Author: batteryforpc

Adobe has issued a patch for a critical flaw that can be exploited to delete files from Windows computers running the Creative Cloud client.

Dubbed CVE-2020-3808, the vulnerability is a classic time-of-check-to-time-of-use flaw where, by exploiting a race condition, a miscreant could potentially trick the system into deleting work-in-progress files and other data-destroying shenanigans.

“Successful exploitation could lead to arbitrary File Deletion in the context of the current user,” Adobe said in its bulletin today.

If there is one saving grace here, it’s that Adobe told The Register a scumbag would have to convince a mark to download and open a poisoned document to trigger exploitation.

In other words, so long as you don’t go around opening random Creative Cloud projects, this shouldn’t be a massive problem, but, let’s face it, everyone gets sloppy occasionally.

If you do slip up, a hacker can delete files you’ve spent a long and hard time working on. The fact Adobe is releasing this now, rather than on a Patch Tuesday, suggests the Silicon Valley biz gets the potential ramifications. Adobe, for its part, described the vulnerability as being a “critical” risk, though only assigned the update a ‘2’ priority rating (a ‘1’ being the highest priority and generally reserved for arbitrary code execution bugs that are under active or imminent attack).

Still, it’s never a good idea to put off patching. Users and admins should update Creative Cloud for Windows to version 5.1 or later to make sure their machines are guarded from the flaw.

No other operating systems are believed to be at risk.

While you’re at it, it would also be a good idea to make sure machines are mitigated against the under-exploit code execution bug described yesterday by Microsoft. The attack, which has not yet been patched, relies on a font-parsing bug to gain malicious code execution. Microsoft has not yet said when it plans to fix that flaw. The next scheduled round of security fixes is due April 14. 

Five years ago, it seemed unlikely AMD would leapfrog rival Intel to take a process lead, but that is precisely what happened—not with its original Zen architecture, but with the shift to 7 nanometers with the introduction of Zen 2 last year. How long AMD can hold onto the lead remains to be seen, but looking ahead, there is reason to be optimistic—excited, even—about AMD’s eventual shift to 5nm.

There’s a bit of a rabbit hole to traverse, but for anyone interested in the manufacturing side of the equation, WikiChips (via Hardware.Info) posted an interesting article on where TSMC is headed. TSMC, by the way, is AMD’s primary manufacturing partner. And soon (if not already), AMD is reportedly set to become TSMC’s largest customer of 7nm silicon.

As it’s relevant here, the extremely short version of how this all works is AMD designs its processors and TSMC (mainly) builds them. There was a time when AMD made its own silicon, as Intel does (mostly), but those days are firmly in the rear view mirror.

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With regards to 5nm manufacturing, TSMC is already at the beginning stages and will ramp up early production later this year. These are basically prototype designs. Which brings us to the bit that’s interesting.

“At IEDM, TSMC reported 1.84x density improvement over the company’s own N7 node. Our estimates land at 1.87x which is reasonably close. A ramp in April will mark exactly two years since TSMC ramped its 7-nanometer node,” WikiChips says.

An 84-87 percent increase in transistor density compared to current 7nm designs is significant. Transistor density has traditionally been an indicator of overall performance, and while it’s more complicated than that—this is where the rabbit hole runs deep, if you care to dig around the web—AMD could potentially see major gains in both compute performance and power efficiency with Zen 4.

I say Zen 4 because AMD already confirmed it will be the company’s first CPU architecture to make the leap to 5nm, whereas Zen 3 (due out later this year) will be built on a refined 7nm node.

What does this mean for Intel? Sustained competition, in short. During a recent webcast, Intel CFO George Davis acknowledged AMD’s lead in nodes, saying Intel had to “accelerate the overlap” between its 10nm and 7nm nodes, and then 7nm and 5nm, in order to “regain processor leadership.” Or put more plainly, Intel does not anticipate taking the lead again until its 7nm and/or 5nm parts arrive.

As for Intel’s 10nm manufacturing, we’ve seen some parts on the mobile side (Ice Lake), but are still waiting for 10nm desktop CPUs. However, Davis also said 10nm “isn’t going to be as strong a node as people would expect from 14nm or what they’ll see in 7nm,” in terms of yields.

