Month: February 2022

Makers of the JingPad A1 are selling the Linux tablet for 45-percent off following staffing cuts

The JingPad A1 is a tablet with an 11 inch AMOLED display, a Unisoc T7510 processor, 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. But what really sets it apart from most tablets on the market is that it ships with a custom Linux distribution called JingOS. First launched last summer through a crowdfunding campaign, the […]

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The JingPad A1 is a tablet with an 11 inch AMOLED display, a Unisoc T7510 processor, 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. But what really sets it apart from most tablets on the market is that it ships with a custom Linux distribution called JingOS.

First launched last summer through a crowdfunding campaign, the JingPad A1 currently sells for $699… but Jingling, the company that makes the tablet is offering 45% off when you use the coupon NEWYEAR, which brings the price down to $384. The only catch? It’s not clear whether the new year will be a happy one for Jingling.

Over the past week or so there have been rumors floating around that the company was downsizing, and now Jingling has confirmed to members of a Telegram group that there have been staff cuts and that with fewer people working for the company, the company won’t be able to offer as much support to customers as it had previously.

That said, if you’ve got a JingPad A1 and/or are thinking of picking one up and you’re not happy with the current state of JingOS, there may be other options.

Jingling recently provided instructions for unlocking the tablet’s bootloader, and now the company has provided source code that can be used to help port other operating systems to run on the JingPad A1.

As for JingOS itself, it’s an interesting operating system that’s based on Ubuntu Linux, but which features a custom user interface that borrows elements of KDE and KDE Plasma Mobile and adds an application dock and quick settings menu that appear to be heavily influenced by iOS and Android design.

The operating system supports desktop Linux applications as well as mobile Linux apps and can be used as a touch-only device or with a keyboard, mouse, and/or digital pen. There’s also support for running some Android applications, but rather than tap an existing open source project like Anbox or Waydroid for that functionality, Jingling built its own Android app system and, as far as I’m aware, never released the source code for that or some other elements of JingOS, which kind of raises the question of who this tablet is for if it’s not for folks looking for free and open source alternatives to Android, iOS, and Windows.

Anyway, it’s unclear what’s behind the staffing cuts at Jingling or what impact they’ll have on the future of the company. As recently as two weeks ago we were still seeing fresh reviews of the tablet from some high-profile sources. And despite apparently scrapping work on the x86 version of JingOS, the company has said it plans to continue developing JingOS for devices like the JingPad A1 that have ARM-based processors.

That said, I suppose it’s reassuring that anyone who picks up a JingPad A1 tablet today can save nearly half the price of the tablet and may not be locked into running the software that ships with the tablet, assuming they’ve either got the skills to port a different operating system or the patience to wait and see if someone else does it first.

Here are some of the tablet’s key specs:

Jingpad A1
Display 11 inch
AMOLED
2368 x 1728 pixels
266 pixels per inch
4:3 aspect ratio
“almost 90%” screen-to-body ratio
109% NTSC color gamut
350 nits
Processor 12nm Unisoc Tiger T7510
4 x ARM Cortex-A75 CPU cores @ 2 GHz
4 x ARM Cortex-A55 CPU cores @ 1.8 GHz
PowerVR GM9446 GPU @ 800 MHz
RAM 8GB LPDDR4
Storage 256GB
Cameras & mics 16MP rear
8MP front
Dual-mic array
Battery & Charging 8,000 mAh
18W charger (3 hours for full charge)
Connectivity 4G/5G modem
(Not supported in all countries, a list is coming in June, 2021)
Bluetooth 5.0
Dual-band WiFi
USB Type-C OTG
Input Capacitive touchscreen
Pen  with 4096 levels of pressure sensitivity (optional)
Keyboard with 6-rows and touchpad (optional)
Software Linux-based JingOS
Support for Android apps
Dimensions 6.7mm thick (0.26 inches)
Weight 500 grams (1.1 pounds)

via LinMob (1)(2)

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Mac malware spreading for ~14 months is growing increasingly aggressive

Mac malware UpdateAgent only gets better over time.

Stylized illustration a door that opens onto a wall of computer code.

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images)

Mac malware known as UpdateAgent has been spreading for more than a year, and it is growing increasingly malevolent as its developers add new bells and whistles. The additions include the pushing of an aggressive second-stage adware payload that installs a persistent backdoor on infected Macs.

The UpdateAgent malware family began circulating no later than November or December 2020 as a relatively basic information-stealer. It collected product names, version numbers, and other basic system information. Its methods of persistence—that is, the ability to run each time a Mac boots—were also fairly rudimentary.

Person-in-The-Middle attack

Over time, Microsoft said on Wednesday, UpdateAgent has grown increasingly advanced. Besides the data sent to the attacker server, the app also sends “heartbeats” that let attackers know if the malware is still running. It also installs adware known as Adload.

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Tonga in lockdown after COVID spread from wharf workers

The five new cases brings Tonga’s pandemic case count to six.

This photo shows the Australian Navy's HMAS <em>Adelaide</em> docked at Vuna Wharf in the Tongan capital of Nukualofa on January 26, 2022. The <em>Adelaide</em> delivered aid following the January 15 eruption of the nearby Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai underwater volcano.

Enlarge / This photo shows the Australian Navy's HMAS Adelaide docked at Vuna Wharf in the Tongan capital of Nukualofa on January 26, 2022. The Adelaide delivered aid following the January 15 eruption of the nearby Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai underwater volcano. (credit: Getty | Mary Lyn Fonua)

The archipelago nation of Tonga went into lockdown Wednesday after detecting five cases of COVID-19 and its first community transmission. This happens amid recovery efforts from a massive underwater volcanic eruption and tsunami in mid-January that covered islands in ash and cut off communication.

The nation of 106,000 residents including 171 islands—45 of which are inhabited—has almost completely thwarted the pandemic virus to this point. The five new cases bring Tonga's total COVID-19 case count to six, including one case detected in a hotel quarantine in October.

But an outpouring of international aid following the eruption raised widespread concern that Tonga's COVID-free streak would be broken. The Australian navy ship HMAS Adelaide that docked last week was loaded with aid supplies and 23 known COVID-19 cases.

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Gran Turismo 7 preview: A return to expansive, grindy, car-collecting roots

We learned about new PS5 features, but questions remain about the PS4 version.

A Gran Turismo 7 screenshot showing an in-car view

Enlarge (credit: Sony)

If Sony and Polyphony Digital stick to their current deadline, the newest installment of the 25-year-old Gran Turismo franchise should launch on March 4. Gran Turismo 7 will be the first GT game for the PS5 console (there's a PS4 port for those of us who can't get a hold of the latest-gen hardware). The game will have a bunch of new features and see the return of plenty of older ones.

Earlier today, Sony published a half-hour "state of play" video showing off GT7, and earlier this week, the company briefed Ars on the new game. Read on to find out what we know—and crucially, what we're still waiting to find out ahead of the game's launch,

This is the world map for <em>Gran Turismo 7</em>.

This is the world map for Gran Turismo 7. (credit: Sony)

When Gran Turismo: Sport debuted in 2017, it left many die-hard GT fans wanting. It solved some long-running issues with the franchise, notably in how it simulated tires. But Sport was almost entirely focused on e-sports and online multiplayer gameplay. To some fans raised on previous games that were giant sandboxes full of cars, this felt like a betrayal.

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