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The Best of CES 2018

After 51 years, CES in Las Vegas still manages to pack some surprises. No, I'm not talking about the rain that caused crazy floods or the two-hour blackout in Central Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center. I'm talking about 65-inch rollable OLED displays, robotic dogs, and $4,000 treadmills that deliver live workout classes on HD screens. There were far less phones and tablets than we saw a few years ago, but more and more companies are saving those big announcements for Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next month. Yet despite the fact that the Detroit Auto Show is just about to start, it can be argued that CES has become the greatest car tech show of the year.

Below we've gathered our favorite 21 new products and technologies from the show. Although they aren't all guaranteed to the make it to market in 2018—if ever—they represent the type of tech we hope to see in the year ahead.

Acer Swift 7

Best Laptop

Acer Swift 7 Dubbed the world's thinnest notebook, the Swift 7 measures just 0.39-inch thick and weighs 2.48 pounds. With a sturdy aluminum build, it avoids feeling flimsy, a pitfall that many light systems fail at, and it looks as nice as it feels. When the Swift 7 drew audible excitement and instant comparisons to a MacBook Air from our photographer, I knew Acer had succeeded with its design. It will arrive this spring at $1,699, packing an HD touch display, an Intel Core i7 processor, and 4G LTE connectivity.

Dell XPS 15 2-in-1

Best Convertible Hybrid Laptop

Dell XPS 15 2-in-1 The premium XPS line has been consistently lauded for its quality build and solid feature set, and Dell is now bringing that experience to a convertible 15-inch system. Convertibles this size often raise eyebrows, as the screen is arguably too large to be used comfortably in Tablet mode, but the XPS 15 is the slimmest on the market. This, along with the overall high build quality, helps mitigate the size. It's outfitted with eighth-generation Intel processors and discrete graphics, making it a viable professional's laptop for productivity in the office or on the road.

Lenovo Mix 630

Best Windows Tablet

Lenovo Miix 630 With a starting price of $799, the Lenovo Miix 630 detachable tablet is on the less expensive end of a brand-new crop of PCs that run power-sipping Qualcomm Snapdragon processors originally designed for smartphones. It's got a 12.3-inch full HD touch screen that's fortified with Corning Gorilla Glass. There's a kickstand built into the back of the tablet to prop it up when the keyboard is attached, and the whole thing weighs just less than 3 pounds. The big draw here: Lenovo claims the Miix 630 will last up to 20 hours between battery charges. Even better, that estimate assumes you'll use it as you would a smartphone: rarely turning it off and accessing the internet both via Wi-Fi and the included LTE modem. Depending on the cost of wireless service plans and whether or not that battery claims ring true, this Windows tablet has the potential to be a road warrior's best friend when it goes on sale this spring.

Honor View 10

Best Phone

Honor View 10 Honor's View 10 sets the bar for value. Huawei's low-cost spinoff brand is bringing a 6-inch phone with tons of RAM and storage, an AI-enhanced camera, and a flagship-level Kirin 970 processor to the US for less than $500—that undercuts the OnePlus 5T by at least $30, and it's about half the price of Huawei's own Mate 10 Pro. Honor has sold great $200 phones in the US for a few years now, and this device pushes its market up to people who aren't looking to make compromises.

Misfit Path

Best Smartwatch

Misfit Path Similar to the Misfit Phase but designed with smaller wrists in mind, the Misfit Path is a beautiful smartwatch that looks more like an analog timepiece. It can track steps, calories burned, distance, and sleep, as well as receive your call, text, and app notifications from your phone. Swimmers will be happy to note it's safe for the pool and shower. It launches this spring, and at $150, the Path is not only stylish but also affordable.

Peloton Tread

Best Health and Fitness Device

Peloton Tread While a $4,000 treadmill is undoubtedly extravagant, Peloton's Tread sets itself apart with a 32-inch HD touch screen. And for $39 per month, you can stream more than 10 daily live classes, as well as guided workouts. You can view your stats at the bottom of the screen, and view a leaderboard of other Peloton users on the side. That should be enough to motivate you, if spending all that money on a treadmill doesn't do the trick.

