Month: January 2023

Enlarge / Apple's rendition of what a PC running iTunes looks like. (credit: Apple)

Apple discontinued its iTunes music player for macOS in 2019 when it split the app's functionality between four apps in macOS Catalina. But for Windows users with large local media libraries or who wanted to back up their iDevices or subscribe to Apple Music, iTunes has soldiered on, receiving minor maintenance-mode updates to maintain compatibility with Apple's devices and services.

Today, as part of a new Windows 11 preview build for Windows Insiders, Microsoft has announced that previews of new Apple Music, Apple TV, and Apple Devices apps are available in the Microsoft Store for download.

The Apple Music and Apple TV apps handle iTunes' music and video functionality, just as they do on macOS, and provide access to the Apple Music and Apple TV+ subscription services. The Apple Devices app is what you'll use to make local device backups, perform emergency software updates, sync local media, and the other things you can do with an iDevice that's plugged into your PC (in macOS, similar functionality was added to the Finder, rather than being broken out into its own app).

Enlarge (credit: Bloomberg / Contributor | Bloomberg)

As president, Joe Biden has made it clear that he wants to lead the charge to change how Big Tech operates in the US. In a rare op-ed for the Wall Street Journal, Biden heavily criticized tech companies while outlining three broad areas of regulatory reform that he says that Congress should be weighing this year. Only with bipartisan action, Biden said, can the US do more to protect data privacy, prevent anti-competitive behavior, and “fundamentally reform Section 230,” by reversing course and holding platforms accountable for third-party content.

Not everyone agrees with Biden’s vision of a better future for US tech innovation, however. Perhaps the most disagreement is over his proposed Section 230 reforms. Republicans seem keen to revise Section 230, not because they want to hold platforms liable for content, but because they want to prevent a suspected content moderation bias against right-leaning users. Meanwhile, some nonpartisan critics have advised against Section 230 reforms proposed by both Democrats and Republicans. Among them is the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit that defends civil liberties online, which has long said that, as it stands now, Section 230 is “an essential legal pillar for online speech.”

“As it was originally written, Section 230 allows good-faith moderation by platforms without fear of taking on undue liability for their users’ posts,” EFF’s transition memo providing tech policy recommendations for Biden reads. “Altering the law to force the removal of so-called ‘disinformation,’ to demand the political neutrality of their decisions, or to broaden platform liability for already-unlawful content would have consequences that reach far beyond the intended targets.” The EFF did not immediately respond to Ars' request for comment but warned in the memo that by weakening Section 230, Biden could trigger even more content removal, silence more users, and decrease overall functionality of the Internet.

Enlarge (credit: Jose Luis Stephens / EyeEm)

Slowly but surely, the world’s reservoirs are getting gunked up with sediment. In an unblocked river, the flowing water carries bits of sediment along—picked up from river banks or swept into the river from rain. However, rivers whose flow has been interrupted by a dam deposit some of that sediment right behind the dam itself, in the reservoir. “Gradually, [over] years and years, it will be accumulating,” Duminda Perera, a researcher with the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment, and Health in Hamilton, Ontario, told Ars.

According to Perera, the increased sedimentation in these reservoirs, and the resulting loss of volume, are rarely considered. However, he and some of his fellow researchers recently penned a new study, suggesting that nearly 50,000 large dams—defined as being 15 m tall or more or above 5 meters high and blocking more than 3 million cubic meters of water—are being robbed of their capacity.

This slowly accumulating sediment takes up volume in the reservoir, occupying cubic meters that would otherwise be filled with water that would ultimately flow through hydroelectric turbines or be diverted to agriculture. “If you fill a cup with water, and then you put soil… the water volume is reduced,” he said.

(credit: Fortinet)

An unknown threat actor abused a critical vulnerability in Fortinet’s FortiOS SSL-VPN to infect government and government-related organizations with advanced custom-made malware, the company said in an autopsy report on Wednesday.

