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CCleaner hack affects 2.27 million computers, including yours?


CCleaner hack affects 2.27 million computers, including yours?

Computer-optimization software is supposed to keep your computer running smoothly. Well, in this case, maybe not so much. Monday, the company that makes CCleaner, Avast's Piriform, announced that its free software was infected with malware. If you use CCleaner, here's what you need to know.

What does the malware do?

It gathers information like your IP address, computer name, a list of installed software on your computer, a list of active software and a list of network adapters and sends it to a third-party computer server. Your credit card numbers, social security number and the like seem to be safe.

"Working with US law enforcement, we caused this server to be shut down on the 15th of September before any known harm was done," said the company in the announcement. 

Who was infected?

According to information provided by Avast CEO Vince Steckler and Consumer Business CTO and EVP Ondrej Vlcek, the compromise to the system may have started as early as July 3, prior to Avast buying the company. The compromised version of CCleaner software was then released to customers on Aug. 15.

Around 3 percent -- roughly 2.27 million computers -- used the infected software. Specifically, computers running 32-bit Windows 10 ($144 at Amazon). If that applies to you, don't panic. The company believes that they were able to disarm the malware before any harm was done. 

How do I know if I have the corrupted version?

The versions that were affected are CCleaner v5.33.6162 or CCleaner Cloud v1.07.3191 for 32-bit Windows PCs. The Android version for phones doesn't seem to be affected. As of Sept. 19, Avast says that 730,000 users are still using the affected version.

If you've updated your software since Sept. 12, you should be OK. This is when the new, uncorrupted version was released. Also, if you have the Cloud version, it should have automatically updated itself by now to the clean version.

I don't use the cloud version. What should I do?

CCleaner v5.33.6162 does not update on its own, so if you use the non-cloud version you may have the corrupted software. Piriform recommends deleting your current version and downloading a clean version from its website.

After you have your new software downloaded, run a check on your system using malware protection software to be sure that CCleaner didn't leave any nasty invaders behind.

Editors' note: This article was originally published Sept. 18 and has been updated with new information. 

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Lebanon reportedly drops planned WhatsApp tax as protests sweep the country


Lebanon reportedly drops planned WhatsApp tax as protests sweep the country

Lebanon has reportedly withdrawn plans to impose a tax on WhatsApp calls as protests across the country continued on Friday. Demonstrators blocked major roads and in some cases set fire to buildings during nationwide protests over the government's handling of an economic crisis and accusations of corruption, reported CBS News. 

The protests were reportedly triggered on Thursday by news that the government planned to impose a daily charge of 20 cents on apps that use VoIP, or voice over Internet Protocol, to make calls, such as WhatsApp, Skype and Viber. The government reversed the plan hours later as people took to the streets, according to the BBC.

Facebook, which owns WhatsApp, declined to comment. Lebanon government officials couldn't immediately be reached for comment. 

Editors' note: CNET is owned by CBS. 

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Dress your dog in a Halloween bandana that matches your face mask for $10


Dress your dog in a Halloween bandana that matches your face mask for $10

I no longer have a dog in my life -- Topher was the ultimate good boy, but passed earlier this year. That doesn't mean I'm not still a sucker for awesome doggie stuff, though, and I just ran across a fun little matching costume for you and your pooch. My favorite part is that it's a way to include your face mask in your Halloween costume: Milk-Bone is selling a trio of matching mask-and-dog-bandana sets for $10 each.

In each set you get an adult-sized face mask with ear loops and a bandana (your choice of large or small). The mask is for you, and the bandana is for your pup. There are three designs to choose from. In one, the mask is a mouse's face, complete with whiskers, while the bandana turns your your dog into cheese. If you prefer, there's a skeleton set; your face gets the skull treatment, while pup's bandana exposes their skeleton. Or become pumpkin and candy. You're the jack-o-lantern while the bandana is adorned with pieces of candy. And dog treats.

