Monday, March 11, 2024

Best 2-in-1 Laptop for 2024 - CNET

Looking for a device that can be used as a laptop or tablet? These are our top picks for the best two-in-one options.

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Latest Tech News

We’re only a few months into 2024 but it has already been a busy year for phones, with the highlights being the Samsung Galaxy S24 family, including the incredibly powerful Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra, which currently sits at the top of our list of the best phones.

But there’s a lot still to come, including more Samsung devices, phones from Google and OnePlus, and of course the iPhone 16 line.

Below then, you’ll find five of the phones we’re most anticipating throughout the rest of 2024, along with our best guesses as to when we’ll see them.

iPhone 16 Pro Max

An unofficial render of the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max

iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max mockups (Image credit: MacRumors)

The iPhone 16 line is undoubtedly the most highly anticipated series of smartphones this year, and we could populate this list with all four expected models (namely the iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, and iPhone 16 Pro Max), but of those it’s the iPhone 16 Pro Max that gets us really excited.

We’re almost certain this will land in September, given Apple’s usual release patterns, and leaks suggest it could be a big upgrade on the iPhone 15 Pro Max – which is currently one of the best phones you can buy.

Apparently the iPhone 16 Pro Max will have a slightly larger 6.9-inch screen, a more powerful A18 Pro chipset, and a new ‘Capture’ button, designed for snapping photos and shooting videos.

It might also have a ‘super telephoto’ camera, which can zoom far further than the 5x offered on the iPhone 15 Pro Max, and it could have an upgraded 48MP ultra-wide camera, in place of the 12MP one on the current model.

With these upgrades, coupled with all the great elements already found in the iPhone 15 Pro Max, the iPhone 16 Pro Max could be the phone to beat in late 2024.

OnePlus Open 2

OnePlus Open on a pedestal with home screen showing

The OnePlus Open (Image credit: Future / Philip Berne)

OnePlus isn’t the biggest name in foldable phones. In fact it has so far only released one. But impressively the OnePlus Open is one of the absolute best foldable phones you can buy, so we’re highly anticipating the OnePlus Open 2.

We know very little about the OnePlus Open 2 so far, but the original has big screens, a brilliant design, and the best cameras you’ll find on a foldable phone. So there’s a good chance the OnePlus Open 2 will retain or improve on those features.

It’s sure to be a more powerful phone too, and we’re hopeful for better battery life. We’ll probably find out exactly what it has to offer in or around October, as the OnePlus Open launched in October of last year.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6

A leaked render of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6

A leaked render of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 (Image credit: @OnLeaks / SmartPrix)

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 will probably be the most popular book-style foldable phone of 2024, even if it’s not the best. But there’s a chance it will be the best, or at least that the rumored Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 Ultra will be.

That said, we’re not at all sure that an Ultra model is really in the works, and there’s little information on it. So for now we’re more anticipating the standard Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6, which is sure to launch.

Leaks suggest this may have a titanium frame, a larger cover screen than its predecessor, a higher 2,600-nit peak brightness on the foldable display, and of course a more powerful chipset.

Sadly, most leaks suggest the cameras will be unchanged from those on the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5, so we hope if there is an Ultra model too, the cameras are at least upgraded there.

There might not be too long to wait for this one, at least compared to some phones on this list, with a July launch rumored.

Google Pixel 9 Pro

A leaked render of the Pixel 9 Pro

A leaked render of the Pixel 9 Pro (Image credit: MySmartPrice / OnLeaks)

Our most highly anticipated non-foldable, non-Apple phone of the remainder of the year is the Google Pixel 9 Pro.

This will probably land alongside the standard Google Pixel 9 in October, and based on past form it’s likely to be bigger and better than the standard model.

Leaks suggest the Pixel 9 line will have a new design, with flat sides and a different camera block. The Pixel 9 Pro will reportedly also have a triple-lens camera, a new Tensor G4 chipset, and possibly a new AI assistant, which might be exclusive to the Pixel line.

Indeed, AI is likely to be a big focus on this phone, and based on previous Pixels the Pixel 9 Pro may well also rank among the best camera phones.

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6

A leaked render of the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6

A leaked render of the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6 (Image credit: @OnLeaks / SmartPrix)

While the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 will be bigger and more expensive than the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6, it’s the Flip line that tends to be more successful, so the Z Flip 6 may well end up being the most popular foldable phone of the year.

Leaks suggest this phone – which could land as soon as July – will have a larger cover screen than the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5, along with a bigger battery, and a smaller crease in the foldable screen.

It might also have an upgraded 50MP main camera, in place of its predecessor’s 12MP one. Though not all leaks agree on that.

