When crooks try to steal sensitive information or banking data via phishing, they have increasingly been impersonating Yahoo to try and trick their victims, new research has claimed.
Experts at Check Point Research analyzed the most frequently imitated brands in the fourth quarter of 2022. According to the report, a fifth (20%) of all phishing attacks that happened in October, November, and December 2022 impersonated Yahoo, which climbed 23 places to become the most spoofed brand for the period.
Usually, crooks would create emails notifying victims they had won an “award” or “prize money” after a competition organized by Yahoo. To receive the award, or payment (usually in hundreds of thousands of dollars), the victims are asked to share their personal details, including banking details.
DHL, Microsoft, and LinkedIn
The email also warns the victims not to talk to people about it because of “legal issues”.
Generally speaking, the tech industry is the most impersonated one, Check Point Research further claims. DHL was the second most impersonated brand, taking up 16% of all attacks.
The fourth quarter of the year is the holiday season, with Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Christmas, and the New Year, all being reasons for increased shopping and thus, increased DHL impersonation.
With 11%, Microsoft rounded off the top three. After briefly falling further down the list, LinkedIn returned to fifth place, taking up 5.7% of all phishing attacks.
Phishing remains one of the most popular (and successful) formats of cyberattacks and cyber-fraud. By preying on gullible and distracted users, criminals are able to trick them into giving away plenty of sensitive information. In some cases, they’re even able to get them to download and run various malware, which can lead to even more dangerous attacks, such as ransomware.
The best way to protect against phishing is to always be vigilant when receiving emails and not believe anything without double-checking the authenticity.
The best Dolby Atmos Xbox Series X games can transform your gaming experience, thanks to the wonders of spatial audio. It’s fair to say that Dolby’s technology has been leading the charge for the past few years, as even Apple has opted for Dolby Atmos over the alternatives.
Luckily for Xbox owners, it’s been available on the platform since 2019. While not every game offers native Dolby Atmos support, those that do offer exceptional sound quality and provide a truly immersive experience to boot.
Dolby describes its Atmos tech as "the most significant development in cinema audio since surround-sound", and while that might be subject to some fierce debate between audiophiles, there’s no doubt that Atmos at least provides a convincing surround-sound solution to more people than ever before as it works on any pair of headphones.
Dolby Atmos Xbox Series X games
As gamers will testify, surround sound can be extremely beneficial whether you’re playing competitively or simply want to be fully engrossed in a game's fantastical world. Dolby Atmos attempts to facilitate this by making the sound feel like it’s coming from all around, as well as above, and the effect can often be amazing.
These Dolby Atmos Xbox Series X games show what the spatial audio format can do. If you're looking for a list of the best Xbox Series X games generally, we've got you covered in our linked guide. Otherwise, here's the best Xbox experiences currently going.
Call of Duty: Warzone
(Image credit: Activision)
Call of Duty: Warzone has terrific sound design. There is an astonishing amount of detail crammed into the game’s audio, whether you’re reloading a magazine into one of Warzone’s many weapons or holding your breath as you line up that long-range sniper shot, every action sounds incredibly realistic.
Dolby Atmos provides an extra layer of fidelity to what is an already sumptuous sounding game, though. With players regularly dropping in from the skies and scurrying around on the floors below when you’re holed up in a building, Dolby Atmos can really help you determine the exact location of your enemy… before it’s too late. In a game where margins can often be razor thin, you’ll need every competitive advantage you can get.
A truly magical Xbox Series S/X game, Ori and the Will of the Wisps has exceptional visuals and a heart wrenching story – but it doesn’t skimp on sound quality, either. Even though the game takes place entirely on a fixed 2D plane, Dolby Atmos does a wonderful job at separating subtle sounds to help immerse you in the labyrinth-like levels that are teeming with hostile creatures.
The game’s evocative orchestral soundtrack also benefits from the added clarity Dolby Atmos provides, with each stringed instrument really driving home the powerful crescendos during some of Ori’s more perilous moments. This isn't an experience you'll want to miss.
