Over the past several weeks, WordPress cofounder Matt Mullenweg has made one thing exceedingly clear: he’s in charge of WordPress’ future.
Technology
Scammers’ sneaky new tactic preying on people who’ve lost their iPhone
Losing your iPhone can be a stressful and frustrating experience. Scammers are often ready to exploit the anxiety of distraught iPhone owners searching for their lost devices. These unscrupulous individuals have developed various schemes to take advantage of the situation and make a quick profit. This context is crucial in understanding the concerns raised by Donald, who wrote to us regarding lost iPhone scams. Donald from Saginaw, Michigan, shared his experience:
“I lost an Apple iPhone 6 and found numerous online scams claiming they could locate it for just 89 cents. They promised to get back to me in three hours, but instead, I received a bill for $48.00 in yearly dues.”
In addition to the scam Donald encountered, there are also scammers who falsely claim to have found or purchased your lost or stolen phone and offer to delete your sensitive data for a small fee.
While you cannot control the loss of your iPhone, there are several proactive steps you can take to facilitate the recovery of your device or data. If your iPhone is lost for good, you can still take measures to protect your personal information.
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Steps to protect yourself if your iPhone is lost or stolen
While various methods exist to locate a lost iPhone, many security features require access to another device or your iCloud.com account. Always ensure that location services are enabled and that you have set up “Find My iPhone” and other built-in security features on the iPhone as soon as you activate your phone. Taking these steps will maximize your ability to recover your iPhone should it get lost or stolen. Below are the steps you can take to protect yourself if your iPhone is lost or stolen.
1) Activate and use ‘Find My’ app
If you have the “Find My” set up on your iPhone, you can use another Apple device or log in to iCloud.com to locate your phone. Need a step-by-step guideline on how to use “Find My” to locate your iPhone? Check out how to find your lost iPhone.
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2) Play a sound
If you’ve enabled “Find My” for your iPhone, you can log onto iCloud.com or another Apple device and under your iPhone profile you can select “Play Sound.” If your iPhone is nearby, you can listen for the sound playing from your iPhone to help you locate it.
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3) Mark iPhone as lost
If you’ve enabled “Find My” for your iPhone, you can log onto iCloud.com or another Apple device to mark your iPhone as lost. When you select “Mark as lost” under your iPhone options, it will lock your phone and display a message with your contact information.
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4) Turn on ‘Activation Lock’
When you turn on “Find My” for your iPhone, you automatically turn on “Activation Lock” for your device. As long as “Find My” is on your iPhone, even if someone finds your lost phone or steals it, “Activation lock” will ensure that no one can activate your iPhone without your Apple ID or passcode. This is true even if your data is wiped or phone is factory reset.
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5) Set up ‘Stolen Device Protection’
“Stolen Device Protection” can give you an extra layer of protection. This feature gives you an additional layer of protection when your iPhone leaves a familiar location, such as work or home. If you have this feature on and your device is away from your familiar locations, it will require Face ID or Touch ID for biometric authentication to access sensitive features of your iPhone, such as passwords or credit card information. Additionally, it will activate a security delay so that outside of your familiar locations, there is an hour delay in taking security actions, such as changing your Apple ID password and then using Face ID or Touch ID authentication. Here are the steps to set up “Stolen Device Protection” on your iPhone.
- Go to the Settings app on your iPhone
- Tap on Face ID & Passcode (or Touch ID & Passcode for older models)
- Enter your iPhone’s passcode to access the settings
- Scroll down and find the Stolen Device Protection option. Tap on it and toggle it on
6) Check Google Maps timeline
If you’ve enabled location history on Google Maps app on your iPhone, you might be able to see the last known location of your iPhone by logging into Google Maps on your desktop or another device. You can retrace your steps and hopefully recover your iPhone. Here are the steps to check your Google Maps Timeline.
- On a desktop or another device, open the Google Maps website or app
- Log in with the Google account that is linked to your iPhone
- On the desktop, click on the menu icon (three horizontal lines) in the top-left corner
- Select Your timeline from the menu
- You will see a map with a timeline of your location history.
- Use the calendar feature to select the date your iPhone was lost
- Look for the last recorded location of your iPhone on the map
- Note the time and place to retrace your steps
- Visit the last known location to search for your iPhone
- If the location is a public place, ask around or check with lost and found services
7) Contact authorities
After attempting various methods of finding your lost iPhone or being contacted by or experiencing suspicious individuals or activities, you may come to the unfortunate realization that your iPhone is now stolen. Either way, you should report your lost or stolen iPhone to the local police station. If it is turned in or found, it gives you a greater chance of being reunited with your device. If it has been stolen, the police can help protect you from further issues.
