Huawei Mate 10 and Mate 10 Pro specs

See how Huawei’s two new flagship phones measure up.

The Huawei Mate 10 and Mate 10 Pro are official, bringing Android 8.0 Oreo, a new AI-equipped CPU and a promising dual f/1.6 camera setup. But in addition to the really obvious differences between these two new flagships — like the taller 18:9 aspect ratio of the Pro — there are a handful of other hardware differences worth noting.

Check out the full specs for both the Mate 10 and Mate 10 Pro below, and be sure to read our hands-on preview when you’re done. Which would you pick? Shout out in the comments!

Huawei Mate 10

• Huawei Mate 10 + Mate 10 Pro preview
• Huawei Mate 10 series specs
• Join the discussion in the forums
• More on 2016’s Mate 9

Huawei Mate 10 + Mate 10 Pro announced: AI-focused flagships with dual f/1.6 cameras, giant batteries + Oreo

Huawei unveils two new flagship phones — but only one will be coming to the U.S. and UK.

At a special event in Munich, Germany, Huawei has just taken the wraps off its new flagship smartphones, the Mate 10 and Mate 10 Pro. Following on from last year’s Mate 9, the new model comes in two different flavors: A vanilla Mate 9 with a 5.9-inch 16:9 screen, and a 6-inch Mate 10 Pro with a taller 18:9 panel. Most readers can safely disregard the regular Mate 10, though, as only the higher-end Mate 10 Pro will be sold in the U.S. and UK later this year.

The Mate 10 line sees Huawei overhauling the design language of the Mate series, and dropping the chunky metal unibody that had barely changed since 2014’s Mate 7. The new glass sandwich design is more in keeping with modern flagships like the Galaxy S8 and LG V30, representing a clean break from the look and feel of previous Huawei handsets.

On the inside, both phones run Huawei’s own Kirin 970 CPU, an octa-core 10nm chip featuring ARM’s latest Mali-G72 GPU, and a new neural processing unit, or “NPU,” for AI-based functionality.

AI forms a big part of Huawei’s marketing shtick for the Mate 10, and the company demonstrated how this new NPU could assist with scene identification in the camera app, object recognition in images in the gallery app, and natural language processing in the Microsoft Translation app. In addition, AI should also help to accelerate the machine learning-based performance tuning already seen in older Huawei phones like the Mate 9 and P10.

More: Huawei Mate 10 + Mate 10 Pro specs

Other key specs include 4GB of RAM and 64GB storage for the Mate 10, and 6GB plus 128GB storage for the Pro. The displays for these two phones differ in more than just their size and aspect ratio. The regular Mate 10 uses a Quad HD LCD panel, while the Pro steps up to AMOLED, but at a lower “Full HD+” resolution (1080×2160). There’s also the same generous 4,000mAh battery capacity we’ve come to expect from the Mate series, supported by Huawei’s Super Charge technology, which now carries a TUV certification for safety — but no wireless charging.

There’s are a couple of other notable difference between the standard Mate 10 and the Pro: Only the latter is water resistant, rated IP67. And only the former has a 3.5mm headphone jack. Mate 10 owners get their fingerprint sensor on the bottom bezel below the display, like the P10, whereas the Mate 10 Pro relocates this to the rear of the device.

Also around the back, Huawei’s steady improvement in digital imaging continues, with dual 12+20MP sensors behind f/1.6 lenses, both with OIS (optical image stabilization), with laser autofocus and dual-tone flash.

Huawei’s also showcasing a new version of its EMUI interface on the Mate 10, based on the just-released Android 8.0 Oreo. Although not much has changed visually in EMUI 8, the new version does boast improved performance, in part thanks to enhanced machine learning algorithms, which gradually learn how you use your phone, pre-loading and optimizing apps accordingly.

Both Mate 10 variants will be available later this year, and there’ll also be a pricey Porsche Design version, based on the Mate 10 Pro, with a murdered-out design, ample branding, and upgraded internals.

Hit up our Mate 10 preview for more on the new phone, and let us know if you’re tempted to pick one up over on the Mate 10 forums.

Huawei Mate 10

• Huawei Mate 10 + Mate 10 Pro preview
• Huawei Mate 10 series specs
• Join the discussion in the forums
• More on 2016’s Mate 9

Huawei Mate 10 + Mate 10 Pro hands-on preview

Huawei’s latest Oreo-powered flagship phones combine AI smarts with dual f/1.6 cameras and, of course, enormous batteries.

