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Vector graphics are all around us, and provide an important way to visually communicate information, whether it's corporate branding, street signage, or a flier in the window of a cafe. But vector graphics themselves are even more fascinating when you look behind the shapes and fonts that combine to communicate a message at a glance, and recognize them for what they really are, and why they are such a powerful tool in any designer's toolbox.
Before we dive into what vector graphics are, let’s shed some light on the two main kinds of computer graphics: vectors and rasters. Chances are you’re already familiar with the latter thanks to many of the most common file formats – JPEGs and PNGs – falling in this category. The former is less mainstream but is essential to digital design, with the most common file formats being EPS, AI, or SVG, among a couple of other lesser used types.
If we see an image on a billboard or an ad in a subway car, that image started off as one of these two essential types of graphic before they made it out into the material world, but the two graphics down take the same path from the digital pen to the advert on the wall.
Vector graphics are images made from mathematically-defined points such as points, lines, and curves. They’re 2D in nature but with the help of colors, textures, and layers, they can be made to look 3D. Vector images are saved on your device as a set of commands that represents a list of attributes of the stored image, and it's this characteristic that makes them so incredibly useful for a graphic designer.
Since vector graphics are essentially just mathematical functions defining a shape, they are easily scalable, editable, and overall simpler to work with. They’re used for a variety of tasks, but advertising and marketing are by far the top use cases for vector graphics.
Vectors are an ideal choice for logos, business cards, posters, and other materials used in promotional campaigns. What makes them suitable for advertising is their scalability among a couple of other attributes. You can enlarge or reduce a vector image by any proportion and it won’t suffer a loss in quality.
If you took the mathematical function that defines a perfect circle, it doesn't matter that you input as that circle's radius, it will always form the same shape at any size.
Hence, businesses turn towards vector graphics for images that need to be scaled up and scaled down for, for instance, a billboard and a business card respectively. Since they’re not only painless to work with but also easy to store, they make for a great choice for both online and print design. This gives businesses an extra advantage of working with vectors as it enables them to ensure uniformity among their online and print marketing campaigns.
Vector graphics carry the immense potential to make illustrations look engaging. With the addition of attractive colors and eye-catching designs, mere lines, points, and curves can be enhanced to grab the attention of consumers. Hence, they’re also a personal favorite of web designers and app developers. Websites and apps often use vectors for interfaces, fonts, landing pages, and infographics.
Another common use of vectors is the designs you see on products, clothing, or merchandise. Since they’re relatively easy to duplicate, brands and individuals opt for them to amp up their products.
As mentioned above, their ability to be scaled without losing quality gives vectors the biggest edge over raster graphics. Since vectors are essentially lines, points, and curves held together via a mathematical equation, they can be resized to the size of your liking without getting blurry. There is zero chance of pixelation as there are no pixels involved in the process, unlike in raster images. Because of this quality, vectors are termed “resolution-independent.”
Another feature unique to vector graphics that is closely related to mathematical equations being their building blocks is their small file sizes. Since vector images don’t store pixels, unlike rasters, they do not require a lot of memory on your device. The images are saved as mathematical relationships translated into code. This makes it easy for businesses to save a number of vector images on their devices without overburdening their systems.
File size and loading time are interrelated. Since vector images have small file sizes, they also load faster. Hence, it is easier and faster to both transfer and load vector images on various devices and programs.
As mentioned previously, vector images are also easy to duplicate making it very simple for designers to create copies of an existing design, making it simple to tesselate or tile an image. Another interesting feature of vector images is that they can easily be converted to raster images. Raster images, however, do not have the ability to be converted into vectors, at least not easily.
As vector images are not made from pixels, they have a sharper and more precise look to them. Have you ever noticed how a JPEG image loses sharpness when it’s zoomed in a lot? Vector images won’t ever give you that issue.
Out of the many programs available for making vector images, Adobe Illustrator is the most popular and also the industry standard. However, you have to spend a good bit of money to be able to use it. Among the best free Adobe Illustrator vector alternatives, Vecteezy and Inkscape are some of the best graphics design software going, especially if you're on a tight budget or just starting out in graphic design.
Learning how to make vector graphics is fairly easy once you know how to use these programs. It may take you some practice to be able to make complex designs but you can make a simple graphic using just a couple of tools on Illustrator or other alternative vector design software. The most commonly used tools for vector designs in Illustrator are the Pen tool, Curvature tool, Shape tools, and the Shape Builder tool, and these four tools alone will let you create almost anything.
Let us look at how to make a simple house on Illustrator. If you don't have Illustrator, don't worry, Inkscape has pretty much the same functionality, though the interface might be different.
And that's it. This vector image, even though rather basic, can be scaled up as large as a city block but it will not blur or lose its shape.
There's a lot more to know about how to best utilize vectors to add depth and texture to an object, but this little house is a start, and it just might be the start of a new graphics design career.
There's finally some news on Intel Arc Alchemist's release date, but not the kind that anybody outside of Nvidia and AMD really wanted to hear: Arc Alchemist and Battlemage might get the ax entirely over unfixable hardware flaws that are kneecapping their performance, and it's threatening to scrap Intel's entire Arc discrete graphics line.
