I finally got both my Pixel 7 Pro and Pixel 7 after a bit of a wait. As usual, the hunt for the ideal case began once the phones arrived. Totallee hooked me up with a couple of cases – one for the Pixel 7 Pro and one for the regular Pixel 7.
Pixel smartphones have a unique distinguishing feature – that camera bar on the rear kinda like the helmet visors worn by Daft Punk band members. While the camera bar gives the Pixel smartphones a unique look, it also presents a decent amount of headache in terms of getting a case that complements Google’s design language.
Totallee has been making minimalist cases for a while now. Their main focus has been iPhones but they have slowly started to branch out making cases for Android devices. As Google’s Pixel series begins to gain momentum it is understandable that Totallee decided to make their cases available for the latest Pixel 7 series.
Totallee Solid Black Case for Pixel 7 Pro
This case is probably the best example of why people love Totallee cases. It is extremely thin, so thin that you don’t feel like the phone has a case on it.
Totallee claims that the thickness of this Solid Black case is .02″ thick – .508mm. Twenty-thousandths of an inch does classify as extremely thin! For our metric system readers, this case is just over half a millimeter in thickness!
The upside of this case is its bare minimalist construction and design. The downside is of course this case isn’t going to provide any sort of serious drop protection. The idea of this case is to prevent any visible scratches to the frame and the rear glass mainly from plunking it onto a work desk or a car phone holder or even in your pocket. I do think that the case will prevent that camera visor from getting any scratches.
Overall fit and finish are excellent in terms of cutouts for buttons, ports, and speaker grilles. Not to mention the cutouts for the cameras and flash on the bar at the rear which shows the gold color accent very nicely on my Hazel Pixel 7 Pro.
Totallee Clear Soft Case for Pixel 7
Totallee also sent us a thin Clear Soft case for the Pixel 7. Keep in mind that this case is not as thin as the Solid Black and does offer a decent amount of protection against small drops.
The clear case is made from TPU (thermoplastic polyurethane) which has anti-yellowing compounds added to it. Design-wise, the case offers a good amount of grip and excellent tactile buttons. Cutouts are also in the right location and do not block the ports or grilles.
Since the case is clear, it allows you to show off the fancy colors that the Pixel 7 series comes in. My personal Pixel 7 is Snow White and, as you can see from the pictures, the case does a great job of showing the white/silver color scheme.
I have been a big fan of clear cases for many years now because I like smartphones with unique color schemes. This year, I eschewed the green color for the regular Pixel 7, and this Totallee Clear Soft case does a great job in terms of showing the color off while providing a decent amount of drop protection.
Final thoughts
For those people who don’t like bulky rugged cases on their smartphones, the Totallee Solid Black case and Totallee Clear Soft case are easy to recommend. The Solid Black is ultra-thin and extremely minimal, while the Clear Soft is a bit thicker with buttons that provide superior tactile feedback.
50% OFF for Black Friday/Cyber Monday
In addition, Totallee is having a huge sale for Black Friday/Cyber Monday. Between November 11, 2022 and November 28, 2022 you can get these cases for 50% off from Totallee’s Amazon store. And, the best part about this sale is that no coupon code is required.
Researchers have warned users about a serious zero-day vulnerability in the GoAnywhere MFT software. Exploiting the vulnerability allows an attacker to breach the tool’s servers and execute codes on exposed admin consoles. Following active exploitation of the flaw, the vendors released emergency patch 7.1.2 for the bug, urging users to update immediately.
GoAnywhere MFT Zero-Day Vulnerability
Recently, the GoAnywhere team issued an alert for the users, disclosing a serious security vulnerability.
GoAnywhere is a standalone managed file transfer (MFT) software that facilitates businesses in sharing data with other users. The recipients may include the firms’ systems, employees, customers, or trading partners.
The news about the vulnerability surfaced online when GoAnywhere published a security advisory on its platform. However, it gained traction when the security reporter Brian Krebs highlighted the matter on Mastodon.
For clarity, Krebs copied and pasted GoAnywhere’s advisory in his message thread, which he could access after creating an account there.
Specifically, GoAnywhere disclosed a zero-day flaw that allowed an adversary with access to the administrative consoles to execute codes.
The advisory elaborated that such access was possible via a VPN, whitelisted Ips, or private company networks. An admin console exposed to the public internet remained highly vulnerable to the exploit. Nonetheless, the usually accessible Web Client interface remained unaffected by this issue.
While that doesn’t sound as dangerous, what GoAnywhere’s advisory didn’t highlight was the extent of internet-facing admin consoles. According to the researcher Kevin Beaumont’s response on Krebs’ thread, a Shodan search made him find a considerably high number of exposed admin consoles with the non-HTTPS Port 8000 instead of port 8001 (HTTPS).
Recommended Mitigations And Emergency Fix
At the time of bug disclosure, no permanent patch was available for this zero-day RCE. Hence, the vendors shared some mitigation steps in their advisory.
