Technology - Google News

Apple's M1 isn't witchcraft, it's good chip design - Engadget
With one update, this malicious Android app hijacked millions of devices - ZDNet
OnePlus 9 Pro could feature Hasselblad-branded cameras - The Verge

Apple's M1 isn't witchcraft, it's good chip design - Engadget

Posted: 08 Feb 2021 06:03 AM PST

When Apple announced it was dropping Intel in favor of its own, ARM-based laptop processors, the big question was how fast the computers with these new chips would be. In the last episode of our explainer show, Upscaled, we took a look at how Apple's new M1 powered Macbook Pro performs compared to an Intel-powered 16" Macbook Pro and the Windows ARM-based Surface Pro X. Turns out, the M1 is crazy fast.

The next question is how did Apple's engineers do it? Processors aren't magic. Every design is a balancing act between a dozen variables. A bigger cache can hold more data, but is slower to access. Higher clock speeds boost performance, but eat into battery life. This is further complicated by the reality that designing a chip can take years, but despite all the modeling and simulations available to engineers, it can be hard to predict exactly how a chip will perform until you actually manufacture it.

The key to Apple's success seem to be the M1's incredibly "wide" design. This refers to how many instructions the chip can process each cycle. While the M1 is single-threaded, meaning each core can only process one stream of instructions at once (unlike Intel and AMD's multi-threaded design), it can process as many as 8 instructions per cycle. That's nearly twice as many as most modern designs. This lets it still do a ton of work, even when running at a lower clock speed, which can help save power.

This is just one of a series of smart decisions Apple made that all add up to an impressive processor. Some see the advantage of the M1 as it being an ARM chip, as opposed to x86 like Intel or AMD, but many of Apple's design decisions are things rival companies could adopt (and are starting to). Add in the fact that the M1 is built on a cutting-edge 5nm design from TSMC, and Apple's success isn't magic.

Check out the full video for even more details on Apple's M1 design, and how other companies are working to catch up.

You can see our list of sources for this piece here.

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With one update, this malicious Android app hijacked millions of devices - ZDNet

Posted: 08 Feb 2021 03:45 AM PST

With a single update, a popular barcode scanner app on Google Play transformed into malware and was able to hijack up to 10 million devices.

Lavabird Ltd.'s Barcode Scanner was an Android app that had been available on Google's official app repository for years. The app, accounting for over 10 million installs, offered a QR code reader and a barcode generator -- a useful utility for mobile devices.

The mobile application appeared to be legitimate, trustworthy software, with many users having installed the app years ago without any problems -- until recently.

According to Malwarebytes, users recently started to complain of adverts appearing unexpectedly on their Android devices. It is often the case that unwanted programs, ads, and malvertising are connected with new app installations, but in this example, users reported that they had not installed anything recently.

Upon investigation, the researchers pinpointed Barcode Scanner as the culprit.

A software update issued on roughly December 4, 2020, changed the functions of the app to push advertising without warning. While many developers implement ads in their software in order to be able to offer free versions -- and paid-for apps simply do not display ads -- in recent years, the shift of apps from useful resources to adware overnight is becoming more common.

"Ad SDKs can come from various third-party companies and provide a source of revenue for the app developer. It's a win-win situation for everyone," Malwarebytes noted. "Users get a free app, while the app developers and the ad SDK developers get paid. But every once in a while, an ad SDK company can change something on their end and ads can start getting a bit aggressive."

Sometimes, 'aggressive' advertising practices can be the fault of SDK third-parties -- but this was not the case when it comes to Barcode Scanner. Instead, the researchers say that malicious code was pushed in the December update and was heavily concealed to avoid detection.

The update was also signed with the same security certificate used in past, clean versions of the Android application.

Malwarebytes reported its findings to Google and the tech giant has now pulled the app from Google Play. However, this doesn't mean that the app will vanish from impacted devices, and so users need to manually uninstall the now-malicious app.

Transforming clean SDKs into malicious packages is only one method employed to avoid Google Play protection, with time checks, long display times, the compromise of open source libraries used by an app, and dynamic loading also cited as potential ways for attackers to compromise your mobile device.

Another interesting method, spotted by Trend Micro, is the implementation of a motion sensor check. In 2019, Android utility apps were found to contain the Anubis banking Trojan which would only deploy once a user moved their handset.

ZDNet has reached out to the developer and will update if we hear back.

Previous and related coverage

Have a tip? Get in touch securely via WhatsApp | Signal at +447713 025 499, or over at Keybase: charlie0

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OnePlus 9 Pro could feature Hasselblad-branded cameras - The Verge

Posted: 08 Feb 2021 04:08 AM PST

Leaked images of the unannounced OnePlus 9 Pro suggest the flagship smartphone will include a Hasselblad-branded camera array. The images shared in a recent Dave Lee YouTube video show four cameras on the rear of the phone. These include wide-angle, ultra-wide, and telephoto lenses, the latter of which appears to offer up to a 3.3x optical zoom.

At this point it's unclear exactly what this Hasselblad branding could mean for the OnePlus 9 Pro's cameras. The Swedish manufacturer, which is majority owned by Chinese company DJI, is best known for its expensive medium format cameras, and has previously worked with Lenovo on a modular camera accessory for Moto Z devices, as well as Vertu for its Signature Touch smartphone. Hopefully the presence of its logo means Hasselblad has provided some real camera expertise to OnePlus beyond just brand cache.

While Dave Lee outlines three of the phone's four rear cameras, it's not obvious what the last sensor might be. Previous OnePlus phones have offered novelties like a color-filter camera and a black-and-while monochrome sensor. Dave Lee's video mentions that the phone could have a built-in tilt-shift photography mode that could relate to the fourth sensor, but it could equally just be a depth-sensing or macro camera based on OnePlus' previous phones.

Beyond the camera array, the photos shared on the Dave2D channel corroborate a previous leak reported by Android Authority that said the phone will include a curved 1440p 120Hz display. The device shown by Dave Lee appears to have an unusual 11GB of RAM (most other phones have 12GB or 8GB), and 256GB of internal storage. A separate report previously claimed the phone will be able to fast-charge at 45W wirelessly, up from the OnePlus 8 Pro's 30W wireless fast-charging speed.

The OnePlus 9 Pro is expected to be one of two or even three phones announced by the company next month, Android Central reports. Alongside it, we could see the OnePlus 9 (which itself was leaked in a series of photos last December), as well as a more affordable OnePlus 9 Lite.

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