USB4 specification released: Thunderbolt 3 support, 40Gbps bandwidth and more

Intel has announced that it contributed the Intel Thunderbolt protocol specification to the USB Promoter Group, enabling other chip makers to build Thunderbolt compatible silicon that is royalty free. Additionally, USB Promoter Group announced the pending release of the USB4 specification, based on the Thunderbolt protocol. This convergence will increase compatibility among USB Type-C connector-based products, simplifying how people connect their devices. Earlier, Intel shared plans to integrate Thunderbolt 3 into future Intel CPUs and to release the Thunderbolt protocol specification to the industry. Intel’s upcoming 10nm processor codenamed “Ice Lake” will be the first to integrate Thunderbolt 3. Processor integration, this combined with this latest announcement makes it a mainstream adoption of Thunderbolt. Thunderbolt 3 is fully supported in Windows 10, macOS and Linux. Volumes of the PCs with these ports continue to double every year into the tens of millions and all the latest Macs have Thunderbolt 3 ports. Thunderbolt is supported by an end-to-end solution enabling program for a computer, peripheral device and cable makers to help ensure a consistent experience for all Thunderbolt connected products. Intel works with the industry to define product capabilities, validation testing, and rigorous certification requirements. Key characteristics of the USB4 solution include: Two-lane operation using existing USB Type-C ...

Samsung brings K-Pop iKONIK Fortnite Outfit, Scenario emote for Galaxy S10 series

 After revealing Fortnite streaming legend, Tyler “Ninja” Blevins of the highly coveted iKONIK outfit and Scenario emote within Fortnite, Samsung has announced the new outfit and emote will become available March 8, 2019, exclusively to owners of Galaxy S10, S10+, and S10e. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHz1IcOeVcg The new iKONIK outfit and Scenario emote within Fortnite is inspired by Jung Chanwoo from the K-Pop band, iKON. As said, the access to the iKONIK outfit and Scenario emote will be available from March 8th. The Galaxy users can find and install Fortnite within Samsung Game Launcher app and all the S10 users will receive the unique iKONIK outfit and Scenario emote within Fortnite. Samsung is celebrating the arrival of the new outfit and emote with Ninja and K-Pop sensations iKON at Samsung 837, in New York City’s Meatpacking district, on March 16, 2019. Source

W3C and FIDO Alliance finalize web standard for secure, password-less logins

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and the FIDO Alliance have announced the Web Authentication specification is now an official web standard. This advancement is a major step forward in making the web more secure and usable for users around the world. W3C's WebAuthn Recommendation is a core component of the FIDO Alliance's FIDO2 set of specifications and is a browser/platform standard for simpler and stronger authentication. It is already supported in Windows 10, Android, and Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Edge and Apple Safari (preview) Web browsers. WebAuthn allows users to log into their internet accounts using their preferred device. Web services and apps should turn on this functionality to give their users the option to log in more easily via biometrics. With FIDO2 and WebAuthn, the global technology community has come together to provide a shared solution to the shared password problem. FIDO2 addresses all the issues with traditional authentication including security, convenience, privacy, and Scalability. FIDO Alliance has provided testing tools for those who wish to get started and launched a certification program. Jeff Jaffe, W3C CEO said: Now is the time for web services and businesses to adopt WebAuthn to move beyond vulnerable passwords and help web users improve the security of their online experiences. W3C's Recommendation establishes web-wide interoperability guidance, setting consistent expectations for web users and ...

Google Project Zero reveals “high severity” flaw in the macOS kernel which grants access to attackers

Google's Project Zero has reported and publicly disclosed a “high severity” flaw in the macOS kernel which can grant an attacker access to a users computer without their knowledge. Security researchers discovered that if a modification is made to a user-owned mounted filesystem image, the virtual management system isn’t notified of those changes. This lets attacker access to perform malicious actions on that mounted filesystem without the end user ever knowing about it. Google said to have disclosed the flaw to Apple back in November 2018. However, since 90 days have since passed and the company has yet to issue a patch, the flaw has been publicly disclosed. Google has labeled the issue as “high severity,” meaning its impact could be fairly large. Apple has since acknowledged the issue and has started working with Google’s Project Zero on a fix. Apple intends to patch the issue in a future macOS release, but no timeline is available on that just yet. A detailed explanation of the bug: This copy-on-write behavior works not only with anonymous memory, but also with file mappings. This means that, after the destination process has started reading from the transferred memory area, memory pressure can cause the pages holding the transferred memory ...

