Signify has introduced a bunch of new Philips Hue smart lighting products, including its first portable, rechargeable lamp that was designed for use both indoors and outdoors. The Philips Hue Go portable table lamp has a silicone grip so you can take it with you wherever you go. It can last for up to 48 hours on a single charge, and you can plug it in using its charging base if it runs out of power. Since you can use the lamp in various environments and scenarios, it comes with a button that lets you cycle through all the preset scenes to find the right lighting. The portable Philips Hue Go lamp will be available by the end of summer for $160 in the US and £130 in the UK.

Signify is also rolling out a new Sunrise wake-up style. The Hue light you use it on will go through a colorful transition from blue to soft orange to mimic the sun rising over the horizon. It will launch alongside the new Philips Hue Signe gradient lamp in oak by mid-July in the US. The gradient floor lamp with its natural wood-toned base was designed to be a subtle accent for the bedroom and will set you back $350. In the UK, however, it will be available for purchase today for £300. A smaller gradient table lamp is also coming out in the UK for £200.

In addition to the lamps, Signify is releasing new downlights with increased lumen output, enabling them to provide sufficient lighting to fill bigger rooms. The new white and color lights will be available in 4-inch and 5/6-inch cans starting today in the US for prices starting at $50. Finally, there's the new Philips Hue Tap dial switch with four buttons that can control smart lights in up to three separate rooms in your home. It will also be available starting today for $50 in the US and £45 in the UK. If you want to see these new products in action first, you can watch the Philips Hue media event on the brand's official website.

Signify

Sony typically follows up its PlayStation consoles with a slim version a few years later, but that time hasn't come for the PS5 yet. While we all wait for a slimmer PS5 that would fit in small spaces better, a YouTuber called DIY Perks already built one for himself. He took apart a standard PlayStation 5 and replaced everything that needed to be replaced to get rid of the console's bulk. He substituted components with similar parts and his own home-made creations, including the console's rather voluminous casing. 

Putting the current device's power supply and cooling system with the rest of the console's components wouldn't yield a "slim" version of the PS5, though. So, what Perks did was build his own water-cooling system and put it in a separate case with the power source. It's a long, slim case that can be placed behind the TV, where it won't be noticeable. While he did run into some issues that took time to solve, he was able to make the console work in the end. His cooling system was even more efficient than the the standard PS5's, based on the temperatures he took when he tested it out using Horizon Forbidden West. 

Unfortunately, Perks' PS5 Slim is one of a kind and not easy to replicate. You can check out his process in the video below if you need ideas or just want to be awed.

A Seattle jury has found Paige Thompson, a former Amazon software engineer accused of stealing data from Capital One in 2019, guilty of wire fraud and five counts of unauthorized access to a protected computer. The Capital One hack was one of the biggest security breaches in the US and compromised the data of 100 million people in the country, along with 6 million people in Canada. Thompson was arrested in July that year after a GitHub user saw her post on the website sharing information about stealing data from servers storing Capital One information. 

According to the Department of Justice, Thompson used a tool she built herself to scan Amazon Web Services for misconfigured accounts. She then allegedly used those accounts to infiltrate Capital One's servers and download over 100 million people's data. The jury has decided that Thompson violated the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act by doing so, but her lawyers argued that she used the same tools and method also used by ethical hackers.

The Justice Department recently amended the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act to protect ethical or white hat hackers. As long as researchers are investigating or fixing vulnerabilities in "good faith" and aren't using the security holes they discover for extortion or other malicious purposes, they can no longer be charged under the law.

US authorities, however, disagreed with the assertion that she was only trying to expose Capital One's vulnerabilities. The Justice Department said she planted cryptocurrency mining software onto the bank's servers and sent the earnings straight to her digital wallet. She also allegedly bragged about the hack on online forums. 

"Far from being an ethical hacker trying to help companies with their computer security, she exploited mistakes to steal valuable data and sought to enrich herself," US Attorney Nick Brown said. Thompson could be sentenced with up to 20 years of prison time for wire fraud and up to five years for each charge of illegally accessing a protected computer. Her sentencing hearing is scheduled for September 15th.

A group of Democratic lawmakers led by Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Rep. Elissa Slotkin is urging Google to "crack down on manipulative search results" that lead people seeking abortions to anti-abortion clinics. In a letter addressed to Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, the lawmakers reference a study conducted by US nonprofit group Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH). The organization found that 1 in 10 Google search results for queries such as "abortion clinics near me" and "abortion pill" — specifically in states with trigger laws that would ban the procedure the moment Roe v. Wade is overturned — points to crisis pregnancy centers that oppose abortion instead.

"Directing women towards fake clinics that traffic in misinformation and don't provide comprehensive health services is dangerous to women's health and undermines the integrity of Google's search results," the lawmakers wrote. CCDH also found that 37 percent of results on Google Maps for the same search terms lead people to anti-abortion clinics. The lawmakers argue in the letter that Google should not be displaying those results for users searching for abortion and that if the company's search results must continue showing them, they should at least be properly labeled.

