Top 5 Quick Tech Updates [27 July 2022]
1. Russia to Leave ISS Project After 2024
According to the newly appointed head of Russia’s space agency, Russia has announced that it intends to withdraw from the International Space Station and bring to an end its decades-long partnership with NASA at the orbiting outpost. Russia’s involvement in the International Space Station dates back to the 1970s.
Amid punishing sanctions imposed by the United States and European Union in response to the conflict in Ukraine, this is not the first time that Russia has threatened to depart the International Space Station (ISS). Before being removed from his position earlier this month, Borisov’s predecessor, Dmitry Rogozin, made several threats in this direction.
2. A Recent Windows Update Breaks USB Printing
In January of 2021, Microsoft issued a patch to address the print spooler vulnerabilities; KB5005565 further fixed these vulnerabilities but mistakenly damaged several USB printer shares.
It is not yet possible to obtain an official patch to address the USB printer problem in Windows 10. Microsoft has acknowledged these problems and said that an investigation into them is now underway. As a stopgap measure, the firm has provided its customers with a few alternative solutions (also known as workarounds) that they can implement in an effort to fix the issue on their own.
3. Slack increasing Subscription price
The first price hike for Slack since the company was founded in 2014. This price change will impact only users who have a Pro membership. In addition, users will find it simpler than ever before to test out new features thanks to an update that Slack is making to its free membership. The new policies will be implemented beginning on September 1st, 2022.
Free users’ subscriptions will have expanded access to new features, including clips, which allow anyone to send audio and video and screen-share messages in direct messages and channels as a way to provide asynchronous team updates and reduce the number of meetings that are required. Clips are one example of a new feature that will be released. Free teams now have the ability to choose how long their messages and files are kept after they are deleted.
Monthly Pro memberships will increase from $8 USD to $8.75 USD per user per month beginning September 1, 2022, while yearly Pro subscriptions will increase from $6.67 USD to $7.25 USD per user per month over the same time period.
Suppose existing customers with an annual Pro membership want to renew their subscription early, before September 1st. In that case, they will be able to maintain their current yearly cost of $6.67 USD per user per month for another year as long as they keep their subscription active. Customers who are presently enrolled in a monthly Pro membership have the option, until September 1st, to upgrade to an annual Pro subscription and lock in the annual pricing at its current level for a whole year.
4. Apple Watch owners have been issued a security warning by the government.
The watchOS 8.7 update has been released by Apple. Launched in September of 2021, this update is the sixth major one for watchOS 8, Apple’s wearable operating system. Apple watchOS versions earlier to 8.7 have been identified as having various vulnerabilities by the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), which is part of the Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.
CERT-In found many flaws in the Apple Watch, including a buffer overflow in the AppleAVD component, an authorisation problem in the Apple Mobile File Integrity (AMFI) component, and an out-of-bounds writing in audio and issue in the WebKit and ICU components. When exploited, these flaws might let an attacker “run arbitrary code and circumvent security limitations on the targeted machine,” CERT-In said.
5. The “Kept messages” feature is being worked on by WhatsApp.
WhatsApp is working on a new feature that will let people keep sending messages that disappear. The app for sending messages tested the ability to keep the messages that disappear. When you send a message that goes away after a certain amount of time, you don’t want it to stay there for longer than that. But if you have the feature turned on, you may send an important message that will be lost. In these situations, WhatsApp’s soon-to-be-announced “Keep the disappearing message” feature will save the day.
