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iPhone 12 Pro Max among Consumer Reports' best smartphones of 2021 The iPhone 12 Pro Max is one of the best smartphones of the year and the top-rated iPhone model in 2021, according to Consumer Reports. Apple's flagship 6.7-inch device earned one of the top spots in Consumer Report's latest smartphone rankings because of its A14 chipset, OLED display, 5G connectivity, and upgraded camera features. "While the 12 Pro Max will cost you $100 more than its smaller sibling, the 12 Pro, it packs in several more hours of battery life, a slightly larger display, and a 2.5x zoom camera that gets you just a hair closer to the action than the 12 Pro's 2x camera," the publication wrote. Consumer Reports did note that the iPhone 12 Pro Max is heavier and larger than its stablemates, which could make it harder to use for those with smaller hands. Other smartphones on the unranked list include the OnePlus Nord N10 5G and the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 5G. In addition to the 2021-focused list, Consumer Reports also ranks the best smartphones on the market based on a variety of ratings and reviews. That list is topped by a handful of iPhone models, including the iPhone 11 and iPhone 12 series. Source: iPhone 12 Pro Max among Consumer Reports' best smartphones of 2021

Grammy winners 2021: The full list Taylor Swift wins album of the year with Folklore. Find all the winners from music's biggest night here, from Harry Styles to Billie Eilish to Beyoncé. The 63rd Grammy Awards' main event is done and dusted. The show saw history made with Beyoncé winning a record 28th Grammy, making her the performing artist with the most Grammy wins ever. The biggest award of the night went to Billie Eilish, who scored record of the year for Everything I Wanted. Taylor Swift won album of the year with Folklore and Harry Styles won his first ever Grammy for best pop solo performance. BTS, Cardi B, Post Malone and more brought incredible live performances, with Trevor Noah hosting. You can re-watch the pre-show and red carpet on the Grammys site or its Facebook page, where Lady Gaga, Ariana Grande and more won premiere ceremony awards. Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images for The Recording Academy Below you'll find the major winners from the premiere ceremony, plus all the awards from the main show. Winners Winners are in bold. Record of the Year Black Parade by Beyoncé Colors by Black Pumas Rockstar by DaBaby featuring Roddy Ricch Say So by Doja Cat Everything I Wanted by Billie Eilish -- winner Don't Start Now by Dua Lipa Circles by Post Malone Savage by Megan Thee Stallion Album of the Year Chilombo by Jhené Aiko Black Pumas by Black Pumas Everyday Life by Coldplay Djesse Vol. 3 by Jacob Collier Women in Music Pt. III by Haim Future Nostalgia by Dua Lipa Hollywood's Bleeding by Post Malone Folklore by Taylor Swift -- winner Best R&B Performance Lightning & Thunder, Jhené Aiko featuring John Legend Black Parade, Beyoncé -- winner All I Need, Jacob Collier featuring Mahalia and Ty Dolla Sign Goat Head, Brittany Howard See Me, Emily King Best Pop Vocal Album Changes, Justin Bieber Chromatica, Lady Gaga Future Nostalgia, Dua Lipa -- winner Fine Line, Harry Styles Folklore, Taylor Swift Best Rap Song The Bigger Picture, Lil Baby The Box, Roddy Ricch Laugh Now, Cry Later, Drake featuring Lil Durk Rockstar, DaBaby featuring Roddy Ricch Savage, Megan Thee Stallion featuring Beyoncé -- winner Song of the Year Black Parade by Beyoncé The Box by Roddy Ricch Cardigan by Taylor Swift Circles by Post Malone Don't Start Now by Dua Lipa Everything I Wanted by Billie Eilish I Can't Breathe by H.E.R. -- winner If the World Was Ending by JP Saxe featuring Julia Michaels Best Latin Pop or Urban Album YHLQMDLG, Bad Bunny -- winner Por Primera Vez, Camilo Mesa Para Dos, Kany García Pausa, Ricky Martin 3:33, Debi Nova Best Melodic Rap Performance Rockstar, DaBaby featuring Roddy Ricch Laugh Now, Cry Later, Drake featuring Lil Durk Lockdown, Anderson .Paak -- winner The Box, Roddy Ricch Highest in the Room, Travis Scott Best Pop Solo Performance Yummy by Justin Bieber Say So by Doja Cat Everything I Wanted by Billie Eilish Don't Start Now by Dua Lipa Watermelon Sugar by Harry Styles -- winner Cardigan by Taylor Swift Best Country Album Lady Like, Ingrid Andress Your Life Is a Record, Brandy Clark Wildcard, Miranda Lambert -- winner Nightfall, Little Big Town Never Will, Ashley McBryde Best New Artist Ingrid Andress Phoebe Bridgers Chika Noah Cyrus D Smoke Doja Cat Kaytranada Megan Thee Stallion -- winner Best Pop Duo/Group Performance Un Dia (One Day) by J Balvin, Dua Lipa, Bad Bunny and Tainy Intentions by Justin Bieber featuring Quavo Dynamite by BTS Rain on Me by Lady Gaga featuring Ariana Grande -- winner Exile by Taylor Swift featuring Bon Iver Best Rock Performance Shameika, Fiona Apple -- winner Not, Big Thief Kyoto, Phoebe Bridgers The Steps, Haim Stay High, Brittany Howard Daylight, Grace Potter Best Rock Album A Hero's Death, Fontaines D.C. Kiwanuka, Michael Kiwanuka Daylight, Grace Potter Sound & Fury, Sturgill Simpson The New Abnormal, The Strokes -- winner Best Alternative Music Album Fetch the Bolt Cutters, Fiona Apple -- winner Hyperspace, Beck Punisher, Phoebe Bridgers Jamie, Brittany Howard The Slow Rush, Tame Impala Best R&B Song Better Than I Imagine, Robert Glasper featuring H.E.R. and Meshell Ndegeocello -- winner Black Parade, Beyoncé Collide, Tiana Major9 and Earthgang Do It, Chloe x Halle Slow Down, Skip Marley and H.E.R. Best Progressive R&B Album Chilombo, Jhené Aiko Ungodly Hour, Chloe x Halle Free Nationals, Free Nationals Fuck Yo Feelings, Robert Glasper It Is What It Is, Thundercat -- winner Best Rap Performance Deep Reverence, Big Sean featuring Nipsey Hussle Bop, DaBaby What's Poppin, Jack Harlow The Bigger Picture, Lil Baby Savage, Megan Thee Stallion featuring Beyoncé -- winner Dior, Pop Smoke Best Rap Album Black Habits, D Smoke Alfredo, Freddie Gibbs and the Alchemist A Written Testimony, Jay Electronica King's Disease, Nas -- winner The Allegory, Royce Da 5'9" Best Country Solo Performance Stick That in Your Country Song, Eric Church Who You Thought I Was, Brandy Clark When My Amy Prays, Vince Gill -- winner Black Like Me, Mickey Guyton Bluebird, Miranda Lambert Best Country Song Bluebird, Miranda Lambert The Bones, Maren Morris Crowded Table, The Highwomen -- winner More Hearts Than Mine, Ingrid Andress Some People Do, Old Dominion Producer of the Year, Non-Classical Jack Antonoff Dan Auerbach Dave Cobb Flying Lotus Andrew Watt -- winner Best Music Film Beastie Boys Story, Beastie Boys Black Is King, Beyoncé -- winner We Are Freestyle Love Supreme, Freestyle Love Supreme Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice, Linda Ronstadt That Little Ol' Band From Texas, ZZ Top Best Global Music Album Fu Chronicles, Antibalas Twice as Tall, Burna Boy -- winner Agora, Bebel Gilberto Love Letters, Anoushka Shankar Amadjar, Tinariwen Best American Roots Performance Colors, Black Pumas Deep in Love, Bonny Light Horseman Short and Sweet, Brittany Howard I'll Be Gone, Norah Jones and Mavis Staples I Remember Everything, John Prine -- winner First published on March 14, 2021 at 4:41 p.m. PT. Source: Grammy winners 2021: The full list

