Microsoft’s new Windows 10 Spectre patch disables Intel’s ‘fix’

Intel recently admitted that its latest patch for “Spectre” was essentially worse than the bug it was supposed to fix, as it was causing computers to spontaneously reboot. Now, Microsoft has taken action by issuing an out-of-band patch for Windows 7, 8.1 and 10 that disables that fix for Spectre variant 2. If you’re experiencing the problem you’ll need to download the update, as it won’t yet install automatically.

Microsoft said that its internal testing shows the patch will stop the rebooting until Intel gets a new update together. Intel had already recommended that customers stop deploying the original patch, but that’s obviously impossible for individual Windows users, as the fixes come bundled in Microsoft’s own security updates.

Intel dodged a bullet when its latest earnings report showed minimal financial impact from Spectre and Meltdown. However, it has been criticized by security experts over its lack of forthrightness about the scope of the problem. At one point, the chip maker had said the faulty patches only affect older CPUs, but later admitted that it can cause newer computers to reboot for no good reasons, too.

Intel took another knock over the weekend for reportedly disclosing Meltdown and Spectre to Chinese customers like Lenovo and Alibaba before it even told the US government. The concern was that the Chinese government could have found out about the vulnerability and exploited it. Meanwhile, Intel has promised to release new patches for Spectre and Meltdown soon, and said chips invulnerable to the problem are coming later this year.

Via: The Verge

Source: Microsoft

littleBits and Pearson bring electronics kits to US schools

The littleBits team has long been eager to teach kids about the joys of building electronics, and it’s taking that commitment to its logical conclusion. It’s partnering with Pearson on the STEM Invention Toolbox, a kit that teaches students at varying grade levels how to design electronics and understand scientific concepts. They can craft circuits that save energy, for example, or a communication device for astronauts. The aim is to learn by doing, and encourage kids to “think beyond the text” — they’re not just memorizing facts or performing canned experiments.

Besides the electronics themselves, the kits come with crafting materials, instructions for the students, a quick guide for teachers and online access to lesson plans. The kits will roll out in sync with science curriculum adoption cycles across the US, starting with Florida in 2018 and California in 2019.

This isn’t the first time littleBits has made inroads into classrooms. There are “thousands” of schools in the US already using kits, company chief Ayah Bdeir said. However, the Pearson alliance formalizes the process. Where teachers may have needed to design their own lessons, this gives them a ready-made option that could not only save time, but deploy across whole school districts. In other words, there’s a greater chance that your young ones will get hands-on time with electronics that could lead them to science and technology careers.

Source: Pearson, LittleBits

U.S. Government ‘Considering’ Creation of Nationwide 5G Network

The United States federal government is said to be looking to build a centralized 5G wireless network across the country within three years, according to a sensitive PowerPoint presentation and a memo obtained by Axios.

The documents said that the Trump administration is considering a federal “takeover” of a portion of the country’s mobile network to “guard against China” and hopes to finalize the details before September.

Today telecommunications companies like AT&T build their own systems using their own equipment and lease airwaves from the government, but now the U.S. is reportedly looking into paying for and building a 5G network and would “rent access to carriers.” The plans were said to have been recently presented to senior officials in the administration, and if agreed upon by September will see a rollout over the next three years.

Trump national security officials are considering an unprecedented federal takeover of a portion of the nation’s mobile network to guard against China, according to sensitive documents obtained by Axios.

The PowerPoint presentation says that the U.S. has to build superfast 5G wireless technology quickly because “China has achieved a dominant position in the manufacture and operation of network infrastructure,” and “China is the dominant malicious actor in the Information Domain.” To illustrate the current state of U.S. wireless networks, the PowerPoint uses a picture of a medieval walled city, compared to a future represented by a photo of lower Manhattan.

