Microsoft's Project Scorpio Goes to Extremes

The latest specs for the upcoming Xbox update, codenamed "Project Scorpio," surfaced Thursday in a report published by Eurogamer's Digital Foundry, following its exclusive preview of the still-in-development system at Microsoft's Redmond campus last week.

The update is well under way and could take gaming to new extremes, based on that report. A demo of Forza Motorsport ran at 60FPS in native 4K, showcasing the potential of the updated system -- but that was just a hint of where this mid-cycle upgrade is headed.

icrosoft officially unveiled Project Scorpio at last year's E3, but it has offered few details about what gamers can expect, until now. Project Scorpio is actually ahead of schedule, Eurogamer reported, but it is still at least six months away from a consumer launch. More details likely will be announced at E3 this June.

Project Scorpio will be the most powerful video game console to date, according to Microsoft, and based on the revealed specs the system does appear to eclipse the PlayStation 4 Pro, which Sony revealed last September.

Spotlight on Specs

Project Scorpio's CPU will feature 8 custom x86 cores clocked at 2.3GHz -- well above the original system's 1.75GHz, and even higher than the PS4 Pro's 2.1GHz.

The GPU is built around 40 customized compute units at 1172MHz, which will provide a more stable and higher frame rate with faster load times. That far exceeds the Xbox One's 12GCN compute units at 853MHz, and beats the PS4 Pro's 36 improved GCN compute units at 911MHz.

In terms of memory, Project Scorpio will offer 12GB GDDR5 compared to the 8GB of the Xbox One and PS4 Pro. It also will boast larger memory bandwidth -- and, most notably, will offer optical drive 4K UHD Blu-ray support.

This hardware not only will support more advanced games, but also will run all Xbox One games better without emulation, according to Eurogamer's report.

A New Reality

Project Scorpio's hardware power won't lead to significant changes in the overall gamer experience for most Xbox One games, however.

"Project Scorpio adds [virtual and augmented reality] technology, but it has made it clear that all other games need to be backward-compatible with the Xbox One," said Lewis Ward, IDC's research director for gaming and VR/AR.

"Microsoft will position this as an Xbox One that adds true 4K video and VR/AR support," he told TechNewsWorld.

That also could play well with the growing adoption of 4K/UHD TV sets, which still have little in the way of content.

"4K is going to be a significant piece of the market for TVs in the near future," Ward said, "so this is about future-proofing the Xbox One for 4K and those TVs that are out there. As Sony already said, 'the technology is ready, so why not use it?' This is even more true with Microsoft."

Multiple System Support

One question to ponder is how this fits into Microsoft's larger Xbox One strategy. Project Scorpio will follow the Xbox One S, a mini-upgrade released during the last holiday season with added 4K video support.

"There are at least four good reasons why Microsoft is pursuing its Project Scorpio product strategy," said Piers Harding-Rolls, director and head of games research at IHS Markit.

Leading the list is that for core and enthusiast console gamers, graphical power matters, he told TechNewsWorld.

"By outperforming Sony's PlayStation 4 Pro, Microsoft is aiming to differentiate its offering from its direct competitor," Harding-Rolls said, "and like the PS4 Pro does for Sony, Project Scorpio delivers a significant performance bump compared to the standard Xbox One, which opens up a two-tier product strategy with associated pricing and audience targeting flexibility."

Further, Project Scorpio will be a much more significant update to the core system than Sony's PS4 Pro was to the original PS4.

"The comparison is quite different in terms of what the system offers," said IDC's Ward. "The PS4 Pro was a rather modest mid-cycle upgrade, while this is really an 8.5 generation console."

Monetizing the Gamers

Project Scorpio therefore could allow Microsoft to reach early Xbox One adopters who are keen to have the latest technology earlier in the cycle, compared to previous generations, while also having the cheaper Xbox One S targeting a mainstream audience.

"Project Scorpio's native 4K gaming potential also brings it into line with more powerful gaming PCs, strengthening Microsoft's content strategy to interconnect both Xbox console and Windows PC platforms through its Xbox Live and Play Anywhere strategies," IHS Markit's Harding-Rolls explained.

"Third-party publishers that are developing games for both PC and console are progressively developing 4K level content, so the overhead to develop for this new platform is not as onerous as seems at first glance," he added. "Lastly, the power offered by Project Scorpio allows it to become a viable virtual and mixed reality platform. Compared to the Xbox One S, this will be a major differentiating capability."

Will Gamers Buy In?

