Technology

Apple keeps removing VPN apps in Russia – and the toll is worse than we thought

Published

3 hours ago

September 24, 2024

The scale of VPN removal in Russia is worse than previously reported as VPN apps keep disappearing from the local Apple App Store.

This is the worrying finding coming from an exclusive report from the App Censorship Project that found 60 apps, including some of the best VPN services on the market, were silently removed by Apple between early July and September 18, 2024. Russia’s censor body, Roskomnadzor, publicly acknowledged only 25 VPN apps.

While the Kremlin has been targeting VPN tools for longer than a few months, the recent wave of removals began on July 4 when at least four VPN apps reportedly disappeared from the local Apple App Store. At the beginning of September, 50 human rights organizations, media outlets, IT companies, journalistic groups, and public figures wrote an open letter calling on Apple to “immediately restore” VPN apps to its Russian App Store. At that time, though, experts still believed the toll of removed VPN apps was set at 29.

98 Russia VPN apps unavailable in the App Store

“Apple’s silent removal of close to 60 VPN apps from the Russia App Store is not just alarming – it’s a direct threat to digital freedom and privacy,” said Benjamin Ismail, Director of the App Censorship Project.

Researchers used data from the App Store Monitor (ASM) on AppleCensorship.com – a platform put together by the experts at GreatFire to monitor app availability in Apple’s App Stores – to verify Roskomnadzor’s claims and assess the current number of VPNs in Russia unavailable on the local Apple App Store.

A total of 360 VPN applications were tested globally across 175 App Stores. As of September 16, 2024, 98 VPN apps were found to be unavailable from the Russia App Store. These include some of TechRadar’s favorites such as NordVPN, ExpressVPN, and Proton VPN.

Did you knwo?

VPN encrypting a flow of data — (Image credit: Shutterstock)

A VPN (virtual private network) is security software that encrypts internet connections and spoofs users’ IP addresses to grant them access to geo-restricted content. The latter skill is exactly why people in Russia are forced to use VPN apps to bypass online restrictions – exactly what the Kremlin wants to prevent.

These results shed new light on the scale of VPN censorship in Russia. For starters, the report uncovers a significant discrepancy between the number of applications removed that authorities acknowledged (25) and the actual figure (around 60) suggesting the scale of VPN removals is much larger.

Researchers also tracked removal patterns to see how these were concentrated on specific dates, suggesting coordinated actions. All in all, the findings show that Apple “continues to remove VPN apps from the Russia App Store without public acknowledgment, affecting more than 20% of identified VPN apps,” the report reads.

According to Ismail, Apple actively shares the blame for helping the Kremlin censor the web. “By unilaterally restricting access to these essential tools without transparency or due process, Apple is complicit in enabling government censorship. We demand that Apple uphold its commitment to human rights and provide a clear explanation for these actions.”

Russia and VPNs

Both Freedom House and Reporters Without Borders (RSF) classify Russia as one of the worst countries for internet freedom. This is due to high levels of internet censorship which have been intensifying since the invasion of Ukraine started.

The likes of Facebook, Instagram, and X (formerly known as Twitter) cannot be accessed unless using a VPN service, alongside an ever-growing list of websites that include news sites and even official sites of some VPN providers. Since March, a new law in Russia criminalizes the spread of information about ways to circumvent internet restrictions. All this makes the silent VPN removals occurring on Russia’s Apple App Store since July a more serious issue.

“VPNs are lifelines for journalists, activists, and everyday citizens striving to access information and communicate securely,” said Evan Greer, Director of Fight for the Future. “Apple’s actions not only undermine the privacy and security of millions but also set a dangerous precedent for how tech companies may collaborate with authoritarian regimes.

As mentioned earlier, though, Russia’s actions against VPN services aren’t anything new, with VPN apps disappearing even before the war in Ukraine kicked off. Specifically, researchers found that 32 VPN apps were already unavailable before July 2024. Among these, 14 applications had been removed even before February 2022.