Golden Globes 2021 winner predictions: I Care a Lot, The Queen's Gambit Rosamund Pike is up for best actress (musical or comedy) for I Care a Lot. Let's take a look at who will win and who should win tonight. Rosamund Pike plays con artist Marla Grayson in I Care a Lot. Netflix We've seen her magnificent performance as Marla Grayson in I Care a Lot, and now it's almost time to find out whether Rosamund Pike takes home an award at this year's Golden Globes. She's up for best actress (musical or comedy), but faces stiff competition from Anya Taylor-Joy (Emma) and Maria Bakalova (Borat Subsequent Moviefilm). Elsewhere, the TV and movie awards show dropped a few surprise nominations this year, embracing revenge thriller Promising Young Woman with four nods. The film starring Carey Mulligan sits behind The Trial of Chicago 7 (five nods) and overall leader Netflix's Mank (six). But Chloé Zhao's lauded Nomadland is probably the favorite to win best picture (drama), making Zhao's entry to the Marvel Cinematic Universe with Eternals (arriving at the end of the year) even more enticing. Best TV series (drama) looks like it'll go to a splashy season 4 of The Crown, which faces off against Ozark, Ratched, Lovecraft Country and The Mandalorian. Based on the general snubbing of sci-fi, it's hard to see the latter pair in with much chance. It's surprising Ratched is in there at all given its overall mixed reception. Let's take a stab at predicting some of the major Golden Globes winners for 2021. We'll find out if we're right this Sunday (Feb. 28). Best motion picture, drama The Father Mank Nomadland -- should win, will win Promising Young Woman The Trial of the Chicago 7 Nomadland has already seen awards success at Venice and Toronto. With its best actress nod for lead Frances McDormand, plus best director and best screenplay for Chloé Zhao, it's a big shout for best picture. David Fincher's Mank is right behind it and leads overall nominations with six. Best actress in a motion picture, drama Viola Davis, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom -- will win Andra Day, The United States vs. Billie Holiday Vanessa Kirby, Pieces of a Woman Frances McDormand, Nomadland -- should win Carey Mulligan, Promising Young Woman As delicious as Carey Mulligan's performance is in Promising Young Woman, this race is looking like a two-hander between Viola Davis and Frances McDormand. McDormand is sweeping critics awards for her performance as a woman who leaves her small town to travel around the American West. Davis is still a hot favorite, for her tour-de-force performance as legendary blues singer Ma Rainey. Best actor in a motion picture, drama Riz Ahmed, Sound of Metal Chadwick Boseman, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom -- should win, will win Anthony Hopkins, The Father Gary Oldman, Mank Tahar Rahim, The Mauritanian An apt posthumous win for Chadewick Boseman doesn't look in doubt for his invested performance as a hot-heated trumpeter. Gary Oldman and Anthony Hopkins are distant second places. Best motion picture, musical or comedy Borat Subsequent Moviefilm Hamilton Music Palm Springs -- should win The Prom -- will win As problematic as James Cordon's flamboyant performance in The Prom was, it's hard to see Borat taking home a gold statue over the star-studded Netflix flick (Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman, Kerry Washington). In the perfect world, the delightful time travel rom-com Palm Springs would take home the sash and crown. Best actress in a motion picture, musical or comedy Maria Bakalova, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm -- should win Kate Hudson, Music Michelle Pfeiffer, French Exit Rosamund Pike, I Care a Lot Anya Taylor-Joy, Emma -- will win After Meryl Streep's snub for The Prom, this category looks like anyone's game. Rosamund Pike's memorable con artist Marla Grayson from I Care a Lot is a terrific wild card, but Maria Bakalova deserves an award for the juggling act that is playing Borat's teenage daughter. But, just for the sake of it, let's say Anya Taylor-Joy, who deserves to hit full stardom, will win (although she should win for The Queen's Gambit in the best actress (limited series) category). Best actor in a motion picture, musical or comedy Sacha Baron Cohen, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm -- will win James Corden, The Prom Lin-Manuel Miranda, Hamilton -- should win Dev Patel, The Personal History of David Copperfield Andy Samberg, Palm Springs Now that we're going with Hamilton being a film-film, Lin-Manuel Miranda stands a huge chance of earning even more recognition for his momentous Broadway musical. But Sacha Baron Cohen might just pip him with his own, very different, creation, putting his body on the line to deliver pranks for the Borat sequel and its commentary on American culture. Best TV series, drama The Crown -- should win, will win Lovecraft Country The Mandalorian Ozark Ratched Despite some confusion over the veracity of its story, The Crown stepped up its game for season 4, introducing Princess Diana and Margaret Thatcher. Its lavishly-produced world is just about second to none, making it our pick, closely followed by Lovecraft Country and Ozark. Best TV series, musical or comedy Emily in Paris The Flight Attendant The Great Schitt's Creek -- will win Ted Lasso -- should win It's really a tie between Schitt's Creek and Ted Lasso, but after the former's comprehensive sweep at the Emmys, it would be nice for the equally feel-good Ted Lasso to receive a share of recognition. Shoutout to the compulsive thriller-comedy The Flight Attendant. Best limited series or TV movie Normal People The Queen's Gambit -- should win, will win Small Axe The Undoing Unorthodox The Queen's Gambit should win an award for increasing the popularity of chess alone. A complete package with a mesmerizing Anya Taylor-Joy at the heart, the Netflix hit is a deserved winner. Source: Golden Globes 2021 winner predictions: I Care a Lot, The Queen's Gambit

Golden Globes 2021: See the full list of nominees Tina Fey and Amy Poehler will return as hosts of the Golden Globes for a fourth time later this month. (CNN) - Nominations for the 78th Annual Golden Globe Awards, celebrating the best in television and film, were announced Wednesday. This year's nominees are a mix of old and new, highlighting what we've been watching from home while in quarantine. Netflix led in both television and film nominations, including the drama "Mank," which led with six nods. "The Trial of the Chicago 7" followed with five nominations. In the television categories, Netflix's royal drama "The Crown" led with six nominations, followed by last year's award show darling, the comedy "Schitt's Creek," with five. Chadwick Boseman, who died last year at the age of 43 after a private battle with colon cancer, received a posthumous nomination for his role in the Netflix film "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom." Tina Fey and Amy Poehler will return as hosts of the event for a fourth time. The Golden Globes will take place -- virtually or in some fashion -- on Sunday, February 28 on NBC. TV pioneer Norman Lear will receive the Carol Burnett Award for his lifetime of achievement and actress/activist Jane Fonda will be presented the Cecil B. deMille Award for her outstanding contributions to the industry. See the list of the nominees below. TELEVISION Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series -- Musical or Comedy Don Cheadle - "Black Monday" Nicholas Hoult - "The Great" Eugene Levy - "Schitt's Creek" Jason Sudekis - "Ted Lasso" Ramy Youssef - "Ramy" Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series -- Musical or Comedy Lily Collins - "Emily in Paris" Kaley Cuoco - "The Flight Attendant" Elle Fanning - "The Great" Jane Levy - "Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist" Catherine O'Hara - "Schitt's Creek" Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series -- Drama Jason Bateman - "Ozark" Josh O'Connor - "The Crown" Bob Odenkirk - "Better Call Saul" Al Pacino - "Hunters" Matthew Rhys - "Perry Mason" Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series -- Drama Olivia Colman - "The Crown" Jodie Comer - "Killing Eve" Emma Corrin - "The Crown" Laura Linney - "Ozark" Sarah Paulson - "Ratched" Best Performance by an Actor