72322785
submission
itwbennett writes:
The tools available to developers who need to build an application once and deploy everywhere have exploded. Frameworks like famo.us, Ionic, PhoneGap, Sencha Touch, Appcelerator, Xamarin, and others are reducing the grunt work and improving the overall quality of web based mobile applications dramatically. The benefits of a build once, deploy everywhere platform are pretty obvious, but are they enough to make up for the hits to user experience?
72322585
submission
itwbennett writes:
E-commerce giant Alibaba Group hasn’t given up on its YunOS mobile operating system, and is taking the software to China’s rural markets through a series of low-cost phones, which will be built by lesser-known Chinese brands and will range from 299 yuan ($49) to 699 yuan. Slashdot readers may remember that in 2012, Google claimed it was a variant of its Android OS, sparking a clash that threatened to derail Alibaba’s effort to popularize the mobile OS.
72322297
submission
itwbennett writes:
Attackers can potentially snoop on the encrypted traffic of over 25,000 iOS applications due to a vulnerability in a popular open-source networking library. The vulnerability stems from a failure to validate the domain names of digital certificates in AFNetworking, a library used by a large number of iOS and Mac OS X app developers to implement Web communications — including those over HTTPS (HTTP with SSL/TLS encryption).
72184745
submission
jfruh writes:
A few years ago, Facebook seemed on the verge of missing the transition to mobile altogether. But the company has made the transition with flying colors: now three-quarters of the company's income comes from mobile ads.
71948353
submission
itwbennett writes:
AMD has pulled out of the market for high-density servers, reversing a strategy it embarked on three years ago with its $334 million acquisition of SeaMicro. AMD delivered the news Thursday as it announced financial results for the quarter. Its revenue slumped 26 percent from this time last year to $1.03 billion, and its net loss increased to $180 million.
71943405
submission
itwbennett writes:
The Los Angeles Unified School District is seeking a multimillion dollar refund from Apple over a failed project to provide 650,000 students with iPads they could use at home. Apple hired Pearson Education as a subcontractor to develop software for the iPads, but according to a letter the school district sent to Apple this week, a 'vast majority' of the students have been unable to use the software.
71941929
submission
itwbennett writes:
Called NailO, the prototype trackpad is similar to the stick-on nails sometimes used as a fashion accessory. It attaches to the user’s thumb and can be controlled by running a finger over its surface. The processor, battery, sensing chip and Bluetooth radio are included on a circuit board that sits under the capacitive trackpad. The two are connected via a small ribbon cable, which means the trackpad is not quite as thin as a stick-on nail, but reducing the size is one of the aims of the researchers.
71939707
submission
itwbennett writes:
Wikileaks has published a searchable database of thousands of emails and documents from Sony Pictures Entertainment that were leaked in late 2014 after the studio was attacked by hackers. Some of the 173,132 emails and 30,287 documents contain highly personal information about Sony employees including home addresses, personal phone numbers and social security numbers, a fact which is likely to raise new concerns about the use of stolen information online.
71899855
submission
itwbennett writes:
The list of products designed to be security enhanced that turned out to be anything but seems to get longer by the day. In just the latest instance, reported by Wired last week, the crowd-funded privacy-enhancing home router Anonabox had to be recalled after an independent researcher discovered serious security flaws in the product. But security experts caution that the real problem may be bigger than vulnerabilities hidden in application code: 'Designed for security products don't just have to be good. They have to be beyond reproach,' explains John Dickson, a Principal at the Denim Group. 'All it takes is one guy with a grudge to undo you.'
71896891
submission
itwbennett writes:
One of the main arguments for the trade groups and ISPs that have filed six — yes, six — lawsuits against the U.S. Federal Communications Commission’s net neutrality rules is that the agency violated a 69-year-old administrative procedure law in crafting the new regulations. A second argument: the agency violated ISPs’ Fifth Amendment rights by taking their private property for public use without paying 'just compensation.'
71868009
submission
itwbennett writes:
MIT researchers are working on a new programming language, called Picture, that could radically reduce the amount of coding needed to help computers recognize objects in images and video. It is a prototype of how a relatively novel form of programming, called probabilistic programming, could reduce the amount of code needed for such complex tasks. In one test of the new language, the researchers were able to cut thousands of lines of code in one image recognition program down to fewer than 50.
71837593
submission
itwbennett writes:
A 56-page notebook manuscript by Alan Turing, the English mathematician considered to be the father of modern computer science, was sold at auction Monday for $1.025 million. Turing apparently wrote in the notebook in 1942 when he was working in Bletchley Park, England, trying to break German military code.
71836505
submission
itwbennett writes:
Sprint is now offering to deliver and set up phones, tablets and other connected devices for free at homes, offices and other locations chosen by the customer. The offer is currently limited to eligible upgrade customers, but starting September, new customers in selected markets will be able to choose the new Direct 2 You option, when buying online or through call centers.
71836413
submission
itwbennett writes:
The Dutch police, as part of an investigation, recently obtained a database from a CoinVault command-and-control server containing decryption keys. The information obtained from that database allowed Kaspersky to build a decryption tool that you can now get for free.
71828825
submission
itwbennett writes:
On Friday, Tokyo Electric Power sent a robot into the primary containment vessel (PCV) of reactor No. 1 at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant. The pipe-crawling, snake-like robot, which can transform itself into several configurations depending on the terrain, was deployed to determine the state and location of melted-down fuel in the reactor. Unfortunately, the ability to change shape didn't wasn't enough to keep it from getting stuck.