If I have a regret about these costumes -- other than the fact that Topher can't be with me to share them -- is that they all prominently bear the Milk-Bone logo somewhere on the bandana, which I find a little tacky. If you can live with that, though, these little Halloween sets are just too cute for words. 

CNET's deal team scours the web for great deals on tech products and much more. Find more great buys on the CNET Deals page and check out our CNET Coupons page for the latest promo codes from Best Buy, Walmart, Amazon and more. Questions about the Cheapskate blog? Find the answers on our FAQ page.

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IronX by DXG 5G9V HD action cam review: Good bang-for-your-buck action cam


IronX by DXG 5G9V HD action cam review: Good bang-for-your-buck action cam

DXG might not have the name recognition of GoPro or Sony, but it's no stranger to camcorders. The manufacturer has been around for more than 20 years as a camera OEM/ODM and basically specializes in making inexpensive camcorders with attention-grabbing specs for the money. And that's pretty much what it delivers with its first action cam, the IronX 5G9V HD.

For $250 (and you can actually find it for less than $200) you get a nice action cam setup that shoots at resolutions up to 1080p at 30 frames per second as well as 720p at 60fps, has built-in Wi-Fi, and comes with just about every accessory you'd need to start shooting out of the box.

Now, specs aren't everything, and its video, like that of other DXG camcorders we've tested in the past, won't blow you away. But if you're looking for a way to capture your adventures without investing a lot of money up front, this is a good way to go.

In the box
Accessories are an easy way to add value with action cams, and DXG didn't skimp. For starters, you get a waterproof housing that's good down to nearly 200 feet (60 meters) with both closed and vented backs, so audio isn't always muffled when you're shooting out of the water. The housing's bottom has a T-tip adapter on it that slides onto the included T-tip swivel plate. This plate can be slid into the curved or flat adhesive mounts that are included for mounting and dismounting the camera (see the slideshow below to take a closer look).

Joshua Goldman/CNET

The T-tip adapter also has slots that you can feed a Velcro strap (included as well) through for attaching the camera to a vented helmet. There are antifog strips to help prevent, um, fogging when sealed up in the housing; Micro-USB and Micro-HDMI cables; a USB power adapter for charging the camera; a security tether; and a lens cap. And to top it all off, DXG includes a simple RF wrist remote that lets you start and stop recordings and take pictures.

If you're worried that because this isn't a GoPro there will be a shortage of mounts, don't be. DXG has several mounts that use the T-tip adapter (head, chest, handbar, rollbar, rail, and suction cup) as well as a 1/4-20-threaded adapter for tripod mounts and a T-tip connector that works with mounts for GoPro's housings.

Design and features
The IronX is similar in design to a GoPro camera: a small box with a lens that requires a housing of some sort for mounting. It has an f2.6 15mm lens (35mm equivalent), which gives you an ultrawide 170 degree angle of view. The camera alone is fairly lightweight, with most of its heft coming from its removable rechargeable battery pack. The plastic body doesn't feel like it can take much abuse on its own, though, so you'll want to be careful handling it outside of its housing.

On the left side you'll find a Micro-USB port that's used for charging as well as transferring videos and photos off the camera. There's also a mic jack for use with an external mic (not included) for better audio than you'll get with the built-in mono mic. However, the included housing doesn't allow access to the jack, but DXG does sell a simple camera holder that gives you access while mounting the camera.

The camera's right side has a Mini-HDMI port for direct playback on an external display and a microSDHC card slot that supports cards up to 32GB. Given all that the camera does come with, it's a bit of a surprise that no memory card is included, which is really the only thing preventing the IronX from being ready to go out of the box.

The waterproof housing seems like it can take some abuse and stood up to me dropping it a couple times, including a short fall from a moving bike onto pavement. The neon yellow and orange accents make it look a bit like a toy, but at least it didn't perform like one.

Joshua Goldman/CNET

A highlight of the camera is its onboard OLED display. It's very bright and easy to read even in direct sun. The menu system is relatively simple to navigate, too, with only the two buttons on top of the camera. There's also a setting that lets you flip the display, so it's easier to read regardless of how the camera is mounted.

