An anonymous reader writes: Whether you think cryptocurrency is a scam or a salvation, those digital coins can store real-world value. The safest place to keep them is in what's known as a "hardware wallet," a device like a USB drive that stores your currency and private keys locally, without connecting to the internet. But "safest" doesn't mean "perfect," which new research into two popular hardware wallets reinforces all too well. Researchers from Ledger -- a firm that makes hardware wallets itself -- have demonstrated attacks against products from manufacturers Coinkite and Shapeshift that could have allowed an attacker to figure out the PIN that protects those wallets. The vulnerabilities have been fixed, and both hacks would have required physical access to the devices, which minimizes the danger to begin with. But Ledger argues that it's still worth holding hardware wallets to the highest standards, just as you would a closet safe. Shapeshift's fix can be found here. Meanwhile, Coinkite's Coldcard Mk2 flaw has been fixed in the company's current Coldcard model Mk3, which started shipping in October.

A bipartisan group of senators are sounding the antitrust enforcement alarm Friday over Facebook's newly announced acquisition of Giphy, a GIF-making and sharing website. The Verge reports: On Friday, Facebook announced that it would acquire Giphy for the reported price of $400 million. Giphy is one of the largest GIF sites on the internet and social media and messaging services like Twitter, Tinder, Slack and iMessage already have Giphy integrated into their apps. In a Friday blog post, Facebook said that half of Giphy's traffic comes from Facebook apps and that the gif website would be rolled into Instagram, a Facebook-owned product. In that same post, Facebook suggested that Giphy's core function as a GIF-sharing app across social media would not change and that developers would "continue to have the same access" to its services.

Still, that pledge hasn't quieted the growing chorus of congresspeople concerned over potential anti-competitive behavior from Facebook. In statements Friday, Republican Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) and Democrats Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) were skeptical of the deal. "Facebook keeps looking for even more ways to take our data," Hawley said in a statement to The Verge. "Just like Google purchased DoubleClick because of its widespread presence on the internet and ability to collect data, Facebook wants Giphy so it can collect even more data on us. Facebook shouldn't be acquiring any companies while it is under antitrust investigation for its past purchases." Democrats are planning to introduce a bill called the "Pandemic Anti-Monopoly Act" that would impose a moratorium on large mergers until the FTC "determines that small businesses, workers, and consumers" were "no longer under severe financial distress."

Ubisoft is suing Apple and Google over a Chinese mobile game it says is "a near carbon copy" of one of its most popular games, Rainbow Six: Siege. The BBC reports: Area F2 is "designed to closely replicate... virtually every aspect" of the game, it alleges, in a 43-page document, complete with screenshots. It is also suing the developer, Ejoy, owned by Chinese tech giant Alibaba. Characters, game modes, game maps, animations, and even the user interface were copied, the document alleges. "Virtually every aspect of AF2 is copied from R6S, from the operator selection screen to the final scoring screen and everything in between," Ubisoft claims. "In fact, the games are so similar that an ordinary observer viewing and playing both games likely would be unable to differentiate between them."

Ubisoft estimates Area F2 has been downloaded more than a million times and made "tens of thousands of dollars" on in-game purchases. It says it has raised the issue with both Apple and Google, which both take a cut of sales on their respective app stores. "But rather than take any measures to stop or curtail the infringement... Google and Apple instead decided that it would be more profitable to collect their revenue share from AF2 and continue their unlawful distribution," Ubisoft says in its court filing. Ubisoft is seeking a jury trial over the alleged copyright infringement, in the Central District Court of California.

Roland Piquepaille writes, "In 'Atomic Physics Predicts Successful Store Location,' LiveScience reports that a French physicist has applied methods used to study atomic interactions for another task: to 'help business owners find the best places to locate their stores.' Pablo Jensen has used his method for the city of Lyon and is now developing software with the local Chamber of Commerce to help future business owners. Read more for additional references and maps of the city of Lyon showing for example the best locations to open a bakery, according to atomic physics." Jensen says that more research is needed to know if this method would work in other cities.

Tam Hanna writes "People have been rumoring about the Treo 700p for quite some time, Now, HandMark has "officially" confirmed the Treo 700p's existance on their home page. While developers have had access to the machine for quite some time; this is the first "real" sighting""

prostoalex writes "The next version of Nokia 770 Linux-based Internet tablet with WiFi support will feature Google Talk with VOIP in its next release, MSNBC reports. The device is priced to sell at $390, and both Google and Nokia agree that right now it might appeal only to niche markets. In related news, however, it means Google's GTalk client will be ported to Linux, even if it's Nokia 770-specific software architecture."

When we look back on this E3, I think one of the moments we're most clearly going to remember is the dead silence in the Sony press conference following the price announcement. Eurogamer and GameDaily has coverage of Phil Harrison's spin work, trying to recover from that moment, discussing how Sony is not ripping off Nintendo and Microsoft probably won't meet their 10 million units goal. More interestingly, they discuss an interview with Ken Kutaragi conducted by a Japanese website. From that piece: "SCEI president Ken Kutaragi has defended the PlayStation 3's high price tag once again, declaring that not only will consumers be prepared to pay the cost but that the console is 'probably too cheap.' In an interview with Japanese website IT Media, partially translated by IGN, Kutaragi said: 'This is the PS3 price. Expensive, cheap - we don't want you to think of it in terms of game machines ... For instance ... Is it not nonsense to compare the charge for dinner at the company cafeteria with dinner at a fine restaurant? It's a question of what you can do with that game machine. If you can have an amazing experience, we believe price is not a problem.'"

Trenty writes "Ars Technica is reporting that Microsoft has delayed Windows Vista yet again. Jim Allchin told analysts that the OS would not ship in January of 2007, which is a 1-2 month delay. Oddly, even though they are citing the need for more time to tweak security, business editions will available to volume licensing customers before the close of the year."