Arturia just surprise-dropped a new multi-fx plugin called Refract and, even better, it's free until January 4. Refract is a unison-based effect that stacks voices to create unique soundscapes, which could be a boon for sound designers or just anyone looking to add a bit of textural pizazz to their tracks.

This is a multi-fx plugin, so the unison effect can be leveraged to create a number of different Mode FX algorithms. It can duplicate a signal up to eight times, each getting its own stereo voice. This allows for movement between “unfiltered stems to a wide and powerful sound.” Arturia says each of the integrated effects can be combined to create “a dispersion pathway that fits your wildest imaginations.” We’ll see about that.

The user interface looks colorful and fun, which is usually the case with Arturia plugs, and you can easily adjust the voices, filters, LFO and other metrics. There’s also a boatload of presets that illustrate the plugin's “multi-effect capabilities.” Some of these presets offer a delay effect, while others go with distortion or a unison-based chorus.

Free plugins are something of a tradition during the holiday season, and it’s always nice to see another one drop. However, don’t sleep on this download. It’s only free until January 4, at which point the price increases to $100.

This has already been a fairly substantial holiday for Arturia, as last week saw the launch of its long-awaited V Collection X synth pack. The MiniFreak hardware synthesizer also got a robust system update earlier in the month.

It's been an interesting few years for Huawei. After the Chinese giant's initial struggle with the US trade sanctions, it would end up with a surprise mobile resurgence featuring homegrown processors — ones that are just two generations behind the competition. Not only that, the Chinese government has since allocated billions of dollars to boost its silicon industry, so much that Huawei is already working towards a self-sufficient chip network. It's as if former President Donald Trump's earlier attempts to starve Huawei of vital inputs eventually accelerated China's semiconductor development.

Trump's first strike on Huawei was the declaration of a national emergency in May 2019, which saw the Commerce Department add the company to its Entity List, citing surveillance concerns and links to the Chinese state security. As such, Google could no longer provide Android support to Huawei, thus causing the Mate 30 series and later models to miss out on Google apps (they would eventually adopt Huawei's Android replacement, HarmonyOS, two years later).

In November 2019, the FCC banned carriers from buying Huawei and ZTE networking gear with government subsidies.The following March, Trump signed a bill that would reimburse the replacement of Chinese gear — even if it meant spending an estimated $1.8 billion. Huawei attempted to sue the FCC over these restrictions, but the court sided with the regulator.

The tech war heated up rapidly in May 2020, when the US further restricted Huawei's access to American equipment and software. This meant Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), the world's leading fab, would have to stop producing HiSilicon chips for Huawei — its then second-largest customer, after Apple. Likewise, Samsung and SK Hynix had to stop selling chips to the Chinese brand by the September 15, 2020 deadline. As Bloomberg's teardown of the latest Huawei smartphones revealed, the company didn't have a problem stockpiling these Korean memory chips.

For processors, Huawei had no choice but to rely more on local chip makers, namely Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC) and Shanghai IC R&D Center. That meant a significant downgrade, though: SMIC had just started mass-producing 14nm chips for Huawei then, whereas TSMC reached 5nm later that year and supplied Kirin 9000 processors for Huawei's Mate 40. That would be the final "high-end" Kirin chip, Huawei's mobile boss Richard Yu said at the time.

Qualcomm was eventually allowed to supply 4G chips to Huawei as of November 2020, but that's four G, and market share figures don't lie. The once-leading brand in China dropped to just 16 percent locally in January 2021 (and then down to a mere 6 percent in Q2 2022), as noted by Counterpoint. Huawei's global market share has been negligible since 2021. According to both Counterpoint and Statista, though, since Huawei sold the Honor brand in November 2020, the spin-off has been able to claim one of the top China quarterly chart positions all this time.

China's chip investment finally paid off when SMIC made a 7nm breakthrough in August 2022 — a leap from 14nm in just two years — faster than it took TSMC or Samsung, according to TechInsights. What's more, this achievement was apparently done without using the most advanced lithography equipment, which were largely exclusive to the likes of ASML and Nikon. It wasn't until earlier this year that the US convinced the Netherlands and Japan to restrict China’s access to advanced chipmaking machinery.

