Month: March 2022

Lilbits: MangoPi’s SD-card sized Linux PC, supersizing the iPhone 13 Pro Max, and Intel’s most powerful desktop chip

Chinese company MangoPi made a bit of splash earlier this year by introducing a pair of tiny computer boards powered by RISC-V processors. Now the company is showing off a new computer-on-a-module that’s smaller than an SD card, but which packs four ARM Cortex-A53 CPU cores, supports Linux-based software, and can handle 1080p video playback […]

The post Lilbits: MangoPi’s SD-card sized Linux PC, supersizing the iPhone 13 Pro Max, and Intel’s most powerful desktop chip appeared first on Liliputing.

Chinese company MangoPi made a bit of splash earlier this year by introducing a pair of tiny computer boards powered by RISC-V processors. Now the company is showing off a new computer-on-a-module that’s smaller than an SD card, but which packs four ARM Cortex-A53 CPU cores, supports Linux-based software, and can handle 1080p video playback at 60 Hz through an HDMI output (although you’ll need to connect a carrier board to get that HDMI port, since there are no ports on the module itself).

Details about the new module are light at the moment, but it appears to be called the “Linux-Box” and there’s a little more information at the MangoPi forum and on Twitter, which is how we know it’ll probably ship with an Allwinner H616 processor.

In other recent tech news from around the web, a hardware hacker has created a super-sized iPhone 13 Pro Max with a bigger battery, more ports, and dual cooling fans, a different hacker has created a Nintendo Switch Lite clone for retro gaming that’s powered by a Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4, HP has announced it’s purchasing a company known for making video conferencing, communication, and collaboration hardware, and Intel’s Core i9-12900KS desktop processor with top speeds of 5.5 GHz hits the streets next week.

Xiaomi Paper Book Pro II launched with Duokan reading and a two-color flat E-ink display

Keep up on the latest headlines by following Liliputing on Twitter and Facebook and follow @LinuxSmartphone on Twitter and Facebook for the latest news on open source mobile phones.

The post Lilbits: MangoPi’s SD-card sized Linux PC, supersizing the iPhone 13 Pro Max, and Intel’s most powerful desktop chip appeared first on Liliputing.

Samsung’s new 4K smart monitor has a magnetic wireless webcam

Samsung’s second smart monitor also adds remote PC access.

Samsung M8 mnonitor in

Enlarge / Samsung is selling the monitor in (clockwise from top left): Sunset Pink, Warm White, Spring Green, and Daylight Blue. (credit: Samsung)

Samsung's M8 monitor, announced on Monday, is being positioned to replace your USB webcam and smart TV. The 32-inch 4K smart monitor has a wireless webcam that you can remove and attach via magnets. The TV also features built-in apps, including Netflix and Hulu, that work without a PC connection.

The M8's 1080p webcam attaches to a holster in the camera via a four-pin connector, a Samsung rep told Ars Technica. The holster is connected to a port on the monitor, giving the camera power and connecting it to the PC. As such, it appears the camera won't work with another monitor. Once in place, you can tilt the camera or remove it for privacy when it's not in use.

This differs from a magnetic, wireless webcam prototype Dell showed us in December. Dell's concept cam detached from the monitor so you could place it in the ideal location, such as the center of the monitor, for the perfect angle. Samsung's magnetic webcam attempts to help you find the perfect angle through face tracking and auto-zoom.

Read 7 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Lapsus$ and SolarWinds hackers both use the same old trick to bypass MFA

Not all MFA is created equal, as script kiddies and elite hackers have shown recently.

Lapsus$ and SolarWinds hackers both use the same old trick to bypass MFA

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images)

Multifactor authentication (MFA) is a core defense that is among the most effective at preventing account takeovers. In addition to requiring that users provide a username and password, MFA ensures they must also use an additional factor—be it a fingerprint, physical security key, or one-time password—before they can access an account. Nothing in this article should be construed as saying MFA isn’t anything other than essential.

That said, some forms of MFA are stronger than others, and recent events show that these weaker forms aren’t much of a hurdle for some hackers to clear. In the past few months, suspected script kiddies like the Lapsus$ data extortion gang and elite Russian-state threat actors (like Cozy Bear, the group behind the SolarWinds hack) have both successfully defeated the protection.

