Samsung may have begun preparations for the launch of its next-gen foldables and flagship Android tablets. Of course, the development of the devices is long underway. However, the company has now started picking up certifications for key components. More precisely, it recently received the BIS (Bureau of Indian Standards) approval for battery packs for the Galaxy Z Flip 6 and Galaxy Tab S10+.
BIS certifies batteries for Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip 6 and Tab S10+
The Galaxy Z Flip 6 will have the model number SM-F741, which is in line with the previous-gen models—Galaxy Z Flip 5 was SM-F731, Flip 4 was SM-F721, and so on. Earlier today, the BIS certified two Samsung battery packs with model numbers EB-BF742ABE and EB-BF742ABY. Based on the company’s history, these are batteries intended for the upcoming Flip-series foldable.
The listing doesn’t reveal any other information, not even the capacity of the batteries. However, rumors are that the Galaxy Z Flip 6 will feature significantly larger batteries than the Flip 5. We say “batteries” because foldable phones pack two separate battery units connected together. Samsung is currently testing batteries with rated capacities of 1097mAh and 2790mAh for the new Flip, making for a total rated capacity of 3887mAh.
Last year’s model packed 971mAh and 2620mAh batteries for a total rated capacity of 3591mAh. Samsung advertised the phone’s typical battery capacity as 3,700mAh. Based on this, the Galaxy Z Flip 6’s typical battery capacity could be 4,000mAh, which is a fairly big jump in battery size. For reference, the Galaxy S24 has a rated capacity of 3880mAh and an advertised typical capacity of 4000mAh.
Samsung might be able to pull this off by making the new Flip larger, not in thickness but in height and width. Rumors say the Galaxy Z Flip 6 will feature bigger displays too, with the cover display approaching a diagonal size of 3.9 inches. The current model has a 3.4-inch display on the outside, so that is another major upgrade. More details should surface in the coming months as Samsung prepares for launch.
The Galaxy Tab S10 series might arrive earlier than expected
If you have been keeping tabs, you might be aware that Samsung doesn’t maintain a yearly launch cycle for its flagship Android tablets. The Galaxy Tab S7 series debuted with the second-gen foldables in August 2020. The company then introduced the Galaxy Tab S8 series alongside the Galaxy S22 in February 2022. The Galaxy Tab S9 series arrived alongside the fifth-gen foldables in July 2023.
If Samsung keeps the same launch cycle, the Galaxy Tab S10 series should debut with the Galaxy S25 early next year. However, the BIS certifying the battery for the Plus model (the Galaxy Tab S10+ has the model number SM-X828, while the certified batteries have model numbers EB-BX828ABE and EB-BX828ABY) so early suggests the next-gen flagship Galaxy tablets will arrive sooner, possibly alongside the sixth-gen foldables later this year.
The Korean firm may unveil the Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Galaxy Z Flip 6 in July or August 2024. There are also rumors about a third Galaxy foldable coming this year. It could be a more affordable offering, though details are scarce to tell for sure. With the Galaxy S24 series now out of the way, it shouldn’t be long before the floodgates are opened on leaks about the upcoming Samsung foldables.
Right now, AI technology is racing to be as smart as a human being. However, the jury is still out on exactly how human-like AI can be. According to the US Patent Office, AI cannot own the right to a patent. Also, the person who owns the AI cannot claim the patent as their own.
This new report does not arise from an influx of people trying to patent AI inventions. Rather, this is mostly the US Patent Office covering its bases. As AI becomes more capable, people are starting to wonder what it can and can’t do. Also, people are wondering what it should and shouldn’t do. So, it seems to arise from the US Patent Office wanting to snuff out this issue before it becomes an issue.
AI is not allowed to patent an invention
At this point, AI has proven to be able to do many things that a person can do. In fact, we’ve even seen an AI create a whole company. So, the question arises if an AI can actually be an inventor. Obviously, human inventors would not want this to happen. However, that’s not going to stop some people from trying.
According to the US Patent Office, an AI cannot claim a patent as its own. The Patent Office awards human creation. So, a human needs to be involved in the creation of the patented technology. So, if you create an AI, and that AI creates a technology, the AI cannot claim the technology as its own.