Forza Horizon 4
(Image credit: Microsoft Studios)
Racing at top speed through the British countryside is a spectacular sight in Forza Horizon 4 – but with Dolby Atmos support, driving sounds marvellous. You really get a sense of what it feels like to commandeer some of the game’s ludicrously expensive supercars: the engines create a cacophony of sound as you drive through a tunnel or careen wildly under a festival archway as the rain beats down.
Thanks to the game’s multiple camera angles, you can opt to shut yourself off from the cheering crowds in the cockpit view and enjoy Forza Horizon 4’s excellent, toe-tapping radio stations, or really listen close when using the bonnet camera as your car tyres rip up the asphalt. It’s a car enthusiast’s dream.
Dolby Atmos makes the presence of Resident Evil 2’s marauding Mr. X all the more terrifying, along with the hordes of zombies you encounter. The heartstopping sound of Mr. X’s heavy footsteps approaching will be all too familiar to those who have played Capcom’s excellent remake, but with Dolby Atmos turned on, the threat can feel excruciatingly real as he quickly closes in.
There is a plus side to scaring yourself silly, though. Dolby’s spatial audio can help you pinpoint exactly where Mr. X is lurking before he unceremoniously barges through the nearest door to rip your throat out. It doesn’t make his presence any less unnerving, of course, but any advantage we can get to escape that towering freak, the better.
Gears 5 is an excellent all-around showcase for Dolby Atmos’ spatial audio. You’ll explore expansive open areas like a frozen wasteland and battle it out in claustrophobic underground corridors, so there are plenty of environments and locales that have their own distinctive soundscapes.
Whether you're chainsawing through a sinewy locust or hear the bloodcurdling scream of a “juvie” before an imminent attack, Gears 5 delivers convincing spatial audio that’s well worth the Dolby Atmos license fee. It can also serve as a subtle competitive advantage in the game’s multiplayer mode, as it’s easier to detect when an enemy is hunkered down behind a barricade about to be skewered from behind.
Despite what you may have heard, Dolby Atmos works on any headphone, but you do need to purchase a license if you wish to use it, which costs $15 / £10.99 / AU$19. Some TVs like the LG OLED CX also support the Atmos via the TV’s inbuilt speaker; however, if you really want to get the most out of Dolby’s spatial audio, we advise choosing a quality pair of over-ear headphones or a Dolby Atmos surround sound setup if you really want to go all in.
Most people will likely opt for headphones due to the practicality and lower cost, and if you do go that route, we strongly recommend choosing a pair of open-back headphones as opposed to closed. Open-back headphones tend to provide a far superior soundstage than closed-backed pairs, which really helps bring spatial audio to life. You want the sound to feel as though it’s all around you, and not contained within your head, so to speak.
The Xbox Series X Dolby Atmos app also lets you choose between a variety of equalizer settings – and you can even create your own, too. This is a great tool for customizing the sound to your liking, particularly if you crave more bass or want to crank up the treble to help hear footsteps better. Once you’ve got your settings locked in, your games will never sound better.
Best Dolby Atmos equalizer setting
While picking the best Dolby Atmos equalizer purely comes down to personal preference, we have noticed one interesting quirk. The 'Movie' preset provides a significant sound boost over the other options, and focuses on creating a virtualized surround sound that's excellent for single-player titles. The 'Movie' EQ is also a winner if you're using a pair of headphones with high impedance, which require more power to drive at higher volumes.
While we found that using 'Movie' and 'Detailed' provided a rich, cinematic surround experience that trumped the other equalizers in terms of volume, if competitive games are all you play we'd opt for the 'Game' equalizer with performance turned on, as this equalizer prioritizes positional accuracy. It's also a more natural sound, which some may prefer overall.
Paddy Srinivasan, CEO of LastPass parent company GoTo revealed in a blog post that the attackers who targeted third-party cloud storage service shared by both firms managed to exfiltrate encrypted backups related to a number of products.
These products include Central, Pro, join.me, Hamachi, and RemotelyAnywhere.
Encryption key taken
Besides encrypted backups, the attackers also exfiltrated an encryption key for “a portion” of the encrypted backups, Srinivasan added.
The data that is now at risk includes account usernames, salted and hashed passwords, a portion of Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) settings, and some product settings and licensing information. Credit card or banking details were not affected. Birth dates, home addresses, and Social Security numbers, were also said to be secure, as GoTo doesn’t store any of these.