in a Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television Bryan Cranston - "Your Honor" Jeff Daniels - "The Comey Rule" Hugh Grant - "The Undoing" Mark Ruffalo - "I Know This Much is True" Ethan Hawke - "The Good Lord Bird" Best Performance by an Actress in a Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television Cate Blanchett - "Mrs. America" Daisy Edgar-Jones - "Normal People" Shira Haas - "Unorthodox" Nicole Kidman - "The Undoing" Anya Taylor-Joy - "The Queen's Gambit" Best Television Series Drama "The Crown" "Lovecraft Country" "The Mandalorian" "Ozark" "Ratched" Best Television Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television "Normal People" "The Queen's Gambit" "Small Axe" "The Undoing" "Unorthodox" Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television Helena Bonham Carter - "The Crown" Julia Garner - "Ozark" Annie Murphy - "Schitt's Creek" Cynthia Nixon - "Ratched" Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television John Boyega - "Small Axe" Brendan Gleeson - "The Comey Rule" Daniel Levy - "Schitt's Creek" Jim Parsons - "Hollywood" Donald Southerland - "The Undoing" Best Television Series -- Musical or Comedy "Emily in Paris" "The Flight Attendant" "Schitt's Creek" "The Great" "Ted Lasso" FILM Best Motion Picture -- Musical or Comedy "Borat Subsequent Moviefilm" "Hamilton" "Music" "Palm Springs" "The Prom" Best Motion Picture -- Drama "The Father" "Mank" "Nomadland" "Promising Young Woman" "The Trial of the Chicago 7" Best Motion Picture -- Foreign Language "Another Round," Denmark "La Llorona," Guatamela/France "The Life Ahead," Italy "Minari," USA "Two of Us," France/USA Best Screenplay -- Motion Picture Emerald Fennell - "Promising Young Woman" Jack Fincher - "Mank" Aaron Sorkin - "The Trial of the Chicago 7" Florian Zeller, Christopher Hampton - "The Father" Chloe Zhao - "Nomadland" Best Original Song -- Motion Picture "Fight for You" - "Judas and the Black Messiah" "Hear My Voice" - "The Trial of the Chicago 7" "IO SI (Seen)" - "The Life Ahead" "Speak Now" - "One Night in Miami" "Tigers & Tweed" - "The United States vs. Billie Holiday" Best Actor in a Supporting Role in Any Motion Picture Sacha Baron Cohen - "The Trial of the Chicago 7" Daniel Kaluuya - "Judas and the Black Messiah" Jared Leto - "The Little Things" Bill Murray - "On the Rocks" Leslie Odom, Jr. - "One Night in Miami" Best Actress in a Supporting Role in Any Motion Picture Glenn Close - "Hillbilly Elegy" Olivia Colman - "The Father" Jodie Foster - "The Mauritanian" Amanda Seyfried - "Mank" Helena Zengel - "News of the World" Best Actor in a Motion Picture -- Musical or Comedy Sacha Baron Cohen - "Borat Subsequent Moviefilm" James Corden - "The Prom" Lin-Manuel Miranda - "Hamilton" Dev Patel - "The Personal History of David Copperfield" Andy Samberg - "Palm Springs" Best Motion Picture -- Animated "The Croods: A New Age" "Onward" "Over the Moon" "Soul" "Wolfwalkers" Best Actor in a Motion Picture -- Drama Chadwick Boseman, - "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom" Riz Ahmed - "The Sound of Metal" Anthony Hopkins - "The Father" Gary Oldman - "Mank" Tahar Rahim - "The Mauritanian" Best Actress in a Motion Picture -- Drama Viola Davis - "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom" Andra Day - "The United States vs. Billie Holiday" Vanessa Kirby - "Pieces of a Woman" Frances McDormand - "Nomadland" Carey Mulligan - "Promising Young Woman Best Actress in a Motion Picture -- Musical or Comedy Maria Bakalova - "Borat Subsequent Moviefilm" Kate Hudson - "Music" Michelle Pfeiffer - "French Exit" Rosamund Pike - "I Care A Lot" Anya Taylor-Joy - "Emma" Best Actor in a Motion Picture -- Musical or Comedy Sacha Baron Cohen - "Borat Subsequent Moviefilm" James Corden - "The Prom" Lin-Manuel Miranda - "Hamilton" Dev Patel - "The Personal History of David Copperfield" Andy Samberg - "Palm Springs" Best Director -- Motion Picture David Fincher - "Mank" Regina King - "One Night in Miami" Aaron Sorkin - "The Trial of the Chicago 7" Chloe Zhao - "Nomadland" Emerald Fennell - "Promising Young Woman" Best Original Score "The Midnight Sky" "Tenet" "News of the World" "Mank" Source: Golden Globes 2021: See the full list of nominees

2021 is the year of the Chromebook: here's why Incredible market growth hastens Chrome OS adoption (Image credit: Future) For several years now, Chromebooks have slowly gained a pretty dedicated following as former skeptics became converts - and even prosthelytizers - of the lightweight Chrome OS and the highly affordable laptops it powers. Still, it hasn't come close to challenging Microsoft or Apple - or even Linux - as the operating system of choice for the vast majority of consumers. There are a whole host of reasons for this, not the least of which is Microsoft's far-sighted strategy of licensing its operating systems to OEMs, which helped it capture over 95% of the PC market in the early to mid 1990s, a market position that has only slightly eroded due to the popularity of Apple's competing OSX-powered laptops and desktops. As it stands, Windows installs account for just over 76% of desktop operating systems according to GlobalStats, a category that includes laptop computers. Apple's OSX accounts for another 17% of desktop OS installs, comprising just over 93% of desktop installations. Chrome OS, meanwhile, accounts for just 1.83% of OS installs - hardly an enviable market position - but that number doesn't tell the whole story. With the novel coronavirus pandemic disrupting educational routines across the world, Chromebooks have become a vital lifeline for schools having to transition almost overnight to remote learning. The low cost laptops have made it possible for students everywhere, regardless of means, to continue their education with some semblance of a normal routine and the infrastructure for remote learning that was hastily built in the early days of the pandemic will continue on in many ways once the pandemic subsides. Any teacher will tell you that there is no replacing in-person instruction, so students will one day leave the Zoom classes behind and return to the physical classroom - but they will be bringing their Chromebooks with them, and the impact of that on the future of Chrome OS and the Chromebooks they power will be long-lasting. How remote learning turbocharged Chromebook sales (Image credit: Shutterstock) Desktop PC sales took a huge hit in Q3 2020, according to market analyst Canalys, falling 27% short year over year for desktop workstations and 33% for tower and small desktop PCs. This is hardly surprising given offices around the world closed down to adhere to social distancing protocols. Instead, laptops saw a huge spike in overall sales as the global workforce made the move to working from home, accelerating an existing trend towards mobile computing systems like laptops and tablets. With the new academic year starting in Fall 2020, schools and families everywhere turned to Chromebooks as low-cost solutions to the challenge of remote learning, fueling a 122% growth in Chromebook sales in Q3 2020. In total, 9.4 million Chromebooks were sold that quarter, and while Q4 2020 and Q1 2021 aren't likely to see the same kind of raw units sold as the start of an academic year, the reliance on Chromebooks to meet the educational needs of students isn't going to disappear with the end of the pandemic. We don't want to overstate the case. The 9.4 million Chromebooks sold in Q3 2020 are a fraction of the 124.5 million computers (including tablets) sold in the quarter (roughly 7.5%), so nobody should expect Chromebooks to suddenly challenge the Windows/OSX duopoly in 2021, if ever. But just as important as the number of Chromebooks being sold - perhaps even more important – is who ends up using them. (Image credit: Future) Chrome OS is