Twitter asks users to change passwords after bug exposed them on internal log

The bug in Twitter’s hashing process has since been fixed.

Twitter today asked all of its users to consider changing their passwords after discovering a bug that caused them to be stored “unmasked in an internal log.”

According to Twitter, the bug has been corrected and it has seen “no indication of breach or misuse by anyone” after an investigation.

We recently found a bug that stored passwords unmasked in an internal log. We fixed the bug and have no indication of a breach or misuse by anyone. As a precaution, consider changing your password on all services where you’ve used this password. https://t.co/RyEDvQOTaZ

— Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) May 3, 2018

The bug itself is related to the hashing function Twitter uses to mask passwords. Twitter says passwords were written to an internal log before the hashing process was completed, leaving them exposed. From Twitter:

We mask passwords through a process called hashing using a function known as bcrypt, which replaces the actual password with a random set of numbers and letters that are stored in Twitter’s system. This allows our systems to validate your account credentials without revealing your password. This is an industry standard.

Due to a bug, passwords were written to an internal log before completing the hashing process. We found this error ourselves, removed the passwords, and are implementing plans to prevent this bug from happening again.

Out of caution, Twitter users should reset their password for the service, as well as those for any services using the same password. Now would also be a good time to start using two-factor authentication if you aren’t already.

Video Game Hall of Fame inducts ‘Tomb Raider’ and ‘Final Fantasy VII’

The Strong museum has announced this year’s inductees to the World Video Game Hall of Fame — Spacewar!, John Madden Football, Tomb Raider and Final Fantasy VII. They were selected from 12 finalists that also included Asteroids, Call of Duty, Dance Dance Revolution, Half-Life, King’s Quest, Metroid, Minecraft and Ms. Pac-Man. “The four inductees span multiple decades, countries of origin, and gaming platforms, but all have significantly affected the video game industry, popular culture, and society in general,” said The Strong museum in a statement. Tomb Raider and Final Fantasy VII were finalists last year.

The four inductees will be featured in a permanent display at the museum. Nominees are judged on how widely they are recognized and remembered, if they’ve enjoyed long-term popularity, whether they’ve had an international impact and, most importantly, that they’ve had a significant influence on the design and development of other video games, popular culture in general or on other forms of entertainment. Journalists, scholars and other video game experts make the final selections.

Via: VentureBeat

Source: The Strong

Microsoft is fixing a Windows 10 bug that causes Chrome to freeze

Since the Windows 10 April update, some users have been dealing with frozen systems when they’re running apps including Chrome or using the “Hey, Cortana” command. The good news is Microsoft’s working on a fix, which may be ready in time for next week’s scheduled patch.

The monthly Windows 10 updates typically include new features, like the recent Timeline activity log, and seek to squash bugs, such as the Meltdown and Spectre vulnerabilities Microsoft added defenses for in March. Sometimes, as with the update Microsoft rolled out on April 30th, the patches unintentionally add more problems.

Until it can deploy a fix for the Chrome bug, Microsoft suggested those whose systems are locking up can try a workaround key sequence. If you have a keyboard, simultaneously pressing the Windows logo key, Ctrl, Shift and B might help, as that resets the graphics driver. Tablet users can try the pushing the volume up and down buttons together three times within 2 seconds. If you have a laptop, you might be able to unfreeze your system by closing and opening the lid.

Microsoft delayed the April patch over Blue Screen of Death issues, so while the May update is set for the 8th, Microsoft could push it back to make sure it fixes the freezing bug. Chrome has 62 percent of browser market share on desktops, according to Net Market Share, so even if they don’t use “Hey, Cortana,” a majority of Windows 10 users are at risk.

Via: The Verge

Source: Microsoft

Atmospheric harvesters will enable arid nations to drink from thin air

As climate change continues to wreak havoc upon the Earth’s weather patterns, formerly lush locales like the American West are finding themselves increasingly parched. Perhaps nowhere is that abrupt arridization more pronounced than in Cape Town, South Africa. Since 2015, the region has suffered severe droughts and the coastal capital of 4 million people has struggled to maintain a steady municipal water supply.

