Threat actors exploit HijackLoader because it is a powerful tool for injecting malicious code into legitimate processes, enabling stealthy execution of payloads.
This technique helps them to evade detection by leveraging trusted applications to carry out malicious activities.
This scenario makes it more complicated for security measures to effectively identify and mitigate the threat.
Cybersecurity researchers at Crowdsrtike recently discovered a HijackLoader (aka IDAT Loader) that employs sophisticated techniques to evade detection.
Sophisticated HijackLoader Malware
CrowdStrike researchers found HijackLoader evolving with new defense evasion tricks like process hollowing, pipe-triggered activation, and a mix of process doppelganging.
These enhancements make it stealthier and harder to analyze, not only that even extra unhooking techniques were also spotted.
CrowdStrike uncovered a sophisticated HijackLoader sample that starts with streaming_client.exe, which obfuscates a configuration to evade static analysis.
Using WinHTTP APIs, it tests internet connectivity by contacting https[:]//nginx[.]org. If successful, it downloads a second-stage config from a remote server.
After getting the second-stage config, the malware hunts for PNG header bytes and a magic value. It then decrypts using XOR and decompresses using RtlDecompressBuffer API.
Next, it loads a legit Windows DLL specified in the configuration and writes the shellcode to its .text section for execution. It utilizes Heaven’s Gate to evade user mode hooks and injects more shellcodes into cmd.exe.
The third-stage shellcode injects a final payload like a Cobalt Strike beacon into logagent.exe using process hollowing.
HijackLoader evades detection with Heaven’s Gate hook bypass and unhooking DLLs watched by security tools. It also uses process hollowing variations and transacted hollowing for injection.
This merges the transacted section and process doppelgänging with DLL hollowing.
Main Evasion Techniques
Here below, we have mentioned all the main evasion techniques that the HijackLoader and Shellcode use:-
Hook Bypass: Heaven’s Gate and Unhooking
Process Hollowing Variation
Interactive Process Hollowing Variation: Tradecraft Analysis
The exploitation of HijackLoader underscores the significance of proactive cybersecurity measures to detect and prevent such covert attacks.
Organizations should prioritize regular security audits, employ robust endpoint protection, and stay updated on emerging threats to effectively defend against the evolving tactics employed by threat actors.
Besides this, user education and awareness training are essential in mitigating the risks associated with these sophisticated attack vectors.
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Some truly compelling foldable smartphones launched in the last year or so. The two that we are going to talk about in this article are considered to be some of the best. We’ll compare the OnePlus Open vs HONOR Magic V2. Both of these are available in global markets, and they are actually quite different. They are not only different design-wise, but in a number of other ways, which should make things interesting.
Do note that both of these smartphones are book-style foldable, but they have different approaches to design, cameras, software, and so on. We’ll first list their specifications, and then we’ll talk about various other aspects of these phones. Their designs will be in huge focus, and then we’ll jump over to displays, performance, battery life, cameras, and audio performance. Let’s get to it, shall we?
Both of these smartphones are book-style foldable, but they are quite different. The OnePlus Open has flat sides with chamfered edges, while the HONOR Magic V2 uses way more curves on the sides. The HONOR Magic V2 is also a bit thinner in both folded and unfolded forms, even though not by much. Those curves on the side do make it seem even thinner than it actually is, though.
The OnePlus Open is 5.8mm thick when folded, and 11.7mm when unfolded. The HONOR Magic V2 measures 4.7-4.8mm when folded, and 9.9-10.1mm when unfolded. It all depends on what variant we’re talking about, a vegan leather model, or a glass model. The vegan leather variant of the Magic V2 is a bit thinner. The OnePlus Open’s vegan leather model comes in a black color, while the glass model is green-colored. The same goes for Magic V2’s black model, while the glass variant is purple-colored.
Both smartphones have a centered display camera hole on the cover display. Both of them have a fingerprint scanner inside the power/lock key, and both have a great hinge. The opening and closing of both smartphones are very satisfying, and both offer that proper ‘click’ when they lock in place.
