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Porsche and Audi are no stranger to sharing car innards (the Cayenne and Macan use the same basic chassis as the Q7 and Q5, for instance), and that's holding true in the electric era. Porsche's Oliver Blume and Audi's Rupert Stadler told Stuttgarter Zeitung in an interview that the two Volkswagen-owned brands will jointly develop a common EV platform that will find its way into several models from 2021 and beyond. Audi is already expecting two sedans and two SUVs, while Porsche could build its first vehicle on the platform at the same factory as the Macan. This doesn't mean you'll see an electric Macan, but that suggests it isn't an electrified coupe . Which cars come first and when depends on CO2 emissions requirements, Blume said. It won't surprise you to hear why they're sharing resources: money. Blume said it would cost about 30 percent more for each brand to develop their own EV platforms. It won't be a trivial expense even then. Stadler e...

Pennsylvania has taken a leaf out of Virginia's book and is now looking to replace its obsolete and vulnerable voting machines with more secure ones. A new directive requires counties planning to replace their voting machines with new ones that have paper backups -- problem is, the state doesn't have the budget for them. Most of the 20,000 machines Pennsylvania has been using the past decade are purely digital, so the state will need around $60 million to replace them with systems that cost $3,000 each. In early 2017, a Bloomberg report revealed that Russian hackers attacked voting systems in 39 states. While Illinois was the only state that found records of attackers attempting to delete or alter voter data, Pennsylvania was still in the list of targeted locations. Even if the state weren't attacked, it's a good idea to upgrade anyway: at last year's DefCon, security researchers showed just how easy it is to infiltrate voting systems. Acting Secretary of St...

The 2017 Equifax data breach was already extremely serious by itself, but there are hints it was somehow worse. CNN has learned that Equifax told the US Senate Banking Committee that more data may have been exposed than initially determined. The hack may have compromised more driver's license info, such as the issuing data and host state, as well as tax IDs. In theory, it would be that much easier for intruders to commit fraud. The breach compromised about 145.5 million people, although their level of exposure varied wildly. About 10.9 million Americans' driver's licenses were embroiled in the hack, and just a small fraction of the exposed UK licenses (just under 700,000) had enough info to jeopardize the victims' privacy. Equifax stressed to CNN that the initial list of exposed data was never meant to be the final, definitive account of the scope of the problem. And that's not unheard of -- companies frequently deliver rough assessments of the damage in th...

One of the biggest problems with cryptocurrency exchanges is that they're a juicy, enticing target for high-tech criminals. Case in point, Italian exchange BitGrail, which lost $170 million worth of Nano tokens, a little-known digital coin previously called RaiBlocks. BitGrail is the second exchange that lost of massive amount of money this year -- and it's only February -- following Tokyo-based Coincheck, which lost between $400 and $534 million worth of coins in a cyberattack on its internet-connected wallet back in January. BitGrail announced on its website that it lost $170 million to fraudulent transactions and that it has already reported them to authorities. It has suspended all withdrawals and deposits "in order to conduct further verifications." However, unlike Coincheck, which promised to give users their money back, BitGrail founder Francesco "The Bomber" Firano announced on Twitter that there's no way to refund 100 percent of what users...

Welcome back to IRL, our series dedicated to the things that Engadget writers have been playing, using, watching and listening to. This week is all about what we're watching and includes an explanation of why you need to give Star Wars Rebels another look and check out Marvel's new Runaways series. Finally, we'll take a look back at one of our editors' first Netflix binge-watching experiences to see if it still holds up. Star Wars Rebels Kris Naudus Senior Editor, Buyer's Guide I loved Star Wars: The Last Jedi . This is somehow a controversial statement, but I did. I adore it enough that I've seen it three times now, and on every viewing I've found that my appreciation of the film grew a bit more as I noticed things I hadn't before or I better saw how everything fits together. It's also rekindled my love of Star Wars , which is why I finally sat down and gave Star Wars Rebels another chance. I liked Star Wars: The Clone Wars , but I fou...

Spy agencies have a long history of using public outlets to deliver secret messages, such as numbers stations or cryptic classified ads. Now, however, they've adapted to the internet era. Both the New York Times and the Intercept have learned that the National Security Agency used Twitter to send "nearly a dozen" coded messages to a Russian contact claiming to have agency data stolen by the Shadow Brokers . Reportedly, the NSA would tell the Russian to expect public tweets in advance, either to signal an intent to make contact or to prove that it was involved and was open to further chats. The tweets were sent throughout 2017. Some were the usual self-promotion, including advocacy for the FISA section authorizing the NSA's warrantless mass surveillance. Others were slightly arbitrary historical facts, such as celebrating the 177th anniversary of the telegraph patent. It's not clear how many of these messages were crafted just for talking to the Russian vers...

