Amazon's response to SpaceX's FCC filing, which accused the e-commerce giant of trying to delay proposals for its Starlink internet service on purpose, is just as scathing. In an FCC filing of its own, Amazon told the regulator that SpaceX chief Elon Musk tends to ignore rules and government-imposed regulations. The company also said that SpaceX often accuses any company "that dares point out its flouting of laws and regulations" as "anticompetitive."

Part of Amazon's filing reads:

"Try to hold a Musk-led company to flight rules? You"re "fundamentally broken." Try to hold a Musk-led company to health and safety rules? You're "unelected & ignorant." Try to hold a Musk-led company to US securities laws? You'll be called many names, some too crude to repeat...

Whether it is launching satellites with unlicensed antennas, launching rockets without approval, building an unapproved launch tower, or re-opening a factory in violation of a shelter-in-place order, the conduct of SpaceX and other Musk-led companies makes their view plain: rules are for other people, and those who insist upon or even simply request compliance are deserving of derision and ad hominem attacks."

As Ars Technica notes, Amazon urged the FCC a couple of weeks ago to reject a proposal from SpaceX regarding the future of its Starlink internet service. Back then, Amazon claimed that SpaceX was proposing "two mutually exclusive configurations" with "very different orbital parameters," which goes against regulations. SpaceX responded that it only proposed two possible configurations in case the one it actually prefers doesn't work out. The Elon Musk-led company then told the FCC that the move is "only the latest in [Amazon's] continuing efforts to slow down competition."

If you'll recall, Jeff Bezos-owned Blue Origin also filed a complaint against NASA with the US Court of Federal Claims over the lunar lander contract it awarded to SpaceX. Blue Origin expected the space agency to award two contracts instead of just one and argued that the selection process was unfair, because it wasn't given the opportunity to revise its bid in the face of a smaller budget than expected. The litigation forced the space agency to put the $2.9 billion project on hold for the second time. 

When Amazon asked the FCC to reject SpaceX's Starlink proposal, the latter suggested that Amazon, "as it falls behind competitors ... is more than willing to use regulatory and legal processes to create obstacles designed to delay those competitors from leaving [it] even further behind."

A dual US-Canadian national has been sentenced to 140 months in prison for laundering tens of millions of dollars, including funds stolen from a bank by a North Korean hacking group. Ghaleb Alaumary from Mississauga, Ontario pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to commit money laundering. According to the US Department of Justice, Alaumary used spoofed emails to trick a university in Canada in the first case. The emails, which looked like they were from a construction company working on a major building project for the university, asked for payment amounting to US$9.4 million. 

After the university wired the money to accounts controlled by Alaumary and his co-conspirators, he worked with various people across the US and elsewhere to launder the funds through various financial institutions. He also had people impersonating wealthy bankers go to Texas to get personally identifiable information from victims and then use that to steal hundreds of thousands of dollars from their accounts. 

The second case is wider in scope and involves receiving funds from cyber-heists and fraud schemes. Those funds include money from a North Korean-perpetrated cyber-heist on a Maltese bank in 2019. He also received funds stolen from banks in India and Pakistan, companies in the United States and the UK, individuals in the US and a professional soccer club in the UK. Alaumary laundered the funds he received via cash withdrawals, wire transfers and cryptocurrency purchases.

Acting US Attorney David H. Estes for the Southern District of Georgia said in a statement:

"This defendant served as an integral conduit in a network of cybercriminals who siphoned tens of millions of dollars from multiple entities and institutions across the globe. He laundered money for a rogue nation and some of the world’s worst cybercriminals, and he managed a team of co-conspirators who helped to line the pockets and digital wallets of thieves."

In addition to being sentenced for more than 11 years in prison, Alaumary was also ordered to pay $30 million in restitution to victims.

California's state senate has passed AB-701 — a bill that aims to regulate warehouse productivity quotas. It will require companies to give government agencies detailed descriptions of the targets workers are expected to meet, along with the repercussions of missing them. If it becomes law, it would also prohibit quotas that force workers to skip safety techniques or anything that prevents them from having state-mandated meal or toilet breaks. While AB-701 covers all warehouse owners, its proponents targeted Amazon, in particular. 

The bill's author, California Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, said that she and the bill's other backers are "absolutely targeting the practices of Amazon that are being picked up... by other retailers. Amazon drew flak after workers spoke out about the enormous productivity expectations they have to meet, forcing them to skip breaks to be able to keep up. Further, because they're expected to move as fast as the machines they're working with, repetitive strain injuries are a huge issue.

As Financial Times notes, Amazon's rate of injury is more than double that of the national warehousing industry average, based on figures submitted to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Eric Frumin, director of health and safety for the Strategic Organizing Center, told the publication: "If Amazon complies with the law, workers will now have an unparalleled ability to fight back against abusive workloads."

