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Italian authorities confirmed that a journalist who was alerted by WhatsApp last year of a suspected spyware attack on his phone was indeed hacked. In a press release sent to journalists on Thursday, the public prosecutors’ offices in Rome and Naples, which are investigating the spyware scandal in the country, said that a technical report concluded that the phones of journalist Francesco Cancellato and of immigration activists Giuseppe Caccia and Luca Casarini all showed traces of having been infected with spyware in the “early hours” of December 14, 2024. “The execution of three consecutive attacks on the same night suggests…
Norton Antivirus is the only anti-virus software I’ve ever used, in part because many years ago I switched to Linux, which eliminates the need for antivirus software. If you’re still on macOS or Windows, though, Norton Antivirus is still a solid choice. None of these services is something anyone is excited to run, but they can save you bacon if you make a bad decision downloading questionable files or clicking links you shouldn’t have. The best way to stay protected without spending a fortune is to use a Norton coupon code to get yourself a deal.Today’s Norton Coupons: Up to…
Chinese automaker BYD unveiled a new battery pack Thursday that the company says is capable of charging from 10% to 70% in five minutes. Taking it to almost 100% takes about four minutes more. Recharge times like those would nullify concerns about electric vehicles’ charging times — one of the few places where internal combustion engines retain an advantage. Even in bitter cold weather (–4°F or –20°C), the pack can charge from 20% to 97% in under 12 minutes, according to BYD. The battery pack, known as the Blade Battery 2.0 system, is slated to debut in the Yangwang U7, a full-size…
Let’s bring in some experts. They’re going to tell us we’re comparing apples with oranges here when looking at the Neo and Ultra. “They serve very different purposes, very different audiences,” says Jitesh Ubrani, research manager at IDC. “You’re essentially talking about a health device versus a general-purpose computer, right? And so the prices shouldn’t be comparable, because they do very different things.”Told you. Thing is, I don’t think the average consumer cares about that. They do care about money, though. And they now see a bewildering price discrepancy between Apple products.Terry White, principal worldwide design and photography evangelist at…
Amazon is starting to roll out its redesigned Fire TV mobile app to customers, the company announced on Thursday. While you could previously only use the app as a backup remote, the updated experience lets you browse and discover content directly from your phone, manage your watchlist on the go, and play titles on your TV from the mobile app. “The updated app turns smartphones into a second screen for discovering what to watch next, making it easy to add a friend’s show recommendation to a watchlist even when away from home,” Amazon wrote in an email to TechCrunch. “This…
Every modern TV comes with some kind of smart interface, but a lot of users will opt to plug in a seperate streamer anyway for their preferred experience. If you were going to reach for a Roku anyway, you might check out the brand’s first-party screen offering, the Roku Pro Series QLED. The 55-inch model is currently on sale for $690 from Amazon, a $110 markdown from the usual price, with discounts available on the 65-inch and 75-inch versions as well.RokuPro Series QLED TV (2025)Just because it’s made by a streaming company doesn’t mean they cut corners. This mini-LED, QLED-powered…
How, and if, the Trump administration plans to regulate the export of semiconductors has remained unclear since Donald Trump took office last year. Now, we have an idea of what the administration is thinking. U.S. regulators have allegedly drafted rules that would require U.S. government approval to ship AI chips anywhere outside the U.S., according to Bloomberg, citing sources. This would give the U.S. significantly more control over companies like AMD and Nvidia. TechCrunch reached out to AMD and Nvidia for comment. A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Commerce provided the following: “The Commerce Department is committed to promoting…
After a tenure marked by controversy and a contentious week of Congressional hearings, secretary Kristi Noem is out as head of the Department of Homeland Security.President Donald Trump announced in a Truth Social post on Thursday that Noem would be replaced by Senator Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma, a staunch Trump ally and immigration hard-liner. “The current Secretary, Kristi Noem, who has served us well, and has had numerous and spectacular results (especially on the Border!), will be moving to be Special Envoy for The Shield of the Americas, our new Security Initiative in the Western Hemisphere we are announcing on…