Whether gamers will embrace this update, however, is questionable. Although Project Scorpio could be attractive to early Xbox One adopters who want to upgrade to a potential PC-level VR experience, price will remain a factor.

"The high-level specs suggest that Project Scorpio will come to market at a higher price point than the PlayStation Pro launched in 2016," said Harding-Rolls, which was US$399/399 euros/Pounds 349.

"Although the ability to deliver native 4K gaming is a boon to Microsoft and its product positioning, we have to be realistic about its sales potential at a higher price point, when for many console gamers -- those without 4K displays -- the improvements will be less significant," he added.

"Based on the specs it would be quite expensive," suggested IDC's Ward. "It is going to be $650 minimum, as it is a very beefy machine."

That could be acceptable to those who want a cutting-edge video machine, but that might be a rather small niche.

"If it sells more than 1 million units in Q4 2017," said Harding-Rolls, "I think it will be doing extremely well." 

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Gadget Ogling: Samsung Swings, Plus Live 360 Cameras and Smart Tuners

Welcome to Gadget Dreams and Nightmares, the column that really wants to make a lot of jokes about exploding smartphones while perusing the most compelling recent gadget announcements.

In your latest edition, we probe the Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+, a 360-degree live-streaming camera, and an automatic guitar tuner.

As always, these are not reviews, in part because I wasn't flown out for the S8 launch event to test the phones with my own hands. Ahem. The ratings relate only to how much I'd like to try each item.

Galactic Advances

Samsung is back with a new pair of flagship smartphones it desperately needs to be hits in the wake of previous handsets that were a touch too, erm, explodey.

The Galaxy S8 and S8+ have dispensed with the physical home button and added an artificial intelligence assistant, screens that so very almost kill the bezel, and fingerprint sensors on the rear.

The Super AMOLED screens have 2960 x 1440 resolution and wrap around the front of the device. Even without actually seeing the phone in person, I'm impressed. It's as if the edge of the screen falls off, as though it were an infinity pool. It's a smart, striking design.

The 12-megapixel rear camera is apparently similar to last year's model, but there's an upgrade to the way Samsung process images, and it has upgraded the front-facing camera to 8 megapixels for sharper selfies and video calls.

Welcome decisions: Samsung has kept the headphone jack, as well as microSD slots that can add up to 256 GB of storage. The S8 and S8+ are water resistant and dust resistant as well. The fingerprint sensor placement does seem odd, but with a massive screen and sans a physical home button, there aren't many options for sensor placement on the front of the device.

The truly major step forward for Samsung is the addition of the AI assistant, Bixby. The eventual goal is to let you completely control your phone with your voice, something that SIri and Google Assistant can't pull off.

That target is apparently a while away, though Bixby will have a few tricks up its sleeves by launch day. It will recognize your behavior and offer suggestions based on your habits, and it can offer contextual information about the world around you.

Meanwhile, if you're so inclined, you can hook up an S8 or S8+ to a monitor, keyboard and mouse, and use a desktop version of Android. That's not an entirely novel idea, but if it works well it could prove vital to those who need to get work done in a pinch without carrying around a laptop.

All looks good so far for the S8 and S8+, and Samsung has new rigorous safety and testing standards that it's counting on to make those exploding batteries a thing of the past. Whether that is actually the case remains to be seen.

These look like strong steps forward for Samsung -- and if Bixby works as promised, the S8 and S8+ could prove to be game changers, especially on an accessibility level.

Coming at You Live in 360 Degrees

We've a heavy Samsung focus this time around, so here's a look at a new version of its 360-degree live-streaming camera.

The Gear 360 has a slick design and can broadcast footage in 2K resolution (it can record in 4K), but perhaps its biggest selling point is that it can function with iPhones. That could prove to be a huge draw for people who want to stream everything around them but don't want to jump to Android.

Coming from Samsung, the chances are that it's built well. Just make sure to clean your home before showing every corner of it to the entire planet.

Tune Up

The typical method of tuning a guitar means carefully turning the peg while repeatedly plucking the string to make sure it's correct. This can prove mighty irritating to those you live with. Trust me.

So the Roadie 2 sounds ideal for me. It does all the tuning work for you, monitoring string frequencies to make sure everything's just right. You'll still need to pluck the string, but hopefully less often.

This version doesn't need to connect to an app to function, but if you do pair it, the app can track the health of your strings, which will help you know when to order a new set.

I don't know that I'd pay US$129 (or $79 during a crowdfunding campaign) for Roadie 2, but I like the idea. Anything that can help me reduce the frequency of tuning drones is music to my ears. (I'm so sorry.)

