ChromeOS’s latest update has added a host of new features to the operating system, including one convenient tool that’ll make it much easier for users to avoid distractions.
The most recent update, ChromeOS M130, was released for the stable channel and will soon be available on Chromebooks. Arguably the most useful addition is the Focus panel that allows you to set and adjust your focus time, quickly enable or disable Do-not-Disturb (DND) mode, create new or select from existing Google Tasks, and play music with focus sound (YouTube Music Premium if you have a subscription).
Other new features include simplifying inserting emojis, GIFs, and Google Drive links with the M130's new Launcher + f shortcut. There’s also the Quick Insert physical key that’s set to be included in the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus in 2025.
There are also tons of quality-of-life changes, making navigating ChromeOS more convenient. The new Suggestions section in Tote reduces the time needed to locate files like downloads and screenshots, on and offline access to the starred Drive files on the ChromeOS shelf, and the "Welcome Recap" that previews and restores apps and tabs from the previous session.
For those who dabble or specialize in audio or video editing and recording, there’s the Studio-style mic tool. It includes the existing noise cancellation and de-reverberation effects but also adds in advanced balancing, reconstruction of fine details, and room adaptation. The Google AI-powered Recorder app creates transcriptions that can detect and label speakers, as well as provide a summary of recorded content.
Finally, ChromeOS M130 integrates appearance effects into the platform's video call controls, adds support for multiple calendars and allows you to move Picture-in-Picture (PiP) windows to one side of your screen, and adds the "Help me read" tool to Chromebook Plus devices.
ChromeOS is moving on upChromeOS is often left out of the conversation when discussing popular and well-loved operating systems, mainly due to the perception of it being inferior - likely because of a far lower number of compatible apps and features. And even a few years ago this would have been an accurate assessment.
However, Google has been working hard to combat this, and now we have an OS that’s far more user-friendly with some truly helpful features. Some of the best ones include the “Help me” series which offers plenty of accessibility tools, the Focus panel, and all the enhancements made to audio and video recordings and editing options.
It’s great to see Chromebooks receiving so much more love and affection from Google. It’s slowly but surely moved from an second-class laptop meant as a cheap option, to a still cheaper but more premium version of itself. And this doesn’t even include how much better the best Chromebooks are for gaming now versus even two years ago. With all the progress made already, I’m excited to see how Google will continue to innovate and improve Chromebook and ChromeOS.
You might also likeThis year is a pivotal one for global politics and democracy, with over half of the world’s population participating in leadership elections, notably Russia, the EU, and the US. This has predictably translated into a serious increase in the number of cyberattacks targeting government organizations around the globe.
SonicWall has released its threat brief focusing on government organizations, and it found a shocking 236% year on year increase in malware-related attacks in Q1. The trend is particularly worrying when looking at the month leading up to the US election, which saw a 27% rise in attacks.
Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks this year are on track to surpass the previous by 32%, and SonicWall alone boasts a total of 12.9 million IP camera attacks prevented, which are often part of the DDoS process.
Undermining public trustGovernments, like everyone else, are increasingly reliant on digital services and online systems, which naturally creates vulnerabilities that threat actors will look to exploit.
“As attackers continue to attack critical government services and election-related systems, the importance of multi-layered cybersecurity measures cannot be overstated,” said Executive Director of Threat Research Doug McKee.
"In a rapidly evolving threat landscape, the stakes have never been higher. We must embrace cross-industry collaboration and threat intelligence information sharing to ensure the integrity of our electoral processes and protect our vital infrastructure from those seeking to exploit these systems," he continued.
The US election in particular has been a popular target for foreign interference, with misinformation campaigns from Iranian, Russian, and Chinese threat actors looking to cause chaos amongst an already deeply divided public.
Earlier this year, Iranian hackers targeted high ranking members of the Trump campaign with a cyber attack which compromised some of its communications, proving how urgent the need for robust cybersecurity really is.
More from TechRadar ProHackers have been compromising online shops, redirecting people to copycat websites, and stealing both their data and their money there, experts have warned.
