The Federal Trade Commission has banned spyware maker SpyFone and its CEO Scott Zuckerman from operating in the surveillance industry. The company has also been ordered to delete the data it allegedly illegally obtained and to inform targets of the stalkerware apps that the software had been covertly installed on their Android devices.

The FTC claims SpyFone "secretly harvested and shared data on people’s physical movements, phone use, and online activities through a hidden device hack." It says SpyFone sold real-time access to that information, which could have enabled domestic abusers and stalkers to track their targets. Some of those who bought the spyware were allegedly able to see live locations of devices and view targets' emails, photos, web browsing history, text messages and video calls.

The agency says SpyFone gave its customers instructions on how to install the app secretly and ensure the device user was unaware their activity was being monitored. The spyware had to gain root access to devices for some functions, which the FTC said "could expose the device to security risks."

What's more, SpyFone allegedly didn't secure the data it harvested. The FTC contends that the company didn't have basic security measures in place. "The stalkerware apps’ security deficiencies include not encrypting personal information it stored, including photos and text messages; failing to ensure that only authorized users could access personal information; and transmitting purchasers’ passwords in plain text," the agency said. That enabled a hacked to obtain personal data of around 2,200 people in 2018, according to the FTC.

Commissioners voted unanimously to ban SpyFone and Zuckerman from the surveillance industry. Specifically, the company and its CEO are prohibited from "offering, promoting, selling or advertising any surveillance app, service or business."

In 2019, the FTC banned Retina-X Studios from promoting and selling spyware apps unless it was able to prove the services were only being used for legitimate purchases. This time around, the agency is letting the public comment on the SpyFone and Zuckerman decision.

Commissioner Rohit Chopra said in a statement that the FTC action doesn't absolve SpyFone and Zuckerman from any criminal liability. "While this action was worthwhile, I am concerned that the FTC will be unable to meaningfully crack down on the underworld of stalking apps using our civil enforcement authorities," Chopra wrote. "I hope that federal and state enforcers examine the applicability of criminal laws, including the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, the Wiretap Act and other criminal laws, to combat illegal surveillance, including the use of stalkerware."

Sony's finally ready to show off more of what it's working on for PS5 for this holiday season and beyond. The company will hold a PlayStation Showcase on September 9th.

The presentation, which will run for 40 minutes or so, will feature games from PlayStation Studios as well as other developers. After the main stream, there will be more info from some of the studios that are part of the showcase.

One thing you shouldn't expect during the event is any news about the next PS VR headset, which won't arrive until next year at the earliest. However, that leaves a lot of cards on the table. Perhaps we'll get a proper look at the God of War sequel, learn more details about the PS5 (and Xbox Series X/S) version of Grand Theft Auto V and maybe even hear about whatever's next for Naughty Dog. Sony might also reveal when the PS5 software update it's beta testing (which unlocks the SSD expansion slot and has some user interface changes) will roll out to everyone.

In any case, we won't have to wait too long to find out. The showcase starts at 4PM ET next Thursday. You can watch it on the PlayStation Twitch and YouTube channels, and Engadget will have coverage of all the biggest news that spills out of the stream.

Watching HBO Max shows and movies on a TV is getting a little easier for Vizio owners. SmartCast TVs now have a native HBO Max app, so you won't need to cast content from another device. Along with accessing HBO Max the old-fashioned way by pressing buttons on your remote, you can use voice navigation via the SmartCast Mobile app or Voice Remote with Vizio Voice.

To mark the app's debut, Vizio is using its SmartCast home screen to showcase some of the free episodes HBO Max offers to entice viewers to sign up. You can get a taste of shows including HBO heavyweights like Game of Thrones and Euphoria, as well as a few Max Originals. The titles will be on rotation, so there'll be other shows to sample later.

HBO Max has been steadily expanding its app to more platforms. Along with YouTube, it landed on Spectrum TV this week. They joined Netflix as Spectrum Guide's first streaming apps. The reception to HBO Max's smart TV apps hasn't been great though. WarnerMedia reportedly plans to overhaul them in the coming months.

Brendan "PlayerUnknown" Greene, best known as creator of PUBG: Battlegrounds (previously known as PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds), is going independent. His PlayerUnknown Productions studio has spun out from PUBG owner Krafton, which will hold a minority stake in the company.

