According to a new study published in the journal PLoS ONE, the "chatter" from multiple bird species can be a useful cue to squirrels and other animals that there is no imminent threat in the area. Phys.Org reports: To test this hypothesis, the researchers observed the behavior of 54 wild Eastern gray squirrels (Sciurus carolinensis) in public parks and residential areas in Ohio in response to threat, which they simulated by playing back a recording of the call of a red-tailed hawk (Buteo jamaicensis), a common predator of both squirrels and small birds. They followed the predator's call with a playback of either multi-species songbird bird chatter or ambient sounds lacking bird calls and monitored the behavior of each squirrel for 3 minutes.

The researchers found that all squirrels showed an increase in predator vigilance behaviors, such as freezing, looking up, or fleeing, after they heard the hawk's call. However, squirrels that were played bird chatter afterwards performed fewer vigilance behaviors and returned to normal levels of watchfulness more quickly than squirrels that did not hear bird calls after the hawk's call. This suggests that the squirrels are able to tap into the casual chatter of many bird species as an indicator of safety, allowing them to quickly return to getting on with normal behaviors like foraging rather than remaining on high alert after a threat has passed. "We knew that squirrels eavesdropped on the alarm calls of some bird species, but we were excited to find that they also eavesdrop on non-alarm sounds that indicate the birds feel relatively safe," the authors said. "Perhaps in some circumstances, cues of safety could be as important as cues of danger."

With the Huawei Mate 30 launch right around the corner on September 19th, Huawei announced the new flagship chipset that will be powering the phone. AnandTech reports: Huawei is for the first time splitting its [5G] strategy, with two versions of the Kirin 990. These versions will officially be known as the Kirin 990 and the Kirin 990 5G. The (4G) I've put here is simply to add a differentiator to tell them apart. The two Kirin chipsets are, and a standard base level, pretty much the same. Same core configuration, same camera support, same memory, same storage. However, in a few key areas beyond the modem, there are differences, such as NPU performance and core frequencies.

The Kirin 990 5G is a true unified design, supporting Sub-6 GHz 5G networks on both SA and NSA architectures. In order to keep the die size in check, Huawei is using TSMC's latest 7+ manufacturing process with EUV, which helps enable a smaller die size for the sorts of devices this chip will be going into. As mentioned, one of the key elements to the Kirin 990 5G is its use of TSMC's 7FF+ with EUV, which enables the chip to have a small(er) die size. We are told the chip is over 100mm2, which is up from 74.13 mm2 on the Kirin 980 (TSMC 7nm) and 96.72 mm2 on the Kirin 970 (TSMC 10nm), possibly making it Huawei's largest smartphone SoC to date. This is compared to the Kirin 990 4G version, which is around ~90 mm2, but is built on the same 7nm process as the Kirin 980, making it a little bigger. Transistor counts for the two chips put the 990 5G at 10.3 billion, while the 990 4G is ~8 billion. XDA Developers has a spec sheet comparing the Kirin 980 against the Kirin 990 and 990 5G.

More than four years after selling his company to Microsoft, 6Wunderkinder cofounder Christian Reber wants to buy the core product back from the software giant. VentureBeat reports: Reber helped start 6Wunderkinder out of Berlin back in 2010, and alongside his 5 cofounders they managed to create one of the most popular productivity apps on the market in the form of Wunderlist, raising some $35 million in investors' cash along the way. Fast forward to 2015, and Microsoft came a-callin', snapping up the startup for a figure reported to be in the region of $100-$200 million. As is typical when any popular independent service is acquired by a corporate giant, the Wunderlist community soon wondered whether Microsoft would kill or otherwise ruin the app, with rival Todoist going all out to lure over worried Wunderlist users. Users' fears were justified -- Microsoft announced in 2017 that it would eventually retire Wunderlist, as it transitioned its best features to a new productivity app called To-Do. No time frame was ever given for this transition, and there were some technical complications with this transfer of features between the apps -- as recently as a few days ago, Wunderlist was still unable to provide a date for its final demise.

