Before I get started: No, people cant steal your credit card information using AirDrop. AirDrop doesnt even know what your credit card number is.In a hoax thats been spreading around TikTok as of late (the source of the rumor is unclear), viral videos are now saying that hackers can use the iPhones AirDrop feature to steal your credit card information from your Apple Wallet. The news was first reported on by The Daily Dot, which to its credit, quickly called it out for the nonsense it is.What the rumors sayIn videos that have been spotted over the embattled social media app the past few weeks, popular users including @vanessaromito13 and @the_journey76 urged their audiences to be cautious of Apples AirDrop feature following a recent update, claiming hackers can now steal your credit card information just by walking by you with an iPhone in their pocket. Specifically, the latter says hackers can walk past you now and from one iPhone to another using that AirDrop setting, they can get all the cards in your wallet. In your Apple Wallet. The former, meanwhile, attempts to offer a solution, encouraging followers to disable the search with other iPhones setting.Fortunately, neither are correct.Can people steal information through AirDrop?Whatever sparked these concerns, theres nothing in the most recent iPhone update (iOS 18.2) that would have done it. Despite the worries over AirDrop, last weeks update made no changes to either AirDrop or Apple Wallet, instead focusing the bulk of its attention on Apple Intelligence.Instead, the rumors seem to be a repackaging of earlier concerns over the iPhones NameDrop functionality, which allows two iPhones to share contact information just by coming into close proximity. Even law enforcement got in on the fearmongering here, but tech experts were quick to point out that the feature requires extremely close physical proximity and consent on both ends. In actuality, most concluded that it doesnt pose much of a risk.Saying that people can use AirDrop to steal your credit cards just by walking past you with their iPhone nearby preys on a similar fear, but doesnt even reference a feature that exists.First, there is no search with other iPhones setting to disable. Speaking generously, the influencer might be referring to the Bringing Devices Together setting that got added with NameDrop, or the ability to set your AirDrop permissions to receive requests from everyone for 10 minutes.Regardless, neither work in the way described. Bringing Devices Together is a NameDrop only function, while accepting requests from everyone just means other users can offer to send you files, which youll still need to accept before they make their way over to your phone. For them to get files off your phone, you would need to send them over yourself. And regardless, your settings will revert to Contacts Only after 10 minutes, with no always-on option to share with everyone available.Second, AirDrop cant interact with Apple Wallet. The feature can only share files accessible via the iPhones file browser, which isnt where Apple Wallet stores information. And even if it were, Apple Wallet doesnt actually have your credit card informationit uses a Device Account Number generated by your bank or card provider, which gets encrypted along with everything else in your wallet and is very hard to do anything with unless you have the iPhone it's tied to. According to Apple, your card number is never stored on your device or on Apple servers.In short, the most risk you have of someone nearby stealing your credit card number through Apple Wallet is if they see the last four digits of your card by physically looking at your screen. And even so, theres not much they can do with that.Can people steal your Apple Pay transactions through tap-to-pay?So, yes, this recent warning is a hoax. AirDrop cant do anything with your payment information, and itll take a hacker a bit more diligence to take money from your Apple Pay than just walking by you with an iPhone in their pocket. But that doesnt mean you shouldn't be vigilant.Right now, there are two known ways for people to steal from you using Apple Pay, although neither will give them permanent access to your financial information.The first is to take advantage of stressed-out buyers by overcharging them. As also reported by The Daily Dot, if youve already approved a transaction by double tapping into your Apple wallet and authenticating the payment (via FaceID, TouchID, or your PIN), but havent yet seen the sellers screen, they could charge you whatever they like by simply tapping their phone to yours without confirming the sale with you first. In one case, a woman was charged $975 for what she thought would be a $10 box of chocolates because she was already preparing to use Apple Pay before seeing the scammers seller screen and how much they were actually going to charge her. Always ensure you see a charge before activating Apple Pay, rather than relying on whatever the seller says the charge will be.The second is a bit harder to avoid. While hackers cant use AirDrop to steal your payment information, they can use their own software to steal transactions over-the-air from nearby payment terminals. This is a bit harder to avoid, and is usually employed at particularly busy vendors, such as those at music festivals. In this case, youll only be out on whatever you were intending to pay the vendor, but if youre planning to be in a crowded area with lots of sales going on at once, pay attention to others near you while youre using Apple Pay theyll have to be close by to steal a transaction using NFC. In the case that they do pull it off, though, you can at least rest assured that all information sent to the terminal will have been encrypted.Again, there are legitimate threats to watch out for here, and its a good idea to exercise caution. But allowing panic-spreading social media posts to whip you into a worried frenzy just makes it harder to keep track of the real risks out there, and may make you miss out on the real benefits that come with encryption-focused payment methods like tap-to-pay.