Cape Town narrowly avoided Day Zero earlier this year, when the city’s taps were projected to run dry, but the city is expected to face another critical shortage in 2019. The situation has become so dire that officials are seriously considering importing icebergs to augment the water supply. But why try to tow 70,000 tons of ice 1,200 miles up from Antartica when modern technology can suck the humidity we need out of thin air?

Pulling potable water from the atmosphere goes back to the days of the Incas, who captured and collected dew from “fog fences.” And why wouldn’t they. Earth’s atmosphere contains an estimated 13 trillion liters of water vapor at any given time — that’s the equivalent to 10 percent of all of the planet’s available surface freshwater. Of course, the process of collecting morning dew for a pre-industrial society exists on a completely different scale than what will be needed to quench the thirst of the 4 billion or so people who will be impacted by water shortages in the coming years.

But just because the challenge is daunting doesn’t mean it’s impossible. A number of researchers and private companies are developing the next generation of atmospheric water harvesting devices. The current state-of-the-art dew-harvesting refrigeration-based machines operate by lowering the temperature of the surrounding air below the dew point and then collecting the vapor. Unfortunately, as the relative humidity drops below 50 percent, the efficiency of these machines nosedives too, requiring untenable amounts of electrical power to operate the refrigeration units.

However a newly developed sorbent-based alternative has recently shown that it can harvest atmospheric moisture even when the relative humidity drops to around 10 percent. Under those conditions, that works out to around three liters of water for every million liters of air. If you were to try to harvest that using dewing technology, you’d have to drop the air temperature to below freezing. Once that happens, it “becomes technologically infeasible because you have to first unfreeze the water,” Dr. Evelyn Wang, a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at MIT who helped construct the test device, told Engadget. “The advantage of the work that we’re doing is the fact that you can in fact operate efficiently the system at low humidity conditions.”

Created by a collaborative team from MIT and UC Berkeley, this proof of concept device uses a metal-organic framework (MOFs), a material invented in the 1990s by UC Berkeley chemistry professor Omar Yaghi. Depending on the metal and organic molecules used, chemists can control what gases will bind to the MOF and how strong those connections will be.

Yaghi’s team has developed more than 20,000 types of MOF in the past two decades, one of which bound to methane and has been considered for use in the fuel tanks of natural gas-powered vehicles. In this case, however, the research team used a variant dubbed MOF-801 — Zr6O4(OH)4(fumarate)6 — which had previously shown itself to collect more water and need smaller temperature swings to work than conventional sorbents like zeolite or silica gel.

Rather than being powered by an electrical grid, the MOF device designed by Wang’s team only requires a heat source to separate water molecules from the MOF’s organic bits. “[The heat source] can be that of the sun, it could be other sources as well,” Wang explained. “What we anticipate is pretty much a passive system.”

The device itself is a simple design with two main parts: the absorption layer (aka the MOF) and an enclosed, an air-cooled condenser. The backside of the MOF is painted black, to operate as a solar absorber.

At night, the enclosure walls are opened to enable airflow past the MOF and it becomes saturated with vapor. Once morning rolls around, the enclosure is buttoned up and the black side of the MOF is covered with an “optically transparent thermal insulator” (OTTI). When the MOF is exposed to sunlight, it heats up, causing its organic molecules to release their hold on their water molecules, which condense at ambient temperature for collection.

Last year, the team set up the MOF device atop a roof on the University of Arizona campus, where the relative humidity during the day drops to as low as 10 percent but climbs to an average of 30 percent at night. Using just 3g of MOF, the team extracted about .75g of water — not enough to quench your thirst but plenty to validate the team’s modelling predictions.

“A lot of the tailoring of the MOFs is important because there are other types of material that can absorb water,” Wang explained. “The key here is that it’s not just the amount of water you absorb, but also the amount you can release via low-grade heat sources.”