Also, if an AI creates a patent from the ground up, the creator of the AI cannot claim the patent as their own. Basically, you cannot tell ChatGPT to make an invention and patent it. Say, an AI developed a certain type of hinge technology for a foldable phone. Well, that hinge technology cannot be patented, because it was not created by a human being.
AI can’t patent inventions, but it doesn’t mean that it can’t be involved
So, if an AI develops technology for you, you’re not allowed to patent it. However, this doesn’t mean that AI cannot be used in the creative process at all. If an AI does create a technology, and you make significant contributions or edits to it before sending it off to the US Patent Office, that’s acceptable.
So, going back to the hinge example, if the AI creates a hinge, but you make modifications to make it something unique, then that will be acceptable. This could mean that you could use the AI to create something you can use for inspiration or as a jumping-off point. However, the bulk of the heavy lifting has to be done by you or another human being.
There’s a debate that’s only going to heat up
People are going to debate what exactly constitutes a “human being” in different respects. Obviously, a human being is a naturally occurring organism. However, in certain contexts, the definition of a human being can fluctuate. As noted by TechCrunch, a company can identify as a human being for certain special scenarios.
We’re all wondering if this will also apply to AI. Right now, we’ve already gotten the news that AI cannot copyright its own works. There was also the debate as to whether the AI-generated song “Heart On My Sleeve” could be considered for an Emmy. As time goes on, we’re going to be seeing a heated debate about whether an AI can identify as a human being for certain purposes.
OnePlus and OPPO are two sister companies, and both of them released very compelling flagships in the last couple of months. In this article, we’ll compare those two phones, the OnePlus 12 vs OPPO Find X7 Ultra. Do note that the OPPO Find X7 Ultra launched only in China, at least at the time of writing this article. OPPO did say they don’t have plans to launch the device globally, well, at least back when they announced it. Things could change.
With that in mind, this is not a case of a simple rebrand of the same device, not at all. The two phones do look considerably different, and even though they do share some specs, and some other aspects, these two devices are different. We’ll first list their specifications, and will then move to compare them across a number of other categories. Let’s get to it!
Both phones come with an aluminum frame, and even their general shapes are very similar. Both have curved front and back sides, which are proportional and which curve into the frame on the side. This is known as a glass sandwich design, more or less. Yes, the displays are curved on both smartphones, and the corners are rounded. The bezels are very thin on both phones, and both devices do include a centered display camera hole on the front.
If we looked at them from the front alone, they would be quite similar. However, if we flip them around, you’ll see a bevy of differences. They also feel entirely different in the hand, but more on that soon. The OnePlus 12 has a camera island in the top-left corner. It includes three cameras, and it’s considerably smaller than the OPPO Find X7 Ultra’s. The OPPO Find X7 Ultra’s camera island is centered in the upper portion of the phone’s back. It’s quite large, and it’s also circular. That camera island does protrude more than the OnePlus 12’s, and there are four cameras included here.
Both phones do come with Hasselblad’s branding and expertise. The backplate on the OnePlus 12 is made out of glass, while the OPPO Find X7 Ultra has a combination of glass and vegan leather. The vast majority is covered by vegan leather (from the bottom portion), which does help with the grip. The OPPO Find X7 Ultra is definitely the less slippery of the two phones, though neither of them is particularly grippy.
The two phones are equally tall, while the OPPO Find X7 Ultra is only barely wider (0.4mm difference). It is also barely thicker (0.3mm), and 1 gram heavier. So you are basically getting identical proportions and weight across these two phones. Gorilla Glass Victus sits on the back of both devices, and both offer water and dust resistance. The OPPO Find X7 Ultra is better in that regard, however, as it offers an IP68 certification vs IP65 certification on the OnePlus 12. Both phones feel very premium in the hand, so no worries there. And yes, both have an alert slider on the left-hand side.
OnePlus 12 vs OPPO Find X7 Ultra: Display
You will find the same exact display on these two smartphones. Both of them use BOE’s X1 panel, and that display is gorgeous. Every single display-related spec is the same across the two phones, so keep that in mind. Both have a 6.82-inch QHD+ (3168 x 1440) LTPO AMOLED display. This is a curved display with a centered display camera hole. It has an adaptive refresh rate which can jump between 1 and 120Hz as needed.
