Samsung’s Camera Assistant app was released for the Galaxy S22 series with the One UI 5.0 update. Sammy plans on sharing the Camera Assistant app with more Galaxy handsets. According to SamMobile, besides bringing the Camera Assistant to more Samsung handsets, the app is expected to come with more features. One new feature will give users control over image capture speed, image sharpening, and the timer.
Pre-order the Galaxy S23 Ultra right now!
The Camera Assistant app will give users the opportunity to choose among three options for picture softening: Off, Medium (50%), and High (100%). The shutter tap speed can be changed to activate as soon as the button is pressed instead of waiting for the button to be released. A series of burst images, a GIF, or a video can be shot by sliding or holding the on-screen shutter button.
Shutter lag can also be improved by using the upgraded Camera Assistant app thanks to three new settings. Speed Priority will snap a photo as fast as possible with the quality of the photo taking a backseat to speed. Disabling the Auto HDR feature will also eliminate shutter lag. The other two shutter settings include Balanced, and Quality Priority. The former looks to balance the shutter speed along with the quality of the image. Quality Priority gives up a speedy shutter speed in favor of a focus on the quality of the picture being taken.
The Samsung Camera Assistant app delivers three tiers of photo sharpening including Off, Medium, and High
Samsung has also added additional options for the timer. Photos can now be snapped every 1 second, 1.5 seconds, 2 seconds, 2.5 seconds, and 3 seconds. And if your phone gets hot while taking photos or videos it could be due to the processing required to support whatever it is you’re doing with the camera. Having the screen brightness set all the way up could be another reason why the phone is overheating. The Camera Assistant app can be set to dim the screen automatically after 1 minute (or 10 minutes) of video recording.
So which phones are getting the Camera Assistant? Thanks for asking. The app is coming to the Galaxy Note 20 series and all Galaxy S phones starting with the Galaxy S20 line and running through the Galaxy S23 models. It also will be offered to those with the Galaxy Z Flip 3, Galaxy Z Flip 4, and all of the Galaxy Z Fold handsets from the Fold 2 through the Fold 4.
So to reiterate, these Galaxy phones will get the Camera Assistant app:
Galaxy Note 20
Galaxy Note 20 Ultra
Galaxy S20
Galaxy S20+
Galaxy S20 Ultra
Galaxy S21
Galaxy S21+
Galaxy S21 Ultra
Galaxy S22
Galaxy S22+
Galaxy S22 Ultra
Galaxy S23
Galaxy S23+
Galaxy S23 Ultra
Galaxy Z Flip 3
Galaxy Z Flip 4
Galaxy Z Fold 2
Galaxy Z Fold 3
Galaxy Z Fold 4
If you have one of the Galaxy phones in the above list, keep your eyes peeled for the update that will bring Camera Assistant to your phone.
Here, Cyber Security Hub explores the threat vectors used and vulnerabilities exploited by hackers specific to cryptocurrency-based cyber crime.
Why do hackers target cryptocurrency?
Cryptocurrency attacks can have large payouts
With Bitcoin, Ethereum and Tether having market caps of $330.6bn, $152.6bn and $68.2bn respectively, cryptocurrency traders and wallets can be an attractive target to hackers. So much so that Blockchain data platform Chainanalysis reported that a total of $3.8bn in cryptocurrency was stolen by crypto hackers in 2022.
In September 2022, malicious actors compromised cryptocurrency market maker Wintermute’s hot wallet to steal $162.5mn. The term hot wallet refers to a cryptocurrency wallet that is available online and can facilitate transactions between the owner and others’ wallets. To do this, the hackers exploited a vulnerability in private keys generated by the Profanity app. Private keys are a secure code proving ownership of a cryptocurrency wallet and allowing the holder of the wallet to make transactions. If these keys are unsafe, however, it can allow malicious actors access to a cryptocurrency wallet.
Cryptocurrency companies may be more vulnerable to attacks
While the first cryptocurrency, eCash, was created in 1990 by Digicash, cryptocurrency did not reach the mainstream until the introduction of Bitcoin in 2009. With around 100 new cryptocurrencies created and minted each day, the urge to join the market may mean so-called cryptopreneurs are more focused on creating and launching their cryptocurrency over protecting their business.
Luke Willmott, co-founder and COO of crypto-based car marketplace AutoCoinCars notes that this enthusiasm to launch can lead to security issues that are a big draw for hackers. He notes that as people do not need to invest a large amount of money to form startups in the cryptocurrency space, this can mean that their investment focus is on the front end of the company, for example making an attractive webpage, rather than protecting the back end of their business. This leaves them vulnerable to attacks.
