An old version of Peloton’s API, the software that allows the company’s bikes and recalled treadmills to communicate with its servers, may have exposed private customer profiles, according to a report from TechCrunch. The bug was first spotted by Jan Masters, a security researcher at Pen Test Partners, and reported to Peloton on January 20th, but the company is only just now confirming that the bug has been fixed.
Using Peloton’s API, Masters was able to scrape all sorts of customer information that would typically be private, depending on the individual user’s settings. That includes customer profiles, which can potentially feature their age, location, birthday, and workout history. All Masters had to do was make an unauthenticated request to Peloton’s API and customer data was his. Masters has a more thorough explanation of how the exploit worked on Pen Test Partners’ blog and also summarized his findings in the video below:
After reporting the bug to Peloton, Masters set a 90-day deadline to address the issue. That deadline came and went without Peloton saying whether the API was fixed, which prompted Masters to turn to TechCrunch. Peloton finally responded and shared the following statement with the publication:
It’s a priority for Peloton to keep our platform secure and we’re always looking to improve our approach and process for working with the external security community. Through our Coordinated Vulnerability Disclosure program, a security researcher informed us that he was able to access our API and see information that’s available on a Peloton profile. We took action, and addressed the issues based on his initial submissions, but we were slow to update the researcher about our remediation efforts. Going forward, we will do better to work collaboratively with the security research community and respond more promptly when vulnerabilities are reported. We want to thank Ken Munro for submitting his reports through our CVD program and for being open to working with us to resolve these issues.
The screens on Peloton’s bikes and treadmills are what make the company’s workout ways so compelling. It’s how subscribers attend classes, track their workouts, and even do other non-bike or treadmill exercises. It’s a feature that Peloton charges $39 per month for an all-access membership to. Yet, like all connected devices, particularly fitness ones, it can leave private customer information more vulnerable than a non-connected stationary bike would.
Masters writes that Peloton apologized and said it resolved a majority of the API issues within a week of his report. What’s not immediately clear is if anyone other than Masters gained access to customer data while the API was in a leaky state.
When The Verge followed up to check, Peloton said it had nothing new to share that it hadn’t already provided TechCrunch and Pen Test Partners. The company also reiterated it responded to the API issue immediately.
In 2020, Microsoft was battling to bring xCloud or Xbox Game Streaming to the iPhone and iPad, and the conversations had an unlikely victim: Shadow — a third-party cloud gaming app that lets you stream PC games to an iPhone or iPad.
Emails between Microsoft and Apple, revealed in the Epic v. Apple trial today, show how the Xbox maker was trying to get xCloud on iOS. Microsoft was trying to figure out how Shadow, Netflix, and other similar “interactive” apps were able to exist in the App Store while Apple was refusing to approve xCloud. Microsoft put forward Shadow as an example of such a service, only to see it suddenly removed from the store.
“We were showing two examples where a game or an application was able to exist, and we didn’t understand why we couldn’t,” explained Lori Wright, Microsoft’s head of business development for Xbox, during the Epic v. Apple trial today. “I believe they [Apple] ended up pulling Shadow out of the App Store based off this email we sent until they submitted changes. That was not our intention of course, it was a byproduct.”
Shadow on iPhone.Image: Shadow
While Shadow’s removal wasn’t permanent, Apple has temporarily removed the app from the App Store twice in the past year. Shadow was first removed in February last year, with Apple reportedly citing a “failure to act in accordance with a specific part of the Apple App Store Guidelines.” Apple once again removed Shadow from the App Store in February, and the app returned a week later.
Shadow revealed that the app was removed the second time “due to a misunderstanding” around the nature of the app. “Unlike game streaming services, Shadow provides a full Windows 10 PC, rather than a library of games,” explained Luc Hancock, a community manager for Shadow. “This unique approach allows Shadow to comply with the App Store guidelines, so that you can access your Shadow PC on any iOS device to run your favorite games and software.”
Valve struggled for more than a year to launch its Steam Link game streaming service on iOS. Apple rejected the app, likely because it allowed an iOS user to access another app store, Steam, within Apple’s tightly controlled ecosystem. Apple revised its rules after rejecting Steam Link, and the app was finally approved two years ago in May 2019.
xCloud on iOS via the web.Photo by Tom Warren / The Verge
Apple continued to make it difficult for services like xCloud and Stadia to run the way Microsoft and Google wanted to on iOS devices after those conversations, only slowly making App Store policy carve-outs that would let the services operate under severe restrictions. Apple now insists that developers individually submit games as separate apps using their streaming tech, only then bundling them together as a “catalog”-style app.
Microsoft wasn’t impressed with Apple’s approach, calling it a “bad experience for customers.” This public spat has now boiled over into the courtroom battle between Epic Games and Apple, with lawyers on Epic’s side questioning Microsoft and Nvidia representatives about their struggles to bring cloud gaming apps to iOS.
Both Microsoft and Nvidia have had to give in to Apple’s restrictions and launch their cloud gaming services through the Safari web browser instead.
The Anker PowerConf C300 is a consistent strong performer across lighting conditions, with a bevy of genuinely useful features that help make up for some stumbles in presentation.
For
+ Consistent image quality
+ Bonus features work well
+ Lots of value
Against
– Detachable camera shutter feels cheap
– Laggy Software
Anker’s new $130 PowerConf C300 webcam is part of a new initiative from the charger company to break into productivity gear. Labeled under the Anker Work brand, this camera is clearly aimed at professionals looking to buy the best webcams for video conferences. That means it packs a detailed 1080p sensor with multiple field of view options including 78 degrees, 90 degrees and 115 degrees, plus plenty of advanced features like AI framing, HDR and 60 FPS recording.
That’s a level of customizability that’s usually reserved for more expensive, enthusiast shooters like the Razer Kiyo Pro. But while the Anker’s visual fidelity didn’t quite live up to those $200 Kiyo Pro’s, probably because it doesn’t have the Kiyo’s powerful sensor, its strong suite of features still make a strong argument for spending slightly more on it than you would on a more casual but proven camera like the Logitech C920.