If you look at the heritage of the Huawei Mate series, going all the way back to 2013’s Ascend Mate one thing stands out: These are big, beastly, sturdy phones. Unapologetically gigantic screens are paired with equally hefty batteries, signifying a phone that means business. It’s a formula that’s served Huawei fairly well over the years, even if recent models like the Mate 9 haven’t broken into Western markets as much as the company may have hoped.

With the latest Mate phones comes a pivot away from the tank-like aesthetic of Mates 7, 8 and 9. Along with all the generational improvements that come in any new flagship, the Mate 10 packs the technology we’d expect from the series into two of Huawei’s sleekest and most beautiful devices to date. Glass, not metal. Slim and light, not big and bulky. And a focus on the smaller model of the two, at least in the West.

Meet the Huawei Mate 10 and Mate 10 Pro.

Like last year, Huawei is launching two new Mate phones for 2017. There’s the 5.9-inch Mate 10, with a normal-ish 16:9 aspect ratio — the same screen proportion as in years past. And there’s also the 6-inch Mate 10 Pro, which has a taller 18:9 display. (Because we’re dealing with two different aspect ratios here, the normal Mate 10 actually has the larger screen area. Geometry is weird like that.)

Aside from the regular Mate 10 looking a little short and squat compared to the Pro — a side effect of trimming down the bezels in all directions, while sticking at that 16:9 aspect ratio — both phones are very similar in what they do and how they look. So before we get stuck into the meat of this preview, let’s get the major differences out of the way.

The Mate 10 Pro gets you a maximum 6GB of RAM, up from 4GB, and 128GB of storage up from 64GB. The Pro uses an OLED panel instead of the regular Mate 10’s LCD, but at a lower resolution — Full HD+ (2160×1080) versus Quad HD (2560×1440). That means the Mate 10 Pro actually gets an on-paper downgrade in resolution compared to last year’s Quad HD Mate 9 Pro. Nevertheless, both displays look great, and it’s hard to complain when Samsung’s 6.2- and 6.3-inch panels default to Full HD+ in software.

The Mate 10 Pro, with a 6-inch 18:9 screen and water resistance, is the only model coming to the UK and U.S.

The Pro has IP67 water resistance, while the standard Mate 10 comes with the increasingly rare 3.5mm headphone jack — most likely cut from the Pro to save space. Finally, the regular Mate 10 puts its fingerprint scanner on the front, whereas the Pro has its sensor around the back. As such, the standard Mate has the option use gesture input for “back,” “home,” and recent apps, freeing up even more of that giant display for your apps and content.

And here’s the big one: The U.S. and UK will only get the Mate 10 Pro initially, not the regular model. Given the Pro’s more mainstream size, higher-end specs and water-resistant qualities, the decision to pass on the standard Mate 10 in these countries is understandable. The Pro stands a better chance of competing against the LG V30, Samsung Galaxy Note 8 and Google Pixel 2 XL.

More: Huawei Mate 10 vs. Mate 10 Pro specs

In any case, the core experience of using these two phones is basically identical. The tried-and-true glass-plus-metal sandwich isn’t revolutionary, but it makes for a sturdy, polished handset. Minimal, curved bezels flank the flat displays of both phones, while the back panel features a subtle striped that catches the light at certain angles.

I’m also a fan of the shaded bar around the camera module, which adds a little retro charm, while adding a clear visual differentiator for this series of phones.

In the hand, the Mate 10 Pro, in particular, feels more substantial than the extremely lightweight LG V30, and is about on par with the added heft of the metal-bodied Google Pixel 2 — though Google’s phone, with its dual speakers, is taller. The only real negatives here are the tendency for glass — even reinforced glass of the kind Huawei is using — to scratch more easily than a metal backplate, as well as the general slipperiness of the this year’s Mates compared to their immediate forebears.

Even though both the Mate 10 and the Pro are relatively large, the new models feel way more compact than previous years’ — at the same time, packing the enormous 4,000mAh battery capacity we’ve come to appreciate in previous Mates, along with Huawei’s proven “Super Charge” technology.

The new Mates are more compact than ever, while still packing in 4,000mAh batteries.

The big marketing shtick for the Mate 10 is AI. That’s because of the new Kirin 970 CPU, which has a built-in neural processing unit for faster machine learning. It’s tough to show exactly how much quicker that specialized silicon makes everyday tasks — the Mate 10 seems perfectly fast, but then so did the Mate 9. In any case, Huawei says it’s up to 20 times faster than a CPU at things like image recognition and natural language translation.

