Browsing: Tech Reviews

Microsoft says it has detected new self-propagating malware that spreads through USB drives in search of cryptocurrency credentials, which it then sends to attacker-controlled servers. The company named the worm Crypto Clipper because it monitors the contents of device clipboards for patterns consistent with wallet addresses or seed phrases. When found, the malware also takes five screenshots over a 10-second period. Both the credentials and the screenshots are then sent to the attacker through Tor, a network protocol that provides anonymous routing by sending traffic through redundant nodes so logs can’t capture both the sending and receiving IP addresses. Crypto…

Nathan Ingraham for Engadget Google just introduced a new smart home speaker yesterday, but the arrival of a new product heralds the end of others. The company has confirmed that it will end production of the Nest Home Mini and Nest Audio. These Nest devices have been on the market for around five years (or longer, if you count 2017’s Google Home Mini) and it seems logical for Google to prioritize the newer generation given the current strategy of putting its Gemini chatbot everywhere it possibly can. Although the pair of speakers has been discontinued, any…

Months ahead of Apple’s expected iPhone 18 lineup release, Apple CEO Tim Cook is preparing consumers for a price hike.  Cook toldThe Wall Street Journal that, “unfortunately, price increases are unavoidable,” stating that the company has faced rising costs on memory and storage chips used in its products. “We’ve been trying to shield our customers from the increases, but the situation has become unsustainable,” Cook told the publication. Read more: What Is RAMageddon? Why AI Is Making Laptops and Phones More ExpensiveThe latest rumors indicate the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max models could arrive as early as September, potentially alongside a…

The iPhone Air 2 will reportedly have a second rear camera and better battery lifeThis latest report echoes previous ones in saying that it will launch in ‘spring’ 2027Apple fans broadly seem keen on a device that has these upgrades, but also point to the single speaker and lack of a telephoto camera as issuesThe iPhone Air is one of the more interesting devices Apple has launched in recent years, but it’s also one of the more compromised, with its slim design leaving little room for some other components. Somehow, though, it seems Apple might have found the space for…

Hudson Rock said the attackers went on to “actively intercept SSL VPN authentication hashes and crack them using a massive, dedicated 45-GPU cluster managed via Hashtopolis.” From there, they used the GPU cluster to crack the hashes, meaning to try massive combinations of plain-text passwords until they found the right one. These passwords allowed the threat actors to move laterally to compromise Active Directory environments and other centralized authentication systems. “This aggressive methodology has led to severe, real-world consequences,” Hudson Rock said. “Diachenko’s research confirmed full network compromises at multiple organizations across Japan, Taiwan, Vietnam, Iraq, and Turkey. Most alarmingly,…

The ultralight may become a permanent fixture in Apple’s smartphone lineup. Sam Rutherford for Engadget Apple could be making a follow-up to the iPhone Air, the ultralight smartphone introduced last fall. According to Mark Gurman at Bloomberg, plans may be in motion for the company to launch a second version of the device for spring 2027. Sources said the potential new product might add a second rear camera, improved battery life and a version of the A20 Pro processor. Apple rarely offers specifics around sales figures for individual models, but our impression has been that the…

Up until a few weeks ago, I had never heard of the Tartan Army (despite being one-quarter Scottish and having an actual family tartan of my own!). But now that the World Cup has begun and the Scotland fans known as the Tartan Army have descended on my home state of Massachusetts, they’re inescapable. And that’s not a bad thing. Full disclosure: I live in a suburb outside Boston, so I haven’t had any firsthand experiences with any of these kilted soldiers, but I have been following their exploits in the news and on social media, and I’m so glad they’re…

ChatGPT’s market share falls to 46.4% as Gemini climbs to 27.7%Department of War deal saw a spike in ChatGPT uninstallsGoogle’s ecosystem is a major Gemini advantageNew figures have claimed ChatGPT’s share of the global AI assistant market is under pressure after it dropped below 50% for the first time since its launch in the face of stiff competition from other rivals.Even though ChatGPT has lost market share by means of proportion, it remains a clear leader with more than 1.1 billion monthly active users, making it the world’s largest assistant by a significant margin.However, Gemini is rising up the charts,…

HPE’s new promotion aims to entice customers to more deeply consider migrating off VMware. While numerous third-party surveys have pointed to a significant amount of VMware customers looking to reduce or eliminate their VMware use over the next few years, concerns around time and cost are also expected to slow or deter migration plans, especially given that migration can require paying for two virtualization products simultaneously. “One of the big things we see is that as customers are going through this journey on transforming their operating model, you end up with double expenses,” HPE’s EVP and CTO Fidelma Russo said,…

The funny-sounding name offers new insights into galaxy formation. Many of the developments shared by astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope and similar instruments center on trying to understand the history of the galaxy. The latest update from the Webb telescope researchers confirms the existence of a phenomenon known as “bulge fossil fragments” that can offer new insights on the Milky Way’s formation. The subject of this latest investigation is known as Terzan 5, a region in the center of the galaxy often dubbed “the bulge” that has been challenging for astronomers to study due to the density of…