According to The Wall Street Journal, the Biden administration plans to implement new measures to make it more difficult for hackers to profit from ransomware attacks using cryptocurrencies. As early as next week, the Treasury Department will reportedly impose sanctions and guidance designed to discourage organizations from using digital currencies to pay for ransoms.
Per The Journal, among the measures the agency is considering are fines and other penalties aimed at businesses that cooperate with hackers. Later in the year, the Treasury Department is also expected to implement new anti-money laundering and terror-financing regulation to limit further the use of cryptocurrencies as a payment method for ransoms and other illegal activity.
The incoming sanctions will reportedly single out specific traders and exchanges instead of casting a wide net and attempting to disrupt the entire crypto ecosystem. In addition to harming organizations that may have facilitated ransomware payments in the past, the hope is that sanctions will scare most cryptocurrency platforms from processing those types of transactions in the future.
“An action of this kind would be an aggressive, proactive approach to going after those who facilitate ransomware payments,” Ari Redbord, a former Treasury Department official, told The Journal.
The measures would be the latest attempt by the Biden administration to tackle the issue of ransomware attacks following a year in which they’ve increased in frequency and severity. After the Colonial Pipeline attack led to fuel shortages in parts of the US, the president signed an executive order that called for, among other things, improved information sharing between federal agencies. More recently, the Department of Homeland Security laid out mandatory rules that call on pipeline operators to appoint cybersecurity coordinators and report incidents to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.
Netflix has locked down several high-profile creators to TV and movie deals over the last few years, including Ryan Murphy, Shonda Rhimes, David Fincher and Game of Thrones duo David Benioff and Dan Weiss. The latest talent to join Netflix's stable is Dan Levy, the star and co-creator of Schitt's Creek who won four Emmys for the hit Canadian sitcom last year.
Levy's first Netflix project is a romantic comedy movie that he'll write, produce, direct and star in, according to Variety. He can't work on any shows for Netflix until his TV deal with Disney studio ABC Signature expires next summer.
Netflix played an important role in Levy's rise to stardom after it started streaming Schitt's Creek in 2017. “Netflix offered Schitt’s Creek a second home at just the right time and opened the doors to a whole new audience for us,” Levy said in a statement. “Watching the show thrive there has only enhanced my excitement about continuing to tell specific, meaningful stories with them in both TV and feature film.”
Levy has some other projects in the works elsewhere, including through his ABC deal. Hulu ordered a pilot last month for an animated comedy called Standing By from Levy and fellow Schitt’s Creek writer Ally Pankiw.
While Apple announced new iPhones and iPads this week, a bunch of its existing gadgets remain discounted. The AirPods Pro are close to an all-time low at $180 and the iPad Air is still at the best price we've seen it — only $500 for the base model. You can also still get $100 off the MacBook Air M1 and the Mac Mini M1, so regardless of your computer-style preference, there are discounted options available. Also, Google's Pixel 4 has dropped to a new low of $379 and Amazon includes a free Samsung SmartTag when you buy the $150 Galaxy Buds 2. Here are the best tech deals from this week that you can still get today.
AirPods Pro
Billy Steele / Engadget
Apple's AirPods Pro are down to $180, or $70 off their normal price. These remain Apple's best sounding earbuds and we gave them a score of 87 for their comfortable fit, improved audio, good ANC and wireless charging.
The latest 10.2-inch iPad and the iPad mini just went up for pre-order this week and Walmart has both for a bit less — the base iPad is $299 instead of $329 and the iPad mini is $459 instead of $500. Both tablets have been updated with better processors, a 12MP front camera with support for Center Stage and now a minimum of 64GB of storage.
Apple's iPad Air is $100 off right now, bringing it down to $500. All five colors are on sale at Amazon. thanks to automatically applied coupons, although with various shipping times. We gave the Air a score of 90 for its speedy performance and WiFi, healthy battery life and support for the second-gen Apple Pencil.
Apple's MacBook Air M1 is back down to an all-time low of $850 thanks to an automatically applied coupon. It earned a score of 94 from us for its stellar performance, attractive, fanless design and its comfortable keyboard and trackpad.
