Well, Microsoft has officially left Apple as the only player in the Mobile field to not support real multitasking. With the next version of Windows Phone, background multitasking will be opened up to all devs, thanks to libraries provided directly by Redmond. During today’s presentation two different background tasks were demoed, VoIP and location. The VoIP integration allows users to have calls come in, preferably via Skype if Microsoft has its way, without having the app running in the foreground and have them appear the same as a standard phone call. While watching for incoming calls is nice, a more commonly used feature is location monitoring. Now apps will be able to monitor location in the background while you perform other tasks. One by one, Microsoft is checking off boxes on our list of complaints about Windows Phone.

Microsoft brings true, background multitasking to Windows Phone 8 originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 20 Jun 2012 13:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Microsoft brings true, background multitasking to Windows Phone 8

An anonymous reader writes “Five years after it was first introduced, Google’s Safe Browsing program continues to provide a service to the 600 million Chrome, Firefox, and Safari users, as well as those searching for content through the company’s eponymous search engine. According to Google Security Team member Niels Provos, the program detects about 9,500 new malicious websites and pops up several million warnings every day to Internet users. Once a site has been cleaned up, the warning is lifted. They provide malware warnings for about 300 thousand downloads per day through their download protection service for Chrome.”

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Google Detects 9500 Malicious Sites Per Day

Microsoft is on stage at the Windows Phone Developer Summit offering us a bite of what’s to come in Windows Phone 8, and one of the tastiest morsels may just be the noticeably more diverse hardware it will support. The new platform won’t just support dual-core processors — it will support as many as 64 cores, should such massively parallel chips come to exist in the platform’s lifetime. Also gone is that long-criticized 800 x 480 display resolution ceiling: if phone builders like, they can either opt for the increasingly common 1280 x 720 or a rarer 1280 x 768. A few subtler feature parities are coming with the upgrade, such as NFC for tags and payments as well as a long, long requested support for SD cards beyond the crude initial expansion. All told, Microsoft just brought Windows Phone right up to hardware parity with its biggest rivals, and possibly a bit beyond.

To check out the latest updates from Microsoft’s Windows Phone event, visit our liveblog!

Windows Phone 8 to support multi-core CPUs, HD resolutions, SD cards and NFC originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 20 Jun 2012 12:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Windows Phone 8 to support multi-core CPUs, HD resolutions, SD cards and NFC

Ars on Windows Phone 8

• Windows Phone 8 to provide an escape from carrier update tyranny
• No Windows Phone 8 upgrade for current phones
• Windows NT coming to phones with Windows Phone 8
• Windows Phone gets ready for enterprise
• Windows Phone 8’s new, even more personal Start screen

Windows Phone 8 will be built around the same core components as Windows 8 and will support the development of native code applications. It will also boast a set of new APIs that not only fill out gaps in the current platform, but also provide some unique capabilities not found on the competition.

Since Apple first showed off Siri, conversational speech systems—allowing the phone to be controlled using some approximation of natural speech rather than rigidly fixed commands—have become all the rage. Siri is, however, essentially a sealed system that can’t directly interact with third-party applications.

Windows Phone 8 will include a conversational speech recognition system based on the TellMe technology used in Windows Phone 7. There’s a twist, though: Microsoft is making an extensible system. Application developers will be able to add new nouns and verbs to TellMe so that users can use the same conversational style to perform specific actions within applications.

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Beyond the kernel: Windows Phone 8’s Siri-like speech, VoIP integration, NFC Wallet

ananyo writes “Japanese scientists have coaxed stem cells into forming a 5-millimeter-long, three-dimensional tissue that the researchers labelled a liver bud — an early stage of liver development. The bud lacks bile ducts but has blood vessels, and when transplanted into a mouse, was able to metabolize some drugs that human livers metabolize but mouse livers normally cannot. The work is ‘the first report demonstrating the creation of a human functional organ with vascular networks from pluripotent stem cells,’ the team claims.”

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Rudimentary Liver Grown In a Dish

Here in America, avid motorists tend to tick that ‘Avoid Ferries’ option whenever possible. In England and Wales, however, travel including waterways is looked quite fondly upon. To that end, Google has reportedly started the process of mapping towpaths in the two nations, as it attempts to map bridges, locks and some 2,000 miles of canal / river paths. The Guardian quotes Ed Parsons, a geospatial technologist at Google UK, as saying the following: “Canal towpaths offer green routes through our towns and cities, and by working with the Canal and River Trust we’re adding towpaths to Google Maps and encouraging people to discover their local waterway.” As delightful as the news may be, we still can’t help but focus on a single mental image. That image, if you’re curious, is embedded after the break.

