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On this episode of Check The Tech, AI expert Brandon Johnson shares his picks for the latest back-to-school tech. From everyday tools that just make life easier, to gadgets that inspire even the most tech-savvy, there’s something here for everyone.
Johnson is a Senior AI Solutions Architect at NVIDIA, which develops the technology that powers everything from ChatGPT to movies that we watch. “NVIDIA is everywhere,” he tells Check The Tech host Sara Lovestyle. “Everyday I work with engineers at other companies to help them solve problems.” From developing self-driving cars to enhancing early detection in cancer patients, Johnson’s job is to work alongside engineers to solve these complex problems using NVIDIA’s technology.
With a steady flow of new tech products hitting the market, Johnson curates a list of the ones you need to know. Discover the latest tech on his radar this back-to-school season.
Perplexity redefines the search engine experience. Instead of producing a list of search results, Perplexity streamlines the process of finding information online. “Once you type in a prompt and you search for something, it synthesizes all that information, condenses it and gives it back to you,” says Johnson. He uses the $20 Pro version, but a free version is available too.
While the Perplexity search engine is a more user-friendly option, Johnson’s next pick is a bit more in-depth: the NVIDIA Jetson AGX Orin. “It’s basically what we use to program robots,” he explains. “This is going to be for my nerds, people who like to code and things like that. If you want to get hands-on, this is usually where we recommend starting.”
When Johnson wants to unplug, he has a gadget for that. The Light Phone’s minimalist design offers an alternative to app-loaded smartphones. “The only thing you can do is call and text,” he says. “It is very minimalist. Sometimes you want to unplug, so this is the best way for me to personally unplug.” The Light Phone III is available for preorder and will include a new camera feature.
Johnson’s last pick is a must-have for any college student — a good pair of headphones. The AI specialist loves his AirPods Max headphones for its long battery life, which will definitely come in handy for busy students on the go.
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Source: PATRICK T. FALLON / Getty / Chase Bank
If it sounds too good to be true, chances are very high it is. Opportunists and scammers are finding out the hard way that check fraud isn’t wavy.
People are suffering heavy financial consequences after attempting to take advantage of the Chase Bank glitch, aka commit check fraud.
Per Complex’s reporting, many are now seeing their bank accounts overdrawn by thousands after trying to expose the glitch that went viral on TikTok by depositing fake checks for large sums of money and immediately withdrawing the funds or seeing money immediately reflected in their accounts because Chase is not flagging the deposited check or large loan applications.
The financial institution caught on quickly to the “glitch” and is now leaving the people who thought they got a come up with a large receipt, rendering their bank accounts useless.
If you typed in “Chase Bank glitch” on X, formerly Twitter, you would see actual videos of people running to Chase Bank locations, lined up at ATMs, trying to get their hands on what they thought was “free money.”
You will also see many people sharing screenshots of their accounts and reacting to being financially in the red.
This is not the first time a glitch similar to what Chase experienced over the weekend was exploited, leaving many people jammed up. Cash App users could transfer large sums of money they did not have.
Doordash users could order whatever they wanted without being charged. Both companies caught on to what was happening, and people had to pay their large debts.
Let this be a lesson to those looking for fast money.
The gallery below shows more reactions to the “Chase Bank glitch,” leaving people in financial ruin.
2. Ridiculous
4. Howling
7. It’s too late for a lot of these people
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Source: NurPhoto / Getty / Elon Musk
Since Elon Musk reluctantly dropped $44 billion on the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, he has been giving a masterclass on how to ruin something already good. A new report details how one of his ideas, Twitter Blue, was a disaster from the start.
A New York Times report revealed that employees at X, formerly Twitter, tried to warn Musk about the dangers of his dumb idea, Twitter Blue, which allowed users to purchase verified blue checkmarks along with other features was a “dangerous” idea during a meeting at the company’s San Francisco office on November 9, 2022.