Diving further into the settings, you can set the camera to record at three resolutions: 1080p at 30fps, 960p at 30fps, and 720p at 60fps. Also, the camera supports dual-stream recording, which simultaneously saves your full-resolution video along with a low-res thumbnail version for playback on mobile devices and faster uploads.

Photos are shot at 5-megapixel resolution and can be taken one at a time, in a burst of 10, or as a time-lapse video, snapping shots at 1, 3, 5, 10, 30, or 60 seconds.

Joshua Goldman/CNET

The IronX also has built-in Wi-Fi. Download the free iOS or Android app and you can use it to connect directly to the camera so you can see just what you're shooting. It can be used to control the camera, too, including changing resolution settings. And, if you shoot something you want on your mobile device for viewing and sharing, you can use it to transfer them as well. The app works well, although switching between recording and playback required me to reconnect to the camera in between. (That's likely a bug that can be fixed, though.)

Video quality

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Wordle Is Being Released as a Board Game in October


Wordle Is Being Released as a Board Game in October

Wordle , the popular New York Times word game, will soon be coming to a living room near you. Hasbro announced Thursday the company is working with the New York Times to produce a new board game based on the word game called Wordle: The Party Game.

"Wordle truly brought us all together and that's what makes it so special," Jonathan Knight, head of Games for The New York Times, said. "We're so excited to team up with Hasbro to bring a fresh new format to the global sensation of Wordle."

The goal of the board game is to get fewer points than the other players by guessing the secret word in the fewest guesses.

Each round, one player is the Wordle Host, and the host picks a secret five-letter word. Players then have six tries to guess the secret word. When you get the secret word correct, you get points depending on how many guesses it took you to get the right word. Fewer guesses get you fewer points, and the person with the least amount of points at the end of the game wins.

There are four different ways to play as well, including classic play, fast, timed and teams. The game is available for preorder and is scheduled to be released in October.

Wordle: The Party Game with yellow and green tiles, game cards and other game material

Wordle: The Party Game even comes with the yellow and green blocks.

 Hasbro/New York Times Games

Wordle was created by Josh Wardle and released in October 2021. The game requires players to guess a five-letter word in six guesses or less. The game skyrocketed in popularity after its release, with about 300,000 playing the game each day. The New York Times bought the game in January.

Wordle has also inspired a number of similar word games, like Lewdle, Lordle of the Rings and Heardle, which was bought by Spotify.

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Apple's M1 Pro and M1 Max chips mean new trouble for Intel


Apple's M1 Pro and M1 Max chips mean new trouble for Intel

A year ago, Apple announced it was taking on Intel's most efficient chips by introducing lightweight MacBook laptops powered by the M1, a homegrown processor. On Monday, the consumer electronics giant expanded its challenge, launching MacBook Pro laptops built around the new M1 Pro and M1 Max that take on Intel's beefier chips.

The new MacBook Pros bode well for Apple's attempt to take firmer control over its products. And they're bad news for Intel, whose chips Apple is ejecting from its Macs after a 15-year partnership. It's a loss of revenue, prestige and orders to keep its factories running at full capacity.

"Intel has completely lost the Mac and is unlikely to regain it any time soon," New Street Research analyst Pierre Ferragu said in a research note Tuesday.

Intel didn't lose this big customer overnight. The company that was once synonymous with consumer computers -- remember Intel Inside? -- fell on hard times because of difficulties upgrading its manufacturing. New CEO Pat Gelsinger has started an Intel recovery plan, including an effort to revitalize manufacturing progress. But turning around a behemoth requires patience. 

Meet the Mac's new chips

Intel's troubles encouraged Apple to develop its own chip expertise and technology for computers. (It already designed its own A-series chips for the iPhone and iPad, and indeed the M-series chips capitalize on that investment.) The company's M1 processors, which came in last year's MacBook Air and low-end 13-inch MacBook Pro, were evidence it wanted to take control of its own future.