Enter MFA prompt bombing

The strongest forms of MFA are based on a framework called FIDO2, which was developed by a consortium of companies balancing the needs of both security and simplicity of use. It gives users the option of using fingerprint readers or cameras built into the devices or dedicated security keys to confirm they are authorized to access an account. FIDO2 forms of MFA are relatively new, so many services for both consumers and large organizations have yet to adopt them.

Read 23 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Daily Deals (3-28-2022)

Today is the final day of eBay’s 15% off sale on refurbished products that lets you save up to $100 on thousands of items, most of which appear to be backed by 2-year warranties. Just make sure to use the coupon SHOPREFURB15 at checkout. Meanwhile, Amazon is selling its 2nd-gen Echo Buds for $50, which […]

The post Daily Deals (3-28-2022) appeared first on Liliputing.

Today is the final day of eBay’s 15% off sale on refurbished products that lets you save up to $100 on thousands of items, most of which appear to be backed by 2-year warranties. Just make sure to use the coupon SHOPREFURB15 at checkout.

Meanwhile, Amazon is selling its 2nd-gen Echo Buds for $50, which is less than half the list price for these true wireless earbuds with active noise cancellation and Alexa integration (which may be a selling point or a deal breaker, depending on your point of view).

Amazon Echo Buds (2nd-gen) for $50

Here are some of the day’s best deals.

Storage

Laptops

PC accessories

Other

The post Daily Deals (3-28-2022) appeared first on Liliputing.

SORM: Nokia soll für Überwachung in Russland verantwortlich sein

Nokia soll laut New York Times an dem System mitgearbeitet haben, dass der russische Inlandsgeheimdienst zur Überwachung von Kriegsgegnern nutzt. Doch das ist so nicht richtig. (Ukraine-Krieg, Instant Messenger)

Nokia soll laut New York Times an dem System mitgearbeitet haben, dass der russische Inlandsgeheimdienst zur Überwachung von Kriegsgegnern nutzt. Doch das ist so nicht richtig. (Ukraine-Krieg, Instant Messenger)

5.5 GHz Core i9-12900KS is Intel’s fastest—and most power-hungry—desktop CPU

Squeezing a bit more out of Alder Lake at the expense of higher power use.

5.5 GHz Core i9-12900KS is Intel’s fastest—and most power-hungry—desktop CPU

Enlarge (credit: Intel)

Not to be outdone by the upcoming release of AMD's Ryzen 7 5800X3D, Intel is placing one more Alder Lake desktop CPU at the top of its 12th-generation Core desktop lineup. The Core i9-12900KS (the "S" is for "special edition") is a 16-core, 24-thread chip (eight P-cores and eight E-cores) with a rated top speed of 5.5 GHz, 300 MHz faster than the existing i9-12900K. 

But as with many of the high-end Alder Lake chips, Intel is bumping up power usage in the interest of wringing a bit more performance out of its processors. The chip's base power—roughly the amount of power it will consume when running at full tilt with Intel's stock limits in place—is 150 W, up from 125 W for the i9-12900K. 

We've explored this issue in some depth in our reviews of the Core i7-12700 and Apple's Mac Studio. All the P- and E-cores in Intel's CPUs are great at handling labor-intensive rendering and video encoding tests that use all your cores at once, but to get their best performance, you need to let them consume a lot more power (and generate more heat) than competitors from AMD or Apple. And for tasks like gaming, where single-threaded CPU performance is more important, it's cheaper and more efficient to go for a chip with fewer cores, like Intel's own Core i5-12400 or the Ryzen 7 5800X3D.

Read 1 remaining paragraphs | Comments

New Google Calendar feature takes the back-and-forth out of scheduling

Calendar can now generate a webpage of available time slots for a user to pick from.

The new "booking page" UI. This is a URL you can create and send to anyone.

Enlarge / The new "booking page" UI. This is a URL you can create and send to anyone. (credit: Google)

Google Calendar's latest update promises to take a lot of the back-and-forth out of booking appointments. Google announced Friday that users will soon be able to create a "booking page" UI they can send to anyone they want. You present the periods you're willing to have a meeting, and the other user will be able to pick a time.

Workspace users will soon be able to pick the "Appointment Schedule" from the "create" appointment button. This will fire up a UI that can be used to create an appointment webpage. Workspace users highlight the times they would be willing to have a meeting, then enter the appointment duration and location (or a Google Meet room) and add a title and description.

