Miscellaneous Tech News
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Unix at 50: How the OS that powered smartphones started from failure
Today, Unix powers iOS and Android—its legend begins with a gator and a trio of researchers.
Maybe its pervasiveness has long obscured its origins. But Unix, the operating system that in one derivative or another powers nearly all smartphones sold worldwide, was born 50 years ago from the failure of an ambitious project that involved titans like Bell Labs, GE, and MIT. Largely the brainchild of a few programmers at Bell Labs, the unlikely story of Unix begins with a meeting on the top floor of an otherwise unremarkable annex at the sprawling Bell Labs complex in Murray Hill, New Jersey. It was a bright, cold Monday, the last day of March 1969, and the computer sciences department was hosting distinguished guests: Bill Baker, a Bell Labs vice president, and Ed David, the director of research. Baker was about to pull the plug on Multics (a condensed form of MULTiplexed Information and Computing Service), a software project that the computer sciences department had been working on for four years. Multics was two years overdue, way over budget, and functional only in the loosest possible understanding of the term. -
State by State: Alaskans Spend the Most Time in Front of Screens
Without even including time at work, watching TV, or playing games, the results reveal state-by-state that Americans spend from 45 minutes to over 3 hours a day online.
If you've ever heard of the American Time Use Survey (from the Bureau of Labor Statistics), you probably have time on your hands. According to the survey, most people don't—it measures time spent doing just about everything, from work, to volunteering, to taking care of kids. It also happens to ask people how much time they spend in front of screens. The folks at authorized Verizon reseller VerizonSpecials.com decided to look at the data in the ATUS and see what the average leisure time spent online really amounts to, using data collected from 2013 to 2017. This doesn't even include what we really spend most of our time doing on screens: watching TV, gaming, and, mostly, working. It's all about all that other mind-numbing screen-staring we do for "fun," including browsing, social networking, watching online video, and waiting for things to download. Then they broke it down by state (but only 47 states are included—Maryland, Rhode Island, and Hawaii didn't have enough data). -
Which OS Will Huawei's New Phones Run? Stay Tuned
Huawei's new Mate 30 smartphones will likely launch without Google apps such as Maps and Google Play, the search giant says. But it's unclear if the devices will run open-source Android or Huawei's own HarmonyOS.
With a US blacklist still in place, Huawei's new smartphones will likely launch without Google apps such as Maps and Google Play, the search giant says. The Trump administration has banned US companies from doing business with Huawei, ostensibly due to security concerns, but President Trump has suggested the blacklist could be lifted as part of a trade deal. A temporary reprieve will not apply to Huawei's next flagships, the Mate 30 and Mate 30 Pro, which are set to launch in late September. So barring a trade deal in the coming days, Huawei's upcoming mobile phones cannot be sold with licensed Google apps and services because of the ban, a Google spokesperson tells Reuters. Reportedly, the US Commerce Department has received more than 130 applications from various companies for licenses to sell their products to Huawei. None have been approved. -
Google finds 'indiscriminate iPhone attack lasting years'
Security researchers at Google have found evidence of a “sustained effort” to hack iPhones over a period of at least two years.
The attack was said to be carried out using websites which would discreetly implant malicious software to gather contacts, images and other data. Google’s analysis suggested the booby-trapped websites were said to have been visited thousands of times per week. Apple told the BBC it did not wish to comment. The attack was shared in great detail in a series of technical posts written by British cybersecurity expert Ian Beer, a member of Project Zero, Google’s taskforce for finding new security vulnerabilities, known as zero days. "There was no target discrimination,” Mr Beer wrote. “Simply visiting the hacked site was enough for the exploit server to attack your device, and if it was successful, install a monitoring implant." -
Apple gives third-party repair shops more access to authorized parts
The program provides parts and resources for out-of-warranty iPhones.
Apple has been a bit of a mixed bag when it comes to iPhones and independent repair shops. Earlier this month, we discovered that people are running into problems with third-party iPhone XR, iPhone XS, and iPhone XS Max repairs due to a particular chip on the battery. And repair specialists like iFixit have repeatedly called Cupertino's design decisions "user-hostile." But on Thursday, Apple announced a new independent repair program for out-of-warranty iPhones. "To better meet our customers’ needs, we’re making it easier for independent providers across the US to tap into the same resources as our Apple Authorized Service Provider network,” said Jeff Williams, Apple’s chief operating officer in a press release. "When a repair is needed, a customer should have confidence the repair is done right. We believe the safest and most reliable repair is one handled by a trained technician using genuine parts that have been properly engineered and rigorously tested." -
Facebook Testing Feature That Would Hide 'Like' Counts
The total likes and reactions a post receives will reportedly only be accessible to the post's creator. Followers will see if their Facebook friends liked or reacted to the post.