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review samsung galaxy s8

HANDS-ON WITH THE NEW SAMSUNG GALAXY S8

Phones are stale. Whether it's an iPhone 7, Huawei P10, Sony Xperia XZ Premium or any other flagship phone, they all look and feel the same. But just when I thought a phone couldn't surprise and delight me any more, the Samsung Galaxy S8 proved me wrong.

From the moment I picked up the S8 – and its larger, 6.2-inch sibling the Galaxy S8+ – I realised it was even more special than I expected. On this evidence, Samsung has surpassed anything we've seen before. There are one or two concerns ahead of our full Galaxy S8 review, but right now things are looking bright.

SAMSUNG GALAXY S8 RELEASE DATE AND PRICE

The Galaxy S8 goes on sale globally on April 28 for £689.

• Pre-Order: Samsung Galaxy S8 on O2 (3GB) – £125 upfront, £35/month
• Pre-Order: Samsung Galaxy S8 on Vodafone (24GB) – £160 upfront, £37/month

SAMSUNG GALAXY S8 SPECS

• 5.8-inch quad-HD Infinity Display (AMOLED)
• Samsung Exynos 8895 (Europe and Asia) or Qualcomm Snapdragon (USA)
• 4GB RAM, 64GB storage (microSD up to 256GB)
• 3000mAh battery with wireless and fast charging
• Rear camera: 12 megapixels, f/1.7 aperture and dual-pixel sensor
• Front camera: 8 megapixels, f/1.7 and autofocus
• Iris and fingerprint scanner
• Samsung Bixby personal assistant
• Android 7 Nougat with Google Assistant 

  STUNNING DESIGN

  Let's start with the design, where nothing comes close to the Galaxy S8. It's the best-looking phone I've ever seen. The curved back nestles perfectly in your palm, while the glass shimmers as light hits it. The three colours – a dark black, bright silver and a grey with a blueish tinge – are all subtle. There’s no ugly white front plate in sight.
  The S8 is thin, and incredibly light at 155g, but it feels sturdy and precisely made. It's IP68 water- and dust-resistant, so it's good for 30 minutes to depths of 1.5 metres. The glass is a little fingerprint prone, but no worse than any other glass phone I've used.
  Like the recently launched, and still excellent, LG G6, the front of the Samsung Galaxy S8 is almost all screen. And this is really what makes the S8 stand out. Unlike with the G6, though, the display here melts away into the sturdy metal rim. There’s no ‘Edge’ version this year, because both versions have a sloping panel.
  It’s a much subtler curve than on the Galaxy S7 Edge, just like on the Note 7, and that makes it a lot easier to use. There’s still a bit of extra reflection on this portion of the screen, but it’s a small trade-off for such an eye-catching look.
  Having such a big display and tiny bezel means there’s no room for the fingerprint-sensing Home button to sit on the front. Instead it’s on the back, next to the camera. It's one of the few things I don't like – I hit the camera multiple times when testing it out – but maybe I'll get used to it. 
  

  HDR COMES TO PHONES

  There’s more to the display than just the curves – actually a lot more. First off, it has a new aspect ratio of 18.5:9, rather than 16:9. This means it’s taller, essentially giving you more space in a body that isn’t that much bigger than the S7's. While the Galaxy S7 had a 5.1-inch display, the S8 has a 5.8-inch one. It sounds huge, but the phone itself feels compact and Samsung is keen to point out that it can still be used comfortably in one hand.
  Like the majority of Samsung phones, the panel is AMOLED and has a slightly odd 2960 x 1440 resolution. It’s also ‘Mobile HDR Premium’ certified, so you’ll be able to stream HDR (high dynamic range) shows from Amazon Prime and Netflix when those apps are updated. HDR is arguably the most important evolution in TV tech is recent years, giving you better contrast and a brighter picture.
  If you have used an S7, or an S6, you won’t be surprised to hear this is a stunning display. Colours are glorious, but it manages to avoid oversaturating brighter shades. A short HDR clip showed off inky blacks, and blues and reds that looked like they were painted on the display.
  Photos struggle to do it justice, but it’s easily as good – and probably better – than the HDR display on the LG G6 and the 4K one on Sony’s Xperia XZ Premium.
  Under the stunning body is a serious amount of power, though it depends where you live as to which chip you’ll get. Brits, and others in Europe and Asia, will get Samsung’s own Exynos 8895 chipset, while those in the USA will get a version with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835.
  Whichever CPU you get, it shouldn’t make a huge amount of difference. Both are the fastest out there and they're built using a 10nm production process for improved efficiency that’ll hopefully eke some more battery life out. There’s 4GB of RAM – Samsung clearly didn’t see the need to bump that to 6GB – and a roomy 64GB of internal storage with support for 256GB microSD cards.
  Phone performance isn’t something that causes concern any more, especially on flagship devices. The Snapdragon 821 CPU in the LG G6 might be six months old, but there isn’t an app or daily task that can cause it to break sweat. So why does Samsung really need to push things further?

