Tech Spite

Vector graphics are all around us, and provide an important way to visually communicate information, whether it's corporate branding, street signage, or a flier in the window of a cafe. But vector graphics themselves are even more fascinating when you look behind the shapes and fonts that combine to communicate a message at a glance, and recognize them for what they really are, and why they are such a powerful tool in any designer's toolbox. Before we dive into what vector graphics are, let’s shed some light on the two main kinds of computer graphics: vectors and rasters. Chances are you’re already familiar with the latter thanks to many of the most common file formats – JPEGs and PNGs – falling in this category. The former is less mainstream but is essential to digital design, with the most common file formats being EPS, AI, or SVG, among a couple of other lesser used types.  If we see an image on a billboard or an ad in a subway car, that image started off as one of these ...

In 1973, Paul Erdős asked if it was possible to assemble sets of “triples”—three points on a graph—so that they abide by two seemingly incompatible rules. from Wired https://ift.tt/XYdCVcL

Forget (almost) all other performance clothing and just get this versatile denim. from Wired https://ift.tt/MO0x3I5

Scent is the realest sense. For virtual reality to feel truly immersive, it needs to start stinking it up. from Wired https://ift.tt/gGTHrOw

Just how resistant is your smartphone to dust and water? from Wired https://ift.tt/aY3EQF7

Plus: A Google Chrome patch licks the DevilsTongue spyware, Android’s kernel gets a tune-up, and Microsoft fixes 84 flaws. from Wired https://ift.tt/qmyMaSu

August 10 is going to be a big day for Samsung fans, as we're getting the formal unveiling of the Galaxy Z Fold 4 and the Galaxy Z Flip 4 (and more besides). Ahead of the event, a new leak has revealed some of the official cases we can expect to see launching alongside the foldable phones. As spotted by SamMobile , one retailer in Germany has already started listing a few accessories for both the Z Fold 4 and the Z Flip 4, showing off different elements of the design of both smartphones at the same time. These cases don't seem to have changed massively from those we got with the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 and the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3 , suggesting that there haven't been any major shifts in the designs of the foldable handsets either. Cases and pricing For the Galaxy Z Fold 4, it looks as though there's a Slim Standing Cover that does double duty as a case and a stand for the device, and according to the retailer that's going to go on sale for €43.47 (about $...

Silicon might be the de facto standard for today's computing, but it might be due for a change if new research from MIT, the University of Houston, and other institutions is to be believed. Cubic boron arsenide, a chemical compound cooked up from a combination of boron and arsenic, could apparently be a better semiconductor, bypassing some of the weaknesses of silicon when it comes to heat sensitivity.  In fact, according to research published in Science ,  Cubic boron arsenide has the "third-best thermal conductivity of any material — next to diamond and isotopically enriched cubic boron nitride". Is this the future? The research said that more work would be needed to determine whether cubic boron arsenide can be "made in a practical, economical form, much less replace the ubiquitous silicon".  But even in the near future, the material could find "some uses where its unique properties would make a significant difference" according to the researc...

There's finally some news on Intel Arc Alchemist's release date, but not the kind that anybody outside of Nvidia and AMD really wanted to hear: Arc Alchemist and Battlemage might get the ax entirely over unfixable hardware flaws that are kneecapping their performance, and it's threatening to scrap Intel's entire Arc discrete graphics line. This report comes from YouTuber Moore's Law is Dead , and it is a doozy, full of internal politics, bitterness, and recriminations at Intel over the company's graphics unit being unable to actually deliver the discrete graphics cards that have been hyped up for more than a year. I highly suggest you watch the video for all the tea, but the key takeaway is that internal sources at Intel told Moore's Law is Dead that there is a potentially unfixable hardware flaw in the Arc Alchemist GPU that the graphics unit had hoped to address using a driver fix, but that fix isn't working. That's the hardware challenge, repor...

Valve made an announcement that will excite plenty of gamers waiting patiently for their Steam Decks. According to the company, all reservations will be fulfilled by the end of 2022.  Great news: Everyone who currently has a reservation can get their Steam Deck by the end of this year! We’ve cleared up supply chain issues, a bunch of folks got moved up to Q3, and all other reservations are now in Q4. More details here:https://t.co/Xj2yEHqpKZ pic.twitter.com/floa2xZelK July 29, 2022 See more Valve cites this as the easing of supply chain issues, which had previously choked out Steam Deck production for months. Now it can ramp up production of the handheld, with some gamers’ ship date moved up to the third quarter (July-September). Everyone else will receive theirs by the end of Q4 2022 (October-December). If you reserve one now, you should be able to lock in a Q4 2022 date. And once Valve reaches full capacity, it will start up the queue for a 2023 delivery window. This ...