Furthermore, a “small subset” of Rescue and GoToMyPC users have had their MFA settings impacted. Encrypted databases, however, were said to not have been taken.
While all of the account passwords were salted and hashed “in accordance with best practices”, GoTo still reset the passwords of affected users, and had them reauthorize MFA settings, where possible. The CEO also said the company is migrating affected accounts onto an enhanced Identity Management Platform to provide additional security and more robust authentication and login-based security options.
The affected customers are being reached out to directly, Srinivasan confirmed.
LastPass first reported suffering a data breach in November 2022. An initial investigation determined that the hackers managed to steal customer vaults, essentially databases containing all of their passwords. The vaults themselves are encrypted, however, meaning the crooks will not have such an easy time reading their contents.
“These encrypted fields remain secured with 256-bit AES encryption and can only be decrypted with a unique encryption key derived from each user’s master password using our Zero Knowledge architecture,” LastPass CEO Karim Toubba had said. “As a reminder, the master password is never known to LastPass and is not stored or maintained by LastPass.”
Bowers & Wilkins has just announced two new sets of true wireless earbuds: the B&W PI7 S2 and the B&W PI5 S2. These are, as the names suggest, the successors to the B&W PI7 and PI5 respectively – and I'm extremely excited about the PI7 S2, because I had by mind blown by the original model when it launched.
As you can read in our full original Bowers & Wilkins PI7 review, these earbuds blew basically everything else on the market of the water when they launched when it comes to sound quality. Compared to the original AirPods Pro (2019) I was using at the time as my regular daily headphones, the PI7 were a revelation – the depth of bass, the detail in the treble, the clarity of the vocals were on another level.
They also offer a genius audio transmission feature – you can connect the case's USB-C port to a computer or analog audio source, and sound would broadcast in aptX quality to the buds. They really went beyond any other earbuds – but they also cost about 50% more than the likes of AirPods Pro, so you'd hope for a lot more, right?
Since then, the world of the best true wireless earbuds has caught up a lot when it comes to sound quality: there have been other super-rich premium options, and the likes of the AirPods Pro 2 and Honor Earbuds 3 Pro really raised the bar for audio quality at a lower price, so Bowers is back to try to reclaim its throne.
The PI7 S2's new Midnight Blue color has a super-luxurious vibe. Like a fine silk robe.(Image credit: Bowers & Wilkins)
The B&W PI7 S2 doesn't seem to promise any huge advancements when it comes to the sound quality of the drivers – the two-way audio setup of a 9.2mm driver with a balanced armature treble unit in each bud looks on paper to be the same as the previous generation, though obviously there may have been refinements.
But the tech behind the drivers has been tweaks. There's no support for aptX Adaptive wireless, so you should get a more reliable connection overall (B&W is saying you also get longer range of up to 25m) as well as Hi-Res Audio from compatible sources.
And the noise-cancelling, which wasn't worth writing home about on the original, now promises to be Adaptive Noise Cancellation, so in theory should be smarter about blocking sound. Perhaps the processing behind this will also improve sound quality from the drivers overall – we'll have to wait and test them to find out.
The new Bowers & Wilkins Music app will also offer better control and customization of the buds – and the audio retransmission feature is still on board.
The biggest weakness of the original PI7 was the battery life, and the PI7 S2 improve that… just. The battery life in the buds has been improved from 4.5 hours to… 5 hours in the new version. I was hoping for more like 6 hours, which is the norm now for the best noise-cancelling earbuds – and many beat it comfortably.
And the other most notable potential problem with the original PI7 is still around: they're very large. The physical design hasn't changed, which means there's a big section that sits just outside your ear canal. I gave the originals to one small adult (but still well within 'typical' size) and she couldn't even fit them in her ear due to the shape.
However, they do come in three new colors: Satin White, Canvas Black, and Midnight Blue – the latter is extremely pretty, with gold highlights on a deep mystic indigo.
And the B&W PI7 S2 are still very expensive: £349 / $399 / AU$700 – I hope they've upped their game in the ANC department, because there's more premium choice than ever now.