Back when Twitter existed, I loved a Mac application called TweetBot. This was a desktop client that offered a streamlined interface, great keyboard shortcuts, and was just overall less ugly than using Twitter in a browser.Bluesky is growing very quickly now, but there aren't any really great Bluesky clients for the desktop. Sure, we've pointed out a few third-party Bluesky clients, but none that can match the design of TweetBot. Clients that good are, right now, only offered for Mastodon. There's Ivory, an extremely good Mastodon client made by Tapbots, the company that built the previously mentioned TweetBot. My colleague Pranay Parab called Mona the best Mastodon client and, good as Ivory is, I agree. And I could go on: there are many great options. Wouldn't it be nice if you could use those applications for Bluesky? Well, you can. SkyBridge is a free web service that makes it easy to connect to and use Bluesky entirely from your Mastodon app of choice. I recently set this up with Mona and I love it. There are a few glitches, mostly owing to features that exist on Mastodon but not on Bluesky, but if you just want to browse your timeline and replies, SkyBridge works very well.To get started, install whatever Mastodon client you want to use and add a new account. When asked for your server, enter "skybridge.fly.dev". Here's how that looks on Mona: Credit: Justin Pot After this, you will be asked to sign into SkyBridge. You can use your standard Bluesky username and password, if you want, but for security's sake it's probably a good idea to create a dedicated app password in the settings (click here to jump right there). Credit: Justin Pot Make sure to check Show replies in the home feed if you like seeing every bit of a thread in your timeline (leave it unchecked if you'd rather just see the first post in a thread). Click "Sign In" and you will be redirected to whatever app you were trying to set up. It should now be working.It should be noted that not every Bluesky feature is supported. And not every feature in your Mastodon client is going to workI couldn't browse the most shared news articles in Mona, for example. But the basicsyour timeline and replieswork very well. I mostly recommend this if you, like me, are already active on Mastodon and have a client of choice. Settings this up means I can manage conversations with both Mastodon and Bluesky users in one application, which I like.

Steam Replay, Valves take on Spotify Wrapped for games youve played through Steam, is available now for your perusal. Valves offered the year-end presentation since 2022, and it can be a pretty revealing glimpse into how time-consuming most games have become in the last two years (or how much one game can really stick in your craw).You can access the data dump directly through the Steam app, your Steam Deck or the web. For 2024, Valve tracked the number of games and demos youve played, the number of achievements youve unlocked, your longest gaming streak and the games you spent the majority of your time playing. The company also collected data on how much of your time spent playing was on Steam Deck, which genres you tend to prefer and shared some details on how the median Steam users plays. For example, the median Steam user only played four games this year, and unlocked 13 achievements.ValveAccording to my Replay, the majority of my time on Steam this year was spent playing 1000xRESIST, Arco, Animal Well and Balatro. Since Ive basically treated the Steam Deck like a console from the moment I bought one, its also where I spent 100 percent of my time using Steam in 2024. I suspect thats unusual for the average user, but its really the only surprise I found combing through Valves data.If you dig up anything interesting in your Steam Replay, Valve has made it easy to make your Replay public so you can share with friends. If youre particularly proud of how much youve completed in 2024, you can also attach an overview of your stats directly to your Steam profile.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/pc/steam-replay-2024-is-available-now-so-you-can-compare-your-balatro-playtime-with-friends-234027828.html?src=rss

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has approved Californias plan to phase out and ban the sale of new gas-powered cars and light trucks by 2035. ABC News reported the EPA gave California the waivers it needed to enact the Advanced Clean Cars II Regulations (ACC II) devised and approved by the California Air Resources Board in 2022.The EPA also approved Californias plan to reduce nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions from heavy-duty vehicles in order to reduce the amount of smog in the air. The state will require an initial 75 percent reduction in NOx pollution followed by a 90 percent reduction a few years later.The ACC II provides a year-to-year blueprint for phasing out the selling of combustion-engine vehicles. The plan sets a 2026 deadline by which 35 percent of the states car sales must be electric vehicles, plug-in hybrids or models with hydrogen fuel cells. Then by 2030, the electric vehicle sale threshold rises to 68 percent before reaching its ultimate 100 percent sale requirement by 2035. Consumers and dealerships will still be able to buy, sell and drive used ICE and hybrid cards until the ACC II. California Air Resources Board chair Liane Randolph estimated the ACC II could lead to a 50 percent drop in pollution by 2040.California Gov. Gavin Newsom hailed the decision and ACC II in a statement as evidence that California can rise to the challenge of protecting our people by cleaning our air and cutting pollution.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/epa-gives-thumbs-up-to-californias-new-gas-powered-car-sale-ban-232048688.html?src=rss

Another day, another new Threads feature. Metas app will soon be rolling out a feature that allows users to re-share photos and videos to their timelines with credit to the original poster but without the original post attached.Once available, users will need to long press on a photo or video from their feed and select use media. Theyll then be able to draft a new post with the image of the clip attached, with a watermark from the original poster showing in the top left corner. This is a quick, easy way to add your creative takes to trending images and clips without quote posting, Threads chief Adam Mosseri wrote in a post.The feature is presumably meant to make it easier for people to reshare other users work with some credit for its original creator. Mosseri has fielded a number of complaints on Threads from frustrated users who see their work ripped off without credit. In a post last month, Mosseri said that Meta was trying to shift more distribution from aggregators to creators on both Instagram and Threads, though he acknowledged it can be very difficult to do so when the original post was lifted from a non Meta-owned platform. On Instagram, the company recently tweaked its algorithm in an attempt to boost creators over aggregators.Judging by some of the reactions to Threads latest update, however, a number of creators are still unhappy with Metas approach. It just seems like blatant content theft, one photographer replied. Quoting the post is a far more effective way of sharing someone's content with your own comments while crediting the creator, another user said.In a separate post, Meta noted that individual creators are able to disable media reuse in their apps settings, so it is possible to block your posts from being shared this way. (There are also settings to prevent others from quote posting entirely.) However, for those worried about accounts straight up ripping off their posts in the interest of engagement farming, theres still little any user can do to prevent less scrupulous accounts from copying their content with screenshots or other means.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/threads-new-use-media-feature-is-its-latest-attempt-to-fight-stolen-memes-and-engagement-farming-224119483.html?src=rss

Looking for NYT Strands answers and hints? Here's all you need to know to solve today's game, including the spangram.

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Tesla shares dropped more than 8% on Wednesday, their biggest decline since before Trump's election victory, which has been a big spark for the stock.

Micron shares plunged in extended trading after the chipmaker issued weaker-than-expected second-quarter guidance.