They have very different camera setups, in general
If we flip them around, you’ll notice that their camera setups are quite different. The OnePlus Open has a huge camera oreo on the back, which is centered. That camera island also protrudes on the back quite a bit and is a good anchor for your index finger, when you’re holding the device. The Magic V2 has a much smaller camera island, and it sits in the top-left corner of the back. Both phones include three cameras on the back. Both devices also have thin bezels around both their main and cover displays.
Do note that only the OnePlus Open offers an IPX4 rating for splash resistance. The HONOR Magic V2 does not come with such a rating. Both phones feel great to hold and use, while they are also very similar in terms of weight. They do feel different to use, though, due to different design choices. There’s no clear winner here, though, it all depends on what your preferences are.
OnePlus Open vs HONOR Magic V2: Display
The OnePlus Open features a 7.82-inch 2268 x 2440 main display. That is a foldable LTPO3 AMOLED panel that can project up to 1 billion colors. Dolby Vision is supported here, and the panel goes up to 120Hz. The peak brightness of this display is 2,800 nits. The cover display measures 6.31 inches and has a resolution of 2484 x 1116. That is an LTPO3 OLED panel that can also project up to 1 billion colors and has Dolby Vision support. Its refresh rate also goes up to 120Hz, and it has the same max brightness as the main panel. Ceramic Guard is protecting the cover panel on the OnePlus Open.
HONOR Magic V2
The HONOR Magic V2, on the other hand, has a 7.92-inch 2156 x 2344 foldable LTPO OLED main display. That panel projects up to 1 billion colors too, and its refresh rate goes up to 120Hz. It supports HDR10+ content too, and it is ‘IMAX Enhanced’. This display has a peak brightness of 1,600 nits. The cover display, on the flip side, measures 6.43 inches, and it has a resolution of 2376 x 1060. This is an LTPO OLED display which can project up to 1 billion colors. It supports HDR10+ content, and its refresh rate also goes up to 120Hz. It has a peak brightness of 2,500 nits, and it’s protected by the Nanocrystal Glass 2.0.
In terms of actual display quality for real-life usage, all four of these panels are outstanding. They’re bright, vivid, and have great viewing angles. The blacks are deep, and neither main panel felt too plasticky during usage, not at all. The crease is also well-hidden on both main displays, and the touch response is great on all four panels. Truth be said, you’ll be good to go regardless of what phone you choose… as far as the display is concerned.
OnePlus Open vs HONOR Magic V2: Performance
The OnePlus Open is fueled by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor, while it also includes 16GB of LPDDR5X RAM and UFS 4.0 flash storage. The HONOR Magic V2 comes with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 as well, along with 16GB of LPDDR5X RAM and UFS 4.0 flash storage. They’re on the same playing field in terms of specifications. Does that translate to actual usage on both devices? Well, yes, it does.
Both of these phones offer great performance. We’ve enjoyed using both, though I have to say that the software on the OnePlus Open has been more enjoyable to use. It has more features for the foldable aspect of the phone, and better ones, to be quite honest. It also works better with some apps when it comes to folding/unfolding the display. MagicOS on the HONOR Magic V2 is very fluid and works great in general, but some changes are needed, and also better multitasking as a whole.
Both software iterations were very fluid, though. Multitasking was a breeze, and that goes for everything you’ll use these devices for in day-to-day use. Even when it comes to gaming both phones did a really good job, so no worries there.
OnePlus Open vs HONOR Magic V2: Battery
What about their batteries? The OnePlus Open has a 4,805mAh unit, while the HONOR Magic V2 includes a 5,000mAh battery. HONOR actually used a silicon-carbon battery for the Magic V2. Both battery capacities are good enough in theory, does that translate to actual usage, though? Well, yes, the battery life was very good on both smartphones, at least that was the case for us, for our usage.
We were able to cross the 7-7.5-hour screen-on-time mark on the OnePlus Open a number of times. Truth be said, during that usage, gaming wasn’t really a part of the equation, but we were not sparing the phone. When it comes to the HONOR Magic V2, the battery life was also very good, though not as good as on the OnePlus Open. getting to 7 hours of screen-on-time is doable, though, as the Magic V2 is not trailing far behind in the battery life department. All in all, chances are you’ll be happy with the battery life on both devices.
