If you had been using Instagram's Android app in the past hour or so, you might have noticed that an error had been causing it to crash seconds after launching, rendering it almost unusable. You weren't alone: users from multiple regions flooded Twitter with complaints about this phenomenon. According to Downdetector, this bug first appeared around 12:44PM EDT today (September 23rd) — roughly matching the time when this author also started scratching head over the seemingly random crashes. At the time of writing this article, there were still fresh tweets grumbling about this issue.
A Meta representative confirmed to famed software engineer Jane Wong that the company is aware of the outage and it's working to restoring service "as quickly as possible." While this bug appeared to be exclusive to Instagram's Android app, Wong told Engadget that the iOS counterpart was also loading very slowly for her, indicating a backend issue.
At present, users who are able to open the app have noted limited functionality, including an inability to access Reels or DMs. We'll be monitoring the situation as service gradually resumes, and will update if Meta provides additional details on what went wrong.
Update 9/22/22 2:29PM EDT: Meta says Instagram is back to normal as of 2:25PM EDT, though it stopped short at sharing what went wrong. We will share more if we hear back.
And we’re back! We resolved the issue that caused today’s outage, and apologize for any inconvenience. https://t.co/2Av4sC4C5B
DJI has launched the Osmo Mobile 6 gimbal, and it comes with a larger clamp than its predecessors to accommodate bigger phones or smaller ones with bulky cases. It has a new handle handle designed to be more comfortable to hold, but it kept the Osmo Mobile 5's built-in extension rod that lets you use it as a selfie stick. The Osmo 6 also features an improved version of DJI's ActiveTrack, which allows stable tracking for longer distances and enables the phone's front camera to track subjects that spin or turn to the side.
Another new feature is Quick Launch for the iPhone. So long as it's an iPhone that's attached to the stabilizer, the Mimo app instantly enters camera view when the gimbal is unfolded. DJI says it could dramatically reduce prep times and can get the phone ready to take photos three times faster than previous Osmo Mobile models can.
DJI
The new gimbal has a built-in status panel that lets you quickly check battery levels, as well as a Mode button that gives you a way to cycle between modes with every tap. When in Follow mode, the camera view stays locked in during rolls but follows the gimbal's pan and tilt movements. Tilt Lock enables the camera view to follow the gimbal's pan movements but stays stable during tit and rolls. The camera view follows all the gimbal's movements in FPV mode for a more dynamic footage, while SpinShot lets you control the camera view by moving the joystick left or right.
Just like its predecessor, the Osmo Mobile 6 also has a number of intelligent features, namely timelapse, gesture control, automatic dynamic zoom, panorama and story mode. Finally, the gimbal comes with a Side Wheel that lets you control and adjust the focal length and zoom in or out. The DJI Osmo Mobile 6 will be available starting today from the company's online store for €169/£145 (US$166) and will make its way to more retailers in the future. It will ship with a magnetic clamp, tripod, power cable, wrist strap and storage pouch.
After all the rumors and teasers, Peloton’s $3,195 rowing machine is finally official. It packs a 24-inch HD display and electronically-controlled resistance. That kind of resistance, which typically feels different to Concept2 rowers in your local gym, doesn’t mean it’s particularly small, however – you might want to check you have the space in your home. Peloton claims the Row can offer on-screen feedback on your form as you work out.
That will have to be some incredible coaching, given that its price tag is far higher than its rivals. The aforementioned (and benchmark) Concept2 rowing machine doesn’t have a screen, Bluetooth or any digital tricks, but it’s also under $1,000. Hydrow’s cheapest rower, the Wave, is priced at $1,495, while the premium model is still hundreds of dollars less than the Peloton Row. It’s an expensive gambit for a company still getting its house in order, adjusting its prices and reconsidering its approach.
Preorders for the Row start today in the US. The company expects to ship the machines in December – just in time for those 2023 fitness resolutions.
