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For about the first half of its running time, Aquaman feels like a fake movie. (And yes, I know it was already a fake movie on Entourage.)

To be clear, I mean that as a compliment. There's a knowing silliness to Aquaman that helps gloss over its sometimes-shaky CG and over-complicated mythology, and a willingness to go for broke that keeps us guessing about what we'll witness next.

SEE ALSO: 'Aquaman' star Jason Momoa challenges Jimmy Fallon to some casual trident throwing

When a petulant Patrick Wilson, as King Orm, barks about becoming an "Ocean Master," you don't need to know what that means to laugh at the ridiculousness. When the camera soars over a glittering underwater realm and settles on an enormous octopus pounding away at the drums, you don't need any context at all to be amused by the spectacle.  Read more...

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If you’re just striking out on your own, or you’ve never had to make repairs for yourself before, finding the tools you need can be intimidating. Make it easier by grabbing one of these all-in-one kits.

The tool kits below are inexpensive, at least in relative terms—buying all of the tools inside them individually would cost many times the price of the kit. They’re not world-class tools like you’d find in a mechanic’s garage or on a handyman’s belt, but they’re more than capable of handling small home repairs or furniture assembly. Odds are that if the job you’re doing can be covered by a five-minute YouTube video, the tools below will suffice. If not, they’re great places to start fro a more complete collection of hardware without spending a fortune.

The Best Small Kit: Cartman 136-piece Tool Set ($21)

For those in small homes or just looking for an inexpensive kit to grab for quick jobs, this Cartman package will do nicely. It doesn’t include anything particularly high-end, but the compact, fold-out case covers all the basics for easy home and appliance repair.

In addition to a bit driver and a smaller set of screwdrivers for precision work, the kit includes a tape measure, adjustable wrench, and level, which aren’t necessarily a given in anything under thirty bucks. The package even includes a few torx bits and a some nails and screws, if you’re buying for something you need to take care of right away.

Buy on Amazon The Best Large Kit: Stanley 170-piece Mixed Tool Set ($85)

If you want something that’s a seriously good start to a more extensive collection of tools, check out this Stanley collection. 170 pieces cover just about everything you’ll need short of full power tools.

A huge selection of bits, ratchets, L-keys, and wrenches should allow you to assemble or disassemble almost anything, and large and small full screwdrivers in Philips and flathead drivers are great for quick jobs. The package includes a 16-inch tape measure and a utility knife, but is notably missing a hammer—add a solid one and you’re good to go for almost anything.

Buy on Amazon The Best All-In-One Tool Bag: WorkPro 156-piece Home Repair Tool Set ($60)

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If you’re a fan of Google Lens, you now have another avenue for accessing the feature in iOS, because it’s now included in the Google Search app on the iPhone. Here’s how to use it.

Google Lens is a neat little feature that can identify real-world objects, like signs, buildings, books, plants, and more using your phone’s camera. And it gives you more information about the object. It’s available in the Google Photos app, but if you don’t use Google Photos, you can now access Google Lens in the regular Google Search app. We’ll show you how to use Google Lens in both apps.

In the Google Search App

If you don’t already have the app, you can download it here. Once you’re up and running, just start by tapping on the Google Lens icon inside of the search bar.

If you don’t see the icon, try closing out of the app completely and the re-opening it.

On the next screen, tap “Turn on camera to use Lens” at the bottom.

Hit “OK” when the app asks for permission to use the camera.

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There have been some bad trojans found on Android, but this is possibly one of the worst. This new threat automates a PayPal transaction for $1000 and sends it using the official PayPal app—even on accounts with 2FA enabled.

The PayPal Hijack

It does this using a couple of different methods and leveraging Android’s Accessibility services. The malicious app is currently disguising itself as an Android optimization tool and has been making its way onto users’ phones through third-party app stores. So for starters, don’t use third-party app stores.

When installed, “Optimization Android” (seriously, why would you install something with a name like this in the first place?) also creates an Accessibility service called “Enable statistics.” It then requests access to this feature, which seems harmless enough—it will allow the app to monitor user actions and retrieve window content. If you think it’s all in the name of making your phone faster, it almost makes sense.

But that’s where things get worse because now the trojan can effectively emulate touches. It generates a notification that looks like it’s from PayPal urging the user to log in.

When tapped, this notification opens the official PayPal app (if installed)—so this isn’t a phishing attempt. The official app opens and asks the user to log in. Since this a legitimate login attempt within the official app, 2FA does nothing to secure the account—you’ll just log in as normal, entering your 2FA code when it comes in.

Once you’re logged in, the malicious app takes over, transferring $1000 from your PayPal account to the attacker. This automated process happens in fewer than five seconds. We Live Security made a video of the entire process, and it’s pretty crazy how fast it all happens:

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(Reuters Health) - - Patients sent home from the hospital around Christmas time are more likely to have bad outcomes compared to those discharged at other times, a Canadian study suggests.