All of this neural networking and artificial intelligence is wasted without third-party developer support though, and while Huawei isn’t getting too specific on individual dev partnerships, the Mate 10 will come with an NPU-optimized version of Microsoft Translator. Huawei software president Dr. Wang Chenglu tells us the company is working with other leading developers to help them make the most of the chip’s AI chops. In addition to its own Kirin neural networking API, Huawei’s phones will support Android’s neural APIs, as well as the Tensorflow Lite and Caffe2 platforms.

Huawei — and just about everyone else — is anticipating a trend towards AI in phone apps in the coming year. That’s something we’ve already seen with services like Google Lens on the new Pixel phones. With its NPU, Huawei says it’s ahead of the curve for the coming wave of AI apps.

The NPU apparently helps with performance tuning in the new EMUI 8, as well. The latest version of Huawei’s software skips versions 6 and 7 to keep parity with the Android version. Which means — yes, the Mate 10 runs Android Oreo out of the box — not that you’d necessarily know it, though. From a purely cosmetic perspective, EMUI 8 looks almost identical to the previous version 5.1. And that’s mostly fine — EMUI doesn’t look horrible. But it also doesn’t look as sharp as vanilla Android, nor is it as easy on the eyes as futuristic Samsung Experience from the Galaxy S8.

The way a Huawei phone looks, feels and behaves in software terms is mostly unchanged.

The white and blue hues of EMUI 5 are unchanged, and the same stock icons from that version can be found in the many preloaded themes. The way a Huawei phone looks, feels and behaves in software terms is mostly unchanged. (That’s either a good thing or a bad thing depending on your personal tastes.)

What EMUI does offer in abundance is new features. For instance, EMUI 8 can load messages from notifications in a split view to avoid interrupting full-screen videos. And when viewing photos in some apps, the phone’s AI technology can intelligently upscale lower-res images. As for smaller tweaks? Well, the stock launcher now has Google Feed integration, which is nice to see. And “smart tips” can help surface Mate 10 features you might not know about based on your usage patterns.

The Mate line has always targeted business people who need a high-performance phone, and the Mate 10’s new desktop mode is a major new feature for the Mate’s core audience. Effectively, this is Huawei’s version of the Samsung DeX, only without an expensive proprietary dock to buy. It works over USB Type-C, so with the right connector you can just plug your Mate 10 into a monitor and keyboard, and run apps on a bigger screen. The phone screen itself can even be used as a trackpad, which is a nice touch. It’s also possible to hook up Bluetooth peripherals while in desktop mode, we’re told, and use wireless accessories like microphones, mice and headsets with the larger display.

Huawei doubles down on software with EMUI 8, quick security updates and more

Huawei’s software boss has confirmed to AC that the company plans to roll out Oreo for the Mate 9 Oreo four weeks after the Mate 10 goes on sale. Meanwhile, Huawei will target monthly security updates for its new flagships from the end of the year. And the company is already working with Google on Android P.

More: Huawei gets serious about software updates in EMUI 8

Even with its many impressive additions and under-the-hood optimizations, EMUI still looks and feels like EMUI. Most of the apps and icons still have a weird early-2000s desktop OS look to them, regardless of which theme you choose. And if that’s not your cup of tea, then there’s not a whole lot in this new version to win you over.

Digital imaging is one area where Huawei and its partner Leica have been making huge progress over the past year, and the Mate 10’s dual rear cameras represent a further evolution of what we saw from the Mate 9 and P10. Once again, there are two sensors around the back: a color 12MP sensor and a 20MP monochrome shooter with OIS on the main camera and brighter, dual f.1/6 lenses. And that bodes really well for low-light performance, which has been Huawei’s greatest area of weakness compared to Samsung, Google and others.

There’s a new Dual ISP, which should help improve processing quality across the board, and intelligent scene selection, which uses the phone’s AI hardware to identify the top 14 shooting scenarios and adjust settings accordingly. For instance, for a still shot a night, it’d use a longer exposure. For shots of kids and pets, it’d ramp up the ISO and use a quicker shutter speed.

I haven’t had the opportunity to test this exhaustively, but the premise is sound. If the NPU can help Huawei identify scenes more accurately and quickly than the competition, then the Mate 10’s camera could be a key area where a key partnership (Leica) and a key technology differentiator (AI and the NPU) converge to give the company a competitive edge.

I haven’t had much time to test this stuff out just yet, but what I can say is that general image quality from the Mate 10 looks promising. In the early Mate 10 samples I played with, images retained more visible grain in shaded areas — a characteristic of earlier Huawei cameras. Nevertheless, dynamic range even in challenging backlit conditions was excellent. And Huawei’s depth effects are better than ever, with live previews right in the camera app.

We’ll have more to say on the Mate 10’s cameras in our full review in the coming days, along with sample photos.