When it comes to charging, they can both charge really fast. The OnePlus Open supports 67W wired and 5W reverse wired charging. The HONOR Magic V2 supports 66W wired, and 5W reverse wired charging. Both phones charge well under an hour, and both of them ship with chargers in the box, unlike some other high-end smartphones these days. Neither phone supports wireless charging, though.
OnePlus Open vs HONOR Magic V2: Cameras
The OnePlus Open has a 48-megapixel main camera, a 48-megapixel ultrawide unit (114-degree FoV), and a 64-megapixel periscope telephoto camera (3x optical zoom, 6x ‘in-sensor’ zoom) on the back. The HONOR Magic V2, on the other hand, includes a 50-megapixel main camera, a 50-megapixel ultrawide unit, and a 20-megapixel telephoto camera (2.5x optical zoom).
OnePlus Open
These two smartphones provide entirely different pictures. The OnePlus Open tries to keep things closer to real life while keeping the shadows a bit darker and making images a bit more contrasty. The colors on the images the OnePlus Open provides are outstanding. The HONOR Magic V2 does tend to brighten up images in low light quite a bit, and the colors end up being more playful in general. Images from the Magic V2 also tend to look a bit more processed in comparison.
During the daytime, both smartphones do a great job. The images end up looking sharp, and detailed, and even the HDR performance is great from both smartphones. We did prefer the performance of the OnePlus Open, though, generally speaking. That goes for all three cameras on the back, though the HONOR Magic V2’s camera performance is not bad at all. It’s just a level below what the OnePlus Open has to offer.
Audio
There are stereo speakers included on both of these smartphones. The speakers on the HONOR Magic V2 ended up being a bit louder, but the difference is not that big at all. The sound coming from both smartphones was well-balanced, and the distortion was next to non-existent.
You won’t get an audio jack on either of these two smartphones, though. You can always utilize their Type-C ports for wired audio connections. If you prefer to go wireless, however, both smartphones do support Bluetooth 5.3.
In an unusual incident that took place in San Francisco’s Chinatown, a crowd set fire to a Waymo self-driving car. The incident occurred during the Lunar New Year celebration over the weekend. A video circulating online shows that the crowd set fire to the Waymo’s car around 9 pm local time.
Crowd sets Waymo’s self-driving car on fire
This isn’t the first time people have attacked a self-driving car. But this time, it’s worse. It shows that more and more people are getting mad at self-driving cars. It came into a much brighter light when the fire department shared pictures of the burned car on social media. They said a firework inside the car caused the fire.
A Waymo spokesperson confirmed to TechCrunch that there were no injuries or deaths. “The vehicle was not transporting any riders and no injuries have been reported,” they told the publication.
What caused this incident remains a mystery
It’s not clear why the vandalism happened. However, according to witnesses around the incident, the road is often busy with fireworks and celebrations for the Lunar New Year. Nevertheless, it has sparked a debate that how people are reacting to advancements in technologies like self-driving cars and AI. Especially after reports say that Waymo driverless cars have outperformed humans.
While cars with human drivers could move away from the fireworks, the self-driving car couldn’t. So, people started damaging it. Eventually, someone threw a lit firework through the front passenger window, which quickly caused a fire inside the car.
San Francisco’s Mayor, London Breed, called this incident a “dangerous and destructive act of vandalism,” adding it could have impacted the surroundings. On the same note, the United States Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California shared a part of the law that talks about the punishments for destroying a vehicle with fire or explosives. If nobody gets hurt from the act, the minimum jail time mentioned in the law is five years in prison.
Honor has recently introduced the Porsche Design Honor Magic V2 RSR, a premium iteration of its book-style foldable smartphone, the Honor Magic V2. The Porsche design inspired Honor Magic V2 RSR, being a 9.9mm foldable built with premium materials like titanium, emerges as a notable competitor to the likes of the OnePlus Open or the Google Pixel Fold.
Ahead of its global launch at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2024, reviews of the Magic V2 RSR Porsche Design have surfaced, shedding light on the hardware and software offerings.
