Sentry Mode is a souped-up alarm that monitors the vehicle when parked and records any suspicious activity via the vehicle’s exterior cameras.

If you drive a Tesla, it might be worth checking out what the cameras can actually see because, according to former employees, you may be revealing more than you think.

What kind of “intimate” situations are we talking about?

According to the report, content shared internally ranged from the mundane, such as funny road signs and dogs, to the intimate, including people doing laundry or being nude (presumably not at the same time).

On at least one occasion, employees passed around a video of a child getting hit by a Tesla in a residential area. “The child flew in one direction, the bike in another,” the report states.

According to one ex-employee, videos like this spread via one-on-one chats “like wildfire” in Tesla’s San Mateo office.

Siri, play “Somebody’s Watching Me”

Officially, Tesla says that customer privacy “is and will always be enormously important to us.” Its Customer Privacy Notice states, “camera recordings remain anonymous and are not linked to you or your vehicle.”

By contrast, the ex-employees said that if owners consented to allow the vehicle to record on a whim, information like location data could easily be divined by anyone with access to the system.

“We could see inside people’s garages and their private properties[…] Let’s say that a Tesla customer had something in their garage that was distinctive, you know, people would post those kinds of things.” – Former Tesla employee (per Reuters reporting)

Smile for the camera

Tesla’s Sentry Mode has caused a legal stir in the past, with regulators in Europe, like the Dutch Data Protection Authority launching investigations into possible privacy violations.

That particular investigation ended in Tesla making changes to their vehicles’ cameras.

The controversial tech is integral in the carmaker’s push towards its Full Self Driving mode, which promises to replace human drivers one day. However, the feature remains firmly in beta mode.

At the time of reporting, Tesla had not responded to Reuters‘ request for comment.

Have any thoughts on this? Drop us a line below in the comments, or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

Editors’ Recommendations:

• Tesla drops prices on the Model S and Model X SUV
• Tesla opens up charging station network to more EVs
• Tesla’s decision to open its charging network is lame
• Is it cheaper to charge a Tesla at home or at a Supercharger station?

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One of the most visible forms of USB 2.0’s proliferation came from “thumb drives,” solid-state memory sticks that now can hold over 1 TB of data.

We previously reported how USB sticks can become weaponized, but until recently, that was more of a “1s and 0s” type of attack rather than the “call 9-1-1” variety.

An explosive news story

On Tuesday, at least five Ecuadorian journalists were sent unmarked USB drives originating from Quinsaloma, a subdivision of the South American nation.

After journalist Lenin Artieda of the Ecuavisa TV station in Guayaquil inserted the stick into his computer’s USB port, it exploded – leaving him with burns on his hands and face.

Local police believe the explosive material used in this attack is RDX or T4, a military-grade compound that “can be used alone as a base charge for detonators or mixed with other explosives, such as TNT.”

PSA: Do not plug in random USB drives

Fortunately for Lenin Artieda, the USB drive he inserted did not fully detonate — which could have been deadly.

Ecuador’s Interior Minister Juan Zapata said that similar devices were found in all five packages and that the bombs are “an absolutely clear message to silence journalists.”

For now, we’re going to stick to our old policy of just not picking up or plugging in any USB drives we see, even (and maybe especially) if it’s some form of street art.

Have any thoughts on this? Drop us a line below in the comments, or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

Editors’ Recommendations:

• USB-C is officially coming to the iPhone
• Someone bought a homemade USB-C iPhone X for over $85K
• This USB-C Card Reader is one of the quickest on the market
• USB-C will soon be mandatory for smartphones in the EU

The post USB thumb drives hide something far more dangerous: explosives appeared first on KnowTechie.

Once only available in the fevered dreams of science fiction writers, the lethal headset is now a physical thing.

The creator says that the “half that kills you” is working, while he hasn’t figured out the “perfect-VR half of the equation.”

Oh, the creator? None other than VR wunderkind, Palmer Luckey. Yes, that Palmer Luckey, the one who co-founded Oculus, the VR hardware company now owned by Meta.

