Behold, the world’s most sophisticated Android trojan

greyweed Recently discovered malware targeting Android smartphones exploits previously unknown vulnerabilities in the Google operating system and borrows highly advanced functionality more typical of malicious Windows applications, making it the world’s most sophisticated Android Trojan, a security researcher said. The infection, named Backdoor.AndroidOS.Obad.a, isn’t very widespread at the moment. The malware gives an idea of the types of smartphone malware that are possible, however, according to Kaspersky Lab expert Roman Unuchek in a blog post published Thursday . Sharply contrasting with mostly rudimentary Android malware circulating today, the highly stealthy Obad.a exploits previously unknown Android bugs, uses Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connections to spread to near-by handsets, and allows attackers to issue malicious commands using standard SMS text messages. “To conclude this review, we would like to add that Backdoor.AndroidOS.Obad.a looks closer to Windows malware than to other Android trojans, in terms of its complexity and the number of unpublished vulnerabilities it exploits,” Unuchek wrote. “This means that the complexity of Android malware programs is growing rapidly alongside their numbers.” Read 6 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Behold, the world’s most sophisticated Android trojan

Chinese supercomputer destroys speed record and will get much faster

Lights on the Tianhe-2 supercomputer change color depending on the power load. Jack Dongarra A Chinese supercomputer known as Tianhe-2 has been measured at speeds of 30.65 petaflops, or 74 percent faster than the current holder of the world’s-fastest-supercomputer title. The speed is remarkable partly because the Intel-based Tianhe-2 (also known as Milkyway-2) wasn’t even running at full capacity during testing. A five-hour Linpack test using 14,336 out of 16,000 compute nodes, or 90 percent of the machine, clocked in at the aforementioned 30.65 petaflops. (A petaflop is one quadrillion floating point operations per second, or a million billion.) Linpack benchmarks are used to rank the Top 500 supercomputers in the world . The Top 500 list’s current champion is Titan, a US system that hit 17.59 petaflops. Tianhe-2 achieved 1.935 gigaflops per watt, which is slightly less efficient than Titan’s 2.143 gigaflops per watt. Tianhe-2’s numbers were revealed this week in a paper by University of Tennessee professor Jack Dongarra, who created the Linpack benchmarks and helps compile the bi-annual Top 500 list. Dongarra’s paper doesn’t say whether Tianhe-2’s Linpack measurement was officially submitted for inclusion in the Top 500 list. Ars has asked him if the measurement will put Tianhe-2 on top when the next list is released, but we haven’t heard back yet. In any case, the new Top 500 rankings will be unveiled on June 17. Read 4 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Chinese supercomputer destroys speed record and will get much faster

Amazon introduces Storyteller tool to turn scripts into storyboards

Amazon Studios has been forging ahead with its push to develop original movies and TV series, and it has now introduced a new tool that it’s hoping will help foster further development. Dubbed Amazon Storyteller, the tool lets writers quickly turn their script into a storyboard without the need for any actual artistic skills. As Amazon explains it, the tool first scans the writer’s script and then “identifies the scenes, locations and characters from scene descriptions, and ‘casts’ them from a library of thousands of characters, props and backgrounds.” Writers and filmmakers can then choose to customize the storyboard or upload some of their own images if they like, before sharing it with others to solicit feedback (naturally, it’s only available if you submit your script to Amazon Studios). According to the company, the tool works best with contemporary dramas or romantic comedies given its current art assets, so you may still have your work cut out for you if you’re looking to storyboard your post-apocalyptic fantasy epic. Filed under: Internet , HD , Amazon Comments Source: Amazon Storyteller

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Amazon introduces Storyteller tool to turn scripts into storyboards

Texas Instruments brings fast charging, extended life to Li-ion batteries

Yesterday Texas Instruments introduced a couple of new chipsets (fuel gauge an charger ICs) designed to improve the charging speed and life expectancy of single-cell Li-ion batteries. The technology, called MaxLife, is expected to provide an improvement of up to 30 percent in battery service life and faster charging times . Cell impedance is carefully monitored by the fuel gauge chip while the charger IC uses a model of battery degradation to charge the cell in the most optimal way. Both chips are connected via an I2C bus to form an autonomous battery management system which, according to the company, is safer and more thermally efficient than existing solutions. The two chipsets (2.5A and 4.5A) are now available along with a development kit, so it’s only a matter of time until this technology lands into handsets and other devices that use single-cell Li-ion batteries. Check out the details after the break. Filed under: Cellphones , Misc , Mobile Comments

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Texas Instruments brings fast charging, extended life to Li-ion batteries

Find and Replace Searches For, Replaces Text in Multiple Files at Once

Windows: Find and Replace searches multiple files on your system for a string of text and replaces it with whatever you choose. Think of it like the Find/Replace tool in your favorite text editor on steroids. The app is portable, supports regular expressions, case sensitive searching, and it’s free. Read more…        

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Find and Replace Searches For, Replaces Text in Multiple Files at Once