According to an initial review by MrMobile on YouTube, the Porsche Design Honor Magic V2 RSR sets itself apart with not only its impressive design collaboration but also an array of in-box accessories. Notably, the list of accessories that comes in the box also includes a stylus called the ‘Honor Magic-Pen’ that works on both the inner and outer display.
Honor also provides a dedicated storage box for the stylus, dual chargers catering to European and UK power outlets, and a sleek leather case all within the box. This comprehensive accessory package establishes the Magic V2 RSR as the foldable smartphone with the highest number of bundled accessories currently available on the market.
The Honor Magic V2 RSR brings a distinctive aesthetic inspired by Porsche 911
In terms of design, the Honor Magic V2 RSR introduces a distinctive aesthetic inspired by Porsche, featuring a “Porsche-style flyline” along the back panel and camera bump. These design elements evoke the iconic silhouette of the Porsche 911, adding a touch of elegance and sophistication to the device’s appearance.
Under the hood, the Magic V2 RSR Porsche Design boasts a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset, 16GB of RAM, and a generous 1TB of storage. The device sports a 6.43-inch LTPO OLED external display and a larger 7.92-inch LTPO OLED foldable display, both with a smooth 120Hz refresh rate and HDR10+ support. Despite its impressive hardware, the phone lacks an official IP rating for water and dust resistance.
In terms of photography capabilities, the Magic V2 RSR Porsche Design excels with a versatile triple-camera setup, comprising a 50MP wide sensor, a 20MP telephoto camera with 2.5x optical zoom, a 50MP ultrawide sensor, and a 16MP front camera for selfies.
According to Sammobile, Honor is likely to unveil pricing and availability details at MWC 2024. Check out the video below for a comprehensive overview of both the hardware of this Porsche design-inspired foldable and the features of MagicOS 7.2 (based on Android 13).
Slack AI features are officially here, just right on schedule. The workplace management platform, owned by Salesforce, is bringing a slew of AI features to make things easier, especially for businesses that rely on Slack for internal communication. The features include AI-powered search, channel recaps, and thread summaries. But for a price.
Slack is coming with a suite of AI features in the app
With Slack AI, if you’ve missed out on a thread where someone tagged you, you can use it to get a complete summary of the conversation, including who said what. You can also use it to catch up on the discussions happening in channels.
It first began testing Slack AI last year, and now it’s becoming available as a paid add-on for Slack Enterprise users.
If you’ve ever struggled with Slack’s current search tool, you’ll like the new AI-powered search. It has improved a lot, as teased. Instead of relying solely on keyword searches, you can now conversationally ask questions and receive succinct, generated answers based on relevant Slack messages. It is useful, especially when catching up on finding specific information.
Channel Recap and Threads steal the show
Next up is the Channel Recaps. It provides you with key highlights of what you missed while you were away. Slack assures that the algorithm generating these recaps is intelligent enough to distinguish between different topics discussed.
A similar tool is also available for threads, which are essentially one-on-one or group conversations that don’t take up an entire channel. This feature allows users to quickly catch up on any thread with just one click. It’s great when someone sends lots of messages one after another because it organizes everything neatly.
It seems promising, at least in theory. As more users and businesses start using Slack’s AI features, we’ll see how well it manages the workload.
Sonic Dream Team is the latest mobile entry into the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise, and it puts a new spin on it (no pun intended). The game received positive reviews despite the fact that you can only play it on Apple Arcade. Sega just announced some new content that’s coming to Sonic Dream Team that will make the game that much more fun.
Sonic and the team are stuck inside of one of Eggman’s twisted dreams and must recover the dream orbs in order to make it out. This is the gist of the story, and it may sound a little familiar if you’ve played Sonic Frontiers. However, 3D Prime Adventure, the team behind Sonic Dream Team, was able to create a gameplay experience that’s uniquely Sonic while still remaining unique.
It’s Exclusive to Apple Arcade, which costs $6.99/month. If you’ve yet to get Apple Arcade, you can sign up for a free trial and try it out for a month. You can play that game along with more than 200 other premium titles.