The scam, dubbed ‘Phish ‘n’ Ships’ by the Satori Threat Intelligence team from HUMAN which uncovered it, stole tens of millions of dollars until it was finally discovered and stopped.
Phish ‘n’ Ships most likely started in 2019. The crooks would break into legitimate online stores in different ways - leveraging n-day vulnerabilities, server misconfigurations, easy-to-guess passwords, or in other ways. Once they gain access, they would upload multiple scripts which would allow them to upload fake product listings.
Disrupting the campaignThe listings would come with SEO-friendly metadata, to make sure they are easy to find through search engines. The fake products, usually for hard-to-find items such as the Nintendo power glove oven mitt, would lead the victims away from the legitimate stores, and through a series of redirects, which end on a copycat website imitating the original, legitimate store.
There, the victims go through a checkout process, giving away not just sensitive information, but also money, to the attackers.
Satori says that “thousands” of legitimate websites were compromised this way, and “hundreds of thousands” of people victimized. The damages are being counted in tens of millions of dollars.
To make matters worse, the crooks were withdrawing the money with no problem, for years. However, Satori’s researchers managed to notify almost all of the victimized websites, and with the help of Google, removed all malicious listings from search engine results.
Finally, the payment processors who were facilitating the cashouts were also notified, and the accounts were banned.
While this means the campaign is disrupted, the researchers believe it’s not completely destroyed. Since no arrests were made, they believe it is only a matter of time before the crooks start rebuilding the network all over again. As we approach the holiday season, it is essential consumers remain vigilant and only shop on reputable websites.
Via BleepingComputer
More from TechRadar ProApple’s big reveal of M4 Macs this week came with the introduction of the manufacturer’s new peripherals: the Magic Mouse, Magic Trackpad, and Magic Keyboard, with USB-C replacing the previous Lightning charging ports - but they currently only work properly with macOS Sequoia 15.1.
This means if you’re still on macOS Sonoma (Sequoia’s predecessor), Ventura, or any older version of the OS, the new Mac accessories will not fully work as intended. The issues were spotted by users in MacRumors’ forums, which include claims of the Magic Mouse having scrolling issues, along with the Magic Keyboard’s Touch ID and function keys not working.
While it may come as a surprise to see Sonoma and Ventura’s compatibility for the peripherals seemingly left out (after all, even Ventura is no more than two years old), it’s also a shock to see that the macOS Sequoia 15.2 beta has the same issues - it’s important to note that Apple will likely add full support for the new peripherals later on, but this certainly isn’t a given for the previous macOS versions.
(Image credit: Ilona Kozhevnikova/Shutterstock) Will macOS Sonoma and Ventura have full support for the USB-C accessories?Considering the omission of Wi-Fi 7 on M4 Macs (much to our surprise), this could be yet another strange decision from Apple, if the older OS versions remain partially incompatible with the new peripherals. The positive news is that at the very least, the Magic Keyboard maintains a standard level of functionality - though frankly, this still isn’t good enough for products that are so expensive.
As for the Magic Mouse, the main issue is the total inability to scroll - perhaps the biggest blunder from Apple this week, since that's one of the most basic functions a mouse should have. While it might be easy for most users to just upgrade to macOS Sequoia, this feels all too familiar to Microsoft Windows and its frequently-forced updates.
There is a chance that this is a temporary matter with the issues potentially being investigated already, but it wouldn’t surprise me to see Apple ignore previous macOS versions in an attempt to push users over to Sequoia - let’s hope that’s not the case, since some users on work systems might not have that option.
You might also like...Apple has just bought the popular photo editing app Pixelmator – and that could be huge news for photo editing on iPhones, iPads and Macs.
The news was shared by Pixelmator in a surprise blog post, which says that it's "signed an agreement to be acquired by Apple, subject to regulatory approval". That approval is likely to be a formality, given Pixelmator is far from the biggest fish in the image editing pool.
If you're a Pixelmator fan, you don't need to worry about big changes for now – the app maker says there will not be "material changes to the Pixelmator Pro, Pixelmator for iOS, and Photomator apps at this time".
