Indian Character Bug Causing System Crashes is Fixed in iOS 11.3 and macOS 10.13.4

A recently discovered bug that causes app and system crashing on iPhone, iPad, and Mac due to a specific letter in the Indian language Telugu has been fixed in Apple’s upcoming iOS 11.3 and macOS 10.13.4 software updates.

MacRumors has not been able to reproduce any crashes, freezes, or resprings on any devices running the latest iOS 11.3 and macOS 10.13.4 betas when the particular letter is present anywhere across the systems, as the upcoming software versions can now display the affected character properly.

On earlier software versions, including the latest publicly released versions iOS 11.2.5 and macOS 10.13.3, it appears that Apple devices are unable to render the Indian character for some reason, causing apps or the entire system to abruptly crash depending on where it is trying to be displayed.

If the character is sent in an iMessage, for example, the recipient’s Messages app will crash when the conversation is opened. Likewise, if the character is pasted into the Safari or Chrome address bar on Mac, the browsers crash. This behavior extends to virtually any system text field on iOS and macOS, resulting in many third-party apps like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger being affected as well.

Even worse, some users have found that if the character is displayed in an iOS notification, it can cause an entire iPhone or iPad to respring, and in worst-case scenarios, restoring in DFU mode is the only possible solution.

If you’ve already received the letter and can no longer open Messages, try having a friend message you, which may allow you to regain access to the app and delete the conversation with the bad character. If not, consider enrolling in Apple’s free public beta program and upgrade to iOS 11.3 or macOS 10.13.4 beta.

MacRumors was alerted about this bug by developer Peter Steinberger on Monday, and it was submitted to Open Radar by developer Igor Bulyga on the same day. We elected not to report on the bug at the time to avoid contributing to its spread, since it can be used maliciously and a fix will be widely available soon.

The bug has received widespread attention today, so we wanted to acknowledge that Apple is aware of the issue and has implemented a fix. iOS 11.3 and macOS 10.13.4 should be publicly released by the end of March, but it’s very possible we’ll see minor updates pushed out with fixes in the near term.

These kinds of bugs have surfaced several times in the past, with text strings, videos, and more crashing the Messages app and causing other glitches. Just last month, a link to a GitHub page surfaced that froze the Messages app when received.

Related Roundups: iOS 11, macOS High Sierra
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Researchers discover new ways to abuse Meltdown and Spectre flaws

Intel has already started looking for other Spectre-like flaws, but it won’t be able to move on from the Spectre/Meltdown CPU vulnerabilities anytime soon. A team of security researchers from NVIDIA and Princeton University have discovered new ways to exploit Meltdown and Spectre outside of those idenfitied in the past. The researchers developed a tool to explore how else cyber criminals could take advantage of the CPU flaws and found new techniques that could be used to extract sensitive info like passwords from devices.

These techniques, which they’ve dubbed MeltdownPrime and SpectrePrime, pit two CPU cores against each other to dupe multi-core systems and get access to their cached data. The team wrote in their report (PDF):

“In the context of Spectre and Meltdown, leveraging coherence invalidations enables a Prime+Probe attack to achieve the same level of precision as a Flush+Reload attack and leak the same type of information. By exploiting cache invalidations, MeltdownPrime and SpectrePrime — two variants of Meltdown and Spectre, respectively — can leak victim memory at the same granularity as Meltdown and Spectre while using a Prime+Probe timing side-channel.

Where Meltdown and Spectre arise by polluting the cache during speculation, MeltdownPrime and SpectrePrime are caused by write requests being sent out speculatively in a system that uses an invalidation-based coherence protocol.”

The good news is that the software patches Intel and other chipmakers are rolling out are enough to protect against the newly discovered techniques. Those patches come with their own set of troubles and might slow down systems a bit, but they can at least ensure PCs, phones, servers and anything made vulnerable by the flaws are protected. However, the hardware changes Intel and other chipmakers are planning to make future CPUs Spectre- and Meltdown-proof might not be enough. The researchers said the discovery of these new techniques will “require new considerations” when it comes to any planned “microarchitectural mitigation.”