Sonic Dream Team is getting more content
This is the first of several updates that Sonic Dream Team is going to get throughout the year. In this update, you’re getting a few new modes plus some useful tweaks. First off, you’re getting Time Trials. You can’t call it a Sonic game without time trials. In this mode, you’ll run through the stages and try to complete them as quickly as possible and get the best times.
Next, they’re going to be New Boss Missions. The update will bring eight new boss missions to the game. This is for people who can’t get enough.
This new update will also bring Speedruns. This will add ranks to the missions for completionists who want to get the highest rank for each level.
Lastly, this update brings some tweaks to Dr. Crabulous, the Factory Foreman, and the Guardian Hunter. These characters have all been updated with a few new moves to keep the fighting fresh.
As of the writing of this article, the update should have already arrived. Make sure your app is fully updated.
Apple Vision Pro has never left the headlines since its release. The $3,500 mixed reality headsets keep topping the news pages for several reasons. It’s been close to two weeks since the Vision Pro hit shelves in the US. Apple has made quite a progress with visionOS so far. The company shipped the Vision Pro with over 600 visionOS apps available for the headset, other than 1.5 million iPad apps that remain compatible with the mixed-reality headset. Now, the visionOS supports over 1,000 apps, thus the Apple Vision Pro users have access to them.
Apple Vision Pro now has access to 1,000 visionOS apps
Apple’s SVP of Marketing, Greg Joswiak, announced this update on X. He gives a “big thank you” to the developers and mentions that visionOS now has 1000 “incredible spatial apps,” which are apps made especially for the Apple Vision Pro. Altogether, the visionOS App Store has over 1.5 million apps. But most of these are iPad apps that can run on visionOS in a compatibility mode.
There’s another story to the lack of visionOS apps. The visionOS App Store has sparked some controversies. Even though Apple points out that key apps like Disney+, NBA, and HBO Max offer immersive experiences on Vision Pro, there are still many important apps missing. These include Netflix, Spotify, YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok.
More importantly, YouTube has confirmed that a native visionOS app is in the pipeline. We don’t have a specific date, or timeline for when YouTube will come with an app. But it’s safe to assume that at least, in the coming weeks or months.
How different is a native visionOS app from an iPad app running on Vision Pro
A native visionOS app is designed specifically for the operating system. So, it comes with features like big targets for eye tracking, glass-like frames, and interactive menus around a central window called ornaments. On the other hand, compatible apps run in a flat 2D window that looks the same as on an iPad or iPhone.
Google redesigned its Weather app last year in tandem with the release of the Pixel Fold and Pixel Tablet. Although the new redesign included a clean new interface and a new set of weather icons, its corresponding widget kept the same old icons to represent the weather. This is about to change.
Spotted by the Google News channel on Telegram, it appears that Google is now supporting the new set of weather icons on both the redesigned Weather app and the At a Glance widget that can be installed on devices other than Pixels. As usual when it comes to Google releases, this seems to be a staged rollout, so results on when you will see the new icons appear for you may vary.
Image Source: Google News Channel (Telegram)
As you can see in the image above, the updated icons appear less flat and take more of a 3D aesthetic. Additionally, in the image below, you can get a clearer picture of what the new icons will look like on your home screen weather widget, based on the redesigned weather app, once the change rolls out to your device.
Old weather widget vs new icons in redesigned weather app | Source: Phone Arena
Though not everyone places important in the appearance of widgets, Google has showed a renewed interest in them since the launch of “Material You”. Additionally, since Apple introduced home screen widgets with iOS 14, users on both iPhones and Android devices have sought out ways to customize their home screens to their liking. For those users, having a cohesive look throughout the UI is important, and hopefully this small change can help with that.
It’ll be interesting to see what other widget-related improvements Google’s got in the works. It would be nice to see some new ones pop up with Android 15, along with that rumored option to replace or completely remove the At a Glance widget from Pixel phones’ home screens.
The Android 12 is having a bit of a strange rollout this year. Not only is it later than usual, but Google has announced that it is live in AOSP, while the update for Pixels is coming in the “next few weeks”. Typically, this would happen on the same day.
Fast-forward a couple of weeks, and Android 12 is now rolling out to Pixel devices. Anyone with a Pixel 3 or later should see an OTA update available now on their Pixel device.