The sci-fi trope headset is supposedly “a piece of office art” with Luckey saying he hasn’t “worked up the balls to actually use it [himself].”

He even plans to make it tamper-resistant, so it will kill the user if someone tries to remove the headset.

That admission does beg the question: under what situation would he (or anyone) willingly use the lethal headset?

Anime inspired this lethal VR headset

See, maybe Luckey’s creation of this abominable headset makes sense to him.

The inspiration for the device came from Sword Art Online (SAO), a 2000’s webcomic that turned into an anime, and then multiple video games, including a VR demo.

That last game demo is important because the whole plot of SAO hinges on a VR headset. In it, the creator of the SAO game in the webcomic also creates the NerveGear, a VR headset to play the game with.

The game gets through the beta stages, and thousands of players buy the hardware. Then, the creator locks them into the virtual world.

The headset has a superpowered microwave that can kill the user if they either die in game or try to take the headset off.

The popularity of SAO helped Oculus, especially in the Japanese market. Maybe Luckey created this headset as an homage to the series that helped his own non-lethal VR headset. Or, perhaps he’s just a loon.

Have any thoughts on this? Carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

Editors’ Recommendations:

• Apple’s AR glasses have reportedly been delayed
• Is God of War Ragnarök worth buying? Here’s what reviewers say
• Elden Ring: Everything to know about multiplayer co-op and PvP
• Diablo 4: Release date, classes, gameplay, and platforms

The post This VR headset explodes if you die in-game appeared first on KnowTechie.

No, you didn’t misread that. This piece of functional modern art costs $12,000. Porsche Design only made 500 of them for the entire world, but we imagine the target market is small.

The 911 Soundbar 2.0 Pro has enough oomph to go 0-60 in a really short time. The 2.1.2 virtual surround system has 300 watts of system power, 4K-compatible HDMI ports for input, Wi-Fi connectivity, and Bluetooth 5.0.

And don’t forget — the original Porsche 992 GTS exhaust system. That’s the internal name for the 911 GTS before it gets to the consumer market, and you can now have a piece of it on your wall.

Well, assuming you have $12,000 to spare, in a looming recession, with inflation out of control. Oh, and a wall able to hold 65kg (143.3 lbs).

You’ll have to be a purveyor of purloined Porsche parts to really enjoy this soundbar in your home. Even Dolby Atmos DTS-HD, Apple AirPlay 2, and Google Chromecast support won’t be enough of a draw for most.

Maybe this soundbar will appeal to true gearheads. It’ll certainly turn heads, just as much as the car that also uses that exhaust system.

Porsche Design isn’t the only company making oddball speaker systems. These options are a great way to decorate while hiding functionality so you can listen to music wherever you are.

It’s also not the only time Porsche Design has put an exhaust system on a speaker. The last version was $3,500, and featured 2.1 virtual surround and 200 watts of power.

Have any thoughts on this? Carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

Editors’ Recommendations:

• Razer launches new $99 Leviathan V2 X soundbar for PCs
• Vizio is going all-out on smart TVs and soundbars in 2023
• Review: Monoprice Soundstage 3 portable Bluetooth speaker
• Volvo will stop selling gas guzzlers by 2030

The post Porsche’s $12K soundbar features a 992 GTS exhaust system appeared first on KnowTechie.

No, I’m not angry with you. I’m just worried. You’ve always been a good, diligent worker. But now, I’m starting to see cracks in your sanity.

Yes, I’m talking about your keyboard idea. Look, we appreciate creativity at Google, but we also have limits. 

What were you thinking? No, I’m not angry. I’m asking you a very literal question. What actually went through your mind when you came up with the idea for a keyboard that’s literally one long row of keys?

Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should

Have you seen this thing? I mean, seriously. Have you held it in your hand? It’s like a bloody lightsaber. How are you supposed to type on this? It’s 5.4ft (1.65m) long. It’s longer than some people’s cars! 