Samsung Health app gets Calm mindfulness and wellness experiences

Samsung Electronics has announced that it is working with Calm app for sleep, medication, and relaxation with over 40 million downloads. This partnership will give consumers seamless access to the service via Samsung Health. The move reinforces Samsung’s commitment to working with best-in-class health and wellness organizations to improve users’ entire wellbeing – mentally and physically. Samsung Health currently has over 60 million monthly active users and it includes interactive health and mental wellbeing features across a broad range of Samsung devices and third-party devices. By integrating Calm into the Samsung Health platform, Samsung is providing consumers an easy, intuitive way to manage everyday stress. Consumers have to tap the “Mindfulness” icon in their Samsung Health app, follow the steps to sync or create their Calm account and start using the personalized features of Calm. Users can use the new Galaxy Watch Active to pause and play meditation sessions and track their stress levels after a session ends. The service will be initially available with Samsung phones running Android Pie including the new Galaxy S10 line-up in 10 markets: Australia, Hong Kong, India, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, South Africa, U.S., U.K., and Ireland. The Calm integration will be also available to Galaxy Watch ...

Paytm First premium subscription-based rewards and loyalty program launched

After Amazon Prime and Flipkart Plus, Paytm has launched its own subscription-based rewards and loyalty program, 'Paytm First'. This will offer subscription to on-demand entertainment, live cricket, TV, music, shopping, movies, food and more, in addition to Paytm cashback offers. The company aims to sell over 3 Million subscriptions within the first year of its launch. Paytm First annual subscription is priced at Rs. 750, and will come with inaugural cashback worth Rs 100 for a very limited time. The Paytm First customers get exclusive benefits from leading partnered brands including Zomato Gold membership Annual Gaana membership Annual Sony Liv subscription ViU Premium Eros Now Annual membership Uber (benefits up to Rs 6000) Uber Eats (benefits up to Rs 2400) Many more exciting partner offers worth more than Rs. 12000. Additionally, Paytm First customers will also get over Rs. 1500 cashback including Rs. 100 cash back on movie ticket booking each month. It also has exclusive offers for shopping on Paytm Mall with unlimited free and priority shipping, in addition, to access to priority (no waiting) 24x7 customer care as well. It should roll out gradually. Commenting on the launch, Deepak Abbot, Sr. Vice President – Paytm said: We are very excited to launch our exclusive loyalty ...

Samsung Galaxy S10 has the most color accurate smartphone display: DisplayMate

Following the tradition, DisplaMate has analyzed the display of the newly launched Galaxy S10/S10+ and deemed it “the most color accurate display that we have ever tested, almost certainly considerably better than your existing smartphone, 4K UHD TV, tablet, laptop, and computer monitor.” Like the Galaxy Note9 and Galaxy S9, the Galaxy S10 also matched several smartphone display performance records during DisplayMate’s extensive tests and ultimately earned an “Excellent A+” grade. Unlike the Galaxy S9, the Galaxy S10 offers markedly better outdoor visibility, power consumption, color accuracy, and more. Thanks to the peak luminance of 1215 nits, the Galaxy S10’s display is approximately 6.9% brighter than that of its predecessor and produces crisp, vibrant visuals outside and under direct sunlight, or in environments with lots of ambient light. With a relative power efficiency rating of 1.54 watts which is an improvement on the Galaxy S9’s 1.70-watt rating – the Galaxy S10’s display is not only brighter than last year’s model, but also more energy efficient. The Galaxy S10’s display has been to offer record-setting color accuracy. Its 0.4 Just Noticeable Color Difference (JNCD) rating in the DCI-P3 color range is a marked improvement over the Galaxy S9’s 0.7 JNCD score. The Galaxy S10 features built-in ...

