Silo A.I. vacuum storage system tells you when your leftovers are going bad

Whether it’s smart locks on our doors, smart lights in the bedroom, or smart set-top boxes in our living rooms, our homes have gotten a whole lot more intelligent in recent years. You know which room hasn’t benefited quite so much? Our kitchens. While there are all manner of new ways for food to be picked, packed, and delivered, the act of actually storing it in our homes hasn’t fundamentally changed in a long time. Perhaps until now.

Newly launched on Kickstarter, Silo is a vacuum storage container that promises to greatly extend the life of your food. Whether it’s for storing your fresh berries, ground coffee beans, raw fish, or mom’s meatloaf, these stackable vacuum boxes use vacuum-packing technology to keep your food fresh for two to five times longer than usual. The boxes are neatly designed, and the vacuuming process takes just 10 seconds.

“I usually describe it to people as Tupperware for the new generation,” Tal Lapidot, founder and CEO of Silo Kitchen, told Digital Trends. “That’s the easiest way to explain what we’ve created. We wanted to bring something new that would provide an enjoyable user experience, while letting people keep their food fresh for longer. It was also important to us that we empower people regarding what is that they have in their own kitchen.”

That goal of empowering people regarding what they have in their kitchen is where the “smart” bit of Silo comes into the picture. Along with being a vacuum box, Silo contains some impressive tech in the form of a built-in Alexa smart speaker. This allows users to automatically track food consumption and inventory, along with receiving spoilage notifications whenever your food is going to go to waste.

“There are lots of smart products out there which do not create benefits for the user,” Lapidot continued. “We actually debated in the office whether we should create a smart product, or a more basic version of Silo. In the end, we felt that we had achieved the right user experience to make this a smart product that people would love.”

As ever, we offer our usual warnings about the risks inherent in crowdfunding campaigns. Nonetheless, if you’re keen to go ahead you can visit the project page to join the other would-be customers who have so far pledged $362,801 (at time of writing) to bring Silo to vacuum-sealed life. Prices for the basic kit of two small containers and two medium containers starts at $175, although other sets are available. Shipping is set to begin in July 2019.

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What is antivirus software and how does it work?

Yui Mok – PA Images/GettyImages

You’ve probably been hearing about antivirus software as long as you’ve had a computer. It’s been a staple of almost every pre-built PCs since the early 90s, and if you ask your friendly, neighborhood ‘IT guy’ how to protect your system, invariably they’ll suggest you have some sort of antivirus solution in place. If you use best practices for staying safe online like not clicking on links or attachments in emails, not visiting dodgy websites, and sticking to curated app stores on your mobile devices, your antivirus may simply operate in the background not seeming to do much, even though it does.

But what is antivirus software, and how does it work? There are a number of definitions and depending on which company you go to for their security solution, their tactics for targeting malicious applications like viruses and ransomware can be quite different. Being well-versed in what these sorts of tools can do is the best way to make an informed choice about the best antivirus software for you or your small business.

What is antivirus?

Antivirus software, or as it’s more commonly known today, anti-malware software, is a tool that looks for applications that run on your PC (or smartphone) that shouldn’t be there. It uses a number of methods to differentiate between that Word document you’re editing and a nasty piece of software that’s going to throw up annoying pop up adverts or steal your bank details. It can even spot when otherwise legitimate applications have been hijacked by a virus.

Some antivirus software uses “live” protection to automatically block such viruses and malware from running at all, even stopping you visiting websites or opening emails that may have viruses attached to them. Others, known as remediation tools, offer scanning functionality only, and must be run in order to clean up a malware infection after it has taken hold.

When antivirus software finds a malicious program on your system it will typically offer options for quarantining it — making it unable to operate as intended — or delete it entirely. Although getting rid of them makes sure your system is cleaned from the infection, quarantining does have some benefit in that it makes it easier for the antivirus software companies to analyze the threat and potentially alter their antivirus solution to be more capable of defending against it in the future.