According to the report, Musk dismissed the employee’s concerns, telling them to be “adventurous” while eating the snacks in the office. Twitter Blue would go on to be the disaster his employees tried to warn them about as fake accounts with blue checkmarks began popping up instantaneously, spewing out false information and eroding trust among users.
Per The NYT:
“We’re going to be shooting from the hip in real time,” Mr. Musk said, fashioning his hands into a pair of finger guns.
Previously, Blue had been a small part of the company’s business, which relied on advertising for 90 percent of its revenue. Blue allowed a few thousand die-hard users to pay for premium features, like the ability to edit their tweets and customize the Twitter app on their phones, but it never gained much traction. To Mr. Musk, a Twitter obsessive who had purchased the company for $44 billion, the service represented an untapped financial opportunity.
Mr. Musk’s attempt to rescue a company he saw as a sinking ship was premised on the idea that he could persuade people — millions of them — to pay for Twitter Blue. That scheme, however, was doomed from the start by the haphazard planning and capriciousness of Twitter’s owner, whose nearly two-year stewardship of the company has cratered its finances and sullied his reputation as a generational entrepreneur.
Musk eventually shuttered Twitter Blue following its launch before relaunching it again, but the damage was already done, with the platform’s most famous users vowing not to pay for the service.
Phony Stark would also change the company’s name from Twitter to X, a very bonehead decision, and advertisers have shunned the platform.
The Tesla Chief has also begun pushing our right-wing conspiracies, restored Donald Trump’s account, and has endorsed the Orange Menace for president.
We really need Threads or some other app to give us a reason to kick X to the curb.
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Source: DJ OMINAYA / DJ OMINAYA
DJs are in for some good news. The community’s most trusted software Serato DJ Pro has received some updates geared to optimize performance and increase creativity.
Source: SERATO / Serato
Originally launched in 1999 as Pitch ‘n Time, the revolutionary platform has gone on to allow users to mix two tracks together with just their laptop, have a limitless music library, and a crisp, high-resolution interface. Throughout the years, Serato has become synonymous with a DJ’s must-haves when it comes to their set up. This month, the brand has announced some updates to the platform in Serato DJ Pro 3.2.0 and Serato DJ Lite 3.2.0. These new versions introduce a never-before-seen series of custom-built FX and includes many firsts for the platform including native Apple silicon support for Mac users.
Source: SERATO / Serato
The good folks at Serato were kind enough to provide us early access to their beta, and we couldn’t think of anyone better than DJ OMINAYA to demo the new features. As the DJ for A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie and Lola Brooke, DJ OMINAYA is no stranger to the technology. For the last 10 years he has used Serato DJ Pro to rock crowds all over the world including venues like Madison Square Garden, O2 Arena, The Kia Forum, Spark Arena, TD Arena, Manchester Arena, AFAS Live and more. Below you will find his breakdown on the new DJ Pro 3.2.0.
Full Suite of New FX
DJ OMINAYA: I like the fact that there are now channel FX scroll them out to a single channel; one through four. Or even put it on the master. Also, you’re able to save your favorite FX in your bank, and if you want to reset it you can reset it. But if you save it in your bank, anywhere you DJ your favorites will always be available when you click down. You can also organize them where when you pull up your drop-down menu only your favorite FX shows instead of all 100. This is a game changer because it makes them a lot more accessible.
Create Your Signature Sounds With Custom FX
DJ OMINAYA: The option to create your own signature sounds is amazing because this is another way you can separate yourself from your peers. Individuality is key as a DJ, and you never want to sound like the next person. Another feature that is key is that you can also import your FX easily as well, which will help new DJs out who are still trying to find their sound and style.
But you got to be careful with sharing your custom FX [laughs]. Serato has a regular bomb FX, but what I did was I put five other bombs on that one bomb just so it can sound more powerful because I do concerts, big venues and arenas. So, when I hit that bomb, it sounds way louder because it has more bass to it. I shared that FX with one DJ and now every DJ in New York City uses it [laughing].