OnePlus 12
This panel can project up to 1 billion colors, and it supports Dolby Vision. HDR10+ content is also supported here, while the display goes up to 4,500 nits of theoretical max brightness. The display is protected by the Gorilla Glass Victus 2. Even the screen-to-body ratio is almost identical on the two smartphones, it goes over 90% on both accounts. This panel also supports a 240Hz touch sampling rate.
This display is great, actually. It offers vivid colors with deep blacks and great viewing angles. It’s more than sharp enough, and the touch response is great too. It also gets more than bright enough regardless of how bright it is outside, it’s perfectly fine for use under direct sunlight. All in all, we really don’t have anything to complain about, OnePlus and OPPO opted for a really good display. You’re even getting 2,160Hz PWM dimming here and a ProXDR boost. This panel can easily compete with the very best out there, as it is one of the best ones.
OnePlus 12 vs OPPO Find X7 Ultra: Performance
The Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 fuels both of these smartphones. That is Qualcomm’s best processor at the moment. The OnePlus 12 comes with up to 16GB of RAM globally, and up to 24GB of RAM in China. LPDDR5X RAM is used, along with UFS 4.0 flash storage. The OPPO Find X7 Ultra offers up to 16GB of LPDDR5X RAM and it also uses UFS 4.0 flash storage. As already mentioned, that phone is limited to China, but you can place Google Play Services on it. It worked great for us in Europe.
When it comes to the performance itself, these two phones are some of the best-performing smartphones in the market at the moment. They ship with Android 14 out of the box. The OnePlus 12 includes OxygenOS 14, while ColorOS 14 is included on the OPPO Find X7 Ultra. The two software iterations are very similar, even though they would be even more similar if the OPPO Find X7 Ultra had a global build of ColorOS.
Both phones simply flew through everything we threw at them. They even have proper vapor chambers on the inside, which help with heavier tasks. Everything we did across the two phones ran smoothly, that goes for regular everyday tasks, such as browsing, multimedia consumption, and image processing, and more intensive tasks such as gaming. Both devices can easily run the most intensive games out there, and that includes Genshin Impact as well. They also have dedicated gaming modes which help things quite a bit. Outside of gaming phones, these two devices are some of the best smartphones for gaming at the moment.
OnePlus 12 vs OPPO Find X7 Ultra: Battery
The OnePlus 12 includes a 5,400mAh battery, while the OPPO Find X7 Ultra packs in a 5,000mAh unit. Both smartphones do offer great battery life, but the OnePlus 12 does edge the OPPO Find X7 Ultra. The OnePlus 12 is actually one of the best-performing smartphones in our battery rundown test as of now. Benchmarks are probably not what you’re interested in, so, what about real-life use?
Getting over the 8-hour screen-on-time mark has proven to be possible on the OPPO Find X7 Ultra. Most people probably won’t even use their phones all that much in a single day, but this is possible if gaming is not included. The OnePlus 12 took things even further than that. Crossing the 9-hour screen-on-time mark has proven to be doable, and the phone still had battery charge left.
Do note that this is only our experience and we were on Wi-Fi most of the day. If you’re using 5G, plus playing some games, and have a poor signal, things do change quite a bit. Still, we did not baby either phone during our use, or anything of the sort, so both of them do offer great battery life. The OnePlus 12 is worth singling out, though, as it really does offer more.
What about charging? Well, they’re the same in that regard. Both smartphones offer blazing-fast wired and wireless charging. 100W wired is supported on both of them, along with 50W wireless, and 10W reverse wireless. They both even include 100W chargers in the box. Do note that, if you live in the US, you will be limited to 80W wired charging, despite the fact that 100W charging is supported. Both phones can be fully charged in half an hour, and under an hour if you’re charging them wirelessly.
OnePlus 12 vs OPPO Find X7 Ultra: Cameras
The OnePlus 12 features a 50-megapixel main camera, a 48-megapixel ultrawide unit (114-degree FoV), and a 64-megapixel periscope telephoto camera (3x optical zoom). The OPPO Find X7 Ultra has a 50-megapixel main camera, a 50-megapixel ultrawide unit (123-degree FoV), a 50-megapixel periscope telephoto camera (2.8x optical zoom), and a second 50-megapixel periscope telephoto camera (6x optical zoom). Both phones are boosted by Hasselblad.