That’s just the tip of the iceberg for the Mate 10 series; we’ll have more to say on both phones in our full review. For me, after just a short time playing with the Mate 10 and Mate 10 Pro, the main takeaway is that getting all the power of a Huawei Mate device no longer means carrying around a giant brick of a phone in your pocket. The Mate 10 — and in particular the Mate 10 Pro, which is the main model aimed at Western users — is both powerful and beautiful. There’s no aesthetic compromise this time.

At the same time, Huawei and Leica push forward with necessary camera upgrades that should see the new phone keeping pace with rivals.

And with Oreo onboard, along with a fresh new design and AI-powered future-proofing, the Mate 10 looks like a legitimate competitor to the latest Android phones from Samsung and Google.

We’ll soon find out if the Mate 10 can live up to its potential, and whether the Pro can move the needle for Huawei in the U.S. and Europe.

Huawei Mate 10

• Huawei Mate 10 + Mate 10 Pro preview
• Huawei Mate 10 series specs
• Join the discussion in the forums
• More on 2016’s Mate 9

T-Mobile and Sprint merger teased once again, no assets expected to be sold

T-Mobile and Sprint’s decision to not sell any assets could cause for pushback from U.S. regulators.

Although there have been murmurings of a Sprint and T-Mobile merger for ages now, recent reports indicate that we might actually see a deal between the fourth and third largest U.S. carriers announced by the end of October. This was first suggested back on October 6, and another report has popped up to reiterate this point.

According to individuals that are familiar with Sprint and T-Mobile, the two carriers are preparing to announce the merger and, when they do, they’ll do so without plans of selling any assets.

This move will allow T-Mobile and Sprint to each hold onto the spectrum that they currently have, and when the merger is officially announced, it’s being reported that T-Mobile and Sprint will promote it as a way for further benefiting consumers and the carriers’ continuous work on 5G networks.

However, the deal as we currently know it is expected to ruffle some feathers with regulators for antitrust and telecommunications within the United States Justice Department. These regulators will likely push for T-Mobile and Sprint to sell their assets, but until the merger is officially announced and agreed upon by both parties, no review processes can begin.

The merger should be announced in late October or early November.

Regarding this potential area of contention, Craig Moffett (a research analyst for MoffettNathanson) says “It is better for Sprint and T-Mobile to listen and learn the concerns of regulators first, and see whether there is anything that can be done to address those concerns.”

T-Mobile and Sprint are now expected to unveil the merger in either late October or early November.

We could see a T-Mobile and Sprint merger by the end of October

Behold, the Porsche Design Huawei Mate 10!

Porsche Design and Huawei’s latest partnership makes the iPhone X look positively affordable.

Last year we got the Porsche Design Huawei Mate 9, a rebadged version of the Mate 9 Pro, with a fancy new paint job, a weird custom theme, and a ludicrous 256GB of internal storage. Oh, and a $1500 price tag.

This year, the Porsche Design partnership continues, and so does the astronomical pricing of the co-branded handsets. The Porsche Design Huawei Mate 10 — once again, based on the “Pro” variant of that phone — will sell for €1,395 when it’s made available in November.

Like last year, the PD Mate 10 is effectively a supercharged Mate 10 Pro.

So what’s different? Well, the new Mate 10 PD sports a murdered-out black paint job on the outside, with (thankfully) more subtle Porsche Design branding where the Huawei logo would usually sit. Around the back, there’s a more ostentatious “PD” logo around the camera area, along with a distinctive cutout that provides some visual differentiation compared to the plain old Mate 10 Pro.

On the inside, Huawei has bumped up the RAM to 6 GB, while storage, once again, sits at an enormous 256 GB. And on the software side, you also get some moody Porsche Design-themed icons and wallpapers.

With Huawei focusing on the Mate 10 Pro for the U.S. and UK this time around — not to mention the largely identical design and paint job — the allure of the Porsche Design model may be lessened. That being said, the Porsche Design partnership is arguably more about creating a halo effect around Huawei’s smartphones, as opposed to shifting PD-branded phones in large numbers.

Check out the Porsche Design Huawei Mate 10 below. And for a closer look at the phone it’s based upon, head over to our Huawei Mate 10 and Mate 10 Pro hands-on preview,

Huawei Mate 10

• Huawei Mate 10 + Mate 10 Pro preview
• Huawei Mate 10 series specs
• Join the discussion in the forums
• More on 2016’s Mate 9

Best launchers for theming your Android phone

Customization is my favorite part of Android.