“Even some of the larger cryptocurrency companies likely do not have sophisticated enough cyber defenses to outsmart hackers. With the cryptocurrency industry growing at such a rapid rate it is understandable why this may be difficult to keep up with. Add on top of that the rate at which both hackers and technology grow in intelligence, you would need a full-time person to deploy a strong cyber defense strategy and infrastructure,” Wilmott explains.
In January of this year, it was revealed that collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX had $415mn worth of cryptocurrency stolen by hackers. The loss was discovered after FTX lawyers and advisors identified $5.5bn worth of assets to be recovered, with the stolen cryptocurrency making up around a tenth of the assets to be recovered.
Global news company Insider suggested that the stolen cryptocurrency “could be linked to a hack that took place just hours after FTX filed for bankruptcy” and prosecutors noted that more than $370mn in crypto had “vanished from the exchange”.
Cryptocurrency transfers cannot be reversed
Cryptocurrency transfers take place on a decentralized network, meaning that when funds are transferred they cannot be cancelled or reversed, only refunded by the receiver. This is due to the immutable nature of the blockchain making it impossible for any data within the network to be edited. Digital currency protocols put in place by cryptocurrency companies to allow merchants to accept digital currency without chargebacks also prevent funds being cancelled or reversed.
This means that if hackers are able to gain access to and transfer funds from a victim’s cryptocurrency wallets, it is very unlikely that they will be able to regain these funds.
On January 15, a cryptocurrency and NFT influencer who uses the moniker NFT God poster to Twitter that their “entire digital livelihood was violated” after hackers gained access to and stole “a life changing amount of [their] net worth” in funds and NFTs from their digital wallet.
Every channel I have with my community, friends, and family was compromised over the last 24 hours
My Twitter, Substack, Gmail, Discord, and wallets were all invaded and taken over by bad actors
Significantly less important than all of that I lost all of my digital assets
In a series of tweets, NFT God explained that they believed hackers had gained access to their computer and digital wallet after they mistakenly downloaded malware they believed was video streaming software. The hackers stole all of NFT God’s digital assets.
Cryptocurrency news site Metaverse Zeus reported that blockchain data showed that these assets included “at least 19 ETH, worth almost $27,000 at the time, a Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC) NFT with a current floor price of 16 ETH ($25,000), and several other NFTs”.
Speaking on the hack, NFT God tweeted: “There’s no recourse. It’s not fixable. You can’t revert blockchain transactions.”
Hackers have even capitalized on the fact that those who lose their digital assets will want to regain them. The prevalence of hackers exploiting this desperation has led to the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issuing a warning to cryptocurrency owners not to trust individuals or companies that offer cryptocurrency recovery services. In this scams, malicious actors will tell victims they can return their funds and assets to them, then either charge them a fee or ask for their financial information to do so. This leads to the victim being further defrauded.
How do malicious actors target cryptocurrency users and companies?
Social engineering attacks against unsuspecting investors
As those looking to invest in cryptocurrencies feel pressure to buy in at the most opportune moment, malicious actors exploit this pressure in social engineering attacks. An example of this was seen in July 2022, after the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) warned cryptocurrency investors that fake cryptocurrency applications had led to losses of $42.7m in just six months.
Between November 1, 2021 and May 13, 2022, the FBI identified 244 victims who lost between $900,000 to $5.5mn each to fake cryptocurrency apps. The scams involved fraudsters posing as legitimate US investment services and specifically targeting those who had an interest in cryptocurrency and mobile banking. During communications with the victims, the hackers used the logos and names of said investment services to make themselves appear more legitimate. Using these techniques, the hackers were able to convince the investors to download mobile apps, which led to them being defrauded.
The two companies the scammers created fake websites for were YitBit, which is the name of former legitimate cryptocurrency service and Supayos, an Australian currency exchange business. The FBI suggested this was an attempt to make the scam apps seem more legitimate.
The criminals were able to defraud at least four victims of $5.5mn while posing as YitBit, by waiting for investors to deposit funds into the fake accounts, then telling them via the app that to withdraw any funds, they must pay taxes. This meant that the victims were unable to withdraw any investments from the fraudulent app.
Blockchain bridges are used by cryptocurrency users to transfer cryptocurrency between different blockchain. The bridges work by depositing the assets as ‘wrapped’ tokens across the bridge. Wrapping the tokens allows them to function on the blockchain they are being transferred to. Unfortunately, this makes bridges more susceptible to attacks as they have vulnerabilities on each end of the transfer.
The funds were stolen after hackers exploited a flaw in the bridge’s code that allowed malicious actors to replace the intended destination wallet with their own account.
