Samsung’s next Galaxy S flagship could drop Exynos chips from global variants

Samsung’s next Galaxy S series phone could mark the end of an era. According to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, the company is likely to single-source the processor for its next S series flagship from Qualcomm. That would be a significant departure for Samsung. …

Rogers restores service following Canada-wide internet outage

On Saturday, Rogers Communications said it had restored service for the “vast majority” of customers affected by the outage that left many Canadians without access to the internet. “As our services come back online and traffic volumes return to normal, some customers may experience a delay in regaining full service,” the telecom said in a Twitter update posted late Thursday evening. It later promised it was “working hard” to get any customers still without internet access back online “as quickly as possible.”

In a letter attributed to president and CEO Tony Staffieri, Rogers said it was “working to fully understand the root cause of this outage,” and that it would make all “the changes necessary” to avoid a repeat in the future. Additionally, the company promised to send a bill credit to every customer affected by the outage.

While Rogers has yet to share what caused its entire network to go down for the better part of an entire day, DDoS mitigation company Cloudflare provided a possible answer. “Based on what we’re seeing and similar incidents in the past, we believe this is likely to be an internal error, not a cyber attack,” the company said in a blog post published on Friday. Cloudflare speculated that a Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) issue likely contributed to the outage. A “routine BGP update gone wrong” was the cause of the massive outage that took down Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp last fall.

Whatever led to the outage, its effect was easy to see. People crowded into cafes and public libraries so that they could use their phones and computers. At one point, Toronto Police even noted some people couldn’t call 911 due to the outage. Across the country, Interac, the system Canadian banks use to connect their networks, was down, leading to debit cards and ATMs not working. One analysis by internet monitoring organization NetBlocks showed that Canada’s national connectivity dropped to 75 percent of normal levels during the event. If nothing else, the episode is likely to reignite conversation within Canada about the dominance Rogers has over the national telecom market.   

Ford recalls 100,000 hybrid vehicles over fire risk

Ford has issued a recall for certain 2020 to 2022 model Corsair, Escape and Maverick hybrid vehicles over concerns that they could catch fire. According to UPI, the recall affects 100,689 vehicles in the US, all with 2.5-liter hybrid and plug-in hybrid electric engines. The automaker told the news agency that in the event of an engine failure, the affected vehicles could release a significant amount of engine oil and fuel vapor. Both substances could then accumulate near the vehicles’ ignition sources and cause a fire under the hood or melt the components inside. 

Ford said engine failures involving the recalled vehicles are caused by isolated manufacturing issues. The company added it hasn’t received any reports of injuries or accidents associated with the problems that compelled it to issue a recall. The automaker has already notified dealers about its decision, and owners are slated to be notified by August 8th. Dealers will fix recalled vehicles when owners turn them in by modifying their under-engine shields and active grille shutters. 

Last month, Ford also recalled 49,000 Mach-E EVs, citing concerns about the possibility of their high-voltage battery connectors overheating. In that particular case, the issue could prevent the vehicle from starting or cause them to lose propulsion power while on the road. Unlike the hybrid vehicles that have to be physically modified, the recalled Mach-Es only need an over-the-air software update that Ford rolled out a few days ago to fix the issue. 

Recommended Reading: Behind the wheel of the Rivian R1S

Rivian R1S First Drive Review: The SUV finally arrives! (sort of)

Abigail Bassett, Autoblog

Rivian’s second consumer vehicle is poised to expand the limited options in the fully-electric seven-seater SUV market. Autoblog took the 2022 model for a spin both on-road and off to see how the automotive startup’s latest product performs. 

‘I don’t know how my show is doing’

Kathryn VanArendonk and Josef Adalian, Vulture

Streaming services have loads of data on how shows perform, but according to showrunners, the companies aren’t forthcoming with the specifics when it comes time to renew or cancel a series. “It’s like reading something where everything is redacted except stuff that makes you feel bad about your show,” one of them told Vulture.

