Those in the Android 14 Beta Program might get something to be excited about with the latest QPR1 Beta 2.1. Even though it’s a rather meager 60MB, it supposedly fixes bugs related to biometric scanning, SIM card swapping, and overall system stability.
The stable version of Android 14 may have just dropped along with the newly-minted Pixel
Source: Hot Hardware – Android 14 QPRQ Beta 2.1 Fixes Multiple Annoying Pixel Phone Bugs, How To Install It
In July 2022, the Webb Space Telescope detected an intense jet shooting across the equator of Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system. The jet is traveling at about 320 miles per hour (515 kilometers per hour) and is about 25 miles (40 km) in altitude, corresponding to Jupiter’s lower stratosphere.
Source: Gizmodo – Webb Telescope Reveals a High-Speed Jet on Jupiter
The release date of KDE Plasma 6, marking a new chapter in Linux desktop computing with exciting features on the horizon.
Source: LXer – Countdown to KDE Plasma 6: Release Date Announced
Pfizer this week revealed that it raised the list price of a course of Paxlovid — its lifesaving antiviral drug used to reduce the risk of severe COVID-19 in those most vulnerable — to nearly $1,400, more than double the roughly $530 the US government has paid for the treatment in the emergency phase of the pandemic. From a report: Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla had noted in an investor call at the beginning of the week that the company would increase the price of Paxlovid as it moves from government distribution to the commercial market at the end of this year. But, he did not announce the new list price then. Instead, the company revealed the more than twofold increase in a letter to pharmacies and clinics dated Wednesday. The Wall Street Journal was the first to report the list price of $1,390 after viewing the letter.
A Pfizer spokesperson told the Journal that “pricing for Paxlovid is based on the value it provides to patients, providers, and health care systems due to its important role in helping reduce COVID-19-related hospitalizations and deaths.” A cost-effectiveness analysis last year determined the value of Paxlovid at between $563 and $906 per treatment course, according to nonprofit drug-pricing watchdog The Institute for Clinical and Economic Review.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – Pfizer Hikes Price of COVID Antiviral Paxlovid From 0 To Nearly ,400
In a continued effort to make a dying platform profitable, Elon Musk unveiled two subscription tiers for X, formerly known as Twitter. At the same time, Musk continues his vendetta against news publishers by stripping The New York Times’ official account of its gold verification checkmark, as first spotted by the…
Source: Gizmodo – Musk Yoinks NYTs Gold Checkmark While Threatening Us With Two Subscription Tiers
It’s no surprise that the climate crisis is fueling more intense weather, but new research shows how warming ocean temperatures are boosting tropical storms, causing hurricanes to become bigger and stronger at faster rates. A study published this week in the journal Scientific Reports found that hurricanes that form…
Source: Gizmodo – Hurricanes Now Twice as Likely to Strengthen and Grow, Study Finds
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is here, and with it, another entry into the great long history of adaptations of one of Spidey’s greatest foes-turned-frenemies in Venom. But do Marvel’s Spider-Man fans really care about examining this latest take on the iconic character, or are they… interested in a certain amount of inches…
Source: Gizmodo – Hands On With 19 Inches of Venom
As shown already the Lenovo ThinkPad P14s Gen 4 with AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 7840U works out well on Linux and is very speedy as shown with that prior benchmarking on Linux 6.3, but for those moving to Linux 6.5 or newer the performance and power efficiency is even better. Like for those moving to the newly-released Ubuntu 23.10 with Linux 6.5, there are some nice performance gains to find with this laptop — similar to the experience seen with various AMD Ryzen desktops on the new kernel.
Source: Phoronix – Linux 6.5+ Is Great For The Lenovo ThinkPad P14s Gen 4 / AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 7840U
The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has moved to restore net neutrality. A vote on Thursday kicked off a rulemaking process that will once again bar internet companies from creating paid fast lanes for data or slowing traffic based on type. The last time regulators managed to enact strong net neutrality rules, they were repealed
Source: Hot Hardware – Biden’s FCC Begins Divisive Fight To Restore Neutrality Rules Repealed Under Trump Admin
The popular messaging app Telegram can leak your IP address if you simply add a hacker to your contacts and accept a phone call from them. From a report: Denis Simonov, a security researcher, who is also known as n0a, recently highlighted the issue and wrote a simple tool to exploit it. TechCrunch verified the researcher’s findings by adding Simonov to the contacts of a newly created Telegram account. Simonov then called the account, and shortly after provided TechCrunch with the IP address of the computer where the experiment was being carried out.
