Meta doesn’t want to fall behind in the AI race

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Meta doesn’t want to fall behind in the AI race
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When we think about Meta, a lot of things come to mind; AI isn’t really one of them. The company hasn’t made a big public show about its AI ambitions. However, it’s a major tech brand, so news about some AI products was bound to come. Well, according to The Wall Street Journal (via The Byte), Meta is working on a powerful new AI to rival ChatGPT.

We know Meta as the Metaverse company, and it is still trying to make that a thing. However, the whole AI renaissance happened under the company’s feet, so it needs to adapt to the changing tech landscape.

Meta is working on a powerful new AI

Most people don’t know this, but Meta actually unveiled a powerful chatbot before ChatGPT hit the market. A few months before ChatGPT, Meta released Blender Bot 3. This, just like ChatGPT was a chatbot that would respond to your input and try to speak to you as though it was a human. As you can imagine, Blender Bot was miles behind ChatGPT.

Now, the company is working on something new. It’s no mystery that Meta is angling this as a competitor to OpenAI’s GPT-4 LLM (large language model). However, one thing to note is that this might not serve the same purposes. ChatGPT can be used as a business solution for companies, but it’s also a tool for average users. The report states that Meta’s new AI might only offer solutions for companies.

At this point, it’s hard to tell what the company is going to do, as information on it is scarce. It’s still too early to know what the company plans on doing with its AI. What we do know is that Meta plans on it being much more powerful than its current LLAMA-2 model.

The company will have some competition

The team working on developing this AI was assembled by none other than Mark Zuckerberg himself. It was put together earlier this year as a response to ChatGPT’s rising stardom. While the company’s been working on the model for some time, we shouldn’t expect it to start training the AI model until early next year.

This means that Meta’s going to be pretty far behind in the AI game. OpenAI is working on improving GPT-4, but other companies like Apple and Google are also working on their AI. Meta could be in for quite the AI bloodbath.

However, Meta’s business structure isn’t built on AI as much as OpenAI’s or Google’s. So, if the company gets lapped in this AI race, it shouldn’t affect it too much.


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Free Download Manager Site Pushed Linux Password Stealer

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Free Download Manager Site Pushed Linux Password Stealer
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Remember: There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch!

KEY FINDINGS

  • A supply chain attack on the Free Download Manager website redirected some users to a malicious Debian package that installed password-stealing malware.
  • The malicious package was hosted on the domain “deb.fdmpkgorg” and contained a post-install script that downloaded two executables to the /var/tmp/crond and /var/tmp/bs file paths.
  • The crond job scheduler was used to force a document present at /var/tmp/crond to launch repeatedly at 10-minute intervals, effectively backdooring the infected systems.
  • The attacker then established a reverse shell to their owned server and installed a Bash stealer on the infected system.
  • The Bash stealer collects sensitive data such as system details, browsing history, cryptocurrency wallet files, saved passwords, and cloud services credentials.
  • The campaign is no longer active, but the end goals of the attackers are still unknown.
  • Not all users who downloaded the Free Download Manager received the malicious package, which may have helped the campaign to go undetected for so long.
  • This highlights the need to secure Linux desktops and server devices with effective and reliable security solutions.

It is hard to process, yet not surprising, that a widely trusted free software download site was exposing unsuspected users to information-stealing malware for the past three years, and no one could have detected it until this week. 

According to the cybersecurity firm Kaspersky, the malicious supply chain attack remained active from 2020 to 2022 but was only recently discovered by its researchers while investigating suspicious domains.

According to Kaspersky’s blog post, a website “freedownloadmanagerorg” used to offer e legit Linux software “Free Download Manager.” Since January 2020, it started offering a benign version of this software after redirecting users to a malicious Debian package that contained a post-install script.

Researchers noted that the website redirected users to another domain “deb.fdmpkgorg,” which hosted the Debian package. The script downloaded two executables to the /var/tmp/crond and /var/tmp/bs file paths.