Fisker EMotion

Best Car

Fisker EMotion Fisker's founder, Henrik Fisker, cut his teeth working on sports cars for Aston Martin and BMW, and it shows in his latest design, the Fisker EMotion. This gorgeous sports sedan could have won on looks alone with great lines and butterfly doors, but it also runs an all-electric powertrain with a battery that'll carry the car up to 400 miles. Fisker promises a radical new battery design in less than five years that will increase range to 500 miles and require only 9 minutes of charge time. So smart power coupled with a host of luxury and connected car features (including advanced LiDAR-based autonomous driving capabilities being developed through a partnership with Quanergy) make this $129,000 sports car the belle of this year's CES ball.

Raven

Best Car Accessory

Raven New cars just keep getting smarter and more connected. And nowhere is that more obvious than at CES. But what if you're not ready to trade up your couple-of-years-old ride just yet? The $300 Raven sits on your dashboard and packs a Wi-Fi hotspot, GPS, security system, vehicle diagnostic system, and front- and cabin-facing video cameras in a box no bigger than your rearview mirror. It will even give you feedback on your driving skills.—Wendy Sheehan Donnell

Tello

Best Drone

Tello The Tello isn't a flashy pro drone. It's a $99 quadcopter, controlled by your phone or optional Bluetooth gamepad, with a modest 720p video camera. But the price is a big plus, especially when you consider that it's powered by Intel and DJI tech. It looks like a solid choice for people who want a drone, but don't want a high-powered pro model. It's also a teaching tool; it can be programmed with MIT's Scratch language, and anything that teaches you (or your kids) to code is a plus in our book.

DJI Osmo Mobile 2

Best Camera/Phone Accessory

DJI Osmo Mobile 2 The Osmo Mobile 2 is our pick for the best camera gear of CES, even though it doesn't have a lens or sensor. The handheld gimbal, priced at just $129, works with Android and iOS phones. It keeps handheld video silky smooth, can be mounted on a tripod, and has an app that adds time-lapse and other capabilities to your phone's camera. It's less expensive than its predecessor, and has three times the battery life—15 hours.

JBL Link View

Best Smart Home Device

JBL Link View Smart Display We saw a ton of devices with integrated Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant at CES this year—cars, bathrooms, TiVos, you name it. But the most important category for Google was its four smart displays, which give Google Assistant a solid (and YouTube-enabled) competitor for the Amazon Echo Show. While we love the industrial design of Lenovo's model, JBL's—which appears to be based on its Link 300 speaker—looks like it will offer better audio, making it a flexible home entertainment and home control center.

Samsung The Wall

Best Television

The Wall by Samsung We thought the TV size race was over, since manufacturing an LCD panel of more than 85 inches is prohibitively difficult and expensive. Samsung surprised us with a 140-inch monster that doesn't use LCD or OLED. The Wall by Samsung reaches its massive size by using MicroLEDs, millions of tiny light-emitting diodes arranged in an array. LED arrays are used for huge commercial signs and usually have giant pixels that are easily visible unless you're several dozen feet away, but the Wall's pixels are just 0.8 millimeters, which promises a viewing experience that's closer to a TV than a billboard.

TCL Alto

Best Home Theater Gear

TCL Alto Roku announced its Roku Connect software to encourage the development of audio products that work with its media streamers and licensed Roku TVs. TCL is the first company to jump on the bandwagon with its Alto line of speakers, of which the Roku Smart Soundbar is the first and currently only model. It's simply a soundbar designed to work with TCL Roku TVs, or any other device that uses Roku OS. It enables voice control with the Roku Entertainment Assistant, wireless playback of music without using your TV, and basically brings audio-only options into the Roku ecosystem.

Libratone Track+

Best Audio Gear

Libratone Track+ Libratone is best known for its speakers, but has proven its chops at making earphones with the excellent Adapt Q Lightning. Now the company is combining noise cancellation technology and a workout-friendly design into an impressive set of wireless earphones. The $200 Libratone Track+ might not be completely wire-free like so many other new pairs, but they incorporate adjustable active noise cancellation and are resistant to splashes, all at a slightly friendlier price than the Bose QuietControl 30.

Asus Lyra Voice

Best Networking Gear

Asus Lyra Voice In a world with way too many gadgets—especially in the living room—we savor devices that multitask well. The Asus Lyra Voice pulls triple duty as a tri-band AC2200 mesh Wi-Fi router, a speaker, and a digital assistant. With a built-in microphone, two eight-watt speakers, and Amazon Alexa on board, you can use the Lyra Voice to answer queries, play music, control your smart home devices, and take advantage of Alexa's many third-party skills. The Voice pairs with other Lyra routers to provide whole-home 802.11ac Wi-Fi, while the discrete speakers deliver "rich and powerful sound." We'll test those claims when we review the Lyra Voice, but we applaud Asus' ability to pack this much functionality into a slick and compact package.