The PI7 S2 are available today, but the blue version will launch sometime during the spring.
The PI5 comes in four colors – I like the Sage Green. My AirPods Pro are nearly the same color…(Image credit: Bowers & Wilkins)
B&W is also launching a new version of its other true wireless earbuds: the PI5. The PI5 S2 will use a 9.2mm driver, but won't have the extra balanced armature, so won't deliver quite the same dynamic range as the PI7. It still supports aptX, but it's not aptX Adaptive, and it lacks the audio retransmission feature in the case. It has active noise cancellation, but not the adaptive tech used in the PI7 S2 (though you can adjust the level of cancellation). And it also has 5 hours of battery life in the buds.
The PI5 S2 comes in four colors: Cloud Grey, Storm Grey, Spring Lilac and Sage Green colors (the latter again is due in 'spring'). These cost £249 / $299 / AU$450.
If you're looking for a good way to get aptX Hi-Res sound over to these buds, may I suggest our list of the best portable music players?
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It's not every day that a Marvel movie is inspired by The Simpsons – but, according to Ant-Man 3's head writer, that day has finally arrived.
Speaking to SFX magazine (per GamesRadar), Jeff Loveness has surprisingly revealed that MODOK – one of the Marvel film's secondary villains – was largely influenced by a classic Simpsons antagonist.
The character in question? Frank Grimes, Homer Simpson's fellow power plant worker who becomes increasingly incensed with his colleague's inability to do his job properly. Who knew one of Homer's most iconic enemies would go on to inspire Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania's MODOK, eh?
Frank Grimes appeared in the 1997 classic Homer's Enemy.(Image credit: Fox/20th Century Television)
Quantumania, which kicks off Marvel Phase 5 on February 17, marks the introduction of two major Marvel villains. Kang the Conqueror is being positioned as the film's major villain – he's going to be the MCU's next Thanos-level threat, after all. However, Loveness revealed that bringing MODOK to life on the big screen for the first time was the most enjoyable thing about writing the movie. Evidently, it helped that he could look to legendary sitcom The Simpsons (all 33 seasons are available to stream on Disney Plus) for guidance in developing the character's MCU iteration.
"MODOK is maybe my single favorite thing that I got in the movie," Loveness explained. "Obviously we are very faithful to the comics with the design and the look, but then there is a little bit of extra we put into him. I’ll just say he was inspired by Kevin Kline in A Fish Called Wanda and Frank Grimes in an old Simpsons episode – this really put-upon, selfish, entitled but then also deeply sad, insecure man who knows that he got a s**t deal in life and is trying to make the best of it."
Who is Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania's MODOK?
MODOK is one of Marvel's most iconic supervillains.(Image credit: Marvel)
MODOK, which stands for Mechanized Organism Designed for Killing, isn't a unknown quantity to most Marvel fans. In fact, he's one of the comic giant's most iconic supervillains – which means his live-action debut has been a long time coming.
In the comics, MODOK was created when – yep, you guessed it – a scientific experiment goes awry. Real name George Tarleton, MODOK is born when Tarleton's fellow researchers use Tarleton as a guinea pig for their experiments on the Cosmic Cube. The outcome of their tests gives Tarleton a genius-level intellect, but turns him into an ambitious, blood-thirsty killer. Not only that, the experiments greatly disfigure Tarleton – essentially, he turns into a giant head, which makes his torso and limbs look tiny by comparison.
In the MCU, MODOK's origins have been altered. Instead of Tarleton, Darren Cross – the main villain in 2015's Ant-Man – is the person who turns into MODOK. At the end of that Marvel movie, Scott Lang/Ant-Man destroyed the size regulator in Cross' Yellowjacket suit, causing Cross to shrink uncontrollably and presumably killing him.
However, he survived, and he'll be out to get revenge on Lang when the latter and his family inadvertently travel to the Quantum Realm in Ant-Man 3. We received confirmation that Cross had become MODOK in Quantumania's latest trailer (read our Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania trailer breakdown for more), which you can see in the screenshot below:
MODOK's origin story has been altered in the MCU.(Image credit: Marvel Studios)
MODOK might be making his MCU debut in Quantumania, but this isn't the first time we've seen in on the screen.
