Two YouTube channels of content creator Ranveer Allahbadia (also known as BeerBiceps) were hacked by crypto fraud-promoting miscreants. Allahbadia hosts interactive sessions with Indian celebrities, spiritual leaders, and politicians, with a collective subscriber base of over 12 million.  Following the account breach, both of his channels were inaccessible to him, according to the creator. Meanwhile, the cybercriminals replaced related logos and images with those of Elon Musk and Tesla, and deleted all of the videos that were published on the channels. The scammers soon began to promote a crypto fraud scheme as well, using Allahbadia’s account.

YouTube has since restored access to Allahbadia’s channels following the breach. In the meanwhile, the hackers managed to display crypto schemes to entice viewers with promises of 200 percent returns. The hacker soon started a livestream on Allahbadia’s YouTube channels, featuring photos of Musk and Donald Trump. A QR code was displayed on screen, which when scanned, redirected users to a fake Tesla-inspired website. This website also featured a giveaway worth $100 million (roughly Rs. 836 million) to the participants, a report by Crypto.news said.  

Crypto scammers are using more sophisticated methods to take advantage of unwitting users, FBI had said in a recent report. In this incident as well, the hacker displayed a calculator that let users check how much will they receive in return if they invested a certain amount in what appeared to be a donation for Trump’s presidential campaign.  

“We welcome you to the official event from Elon Musk and Trump, this event was created to popularise cryptocurrency, to participate you need to send cryptocurrency to any wallet (BTC, ETH, DOGE, SOL) you see on the site, we will multiply the amount sent by two and return it to your wallet,” read a message displayed on the fake site created by hackers.  

Subscribers noticed the suspicious activities on Allahbadia’s channels and started posting about it on X (formerly Twitter).  

As per the report by Crypto.news, the streams of one of Allabadia’s hacked channels had exceeded the mark of 149,000 at one point – indicating that multiple people could have risked being scammed.  

This is not the first time that such an incident has happened. Earlier this month, YouTube was spammed with deep fake videos of Apple CEO Tim Cook, promoting a crypto fraud scheme.  

Can you picture consuming 700 eggs in just one month? It may sound unusual, but a Harvard medical student recently embarked on this odd experiment to examine the effects of a high-egg diet and its impact on cholesterol levels. Here’s how his body responded to this ‘egg-centric’ regimen and everything you need to know about this unique study.

Nick Norwitz, a Harvard medical student, consumed around 700-720 eggs in a month to research the impact of a high-egg diet on his cholesterol levels. Contrary to popular belief, this diet surprisingly led to a 20 percent reduction in his LDL (bad) cholesterol levels, rather than increasing them as many would expect.

In an interesting twist, Norwitz shared in his YouTube video that before starting this unusual experiment of consuming about 60 dozen eggs, he had hypothesized that it would not lead to an increase in his LDL (low-density lipoprotein), or bad cholesterol, by the end of the month.

In the experiment, which has garnered over 160,000 views on YouTube, Dr. Norwitz explained that he consumed the eggs alongside his regular ketogenic diet, which included meat, fish, olive oil, nuts, dark chocolate, cheese, and yogurt. A ketogenic diet is a low-carb, high-fat regimen designed to shift the body’s primary energy source from sugar to fat.

After the first two weeks of his experiment, Dr. Norwitz decided to introduce 60 grams of carbohydrates into his daily intake. To achieve this, he incorporated fruits like bananas, blueberries, and frozen cherries into his diet, which he enjoyed by dipping them in macadamia butter.

To reach his target of 60 grams of carbohydrates, Dr. Norwitz would need to consume the equivalent of two bananas or 21 ounces of blueberries daily. He explained that increasing carbohydrate intake could further aid in lowering cholesterol levels in the body.

For individuals on a low-carbohydrate diet, LDL levels often rise as the body shifts to burning fat for energy instead of carbohydrates. However, when a person increases their carbohydrate intake, the opposite effect occurs—LDL levels decrease because the body starts deriving more energy from carbs.

One of the world’s best-known online personalities is facing a lawsuit.

Jimmy Donaldson, better known as “MrBeast,” is a 26-year-old YouTube star with more than 300 million subscribers. He’s built an empire offering huge prizes to viewers on his videos.