Phishing attacks to gain access to digital wallets
Similar to the use of fake cryptocurrency companies to defraud investors, hackers will similarly pose as cryptocurrency companies to gain access to cryptocurrency users’ wallets via phishing attacks.
Monkey Drainer is notorious for using phishing-based hacking techniques to steal from victims by setting up fake cryptocurrency and NFT sites. To make these fake sites more believable, Monkey Drainer has been known to pose as legitimate blockchain sites including RTFKT and Aptos. After logging in to the fraudulent sites, victims enter sensitive details about their cryptocurrency wallets and sign off on transactions, allowing Monkey Drainer to access their wallets and their funds.
The most prominent victims in the October 2022 attack were referred to only as 0x02a and 0x626. The pair lost a collective $370,000 via malicious phishing sites operated by Monkey Drainer, with 0x02a losing 12 NFTs worth around $150,000.
0x626 held around $2.2mn in their cryptocurrency wallet at the time, however, some of the transactions pushed by Monkey Drainer were rejected by the network the wallet was on as they were marked as suspicious. This meant that the overall actual loss was $220,000 worth of cryptocurrency.
When Amazon announced an addition to its Omni TVs back in September 2022, I was pretty excited. I had heard plenty of great things about the existing Omni TVs, but they lacked QLED. Now, Amazon has a QLED TV in the Omni lineup, and it’s pretty inexpensive. While the MSRP is $799 for the 65-inch, it is routinely under $600. Making it one of the cheapest QLED TVs on the market.
Now being the cheapest isn’t always good. How does it perform? We’ll go over all of that and more in this review.
First off, what is QLED?
If you’re not big into TVs, you might not even know what QLED is. So let’s take a minute to go over what it is exactly, before continuing in this review of the Amazon Omni QLED TV.
QLED is:
A quantum dot display is a display device that uses quantum dots, semiconductor nanocrystals which can produce pure monochromatic red, green, and blue light. Photo-emissive quantum dot particles are used in LCD backlights and/or display color filters.
In layman’s terms, it’s similar to OLED, but at a much cheaper price point. It also doesn’t suffer from burn-in like OLED would. In addition to that, QLED also still offers close to real-life colors. Since it doesn’t use a backlight, that means that the blacks will actually be black, instead of gray.
Amazon Omni QLED TV Review: Display & Picture quality
The picture quality on this TV is pretty good. It’s not quite as bright as I’d like, but if you don’t have a lot of sunlight coming into the room, then the brightness is going to be just fine. It is also really good with darker TV shows. Since it’s QLED and actually shows deeper blacks versus an LED or LCD TV. So shows like Manifest or The Oval actually look good on this TV.
Some will say that the picture quality here isn’t that great, but you have to remember that there are QLED TVs out there that are 3x or more the price of this TV. So of course, some corners are cut here. But if you’re coming from a 4K LED TV, then you’re going to find this display to be quite nice.
There is HDMI 2.1 here, but it does not support 4K120. That sounds strange right? Well, the TV itself only offers 60Hz refresh rate, so it’s not the port, but more the panel that is limiting that.
Amazon has also included Dolby Vision IQ here, which does help to make this TV look incredible. It also supports HDR10, HLG and HDR10+ Adaptive. Along with HDR10+ Gaming.
For the Omni QLED, the strong point isn’t really the picture quality, it’s more the Alexa and smart hub features.
Amazon Omni QLED TV Review: Sound quality
Typically, TV sound quality sucks. Unless you’re buying an expensive TV from Sony, Samsung, or LG. That’s really the only time that they focus on the sound. But here, Amazon did focus on the sound quality. It doesn’t have Dolby Atmos, unfortunately, but the sound is still pretty good.
I did use the TV for a good month or so without my Sonos Beam Gen 2 and Sub Mini plugged in. And it sounded pretty good, but I did miss having the Sub available for movies and such. So if you have a soundbar, you’ll probably still want to use it here. But this is a TV that doesn’t absolutely need a soundbar.
Amazon Omni QLED TV Review: Alexa & Software
If you’ve used any Fire TV device over the past few years, then the software here is going to feel right at home. It’s basically like having an Amazon Fire TV Cube plugged into your TV, except you don’t lose an HDMI port for that. I say the Cube, because it does have always-on Alexa. So you can talk to Alexa while the TV is off. Below the TV, there’s a little box with an indicator light that will indicate when the TV turns on, as well as when Alexa is listening to you. Now there is still a physical button to turn off the mic. So you can press the microphone button on the remote to talk to Alexa.