Apple's Mac Mini M1 returned to its all-time-low price of $600 thanks to a sale and an automatically applied coupon. You're getting all of the performance boosts provided by the M1 chipset in a compact desktop package. This is a good machine to get if you have an older desktop that needs replacing, but you don't want to spend a ton of money.
One of our favorite internal drives, the Crucial MX500 SSD, is on sale for $85 right now, or $15 off its normal price. That's also a record-low, making now a good time to pick up some extra space if you know your machine is reaching its limits. This drive has read speeds of up to 560 MB/s, sequential write speeds of up to 510 MB/s, AES-256 bit hardware encryption and integrated power loss immunity.
Amazon has a bundle that includes the Galaxy Buds 2 and a SmartTag Bluetooth tracker for $150, so you're essentially getting the SmartTag for free. The Buds 2 are solid budget earbuds that earned a score of 84 from us for their improved sound quality, adjustable ambient sound mode, comfortable design and wireless charging.
Amazon has the Galaxy Note 20 series for up to $400 off right now, so you can grab a Note 20 for $750 and a Note 20 Ultra for $900. These are some of the most premium handsets Samsung has made as of late, and they are good options if you're not sold on foldables and you like the versatility that the S Pen provides.
Google's Pixel 4 smartphone is down to a new low of $379 at B&H Photo. We believe the launch of the Pixel 6 to be right around the corner, so you may want to wait if you want the latest phone from Google. However, the Pixel 4 remains a solid handset — we liked its speedy performance, lovely display and stellar camera experience.
Through September 18, Omaze is giving away another $20,000 to build your ultimate gaming PC. This sweepstakes is free to enter, but funds donated with purchased entries will benefit Schools on Wheels, an organization that provides free tutoring and mentoring services to children experiencing homelessness across Southern California.
Through December 8, you can enter to win four-day passes to San Diego Comic-Con 2022. Along with the passes, you'll get access to a special preview night, reserved seating in Hall H, a personal concierge, a private tour of the Comic-Con Museum, dinner in Balboa Park and tickets to the "Night at the Comic-Con Museum" event. It's free to enter, but funds from this sweepstakes will go to the San Diego Comic Convention.
The 8-quart Instant Pot Duo Plus is on sale for $100 thanks to a $20 coupon you can clip on the product page. This multicooker has nine functions including slow cook, rice cooker, yogurt maker, steamer, sauté pan, sterilizer and more, and its large capacity allows it to make more than enough food for big families or parties.
Dyson slashed $100 off its Pure Cool Link DP01 purifying desk fan, bringing it down to $300. This would be a good addition to a home office because it removes 99.97% of pollutants and allergens, oscillates up to 70 degrees, has a Night Mode if you decide to use it in your bedroom while you're sleeping and it can be controlled with its included remote or via Dyson's companion app.
WarnerMedia pulled HBO Max from Amazon Prime Video Channels this week, but it's hoping to entice fans to subscribe directly with a new offer. Through September 26, new and returning HBO Max subscribers can get six months of the service for 50 percent off, which comes out to $7.49 per month. You just have to pay for six months up front and you'll get a great deal on the ad-free service.
ThermoWorks knocked 40 percent off its tiny ThermoPop instant-read thermometer, bringing it down to $21. This is a limited-time sale, so we're not sure how long they'll be around for this discounted price. The Pop is a budget alternative to ThermoWorks' more expensive thermometers and we like its cute, splash-proof design, rotating display and speedy temperature reads.
One of our recommended VPNs is running a decent sale on a two-year subscription. You can sign up for NordVPN for $99 for the first two years, which comes out to $49.50 per year, and get three additional months of access for free. We like NordVPN for its speed, its no-logs policy, the thousands of servers it has to choose from and that one account supports up to six connected devices.
Since it blew up last year, Among Us has inspired a wave of copycat games. The latest is ReVamp, a Snapchat-exclusive title made by Zynga. It's the first social deception game on Snapchat, Zynga says.
ReVamp doesn't seem as egregious of an Among Us clone as Fortnite's Imposters mode. The basic formula is intact, but it shakes up the format a bit.