OPPO Find X7 Ultra
The OPPO Find X7 Ultra does have a more powerful camera setup, hardware-wise, that’s hard to deny. It does perform better overall, to be quite honest, but the OnePlus 12 managed to surprise us with its camera performance. It keeps up really well with its powerful sibling. You’ll be getting really nice, contrasty images from both phones, with great colors. They both like to keep the shadows darker when needed to provide more realistic images, though that is more pronounced on the OPPO Find X7 Ultra.
That phone does have a better main camera too, and you do notice that when comparing the images side by side. The bokeh on the OPPO Find X7 Ultra is outstanding, and the images do end up looking great regardless of the scene. Both phones do perform really well in low light, though the OPPO Find X7 Ultra does have a slight edge in such conditions too. It also offers more options when it comes to telephoto shots, plus a wider ultrawide camera. Both smartphones do offer outstanding camera performance in general, though, that’s for sure.
Audio
You will find a set of stereo speakers on both of these smartphones. Those speakers perform well on both ends of the spectrum. They’re loud enough, and the output is good enough too, it’s well-balanced. They are not the loudest speakers we’ve encountered, though, not even close.
What neither phone has is an audio jack, though. You can always use their Type-C ports in order to connect your headphones via a wire, though. If you prefer wireless audio, you’ll be glad to know that both devices support Bluetooth 5.4.
Google has announced a crackdown on senders of mass emails to Gmail users, signaling a shift towards stricter guidelines to combat spam and phishing. According to reports, Google will begin rejecting emails that do not meet the bulk sender guidelines, which are designed to safeguard Gmail users from unsolicited and potentially harmful messages.
Starting this month, bulk email senders (any email sender that sends close to 5,000 messages or more to personal Gmail accounts within a 24-hour period) failing to meet the requirements have been receiving temporary error codes on a percentage of their emails. These error codes serve as alerts, allowing senders to identify non-compliant traffic and take necessary actions to ensure compliance with the new guidelines. However, from April onwards, Google will start rejecting a portion of non-compliant email traffic, gradually increasing the rejection rate over time.
By June 1, 2024, bulk email senders must include a “clearly visible” unsubscribe link in promotional messages
One of the key requirements for bulk email senders is to facilitate an unsubscribe link for recipients. By June 1, 2024, senders must include a “clearly visible” unsubscribe link in the body of marketing and promotional messages, enabling recipients to opt out with a single click.
It’s important to note that these guidelines do not impact messages sent to Google Workspace accounts. Google defines a bulk sender as any entity sending 5,000 or more messages to personal Gmail accounts within a day, regardless of the sender’s primary domain. Notably, a personal Gmail account is an account that ends in “@gmail.com” or “@googlemail.com”. Once a sender meets this threshold, Gmail will permanently categorize them as a bulk sender.
Google’s decision to implement these stricter measures follows its October 2023 announcement, where it emphasized the importance of email validation in reducing the prevalence of unauthenticated messages and phishing scams. By requiring bulk senders to authenticate their emails, Google aims to close loopholes exploited by attackers and enhance trust in email communication.
Overall, Google’s efforts to tighten regulations for bulk email senders reflect its commitment to protecting Gmail users from spam, phishing, and other bad activities. As these new guidelines take effect, users can expect a relatively safer and more secure email experience on the platform.
In November 2023, the Lockbit ransomware gang claimed responsibility for targeting the Infosys McCamish system, and it appears that the aftermath of the data breach is unfolding.
Bank of America customers participating in deferred compensation plans are facing concerns after a data breach at Infosys McCamish Systems (IMS), a third-party provider managing these plans. The incident, initially reported in November 2023 but only publicly disclosed this month, exposed the personal information of 57,028 individuals.
The latest incident shouldn’t be surprising, given that Bank of America is a lucrative and highly sought-after target for both script kiddies and sophisticated cybercriminals. The data breach in May 2020 serves as a notable precedent, as does the continuing series of phishing attacks targeting the bank’s customers.
What Happened:
In a letter sent by Infosys McCamish to affected customers, on November 3rd, 2023, an unauthorized third party infiltrated the IMS systems, accessing sensitive customer data. The information potentially compromised includes names, addresses, social security numbers, dates of birth, financial details linked to deferred compensation plans and other account information.
