Month: April 2018

Enlarge / An AMD Ryzen. (credit: Fritzchens Fritz)

The latest Windows 10 fixes, released as part of yesterday's Patch Tuesday, enable protection against the Spectre variant 2 attacks on systems with AMD processors.

Earlier this year, attacks that exploit the processor's speculative execution were published with the names Meltdown and Spectre, prompting a reaction from hardware and software companies. AMD chips are immune to Meltdown but have some vulnerability to the two Spectre variants. Spectre variant 1 requires application-level fixes; variant 2 requires operating system-level alterations.

Both Intel and AMD have released microcode updates to alter their processor behavior to give operating systems the control necessary to protect against Spectre variant 2. Microsoft has been shipping the Intel microcode, along with the operating system changes necessary to use the microcode's new features, for several weeks now; with yesterday's patch, similar protections are now enabled on AMD machines.

Enlarge (credit: Ron Amadeo)

Google is apparently done selling its flagship smartphones from 2016. The Pixel and Pixel XL have both been removed from the Google Store and the Project Fi store, suggesting the stock is all dried up and no more will be made.

Google's current flagships, the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL, launched in October 2017, but the old Pixel phones stayed on the store and got discounts of $80 to $100. For a time, it seemed like Google wanted to employ an Apple-like pricing lineup, with flagship phones moving to a lower tier and getting a discount. Even with the Pixel 2's release, though, the Pixel 1's perennial stock problems remained, and the phones were never readily available in Google's Store.

Google's stock problems, minuscule distribution network, and big price increase over the Nexus devices led to the company only selling 3.9 million phones in 2017, according to the IDC. Google's distribution hasn't gotten much wider with the Pixel 2 and 2 XL, but stock on the Google Store has been much improved. If rumors of a cheaper, mid-range Pixel phone come true, Google could move a lot more units.

Enlarge (credit: Argonne National Lab)

On Monday, the XPrize organization announced that it had selected 10 finalists for its NRG COSIA Carbon Competition. These finalists will be given space near a power plant and pipes that will deliver some of the plant's carbon-dioxide-rich exhaust. It's up to the competitors to turn that carbon dioxide into marketable products.

For the finalists, those products range from concrete to carbon nanotubes. To get a better overview of the technologies and the competition itself, we talked with Marcius Extavour, the XPrize's senior director of energy and resources.

Capture, no storage

The world remains committed to fossil fuels, despite our increasing knowledge of the risks they pose. These risks have raised interest in the idea of carbon capture and storage. Rather than shut down our fossil-fuel-burning hardware and all the infrastructure that feeds it, we simply remove the carbon dioxide from the plant's exhaust, placing it in either long-term storage or reacting it with rocks to lock it away indefinitely.

Enlarge / No it isn't. (credit: PROEirik Solheim)

It's common for manufacturers of cars, video game consoles, and other products to insist that consumers will void their warranty if they use unauthorized repair services or unauthorized third-party parts. Some even insist that you'll void the warranty if you break the "warranty seal."

These policies are illegal, according to the Federal Trade Commission.

On Tuesday, the agency announced it had sent warning letters to six companies for violating a 1975 law governing manufacturer warranties.