The MOF device is still in its early prototype stage, though Dr. Wang does expect to have a commercially viable iteration capable of providing the daily needs for a family of four available within 3 to 5 years. She envisions this technology being used as a primary source of drinking water in the developing world and remote locations where there is no water infrastructure but could also be employed in urban settings, much like home solar panels are used today.

But before that can happen, Dr. Wang cites a couple challenges that must be addressed, “MOFs are really compelling in terms of the performance but right now the scalability to larger volumes is limited for certain types and the cost is also pretty high.”

Dr. Wang’s team is far from the only outfit working to collect water from cloudless skies. The US EPA recently signed a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement with Israel-based Water-Gen. The company’s “GENius” technology has been around since 2014 and works much like a standard air conditioner, except that it produces potable water. Unfortunately, for it to generate 2 liters per hour, each half-meter of structural material has to be exposed to air with a relative humidity of 60 percent.

Similarly, the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) agreed earlier this week to purchase 150 solar-powered harvesters from Arizona’s Zero Mass Water. These 300-pound devices rely on a 32 square foot solar panel to power a small fan which pushes ambient air past the company’s proprietary hygroscopic material for capture. The water then filters down into a 30 liter reservoir. Depending on the relative humidity, these machines can collect between four and 10 liters of water daily. And unlike Water-Gen’s technology, Zero Mass’ devices operate with humidity levels as low as 10 percent.

It remains unlikely that atmospheric water generation will be the magic bullet to solving the Earth’s growing potable water shortage issues. But combined with other evolving technologies such as oceanic desalinization, humanity may just be able to continue slaking the thirst of an increasingly populated and parched planet.

Images: UC Berkeley and Berkeley Lab (MOF structure); Nature Communications (harvest process)

Google adds more Assistant features to Wear OS

Google brought its AI assistant to Android Wear 2.0 last year, and has been adding features like Routines and Custom Device Actions ever since. Now the company is bringing a few new features to Assistant on Wear OS (as it’s now called), including contextually aware conversation suggestions, auditory answers to your questions and actions for connected devices.

You can already tell Google Assistant to control your smart home devices like, say, setting the temperature of your LG fridge. Now this feature is coming to your Wear OS device, too, which means you’ll get to talk to you wrist to set your thermostat or turn on the Hue lights in your bedroom. Hearing the answer to a question via your watch speaker or Bluetooth-connected headphones can be more convenient than having to lift your wrist to see a visual response, too, and pre-set response suggestions will offer up things you might not think of when asking Assistant for the weather, for example. All these features will roll out to Wear OS devices over the next several days, so keep an eye out for an update.

Source: Google

New ‘Overwatch’ map brings the battle to Italy’s canals

Last month, players of Blizzard’s hero shooter Overwatch took a trip into the game’s fictional past with a new temporary game mode, Retribution. The brawl portrayed heroes escaping through the streets of Venice after a clandestine mission gone wrong. Though the event ended on Tuesday, players can still roam (and fight) around gorgeous Italian canalways as the latest map, Rialto, is added to the game — along with a few hero changes in the latest patch.

Half a dozen heroes are getting tweaked in the patch, but all are minor ability changes except Hanzo. The nimble archer gets his first big rework, swapping out his super-lethal scatter arrow for a fast-firing ability (“Storm Arrow”) that lets him quickly spit out up to six shots. Also, his double-jump is now a vertical lunge, differentiating him even more from his shuriken-tossing brother Genji.

Rialto is the game’s fourth escort map, but unlike the nighttime version seen in Retribution, players will cavort around the serene Italian city during the day. Clearly, some pros are pretty excited about getting a new arena to compete in.

