‘Zoomsday’ hack uncovered using fewer than 20 AI prompts
Zoom has patched a major security vulnerability that could allow an attacker to hijack anyone's device during a meeting. In a blog post on Tuesday, researchers at A Security say they uncovered the flaw using "fewer than 20 prompts on publicly available AI models," as reported earlier by Wired.
The exploit involved Zoom's annotation feature, which allows users to draw on their screen while sharing it with other meeting participants. With the exploit, an attacker could join or host a meeting and run malicious code on victims' devices, allowing them to steal data, turn on the camera or microphone, or install malware. The attack required no act …
Why your Amazon order confirmation emails have become so unhelpful
Earlier this summer, Amazon customers began noticing that emails related to their online orders looked sparse: Order confirmation emails didn't name specific items anymore, and instead listed only item categories.
"Your Beauty item is confirmed!" an email about my retainer cleaning tablets read. Shoppers have posted other iterations of the redacted emails as well: "Ordered: 1 Hardware item," "Your Drugstore, Shoes, and other items are here!" and "1 Nutrition & Wellness, 1 Wireless Accessories," for example. The emails have clip art-style illustrations of general product categories, and a shopper has to exit their email and go to Amazon to …
GuliKit’s new Switch controller features next-generation anti-drift thumbsticks
GuliKit announced its first wireless controller to use an improved version of the anti-drift tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) thumbsticks featured in its budget-friendly ES Pro that debuted nearly a year ago. Available now for $49.99, the new GuliKit ES Max is more expensive than last year's $29.99 ES Pro, but still cheaper than Nintendo's Switch 2 Pro Controller, while offering more features and functionality without the risk of stick drift that plagued the original Switch.
The TMR thumbsticks in the ES Max don't feature a complete reimagining of the technology but measure stick movement in a slightly different way that improves performa …
Bumble now lets men make the first move
Bumble was famously built around exclusively giving women the power to initiate messages in heterosexual matches when it first launched in 2014 - but now the times they are a-changin' for the dating app. Today, Bumble has announced a "global evolution to its signature conversation experience": anyone can now send the first message, and the deadline to respond before the match expires has been extended from 24 hours to a 72-hour window.
"While women making the first move was a radical idea, being women-first was never about prescribing just one way to connect. It was about designing an experience with women's needs in mind to create better o …
Spotify says it won’t recommend music from ‘AI Personas’
Spotify will soon label AI artists and remove their music from your recommendations. The change, which will start rolling out in mid-September, means you'll see an "AI Persona" badge on an artist's profile across the app if they do "not represent a real person."
The music streaming platform will allow artists to disclose that they're an AI persona starting today, but it won't rely solely on self-identification. Spotify says it will use human review and AI tools to determine whether someone's profile, including their name and image, "appears to represent photorealistic AI-generated identities." If Spotify determines that an artist's identity …
Claude will apply invisible watermarks to AI text and images
Anthropic has pledged to start marking Claude-generated text and images with machine-readable data, in an effort to comply with European rules for AI transparency. "Generated text will carry embedded watermarks, and generated files will include digitally signed provenance metadata where supported," Anthropic says on a new Claude support page. The changes are invisible to human eyes, but will make it easier for people and online platforms to detect if content was generated by Claude models.
These updates are a future commitment rather than something that will go into effect immediately. New AI labeling and transparency obligations under the …
Joby flexes military muscle with $500 million defense acquisition
Joby Aviation announced it was acquiring Dayton, Ohio-based defense firm Resonant Sciences in a $500 million deal, in a bid by the electric aircraft company to expand further into the military industrial complex.
Joby says it expects to finance the deal with $450 million in cash and $50 million in equity. After the deal closes, which is expected in early 2027, Resonant will continue its existing work as Joby's dedicated defense division, the company said. The commercial division will remain focused on air taxis, the first of which are expected to launch later this year.
The deal is the latest example of the fledgling electric aviation in …
The AI takeover of mathematics has begun
Mathematician James Maynard has spent a lot of time this past year "soul searching." A professor at the University of Oxford and winner of the prestigious Fields Medal, Maynard told The Verge he's been grappling with the future of his field as the traditionally slow-moving discipline hurries to adapt to AI.
Days before we spoke, OpenAI revealed it had produced the solutions to 10 long-standing mathematics problems, some of which had confounded academics for decades. Like generative AI used to produce text and images or propose ideas in science and medicine, the technology learns patterns and connections from the vast amount of material it' …
Mark Zuckerberg doesn’t understand how to live
Recently, a man I was rock climbing with told me about how he'd used AI to make a motivational poster for himself, which he'd hung on his bedroom wall: a bear, walking a slackline over a canyon, holding a sign that said, "Do cool shit." I made what I hoped was a polite noise. What reaction was this man looking for? He probably hoped someone, maybe me, would say it was cool or inspiring. It seemed I was not the first person he'd told about this poster. "You know, it's funny," he said to me. "No one ever says anything about it."
I have been thinking about this now for several days. There's a sort of turducken of things that I find off-puttin …
Anker’s travel charger works in almost any country and is down to $20
If you’ve got international travel coming up, an adapter is essential for keeping your phone, earbuds, power banks, and other gadgets charged. Anker’s Nano Travel Adapter is one of our picks from our guide to the best gadgets for summer travel because it can charge up to five devices at once, yet it’s small enough to fit in the palm of your hand. It’s also available in black for just $19.99 ($6 off) at Amazon, Best Buy, and directly from Anker (with code WS7DV2BNB82J) matching its best price to date.
Anker Nano Travel Adapter (5-in-1, 20W)
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The Nano’s four built-in sets of prongs should keep you covered in “over 200 countries and regions,” according to Anker. It also features two USB-C ports and two USB-A ports, along with an AC outlet for plugging in a standard wall charger. A single USB-C port delivers up to 20W, which should be enough to get an iPhone 17 to 50 percent in less than 30 minutes. That’s not enough power to charge most laptops, making the USB ports better suited for smaller gadgets like phones, tablets, earbuds, and power banks. You can still charge your laptop, however, by plugging its wall charger into the AC outlet.
What’s more, it’s designed to take up as little space as possible. The adapter’s only an inch thick with its prongs folded in and, at 3.8 ounces, weighs less than a smartphone. Just keep in mind that the Nano doesn’t convert voltage, so you’ll want to make sure gadgets like hair dryers and electric razors support the voltage at your destination before plugging them in.