NSO lawyer names Mexico, Saudi Arabia, and Uzbekistan as spyware customers behind 2019 WhatsApp hacks
This is the first time representatives for the spyware maker have publicly named its government customers.
Month: April 2025
Bitcoin Leads a Fundamental Shift in the Crypto Market
The first quarter of 2025 was a reality check for digital assets. While the year began with optimism fueled by the election of a pro-crypto U.S. president and expectations of a friendlier regulatory environment, macroeconomic challenges quickly came to dominate the narrative. Bitcoin briefly reached a new all-time high of $109,356 before ending the quarter … Read more
Attention K-Mart Shoppers
Comments
Figma tells AI startup to stop using the term ‘Dev Mode’
Figma slapped Swedish AI coding startup Loveable with a cease-and-desist warning for naming one of its new product features “Dev Mode.” It turns out Figma successfully trademarked the term Dev Mode in November last year, according to the US Patent and Trademark office, having introduced its own Dev Mode feature in 2023. “We’re flattered that … Read more
DJI’s new drone speaker lets cops yell at you from the sky
DJI’s new drone accessory is designed to ensure public safety and emergency officials are heard loud and clear — and I mean really loud. Its enterprise-focused Zenmuse V1 speaker can broadcast the sound of someone’s voice at up to 127 decibels at 1 meter, a number DJI says is “on par with the sound level … Read more
TikTok is getting its own version of community notes
TikTok has announced “Footnotes,” its own take on the community notes features that started on Twitter and have been spreading to other social networks. As elsewhere, it’s a crowd-sourced approach to moderation — TikTok says contributors will be able to “add relevant information to content on our platform.” US users can apply to become Footnotes … Read more
Rust-IoT-Platform
Comments
Trump administration decides to fund CVE cybersecurity tracker after all
The government will continue funding the Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) program. In a statement to The Verge, US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency (CISA) spokesperson Jared Auchey said it “executed the option period on the contract to ensure there will be no lapse in critical CVE services” last night. On Tuesday, MITRE, the government-funded organization … Read more
As Deezer approaches profitability, it rolls out a custom algorithm and other new features
Last month, Deezer reported its first positive cash flow in 2024, marking a significant milestone in its history. As the music streaming platform nears profitability, it’s launching new features to differentiate itself in the highly competitive market. On Wednesday, Deezer announced several features aimed at providing listeners with a more personalized experience. These include a … Read more
Neutrl Raises $5M to Tokenize a Popular Hedge Fund Altcoin Trade
Novel decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol Neutrl aims to bring a hedge fund trade — once limited to sophisticated investors — to the masses in the form of a crypto token. The protocol is launching its NUSD “synthetic dollar” token, designed to generate returns by arbitraging discounted altcoin deals in over-the-counter (OTC) markets, the team told … Read more
Bitcoin Miners With HPC Exposure Underperformed in First Two Weeks of April: JPMorgan
The performance of bitcoin (BTC) mining stocks was mixed in the first two weeks of April, with pure play operators outperforming those with exposure to high-performance computing (HPC), JPMorgan (JPM) said in a research report Wednesday. Only MARA Holdings (MARA) and CleanSpark (CLSK) outperformed the largest cryptocurrency during the period, while miners with exposure to … Read more
TikTok begins testing Footnotes, a new Community Notes-like feature
TikTok is testing a new “Footnotes” feature that works similarly to Community Notes on X. The social network announced on Wednesday that Footnotes will allow users to add additional context and relevant information to videos to help others better understand certain content, starting in the United States. The company says Footnotes will complement its current … Read more
The Long History of Nitrous Oxide
Comments
How Primary Committee Size Impacts Blockchain Security in Discrepancy Detection Protocols
Table of Links Abstract and 1. Introduction Key Concepts 2.1 Append-Only Log and 2.2 Virtual Machine State 2.3 Transactions As Curried Functions 2.4 Natural Names of State 2.5 Ground Truth 2.6 Efficient Representations of State 2.7 Checkpoints 2.8 Execution Parameters: callData 2.9 Execution Ordering 2.10 Deciding on the Correct State Ideal Layer 2 Design 3.1 … Read more