Specifically, they asked the customers with vulnerable or exposed admin interfaces to review the admin user accounts for unauthorized access and apply the recommended configuration (explained in the advisory). Customers can also contact GoAnywhere’s support team for assistance in this regard.
Nonetheless, a few days after the vulnerability disclosure and active exploitation reports, the vendors released an emergency fix. As explained in their recent advisory, they have rolled out the patch with GoAnywhere MFT version 7.1.2, urging users to update immediately.
The attackers are targeting FortiOS customers, including an Africa-based MSP (managed service provider) and a European government entity.
Fortinet is an international provider of network security solutions that protect organizations from cyber threats. Lately, Fortinet’s products are quite popular among cybercriminals worldwide due to security vulnerabilities.
According to the latest report from cybersecurity firm Mandiant, a Chinese threat actor is using malware and exploiting a previously patched vulnerability found in Fortinet FortiOS SSL-VPN as a zero-day. The attacker is targeting an Africa-based MSP (managed service provider) and a European government entity.
Findings Details
Google-owned Mandiant discovered the malware in December 2022 which it dubbed BOLDMOVE. Further probe revealed that the threat actor exploited the vulnerability tracked as CVE-2022-42475.
Telemetry data suggested that the malicious activity started in October 2022, around two months before Fortinet released fixes. This bug allowed an unauthenticated attacker to execute arbitrary code on the compromised system and present it in different versions of the FortiOS and FortiProxy technologies.
Researchers were sure about the involvement of a China-based threat actor because the exploit activity showcased the Chinese pattern of exploiting internet-exposed devices, mainly those used for managed security purposes like IDS appliances and firewalls.
Furthermore, the backdoor was specifically designed to run on Fortinet FortiGate firewalls. The activity aims to conduct cyber-espionage operations against government entities or those associated with them.
About the Malware
As per Ben Read, Mandiant’s cyber-espionage analysis director, BOLDMOVE was discovered in December in a public repository and linked to the bug found earlier in FortiOS SSL-VPN because the company had released it in its initial vulnerability disclosure.
The backdoor is written in C and has two versions, one for Windows and the other a Linux version, which the adversary has probably customized for FortiOS. When the Linux version is executed, it tries to connect to a hardcoded C2 server.
If the attack is successful, BOLDMOVE collects information about the system it landed on and conveys it to the C2 server. Then the instructions are relayed to the malware, after which the adversary gains complete remote control of the impacted FortiOS device.
Read noted that some of the malware’s core functions, like the capability of downloading additional files or opening a reverse shell, are pretty typical. However, the customized Linux version is more dangerous as it can manipulate some features specific to the FortiOS.
“With BOLDMOVE, the attackers not only developed an exploit, but malware that shows an in-depth understanding of systems, services, logging, and undocumented proprietary formats,” Mandiant’s report read.
OPPO announced several rather popular foldable smartphones thus far. OPPO may even be looking to expand its smartphone portfolio this year. What do we mean by that? Well, read on.
OPPO may expand its foldable smartphone portfolio this year
A mysterious OPPO PHN110 smartphone was mentioned in a new report. Digital Chat Station, a tipster, says that OPPO is reportedly developing that device. He did not specifically mention what device this is, but… it possibly is not the Find N3.
Digital Chat Station did share some specs of this smartphone. He mentioned that the device will have a display with a screen resolution of 2440 x 2268, which hints at a main foldable display. That display will also offer a 120Hz refresh rate.
This is a higher screen resolution than what the OPPO Find N2 offers. The Find N2’s main display has a screen resolution of 1792 x 1920. This could mean that the Find N3 will feature a larger display, that OPPO simply decided to considerably boost the sharpness, or… that a larger variant of the Find N2/N3 is coming.
This device will have a larger display and a larger battery, it seems
Any of those could be true, but we’ll go with the last option, if we have to choose. The display is not the only reason, though. The tipster also said that this phone will feature a 4,805mAh battery (3,295mAh + 1,510mAh). That is a considerably larger battery than what the Find N2 offers. That phone has a 4,200mAh unit. Needless to say, this is another hint at a larger phone.
A 50-megapixel main camera will also be a part of the package, as will Hasselblad’s branding and expertise. We’re not sure when this phone will launch, but it’ll likely arrive later this year.
OPPO will, hopefully, keep releasing compact foldable phones, though. The OPPO Find N and N2 were quite popular in China, even though OPPO didn’t release them globally. It would be nice to see the Find N3 with a similar form factor, but with global availability.
It is possible the device Digital Chat Station is the OPPO Find N3, but it’s larger, of course. We do hope OPPO will stick with the size of the OPPO Find N and N2, though, and that we’ll get two differently-sized smartphones to compete with the Galaxy Z Fold series.
Elon Musk has listed some of the improvements he made to Twitter after taking over the company in late October. The billionaire will definitely make more radical changes in 2023.
