Gmail gets experimental ‘Help me write’ tool on mobile

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Gmail gets experimental ‘Help me write’ tool on mobile
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Google‘s new “Help me write” tool is now available in Gmail mobile apps for Workspace Labs testers. Both Android and iOS versions of the app are widely getting the new writing assistance tool, which debuted during the Google I/O conference last month. It has been available in Gmail and Google Docs on the web since its launch. Docs mobile apps haven’t picked up the feature yet.

Gmail mobile apps get the Help me write tool through Workspace Labs

Help me write is an AI-powered writing assistant for Google apps such as Gmail and Docs. The feature is currently experimental and only available to users who have signed up for early access through Workspace Labs. It rolled out the new tool to the web version of Gmail and Docs immediately after the announcement last month. The feature is now coming to mobile apps, starting with Gmail.

Like on the web, the Gmail mobile app greets you with an introductory message that explains the new feature and also notes that it’s experimental. Once you’re in, you’ll find a “Help me write” button in the bottom-right corner of the compose field (it appears in the bottom toolbar on the web). Tapping it brings up a new text field that lets you enter a prompt for the generative AI tool, with Google providing some suggestions of its own. When your prompt is ready, the “Create” button makes the AI work its magic.

A few seconds later, you’re presented with an AI-generated email based on your prompt. If you like it, you can proceed to enter it in the email compose field. If not, Gmail lets you regenerate a new draft. You can also leave feedback by selecting the thumbs-up/down buttons. Once you have selected a draft, you get options to further refine it in one or more ways. You can Formalize the draft (make it more formal), Elaborate it (add more related details), shorten it, or update the draft with creative details using the I’m Feeling Lucky option.

Gmail also lets you write a new draft from here. This will replace the previous version. You can do this as many times as you want until you get the desired result. Note that the AI-generated email has bracketed area that you should delete and enter specified details, such as your name, company name, and other specified information. The “Help me write” tool works similarly in Google Docs on the web. Docs mobile apps should soon get it. If you want to try this feature, you can sign up for Google Workspace Labs here.


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AI-powered Google Search could affect web information ecosystem

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AI-powered Google Search could affect web information ecosystem
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Google, the company that dominates the global search market, is testing a major change to its search interface that could have serious implications on the open web. The so-called Search Generative Experience (SGE), which uses AI to “generate” answers for your queries, pushes organic search results down the order. Meanwhile, the AI-powered SGE grabs information provided by human experts across various sites (often a direct copy of the text), clubs it all together, and passes it off to you as its own.

The new search experience shows fewer organic results

The current Google Search experience gives you a list of related web articles for anything you search. It highlights snippets from some articles that it determines as the most-related answer to your query. If you scroll down, you’ll find many more results organically derived from the web depending on the keywords you used for your search. But with the SGE, Google’s AI covers most of your screen, at least the first page of your search results. As pointed out by Tom’s Hardware, the SGE covered the first 1,360 vertical pixels of the display even for a simple search for “best bicycle”.

Google Search AI experience 2

This section contained shopping links and advice about things you should consider when shopping for a bicycle. Google pushed all organic results below it. For its part, the company does show a few (three) related links next to its “AI-generated” response, at least sometimes. However, as the publication notes, they aren’t always accurate or highly related links. Certainly not as accurate as organic search results. They aren’t even the top organic results. Instead, these are links to the articles from which Google’s AI is copying information to generate its response.

For example, a search for “best CPU” gave Tom’s Hardware links to articles from Maketecheasier.com, Nanoreview.com, and MacPaw.com next to the SGE text. But none of those are the top results in the current search experience. Worst yet, two of those articles don’t even provide lists of the best CPUs. One is a comparison of two CPUs while the other provides a guide on “how to choose the best processor for your MacBook”. That probably won’t be the intent of most people searching for the “best CPU.”

Google Search AI experience 1

Plagiarism without proper linking to web articles

There’s an even bigger problem with the SGE. The text that Google is passing off as an AI-generated response is usually copied from the linked articles. Sometimes it’s rephrased while some other times, it’s a word-to-word copy. The problem here is that most users won’t click those links because they have already got the information they were looking for. The information was originally provided by a human expert after careful research of a product. But the SGE blocks readers from going into the original source.