Continue reading Google Maps to soon include waterway travel in England and Wales

Google Maps to soon include waterway travel in England and Wales originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 20 Jun 2012 04:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google Maps to soon include waterway travel in England and Wales

The Waterloo Record is reporting that RIM is laying off a portion of its workforce as part of its cost-cutting review process. It’s believed that between 2,000 and 6,000 employees could be let go as the troubled company attempts to save $1 billion by the end of the fiscal year. Company watcher Martin Chmiel took to Twitter to say that the manufacturing team had been hardest hit, with hundreds of people departing in the past 24 hours.

RIM reportedly firing up to 6,000 in $1 billion savings drive originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 20 Jun 2012 07:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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RIM reportedly firing up to 6,000 in $1 billion savings drive

Cartoon Network announced plans to join the TV Everywhere party with a live internet feed of its channel (for authenticated cable / satellite customers) during upfronts and now the updated v1.8 app has arrived on iPhones and iPads. The feed can also be streamed with Flash on the channel’s website (we tried it on an Android 2.3 device and logged in but couldn’t get it to play), although the only differences we noticed were that the website feed was slightly ahead of our cable box and iOS was a few seconds behind, but with slightly higher picture quality. All in all it’s very similar to the WatchESPN experience (which ABC expanded upon last week with Watch Disney, Watch Disney Jr and Watch DisneyXD apps, though the full experience is only currently available to Comcast customers), and should satisfy all those who have been missing the Toonami experience when they’re away from home. Take a peek after the break for a preview trailer, shot of the login screen and press release.

Continue reading Cartoon Network’s iPhone and iPad app adds a live TV feed, for authenticated customers

Cartoon Network’s iPhone and iPad app adds a live TV feed, for authenticated customers originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 19 Jun 2012 21:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Cartoon Network’s iPhone and iPad app adds a live TV feed, for authenticated customers

Kaspersky Lab

Flame

• Microsoft Windows Update SSL certificate gets failing grade
• Flame’s crypto attack may have needed $200,000 worth of compute power
• Discovery of new “zero-day” exploit links developers of Stuxnet, Flame
• Microsoft contains Flame with Windows Update revamp
• Flame espionage malware issues self-destruct command

The United States and Israel jointly developed the Flame espionage malware to collect information that would be useful in disrupting Iran’s nuclear program, the Washington Post reported, citing unnamed Western officials with knowledge of the operation.

While important, the report isn’t entirely unexpected. Researchers said last week they had conclusive proof that developers of Flame collaborated with developers of Stuxnet, the highly sophisticated computer worm that targeted uranium enrichment operations in Iran’s Natanz nuclear facility. A week before that, an in-depth article in the New York Times provided the first confirmation that Stuxnet was created by the US and Israel before they ultimately lost control of it. Flame was part of “Olympic Games,” the same classified effort that spawned Stuxnet, Washington Post journalists Ellen Nakashima, Greg Miller, and Julie Tate reported Tuesday.

Still, the report is the first to cite unnamed officials saying Flame was jointly devised by personnel in the National Security Agency, the CIA, and Israel’s military. As such, it has helped to flesh out details of what is believed to be the first sustained campaign of computer-aided sabotage of a US adversary. And like the confirmation that Stuxnet received the explicit backing from two US presidents, the latest confirmation could harm US interests by touching off a cyber-arms race and making it harder for US officials to argue against their use.

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Confirmed: Flame created by US and Israel to slow Iranian nuke program

Remember that USS Enterprise-esque ocean research vessel we first ran across back in 2005? Yes, the one that was originally slated to hit the open waters in 2008 or 2009. After catching heat for its lofty ambitions for the last 12 years, the SeaOrbiter is finally set to begin construction later this year. The ship is slated to measure 170 feet (51 meters) tall, but to stabilize the vessel over half of the vehicle would stay below the surface, providing all sorts of collection systems and useful tools. Not only does it look like something out of Minority Report, but the SeaOrbiter is 100% sustainable. The ship’s power is set to come from solar, wind and wave power with biofuel in case nature doesn’t cooperate — when the vessel isn’t adrift via ocean currents. Funding has been obtained for the $52.7 million undertaking, which will produce an endless amount of data on global warming and marine biology around the globe. For a look at some renders of the massive vehicle, click though the gallery below for a quick peek.

SeaOrbiter to begin construction by year’s end, project price tag clocks in at $52.7 million originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 19 Jun 2012 18:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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SeaOrbiter to begin construction by year’s end, project price tag clocks in at $52.7 million