The government is trying to accelerate development of a 5G network as a way to defend against China, and hopes to create a “new paradigm” for the wireless industry before the end of President Trump’s current term. Although the documents are said to be focused on “Chinese threats to America’s economic and cyber security,” they also mention that a nationwide 5G network would help foster emerging technologies like self-driving cars and virtual reality. According to one administration official speaking to Bloomberg, the “takeover” terminology is “not part of the administration’s thinking.”

Outside of this news, most of the major U.S. mobile carriers like AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, and T-Mobile have already begun their move towards true 5G networks. AT&T most recently said it plans to launch a mobile 5G network in a dozen cities by the end of 2018, while Sprint mentioned its own wide-scale 5G network will launch by 2019, and T-Mobile is aiming for nationwide 5G coverage by 2020. The first iPhone that could support 5G is believed to be coming through a partnership between Apple and Intel.

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Tag: 5G
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New Ruling Raises Music Streaming Royalties for Songwriters on Apple Music, Spotify, and More

The Copyright Royalty Board this past weekend ruled on a long-running music streaming royalty case in the U.S., favoring songwriters and music publishers in a decision that increases the royalties paid out by streaming music services by more than 40 percent (via The Wall Street Journal).

Now Apple Music, Spotify, Amazon Music Unlimited, Pandora, and other streaming music services will be required to pay 15.1 percent of their revenue to songwriters and publishers, increasing from 10.5 percent. Companies with “less diversified” services like Spotify and Pandora — which are focused on streaming music — are predicted to be hit the hardest, while Apple, Google, and Amazon are “unlikely” to be fazed by the ruling.

A federal copyright board has raised the music streaming royalties for songwriters and music publishers by more than 40% to narrow the financial divide separating them from recording labels.

“Songwriters desperately need and deserve the rate increases,” said Bart Herbison, executive director for the Nashville Songwriters Association International, another trade group.

The new royalties will “narrow the financial divide” separating songwriters and publishers from recording labels, although the National Music Publishers’ Association estimated labels will still receive $3.82 for every $1 paid to the former group. Before this past weekend’s ruling, the trial over music streaming royalties had been ongoing for the past year, igniting after paid streaming music services gained popularity over owning or downloading individual songs and albums.

In terms of record labels, last summer Apple began seeking to reduce the share of revenue record labels get from streaming music as it worked to establish new deals for Apple Music and iTunes. The company did just that in a deal struck with Warner Music Group, achieving a lower rate for the label that includes artists like Ed Sheeran, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Bruno Mars, and more.

Tag: Apple Music
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Rimac gives a shadowy tease of its next electric hypercar

If you’re in the rare crossover group of folks who are rich, environmentally conscious and want to drive dangerously fast, Rimac is building your car. The company teased its next-generation Rimac Hypercar and promised to fully unveil it at the Geneva Motor Show on March 6th. It didn’t say much else about the EV, but if it’s like the original Concept 1, expect to see endless power and torque, a very limited production run and a crazy price tag.

Why play by the rules, when you can change the game.
The Next Generation #Rimac #Hypercar is coming soon, stay tuned at https://t.co/buMyTKodhd pic.twitter.com/JeHf0A1s8A

— Rimac Automobili (@AutomobiliRimac) January 24, 2018

The tease shows a lower, curvier profile and bigger windshield than the one on the beefy, $980,000 Concept 1, famously crashed by Grand Tour host Richard Hammond. Rather than being upset, Rimac CEO Mate Rimac was impressed by the car’s toughness after it rolled numerous times and came to rest inverted, with Hammond pulled to safety just before it went up in flames.

Rimac only made eight Concept 1 cars and there are now seven left. The company has kept itself busy in the meantime building EV parts for other automakers — it’s supplying Aston Martin with the battery pack for its own hypercar, for instance.

In its teaser, the company said “why play by the rules, when you can change the game.” Unlike in 2012, however, Rimac has a bigger hill to climb to impress potential buyers. A garden variety Tesla Model S in “ludicrous mode” can get from 0 to 60 mph faster than the Concept 1 (2.3 versus 2.5 seconds). Elon Musk has also promised that the next-gen Tesla Roadster will do 0-60 mph in 1.9 seconds, hit 250 mph and have a 620 mile range.

