We’ve got into the habit of expecting internet access wherever we go. But data costs can be expensive, and out of your own home often the only WiFi available is public, passwordless and free.
In security, we’ve been trained to carefully contemplate anything that’s free, because, well, often when something is free, you turn out to be the product. So should we be concerned about free Wi-Fi?
“A WiFi connection’s safety depends on its security settings and the source of the WiFi connection. In public, using shared WiFi carries risks. If you have to use public WiFi hotspots, it’s wise to also use a VPN to keep your activity private while you use that connection. A VPN wraps your network traffic (including web browsing, email, and other things) in a protective tunnel and makes up for any weaknesses in their encryption.”
While this is still basically true, the internet has changed since then. Most websites have switched to HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure), which means that any traffic to and from the website you are trying to access is encrypted. That means that it couldn’t be read by anyone trying to intercept the traffic in order to snoop on your data.
So nowadays, my advice is this: For day-to-day use, I wouldn’t recommend setting up a new banking account over public WiFi, but I wouldn’t fret about using public Wi-Fi for everyday browsing either.
How to reduce public WiFi security risks
In order to see if a website is using HTTPS, check for the padlock symbol in the browser address bar, and make sure the website starts with “https://”.
If you really want to be sure, or you need to do something like set up a bank account, then you can use a Virtual Private Network (VPN) to secure your traffic when using public WiFi.
By wrapping your traffic in a single, impenetrable tunnel, the best VPN services will keep your data safe from attempts to intercept your communications.
We don’t just report on encryption—we offer you the option to use it.
Privacy risks should never spread beyond a headline. Keep your online privacy yours by using Malwarebytes Privacy VPN.
Samsung may not offer major camera upgrades with the Galaxy S24 Ultra next year. The 2024 model will reportedly pack the same camera hardware as the current Ultra. Apart from some minor improvements, the rear camera array will remain largely unchanged. There’s no information available about the new Ultra’s selfie camera.
There have been rumors earlier this year that Samsung will equip the Galaxy S24 Ultra with a variable zoom lens. It was said to offer continuous optical zoom at all magnification levels between 3x and 10x. It would effectively do the job of both 3x and 10x zoom cameras that the Korean firm’s recent Ultra flagships feature, and do a better job than both of them.
However, subsequent rumors said Samsung can’t pull this off next year. Instead, it plans to replace the 3x zoom lens with a 5X solution on the Galaxy S24 Ultra. But those hopes were also blown away earlier this month. A noted industry insider claimed that the upcoming Ultra model will get a slightly improved 10x zoom camera and that’s about it. Everything else will carry over unchanged, at least at the back.
Tipster Ice Universe has now reiterated this, citing information from unnamed Korean sources. The Galaxy S24 Ultra will continue to use the same 200MP primary camera found on the current Ultra (Samsung’s ISOCELL HP2 sensor). The ultrawide lens will also use the same 12MP Sony IMX564 sensor. The company upgraded to this sensor from the Sony IMX563 on last year’s Galaxy S22 Ultra.
The Galaxy S24 Ultra will get a slightly improved 10x zoom camera
Coming to the zoom cameras, Samsung will keep the 3x solution unchanged too (Sony’s 12MP IMX754 sensor). The 10x zoom camera, on the other hand, uses a slightly improved Sony IMX754+ sensor. It’s unclear what has changed, though. The tipster says it’s just a “negligible adjustment” of the sensor but fails to give more details. It retains the 12MP resolution. The Galaxy S24 Ultra will also feature a laser autofocus sensor.
If this rumor turns out to be accurate, the Galaxy S24 Ultra will not be a major upgrade over the Galaxy S23 Ultra, at least not in the camera department. Samsung could still offer meaningful upgrades in other areas. But the device may not be worth moving on to from the current Ultra. We should come across more details about the Galaxy S24 series once Samsung’s down with its next month’s Galaxy Unpacked event.
Samsung is the largest Android company, and the largest smartphone manufacturer in the world, but that doesn’t mean that it can’t have a bad year. According to a report (via Phone Arena) Samsung is set to have a bad 2023 in terms of smartphone shipments.
