Month: April 2022

Lilbits: Steam Deck Dock updated ahead of launch, Google kills call recording on Android (again), and more

Valve’s Steam Deck is a gaming PC designed to be held in your hands. But if you want to use it for desktop-style gaming, you can always connect an external display, keyboard, mouse, or other hardware. And the company plans to begin selling an official Steam Deck Dock later this spring that will make it […]

The post Lilbits: Steam Deck Dock updated ahead of launch, Google kills call recording on Android (again), and more appeared first on Liliputing.

Valve’s Steam Deck is a gaming PC designed to be held in your hands. But if you want to use it for desktop-style gaming, you can always connect an external display, keyboard, mouse, or other hardware. And the company plans to begin selling an official Steam Deck Dock later this spring that will make it easy to hook up accessories. Now it looks like Valve may have given the dock’s USB ports a bit of an upgrade ahead of launch.

Steam Deck Dock diagram

Valve still hasn’t announced how much the dock will cost or exactly when you’ll be able to buy it.

Meanwhile, in other tech news, after Google made it difficult for Android apps to record phone calls, some developers turned to using Android’s Accessibility features for call recorder apps. But Google has been cracking down on the use of Accessibility APIs for functions that aren’t related to, you know, accessibility. And in a few weeks, that could bring about the end of call recording apps distributed via the Play Store.

Here’s a roundup of recent tech news from around the web.

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: Steam Deck Dock updated ahead of launch, Google kills call recording on Android (again), and more appeared first on Liliputing.

Lilbits: Steam Deck Dock updated ahead of launch, Google kills call recording on Android (again), and more

Valve’s Steam Deck is a gaming PC designed to be held in your hands. But if you want to use it for desktop-style gaming, you can always connect an external display, keyboard, mouse, or other hardware. And the company plans to begin selling an official Steam Deck Dock later this spring that will make it […]

The post Lilbits: Steam Deck Dock updated ahead of launch, Google kills call recording on Android (again), and more appeared first on Liliputing.

Valve’s Steam Deck is a gaming PC designed to be held in your hands. But if you want to use it for desktop-style gaming, you can always connect an external display, keyboard, mouse, or other hardware. And the company plans to begin selling an official Steam Deck Dock later this spring that will make it easy to hook up accessories. Now it looks like Valve may have given the dock’s USB ports a bit of an upgrade ahead of launch.

Steam Deck Dock diagram

Valve still hasn’t announced how much the dock will cost or exactly when you’ll be able to buy it.

Meanwhile, in other tech news, after Google made it difficult for Android apps to record phone calls, some developers turned to using Android’s Accessibility features for call recorder apps. But Google has been cracking down on the use of Accessibility APIs for functions that aren’t related to, you know, accessibility. And in a few weeks, that could bring about the end of call recording apps distributed via the Play Store.

Here’s a roundup of recent tech news from around the web.

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: Steam Deck Dock updated ahead of launch, Google kills call recording on Android (again), and more appeared first on Liliputing.

Combo COVID booster is the way to go this fall, Moderna data suggests

A bivalent vaccine produced stronger, broader protection, early data suggests.

A tray of prepared syringes for booster vaccinations with Moderna's vaccine.

Enlarge / A tray of prepared syringes for booster vaccinations with Moderna's vaccine. (credit: Getty | Picture alliance)

A COVID-19 booster targeting two versions of the coronavirus in one shot offered stronger and broader protection than the current booster, which targets only one version, according to clinical trial results released this week by vaccine maker Moderna.

The results are preliminary and have not been peer reviewed or published in a scientific journal. But Moderna touted the findings as evidence that bivalent or multivalent vaccines—those that target two or more versions of the virus in a single shot—are the way forward for COVID-19 boosters.

