Netflix has purchased a documentary on the "Tinder Swindler," who tricked women he met on the dating app into giving him millions of dollars. The notorious con-man pretended to be Russian oligarch Simon Leviev, the son of Russian-Israeli diamond mogul Lev Leviev. He would take his victims — mostly Scandinavian women — on trips via private jets, stay with them in luxury hotels and treat them to expensive dinners. In truth, he's an Israeli man named Shimon Hayut, who fled to Europe twice to escape theft, forgery and fraud charges in his home country. 

Online dating scams have been fairly common these past years, with con-artists using every available outlet into finding potential victims. According to the FTC, losses to romance scams reached a record $304 million last year. And that's just for the scams Americans reported to the agency. The Tinder Swindler hit the headlines for living a jet set lifestyle, though, with previous victims funding his efforts into wooing his current ones. 

Hayut would spend months pretending to be in a relationship with his targets before he begins asking them for money, usually pretending to be in trouble to ask his current "girlfriend" for help. Norwegian publication VG spent six months tracking Hayut and got in contact with two of his most recent victims. One of the women it interviewed said she had to take out loans to help him out and ended up being scammed out of 2.1 Norwegian Krones (US$244,000). 

Netflix's documentary will be produced by the makers of Three Identical Strangers and Don't F*** With Cats, both of which are also available on the streaming platform. It will also be directed by Felicity Morris of Don't F*** With Cats. Variety says it will follow the women Hayut conned as they "uncover his true identity and bring him to justice." The Tinder Swindler was arrested by Greek police back in 2019 and was extradited to Israel, but he was released last year after only serving five months of a 15 month sentence. Half a year later, in December 2020, he allegedly pretended to be a paramedic to get a COVID—19 vaccine shot early — and then posted a video of the event on Instagram. 

Half a month after OnePlus announced that it's becoming an Oppo sub-brand, it has revealed that it's also merging its OxygenOS with its new parent company's ColorOS. The two brands have come to the decision to "best leverage [their] shared resources" and to standardize the software experience across their portfolio. But what does OnePlus mean exactly when it said that they're "working on integrating the codebase of OxygenOS and ColorOS?" It said you may not even notice a difference, because the changes are happening behind the scenes.

OxygenOS will still be the operating system for OnePlus devices released globally. As 9to5Google notes, OnePlus phones released in China already run ColorOS, and that will likely remain the case — it's just that the operating systems will now shade a codebase. All new devices the sub-brand will release will run the new OxygenOS, while current devices that are still receiving updates will get the new platform via an over-the-air update. 

Speaking of updates, OnePlus is promising better and longer Android update support, which now rivals Samsung's, with the change. The OnePlus 8 series and the brand's newer flagships will receive three major Android updates and four years of security updates going forward. Meanwhile, the first Nord and any newer Nord and Nord CE devices will receive two major Android and three years of security updates. Finally, the affordable Nord N series phones starting from the N10 and the N100 will get one major Android update and three years of security updates. Unfortunately, you can continue expecting two major Android and three years of security updates if you have a flagship older than the OnePlus 8.

When the merge was announced, the companies said OnePlus will remain independently operated. Since the move was meant to pool their resources and to better streamline their operations, though, linking their operating systems more closely doesn't come as surprise.

It seems more and more law enforcement agents are trying to use online platforms' copyright-takedown measures to prevent videos that show them in a bad light from being shared online. A California police officer has tried to use the tactic on a BLM protestor at the Alameda Country courthouse by playing Taylor Swift's Blank Space, as reported by The Washington Post and Variety. His attempt failed, though, and it even backfired spectacularly: The video has almost 800,000 views on Twitter as of this writing, as well as 300,000 views on YouTube. 

The protestor was at the courthouse for the pretrial hearing of Jason Fletcher, the police officer charged with voluntary manslaughter for killing Steven Taylor, a Black man, inside a Walmart. In the video posted by the Anti Police-Terror Project, you'll hear the officer admit that he played the popular Swift song so that it gets a copyright strike on Google's video platform. "You can record all you want, I just know it can't be posted on YouTube," he said. 

When asked if there's an administrative regulation telling cops to play copyrighted music to prevent videos from being shared, the officer replied: "Not that I know of." Alameda County sheriff's office spokesperson Sgt. Ray Kelly told The Post that there's no policy barring what the officer did in the video, but that the office does not "condone" his behavior.

Back in February, several police officers in Beverly Hills had also been caught on video seemingly trying to get a prominent LA activist banned from Instagram by triggering is copyright filters. They kept playing songs while being filmed, including Sublime's Santeria and The Beatles' Yesterday. 

Chessie Thacher, a senior staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union Northern California, told The Post that the tactic "does seem to be a trend right now." Thacher added: "People have the right to film the police, and efforts by the police to infringe on this right are unconstitutional. So if they're using copyright laws to prevent people from exercising their right — and amplifying what they’re seeing — then that's a real problem."

