After a holiday break, here are a few of the tech stories I’ve been interested in
The Solar Winds Orion Hack Fallout Continued
Over the holiday period the fallout from the hack that went through the Solar Winds Orion product continued. It was revealed that up to 250 separate US government agencies may have been compromised, and that the reach of this attack was significantly more widespread. US lawmakers and intelligence agencies have all said the attack originated from Russia, and was likely state sponsored. The Trump White House has to this point contradicted its own government agencies, and has said the attack may have been from China. There is no supporting evidence.
Microsoft has also disclosed that the compromise allowed bad actors to view some of its product source code, though the company did not disclose specifically which product’ss source code was visible. The company says that the access was read only, and that the hackers did not have the ability to modify any source code.
https://www.zdnet.com/article/solarwinds-hackers-accessed-microsoft-source-code/
Microsoft Job Posting Reveals Coming Windows 10 Design Overhaul
In a job posting that has since been modified, Microsoft has accidentally revealed that Windows 10 is getting a design overhaul. The posting originally stated that the successful candidate would be helping in a “sweeping visual rejuvenation” of Windows 10. This is welcome news, as the user interface in Windows 10 desperately needs someone to go through it with a fine toothed comb and actually create a consstent look. Since Windows 10 first debuted in 2015 Microsoft has been doing visual updates at a snail’s pace, leaving some elements of the operating system looking like they have since Windows 7, while making small subtle changes to parts that have already been overhauled. Any move towards a complete, consistent look will be welcome.
https://www.thurrott.com/windows/windows-10/245841/job-posting-confirms-windows-10-ux-overhaul
Google Employees Announce Plans to Create Union
Several hundred employees of Google have announced plans for form a union for employees and contractors of Google’s parent company, Alphabet Inc. The goal of this union will not be to have compulsory enrollment by all employees, and will instead be an opt-in union for employees who wish to join. The group hopes that enough employees will join to give the union the ability to effectively promote and enhance employee’s rights in the company.
As of today, very few unions exist among the big tech companies, and while unions are not perfect, there are documented examples of the big companies taking advantage of employees, including a much publicised secret agreement among some of the bigger companies (google, apple, and more) not to hire workers from each other’s companies to prevent workers from trying to get a better job opportunity from another company. Google has also fired workers who have organized employee protests within the company. Situations like that is what led this group of employees to unionize, and hopefully it is a first step towards a fairer playing field for employees.
https://www.theverge.com/2021/1/4/22212347/google-employees-contractors-announce-union-cwa-alphabet
Samsung Announces Event for January 14
Samsung has sent out invites to a virtual event for January 14th, where the company is expected to announce the Galaxy S21 line of smartphones, and the Galaxy Buds Pro wireless headphones, with potentially other announcements as well. The Galaxy S series remains the best selling line of Android phones in the western world, so the yearly update to the line is in some ways as big as Apple’s new iPhones every year.
Personally, I won’t be getting the phone, but if I ever get a job I’m very interested in the Galaxy Buds Pro to replace my Galaxy Buds+ which recently went for an accidental bath and now has a charging case that doesn’t turn off, draining the battery within a day of being charged.
https://www.phonearena.com/news/samsung-galaxy-s21-unpacked-event-live-stream_id128721
Flash has Officially Been Discontinued
Adobe Flash, once the most popular web plug in, has finally been laid to rest. Most people should not have to do anything, as the flash player built into Google Chrome and Chrome based browsers (like Microsoft Edge) automatically disabled on January 1 with no ability to re-enable it. The stand alone version of Flash was also hard coded to stop working on January 1. Google will remove Flash from the browser entirely in a future update. Apple’s Safari Browser for Mac has not supported Flash for several years. Mozilla Firefox does still use the standalone version of Adobe Flash, however it will no longer function. Adobe recommends that anyone who has the standalone flash player installed to uninstall it manually.
Flash was the tool that powered the vast majority of the videos you watched on the internet, including YouTube, until around 2015. It was also the platform that many web browser games ran on. With the move to HTML5 which replaced those capabilities, Flash became unnecessary, and its nature as a browser plug-in left it as a main vector for malware to attack computers. Adobe recognized this, and actually announced plans to retire Flash in 2017. It just took 3 years to get there.
https://www.theverge.com/2020/12/31/22208190/adobe-flash-is-dead
Qualcomm Announces Snapdragion 480
Qualcomm has revealed its newest entry level processor, the Snapdragion 480. The 4xx series of Snapdragon processors is the company’s low end products, usually finding its way into sup $200 USD phones. What makes this interesting is that the Snapdragon 480 will include support for 5G, meaning that access to 5G networks will be possible on entry level phones in 2021. While 5G is still being rolled out, the more phones that have access to it today means these phones will potentially have a longer usable life, an important factor for many of the demographics in the market for a sub $200 phone.