A hacker working for a US intelligence agency breached the servers of Booking.com in 2016 and stole user data related to the Middle East, according to a book published on Thursday. The book also says the online travel agency opted to keep the incident secret. Amsterdam-based Booking.com made the decision after calling in the Dutch…

Enlarge / The "Unable to activate Face ID" message that appears after swapping displays. Apple says it will back off its plan to break Face ID on independently repaired iPhones. The company's often contentious relationship with the repair community was tested again when "unauthorized" iPhone 13 screen replacements started resulting in broken Face ID systems. A…

Getty Images More than 1,000 Android users have been infected with newly discovered malware that surreptitiously records audio and video in real time, downloads files, and performs a variety of other creepy surveillance activities. In all, researchers uncovered 23 apps that covertly installed spyware that researchers from security firm Zimperium are calling PhoneSpy. The malware…

Enlarge / Let's see, you landed on my "Google Ads" space, and with three houses... that will be $1,400. Ron Amadeo / Hasbro Google is quietly enlisting the help of small businesses to protect the nearly $2 trillion company from antitrust regulations. In response to congressional bills like the "Ending Platform Monopolies Act," which would…

Enlarge / Decrypting the PS5 kernel doesn't involve opening the hardware like this, but it still serves as a good visual metaphor for how the system is now being "exposed." Hacking group Fail0verflow announced Sunday evening that it had obtained the encryption "root keys" for the PlayStation 5, an important first step in any effort…

Enlarge / A MacBook Pro running macOS Monterey.Apple Apple has fixed a Mac firmware bug that had bricked some users' Macs after they installed the macOS Monterey update, according to Apple reporter Rene Ritchie. The fixes apply to Macs with an Apple T2 chip, which covers most Intel Macs released in or after 2018. "We…

Enlarge / Gigabyte's $270 Z690 Aorus Elite AX Z690. Alder Lake motherboards come in all shapes, sizes, and prices, as long as you have at least $200 (and preferably, closer to $300) to spend. Gigabyte Intel's 12th-generation Core processors for desktops are here, and they're fast. Codenamed Alder Lake, these processors consume a lot of…

Enlarge / Author Sam Machkovech wears the Razer Zephyr mask out in public.Steve Haske For the past two weeks, I've carried the $99 Razer Zephyr mask with me pretty much everywhere I go—but that's not the same as wearing it. Razer's first foray into the world of high-tech wearables comes in the form of an…

Piaggio Fast Forward When Amazon introduced its home robot Astro earlier this year, it first showcased the robot following behind a person. It's a simple idea that has captured people’s imaginations with depictions in science fiction, like R2-D2 and BB-8 from Star Wars, and in reality, with research projects like DARPA’s robotic pack mule. Follower…

Enlarge / Öppna Skolplattformen hoped to succeed where Skolplattform had failed.Comstock | Getty Images Christian Landgren’s patience was running out. Every day the separated father of three was wasting precious time trying to get the City of Stockholm’s official school system, Skolplattform, to work properly. Landgren would dig through endless convoluted menus to find out…