The software is slightly different here, since it is powering the TV. So it needs to add support for switching ports and such. Which works well here. But what really works well is the software. Much like the Fire TV Cube, Amazon put in a decent amount of power into the TV. Which makes Fire TV OS absolutely fly on this TV. The experience is similar to the Fire TV Stick 4K Max or the Fire TV Cube. Every app opened and worked quickly. However, YouTube TV was quite slow, and I think that’s more of a YouTube TV problem. Since it was the only app struggling.
Amazon makes it quite easy to jump into different apps on the TV, as well as finding something to watch. But it also works really well as a smart home hub, thanks to Alexa being built-in. Now, this isn’t anything new, since this is all on the Fire TV Sticks and Cube as well. But you can view your Ring cameras on your TV, get notified when a package arrives and much more.
However, what is new here is the Ambient Mode. It’s basically a screensaver for your TV. But Amazon has added widgets. So when it does jump into Ambient Mode, it can also show a few widgets at the bottom of the screen. Like one for your smart home products, one for weather, etc. It’s almost like having an Echo Show 15 on your TV. In addition to that, it can also turn itself off if it detects that everyone has left the room, and then turn on when people come back into the room. This works about 70% of the time. Ambient Mode and Widgets are okay features, but not features that I really used a whole lot.
Amazon Omni QLED TV Review: Ports & Connectivity
The Omni QLED TV has a pretty good selection of ports available. That includes Ethernet, Three HDMI 2.0, One HDMI 2.1, Cable/Ant, USB, IR Emitter, Headphone and Optical. So there’s three HDMI ports available, with one being HDMI 2.1. But as we talked about already, this TV does not support 4K120, because it has a 60Hz panel. And since the HDMI 2.1 port is the eARC port, you’re probably going to plug your sound bar into it anyways.
However, with four HDMI ports, that means that you can plug in your gaming console(s), and a soundbar and be good to go. Or use one for another streamer like a Chromecast with Google TV or Roku, if you prefer that ecosystem over Fire TV.
Amazon Omni QLED TV Review: Design
When it comes to TV design, I don’t really think it matters. Since you’re mostly looking at the display anyways. Sure the thin bezels are nice to have, but what TV doesn’t have thin bezels, that’s not under $100. The Omni QLED TV has a pretty nice design. With thin bezels on the sides and top. The bottom has a slightly thicker bezel and is brushed aluminum, with only a Fire TV logo in the center. Which I rarely notice is there, to be quite honest.
Of course, below the Fire TV logo, we also have the Alexa box, as I call it. This has the button for turning off the microphone. Which does show up as an icon there showing you it’s off. There’s also an indicator strip there that shows when the TV is being interacted with, when Alexa is listening and/or talking back to you, and such. It takes a little getting used to, as this isn’t something you see all the time.
Now, there is another box at the top of the TV, but it’s kinda behind it, so you don’t really see it. This is used to help the TV see if there’s anyone in the room to turn off the TV with the Ambient Mode.
The legs are pretty spread out, so if you get the 65-inch or even the 75-inch model and have a shorter console for it, it may not fit. The legs screw in quite nicely and easily. Making setup super simple.
Like most TVs, the ports are on one side of the TV, and the power on the other. Thankfully, the ports aren’t on the back, but the side. Making it easier to plug in a new console or soundbar, without having to take apart your entertainment setup.
Amazon Omni QLED TV Review: Wrap Up
I really like the Amazon Fire TV Omni QLED series. I know it’s not the best QLED TV out there, but for most people, especially those that are invested in the Amazon/Alexa ecosystem, I do think it’s the best option. Keep in mind that you are limited to only two sizes with this TV, 65- and 75-inch. So if you need something a bit smaller, or a bit larger (like a 55- or 85-inch), you’re out of luck here.
You should buy the Amazon Omni QLED TV if:
You already own a number of Echo and/or Ring devices.
You want a good picture quality, without spending a grand on a new TV.
You want a good Fire TV.
You shouldn’t buy the Amazon Omni QLED TV if:
You want to game in 4K120.
You use Google TV or Roku, there are better alternatives with those ecosystems.
A security researcher discovered a serious security vulnerability that risked Toyota’s suppliers’ and users’ data. Specifically, he noticed a backdoor in the Toyota supplier management network exposing sensitive details. Following his report, Toyota promptly addressed the issue, preventing any malicious exploit.
Toyota Supplier Management Network Backdoor Exposed Sensitive Data
The researcher Eaton Zveare has recently shared details about a backdoor in the supplier management network that risked the security of Toyota suppliers.
As explained in his post, the backdoor existed in Toyota’s Global Supplier Preparation Information Management System (GSPIMS), exploiting which could allow an attacker to access sensitive details of the firm’s suppliers and other users.
