A major vulnerability affecting older versions of BlackBerry's QNX operating system could allow hackers to gain control of a variety of products, including cars and medical devices. Apparently, some older versions of QNX have a BadAlloc vulnerability, which gives bad actors a way to attack systems remotely. The infiltrators could then execute a denial-of-service attack or execute arbitrary code. BlackBerry, the FDA and US Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) have issued advisories about the flaw. According to Politico, though, BlackBerry originally didn't want to go public about it and kept it a secret for months.

The company reportedly told CISA that it didn't believe its OS was affected by BadAlloc, which is a group of memory allocation vulnerabilities Microsoft found in April affecting a wide range of industrial, medical and enterprise networks. A number of companies publicly revealed being affected by the flaw shortly after Microsoft's report came out, but BlackBerry wasn't one of them. Politico says it was CISA that confirmed that some older QNX versions are indeed affected by BadAlloc, and it was the agency that eventually convinced the company to go public.

Apparently, the agency was worried that most QNX users wouldn't even know their systems are affected, because BlackBerry licenses the OS to manufacturers. The company originally wanted to privately reach out to those customers about the issue, but that means end users won't find out unless manufacturers tell them, as well. In the end, CISA was able to convince BlackBerry that a public announcement is the best course of action.

In its notice, BlackBerry said it's "not aware of any exploitation of this vulnerability." Both the company and CISA are advising organizations using QNX for their products to roll out updates that will patch the flaw regardless. The FDA also issued a warning specifically for medical devices running the OS, though it said it wasn't aware of any confirmed events related to BadAlloc.

Charter Spectrum customers found themselves unable to download the Spectrum TV app from Roku's Channel Store if they hadn't done so before back in December. The two companies were unable to come to an agreement on the renewal of their contract, and it led Roku to pull the app from its store to prevent new downloads. Now, it looks like they were finally able to hammer out a deal that works for both of them, because the Spectrum TV app is back on the Roku Channel Store. All customers need to do to access its live and on-demand content is sign in with their Charter broadband account credentials. 

Back when the app was pulled from the store, Spectrum said Roku didn't accept its offer to renew its contract "despite [its] best efforts." The company then told its customers that they can still access the app through their phones and tablets, as well as on Samsung TV, Apple TV and Xbox. A Roku spokesperson said in a statement, though, that they were "working together to reach a positive and mutually beneficial distribution agreement." 

The companies didn't reveal the details of the new deal, but what's important is that subscribers can now download the Spectrum TV app after eight months. They sent out an email to customers with the note: "We're delighted to share with you that Roku and Charter Communications have renewed our agreement to distribute the Spectrum TV channel on your Roku device."

Customers can find the channels available through the app on the Spectrum website. The list includes Bravo, CNN, CNBC, Fox, NFL, SyFy, NatGeo and HBO Max, though accessibility depends on their subscription. 

Most people know the value of Pi as 3.1416, but it's gotten longer and longer over the years as researchers try to find its most accurate calculation. A team from the University of Applied Sciences Graubünden in Switzerland now claims it has broken the world record for computing for the mathematical constant: It said it has calculated for 62.8 trillion digits of Pi. The current record holder, Timothy Mullican, calculated up to 50 trillion digits and was recognized for his work last year. 

According to the Swiss university, its team took 108 days and 9 hours to compute for the new value. That's 3.5 times faster than Mullican's efforts and almost twice as fast as the record Google set in 2019. A couple of years ago, Emma Haruka Iwao and her colleagues used the power of 25 Google Cloud virtual machines to calculate for 31,415,926,535,897 digits of Pi within 121 days. 

The Swiss team, as The Register explains, used a rig powered by two 32-core AMD Epyc 7542 processors with 1 TB of RAM and a program called y-Cruncher. Its setup had 38 hard drives with 16 TB of storage space each, 34 of which were used for the process while four were used to store the new value of Pi. The team didn't use SSDs, even though their speed would've made the process quicker, because the large number of write cycles needed for Pi calculation would've resulted in high wear and tear on the SSDs, which aren't cheap. That wouldn't have worked, since the university wanted to demonstrate that it's possible to carry out an extremely memory-intensive calculation with limited budget and resources. Guinness has yet to confirm the new record, but after it does, the university plans to publish the new and expanded value of Pi. 

