Month: March 2022

FBI trolls Russian embassy with geotargeted ads for disgruntled spies

“Speak plainly… we are ready to listen.”

FBI trolls Russian embassy with geotargeted ads for disgruntled spies

Enlarge (credit: Aurich Lawson | Getty Images)

The FBI’s latest counterintelligence operation against Russia is hardly secretive—you just have to be standing in the right place.

In the wake of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, the FBI has stepped up its recruiting efforts in the US, hoping to attract Russians who are dissatisfied or disillusioned with the war. People standing in close proximity to the Russian Embassy in Washington, DC, can see the ads, which appear in Russian, on Facebook, Twitter, and Google.

One ad appeared in a Washington Post reporter’s Facebook feed when he was standing on the sidewalk next to the embassy’s walls on Wisconsin Avenue NW, but none appeared in his feed when he crossed the street.

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Samsung Galaxy Chromebook 2 360 is a 12.4 inch convertible with Intel Jasper Lake

The Samsung Galaxy Chromebook 2 360 is a laptop with a 12.4 inch, 2560 x 1600 pixel LCD touchscreen display, a 360-degree hinge that lets you use it as a tablet, and an Intel Celeron N4500 dual-core processor based on Intel Jasper Lake architecture. Announced during the annual BETT education show in the UK, the Galaxy […]

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The Samsung Galaxy Chromebook 2 360 is a laptop with a 12.4 inch, 2560 x 1600 pixel LCD touchscreen display, a 360-degree hinge that lets you use it as a tablet, and an Intel Celeron N4500 dual-core processor based on Intel Jasper Lake architecture.

Announced during the annual BETT education show in the UK, the Galaxy Chromebook 2 360 will be available in that country for £419 ($550) and up starting April 15, 2022. I suspect it’ll arrive in other countries soon as well.

The starting price will get you a WiFi-only Chromebook with 4GB of LPDDR4x memory and 64GB of eMMC storage, but the laptop is also available with up to 128GB of storage and optional support for 4G LTE cellular data.

Samsung’s latest Chromebook features a 4.5.5 Wh battery, a 1MP webcam, stereo 1.5W speakers, support for WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.1, and a set of ports that includes two USB Type-C ports, one USB 3.2 Type-A port, a headset jack, and a microSD card reader.

The laptop measures 16.9mm (0.67″) thick and weighs 1.28 kg (2.8 pounds).

Perhaps the strangest thing about the new Galaxy Chromebook 2 360 is its name. Samsung introduced the original Galaxy Chromebook 2 a little over a year ago, and that model also had a 360-degree hinge, but it was positioned as more of a premium Chromebook thanks to a Quantum Dot LED display, support for up to an Intel Core i3-10110U processor, and up to 8GB of RAM.

The new model has a smaller, higher-resolution LCD display and a newer, but less powerful processor. I’m not really sure why that’s not enough to earn a Galaxy Chromebook 4 name.

press release

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You can now buy a road-legal replica of Porsche’s mighty 917K racer

If you’ve ever wanted to be Steve McQueen or Jo Siefert, here’s your chance.

Yes, this 917 is wearing license plates.

Enlarge / Yes, this 917 is wearing license plates. (credit: Icon Engineering)

The UK is known for plenty of things, but it's not all fish and chips and dodgy Russian oligarch money. It's also surprisingly permissive when it comes to registering vehicles for public roads. Thanks to a process called "Individual Vehicle Approval," it's possible to road-register cars that would likely be met with exasperated spluttering if you were to try the same thing in Germany, Japan, or most states in the US.

Take, for example, the Icon 917K, a street-legal replica of one of Porsche's most famous racing cars. Yes, the UK will let you register a road-going replica of the car that dominated Le Mans (and the rest of sports car racing) from 1970 until the oil crisis kicked in. British journalist (and friend of Ars) Jonny Smith has driven it for the Late Brake Show:

The original Porsche 917 is one of the most famous examples of creative rule interpretation in racing. The organizers at Le Mans changed the rules for 1969, such that prototypes—purpose-built creations just for racing—were limited to engines of just 3 L of capacity. Larger, more powerful engines were still allowed as long as the manufacturer built at least 25 cars.