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Apple has launched its mobile payments service in Germany, four years after its start in the United States and trailing Google, which started its payments app in the country in June.

Sony’s PlayStation Classic mini-console has only twenty games pre-loaded, and there’s no built-in mechanism for adding more. But the system also uses a popular open-source PlayStation emulator to run its ROMs, so an unofficial expansion was more or less inevitable.

Only a week after the gadget’s official release, modders have cracked the rather basic software wide open, enabling it to boot PS1 ROMs off of a USB drive plugged into one of the controller ports. In fact, “cracked” might not be the right word, since the PlayStation Classic is remarkably insecure and doesn’t seem to do any verification of software running on an external drive. A GitHub developer has already made a tool that allows users to load up PlayStation ROMs on a USB drive with the correct file structure, inserting them into the console’s own game browser.

The process is a little finicky, but it’s essentially just running a single PC application and checking to see that files are stored and labeled correctly. At the moment permanent modification of the console’s built-in storage isn’t quite so easy, but that might not be practical anyway. PlayStation ROMs are much larger than those of the NES and SNES, whose mini editions were also quickly hacked and expanded.

But for all those players saddened by the exclusion of that one PlayStation title they loved, there’s now a documented process for getting said game on the Classic. More extensive ROM support for other consoles might come later since the PlayStation Classic definitely has enough power to handle 8- and 16-bit emulators. Gamers hoping to build a dedicated emulation box might be better served by something like a Raspberry Pi or an NVIDIA SHIELD.

Source: GitHub via The Verge

A Chinese court has ordered a sales ban of some older Apple Inc iPhone models in China for violating two patents of chipmaker Qualcomm Inc, though intellectual property lawyers said enforcement of the ban was likely still a distant threat.

The head of a tech giant is on the congressional hot seat again.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai appeared before the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday morning. The hearing, titled Transparency & Accountability: Examining Google and its Data Collection, Use and Filtering Practices, focused on a range of issues, including: allegations of anti-conservative bias, data collection, and a censored search engine in China. 

SEE ALSO: Live updates from Mark Zuckerberg's Congressional testimony

Conservative representatives hammered on allegations of anti-conservative bias, which Pichai refuted. Other issues included the Google Plus data breach, Russian manipulation of the platform, and even how search fundamentally works. Read more...

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French auto parts maker Valeo expects mild hybrid cars to make up more than 25 percent of the world car market in 2026, its innovation director Guillaume Devauchelle said on Tuesday.

The OnePlus 6T is already one of the best phones you can buy for the money, but if you want just a little bit more from your phone, the McLaren Edition might be the one for you.

So, what’s different about it? Specs, baby. Where the standard 6T comes with up to 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, the McLaren bumps the RAM to a massive 10 gigabytes and it comes stock with 256GB. Beyond that, it also bumps the charging speed (over the including wired charger, that is) with Warp Charge 30. That promises to give 50 percent battery in just 20 minutes on the charger.

Unfortunately, the McLaren Edition doesn’t fix the 6T’s main shortcomings, like the lack of waterproofing. It also doesn’t add some more high-end features, like wireless charging. Personally, I would’ve rather seen those additions over the extra RAM or faster wired charging. But I digress.

There are some aesthetic goings on here, too—the back is carbon fiber and features McLaren’s iconic Papaya Orange around the outside edge. On the software side, the McLaren Edition is also packed with new themes and animations to fit the gotta go fast motif found throughout the rest of the phone.

Of course, these changes also mean a bump in price. The McLaren Edition 6T will set you back $699, which is about $70 more than a regular 6T with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. The extra money does get you faster charging and an extra 2GB of RAM, which may be worth it to some. And if you’re still having a hard time justifying the cost, just look at what other manufacturers offer for this price tag—we can almost guarantee it won’t be 10GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. Still, it’s up to you whether it’s worth buying over the regular 6T, which is the bigger question in my mind.

If you’re in, you’ll be able to buy the OnePlus 6T McLaren Edition starting on December 13th.

A senior U.S. intelligence official warned on Tuesday that Chinese cyber activity in the United States had risen in recent months, and the targeting of critical infrastructure in such operations suggested an attempt to lay the groundwork for future disruptive attacks.

Whatever year-end content you're devouring this December, let's be real – you want to know about your year in Netflix. The streaming service is notoriously private about numbers, but did release a list of the top TV and film titles we binged this year.

SEE ALSO: The 8 best returning TV shows of 2018

Though Netflix released dozens of original films this year, the year-end press release doesn't rank overall viewership; it only names the three that were rewatched with the highest frequency.

Of course, social media has to be a metric, so Netflix also investigated the Instagram audience growth of stars who appeared in a Netflix film or series during the year. Yup, we follow all of them. Read more...

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This Christmas is the perfect time for you to buy your kids a robot toy for them to enjoy and maybe learn a few things from. Here’s a look at some of the best robot toys out there for kids of all ages.

