Month: August 2016

(credit: John Palmer)

Four major security holes in the Qualcomm chips which power modern Android devices have left as many as 900 million users vulnerable to a range of attacks.

According to Israel-based security firm Checkpoint, the flaws—dubbed "Quadrooter"—found in the firmware which governs the chips, could allow potential attackers to "trigger privilege escalations for the purpose of gaining root access to a device" using malware which wouldn't require special permissions, allowing it to pass under suspicious users' radars.

Qualcomm makes chips for the majority of the world's phones, holding a 65 percent share of the market. Most of the major recent Android devices are expected to be affected by the flaw, including:

Enlarge (credit: Casey Marshall)

A recent extension of UK copyright for industrially manufactured artistic works represents "a direct assault on the 3D printing revolution," says the founder of the Pirate Party, Rick Falkvinge. Last month, the UK government extended copyright for designs from 25 years to the life of the designer plus 70 years. In practice, this is likely to mean a copyright term of over 100 years for furniture and other designed objects.

As Ars reported last year, a consultation was held by the UK government on how long the transitional period for the new rules should be. Originally, the new copyright term was due to come into force at the end of April, but following the consultation the government granted a further three months, which ended on July 28. In addition, there is a six-month "depletion period" for contracts in place prior to the consultation. This will conclude on January 28, 2017.

Writing on the Private Internet Access site, Falkvinge says that the copyright extension will have important consequences for makers in the UK and EU: "This change means that people will be prohibited from using 3D printing and other maker technologies to manufacture such objects, and that for a full century."

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No Man's Sky developer Hello Games has published the complete release notes for the game's day-one patch, and suffice it to say, it contains more than just bug fixes.

The 1.03 update—which goes live August 8 for reviewers and those with early copies—makes fundamental changes to how the game plays. Mostly notably, there are now three set paths through which players explore the procedurally generated universe of No Man's Sky, each of which will have a "significant impact on what you see later in the game." The story has been rewritten to accommodate the change and allow for multiple endings.

The new universe and planet generation criteria has also been changed; there's a deeper trading system; and new combat mechanics that include critical hit systems in space fights. Plus, lone explorers now have a greater chance of running into other players thanks to a tweaked player "collision" system that lets you scan for areas visited by other players. A full list of changes is posted below.