Friday Tech News Roundup #20

It’s holiday season. There just isn’t much technology-related news. Below are the ones that I manage to which are interesting and are related to topics I care about.

Apple apologizes for not telling customers iPhones with older batteries would slow over time – Apple has today posted a letter on its website and a technical article in its Knowledge Base apologizing for not being more transparent about how it handles performance on iPhones with older batteries. Last week, Apple issued a statement that made it clear that changes it made a year ago were indeed slowing down the maximum performance of iPhones with older batteries. Techcrunch

Still living under the tyranny of the password in 2017 – When I lost access to my Google account recently, it left a gaping hole in my digital life and showed me just how tenuous the link to our online world can be. One thing I learned from the story I wrote last week about my experience was that I was far from alone. I got more than a dozen emails and tweets from folks who had been similarly locked out of Google, Facebook or Amazon Prime, and couldn’t figure out how to find their way back. Techcrunch

China begins regulating QR code payments – In an attempt to cut down on fraud, China’s central bank has announced plans to begin regulating payments by QR codes, barcodes, and other scannable codes. The regulations will initially cap payments by traditional QR codes to 500 yuan, or about $76 USD. When additional security measures are applied, the cap can raise to 5,000 yuan, or around $765 USD. At an even higher security level, banks and payment processors are given discretion over the cap. The Verge

Apple to release source code for Lisa operating system in 2018 – The source code for Apple’s ill-fated Lisa operating system and some of its key applications will be released to the general public in 2018. Techspot

Hackers are spreading cryptocurrency mining malware through Facebook Messenger – Either by choice or through hacks, drive-by cryptomining is becoming popular. The increasing price of cryptocurrencies has seen more websites surreptitiously mine Monero using visitors’ CPUs. But a newly discovered mining malware is even more malicious, and it’s being spread through Facebook Messenger. Techspot

AWS showed no signs of slowing down in 2017 – AWS had a successful year by any measure. The company continued to behave like a startup with the kind of energy and momentum to invest in new areas not usually seen in an incumbent with a significant marketshare lead. Techcrunch

10 Tech News Roundup #14

Here are 10 tech news that I found interesting.

MICROSOFT SURFACE BOOK 2 REVIEW: BEAUTY AND BRAWN, BUT WITH LIMITS – I always wanted Microsoft to build a laptop, and it finally went ahead and built one without any tricks earlier this year. The Surface Laptop has no gimmicks, no kickstand, and no detachable screen. It’s simply the best laptop you can buy right now. The Verge

Boston Dynamics’ Atlas robot is a parkour master – Parkour! That’s what we should all be devoting our combined robotics expertise towards. There’s no nobler human pursuit, so of course we should create a robot that can master the so-called ‘sport of kings.’ And yes, that is the true sport of kings. Techcrunch

Amazon’s creepy home delivery service security can be circumvented, claim researchers – The service model offered by Amazon Key, which gives the company’s delivery corps access to customers’ homes via smart lock, sounds kind of sketchy under the best circumstances. Amazon, however, assured potential customers there’d be nothing to worry about with Key — the system offers 24/7 monitoring via the Alexa-enabled Cloud Cam to monitor deliveries. Mashable

OnePlus 5T flagship starts at $499, launches November 21 – Chinese smartphone maker OnePlus unveiled its latest flagship, the OnePlus 5T, at a media event today in Brooklyn. OnePlus’ latest, a “T” release similar to Apple’s “S” phones, is kind of like a mid-cycle release. Techspot

Apple releases iOS 11.1.2 to fix iPhone X cold weather issue – Apple has made iOS 11.1.2 available, the second minor point release it’s put out in as many weeks. This one is specifically designed to address a bug where the iPhone X could become temporarily unresponsive to touch input when moving from warm weather to dramatically colder temperatures – like venturing outside in winter in Canada, for instance. Techcrunch

Student Clusterers Demolish HPCG Record! Nanyang Sweeps Benchmarks – Nanyang pulled off the always difficult double-play at this year’s SC Student Cluster Competition. The plucky team from Singapore posted a world record LINPACK, thus taking the Highest LINPACK Award, but also managed to notch the highest HPCG score as well. This is quite an achievement. HPCWire

DJI launches an Apple-exclusive Mavic Pro – DJI launched the limited edition Mavic Pro Alpine White today, an all-white version of the Mavic Pro with a color-coordinated remote control and propellers to match. The drone is available at Apple.com and Apple Stores in most countries. The Verge

Even new phones are no longer guaranteed to have the latest version of Android – The OnePlus 5T and Razer Phone are two fundamentally different devices, which are nonetheless united by one unfortunate downside: both of them are going on sale this month without the latest version of Android on board. OnePlus will tell you that this issue is down to its extremely stringent testing process, while Razer offers a similar boilerplate about working as fast as possible to deliver Android Oreo. But we’re now three months removed from Google’s grand Oreo launch, timed to coincide with this summer’s total eclipse, and all of these excuses are starting to ring hollow. Why do Android companies think they can ship new devices without the latest and best version of the operating system on board? The Verge

China now has more supercomputers on the world’s top 500 list than the U.S. – China has reached a supercomputing milestone. The country now has more machines on a list of the world’s 500 fastest supercomputers than the U.S. Mashable

Trump administration to release rules on disclosing cyber flaws -The Trump administration is expected to publicly release on Wednesday its rules for deciding whether to disclose cyber security flaws or keep them secret, a national security official told Reuters. Channel NewsAsia

10 Tech News Roundup #11

Here are 10 tech news that I found interesting.

