Onavo, Facebook's data security app that offers consumers access to a virtual private network (VPN), is due to be removed from Apple's App Store at the same time that the social media site suspended more than 400 apps for harvesting users' personal information. As reported by The Wall Street Journal, the app created an encrypted VPN connection that routes internet activity through servers that are managed and secured by Facebook and the app also alerted users when sites they visit may be dangerous. It has become public knowledge that Facebook is able to collate data about how people use their smartphones outside of the social network's services and potentially figure out information about rivals or internet trends, but what is Onavo? Onavo, founded in Israel in 2010 by Roi Tiger and Guy Rosen, is an analytics company that has provided products for applications, which are then influenced by the data that is collated through the company's VPN services, Onavo Extend and Onavo Protect, according to Crunchbase. In 2013, the company was acquired by Facebook and was the seed for the launch of Facebook Israel, its platform being leveraged to monitor the performance of competitors and influence other acquisitions and business decisions.

The Japanese tech giant said Thursday a special'First Litter Edition' will go on sale in September and packs more smarts than previous iterations, like the ability to learn custom tricks, map and navigate a room with ease and learn up to 100 faces. It all comes at a hefty cost, however, with a price tag of $2,899 for a bundle that includes Aibo, a charging station, paw pads, a pink ball, an'aibone' and three years of access to the Aibo cloud app. The tech giant said a special'First Litter Edition' will go on sale in September for the hefty price tag of $2,899 Aibo is billed as a pet that behaves like a puppy using artificial intelligence (AI) to learn and interact with its owner and surroundings. The reborn Aibo features new actuator technology allowing it move more smoothly and naturally like a real dog. With sensing and AI technologies, Aibo can run toward its owner and detect smiles and words of praise, and can remember what actions please the owner.

For four years I've waited for a spiritual successor to Never Alone. Part game, part documentary, E-Line Media and Upper One Games managed to adapt traditional Inupiaq folklore into an accessible platformer while educating players about the culture in question. It was flawed, but beautiful and memorable. Memorable enough, I guess, that the BBC got in touch and asked E-Line to do it again. At Gamescom this week I got to take a look at Beyond Blue, a spiritual successor to Never Alone and a companion piece to the BBC documentary Blue Planet 2. As you might expect from the Blue Planet 2 pairing, Beyond Blue takes you deep under the ocean.

You probably assume that someone can only see what's on your computer screen by looking at it. But a team of researchers has found that they can glean a surprising amount of information about what a monitor displays by listening to and analyzing the unintended, ultrasonic sounds it emits. The technique, presented at the Crypto 2018 conference in Santa Barbara on Tuesday, could allow an attacker to initiate all sorts of stealthy surveillance by analyzing livestreams or recordings taken near a screen--say from a VoIP call or video chat. From there, the attacker could extract information about what content was on the monitor based on acoustic leakage. And though distance degrades the signal, especially when using low quality microphones, the researchers could still extract monitor emanations from recordings taken as far as 30 feet away in some cases . "I think there's a lesson here about being attuned to the unexpected in our physical environment and understanding the physical mechanisms that are behind these gadgets that we use," says Eran Tromer, a cryptography and systems security researcher at Tel Aviv University and Columbia University, who participated in the research.

The new iPhone is coming. There are probably just days to go until Apple reveals the new handset. And just days after that it'll be ready and waiting, for those who've successfully clicked or queued their way into buying it. All of that makes it just about the worst possible time to buy an iPhone. They are all their usual price, and are just about to be overtaken by a whole host of brand new phones.

Sony was once the king of consumer electronics, the Apple of its day. It had a slew of iconic products. The brand was so synonymous with cutting-edge quality, its tagline was simply "It's a Sony." But against the rise of tech giants such as Apple and Samsung, it's struggled to adapt to changing trends in the electronics world and watched its prominence evaporate in nearly everything from televisions to smartphones. Now, Sony is trying to reintroduce itself to the US market.

Sony was once the king of consumer electronics, the Apple of its day. It had a slew of iconic products. The brand was so synonymous with cutting-edge quality, its tagline was simply "It's a Sony." But against the rise of tech giants such as Apple and Samsung, it's struggled to adapt to changing trends in the electronics world and watched its prominence evaporate in nearly everything from televisions to smartphones. Now, Sony is trying to reintroduce itself to the US market.

Walmart-backed Flipkart has just issued a challenge to Amazon's Alexa and Google Assistant. The home-grown e-commerce giant today announced that it has acquired Bengaluru-based artificial intelligence (AI) startup Liv.ai, which has developed a platform that converts speech-to-text in nine regional languages apart from English. With this move, the e-tailer hopes to soon offer an end-to-end conversational shopping experience for its users. "Given the complexities in typing on vernacular keyboards, voice will become a preferred interface for new shoppers. One does understand that building a voice interface is complex, and is especially challenging in Indian context given multiple languages and accents," Flipkart CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy said in a statement.

We got a brief glimpse at Sony's sixth-generation Aibo back at CES -- but we couldn't touch it, no matter how adorable it looked, and we didn't know when it would be hitting America. We just knew it wouldn't be cheap, since it landed in Japan last fall for $1,800. At a small press event in New York City today, Sony revealed it's releasing a "first litter" of Aibo for $2,899 in September, with delivery expected before the holidays. That steep price gets you the robot dog, a bunch of accessories and a three-year subscription to Sony's AI Cloud, which will house Aibo's memories and help it learn over time. But it's one that can learn to recognize your family (including your real life pets) and gain a personality over time.

Russian company Kalashnikov have released a robot - and it's not quite what anyone expected. 'Igorek' ('little Igor', not its official name) was revealed to the public on Monday in Moscow by the company behind the famous AK-47 gun which has sold more than 100 million units worldwide. The 13-feet (3.96m) tall, 4.5-tonne, manned robot is designed for "carrying out engineering and combat tasks", according to Kalashnikov, at the ARMY Forum. The Forum describes itself as the "world's leading exhibition of arms and military equipment, the authoritative platform for discussing innovative ideas and developments for the armed forces". For the moment, however, Igorek is completely immobile.