A group of six players (rather than 10) will carry out tasks like demolition and building to renovate an old mansion. However, there's an enemy lurking in their midst. One player is a vampire, who completes fake tasks and takes out other members of the group. The human characters will try to suss out who the vampire is and vote them out.
"We are excited to continue our partnership with Snap to create fun new snackable games that fit seamlessly with their platform’s highly social mechanics," Bernard Kim, president of publishing at Zynga, said. "ReVamp reimagines the social deception game genre for Snapchat’s human and vampire players of all skill levels."
ReVamp will be available in select markets soon. It's Zynga's third exclusive game for Snapchat. The developer previously released Bumped Out and Tiny Royaleon Snapchat. The latter is a top-down take on the battle royale genre popularized by the likes of PUBG: Battlegrounds and Fortnite.
Rolls-Royce, best known in aviation for its jet engines, has taken an all-electric airplane on its maiden voyage. The "Spirit of Innovation" completed a 15 minute flight, marking "the beginning of an intensive flight-testing phase in which we will be collecting valuable performance data on the aircraft’s electrical power and propulsion system," the company announced.
Rolls Royce said the one-seat airplane has "the most power-dense battery pack every assembled for an aircraft." The aircraft uses a 6,000 cell battery pack with a three-motor powertrain that currently delivers 400kW (500-plus horsepower), and Rolls-Royce said the aircraft will eventually achieve speeds of over 300 MPH.
The flight comes about a year after the originally scheduled takeoff and about six months after taxi trials. Rolls-Royce is also developing an air taxi with manufacturer Tecnam, with the aim of delivering an "all-electric passenger aircraft for the commuter market," according to the companies. It has previously teamed with Siemens and Airbus on another e-plane concept.
Aircraft companies have been exploring electric airplanes for a number of years, as air travel and cargo accounts for an increasing amount of greenhouse gases. The World Wildlife Foundation has called it "currently the most carbon intensive activity an individual can make."
Weight is a much bigger problem for airplanes that it is for cars, however. Ford's all-electric Lightning pickup weighs 1,800 pounds more than the gas-powered model, and offers a range that's slightly under half. However, if you added 1,800 pounds to to a Cessna 206 Turbo Stationair, you'd exceed its useful load by 500 pounds before you even loaded passengers (or the pilot) — so it wouldn't even get off the ground.
The project was half funded by the Aerospace Technology Institute and UK government, with the aim of eventually creating all-electric passenger planes. "This is not only about breaking a world record; the advanced battery and propulsion technology developed for this programme has exciting applications for the Urban Air Mobility market and can help make ‘jet zero’ a reality," said Rolls-Royce CEO Warren East.
Pre-orders have only just opened for Apple's latest lineup of products, but you can already find some discounts on the hardware. Along with a price cut on the base iPad, Walmart is offering some savings on the new iPad mini. The 64GB WiFi-only option is $40 off at $459, while the retailer has dropped the price of the 256GB variant by $50 to $599. Walmart isn't offering any price reductions on the 5G iPad mini, though — the 64GB version costs $649.
It's the first new iPad mini in two and a half years, and Apple has given the tablet a major overhaul. It runs on the A15 Bionic chip (the same SoC as in iPhone 13), with Apple promising a big jump in performance compared with the fifth-gen iPad mini. The 8.3-inch screen runs closer to the edge of the device, and there's no more physical home button. The Touch ID sensor is now built into the power button.
The volume buttons are now at the top to make space for an Apple Pencil 2 that you can attach magnetically to the side. The Lightning port is a thing of the past on iPad mini, with Apple switching to a USB-C port. The cameras have been upgraded, and there's support for Apple's Center Stage feature, which keeps you in the center of the frame during video calls. Walmart says it will ship the tablet by September 24th if you pre-order now.
WarnerMedia pulled HBO Max from Amazon Prime Video Channels on September 15th, but it's hoping to convince the subscribers it lost from the move to sign up for the streaming service directly. From today through September 26th, HBO Max's ad-free monthly subscription is available at a 50 percent discount for $7.49 per month for up to half a year. The offer isn't even exclusive to former subscribers on Prime Video. Even new and returning customers can take advantage of the promotion by signing up through the official HBO Max website or via Apple, Google, LG, Microsoft, Sony, Roku and Vizio.
