Archive for January 16, 2018

A List of CES 2018 Smartphone Release Dates/Prices From Flipsy

Posted in Commentary with tags on January 16, 2018 by itnerd

A bevy of new smartphones was unveiled during last week’s Consumer Electronics Show, and we’ve put together a list of those phones with their release dates and prices below.

Those who upgrade to the new phones will be seeking to cash in on their old phones, so I also wanted to quickly remind you that Flipsy.com’s free tools help people get more money for their used phones (an average of 30 percent more than carriers, in cash instead of carrier credit; and even more than sites like Gazelle).

Flipsy.com offers:

  • Instant price comparisons from online buyback/trade-in stores
  • Blue book values for any phone
  • Local store search (to find local buyers for any phone)
  • Price lock information (lock in prices for up to 30 days, then sell later at the locked-in price no matter how much prices have dropped in the interim)

Here’s the list of known and projected release dates and prices:

Moviphone

  • Release date: Available now (6-week lead time)
  • Price: $599 USD

BlackBerry Motion

  • Release date: Available now
  • Price: $449.99

Huawei Mate 10 Pro

  • Release date: Feb. 4, 2018 (pre-order); shipping and limited store availability Feb. 18
  • Price: $799 USD; an edition designed by Porsche will also be available for $1,225 USD

 Honor View 10

  • Release date: First quarter 2018 (U.S. release)
  • Price: Projected to be under $500

Honor 7X

  • Release date: Pre-order now; shipping Jan. 25, 2018
  • Price: $200

Samsung Galaxy A8/A8 Plus

  • Release date: Available now in Asia, Europe and India; U.S. release expected in January 2018
  • Price: Anticipated to be in the $350 to $450 range

Alcatel 5/3/1 series

  • Release date: TBA; more details coming at Mobile World Congress in February
  • Price: Estimated $300 (Alcatel 5), $200 (Alcatel 3), and $100 or less (Alcatel 1)

Asus ZenFone Max Plus

  • Release date: February 2018
  • Price: $229

Sony Xperia XA2/XA2 Ultra/L2

  • Release date: Feb. 18, 2018
  • Price: $350 (XA2), $450 (XA2 Ultra), and $250 (L2)

Nuu G3

  • Release date: Early Feb. 2018; pre-order now
  • Price: $199.99

LG V30 Raspberry Rose Edition

  • Release date: Will be available in South Korea, Asia, and parts of Europe; no immediate plans for a North American release
  • Price: $800 to $840 USD

Vivo (X 20 Plus UD)

  • Release date: Early 2018
  • Price: TBA

BlackBerry KeyOne Bronze Edition

  • Release date: Anticipated Q1 2018
  • Price: TBA

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Google Home And Chomecast Products Might Be Killing Your WiFi

Posted in Commentary with tags on January 16, 2018 by itnerd

Do you have a Google Chromecast or Google Home device? Have you been having WiFi issues? You may not be alone according to The Register. It seems that these devices appear to be killing the Wi-Fi connections of some users.

The issue centers around the fact that these devices send a whole bunch of data packets that is above and beyond what is normal in a short amount of time via the Wi-Fi connection. If the device goes to sleep, this stops. But when it wakes up, it can start up again. And the longer the device was asleep, the more packets it will send. Routers don’t know how to deal with this flood of traffic, so in the best case scenario, it will disconnect the offending device. In the worst case, it will crash your network taking every device down with it.

The issue reportedly affects routers from ASUS, Linksys, Netgear, TP-Link, and Synology. Thus this appears to be purely a Google issue. This is backed up by a report in 9to5Google where Google all but admits that this is their issue and they’re working on a fix. TP-Link clearly didn’t want to wait for Google to fix this as they released their own fix. It is possible that other router companies may do the same.

It will be interesting to see how fast Google fixes this as this based on my quick research seems to be a common issue.

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New Mac Malware Should Remind Mac Users That They Are Not Immune From Threats

Posted in Commentary with tags on January 16, 2018 by itnerd

There’s a new and potentially dangerous Mac malware strain that is making the rounds today. What makes it potentially dangerous is that it is capable of executing commands, stealing passwords, taking screenshots, accessing files and hijacking DNS settings among other capabilities. It’s called MaMi, after a string in the program code, the flaw was highlighted by Mac security expert Patrick Wardle in a blog post.

At present, it isn’t detectable by any antivirus product. But hopefully that will change now that word about its existence is out there. It’s also unknown how precisely it attacks users. But it should be easy to spot. Users should should first check whether the DNS servers on a Mac are set to 82.163.143.135 and 82.163.142.137. This would indicate an infection. Wardle said that to remove DNS servers, open the System Preferences application, click the ‘Network’ Icon, then the ‘Advanced’ button, and finally the ‘DNS’ button. Select each server, then click the ‘-‘ button to delete. But there are further steps that you need to take and Wardle’s blog post will walk you through them.

This should serve as a reminder that Macs are not immune from threats like these. Thus you need to take precautions just like you would with a Windows PC. Meaning, install antivirus software (Yes, this malware at present isn’t detectable by anything, but having something installed is better than nothing installed) and exercising good judgement when surfing online. That way you avoid being pwned.

 

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Two Canadians Nailed For Doing Bad Things Online…. Sigh….

Posted in Commentary with tags on January 16, 2018 by itnerd

Yesterday was not a great day for Canada as two Canadian citizens were charged for bad behavior online. Let’s start with the guy the RCMP charged for selling stolen identities and passwords at LeakedSource.com:

Jordan Evan Bloom, 27, is facing rare Canadian Criminal Code charges including “trafficking in identity information,” and “mischief to data” for his involvement in the infamous website Leakedsource.com, the RCMP allege.

Before being shut down by police in January 2017, LeakedSource.com offered visitors access to three billion records that were harvested from computer security breaches around the world, reportedly including data leaks from Twitter, LinkedIn, Dropbox, Weebly, Foursquare, Tumblr, Rambler.ru, MySpace and AdultFriendFinder.

Once decrypted and aggregated, the information was available by keyword search and accessible for a fee.

Leakedsources.com “was a middle man between the dark web and the internet,” said RCMP Staff Sgt. Maurizio Rosa, who supervised the investigation. “A person would log into the site and, with a fee, would be able to look through the site for any information about usernames or passwords to be able to get them.”

Police allege that Bloom earned $247,000 as the website’s administrator.

Hmmm…. That’s not good. It gets worse for Canada as we’ll now go to the guy who’s gotten into all sorts of trouble for launching an army of spambots on Twitch:

A B.C. man accused of overwhelming the American social media giant Twitch with an army of spambots now faces an unprecedented charge of “mischief in relation to computer data.”

Brandan Lukus Apple is also subject to an unusual civil order restraining him from creating or selling “any robot, bot, crawler, spider, blacklisting software or other software” aimed at harming the popular streaming service.

And:

The incident which sparked the criminal mischief charge allegedly happened between February and May of 2017 when thousands of Twitch broadcasters were deluged with a crippling stream of racist, homophobic and otherwise harassing comments.

According to a filing sworn in Port Coquitlam provincial court last month, Apple is accused of “wilfully causing multiple repetitive messages to be transmitted.”

The criminal charge is separate from a B.C. Supreme Court civil action which saw Twitch file a notice of claim last April to stop the 20-year-old from running a web service that promised it could “be used to bomb/spam/flood any TwitchTV chat.”

Whatever happened to Canadians being known for hockey, moose, and maple syrup?

Both of these cases have garnered international attention. Which means that this isn’t good for Canada’s reputation worldwide. The good news is that these guys have been caught and will face justice. So at least some good will come out of these two cases.

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