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Rapid7 research has uncovered multiple printer vulnerabilitiesBrother, Fujifilm, Ricoh, and Toshiba printers are all at riskRapid7 and Brother have released mitigations and workaroundsBrother Industries produces some of the best home printers on the market, and has millions of machines across the globe.But research from Rapid7 has found that hundreds of home and enterprise Brother models are vulnerable to multiple serious security vulnerabilities.What’s worse, one of the vulnerabilities cannot be patched with a simple software update and the device must be redesigned to remove the flaw.Millions of printers vulnerableIn total, Rapid7 found eight serious vulnerabilities that affected 689 models of Brother devices, covering printers, scanners, and label makers. Additionally, due to Brother’s position in the supply chain, 46 Fujifilm models, five Ricoh models, and two Toshiba models are also affected by the vulnerabilities.The most serious vulnerability - an authentication bypass vulnerability with a CVSS score of 9.8 - allows an attacker to use the printer’s default password to take over the device and potentially access connected systems. By acquiring the target device’s serial number, the attacker can generate the default password for that specific device.Typically, the default passwords are generated during manufacturing, meaning that in order to fully remediate this vulnerability, Brother must make changes to the manufacturing process in order to protect devices from being exploited by CVE-2024-51978.The other vulnerabilities include methods for hackers to retrieve sensitive information on the device, triggering stack based buffer overflow, forcing new TCP connections, performing arbitrary HTTP requests, crashing the device, and disclosing the passwords of a configured external device. The full details of these vulnerabilities and recommended remediations can be found here.Rapid7’s research project was conducted alongside JPCERT/CC and Brother Industries to help make consumers and businesses aware of the threats posed by the vulnerabilities, and the potential mitigations measures that can be applied.You might also likeBoost your home office with the best all-in-one printerThe best cheap printers can accommodate any budgetTake your small business to new heights with professional-level printing

The Roland Mood Pan is a Bluetooth speaker and music instrumentBased on traditional acoustic handpans, and it's a MIDI triggerIt costs $659 / £544Roland's Mood Pan sounds like the title of a sitcom or the name of a hipster ramen shop, but it's something much weirder: it's a UFO-shaped electronic percussion instrument that enables you to explore "serene sonic textures" without requiring any musical ability whatsoever. It's also a Bluetooth speaker, and MIDI trigger for electronic instruments and music creation software.Roland has a long history of making musical hardware – its drum machines are the heartbeat of house and hip-hop, and its synths are everywhere in pop, rock and EDM. But this is a bit different, because it's as much about enjoying the sounds as it is about playing an instrument.It's also really expensive, although that's not necessarily a deal breaker: some of the most entertaining musical oddities, from keytars to Omnichords, are pretty pricey too.(Image credit: Roland)Roland Mood Pan: what's the plan?The Mood Pan is based on acoustic handpans, those chimey things you hear a lot in new age soundtracks and in the background when a beauty tech is about to stab you with needles, rip out your body hair, or crack your back. And like a handpan, you play it by tapping on it.There are nine pads on top, each of which can be attached to a different musical scale and which can be configured so you'll never play a wrong note. You can also tap the sides to create more percussive sounds, mute resonating sounds and add expression.The big benefit over a traditional handpan, of course, is that you're not limited to one set of sounds and one tuning. You can use the Mood Pan as a drum trigger or a singing bowl, as a gamelan or a guitar. You can use it as a serene soundtrack provider thanks to its four soundtrack modes, and you can ruin the mood completely by streaming black metal to it over Bluetooth.It looks like a fun instrument and creative tool, but as with many acoustic handpans the big drawback is the price: at $659.99 it's more expensive than a triggering device such as the Native Instruments Maschine or the Novation Launchpad Pro. And certainly is more expensive than most Bluetooth speakers we've tested. But they don't let you noodle around with making music too, so maybe it's well worth it.You might also likeBest cozy Switch games 2025 - unwind, relax, and chillThis high-tech piano wants to teach you to play with the power of AIThe best headphones 2025 tested by our experts, for all ears and budgets