Android provides us with so much freedom, allowing us to completely scrap the setup and the launcher that came with our phones and replace it with something that suits us more. Years ago, before I knew what Nova Launcher and icon packs were, I was trying to make my phone look less blockish and boring. Our phones hold our lives — shouldn’t they hold some of our personality and style, too?

Whether you’ve got theming down to an art or you’re just looking for something a little more flexible than your current launcher, these are the best of the best when it comes to theming launchers. They are also two of the best launchers on the market, period.

Here’s why you should have Nova Launcher and Action Launcher in your theming toolkit.

The Best: Nova Launcher

Nova Launcher is one of the few constants in the launcher scene: Nova Launcher is coming up on its sixth birthday this winter, and it has been consistently awesome. Nova Launcher has a small learning curve, but once you learn your way around Nova Settings, the theming world is your oyster, and Nova holds quite a few pearls.

The biggest pearl from a theming standpoint is Subgrid Positioning. This allows users to resize widgets and place icons halfways between traditional grid boxes. So you can resize a widget to be 4×1.5 or even .5x.5 if you want. This increased freedom when placing and sizing widgets is invaluable when it comes to lining up elements in complex themes, or even placing element precisely in relation a detailed wallpaper. The ability to stretch widgets to the edges of the grid and the screen almost helps users make more immersive themes with edge-to-edge widgets. Subgrid positioning is a small feature with a big impact, which gives it a distinct advantage over Action Launcher.

Try doing this in Action Launcher. I dare you.

Nova Launcher also allows you to set any color you like for your launcher elements, including transparency. You can even use hex codes to color-match elements of your desired theme exactly, and we’ve taken advantage of this in several themes. Getting the colors right on your app drawers, folders, and search bars might seem trivial to some, and it’s something most launchers don’t bother allowing you to change, but for a theming launcher, it is crucial.

If there’s a downside to Nova Launcher, it’s that while everything is laid out in the settings in a fairly straightforward manner, it still takes time to edit everything individually. Nova Launcher is like a Swiss Army knife: there’s so many attachments you never think you’ll need but if you ever do, all you have to do is pull each one out until you find what you need.

Runner-Up: Action Launcher

Action Launcher, on the other hand, is more like a switchblade: very quick, very sharp, but without the bottle opener or the nail trimmer. Now, don’t get me wrong, Action Launcher has a lot of features, and a lot of customization, but almost all of it is geared towards productivity. There’s quite a lot of theming potential, but there are a few things missing that keep it from overtaking Nova Launcher in this category.

One of Action Launcher’s most well-known features are their Covers, which allow you to replace a folder icon with the first icon in your folder, and allows you to quickly open that first app with a tap, while opening the folder with a swipe. It’s a nice feature, but I’m sorry to say that from a theming perspective, Nova does it better, albeit clunkier. To activate a Cover on Action Launcher, you simply open the folder, tap the three-dot menu, and tap Make Cover. In order to set a custom folder icon, you must make a folder a Cover, then change the icon of the app that becomes the Cover.

Action Launcher’s Covers are easy, but lack the customization in look and function of Nova Launcher’s folders.

When setting up a Cover on Nova, you long-press a folder, Edit it, then activate Swipe to open folder and set the tap action to the first app in your folder… or any other app or Nova shortcut you want. You can also set a custom folder icon regardless of using Swipe to open in Nova Launcher, as folder icons can be edited just like any other shortcut. It’s definitely easier on Action Launcher, but you can do it more ways on Nova, especially in relation to theme-building.

Another feature where Action Launcher opts for a simpler but ultimately less useful implementation is Quicktheme. Quicktheme allows you to quickly set colors that are decided by the colors in your wallpaper, and if Quicktheme pulls the right colors for your wallpaper, it’s great.

The problem is, a lot of times, Quicktheme can miss colors we want to use in our theme (especially accent colors), and you can’t manually pick a color if it gets missed: you have to re-apply your wallpaper and hope that Quicktheme gets it that time. If you’re using a Live Wallpaper like Touch Circle or KLWP, your chances of getting the right colors are slim to none, as Action Launcher pulls colors from the icon rather than the actual live wallpaper.

It’s wonderful to have all your color options on one page, but I need all colors at my disposal, not six that may or may not match my wallpaper plus basic black, white and grey.

Now, all of this is not to say Action Launcher can’t be used for good themes. Action Launcher currently has an excellent take on the Pixel theme, allowing you to better customize Pixel folder icons and their iconic Quickbar than Nova. Action Launcher isn’t quite as flexible, but it is a lot more nimble, and for users who switch themes the way most of us switch clothes, that counts for a lot.