Apple has removed four VPN service apps from the Russian AppStore—Proton VPN, Red Shield VPN, NordVPN, and Le VPN.According to a notice published by Red Shield and Le VPN, the company refers to Roskomnadzor, Russian internet watchdog pic.twitter.com/BLuehvjn1hJuly 4, 2024

The data being released suggests we are seeing a swift escalation in Russia’s VPN actions. Over a dozen apps were targeted between July 4 and July 7 alone, including ExpressVPN and CyberGhost. As of August 11, about 30 more applications have become unavailable on the local App Store.

According to researchers, the concentration of these removals over a certain period suggests providers are not the ones deliberately pulling out their service from the country. “If voluntary, it would be highly improbable for multiple VPN owners to decide independently to withdraw their apps from Russia on the same specific days,” the report reads.

What’s being done?

This is why experts now call on both Roskomnadzor and Apple for greater transparency over app removal policies and actions.

“Apple can no longer claim this isn’t their concern or that they’re simply following local laws. As a highly visible and influential corporation, Apple should recognize the image it’s creating through its cooperation with censors,” Sarkis Darbinian, a cyber lawyer at Russian digital rights advocacy group Roskomsvoboda and RKS Global told me.

“The situation has escalated to the point where anti-war songs by Russian punk and rap artists are being pulled from Apple’s Russian music platform. As a result, it may lead not only to a complete technical, but also to a cultural fencing of Russians and, ultimately, to the triumph of propaganda,” he added. “What further concessions will Apple make to Russian authorities?”

At this time, Russia’s Google Play Store remains unaffected by this push for VPN censorship. This may indicate the Big Tech giant is potentially resisting Roskomnadzor’s demands at the time of writing.

Source link

Technology

You can finally record videos while playing music on the iPhone

Published

3 mins ago

September 24, 2024

NewsAdmin

You can finally record videos while playing music on the iPhone

iPhone users who’ve upgraded to iOS 18 now have the option to record videos while audio is playing, as MacRumors spotted. If you’ve got music playing through the iPhone’s speaker, it’s a quick and dirty way to add a soundtrack to a video instead of bringing a clip into an editor, but audio quality does take a hit.

Previously, in older versions of iOS, opening the iPhone’s camera app and switching to video mode would cause any audio playing to quickly fade out, even if it was playing through wireless headphones. With iOS 18, there’s a new camera setting to change that behavior.

A new “Allow Audio Playback” option is now available for the iPhone’s camera app in iOS 18.

Screenshot: iOS 18

To access it, open the iPhone’s settings, navigate to the Camera section, tap on Record Sound, and then turn on the “Allow Audio Playback” toggle. With that activated, audio will continue to play when you’re recording video in the camera app, and if the audio is playing through the speaker, it will be picked up by the iPhone’s microphone and recorded in mono along with the video. If the audio is playing through headphones, it won’t be recorded.

This functionality did exist in older versions of iOS with the camera app’s QuickTake feature, which allows videos to be captured in photo mode by holding down on the shutter button, but the resulting video is limited to a 1440P resolution, instead of the 4K offered through video mode.

Using a video editing app is still the best way to add music or narration to a clip, but this update will make it much easier to record videos with dance moves or lip movements that sync to a specific song.

Source link

Technology

Intel’s Beast Lake monster gaming CPUs were canceled, could rumored Razer Lake chips fill that void?

Published

24 mins ago

September 24, 2024

NewsAdmin

Intel has a new Lake in the pipeline – a processor family name, in other words – and this fresh sighting is Razer Lake.

VideoCardz noticed that leaker HXL posted on X to air the new codename that Intel is apparently mulling for its future desktop chips.