Amazon has revealed it is closing its cloud storage platform in another consolidation push from the tech giant. The company has emailed Amazon Drive customers to confirm that the service will be closing at the end of next year. The move comes as part of Amazon's push towards its Amazon Photos service, which will now become a central location for photo and video storage. Amazon Drive closure "Over the last 11 years, Amazon Drive has served as a secure cloud storage service for Amazon customers to back up their files," the company's email to customers read.  "On December 31, 2023, we will no longer support Amazon Drive to more fully focus our efforts on photos and video storage with Amazon Photos. We will continue to provide customers the ability to safely back up, share, and organize photos and videos with Amazon Photos." Users will need to download all their files by the closing date, but existing Amazon users will have had their photo and video fi...

A new day is coming for your Android apps. Google is implementing new Play Store rules for developers as it attempts to stamp out intrusive ads, impersonators, and VPNService misuse. The big changes will roll out incrementally with the first rule going into effect on August 31 and will be complete on July 31, 2023.  Reading through the rules, it appears that some developers on the Play Store were getting away with uncouth practices, but Google is giving them ample time to clean up their act.  The Play Store is also clarifying the language on several policies as it cracks down on misinformation. New rules Starting August 31, apps will no longer be able to impersonate another developer/company nor can an app falsely imply that it's related to something else. Google gives the example of the RSS News Aggregator app created by Google Developer . This is an impersonator because first-party apps on the Play Store are listed under Google LLC. The developers were trying to use Goo...

U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) has sent a letter to the CEOs of Apple and demanding the companies explain how they review and approve mobile apps for cryptocurrency trading and storing.  The letter comes a few days after the FBI warned retail investors that their peers lost more than $42 million on crypto scams in less than a year. “Crypto mobile apps are available to the public through app stores, including Apple’s App Store,” the senator wrote to Cook on Thursday, according to The Verge . “While cryptocurrency apps have offered investors easy and convenient ways to trade cryptocurrency, reports have emerged of fake crypto apps that have scammed hundreds of investors.” Preventing fraud Brown also wants to know if the companies monitor the apps they list in the stores, and how they stop them from “transforming” into phishing scams, as well as if the two companies notified their users about fraudulent crypto apps in the past. “While firms that offer crypto investment and ot...

Google has announced new Play Store policies for Android developers in an effort to crack down on full-screen ads, VPNs, and fake apps impersonating genuine software. Coming into effect from September 30, 2022, the Play Store will require developers to stop showing “Full-screen interstitial ads,” for example those that show during gameplay or during an app’s loading screen. Additionally, full-screen ads that cannot be closed after 15 seconds shall be banned. The new policy will not include rewarded ads, such as in-app popups that users can opt into in order to unlock in-app content, which will continue to be permitted. Google Play Store developer policies There have been further revisements to the company’s FLAG_SECURE feature, which is intended to protect sensitive data by preventing or obscuring screenshots, and disallowing screen sharing and broadcasting. From November 1, 2022, apps will not be allowed to create workaround for the flagged content. With effect from the same dat...

A trio of overlooked PlayStation indies are hopping over to Xbox and Game Pass in the next few months. Solar Ash, The Pathless, and Maquette all launched as console exclusives on PS5 , PS4 as well as PC over the last couple of years. And soon, Xbox players will be able to gett their hands on them. During this week's Annapurna Interactive Showcase , it was revealed that the three titles will coming to Xbox Series X |S, letting owners of Microsoft’s console play the indie games for the first time. Maquette, and Solar Ash will be dropping on Xbox Game Pass while Solar Ash will be coming to Xbox, just not as part of the subscription service. While there are no firm dates just yet, we have a winter release date window for Maquette, and Solar Ash. Or summer if you're in the Southern Hemisphere.   Nintendo Switch owners aren't being left out, Maquette and The Pathless will be coming to the handheld console too. Three's a party While all three games belong to differe...