  THE DESKTOP EXPERIENCE...

  Well, aside from hopefully improving battery life, that extra performance is being used to power a new feature called ‘DeX’. I like to think of this as Microsoft’s Continuum, but without being terrible.
  Like Continuum, DeX requires a sold-separately £150 dock that connects to an HDMI-equipped monitor and turns your Galaxy S8 to a mini PC. The dock also has power, two USB-A ports and an Ethernet connector along with a smattering of fans in the base to keep the phone from getting too hot.
  
  Dock the phone via the USB-C port inside the cradle and a new desktop – which looks a lot like Windows 10 – pops up. Your apps are displayed in a very familiar layout and there’s a dock along the bottom that lets you access all the phone and text functions of the phone.
  What makes this so much better than Continuum is app support. Apps are resizable and bounce between phone and tablet versions depending on how much you stretch them, and you can have loads open at the same time. I opened the browser, Lightroom, Google Photos, Facebook and the whole suite of Microsoft Office apps and there wasn’t even the slightest hint of slowdown.
  You can even stream your actual Windows desktop if mobile apps aren’t quite enough. It won’t completely replace your PC, but it’s the best interpretation of this feature yet, and something I'm interested to try more.
  

  BASIC CAMERA UPGRADES

  The S8 is a sizeable improvement over the S7 in almost every area, but the camera has the fewest upgrades. There’s no dual-sensor system here, no wide-angle lens or variable aperture. Instead, there’s a single 12-megapixel sensor behind a wide f/1.7 lens that uses the same dual-pixel tech as the S7.
  The only obvious addition is a new multi-frame image processor that takes three shots every single time you snap, reducing blur and leaving you with a sharper shot. The S8 might also benefit from speed improvements thanks to the faster processor, but the core camera is very similar to the S7's. Of course, the S7 still has a fantastic camera, but I'll have to use the S8 more to see if its snapper's now as good as the Pixel's.
  The front camera has seen a bigger upgrade, with a new 8-megapixel sensor. It also has an f/1.7 aperture and there’s autofocus too, which is still a rarity on selfie cameras. There’s a secondary camera on the front, but this one is for the iris scanner that Samsung says is much improved over the version on the Note 7.
  
  
  

  SOFTWARE IMPROVEMENTS

  Software used to be one of Samsung’s weaknesses, but that’s not the case any more. In fact, the software layer on top of Android 7.0 is good-looking and functional. Icons are much more mature, and the on-screen buttons – a first for a Samsung S-series phone – are all angular and edgy.
  The stark white colour scheme is clean and crisp, and all of Samsung’s native apps have adapted that look. Google Assistant is on board, although I doubt there will be Daydream support, as that sort of clashes with the newly updated Gear VR and its snazzy motion controller.
  The biggest software addition is Bixby, Samsung’s Siri rival. This personal assistant is stuffed into the software and pops up everywhere. There’s a dedicated Bixby button on the side, so you don’t need to call out an awkward phrase to get it going, and the camera has a setting for scanning everyday items and searching online for the best price.
  The leftmost homescreen is Bixby’s home, and it feels like a souped-up Google Now. It displays news, steps, your heart rate, suggested YouTube videos and so on. You can talk to Bixby, but on release it’ll only support Korean and US English. British English is coming later in the year, as are other languages.
  Another new app is Samsung Connect. This is like Apple’s Home, and connects to a SmartThings hub to let you control your entire smart home from one screen. It’s cool I guess, but you’ll need to be heavily invested in the SmartThings ecosystem to make full use of it.
  The final piece of the puzzle is the battery and it’s an important part for obvious reasons. Samsung is taking battery safety very seriously, as those constant TV adverts running you through its procedures demonstrate.
  There’s a 3000mAh cell inside the Galaxy S8, which feels very small to me. Considering it has to power that 5.8-inch Mobile HDR-ready display, I feel it should be bigger. Still, Samsung says it’ll get you through the day thanks to the more efficient processor. Wireless charging is still here (even on the European model – take note, LG) and Adaptive Fast Charging too.
  