It's unclear whether MODOK's MCU appearance will be a 'one and done' scenario, i.e. he'll only feature in Ant-Man 3. It would be a shame if he does as he's one of Marvel's most compelling villains. Given the MCU's penchant for killing off its antagonists, though, we'd be surprised if MODOK makes it out of Quantumania alive. If he doesn't, at least we'll live in a world where The Simpsons can even influence the world's most popular film franchise.
The old ways are well and truly done with - and home working is now the norm for many of us.
After the pandemic forced us to embrace turning our homes into workplaces, the focus now turns to making the places into a productive and efficient location to work.
But security is always a concern for home working, with the less formal situation and physical distance from the office often leading to relaxed attitudes. But don't worry - with our top tips, you can ensure your home office stays safe and secure.
Get all of your devices safe, all of the time
Now many of us are settled working from home, you'll more than likely have your home office set-up just how you like it, with all the hardware and devices you need.
It's more than likely that this setup will include more than just a PC, with extra devices such as printers, tablets, and even your internet router itself can be weak spots when it comes to security, as potentially lower protections can allow hackers a simple entry route into your network.
Using a security solution such as Bitdefender Total Security can greatly help protect and secure all your home office devices, as the platform works across multiple software versions, including Windows, macOS, Android and iOS. It can be used across up to 15 devices per household, making sure your home office remains safe against threats
Fire up a VPN
Most of us will have been familiar with using a Virtual Private Network, or VPN, before making the move to a home office, however the technology has certainly come into its own in the last few years.
Allowing workers to stay connected to a workplace intranet or collaboration network, VPNs have become a vital office tool, but it can also provide a useful security boost.
A VPN is able to disguise your internet connection to your liking, making it appear to originate from a different location or even country, meaning your online activity and location should be safe from any snooping.
Bitdefender Total Security comes packaged with its own Secure VPN service that offers complete online privacy - and with a 200MB/day allowance, you can ensure your online enjoyment is kept a secret.
Boost your passwords
We're all aware of the need for strong passwords, but working from a comfortable home location can cause some of us to get a bit too relaxed when it comes to security.
Keeping your passwords fresh, changing them every few months if possible, is a crucial step to ensure your vital online accounts, whether work or personal, stay secure.
To help you keep track of all these passwords, Bitdefender Total Security comes with an in-built Password Manager service to look after all your details, meaning you can create tough-to-crack logins for each account, as re-using passwords across multiple accounts means that all it takes is for one to be compromised for hackers to gain knowledge of your logins to everything else.
Remain on your guard
Whether you're kicking off a start-up journey, or work as part of a larger organization, your data will be an attractive target for criminals.
We've covered how having a strong password is vital, as discovering or stealing login details or personal data such as a date of birth or phone number could help hackers access your accounts.
Staying vigilant to anything suspicious is always the best course of action, particularly when it comes to working from home. Always make sure that any links you click in an email, or any attachments, are from a recognised and trusted source - simply double-checking the name of the sender or the email header can be enough. Don’t open risky emails from anyone you don’t know - especially if on a work device - as the consequences could be pretty costly.
Bitdefender Total Security features a range of tools to make you stay protected from all the latest threats, including an advanced filtering system that warns you whenever you visit websites that may try to scam you. There’s also advanced anti-phishing protection that helps sniff out and block any websites that masquerade as trustworthy in order to steal financial data such as passwords or credit card numbers.
For news on all the latest threats, you can also get real-time updates about malware outbreaks and scams on the Bitdefender Blog.
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Cybersecurity experts have warnedd of a new Android malware capable of taking over the target endpoint and using it to steal data, exfiltrate personally identifiable information (PII), and make financial transactions.
Discovered by researchers at security firm ThreatFabric, the malware is called Hook, and can be bought on the dark web.
In its report, the ThreatFabric team note that Hook is essentially a banking trojan. Code-wise, it seems to be quite similar to Ermac, another popular trojan, and even shares numerous features with the infamous malware. However, there are a few standout features, including the use of VNC (virtual network computing) to take over the mobile device. Hook also comes with WebSocket communication features, and encrypts its traffic using the AES-256-CBC hardcoded key.