Digital Storm Spark

Best Gaming PC

Digital Storm Spark I saw plenty of nice gaming systems at CES, but Digital Storm's Spark stood out for its small stature. It's only 12 inches tall and 4 inches wide, yet filled with enthusiast-level components as well as custom liquid-cooling piping. You can start a build at $1,299 with an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060, but the same tiny body can handle up to a GTX 1080 and an Intel Core i7-8700K processor. It's an impressive feat of engineering, and the black aluminum body, interior window, and customizable lighting look super sleek. It was a better year for gaming desktops than laptops—I saw nice PCs from Origin, as well—but manufacturers are in a holding pattern as they wait for the next generation of Intel processors before releasing new notebooks later this year.

Razer Mamba HyperFlux

Best Gaming Gear

Razer Mamba HyperFlux The Mamba is one of Razer's high-end gaming mice, and the HyperFlux kicks things up a notch. It comes with a mousepad, the Firefly, that charges the mouse through a magnetic field. This technology allows Razer to remove the battery from the mouse, making it super light, and it stays powered for a few seconds off the pad so you can lift and adjust it while playing without disconnecting. The mouse has nine programmable buttons, mechnical switches, and Chroma lighting. The mousepad itself is rimmed with customizable lighting, and you can flip it over within the base for a hard or cloth surface. It's expensive at $249, but high-end gaming purchases tend to be luxury buys to begin with, and the innovation here just might be worth it.

Lenovo Mirage Solo

Best AR/VR Headset

Lenovo Mirage Solo Lenovo's Mirage Solo pumps new life into Google's Daydream platform by freeing it from the phone. It's an entirely liberated VR headset, in fact: With no wires and six degrees of freedom, it promises VR experiences you can run, jump, and walk through without worrying about tripping over wires. It's far less kludgey to use than dropping your phone into a headset, and uses a superior processor to the upcoming Oculus Go. This is the future of mobile VR.

Sony Aibo

Best Robot

Sony Aibo Man's best robot friend is back. The new and improved Sony Aibo is more lovable than ever. With advanced sensors, better AI, and a friendlier design, Aibo can recognize your family, stream video through its nose, nuzzle your hand, and learn its environment. It's only available in Japan at the moment and costs a hefty 198,000 yen (nearly $1,800), but at least it won't pee on your carpet.

LG Rollable Display

Best Concept/Prototype

LG Rollable OLED TV Paper-thin screens you can simply roll up have been futuristic fantasies for years. That won't likely change anytime soon, but LG Display is pushing the technology a bit closer to reality with its 65-inch rollable OLED screen. This OLED panel rolls up like a poster and can be unspooled into a very flat panel TV. At 65 inches of 4K resolution, it's the largest, most advanced rollable screen yet.

Nvidia Big Format Gaming Display

Best New Technology

Nvidia Big Format Gaming Display The Big Format Gaming Display (BFGD) looks like a TV, but it's really a 65-inch gaming monitor. Nvidia's new screen combines a 65-inch 4K LCD with HDR with G-Sync, the Tegra X1 processor, and the Nvidia Shield Android TV interface. It means a huge picture that can keep up with your gaming PC, and offers incredibly low latency. Instead of selling it directly, Nvidia is leaving the final design touches to Acer, Asus, and HP Omen, all of which will offer their own BFGD models.

Source: PC Mag

macOS High Sierra App Store Preferences Can Be Unlocked Without a Password

A new password bug has been discovered in the latest version of macOS High Sierra that allows anyone with access to your Mac to unlock App Store menu in System Preferences with any random password or no password at all. The vulnerability impacts macOS version 10.13.2 and requires the attacker to be logged in with an administrator-level account for this vulnerability to work.

If you're running latest macOS High Sierra, check yourself:

  • Log in as a local administrator
  • Go to System Preferences and then App Store
  • Click on the padlock icon (double-click on the lock if it is already unlocked)
  • Enter any random password (or leave it blank) in login window
  • Click Unlock, done!

Once done, you'll gain full access to App Store settings, allowing you to modify settings like disabling automatic installation of macOS updates, app updates, system data files and even security updates that would patch vulnerabilities.

