In early 2004, the world was shaking it like a Polaroid picture, flocking to theaters to see what was going to happen with all those hobbits, and wondering if that Tom Brady guy was something special. Meanwhile, a few folks around the world were inventing the web as we know it now: a world-shaking social network was brewing in a Harvard dorm room. A Google employee was dreaming up the future of email in their spare time. The coolest cellphone of all time was just about to drop. The internet was still a niche activity, but that was about to change — and fast.
Technology
NASA’s Europa Clipper mission is on its way to Jupiter
NASA has launched its Europa Clipper spacecraft, the biggest one it has ever built for a mission heading to another planet, on top of a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Mission controllers at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory have confirmed that the Europa Clipper successfully separated from the rocket’s second stage and has already deployed the two solar arrays flanking its main body. Now, the spacecraft has started its 1.8 billion-million journey Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons and one of the most promising habitable worlds outside our own planet, which will take it five-and-a-half years to reach.
The Europa Clipper will not be heading straight to Jupiter — it will instead fly by Mars and, in 2026, by Earth to use the planets’ gravity to boost its momentum. NASA’s plan is to use that momentum to slingshot the spacecraft towards the outer solar system. Europa has a thick icy shell that’s estimated to be around 10 to 15 miles thick, covering a saltwater ocean that could have twice the water in our planet’s oceans combined. Since scientists believe that life on our planet originated from the ocean, Europa’s could also host organic compounds and contain energy sources.
“Scientists believe Europa has suitable conditions below its icy surface to support life. Its conditions are water, energy, chemistry and stability,” said Sandra Connelly, the Deputy Associate Administrator in the NASA Science Mission Directorate.
Upon reaching Europa in 2031, the Clipper will fly by the moon 49 times, coming as close as 16 miles to its surface. NASA equipped the spacecraft with nine instruments, including an ice-penetrating radar, cameras and a thermal instrument, housed inside a vault made of titanium and aluminum to protect them from the intense radiation produced by Jupiter. The Clipper will operate its instruments simultaneously every time it passes by the moon to investigate how thick Europa’s outer shell truly is and how deep the ocean underneath all that ice is. It will also look for areas with warmer ice and find any plumes of water vapor that could be escaping from Europa’s icy shell.
Technology
Amplitude buys Command AI to bolster its app engagement offerings
Amplitude, a publicly-traded company that makes digital analytics software, has acquired Command AI, an app user engagement startup formerly known as CommandBar.
Most of Command AI’s 30-person, San Francisco-based team will be joining Amplitude. Command AI’s co-founder and CEO James Evans wouldn’t reveal the terms of the deal, but said candidly that an acquisition wasn’t something he’d been planning on.
“Our growth was great and we had plenty of runway,” Evans told TechCrunch. “We weren’t out shopping ourselves or anything. But when Amplitude reached out a little while ago — this summer — we got really excited about the combination and became convinced that we could grow faster and reach more users together.”
Evans started Command AI in 2021 as a way for developers to easily integrate search functionality into their web apps. Together with co-founders Richard Freling and Vinay Ayyala, he built Command AI’s first product: an in-app search bar that provided personalized results, shortcuts, and the ability to highlight new app enhancements.
Over the years, Command AI’s product portfolio expanded to include a chatbot and AI Co-Browsing, which walks a user through in-app features by effectively taking control of their mouse. A more recent tool in development, Nudge Autopilot, shows “nudges” (e.g., reminders to try out certain app features) to users automatically based on metrics.
Twenty-five million end-users interact with Command AI’s products on a regular basis through apps built by clients like Hashicorp, Gusto, Yotpo and LaunchDarkly, Evans said. Before the Amplitude buyout, Command AI managed to raise $23.8 million from backers including Insight Partners, Itai Tsiddon and Thrive Capital.
So how does Command AI’s technology fit into Amplitude’s product roadmap? Amplitude CEO and co-founder Spenser Skates says the startup will enable Amplitude to offer “personalized user assistance” via in-product tours, onboarding experiences, and more.
Specifically, early next year, Command AI will launch checklists and guides for Amplitude, which will let customers create app and website action plans as well as interactive product tours. Announcements, another Command AI-powered capability heading to Amplitude, will allow customers to set up “smart triggers” in apps for things like updates and special offers.
Evans sees the integrations as a natural evolution for Command AI, which has offered connectors to Amplitude for some time.
“There’s a really tight loop between tools that help you understand user behavior — Amplitude — and tools that help you influence user behavior — us,” he said. “Imagine you identify a user segment that seems to not be digging your product. Well, naturally, you then might want to ask those users a question with a survey, or try to steer them to some feature they might care about, and then aggregate that feedback or see the impact of that change. We’ve always solved that connection with integration, but being on the same team is going to allow us to build a much tighter feedback loop.”