Exploring Cutting-Edge Approaches to Iterative LLM Fine Tuning
:::info Authors: (1) Corby Rosset, Microsoft Research and Correspondence to corbyrosset@microsoft.com; (2) Ching-An Cheng, Microsoft Research; (3) Arindam Mitra, Microsoft Research; (4) Michael Santacroce, Microsoft Research; (5) Ahmed Awadallah, Microsoft Research and Correspondence to hassanam@microsoft.com; (6) Tengyang Xie, Microsoft Research and Correspondence to tengyangxie@microsoft.com. ::: Table of Links Abstract and 1 Introduction 2 Preliminaries 2.1 … Read more
The Voices That Inspire HackerNoon
Hey Hackers, In developing HackerNoon to be the best platform for writers on the net, we learned that the best ideas and insights come directly from the community. You, our readers, writers, and customers are the voices that shaped this platform. By sharing valuable insights that can’t be found anywhere else, your feedback isn’t just helpful, … Read more
Deck raises $12M to ‘Plaid-ify’ any website using AI
Deck, a startup that claims to be building “the Plaid for the rest of the internet,” has raised $12 million in a Series A funding round — about nine months after closing its seed financing, it tells TechCrunch exclusively. The new raise, led by Infinity Ventures, brings Montreal-based Deck’s total raised since its January 2024 … Read more
Emerging markets need boutique market-making to reach their full potential
Opinion by: Mārtiņš Beņķītis, co-founder and CEO of Gravity Team As crypto adoption plateaus in some developed nations, emerging markets have led the charge for adoption. Southeast Asia, Africa and Latin America have become rapid growth centers, with new activity driven by limited banking options, local currency instability and growing smartphone use. The need for … Read more
Who Owns AI Art? A Deep Dive into Copyright, Intellectual Property, and Liability
In 2019, a robot capable of creating art was developed by Engineered Arts under the guidance of Aidan Meller. This innovation raised fascinating questions: what is art? And can something produced by a machine even be considered art? The robot, named Ai-Da, quickly gained attention for her eerie ability to create abstract and surreal images—some … Read more
Abhaya Uprety is Reshaping Parking One Line of Code at a Time
Abhaya Uprety never imagined he would find himself living in a small studio apartment in New Mexico, carefully rationing groceries while building software for a company struggling to find its footing. An international student who graduated in May 2020, Uprety co-founded ParkStash—a startup initially focused on making parking reservations work in a way similar to … Read more
Mantra post-OM token crash statement leaves key questions unanswered
Troubled decentralized finance (DeFi) platform Mantra released an official statement addressing the reasons for a 92% flash crash of its OM token on April 13. An April 16 announcement titled “Statement of Events: 13 April 2025” reiterates that the crash did not involve any token sales by the project itself, and the Mantra team remains fully functional … Read more
Kia is pitching Americans an affordable EV sedan with EV4 debut
Kia debuted its 2026 EV4 sedan at the New York International Auto Show on Wednesday, its first global electric sedan and one designed for customers looking for an affordable EV. Whether U.S. customers will gravitate towards a sedan is an open question — and one Kia isn’t necessarily betting on. The company launched sales of … Read more
Coinbase Revenue, Trading Outlook Hit by Tariff Tensions: Oppenheimer
Crypto exchange Coinbase (COIN) is facing a weaker outlook as uncertainties introduced by President Donald Trump’s on-and-off tariff threats cast a shadow over retail crypto activity, analysts at Oppenheimer wrote in a report. The investment bank cut its full-year trading volume forecast by 19% to $1.3 trillion and its first-quarter estimate to $380 billion, down … Read more
Bitcoin’s True Capitulation Zone is $65K, Says Well-Followed Analyst
Where’s the bottom for bitcoin (BTC)? While acknowledging it’s possible that level has already been hit, on-chain analyst James Check suggested a true bottom may not be in place until after bitcoin suffers a true capitulation event. That would likely require a decline to the $65,000 area, said Check, calling it the “true market mean,” … Read more
How Transaction Order Finality Drives Blockchain State in Layer 2 Systems
Table of Links Abstract and 1. Introduction Key Concepts 2.1 Append-Only Log and 2.2 Virtual Machine State 2.3 Transactions As Curried Functions 2.4 Natural Names of State 2.5 Ground Truth 2.6 Efficient Representations of State 2.7 Checkpoints 2.8 Execution Parameters: callData 2.9 Execution Ordering 2.10 Deciding on the Correct State Ideal Layer 2 Design 3.1 … Read more