Regarding those features, the Anker PowerConf C300 comes with 4 shooting modes, including Personal, Meeting, Streaming and Custom. Personal and Meeting modes both use a “flexible angle” that adjusts the field of view and image framing based on your head movement and placement, although the former tends to be more zoomed-in while the latter is more zoomed out. Streaming mode, meanwhile, locks the camera at a 90-degree field of view and turns on 60 fps recording, while custom mode lets you set your own field of view and frame rate combinations in addition to getting the option to toggle on the HDR and Anti-Flicker settings.
In practical use, I found that most Streaming mode and Meeting mode photos tended to look identical, so for the below tests, I stuck to taking photos in Personal and Meeting modes. I did not include Custom mode in my tests, as I do not have an HDR monitor to test with.
Well-Lit Room
Anker PowerConf C300 Personal Mode
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Anker PowerConf C300 Meeting Mode
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Logitech C920
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
In terms of image fidelity, the Anker PowerConf C300 was roughly on par in a well-lit room with the Logitech C920, which is our leading mid-range 1080p webcam. However, perhaps reflecting its slightly higher price and more extended feature set, the Anker PowerConf C300 was much more accurate when it came to colors.
While the Logitech tends to give me a cooler color temperature than in real life, color in photos taken with the Anker came across as far more neutral and natural. This also extended to background elements, which tend to get washed out when using the Logitech.
Low-Light Room
Anker PowerConf C300 Personal Mode
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Anker PowerConf C300 Meeting Mode
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Logitech C920
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
When I drew my curtain and turned off all light sources in my office except for my computer monitor, I found that the difference between the Anker and Logitech webcams was, well, night and day. While the Anker now portrayed me with a cooler but still accurate color tone, its fidelity remained largely unchanged.
Meanwhile, the Logitech C920 introduced significant grain to its photos, especially on background elements. The Logitech’s color temperature also got even cooler than before, which made me look sickly.
Overexposed Room
Anker PowerConf C300 Personal Mode
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Anker PowerConf C300 Meeting Mode
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Logitech C920
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
I also took shots with the Anker PowerConf C300 and Logitech C920 pointing towards my window, to test how they work in an overexposed environment. While this is an over exaggeration of most user setups, it can help shed light on how a webcam might work under heavy light saturation.
The Logitech was, unfortunately, mostly unusable. While it did catch a glimpse of the buildings outside my window, which is impressive given that many webcams instead render windows as pure sheets of white, my face is bathed in too much shadow for me to want to call anyone under these conditions.
The Anker, however, again retained most of its fidelity in these conditions. The edges of my head were tinged by light in shots I took with it, but none of my face was hidden by excessive shadow. And while photos did suffer from a “white sheet” effect, putting the emphasis on the face is the right choice here. Even background elements appeared without issue, arguably looking better than in more neutrally lit shots.
Build Quality of the Anker PowerConf C300
Build quality is where it feels like the Anker PowerConf C300 stumbles most, although its emphasis on versatility extends to its build as well. That means you can tilt it forward 180 degrees, plus swivel it a full 360 degrees. For placement, the monitor mount fits snugly and has the typical hole for connecting a tripod on the bottom. It also connects using a detachable USB-C cable and has an optional privacy cover, but it’s here that the camera starts to show its weaknesses.
Image 1 of 2
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Image 2 of 2
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
The first, and less egregious, problem is that the webcam only includes a USB-C to USB-C cable in the box. If you want to connect over USB Type-A, you have to use a small adapter that you’re likely to lose. It’s a small price to pay for USB-C functionality and can be easily resolved with your own USB-C to USB-A cable, but small and easily lost parts are still worth bringing up. Which takes us to the removable privacy slider.
Image 1 of 2
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Image 2 of 2
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
The privacy slider is a detachable and purely physical switch, which means there’s no hardware level shut-off here, and you get two in the box. While that sounds like a nice gesture, it’s a testament to how easy it is to make one of these unusable. That’s because the slider attaches using glue. This introduced a few problems, the most dramatic one being that you probably won’t want to take the slider on and off a lot. Doing so can weaken the adhesive, and it’s not like it’s easy to find a place to store the slider in the meantime without leaving the glue open to the air. While this doesn’t present a major issue if you plan to use it all the time, I personally think the slider’s kind of ugly, and wouldn’t want it on at all times. Additionally, if we’re not meant to remove it frequently, why make it detachable instead of building it into the device?
There’s also the question of whether the glue will leave residue on your device, although I haven’t found this to be the case with my unit. It can be tricky to pry the slider off, though, which I suppose makes me happy that I have long fingernails.
As for the slider itself, it does its job well when attached securely, although its thin plastic has me worried about the slide rail’s durability over time. I’m also worried that the glue could break down over time, although this didn’t happen to me in the few days I used this camera while writing this review.
There’s also no guiding marks for where the slider should go on the webcam, so it’s easy to make a mistake when installing it, and adjusting it could weaken the glue.
The Anker PowerConf C300’s cord measured a little over 59 inches when pulled fully taut, which was long enough to easily reach all of my desktop’s USB ports.Logitech says the C920 has having a nearly-identical 60-inch cord, but as you can see in the picture above, its cord is noticeably longer than the PowerConf C300’s. When I pulled it taut and measured it with some measuring tape, it hit 70 inches, making it nearly a foot longer.
The PowerConf C300 also has built-in dual microphones that produce loud audio but also tended to give my voice a somewhat warbly effect that hurt clarity.
Special Features on the Anker PowerConf C300
The Anker PowerConf C300’s guide gives you instructions for downloading the free AnkerWork app, which is how you’ll access the camera’s different preset recording modes, adjust settings like brightness and saturation and set up a custom recording mode with HDR, anti-flicker, and/or 60FPS support.
Image 1 of 2
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Image 2 of 2
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
The user interface is simple and light, although it’s a bit annoying to me that I need to scroll down a long list to see all the different ways a recording preset will affect my shot. I would have preferred a layout that puts as much information on my screen at once as possible. But the biggest problem here is lag, which makes the image setting section (where you can adjust photo settings like brightness or sharpness) near unusable.
