Samsung's having a bad time lately. Last week they got busted optimising benchmarks without telling people. Over the weekend researchers found a big flaw in how Samsung implements ARM's TrustZone secure area by re-using the same encryption keys allowing for easy decryption of what is supposed to be highly secure data and what experts are calling "a cardinal cryptographic sin". Today, the same hackers that hit Nvidia a few weeks ago have posted "Galaxy smartphone source code, exposing device security mechanisms like Samsung's biometric authentication for unlocking its smartphones" online.
Telstra is hooking up with OneWeb to resell its low earth orbit (i.e: like Starlink) satellite internet service to Australians. Service is due to kick off in late 2022 and they have 428 satellites already in orbit. This further takes a shit on NBN's SkyMuster satellite service, which is slow as piss (25-50mbit vs. 80mbit-200mbit), has high latency (~600ms vs. 30ms) and is often congested. SkyMuster is so bad, Telstra said to the ABC that they stopped selling it because customers would complain so much and it's not worth the headache. NBN is gonna lose so many customers as soon as Telstra and Starlink ramp up promoting their services.
Apple's "Peek Performance" product launch is happening tomorrow morning, 5AM AEDT to be exact. The rumour mill has been in overdrive the past few days, predicting all kinds of stuff. On the hypothetical list is a new iPhone SE and iPad Air (IMHO two of Apple's best value products) getting 5G and SoC upgrades. More exciting to me personally is the prospect of a new "Apple Studio Display". If Apple can manage to shit out a 32" 6K monitor that's around the $2k-$3k mark (the Pro Display XDR is 8500 fucken dollars), I'd be very tempted to buy one. A new Mac Mini "Pro" might appear, featuring a new iteration of the M1 SoC with more grunt.
The extent of Russia's ex-communication to the western world is so great, that they're thinking about "a compulsory licensing mechanism for software, databases, and technology for integrated microcircuits" - in effect, state sponsored piracy. It would be legal in Russia to copy/clone/whatever the hardware and software of any technology company that's not playing in Russia anymore, like Microsoft and Oracle for example. Not that disregarding intellectual property is something new in Russia, but it's interesting none the less to see the government tell people to go nuts and do what you need to do.
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