NVIDIA's 40 series GPUs are finally here. The company unveiled the GeForce RTX 4090 and GeForce RTX 4080 today at its GTC 2022 keynote. Taking full advantage of its new "Ada Lovelace" architecture, NVIDIA says the two GPUs offer significantly better ray tracing performance – and generally a lot of power for a lot of money. The first of the new GPUs will arrive next month when the GeForce RTX 4090 goes on for sale for $1,599 on October 12th. There will be two different variants of the RTX 4080. The base model will start at $899 and features 12GB of GDDR6X memory and 7,680 cores, while a 16GB version with 9,728 cores will set you back a cool $1,199. Both configurations will arrive sometime in November.
With iOS 16, Apple has focused on modernizing the iPhone lock screen, making it a more useful part of how you interact with your phone. These changes also make it easier to use the iPhone’s Focus modes, which remain a little complicated to set up. Overall, the company has made lots of minor changes that add up to a better iPhone experience. Apple’s Messages app continues to improve, and the increasingly useful Visual Lookup feature is something an Android device can’t quite replicate — yet. These iOS updates are usually followed by a few extra tweaks – and Apple has already fixed its weird battery percentage indicator. Was it my review? (It wasn’t.)
Spotify has officially added audiobooks as yet another listening option in its app – for when you run out of podcasts, right? Starting today, US users will see a dedicated section for the format that allows standalone purchases via a web link. The company says its library will contain over 300,000 titles at launch. As well as their own section alongside music and podcasts, audiobooks will show up in your recommendations on the main page.
That’s according to a new study on recommendations.
If you’ve ever felt like it’s difficult to “un-train” YouTube’s algorithm, you’re not alone. One major issue, according to new research conducted by Mozilla, is that YouTube’s in-app controls such as the “dislike” button, “prevent less than half of unwanted algorithmic recommendations.” Of the controls available on YouTube, the most effective was “don’t recommend from channel,” which prevented 43 percent of unwanted recommendations, while “not interested” was the least effective and only prevented about 11 percent of unwanted suggestions.
It’s already been a year since Windows 11 launched. Somehow. It’s a good time for an update, then. Much like the improved Windows Update experience, the vast majority of new features in this 2022 update are under the hood. Those include a slew of accessibility upgrades including system-wide live captions and a preview of improved voice commands for using your PC and transcription.
As recently as last year, TikTok used a two-tier moderation system that gave preferential treatment to its most popular users, according to Forbes. The publication obtained an audio recording of a September 2021 meeting where the company detailed an internal feature called “creator labels” that was reserved for accounts with more than 5 million followers.
The Morning After isn’t just a newsletter – it’s also a daily podcast. Get our daily audio briefings, Monday through Friday, by subscribing right here.
Can you believe it's been almost a year since Windows 11 launched? Back then, I was surprised that Microsoft was practically rushing a new version of Windows out the door. But, as I noted in my review, Windows 11 ended up refining Microsoft's desktop formula fairly well. My opinion hasn't changed much since then (and yes, I'm still frustrated by the cleaner but less usable taskbar). Today, Microsoft will start rolling out the Windows 11 2022 update, the operating system's first major revision, which brings better security, accessibility and a handful of gaming improvements. Mostly, though, it'll make it easier for you to get future updates more quickly.
How do I get the Windows 11 2022 Update?
No surprise here: Head over to Windows Update in your Settings app and see if your computer is eligible for an upgrade. As usual, Microsoft says it's taking a "measured and phased" approach, which means there's a chance you won't see the update immediately. The company will also highlight potential conflicts on your system — e.g., an incompatible app, an out of date driver — that will prevent you from getting the refreshed OS. This advice applies to both Windows 11 and Windows 10 users, though the latter should double-check their computer with thePC Health Check app to ensure their hardware is compatible. (Check out our Windows 11 review for more details on upgrading from Windows 10.)
What's this about faster updates?
Panos Panay, Microsoft's Chief Product Officer,said in February that the company was aiming to deliver "continuous innovation" and more frequent Windows 11 updates outside of the major annual release. That begins with the 2022 update. The company has "significantly reduced" the size of updates (around 450MB for many folks), as well as reduced their installation time, John Cable, the head of Windows Servicing and Delivery, said in a blog post.