Source: DJ OMINAYA / DJ OMINAYA
Favorite FX Banks
DJ OMINAYA: In my opinion this is the most important update to Serato DJ 3.2.0.The bank lets you load songs or FX to scratch in advance. If you’re a DJ that transforms or uses scratch FX, you can load the sounds in there. What I suggest is to prepare your tracks. So, if you’re doing a party and you know the next five records you want to play you can load them into the scratch bank and have them ready there opposed to searching for them while you’re DJing.
This new Serato DJ 3.2.0 definitely makes it a lot more easier to access your files and songs. As a DJ sometimes you lose your train of thought, and you forget what record you want to play next. And you can put them in the sequence you want ahead of time. This is something that comes in handy regardless of where you are playing. Let’s say I am doing a concert with [A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie] I can use that same bank of songs to do the club performance after the concert. My favorite FX is the reverb. This is a clean way to get out of a song without the transition sounding messy.
New Enhanced Look and View Modes
DJ OMINAYA: I love the new look and view mode! I feel it’s more straightforward and to the point; it’s a much cleaner interface. Even if you are new to the Serato platform, it’s really self-explanatory. You don’t need years of DJ experience to pick up the flow and functionality with Serato 3.2.0; they really took the guess work out of it. Serato 3.2.0 has shortcuts for everything you really have to explore it to see what works best for you as a DJ and your set up. Once you do, you’ll be able to get to things a lot faster and easier.
You can read more about Serato DJ 3.2.0 here.
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Source: White Dudes For Harris / White Dudes For Harris
Elon Musk continues to show he is panicking now that momentum has swung in the favor of Democrats after Joe Biden passed the torch to his Vice President, Kamala Harris.
Following Kamala Harris taking the torch and running with it, numerous groups popped up online supporting the VP, one of which was White Dudes for Harris.
The group, which featured prominent white men, held a Zoom/YouTube meeting like the other groups and managed to raise over $4 million for the Harris campaign to help ensure the orange menace doesn’t get back into the White House.
Actors like Mark Hamill, Jeff Bridges, J.J. Abrams, Sean Astin, Josh Groban, Josh Gad, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Bradley Whitford were among the many white men who participated in the meeting.
Elon Musk, the reluctant owner of X, formerly Twitter, continues to prove he is the ultimate OP and allegedly was behind suspending the group’s X account.
In a post, Mike Nellis, founder/CEO of digital advertising firm Authentic and one of the organizers of White Dudes for Harris, wrote that the account was suspended for “Violating our rules against evading suspension.”
Harris continued, “We scared @elonmusk and @DonaldJTrumpJr so much tonight they suspended our account and won’t let us back in. These guys are running scared of the success we’ve had tonight, but we’re not going to quit.” In a follow-up posted, he added, “I ask this question seriously… are we the first white dudes to ever get suspended by @elonmusk’s Twitter? I think we are.”
In an update shared on Tuesday, the account announced it was back.
Per Variety:
White Dudes for Harris said its X account was reinstated Tuesday after “a groundswell of grassroots complaints” to X’s owner, tech mogul Elon Musk. “WE ARE SO BACK! After a groundswell of grassroots complaints to @ElonMusk from the #WhiteDudesforHarris community, our account was reinstated & we’re allowed to post again,” the post said. “Thank you for coming to our aid & carrying on this conversation in our absence. More to come! ❤️”
We expect Elon and his hating a** to continue being a hater.
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Source: Tom Williams / Getty / Elon Musk
Elon Musk continues to prove he is the biggest OP of them all.
Bootleg Tony Stark, aka Elon Musk, already got called broke on his platform, X, formerly Twitter, after walking back his $45 million a month donation pledge to the Orange Menace, Donald Trump’s re-election campaign.
Now, he is under more scrutiny from not just users on the X platform but the Kamala Harris campaign and prominent Democrats for reposting a manipulated video of VP Harris saying, “selected because I am the ultimate diversity hire,” the GOP’s latest way being racist, without outright saying racist sh*t.
In his post sharing the video, the Tesla chief wrote in the caption, “This is amazing” followed with the crying laughing emoji.