Bottom line is this—AMD is great shape, both now and for at least the next couple of years, it seems.

The updates to Microsoft’s Surface hardware continue. Following on from the Surface Book 3 details revealed last week, the latest leak around the new Surface Go show it too will be picking up a refresh.

Update 24 March: The leaked specs for the upcoming Surface Go 2 have caught the attention of many, and the consensus is that the Surface Go is going into a head to head contest with the iPad Air.

Jesus Diaz for Tom’s Guide: “A new iPad vs Surface war is brewing… A new leaked spec list shows that the upcoming machine is ready to crush Apple’s slim tablet with some Windows 10-powered gut upgrades.”

Adrian Diaconescu for Phone Arena: “…as long as Microsoft gets the price right, this versatile new mid-ranger should prove to be a mighty adversary for Apple’s iPad Air (2019).”

Daniel Piper for Creative Bloq: “…A leaked spec list for the update to the Surface Go, Microsoft’s cheapest tablet, suggests we might have serious rival to the iPad Air on our hands.”

It’s going to be an interesting competition when the two meet. Which is the better approach, to upscale the iPhone to a tablet, or to downscale Windows 10 from a desktop? It’s going to be fun to find out.

The details on the presumptively named Surface Go 2 highlight two main configurations. The first comes with Intel’s m3-8100Y CPI, the second with a Pentium 4425Y. Both have been spotted on web-based benchmarking site 3DMark.

The Pentium chip represents a small step up from the current Pentium 4415Y in the Surface Go. The Intel Core m3 is a chip that has been available for nearly two years. Backed up with 8 GB of RAM and a 128 GB SSD in the former and a 256 GB SSD in the latter, the Surface Go 2 is not going to win any awards for high-end performance.

But it doesn’t have to meet that challenge, there are other Surface devices that can offer that (the Surface Pro being the obvious example in tablet form). The Surface Go (and presumably the Surface Go 2) address the needs of two groups.

The first is consumers looking for a lightweight and relatively inexpensive tablet running Windows. It might to have the power to run the last 3D action game, but for social media work, browsing, and creating documents and spreadsheets, the Surface Go was a solid choice. The Surface Go 2 is going to be an almost direct replacement, albeit with comparatively less power than the competition.

The second area is in enterprise. Here the Surface Go has proven to be useful in many areas, not least as a point of sale terminal, front-line hospitality needs, on the floor of warehouses for activities, and more. The Go does not need to be cutting edge, it just needs to have just enough power and be solid enough to be relied on.

This is where I think the Surface Go 2 will make a difference. Not in the specs (part of me wonders if the slight tweak in the CPU is down to the availability of parts over the next two years), but in increasing the uptime.

Although the Surface Go is one of the most robust Surface devices (the original design had increased protection against falls, a bonded screen, and waterproofing) any broken unit is going to go out of service and have an impact on workflow and costs.

If the Surface Go 2 can bring the modular repair design from the Surface Laptop 3 and Surface Pro X to this front-line enterprise device, allowing IT departments the ability to quickly switch out significant parts and reduce the downtime. 

There’s no indication yet that this will happen, but if it does then the Surface Go 2 becomes an attractive upgrade for enterprise.

If you’re having trouble concentrating on your work during self-quarantine, a set of quality noise-canceling headphones might be a good solution. You’ll likely get a lot of use out of them in the coming weeks (possibly months) at home. Best Buy is offering a $150 discount on Microsoft’s Surface Headphones, which are over-ear, noise-canceling wireless headphones. These usually cost $350, but now they’re $200.

This model stacks up well compared to Sony’s popular WH-1000XM3, even going beyond them with their ability to simultaneously pair to two Bluetooth devices. More expensive headphones have this feature, like the $400 Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones 700, but it’s nice to have it with this discounted set.

