52166563
submission
colinneagle writes:
After a motorcycle accident in Barcelona, Skully Helmet CEO and founder Marcus Weller discovered that adding a heads-up display to a motorcycle helmet controlled by Android would protect him and other riders from road hazards. The Skully helmet is designed to improve the rider’s focus by reducing the need to turn his or her attention from the road ahead. A compact Android device running Android Jelly Bean 4.1 is integrated into the helmet with a rear-facing camera and an optical combiner that projects onto a virtual heads-up display. The rider wouldn’t know that Android is behind all this, but would just reap the benefits of the helmet’s automatic and voice-operated features.
Android’s openness makes it a first choice for this technology because the source code, device drivers, and a wide range of differently priced hardware are available.
52010625
submission
colinneagle writes:
The timing for this study is interesting, given the arrests of two teenagers believed to have bullied a 12-year-old classmate until she committed suicide, but Microsoft found that 94% of parents said they allow their kids unsupervised access to at least one device or online service like email or social networks. The average age at which most children are allowed access to at least one online service, such as email or social media, was 8 years old, while 40% allow children under the age of 7 to access a computer unsupervised.
51935325
submission
colinneagle writes:
In a recent contribution to Forbes on "the worst thing about working at Microsoft," Matt Wallaert gave a detailed description of how frustrating it is to hear criticism from people outside of the company. In the process, he ended up basically crediting Microsoft with inventing or contributing to the invention of almost everything in the world.
51440211
submission
colinneagle writes:
NTT Docomo introduced a new head-worn device that overlays the user's native language onto foreign-language text as the user looks at it during the recent Combined Exhibition of Advanced Technologies show in Japan.
The glasses will be the most useful when travelers are navigating a foreign country or trying to read text in a foreign language. Examples given in a statement provided to AFP include reading restaurant menus, although the ability to read foreign-language street signs may prove quite valuable as well. The report also mentions that "the glasses are likely to be ready for visitors attending the 2020 Tokyo Olympics," which explains why NTT Docomo developed the technology to begin with. Such a massive, international event is a great opportunity to introduce a product that bridges the langauge gap. It's similar to Twitter's presence at the 2007 South by Southwest conference, where the company mounted massive televisions that streamed attendees' Tweets and allowed them to communicate en masse.
51435563
submission
colinneagle writes:
Both security professionals and cybercriminals use Metasploit, a penetration testing toolkit maintained by Rapid7, so when a Metasploit module is released, you should expect attacks against unpatched vulnerabilities to kick into a higher gear. Yesterday, Metasploit released a module for the latest IE zero day vulnerability being exploited in the wild.
Microsoft's security advisory dated September 17 listed IE 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11 as affected software, but the Fix-it issued two weeks ago claimed, "The exploit we analyzed worked only on Windows XP or Windows 7 running Internet Explorer 8 or 9." However, this IE zero-day has been exploited since as far back as three months ago, on July 1, according to Websense Security Labs.
Attacks exploiting this newest unpatched IE zero-day have been increasing. Last week, the Internet Storm Center raised its threat level from green to yellow due "to increased evidence of exploits in the wild regarding Microsoft Security Advisory 2887505."
51291167
submission
colinneagle writes:
Speculation is growing that Ford CEO Alan Mulally is not just in the running for the CEO position at Microsoft, but has become the frontrunner among all candidates, both internal and external. One reason, which I did note in my recent blog post on him, is that Mulally was a top executive at Boeing for years and has connections to the Seattle area. Earlier this month, Reuters reported earlier this month that the Ford board had given Mulally the option to step down earlier from his position than is specified in his contract (there was speculation that he might take a position in the Obama administration). Nokia CEO and former Microsoft executive Stephen Elop has remained a top candidate, but interest has shifted toward Mulally because of his experience turning around a faltering company. No one can say Elop turned around Nokia.
51106513
submission
colinneagle writes:
Members of an FAA advisory panel are reportedly meeting this week to make changes to the ban on the use of electronic devices on an airplane during takeoff and landing. The new regulations will allow the use of electronic devices to access content stored on the devices, including e-books, music, podcasts, and video. Sending emails, connecting to Wi-Fi, and making phone calls will still be prohibited. The announcement is expected to be made later this month, and the rules put into effect next year, according to the report.
50982317
submission
colinneagle writes:
The Los Angeles Times is reporting that an area man man who picked up vanloads of homeless people from area shelters and offered to pay them to wait in line to help him buy the new iPhone 5s in bulk was taken away by police after the agreement resulted in fistfights.
As if that weren't bad enough, the jilted hirees were left stranded in Pasadena, California, some of whom had been picked up from a downtown Los Angeles shelter. The Pasadena Apple store is more than 10 miles away from downtown Los Angeles.
Witnesses told the Times that fights broke out after some of the people who were unpaid confronted the man who had failed to honor his agreement. Police escorted the man from the scene shortly thereafter.
