MSI Net, Inc. & mCloudServ

The US Army awards $49.9M to autonomous truck startup Kodiak Robotics for self-driving vehicles for reconnaissance, surveillance, and other “high-risk” missions (Andrew J. Hawkins/The Verge)

Andrew J. Hawkins / The Verge: The US Army awards $49.9M to autonomous truck startup Kodiak Robotics for self-driving vehicles for reconnaissance, surveillance, and other “high-risk” missions — Kodiak Robotics, the autonomous truck startup, will receive $49.9 million to help the US Army develop self-driving vehicles …

A look at Tony Fadell’s new Ledger Stax crypto hardware wallet, manufactured by Foxconn for Ledger and available on December 6 for $279 (Steven Levy/Wired)

Steven Levy / Wired: A look at Tony Fadell’s new Ledger Stax crypto hardware wallet, manufactured by Foxconn for Ledger and available on December 6 for $279 — The product guru made Ledger’s new hardware wallet—a tiny vault for digital cash—flashy and fun. Plus, with this gadget you’ll never get FTX’d.

Amazon updates its Luna game streaming service to let users play Ubisoft PC games they own without the $17.99 per month subscription (Ben Schoon/9to5Google)

Ben Schoon / 9to5Google: Amazon updates its Luna game streaming service to let users play Ubisoft PC games they own without the $17.99 per month subscription — Amazon Luna is one of the better cloud gaming options if you play a lot of Ubisoft titles, and it’s getting a big upgrade this week.

Sources: EU privacy regulators rule that Meta’s TOS should not require that users agree to personalized ads based on their online activity; Meta can appeal (Sam Schechner/Wall Street Journal)

Sam Schechner / Wall Street Journal: Sources: EU privacy regulators rule that Meta’s TOS should not require that users agree to personalized ads based on their online activity; Meta can appeal — EU privacy regulators say Facebook, Instagram shouldn’t use their terms of service to require users to accept ads based on their digital activity

Sources: Amazon reaches a deal with the EU to end two antitrust investigations, increasing visibility of rivals’ products and adding offers for non-Prime orders (Javier Espinoza/Financial Times)

Javier Espinoza / Financial Times: Sources: Amazon reaches a deal with the EU to end two antitrust investigations, increasing visibility of rivals’ products and adding offers for non-Prime orders — Ecommerce group commits to increasing visibility of rivals’ products as part of settlement with Brussels

Snapchat partners with Adidas to launch a Bitmoji Fashion Drop, including an item users can only acquire with Snap Tokens, a first (Aisha Malik/TechCrunch)

Aisha Malik / TechCrunch: Snapchat partners with Adidas to launch a Bitmoji Fashion Drop, including an item users can only acquire with Snap Tokens, a first — Snapchat announced today that it’s partnering with Adidas to launch a new Bitmoji Fashion Drop, giving users access to exclusive merchandise.

This Low-Cost Test for Hearing Loss Lives on a Smartphone

Audiology screening can be inaccessible for kids in low-resource areas. By utilizing off-the-shelf products, these scientists are trying to change that.

A Good Fountain Pen—Like the Lamy 2000—Lets You Enjoy the Finer Things in Life

For everything from journaling to writing my wedding vows, the iconic Lamy 2000 has become my favorite literary accessory.

Elon Musk’s Neuralink is reportedly facing a federal probe on animal welfare grounds

A monkey in Neuralink’s in-house facility. | Image: Neuralink Neuralink, the brain implant company founded by Elon Musk, is reportedly facing a federal probe over the treatment of animals used in its experiments. Reuters reports that a probe was recently opened by the US Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) inspector general and focuses on potential violations

The Invasive Reach of ‘Digital-by-Default’ Immigration

The UK’s use of technology to enforce its hard-line immigration policy brings the border into every facet of migrants’ lives.

After criticism from users, ConsenSys revises MetaMask’s data collection policies, including stopping logging IP addresses alongside transaction data (Sam Kessler/CoinDesk)

Sam Kessler / CoinDesk: After criticism from users, ConsenSys revises MetaMask’s data collection policies, including stopping logging IP addresses alongside transaction data — ConsenSys clarified its data sharing practices and said it will rebuild MetaMaks’ settings page to address user concerns.