Do you need antivirus software?

Modern operating systems come with a number of built-in protections like firewalls or Windows Defender, to help prevent viruses from taking hold on your system. If you’re careful with how you use your devices and steer clear of links, attachments, and dodgy websites, or even operate on a virtual machine, then you may well be safe from most virus threats.

That said, there are threats out that even the most well-prepared PC or mobile user can’t prepare for. Sometimes legitimate download servers are hijacked and flaws in the Wi-Fi network you connect to could leave you vulnerable in other ways entirely. Having a robust antivirus solution that runs alongside all of the modern operating system and browser protections is a great first step in protecting yourself and your system. At worst, it provides peace of mind that you should be protected against nasty threats like ransomware, and at best, it halts those threats in their tracks should you stumble across them as you venture forth online.

You don’t always have to pay for it, as there are great free antivirus applications out there. However, we’d recommend you have at least one of them running on all your devices, just to make sure you at least have the basic protections in place.

Which antivirus should you choose?

Choosing the right antivirus is much like any other technological decision — it very much depends on you. There are tools that are great remediation scanners, others with plenty of preemptive protective measures, and some that do more than just block malware attacks. But there are some that are worth recommending over others to help you get started. After all, downloading just any old security software can sometimes put you at even greater risk.

Some of our favorite antivirus programs include the likes of BitDefender’s Antivirus Free Edition and Avast Free Antivirus. Out of the premium solutions, MalwareBytes is one of the best, offering protections against all sorts of threats, as well as active web protection to help you avoid dodgy websites entirely.

If you’re looking for the best Mac Antivirus, here are some of our favorites.

How does antivirus work?

Antivirus software has changed a lot over the years. While the earliest iterations of it were bespoke programs designed to specifically target individual viruses, today there are millions upon millions of different pieces of malicious software out there. To combat that ever-evolving threat, antivirus software has changed and expanded in scope. The best anti-malware solutions today use a combination of different tactics to help protect your PC and MacOS desktops, as well as your smart devices and networks.

Here are the three methods antivirus software most commonly use:

Signatures

The most tried, tested, and reactionary of the methods used to combat viruses and other malware, signature-based detection looks for the specific digital code of a virus and if it spots it, quarantines or deletes it. Think of it like a virus’ fingerprint. The upside to it is that once a virus has been identified it can be added to a signature database which is stored locally or in the cloud and then accessed when scanning a system for threats. The downside to it is that it’s not very useful for brand new threats. It requires at least one person or system to be attacked by the malicious software and identify it before everyone else can be protected against it.

With hundreds of thousands of new viruses being created every day, more is needed to keep modern systems safe. That’s why, although MalwareBytes’ free tool provides mere signature scanning, its premium versions do much more.

Behavioral detection

A more modern technique for tracking down known and unknown viruses and malware is behavioral detection. Instead of looking at what a piece of software is, behavior monitoring looks at what software does. The way a human might operate certain programs, or the operating system like Windows or MacOS may perform certain functions is quantifiable and relatively well-defined. Viruses and other malicious programs, however, tend to perform certain functions which aren’t typical of a user.

Malware might attempt to shut down or bypass anti-virus solutions on the system. It might try to make it so that it runs every time you startup your system without asking, or contact an external server to download other malicious software to your system. Behavioral analysis looks for software attempting to perform these functions and even at the potential for applications to perform them, once again quarantining or deleting them as they are detected.

Although there is greater potential for false positives with behavioral detection than signatures, it’s a crucial component in the antivirus puzzle. Ransomware attacks that encrypt files and demand payment to unlock them, require a very fast response and signatures alone would be unlikely to be able to stop it. Behavioral detection however, like that offered by BitDefender, can spot encryption and halt it in its tracks, even rolling back any encrypting it has done in some cases.

Machine learning

Teaching computers how to do something has always been difficult and time-consuming, but machine learning allows computers to teach themselves in a much more efficient manner. That’s exactly what machine learning in antivirus leverages in order to provide another important layer in modern anti-malware protections.