50579103
submission
colinneagle writes:
Yesterday, on the 12th anniversary of those attacks, a Senate panel heard expert testimony about "The Department of Homeland Security at 10 Years: Examining Challenges and Achievements and Addressing Emerging Threats." Stewart Baker formerly served as DHS Assistant Secretary and NSA General Counsel, and gave his opinion on the source of the real problems within the TSA:
"Unlike border officials, though, TSA ended up taking more time to inspect everyone, treating all travelers as potential terrorists, and subjecting many to whole-body imaging and enhanced pat-downs. We can't blame TSA for this wrong turn, though. Privacy lobbies persuaded Congress that TSA couldn't be trusted with data about the travelers it was screening. With no information about travelers, TSA had no choice but to treat them all alike, sending us down a long blind alley that has inconvenienced billions."
50540039
submission
colinneagle writes:
Last week, WMPowerUser reported that Vodaphone had cancelled the GDR2 update for its Windows Phone-powered HTC 8X as part of a "hissy fit" over Microsoft's acquisition of Nokia. At the time, it looked like evidence that the Nokia deal had ruined Microsoft's relationship with HTC, one of the few remaining Windows Phone manufacturers outside of Nokia. In fact, it looked especially bad because GDR2 was an important update, with such improvements as a new FM radio feature, Xbox Music improvements, new camera functionality, and a webpage compression tool that sniffs out Wi-Fi hotspots, among others.
However, Vodaphone clarified the announcement this week, announcing that although GDR2 is cancelled, HTC 8X users will receive the next update, GDR3, when it is available. So, for now, all seems well between HTC and Microsoft. We'll see how long that lasts.
50446157
submission
colinneagle writes:
GOG.com recently announced that it will not add Linux support for the games it offers, citing profitability issues with keeping their games up-to-date. The company has, however, remained open to suggestions from the Linux community.
And what do they receive? Negativity, criticism, and cussed at in forums and comment sections. Companies can't figure out how to effectively and profitably support Linux. They turn to the community to discuss that issue. The community shoots them in the face for talking about the issue, thus making other companies afraid to even try.
GOG is not the problem here. Neither is Valve, Desura, Canonical or any other company that would seek to sell digital goods to those of us running Linux. The problem is us. Our reaction. Our ability to recognize that our operating system, desktop environments and software ecosystems of choice may not (brace yourselves) be 100% perfect in every way.
50282197
submission
colinneagle writes:
British company SMC4 has developed the world's first anti-trolling software that "reads all inbound and outgoing social media messages from the user's Twitter account and automatically blocks any profanity, sexism, racism and other inappropriate language," according to The Telegraph. Twitter does offer the option to block abusive accounts and report spam, but in order to block someone the user first has to be subjected to the abusive tweets in the first place. The result is kind of a whack-a-mole dynamic, in which Twitter users who encounter a lot of trolls have to block them as they appear. Blocking and reporting abusive accounts also doesn't deter the really determined trolls who create new accounts just to attack those who have blocked them in the past. In theory, this makes the anti-trolling software, called SMC4 Lite, perfect for celebrities who encounter frequent insults on Twitter.
SMC4's solution is to monitor the content. A free version offers 10 daily "transactions," in which the app deletes offensive messages. A premium option offers unlimited transactions. And while the app is compatible with enterprise Facebook pages, the company's CEO says it can't make one for personal Facebook accounts because of the site's restrictions on third-party programs.
50280925
submission
colinneagle writes:
We all know text-based passwords are not overly secure, so when Microsoft offered a Picture Gesture Authentication (PGA) system on Windows 8, many people chose that option. However, researchers at Arizona State University, Delaware State University and GFS Technology Inc. analyzed picture gesture authentication on more than 10,000 picture passwords collected from more than 800 subjects through online user studies, and found that regardless of what image you selected, your unique picture password gestures may not be so unique after all.
The research found that the strength of picture gesture password has a "strong connection" to how long a person spent setting up that password gesture. The most common gesture combination is three taps, meaning it took about 4.33 — 5.74 seconds to setup. Passwords with two circles and one line took the longest average input time of about 10.19 seconds. After studying why people choose certain categories of images, the most common gesture types and direction patterns in PGA passwords, the researchers developed an attack framework that is "capable of cracking passwords on previously unseen pictures in a picture gesture authentication system."
50246713
submission
colinneagle writes:
It didn't take long for the conspiracy theories to show up regarding Microsoft's $7.17 billion purchase of Nokia's hardware and licensing of assets, not the least of which asserts that Microsoft was blackmailed into the deal. Two analysts say that the real reason for the deal was that Nokia was soon going give up the ghost on manufacturing Windows Phones, and without Nokia, Microsoft would be dead in the water.
Ben Thompson, who called the acquisition “a deal that makes no sense," speculated that Nokia threatened to switch to Android, leaving Windows Phone without a true suitor. Benedict Evans provided a little context, claiming that the deal solves Nokia's cash problems while also ensuring that it didn't migrate to Android.
That's not to say that Nokia necessarily would have thrived with Android — that would be sort of a long shot at this point — but rather that Microsoft stood to lose more if it lost Nokia, and was pushed into the deal as a result.
49814199
submission
colinneagle writes:
A lot of people don't password-protect their smartphones, and even those who do employ a simple four-digit passcode to at least keep it a little convenient. Their phones aren't really protected, as the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) recommends a 12-character random password. Those who check smartphones 50 times a day would probably get tired of that.
So Motorola developed the Skip, an NFC-based unlocking tool smartphone users can clip to their clothes. Tapping an NFC-enabled phone to the Skip unlocks it.
The Skip also comes in sticker form, so users can install one in their cars or at their desks.
