While the future iPhone 14 does not include a charging brick and the battery replacement is going to run you $99 ($30 more than previous generations) at least you battery is replaceable. Most Android phones after 2010 switched to a non-removable battery mainly to make the phones thinner (by not having a removable back cover). Despite the name, non-removable batteries are removable, but not very easily. Most consumers will need to purchase specials tools or take their device to a repair shop.. However, many Android owners may not be aware of this or don’t want to bother with the hassle and…
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Ever notice how when you search for something on one site, you suddenly start seeing advertisements for that ‘something’ following you around wherever you go on the Internet? May be you don’t even really pay attention anymore because it is so common. Indeed it is very common: Security researchers have found that roughly eight out of ten websites featuring a search bar will leak their visitor’s search terms to online advertisers like Google. This practice has the implication of breaching the users’ privacy and leaking sensitive information to a massive network of third parties who can then use this data…
During the first half of 2022 there has been lots of talk about pushing the folks in the US from our internal combustion engine (ICE) cars to Electric Vehicles (EV). California (and several other states who blindly follow California) have recently decided by 2035 no new gas cars can be sold in the state. This is not an out-right ban on ICE cars and not to say residents can’t purchase from a neighboring state that still sells ICE cards. General Motor’s wants their Buick brand to be EV only by 2030. GM is offering to buy-out dealers who don’t want…
Apple has removed the ability to use a physical SIM card in their soon to be released iPhone 14/iPhone 14 Pro with the removal of the SIM Tray. This means existing iPhone users will not be able to pop-up out their SIM card and use it in their shiny new iPhone 14. This also means for people who travel internationally who opt to buy and use local physical SIM cards to avoid data roaming fees won’t be able to do so via this method (though they can use an eSIM option instead). Apple added plenty of new features to its…
TikTok the short-form video hosting service owned by Chinese company ByteDance is strongly denying claims it has been hacked. TikTok is denying reports that it was breached after a hacking group posted images of what they claim is a TikTok database that contains the platform’s source code and user information (via Bleeping Computer). In response to these allegations, TikTok said its team “found no evidence of a security breach.” “We have confirmed that the data samples in question are all publicly accessible and are not due to any compromise of TikTok systems, networks, or databases,” TikTok spokesperson Maureen Shanahan said in…
Almost two-year ago (October 23, 2020) Apple released the iPhone 12. The first iPhone not come packaged standard with ear buds and a charging brick. Apple’s justification for excluding these was for environmental reasons. Without these accessories Apple could use a smaller packaging with less of a carbon footprint. Sounds logical, especially since they also wouldn’t be manufacturing as many of the charging bricks and ear buds as well. However, you could say this would be the same as selling Electric Vehicles (EV) and not including the charging cable in the MSRP. Seems silly right…oh wait Tesla already did that…
Windows users world wide are in a panic today as Windows Defender is throwing a false Win32/Hive.ZY Alert when certain popular apps (including Microsoft’s own Edge browser) are opened. A bad Microsoft Defender signature update mistakenly detects Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Discord, and other Electron apps as ‘Win32/Hive.ZY’ each time the apps are opened in Windows. The issue started Sunday morning when Microsoft pushed out Defender signature update 1.373.1508.0 to include two new threat detections, including Behavior:Win32/Hive.ZY. Microsoft is aware of the issue and is pushing out new security intelligence updates. To check for new security intelligence updates Search for and open Windows…
Typically when you hear about DDoS Attacks, you think of websites being brought down or crawling under the weight of superfluous requests. The hacktivist group Anonymous performed a ‘physicals’ DDoS attack of sorts on September 1st. They performed said ‘attack’ by exploiting the Russian ride-hailing app, Yandex Taxi tp summon dozens of taxis to Kutuzov Prospect in Moscow. “On the morning of September 1, Yandex.Taxi encountered an attempt by attackers to disrupt the service — several dozen drivers received bulk orders to the Fili region,” Yandex Taxi said in a statement to the Russian state-owned outlet TASS. The ride-hailing service, which is owned…
Yet again a major international corporation has been the victim of a date breach. While Samsung has disclosed hackers did obtain “Customer Data” early reports indicate (for now) the type of data obtained was not that major. The company says that Social Security numbers, as well as credit and debit card numbers, were not accessed. However, the event “may have affected information such as name, contact and demographic information, date of birth and product registration information.” It hasn’t revealed how many people may have been affected. The company is notifying some customers directly via email. Samsung says someone gained unauthorized…
The USB Promoter Group announced USB4 Version2.0 on Thursday, a specification that will allow for up to 80Gbps to be transferred over the USB-C connector that is commonly in use on PCs and smartphones. The standard will be backwards compatible with USB4 Version 1.0, USB 3.2, USB 2.0, and Thunderbolt 3 — but not USB 1.0 or Thunderbolt 4. Until now, USB and Thunderbolt have basically co-existed in parallel worlds. Because of somewhat murky licensing issues, Intel-based laptops have used a Thunderbolt 3 or Thunderbolt 4 port and laptops powered by AMD’s Ryzen have used USB4. As we discussed in our USB4…