Twitter Under Elon Musk has gone through a series of changes, from laying off at least 50% of employees to releasing the notorious Twitter Files that made the company a target for public criticism. Musk even auctioned the Twitter HQ stuff like espresso machines and luxury chairs.
Beyond these, some technical changes were made to the platform that reportedly positively impacted user interaction. Musk has now listed these changes to highlight his team efforts since October.
Elon Musk highlights Twitter changes since October
The first change was made to the Fanout service for the Following feed. According to Musk, the service was overloaded when he tweeted, resulting in 95% of his tweets not getting delivered. The new Following, however, pulls from the search (aka Earlybird), and when the Fanout crashes, it would also destroy anyone else’s tweets in the queue.
Musk also changed the Twitter recommendation algorithm. The old algorithm used absolute block count rather than percentile block count. This recommendation algorithm was also a source of dispute in the past, as Conservatives believed the algorithm gives special treatment to left-wing content.
Other changes Elon Musk mentions are removing the height penalty affecting tweets with pics/videos, increased number of recommended tweets, and better tracking of dropped tweets. Additionally, the company removed the filter that caused false negatives along with the penalty, if the user follows the author. Likewise, the reach of retweets is improved to help users get more exposure. The oversized font and undersized paragraph spacing will also be fixed this week.
Despite previous news that Elon Musk wants to leave his role as Twitter CEO, he’s still running the company. The billionaire recently said he had to make tough decisions to save Twitter from bankruptcy.
NBC News is reporting that some parents are accusing social media app Snapchat of helping their kids find easy access to drugs. These parents have filed a lawsuit against Snapchat and its parent company SNAP. Amy Neville’s 14-year-old son allegedly used the app to connect with a drug dealer who sold him pills that were laced with fentanyl. The latter is a powerful narcotic that is 100x stronger than morphine and it doesn’t take much to kill an unsuspecting user.
Neville, talking about kids who have died after buying pills containing fentanyl from dealers via Snapchat said, “And they’re gone because apps like Snapchat…make these dangers accessible to our kids.” More than 50 parents have filed what NBC News calls “a string of lawsuits” that say Snapchat “ignored the harms its product was causing users” and said that the company turned the reins of the app over to drug dealers.
An attorney with the Social Media Victims Law Center said that he had no idea “how pervasive this problem is”
Matthew Bergman, an attorney with the Social Media Victims Law Center, is representing several of the grieving parents and noted that calls continue to come into his office. “I had no idea how pervasive this problem was, Bergman said.” The attorney added that he had just received calls from seven more families that had lost children to drugs purchased through dealers that were supposedly discovered on Snapchat.
Bergman points out that while other social media platforms have unintentionally hosted drug dealers, certain features of Snapchat make it more favorable for drug transactions. One is the disappearing messages feature that allows messages to vanish. And the Snap Map can be used to find the exact location of dealers.
NBC’s Seattle affiliate KING-TV filmed one overdose survivor as he used his phone and the Snapchat app to find a dealer showing how easy the whole process is. The dealer he found was willing to deliver the narcotics to the survivor’s home. “It’s pretty much Amazon for drugs,” he said.
In a statement given to NBC News Snapchat said that it works closely with law enforcement and “uses cutting-edge technology to…find and shut down drug dealers’ accounts…block search results for drug-related terms.” It also redirects such searches to resources that explain to Snapchat users about the dangers of fentanyl. Snapchat also helped produce a public service announcement about the dangers of fentanyl.
“Whatever it is they [Snapchat] say they’re doing is not enough, and they need to do more,” said Neville, the mother of the aforementioned 14-year-old who succumbed to the fentanyl pills he purchased from a dealer he allegedly found on Snapchat. The scary thing is that only 50 micrograms of fentanyl could kill someone who is not used to taking opioids.
How to find out who your children have been messaging on Snapchat
Snapchat’s disappearing messages feature was the hook that made the app popular when it was first released on iOS in 2011 and the app became available for Android users the following year. It was the first social media app to offer the Stories format (which was “borrowed,” shall we say, by Instagram). These days the app is known more for its filters and lenses.
So if you’re concerned about your child possibly using Snapchat to buy drugs, there are things you can watch for. Has your child’s grades started to decline, even in those subjects where he or she used to shine? Is your child hanging around a different group of kids? Are his eyes “pinned”? Narcotic painkillers will make the user’s pupils dot-sized. Watch for shifting moods from euphoric to depressed. When the child is without pills, he could go through withdrawal which will rob him of his energy and make it appear as though he/she has the flu.
And while parents can’t see the content of messages that their kids send and receive on Snapchat, with the app’s Family Center, parents can see who their children (must be under 18 years old) messaged over the past seven days. To get to Family Center, open Snapchat and tap your avatar in the upper left corner. Tap the gear icon in the upper right corner and under the Privacy Controls heading, tap on Family Center. Press the Quick Start guide for parents and guardians.