This report comes from YouTuber Moore's Law is Dead, and it is a doozy, full of internal politics, bitterness, and recriminations at Intel over the company's graphics unit being unable to actually deliver the discrete graphics cards that have been hyped up for more than a year.
I highly suggest you watch the video for all the tea, but the key takeaway is that internal sources at Intel told Moore's Law is Dead that there is a potentially unfixable hardware flaw in the Arc Alchemist GPU that the graphics unit had hoped to address using a driver fix, but that fix isn't working. That's the hardware challenge, reportedly, and it might extend to Battlemage as well. If this is true, then it definitely would explain why the Intel Arc launch has been, well, strange.
Where things get real messy is that the Intel Arc graphics unit has been doing PR for Arc Alchemist cards that Intel told investors would have launched to western markets by the end of the second quarter of this year. We are now in Q3, the cards have not launched, and Intel insiders outside of the graphics unit are angry that the graphics unit is doing PR saying that cards are ready when they do not appear to be ready at all.
On top of that, there are apparently issues with Intel AIB partners who, according to a purportedly leaked presentation, were lined up to produce Intel Arc cards starting at the end of July. Moore's Law is Dead is saying that none of the board partners he's spoken with have any idea what is going on, and the AIBs are not at all happy with the situation.
Finally, cue Pat Gelsinger, Intel's CEO, who is reportedly now looking into whether the entire Arc discrete graphics project should just be canceled. As Moore's Law is Dead highlights in the video, there were some strong hints of this frustration during Intel's earnings call this week where Gelsinger acknowledged the disappointing earnings and said that while the global chip shortage was still very much an issue, problems of "execution" on Intel's part also contributed to Intel's falling far short of earnings expectations for Q2.
So, that is more or less the report that Moore's Law is Dead presented, and we have not independently confirmed anything ourselves, though we have reached out to Intel for comment and will update this story if and when we hear back from the company.
It's still too soon to tell what exactly is happening with Intel Arc, but Moore's Law is Dead's report isn't coming out of nowhere. Intel Arc Alchemist is more than a month late from its target launch date in the US, and the smattering of cards we have seen in the wild have been bizarrely inconsistent, with performance throttling from single lines of code to the head-scratcher that Intel's first discrete graphics card was going to launch in China and India first.
Fair enough, those are two of the largest consumer markets in the world, and China has more than enough tech heads that want to get their hands on some Intel cards, too, but there's no way to shake an uneasy feeling about all this. This doesn't feel like a well-planned product launch, and the recent PR appearances by some Intel reps on the graphics card team invariably fail to answer the question everybody is asking, which is when are these cards coming out?
Sure, they're available in China and India, so they are technically "out", but I mean globally. That's a question Intel can't seem to answer right now, and it's a damned shame if there ever was one.
Earlier this week, I wrote about the problem of semiconductor manufacturers like Nvidia, AMD, and, yes, Intel, pursuing increasingly more powerful hardware in an arms race with rivals and how that is having very real consequences in the real world. The wholesale abandonment of any pretense towards energy efficiency in all but the most basic Chromebook processor is disturbing.
Not as bad but still awful is the pricing out of an increasing number of people, mostly gamers but also academics and researchers who actually do need high-performance GPUs for scientific work, and who are simply not the target consumers for these cards anymore.
There are rumors that Nvidia's RTX 4090, when it launches later this year, will cost less than the RTX 3090. That's a nice start, but the RTX 3090 costs $1,499. Will the RTX 4090 cost $1,449? $1,299? You know what else costs $1,499? A 3-credit-hour graduate course at the City University of New York-Brooklyn College. The cost of the RTX 3090 was obscene, frankly, when it launched, and it remains so.
It used to be you could rely on AMD to come in with a lower-cost option for the rest of us who couldn't afford a GeForce card anymore, but that ship is sailing, too. There is still value to be found among graphics cards out there, which is why the Nvidia RTX 3060 Ti is at the top of our best graphics card list, but that herd is thinning rather quickly.
That, ultimately, was my hope for Intel Arc. As a newcomer to the graphics card cold war between Nvidia and AMD, there was room for Intel to sweep in with a solid budget to lower-midrange lineup and clean up on that cost-conscious-friendly market. I hope Moore's Law is Dead turns out to be dead wrong on this, but it's looking rather iffy out here for all the gamers stuck on aging hardware like the RTX 1050 and AMD RX 470.
If Intel does end up shelving or axing Arc entirely, it will be a real blow to budget-minded gamers and builders out there, and the budget side of things could really use a solid win these days.
Google has announced new Play Store policies for Android developers in an effort to crack down on full-screen ads, VPNs, and fake apps impersonating genuine software.
Coming into effect from September 30, 2022, the Play Store will require developers to stop showing “Full-screen interstitial ads,” for example those that show during gameplay or during an app’s loading screen. Additionally, full-screen ads that cannot be closed after 15 seconds shall be banned.