This script used the cron job scheduler to force a document present at /var/tmp/crond to launch repeatedly at 10 minutes intervals so that the systems that have installed this decoyed version of the Free Download Manager were backdoored permanently. For your information, crond, aka Bew, is a backdoor variant discovered in 2013.

The attacker then established a reverse shell to their owned server and installed a Bash stealer on the infected system. This stealer was previously analyzed by Yoroi in June 2019. It collects sensitive data such as system details, browsing history, cryptocurrency wallet files, saved passwords, and cloud services credentials, including AWS, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, Google Cloud, and Azure.

After collecting these details, the malicious stealer contacts the C2 server to download an uploader binary and saves it to this path: /var/tmp/atd. This binary is then used for uploading stealer execution results to the malware operator’s infrastructure.

Free Download Site Pushed Linux Password Stealer
The screenshot shows the attack flow, the domain to which users were redirected, a YouTube video demonstrating how to download manager showing the malicious package being dropped from the site, and users complaining about the malware in 2021.

“The communication protocol is, depending on the connection type, either SSL or TCP. In the case of SSL, the crond backdoor launches the /var/tmp/bs executable and delegates all further communications to it. Otherwise, the reverse shell is created by the crond backdoor itself,” the report read.

Nevertheless, the team at Free Download Manager has apologized to its users and vowed to implement better security measures. It has also urged users to scan their system and change their passwords.

“If you were among the subset of users who tried to download FDM for Linux from our compromised page during the mentioned timeframe, we strongly recommend conducting a malware scan on your system and updating your passwords as a precautionary measure.”

Free Download Manager team

Thankfully, this campaign isn’t active anymore. The campaign’s end goals are still under investigation. However, an interesting finding is that not all users who downloaded the Free Download Manager received the malicious package. Perhaps this is how the campaign remained undetected for so long. This highlights the growing need to secure Linux desktops and server devices with effective and reliable security solutions.

  1. Malware hits Freelancers at Fiverr and Freelancer.com
  2. Almost Every Major Free VPN Service is a Glorified Data Farm
  3. Popular free Android VPN apps on Play Store contain malware
  4. Free WinZip trial popup vulnerability lets hackers drop malware
  5. This malware hides behind free VPN, pirated security software keys

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These new Samsung foldable ads aren’t real

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These new Samsung foldable ads aren’t real
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Samsung is wowing people on social media with a new ad campaign promoting the Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Galaxy Z Flip 5 foldable smartphones. No, we aren’t talking about the one that innocuously trolls Apple. The Korean firm has published new videos featuring giant, movable foldables at some iconic locations around the world. The ads look impressive and can easily grab anyone’s attention. But — if you haven’t already figured it out — they aren’t real.

The Samsung ads in question feature the Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Galaxy Z Flip 5 mounted on massive billboards and buildings at places like Times Square in New York City, Coex Media Tower in Seoul, and Sino-Ocean Taikoo Li Mall in Chengdu, China. The foldables have their bases attached to the billboard or building, with the other half slowly unfolding skyward. Crowds below stare up and take pictures of the outlandish ads on their smartphones.

However, all of this is fake. Well, the locations are real, but everything else is CGI (computer-generated imagery). Samsung didn’t actually put up massive, movable models of its latest foldable smartphones at those locations. Instead, it superimposed images of the Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Galaxy Z Flip 5 on real buildings and billboards and used CGI mastery to bring them to life. The result is impressive enough to wow the internet.

“Using advanced video editing techniques, moving cameras, and rotoscope technology, these huge, photorealistic foldables were superimposed onto footage of actual billboards and buildings. Rendered at a large scale but in meticulously realistic detail, the digital models capture viewers’ imaginations by showing the new foldables’ distinctive form factors inserted into familiar settings,” Samsung explained via a press release.

Samsung used CGI mastery to draw attention to its foldable phones

Of course, the Korean firm has mentioned this in fine print in the video that it originally posted on Instagram. “Please note that the OOH advertisement scenes featured in this video are not real but virtual images created with computer graphics,” the notice in fine print reads. Samsung wanted to draw people’s attention toward its new foldables through these OOH (out-of-home) ads, and the trick seems to have worked. People aren’t questioning the reality.

