firmware
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ASUS calls on tinkerers to make custom ZenFone 6 firmware
While many Android phone makers are locking their devices down in the name of security, there are a few vendors courting enthusiasts who want to install their own firmware -- and ASUS is one of them. The company has teamed up with XDA to help seed ROM development teams with ZenFone 6 units, including LineageOS, CarbonROM, OmniROM and TWRP. They're also reaching out to individuals developers behind projects like the unofficial Google Camera port.
Samsung updates Galaxy Buds with Bixby voice controls
Thanks to a recent firmware update, Samsung's Galaxy Buds now work with the company's Bixby voice assistant. In addition to having hands-free control of music and audio, users can now use voice controls to request a battery status update, change to a different equalizer setting and lock the earbud touchpads. Unfortunately, the new firmware only supports English and Korean commands, and you'll still have to use the earbuds with a Galaxy phone or Android device.
Sony's popular A7 III camera now tracks your pet's eyes
Sony is making its already top-notch A7 III and A7R III cameras better with the release of a new firmware update. It introduces a fun AI feature for pet owners called animal eye detection. When set to continuous tracking focus mode, it can focus on your dog's or cat's eyes, ensuring they stay sharp rather than, say, muzzles or fur.
GoPro improves Fusion VR camera resolution via software update
It's not often a camera gets a resolution upgrade purely through software, but GoPro appears to have managed just that. The company has released beta firmware that lets its Fusion VR camera capture 5.6K spherical video at 24 frames per second. That's not a huge bump over the original 5.2K, but it could still be noticeable in the confines of a VR helmet. GoPro manages the feat by capturing footage at 5.8K and stitching it together to produce the finished video.
Nikon Z6 and Z7 updates help portrait shooters and videographers
Nikon's new Z-Mount Z6 and Z7 cameras are getting some key new features they lacked at launch via an upcoming firmware update, the company announced. The biggest one is eye-detect autofocus that will lock onto a subject's eyes, rather than just their entire face. That will ensure that your subject's eyes are in focus rather than their nose, which can be a big problem on full-frame cameras with fast, shallow depth-of-field prime lenses. Nikon showed just how it will work in the short video below.
macOS Mojave public beta is available right now
Yesterday Apple made iOS12's beta available to the public, and now it's doing the same for its Mojave update to macOS. Starting today you can download and install a test version of Apple's latest desktop operating system, which features a dark mode option for nighttime computing and revamped App Store. There's also new anti-fingerprinting tools for the Safari browser and tweaks for desktop organization and how Finder looks and feels. We've got a full round-up of additions available in case you've forgotten what was announced at WWDC last month. It's okay, it's been a long month; we won't tell anyone.
Tesla rolls out Model 3 braking update to tackle reviewer complaints
Tesla is making good on its promise to improve the Model 3's braking through a firmware upgrade. Elon Musk has confirmed that a fix for the EV's inconsistent brake performance started reaching cars on May 25th. The update should reduce the braking distance by about 20 feet for "repeated heavy braking events," according to the exec. That's no doubt meant to help reviewers like those at Consumer Reports (whose less-than-flattering review prompted the update), but something tells us that drivers won't complain about anything that could help them avoid a collision.
Google starts blocking its apps on uncertified Android devices
If you're fond of loading custom ROMs on your Android phone, life just became complicated. Google has quietly started blocking access to its apps on uncertified devices whose firmware was built after March 16th. If you're affected, you'll get a warning that a device is "not certified" and can't sign into a Google account. This won't prevent you from loading ROMs, but you'll have to register your device IDs on a white list every time you undergo a factory reset -- when there's a 100-ID limit, you could run into problems if you're routinely wiping your phone to install new firmware.
PS4 Pro will make more games look better on older TVs
The next PlayStation 4 firmware update will make the PS4 Pro a lot more like the Xbox One X. No, I don't mean the patch will malevolently shrink the breadth of Sony's first-party games lineup next time the console is in sleep mode, either. Instead, software version 5.50 adds a supersampling mode to the PS4 Pro.
Samsung’s mobile bug bounty program pays up to $200,000
Samsung is the latest in a long line of tech titans to announce its very own bug bounty program. As its title suggests, the newly-launched Mobile Security Rewards Program will pay users for reporting vulnerabilities in the company's latest firmware. If you spot a weakness, and back it up with solid research, you could pocket up to $200,000. That's in line with the sums offered by the likes of Google (for Android) and Apple. Like those companies (along with Microsoft, Facebook, and Twitter), the rewards program sees Samsung reaching out to researchers to help squash bugs.
UK Samsung TVs bricked after firmware update (updated)
Remember the days when you could unbox your new TV, turn it on, and just watch it? Clearly that time is long in the rearview, thanks to everything needing to be "smart" and requiring loads of updates right out of the box these days. In the UK, customers have inundated The Guardian with word that their new displays, some bought as recently as a week ago, have been bricked by a firmware update.