Via: Gizmodo, The Register

Source: Princeton University/NVIDIA

Nokia might give up on wearables

Less than two years after spending millions repositioning itself in the consumer health market, Nokia has announced a strategic review of its digital health business which will see 425 job losses in its home country of Finland. Nokia acquired French fitness tracker manufacturer Withings for $191 million in 2016 as part of its new digital health strategy WellCare, which is not dissimilar to Apple’s HealthKit. The deal came amid a spate of acquisitions by Nokia, buoyed by investment from Microsoft following their Windows Phone agreement.

But despite the company’s confident move into the health market, it wrote down $175 million of goodwill on the business in the third quarter of 2017, which essentially means Withings’ net assets weren’t as valuable as Nokia initially thought. Nokia has tried to replicate Withings’ previous accomplishments, but what works for a small French startup has clearly not worked for a conglomerate with expectations of huge success. And, there’s less demand for wearables now than when they first landed — by the time Nokia got involved, Apple already had a firm hold on the market.

It’s unclear where Nokia’s strategic review will take its health business, beyond the high job losses. In a statement the company said the review “may or may not result in any transaction or other changes”. However, it does appear that Withings co-founder Cedric Hutchings has stepped back from his role, as new hire Rob le Bras-Brown now takes the title of Nokia’s head of digital health. We’ve contacted Nokia for comment.

Via: Reuters

Source: Nokia

Samsung Notebook 9 Pen review: Solid stylus, so many compromises

My backpack is a disaster. I’ve always been sort of a packrat and working at Engadget doesn’t help. Every day I lug a laptop, a tablet, a few phones (for review purposes), an SLR, a huge power bank, chargers and cables for all those things and a book to the office. With MWC coming up, this seemed like a great time to re-evaluate what I drag with me everywhere. And, at the top of my list for re-evaluation is my 15-inch MacBook Pro — one of the heaviest things in my bag.

Enter Samsung’s (awkwardly named) Notebook 9 Pen. $1399 gets you one of the lightest Windows 10 ultraportables out there and, as the name suggests, it’s one of just a few Samsung laptops that use the company’s famous S Pen. After a week of testing, it’s clear that the Notebook 9 Pen has its uses, but most people won’t miss out by skipping it.

Hardware and design

Chris Velazco/Engadget

For me, the Notebook 9 Pen’s biggest draw is its weight — 2.2 lbs — and that’s largely a result of Samsung’s clever metallurgical skills. It’s easy to pick up the machine and assume it’s made of plastic, but it’s not. Samsung developed a magnesium-aluminum alloy called “Metal 12” to make its new devices durable and lighter. Samsung’s choice worked well: the N9 Pen handled a few cautious drops surprisingly. The alloy has a bit more flex than expected, but it’s nothing to get worked up over.

I’m less fine with the way the Notebook 9 Pen looks. I dig minimalist designs, I really do — Google’s Chromebook Pixel is one of my favorite designs ever, and they were basically flat, unadorned rectangles. Samsung’s design is downright boring. It’s just straight silver-gray, with only a shiny Samsung logo on the back to break up the monotony. This might be the single most unremarkable looking laptop I’ve ever seen.

And the port selection is even worse. There’s one full-sized USB 3.0 port, an HDMI-out, a USB-C port and a tiny slot for a microSD card. This limited selection means the Notebook 9 Pen isn’t ideal for my usual workload. Honestly, it feels like Samsung simply went with the bare minimum. I got by, but there was nothing about the experience to relish. And while it’s not exactly a new choice, I still hate that Samsung stuck the notebook’s power button on the right side, just below microSD slot. And it takes almost no pressure to trigger. More than once, I’ve grabbed the N9 Pen off my desk, only to accidentally put it to sleep because my finger grazed the power button.

The Notebook 9 Pen isn’t all bad, though. The built-in fingerprint sensor works well, and I quite like its placement directly beneath the Enter key. Samsung also gets credit for building one of the most pleasant keyboards I’ve used in a while. Bear in mind: I’m coming from the flat, mostly unsatisfying 2016 MacBook Pro keyboard, so most things feel like an improvement. Even so, the key travel and spacing feel great. And Samsung avoided a confusing non-standard key layout. Even the Precision trackpad was mostly a pleasure. My only real qualm is that the keyboard’s space bar isn’t centered, so my hand-meat occasionally caused some mis-clicks by grazing the trackpad.

