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Flash-based drives may soon be as cheap as the spinning kind
If you've noticed that solid-state drives (and the PCs that include them) no longer cost an arm and a leg, you're not alone. Researchers at DRAMeXchange understand that the price per gigabyte of an SSD has fallen off a cliff in the past three years, and the trend is only accelerating. If the company's estimates are on the mark, these drives could cost just 11 cents more per gig than conventional hard drives by 2017. At that rate, you might not have to choose between high capacity and breakneck speed when you're on a budget -- you could easily afford both.
Adobe bows to HTML5 and renames its Flash Professional app
Given that Flash is widely considered an internet blight, it's hard to imagine a time when it was actually cool. But in the day, the app was the only way to make interesting animated pages, so it attracted top designers to its content creation tool, Flash Professional. Adobe has now officially ended that era by renaming Flash Professional to Adobe Animate CC. The company said that "over a third of all content created in Flash Professional today uses HTML5," so it is symbolically acknowledging the shift with the new name. The app will still support Flash output, of course, along with other video and animation formats, including 4K, HTML5 canvas and WebGL output.
The After Math: Pop culture phenoms
Quentin Tarantino is taking some serious flack this week for his comments on the #BlackLivesMatter debate. As such, we're taking a look at some other franchises that are sure to get your geek blood pumping harder than the first time you listened to Gangnam Style. Here are the numbers you deserve, not the numbers you need right now.
Adobe patches that horrible Flash vulnerability
Relax folks, the latest Flash vulnerability has been fixed, according to a security bulletin from Adobe. Yesterday we learned that Flash on Windows, Macs and Linux all had a critical vulnerability that "could cause a crash and potentially allow an attacker to take control of the affected system." Yup, that's pretty much as bad as things get when it comes to security issues. Thankfully Adobe rushed to fix the issue -- previously we thought it might take until next week for a fix. So if you're still relying on Flash for some reason, be sure you get the latest update ASAP.
Adobe warns of 'critical vulnerability' in Flash
The general consensus on Adobe Flash is that it's no longer good for anyone. In 2010, Steve Jobs' wrote an open letter about the software, stating it fell short in many areas and wasn't ready for the mobile era. Facebook's newly appointed security lead, Alex Amos, added fuel to the fire recently by saying Adobe should announce an end-of-life date for Flash soon. And Adobe isn't helping its cause. To make matters worse, the company has now found a critical vulnerability in Flash Player which, if successfully exploited, "could cause a crash and potentially allow an attacker to take control of the affected system." According to Adobe's security bulletin, this issue affects version 19.0.0.207 (and earlier) on Mac, Windows and Linux computers, adding that it is aware of a report claiming the exploit is "being used in limited, targeted attacks." Adobe says it's working on a fix, and it could be available as early as October 16.
Firefox will stop supporting web plugins (except for Flash) by the end of 2016
Horrible browser plugins used to offer extended multimedia features for website, often at the cost of a much worse overall experience -- thankfully, they're going the way of the dodo. Chrome recently banished plugins like Java and Silverlight (and made auto-playing Flash ads disabled by default), and now Firefox is doing the same. Mozilla just announced in a blog post that nearly all old-school plugins will not be supported in Firefox by the end of 2016. That's a long ways away, but it's still good news.
BBC begins phasing out Flash with new HTML5 iPlayer trial
Now that Chrome and Firefox are treating Flash like an unwanted guest, online companies are weighing up whether supporting the browser plugin is worth their time. The BBC currently utilises it for its popular iPlayer service, but it's already working on an alternative. The Beeb announced today that it's launched an open beta for its new HTML5 player, giving you the option to watch your favourite shows from any browser, whether you're using your smartphone (which ties in nicely with its Android beta), tablet or PC.
Chrome's next update makes it less resource hungry
A big part of what's won Chrome a lot of converts is how much faster it is over the competition. That speed comes at a price, though: The web browser is notoriously a resource hog (especially if you have a dozen or so tabs open at once) and it dramatically cuts into battery life. As Google tells it, the latest version of the browser will help absolve those sins a bit. New tweaks include restoring only the most frequently used tabs should it detect that your machine is precariously low on resources, and a way of detecting when a page isn't busy with something else and using the free processor cycles to clean up idle memory.
Chrome will block obnoxious Flash ads starting September 1st
Back in June, Google shared the good news that the Chrome browser would soon be smart enough to "intelligently pause content that aren't central to the webpage" that you're visiting. It's a welcome change that should help to continue marginalizing the annoyance of Flash. Fortunately, that blessed new feature is ready for prime time. On the Google+ page for the company's AdWords advertising program, Google said that a Chrome update coming on September 1st would make Flash-blocking the default state for users.
Samsung's 256-gigabit chip puts multi-terabyte flash drives in your PC
Think that Samsung's 2TB solid-state drives are pretty capacious? They're just the start of something bigger. The Korean tech giant has started manufacturing the first 256-gigabit (32GB) 3D vertical flash memory, doubling its previous capacity record. The new tech should turn multi-terabyte SSDs into practical options for your home PC, and help phone makers cram more storage into tight spaces. You might get more bang for your buck, to boot -- Samsung's manufacturing is 40 percent more productive, so you likely won't pay twice as much for twice the headroom. The company plans to make this 256-gigabit flash through the rest of 2015, so you'll probably see it crop up in a lot of products (from Samsung and otherwise) over the months ahead.
Toshiba's new flash chips hold twice the data
Judging by recent announcements, we're about to enter a golden age of fast, nearly unlimited storage for all the high-res selfies you can shoot. Following an announcement by Intel and Micron last week, Toshiba and partner SanDisk revealed their own 256Gb flash chips. Toshiba already has the smallest flash cells in the world at 15 nanometers, which it stacks in 48 layers to maximize density. The new chips add in 3-bit tech (first used by Samsung) to squeeze even more bytes in, helping it double the storage of chips it announced just a few months ago. The result will be faster and more reliable memory for smartphones, SSDs and other devices.