increasingly the first OS students ever encounter One of the brilliant insights of Microsoft's market strategy in the 1990s was that by putting their OS on as many computers as possible, they ensured that a family's first PC was almost guaranteed to be a Windows PC. Kids in the 1990s grew up using Windows and quickly became comfortable with the system, making it more likely they would continue to buy Windows PCs in the future. If anyone doubts this, just look at what happened in the late 2000s and early 2010s when netbook manufacturers tried to keep costs low by installing a Linux OS instead of Windows. Now, however, children are using computers as an integral part of their education in ways they never have before, and for many of them, Chrome OS is the first operating system that they become familiar with. As Extremetech points out, this fact isn't lost on Microsoft, and is likely behind many of its recent moves to solidify its presence in the education space with products like Office 365 and requiring Microsoft accounts in order to use several of its non-education products like Minecraft. And while there's no question that those same kids whose first computer is a Chromebook will eventually need to work within the Microsoft and Apple ecosystems as well, that established familiarity with Chrome OS and Chromebooks make it much more likely that they will be open to buying Chromebooks in the future. (Image credit: Future) Chromebooks are more robust than ever It's ironic that for many players, Cyberpunk 2077 was much more stable – and even just playable – on Google Stadia than it was on their PCs or game consoles. But if you know anything about cloud computing, it isn't at all surprising. By offloading all the resource intensive work to the cloud, Chromebooks with a solid internet connection are increasingly able to hold their own against Windows and OSX devices in terms of functionality. In fact, there a couple of things that Chromebooks have over legacy OS systems that are going to be a major market advantage going forward. While the relatively low cost of a Chromebook is obvious, perhaps even more significant is its lower system overhead. Chrome OS was designed to be especially lightweight to allow it to run on low-end hardware, but we're seeing more powerful Chromebooks making their way to market. The Samsung Galaxy Chromebook 2 features some pretty impressive specs at a reasonable price while looking great at the same time. Meanwhile, AMD is introducing a new line of mobile Ryzen processors that emphasize efficiency while still providing far more performance than an ARM-based processor. With so much of a Chromebook's functionality tied to the cloud, having the kind of specs normally reserved for Windows or OSX laptops with a light-touch OS means you'll be able to get some really great performance with the new upgraded hardware. This is especially important with the other major feature of the Chromebook: access to the Android app ecosystem. While Windows might have the most desktop installs of any operating system out there, it isn't actually the most popular operating system in the world. That would be Google's Android OS, which powers 41.58% of "computers" in the world, when you account for phones and tablets. With so many Android users in the world, Chromebooks have the additional advantage of tying in the world's most popular app ecosystem that can unite a consumer's phone, tablet, and laptop under a single unified ecosystem under a single Google account. That is something Windows laptops simply can't do. All of this points to the continued growth of Chromebooks over the next few years, and 2021 could very well be the year that Chromebooks finally start winning over the masses. 2021 is the year of the Chromebook: here's why

New iPad (2021) could bear a striking resemblance to an older iPad Air A super-thin iPad (Image credit: Future) We've been hearing rumors of a new iPad for 2021 to join Apple's entry-level line-up. This range of relatively low cost slates doesn't often change much between iterations, and it's not likely this one will present a huge redesign, but we've heard Apple is trying to make the slate a touch more like some of its other tablets. According to Japanese tech site Macotakara, paraphrasing a Chinese supplier, 'the next iPad (9th Generation) is likely to be based on the iPad Air (3rd Generation)'. As per the name, the iPad Air 3 was pretty thin and light, and apparently Apple is bringing that design over to its next entry-level slate. It's worth pointing out Macotakara only has a 68.8% accuracy on AppleTrack, meaning a third of the Apple-related rumors and leaks it covers prove untrue, so take this news with a pinch of salt. Apparently, the next iPad will have a 10.2-inch display - that's the same size as the 2020 model, though we'd heard the 2021 version could bump that up to 10.5 inches. The leak also states the new iPad will continue to use "Touch ID, a Lightning ports Full-Lamination Displays, Anti-reflective Coating, P3 Displays, True Tone Displays etc", so it's clear this isn't a total redesign, Apple might just be making a leaner machine. For if you wanted an iPad Air... The latest iPad Air 4 didn't actually look like its predecessors, instead looking like an iPad Pro model with flat edges, thin bezels and no Touch ID home button on the front. Some people prefer the looks of the older iPad Airs compared to the newer ones though as a physical front-facing Touch ID button can be easier for some to use, but the thin and light body adds to the portability. So if you were looking for a tablet that looked like the iPad Air 3 you were out of luck - by the sounds of it, though, Apple is filling this niche again with its upcoming entry-level iPad. New iPad (2021) could bear a striking resemblance to an older iPad Air

Home Entertainment Trends 2021: Premium VOD Is Here to Stay After a year in which COVID-19 upended Hollywood, 2021 looms with big question marks for home entertainment executives. The pandemic accelerated the growth of streaming and made premium video-on-demand (PVOD) an economic and logistical necessity due to the closure of movie theaters. And despite the dearth of fresh theatrical product, the transactional end of the home entertainment business flourished. In 2020, films that would have been major theatrical releases — including Disney’s live-action “Mulan,” Universal/DreamWorks Animation’s “Trolls World Tour” and Warner Bros. “Scoob!” — hit PVOD first before moving to other windows. Studios made the most of captive home audiences by seamlessly transitioning from PVOD to transactional VOD, and at the same time dug into their vaults and came up with creative ways to market catalog titles. “COVID didn’t introduce new trends to entertainment, but it did accelerate what was already happening,” says Jim Wuthrich, president of Warner Bros. Home Entertainment. With vaccine rollouts underway, the big question is when things will return to normal — or whether the changes have been so pronounced, so significant, that Hollywood will never return to its old ways. Whichever way the wind blows, industry execs say, the strides made by PVOD are unlikely to be reversed even once most of the country has been vaccinated and it is safe for theaters everywhere to reopen. “COVID was clearly an accelerant to move more entertainment consumption to the home,” says Galen Smith, CEO of Redbox. “Event films will still be big theatrically, but there will be a push to accelerate consumers’ abilities to watch at home through PVOD and shorter overall windows — both digitally and on disc.” The Redbox chief adds, “We don’t believe the theatrical model will return exactly as it existed prior to COVID. The evolution over the last year benefited consumers and content creators through the introduction of new products — and