Google defended this behavior by saying that “generative responses are corroborated by sources from the web”. It added that “when a portion of a snapshot briefly includes content from a specific source, we will prominently highlight that source in the snapshot”. However, the SGE doesn’t tell users it’s a snippet from a web article, something the current search experience does. Instead, it makes the response look like generated by AI. There’s a button in the top right corner to see the source of the information provided in the SGE text, but it’s too much of a hassle.

All of this is a massive problem. For publishers, Google is driving less traffic to websites by relaying information from articles directly as part of the search result. For readers, it’s a bot telling you which is the best CPU with full authority, even though it can never evaluate a CPU on its own. It’s passing off the results of research from human experts as its own. This is blatant plagiarism and also a contradiction to Google’s E-E-A-T (Expertise, Experience, Authority, and Trust) standard used to “decide which websites and authors should rank highly in organic search.”

Google Search AI experience 3

Google is still experimenting with the AI-powered search experience

Google says that it is currently experimenting with this new search experience where AI-generated responses surface ahead of organic results. Things may change by the time it’s ready for a public launch. But as it stands, the SGE doesn’t appear to prioritize driving traffic offsite to web articles, something the company claims is a priority. If this approach becomes the default search experience, it could severely affect the web information ecosystem. With no traffic coming their way, top publishers may leave the open web while, effectively degrading the quality of information on the web.


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Spotify owes a $5.4 million fine to the EU. Can you guess what for?

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Spotify owes a $5.4 million fine to the EU. Can you guess what for?
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Spotify is one of the top-choice apps when it comes to music streaming. The company has had a ton of experience and it has just begun to expand its feature-set. Podcasts and ebook support are just two of the new reasons the platform gives you to install it on some of the best phones out there.

But then it mishandled user data, so the EU had to fine it for $5.4 million, as AndroidHeadlines reports. Oops?

The European Union spent a long time arranging the specifics of how companies of all shapes and sizes are to handle user data. We won’t bore you with the specifics, but the requirements are hefty and ranging from where the data should be handled to how it should be stored.

This, of course, is regarding the type of data that can be associated with an individual in order to recognise them as a person. When not handled correctly, this GDPR data may be used for nasty things like mass marketing or scams, so it is actually an important topic.

The fine in question comes from the Swedish Authority for Privacy Protection and is based on a complaint from way back in 2019. Talk about a blast from the past! It turns out that at one point, Spotify failed to provide customer data upon request, which is part of a user’s rights as per EU regulations.

But then it gets even better worse: Spotify failed to explain how they were using the data in question, which raised tons of concerns. And for context: this isn’t anything weird for the EU. When a company fails to give a good reason why it needs a certain type of data, a lot of EU citizens will be eager to pursue their rights.

In addition to the fine, Spotify is expected to present the complete set of requested data to the individual who submitted the complaint — even though at this point years have passed — along with the written process for data handling.

The Swedish PDA’s investigation concluded on the bright side, as it found that Spotify is doing things properly. That, however, won’t save the company from the aforementioned fine, so Spotify responded with intent to appeal this decision in the future.


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New EMFI Attack Against Drones Leads to Complete Take Over

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New EMFI Attack Against Drones Leads to Complete Take Over
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EMFI Attack Against Drones

Based on the recent reports by IOActive, Drones, also called Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), are vulnerable to code injection, which would result in gaining complete access to the firmware and core functionality of the drone.

Drones have been used in many industries like aviation, agriculture, and law enforcement. They are often operated remotely, which offers an attack surface for threat actors to gain control over them.

CSN

Stealing a drone can offer much more sensitive information for an attacker and can also pave the way for implanting malware on the system.

According to the report, it is possible to exploit a drone by injecting a specific Electromagnetic glitch during a firmware update that could result in complete control over the drone.

EMFI Attack Against Drones

DJI drones are considered for testing purposes as they offer many security features in their products like Encrypted firmware, Trusted Execution Environment (TEE), Secure Boot, etc.

Furthermore, the whitepaper published by IOActive also covered Attack Surface, Technical Background, First and Second Approaches, and their Mitigations.

Attack Surface

Source: IOActive

Backend

There are multiple attack surfaces for a drone in a wireless network. Like any other system with a backend, drones are also made up of servers vulnerable to SQL injections, SSRF, and many other backend-based attacks.

