Nothing will reveal its first phone on July 12th

In a month’s time, we’ll finally get to meet Nothing’s first handset. The company has announced that its unveiling its second device, the Nothing phone (1), at an event on July 12th at 4PM BST/11AM EST. “It’s our first smartphone, and our most important product,” Nothing said in its announcement. “The real start of Nothing’s journey. To make tech fun again. And an invitation to unlearn everything the industry has taught us.” 

Nothing was formed by OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei who departed his original company before it merged with Oppo. Given Pei’s background, it doesn’t exactly come as a surprise for Nothing to release a phone. However, it wasn’t until reports came out that Pei was showing off a smartphone to industry executives at Mobile World Congress this year that the idea of Nothing launching its own phone became something real and not just something we’d expect the company to do in the future. 

Nothing eventually confirmed that it’s unveiling its own handset this summer and that it will be powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset. It will run on Nothing OS, a modified version of Android that the company says “captures the best features” of the OS and distills it “to just the essentials.” The platform’s interface will feature “bespoke” fonts, colors, design elements and sounds, as well. 

Nothing will introduce Phone (1) to the public at a live event in London, which will be livestreamed on its website. You can RSVP for the online stream right here.

HoloLens chief Alex Kipman is leaving Microsoft following allegations of misconduct

Alex Kipman, the lead developer of Microsoft HoloLens, is leaving the company, according to Insider. His departure comes after the same publication reported allegations that he engaged in inappropriate touching and comments towards female employees. He also reportedly fostered a culture that diminished women’s contributions. After Kipman told his team about his resignation, Microsoft cloud and AI VP Scott Guthrie announced a reorganization that would split the HoloLens group. In an email that’s also viewed by GeekWire, Guthrie said that the HoloLens hardware teams are joining the Windows + Devices group under Panos Panay. Meanwhile, the software teams are joining the Experiences + Devices division under Jeff Teper.

Guthrie also wrote that he and Kipman have been talking about the team’s path going forward over the past few months and that they had “mutually decided that this is the right time for him to leave the company to pursue other opportunities.” Kipman will apparently help with the team transitions over the next two months before leaving Microsoft entirely. 

In the previous Insider piece that reported on allegations against Kipman, a source said he watched what was essentially VR porn in the office in front of his employees. A former executive also told the publication that they had witnessed him behave inappropriately towards women more than once. He recalled an incident wherein Kipman allegedly kept massaging a female employee’s shoulders even after she kept shrugging her shoulders to get him to stop. Managers were reportedly telling employees not to leave women alone around him. Eventually, 25 people got together to compile a report about the bad experiences they had with the executive. 

Microsoft didn’t confirm or deny the allegations to Insider, but the company told the publication that “every reported claim [it] receive[s] is investigated, and for every claim found substantiated there is clear action taken.”

USB-C devices will have to ask for permission to send data in macOS Ventura

MacOS Ventura could prove reassuring if you’re worried about compromised peripherals ruining your computer. As The Vergenotes, Apple has revealed that Ventura will require user permission before USB-C and Thunderbolt accessories can transfer data on M1- and M2-based Macs. You won’t have to fear that someone could deliver malware simply by plugging in a thumb drive, or that a poorly-designed product might wreck your machine by sending bad info.

The policy is enabled by default, but won’t affect accessories plugged into your Mac during the OS upgrade process. It also won’t block external monitors, power adapters or products attached to already-approved hubs. Devices will also continue to charge even if they’re blocked, so you can still use your computer to top up a friend’s phone.

This won’t thwart devices that could fry ports through electrical surges. However, this could add a meaningful layer of security on top of USB-C’s requirement for encrypted authentication certificates. You’ll have the final say on data access, and might just stop a malicious device before it has a chance to do any damage.

Follow all of the news from WWDC right here! 

Winkelvoss twins’ crypto exchange faces lawsuit over $36 million theft (updated)

The Winklevoss twins might soon head to court. The Vergenotes retirement savings firm IRA Financial Trust has sued the twins’ crypto exchange Gemini over allegations the business didn’t adequately protect customers against a February 8th breach where intruders stole $36 million in Bitcoin and Ethereum assets. The company didn’t have “proper safeguards” to prevent the theft, according to IRA, and didn’t freeze accounts quickly enough to block the thieves from transferring money.

The trust firm specifically rejected claims that Gemini’s protections prevented a “single point of failure.” Gemini made IRA the parent account for its customers (who use sub-accounts), and gave it a “master key” that was reportedly exchanged in numerous insecure emails. Combine that with security flaws in Gemini’s system and you probably know what happened next — hackers got control of IRA’s key, moved the crypto into a single user’s retirement account, and withdrew the digital cash. The perpetrators also appear to have swatted Gemini during the February incident, making a fake kidnapping call to police. 

