Google is rolling out a redesigned location picker for Google Drive on the web. The update brings visual enhancements to the pop-up that appears when moving files and folders or adding shortcuts to items. You also get helpful suggestions that enable you to “quickly and efficiently select a location to organize files and folders.”
When you right-click on a file or folder in Drive and select “Move to,” you’ll be presented with a redesigned pop-up with the file/folder name at the top, along with its current location. Below it, you get three tabs — Suggested, Starred, and All locations — from where you can select the destination location. The path of the selected location is noted at the bottom. Google Drive will also tell you if the selected folder is empty.
A “Move” button will let you move the file to that location with just one click. If you want to select a sub-folder, you can use the “arrow” icon. Google adds that “the tabs are replaced by a back button and the name of the location” upon navigating into a folder location. You’ll also get details for the selected folder paths and an option to quickly create a new folder within an existing folder.
Additionally, Google Drive will provide you with suggested locations when moving files or folders. If you don’t want to move to a suggested location, you have the option to reject the suggestion. It will immediately remove the suggestion from the list. Last but not least, the company has added a label that notes if a folder is “view only”. It also explains why “you might face an error when moving a file, such as not being the owner of a file.”
This Google Drive update is now rolling out to users
Google started rolling out the latest update for its cloud file storage and synchronization service this Wednesday, April 12. As usual, the changes will first reach Google Drive users on Rapid Release domains. The company plans to cover those users within the next couple of days. It will start seeding the redesigned location picker to users on Scheduled Release domains on April 26. There is no admin control for these changes. They will be available to you immediately. As far as eligibility is concerned, Google says this update for Drive will breach all Google Workspace customers, legacy G Suite Basic and Business customers, and users with personal Google Accounts.
Insider attacks often catch organizations by surprise because they’re tricky to spot.
Banking on reactive solutions like antivirus software or a patch management solutionto avoid such attacks is not wise.
Understanding what contributes to the increasing number of insider threats and addressing these factors is the only way to secure your enterprise against such attacks.
An insider attack is often defined as an exploit by malicious intruders within an organization.
This type of attack usually targets insecure data. Insider threats might lurk within any company; in some industries, they can account for more than 70% of cyberattacks.
More often than not, insider attacks are neglected. Perhaps this is why they have been on a constant rise.
A survey by CA Technologies in 2018 found that about 90% of organizations feel vulnerable to insider attacks.
Organizations also feel that the data most vulnerable to insider attacks is sensitive personal information (49%), intellectual property (32%), employee data (31%), and privileged account information (52%).
Many insider attacks are associated with excessive access privileges. While it might be unpleasant or inconvenient not to trust employees, organizations must be vigilant.
This can be accomplished by monitoring possible sources of cyberattacks. A big problem is that many companies are unaware of how to identify and combat insider threats.
Questions then arise: Where can you find the best network security tools to gain more knowledge on combating insider attacks? What security standards should you follow to stay within your industry’s security compliance requirements and protect your digital assets better? How do you differentiate between a malicious insider and a non-malicious one?
Insider Threat Warnings That You Should Look Out For
Here are some tell-tale signs you can monitor to avoid an insider attack. Be on the lookout for anyone who:
Downloads large amounts of data on personal portable devices or attempts to access data they don’t normally use for their day-to-day work.
Requests network or data access to resources not required for their job, or searches for and tries to access confidential data.
Emails sensitive information to a personal email account or people outside your organization.
Accesses the network and corporate data outside of regular work hours.
Exhibits negative attitudes or behaviors—for instance, a disgruntled employee leaving the organization.
Ignores security awareness best practices, such as locking screens, not using USBs or external drives, not sharing passwords and user accounts, or does not take cyber threats seriously.
Once you have started monitoring, you can implement security measures to prevent attacks from occurring. We’ve put together a short list of solutions for curbing insider threats.
1. Zero Trust
Zero Trust, a new cybersecurity buzzword, is a holistic approach for tightening network security by identifying and granting access, or “trust”.
No specific tool or software is associated with this approach, but organizations must follow certain principles to stay secure.
More users, applications, and servers and embracing various IoT devices expands your network perimeter.
How do you exert control and reduce your overall attack surface in such cases?
How can you ensure that the right access is granted to each user?
IT security at some organizations reflects the age-old castle-and-moat defense mentality that everything inside an organization’s perimeter should be trusted while everything outside should not.
This concept focuses on trust too much and tends to forget that we might know little about the intentions of those we deem “insiders.”
