58814435
submission
jfruh writes:
'So-and-so is about to release a smartphone' is one of the oldest tech rumors around, and most of the time nothing comes of it. But Stephen Lawson of the IDG News Service argues that if anyone non-phonemaker were going to dip their toes into that treacherous water, it'd be Amazon. The company hasn't been afraid to take on incumbents in the tablet and TV set-top box markets, and the financial rewards for breaking out of the content ecosystem imposed by other providers are too great to ignore.
58814203
submission
jfruh writes:
Tech blogger Kevin Purdy is a pretty tech-savvy guy. Why, just the other day, he remotely logged into a small server at my office yesterday, restarted it from the command line, then opened a server function in a screen session. But he still hasn't figured out a way to use his car's Bluetooth system to send the pre-written text message replies he's programmed into his phone. And he argues that, if we aim to end the epidemic of distracted driving that literally kills people every day, we need phones that make features like that much, much easier to use.
58702803
submission
itwbennett writes:
According to the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, people who text and drive increase their chances of 'safety-critical events' by a multiple of 23.2. And new research is constantly rolling out, showing the same thing: 'We can't handle the visual, manual, and cognitive commitment of using a phone while driving,' writes blogger Kevin Purdy. What's needed, Purdy suggests, isn't more laws that will go ignored, but phones that know enough to stop giving us the distractions we ask them for:I think the next good phone, the next phone that makes some variant of the claim that it "Fits the way you live," needs to know that we don't know what is good for us when it comes to driving. We want to be entertained and shown new things while doing the often mundane or stressful task of driving. More specifically, those phones should know when we are driving, quiet or otherwise obscure updates from most apps, and be able to offer their most basic functions without needing to turn on a screen or type a single letter.
58691261
submission
jfruh writes:
While much criticism and praise for Apple comes with its engagement with the larger world — politics, charity, labor practices, and so on — there hasn't been much discussion of how Apple contributes to the open source and standards communities of the tech world. It turns out the world's most valuable company doesn't give back much. Despite widespread reliance on open source software, Apple isn't a major corporate sponsor of any open source proejcts — for instance, Microsoft gives more to the Apache Foundation, despite selling a Web server that competes against Apache's free flagship product. Considering the fact that open source and open standards were all that kept Apple from extinction during the dark days of Microsoft dominance, you'd think they'd be more grateful.
58688089
submission
jfruh writes:
Being a Unix or Linux admin tends to be an odd kind of job: you often spend much of your workday on your own, with lots of time when you don't have a specific pressing task, punctuated by moments of panic where you need to do something very important right away. Sandra Henry-Stocker, a veteran sysadmin, offers some tips on how to best structure your professional life if you're in this job. Her advice includes setting priorities, knowing your tools, and providing explanations to the co-workers who you help.
58687999
submission
jfruh writes:
One of the intriguing angles of Facebook's multi-billion dollar acquisition of WhatsApp was in the realm of privacy: Facebook is a free service that makes all its money by selling user information and attention to advertisers and marketers, while WhatsApp is a paid service that makes extravagant claims about protecting the privacy of its users. Now the FTC is telling Facebook that it must make good on WhatsApp's current privacy promises. Doing otherwise would constitute a deceptive or unfair practice under the FTC Act.
58654269
submission
jfruh writes:
For most people, IBM still has a staid reputation as a make of mainframes and server software. But Big Blue's push into services is now decades old, and it's acquiring companies and tech that are moving it in some interesting — and creepy — directions. For instance, the company is now working using social media sites, Web usage, email, and other digital signals to craft personalized offers and promotions to individuals.
58648115
submission
itwbennett writes:
When Jose Vildoza's father became the victime of ransomware, he launched his own investigation. Diving into CryptoDefense's code, he found its developers had made a crucial mistake: CryptoDefense used Microsoft's Data Protection API (application programming interface), a tool in the Windows operating system to encrypt a user's data, which stored a copy of the encryption keys on the affected computer. Vildoza and researcher, Fabian Wosar of the Austrian security company Emsisoft, collaborated on a utility called the Emsisoft Decrypter that could recover the encrypted keys. In mid-March Vildoza had launched a blog chronicling his investigation, purposely not revealing the mistake CryptoDefense's authors had made. But Symantec then published a blog post on March 31 detailing the error.
58610213
submission
jfruh writes:
It's one of the most popular entertainment franchises in America; millions around the country want access to it and want access to it now. In response, entertainment industry execs are happily taking their customers' money, and giving them access to new and old shows online, whether they have a cable subscription or not. It's Sesame Street, and Sesame Go is available for $4 a month or $30 a year. Why isn't HBO paying attention?
58607571
submission
itwbennett writes:
Intel and SGI have built a proof-of-concept supercomputer that's kept cool using a fluid developed by 3M called Novec that is already used in fire suppression systems. The technology, which could replace fans and eliminate the need to use tons of municipal water to cool data centers, has the potential to slash data-center energy bills by more than 90 percent, said Michael Patterson, senior power and thermal architect at Intel. But there are several challenges, including the need to design new motherboards and servers.
58563265
submission
jfruh writes:
Graphene, a carbon-based crystalline lattice that is extremely strong, lightweight, and an excellent conductor of electricity and heat, is coveted as a potential base for semiconductor chip design, and Samsung, working with the Sungkyungkwan University School of Advanced Materials Science and Engineering, has claimed a big jump towards that goal. With IBM also making progress in this realm, the days of silicon could actually be numbered.
58563111
submission
itwbennett writes:
On Tuesday, China's Ministry of Commerce gave conditional regulatory approval to Microsoft's purchase of Nokia's Devices & Services business. The $7.2 billion deal means that Microsoft could very soon produce its own smartphones using the Windows Phone operating system. In return, China is requiring Microsoft and Nokia to make promises on fair patent use, fearing that the proposed acquisition between the two companies could spell trouble for the nation's Android device makers.
58520065
submission
jfruh writes:
The idea of an Internet-enabled refrigerator that orders milk for you when you run out has been a staple of futuristic "Internet of things" pitches for years, and for years nobody has had any real interest in owning such a thing. Now Amazon has a variant that it hopes will pique the interest of users of its AmazonFresh grocery delivery service: the Dash, a handheld gadget that you can keep in your kitchen and use to add items to your next order, either by scanning their barcode or just saying the product name.
58519667
submission
jfruh writes:
Earlier this year, 5-year-old Kristoffer Von Hasssel's parents noticed he was logged in to his father's Xbox Live account and playing games he wasn't supposed to have access to. It turns out that he hadn't stolen his dad's password; rather, he had discovered a bug where a series of trivial keypresses allowed him to bypass the password verification screen. His father — himself a security researcher — notified Microsoft, who not only fixed the bug but put Kristoffer on its monthly list of security researchers who discovered important bugs.
58390879
submission
jfruh writes:
Are you eager for a subscription to a print newspaper but unwilling to use fiat currency to pay for it? Well, good news, in the wake of a successful one-day trial this past Februray, the Chicago Sun-Times is now accepting bitcoin as a means of payment. It's part of what the paper dubs its "digital first" strategy.