Unique features
Hook’s other notable features include performing specific swipe gestures, taking screenshots, simulating key presses, scrolling, and simulating a long-press event. The malware can also be used as a File Manager app, the researchers further warned, allowing users to list all of the files residing on the endpoint and exfiltrating the ones they deem worthy.
"With this feature, Hook joins the ranks of malware families that are able to perform full DTO, and complete a full fraud chain, from PII exfiltration to transaction, with all the intermediate steps, without the need of additional channels," the team warns.
"This kind of operation is much harder to detect by fraud scoring engines, and is the main selling point for Android bankers."
The silver lining, as is usual with Android devices, is that the user needs to grand the Accessibility Service permissions for the malware to reach its true potential. Those that do, can also expect their location to be revealed, as Hook is also able to abuse the “Access Fine Location” permission.
Targets are scattered all over the world, it seems, with researchers finding compromised devices in the US, the UK, Spain, Poland, Portugal, Italy, France, Canada, Australia, and Turkey.
Hackers have discovered a new way to bypass the macro block in Microsoft Office files and still deliver malware to unsuspecting victims through the company's suit of online collaboration apps.
Security experts at BleepingComputer found freshly distributed phishing emails equipped with OneNote attachments.
OneNote is a digital notetaking app, which people can use to create a sharable content library. It comes as part of the wider Microsoft Office suite, meaning if people have this installed, they can open OneNote files, too. While OneNote’s files, called NoteBooks, don’t support macros, they do support attachments, and that’s what the crooks are now leveraging.
Malicious VBS files
The phishing emails themselves are nothing out of the ordinary - they include fake DHL parcel notifications, fake invoices, fake shipping notifications, ACH remittance forms, and such. Instead of carrying a Word or Excel file attached, they carry a OneNote file which, if opened, seems to be blurred out, with a huge button in the middle saying “Double Click to View File”.
Double-clicking, however, runs the attachment which, in this case, is a malicious VBS file.
This file then initiates communication with the command & control (C2) server and downloads the malware.
BleepingComputer obtained a couple of these emails and determined that multiple remote access trojans and infostealers are being circulated, including the AsyncRAT and XWorm remote access trojans, as well as the Quasar Remote Access trojan.
The best way to protect against these attacks is the same as it always was - educate your employees not to download attachments and click on email links from people they don’t know, don’t trust, or whose identity cannot be confirmed. Also, they should be educated not to ignore warning messages prompted in programs such as Word, Excel, or OneNote. Other than that, having a strong antivirus solution, and a firewall, is welcome.
Finally, activating multi-factor authentication (MFA) wherever possible greatly reduces the chances of more serious compromise.
Spare a thought for the team tasked with trying to keep the Samsung Galaxy S23 leaks down to a minimum, because something new is emerging almost every day now, and the latest sneak preview we have to share with you is a hands-on video.
Reposted to Twitter by @sondesix from an Instagram source (via Notebookcheck), it looks as though the video has been shot by a retail store in Nicaragua. We get a good look at the Ultra model in a green color, and a clip of the phone's camera in action.
The hands-on video doesn't really tell us too much we didn't already know about the successor to the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra, but it's interesting to see the handset in the real world – and it matches up with leaked renders we've already seen.
Galaxy S23 Ultra in Green. pic.twitter.com/OEMkAEaKiGJanuary 21, 2023
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Choose your color
We also get to see photos of the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra in black, green, cream and lavender, the same colors that have previously been posted to the web by unofficial sources. In this case the advance information seems to have been largely correct.
The same source has also posted photos of the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra in cream, which seem to have been obtained from Facebook Marketplace. The phone is clearly making its way to retail stores around the world, hence the latest batch of leaks.
There's been a flood of Galaxy S23 leaks in recent weeks, and Samsung doesn't really have all that much left to reveal. We'll get our first official look at the new handsets, including the Ultra model, at the next Samsung Unpacked event on Wednesday, February 1.
Analysis: a well-leaked smartphone
We're used to reporting on leaks around upcoming handsets, from the Google Pixel 8 to the Apple iPhone 15 – but even by the standards of the phone industry, there has been an awful lot of Galaxy S23 information revealed in advance of the launch.