In addition, CCDH found that 28 percent of ads displayed at the top of Google search results are for crisis pregnancy centers. Google added a disclaimer for those ads, "albeit one that appears in small font and is easily missed," the lawmakers note, after getting flak for them a few years ago. "The prevalence of these misleading ads marks what appears to be a concerning reversal from Google’s pledge in 2014 to take down ads from crisis pregnancy centers that engage in overt deception of women seeking out abortion information online," the letter reads.

Warner, Slotkin and the letter's other signees are asking Google what it plans to do to limit the appearance of anti-abortion clinics when users are explicitly searching for abortion services. And, if Google chooses not to take action to prevent them from appearing in results, the group is asking whether Google would add user-friendly disclaimers clarifying whether the clinic is or isn't providing abortion services. You can read the whole letter below:

A Supreme Court draft obtained by Politico in May showed that SCOTUS justices have voted to reverse Roe v. Wade, the landmark case that protected the federal rights to abortion across the country. Senator Ron Wyden and 41 other Democratic lawmakers also previously asked Google to stop collecting and keeping users' location data. They said the information could be used against people who've had or are seeking abortions in states with trigger laws. 

Roku has teamed up with Walmart to serve a new kind of advertisement that will let you shop straight from your TV. Unlike typical TV ads that only showcase a specific service or product, these shoppable ads are more similar to advertisements you see online. Viewers who do find something they want to buy from the shoppable ads can press OK on their remote to begin Walmart's checkout process. Their payment details will be automatically populated with their information from Roku Pay, so they'd only have to press OK to complete their purchase. They'll then get an email confirmation from Walmart with shipping and return information. 

Since this is a pilot partnership between the companies, the shoppable ads powered Roku's ad-buying platform called OneView will only feature products fulfilled by Walmart. Of course, ads always have the potential to be annoying, but Roku's announcement suggests that it will at least show ads targeted towards its users, thanks to its advertising tech. The company also said that future iterations of this pilot program "will look for opportunities to build deeper commerce experiences that meet customers where they are."

This isn't the first time Roku and Walmart have joined forces: Last year, Roku debuted its new LE streaming player as a $15 Walmart exclusive for Black Friday. The device eventually made its way to other retailers like Amazon, where it's being sold at prices ranging from $24 to $30. 

Lyft has agreed to pay $25 million to settle shareholders' allegations that it failed to disclose safety issues in its Initial Public Offering (IPO) paperwork. According to Reuters, shareholders accused the company of concealing known problems, such as sexual assaults by its drivers, to cultivate an image of a more socially responsible alternative to Uber. They also accused Lyft of not disclosing safety issues regarding its bikeshare program, specifically the problem the company faced with its brakes that forced it to pull its bikes from various cities in the US. While Lyft has agreed to settle, it denied any wrongdoing. In a statement sent to CNN Business, company spokesperson Gabriela Condarco-Quesada said:

"This settlement resolves a shareholder class action related to statements in Lyft's initial public offering and its financial impact on investors — it's not about safety-related claims on the platform."

In their complaint, the shareholders said reports of sexual assaults by Lyft drivers that came out after the IPO represented an "existential risk" to the brand that should have been disclosed beforehand. Further, they said Lyft used promotions to boost its market share against Uber. 

Lyft officially filed to go public in 2019, but it wasn't until 2021 that it had published its first safety report. In it, the ride—hailing firm revealed that it received a total of 4,158 sexual assault reports from 2017 until 2019. Lyft divided the cases in different categories for its report, with the most common incidents falling under the non-consensual touching of a sexual body part category. It's worth noting, however, that the money for this settlement will go to shareholders and not to any of the passengers who reported being sexually assaulted by the firm's drivers.

Snap has started testing a paid subscription tier for Snapchat that will give users early access to new features, a company spokesperson has confirmed to The Verge. "We're doing early internal testing of Snapchat Plus, a new subscription service for Snapchatters. We're excited about the potential to share exclusive, experimental, and pre-release features with our subscribers, and learn more about how we can best serve our community," the spokesperson said. While they barely revealed anything about the service, reverse engineer Alessandro Paluzzi has found some hidden information in the app that gives us an idea of what Snapchat Plus could offer. 

Apparently, it'll let users pin one friend as their #1 BFF and will give them access to some exclusive icons. Snapchat Plus users will also get a badge on their profile, will have the means to see their friends' locations over the past 24 hours — if those friends are sharing their location with the user — and will see how many friends have rewatched their stories. Based on the details Paluzzi has unearthed, the service will cost users €4.59 ($4.83) a month or €45.99 ($48.41) a year. 

Those features and prices could change by the time the feature is ready to launch, if Snap does decide to offer the service. Seeing as other social networks and apps are also offering or working on paid tiers of their own, it wouldn't come as a surprise if Snapchat Plus does become available. Twitter Blue made its debut in a US last year as a $3 option for users who want additional features, such as the undo button. Telegram also confirmed that it will launch a Premium tier sometime this month to give its most ardent fans access to bigger uploads, as well as more speed and resources.

