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Safari Now Supports Wide Color Gamut 2D Graphics Using HTML Canvas

Andrew Orr ·

The WebKit team is out with a blog post today discussing how Safari handles color gamuts such as sRBG and Display P3.

One notable omission in wide gamut color support, until now, has been in the HTML canvas element. The 2D canvas API was introduced before wide gamut displays were common, and until now has only handled drawing and manipulating sRGB pixel values. Earlier this year, a proposal for creating canvas contexts using other color spaces was added to the HTML standard, and we’ve recently added support for this to WebKit.

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Microsoft Seizes Domains From Chinese Group 'NICKEL' Used to Attack Governments

Andrew Orr ·

NICKEL is a China-based threat actor that targets governments, diplomatic entities, and NGOs around the world. Microsoft’s Digital Crimes Unit has disrupted their operation.

MSTIC has observed NICKEL actors using exploits against unpatched systems to compromise remote access services and appliances. Upon successful intrusion, they have used credential dumpers or stealers to obtain legitimate credentials, which they used to gain access to victim accounts. NICKEL actors created and deployed custom malware that allowed them to maintain persistence on victim networks over extended periods of time.

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WhatsApp Users Can Enable Disappearing Messages by Default

Andrew Orr ·

WhatsApp is now letting users turn on disappearing messages for all chats by default.

Prior to Monday’s update, users had to manually enable ephemerality for each new chat with another individual. WhatsApp is additionally also giving users the option to have their messages disappear after 24 hours or 90 days, in addition to the seven-day period it originally introduced the feature with last year.

Cool Stuff Found

Apple TV+ Suggests Christmas Viewing

Charlotte Henry ·

In a new Christmas trailer, Apple TV+ suggests shows and films that it recommends for viewers over the festive period. The content featured includes Swansong, The Morning Show, Ted Lasso, and, of course, A Charlie Brown Christmas. All this content is available to subscribers now or will be becoming available shortly.

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iPhone 13 And Apple Watch Carrier Rebate Wrangles

Charlotte Henry ·

A significant number of customers have reportedly found it difficult to get an expected rebate back from carriers on various products, including the iPhone 13 and Apple Watch. One of those was Bloomberg News’s Mark Gurman. In his latest Power On newsletter, he described the issue and the various ways some people had resolved it., which is likely to be useful to others.

My struggles with the rebates process started with the Apple Watch. I had purchased the Apple Watch Series 7, which came out in October, and submitted a request to T-Mobile for its $100 rebate.  Several weeks after my submission, to my surprise, T-Mobile’s promotion website said that my claim was denied because the product wasn’t activated during the promotion window. This, of course, was false. Multiple hourlong phone calls with T-Mobile customer service didn’t resolve the situation, nor did messages sent to the company’s support team over Twitter. Ultimately, the issue was only fixed after talking to T-Mobile at the corporate level. We figured out that my rebate was denied because the fine print of the deal—depending on how you read it—requires the opening of an entirely new phone number.

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Verizon Automatically Tracks Your Data in New Update

Andrew Orr ·

In a new program called Verizon Custom Experience, the company is automatically opting customers in to track their data. But you can opt out.

A new program innocuously titled the “Verizon Custom Experience” is sold to users as a way for the company to “personalize our communications with you, give you more relevant product and service recommendations, and develop plans, services and offers that are more appealing to you.” To accomplish this, all a Verizon subscriber needs to do is… allow the company access to all the websites you visit, apps you use, as well as see everyone you happen to call and text.