As Bloomberg would later find out in a lengthy investigation, this might have been the fruition of a Shenzhen city government investment fund from 2019 that helped Huawei build "a self-sufficient chip network." Through a network of enterprises, Huawei could stealthily gain access to lithography tech while exchanging experts to work on each others' turfs, without raising any flags. Huawei apparently even managed to hire several former ASML employees, which was likely key to reaching the 7nm node process for its latest processor (the 5G-capable HiSilicon Kirin 9000S, fabricated by SMIC). Benchmarks indicate that this chip's performance is on par with Qualcomm's Snapdragon 888 from late 2020, thus suggesting that it's around two generations behind the leading competition.

Huawei then took a rather unusual approach to launch its Kirin 9000S smartphones at the beginning of September this year. Without any launch event or teaser, the company simply announced on Weibo that the Mate 60 and Mate 60 Pro were immediately available. This surprise stunt coincided with the US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo's visit to China, which led many to believe that Huawei received special orders from certain authorities to hastily launch these 5G devices ahead of schedule. This was quickly followed by the China's announcement of a $40 billion fund to further boost its chip industry, as well as the launch of two more phones, the Mate 60 Pro+ and the Mate X5 foldable, a week later.

REUTERS / Reuters

While this may seem a temporary win for China, the country actually saw 10,900 chip-related companies close down in 2023 (as of December 11) — a staggering 90-percent year-on-year increase, which is a sign of a bad economy, according to TMTPost. On the flip side, 65,700 new chip-related companies registered in the same period, which is a 9.5 percent increase year-on-year. The report added that the China-made RAM chips and processors on Huawei's Mate 60 series are an indication of the growing reliance on the local supply chain, which will continue to drive the long-term development of the Chinese semiconductor industry.

As much as the US government wants to limit China's access to high-end tech, the truth is western companies still want to tap into the big market in the east. NVIDIA is a prime example, as it's still in talks with the authorities on the specifications of AI chips that it can sell to China, without breaching US export rules. "What we cannot allow them to ship is the most sophisticated, highest-processing power AI chips, which would enable China to train their frontier models," Raimondo told Reuters. Of course, failing that, China may eventually come up with an AI chip that's just as impressive, if not more — like its recent claim of a light-based chip that is apparently 3,000 times faster than NVIDIA's A100.

The US-China tech war isn't just limited to chips, either. The Biden administration is proposing to cut tax credits on electric vehicles that contain Chinese components — especially batteries, as an attempt to wean local car brands off Chinese components. The trade-off here is always the cost savings (as is the idea behind Ford and CATL's Michigan battery plant), as well as the US market missing out on potential breakthroughs on power density or output, namely the upcoming 150kWh battery demoed in Chinese EV manufacturer Nio's ET7, which reached a range of around 650 miles. Who knows, maybe someday Huawei may want to sell its Aito or Luxeed electric cars in the US, too — if it's allowed to enter at all.

It's hardly a secret that Samsung reveals its latest slate of Galaxy smartphones at the beginning of each year. With only a few weeks to go until the first Unpacked of 2024 is expected to take place, the rumor mill is ramping up and credible leaks are starting to shed some light on what the Korean manufacturer most likely has up its sleeve.

Along with a countdown indicating that the next Unpacked will take place on January 17, leaker Evan Blass shared a spec sheet that purports to break down the components of the Galaxy S24 lineup. There are no prizes for guessing that Samsung likely has three Galaxy devices in store: the regular model, an S24+ and an S24 Ultra. All three are slated to run on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, at least in the US, Canada and China (folks elsewhere might have to make do with the company's own Exynos 2400, as The Verge notes).

The standard Galaxy S24 is slated to have a 6.2-inch AMOLED 2x FHD display along with a 50MP main camera that can shoot video at up to 8K. The leak suggests Samsung will offer Space Zoom of up to 30x and dual telephoto zoom of up to 3x in the Galaxy S24. The device is likely to have 8GB of RAM and internal storage options of 128GB and 256GB. You may be able to charge the 4,000mAh battery to 50 percent capacity in 30 minutes.

Per this leaked spec sheet, the S24+ is likely to have the same camera system as the base model. The key upgrade will come in the form of the display, which seems to be a 6.7-inch AMOLED 2x QHD+ panel. There will probably be a larger 4,900mAh battery as well, with the spec sheet indicating you'll be able to charge this to 65 percent of its capacity in half an hour. The S24+ will likely have more RAM as well at 12GB, with internal storage options of 256GB and 512GB.