In the deepfake video, which is still on Musk’s timeline, Harris says, “I, Kamala Harris, am your Democratic candidate because Joe Biden finally exposed his senility in the debate.”
The fake VP Harris continues by calling herself the “ultimate diversity hire” because “I’m both a woman and a person of color, so if you criticize anything I say you’re both sexist and racist.” The fake Harris goes on to brand herself a “deep fake puppet” who learned from another “puppet,” Joe Biden.”
The Harris Campaign Responds
Speaking with the AP, the Harris campaign responded to Musk, “The American people want the real freedom, opportunity, and security Vice President Harris is offering, not the fake, manipulated lies of Elon Musk and Donald Trump.”
Biden/Harris surrogate and California Governor Gavin Newsom also criticized Musk, saying that “manipulating a voice in an ‘ad’ like this one should be illegal.”
Senator Amy Klobuchar suggests that Musk’s post breaks his platform’s “synthetic and manipulated media policy.”
Musk doubled down on the post, replying, “Not to mention Pullitsir Prize winner Dr Head, first name Dick” and “Newsom should create an endowed 😉 chair at Univ of California for Prof Deeznuts.”
Social media continues to drag Musk; you can see those reactions in the gallery below.
1. Basically
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Source: Europa Press News / Getty / Crowdstrike
A massive global IT outage is crippling businesses and making lives miserable.
If you’re a business that operates on Microsoft Windows-based systems, the past 48 hours have not been good for you, and your IT department is most definitely stressing out.
Banks, airports, TV stations, healthcare organizations, hotels, and other businesses were greeted by BSODs (Blue Screens of Death).
Blue Screens of Death hit the giant screens in Times Square.
What Caused The Global Disruption?
The outage hit computers running the Windows operating system and was the result of a bug in an update from cybersecurity company CrowdStrike.
In the early hours of Friday, companies in Australia with computers running Microsoft’s Windows operating system began experiencing Blue Screens of Death.
Not too long after the issue arose, there were numerous reports of disruptions from the UK, India, Germany, the Netherlands, and the US.
TV stations like Sky News were offline, and US airlines United, Delta, and American Airlines issued a “global ground stop” on all flights.
CrowdStrike says the outage wasn’t malicious and, through its CEO, issued a statement on the matter.
Per Wired:
Hours after the issues started to emerge, CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz issued a statement about the outages, saying the company has found a “defect” in an update for Windows that it issued. “This is not a security incident or cyberattack,” Kurtz said. “The issue has been identified, isolated, and a fix has been deployed.” In the statement, Kurtz confirmed that Mac and Linux hosts are not impacted by the update and said that its customers should refer to its support portal.
A Microsoft spokesperson also issued a statement saying it is aware of the problems linked to Windows devices and the company believes a “resolution is forthcoming.” At the same time as the CrowdStrike issues emerged, Microsoft was also dealing with its own, apparently unrelated, outage of its Azure cloud services.
The reactions to the outage that are all over timelines well after the “fix.”
You can see those in the gallery below.
1. Spooky stuff
2. For those wondering how to fix the bug
3. Howling
6. Jokes, you can always count on X for jokes
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Source: Tinder / Photo Selector
Writing your bio for your dating profile is one thing, but choosing your photos to give your potential boyfriend or girlfriend a glimpse at their future boo is another challenge that Tinder wants to help you with.
Spotted on The Verge, Tinder is launching a new AI-powered feature to help users select their “best photos” to put in their dating profiles.
According to the dating app, the new tool will “take out the guesswork” for users when choosing your most eye-catching photos by creating a selection “optimized to help users find a match.”
A breakdown of how Photo Selector works via The Verge:
To use Photo Selector, users will need to take a selfie within Tinder and allow the app to access their device’s camera roll. Tinder’s new AI feature will then use facial recognition to collate a selection of images for the user to review and add to their profiles. The curation is processed on-device and doesn’t upload the user’s camera roll to Tinder’s systems. We have asked Tinder to clarify the criteria the feature uses to select images and will update if we hear back.
