If you watched that Star Trek episode about the tribbles and thought, I need one of those in my life (minus the rapid reproduction problem), Casio’s got just the thing for you. The company is now taking pre-orders in Japan for Moflin, the adorable robotic plushie with AI “emotional capabilities” that debuted during CES 2021. Moflin, developed in a partnership with the Japanese startup Vanguard Industries, is meant to work like an emotional support pet — snuggling is its specialty, and the creators say each robot has its own distinct personality, can shift moods depending on the situation and will form attachments to people over time.

It’s available in gray and blonde for a hefty ￥59,400 (roughly $400), and is expected to ship on November 7. There’s no word on a release outside of Japan.

Moflin doesn’t just respond to cuddles. You’re supposed to talk to it, too, and it’ll react with movements and cute sounds. These interactions will help shape its character. “Moflin has the ability to learn and its personality will develop based on how it is treated,” said Vanguard founder Masahiko Yamanaka in a promotional video. It’s Bluetooth capable so it can connect with an app, and charges in a little nest so as to avoid breaking the illusion of it being a real pet. When it’s charging, it’ll just go to sleep. The fur is removable for when you need to wash it, though.

Vanguard ran successful Kickstarter and Indiegogo campaigns for Moflin in 2020 but only started shipping the robots to backers in late 2023. Casio is now handling the manufacturing and distribution.

Someone gained access to Ecovacs Deebot X2 Omni robotic vacuums across several US cities earlier this year and used them to chase pets and yell racist slurs at their owners, reported ABC News in Australia this week.

The outlet spoke with multiple Deebot X2 owners who say their Deebot X2s had been hacked in May, including Minnesota lawyer Daniel Swenson, who said he was watching TV with his family when a noise “like a broken-up radio signal or something” started coming from the robot’s speaker. He said after he reset his password and rebooted the robot, it began again, only this time the sound was clearly a voice — he guessed a teenager’s — yelling slurs.

ABC News lists other, similar accounts from owners in El Paso and Los Angeles, the latter of which involved someone using a Deebot to antagonize a dog, yelling at and chasing it.

Ecovacs told the outlet in a statement that it had “identified a credential stuffing event” and blocked the IP address it originated from. The company said it “found no evidence” that usernames and passwords were collected by the attacker.

Researchers demonstrated a flaw last year that let them bypass the Deebot X2’s PIN entry to gain access to the vacuum. Ecovacs says in its statement that it has resolved that, and that it also plans to “further enhance security” with an update in November. It’s not clear whether that would correct a Bluetooth vulnerability that ABC News exploited for a report earlier this month.

Cloud-connected smart home devices have led to stories like this for years. Sometimes it’s the result of hacks, others simply compromised credentials. Sometimes, it’s bad software showing you another owner’s camera feed, as a little treat. Issues like these can feel inevitable when so many smart home devices require a persistent internet connection to function, especially for those companies that don’t offer easy ways to report security vulnerabilities.

South Korean memory giant SK Hynix has announced it has begun the mass production of the world’s first 12-layer HBM3E, featuring a total memory capacity of 36GB, a huge increase from the previous 24GB capacity in the 8-layer configuration.

This new design was made possible by reducing the thickness of each DRAM chip by 40%, allowing more layers to be stacked while maintaining the same overall size. The company plans to start volume shipments by the end of 2024.

NASA’s Europa Clipper mission, set to visit the icy moon of Jupiter, was set to launch from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida this week but had its launch delayed because of Hurricane Milton. Now, NASA has announced that it is targeting no earlier than Monday, October 14, for the launch, and we’ve got the details on how you can watch the event live.

What to expect from the Europa Clipper launch

The mission intends to explore Europa, the moon of Jupiter that has a liquid water ocean beneath a thick, icy shell. Because of the presence of liquid water there, scientists want to learn whether the moon could be potentially habitable, as it is one of the most promising locations that life could survive outside of Earth. The mission will search for information about the ocean and the presence of the building blocks of life, called organic compounds, to see if the ingredients for life are present there.

Europa Clipper had been scheduled to launch this week on Thursday October 10, but the launch was postponed because of the hurricane conditions around the Kennedy Space Center. The spacecraft had to be secured against the high winds and heavy rain in its hanger at Launch Complex 39A.

“The safety of launch team personnel is our highest priority, and all precautions will be taken to protect the Europa Clipper spacecraft,” said Tim Dunn, senior launch director at NASA’s Launch Services Program, at the time. “Once we have the ‘all-clear’ followed by facility assessment and any recovery actions, we will determine the next launch opportunity for this NASA flagship mission.”

NASA Kennedy confirmed that it was all clear after the storm, and now teams are continuing to check the status of the spacecraft and the ground systems, but NASA has confirmed it is targeting Monday onward for the launch.

How to watch the Europa Clipper launch

The launch will be livestreamed by NASA, which you can watch either using the NASA+ app or using the YouTube video embedded above. The YouTube video currently has a date of November 6 on it, but this is just a placeholder date and not when the actual launch will take place.

The exact time of the launch hasn’t been announced yet, but you can follow NASA’s X (formerly Twitter) account to get details as soon as the time is made public.

If you love streaming TV, Xbox games, and as little clutter as possible, then you need to pick up this Amazon Fire TV bundle deal that gets you set up with all the Xbox games you could ever want to play. The regular price for this bundle is $146.97, but Amazon currently has it on sale for $79.99. At that price, you’re getting a very good value and, it’s the lowest this bundle has ever been. Prior to this discount, which is 45% off the regular price, this bundle was $111.97. You’re basically saving another $32 by picking it up now as opposed to its previous price.

The best thing about this bundle is that you get everything you need to play Xbox games. The Fire TV Stick 4K Max gives you access to the Xbox Game Pass app. The bundle also comes with a 30-day subscription to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. So once you get that 30-day sub applied, all you need is a controller. As luck would have it this bundle comes with an Xbox Wireless Controller as well. The Sky Cipher Special Edition model to be exact.

If you don’t like the Sky Cipher color, Amazon is offering the bundle with the Astral Purple and Deep Pink colors as well. Xbox Game Pass is great because you get access to tons of games in Microsoft’s curated list, which is always adding new titles to play. Now since this is on a Fire TV Stick 4K Max, you’ll be playing Xbox games in the cloud through the cloud feature of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. So you will need an internet connection.

In addition to the games, the Fire TV Stick 4K Max gives you access to tons of other streaming apps. Including Disney Plus, Netflix, Hulu, Apple TV Plus, Prime Video, and many more. It’s definitely a killer deal you don’t want to pass up.

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