With the latest Amazon Fire Stick sales, you'll find turning your TV into a fully equipped smart TV is much cheaper than you would think. Hundreds of shows and apps will be at your fingertips, and our roundup of the cheapest Amazon Fire Stick deals is here to point you in the right direction. You'll find all of Amazon's Fire Stick prices on display today, including the all-new Fire TV Stick 4K Max, the budget Fire TV Stick Lite, and the original Fire TV Stick. We've also included the powerful Fire TV Cube, which acts as a combination of an Echo speaker and Fire TV device, and the US-exclusive Fire TV Recast, which allows you to record free over-the-air content - one for all you cord-cutters out there. The main advantage we've seen with the Amazon Fire TV devices over competitors like Roku and Now TV is the now-standard inclusion of Amazon's Alexa smart assistant, thanks to the voice-remote that comes with every Fire TV device. Several available apps and gam...

The $280 billion CHIPS and Science Act wants to jumpstart the domestic semiconductor industry, starting with manufacturing. from Wired https://ift.tt/tKcoSb7

We often see Roku sale prices falling well below MSRP, all thanks to the particularly competitive world of streaming sticks. Whether you're after a super simple HDMI plugin, or something designed to offer high quality 4K resolution and plenty of smart home features, you'll find all the best Roku deals right here. Roku's Streaming sticks and boxes plug into your TV via an HDMI port, essentially turning any old HD/4K TV into a smart TV or boosting the number of apps on any modern smart TV that seems to be missing a few of your favorites. In a video streaming device world dominated by Amazon, Google, and Apple, Roku is the plucky underdog that continues to hold its own. In addition to worldwide services like Netflix, Amazon, and Spotify, you'll find plenty of apps for your country. HBO Now, Hulu, Sling, and CBS All Access in the US and BBC iPlayer, All 4, and Now TV in the UK, for example. Frankly, Roku can't be beaten as far as the number and quality of streaming ...

A major chat log database belonging to popular messaging app JusTalk was left unprotected on the web for months, accessible to anyone who knew where to look.  Cybersecurity researcher Anurag Sen uncovered the database, which did not have a password, storing unencrypted data including plenty of personally identifiable information, useful for cybercriminals looking to engage in identity theft , social engineering, or other forms of cybercrime.  The data included the messages themselves, user phone numbers (both sender and receiver), call logs, all sorted out just enough to be able to identify specific people and specific conversations. Millions of potential victims In fact, while going through the logs, TechCrunch says it managed to find a pastor soliciting a sex worker who listed their phone number publicly. The log included the time, location, and price of the meeting.  The database itself is “hundreds of gigabytes” large, and hosted on a Huawei server in China. In...

Getting a scan usually means a visit to a doctor and some giant equipment. What if that gear was wearable? from Wired https://ift.tt/sfnS4tj

Security researchers have discovered two major flaws in FileWave’s endpoint management software which could have given threat actors a way to circumvent authentication measures and completely take over the affected devices. The flaws affected more than 1,100 internet-accessible FileWave management instances, used by large government entities, schools, small businesses, and many other firms. Besides fully taking over the instances, threat actors could have used the backdoor to launch ransomware attacks, or steal sensitive data.  Found by security firm Claroty, the vulnerabilities are being tracked as CVE-2022-34907 and CVE-2022-34906. Patched flaws CVE-2022-34907 is described as an authentication bypass, not unlike the flaw recently found in F5 BIG-IP WAF. The researchers explained that the scheduler service running on the mobile device management (MDM) server authenticates to the web server using a hardcoded shared secret. But this secret doesn’t change between different MDM...

Whether you're after a powerful set of over-ear cups or the in-ear buds that started it all, AirPods deals can save you plenty of cash on Apple's luxury headphones whatever your budget. Of course, we often see the biggest discounts reserved for those hefty AirPods Max models, but the cheaper second generation and AirPods 3s are still privy to some record breaking savings every now and then.   More affordable AirPods deals have offered savings of up to $80 / £80 in recent months, although these have indeed gone pretty quickly. Considering how premium Apple tech is, these AirPods deals have been pretty damn good in our books, and these once heftily priced earbuds are now much more obtainable. If you've picked up a modern iPhone that's dumped the traditional headphone jack, the Apple AirPods rank amongst the best earphones to pair with your new phone. Although, as they're Bluetooth, you can pair them with plenty of other mobile phones and even laptops. So, how much...