Evans will become director of product at Amplitude once the deal closes, while Ayyala will become engineering director. They’ll both oversee Amplitude’s new Command AI product org, which will continue to serve current Command AI customers through the end of the year.
Command AI is Amplitude’s third acquisition since its founding a decade ago. In 2020, Amplitude bought ClearBrain, a predictive analytics company, and in 2021, it purchased data pipeline firm Iteratively.
Amplitude claims to have more than 2,700 paying customers, including 26 of the Fortune 100.
Technology
Welcome to 2004 Week – The Verge
In so many ways, the digital world in which we now all live was created 20 years ago. Google went public and began to ascend to rule the web. Facebook, Gmail, Firefox, Flickr, and Digg all launched — the year Web 2.0 became the web. “Blog” and “the long tail” were on no one’s radar before 2004, and since then, they’ve been everywhere. The United States went through a contentious election, a bunch of sequels dominated the box office, and Apple launched a new product that looked very cool but was ultimately eclipsed by a better product a year later. Okay, some things never change.
Every year is a big year in tech, of course, but 2004 was an especially big one. And The Verge didn’t exist yet! So, this week, we’ll have stories on the best and most important gadgets and platforms that launched that year and pieces about the cultural events that still affect the way we live now. Basically, we’re going to blog like it’s 2004.
Our first few stories are up today, covering everything from the first robo-car race to the Motorola Razr to the mystery of all our missing 2004 photos. There’s also a special episode of The Vergecast all about the history and future of podcasts, an interview with Kevin Rose about Digg’s legacy, and a shockingly hard quiz asking one simple question: did it happen in 2004 or 2024?
We’ll be publishing more 2004 stories and videos all week, and we want to hear all your 2004 memories, too! Share your favorite pictures from that year, your favorite 20-year-old gadgets that you wish still worked (or shockingly still do), and anything else you remember from that seminal year in our recent past. We’ll be doing the same. It’s going to be more fun than Shrek 2.
Technology
Researchers develop new tool for spotting Android malware
Security researchers have devised a new tool to help Android users spot and remove malware from their devices.
It is called Detector of Victim-specific Accessibility (DVa), and it was built by cybersecurity experts at Georgia Tech. It runs on the cloud, checks the phone for malware that abuses accessibility permissions, and then reports back to the user.
If the tool finds any positives, the user can then uninstall the app or otherwise clean up their device.
GPUs making attacks potent
“As we continue to design systems that are more and more accessible, we also need security experts in the room,” said Brendan Saltaformaggio, an associate professor in the School of Cybersecurity and Privacy (SCP) and the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. “Because if we don’t, they’re going to get abused by hackers.”
Besides reporting back to the user, DVa also sends a report directly to Google. While certainly commendable, it is also worth mentioning that Google is doing a solid job keeping its app repository clean, as it is. The majority of Android-based malware is usually downloaded from third-party app stores, shady websites, or through social media advertising.
Most of the time, Android malware can be identified by the permissions it asks for. Usually, this type of malware will ask for Accessibility permissions, which are primarily built to simplify use for people with different disabilities. Accessibility permissions are designed for apps that can read the contents on the screen, turn it to audio, and similar.
However, malicious apps with the same permissions can tap on things, which can lead to data loss and even wire fraud.
“The Android accessibility service is widely abused by malware to conduct on-device monetization fraud,” the researchers explained in the whitepaper. “Existing mitigation techniques focus on malware detection but overlook providing users evidence of abuses that have already occurred and notifying victims to facilitate defenses. We developed DVa, a malware analysis pipeline based on dynamic victim-guided execution and abuse-vector-guided symbolic analysis, to help investigators uncover malware’s targeted victims, victim-specific abuse vectors, and persistence mechanisms.”
After deploying DVa on Android devices infected with almost 10,000 malware, the researchers uncovered 215 unique victim vectors and an average of 13.9 abuse routines. The full research can be found here.
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Technology
UK considering rules for universal charging cable
The UK government is considering whether to require all new electronic devices to use the same type of charging cable.
A call for evidence launched in October is asking for views on the benefits of using a particular charging cable – such as USB-C, which is used by many modern devices.
It comes after the European Union passed a law on a common charging cable in 2022, which firms must adopt by December.
The UK government said at the time it was not considering similar rules.
The EU’s law aims to cut electronic waste by requiring small to medium electronic device manufacturers to use USB-C chargers.
Apple criticised the decision, but ultimately ditched its proprietary lightning charging cables for iPhones in 2023.
Electronic goods, from mobile phones to e-readers and headphones, still vary in their charging port and cable requirements.
Following the EU’s law, many devices now use USB-C charging cables, although some still require other cables such as micro-USB.