Sure, it might work if you have a Christopher Lee-sized arm span. But if you’re a normal person with normal arms, it’s useless. 

Yes, I hear you. Two people can, theoretically, use this at the same time, like they’re reenacting that shit hacking scene from NCIS.

You can theoretically do a lot of things. But just because you can, doesn’t mean you should. Haven’t you seen Jurassic Park? 

I mean, in practice, how does that work? Every time you need a bit of punctuation, you have to yell to your co-worker to press the comma button?

Can we expect your productivity (and that of the poor dupe you’ve roped into this scheme) to fall to one sentence per day? 

I can’t really grumble about the name. The Gboard Bar sounds like an overpriced beachfront dive bar, but it doesn’t really rank in the hierarchy of crap tech product names. 

Remember that German MP3 player company in the mid-2000s? How it had a line of devices called “i.Beat” and then made a special edition called the “Blaxx?”

And how when you put both names together, it sounded really, really bad?

The Gboard Bar is generic, but it could be worse. Personally, I would have preferred to see a bit of commitment to the bit.

You’ve already made the most bonkers tech product since the iSmell. Why not call it something like “The Toblerone Typewriter?” 

I’m not trying to yell at you

I’ll cut to the chase. We won’t manufacture your keyboard. Google. We just killed Stadia, and people actually used that! Not many, but some. Probably.

Your five-foot keyboard has two potential users: Christopher Lee, who died in 2015, and Stretch Armstrong, who isn’t a real person. He’s a toy. I shouldn’t have to tell you this, but inanimate rubber objects don’t have credit cards. 

And I suppose it’s not a total waste. It might not be a good keyboard, but it’s a perfectly fine suppository for the guy who shut down Google Reader.

Have any thoughts on this? Carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

Editors’ Recommendations:

• New Das Keyboard 6 Pro is all business at $199
• New Google Search feature alerts you when it finds personal info
• How to enable haptic feedback on your iPhone keyboard
• How to request a refund for Google Stadia

The post Google’s new Gboard Bar keyboard is just a 5-foot row of keys appeared first on KnowTechie.

The company announced the feature on Wednesday at its Re:MARS conference, which is currently taking place in Las Vegas. The Re:MARS event is a showcase for Amazon’s AI tech. MARS itself is an acronym and stands for Machine Learning, Automation, Robotics, and Space.

Rohit Prasad, Amazon’s Head Scientist, said the feature could be used to replicate the voices of deceased relatives. In one demonstration, the reconstituted voice of an older woman is heard reading her presumed grandson a bedtime story. Watch it below.

Computers have long enjoyed the ability to mimic human voices. In fact, the technology is well established and increasingly commoditized.

In addition to the various commercial tools like Resemble AI and LyreBird, you can find several free open-source packages offering the functionality, with many based on the GPT-3 AI model.

This Alexa update merely builds on this. It lowers the barrier to entry dramatically, making it possible for anyone to create faithful renditions of their loved ones’ voices. But it’s not without its ethical questions.

The Thorny Ethical Questions

First, there’s the thorny issue of consent. I’m not discounting the possibility that people will gain a sense of comfort from being able to hear their loved ones’ voices. But would you want to be turned into a voice assistant after you die?

It feels almost like a discarded plot line from Black Mirror. You die and suddenly you’re encased in a small plastic sphere, dutifully performing any task barked at you.

Dead people can’t consent. Users have no way of knowing whether this feature goes against the wishes of their relatives. Additionally, how will Amazon determine whether a voice belongs to a dead person or a living person?

Again, the idea that someone could grab a one-minute snippet of my voice and permanently turn me into a subservient digital assistant is horrifying.

Consequently, there are the other more serious — and less philosophical — concerns.

The Problem of Vishing

As mentioned, the ability to make a computer sound like a person is nothing new. This Alexa update would simply lower the barrier to entry. With this in mind, it’s not hard to see how a malicious third party could weaponize this.