The proposed class action lawsuit accuses MrBeast’s production company and Amazon Studios of “chronic mistreatment” and sexual harassment of contestants in an upcoming reality show. The plaintiffs also claim to be considered employees, not contestants, and dispute wages in the lawsuit.

Legal battle details

Five unnamed contestants in the upcoming Amazon reality show “Beast Games” are alleging MrBeast’s production company and Amazon Studios created a “toxic and hostile” environment, that “laid the groundwork” for sexual harassment, according to the lawsuit.

The plaintiffs cite an alleged production guide called “How to succeed in MrBeast Production,” which they say encourages obscenities and directs staff to “do everything” to “help” the talent “be idiots.”

The contestants also claim they were forced to endure “unsafe” conditions with a lack of access to medical care, food and water, and say they weren’t paid a fair wage.

“You can call them whatever you want to, but if they meet the definition of an employee, it doesn’t matter what you title them,” Lizelle Brandt, the plaintiffs’ attorney, said. “Our argument is that they are employees under California law.”

Amazon Studios and a spokesperson for MrBeast declined to comment.

“The hope, dream and expectation that you will get a payment is not the same thing as being an employee,” said CBS News legal contributor Jessica Levinson. “There’s a real legal battle here that the plaintiffs will have to convince a judge that this group who signed on to be part of a show should be considered as employees, not contestants.”

Previous allegations

The accusations come after YouTuber Jake Weddle, who claims to be a former MrBeast employee, alleged mental abuse during a 100-day isolation challenge.

“It got to the point where they weren’t turning the lights off,” Weddle said. “You know I asked them. I said, ‘Could we have like nighttime hours, you know?’ They said ‘No.'”

Donaldson, 26, has previously faced allegations of racism and inappropriate comments.

“When Jimmy was a teenager he acted like many kids and used inappropriate language while trying to be funny,” a spokesperson for the YouTuber said in a statement to The Associated Press when the allegations surfaced. “Over the years, he has repeatedly apologized and has learned that increasing influence comes with increased responsibility to be more aware and more sensitive to the power of language. After making some bad jokes and other mistakes when he was younger, as an adult he has focused on engaging with the MrBeast community to work together on making a positive impact around the world.”

Google Maps is getting an all-new experience called ‘immersive view’, to deliver an enhanced digital model of buildings and streets around the world. The new mode uses advances in computer vision and artificial intelligence (AI) to deliver a rich viewing experience to users, Google said while announcing the new feature at its I/O 2022 consumer keynote on Wednesday. Google also announced the second beta of Android 13, its upcoming operating system. The company also announced updates coming to Google Workspace including automated transcriptions, portrait light, and portrait restore on Google Meet. Additionally, there were announcements related to Google Assistant, YouTube, skin tone representation, and others that you will find in detail here.

Google Maps updates

With the ‘immersive view’, Google Maps help provide the rich view of a neighborhood, landmark, restaurant, or a popular venue you search. It fuses together billions of Street View and aerial images alongside advances in computer vision and AI to provide the rich, digital model of virtual maps, the company said.

“Whether you’re traveling somewhere new or scoping out hidden local gems, immersive view will help you make the most informed decisions before you go,” Google said.

In addition to the immersive experience, the new view includes the time slider that users can use to even check out what the area looks like at different times of day and in various weather conditions. Users can also glide down to street level to look at nearby restaurants and see information such as live busyness and nearby traffic.

‘Immersive view’ uses Google Cloud to offer the digital view to users. So, it is device agnostic and can work with any phone and device, Google said. The experience has initially started rolling out in Los Angeles, London, New York, San Francisco, and Tokyo.

Google Maps is also expanding eco-friendly routing to more places including Europe. It was launched in the US and Canada in the recent past and has been used by people to travel 86 billion miles, saving over an estimated half a million metric tons of carbon emissions, Google claimed.

Further, Google is making its Live View available to developers through the new ARCore Geospatial API. It brings augmented reality (AR) to display arrows and directions on top of real-world viewing to help users navigate indoor areas such as airports, malls, and train stations.