You can now pay annually for Google AI Pro for the first timeThe overall price is the equivalent of getting two months for freeAs yet, ChatGPT doesn't offer annual subscription optionsGood news if you're fully committed to Google Gemini AI, and you like saving money: the Google AI Pro subscription can now be purchased annually as well as monthly, and you 'll save yourself a chunk of money if you pay year-to-year.As spotted by 9to5Google, you can now pay $199.99 for a year of AI goodness, instead of the existing $19.99 a month option – with the latter working out as $239.88 over the 12 months ($39.89 more than an annual plan).In the UK, your options are £18.99 a month or £189.99 a year (saving you £37.89). It's not immediately clear if the deal is the same in Australia, but there the monthly fee is AU$32.99 – so presumably you'd be looking at AU$329.99 a year (saving AU$65.89). Essentially, you're getting two months free if you pay for a year in advance.Of course, the downside of annual plans is that you're committed for a full year, so you can't opt out whenever you like – which is why you'll often see annual plans available for less overall, in all the places where you're signing up for a subscription.How does ChatGPT compare?SubscriptionMonthly priceAnnual priceGoogle AI Pro$19.99 / £18.99 / AU$32.99$199.99 / £189.99 (Aus TBC)Google AI Ultra$249.99 / £234.99 / AU$409.99Not availableChatGPT Plus$20 / £20 (about AU$30.58)Not availableChatGPT Pro$200 / £200 (about AU$306)Not availableChatGPT Plus remains at $20 / £20 per month (AU$30.58 at current rates). There's no option to pay annually as yet, and you can also put up $200 / £200 (about AU$306) per month for the top-tier ChatGPT Pro plan, with fewer limits and more features.For comparison purposes, Google's own super-charged, pro-level plan is Google AI Ultra, and that's going to set you back $249.99 / £234.99 / AU$409.99 per month. At the time of writing, there's no option to pay annually (perhaps understandably), though you do get the first three months for half price if you want to give it a try.All of which means there's not too much to choose between the monthly costs of Gemini and ChatGPT, when it comes to the cheaper plans that most people are going to sign up for – but if you want to pay annually and save, that's only possible on the Google service.We'll have to wait and see whether ChatGPT responds with an annual plan of its own. It's also worth mentioning that you can use both Gemini and ChatGPT for free, but with a limited set of features and more restrictions on your usage.You might also likeGoogle's new Gemini AI model lets robots run offlineOpenAI may be forced to keep all of your ChatGPT conversationsGemini's super-fast Flash-Lite 2.5 model is out now

The OnePlus Watch 3 43mm smartwatch has just been announcedThe device is the smaller sibling to the OnePlus Watch 3It’s due to launch on July 8 alongside four other productsOnePlus has announced that it's launching a new smartwatch for smaller wrists on July 8. The new device – dubbed the OnePlus Watch 3 43mm – will be available alongside the larger Watch 3, which measures a chunkier 46mm across.OnePlus says the Watch 3 43mm will come with a 1.32-inch display and a stainless steel chassis that weighs 37.8 grams. That makes it far lighter than the larger Watch 3, which tips the scales at 81g, and means the 43mm model is the “most compact smartwatch” the company has ever made.The screen crystal has what OnePlus describes as a “2.5D micro-curved design” that provides “a seamless transition between different materials and creating an elegantly unified aesthetic.” Its face comes with screen-printed 12-hour indices for straightforward time display. It's only available in one color though: Silver Steel.Despite its traditional appearance, the OnePlus Watch 3 43mm is packing smart features including the company’s Mind & Body Evaluation tracking. It’s got a real-time barometer that can gauge your fatigue every 30 minutes, it can track your stress and help you understand what’s causing it, and it’s able to provide daily and weekly trends on your mind and body status, among other features.New devices galore(Image credit: OnePlus)The Watch 3 43mm isn't the only new device OnePlus is set to unveil on July 8. The company has also announced that it will be releasing four other devices at the same time: the OnePlus Nord 5, OnePlus Nord CE 5, OnePlus Buds 4 and OnePlus Pad Lite. These products – as well as the Watch 3 43mm – were revealed earlier in June when we sat down with OnePlus for an exclusive interview.The original OnePlus Watch 3 made it onto our list of the best smartwatches on the market – in fact we judged it to be the best Wear OS smartwatch that isn’t made by Google – so the new model stands in good company. If it’s able to continue what its larger sibling started, it’ll be a strong contender in a competitive smartwatch scene.As for pricing for the Watch 3 43mm, OnePlus is keeping that under wraps for now (although we’ve reached out and will update this post when we hear back). However, with tariffs already affecting the price of the regular Watch 3, rumors have been swirling that the smaller wearable could follow suit. We’ll be keeping our eyes open over the next few weeks to see what happens.You might also likeExclusive: OnePlus reveals the OnePlus Nord 5 series, OnePlus Buds 4, OnePlus Pad Lite, and a new OnePlus WatchTwo months on, OnePlus has fixed my biggest problem with the OnePlus Watch 3, and now I can recommend it to everybodyThe OnePlus Watch 3 Mini could be a 43mm smartwatch, but a massive tariff price hike might dampen its appeal