The screen is quite good, too, with vibrant colors and surprising crispness for a 13-inch, 1080p panel. It was also more than bright enough for working outdoors (on the few days this week the sun popped out, anyway). The amount of bezel along the top and bottom of the screen is a slightly off-putting, but it’s a concession I’m alright with given the asking price. There are better screens in this price range, but Samsung’s isn’t far behind.

Chris Velazco/Engadget

Performance and software

Our Notebook 9 Pen review unit is the entry-level model, which leans on an 8th-generation Intel Core i7-8550U processor, 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD. While the machine’s port selection left me scrambling for dongles and USB hubs, the N9 Pen handled my daily workflow without hiccups or drama. Dozens of Chrome tabs, lots of Photoshop work, prolonged Spotify sessions and even a bit of light gaming — the Notebook 9 Pen handled everything I threw at it with poise.

Just don’t expect to game very hard on this thing: building large, unruly structures in Minecraft was no problem, but the machine’s lack of dedicated graphics means you’ll have to save your Overwatch matches for a different device. Battery life was unremarkable, though. On a full charge, I could squeeze 10 hours of work from the Notebook 9 Pen if I managed things well — otherwise, that figure tended to hover between 5-6 hours on days when I really need to get some work done.

In addition to all the niceties that come with Windows 10, Samsung’s own add-on software was remarkably helpful. Recorder Plus serves as a one-stop shop for all your voice recordings, and the ability to add time-coded “bookmark memos” made notating interviews a breeze. (As someone who has to transcribe such calls pretty frequently, thank you Samsung.) Samsung Messages, meanwhile, is essentially a Windows-friendly take on iMessage for Galaxy phone owners. Ultimately, the most useful addition to the mix was the Samsung Settings app, which offered easy access to a number of options that would normally be a touch more difficult to find. You can, for instance, quickly change the punchiness of your display colors, enable HDR for videos, fire up battery saver mode and even toggle a face-smoothing Beauty Mode for the laptop’s front-facing camera.

Chris Velazco/Engadget

S Pen

The name says it all. The Notebook 9 Pen is sort of pointless unless you plan to use the built-in S Pen. Unfortunately, that’s sometimes easier said than done. If the Notebook 9 Pen is sitting on top of a desk — which isn’t an unreasonable possibility — it’s basically impossible to remove the S Pen without lifting the machine up. More absurd than the problem is how easy the fix is: all the Pen needs is a notch near its clicky end to make it easier to grab. This isn’t rocket science, guys.

Chris Velazco/Engadget

Once I managed to free the pen, things started looking up pretty quickly. If you’ve used a Galaxy Note within the past few years, Samsung’s Air Command interface will look pretty familiar — once you remove the pen, a panel slides onto the screen to offer shortcuts for note taking, doodling on top of screenshots, and extending your desktop across other displays you want to hook up. You’re also able to use the S Pen to capture areas of the screen and turn them into GIFs. It’s easily the most fun addition to the mix, and I’ll admit to using it much, much more than I expected. And as always, if you need to access the Air Command control panel, a quick click on the S Pen’s button does the trick. Though, the Pen has to be within millimeters of the screen.

While the S Pen seems to lack the precision of something like Microsoft’s active Surface pen, it’s perfectly suited for jotting down notes and quick sketches, be they in OneNote or Samsung’s own Notes app. It was also surprisingly solid for editing photos and whipping up images in Photoshop. More importantly, the pen itself is passive and never requires a charge. I’m liable to ditch accessories entirely once they become even a little inconvenient, but the S Pen is always there and ready to be used. That goes a long way in my book.

Wrap-up

Chris Velazco/Engadget

Ultimately, Samsung’s Notebook 9 Pen is a solid little machine with perhaps too many quirks. I have few complaints about its performance and battery life, and in general it has been a reliable little workhorse. It does, however, feature a handful of puzzling design decisions that could’ve been avoided had Samsung approached this machine more thoughtfully. And the S Pen, while surprisingly effective on a laptop, just won’t be worth the premium for a lot of people. Samsung’s penless 13-inch Notebook 9m also recently announced, offers very nearly everything this Pen-packing model does for $100 less. Still, the Notebook 9 Pen has its niches — students in need of an excellent note-taking machine will find a lot to appreciate here, as will folks who crave sheer portability. If that’s not you, well, you can do better elsewhere.