  
  

  FIRST IMPRESSIONS

  The Samsung Galaxy S8 is a new beginning for flagship phones. It’s a gorgeous sliver of tech that utilises its power for extending the experience beyond the 5.8-inch display, thanks to DeX.
  It crams a huge screen into a compact body, without sacrificing features such as water-resistance and expandable storage, and takes phone design to the next level. Once you’ve picked up an Galaxy S8, all other phones feel somehow less interesting.
  My only reservations are minor. Will the battery last the day? And can that camera go one better than the Google Pixel's? Oh, and it's going to be expensive – but what flagship phone isn't these days?
  Unless Apple finally innovates again with the iPhone 8 then Samsung will once again have the best phone you can buy.
  • Pre-Order: Samsung Galaxy S8 on O2 (3GB) – £125 upfront, £35/month
  • Pre-Order: Samsung Galaxy S8 on Vodafone (24GB) – £160 upfront, £37/month. 
  • contact us : service.technology-monde@hotmail.com

Apple Unveils Budget-Friendly iPad, Dresses iPhone in Red

Apple on Tuesday announced an iPad update, a red iPhone 7 and 7 Plus, and a new video-editing app for iOS.

The iPad upgrade has a 9.7-inch, 2048 x 1536-pixel Retina display with 264 pixels per inch, and Apple's A9 64-bit processor.

The unit will come in silver, gold and space gray with a starting price of US$329 for 32 gigabytes of storage and WiFi-only support. It will cost $459 for a 32-GB unit with WiFi and cellular support.

As with prior models, the battery life for the new iPad is 10 hours. It has an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera and 1.2-MP front-facing FaceTime unit.

The new iPad is available for order on Mach 24 from Apple's website and will be in Apple Stores next week.

With the latest upgrade, Apple's iPad lineup looks like this: iPad Pro 12.9 inch ($799); iPad Pro 9.7 inch ($599); iPad 9.7 inch ($329) and iPad mini 4 ($399).

Not Quite an Air Replacement

Although the latest iPad replaces the iPad Air 2 in Apple's tablet lineup, it doesn't quite supplant it.

"It falls somewhere between a new device and the old device," said Carolina Milanesi, a principal analyst at Creative Strategies.

"They upgraded the most important thing on the device -- the processor," she told TechNewsWorld. "Not only will the performance be better, but other components, like the camera, will be snappier."

Pricing is also an outstanding feature of the new iPad, Milanesi said, noting that "$329 for a 9.7-inch device is very aggressive."

Prying Old iPads from Users' Paws

Attractive pricing may tempt some iPad owners to upgrade their old hardware.

"The replacement cycle for iPads is getting really long," said Mikako Kitagawa, a principal research analyst with Gartner. "If you have a 3- or 4-year-old iPad, you may want this upgrade."

The pricing also could attract some new users into the Apple universe.

"They're going to stretch the iPad's market into the mid-range tablet market," Kitagawa told TechNewsWorld.

Competitive pressure also may play a role in Apple's new entry-level tablet pricing.

"It's an interesting strategic move for Apple," said Rhoda Alexander, director of tablet and notebook research at IHS Markit.

"They've held that $499 introductory price on the 9.7 for seven years now," she told TechNewsWorld. "That price is way above the competition, so this is a realigning of the product to bring it to a more competitive price point.

The lower price point for the iPad could gin up some additional iPad sales, "but not as much as many believe," said Patrick Moorhead, principal analyst at Moor Insights and Strategy.

"The biggest challenge to large tablets are Windows two-in-one laptops and touch Chromebooks," he told TechNewsWorld.

A Red iPhone

Apple introduced red versions of its iPhone 7 and 7 Plus to celebrate the company's 10-year partnership with (RED), an organization that funds programs to help prevent the transmission of HIV from mothers to unborn babies.

Apple customers can contribute to the Global Fund to fight AIDS with iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus (PRODUCT)RED Special Edition.

A portion of the sales of the RED iPhone will go to the organization, to which Apple has contributed more than $130 million during the partnership.

Slated for availability in Apple Stores on Friday, the RED iPhone pricing will start at $749 for a 128-GB model.

Video Editing With Clips

Apple also announced Clips, a new video-editing app. The software is designed to combine photos, video and music without timelines or complicated tools.

