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🎻 Keep calm and cello on: A Swedish composer put together a symphony with a robot cellist playing in sync with humans. But there’s good news: Afterward, the composer said, “It will be impossible to replace all human musicians with robots.” Watch the video — it’s really something.
🦑 Ready to play (again)? Netflix dropped an early Christmas gift — the trailer for Season Two of “Squid Game.” The first season was the most-watched series of all time on the platform. I liked it, despite all the blood. The new season drops on Dec. 26. How festive.
After nearly 40 years: Two sisters met for the first time since different families adopted them as babies. They were born just 14 months apart. One grew up in the U.S. and the other in Belgium. After taking a MyHeritage DNA test, one sister sent the other an email that said, “Hey, I think we’re sisters.” Isn’t that something?
Attn., small-business owners: Watch out for an email that claims you’ve violated someone’s copyright. The “legal notice” document attached is malware. A real legal letter will be in the body of the email itself, saved as a PDF, and also delivered via USPS or another service. If you see a RAR or EXE file, that’s a scam — delete it.
👗 Maybe she’s born with it: Fashion retailer Mango is using AI models instead of real people. They’ve done AI-generated campaigns for teen fashion, with men’s and women’s fashion AI models coming soon. More than anything, it’s about the money. A human model costs at least $35 an hour. AI lookalikes? $30 a month. Really, the only thing the AI and living models have in common is that neither one eats.
Security camera warning: Hackers found two security flaws in PTZOptics’ livestreaming cameras, used primarily in business, industrial and health care settings. Once inside, hackers can fully control the cameras, install malware, interrupt the feeds or use a camera as a gateway to other devices on the network. Have one? Contact your vendor to confirm its firmware is up to date.
👁️ Coming to a store near you: Facial recognition that spots suspicious friendliness. “Sweethearting” is when employees slip discounts or freebies to people they know. The system monitors how closely customers stand to staff and whether they always choose the same employee. If something seems off, store security gets alerted.
Apple’s losing big money to the carriers … so things are changing. Apple just committed $1.5 billion to Globalstar to pay for new satellites and ground infrastructure, putting them in direct competition with the big wireless carriers. Globalstar is behind the iPhone’s emergency satellite texting.
🐺 I hope this isn’t true: Online sleuths say YouTuber MrBeast has raked in $23 million through a web of crypto wallets and shady schemes. It’s got all the drama: A long trail of insider trading, misleading investors, and using his influence to pump and dump. Their proof? Transactions, charts, messages and pics of him partying with crypto entrepreneurs. Here’s the full investigation. Great read, btw.
WTH? The Colorado Department of State posted a spreadsheet with partial passwords to its voting machines on its website. No biggie, they say, since each machine has two unique passwords, needs physical access and is stored in an ID-only area. Someone needs to get fired — now.