According to Electrek, GM has informed some Chevy Bolt EV owners that it will replace all the modules in their batteries with new ones. This is the latest step the automaker has taken to address issues in some Bolt EV models that make their batteries more likely to catch fire. As the publication notes, GM has recalled the Bolt EV twice in a little over a year before this and after over a dozen incidents wherein the vehicle went up in flames due to battery-related issues.

GM recalled over 68,000 Bolt EVs back in November and rolled out a firmware update to limit their charging capacity to 90 percent. In July, the National Highway Traffic Administration issued a safety alert in July advising owners of 2017 to 2019 Chevrolet Bolt EVs not to park their cars indoors or leave them charging overnight. That warning came after two Bolt EVs caught fire in the US. Finally, in April, the automaker released what's supposed-to-be the final software fix for the issue. Clearly, that wasn't able to completely solve the problem, and GM had to find another solution. 

Electrek says GM has informed some owners that they'll be able to start booking appointments to have all the modules in their batteries replaced starting on August 23rd. Owners who go through with the replacement will also get a new 8-year 100,000 mile warranty. That said, Chevrolet will only replace battery modules in Bolts produced within the timeframe GM suspects battery manufacturing defects were present. Based on the vehicles that caught fire, Electrek says GM will likely prioritize 2019 models followed by 2017 and 2018 models. The company will also replace modules for owners who routinely do deep discharges.

GM told the publication that they're taking this step "out of an abundance of caution." Further, GM and LG (the battery's manufacturer) will examine the replaced modules and find their defects. They'll also try to figure out if they can devise an in-situ detection method that would allow owners to figure out if their batteries are at risk of catching fire.

Images for the next Call of Duty game have recently surfaced online, giving us a glimpse of what to expect for the future of the franchise. Now, Activision has released a teaser trailer for the upcoming installment called Call of Duty: Vanguard, featuring elements clearly indicating that the game is set during World War II. It shows old weapons, beach littered with the remains of planes from the era, a forest that's located in Germany, among other things. 

Vanguard was developed by Sledgehammer Games, the studio behind several other COD titles that include Call of Duty: WWII. The studio and publisher Activision will officially launchVanguard during an in-game event within Call of Duty: Warzone, a free-to-play battle royale that's part of Modern Warfare and is connected to Black Ops: Cold War. It will happen during the Battle of Verdansk, which starts at 10:30AM PT/1:30PM ET on August 19th. We'll likely hear more about the event before then.

Activision, the game's publisher, is launching Vanguard in the midst of a sexual harassment lawsuit against parent company Activision Blizzard. California's fair employment agency sued the gaming giant, accusing it of systemic gender discrimination and fostering a "frat boy" culture that's described as a "breeding ground for harassment and discrimination against women."

A few days ago, Twitter rolled out a number of design updates meant to make the website more accessible. It introduced a new proprietary typeface and increased contrast to make buttons and other visual elements like images stand out. Just because those changes make the website more accessible for some people, though, doesn't mean they work for everyone. As TechCrunch and CNET note, complaints started pouring in after the update went out, with people reporting eye strain and headaches caused by the changes. Now, the social network has announced that it's adjusting its buttons' contrast levels to make them easier on the eyes. 

Twitter said it made the adjustment after people sent in complaints that the "new look is uncomfortable for people with sensory sensitivities." The company's accessibility account started asking for feedback a day after the updates went out, promising to track it all. Sounds like it's stayed true to its word, though the Chirp font remains even if it's supposedly giving people headaches. Twitter also hasn't changed the new colors for the Follow button, which has caused quite the confusion: The button is now filled in with black for accounts you've yet to follow and shows up with a white background for accounts you're already following. It used to be the other way around.

The company may release more fixes to its accessibility update in the future, though. It told TechCrunch that "feedback was sought from people with disabilities throughout the process, from the beginning." However, it knows that "people have different preferences and needs and [it] will continue to track feedback and refine the experience." Twitter added: "We realize we could get more feedback in the future and we'll work to do that."

If you want to see yourself on screen with Hugh Jackman, this is your chance. The promo for Warner Bros. upcoming Reminiscence movie uses deepfake technology to turn a photo of your face — or anybody's face, really — into a short video sequence with the star. According to Protocol, a media startup called D-ID created the promo for the film. D-ID reportedly started out wanting to develop technology that can protect consumers against facial recognition, but then it realized that its tech could also be used to optimize deepfakes.

For this particular project, the firm created a website for the experience, where you'll be asked for your name and for a photo. You can upload the photo of anybody you want, and the experience will then conjure up an animation for the face in it. The animation isn't perfect by any means, and the face could look distorted at times, but it's still not bad, considering the technology created it from a single picture. 