Briefly, while scanning the Toyota website’s subdomains, he noticed that he could sign in to the GSPIMS app as any supplier or corporate user via the email address.
With some effort, such as patching the Angular route guards CanActivate and CanActivateChild to return true and removing the logout code on the web page’s source code, Zveare accessed the app using a system admin’s email address.
Scanning the code further made him realize the glitch. The app generated a JSON Web Token (JWT) based on the provided email only, without requiring a password. Since he had logged in with a system admin email, he eventually got (what he called) ‘total, global control’ over the system.
With such explicit access, he could view the details of over 14,000 users, details of all of Toyota’s inactive, active, and global projects (with codenames), project schedules, confidential documents, and details about 3000 Toyota’s suppliers.
In his post, the researcher shared the technical details of this vulnerability, along with screenshots.
Toyota Addressed The Unwarranted Data Exposure
While examining the supplier management network, the researcher ensured not to modify any information that could trouble Toyota.
After confirming the backdoor, he reported the matter to the firm, and the firm promptly fixed the glitch. Explaining the patch, the researcher stated,
Toyota/SHI fixed the issue by making the createJWT and findByEmail endpoints return HTTP status 400 – Bad Request in all cases.
Besides confirming the fix, the researcher appreciated Toyota’s prompt action to address the flaw.
A few weeks back, Hackread.com reported about a malware-infected Android TV box available on Amazon: the T95 TV box. The box contained pre-installed malware, which was discovered by a Canadian developer and security systems consultant, Daniel Milisic.
Now the same TV box is in the news again, and the person who has identified security threats is Malwarebytes mobile malware researcher Nathan Collier. He purchased this device from Amazon to further probe and instantly realized something was off about this TV box. Collier discovered that regardless of whether the toggle switch was on or off, the box was rooted.
What is Rooting?
For your information, in an Android device, rooting refers to acquiring the highest level of access, aka root. It allows the user to modify system-level directories and files, which otherwise is not possible.
Developers require this heightened access to test the device in the pre-production phase. However, it must be noted that Android devices aren’t rooted during production. If the command adb (Android Debug Bridge) root is run on an under-production Android device, it will display the error “adb cannot run.”
Conversely, on a rooted device, the message appears as “restarting as root” or “adb is already running as root.”
Tools Used in the Research
Collier performed his research on the Android TV box using a few tools, including Android Debug Bridge from the Android Studio, Telerik Fiddler Classic internet traffic monitor with exceptional HTTPS capturing capabilities, NoRoot Firewall app that allows or denies network traffic as per an app’s requirement, and LogCat command line tool.
Performing the Research on TV95 TV Box
Collier hypothesized that DGBLuancher was responsible for APK loading and running Corejava classes.dex. To prove this hypothesis, Collier uninstalled DGBLuancher and kept Corejava classes.dex. The malicious traffic stopped immediately without DGBLuancher, Ergo, Corejava classes.dex cannot run.
Collier then reinstalled DGBLuancher, and this time he removed Corejava classes.dex, too, but again the malicious traffic stopped, and no new traffic was produced. This means the traffic required Corejava classes.dex to be produced. Hence, Collier concluded that the DGBLuancher was the APK loading Corejava classes.dex.
Later, Collier deleted Corejava classes.dex from the /data/system/Corejava, but it reappeared immediately after a reboot and when DGBLuancher was uninstalled Corejava classes.dex stopped reappearing. This strengthened the hypothesis that DGBLuancher was the culprit as it created Corejava classes.dex.
Now he had to find out why Corejva classes.dex reappeared. Collier learned that system_server ran more commands in the background than just create /data/system/Corejava. DGBLuancher used system_server to create Corejava classes.dex, so it wasn’t the culprit but conduit. Collier couldn’t determine why Corejava classes.dex reappeared.
A T95 Android TV box sold on Amazon
How to Fix the Issue?
In a blog post, Collier recommends a factory reset before proceeding to fix the issue. A factory reset will remove the malware that might have been downloaded during this time. Afterwards, avoid connecting the box to a network until you install adb onto a Linux, Windows, or Mac environment and put the box into Developer Mode.
Turn on USB0 device mode to install adb. Connect your PC to the box, open a terminal such as Command Prompt on PC, and type: adb devices, which will display an ID number and a list of devices attached. Now you can remove the DGBLuancher. Check out Nathan Collier’s blog on Malwarebytes for a detailed remediation process.
A recent report suggests that only the 2024 iPhone 16 Pro Max model will get a higher-end periscope camera with new zoom capabilities.