That may rankle with the executives at Samsung: they no doubt want to keep as much as possible under wraps until the phone gets its official unveiling. All these leaks can dilute the excitement around the big Samsung Galaxy S23 launch in February.
On the other hand, they're certainly a sign of interest in the flagship. Having so many leaks around the phone is probably slightly preferable to having no one talk about it at all – which is the case with plenty of other handsets on the market.
The trouble is that once a device is in production, rather than being developed inside a company, there are a host of third parties involved. That makes keeping a lid on everything very difficult, as Samsung is discovering ahead of the February 1 event.
Much has been made of the downright jaw-dropping technical wizardry on display in Avatar: The Way of Water, and it’s hard to argue against director James Cameron’s decision to wait over a decade for the appropriate filmmaking technology to arrive before commencing work on his subaquatic sequel.
In an exclusive interview with TechRadar, Daniel Barrett, Senior Animation Supervisor at Wētā FX, explained the method behind the magic of The Way of Water’s bar-raising performance capture visuals, and we asked the seasoned animator how he and his team pulled off a very specific shot – one that sent the internet into raptures following its inclusion in the film’s very first trailer. Check it out via the tweet below.
This CGI is insane... pic.twitter.com/tbafxgyhUxMay 10, 2022
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“It's nearly human,” reads one comment underneath the post. “It could just be a guy painted blue,” reads another. The best response of all: “Pretty sure it isn’t CGI. Cameron actually went to Pandora to film this one.”
For context, the shot in question shows Sam Worthington’s Jake Sully tightening the reins on a skimwing, the Metkayina clan’s sea-dwelling version of the mountain banshees ridden by the Omaticaya. But how much – if any – of what we see in the two-second clip is real, and how much is computer-generated? Thankfully, Barrett has the answers.
“We shot that practically,” he explains. “At the time, there was talk about whether that shot was going to be [used for] reference, or whether it was going to be in the film. It looked really good, what had been done – but it was just the hand that was practical. So we had the challenge of connecting that hand, mid-arm, to a CG arm, which was connected to a CG body, which was sitting on a CG skimwing. And then we had some practical water as well that then had to connect to CG water. So it's a mix. The hand and water surrounding [the shot] is practical. The rest is digital.”
CG water? No wonder Cameron’s sequel needed to surpass $2 billion just to break even.
Caution: major spoilers for Avatar: The Way of Water follow
For Wētā FX – the New Zealand-based visual effects company founded by The Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson in 1993 – Avatar: The Way of Water represented the ultimate challenge. Animators like Barrett had to draw on all their experience to clear the impossibly high bar set by Cameron, whose extensive use of underwater performance capture techniques presented entirely new VFX obstacles.
Were there any particular sequences that struck the fear of Toruk into Barrett and his team? “Technically, there were certain water shots that did worry me,” he tells us. “A lot of the boat shots were a concern, just because we knew we were in a parallel workflow with the effects tem. You can do your work, you hope the water surface stays as it is, you hope the wave phase remains as it was when you started animating. But then you also know that that needs to be simulated, and the simulation of the water now affects the boat’s surroundings. You can end up in a little bit of a loop. So a lot of the boat shots [were challenging].”
“There were also some huge scenes,” Barrett continues. “The return of the Tulkun to the village – there was an awful lot going on in those shots. But personally for me, one of the harder sequences to work on – and I don’t want to get too soppy – was [Neteyam’s] death on the rock. I found that really difficult. By the time I saw it in the cinema, I was somewhat immune to it. But the first 20 times were very, very difficult to watch.
“The performances are just so strong. Take Zoe [Saldaña] as an example. It’s not even just the raw emotion you see in her at the beginning. Later, when Jake implores her to do what’s needed for the other children, you see her resolve arrive. The grief never leaves, but the resolve arrives, and it’s so subtle.
“So for me [as an animator], it’s an exhilarating thing to get to the point where you feel like you’ve found everything that she did. Those more subtle shots are really the most satisfying moments.”
Avatar: The Way of Water is now playing in theaters worldwide.
