Gadgetory

somebody once told me it's time for the 359 podcast episode 248 i'm BVG in the house today we've got Alfred Eng and Roger Chang what's up everybody hey my periscope where the sharpest tool in the shed no let's not let's not start that again hey now all right we're not all sorry's clearly if you watch the show you know we're not all started so it's another busy day now we're gonna be talking about yet another massive ransomware attack Petya or goldeneye or whatever you want to call it so many names so many names Alfred our security guru is here to break down why should care I will also be talking a bit about CNET's camera shootout with the big Android phones 1+5 Galaxy s8 and Google pixel and who won out lastly we'll be talking about Qualcomm announcement some technology that they've developed to get to fingerprint sensors buried underneath the display which is something we may see with the iPhone well not Qualcomm snack on hot Qualcomm's better some form of it yeah yeah so alright as usual if you have any questions leave them in the comment section BBG we'll grab the best we will try to get to them at 3 minutes and 59 seconds all right buckle up everybody here we go in the 3 - welcome to the 359 I'm Roger Tsien I'm Alfred hang well it happened again another ransomware attack is hit in companies and government agencies around the world are scrambling it's a very restraint called Pena and it's even worse than want to cry however do you replace it - Liam this yesterday and today how is this different than one a crime what is this well it's the same thing as want to cry in the way that it spread and the fact that it's ransomware but you can't call it the same as want to cry just because of how much more severe the ransomware itself is so when you take a look at wanna cry it essentially encrypted you know certain file is on your computer that you might need right and then basically said you know you can't use this the difference with this new one it's called Goldeneye instead a strain of pet yet another ransomware they came out which by the way is a cooler name yes for sure golden eyes definitely way cooler than pet yeah or some other name called not pet yeah but this one it doesn't only encrypt files on your computer it also encrypts your entire hard drive so essentially your computer just becomes like a very expensive brick unless you pay for decryption and then on in this scenario they used an email address from a website called post EO which is based in Germany yep and even if you pay it you can't get it back because the host post EO they took down that email address so you can't email them your your information saying hey please like send me the decryption code no no longer so what does that mean that doesn't mean everyone is just screwed for now yes like pretty much if you've been infected but it spread to the same way that wanna cry did which is through the eternal blue NSA exploit yep and it also used another act and it combined another exploit with Microsoft Office documents yeah and that's basically how the initial network in Kiev got infected and then just spread over to everybody else someone clicked on a bad word file pretty much yeah all right next up sina tested out the big android phones in a camera shootout there's a galaxy s 8 the pixel and the 1+5 and surprisingly the pixel actually held on fairly strong that's that's interesting considering its the oldest phone and I couldn't believe it because it's the only one that doesn't have like a dual lens camera in the back oh the gsa does not have a dual lens camera okay well i'm wrong twice now now i thought the one plus five though because it had the dual lens would have done better than both of them yes it's clear a case that like even adding an extra lens adding extra hardware sometimes isn't always the solution i mean from the photos that i've seen though it seems that you know the pixel is able to get like the most detail by like getting the most light and yeah photos and it seemed andy eddie coyle who actually did a shoot out he noted that the the 1+5 in particular had some issues with its white balance so that the color the photos seemed a little off like what should have been you know blue kind of had this yellowish hue to it but yeah that said what the 1+5 is the only one out of these three camera or these three phones that can do that portrait or bouquet yeah it looks a lot better as far as photo comparison goes when once you get to the close-ups and I feel like that's kind of what the dual ends you know specializes in yes definitely so I mean it's definitely a phone you should have in consideration it is far less expensive than the other phones it's definitely got its own following but it's not you know it's not exactly a widely available phone you can't go to a carrier store than violin plus five so that's always the issue yeah I'm a little disappointed all right lastly a Qualcomm has found a way to put fingerprint sensors underneath the screen which is something that we're hoping to see if the iPhone but how do you explain how Qualcomm is doing this so they've revealed this yesterday or I guess this morning at Mobile World Congress Shanghai yep where essentially instead of using normal fingerprint scanners where you put your finger on it and it kind of has like a small camera kind of thing on it camera but it's like one metal ring this one uses in ultrasonic sensors so in the same way that you can get an image through like when you get an ultrasound for like a baby so I'm just uses that kind of technology and doing that it allows them to go through like thicker like material like going underneath your screen instead of having to be like up on the surface for it gotcha and it's the first phone to actually incorporate this is a vivo phone it's really a it seems like it's a concept video at this point I think they're really just announcing it to say that their first since yeah because yeah welcome said that this technology isn't really going to be commercially available until the summer of 2018 right and right now we're expecting the iPhone to have similar technology not this kind of ultrasonic technology definitely not using Qualcomm technology but be able to accomplish the same task and it's supposed to come with the fall yes so it's really vivo plans stake in the ground all right for more of these stories sure cuz I don't see that Roger Cheng I'm Alfred Hank thanks for listening alright jumping right into the comments and questions and the chat we do recognize like