And the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6 is sure to get a power boost, as it will almost certainly be equipped with a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset, which we’ve already seen used in the Samsung Galaxy S24 line.

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Sunday, March 10, 2024

Latest Tech News

Spartan UltraScale+ is the latest addition to AMD's extensive portfolio of cost-optimized Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) and adaptive SoCs. It has been introduced to replace the Xilinx Spartan 6 and Spartan 7 lines.

The new Spartan UltraScale+ devices are designed for a wide range of I/O-intensive applications at the edge. AMD says its latest FPGAs can deliver up to 30 percent lower total power consumption compared to the previous generation - energy efficiency is a hot topic right now - while boasting the most robust set of security features in the AMD's cost-optimized portfolio.

“For over 25 years the Spartan FPGA family has helped power some of humanity’s finest achievements, from lifesaving automated defibrillators to the CERN particle accelerator advancing the boundaries of human knowledge,” said Kirk Saban, corporate vice president, Adaptive and Embedded Computing Group, AMD. “Building on proven 16nm technology, the Spartan UltraScale+ family’s enhanced security and features, common design tools, and long product lifecycles further strengthen our market-leading FPGA portfolio and underscore our commitment to delivering cost-optimized products for customers.”

Into the 2040s... and beyond!

The Spartan UltraScale+ FPGAs offer a number of state-of-the-art security features, including support for Post-Quantum Cryptography with NIST-approved algorithms to provide robust IP protection against ever-evolving threats. They also include a physical unclonable function, providing each device with a unique fingerprint for added security. 

The Spartan UltraScale+ FPGA family sampling and evaluation kits are expected to be available in the first half of 2025, with tools support- starting with the AMD Vivado Design Suite - in the fourth quarter of 2024. 

What about that super-long lifecycle being promised? AMD says the Spartan UltraScale+ FPGA will be supported into the 2040s, and this is just the standard lifecycle. AMD will likely offer an extended lifecycle on top of that (as it has with past FPGAs), which will take the chip’s support well into the future.

That might seem like some serious generosity on AMD’s behalf, but as Serve The Home explains, "Spartan FPGAs are often in products that take years to design and then are sold and used for decades in the future."

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Best Treadmills of 2024 - CNET

We tested the best treadmills, including popular ones from Peloton and NordicTrack, to help you find the best option for your home.

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Saturday, March 9, 2024

Max: The 34 Absolute Best TV Shows to Watch - CNET

Here are some highly rated series to watch on Max, plus a look at what's new in March.

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Best Dash Cam Deals: Save Up to $105 on Kenwood, Rove, Garmin and More - CNET

Having footage of any accident or collision on the road, which is why we've collected our favorite dash cam deals below.

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Friday, March 8, 2024

Saatva Mattress Review 2024: A Premium Bed With Great Support and a Responsive Feel - CNET

The Saatva mattress provides optimal support for proper alignment and maximum comfort. You don't see this type of quality from just any mattress.

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Latest Tech News

An investigation by Canva deep dive into the world of font security has uncovered three unexpected vulnerabilities and revealed how choosing the wrong font could spell out a cybersecurity disaster.

In an effort to enhance the security of its tools, Canva has been researching less-explored attack surfaces, including fonts, which play an integral part in graphics processing.

A trio of vulnerabilities have been highlighted in a report entitled “Fonts are still a Helvetica of a Problem", with Canva ultimately declaring that the font landscape is actually quite rich in attack surfaces.

Canva is concerned about the font you use

The first vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2023-45139, was discovered in FontTools, a Python library for manipulating fonts. Canva found that when processing an SVG table to subset a font, FontTools could use an untrusted XML file, leading to an XML External Entity (XXE) vulnerability.

The researchers abused this vulnerability to produce a subsetted font containing an SVG table with an /etc/passwd payload. FontTools released a patch three days after being notified of the vulnerability in September 2023.

The other two vulnerabilities, CVE-2024-25081 and CVE-2024-25082, both rated at 4.2/10, were associated with naming conventions and font compression. Canva found the potential for command injection when dealing with filenames in tools like FontForge and ImageMagick. Both have also been addressed.

Acknowledging the timely work of open-source font software and tool maintainers, Canva noted that IT workers should “treat fonts like any other untrusted input” by implementing sandboxing and using tools like OpenType-Sanitizer.

This isn’t the first time that font security has been raised, with Google exploring similar issues nearly a decade ago, however with the increased prevalence and more severe consequences of cyber attacks, Canva’s recommendation that we pay attention to less obvious attack surfaces is a mighty sensible one.

