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A government entity and a religious organization in Taiwan were the target of a China-linked threat actor known as Evasive Panda that infected them with a previously undocumented post-compromise toolset codenamed CloudScout. "The CloudScout toolset is capable of retrieving data from various cloud services by leveraging stolen web session cookies," ESET security researcher Anh Ho said. "Through Ravie Lakshmananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/[email protected]

Společnost Apple dnes představila nový 24palcový iMac s čipem M4 a oznámila dostupnost Apple Intelligence na iPhonu, iPadu a Macu.

Apple’s week of Mac began today with a newly announced iMac, now beefed up with an M4 chip and more internal memory. Apple says the iMac is up to 4.5 times faster than an equivalent all-in-one Intel Core 7 Windows PC — and promises the machine will deliver up to six times the performance of the most popular Intel-based iMac.

The inference is obvious: if you use your iMac professionally, you might want to think about an upgrade. Reinforcing the point, Apple says the iMac is up to 1.7 times faster for most tasks and 2.1 times faster for more advanced tasks when compared to the M1 model.

Apple sets the scene for its AI

Part of the reason for this improved performance is the big boost to 16GB of unified onboard memory (configurable to 24GB). That memory boost is to support Apple Intelligence, which is also available for Macs running macOS Sequoia 15.1 or above. The Neural Engine in M4 chips is 3x faster than the M1. (Apple Intelligence is also now available for iPhones and iPads running iOS/iPad OS 18.1.)

Be warned, the entry-level $1,299 iMac might not reach these performance heights as it ships with an 8-core CPU; the rest of the range offers 10 cores. You do get hardware-accelerated ray tracing, which is going to make a big difference when you use the Mac.

Apple’s AI platform play means all its current devices will now support Apple Intelligence, meaning the company now offers the world’s biggest AI ecosystem.

What else is new?

The iMac display continues to be the same 24-in. 4.5K Retina display we all know and love, with a new nano-texture glass option available if color fidelity and anti-reflection matters to you.

Starting at $1,299, the new iMacs are available in a “parade” of colors, including green, yellow, orange, pink, purple, blue, and silver. Buyers get: a 12-megapixel Center Stage camera with support for Desk View; a brilliant microphone and speaker system; and four USB-C ports, all of which support Thunderbolt 4. You can even run two external displays. Wrapping it up, you’ll find Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.1 along with TouchID support, thanks to a button on the keyboard.

Overall, this is a solid and update, but it has to be said that it doesn’t seem to be the main attraction — that honor this week is likely to be all about a smaller machine….

We’re still waiting for the Mac mini

I can’t help but feel the iMac is being seen through a lens of pre-announcement speculation for the Mac mini. That product is already attracting lots of interest — just look at the pre-release headlines:

• “This is the Mac Mini’s big moment” (The Verge).
• “A tiny Mac mini could be the ultimate travel companion and I can’t wait for it” (TechRadar).
• “Apple Mac mini with M4 chip could be a game-changer for creatives, here’s why” (Hindustan Times).

Talk about setting the scene.

Even Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman has put his well-connected assessment out there; he obliquely tells us that even if you are quite happy with your M1 Mac mini, the move to M4 processors “could feel as significant as that first shift from Intel machines to Apple chips.” 

That’s borne out by Apple’s iMac claims above. What we can piece together from the iMac introduction is that the new Mac mini will also deliver huge performance boosts in contrast to the M1 or M2 models already in use.

That’s an upgrade productivity benefits are built on in some industries, and it suggests that if your business has M1 (or older) Mac minis in its fleet, the new M4 models seem to be a tempting upgrade. After all, you don’t even need to replace the display….

Will a M4 Mac mini be the new Mac for business?

This introduction is expected to be about more than the silicon inside these Macs — it’s also the new design around them. If reports are correct, the new mini may be significantly smaller as Apple’s designers draw yet another benefit out of the energy and heat dissipation advantages of the company’s Arm-based chips.

Expect it to be a small aluminium box that’s taller but otherwise similar in size to the current Apple TV. I visualize this as being a box about half the size of a regular paperback book and perhaps as thick as three average length novels stacked atop each other. That’s really small. And it should now come with 16GB of base memory and support for Apple Intelligence.

Speaking just last year, MacStadium CTO Chris Chapman told me his existing server farms full of Mac minis used so much less power that his data center providers were, “always calling us up to tell us we’re not using enough power for the space.”

If the smaller size means lower energy consumption (and given what we know of Apple’s silicon evolution so far, it probably does), then for enterprises handling hundreds of these machines — or any other Mac, come to that — the M4 upgrade promises significant reductions in energy costs. 

A good start to a week of Mac

Combined with the faster chip, these tiny desktop Mac minis or larger iMacs are going to run just about anything you want as effectively as a hot knife through butter.

That’s why the upcoming Mac mini has generated so much interest, even before its introduction. Combined with the impressive iMac rollout today and anticipation around the expected powerful MacBook Pro improvements, Apple’s big week of Mac news is off to a strong start. But will it distract or focus interest on the company’s end of year results announcement Thursday?

Please follow me on LinkedIn, Mastodon, or join me in the AppleHolic’s bar & grill group on MeWe.

** Severní Korea, to je úplně jiný mobilní svět ** Státní síť podporuje 3G, a pustí vás jen do intranetu ** Aplikace kupujete v kamenných obchodech, vláda vás špehuje...

