A security researcher has sounded the alarm over a portable SSD listed on both AliExpress and Walmart, which appears to be programmed to misrepresent its own storage capacity.
As reported by Ars Technica, a researcher that goes by the name of @RayRedacted on Twitter has published a teardown of an XGeek-branded SSD with a supposed capacity of 30TB, on sale for between $29-$39.
Upon close inspection, he found the manufacturer had likely meddled with the drive’s firmware in order to trick Windows into misreporting the available storage capacity, which in reality is far, far lower.
Fake portable SSD?
Suspicious of the capacity claims, @RayRedacted purchased the SSD in question from AliExpress. When he cracked it open, he found what appeared to be two microSD cards glued in a haphazard manner to a board.
A second red flag presented itself when the drive was plugged in. Although Windows reports drive capacity in gigabytes (GB), the OS actually measures in gibibytes (GiB) and tebibytes (TiB), which is why 1TB drives typically appear to have a capacity of roughly 930GB. But in this case, the SSD presented itself as two separate drives, each with a capacity of precisely 15TB.
This discrepancy is attributed by @RayRedacted to a firmware hack that allows for a low-capacity drive (perhaps as small as 1GB or less) to register a much larger capacity. “When you go to write a big file, hacked firmware simply writes all new data on top of old data, while keeping directory intact (sic),” he explained.
What’s more, the manufacturer appears to have taken steps to slow down the bus speed too, such that tests designed to verify the drive’s genuine capacity would take in excess of a year to complete.
The claims set out in the Twitter thread are corroborated by the Walmart reviews section, which is full of comments from unhappy customers.
“Do not buy this,” one reviewer wrote. “This piece of garbage does not work, in any way, shape or form”. Others reported that only one in every hundred files transferred successfully, speeds were slow and file corruption commonplace.
TechRadar Pro has asked AliExpress, Walmart and JD E Commerce America Limited (the merchant) for comment.
Creator Tony Gilroy, actor Diego Luna and the rest of the cast reveal the fresh aspects of a galaxy far, far away we'll see in the Rogue One prequel show coming to Disney Plus.
We played the colorful Nintendo Switch shooter sequel and sampled new weapons like the supercool Splatana Wiper, but you can try it out for yourself during this weekend's free Splatfest event.
Even when AAA game releases wind down until the next big release season, there are still plenty of delectable indie morsels that can tide you over or even create its own tasty and uniquely flavored meal.
This week we have plenty of indie games to suit any palette, from the monochrome horror of Silt to the dark rogue-like action of Cult of the Lamb or the retro game love letter Arcade Paradise.
So if you're looking for some of the best PC games we're playing here at TechRadar, check out our list and dive right into the buffet of delicious PC games.
Silt
(Image credit: Fireshine Games)
Silt is described as a surreal underwater puzzle-adventure game, in which you control a deep sea diver as they explored the murky depths of the pitch black ocean to uncover its mysteries. Its monochrome palette paired with its frightening yet almost children’s picture book graphical style creates a unique blend of tension that sticks with you long after the game’s completion.
Silt plays like a classic side-scrolling platformer in which you mainly avoid both obstacles and enemies while exploring vast environment and uncover hidden secrets. Both the environments and monsters are drop dead gorgeous, with intricate details and an excellent contrast between light and dark to flesh those details out.
What is especially impressive about Silt is how fluidly the diver moves through water. The controls are tight and responsive, refreshing for a horror game as it derives the horror aspects from the atmosphere created by the visuals, music, and sound effects rather than poor controls.
Cult of the Lamb
(Image credit: Devolver Digital)
In the same vein as titles like The Binding of Isaac, Cult of the Lamb is a rogue-like that throws random events and enemies at you as you attempt to keep your cult happy, busy, and properly controlled. The animal-people trope gives this game even more whiplash as you witness adorable animals wielding terrifying powers or being violently killed.
For fans of the rogue-like genre, the gameplay is smooth and frenetic with excellent animation that rarely slows down. Despite its adorable look, this game is hardcore and doesn’t let up on the challenge one bit. It’s surprisingly robust, with plenty of ways to upgrade your character as well as the cult.
I really, really love the presentation. The vibrant colors, the details, the tight controls, the fact that I am playing as the cutest and most violent lamb in existence. This game is gory for sure but it offers so much more than that, which is why it’s been so talked about since its launch.