a number of them, like PVOD, are here to stay. PVOD has been a model the studios have wanted to add for many years, and I expect to see more PVOD releases in 2021. It’s another way to provide customers choice, which is good for them as well as for the industry.” The mantra for home entertainment executives is to keep their fingers on the pulse of the industry, and on the consumer, and be prepared for more changes as well as more uncertainty. “What we saw in 2020 was an anomaly, but it also demonstrated our ability to pivot and continue to monetize our content through the distribution strategies and platforms that are available to us and that make the most sense,” says Bob Buchi, president of worldwide home entertainment for Paramount Pictures. “All of these options — including traditional theatrical distribution — will continue to coexist in a post-pandemic world.” Amy Jo Smith, president and CEO of DEG: The Digital Entertainment Group, says the industry needs to stop framing things as “normal,” whether that’s “‘back to normal’ or ‘a new normal.’” “Our business is currently in an accelerated state of evolution, as the pandemic created the perfect environment for overdue experimentation with distribution models,” she says. “Many studios are working within this unique opportunity to offer consumers new ways to consume content at earlier points in its lifecycle, and consumers have embraced the change. There is no replacement for the experience of seeing a movie in a state-of-the-art theater, but we expect content owners will continue to meet entertainment lovers wherever it is that they choose to consume new content.” Dametra Johnson-Marletti, corporate VP, Microsoft Digital Stores Category Management, agrees. “I think many consumers will be excited to return to the theaters when the COVID risk is nearer to zero,” she says. “That said, I also think that PVOD is here to stay, particularly for titles that are not forecasted to be box-office blockbusters and for a certain segment of viewers.” Similarly, streaming is likely to enjoy continued high growth rates. Recent research from NPD Group shows that the average U.S. consumer now relies on seven different streaming video services, up from five in April, notes DEG’s Smith. “This is another case of the pandemic accelerating a trend that was already underway,” she says. “It’s great that consumers have so many streaming options at different price points and offering different content.” She adds that DEG’s D2C Alliance Steering Committee believes that “as consumers continue to customize their entertainment experience, subscription and ad-supported services will continue robust growth, as will large, mainstream services and those that offer more specialized content.” The transactional end of the home entertainment business is perhaps the most fluid heading into 2021. Against all odds, the business didn’t collapse when the theatrical business did. But that doesn’t mean there weren’t some dicey moments — nor will it be all smooth sailing ahead. Microsoft’s Movies & TV transactional service thrives mostly on new blockbuster content, Johnson-Marletti says. “With new production shuttered for much of the year, and top content releases pushed to 2021, our TVOD business certainly felt some headwinds,” she says. “Our team had to become very creative and scrappy as they worked with our studio partners to find unique avenues for growth. We had a multipart strategy that included shifting more focus to our catalog by bringing forward a lot of the fan favorite and classics for consumers to find more easily. We also focused on building great thematic and seasonal collections.” The outlook for TVOD in the first two quarters of 2021 looks to be a continuation of last year’s trends, “with some positive light starting to emerge in the late April to early May timeframe,” says Johnson-Marletti. The pervasiveness of vaccine adoption, the openness of the world (as it pertains to theaters) and new windows and rollouts will all be key inputs to how the back half of 2021 plays out, she says. “I definitely think the approach [we took in 2020] represents a viable set of tactics that will continue to serve our customers, partners and business well in the new year,” Johnson-Marletti says. With the continued erosion of disc sales in 2020 — at the nine-month mark, combined consumer spending on Blu-ray discs and DVDs was down nearly 23% from the prior year, to a new low of $1.8 billion, according to DEG — digital retailers will likely continue to stress the collectability of digital movie sales, as they did with catalog product during 2020. “It may not be widely known or understood, but in many ways digital movie collections offer a level of security, portability and confidence that discs cannot,” Microsoft’s Johnson-Marletti says. “Your entire library can be accessed from almost any device; it travels with you seamlessly, and you never have to worry about damaged or lost discs. To the purest of collectors, the absence of tangible boxes may not fully satisfy, but, again, there are many benefits that outweigh the cardboard. Lowering the cost of entry and creating compelling promotions and offers that inspire first-time adoption could be a way to spur greater digital movie sales.” Despite the emergence of PVOD and continued growth in streaming, some observers expect theaters to stage a dramatic comeback once most of the country has been vaccinated. As Paramount studio chief Jim Gianopulos pointed out last November, when theaters reopened in Japan and China, “audiences returned en masse, driving huge box-office returns for films that were available,” Buchi says. “Clearly, windows and consumer behaviors are shifting, but the theatrical experience will endure.” Even so, Buchi says, each film and situation is unique. “For some films, like ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ and ‘A Quiet Place Part II,’ the theatrical model is optimal,” he says. “On the other hand, we found tremendous success with PVOD for ‘Love and Monsters’ and ‘Spell.’ Some films make sense for subscription streaming services. It is not one-size-fits-all, and every film needs to be evaluated individually.” Ultimately, he adds, “we will continue to explore new distribution models and opportunities to bring our content to audiences wherever and however they want to enjoy it.” Warner’s Wuthrich agrees. “Consumer empowerment is good for the industry and our goal is to meet the fans where they are — theaters, OTT, digital, physical,” he says. “While fans may have a preferred channel, they often participate in many, such as going to the theater, subscribing to HBO Max and picking up the Blu-ray. The multichannel experience could be one movie or across different movies, depending on interest.” One thing is certain, says Wuthrich: “If we are successful in creating compelling stories, fans will continue to show up.” Source: Home Entertainment Trends 2021: Premium VOD Is Here to Stay