HBO has signed a deal with political podcast Pod Save America that will see the popular show become a series of TV specials. The episodes will be shot and broadcast during the 2018 midterms, produced and starring the usual trio of (the other) Jon Favreau, Jon Lovett and Tommy Vietor. It's the second time in recent months that the cable giant has sought to adapt a podcast, following its deal with 2 Dope Queens . Podcasts jumping into bed with HBO may seem like a strange fit, especially given the network's love for well-heeled prestige drama. But it's likely a shrewd move, given the current broadcasting landscape and HBO's own need to find new audiences. This year sees the channel coming to the end a period of dominance where it can lay claim to owning Game of Thrones, the world's most hyped TV show. When Game of Thrones began, its same-day ratings -- views within the first 24 hours of broadcast -- were 2.5 million. By ordinary cable standards, that's a s...

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A crowd of more than 67,000 people watched the Philadelphia Eagles trounce the New England Patriots last Sunday at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, while around 103 million viewers across the country did the same on their television sets. At the same time, a small group of Verizon employees in New York City were viewing the game in a different way: through VR . And they were able to do so entirely over a 5G connection. It was all part of an ambitious 5G stress test that Verizon quietly ran during Super Bowl LII, and according to the company, it was a success. "This latest demonstration at Super Bowl LII and in New York City is another example of how we're pushing 5G to exploit never-before-imagined use cases and applications," said Sanyogita Shamsunder, Verizon's executive director of 5G ecosystems and innovation. The work started in late November, when engineers and support staff first installed equipment in the stadium's Verizon suite. The equipment was con...

Valentine’s Day is four days away, and if you need to get a gift for someone special in your life and haven’t yet, it’s crunch time. Amazon is already a major go-to when it comes to last-minute gifts with its free two-day shipping for Prime members, but now it’s slashed prices on a number of its major devices , so you can get a present at a discount and get it quickly. If you’re not in the market for an Amazon device, other retailers are offering some really nice discounts on Bluetooth headphones. Anker brand Zolo headphones are being marked down on Amazon, Bose’s truly wireless SoundSport is on sale and all sorts of Beats models are down to the lowest price we’ve seen in a while. If you’re feeling romantic, pick up a Fujifilm Instant... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "http://ift.tt/2H5HhOc"

How the Olympics got Disneyfied Michael Weinreb, The Atlantic No matter which country hosts the Olympics, the Opening Ceremony is always jam-packed with over-the-top futuristic visuals and tons of culture. It's a display "financial and cultural excess," as The Atlantic's Michael Weinreb describes it, and it all got started in the US during the 1960 Winter Games in Squaw Valley. How Facebook is killing comedy Sarah Aswell, Splitsider The Facebook effect on sites like Funny or Die is real, especially when it comes to getting content out to their audience. Four days, $245 million: How Waymo v. Uber came to an end Dara Kerr, CNET CNET's Dara Kerr closely followed the court proceedings this week and offers a quick rundown of how the two companies reached a settlement. via Engadget RSS Feed "http://ift.tt/2EuxlQ6"

Hey, good morning! You look fabulous. It's been a busy week, with a successful SpaceX launch, Uber and Waymo's legal tussle, and guides to both smartwatch buying decisions and cameras. Snap is now doing better business, and Twitter finally made a profit. Watch this video with your sound turned on. SpaceX successfully launched its Falcon Heavy rocket After a brief delay, the most powerful rocket in the world launched yesterday afternoon. While the Falcon Heavy's top portion (complete with Space Oddity-playing Tesla roadster and Starman aboard) is proceeding on a path that will take it beyond Mars' orbit into the asteroid belt, two of its booster rockets safely returned to Earth. The center core, unfortunately, did not survive an attempted landing on a drone ship but overall the mission appears to be a success. So what's next for Musk & Co.? The BFR. The case is finally over. Uber settles with Waymo over allegations of stolen trade secrets The case be...

It seems like every year around this time — the down period between the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas and Mobile World Congress in Barcelona — I find a new mobile game to consume my spare minutes and hours. In 2017, it was the dangerously involving Egg Inc. , and this year it’s a beguilingly simple block puzzle title called Slidey . Slidey is a member of the vast and diverse genre of games remixing the classic Tetris formula. You are faced with an endless supply of squares, which arrive in single, double, triple, or quadruple blocks, that you need to marshal into complete horizontal lines to delete them from your screen. The entire gameplay mechanic is, as the name suggests, sliding blocks left and right to make them fit together... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "http://ift.tt/2BRqZtd"