It doesn't get much better than Apple's iPad mini if you're keen on a more compact tablet. We consider it to be the best small slab out there, and the company made a lot of much-needed upgrades to the latest model that came out nearly one year ago. Now, you can pick up the 2021 iPad mini for $400, or $100 less than usual and the best price we've seen it. That's how much you'll spend on the 64GB WiFi models, but you can get the same $100 discount on the 256GB versions too, so you can get one for $550.

The 6th-gen iPad mini is an upgrade in nearly every way from the previous iteration. Apple revamped its design so it looks more like a small iPad Air, complete with slimmer bezels, a Touch ID-toting power button and a USB-C port for charging. It has an 8.3-inch Liquid Retina display that supports input from the second-generation Apple Pencil, so it could be your main device for capturing digital notes, sketches and more. Its A15 Bionic chip performed well and handled everything we threw at it, and we were pleased with the tablet's nearly 12-hour battery life.

Apple also added 5G support to the iPad mini, which will be handy if you spring for an LTE-capable model, along with Center Stage cameras that keep you in the center of the frame when you're on FaceTime calls. Ultimately, our biggest gripes with the mini are the fact that it has no headphone jack and that many people may quickly fill up the base model's 64GB of storage. Plus, it's more expensive than the previous-gen mini, but Amazon's latest sale makes up for that. It's also worth noting that we don't expect Apple to announce a new iPad mini at this week's iPhone event, so the model that's on sale will likely remain the latest and greatest mini for some time.

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Sony is losing one of the main architects behind its PlayStation consoles. The company has confirmed to Bloomberg News that Masayasu Ito, who led the development of the PlayStation 4 and the PlayStation 5, is leaving Sony on October 1st. Ito has been with Sony for 36 years, joining the company way back in 1986 and starting with the development of in-car audio equipment those first years. 

He transferred to the console division in 2000, and he's had a hand in developing Sony's PlayStation devices since then, including the PS Portable and the PS4 Pro. He eventually became the Executive Vice President of Hardware Engineering and Operation and representative director of Sony Interactive Entertainment. While Sony didn't elaborate on why Ito is leaving in its announcement, it told Bloomberg that the 60-year-old executive is retiring.

Over the past couple of decades, he represented Sony in interviews and other public appearances concerning the PlayStation. He talked to Engadget about the PlayStation Eye camera for the PS4 back in 2013 and told us in the same year that the company was releasing the Vita TV outside Japan. He was also the one who announced that Project Morpheus would be known as the PlayStation VR at Tokyo Game Show back in 2015.

Two years ago, Ito posted a teardown of the PS5 on the PlayStation blog. He said Sony had to make a "generational leap in terms of performance" for its next console generation and had to ensure that all elements of the device work together. it had to find ways to reduce the console's the noise level, for instance, and increase its cooling capacity to be able to prevent its components from overheating. "In this teardown video of the PS5 console, you will be able to see how we have thoughtfully integrated our technology into this console," he wrote.

Meta’s Labor Day celebrations were cut short yesterday after the company was handed a $402 million fine by the European Union. The social network is believed to have mishandled children’s private data on Instagram, offering Business accounts to users as young as 13. This risked exposing their email addresses and phone numbers to the wider public, itself a violation of the bloc’s GDPR regime. A Meta spokesperson said the fine related to settings changed more than a year ago, and it was reviewing the decision. The fine is the second largest ever handed out by the EU for a GDPR breach, and the biggest Meta has received.

– Dan Cooper 

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A Webb Telescope image is being used to push malware

Hackers buried malicious code inside the picture.

NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Webb ERO

The images captured by the James Webb Space Telescope have been breathtaking, offering us new insight into the heavens around us. Unfortunately, these snaps have also provided an easy target for hackers, who have used the picture above as cover to smuggle malware onto machines as part of a phishing campaign. The image’s large file size and popularity means people might not be as cautious downloading it as they are with other files sent to their inbox. Thankfully, you can stay safe if you remain wary of unsolicited emails, even the ones promising to share the untold secrets of the cosmos.

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TikTok denies security breach after hackers claim to have records of more than a billion users

Hackers said they have access to TikTok’s source code.