Sony’s 2021 TV lineup runs Google TV and fully embraces HDMI 2.1 Variable refresh rate, 4K at 120Hz, ALLM, and eARC are standard across the line Image: Sony Last year’s TV lineup from Sony took a bit of criticism since several sets were unable to take advantage of next-gen gaming features on the PlayStation 5 that shipped in November. Even if you look right now, the spread of HDMI 2.1 features is pretty sad. Sony never really acknowledged this as a mistake, believing that customers purchase its TVs for different reasons and not everyone needs every box checked off. What a difference a year makes. In 2021, Sony is correcting course: all of its premium “Bravia XR” 4K (and yes, 8K) TVs support 4K at 120Hz, VRR (variable refresh rate), ALLM (auto low latency mode), and eARC. No asterisks or gotchas or promises to add stuff later with firmware updates. Beyond getting on board with 4K120, Sony is making a big deal over what it calls “cognitive intelligence” in these TVs. Powered by a new Cognitive Processor XR chip, Sony says its new system goes beyond traditional signal processing — which Sony’s TVs already excelled at — and beyond the artificial intelligence analysis in most TVs. “While conventional artificial intelligence (AI) can only detect and analyze picture elements like color, contrast and detail individually, the new processor can cross-analyze an array of elements at once, just as our brains do,” Sony’s press release on the TVs says. “By doing so, each element is adjusted to its best final outcome, in conjunction with each other, so everything is synchronized and lifelike — something that conventional AI cannot achieve.” Image: Sony Sony is also talking up what the XR processor can do for sound. A “Sound-from-Picture Reality” feature is claimed to “align the position of the sound with the images on the screen to offer a uniquely lifelike experience.” Samsung has promised similar results for its own 2021 Neo QLED TVs. The two Master Series TVs (8K LCD and 4K OLED) have a new sensor for detecting the color temperature of the ambient light in your room, and this lets them automatically adjust the TV’s white balance to match. (This setting can be turned off for you purists, of course.) More important is that the A90J Master Series OLED also has brighter output than Sony’s past OLEDs thanks to a new aluminum heat shield attached to the panel. Making OLEDs brighter is a big deal since that’s a key area where LCD sets still tend to win out. As one of the earliest TV makers that got on board with Android TV, it seems appropriate that Sony will be among the first to transition to Google TV. All of these TVs will offer a software experience that’s incredibly similar to the latest Chromecast: Sony still has its own customizations in the settings menu (and for quick shortcuts like your HDMI inputs), but everything else — the personalized For You page, content recommendations, etc. — is basically unchanged from Google’s latest streaming device. Sony has also focused on small touches, like adjustable legs that can be configured to allow enough space for a soundbar in front of the TV without obstructing the picture. Going down the lineup, you lose certain niceties (like an antireflective coating exclusive to the 8K set), but all of the TVs support Dolby Vision HDR. And again, you’ve got all the HDMI 2.1 standards accounted for. Rather than move to new display technology like Mini LED, Sony seems to be evolving its current strategy of full-array local dimming and iterating upon its excellent OLED sets. The company doesn’t share how many dimming zones its TVs have or really talk about peak brightness, believing that competitors get too hung up on those numbers. Pricing and specific availability info will be announced this spring. Image: Sony Z9J Master Series 8K (Full-array LCD) 85-inch 75-inch Image: Sony A90J Master Series 4K (OLED) 83-inch 65-inch 55-inch Image: Sony A80J 4K (OLED) 77-inch 65-inch 55-inch Image: Sony X95J 4K (Full-array LCD) 85-inch 75-inch 65-inch Image: Sony X90J 4K (Full-array LCD) 100-inch 75-inch 65-inch 55-inch 50-inch Sony’s 2021 TV lineup runs Google TV and fully embraces HDMI 2.1

These Are the 17 Must-Watch TV Shows of 2021 From Marvel hopefuls to mind-bending dramas, here are all the series you'll need to keep an eye on this year. WandaVision is just one of many Marvel shows planned for Disney+ this year. Courtesy of Disney Last year, as the coronavirus spread and movie theaters went dark, television consumption skyrocketed. (During March, as the Covid-19 lockdowns began, TV consumption for Americans increased from 275 minutes per day to 354 minutes, per Nielsen.) And why wouldn’t it? Even though many folks took up new quarantine hobbies like baking bread or doing puzzles, TV remained a reliable form of entertainment and news. There’s hope 2021 won’t involve quite so many hours of isolation, but that doesn’t mean there still won’t be TV worth watching, especially as new streaming services like HBO Max and Disney+ continue to beef up their catalogs. It’s almost impossible to come up with a comprehensive list, but here are some of the programs we are eagerly awaiting this year. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier Look, we don’t know who at the Mouse House looked around and said, “You know what? We need more content on Disney+,” but we’re sure glad that whenever they did, they gave a lot of series orders to Marvel to fill that void. Like WandaVision and Loki, this series is all about the side quests of its titular heroes. There’s also banter. Because there’s always banter. Release date: March 19, Disney+ Dickinson Full disclosure: Dickinson is kinda corny. If you don’t like period comedies that are part historical fiction and part YA fantasies where acclaimed 19th century poets speak in 21st century slang, this show is not for you. But if you, like us, enjoy watching Emily Dickinson (Hailee Steinfeld) explore queer identity and hang out with Death (Wiz Khalifa), then Season 2 of Dickinson on Apple TV+ starts this Friday. Enjoy. Release date: January 8, Apple TV+ Search Party Search Party started out as a quirky, little-seen TBS dark comedy about a bunch of self-involved Brooklynites who get overly involved in the search for a missing woman. Now it’s a cult hit coming to HBO Max, and one of its main characters, Dory (Alia Shawkat), is the one in need of finding. Seek it out. Release date: January 14, HBO Max The Book of Boba Fett Teased during the end credits of the second season finale of The Madalorian, The Book of Boba Fett will finally give the beloved Star Wars bounty hunter a series of his own. It will be set during the same time period as Mandolorian and will star Temuera Morrison as Fett; Ming-Na Wen will also reprise her Mando character Fennec Shand. The show will be executive produced by Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni, the team behind Mandolorian, as well as Robert Rodriguez. No word yet on whether Baby Yoda will cameo. Release date: December, Disney+ Euphoria Late last year, HBO hit Euphoria fans with a big surprise: A standalone episode, set on Christmas, featuring a quick dream sequence and a nearly hourlong dialog between Rue (Zendaya) and her 12-step sponsor Ali (Colman Domingo). It was heart-crushing. This month, HBO plans to bless fans again with Part 2—this time focused on the person Rue is in love with: Jules (Hunter Schafer). The episode, titled “Fuck Anyone Who’s Not a Sea Blob,” will seemingly focus on what Jules has been doing since she and Rue parted ways on a train platform at the end of Euphoria’s first season. Schafer also cowrote the episode with series creator Sam Levinson, which is just awesome. Release date: January 24, HBO WandaVision WandaVision is the first series that Marvel Studios has created for Disney+. It also might be the weirdest thing it’s ever made. Focusing on the lives of Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) and Vision (Paul Bettany) it’s a weird nine-episode hybrid of classic American TV and high-gloss superhero hijinks. The show will also feature Teyonah Parris, the actress who played Monica Rambeau in Captain Marvel, which hopefully means that character’s comics arc will find its way into more of the MCU. Release date: January 15, Disney+ The Underground Railroad Underground Railroad is the first of a few “maybe”s on this list. No no no, the show is definitely happening; it’s just not for certain going to be released this year. Adapted from Colson Whitehead’s incredible Pulitzer Prize–winning 2017 novel, The Underground Railroad is the story of a Black woman in the pre–Civil War South trying to escape slavery. Only in this version, the railroad is literal—a