Month: December 2022

Enlarge (credit: Winamp/Andrew Cunningham)

If you'd asked me in January to make some predictions about what 2022 would bring, I don't think "multiple significant updates to the Winamp player" would have been on the list. But the release candidate for version 5.9.1 of the software builds on the groundwork laid by August's 5.9 update to fix some bugs and add new features to the reanimated music player. Most of these are straightforward updates or improvements to existing features, but because it's 2022, one of the only new features is support for music NFTs.

My rudimentary understanding (gleaned mostly from sites like NFT Now that are focused almost exclusively on the purported benefits rather than the downsides) is that music NFTs operate like NFT images, except that the NFT provides a link to a digital music file instead of a link to a JPG. The benefits, according to advocates, are that artists can earn more money by creating scarcity (releasing unique or limited-run tracks, for example) and by getting a cut of secondhand sales of the NFT that happen between fans.

But being an updated version of a Windows 98-era music player, the support for NFT music in Winamp is a bit roundabout. People with NFT music libraries will need to export them from whatever platform they use and then import them into Winamp as an .m3u playlist. Winamp provided a video of this process, which we've included below.

Enlarge / Would you pay $95,000 for these jeans? They were salvaged from the wreck of the SS Central America, which sank in 1857. (credit: Holabird Western Americana Collections)

A pair of men's jeans recovered from the wreckage of a 19th-century steamer ship fetched an eye-popping $95,000 at auction last week. Per the auction house description, it's the earliest known pair of five-button fly, heavy-duty work pants, most likely made by or for Levi Strauss & Company in the 1850s. The pants went down with the SS Central America off the Carolina coast during a hurricane in September 1857 and are remarkably well-preserved, thanks to the anaerobic environment where they were found. Previously, the oldest known pair of Levi's was found in an abandoned mine shaft and dated back to the 1880s, selling at auction earlier this year for $87,400.

The SS Central America was a 280-foot steamer operating between Central America and the US East Coast in the 1850s. On its ill-fated final voyage, it carried 587 passengers and crew, many of whom had traveled from San Francisco to Panama via another steamship. (This was before the construction of the Panama Canal.) Among its cargo were thousands of freshly minted 1857 Double Eagle coins, along with older gold coins and ingots (gold bricks)—hence its nickname, the "Ship of Gold."

The voyage started out smoothly enough, but on September 9, 1857, a Category 2 hurricane hit, shredding the ship's sails. Two days later, it took on water, and the paddle wheels and boiler failed. The sharp drop in steam pressure also shut down both bilge pumps, so both passengers and crew worked strenuously as part of a bucket brigade to fight off the rising water. There was a brief calm, but the crew couldn't get the boilers restarted, and soon the hurricane was back in full force.

Enlarge (credit: Getty)

Amazon has gotten flak for how it handles user and partner data, but that hasn't stopped it from launching a program that openly pays to stalk opt-in participants' smartphone traffic. The ad-verification scheme is similar to demised programs from other tech giants, like Google, and gives Amazon access to members' phone data to learn about how they interact with advertisements.

As reported by Insider on Monday, Amazon is now offering payment for ad verification to members of the Amazon Shopper Panel, an invite-only reward program available to US and UK Amazon customers.

As per an image shared on the Shopper Panel's website, users can opt in to ad verification, which lets Amazon "confirm which ads from Amazon they saw on their device. This can include Amazon's own advertising or ads from third-party businesses that advertise through Amazon ads."

Enlarge / European Commission Executive Vice President Margrethe Vestager gives a press conference on Amazon's antitrust case in November. (credit: Olivier Hoslet / Getty Images)

Amazon has reached a final deal with EU antitrust regulators over concerns its use of data undermined rivals, in a move that will close two of the most high-profile probes in Brussels.

The US ecommerce group has committed to increasing the visibility of rival products by giving them equal treatment on Amazon’s “buy box,” which generates the majority of purchases on the site. It will also create an alternative featured offer for those buyers where speed of delivery is less important.

The European Commission plans to announce the deal on December 20, according to four people with direct knowledge of the timing. However, they warned the date could still change at the last minute.

Enlarge (credit: The Washington Post / Contributor | The Washington Post)

When Apple released AirTags in 2021, the small electronic tracking devices were touted by top executives as being “stalker-proof.” Since then, Vice reported a minimum of 150 police cases documenting stalkers using AirTags, and there have already been two severe stalking cases involving AirTags that ended in murder in Ohio and Indiana.

Confronted by police reports and concerns from privacy advocates, Apple released updates in February, claiming that new features would mitigate reported stalking risks. Stalking reports kept coming, though, and it increasingly seemed to victims that Apple had not done enough to adequately secure AirTags. Now, Apple is being sued by two women who claim that the company is still marketing a “dangerous” product.

In the complaint filed yesterday in a federal court in California, the women suing Apple say that AirTags have become “one of the most dangerous and frightening technologies employed by stalkers.” It has become the “weapon of choice,” they say, because the small size makes the devices hard to detect, the accuracy of Apple’s location tracking is “unparalleled,” and the $29 price is extremely affordable. Victims say that stalkers can effectively track them, and if the device gets deactivated, AirTags are easy to replace at the next opportunity.

Enlarge (credit: The Washington Post / Contributor | The Washington Post)

When Apple released AirTags in 2021, the small electronic tracking devices were touted by top executives as being “stalker-proof.” Since then, Vice reported a minimum of 150 police cases documenting stalkers using AirTags, and there have already been two severe stalking cases involving AirTags that ended in murder in Ohio and Indiana.

Confronted by police reports and concerns from privacy advocates, Apple released updates in February, claiming that new features would mitigate reported stalking risks. Stalking reports kept coming, though, and it increasingly seemed to victims that Apple had not done enough to adequately secure AirTags. Now, Apple is being sued by two women who claim that the company is still marketing a “dangerous” product.

In the complaint filed yesterday in a federal court in California, the women suing Apple say that AirTags have become “one of the most dangerous and frightening technologies employed by stalkers.” It has become the “weapon of choice,” they say, because the small size makes the devices hard to detect, the accuracy of Apple’s location tracking is “unparalleled,” and the $29 price is extremely affordable. Victims say that stalkers can effectively track them, and if the device gets deactivated, AirTags are easy to replace at the next opportunity.

Enlarge / The Pixel 7 Pro. (credit: Ron Amadeo / Ars Technica)

Google is shipping its first big Android patch since the release of Android 13.

Rolling out to Pixel phones now is Android 13 Quarterly Platform Release 1 (QPR1), which contains a few new features, 77 bug fixes named in a huge support post, 151 Pixel-specific security issues outlined in the December Security Bulletin for Pixels, and a bunch of other security patches in the more generic Android Security Bulletin. On the Pixel 7, this is a monster 500MB patch.

The Pixel 7 is getting an always-on VPN from Google, just like the VPN service that is already offered to Google Fi (Google cell service) and Google One (extra Google storage) subscribers. The feature will run all your traffic through an encrypted tunnel that connects directly to Google's servers and could theoretically stop Internet service providers and other Wi-Fi users from spying on your activity. It's hard to say who a Google VPN is for since, if you're privacy-conscious, Google is probably near the top of the list of companies you don't trust, but it's here if you want it. For what it's worth, Google says it only does "minimal logging" and doesn't track users. To enable the VPN, you'll need to install the "Google One" app if it's not already on your phone.