I’m talking about “vishing,” of course. Vishing stands for “voice phishing.” It’s a relatively new take on something most of us have witnessed, if not directly fallen victim to.

The premise is simple. Someone mimics another person’s voice and gets them to do something, like transfer a sum of money to an offshore bank account, or hand over their login credentials.

This approach is invariably devastating. For example, in 2021, scammers tricked a UK energy firm into transferring €200,000 (around $210,000) to a foreign bank under their control, after they successfully impersonated a company executive.

Speaking to the Washington Post, the company’s insurer described the terrifying accuracy of the deepfake used. “The software was able to imitate the voice, and not only the voice: the tonality, the punctuation, the German accent,” they said.

It’s reasonable to worry that, with this feature, Amazon is opening Pandora’s box with serious ethical and security ramifications. Without any guardrails, the consequences could prove dire.

Have any thoughts on this? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

Editors’ Recommendations:

• How to turn on follow-up mode on Alexa
• Google Nest cameras now work on any Alexa device with a screen
• Surprise! Amazon uses Alexa voice data to serve targeted ads
• How to call someone from Alexa and Amazon Echo

The post Amazon wants to make Alexa sound like your dead relatives appeared first on KnowTechie.

First conceived in 2015 and “built from the ground up with little ones in mind”; YouTube Kids was supposed to be a safe place. Video submissions are screened by both human moderators and artificial intelligence. They’re not doing a good enough job.

TTP found all kinds of objectionable, inappropriate content in the mix of videos on YouTube Kids. Some examples include videos talking about concealing firearms and “encouraging skin bleaching.”

READ MORE: Here are the secret emojis teens are using to buy drugs online

READ MORE: YouTube now lets you use your phone as a second screen

There were even videos talking about cocaine and crystal meth, and diet culture. I’m fairly sure we need to show body positivity to two-year-olds; not tell them that they should limit their serving sizes.

Content referencing Breaking Bad kept popping up, including themed cooking shows making fake meth. Minecraft creators also recreated scenes from the show. Even music videos referencing other hard drugs made it into the Kids app.

Other content found by TTP includes videos about skin bleaching, exercise videos emphasizing burning calories, and unboxing videos which lack the required FTC disclosures.

That last point is partly because YouTube Kids doesn’t have a place for video descriptions; where most YouTubers put their disclosures on the main site.

YouTube has removed or age-gated the flagged videos from the Kids app. Let’s hope they can stop these types of content from appearing in the first place.

Have any thoughts on this? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

Editors’ Recommendations:

• YouTube is adding picture-in-picture support for iOS users, but it’s not all great news
• How to send YouTube links as stickers in Snapchat
• Apple, Microsoft, and Google are working on a passwordless future
• Facebook intentionally blocked government pages in Australia

The post YouTube Kids exposed for suggesting drug and gun videos appeared first on KnowTechie.

First noticed by 9to5Mac‘s editor-in-chief Chance Miller, the OG HomePod is trending on eBay with some crazy pricing. Sealed units are going for anywhere north of $500 on average. Even used units with no box are still selling for over $200.

That makes the average price of an OG HomePod $375 over the last week, according to The Verge. That’s a 25-percent premium over the MSRP Apple set all those years ago. Not a bad return on your investment, if you’d kept one in its wrapping.

READ MORE: A new HomePod is reportedly coming later this year

I sold one in used condition just before the pandemic started and was happy to get just under the MSRP. Then again, it was taking up lots of space and the cash was appreciated.

Some of the listings even mention that they got Apple to replace their old HomePod with brand new, in-box units. That means the one you’ll be buying on eBay could be brand new, but you’re going to have to pay through the nose for one.

The real question is why? Sure, the Apple HomePod does pump out quality audio thanks to its over-engineered array of speakers. Maybe it’s because the HomePod mini isn’t quite room-filling enough.

Who knows, but the pricing is only going to get wilder. It’s not the first time a discontinued Apple product commanded more than its MSRP. That honor is reserved for the 2001 iPod, which sold for $20K.