Unsurprisingly, Samsung launched this ad campaign for the Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Galaxy Z Flip 5 just when Apple unveiled the iPhone 15 series. The Korean firm has done so on numerous occasions in the past as well. It releases new ads for its latest products coinciding with new iPhone launches.


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Google will not offer official screen repairs for its Pixel Watch

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Google will not offer official screen repairs for its Pixel Watch
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Google’s first attempt at making a smartwatch, i.e. the Pixel Watch, has had its fair share of problems, be it the lacklustre battery life or the limited fitness options. Now, in a recent and rather surprising development, Google has confirmed that it will not provide official repairs for Pixel Watch displays, leaving consumers to fend for themselves.

This report comes after many users took to social media platforms like Reddit to express their frustration about Google’s lack of repair options. One user stated, “After just two months of using my watch, I noticed a cracked screen, and I have no idea how it happened. But apparently, there are no repair options. I spent almost $400 on this watch, and Google is telling me that my only recourse is to buy a new one?”

Why doesn’t Google offer repairs?

Apparently, the crux of the issue lies with the company’s stance on Pixel Watch repairs, as they do not provide replacement screens for this wearable, and currently, there seem to be no viable third-party solutions available in the market. This means that if you accidentally damage your Pixel Watch screen, you’ll have to either repair it yourself or search for a suitable third-party repair store in your area.

Speaking on the matter, Google’s spokesperson, Bridget Starkey, stated, “At this moment, we don’t have any repair option for the Google Pixel Watch. If your watch is damaged, you can contact the Google Pixel Watch Customer Support Team to check your replacement options.”

While this statement may offer a glimmer of hope, the experiences of users have been less than satisfying, as many of them have voiced their frustrations with Google’s support staff, who often provide vague and uncertain responses when it comes to potential solutions.

Is repairing the watch even possible?

Despite Google’s lack of official repair options, repairing the Pixel Watch is entirely feasible, according to iFixit. They suggest that while accessing the screen may not be straightforward due to the unique circular domed glass display, the device does show potential for future repairability. Furthermore, the fact that iFixit also offers a guide on how to replace a cracked, broken, or non-functional screen raises some serious questions about Google’s commitment to its customers.


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Best Buy knocks $200 off the best MacBook you can buy

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Best Buy knocks $200 off the best MacBook you can buy
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Best Buy is still running its back to school sale, and right now you can pick up the Apple MacBook Air for just $899. That’s going to save you $200 off of its regular price (technically, $300 off of its original price). Making this a really great deal, since this is the most recent version with the M2 chipset.

MacBook Air M2 – Best Buy

Why you should buy the MacBook Air M2

The MacBook Air M2 is the redesigned MacBook Air. So you’re getting a more flat-looking laptop, instead of the wedge-shaped that Apple used for so many years. It’s still pretty thin and lightweight, with some pretty incredible battery life. Thanks to the M2 chipset, Apple is promising about 18 hours of battery life here. And as someone who uses this laptop everyday, I can attest to that.

Along with the M2 inside, Apple has also included 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. It’s not a lot, but for most people, it should be sufficient. The MacBook Air also has two USB-C/Thunderbolt 4 ports and then the MagSafe port for charging. Though you can technically charge off of all three ports. The opposite side of the laptop has a headphone jack. Surprisingly, that is still around.

While there’s a lot of talk about the M3 chips coming out pretty soon, there’s nothing wrong with getting an M2 MacBook Air. It’s plenty powerful, and very power efficient. And we’re not expecting a crazy performance gain on the M3 MacBook Air when that launches in the coming months. So you might as well save a few hundred bucks and grab the M2 MacBook Air. And this Midnight color is incredible.

You can pick up the M2 MacBook Air from Best Buy today by clicking this link below. This sale is not going to last long, so you’re going to want to be quick here.