“I’m so very grateful to everyone at PUBG and Krafton for taking a chance on me and for the opportunities they afforded me over the past four years,” Greene said in a statement. “Today, I’m excited to take the next step on my journey to create the kind of experience I’ve envisaged for years. Again, I’m thankful for everyone at Krafton for supporting my plans, and I’ll have more to reveal more about our project at a later date.”

Greene left the core PUBG team in 2019 and moved from Seoul (where Krafton is based) to Amsterdam to lead the PUBG Special Projects division. PlayerUnknown Productions is "exploring the systems needed to enable massive scale within open-world games," according to a press release. The only game listed on the studio's website is Prologue, for which Greene released an atmospheric teaser in late 2019, so it seems he's taken that game with him.

Greene's departure from Krafton is notable, given that he's effectively the father of the battle royale genre that's dominated the gaming landscape over the last few years. Before PUBG, Greene came to prominence as a developer of battle royale mods for ARMA 2 and H1Z1.

CD Projekt Red hasn't revealed exactly when it will roll out the long-promised PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S upgrades for Cyberpunk 2077 and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. However, it says it's still on track to release them by the end of the year. The studio listed "late 2021" as the timeframe for those upgrades in its financial report for the first half of the year.

The timeline still fits with the Cyberpunk 2077 roadmap that CDPR published in January. At the time, it said the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S upgrades would arrive in the second half of the year. The studio also said at WitcherCon in July that a free current-gen upgrade for those who own The Witcher 3 on PS4 and Xbox One will arrive this year too, along with free DLC — perhaps in time for season two of the Netflix's The Witcher series in December.

After the abysmal launch of Cyberpunk 2077, which by all accounts ran poorly on the base PS4 and Xbox One, CDPR has released several patches and hotfixes to improve stability and performance. The game was in such a bad state at the outset that Sony swiftly yoinked Cyberpunk 2077 from the PlayStation Store, and didn't allow the game back until six months later (albeit with a warning about performance on the base PS4).

The most recent Cyberpunk 2077 patch included the first batch of promised free downloadable content. However, this only amounted to cosmetic items and a new look for Johnny Silverhand, Keanu Reeves' character. There are still expansions to the game on the way, though.

Still, given the widespread spate of game delays we've seen over the last year or so, including a couple of delays to Cyberpunk 2077 itself, its encouraging that CDPR is still confident about releasing the current-gen upgrades for both games in the next few months.

Between around a third and 40 percent of CDPR's developers are currently working on Cyberpunk 2077 support and the current-gen upgrade, according to a chart in the financial report. It's hard to tell, since the chart doesn't include actual percentages. In any case, that's down from over half of the team as of the end of 2020 as the studio gradually shifts employees to other projects. One of those is the first expansion for Cyberpunk 2077, which doesn't currently have a release window.

CD Projekt Red

Microsoft will hold its next event on September 22nd, where it will show off the latest Surface hardware. The event starts at 11AM ET.

The company didn't explicitly say this is about Surface, but the signs are clear. A teaser image shows a side-on look at what appears to be a Surface Pro. Microsoft usually holds a hardware-centric event in the fall. On top of that, the event takes place two weeks before Microsoft releases Windows 11, and what better way to showcase the latest OS than on shiny new hardware?

As for what to expect, we might see a refreshed Surface Duo. Recent leaks suggest the Surface Duo 2 will have an upgraded camera system and it may be available in black. The Surface Book lineup is due for an upgrade, and, given the teaser image, it won't be surprising if we learn what's next on the Surface Pro front. In any case, Engadget will cover all the big news out of the event.

No Man's Sky just celebrated its fifth anniversary, and to underscore just how far the game has come since its rocky debut, Hello Games has released the 17th major update for the space exploration and survival sim. The headline attraction of the Frontiers update is the addition of alien settlements, which you can take charge of and rule however you like.

You'll be able to name towns, expand them, defend them against Sentinels, welcome visitors, resolve disputes between residents and even commission festivals. As with the rest of the game, interiors will be procedurally generated. You'll be able to see the population's overall happiness level, earn income from the town and gain insight into the intentions and thoughts of residents, all of which add Sims-esque layers to the game.

Hello Games

Base building has been revamped with a grid-based menu system and automatic contextual placement of features like windows and arches. There are more than 250 new base parts, including timber, stone, alloy and decorative pieces. You can even place parts inside of each other.

