Hasta La Gadget!

LastPass CEO Karim Toubba has revealed that the password manager has been breached again. Toubba said the company detected an unusual activity within a third-party cloud storage service that it shares with its parent company GoTo, which was formerly known as LogMeIn. To investigate the incident, LastPass has teamed up with security firm Mandiant. Together, they’ve determined that the unauthorized party got into LastPass’ cloud service by using information obtained from the security breach it suffered in August this year. Further, they’ve discovered that the bad actor was able to access “certain elements” of its customers’ information.

If you’ll recall, LastPass was hacked back in August, and Toubba admitted after an investigation that the unauthorized party had internal access to its systems for four days. The hacker was able to steal some of the password manager’s source code and technical information, but LastPass said customers’ data and encrypted password vaults remained untouched. Apparently, the hacker’s access was limited to the service’s development environment. While the unauthorized party was able to access some user information this time, LastPass said customers’ passwords remain safely encrypted. 

In an announcement of its own, remote work and collaboration tools provider GoTo has admitted that bad actors gained entry into its development environment. Like LastPass, the company has assured customers that its products and services are fully functional despite the breach. The password manager and its parent company are still investigating the incident to understand its scope, so we’ll likely hear more details in the coming months. 

You have quite a few streaming choices for this year’s upcoming Game Awards, but Valve is making its Steam TV coverage more enticing than most by giving away a ton of Steam Deck consoles. The video game developer and distributor has announced that it’s giving away one 512GB Steam Deck every minute during the live airing of the awards show on December 8th. To be eligible, you’ll have to be watching the event on Steam TV, which starts at 7:30PM ET, and you’ll have to register on the giveaway’s official page beforehand to enter the drawing. 

One factor that could potentially prevent you from joining the draw is your location: You can only register and win if you’re in the US, Canada, UK or the EU, where the console is currently available for sale. In addition, you must have made a Steam purchase between November 14th, 2021 and November 14th, 2022 to verify your country and prove that your account is not limited and is in good standing. Valve will draw a random name from the pool of registrants every minute during the event and will be announcing winners in chat as each drawing takes place. To note, the show is expected to run for around two-and-a-half hours, so that’s over a hundred Steam Decks to be won. 

The 2022 Game Awards will not only stream online but will also offer a live “IMAX Experience” in select cities in the US, Canada and other regions. This year’s event also introduces a new category for best adaptation featuring projects that translate games to movies, TV shows, podcasts and books.

YouTube has revealed its top videos and creators of 2022. At the top of the US trending video list is the final video from Technoblade, a Minecraft creator who died after a battle with cancer. Technoblade wrote a farewell message to fans that his father read in the video, which has more than 87.6 million views.

In second place is The Guardian‘s uncensored version of Will Smith slapping Chris Rock during the Oscars ceremony, which has 103 million total views. Another popular Minecraft creator, Dream, revealed his face for the first time in a video that racked up 47 million views. The list also includes the Super Bowl LVI halftime show, the culmination of Mark Rober’s anti-porch pirate glitterbomb series and that Try Guys mess.

The trending video list is based on US video views, which explains why MrBeast’s recreation (and giveaway) of Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory is in fifth place despite having 126 million total views. YouTube also excludes Shorts, music videos, trailers and children’s videos from this list.

Speaking of MrBeast, he was the top creator based on the number of subscribers gained in the US. That’s not too surprising, since he has the most subscribers of any individual creator (Indian music label T-Series has the most overall). YouTube says that list doesn’t take into account artists, brands, media companies or children’s content.

Elsewhere, YouTube revealed the top songs in the US for 2022 (featuring tracks released this year or older ones that saw a significant uptick in views). “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” from Disney’s Encanto topped the list with 503 million views. Bad Bunny and Karol G each had two songs on the list.

Having to advocate for your teen self to an older man was “a really, really crazy kind of mind fuck,” the actor said.

It’s that time of year again. Streaming services are eager to tell you which artists, songs and albums you listened to the most in 2022. While a few have already rolled out their bits of annual nostalgia, Spotify’s 2022 installment of Wrapped debuts today. The company likes to put a new spin on its personalized top lists each year and this one is no different. A new feature called Your Listening Personality offers some insight into what the music you stream says about your taste. Wrapped determines which of 16 Listening Personality types fits you best including The Replayer, The Specialist, The Adventurer and The Fanclubber. 

Of course, Wrapped will also chronicle your top artists, genres, songs, podcasts and tally your total minutes listened. An Audio Day feature can also tell you how your musical preferences change during the course of a day in an interactive story format. Artist Messages return from 2021 with over 40,000 acts recording thank you videos for top listeners. These clips are followed by your most listened to song from each artist this year too. Spotify has added the ability to purchase merch and see upcoming events through the Wrapped hub as well. 

Spotify

As your social channels will indicate today, Spotify users love to share their Wrapped stats. This year, the company has added the ability to share cards via Instagram DMs, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp and Line. What’s more, there’s a Snapchat lens for sharing that Listening Personality, Wrapped Bitmoji and themed GIFs on GIPHY. Since Spotify made its debut on Roblox earlier this year, you can expect Wrapped to show up there too with quests, games, digital merch and plenty of opportunities for photos. 

In addition to the personalized Wrapped experience, Spotify has also revealed its top artists, songs, albums and podcasts for 2022. Bad Bunny is the most popular globally with “As It Was” by Harry Styles and Un Verano Sin Ti by Bad Bunny taking the top spots for songs and albums respectively. In the US, Drake edged out Taylor Swift but both the most popular song and album remain the same from the global charts. In terms of podcasts, The Joe Rogan Experience finishes the year number one again, with another Spotify exclusive — Call Her Daddy — slotted in second on both the global and US charts.