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Arduino Pro Portenta X8 is a tiny, Linux-ready single-board computer

Arduino is a company that’s best known for making small, programmable microcontroller boards. But the new Arduino Pro Portenta X8 is a full-fledged, Linux-friendly computer with a compact design. The board measures just 2.6″ x 1″ but features a quad-core ARM Cortex-A53 processor, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of eMMC storage, a USB-C port, WiFi and Bluetooth […]

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Arduino is a company that’s best known for making small, programmable microcontroller boards. But the new Arduino Pro Portenta X8 is a full-fledged, Linux-friendly computer with a compact design.

The board measures just 2.6″ x 1″ but features a quad-core ARM Cortex-A53 processor, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of eMMC storage, a USB-C port, WiFi and Bluetooth support, a Gigabit Ethernet interface, and a microcontroller.

The system-on-a-module comes with Yocto Linux software pre-installed and features an NXP i.MX 8M Mini 1.8 GHz quad-core ARM Cortex-A53 processor with a 400 MHz ARM Cortex-M4 co-processor plus an STMicro STM32H747AII6 chip with dual 480 MHz ARM Cortex-A7 cores and a 240 MHz Cortex-M4 microcontroller.

While you could use the tiny board as a standalone computer, it’s designed to be used in conjunction with a carrier board which could add features like Ethernet, USB, HDMI, and audio ports.

And like most Arduino Pro devices, the Portenta X8 isn’t really designed to take on the Raspberry Pi line of devices in the low-cost, low-power computers-for-everyone space. It’s aimed at professionals looking to build business, industrial, or other applications such as smart kiosks or automation systems.

And that might help explain the price. The Arduino Portenta X8 will be available in mid-April for $239.

You can find more details about the hardware in the spec sheet below, or check out the Portenta X8 documentation for more about what the board can do.

Arduino Portenta X8 specs
PROCESSOR NXP i.MX 8M Mini – 4x ARM Cortex-A53 core up to 1.8GHz, 1x ARM Cortex-M4 core up to 400 MHz
MICROCONTROLLER STM32H747AII6 Dual ARM Cortex M7/M4 IC – 1x ARM Cortex-M7 core up to 480 MHz 1x ARM Cortex -M4 core up to 240 MHz
EXTERNAL MEMORY 2 GB Low Power DDR4 DRAM; 16 GB eMMC
USB-C USB-C High Speed; Host and Device operation; Power Delivery support
CONNECTIVITY 1Gbit Ethernet interface (PHY); Wi-Fi; Bluetooth® Low Energy
SECURITY NXP SE050C2 Crypto on a separate secure bus
DIMENSIONS 66.04 mm x 25.40 mm
CERTIFICATIONS PSA from ARM; Arm SystemReady IR (multiple distributions)
INTERFACES CAN; PCIe; SAI; MIPI; DSI; SPI; I2S; I2C; UART; PDM
OPERATING TEMPERATURE -40° C to +85° C (-22° F to 185°F)

via CNX Software

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Der gutmütige Einfluss Deutschlands und das trotzige Kind Mali

Nachrichten in leichter Sprache: Das Zentrum für internationale Friedenseinsätze zeigt, wie sich der Hintergrund von Bundeswehreinsätzen schön aufgeräumt aufziehen lässt

Nachrichten in leichter Sprache: Das Zentrum für internationale Friedenseinsätze zeigt, wie sich der Hintergrund von Bundeswehreinsätzen schön aufgeräumt aufziehen lässt

Gigabyte BRIX Extreme mini PC with 28-watt Alder Lake-P coming soon

Gigabyte plans to bring Intel’s 12th-gen Intel Core processors to its BRIX line of mini PCs soon. The company says new Gigabyte BRIX Extreme models with 28-watt Intel Alder Lake-P processors featuring up to 12 cores (4 Performance + 8 Efficient) will be available starting in the second quarter of 2022. That means you’ll soon […]

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Gigabyte plans to bring Intel’s 12th-gen Intel Core processors to its BRIX line of mini PCs soon. The company says new Gigabyte BRIX Extreme models with 28-watt Intel Alder Lake-P processors featuring up to 12 cores (4 Performance + 8 Efficient) will be available starting in the second quarter of 2022.