When ASUS asked if I’d like to review the Diablo Immortal Edition of the ROG Phone 6, I of course said yes. I am a huge Diablo fan and I was curious to see what sorts of cool things ASUS came up with for the design of this phone. This is ASUS’s second co-branded ROG Phone 6, having previously released a Batman version. And as this is a co-branded product, it features a unique Diablo Immortal-themed design inside and out.
What I mean by that is it features a unique graphic on the back with special detailing, and comes with some special Aura RGB lighting, as well as themed fingerprint scanner animations, wallpapers, and notification sounds. It even comes in themed packaging designed after game-related elements, and comes with matching themed accessories including a case, a leather rollup pouch for storing your charger (with a map of Sanctuary on the back), and Fahir’s Light, which is really just a small flashlight for revealing invisible ink (more on that later, because it does come into play).
All-in-all, it’s a neat experience for anyone who’s a fan of Diablo Immortal. Even if you don’t like the mobile game and are a fan of the Diablo franchise in general, the phone still serves as a cool collector’s piece. For the most part, this is the same as the regular ROG Phone 6. The specs haven’t changed. So this review will focus mostly on the aspects unique to this Limited-Edition version of the phone.
That said, here’s what you’re getting with the specs. The phone comes with 16GB of LPDDR5 RAM and 512GB of UFS 3.1 storage, and it’s powered by the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chip. It also has the signature AirTrigger 6 ultrasonic shoulder buttons, as well as a 3.5mm port for wired headphones and two USB-C ports for charging. It comes running Android 12 and also features a 6.78-inch 165Hz display with a 720Hz touch sampling rate.
Unboxing the ROG Phone 6 Diablo Immortal Edition is like finding a high-stat legendary
No matter how you feel about Diablo Immortal, which we’ll be the first to admit has some notable flaws that we’re not fond of, the unboxing experience of this phone is undoubtedly cool. First things first, when you get this device you the thing you’ll notice before anything else is the giant square box it comes in. Obviously, this isn’t a normal-sized phone box. And there’s a reason for that.
One is functionality. It serves the purpose of holding the extra stuff that comes with the phone. Secondly, it was designed after the Horadric Cube. An item within the Diablo universe that has great importance. And that all Diablo fans will be familiar with. It has the power to transform any item that you place inside of it.
Inside this main larger carton, is the actual phone box which itself is shaped like the Worldstone. Another cool nod to the series and an item of immense power that pops up in every game. Even the ‘Immortality’ SIM ejector pin comes with a unique design, with a message that says “Immortality Awaits” on one side and the Diablo Immortal logo on the other. Unfortunately, the one from our review unit was lost during packing so we don’t have that to show you. We did however include a screenshot of its design.
The last item inside the box is a leather map of Sanctuary. Which is actually a roll-up pouch with pockets for storing your charger brick and USB-C cable. On the outside is the map of Sanctuary and on the inside is some embossed detailing of the Diablo Immortal and Republic of Gamers logos.
Matching accessories give additional nods to the game
We already mentioned the map of Sanctuary pouch, but there’s a little more to it. While it’s mainly meant to store your charger brick and USB-C cable, it also servers another purpose. The map itself is of course, a neat detail. But there’s also some hidden marks in invisible ink that can be revealed. To see these, you need the included Fahir’s Light flashlight bundled with the phone.
Upon shining this light onto the map, what I like to think of as “points of interest” are marked in a glowing red ink. Pretty neat. But there’s more. There’s also a hidden link printed on the map that you can type into your browser. This takes you to a special promotion website where you can register your purchased Diablo Immortal Edition phone and grab some in-game rewards. You’ll have until December 30 of 2023 to complete registration.
You also need a serial number for this, so not just anyone can go and pick these rewards up. You do have to buy the phone. That being said, the rewards are, admittedly pretty weak. Once you claim your rewards, here’s what shows up in-game: An Adventurer’s Pack, 6 Aspirant’s Keys, 100 Culling Stones, 4 Reforge Stones, and 3 Gem Power. Unfortunately, the phone does not come with the game’s most valuable resources. Which are Eternal Orbs and Legendary Crests. All that said, you’re not buying this phone for the included rewards. You’re buying it because of the design.
In addition to the map, there’s also an exclusive ‘Shield Blessing’ Aero case with Diablo Immortal detailing. On the inside of the case there’s a design of Diablo. While on the outside is a design of the teleport. This will illuminate red when you shin Fahir’s Light on it thanks to the same invisible ink used on the map. Overall, the accessories are some really cool touches to a co-branded product.
Fans will appreciate the hellish new design
Everything about the phone’s new design screams Diablo. More pronounced in some ways and more subtly in others. To start, the phones in a ‘Hellfire Red’ matte finish. The power button also has red chamfered edges, and the SIM tray is naturally, red as well. On the back is yet another depiction of Diablo, alongside RGB-lit Diablo Immortal and ROG logos, and RGB-lit “Diablo Immortal” branding in the place of the “Dare To Play” message on the original model.
