Daily Tech News 20 December 2024

• Oh yeah, don't use SMS for two-factor authentication either. (Gizmodo)
  
  It was never ideal since your phone number could get SIM-swapped without you knowing, but now that the entire phone network has been hacked it's not very useful at all.
  
  
  
• Microsoft promises meanwhile to keep nagging you to use passkeys rather than passwords online. (The Register)
  
  A passkey lets you log in to a website without the tedious logging in part, so long as you have already logged in to your device. This is actually fairly secure because the passkey consists of two parts - you have one part and the website has the other - and nobody can steal your password from the website and hack your account because effectively they only have half the password.
  
  But if they hack your laptop, you're hosed. Though that is true regardless.

• Chemosphere, which recently published a study warning of the dangers of flame retardant chemicals in black plastic utensils which was off by a factor of ten such that you are perfectly safe unless you make a habit of eating spatulas has been deindexed by the Web of Science for being a bit crap. (Ars Technica)

  According to Retraction Watch, Chemosphere has retracted eight articles this month and published 60 expressions of concern since April.

  The month is still young.
  
  
  
• Nintendo's Switch 2 can "only" run games at 4K / 30fps. (Notebook Check)
  
  It's a handheld device for children. What do you expect?
  
  
  
• Amazon Haul is a Temu version of Shein. (The Verge) (archive site)
  
  The same Chinese companies selling useless garbage at impossible prices and basically lying to everyone.
  
  Though to be fair, the "Bicth" hat did indeed say "Bicth".
  
  
  
• Perplexity AI is a better search than Google. (The Register)
  
  I just tried it with a few queries and it's actually not terrible. It does give stupid corporate-speak answers sometimes, but it also gives links.
  
  How long AI search engines can survive in an AI web is another question.
  
  
  

posted by Pixy Misa at 04:00 AM

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