You're not losing access to digital games for the PSP just yet. When Sony reversed its decision to close the PS3 and the PS Vita storefronts back in April, it also said that the "PSP commerce functionality will retire on July 2nd, 2021 as planned." While that could be interpreted as Sony pulling the plug on all PSP downloads, new language that has popped up on both the US and the UK PlayStation websites (as spotted by Kotaku) shows that's not the case. 

The PSP game store shut down way back in 2016, but you can still get games for the console through the PS3 and the PS Vita stores. Now that those storefronts aren't shutting down, you'll still be able to download PSP games through them, though there will be some limitations going forward. Starting on July 6th, you will no longer be able to search for games on the PSP itself or make any in-game purchases. Kotaku says the information first appeared on the UK website on June 28th, and it makes no mention of the previous July 2nd timeline.

When Sony backtracked on its plans to shutdown the PS3 and Vita stores, Sony Interactive Entertainment's CEO Jim Ryan said that it was clear the company "made the wrong decision." It's unclear if limiting PSP users' capability to search for titles or make in-game purchases is what Sony had in mind when it said that it will retire the console's "commerce functionality," or if it also changed its decision like it did with the PS3 and PS Vita stores' closure. Either way, what matters is that the PSP's digital library will continue being available for now.

Sir Richard Branson might get to visit outer space before Jeff Bezos does. Virgin Galactic has announced that it's opening the flight window for SpaceShipTwo Unity's next rocket-powered test flight on July 11th, over a week before Blue Origin's first tourist flight is scheduled to launch on July 20th with Bezos onboard. The Unity 22 mission will be the company's fourth crewed flight, but it will be the first to carry a full crew with two pilots and four mission specialists in the cabin. One of those passengers is company founder Richard Branson, who'll be assessing the private astronaut experience Virgin Galactic plans to offer paying customers.

The company concluded that it was ready to launch Unity 22 after it finished analyzing data from its May 22nd test flight, according to Chief Executive Officer Michael Colglazier. The company completed the rocket-powered flight in May — the first human spaceflight out of Virgin's New Mexico-based Spaceport America — after months of delay. It was originally scheduled to blast off in December 2020, but the launch didn't take place because SpaceShipTwo's rocket motor failed to ignite. 

Now, the company believes it's ready to take another step towards offering commercial flights. The upcoming mission will focus on evaluating the spacecraft's cabin environment, seat comfort, the weightless experience and the views of Earth that it can offer paying passengers. It will also demonstrate the conditions for conducting human-tended research experiments.

In addition to Branson and the two pilots, the other passengers are made up of Virgin Galactic personnel. Virgin's Chief Astronaut Instructor Beth Moses will oversee the execution of the test flight objectives, while Lead Operations Engineer Colin Bennett will be evaluating cabin equipment, procedures and experience. Finally, Sirisha Bandla, VP of Government Affairs and Research Operations, will be in charge of conducting the human-tended experiments onboard. 

Virgin will broadcast a livestream of the spaceflight on its website, as well as on its Facebook, Twitter and YouTube pages. The livestream will begin at 9AM on the day of the flight, which could still be delayed, depending on weather and technical conditions. If the mission succeeds, the company intends to restart ticket sales soon and to conduct two additional flights before it starts its paid flights next year. 

In three weeks' time, you'll be able to start playing the pixel remaster versions of the first three Final Fantasy games. Square Enix has revealed that the Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy II and Final Fantasy III remasters are coming out on July 28th for PC via Steam and on July 29th for Android and iOS. You can now also pre-purchase the games individually for prices between $12 and $18, or buy the bundle with all six games for around $96. You'll get three soundtracks and two unique wallpapers for each title you pre-purchase. The gaming giant doesn't have a specific release date for the fourth to sixth installments in the franchise yet, but they're also scheduled to come out sometime this year.

Square Enix first announced that it's giving the first six games in the Final Fantasy franchise the pixel remaster treatment during its E3 presentation back in mid-June, though it barely shared any details about them. In the description box of the first installment on Steam, it says the game will feature completely new graphics, as well as "improved ease of play" with a modernized UI and auto-battle options. Its soundtrack has been rearranged, but the process was overseen by original composer Nobuo Uematsu. In addition, it will come with extra features, such as a bestiary, an illustration gallery and a music player.

While the other three games getting a remaster don't have a release date yet, Square Enix recently announced it's pulling the current versions of the fifth and sixth installments from Steam on July 27th. The developer received a lot of flak for reducing the quality of the art on the games it originally released on Steam, so it makes sense for the remasters to completely replace them. 

Google has updated its Pay app's "Passes API" to enable a simple way to store and display a digital card on Android showing users' COVID-19 test and vaccination details. The tech giant has given healthcare organizations, government agencies, as well as organizations authorized by public health authorities to distribute COVID vaccines access to the API. That means their developers can now easily create digital COVID vaccine and test cards that users can store on their device. 

As 9to5Google notes, Passes is a Google Pay API used to store non-payment cards like retailer membership cards. However, there's no need for users to download the Pay app if they don't have it to be able to store the COVID digital cards created using the Passes API. Once they get the digital card, they'll be able to access it via a shortcut on their home screen even without an internet connection. That said, their devices must run Android 5 or later.