Via: Electrek

Source: Twitter

UK hits its 95 percent ‘superfast’ broadband coverage target

‘Superfast’ broadband with speeds of at least 24 Mbps is now available across 95 percent of the UK, according to new stats thinkbroadband.com published today. The milestone was actually achieved last month, meaning the government’s Broadband Delivery UK initiative (BDUK) actually completed on time, in 2017. Superfast coverage in Northern Ireland sits at 86.7 percent, while the corresponding figures in Scotland and Wales hover just below 95 percent. Take into account England’s overachieving and it averages out to a hair above the magic number. We’re talking population/premises coverage here, of course, not geographic coverage.

The government first put the BDUK scheme into motion at the turn of the decade. Over the years, £1.7 billion in funding has been made available to ISPs to subsidise the rollout of infrastructure in areas where it otherwise wouldn’t be commercially viable. Openreach got its hands on the majority of that pot, but thanks to general cost savings and customers opening their wallets for these superfast lines, several hundreds of millions in funding has been recouped and earmarked for reinvestment in underserved areas and faster, fibre connections.

While the government effectively met the BDUK deadline, it has moved the goalposts many times over the years. That was to be expected, though, given the complexity of the project and that the definition of ‘superfast’ has changed since the first draft of the proposal — 20 Mbps was the original lower speed limit. The government has set additional milestones in more recent years, too, aiming for superfast connections to cover 97 of the UK by the end of 2019 and 98 percent in 2020.

Some people still have to make do with sluggish connections for now, but late last year the government announced it would be using the powers afforded to it by the freshly inked Digital Economy Act to make 10 Mbps broadband a legal right. This Universal Service Obligation (USO) means that by 2020, ISPs will be legally obliged to connect anyone that asks to at least a 10 Mbps line. According to thinkbroadband.com, 3.8 percent of people in the UK have broadband that doesn’t meet the USO standard. What’ll really make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up, though, is the thought of speeds of less than 2 Mbps, which 0.7 percent of the UK endures on a day-to-day basis.

Via: ISPreview

Source: Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport, thinkbroadband.com

Apple Remained Biggest Buyer of Semiconductor Chips After Samsung in 2017

Apple was the largest buyer of semiconductor chips after Samsung in the whole of last year, according to new data collected by Gartner. The two companies together consumed $81.8 billion of the chips in 2017, up from more than $20 billion in 2016, and combined they represented 19.5 percent of the total worldwide market (via DigiTimes).

“Samsung Electronics and Apple not only retained their respective No. 1 and No. 2 positions, they also radically increased their share of semiconductor spending through 2017,” said Masatsune Yamaji, principal research analyst at Gartner. “These two companies have held on to the top positions since 2011 and they continue to exert significant influence on technology and price trends for the whole semiconductor industry.”

Eight of the top 10 companies in 2016 remained in the top 10 in 2017, while the top five chip buyers stayed in the same positions. LG Electronics returned to the top 10, with the only newcomer being Western Digital, which grew its semiconductor spending by US$1.7 billion in 2017, according to Gartner.

In September, Toshiba agreed to sell its lucrative NAND memory chip unit to a global consortium that includes Apple, in a deal reportedly worth $17.7 billion. Apple is interested in the memory chip unit because NAND flash is an essential component of its iPhones and iPads. Only a handful of companies make the chips and the dominant player is Samsung, Apple’s biggest rival in the smartphone industry.

Semiconductor spending by the top 10 OEMs reached 40 percent of the total semiconductor market last year, up from 31 percent 10 years ago. The trend is expected to continue, according to Gartner, which predicts that the top 10 OEMs will account for more than 45 percent of total global semiconductor spending by the year 2021.

