Technology - Google News

Apple updates 13-inch MacBook Pro with Magic Keyboard, double the storage, and faster performance - Apple Newsroom
Google and Apple Publish Exposure Notification API Draft - InfoQ.com
Modern Warfare 2 Remastered on Xbox is smooth, slick and polished - Eurogamer.net

Apple updates 13-inch MacBook Pro with Magic Keyboard, double the storage, and faster performance - Apple Newsroom

Posted: 04 May 2020 05:31 AM PDT

Cupertino, California — Apple today updated the 13-inch MacBook Pro with the new Magic Keyboard for the best typing experience ever on a Mac notebook and doubled the storage across all standard configurations, delivering even more value to the most popular MacBook Pro. The new lineup also offers 10th-generation processors for up to 80 percent faster graphics performance¹ and makes 16GB of faster 3733MHz memory standard on select configurations. With powerful quad-core processors, the brilliant 13-inch Retina display, Touch Bar and Touch ID, immersive stereo speakers, all-day battery life, and the power of macOS, all in an incredibly portable design, the new 13-inch MacBook Pro is available to order today, starting at $1,299, and $1,199 for education.²

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Google and Apple Publish Exposure Notification API Draft - InfoQ.com

Posted: 03 May 2020 01:03 AM PDT

Only a few weeks after its initial announcement, the partnership between Google and Apple to provide their mobile OSes with solid foundations for contact tracing applications has reached a key milestone, a preliminary draft of the Exposure Notification API and beta release for iOS.

To avoid confusion, it is worth noting that Apple and Google have renamed their technology solution as exposure notification, which is now preferred over contact tracing. The reasoning behind this decision is that contact tracing is a much broader solution including some kind of centralized system users connect to, which should be provided by regional health authorities. Apple and Google are just providing the technological foundation for this kind of applications, hence the more appropriate naming.

The new API takes into account a significant change in the cryptographic protocol defined by Google and Apple to strengthen privacy. Originally, the protocol used two cryptographic keys, a Tracing Key unique to each user that would never leave a device and a Daily Tracing Key generated each new day based on the former. Daily Tracing Keys were used to generate Rolling Proximity Identifiers, a kind of pseudorandom Bluetooth moniker used to detect device proximity in a given timeframe.

As it happens, having a unique key associated to a device opens the door to a advanced attacks when direct access to the device is available. Therefore, the new protocol version uses completely random Temporary Exposure Keys to generate a Rolling Proximity Identifier Keys which are then used to generate Rolling proximity identifiers. Since Rolling proximity identifiers are not generated from a completely random key with a 24h lifetime, according to Apple and Google, it's computationally infeasible for an attacker to find a collision on a Rolling Proximity Identifier without knowing also the corresponding Temporary Exposure Keys. This reduces the chances of replay and impersonation attacks.

The new Exposure Notification framework covers two user roles: affected users and exposed users. An affected user has a confirmed or suspected COVID-19 diagnosis, while an exposed user has had a potential contact with the former. When a user is diagnosed, their Temporary Exposure Keys are shared with other, potentially exposed users through the external diagnosis server. This step requires an explicit user authorization. Exposed users can retrieve the set of Temporary exposure keys using ENSelfExposureInfoRequest and ask the framework to determine whether those keys were observed locally using an ENExposureDetectionSession.

The central class to the Exposure Notification framework is ENManager, which is in charge of some preliminary tasks such as checking the authorization status of the app. ENManager can enable exposure notification using its setExposureNotificationEnabled:completionHandler method, which starts or stops Bluetooth advertising and scanning after asking the use for authorization. At any time, the getDiagnosisKeysWithCompletionHandler:completionHandler can be used to retrieve Temporary Exposure Keys used by this device to share with a diagnosis server. This step also requires explicit authorization.

The ENExposureDetectionSession class is the counterpart to ENManager in that it enables checking whether a set of Temporary Exposure Keys received from the diagnosis server has been observed. This can be accomplished using the addDiagnosisKeys:completion and finishedDiagnosisKeysWithCompletion: methods. If an exposure is detected, more information such as the duration of the contact and the date can be retrieved using getExposureInfoWithMaxCount:completionHandler.

More detail about the new API can be found in the official Exposure Notification framework.