This may actually surprise you if you caught wind of the success of the Galaxy s23 Trio. The team of devices was able to sell in pretty high volume, with the Ultra model being the most popular. However, that’s not the only factor that is in play here.
Samsung is having a bad 2023
The company has been through some turbulent times before, so this shouldn’t come as much of a shocker. Between April and June this year, Samsung managed to ship about 55 million units. That’s down a notable amount from 61.5 million units between January and March of this year. Also, Samsung shipped 62.5 million units between April and June last year.
Not only are the numbers bad now, but they may be bad for the rest of the year according to predictions. Last year, Samsung shipped around 260 million units. However, analysts predict that Samsung will ship between 230 million and 240 million units for this year. What makes this worse is that Samsung actually predicted that it would sell 270 million units this year.
The report attributes this to the lower-end and mid-range devices. This mostly refers to the Galaxy A series of phones. The Galaxy S phones are more popular, but the Galaxy A series of phones make up about 70% of Samsung’s total smartphone shipments. This line of devices is seeing sluggish performance, so the company as a whole will see fewer shipments.
Samsung is set to announce the Galaxy Z Flip 5 and Galaxy Z Fold 5. This will breathe some life into Samsung’s numbers, as we are all looking forward to these phones. Only time will tell if these phones will help the company out of this situation and help it sustain profitability.
A security audit of the MOVEit code has revealed more SQL injection vulnerabilities, while victims of the first vulnerability are coming to the surface.
After the first vulnerability was discovered, MOVEit’s owner Progress Software partnered with third-party cybersecurity experts to conduct further detailed code reviews of the software. Now, Progress says it has discovered multiple SQL injection vulnerabilities in the MOVEit Transfer web application that could allow an unauthenticated attacker to gain unauthorized access to the MOVEit Transfer database.
There are no CVEs yet available for the new vulnerabilities, but Progress has released patches.
Users of Progress MOVEit Transfer versions released before 2021.0.7 (13.0.7), 2021.1.5 (13.1.5), 2022.0.5 (14.0.5), 2022.1.6 (14.1.6), 2023.0.2 (15.0.2) should follow the recommendations in the security bulletin about the new vulnerabilities.
This code review was undoubtedly triggered by the severe consequences of the first vulnerability that was exploited by the Cl0p ransomware gang. Cl0p confirmed it was behind these attacks in responses to inquiries by Reuters and BleepingComputer
Cl0p is showing a very different behavior from other ransomware groups. The gang either found or bought the CVE-2023-34362 vulnerability and reportedly started testing it against victims as far back as 2021.
They felt comfortable enough to wait with actively deploying their ransomware, and didn’t launch a large scale campaign until the 2023 Memorial Day weekend in the US. This demonstrates a level of sophistication and planning that we don’t see in other ransomware groups.
Victims of this exploitation wave are plentiful and new ones keep coming forward. All the victims of this attack have been told to contact the Cl0p ransomware group before June 14, 2023 or “face the consequences,” which tends to suggest that their data will be published online.
Prevent intrusions. Stop threats early before they can even infiltrate or infect your endpoints. Use endpoint security software that can prevent exploits and malware used to deliver ransomware.
Detect intrusions. Make it harder for intruders to operate inside your organization by segmenting networks and assigning access rights prudently. Use EDR or MDR to detect unusual activity before an attack occurs.
Stop malicious encryption. Deploy Endpoint Detection and Response software like Malwarebytes EDR that uses multiple different detection techniques to identify ransomware, and ransomware rollback to restore damaged system files.
Create offsite, offline backups. Keep backups offsite and offline, beyond the reach of attackers. Test them regularly to make sure you can restore essential business functions swiftly.
Don’t get attacked twice. Once you’ve isolated the outbreak and stopped the first attack, you must remove every trace of the attackers, their malware, their tools, and their methods of entry, to avoid being attacked again.
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Pixel phones come with the powerful and incredibly useful Pixel Recorder to jot down voice memos and record conversations. While it can record extended audio sessions, the Pixel Recorder is mostly being used in short bursts.
