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The recently disclosed bugs that affect so many modern CPUs are an issue on Apple platforms as well, and tonight the company explained how it's dealing with them. In a new support page , Apple confirmed it has included "mitigations" for Meltdown in iOS 11.2, macOS 10.13.2, and tvOS 11.2, while watchOS is unaffected. The other exploit, Spectre, it will address in a few days with an update to the Safari browser on macOS and iOS, with other fixes to follow. According to Apple, its Meltdown updates have resulted in "no measurable reduction" in performance. As far as its still-unreleased Safari tweak, the company says that on Speedometer and ARES-6 benchmarks there's no noticeable change in performance and a hit of less than 2.5 percent on the JetStream browser benchmark. Source: Apple Support via Engadget RSS Feed "http://ift.tt/2E88Zri"

If you felt your inner child screaming with joy, there's a reason: Hulu is resurrecting one of your favorite Saturday morning cartoons: Animaniacs . Steven Speilberg is returning to executive produce two brand-new seasons of the classic show, which will debut on the streaming service in 2020. If that wasn't enough, Hulu also got every episode of the original Animaniacs, as well as the spinoff Pinky and the Brain , its follow-up Pinky, Elmyra and the Brain and the entirety of Tiny Toon Adventures . As in, you can stream all of those now while you (and the rest of us) wait for the new seasons to drop. Hopefully those doses of nostalgia will make up for Hulu's failure to also snag the sublime WB cartoon Freakazoid! via Engadget RSS Feed "http://ift.tt/2CKgoAT"

LG is showcasing its 2018 projector lineup at CES 2018 , and among them is the brand's first 4K UHD projector that doesn't quite look most of its peers. The model (HU80KA) is a compact, upright device that can create a 150-inch screen on your wall. Its portable design was made possible by its mirrorless I-shaped engine, which allows it to do its job whether you simply place it on the floor or carefully hang it from the ceiling. LG says it's a product of the company's engineers challenging themselves to make a 4K projector smaller than others on the market without sacrificing performance. In addition to being LG's first UHD projector, HU80KA is apparently also its brightest yet at 2,500 lumens -- its full HD projectors top out at 2,000. And since resolution isn't everything, the model supports HDR content, as well, to make images more life-like. On the audio side of things, HU80KA comes with two 7W speakers, but it can easily be connected to external speakers ...

A few weeks after the FCC voted to undo Title II protections for net neutrality, it has released the final text of its "Restoring Internet Freedom Order." That includes the contained arguments for why chairman Ajit Pai and two other commissioners believe the existing rules were harmful and absolutely must go, as well as dissenting opinions from commissioners Mignon Clyburn and Jessica Rosenworcel. Among the items addressed, it includes a note claiming that "identical or nearly-identical non-substantive comments that simply convey support or opposition" did not impact the commission If you've been paying attention to the debate then you'll be familiar with the various sides, but the 539-page document's release sets the stage for the next step : hearings, lawsuits, attempts by states and cities to establish their own rules, and attempts by Congress to firm up the rules in one way or another. Chairman Pai won't speak at CES next week, reportedly d...

If you drive an electric car and would rather not venture into the garage (or wade through a phone app) to start charging, you can now rest easy. ChargePoint has introduced Alexa support to its Home system, giving you voice control over your EV charging. You can start charging, stop charging or find out whether you're plugged in just by talking to a device like an Echo speaker . If you have Nest hardware, you can link charging to multiple parts of your home. And if you top up at ChargePoint stations away from home, you can check your balance or see how much you've spent on electricity so far. The ChargePoint app itself has a pair of upgrades. You can get notifications when a nearby station opens up, and upload photos of stations so fellow travelers know what to look for. There's a third-party app update for Tesla owners as well -- Teslarati now shows ChargePoint stations, which might save your hide if you're nowhere near a Supercharger. If all goes well, you should...

Back in the day, a show leaving Netflix (like the exodus of the beloved Battlestar Galactica reboot in 2014) meant you could only revisit it by buying a collection. But Hulu spent the latter half of 2016 scooping up big-name shows that left Netflix like Bob's Burgers , Futurama , 30 Rock and Parenthood . Today, they scored another hit show that once enthralled network viewers nationwide: Lost . It's been over seven years since the show aired its finale; And yes, Lost has become a byword for mystery shows with huge promises and few answers. But the show was, is, and shall be a treasure -- a series that tonally jogged between humor, terror, action and romance with erratic grace and occasional brilliance. In retrospect, Lost is nowhere near as cohesive as other highly-lauded shows, but its cocktail of supernatural events and all-too-human drama was potent enough to rule watercooler conversations for its whole six-season run. (And yes, I have been dying on this hill since...

