Month: September 2022

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Apple provides over half the funding for a lobby group that says it represents small app developers, according to a Bloomberg article published today. Apple isn't a member of what's called the App Association, but "it plays a dominant behind-the-scenes role shaping the group's policy positions, according to four former App Association employees who asked not to be named discussing internal matters," Bloomberg wrote.

The App Association says it "gives a voice to small technology companies" and that its "policy priorities reflect the opportunities and challenges today's small business app developers and IoT innovators face in the app ecosystem." But its positions on major legislation have aligned with Apple's. The group's list of policy statements going back to early 2017 include some specifically praising Apple and others opposing legislation that Apple also opposes, such as antitrust bills targeting Big Tech.

One bill opposed by the App Association is the Open App Markets Act, which aimed to help app developers use alternative in-app payment systems and avoid Apple's standard cuts of 15 to 30 percent. The Apple-funded group also opposed the American Innovation and Choice Online Act, which would have prohibited app stores and other large online platforms from giving preference to their own products at the expense of competitors. Both bills have stalled in the face of Big Tech opposition.

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The head of Kiwi Farms, the Internet forum best known for organizing harassment campaigns against trans and non-binary people, said the site experienced a breach that allowed hackers to access his administrator account and possibly the accounts of all other users.

On the site, creator Joshua Moon wrote:

The forum was hacked. You should assume the following.

• Assume your password for the Kiwi Farms has been stolen.
• Assume your email has been leaked.
• Assume any IP you've used on your Kiwi Farms account in the last month has been leaked.

Moon said that the unknown individual or individuals behind the hack gained access to his admin account by using a technique known as session hijacking, in which an attacker obtains the authentication cookies a site sets after an account holder enters valid credentials and successfully completes any two-factor authentication requirements. The session hijacking was made possible after uploading malicious content to XenForo, a site Kiwi Farms uses to power its user forums.

Enlarge / The current Nest Wifi. (credit: Google)

Google's October 6 event is quickly approaching, and a ton of hardware is leaking ahead of time. We already know about the Pixel 7, the Pixel Watch, and the new low-end Chromecast—now, how about the "Nest Wifi Pro"?

Hot off its appearance at the FCC last month, Google's next Wi-Fi router popped up in a retail listing from B&H Photo over the weekend. The listing has been taken down, but 9to5Google, which spotted the listing, has a backup. Emblazoned right in the B&H title is "Wi-Fi 6E" support, which is the big upgrade in this "Pro" model and should lead to a more robust connection. 6E moves Wi-Fi into the 6 GHz range (alongside the existing 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands), which will greatly expand the capacity of the shared airwaves all Wi-Fi has to use. If you live in a crowded area like an apartment building, your Wi-Fi performance can be greatly reduced if your neighbors use up all the spectrum. Picking up that new 6 GHz slice of spectrum means more space for everyone.

Including Wi-Fi's latest standard will apparently come with a price increase for the new unit. B&H lists a $199 price for a single unit, while the current Nest Wifi is $169 for a "router" unit. A two-pack of Wifi Pros is $299 (the non-Pro two-pack is $269), while a three-pack is $399 (versus $349 for a non-Pro pack). The "Pro" branding and higher price make it sound like the existing Nest Wifi, which only supports the aging 802.11ac (aka Wi-Fi 5) protocol, will still be for sale.

Enlarge / That's the second-biggest title screen I've ever seen! (credit: Terrible Toybox / Lucasfilm Games)

For a certain kind of adventure gaming fan, no sentence is harder to hear than this: "I learned the secret of Monkey Island before you did." But I can now say it. I've played, completed, and fallen madly for Return to Monkey Island, a sequel more than three decades in the making. This is a game full of laughs, whimsy, and puzzles as carefully constructed as the stories that surround them.

But I'm not here to spoil any of your upcoming pirate fun. I've been writing reviews for long enough to remember how great it felt to read about a new video game before playing a single minute of it. That's how we did things while saving up enough money to get our own boxed copies of older Monkey Island games, then prying them open and figuring out their Dial-a-Pirate copy-protection puzzles.

Return to Monkey Island is nearly everything I'd hoped for in a modern return to the series. Its interface and controls split the difference between the expectations of hardcore genre fans and those of point-and-click novices. Its presentation and voice acting pair nicely to set an approachable and fiendishly hilarious tone. And the game's full journey, from bumpy waters to smooth, silly sailing, consistently feels personal, vulnerable, and reflective of its creators—which is to say, this is the opposite of a nostalgia-reeking cash-in.

Any prequel of a major film franchise like Star Wars faces the challenge of creating tension and suspense when the main character's fate is already known. Disney apparently has enough confidence in its new prequel series, Andor, to release a two-and-a-half minute "special look" prior to the series premiere this Wednesday—reminding us all of exactly what's in store for our titular hero in his canonical future. Spoiler alert: he's a tragic hero.

We know that the story of Andor begins with the Empire's destruction of Cassian Andor's (Diego Luna) home world and will depict his transformation from a "revolution-averse" cynic to a major player in the nascent rebellion who is willing to sacrifice himself to save the galaxy. Andor has been described as a "tense, nail-biting spy thriller," with Tony Gilroy, who co-wrote Rogue One, serving as showrunner. And everything we've seen so far seems to fit that description.

The ensemble cast also includes Genevieve O'Reilly as Mon Mothma, a senator of the Republic who helped found the Rebel Alliance, as well as Forest Whitaker reprising his Rogue One role as Clone Wars veteran Saw Gerrera. Stellan Skarsgård (as Luthen) and Adria Arjona co-star as the resistance fighters who recruit Andor to the cause. Other cast members include Kyle Soller, Denise Gough, Fiona Shaw, Robert Emms, and David Hayman.

Enlarge / Guns were not necessary for a hacker to steal and disseminate dozens of GTA VI videos.

Rockstar confirmed Monday morning that it has suffered a "network intrusion" where "confidential information... including early development footage for the next Grand Theft Auto" was illegally obtained by a third party. The admission seemingly confirms the veracity of a host of leaked Grand Theft Auto VI videos that hit the Internet over the weekend.

The leaked footage was first linked on fansite GTAForums Sunday morning before spreading across the Internet. It includes roughly 50 minutes of early gameplay across dozens of videos, many featuring placeholder textures and text or debug information. The footage also seemingly confirms some of a July Bloomberg report about the next GTA sequel, including the game's return to the Vice City setting and a Latina bank robber among a pair of playable protagonists.

The hacker, who claimed the videos were obtained via the Rockstar employee Slack, made unsubstantiated claims that they were also behind a massive recent Uber data breach, which also took place via Slack.