Back in 2017, Apple admitted that it released an update to slow down older iPhones with aging batteries to prevent them from suddenly shutting down. It's been five years since then, but Apple still isn't done dealing with its repercussions. According to The Guardian, the tech giant is now facing a legal claim in the UK filed by a consumer rights campaigner named Justin Gutmann at the Competition Appeals Tribunal. Gutmann argued that Apple didn't disclose that it was going to deliberately throttle users' phone before it did so and that the company didn't give them the option to disable the setting. 

The complaint covers the iPhone 6, 6 Plus, 6S, 6S Plus, SE, 7, 7 Plus, 8, 8 Plus and iPhone X models. If you'll recall, the company originally released the update that intentionally slows down devices for the iPhone 6, 6s and SE before it expanded the feature's reach to more devices. Guttman's complaint said Apple introduced the slowdown feature to disguise the fact that older batteries could no longer cope with new OS updates. "Instead of doing the honourable and legal thing by their customers and offering a free [battery] replacement, repair service or compensation, Apple instead misled people by concealing a tool in software updates that slowed their devices by up to 58 percent," Guttman said. 

If Guttman wins, Apple may have to pay damages totaling up to £750 million to over 25 million people who purchased the affected phones in the UK. The company was previously fined €10 million in Italy over the same issue and for failing to provide customers with the necessary information for maintaining and replacing batteries. In 2020, it also agreed to pay up to $500 million to settle one of the US lawsuits it faced over the iPhone slowdown, which earned each claimant who took part up to $25. 

In a statement sent to The Guardian, Apple said:

"We have never – and would never – do anything to intentionally shorten the life of any Apple product, or degrade the user experience to drive customer upgrades. Our goal has always been to create products that our customers love, and making iPhones last as long as possible is an important part of that."

Uber is rolling out its airport reservation service to more locations not only in the US, but also in other countries just as people are becoming more comfortable with traveling again. The service's Reserve at Airports service rolled out to over 20 airports across the US in 2021, giving arriving passengers the power to reserve Uber Black and Uber Black SUV rides for up to 30 days in advance. Now, the service is available at 55 airports around the world, 39 of which are in the US. The new additions to the list of airports where passengers can schedule pick-ups are:

• Austin (AUS)

• Burbank (BUR)

• Indianapolis (IND)

• Jacksonville (JAX)

• Las Vegas (LAS)

• Los Angeles (LAX)

• Minneapolis - St. Paul (MSP)

• Milwaukee (MKE)

• Montreal (YUL)

• Oakland (OAK)

• Orange County (SNA)

• San Antonio (SAT)

• San Diego (SAN)

• San Francisco (SFO)

• San Jose (SJC)

• Tampa Bay (TPA)

• Vancouver (YVR)

• Bologna (BLQ)

• Cape Town (CPT)

• Johannesburg (JNB + HLA)

• Milan (LIN + MXP)

• Nice (NCE)

• Paris (CDG)

• Rome (CIA + FCO)

Uber's Reserve service has special tools ordinary rides don't have access to. In addition to allowing customers to reserve a ride 30 days in advance, it can also track their flight information and automatically adjust their reservation time. That way, they can be sure a driver is waiting for them by the time they land, even if their flight gets delayed. Drivers can also wait for passengers for up 60 minutes without extra charge, giving them ample time to get their luggage or grab a bite before stepping out of the airport. Plus, passengers don't have to lug around heavy suitcases for long, since their rides will pick them up at the curb.

The company originally launched its Reserve option back in 2020 to help customers "meet those moments that call for more assurance." It matches passengers with drivers from the start, even if they reserve a month in advance, and it also presents them with an exact fare when they book. The service will certainly be more expensive than a bus ride, but it does sound like a great option for those who don't want to have to worry about catching a cab the moment they arrive at their destination. 

The Boring Company's underground transportation system will be more expansive than what it originally planned. It has just received approval from the city to bring its underground transportation system called the Vegas Loop to city limits. When Clark County Commissioners first approved the Vegas Loop, it was supposed to be a 29-mile tunnel network connecting 51 stations. Now, the network will span 34 miles and have a total of 55 stations, including ones that will serve the Harry Reid International Airport and the Allegiant Stadium.

According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Boring Co. President Steve Davis said tunneling in downtown Las Vegas could begin in 2023: "This is step two and there are eight steps for us to be opening. There's a long way to go and a lot of work to do. But if I were to guess on the spot I would guess we'd have machines in (the ground) next calendar year." According to the publication, the downtown stations include the Strat, Fremont Street Experience, the Slotzilla attraction, the Garage Mahal at the Circa Resort and the Plaza Hotel. Boring could add other stations in the future, as well, with each one costing anything in between $1.5 to $20 million to build. 

Davis also said a ride from Fremont Street Experience downtown to Reid International would cost about $12 and take around eight or nine minutes. Before Boring's monorail system could shuttle people to and from downtown Las Vegas, though, it has to secure a bunch of permits and design approvals first. As The Verge notes, only 1.7 miles of the Vegas Loop are operational at the moment underneath the Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC). That said, Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority CEO Steve Hill said he expects more portions serving parts of the Resort Corridor to be operational sometime in 2023.