Lead Hacker

Illustration: Beatrice Sala The FBI has arrested an Alabama man who is accused of hacking the Securities and Exchange Commission’s X account in January. The indictment ( PDF ) alleges that 25-year-old Eric Council Jr. worked with co-conspirators to take control of the account and post a fake message from SEC Chair Gary Gensler about Bitcoin ETFs that caused the price of Bitcoin to jump by more than $1,000 momentarily. To carry out this scheme, Council is accused of creating a fake ID using the information belonging to the person in control of the SEC’s X account. He then allegedly tricked AT&T into providing a SIM card with the victim’s phone number and install it into a new iPhone he purchased. Finally, Council was able to gain control of the SEC’s account using... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/10/17/24272739/sec-fake-bitcoin-etf-tweet-fbi-arrest-eric-council

The new AirPods 4 deliver better sound and voice call quality than prior models. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge If you know where to look, you can often score discounts on Apple’s ever-popular AirPods. Although we’ve yet to see major deals on the new AirPods 4 and the updated AirPods Max , both the second- and third-gen AirPods can still often be found at a steep discount. The same goes for the original Max, which are nearly indistinguishable from the previous model aside from the addition of USB-C. Here, we’ve rounded up the best deals currently available on each model, including the second-gen and third-gen AirPods, both iterations of the AirPods 4, the latest AirPods Pro with USB-C , and the last-gen AirPods Max. The best AirPods (second-gen) deals Before they were discontinued alongside the AirPods 4 announcement, the second-gen AirPods were... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/21302051/best-apple-airpods-deals

Image: Jack Bullard for The Verge In Stardew Valley, you can usually only speak to characters a few times per day. This limitation has led to a number of mods that add things for them to say so that players can spend more time with their virtual pals. But like many games, Stardew recently turned to AI, resulting in the addition of a mod with the ability to have theoretically endless conversations with your favorite farm companion. “The reception has been a lot better than I initially thought [it would be],” says modder DualityOfSoul. In the comments on Nexus Mods, users have called it “brilliant” and “one of the best mods out this year.” To function, the mod plugs into OpenAI’s API. The implementation is impressive but limited in its own way. Every character... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/10/17/24268007/modders-ai-companions-stardew-valley-skyrim

Image: Square Enix A look at the first two chapters in the return of Max Caulfield. Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/10/16/24271682/life-is-strange-double-exposure-preview

The Nuio Flow keyboard features a “split design form factor for optimal hand positioning.” | Image: Nuio A new company called Nuio , founded by two brothers with backgrounds in design and manufacturing, is rethinking desk accessories with the goal of making our computers more comfortable to use. It’s debuting today with a collection of magnetic peripherals called Flow that’s centered around a wireless split keyboard, all designed to make it easier to find your perfect ergonomic layout, even if that’s constantly changing throughout the day. Tom Wilson, the CEO of Nuio (a combination of new and I/O), previously worked at companies including Apple, Google, and Frog Design, while Greg Wilson, the company’s CMO, spent years at Frog Design and the creative agency Digitas. The brothers cofounded Nuio with the goal of improving how we physically... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/10/15/24265475/nuio-flow-ergonomic-keyboard

Image: Nintendo Hackers released a collection of leaked data from Pokémon game developer Game Freak over the weekend, including personal information about employees. Game Freak — which develops the main lineup of Pokémon video games — confirmed the breach in a statement, saying (per a machine translation from Japanese) that it was the result of “unauthorized access to our servers by a third party” and dated back to August of 2024. Game Freak said the leaked personal information — which it characterizes as names and company email addresses — included around 2,600 items. As Polygon notes , however, the breach appears to include much more than employee information. Redditors and others say they’ve unearthed source code from previous games as well as unused... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/10/14/24270226/pokemon-game-freak-data-leak-confirmed