Razer got its start making gaming-oriented peripherals like keyboards and mice, but it expanded into laptops a few years ago. The company’s Blade laptops still have that gamer aesthetic paired with powerful hardware. However, they also have a that could let implant malware on your system. The vulnerability, known as CVE-2018-4251, is similar to one previously detected and patched in Apple laptops. It relates to the Intel Manufacturing Mode, a part of motherboard firmware for Intel-based systems. Apple spotted the screwup on its own and fixed it before anyone could take advantage, but the vulnerability has just been reported publicly after the discoverer was unable to get through to Razer.
Right now, you can snag over $300 worth of PC games with this week’s Humble Bundle from Bandai Namco for just $25. Fighting, racing, pellet-chomping, and more will keep you busy for hours on end. • If money is tight, you can get some truly rad games for as little as $1. Enslaved, Pac-Man CEDX+, and Impact Winter would normally cost about $50, so you’ll definitely want to act on this. Spend at least $1Enslaved: Odyssey to the West Premium EditionPac-Man Championship Edition DX+Impact WinterGo beyond what most people pay for this bundle, and you’ll also get four more games that would sell on the Steam storefront for over $70 in total.
Today is a big day for humanity. We have bombed an asteroid, finally exacting revenge for what the asteroids did to the dinosaurs. There’s a valid scientific reason, too. The Japanese Hayabusa 2 spacecraft is collecting material from the asteroid Ryugu, and blasting it with a massive kinetic projectile is a good way to expose material from deep below the surface. Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) launched the spacecraft in 2014, and it took more than two years for it to reach Ryugu more than 186 million miles (300 million kilometers) from Earth. After meeting up in deep space, Hayabusa 2 began mapping the surface of Ryugu to develop a plan of attack.
A recent pilot program launched by Google has transformed the launcher on Android TV sets, updating them to include advertisements. This is the very last thing most users want, particularly users who have shucked out top dollar for televisions that don’t display ads. XDA-Developers the initial story, with reports that a recent Android TV update added a row of advertisements to various devices, including the Nvidia Shield, Sony smart TVs, and the Mi Box 3 by Xiaomi. Unhappy users have been sounding off about the changes, with many asking about how to either revert them or remove them permanently.
For most of the last decade, Foxconn was making money as fast as it could manufacturing smartphones, but times have changed. As the phone market levels off, Foxconn has reported started shifting its resources elsewhere. In fact, sources tell Nikkei that only one of Foxconn’s Android phone manufacturing contracts is turning a profit for the company. Foxconn is based in Taiwan, but its main manufacturing arm, FIH Mobile, is in China where labor is vastly less expensive. It’s one of the world’s largest contract manufacturers with $14.9 billion in revenues last year. Producing Android phones for companies like Google, HMD, Xiaomi, and Lenovo account for more than 90 percent of its income.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has a well-known interest in space after founding Blue Origin, his own private space firm. Now, Amazon is reportedly on the verge of launching thousands of satellites that would provide global internet access. The effort, known as Project Kuiper, looks like a direct challenge to SpaceX’s planned Starlink satellite internet service. has yet to offer details on the plans publicly, but all the basics are laid out in a series of three International Telecommunications Union regulatory filings . The documents describe a network of 3,236 satellites in low-Earth orbit. The spacecraft would orbit in three layers with 784 satellites at 367 miles (590 kilometers), 1,296 at 379 miles (610 kilometers), and 1,156 at 391 miles (630 kilometers).
Windows 10 has become famous (or perhaps infamous) for installing updates whenever it wants, often getting in the way of what you’re doing. Well, there’s a new update coming soon, and it could mark the last time you have to put up with Windows 10 updating without your OK. The May 2019 update will . Microsoft intends Windows updates to make the operating system more powerful and easier to use. However, those automatic updates often change file associations, break apps, and alter basic system features without warning. Microsoft gives enterprises the ability to stage updates, but consumers have been at the whims of Microsoft.
The US government’s battle with Chinese companies like Huawei and ZTE has persuaded MIT to suspend collaboration with both companies. In a letter to faculty and researchers, MIT VP for Research, Maria T. Zuber, told her colleagues that the university has instituted a new set of procedures for what it calls “elevated risk” international proposals. The university has, according to Zuber, “determined that engagements with certain countries – currently China, Russia and Saudi Arabia – merit additional faculty and administrative review beyond the usual evaluations that all international projects receive.” As part of this new review process, MIT will not accept any new engagements with Huawei, ZTE, or subsidiaries of either company.
One of the problems with convincing people to take computer security seriously is that it’s, in a word, boring. Every now and then, however, someone demonstrates a flaw with the potential to break through the walls of ennui surrounding the topic and register with the public consciousness. Israeli researchers have likely done just that, by demonstrating that malware running on CT and MRI machines can either inject realistic images of cancerous growths — fooling trained diagnosticians — or remove said tumors from the screen entirely, leaving technicians convinced no disease was present when it very much was. The scientists in question demonstrated this capability by deploying it themselves, in a bid to prove that security vulnerabilities in medical equipment were a real issue that needs to be dealt with.