As stated, the Pixel Recorder is a powerful and useful tool. Aside from being able to just record audio, the software will actually jot down a transcription of your note. You will see the app writing down your words as you speak. If you’re using a Pixel 6 or Pixel 7 device, then it will be using the on-device speech recognition provided by Google’s Tensor and Tensor G2 chip.
If you are using a Pixel 7 device, then Google will take the transcription feature to the next level. You can sit and record a conversation between different people, and the transcript will separate the lines based on who’s speaking.
Google found that people use the Pixel Recorder in short bursts
So, you can use your Pixel 7 to transcribe a full board meeting between you and your peers. However, most people don’t go that far. Product manager on the Pixel Essential Apps team, Kristi Bradford was on a recent Made by Google Podcast (9To5Google). “[P]eople are using [it] in bite-size chunks to brainstorm things like rap lyrics…”
This doesn’t point to an issue with the app. This is something that has been present for years even with Hardware voice recorders. Most people use them to jot down quick ideas and little things to remember throughout the day, to-do lists, Etc. It’s no surprise that people are using the Pixel Recorder for much the same thing.
If you ever need extra functionality, the Pixel Recorder can provide that and much more. If you happen to have a Pixel phone, and you don’t use the Pixel Recorder, then you may want to give it a shot. The app comes pre-installed on your Pixel device, so there’s no need to download it.
AI has crawled its way into just about every corner of the tech industry, so it’s no surprise that there is AI photo editing. A popular photo editing site, PhotoRoom, has partnered with Google Cloud in order to substantially boost its processing time.
A huge area where AI thrives is in the business enterprise section. As scary as AI is, one of the scariest aspects of it, the ability to produce almost human-level content within seconds, is one of its most valuable. Businesses looking to maximize productivity utilize AI to cut down on processing time.
This is where PhotoRoom comes in. This site uses artificial intelligence to process professional-grade images. It can also use generative AI to produce backgrounds. This goes along with using AI to remove objects.
PhotoRoom partners with Google Cloud to boost productivity
Google has access to some pretty powerful computers- as anyone could guess. So, any person or company getting access to these powerful computers will definitely see a boost in processing speed. This is the case with PhotoRoom. According to Techradar, the two companies partnered so that PhotoRoom can use Google’s A3 supercomputers.
We don’t have the exact specs of these computers, but, do we really need them? These are the computers powering your entire Google experience, so, you can bet that they’re pretty blazing fast. But, don’t take our word for it. PhotoRoom announced that the pairing will cut the production time for photos “from days to less than an hour – without compromising accuracy or quality.” That’s a substantial boost in production speed.
The company also says that it expects the number of images generated per year to skyrocket. So far, PhotoRoom boasts about 2 billion images generated each year. However, with the higher production speed, there’s no doubt that it’ll be much higher by the end of 2023.
This is obviously a huge win for PhotoRoom. Also, this could also open the door for more companies to partner with large Brands such as Google to use its service. This could greatly increase the processing speed of their AI products.
Strava, used by more than 100 million people, includes features you’d commonly see in this kind of product like heart rate, GPS data, and so on. Users can build up a picture of their health related activities over time and make informed decisions based on the findings of the service.
The mobile tracking app is designed to track exercise activity, but it also includes a social component, allowing users to connect with each other. The primary concern of researchers focused on the heat map feature, which aggregates user data and allows you to see how many people are doing forms of exercise in various locations.
Although there are attempts to anonymise user data, the study highlighted ways in which some personal information—including home address—could be found. Researchers claim they found a “loophole” to ignore the anonymity of aggregated heatmap data. From their post:
Specifically, the researchers found it is possible for anyone to look up all of the Strava users in a given area. It is also possible for users to look at the aggregate data on a heatmap and see where each of the anonymous users’ routes begin and end.
In a densely populated area, with lots of routes and lots of users, there is so much data that it would be extremely difficult to track any specific person,” Das says. “However, in areas where there are few users and/or few routes, it becomes a simple process of elimination – particularly if the person someone is looking for is a highly active Strava user. Even users who have marked their accounts as private show up when anyone searches for a list of all the users in a given municipality, so marking an account private doesn’t necessarily provide additional protection against this tracking technique.