According to the data breach notification filed by the company with Maine’s Attorney General, 93 residents of Maine have been impacted by the data breach. The information trove could be used for a variety of malicious activities, including identity theft, financial fraud, and phishing scams. Although the specific nature of the security lapse remains unclear, IMS has implemented measures to prevent future breaches.
Affected Individuals:
While the exact number of affected Bank of America customers is known (57,028), the extent of data accessed for each individual remains uncertain. IMS claims they cannot determine which specific pieces of information were viewed by the unauthorized party.
However, it is worth noting that on November 4, the LockBit ransomware gang claimed responsibility for the IMS attack, stating that its operators encrypted over 2,000 systems during the breach.
Bank of America’s Response:
Bank of America learned of the breach on November 24th, 2023, and has since taken steps to notify affected customers. The bank is offering complimentary two-year memberships to Experian’s identity theft protection services to help mitigate potential risks. Additionally, they recommend that customers remain vigilant and monitor their accounts for suspicious activity.
Experts Provide Insight on the Data Breach:
For insights into the latest development, we spoke with Tim Callan, Chief Experience Officer at Sectigo, a Scottsdale, Arizona-based provider of comprehensive certificate lifecycle management (CLM), who raised questions about the cybersecurity measures at third parties.
“As financial institutions increasingly rely on third-party vendors for various services, they inadvertently broaden their attack surface, exposing sensitive customer data to potential breaches. Strengthening oversight and implementing stringent security protocols for third-party partnerships are imperative to mitigate such risks,” Tim Advised.
Al Lakhani, CEO of IDEE, emphasized the limitations of traditional multi-factor authentication (MFA) systems and advocated for next-generation MFA solutions to protect the supply chain.
“Protecting the supply chain is critical. Especially when they can cause these kinds of attacks. Therefore, relying on first-generation MFA that requires two devices and lacks the capability to prevent credential phishing attacks is a non-starter,” Al explained. “To fortify supply chains effectively, they must be protected using next-generation MFA solutions, which protect against credential, phishing and password-based attacks, including adversary-in-the-middle attacks by using same device MFA,” he said.
Ongoing Concerns:
Despite Bank of America’s response, concerns remain for impacted individuals. The lack of clarity regarding which data was accessed and the possibility of misuse are significant sources of anxiety. The potential for financial losses, identity theft, and other negative consequences cannot be ignored.
Industry Implications:
This incident highlights the growing threat of data breaches within the financial services industry. It underscores the importance of strong cybersecurity measures for both financial institutions and third-party providers like IMS. The reliance on third-party services introduces additional vulnerabilities, requiring stringent data security protocols and comprehensive risk management strategies.
Looking Forward:
While the immediate impact of the breach remains to be seen, it serves as a stark reminder of the importance of data privacy and security. Individuals are advised to remain vigilant, monitor their accounts closely, and utilize the resources offered by Bank of America.
Additionally, this incident emphasizes the need for stricter regulations and enhanced security protocols within the financial services industry to protect customer data and prevent future breaches.
Google’s Safe Browsing feature in Chrome is there to safeguard people’s web browsing experiences, even if that means slowing down the load times a bit. Now, we’re not talking about slowing them down significantly. Just enough for Safe Browsing to do its security checks. It’s a necessary step in helping to prevent unsafe browsing that can lead to any number of bad situations. Like phishing, malware, and other things you don’t want happening.
In an upcoming update to Chrome, Google is going to be making Safe Browsing more efficient. The update, which is slated to come with Chrome version 122, will speed up load times. All while still performing its security checks. Google explains the details in a post over on the Chromium Blog and notes that the update will allow pages to load even while Safe Browsing performs its real-time checks. This balancing act should help move things along when you’re trying to browse quickly but no less safely. Google says this will help keep things secure “without a degradation in security posture.”
Safe Browsing load times will speed up sometime next week
As noted by 9To5Google, the Chrome 122 update begins rolling out to users next week. When that happens, safety checks will be asynchronous to allow the page loads at the same time. Here’s how that’ll look. You’ll attempt to load up a website and Safe Browsing will begin its checks as the page loads. The page will load fully and you can continue browsing as long as Safe Browsing doesn’t find any issues or potentially dangerous security problems.
If something is found, however, Chrome will bring up the alert page that users currently see when Chrome detects a security issue. This is a noticeable change compared to how Safe Browsing works right now. Where checks need to finish before a page loads at all. Google expects this change to speed up load times and improve the overall user experience.