The new Exposure Notification API has just become available in iOS 13.5 Developer Release Beta 3, which will allow interested developers to try it out and start experimenting with contact tracing.

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Modern Warfare 2 Remastered on Xbox is smooth, slick and polished - Eurogamer.net

Posted: 04 May 2020 06:00 AM PDT

A month on from its release on PlayStation 4, Modern Warfare 2's campaign remaster has arrived on Xbox One and PC. With developer Beenox taking point, the game features new texture work, lighting and post-process effects all delivered by a more advanced offshoot of the Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare engine. Perhaps as much remake as remaster, the game respects Infinity Ward's original vision, while modernising the game for the current generation. From our perspective, it was a success on PlayStation 4, and the Xbox One version is just as good - if somewhat under-ambitious when it comes to getting the most out of Xbox One X.

Still, at least there actually is support for Microsoft's enhanced machine. Looking back at the first Modern Warfare remaster from 2016, the game never benefited from any kind of specific enhancement. The only advantages came from the inherent improvements delivered by hardware-level backwards compatibility, meaning better performance and a dynamic resolution set-up that guarantees the top-level 1920x1080. That's still the case even today, but crucially, Modern Warfare 2 Remastered does deliver a higher resolution mode on X hardware.

The numbers speak for themselves. On the X model you get a native 2880x1620 resolution - or 75 per cent on each axis. As far as I've tested, it's completely fixed to that figure too, with no drops under during load. Curiously though, PlayStation 4 Pro delivers the exact same pixel count so it's not beyond reason to suggest that the Xbox One X may be somewhat under-utilised here. Make no mistake, the game still looks impressive - especially when played with HDR - but the numbers and the comparison points up against PS4 Pro suggest that the Microsoft machine could have delivered more.

A video breakdown of the Modern Warfare 2 remaster on Xbox One consoles.

Switching over to the base model, predictably it's not quite as flattering, closely matching the original Modern Warfare remaster. A native 1080p is the best case but just like the previous 2016 offering, it's a dynamic solution that wavers below that. Most shots in any major outdoor battle settle at a lower figure, adjusting the horizontal axis as needed (the vertical is always 1080p). So for example, the opening battle across the bridge is dense with AI, transparencies and huge draw distances - pushing the renderer down to 1404x1080. That's the lowest figure I've encountered so far, but potentially it could drop under. Equally, the Gulag level later in the game, with its dramatic fly-over through smoke, really hammers the base Xbox One in image quality, and performance can drop too.

Mostly, the difference between the S's dynamic 1080p and X's 1620p comes out in the distance. Fine sub-pixel detail like the meshing on fences turns invisible on the base model, simply because there aren't enough pixels to resolve it. That's ultimately the worst of it. The comparisons also show texture filtering takes a nose-dive in quality next to X, and just like the PS4 and PS4 Pro comparisons, there's also a drop-off in shadow rendering. You can expect more dithering on shadow outlines on base Xbox One, but beneath the lowered resolution it's hard to notice. Otherwise, there's not much else in it.

In performance terms, Xbox One X's excess power delivers a more consistent lock to 60 frames per second compared to the PlayStation 4 Pro version, but not really enough to make that much of a difference to the experience as a whole. Interestingly, the dynamic 1080p on Xbox One S - in combination with an adaptive v-sync that can introduce a little tearing at the top of the screen - can see areas in-game where the standard machine outperforms the Sony equivalent. Again, it's more of a technical curiously than any major difference. On balance, performance is more solid than I'd expected going in. Considering the ambition of Modern Warfare 2's campaign next to the original, this could have unstuck the base machine. There's more firepower on-screen, it's more bombastic, over-the-top, and yet it's all kept reasonably in check whether you're on Xbox One or PlayStation 4.

Ultimately, Modern Warfare 2 Remastered is a solid game on all systems - there's just the lingering sense that Xbox One X could have delivered more. Really though, replaying this a month on from the PS4 game, it's the absence of multiplayer that is still very striking. Even Spec Ops would have been nice addition, but to deliver a COD remaster without the area of the game where fans would have sunk in the most hours feels like a missed opportunity - especially when the quality of the campaign remaster demonstrates the level of care and attention lavished on bringing this classic release more up to date for modern hardware.

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