Strava told the researchers that heat map data isn’t shared unless several users are active in any given area, but the researchers still managed to identify the home addresses of some users via the heatmap. These locations were confirmed using voter registration data. Note that depending on which country you live in, voter data may not be available to use in this manner (or even be available in the first place).
While this may all sound very straightforward to do, the actual process involved is fairly involved. As Bleeping Computer highlights, the process is as follows:
Collect data on your chosen location for a period of roughly a month.
Overlay OpenStreetMaps (an open geographic database maintained by volunteers) at a zoom level which allows for singling out residence addresses.
Compare heatmap endpoints and user data accessible from search to establish connections between “high activity points” and home addresses.
This, combined with public profiles displaying real names, photographs, and data related to specific activities means that singling out certain users was achievable. A word of caution: the success rate for this kind of needle in a haystack activity is not fantastic. The study mentions that more active users will be potentially easier to track down, but for “average” users of the app the likelihood of being discovered is 37.5%.
The paper highlights a few of the ways Strava users can reduce the possibility of falling victim to this attack, but a lot depends on the app developers implementing them or the randomness of your personal circumstances. For example, living in a heavily populated area will go a long way toward blending you into the crowd.
Another is large exclusion zones around your home area, to make it impossible to figure out which specific location you’re exiting and entering. You can set your Strava profile to private, and also disable the heatmap feature if you don’t need any of the social features available to you. If you use another form of fitness tracking app, this is the ideal moment to see what data you may be sharing and lock down as needed.
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In this article, we’ll compare the Google Pixel 7a vs Xiaomi 13. Some would say this is a rather odd comparison, and it is, to a degree. The Xiaomi 13 is a flagship-level smartphone, while the Pixel 7a is more of a mid-ranger. It’s considerably more affordable than the Xiaomi 13. The thing is, they’re similar in terms of size, as they’re both somewhat compact. So chances are some of you are looking into both of them due to their size.
These two devices are quite different, outside of the size aspect. They even look considerably different. Having said that, we’ll first list their specifications, and will then move to compare them across a number of different categories. We’ll compare their designs, displays, performance, battery life, cameras, and audio performance. Without further ado, let’s get started.
Both of these phones have a frame made out of aluminum, but their backplates are different. The Xiaomi 13 sports a glass-made backplate (or vegan leather, depending on the model), while the Pixel 7a has a plastic backplate included. The Xiaomi 13 is more rounded of these two, and it also has thinner, uniform bezels. The Pixel 7a bezels are thicker overall, and they’re also not uniform, its bottom bezel is thicker than the rest.
Both smartphones have a centered display camera hole at the top. Their backsides are entirely different, though. The Xiaomi 13 has a regular camera island in the top-left corner. A rectangular one with rounded corners. The Pixel 7a has a camera visor on the back, like its siblings. It stretches from one side of the phone to the other. The Xiaomi 13 has three cameras on the back, while the Pixel 7a has two.
The Xiaomi 13 has a noticeably larger display than the Pixel 7a, and despite that, it’s barely shorter than the Pixel 7a (less than 1mm difference), while it’s also narrower, and thinner. On top of all that, the Xiaomi 13 is also lighter than Google’s latest mid-ranger at 185/189 grams, compared to 193.5 grams. Both smartphones offer water and dust resistance, but the Xiaomi 13 is better in that aspect. It offers an IP68 rating, compared to the IP67 rating on the Pixel 7a. Both phones feel like quality products in the hand.
Google Pixel 7a vs Xiaomi 13: Display
You will find a 6.36-inch fullHD+ (2400 x 1080) AMOLED display on the back of the Xiaomi 13. That display supports a 120Hz refresh rate, and also has Dolby Vision support. HDR10+ content is also supported here, while the display goes up to 1,900 nits of brightness at its peak. The aspect ratio is 20:9, and the display is flat. Corning’s Gorilla Glass 5 is included to protect this display.