Arcade Paradise
(Image credit: Wired Productions)
The indie scene has truly embraced the retro aesthetic, as plenty of games are developed using 8-bit and 16-bit sprite art, N64/PlayStation-esque polygon graphics, or even the 1-bit style of old Japanese PC games from the 80s and 90s.
Arcade Paradise is its own tribute to the arcade fever that shook the 80s and 90s of America. At first it seems like a first-person trash collecting simulator with some retro UI thrown in for flavor, but as soon as your character ventures into the back of the laundromat and steps into the hidden arcade room, you can truly see this game for what it is.
The trash collecting and other life-sim aspects are an excuse for you to dump coins into several retro-styled arcade machines and play some of the most addictive and well-thought out minigames I’ve ever gotten my hands on. It’s an absolute treat and would highly recommend to any millennial wanting to recapture the magic of your childhood, or even younger generations who might have missed out on the magic of old school arcades.
The Last Stand: Aftermath
(Image credit: Armor Games Studios)
"Another rogue-like?", you say with disdain. And I correct you with it’s actually a roguelite with a smug grin on my face. But this is in a completely different style from Cult of the Lamb, which was a cutesy game with unforgiven gameplay, as Last Stand: Aftermath is a more visually realistic game with somewhat more forgiving gameplay.
Part of the Last Stand series, Aftermath follows a group of people surviving a zombie apocalypse. It plays a bit like Hades, including the fact that they’re the same genre, in which the environments and enemies thrown at you are procedurally generated. There’s a strong element of resource management here, as well as plenty of other gameplay mechanics that need to be kept up with as you take down the hordes of zombies chasing after you.
There have been plenty of updates and fixes since its launch and the two-man team continues to work on polishing this hidden gem. But even now, the gameplay rarely ever gets dull and there’s tons of new content to liven up the formula. Plus, since it’s a roguelite it’s much friendlier to new players unfamiliar with the genre.
Cursed to Golf
(Image credit: Thunderful Publishing)
What if in Mario Golf, instead of playing a nice game of golf with your friends and frenemies, you got trapped in Golf Purgatory and had to keep golfing to become a Golfing Legend and escape? Well you can find out by playing a sprite-styled rogue-like called Cursed to Golf.
Cursed to Golf is a fully fleshed out golfing game that accurately replicates the physics of golf including swing angles and obstacles. It procedurally generates each environment in a game, creating a brand new and difficult puzzle to golf through every time.
Having to master not only each club type and use it to safely get the ball through some of the toughest sections while avoiding water and sand traps can feel diabolic at times. But the smooth animations and strong physics engine lessen the frustration and instead do what many rougue-likes fail to, which is make the difficulty feel rewarding on its own merit and not yet another obstacle to conquer.
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Valve will be pushing out a Steam Deck 2 in the future, according to an eBook which has been recently published by the firm on the subject of its handheld gaming PC and SteamOS.
The free booklet (which Gaming On Linux flagged up) makes it clear in no uncertain terms that there will be a sequel to the Steam Deck, doing so in numerous places in the final chapter which focuses on the topic of the future. Indeed, the chapter title itself mentions that there will be “more Steam Decks” as well as further versions of the SteamOS operating system.
Valve writes: “In the future, Valve will follow up on this product with improvements and iterations to hardware and software, bringing new versions of Steam Deck to market.”
And a bit later, the company mentions the Steam Deck is a “multi-generational product line”, and that it’ll “build new versions to be even more open and capable than the first version of Steam Deck has been.” Which is pretty open and capable as it is, of course.
Analysis: Valve wants feedback on the Steam Deck sequel
It’s good to hear Valve announce its intention to produce a future sequel to the Steam Deck, and while that’s something the company has talked about before, it’s clear enough that this time, things are couched in firmer terms about there being multiple generations of the handheld.
In the booklet, Valve also asks what gamers would like to see in a future incarnation of the Steam Deck, and we’ve already had some hints as to what kind of changes might be implemented. These range from the given, like making the Steam Deck 2 more powerful, and innovating around the device’s portable nature, to the much less obvious such as something VR-related that Valve’s co-founder, Gabe Newell, has mentioned in the past.
The fact that Valve has some serious long-term plans for future versions of the Steam Deck should come as no surprise, given how popular the handheld has been, in terms of that lengthy (and still very much ongoing) queue for pre-orders, as well as the critical acclaim which has generally been visited on the device. Maybe it won’t be too long before we start getting some leaks about exactly what features or hardware Valve is considering for the Steam Deck 2.
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