Tag: Samsung
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WhatsApp Messenger Now Officially Supports Apple CarPlay

The latest update to WhatsApp Messenger has added support for Apple’s CarPlay in-vehicle connectivity system, according to Dutch tech blog iCulture. Previously in-car WhatsApp access was only possible using the app’s Siri integration, but the advantage of the new official CarPlay support is that users can also receive WhatsApp push messages while driving.

With version 2.18.2 of the app installed on an iPhone connected to CarPlay, WhatsApp automatically appears as one of the icons on the CarPlay dash interface.

Image via iCulture
The new CarPlay integration means that Siri will notify in-vehicle users when they have received new WhatsApp messages and offer to read them out loud one by one. Users can also send WhatsApp messages by specifying to Siri who it is they wish to contact, then dictating the message. Siri will recount the dictated message to confirm, after which the user has the option to edit the message or send it on its way.

Apple’s own Messages app has been a feature of CarPlay since the vehicle dash system was launched. CarPlay users are able to play back audio-based iMessages, have text messages spoken out loud to them, and also compose them using Siri. The difference with WhatsApp in CarPlay, according to iCulture, is that it doesn’t enable the user to browse through a list of chat conversations.

WhatsApp is a free download for iPhone from the App Store. [Direct Link]

Related Roundup: CarPlayTag: WhatsApp
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Apple’s Decision to Slash iPhone X Production Volume in Q1 2018 Could Delay Future OLED Models

Apple is set to halve its 40 million iPhone X production target in the three month period from January, reported Nikkei Asian Review on Monday without naming a source.

The U.S. tech giant notified suppliers that it had decided to cut the target for the period to around 20 million units, in light of slower-than-expected sales in the year-end holiday shopping season in key markets such as Europe, the U.S. and China.

The iPhone X, Apple’s first smartphone equipped with an organic light-emitting diode display, has failed to catch on globally — something many put down to a price tag starting at $999.

Part of the reason for the high price tag of iPhone X is said to be down to the cost of OLED panels made by Samsung, which is the only supplier of the component that can guarantee Apple a steady supply of the screens. According to Nikkei, Apple is now considering an increase to the proportion of LCD iPhone models by reducing production of the OLED screen models scheduled for release this year.

Apple is expected to launch a trio of new iPhone models in 2018, including 5.8-inch and 6.5-inch models with OLED displays and a 6.1-inch model with an LCD display, according to respected KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. However, at least one other analyst has predicted that the LCD-to-OLED ratio this year will actually be 2:1.

DigiTimes’ Luke Lin believes Apple is increasingly leaning towards releasing two LCD-based models and a single larger 6.4- to 6.5-inch OLED model. Indeed, today’s Nikkei report claims lackluster sales for iPhone X could actually result in a delay to the company’s plans to introduce OLED screens in other models, potentially adding weight to DigiTimes’ prediction.

The production cuts for the X will have a domino effect on manufacturers that have supplied high-performance components for the handset, with the combined impact expected to run into billions of dollars. It could also slow down the shift at display manufacturers from LCD to OLED technology.

Nikkei added that Apple is expected to maintain a total production target of 30 million units for lower priced models such as the iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus and iPhone 7. Apple Japan replied to Nikkei’s request for comment by stating that it would confirm the details with headquarters.

Related Roundup: 2018 iPhonesTag: nikkei.com
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Apple and Immersion Reach Licensing Agreement After Lawsuits Over 3D Touch and Taptic Engine

Immersion, a company that develops and licenses haptic feedback technologies, today announced it has reached a settlement and licensing agreement with Apple. The terms of the deal are confidential.

Immersion describes itself as the leading innovator of haptic feedback systems, with more than 2,600 issued or pending patents. The company, headquartered in San Jose, California, says its technology has been adopted in more than three billion consumer electronics products across several industries.

Immersion had filed a pair of lawsuits against Apple in early 2016, accusing the company of infringing on its patents with its haptic feedback technologies such as 3D Touch and the Taptic Engine on the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, and Force Touch on the first-generation Apple Watch and various MacBook trackpads.

Tags: Force Touch, 3D Touch, Immersion, Taptic
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