The Google Pixel 7a, on the other hand, features a 6.1-inch fullHD+ (2400 x 1080) display. This is an OLED panel with a 90Hz refresh rate. It is also flat, like the Xiaomi 13’s, while it has the same display aspect ratio too, 20:9. The Pixel 7a does come with worse display protection, though. It includes a sheet of Gorilla Glass 3 on the front, which is not the best when it comes to scratch protection.
When it comes to actual use, both of these displays are very good. They have vivid colors, and good viewing angles. They’re also both more than sharp enough, and offer deep blacks. The Xiaomi 13 does have a higher refresh rate, and it is noticeable in direct comparison. It also gets noticeably brighter than the Pixel 7a’s panel in direct sunlight. So, if that’s important to you, take note of it. The touch response is really good on both panels.
Google Pixel 7a vs Xiaomi 13: Performance
Google’s Pixel 7a handset is fueled by the Tensor G2 processor from Google. That is the same chip that fuels the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro flagships. Google also included 8GB of LPDDR5 RAM here, and UFS 3.1 flash storage. The Xiaomi 13, on the flip side, is fueled by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC. It also comes with up to 12GB of LPDDR5X RAM, and UFS 3.1/4.0 storage. Only the variant with 128GB of storage includes UFS 3.1.
The Xiaomi 13 does have a more powerful processor, while it also has newer and faster RAM and storage modules. That does make the phone a bit more snappy in certain aspects of its performance, such as launching apps and so on. The thing is, if you’re not using them side-by-side, both smartphones will feel plenty fast, because they are. Both provide rather smooth performance.
The Xiaomi 13 does do better when gaming is concerned, though. It can run extremely demanding games better than the Pixel 7a. That is not exactly surprising due to its hardware, but it is worth noting. The Pixel 7a can still play pretty much everything just fine, but when it comes to demanding titles, the Xiaomi 13 is the better choice.
Google Pixel 7a vs Xiaomi 13: Battery
A 4,385mAh battery sits inside the Pixel 7a, while a 4,500mAh unit is included inside the Xiaomi 13. The Xiaomi 13 does have a slightly larger battery than the Pixel 7a, but it doesn’t offer better battery life overall. That is not surprising considering it also has a larger display, and a higher refresh rate. Still, the difference is not that major.
The Pixel 7a, in our experience, provided around 7 hours of screen-on-time, usually a bit more than that. The Xiaomi 13 will likely offer you around 6-6.5 hours of screen-on-time. Do note that your numbers could vary, considerably. You will be using different apps in different ways, under different signal strengths. So… you could be able to pull out more or less juice out of each phone.
What about charging? Well, the Xiaomi 13 humbles the Pixel 7a in that regard. It supports 67W wired, 50W wireless, and 10W reverse wireless charging. The Pixel 7a offers 18W wired, and 7.5W wireless charging. Do note that the Xiaomi 13 also comes with a charger, unlike the Pixel 7a. The Xiaomi 13 will charge up a lot faster than the Pixel 7a, that goes for both wired and wireless charging. It’s not even close.
Google Pixel 7a vs Xiaomi 13: Cameras
The Pixel 7a has a 64-megapixel main camera, and a 13-megapixel ultrawide camera (120-degree FoV) on the back. The Xiaomi 13, on the other hand, includes a 50-megapixel main camera, a 12-megapixel ultrawide unit (120-degree FoV), and a 10-megapixel telephoto camera (3.2x optical zoom). Do note that the Xiaomi 13 also has Leica lenses included, unlike the Pixel 7a.
When it comes to final products, both smartphones do a great job, though different. The Pixel 7a tends to provide more contrasty photos, while the photos from the Xiaomi 13 will depend on which shooting mode you go for. Leica Authentic and Leica Vibrant are your choices. We’d suggest the ‘Vibrant’ mode to avoid vignetting and get more vibrant photos at the same time. Both phones do well in HDR situations, though the Pixel 7a photos do end up looking more appealing most of the time, even though they are not exactly close to real life.
Both phones do a really good job in low light, while the Xiaomi 13 will keep photos looking closer to what you actually see. Still, once again, most people will likely prefer the Pixel 7a output, even in low light. The video recording is better on the Xiaomi 13, it’s considerably less shaky, the difference is quite noticeable.