Apple’s latest macOS update dropped a ton of new emoji – Hundreds of new emoji are finally starting to make their way into the world. Apple dropped the latest public beta of macOS High Sierra and the update comes with hundreds of new emoji, including animals, dinosaurs, and a bunch of smileys. Mashable

WhatsApp finally lets you recall messages you’ve sent by mistake – WhatsApp has finally got your back when you send a message to the wrong person or group. The Facebook-owned messaging app is rolling a feature that will finally let its 1 billion-plus users delete a message for all people within a conversation. Techcrunch

Apple debuts its first MacBook sleeve – Apple has been making gadgets for decades. And as one of the world’s favorite consumer electronics makers, the company has also made plenty of cases and sleeves to protect those gadgets, most notably for the iPhone and iPad. But Apple has never made its own laptop/MacBook sleeve, until today. Techcrunch

Google addresses Pixel 2 XL display issues with software update and 2-year warranty – The Pixel 2 XL has been hitting the headlines recently, but not for the reasons Google would have wanted. Some users were already complaining about the display’s muted colors, blue tint, and grainy textures, and last week brought reports of what appeared to be screen burn-in. After promising to investigate the issues, Google has now announced its findings. Techspot

Microsoft may be working on a foldable PC similar to its canceled Courier project – Microsoft might be revisiting Courier, the dual-screen tablet concept from 2009 that never made it into production. The product was a seven-inch, dual-screen portable PC that folded up like a book. The interface was to involve a combination of finger-swiping gestures and a stylus for writing notes or entering URLs into the browser. Techspot

Microsoft has officially halted production of the Kinect – The writing was on the wall for Microsoft’s flagship motion control device and now, it’s finally official: the company has ceased all production of the Kinect. Techspot

Blockchain expected to become top digital business trend and disrupter in 2018 – Blockchain technology is set to become the top digital business trend and disrupter in 2018, IT solutions and services firm Dimension Data has said in its latest report. Business Insider

Amazon Web Services Beats Cloud Rivals with First Volta Instances – Driven by a surging demand for HPC and AI compute power, the delay between the introduction of high-end GPUs and adoption by cloud vendors is shrinking. With the Nvidia V100 launch ink still drying and other big cloud vendors still working on Pascal generation rollouts, Amazon Web Services has become the first cloud giant to offer the Tesla Volta GPUs, beating out competitors Google and Microsoft. HPCWire

Apple calls Face ID quality change report ‘completely false’ – Apple is calling into contention an earlier report from Bloomberg that claimed the company had lowered the accuracy of the face recognition in order to increase iPhone X production yields, calling the report “completely false” in a statement to The Verge. The Verge

New BadRabbit ransomware spreads through Eastern Europe – A new ransomware attack named BadRabbit is spreading through Russia, Ukraine, and other Eastern European countries. Targeting corporate networks, computer systems for the Kiev Metro, Ukraine’s Odessa International Airport, several Russian media outlets, and others have been affected, with systems encrypted and computers displaying a ransom message. The Verge

10 Tech News Roundup #9

Here are 10 tech news that I found interesting.

Microsoft’s Windows 10 breaches privacy law, says Dutch DPA – The Dutch data protection authority has concluded that Microsoft’s Windows 10 operating system breaches local privacy law on account of its collection of telemetry metadata. The OS has been available since the end of July 2015. Techcrunch

Amazon finally makes a waterproof Kindle, after 10 years of Kindles – Amazon has been selling Kindles for 10 years now, but “waterproof” hasn’t appear on its list of incremental technological advancements until now. The company just announced a new version of its popular e-reader that builds on last year’s Kindle design and now has an IPX8 waterproof rating. The Verge

Hyatt breach exposed customer payment data at 41 hotels – Hyatt announced today that its payment systems were breached, exposing credit card data from 41 hotels in 11 countries. The hack was discovered in July and the investigation only just recently concluded. Techcrunch

AWS and Microsoft double down on deep learning with Gluon, a simplified ML model builder – AWS and Microsoft may be arch rivals when it comes to competing for business in cloud storage and services, but when it comes to breaking ground in newer areas where volumes of data make a difference to how well the services work and creating systems that are easier to use, collaboration is key. Today, the two companies announced a new deep learning interface called Gluon, designed for developers of all abilities (not just AI specialists) to build and run machine learning models for their apps and other services. Techcrunch