You now have 15 save slots instead of five, and you can save more discoveries on locally. Hello Games says it has upgraded some visual effects too (the previous big patch brought in more substantial visual improvements). For one thing, you'll start to see pretty, multi-colored nebulas in space. Players can choose "monstrous companions" as pets as well.

Hello Games

A new Twitch campaign is on the way, through which you can earn in-game rewards by watching others play No Man's Sky. Meanwhile, the next expedition season will commence soon. The Frontiers update is now live on all platforms.

Residents of some states will soon be able to add their driver’s license or state ID to Apple Wallet, and Apple has revealed which states will support the initiative at the outset. Arizona and Georgia will be the first to let their residents use IDs stored on Wallet, with Connecticut, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Oklahoma and Utah to follow.

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) will let travelers use an ID stored in Wallet at some security checkpoints and lanes at certain airports. Apple says these will be the first places where people can use a driver’s license or state ID they add to Wallet. The company says retailers and venues will add support later.

You’ll be able to share ID details by tapping your iPhone or Apple Watch, which could help you avoid carrying the physical copy with you or digging around in your pocket or bag to find it. “The addition of driver’s licenses and state IDs to Apple Wallet is an important step in our vision of replacing the physical wallet with a secure and easy-to-use mobile wallet,” Jennifer Bailey, Apple’s vice president of Apple Pay and Apple Wallet, said in a statement. “We are excited that the TSA and so many states are already on board to help bring this to life for travelers across the country using only their iPhone and Apple Watch, and we are already in discussions with many more states as we’re working to offer this nationwide in the future.”

Adding an ID to Wallet is similar to the process of saving credit cards and transit passes. You’ll need to scan the card with your phone and take a selfie for verification by your state. When you tap your device at TSA checkpoints, it will display a prompt listing the info that the agency is asking for. Once you authorize the request with Face ID or Touch ID, your iPhone or Apple Watch will share those details with the TSA, so you don’t even need to show your device to an agent or scanner.

Apple says it will store your ID securely. The function will be available as part of iOS 15, which Apple will likely release this month, if past release dates are anything to go by. The latest major version of the firmware will also allow you to add work badges and unlock some smart locks and door locks. Apple Wallet already lets students at some schools store their IDs.

LinkedIn is ditching Stories. The company will shut down the feature by the end of September, a year after rolling it out. As it turns out, ephemeral posts aren't a perfect fit for every social network. Perhaps with ROI and KPIs in mind, LinkedIn says its users want videos that stay on their profiles permanently, not ones that vanish.

"In developing Stories, we assumed people wouldn’t want informal videos attached to their profile, and that ephemerality would reduce barriers that people feel about posting," Liz Li, LinkedIn's senior director of product wrote. "Turns out, you want to create lasting videos that tell your professional story in a more personal way and that showcase both your personality and expertise."

As such, the company's going back to the whiteboard. It's taking what it learned from Stories (such as users wanting creative tools to liven up videos in a professional way) to create a "reimagined video experience across LinkedIn that’s even richer and more conversational."

Just about every major social network hopped on the Stories bandwagon after the likes of Snapchat and Instagram found huge success with the format. Although the feature has proven a hit on the likes of YouTube and Facebook, Stories haven't taken off on every platform. Twitter recently shut down Fleets, its take on Stories, less than nine months after launching the feature.

Electronic Arts is dipping back into college football with a limited-time mode in Madden NFL 22. The Campus Legends mode features ten school teams, including rosters filled with college football icons, as well as current and former NFL stars who are alumni of those squads.

The event is available through the Superstar KO multiplayer mode. The college teams are Clemson University, University of Miami, Louisiana State University, University of Florida, University of Oklahoma, University of Texas, University of Southern California (USC), University of Oregon, University of Nebraska and Michigan State University.

EA notes Madden 22 is now the first game since 2013 to include a college football experience. The publisher announced earlier this year that it's bringing back the College Football series. The next game in the no-longer-dormant franchise is likely years away though, so college football modes in Madden might have to do the trick for now.

To mark the release of the mode, former college and NFL stars Vince Young and Reggie Bush will play against each other as their respective alma maters (University of Texas and USC). The pair faced off in the Rose Bowl in 2006, and they'll return to the Rose Bowl Stadium to repeat the matchup in Madden 22. You can watch the showdown tonight starting at 7PM ET on the NFL YouTube or Madden NFL Twitch channels.

You have a few weeks to check out Campus Legends. The mode will be available until September 27th.