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Acer Swift 3 has big appeal for people who love little laptops
Acer Swift 3 has big appeal for people who love little laptops
This story is part of CES, where CNET covers the latest news on the most incredible tech coming soon.
The new Acer Swift 3 is actually two different laptops. Confusing? Sure, but it seems to have been done in an effort to accommodate the wants and needs of different potential users. As it did with its Spin 5 and Spin 3 two-in-one, also announced at CES 2020, Acer made two versions of the same laptop: one with a tall 13.5-inch display with a 3:2 aspect ratio and one with a wide, 16:9 14-inch screen.
The 13.5-inch Swift 3 (SF313-52/G) was co-engineered with Intel as part of its Project Athena program. That means it's designed to wake from sleep in less than a second, deliver consistent responsiveness on battery only, give you at least 9 hours of battery life under real-world conditions and 16 or more hours of battery for local video playback. It also promises at least 4 hours of battery time with a 30-minute charge. It'll be available with up to 10th-gen Intel Core i7-1065G7 processors.
The 14-inch Swift 3 (SF314-42) will be available with a new AMD Ryzen 4000 series processor, a Ryzen 7 4700U to be specific. Both laptops weigh only 2.6 pounds (1.2 kg) and have other features in common like Wi-Fi 6, fingerprint readers and support for Wake on Voice, which lets you activate Cortana even when the screen is off.
The Intel-based Acer Swift 3 (SF313-52/G) will be available in North America in March, starting at $699, while the AMD-based Swift 3 (SF314-42) arrives in North America in May, starting at $599.
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Cryptocurrency faces a quantum computing problem
Cryptocurrency faces a quantum computing problem
Cryptocurrencies hold the potential to change finance, eliminating middlemen and bringing accounts to millions of unbanked people around the world. Quantum computers could upend the way pharmaceuticals and materials are designed by bringing their extraordinary power to the process.
Here's the problem: The blockchain accounting technology that powers cryptocurrencies could be vulnerable to sophisticated attacks and forged transactions if quantum computing matures faster than efforts to future-proof digital money.
Cryptocurrencies are secured by a technology called public key cryptography. The system is ubiquitous, protecting your online purchases and scrambling your communications for anyone other than the intended recipient. The technology works by combining a public key, one that anyone can see, with a private key that's for your eyes only.
If current progress continues, quantum computers will be able to crack public key cryptography, potentially creating a serious threat to the crypto world, where some currencies are valued at hundreds of billions of dollars. If encryption is broken, attackers can impersonate the legitimate owners of cryptocurrency, NFTs or other such digital assets.
"Once quantum computing becomes powerful enough, then essentially all the security guarantees will go out of the window," Dawn Song, a computer security entrepreneur and professor at the University of California, Berkeley, told the Collective[i] Forecast forum in October. "When public key cryptography is broken, users could be losing their funds and the whole system will break."
Quantum computers get their power by manipulating data stored on qubits, elements like charged atoms that are subject to the peculiar physics governing the ultrasmall. To crack encryption, quantum computers will need to harness thousands of qubits, vastly more than the dozens corralled by today's machines. The machines will also need persistent qubits that can perform calculations much longer than the fleeting moments possible right now.
But makers of quantum computers are working hard to address those shortcomings. They're stuffing ever more qubits into machines and working on quantum error correction methods to help qubits perform more-sophisticated and longer calculations.
"We expect that within a few years, sufficiently powerful computers will be available" for cracking blockchains open, said Nir Minerbi, CEO of quantum software maker Classiq Technologies.
Fixing cryptocurrencies' quantum computing problem
The good news for cryptocurrency fans is the quantum computing problem can be fixed by adopting the same post-quantum cryptography technology that the computing industry already has begun developing. The US government's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), trying to get ahead of the problem, is several years into a careful process to find quantum-proof cryptography algorithms with involvement from researchers around the globe.
Indeed, several cryptocurrency and blockchain efforts are actively working on quantum resistant software:
The Ethereum project, which created the biggest cryptocurrency after Bitcoin in terms of total value, has begun charting a post-quantum course. Justin Drake, a researcher at the Ethereum Foundation, detailed quantum resistance ideas in Ethereum 3.0 at the StarkWare conference in 2019. That's likely a long ways off, though: Ethereum's current transition to Ethereum 2.0 is taking years.
