Miscellaneous Tech News
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Google, Microsoft work together for a year to figure out new type of Windows flaw
Researcher finds building blocks for privilege escalation: Can they be assembled to create a flaw?
One of the more notable features of Google Project Zero's (GPZ) security research has been its 90-day disclosure policy. In general, vendors are given 90 days to address issues found by GPZ, after which the flaws will be publicly disclosed. But sometimes understanding a flaw and developing fixes for it takes longer than 90 days—sometimes, much longer, such as when a new class of vulnerability is found. That's what happened last year with the Spectre and Meltdown processor issues, and it has happened again with a new Windows issue.
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LG’s latest, greatest OLED TVs will start shipping in April
We're still waiting to hear on the low-end B9 and the 8K and rollable variants.
The 55- and 65-inch C-series will ship in April for $2,500 and $3,500, respectively. A 77-inch variant will come a month later in May for $7,000. The E-series will see a staggered launch: the $4,300, 65-inch model will ship in April, but the $3,300, 55-inch will curiously ship a month later in May. Finally, there's the high-end W-series. Those TVs will ship in June, for either $7,000 for a 65-inch model or a whopping $13,000 for 77 inches.
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Apple finally updates the iMac with significantly more powerful CPU and GPU options
The design hasn't changed much, but six CPU cores are now standard at 27 inches.
The 21.5-inch iMac now has a 6-core, eighth-generation Intel CPU option—up from a maximum of four cores before. The 27-inch now has six cores as the standard configuration, with an optional upgrade to a 3.6GHz, 9th-gen, 8-core Intel Core i9 CPU that Apple claims will double performance over the previous 27-inch iMac. The base 27-inch model has a 3GHz 6-core Intel Core i5 CPU, with intermediate configurations at 3.1GHz and 3.7GHz (both Core i5).
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Corporations, not consumers, drive demand for HP’s new VR headset
HP's second gen headsets have more resolution, more comfort, and wipe-down face cushions.
HP was one of the many companies that built a virtual reality headset for the Windows Mixed Reality platform which launched back in 2017. Microsoft provided a SteamVR-compatible software platform, controller design, and inside-out, six-axis, positional-tracking technology; hardware companies like HP provided the rest, greatly reducing the price of PC-attached virtual reality.
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Google jumps into gaming with Google Stadia streaming service, coming “in 2019”
Google CEO: "We're building a game platform for everyone."
Google Stadia will run a selection of existing PC games on Google's centralized servers, taking in controller inputs and sending back video and audio using Google's network of low latency data centers. The company revealed a new Google-produced controller, which includes a "play now" button. Press this, and gameplay will begin "in as quick as five seconds" in a web browser "with no download, no patch, no update, and no install."
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@mlnews what a terrible idea. It'll be killed off in eight years and no one will remember it.
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E-scooters on UK roads? Not any time soon
Last year Bird, an American company valued at a couple of billion dollars, brought its electric scooter service to the UK, with a pilot scheme on London's Olympic Park.
It seemed a strange move because e-scooters are illegal on UK roads, which is why the private paths of the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park were chosen for the pilot scheme.
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“Severe” ransomware attack cripples big aluminum producer
Infection that started in the US shuts down network worldwide; company scrambles to recover.
Norsk Hydro of Norway said the malware first hit computers in the United States on Monday night. By Tuesday morning, the infection had spread to other parts of the company, which operates in 40 countries. Company officials responded by isolating plants to prevent further spreading. Some plants were temporarily stopped, while others, which had to be kept running continuously, were switched to manual mode when possible. The company’s 35,000 employees were instructed to keep computers turned off but were allowed to use phones and tablets to check email.
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@mlnews said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
“Severe” ransomware attack cripples big aluminum producer
Infection that started in the US shuts down network worldwide; company scrambles to recover.
Norsk Hydro of Norway said the malware first hit computers in the United States on Monday night. By Tuesday morning, the infection had spread to other parts of the company, which operates in 40 countries. Company officials responded by isolating plants to prevent further spreading. Some plants were temporarily stopped, while others, which had to be kept running continuously, were switched to manual mode when possible. The company’s 35,000 employees were instructed to keep computers turned off but were allowed to use phones and tablets to check email.
Price of aluminum should go up nicely.