The Windows 11 2022 update will also be more carbon aware, allowing you to schedule installations for times when your local grid is relying on cleaner energy sources like wind, hydro and solar. This functionality won't be available everywhere, and we're still waiting to hear more about how Microsoft will keep track of electric grid statistics. But theoretically, it's a smart way to cut down on extraneous carbon emissions (and it's something I'd love to see on phones, tablets and other devices).
Microsoft
So where are the new features?
At first glance, it'll be difficult to tell you're running the new update. It doesn't bring any major UI changes, though Microsoft says it'll be adding tabs to File Explorer in October. I've been using an early build of that feature, and it's definitely helped to reduce my window clutter when moving between SD cards, OneDrive and my downloads folder. (Don't worry, you can still fill your screen with multiple Explorer windows if you prefer.)
You'll also be able to tweak the Start Menu further by either adding more pinned apps, or more recommendations. Additionally, Microsoft is bundling the Clipchamp video editor, which looks like a huge improvement over the existing Windows tool (and certainly lightyears ahead of Movie Maker).
Microsoft
Much like the improved Windows Update experience, the vast majority of new features in the 2022 update are under the hood. Those include a slew of accessibility upgrades thatMicrosoft unveiled earlier this year: system-wide live captions, which will initially appear at the top of your screen to help you feel engaged during video chats; natural sounding voices for the Narrator screen reader; as well as a preview of improved voice commands for using your PC and transcription.
More so than most tech companies, Microsoft has beenpushing to make its hardware and software more accessible over the last decade. That includes launching theSurface Adaptive Kit, setting up aDisability Answer Desk, and announcing a five-year commitment toward bridging the "Disability Divide." The features debuting in this Windows 11 update are all driven by members of the Windows Accessibility team, giving them all a personal touch.
The new Focus Sessions experience, for example, is spearheaded by Alexis Kane, a product manager who has ADHD. She noticed how notifications were giving her more anxiety and disrupting her workflow, so she helped to create a way to minimize them without disabling notifications entirely. Focused Sessions reduces the noise of those alerts, but it also disables Task Bar badges and lets you time work sprints with the clock app.
A better gaming experience
Say goodbye to the Xbox Game Bar, and hello to the new Windows Controller bar. Now when you hit the Xbox button on an Xbox (or third-party) controller, you'll see a simple pop-up to let you get back to a recent game or launcher. Even better for gamers, you'll be able to enjoy titles with better latency, Auto HDR and VRR in windowed mode. In the past, you could only access those features while a game was being run in full-screen mode.
There's also better support for HDR in general. A new calibration app will let you fine-tune the color and brightness levels of your HDR screens. And there's also more support for Auto HDR, which maps improved lighting onto games that don't offer HDR on their own.
Microsoft
Other features
In addition to tabbed File Explorer windows, Microsoft also has a handful of other new features coming in October:
Better picture management with an improved Photos app. It will also let you back up pics directly to OneDrive, and it’ll help you revisit experiences with a new “Memories” feature. (That sounds similar to what Apple and Google do with their respective photo offerings.)
An overflow menu in the task bar, which will hold extra apps instead of crowding the bottom of your screen.
More suggested options when copying data. Selecting a phone number, for example, could prompt you to make a Teams call.
Just in time for the arrival of the iPhone 14 line, iOS 16 is officially here, after spending several months in beta. I’ve spent the last week or so testing out the final version of the software, and there are plenty of new things to try, including customizable lock screens, improvements to the Messages app and some smarter AI tricks. Just as importantly, it’s not buggy. The latest edition of Apple’s mobile OS works with the iPhone 8 and newer models, although some features, demand the relatively recent A12 chip. (More on that later.)
This year’s version of iOS is an update you’ll notice – something that was hard to say about iOS 15, whose most notable features related to media sharing, Focus modes and SharePlay. iOS 14, now two years old, added widgets to the grid of icons and shook up your homepage experience for the first time since the iPhone launched. With iOS 16, Apple finally tackled the lock screen.