Audio
There is a set of stereo speakers on both of these phones. The Xiaomi 13 will, however, provide you with a slightly richer audio output. Its speakers sound a bit better, as the soundstage seems to be a bit wider, not to mention there’s a bit more bass in the output. The difference is not that big, however.
What you will not find on either phone is an audio jack. You’ll have to rely on their charging ports, Type-C ones, if you want to establish a wired audio connection. If you want to go wireless, there’s always Bluetooth 5.3 which is included on both devices.
Apple is reportedly working on two new AR/VR headsets for the coming years. The source claims one of the in-works products is a cheaper model planned for late 2025, and another is a sequel to the Vision Pro.
When it comes to unveiling a product, Apple knows how to turn heads and make its product stand out. The Vision Pro headset is the company’s first headset for the virtual reality market that costs you $3,500. If the price tag doesn’t seem reasonable, you should probably wait until late 2025 to access a cheaper model from the company.
Bloomberg journalist Mark Gurman has come up with news about Apple’s new headsets in his Power On newsletter. He claims Apple is currently developing a non-Pro headset that aims to be a cheaper model. The product could have fewer cameras, lower-quality screens, and a less powerful processor to cut prices for final customers.
Apple’s new VR headset will arrive in late 2025 at a lower cost
Gurman added that Apple’s non-Pro headset might launch with a more basic head strap design. It may also need to pair with AirPods for spatial audio. However, the headset could preserve its external EyeSight screen or hand/eye tracking as key features.
The tech giant is also developing a sequel for its glamorous Vision Pro headset. Gurman says the sequel model comes with a faster processor. Other changes and improvements might be applied before the official launch.
It is quite clear that Apple wants to adopt the same iPhone marketing strategy for the headset market. The company’s best-selling product line has standard variants at a lower price and a Pro variant for customers that want the ultimate experience and have no budget limit. Such a strategy would help the company to expand its reach.
Apple’s Standard VR headset is planned for late 2025. It remains to be seen how it differs from the Vision Pro model in terms of specifications and price. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has recently pointed out that Apple’s Vision Pro headset is not a rival for the company’s Quest 3 headset because of its hefty price.
Previously, the Google Docs paginated mode was only available on the web platform by default. But sometime last year, the web platform dropped this view, switching over to a pageless format. This switch brought a sense of harmony between all devices that have the Google Docs app from the web to the mobile platforms.
In a recent update, the Google Workspace update team announced on their blog that the paginated mode is arriving on all devices. This means that regardless of the device you use to access Google Docs, you’d get a paginated view. To a certain extent, this new improvement will aid users in their work and help them get more productive in certain ways.
You might be asking yourself what the paginated mode is and how it can help boost your productivity. Well in this article you’d find answers to these questions that might be weighing upon your mind. This improvement will have a major effect on how you work if you make use of Google Docs on an Android device.
Details on the Google Docs paginated mode rolling out to all devices
Paginated mode on Google Docs displays the working page individually with what is known as page breakers. This stimulates the idea of working with A4-size papers and is great if the work will end up as a print out. But previously this format was only on by default on the Google Docs web platform.
On mobile devices, working Google Docs took place on a continuous page. However, users were at liberty to activate the paginated mode from the three-dot icon at the top right-hand corner of the screen. Now the paginated mode is going to be available on all devices by default to aid users while they work.
By switching the paginated mode on all devices, Google is trying to sync the experience across the board. So even if you work from your laptop using the web platform or your smartphone using the app, you’d get the same visual experience. There will be page breakers to tell where each page ends and where a new one starts.
This might help to improve how organized your work will be if you work with your smartphone. Google goes on to show how this paginated mode will appear on the mobile app using a large-screen tablet device. The appearance will be similar to a smartphone, except for the fact it will be a bit more cramped to work with for some people.
So if you make use of the Google Docs app on your mobile device, you should expect this change. In place of the continuous working page you are used to, you will get a paginated view with page breakers by default. This change will roll out to users globally via an update to the Google Docs app.