The remedy is Zero Trust, which revokes excessive access privileges of users and devices without proper identity authentication.
By implementing Zero Trust, you can:
Understand your organization’s access needs.
Decrease risk by monitoring device and user traffic.
Lower the potential for a breach.
Profoundly increase your business’s agility.
2. Privileged access management
Privileged access management (PAM) means extending access rights to trusted individuals within an organization.
A privileged user hasadministrative access to critical systems and applications.
For example, if an IT admin can copy files from your PC to a memory stick, they are said to be privileged to access sensitive data within your network.
This also applies to accessing data via physical devices, logging in, and using different applications and accounts associated with the organization.
A privileged user with malicious intent might hijack files and demand your organization pay a ransom.
PAM takes some effort, but you can start simple. For instance, you can remove an employee’s access to the data associated with their previous role.
Consider an employee moving from finance to sales. In this case, the rights to access critical financial data must be revoked because we do not want to risk the organization’s financial security.
By implementing PAM, you can:
Make dealing with third-party devices and users safer and more accessible.
Protect your password and other sensitive credentials from falling into the wrong hands.
Eliminate excess devices and users with access to sensitive data.
Manage emergency access if and when required.
3. Mandatory Security Training for Existing & New Employees
Not all insider attacks are intentional; some happen because of negligence or lack of awareness.
Organizations should make it mandatory for all their employees to undergo basic security and privacy awareness training sessions regularly.
Employees can also be quizzed on these sessions to make the training more effective.
Ensuring employees are acquainted with the cost consequences that negligence can cause the organization can help prevent unintentional insider threats significantly.
With so much to lose, it’s a wonder more companies aren’t taking steps to reduce their chance of suffering from an insider attack.
As mentioned earlier, no particular software or tool is behind the security approaches mentioned above.
Rather, your organization must address these aspects while developing a homegrown security solution or utilizing a similar service or product from a vendor.
By doing so, you can protect your organization from bad actors within or outside of your organization.
However, to specifically tackle the threat posed by insiders who regularly misuse their access credentials or bring malicious plug-and-play devices to work, we recommend looking into other security protocols, such as identity and access management and user behavior analytics, to prevent internal security mishaps.
You can also check out dedicated solutions for device and application control that make it easier to monitor and curb malicious activities.
The Pixel Tablet is inching closer to its launch, and we’re just getting crumbs of information about it. Thanks to a leak from 9To5Google (via Phone Arena), we got sight of what could potentially be a useful privacy feature coming with this tablet. The Pixel Tablet might come with a privacy toggle.
Google unveiled the Pixel Tablet last year as another addition to the Pixel family of devices. So far, we know a fair bit about the tablet, and you can see what we know thus far by clicking here. There’s not much more time to wait, as rumors point to it launching about halfway through the year.
The Pixel Tablet could have a privacy toggle
Since this is a rumor based on a leaked image, you’ll want to take this with a grain of salt. There’s a close-up image of the Pixel Tablet, and it shows a hardware slider on the right side of the device right under the rear camera.
When phones have hardware sliders, they’re usually mute sliders, but we don’t believe that’s the case with the Pixel Tablet. Since this is going to double as a smart display, it’s going to have its microphone on constantly. So, it makes sense for the company to put a switch that you can simply flip to turn it off.
The funny thing is that this slider wasn’t there in older images of the tablet, even the official ones. This points to the toggle being a more recent addition to the tablet. Who knows when the company added this feature, but it makes us wonder what other changes we’ll see when this slate actually launches. Only time will tell.
Rumors say that the Pixel Tablet will officially launch alongside the Pixel Fold that we’ve been hearing so much about. These will be some of the most exciting products of 2023, so you’ll want to stay tuned for updates about them. We should hear more about them during Google I/O.
If you use the Windows Subsystem for Android, then you are in for a treat. The latest update to this system brings a feature that you might have been waiting for all this while. That feature is the picture-in-picture mode and it will help improve how you interact with the Android apps available on your Windows 11 device (monitor or laptop).
If you aren’t aware, you can use Android apps on your Windows device. This has been the case over the past months and it gets better with constant updates and improvements. Well, the past updates to the Android app system on Windows devices have majorly bumped up their frame rates while in use.
With this new update, users get a proper improvement in how they interact with Android apps on Windows 11 devices. Asides from the picture-in-picture addition, other features come with the latest Windows Subsystem for Android update. We will take a look at all five new features in this article.