Real-time filters, emoji and other effects available in Clips can add fun to any photo or video.

Its LiveTitles feature lets you use your voice to create animated titles and captions. As you speak, titles appear on the screen perfectly synced to your speech. You can edit titles with a tap.

Comic book filters are included, as well as support for speech bubbles and shapes. You can use the software to create full-screen posters with animated backgrounds too.

Dozens of music soundtracks are available for the content you create with the app. What's more, the app automatically trims them to fit your production.

Available in April, Clips runs on iOS 10.3 and is compatible with the iPhone 5s or later, all iPad Air and Pro models, the iPad mini 2 and above, and the iPod touch 6th-generation model. 

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Group Demands Apple Pay Ransom for iCloud Credentials

Apple has received a ransom threat from a hacking group claiming to have access to data for up to 800 million iCloud accounts.

The hackers, said to be a London-based group called the "Turkish Crime Family," have threatened to reset passwords and remotely wipe the iPhones of millions of iCloud users if Apple fails to hand over a total of US$700,000. They have given the company an ultimatum to respond by April 7.

Apple reportedly has denied that the group succeeded in hacking its systems, maintaining that it obtained the email addresses and passwords from previously compromised third-party services. Apple is working with law enforcement on the threats.

The data set in the iCloud hack matches the data found in the 2012 hack of 117 million accounts on LinkedIn, according to some published reports.

However, the Turkish Crime Family strongly denied that in a message to TechNewsWorld on Friday.

Correcting the Message

The initial reports of a ransom demand of just $75,000 were incorrect, the group said in response to our email query. It actually demanded $100,000 for each of its seven members, plus "extra stuff from Apple that are worth more to us than money," which it promised Apple it would keep secret.

The group also told TechNewsWorld that the only member based in London is Kerem Albayrek, who is facing charges related to listing a hacked Yahoo database for sale. It claimed that its iCloud ransom demands were in part to spread awareness of Albayrek, as well as of Karim Baratov, a Canadian resident charged earlier this month, along with a second hacker and two Russian FSB agents, in the 2014 breach of 500 million Yahoo account holders.

The group told TechNewsWorld that it showed Apple scan logs that contain 800 million iCloud accounts, and that Apple claimed the data had come from outside sources.

The group said it planned to launch a website that would list iCloud user names, last names, dates of birth and a captcha of their current location from an iCloud app.

The site will not disclose passwords initially, the group said, but it would do so "most probably in the future."

Shaking Down Apple

The Turkish Crime Family threat should be taken seriously, said Pierluigi Paganini, a cybersecurity analyst and member of the Cyber Group G7 2017 Summit in Italy.

"I consider the threat is credible, even if it is quite impossible to know the exact number of iCloud credentials in the hands of hackers," he told TechNewsWorld.

The group is known in the hacking underground for the sale of stolen databases, Paganini said.

The group reportedly has approached several media outlets directly; it told TechNewsWorld that it had been in contact with five.

However, it is unlikely that the group's efforts to stir public pressure against Apple will be effective, noted Mark Nunnikhoven, vice president for cloud research at Trend Micro, in an online post.

Apple is too large and has too many resources to give in to public pressure, he pointed out.

The group's demands are similar to a shakedown in the physical world, in which criminals demand monthly payments to "protect" a business, Nunnikhoven noted.

"In the digital world, the pressures that make victims pay (e.g. keeping your store in one piece) don't apply," Nunnikhoven wrote.

"With iCloud accounts, Apple has the ultimate safety valve ... they control the infrastructure behind the accounts," he added. "Which removes most of the pressure points criminals could use."

There is no evidence of state involvement in this cyberthreat, Nunnikhoven told TechNewsWorld.

However, there is "mounting evidence that this is a group whose eyes are bigger than their stomachs," he suggested. "Selling credentials on the underground is rather commonplace. Attempting to extort one of the biggest companies on the planet with poor quality data is quite another."

Credible Threat

A report in ZDNet appeared to lend credence to some of the hacking group's claims, however. The group provided 54 credentials to the publication, which were verified as authentic based on a check of the password reset function.

Most of the accounts were outdated, but 10 people did confirm to the publication that the obtained passwords were legitimate and that they since had changed them. Those 10 people were living in the UK, and had UK mobile numbers.

Trend Micro is urging iCloud users to protect their accounts by using two-factor authentication, and also to use a password manager.

A password manager helps users create unique passwords for every account and stores them remotely so that hackers cannot access one or two accounts and thereby gain access to many more.

