Month: August 2024
Pro Football Hall of Fame Revises Its Eligibility Rules
Coaches now will have to wait only a year after retirement to be considered, instead of the previous five-year period.
Coaches now will have to wait only a year after retirement to be considered, instead of the previous five-year period.
Nelly Korda Silences the Critics With a Dominant Women’s British Open Performance
The No. 1 golfer posted successive 4-under rounds to start and gave herself a three-shot cushion on her nearest rivals.
The No. 1 golfer posted successive 4-under rounds to start and gave herself a three-shot cushion on her nearest rivals.
How the Olympics Fueled Demand for Collectibles
U.S. basketball stars, women’s sports and Snoop Dogg pins dominated collector interest.
U.S. basketball stars, women’s sports and Snoop Dogg pins dominated collector interest.
Apple will soon let you delete the App Store in some markets – here’s why
EU users will soon be able to delete the App Store app in iOS, change their default messaging app, and much more.
In recent months, Apple has been forced to make changes to the way its walled garden works thanks to pressure from the European Union (EU) and its Digital Markets Act (DMA). And the latest development could have a massive impact on how you use and download all the best iOS apps onto your iPhone if you live in the EU.
For one thing, you’ll soon have far more choice over the default apps that are used to open certain files on your iPhone. Right now, Apple already lets EU users change their default apps for web browsing, email, contactless payments and app purchases, but that’s soon going to expand to cover much more.
In a post on the Apple Developer website, Apple explained that EU users will soon be able to change their default apps for “dialing phone numbers, sending messages, translating text, navigation, managing passwords, keyboards, and call spam filters.” That’s a massive increase and should give you much more freedom to set up your iPhone the way you want it.
You’ll be able to set new default apps for messaging, phone calls, password managers, spam call filters, and keyboards in an iOS 18 update later this year. For everything else, you’ll need to wait until spring 2025.
Apple is also changing how users are able to pick a default web browser. In iOS 17.4, EU users would see a pop-up window showing a randomized list of available browsers. Now, this list will appear if you have Safari set as your default browser (but not if anything else is the default), and Apple is adding a description next to each app choice. This pop-up will appear on every Apple device you have. There’s more information about this change on Apple’s website.
More freedom to delete
(Image credit: Future | Alex Walker-Todd)
The alterations don’t stop there. Not only will you soon be able to change your default apps, but you’ll even be able to delete some of Apple’s core apps that have remained a key part of iOS for years.
For instance, Apple will allow you to remove the App Store, Messages, Camera, Photos, and Safari apps from your iPhone once these changes have come into effect. Previously, you’ve only been able to remove these apps from your iOS Home Screen, not delete them entirely.
The App Store is an interesting example, because deleting it would previously mean you’d have no way of getting new apps – or of redownloading the App Store itself after deleting it – hence why Apple always made it an essential app. But with the rise of third-party app stores on iOS, that’s apparently no longer such a strong concern. As a failsafe, Apple will enable users to redownload the App Store app from the Settings app, just in case.
Clearly, these are some pretty major changes. Yet they’re only rolling out to users in the EU for now, with no news as to whether they’ll be enforced anywhere else. If you live in the EU, though, your iPhone could soon be more customizable than it’s ever been before.
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Android malware steals payment card data using previously unseen technique
Attacker then emulates the card and makes withdrawals or payments from victim’s account.
Newly discovered Android malware steals payment card data using an infected device’s NFC reader and relays it to attackers, a novel technique that effectively clones the card so it can be used at ATMs or point-of-sale terminals, security firm ESET said.
ESET researchers have named the malware NGate because it incorporates NFCGate, an open source tool for capturing, analyzing, or altering NFC traffic. Short for Near-Field Communication, NFC is a protocol that allows two devices to wirelessly communicate over short distances.
New Android attack scenario
“This is a new Android attack scenario, and it is the first time we have seen Android malware with this capability being used in the wild,” ESET researcher Lukas Stefanko said in a video demonstrating the discovery. “NGate malware can relay NFC data from a victim’s card through a compromised device to an attacker’s smartphone, which is then able to emulate the card and withdraw money from an ATM.”
Apple rumor points to an iPhone 16, Watch, and AirPods launch event next month
Illustration: The Verge
When will we meet the iPhone 16 and other new items from Apple, like MacBook Pro laptops with M4 chips inside?
Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman says that based on his sources, a launch event on September 10th could reveal the new iPhone 16 lineup, as well as the Apple Watch Series 10 and two different sets of new AirPods in time for them to go on sale as soon as September 20th. Bloomberg reports that the new phones will be similar to last year but with larger screens on the Pro models (reportedly going from 6.1 inches to 6.3 on the Pro and from 6.7 to 6.9 inches on the iPhone 16 Pro Max) and the addition of a dedicated camera button.
The other big updates may be new Apple Intelligence features that are in testing now and are due to start rolling out in iOS 18.1 after the launch of the new phones. For bigger changes to the hardware, Apple phone users may have to wait until next year, which could see the launch of a new “iPhone 17 Slim.”