However, it added to "stay tuned for exciting updates to come" and it's hard not look ahead to what Apple could do with the apps. The obvious parallel is Dark Sky, a relatively small startup that Apple acquired in early 2020, before folding it into its own Weather app.
It looks highly likely that Apple will do the same with Pixelmator's tech and its Photos app, which similarly exists on the iPhone, iPad and Mac. And that would be big news for photo editing on those platforms...
The new Aperture? (Image credit: Future)Apple once made a pro-level image editor and organizer called Aperture for the Mac, which existed between 2005 and 2015, when it was discontinued. This Pixelmator acquisition could potentially fill that hole – and also give Apple fans a powerful native alternative to the likes of Photoshop.
On the iPhone, many photography fans prefer Pixelmator to Adobe's apps. TechRadar contributor Paul Hatton recently wrote that the iOS app let him say goodbye to Photoshop, partly because it's designed specifically for iOS and iPadOS (so can take full advantage of Apple silicon).
We also rate Pixelmator Pro highly in our guide to the best photo editing apps for Mac, calling it a "great all-rounder" and better value than an Adobe Creative Cloud subscription. If Apple does ultimately fold Pixelmator's tech into the Photos app, it could become even better value – perhaps even free, for Apple fans.
The potential for that move has understandably made Pixelmator fans a little nervous. Apple won't necessarily absorb Pixelmator into Photos, but it seems the most likely future scenario.
While Apple Intelligence does now power features like Clean Up for removing distractions from photos, the acquisition of Pixelmator suggests that Apple still thinks it's behind the likes of Google's Magic Editor and Adobe when it comes to native AI image editing and organizing.
That's certainly the case when you look at TechRadar's Phone of the year, the Google Pixel 9 Pro, but we could soon see Apple catch up
You might also like...It looks like Microsoft’s grand AI schemes have hit another snag, with the release of the controversial Recall feature being pushed back again. Recall is one of Microsoft’s new AI-powered offerings, intended to record your desktop activity in Windows 11 by taking screenshots at regular intervals and making them searchable.
When presented, Microsoft painted a picture of a futuristic ‘instant replay’ of sorts that could help you remember what you were doing, like helping you find a specific document you were working on or backtracking to a tab you closed a while ago.
Quickly following Recall’s announcement came a swift current of criticism about the possible security and privacy-related risks that would come with an AI constantly monitoring your PC. It sounds obvious to say, but Recall would presumably capture a great deal of personal and private information - which in turn would be a lucrative prize for the likes of hackers, scammers, and other malicious actors. Researchers and experts in cybersecurity were quick to point out Recall’s flaws, such as captured information being stored on your PC without encryption.
Yet another delay - but it's for the bestMicrosoft took note of the reaction to the announcement of Recall and postponed it once already to add new privacy and security protections, like requiring log-in using Windows Hello and making Recall a strictly opt-in feature. The show was seemingly back on the road after that, with Microsoft readying Recall to be released for testing in October 2024. However, just yesterday, on Halloween no less, Microsoft announced that the release of Recall will be postponed again to continue to improve its privacy and security.
I would rather Microsoft really put as much thought and effort into this as possible, of course, but these numerous postponements make me wonder what the state of Recall’s privacy and security was initially. If it was lacking, that’s pretty worrying and makes me think that Microsoft greatly underestimates how ironclad Recall’s security measures would have to be and that it’s now trying to settle on a minimum.
I understand that even Microsoft’s resources and funds aren’t infinite, but exploitable parts of Recall could have devastating consequences for users.
So when will Recall finally arrive?When speaking to The Verge about the delay, Microsoft said that Recall’s initial release will be delayed to December 2024. In December, it will be released to testers in the Windows Insider Program with Copilot+ PCs, hoping to achieve ‘‘a secure and trusted experience.’’
Microsoft has put out a Windows Blog post explaining the current state of Recall and how it’s working on beefing up Recall’s privacy and security architecture, including allowing users to have control over data collection and ensuring that data is stored securely on devices. I know Microsoft’s not big on making it easy to disable parts of Windows you may not like, but again, it’s pretty frustrating that this wasn’t considered from the beginning.