8) Contact Carrier
Contact your carrier as soon as possible so that they can either help you locate your device or freeze access to your account, as well as limit the use of your device.
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Kurt’s key takeaways
An iPhone is an expensive investment that doesn’t just perform a utilitarian function. It also houses private personal information. That’s why losing your iPhone can induce panic and feel like a massive loss. Activating the security features built into most new iPhones, such as “Find My” and “Stolen Device Protection,” can go a long way in helping you either recover your iPhone or, at the very least, minimize the risk of your data falling into the wrong hands. If you find out that your iPhone has gotten into the hands of a thief or scammer, make sure to take the issue and any evidence directly to your local law enforcement and reach out to your carrier.
Do you have any of these built-in security features turned on? Have you ever lost or had your iPhone stolen? What did you do once you found out that your iPhone was lost or stolen? Let us know by writing us at Cyberguy.com/Contact.
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Technology
Matt Mullenweg: ‘WordPress.org just belongs to me’
Mullenweg heads up WordPress.com and its parent company, Automattic. He owns the WordPress.org project, and he even leads the nonprofit foundation that controls the WordPress trademark. To the outside observer, these might appear to be independent organizations, all separately designed around the WordPress open-source project. But as he wages a battle against WP Engine, a third-party WordPress hosting service, Mullenweg has muddied the boundaries between three essential entities that lead a sprawling ecosystem powering almost half of the web.
To Mullenweg, that’s all fine — as long as it supports the health of WordPress long-term.
“WordPress.org just belongs to me personally,” Mullenweg said during an interview with The Verge. WordPress.org exists outside the commercial realm of Automattic, as a standalone publishing platform that offers free access to its open-source code that people can use to create their own websites. But it’s not a neutral, independent arbiter of the ecosystem. “In my role as owning WordPress.org, I don’t want to promote a company, which is A: legally threatening me and B: using the WordPress trademark. That’s part of why we cut off access from the servers.”
“That’s true: we are pressuring them”
Mullenweg’s feud with WP Engine fans out in a few different directions. He’s criticized WP Engine for not putting enough time and money into developing the open-source WordPress ecosystem, saying that if you gave $1 to the WordPress Foundation, “you’d be a bigger donor than WP Engine.” And Mullenweg has brought up the possibility that WP Engine “hacked” the Automatic-owned WooCommerce plug-in to collect commissions meant for Automattic, which WP Engine has denied. From those arguments, the fight appears to be one over what is and isn’t appropriate in the open-source software world.
But Mullenweg has since sidelined those arguments to make the case that WP Engine — and its “hacked up, bastardized simulacra” of the WordPress open-source code, as he describes it — is infringing on Automattic’s trademark: WordPress.
“The analogy I made is they got Al Capone for taxes,” Mullenweg says. “So, if a company was making half a billion dollars from WordPress and contributing back about $100,000 a year, yes, I would be trying to get them to contribute more.” WP Engine competes directly with the hosting services offered by Automattic and WordPress.com, and Mullenweg argues one of the reasons for its success is the use of “WordPress” across its site. “That’s why we’re using that legal avenue to really, yeah, pressure them. That’s true: we are pressuring them.”
Mullenweg began his public pressure campaign during a WordPress conference last month, telling people to “vote with your wallet” and stop supporting WP Engine. He later called the service a “cancer” to the WordPress ecosystem. Mullenweg eventually blocked WP Engine from WordPress.org’s servers, leaving WP Engine’s customers unable to install themes, plug-ins, and updates.
The decision to cut off WP Engine also put other WordPress projects in a precarious position. WordPress is open-source and free to use, with no mandate to give back. But Mullenweg has made it clear that there is some bar that successful projects must meet to stay off Automattic’s radar.
“I happily provide WordPress.org services to literally every other host,” Mullenweg says. There is “no requirement to give back. WordPress will be open-source forever and ever, and so there will never be any legal requirement to give back.” But WordPress does still “request” that companies contribute something. “It’s better for WordPress if they give back.”
For WP Engine, what it comes down to is this: Mullenweg wants the company to contribute to WordPress, whether it’s by paying to license the WordPress trademark or by pitching into the open-source WordPress project.
Even though the WordPress Foundation controls the platform’s trademark, the commercial rights for that trademark are licensed to Automattic. That means Automattic can charge other companies for using the WordPress trademark for commercial purposes — and that’s where Mullenweg has been able to exert pressure on WP Engine.
“What they’re doing is not okay. It’s not that they’re calling it WP; it’s that they’re using the WordPress trademark in confusing ways,” Mullenweg said. He cited the “frantic changes” he claims WP Engine made to its site to remove mentions of “WordPress” after the dispute began. Under the WordPress Foundation’s trademark policies, companies can use the WordPress name and logo to “refer to and explain their services.”