Microsoft said to be working on Windows Lite for dual-screen Chromebook-like devices

Microsoft is said to be preparing a new lightweight version of Windows for Dual-screen devices and Chromebook competitors. According to a new report, the company is said to be working on stripping back its Windows user interface with dual screens in mind. This new hardware could launch as early as later this year, depending on chip and PC maker readiness. Internally, the project is codenamed 'Windows Lite.' Microsoft wants Windows to be ready for PC makers to take advantage of it. Off late, Microsoft has been creating a new composable Shell (C-Shell) and Windows Core OS, a more modular version of the existing Windows Shell that powers many parts of Windows 10. The Windows Lite interface will be similar to current Windows, but it will be a blend of what Microsoft does with its Surface Hub shell and the limited functionality of its Windows Phone Continuum user interface. Microsoft is using the “Santorini” codename as part of Windows Lite. Santorini is part of the shell work that Microsoft is building to make it different from the current Windows 10. Other reports suggest that Microsoft could ship a dual-screen laptop-like device with or without Windows Lite. Microsoft might be targeting dual-screen devices initially, but the longer plan is for ...

Samsung Galaxy A60 with 6.7-inch FHD+ Super AMOLED display, up to 8GB RAM, in-display fingerprint sensor, 4500mAh battery surfaces

Samsung introduced the Galaxy A50 recently, and it was also launched in India at a competitive price tag a few days back. Now the company is gearing up to introduce the Galaxy A60, and the specifications of the phone has surfaced online. This reveals a slightly later 6.7-inch Infinity-U Super AMOLED display, Snapdragon 675 SoC instead of Exynos 9610 SoC, up to 8GB of RAM and an improved 32-megapixel camera while retaining the 5-megapixel depth sensor for Live Focus and an 8-megapixel Ultra Wide lens. This is said to feature an improved 32-megapixel front camera, retain the in-dispaly fingerprint scanner, and pack a slightly larger 4500mAh battery with support for fast charging. Samsung Galaxy A60 rumored specifications 6.7-inch (2340 x 1080 pixels) Full HD+ Infinity-U Super AMOLED display 2GHz Octa-Core Snapdragon 675 Mobile Platform with Adreno 612 GPU 6GB / 8GB RAM with 128GB Storage, expandable up to 512GB via micro SD card Android 9.0 (Pie) with Samsung One UI Dual SIM 32MP rear camera with LED flash, 5MP depth sensor with f/2.2 aperture, 8MP ultra-wide angle camera with f/2.2 aperture 32MP front camera In-display Fingerprint sensor 3.5mm audio jack, FM Radio Dual 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 ac (2.4GHz + 5GHz), Bluetooth 5, GPS + GLONASS, NFC, USB Type-C ...

Google rolls out March 2019 Android security update, Improves camera, storage performance and more for Pixel 3 series

Google has started rolling out new over-the-air (OTA) update for Pixel devices and also posted factory images as part of monthly Android Security release. The update for this month also includes several functional improvements for Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL that includes faster camera startup and responsiveness, storage performance improvements, Bluetooth reliability, playback improvements for encrypted media on some apps. References Category Improvements Devices A-122471935 Camera Improves Startup and responsiveness of Camera app Pixel 3, Pixel 3 XL A-112046316 A-118317435 A-120212581 Performance Improves recovery in the instance of OTA update failure Pixel 3, Pixel 3XL A-120920537 Performance Improves storage performance on Pixel 3 devices Pixel 3, Pixel3 XL A-119776006 Bluetooth Improves Bluetooth reliability on Pixel 3 devices Pixel 3, Pixel3 XL A-111260263 A-116848259 Media Improves playback of encrypted media on some video apps Pixel 3, Pixel3 XL New builds for the Pixel and Nexus devices with March 2019 Android Security update: Pixel 3, Pixel 3 XL, Pixel 2, Pixel 2 XL, Pixel, Pixel XL (PQ2A.190305.002) Pixel C (OPM8.190305.001) Check out the complete set of issues that are fixed in the latest update in the Android Security Bulletin here, Security and download full factory images or OTA images for these Pixel devices from the Google Developers website, if you don’t have the over-the-air (OTA) update yet. The latest software release is now available. Check your Essential Phone for the update! pic.twitter.com/dzlWIPduAN — Essential (@essential) March 4, 2019 As usual Essential has also rolled out the March security patch.