Thank you for tuning in to the excellent Chris Smith Show on TNTRadio.live, on every weekday from 2pm to 4pm AEST! Tune in via the TNTRadio.Live website, or the app, or the YouTube channel, or via your smart speaker – there are many ways to tune in.

1) July 1 is this Saturday, so plenty of EOFY (end of financial year) offers are available until Friday, and this time next week many prices will likely be back to normal, although presumably some sales will continue, but if you want to buy something, don’t miss out!

Every retail store has offers, great examples are Officeworks and JB Hi-Fi in Australia, similar to Best Buy in the US and Currys or Argos in the UK, selling a MacBook Air M1, with 8GB RAM and a 256GB SSD, for $1257. That’s nearly $250 off the retail price of $1499 in Australia, so this is a great deal.

The price in pounds at Curry and Argos is 949 pounds, equivalent to over $1800 in Australia, which is much more expensive, so there doesn’t appear to be any deals there, but iIn the US, the Best Buy has the same MacBook for $799 US dollars, $200 less than the regular retail price, with $799 US dollars equating to $1200 in Australia, but you have to add tax, so Aussie prices are very good.

Chinese company Huawei has also advertised a range of special EOFY deals on Amazon, which include the Huawei Band 7 fitness bank for $89, 44% off, its FreeBuds 5i for $89, also 44% off, its FreeBuds SE for $49, 51% off, with discounts for its smart watches and other tech, too.

Last day to order: 30 June 2023

Deals under $100

 Deals under $200

2. Apple launched updates for all of its operating systems last week – have you updated yet? Two zero-day vulnerabilities were patched.

Updates are for iPhones, iPads, Apple Watch and Macs – and because automatic updates don’t happen immediately, it’s always worth checking.

3. NASA is creating a natural-language ChatGPT-like interface for astronauts

NASA says that talking to spaceships, something we are very familiar with from shows like Star Trek, or from the movie 2001 A Space Oddysey, is not science fiction anymore, according to Dr Larissa Suzuki, a visiting researcher at NASA, who spoke to The Guaardian about these developments.

    In the article, she is quoted stating: “The idea is to get to a point where we have conversational interactions with space vehicles and they [are] also talking back to us on alerts, interesting findings they see in the solar system and beyond. It’s really not like science fiction any more.”

    The report states that an early incarnation of the AI is expected to be deployed on NASA’s Lunar Gateway, a planned extraterrestrial lunar space station which will orbit the moon, and will enable a long-term presence in deep space.

    More details at The Guardian here.

    NASA’s Artemis moon mission, which is set for the 2025-2026 timeframe, will four astronauts head back to the moon and land. Three men and the first woman to walk on the moon will be there, and NASA will even ensure the “first person of colour” will walk on the moon too, with the four astronauts already selected to go on the first manned moon mission of the 21st century to orbit the moon next year, with the chance those four astronauts will be selected for the actual moon landing mission of 25-26.

    Details on the first four astronauts to orbit the moon next year can be read about here.

    4. Computer scientists at the University of Waterloo have discovered a method of attack that can successfully bypass voice authentication security systems with up to a 99% success rate after only six tries.

    Computer scientists at Canada’s University of Waterloo have discovered a method of attack that can successfully bypass voice authentication security systems with up to a 99% success rate after only six tries, which is bad news for the voice authentication systems used by banks, government departments, call centres and other places that let you log into services by voice.

    Normally you enrol your voiceprint by repeating a certain phrase in your own voice, with the system then extracting what is supposed to be a unique vocal signature, or voice print, and when you log in again in the future, your voice is compared to the voiceprint.

    Hackers figured out they could use AI-enabled “deepfake” software to generate convincing copies of a person’s voice with as little as five minutes of previously recorded audio, which could come from various sources where you speak – YouTube videos, TikToks, Instagram videos and more.

    Naturally, spoofing countermeasures were introduced to fight against this threat, but the Uni of Waterloo researchers have developed a method that evades spoofing countermeasures and can fool most voice authentication systems within six attempts. They identified the markers in deepfake audio that betray it is computer-generated, and wrote a program that removes these markers, making it indistinguishable from authentic audio.