TikTok is on the defensive after hackers claimed they had breached the app’s source code. The short form video giant said it found “no evidence of a breach” and that the material posted by the hackers as proof is “unrelated to TikTok’s backend source code.” Third party security expert Troy Hunt threw some cold water on the claims, too, saying the data looks “inconclusive.” So, uh, nothing to worry about?

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'The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power' sets Amazon Prime viewing record

25 million global viewers in a single day.

Amazon Studios

Amazon needs The Lord of the Rings to deliver a bona fide hit to Prime Video and has spent the GDP of a small country to make it happen. In the first 24 hours of The Rings of Power being available, the mega-retailer said it had more than 25 million viewers. That’s a big figure, and one worth taking with a pinch of salt given that Amazon hasn’t been clear on how it calculates a “viewer.” If true, (and I say again, if) it would make it one of the biggest hits in the modern era, pulling in two and a half times more than the other swords-and-sorcery prestige TV series that started airing last week.

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Apple Watch Pro renders and leaked cases show off a larger screen and new button

If you can believe it.

91mobiles

We’re just hours away from Apple’s new iPhone-and-everything-else launch, and one of the biggest rumors concerns a “Pro” version of the Apple Watch. The rumors say it will be a beefier, more rugged wearable for tough-mudder types who’d normally buy a pricey Garmin. Renders have filtered through the soil pipe to suggest the watch will get a bigger screen and an additional hardware button to hit more easily when you’re running. Oh, and Apple will abandon a lifetime of attempting to make its designs elegant and sleek by embedding the button and Digital Crown in this ugly-as-sin carbuncle on the side of the body. If it’s real, we can all be sure of one thing: Sir Jonathan Ive will be spinning in his… office.

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Samsung's 32-inch Smart Monitor M8 can act not only as a monitor with a webcam, but a smart TV as well thanks to the built-in speakers and support for cloud gaming and streaming platforms. Now, you can grab one for $590 ($110 to $140 off) at Amazon in white or green and $590 at Samsung in all colors. That beats the previous low price we saw earlier this year at Amazon. 

As a computer display, the Smart Monitor M8 offers UHD (3,840 x 2,160) resolution at up to 60Hz, along with HDR10+. With a VA panel, it's decently bright at 400 nits, offers a 4-millisecond response time and displays up to a billion colors, with 99 percent sRGB coverage. Input-wise, you get USB-C and Micro HDMI 2.0 inputs, along with a USB-C charging interface. Finally, it has a a detachable SlimFit Cam for video calls, making it a solid choice for work or light content creation.

That's just the half of it, though. It's a WiFi-capable smart TV that supports Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+ and Apple TV, as well as cloud gaming platforms. It comes with built-in dual 5W speakers and a home hub that allows you to use it to control SmartThings-compatible IoT devices like lights and thermostats. It even has built-in support for Microsoft 365, so you can edit documents or browse the web without having to connect it to a computer.

Other features include the ability to change the angle and position with the high-adjustable stand, along with a game bar that makes it easy to switch between cloud services. Normally the white model sells for $700 and the color models for $730, so the latter (green at Amazon; green, pink and blue at Samsung) are a particularly good deal at $590. 

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One of the first images taken by the James Webb Telescope that was released by NASA was the "sharpest infrared image of the distant universe to date." It's a wondrous photo showing a detailed cluster of galaxies. It's also currently being used by bad actors to infect systems with malware. Security analytics platform Securonix has identified a new malware campaign that uses the image, and the company is calling it the GO#WEBBFUSCATOR.

The attack starts with a phishing email containing a Microsoft Office attachment. Hidden within the document's metadata is a URL that downloads a file with a script, which runs if certain Word macros are enabled. That, in turn, downloads a copy of Webb’s First Deep Field photo (pictured above) that contains as a malicious code masquerading as a certificate. In its report about the campaign, the company said all anti-virus programs were unable to detect the malicious code in the image.

Securonix VP Augusto Barros told Popular Science that there are a couple of possible reasons why the bad actors chose to use the popular James Webb photo. One is that the high-resolution images NASA had released come in massive file sizes and can evade suspicion in that regard. Also, even if an anti-malware program flags it, reviewers might pass it over since it's been widely shared online in the past couple of months. 