Once everything is filled out, Calendar will generate a Google-hosted "booking page" website, and the creator can send the URL to someone else. The other person can then easily pick a time and add the meeting to a calendar. A similar time slot feature was previously available if both users were inside the same Workspace organization, but you can now show this time-slot UI to anyone you want, even users without a Google account.

Read 1 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Anzeige: Data Engineering mit Apache Spark

Im Bereich Data Engineering hat sich Apache Spark zum Standard entwickelt. Ein Zwei-Tage-Workshop der Golem Akademie erleichtert Big-Data-Einsteigern die Arbeit mit dem mächtigen Werkzeug. (Golem Akademie, PostgreSQL)

Im Bereich Data Engineering hat sich Apache Spark zum Standard entwickelt. Ein Zwei-Tage-Workshop der Golem Akademie erleichtert Big-Data-Einsteigern die Arbeit mit dem mächtigen Werkzeug. (Golem Akademie, PostgreSQL)

Hisense Hi Reader is an Android 10 eReader with a 6.7 inch E Ink display

E Ink displays are often associated with eBook readers, but they’re also available for digital signage and other applications. But Chinese electronics company Hisense is one of the only companies producing smartphones with E Ink displays, and the company has also used electronic paper for other devices like tablets and portable music players. Now Hisense […]

The post Hisense Hi Reader is an Android 10 eReader with a 6.7 inch E Ink display appeared first on Liliputing.

E Ink displays are often associated with eBook readers, but they’re also available for digital signage and other applications. But Chinese electronics company Hisense is one of the only companies producing smartphones with E Ink displays, and the company has also used electronic paper for other devices like tablets and portable music players.

Now Hisense has launched a new device that’s actually positioned as an eReader. But it’d be easy to mistake the new Hisense Hi Reader as a phone: it’s a pocket-sized device that runs Android software and has the specs of a mid-range smartphone. It’s more like a black and white iPod touch alternative than a Kindle alternative.

The eReader has a 6.7 inch, 1280 x 825 pixel E Ink display with support for up to 16-shades of gray, a front-light with 36 levels of brightness, and support for capacitive touch input. It’s shaped more like a phone than a typical eReader, and measure just 7.5mm thick and weighs just 177 grams, making it a bit easier to slide into your pocket than most Kindle or Kobo devices.

But thanks to a Unisoc T610 octa-core processor, 4GB of RAM, 64GB of storage, and Android 10 software, the Hi Reader should be a bit more versatile thank a typical Kindle or Kobo eReader. Not only can you use it to read eBooks or play music or podcasts, but the device can also run third-party Android apps.

You’ll need to sideload those apps though – there’s no native support for the Google Play Store or other Google apps and services. Some international sellers seem to be pre-loading the Aurora Store, which is an open source Google Play Store clone that allows you to download many, but not all apps available from Google’s app store. But some apps, like Google Maps, may not work properly.

But you should be able to sideload apps from third-party app stores or other locations much the same way you can on an Amazon Fire tablet or most other devices running Android-based operating systems.

The Hi Reader is available in China for about $280, but folks in other countries will likely have to pay around $380 or more to pick one up from an international reseller via AliExpress.

Hi Reader specs
Display 6.7 inch
E Ink
1200 x 825 pixels
300 ppi
grayscale
Capacitive touch
Frontlit (36 levels of brightness)
Processor Unisoc T610
2 x ARM Cortex-A75 CPU cores @ 1.8 GHz
6 x ARM Cortex-A55 CPU cores @ 1.8 GHz
Mali-G52 MP2 graphics @ 614 MHz
RAM 4GB
Storage 64GB
Software Android 10
Limited support for Google Play Store & Google apps
Supports sideloaded apps
Battery 3,000 mAh
Audio Speaker
3.5mm audio jack
LDAC
Wireless WiFi (2.4 GHz & 5 GHz)
Bluetooth 5.0
Dimensions 7.5mm thjick
Weight 177 grams
Price 1,799 CNY (~$280 in China)
$379 and up from AliExpress

If you want to see the Hi Reader in action, here’s a Chinese-language video review:

via GizmoChina and phablet.jp

The post Hisense Hi Reader is an Android 10 eReader with a 6.7 inch E Ink display appeared first on Liliputing.