6 Tips to Protect Against Technical Support Fraud

Tech support scams have become big business for criminals, so don’t expect them to stop over the holidays. In fact, the FBI’s most recent Internet Crime Report lists tech support fraud as one of the top cybercrime trends, costing victims some $8 million last year alone. Since 2015, according to a Microsoft spokesperson, the company has received more than 300,000 customer reports of tech support fraud and the software company receives an average of 12,000 reports of tech support scams a month worldwide.

Some scammers call and claim to be computer techs associated with well-known companies like Microsoft or Apple. Other scammers send pop-up messages that warn about computer problems. They say they’ve detected viruses or other malware on your computer. They claim to be “tech support” and will ask you to give them remote access to your computer. Eventually, they’ll diagnose a non-existent problem and ask you to pay for unnecessary – or even harmful – services.

If you get an unexpected pop-up, call, spam email or other urgent message about problems with your computer, stop. Don’t click on any links, don’t give control of your computer and don’t send any money.

How the Scam Works

Scammers may call, place alarming pop-up messages on your computer, offer free “security” scans, or set up fake websites – all to convince you that your computer is infected. The scammers try to get you on the phone, and then work to convince you there’s a problem. Finally, they ask you to pay them to fix that non-existent problem.

To convince you that both the scammers and the problems are real, the scammers may:

  • pretend to be from a well-known company – like Microsoft or Apple
  • use lots of technical terms
  • ask you to get on your computer and open some files – and then tell you those files show a problem (when they don’t)

Then, once they’ve convinced you that your computer has a problem, the scammers might:

  • ask you to give them remote access to your computer – which lets them change your computer settings so your computer is vulnerable to attack
  • trick you into installing malware that gives them access to your computer and sensitive data, like user names and passwords
  • try to sell you software that’s worthless, or that you could get elsewhere for free
  • try to enroll you in a worthless computer maintenance or warranty program
  • ask for credit card information so they can bill you for phony services, or services you could get elsewhere for free
  • direct you to websites and ask you to enter your credit card number and other personal information

These scammers want to get your money, access to your computer, or both. But there are things you can do to stop them.

If You Get a Call or Pop-Up
  • If you get an unexpected or urgent call from someone who claims to be tech support, hang up. It’s not a real call. And don’t rely on caller ID to prove who a caller is. Criminals can make caller ID seem like they’re calling from a legitimate company or a local number.
  • If you get a pop-up message that tells you to call tech support, ignore it. There are legitimate pop-ups from your security software to do things like update your operating system. But do not call a number that pops up on your screen in a warning about a computer problem.
  • If you’re concerned about your computer, call your security software company directly – but don’t use the phone number in the pop-up or on caller ID. Instead, look for the company’s contact information online, or on a software package or your receipt.
  • Never share passwords or give control of your computer to anyone who contacts you.
If You Were Scammed
  • Get rid of malware. Update or download legitimate security software and scan your computer. Delete anything the software says is a problem.
  • Change any passwords that you shared with someone. Change the passwords on every account that uses passwords you shared.
  • If you paid for bogus services with a credit card, call your credit card company and ask to reverse the charges. Check your statements for any charges you didn’t make, and ask to reverse those, too. Report it to ftc.gov/complaint.
Refund Scams

If you paid for tech support services, and you later get a call about a refund, that call is probably also a scam. Don’t give the person any personal or financial information.

The refund scam works like this: Several months after a purchase, someone calls to ask if you were happy with the service. If you say “No”, the scammer offers a refund. Or, the caller says the company is going out of business and giving refunds. The scammer eventually asks for your bank or credit card account number, or asks for access to your bank account to make a deposit. But instead of putting money in your account, the scammer takes money from your account.

If you get a call like this, hang up, and report it: ftc.gov/complaint.

WhatsApp Flaw Could Allow 'Potential Attackers' to Spy On Encrypted Group Chats

A more dramatic revelation of 2018—an outsider can secretly eavesdrop on your private end-to-end encrypted group chats on WhatsApp and Signal messaging apps. Considering protection against three types of attackers—malicious user, network attacker, and malicious server—an end-to-end encryption protocol plays a vital role in securing instant messaging services.

The primary purpose of having end-to-end encryption is to stop trusting the intermediate servers in such a way that no one, not even the company or the server that transmits the data, can decrypt your messages or abuse its centralized position to manipulate the service.