‘Silent Streets’ sequel beefs up the AR sleuthing on iOS

Silent Streets was an odd mix of walking simulator and AR-based Victorian detective story, but clearly the mix of genres was a hit. Funbakers, the studio behind the game, has already cooked up a sequel, Silent Streets: The Mocking Bird, that’ll see players return to the murky world of Snowport. There, they’ll be tasked with solving a series of grisly murders in, and around, the world of backroom boxing.

The first title had some slightly clunky AR elements, but the company is now using Apple’s ARKit for its real-world clue hunting. In the preview, it’s clear that there’s plenty more AR content, including the player hanging out in a mortuary, searching corpses for clues. That should dovetail neatly with the hand drawn artwork and professional voice acting that was present in the original.

Silent Streets: The Mocking Bird will arrive on iOS devices on March 1st, and you can pre-order the first episode of this particular saga from today. An Android version is coming in the near future, but there’s no word — yet — on when it will actually arrive. But that just gives you more time to pick up a deerstalker, cloak, cane and fake mustache, right?

Source: Silent Streets (App Store)

3Doodler’s new kits help kids make robotic bugs and dinosaurs

3Doodler’s safer, cuter 3D-printing pen for kids called Start can already bring their imagination to life. But these new sets can help them get used to drawing objects if they’re just starting out and take their creations to the next level. The company has launched new Start sets at Toy Fair 2018, including a collaboration with insect robot-maker HexBug. It comes with Doodlemolds in the shape of bugs’ legs and bodies, as well as motorized parts, so kids can build actual moving critters and race their friends. 3Doodler says the kit can help teach kids physics, engineering and structural principles, since they’ll have to make sure the bug they designed can actually move.

3Doodler has also introduced a series of STEM activity kits outside its partnership with HexaBug, though these ones don’t have a pen included. One can help kids build detailed robotic dinosaurs, while the Science and Engineering kit can give life to scientific instruments and complex structures. The last one in the series is the Make Your Own Figurine kit, and kids can use it to build figures to go with their robot dinosaurs, bugs and 3D-printed miniature roller coasters.

In addition to all those, 3Doodler is also releasing new Doodlemolds to help kids make 3D-printed desserts, key rings, costume masks and eyeglasses. The Hexbug kit will come out in May for $60, along with the STEM Series sets, which will be priced between $20 and $30. Those only interested in the Doodlemolds will only have to set aside $15 for a set when they become available in the spring.

Mac and iOS bug crashes apps with a single character

Apple only recently fixed a bug called “chaiOS” that would cause iMessage on iOS devices and Macs to crash with a simple link, and now it’s got another, more widespread issue on its hands. As explained by Mobile World and replicated by The Verge, a lone Indian-language character is capable of crashing a number of messaging apps on iOS. The problem also extends to the Apple Watch and even Macs, all of which struggle to process the character specific to the Telugu language spoken in India.

The character, when received or even pasted into iMessage, will at least crash the app if not the entire iOS SpringBoard (the core software that runs the iOS home screen). Other communication apps react the same way, including WhatsApp, Twitter, Facebook Messenger, Gmail and Outlook. Telegram and Skype are immune, it seems. Apparently, watchOS apps don’t fare any better, while the character will also crash Mac software such as Note, Safari and the App Store, according to Mobile World.

The bug is particularly frustrating for iPhone users, because once the character has been received by iMessage, Facebook Messenger et al, that app will continue to crash every time you try to load it up again, effectively shutting you out. Your only hope is to find a way to delete the message or email from another device to free your iPhone from its cycle of trying and failing to load the character. For example, The Verge recommends getting someone to send you an SMS so you can get back into iMessage through that notification and delete the thread containing the bad character from your conversations list. Similarly, you could try logging into Gmail from a computer to delete the offending email.

Fortunately, this frustrating bug shouldn’t survive much longer. It affects devices running iOS 11.2.5, but has already been addressed in the latest beta software for both iPhones and Macs. That’s all Apple would say on the matter for now. These things tend to pop up occasionally and are usually squashed relatively swiftly. Just a few weeks ago, Apple issued a fix for the chaiOS bug that seems to be related to another messaging glitchtastrophe in 2015 called “Effective Power.”

In late 2016, a bug was discovered that would freeze iOS devices when a user tried to play a specific video in Safari; and just before the new year, a simple date bug caused iPhones running the latest software to reset on their own.