AB-701 passed despite fierce opposition from business and trade groups. Rachel Michelin, the president of the California Retailers Association, warned that consumers will pay the price if it becomes a law, as it would apparently increase manufacturing, storage and distribution costs. Meanwhile, the bill's supporters believe there's more to be done, especially since they had to remove some provisions to get those on the fence to vote for it. One of the provisions they killed would require Cal/OSHA to create a rule aiming to minimize musculoskeletal injuries among workers.

The bill is pending final approval this week in the Assembly, which is usually just a formality. After that, it's in the hands of Gov. Gavin Newsom, who can either sign it into law or veto it.

Attackers are actively exploiting a Microsoft remote code execution vulnerability using malicious Office files, the tech giant has warned. The vulnerability known as CVE-2021-40444 affects Windows Servers from version 2008 and Windows 7 through 10. What attackers are doing is sending potential victims an Office file and tricking them into opening it. That file automatically opens Internet Explorer to load the bad actor's web page, which has an ActiveX control that downloads malware onto the victim's computer.

Several security researchers reported the zero-day attacks to Microsoft. One of them, Haifei Li of EXPMON, told BleepingComputer that the method is 100 percent reliable — all it would take to infect a system is for the victim to open the malicious file. In Li's case, the attack they came across used a .DOCX document. Microsoft has yet to roll out a security patch for the vulnerability, but it has published mitigation methods to prevent infection. 

The tech giant says Microsoft Defender Antivirus and Microsoft Defender for Endpoint can both detect the vulnerability and prevent infection, so users need to keep them updated and running. Further, it advises disabling all ActiveX controls in Internet Explorer to render it inactive for all websites. Microsoft's security warning contains information how to do that, which involves updating IE's registry and rebooting the computer.

Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Z Flip 3 devices did very well in their home country, and market research groups like Counterpoint believe foldable shipments are bound to grow in the coming years. Foldable devices might soon no longer be niche products, and LG has developed a new material that could help make that a reality. LG Chem has designed a new type of cover window — that is, the outermost pre-installed part of displays protecting them from impact — that it says is as hard as glass while also having the capability to prevent fold impressions on the connecting part of a device. 

The company calls the material "Real Folding Window," and it's made of PET film coated on both sides with a new coating technology it developed. A spokesperson explained: "Unlike existing polyimide films and tempered glass-type materials, the cover window that applied LG Chem's new coating technologies will maximize flexibility, while also providing optimized solutions for foldable phones such as making improvements to chronic issues like fold impressions on the connecting part of the screen."

In addition, the Real Folding Window can be folded both outwards and inwards unlike current counterparts that are optimized to be bent one way. LG Chem says it's thinner than tempered glass, is priced competitively and has been tested to be able to endure being folded over 200,000 times. 

While the coating on both sides is only a few micrometers thick, the company is developing another type of Real Folding Window that doesn't use PET film. The idea is to create a very thin cover window for use in devices like foldable phones and rollable displays. LG Chem is planning to start mass producing the Real Folding Window in 2022 and to start selling them the year after that. 

HBO Max is heading to Europe. Back in June, the streaming service finally became available outside the US when it expanded to 39 territories across Latin America and the Caribbean. Now, the WarnerMedia-owned platform is making its debut in Europe on October 26th, starting with six countries in particular: Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Spain and Andorra. 

As part of the service's phased rollout, 14 other European regions will get access to it next year, namely Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia and Slovenia. WarnerMedia is also planning more territory launches for 2022, though it didn't say whether it's making the streaming service available in more continents. 

Johannes Larcher, Head of HBO Max International, said in a statement:

"This is a historic moment as HBO Max lands in Europe. WarnerMedia movies and series like Harry Potter, Game of Thrones and The Big Bang Theory are passionately consumed by fans all across Europe, and HBO Max has been created to provide them with the most intuitive and convenient viewing experience to watch these and a diverse range of other amazing titles."

HBO Max typically offers two types of plans: Standard and Mobile. In the US, there's also an ad-supported tier that costs $10 a month instead of $15. As always, its subscription prices in Europe will vary per region, though it will likely be around that much, as well. WarnerMedia will reveal more details, including the service's prices and content offering in Europe, at a virtual launch event in October.

Lenovo has announced a new lineup of PCs, tablets and monitors at Tech World 2021. The most notable of the bunch is the IdeaPad Slim 7 Carbon — a 14-inch Windows 11 laptop that weighs 2.37 lbs and is equipped with an OLED display made by Samsung. As its name implies, the device's chassis is made of carbon fiber and magnesium alloy for lightness and strength. Its display has a QHD+ resolution and 16:10 aspect ratio, with features that include a 90Hz refresh rate, Dolby Vision and true black certification. Customers can also opt to get a touchscreen version that's strengthened with Gorilla Glass. 