Another interesting thing of note about the campaign is that it uses Golang, Google’s open-source programming language, for its malware. Securonix says Golang-based malware are rising in popularity, because they have flexible cross-platform support and are more difficult to analyze and reverse engineer than malware based on other programming languages. Like other malware campaign that starts with a phishing email, though, the best way to avoid being a victim of this attack is to avoid downloading attachments from untrusted sources.

As expected, the Apple leaks are coming in strong as we're approaching Wednesday's "Far Out" iPhone 14 event. Today, we've got our closest look yet at the Apple Watch Pro, thanks to renders from 91mobiles. Typically we'd treat most leaks from unknown "industry sources" with a healthy dose of salt, but according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, the renders are "indeed it." And for the most part, it's everything we expected. There's a bigger screen, as Gurman's earlier reports have suggested, as well a minor evolution of the Apple Watch Series 7 design. (Sorry, flat edge fans.) 

Take a close look and you'll notice an extra button on the opposite side of the (ruggedized) Digital Crown and multitasking button. Both 91mobile and Gurman speculate that it could be programmable, allowing you to launch a specific app or workout without dealing with the touchscreen. Case leaks from Sonny Dickson and DuanRui (via The Verge and Weibo) also point to a larger screen and additional button.

The Apple Watch Pro will likely target extreme sports fanatics—the sort of folks who wouldn't mind spending close to $1,000 for Garmin's high-end smartwatches. While that may sound extravagant, don't forget that there have always been high-end Apple Watch models not meant for mortal wallets. The current Hermes Series 7 collection ranges all the way up to an eye-watering $1,759. So with that context, maybe a $1,000 Apple Watch Pro doesn't seem so crazy? (No, it's still crazy.)

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, 4,000 of people who work in Google’s cafeterias have joined unions, according to a new report in The Washington Post. According to the report, “about 90 percent of total food services workers at Google” are now unionized. 

That number is particularly significant as the company’s cafeterias, like many of its peers, are overwhelmingly staffed by contract workers who don’t get the same benefits as full-time employees. Contractors across the company have pushed for higher wages and increased protections in recent months.

Cafeteria workers at Google’s Atlanta office could soon be the latest to join the ranks of unionized workers. Workers employed by a contracting firm called Sodexo reportedly told their manager they plan to unionize, and Sodexo said they would not block the move if “a majority” of workers supported it.

It’s unclear when an official agreement may be reached but a spokesperson for Unite Here, the union representing Google’s cafeteria workers, told The Post they were “hopeful that we can quickly reach an agreement on a union contract.” Other cafeteria workers at Google have already seen significant benefits since joining Unite Here. According to The Post, “the average unionized worker at a Google cafeteria makes $24 an hour, pays little to nothing for health insurance and has access to a pension plan.” By contrast, the Sodexo workers in Atlanta make $15 an hour and can spend “hundreds” on health insurance.

TikTok has denied a security breach after posts on hacking forums claimed to have compromised the app’s source code, as well as account details of potentially billions of people. In a statement posted to Twitter, the company said it “found no evidence of a breach,” following an investigation of the claims. The company also told Bloomberg UK that the alleged source code posted by the hackers “is completely unrelated to TikTok’s backend source code.”

Claims of a potential breach had been circulating among the security community after a post on a hacking forum claimed to be in possession of a database with more than two billion entries related to TikTok and WeChat accounts. The hacking group claimed to have obtained the TikTok records from an insecure cloud server.

The supposed hackers published a sample of the TikTok data but, as security researcher Troy Hunt pointed out, it contained data that was already publicly accessible and thus “could have been constructed without breach.” Hunt, who runs the “haveibeenpwned” service, said the data was overall “pretty inconclusive.”

While TikTok has strongly denied a breach, the info in the database could have come from other means. As Bleeping Computer notes, it could be the result of a data broker or some other third-party that scraped publicly-available data from the service.

Claims of a security breach come just days after Microsoft researchers disclosed that they had found a “high-severity vulnerability” in TikTok’s Android app that put millions of accounts at risk. Microsoft said the vulnerability was fixed less than a month after it alerted TikTok to the issue in February of 2022. TikTok has long faced questions about its security practices and what user data is shared with parent company ByteDance. The company said last month that Oracle would review its algorithms and content moderation systems in an effort to assuage concerns.

