Tag Archives: Google

Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

Chromebook Users Will Get New Tools And Features Soon

Do you own a Chromebook?  If so, be aware that version 100 of the Chrome OS and Chrome Browser boasts a new launcher.  Simply press the “Everything” button which is located on the left-hand corner of your screen to open the Chrome OS launcher.

Like the Windows Start button and the macOS “Spotlight” feature, the new launcher helps users search for files, system settings, and apps.

Just so it doesn’t take you by surprise also be aware that the new launcher opens on the side of your screen rather than from the bottom.

The re-vamped launcher displays more information inside the Launcher context, and it has an appearance that will remind you of ‘Snippets’ in Google Search results.  The old launcher only showed a sometimes-cryptic summary when displaying web search results.  With more information at the user’s fingertips, fewer actions should be required when searching for people, places, or weather updates from the launcher. So the overall user experience should be improved.

We like the left-side launcher placement because it gives more screen real estate to apps you’ve already got opened. It boasts another cool improvement.  Users can now organize apps by name or color or if neither of those options are exactly what you’re looking for you can manually organize them as you see fit.

On top of that, Chromebooks are also getting a new GIF-creation tools that allows users to create custom GIFs from inside the Camera app.  Just select “Video” and toggle the “GIF” setting to the on position to create a five-second video that is automatically converted to GIF format for sharing on social media.

Finally, Google has also made changes to the Chromebook Dictation feature, which legions of Chromebook users rely on to dictate emails or other documents.  Now, you can also edit text with voice commands which is beyond handy.

Great news all around for Chromebook users.  If you don’t have one yet, you may want to consider investing in one if for no other reason than to have a cool backup device.

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Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

Google Play Store Is Seeing More Trojan Style Malware

A security researcher who goes by the name “Dr. Web” has been tracking a suspicious increase in Trojan infiltration emanating from the Google Play Store.

It is not currently known whether a single organized and determined group of hackers is responsible for the surge or if several groups just happen to be focused on the Play Store at around the same time.

Although a variety of malware strains have been spotted embedded in poisoned versions of apps on the Play Store the focus has been on highly popular apps with 500,000 installs or more.  In addition to that, there’s a new Android Trojan disguised as a WhatsApp mod.

Other than ‘apps with lots of installs,’ there doesn’t seem to be a clear pattern.  Several poisoned apps were cryptocurrency management tools, Gasprom investment clones, photo editors, and the like.

Broadly speaking at least where investment-oriented apps are concerned, the gimmick was to get an unsuspecting user to create a new account and then deposit money into it which would be siphoned off later.  In cases of other types of apps, invariably there would be a request made to sign up for expensive subscription services.

The good news is that at this time this piece was written, most of the poisoned apps have been removed from the Play Store.  Unfortunately, there are still a few holdouts.  For example, the app called “Top Navigation” is known to be poisoned but at the time of this writing is still available on the Play Store. Even Worse is it boasts more than half a million installations.

Since Google has been busily chasing down and removing the poisoned apps, the group behind this latest campaign has been setting their sights a bit lower. They now seem to be poisoning apps like Advice Photo Power with around  100,000 installations.

The bottom line is that while the Play Store is still mostly safe it’s not a completely safe source for malware-free apps so stay on your guard.

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Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

New Archive Feature Helps Mobile Users Save Space

The problem with smartphones is that they eventually run out of room.  Honestly it’s a wonder the issue isn’t even bigger than it is.  After all, miniaturization isn’t cheap but smartphone manufacturers have been able to cram incredible amounts of storage into tiny spaces.

The day is coming when you’re going to run out of room on your trusty Android phone and Google knows it.

That’s why they’ve been working hard to come up with a solution. A few years ago, Google made a change to their Android OS and the OS began making helpful suggestions regarding apps you almost never use.  If you get rid of those you save some space, and that helped.

Unfortunately, some apps are important even if you don’t use them a lot and it forces users into a bit of a tricky spot. Uninstalling apps is a good start but it’s far from a perfect solution.