A little more than a day since Google Project Zero went public with its findings regarding a major security flaw in Intel ( and others ) chip designs, the company announced that it is already is pushing out patches to eliminate the vulnerability. Intel has "already issued updates for the majority of processor products introduced within the past five years," per the company press release, and expects to have 90 percent of affected chips produced within the past five years patched by the end of the week. The flaw, which afflicts chips made over the past decade, enables ordinary processes to determine the layout of protected kernel memory. This "software analysis method", as Intel describes the flaw, allows a pair of exploits, dubbed "Meltdown" and "Spectre," to swipe data from other apps on vulnerable devices -- be they PCs, servers or mobile phones -- running Intel, ARM or AMD chips. The solution cooked up by Intel and its partners so far e...

India's government Aadhaar database , which holds personal information of over one billion Indian citizens, was allegedly breached, BuzzFeed News reports. Along with demographic info, the database also contains biometric data like fingerprints and iris scans. Indian publication The Tribune reported earlier today that it was able to access any registered citizen's demographics after it was granted admin access by an anonymous individual. In just 20 minutes, a reporter was given an administrator ID and a password after contacting the individual through WhatsApp and transferring what amounted to less than $8. Afterwards, the reporter was able to plug in anyone's Aadhaar number and get their name, address, postal code, photo, phone number and email. For an additional $5, the reporter was also able to get software that allowed them to print an Aadhaar card with anyone's number. An officer with the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), the government authori...

Yesterday, CES announced that FCC Chairman Ajit Pai would no longer be appearing at the trade show where he was scheduled to take part in a conversation with FTC Chairman Maureen Ohlhausen. No reasons were given by CES or the FCC at the time for the sudden change in plans, but Recode now reports that the cancellation is due to Pai receiving death threats. Two FCC sources said the threats were the cause and that law enforcement had become involved with the issue. Pai has come under fire for a number of the decisions he's made since taking over as chairman, but none have garnered as much negative attention as his rollback of net neutrality protections . Pai has stated that he and his family have been threatened both in public and online and he and the rest of the FCC were forced to briefly suspend their December 14th vote on the net neutrality rollbacks after a bomb threat was issued. The person claiming responsibility for that threat was also allegedly responsible for a swatti...

If you've got an HP notebook or mobile workstation computer, you'll want to check out the latest battery recall from the company. Lithium-ion batteries for affected HP laptops were shipped between December 2015 and December 2017. There have been eight reports of the battery packs overheating, melting or charring, three of which include reports of $4,500 in property damage and one report of a first degree burn to a hand. You'll want to go to here to see if your model is one of the ones named in the recall. If so, you can enable a battery safety mode and get instructions on how to get your battery replaced by an authorized technician, since these batteries are not able to be replaced by consumers. According to the recall notice , affected models include HP ProBooks (64x G2 and G3 series, 65x G2 and G3 series), HPx360 310 G2, HP Envy m6, HP Pavilion x360, HP 11, HP ZBook (17 G3, 17 G4, and Studio G3) Mobile Workstations. In addition, batteries sold as replacement or acc...

This post was done in partnership with Wirecutter , reviews for the real world. When readers choose to buy Wirecutter's independently chosen editorial picks, it may earn affiliate commissions that support its work. Read their continuously updated list of deals here . Fitbit Flex 2 Fitness Tracker Street price: $60; deal price: $50 The black and lavender colors of the Fitbit Flex 2 are both now available for $50 from Abt. The street price of the Fitbit Flex 2 was $80 at the beginning of the year but has now fallen to around $60, which was the previous low for this tracker. This deal is part of a New Year's sale on Abt and likely won't be around too much longer. The Fitbit Flex 2 is the budget pick in our guide to the best fitness trackers . Amy Roberts wrote, "If you just want a simple way to monitor and track your daily activity (including workouts), nightly sleep habits, and get reminders to be more active, the Fitbit Flex 2 is a great choice—especially if al...

As streaming video becomes more ubiquitous on all every platform, it's even more important that we get some sort of standard for scalability across devices and bandwidth. The Alliance for Open Media is an open-source project that has engaged a ton of tech heavy hitters to get together and figure out how to create a next-gen video format that can do just that. As noted by CNET , Apple has just joined the Alliance at a founding (board) member tier. Engadget checked archive.org and confirmed Apple's inclusion in the list sometime in the past week. We've reached out to Apple and will update this post if we hear back. Other founding members include Amazon, ARM, Cisco, Facebook, Google, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Mozilla, Netflix and NVIDIA. The first video streaming standard from the group, AV1, was announced in April of last year. The codec is used to compress video before it even gets sent over the network, making it smaller and therefore better for your phone's data pla...

To date, using Tesla's trip planning tool has meant sitting inside your electric car while you map a route that takes you past charging stations. That doesn't make much sense if you're gearing up for vacation, does it? There's now a better way: Tesla has launched a web version of its trip planner to use while you're still sitting at your desk. It's not as fleshed out as the in-car version, but it can tell you where you'll need to charge and how long you need to drive based on both the route and the particular Tesla you're driving. You could see fewer stops with a Model S P100D than you would with a Model X 75D , for instance. Convenience is clearly the main goal for the web planner, but it's also helpful if you're a prospective buyer. You can tell whether or not it's practical to drive to your favorite destination without having to search the internet for charging maps and unofficial guides. Tesla is no doubt hoping that you'll pull ...

