The most significant number from Samsung's Galaxy S24 announcement

My goodness, there’s a lot to be said about Samsung’s newly announced Galaxy S24 family of flagship Android devices.

Aaaaand, spoiler alert: We won’t be saying most of those things here, in this column, today.

Now, don’t get me wrong: Samsung’s latest and greatest Galaxy models have tons of good stuff going for ’em. From the eye-catching hardware to the specs to end all specs, Samsung rarely holds back with its top-of-the-line Android offerings. And this year’s devices appear to be no exception.

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Message to IT: Yes, you should install Apple security updates

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New law could turn UK into a hacker's playground

It looks as if people are at last waking up to a second extraordinarily dangerous requirement buried within a UK government bill designed to promote the nation as a surveillance state. It means bureaucrats can delay or prevent distribution of essential software updates, making every computer user far less secure.

A poor law

This incredibly damaging limitation is just one of the many bad ideas buried in the UKs latest piece of shoddy tech regulation, the Investigatory Powers Act. What makes the law doubly dangerous is that in the online world, you are only ever as secure as your least secure friend, which means UK businesses will likely suffer by being flagged as running insecure versions of operating systems.

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Apple's disappearing Rapid Security Response update (u)

Apple on Monday distributed its latest Rapid Security Response update to iPhones, iPads, and Macs, rolling out an important security patch to protect devices against a recently identified attack Apple says is already in active use.

“Apple is aware of a report that this issue may have been actively exploited,” the company said in its security note.

That’s bad, as it means someone somewhere has already been attacked using this vulnerability. The patch repairs a flaw found in WebKit in which processing web content could lead to arbitrary code execution.

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Apple's disappearing Rapid Security Response update

Apple on Monday distributed its latest Rapid Security Response update to iPhones, iPads, and Macs, rolling out an important security patch to protect devices against a recently identified attack Apple says is already in active use.

“Apple is aware of a report that this issue may have been actively exploited,” the company said in its security note.

That’s bad, as it means someone somewhere has already been attacked using this vulnerability. The patch repairs a flaw found in WebKit in which processing web content could lead to arbitrary code execution.

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Google I/O and the curious case of the missing Android version

With Google’s I/O announcement expo now firmly in the rearview mirror, it’s time for us to enter the inevitable next phase of any tech-tinted revelation — and that’s the careful contemplation of everything we’ve just experienced.

It’s my favorite phase of all, personally, as it lets us really dive in and analyze everything with a fine-toothed comb to uncover all the subtle significance that isn’t always apparent on the surface.

And this year, my goodness, is there some splendid stuff to pore over.

Specific to the realm of Android, the sharp-eyed gumshoes over at 9to5Google noticed that this year’s under-development new Android version, Android 14, was mentioned by name only one time during the entire 2,000-hour Google I/O keynote.

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Businesses, beware: The Motorola ThinkPhone comes with a major caveat

Let me just preface this by saying: No, the saga we’re about to dive into isn’t in any way related to April Fools’ — as far as I can tell, anyway. After all, we’re at the start of May.

And yet, one of Android’s best-known phone-makers is putting out a new device with such eye-rollingly off-the-mark claims, I can’t help but wonder if maybe they got mixed up on months and meant this to be a joke. It’s so hilariously and obviously ironic, I’m just not sure what else to make of it.

So here it is: Motorola’s got a new business-aimed Android phone called the Motorola ThinkPhone. It’s the first time the company — which has been owned by Lenovo since 2014, when Google broke our hearts and pawned the brand off after a glorious 20 months of control — is bringing a classic Lenovo name into the Motorola and Android arena this prominently.

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