Tracked as ​​CVE-2022-42475, the vulnerability is a heap-based buffer overflow that allows hackers to remotely execute malicious code. It carries a severity rating of 9.8 out of a possible 10. A maker of network security software, Fortinet fixed the vulnerability in version 7.2.3 released on November 28 but failed to make any mention of the threat in the release notes it published at the time.

Mum’s the word

Fortinet didn’t disclose the vulnerability until December 12, when it warned that the vulnerability was under active exploit against at least one of its customers. The company urged customers to ensure they were running the patched version of the software and to search their networks for signs the vulnerability had been exploited on their networks. FortiOS SSL-VPNs are used mainly in border firewalls, which cordon off sensitive internal networks from the public Internet.

Enlarge / HDMI cable. (credit: Getty)

If you're using a USB-C port to connect a computer to a display, you're most likely using DisplayPort Alternate Mode (Alt Mode). Some less-intensive uses might opt for DisplayLink to connect to a dock or adapter and eventually output to a screen. But due to non-existent adoption, we can pretty much guarantee you're not using HDMI Alt Mode. And according to the HDMI Licensing Administrator (HDMI LA), you never will because the feature is dead.

NotebookCheck spoke with HDMI LA, which is responsible for licensing the HDMI Forum's HDMI specs, at CES 2023 in Las Vegas last week and learned that there won't be any certified adapters supporting HDMI Alt Mode over USB.

"According to HDMI LA, there are simply no more uses for Alt Mode," the publication reported on Wednesday. "One of the reasons is that companies like Apple have begun putting HDMI ports on their products again. HDMI Alt Mode also no longer offers any advantages. As a result, the specification will not receive any further updates."

Enlarge / The base-model Galaxy S23, which has a new camera design. (credit: WinFuture)

Samsung is gearing up to launch the Galaxy S23 soon, with an event already officially scheduled for February 1. Prepping for launch means there are plenty of opportunities for things to leak, and official S23 pictures have landed at WinFuture.

The pictures are right in line with the renders from OnLeaks shared several months ago. This year the Galaxy S line is picking up camera design queues from the Ultra model, going with individual camera lenses rather than a big corner camera block. We also get a look at the sides, which are still nicely rounded and should be a bit more comfortable to hold than flat-sided devices. WinFuture's pictures are technically of the base model S23, though the S23 Plus should look identical. WinFuture says the available colors are "'Phantom Black' (black), 'Botanic Green' (green), 'Mystic Lilac' (pink/purple) and 'Cotton Flower' (white)."

The S23 Ultra is expected to look just like the S22 Ultra. That means it separates itself from the base model's rounded-corner design and is instead an aggressively rectangular slab of glass, with flat edges on the top and bottom. The flat edges and hard corners give it more room to stow an S-Pen, which is the big addition to the more premium model.

Enlarge / Buying a new car in 2022 was a financially painful experience. (credit: Getty Images)

The average transaction price of a new vehicle rose by 4.9 percent in 2022, according to Kelly Blue Book. As a result, the average sales price of a new vehicle in December was $49,075, a $2,297 increase over 12 months earlier. (Average sales prices were higher than MSRP thanks to factors like dealer markups.) Some of the rise is a consequence of a lack of inventory, which was at its lowest level ever early in 2022 due to factors like supply chain shortages caused by the pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. But prices have continued to rise even as more new cars have made their way to dealer lots.

"The transaction data from December clearly indicates overall prices showed no signs of coming down as we headed into year-end," said Rebecca Rydzewski, research manager of economic and industry insights for Cox Automotive. "Luxury prices fell slightly in December, but non-luxury transaction prices were up. Truck sales were particularly strong last month, and with many trucks selling for more than $60,000, a new record was all but inevitable."

The average selling price for a new non-luxury car in December was a record $45,578, up almost $1,000 over November. The average selling price of a new pickup was even greater, at over $59,000, and was even higher if we look at Ford's best-selling F-series. In December, Ford sold more than 75,000 F-series trucks at an average sales price of $66,451, KBB reports.