In order words—assuming the worst-case scenario—a corrupt company employee should not be able to eavesdrop on the end-to-end encrypted communication by any mean.

However, so far even the popular end-to-end encrypted messaging services, like WhatsApp, Threema and Signal, have not entirely achieved zero-knowledge system.

Researchers from Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB) in Germany found that anyone who controls WhatsApp/Signal servers can covertly add new members to any private group, allowing them to spy on group conversations, even without the permission of the administrator.

As described by the researchers, in the pairwise communication (when only two users communicate with each other) server plays a limited role, but in case of multi-user chats (group chat where encrypted messages are broadcasted to many users), the role of servers increases to manage the entire process.

That's where the issue resides, i.e. trusting the company's servers to manage group members (who eventually have full access to the group conversation) and their actions.

As explained in the newly published RUB paper, titled "More is Less: On the End-to-End Security of Group Chats in Signal, WhatsApp, and Threema," since both Signal and WhatsApp fail to properly authenticate that who is adding a new member to the group, it is possible for an unauthorized person—not a group administrator or even a member of the group—to add someone to the group chat.

What's more? If you are wondering that adding a new member to the group will show a visual notification to other members, it is not the case.

According to the researchers, a compromised admin or rogue employee with access to the server could manipulate (or block) the group management messages that are supposed to alert group members of a new member.

"The described weaknesses enable attacker A, who controls the WhatsApp server or can break the transport layer security, to take full control over a group. Entering the group, however, leaves traces since this operation is listed in the graphical user interface. The WhatsApp server can therefore use the fact that it can stealthily reorder and drop messages in the group," the paper reads.

"Thereby it can cache sent messages to the group, read their content first and decide in which order they are delivered to the members. Additionally, the WhatsApp server can forward these messages to the members individually such that a subtly chosen combination of messages can help it to cover the traces."

WhatsApp has acknowledged the issue, but argued that if any new member is added to a group, let's say by anyone, other group members will get notified for sure.

"We've looked at this issue carefully. Existing members are notified when new people are added to a WhatsApp group. We built WhatsApp so group messages cannot be sent to a hidden user," a WhatsApp spokesperson said.

"The privacy and security of our users is incredibly important to WhatsApp. It's why we collect very little information and all messages sent on WhatsApp are end-to-end encrypted."

But if you are not part of a group with very selected members, I'm sure many of you would relatively ignore such notifications easily.

Researchers also advised companies to fix the issue just by adding an authentication mechanism to make sure that the "signed" group management messages come from the group administrator only.

However, this attack is not easy (exception—services under legal pressure) to execute, so users should not be worried about it.

Wi-Fi Alliance Launches WPA3 Protocol with New Security Features

The Wi-Fi Alliance has finally announced the long-awaited next generation of the wireless security protocol—Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA3). WPA3 will replace the existing WPA2—the network security protocol that has been around for at least 15 years and widely used by billions of wireless devices every day, including smartphones, laptops and Internet of things.

However, WPA2 has long been considered to be insecure due to its common security issue, that is "unencrypted" open Wi-Fi networks, which allows anyone on the same WiFi network to intercept connections on other devices.

Most importantly, WPA2 has also recently been found vulnerable to KRACK (Key Reinstallation Attack) that makes it possible for attackers to intercept and decrypt Wi-Fi traffic passing between computers and access points.

The new standard of Wi-Fi security, which will be available for both personal and enterprise wireless devices later this year, offers improved security and privacy.

  • WPA3 protocol strengthens user privacy in open networks through individualised data encryption.
  • WPA3 protocol will also protect against brute-force dictionary attacks, preventing hackers from making multiple login attempts by using commonly used passwords.
  • WPA3 protocol also offers simplified security for devices that often have no display for configuring security settings, i.e. IoT devices.
  • Finally, there will be a 192-bit security suite for protecting WiFi users’ networks with higher security requirements, such as government, defence and industrial organisations.

"Wi-Fi security technologies may live for decades, so it’s important they are continually updated to ensure they meet the needs of the Wi-Fi industry," said Joe Hoffman, SAR Insight & Consulting. "Wi-Fi is evolving to maintain its high-level of security as industry demands increase."

Since hardware must get certified by the Wi-Fi Alliance to use WPA3 security protocol, the new security standard won't arrive overnight.

It could take months for device manufacturers to support the new wireless security standard, but the first WPA3-certified devices are expected to ship later this year. More details about WPA3 have yet to be released.