Unlike the other two models, which are slated to have an Armor Aluminum 2.0 casing, the S24 Ultra may have a titanium body. Although it's likely to have the same RAM and storage options as the S24+, the Ultra will probably have a vastly superior camera system. It will have a 200MP main lens, per the spec sheet, with up to 10x quad telephoto and 100x Space Zoom. The AMOLED 2x QHD+ display is likely to measure 6.8 inches, while the battery should be slightly larger than one in the S24+ at 5,000mAh.

The displays on all three models are expected to have up to a whopping 2,600 nits of brightness, so you shouldn't have to struggle to make out what's on your screen while the sun's out. Expect IP68 water resistance on all three models, while the S24 Ultra is likely the only one of the three that will boast a built-in S Pen.

As for the designs, what we can see of them in the spec sheet indicates they'll largely be the same as the S23 lineup. However, previous reports suggested that the S24 Ultra has a fully flat screen.

Based on the leaks so far, the Samsung S24 lineup isn't likely to have any terribly exciting upgrades in terms of the designs and pure specs. However, Samsung is widely expected to integrate its Gauss generative AI system into the S24 lineup. It may be the case that GAI processes will be handled entirely on-device rather than requiring access to the cloud (the new Snapdragon chipset will help on that front).

If you're racking your brain trying to find a last-minute gift or a stocking stuffer for a loved one, bear in mind that you can rarely go wrong with charging accessories. As it happens, many of Anker's products are on sale on Amazon right now, with discounts of up to 50 percent. Some of the discounts are available via a coupon and for others you'll need to be a Prime member. First up, the Anker 735 Charger will run you $30.39, which is 40 percent off the usual price of $56.

This is a 65W charger with two USB-C ports and one USB-A slot. When you have multiple devices connected, the charger can direct power to where it's most needed. It'll charge several devices at the same time, such as your laptop, Steam Deck and earphones. While Anker says this model is capable of giving a 13-inch 2020 MacBook Pro a 65W charge, other MacBook models have different wattage needs.

That's where Anker's MacBook Pro Charger could come in handy. It's capable of 100W USB-C charging. That'd be overkill for many devices, but not so for a power-hungry MBP. Of course, it's capable of charging other devices via USB-C. It comes with a five-foot cable. The charger is on sale for $24, which is $14 off the usual price of $38.

In some cases, USB chargers might not cut it. Many devices need the full power of an outlet and if you're running out of space, a power strip might be what you need. Not only does Anker's Surge Protector Power Strip have 12 outlets, you can plug in one USB-C and two USB-A cables too. There's surge protection as well. The power strip, which has a five-foot extension cord, is 17 percent off at $30.

If you're an iPhone user who hasn't upgraded to the latest generation yet, there's no harm in having a spare Lightning cable or two kicking around. As it happens, Anker sells Lightning cables, and one that's six feet long will currently cost you $10, $2 less than usual. The cable is MFi certified, meaning that it meets Apple's standards. It has a nylon exterior, which might make it more durable than Apple's own cables.

Of course, this being Anker, there are power banks on sale too. The Anker Nano Power Bank is 20 percent off the usual price of $30 (i.e. $6 off) when you apply a coupon. This is a small power bank with a built-in USB-C connector, so you can plug it straight into your phone or tablet to charge it up without having to carry a separate cable. There's a separate USB-C port too. Anker notes that the device won't fully charge an iPhone 15, but it will top up the battery by around 80 percent.

Last but not least, the Anker 737 Power Bank is for those who need plenty of extra juice with them when they're on the go. This model has a capacity of 24,000mAh, which Anker says is good for nearly five full charges of an iPhone 13 or 1.3 charges of a 12.9-inch 2021 iPad Pro. A smart display will show you the remaining battery percentage as well as how much wattage the charger is delivering to the connected devices (it has one USB-A port and dual USB-C ports). The 737 Power Bank, which is capable of delivering a 140W charge, is currently $58 off at $92.

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If you've been holding out on buying a new MacBook, congrats, your delay has been rewarded. Apple's 15-inch MacBook Air has dropped to a new all-time low price of $999, down from $1,299. That's right, the 23 percent discount saves you $300, far from chump change. The deal is available for the 256GB 15-inch MacBook Air with an M2 chipset in either Midnight or Starlight. Keep in mind, though, that Amazon estimates these will ship in early to mid-January, so don't plan on picking one up as a last-minute Christmas gift. 

Apple's 15-inch MacBook Air with an M2 chip came on the scene in June of this year. It garnered a 96 in our review thanks to its ability to offer a large size and great performance without mirroring the Pro's exorbitant $2,000+ price tag. Despite being over a year old, the M2 chip functions great — in line with the 13-inch model. The battery life is also impressive, lasting over 18 hours on video playback alone and 12 hours during everyday use for work.