MacBook Air M2 – Best Buy


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This new MagSafe Charger from UGREEN is Wild

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This new MagSafe Charger from UGREEN is Wild
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UGREEN has just announced a new MagSafe charger, just in time for the new iPhone 15 to come out. It’s the UGREEN Nexode 100W Charger with MagSafe. And it does basically everything you want or need it to do.

First up, it does MagSafe charging on the top. And the top can also tilt, making it useful for iOS 17’s StandBy feature. Since it is MagSafe, you can use it to charge your iPhone as well as your AirPods.

Now, on top of that, it also has two USB-C and a USB-A port on the front. Both of the USB-C ports are able to do 100W, but only if that is the only port that is being used. When you use both ports, it’ll be 65W and 30W. While the USB-A port is 22.5W. As usual, the more ports you use, the slower each port will get, since this does 100W total.

The additional USB-C ports will work for plugging in your Apple Watch charger, or any other charger that you want to use to charge. Which includes using it to charge your laptop. Which is really cool, and perfect for a desk.

It’s expensive, but seemingly worth the price

The UGREEN Nexode 100W Charger with MagSafe is pretty pricey, it’s coming in at $179 as its regular price. However, right now it is on sale for $139. So it’s a pretty nice discount for launch, it’s unclear how long it’ll be discounted.

At $179, it does sound very pricey, but think about it. If you’re traveling, you can just take this and it can charge everything. Your phone, laptop, earbuds and your watch, all in one charger. And of course, something as powerful as this is going to be pretty pricey.

You can pick up the UGREEN Nexode 100W Charger with MagSafe from Amazon at the link down below.

UGREEN Nexode Charger – Amazon


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Anker Nano Power Bank Review

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Anker Nano Power Bank Review
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Anker is pretty well-known for its battery and other smartphone accessories. And the company has gotten into doing some really cool battery packs as of late, with GaN technology and adding displays to their batteries. Now the Anker Nano Power Bank is the latest in that lineup.

This power bank was announced back at IFA in August, and is a really useful battery pack. It has an embedded USB-C cable, which is really useful now that the iPhone 15 series has USB-C. It does also have USB-C and USB-A ports available, and can charge at up to 30W. So it’s not a super powerful battery pack, but for its size, that’s okay.

All of Anker’s most recent battery packs and chargers have been using Gallium Nitride inside, instead of silicon. Gallium Nitride or GaN for short, is able to keep the battery cooler with less space. Allowing the battery pack to be pretty small. You might not believe it, but this is a 10,000mAh capacity battery. A few years ago, this would have been the size of a 5,000mAh capacity battery.

It does come in a slew of colors, like black and Ice Lake Blue. This green color that I have is apparently not available just yet. But it does look pretty cool and is similar in color to the iPhone 15 green.

anker nano battery pack AH 1

Adding a display to a power bank is genius

There are some things that companies do that really just feel like they are gimmicks. At first, I thought adding a screen to a power bank was one of those things. But it’s quite the opposite. This battery pack has a screen on the front, which is hard to see since it blends in so well, until you press the button on the top.

This screen will show you the current charge of the battery pack. So no more guesstimating the charge level from a handful of LED lights. It also shows you how long it can charge whatever it’s charging, or how long until it is fully charged. Two metrics that are also very useful.

And that’s about it. That’s really all that it needs to do though. This is already super useful. But the one downside is that it is pretty slow to turn on. Pressing the button on the top, it sometimes takes up to 30 seconds for the screen to actually turn on. So keep that in mind here.

anker nano battery pack AH 2

Embedded USB-C port means packing fewer cables

Having an embedded USB-C cable on this power bank is really nice, as it means that you can pack just this, and not another cable. You will need to bring a wall charger though, to recharge it. That’s because that USB-C cable is able to do input and output. Talk about convenience. So you can pack this and a wall wart, and be good to go.

And because it is using USB-C, it means it can charge any Android phone and the new iPhone 15 models. So you can share your battery pack with your friends, with ease.