Some people are building new cryptocurrency and blockchain technology designed for the quantum computing era. That includes Quantum Resistant Ledger and Bitcoin Post Quantum, which despite the name is unrelated to the original Bitcoin cryptocurrency. These efforts employ post-quantum algorithms to protect against future quantum cracking.
Cambridge Quantum Computing, a startup merging with quantum computer maker Honeywell, is working on quantum security technology that "can be applied to any blockchain network." It aims to secure both the communications among computers storing blockchain data and the signatures used to encrypt and sign blockchain data.
The Hyperledger Foundation, an open-source software project geared for business uses of blockchain, has begun working on post-quantum cryptography through its Ursa effort, says Daniela Barbosa, Hyperledger's executive director. Ursa is a library of cryptography software Hyperledger projects can use.
A problem with the post-quantum cryptography algorithms under consideration so far, though, is that they generally need longer numeric encryption keys and longer processing times, says Peter Chapman, CEO of quantum computer maker IonQ. That could substantially increase the amount of computing horsepower needed to house blockchains.
The problem with decentralized governance
Many cryptocurrencies, like Bitcoin, are decentralized by design, overseen in effect by anyone who participates in each cryptocurrency network. To update a cryptocurrency's inner workings, people trying to upgrade a cryptocurrency must convince more than half of participants to "fork" the cryptocurrency into a new version.
The real quantum test for cryptocurrencies will be governance structures, not technologies, says Hunter Jensen, chief technology officer of Permission.io, a company using cryptocurrency for a targeted advertising system.
Such governance could reward cryptocurrencies that have stronger central powers, such as Dash with its masternodes or even "govcoins" issued by central banks, that can in principle move more swiftly to adopt post-quantum protection. But it presents a conundrum in the crypto community, which often rejects the idea of authority.
"It will be the truly decentralized currencies which will get hit if their communities are too slow and disorganized to act," said Andersen Cheng, chief executive at Post Quantum, a London based company that sells post-quantum encryption technology.
Other quantum problems with cryptocurrencies
Another risk is that blockchains rely on a digital fingerprinting technology called hashing that quantum computers could disrupt. That's likely to be fixable with more-modest technology updates, though.
The cryptocurrency wallets people use to keep track of their digital assets could also be vulnerable to quantum computing. These wallets store private keys people need to access their assets recorded on the blockchain. A successful attack could empty a wallet.
"How do you force users to upgrade keys? That answer is not so straightforward and likely the most dangerous part," said Joe Genereux, senior cryptography and security engineer at browser maker Brave, which uses its own Basic Attention Token (BAT) cryptocurrency for an ad system that pays users. "I think cryptocurrencies that have better governance or post-quantum designs baked in early can get around this issue better."
Ultimately, though, cryptocurrency's organic, self-directed development suggests people will update the digital asset technology to surmount quantum computing's challenges, says David Sacco, who teaches at the University of New Haven.
"The beauty of the ecosystem," he said, "is that anyone can do it if they understand the technology."
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New Profile Pic App: Innocent Photo Fun, or a Privacy Risk?
New Profile Pic App: Innocent Photo Fun, or a Privacy Risk?
Maybe you've seen some of your Facebook friends upgrading their profile pictures to look like fancy illustrations of themselves. They're likely using a free app called NewProfilePic Picture Editor, the latest social media craze. And while the new images may look glamorous, using the app may be a bad idea -- but perhaps not for the reason some say. Let's look at the facts.
What is NewProfile Pic?
NewProfilePic is an app you can get for iOS or Android. It does pretty much what it says -- makes your profile image look like a painting, using artificial intelligence. People on various social platforms are having fun tinkering not only with their own photos, but images of famous people and pets.
So what's the controversy?
On Wednesday, the UK tabloid The Daily Mail published a story with the unnerving headline, "Is Russia after YOUR personal data? Experts warn internet users not to download latest online craze New Profile Pic that hoovers up your details." ("Hoovers" as in "vacuums," for those not up on British slang.)
The Daily Mail quotes a security expert who says "this app is likely a way of capturing people's faces in high resolution and I would question any app wanting this amount of data, especially one which is largely unheard of."
Wait, what's the Russia connection?
