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Explore the latest trends in cybersecurity with expert insight from Cloudflare

Webinar  As cyber threats grow more sophisticated, staying informed is crucial for IT professionals.…

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Open source platforma Home Assistant (Demo, GitHub, Wikipedie) pro monitorování a řízení inteligentní domácnosti byla vydána ve verzi 2024.8.

Cybersecurity researchers have uncovered weaknesses in Sonos smart speakers that could be exploited by malicious actors to clandestinely eavesdrop on users. The vulnerabilities "led to an entire break in the security of Sonos's secure boot process across a wide range of devices and remotely being able to compromise several devices over the air," NCC Group security researchers Alex Plaskett and

Cybersecurity researchers have uncovered weaknesses in Sonos smart speakers that could be exploited by malicious actors to clandestinely eavesdrop on users. The vulnerabilities "led to an entire break in the security of Sonos's secure boot process across a wide range of devices and remotely being able to compromise several devices over the air," NCC Group security researchers Alex Plaskett and Ravie Lakshmananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/[email protected]

Political officials, advisors targeted in cyber attacks as fake news sites deliver lefty zingers

Microsoft says Iran's efforts to influence the November US presidential election have gathered pace recently and there are signs that point toward its intent to incite violence against key figures.…

Security company Oligo is warning that hackers can bypass firewalls and gain full access to local networks with the help of a bug found in most browsers for macOS and Linux. According to Oligo, the bug has been around for 18 years and all the hackers have to do is use the 0.0.0.0 address instead of 127.0.0.1.

Recently, more and more hackers have started exploiting the bug; updates to block the 0.0.0.0 address are on the way for Safari, Firefox, Chrome and Edge.

Note: the bug is not found in browsers for Windows.

Oživeno 9. 8. | Medicína pro umírající procesory je tady. Intel poslal výrobcům základních desek opravu mikrokódu pro 22 zasažených desktopových procesorů Core 13. a 14. generace a ti již dnes začali vydávat nové biosy. Po nainstalování by se do procesorů měla dostat oprava, která už nebude ...

Dnešním dnem jdou na trh nové procesory AMD Ryzen 7 9700X a také AMD Ryzen 5 9600X, na nové Zen5 osmijádro se dnes podíváme.

The world of enterprise solutions relies heavily on effective data management. Standard systems, which work great for small businesses, simply break down once you have thousands of moving components operating worldwide - if not hundreds of thousands. Maintaining unstructured data, primarily if your business operates on a global scale, isn't just a waste of resources; it's also a risk to your company.

Na konci dubna vyšel webový prohlížeč Arc pro Windows v první stabilní verzi. Disciplínu surfování pojímá výrazně jinak než zaběhlá konkurence, povídali jsme si o tom v Podcastu Živě. Původně podporoval pouze Windows 11, od srpna však oficiálně běží i ve Windows 10. Od prvopočátku je zřejmé, že ...

META founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently said that hundreds of millions of people might wear AR glasses. (He was speaking with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang at this year’s SIGGRAPH conference.)

I have to say, I agree; I’ve made similar predictions in this space during the past couple of years. I think AR glasses —first without, then with, holographic images projected onto the lenses — will be the next big thing in consumer technology.

I also agree with Zuckerberg’s claimed approach to the category. During that same conversation, he said: “Let’s constrain the form factor to just something that looks great. And within that, let’s put in as much technology as we can.” 

That’s the opposite approach of most AR glasses makers. TCL RayNeo X2, Vuzix Ultralite, Rokid Max, XREAL Air and others start with: What’s the best visual experience we can ship within a reasonable price? They sacrifice appearance for quality imagery and lower price, but it’s a fatal sacrifice for mainstream acceptance. 

The result tends to be something that’s great to use but which nobody wants to be seen wearing outside. 

As Google learned with Google Glass, socially unacceptable glasses will never go mainstream. 

