Notices by PCMag (pcmag@mastodon.social)

US investigators have arrested an employee at a DVD and Blu-ray disc manufacturer for leaking films to video pirates before their official release. https://www.pcmag.com/news/employee-at-dvd-manufacturer-arrested-for-leaking-films-including-spider

NASA and Intuitive Machines' second attempt to land a spacecraft on the Moon appears to have gone awry—again. https://www.pcmag.com/news/nasas-im-2-moon-lander-might-have-tipped-over-on-lunar-surface-again

President Trump has been touting TSMC’s $100 billion investment to build “state-of-the-art” chip factories in Arizona. But the company says its most advanced manufacturing processes will likely debut in Taiwan first, where TSMC is based, rather than in the US. https://www.pcmag.com/news/despite-us-investment-tsmcs-newest-chip-tech-may-debut-in-taiwan-first

Launch provider Rocket Lab is introducing a new satellite model that could help it and other companies operate space-based internet systems to rival Starlink. https://www.pcmag.com/news/rocket-lab-debuts-satellite-model-that-could-compete-with-starlink

Amazon will discontinue its Amazon Appstore for Android, effective Aug. 20.
https://www.pcmag.com/news/amazon-is-killing-its-appstore-for-android-devices

X/Twitter now identifies links to Signal as 'being potentially harmful.' https://www.pcmag.com/news/links-to-signal-are-currently-blocked-on-x

Qualcomm's latest processor boasts increases in CPU and GPU performance and improved power savings, which means on-device AI for affordable phones for the first time. https://www.pcmag.com/news/qualcomm-snapdragon-6-gen-4-brings-ai-to-even-more-phones

During the second supersonic flight of the XB-1 technology demonstrator today, the jet exceeded Mach 1 three times without a boom being detected by microphones on the desert floor below. https://www.pcmag.com/news/boom-supersonic-our-flights-can-break-sound-barrier-without-a-sonic-boom

Sony is offering PlayStation Plus members five days of free service following a day-long global PlayStation Network (PSN) outage. But the cause remains unclear. https://www.pcmag.com/news/sony-offers-playstation-plus-members-5-day-extension-after-global-outage

Elon Musk's campaign against the US International Development Agency, which Congress established in 1961, takes down USAID’s site as well as its X and Instagram accounts. https://www.pcmag.com/news/musks-minions-deleting-digital-presence-of-us-international-development

Patrick Spence, who oversaw the Sonos app's buggy overhaul, is stepping down as CEO but staying on as an advisor until July and will get over $1.8 million in severance. https://www.pcmag.com/news/sonos-ceo-resigns-following-mobile-app-flop

The Biden administration bars some countries from getting advanced AI chips entirely, while others will need a license to get more than 1,700 GPUs per order. In no surprise, Nvidia ain't happy. https://www.pcmag.com/news/us-further-restricts-nvidia-ai-exports-caps-gpu-purchases

Mark Zuckerberg's Meta has joined Elon Musk in urging California lawmakers to stop ChatGPT firm OpenAI from becoming a fully for-profit company. https://www.pcmag.com/news/meta-joins-elon-musk-in-opposing-openais-for-profit-transition

Starlink's newest competitive threat may come from a Chinese company, which just signed a deal to provide satellite internet to users in Brazil: https://www.pcmag.com/news/starlink-faces-competition-in-brazil-from-chinas-qianfan-satellite-constellation

Hackers are trying to create fake legal requests to trick companies into handing over sensitive user data, according to a new alert from the FBI. https://www.pcmag.com/news/fbi-hackers-are-exploiting-fake-legal-requests-to-steal-user-data

Netflix is going all in on using generative AI to build games, weeks after the company shut down an internal studio focused on creating "AAA" games. https://www.pcmag.com/news/netflix-focuses-on-ai-generated-gaming-after-shutting-down-internal-studio

In an exclusive interview, security consultant Chelsea Manning explains how mixnets can be used to get around VPN bans in countries plagued by internet censorship. https://www.pcmag.com/news/chelsea-manning-vpns-and-tor-arent-enough-for-digital-privacy

Wish you could store your favorite Blu-ray discs on your computer? Here's how to rip your movie collection to a PC, including 4K UHD discs. https://www.pcmag.com/how-to/how-to-rip-blu-ray-discs-to-your-pc

If you're still on X when the new Terms of Service drop on Nov. 15, you should probably leave. That's because your posts can officially serve as food for X’s Grok chatbot and any other AI systems that X might create in the future. https://www.pcmag.com/news/xs-new-rules-blocked-posts-will-no-longer-be-hidden-tweets-will-train-ai

Be on the lookout for unexpected Gmail account recovery attempts and subsequent customer service calls that sound a little too perfect: it's almost certainly a scam. https://www.pcmag.com/news/watch-out-for-this-gmail-account-takeover-scam