Facebook might soon hide "like" counts in a bid to protect your mental health. Facebook has been prototyping the feature in its Android app, according to Jane Manchun Wong, an independent developer and privacy researcher. She spotted the code for the test feature while reverse-engineering the app. The total likes and reactions a post receives will only be accessible to the post's creator, according to Wong. Followers will see if their Facebook friends liked or reacted to the post, but will not see the total count. At the most, Facebook will only give viewers of the post a full list of which users liked/reacted to a post. So to find out the total count, viewers will have manually count up all the likes/reactions and then do the math. Facebook-owned Instagram has also been testing hiding like counts from public view. "It's because we want people to worry a little bit less about how many likes they're getting on Instagram and spend a bit more time connecting with the people they care about," Instagram chief Adam Mosseri said in April. -
Kobo debuts Libra H2O e-reader, updates software with more tools for readers
Kobo adds new UI tools for those who love taking notes and bookmarking as they read.
Nearly one year after releasing the Forma e-reader, Kobo returns today with a new slab dubbed the Kobo Libra H2O. The $169 e-reader retains the skeleton of the Forma, but is actually a smaller device. It has a 7-inch, 1680×1264, 300ppi E Ink display, down from the Forma's 8-inch display, but it has the same side-chin with page-turn buttons. Notably, Kobo moved the power button from the edge of the e-reader to the back of the device, and it's now a slightly indented circle that's easy to discern from the device's slightly textured back. -
How to build Fedora container images
With the rise of containers and container technology, all major Linux distributions nowadays provide a container base image. This article presents how the Fedora project builds its base image. It also shows you how to use it to create a layered image.
Before we look at how the Fedora container base image is built, let’s define a base image and a layered image. A simple way to define a base image is an image that has no parent layer. But what does that concretely mean? It means a base image usually contains only the root file system (rootfs) of an operating system. The base image generally provides the tools needed to install software in order to create layered images. -
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Twitter Suspends 'Tweet via SMS' Feature After Account Hijacks
'We're taking this step because of vulnerabilities that need to be addressed by mobile carriers and our reliance on having a linked phone number for two-factor authentication,' Twitter says.
Twitter is temporarily shutting off the "Tweet via SMS" message feature after hackers likely abused it to hijack CEO Jack Dorsey's account. Last Friday, hackers briefly took over the @jack account by tricking Dorsey's cellular carrier into handing over his mobile phone number. So far, Twitter hasn't provided all the details about the break-in. However, getting Dorsey's phone number wouldn't be enough to hijack his account. It'd also require inputting the correct password. But the hackers appear to have found a way around this obstacle by exploiting the Tweet via SMS feature. To tweet via SMS, all you have to do is register your mobile phone number with your Twitter account. Then from your smartphone, you can send an SMS message to a special "short code" number (in the US, it's 40404). In response, Twitter will match the SMS message to your account, and automatically post it as a tweet. -
@mlnews good to see someone big recognizing the massive insecurity that is SMS.
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Android 10 Review
Clear your schedule: this is our longest Android review ever.
It is once again time for Google's big yearly Android rollout. This year we're up to "Android 10," though if we're counting by API levels (which actually go up one per release) this is the 29th release of Android. For most of 2019, this new software snack has been in beta under the name "Android Q," and we've seen a whopping six beta releases. Normally that "Q" would turn into a snack-themed codename with the final release, but this year the "Q" apparently stands for "Quitters"—the codename branding is dead. Android is going on a textual diet and it's just "Android 10," with no snacks attached. -
Google's 'secret web tracking pages' explained
Google has been accused of using hidden webpages that are assigned to users to provide more information to advertisers about their every move online.
The allegation has been added to a complaint lodged with the Irish Data Protection Commission. The tech firm insists it acts in accordance with EU privacy laws. It comes a day after Google was fined $170m (£138m) by a US watchdog for illegally capturing data from children and targeting them with adverts. Privacy-focused web browser Brave has published details of an investigation it conducted into a Google ad system known as Authorised Buyers, which was previously known as DoubleClick. It sent the findings to the Irish data commissioner as a supplementary part of a complaint filed last year. Chief policy officer Johnny Ryan used Google's Chrome browser to conduct his research. He had no logins, cookies or browsing history on the device so was, in effect, a new user. -
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Qualcomm Promises More 5G Phones, Better Range
A new Qualcomm antenna system promises six times the range we've seen from Verizon's millimeter-wave 5G system so far, but only for home internet setups.