Should you buy the Anker Nano Power Bank?

For iPhone users, I’d recommend getting Anker’s MagSafe battery pack, or another brands as well. Those are even easier to take on the go with you, and no wires needed. But something that is super versatile, this is what you want. Since this can charge my iPhone, my MacBook and even my Pixel Fold.

Sure the charging speed is a bit on the slow side, but I’d take the capacity over faster charging here. You can pick up the Anker Nano Power Bank from Amazon using the link below.

Anker Nano Power Bank – Amazon


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MidgeDropper Variant Targets Work-from-Home Employees on Windows PCs

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MidgeDropper Variant Targets Work-from-Home Employees on Windows PCs
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Key findings:

  • The MidgeDropper malware variant is a new and sophisticated threat that targets Windows users.
  • The malware is delivered via phishing emails that contain an RAR archive with two files: a PDF and an executable file.
  • The PDF file contains an error message that is designed to trick users into opening the executable file.
  • The executable file drops several other files, including a renamed version of a Microsoft application and a malicious DLL file.
  • The malware uses sideloading to execute the malicious code in the DLL file.
  • Fortinet customers are protected from the MidgeDropper malware variant.
  • Researchers urge users to take precautions against phishing attacks, such as training end users on internet threats and using the best AV tools to detect threats timely.

FortiGuard Labs’ James Slaughter and Shunichi Imano have written a detailed blog post explaining the mechanisms of a newly discovered medium-severity MidgeDropper malware variant specifically targeting Windows-based systems.

In their report published on 12 Sep 2023, Slaughter and Imano noted that this is a previously unseen dropper variant with a rather complex infection chain featuring a range of capabilities such as sideloading and code obfuscation, making it a novel malware.

Researchers claimed that the malware’s initial infection vector is yet unknown to them, but they suspect it to be a phishing email as they gained access to a RAR archive (!PENTING_LIST OF OFFICERS.rar). This seems like an attachment included in the email. In this archive, there are two files titled:

  • “Notice to Work-From-Home groups.pdf”
  • “062023_PENTING_LIST OF SUPERVISORY OFFICERS WHO STILL HAVE NOT REPORT.pdf.exe”
MidgeDropper Variant Targets Work-from-Home Employees on Windows PCs

The PDF file contains an error message image indicating that this document has failed to load. This is a decoy to diver the recipient’s attention to clicking on and executing the second file, which is fairly large (6.7MB). Given that Windows hides file extensions, the recipient won’t notice that it is an executable file and will click on it, considering it another PDF. This file serves as the dropper for different infection stages and drops the following files:

  • “IC.exe”
  • “power.exe”
  • “power.xml”
  • “Microsoft Office.doc”

By accessing this address “hXXp://1852256837/jay/nl/seAgnt.exe”, the dropper file also fetches “seAgnt.exe.” IC.exe obtains the infection’s next stage and also downloads another file, “VCRUNTIME140_1.dll,” from this URL “1852256837.” Moreover, power.exe and power.xml are dropped together by the executable where power.exe decodes and processes power.xml. The most crucial task of these files is launching “seAgnt.exe.”

It is a renamed version of “GameBarFTServer.exe,”, a Microsoft application, and is a background process for the Xbox Game Bar that runs on Windows devices. SeAgnt.exe seems benign, but it depends upon VCRUNTIME140_1.dll (a legit DLL file) for executing the malicious code inside the DLL. The file VCRUNTIME140_1.dll is designed with the malicious version of the Microsoft Visual C++ runtime package. 

This is where the malware designers have used the sideloading technique. Since DLL files don’t exist as an independent executable, another application is used to load the code into the memory for execution and seAgnt.exe serves as that application. Researchers couldn’t investigate the final payload because the infection chain links were taken down just when they started analyzing.

In its report, FortiGuard states that Fortinet customers are protected from this malware. Nevertheless, researchers suggest employing all necessary preventive measures to detect and mitigate phishing threats. This includes training end users on internet threats and using the best AV tools to detect threats timely.