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Thursday, March 7, 2024

Best Kitchen Faucets for 2024 - CNET

From stylish and sleek to semiprofessional, along with a few budget buys, these are the best kitchen sink faucets for style and function you can get in 2024

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Latest Tech News

Cybercriminals are using compromised WordPress websites to form a huge army for credential stuffing attacks, experts have warned.

A report from cybersecurity researchers Sucuri spotted the campaign, and believe they know what its goal is - namely looking for vulnerable sites from the website builder, where they can install a small script in the HTML templates. That script forces the website visitor’s computer to visit a different WordPress website (in the background, unbeknownst to the victim) and try to log in using different username and password combinations.

Once the victim cracks the login code, they would, still unaware, relay that information back to the attackers, and receive further instructions (another website to crack).

Building a base

Citing information from the HTML source code search engine, PublicHTML, BleepingComputer reported that there are currently more than 1,700 websites hosting this script, “providing a massive pool of users who will be unwittingly conscripted into this distributed bruteforce army.” Among the victims, the publication further reports, is the website of Ecuador’s Association of Private Banks.

Sucuri says it’s been tracking this threat actor in the past. Until now, the group used the same technique for a different purpose - to install the AngelDrainer malware. AngelDrainer is a piece of code that, as the name suggests, “drains” all of the funds a victim may have in their cryptocurrency wallets. To do that, the victim needs to connect their wallet (such as the MetaMask wallet, for example) to a crypto service. The group even built their own fake Web3 websites to get people to connect their wallets. 

The researchers aren’t certain why the group decided to pivot into credential stuffing. One explanation is that they’re building a bigger base of compromised sites that can then be used to launch more destructive attacks - such as wallet draining campaigns. 

"Most likely, they realized that at their scale of infection (~1000 compromised sites) the crypto drainers are not very profitable yet," Sucuri concluded. 

"Moreover, they draw too much attention and their domains get blocked pretty quickly. So, it appears reasonable to switch the payload with something stealthier, that at the same time can help increase their portfolio of compromised sites for future waves of infections that they will be able to monetize in one way or another."

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Wednesday, March 6, 2024

Latest Tech News

Chinese engineers at the Institute for Intelligent Computing, Alibaba Group, have developed an AI app called Emote Portrait Live that can animate a still photo of a face and synchronize it to an audio track.

The technology behind this relies on the generative capabilities of diffusion models (mathematical models used to describe how things spread or diffuse over time), which can directly synthesize character head videos from a provided image and any audio clip. This process bypasses the need for complex pre-processing or intermediate representations, thus simplifying the creation of talking head videos.

The challenge lies in capturing the nuances and diversity of human facial movements during video synthesis. Traditional methods simplify this by imposing constraints on the final video output, such as using 3D models to limit facial keypoints or extracting head movement sequences from base videos to guide overall motion. However, these constraints may limit the naturalness and richness of the resulting facial expressions.

Not without challenges

The research team's objective is to develop a talking head framework that can capture a wide range of realistic facial expressions, including subtle micro-expressions, and allow for natural head movements. 

However, the integration of audio with diffusion models presents its own challenges due to the ambiguous relationship between audio and facial expressions. This can result in instability in the videos produced by the model, including facial distortions or jittering between video frames. To overcome this, the researchers included stable control mechanisms in their model, specifically a speed controller and a face region controller, to improve stability during the generation process. 

Despite the potential of this technology, there are certain drawbacks. The process is more time-consuming than methods that don't use diffusion models. Additionally, since there are no explicit control signals to guide the character’s motion, the model may unintentionally generate other body parts, like hands, resulting in artifacts in the video.

The group has published a paper on its work on the arXiv preprint server, and this website is home to a number of other videos showcasing the possibilities of Emote Portrait Live, including clips of Joaquin Phoenix (as The Joker), Leonardo DiCaprio, and Audrey Hepburn.

You can watch the Mona Lisa recite Rosalind's monologue from Shakespeare's As You Like It, Act 3, Scene 2, below.

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Samsung was a pioneer of the folding phone, and the Galaxy Z Fold series constantly ranks among the best foldable phones on the market. So we’re excited to see what could be next for the line – and rumored to be on the horizon is the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6, and possibly a Galaxy Z Fold 6 Ultra.

It's the Ultra model that's caught our eye here. The now a lot more competition in the folding phone market, notably in the shape of the OnePlus Open and the Google Pixel Fold. So there's some logic to Samsung potentially looking to stand out from the pack it arguably helped create with a premium version of the Fold.

