Month: August 2024

We may have just got a sneak peek at the next generation of Copilot+ PCs thanks to a leaked Snapdragon slide.

Microsoft has painted its new range of Copilot+ PCs as the future of Windows laptops, and for the most part we agree. But it’s hard to turn a computer into a mass seller when it costs over $1,000 (sometimes significantly more so). Fortunately, that could be addressed soon with a new range of much more affordable Copilot+ PCs that are allegedly on the brink of launching.

That’s because well-known tech tipster Evan Blass has just shared a slide from Qualcomm that details what we can expect from the next generation of Snapdragon X chips that will power upcoming Copilot+ PC models.

According to the slide, we could see eight-core chips with 1.7 TFLOPS of output, support for three 4K displays running at 60Hz, Wi-Fi 7, and 45 TOPS of artificial intelligence (AI) performance. The slide also notes that the chips will be made using a 4nm process and will come with 30MB of total cache.

(Image credit: Qualcomm)

What was missing from the slide was any hint at price, but Blass filled in that gap, saying that notebooks equipped with Snapdragon X Plus chips will start at $800. That’s a significant saving on the current range, like the Microsoft Surface Laptop 7, and could help to make Copilot+ PCs a lot more accessible to a broader swath of users.

What will they be missing?

(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

That lower price will apparently come from a few cut features. The 1.7 TFLOPS output is noticeably less than you’ll get from existing Copilot+ PCs, and that alone will go a long way towards accounting for the reduced price. But if you’d rather have a more affordable device, you might not mind.

The slide supposedly comes from a presentation by Qualcomm, the company that makes the Snapdragon X chips found inside the Copilot+ PC range. While we can’t independently verify its accuracy, Blass has a pretty strong track record when it comes to accurate leaks.

Blass suggests that we will find out more about these chips at the IFA 2024 event in Berlin next month, where Copilot+ PCs are known to be making an appearance. IFA runs from September 6-10, and it would be an ideal opportunity for Snapdragon to unveil its new eight-core chips to the world.

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Multiple malicious packages spotted on the repository are part of a bigger attack campaign.

North Korean state-sponsored threat actors were observed pushing malicious packages into the npm registry, in an attempt to infiltrate endpoints belonging to software developers.

This time around, they were spotted by cybersecurity researchers from Phylum, who argue the end goal of the campaign is to steal people’s cryptocurrencies.

According to the researchers, the attack started on August 12 this year. Multiple malicious npm packages were uploaded, including temp-etherscan-api, and two versions of ethersscan-api. More than a week later, the crooks uploaded telegram-con, and another version of ethersscan-api, and some time later, qq-console. Chances are, there are even more packages out there.

InvisibleFerret and Lazarus

All these npm packages are just a cog in a wider wheel of a malicious campaign the researchers dubbed “Contagious Interview”. The crooks would ‘impersonate’ a major software development company (be it in web2 or web3), and pretend to offer a great new job opportunity to the victims. Sometimes, they would reach out via LinkedIn, and sometimes, via instant messaging platforms such as Telegram.

The victims, usually software developers already working on blockchain-based solutions, would be offered a great job with a significant salary increase, and would be invited for a series of interviews. In one of those interviews, they would either be asked to download and open a .PDF file or, in this case, an npm package.

These packages deploy a piece of Python malware called InvisibleFerret, capable of exfiltrating sensitive data from cryptocurrency wallet browser extensions.

Although the researchers never mention them by name, this is a method usually deployed by the North Korean state-sponsored group known as Lazarus.

Lazarus is one of the largest, most disruptive hacking collectives to come out of North Korea. It’s been attributed with some of the largest cryptocurrency heists in history, including the theft of more than $600 million. Allegedly, the country is using the money to fund its state apparatus, as well as its weapons program.

Via The Hacker News

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Amazon is going to use Anthropic’s Claude AI for its new AI-powered Alexa speaker

According to industry insiders, as reported by Reuters, the new version of Amazon’s Alexa, featuring built-in AI, will be powered by Anthropic’s Claude artificial intelligence, rather than a bespoke Amazon AI. 

Anthropic’s Claude has long been heralded as a great alternative to OpenAI’s ChatGPT, but it doesn’t have a voice mode, so teaming up with Amazon via Alexa opens the door to a lot of possibilities. We also wonder if we’ll see a new Alexa with a screen that can really take advantage of AI, although Claude doesn’t have any built-in image generating capabilities.

As we recently reported, rather than sticking to the free model we’ve been used to, the AI-powered version of Alexa will cost between $5 and $10 a month. The question of whether people will be willing to part with another $10 a month just to use AI on their Alexa device is another matter. Following on from Google charging $20 a month for Gemini Advanced, which you need to use the lauded voice mode features on its new Pixel 9 smartphone, some in the industry have already expressed concern at the rising cost of AI. Right now we’re so used to AI being free that even a small monthly charge can seem excessive.