A previous rumor suggested Apple would limit its new periscope camera lens to only the iPhone 15 Pro Max models. That means the regular iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15, and iPhone 15 Plus would retain their traditional telephoto lens.
The rumor wasn’t surprising since Apple has traditionally introduced new camera features on its most prominent flagship iPhone. For example, the iPhone 12 Pro Max had a sensor-shift optical image stabilization, a feature Apple eventually extended to the iPhone 13 Pro.
However, that tradition could change soon.
According to Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, Apple might not extend the periscope camera lens to other iPhone 16 lineups besides its largest flagship device. In other words, the improved telephoto lens will remain limited to the iPhone 16 Pro Max models.
“Only one/the highest-end model of the new 2H24 iPhone 16 series may have a periscope camera, not the two models of market expectation,” says Kuo. “It’s detrimental to Largan and Genius since the demand for lens upgrades will fall below expectations.”
(3/5) Only one/the highest-end model of the new 2H24 iPhone 16 series may have a periscope camera, not the two models of market expectation. It’s detrimental to Largan and Genius since the demand for lens upgrades will fall below expectations.
You’ve heard the word “periscope” several times but may not know how it works.
In its simplest form, a periscope consists of an outer case with two lenses — mirror or prism — at each end set at a 45 degrees angle. That way, when you look into one end, you’ll see the image reflected from the other.
Well, a periscope lens follows the same principle.
However, it uses a single mirror that bends the light to 90 degrees. It allows the lens length to be much longer since the phone’s depth is no longer a factor, resulting in an improved zooming capability.
That means the iPhone 15 Pro Max could feature up to 6x optical zoom — significantly improving the 3x optical zoom in current models.
It’s worth noting that competitors such as Samsung and Huawei already use the periscope camera lens. As a result, limiting the technology to a pricier flagship device could frustrate Apple users that prefer the latest technology.
Welcome to our giveaway of the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra! The latest and greatest from Samsung, and now you have a chance at winning one for yourself.
The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra was announced back on February 1, 2023. It’s the first big flagship smartphone that was announced in 2023, and it’s in the running to be smartphone of the year. Like last year with the Galaxy S22 Ultra, this is basically a merger of the Galaxy S line and the Galaxy Note line. It’s a $1,199 smartphone, that you can win, for free here with AndroidHeadlines.
About the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra
The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra is a beast of a smartphone. It sports a 6.8-inch QHD+ AMOLED 120Hz display, powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy processor inside, with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. It also has a massive 5,000mAh capacity battery inside, which should last you all-day and then some.
On the camera front, Samsung has included a 200-megapixel sensor. That is the first in any smartphone. This sensor isn’t going to take 200-megapixel images though, Samsung will pixel-bin them down to 12.5-megapixels. So the actual files will be about the same size as any other phone. But that means that you’re getting more details. As every 16 megapixels is binned down to a single megapixel. It also sports a 12-megapixel ultrawide sensor, and two 10-megapixel telephoto sensors. One is does 3X optical zoom, while the other does 10X.
It’s a pretty strong phone, with Gorilla Glass Victus 2 to protect the glass, and Armor Aluminum for the frame. Meaning that if you drop it, it may not actually shatter. And that’s always a good thing.
The Galaxy S23 Ultra also runs on Android 13, with One UI 5.1, and it will get updates for the next three years. That’s pretty impressive, and it means that you will get updated to Android 16. So definitely a good choice for a new smartphone.
How To enter
To be entered for a chance to win the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra, all you need to do is take part in the giveaway widget below. To get started, simply enter the contest with your email address.
Once you have entered, you’ll have the opportunity to gain additional entries by completing various actions, including visiting Android Headlines social media channels.
You are entitled to complete as many actions as you like, each action offers a unique number of entries and each entry has the potential to be the winning one.
This Pixel 6a giveaway is a USA-ONLY contest and will close promptly at 2:59 pm PST on Tuesday, May 2, 2023.
Enter now for a chance to win a Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra, courtesy of Android Headlines.
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For years, Google has been spending a ton of money on AI or Artificial Intelligence. It’s built into your smartphone, even if you don’t use an Android phone. So when OpenAI launched ChatGPT, and it showed just how good it was, it was clear that Google was behind. So it launched Bard. It’s own AI chatbot, that should be really good. After all, it has the power of Google Search behind it. Though it’s first demo didn’t go as planned.
So here’s everything you need to know about Google Bard.
What is Google Bard?
Bard is a new Google experimental AI product. It’s basically an AI chat bot that the company has been developing, and it’s meant to be a competitor to OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Though, the big leg up that it has over ChatGPT is that it has the power of Google Search behind it. Google’s search engine is the biggest in the world, and has a ton of information, that Bard will already have. Instead of being two years out of date like ChatGPT is. ChatGPT was trained on data up until 2021.