The new policy will not include rewarded ads, such as in-app popups that users can opt into in order to unlock in-app content, which will continue to be permitted.
There have been further revisements to the company’s FLAG_SECURE feature, which is intended to protect sensitive data by preventing or obscuring screenshots, and disallowing screen sharing and broadcasting. From November 1, 2022, apps will not be allowed to create workaround for the flagged content.
With effect from the same date, VPNs will also be subject to tighter restrictions. Only dedicated VPN apps will be allowed to “create a secure device-level tunnel to a remote server,” with some exceptions.
Access to the USE_EXACT_ALARM permission will also be refined to primarily include only the apps that “requires precisely timed actions” (from July 31, 2022)
Maybe of most interest to general consumers will be a change that is due to be enforced on August 31, 2022.
“We don’t allow apps that mislead users by impersonating someone else (e.g. another developer, company or entity) or another app… To ensure that Google Play remains a safe and respectful platform, we've created standards defining and prohibiting content that is harmful or inappropriate for our users," Google said in a blog post announcing the news.
The company recommends checking the developer name (displayed beneath the app title within the Play Store), that the logo matches the company’s logo, and that the name appears to be genuine and not mis-leading.
Further changes to the company’s app store include eliminating misleading health information, better subscription management, safer child-friendly ads, and further personal protection steps.
A trio of overlooked PlayStation indies are hopping over to Xbox and Game Pass in the next few months.
Solar Ash, The Pathless, and Maquette all launched as console exclusives on PS5, PS4 as well as PC over the last couple of years. And soon, Xbox players will be able to gett their hands on them. During this week's Annapurna Interactive Showcase, it was revealed that the three titles will coming to Xbox Series X|S, letting owners of Microsoft’s console play the indie games for the first time.
Maquette, and Solar Ash will be dropping on Xbox Game Pass while Solar Ash will be coming to Xbox, just not as part of the subscription service. While there are no firm dates just yet, we have a winter release date window for Maquette, and Solar Ash. Or summer if you're in the Southern Hemisphere. Nintendo Switch owners aren't being left out, Maquette and The Pathless will be coming to the handheld console too.
While all three games belong to different genres and come from separate developers, they do share at least one common feature. Each fosters a sense of adventure, as you barrel through strange new worlds.
Solar Ash is a cosmic platformer that sends you through the neon-colored heart of a black hole. You’ll be running through physics-defying levels while battling weird creatures and parkouring about the place. It comes from the developers behind beloved indie Hyper Light Driver, so expect a fair amount of subtle storytelling.
The Pathless, meanwhile, is an expansive mystical adventure. It puts you in the shoes of a hunter who can perform some seriously impressive acrobatic maneuvers with her pet eagle. Its pastel open-world and fluid movement are somewhat evocative of indie megahit journey, and the way your character cruises through the air is a little reminiscent of Flower.
Finally, Maquette is an abstract first-person puzzler that plays with size. Everything from tiny pots to massive towers will change in time as you progress through its MC Escher-influenced world. Like the two games above, it gets pretty weird at times.
If none of those take your fancy, you can always check out our list of the best indie games for even more recommendations.
With the latest Amazon Fire Stick sales, you'll find turning your TV into a fully equipped smart TV is much cheaper than you would think. Hundreds of shows and apps will be at your fingertips, and our roundup of the cheapest Amazon Fire Stick deals is here to point you in the right direction.
You'll find all of Amazon's Fire Stick prices on display today, including the all-new Fire TV Stick 4K Max, the budget Fire TV Stick Lite, and the original Fire TV Stick. We've also included the powerful Fire TV Cube, which acts as a combination of an Echo speaker and Fire TV device, and the US-exclusive Fire TV Recast, which allows you to record free over-the-air content - one for all you cord-cutters out there.
The main advantage we've seen with the Amazon Fire TV devices over competitors like Roku and Now TV is the now-standard inclusion of Amazon's Alexa smart assistant, thanks to the voice-remote that comes with every Fire TV device. Several available apps and games just can't be matched by competitors either. So if you want the smartest of smart TV experiences for less, these Amazon Fire Stick sales are the way to go. You can also find some of the best Fire Stick sales at the upcoming 20200 Prime Day deals event.
Amazon's most powerful streaming stick
Picture quality: Up to 4K HDR10+ | Voice remote: Yes | Alexa-enabled: Yes | Storage: 8GB | Ethernet port: No - requires aditional adapter | Launch price: $54.99/£54.99
The Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Max was released in October of last year with a starting price of $54.99/£54.99. The Fire TV Stick Max is Amazon's most powerful streaming stick, with support for Dolby Vision, HDR 10, HDR10+, and Dolby Atmos. Unlike the Fire TV Stick 4K, the 4K Max supports Wi-Fi 6 and features the new quad-core 1.8 GHz processor that Amazon claims offers 40% more power than the previous generation.