Have any thoughts on this? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

Editors’ Recommendations:

• iPhone apps can still track you regardless of what Apple claims
• Apple’s upcoming mixed reality headset has been delayed…again
• This leak gives us a glimpse of Google’s upcoming Pixel Watch
• Microsoft finally has a Windows 2-in-1 that’s actually worth buying

The post Your HomePod is worth more than MSRP for some reason appeared first on KnowTechie.

To add to the chaos of the moment, commuters found that both companies had implemented surge pricing in the wake of the attack.

Some of the prices were ten times the usual rates, seemingly putting profits over people’s safety. Just look at the price of the Uber ride shared by Shannon McDonagh on Twitter.

READ MORE: Uber used a shady trick called a ‘kill switch’ to evade police raids

In case you think Uber was the only one, they weren’t. Lyft also implemented surge pricing yesterday morning, while the subways were still shut down.

READ MORE: Uber no longer requires you to wear a mask on rides

That’s not just an algorithm, that’s pure profiteering from the two largest ridesharing companies during a tragedy.

Uber has also told Insider that it will “refund customers who were charged surge pricing around Sunset Park in Brooklyn.” That’s a good response, after the fact, but it didn’t have to be like this.

How many people decided against getting to safety via Uber, due to the overblown surge pricing? How many Uber drivers bravely drove into the danger zone to pick up passengers, lured in by the promise of higher than usual fares? Is surge pricing automatic or does a human make the decision?

The thing is, it seems that after the initial outrage, Uber is still implementing surge pricing again this morning. This tweet from an NYC resident shows a $41.17 UberX trip into Brooklyn, while Lyft is charging $20.55 for the same pickup and dropoff points.

Lyft is also giving discounted rides in NYC, “while transit is affected.” Riders in NYC can use NCYHELP22 for two free rides, of up to $15 each. This code will work until 4/15/22 at 11:59 pm ET, for 1000 users.

Have any thoughts on this? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

Editors’ Recommendations:

• Uber adds planes, trains, and (rental) automobiles to its app
• New study shows that maybe Uber and Lyft actually aren’t better for the environment
• Halo is a new ridesharing service that remotely drops off a car for you to drive around
• GM and Honda are teaming up to make EVs that compete with Tesla

The post Did Uber really use surge pricing after the Brooklyn shooting? appeared first on KnowTechie.

The Android app uses AI to estimate the speed of any vehicle in its view, and it’s a terrible idea. It’s supposedly the brainchild of “a team of AI scientists with backgrounds in Silicon Valley companies and top UK universities.”

It is the perfect example of “your scientists were so preoccupied with whether they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.”

READ MORE: This eye-scanning app screens patients for Alzheimer’s and ADHD

Let’s break it down. For one thing, your crowdsourced speed data isn’t going to hold up in court. Not that you’d get anywhere near court; as only law officers can cite drivers for speeding.

READ MORE: Is the NewProfilePic app safe?

The developers say it could deter speeding, and lead to fewer serious injuries on the roads. A worthy idea, sure, but turning citizens into snitches never ends well for the populace.

The other terrible part about this app? You have to pay to use it. It works on a credits system. You get 20 credits for free at sign-up; then it’s £15 ($19.56 USD) for 1000 credits to continue policing the streets.

Yeah, it’s a pass from us on this speed trap app. It seems that the reviews from users of Speedcam Anywhere also see this as a passing fad, with the most common complaint being that it’s difficult to sign-up in the first place.

Maybe that’s for the best, and leave the speed policing to the actual police, yeah?

READ MORE: This app will pay you $5 a day to keep you from drinking

Have any thoughts on this? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

Editors’ Recommendations:

• Epic Games has a free app that scans your world into video games
• Spotify could be entering the NFT world
• Peloton Guide is a camera that tracks and analyzes your workouts
• Tinder now lets you run background checks on your sketchy matches

The post This speed trap app lets anyone take the law into their own hands appeared first on KnowTechie.