Antivirus software that uses machine learning can analyze the code of applications and decide based on its understanding of malicious and benign programs, whether that particular piece of software is dangerous or not. It’s effectively an artificial intelligence solution and when used in conjunction with other security protocols has proved extremely effective at combating threats new and old. In some cases, companies like Cylance are using it as their only antivirus solution, though most offer a more rounded toolset.

Machine learning does require internet connectivity so that it can leverage the power of cloud-connected databases of information which it then draws from to detect malicious software. However, it can evolve and adjust far quicker than the more human curated methods of antivirus protections and that helps keep the most modern solutions up to date with the ever-evolving threat landscape.

Editors’ Recommendations

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• Is your PC safe? Foreshadow is the security flaw Intel should have predicted

Common Google Pixel 3 problems and how to fix them

The Google Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL are arguably among the five best Android phones to date. They feature top-tier specs, stock Android software — and, of course, all the artificial intelligence Google can pack into them.

Of course, the devices aren’t perfect. Since the launch of the Google Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL, a few issues related to the phones have popped up — and they are issues that you might be experiencing too.

In case you have run into problems related to the Google Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL, we’ve put together this guide. Here’s everything you need to know about the Pixel 3 line’s problems, and how to fix them.

Problem: Photos aren’t saving

A number of users have reported that after taking a photo with the camera app, those photos aren’t saving — essentially meaning that the photo could be gone forever. That’s a pretty major problem, and one that seems to be pretty widespread too — a number of users on Reddit have reported running into it. The issue, in particular, seems to come up when you take a photo with the Google Camera app, then switch to another app or lock the phone immediately after taking the photo. In some situations, the photo will eventually appear again in the gallery, but that doesn’t seem to happen all the time.

The issue seems to be related to how the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL handle memory — which thankfully means that it could be fixed with a software update.

Potential solution:

• For now, the only way to prevent losing a photo is to keep the camera app open for a few seconds after taking the photo until it saves.
• It’s highly likely that Google is working on a software fix for the issue, and will release an Android update fixing the problem in the very near future. To check for an update, head to Settings > System > System Update, and make sure you have the latest version of Android.

Bug: Music app closes when you open the camera app

Other users have reported that opening the camera app while listening to music seems to cause the music app to close in the background — stopping the playback of the music. This is another bug that seems to be related to memory management on the Google Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL. We were able to replicate the problem, both with Spotify and with Google’s own YouTube Music.

Because the issue seems to be related to memory handling, it’s very likely we’ll see a software update fixing the issue in the near future. It’s possible the issue is actually the same problem causing photos not to save — and that it all comes down to issues with the Pixel 3 not handling its 4GB of memory well enough.

Potential solution:

• Unfortunately, the only real solution right now is to wait for a software update. To check for an update, head to Settings > System > System Update, and make sure you have the latest version of Android.

Issue: Phone is locked to Verizon

The Google Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL are Verizon-exclusive phones, basically meaning that Verizon is the only carrier in the U.S. with the right to sell the phones. Some users, however, have reported that the Pixel 3 from Best Buy was also locked to the Verizon network, meaning users couldn’t buy the phone and activate it on another network. Once the phone was activated on Verizon, it was then unlocked — meaning you could only then use it on another network.

Thankfully, it seems as though Verizon has, at least temporarily, unlocked the Pixel 3 completely. The unlocking was sent to Pixel 3 phones through a software update — so you should be able to set up your phone without a SIM card, update it, then activate it on whatever network you choose.

Potential solution:

• Set up your phone and then check for a software update. To check for an update, head to Settings > System > System Update, and make sure you have the latest version of Android. You should then be able to activate it on the network of your choice. Keep in mind, this issue mostly affects Best Buy customers — if you purchased your phone from Verizon, expect it to be locked again to Verizon’s network.
• If you haven’t yet bought the phone, buy it through the Google Store, which sells the phone completely unlocked.