When was Bard announced?
Bard was officially announced on February 6. Google released a statement from its CEO, Sundar Pichai talking about Bard. Which was an entirely new concept at the announcement. This AI chat service is being powered by Google’s LaMDA (Language Model for Dialogue Applications), which the company unveiled a few years ago. And it also shows off quite often at Google I/O.
Why did Google decide to announce Bard now?
It’s probably pretty obvious why Google decided to announce Bard now. In what appears to be a bit early for Google. And that’s because ChatGPT has been a viral hit since it was released last year. It’s so popular in fact, that most of the time, you can’t even access ChatGPT due to there being to many people using it. UBS claims that ChatGPT is the fastest-growing app of all time. Which forced Google’s hand a bit here, as they are the ones known for doing things like ChatGPT.
Besides Search, artificial intelligence is Google’s other big money-making area. So Google knew that it needed to go ahead and get Bard out there. But it didn’t really work out as they had planned.
This all happened in the same week that Microsoft announced the “New Bing” which has ChatGPT integrated into the search engine.
What happened to Bard?
Google was set to announce Bard during a livestream in Paris on February 8, alongside a number of other improvements to its products. However, during the demo in Paris, Bard delivered inaccurate information about the James Webb Space Telescope.
Google, during the demo, asked Bard “What new discoveries from the James Webb Space Telescope can I tell my 9 year old about?” It came back with a number of things that the JWST has done, and the last bit said “JWST took the very first pictures of a planet outside of our own solar system”. Which is incorrect, as the first exoplanet was taken in 2004 by the European Southern Observatory’s VLT (Very Large Telescope). So obviously, it was incorrect, which was a big deal for Google. Seeing as they are the number one search engine in the world.
Bard is an experimental conversational AI service, powered by LaMDA. Built using our large language models and drawing on information from the web, it’s a launchpad for curiosity and can help simplify complex topics → https://t.co/fSp531xKy3pic.twitter.com/JecHXVmt8l
This resulted in Google privating the YouTube livestream of the announcement, while it was happening. Which caught a lot of people off-guard. A Google spokesperson later stated that “this highlights the importance of a rigorous testing process, something that we’re kicking off this week with our Trusted Tester program.”
That was definitely not how Google wanted to introduce Bard to the world. But it also shows that this kind of AI is pretty tough, and still has a long way to go.
How does Bard work?
As mentioned already, Bard is powered by LaMDA, which was built on Transformer, Google’s neural network architecture that it had invented in 2017. Google also notes that GPT-3, which is the language model that ChatGPT functions on, was also built on Transformer.
Initially, Bard will use a lightweight model version of LaMDA because it would require less computing power. It could also be scaled to more users, according to the company. Bard will also draw on all of the information from the web to provide responses. Google’s CEO, Sundar Pichai, also noted that pulling from the web would provide “fresh, high-quality responses.” And it should also mean that we won’t get outdated information, like we currently get with ChatGPT.
How can you access Bard?
Bard has not yet been released to the public. Google says that it is currently testing Bard with a small group of “trusted testers”. Both internal and external feedback is going to be taken into account. This is to ensure that the service is ready to be released to the public and adheres to Google’s AI responsibility standards.
Google has said that Bard will be available to everyone in the weeks following the initial announcement, which was on February 6. But that was before the little demo fail that it had. So that might get pushed back a bit further.
Bard vs ChatGPT
Right now, it looks like AI chatbots will be a two-horse race between Google and Microsoft/OpenAI. Microsoft has poured billions of dollars into OpenAI as of late – even after it laid off a ton of its workers.
Google has been rushing to get Bard out. It was reported that a few weeks ago, it had developed Bard under a project called “atlas” which was part of a “code red” effort to compete with ChatGPT. As mentioned before, ChatGPT has been deemed the fastest-growing app of all-time. Which is quite impressive.
The big difference between the two so far, is that while both run on Transformer, Google’s Bard will use LaMDA and also be able to pull information from the web. Leading to more up-to-date information. While ChatGPT is trained on information up until 2021. So it’s not super accurate as of right now.
While Microsoft is investing in OpenAI, Google has announced it is investing in and partnering with Anthropic. That’s an AI startup led by some of the former leaders at OpenAI. They do have their own chatbot, called Claude, and it has a mission centered around AI safety. Which aligns really well with what Google is already doing with AI.
What other AI products does Google have?