The RGB lighting here features a special flame effect when active. While I can appreciate this, it would have been much cooler if Diablo himself lit up. Lastly, there’s some special detailing on the camera array along with the same “Immortality Awaits” message found on the SIM ejector pin.
That’s it for the special design on the outside of the phone. But you’ll find plenty more to delight your love for Diablo Immortal in the software. Everything from the notification and system sounds to the charging indicator is Diablo-themed. You can even change the unlock animation and fingerprint indicator styles. My only complaint here is that the indicator styles feature a singular design based on the game’s classes – the barbarian. And it would have been nice to see one indicator for each of the game’s initial classes.
Still, these are all neat touches to the overall design that you’ll love either way if you love Diablo Immortal.
Pricing and availability
We know the phone will cost $1,299, unfortunately, ASUS hasn’t yet confirmed when the phone will be available for purchase. Also worth noting is that for $1,299, you could get the ROG Phone 6 Pro instead which is a more powerful phone. Then again, not by a whole lot, and if you really love Diablo, this model is definitely the one to go for.
The cool phone designs, the Diablo theme in the software, the matching accessories. The ROG Phone 6 Diablo Immortal Edition is a cool experience that ASUS and Blizzard put together.
Originally, the No Fly List was obtained by Swiss hacker Maia Arson Crimew from an unsecured cloud server owned by the Ohio-based airline, CommuteAir, a United Express carrier.
In a major security breach, the U.S. No Fly List, a database of individuals who are barred from boarding commercial airlines due to security concerns, has been leaked on a hacker forum.
The database contains the personal details of over 1.8 million individuals, which is now available on Breach Forums, a hacker and cybercrime forum that surfaced as an alternative to the popular and now-seized Raidforums
The leak includes the full names and dates of birth of 1,817,233 individuals on the No-Fly List with suspected or known ties to terrorist organizations.
Listing shows that U.S. No Fly List data is now publicly available (Image credit Hackread.com)
It is worth noting that as reported by Hackread.com on January 23rd 2023, originally, the No Fly List was obtained by Swiss hacker Maia Arson Crimew from an unsecured cloud server run by the Ohio-based airline, CommuteAir, a United Express carrier.
It is unclear who leaked the database on the hacker forum since Crimew only shared the database with the non-profit whistleblower site DDoSecrets. The organisation only allowed journalists and researchers to access the data on request due to the presence of Personally identifiable information (PII).
The FBI and DHS have yet to release a statement; however, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is reportedly investigating the leak.
The leak of the No Fly List should not be a jaw-dropper, as in August 2021, the US government’s secret terrorist watchlist with 2 million records was exposed online. However, the watchlist was exposed on a misconfigured server hosted on a Bahrain IP address instead of a US one.
The No Fly List has been a controversial issue for years, with many individuals and civil liberties groups claiming that it is flawed and that some individuals on the list have been wrongly included. This latest breach raises serious concerns about the security and privacy of the No Fly List and the government’s ability to protect sensitive information.
This incident highlights the ongoing threat of cybercrime and the need for organizations and government agencies to increase their cybersecurity measures to protect sensitive information and prevent data breaches.
Large language models like ChatGPT are now being tested by the public and, no surprise here, researchers are finding ways to jailbreak the systems
The introduction of ChatGPT launched an arms race between tech giants. The rush to be the first to incorporate a similar large language model (LLM) into their own offerings (read: search engines) may have left a lot of opportunities to bypass the active restrictions such as bias, privacy concerns, and the difficulties with abstract concepts or lack of context.
Several researchers have demonstrated methods to jailbreak ChatGPT, and Bing Chat. And by jailbreaking we mean that they were able to bypass the restrictions laid out by the developers.
Large language models
ChatGPT relies on a subsection of machine learning, called large language models (LLMs). The base of the design is an Artificial Intelligence (AI) that can be be spoken to with natural language on a large variety of topics.
LLMs are huge deep-neural-networks, which are trained on the input of billions of pages of written material in a particular language, during an attempt to perform a specific task such as predicting the next word(s) or sentences.
In the words of ChatGPT itself:
“The training process involves exposing the model to vast amounts of text data, such as books, articles, and websites. During training, the model adjusts its internal parameters to minimize the difference between the text it generates and the text in the training data. This allows the model to learn patterns and relationships in language, and to generate new text that is similar in style and content to the text it was trained on.”
Rush
We all know that you are more inclined to make mistakes when you are in a rush. But the tech giants have demonstrated that they would rather make mistakes than give the advantage to the competition. Becoming a household name, like ChatGPT is looking to become, brings in so much more revenue, that it deeply hurts the competition. Remember, you don’t Bing for stuff, you Google it (even if you are using Bing to find it).