We’ll update this article when we hear more about issues related to the Google Pixel 3 and how to fix them.

Editors’ Recommendations

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• The Google Pixel Stand turns your Android phone into an Assistant-powered hub

Are the Sony WH1000XM3 earpads replaceable?

Best answer: While you can remove and replace the earpads, Sony doesn’t offer replacement parts for the WH1000XM3. Until it does, we recommend filing a warranty exchange on your headphones instead.

Amazon: Sony WH1000XM3 ($348)

Why would I need to replace my earpads?

Bluetooth headphones are convenient because you can take them with you anywhere — whether it’s the coffee shop, the airport, or the train — and not have to worry about wires. The WH1000XM3’s active noise canceling makes it even better for use in loud environments, and Sony explicitly markets them as travelers’ headphones.

That kind of travel can lead to natural wear and tear, however, and it’s common for earpads on over-the-ear headphones to eventually begin to fray.

Damage isn’t the only reason to replace earpads. Particularly with Sony’s 1000X line, some customers have complaints about the overall comfort of their headphones, and seek out different earpads to change factors like sealing, driver distance, cushioning, and minimizing sweat.

What do I do when my earpads need replacing?

The earpads on the WH1000XM3 can be carefully removed from the headphones by placing a finger or two beneath the cushioned pad and dislodging the locking clips from the plastic retaining ring. Unfortunately, Sony doesn’t sell replacement earpads for the WH1000XM3 anywhere on its site or through online retailers, so your options for finding a new set of earpads are limited.

There are third-party replacement pads on Amazon, like this set from Geekria, but if you prefer to go through Sony directly for a solution, your best bet is to file a warranty exchange on the headphones, provided you’re still within coverage. While not entirely ideal, your headphones will be serviced with Sony parts, just as they came when you bought them.

Our pick

Sony WH1000XM3

$348 at Amazon

ANC all day.

Despite non-replaceable earpads, the WH1000XM3 headphones offer excellent noise canceling, great sound quality, and intuitive gesture controls, and you can recharge them through USB-C.

Skydio’s R1 Self-Flying 4K Camera Smart Drone has finally arrived at Amazon

No piloting skills? No problem.

We’re big fans of drones which new pilots can learn to fly easily, but Skydio’s R1 smart drone takes the game to a whole new level. This recently-released “self-driving camera” has been available since February at Skydio’s website and select Apple retail stores, but today marks the first time it’s landed at Amazon for purchase.

Using your Android device, or an iPhone or Apple Watch, you can choose a person or vehicle for the camera to begin tracking. Once enabled, the drone will follow the subject around with its on-board camera, taking 4K shots all on its own. You won’t need to be a pro pilot, and you won’t need a separate controller either. The R1 dodges obstacles on its own and even anticipates where the subject will move next so it can capture the best shot.

If you’re ready to add this awesome piece of gear to your photography toolkit, you can now purchase it via Amazon for its regular price of $1,999. You can learn more about its capabilities in iMore’s recent write-up regarding its new Apple Watch support.

See at Amazon

This new eBay feature makes it easy to sell your phone instantly

Sell what no longer serves you.

eBay just unrolled a new Instant Sell feature that makes it easier to get cash for your old phone without having to worry about any sort of hassle.

Similar to other reseller markets like Gazelle, you’ll need to fill in details about your old device. Things like condition, color, carrier, and storage size all play a part in the quote eBay will give you.

If your phone is eligible for Instant Selling, you’ll also need to upload a few different images of the device you’re getting rid of. Then, you’ll get an eBay voucher for the determined value. Print a shipping label, ship off your device, and start browsing eBay for the new goodies you’ll get. While this may not exactly be a cash voucher, it’s still nice since eBay sells basically everything on the planet.

Currently, Instant Selling eligibility is limited to Unlocked, Verizon, and AT&T phones. Samsung Galaxy S7 to S9+ and iPhone 6s 16GB to iPhone X devices are accepted. T-Mobile, Sprint, and Google Pixel as well as select LG products will be eligible starting in November. If your phone doesn’t meet those prerequisites, there’s always Gazelle.

