Items tagged with Firmware
Around two years ago, researchers discovered serious firmware vulnerabilities in Mac laptops and desktops, and then developed a proof-of-concept worm to demonstrate how potentially damaging they could be. Since then, Apple has been pretty good about including EFI (extensible firmware interface) updates with its macOS...
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Microsoft recently announced a refresh to its Surface Pro 4 models with upgrades to Intel's latest generation processors (Kaby Lake). Part of the promise in upgrading to 7th generation Core CPUs is better batty life—Microsoft said its updated models offer up to 50 percent more run time than the previous generation...
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Earlier this month, we informed you of a nasty vulnerability in certain Netgear routers that opened them up to remote exploits, including “arbitrary command injection” by nefarious parties. Four months after Netgear was first notified about the exploit, no response from the company (or fix) was provided, so a proof of...
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It’s another day, and another backdoor Android exploit has been discovered. Last week, we brought you news of a secret backdoor installed on a number of budget Android devices that was beaming personal information (test messages, phone numbers, contacts) to servers in China. Today, we’re learning of another exploit...
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If you’re a victim of severe battery drain on the Surface Pro 3 tablet, we’ve got some good news for you today -- a fix has been released for customers. Interestingly, Microsoft says that the battery drain only affected a “limited number” of Surface Pro 3 devices.
In short, the battery’s full charge capacity was...
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The last time Tesla released a major over-the-air (OTA) update for its Model S electric sedan, it improved upon the already stellar “Insane Mode” found on the dual-motor P85D. But Tesla CEO Elon Musk has something even more promising in store with a new OTA update that will be available to all Model S owners.
Musk...
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Microsoft has begun doling out its October update for the Xbox One to preview program members. It's a pretty big update with somewhat of a heavy focus on improving Snap support. After applying the update, the Snap Center will include faster access to Friends, Messages, Game DVR, clock, and battery indicator when...
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A hacker (“Craig”) on a site devoted to embedded device hacking posted a lengthy entry detailing how he, on a whim and armed with boredom and too much Shasta cola, reverse-engineered a firmware update and found a backdoor to certain D-Link routers that allows one to access the devices’ web interface...
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Woe is the PlayStation 3 gamer who jumped at the chance to install Sony's newest firmware update, version 4.45. After it was made available, it didn't take long for complaints to surface on Twitter, Reddit, and Sony's own support forum lamenting the fact that the update was bricking consoles, turning their gaming...
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Back in April, we ran a pair of OCZ Vertex 4 SSDs (256GB and 512GB) through the benchmark grinder to see what they could do... Today, we’re testing another brother in the family, the 128GB OCZ Vertex 4. When we first tested the aforementioned drives, we found that the latest generation of the Vertex series delivered somewhat uneven...
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Back in April, we ran a pair of OCZ Vertex 4 SSDs (256GB and 512GB) through the benchmark grinder to see what they could do and also told you everything you ever wanted to know about them in the process. Today, we’re testing another brother in the family, the 128GB OCZ Vertex 4. When we first tested the aforementioned drives, we...
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Do you enjoy the sound of your own voice? Don't worry, we're not here to judge, and truth be sold, we sometimes feel the same way. The exception to our vanity is when we're playing a game and yelling at our teammates through a headset. That became a problem when Sony rolled out its v4.10 for the PlayStation 3, which...
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Don't underestimate the power of finely tuned firmware. Underscoring this point is the release of new enhanced IOPS firmware (v1.13) for OCZ's Octane SATA 3.0 Series solid state drives (SSDs). With the new firmware applied, OCZ promises significant improvements to write performance, over double in some capacities. For all Octane SATA 6Gb/s...
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Crucial, the Micron-owned maker of memory and storage products, made good on its promise to fix a strange issue plaguing some M4 solid state drive owners. Earlier this month, Crucial said it was hard at work on new firmware that would address an issue causing some M4 SSDs to stall out Windows and kick out a Blue Screen of Death (BSoD) with...
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Users over on Crucial's support forum have been complaining about a strange error that manifests on certain M4 solid state drives (SSDs) after precisely 5,200 hours of use. It appears to only affect the 64GB models, with affected drives kicking Windows systems into a BSoD with an error code that reads 0x00000f4...
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Overclocking used to be a dark art reserved for a power users who didn't mind taking potentially catastrophic risks in order to squeeze a few more ounces of free performance out of their components. Things have changed dramatically in recent years, but lest anyone forget, overclocking can still be dangerous, even with...
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Earlier this year, HP took a serious amount of flack for some crazy "exploding printer" hoopla that the company swears was never true to begin with. But, there was still an issue with unauthorized access, which the company has just taken action to resolve. On Nov. 29, HP announced that the potential existed for a...
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OCZ just made available new firmware that's supposed to fix a handful of stability issues with certain SandForce-based solid state drives (SSDs). Affected SSDs include the Vertex 3 series, Vertex 3 Max IOPS series, Agility 3 series, and Solid 3 series. According to the release notes, the firmware addresses the following: Fixed a rare condition...
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Crucial announced the availability of a firmware update for its m4 SSDs (FW 0009). The update will both solve a problem or two and also provide performance enhancements. Specifically, FW 0009 will eliminate an issue wherein drives experience intermittent failures in cold boot ups on some host systems, and it will also compensate for some SATA-II...
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We have some semi-good news for Intel 320 Series solid state drive owners who might be suffering from the notorious 8MB bug. No, we don't have a fix, and neither does Intel. However, the Santa Clara chip maker is fully aware of the problem and is promising a new firmware update that will supposedly stomp out the annoying bug for good. "Intel...
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Of all the hundreds of thousands of computer viruses, trojans, rootkits, and worms that have been written since 'Elk Cloner' first appeared in the wild in 1981, the overwhelming majority of them have targeted computer software. Attacking computer hardware directly isn't impossible now (and wasn't then), but it tends to be extremely difficult...
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Ah, Boxee Box. The little media streaming box that could. The D-Link box, which has officially been on sale for a few months now, has been improved on a fairly regular basis. A ton of new features have been added in recent months, and this month's no different. Version 1.1 of the Boxee Box firmware has just shipped, revamping a lot of stuff...
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