Those worried about this increasing risk shouldn’t be. Google says it evaluated both phishing and social engineering attacks and exploits against the browser, and it feels there are sufficient mitigations in place to continue protecting users from these sorts of risks. In addition to safety measures and page load times, Google has been making other changes to Chrome to improve the user experience.
Back in January, it announced plans to add some generative AI features like generative AI themes and a tab organizer. In the same month, it also announced a one-tab unsubscribe button for getting rid of super spammy popups.
Artificial intelligence has taken massive leaps since the release of OpenAI’s ChatGPT last year. However, in order for artificial intelligence to take the next step toward artificial general intelligence (AGI), Huawei researchers say it will need a body. The researchers, who are part of Huawei’s Paris-based Noah’s Ark Lab, published a preliminary report on the matter. In the report, Huawei researchers call it “embodied artificial intelligence,” or E-AI for short. The team of Huawei researchers say that giving AI a body is the only way it can learn the world via interaction.
Artificial general intelligence, or AGI, is considered to be an end goal for AI research. This is the term for AI that can think on the same level as humans and can tackle just about any task. However, there is no concrete definition for AGI. While AI has developed significantly to date, it is still far from reaching AGI. That’s why Huawei researchers propose embodied AI as a solution.
“It is a prevalent belief that simply scaling up such models, in terms of data volume and computational power, could lead to AGI. We contest this view,” the researchers wrote. “We propose that true understanding, not only propositional truth but also the value of propositions that guide us how to act, is achievable only through E-AI agents that live in the world and learn of it by interacting with it.”
The researchers’ framework of embodiment seems like a plan for the distant future. The technology doesn’t really exist today to pull off something like embodied AI. For one, the large language models (LLMs) that power AI chatbots are massive. They aren’t stored locally, which would pose a challenge for embodied AI. This is something that the researchers themselves point out as a hurdle to overcome.
Is work being done on embodied AI now?
That’s not to say that work isn’t being done on embodied AI right now. In fact, there are plenty of advanced robotics projects that could be supercharged with AI in the future. Boston Dynamics is a huge name in the robotics industry, but there’s also Tesla. Aside from the electric cars, Tesla is also working on a humanoid robot. Prototypes of the Tesla Bot already make use of AI, just like Tesla cars. However, the Tesla Bot isn’t an actual product yet.
But to take the next step, Huawei researchers say AI needs a body, like the Tesla Bot. From their view, embodied AI is “the next fundamental step in the pursuit of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI).”
Samsung is rolling out the February 2024 Android security patch to a few more Galaxy devices in the US. The new security update is available for the Galaxy Note 20 series and the Galaxy S20 FE 5G stateside. The company has already updated over a dozen other models to the latest security patch. It patches 69 vulnerabilities, including three critical ones.
The Galaxy Note 20 series gets Samsung’s February update in the US
Samsung is updating both carrier-locked and unlocked variants of the Galaxy Note 20 and Galaxy Note 20 Ultra to the February 2024 SMR (Security Maintenance Release) in the US. The new firmware build numbers for the last Note-branded phones are N981USQS6HXA1 and N981U1UES6HXA1, respectively. The update doesn’t bring anything more than this month’s security fixes.
As of this writing, the new security patch isn’t available to the Galaxy Note 20 lineup in any other region, not even to the 4G/LTE models (4G models weren’t sold in the US). However, it shouldn’t be long before Samsung pushes the latest SMR to the devices globally. The phones are already done getting feature updates—they didn’t receive Android 14. Security updates should come for at least a few more months.
The Galaxy S20 FE 5G, meanwhile, is picking up the February SMR in the US as well as some international markets. In Latin America, to be precise. The US rollout is limited to carrier-locked variants, with the device getting the build number G781USQSEHXA1 with the update. In Latin America, it comes with firmware version G780GXXS8EXA6. Regardless of the build number or region, the update is all about the latest security fixes.
Once again, the 4G model is missing the update. Hopefully, Samsung won’t keep users waiting much longer. The company should soon update all eligible Galaxy Note 20 and Galaxy S20 FE units to the February SMR globally. You will get a notification once the update reaches your Samsung device. You can also manually check for updates from the Settings app that comes pre-loaded on the phone.