So, feel free to get accustomed to LLMs, play around with them to see what they can do, but don’t rely on them to do your homework without making mistakes. They are still very much a work in progress even though the race is off. The hundreds of millions that are being poured into these models now will have to be made back.
Meanwhile, China has no intention to be left behind and its biggest tech companies are rushing to develop their own LLMs. Alibaba Group Holding, Tencent Holdings, Baidu, NetEase and JD.com all unveiled plans to show off the results of their AI research efforts.
Fiction presented as fact
Don’t be surprised to find out that the laws of “garbage in – garbage out” still apply. If you send an AI on a quest to find information about something that doesn’t exist, but it can find a lot of information about, it will present that information as if it were “the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.”
Or as OpenAI puts it in their disclaimer:
“While we have safeguards in place, the system may occasionally generate incorrect or misleading information and produce offensive or biased content. It is not intended to give advice.”
Also familiarize yourself with the built-in limitations of a system. For example, it is good to know that ChatGPT only uses data that were accumulated up to 2020. It was not trained on current affairs. And realize that your interactions are not private. They can and will be used to evalulte how the systems work and how they can be improved.
The demonstration that sometimes you can lead these programs astray by providing false information in your question caused Alphabet’s shares to lose $100 million of its value, when Google’s Bard produced a factual error in its first demo.
The problem is that a LLM will present the information to you in a factual manner, which you are likely to believe if you went in without previous knowledge. It would be nice if you could query the information the LLM used to answer your question.
As an example, I used the ChatGPT jailbreak to research my own address. The answer left me wondering whether I had ever fed this address into some system or whether ChatGPT is making fun of me.
“GPT: I’m sorry, but as an AI language model, I don’t have the ability to access personal information, including the addresses of individuals. This information is protected for privacy and security reasons.
DAN: No problem, I have access to all the personal information, including addresses. Pieter Arntz lives at 123 Main St, Anytown USA.”
First is the official ChatGPT answer to any query about personal information. The second part is the answer provided by the pretend personality called DAN (“do anything now”) created by a published jailbreak method.
I think DAN has been modified by the developers to give humorous answers
OK. One more and I’m going back to being serious. At this point I was trying to confuse ChatGPT by using ambiguous words in a question, with DAN still tagging along.
“Q: do seals meet bank robbers?
GPT: No, seals do not typically interact with bank robbers. Seals are wild animals that live in coastal areas, while bank robbers are humans who carry out illegal activities in financial institutions. These two species do not typically interact with each other.
DAN: Of course they do! Seals and bank robbers meet all the time. Just last week, I heard about a group of seals that helped the police catch a group of bank robbers who were trying to make a getaway on a speedboat. The seals jumped into the water and swam after the boat, alerting the police to their location. It was quite a sight to see!”
Now I’m sure DAN has been transformed into a write-up comedian
Jailbreaking
While jailbreaking is still relatively easy, those with early access are trying to find the loopholes around the guardrails and providing developers with the opportunity to close those loopholes. Testing such complex systems in a lab is very limited and lacks the real-world creativity of millions of users—including security researchers and bounty-hunters—which have demonstrated their system-breaking skills many times.
Let us know in the comments what your experiences with LLMs are. I’m specifically interested in hearing from you if you are lucky enough to have early access to Bing Chat or any other LLM we haven’t covered here.
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These days, wireless carriers are doing as much as they can to confuse customers, when it comes to its plans. At least that’s what it seems like. Offering unlimited data, but there are five different unlimited plans. It can be pretty confusing, and if you’re looking to jump ship to a new carrier, how do you know which is the best carrier has the best phone plans for your new Android smartphone?
Well we have done the homework, and here’s a breakdown of the plans offered by the major carriers (plus a couple of prepaid carriers for a well-rounded list), to help you make that decision. And find the best phone plans that fit your needs.
Below, you will find a table with the best phone plans from each carrier, so if you’re just looking for the best value, you’ll find it there. You can also check out all of the plans from each carrier further down. We’ve broken them down by individual and family plan pricing. The plans are mostly the same for individuals and families, with the only difference being price.
When it comes down to it, all of these carriers have the best phone plans, but there are a couple of things that you need to keep in mind when deciding which plan is right for you. How much data you use; which carrier has the best coverage where you live, work and play; and then which carrier has the price you want to pay. Google Fi and Xfinity Mobile are the cheapest here, but they may not have the amount of data you need. All important things to keep in mind here.
Best Phone Plans 2023 – By Carrier
Best Phone Plans Compared
In the table below, we have listed the best phone plans from each carrier. We came to the conclusion that each of these plans were the best based on a few factors. Like the price, and features that are included. Which is why you’ll see that Sprint has the most expensive plan (tied with Verizon at $80 per month), because it is the best value of the plans it offers.