There are plenty of different robot toys out there so we’ve narrowed things down to key areas like the age of your kids, and what you want them to gain from the robot. Of course, they’re all great fun to play with but a few of these toys will also teach your kids useful skills such as programming concepts—if you’re looking for even more options to encourage an interesting in coding and science check out our favorite coding kits for kids and coding toys. As for robots, here’s our pick of the bunch.

Best For Toddlers: Dimple Wireless Remote Control Robot Puppy ($45)

There’s barely an age that’s too young for robot toys these days. That’s thanks to cute robotic toys like Dimple the Wireless Remote Control Robot Puppy. The pooch offers multiple different play modes, with the ability to sing, dance, crawl, stand, and speak. He can teach your kids the alphabet, as well as play familiar songs to teach them key concepts. As you’d expect, he’s super cute looking too.

Dimple charges via USB and his remote works from up to 6.5 feet away, so he’s simple to use yet technologically sound. Consider him a fine introduction to intelligent toys.

Buy on Amazon Best For Simple Programming: Makeblock Codey Rocky ($99)

The Makeblock Codey Rocky is a cute little robot that rides around on wheels. You can teach him basic actions like following a circuit, relaying a message on his LED screen, and even get him to say hello.

Where things get smarter is through his 10 programmable electronic sensors, including a gyroscope, so that programming potential is fairly varied. You can even attach building blocks like LEGO pieces to him, to expand his look and style. There’s the option of hooking him up to IoT devices too.

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If versatility and mobility are your top priorities when it comes to choosing a laptop, the Microsoft Surface Pro (5th generation) should be top of your Christmas list. 

That's not to say that the Surface Pro is a one-trick pony. Yes, it promises the versatility of a studio and a tablet, but it also has up to 50% more battery life than the Surface Pro 4, an ultra-light design, and impressive speed and performance thanks to a powerful Intel Core processor.

You can now save £299 on the Surface Pro and platinum signature type cover bundle, available for just £599. If you order now you can get your bundle in time for Christmas, and there's free delivery with free returns.  Read more...

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Uber Technologies Inc [UBER.UL] and smaller rival Lyft are driving side-by-side on the road to a stock market debut, and that may not bode well for Lyft as investors decide where to place their bets in the ride-hailing sector.

Bug bounty hunter Sahad Nk recently uncovered a series of vulnerabilities that left Microsoft users’ accounts — from your Office documents to your Outlook emails — susceptible to hacking.

While working as a security researcher with cybersecurity site SafetyDetective, Nk discovered that he was able to take over the Microsoft subdomain, http://success.office.com, because it wasn’t properly configured. This allowed the bug hunter to set up an Azure web app that pointed to the domain’s CNAME record, which maps domain aliases and subdomains to the main domain. By doing this, Nk not only takes control of the subdomain, but also receives any and all data sent to it. Read more...

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In the Windows 10 October 2018 Update, Edge received a performance boost that lets it pre-launch processes and preload the Start and New Tabs during Windows startup. If you don’t use Edge, though, these optimizations are wasting resource and slowing startup. With a quick Registry hack or Group Policy setting, you can disable it.

All Windows 10 Users: Prevent Pre-Launching and Preloading by Editing the Registry

If you have Windows Home edition, you will have to use Registry Editor to make these changes. You can also do it this way if you have Windows Pro or Enterprise, but feel more comfortable working in the Registry. (If you have Pro or Enterprise, though, we recommend using the easier Local Group Policy Editor, as described later in the article.)

Standard warning: Registry Editor is a powerful tool and misusing it can render your system unstable or even inoperable. This is a pretty simple hack, and as long as you stick to the instructions, you shouldn’t have any problems. That said, if you’ve never worked with it before, consider reading about how to use the Registry Editor before you get started. And definitely back up the Registry (and your computer!) before making changes.

To do this, you’re going to have to make two separate edits in the Registry: one to prevent pre-launching of processes and another to prevent preloading of the start and new tab pages. We’ll take them one at a time.

Prevent Pre-Launching of Microsoft Edge Processes

To get started, open the Registry Editor by hitting Start and typing “regedit.” Press Enter to open Registry Editor and then permit it to make changes to your PC.

In the Registry Editor, use the left sidebar to navigate to the following key (or copy and paste it into the Registry Editor address bar):

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\MicrosoftEdge\Main

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Ah, December, a perfect time to sit back and reflect on what kind of porn you watched in 2018. 

Pornhub, the online adult video site has released a nice, long look at the year across the site, and while there are a lot of things that seem typical for a porn site, there are a number of results that are pretty eye-catching. 

For starters, Pornhub claims that by the time 2018 draws to a close, the site will have been visited 33.5 billion times this year, none of those by anyone you know, surely. In addition, the site averaged around 92 million visitors a day, which is equal to the combined populations of Canada, Australia, and Poland. Read more...

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