The FBI declined to comment for this story.

Apple officials did not respond to our request to comment, and a Yahoo spokesperson was not immediately available. 

contact us : service.technlogy-monde@hotmail.com

Oppo F1 review

OUR VERDICT

The Oppo F1 is a top phone for those after a budget handset that most people won't be familiar with, especially as it can pass for something a lot more expensive. Its software may take a while to get used to though.

FOR

• Great value
• Stylish design
• Decent camera

AGAINST

• Intrusive UI
• Plastic edges
• Iffy auto brightness

The Oppo F1 is a phone with a mission. It wants to trick people into thinking you spent £300 ($450, AU$550) or more on a handset when you actually only forked out £160 ($249, AU$285).

It does a good job too. Thin and with lots of metal on show, it comes across as quite a bit more expensive than the Moto G, even though it's actually around the same price.

If you want a budget handset that people won't instantly recognize, the Oppo F1 is a top choice. And in the UK at least, it's much easier to get hold of than most Oppo phones TechRadar has reviewed to date.

But there is also now competition in the form of the Oppo F1 Plus. The F1 Plus is now available around the world and we gave it three and a half stars out of five - so it's worth reading our review and checking you don't want the Plus instead of the Oppo F1.

If you do want the Plus instead, be warned it'll cost quite a bit more at £299 (AU$599, around US$430).

OPPO F1 SPECS

Weight: 134g
Dimensions: 143.5 x 71 x 7.3mm
OS: Android 5.1
Screen size: 5-inch
Resolution: 720 x 1280
CPU: Snapdragon 616
RAM: 3GB
Storage: 16GB
Battery: 2,500mAh
Rear camera: 13MP
Front camera: 8MP

Design

How do you make something cheap seem expensive? That's a tough one for many designers, because if you get it wrong you might end up with a phone encrusted with plastic diamonds that you couldn't even sell on eBay.

Oppo has nailed the 'cheap expensive' look here, though. It's all about putting in 20% of the effort/cost for 80% of the returns.

The prime Oppo F1 tactic is using champagne-finish gold metal for the back, but sneakily switching to plastic for the sides. You get the feel of metal, but Oppo doesn't have to go to the trouble of cutting any ports into metal, which costs a fair bit to do right.

When I first opened up the Oppo F1 and had a close look at it, I experienced a twinge of disappointment when I realised that this was how Oppo managed to make a metal phone at this price.

However, a month on I still appreciate the feel of the metal back. Just don't enter into this relationship expecting something that feels exactly like an iPhone 6S.

It's not too far off, though. It has none of the chunk factor of some other good budget Android phones, and there's a smooth curvature to the sides of the Oppo F1 that means it doesn't feel boxy. The display is even covered with 2.5D Gorilla Glass, which is toughened and has a smoothed-off edge.

The Oppo F1 is out to deliver on a whole load of s-words: skinny, smooth, sleek. It also looks great, at least from the back – I wouldn't have flinched if someone told me the phone cost £300/$400.

The Oppo F1 isn't quite as pretty from the front, though – viewed face-on the handset exhibits a slight boxiness that doesn't affect the rest of the phone. And, like the OnePlus X, it has soft keys but they don't light up.

Still, this is one of the nicest-looking cheap handsets out there, only obviously upstaged by the OnePlus X, which costs roughly the same in the US and just £30 more in the UK, yet uses almost no visible/proddable plastic. Competing with OnePlus in the pricing stakes isn't easy, though.

Finishing touches that help the Oppo F1 'fake it to make it' include a non-removable back and a SIM card tray like you'd see in an iPhone; a lot of cheaper devices still use peel-off back covers that hide a less fancy SIM slot.

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Cracking the Shell

If you've begun to tinker with your desktop Linux terminal, you may be ready to take a deeper dive.

You're no longer put off by references to "terminal," "command line" or "shell," and you have a grasp of how files are organized. You can distinguish between a command, an option and an argument. You've begun navigating your system.

Now what?

Make It So

File manipulation -- that is, allowing users to traverse the directory structure and interact with its contents -- lies at the heart of Linux. There is a sizable arsenal of tools at your disposal. With the "mkdir" command, you can make new directories. The program takes one argument, which is a path ending with the name of the directory to be created.

$ mkdir new_directory

One nice thing about "mkdir" is that should you specify a directory that already exists, it won't overwrite the original.

Similarly, the "touch" command, taking a path to a file as an argument, can make new (empty) files.

