Month: December 2018

Enlarge / An Uber self-driving car drives down 5th Street on March 28, 2017 in San Francisco, California. (credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Uber is returning to public roads in Pittsburgh nine months after an Uber self-driving car struck and killed pedestrian Elaine Herzberg in Tempe, Arizona. However, Uber's new testing program will be massively scaled back from the one it had a year ago.

At the start of 2018, Uber had an extensive testing program that operated in both the Pittsburgh and Phoenix metropolitan areas. Dozens of Uber cars were driving around both cities, racking up more than two million miles of testing under the supervision of safety drivers.

But the whole program came screeching to a halt in March, when a malfunctioning Uber car crashed into Herzberg. In-car video seemed to show the safety driver glancing down at her lap for several seconds before the crash; records later revealed that she was streaming a television show on her phone at the time.

Enlarge / Well, that whole thing clearly worked out well, didn't it? (credit: JASON LEE/AFP/Getty Images)

In a press conference this morning, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and FBI Director Christopher Wray announced indictments of two Chinese men connected with China's Ministry of State Security and the hacking group known as APT 10. The two are accused of being responsible for a recent wave of attacks on managed service providers (MSPs) that ultimately targeted both companies and government agencies in 12 countries, including the US. More than 245 organizations were attacked, including NASA labs and US Navy networks. The two are also accused of stealing the Social Security numbers and other personal data of more than 100,000 Navy service members.

"The defendants allegedly compromised MSPs in 12 countries," Rosenstein said, targeting their customers across a breadth of industries. "The defendants committed these crimes in connection with the Ministry of State Security."

The actions, Rosenstein said, are in direct violation of China's 2015 agreement with the US to end economic cyber-espionage and other commitments China made to members of the G-20 economic group and the world community. "China promised to stop, but this activity violates the commitment they made," he said. "We want China to cease illegal cyber activities and honor its commitments, but the evidence suggests they will not."

Enlarge (credit: Apple)

Apple's music streaming service will soon be available to even more people with smart home devices. An Amazon spokesperson confirmed to Mashable that Apple Music integration will come to "other Alexa-enabled devices soon." This means that those who have Alexa-enabled devices that are not Amazon's own Echo speakers will be able to listen to and control tracks and playlists from Apple Music.

Apple Music started rolling out on Echo speakers this week. The integration allows users with paid Apple Music subscriptions to connect their accounts to the Alexa mobile app and use it as their default music service. Apple Music joined Spotify, Amazon Music, iHeartRadio, and others already available on Echo speakers.

Setup takes only a few taps in the Alexa app: navigate to the Music page within the Settings page and then tap on Link New Service. Select Apple Music from the given options and then enable the Apple Music skill and sign in to your account using your Apple ID. Once signed in, set Apple Music as your default music service.