Moderna and other vaccine makers are on a mission to develop boosters that could restore the once extraordinarily high levels of protection that mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines initially provided, while also protecting against future variants. The first-generation mRNA vaccines were all designed to target the ancestral version of SARS-CoV-2 isolated in Wuhan, China—and they did so quite effectively, showing efficacy against symptomatic disease in the ballpark of 95 percent. But the virus has evolved into variants that can evade vaccine-derived protections. The latest variant, omicron, significantly reduced vaccine effectiveness against symptomatic disease, though protection against severe disease remains strong. Booster doses of the current vaccine design buoy protection but don't restore the high levels seen previously. And the virus continues to evolve.

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ISPs can’t find any judges who will block California net neutrality law

No judges on 29-seat appeals court even asked for a vote on industry petition.

Illustration of Internet data, with wavy lines and a bunch of ones and zeroes.

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | Yuichiro Chino)

The broadband industry has lost another attempt to block California's net neutrality law.

After ISP lobby groups' motion for a preliminary injunction was denied last year in US District Court for the Eastern District of California, they appealed to the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. A three-judge panel unanimously upheld the ruling against the broadband industry in January, after which the industry groups petitioned for a rehearing with all of the appellate court's judges (called an "en banc" hearing).

The answer came back Wednesday: no judges on the appeals court thought the broadband industry's petition for a rehearing was even worth voting on.

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Critical bug could have let hackers commandeer millions of Android devices

Flaw could be exploited with malicious audio file.

Critical bug could have let hackers commandeer millions of Android devices

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images)

Security researchers said they uncovered a vulnerability that could have allowed hackers to commandeer millions of Android devices equipped with mobile chipsets made by Qualcomm and MediaTek.

The vulnerability resided in ALAC—short for Apple Lossless Audio Codec and also known as Apple Lossless—which is an audio format introduced by Apple in 2004 to deliver lossless audio over the Internet. While Apple has updated its proprietary version of the decoder to fix security vulnerabilities over the years, an open-source version used by Qualcomm and MediaTek had not been updated since 2011.

Together, Qualcomm and MediaTek supply mobile chipsets for an estimated 95 percent of US Android devices.

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OnePlus Ace smartphone features 150W charging and MediaTek Dimensity 8100 Max

The new OnePlus Ace is a smartphone with a 6.7 inch FHD+ AMOLED display with a 120 Hz refresh rate, a MediaTek Dimensity 8100 Max processor, and support for 150 watt fast charging – the company says you can plug the phone in for just five minutes to get a 50% charge. OnePlus is launching the […]

The post OnePlus Ace smartphone features 150W charging and MediaTek Dimensity 8100 Max appeared first on Liliputing.

The new OnePlus Ace is a smartphone with a 6.7 inch FHD+ AMOLED display with a 120 Hz refresh rate, a MediaTek Dimensity 8100 Max processor, and support for 150 watt fast charging – the company says you can plug the phone in for just five minutes to get a 50% charge.

OnePlus is launching the phone first in China, where it will be available April 26, 2022 for 2,499 CNY (~$390) and up. But the phone will also be available in India starting April 28. There’s no word on if or when the OnePlus Ace will make it to other markets.

Under the hood, the phone features a slightly modified version of MediaTek’s Dimensity 8100 processor and 8GB or 12GB of LPDDR5 RAM. Storage options range from 128GB to 512GB of UFS 3.1 storage.

On the back of the OnePlus Ace, you’ll find three cameras including a 50MP primary camera, an 8MP ultrawide camera, and a 2MP macro camera. There’s a 16MP front-facing camera that’s positioned inside a cut-out in the top center portion of the display. There’s also an in-display fingerprint reader.

OnePlus says its 150W SuperVOOC fast charging technology shouldn’t put too much wear and tear on the phone’s 4,500 mAh battery. After 1,600 full charge cycles, the battery should still hold about 80% of its original capacity. So if you charge the phone once, it should still be pretty usable in four years.

The OnePlus Ace supports WiFi 6E, Bluetooth 5.2, NFC, and 5G connectivity and features a USB Type-C port for charging and data.

via GSM Arena and GizmoChina

The post OnePlus Ace smartphone features 150W charging and MediaTek Dimensity 8100 Max appeared first on Liliputing.