Intel is catching some flak for releasing CPU technology that's filled with security flaws. At issue is Intel's Management Engine (ME), which is designed for Enterprise use and is of no real value on equipment designed for personal or home use. Although many popular PC and laptop manufacturers, including Acer, Panasonic, Lenovo, Fujitsu, HP, and others are selling equipment with Intel ME enabled, so far, three hardware vendors have opted to disable the firmware. These three vendors are … Read more
Windows 10 Now Installed On Over 600M Machines
When Microsoft first released Windows 10, the company boasted that it would try to get its new OS running on a billion devices by 2018. Time and circumstance have conspired to make that lofty goal unlikely, and the company has since retreated from it. However, according to statistics released at a recent shareholder's meeting, there are now more than 600 million devices utilizing it, including PCs, tablets, HoloLens headsets, Surface Hubs and Xbox One consoles. It's an impressive number, … Read more
Issue With Android Could Let Someone Record Screen And Audio
Do you have an Android phone? Is it running either Lolipop, Marshmallow or Nougat? Those three account for slightly more than 75 percent of the Android phones in service today, so odds are excellent that you do. If so, you should be aware of a nasty vulnerability that could allow a hacker to perform at-will screen captures and audio recording without your knowledge. The issue resides within Android's MediaProjection service, which has been a part of the OS since its earliest days. The reason … Read more
Epson Printer Having Issues? It Could Be A Microsoft Update
Do you have an older Epson printer that suddenly stopped working? If so, it may not be the printer at all, but a recent Windows update that lies at the heart of the issue. German engineer Gunter Born tracked the problem to the following Microsoft Patches: KB4048953 for Windows 10, Ver. 1607 KB4048954 for Windows 10, Ver. 1703 KB4048955 for Windows 10, Ver. 1709 KB4048957 for Windows Server 2012, R2 KB4048958 for Windows 8.1 KB4048959 for Windows Server 2012 And KB4048960 … Read more
More Bad News For OnePlus Phone Users
OnePlus phones have been getting plenty of bad press lately, thanks to malicious apps found to be factory-installed on a percentage of the devices, along with some intrusive data collection features the manufacturer has installed. As it turns out, though, the story gets worse. Recently, a security researcher going by the alias "Elliot Alderson" discovered a factory-installed application called "Engineering Mode" that can perform a series of intrusive hardware diagnostic routines and can even … Read more
Firefox Doubles Its Speed With Latest Release
The new version of Firefox is out, and if you've moved away from the browser in recent years, it may be time to give it another look. Dubbed "Quantum," Firefox's latest offering has been completely redesigned and has a lot to like, not the least of which is its raw speed. This latest version is twice as fast and now handily beats Google Chrome in speed tests, thanks in no small part to its next-gen CSS engine, and the fact that it is the first browser to fully utilize the power of multicore … Read more
Apple’s New Face ID May Have Been Compromised
Tech companies of all shapes and sizes have been on the hunt for the "Holy Grail" of security features since before the rise of the internet. So far, a number of strategies have been developed, but none have proved to be successful. Hackers have found ways around each and every one to date. Apple recently made another attempt when they released their new iPhone X, complete with a new "ultra-secure" Face ID security feature, which was touted during the new phone's September launch event. … Read more
New iPhone X May Be Susceptible To Burn-In
Apple's new iPhone X is a technological marvel that boasts the best display in the industry today, featuring Super Retina OLED display technology and offering a mind-boggling 1,000,000 to 1 contrast ratio. Unfortunately, there's a problem, as revealed by a new support document the company released on the iPhone X. In it, Apples states that users may experience shifts in hue and color, and burn-in with the new display, especially if they maximize the phone's brightness and keep the same image … Read more
Many Businesses Found To Be Running Old Microsoft Office Versions
When an operating system reaches the end of its supported life, such as Windows XP, NT and Vista have, it's big news. It makes headlines. When other forms of software reach the end of the line, there's just not as much fanfare. It's not that it's not important; it's just not something people think or care very much about. They probably should, at least according to a recently released survey by Spiceworks, which revealed statistics that were both shocking and dismaying. Here are a few of the … Read more
Latest iOS Version May Have Bug That Changes Your Letters
If you're using an Apple device running iOS 11.0.3 or 11.1, you may have noticed some oddities when sending text messages. For reasons that aren't quite clear, the letter "I" is being replaced by the characters "A[?]." It's not a game-breaking bug, but it is annoying, and if you're not paying attention, it can make for some rather mystifying text messages. Fortunately, Apple is on the case, and the company has announced that they'll have a fix for the issue in their next release. If you'd … Read more