Raspberry Pi OS, oficiální operační systém pro Raspberry Pi, byl vydán v nové verzi 2024-10-22. Přehled novinek v příspěvku na blogu Raspberry Pi a poznámkách k vydání. Desktop nově ve výchozím stavu běží na Waylandu a kompozitoru labwc. Vylepšena byla podpora dotykových obrazovek a také integrace s Raspberry Pi Connect.

OpenAI plans to release its next major flagship model, Orion, by December, according to The Verge — and Microsoft, which has invested heavily in Open AI, is said to be ready to launch Orion on Azure as early as November.

Orion is intended to be the successor to GPT-4 and is said to be up to 100 times stronger. However, unlike Open AI’s last two models, GPT-4o and o1, it will not be released first through the AI assistant Chat GPT. Instead, OpenAI plans to first give a collection of companies access to the AI model so they can use it to build their own products.

It’s unclear whether the new model will be called GPT-5 or something else. Both Open AI and Microsoft declined to comment on the report, though OpenAI spokesperson Niko Felix told The Verge the company doesn’t “have plans to release a model code-named Orion this year.”

The FBI and the U.S. Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) have disclosed that Chinese hackers breached commercial telecommunication service providers in the United States. [...]

Microsoft has moved to simplify how Office app files are opened on mobile devices after users cited uncertainty around the process. 

Opening a Word, Excel, or PowerPoint file on a mobile device typically means the Microsoft 365 mobile app will start up rather than the relevant standalone app.  

This has been the case since Microsoft introduced an Office mobile app for Android and iOS in 2019. The Office app combined Word, Excel, and PowerPoint apps into a single app to create an “integrated experience” and reduce the need to switch between tools, Microsoft said at the time. 

(The Office mobile app was rebranded as Microsoft 365 in 2022.)

After user feedback, Microsoft announced last week that the standalone apps will be used to open files instead — as long as the standalone Office apps are installed on a user’s device; if not, files will continue to open in the Microsoft 365 app.

Aside from reducing confusion, opening the standalone app will make it easier to multitask, Microsoft said in a blog post, with multiple Office apps open at once. 

“For customers who want to open more than one Word, Excel, or PowerPoint file at once, the standalone apps can better handle side by side and windowing scenarios that modern tablet and mobile operating systems support,” said Samer Sawaya, a principal product manager at Microsoft.

Microsoft has started apply the change across its Office apps for iOS and Android, beginning with OneDrive. Outlook will follow this month and in November, while the timing for Teams has yet to be confirmed.

The platform 'continues to take action' against illegal posts, we're told

Exclusive  Brazen crooks are selling people's pilfered financial information on Meta's Threads, in some cases posting full credit card details, plus stolen credentials, alongside images of the cards themselves.…

**Flyby11 je nástroj na snadný upgrade na Windows 11 24H2 **Obejde kontrolu hardwaru, která ověřuje procesor a TPM **Nástroj cílí na ty, kteří chtějí jen párkrát klepnout myší

Cybersecurity news can sometimes feel like a never-ending horror movie, can't it? Just when you think the villains are locked up, a new threat emerges from the shadows. This week is no exception, with tales of exploited flaws, international espionage, and AI shenanigans that could make your head spin. But don't worry, we're here to break it all down in plain English and arm you with the

Cybersecurity news can sometimes feel like a never-ending horror movie, can't it? Just when you think the villains are locked up, a new threat emerges from the shadows. This week is no exception, with tales of exploited flaws, international espionage, and AI shenanigans that could make your head spin. But don't worry, we're here to break it all down in plain English and arm you with the Ravie Lakshmananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/[email protected]

Legal action comes months after alleging negligence by Falcon vendor

Delta Air Lines is suing CrowdStrike in a bid to recover the circa $500 million in estimated lost revenue months after the cybersecurity company "caused" an infamous global IT outage.…

A suspected Russian hybrid espionage and influence operation has been observed delivering a mix of Windows and Android malware to target the Ukrainian military under the Telegram persona Civil Defense. Google's Threat Analysis Group (TAG) and Mandiant are tracking the activity under the name UNC5812. The threat group, which operates a Telegram channel named civildefense_com_ua, was created on

A suspected Russian hybrid espionage and influence operation has been observed delivering a mix of Windows and Android malware to target the Ukrainian military under the Telegram persona Civil Defense. Google's Threat Analysis Group (TAG) and Mandiant are tracking the activity under the name UNC5812. The threat group, which operates a Telegram channel named civildefense_com_ua, was created on Ravie Lakshmananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/[email protected]

Three malicious packages published to the npm registry in September 2024 have been found to contain a known malware called BeaverTail, a JavaScript downloader and information stealer linked to an ongoing North Korean campaign tracked as Contagious Interview. The Datadog Security Research team is monitoring the activity under the name Tenacious Pungsan, which is also known by the monikers

Three malicious packages published to the npm registry in September 2024 have been found to contain a known malware called BeaverTail, a JavaScript downloader and information stealer linked to an ongoing North Korean campaign tracked as Contagious Interview. The Datadog Security Research team is monitoring the activity under the name Tenacious Pungsan, which is also known by the monikers Ravie Lakshmananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/[email protected]

V rámci letošní Paris Motor Show byla v pondělí 14. října představena novinka, která má ambice změnit způsob, jakým nahlížíme na elektromobilitu. Tchajwanská společnost ProLogium, působící v oblasti baterií na bázi lithia a keramiky, představila první baterii se 100% křemíkovou kompozitní anodou. ...

The Dutch National Police seized the network infrastructure for the Redline and Meta infostealer malware operations in "Operation Magnus," warning cybercriminals that their data is now in the hands of law enforcement. [...]