Amazon's cheapest streaming device
Picture quality: Up to 1080p Full HD | Voice remote: Yes | Alexa-enabled: Yes | Storage: 8GB | Ethernet port: No - requires aditional adapter | Launch price: $29.99/£29.99
The Fire TV Stick Lite was released in 2020 to the Amazon Fire TV family, and it's the cheapest device that Amazon has put out yet. The budget streaming stick allows you to stream your favorite content from apps like Hulu, Amazon Video, Netflix, and more. You'll get access to tens of thousands of channels, Alexa skills, and apps, and the Alexa voice remote allows you to browse shows, launch movies, adjust the volume, and more completely hands-free.
A super cheap option for making your basic TV smarter
Picture quality: Up to 1080p (Full HD) | Voice remote: Yes | Alexa-enabled: Yes | Storage: 8GB | Ethernet port: No - requires aditional adapter | Launch price: $39.99/£39.99
Amazon's 3rd generation Fire TV Stick was released last year as an updated version and retails for $39.99/£39.99. The 2021 Fire TV Stick now includes an Alexa voice remote allowing you to use your voice to launch movies, apps, shows, and more. While this model only supports HD streaming, the Fire TV Stick is 50% more powerful than the 2nd generation, and the Alexa remote includes all-new preset buttons, including Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Video, and Disney Plus, allowing you to get your apps faster.
If you're wondering the difference between the FIre TV Stick Lite and the Fire TV Stick - you're getting Dolby Atmos with the Fire TV Stick delivering a more immersive audio experience. If this isn't important to you, we suggest going with the Fire TV Stick Lite, which comes with a much cheaper price tag.
The best for streaming 4K content
Picture quality: Up to 4K HDR10+ | Voice remote: Yes | Alexa-enabled: Yes | Storage: 8GB | Ethernet port: No - requires aditional adapter | Launch price: $49.99/£49.99
Amazon's 2021 Fire TV Stick 4K streaming device packs a wealth of features into a thumb-drive-sized stick for $49.99/£54.99. The updated Fire TV Stick features 4K Ultra HD capability with support for Dolby Vision, HDR, and HDR10+. You're also getting a 1.7GHz quad-core processor, and Dolby Atmos Audio—something very few streaming sticks have. Plus, you also get Alexa, Amazon's smart assistant, and its voice control capabilities.
Like an Echo Dot and Fire TV Stick in one
Picture quality: Up to 4K Ultra HD with HDR10+ and Dolby Vision | Voice remote: Yes | Alexa-enabled: Yes | Storage: 16GB | Ethernet port: Yes | Launch price: $119.99/£109/AU$160
Amazon's Fire TV Cube is a hybrid between a smart speaker and a streaming media player. Calling itself the "first hands-free streaming media player with Alexa." Amazon seems to be betting on this combined functionality to sway consumers away from rival Chromecast or Apple TV devices.
Like the Amazon Echo speakers, customers can navigate Fire TV and play/pause/fast-forward content without the need for a remote while still using Alexa for all their weather/shopping/trivia concerns. Don't worry, you get an actual remote control too.
The Cube comes with its own Ethernet port, 16GB of storage, a built-in speaker, and top-of-the-range picture quality, as long as your TV can display it. Users can also control other compatible smart home devices, including additional speakers, soundbars, thermostats, and security cameras. Compared to Amazon Fire Stick prices, the TV Cube doesn't come cheap, retailing for $119/£109.99. You are getting complete control of your Amazon smart home in one neat little black box, making it the easiest way to combine all your connected tech.
Watch and record live TV with Alexa
Picture quality: Up to HD | Tuners: 2/4 | Voice remote: Yes | Alexa-enabled: Yes | Storage: 500GB/1TB (up to 75/150 hours of HD TV content | Ethernet port: Yes | Launch price: $229.99/$279.99
Only available in the US. Amazon has released its own DVR (Digital Video Recorder) to record free over-the-air content and watch it via an Amazon Fire TV device or Echo Show (so you'll need one of those too). There are no subscription fees here, so it's a tempting option for all you cord cutters out there and with a 500GB capacity on the cheapest model, you're looking at around 75 hours of storage, so there's no need to pick up an external drive to save content, which is an issue with some DVRs.
There's a larger 1TB capacity version if you want to double down. Hook it up to a HD antenna and you'll be able to watch and record content from the likes of ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, PBS, and The CW. Better yet, just ask Alexa to do it for you if you've got a modern Fire TV device with a voice-remote.
The Fire Stick and the Fire Stick 4K prices are fairly similar to begin with ($39.99/£39.99 and $49.99/£49.99 respectively. So, when the sales do come around, you may well find that the more popular 4K model is cheaper than the original HD-only version. Even if you don't own a 4K TV, there's little point in picking up the older version when this happens (and it seems to regularly). In fact, even if the original Fire Stick prices are cheaper than the 4K offering, if there's a sale on both regardless you might as well pick up the latest model and future-proof your purchase.
We often see Roku sale prices falling well below MSRP, all thanks to the particularly competitive world of streaming sticks. Whether you're after a super simple HDMI plugin, or something designed to offer high quality 4K resolution and plenty of smart home features, you'll find all the best Roku deals right here.