The Verdict

It is a wonderful time to be an Android themer, because Nova Launcher and Action Launcher just keep getting bigger, better, and bolder than ever. Both launchers are actively adding the latest Pixel features to their launchers, from the dock search bar to Adaptive icons. Action Launcher handles the dock search bar a little better because of its heavy investment in the Quickbar already, while Nova Launcher’s implementation of Adaptive icons is a little cleaner and more adaptive to legacy icons.

Nova Launcher does more, and Action Launcher does some of it faster. If you’re not as nitty-gritty with your grids and widget placements, Action Launcher will get your theme up and get you on your way without much fuss. If you care about the little details, or just need the freedom of being to chose just about everything in your launcher, Nova Launcher is your launcher.

So long as the color choices in Action Launcher are limited to a few algorithm-picked hues and grid sizes limit your icon sizes and folder placement, Nova Launcher will remain the launcher I theme in. And judging by the reception Nova Launcher receives anywhere it’s mentioned, it’ll remain the theming launcher many, many others use.

Where are the other launchers?

I wish I could tell you there’s a lot of great theming launchers out there. But there aren’t. There are certainly theming launchers beyond Nova and Action, but none can play on their level.

Apex Launcher is (slowly) making a comeback, but it’s still a long, long way from being feature competitive again. ADW Launcher 2.0 is another launcher rising from stagnation, but the UI still needs work, and the configurations aren’t easy to use. GO Launcher is spammy. Buzz Launcher’s controls are awkward and it doesn’t play well with Google Play theme elements. Total Launcher and Lightning Launcher are so powerful but too complicated for most users (even for me!).

Then there are dozens of decent general-use launchers that can do what we call ‘light-duty’ theming: custom wallpapers, icon packs, and resizable widgets. This includes launchers like Smart Launcher, Arrow Launcher, and Aviate Launcher. They are capable launchers, but they can’t compete with Action Launcher for theming, nor can they compete with Nova Launcher.

Updated October 2017: We’ve updated this article to include the progress made by theming launchers in the last several months, such as Google Now pages coming to both launchers and Android Oreo feature implementation.

These are the router makers that have patched KRACK WPA2 Wi-Fi flaws

Is your router receiving the attention it needs in light of the KRACK WPA2 Wi-Fi hack?

An exploit that has taken the “protected” out of Wi-Fi Protected Access II (WPA2) means that your wireless network is likely not as safe as you once thought. What security researcher Mathy Vanhoef is calling “KRACK” attacks the handshake portion of the WPA2 protocol. Mobile Nations Senior Editor Jerry Hildenbrand put together a comprehensive guide on exactly how the exploit works and how you can protect yourself, also mentioning some information on patches containing a fix. To help you stay on top of which vendors are patching the vulnerability, we rounded them up here.

Router vendors that have issued KRACK patches

As mentioned in Hildenbrand’s article, the best way to protect yourself from this exploit is to not use Wi-Fi at all until a proper fix has been proven. CERT has released notes on the KRACK problem, including a list of vendors whose equipment is vulnerable.

Some security-minded companies have already worked on fixes and are offering patches. Check back often, as we will keep this list updated.

• Arch Linux: WPA Supplicant patch, Hostapd patch
• Aruba
• Debian/Ubuntu
• Mikrotik
• Netgear: WAC120, WAC505/WAC510, WAC720/730, WN604, WNAP210v2, WNAP320, WNDAP350, WNDAP620, WNDAP660, WND930
• Ubiquiti

There are also a number of vendors listed as “Not affected” on the CERT website without further explanation from the vendors themselves. These include:

• Arista
• Lenovo
• VMWare

Pixel 2 live wallpapers are now available to download

The new live wallpapers will work on Android 6.0 Marshmallow and above.

Google’s Pixel 2 is shaping up to be one of the year’s best phones, and while the non-XL model might not have the most attractive hardware, both variants will ship with some of the best Android software around. One of the many features shown off at the October 4 announcement event was the Pixel 2’s updated live wallpapers, and thanks to a developer by the name of Pranav Pandey, you can now download these on any Android phone running 6.0 Marshmallow or above.

Last year’s Pixel introduced “live earth” wallpapers that moved with your home screen to create for some added depth, and the Pixel 2’s “live wallpapers” take things a step further by introducing even more moving and interactive parts. One wallpaper shows Lagos, Portugal with crashing waves on a rocky shore, while another showcases hot air balloons flying over Monument Valley, Utah.

There are also Glimmer wallpapers that brighten up when touching your home screen, Gooey ones with virtual goo that responds and reshapes itself based on your taps and swipes, and even real-time views of Mars and the Moon.

