A tech journalist born in Ukraine and currently living in Amsterdam. Andrii has been writing about tech for some 10 years, moving from feature phone reviews to market analysis to startup ecosystems to technology in general. Outside of work, he's an ultimate frisbee player, boardgames hoarder, cat lover, and civil aviation enthusiast.
- Engadget
California bans default passwords on any internet-connected device
In less than two years, anything that can connect to the internet will come with a unique password — that is, if it's produced or sold in California. The "Information Privacy: Connected Devices" bill that comes into effect on January 1, 2020, effectively bans pre-installed and hard-coded default passwords. It only took the authorities about two weeks to approve the proposal made by the state senate.
- Engadget
Microsoft's latest Windows 10 update is reportedly wiping user data
Microsoft's latest Windows 10 update — referred to as the October Update or 1809 — may come with quite a few exciting new features, but could also wipe profiles with all the associated documents, music, pictures and other data. A number of reports detailing the issue have appeared on Reddit and Microsoft's support forums. Many of them apparently haven't been able to recover the deleted files.
- Engadget
Toyota recalls 2.4 million hybrids over stalling risk
Toyota is facing a fresh setback after having to deal with a long line of faults relating to its hybrid cars over the past few years. Some Toyota Prius or Auris cars manufactured between 2008 and 2014 could be at risk of stalling when entering a fail-safe driving mode. The Japanese carmaker is now recalling 1.25 million cars in Japan, 830,000 in North America and 290,000 in Europe in order to fix the issue.
- Engadget
Niantic plans 'Pokémon Go' events in US national parks
In addition to being a fun and entertaining pastime in its own right, augmented reality games have also proven to be a decent way to make players more physically active. Niantic, the developer of two of the most well-known AR games — Pokemon Go and Ingress, — is about to take this aspect further by encouraging players to visit nature trails and scenic rivers across the US. It's also planning to host a series of small-scale events in American national parks.
- Engadget
Rogue satellite startup gets the launch license it needed first time around
Sending things to space is a serious business that normally requires capital investments, rigorous preparations — and taking care of the paperwork. Earlier this year US startup Swarm circumvented the last part and sent a series of probes — so-called SpaceBEEs — into orbit despite being rejected for an FCC license. Although FCC is still looking at how to punish the rogue operator, it has just granted it a temporary license to send up a few more satellites.
- Engadget
Study: Fake Twitter accounts from 2016 US election are still active
Fake news had proven to be a big issue around the 2016 presidential election in the US, with major social platforms falling victims to misinformation-spreading actors. Twitter, in particular, made repeated announcements that it was cracking down on the problem by improving its ability to recognize fake accounts and shut them down. According to a study, however, a large number of suspected accounts could still be at large, posting millions of tweets that link to fake news.
- Engadget
'Twin Peaks VR' will take you inside the mind-bending Red Room
Not everyone who watched the original Twin Peaks series can remember much more than a woman with a log and something about owls, but the title inarguably made a dent in the popular culture. Now, after a handful of movies, novels released and a follow-up TV series in 2017, the iconic horror drama is returning as a VR game. Twin Peaks VR will take you to the Red Room, a surreal place from the original series where people talk backwards and a doppelganger can hunt you down. The title is produced by Collider Games and Showtime — which aired Twin Peaks: The Return in 2017 — together with original series creator David Lynch.
- Engadget
MoviePass' new funding means it isn't going anywhere just yet
The general opinion of MoviePass has gradually changed over the past year from seeing it as the salvation for movie-goers to waiting for it to shut down. The financially-troubled service has been through a lot of turbulence lately; once it offered a cinema ticket per day for a monthly fee but then had to retroactively switch to just three movies a month. It turns out, however, that the service will stay around a bit longer—that is, as long as the freshly raised $65 million in funding can sustain it.
- Engadget
Philips Hue now supports iOS 12's Siri Shortcuts
With the launch of iOS 12, iPhone owners were introduced to Siri's new Shortcuts feature that makes suggestions based on a user's routines. Numerous third-party apps — such as Pandora, Evernote and even Google News — already offer such integration, but one of the most eagerly anticipated platforms, Philips Hue, has been missing. Now, that wait is over — Philips Hue users with the latest version of the app received Shortcuts support today.
- Engadget
Neil Gaiman signs exclusive deal with Amazon Studios
Amazon Studios has signed an exclusive deal with Neil Gaiman, giving it first dibs on TV adaptations of the prolific author's work. Because Amazon operates its own streaming business, it means that all new series will be launched globally on Amazon Prime Video.
- Engadget
Engineer spends $6,000 invalidating Waymo's lidar patents
An engineer with no connection to the self-driving industry has spent $6,000 of his own money to stop Alphabet's self-driving car business Waymo from patenting key technology. Following a challenge filed by Eric Swildens, the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) rejected 53 out of 56 claims in Waymo's 936 patent. The reason for his action? He just "couldn't imagine the [lidar] circuit [described in the 936 patent] didn't exist prior," Ars Technica reported.
- Engadget
Verizon switches on 'world's first' commercial 5G network
Verizon has announced the start of its "First on 5G" program, which the company says is the world's first commercial fifth-generation network. The program is only live in parts of Houston, Indianapolis, Los Angeles and Sacramento for now.
- Engadget
There's a text adventure game hidden inside Google Search
We all love a good, elaborate Easter egg, and Google has gained a reputation for laying those around consistently over the years. The most recent one is an old-school text-based adventure game that you can play in the developer console of your browser.
- Engadget
Facebook and Sphero team up to offer coding robots to schools
Facebook has announced a new initiative that aims to teach coding skills to more school kids. Targeting primarily underrepresented student groups — such as Black, Latino/Hispanic, Native American and female demographics — CodeFWD will allow teachers to apply for a free set of 15 Sphero Bolt robots upon completion of a series of curricula.
- Engadget
Firefox Monitor will tell you when your passwords are compromised
After a few months of testing, Mozilla has launched its free Firefox Monitor service that notifies users when their credentials are stolen as part of a data breach. The website, which is essentially an external interface to Troy Hunt's Have I Been Pwned (HIBP) database, also allows users to sign up for notifications in case their email addresses are found in future breaches.
- Engadget
Google CEO Sundar Pichai will meet US officials to discuss censorship
Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google, will appear at a private meeting with Republican lawmakers on the Capitol Hill on Friday, September 28th, following recent allegations that the company had previously censored search results. In addition to that, Pichai is scheduled to attend a public hearing at a House Judiciary Committee in November after the midterm elections.
- Engadget
Google is quietly logging users into Chrome, but it's not all bad (updated)
Google has found itself under fire over a recent change the company made to the way users sign into its Chrome browser. Released in early September, Chrome 69 logs the user in automatically at the moment they sign in to any Google service. The change predictably led to a backlash from privacy-concerned members of the community. Matthew Green, a cryptographer and professor at John Hopkins University, published a lengthy blog post outlining why the change ultimately made him decide to part ways with Chrome.
- Engadget
Tokyo cafe to use robot waiters operated by people with physical disabilities
Japan is taking steps to fight social isolation by employing robots in as many aspects of life as possible. After introducing autonomous robots in various roles in a hospital and a number of nursing homes and schools, a cafe in Tokyo will soon open with robotic waiters controlled remotely by people with physical disabilities who wouldn't be able to work otherwise.