Now, however, Reber has taken to Twitter to ask Microsoft and even CEO Satya Nadella to sell the Wunderlist app back to him. "Still sad @Microsoft wants to shut down @Wunderlist, even though people still love and use it," he said. "I'm serious @satyanadella @marcusash, please let me buy it back." It's unclear what Microsoft's near-term plans are for Wunderlist, or whether it would really consider helping one of the original creators rescue the app from the scrap heap.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: For months, security practitioners have worried about the public release of attack code exploiting BlueKeep, the critical vulnerability in older versions of Microsoft Windows that's "wormable," meaning it can spread from computer to computer the way the WannaCry worm did two years ago. On Friday, that dreaded day arrived when the Metasploit framework -- an open source tool used by white hat and black hat hackers alike -- released just such an exploit into the wild. The module, which was published as a work in progress on Github, doesn't yet have the polish and reliability of the EternalBlue exploit that was developed by the NSA and later used in WannaCry. For instance, if the people using the new module specify the wrong version of Windows they want to attack, they'll likely wind up with a blue-screen crash. Getting the exploit to work on server machines also requires a change to default settings in the form of a registry modification that turns on audio sharing.

The latest flaw, which is indexed as CVE-2019-0708 but is better known by the name BlueKeep, resides in earlier versions of the Remote Desktop Services, which help provide a graphical interface for connecting to Windows computers over the Internet. It affects Windows 2003 and XP, Vista 7, Server 2008 R2, and Server 2008. When Microsoft patched the vulnerability in May, it warned that computers that failed to install the fix could suffer a similar fate if reliable attack code ever becomes available. The reason: like the flaw that EternalBlue exploited, BlueKeep allowed for self-replicating attacks. Like a falling line of dominoes, a single exploit could spread from vulnerable machine to vulnerable machine with no interaction required of end users. "The release of this exploit is a big deal because it will put a reliable exploit in the hands of both security professionals and malicious actors," Ryan Hanson, principal research consultant at Atredis Partners and a developer who helped work on the release, told Ars. "I'm hoping the exploit will be primarily used by offensive teams to demonstrate the importance of security patches, but we will likely see criminal groups modifying it to deliver ransomware as well."

India's first soft landing on the Moon today appears to have ended in failure after the country's robotic Vikram lander seemingly crashed into the lunar surface during its powered descent to the ground. The Verge reports: India would have become the fourth country to land a spacecraft intact on the Moon. But for now, only the United States, Russia, and China hold that title. The Vikram lander was a critical part of India's Chandrayaan-2 mission -- a project aimed at learning more about the unexplored and highly intriguing south pole of the Moon. Numerous lunar spacecraft have gathered enough evidence about this region to suggest that significant amounts of water ice might be hiding on the south pole, likely in frigid craters that are in permanent shadow. India's goal with Chandrayaan-2 was to land vehicles in this region to get a better understanding of the area's composition and learn just how much water ice might be lurking there.

Vikram was carrying a rover called Pragyan, and together the two vehicles were meant to explore the south pole region in up-close detail using a series of instruments, including a seismometer to measure lunar quakes and X-rays to help figure out the composition of the dirt (and potential water ice). But just a few minutes before Vikram was scheduled to touch down on the Moon, data of the lander from inside India's mission control center showed the vehicle to be slightly off course. When Vikram was about 1.3 miles (2.1 kilometers) above the surface, India lost communication with the lander. India has yet to give official confirmation on whether or not the lander did, indeed, crash.

An anonymous reader shares a report: Apple Music doesn't work on traditional Linux distributions like Ubuntu or Fedora. It does, however, work on Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android. Chromebook users can take advantage of the Apple Music Android app from the Play Store. Traditional Linux users, however, are sadly left out of the party. This week, this changes, as Apple Music finally comes to the web -- in beta. This is something many other streaming music services, such as Spotify and Google, already offer. Better late than never, eh? This means traditional Linux users can finally enjoy Apple Music by simply visiting a website.

Qualcomm will integrate 5G connectivity into its 6- and 7-series chipsets starting next year alongside its flagship 8-series processors, the company announced at IFA today. From a report: Qualcomm says that these chips will support a full range of 5G technologies, including being able to connect to sub-6Ghz and mmWave spectrums. Today's announcement means that it won't just be flagship phones that will get an integrated 5G modem; it will also come to the kinds of processors that are used in more midrange and budget devices. Starting next year, we should start to see 5G move beyond expensive flagship devices like the OnePlus 7 Pro and Samsung Galaxy Note 10 that made up much of the first wave of 5G device releases.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Forbes: Own a rifle? Got a scope to go with it? The government might soon know who you are, where you live and how to reach you. That's because Apple and Google have been ordered by the U.S. government to hand over names, phone numbers and other identifying data of at least 10,000 users of a single gun scope app, Forbes has discovered. It's an unprecedented move: never before has a case been disclosed in which American investigators demanded personal data of users of a single app from Apple and Google. And never has an order been made public where the feds have asked the Silicon Valley giants for info on so many thousands of people in one go.