Boston Dynamics: Inside the workshop where robots of the future are being built

Anderson Cooper, 60 Minutes

60 Minutes goes inside the facility where Boston Dynamics builds all of its robots after years of trying to get a foot in the door.

Biden executive order on abortion access aims to address privacy issues

The Biden White House took a step toward shoring up some of the privacy issues that have been raised following the Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade. In a new executive order addressing abortion access and other issues, the White House suggested that it’s trying to increase privacy protections for people seeking reproductive healthcare, though it’s not clear what policies may change as a result of the action.

The order points to “the potential threat to patient privacy caused by the transfer and sale of sensitive health-related data and by digital surveillance.” And it offers some guidance to other agencies, like the FTC, though it stops short of proposing new regulations.

Instead, the order seems to leave much at the discretion of the FTC and the Department of Health and Human Services. For example, it says the chair of the FTC is “is encouraged to consider actions … to protect consumers’ privacy when seeking information about and provision of reproductive healthcare services.” It also states that the Attorney General and the Secretary of Health and Human Services should “consider actions to educate consumers on how best to protect their health privacy and limit the collection and sharing of their sensitive health-related information.”

Biden’s executive order comes after privacy advocates and activists have warned that the lack of federal privacy regulations could have dire consequences for people seeking abortions post-Roe. Period tracking apps have gotten outsize attention, but experts say the issue runs far deeper than just one type of app. And while the executive order doesn’t touch on issues like data brokers or the vast collection of personal information by tech companies, the issue has gotten the attention of Congress. On the same day as Biden’s executive order, a group of Democrats from the House Oversight Committee launched an investigation into five data brokers and the companies behind five popular cycle tracking apps.

Elon Musk is officially trying to kill his Twitter takeover

Elon Musk is officially trying to pull the plug on the $44 billion deal to buy Twitter. In an SEC filing, Musk’s lawyers said the Tesla CEO wishes to terminate the agreement because of “false and misleading representations” made by Twitter.

In a statement, Twitter’s Board of Directors said it still “intends to close the transaction” and would take legal action against Musk. “We are committed to closing the transaction on the price and terms agreed upon with Mr. Musk and plan to pursue legal action to enforce the merger agreement,” the board said. “We are confident we will prevail in the Delaware Court of Chancery.”

Twitter and Musk have been squabbling for months over how the company counts the number of bots and fake accounts on the platform. In the letter filed with the SEC, Musk’s lawyers state that Twitter has both withheld information and misled Musk about the true numbers.

Twitter has long stated that fake accounts make up less than 5 percent of its total daily users, and it turned over some of its internal “firehose” of data to Musk to bolster those claims. But the additional data hasn’t been enough to appease Musk, who has continued to challenge Twitter’s official estimates.

In the SEC filing, Musk’s lawyers state that “although Twitter has not yet provided complete information to Mr. Musk that would enable him to do a complete and comprehensive review of spam and fake accounts … it appears Twitter is dramatically understating” the number. “Preliminary analysis by Mr. Musk’s advisors of the information provided by Twitter to date causes Mr. Musk to strongly believe that the proportion of false and spam accounts included in the reported mDAU count is wildly higher than 5%,” they told the SEC, without detailing their evidence. 

A Twitter spokesperson referred to the statement from the company’s board of directors saying the company would take legal action to force the deal to close. Earlier on Friday, The Financial Timesreported that Twitter is “willing to go to war” to close the deal, and that CEO Parag Agrawal has been “more aggressive internally.”

It’s not clear what happens next, but it seems Musk and Twitter are likely headed toward a lengthy legal battle. The news is particularly grim for Twitter, which has already lost billions of dollars off its market cap, halted most of its hiring and laid off nearly 100 employees in an attempt to cut costs as it works toward a deal. A long legal fight is also likely to exacerbate anxiety among Twitter employees who have have already been worried about what their future might hold under a Musk-owned company.