Fake Adobe Flash malware locks your Android phone’s data unless you pay up – Consider this yet another PSA on why you should never ever download Adobe Flash Player, or anything resembling it if you’re using an Android phone. Security researchers at ESET have discovered a new kind of ransomware infecting Android phones on a level nobody’s ever seen before. Called DoubleLocker, the exploit encrypts the data on the infected device and then changes its PIN number so victims are locked out of their device unless they pay the ransom demanded by hackers. Mashable

Intel Delivers 17-Qubit Quantum Chip to European Research Partner – On Tuesday (Oct. 10), Intel delivered a 17-qubit superconducting test chip to research partner QuTech, the quantum research institute of Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) in the Netherlands. The announcement marks a major milestone in the 10-year, $50-million collaborative relationship with TU Delft and TNO, the Dutch Organization for Applied Research, to accelerate advancements in quantum computing. HPCWire

Fujitsu Tapped to Build 37-Petaflops ABCI System for AIST – Fujitsu announced today it will build the long-planned AI Bridging Cloud Infrastructure (ABCI) which is set to become the fastest supercomputer system in Japan and will begin operation in fiscal 2018 (starts in April). ABCI will use Intel’s Xeon Gold processors and Nvidia V100 GPUs and deliver 550 petaflops theoretical peak performance in half-precision floating point and 37 petaflops of double-precision peak floating point performance. The award is from Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST). HPCWire

Qualcomm fires another shot at Apple with a new lawsuit in China – Qualcomm has filed a lawsuit against Apple in its continuing legal battle over patents, this time looking to block the manufacturing and sale of iPhones in China, according to a report by Bloomberg this morning. Techcrunch

WD shows off market-ready MAMR tech for monster hard drives – Western Digital showed off a a prototype hard drive with a potentially revolutionary new energy-assisted magnetic recording technology called microwave-assist magnetic recording (MAMR). The company says the new tech could potentially be ready for market by the end of 2019, and it could allow the manufacture of 40 TB hard drives by 2025. For context, WD is now currently offering 14 TB drives to datacenter customers and 12 TB drives are just entering the general market. The company performed the reveal at its “Innovating to Fuel the Next Decade of Big Data” event at its headquarters in Silicon Valley yesterday. Techreport

Chaos and hackers stalk investors on cryptocurrency exchanges – LONDON, SHANGHAI, NEW YORK: Dan Wasyluk discovered the hard way that trading cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin happens in an online Wild West where sheriffs are largely absent. Channel Newsasia

10 Tech News Roundup #7

Here are 10 tech news that I found interesting.

Apple would like to remind the FCC that it can’t activate imaginary FM radios that iPhones don’t have – Apple responded today to FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai, who issued a statement that “urged” Apple to activate the FM chips that he claimed are in iPhones in the name of public safety. Techcrunch

Amazon still has no idea why Google pulled Youtube from the Echo Show – Even as Amazon unveiled a whole new collection of Echo devices, it was still smarting from one major partner’s decision to block video content from its big-screen Echo Show. Mashable

Apple could bring the iPhone X’s best feature to future models — without the OLED screen – Apple’s newest iPhones force customers to make a difficult choice: Should they upgrade immediately to the iPhone 8, or spend $1,000 and wait for the iPhone X and leave bezels behind with its glorious edge-to-edge OLED display? Mashable

NASA delays launch of the world’s most powerful space telescope, again – NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has experienced another delay. The Verge

US Exascale Program – Some Additional Clarity – The last time we left the Department of Energy’s exascale computing program in July, things were looking very positive. HPCWire

BlackBerry, yes BlackBerry, is making a comeback as a software company – When you think about dead companies walking, BlackBerry was clearly one that came to mind, but under the leadership of CEO John Chen, the company is actually making a comeback as a software company focused on security, and it’s latest quarterly earnings report suggests the pivot is working splendidly. Techcrunch

Oracle’s board will unanimously reject a shareholder request for a gender pay gap audit – Et tu, Safra? When Oracle meets for its annual shareholder meeting on November 15, the board of directors will vote to reject a shareholder proposal requesting that the company do a payroll audit to check for a gender pay gap. Business Insider

Nvidia boss: Moore’s Law is dead, GPUs will soon replace CPUs – Nvidia boss Jensen Huang has become the latest expert to declare that Moore’s Law is dead. Speaking at the GPU Technology conference in Beijing, China, the CEO also said that advancements in graphics processors mean GPUs will soon replace CPUs, DigiTimes reports. Techspot

GovTech signs deal with Tableau to equip public officers with visual analytics skills – SINGAPORE: At least 1,500 public officers in Singapore will be equipped with skills in visual analytics over the next three years, after the Government Technology Agency of Singapore (GovTech) signed a memorandum of intent with Tableau Software on Friday (Sep 29). Channel Newsasia

The list grows: Whole Foods hit by hackers – Whole Foods Market — which was recently acquired by tech giant Amazon (AMZN, Tech30) — said Thursday that hackers were able to gain access to credit card information for customers who made purchases at some of its in-store taprooms and restaurants. CNN