Mobile Apps

Today’s drones are controlled by mobile applications mostly, which can be a great attack surface for threat actors.

The vulnerabilities include operating system and application-based vulnerabilities.

Radio-Frequency

RF-based attacks like interference, jamming, spoofing, and other attacks are also possible on these UAVs.

DJI drones also have OcuSync, a protocol for low latency between the controller and the drone. 

OcuSync protocol can automatically switch between multiple communication channels to have stable and strong connectivity.

It can also be used in environments where large radio interference is present.

Physical Device

Physical access to a drone can give a wide range of information to threat actors like firmware and other sensitive information.

The whitepaper mentioned that the technical information for this attack vector relied on three main types of side-channel attacks,

Timing Attacks

This attack relies on targeting the time taken for the completion of an operation which can be used for other attacks like breaking cryptographic implementation and guessing PIN numbers.

Power analysis

The voltage path for the chip is tracked and monitored for Simple Power Analysis for a targeted operation. Later, this can be used to recover secrets like cryptographic keys.

EM Analysis

An EM probe can retrieve power-based information, which can be less invasive. However, it must be kept very near to the drone chip.

EMFI (ElectroMagnetic Fault Injection)

The drones are susceptible to an EMFI, which can disrupt the hardware while processing some operations due to the EM probe attack.

This can change a lot of behavior of the CPU of the drones resulting in a gain complete takeover of the drone.
IOActive has published a complete attack report and mitigation steps.

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Nothing Phone (2) could offer notably different design, CEO hints

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Nothing Phone (2) could offer notably different design, CEO hints
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The Nothing Phone (2) is coming next month, and according to the company’s CEO, it could deliver a notably different design. Carl Pei did not flat-out say this, but he did hint at it, in a way.

The Nothing Phone (2) could offer a notably different design, according to Nothing’s CEO

What exactly happened? Well, Twitter users have been sending him one specific meme, intensively, it seems. It’s a meme in which a guy is unpacking the same shirt he already has on him, one is representing the Phone (1) and the other the Phone (2).

Carl Pei reshared that image on Twitter, while adding: “To everyone sending me this: just you wait and see!”. If that’s not an obvious hint of a different design, then we don’t know what is.

Things do get a bit complicated here, though. The Nothing Phone (2) design did surface in CAD-based renders earlier this month. Soon after that, Carl Pei called that info ‘fake’. The tipster who shared it, @OnLeaks, is usually spot on when it comes to such info, so he was a bit confused at first.

Tipsters are convinced it will look very similar to the Nothing Phone (1)

He went in to confirm the info, and he’s still convinced that his leak is accurate to a high degree. There may be some changes to it, but not anything major, let alone something that would justify the use of the word ‘fake’.

He said that such a term is “greatly exaggerated”. Max Weinbach also said that the leaked renders are “97% of the way there”, suggesting that the design is close to the final one.

If the two tipsters are accurate, then Carl Pei is simply trying to hype up the phone. On the other hand, perhaps he missed the mark entirely. We’ll have to wait and see.

The Nothing Phone (2) will become official on July 11. This will become the company’s second smartphone. The first-gen model arrived in July last year, and it really did manage to attract attention with its design.


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iPhone 15 & 15 Pro could get a major price hike

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iPhone 15 & 15 Pro could get a major price hike
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Apple’s iPhones are not exactly cheap, so every news regarding a price hike is concerning. The latest one, however, is borderline shocking. Why? Well, it claims that the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max will get a major price hike.

The iPhone 15 Pro models could get a major price hike

How much are we talking about here? Based on the information from a Wall Street analyst, Dan Ives (via CNBC), both phones could cost up to $200 more than current-gen models. Needless to say, that’s a major difference.

The iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max are already very expensive. The iPhone 14 Pro starts at $999, while the iPhone 14 Pro Max starts at $1,099. If we add $200 to each price tag, that means the iPhone 15 Pro could cost $1,199, while the iPhone 15 Pro Max could set you back $1,299.

Do note we’re talking about starting price tags here. Models with more storage will be even more expensive than that. Do note that it’s possible the price hike won’t be as high, it’s possible we’re talking about $100-200.

Dan Ives does not have the exact price tags, but he’s usually great at predicting them. He did, however, say up to $200, not exactly $200, so… we’ll have to wait and see.