Qualcomm powers all the 5G devices in the US right now, but this first round has been disappointing; the current crop of 5G phones are expensive, have poor coverage, and overheat easily. Today at IFA, Qualcomm told us to cheer up: there's more and better 5G coming. A lot of the announcement was hazy, because Qualcomm is teasing out the details through the end of the year. The chipmaker has a big 5G event in late September, followed by its annual conference in December, at which we expect to see the game changer—the Snapdragon 865 chipset with integrated 5G. But for now, the tease. Qualcomm emphasized that we'll see phones with 700-series integrated 5G chipsets in early 2020 and 600-series ones in late 2020. The 700 series chips are popular in China, so that's a signal about lots of Chinese 5G phones coming. Interestingly, Qualcomm said 700-series 5G devices will come out in North America as well, and called out Motorola and LG as potential providers. The 600 series is Qualcomm's reasonably priced midrange, so that's a signal about 5G device prices coming down next year. -
Firefox is stepping up its blocking game
Mozilla is serious about privacy—and it wants you to be, too.
Mozilla turned the blocking of third-party tracking cookies on by default this week with the release of Firefox 69. Although the feature has been available since October's Firefox 63, this week's build is the first to enable the feature by default, even for existing users who are just upgrading. Mozilla says that it's not trying to block actual ads, only trackers. For the most part, it has succeeded; in our testing, we frequently saw 30 or more tracking elements blocked on sites whose ads still display. The balance Mozilla is aiming for here is an increase in privacy for users, along with faster page load times—but without harming small websites and content creators who rely on revenue generated by ads from the same third-party networks whose trackers are being blocked. -
Latest Windows 10 Update Turns Everything Orange
We don't know what caused the orange tint bug yet, but updating your graphics card drivers may fix it rather than opting to uninstall the cumulative patch.
Even though Microsoft takes every effort to remove all the bugs before releasing a Windows 10 update, some do go undetected. The latest to slip through the net is quite a colorful one. As MSPoweruser reports, the Windows 10 May 2019 Update (1903) Cumulative Update KB4512941 includes a number of major fixes, but it's also adding a tint of orange to everything displayed on screen. Some users are complaining this happens when capturing a screenshot, whereas others state the discoloring gets progressively worse, turning from a light shade of orange and becoming more red as time goes by. The only element on screen that isn't affected is the mouse pointer. -
@mlnews said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
Latest Windows 10 Update Turns Everything Orange
We don't know what caused the orange tint bug yet, but updating your graphics card drivers may fix it rather than opting to uninstall the cumulative patch.
Even though Microsoft takes every effort to remove all the bugs before releasing a Windows 10 update, some do go undetected. The latest to slip through the net is quite a colorful one. As MSPoweruser reports, the Windows 10 May 2019 Update (1903) Cumulative Update KB4512941 includes a number of major fixes, but it's also adding a tint of orange to everything displayed on screen. Some users are complaining this happens when capturing a screenshot, whereas others state the discoloring gets progressively worse, turning from a light shade of orange and becoming more red as time goes by. The only element on screen that isn't affected is the mouse pointer.
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Microsoft Teams is confirmed as coming to Linux: https://www.neowin.net/news/microsoft-teams-is-officially-coming-to-linux/
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Apple reveals iOS 13 and iPadOS release dates—but macOS Catalina remains a mystery
watchOS and tvOS updates are also just around the corner.
CUPERTINO, Calif.—Apple's annual major public releases of iOS, iPadOS, and watchOS will arrive by the end of this month, Apple revealed on its website as it unveiled new hardware products in a live-streamed event today. iOS 13 will hit iPhones and watchOS 6 will reach Apple Watches on September 19. iPadOS will ship a few days later on September 30. macOS Catalina is still due at an as-yet unspecified date in October. Since Apple already made its announcement detailing features of the new operating systems at its developer conference back in June, today's event was focused on new hardware like the iPhone. But Apple often launches its major operating system releases alongside new hardware—especially when they involve mobile devices. iOS 13 adds Dark Mode to the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. It can be toggled on and off from within the Control Center. The update also adds a plethora of new photo and video features, including more robust editing capabilities. iOS 13 also adds a more natural-sounding voice for Siri, a number of updated Maps features, and a total overhaul of the oft-criticized Reminders app. But perhaps the most significant change in iOS 13 is the introduction of iPadOS, a new, tablet-specific version of the operating system that offers improved multitasking capabilities and other features for power users—all intended to make the iPad more viable as a laptop replacement.