PCWorld speculates that while Microsoft still appears to be pretty committed to Recall, there’s still a chance that it could be scrapped altogether. If Microsoft can’t get the privacy and security aspects of Recall right, that wouldn’t be the worst idea.
You might also like...Cybercriminals are attacking surveillance cameras from multiple manufacturers, leveraging two zero-day vulnerabilities to take over the endpoints, watch and manipulate the feeds, and more.
Cybersecurity researchers GreyNoise claim to have spotted the attacks after their AI-powered analysis tool Sift raised an alarm that crooks are attacking network device interface-enabled (NDI) pan-tilt-zoom (PTZ) cameras from multiple manufacturers.
The cameras can be found in different environments, including industrial and manufacturing plants, where they are used for machinery surveillance, and quality control. They can also be found in business conferences, used for high-definition video streaming and remote presentations, in healthcare (used for telehealth consultations and surgical live streams), state and local government environments, including courtrooms, and houses of worship, where they’re used for live streaming.
Waiting on patchesGreyNoise says the affected devices are typically high-cost, with some models costing several thousand dollars.
Affected devices use VHD PTZ camera firmware < 6.3.40 used in PTZOptics, Multicam Systems SAS, and SMTAV Corporation devices based on Hisilicon Hi3516A V600 SoC V60, V61, and V63.
The vulnerabilities in question are now tracked as CVE-2024-8956, and CVE-2024-8957. The former is deemed critical (9.1), and the latter high (7.2). When exploited, the vulnerabilities can be used to completely take over the cameras, view and manipulate video feeds, disable different camera operations, and assimilate the devies into a botnet.
While for some models, patches have already been released, others remain vulnerable. According to BleepingComputer, PTZOptics released a security update on September 17, but since multiple models reached end-of-life status (PT20X-NDI-G2 and PT12X-NDI-G2) not all were patched. Furthermore, PT20X-SE-NDI-G3, and PT30X-SE-NDI-G3 are still pending a fix.
Chances are, the list of affected models is a lot longer than what the researchers determined at this time. Users are advised to check with their manufacturer if they’ve released a fix for the abovementioned flaws.
More from TechRadar ProWho said that using one of the best VPN apps needs to affect what you can and cannot do online?
While VPN connections are great for keeping you anonymous on the internet and letting you access otherwise geo-restricted content, they are notorious for creating some issues with certain online services or websites. Surfshark has then developed Bypasser to help you get the best of the two worlds – the security of VPNs and flexibility on the standard internet – within a couple of clicks.
While the Bypasser feature was already available for its Windows, Android, and web extension app, the provider has recently added the option also to its iPhone VPN. Support for macOS devices is also on its way.
What is Surfshark Bypasser?"With the introduction of Bypasser for iOS, we are giving our users the power to manage their internet connection with ease," said Justas Pukys, Senior Product Manager at Surfshark. "This feature allows certain IP-sensitive websites and services to bypass the VPN, ensuring users can access these online destinations directly while maintaining security where it is most crucial."
If you're familiar with other VPN services, you may remember a feature called split tunneling. Surfshark Bypasser, Pukys explains, is the provider's branded version of the split tunneling feature.
No matter what you want to call it, this feature allows you to decide which data to encrypt with a VPN and which to transmit directly.
Surfshark Bypasser is the provider's branded version of the split tunneling feature
Let's imagine you need to certain websites and services that block VPN connections, like your online bank or your account page on a government site. You can use Bypasser to exclude those sites' traffic from the VPN.
"This allows the user to access the content without restrictions while still maintaining VPN protection for other online activities," Pukys told me.
How to use Surfshark BypasserUsing Surfshark Bypasser on the iOS app couldn't be easier.
All you need to do is open the app and head to the Settings tab you find on the left-hand side of the panel. Click on VPN settings and then on Bypasser.
Once there, tap on Add website to insert the site you wish to exclude from the VPN connection. You can easily review your choice by removing or adding new websites right from the Bypasser tab.