How a young generation of musicians are using TikTok, amassing huge followings but making little money, as some older musicians remain opposed to the platform (John Seabrook/New Yorker)

John Seabrook / New Yorker: How a young generation of musicians are using TikTok, amassing huge followings but making little money, as some older musicians remain opposed to the platform — The social-media platform is transforming the music industry. Is that a good thing? … In December, 2020 …

Apple Find My misuse saw a SWAT team descend on a 77-year-old grandmother for no reason

A Denver SWAT team descended on a 77-year-old grandmother because they thought a stolen truck and guns were hiding in her garage thanks to Apple’s Find My service and an overzealous police officer.

Clever Design Technique Makes Flexible PCB Fit for a Queen

Printed circuit boards can be square, round, octagonal, or whatever shape you desire. But there’s little choice when it comes to the third dimension: most PCBs are flat and rigid. Sure, you can make flexible PCBs like the kapton-backed ones you find inside electronic gadgets, but those are complicated to work with. As it turns

Beats Fit Pro vs. Studio Buds

Within one year, Apple has released two new noise-canceling earbuds. But is one earbud superior to the other? We’ll let you decide.

Singapore-based Osome, a “super app” for corporate services, raised a $25M Series B, after a $16M Series A in June 2021, and says 11K+ companies are its clients (Catherine Shu/TechCrunch)

Catherine Shu / TechCrunch: Singapore-based Osome, a “super app” for corporate services, raised a $25M Series B, after a $16M Series A in June 2021, and says 11K+ companies are its clients — Osome is a financial admin platform that helps business owners with administrative tasks like payroll, accounting and tax reporting.

Hong Kong officials and legislators criticize Google over a pro-democracy song, “Glory to Kong Kong”, appearing among the top results for the national anthem (Newley Purnell/Wall Street Journal)

Newley Purnell / Wall Street Journal: Hong Kong officials and legislators criticize Google over a pro-democracy song, “Glory to Kong Kong”, appearing among the top results for the national anthem — Officials and lawmakers call on company to alter its results page to show China’s national anthem instead of a song made popular by antigovernment

YouTube begins rolling out Twitch-like YouTube Emotes, available in the emoji picker across comment sections and live chats, initially focused on gaming (Tom Warren/The Verge)

Tom Warren / The Verge: YouTube begins rolling out Twitch-like YouTube Emotes, available in the emoji picker across comment sections and live chats, initially focused on gaming — YouTube is starting to roll out its own custom emotes. The Twitch-like emotes, dubbed YouTube Emotes, can be used across YouTube …

Israel-based NeuReality, which is developing cost-effective AI inferencing chips and software, raised a $35M Series A led by Samsung Ventures and others (Kyle Wiggers/TechCrunch)

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch: Israel-based NeuReality, which is developing cost-effective AI inferencing chips and software, raised a $35M Series A led by Samsung Ventures and others — The growing demand for AI, particularly generative AI (i.e., AI that generates images, text and more), is supercharging the AI inferencing chip market.

AI Helps Biotech Labs Generate the Building Blocks for New Drugs

(Image: Generate Biomedicines) Myotis daubentonii. (Credit: Generate Biomedicines)Proteins are an essential part of life. Not only do they function as the “building blocks” for living organisms, but they also perform nearly every cellular task, from waste management to tissue repair. It tracks, then, that pharmaceuticals often contain or “target” proteins in an attempt to change

Best note-taking apps for iPad and Apple Pencil 2022

Though sketching on your iPad with Apple Pencil is a joy to experience, it’s not the only reason to use both. Handwriting a note can bring the house down.

Tuesday’s top tech news: Apple’s DIY repair service comes to Europe

Europeans, this could soon be you. | Image: Apple And Meta faces off with regulators over news… again. Continue reading…

Complexity is the enemy of security

It’s a fact that most enterprises put security teams and tools in a silo. It drives me nuts when I see these bad habits carried over to cloud computing security. I covered this topic three years ago, and for the most part, it’s unchanged. Many of today’s security breaches are due to human error. A

10 common PostgreSQL mistakes and how to avoid them

A lot can go wrong with a PostgreSQL installation. Worse, many problems may lurk undetected as the issue builds over a period of time, then suddenly strike with a major impact that brings it to the forefront of everyone’s attention. Whether it’s a glaring drop in performance, or a dramatic rise in resource consumption and

Meta Oversight Board demands changes to ‘cross-check’ program that protected Donald Trump

Illustration: Nick Barclay / The Verge Meta’s Oversight Board has released an in-depth report on Facebook and Instagram’s controversial cross-check system, calling on Meta to make the program “radically” more transparent and beef up its resources. The semi-independent Oversight Board cited “several shortcomings” in cross-check, which provides a special moderation queue for high-profile public figures,

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