Lenovo

The device is powered by AMD's Ryzen 7 5800U Series Mobile Processors (up to 8-core) with AMD Radeon Graphics, and customers can get the NVIDIA GeForce MX450 graphics card as an optional install. Buyers can also equip the laptop with up to 16GB of RAM and up to 1TB of SSD storage. Other features include up to 14.5 hours of battery life, WiFi 6 and built-in Alexa support with an Alexa Show experience. It will be available in Cloud Grey starting in October 2021 with prices starting at $1,290.

Another notable device in the brand's new lineup is the Chromebook Duet 5. It's a 2-in-1 laptop-tablet hybrid running Chrome OS with access to Google Play. The device has a laptop-grade keyboard that can be detached from its 13.3-inch OLED display and is powered by the Snapdragon 7c Gen 2 SoC. It comes with 256GB of SSD storage and up to 8GB of memory. The Duet 5 will also be available in October in Storm Grey or Abyss Blue for at least $430.

Those who prefer a larger laptop could get the ldeaPad Slim 7 Pro instead. It's a 16-inch Windows 11 laptop with a QHD IPS screen, powered by AMD's Ryzen 7 5800H Mobile Processors. The device can be equipped with NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 3050 Laptop GPU and can have up to 16GB of RAM and up to 1TB of SSD storage. It will be out in October for at least $1,449.

Microsoft's latest acquisition could add an easy-to-use video editing experience to its software suite. The tech giant has purchased a startup called Clipchamp, which is known for its in-browser video creation and editing tool. In its announcement, Microsoft says Clipchamp's approach combines "the simplicity of a web app with the ability to process video using the full computing power of a PC with graphics processing unit (GPU) acceleration," which is "something that was formerly limited to traditional video applications."

Clipchamp specifically targets non-professionals and non-creatives — people who don't have or know how to use specialized software for videos, in other words. "Our mission is to empower anyone to tell stories worth sharing and millions of people around the world... We will continue to make video creation even easier, more accessible and fun," company CEO Alexander Dreiling wrote in a post announcing the acquisition. 

Neither party has disclosed the terms of their agreement, but as CNBC notes, Clipchamp said in July that it has 17 million registered users with an adoption rate that's up 54 percent year over year. The service saw huge growth in 9:16 aspect ratio exports, in particular, which are commonly used for TikTok and Instagram or Facebook Stories. Microsoft was one of its clients before the acquisition, along with Google. While Microsoft has yet to announce how it will offer Clipchamp to its customers, it called the tool a "natural fit" for its cloud-powered productivity experiences in Microsoft 365. A spokesperson also told CNBC that the tech giant will eventually introduce a process to convert existing Clipchamp users to Microsoft subscribers.

Apple may be gearing up to launch four new iPhones at its next event that's expected to happen sometime this month. 9to5Mac and MacRumors have spotted an FCC filing for a revised MagSafe charger, and while it doesn't say how the new version improves upon its predecessor, the document includes the device's testing information. Apparently, the tech giant tested it on four "New Phone" items, as well as on four "legacy" devices.

The company listed models A2176, A2172, A2341 and A2342, in particular, which correspond to the iPhone 12 mini, iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max, respectively. As MacRumors notes, Apple revealed the upcoming iPhones' model numbers when it registered them in the EEC database. Unfortunately, this FCC filing doesn't identify the four "New Phone" items it used for testing, but it's very much possible that they're the current generation's direct successors.

A rumor about the iPhone 13 that went around earlier this year said the device will have a stronger set of magnets in the back for the MagSafe charger. We'll find out within the month if that's true — Apple's next iPhone event could take place next week, and it's expected to announce the exact date for it as soon as today.

Singapore is known for having stringent laws and for having surveillance cameras all over the city-state. In the future, it may also deploy robots to keep an eye out for rule breakers — in fact, Singapore has started testing a robot named Xavier, putting a couple of them to work by having them patrol and survey a public area with high foot traffic. Over the next three weeks, the robots will monitor the crowds of Toa Payoh Central to look for what the nation's authorities describe as "undesirable social behaviors." Those bad behaviors include the "congregation of more than five people," which goes against its COVID-19 safety measures.

In addition, the Xavier robots will look for instances of smoking in prohibited areas and illegal hawking. It will patrol the vicinity for improperly parked bicycles and for any mobility device and motorcycle using footpaths and sidewalks, as well. If the robot detects any of those behaviors, it will alert its command center and then display a corresponding message on its screen to educate the public.

The machines are equipped with cameras capable of providing their command center with 360-degree views. They're also capable of capturing images in dim lighting using IR and low-light cameras. Plus, the video they capture will be analyzed by an AI system to look for anything that may require human officers' response. To enable the machines to navigate the city autonomously, they're fitted with sensors that give them the ability to avoid both stationary and moving objects, including pedestrians and vehicles.

Singapore already announced its plans to double the number of its surveillance cameras to 200,000 over the next decade. Officials believe these robots can help augment those surveillance measures further, though, and reduce the need for officers to do physical patrols.