The good news is that Google has another idea that will be making its way to the Android OS in the months ahead.  They’re testing out a new feature called ‘Archiving’ where apps are only partially uninstalled rather than completely uninstalled.

Archiving keeps the user’s data intact and gets rid of everything but that.  Then if the user decides they need to run that app again they can restore the app and continue on with minimal fuss.

That combined with linking your phone to your cloud account and offloading your pictures and videos at regular intervals will go a long way toward freeing up space on your phone.

We’re not saying you’ll never have space issues again. However, if you do all three (uninstall apps you’re not using, archive apps you use infrequently, and regularly offload your photos and videos), you’ll get a lot more mileage out of your phone.

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Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

Google Messages Users On Android Get New Features

Do you use Google Messages?  If so, there’s good news!  In recent months, the company has taken steps to bridge the Windows and iOS ecosystems the Android ecosystems and the iOS ecosystems.

They’ve been creating a more seamless user experience and allowing users from those various ecosystems to communicate and share more easily.

The latest update to Google’s Messages app for Android includes a whole raft of new features. Of special significance, users will now have access to iOS reactions.  If you’re not familiar with these, they are a small handful of Emojis that capture the essence of the most common reactions people tend to have toward messages they receive.

In addition to that, Google’s latest update also adds support for sharing links to Google Photos into Messages and allowing the sending of full-quality photos and videos to non-RCS users on iOS.  In a similar vein, if you send a Youtube video link from an Android device to an iPhone the recipient will now get a preview of the video.

The latest version of Messages also includes several “quality of life” enhancements. These include the ability to automatically delete one-time password messages after 24 hours and the option to sort your inbox into personal and business-oriented massages to help you stay organized.

If you haven’t updated to the latest version of Google Messages and are excited to give these new additions a try, just head to the Google Play Store and download the latest for free.  It’s a very good update that gives you some fun new capabilities you’ll enjoy playing with.

It’s also worth mentioning that Windows users can access their Android messages on their PC from a browser tab. So the company really has come quite a distance in terms of tying the ecosystems together.  Kudos to Google for their continuing efforts!

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Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

Android Users Need To Watch Out For Teabot Trojan

If you have smart devices in the Android ecosystem, there’s a new threat to be aware of in the form of a malware strain called Teabot.  This bit of malicious code is a Remote Access Trojan or RAT for short. The group behind the code is making a big push to see it spread worldwide.

Researchers from Cleafy can confirm that the malware targets more than 400 different applications and the folk behind the code have begun to pivot away from their initial tactic of “smishing.”

Smishing, if you’re not familiar with the term, is a tactic used to compromise a mobile device via spam text messages that contain poisoned links.  If a recipient clicks on one of these links, they’re taken to a site controlled by the hackers and the malware is installed on the user’s computer in the background.

This bit of code emerged near the beginning of 2021. Back then, in its earliest incarnations it was known as Toddler/Anatsa.

In its primitive form, it was distributed exclusively via smishing and only had a list of sixty lures.  Granted they were big well-known lures like VLC Media player and DHL shipping but there were only sixty of them.

By July of last year, the owners of the malicious code had modified it to strike at dozens of banks based all over Europe. In the months that followed, at least 18 banks fell victim to Teabot attacks.

More recently, the malicious code has undergone additional changes. The malware has migrated from Europe spreading to Russia, the US, Hong Kong, and beyond.  In addition to that, it’s no longer targeting banks exclusively but cryptocurrency exchanges and digital insurance providers as well.  Even worse is that in at least one case Teabot has managed to infiltrate official Android repositories via dropper apps.

In terms of how big a problem this is, here is how it goes. Once Teabot is installed on a target system it can primarily log keystrokes and take screenshots. Then it can exfiltrate them to the malware’s controllers which means that in short order any site you log onto using your phone can quickly be compromised.

Stay vigilant out there.  It’s still early in the year and Teabot will certainly not be the last threat we face.

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