According to a court order filed by the Department of Justice (DOJ) on 5 September, investigators want information on users of Obsidian 4, a tool used to control rifle scopes made by night vision specialist American Technologies Network Corp. The app allows gun owners to get a live stream, take video and calibrate their gun scope from an Android or iPhone device. According to the Google Play page for Obsidian 4, it has more than 10,000 downloads. Apple doesn't provide download numbers, so it's unclear how many iPhone owners have been swept up in this latest government data grab. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) department is seeking information as part of a broad investigation into possible breaches of weapons export regulations. It's looking into illegal exports of ATN's scope, though the company itself isn't under investigation, according to the order. As part of that, investigators are looking for a quick way to find out where the app is in use, as that will likely indicate where the hardware has been shipped. ICE has repeatedly intercepted illegal shipments of the scope, which is controlled under the International Traffic in Arms Regulation (ITAR), according to the government court filing. They included shipments to Canada, the Netherlands and Hong Kong where the necessary licenses hadn't been obtained. The two companies must hand over names, telephone numbers and IP addresses of anyone who downloaded the scope app from August 1, 2017, to the current date. The government also wants to know when users were operating the app.

The Department of Homeland Security plans to expand its social media profile collection program from US visa applicants to also include data from immigrants, asylum seekers, and refugees. From a report: The DHS published a notice on the federal registry describing its future data collection practice this week. The agency plans to ask immigrants, asylum seekers, and refugees to provide usernames -- without passwords -- for 19 social networking sites: Ask.fm (Q&A site), Douban (China-based social network), Facebook, Flickr, Instagram, LinkedIn, MySpace, Pinterest, QZone (QQ) (China-based social network, IM app), Reddit, Sina Weibo (China-based microblogging service), Tencent Weibo (China-based microblogging service), Tumblr, Twitter, Twoo (Belgium-based social network), Vine, VKontakte (VK), Youke (China-based video sharing portal), YouTube. These are the same social media profiles that the DHS had been collecting through the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency from US visa applications -- people who applied for entry in the US from a country where a visa card is required.

In a rare move, Apple has released a statement to comment on the attacks on iPhone users revealed by Google last week. From a report: Last week, Google dropped a bombshell in the form of a long, detailed analysis of five chains of iOS vulnerabilities discovered by its security teams. Google didn't say who was behind the attacks, nor who was targeted, but described the attack as "indiscriminate," and potentially hitting "thousands" of people. Apple disagrees. Friday, Apple published a brief press release that disputes some relatively minor details that Google released about the attacks. Namely, that the attacks lasted for a shorter amount of time and that they were less widespread than Google reported.

"First, the sophisticated attack was narrowly focused, not a broad-based exploit of iPhones 'en masse' as described. The attack affected fewer than a dozen websites that focus on content related to the Uighur community." Apple wrote. "Google's post, issued six months after iOS patches were released, creates the false impression of 'mass exploitation' to 'monitor the private activities of entire populations in real time,' stoking fear among all iPhone users that their devices had been compromised. This was never the case. Second, all evidence indicates that these website attacks were only operational for a brief period, roughly two months, not 'two years' as Google implies," the statement continued.

Dputiger writes: Intel is concerned that many of the benchmarks used in CPU reviews today are not properly capturing overall performance. In the process of raising these concerns, however, the company is drawing a false dichotomy between real-world and synthetic benchmarks that doesn't really exist. Whether a test is synthetic or not is ultimately less important than whether it accurately measures performance and produces results that can be generalized to a larger suite of applications.

ProtonMail is in talks with Huawei about including its encrypted email service in future mobile devices, part of the Chinese phone maker's plan to develop an alternative to Google ecosystem. From a report: The Swiss company's service could come preloaded on future Huawei mobile devices or be offered inside its app store, AppGallery, said Andy Yen, ProtonMail's chief executive officer. The company hasn't made a final decision about offering its service on Huawei's channel, he said. Huawei may lose access to Google's programs after the U.S. added it to a trade blacklist in May, meaning American businesses need a special license to do business with the Chinese company. The restrictions also affect updates for the Google Android operating system that powers all its smartphones abroad, and without which Huawei can't offer critical apps like Gmail. As a result, Huawei has been racing to build out its own mobile operating system, HarmonyOS, and enlisting developers to offer services on its app store. "What they see from us is having an alternative to Google in case they can't offer Google anymore," Yen said in an interview.