    In a recent test against Amazon Connect’s voice authentication system, they achieved a 10 per cent success rate in one four-second attack, with this rate rising to over 40 per cent in less than thirty seconds. With some of the less sophisticated voice authentication systems they targeted, they achieved a 99 per cent success rate after six attempts.

    Kassis contends that while voice authentication is obviously better than no additional security, the existing spoofing countermeasures are critically flawed.

    “The only way to create a secure system is to think like an attacker. If you don’t, then you’re just waiting to be attacked,” Kassis said.

    Kassis’ supervisor, computer science professor Urs Hengartner added, “By demonstrating the insecurity of voice authentication, we hope that companies relying on voice authentication as their only authentication factor will consider deploying additional or stronger authentication measures.”

    The research, Breaking Security-Critical Voice Authentication, by Kassis and Dr. Hengartner, was published in the proceedings of the 44th IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy.

    5. Will the Apple Vision Pro headset be too heavy to wear? Reports say the overhead strap, separate to the strap that goes around the back of your head, will be sold separately. Meanwhile Apple has launched the Vision OS SDK (software development kit) that allow developers to start creating Vision Pro apps.

    Reports are emerging that some Apple executives think the Vision Pro headset could be too heavy for some users, with one solution being a head strap that goes over your head, in addition to the strap that goes behind your cranium, which reduces pressure, but unsurprisingly for Apple, this is said to be an optional extra that you’ll have to purchase separately, as it reportedly won’t be in the box.

    Of course, there is no confirmation of this from Apple as yet, and who knows how else they’ll be able to refine the tech before the button is pushed for mass production and sales starting net year, but what we do have confirmation of is that Apple has released the first “SDK” or software development kit for Vision OS, the operating system that will power Vision Pro.

    Apple has information about it here while MacRumors has an article and a video (embedded below) of what the SDK looks like.

    6. Got a stack of old cables that you’re not using anymore, or are old and obsolete?

    Tech site Gizmodo suggests you can recycle them at e-waste places, but don’t forget your local metal shop in your city’s industrial area – copper in those cables is worth money, why give them away when you can get paid for them? You’ll have to cut off the ends that plug into things and just be left with the cables, but don’t give them away free when you can get paid for them. Heck, offer to solve your friend’s box of cables problem for them – you take them away, and then sell them to a metal recycling shop

    7. AI is predicting hit songs based on listeners’ heartbeats, with 97% accuracy as to whether the song is a hit or a flop

    The US entertainment magazine Variety revealed last year that 100,000 songs are released every single day to all the major streaming services like Spotify, Apple Music and others, and music companies are already using algorithms to analyse a song’s lyrics and other metadata to predict hits, as well as human intuition, but those systems only have about a 50% success rate.

    Paul J Zak, a professor at Claremont Graduate University, and senior author of the study, told ZME Magazine they have use neurophysiological data and AI techniques to see how our brains respond to music, with Zak stating: “My lab previously identified what appears to be the brain’s valuation system for social and emotional experiences which I have called Immersion. In talks with a streaming service, they told me that they struggle to suggest new music for subscribers due to the high volume of new music. I thought measuring neurologic Immersion could help solve this problem.”

    ZME’s article states Zak’s team recruited 33 participants from the university campus and the surrounding community, which were fitted with non-invasive neurophysiological recording devices. These are commercially available, off-the-shelf devices such as cardiac sensors on smartwatches.

    This data was then fed into Zak’s Immersion Neuroscience platform, which uses this data, including a person’s heart rate, to infer neural states from the activity of cranial nerves.

    The researchers compiled this data into a single measure they call “immersion”, a state of deep engagement or absorption experienced by individuals while listening to music. These second-hand brain signals are supposed to reflect activity in brain networks linked to mood and energy levels.

    Zak received 24 recently released songs from a streaming service, along with three months of data after the release. This included the number of plays, additions to users’ playlists, and other useful metrics.

