A growing number of Windows laptops feature fingerprint sensors with support for Microsoft’s Windows Hello technology. The idea is to let users login quickly by tapping a finger against the sensor rather than typing in a password or PIN. But security researchers at Blackwing Intelligence have found “multiple vulnerabilities” in the implementation of these fingerprint […]
security
How to install old apps on Android 14
One of the security updates baked into Android 14 is a feature that blocks you from installing some older apps built for Android 5.1 or earlier… kind of. If you’ve got a shiny new phone or tablet running Android 14, it’s true that you can’t download and install these older apps on your device itself. […]
Google Accounts now let you sign in with a passkey instead of a password
There’s a decent chance you’ve been using a fingerprint, face recognition, or PIN to login to your smartphone for ages. It’s quicker and simpler than entering a long, hard-to-remember and harder-to-type password. Now you can sign into your Google Account the same way, because Google has announced it’s rolling out support for “passkeys.” A Passkey […]
Apple can now quickly push security updates to iPhones, iPads and Macs without a major OS update
Up until recently, when Apple wanted to roll out security updates for iPhones, iPads, and Macs, the company had to push a major operating system patch to users. But last year the company introduced a new Rapid Security Response system with the introduction of iOS 16, iPadOS 16, and macOS Venture. Now Apple has rolled […]
Google Chrome to retire the lock icon for HTTPS sites, introduce new icon for tuning site settings
Most modern web browsers use a lock icon to let you know if you’re visiting a site that that uses HTTPS for secure connections or not. But Google says in recent years HTTPS has become the rule rather than the exception… and that even phishing sites use HTTPS these days. In other words, the lock […]
Lilbits: AYA Neo 2S with Ryzen 7 7840U on the way, Yubico to go public, Ryzen Embedded 5000 series launched
The upcoming Asus ROG Ally handheld gaming PC is expected to have a “custom” AMD processor that’s closely related to the as-yet-unannounced Ryzen 7 7840U. GPD has a few models in the works that will have the non-custom version of that same processor. And now it looks like rival AYA could be planning to launch […]
Lilbits: Is AMD developing hybrid chips with Performance and Efficiency cores too?
It’s been more than a decade since ARM introduced its big.LITTLEÂ architecture that allowed chip makers to combine high-performance CPU cores with energy-efficient CPU cores on the same chip. And it’s been a few years since Intel brought a similar design to its x86 processors, beginning with the company’s 12th-gen processors based on “Alder Lake” […]
Lilbits: aCropalypse now, GNOME 44, and Dynabook’s Raptor Lake laptops
A few days ago we learned that Google’s app for editing screenshots on Android phones had a vulnerability that makes it possible to recover the full image even after users had cropped a picture… which poses a potential privacy risk if you used the app to edit out personal information. Then we learned that the […]
Internet Explorer is dead(er) after Microsoft disables IE11 on most versions of Windows 10
Microsoft officially retired Internet Explorer 11 last year, ending support for the final version of the company’s original web browser. But now the company has gone a step further and “permanently disabled” the browser on many Windows 10 systems that still had it installed. An update to Microsoft’s documentation for the IE11 retirement plan indicates […]
Microsoft ends extended support for Windows 7 and 8.1
It’s been three years since Microsoft ended mainstream support for Windows 7, but Microsoft allowed enterprise and education customers who wanted to continue using the operating system to pay for up to three years of extended security updates. Now time is up – Microsoft has ended extended security support for Windows 7, as well as […]