Ray-Ban Meta glasses, meanwhile, Meta’s only market success in hardware ever, follows the Zuckerberg model. (Zuckerberg claimed on a recent earnings called that Ray-Ban Meta “demand is still outpacing our ability to build them.”) The glasses look like normal glasses. And to make that work within a low price (starting at $300) there is no visual element in the lens. All output is audio. The camera can process multimodal input (photos, not video), but there is no light engine, no special lenses and no need for a bigger battery.

Still, Meta is clearly working on holographic visual AR glasses. The company is working on custom chips and partnering with Luxottica on getting the form factor right. Rumors circulating in Silicon Valley say Meta could publicly demonstrate AR glasses as early as October. 

Another interesting player is Brilliant Labs, which sells its Frame AI glasses. In theory, these sound fantastic. The glasses feature a microOLED display with a 20-degree diagonal field of view in the right eye. Frame accesses familiar generative AI chatbots like ChatGPT, Whisper and Perplexity. A forward-facing camera enables live translation, visual analysis and internet queries. The open-source design allows developers to customize and enhance the glasses’ functionality using provided tools and plugins. And they’re surprisingly inexpensive: $349 for standard lenses, $448 for prescription lenses.

Frames have clear downsides, as well. They lack built-in speakers and require connection to a smartphone for full functionality. Battery life ranges from two to six hours. But the biggest downside is their appearance. While they’re in the ballpark of ordinary looking glasses, the round frames stand out and draw attention in a bad way. While interesting for curious makers and tinkerers, the combination of poor battery life and dorky appearance make it clear that Frames glasses are not something an office professional could wear at work. 

Both startups and major tech companies are in a hot race to get to market with AR/AI glasses that look like regular glasses. That includes Apple, Google, Microsoft and dozens of other companies.

Which raises the questions: Where are the glasses? Why is it taking so long?

Components are too big, power-hungry and expensive

It’s possible right now to build great AR glasses. They would look like regular glasses, project holographic images anchored in physical space. And a camera would hoover up video for multi-modal input to advanced AI. That’s the good news. 

The bad news is that the battery would last maybe 45 minutes and they would cost oh, say, $10,000 a pair. 

I’m making those numbers up. The point is that we have the technology to create  great AI glasses, but need component shrinking, cost reductions and power efficiency on a whole new scale to make them viable in the market.

Huge strides have been made in the miniaturization of components, but more work remains. AR glasses need to fit all those electronic components into a regular-size frame. Even more difficult is keeping the weight down.

And while glasses must be made smaller and lighter, batteries must be bigger and more powerful. 

Even more challenging: Batteries need high energy density to provide sufficient power for the displays, processors and sensors in a compact form factor. Heat management is also an engineering challenge — the batteries can’t get hot because they’ll be right up against users’ temples. Companies are exploring advanced materials, like solid-state electrolytes and nano-materials. Big benefits could come from flexible and curved batteries for better integration into eyeglass frames. And technologies like solar cells or kinetic energy harvesting could help extend battery life. 

There are also qualitative hurdles to overcome. Light engines, which are the part of AR glasses that projects images onto lenses, tend to suffer from light leakage (where other people can see your screen and your glasses “light up” in low light), ghosting, rainbow artifacts, low resolution and more.

What’s interesting about the light engine component industry is that the major players — a group that includes Avegant, VitreaLab, Lumus and TriLite Technologies — are all working on the same problems, but with radically different approaches. For example, Avegant’s use of various display technologies and VCSEL contrasts with VitreaLab’s focus on quantum photonics and 3D waveguides. Lumus’s reflective waveguide technology differs from both, offering a unique method of image projection. TriLite’s laser beam scanning technology represents yet another distinct approach.

It will be interesting to see how these approaches shake out, and which approach offers the best combination of price, performance and size and weight.

So when do we all get all-day, everywhere AR glasses?

Following Zuckerberg’s maxim — “Let’s constrain the form factor to just something that looks great. And within that, let’s put in as much technology as we can” — we could see something creative from a major player soon.

As we learned with Ray-Ban Meta glasses, by making the right trade-offs, it’s possible to get a great, wearable product at low cost. The key now is adding a holographic display. 

One cost-cutting measure will be a display in one eye instead of two. Also: By offering visual elements sparingly, and mainly focusing on an audio interface, battery problems might be solved.

