Technologies

Former Sony Playstation exec under investigation after appearing in pedo sting video

San Diego’s Internet Crimes Against Children task force is looking into the matter.

A Sony senior vice president who worked on the PlayStation Network was fired from his position after being caught in an amateur pedophilia sting video. San Diego police confirmed Thursday he is now under investigation.

George Cacioppo was allegedly trying to arrange a meeting with a person claiming to be a 15-year-old boy, according to a video posted Dec. 3 by the YouTube channel People v. Preds. Cacioppo had been a senior vice president of engineering at Sony for the past eightyears, according to his LinkedIn profile. He has been fired after allegedly appearing in the video.

«We are aware of the situation and the employee in question has been terminated from employment,» Sony said in an emailed statement Sunday.

Cacioppo didn’t respond to requests for comment submitted through his LinkedIn account.

In the video, a cameraman is seen walking down a street at night toward a house. A person who appears to be Cacioppo, wearing a PS5 shirt, is standing outside the house. The cameraman then speaks to Cacioppo, referring to him as «Jeff.» As the cameraman asks more questions, Cacioppo walks back into the house and closes the door while refusing to answer. The cameraman proceeds to start yelling that he will call the police.

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According to a Google Drive link posted in the YouTube video’s description, Cacioppo allegedly spoke with a person who said he was 15 years old on Grindr, the social networking app for gay, bi, trans and queer people. The two exchanged pictures and discussed sex acts, according to screenshots of the conversation. Cacioppo allegedly told the decoy that his name was «Jeff» and provided his address. The decoy said he would take an Uber to his location, and Cacioppo was allegedly waiting outside.

A spokesperson for the San Diego Police said Thursday its Internet Crimes Against Children task force is investigating the incident. People v. Preds confirmed that the information was sent to the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office. The DA’s office says it has yet to receive the case from law enforcement.

This isn’t the first tech company employee that People v. Preds claims to have caught trying to meet a minor. In October, a man identified as Todd Wiseman allegedly set up a meeting with a 15-year-old on Grindr.

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According to his LinkedIn profile, Wiseman was a senior account manager at Nvidia. A spokesman for the company said Wiseman doesn’t work for the company but confirmed he used to be an employee. Nvidia declined to comment on whether the video contributed to the end of his employment.

Wiseman didn’t respond to a request for comment submitted through his LinkedIn account.

Technologies

Ultrahuman Ring Pro Brings Better Battery Life, More Action and Analysis

The company’s new flagship smart ring stores more data, too. But that doesn’t really help Americans.

Sick of your smart ring’s battery not holding up? Ultrahuman’s new $479 Ring Pro smart ring, unveiled on Friday, offers up to 15 days of battery life on a single charge. The Ring Pro joins the company’s $349 Ring Air, which boosts health tracking, thanks to longer battery life, increased data storage, improved speed and accuracy and a new heart-rate sensing architecture. The ring works in conjunction with the latest Pro charging case.

Ultrahuman also launched its Jade AI, which can act as an agent based on analysis of current and historical health data. Jade can synthesize data from across the company’s products and is compatible with its Rings.

«With industry-leading hardware paired with Jade biointelligence AI, users can now take real-time actionable interventions towards their health than ever before,» said Mohit Kumar, CEO of Ultrahuman.

No US sales

That hardware isn’t available in the US, though, thanks to the ongoing ban on Ultrahuman’s Rings sales here, stemming from a patent dispute with its competitor, Oura Ring. It’s available for preorder now everywhere else and is slated to ship in March. Jade’s available globally.

Ultrahuman says the Ring Pro boosts battery life to about 15 days in Chill mode — up to 12 days in Turbo — compared to a maximum of six days for the Air. The Pro charger’s battery stores enough for another 45 days, which you top off with Qi-compatible wireless charging. In addition, the case incorporates locator technology via the app and a speaker, as well as usability features such as haptic notifications and a power LED.

The ring can also retain up to 250 days of data versus less than a week for the cheaper model. Ultrahuman redesigned the heart-rate sensor for better signal quality. An upgraded processor improves the accuracy of the local machine learning and overall speed.

It’s offered in gold, silver, black and titanium finishes, with available sizes ranging from 5 to 14.

Jade’s Deep Research Mode is the cross-ecosystem analysis feature, which aggregates data from Ring and Blood Vision and the company’s subscription services, Home and M1 CGM, to provide historical trends, offer current recommendations and flag potential issues, as well as trigger activities such as A-fib detection. Ultrahuman plans to expand its capabilities to include health-adjacent activities, such as ordering food.

Some new apps are also available for the company’s PowerPlug add-on platform, including capabilities such as tracking GLP-1 effects, snoring and respiratory analysis and migraine management tools.

Technologies

The FCC Just Approved Charter’s $34.5B Cox Purchase. Here’s What It Means for 37M Customers

Technologies

Spotify Expands Into Audiobook Rankings With Weekly Charts

The feature is available to both free users and Premium subscribers. Wuthering Heights is reaching the heights on both the US and UK charts.

If you’re a Spotify user, you may be familiar with features like the year-end summary Wrapped, as well as your daily usage stats. Now, the service has a new popularity chart tracking audiobooks.

Spotify’s audiobook charts are now available to free and Premium users within the service’s Audiobooks hub. While only Premium users receive 15 hours of audiobook listening per month, the company offers a larger selection of titles you can buy.

US charts and UK charts are both available now.

Read more: Best Music Streaming Services for 2026

Spotify says that the audiobook charts will help customers discover new and popular titles in real time.

«As we’ve proven with Music and Podcasts Charts, when content is easier to access, discover, and enjoy, the demand grows,» said Duncan Bruce, Spotify’s director of audiobook partnerships and licensing, in a statement on Friday.

Spotify launched audiobooks in 2022, and has since added features such as the AI catchup tool Recaps and PageMatch, which lets you swap more easily between a printed book and the audio version.

Spotify Premium currently costs $13 a month and includes more than 100 million songs, as well as audiobooks. Spotify Premium is currently CNET’s Editors’ Choice for best music streaming service.

The current US audiobooks chart lists Emily Brontë’s romantic classic Wuthering Heights as the top listen, followed by James Clear’s self-help book Atomic Habits and Freida McFadden’s psychological thriller The Housemaid. Audiobook popularity is also broken down by genre, with charts for romance, mystery and thriller books, self-help, science fiction and fantasy, biography and memoir, business and careers, teen and young adult, religion and spirituality, history, and parenting and relationships.

Powered by its blockbuster movie adaptation starring Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi, Wuthering Heights also leads the overall chart for the UK.