Its screen is also high-quality, with the extra two inches making a surprisingly significant difference. The 15.3-inch Liquid Retina display has a 2,880 x 1,864 resolution, 500 nits of brightness, a 60Hz refresh rate and support for the P3 wide color gamut. No, it doesn't measure up to the 14-inch or 16-inch MacBook Pro with an M3 chip in terms of display or performance quality, but it's hard to care that much for half the price. 

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When Apple introduced the Vision Pro mixed-reality headset, it had no clear release schedule and only said that the device will be available sometime early next year. According to a new report by Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, “early next year” means as soon as February. Apple reportedly ramped up production of the headset in China over the past several weeks with the intention of getting the devices ready for consumers by the end of January. The plan is to make the Vision Pro available the month after that. 

In addition to ramping up production, Apple has reportedly sent developers an email, notifying them to test their apps for the headset with the latest tools and to send their software to the company for feedback. Gurman says that’s another sign of the device’s impending release. In his report, Gurman also detailed the steps Apple is taking to launch a completely new product category. The last time the company introduced a brand new product was in 2015 when it started selling the Apple Watch, but the Vision Pro is a different beast that requires meticulous planning for its release.

Since the headset has multiple possible configurations and could be customized to meet each customers’ needs, Apple is apparently sending at least two staffers from each retail store to its headquarters for training in January. There, they’ll be taught how to attach the device’s headband and light seals, as well as how to fit prescription lenses. The Vision Pro will set customers back $3,499 when it goes on sale, but Gurman previously reported that Apple is working on a more affordable (and less powerful) version that will cost between $1,500 and $2,500.

The next generation of Apple’s CarPlay interface has been previewed in luxury cars made by Porsche and Aston Martin. The interface, which was first announced more than a year ago at Apple’s WWDC in 2022, is expected to be released next year in select models from the luxury automakers. It builds on previous versions of CarPlay, but will notably connect with all displays in a vehicle instead of just the central infotainment screen, according to Car and Driver.

With each manufacturer partnership, there will be some matching and customization options throughout the screens. For example, the background wallpapers and knobs can mimic a car brand’s style or look. Users will be able to personalize the widgets and apps that appear on the screen, mirroring the form and functions on Apple devices. The CarPlay display will show other key elements like the speed of the car, fuel and temperature on the instrument cluster.

While Porsche and Aston Martin are the first luxury carmakers to tease their collaborations with Apple for branded CarPlay systems, there are no timing specifics regarding the launch of the tool in any specific Porsche models. Aston Martin did share that it will debut CarPlay displays on the DB12 coupe and DB12 convertible in 2024 when they go on sale. Considering Porsche is owned by VW Group, we might see a trickle-down of the latest CarPlay features into VW and Audi models down the road.

Samsung has added a new medication tracking feature to its Health app and it's expected to launch in the US when the app updates later this week. Using the new feature, you can set up alerts to remind yourself when to take medications and get reminders for when to request refills from your doctor.

When you enter a new medication into the app, you can log the shape and color of the pill, information about your prescribed dosage and the time you are scheduled to take the medication. The tool, which competes with the likes of GoodRx and Apple’s Medication app, will give you an overview of a drug’s use and possible side effects, including warnings about potential contraindications. Samsung says the information found within the app is backed by evidence-based content licensed from Elsevier, a publishing company that specializes in medical content.

To start using the new medication tracking tool when it launches, you need a smartphone with at least Android 8.0 and your Samsung Health app version needs to be updated to version 6.26 or later. The feature’s availability also might vary by device.

Vizio has released a software update for its Home platform across all current models in its lineup, which makes the new interface respond faster than before. The company says TV sets that receive the update will power up twice as fast, while apps will now load instantly. This improvement in speed also leads to quicker switching between apps so that moving from one streaming service to another doesn’t affect people’s viewing experience.

In addition, the latest version of the OS is meant to surface recommendations and return search results in both voice and text formats much faster than its predecessor. The hope is that users would benefit from the upgrade by spending less time looking for content and more time actually watching them. The updated Home platform also comes with a new left-side navigation menu, as well as hierarchy sorting, to make it easier to browse for new shows and movies.