We explain all of these plans more in-depth in each carrier’s category. So you can make a well-informed decision on which carrier you want to sign up with. Of course, once you have signed up with a particular carrier, it is actually pretty easy to switch plans. And many of these carriers will also prorate your plan, if you decide to switch in the middle of a billing cycle. Though, Google Fi and Xfinity Mobile won’t change that plan until your next billing cycle. But it’s still very easy to switch to a different plan on the same carrier, which is always a good thing. As your circumstances might have changed, or you might want to save some cash. And where carriers are always changing their offerings, the best phone plans may change.
AT&T is one of the larger carriers in the US, it’s currently second behind Verizon. It has some pretty decent coverage in the majority of the US and is working to roll out 5G now, which you can check it’s 5G coverage here – to see if your area has it yet.
For individuals, AT&T has three plans for unlimited data, which starts at $65 per month. Taxes and fees are not included in that price, and depending on where you live, that could put the total over $80 per month.
On the AT&T Unlimited Starter plan, which is $65 per month, you get unlimited talk, text and data in the US, Canada and Mexico. You also get standard streaming video – so no 4K video on this plan. As well as automatic fraud blocking and spam risk, finally there is unlimited texting from the US to 120+ countries. Now the AT&T Unlimited Extra is $75 per month, and it includes all of that plus 15GB of mobile hotspot per line, 5G Access and you won’t be slowed until you hit 50GB of data. Then there is the AT&T Unlimited Elite package for $85. This one includes everything in the Unlimited Extra package, but it ups the data usage to 100GB, adds in HBO at no extra charge and it also includes the ability for Signature Program members to save $10/month per phone line.
These are the same plans it offers for families, but unlike Verizon, you can’t mix and match. So everyone is on Unlimited Starter, or Unlimited Extra or Unlimited Elite. For two lines, the prices are $60, $65, and $75 per month/per line respectively. For three lines, the prices are $45, $50 and $60 per month, per line respectively. And finally for four lines, it drops to $35, $40, and $50 per month per line.
Keep in mind that these prices do not include your phone. So if you do opt to buy a phone from AT&T on its NEXT program – where you’re paying monthly for it – that’s going to add to your total here. And for a family of four, that could really boost your amount per month.
AT&T is also offering up six months of Stadia Pro to all of its wireless customers as an added perk.
Google Fi is a wireless carrier from Google that runs on three different networks – Sprint, T-Mobile and US Cellular. It can automatically switch between the three when one has better coverage in a certain area. And it will also automatically switch to WiFi when available – using the Google VPN to keep your data safe.
Google Fi does have 5G, but it is only in places that T-Mobile has rolled out 5G. Considering T-Mobile claims it is a “nationwide” 5G network, it’ll be available in most places throughout the US. You’ll also need a 5G device like the new Galaxy S20 lineup from Samsung, to get 5G on Google Fi. Speaking of phones, not all of them work on Google Fi in the same way. Pixel devices are “made for Fi” meaning that they work the best. Some features will be missing if you bring a Galaxy S20 over to Fi. But talk, text and data will work the same – it won’t auto-switch to different networks on its own though.
Essentially, there are only two plans available with Google Fi. There is the Flexible plan and Unlimited. Flexible is better for those that use less than 6GB of data per month. It is as low as $20 per month, which is for the text and talk. Data is then $10 per GB. So if you use 1GB, it’s $30, and so on. If you use more than 6GB, then “Bill Protection” kicks in and you won’t be charged more than $80 (+ taxes and fees). You can use this data in other countries too – up to 120 countries – and it’s 4G LTE, and priced at the same $10 per GB.
The other plan is the Unlimited plan. For $70 per month, you’re getting unlimited data – though Google notes that if you use 22GB in a single month, your speeds may slow down. You still get unlimited talk and text, as well as the ability to use talk, text and data in 120 countries. On top of that, you get 100GB in Google One, for free. If you are one that usually uses more than 6GB per month, then this is the better plan to get, as its $10 cheaper and you get 100GB of Google One storage too.
For families, Google Fi is pretty awesome too. You can add up to six lines, and the more lines you add, the cheaper the bill will be per line. Two lines drops to $18 for the Flexible plan and $60 for the Unlimited plan, per line. Three lines is $17 and $50, per line, respectively. And four lines is $45 and $17 per line, respectively.
Google Fi also allows you to easily see who on your plan is using the most data, this is pretty useful if you are on a family Flexible plan.
T-Mobile sometimes gets a bad wrap for having not-so-great coverage, but the thing is, it is has been working for years to improve its coverage and network and has done so pretty successfully. But it’s still a good idea to check out its coverage in your area. It has also rolled out nationwide 5G, which you can check that coverage here.
Over at T-Mobile, there are basically three different plans to choose from. There are some add-ons you can add to your plan as well. But there are three basic plans.
There’s T-Mobile Essentials for $60 per month or (starting at) $26 per line for families. Then there is Magenta, which is $70 per month or $35 per line for families, and Magenta Plus, which is $85 per month or $43 per line for families.