The service's removal from Prime Video Channels is part of WarnerMedia's efforts to grow a closer relationship with viewers. To that end, it also removed HBO Max as premium add-ons on Apple TV and Roku. The company is fully aware that it will lose subscribers in the process — it could lose 5 million after pulling out of Prime Video Channels — which is why it's now trying to woo both new and returning customers.
By making HBO Max's ad-free subscription available at $7.49 a month, people can sign up for an account cheaper than the $10 ad-supported option. It's a great opportunity to try the service out for those who've been thinking of giving it a shot. For those still on the fence: Some of the most anticipated titles coming to the streaming service this year are Dune and The Matrix Resurrections.
Crucial's storage devices are reliable options if you're looking for an internal drive to give your laptop or desktop extra space. One of our favorites, the Crucial MX500 SSD, has dropped to a record low on Amazon right now — only $85 for a 1TB model. You can snag a 2TB model for less, too, as it's down to $189. This is the first time since January that we've seen such a good price on this model, so now's the time to pick one up if you can tell your machine is reaching its storage limit.
This is a 3D NAND SATA drive with a standard 2.5-inch design, so it should fit into most computers, and it has speedy sequential read speeds of up to 560 MB/s and sequential write speeds of up to 510 MB/s. As far as security goes, it has AES-256 bit hardware encryption plus integrated power loss immunity, which should protect your data even if you lose power in the middle of a work session.
While Amazon isn't having a formal storage sale, there are a number of other SSDs available on discount right now. Crucial's BX500 internal SSD in 480GB is on sale for $47 and the Crucial X8 portable SSD in 2TB is down to $220. The X8 is a handy drive that would work well for college students, photographers and others who need a lot of digital space with them at all times, and it's fast with read speeds up to 1050 MB/s. Two notable Samsung internal drives are on sale as well: the Samsung 970 EVO Plus SSD in 2TB is half off, bringing it down to $250, and the Samsung 980 Pro in 2TB is down to $362.
Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.
So Apple really called it the iPhone 13. This week, Cherlynn and Devindra chat about Apple’s latest announcements, and why the iPhone 13 is more like an iPhone 12S. Also, they discuss why the revamped iPad Mini is the most intriguing new Apple gadget this year. (Hold off on getting a new iPad Air for now, folks.)
Listen below, or subscribe on your podcast app of choice. If you've got suggestions or topics you'd like covered on the show, be sure to email us or drop a note in the comments! And be sure to check out our other podcasts, the Morning After and Engadget News!
Credits Hosts: Cherlynn Low and Devindra Hardawar Producer: Ben Ellman Livestream producers: Julio Barrientos,Luke Brooks Graphics artists: Luke Brooks, Kyle Maack Music: Dale North and Terrence O'Brien
Chromecasts and other devices powered by Google TV might give users access to free television channels in the future. According to Protocol, Google has been in talks with free, ad-supported streaming television providers about the possibility of adding their channels to its smart TV platform. Those channels typically have a similar feel to traditional TV, and its shows will be interrupted by commercial breaks.
Protocol says Chromecast users might be able to browse live channels available to them through a dedicated menu similar to YouTube TV's. Meanwhile, smart TVs powered by the platform might show the free channels alongside other over-the-air programming that can be accessed with an antenna. The publication says that's similar to how companies like Samsung present free TV offerings on their own platforms. Samsung's free TV service has become so popular, other companies (including Roku and Amazon) started giving their customers access to hundreds of free channels, as well.
The addition of linear programming to Google TV could help make Chromecasts and smart TVs powered by the operating system a more enticing option for cord-cutters. Google could officially launch free streaming channels as soon as this fall, though it could also wait to announce the feature until its smart TV partners are also ready to do so next year. Protocol also says that while it's unclear what channels are making their way to the platform at this point, Google will likely strike deals that will give it access to "dozens of free channels" all at once.