The foundation says the “WP” abbreviation isn’t covered by its trademarks, but the guidelines were recently tweaked to say that companies should stop using the abbreviation in “a way that confuses people.” During The Verge’s interview, Mullenweg confirmed he changed the foundation’s trademark policies to include a “dig at WP Engine.” The policy now says WP Engine “never once even donated to the WordPress Foundation, despite making billions of revenue on top of WordPress.”
This week, Automattic published its proposed solution to the dispute: a seven-year deal that would require WP Engine to pay an 8 percent fee on all revenue to either use the WordPress and Automattic’s WooCommerce trademarks or to compensate employees who would contribute to the WordPress open-source project. The deal was offered in late September, but Mullenweg says it’s off the table due to “WP Engine’s behavior, deception, and incompetence.”
The dispute culminated in a lawsuit, in which WP Engine accuses Automattic and Mullenweg of extortion. WP Engine alleges that Mullenweg said he would proceed with a “scorched earth nuclear approach” after the two failed to come to an agreement. “When WPE refused to capitulate to Automattic’s astronomical and extortionate monetary demands, Mullenweg made good on his threats,” WP Engine claims. “The threat of ‘war’ turned into a multi-front attack, part of an overarching scheme to extract payouts from WPE.”
In the lawsuit, WP Engine claims Mullenweg is attempting to “capitalize on the chaos he caused” by advertising a deal to switch to Pressable — another WordPress host owned by Automattic. The filing also includes a purported job offer from Mullenweg to WP Engine CEO Heather Brunner saying that if she declines to join Automattic, he’d tell the CEO of Silver Lake — the private equity firm that owns WP Engine.
WordPress executive director Josepha Haden Chomphosy has since left Automattic, along with more than 150 other employees who accepted Mullenweg’s offer to leave for $30,000 or six months of pay, whichever is higher, if they didn’t support his fight against WP Engine.
More importantly, WP Engine’s lawsuit raises concerns about corporate overreach, alleging Mullenweg’s actions reflect “a clear abuse of his conflicting roles” at the WordPress Foundation, Automattic, and the open-source WordPress project. In a statement on Thursday, Automattic called the lawsuit “baseless,” adding that it denies WP Engine’s allegations, “which are gross mischaracterizations of reality.”
However the legal case may pan out, it’s become clear that Mullenweg does control WordPress.org. But his fight with WP Engine has only made the border between WordPress and Automattic murkier, casting a shadow of uncertainty over the open source community that’s long backed him. That seems to be a risk Automattic is willing to take as long as WordPress comes out on top.
Technology
Waymo is adding the Hyundai Ioniq 5 to its robotaxi fleet
Waymo has its sights set on its next robotaxi: the Hyundai Ioniq 5.
The Alphabet company announced that it was entering a “multi-year, strategic” partnership with the Hyundai Motor Group that will result in the Ioniq 5 eventually joining its robotaxi fleet.
But first, the Ioniq 5 will need to undergo on-road testing with Waymo’s self-driving technology, which the company says will begin in late 2025. Waymo wouldn’t specify when the Ioniq 5 will be used for passenger trips, except to say it would be “years” later.
Vehicles intended for Waymo’s fleet will be manufactured at Hyundai’s $7.6 billion Metaplant factory in Georgia, which is nearing the end of its construction. The companies have agreed to produce a number of Waymo-equipped electric Hyundais there “in significant volume over multiple years,” Waymo said in its press release.
Waymo wouldn’t specify when the Ioniq 5 will be used for passenger trips
With robotaxis, one of the most important metrics is uptime, or the amount of time it’s on the road ferrying passengers. Time spent plugged into a charger is time not making money. The Ioniq 5 is an electric crossover SUV with a little over 300 miles of range and an 800-volt architecture that enhances its charging speed. When plugged into a 350kW fast charger, Hyundai says the Ioniq 5 can charge from 10–80 percent in just 18 minutes, depending on the conditions. Waymo certainly saw those charging speeds as a benefit to its still unprofitable business.
The Ioniq 5 has received favorable reviews since it was released in late 2021, in addition to raking in numerous awards. Today, it’s one of the bestselling EVs on the market, with 30,000 sold in the US this year alone. Its popularity has helped Hyundai, along with its sister company Kia, overtake Ford and GM as the No. 2 seller of EVs in the US behind Tesla.
Currently, Waymo operates a fleet of hundreds of Jaguar I-Pace vehicles, which has been its primary robotaxi vehicle since the company’s first one, the Chrysler Pacifica minivan, was retired in 2013. The company has plans to add a new vehicle made by Geely’s Zeekr — though the Biden administration’s recent move to quadruple tariffs for electric vehicles imported from China could complicate that.