All new features coming with the latest Windows Subsystem for Android update
The Windows Subsystem for Android made its first appearance back in 2021. This came along with the Windows 11 launch and it brought Android apps to Windows devices. But it relied on the Amazon App Store and not the Google Play Store to make these apps available to users around the world.
Ever since its launch, Microsoft has worked hard to improve this system for its users globally. The latest update to this system is bringing four new features in addition to the long-awaited picture-in-picture mode. Two features are major improvements, while the rest are rather subtle.
The picture-in-picture mode and performance improvement for Android apps make up the major improvements. With the new picture-in-picture mode, users can now use their Android apps more flexibly. Following this is what Microsoft calls a “partially running” system setting. This helps to improve the launch speed of Android apps and it is under the WSA Settings app.
Other minor improvements with the new Windows Subsystem for Android update are major security related. They include updates to the Linux kernel version, platform reliability, and lastly Android 13 security updates. All these other features ensure that Android apps on Windows are safe to use by everyone.
These improvements are only available to Windows Insiders via the most recent update. To get early access to it, you need to sign up for the Insider program. The update will become available to the public in the coming weeks via a stable release.
To address the first zero-day vulnerability exploited in assaults since the year’s beginning, Google has published an urgent Chrome security upgrade.
Users on the Stable Desktop channel are receiving the updated version, which will gradually become available to all users in the coming days or weeks.
Users of Chrome should update as soon as possible to version 112.0.5615.121 since it fixes the CVE-2023-2033 vulnerability on Windows, Mac, and Linux platforms.
Google patched two vulnerabilities in this update, but the specifics won’t be made public until most users have installed the patch.
A Type Confusion in V8 vulnerability with a high severity rating is CVE-2023-2033. Clément Lecigne of Google’s Threat Analysis Group discovered the vulnerability on 2023-04-11; Clement also discovered a similar weakness (CVE-2022-4262) last year, and the patch was released in December.
“Google is aware that an exploit for CVE-2023-2033 exists in the wild,” Google said in a security advisory published on Friday.
Details of the Chrome Zero-Day Bug (CVE-2023-2033)
All Chrome versions are vulnerable to a high-severity type Confusion vulnerability in the V8 Javascript engine, which lets attackers remotely exploit the flaw by executing arbitrary code.
When this zero-day issue is successfully exploited, it causes browser crashes by reading or writing memory outside of buffer bounds.
While Google stated that it is aware of CVE-2023-2033 zero-day exploits being utilized in attacks, the company has yet to release any details about these occurrences.
“Access to bug details and links may be kept restricted until a majority of users are updated with a fix,” Google said.
“We will also retain restrictions if the bug exists in a third party library that other projects similarly depend on, but haven’t yet fixed.”
Google advises users to update their Chrome web browser as soon as possible to avoid exploitation.
This update can be accessed via the Chrome menu > Help > About Google Chrome. After a restart, the web browser will automatically check for new updates and install them without user intervention.
Twitter Blue has been the company’s main priority since Elon Musk took over, and we’ve seen several changes to the subscription service. After a massive bump to the tweet character limit not too long ago, Twitter is increasing it yet again- and by a lot this time.
A few months ago, Twitter announced that it was increasing the tweet character limit to a staggering 4,000 characters. This dwarfs the 280-character limit that free users have access to. It’s already enough to type up a short article on the platform, but the company wanted to take it to an even further extent.
The Twitter Blue character limit is now 10,000
Twitter announced this via tweet. “We’re making improvements to the writing and reading experience on Twitter! Starting today, Twitter now supports Tweets up to 10,000 characters in length,”. That’s a 150% increase, and it’s enough for you to really flesh out your ideas. We’re not sure if people will really want to write (or read) a 10,000-character tweet, but the ability is there should you need it.
This change doesn’t stop there, as the platform now lets Blue users use bold and italic formats for their text. This means that you can add emphasis to your tweets in a way that you couldn’t before on the platform. So, if you wanted to, you’d be able to write full-on articles on the platform if you were so inclined.
You already have the ability to add pictures to your tweets. Being able to format your text like that is just the icing on the cake. These changes are rolling out, so chances are that you’ll be able to use them right away.
Other changes that came to Twitter Blue include fewer ads. The company had a little bit of backlash because you didn’t see reduced ads across the platform. You’d only see fewer ads on the For You page. This means that, across the majority of the platform, you were still seeing just as many ads as everyone else.
The iPhone SE 4 rumors have been floating around for a long time now, and the latest info brought even more confusion to the mix. Let’s start from the top, just to bring some perspective to this.
