There's no indication they'll ever be released anywhere else, but maybe Silent Hill fans are looking to import the ultimate accessory. Or maybe not.
— Richard
What to expect from Samsung's Unpacked event next week
Samsung isn't great at keeping secrets.
Samsung
The big Samsung mobile event is still a few days away, but we have a pretty good idea of what to expect. If you can't wait until Wednesday, let Chris Velazco break down all the leaks — minus a late breaking one this morning — from the next Galaxy Note to the Galaxy Z Fold 2. Continue reading.
Playing 'Flight Simulator' at home feels like meditation
Perhaps the perfect game for lockdown.
Microsoft
Microsoft's highly anticipated Flight Simulator is almost here — and VR support is on its way. When most of us can't leave the country, using a combination of photogrammetry, procedural generation and hand-crafted code, developers have recreated our world in ridiculous detail, with particular attention paid to major cities, landmarks and (of course) airports. As Jessica Conditt puts it: "There are 117 million lakes on Earth and all of them are in Flight Simulator." Read on for her full impressions on each individual lake. I'm kidding. Continue reading.
A quick read that you'll finish before your first cup of coffee.
GMC teases its 1,000HP electric Hummer truck and SUV
Production is scheduled to begin in late 2021.
GMC
GM will unveil an electric Cadillac next week, but the more anticipated option is this 1,000HP "supertruck." The electric Hummer will come in two versions, and a minute-long teaser video gave us an idea of what to expect before they're officially unveiled this fall. Continue reading.
Free Google One phone backups are coming to Android and iOS
It uses the 15GB of free storage that comes with a Google account.
Google
Last year, Google added automatic Android phone backups to Google One, the company's "membership" program that includes Drive storage, family sharing and a handful of other perks. Now, the company has announced that the phone backup feature will be free for all Android and iPhone users. It keeps a copy of photos, contacts, messages and more on Android, while iOS users can store photos, videos, contacts and calendar events.
An updated Android Google One app is coming to the Play Store in the "coming days," while its iOS counterpart will be available "soon." Continue reading.
Cove neckband vibrates behind your ears to reduce stress
The wearable uses mechanical stimulation behind your ears to help with anxiety.
The good 'Ghost in the Shell' movie is finally getting a 4K release
Not the Scarlett Johansson one.
Lionsgate
On September 8th, you'll be able to buy Mamoru Oshii's landmark film in a beautiful collection that will let you watch the 1995 feature across multiple formats in Ultra High-Definition. Lionsgate has remastered both the original Japanese and English audio tracks for Dolby Atmos. There's also support for Dolby Vision HDR. Special features include new English audio commentaries from English language scriptwriter Mary Claypool and Richard Epcar, who voices Batou in the dub.
It will be available via video on-demand, but if you prefer discs for maximum 4K quality, you can pre-order it for $19.29 at Amazon or $19.99 at Best Buy for the exclusive Steelbook edition. Continue reading.
Now, CES will be presented as an experience that we live through from home. Unfortunately, some things just won't be the same. Events like surprise android appearances and disinterested movie directors flubbing their lines are you-have-to-be-there moments, and Zoom can't quite cut it. We'll see if the organizers have something up their sleeve to bring the feeling of the Las Vegas Convention Center home — minus all the germs and annual flu-like symptoms. The CTA made the right call.
— Richard
'The Mandalorian' scores a best drama Emmy nomination for Disney+
Somehow Quibi snagged ten nominations.
Disney
Disney+ picked up 19 nominations overall, including somewhat of a surprise in the Best Drama Series category with live-action Star Wars show The Mandalorian — it seems Emmy voters loved Baby Yoda just as much as the rest of us. Netflix racked up 160 nominations, by far the most of any network or platform. The Crown, Ozark, Stranger Things, Dead To Me, The Kominsky Method, Unbelievable and Unorthodox all received best series nominations in their categories. Continue reading.
A beautiful HDR screen alongside strong performance and battery life.
Engadget
Steve Dent tests out the Aero 17 HDR XB, another strong model in Gigabyte's powerful hybrid laptop lineup. The key feature is a very bright and colorful 4K 17.3-inch HDR display. It has an understated design that hides great specs, including Intel's 8-core i7-10875H CPU and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 Super Max-Q graphics. That helps it fly for both video editing and gaming. Interested? Read up on the full review. Continue reading.
Gogoro's Eeyo 1s is so light you almost forget it's an e-bike
A practical but expensive solution for city dwellers.
Engadget
Gogoro, better known for its scooters than bikes, surprised us with a light, practical e-bike that's (mostly) a joy to ride. The regular Gogoro Eeyo 1, which complements its carbon frame and fork with an alloy seatpost, handlebars and rims, costs $3,899. The lighter almost-completely-carbon Eeyo 1s will set you back $4,599. That's not crazy for a carbon fiber bicycle, but it's far more than what you would pay for a heavier e-bike option. Nick Summers takes it for a test ride. Continue reading.
Big tech CEOs release opening statements before antitrust hearing
Monopoly or not?
The big tech antitrust hearing with the House Judiciary Committee is set to occur later today. But all four CEOs — Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Sundar Pichai of Google, Tim Cook of Apple, Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook — have released their opening statements early. In all of them, the CEOs attempted to make the case that they do not represent a monopolistic force in the industry.
All three CEOs also took the time to address antitrust concerns. Bezos pointed out that Amazon has competition from the likes of Walmart, Target and Costco that offer curbside pickup. Meanwhile, Pichai claimed Google has plenty of rivals in the form of Alexa, Twitter, Instagram, WhatsApp and Pinterest, among others. Cook said that while the iPhone is a "revolutionary" product, it also faces plenty of stiff competition from other phone makers and Google. Zuckerberg didn't name-check any rivals in particular, but just said his company faced "significant" competition. Continue reading.