When Vizio rolled out its redesigned Home interface in June, it already had features created to make it easier and faster for viewers to find new things to watch. They included new navigation tools, recommendations and a reworked onscreen keyboard. According to a Vizio representative, the new update will roll out in the coming weeks and will include "all 2021 and newer model year VIZIO Smart TVs and select TVs from the 2020 model year.”

QR code-based phishing attacks appear to be on the rise. For this “new” hacking vector, someone gets a phishing email asking them to scan a QR code, that code redirects to a malicious link (usually to steal credentials) and an account takeover occurs. Local news organizations have warned the public to watch out, security leadership publications tell executives to be careful and security companies really, really want you to call it quishing.

To be fair, there have been some notable headlines about it lately. A large-scale version of this against an unnamed “major” US energy company went after Microsoft logins, according to a Cofense report in August. Security researchers have unanimously reported some level of uptick or spike in the attack vector this year. Even the Federal Trade Commission warned consumers of the dangers.

The fanfare around these attacks, however, mostly outweighs the threat of using QR codes in your daily life. Phishing has been, and will likely always be, a prevalent way to trap victims, and what we’re seeing when people talk about QR code attacks is just another way to do that. That’s why despite how the reports may generalize the dangers of QR codes as a whole, some common sense security practices that you already use to avoid phishing can help you avoid this tactic, too. Other, advanced QR-based attack vectors outside of phishing are likely too technically complicated and low reward for bad actors to attempt, or for you to worry about.

Phishing attacks that work by pointing a victim to a malicious link are incredibly common, and QR codes are essentially just another way to execute them. QR codes are “jumping into a security gap,” said Randy Pargman, director of threat detection at security firm Proofpoint. It forces a victim away from their computer and onto a cell phone or another device, adding a level of distraction. Plus, people are more likely to fall for a phishing link on a mobile device, according to Pargman.

The smaller scale makes it harder to tell what’s legit, for example you can’t easily see a full link to point out discrepancies, and we generally tend to feel safer in our handheld world. Scanning a QR code on a phone takes a victim away from their computer. That could mean it has fewer security plugins installed on its browser that would warn you to stay away from suspicious sites, although more browsers have automatic protections against both. Or, if it's taking you from a work device to a personal device, a security team probably supports the computer, but not your cell phone, with extra protections in place to stop you from falling victim. But on the flip side, this is a lot less efficient for scammers to set up. It assumes the victim has access to two devices, rather than just clicking a link.

Plus, people tend to scan the QR codes, even if they’re from an unfamiliar source, because we’re so used to it, according to Fae Carlisle, principal security engineer at VMware Carbon Black. “People are regularly told to scan a QR code to show them a map of a place, to vote in a competition, to visit Instagram, etc,” Carlisle said. “Because of inherent trust, people go along with it.” Hackers seemingly saw this trend and figured out they could exploit it.

While the application of QR codes to phishing attacks is fairly straightforward, the hype around their use in other malicious vectors mostly ends there. Security professionals advise against scanning unknown QR codes, in the same way you shouldn’t plug a random thumb drive into your device. But, while you should always be on guard to protect against phishing attacks, you don’t really have to worry about using QR codes in your daily life because it’s still rare to see them used as a hacking tactic.

This matters because when we think of QR codes, we don’t usually think of getting them in emails. You’re probably more familiar with them from real world interactions, like a call to action on a flier or a scan-to-order menu at a restaurant. Looking at my own inbox and desktop, the instances of getting a QR code are few and far between, with maybe the exception of some multifactor authentication apps and cross-login for VPNs. Basically, for a hacker going after everyday targets, the less effort the better, and plastering a poisoned QR code all over physical space in the hopes someone will scan it is a whole lot of work, according to Pargman. Bulk sending phishing emails is just a heck of a lot more efficient.

While it’s also possible to imagine a link takeover situation, where the destination of legitimate QR codes is redirected to a malicious URL, that really hasn’t been seen yet. Not only is it a lot of effort, but it would require an attacker to identify a widely-used QR code. That would mean sourcing the code information, and then hoping it was worth the work. “Quishing” may be legit, but avoiding QR codes at all costs probably goes a step too far.

If something seems off about scanning a QR code, pause before proceeding. “If you're scanning a menu of the restaurant's and it's asking you to login to your Gmail account to access the menu, that's a highly unexpected step,” said Olesia Klevchuk, product marketing director at security company Barracuda Networks. “Those are the kinds of things we want to be on the lookout for.” But if you just want to learn more about an exhibit at a museum or have a contactless check-in at the gym, you probably have nothing to worry about.