Meta has been fined €405 million ($402 million) by the Irish Data Protection Commission for its handling of children’s privacy settings on Instagram, which violated Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). As Politico reports, it’s the second-largest fine to come out of Europe’s GDPR laws, and the third (and largest) fine levied against Meta by the regulator.

The fine stems from the photo sharing app’s privacy settings on accounts run by children. The DPC had been investigating Instagram over children’s use of business accounts, which made personal data like email addresses and phone numbers publicly visible. The investigation also covered Instagram’s policy of defaulting all new accounts, including teens, to be publicly viewable. 

“This inquiry focused on old settings that we updated over a year ago, and we’ve since released many new features to help keep teens safe and their information private," a Meta spokesperson told Politico in a statement. "Anyone under 18 automatically has their account set to private when they join Instagram, so only people they know can see what they post, and adults can’t message teens who don’t follow them. We engaged fully with the DPC throughout their inquiry, and we’re carefully reviewing their final decision.”

The fine, which Meta could still appeal, comes as Instagram has faced intense scrutiny over its handling of child safety issues. The company halted work on an Instagram Kids app last year following a whistleblower’s claims that meta ignored its own research indicating the app can have a negative impact on some teens’ mental health. Since then, the app has added more safety features, including changing default settings on teen accounts to private.

It’s been a while since an iPhone launch genuinely felt like an event, since each new model is only marginally more polished than its predecessor. Not so, says the rumor mill for the iPhone 14, promised to be a ground-up redesign with major changes and new features. The headline tweaks include vastly improved cameras, a punch-hole to replace the notch and an always-on display. But if there’s a sting in this particular tail, it’s the rumor that Apple will save all of these goodies for the Pro model, stiffing the iPhone 14 with last year’s A15 chip.

– Daniel Cooper

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SLS fuel leak likely to delay Artemis 1 launch to October

It’s going back indoors for more repairs and testing.

Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

NASA’s new Space Launch System has suffered yet another high-profile setback as a fuel leak blocked a planned test launch for Artemis 1. The agency conceded it wasn’t possible to launch before the window closes on September 6th. It’s likely the next attempt to get this thing into the air will be in October, but with a planned SpaceX launch due on October 3rd, SLS’ test firing will have to wait until October 17th at the very earliest.

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The IRS says it accidentally exposed confidential information involving 120,000 taxpayers

It put private data on a public register.

The Internal Revenue Service has admitted it exposed the details of 120,000 US taxpayers through its website. The issue centered around the filing of Form 990-T, which deals with unrelated income from a variety of sources. Both private individuals and non-profit organizations are required to complete the document, but only the latter is meant to be publicly available. Sadly, a coding error meant 120,000 individual records, which included income data, was on the public register for some time. Affected individuals will be hearing from the IRS in the next few weeks, but the body has already said social security numbers were not shared.

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US police agencies have been using a low-cost surveillance tool to track people’s phones

Advertising IDs have, once again, been used as a way to track individuals.

For years, civil rights groups have warned that law enforcement agencies could co-opt the advertising industry’s sophisticated surveillance tools. Fog Reveal, a system police bodies have used to pinpoint people’s locations, is the realization of these dire warnings. The low-cost tool harnesses Advertising ID, a unique identifier smartphones have to help target relevant ads based on a user’s location and browsing history. Of more concern is the data does not require a warrant and can track a person’s movements for up to three years.

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The best laptops for gaming and schoolwork

Machines you can count on.

Will Lipman Photography for Engadget

Isn’t it wonderful you no longer have to choose between a beefy gaming PC or an overpriced, underpowered laptop as your dorm room daily driver? These days, you can get great performance on low-cost hardware, solving your price vs. power dilemmas once and for all. If you’re still on the hunt for a machine to get you through college, you should give our expert guide a once-over.

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iPhone overtakes Android to claim majority of US smartphone market

It’s a big moment.

We’ve always understood that while the iPhone is popular and successful, the sheer volume of Android alternatives means it would never become the majority phone platform in the US. Turns out, the received wisdom might be wrong. Analytics firm Counterpoint Research found iPhones now make up the majority of the US smartphone market. Android still remains the worldwide champ, with more than 70 percent of the global share, but it’s a dramatic shift in the US, and a trend analysts believe could be repeated in many more countries over time.

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