Every time you press a button or move a slider in the AnkerWork app, you’re going to need to wait at least a second while it applies your changes to the camera. This is obnoxious but not insurmountable when turning HDR or Anti-Flicker on or off. But for image settings, it makes it difficult for you to select a specific number, move by small increments, or test out different settings. That’s because the lag starts as soon as you click on the slider and move your mouse, and can last as long as 5 seconds. You won’t get to see where your slider ended up until after the lag ends. There’s buttons to move the slider by increments of 1 for fine tuning, which helps with this somewhat, but using them takes agonizingly long thanks to each button press triggering even more lag.
Compare this to the user interface and snappy response times for the software for the Razer Kiyo Pro, which also supports HDR and 60fps shots, and it’s easy to see there’s a lot of room for improvement here. A large firmware update and software pitch did hit as I was finishing this review, which helped reduce lag times in most instances, but they are still present and still make the image menu almost intolerable to use.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
As for the HDR and Anti-Flicker support, turning them on is as simple as flipping a toggle (and waiting for the lag), although the former is only available when recording at 30 fps. I wasn’t able to test HDR as I don’t have an HDR monitor, but turning it on even on my non-HDR setup still made images appear slightly brighter and richer.
As for 60 fps recording, it works smoothly once you click the toggle on. A 20 second video recorded at 60 fps also only took up 45.5 MB on my hard drive, which was only 0.5 MB larger than a 30 fps video of the same length. You can also stream at 60 fps, which I had no issue doing on a private YouTube stream.
Anker’s auto frame and solo frame options can be a little trickier to see the benefits of. While they automatically zoom in to put the focus on your face as soon as you turn them on, you really have to move a lot to see the frame actually adjust to follow you.
Bottom Line
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
The Anker PowerConf C300 has consistent fidelity and enough premium features to more than justify its $130 price tag, even if the implementation for those features needs some work. Regardless of lighting conditions, it always had color accurate shots with no visible artifacting in my testing. And on top of that, its multiple fields of view and auto framing options made taking those shots in the best conditions possible easy.
60 FPS and HDR recording are also boons at this price point, as they’d usually require you to upgrade to something like the $199 Razer Kiyo Pro. They work well here, although the PowerConf C300’s picture quality doesn’t match those premium webcams and the software for accessing those features can frequently be unbearably laggy.
Still, if you want a webcam that can do more than your typical casual shooter but don’t need to go full premium, the Anker PowerConf C300 is an easy choice.
Corsair’s K70 RGB TKL is an unashamedly gaming-focused keyboard. For one thing, it’s only available with the kinds of switches people normally recommend for playing games, while other features like low input latency and a dedicated “tournament switch” for esports clearly have gamers in mind.
At a price of $139.99 (£139.99), these features are coming at a premium, and they’re overkill for anyone not planning on competing at the next Dota 2 International. But the K70 RGB TKL is a complete package with lots of quality-of-life features for non-gamers. It attaches to your PC with a detachable USB-C cable (a first for Corsair) and features customizable per-key RGB backlighting, dedicated media keys, and a roller wheel for volume control.
At this price, the result is a great gaming-focused keyboard but only a good general purpose keyboard.
In case the specs didn’t tip you off beforehand, just looking at the Corsair K70 RGB TKL should tell you everything you need to know about its target audience. The bold, squared-off font on its keycaps is peak gamer, and the case itself has a minimalist, angular design. The only branding you get is a small Corsair logo on the keyboard’s forehead, which illuminates along with the rest of the keyboard’s lighting.
Its design might not be for everyone, but construction quality is good here. The K70’s keycaps are made of hard-wearing PBT plastic, and their legends are double-shot, meaning they let each switch’s lighting shine through and will never rub off. Corsair uses a standard keyboard layout, so you shouldn’t have any problems finding replacement keycaps in the right sizes.
As its name implies, the K70 RGB TKL is a tenkeyless board (hence the “TKL” in its name), meaning you don’t get a numpad to the right of the arrow keys. This makes perfect sense on a gaming keyboard, where you’ll typically spend most of your time with your left hand on the WASD keys and your right hand on a mouse. Unless you really need it for data entry, a numpad just gets in the way. Available layouts include US ANSI, UK ISO (which I’m using), and other European layouts, but there are no Mac-specific keys available.
Although it’s not particularly wide, Corsair’s keyboard has a bit of a forehead to house its media keys and volume roller. I generally prefer this simple approach, rather than having to access media controls through a combination of keypresses, even if it adds a little more bulk to the board. Build quality is otherwise solid; the keyboard wouldn’t flex, no matter how much I tried to bend it.
The keyboard’s configuration options are aimed squarely at gamers. There’s no option for tactile Cherry MX Browns or clicky Cherry MX Blue switches here. Instead, your options are classic gamer Cherry MX Reds, competitive gamer Cherry MX Speed Silvers, or, if you’re in Korea, considerate gamer Cherry MX Silent Reds. My review board came equipped with standard Red switches. The switches aren’t hot-swappable, so you’re going to have to use desoldering tools and then a soldering iron if you want to try out any other switch types.
The nice thing about buying from an established company like Corsair is that its companion software for configuring the keyboard’s layout and lighting effects is slick and polished. iCue is available for Mac and Windows and offers a truly dizzying amount of control over the K70 RGB TKL. You can remap the keyboard’s keys however you like and get access to a plethora of additional lighting effects. The controls are granular and get complicated fast, so I ended up ignoring them and just controlled the keyboard’s lighting from the board itself.
You can control its lighting directly from the keyboard itself or via companion software.
As well as handling lighting controls, iCue can also handle key remapping if you want to swap the layout of your keyboard around. It’s not as necessary a feature on a TKL board as on a smaller board with a more limited selection of keys, but it’s a useful inclusion if you want to tinker.
