Tech Spite

Not every transition must be a caterpillar into a butterfly, or a solitary trek through terror and pain. The natural world has other models of transformation. from Wired https://ift.tt/UTKcWR5

Here’s everything you need to know about the spectrum, millimeter-wave technology, and what 5G means for you. from Wired https://ift.tt/IHk1jPA

Price cuts on gadgets are always good news for consumers, and it would seem that the iPhone 15 could be in line for one if the latest leak can be believed: apparently Apple is considering cutting the pricing of the iPhone 15 Plus due to launch in September. This comes from reputable online source Yeux1122 on South Korean social network Naver (via Macworld ). The move is apparently being given serious consideration, and would be made in response to underwhelming sales of the current Plus model. The iPhone 14 Plus that was unveiled with the rest of the family earlier this year has a starting price of $899 / £949 / AU$1,579 for the 128GB version, but it doesn't appear to be attracting buyers in the numbers that Apple would like. A tale of four phones While canceling the Plus model would be an option for Apple, it's likely that development on the iPhone 15 is too far down the line for that to happen. A price cut on the handset that replaced the iPhone 13 mini would be the n...

Artificial intelligence will try—and fail—to grasp the subtleties of human expression. from Wired https://ift.tt/D9PnmiT

What kind of 2022 did Microsoft experience? The company made some big moves during the course of this year, including a gargantuan near-$70 billion acquisition – mired in controversy – and it also brought the first major feature update to Windows 11 . Let’s take a deep dive into how Microsoft fared across the software, hardware, and gaming fronts over the past year. Windows 11’s big update (and bugged updates) Windows 11 is still relatively new, having arrived late in 2021, and the biggest thing to happen to the OS this year was the debut of its first major update. (Remember that there’ll only be one feature update per year now, rather than twice yearly as was the case in the past). The Windows 11 2022 Update (informally known as 22H2) pitched up in September, applying a whole lot of polish, alongside some major and useful changes to the interface. We were also treated to a new system of ‘Moments’, fancy Microsoft jargon for smaller updates more agilely applied as needed outside of...

Cryptocurrency trading platform 3Commas has confirmed it suffered a data breach that saw API data stolen. As per the announcement, an unknown threat actor posted 3Commas’ API database to Pastebin, on December 28.  After analyzing the database, the company confirmed its authenticity, saying “at this point, 3Commas can unfortunately confirm that some of 3Commas’ users’ API data (API keys, secrets and passphrases) have been disclosed by a third party”.  Stolen money While the leaks revolve around API data at the moment, 3Commas’ does not exclude the possibility of other data being taken, as well: “Currently and to the best of our knowledge only API data have been disclosed as part of this incident. As a likely consequence the hacker(s) may use or may have used the API data to connect your exchange accounts to his/their account and/or initiate unauthorized trades,” it says. In a notice sent to its users via email and a blog post, the company says it has made strides to prote...

Rock your inner jock with a pair of sturdy, sweatproof, and tangle-proof headphones. Here are our favorites. from Wired https://ift.tt/oU4yxK2

From spinal implants that allow paralyzed people to walk to smashing an asteroid off course with a rocket, this wasn’t just a year of negative headlines. from Wired https://ift.tt/8YP9i3E

Some Google Home smart speakers could have been hijacked to control the device remotely, and even listen in on people’s private conversations, a security expert has claimed. The bug was discovered by cybersecurity researcher Matt Kunze, who received $107,500 in bounty rewards for responsibly reporting it to Google. Kunze, who was investigating his own personal Google Home mini speaker for possible issues, explained in a blog post how he found a way to add another Google account to the device, which would be enough to be able to eavesdrop on people. Adding rogue accounts First, the attacker needs to be within wireless proximity of the device, and listen to MAC addresses with prefixes associated with Google.  After that, they can send deauth packets, to disconnect the device from the network and trigger the setup mode. In the setup mode, they request device info, and use that information to link their account to the device and - voila! - they can now spy on the device owners ...

One of the improvements coming in 2023 with the iPhone 15 could be better battery life, with Apple's chip maker of choice TSMC (the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) promising increased efficiency with its next generation of silicon. As per Bloomberg , TSMC has announced the move to chips made using a 3 nanometer manufacturing process, which is a jump from the 5 nanometer process currently used. Essentially, the smaller the number, the more tightly packed the elements of the processor are going to be. Crucially, TSMC says that their new chips are going to use around 35% less power, as well as being faster in terms of performance. That should relate to better battery life for devices made by TSMC's partners – including the successor to the iPhone 14 made by Apple. Chips with everything There are some caveats here: Apple designs the Bionic processors found inside the iPhone, so it may choose to engineer the improvements that 3 nm offers in a different way rather ...

The next generation of video game characters could be powered by AI, making them more engaging and challenging. from Wired https://ift.tt/dsb7LNi

This week, we look back at 2022’s biggest consumer tech stories. Then, we offer our predictions for what the next 12 months will bring. from Wired https://ift.tt/uFODxnh

New research by a group of Stanford-affiliated researchers has uncovered that code-generating AI tools such as Github Copilot can present more security risks than many users may realize. The study looked specifically at Codex, a product of OpenAI, of which Elon Musk is among the co-founders.  Codex powers the Microsoft-owned GitHub Copilot platform, which is designed to make coding easier and more accessible by translating natural language into code and suggesting changes based on contextual evidence. AI-coding problems Lead co-author of the study, Neil Perry, explains that “code-generating systems are currently not a replacement for human developers”. The study asked 47 developers of differing abilities to use Codex for security-related problems, using Python, JavaScript and C programming languages. It concluded that the participants who relied on Codex were more likely to write insecure code compared with a control group. Read more > These are the best laptops for p...