    The set of songs included both “hits” and “flops”, where a song is considered a hit as long as it has raked in at least 700,000 streaming listens in the last six months. The hit songs spanned genres that included rock (Girl In Red “Bad Idea”), hip-hop (Roddy Rich “The Box”), and EDM (Tons and I “Dance Monkey”).

    ZME states: “It’s a more limited approach than, say, directly imaging a person’s brain, but the technique can be a viable proxy for determining a person’s neural response to music. Its strength lies in the fact that these signals can be measured with something as simple as a smartwatch or fitness armband, whereas brain activity is typically recorded using cumbersome lab equipment.”

    So, expect this technology to proliferate wildly amongst music companies and artists who will try their hardest to generate hit after hit after hit, but whether this will make modern music really any better or not is yet to be seen.

    8. A website called “There’s an AI for that” – www.theresanaiforthat.com – when I started typing this it was 5,474 AIs for 1,543 tasks, when I updated this text it was 5,526 for 1,559 tasks when updating this slide, 85 were launched in June alone.

    The number of AIs added to the system grows every day, and currently stands at 5,533 AIs for 1,561 tasks. 706 new AIs launched in May, 196 have launched to date in June.

    There are AIs for therapy, presentation creation, creative writing, business and data analytics, website building, legal verdicts, team management, architectural design, QR codes that embed themselves into photos rather than the B&W barcodes we’re used to seeing, music creation, YouTube summaries, video transcription, quizzes, medical advice and so much more – if you can think it, someone has likely already created an AI for that purpose.

    Check out www.theresanaiforthat.com to explore all of these new AI’s for yourself!

    9. Deepmind, the Google-owned research lab, is promising its upcoming generative AI system will be better than ChatGPT 4, but it’s still in development.

    The CEO of OpenAI, which created ChatGPT, says developing ChatGPT4 cost over $100 million dollars, so Google is likely spending similar amounts of money to commercialise the same kind of tech.

    More details here.

    10. Should Albo stick to politics? Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is using his voice to give smartphone owners some security tips, but as usual with politicians, we’re not being told the full story.

    PM Albo told The Guardian to do “Simple things, turn your phone off every night for five minutes. For people watching this, do that every 24 hours, do it while you’re brushing your teeth or whatever you’re doing.”

    However, there’s more to it that that. It all depends on the type of malware or zero day vulnerability being exploited on your phone. Some will indeed be wiped from memory if you restart your phone, not that the 5 minutes has anything to do with it, while other malware will be persistent and restart after the phone has been rebooted.

    Paul Ducklin, an expert from Internet security firm Sophos, has published a blog post on the topic, noting that just turning your phone on and off every day is a false sense of security.

    Not only should you apply the updates that are available for whichever smartphone, tablet, PC or other smart device you’re using, but he also advises the following, with added detail at the link above.

    • Get rid of apps you don’t need. Uninstall unnecessary apps entirely, and delete all their associated data.
    • Explicitly log out from apps when you aren’t using them.
    • Learn how to manage the privacy settings of all the apps and services you use.
    • Learn how to clear your browser history, cookies and site data, and do so frequently.
    • Turn off as much as you can on the lock screen. Ideally, your lock screen would be just that, a locked screen at which you can do exactly two things, namely: make an emergency call, or unlock your device for use.
    • Set the longest lock code and the shortest lock time you can tolerate. A little inconvenience to you can be a massive extra hassle to cybercrooks.
    • Be aware of what you share. If you don’t actually need to know your location precisely, consider turning off Location Services completely. If you don’t need to be online, try turning off Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or your mobile connection. And if you genuinely don’t need your phone at all (for example, if you are going to go out for a walk without it), consider powering it down completely until later, just as the Australian PM suggests.
    • Set a PIN code on your SIM card, if you have one. A physical SIM card is the cryptographic key to your phone calls, text messages and perhaps some of your 2FA security codes or account resets. Don’t make it easy for a crook who steals your phone to take over the “phone” part of your digital life simply by swapping your unlocked SIM card into a phone of their own. You only need to re-enter your SIM PIN when you reboot your phone, not before every call.