A personalized lock screen
The lock screen used to feature a clock and not much else. Things are a little different now, but let’s start with the clock. The font is thicker and you can even choose the color of the text and there’s now space for widgets. You might not like how the new default font looks (I don’t), but the good news is that it’s customizable, with several font styles and colors. You can of course choose photos for the lock screen, which isn’t anything new, and you can apply filter styles and even choose a shuffled selection of photos to cycle through. If the images were taken in Portrait mode, you can also enable a multilayered photo effect, with the photo's subject popping out in front of the time. If you do have an iPhone 14 Pro, check out our full review for our thoughts on the Always On Display and, naturally, Apple's new Dynamic Island.
There are two different widget areas you can customize. First up is a slim box above the clock that’s best suited to one-line text (think: the date, chances of rain, or your next calendar event.) Below that, there’s a box that can house up to four different widgets — a mix of 2x1 and 1x1 icons. From the lock screen, you can tap on these to launch into the appropriate itself, but don’t expect to glean any extra information by long-pressing on the icons, which seems like a very Apple way to expand the information offered by these widgets. Maybe in iOS 16.1, or iOS 17?
Mat Smith / Engadget
Similar to the debut of home screen widgets on iOS 14, it’ll take time for third-party app developers to get widgets into their updates and onto your phone, but I’m sure productivity, fitness tracking services and others will jump at the chance. Google in particular seems ready to get on board: Its forthcoming Gmail widget will absolutely be getting a place on my lock screen when it becomes available.
The new lock screen keeps some classic features, too. You’ll still see signal strength and battery icons (now with a percentage readout), and both the flashlight and camera shortcuts are still available to tap away at. Oddly, the battery indicator only visually replicates how charged it is when the battery is under 20 percent, which is counterintuitive when you’re at 50 percent, for example.
The lock screen refresh also functions as a renewed way of showcasing an iOS 15 feature that can be pretty laborious to set up: Focus modes. You can now assign a Focus mode to individual lock screens (one for personal, one for work, one for sleep), each with their own custom widget layouts and photos. If you rarely change your wallpaper during weekdays, you could set up, say, a fun weekend image of your family, and assign it to your personal focus mode.
Conversely, I have a pretentious motivational quote on a black background for when I’m crunching away on deadlines and have my phone set to Do Not Disturb. The ability to swipe between Focus modes makes them easier to use in everyday life. Sure, I could have done so in the past from the top-right drop-down menu, but I didn’t. With iOS 16, I’m already using Focus modes more often.
A better messaging experience
Mat Smith / Engadget
Apple’s native messaging app gets some unique tricks, including new Visual Lookup features. It now handles image copy-and-pasting, pulling subjects from photos, screenshots and more, turning them into easy-to-share stickers. Long-press on the object / animal / person and your iPhone (if it’s an XS or newer) will endeavor to clip it away from the background, ready to paste elsewhere.
It’s uncannily accurate for such a, well, lazy method. I love it. The Visual Lookup skills in iOS 16 are even more expansive, with the new ability to lift text from video. In addition to videos you take yourself, it should work with full-screen videos in web browsers.
Messages has also expanded its sharing capabilities beyond SharePlay and stickers. You can now send documents, spreadsheets and more, as long as they’re saved in one of Apple’s office software file types. Hopefully, third-party support for Microsoft and the Google Suite will soon follow.
Apple is making up for lost time elsewhere as well. Finally, you can edit and unsend messages on the Messages app – if you’re quick enough. You’ll have up to 15 minutes to edit after you first send the message, with the chance to change your message up to five times. You can see any edited messages from other folks also using iOS 16, which will be grayed (blued?) out underneath the corrected message. Unsend features are only for iPhone-to-iPhone messages.
Similarly, you can now undo send and schedule emails from the native Mail app. (Finally.) There are also further modern features you are probably already used to on Gmail, like suggestions when you might have forgotten an attachment or recipient. .
Apple has upgraded its voice dictation, too. Now when you’re talking into your iPhone, the keyboard will stay on screen, meaning you can type and correct while the dictation takes place – ideal for specific names and places. You can also tap on a word and dictate over them to correct any mistakes. Apple has also added more rigorous auto punctuation to dictation, which generally helped insert commas, periods and the rest without you having to say “question mark” at the end of your text-based requests to friends. It also gleans emoji as you say them, inserting them into your typing. (This feature requires the A12 Bionic chip found in the iPhone XR and newer devices.)