See at eBay

Industry Group Representing Apple, Google, Amazon and Others Releases User Privacy Framework to Guide Policymakers

The Information Technology Industry Council (ITI), a technology lobbying group that represents companies like Apple, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and Facebook, and more, today released a framework for regulations to protect user privacy.

The ITI’s guidelines [PDF] are designed to provide information and guidance for policymakers both in the United States and abroad as they tackle the issue of data privacy online.

The purpose of this framework is to inform the development of legislation or the promulgation of rules that enhance personal data protection, further the trust relationship between companies and their customers, and enable innovation while also avoiding regulatory fragmentation that undermines all three goals.

Inspired by Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation and privacy protections put in place in other countries, the document suggests individuals should have full rights to control the use of their personal data, and is built on the following principles:

Enhance Transparency. The framework ensures individuals are informed when their personal data is collected or used so they have a better understanding of what they are or are not consenting to.

Increase Consumer Control. The framework gives individuals the right to expressly and affirmatively consent to the use of their sensitive personal data, and further allows individuals to access, correct, port, delete, and object to the use of their personal data where it is appropriate to the context of the use of such personal data.

Establish Company Accountability and Expands Responsibility. The framework lays out clear mechanisms for regulators to hold companies responsible for their data practices, including recommending subjecting companies in violation of a national privacy law to a meaningful penalty on the first offense. It also requires companies to identify, monitor and document uses of known personal data, and ensure all uses are legitimate as defined by that law.

Promotes Security. The framework mandates companies put into place comprehensive security programs that support and protect their operations, activities and the sensitive information they control.

The text of the document was drafted after “dozens” of meetings with outside groups and policymakers, as well as experts from some of the ITI’s member companies, ITI president Dean Garfield told Axios. He says that the framework goes “deeper” than other privacy proposals that have been developed.

The ITI is hoping the framework will serve as a model for governments worldwide and a “workable alternative” to a “patchwork of laws” that could ultimately lead to uncertainty over the protections that individual consumers are entitled to.

The ITI’s full document with a complete list of suggested guidelines for government reference can be viewed on its website.

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.
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Supermicro CEO Joins Cook in Calling for Bloomberg to Retract Supply Chain Hack Story

Last week, Apple CEO Tim Cook called on Bloomberg to retract a highly controversial story suggesting Chinese spies planted microchips in the Supermicro server motherboards used in Apple’s data facilities, saying there was no truth to Bloomberg’s claims.

Today, Supermicro Charles Liang joined Cook in calling for a retraction. In a statement shared by CNBC, Liang said that Supermicro has not found malicious hardware components in its products, nor has Bloomberg produced an affected Supermicro motherboard. Bloomberg, he says, should “act responsibly” and retract its “unsupported allegations.”

Liang’s full statement:

Supermicro is committed to making world-class servers and storage products. Bloomberg’s recent story has created unwarranted confusion and concern for our customers, and has caused our customers, and us, harm.

Bloomberg should act responsibly and retract its unsupported allegations that malicious hardware components were implanted on our motherboards during the manufacturing process.

The allegations imply there are a large number of affected motherboards. Bloomberg has not produced a single affected motherboard, we have seen no malicious hardware components in our products, no government agency has contacted us about malicious hardware components, and no customer has reported finding any malicious hardware components, either.

Supermicro, like Apple and other companies involved, has denied all of Bloomberg’s claims since the story was first released. Supermicro previously said it was not aware of any investigation nor any companies that had found illicit hardware in their Supermicro products.

Amazon Web Services CEO Andy Jassy also spoke out against Bloomberg today, saying that the story is “wrong about Amazon, too.” Like Cook, Jassy says Bloomberg at no point offered proof or listened to what Amazon had to say about the situation.