Roku's Streaming sticks and boxes plug into your TV via an HDMI port, essentially turning any old HD/4K TV into a smart TV or boosting the number of apps on any modern smart TV that seems to be missing a few of your favorites. In a video streaming device world dominated by Amazon, Google, and Apple, Roku is the plucky underdog that continues to hold its own.
In addition to worldwide services like Netflix, Amazon, and Spotify, you'll find plenty of apps for your country. HBO Now, Hulu, Sling, and CBS All Access in the US and BBC iPlayer, All 4, and Now TV in the UK, for example. Frankly, Roku can't be beaten as far as the number and quality of streaming services it supports. And yes, there are options to view in 4K HDR too.
There are a lot of Roku devices out there in the wild, though, and some of them have been discontinued as they've been made obsolete by newer releases. Some, however, have an advantage or feature that new sticks don't cater for, so we've kept price comparison charts around for those models.
Generally, though, we've cut down the list to include the most relevant Roku streaming devices that are readily available and represent great value of money for you.
Roku's latest 4K HDR streaming device
Picture quality: HD, 4K, HDR10+ | Connectivity: Wireless | Remote: Voice with TV power and volume controls | Headphone jack: No | Storage expansion: N/A
The Roku Express 4K Plus was released in April of this year and allows you to stream your favorite content in 4K Ultra HD resolution with support for HDR10+. The affordable streaming stick includes a Roku voice remote so you can launch movies, search for titles and adjust the volume completely hands-free.
The 4K streaming device launched in the US and UK with a starting price of $39.99/£39.99. Even though the Roku Express 4K is a new release, we've already seen slight discounts on the streaming device, and we're hoping to see a record-low price during the upcoming Black Friday 2021 sale.
The best entry-level Roku streamer
Picture quality: 1080p HD | Connectivity: Wireless | Remote: Standard | Headphone jack: No | Storage expansion: N/A
This is the cheapest streaming device in the Roku family. The Roku Express is newer and cheaper than the other standard Roku Streaming Stick and does all the same jobs. If you want to turn any HDMI TV into a Smart TV for as little as possible - this is for you.
However, we'd be tempted to keep an eye out for a good deal on the 4K version mentioned earlier just to avoid having to buy one once 4K content becomes the norm.
A tiny yet superb 4K streaming device
Picture quality: 1080p HD, 4K, HDR | Connectivity: Wireless | Remote: Voice with TV power and volume controls | Headphone jack: No | Storage expansion: N/A
Roku continues to give rival streaming devices something to worry about as the new Roku Streaming Stick Plus is super modern, super small and, most importantly, super cheap. Not to mention, unlike many of the older models it's been released in the UK too. Now Brits can finally join the 4K Roku party like the US has been enjoying for years! You're even getting HDR content from supported apps too.
While Amazon's 4K Fire TV Sticks are similarly priced and have a more intuitive remote design, plus Alexa support, you might find the wider range of streaming services on the Roku more appealing.
The one with all the features
Picture quality: 1080p HD, 4K, HDR | Connectivity: Wireless or ethernet | Remote: Voice with TV power, volume and gaming controls | Headphone jack: Yes - on remote and box | Storage expansion: Micro SD and USB
This Roku was not released in the UK. So don't expect many (if any) UK prices. The Roku Ultra is the most feature-packed of all the Roku media streamers. It has all the quality 4K and HDR streaming and ports of the Roku Premiere Plus. So what do you get for the extra cash? The remote control gets the most attention on the Ultra as it can be used for voice search, it has extra buttons to make it a handy game controller and there's even a little speaker to help you find it via a button on the console. There's also a USB storage slot and an optical out audio port. We're loving the option for private listening via the bundled-in JBL headphones headphones that you can plug into the remote too.
If you're not bothered about the extra audio ports, expandable storage and using the Roku for gaming, then you should opt for one of the Roku deals we mentioned earlier and save a big chunk of cash.
A major chat log database belonging to popular messaging app JusTalk was left unprotected on the web for months, accessible to anyone who knew where to look.
Cybersecurity researcher Anurag Sen uncovered the database, which did not have a password, storing unencrypted data including plenty of personally identifiable information, useful for cybercriminals looking to engage in identity theft, social engineering, or other forms of cybercrime.
The data included the messages themselves, user phone numbers (both sender and receiver), call logs, all sorted out just enough to be able to identify specific people and specific conversations.
In fact, while going through the logs, TechCrunch says it managed to find a pastor soliciting a sex worker who listed their phone number publicly. The log included the time, location, and price of the meeting.
The database itself is “hundreds of gigabytes” large, and hosted on a Huawei server in China. In order to access it, the only thing a person would need is a browser, and its IP address. With the help of database search engine Shodan, the researcher discovered that the server was storing new data in the database as early as January this year, when it was first exposed.
It’s impossible to know exactly how many people have had their sensitive data exposed in this blunder, but we do know that JusTalk has roughly 20 million users. It also has JusTalk Kids, a separate app for minors, with more than a million downloads on Android.
After Sen reported the problem to JusTalk, it apparently shut down the database, but also decided not to comment on the findings.
Sen was also apparently not the first to discover this database, as it contained a ransom note, meaning someone had tried to use it to extort money from the company, but whether or not they succeeded is unknown at this time.