There are many tensions in our relationship to hope. The key is not to let corporations exploit them. from Wired https://ift.tt/ljcA3mf

Girls. Get Out. Now M3GAN. In just a handful of performances, the actress has redefined authenticity—and achieved a new kind of artificial reality. from Wired https://ift.tt/Tig7lB0

A recent code change for Google Chrome has uncovered an updated feature that will see the popular web browser automatically preventing insecure downloads from HTTP sites. Formerly the norm, many HTTP sites have since been updated to use HTTPS encryption in an effort to protect extensive data that we share about ourselves on the web. Now the favored option, Google has already implemented a series of changes that see its users retrieving and sharing data more securely. Chrome: HTTP and HTTPS One such change is a recently-introduced “Always use secure connections” toggle that tells Chrome to upgrade any sites from an HTTP connection to HTTPS. Older sites that are HTTP-only also display a “Not Secure” warning in the address bar. The code change spotted by 9To5Google indicates that the toggle will now warn users against downloading anything from an HTTP connection. Previously, Chrome users were notified when an HTTPS website downloaded a file in HTTP format, known as mixed content....

Smaller shops prove that you don't need a AAA budget to create games for everyone. from Wired https://ift.tt/xqOQaBp

North Korean state-sponsored threat actors have been observed using ransomware against companies and organizations in neighboring South Korea for the first time, police have reported. According to the South China Morning Post , the South Korean National Police Agency said threat actors targeted at least 893 foreign policy experts in the country, looking to steal their identity data and email lists.  The initial victims were mostly think tank experts and professors, who were targeted with phishing emails. North Korea ransomware The attackers would pose as a secretary from the office of Tae Yong-ho of the ruling People Power Party, or an official from the Korea National Diplomatic Academy. The emails, whose distribution started as early as April 2022, would either carry links to malicious websites or would carry malware as attachments. According to the law enforcement organization’s findings, at least 49 people fell for the trick, and gave the attackers access to their email a...

Transformers—data models based on neural networks—will radically change how machines interact with us. from Wired https://ift.tt/Bs0uMlO

What with the iPad mini 6 launching in September 2021, it would be reasonable to expect a follow-up appearing in September 2022 – but of course we haven't seen any such tablet, and the rumor is that we might not get one until early in 2024. This comes courtesy of reliable Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo , who reckons that the next small slate that Apple releases is going to start shipping by the end of 2023 or in the first half of 2024 (though it's not clear what that's dependent on). Kuo goes on to say that the "main selling point" of the iPad mini 7 is going to be a new processor. The current model carries the A15 Bionic chipset that also appeared in the iPhone 13 series that Apple unveiled at the same time as the iPad mini 6. Folding iPads This iPad mini claim was actually preceded by another bit of crystal ball gazing by Kuo: he says that a foldable iPad is  "unlikely" to replace the iPad mini in 2025, a move that has been "previously predict...

While last year was a relatively quiet one for AMD – well, as quiet as things get for a tech behemoth which is a huge presence in the CPU and GPU worlds – 2022 was very different in terms of being a year of major next-gen launches. We witnessed the arrival of the long-awaited Zen 4 processors, and also RDNA 3 graphics cards, plus more besides. AMD had a lot to live up to, though, in terms of rival next-gen launches from Intel and Nvidia respectively, and Team Red certainly ran into some controversies throughout the year, too. Let’s break things down to evaluate exactly how AMD performed over the past 12 months. (Image credit: Future) CPUs: V-Caching in, and Ryzen 7000 versus Raptor Lake In the CPU space, AMD’s first notable move of 2022 was to unleash its new 3D V-Cache tech, launching an ‘X3D’ processor in April that was aimed at gamers. The Ryzen 7 5800X3D was hailed as a great success , and indeed really did beef up performance levels with gaming for the 8-core CPU, as ...

Cybersquatting, a method of tricking victims into visiting malicious websites, has reached record highs in 2022, new reports have claimed. Data from the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) analyzed by Atlas VPN found 5,616 cybersquatting disputes filed with the organization this year, representing almost a 10% increase compared to 2021. Cybersquatting is a method in which crooks try to leverage typos (or recklessness) to have people visit their malicious websites. There are various formats of cybersquatting, including typosquatting, combosquatting, and others.  Typosquatting variants Typosquatting, arguably the most popular among the methods, has threat actors registering domain names seemingly identical to the ones belonging to legitimate businesses. So, for example, Amazon might be Anazon, Amazom, while Netflix could be NetfIix (there is a capital i instead of the letter L).  Combosquatting is also a popular technique and revolves around combining the domai...

The holidays have come and gone, and that means after-Christmas TV sales have arrived with record-low prices on a range of 4K, OLED, and QLED displays from retailers like Best Buy, Amazon, Walmart, Samsung, and more. To help you find all of today's top offers, we've rounded up the very best after-Christmas TV sales happening right now. The after-Christmas sales event is your last opportunity of the year to score a killer bargain on some of this year's best-selling TVs. Retailers are offering their best discounts yet on older model TVs to make room for new stock. Some of the top offers we've spotted today include our best-rated TV of the year, LG's 65-inch C2 OLED TV on sale for a record-low price of $1,699.99 (was $2,099.99), this 60-inch 4K smart TV from Samsung down to just $379.99 (was $549.99) and you can pick up this Insignia 24-inch Fire TV for only $79.99 (was $89.99) at Amazon. Below you'll find the best after-Christmas TV sales, followed by the...