If it seems like a lot of Pixel 2 features have been ported over to other phones recently, that’s because they have been. Static Pixel 2 wallpapers were made available to download prior to these live ones, and along with that, the Pixel 2’s launcher and camera app were released as well.

The Pixel 2 is an expensive phone, and while these apps and wallpapers won’t give you the exact same experience found on Google’s latest and greatest, they sure can get you close.

You can download the Pixel 2 live wallpapers here.

Google Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL

• Pixel 2 FAQ: Everything you need to know!
• Google Pixel 2 and 2 XL hands-on preview
• Google Pixel 2 specs
• Google Pixel 2 vs. Pixel 2 XL: What’s the difference?
• Join our Pixel 2 forums

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Drone hits a commercial plane for the first time in Canada

A twin-engined commercial prop aircraft has struck a drone for the first time in Canada, says Minister of Transport Marc Garneau. The Skyjet Beech King Air 100 was on approach to Jean Lesage International Airport in Québec City when it hit an unknown type of UAV. Garneau said that the drone was flying at around 1,500 feet, three miles from the airport — 500 feet above the legal limit. The plane landed safely and sustained only minor damage, but “it could have been a lot more serious,” he told the CBC.

Any aircraft in an ATC (air traffic control) area around airports must have clearance to be there, and drones aren’t permitted above 90 meters (about 300 feet) in Canada, under penalty of a $3,000 fine. “It’s important to note that aircraft are particularly vulnerable when on final approach coming in,” said Garneau, a three-time space shuttle astronaut. “The pilot is concentrating on landing properly.”

Governments around the world have struggled to balance passenger safety with the commercial needs of drone pilots. The US Federal Aeronautics Administration (FAA) recently released its own rules that require daylight or dusk operation within the pilot’s line of sight. Commercial drone pilots must be at least 16 years old and need to pass an Aeronautical Knowledge Test before they can get their remote pilot certificate. Heights are limited to 400 feet, but the FAA has issued numerous waivers for that rule.

In Canada, the rules implemented in March of this year are even more strict — drones must keep about 5.6 miles away from any airport or body of water where aircraft take off. Anyone found to have endangered an aircraft could be subject to a $25,000 fine. “When it comes to safety, I don’t think anything is overkill,” said Garneau at the time.

Via: CNET

Source: Transport Canada

Astronomers just measured a whole lot more than gravitational waves

A couple of weeks ago, the LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory) and Virgo teams announced the detection of another set of gravitational waves — the fourth since LIGO’s first detection in September of 2015. The observations of these ripples in spacetime are extraordinary in and of themselves, no matter how many times we record them. However, while the first three sets of gravitational waves recorded were by the two LIGO observatories, the fourth was also detected by a newly established third — Virgo — located in Italy. And having three detectors allows researchers to triangulate the source of those waves with extraordinary precision.

The importance of that precision was made clear today when the LIGO and Virgo teams announced a fifth gravitational wave detection, the source of which was able to be quickly located. This allowed dozens of other observatories to hone in on it and collect additional data including visual, X-ray, infrared, ultraviolet and radio wave recordings — meaning researchers all around the world just collected, and are continuing to collect, a massive trove of information that has given us the most detailed look at a gravitational wave-generating event ever.

The previously recorded gravitational waves were caused by black holes merging many millions of light-years away. However, these new waves, recorded on August 17th, originated from the merging of two neutron stars — very small but incredibly massive stars. They’re what’s left over after a massive star collapses and all of the protons and electrons get packed tightly together. They’re around the size of a city, but 1.3 to 2.5 times the mass of our Sun. Just a teaspoon of a neutron star’s matter can weigh more than one billion tons. The gravitational wave recordings indicated that this latest event was much closer than previous ones, around 130 million light-years from Earth.

Around the same time that LIGO and Virgo picked up the signal, a bright flash of gamma rays was detected by NASA’s Fermi space telescope, and combined, those data allowed researchers to pinpoint which direction the waves were coming from. Armed with that knowledge, thousands of researchers around the world, manning more than 70 ground- and space-based observatories, were mobilized and all of them began collecting additional data from the neutron star merger. “This event has the most precise sky localization of all detected gravitational waves so far,” Jo van den Brand, spokesperson for the Virgo collaboration, said in a statement. “This record precision enabled astronomers to perform follow-up observations that led to a plethora of breathtaking results.”

