Samsung Artificial Smart Window Apes Sun; Minecraft Exceeds 200 Million Sold; European Supercomputers Hacked to Mine Cryptocurrency; Next iPad Pro

Samsung’s in-house incubator C-Lab has unveiled and artificial window that imitates the appearance…and benefits…of natural light…something particularly relevant as a lot of people still shelter-in-place. According to engadget.com, the Sunnyside (earlier called SunnyFive) window can produce a full spectrum of natural light, and it changes the angle of projected light through the day to mimic the movement of the sun through the sky as it hits your window. Samsung claims it will “help users synthesize vitamin D while they are indoors or in low-lit places without having to worry about skin aging or sunburn.” They haven’t indicated when it will be available or what the cost range will be, but Samsung says it will be compatible with their Smart Things system.

It’s 11 years old, and seems to still be going strong. Microsoft’s Minecraft has now passed 200 million copies sold, and theverge.com reports that Redmond claims 126 million monthly players. As you might expect, they saw a bump in play with the pandemic. Minecraft scored a 25% increase in new players in April, and a 40% spike in multi-player sessions. Minecraft hit 100 million in sales back in 2016. It was acquired by Microsoft from Mojang 6 years ago for $2.5 billion…and at the time, had already sold 50 million copies.

Hack YOUR weak-a**ed computer to mine cryptocurrency? Ha! Several supercomputers across Europe have even shut down to investigate infections of malware used to mine cryptocurrency. Zdnet.com says the computers were located in UK, Germany, and Switzerland, and there may have been attacks on supercomputers in Spain as well. The first to pick up on the attack were the Scots, who shut down the ARCHER supercomputer at the University of Edinburgh. The organization is resetting SSH passwords and running an investigation prior to firing the mighty electric brain back up. Apparently, all the attacks used compromised SSH logins. It is a bad time for this, as several of the machines were prioritizing research on COVID-19. The Russians had one of their supercomputers hacked in 2018, and later arrested engineers from the Russian Nuclear Center…who were also mining cryptocurrency.

Yes, Apple just updated the iPad Pro in March, but now it looks like 2021’s model will get a much more extensive makeover. According to 9to5mac.com, the next gen model will have mini LED display tech…which will mean better display quality and longer battery life. The next iteration of iPad Pros will also feature 5G connectivity. It’s expected that it will support both versions…the so-called sub-6 GHz and the mmWave 5G systems. The mmWave tech has the blazing gigabit-like speed, while the sub-6 has a lot wider range, and is no slouch in the speed department at 100-150 Mbps. Early reports from the likes of Ming-Chi Kuo say that the next Pro will have nearly the power of the 15 inch MacBook Pro.