Month: October 2021

This could be Dyson's next robovac. (credit: Dyson)

British vacuum cleaner company Dyson doesn’t want to be left in the dust when it comes to robotic vacuums. The company’s current robovac, the Dyson 360 Eye, is out of stock in the US right now. But recent FCC filings show that the company is working on a potential new product to help address the demand for mechanical housekeepers.

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  Dyson's potential "360 Hyperdymium" unit. [credit: Dyson ]

Dyson’s FCC filings, spotted by The Verge today and titled "Dyson 360 VISNAV," point to a striking blue offering with “Dyson 360 Hyperdymium” branding. Hyperdymium refers to a proprietary motor technology that can “run at speeds of up to 125,000 revolutions per minute,” according to Dyson. Dyson also says the tech allows it to make lightweight vacuums. The “360” part suggests that the robot will follow in the 360 Eye’s rolling brush-steps by carrying a 360-degree vision system. The 360 Eye has a small camera on top and sensors on the sides. 

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  Dyson's next robovac will likely have 360-degree vision. [credit: Dyson ]

The robot in the FCC filings looks like it's built to stay much closer to the ground than the 360 Eye, which should allow the device to fit under low spaces, like under a couch. As noted by The Verge, this device differs from the 360 Eye and the more recently launched 360 Heurist, which are both taller and slimmer in order to navigate around tight corners and furniture. Pictures submitted also show a light ring, which could help the robot clean up at night. 

Enlarge (credit: Joshua Sortino)

Telegram patched another image self-destruction bug in its app earlier this year. This flaw was a different issue from the one reported in 2019. But the researcher who reported the bug isn't pleased with Telegram's months-long turnaround time—and an offered $1,159 (€1,000) bounty award in exchange for his silence.

Self-destructed images remained on the device

Like other messaging apps, Telegram allows senders to set communications to "self-destruct," such that messages and any media attachments are automatically deleted from the device after a set period of time. Such a feature offers extended privacy to both the senders and the recipients intending to communicate discreetly.

In February 2021, Telegram introduced a set of such auto-deletion features in its 2.6 release:

Enlarge / Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen's 60 Minutes interview aired on October 3, 2021. (credit: 60 Minutes / CBS)

The Facebook whistleblower revealed her identity last night along with her plans to reform the embattled social media company from the outside. Frances Haugen, a data scientist by training and a veteran of Google and Pinterest, had been recruited to Facebook in 2018 to help the platform prepare for election interference. When she quit in May, she took with her a cache of tens of thousands of documents that now underpin a sweeping congressional investigation into Facebook's practices.

But Haugen's turning point came months earlier, on December 2, 2020, less than a month after the presidential election, when the company disbanded the Civic Integrity team she worked on.

“They told us, ‘We’re dissolving Civic Integrity.’ Like, they basically said, ‘Oh good, we made it through the election. There wasn’t riots. We can get rid of Civic Integrity now.’ Fast forward a couple months, we got the insurrection,” Haugen told CBS’s 60 Minutes, referring to the January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol. “And when they got rid of Civic Integrity, it was the moment where I was like, ‘I don’t trust that they’re willing to actually invest what needs to be invested to keep Facebook from being dangerous.’”