This strategy, called multi-messenger astronomy, has been a goal of LIGO researchers from the very beginning because observing these sorts of events with gravitational waves and light at nearly the same time can provide far more detail than either can alone. “This detection opens the window of a long-awaited ‘multi-messenger’ astronomy,” David Reitze, executive director of the LIGO Laboratory, said in a statement. “It’s the first time that we’ve observed a cataclysmic astrophysical event in both gravitational waves and electromagnetic waves — our cosmic messengers. Gravitational-wave astronomy offers new opportunities to understand the properties of neutron stars in ways that just can’t be achieved with electromagnetic astronomy alone.”

And the collection of data was truly a team effort. Once astronomers around the world were notified of the detection, the hunt began for the source. David Cook, a postdoc at Caltech, quickly made a list of 50 possible galaxies that could be hosting the neutron star merger. A few hours later the Swope Telescope located in Chile detected an optical signal that seemed to match the gravitational wave and gamma ray signals in a galaxy called NGC 4993. Shortly after that, the Gemini South telescope — also in Chile — detected an infrared signal from the same area.

So what have we learned from this event so far? Quite a lot actually, and more information is still being collected. The head of Caltech’s astrophysical data analysis group for LIGO, Alan Weinstein, said, “The detection of gravitational waves from a binary neutron star merger is something that we have spent decades preparing for. On that morning, all of our dreams came true.”

One major finding was that neutron stars give off gamma ray bursts when they merge, which had only been theorized before. But Fermi’s initial recording, along with the confirmation from the European Space Agency’s INTEGRAL gamma ray observatory, have finally provided researchers with solid evidence.

Secondly, a big question about where the heavy elements of our universe come from may have been answered. The lightest elements, hydrogen and helium, are thought to have been formed during the Big Bang while heavier elements from lithium up to iron are generated by stars. But where most of the other elements come from has been a bit of an unknown. That is, until now. Infrared observations from the likes of the Gemini Observatory, the European Very Large Telescope and the Hubble Space Telescope showed that the neutron star merger produced those heavier elements. “For the very first time, we see unequivocal evidence of a cosmic mine that is forging about 10,000 earth-masses of heavy elements, such as gold, platinum and neodymium,” said Mansi Kasliwal, leader of the Global Relay of Observatories Watching Transients Happen project, a collaboration made up of dozens of astronomers and 18 telescopes on six continents.

There were a handful of surprises, though. The gamma ray signals that spewed out of the merger were surprisingly weak. And, even a week after the gravitational wave detection, researchers still hadn’t observed any X-rays or radio waves. X-rays were eventually detected by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory nine days after the merger. It took 16 days for the Very Large Array in New Mexico to pick up any radio waves. These delayed waves and wimpy gamma ray signals spurred Kasliwal and her colleagues to design an explanatory model wherein a pressurized cocoon-like structure forms during the merger that traps the waves.

While the radio waves may be the slowest to arrive, they stick around much longer than the others and bring with them a ton of information, which could include how much energy was in the explosion, how much mass was spewed out and whether the merger might have an impact on star formation. “The radio emission arrives last but persists much longer than emissions at other wavebands,” said Caltech astronomer Gregg Hallinan. “Radio comes late, and it comes slow, but it brings amazing information about the cosmic cataclysm.”

This event is the most intensively studied transient astronomical occurrence in history and it’s hard to overstate just how important it is. It has not only provided scientists with far more data than they’ve ever had on such an event, it demonstrated just how wildly effective multi-messenger astronomy is. With a global web of observatories all focused on the same target, we stand to make substantial advances in our understanding of how the universe formed and continues to evolve. “The story that is unfolding for this event is more complete than for any previous event in astronomical history,” said Hallinan in a statement. “This complete story — both hearing and seeing the violent universe — is the gift of multi-messenger astronomy,” he continued. Laura Cadonati, a physics professor at Georgia Tech and the spokesperson for the LIGO Scientific Collaboration said, “This detection has genuinely opened the doors to a new way of doing astrophysics. I expect it will be remembered as one of the most studied astrophysical events in history.”

The data described today in a handful of papers published in Science and Physical Review Letters are just the beginning. Observatories around the world will be releasing more findings in the weeks and months to come and many will continue to observe the effects of the neutron star merger for months, even years. And this is just one event. “We even more eagerly anticipate the detection of gravitational waves from different kinds of known, extremely energetic astrophysical objects, like rapidly spinning pulsars, supernovae and neutron star quakes,” said Weinstein, “and, especially, from heretofore unknown astrophysical objects.” It is truly an astoundingly exciting time.

Images: LIGO-Virgo/Frank Elavsky/Northwestern (Stellar Masses); UC Santa Cruz and Carnegie Observatories/Ryan Foley (Swope Telescope Optical Image); LIGO-Virgo (Participating Observatories)