Xpertfeed

  The deal could be worth as much as $30 billion. Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) is in late-stage talks geared toward acquiring rival processor giant Xilinx, reports suggest. According to the Wall Street Journal, the discussion, now in "advanced" stages, could be valued at over $30 billion.  The publication  reported on Thursday   that an agreement could be finalized as early as next week.  However, sources close to the matter added that discussions had previously "stalled" before restarting, and so there is no concrete guarantee that an acquisition bid would be accepted or go ahead at all.  Over this year, AMD has launched a variety of new processors including the AMD Radeon Pro 5000 gaming processors, Ryzen & Ryzen Pro 4000G, and the enterprise Epyc 7Fx2 series.  The company has enjoyed a surge in share price over the past 12 months, rising from roughly $28 in October 2019 to $86.51 at the time of writing and market close.  Analysts suggest ...

  Microsoft's new extension puts Edge developer tools inside its popular Visual Studio Code editor. Microsoft has announced general availability of its new Microsoft Edge Tools for VS Code extension, which lets developers embed Edge's browser developer tools into Microsoft's popular cross-platform code editor.  The new extension allows developers to use Edge's built-in Elements and Network tool from within Microsoft's Visual Studio Code (VS Code) to fix styling, layout, and CSS issues with a site.  The idea is to bring Edge's tools to VS Code so developers don't need to switch between the editor and browser when moving from development to debugging tasks.  Microsoft says the new extension simplifies developers' workflow by changing the way users can launch an instance of Edge to debug. Users can now connect to an existing browser instance, start a new one or a headless browser that lacks a browser window and has no icon in the task bar.  "Continuous...

  A demo in the upcoming elections will inform the potential future adoption of the remote model The Brazilian government is considering the adoption of online voting, in a move that aims to phase out the current electronic voting machine set-up and generate savings. The Superior Electoral Court (TSE) has released a request for proposals from technology companies and the firms will be able to demonstrate potential solutions in the upcoming municipal elections in November. The demonstration will be carried out with a sample of voters from the cities of São Paulo, Valparaiso de Goiás and Curitiba, who will choose fictitious candidates online. The demo results should inform the discussions over a potential change in the electoral process. According to the TSE, the investigations over a potential adoption of online voting aim to find a more modern approach for the electronic voting system to make the process of choosing elected representatives "even more democratic and accessible elec...

  All new Git repositories on GitHub will be named "main" instead of "master" starting October 1, 2020. Starting next month, all new source code repositories created on GitHub will be named "main" instead of "master" as part of the company's effort to remove unnecessary references to slavery and replace them with more inclusive terms. GitHub repositories are where users and companies store and synchronize their source code projects. By default, GitHub uses the term " master " for the primary version of a source code repository. Developers make copies of the " master " on their computers into which they add their own code, and then merge the changes back into the " master " repo. "On  October 1, 2020 , any new repositories you create will use  main  as the default branch, instead of  master ," the company said. Existing repositories that have " master " set as the default branch will be left as...

  This prosthetic iris demonstrates the power and promise of nanotechnology. Smart contact lenses are a sci-fi trope, but they may also offer hope for sufferers of certain kinds of debilitating eye ailments. That's the goal of new research into a a tunable, low-powered iris embedded in a smart contact lens. It's a good example of the growing role of nanotechnology in human augmentation and therapeutics. The human iris controls pupil size in response to light, a critical function that allows the retina to take in appropriate sensory information. Too much light and the world is washed out, too little and it's veiled in darkness. A host of eye diseases and deficiencies inhibit the iris from responding appropriately, including aniridia and keratoconus. Light sensitivity, similarly, is a painful debilitation and is often associated with chronic migraine. Researchers at Imec, an innovation hub based in Belgium, along with partners like CMST, a Ghent University-affiliated research...

  Firefox will block automatic downloads initiated from sandboxed iframes -- the technology usually used for web embeds. Mozilla will add a new security feature to Firefox in October that will make it harder for malicious web pages to initiate automatic downloads and plant malware-laced files on a user's computer. Called a  drive-by download , this type of attack has been around for two decades and usually takes place when users visit a website that contains malicious code placed there by an attacker. The role of the malicious code is to abuse legitimate features in browsers and web standards to initiate an automatic file download or download prompt, in the hopes of tricking the user into running a malicious file. There are multiple forms of drive-by downloads, depending on the browser feature attackers decide to use. Browsers like  Chrome ,  Firefox , and Internet Explorer have, across the years, gradually deployed various forms of protections against automatic driv...

  Microsoft releases public preview of Application Guard for Office. Microsoft is edging closer to general availability of its Application Guard security technology for Microsoft 365 apps, which gives IT admins and security staff a little more assurance that users opening risky attachments won't cause a malware outbreak.  Application Guard offers additional protections for enterprises using Word, Excel, and PowerPoint for Microsoft 365 and Windows 10 Enterprise.  Microsoft argues that Application Guard for Office or Microsoft Defender Application Guard for Office "helps prevent untrusted files from accessing trusted resources, keeping your enterprise safe from new and emerging attacks". Microsoft released the private preview of Application Guard for Office in February, extending a feature that had until then only been available for the new Edge browser.  The feature allows users to open websites safely with the protection of hardware-level containerization. The ...