Recent reporting from South Korea previewed today’s partnership news, with sources telling Electronic Times that the two companies met numerous times at Waymo’s headquarters in California to discuss “contract manufacturing of robotaxis.” Sources also told the publication that Waymo was looking for a “replacement” for its Zeekr vehicles because of costly new tariffs.
But Waymo pushed back against this report and reiterated its intention to eventually deploy Zeekr. “The IONIQ 5 will not directly replace any of our vehicle platforms, but it will help us prepare for additional scale and growth opportunities,” Waymo spokesperson Christopher Bonelli said in an email. Waymo is “hard at work” validating the sixth version of its self-driving technology in the Zeekr vehicle, he added.
Tellingly, Waymo isn’t saying how many Ioniq 5s it plans to buy from Hyundai, in contrast to its approach to previous vehicle announcements. Some of this could be attributable to the fact that Waymo has grown more cautious about overly optimistic predictions after critics panned the AV industry for setting unrealistic deadlines.
This won’t be the Ioniq 5’s first self-driving rodeo. The vehicle also serves as a platform for Motional, which is Hyundai’s robotaxi subsidiary, as well as Avride, which used to be Yandex’s self-driving group.
But Waymo’s business is significantly, well, busier than those firms. The company recently celebrated a significant milestone: 100,000 paid trips a week.
Technology
The creepy yet helpful humanoid robot ready to move into your home
Are you ready to have a humanoid robot in your home that could help with everyday tasks and make life just a little bit easier?
Well, get ready to meet NEO Beta. This innovative humanoid robot from 1X Technologies, an OpenAI-backed Norwegian firm, is designed specifically for home environments, and it’s about to change the way we interact with technology in our daily lives. With its friendly demeanor and advanced capabilities,
NEO Beta is set to become your new go-to helper around the house. Let’s dive in and see what makes this robot so special.
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Meet NEO Beta: Your new home companion
NEO Beta stands at 5.41 feet tall and weighs a mere 66 pounds, making it an unobtrusive presence in your home. This bipedal robot can walk at a comfortable 2.5 mph and even run at an impressive 7.5 mph when needed. With a carrying capacity of 44 pounds and a run time of two to four hours, NEO Beta is well-equipped to handle various household tasks.
NEXT-GEN HUMANOID ROBOT IS KNOCKING AT YOUR DOOR
Advanced features for seamless integration
NEO Beta boasts advanced sensors and artificial intelligence that allow it to respond to human emotions, voice commands and gestures. This natural communication style sets it apart from traditional robots, making it feel more like a helpful companion than a machine.
One of NEO Beta’s standout features is its ability to integrate with existing home automation systems. It can control smart devices, manage lighting, heating and security systems, streamlining your home management experience.
Using machine learning, NEO Beta adapts to your preferences and routines over time. This means it can provide personalized assistance, offer reminders and support you in ways tailored to your lifestyle.
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Safety and security at the forefront
1X Technologies says it has prioritized safety in NEO Beta’s design. The robot includes collision avoidance systems and real-time monitoring to ensure safe operation in your home. Additionally, it can provide surveillance and alerts, enhancing your home’s security.
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The Evolution from EVE to NEO Beta
NEO Beta builds upon the foundation laid by its predecessor, EVE. While EVE was primarily designed for industrial applications, NEO Beta is specifically tailored for household use. The shift from a wheeled base to a bipedal design allows NEO Beta greater flexibility in navigating home environments.
What sets NEO Beta apart?
Unlike many robotics companies that focus on showcasing human-robot interactions for testing or collaborative work scenarios, 1X is positioning NEO Beta as a close, casual companion for the home. This approach suggests a vision of robots as integral parts of our daily lives, rather than mere tools or assistants.
The road ahead
1X Technologies has ambitious plans for NEO Beta. The company aims to deploy some units into homes for research and development purposes in the near future. Looking ahead, 1X envisions producing thousands of units by 2025, potentially scaling up to millions by 2028.
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Kurt’s key takeaways
While NEO Beta promises to revolutionize home automation and personal assistance, questions about privacy, ethics and the societal impact of widespread robot adoption remain. As this technology continues to develop, it will be interesting to see how it shapes our homes, our relationships with technology and, ultimately, our daily lives.
Are you ready to welcome these new humanoid robot companions like NEO Beta into your home? Let us know by writing us at Cyberguy.com/Contact.
For more of my tech tips and security alerts, subscribe to my free CyberGuy Report Newsletter by heading to Cyberguy.com/Newsletter.
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Answers to the most asked CyberGuy questions:
New from Kurt:
Copyright 2024 CyberGuy.com. All rights reserved.
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