Health and Fitness
Apple’s Health and Fitness apps are relative newcomers to the native app family, and they continue to evolve. The Health app has a new Medications feature that helps log what you take and when. You can set up multiple meds for different time-of-day reminders and frequencies and your iPhone will ping you when it’s time. Another addition to the Health app is the ability to enable notifications if your logged menstrual cycles show a pattern of infrequent periods and other signs of possible abnormalities.
On a more light-hearted note, depending on how serious an athlete you are, Apple has also added a My Sports tab to its News app, dedicating a section to your favorite sports teams. This encompasses news, results, related stories and upcoming game reminders. A word of warning: Some of the stories may be locked behind Apple’s News+ paywall.
One of the best updates is one you might miss. I did too, until I perused Apple’s iOS 16 lengthy release notes: Haptic typing is here, on an iPhone, several years late. Until now, if you wanted typing vibrations on an iOS device you’d have to install Gboard – yes, Google’s third-party keyboard – to get this functionality. Now, mere days later it’s hard to imagine going back to typing on glass without it. Android users have had it good.
Everything else
iOS 16 introduces some potentially life-saving personal safety updates as well. Emergency SOS, which sounds an alarm on the phone before automatically calling emergency services, can now be activated by rapidly pressing the side button five times. Crash Detection, enabled in settings, will take data from the motion sensor, gyroscope, accelerometer, GPS, barometer and microphone, and combine it with algorithms to estimate if you’ve been in a car crash. When detected, a warning will flag up on both your iPhone and your Apple Watch. If you're still responsive, you can swipe the screen to call emergency services or close the alert, if it was a false alarm. Like the SOS call, the iPhone will automatically dial emergency services after 10 seconds have passed.
Mat Smith / Engadget
It wouldn’t be an Apple update with at least a few security updates. Perhaps the most noticeable addition is Safety Check, which can decouple your iPhone from specific contacts, gadgets and services. From here, you can uncheck permissions and even nix the connection completely with “Emergency Reset” or “Select All and Stop Sharing.” You will need to use your passcode or FaceID for these more extreme measures.
Apple is also touting what it calls Passkeys: digital keys that use your iPhone’s security features to securely log in to websites and devices like your smart TV. These aren’t an Apple invention, but with Passkeys on iOS devices this should lead to wider uptake and, well, a chance to use them. That said, I haven’t yet found any opportunities yet to test them out.
And there are even more notable features:
Apple Maps includes support for multi-stop routing, which can also be synced with your Mac. Travel fares are also displayed when you’re riding public transport.
Camera-wise, you can add foreground blur on Portrait mode photos, and Apple has improved cinematic mode video capture – at least on select devices. You’ll get cinematic mode on the iPhone 13 series and newer.
The Home app has been streamlined, with categories for lighting, speakers, TV and more. The tiles have been redesigned to make it easier to discriminate between all your connected gadgets. And, of course, there are now Home app lock screen widgets.
Apple has expanded the Fitness app to everyone; you no longer need an Apple Watch to use the activity tracking parts. Your iPhone’s motion sensors will estimate your steps, distance and workouts to offer up a rough calorie burn figure, too.
New accessibility features include Door Detection in the iPhone’s Magnifier mode – if you have a device with LIDAR, anyway. (That’s ‘Pro’ iPhone models starting with the iPhone 12 Pro.) A new detection mode offers more detailed descriptions in Magnifier, as well as people detection and image descriptions.
Apple finally lets you hang up on calls with Siri, hands-free. It sounds incredibly abrupt, sure, but hang-ups required a physical tap until now. You can also adjust Siri's wait time before it responds to your voice commands.
Wrap-up
iOS 16 marks another notable evolution for Apple’s often slow-to-change mobile OS, this time enriching your iPhone lock screen in several ways. I focused on the lock screen in this review because it’s an inescapable part of the iPhone experience. Changes elsewhere are small, but there are an awful lot of them, and they add up. (Apple has added seven more nose options for Memoji, FYI.)