Is there even anything left to leak before Unpacked 2020 starts on August 5th? The only thing that would surprise me at this point is a sub-$1,000 price for that new foldable phone.
— Richard
Chernobyl mold could shield astronauts from deep-space radiation
Growing just a 9cm thick layer could help.
Researchers from Stanford and North Carolina universities discovered that fungus thriving in the nuclear fallout of Chernobyl blocked radiation on the International Space Station (ISS). They think that, in the future, it could be adapted for trips to the Moon and Mars. Continue reading.
Garmin confirms a cyber attack took its systems offline
It'll still be a few days before everything is back to normal.
Garmin
Garmin, the sports tech company, has confirmed earlier reports that it was the victim of an external cyber attack that encrypted some of the company's systems. It took several systems offline late last week. The attack led to disruption to a host of Garmin's systems, including "website functions, customer support, customer facing applications and company communications." Crucially, Garmin says it has "no evidence" that the perpetrators accessed any customer data, including payment information stored in Garmin Pay. Garmin confirmed it'll still be a few days before everything is back to normal. Continue reading.
A quick read that you'll finish before your first cup of coffee.
Intel swaps around execs as it chases 7nm CPUs
Its chief engineering officer will leave August 3rd.
Walden Kirsch/Intel Corporation
Last week, Intel revealed that yields for CPUs manufactured on a 7nm process were running a year behind schedule, which will slow its transition to more efficient processors. Now the chipmaker has reshuffled executives in charge, with chief engineering officer Dr. Murthy Renduchintala leaving the company.
Now Dr. Ann Kelleher is leading the push for 7nm and 5nm processes. Intel's press release credits Kelleher with directing the company's ramp up of 10nm tech — something it needs to do again as Intel looks to rely on outside fabs instead of the vertically-integrated production processes of old. Continue reading.
More than 1,500 people reportedly had oversight of user accounts.
Around 1,500 Twitter employees and contractors have oversight of user accounts, which includes the ability to reset them, review breaches and handle possible content violations. Those people have access to limited user personal data as well, including phone numbers, email addresses and IP addresses, Bloomberg reports.
Twitter's security issues were thrust firmly into the spotlight earlier this month when hackers compromised 130 accounts in what appeared to be a bitcoin get-rich scam. Continue reading.
Our infrastructure wasn't set up to suddenly shift massive amounts of traffic from companies to homes. Exacerbating this are cable networks with shared capacity because they were built with the idea that most folks wouldn't be using them at the same time. 5G might be the only realistic way to deal with these issues on a sustained basis.
The information security industry, with all its raging debates, has rallied around a small corpus of best practices. One of the highest on this list is full-disk encryption. This is the encryption that ensures that someone who snatches your device won't be able to access everything you've saved on it. Jonathan Terrasi on LinuxInsider makes the case that most of you are better off not using it.
Counterfeit hardware, especially in corporate settings, is a recurring problem that often goes unnoticed. Having such gear online poses serious financial, operational, and security risks. Cybersecurity firm F-Secure has released an investigative report detailing counterfeit Cisco Catalyst 2960-X series switches. The report highlights challenges facing organizations that discover counterfeit devices in their IT infrastructure.
Consumer interest in cloud gaming could boost annual subscription revenues to nearly $3 billion, according to Parks Associates. The firm's research report notes renewed interest in services that can stream over the Internet and deliver games to multiple platforms without downloads or taxing local processing power.
Windows 10X to Eliminate Onboard 32-Bit Apps: Report
Microsoft seems poised to use the OS to power laptop competitors to Google's highly successful Chromebook portables. Absent however is ContainerOS, the technology used to run 32-bit Windows applications under Windows 10X, according to a report.
The Past, Present and Future of Attribute-Based Encryption
That padlock in the address bar of the website you're visiting represents the 's' after 'http' -- which stands for the latest version of Transport Layer Security. Together with Secure Sockets Layer, which TLS replaced, these digital security technologies allow encrypted communication between two parties, such as web sites or servers, and web browsers. Like the Internet itself, these technologies were breakthroughs when conceived.
Why Microsoft Teams Will Be the De Facto Standard for Video Collaboration
Videoconferencing has been an exciting and somewhat painful technology to watch because it seemed like everyone in the segment fundamentally didn't understand that if you don't have interoperability and didn't focus on ease of use, it wouldn't work. Rob Enderle looks at why Microsoft Teams is trending to be the new standard for video collaboration.
Tech's Role in the Future of Health and Public Safety
Digital technologies can help shift health and public safety agencies from a "detect and respond" approach to a "predict and prevent" stratagem. They can also set the stage for a more connected and data-led approach through robust cybersecurity.
Google Clamps Down on Ads for Spyware, Stalkerware
Advertising for software and hardware designed to stalk and spy on people will soon be banned on Google. The ban doesn't include advertising for private investigation services or products designed for parents to track or monitor children.
The University of Cincinnati online program is ranked 10th in the country by U.S. News & World Report (2020). Enjoy the flexibility of a schedule built for working professionals. Learn from educators with decades of experience in the field of IT.
Women in Tech: 20 Trailblazers Share Their Journeys
Successful women in the tech trenches share their insights and tackle subjects ranging from how to search out a strong mentor to how to be one -- from how to advance in a large company to how to start your own firm.
This book is an excellent guide for students considering STEM courses, graduates pondering job choices, and career changers at any stage in life. It's also a useful tool for school and career counselors, recruiters, and HR pros eager to diversify their workplaces.
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