Tech

Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Josh Hawley (R-MO) sent a letter to AT&T CEO John Stankey with several questions about the cybersecurity attack that resulted in customer data being downloaded from the company’s Snowflake workspace, The Record reports. The senators requested answers by July 29th, and AT&T will respond, according to Reuters.

The senators also sent a letter to Snowflake’s CEO.

After people in NYC reported a large boom at around 11:17AM that some attributed to military weapons tests, NASA Meteor Watch reports it was actually a meteor. With more reports collected from eyewitnesses, its latest update says the space rock's path took it west over New Jersey at 38,000 miles per hour.

You can grab the app from Google Play right now. It’s free and “accessible with all plans, including Pro and Team,” the company says in a blog post.

Anthropic released an iOS app in May.

Netflix announced it’s adding a slew of AMC shows on August 19th. They include Preacher, The Terror, Into The Badlands, and the first season of the extremely good Interview With The Vampire. These shows used to be sequestered on AMC Plus, requiring yet another subscription fee to watch. But their Netflix arrival shows cross-platform cooperation ain’t just for Xbox and PlayStation anymore.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Disney is trying to make its streaming platforms work and feel more like Netflix. For example:

New features in the works at Disney include a more-personalized algorithm to power content recommendations, customized promotional art for new shows and movies based on subscriber’s tastes and usage history, and emails sent to viewers who stop watching in the middle of a series reminding them to finish, according to people familiar with the matter.

There’s lots more in the full story.

The agency wants more information about Amazon’s maneuver to hire most of the Adept team and license its technology. Adept said its plans to build “useful general intelligence and an enterprise agent product” would have required “significant attention on fundraising.” The informal inquiry might not lead to an investigation or enforcement, but enforcers are keeping close watch of tech giants and AI.

The new $130 Diva smart dimmer for ELV+ lighting brings higher-tech lighting control to the Caseta smart lighting line's new look.

Designed for low-voltage fixtures like under-cabinet, track, accent, and tape lighting, it costs twice as much as the standard dimmer but offers phase-selectable dimming.

Lutron also launched its Caseta Pico paddle remote in five new colors.

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In a long post on X, the former OpenAI and Tesla employee discussed Eureka Labs and his vision of how AI could help with education.

Sounds interesting, but maybe his post shouldn’t have featured art where the people have extra arms and legs?

The new $3,299 Hyperion Solar scooter reaches speeds of up to 65mph and offers a range of up to 70 miles. I know there are other scooters out there that can go even faster than this, but I’m too scared to go over 15mph on my Segway F-SE.

Microsoft has added a new “Xbox 360 Blades” Dynamic Background for Xbox Series S / X owners. It’s a blast of nostalgia, just as Microsoft prepares to close the Xbox 360 digital store on July 29th. A bunch of games are discounted ahead of the store closure, and there are even Xbox 360 t-shirts, hoodies, and other gear available for a limited time.

In our review of the LG StanbyME TV (the stick one, not the suitcase one) we called it “a so-so TV on a stellar stand.” And you can get a better TV for less, but not with that sleek, wheeled stand. It even has a battery.

It’s on sale at Amazon for $800. The suitcase one is also on sale.

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Goodreads has temporarily disabled ratings on Vance’s 2016 memoir, Hillbilly Elegy, after detecting “unusual behavior” from reviewers in the wake of Vance’s selection as Trump’s running mate.

The book — a New York Times bestseller that was adapted into a film staring Amy Adams and Glenn Close — turned Vance into a household name. But some critics have called it “offensive and inauthentic.”

I wasn’t expecting to read a dystopian fic about not-so-distant future office culture in our comments, but what other response could you have to a story about an HR company that wanted to treat AI bots like humans?