$ touch file

As with "mkdir", "touch" does not harm existing files -- it merely updates the timestamp for its last access. This feature is very useful when making incremental backups, which only save files after a certain date, but "touch" is also great for making disposable files to practice on.

Removing files, using "rm", is a simple task as well, but you should approach it with caution. Supplying a path as an argument for "rm" will remove that file -- but once you hit Enter, it's gone forever. You won't find it in the Trash.

$ rm file

On the one hand, "rm" can't remove directories, so a slip of the keyboard won't cost you dozens of files. On the other, if you do want to remove a directory, and supply the "-r" option, there is no safety net, and the program will delete every directory it contains.

$ rm -r target_directory

If you want to give yourself the same breathing room with directories as "rm" affords regular files, you can use "rmdir", which returns an error and performs no action when the path leads to non-directories.

$ rmdir target_directory

To see file contents directly in terminal output, you can run "cat" with the file given as an argument.

$ cat /file

What's the advantage of using "cat" rather than a paging viewer like "less"? It works faster than "less", and you easily can return the contents of multiple files at once simply by adding more arguments.

$ cat file1 file2

Finally, you can edit files with a terminal text editor like "nano" or "vim". As with any other command, type in the name of your chosen editor with a path to the file and the terminal will bring up the contents in the editor interface. The "nano" editor is a good one to begin with if you're keen to start altering files, as it has usage instructions listed along the bottom.

Shell Basics

To make the most of these new commands in your discovery process, it helps to understand how the shell fits into the picture. Everything your computer runs must be in binary format, so when you type a command, how does the terminal know where the binary is?

The shell maintains an environment variable, a user- or system-wide value associated with a keyword (the variable name), called "PATH," and "PATH" lists all the directories where the shell should look for a command.

Every command, like everything in Linux, has a path, and if you want to know what it is, run the "which" command followed by the name of the command you want to find.

$ which command

You'll get the path right to the binary. Now try running "echo $PATH", which returns the value of the "PATH" variable.

$ echo $PATH

Odds are the directory containing the command you looked up with "which" was in there. This is why you don't have type out the path that "which" returns for every command you run.

There's more to the shell than that, however. To fine-tune its behavior and keep its users organized, the shell -- for Linux, Bash -- maintains a few configuration files. The first is ".bash_profile" or simply ".profile", depending on your Linux distribution, and it tells Bash what to do when a user logs in.

In most cases, it simply starts your graphical desktop, but you can tailor your startup process to your needs by adding normal terminal commands. If you decide to play around with this (or any other) Bash file, it's best to make a backup (with "cp"). The second file is ".bashrc".

This is the heart and soul of Bash, as it sets your command shortcuts, known as "aliases," and other customized variables. If you want to create a shorthand for a longer command, you can add a line to this file containing the word "alias", a space, the shortcut, an equal sign, and the command you want the shortcut to run (in quotes).

alias shortcut="command"

The Bash shell's third configuration file is ".bash_history", which contains a list of commands you've previously run, usually trimmed to the last few hundred. You will probably find this to be a valuable resource, so get accustomed to consulting it.

Last, but not least is ".bash_logout", which tells Bash what to do when you end your session. For most users, there's not much to see here -- but again, depending on your needs, you can have Bash run a normal command at logout.

Critical Resources

Here are a few more tips if I've whetted your appetite.

Manual pages provide detailed explanations of all the commands available on your system. To learn how to consult a "man" page, you actually can run "man man" to get -- you guessed it -- a reference for the "man" command.

$ man man

If you're not sure which man page to look in, by running "man" with the "-K" option and a keyword as an argument, you can search the text of all man pages simultaneously.

$ man -K keyword

This gives you every mention of that keyword across all the documentation on your system.

To locate a file you know is somewhere on your system, you can use "find". Run "find" with the following arguments: the name of the directory you wish to search in (recursively), the "-name" option (this, or a similar option, is required), and the exact filename.

$ find directory -name filename

If you're a bit fuzzy on the name, but know what it starts or ends with, you can put a "*" on the back or front of the name, respectively.

$ find directory -name partial_filename*
$ find directory -name *partial_filename

With this base of knowledge, you have more than enough to go a long way on your own. If you've been holding off on venturing deeper into your system, now is the perfect time to take the leap.

If you hit a wall, don't be afraid to look on Google, post to a user forum, or ask me about it. If you're worried that you'll break something, rest assured that you probably won't, and there's always a way to put it back together, even if you do.

I'm excited about what you'll turn up. Happy hunting! 

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