If legitimate, a Galaxy Z Fold 6 Ultra would effectively take the Fold 6 as the baseline and integrate in features found in the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra; say a built-in S Pen and 200-megapixel camera. 

But it's early days for such foldable phone rumors and leaks, so read on for what we know so far about the so-called Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 Ultra and what we'd like to see from the phone. 

Release date and price  

  •  What is it? A rumored new ultra-premium foldable from Samsung 
  •  When is it out? Possibly July 
  •  How much will it cost? Likely more than $1,799 / £1,749 / AU$2,599

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 Ultra: potential release date and price

A leaked render of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6

(Image credit: @OnLeaks / SmartPrix)

If Samsung does unveil a Galaxy Z Fold 6 Ultra, it'll likely take place at the next Galaxy Unpacked event, currently tipped for July 10 in Paris, and be launched alongside the rumored Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Galaxy Z Flip 6, as well as the Galaxy Ring

As a Galaxy Z Fold 6 Ultra would be a more premium version of Samsung’s already expensive folding flagship, we’d expect to cost a fair bit more than the Galaxy Z Fold 5’s starting price of $1,799.99 / £1,749 / AU$2,599.  

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 Ultra: potential design

Rumors website Smartprix partnered with @OnLeaks to produce detailed, 5K renders of the Galaxy Z Fold 6 Ultra. They also provide a 360-degree video and possible specs, which give us some idea of what we might be able to expect from an Ultra variant of Samsung’s next Fold.

If the renders are to be believed, Samsung  will shake-up its design for the Galaxy Z Fold 6 Ultra – and presumably for the ‘standard’ Galaxy Z Fold 6 – moving away from the gentle curves used in the Galaxy S series and the Galaxy Z Fold 5 and adopting the more angular design seen on the Galaxy S24 Ultra and Galaxy S23 Ultra.  

The renders point to the Galaxy Z Fold 6 Ultra being slightly shorter but wider than the Fold 5, measuring 153.5 x 132.5 x 6.1mm compared to 154.9 x 129.9 x 6.1mm of its predecessor.

The renders also match the look of a prototype Galaxy Z Fold 6 design that leaker IceUniverse posted last year. If both are accurate then the design for the next-generation Fold phones may draw from the aesthetics of the Galaxy S24 Ultra. 

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 Ultra: what we want to see

Improved display and toughness

A leaked render of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6

(Image credit: @OnLeaks / SmartPrix)

There are a few things we’d like to see in a Galaxy Z Fold 6 Ultra, but topping our list is something we’d like to see less of: the crease in the center of the main screen. Samsung has tended to make this less noticeable and distracting with each iteration of the Galaxy Z Fold – so could the Galaxy Z Fold 6, and a potential Galaxy Z Fold 6 Ultra, be the first phones on which Samsung manages to make it disappear completely? 

Such a move would likely require the use of improved ultra-thin glass, but Samsung's display arm continues to produce impressive foldable and rollable AMOLED screens, so there's certainly scope to further reduce a Fold's crease or get rid of it completely.

Going by the rumors so far, the cover screen would likely keep the narrow 6.2-inch size seen on the Galaxy Z Fold 5, rather than a larger 6.4-inch panel other rumors have mentioned. If that’s the case it could be a wasted opportunity on Samsung’s part, as a wider cover display can make for a more usable foldable phone when it's closed. 

We hope that Samsung would make use of the Corning Gorilla Glass Armor to protect the cover display, as that's being used in the Galaxy S24 Ultra, so sees like a good feature for an phone bearing the Ultra suffix.

And an IP52 rating dust and water resistance rating, as seen in the Motorola Razr Plus, would be appreciated too. That's because while the Galaxy Z Fold 5 had an IPX8 water resistance rating it lacked dust protection, which we feel is important due the the complex moving parts in folding phones that run the risk of being gunked up with dust or grime.  

Proper Ultra-grade cameras

Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra hands on handheld back angled open palm

(Image credit: Future | Alex Walker-Todd)

The Galaxy Z Fold 5's camera system was rather good, but it was unchanged from the Galaxy Z Fold 4’s 50MP, f/1.8 wide, 10MP, f/2.4, telephoto, and 12MP, f/2.2 ultra-wide combo. 

We’re hoping that Samsung updates this with something closer to the Galaxy S24 Ultra‘s more impressive camera setup, which features a 200MP, f/1.7 main camera, 12MP f/2.2 ultra-wide, 50MP, f/3.4, periscope telephoto with 5x optical zoom, and a 10MP, f/2.4, telephoto offering 3x optical zoom. However, if the specifications in Smartprix's renders are for the Galaxy Z Fold 6 Ultra and not a standard Z Fold 6 then fans could be very disappointed, as they lack camera specs with an Ultra flavor. 