series of trains and tunnels designed to help slaves escape to the North. (Who built it? “Well,” a conductor says, “Who built anything in this country?”) Director Barry Jenkins (Moonlight) tweeted in September that he’d completed the 116-day shoot for the series, so there’s hope that it’ll be done and ready to air before the end of the year. Release date: TBD, Amazon Loki One need that’s never been fully satiated by the MCU: Loki. Sure, Tom Hiddleston’s God of Mischief has been in quite a few Marvel movies now, but never for long enough. Now, the guy is getting his own show. Loki’s official synopsis just says that it takes place after the events of Avengers: Endgame and its trailer is a bit vague and mysterious, but c’mon. It looks like a helluva good time. Release date: May, Disney+ The Dropout Saturday Night Live’s Kate McKinnon stops impersonating Elizabeth Warren, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Hillary Clinton and instead fills the shoes of a more infamous figure—Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes—in this Hulu series. That’s it. That’s the plug. Release date: TBD, Hulu Y: The Last Man This adaptation of the incredible comics series from Pia Guerra and Brian K. Vaughan has felt like pop culture vaporware for so long that it would be hard to imagine it was actually being released even if the world wasn’t in the middle of a pandemic. Regardless, this apocalyptic drama, about what happens when a mysterious occurrence wipes out all mammals with Y chromosomes, is allegedly in production. Like many other series over the last year, the production was halted by Covid-19, but there’s still a chance it could hit its 2021 release window. Release date: TBD, FX on Hulu Midnight Mass Did you enjoy The Haunting of Hill House? You're in luck. Horror impresario Mike Flanagan is back with another Netflix series sure to tingle your spine. This one—Midnight Mass—is about a remote island community that begins experiencing unprecedented, and terrifying, events after a young priest comes to town. Flanagan actually finished the shoot for this during the pandemic and there's a chance it'll be ready to stream this year. Here's hoping. Release date: TBD, Netflix Foundation Speaking of throwing money at worthwhile ambitious projects, Apple TV+ has ordered a sprawling adaptation of Isaac Asimov’s Foundation novels. Could this be the streaming service’s big genre break? We’ll see. Release date: TBD, Apple TV+ Hawkeye Oh whoops, sorry! One more Marvel hopeful: Hawkeye. Based on Matt Fraction’s—and I can’t stress this enough—beloved 2012-2015 comics run, the series follows Jeremy Renner’s bowman Clint Barton and his fellow archer Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld) as they do hero stuff. The series—and I can’t stress this enough—also better feature Pizza Dog. Release date: Fall, Disney+ The Lord of the Rings This is another one for the “maybe” pile but apparently Amazon is still funneling millions of dollars into this prequel series based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s novels. You’ve been stuck at home for a year; you’ll likely want to go to Middle-earth if given a chance, yes? Release date: TBD, Amazon Halo Hey, remember when Showtime announced it was turning Halo into a TV series? No one does; it happened before 2020. Anyway, Master Chief might be in your living room in a whole new form sometime this year. Or he might just show up long enough to say, “That’s not going to happen!” Release date: TBD, Showtime Ms. Marvel Please, please, please let this come out this year. Based on the comic of the same name, this additional Marvel show for Disney+ is about the adventures of a young superhero named Kamala Khan (played by Iman Vellani) who is a mentee of Captain Marvel. Release date: TBD, Disney+ Cowboy Bebop Netflix’s live-action adaptation of the Japanese anime cult classic starring Jon Cho is currently in production. Fingers crossed. Release date: TBD, Netflix These Are the 17 Must-Watch TV Shows of 2021

Just ahead of AMD’s own next-gen Zen 3 announcement Intel has confirmed that its 11th Gen Rocket Lake desktop processors will be out sometime in the first quarter of 2021, with PCIe 4.0 support on board. The timing of Intel’s announcement is likely not a coincidence. AMD is about to unveil its first CPUs based on its next-gen Zen 3 architecture for desktop computers tomorrow, in what will almost certainly provide the most competition for Intel’s dominance for high-powered PCs yet. Intel’s confirmation that it has its own new chips on the way next year feels like a reminder to PC builders that there are options available beyond whatever flashy hardware AMD announces. While Intel’s news is vague when it comes to an actual release date, Videocardz reports that the chips are set to arrive in March 2021. The new Rocket Lake-S chips are also said to be compatible with existing Intel 400-series motherboards, which should be helpful for anyone looking to upgrade next year when the new chips do launch. Wccftech also has some more information on what to expect from Intel’s next major revamp of its desktop processors, which are still expected to use the same 14nm process that Intel has been using for years. However, Wccftech claims that Intel will be backporting some of the architecture improvements it debuted with the Willow Cove architecture from its 11th Gen mobile processors, which should offer some more substantial upgrades despite the fact that Intel hasn’t managed to release its 10nm desktop products yet. In addition to PCIe 4.0, the new Rocket Lake-S lineup is also expected to offer the company’s new Xe graphics, along with integrated Thunderbolt 4 (and USB4) support. Source

What was the driving force behind your company’s digital strategy in 2020? Was it your CEO? Probably not. Your CTO or CISO? Perhaps. In reality, for most organizations, it was COVID-19. In 2019, one company after another said: “work-from-home isn’t an option for us” or “we aren’t interested in shifting operations to the cloud.” Then everything changed. The pandemic drove a massive shift towards remote work. For many companies, this wasn’t even an option — it was a case of ‘do or die.’ By April 2020, almost half of the American workforce was working from home. As organizations and employees become more comfortable with this, we shouldn’t expect a full return to the traditional in-office model anytime soon, if ever. Work-from-anywhere is the new way of doing business, with employees accessing cloud services, collaborative tools and remote systems from home and public networks – and not always through the safety of a VPN. This rapid shift brings a host of security challenges for companies, and we think five trends will dominate the cybersecurity landscape in 2021. 