Android 13 beta 2 release

Among other announcements, Google at the I/O 2022 consumer keynote announced the release of Android 13 beta 2. The update will carry a list of improvements and enhancements over the first beta release that debuted for select Pixel devices last month. Google also announced features including a unified Security & Privacy settings page, new media control featuring album’s artwork, and a new photo picture that lets users to select the exact photos and videos that they want to grant access to. Android 13 will also include optimisations for tablets, including better multitasking capabilities and features including an updated taskbar with the ability to switch the single tablet view into a split screen.

Android 13 beta 2 has been released
Photo Credit: Google

 

Google Meet updates

Google Meet is getting the portrait restore that uses Google AI to help improve video quality and add enhancements even if a user is sitting in a dimly lit room and using an old webcam or have a poor Wi-Fi connectivity. Google said that the feature can help enhance video automatically.

In addition to the portrait restore feature, Google Meet is getting portrait light that is claimed to use machine learning to simulate studio-quality lighting in video feed. Users can also adjust the lighting position and brightness.

Google Meet is also getting de-reverberation that helps filter out echos in spaces with hard surfaces using machine learning. The company claims that the feature helps you sound “like you’re in a mic-ed up conference room…even if you’re in your basement.”

Additionally, Google Meet is getting live sharing to sync content being shared in a virtual call and allow participants to control the media. Developers can also use live sharing APIs to integrate Meet into their apps.

Google is also bringing automated transcription later this year and meeting summarisation next year to enhance conversations on Google Meet.

Google Workspace updates

Google Workspace is getting Google Meet’s automated transcriptions to help users transcribe conversations directly in their documents. Google is also extending auto-summaries to Spaces to provide a digest of long conversations. Auto-summaries were introduced on Google Docs earlier this year.

Google Workspace is getting new updates soon
Photo Credit: Google

Further, Google is adding security protections that were a part of Gmail to Google Slides, Docs, and Sheets. The company claimed that these protections will help users prevent from opening documents containing phishing links and malware using automatic alerts.

Google Assistant updates

At the I/O 2022 consumer keynote, Google announced Look and Talk that is rolling out to in the US on Nest Hub Max to help people access Google Assistant without saying the “OK Google” or “Hey Google” hotword. Users will just need to look at the screen and then ask for what they need. The feature uses Face Match and Voice Match features based on machine learning and AI algorithms to recognise users and quickly enable voice interactions. Google said that the feature will be available as an opt-in offering.

Once enabled, you can use Look and Talk to interact with Google Assistant by just looking at the screen of your Nest Hub Max.

“Video from these interactions is processed entirely on-device, so it isn’t shared with Google or anyone else,” the company said.

 

Google also noted that the feature work across a range of skin tones and for people with diverse backgrounds.

In addition to the Look and Talk feature, Google is expanding quick phrases to Nest Hub Max to let users skip saying “Hey Google” for their most common daily tasks. This means that you will be able to turn on the lights in your room by saying, “Turn on the living room lights,” without saying the hotword first.

Google Assistant is also getting new speech and language models that can help understand the nuances of human speech — like when someone is pausing, but not finished speaking, the company said.

YouTube updates

Google at the I/O keynote announced that it is bringing auto-translated captions on YouTube to mobile users to help users view video captions in as many as 16 languages. Google is also bringing auto-translated captions to all Ukrainian YouTube content next month.

Skin tone updates

Google is releasing a new skin tone scale called the Monk Skin Tone (MST) Scale based on the research conducted by Harvard professor and sociologist Dr. Ellis Monk. This will help bring more inclusive of the spectrum of skin tones, the company said.

The new 10-shade skin tone scale will be integrated within various Google products over the coming months. Google is also releasing the scale openly to allow others in the tech industry to incorporate a vast range of skin tones into their experiences.

 

One of the key Google products that will start using the MST Scale will be Google Search. It will start showing users an option to help users further refine results by skin tone. Creators, brands and publishers will also be able to use an inclusive schema to label their content with attributes like skin tone, hair colour and hair texture.

Google Photos will also use the MST Scale to allow users to enhance their photos using a new set of Real Tone filters. These filters will be rolling out on Google Photos across Android, iOS, and the Web in the coming weeks.