Another possibility — what if the display information showed only text and not pictures? I think most people would enjoy what might look like subtitles, offering language translation, contextual information, turn-by-turn directions and other information. Pictures and graphics can wait, if that improves battery life and cuts down on light engine problems like light leakage. 

Another shortcut is to offer just a heads-up display, rather than a display showing text and objects anchored in physical space — like Google Glass rather than Apple Vision Pro. 

And yet another point to consider is that AR glasses with holographic image capability don’t have to be as inexpensive as todays audio-only AI glasses. Ray-Ban Metas start at $300, but the right price for a great pair of AR glasses might be as much as $1,000.

The bottom line is that amazing AR glasses that look like ordinary eyeglasses are still coming. But truly high-quality, no-compromise devices won’t arrive anytime soon. It make take five years for more advanced developments in batteries, light engines, lenses and other components to be available at reasonable prices. 

In the meantime, the platform will benefit from creative trade-offs that provide something useful and appealing, though not perfect.

With the right combination components, persistent access to AI and glasses people really want to wear in public, Zuckerberg’s predictions about hundreds of millions of people wearing AR glasses might well turn out to be actually conservative.

Prezident a zakladatel Mars Society Robert Zubrin se domnívá, že je nejvyšší čas, abychom začali připravovat misi na rudou planetu. Uvedl to v nedávném rozhovoru pro Forbes. Dvaasedmdesátiletý americký inženýr a spisovatel je přesvědčen o tom, že klíčovou roli v této misi bude hrát kosmická loď ...

Quick: What’s the most exciting app on your Android phone right now?

Just a hunch here, but I’m gonna go out on a limb and say Google Contacts probably wasn’t your answer. And why would it be? Your phone’s virtual Rolodex is about as exhilarating as a trip to the endodontist. Plus, our mobile devices have had systems for managing our contacts since way back in the prehistoric days, so it certainly doesn’t seem like something to celebrate.

Hold the phone, though — ’cause Android’s current contacts setup is much more than just a dusty ol’ place to dump names and numbers. The Google Contacts app has some genuinely useful advanced options that can make your life easier and make your phone more intelligent. And all you’ve gotta do is dig ’em up and start putting ’em to use.

One important note, before we dive in: All of these tips revolve around the Google Contacts app, which is the default Android contacts app for Google’s own Pixel phones and certain other devices. If you’re using a Samsung Android phone or any other device where the manufacturer swapped out Google Contacts for its own inferior alternative, I’d strongly suggest taking a moment to switch yourself over.

Aside from allowing you to tap into all of the tricks we’re about to explore, that’ll empower you to keep your contacts continuously synced with your existing Google account and thus be able to access ’em easily from a computer or any other Android device you sign into in the future, no matter who made it —  — without any antiquated manual-transfer silliness or other effort required.

Cool? Cool. Let’s get into it.

[Hey: Want even more advanced Android knowledge? Check out my free Android Shortcut Supercourse to learn tons of time-saving tricks for your phone.]

Google Contacts Android trick #1: Group intelligence

One of the Google Contacts app’s most underappreciated possibilities on Android is the way the service lets you organize the humans and/or marsupials you know into different groups and then simplify how you interact with ’em.

Contacts’ grouping system follows the familiar Gmail labels-style approach, in which you can assign any number of custom labels onto different people’s profiles and then group ’em accordingly — while also continuing to see ’em in your main contacts list.

So, for instance, you might use a “Friends and Family” label to cover everyone in your phone who isn’t work-related. You might put a label called “Exceptionally Smart People” onto all of your Android-carrying colleagues and comrades. Or maybe you’d slap a “Squash Buds” label onto all the profiles of your squash-playing pals and/or fellow gourd enthusiasts.

Whatever the case may be, creating groups in Google Contacts gives you two key advantages on Android — sheer satisfaction of organization aside:

>

It makes it incredibly easy to fire off emails to everyone in the group at once from your phone.

It makes it delightfully simple to start up a new messaging thread with everyone in the group in the Google Android Messages app (or whatever Android texting app you prefer).