Harold Martin, the former US National Security Agency contractor accused of stealing classified information, has agreed to plead guilty to his charges. According to court filings posted on Wednesday, Martin will plead guilty to one count of wilful retention of national defense information and could face up to 10 years in prison on the single count. Martin, who spent 20 years working for intelligence agencies with top-level security clearance, was indicated in February last year after authorities seized 50 terabytes of data from his home in October 2016. Officials say this could be the biggest heist of US government secrets in history, although it's not yet clear what Martin did with the stolen data. At the time of his arrest he was working for Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corp., the same firm Edward Snowden was working for when he leaked top secret files to the press in 2013. The court filings say that Martin is due to plead guilty at a federal court in Baltimore on January ...

Both Hyundai and the Volkswagen Group announced today that they are partnering with self-driving technology company Aurora Innovation and will be incorporating the firm's autonomous driving systems into their own vehicles. Hyundai will be working the technology into its latest fuel cell vehicle , debuting next week at CES, while the Volkswagen Group says it could be incorporated into a number of its brands' vehicles, including self-driving Sedric pods , shuttles, delivery vans or trucks. Aurora was launched last year by three big shots in the self-driving world -- Chris Urmson , who headed Google's self-driving project before it was spun out as Waymo, Tesla's Sterling Anderson and Uber's Drew Bagnell. The company is focused on developing highly and fully autonomous driving systems that they can then license to companies like Hyundai and Volkswagen. While this sort of strategy means those companies won't have exclusive technology like they would if they devel...

While Google's Pixel 2 didn't change much from its predecessor, which came out only a year before, one of the newer smartphone's standout features is the background-blurring Portrait mode. But this photo tech might not be exclusive to Google's flagship phone anymore: Members of XDA Developers community got Portrait Mode working on other devices, from the original Pixel to non-Google devices running Android Oreo. XDA Senior Member Charles_I, known for previous Google Camera mods, was the first to port the Portrait Mode software beyond the Pixel 2, getting it working on the Pixel & Pixel XL as well as Google's Nexus 5X and 6P phones via a custom app. Then XDA Senior Member Arnova8G2 adjusted that app to work on a broad range of non-Google devices, with users reporting it functioning on Xiaomi, OnePlus and Moto G5s Plus phones. Google's imaging and HDR algorithms have long been prized, and they work magic with the Pixel 2's basic lenses. Porting tha...

If you've been avoiding the visual refresh Google recently gave to the web version of Calendar, your time is almost at an end. Starting January 8th, users of G Suite and Google Domains will be automatically switched to the new design. Anyone who opted out manually won't be forced to use the new Calendar until February 5th, but all users will get the upgrade on February 28th. The new Google Calendar on the web looks much more like the mobile version , now, with a matching color palette and a self-adjusting interface based on your browser's window size. There's a new drop-down menu that lets you switch views between day, week, month, year, schedule and four days, too. You can put rich text and hyperlinks in calendar entries, and format text and create bulleted lists as well. Enterprise users will see more details on conference rooms if administrators have added the information. Via: 9to5Google Source: Google via Engadget RSS Feed "http://ift.tt/2CHYG1b...

Toyota Research Institute (TRI) will debut the latest version of its automated driving research vehicle at CES next week. TRI had three major goals with this latest model and Platform 3.0 incorporates them all into a car with more perception capabilities, a design that's easier to produce at scale and a much sleeker look. "To elevate our test platform to a new level, we tapped Toyota's design and engineering expertise to create an all-new test platform that has the potential to be a benchmark in function and style," TRI CEO Gill Pratt said in a statement . First, the vehicle now has 360-degree LiDAR sensing -- previous platforms only had forward-facing LiDAR sensing capabilities -- and new shorter-range LiDAR sensors placed lower to the ground allow for detection of smaller objects like road debris or children. Secondly, Platform 3.0, built on a Lexus LS 600hL, will go into low-volume production this spring and will come in two versions. One will feature a dual c...

Alexa's smart home skills aren't just for turning on the lights or locking your door these days -- now, they can help fulfill your culinary ambitions. Amazon has added cooking abilities to its Smart Home Skill framework, letting you control microwaves (and eventually conventional ovens) with your voice. Instead of pressing umpteen buttons, you can simply ask Alexa to "defrost 3lbs of chicken." Suffice it to say this could be helpful if you don't want to start cooking right away, or if you just hate your microwave's interface. Expect to see the cooking features in use very soon. Whirlpool has already created its own Alexa skill for microwaves, and plans to launch it "soon." GE Appliances, Kenmore, LG and Samsung have also committed to working on skills for their own ovens and "more appliances." Also, Amazon is putting its money where its mouth is. It's investing in June Life, the company behind the connected June Oven . The move w...