  1. FortiGuard Labs Discovers .ZIP Domains Fueling Phishing Attacks
  2. New Agent Tesla Variant Uses Excel Exploit to Infect Windows PCs
  3. Hackers Exploit Adobe ColdFusion Vulnerabilities to Deploy Malware
  4. Mirai Variant ‘OMG’ Turns IoT Devices into Proxy Servers for Cryptomining

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PS5 users, get ready for one of the hottest RPGs of the year!

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PS5 users, get ready for one of the hottest RPGs of the year!
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Honkai Star Rail Launch

Genchin Impact launched back in 2020, and it took the world by storm. Well Hoyoverse, the company that developed that game, launched a title this year called Honkai Star Rail. It’s available on mobile now, but according to a new report, Honkai Star Rail is making its way to the PS5.

If you don’t know about this game, then you deserve a reward for avoiding trends. This game was pretty much everywhere when it first hit the market back in April. Since it’s a Hoyoverse game, you can expect the graphics (and the characters) to be very pretty. While the aesthetic is similar to Genshin Impact, certain aspects like its setting and gameplay are very different.

This game takes place in the distant future; spells and wizardry are replaced by lasers and robots. Also, the combat is turn-based in Start Rail. So, right off the bat, there are some major differences. If you’re interested in playing this game on your phone, you can get it now. Just know that it’s a bit of a graphically intense game. You can turn the graphic down to suit less powerful hardware, however.

Honkai Star Rail is making it to the PS5

Porting this game over to the PS5 is a smart move, as this is a popular platform. If you get the game on this console, it will support cross-play and cross-progression. This means that your progress will be synced across different devices. Hoyoversy announced that Star Rail is going to make it to Sony’s flagship console on October 11th. That’s almost four weeks away, so there’s still quite a bit of time to wait.

If you don’t want to wait that long, then here’s some bittersweet news for you. There’s a pre-order bundle that you can pick up to get your hands on the game early. If you get this bundle, you get some bonuses like two Star Rail passes, 150,000 credits, 80 Adventure Logs, and more.

However, if you want to get your hands on the game early, it’ll cost you. The pre-registration fee is $9.99. Otherwise, waiting for the regular release will not cost you any money.

The post PS5 users, get ready for one of the hottest RPGs of the year! appeared first on Android Headlines.


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The Latest iPhone 16 Leak: 120Hz Display

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The Latest iPhone 16 Leak: 120Hz Display
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Just as pre-orders opened for the iPhone 15 series today, a new, rather interesting leak came from Majin Bu on X. It appears that he has been able to obtain some interesting information on the iPhone 16, and it looks like it’ll use a 120Hz display.

This has been a big point of contention in the tech world over the last couple of weeks, that a $799 iPhone 15 is still 60Hz. This would be good news, but still a bit hard to imagine happening, unless Apple rebrands it. As they currently refer to 120Hz as “ProMotion”, and it’s hard to see them adding a “pro” feature to a non-Pro iPhone.

The reason why we are calling this a “sketchy leak” is because Majin Bu gains this information from surfing different websites, including Weibo. And the information he posts is not always correct. A big one was the color-matching USB-C cables for the iPhone 15 series. So it’s important to take this all with a grain of salt.

Additionally, Ross Young has stated that ProMotion would come to the standard iPhones in 2025. That means the iPhone 17 would get 120Hz, and not the 16. And given Young’s track record, that is likely more accurate.

Do consumers care that iPhone 15 is 60Hz?

No. Most consumers don’t care that the iPhone 15 is only 60Hz, instead of 120Hz. In fact, a good number of them don’t even know what “hertz” are. It’s really just the tech community that is up in arms about a phone costing $799 and still sporting 60Hz.

However, seeing 120Hz moving to all of its displays would be a big deal. It would definitely help with the supply chain, as that’s the main difference between the displays right now. The refresh rate. And Apple is really good about optimizing its supply chain to keep prices the same, and maximize profits.


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