assistant performance category. Google Home answered 81 percent correctly, Amazon’s Alexa answered 64 percent correctly, and Microsoft’s Cortana answered 57 percent correctly.

Munster broke this information down further, stating that Siri is good for “local” and “commerce” queries, like asking about nearby coffee shops or assisting in buying new shoes. In this area, Siri beats Alexa and Cortana but still falls behind Google Assistant on Google Home.

Despite the low percentage of correctly answering the 782 total queries asked of it, Munster said Siri’s overall performance rose above expectations “given the limited scope of HomePod’s music focus.”

Chart via Loup Ventures
The researchers explained that over time HomePod and Siri should grow to match, or surpass, rival assistants by simply adding query domains like calendar, email, calling, and navigation.

Some domains like navigation, calendar, email, and calling are simply not supported. These questions were met with, “I can’t ___ on HomePod.” Also, in any case that iPhone-based Siri would bring up Google search results, HomePod would reply, “I can’t get the answer to that on HomePod,” which forces you to use your phone or give up on the question altogether. Removing navigation, calling, email, and calendar-related queries from our question set yields a 67% correct response, a jump from overall of 52.3% correct.

This means added support for these domains would bring HomePod performance above that of Alexa (64%) and Cortana (57%), though still shy of Google Home (81%). We know Siri has the ability to correctly answer a whole range of queries that HomePod cannot, evidenced by our note here. Apple’s limiting of HomePod’s domains should change over time, at which point we expect the speaker to be vastly more useful and integrated with your other Apple devices.

As discovered in the research, where HomePod excelled was its “superior” listening skills. The HomePod allows users to speak at a normal volume, even when music from the speaker is particularly loud, and Siri will pick up on the voice and hear the user. “This was HomePod’s most stellar feature,” according to Munster.

Loup Ventures also favored HomePod’s sound quality, saying that “it sounds incredible.” Like other reviews and impressions of the device, Munster’s enjoyment of the HomePod’s audio quality was countered with the speaker’s lackluster Siri performance, which he thinks will be changing fairly soon.

Don’t be fooled by HomePod’s sound quality-focused first step into smart speakers; Apple has a grander vision than delivering a better sounding Echo. While not present in the first version of HomePod (i.e. you can’t even make a phone call with HomePod), we believe Apple’s goal is to make Siri a ubiquitous, ambient presence that connects and controls all your connected devices and services – and to make a leap forward in the transition to voice-first computing.

Visit Loup Ventures to read more of the information gathered from the HomePod “smart speaker gauntlet,” including the publication’s prediction for demand and market share of HomePod through the rest of 2018.

Related Roundup: HomePodBuyer’s Guide: HomePod (Buy Now)
Discuss this article in our forums

Staff at Russian nuclear facility caught using supercomputer to mine Bitcoins

Stealing staples and paper clips is minor league compared to what two Russian engineers are now facing after using one of the country’s most powerful supercomputers for their personal cryptocurrency mining gains. The incident took place at the highly secured Federal Nuclear Center in Sarov, western Russia, the same facility used by scientists to create the Soviet Union’s first nuclear bomb during the Cold War.  

To understand the significance of the facility’s unauthorized use of the supercomputer, you have to paint a picture of the surrounding area. In the past, you didn’t see the top-secret town marked on any Russian map. It’s currently cut off from the rest of the world by a barren no man’s land that is guarded by soldiers and barricaded with barbed wire fences. Getting in and out of the area requires a special permit. 

The Federal Nuclear Center residing within the isolated town employs around 20,000 people. It plays host to a supercomputer that performs around 1,000 trillion calculations per second (1 petaflop). This supercomputer, which went live in 2011, is typically disconnected to the internet for security reasons. That is where the two busted miners made their mistake. 

According to reports, the two engineers accessed the supercomputer to mine Bitcoins, which requires lots of processing power and an internet connection. Once they manually connected the supercomputer to the internet, the facility’s security system immediately reported the connection to Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB). Agents promptly investigated the suspicious activity, catching the miners in the act. 

Dubbed as the “Mountain Miners” by the media, the names of the two engineers were not disclosed. Both were released from custody but cannot leave the country. 

“Mountain miners were detained by competent authorities,” reads a translated statement from the Federal Nuclear Center. “As far as we know, a criminal case has been initiated against them. We draw attention to the fact that such attempts have recently been registered in a number of large companies with large computing capacities. At our enterprises, they will be severely suppressed. This is a technically unpromising and criminally punishable occupation.” 

The Bitcoin digital currency platform consists of multiple parts, such as generating coins and keeping track of transactions. There is no central point, like a bank, that manages these components. Instead, the platform depends on anonymous individuals and their PCs. Mining is a method of creating coins without paying for them, which requires loads of processing power. Russia’s supercomputer was unquestionably a prime candidate for mining Bitcoins.  

