Chrome Will Soon Have Its Own Dedicated Certificate Root Store

Google has announced plans to run its own certificate root program/store for Chrome, in a major architectural shift for the company’s web browser program. From a report: A “root program” or a “root store” is a list of root certificates that operating systems and applications use to verify the identity of a software program during its installation routine. Browsers like Chrome…

Seagate Says 20 TB HAMR Drives Will Arrive in December, 50 TB Capacities in 2026

Seagate revealed several interesting points about its upcoming releases of next-generation hard drives during its quarterly earnings call this week. From a report: The company has disclosed a shift to a new generation of HDDs based on so-called heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) technology. This technology is set to bring many improvements compared to the one currently used by Seagate’s rivals like…

‘Sleeping Giant’ Arctic Methane Deposits Starting To Release, Scientists Find

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: Scientists have found evidence that frozen methane deposits in the Arctic Ocean — known as the “sleeping giants of the carbon cycle” — have started to be released over a large area of the continental slope off the East Siberian coast, the Guardian can reveal. High levels of the potent greenhouse gas…

China’s Leaders Vow Tech ‘Self-Reliance,’ Military Power and Economic Recovery

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The New York Times: China’s Communist Party emerged from four days of meetings behind closed doors in Beijing declaring the country’s leader, Xi Jinping, a “helmsman” who would lead “the ship of socialism sailing into the wind and waves with determination.” At a time when other world leaders remain consumed by the coronavirus pandemic,…

‘How 30 Lines of Code Blew Up a 27-Ton Generator’

After the U.S. unveiled charges against six members of the Sandworm unit in Russia’s military intelligence agency, Wired re-visited “a secret experiment in 2007 proved that hackers could devastate power grid equipment beyond repair — with a file no bigger than a gif.” It’s an excerpt from the new book SANDWORM: A New Era of Cyberwar and the Hunt for the…

Is X.Org Server Abandonware?

Phoronix ran a story this morning with this provocative headline: “It’s Time To Admit It: The X.Org Server Is Abandonware.” The last major release of the X.Org Server was in May 2018 but don’t expect the long-awaited X.Org Server 1.21 to actually be released anytime soon. This should hardly be surprising but a prominent Intel open-source developer has conceded that the…

Google Photos Revives Its Prints Subscription Service

Google Photos is reviving its photo printing subscription service and introducing same-day prints. The company earlier this year had briefly tested a new program that used A.I. to suggest the month’s 10 best photos, which were then shipped to your home automatically. But Google ended the test on June 30. From a report: During the trial, Google had offered users a…

Sweden’s New Car Carrier Is the World’s Largest Wind-Powered Vessel

An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNN: Oceanbird might look like a ship of the future, but it harks back to ancient maritime history — because it’s powered by the wind. The transatlantic car carrier is being designed by Wallenius Marine, a Swedish shipbuilder, with support from the Swedish government and several research institutions. With capacity for 7,000 vehicles, the…

Xbox’s Phil Spencer Hints At Exclusivity Potential For Bethesda Games

In an interview with Kotaku, Xbox boss Phil Spencer said that Microsoft doesn’t need to ship future Bethesda games on PlayStation in order to recoup the $7.5 billion it spent acquiring Bethesda’s parent company, Zenimax Media, last month. Spencer also explained that the deal wasn’t specifically signed to take games away from the platform. Pure Xbox reports: “This deal was not…

iPhone 12 Lineup Does Not Ship With a Power Adapter; Apple Begins Selling 20W USB-C Adapter for $19

With the iPhone 12 and 12 Pro models no longer shipping with a power adapter, Apple has started selling the 20W USB-C power adapter that was first introduced with the iPad Air on a standalone basis for $19. From a report: The 20W power adapter is included in the box with the iPad Air, but those who want one for use…