MSDTLGA1700: ADL-S, RPL-S, RPL-S RLGA1851: ARL-S, ARL-S R(❌)LGAxxxx: NVL-S? RZL-S?🤔 https://t.co/S4F8JCG2HrSeptember 23, 2024

Another well-known hardware leaker on X, Bionic Squash, then weighed in to observe that Razer Lake is indeed a correct codename for the family of CPUs that’ll follow Nova Lake.

So, if this is correct, right now we have Arrow Lake desktop CPUs (ARL-S, the ‘S’ referring to desktop) arriving imminently, and as we heard recently, HXL confirms that ARL-S R, meaning the rumored Refresh, has been canceled.

Arrow Lake uses a new CPU socket and we don’t know what else will support that socket, but Nova Lake, due in 2026, will switch to a new socket. After Nova Lake desktop (NVL-S), according to HXL we’ll get Razer Lake (RZL-S) in that same socket.

Take all of this with some caution, of course, as with all the chatter that filters down from the rumor mill. With Nova Lake supposedly coming in 2026, we can theorize Razer Lake could arrive in 2027 or 2028.

An Intel Core i9-14900K with its promotional packaging

(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

Analysis: Razing the online opposition?

This is quite interesting viewed from the perspective of previous Intel CPU rumors, as what we heard before was that Nova Lake was to be followed by Beast Lake. Indeed, Nova Lake was framed as version 1.0 of Intel’s Royal Core project – adopting Rentable Units (giant performance cores that can be split into units, replacing hyper-threading) – and Beast Lake was supposed Royal Core 1.1.

With the Royal Core concept purportedly scrapped, now we seemingly have Razer Lake instead of Beast Lake. Now, Beast Lake was hoped to be a generation to usher in monster gaming CPUs, so might Razer Lake be a similar idea? Well, the name certainly has a gaming theme…

In all seriousness, we have no idea what Razer Lake might be – if anything – and no details are provided here, save for the socket. The name does seem odd, though, considering it’s Razer Lake and not ‘Razor’ Lake, heavily treading on the toes of a certain maker of gaming peripherals and laptops in quite an outlandish manner, on the face of it. (What next – Risen Lake?)

We’d say Razer might be misspelled (or misheard), but a second leaker clearly backs up the name spelled in that way. And we’re not nearly at April 1 yet. Razer Lake doesn’t really make any sense to us, unless it’s ‘razing’ in the sense of totally destroying the opposition (again, possible a gaming reference?).

What also seems odd here is that we only have one generation of processors down to use the LGA 1851 socket that Arrow Lake introduces. It would seem weird for Intel to have a series of motherboards that was only compatible with a single generation of Core CPUs, frankly – so are we missing a piece here? Is Arrow Lake Refresh set to be replaced with something, rather than going straight to Nova Lake on a different socket. Or will Nova Lake stick on LGA 1851 somehow? (HXL certainly doesn’t think so).

This leak brings up more questions than answers, so we guess we’ll just have to sit tight and wait to see if anyone else pipes up with further info on Razer Lake – or indeed whatever might follow Arrow Lake. Are we really going to straight to Nova Lake from Arrow?

Source link

Technology

Will implants that meld minds with machines enhance human abilities?

Published

45 mins ago

September 24, 2024

NewsAdmin

New Scientist. Science news and long reads from expert journalists, covering developments in science, technology, health and the environment on the website and the magazine.

A cyborg bested me. When I played the online game WebGrid, using my finger on a laptop trackpad to click on squares appearing unpredictably on a grid, my speed was 42 squares per minute. When self-described cyborg Noland Arbaugh played it, he used a chip embedded in his brain to send telepathic signals to his computer. His speed? 49.

Arbaugh was paralysed from the neck down in 2016. In January, he became the first person to be surgically implanted with a chip made by Neuralink, a company founded by Elon Musk. Since then, Arbaugh has been operating his phone and computer with his thoughts, surfing the web and playing Civilization and chess.

