Apple and Samsung dominate the smartphone space in the United States, leaving little room for competition… even from well-established players like Motorola, LG, Google, and others. From time to time a company you’ve never heard of launches a crowdfunding campaign to bring a new phone to market with some killer feature or other… but few […]
Tag: security
Intel insecurity update: new vulnerabilities disclosed… and likely to keep popping up
It’s been almost two years since the Spectre and Meltdown vulnerabilities affecting Intel processors and some other chips were revealed. Since then Intel has released a number of security patches meant to mitigate the effect of those vulnerabilities and the chip maker says its latest processors include hardware-based mitigations. But similar vulnerabilities keep popping up, […]
Sandboxie goes freeware (on its way to open source)
Windwos 10 includes a “Windows Sandbox” tool that allows you to run untrusted applications in a protected environment so that they cannot harm your operating system. But it requires Windows 10 Pro or Enterprise and relies on virtualization in a way that could cause some apps to run slowly. Sandboxie, meanwhile, is a tool that’s […]
Hack allows Pixel 4 Face Unlock to work with unsupported apps (root required)
Google’s Pixel 4 smartphone feature a brand new Face Unlock system that not only allows you to login to your phone by looking at it, but also to login to apps for banking, password management, or other activities where security is important. The only catch is that developers need to explicitly update their apps to […]
Researchers expose Amazon, Google smart speaker vulnerability that could let malicious apps spy on you
4 Comments on Researchers expose Amazon, Google smart speaker vulnerability that could let malicious apps spy on youThe smart speaker space has exploded over the past few years, as Amazon, Google, Apple, and others have continued to crank out internet-connected, voice activated speakers that you can control by talking to them. But some folks have been wary of putting devices with always-listening microphones in their homes, and reports have indicated that there’s […]
Lilbits 378: An AMD Ryzen-powered “NUC” and putting Samsung’s Galaxy Fold claims to the test
5 Comments on Lilbits 378: An AMD Ryzen-powered “NUC” and putting Samsung’s Galaxy Fold claims to the testIntel’s NUC line of computers are compact desktops that are powered by Intel processors… by definition. Intel has the trademark on the NUC name, so any computer that doesn’t have an Intel chip isn’t likely to be called an NUC anytime soon. That said, there are a bunch of third-party mini PCs that look an […]
Cloudflare’s free Warp VPN is now available to all
Earlier this year Cloudflare launched an invite-only beta for a free VPN service called Warp. Now you don’t need an invite anymore. Cloudflare is making Warp available for free, although there’s a Warp Plus subscription option for folks that want to pay for a speedier version. Warp Plus costs $4.99 or less, with prices varying […]
Apple snafu means iOS 12.4 can be jailbroken (or hacked)
There’s some good news and bad news on the iPhone security front. The good news is that folks looking to jailbreak an iPhone running the latest version of iOS can do that now. The bad news is it’s because Apple seems to have accidentally re-introduced a security vulnerability that had been patched in an earlier […]
HMD’s first Nokia phones will get three years of updates (an extra year)
When HMD revived the Nokia smartphone brand and started selling Android phones in 2017, the company promised to offer at least two years of major operating system and security updates. That was two years ago… which means that the clock should be running out. But now HMD says it’s adding another year of support, which […]
So… now might not be the best time to buy Huawei phones, tablets, or laptops
As you may have heard, this weekend Google severed its business dealings with Chinese electronics company Huawei in response to US trade restrictions announced last week. That means if nothing changes (and there’s a chance it might), future Huawei smartphones and tablets won’t support the Google Play Store or key Google apps such as Gmail, […]
More vulnerabilities affecting Intel chips revealed
Last year security researchers revealed a set of vulnerabilities affecting the speculative execution feature used by many modern processors to enhance performance. Since the revelation of the Spectre and Meltdown vulnerabilities, a number of related vulnerabilities have been disclosed and today Intel and several groups of security experts have revealed a new set. The new […]
Even budget devices that ship with Android Q will feature disk encryption
Most high-end Android phones that have shipped in the past few years have featured disk encryption. But up until recently, Google allowed phone makers to skip encryption on low-end phones that didn’t support hardware-based encryption and didn’t have the processing power to handle it in software alone. Now Google says it’s eliminating that exemption. Phones […]