You can easily manage VPN connections directly within your iOS app. (Image credit: Future)As mentioned earlier, Surfshark subscribers using other platforms have been able to use Bypasser for some time now. The provider previously launched the feature on Windows, Android, and its VPN web extension app.
The new release gives more VPN flexibility to Apple users, too, as they can take advantage of the feature when using their iPhone or iPad devices. Better still, Pukys said: "We are also working on implementing this feature for the macOS operating system."
Nominating the Samsung S95D as our TV of the Year for 2024 shouldn’t deliver the same shock factor as when the Samsung S90C OLED TV ended LG’s TV of the year reign in 2023, but the reason it earned this title at the TechRadar Choice Awards 2024 is an interesting mix.
What it came down to was a combination of sensational AI-powered processing and a matte screen. This combination of digital and analog tech gave the Samsung S95D a leg-up over the competition and cemented it as one of the best TVs we’ve ever seen.
When I reviewed the S95D, I was surprised by the effectiveness of its OLED Glare-Free screen. Our TV testing room at TechRadar has harsh overhead lighting to help us test reflectivity, but the S95D made easy work of it, all but eliminating reflections and screen glare. I could even watch The Batman, a notoriously dark-looking movie, in full lighting without being distracted!
Screen reflections have typically been kryptonite for the best OLED TVs due to their relatively low brightness levels, and while the new Micro Lens Array (MLA) tech gives OLEDs like the LG G4 and Panasonic Z95A a serious boost, we found the S95D and its simple matte screen over a stunningly bright next-gen QD-OLED panel to be even more effective for viewing in bright rooms.
As I said, the matte screen isn’t the only reason the S95D won – it’s just one big piece of the TV-of-the-Year-winning pie. Like other TV makers, Samsung talked up AI innovations in its TVs at CES 2024, but the S95D is one that legitimately shows how AI can improve picture quality.
The Samsung S95D's details and textures are ultra-realistic thanks to AI features like Real Depth Enhancer (Image credit: Future)When testing the S95D, I marveled at how realistic textures and details looked. Even stitching in clothing and cracks in rocks took on a lifelike quality I hadn’t seen before on a TV. Part of this is the S95D’s QD-OLED display panel, but it’s also Samsung’s Real Depth Enhancer AI feature that contributes to the TV’s spectacularly detailed picture.
Other AI features in the S95D include 4K AI upscaling, which I found during testing even worked wonders with lower-resolution broadcast TV. Another new feature, OLED HDR Pro, further boosts brightness, giving HDR highlights in images a bolder, more vibrant look. In our tests, the S95D yielded 1,868 nits peak brightness – an over 35% brightness increase compared with its predecessor, the Samsung S95C, and the brightest OLED we've tested to date.
Combine all these features with the rich color and powerful contrast delivered by the S95D’s QD-OLED panel and you get an outstanding TV that looks great with every source thrown at it.
But it isn’t just picture quality where the S95D delivers. It’s stacked with features we look for in the best gaming TVs including 4K 144Hz, VRR (with AMD FreeSync Premium Pro), HGiG support and ALLM . It also comes with Samsung’s Gaming Hub built-in, a useful destination for gamers looking to get to the action right away.
Rounding everything out, the S95D’s built-in sound provides accurate placement thanks to an Object Tracking Sound+ (OTS+) feature. It has a ‘floating’ appearance thanks to a clever stand design, and its external One Connect Box houses all connections with one cable connecting to the TV – ideal for wall-mounting and cable management.
The S95D isn’t perfect. I think one of the best soundbars is needed to add extra audio immersion, and there was some black crush present in dark scenes when I tested it, but there really isn't any other way I could fault Samsung’s top OLED TV.
I’ve seen every major S95D competitor this year – the LG G4, Sony Bravia 9, Panasonic Z95A and Philips OLED909 to name a few – and while they all have their strengths and are superb TVs, none gave me the same feeling of seeing a leap forward that the S95D did. As I said in my review, the Samsung S95D is both “the future of OLED” and “the standard bearer for 2024”. If that doesn’t say TV of the Year, what does?