😘 pic.twitter.com/mzq4zq5VBg

— London Spitfire (@Spitfire) May 2, 2018

Source: Overwatch patch notes – May 3, 2018

Samsung’s new camera sensor plays nice with phones besides the Galaxy S

Today, Samsung announced that the 16-megapixel ISCOCELL Slim 3P9 image sensor is now available. This image sensor is designed for cameras on mobile devices; because of its Tetracell technology, this 1.0μm sensor can work as a 2.0μm in front-facing cameras. It allows for better pictures in low-light environments.

The 3P9 also delivers faster autofocusing with advanced phase detection auto-focus (PDAF). A gyro-synchronizer helps stabilize images by comparing the frame exposure time via the sensor with data on camera movement.

Samsung also offers a Plug and Play solution for the ISOCELL as a rear camera sensor in mobile devices. “The ISOCELL Plug and Play solution will help reduce time-to-market for set makers and offer a quality-assured camera solution to end-users,” said Ben K. Hur, Samsung’s vice president of System LSI marketing. This allows manufacturers to easily plug this sensor into their device, made up of components from different providers, rather spending months developing a solution to integrate the sensor.

Samsung has certainly been making solid camera tech recently (the S9 comes to mind), so it’s great that the ISOCELL will now be available for other manufacturers in a convenient solution. It’s worth keeping an eye on areas like camera sensors, because this is a big part of Samsung’s overall business.

Source: Samsung

Toyota will test risky self-driving scenarios at a Michigan track

It’s not enough to test self-driving cars in realistic conditions — if they’re going to avoid crashes, they need to handle nightmare scenarios. Toyota is about to address that. It’s building a closed test facility at Michigan Technical Resource Park (below) that will pit autonomous cars against “edge case” scenarios that will challenge the technology’s limits. It’s planning to subject vehicles to clogged urban landscapes, slick roads and even a four-lane highway with fast entrance and exit ramps.

The facility will sit inside the park’s existing oval track, and should enter service by October.

The results of the testing won’t be available for sometime, but they could prove to be vital whenever they do arrive. Developers are determined to avoid another fatal self-driving car crash for as long as possible, and that means producing autonomous systems that are ready for life-threatening situations. Driverless cars may eventually go without manual controls, for that matter. If those hands-off vehicles are going to be truly trustworthy, they’ll need to deal with dangerous situations.

Via: The Verge

Source: Toyota

Instagram shopping is about to get dangerously easy

Last year, Instagram revealed an upcoming appointment-booking feature, another step towards the company’s larger plans of becoming a shopping service of sorts. Now TechCrunch reports that the photo-sharing service is quietly adding an electronic payment option for some users, something not mentioned with the previous appointments feature.

Instagram confirmed with TechCrunch that payments for booking appointments for restaurants or salons is currently live “for a limited set of partners.” The site notes that dinner reservation app Resy has clients whose Instagram Pages offer native payments for booking a table. Instagram also told TechCrunch that users can look forward to buying things like movie tickets in the future. The feature is different from shopping tags, a feature Instagram added in 2016 that pulls up a retailer’s website when you tap through a photo of a product you want to purchase. Given Instagram’s emphasis on shopping, it’s easy to see native payments being used for even more things in the future.

Update 5/3/18 4:21 PM ET: This post has been updated to clarify when the appointment system was first introduced; it was last year, not last month.

Source: TechCrunch

Wirecutter’s best deals: Save $70 on Samsung’s SmartThings Home Monitoring kit

This post was done in partnership with Wirecutter. When readers choose to buy Wirecutter’s independently chosen editorial picks, it may earn affiliate commissions that support its work. Read their continuously updated list of deals here.

Logitech Harmony 650 Universal Remote Control

Street price: $50; Deal price: $33

At $33, this is the lowest price we’ve seen for a non-refurb model of the Logitech Harmony 650 universal remote, our longtime top pick in our guide to the best universal remote. This model still regularly sees pricing around $50, so this is a solid bargain for it. If you’ve been looking for a simple-to-use but capable universal remote setup for IR devices, this is a great option.