Apple introduced its own proprietary lightning connectors with the iPhone 5 in 2012.
But after more than a decade of use it was phased out and replaced with USB-C ports in more recent versions of its gadgets, starting with the iPhone 15 last September.
Consumer groups have frequently pointed to the amount of different cables needed and discarded based on the varying options for connectors on devices as a source of e-waste.
Materials Focus, a charity encouraging the reuse and recycling of electricals, has been encouraging people to recycle old cables to meet growing demand for their copper contents.
Research by its Recycle Your Electricals campaign suggested the UK had more than 600 million unused or discarded cables.
However, some have previously warned that the EU’s directive will lead to a rise in discarded lightning cables in years to come.
Technology
Future Galaxy AI feature may kill your phone’s Settings page
Future Samsung phones may use AI to replace frequent visits to the Settings menu, with the phone anticipating, learning, and altering aspects of the device without you having to dig through different options and menus to make the phone operate in the way you want.
Samsung has already pushed AI functionality as a selling point on its smartphones through Galaxy AI, but the features focus on summaries, translations, notes, and photo editing. By using AI to change the phone’s operation by learning our preferences, or anticipating what we may require during a task, Galaxy AI may be about to take a far more active role in our phones, should several reports prove to be accurate.
According to a report from a South Korean business publication, Samsung is exploring this new AI feature within the keyboard and camera on its phones at this stage, but details on how it will work or what the AI will be able to change have not been revealed. It’s possible the keyboard may automatically change languages or build on its existing ability to generate messages and writing styles, while the camera may activate different filters or set timers, based on circumstances, which are actions that currently require accessing different menus.
Smartphones already adapt to our environments automatically with features like auto brightness enabled by ambient light sensors, and we can use voice control to activate different features without digging into different settings menus. But it’s easy to miss specific features purely because we don’t know they exist, or miss them in large, congested menu pages. If AI could learn how we use our phones, particularly in the early stages, and introduce different features that may improve our experience without us needing to prompt it, it could prove very helpful.
It’s not the first time we’re hearing about what Samsung big plans for its mobile AI future. Samsung’s Head of Customer Experience Patrick Chomet said his dream for Galaxy AI was where he “didn’t need to go to Settings,” in an interview with TechRadar earlier this year, where he also stated he wanted the accessibility menu to be a thing of the past because the, “AI intelligently adapts to me and my needs.” Samsung Mobile’s Head of Business TM Roh wrote the company is, “only getting started” with AI earlier this year following the announcement of the Galaxy S24 series, and these reports indicate interesting things may arrive in the future.
No timeline has been indicated for when this type of feature will arrive in the Galaxy AI suite, but it’s expected Samsung’s next major smartphone release will be the Galaxy S25 series sometime in early 2025.
Technology
Xiaomi 15 Ultra launch timeframe tipped, 200MP camera detailed
The Xiaomi 15 Ultra launch timeframe has just been tipped, and the phone’s 200MP camera detailed. This information comes from Digital Chat Station, one of the best-known tipsters out there.
The Xiaomi 15 Ultra launch timeframe has appeared, along with 200MP camera details
Let’s start with the launch timeframe, shall we? While responding to a user question, he said that the Xiaomi 15 Ultra is coming “after the New Year”, meaning the Chinese New Year, of course. That means after January 25.
He did not say when exactly, but this kind of points to the first quarter of the year, probably February. That makes all the sense in the world as the Xiaomi 14 Ultra also arrived in February, so… it fits.
The tipster also detailed the 200-megapixel periscope telephoto camera that will be included on the Xiaomi 15 Ultra. That camera will come with a 100mm lens, and allow for 4.3x optical zoom. We’re looking at an f/2.6 aperture here.
In addition to that periscope telephoto camera, the device will also include a 50-megapixel telephoto camera. That camera will offer a 3x optical zoom. It will be the same as on the Xiaomi 15 and Xiaomi 15 Pro.
The Xiaomi 15 and Xiaomi 15 Pro are coming later this month
While the Xiaomi 15 Ultra is coming next year, its siblings, the Xiaomi 15 and Xiaomi 15 Pro will launch later this month. All three of those phones are expected to use Qualcomm’s new flagship chip. That processor will be announced soon, and it will be called either the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 or Snapdragon 8 Elite.
Based on the renders that we’ve seen recently, and the real-life image of the Xiaomi 15 Pro, Xiaomi will tweak the design a bit, but not much. It’s sticking with its design language from the Xiaomi 14 series.
Both of those smartphones will be quite powerful, though the ‘Ultra’ will trump them in the camera department. It will be a more versatile shooter, even though the ‘Pro’ model is getting a periscope telephoto camera too.
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