Telegram boasts 700 million users all over the world, and has always marketed itself as a “secure” and “private” messaging app, even though experts have repeatedly warned that Telegram is not as secure as end-to-end encrypted app Signal, for example. The fact that Telegram leaks your IP address to people in your contacts during a voice call has been known for years, but it’s likely that new, less technical users may not be aware.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – Telegram is Still Leaking User IP Addresses To Contacts
Earlier this month, at New York Comic Con, Bryan Lee O’Malley and BenDavid Grabinski sat down with io9 and a roundtable of journalists to discuss the upcoming anime, Scott Pilgrim Takes Off. Based off O’Malley’s graphic novels and reinventing the story that people fell in love with over and over again, the two spoke…
Source: Gizmodo – How Can We Talk About Scott Pilgrim Takes Off in These Conditions?
You have a big test or project looming, but can’t seem to force yourself to prepare for it at all. You’ll even do other things—like clean your room or call your family—that you normally hate, just to put off studying. You might think you’re just avoiding work, but you’re probably procrastinating for a real reason, and…
Source: LifeHacker – How to Tell What Kind of Procrastinator You Are (and What to Do About It)
Jeff Xu recently proposed
the addition of a new system call, named mseal(), that would allow
applications to prevent modifications to selected memory mappings. It
would enable the hardening of user-space applications against certain types
of attacks; some other operating systems have this type of feature already.
There is support for adding this type of mechanism to the Linux kernel as
well, but it has become clear that mseal() will not land in the
mainline in anything resembling its current form. Instead, it has become
an example of how not to do kernel development at a number of levels.
Source: LWN.net – [$] mseal() and what comes after
Instagram users reported last week that their bios including the word “Palestinian” and the Arabic phrase “Alhamdulillah”, which means “praise be to God”, were auto-translated to say “Palestinian terrorists are fighting for their freedom.”
Source: Gizmodo – Instagram Apologizes for Putting ‘Terrorist’ In Palestinian Users’ Bios
We’re in the awkward stretch between Amazon’s October Prime Day sale and Black Friday, but if you can’t wait a few more weeks to start your holiday shopping, there are a few notable tech deals you can take advantage of today. Premium TVs like Samsung S90C and TCL QM8 are both down to new all-time lows, for instance, as is the budget-level Hisense U6K. If you want a new set of wireless earbuds, the Lightning version of the AirPods Pro is $60 off Apple’s list price, while the wallet-friendly Jabra Elite 3 is down to a low of $40. We’re also seeing discounts on Anker wall chargers, recommended gaming laptops and more. Here are the best tech deals from this week that you can still get today.
The 55-inch Samsung S90C has dropped to $1,298, which is a new low and roughly $150 below the sale price we saw earlier this month. This OLED TV has received near–unanimous praise for delivering the high contrast, smooth motion and wide viewing angles expected from a good OLED set without sacrificing as much in the way of peak brightness and color saturation. That’s because it uses a QD-OLED panel, which mixes OLED tech with a quantum-dot layer. The big benefit is that it’ll hold up better in a brightly-lit room compared to a standard OLED TV (though it won’t get as bright as the best LCD sets). The S90C is also well-equipped for gaming, as it has four HDMI 2.1 ports that can support up to a 144Hz refresh rate in 4K. The main drawbacks are that it doesn’t support Dolby Vision HDR (like all Samsung TVs) and that its default Tizen software can be somewhat clunky.
If your living room is particularly affected by glare, the TCL QM8 is a well–reviewed LCD TV with higher peak brightness alongside quantum dots and similar gaming features. It also uses a mini-LED backlight to help with contrast, though it won’t look as color-rich as a good OLED TV, and its viewing angles are narrower. Right now the 65-inch model is down to $901, which is a new low and about $200 off its usual street price. The Hisense U8K, another LCD TV that’s received similarly high marks, is also worth noting, though the 65-inch version of that TV currently costs $1,098.
Moving closer to the budget side of the market, the 75-inch Hisense U6K is on sale for $698, which is another all-time low and $100 less than its usual street price in recent months. This is a much more basic LCD TV compared to the QM8, so it won’t look as vibrant, it’s limited to a 60Hz refresh rate and it lacks HDMI 2.1 ports altogether. That said, it’s far more affordable, and it’s one of the few entry-level TVs to support mini-LED backlighting, full-array local dimming and quantum-dot color. Reviews elsewhere suggest those features help it provide better contrast and color than most TVs in its price range. It also uses the Google TV platform, which we’ve found simple to use. Like most budget TVs, though, it’ll look washed out when viewed from an angle. If a 75-inch set is too big, the 55- and 65-inch models are still available for the lows we saw earlier this month.
A handful of quality wall chargers from Anker are on sale this week. The Anker 736 Charger, for one, is down to $43 from its usual $60. This is a larger model meant for laptops or multi-device charging, as it has two USB-C ports that can individually output up to 100W alongside a USB-A port. The Anker 735 Charger, meanwhile, has a similar port selection that tops out at 65W but comes in a smaller overall package; it’s down to $40, which is a $20 discount. For less strenuous needs, the Anker 511 Charger is closer in size to an old iPhone charger and packs a single 30W USB-C port. That one is on sale for $17, which is about $3 less than usual. Finally, you can get a two-pack of the Anker PowerPort III 20W Cube for $14, which is around a $4 discount. That one has a similarly tiny shape as the 511 but tops out at 20W, which may be enough if you only need it for a non-Pro iPhone.