Many had expected Amazon to develop its own AI, much like Facebook has with its Llama LLM. However, according to industry sources, the speed of responses from its own internal AI were just too slow, so Amazon turned to Anthropic’s Claude. Picking Claude as an off the shelf solution is a great idea and there’s nothing new in big names like Amazon reaching out for a little help with their AI offering. Microsoft was an early investor in OpenAI and uses ChatGPT to power Copilot in Windows. Apple is also using ChatGPT for situations that go beyond the scope of Siri’s onboard AI in the new iOS 18.

Claude recently won praise for adding an Artifacts feature to all users, even on the free tier, which opens a separate window to show you the results of the project it’s helping you create, as you continue to have a conversation about it in another window. The idea is that you can see in real time the effects of any tweaks and edits you make. Of course, this is more useful for people working on things like research or coding projects than the sorts of task Alexa is designed for, and Alexa devices have been predominantly without a display.

(Image credit: Anthropic)

New features we know are coming to Alexa

The new AI-powered Alexa will be able to answer complex questions in much the same way that Google’s Gemini Live can, so you could ask it to help you plan for your first week at college, bring up a recipe for a casserole or devise a training plan to help you get fit. But there’s more. Leaked documents obtained by the Washington Post recently revealed five new features that are coming to Alexa in October, including smart briefing, a more personalized response, cooking help, shopping scout, and an AI assistant for kids.

Currently Alexa is used mainly to set timers and alarms, and adding AI could be the key to unleashing its true potential and giving us a truly smart speaker. Just image being able to have in-depth conversations with your kitchen speaker about life, the universe and everything.

You can try out Anthropic Claude for free right now on its website to see what it’s capable of. Just like ChatGPT it’s a multimodal AI, so you can upload images and ask questions about them, write code in various programming languages or just shoot the breeze and ask it what hobbies you should take up.

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The Brazilian Supreme Court has just threatened the social media giant with a nationwide shutdown, as the feud between Musk and its minister de Moraes intensifies.

If you’re living or heading to Brazil anytime soon, you may need to get one of the best VPN apps to keep accessing a popular social media service.

As per several media reports, the Brazilian Supreme Court threatened to ban the platform on Wednesday, August 28, if the social media giant fails to appoint a legal representative in the country within 24 hours.

X (formerly known as Twitter) announced the potential block directly from the platform, confirming that intends not to comply with the Court request. “We expect Judge Alexandre de Moraes will order X to be shut down in Brazil – simply because we would not comply with his illegal orders to censor his political opponents,” the Global Government Affairs team wrote in a tweet (see below).

Earlier this month, X decided to shut down its offices in Brazil over a months-long censorship dispute. The company did so as local representatives had allegedly been threatened with arrest for failing to comply with content removal orders.

As for Brazilian law, foreign companies must have legal representatives based in the country to keep operating in Brazil.

X’s owner, Elon Musk, has been especially critical of the Minister of the Supreme Federal Court, Alexandre de Moraes, repeatedly calling him a “tyrant” and “dictator” on his social media account. 

The feud has now spread to other Musk assets, too, as the judge reportedly
froze the finances of SpaceX’s Starlink on Thursday.

How a VPN can help

While the Brazilian X ban is yet to be confirmed, the chances that you’ll soon need to find an alternative way to access the platform are very high.

Put simply, if de Moraes finally signs off the blocking order, you have to trick Brazilian internet service providers (ISPs) into thinking you’re browsing from a completely different country to keep using X during your stay in Brazil.

A VPN, short for virtual private network, is security software that encrypts internet connections and spoofs a user’s real IP address. The latter feature is exactly what you need to bypass government-imposed geo-restrictions.

It all sounds very techie, but don’t worry, using a VPN app is easy. 

All you need to do is connect to a VPN server located in a country with no restrictions in place. X will see your spoofed IP address and assume you’re physically in the same place as the server you choose.

It’s worth noting that there have been reports about VPN providers allegedly disappearing from the Brazilian Apple App Store. These also include TechRadar favorites such as NordVPN, ExpressVPN, Proton VPN, and Surfshark.

At the time, I reached out to some of the providers affected. Most of them, including NordVPN, ExpressVPN, and Surfshark, said they didn’t see any indication that their services were unavailable for Apple users in Brazil. Proton VPN was the only provider to confirm a problem on the app store level.

Either way, I suggest downloading the VPN app before entering the country. I also recommend checking out our best free VPN page so that you can download a few secure freebies and hop from one to another in case one provider stops working.

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