Best Buy is also offering a nice discount on the Beats Studio 3 noise-canceling headphones, which usually cost $349. The sale price is $200, and if you’re picking between these and the Surface Headphones above, these are easier to pair with Apple products, like the Apple Watch, iPad, iPhone, and MacBook Pro, thanks to their W1 wireless chip.

It’s understandable if $200 to spend on headphones isn’t in the budget right now. Anker’s Soundcore Life 2 over-ear, noise-canceling wireless headphones are just $40 at Newegg (via Skimlinks). These offer 30-hour battery life, optional wired mode with the included 3.5mm headphone cable, and they can easily fold up in their included hard case. Use the offer code ANKR25 to save.

Borderlands 3 is down to just $20 for the Xbox One and PS4 at Amazon. This game regularly costs $60, and at this price, you’ll get the physical version. If you’d rather have the digital code for Xbox One, it costs $30. This game could suit you well if you want an open-world FPS that lets you team up with friends to face off against waves of enemies and collect loot.

If you recently got a Nintendo Switch to play Animal Crossing: New Horizons and now find yourself amassing more games than the console’s 32GB of onboard storage can handle, pick up a micro SD card. SanDisk’s 400GB model is down to $52.99, which is less than the cost of a new game. With a storage card this big, you probably won’t have to think about upgrading it ever again — at least, not for a while. This isn’t a huge deal, but it always pays to have storage when you need it. And around this time last year, these cost about $30 more.

The Kindle Paperwhite is back on sale for $95 (usually $130). Amazon had this sale just a few weeks ago, but it’s here again in case you missed out the last time. This isn’t the most affordable e-reader you can buy, but it’s one of the best, thanks to its waterproofing and great backlit display.

T-Mobile is gifting its customers with two months of complimentary YouTube Premium service as a thanks for staying inside during the novel coronavirus pandemic. This service eliminates advertisements, enables background play, and allows you to download videos to your phone. T-Mobile customers using Android can access the offer starting tomorrow in the T-Mobile Tuesdays app, and iOS users can find it on t-mobiletuesdays.com. The fine print states that you have to redeem this offer by May 1st, and if you forget to unsubscribe, you’ll be charged once your two months of service are up.

We all said RIP to the AirPower wireless charging mat when Apple officially killed the product last year. At the time, Apple said whatever prototypes it had been working on simply hadn’t met the company’s high standards. That said, it would appear that Apple has revived the project from the dead.

Leaker Jon Prosser took to Twitter over the weekend to cryptically claim that Apple’s trying to re-engineer the project from the ground up, focusing on wireless coils that would “displace heat more effectively” and that prototypes were being made. In the thread, he noted that none of the current prototypes support the Apple Watch, which presents the biggest hurdle as the company refuses to release a wireless charging mat that can’t work with its popular smartwatch.

According to MacRumors, Prosser has a decent record when it comes to Google leaks but analyst Ming-Chi Kuo did say a smaller wireless charging mat would be on deck as a major new hardware product for the first half of 2020. Prosser’s tweets do seem to address some of the rumoured issues that eventually led to Apple pulling the plug on the AirPower in the first place – namely poor heat management. Trying to cram 20 some odd coils into a sleek, tiny charging mat led to devices getting too hot and bugs with accurate battery level reporting.

But the revived AirPower mat isn’t the only Apple rumour coming from Prosser. Last week, he also tweeted that Apple has begun mass production on the iPhone 9. While the naming is not yet official, there’s been plenty of rumours that Apple is working on a successor to the popular iPhone SE. Basically, it’s understood to be the same form factor as the iPhone 8, but with updated guts and a markedly cheaper price point of roughly $400/£400. A recent report also noted that it’s likely we’ll also get an iPhone 9 Plus as well.

Prosser claims that Apple is currently working with China’s BYD to speed up production, but there’s been no official word from Apple. That’s possibly because Apple was forced to cancel a planned March event due to concerns surrounding the novel coronavirus. That hasn’t stopped Apple from releasing new products, however. Last week, it announced a new iPad Pro, MacBook Air, and the Powerbeats 4. As for a 5G iPhone 12? Prosser claims it’s still happening, but it’s likely to face significant delays, possibly until November.