Gemini’s other security measures didn’t hold up, the IRA added. It supposedly shouldn’t have been possible to transfer money between accounts if the exchange had either properly implemented two-factor authentication or prohibited transfers between retirement funds. The trust noted that it didn’t have the power to freeze accounts itself, and that it took six emails to lock down all affected users. We’ve asked Gemini for comment.

This adds to mounting problems for the Winkelvoss’ outfit. It recently laid off 10 percent of staff to deal with a plunge in the cryptocurrency market, and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission sued Gemini for purportedly misleading customers in parts of its exchange and futures contract. While none of these problems may necessarily be fatal, they suggest the Winklevii could face financial trouble for a while to come.

Update 6/8 9:08AM ET: Gemini told Engadget in a statement that it “reject[s]” the allegations, and that the attackers targeted IRA rather than the exchange. It claimed that no Gemini systems were compromised, and that it “acted quickly” to help IRA following the breach.

E3 is really, truly coming back in 2023, says ESA

Although there are some major gamingshowcasestaking place this week, there are a few big names missing. One of those is E3, which was for a long time the most important gaming trade show on the calendar. Between the COVID-19 pandemic and some other factors, E3 has had a rocky few years and it isn’t going ahead in 2022. However, the group behind the expo, the Entertainment Software Association, plans to bring E3 back in 2023 with both in-person and digital components.

“As much as we love these digital events, and as much as they reach people and we want that global reach, we also know that there’s a really strong desire for people to convene — to be able to connect in person and see each other and talk about what makes games great,” Stan Pierre-Louis, CEO and president of the ESA, told The Washington Post.

The ESA has not announced the dates for next year’s planned show. However, the event usually takes place in early June. The 2020 edition was scheduled for just a few months after the onset of the pandemic but it and this year’s show werecanceled. (E3 did convene in 2021, albeit as an online-only event.)

Even before all of that, there were signs that E3 might be on the outs. For instance, Sony decided not to take part in the 2019 edition. The company instead adopted the Nintendo approach of holding digital showcases under its State of Play banner. Other publishers have shied away from E3 as well. That gives them the chance to take up a bigger share of the gaming news cycle whenever they host their own events.

Microsoft, on the other hand, seems to still be on board the E3 hype train. It was part of last year’s virtual E3 and is hosting a showcase around the time this year’s edition would have taken place.

Other issues have impacted E3 over the last few years. In 2019, personal details for thousands of journalists, analysts and content creators were leaked in a data breach. A media portal used for last year’s all-digital affair reportedly made some folks’ personal details visible to anyone who registered.

There’s perhaps still a place for E3 though, if it can bring together enough of the gaming industry in 2023. It still has value as a destination for studios, publishers, press and fans to get together, show off or play brand new games and take part in conferences. For indie developers, trade shows are a great opportunity for them to secure publishing deals that can perhaps turn their promising game into a success on the level of Stardew Valley or Undertale.

Uber and Waymo are working together on long-haul autonomous trucking

Waymo and Uber have signed a long-term, strategic partnership to collaborate on long-haul autonomous trucking. They’ll blend Waymo’s self-driving tech with Uber Freight’s network. The idea is to help customers deploy autonomous trucks more efficiently.

Those who buy trucks equipped with the Waymo Driver system will be able to tap into Uber Freight’s marketplace technology, meaning they’ll be able to deploy vehicles on the latter’s network for deliveries. Uber Freight is essentially a version of the regular Uber app designed for shippers, which helps them find truck drivers for on-demand haulage.

Waymo Via — the company’s trucking division — plans to earmark billions of miles of goods-only driverless delivery capacity for the Uber Freight network. It will only make that mileage available “when shippers need it most.”

The companies will trial the integration on Waymo Via’s test fleet at the outset. The timeline for a broader deployment is not clear. The companies say that by letting autonomous systems handle the long-haul aspect of trucking, they foresee a future where drivers will be able to move into short-haul jobs.

Uber and Waymo haven’t always been on the same page. In 2017, Waymo owner Alphabet sued Uber over the alleged theft of trade secrets by former employees. The previous year, Uber bought a self-driving truck startup called Otto, which was founded by a number of ex-Alphabet employees, including engineer Anthony Levandowski.

Alphabet claimed Levandowski downloaded more than “14,000 highly confidential and proprietary design files for Waymo’s various hardware systems” a few weeks before he quit the company. Levandowski was sentenced to 18 months in prison in 2020 and pardoned the following January by outgoing president Donald Trump.

Uber and Waymo settled the suit in 2018. After the companies resolved their differences, it was reported that Uber was open to the idea of collaborating with Waymo.