A mobile security company has carried out a research investigation to address the popular conspiracy theory that tech giants are listening to conversations. From a report: The internet is awash with posts and videos on social media where people claim to have proof that the likes of Facebook and Google are spying on users in order to serve hyper-targeted adverts. Videos have gone viral in recent months showing people talking about products and then ads for those exact items appear online. Now, cyber security-specialists at Wandera have emulated the online experiments and found no evidence that phones or apps were secretly listening. Researchers put two phones -- one Samsung Android phone and one Apple iPhone -- into a "audio room". For 30 minutes they played the sound of cat and dog food adverts on loop. They also put two identical phones in a silent room.

The security specialists kept apps open for Facebook, Instagram, Chrome, SnapChat, YouTube, and Amazon with full permissions granted to each platform. They then looked for ads related to pet food on each platform and webpage they subsequently visited. They also analyzed the battery usage and data consumption on the phones during the test phase. They repeated the experiment at the same time for three days, and noted no relevant pet food adverts on the "audio room" phones and no significant spike in data or battery usage.

An anonymous reader shares a report: The secretive Israeli spyware company NSO Group gained notoriety following allegations that its hacking tool Pegasus was used by governments like Saudi Arabia and Mexico to track dissidents and journalists. A few months later, the company was acquired for $1 billion by its cofounders Shalev Hulio and Omri Lavie alongside the private equity firm Novalpina Capital. To get that deal done, the founders raised money through a debt offering led by Credit Suisse and Jefferies. The banks reportedly struggled to sell the debt due to ethical concerns, but in the end it found buyers in mutual funds including BlackRock and Principal Financial Group, as well as collateralized loan obligation (CLO) management firms Ellington Management Group and Saratoga Investment Corp. Why would so many financial institutions align themselves with a company with a contentious reputation? NSO Group is high growth, and it's wildly profitable, according to a person who saw the debt offering circulated by the company earlier this year who shared its contents with Business Insider. And it did that all with just 60 customers.

New York State Attorney General Letitia James announced Friday she is launching a multistate investigation into Facebook for possible antitrust violations. From a report: Attorneys general of Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Nebraska, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee and the District of Columbia will join the probe, according to the announcement. It will focus "on Facebook's dominance in the industry and the potential anticompetitive conduct stemming from that dominance," according to the release. "Even the largest social media platform in the world must follow the law and respect consumers," James said in a statement. "I am proud to be leading a bipartisan coalition of attorneys general in investigating whether Facebook has stifled competition and put users at risk. We will use every investigative tool at our disposal to determine whether Facebook's actions may have endangered consumer data, reduced the quality of consumers' choices, or increased the price of advertising."

Departments of Motor Vehicles in states around the country are taking drivers' personal information and selling it to thousands of businesses, including private investigators who spy on people for a profit, Motherboard reported Friday. From the report: DMVs sell the data for an array of approved purposes, such as to insurance or tow companies, but some of them have sold to more nefarious businesses as well. Multiple states have made tens of millions of dollars a year selling data. Motherboard has obtained hundreds of pages of documents from DMVs through public records requests that lay out the practice. Members of the public may not be aware that when they provide their name, address, and in some cases other personal information to the DMV for the purposes of getting a driver's license or registering a vehicle, the DMV often then turns around and offers that information for sale. Many of the private investigators that DMVs have sold data to explicitly advertise that they will surveil spouses to see if they're cheating.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Fast Company: In spring 2018, Facebook announced that it was launching its own version of Tinder -- but designed for people who are interested in meaningful relationships. Now, after rolling out in 19 countries including Colombia, Thailand, and Canada, Facebook's dating service is available in the United States. Instead of the rapid-fire swiping found in many dating apps like Tinder and Bumble, Facebook Dating users have to tap into each profile before they can "pass" on someone or express interest by sending them a message (there is no mutual interest necessary for someone to start a conversation, which could cause problems for women who already face harassment and unsolicited messages on dating apps). The company's algorithm selects matches for you based on location -- which you verify using location services on your phone -- along with your stated preference and interests that you've indicated on Facebook. The service is entirely opt-in, for people ages 18 and over, and you won't ever be matched with your friends.

