Month: March 2022

Enlarge / A mockup of Android 12L running on different types and sizes of devices. (credit: Google)

Google wants to make 2022 the year of Android tablets, and after launching a tablet-focused Android 12L update, staffing up an Android tablet division, and shipping one or two tablet apps, the company is now giving the Play Store some tablet love. The goal is to make it easier for tablet users to find actual tablet apps rather than stretched-out phone apps.

First up are “ranking and profitability changes” for the Play Store. Google says, “In the coming months, we’ll be updating our featuring and ranking logic in Play on large-screen devices to prioritize high-quality apps and games.” The rankings will “affect how apps are surfaced in search results and recommendations on the homepage, with the goal of helping users find the apps that are best optimized for their device.”

To get better rankings, an app needs to be “high quality.” The qualifications for this designation are laid out in detail on a “large screen app quality” page, which contains common-sense recommendations for making better tablet apps. It starts with the “Basic compatibility” tier, which includes things like “support landscape mode” (you would be shocked how many Android apps mess this up) and “don’t pillar box your app.” The “Better” tier includes large screen layouts, multi-window support, and mouse and keyboard support. The “best” tier includes a fully responsive design for tablets, foldables, and desktop mode, along with stylus support and right-click context menus for a mouse.

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images)

Microsoft brought DirectStorage to Windows PCs this week. The API promises faster load times and more detailed graphics by letting game developers make apps that load graphical data from the SSD directly to the GPU. Now, Nvidia and IBM have created a similar SSD/GPU technology, but they are aiming it at the massive data sets in data centers.

Instead of targeting console or PC gaming like DirectStorage, Big accelerator Memory (BaM) is meant to provide data centers quick access to vast amounts of data in GPU-intensive applications, like machine-learning training, analytics, and high-performance computing, according to a research paper spotted by The Register this week. Entitled “BaM: A Case for Enabling Fine-grain High Throughput GPU-Orchestrated Access to Storage” (PDF), the paper by researchers at Nvidia, IBM, and a few US universities proposes a more efficient way to run next-generation applications in data centers with massive computing power and memory bandwidth.

BaM also differs from DirectStorage in that the creators of the system architecture plan to make it open source.

(credit: Dave Rutt)

Two Democratic lawmakers introduced a new bill on Wednesday that would institute a host of new regulations to scrutinize mergers, including a prohibition of those valued at more than $5 billion.

The Prohibiting Anticompetitive Mergers Act, sponsored by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Rep. Mondaire Jones (D-N.Y.), would also prevent mergers and acquisitions that would increase market share among sellers and buyers beyond certain thresholds and would give regulators additional tools to unwind mergers.

While the $5 billion threshold, indexed to inflation, may capture headlines, this bill is perhaps most notable because it attempts to limit companies’ dominance as an employer, too, by preventing any one firm from controlling more than 25 percent of a labor market.

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images)

Scammers pushing iOS malware are stepping up their game by abusing two legitimate Apple features to bypass App Store vetting requirements and trick people into installing malicious apps.

Apple has long required that apps pass a security review and be admitted to the App Store before they can be installed on iPhones and iPads. The vetting prevents malicious apps from making their way onto the devices, where they can then steal cryptocurrency and passwords or carry out other nefarious activities.

A post published Wednesday by security firm Sophos sheds light on two newer method being used in an organized crime campaign dubbed CryptoRom, which pushes fake cryptocurrency apps to unsuspecting iOS and Android users. While Android permits “sideloading” apps from third-party markets, Apple requires iOS apps to come from the App Store, after they’ve undergone a thorough security review.