The M1 Pro and M1 Max demonstrate the company's increasing power as a chip designer. Both are designed for more capable models, the 14-inch and 16-inch Pros, geared for video editors, programmers and others with intense computing needs. The heft of the chips -- each of which sports eight performance and two efficiency cores, compared with the M1's four-by-four design -- is intended to sustain heavy work. They also come with much more powerful graphics processing power and memory, up to 16GB for the M1 Pro and 64GB for the M1 Max.

Miniaturization is what lets chip manufacturers economically squeeze in more transistors, a chip's electronic circuitry elements. The new M1 models are doozies of miniaturization, with 34 billion transistors in the M1 Pro and 57 billion in the M1 Max. That's how it could add special chip modules for graphics, video, AI, communications and security into its high-end MacBook Pros.

Intel's troubles

Intel, which for decades has led the world in chip technology, suffered for the last half decade as an upgrade to its manufacturing technology dragged on longer than the usual two years. The company's problem came as it tried to move from a 14-nanometer manufacturing process to 10nm, the next "node" of progress. (A nanometer is a billionth of a meter.)

Intel didn't respond to a request for comment. Apple didn't comment for this story.

Apple's chip foundry, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., took advantage of Intel's lag to the benefit of Apple, Nvidia, AMD and other Intel rivals. It now leads in electronics miniaturization and the all-important measurement of performance per watt of power consumed. 

The result is the M1 Pro and M1 Max, which according to Apple's measurements are 1.7 times faster than Intel's current eight-core Tiger Lake chips, formally called 11th generation Core. Compared differently, the M1 Pro and Max consume 70% less power than the Tiger Lake chips at the same performance level.

Apple doesn't reveal which speed tests it uses, so the results are hard to validate at this stage. The consensus, however, is that the performance claims are valid in broad terms.

"I am overall impressed at what Apple has been able to do on the latest process from TSMC," said Patrick Moorhead, analyst at Moor Insights and Strategy. He estimates that Apple saves a few hundred dollars per laptop because it doesn't have to buy Intel processors, although it spends a lot of that money designing its chips.

Don't count Intel out yet

To be sure, Intel won't be hurt badly by the loss of Apple's business. The company has plenty of other business. The vast majority of Windows PCs still use x86 processors from Intel and AMD. And customers only rarely change from Windows to MacOS or vice versa.

It also doesn't have a lot of competition. Apple doesn't license its chips to others, and Qualcomm's efforts to sell processors to PC makers has been a limited success at best. 

Intel mostly has to worry about AMD, which makes increasingly capable chips but still trails in market share.

Intel also has its Alder Lake processor, scheduled for later this year, and Meteor Lake processor, coming in 2023, to generate excitement. The chips will bring speed boosts in part by adopting a combination of performance and efficiency cores, just like the M1 does, and by adopting the new Intel 7 and Intel 4 manufacturing processes.

Still, Apple has taken wind out of Intel's sails. Intel may narrow the gap as its new chips hit the market. But in the meantime, Apple's M series could help it steal market share from Windows computers, Intel's stronghold.

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Dodge Charger Daytona EV Concept Has Real Exhaust Noise, Multi-Speed Transmission


Dodge Charger Daytona EV Concept Has Real Exhaust Noise, Multi-Speed Transmission

For the past nearly twenty years Dodge has built its reputation -- and sales -- off the backs of the retro Charger and Challenger muscle cars, coming out with increasingly antisocial variants powered by crazy supercharged V8s with huge amounts of horsepower. But Dodge knows it can't ignore the onset of electrification, and now it's showing us how it will keep the muscle car spirit alive in the EV era with the new Charger Daytona SRT concept, which closely previews a production EV coming in 2024.