New iPhone SE 4 info brings more confusion to the table
At the very end of last year, a well-known analyst, MIng-Chi Kuo, said that the iPhone SE 4 is canceled. Then, in February this year, he shared some new info, saying that Apple revived its plans. He added that the device is expected to launch in 2024.
Following that, a different tipster indicated that the phone may not arrive before 2025. He also added that it will include a custom 5G modem that Apple is preparing, as the company wants to use it in future devices.
Is it just an engineering prototype?
Well, now, Ming-Chi Kuo is back, and… well, he’s bringing more conflicting info. He said that the iPhone SE 4 could be just an engineering prototype. Apple may use it just to test its in-house 5G baseband chip tech. The device may not get mass-produced at all, and thus won’t be up for sale.
He added that Apple is planning to mass produce its 5G baseband chip in 2025, but if things go south during testing, the company may push it back to 2026, or even beyond that.
It was originally rumored to use the iPhone 14 design
So, if this info is to be believed, we may not even get the iPhone SE 4. Originally, Ming-Chi Kuo said that the phone will be based on the iPhone 14 design. That would represent a huge change for the series.
All iPhone SE models that Apple released thus far had the same design. They were all using the iPhone 8 design, which is quite dated at this point, and it has been for a while. So, it made sense for Apple to try something new. But… it seems like this device may not get to see the light of day after all.
Charley Snyder, the Head of Security Policy at Google, has posted a new initiative that will eliminate the risk of vulnerabilities and protect security researchers.
In his post, he mentioned, “The security industry has improved in many ways, both in technological advances and collaboration, but many challenges remain, especially within the vulnerability management realm. Today it seems like the community is caught in the same cycle when it comes to security vulnerabilities”.
The post also mentioned that Vulnerability management has become highly challenging as every vulnerability revolves around a cycle of found, patched, and new vulnerabilities.
This is because the patches released by the vendors are not sufficient enough to fix the vulnerability once and for all.
Project Zero is a team inside Google that has been studying software and hardware vulnerabilities and provides a patch and a time for disclosure.
However, this patch cycle has been going around for many years, so Google has devised an idea to stop this loop.
Google posted that the zero-day vulnerabilities will always become flash news, but the risk remains the same even after they are patched.
These risks include the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) adopting the patch, testing the patch and its pain points, and also includes the end-user updating the fixed patch.
The post also said that over one-third of the vulnerabilities found in 2022 were primarily additional variants of earlier vulnerabilities. Due to these, Google has proposed the following initiatives.
Greater Transparency
This includes the manufacturer and government providing transparency on the exploitation of the vulnerabilities and how they are adopting the patches. This helps to understand whether the current method of approach works or needs additional steps.
Attention to Friction Points
During a vulnerability lifecycle, there must be extreme attention to the difficulties every user faces in running a patch and whether they know the vulnerability’s risks.
Root Cause Addressing
This means that the root cause of every vulnerability must be addressed to the developers, and every development cycle must prioritize modern secure software development practices.
This development practice must also have the potential to seal all exploitation methods of a vulnerability.
Security Researcher Protection
Security Researchers face legal threats from vendors for their contributions whenever their research is not expected or misunderstood. This creates a sense of negligence for valuable security research and vulnerability disclosure.
These credible security researchers must be protected since their research prevents threat actors from exploiting a vulnerability.
Patching the Ecosystem together
Google proposed that stakeholders, users, security researchers, vendors, platform or service developers, governments, and any others who are important in patching a vulnerability must come together in support of patching these exploitable bugs.
Hacking Policy Council
In recent years, new laws support private disclosure of vulnerabilities to the Government under certain conditions.
Due to this, the Hacking Policy Council has been formed by Google, which will help support best practices for vulnerability management with new policies and regulations.
Security Research Legal Defense Fund
As mentioned, Individual security researchers have been contributing enormously to Security.
These contributions help vendors patch a vulnerability before they get into a data breach by an attacker’s exploitation.
However, they sometimes face legal issues which will remove them from the security research radar.
To protect these individuals from legal issues, Google has introduced the Security Research Legal Defense Fund, which will aid security researchers in having legal representation and improve cybersecurity posture in the Public.
Exploitation Transparency
Google claims that users must also be notified about exploiting a vulnerability which will help users understand a threat actor’s method of attack, which can also lead to better protection.
“We believe this transparency should become part of the industry’s standard vulnerability disclosure policies. We have always prioritized transparency when our products are exploited, but starting today we will make this an explicit part of our policy, committing to publicly disclose when we have evidence that vulnerabilities in any of our products have been exploited,” reads the post published by Google.