Google isn’t new to AI, quite the opposite actually. Google has a number of AI products that have not yet been released to the public. Typically, Google will tred lightly when it comes to AI products. As it doesn’t want to release something until it is confident in its performance. Which shows just how worried Google was about ChatGPT.
Outside of actual chatbots and other AI products, Google also has a number of AI components in its Pixel smartphones. It has the Google Assistant, which can do all sorts of things like screening calls for you. As well as clear calling which uses AI to cancel out all of the background noise when you’re on the phone in a noisy place. It also has Magic Eraser, which uses AI to remove objects from photos, among many other features.
One of the most underappreciated features found on a smartphone is the share sheet. This is the page that allows you to pick the platform being used to share content. The ones used by both Google Chrome and Google Photos are often criticized. The current share sheet used by the aforementioned apps is limited at first glance and requires the user to press the “more” tab to see all of the options. Ironically, having a different share sheet than the one used system-wide violates Android Guidelines.
According to Techdows (via AndroidPolice) Google is working to move the Chrome browser app to the native Android system share sheet. Signs that such a move is in the works were spotted in the Chrome Canary app. This is an unstable version of Chrome that gets updated daily and it is available from the Google Play Store. In version 112 of Canary Chrome (made available with the stable Chrome browser app at a older version), you can toggle a setting that will force the app to use the Android system share sheet by defdault.
To force Chrome to use the Android system share sheet, follow these directions:
Launch Chrome
Go to chrome://flags
Search for share, find the flag “Share sheet refactor Android”
Chrome Share sheet refactor Android flag
Select Enabled
Restart the browser
After you restart the browser and request the share sheet from the triple-dot menu in the upper right corner, it will show you the native Android share sheet. Right now, this is only available on the Canary Chrome app and will be eventually be found on the stable Chrome app. Right now, my Pixel 6 Pro running Android 13 QPR2 Beta 3.1 has version 109 of stable Chrome installed. The version of Canary Chrome on my phone is 112 which does offer the migration to the Android system share sheet.
You can set Canary Chrome to run the native Android system share sheet by default
To see which version of Chrome is installed on your phone, open the app, tap the three-dot menu button found in the upper right of the display. Go to Settings > About Chrome, and the version number will appear. Once you see that you’re running version 112 of stable Chrome, follow the six steps listed above. Again, these steps work right now on Canary Chrome but we will need to wait for it to appear for the stable version of Google’s mobile web browser.
The former neonatologist has been sentenced to eight years in prison and ordered to pay more than $25,000 in restitution and a $100,000 fine.
Ronald Craig Ilg, 56, was sentenced to eight years in prison for hiring hitmen on the dark web to assault and kidnap victims. The doctor in Spokane, Washington paid $60,000 in Bitcoin as payment for the tasks he asked the hitmen to perform.
This should not be a surprise, as just last year, the US Department of Justice charged a cardiologist with developing two dangerous ransomware strains: Thanos and Jigsaw v.2.
Senior United States District Judge William Fremming Nielsen sentenced Ilg to 96 months in prison, ordering him to pay more than $25,000 in restitution and a $100,000 fine. Even after release, Ilg will be supervised for three years.
The former neonatologist used the dark web’s anonymity to direct purported hitmen to assault his victims; the first was a former colleague, also a Spokane-area doctor. Ilg paid the hitmen more than $2,000 worth of Bitcoin and specifically requested that the victim’s hands be broken or otherwise significantly injured. He also asked for proof of the task’s completion.
Ronald Craig Ilg
The second victim was his estranged wife. He paid the criminals approximately $60,000 worth of Bitcoin to kidnap and inject her with heroin so she would be forced to drop the divorce proceedings. He even promised the hitmen a bonus if the task was completed successfully.
However, the FBI successfully intercepted Ilg’s communications on the dark web and thwarted his plans. As the initial investigation began, he falsely claimed to have been instructing the hitmen to kill him, instead of his victims.
He also attempted to persuade the key witness to marry him so he could control her testimony in court. He offered to pay for her children’s tuition fees to attend St. Aloysius Catholic School and Gonzaga Preparatory School.
MORE DARK WEB CRIME NEWS
After pleading guilty to his crimes, Ilg tried to profit from them by seeking “a book or movie deal.” Judge Nielsen described Ilg’s behaviour as “really egregious, and even evil,” while emphasizing the irony of Ilg’s actions as a doctor.
“A doctor’s goal in life is to protect people, keeping people alive – not taking overt steps to do the opposite,” he said.
Clinic Permanently closed
In a DoJ press release, Richard A. Collodi, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Seattle field office, said that “This case demonstrates that even the anonymity of the dark web will not prevent the FBI from identifying and disrupting individuals who are intent on engaging in criminal activity.”