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@mlnews said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
“Severe” ransomware attack cripples big aluminum producer
Infection that started in the US shuts down network worldwide; company scrambles to recover.
Norsk Hydro of Norway said the malware first hit computers in the United States on Monday night. By Tuesday morning, the infection had spread to other parts of the company, which operates in 40 countries. Company officials responded by isolating plants to prevent further spreading. Some plants were temporarily stopped, while others, which had to be kept running continuously, were switched to manual mode when possible. The company’s 35,000 employees were instructed to keep computers turned off but were allowed to use phones and tablets to check email.
Thank you VPN connections for making it all one big network.
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D3D raytracing no longer exclusive to 2080, as Nvidia brings it to GeForce 10, 16
RTX cards will still offer the best experience, but GTX cards will support simple effects.
Microsoft announced DirectX raytracing a year ago, promising to bring hardware-accelerated raytraced graphics to PC gaming. In August, Nvidia announced its RTX 2080 and 2080Ti, a pair of new video cards with the company's new Turing RTX processors. In addition to the regular graphics-processing hardware, these new chips included two extra sets of additional cores, one set designed for running machine-learning algorithms and the other for computing raytraced graphics. These cards were the first, and currently only, cards to support DirectX Raytracing (DXR).
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@scottalanmiller said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
@mlnews what a terrible idea. It'll be killed off in eight years and no one will remember it.
Everyone seems to be getting into streaming gaming. The whole Client server thing is still very much alive - or is it better to say - server/dumbtube?
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Google will implement a Microsoft-style browser picker for EU Android devices
All EU Android users will get the option to turn down Google Search and Chrome.
If you remember all the way back in 2009, the EU's European Commission said Microsoft was harming competition by bundling its browser—Internet Explorer—with Windows. Eventually Microsoft and the European Commission settled on the "browser ballot," a screen that would pop up and give users a choice of browsers. Almost 10 years later, the tech industry is going through this again, this time with Google and the EU. After receiving "feedback" from the European Commission, last night Google announced it would offer Android users in the EU a choice of browsers and search engines.
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Apple’s updated AirPods are here, cost $199 with new wireless charging case
Existing AirPod owners can buy the wireless charging case for $79, too.
After announcing new iPads and iMacs earlier this week, Apple has released details about its next-generation AirPods. The new wireless earbuds, which are available for preorder today starting at $159, come with an updated, Apple-designed chip, more battery life, and "Hey Siri" voice-command support. Apple also debuted a new wireless charging case for AirPods that can be charged with any Qi wireless charger.
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Guidemaster: The best Windows ultrabooks you can buy right now
Ars tests out the biggest flagship laptops to see which are worth your money.
Buyers looking for premium Windows laptops today have plenty of choices; every few months sees some splashy launch of a new high-end PC. Ultrabooks have become the standard design for most premium Windows laptops, and they represent the best of what companies like Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, Lenovo, and Microsoft have to offer in terms of design, power, and innovation.
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More mid-range Google Pixel rumors include updated specs, OLED display
We're almost at one year of mid-range Pixel rumors. Will it ever come out?
It's amazing that, despite originally hitting the rumor mill almost a full year ago and putting out pictures four months ago, Google's mid-range Pixel phone is still the subject of rumors. The latest report comes from 9to5Google, which has a new round of specs.
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Windows 10 version 1903 heads for the finish line
But anti-cheat software is apparently still an issue.
It's clear that Microsoft is in the very final stages of development of Windows 10 version 1903, the April 2019 Update. The fast distribution ring has seen two builds arrive this week after two last week, bringing with them no new features but a slowly whittled-down bug list following the development pattern we've seen in previous updates. In the past, the company has tried to release Windows 10 feature upgrades on Patch Tuesday, the second Tuesday of each month, meaning there's just under three weeks left to go.
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“Energizing Times”: Microsoft to “go big” at E3 in response to Google Stadia
Microsoft gaming chief impressed but unsurprised by Google's announcement.
Microsoft announced its Xcloud game-streaming service last August, with the ambition of streaming console-quality games to gamers wherever they are—on their tablets, smartphones, PCs or even consoles. Yesterday, Google joined the streaming gaming fray with its announcement of Google Stadia, one-upping Redmond by offering the assembled press limited hands-on access to Stadia games.
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@mlnews said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
console-quality games to gamers
that's enough to make you not interested right there.
