Bluesky is once again having a wobble. The platform said some of its systems are down and that it’s “investigating an incident with service in one of our reginos” (that’s Bluesky’s typo, not mine). The issue appears to have started at 1:42AM ET and was still persisting as of 11AM when this story was originally published. Since then, the site has been experiencing intermitent interuptions, including at times to its status page where users should be able to monitor outages. At 7:47PM ET, the platform explained that it’s been attempting to mitigate “a sophisticated Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attack, which intensified throughout the day.” It said the attack had caused interruptions to users’ feeds, notifications, threads and search, all of which the Engadget team experienced first-hand at various points through the day. While DDoS attacks are frequently used as virtual smokescreens for hacks, Bluesky says it has “not seen any evidence of unauthorized access to private user data.” The social media service had another brief outage earlier this month. The outage is ongoing, but due to its intermittent nature it’s more of a rolling blackout than a power outage. Bluesky says it will provide another update on the situation by 1PM ET on April 17. Update, April 16, 8PM ET: This story was updated after publish with an of the outage from Bluesky. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/bluesky-blames-ddos-attack-for-server-outages-150515882.html?src=rss
Casely has reannounced a recall of its Power Pods 5,000mAh MagSafe E33A charger after dozens of people were injured and one even killed by the defective devices, the US Consumer Product Safety Commission (USCPSC) announced . It's recommended that you stop using the devices immediately, dispose of them safely and seek a replacement from the manufacturer. A year ago, Casely and the USPSC published a recall of 429,000 units of the power bank with the model number E33A. That followed 51 incidents of the devices "overheating, expanding or catching fire" and burning users in multiple cases. However, many of the devices have remained in use and are even more dangerous than initially thought. "In August 2024, a 75-year-old woman from New Jersey, was charging her cell phone with the power bank on her lap when it caught on fire and exploded," the USCPSC reported. "The victim suffered second and third degree burns and later passed away from complications from her injuries." In another incident this year, a 47-year-old woman was charging her phone on a plane when it caught on fire and exploded, giving her first degree burns. As a result, the recall has been reissued due to "a risk of serious injury or death from fire and burn hazards to consumers," according to the Commission. The defective Casely Power Pods 5,000mAh charger is identifiable by the Casely embossed logo on the front and model number E33A on the back. It was sold at various online retailers including getcasely.com and Amazon between 2022 and 2024. Casely is offering free replacement units as a remedy (it's not clear if you can get a full refund). Those seeking one should write "recalled" on the battery pack in permanent marker and submit a photo, along with a second photo showing the E33A model number as pictured above. Owners are instructed to dispose of them by contacting a facility that handles lithium-ion batteries. Do NOT throw them away with regular household waste, recycling, or standard battery disposal bins due to the risk of fire and explosion. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/general/psa-stop-using-your-casely-power-pods-wireless-charger-immediately-062120825.html?src=rss
This weekend's scheduled Blue Origin rocket launch is rather momentous. Success would signal an end to SpaceX's monopoly on reusable orbital launch vehicles, and set up a three-way race to make that "No Service" indicator on your phone disappear forever. On Sunday morning, Jeff Bezos' massive New Glenn rocket is scheduled to launch with the […]
YouTube is making some changes that might affect how you share videos from the mobile app. From the app, you can finally share videos from a specific timestamp, which will make it easier to point someone to a part of a video you might want them to see while you're on your phone. However, this […]