There are some features that I haven’t been able to test, including accessibility upgrades for LIDAR-capable phones and Passkey support. As with many iOS updates, you might not notice all of the improvements. Many will find the medication reminder features useful and simple; others won’t even know it’s there. Sports fans might love the dedicated News app tab, but on the other hand, you also might not care about sportsball? You can test out the lock screen widgets, set up some Focus modes. Or not. But please turn on Haptic typing, and never let your iPhone make those typing sound effects ever again.
One good thing that came out of the pandemic is that more people picked up cycling. In the first three months of 2021, American consumer spending on bikes and cycling accessories increased by 34 percent year on year to $8.2 billion. However, the pandemic also saw more die and suffer injuries while biking. According to the National Safety Council, 1,260 cyclists were killed in 2020, a 16 percent increase from 2019.
It’s a problem that Ford thinks technology can address. On Monday, the automaker announced it’s working with Commsignia, PSS, Ohio State University, T-Mobile and Tome Software to explore how a smartphone app could warn drivers of pedestrians and cyclists they may not see. As someone sharing the road with a car, you would install the company's software on your phone. With the help of Bluetooth Low Energy, vehicles with Ford’s Sync infotainment system would see you as “beacons.” If the car then determines there’s the potential for a crash, it will warn the driver using audiovisual cues.
According to Ford, its approach has a few advantages. One is that Bluetooth LE is nearly ubiquitous. The technology has been part of the Bluetooth protocol since 2009, meaning every modern smartphone has access to it. If you own a Ford vehicle, you won’t need to bring your car to a dealership for a hardware upgrade since the Sync system features Bluetooth compatibility. The other advantage of using Bluetooth LE is that your car won’t need to see pedestrians and cyclists before it can warn you. Ford and T-Mobile are also working on a version of the app that uses 5G instead of Bluetooth LE.
In practice, the company’s approach is reminiscent of the COVID exposure notification apps some countries and states deployed at the beginning of the pandemic. As you may recall, those also used Bluetooth LE. However, despite backing from Apple and Google, they were never effective due to low usage. In Canada, for instance, the federal COVID Alert app was only downloaded 6.9 million times and logged 63,117 positive tests. Put another way, nowhere near enough Canadians downloaded the software to make it an effective contact tracing tool. Ford's app is likely to experience some of the same issues.
As an avid cyclist, I can’t tell you how many people I’ve seen riding their bikes at night without an LED light to make themselves visible to traffic. On the other hand, statistics suggest motorists have been driving more aggressively in recent years, leading to the aforementioned increase in cyclist deaths as well as vehicle crashes. Any kind of intervention would be welcome, but Ford's app isn't likely to be a meaningful solution if it ever comes to market. While the Bluetooth LE solution to COVID had only one uphill climb, apps like Ford's have two: adoption by cyclists and adoption by automakers.
Apple released its latest iPhone lineup last week. While many folks were excited to get their hands on a new device, their elation may have been tempered by some problems with the camera system. It seems that several prominent third-party apps have compatibility issues with the iPhone 14 Pro's rear camera unit. Users have reported problems including shaking, rattling and mechanical noises emanating from the device when using apps like Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat, as 9to5 Mac reports. It seems there are problems with autofocus and focus too.
Along with sharing reports of the problems on the likes of Reddit and Twitter, some have been sharing videos that show the issues. One appears to depict a grinding sound coming from an iPhone 14 Pro when Snapchat is open. Another shows a similar issue while TikTok accesses the rear cameras.
Given that these issues only appear to be present when third-party apps are in use, rather than Apple's own Camera app, a software issue may be to blame, as 9to5 Mac points out. In particular, the apps may not be playing nicely with the iPhone 14 Pro's optical image stabilization, which seems to be the cause of the rattling. It's not yet clear whether the problems are on Apple's end or with the third-party apps. Engadget has contacted Apple, TikTok, Snap and Meta for comment.
The iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max may have only arrived yesterday but developers are already dreaming up fun and interesting use cases for Apple’s new Dynamic Island interface. Take Apollo creator Christian Selig, for instance. On Friday, he updated his Reddit client to implement support for “Pixel Pals.” The feature adds a Tamagotchi-like critter that does cute things on top of your phone’s Dynamic Island while you have Apollo open. You can even choose between multiple creatures, including a cat, dog, hedgehog, fox or axolotl.