Via: TechCrunch
Data breaches are costlier and more impactful than ever before, a wide-ranging study by IBM has found.
Surveying 550 organizations from all over the world, the company claims that the global average cost of a data breach has now hit $4.35 million - an all-time high, and up 13% compared to the same period two years ago.
However, it’s not just the affected businesses that feel the sting of a data breach - everyone else does, too, albeit passively. IBM says that there is a chance that the rising costs of goods and services could be tied back to these incidents, as well. The company bases these conclusions on the fact that almost two-thirds (60%) of the respondents claimed to have raised the prices of their products or services, due to a data breach.
What’s more, if a company suffers one data breach, it’s bound to suffer another. More than four in five (83%) have experienced more than just one breach in their lifetime, the report found. Then, there are also the after-effects of breaches: almost half (50% of breach costs are incurred more than a year after the initial incident).
The report also states that businesses that suffer a ransomware attack and decide to pay up for their data, don’t usually end up with lower breach costs, compared to those that don’t. Ransomware victims that decided to pay saw only $610,000 less in average breach costs, and that’s not including the cost of the ransom.
For IBM, having an antivirus solution will not suffice, anymore.
“Businesses need to put their security defenses on the offense and beat attackers to the punch. It’s time to stop the adversary from achieving their objectives and start to minimize the impact of attacks. The more businesses try to perfect their perimeter instead of investing in detection and response, the more breaches can fuel cost of living increases.” said Charles Henderson, Global Head of IBM Security X-Force. “This report shows that the right strategies coupled with the right technologies can help make all the difference when businesses are attacked.”
IBM’s report suggests that Zero Trust is the way to go. However, 80% of critical infrastructure organizations said they did not adopt the practice across their endpoints just yet, despite the fact that they’re paying an average of $1.17 million more for data breaches, compared to those with Zero Trust.
Nvidia has unveiled its Enterprise version 2.1, an update to the company's end-to-end artificial intelligence and machine learning workloads software.
The updates affect the Nvidia TAO Toolkit and Nvidia Rapids, with further support being added for Red Hat OpenShift running in the public cloud.
The company says this should “[make] enterprise AI even more accessible across hybrid or multi-cloud environments,” with Microsoft Azure NVads A10 v5 series virtual machines also gaining certification.
REST APIs integration, pre-trained weights import, TensorBoard integration, and new pre-trained models are some of the highlights coming to the latest iteration of Nvidia TAO Toolkit, version 22.05, which itself is a low code solution of Nvidia TAO. The tool is designed to make building computer vision and speech recognition models easier.
New models, techniques, and data processing capabilities added to Nvidia RAPIDS 22.04 will provide “more support for data workflows,” which will be available across all of the data science libraries.
Furthermore, enterprise Kubernetes platform Red Hat OpenShift gained certification to work with the updated version of AI Enterprise, along with deployments over bare metal and VMware vSphere, which is intended to standardize AI workflow.
Companies running A10 Tensor Core GPU-powered Azure NVads A10 v5 series virtual machines will now be able to use AI Enterprise 2.1 “to deliver optimized performance for deep learning inference."
For companies who prefer to run something tried and tested, Nvidia says that “support will continue for those relying on earlier versions of Nvidia AI frameworks.”
Users can use Nvidia LaunchPad to get short-term access to the update in a private, accelerated environment with hands-on labs hosted on Nvidia’s own infrastructure, which are set to run over an eight-hour period with two weeks’ availability.
An on-premise evaluation is also available on Nvidia’s website, with a free evaluation license to try EI Enterprise 2.1 on compatible devices.
Apple has finally removed the last traces of Intel silicon from its Macs.
The tech giant's decision to sever the key relationship with the manufacturer was announced during CEO Tim Cook's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) keynote address in June 2020, and it's been gradually rolling out the necessary changes every since.
Apple has been using Intel silicon in its processers since 2006 when it moved from PowerPC processors, built by the 1991 Apple–IBM–Motorola alliance, to Intel x86 processors.
Intel's JHL8040R Retimer chips, used for USB4 timer functions, were the final remnant according to the Twitter user and semiconductor aficionado SkyJuice, who apparently had been carefully looking through a teardown of an M2 MacBook Air posted by hardware website iFixit.
The new chips carry the codename ‘U09PY3’, and it's unknown who makes them, though it could well be Apple themselves.
Apple has yet to make a comment on the move, and neither has intel, so we're somewhat in dark about the motivations behind some of these changes.
Unfortunately for Intel shareholders, it's not just Apple that is cutting down reliance on Intel hardware.
AMD has also apparently opted not to use any Intel hardware for its line of Rembrandt laptops, instead opting for retimers such as the KB8001 ‘Matterhorn’ from Swiss start-up Kandou.
US operator T-Mobile has promised to pay out $350 million to fund claims, legal fees, and administration costs following 2021's gargantuan data breach.
The company also said in an SEC filing that it would fork out $150 million on “data security and related technology” over the next two years.