In the interest of assuaging users' privacy fears, Google says it doesn't retain a copy of people's COVID-19 vaccine and test information. The company also says it doesn't share data on the card with third party services and that it doesn't use the information for ad targeting. Users can show the card to anybody they want, of course, though they'll be required to have a lock screen on their device before they can store the card for their own safety. The Passes API update is only available in the US at the moment, but the tech giant promises that it will also roll out to other countries in the future. 

Florida's social media 'deplatforming' law that would've taken effect on Thursday has been temporarily blocked by a federal court. US District Judge Robert Hinkle has granted a preliminary injunction to stop "the parts of the legislation that are pre-empted or violate the First Amendment" from being enforced, according to AP and The New York Times. The law would give the state the right to fine social media companies like Facebook up to $250,000 a day if they ban or remove the account of a statewide political candidate. They could also be fined up to $25,000 a day for banning a local office candidate.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis proposed the law shortly after Facebook, Instagram and Twitter banned former President Donald Trump. Republican politicians have long accused mainstream social media platforms of having an anti-conservative bias. After the bill successfully went through Florida's legislative house and senate, DeSantis signed it into law back in May. While the law targets the world's biggest social networks, the authors made sure Disney+ won't get caught up in it by making an exemption for theme park owners. As AP notes, the Walt Disney World located outside Orlando is one of the state's biggest employers. 

The entities that filed the lawsuit to challenge the legislation were NetChoice and the Computer & Communications Industry Association — lobbying groups that represent Facebook, Google and other tech giants. Judge Hinkle explained that the plaintiffs would likely win the lawsuit on their claim that the new law violates the First Amendment if the case went to trial.

According to Hinkle:

"The legislation compels providers to host speech that violates their standards — speech they otherwise would not host — and forbids providers from speaking as they otherwise would...

The legislation now at issue was an effort to rein in social-media providers deemed too large and too liberal. Balancing the exchange of ideas among private speakers is not a legitimate governmental interest."

United has announced that it’s adding 270 Boeing and Airbus planes to its fleet in a bid to reinvigorate domestic travel now that states have started lifting pandemic-related restrictions. And one of the best news for frequent flyers is that the new jets will feature seatback entertainment screens that come with Bluetooth connection. In addition, United will refurbish its old mainline jets with the new and upgraded in-flight entertainment until 2025.

Bluetooth audio is a much-requested addition to all in-flight entertainment systems that United has granted with the launch of its new interior. As The Verge notes, tech companies have been pushing a wireless lifestyle onto consumers by removing headphone jacks from their phones and launching truly wireless earbuds. Some may have already thrown their wired earphones away, or tucked them away in a drawer, forgotten until the next time they decide to do some spring cleaning.

Aviation writer Jason Rabinowitz has tweeted a video that gives us a look at the new seatback entertainment system with Bluetooth capabilities on a 737 MAX 8 plane. As you can see, all of the seats will have entertainment screens, which while great for passengers could also cause a bit of a headache. At full capacity, passengers may have trouble pairing their earphones as everyone tries to connect to Bluetooth at the same time.

Still, that’s a small problem for those waiting for the feature for a long time. Bluetooth audio is a fantastic addition to the new planes’ entertainment systems, and passengers will be able to get to try it soon. United will fly its first 737 MAX 8 jets with the new interior this summer, while its first 737 MAX 10 and Airbus jets will start flying in 2023.

After Western Digital My Book Live owners around the world reported that their devices were wiped remotely overnight, the company issued a statement blaming a specific vulnerability (CVE-2021-35941) for the event. An external investigation conducted by Ars Technica and Derek Abdine (CTO at security firm Censys) has revealed, however, that the bad actors exploited another undocumented vulnerability in a file aptly named system_factory_restore. 

Usually, users would have to type in their passwords to be able to perform factory resets on their devices. Indeed, the script in the file contains lines to password protect the reset command. However, someone in Western Digital "commented out" or, in non-technical parlance, canceled out the command by adding the double / character at the beginning of each line. HD Moore, a security expert, explained to Ars that this doesn't make things look good for the company. "It’s like they intentionally enabled the bypass," Moore said, since the attackers would have to know the format of the script that triggers the reset to exploit the vulnerability.

Devices that were hacked using the CVE-2021-35941 vulnerability were infected with malware, and in at least one case, it was malware that makes a device part of a botnet. Since turning My Book Live storage devices into botnets and then wiping them clean makes no sense, Abdine's theory is that one hacker exploited the CVE-2021-35941 vulnerability. After that, a second (possibly rival) hacker exploited the previously unknown reset vulnerability to gain control of the devices, which were then made part of a botnet, or to undo the first one's work. 

Either way, this event just goes to show that the My Book Live storage devices aren't as secure as anybody would like at this point. Those who still own it should heed Western Digital's advice and disconnect it from the internet as soon as possible.