All of these are useful features regardless of what you want to use the Corsair K70 RGB TKL for. But its more unique features are gaming-focused. First up is a “tournament switch” on the top of the board, which disables any custom macros you’ve set up and switches the backlighting to a single less-distracting color. (You can customize which color using iCue.) It’s the kind of feature I could see being helpful if you’re simultaneously big into online gaming and also use a ton of macros. That’s a pretty slim Venn diagram of users, but thankfully, the switch is completely out of the way otherwise.
The other gaming feature here is an advertised polling rate of 8,000Hz, which is eight times higher than the 1,000Hz rate used by most keyboards. In theory, this means the keyboard’s input lag or the time between you pressing a key and the signal being transmitted to your PC, is as minimal as possible, presumably making all the difference in a high-speed gaming situation. Corsair tells me this brings down median latency to under a quarter of a millisecond, compared to 2 milliseconds and up with a 1,000Hz keyboard. You enable the 8,000Hz polling rate from within Corsair’s software. It’ll warn you that the higher polling rate uses more system resources, but I didn’t notice any impact on performance on my Ryzen 5 3600-equipped gaming PC, and Corsair tells me this should be the same for anyone using a gaming machine built in the last three years.
We’ve seen a similar trend with gaming mice, and Linus Tech Tips did a great analysis of what that actually means for performance. But the real-world difference it makes is minor, and I struggled to feel any difference in responsiveness when switching between playing Overwatch on the Corsair K70 RGB TKL and a regular 1,000Hz Filco office keyboard when playing on a 100Hz monitor. I have no reason to doubt Corsair’s low latency claims, but I think it’s the kind of improvement that only a small number of players will actually be able to notice.
The Corsair K70 RGB TKL is being sold by a gaming-oriented brand as a gaming-oriented keyboard with gaming-oriented switches, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that it doesn’t offer the best typing experience. The typing feel just doesn’t match the crispness of a board like the similarly priced Filco Majestouch 2. Instead, bottoming out each keypress feels slightly dulled or softened, and since this keyboard is only available with linear switches, you’re all but guaranteed to bottom out each keypress while you’re typing.
I’ll give credit to Corsair for the K70’s spacebar stabilizer (the mechanism installed under the larger keycap to stop it from wobbling). While this can sometimes sound rattly on other keyboards, there’s no such problem here. But if you listen to the typing sample above, you’ll hear that other stabilized keys like Backspace and Enter have more rattle. Ultimately, the overall typing experience on the K70 RGB TKL is only good, never great.
No numpads here.
At this point, Corsair knows what it’s doing when it comes to mechanical keyboards for gaming. The K70 RGB TKL comes equipped with all of the quality-of-life features that are expected out of a mainstream keyboard at this point: nice durable keycaps, media keys and volume dial, and a detachable USB-C cable. Some of its more gaming-focused features are borderline overkill, but they don’t get in the way.
At its core, though, the K70 RGB TKL is a keyboard designed for gamers, and there are better keyboards out there if you’re only an occasional gamer. You can get a better range of switches elsewhere, as well as a more satisfying typing experience overall. That makes the Corsair K70 RGB TKL a great option for a gaming keyboard, but only a good keyboard overall.
Peloton is issuing a voluntary recall for all of its treadmill products — including both the Peloton Tread and Tread Plus — following a series of accidents that have resulted in multiple injuries and at least one death.
In the recall announcement today for the Tread Plus, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) elaborates that it’s received “72 reports of adult users, children, pets and/or objects being pulled under the rear of the treadmill, including 29 reports of injuries to children such as second- and third-degree abrasions, broken bones, and lacerations.”
The two products are being recalled for different reasons: while there are concerns with the Tread Plus that people may be pulled underneath the treadmill, the regular Tread has issues where the touchscreen at the front may fall off and cause injury. The CPSC says that the recall will impact about 125,000 Tread Plus units and around 1,050 units of the regular Tread (plus an additional 5,400 Tread treadmills in Canada).
The announcement is a serious about-face for the company, which as of late April was still fighting with the CPSC to avoid a full recall despite the fact that a Tread Plus treadmill was involved in the death of a child in March. The CPSC has already issued a warning to Tread Plus owners cautioning that the treadmill poses “serious risks to children for abrasions, fractures, and death.”
Peloton had previously refuted the CPSC’s reports, which it called “inaccurate and misleading,” telling customers in April that “there is no reason to stop using the Tread Plus,” so long as they were following Peloton’s safety measures.
Peloton CEO John Foley apologized for that decision in the announcement of the recall, stating that “Peloton made a mistake in our initial response to the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s request that we recall the Tread+. We should have engaged more productively with them from the outset.” Foley also promised to work with the CPSC on new industry standards for treadmill safety.
Tread Plus owners will have the option to voluntarily return their treadmills to Peloton for a full refund through November 6th, 2022. Customers who want to keep their treadmill are being offered additional safety measures, too: Peloton will move the treadmill to another room in owner’s houses for free and is promising software improvements to automatically lock the Tread Plus after use and to add a four-digit PIN to unlock it for future use.
Tread owners, meanwhile, will have a similar option to return their treadmills, or they can wait for Peloton to come by and physically improve the touchscreen’s attachment to the rest of the treadmill to prevent future risk of it falling off.
A huge security flaw has been found in Dell’s latest dbutil driver (version 2.3) that can allow hackers to escalate privileges on a Dell machine, use a denial of service attack and access sensitive information. The flaw, which requires physical access to a machine, could potentially affect hundreds of thousands of Dell systems.
Several months ago, a security researcher at Sentinel Labs managed to find the flaws found in the dbutil driver thanks to Process Hacker, which is a program that can debug software and detect malware. The researcher found 5 bugs in all: two memory corruptions, a security issue that allows the driver to interact with non-elevated processes and a code logic issue that can result in a denial of service attack.
Perhaps the worst part of it all is that the dbutil driver is over 12 years old. A list of affected Dell computers can be found here.
Fortunately, the dbutil driver isn’t critical to your system; rather, it’s a utility driver that works with Dell Command Update, Dell Update, Alienware Update, and other Dell updating programs to update your drivers and firmware.
