Hello and welcome to your last morning tech news briefing for the year. To say it’s quiet out there would be an understatement, but while there isn’t much doing, we do have 2022 wrap-up lists spanning everything from the best TV shows, best movies, worst movies, our favourite gadgets, the biggest data breaches and our thoughts on the phones that came out this year to keep you somewhat entertained. Aside from that, let’s find five things that happened over the last 24 hours, one more time for 2022.
1. Twitter glitched, but it worked for Elon
We reported yesterday that Twitter was suffering a glitch that was preventing users from, well, using the social media site. Overnight, Elon Musk addressed the issue, sort of. I guess that’s the end of that one, then.
Works for me
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 29, 2022
2. Doomscroll on your fridge
Samsung has announced its latest smart fridge called the Bespoke Refrigerator Family Hub Plus. The new fridge includes a 32-inch screen so users can watch TikTok videos and buy Amazon groceries. It’s the latest addition to Samsung’s SmartThings home product line, though there’s no release date and we’re not even sure if it’s coming to Australia.
3. A more budget-friendly (and colourful) Samsung phone
Still on Samsung, but shifting over to phones, and The Verge is reporting that a fresh batch of renders allegedly show an upcoming Samsung device in a range of flashy colours has been leaked. The leak is courtesy of The Tech Outlook (spotted by XDA-Developers) and features the Galaxy A34 with some more midrange specs. While it seems to boast a a 6.5-inch 1080p OLED screen and 48-megapixel main camera, it may also come in lime, purple and pearlescent. Look out Pixel 6a, you may have some competition.
4. Good to see the medical field embracing technology (just not like this)
Over in the UK, a medical practice mistakenly texted patients that they have “aggressive lung cancer” instead of wishing them a Merry Christmas.
5. How Google speakers allowed snooping
Over on Bleeping Computer, they’re reporting that a bug in Google Home smart speakers allowed installing a backdoor account that could be used to control it remotely and to turn it into a snooping device by accessing the microphone feed. A researcher discovered the issue and received $US107,500 for responsibly reporting it to Google last year. Earlier this week, the researcher published technical details about the finding and an attack scenario to show how the flaw could be leveraged.
BONUS ITEM: Bring in 2023 the right way.
If you start watching Iron Man 3 at exactly 11:55:50 pm on New Year’s Eve the clock in the real world will hit midnight at exactly the same time as it does in the movie, so you can celebrate the New Year with Tony Stark. pic.twitter.com/2P03ExbIGz
— Taylor (@TaylorTrueFacts) December 20, 2017
Thanks for reading folks, we truly appreciate the support. We’ll see you next year. Stay safe.