Huge malware campaign used Yahoo's ad network
You've probably heard of malware-laden ads causing havoc on the web, but rarely on this scale. Malwarebytes has discovered a malware campaign that was using Yahoo's ad network to target legions upon legions of visitors -- Yahoo's main site racks up 6.9 billion visits per month. While it's not clear what would happen if you fell victim to an attack, the Flash-based exploit kit linked to the campaign typically includes both ad fraud and ransomware. In short, there's a real chance that you could have been locked out of your PC simply by checking on your fantasy sports league.
Twitch starts dumping Flash for HTML5
Twitch is ditching Flash. The first step is a redesign of its video player controls, swapping out the old Flash model for shiny, new HTML5 and Javascript controls. Twitch videos are still Flash-based for now, but this is all in preparation for a full HTML5 player. The new controls will be rolled out gradually to all users, and you'll notice them on channel pages first.
Recommended Reading: Does Comic-Con have a piracy problem?
Recommended Reading highlights the best long-form writing on technology and more in print and on the web. Some weeks, you'll also find short reviews of books that we think are worth your time. We hope you enjoy the read. Comic-Con Makes Everyone a Pirate: The 'Problem' of Leaked Trailers by Susana Polo Polygon As you can probably imagine, studio execs weren't too happy that early footage from Deadpool and Suicide Squad leaked online last week. Well, that's what they said, at least. Cellphone video was taken at private events and posted for the world to see. This isn't the first time this has happened to Warner Bros. and yet the company still brings "exclusive" trailers to the supposedly behind-closed-doors events. Does Comic-Con have a piracy problem or are studios counting on leaks to help build hype for highly anticipated films?
Firefox now blocks Flash automatically
Flash is the Justin Bieber of browser plugins: it's everywhere, it does nothing useful and every time you see it you want to smash a window. Yesterday, Facebook's head of security publicly opined that it was time for the platform to die, and just a day later, Mozilla's Mark Schmidt has joined in. In a tweet, Schmidt has announced that, as of the latest update, the Firefox browser will block Flash automatically. It looks as if the technology world has decided that if Adobe won't do the decent thing and kill it, then everyone else will just tool up and beat it to death themselves.
Facebook security lead wants Adobe to say when it's killing Flash
To put it mildly, Adobe's Flash plugin has fallen from grace in recent years. BlackBerry, Google and other companies once thought it was crucial to the web, but you'll now find many of these outfits going out of their way to avoid and contain Flash in the names of both security and promoting true standards. Need further proof that it's a pariah? Just ask Facebook's new security chief, Alex Stamos. He's calling on Adobe to not only choose an "end-of-life date" for Flash, but to enable web browser "killbits" that shut it off for everyone at once. That's the only way to "disentangle the dependencies" and get everyone to move on to more secure technology like HTML5, he argues.
Ditching RAM may lead to low-cost supercomputers
Many servers, supercomputers and other monster systems thrive on high-speed RAM to keep things running smoothly, but this memory is wildly expensive -- and that limits not just the number of nodes in these clusters, but who can use them. MIT researchers may have a much more affordable approach in the future, though. They've built a server network (not shown here) that drops RAM in favor of cheaper and slower flash storage, yet performs just about as well. The key was to get the flash drives themselves (or specifically, their controllers) to pre-process some of the data, instead of making the CPUs do all the hard work. That doesn't completely close the speed gap, but the differences are virtually negligible. In one test, 20 servers with 20TB of flash were about as fast as 40 servers with 10TB of RAM.
Misfit's Flash fitness tracker will switch on your lights, shame you for being lazy
Misfit's wearable devices are know for their nice aesthetic, but it's the company's ongoing support, that keeps them joining the rank and file fitness trackers. Today, it's a trio of small, but handy updates to both the Shine and the Flash. Most notably, the introduction of a web interface to view your fitness or sleep data online, so you're no longer tied to the mobile app. Back in January, Misfit announced Flash would join FitBit in working with IFTTT's web automation tools, and also be able to control smart home devices via Logitech's Harmony Home Hub. Both of those features arrive today (though Misfit already had some IFTTT integrations). Last up, one for the iOS users. Misfit already feeds your step-count into Apple's HealthKit, but starting today, your sleep and weight data will (if you wish) be included too. So, we're getting mixed messages here? Misfit's saving you a walk to the light switch, but making it harder to hide from your (now lower) step count. Thanks... we think?
Chrome will 'intelligently' pause Flash content like auto-playing ads
Few things are more annoying on the internet than auto-playing Flash ads, especially if it has audio. If you don't already have an ad-blocker installed, then you might want to consider getting the upcoming version of Chrome. Google has announced today that it's been working with Adobe to introduce an update to Chrome that will "intelligently pause content that aren't central to the webpage." That means that the browser will automatically halt auto-playing Flash content on the sidebar, for example, but will still let that Flash video in the middle -- arguably the reason you're on that webpage in the first place -- play away. And just in case you do want to watch that ad for whatever reason, you can click it to enable playback.
Russians are using undiscovered exploits to hack governments
If you've been wondering how Russian cyberattackers could compromise the White House and other high-profile political targets, the security researchers at FireEye have an answer. They've determined that APT28, a politically-motivated Russian hacking group, used unpatched exploits in Flash Player and Windows in a series of assaults against a "specific foreign government organization" on April 13th. Patches for both flaws are either ready or on the way, but the vulnerabilities reinforce beliefs that APT28 is very skilled -- less experienced groups would use off-the-shelf code.