Reminiscence is a sci-fi thriller about Nick Bannister, a "private investigator of the mind." The idea behind the promo is that you're a client looking into your memories to solve a case. The movie will be shown in theatres on August 20th, but like most new releases these days, it will also be available for streaming on HBO Max.

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Disney has apparently found "ways to fairly compensate" talent, even if it continues its hybrid release strategy. Company CEO Bob Chapek said during an earnings call that Disney has "entered hundreds of talent arrangements with [its] talent and by and large, they've gone very very smoothly." Chapek's statement comes in the wake of the lawsuit Black Widow star Scarlett Johansson filed against the company over its streaming strategy. 

Johansson's salary was tied to the movie's box office success, and her original contract didn't cover earnings from a hybrid release. According to her complaint, she could lose over $50 million due to the company's decision to simultaneously launch Black Widow in theaters and on Disney+, where it made $60 million during its opening weekend. Back then, Disney released a statement calling the lawsuit "especially sad and distressing in its callous disregard for the horrific and prolonged global effects of the Covid-19 pandemic." 

Now, Chapek said Disney is "trying to do the best thing for all [its] constituents and make sure that everybody who's in the value chain... feels like they're having their contractual commitments honored both from a distribution and a compensation standpoint." He didn't talk about specifics, however, or Johansson's lawsuit in particular. In Johansson's complaint, she said her camp tried to renegotiate her deal with the company upon learning about the simultaneous release. However, Disney and Marvel were allegedly unresponsive.

Chapek also talked about implementing an experimental release strategy for Shang-Chi. Unlike Black Widow, it will be a theater-exclusive for 45 days before making its way to Disney+. Further, subscribers may be able to watch it for free instead of having to pay extra for it like they've had to do with Mulan. 

Audi is hard at work preparing the RS Q E-Tron for the 2022 Dakar Rally in hopes that it can earn the distinction of being the first electrified vehicle to win the grueling competition. In fact, the vehicle has just completed an eight-day endurance test near the Spanish city of Zaragoza. The Volkswagen subsidiary tested the off-road SUV on unpaved ground back in July. But this was the first time it put the vehicle through its paces in actual conditions it's expected to encounter during one of the toughest rallies in the world. 

Three teams with two drivers each participated in the event, dividing the eight days and 1,056 miles of intensive testing between them. On the gravel roads that stretched for up to 11 miles, the RS Q E-Tron reached a speed of 112 mph. The drivers admitted that there's still some fine-tuning to be done, but they were impressed with the vehicle's performance. Arnau Niubó Bosch, Audi's development engineer, explained that the test "was focused on getting in as much driving as possible and detecting weak spots." For the SUV's next test in September, Audi will take it into the dunes for the first time.

As we previously mentioned, the RS Q E-Tron has an electric drivetrain with two modified Formula E motors. It has an energy converter with a TFSI engine to charge its battery while driving and braking, since one wouldn't find charging stations in the middle of a rally. That means it's not a zero-emissions vehicle, though Audi says the converter is energy efficient. 

Jabra's Elite 85h headphones are available for $150 on Amazon once again, giving you another chance to grab them at the price if you weren't able to last month. We praised the wireless headphones for offering active noise cancellation that rivals the technologies used by Bose and Sony and gave it a score of 84 in our review. The device was priced at $300 upon launch in 2019, which we felt was a bit too high for what it can do. Amazon has been selling it for $174 after its sale in July, but now it's back down to its lowest price on the website.

Buy Jabra Elite 85h Wireless Noise-Canceling Headphones at Amazon - $150

To be clear, only the Titanium Black version is on sale for $150 on Jabra's official store on Amazon, while the rest will cost you a bit more. If you don't mind the lack of color options, though, one of the best features we liked about the headphones is their insane battery life that can last up for to 41 hours with noise cancelation turned off. During our tests, we used the Elite 85h for around two to three hours a day for seven days and still had 85 percent of power left by the time we were done. 

We also liked that it has EQ and noise-cancellation presets you can choose from based on your environment. You can have different settings for use in public and in private, and you don't even have to manually switch between them. The headphones have the ability to analyze noise, so they can detect your location and switch to the appropriate profile.

In addition, we praised the headphones for having simple controls and a better design than some of their rivals. We noted in our review that Sony's 1000XM3 has better sound quality, but that device will set you back $100 more on Amazon right now.