1. Yesterday’s Threats, Evolved First off, it seems clear that ‘known’ cyber-threats such as phishing, ransomware, Trojans and botnets will remain prominent. Such attacks are increasingly automated and tailored with personal info, often mined from company websites and social networks. As trends towards automation increase, these sorts of hazards will keep growing in number and frequency. Current events can shape these threats as well. We saw a surge in phishing emails during the pandemic, taking advantage of victims’ unfamiliarity with remote work applications or purporting to contain details of much-needed stimulus checks. As malware and social engineering campaigns are industrialized, cyber-criminals can assess and fine-tune their attacks based on the results achieved until they have a truly dangerous threat with a considerable success rate. 2. Fileless Attacks As the name suggests, fileless attacks – a subset of ‘living off the land’ (LotL) attacks, which exploit tools and features already present in the victim’s environment – don’t rely on file-based payloads, and generally don’t generate new files either. As a result, they have the potential to fly under the radar of many prevention and detection solutions. A typical fileless attack might start with an emailed link to a malicious website. Social engineering tricks on that site can launch system tools, such as PowerShell, which retrieve and execute additional payloads directly in system memory. Detecting malicious use of built-in system tools, as opposed to their many legitimate automation and scripting uses, is a real challenge for traditional defenses. Fileless attacks aren’t new, exactly. The use of system tools as backdoors has been around for decades, but owing to the tactic’s considerable success rate – and the fact that leveraging existing system processes can shorten malware development cycles – they’re rapidly trending upwards. Also, fileless attacks aren’t limited to individual organizations: we see attackers increasingly targeting service providers, abusing their infrastructure and management tools to compromise their clients. 3. Cloud and Remote Service Attacks The COVID-19 pandemic forced companies to quickly adopt new cloud services, remote access tools and collaboration apps. However, many organizations lacked IT experts with the relevant training to properly configure these solutions – not to mention lacking the time to properly vet available tools or the budget to work with proven vendors rather than gravitating towards free alternatives of questionable quality. Server applications, containers and cloud storage aren’t always well-protected, and are seen by cyber-criminals as prime targets with a large attack surface. Compromising one service may expose scores of organizations downstream – a variant of supply a chain attack, which sidesteps organizational security by infiltrating higher levels in the supply network and deploying payloads through the tools you rely on and trust. Misconfiguration only raises the risk, exposing more services to attackers. Such scenarios will inevitably lead to data breaches. 4. Business Process Compromises Sometimes, cyber-criminals identify vulnerabilities not in applications, but in the process flow of business operations. We’re seeing an increase in business process compromises, in which threat actors take advantage of systemic operational weaknesses for financial gain. Attacks on business processes demand considerable knowledge of the victims’ systems and operations. They often begin with a compromised system on the target network, through which cyber-criminals can observe the organization’s processes and gradually identify weak links. These attacks are often quite discrete, and impacted organizations may not detect them in a timely fashion – especially if the compromised process continues to work ‘as expected’ despite producing different results. As an example, attackers could siphon funds by compromising an automatic invoicing tool and changing the bank account number that’s populated into each future invoice. 5. Customized Payloads As we’ve seen in the contrast between phishing and spear-phishing, targeted attacks, while requiring extra effort on the threat actors’ part, are considerably more effective at compromising systems and data. This approach is starting to get much more sophisticated. Cyber-criminals can discover a lot about your network from company websites, social media and, of course, by compromising individual systems on the network. Pervasive, dual-use tools like PowerShell and WMI allow attackers to learn more about the tools and services your company relies on without setting off red flags. Armed with knowledge of these tools and the vulnerabilities present in each, they can construct payloads specifically designed to bring down not just a network, but your network. Approaches for 2021 As cyber-criminals continue to evolve their technologies and attack strategies, organizations must adjust their approaches to cybersecurity and data protection. System-level anti-virus software isn’t enough to combat modern cyber-threats. Nor is file backup alone enough to safeguard against digital disruption by malicious actors. Businesses need to protect all their workloads, data and applications across multiple domains, and that requires integrated solutions that automate the system monitoring, vulnerability assessments and endpoint protection required to stop emerging threats. Let’s face it: 2020 has been a challenging year for cybersecurity and IT pros. Most have successfully navigated the massive changes, but unless they start preparing for the next wave of threats, 2021 may be just as rocky. By Candid Wüest VP of Cyber Protection Research, Acronis Source

Next year, Comcast will start charging Xfinity customers in northeastern US states overage fees for exceeding their monthly data cap. As The Verge reports, customers not on an unlimited plan who exceed 1.2 TB of data in a month will have to pay $10 for every 50 GB of data they go over, topping out at $100. To put that into context, streaming HD video over uses about 3 GB per hour. Cloud gaming over something like Stadia uses about 10 GB of data ever hour at 1080p. So if you’re not watching your data usage carefully, you could end up with a higher than normal monthly bill. The change affects Xfintiy customers in Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Vermont, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia, as well as parts of North Carolina and Ohio. The new fee won’t start right away, though. I suppose that’s some sort of consolation, but not the news anyone wants to hear right now in the middle of a pandemic that’s only getting worse in the U.S. Comcast will give Xfinity customers not on an unlimited plan a “credit” for the months of January and February 2021 to ease them into the new policy. Basically, for those two months those customers won’t see any overage fees on their account. After that, customers get one “courtesy” credit every year in case they accidently go over. If you look on the Xfinity website now, you won’t see the changes listed at the moment. According to Ars Technica, it appears Comcast removed the notice sometime after Friday, November 20 last week, but a spokesperson confirmed to Ars that the data cap is going nationwide in January 2021. Stop The Cap has a screenshot of the webpage before it was changed. Comcast says customers will be notified as they approach their monthly data limit, but the ISP currently doesn’t give its customers a way to independently verify meter readings. If you have Xfinity but use your own router, you might have the option to see traffic statistics in your router settings. If you do, you should be able to see real-time data usage as well as data usage over a set period time. For example, the Asus ROG Rapture GT-AC2900 router has options like Statistics, Bandwidth Monitor, and Traffic Monitor under the Traffic Analyzer setting. If you currently rent your router from Comcast, now might be the time to think about owning your own so you can monitor your own data usage to avoid any overage fees—especially if you live with multiple people who stream all kinds of media on multiple devices for hours every day. Until the FCC rules data caps are arbitrary and ISPs stop squeezing every dime out of customers, we’re all screwed. Past research has shown that data caps don’t do anything to lessen the strain on ISPs networks, and our current internet infrastructure has held up just fine over the course of the pandemic. Back in March 2020, several major ISPs suspended data caps, waived overage fees, and even raised speeds. The internet didn’t crash and burn. Yet data caps and overage fees still exist when millions of people still need any and all amount of financial relief they can get because the pandemic is still nowhere close to going away. Source