Okay y'all, I think I found the best idea for the Dynamic Island on the iPhone 14 Pro. I added a cat that lives up there like a tamagotchi and just hangs out and does cute stuff as you browse Reddit in my app (Apollo). pic.twitter.com/xJJlazHH4E
If you don’t have an iPhone 14 Pro or Pro Max, don’t worry. You can also add the creatures to your phone as lock screen widgets – provided you have iOS 16 installed. On the subject of iPhone widgets, Google teased one that will function as a shortcut to Chrome’s Dino game.
Selig isn’t the only person doing something creative with the iPhone 14 Pro’s Dynamic Island. In a tweet spotted by The Verge, WaterMinder creator Kriss Smolka showed off Hit the Island, a game that uses the UI element for a Pong-style game. You can download it from the App Store. I can only speak for myself, but these apps make me a bit jealous I'm still rocking an iPhone 12.
Who has an iPhone 14 Pro right now? Need to test this on device asap!
Microsoft Teams stores authentication tokens in unencrypted plaintext mode, allowing attackers to potentially control communications within an organization, according to the security firm Vectra. The flaw affects the desktop app for Windows, Mac and Linux built using Microsoft's Electron framework. Microsoft is aware of the issue but said it has no plans for a fix anytime soon, since an exploit would also require network access.
According to Vectra, a hacker with local or remote system access could steal the credentials for any Teams user currently online, then impersonate them even when they're offline. They could also pretend to be the user through apps associated with Teams, like Skype or Outlook, while bypassing the multifactor authentication (MFA) usually required.
"This enables attackers to modify SharePoint files, Outlook mail and calendars, and Teams chat files," Vectra security architect Connor Peoples wrote. "Even more damaging, attackers can tamper with legitimate communications within an organization by selectively destroying, exfiltrating, or engaging in targeted phishing attacks."
Attackers can tamper with legitimate communications within an organization by selectively destroying, exfiltrating, or engaging in targeted phishing attacks.
Vectra created a proof-of-concept exploit that allowed them to send a message to the account of the credential holder via an access token. "Assuming full control of critical seats–like a company’s Head of Engineering, CEO, or CFO — attackers can convince users to perform tasks damaging to the organization."
The problem is mainly limited to the desktop app, because the Electron framework (that essentially creates a web app port) has "no additional security controls to protect cookie data," unlike modern web browsers. As such, Vectra recommends not using the desktop app until a patch is created, and using the web application instead.
When informed by cybersecurity news site Dark Reading of the vulnerability, Microsoft said it "does not meet our bar for immediate servicing as it requires an attacker to first gain access to a target network," adding that it would consider addressing it in a future product release.
However, threat hunter John Bambenek told Dark Reading it could provide a secondary means for "lateral movement" in the event of a network breach. He also noted that Microsoft is moving toward Progressive Web Apps that "would mitigate many of the concerns currently brought by Electron."
Instagram isn't the only one hoping to capitalize on the daily photo sharing trend. TikTok has unveiled an experimental Now feature that, much like BeReal, asks you to post either a photo (using front and back cameras) or 10-second video to tell friends what you're doing each day. You'll have a limited window to share content after you receive a randomly-timed prompt. Effectively, it's a visual status update.
The test will run over the "coming weeks," according to the social network. TikTok Now is available through the usual app in the US, but you may also find it as a dedicated app in other countries. Not surprisingly, the company is limiting some features for teens. Anyone under 16 who creates an account in the Now app will default to private viewing. Teens between 13 and 15 can only receive comments from friends, and everyone under 18 can't share their content on Explore.
TikTok is more used to rivals duping its features than the other way around. However, it's easy to see the reasons for borrowing BeReal's core concept. Daily posts could keep you coming back to TikTok. They also elevate the importance of friends — you might want to add more people to your social circle if you know you'll see frequent updates. In that sense, Now could change TikTok's role as much as it could improve the company's bottom line.
