After sifting through price drops and comparing them against our expert product reviews & recommendations, these are the best #MemorialDay2021#deals on WIRED-approved gear:
If you buy something using our links, WIRED may earn a commission. wired.trib.al/8pLFfNV 1/
Tribit Stormbox Micro Bluetooth Speaker for $32 ($16 off): At Amazon, clip the on-page coupon and enter code MMDDPRMT at checkout to save. wired.trib.al/dvC64at
📷: @TribitOfficial 2/
Apple AirPods Max for $520 ($30 off): Expensive, even when they're on sale but this is the best price we've seen for them. wired.trib.al/fMs5Gsh
📷: Apple 3/
Beats Solo Pro for $150 ($150 off): Despite being a bit older, they're still fashionable, comfortable, and have good sound as well as noise-canceling tech. wired.trib.al/sC1Npb5
📷: Beats 4/
.@Fitbit Charge 4 Fitness Tracker for $100 ($50 off): This is the best fitness tracker. Despite being affordable, the Charge 4 has features you'd typically find in much pricier gadgets, like GPS and sleep monitoring. wired.trib.al/jU5dBjx
📷: Fitbit 5/
.@Microsoft Surface Pro 7 for $699 ($260 off): The Surface Pro 7 is a great 2-in-1. It makes a great laptop alternative with full access to Windows 10, and it makes a decent laptop for watching Netflix in bed. wired.trib.al/najaKMW
📷: Microsoft 6/
Roka Oslo Sunglasses for $140 ($30 off): These are on our list of the best sunglasses. The Oslo are super lightweight and stylish, and the hydrophilic nose pads ensure that the glasses stay put while you're sweating in the sun. wired.trib.al/jbS4naH
📷: Roka 7/
NEW: Tulsi Gabbard, now the US director of national intelligence, used the same easily cracked password for different online accounts including a personal Gmail account and Dropbox over a period of years, leaked records reviewed by WIRED reveal. wired.com/story/tulsi-ga…
The password associated includes the word “shraddha,” which appears to have personal significance to Gabbard: This year, WSJ reported that she had been initiated into the Science of Identity Foundation, which ex-members have accused of being a cult. wired.com/story/tulsi-ga…
Security experts advise people to never use the same password on different accounts precisely because people often do so. As director of national intelligence, Gabbard oversees the 18 organizations comprising the US intelligence community.
DOGE is knitting together data from the Department of Homeland Security, Social Security Administration, and IRS that could create a surveillance tool of unprecedented scope. wired.com/story/doge-col…
The scale at which DOGE is seeking to interconnect data, including sensitive biometric data, has never been done before, raising alarms with experts who fear it may lead to disastrous privacy violations. wired.com/story/doge-col…
“They are trying to amass a huge amount of data,” a senior DHS official tells WIRED. “It has nothing to do with finding fraud or wasteful spending … They are already cross-referencing immigration with SSA and IRS as well as voter data.” wired.com/story/doge-col…
American police are spending hundreds of thousands on Massive Blue’s unproven and secretive technology that uses AI-generated online personas designed to interact with and collect intelligence on “college protesters,” “radicalized” political activists, and suspected traffickers.
Massive Blue calls its product Overwatch, which it markets as an “AI-powered force multiplier for public safety” that “deploys lifelike virtual agents, which infiltrate and engage criminal networks across various channels.”
404 Media obtained a presentation showing some of these AI characters. These include a “radicalized AI” “protest persona,” which poses as a 36-year-old divorced woman who is lonely, has no children, is interested in baking, activism, and “body positivity.”
The audit covers DOGE’s handling of data at several Cabinet-level agencies, including:
–the Departments of Labor, Education, Homeland Security, Health and Human Services
–the Treasury
–the Social Security Administration
–the US DOGE Service (USDS) itself wired.com/story/gao-audi…
It's being carried out after congressional leaders’ requests and is centered on DOGE’s adherence to privacy and data protection laws and regulations.
A Congressional aide said the requests followed media reports on DOGE’s incursions into federal systems. wired.com/story/gao-audi…
Dozens of federal employees tell WIRED that Trump's federal return to office order has resulted in chaos (including bad Wi-Fi and no toilet paper), with productivity plummeting and public services suffering. wired.com/story/federal-…
One effect of all this, many federal employees tell WIRED, is that they are travelling long distances in order to spend all of their time in virtual meetings.
A Treasury employee says they spend most of their time at the office on video calls as well. wired.com/story/federal-…
It isn’t just traveling to work to sit on Zoom calls—it’s that there may be no place to take the call, or no working internet to connect to it.
WIRED granted employees anonymity to speak freely about their experiences. wired.com/story/federal-…
SCOOP: Elon Musk’s DOGE has plans to stage a “hackathon” next week in Washington, DC. The goal is to create a single “mega API”—a bridge that lets software systems talk to one another—for accessing IRS data, sources tell WIRED. wired.com/story/doge-hac…
DOGE ops have repeatedly referred to the company Palantir as a possible partner in the project, sources tell WIRED.