A key element of helping people get to know potential matches is Instagram. For the U.S. launch, Facebook Dating will enable you to include photos from your Instagram feed inside your dating profile, and by the end of the year, users will be able to directly add Instagram stories to Dating as well, allowing potential future matches and people you're already conversing with to be able to get a sense of the slightly less filtered version of your life. "We think it's incredibly important to go where people are and allow them to bring all of these different networks and types of content to help them get the things they're trying to do done," says Fidji Simo, a vice president at Facebook and head of the Facebook app. Even though Dating is integrated directly into Facebook's app, the company has worked to create an entirely separate experience, including a separate profile and separate message thread.

"Facebook also says that none of your activity on Dating will be used for advertising, based on people's feedback about privacy (something Facebook has historically failed to provide)," reports Fast Company. "Facebook does put that data to use though: Information the company collects on you will be used to inform future matches that it shows you."

pacopico writes: Aerospace technology has gotten better. The price of rocket launches has come down. So much so that a group of space friends in Silicon Valley now think it's possible to create their own settlement on the moon for less than $3 billion. They've formed a non-profit called the Open Lunar Foundation that looks to begin launching probes to the lunar surface and then to start work on a habitat. The idea is to build a settlement in the spirit of open-source technology where data and hardware designs can be shared and where policies around the settlement are shaped by people all over the world rather than a particular nation state or billionaire. So far the team is small and working off a few million dollars, but there's an all-star cast of advisors, including former astronauts, NASA heads and aerospace execs.

Samsung's $2,000 foldable smartphone was scheduled to launch earlier this year, but was delayed after several major U.S. tech journalists experienced device-breaking display failures with their review units. This caused Samsung to push back the launch date and go back to the drawing board to try and fix these issues.

At IFA in Berlin this week, Samsung brought an updated version of the Galaxy Fold that supposedly fixes many of the issues that plagued the original model. The Verge reports: You need to look closely at the updated Galaxy Fold to spot what's new, but there are some key changes in a variety of areas. The biggest update is that Samsung has now extended the protective film to under the bezels of the device so you can no longer peel it off. I tried to peel it off multiple times and failed, as it's beyond the bezel and impossible to get your fingernails close to. We'll need to test this fully, but I'm confident that Samsung has addressed this particular problem.

Most of the other changes are related to the hinge. It feels a little sturdier than before, and the gaps where the hinge meets the display have been trimmed down. Even the gap when the device is closed has been shrunk slightly, which should add up to less debris getting close to the hinge or displays. Visually, the other big change is that the display now has plastic protection caps at the bottom and top that further block debris from getting underneath it. These are noticeable when you unfold the device, but they should hopefully help stop dirt from getting in the hinge and causing issues. I didn't have enough time to throw a bunch of dirt and dust at the device, so it's hard to say whether Samsung has fixed this particular issue, but it's clear that a lot of work has been done here. Furthermore, Samsung has also "added layers of metal underneath the display to make it feel sturdier, particularly when you touch and interact with the display," reports The Verge. "This is less noticeable by itself, but when you combine it with the hinge changes, it certainly comes off like a more polished device overall."

Apple is reportedly developing in-display fingerprint technology for as early as its 2020 iPhones, according to Bloomberg. "The technology is in testing both inside Apple and among the company's overseas suppliers, though the timeline for its release may slip to the 2021 iPhone refresh, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing private work." From the report: Apple introduced fingerprint scanning on iPhones in 2013, following its acquisition of AuthenTec Inc., a pioneer in the field. Integrated into the iPhone's home button, the Touch ID system was used for unlocking the device, approving payments and authorizing app downloads -- and it gave Apple a technological edge with its speed and reliability. Touch ID was replaced with face-scanning sensors in 2017 with the iPhone X launch. Branded as Face ID, the new face authentication again put Apple ahead of the competition with a more robust and secure implementation than rivals. The upcoming fingerprint reader would be embedded in the screen, letting a user scan their fingerprint on a large portion of the display, and it would work in tandem with the existing Face ID system, the people familiar with Apple's plans said. The report also mentions Apple is working on its first low-cost iPhone since the iPhone SE: That could come out as early as the first half of 2020, the people said. The device would look similar to the iPhone 8 and include a 4.7-inch screen. The iPhone 8 currently sells for $599, while Apple sold the iPhone SE for $399 when that device launched in 2016. The new low-cost phone is expected to have Touch ID built into the home button, not the screen. Nikkei reported plans for a cheaper iPhone earlier this week.