When will Android 12 be available?
The first developer preview was released on February 18, 2021. However, the final stable version that will be available for the Google Pixel, won’t be released until Q3. In previous years, that meant the Tuesday after Labor Day in September. But it appears to be launching a lot later this year. The stable build released on October 19, 2021.
Developer Preview 1 released on February 18, 2021
Developer Preview 2 released on March 17, 2021
Developer Preview 3 released on April 21, 2021
Beta 1 released on May 18, 2021
Beta 2 released on June 9, 2021
Beta 3 release on July 14, 2021
Beta 4 released on August 11, 2021
Beta 5 released on September 8, 2021
Source code pushed to AOSP on October 4, 2021
Stable build released to Pixel devices on October 19, 2021
Final Android 12-based update rolled out in July 2022
How many developer previews and betas will there be?
Typically, Google does two developer previews for new versions of Android. Then, it moves onto the “Beta” phase.
This year, there are going to be three developer previews. February through April will see Developer previews. With the first beta coming in May. Likely at what will amount to being Google I/O this year – which undoubtedly will be virtual only. There will then be three betas in May, June, July and the release candidate coming in August. The RC is technically a beta, but it has the final APIs and is essentially the final version.
Google will then release the final version of Android 12 for all eligible Pixel devices in Q3. Which is likely to be around September of 2021.
Android 12 Release Timeline
What devices will be compatible with the developer previews?
Developer previews are generally only compatible with Pixel devices. Android 12 is compatible with the following Pixel devices:
Pixel 3
Pixel 3 XL
Pixel 3a
Pixel 3a XL
Pixel 4
Pixel 4 XL
Pixel 4a
Pixel 4a 5G
Pixel 5
Other OEMs don’t typically roll out developer previews for their phones. That usually happens within the beta phase.
Update: The Android 12 Beta is also available on these devices now.
What devices will work with the Android 12 Beta?
This year, ASUS, OnePlus, OPPO, TCL, Vivo, Xiaomi, ZTE, Sharp, Tecno, and Realme are all supporting the Android 12 Beta.
Devices that are compatible include:
Asus Zenfone 8
OnePlus 9, 9 Pro
Oppo Find X3 Pro (model CPH2173)
TCL 20 Pro 5G
Vivo iQOO 7
Xiaomi Mi 11, Mi 11 Ultra, Mi 11I, Mi 11X Pro
ZTE Axon 30 Ultra 5G
as well as models from Sharp, Tecno, and Realme
You can head here to find instructions on how to update your phone to the Android 12 beta.
What dessert name is Android 12 going to have?
Even though Google stopped using dessert names with new versions of Android, back with Android 10, it still uses them internally. And for Android 12, that name is “Snow Cone”. Android 12 Snow Cone does sound pretty good. Too bad, we won’t be seeing that used in official marketing material. But it was still cool to see what the name was going to be.
What features can we expect in Android 12?
Google has announced a slew of features for Android 12, but a lot of them are not yet available in the first beta. Many of these are coming in the second beta or a bit later. But here’s a quick round-up of what features we are seeing in Android 12 already.
Material You
At Google I/O, the company’s head of design, Matias Duarte, took the stage to announce ‘Material You’, which is the next evolution of design for Google.
Essentially, it makes Material Design a bit more personal as the colors will change to fit your wallpaper. And with millions of different colors available, it’s likely that no one will have the same theme available on their smartphone. And this extends further than just through the settings, quick settings, and the home screen. But also through all the apps on your smartphone.
With Material You, Google has taken a page out of Samsung’s book. With One UI, the Settings app consisted of bigger tap areas, and using the bottom two-thirds of the display. Making it easier to use on a larger device. And that’s exactly what Google has done here. Quick Settings are also much larger now.
Privacy Dashboard
This was much leaked ahead of the beta announcement at Google I/O. But the Privacy Dashboard is going to make it easier to control what apps are using what permissions. Going to the Privacy Dashboard, you can see how many times your camera or microphone have been used in the past 24 hours. As well as seeing exactly when each app used it.
The point here is to make it easier to keep your data private, and educate users on what permissions are being used by certain apps.