@tim_cook is right. Bloomberg story is wrong about Amazon, too. They offered no proof, story kept changing, and showed no interest in our answers unless we could validate their theories. Reporters got played or took liberties. Bloomberg should retract. https://t.co/RZzuUt9fBM

— Andy Jassy (@ajassy) October 22, 2018

Cook last week said that Apple “turned the company upside down” and dug “very deep” but could find absolutely no evidence that such an attack took place. “Each time we came back to the same conclusion: This did not happen,” said Cook. “There’s no truth to this.”

Since Bloomberg released its report, Apple has refuted the site’s claims in multiple clearly worded statements denying it happened. Bloomberg continues to stand by its original reporting, which, citing 17 sources, said Apple, Amazon, and other tech companies had purchased and installed Supermicro servers that had been tampered with by the Chinese government.

Along with Apple, Amazon, and Supermicro, multiple other sources have cast doubt on the information shared in Bloomberg’s story. The UK’s Cyber Security Agency, the Department of Homeland Security, former FBI general counsel James Baker, and NSA Senior Advisor Rob Joyce, for example, have all questioned the veracity of Bloomberg’s claims and have denied knowledge of such an investigation.

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Tags: China, The Big Hack
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Apple Stops Signing iOS 12 Following iOS 12.0.1 Launch

Following the release of iOS 12.0.1 on October 8, Apple has stopped signing iOS 12, the previous version of iOS that was available to consumers.

iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch owners who have upgraded to iOS 12 .0.1 will no longer be able to downgrade to the release version of iOS 12 . iOS 12 .0.1 introduced fixes for a Lightning charging issue and Wi-Fi problems, improving performance over iOS 12 .

Apple routinely stops signing older versions of software updates after new releases come out in order to encourage customers to keep their operating systems up to date.

iOS 12 .0.1 is now the only version of iOS that can be installed on iPhones and iPads by the general public. Developers and public beta testers can download iOS 12 .1, an iOS 12 update that’s being beta tested.
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Apple Identifies Issue With GasBuddy App Causing Some iPhones to Become Unresponsive

Apple has identified an “issue” with the GasBuddy app that may result in some iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, iPhone X, iPhone XS, and iPhone XS Max devices becoming “unresponsive,” according to an internal announcement shared with Apple Stores today. The memo was obtained by MacRumors from a reliable source.

Apple says affected iPhones will have a black screen with an endlessly spinning wheel—aka a respring loop. In its memo, Apple says it is working with GasBuddy to “resolve” the issue, which started “sometime after October 18, 2018.”

If a customer reports the issue at an Apple Store, Apple has instructed its Genius Bar employees to force restart the iPhone, and then ask the customer to uninstall the GasBuddy app. If the device is still unresponsive, Genius Bar employees are instructed to continue with the standard service process.

It’s unclear why the GasBuddy app is crashing some iPhones. A spokesperson for GasBuddy said its team “has been and continues to investigate,” and delayed further comment until the company has more insight about the matter. A spokesperson for Apple did not immediately respond to request for comment.

GasBuddy is a popular app for locating gas stations with the lowest-priced gas near you. The app, which claims to have 70 million users, relies on users submitting gas prices when they fill up to help alert others. GasBuddy also provides price hike alerts so that you can fill up before the increase.

According to GasBuddy’s release notes, the app was updated on October 17 with support for iOS 12. The update also “fixed some crashes.” On October 19, the app was again updated with bug fixes, including one that caused some location-based information to not appear on iOS 12 , and another with gas station details.

At some point between those updates, the issue causing some iPhones to become unresponsive began to occur, according to Apple’s memo.

MacRumors will update this article if and when we receive any new information from Apple or GasBuddy. In the meantime, if you have the GasBuddy app installed on your iPhone 8 or newer, it might be a good idea to uninstall it for now until this situation clears up. A software fix of some kind is likely on the horizon.

Related Roundups: iPhone 8, iPhone XSTag: GasBuddyBuyer’s Guide: iPhone XS (Buy Now)
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