The Charger Daytona takes the majority of its design inspiration from the 1968 Charger, and as you can probably tell the nameplate is back to having two doors again. (Dodge is being purposefully tongue in cheek by doing this, a funny nod to the mid-2000s outrage when the then-new Charger was introduced as a four-door sedan. But this new Charger has a hatchback liftgate instead of a traditional trunk and a spacious interior with four seats, the back row of which can be folded flat to create a large cargo area.

At the front of the Charger Daytona is what Dodge calls the R-Wing, a pass-through that lets air flow through the "grille" area over the sculpted hood. The squared-off front end features a slim rectangular opening like that of the '68 Charger's, with an LED light bar surrounding the whole thing. Mounted in the center is Dodge's new "Fratzog" badge that was originally put on the brand's muscle cars from 1962 through 1976; it will be used for all new EVs. 

The Charger Daytona's profile to me is less successful, though it is a good homage to the original Charger. The new car has super-smooth surfacing with a Coke-bottle profile to the fenders, but the greenhouse looks kinda tall and ungainly. Despite having a hatchback the rear window isn't as raked as I'd like, giving the Charger a bit more of a sedan profile rather than a coupe silhouette. The rear end is awesome though, with taillights that echo the headlights and a cool lower diffuser.

The massive tailpipes of previous Chargers might be gone, but that rear end design is unmistakably Dodge.

 Dodge

Sadly, we don't know much about the Charger Daytona's powertrain. Dodge says it will have an 800-volt electrical architecture and standard all-wheel drive, and three power levels will be offered from the factory. The EV powertrain is called Banshee, and the logo emblazoned on the concept's front fenders is somehow even cooler than the already rad Hellcat and Demon logos. But if the Charger Daytona's already Hellcat-beating performance isn't enough, another half-dozen performance upgrades will be available through Mopar's Direct Connection catalog, consisting of both software and hardware changes. 

Dodge is highlighting two of the Charger Daytona's patent-pending features that will separate it from pretty much every other EV on the market. The first is called eRupt: A multi-speed transmission that provides electromechanical shifts for a more visceral experience. One aspect of EVs that can get less impressive quite quickly is the instant acceleration and lack of driver engagement, and the eRupt system looks to rectify. The Charger Daytona will also have a PowerShot mode that delivers a horsepower boost at the press of a button for more passing power or a better launch off the line.

The Banshee's badge is pretty sweet.

 Dodge

The second patented feature is even cooler. Dodge is giving the Charger Daytona a real exhaust system called the Fratzonic Chambered Exhaust, which uses tuning chambers and an amplifier at the back of the car to enhance the powertrain's natural noises. The Charger Daytona's sound apparently equals the current Hellcat powertrain in terms of decibels generated -- no small feat. It's even able to "rev" while at a standstill, producing a distinctive noise that will absolutely capture the attention of everyone around you.

Step into the Charger Daytona and you're greeted by a 12.3-inch center screen that's angled toward the driver and a 16-inch curved digital gauge cluster. There's a thin-rimmed steering wheel with a floating center spoke, capacitive touch controls and a button for the PowerShot mode. The lightweight bucket seats feature a Fratzog perforation pattern, and lots of the interior parts like the dash, center console and doors are covered in a sweet Ultraviolet color.

Dodge Charger Daytona SRT Concept

The Charger Daytona's interior keeps it nice and simple.

 Dodge

Graphics made to look like a circuit board surround the seats on the floor and flow up onto the center console, and a lightning-bolt-shaped accelerator pedal and Blue Plasma and Silver stitching are a nod to the Daytona's electric powertrain. It's also got a cool parametric texture throughout that's inspired by the '68 Charger's grille; natural light bounces off the surfaces, and adjustable ambient lighting illuminates it from below. There's lots of exposed carbon fiber as well, including in the cargo area.

Dodge still has one year left of production for the existing, gas-powered Charger and Challenger models, so don't expect to hear much more about the Charger Daytona until that final model year is underway. But nothing about the Charger Daytona concept is super far-fetched -- tone down a couple of the more out-there styling elements, and the production EV due in 2024 should look just like this rad coupe.

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