Cryptocurrency is reportedly on the rise in Russia. The government is considering the CryptoRuble for mid-2019, according to President Vladimir Putin’s economic advisor, Sergei Glazyev. These state-generated digital coins would be a means to settle sanctions and accounts with other nations. 

Meanwhile, residents and businesses are jumping on the cryptocurrency bandwagon, such as one individual who purchased two power stations just for mining purposes. Even more, an overheated electrical grid recently caused fires in residential apartment buildings due to large amounts of cryptocurrency mining. Other industrial industries are used for mining as well. 

Editors’ Recommendations

• What is Litecoin? Here’s everything you need to know
• Giant cryptocurrency mine that runs on green energy coming to Iceland
• What is a blockchain? Here’s everything you need to know
• The best bitcoin wallets
• Cryptocurrency mining bot spreading via Facebook Messenger in Chrome for desktop

This homemade 8-bit computer could finally pose a challenge to Intel’s 8008 CPU

By today’s standards, an 8-bit CPU isn’t all that impressive considering all of our devices use 64-bit architectures. What is impressive, however, is when someone builds their own 8-bit computer using a plethora of wires and what is known in the do-it-yourself hardware programming community as a breadboard.

That is exactly what YouTube user Paulo Constantino did from the comfort of his own home in a video that was uploaded last June and is only now beginning to garner the attention it deserves. Resembling an Intel 8008 processor of the 1970s, Constantino’s project might seem rudimentary to us now, but it’s a much more arduous feat to pull off than, say, building a gaming PC with today’s components.

Because all of its data traffic is bused in eight sets of ones and zeroes, this breadboard-based CPU is a lot slower than our computers, which is why it is so intriguing that Constantino was able to get his to play even an off-key rendition of the Super Mario Bros. theme song.

Breadboards are typically used for circuitry prototypes, which is what makes this story so bizarre to begin with. Pair that with the fact that the song itself was programmed by flipping a bunch of DIP switches rather than being wired to any inputs, such as a keyboard, and it becomes considerably more of a head-scratcher.

So, of course, the 8-bit breadboard CPU that Constantino devised here isn’t perfect, but it’s safe to assume this is only the beginning. After being designed over the course of two days using the old-school pen-and-paper method, the computer itself was assembled in a matter of a week.

In addition to being able to play a classic gaming melody, the hardware also supports a program that can be used to count from one all the way up to the number 255. It’s curious where Constantino plans to take this experiment now. For the time being, however, he assures us that a keyboard will soon be added for the sake of more straightforward programming techniques.

In the meantime, you can build your own computer (albeit the 64-bit kind) using our handy how-to guide.

Editors’ Recommendations

• The 50 best albums of 2017
• Cigar Aficionado’s top 10 cigars of 2017
• Meet the playlist curators who mint new music stars, one pick at a time
• Want the best MacBook for your money? You can forget the Touch Bar
• How to uninstall Windows 10

Inbox full of spam? Here’s how to block an email address in Gmail

Email is a powerful tool in the modern world. It can not only be used for professional correspondence, but for a variety of other purposes as well, including messages from your school or university, keeping in touch with distant friends or family, sending digital files, marketing for your business, contacting multiple people at once, or just generally keeping track of your online accounts and purchases. The ease of sending email, and the fact that most people have more than one email address, means your inbox(s) can quickly fill with spam.

While you can unsubscribe from mailing lists through Google, you might still find emails in your inbox that you’d rather not see. Gmail users who want to shut out this noise will be pleased to know they can do so with just a few clicks. Here’s how to block an email address on Gmail.

Blocking a particular email address through Gmail means you will no longer receive messages from that account in your inbox. It’s an all-or-nothing kind of thing. If you want to receive certain messages from that address, but not others, you’ll have to put up with deleting a few emails every now and then.

If you are on a computer

First, navigate to your Gmail Inbox and open an email from the sender you would like to block.

In the upper-right corner of the email — on the same horizontal plane as the sender’s name and address — is a small arrow.

Click on that arrow to open a drop-down menu. From this menu, select Block [sender’s name], which should appear near the middle of the list.

It’s that easy! Now, any messages that address sends you will automatically be directed to your spam folder.

If you are on a smartphone

The process works the same on smartphones, although the interface looks a bit different. First, open the email from the sender you want to block.

In the upper-right corner, there will be a button marked with three vertical dots. Select this to open the drop-down menu.

Next, choose Block [sender’s name]. You’ll now no longer receive messages from the email address.

What if you change your mind and want to unblock someone? You can open that same drop-down menu in either interface and select Unblock [sender’s name]. You can also view and unblock any previously blocked addresses from the Filters and Blocked Addresses tab in your Gmail settings.

Editors’ Recommendations

• New to Snapchat? Follow our guide and go from newbie to pro
• How to use Apple Pay Cash to send and receive money
• Google Inbox will let you unsubscribe from mailing lists you’ve been ignoring
• Clear out your inbox with the 10 best third-party email apps for iOS
• ZTE Axon M review