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When Amazon Launched its Amazon Key service last month, it also offered a remedy for anyone—realistically, most people—who might be creeped out that the service gives random strangers unfettered access to your home. That security antidote? An internet-enabled camera called Cloud Cam, designed to sit opposite your door and reassuringly record every Amazon Key delivery. But now security researchers have demonstrated that with a simple program run from any computer in Wi-Fi range, that camera can be not only disabled but frozen. A viewer watching its live or recorded stream sees only a closed door, even as their actual door is opened and someone slips inside. That attack would potentially enable rogue delivery people to stealthily steal from Amazon customers, or otherwise invade their inner sanctum. And while the threat of a camera-hacking courier seems an unlikely way for your house to be burgled, the researchers argue it potentially strips away a key safeguard in Amazo...

25 Things You Didn’t Know About Technology… Almost No One Knows About #7. You might appreciate modern technology for how it has simplified your life, but most people don't consider the fact that plenty of trial, error, and weirdness circles around the tech world. For example, in order for the iPhone to become what it is today, it had to go through some trial and error -- and have a little bit of an odd backstory. Below are 25 bizarre and fascinating facts about tech products, the industry, and the people behind it all. These will definitely make you appreciate the process of invention -- and also inform you of the behind-the-scenes oddities of the industry. #19 definitely made us smile. #1 There are more than 682 million iPhone across the globe.   #2 The word robot comes from the Czech “robota." In English, robota translates to "forced labor." #3 The world's first camera took eight hours to snap a photo. #4 The very first Apple logo fe...

Google Assistant can help you troubleshoot issues you might encounter on your phone, though the feature is only available for Pixel 2 users at the moment, according to  Android Police . A user running Android Oreo 8.1’s developer preview asked Google Assistant why their phone wasn’t charging fully, and a troubleshooting feature jumped into gear. A battery health check was run and the virtual assistant also scanned the phone for apps that might be causing the battery to drain. Once that was complete, the Assistant displayed an option to connect the user to Google Support via phone or chat. The system seems pretty intuitive, the only minor issue was the Assistant didn’t recognize a phone number input when prompted.

TWENTY-FOUR YEARS AGO,  a young Indian engineer named Sundar Pichai boarded a plane for the first time, to fly to Pittsburgh. Thursday, he returned to Pittsburgh as CEO of Google, and announced plans to give away $1 billion. The money will go to projects that offer training and career coaching to people short on skills for a rapidly digitizing economy where businesses and their workers need fluency in coding, mobile apps, and social media to compete. Google says it has already given out $100 million of the total to nonprofits, including $10 million to Goodwill, for a program offering digital-skills training. A "Grow With Google tour" will spin up training events staffed by Google employees across the country, after Pittsburgh comes Indianapolis. “The nature of work is fundamentally changing,” Pichai said in a blog post today. “It’s a big problem and, at Google, whenever we see a big problem, we ask how we can make it easier for everyone to solve it.” It’s arguable ...

WHITE-COLLAR AUTOMATION HAS  become a common buzzword in debates about the growing power of computers, as software shows potential to take over some work ofaccountants and lawyers. Artificial-intelligence researchers at Google are trying to automate the tasks of highly paid workers more likely to wear a hoodie than a coat and tie—themselves. In a project called AutoML, Google’s researchers have taught machine-learning software to build machine-learning software. In some instances, what it comes up with is more powerful and efficient than the best systems the researchers themselves can design. Google says the system recently scored a record 82 percent at categorizing images by their content. On the harder task of marking the location of multiple objects in an image, an important task for augmented reality and autonomous robots, the auto-generated system scored 43 percent. The best human-built system scored 39 percent. Such results are significant because the experti...

EARLIER THIS YEAR,  when Microsoft showed off its new Surface Pro laptop, one part of the device stood out. The sleek tablet-PC hybrid was made, predictably, out of aluminum and glass, but its keyboard was covered in a soft-suede like fabric. Alcantara, specifically, the same material used in cars and designer handbags. “Everyone we showed had the same reaction: Whoa, that’s cool,” says Ralf Groene, head of industrial design for Microsoft devices. “And then some people got concerned. They said, you can't put fabric on laptops; no one puts fabric on laptops.” For the most part, that's been true. But recently, textiles have begun creeping into consumer electronics in a very real way. Earlier this month, Google showed off a line of products, a few of which were also covered in knitted fabric. Wrapped around the Google Home Mini and Max is a soft polyester-nylon fabric that the company developed from scratch. “Someone described these products as frien...

EVERY 95 MINUTES,  the Chinese satellite Zhuhai-1 02 makes a full pass around the planet, its solar-panel arms extending from its boxy body as it observes Earth. Sometimes, its path takes it over Pueblo, Colorado. There, more than 300 miles below, Mike Coletta’s receiving station can pick up Zhuhai’s transmissions. Because as sophisticated as space technology is, the terrestrial tech necessary to make contact with celestial satellites is surprisingly low. Coletta just has four TV antennas—the kind that look like 2-D pine trees—each pointed in a cardinal direction. They’re bolted into place along garage beams, a patio post, and the rooftop of his house. Inside his home office, on Tuesday, Coletta waits for Zhuhai's signals to appear. He sits in front of a laptop and an iPad, a big shelved monitor hovering above. Coletta has, since 2012, spent his free time eavesdropping on the sky, picking up satellite signals—signals that, for the most part, were never meant for hi...