Uninstalling the driver shouldn’t be a problem, and Dell is already on top of the situation with plenty of ways to uninstall the affected driver listed here. The link will also show you how to install the patched version of the driver that doesn’t have any security flaws.
The implications of this situation could be huge; all modern Dells use Dell’s updating software to update drivers and firmware, so this bugged driver could already be on tens to hundreds of thousands of Dell machine.
Microsoft and Dell were able to fix the issues and bring out a new version yesterday. Hopefully, the driver gets pushed to as many Dell systems as possible.
Basecamp’s CEO published a blog post about policy changes — it may have broken the company
On April 26th, Basecamp founder and CEO Jason Fried posted on his blog about some policy changes that would be happening at the company, which makes team collaboration software. One policy stuck out to many on the internet — the company would no longer be allowing its employees to have discussions about society or politics on its internal account.
What followed was a tidal wave of public outcry, employees speaking out against the policies (and talking about what led to them), several revisions of the blog post, and, finally, almost a third of the company’s employees deciding to accept buyouts and leave. There has since been an apology from Fried, but it remains to be seen if any more will be coming — there are still accusations made by employees that haven’t really been addressed.
Whether you’re looking to get caught up on the saga, or want to keep your eye out for future updates, we’re collecting the story into one place here.
Established in 2003, Sharkoon is a hardware and peripherals company based in Germany. With the ambidextrous Light² 180, Sharkoon further expands their Light² series. Based on the Zowie S2 shape, the Light² 180 comes with PixArt’s PMW3360 sensor capable of 12,000 CPI, Omron switches for the main buttons, and a soft, braided cable. By default, a honeycomb back cover is installed, but can be swapped for a solid one. Aside from the back cover, the Light² 180 doesn’t have any visible holes, yet weighs just 66 g. A replacement set for the high-quality PTFE feet is included in the box. Lastly, full RGB lighting and software customizability are on board as well. Variants in matte black or white are available.
The Apple Watch Series 3 was first released in September 2017, bringing fitness improvements and a faster processor. Nearly four years later, in 2021, Apple is still selling the Series 3 as its entry-level Apple Watch model starting at $199, an $80 savings compared to the more recent Apple Watch SE. Only, as I’ve recently learned, “still selling” and “supporting in a reasonable manner” are two very different things, and updating an Apple Watch Series 3 in 2021 is a nightmare of infuriating technological hoops to jump through.
Normally, updating an Apple Watch is an annoyingly long but straightforward process: you charge your Watch up to 50 percent, plug it in, and wait for the slow process of the update transferring and installing to your smartwatch.
But the non-cellular Apple Watch Series 3 has a tiny 8GB of internal storage, a fair chunk of which is taken up by the operating system and other critical software. So installing a major update — like the recently released watchOS 7.4 — goes something like this:
Unpair and wipe your Apple Watch to factory settings
Set up the Apple Watch again and restore from backup
Realize you weren’t supposed to restore from your backup yet
Watch an episode or two of Brooklyn Nine-Nine while you wait for the backup to finish restoring
Start from step one again — but as a brand-new Apple Watch, without restoring from an existing backup
Update completely fresh Apple Watch, which now has enough free memory to update
Consider how much you actually want to use this face unlocking feature everyone keeps hyping up in the first place
Unpair and wipe the Apple Watch a third time
Restore from your backup and finally use normally
And the issue seems to apply whether you’ve installed a pile of apps or not. Apple’s support website doesn’t even recommend that Series 3 owners bother trying to clear up space — it just advocates that they go straight to the aforementioned reset cycle.
It’s clear that the current process is untenable.
I’m an editor at a technology news site and willing to put in the comical amount of time and energy to manage this, frustrating as it might be. But if you’re a more casual user — the same one who is likely to own an older, outdated Watch in the first place — why on earth would you bother with the worst update mechanism since GE’s instructions for resetting a smart bulb? And being able to update your hardware’s software is important: the just-released watchOS 7.4.1, for example, patches a critical security flaw. But with it being so difficult to install, there’s a good chance that plenty of Series 3 owners won’t bother.
I know that Apple loves to claim support for as many older hardware generations as it can with each new update. It’s one of the biggest appeals of Apple products, compared to the lackluster pace of updates on competing Android phones (like the just-deprecated Galaxy S8).
But the miserable update process for the Series 3 is a strong argument that Apple is being a little too generous with what it considers “current” hardware. Keeping the Series 3 around this long was always a money grab, a way for Apple to clear out old inventory and take advantage of mature manufacturing processes that have long since broken even in order to appeal to users who really can’t afford the extra $80 for the markedly better Apple Watch SE. It’s a similar trend to the inexplicably still-on-sale Apple TV HD, which is almost six years old and costs just $30 less than the brand-new 4K model. (Much like the Series 3, don’t buy a new Apple TV HD in 2021 either.)
But hopefully, with the announcement of watchOS 8 almost assuredly around the corner at WWDC this June, the company takes into account the basic functionality of its hardware when considering what it does and doesn’t offer support for. Because if Apple is going to insist on selling a product this old in the future, it’s going to need to be a lot more mindful of just how it actually handles its software support.
In a new blog post, Basecamp CEO Jason Fried apologized after the “policy changes” he announced last week ultimately led to a third of the company’s workforce opting to leave.
“Last week was terrible. We started with policy changes that felt simple, reasonable, and principled, and it blew things up culturally in ways we never anticipated,” Fried wrote. “David and I completely own the consequences, and we’re sorry. We have a lot to learn and reflect on, and we will.”
The blog post that started the software company’s terrible week was a list of new company policies that prohibited, among other things, “societal and political discussions” on internal forums.
Today’s social and political waters are especially choppy. Sensitivities are at 11, and every discussion remotely related to politics, advocacy, or society at large quickly spins away from pleasant. You shouldn’t have to wonder if staying out of it means you’re complicit, or wading into it means you’re a target. These are difficult enough waters to navigate in life, but significantly more so at work. It’s become too much. It’s a major distraction. It saps our energy, and redirects our dialog towards dark places. It’s not healthy, it hasn’t served us well. And we’re done with it on our company Basecamp account where the work happens.