The February SMR patches three critical Android OS vulnerabilities
Every month, Google rolls out a new security patch for Android devices. Samsung takes Google’s Android OS patches, adds a few Galaxy-specific patches, and pushes it to Galaxy devices as a new SMR. This month, it is pushing eight Galaxy patches along with 61 Android OS fixes from Google, three of which are labeled as critical issues. Make sure to update your phone to the latest security patch whenever available.
Today, Warner Bros Discovery announced that its streaming service, Max, would be the first to stream live sports in Dolby Vision. This is going to be available for all subscribers with supported devices through the B/R Sports Add-On.
Max is now the first streamer to offer Dolby Vision for live sports, which is going to help put customers in the center of the action with incredible visuals that only Dolby Vision can offer.
This announcement comes just in time for the NBA All-Star Weekend that will be broadcast on TNT Sports. Allowing subscribers to watch the All-Star festivities in Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos. The All-Star Game will take place on Sunday, February 18 at 8 PM.
“We know how crucial it is for sports fans to have a top-notch live video player experience so they can truly engage with the action,”said Sudheer Sirivara, executive vice president of Global Technology, Warner Bros. Discovery. “We’re excited to launch this industry-first feature and bring fans even closer to the game.”
Why is Dolby Vision so important?
Dolby Vision is a big deal for streaming since you aren’t stuck with what the pipes are able to offer – that’s the case with TV channels, especially OTA channels. Dolby Vision is able to offer a much more stunning picture quality, as it is a form of high dynamic range (HDR) that enhances the picture quality. It essentially adds a layer of metadata to the core HDR signal, which is able to provide instructions on how the screen should display HDR content.
For Max, this is only available on specific devices. Those devices include Amazon Fire TV, Android TV, Apple TV 4K, AirPlay 2-compatible TVs, Google Chromecast Ultra or Chromecast with Google TV, 4K LG Smart TVs, iPhone and iPad, Roku Ultra, Roku Ultra LT, Roku Streaming Stick 4K+, Roku Streaming Stick 4K, Roku 4K TVs, and Roku 8K TVs. Now if you have a set-top box or a dongle that is compatible with Max Dolby Vision, you still need a TV that has Dolby Vision for it to really take effect. So keep that in mind.
Looking to test their vision, iPhone users went into the App Store to install an app named Kimi. The description of the app said, “Compare and click on the two pictures to easily improve your observation skills.” But as it turned out, what those who installed the app were observing were popular television shows and movies that they had illegal access to thanks to the app.
As recently as this morning, the app remained in the App Store but was kicked out by Apple following a report by The Verge. The app was number 8 on Apple’s list of free entertainment apps and was number 46 on the free apps list. But there were some things about the app that were strange. For example, as The Verge pointed out, user comments didn’t seem to be appropriate for an app that claimed to test users’ vision.
Instead, comments from users bragged about how they used the app to watch “Frozen II” and one comment compared Kimi to Netflix. Data from Appfigures revealed that the app was launched in September 2023 and had generated 25,000 installations since then. There was no indication that Kimi tried to hide its real purpose in the App Store as opening the app for the first time revealed a home page with tabs on top that said “Movies,” “TV Shows,” and more. Under a Popular Movies heading, titles were listed that users could view.
After opening the Kimi app for the first time, this is what users would see
It isn’t clear whether the app is using torrents to allow users to stream movies and television shows, but it seems likely considering the number of dollars it would take to host these selections. That’s how Popcorn Time did its thing back in 2015 when it was known as “Netflix for pirates” before being removed from the App Store. Since Popcorn Time was open source, Movie DB.Net app used a fork of Popcorn Time’s code to create a torrent app that was listed in the App Store and was even given the green light by Apple to complete three updates. The app also is no longer listed in the App Store.
Kimi had some useful tools including a “Ranking” tab that showed users which movies or television shows were being viewed the most on the app. But after The Verge asked some pointed questions about the app to Apple, the gang in Cupertino removed Kimi from the iOS App Store, iPadOS App Store, and the macOS app store.
And to make it clear in this age of conspiracy theories, Apple removed the Kimi app. You do not have a problem with your vision that would require you to use the Kimi app to test your vision. That is if the Kimi app did perform such tests instead of hooking you up to content to be viewed illegally.