As posted by Google, these efforts must positively impact downgrading the risk of vulnerabilities. However, the results of this initiative will have to wait until implementation.
Headphones are great for games when you want to be more immersed and hear every detail, but sometimes speakers are the best option for gaming. Whether you find headphones uncomfortable or you just don’t want to wear them all the time, a good set of speakers for your gaming setup can make a all the difference. The thing is, there’s a lot of speakers for gaming out there. Some might be considered “gaming speakers” while others are simply speakers that will work great for gaming.
If you’re looking for gaming speakers, this guide is here to help. We’ve scoured the internet and rounded up the best speakers for gaming that you can integrate into your own setup. This list also incorporates speakers of varying price points to meet any budget.
Best speakers for gaming
Logitech G560
One of the best sets of PC speakers for gaming are the G560 Lightsync speakers from Logitech. You get two front speakers that put out 30w of power along with a 60w subwoofer, which combined put out a peak power of 240w of sound. They feature DTS:X Ultra for the surround sound experience, which is a game changer for titles that include directional audio elements like footsteps and gunfire.
Another neat feature is the RGB lighting which will match different color zones on your screen to make the game more immersive. For $199.99, these are an excellent buy and probably the best set of speakers for gaming overall. Although our personal favorite is further down the list.
It’s truly hard to pass up on the value you get for these though. They’re stylish, not too large, and they pack some serious sound and features.
Creative makes excellent quality audio products and the Pebble Plus are our pick from this brand when it comes to speakers for gaming. They’re available at a budget price and offer really good sound for the cost.
The included subwoofer enhances the lows and adds bass to your gaming (or anything else), and the speakers are small enough that they’re perfectly suitable for small desks with less room. A little dial on the right speaker controls the volume and there’s not much else to these bad boys. While not feature-packed, the simplicity means there’s really nothing to have to mess with. You can plug them in via USB and turn them on you’re good to go. All you really have to worry about is adjusting the volume of the speakers and the sub.
If you want a super-premium setup for your gaming speakers, then look no further than the SteelSeries Arena 9 which is one of the best option. This 5-speaker sound system comes complete with two front speakers, two rear speakers, a center channel speaker, and a subwoofer. For a surround sound experience that really makes your games come alive.
The quality of the sound is some of the best we’ve heard from any speaker setup we’ve used for gaming. And overall, it’s our personal favorite. It also has tons of neat features. For starters, it supports the SteelSeries Sonar software. Which gives you layers of audio tuning to tweak things to your liking.
It also comes with this little dial that controls all the settings. And of course one of our favorite parts about it is the RBG lighting. They sync with the colors on your screen (PC only) to add an immersive feel to the gaming experience.
You can use this with both PC and consoles like the PS5 and Xbox Series X. However, there are only two connection types on this speaker system. USB and optical. And since the PS5 doesn’t have optical, you’ll need something like this HDMI adapter from Astro which is what we use so the speakers can be connected to the PC and PS5 at the same time.
We tested this thing for gaming when it first came out and it’s still one of the best options for gaming sound out there. For one it’s fairly compact. So it easily fits into any gaming setup. And for that compact size, it packs such a punch of sound that you’ll be surprised at how good it is.
We really love that it connects not only through HDMI but also optical if you have the port or something like the adapter we mentioned above. It has a Bluetooth connection as well.
Interestingly, Panasonic partnered with Square Enix on this to design an audio profile specifically for Final Fantasy XIV. There are also audio profiles for FPS games and a general game profile. And for convenience, everything can be controlled with a little remote if you don’t want to use the buttons on the side of the soundbar. For $300 it’s a bit pricey but in our opinion, worth it.
Another simple option for gaming speakers that won’t set you back a whole lot of money are the Nommo speakers from Razer. These are along the lines of what you’ll get from the Creative Pebble Plus. Though you won’t have the subwoofer with these to boost up the lows and add bass.
That being said, these do have rear-facing bass ports and a bass knob for adjusting them. So you will get some bass, just not as strong as it would be with a proper subwoofer connected. You also still get full range sound and these won’t take up a lot of space. One thing to note though is that these connect through a 3.5mm audio port. So they won’t work consoles unless you find an adapter.
There’s nothing especially “gamer” about these speakers but that’s part of why they make such a good option. If you like your gaming setup to look a little more minimalist in design without all the RGB, these are excellent. For one, they’re not too expensive at just $149.99.