As The Verge contributing editor Casey Newton later reported, the initial motivation for the letter arose from uncomfortable internal disagreements over a list of “funny names” of Basecamp customers. Several of the names on the list, of which management was well aware, were of Asian or African origin. Employees considered their inclusion inappropriate at best and racist at worst.
Backlash to Fried’s first blog post was swift and immediate and was followed by another post a few days later from company co-founder David Heinemeier Hansson, outlining a severance package for employees who weren’t comfortable with the company’s new direction. “No hard feelings, no questions asked,” Hansson wrote. “For those who cannot see a future at Basecamp under this new direction, we’ll help them in every which way we can to land somewhere else.”
But it was an all-hands meeting last Friday, Newton reported, that apparently pushed some employees who were on the fence to actually take the severance offer. Basecamp’s longtime head of strategy, Ryan Singer, questioned the existence of white supremacy at the company to the dismay of other employees. Singer, who had been with the company 18 years, eventually resigned.
Fried’s post on Tuesday included an apology, but it didn’t specifically reference any of the tension that preceded it and didn’t mention the situation with Singer at all. It also didn’t outline any specific changes Basecamp plans to make. For a company that’s been under the spotlight for a serious internal misstep, Fried’s post felt a bit like a placeholder until the promised third-party investigation takes place. Clearly, he and Basecamp had to address the situation publicly somehow. He wrote that the company would be “rooting for” the employees who left and apologized again to those who opted to stay:
Second, to our staff who remains with us: We know it’s tough to see colleagues leave, and we’re sorry we put you through that experience, but we deeply appreciate that you’re sticking with us. We have a great team in place, and it’s been wonderful and inspiring to see everyone helping one another, depending on each other, pitching in wherever they can, and supporting all our customers. A deep, heartfelt thanks.
Fried’s latest post also attempts to reassure customers that Basecamp is still committed to supporting them. “Our Technical Operations and Customer Support teams continue to ensure all our products are running smoothly, support requests are being answered, and new customer signups continue as usual.”
Fried closes with a promise to “regroup, rebuilt and get back to the business of making great software” — but, again, didn’t offer any specifics about what that would look like. “We’ve been in business for 22 years, through thick and thin,” he wrote. “We’re in it until the end of the Internet.”
Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney was asking Apple to open its phones to other app stores as early as 2015, according to new emails made public as part of the companies’ antitrust trial. Under the subject line “iOS as an open platform,” Sweeney emailed Apple CEO Tim Cook directly to make the case for allowing other app stores to distribute software on iOS.
“The App Store has done much good for the industry,” Sweeney wrote to Cook, “but it doesn’t seem tenable for Apple to be the sole arbiter of expression and commerce over an app platform approaching a billion users.”
In particular, Sweeney asked to “separate iOS App Store curation from compliance review and app distribution,” essentially suggesting that Apple could maintain its security features across the platform without routing all downloads through the central App Store.
It’s a powerful distinction for the ongoing trial, in which Apple is arguing that App Store exclusivity is necessary to maintain the existing security and privacy features on iOS. These are part of the compliance process referenced by Sweeney in the email, and other ecosystems have been successful in implementing them across multiple app stores. Most recently, Google introduced a similar system on Android under the name Play Protect, guarding against malicious downloads even from side-loaded software.
Cook responded by forwarding the message to Phil Schiller with a question: “Is this the guy that was at one of our rehearsals?”
It’s likely that he was: a few weeks earlier, Epic Games had made an appearance at Apple’s WWDC event, touting the company’s work using Apple’s Metal API, although Sweeney did not appear onstage.
Other emails show Sweeney continuing to push Apple behind the scenes, asking Epic co-founder Mark Rein to push for a meeting with Greg Joswiak in January 2018. “If the App Store [were] merely the premier way for consumers to install software and not the sole way, then Apple could curate higher quality software overall, without acting as a censor on free expression,” Sweeney argued.
Rein was ultimately able to arrange a hearing for the idea through Apple’s Tim Kirby and expressed enthusiasm. “He was definitely receptive to the idea,” Rein wrote, “which doesn’t mean it will go anywhere, but does mean he’ll line up people who will listen and not shoot it down like Phil Schiller would…. so maybe there’s a smallest little crack on the very outer surface of the many feet of ice covering the frozen lake that is the Apple store.”
Four years after its launch, the Samsung Galaxy S8 has received its last security update. The Galaxy S8 was a well-timed success story for Samsung, launching in the spring of 2017 with a bold design that drew attention away from the well-documented Galaxy Note 7 battery problems of the previous six months.
The S8 marked a design shift for Galaxy devices, with a wider-aspect edge-to-edge screen with minimal bezels that made it one of the best-looking phones we’d seen at that point. It wasn’t just a good-looking device, either; it offered excellent hardware and a great camera, combined with a remarkably restrained software implementation. Best of all, the batteries did not catch fire.
Samsung recently introduced a formal policy of providing Galaxy devices with four years of security updates, including both S-series flagships and even budget-oriented A-series models. Premium devices tend to get monthly updates, at least for the first couple of years, with the cadence slowing down to quarterly or biannual updates toward end of life. It’s one of the best support policies in the industry — certainly for Android, and roughly on par with Apple’s typically lengthy device support schedule.
While the S8 and S8 Plus have reached the end of that support period, the S8 Active is still on the schedule for quarterly updates and the S8 Lite is on the biannual schedule.
The FuzeDrive P200 is a QLC-based hybrid SSD that defies the norm through clever tiering technology that delivers higher endurance, but the excessive pricing isn’t for everyone.
For
+ Large static and dynamic SLC caches
+ Competitive performance
+ Software package
+ 5-year warranty
+ High endurance ratings
Against
– High cost
– Capacity trade-off for SLC cache
– Low sustained write speed
– Initial software configuration
– Lacks AES 256-bit encryption
Features and Specifications
The Enmotus FuzeDrive P200 SSD takes an unconventional approach to increase SSD performance and extend lifespan by leveraging the power of AI to deliver up to 3.4 GBps and class-leading endurance. According to the company, artificial intelligence isn’t just about robots and decrypting future business trends — it can also enhance your SSD and tune it to your usage patterns, thus unlocking more performance and endurance.