  The process of software design often begins on a messy whiteboard that doesn't prepare anyone for anything, according to design advocate Simon Brown. It's time for more upfront thinking. In the age of agile, too many software designers are afraid to over-design their applications upfront. As a result, many software teams have abandoned architectural thinking, up front design, documentation, diagramming, and modelling. "In many cases this is a knee-jerk reaction to the heavy bloated processes of times past, and in others it's a misinterpretation and misapplication of the  Agile Manifesto ." That's the word from  Simon Brown , author of  Software Architecture for Developers , who urged, in a compelling  talk  at the Yow! conference, that more thinking about applications be moved up to the whiteboard phase of software creation. Incidentally, he eschews whiteboards, noting they often result in confusing or unintelligible sketchings. "Tragically, as an indus...

  Microsoft says attackers have used a Windows zero-day to spoof file signatures and another RCE in the Internet Explorer scripting engine to execute code on users' devices. Microsoft has started rolling out today the August 2020 Patch Tuesday security updates. This month, the company has patched 120 vulnerabilities across 13 different products, from Edge to Windows, and from SQL Server to the .NET Framework. Among the 120 vulnerabilities fixed this month, 17 bugs have received the highest severity rating of "Critical," and there are also two zero-days — vulnerabilities that have been exploited by hackers before Microsoft was able to provide today's patches. Zero-day #1 The first of the two zero-days patched this month is a bug in the Windows operating system. Tracked as  CVE-2020-1464 , Microsoft says that an attacker can exploit this bug and have Windows incorrectly validate file signatures. The OS maker says attackers can (ab)use this bug to "bypass security f...

  Samsung Galaxy phones users download this app thinking it will offer them software updates from the company. Samsung phones are known for getting slow updates compared to other manufacturers and its users have shared that concern regularly. But this month, there’s a big warning for the users of Samsung, who could’ve easily downloaded a fraud app on the phones. This app called  Update for Samsung - Android Update Version  was reportedly asking users to pay to get regular software updates, which should never be the case. The app, downloaded by over 10 million users, according to this report was merely showing them ads and charging them for doing it. Unfortunately, most of these users didn’t realise they were downloading a fraud app, which meant that a lot of people lost money to it. Thankfully, ZDNet reported that Aleksejs Kuprins, malware analyst at the CSIS Security Group reached out to Google Play Store team about the fraudulent app and asked them to remove it imm...

  The platforms would be forced to inform news media businesses of algorithm changes that are likely to materially affect referral traffic to news, the ranking of news behind paywalls, and any substantial changes to the display and presentation of news and advertising directly associated with news. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has developed a draft code for how media organisations can bargain with Facebook and Google to secure "fair" payment for news content shown on their respective platforms. The draft code of practice [PDF] adopts a model based on negotiation, mediation, and arbitration to "best facilitate genuine commercial bargaining between parties, allowing commercially negotiated outcomes suited to different business models used by Australian news media businesses". Each media business is expected to come to an agreement with the digital platform, with no one-size-fits-all model intended. But the code, as it stands, would allow g...

  Garmin’s fitness wearables remain disconnected after almost a day Garmin fitness devices have been left disconnected for nearly a day after the company suffered a major outage, possibly caused by a ransomware attack. The outage first reported by Garmin over 20 hours ago, as of this writing, affects Garmin wearables and apps, as well as Garmin call centers. “We are currently experiencing an outage that affects Garmin.com and Garmin Connect. This outage also affects our call centers, and we are currently unable to receive any calls, emails or online chats,” wrote the company  on Twitter  and its Garmin Connect website. Garmin Connect is the service that allows owners of Garmin devices like Forerunner smartwatches to obsessively track their running performance, for example.  Tech News reports  that flyGarmin, the navigation service that supports Garmin’s aviation devices, has also been down affecting some pilots. Garmin was forced to shut down a number of cr...

  "Contrast ratio, response speed, high brightness" are all superior to OLED and micro LEDs Samsung Display has begun developing quantum dot nano-light emitting diodes (QNED) as a next-generation display that surpasses organic light emitting diodes, and is expected to begin full-fledged investment in 2021. QNED refers to a self-emitting display utilizing a nanometer (1nm = 1 billionth of a meter) semiconductor particles quantum dot (QD) and gallium nitrogen light emitting diode (GaN LED). This is theoretically evaluated as having a long life and high brightness compared to the organic light emitting diode (OLED), low power consumption, burn-in removal, etc. strengths. "QNED is the highest-end display with both contrast ratio, high response speed, and high brightness characteristics of micro-LED, which is the biggest advantage of QD technology and OLED TVs being used in LCD (LCD) TVs," said Yim Seong-seong, Managing Director of Ubiresearch, at the Next Generation Dis...

  Microsoft also is creating a new standalone Microsoft Consulting org as part of its new structure. As it often does at the start of a new fiscal year, Microsoft is making some changes in its sales and support organizations. During the past few days, word began trickling out regarding some of the shifts that will affect those working with its "Customer Success" unit, its technical account managers, and other support staff. Microsoft's goal with its latest shifts is to try to improve customer use and engagement of various Microsoft products and services, my contacts say. Microsoft officials are shooting for more support-role clarity and improved "right-sizing" of customer support plans with these latest moves. I'm not hearing that Microsoft will be doing any big layoffs as part of the changes. (There could be some separate, smaller layoffs, but these are due to the usual churn, not the dismissal of a large number of individuals associated with any given team...