Aurich Lawson | Getty Images
As 2022 came around, there were a few things we knew we’d be writing about: the global pandemic, whatever cool stuff Apple and Google were doing, rocket launches, and cool stuff about artificial intelligence. But every year brings surprises, and 2022 was no exception.
Yes, we thought there would be plenty of Elon Musk articles on Ars Technica this year. After all, he runs SpaceX and Tesla, two companies we regularly report on. But if someone had told me that Musk was going to be “Chief Twit” and end up on the front page of Ars because of his impulse buying of Twitter and the…interesting decisions he’s made since taking charge of the company, I would I asked them to pass the Dutchman on the left.
2022 has been a long, strange journey. And it’s almost over.
So let’s take a look back at what you, our readers, found most fascinating about Ars this year.
Google / Ron Amadeo
Google is arguably known for three things: absolutely dominating the internet advertising market, absolutely dominating the internet browser market, and absolutely dominating the kill your own products market. At Google I/O 2022, the company decided to do a bit of device enchantment. Example: Android tablets.
The pinnacle of Google’s Android tablet development was in 2011 when we saw the release of Android 3.0 Honeycomb. I’ll let Ron Amadeo take over from here:
“[E]very subsequent Android release and Google app update watered down the tablet interface until it disappeared. App developers took Google’s neglect as a sign that they should also stop making Android tablets, and the ecosystem fell apart.
“After the release of the Pixel C in 2015, Google pulled out of the tablet market for three years and then launched the Pixel Slate Chrome-OS tablet. Then it left the tablet market for another three years. Now it’s back. Will the new plans of the company deliver another ?-year marvel like the Pixel Slate?”
Ron went deep into Google’s product strategy for 2022 and he’ll be sure to report when the new and resurrected products are killed in the future.
In February, Russia illegally invaded Ukraine and unleashed hell on its neighbour. In addition to firing bullets, rockets, artillery shells, and other munitions at each other, Russia and Ukraine are engaged in cyber warfare attacks against each other.
Ukraine — or a group sympathetic to it — has unleashed unprecedented malware on Russian courts and mayoral offices across the country. The malware, called CryWiper, permanently destroys data on infected systems.
“After examining a sample of malware, we found that this trojan, while posing as ransomware and extorting money from the victim to ‘decrypt’ data, does not actually encrypt, but purposefully destroys the data in the affected system said analysis by security firm Kaspersky. “In addition, an analysis of the Trojan’s code showed that this was not a developer’s error, but rather its original intent.”
As Dan Goodin put it, “Given the Russian invasion of Ukraine and other geopolitical conflicts raging around the world, the rate of wiper malware is unlikely to slow down in the coming months.”
Make sure you keep all of your networks and devices properly locked down… just because that’s the smart way to do it.
Speaking of locking your stuff down, one bit of good news in 2022 was the arrival of passwordless authentication. Apple, Google, Microsoft and some other tech companies are all on it. Best of all, it’s less painful than frequently changing your password or using multi-factor authentication. Users can store a single token that authenticates them on any service from the Big Three, plus any other company that supports it.
This is how it works:
At the heart of this scheme is something called ‘multi-device credentials’ or, more colloquially, ‘passkeys’, introduced in updates to the existing FIDO, WebAuthn, and CTAP standards for authentication. As the name implies suggests, the credential works for all devices, whether you’re using iOS, Android, or Windows, and for all Apple, Google, or Microsoft services.
“To make password authentication immune to phishing and other common forms of credential theft, the phone or other device that stores the credentials must be near the device the user uses to log in. A Bluetooth connection allows the two devices to exchange information that ensures that the device that is logging in is near the end user rather than a remote threat actor, it also ensures that the authenticating device ensures that the device that is sign up is connected to the legitimate URL rather than an imposter trying to gain unauthorized access.”
For the full story on how it all works, check out Dan’s excellent and in-depth article.
Wagner et al. 2022
The oldest pants in the world belonged to a warrior now called Turfan Man. He lived between 1200 and 1000 BC. in China, and he paired his trousers with a poncho tied around his waist, a decorated woolen headband, and ankle-high boots. The other grave goods found in his burial place indicate that he was probably a warrior on horseback. But back to the pants – what’s great about them isn’t that they survived, but how they’re made:
“The Turfan Pants are an extremely functional design, but they’re also damn chic. As the weaver worked on that stretchy, roomy crotch, they alternated different colors of weft threads to create pairs of brown stripes on an off-white background. Zigzag stripes adorn the ankles and calves of the pants, along with a design that resembles a step pyramid, a pattern that led Wagner and her colleagues to speculate that Turfan Man’s culture may have had some contact with humans in Mesopotamia, making them also ziggurats in a woven motif.”