Enmotus builds the FuzeDrive P200 using commodity hardware but says the drive delivers more than six times more endurance than most QLC-based SSDs through its sophisticated AI-boosted software and tiering techniques. In fact, a single 1.6 TB drive is guaranteed to absorb an amazing 3.6 petabytes of write data throughout its warranty. The company’s FusionX software also allows you to expand your storage volume up to 32TB by adding another SSD or HDD (just one). All of this will set you back the same cost of a new Samsung 980 Pro with a faster PCIe interface, though, ultimately making this drive attractive only for a niche audience.
Innovative AI Storage
(Image credit: Enmotus)
Traditional SSDs, like Sabrent’s Rocket Q, come with QLC flash that operates in a dynamic SLC mode. While this provides fast performance and high capacity, it has drawbacks that primarily manifest as low endurance.
However, QLC flash can operate in the full 16-level, low-endurance QLC mode or operate in a high-endurance SLC mode, which is advantageous for Enmotus’s FuzeDrive P200 SSD. By operating Micron’s flash solely in high endurance SLC mode, the flash’s endurance multiplies – its program-erase cycle rating increases from roughly 600-1,000 cycles to 30,000 cycles. The main reason being that in SLC mode, the flash can be programmed in just one pass, whereas QLC takes 3+ cycles to fine-tune the cell charge.
The 1.6TB FuzeDrive P200 comes with 2TB of raw flash, but not all of it is available to the user. This is somewhat similar to Intel’s Optane Memory H10 and soon-to-be-released H20, but instead of the complication of relying on two separate controllers and storage mediums, the P200 uses only one controller and one type of flash. The FuzeDrive leverages the advantages that both dynamic and high endurance SLC modes have to offer by splitting the device into two LBA zones. The first LBA range is the high endurance zone, and it sacrifices 512GB of the raw flash to provide 128GB of SLC goodness (4 bits QLC -> 1-bit SLC), but the user can’t access this area directly. The remaining QLC flash in the second LBA zone operates in dynamic SLC mode and is made available to the end user. The 900GB model comes with a smaller 24GB SLC cache.
The company’s intelligent AI NVMe driver virtualizes the zones into a single volume and relocates data to either portion after analyzing the I/O. In this tiering configuration, a large RAM-based table is set up in memory (roughly 100MB) to track I/O behavior across the whole storage device. Most active and write-intensive data is automatically directed to the SLC zone, and inactive data is moved to the QLC portion with minimal CPU overhead compared to caching techniques. Movements are done only in the background, and only one copy of the data exists. The NVMe driver manages the data placement, while the drive uses a special modified firmware to split it into two separate LBA zones.
Specifications
Product
FuzeDrive P200 900GB
FuzeDrive P200 1.6TB
Pricing
$199.99
$349.99
Form Factor
M.2 2280
M.2 2280
Interface / Protocol
PCIe 3.0 x4 / NVMe 1.3
PCIe 3.0 x4 / NVMe 1.3
Controller
Phison PS5012-E12S
Phison PS5012-E12S
DRAM
DDR3L
DDR3L
Memory
Micron 96L QLC
Micron 96L QLC
Sequential Read
3,470 MBps
3,470 MBps
Sequential Write
2,000 MBps
3,000 MBps
Random Read
193,000 IOPS
372,000 IOPS
Random Write
394,000 IOPS
402,000 IOPS
Endurance (TBW)
750 TB
3,600 TB
Part Number
P200-900/24
P200-1600/128
Warranty
5-Years
5-Years
Enmotus’s FuzeDrive P200 comes in 900GB and 1.6TB capacities. Both fetch a pretty penny, priced at $200 and $350, respectively, roughly matching the price of the fastest Gen4 SSDs on the market. The FuzeDrive P200 comes with a Gen3 NVMe SSD controller, so Enmotus rated it for up to 3,470 / 3,000 MBps of sequential read/write throughput and sustain up to 372,000 / 402,000 random read/write IOPS.
But, while Samsung’s 980 Pro may be faster, it only offers one-third the endurance of the P200. Enmotus rates the 900GB model to handle up to 750 TB of writes during its five-year warranty. The 1.6TB model is much more robust — It can handle up to 3.6 petabytes of writes within its warranty, meaning the P200 comes backed with the highest endurance rating we’ve seen for a QLC SSD of this capacity.
Software and Accessories
Image 1 of 6
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Image 2 of 6
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Image 3 of 6
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Image 4 of 6
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Image 5 of 6
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Image 6 of 6
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Enmotus provides Fuzion, a utility that monitors the SSD and enables other maintenance tasks, like updating firmware or secure erasing the SSD. The software is available from the Microsoft Store and will automatically install and update the driver for the device. The company also provides the Enmotus-branded Macrium Reflect Cloning Software to help migrate data to the new SSD, as well as the FuzionX software for more complex tiering capability.
When adding a third device into the mix, such as a high-capacity SATA SSD or HDD (NVMe support under development), you can use FusionX software to integrate it into the P200’s virtual volume. The SLC portion of the P200 SSD will retain the volume’s hot data, the QLC portion will retain the warm data, while the HDD stores cold data.
A Closer Look
Image 1 of 3
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Image 2 of 3
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Image 3 of 3
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Enmotus’s FuzeDrive P200 SSD comes in an M.2 2280 form factor, and the 2TB model is double-sided solely to place a second DRAM IC on the back of the PCB. The company uses a copper heat spreader label to aid with heat dissipation. The controller supports ASPM, ASPT, and the L1.2 sleep mode to reduce power when the drive isn’t busy.