The Logitech Harmony 650 is our top pick in our guide to the best universal remote control. Darryl Wilkinson and Grant Clauser wrote, “If you’re looking for an easy-to-use universal remote to control up to eight devices, we recommend the Logitech Harmony 650. It’s the best option for most people looking to simplify the operation of their home theater or media system. It’s easier to program than any non-Harmony remote. Its backlit hard-button layout makes it simple to use, even in the dark, and it’s way cheaper than other systems that are equally comprehensive.”

Samsung SmartThings Home Monitoring Kit

Street price: $200; Deal price: $130

At $130, this is one of the lowest prices we’ve seen for the Samsung SmartThings Home Monitoring Kit. This kit, which includes a smart outlet, a motion sensor, two window sensors, and a control hub is an option we like in our guide to the best smart hub, especially for those who don’t want to pull a system together piecemeal.

The Samsung SmartThings Hub is our top pick in our guide to the best smart hub. Jon Chase wrote, “After researching more than 20 smart hubs—the brains that let all of your smart-home devices work together—and then living with a half-dozen of them for a few months while putting them through their paces with an array of smart locks, thermostats, room sensors, switches, lights, and more, we think that the Samsung SmartThings Hub is the best hub for most people who want to buy right now. It’s competitively priced, is compatible with a large number of third-party devices, and supports most of the major wireless protocols relied on by smart devices.”

Of the SmartThings Home Monitoring Kit here, Chase wrote, “…the Home Monitoring Kit, a starter kit that includes a selection of sensors for a lightweight home security/monitoring system, is also a worthy option…”

Crucial MX500 500GB SSD

Street price: $130; Deal price: $115

This is the lowest price we’ve seen so far at just $115 for the 500GB SATA 2.5 Inch version of this SSD. The Crucial MX500 500GB SSD is our top pick in our guide to the best SSDs. This drive, released at around $135, has seen its price drop steadily, typical of SSDs, but still offers tremendous value at this price and we expect to see it go back up. The 256GB is also down to a new low at $70.

The Crucial MX500 500GB SSD is our top pick in our guide to the best SSDs. Andrew Cunningham wrote, “The Crucial MX500 is just a little slower than Samsung’s more expensive SATA SSDs in most benchmarks, but most people wouldn’t notice the difference. It’s as good as or better than the rest of the competition, and it performs better when full or near-full than its predecessor, the MX300. It supports full-disk encryption, and Crucial offers a five-year warranty on the drive for more peace of mind (three years is typical). A 2.5-inch version is available now and an M.2 SATA version will be available soon. And even though it’s a brand-new model, it still sells for significantly less than Samsung’s SSDs.”

Instant Pot Ultra 6 Quart

Street price: $150; Deal price: $110

At $110, this is the lowest price we’ve seen for the Instant Pot Ultra 6 Quart and drops this upgraded model into the price range of our top pick. Usually $150, the Ultra 6 Quart is a tremendous bargain at this price. It offers a more advanced display and even more cooking options (including low temp sous vide!) than our top pick.

The Instant Pot Ultra 6 Quart is our upgrade pick in our guide to the best pressure cooker. Lesley Stockton wrote, “If you want a nicer electric pressure cooker with more functionality, we recommend the 6-quart Instant Pot Ultra. With a dial and a large LCD screen rather than a bunch of buttons, Its interface is more streamlined than that of the Instant Pot IP-DUO60. It also has more options, including low-temperature sous vide and a warming function that keeps food at a specified temperature for up to almost 100 hours. If you live above 3,000 feet, you’ll likely appreciate the altitude-adjust function, which allows you to enter your elevation so that the machine can adjust cooking time and temperature accordingly. The Ultra offers more functionality than the Breville Fast Slow Pro at less than two-thirds the price.”

Because great deals don’t just happen on Thursday, sign up for our daily deals email and we’ll send you the best deals we find every weekday. Also, deals change all the time, and some of these may have expired. To see an updated list of current deals, please go here.