For every one person who prefers interacting with AI, 4.4 prefer speaking with humansBaby-boomers are seriously anti-AI when it comes to customer serviceReport highlights the value of human connectionAccording to new research from Okta, 70% of consumers prefer interacting with humans, with only 16% opting for AI agents over humans.In the UK, this trend is even more pronounced, with just 11% preferring AI agent interactions and one in two (54%) not even trusting AI with their personal data.Moreover, barely one in three (36%) see any real benefit in AI agents altogether, suggesting that the productivity-enhancing technology might not be at its most useful in customer service settings.Consumers just want humansArtificial intelligence is most valued in language translation, research and writing – outputs that are task-orientated, rather than the transactional conversations that are typical of customer service agents.Globally, Okta found that the ratio of those who prefer humans to those that prefer AI stands at 4.4:1, however countries like the US (4.2:1), Japan (3.4:1) and India (1.1:1) were less worried about talking with humans. Still, no country scored higher for AI, highlighting the importance of human interaction and involvement in customer service.Okta also compared generations, with baby-boomers hugely less likely to want to talk to AI (41.5:1) – way more than Gen X (9.8:1), Millennials (3.2:1) and Gen Z (2.3:1).Quite simply, it's the human touch that gives humans the upper edge – 'A human understands my needs better', said two in three (64%) respondents. Frustration when dealing with AI agents was also a significant frustration (38%).However, there are some benefits to interacting with AI, including quicker and more streamlined responses without emotional bias.Looking ahead, Okta calls for a measured and calculated approach to AI agents, building security and privacy-first initiatives into them from the get-go. "Finally, don’t overlook the value of human agents – if one thing is clear from the survey, it’s that users still value that human connection," the report concludes.You might also likeCustomer service hasn’t changed, but how we handle it has, Zendesk EMEA CTO saysThese are the best AI tools and best AI writers to boost productivityWe've listed the best customer experience tools

Federal Judge Vince Chhabria has ruled in favor of Meta over the 13 book authors, including Sarah Silverman, who sued the company for training its large language model on their published work without obtaining consent. His court has granted summary judgment to Meta, which means the case didn't reach full trial. Chhabria said that Meta didn't violate copyright law after the plaintiffs had failed to show sufficient evidence that the company's use of the authors' work would hurt them financially.

In his ruling (PDF), Chhabria admitted that in most cases, it is illegal to feed copyright-protected materials into their large language models without getting permission or paying the copyright owners for the right to use their creations. "...by training generative AI models with copyrighted works, companies are creating something that often will dramatically undermine the market for those works, and thus dramatically undermine the incentive for human beings to create things the old-fashioned way," he wrote.

However, the court "must decide cases based on the evidence presented by the parties," he said. For this particular case, the plaintiffs argued that Meta's actions cannot be considered "fair use." They said that that their creations are affected by Meta's use because the company's LLM, Llama, is capable of reproducing small snippets of text from their books. They also said that by using their books for training without consent, Meta had diminished their ability to license their work for LLM training. The judge called both arguments "clear losers." Llama isn't capable of generating enough text straight from the books to matter, he said, and the authors aren't entitled to the "market for licensing their works as AI training data."

Chhabria wrote that the argument that Meta copied their books to create a product that has the capability to flood the market with similar works, thereby causing market dilution, could have given the plaintiffs the win. But the plaintiffs barely touched the argument and presented no evidence to show how output from Meta's LLM could dilute the market. Despite his ruling, Chhabria clarified that his decision is limited: It only affects the 13 authors in the lawsuit and "does not stand for the proposition that Meta’s use of copyrighted materials to train its language models is lawful."

Another judge, William Alsup, also recently sided with Anthropic in a class action lawsuit also brought by a group of authors who accused the company of using their copyrighted work without permission. Alsup provided the writers recourse, though, and allowed them to take Anthropic to court for piracy.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/meta-wins-ai-copyright-case-filed-by-sarah-silverman-and-other-authors-120035768.html?src=rss