Your face might do more than just unlock the new iPhone
Apple's latest secret leak was from its own documentation -- and it's given plenty for developers to chew over. The latest code snippets shared by Guilherme Rambo and Steve Troughton-Smith offer all kinds of tantalising details that may (almost certainly) come with that new iPhone -- whichever model that may be. Not only are there further suggestions that the physical Home button will be ditched, but according to Troughton-Smith, some pointers inside the firmware for Apple's incoming HomePod suggest that a new iPhone could have a screen with a resolution far beyond that found existing models, as well as mentions of facial expression detection.
Firmware suggests the next iPhone will use infrared face unlock
Ever since our close look at an alleged render of the next iPhone back in May, there have been rumors of 3D face scanning plus a large screen-to-body ratio flying about. Today, we finally bring you some solid evidence about these features, courtesy of -- surprise, surprise -- Apple itself. After digging up new details about the Apple HomePod in its leaked firmware, iOS developer Steve Troughton-Smith came across some code that confirm the use of infrared face unlock in BiometricKit for the next iPhone. More interestingly, in the same firmware, fellow developer Guilherme Rambo found an icon that suggests a near-bezel-less design -- one that matches rumored schematics going as far back as late May. For those in doubt, Troughton-Smith assured us that this icon is "specific to D22, the iPhone that has Pearl (Face ID)."
After Math: Do you think this is a game?
It's been a heck of a week for gamesmanship. Sony announced significant firmware upgrades for the PS4, Super Mario Run is collecting millions in coin and Nintendo revealed surprisingly affordable pricing for its Switch multiplayer system. Numbers, because how else are you going to keep score?
NVIDIA's original Shield TV gets the new model's smarts (updated)
NVIDIA unveiled a new Shield TV box at CES, but the list of upgrades was pretty slim. It has a funky new controller, with a mesh of triangles peppering the grips, but otherwise it's the same hardware with some extra software bells and whistles. If you have the older model, good news -- today, you're getting all those non-hardware additions too. They include a new foundation -- Android 7.0 Nougat -- and a bunch of new apps including Amazon Video, Twitter, the NFL, Comedy Central and Vimeo.
Some Lenovo PCs can't run Linux (update: Microsoft response)
Lenovo just can't seem to avoid troubles with its PC firmware. Linux users are worried that some of Lenovo's PCs, such as variants of the Yoga 710 and Yoga 900, aren't allowing them to install their preferred operating system. They note that the systems' solid-state drives use a RAID mode that Linux doesn't understand. That's unpleasant enough, but Lenovo's initial handling of complaints didn't help. Its staff locked support forum threads discussing the topic, and a Lenovo Product Expert on Best Buy claims that a Yoga 900's use of a pure, Signature Edition take on Windows 10 Home meant that it was "locked per our agreement with Microsoft." If that was true, it'd be pretty damning -- it'd suggest that at least some Signature Edition systems are purposefully set up to exclude non-Windows platforms.
Critical security flaw found in Lenovo PCs... again
If you are sick of hearing about how Lenovo Machines are riddled with security flaws, then this ain't the story for you. Security researcher Dymtro "Cr4sh" Oleksiuk claims to have uncovered a flaw in Lenovo machines that could let attackers circumvent Windows' basic security protocols. According to his post on Github, the vulnerable firmware driver was copy-and-pasted from data supplied by Intel. His concern was that other manufacturers might have adopted the same code -- with at least one HP Pavillion laptop from 2010 already identified as packing the flaw.
Sony's next big PS4 update brings Remote Play to PC and Mac
Sony surprised a lot of people when it announced you'd be able to remotely play PlayStation 4 games on a PC or Mac back in November. But we're just as surprised at how quickly it's turned this around: Remote Play will come with the next big PlayStation software update. Unfortunately, although the beta for the new firmware -- version 3.5 -- starts tomorrow, Remote Play will not be part of that pilot.
Apple bought the company that exposed its flawed firmware
What do you do when researchers create a worm that infects your company's firmware? If you're Apple, you buy the researchers. Last August, news broke of a exploit named "Thunderstrike 2." Delivered by a simple link, the worm could silently modify a Mac's firmware, meaning that even an OS reinstall wouldn't remove it. Thankfully, the researchers responsibly informed Apple of the issue, and the company had mostly solved this particular problem before it went public.
Google's VirusTotal can tell if your firmware is infected
BIOS firmware is the root of your electronic devices, dictating communication between a computer's hardware and operating system from the boot-up process. It's an insulated layer in most devices, and organizations including the National Security Agency have focused on infecting firmware because it's not covered in standard virus-detection scans. Google's latest VirusTotal tool changes that -- in a blog post, VirusTotal security engineer Francisco Santos outlines the dangers of firmware malware and how the company can now pinpoint that bad code.