But Neuralink isn’t the only outfit melding human minds with machines using brain-computer interfaces (BCIs). Thanks to a series of trials, a growing number of people paralysed from spinal cord injuries, strokes or motor conditions are regaining lost abilities. The successes are taking some researchers by surprise, says neurosurgeon Jaimie Henderson at Stanford University in California. “It’s been an incredible ride.”

Where that takes us remains to be seen. Musk recently mused about making a bionic implant that will allow us to compete with artificial superintelligence. Others are contemplating more profound implications. “In the future, you could manipulate human perception and memories and behaviour and identity,” says Rafael Yuste at Columbia University in New York.

But while BCIs are undeniably impressive, as Arbaugh’s WebGrid score demonstrates, the relationship between brain activity, thoughts and actions is incredibly complex. A future in which memories can…

Source link

Science & Environment

Take a look inside a $1.1 million ‘zero emissions’ home

Published

1 hour ago

September 24, 2024

NewsAdmin

Take a look inside a $1.1 million 'zero emissions' home

Courtesy: Wojciechowski Family

Real estate is a key puzzle piece in achieving the U.S.’ climate goals, according to federal officials.

Residential and commercial buildings account for 31% of the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions, after accounting for “indirect” emissions like electricity use, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. That’s more than other economic sectors like transportation and agriculture.

The Biden administration has adopted various policies to cut residential emissions.

The Inflation Reduction Act, enacted in 2022, offers financial benefits including tax breaks and rebates to homeowners who make their homes more energy-efficient, for example. The White House also recently issued guidelines for buildings in order to be considered “zero emissions,” meaning they are “energy efficient, free of onsite emissions from energy use and powered solely from clean energy,” according to the Department of Energy.

Morgan Wojciechowski, 33, is among the first homeowners to get that federal “zero emissions” label. (That assessment was bestowed by the third-party firm Pearl Certification.)

Wojciechowski, her husband Casey, and their three dogs — Dixie, Bo and Charlie — moved into the newly built residence in Williamsburg, Virginia, in August 2023.

Wojciechowski, who is also the president of Healthy Communities, a local real-estate developer focused on sustainable construction, spoke with CNBC about her new home, its financial benefits and how consumers can best upgrade their homes to be more efficient.

The conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Morgan Wojciechowski and her husband Casey.

Courtesy: Wojciechowski Family

Greg Iacurci: What does it mean for your home to be considered ‘zero emissions’?

Morgan Wojciechowski: It’s a very, very, very highly efficient home that’s all-electric. Those are kind of the first two bullet points of the White House definition.

The third part is we are part of the green energy program with [our power provider] Dominion. Not only am I producing solar [energy] and any excess is going back onto the grid, but the power from the grid coming into my home is clean and sustainable. It’s about $10 extra a month for me to get that clean energy.

GI: How much did your house cost to build?

MW: Like $1.1 million.

GI: And how big is the house?

MW: 5,800 square feet.

It’s a large home. But mine is not what everybody’s doing. My home was my personal project because I believe in sustainability and wanted to do it in a home that would be my forever home. But one that’s more replicable would be like what [Healthy Communities] builds at Walnut Farm, which is like 1,500 square feet. We’re selling it for $433,000.

GI: Can you break down your home’s estimated savings?

MW: Our utility bills are projected to be about $917 a year with [solar] panels, or around $80 a month.

The annual savings are $7,226 [relative to an average U.S. home, according to rater TopBuild Home Services]. That’s just from the efficiency of the home with solar.

If you took the solar production away, I would be saving $5,431 annually. The solar offsets it.

Courtesy: Wojciechowski Family

GI: What do you mean solar offsets it?

MW: You create energy. Your home uses that energy and sends excess energy back to Dominion. Those credits are stored in an account, and then those credits offset your bill. It’s called net metering.

GI: So the power company is paying you that money?

MW: Those credits are applied to your next billing cycle. They offset your overall utility bill, and that’s where your savings come in.