To get started, just open up the Google Contacts app on your phone, tap the little label icon in its upper-right corner — the second icon from the right — then tap “New label” to start your first contacts group and decide who should belong to it. You can do the same thing from the Google Contacts website, too, if it seems easier to manage on a computer, and any changes you make in either place will always instantly sync to the other.

Once you’ve got your groups going, the real power comes into play. In the Google Contacts app on Android:

• Tap the label icon in the upper-right corner once more — and this time, select any of the labels you’ve created.
• Tap the three-dot menu icon in the upper-right corner on the label overview screen that comes up next.
• And there, you’ll see options to “Send email” or “Send message” — hands-down the fastest ways to cook up a new email or message thread to any preselected group of alleged humans on your phone.

The Android Google Contacts app’s labels system holds some supremely useful group management powers.

JR Raphael, IDG

Weirdly enough, you can’t accomplish that same feat directly from Gmail or Google Messages. The Contacts app really is the secret ingredient — and now that you know, you’ll never waste another second thinking about group conversation creation again.

Google Contacts Android trick #2: Reminder minding

I don’t know about you, but my ability to remember important dates — birthdays, anniversaries, and other such milestones — is about as reliable as Motorola’s Android upgrade commitment.

But whether you’re trying to remember a partner’s special day or a client’s anniversary of signing up with your company, the Android Contacts app can go a long way in making sure your mushy mammal brain has the right info at exactly the right time.

Just open up Google Contacts on your phone, tap the Organize tab at the bottom, then tap “Reminders.”

And hey, how ’bout that? Right then and there, you can add a new significant date for any specific person in your contacts and then tell the app exactly how and when you want to be reminded.

Reminders are a hidden gem within the Android Google Contacts app.

JR Raphael, IDG

Contacts will alert you as requested, year after year — no additional thought or effort required. Plus, you’ll always see that info as part of the person’s profile within the app, anywhere and anytime you open it.

Google Contacts Android trick #3: Custom defaults

Have you ever gone to call someone and gotten that little pop-up prompt asking you which of their numbers you want to use? It’s a pretty common occurrence when you have people with multiple digits on your device — a cell and work number, a home and monkey cage number, or whatever the case might be.

Or maybe you’ve tried typing someone’s name into Gmail and had the wrong email address show up as a suggestion — a personal address instead of a work account, an old Hotmail address instead of the one they actually check, or any other such oddity.

On the calling front, Android usually offers to let you set a default dialing number for any contact the very first time you call ’em. But if you ever want to change that default after the fact, it’s tough to know where to turn.

And when it comes to email, you’re relying purely on Google’s best guess as to which address you’re likely to want for any given contact. And there’s no obvious way to adjust that judgment.

In both cases, Google Contacts is your answer:

• In the Contacts app on Android, find and open the specific contact you want to adjust.
• Tap the three-dot icon in the upper-right corner of the screen and select “Set defaults.”
• You’ll then be able to pick the default phone number and email address for that person (provided you have more than one of each saved within their profile).

Taking the time to set defaults for important calendars can save you precious moments each and every day.

JR Raphael, IDG

Good to know, no?

Google Contacts Android trick #4: Custom ringtones

An oft-overlooked option in recent Android versions is the ability to set a specific custom ringtone for every contact who calls your phone with any regularity. That way, you’ll know within a second who’s ringing you and how urgently you need to answer or ignore it, based solely on the sound coming out of your phone’s speaker.

To create your own custom contact-specific ringtones, just head back into the Google Contacts app on your Android device, then:

• Find and open the entry for the person you want to adjust.
• Tap the three-dot menu icon in the upper-right corner of the screen and select “Set ringtone.”
• Find and select whatever lovely little ditty best suits the person’s personality (e.g. Kenny Loggins’ “Danger Zone” or Pink Floyd’s “Run Like Hell,” for your boss).

And that’s it: The next time that contact calls, you’ll hear whatever sound you chose instead of your standard system ringtone — and you’ll instantly know what level of fear and/or dread to feel.

Google Contacts Android trick #5: A subtle silencer

Got someone on your list who dials your digits a little too often? In addition to setting a custom ringtone, you can go a step further and tell your phone to automatically route calls from any specific number directly into your voicemail — so you never even hear a single ring.