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Tuesday, March 5, 2024

Best VPN for Chrome 2024 - CNET

Add a layer of privacy and unblock geographical restrictions in your web browser with the top VPNs for Google Chrome.

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Latest Tech News

OpenAI's Sora, its equivalent of image creation but for videos, made huge shockwaves in the swiftly advancing world of AI last month, and we’ve just caught a few new videos which are even more jaw-slackening than what we have already been treated to.

In case you somehow missed it, Sora is a text-to-video AI meaning you can write a simple request and it’ll compose a video (just as image generation previously worked, but obviously a much more complex endeavor).

An eye with the iris being a globe

(Image credit: OpenAI)

Now OpenAI’s Sora research lead Tim Brooks has released some new content generated by Sora on X (formerly Twitter). 

This is Sora’s crack at fulfilling the following request: “Fly through tour of a museum with many paintings and sculptures and beautiful works of art in all styles.”

Pretty impressive to say the least. On top of that, Bill Peebles, also a Sora research lead, showed us a clip generated from the following prompt: “An alien blending in naturally with new york city, paranoia thriller style, 35mm film.”

An alien character walking through a street

(Image credit: OpenAI)

Content creator Blaine Brown then stepped in to embellish the above clip, cutting it to repeat the footage and make it longer, while having the alien rapping, complete with lip-syncing. The music is generated by Suno AI by the way (with the lyrics written by Brown, mind), and lip-syncing is done with Pika Labs AI.

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Analysis: Still early days for Sora

Two people having dinner

(Image credit: OpenAI)

It’s worth underlining how fast things seem to be progressing with the capabilities of AI. Image creation powers were one thing – and extremely impressive in themselves – but this is entirely another. Especially when you remember that Sora is still just in testing at OpenAI, with a limited set of ‘red teamers’ (testers hunting out bugs and smoothing over those wrinkles).

The camera work in the museum fly-through flows realistically and feels nicely imaginative in the way it swoops around (albeit with the occasional judder). And the last tweet shows how you can take a base clip and flesh it out with content including AI-generated music.

Of course, AI can write a script as well, and so it begs the question: how long will it be before a blue alien is starring in an AI-generated post-apocalyptic drama. Or an (unintentional) comedy perhaps?

You get the idea, and we’re getting carried away, of course, but still – what AI could be capable of in just a few years is potentially mind-blowing, frankly.

Naturally, we’ll be seeing the cream of the crop of what Sora is capable of in these teasers, and there have been some buggy and weird efforts aired too. (Just as when ChatGPT and other AI chatbots first rolled onto the scene, we saw AI hallucinations and general unhinged behavior and replies).

Perhaps the broader worry with Sora, though, is how this might eventually displace, rather than assist, content creators. But that’s a fear to chew over on another day – not forgetting the potential for misuse with AI-created videos which we recently discussed in more depth here.

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Latest Tech News

A class-action lawsuit filed in early March 2024 accuses Apple of restricting certain files critical to cloud backups of its devices to its own iCloud platform, and raising the price of the service to the point where it is ‘generating almost pure profit’.

The filing for Gamboa v. Apple Inc, submitted in the US District Court of the Northern District of California, would include a nationwide class of users impacted by the monopoly, and a class of Californians who claim to have been overcharged for an iCloud plan.

We are not lawyers and make no claim to be scholars on California’s corporation laws - however, with Bloomberg noting that iCloud gives Apple a 70% share of the cloud storage market, owing to the sheer ubiquity of their mobile devices, we think it's fair to question the fairness of locking backups to one service and trapping users in one ever increasing pricing model.

iCloud’s competition

iCloud’s competitors include Amazon, Google and Microsoft, which all have cloud storage services available on iOS devices for the purposes of storing user data. 

The prospective lawsuit alleges, however, that requiring the use of iCloud for device backups makes maintaining accounts across multiple services - which may be cheaper, and have a more generous free cloud storage allowance than iCloud’s 5GB - inconvenient.

Apple has yet to respond to the filing, but it seems unlikely that it’ll be able to convincingly argue that backup data specific to Apple devices is sensitive enough to require locking to iCloud when, in 2022, Apple settled another class-action lawsuit, Williams v. Apple Inc, for $14.8 million,  allowing it to continue to deny that it breached its own terms and conditions by storing user data on servers belonging to its competitors.

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Heat Domes and Surging Grid Demand Threaten US Power Grids with Blackouts

A new report shows a sharp increase in peak electricity demand, leading to blackout concerns in multiple states. Here's how experts say ...