Month: October 2017

Enlarge / The Pixel 2 versus the Pixel 2 XL. One looks like a modern phone from 2017, the other looks dated. (credit: Ron Amadeo)

After dealing with all sorts of screen issues, another problem with Google's flagship smartphone is popping up. This time it's an audio issue: users on Google's official forums and elsewhere are reporting odd sounds coming from the Pixel 2 speakers.

Customers are complaining of "clicking" and a "high-pitched whine" coming from the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL. Most reports on the forums say the noises are coming from the top or bottom speaker on the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL. Some reports say the sounds come through during calls, while other users say the speaker noises happen any time the screen is on. A user made a recording of the sound, which can be heard here.

Most users are being told to return their devices after contacting support, but at least one person claims they were told this issue would be patched in an upcoming update. One possible workaround is to turn off NFC, which some users say stops or lowers the noises.

Enlarge (credit: Eset)

A new, potentially virulent wave of data-encrypting malware is sweeping through Eastern Europe and has left a wake of outages at news agencies, train stations, and airports, according to multiple security companies Tuesday.

Bad Rabbit, as the outbreak is being dubbed, is primarily attacking targets in Russia, but it is also infecting computers in Ukraine, Turkey and Germany, researchers from Moscow-based Kaspersky Lab said. The antivirus provider reported that the malware is using hacked Russian media websites to infect devices. It appears to target corporate networks by using methods similar to those used in a June data-wiping attack dubbed "NotPetya," which shut down computers around the world.

Russia's Interfax news agency reported on Twitter that a hacker attack has taken out its servers and forced it to rely on its Facebook account for the time being. Russian forensics firm Group IB said Bad Rabbit has infected two other Russian media outlets besides Interfax. In nearby Ukraine, computer systems for the Kiev Metro, Odessa airport, and Ukrainian ministries of infrastructure and finance have also been affected, according to a blog post published Tuesday morning by antivirus provider Eset. Meanwhile, the Ukrainian computer emergency agency CERT-UA also posted an advisory on Tuesday morning reporting a series of cyberattacks, without specifically naming the malware used in those attacks.

(credit: Jason Farrar)

There's widespread agreement that prisoners in the US pay far too much for phone calls, but several of the Federal Communications Commission's attempts to cap those prices have been blocked in court.

One of the biggest obstacles is that phone companies have to pay large "site commissions" to prisons and jails in order to win the exclusive right to offer phone service to inmates. Newly released documents show that these payments can account for up to 60 percent of what prisoners pay for calls.

MuckRock, a nonprofit journalism organization that focuses on public records requests, obtained the contracts between prison phone companies and some parish jails in Louisiana.

Enlarge (credit: Getty | RAJIB DHAR )

Dead human bodies are critical to medical training, physicians and researchers say. And thousands of Americans are happy to donate their meat suits for the greater good after they're gone. But in the US, a body’s trip from a morgue to a medical school or lab can be gruesome, shady, and expensive. Some don’t make it at all. Instead, bits and pieces of donated loved ones—sometimes disassembled with chainsaws—end up decomposing in parking lots, forgotten in unplugged freezers, and tossed unceremoniously into incinerators.

And law enforcement can do nothing—there are few to no laws that regulate the grim industry of human body brokering. Grieving families, who are often misled and in the dark about the fate of their loved ones, can be left horrified.

That’s all according to a new investigative report by Reuters, which tracked the practices and pricing of dozens of such brokers across the country. They found that the lucrative business includes a bloody splattering of practices—some ethical, lots not—that can bring in millions to even the most shoddy and small brokers.

Enlarge (credit: Marco Verch)

Singapore is capping the number of private passenger cars allowed on its streets, the city's transportation regulator announced on Monday.

Singapore is a city of 5.6 million people packed into an area smaller than New York City. Like any big city it has to worry about traffic congestion, but as a sovereign city-state it is able to take more extreme measures than most cities.

To own a car in Singapore, you need a certificate of entitlement from the Singapore government. The supply is limited, and certificates are distributed by auction. Each year, the government sets a target for the growth of private vehicles and auctions off a corresponding number of certificates. Next year, the growth target will be zero.