It’s a less aggressive and obvious way to avoid someone’s calls than full-on blocking, which is available within Google’s Android Phone app on any device where it’s installed. And unlike blocking, this approach allows you to receive a message and decide if and when it’s worth returning that hackle-raising human’s call.

Here’s how to do it:

• Open up Google Contacts on your phone and once more find and select the person you have in mind.
• Scroll all the way down to the bottom of the screen and look for the “Route to voicemail” option.
• Tap that option to send all future calls from that contact’s number directly to your voicemail without ever ringing.

And make yourself a mental note, too: If you ever have a change of heart and want to allow that contact’s calls through again, you can find the option to do so in that very same place within the Google Contacts app.

Google Contacts Android trick #6: Instant organization

While we’re thinking about the creatures in your contacts, let’s take 10 seconds to spruce up your setup and streamline any duplicate entries.

You’d be surprised how often that happens — with multiple contacts being saved for the same person over time, as email addresses change and your once-pristine lineup of Somewhat Important Persons (SIPs) grows ever-more messy.

Luckily, Google Contacts is incredibly good about cleaning that up for you, with next to no active effort. Just open up Contacts on your phone, hit the Organize tab at the bottom, and select “Merge & fix.”

Follow the suggestions you’re presented with — including, in particular, any option to “Merge duplicates” (which will show up only if it’s relevant for you at any given moment) — and then bask in your freshly optimized and simplified contacts setup.

The Google Contacts app’s “Merge & fix” system can work wonders on your contacts organization.

JR Raphael, IDG

Google Contacts Android trick #7: Your location station

Location sharing can be a fantastically handy way to keep tabs on friends, family members, or even sales reps out in the field during the workweek — with everyone’s active knowledge and willing participation, of course.

And while Google Maps is what actually powers all of Android’s location-sharing prowess, the Google Contacts app has gained a helpful bit of integration with that system in recent years.

Specifically, you can now see and manage live, real-time location sharing with anyone right from within the Contacts app on Android. Just open up any individual contact within the app, then tap the Location Sharing icon beneath their name and image to get started.

Once the person agrees to share their location with you, you’ll see a map showing their current physical position right within their contact profile — and, in an especially useful twist, you’ll also see their up-to-the-minute location within the Google Contacts “Individual contact” widget, if you opt to add such a widget for that person onto your home screen.

Speaking of which…

Google Contacts Android trick #8: Easy access

Last but not least in our collection of Contacts tricks is a splendid shortcut for saving seconds when calling or messaging your most common contacts — without having to have a big honkin’ widget on your home screen for every single person you interact with.

It’s part of Android’s woefully underused App Shortcuts system, and it can seriously step up your day-to-day efficiency while also making the most of your home screen real estate.

To set this one up, you’ll want to start on your actual home screen:

• First, press and hold any open space.
• Find and select the option to add a widget.
• Find Google Contacts (likely listed simply as “Contacts”) in the list that comes up. Tap it, and tap it with gusto!
• Select either “Direct Dial” or “Direct Message,” then find and select the specific contact you want. (Depending on your device, you might either tap the option or press and hold it to select it.)

That’ll put a one-tap shortcut for calling or texting that person right on your home screen for especially easy access:

The Google Contacts home screen shortcuts give you one-tap access to important people, anytime — right on your Android home screen.

JR Raphael, IDG

You can then create an entire collection of those single-tap time-savers for all the people you call or text often.

And with that, your phone’s communication capabilities have been upgraded considerably. A mobile phone that’s actually optimized for efficient calling and messaging — goodness gracious. What’ll they think of next?!

Get even more Android optimizing intelligence with my free Android Shortcut Supercourse. You’ll learn tons of time-saving tricks!

Ochutnávku z připravované novinky už si může osahat každý z vás. Měl jsem příležitost si demo projít s předstihem, a díky tomu se s vámi mohu podělit dojmy ze zhruba hodinky hraní. Tenhle příběh nebude tak pohádkový, jak jsem očekával.  

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