Via: The Verge, Mobile World

Gamevice Launches Special Minecraft Gaming Controller Bundle

Gamevice today announced the launch of a new Minecraft-themed controller bundle, which comes with a standard Gamevice controller, a Gamevice carrying case, and a code to download Minecraft on iOS.

For those unfamiliar with Gamevice, the company makes gaming controllers designed for the iPhone and the iPad. Gamevice controllers wrap around an iOS device, offering access to a d-pad, two joystick, and buttons to allow gamers to play iOS games with physical controls.

The Minecraft version of the Gamevice works with iPhone 6, 6s, 7, 7s, 8, and X models, along with Plus versions of those devices. At $89.95, the Minecraft bundle is $10 more expensive than the standard Gamevice controller, but the Minecraft iOS code is worth $6.99 and the carrying case is an added bonus.

“Minecraft is one of the greatest games of all time and playing Minecraft with Gamevice puts mobile players on equal ground with PC and console players. said Phillip Hyun, CEO, Gamevice. “Gamevice offers low latency and precision control, delivering a console quality experience to more than one thousand different games including Mojang’s masterpiece.”

The Gamevice controllers, Minecraft controller included, work with more than 1,000 iOS games, including several games that have been optimized for iPhone X.

The Gamevice Minecraft Bundle can be purchased starting today from Amazon.

Tag: Gamevice
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Graphene film makes dirty water drinkable in a single step

Every year, millions of people around the world die from drinking unclean water. Now, researchers have developed a process that can purify water, no matter how dirty it is, in a single step. Scientists from Australian research organization CSIRO have created a filtration technique using a graphene film with microscopic nano-channels that lets water pass through, but stops pollutants. The process, called “Graphair”, is so effective that water samples from Sydney Harbor were safe to drink after being treated.

And while the film hails from graphene, Graphair is comparatively cheaper, faster and more environmentally-friendly to make, as its primary component is renewable soybean oil, which also helps maximise the efficiency of the purifying technique’s filter counterpart. Over time, oil-based pollutants can impede water filters, so contaminants have to be removed before filtering can even begin, but using Graphair removes these pollutants faster than any other method.

Water purification usually involves a complex process of several steps, so this breakthrough could have a significant impact on the some 2.1 billion people who don’t have clean, safe drinking water. “All that’s needed is heat, our graphene, a membrane filter and a small water pump. We’re hoping to commence field trials in a developing world community next year,” said lead author Dr Dong Han Seo, who added that the team is looking for industry partners to help scale up the technology, and is also working on other applications for Graphair, such as seawater and industrial effluents.

Source: CSIRO

London may force Uber to introduce women-only UberPools

Out of the blue, Transport for London (TfL) has issued a “policy statement” on ride-sharing services in the capital. Most of it isn’t new — the bulk of the six-page document recaps older policy announcements, such as the controversial English language test for Uber drivers — but there was one idea that hasn’t been communicated before. “Operators should provide mechanisms to allow passengers to choose who they share vehicles with (e.g. women-only vehicles) and establishing how passengers might be able to decide on this before accepting a ride.” That would affect UberPool and similar services that offer discounts if you share a ride with a stranger.

The concept is listed under a section called “aspirations for PHV (private hire vehicle) services.” It is, therefore, a polite request, rather than a proper rule right now. Still, TfL says cryptically: “This section also highlights where we will seek further regulatory change in the future.” So there’s a chance this policy will be written into law some day. For now, the specifics are unclear — such a move would be controversial, for instance, if passengers could filter based on race and sexuality too. TfL has made clear, however, that its intention is to “improve safety and customer service.”

Uber, if you need a reminder, lost its licence in London last September. The company has appealed the decision — the resolution could take “years,” apparently — and is free to operate in the meantime. Much of TfL’s gripes concern how the company reports serious crime and conducts driver background checks. These are reiterated in its policy statement today. It calls on ride-hailing companies to provide “clear policies and action for the prevention and reporting of offences,” and processes so that “any allegation of crime is reported to the police and TfL in a timely fashion.” To make this a reality, it says “further change” may be required to licensing legislation.

“We will consult on proposals to make changes to private hire legislation as appropriate,” the regulator hints. “Views will be sought from stakeholders, other taxi and private hire regulators, and the public in 2018.”

Source: TfL (Policy Statement)