Dario Amodei said Thursday that Anthropic plans to challenge the Defense Department’s decision to label the AI firm a supply chain risk in court, a designation he has called “legally unsound.” The statement comes a few hours after the Department officially designated Anthropic a supply chain risk following a weeks-long dispute over how much control the military should have over AI systems. A supply chain risk designation can bar a company from working with the Pentagon and its contractors. Amodei drew a firm line that Anthropic’s AI should not be used for mass surveillance of Americans or for fully autonomous…
Though most people associate the beginning of March with the hopefulness of spring and the indignities of daylight saving time, there’s another important event taking place in yards all over the country: hummingbird season.While many species of hummingbirds can be seen in regions year-round, others are migratory, and this time typically marks their return from wintering grounds in Central and South America. These tiny birds can lose up to 40 percent of their body weight after having flown thousands of miles, and since many flowers haven’t bloomed yet, nectar feeders can be a source of essential fuel.Though I test smart…
Amazon Web Services announced Thursday the launch of Amazon Connect Health. This AI agent-powered platform is meant to help healthcare organizations automate repetitive administrative tasks, including appointment scheduling, documentation, and patient verification, among other things. Amazon Connect Health is HIPAA-eligible and connects with electronic health record (EHR) software. The platform is currently partnered with EHR software providers, data integrators, and patient engagement companies, the company said. This move is not the cloud giant’s first in the healthcare space, and it comes at a time when AWS is increasingly looking to grow its footprint in the $5 trillion U.S. healthcare industry.…
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is still in the hot seat this week after his company signed a deal with the US military. OpenAI employees have criticized the move, which came after Anthropic’s roughly $200 million contract with the Pentagon imploded, and asked Altman to release more information about the agreement. Altman admitted it looked “sloppy” in a social media post.While this incident has become a major news story, it may just be the latest and most public example of OpenAI creating vague policies around how the US military can access its AI.In 2023, OpenAI’s usage policy explicitly banned the military…
Brands and agencies have no shortage of AI tools for creative tasks—what they lack is cohesion. Creative teams often jump between image generators, video tools and language models, stitching outputs together manually and coordinating across departments. That patchwork process is what Luma AI says it wants to fix.The Palo Alto–based company, founded in 2021, is launching a new category of end-to-end “creative agents” designed to coordinate and execute professional creative work across text, image, video and audio.Luma spent its first three years building native 3D, image and video models. Now, the company is developing unified systems that work across modalities,…
A typical merger-and-acquisition process is time-consuming and expensive, even for the largest, well-staffed private equity firms. In addition to spending countless hours meeting with senior executives of potential targets and modeling financial outcomes, these groups spend millions of dollars on external advisers: accountants, lawyers, and management consultants. Since expenses for external advisers are not reimbursed if a deal falls through, PE firms wait until they are certain of their interest before engaging costly specialists such as consultants from McKinsey, BCG, or Bain to perform extensive commercial research on the market and the target company. DiligenceSquared, a startup that was part…
Zoë Schiffer: Emil Michael, you should turn off your views on LinkedIn because people can see when they look at your phone.Brian Barrett: Yeah, that’s a tip for Emil Michael if you’re listening. And then, if you listen to Uncanny Valley, which you should.Leah Feiger: And this is really the Trump official that’s kind of leading the war against Anthropic here. He has these deep ties to the tech world and he’s the Pentagon’s public enemy number one of anyone who’s trying to cross the Pentagon. So the fact that, one, he has not maybe the best op sec in…
Key Takeaways: The Big Game is still as important as ever, but real results are measured after the game ends. Celebrity matters, but authenticity is stronger than star power. The emotion of live sports allows for a deeper connection with audiences. The Super Bowl is a cultural event that marketers have been using to reach consumers for decades. But as the advertising landscape continues to fragment, audibles must be called. During an ADWEEK House: The Big Game group chat, industry leaders gathered to discuss the continued relevance—and evolving strategies—of advertising during the sporting event.A powerful launchpadThe marketers on the panel agreed…