The reasons behind it were not shared

What’s the reason behind this? Mr. Ives did not share any details regarding that, but the new iPhones will get some notable improvements, so that could be the reason behind the change.

They’re rumored to come with new frames, made out of titanium. On top of that, both phones are expected to offer improved cameras, especially the iPhone 15 Pro Max, as it’s expected to include a periscope telephoto camera for the first time ever in an iPhone.

All iPhone 15 units will ditch a Lightning port for a Type-C port as well, and so on. This is just a rumor at this point, we won’t know anything for sure until Apple confirms it. The iPhone 15 series is expected to launch in September.


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Save $130 on the OG Apple Watch SE at Walmart

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Save $130 on the OG Apple Watch SE at Walmart
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Apple makes some of the best smartwatches on the market, and its most bang-for-your-buck model, the Apple Watch SE (2020), just became even more affordable at Walmart. A massive discount of $130 brings this wearable health and fitness companion at nearly half of its usual price!

Get it right here!

The Apple Watch SE (2020) in a nutshell

The first generation of the Apple Watch SE comes with Apple’s S5 chipset, which is the same chipset that the Apple Watch 5 came with. It also comes with 32GB of internal storage an 1GB of RAM.

Design-wise, the OG Apple Watch SE is made out of an Ion-X strengthened glass front and ceramic/sapphire crystal back, with an aluminum frame combining the two. The front glass is protecting a Retina LTPO OLED display with a peak brightness of 1000 nits, measuring at 1.78 inches.

You can opt for the version that supports mobile coverage and eSIM if you want to be able to go out without your phone and still have service for contactless payments and calls.

The battery of the Apple Watch SE (2020) holds out about a day (or a little more depending on how you use it), and it charges wirelessly.

As for software, even though it is now three years old, Apple still supports its first SE wearable, and users will continue to enjoy major watchOS updates for at least two more years, so you are safe in terms of new features and optimizations for the near future.

Is it worth buying the Apple Watch SE in 2023?

Absolutely! To put it simply, the Apple Watch SE offers you almost everything that the more expensive and newer models do, and for much less money at that. It might be a little slower at times, but it is definitely not often enough to ruin the user experience. The almost 50% discount we have listed here makes it an even easier option to recommend!


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LockBit Ransomware Gang Earned $91 Million

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LockBit Ransomware Gang Earned $91 Million
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LockBit Ransomware Gang

LockBit was one of the most widely used ransomware in 2022, targeting both small and large organizations irrespective of their size or net worth.

The threat actor group deploying this LockBit ransomware was working as a RaaS (Ransomware-as-a-service) based group with affiliates working anonymously worldwide.

CSN

The group is also said to have recruited affiliates for deploying the ransomware in various industries like government, agriculture, education, etc. The group also conducted some publicity-generating stunts to attract more people to their group.

Recent reports from CISA (Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency), the group has reportedly earned a revenue of $91 million in ransom in the United States itself, making it one of the highest-earning malware groups in history.

Attack Timeline

LockBit was discovered as part of an activity in the ABCD ransomware in 2019.  In 2020, the first LockBit-named ransomware was found in the Russian Language. The ransomware has been upgraded to version 2 in June 2021 and version 3 in March 2022.

According to the reports, 18% of the ransomware incidents reported between 1st April 2022 to 31st March 2023 included LockBit ransomware, whereas 22% of ransomware reports in Canada in 2022 were related to the same ransomware.

In addition, the FBI reported that there have been 1700 successful attacks in the US using the LockBit ransomware.

Exploitation of CVE(s)

The affiliates recruited by the LockBit ransomware group were exploiting older and newer vulnerabilities. Some of the very common vulnerabilities exploited by the affiliates were,

  • CVE-2023-0669 –  Fortra GoAnywhere Managed File Transfer (MFT) Remote Code Execution Vulnerability 
  • CVE-2023-27350 – PaperCut MF/NG Improper Access Control Vulnerability
  • CVE-2021-44228 – Apache Log4j2 Remote Code Execution Vulnerability
  • CVE-2021-22986 – F5 BIG-IP and BIG-IQ Centralised Management iControl REST Remote Code Execution Vulnerability
  • CVE-2020-1472 – NetLogon Privilege Escalation Vulnerability
  • CVE-2019-0708 – Microsoft Remote Desktop Services Remote Code Execution Vulnerability
  • CVE-2018-13379 – Fortinet FortiOS Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) Virtual Private Network (VPN) Path Traversal Vulnerability

