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Comment Re:Not sure what the benefit is (Score 2, Informative) 117

by HelioWalton (#33463426) Attached to: Wireless Power Group Has 'Qi' Prototypes
I believe the idea is that you have one charger plate that you would always leave plugged in, and it works for all of your devices that have a power receiver plugged in (Or built in, I suppose). You wouldn't have to "hunt around for the induction charger plate", since you would have one between all of your devices. It would be like a bowl for your keys at the door - When you come in, you can just chuck your stuff onto the charger plate, and hey presto, it's charged next time you grab it. No fiddly wires to plug or unplug when you come in.

Submission + - Mysterious Russian 'Buzzer' broadcast changes (wired.co.uk) 1

Submitted by Lanxon
Lanxon writes: The output of a mysterious radio station in Russia, which has been broadcasting the same monotonous signal almost continuously for 20 years, has suddenly changed, reports Wired. Numbers stations are shortwave radio stations that broadcast computer-generated voices reading numbers, words, letters or Morse code. Their purpose has never been uncovered, but evidence from spy cases suggests that they're used to broadcast coded information to secret agents. However, over the past week or so, the output of one particular station that broadcasts from near Povarovo, Russia, increased dramatically.
Image

National Park Service Says Tech Is Enabling Stupidity Screenshot-sm 635

Posted by samzenpus from the you-got-yourself-into-this-mess-now-get-yourself-out dept.
theodp writes "The National Park Service is finding technology to be a double-edged sword. While new technologies can and do save lives, the NPS is also finding that unseasoned hikers and campers are now boldly going where they never would have gone before, counting on cellphones, GPS, and SPOT devices to bail them out if they get into trouble. Last fall, a group of hikers in the Grand Canyon called in rescue helicopters three times by pressing the emergency button on their satellite location device. When rangers arrived the second time, the hikers complained that their water supply tasted salty. 'Because of having that electronic device, people have an expectation that they can do something stupid and be rescued,' said a spokeswoman for Grand Teton National Park. 'Every once in a while we get a call from someone who has gone to the top of a peak, the weather has turned and they are confused about how to get down and they want someone to personally escort them. The answer is that you are up there for the night.'"
Privacy

Feds Won't File Charges In School Laptop-Spy Case 398

Posted by samzenpus from the noa-culpa dept.
jamie writes "Federal prosecutors have decided not to file charges against a Philadelphia school district or its employees over the use of software to remotely monitor students. From the article: 'US Attorney Zane David Memeger says investigators have found no evidence of criminal intent by Lower Merion School District employees who activated tracking software that took thousands of webcam and screenshot images on school-provided laptops.'"

Comment Re:Pockets. I haz them. (Score 1) 328

by HelioWalton (#33247922) Attached to: Recycling an Android Phone As a Handheld GPS?
Alternate option, cargo pants. Big baggy pockets can hold a lot of stuff. MP3 Player in small pockets, camera in one main big pocket, gps and ds in the other pocket. Plus, you can have things that attach to your belt, IE: a phone holster. Hell, lots of cameras come with a pouch with a belt loop. Cargo pants and belt accessories FTW.
Security

Two Unpatched Flaws Show Up In Apple iOS 171

Posted by samzenpus from the rotten-apple dept.
Trailrunner7 writes "The technique that the Jailbreakme.com Web site is using to bypass the iPhone's security mechanisms and enable users to run unapproved apps on their phones involves exploiting two separate vulnerabilities. One of the vulnerabilities is a memory-corruption flaw that affects the way that Apple's mobile devices, including the iPad and iPod Touch, display PDFs. The second weakness is a problem in the Apple iOS kernel that gives an attacker higher privileges once his code is on a targeted device, enabling him to break out of the iOS sandbox. The combination of the two vulnerabilities — both of which are unpatched at the moment — gives an attacker the ability to run remote code on the device and evade the security protections on the iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch. The technique became public earlier this week when the Jailbreakme.com site began hosting a set of specially crafted PDF files designed to help users jailbreak their Apple devices and load apps other than the ones approved by Apple and offered in its official App Store."
Canada

Submission + - Canadian politician criticized over crime comments (montrealgazette.com)

Submitted by selven
selven writes: In Canada, it seems like tough-on-crime is not as easy a free ticket to popularity as is previously thought. A senior cabinet minister in Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government came under fire yesterday for suggesting that Canada needs to build more prisons, in part because of a rise in unreported crimes. "We're very concerned ... about the increase in the amount of unreported crimes that surveys clearly show are happening," Day (the cabinet minister) said at a news conference. "People simply aren't reporting the same way they used to." However, Statistics Canada quickly shot down Day's assumptions, saying that since they surveyed only eight types of unreported crimes their numbers cannot be compared to police-reported crime statistics. Actual numbers, however, find themselves received with unwelcoming arms by Harper's government: "We do not use statistics as an excuse not to get tough on criminals," Stephens wrote in an email.

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