That means you’ll soon be able to buy a 5.5″ x 5.4″ x 1.7″ computer with a choice of 12th-gen Intel Core or AMD Ryzen 5000U processors, as the new models will join the AMD-powered BRIX Extreme mini PCs that launched last year.

Gigabit BRIX Extreme Tall

The new Intel models feature Intel Iris Xe integrated graphics and DDR4-3200 memory and solid state storage. Some models will also be available with a slightly taller chassis that likely measures about 2 inches high and adds support for a 2.5 inch hard drive or SSD.

Gigabyte’s press release is a little vague about some features (and incorrect about others – for example, Intel’s 12th-gen chips are not 7nm processors, they’re 10nm chips produced using what Intel calls its Intel 7 manufacturing process). But assuming that the new Intel-powered BRIX Extreme mini PCs use similar components to the existing models with AMD processors, it seems likely that we can expect dual SODIMM slots for memory and at least one M.2 2280 slot for solid state storage (and possibly as many as three slots in some models).

With two HDMI ports, a mini DisplayPort, and USB Type-C port featuring DisplayPort alt mode, Gigabyte says the Intel version of the BRIX Extreme can support up to four 4K displays (or a single 8K display thanks to HDMI 2.1 support).

Other ports include a 2.5 Gbps Ethernet jack, a front-facing 3.5mm audio jack, four USB 3 Type-A ports on the front and two more USB Type-A ports on the back. The little computer also supports WiFi 6E wireless connectivity and features TPM 2.0 security.

There’s also an optional upgrade kit that can be used to add an extra Gigabit Ethernet port, an RS-232 serial port, and another M.2 2280 slot for additional storage.

press release

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Dell XPS 15 and XPS 17 laptops get an Alder Lake-H upgrade

Dell is refreshing its XPS 15 and XPS 17 line of thin, light, and powerful notebooks with new configurations sporting 12th-gen Intel Core H-series processors. The new Dell XPS 15 is with Alder Lake-H is now available for $1420 and up, while the new Dell XPS 17 starts at $1812. Those starting prices get you a […]

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Dell is refreshing its XPS 15 and XPS 17 line of thin, light, and powerful notebooks with new configurations sporting 12th-gen Intel Core H-series processors.

The new Dell XPS 15 is with Alder Lake-H is now available for $1420 and up, while the new Dell XPS 17 starts at $1812.

Dell XPS 15 (2022)

Those starting prices get you a notebook with an Intel Core i5-12500H 12-core processor, 8GB of DDR5 4800 MHz memory, and a 512GB PCIe NVMe SSD plus a 1920 x 1200 pixel non-touch display.

But you can pay more to configure either model with up to a 3840 x 2400 pixel touchscreen LCD display, 64GB of RAM, and 2TB of storage.

Dell XPS 17 (2022)

The 17 inch model has a starting weight of 4.8 pounds, features a 97 Wh battery and quad speakers (2 x 2W woofers and 2 x 2.5W tweeters), and supports up to an Intel Core i7-12700H 14-core processor and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 graphics.

This model has four Thunderbolt 4 ports, an eDP port, audio jack, and SD card reader.

Dell’s new XPS 15, meanwhile, starts at 4.1 pounds, features an 86 Wh battery, quad speakers (2 x 2.5W woofers and 2 x 1.5W tweeters) and supports up to an Intel Core i9-12900HK 14-core processor, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti graphics, and also has an option for a 3456 x 2160 pixel OLED touchscreen display.

Ports for the 15.6 laptop include two Thunderbolt 4 ports, one USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C port, an audio jack and an SD card reader.

Both notebooks have CNC aluminum bodies with carbon fiber or woven glass fiber composite palm rests, Intel Killer 1675 wireless cards with WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2 support and, somewhat disappointingly for premium laptops in 2022, 720p webcams.

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