Month: January 2022

Enlarge / Neil Young performs at FirstMerit Bank Pavilion at Northerly Island during Farm Aid 30 on September 19, 2015, in Chicago, Illinois. (credit: Getty Images | Raymond Boyd)

With Neil Young having told Spotify that it can keep him or podcaster Joe Rogan but not both, the streaming company today said it will remove Young's catalog of music.

"We want all the world's music and audio content to be available to Spotify users," Spotify said in a statement to Deadline and other media organizations. "With that comes great responsibility in balancing both safety for listeners and freedom for creators. We have detailed content policies in place and we've removed over 20,000 podcast episodes related to COVID since the start of the pandemic. We regret Neil's decision to remove his music from Spotify, but hope to welcome him back soon."

Young's music was still on Spotify as of this writing but will presumably be removed soon unless either Young or Spotify change their minds. Objecting to misinformation about COVID aired on Rogan's podcast, Young told Warner Records this week that Spotify "has a responsibility to mitigate the spread of misinformation on its platform."

Enlarge / Medical Director of the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) checks the vital signs of a COVID-19 patien while her husband rests in a bed next to her at Providence Cedars-Sinai Tarzana Medical Center in Tarzana, California, on January 3, 2021. (credit: Getty | Apu Gomes)

Despite its widespread reputation for being mild, the ultra-transmissible omicron coronavirus variant is sending a record number of people to emergency departments and hospital rooms in the US, swamping health care systems nationwide.

As of January 15, omicron's highest seven-day average of daily cases was nearly 799,000—a 386 percent increase from the highest average of daily cases seen during the delta wave (from July to the end of October). Similarly, omicron's highest daily average of emergency department visits was 86 percent higher than that of delta's, and hospital admissions were 76 percent higher.

The latest data comes from a study published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday. The study highlights that even though the omicron wave has been marked by relatively smaller proportions of severe cases and deaths, the variant's extraordinary spread has still overwhelmed hospitals and taken a devastating toll on the nation.

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images)

A banking-fraud trojan that has been targeting Android users for three years has been updated to create even more grief. Besides draining bank accounts, the trojan can now activate a kill switch that performs a factory reset and wipes infected devices clean.

Brata was first documented in a post from security firm Kaspersky, which reported that the Android malware had been circulating since at least January 2019. The malware spread primarily through Google Play but also through third-party marketplaces, push notifications on compromised websites, sponsored links on Google, and messages delivered by WhatsApp or SMS. At the time, Brata targeted people with accounts from Brazil-based banks.

Covering its malicious tracks

Now Brata is back with a host of new capabilities, the most significant of which is the ability to perform a factory reset on infected devices to erase any trace of the malware after an unauthorized wire transfer has been attempted. Security firm Cleafy Labs, which first reported the kill switch, said other features recently added to Brata include GPS tracking, improved communication with control servers, the ability to continuously monitor victims’ bank apps, and the ability to target the accounts of banks located in additional countries. The trojan now works with banks located in Europe, the US, and Latin America.

Enlarge / Cardboard boxes made to resemble Amazon packages during a protest outside the home of Amazon Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos in New York on Wednesday, Dec. 2, 2020. (credit: Getty Images / Bloomberg Collection)

Amazon must shut down the price-fixing program known as "Sold by Amazon" (SBA) under a legally binding resolution announced today by Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson. Amazon had already suspended the program amid an investigation, but the settlement prevents the program from being restarted.

"The 'Sold by Amazon' program allowed the online retailer to agree on price with third-party sellers, rather than compete with them," the announcement said. Ferguson alleged that Amazon violated antitrust laws by "unreasonably restrain[ing] competition in order to maximize its own profits off third-party sales" and that "this conduct constituted unlawful price-fixing."

Ferguson filed a lawsuit against Amazon and the consent decree in King County Superior Court today.

Enlarge / Starting on February 28, Steam Deck will finally leave Valve's hands and (possibly) land in yours. (credit: Valve)

After delaying Steam Deck's launch to a vague "February 2022" window, Valve has returned to keep its promise. Today, the company confirmed the date its portable, gaming-centric PC will begin shipping to some preorder customers.

Valve listed two key dates in its Wednesday announcement. The first date: Steam Deck will begin shipping February 28. This applies to customers who got their $5 preorder payments in at the earliest possible time, i.e., the first few minutes after the clock struck 1 pm EST on July 16.

Customers have a chance of being part of this shipment window if their order has an official Steam shipping estimate of "Q1 2022," which they can check by loading the Deck store page while logged into Steam.