Solar panels only make sense if you build an energy-efficient home that’s really all-electric.

Courtesy: Wojciechowski Family

GI: Why is that?

MW: You have to have a home that’s constructed energy-efficiently enough or retrofitted — by replacing your windows with higher-grade windows, adding insulation — so that you will need fewer panels on your rooftop, so you have a quicker return on your investment. Solar only makes sense if you’re going to have a return on your investment within a few years.

GI: That makes solar more attractive?

MW: If you don’t do energy-efficient upgrades to a pre-existing home or if you don’t build a home that’s energy-efficient enough, you have to add more panels to compensate for the lack of energy efficiency. And if that number gets too big it turns people upside down.

Solar has to make sense with the home that you’re putting it on, or else, don’t do it. Maybe just upgrade your windows, add insulation, condition your crawl space, upgrade your mechanical systems.

Scientists creating 'talking' plants to reduce crop waste

There are a lot of things consumers can do. You don’t have to do it all at one time. You don’t have to have a solar home to be zero emissions; you have to have an energy-efficient house that’s all-electric, and you have to buy renewable energy from your utility company.

That’s extremely approachable. Lots of people can do that. Everybody can join in at their level of sustainability.

GI: How do you recommend people get started?

MW: I would tell a consumer, why don’t you start with windows and doors. That’s a very easy one. Do that and see how you notice any [efficiency] changes.

In a lot of older homes windows are very old and they leak. Air is coming in and out. If you think about it, a house is like an envelope. You you want to seal the inside of your home the best that you can.

I would hit insulation next.

A lot of older homes have HVAC systems, duct work inside of their attic. Insulate it so that it’s a conditioned space, so that those building systems don’t have to work in overdrive to keep up with really hot temperatures or really cold temperatures. That keeps it more energy efficient.

And there are tax incentives [available] for energy-efficient upgrades to your home. Consumers can get and write them off, so that’s attractive to people as well.

GI: If you’re a renter, there are certain things that are out of your control. I suppose you can ask your landlord.

MW: Depending upon what your rental situation is. I feel like that’s a little bit more daunting, to change someone else’s mind. Once you get to your own home, eventually, then you have more say of what you can do.

Until then, you could be mindful about the energy you use. Turn lights off. I mean, that’s a real thing. People don’t turn lights off. I mean, even though I have a really efficient home, I have timers on things because I don’t want to be wasting energy. That’s an easy one that anybody could do.

Source link

Technology

The Duolingo app just got two big updates. Here’s what’s new

Published

1 hour ago

September 24, 2024

NewsAdmin

The Duolingo app just got two big updates. Here's what's new

Duolingo, the popular language learning app, has always offered fun and interactive ways to learn new languages. It has now added two new features that make it even more feature-packed. As part of its latest update, the app now includes Adventures and Video Calls.

Adventures is a game-like feature that allows you to explore different settings and storylines within the Duolingo universe. It features two characters, Lily and Oscar. Adventures is designed to help you improve your language skills by putting you in simulated real-world situations.

Currently, one adventure is available for each course unit. It is only accessible for English speakers learning French and Spanish speakers learning English. However, more languages will be added in the upcoming weeks and months.

Duolingo’s new video call feature uses artificial intelligence to help you practice your conversational skills in a realistic setting. As the title suggests, the feature lets you make a video call — in this case, to the Duolingo character Lily. You can converse just like you would with a real person, but in an environment without pressure.

Duolingo explains that “Video Call is designed to simulate natural dialogue and provides a personalized, interactive practice environment.” Some Duolingo users tell us the video call option is already showing up within the app, although there isn’t a sign of Adventures yet.

Finally, Duolingo has announced a new partnership with Loog, a manufacturer of portable instruments. As a result of this collaboration, a new three-octave electric piano compatible with the Duolingo Music course has been introduced. The device is priced at $249 and is currently available for preorder, with shipping scheduled to begin in November.