As for new laptops with the fourth-generation Apple Silicon chips that first appeared in the latest iPad refresh, Gurman points to developer logs showing Macs in testing with four different versions of the M4 chip. Three pair the same 10-core CPU setup from the iPad Pro with a 10-core GPU, while the fourth one reports a CPU with eight cores evenly split between high performance and efficiency — but all of the ones noted have either 16GB or 32GB memory.
Apple doesn’t usually launch new Macs at the same time as its iPhones, but if these debut later this year, it’s possible that making room for local AI models will squeeze 8GB RAM models out of existence.
Last but not least, the Apple Watch Series 10 family is apparently getting thinner but with larger screens. And the AirPods lineup could supplant the current offering of either 2nd generation or 3rd generation earbuds with two new sets, as Gurman reported last fall. He’s said they will look more like a cross between the 3rd gen AirPods and the AirPods Pro, and the upgraded mid-tier set will bring active noise cancellation to the regular AirPods for the first time.
Illustration: The Verge
When will we meet the iPhone 16 and other new items from Apple, like MacBook Pro laptops with M4 chips inside?
Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman says that based on his sources, a launch event on September 10th could reveal the new iPhone 16 lineup, as well as the Apple Watch Series 10 and two different sets of new AirPods in time for them to go on sale as soon as September 20th. Bloomberg reports that the new phones will be similar to last year but with larger screens on the Pro models (reportedly going from 6.1 inches to 6.3 on the Pro and from 6.7 to 6.9 inches on the iPhone 16 Pro Max) and the addition of a dedicated camera button.
The other big updates may be new Apple Intelligence features that are in testing now and are due to start rolling out in iOS 18.1 after the launch of the new phones. For bigger changes to the hardware, Apple phone users may have to wait until next year, which could see the launch of a new “iPhone 17 Slim.”
As for new laptops with the fourth-generation Apple Silicon chips that first appeared in the latest iPad refresh, Gurman points to developer logs showing Macs in testing with four different versions of the M4 chip. Three pair the same 10-core CPU setup from the iPad Pro with a 10-core GPU, while the fourth one reports a CPU with eight cores evenly split between high performance and efficiency — but all of the ones noted have either 16GB or 32GB memory.
Apple doesn’t usually launch new Macs at the same time as its iPhones, but if these debut later this year, it’s possible that making room for local AI models will squeeze 8GB RAM models out of existence.
Last but not least, the Apple Watch Series 10 family is apparently getting thinner but with larger screens. And the AirPods lineup could supplant the current offering of either 2nd generation or 3rd generation earbuds with two new sets, as Gurman reported last fall. He’s said they will look more like a cross between the 3rd gen AirPods and the AirPods Pro, and the upgraded mid-tier set will bring active noise cancellation to the regular AirPods for the first time.
World-First Lung Cancer Vaccine Trials Launched Across Seven Countries
Doctors have begun trialling the world’s first mRNA lung cancer vaccine in patients, as experts hailed its “groundbreaking” potential to save thousands of lives. From a report: Lung cancer is the world’s leading cause of cancer death, accounting for about 1.8m deaths every year. Survival rates in those with advanced forms of the disease, where tumours have spread, are particularly poor. Now experts are testing a new jab that instructs the body to hunt down and kill cancer cells — then prevents them ever coming back. Known as BNT116 and made by BioNTech, the vaccine is designed to treat non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), the most common form of the disease.
The phase 1 clinical trial, the first human study of BNT116, has launched across 34 research sites in seven countries: the UK, US, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Spain and Turkey. The UK has six sites, located in England and Wales, with the first UK patient to receive the vaccine having their initial dose on Tuesday. Overall, about 130 patients — from early-stage before surgery or radiotherapy, to late-stage disease or recurrent cancer — will be enrolled to have the jab alongside immunotherapy. About 20 will be from the UK. The jab uses messenger RNA (mRNA), similar to Covid-19 vaccines, and works by presenting the immune system with tumour markers from NSCLC to prime the body to fight cancer cells expressing these markers. The aim is to strengthen a person’s immune response to cancer while leaving healthy cells untouched, unlike chemotherapy.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Doctors have begun trialling the world’s first mRNA lung cancer vaccine in patients, as experts hailed its “groundbreaking” potential to save thousands of lives. From a report: Lung cancer is the world’s leading cause of cancer death, accounting for about 1.8m deaths every year. Survival rates in those with advanced forms of the disease, where tumours have spread, are particularly poor. Now experts are testing a new jab that instructs the body to hunt down and kill cancer cells — then prevents them ever coming back. Known as BNT116 and made by BioNTech, the vaccine is designed to treat non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), the most common form of the disease.
The phase 1 clinical trial, the first human study of BNT116, has launched across 34 research sites in seven countries: the UK, US, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Spain and Turkey. The UK has six sites, located in England and Wales, with the first UK patient to receive the vaccine having their initial dose on Tuesday. Overall, about 130 patients — from early-stage before surgery or radiotherapy, to late-stage disease or recurrent cancer — will be enrolled to have the jab alongside immunotherapy. About 20 will be from the UK. The jab uses messenger RNA (mRNA), similar to Covid-19 vaccines, and works by presenting the immune system with tumour markers from NSCLC to prime the body to fight cancer cells expressing these markers. The aim is to strengthen a person’s immune response to cancer while leaving healthy cells untouched, unlike chemotherapy.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.