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Category: mobile phones – Page 13

SparkCat — first OCR trojan stealer to infiltrate the App Store

Your smartphone gallery may contain photos and screenshots of important information you keep there for safety or convenience, such as documents, bank agreements, or seed phrases for recovering cryptocurrency wallets. All of this data can be stolen by a malicious app such as the SparkCat stealer we’ve discovered. This malware is currently configured to steal crypto wallet data, but it could easily be repurposed to steal any other valuable information.

The worst part is that this malware has made its way into official app stores, with almost 250,000 downloads of infected apps from Google Play alone. Although malicious apps have been found in Google Play before, this marks the first time a stealer Trojan has been detected in the App Store. How does this threat work and what can you do to protect yourself?

SparkCat infostealer infected apps in the App Store and Google Play. It scans photos on infected devices and steals crypto wallets.

Next Generation Computers: New Wiring Material could Transform Chip Technology

The rapid technological advancements of our world have been enabled by our capacity to design and fabricate ever smaller electronic chips. These underpin computers, mobile phones and every smart device deployed to date.

One of the many challenges is that electronic components generate increasingly more heat as they are miniaturized. A significant issue lies in making the wires which connect the transistors on the chip thinner while ensuring that the minimum amount of heat is released.

These interconnects are typically made from copper, and as we start to scale them down to nano-scale thicknesses, their electrical resistance increases rapidly because the electrons moving along the wires have a higher probability of colliding into the surface of the wire. Known as scattering, this leads to energy being released in the form of waste heat, meaning you need more power to maintain the same level of performance.

A New Optical Memory Platform for Super Fast Calculations

For decades there has been near constant progress in reducing the size, and increasing the performance, of the circuits that power computers and smartphones. But Moore’s Law is ending as physical limitations – such as the number of transistors that can fit on a chip and the heat that results from packing them ever more densely – are slowing the rate of performance increases. Computing capacity is gradually plateauing, even as artificial intelligence, machine learning and other data-intensive applications demand ever greater computational power.

Novel technologies are needed to address this challenge. A potential solution comes from photonics, which offers lower energy consumption and reduced latency than electronics.

One of the most promising approaches is in-memory computing, which requires the use of photonic memories. Passing light signals through these memories makes it possible to perform operations nearly instantaneously. But solutions proposed for creating such memories have faced challenges such as low switching speeds and limited programmability.

The Google Futurist Who Foretold the iPhone Now Predicts a Golden Age for Everyone by 2030!

He predicted the iPhone before anyone else—now he’s making his boldest claim yet. By 2030, life as we know it could be unrecognizable. A world without scarcity, where luxury becomes the new normal? His shocking vision is shaking up the world—but is it really possible?

How the Brain Adapts: From Survival Mode to Learning Mode

Tags; #science #neuroscience #happiness #happiness #neurodegenerativediseases #disease #health #mentalhealth #sleep #neuroscientist #disease #education #success.
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About me:
I am Shambhu Yadav, Ph.D., a research scientist at Harvard Medical School (Boston, MA, USA). I also work (for fun) as a Science Journalist, editor, and presenter on a YouTube channel. Science Communication is my passion.

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Disclaimer 1: The video content is for educational and informational purposes only, not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always consult your physician or qualified healthcare provider regarding any medical condition. Do not disregard or delay seeking professional medical advice based on information from this video. Any reliance on the information provided is at your own risk.
Disclaimer 2: The Diary Of A Scientist (DOAS) channel does not promote or encourage any unusual activities, and all content provided by this channel is meant for EDUCATIONAL purposes only.

*Credits and thanks**
The video was recorded using iPhone and edited using Adobe Premiere Pro: a timeline-based and non-linear video editing software.
Music source: Epidemic sound.

Tiny chip could offer spectral sensing for everyday devices

Imagine smartphones that can diagnose diseases, detect counterfeit drugs or warn of spoiled food. Spectral sensing is a powerful technique that identifies materials by analyzing how they interact with light, revealing details far beyond what the human eye can see.

Traditionally, this technology required bulky, expensive systems confined to laboratories and industrial applications. But what if this capability could be miniaturized to fit inside a smartphone or ?

Researchers at Aalto University in Finland have combined miniaturized hardware and intelligent algorithms to create a powerful tool that is compact, cost-effective, and capable of solving real-world problems in areas such as health care, food safety and autonomous driving. The research is published in the journal Science Advances.

Multidimensional sampling theory reduces noise to push flat optics boundaries

A research team at POSTECH has developed a novel multidimensional sampling theory to overcome the limitations of flat optics. Their study not only identifies the constraints of conventional sampling theories in metasurface design but also presents an innovative anti-aliasing strategy that significantly enhances optical performance. Their findings were published in Nature Communications.

Flat optics is a cutting-edge technology that manipulates light at the nanoscale by patterning ultra-thin surfaces with nanostructures. Unlike traditional optical systems that rely on bulky lenses and mirrors, enables ultra-compact, high-performance optical devices. This innovation is particularly crucial in miniaturizing smartphone cameras (reducing the “camera bump”) and advancing AR/VR technologies.

Metasurfaces, one of the most promising applications of flat optics, rely on hundreds of millions of nanostructures to precisely sample and control the phase distribution of light. Sampling, in this context, refers to the process of converting analog optical signals into discrete data points—similar to how the human brain processes visual information by rapidly capturing multiple images per second to create continuous motion perception.