Once the app became popular, people began digging into the company's history. It turns out the NewProfilePic domain was originally registered in Moscow. Given the war in Ukraine and the history of hackers working in Russia, just the mention of Russia's capital sets off suspicions for some would-be app users.
But the company isn't located in Moscow, though it does have an office in Russia.
"We are a [British Virgin Islands] company with development offices in Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus," a representative for PhotoLab, the company behind the app, told me. "All user photos are hosted and processed on the Amazon AWS and Microsoft Azure servers, which are located outside the Russian Federation. ... It is the truth that the domain was registered to the Moscow address. It is the former Moscow address of the founder of the company. He does not live in the Russian Federation now."
But these are complicated times.
"We understand that due to the current events in Ukraine, any connection to Russia could raise suspicions," the representative said. "That's why we want to share the position on this issue on our founder's Instagram."
In that Instagram post, company founder Victor Sazhin says he was born in Moscow, moved to Ukraine as a child, and is against the war launched by Russia against Ukraine.
Company founder speaks
Sazhin told me via email that he felt the Daily Mail story hyped up anti-Russia hysteria.
"I haven't been completely surprised [by the negative reaction]," he said. "Recently when our other app, Photo Lab, was No. 1 in Ukraine, when people were using it to create patriotic avatars with a beautiful effect we created, some Facebook [conspiracy theorists] started a similar story. And a few years ago when we first got viral in Bangladesh and India, there was another 'story'... but tying us to the CIA."
He praised the research done by Snopes.com, however. The urban-legends site wrote an article after the Daily Mail story was published in which it concluded NewProfilePic is not especially invasive, noting that, "the claim that this app is stealing data for the Kremlin is also unsupported by evidence."
"That [Snopes] review is comprehensive and I probably can't add anything to it," Sazhin told me. "The app is safe, the photos are processed on Amazon and Azure servers, and we are not KGB."
Shades of FaceApp in 2019
I spoke to cybersecurity journalist and author Bob Sullivan about the app.
"This feels exactly like the FaceApp situation, with one important difference: the world is at war with Russia now," he told me.
Back in 2019, a similar app, FaceApp, was all the rage -- you could use it to age a photo of yourself or alter it in other creative ways. It was also based in Russia, and the FBI investigated the app.
War changes everything
"Many Russians are great developers," Sullivan told me. "Many Russians who learned to program there and now live abroad run very successful companies. The world needs Russian programmers."
Sullivan understands that Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and Russia's autocratic president, Vladimir Putin, leave many suspicious of apps related to Russia in any way.
"People have to understand that even if a person or company has every good intention of not sharing data with a government, they can be compelled to do so anyway," Sullivan said.
The PhotoLab spokesperson told me, "We did not and do not plan to have any affiliation with any governmental organizations of any country."
You're giving away your photos
Russia aside, is it smart to hand over a photograph of yourself to an app you know little about?
"I really think people are crazy to use this app or anything like it," Sullivan said.
Artificial intelligence researchers, he says, are "desperate" to acquire large datasets they can feed into a computer to perfect their algorithm.
"You have no way of knowing where these images of you might end up in the future," Sullivan said. "For that reason alone, don't do it."
The company representative pointed me to their privacy policy, which states, "The photos are sent to the servers through the encrypted connection. We use Secure Socket Layer technology to protect the privacy and integrity of the transmission process."
The policy goes on to say, "For non-registered users and users who don't share their results within the Services, the original photos and results are automatically removed from our servers by two weeks after the last interaction. For registered users who share their results within the Services that provide special social network features, the shared content will be stored on the servers and shown within the Services unless a user either removes the images themselves or requests such a removal by contacting our support team."
Permissions and pet photos
But what if you've already used the app? And are you safe if you don't use photos of your own face, but, say, of your cat or horse?
"The app probably has an ongoing way of feeding information about you back to its owner, so I would delete it immediately," Sullivan said. "Same for the cat theory. I don't know what they are doing with non-picture data. But every piece of info you share ends up in the horrible ad-tech ecosystem, with inferences drawn that would shock you."
The app's requested permissions are similar to those of other mainstream apps.
"I do agree this app doesn't ask for more than many apps .... which doesn't make it right, but that's not suspicious on its own," Sullivan said.
It's the hot new app
The app is popular. On Friday, it was the top free app on the Apple app store.