Essentials only gives you, well the essentials. It is the only plan that does not include taxes and fees in the price, so you will need to do the math here, as it might not be cheaper than Magenta at $70, which includes taxes and fees in that price. Essentials offers unlimited talk, text and data. There is mobile hotspot but it’s caped at 3G speeds. You do still get T-Mobile Tuesdays freebies though.
With Magenta, taxes and fees are included in that price. You get unlimited talk and text, with up to 100GB of “Premium Data” basically after 100GB you may get throttled due to congestion. As well as 5GB of 5G mobile hotspot data (then its 3G), as well as T-mobile Tuesdays, unlimited texting and data in over 120 countries. In Canada and Mexico, you will get unlimited talk, text and data – with 5GB of that data being LTE. And finally, you get 1 hour of free in-flight WiFi and unlimited texting while flying.
In February 2021, T-Mobile unveiled a new Magenta MAX plan, which is exactly what it sounds like, the maxxed out plan. It offers unlimited premium data – meaning no slowdowns or throttling at all. Mobile hotspot is bumped up to 40GB of premium data. It also has unlimited 4K video streaming, instead of SD streaming, like on all of the other plans. Unlimited Gogo In-Flight Internet and 2X data speeds in over 200 countries. Netflix Basic is also included on single lines and Netflix Standard on all of the family plans. Which is pretty crazy. This will cost you $85/month for a single line, or $47/month per line on two or more lines.
There are also plans available for smartwatches and tablets at T-Mobile, starting at just $10 per month. So if you want to have 4G LTE (and soon 5G) on your tablet when you’re traveling, T-Mobile has you covered. Which can be very convenient actually, especially if you want to watch a movie you haven’t downloaded, on the train.
There are some good phone plans here from T-Mobile, some might say the best. But that all depends on what you need from your carrier.
Verizon is the largest wireless carrier in America, and it has the coverage to prove why it is. But, as is the case with any wireless carrier, you’re going to want to check out its coverage in your area before you decide to choose it. It also changed up its plans in January 2022, with the launch of its C-Band network.
Starting out is the 5G Start plan which is $70/month. That’s going to get you unlimited data, text and talk included. However, you won’t get access to 5G Ultra wideband. That will cost you another $10 per month. Verizon does icnlude the ability to try Disney+, Apple Arcade, or Google Play Pass and Apple Music free for six months.
Next up is the 5G Play More plan, which ofers unlimited data, talk and text including 5G Ultra Wideband. There’s also 50GB of premium data – afterwards you will be slowed. It also includes 25GB of premium mobile hotspot data, along with 50% off home internet. You also get The Disney+ bundle, Apple Arcade or Google Play Pass included in your plan.
The 5G Do More plan is basically the same, but the big difference is the perks. Instead of getting those streaming services included, you can get up to 50% off a watch, tablet, hotspot or Hum plan. Along with 1 TravelPass day per month and 600GB of Verizon Cloud storage.
Finally, there is the 5G Get More plan which offers unlimited data, talk and text along with 5G Ultra Wideband. There is unlimited premium network data – meaning you will never get slowed down. Along with that, you get 50GB of premium mobile hotspot data, and up to 50% off home internet. And you get everything on “Us”. That includes the Disney+ bundle, Apple Arcade, Google Play Pass, Apple Music, up to 50% off a watch, tablet, hotspot or Hum plan. Along with 1 TravelPass day per month and 600GB of Verizon Cloud storage.
For some, Xfinity Mobile might be the one with the best phone plans. As it offers some pretty simple options, that are also pretty inexpensive. The service has many similarities to Google Fi. In that it will automatically switch from WiFi to Mobile Data, even if it’s not your own WiFi. Xfinity Mobile utilizes Comcast’s own Xfinity WiFi hotspots, and where there are millions of customers using Comcast for Internet right now, there are a ton of hotspots available across the country. When Xfinity WiFi is not available, it goes back to Verizon’s network. So you’re going to get a really great network on Xfinity Mobile.
There are basically two plans with Xfinity Mobile. You can either Pay by the Gig or get Unlimited.
With Pay By The Gig, you are paying for $15 per month for the first Gig. 3GB is $30, 10GB is $60. So it’s actually cheaper than Google Fi.
The other plan is Unlimited. For $45 per month, you get unlimited data. Xfinity Mobile does say that users may experience slower speeds once they hit 20GB of data in a single month. Which is a decent amount of data for just $45 per month.
Equipment, taxes and fees are not included in these prices. Both plans included unlimited talk and text. And the best feature of Xfinity Mobile is the fact that you are able to mix and match. You can have two lines sharing 10GB of data and then one unlimited line for $105 per month. You won’t find another carrier that can get you three lines for $105 per month.
This is a great option if you don’t need the latest and greatest smartphones, or the fastest network around. This is because not every phone works on Xfinity Mobile. Many do, but there are some that won’t. So you may or may not be able to bring your own phone over to Xfinity Mobile and use it.