Image 1 of 2
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Image 2 of 2
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
As mentioned, Enomotus builds the FuzeDrive P200 with commodity hardware – Phison’s mainstream E12S PCIe 3.0 x4 NVMe 1.3-compliant SSD controller and Micron QLC flash, but the firmware is specifically designed to enable splitting the drive into two distinct zones – one high endurance, one low endurance. The controller has dual Arm Cortex R5 CPUs, clocked at 666MHz, and a DRAM cache. The controller interfaces with two Nanya 4Gb DDR3L DRAM ICs at 1600 MHz for fast access to the FTL mapping tables.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
There are four NAND packages on our 2TB sample, each containing four 1Tb Micron 96-Layer QLC packages. For responsive random performance and solid performance in mixed workloads, the flash has a four-plane architecture and interfaces with this eight-channel controller at speeds up to 667 MTps. To ensure reliable operation and maintain data integrity over time, the controller implements Phion’s third-generation LDPC ECC and RAID ECC along with a DDR ECC engine and end-to-end data path protection.
It’s not an HDMI standard with much publicity right now, but HDMI QFT should be one you’re keeping an eye on if gaming is a priority. It may be one of the lesser talked about HDMI 2.1 features but this low latency technology has the potential to make your on-screen action more responsive and give your overall reaction time a head-start over the competition. So, what is HDMI QFT?
What is HDMI QFT?
(Image credit: LG / Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Sony)
The QFT in HDMI QFT stands for Quick Frame Transport and, like its name suggests, it’s a technology that speeds up the transmission of each frame on its journey from source to screen. It decreases the latency between the moment when the visual data is available in the graphics processor of your gaming device and the time when that data is then rendered on the screen as a frame. The shorter that gap, the closer your gameplay can be to the live version of the action.
This is very different to something like ALLM which simply optimises an ALLM-compatible TV to gaming. While ALLM will automatically shut down your TV’s extraneous picture processing in order to reduce what’s known as ‘input lag’, HDMI QFT actively speeds up the transport of the game data itself.
It’s so effective that it can theoretically reduce that time and lower latency by multiples of milliseconds. In the world of fast-action online gaming, with input lag for TVs already down to a matter of 20ms, those extra few milliseconds could make a very big difference.
How does HDMI QFT work?
The path of gaming data from source to screen is a lot longer than an HDMI cable. Display latency is defined as the time it takes to get a frame from the source GPU, at the moment that its ready, all the way until its painted on your TV screen.
That’s the time it takes to get through the source’s output circuits, the transfer across the cable, the processing of the video data by the TV’s chips and then finally the rendering of those frames on-screen. In real terms, that can affect things such as the delay between pressing a button on your games controller and actually seeing that action take place on the screen.
HDMI QFT can’t speed up all of that but it can accelerate things from source HDMI port to sink HDMI port, so long as both devices support the HDMI QFT standard. QFT transports each frame through the pipeline at a higher rate than normal.
HDMI QFT is an HDMI 2.1 feature, which means that it could be possible to enable it at some point on any device with an HDMI 2.1-certified port.
Which devices are HDMI QFT-certified?
At present you’ll struggle to find HDMI QFT support on any TV or games console. For the time being, neither the Xbox Series X and Series S, nor the PlayStation 5 can make use of HDMI QFT technology, and it’s unclear whether or not it can be added as a firmware update.
A clue may come from the world of AV receivers, which are often way ahead of the curve when it comes to new audio-visual technologies. All of the current Denon X Series AVRs (from the X2700H upwards) with an 8K input, and all the current Marantz AV receivers with an 8K input, support QFT. They’re also able to passthrough a QFT signal on their non-8K HDMI ports.
While older AVRs with HDMI2.0b sockets were able to add ALLM, HDMI 2.1 features such as VRR, QFT and QMS require hardware upgrades for compatibility. It seems likely that it would only take software tweaks to add QFT to any device already stocked with at least one HDMI 2.1-certified port, but we await confirmation from the manufacturers.
So, there’s a good chance that, while neither PS5 nor Xbox Series X users can benefit from the low latency gaming potential of HDMI QFT right now, that doesn’t mean they won’t be able to at some point soon. More crucial might be to have a relatively modern TV, which is likely to benefit from its own HDMI QFT update eventually at some point.
For the present, Samsung does not support HDMI QFT with its TV range nor has it any immediate plans to add it. However, with little source support and a claimed input lag of under 10ms at 60Hz and under 6ms at 120Hz on its recent QN95A TV, it doesn’t feel a pressing need.
That said, there is one manufacturer on the gaming side that is QFT-ready. Nvidia’s Ampere 30-series GPUs fully support HDMI 2.1 including HDMI QFT. So, if you’re looking to take your PC gaming to the big screen, then you’re only a TV away. We’ll keep you posted and add to this list as soon as we hear of any available.
Until then, happy, if slightly less responsive, gaming.
MORE:
Take a look at our choice of the best gaming TVs in the world.
Pick up one of the very best gaming headsets for the all-night experience.
Torn? PS5 vs Xbox Series X: which next-gen console should you buy?
Bill Gates and Melinda Gates have announced that they’ll be ending their marriage after 27 years together, explaining in a joint statement that they “no longer believe we can grow together as a couple in this next phase of our lives.”
Bill Gates is best known as the founder of Microsoft, who leveraged his fortune at the helm of that company working together with Melinda Gates to form the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in 2000. The Gates Foundation has since grown to become one of — if not the largest — charitable foundations in the world, with an endowment of almost $50 billion.
Bill had previously stepped away from his positions at Microsoft as CEO (in 2000), a full-time employee (in 2008), and a member of the company’s board in order, he claims, to better focus on philanthropy. Melinda had previously worked as a product marketing manager at Microsoft and oversaw a number of software launches before leaving in 1996.
It’s not clear what impact the Gates’ separation will have on the Gates Foundation. According to the released statement, the Gates still both share a belief in the Gates Foundation’s mission and “will continue our work together at the foundation” despite their separation. While both Bill and Melinda — along with fellow multibillionaire Warren Buffett — serve as trustees for the Gates Foundation, the foundation is led by CEO Mark Suzman.
We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience. By clicking “Accept”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies.
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