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More details have emerged around what we can expect from the iPhone 15 coming later this year: thinner bezels on the two Pro models, and curved edges on all four handsets, for an Apple Watch-like aesthetic.
This comes from experienced Apple tipster ShrimpApplePro (via MacRumors), who says that the display sizes on the four phones will remain the same as last year. What's more, the Dynamic Island will be making its way to every model too.
The tipster emphasizes that the screens will remain flat – it's only the bezels that will curve into the rest of the phone casing. However, there's apparently not going to be much change in the design of the selfie camera phone unit.
Well I have the result for the display design of the iPhone 15 series. - all iPhone 15 series will have the same display sizes as iPhone 14 series- pro 15 will have thinner bezels with curve edges, display is still flat tho, only the bezels is curveJanuary 21, 2023
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The return of the curves
Take a look at the iPhone 14 and you'll see that the bezels are already impressively thin, so it's going to be interesting to see exactly how much they're going to be reduced when it comes to the two more expensive handsets in the range.
We're also keen to see these curved bezels too. It's possible that Apple may go back to a more curved design overall, something like we saw with the iPhone 11. It wouldn't be the first time that an iPhone screen tapered away at the edges.
The source here calls the most expensive model the "iPhone 15 Pro Max (aka Ultra)", acknowledging that we're still not sure what Apple is going to call this phone: we've heard several iPhone 15 Ultra rumors in recent weeks.
Analysis: the most beautiful iPhone yet?
The same leaker that has provided this new information also says that the iPhone 15 Pro Max (or iPhone 15 Ultra) is apparently "very beautiful" – and from the description we can see how these phones would have a lot of visual appeal.
With the bezels thinner on the Pro models, almost all of the screen will be taken up by actual pixels. Add in the curved effect right at the edges, and we get the impression that the iPhone 15 lineup might be very easy on the eye indeed.
While these thinner bezels aren't coming to the iPhone 15 and the iPhone 15 Plus, according to the rumor, those handsets are also going to curve slightly at the edges. The angular look is out, and the more rounded look is back in, it would seem.
Given the experience and expertise of Apple's design team, we're now very much looking forward to seeing what the iPhone 15 series has to offer in terms of what they actually look like – and it's been a few years since we've been able to say that.
You might have thought just about every aspect of the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S23 phones had leaked at this point, but not so – the rumor mill keeps coming up with more information about these flagship devices ahead of their February 1 launch.
Today we've got another tidbit of information from well-known provider of leaks Ice Universe (via GSMArena), who has taken to Chinese social media platform Weibo to give us some details of the portrait video mode on the Galaxy S23 Ultra.
The source says that the mode will be capable of shooting in a 4K resolution at 30 frames per second, with the phone offering relatively good thermal control so that the processing power required to capture clips in this mode doesn't overheat the phone.
Resolution bump
We weren't hugely impressed with the portrait video mode on the Galaxy S22 Ultra, especially compared with cinematic mode on the iPhone. In both cases, the subject of a video is kept in focus while the background gets blurred.
The current Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra can capture normal video at an 8K resolution at 24 frames per second, or at a 4K resolution at 60 frames per second. In portrait mode, that goes down to a 1080p resolution at 30 frames per second.
What's not clear is whether or not the other two Galaxy S23 models are going to get portrait mode this time around. All will be revealed when Samsung's next Unpacked launch event rolls around, and it's only a couple of weeks away.
Analysis: a tale of two sensors
Based on the rumors we've heard so far, we're expecting the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra to come fitted with the new 200MP ISOCELL HP2 sensor that Samsung has revealed. The standard and Plus models, meanwhile, are rumored to be sticking to a 50MP main sensor.
That should mean that the Ultra model is the one to look at for the most substantial camera upgrades over last year's models. So far we've heard that the night vision capabilities will be better, and we've seen sample shots for comparison purposes.
There has also been talk that Samsung is adding more modes on the software side, to go with improvements in the hardware. From a photo and video standpoint, you should be able to do more than ever with the upcoming Galaxy S23 handsets.
In fact there's been so much buzz around this that we think the Galaxy S23 Ultra could be one of the best photo-taking phones of the year – and it might even have more to offer than whatever Apple is plotting with the cameras on the iPhone 15.
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