Mitigations

  • Keep all the OS, hardware, firmware and software up to date
  • Control and restrict all the network connections
  • Apply local execution policies for applications
  • Disable unused ports
  • Investigate abnormal activity and other activities
  • Use Web Filtering
  • Maintain Offline backups of data and encrypt them
  • Create a recovery plan

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Motorola moves Razr+ pre-orders up a day & AT&T has an incredible deal

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Motorola moves Razr+ pre-orders up a day & AT&T has an incredible deal
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Motorola claims that they “couldn’t hold in the excitement” another day, and has moved up pre-orders to June 15. So starting tomorrow, you can pre-order the new Razr+. It will still ship on June 23, as was originally announced earlier this month.

Along with that news of the earlier pre-order date, AT&T has also announced a pretty incredible deal for the new Razr+. You’ll be able to get the Razr+ for just $5/month, without a trade-in. That’s $5 per month for 36 months. Which comes out to a final price of $180. That’s a pretty incredible deal for a phone that has an MSRP of $999.

There are a couple of caveats here, like it does require an eligible unlimited plan. And if you cancel or leave AT&T before the 36 months are up, you’ll forfeit the remaining bill credits. So you will need to stick with AT&T for three years.

The Razr+ might be the flipping phone to buy this year

This is really the third-generation of the Razr, since Motorola brought it back as a foldable, and it looks less like the traditional Razr, but it might be the best flipping phone yet.

New this year, Motorola has added a larger front-display. It’s so large on the Razr+, that it is the entire front-side of the phone. It’s about 3.6-inches and for some reason, it’s a 144Hz display. While the inside is a 6.7-inch 165Hz 22:9 aspect ratio display. With almost no crease, as we saw from our hands on a few weeks ago. It also has the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1, and a 3800mAh battery inside. That might seem small, but it is a huge upgrade over the previous Razr which was just 2800mAh.

It comes in just one SKU, which is the 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage model. So there’s plenty of storage available here for most people.


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New Twitter CEO outlines her plans for the social media platform

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New Twitter CEO outlines her plans for the social media platform
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The new Twitter CEO, Linda Yaccarino, is now making moves to improve the platform’s services. She also shares the same vision with Elon Musk, which is to make the platform an area to share thoughts from varying backgrounds. In a recent tweet thread, Linda Yaccarino highlights her plans for Twitter now that she is in control of its affairs.

As she takes over control of Twitter from Elon Musk, most users of the platform might expect some changes. Well, that might not be the case, as she repeatedly made references to Elon Musk in the tweet explaining her vision for the social media platform. This shows that she concords with Elon’s ideas for the platform before purchasing it.

This isn’t bad, as they are great ideas that aim to promote freedom of speech on Twitter for all users. In her words, Linda Yaccarino says that “Twitter is on a mission to become the world’s most accurate real-time information source.” She also expresses optimism for the platform’s dream of becoming “a global town square for communication.”

Linda Yaccarino takes on the role of Twitter’s CEO to promote accurate information for users

As Linda Yaccarino takes on the role of Twitter’s CEO, there comes an important mantle. Ever since he purchased the social media platform, Elon Musk has held this mantle to the best of his abilities. Now he is handing things over to someone with the technical know-how when it comes to running Twitter and ensuring its users are well taken care of.

Linda Yaccarino was the advertising chair for NBCUniversal, a position she evacuated a few weeks ago. She also worked with the Trump administration, occupying the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition office. Her achievements and prowess throughout her career make her an ideal choice to fill in Musk’s position at Twitter.

But what are her plans for the social media platform, will there be any changes to the affairs of things? Well, her goal with the social media platform isn’t to bring any change but to build on the already established aims and objectives. This involves becoming a platform that promotes freedom of speech to all users, regardless of their background.

The entirety of this goal is known as Twitter 2.0 and users globally are already getting new features that help in its actualization. With Linda Yaccarino working together with Elon Musk and the team at Twitter, the platform hopes to make some needed improvements. In the coming months, netizens will see how the new Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino is working to achieve the social media platform’s goals.


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