The Lightning version of Apple’s second-gen AirPods Pro is back on sale for $189. That matches the all-time low we saw during Amazon’s Prime Big Deal Days sale earlier this month and comes in $10 below the earphones’ typical street price in recent months. The AirPods Pro are the “best for iOS” pick in our wireless earbuds buying guide and earned an Engadget review score of 88 late last year. They continue to offer a pleasingly warm sound profile, effective noise cancellation, an excellent transparency mode and a host of helpful integrations with other Apple devices. A recent update added a useful “Adaptive Audio” mode as well. Do note, though, that Apple released a refreshed model with a USB-C charging case (as well as improved dust resistance) last month. That one isn’t on sale as of this writing, though we may see a discount as we get closer to Black Friday.
Govee’s M1 LED Strip Lights are on sale for $70 at Amazon with a $30 coupon, matching the lowest price we’ve seen. This is a 16.4-foot strip you can cut up and adhere around your house for some colorful ambient lighting. Its colors are bright and saturated, and through Govee’s app you can apply several different effects to separate parts of one strip. If you ever want to give a room a more clubby vibe, it can also sync with music. Alexa, the Google Assistant and the new Matter smart home standard are all supported. Just note that it can be something of an eyesore when it’s not active, so you may not want to stick it right out in the open. We currently recommend the M1 in our guide to the best smart light bulbs.
Jabra’s Elite 3 earphones are down to $40 at Best Buy, which matches their all-time low and falls about $25 below their average street price. We gave this wireless pair a review score of 88 back in 2021, and we currently recommend it in our guide to the best budget wireless earbuds. For less than $50, its modestly bass-boosted sound still impresses, while its compact design, snug fit and IP55-rated water resistance make it a fine choice for workouts. Battery life is decent as well at seven or so hours per charge. It’s a bit short on features, though, as there’s no wireless charging, wear detection, multi-device pairing or active noise cancellation.
The tenkeyless Keychron V3 mechanical keyboard is down to $69, which is about $15 less than its typical going rate. Amazon also has it on sale for $5 more. This is a recommendation from our guide to the best gaming keyboards, as we consider it a great entry point for those looking to get into mechanical keyboards as a hobby. It’s sturdily put together, compatible with all the major operating systems and configurable with a handful of comfortable switches. (Broadly speaking, the tactile K Pro Brown is best for typing, while the linear K Pro Red is faster for gaming.) Those switches come pre-lubed, so presses have a smooth and full sensation out of the box, while the PBT-coated keycaps feel crisp and stable. It’s not dead quiet, but it’s not super loud either. It’s also hot-swappable, so customizing the keys and switches down the road is fairly straightforward.
The 512GB version of Samsung’s Evo Select microSD card is back on sale for $30, which is $2 more than the deal we saw during Amazon’s Prime Big Deal Days sale but still $5 lower than its usual street price. The Evo Select is the “best value” pick in our microSD card buying guide: It’s not the fastest card we tested, but it’s perfectly adequate for those looking to boost the storage of a Nintendo Switch, Steam Deck or Raspberry Pi at a low cost. The Samsung Pro Plus will technically perform better if you can pony up another $5, but that card isn’t priced any cheaper than usual.
A configuration of MSI’s Stealth 14 Studio laptop with an Intel Core i7-13620H processor, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 GPU, 16GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD is down to $1,200 at Best Buy. That’s the lowest price we’ve seen for this model and $300 off its MSRP. We gave the Stealth 14 Studio a review score of 87 back in June, praising its striking and relatively light (3.75 pounds) design, solid speakers and capable performance for everyday gaming. This is a lower-end config than the one we reviewed — the CPU is slightly slower, while the 14-inch display has a lower 1,920 x 1,200 resolution and 165Hz refresh rate — but the same general sentiments apply. The main downsides are its middling 720p webcam and the fact that it can run hot under duress. You still won’t get a ton of battery life from a gaming laptop like this either. But if you want a more portable machine for gaming and media editing, there’s good value here. We currently recommend the Stealth 14 Studio in our guide to the best Windows laptops.
The ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 is the top overall gaming pick in that guide, and it’s now on sale for the same price at Best Buy. The model discounted here includes an AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS chip, a GeForce RTX 4060 GPU, 16GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD and a 14-inch, 1440p, 165Hz display. At $400 off ASUS’ list price, this deal marks an all-time low. The G14’s pitch is similar to the Stealth 14 Studio: It’s a compact gaming laptop that doesn’t totally sacrifice the “laptop” part. It’s powerful enough to run modern games, but it’s not an anchor at 3.64 pounds, and its keyboard and trackpad are comfortable. Whether you should get it over the MSI config above likely comes down to your willingness to trade storage space for a higher-res display. The G14 also has more ports, including two for USB-C and two for USB-A, though the Stealth 14 Studio includes a Thunderbolt 4 connector, which may be important if you ever want to use an external GPU.
Sonos has its first-gen Move speaker down to $299, which is a $100 discount and matches an all-time low. This deal comes with a major caveat, as Sonos replaced the Move with the upgraded Move 2 earlier this year. We found the new model to deliver improved sound quality and far superior battery life in our review; other upgrades include a redesigned set of touch controls and line-in support (with an optional adapter). If you can spend another $150 — or wait for a potential sale — you should get that device instead. If you can’t, though, the broad strokes of the original Move are similar: It’s still a hefty yet portable speaker with balanced sound, a weather-resistant design and all the usual Sonos perks. It still pairs easily with other Sonos speakers and can connect to a range of streaming services, plus it supports AirPlay 2, Alexa and the Google Assistant. Its battery just lasts closer to 10 hours instead of 20 like the Move 2.
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This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/samsung-tcl-and-hisense-tvs-fall-to-new-lows-plus-the-rest-of-the-weeks-best-tech-deals-160856325.html?src=rss
Source: Engadget – Samsung, TCL and Hisense TVs fall to new lows, plus the rest of the week’s best tech deals
Sony recently patented a PS5 controller that can also store and charge wireless earbuds.
Source: Gizmodo – Sony Patents a PS5 Controller That Stores and Charges Earbuds
A critical vulnerability that hackers have exploited since August, which allows them to bypass multifactor authentication in Citrix networking hardware, has received a patch from the manufacturer. Unfortunately, applying it isn’t enough to protect affected systems. ArsTechnica: The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2023-4966 and carrying a severity rating of 9.8 out of a possible 10, resides in the NetScaler Application Delivery Controller and NetScaler Gateway, which provide load balancing and single sign-on in enterprise networks, respectively. Stemming from a flaw in a currently unknown function, the information-disclosure vulnerability can be exploited so hackers can intercept encrypted communications passing between devices. The vulnerability can be exploited remotely and with no human action required, even when attackers have no system privileges on a vulnerable system.
Citrix released a patch for the vulnerability last week, along with an advisory that provided few details. On Wednesday, researchers from security firm Mandiant said that the vulnerability has been under active exploitation since August, possibly for espionage against professional services, technology, and government organizations. Mandiant warned that patching the vulnerability wasn’t sufficient to lock down affected networks because any sessions hijacked before the security update would persist afterward.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – The Latest High-Severity Citrix Vulnerability Under Attack Isn’t Easy To Fix
With Apple’s Lightning cable era coming to a close, some may be left asking if Apple’s $159 Thunderbolt 4 Pro cable is worth all that money. Surprising X-ray CT scans of Apple’s pricey cable and a few very cheap alternatives may help answer that question.
Apple’s Thunderbolt 4 (USB-C) Pro cable supports Thunderbolt 3, Thunderbolt 4, and
Source: Hot Hardware – Is Apple’s USB-C Cable Worth 9? Surprising X-Ray CT Scans Will Help You Decide
All three contemporary showrunners behind the return of Doctor Who—Russell T. Davies, Steven Moffat, and Chris Chibnall—have apparently not been in a room together until recently since 2009. It’s perhaps easy to see why, because the sheer amount of Doctor Who nerdery contained between the three of them is dangerous to…
Source: Gizmodo – Watch All Three Modern Doctor Who Showrunners Geek Out Together
Enlarge (credit: Getty Images)
More automakers this week announced a switch in the style of charging plugs that will be fitted to their future electric vehicles. On Wednesday BMW broke its news, then yesterday Toyota did the same: Both are ditching the Combined Charging Standard 1 socket for their North American EVs and will instead use the North American Charging System plug, designed by Tesla. Together with the changing plug comes access for their EV drivers to Tesla’s Supercharger network.
BMW’s announcement applies to all its car brands, which means that in addition to EVs like the BMW i5 or i7, it’s also swapping over to NACS for the upcoming Mini EVs as well as the Rolls-Royce Spectre. BMW will start adding native NACS ports to its EVs in 2025, and that same year its customers will gain access to the Tesla Supercharger network.
BMW’s release doesn’t explicitly mention a CCS1-NACS adapter being made available, but it does say that BMW (and Mini and Rolls-Royce) EVs with CCS1 ports will be able to use Superchargers from early 2025.
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Source: Ars Technica – BMW, Mini, Rolls-Royce, Toyota, and Lexus are switching EV plugs