Price aside though, they put out some pretty impressive sound for a pair of bookshelf speakers. You can connect them multiple ways and one of those is optical out. If your setup supports optical, it’s highly recommended to use this option as the sound will definitely be better with these.
They can also connect through Bluetooth if you’d prefer to keep the connection wireless. A neat little style detail too is that you can remove the speaker grille. Additionally, you can control the speaker features with the on-board controls on the side or with the remote that comes with the speakers.
One of the best soundbars we’ve tested for games is the Studio 3D Mini from Definitive Technology. The soundbar is fairly compact although not as compact as the Soundslayer from Panasonic. But it also puts out significantly better sound and comes with a wireless subwoofer.
Normally this soundbar system retails for $800 and up, but right now Amazon has it on sale for just about $300. If you want a soundbar specifically for your gaming setup, but also something that works insanely well for movies, music, and TV, go with this.
It features 3D surround sound and it’s compatible with 4K with support for HDR10 and Dolby Vision. In addition to being great for games it also has built-in HEOS which lets you stream hi-res music straight from your phone and other devices. It’s an excellent option for consoles in particular if your console is set up with a TV in the living room, because this thing fills the room with sound pretty easily.
One last option for soundbars that’s worth recommending is the UltraGear GP9 from LG. This is another compact soundbar that’s actually a tiny bit smaller than the Soundslayer. It’s designed to be a portable, wireless soundbar system for gaming and it was made with FPS and RTS games in mind. Though you can certainly use it for any type of game.
This soundbar is a wireless device. So there’s nothing you’re required to plug in and it should work as long as your device has Bluetooth. If it doesn’t, you can plug it in using a 3.5mm audio jack or with the included USB cable for PC, and consoles.
It’s quite expensive for a small soundbar but it does put out some really good sound for the size. What we thought was pretty neat is the built-in Quad DAC for high-end Hi-Fi sound and the built-in mic for voice chat. Though we feel headsets are better if you’re looking to communicate with people you’re playing with.
Still, if you can get past the price, this is a decent gaming speaker with a noticeable gamer aesthetic.
Rounding out this list is the Z407 from Logitech. Just like with the Edifier speakers and the soundbar from Definitive Technology, there’s nothing especially “gamer” about these speakers. But that’s totally fine since the main objective should be to find speakers for your gaming setup that sound good. Despite if they have a gamer aesthetic or not.
And these do sound great. You get immersive sound with this 2.1 speaker system thanks to the two front-facing speakers and the included subwoofer. One of the best parts is the dial. Which lets you control all the sound adjustments you can make on these things.
The reason we like the dial so much is because it’s wireless. So you can place it anywhere you have space and not have to worry about the cord being too short. And then of course there’s the price. $119.99 isn’t bad at all for a speaker system that gives you great sound for your games.
You can connect these with 3.5mm audio cables, USB, or Bluetooth. So there’s versatility as well. Which means you can use these with your PC, console, mobile device, laptop etc.
Apple announced that it will use 100% recycled cobalt in batteries by 2025. That goes for all of its products, by the way. In addition to that, the company said that by 2025, magnets in all of its devices will use entirely recycled rare earth elements.
Apple plans to use 100% recycled cobalt in batteries by 2025
On top of that, all Apple-designed printed circuit boards will use 100% recycled tin soldering, and 100% recycled gold plating. All of this with the goal to “achieve carbon neutral products by 2030”.
The company added that it “significantly expanded” the use of 100% certified recycled cobalt in the last three years. So, that makes it possible for Apple to use it in all of its batteries by 2025.
Apple added that in 2022, a quarter of all cobalt found in Apple products came from recycled materials. Cobalt, for those of you who don’t know, enables high energy density in batteries, and it also fits nicely in the longevity and safety equations.
The company also wants to eliminate plastics from its packaging by 2025
Another commitment that Apple mentioned, and we didn’t list earlier, is to eliminate plastics from its packaging by 2025. Apple plans to use fiber alternatives for everything by 2025. At the moment, there’s 4% of plastic remaining in Apple’s packaging footprint.
This is, of course, commendable. It’s always nice to see when a company commits to positive actions, especially when it helps the planet. It would be great to see more companies make such commitments, and stick with them.
Samsung’s goal is to use 100% recycled plastic parts in its phones by 2050
Speaking of which, Samsung did announce something along those lines back in February. The company said that its goal is to use 100% recycled plastic parts in all of its smartphones by 2050.
Let’s hope more companies will follow Apple and Samsung moving forward, and do everything they possibly can to use less plastic, and recycle as much as they can in general.