we did kind of have to breeze through that really quick our goal is to try to get the the right byte size into a four minute podcast that people can download yeah as per instruction from our superiors but we're going to go into a little more detail right now and there plenty of great questions and comments filtering and we're gonna start right with the Panamanian Mike who was a little disappointed that we skipped over how to migrate or mitigate sorry I can't read this far away I thought he wants us to just go into more details about how to mitigate the problem well do the realism where well I think if you have it or in general you could hit your mostly like branching upon with dr. Rama Han is uh give us instructions on how to protect yourself I know Matthew dacher goes on to say that we use a service called know before to teach how to not to indiscriminate click on emails well the issue with this strain of ransomware and the same thing with wanna cry is that even if you yourself personally are very careful with you know your computer what you download you know you have getting all the update things like that this exploit you know exposes basically your computer's networks this one in particular eternal blue used the SMB networks on Windows devices so even if you personally are very careful if somebody else that's on your computer network like messes up like you you're infected that and that that's how it spreads so quickly so you know you gotta watch out for yourself but then now you have to tell everybody that's on the same computer network that you are to also be careful mm-hmm so the other thing is everybody should be patching their you know computers as quickly and I think that's the the reminder there is that yeah like wanna cry should have been a reminder yeah everyone to update the computer but I think you said in your story today wasn't like 39% of computer t6 like million computers right yeah we're not like patched we're not patched even after one a crime yes and that's only from the you know computers that were using Avast like antivirus really just as a small fraction yeah so that's the thing there there should have been more people that patched it but and it looks like you know after wanna cry happen I guess some people thought oh it was probably not gonna happen again then we go that's what um so yeah Pat your computers to the latest you know and it's not just patching your computer it's making sure every computer on your network is also that yeah right right do we have any suggested resources to go along to where where can they find this where can I get the patch from microwave from Microsoft we have a link in the article really don't we should check the show notes afterwards we'll let you yep in the chat oh my god I'm gonna butcher this name and I'm so sorry Raja mana calm I apologize again we'll pay effect Linux computers it will not because this is taking care this is taking advantage of a Windows exploit but that's not to say that Linux computers are not safe from ransomware in general last week a South Korean host company paid the largest known payout for ransomware they paid a million dollars for this ransomware which is the the I'm not sure if there's ever been more like discreetly but for sure this is the most the largest amount publicly publicly disclosed that they paid a million dollars to free up their servers because they were hosting a ton of websites and then hackers you know basically put ransomware on their servers and these were all Linux servers that were taken hostage so and just for comparison say like these individual attacks are asking for $300 for Bitcoin right yes yeah well I'm like each person yep let's move on to the fingerprint scanner Kyle says Apple better get the fingerprint scanner under the screen and not in the back yeah I know there's a lot of debate back and forth about that you know we've seen kind of those those mock units with the circular cutout in the back indicating a potential fingerprint sensor there but we don't know how legit those are first of all how do people know that just because that is a circular cutout that it's a fingerprint sensor like what else spinner whoo they just spinner attachment probably not gonna happen sorry okay if they don't want to make money all right whatever that's their fault these birds will be dead you know by the time I phone they're like a gajillion fidget spinner apps yes doesn't repair circle yeah this is better why would you even uh I hate no I mark my words fidget spinners will not be a thing by the time the iPhone 8 comes out we won't be talking about them I mean look I grew that several months I grew up with pogs and that was stupid enough but at least pogs had like art on them and they looked kind of neat you can get like different fidgets Pharaohs dudes colors you know it's incredible to me like the the the stupid little gadget II collectibles we come up with pogs is way more fun really sorry let's just remember we're meant to play with other people King is there like a midget spinners yeah remember Alf he's back in fidget spinner fella you could at least respect that come on Sal all right you win you gotta you've slipped in a Milhouse reference thank you for that alright let's go ahead and jump over to imagine soggy our old friend he's asking well he's stating that is why I was surprised the 1 plus 5 had dual cameras it's not necessary right now the bouquet effect it's cool but people just want great-looking photos as of right now I think that's it's kind of like giving a handicap to anybody who's an amateur photographer and making people who spend their lives becoming great photographers feel like fools ok ok is the easiest way to trick people into thinking that you're like a real photographer because all it really is is like changing the focus on your like lens yeah and like people will see a photo that I spoke ago Wow my wedding god I mean look they as someone who takes way too many photos of his kid like when that day works and it's not foolproof right a lot of those do come out kind of crappy but when it works and it's it's nice it's not something I would share brag is like some great piece of photography but it's a great way to highlight you know a person you care about right like it for me it's not about like showing off any skills like I realized I'm a terrible photographer and that if I pay the professional I would appreciate the work that they did like the photos that professional photographers take still by far is way superior to anything