The dating app says Photo Selector aims to allow users to make “meaningful connections” by saving them time in the profile-making process.
A study of 7,000 18-25-year-olds conducted by Tinder found that young singles spend up to 33 minutes on average trying to select photos to use.
Tinder users on iOS and Android can expect the Photo Selector to be available sometime in July. According to Tinder, international users will gain access to it “this summer.”
Well, we hope this aids you in that search for summer love or a potential boo before the cuffing season begins.
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Source: Variety / Getty / Carlos Watson
Carlos Watson and his now-defunct startup, Ozy Media, have been found guilty of fraud.
Spotted on The Verge, Carlos Watson and Ozy Media were found guilty of fraud by a federal jury on Tuesday, per the New York Times reporting.
During the trial, the jury heard arguments from the government that Watson and Ozy Media misled investors by falsifying financial records, inflating audience numbers, and even completely making up business deals.
Things started well for Watson and business partner Samir Rao when they founded Ozy Media in 2013. The company launched with a newsletter, magazine, and an annual conference in New York City.
The company also received millions in investments while establishing high-profile partnerships before it all went to sh*t.
Per The Verge:
But things came to a halt when a 2021 article from New York Times media columnist Ben Smith reported that Rao impersonated a YouTube executive during a call with a Goldman Sachs banker about a potential $40 million investment. Rao pleaded guilty to related charges last year and is awaiting sentencing.
Additionally, prosecutors alleged that Watson lied to a prospective investor by saying that Google offered $600 million to take over the media startup. According to testimony from Google CEO Sundar Pichai, the company only considered investing $25 million as part of a potential plan to hire Watson. During the trial, Watson’s lawyers blamed Rao and Ozy Media’s employees for the fraudulent activity, NYT reports.
Speaking on the verdict, Breon Peace, the US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, broke down the fraud shenanigans Watson was up to.
“The jury found that Watson was a con man who told lie upon lie upon lie to deceive investors into buying stock in his company,” Peace said in a statement. “Watson invented phony financial figures and caused others to forge fake contracts and impersonate a media executive.”
Bruh.
Watson is looking at a lengthy 37 years in prison after being charged with conspiracy to commit securities fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and aggravated identity theft.
Damn.
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Source: China News Service / Getty /ATT
AT&T customers have much to worry about after news of a massive data breach exposed their data.
CNN reports AT&T was the victim of a massive data breach, leading to call and text message records from mid-to-late 2022 of tens of millions of cellphone customers and many non-AT&T customers to be exposed, AT&T revealed on Friday, July 12.
Bruh.
The company says the compromised data includes the telephone numbers of “nearly all” of its cellular customers and customers from other wireless providers who utilized its cellular network between May 1, 2022, and October 31, 2022.
Per CNN:
The stolen logs also contain a record of every number AT&T customers called or texted – including customers of other wireless networks – the number of times they interacted, and the call duration.
Importantly, AT&T said the stolen data did not include the contents of calls and text messages nor the time of those communications.
The records of a “very small number” of customers from January 2, 2023, were also implicated, AT&T said.
“We have an ongoing investigation into the AT&T breach and we’re coordinating with our law enforcement partners,” the FCC said on social media platform X.
How Did This AT&T Breach Happen?
Now, suppose you’re wondering how this happened. In that case, the communications company is blaming an “illegal download” on a third-party cloud platform it learned about in April as it was dealing with another unrelated data breach.
Speaking with CNN, spokesperson for AT&T, Alex Byers says this recent breach had “no connection in any way” to another incident in March.
In that breach, the company says personal information, such as Social Security numbers of 73 million current and former customers, made its way to the dark web.
AT&T issued a statement about the breach: “We sincerely regret this incident occurred and remain committed to protecting the information in our care.”
Okay.
We wish these hackers had used their talents to help, like exposing Donald Trump or wiping away everyone’s debt.
Just saying.