Along with the Privacy Dashboard, there are also new indicators for when the camera and microphone are being used. These will show up in the right-hand corner and then transition into a green light. This is similar to what Apple has done with iOS over the past few years. So you can easily tell if the camera and/or microphone is being used.
Additionally, you’ll see Quick Settings tiles available for revoking those two permissions in that app. So you can revoke permission to the camera without having to leave the app and dig into settings to find the option.
These features are not yet available, Google says it will debut in the second beta for Android 12, next month.
Android Private Compute Core
This is a bit of a boring feature for Android 12, but it is a big deal. The Android Private Compute Core is not a physical chipset inside of Android but more of a sandboxed part of Android for doing all of the AI features that it has.
To put it simply, the Android Private Compute Core will run a bunch of machine learning functions. Walling it off from the rest of the OS means that it is not able to access the network. Keeping your data on your phone and not in the cloud. The only way it can communicate is with specific APIs, which are supposedly open-source.
Basically, Google has nerfed the powers of artificial intelligence. Keeping it all local.
The built-in Android TV remote
When we first heard about the Android TV remote for Android 12, we didn’t think it was a big deal. But now that Google has explained what exactly it is, this is huge.
With Android 12, there will now be a built-in Android TV remote. That can be used on the Chromecast with Google TV, Sony Android TVs and other Android TV devices. This remote will make it easy to not only control your TV, but also login to different apps on your TV.
This is not yet available in Android 12, but it should come in the next beta (or maybe Beta 3).
How can I download Android 12?
Now that the beta is available for Android 12, you can easily enroll your Pixel device into the program. This means that you will get the update over the air, and it’s super simple to install. It is around 1.88GB in size, so it’s rather large, and will take some time to install.
If you don’t own a Pixel, it’ll be a bit more difficult to install the Android 12 beta on your smartphone. You can check here for instructions on how to do just that.
Canadian cybersecurity and IoT (Internet of Things) firm BlackBerry plans to cut more jobs as it pushes toward profitability. The company hasn’t specified the number of layoffs in this round but says it will be on top of the previously announced layoffs affecting around 200 employees. It expects these headcount reductions and other measures to help it return to profitability in a year.
BlackBerry to cut more jobs to reduce operation costs
In October 2023, BlackBerry announced plans to split its IoT and cybersecurity businesses into two separate entities. The company said this move will drive it towards profitability and positive cash flow in the future. It has since taken more actions to reduce annual expenditure by approximately $50 million. Largely focused on the cybersecurity business, these actions included about 200 job cuts.
BlackBerry is now aiming for $100 million of annualized net profit improvements. It plans to achieve this target with further cost reductions and margin expansion. The firm has already identified measures that will help it achieve approximately $55 million of the $100 million annualized target. Sadly, these measures include another round of job cuts within the Cybersecurity business.
According to the company, these layoffs will help it save around $27 million in annual expenses. An additional $8 million will be saved annually through non-layoff actions. BlackBerry is also taking action to reduce its annual general and administrative expenses by $20 million. As part of this move, it has closed 6 of its 36 global offices, including one in San Ramon, California.
BlackBerry expects these measures to reduce its operating cash usage for the fourth quarter of its fiscal year 2024, which ends on February 29, 2024. The company has already seen operating cash usage drop from $56 million in Q2 to $31 million in Q3. It still ended up suffering a net loss of $21 million in the third quarter. The firm aims to become operating cashflow positive by the end of fiscal year 2025.
BlackBerry has established separate leadership teams for the two divisions
As part of its latest press release, BlackBerry announced that it has “made material progress” towards splitting the IoT and cybersecurity businesses. It has already established separate leadership teams for each division and is in the process of establishing divisional back-office teams. The two divisions had standalone Sales, Marketing, and R&D functions even when they were a single entity.
“Efficiencies have been identified in all functions, but in particular within the cost of goods sold and research and development,” BlackBerry said in the press release. “Backed by solid, industry-typical levels of R&D investment, the cybersecurity business is executing its exciting product roadmap in a focused and efficient manner.” It remains to be seen if the company achieves its financial target in the next fiscal year.