"Without any doubt, we are happy that users enjoy our NewProfilePic and ToonMe apps so much," the representative told me. (ToonMe is a similar app from the company that turns photos into cartoons.) "And for sure we are going to do our best to create even more stunning effects and make even more users happy."
Company founder Sazhin echoed that.
"It seems we finally found the recipe with NewProfilePic," he told me. "It looks like a quick success (and it kind of is -- this viral wave started only last Saturday, one day after we released a new set of effects in NewProfilePic), but it was actually years of work."
Support your local artists
Even if a company has never had a Moscow address, users should think twice before agreeing to hand over personal photographs to an app you know nothing about, even for an elegant profile pic, Sullivan says.
"When you share intimate data like your face with an app like this, you have no way of knowing where that data will end up," Sullivan warned. "If you really want a cool portrait of yourself, hire a local artist!"
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Social Security Numbers Stolen in Flagstar Bank Data Breach
Social Security Numbers Stolen in Flagstar Bank Data Breach
The personal information, including Social Security numbers, of more than 1.5 million Flagstar Bank customers was compromised in a data breach late last year, but the bank didn't start informing those affected until earlier this month after it completed its investigation.
The Michigan-based bank, which operates 150 branches and is one of the country's largest mortgage lenders, said in a disclosure to the state of Maine that its systems were hacked between Dec. 3 and 4 of last year. In a Thursday statement to CNET, Flagstar said that the intrusion was detected and contained right away, but that it held off disclosing the breach so it could investigate.
"Now that the extensive forensic investigation is complete, we are in the process of notifying individuals who may have been impacted directly via US mail," the company said.
The compromised information includes customer names or other identifiers in combination with Social Security number, which are considered to be one of a person's most critical pieces of personal information. If a person's Social Security number is stolen, it puts them at increased risk of identity theft, because the numbers are used to apply for credit cards or loans, as well as to file tax returns.
Flagstar said there's no evidence yet that the stolen customer information has been misused, but as a precaution it'll provide free identity theft monitoring for two years to those affected.
In addition, cybersecurity experts recommend that people freeze their credit if they suspect that their SSN has been compromised. That will prevent cybercriminals from using it to open up new lines of credit in their name.
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Facebook delays return to US offices to 2022
Facebook delays return to US offices to 2022
With the surge of COVID-19 cases and the spread of the delta variant, Facebook told its US employees on Thursday that they won't be required to come back into offices until January 2022. The company had initially planed to reopen its US offices at 50% capacity by September and implement a full return by October.
"Data, not dates, is what drives our approach for returning to the office," a company representative said in a statement. "Given the recent health data showing rising Covid cases based on the Delta variant, our teams in the US will not be required to go back to the office until January 2022. We expect this to be the case for some countries outside of the US, as well. We continue to monitor the situation and work with experts to ensure our return to office plans prioritize everyone's safety."
Facebook said last month that it would require workers on its US campuses to be vaccinated. In addition, the company now requires people in all its US offices to wear a mask, regardless of vaccination status.
The social network is one of many Silicon Valley giants that have pushed back their projected reopening dates. In July, Google delayed the company's mandatory return to office date to Oct. 18, postponing it from an earlier goal of September. The search giant, like Facebook, will require vaccinations for employees working on the company's campuses. Apple, too, reportedly postponed its office reopening by at least a month, pushing the new projected reopening to at least October.
Other tech companies that have delayed their reopening plans include Twitter, which said last month that it was closing its opened offices in New York and San Francisco and pausing future office reopenings, and Uber, which pushed its global return to office date back to Oct. 25, a delay from its original goal of September.
These changes come as many companies, including Facebook, are expanding their remote work policies. In June, the social network opened up its remote work program to employees at all levels within the company. Twitter has given its employees the option to work from home permanently, while Google has outlined a hybrid work model, with employees typically coming into the office three days a week.
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2024 Chevrolet Silverado EV Starts On-Road Testing
2024 Chevrolet Silverado EV Starts On-Road Testing
We're still a ways off from the 2024 Chevy Silverado EV's official on-sale date in fall 2023, and not much new information has come out about the electric pickup since its debut in January. But now the first engineering prototypes are hitting public roads, with General Motors releasing a couple images of the truck at its Milford Proving Grounds.