However, T-Mobile maintained that the settlement "contains no admission of liability, wrongdoing, or responsibility by any of the defendants".
T-Mobile claims that the breach impacted 76.6 million people and involved the data loss of customers’ first and last names, Social Security numbers, and driver’s license information.
The incident was blamed on a "sophisticated cyberattack" and T-Mobile customer data later appeared for sale on the dark web, according to reporting by Motherboard, which said a hacker obtained the information by breaching the telecom company's servers.
The settlement still needs court approval, which is expected as early as December 2022.
Though the settlement amount for T-Mobile, which reported $58.4 billion in full-year 2021 earnings, is fairly eye-popping, it's still somewhat mid-table in the list of the largest data breach payouts; Equifax paid out $575 million following its widely publicized 2017 incident, while Home Depot paid out $200 million following its 2014 breach.
Recent research from Splunk found that nearly half (49%) of companies suffered a data breach in the last two years.
Via The Verge
Recently I came across a relatively new browser (initially created in 2019), or more like a special version of the main Opera browser, called Opera GX.
It touts that it’s a “browser for gamers” and while that’s clearly a bit of an exaggeration, it has plenty of features that gamers would benefit from. Not to mention that the interface alone bears a strong resemblance to anything you’d find in Cyberpunk 2077.
From controlling how much of any given resource websites can use to built-in adblocker to its tight integrations with Discord, YouTube Music, and more directly through the browser interface, there are near endless ways users can augment their experience with Opera GX. You can even customizing browser backgrounds and music.
With such a wide breadth of options and enhancements, everyone, but especially the gamers that Opera is clearly targeted, should give Opera GX a try. After all, if a staunch supporter of Mozilla Firefox like myself can be impressed, then you just might find yourself as pleasantly surprised as I did.
One of Opera GX's main features is the CPU, RAM, network limiters, and hot tab killer which allow users to control how much of those resources are impacted by the browser, even letting you automatically shut down particular tabs that hog too much of those values. It’s a simple set of features that offers specialized control over your internet experience that you can't even get from the best Google Chrome extensions, at least not easily.
Being able to put this kind of limit on a browser is critial, since they can quickly start eating up a surprising amount of your system's resources. Opera GX's has a soft and hard toggleable option for the limiter, with the soft option meaning that there’s some wiggle room within your set limit while the hard edge means that tabs will be dropped as soon as you hit that set limit.
This is something that gamers who have browsers open in the background that they might switch to for walkthroughs, guides, or any number of gaming related topics can seriously benefit from by keeping the browser from impacting gaming performance. If you're a gamer who's found that keeping Google Chrome open in the background is cutting into your frame rates, Opera GX might be the solution you never knew you needed.
Most browsers have options to be able to clean out caches, cookies, and other ‘build-up’ that accumulates over time, but those tend to be buried deep within options menus and are not particularly user-friendly. Opera GX, however, has the feature front and center in its Sidebar, where the GX Control and social media integration live as well.
You simply click on the icon and then choose between three options, which control what needs purging, or customize it yourself including the age of those unwanted files. It’s a great tool that makes browser clean-up so much easier, especially since it can have a dramatic impact on how quickly your browser runs and how much memory it gobbles up.
Internet privacy has become more important in our lives as it becomes something that is harder to enforce. And while Opera GX runs on Chromium and isn’t the top-tier mainstream browser for privacy (that would be Mozilla Firefox), it still offers quite a variety of tools that you can use to customize your privacy experience.
Built within the browser is both a VPN and AdBlock, which you can toggle off and on through the sidebar menu as well as customize what sites are exceptions for these tools. Trying it out, they both work quite well, blocking some of the biggest online trackers out there while allowing you to choose what region your IP address is registered.
Of course, it’s not perfect, as both the VPN and AdBlock can interfere with websites as well as other GX features, but the fact that they come completely integrated and – in the VPN’s case – completely free is an absolute boon.
You also have the option of downloading your own tools like uBlock Origins, as well as plenty of other addons and extensions that protect your privacy. And while these options aren’t as robust as Firefox’s offerings, it’s still a healthy amount that allows you to better tailor your experience.
The aforementioned Sidebar features some pretty impressive integrations built into it, such as having instant access to tons of sites such as Twitch, Discord, Twitter, various messenger apps, Instagram, and more.
There’s also a music player that functions similarly and allows you to play music from sites like YouTube Music, Apple Music, Deezer, Soundcloud, Tidal, and Spotify right from the browser.
In any of these cases, you can use these sites by watching, listening to, or viewing content from them while using the main browser. And none of these use additional tabs either, which frees up resources. As I'm writing this, I’m using the YouTube Music player to listen to a video game music playlist while I type away and it works perfectly.
There are some other really nifty features that let you augment Opera GX to your exact visual and audio specifications.
For instance, you can turn on RGB lighting through Razer Chroma, Logitech G Lightsync RGB, and Corsair iCue, as well as choose from tons of user-made backgrounds (including animated ones!) to make your browser your own. You can also set sound effects for typing, as well as choose background music to play while you’re browsing.