that you can do with your phone yeah but you're a lot more humble than like people I know that of iPhone 7 plus is where the Instagram model is that and no job now they'll show me their phones and their wallpaper or some like waterfall thing or something and that's it's just such the wallpaper and the way I took that I'm like I don't cool okay I don't care it's your wallpaper like how even look at that it's just it's one more thing to lend to selfie culture though yeah no totally I mean I don't really work for selfies because these are all yeah but it's like four beautiful photos of yourself like somebody else your phone it's so much the idea of dual cameras it's it's it's gonna be like the standard thing oh yeah like iPhones got it we're pretty sure I mean the rumors all point to the Galaxy Note 8 getting it as well and all these other phones are picking up dual dual cameras as a thing but when when we'll try cameras become a thing well actually well you say that what because the three lenses the tango phone no I understand yeah that's for AR though yeah but that's the thing like I think three can't like try camera phones will be a thing and it's because of they are it's because these other sort of sophisticated I think will see three or four cameras I don't want cameras if you don't remember I think it was the fire phone which had like six cameras in the front because it like read your face it for death it was partly for AR as well but that that's not the one that no one bought you're right I don't remember the fire phone yeah no one does Matthew dad who says I once shot a short film on an iPhone 7 I don't want to sound like I'm too much of a cranky pants here cuz I kind of poopoo on the whole yeah really five really he's as old as he looks but okay so I'm not gonna not acknowledge that the the mobile phone and the camera that comes in your pocket now that's kind of neat adventurous tool that brings a lot more fantastic opportunities to people who would not have had them makes it more affordable more attainable but at the same time I'm tired of everybody run around just taking pictures of themselves this I my train ride this morning some girl on the train just like cake in her face and makeup and then click click click click click click click I mean what happened actually that happened to me yesterday like walking down the steps to a no idle or train this lady just stopped in the middle walking down the stairs to take a selfie and what are you doing that to me that there is a crowd of people behind her she literally just stopped to take a photo then she looked back to I'm sorry like no kidding yeah really that warrants Lapham to me on Matthew doctor's note though about his short film that he shot on iphone 7 I had a class project once where I had to make like a like some kind of like short film like video documentary thing and this was supposed to be for a class where you learned how to use like a DSLR camera and all this stuff sure I I didn't do that I did I don't want to go get the camera or anything like that so I just shot it all on my phone and I didn't like super last minute and then it passed so yeah you know higher phone quality everybody well there was a film that that did well Sundance was a tangerine I believe that was Sean tirely on an iPhone 5 again there's an opportunity there and in the right hands it can be a Fame the right yes but now it's in everybody's hands and not everybody deserves that yeah I mean I think everyone does I will say that I don't think everybody deserves this the front-facing camera cuz you you don't get one sorry you got put a pretty may take it away from you if you've taken too many selfies in a day or something oh good alright there's a go limit which you hit like 10 selfies and that's down yeah I don't know what is what is the threshold for I feel like one per day I feel like if you take more than like 200 a day that's like too many I think little wait what I don't yet people are gonna take more than 10 selfies a day that's I I think I take one I think I'll feel a bump I think 200 is no one wants no I don't care I know what you look like my favorite use of the selfie camera though it's like to take self shots of like weird people on the train oh yeah that's cool again Kyle Kyle says it's not about the camera it's about the person behind the camera absolutely very true and Michael Brown expands on that Casey neistat's last vlog was shot completely on the SA and it was a pretty legit but that guy is an incredible cinematographer right I mean I'm not a big fan of his of the vlog style in general and that's subjective but you're not going to deny that that guy could shoot an awesome video on an old flip phone camera just because he's got the know-how and the skill no I love it whenever some of these companies these phone companies hire you know professional photographers or video producers to shoot photos to demonstrate how awesome their cameras well of course professionals can take anything and make it look great yeah one more good joke from Michael Brown if she has 100 selfies in her phone she's too young for you bro that's like that's like the same age as me I don't know it's probably yeah I'm probably too young for everybody so it's true yeah I would not argue that how many selfies I have on my phone now that I think about it I want to tell about tomorrow's episode I delete a lot of my photos though just look it up in your iPhone there's like a selfie folder yes there is of course there is I do it to make space though show more selfies so you know what I'll well I'll take a look right now see how myself is I bet all right goodbye everybody nobody cares I have six selfies and one of them is not even really a selfie it's just like I have 347 there what yeah but there will see with my kid yeah I have six in your face I told you haha and then four of them are me with a cat okay add a kitten that I rescued that's that's pretty good ha I mean I would say like 99% of those my kids are theirs alright if you want to come up with excuses for you're not sure you're the one with triple-digit selfies and I have six that's true maybe ugh - oh you're too young for me that's that's wrong it's so mean okay careful let's uh let's wrap it up I know down a tad more boring path guys well thanks if you join anything you saw or heard here I don't know why they can see that our podcast is also available in iTunes tune in stitcher SoundCloud Feedburner and Google Play Music we'll see you all tomorrow see you tomorrow bye you