The Silverado prototype isn't wearing any camouflage, though it does have matte black paint and placeholder lights instead of the fancy production LEDs, and the truck is missing a few components like the fender flares and side skirt covers. Otherwise, though, this Silverado looks identical to what was unveiled earlier this year, meaning the Silverado EV's futuristic design isn't getting watered down for production.
These will hit Detroit streets next month.
Chevrolet
Like with the Hummer EV that shares with the Silverado its Ultium platform and motors, Chevy did much of the initial testing digitally, which is why we're only just now seeing fully formed, production-bodied prototypes a year ahead of launch, instead of spotting test mules and rougher prototypes a couple years out. GM CEO Mary Barra says the Silverado will start testing on Detroit streets in July.
When the Silverado EV goes on sale it will initially only be offered in WT work truck form or fully loaded RST trim, the latter of which starts at a whopping $105,000 before destination. The WT will cost $39,900, but it will only be offered to fleet customers. Eventually a whole range of midlevel trims will be offered, though details and specs for those have yet to be announced.
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Android 11: You can install Google's new OS on these phones today. Here's how
Android 11: You can install Google's new OS on these phones today. Here's how
Android 11 is ready for your phone, as long as it's compatible. And if it isn't yet, it could be soon -- phone brands will want to fast-track Google's new operating system for their top phones. The Android 11 update brings a slew of new features, including a screen to control your connected devices, redesigned media controls, improved notifications and a new messaging feature called Bubbles, which you'll either love or hate.
As is usually the case with major Android updates, how soon you'll receive the update depends on who makes your device. Google has said that Android 11 is rolling out to its Pixel 2 and newer phones in that range, along with OnePlus, Xiaomi, Oppo and Realme phones right now.
Own a Pixel? You're a few taps away from Android 11
Open the Settings app on your phone and, on a Pixel phone at least, tap System > Advanced > System update > Check for update. If your phone doesn't find the update right away, be patient. As is always the case with Google, the update is slowly rolling out, so it might take a few days before it shows up on your phone -- just keep checking.
Once your phone finds the update, just follow the prompts to install it like you would any other update. I recommend having your phone plugged into a charger and a strong Wi-Fi connection to ensure the process is as smooth as possible.
Android 11 will arrive just like a normal update on your Android phone.
Jason Cipriani/CNET
There's an open beta for the OnePlus 8 and 8 Pro
If you have a OnePlus 8 or OnePlus 8 Pro, the company has launched an open beta of its OxygenOS 11 update, which includes Android 11. Anyone who wants to check out the new features before it's officially released needs to visit the OnePlus forums, where instructions and details are posted. The installation process won't force you to reset your device or lose any data, but it is a beta, so proceed with caution.
I installed the update on a OnePlus 8, following the steps outlined in the post, and it took around 30 minutes to complete. You can download the file directly on your OnePlus phone and use the OnePlus file manager app to move it to the root storage folder, or download it on your computer and transfer the file to your phone in order to install it.
You can go back to a more stable version of OxygenOS if there are too many issues with the beta, but be warned, that will wipe all data from your phone.
Get an early look at Android 11 on your OnePlus phone.
Screenshots by Jason Cipriani/CNET
What about Nokia, Xiaomi, Oppo?
Not every phone-maker has publicly announced their rollout plans for Android 11, but we do know that Nokia has confirmed it will release Android 11.
Oppo will officially announce its ColorOS 11 update on Sept. 14 via a livestream, and has also opened a limited beta for the Find X2, Find X2 Pro, Reno3 (4G) and Reno3 Pro (4G).
Xiaomi posted on Twitter that the Mi 10 and Mi 10 Pro would be the first devices to get Android 11, and the company has also launched a beta program for early adopters.
We will continue to update this list as more device-makers announce their plans for rolling out Android 11 to their respective phones.
What do you do if you were in the public beta?
You shouldn't have to do anything special if you've been testing Android 11 on a Pixel phone through Google's public beta program. Once the update is available for your phone, you'll update to the official version of Android 11 and "graduate" from the beta program.
You can double-check that you're no longer enrolled in the beta program on the beta website: Your device should say "Opt in" under it.
I've been testing Android 11 for a while now, and have found some features that will change the way you use your phone. There's also some significant improvements to privacy features included in the update. For more general, but still just as great, Android tricks, check out these hidden features.