You can organize your tabs into groups or Workspaces, which is especially handy for tabs that you may need to keep open and track of long-term like for work or school assignments. There’s also Opera Flow, which syncs content between the Opera GX desktop browser and mobile versions. It’s essentially an instant messenger that lets you share links, files, or texts between your PC and phone.
All in all, Opera GX is a browser that hasn't gotten a lot of attention, but it is possibly the best web browser for gamers out there and a fantastic alternative to Google Chrome if you're not quite ready to ditch a Chromium-based browser just yet.
Warner Bros' panel at San Diego Comic Con took place earlier today (July 23), and, while fans were treated to brand new looks at both Black Adam and Shazam! sequel Shazam! Fury Of The Gods, the panel was light on anything else.
Reports had rumbled during the week that Henry Cavill was set to make an appearance on the panel to finally offer some clarity in his role as Superman, but there was no sign of the Man of Steel during the show, which stuck rigidly to reveals for Black Adam and the Shazam! sequel.
Me waiting for Henry Cavill to show up but DC ended their panel #SDCC #BlackAdam #DCEU pic.twitter.com/vPbg1OAFCIJuly 23, 2022
Henry Cavill deserves better. The fans deserve better. And Waner Bros deserve nothing #HenryCavillSuperman #SDCCJuly 23, 2022
As well as a lack of Superman, the panel also didn't offer any updates on the much-delayed blockbuster, The Flash, or the Aquaman sequel, or the third instalment of Wonder Woman, or the sequel to The Batman, or indeed any scraps of information on Batgirl or the newly-announced Static Shock movie.
To be fair, The Flash, Aquaman and Batman did make short appearances, but only with the use of old footage in the first trailer for Shazam! Fury Of The Gods, which you can see below:
The panel's real highlight was the unveiling of the trailer for Shazam! Fury of the Gods, which will be with us in December.
It was confirmed by star Zachary Levi that the new movie will be set two years after the first film. Fans also got a look at the movie's villains, The Daughter of Atlas, who will be played by Helen Mirren, Lucy Liu and Rachel Zegler. Levi also teased the possibility of a third movie, if the audience is willing, telling fans "If you guys go and see it, I’m sure the bosses will want to make another one.”
Zachary Levi teases what to expect in #Shazam #SDCC pic.twitter.com/zBVWj6SnoqJuly 23, 2022
Helen Mirren and Rachel Zegler video in to #SDCC #ShazamMovie pic.twitter.com/im2olaGpnnJuly 23, 2022
Shazam! then gave way to Black Adam, with Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson and director Jaume Collet-Serra taking to the stage to present a brand new short trailer from the dark new addition to the DC Movie universe.
Speaking about the role, Johnson told the crowd it had been a long journey to get to the movie being greelit. He said (via Deadline): "It has been a long journey filled with passion and grit to push Black Adam along — it has been over 10 years. To be here at Comic-Con, Hall H, representing a DC hero, an anti-hero, is a dream come true. When I started 20 years ago, many moons ago, I would bring movies here and hope people would love it. How can we create something that is fresh and unique… show and create something that’s never been done? My goal is to usher in a new era in the DC universe. What is it like to build out the DC universe with the Justice Society as well,”
#BlackAdam Entrance! #SDCC pic.twitter.com/wsdH7lgoQ1July 23, 2022
As well as the new trailer, which you can see below, it was also confirmed that Black Adam will feature Viola Davis, who will bring Amanda Waller, the character she has played in both iterations of Suicide Squad, to the movie.
Later on tonight, Marvel Studios head honcho Kevin Feige, who will be revealing new plans for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. We'll be live-blogging the event, so keep your eyes peeled to TechRadar for full details.
PDF Free, Ashampoo’s free PDF viewer, has received a significant update with its version 3.0.5 launch.
The upgraded software is packing an impressive number of improvements and new features designed to power-up PDF viewing and creation, with a specific focus on crafting a more intuitive and comfortable user experience.
Best of all, the free PDF reader is now powered by the same technology as Ashampoo’s premium PDF Pro 3, which should make for a more efficient tool and speedier workflows overall.
On top of a major under-the-hood revamp, PDF Free 3.0.5 also introduces a large number of features and QoL improvements across the board.
Most noticeable is the new ribbon-based user interface - described by the company as “handy and elegant” and meaning that comparisons to the Microsoft 365 layout are now hard to ignore.
Certainly, in older versions, the dated interface could feel cluttered, while the new PDF reader for Windows is cleaner and more modern, making it easier to navigate. Dark mode has also finally been added too.
With an eye on efficiency, the PDF viewer’s new quick-access toolbar lets users quickly switch between work modes. Sizing and zooming have also received an upgrade. Users will now find a button to toggle icon sizes within the application and a document zoom built directly into the status bar.
Elsewhere, file merging and rendering of scanned and black-and-white images have been improved, alongside better load times for more complex documents.
A further 45 general fixes have also been released for the software, including improved translations, better handling of fonts and images, and more reliability when opening certain files or elements on a document page.
For users looking to take advantage of the latest updates, PDF Free 3.0.5 is available to download now from Ashampoo.
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