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Abandoned Popcorn Time apps had to be disabled to prevent a zombie army

23 October 2026 at 21:35

Remember Popcorn Time, the app that served as an easy-to-use front end for streaming torrents of movies and TV shows? Development of the MPAA's least-favorite app of the 2010s has been abandoned for years, but the "Netflix of Piracy" software is still installed on millions of devices that are just waiting to join a bot army. Researchers at Eye Security found the updater for a Popcorn Time fork called "Time4Popcorn" still running on tons of Windows, macOS, and Android devices located around the world, phoning home to now-abandoned web domains over unencrypted HTTP and running an outdated, insecure version of Chrome.

Eye Security's Niels Teus …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Netflix can’t fire its way out of this downward spiral

23 October 2026 at 15:00
Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos. | Photo by Noam Galai/Getty Images

Netflix co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters assured investors this week that they have nothing to be concerned about. Sure, the company was going to lay off 1,000 employees, downsizing its product, tech, and legal departments, and was ousting its chief content officer, film chairman, and film vice president. But it had also hired a new COO - "one of the most effective at-scale operators in the entertainment industry," Sarandos said - to turn things around.

Though executive shake-ups aren't uncommon, having so many of them back to back would send a concerning message even in the best of circumstances. With Netflix, however, the situation lo …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Spotify says yes, it is busting people for using Family Plan sharing too widely

23 October 2026 at 01:02
Vector illustration of the Spotify logo.

Spotify co-CEO Alex NorstrΓΆm confirmed on this week's earnings call that the company is trying to catch Spotify Family plan users who don't actually live together with a new QR code verification method that requires scanning the plan manager's phone. TechCrunch reports that in response to a question about the "crackdown," he called it a "routine improvement" instead:

This is not as much a crackdown as it is actually a routine improvement of our verification methods for our Family Plan. Family Plan has existed for a long while. It has been around for, I think it is now close to 12, 13 years in Spotify history, and it makes up a pretty signi …

Read the full story at The Verge.

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