Day: September 3, 2013

Cable customers pay $5.54 a month for ESPN whether they want it or not

Cable bundling, whereby we have to pay for channels we don’t want to get ones that we do, hits us in the pocket harder than we realize .        

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Cable customers pay $5.54 a month for ESPN whether they want it or not

Password-cracking software runs at 8 million guesses per second

oclHashcat-plus is a “password-recovery” tool that chews through 8-million guesses a second. It optimizes its guesses by trying phrases from “the Bible, common literature, and in online discussions, ” and by formulating characters into websites’ required “password-construction protocols.” One security researcher cracked the passphrase “Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn1, ” a phrase from an H.P.        

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Password-cracking software runs at 8 million guesses per second

Lovecraft sketch shows the author’s vision for Mountains of Madness

Still trying to wrap your head around H.P. Lovecraft’s mysterious Elder Things and collection monsters who lived below the ice of the Antarctic? Well, now you can see exactly what these mysterious beasts looked like from the author’s point of view, thanks to a few pages of recently discovered doodles right out of Lovecraft’s notes. Read more…        

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Lovecraft sketch shows the author’s vision for Mountains of Madness

Apple confirms September 10th iPhone event, and we’ll be there live!

The next iPhone will be officially unveiled on September 10th, as confirmed via the Apple-delivered invite that you see above. When the curtains pull back, it’ll be nearly a year to the day since the iPhone 5 was ushered into reality , and it’ll no doubt be a monumentally important day for the company. Particularly compared to the barrage of products Apple introduced in 2012 — iPad mini , iPhone 5 , the MacBook Pro with Retina display , enhanced MacBook Air / iMac / Mac mini lines, a redesigned iPod nano , a revised iPad / iPod touch / Apple TV , ad OS X Mountain Lion — 2013 has been eerily quiet. Outside of a tweaked iPhone 5 for T-Mobile’s network, a Haswell-infused MacBook Air and a tease of the next-generation Mac Pro , we’ve been left with little more than hopes for newly-inspired versions of iOS and OS X. That changes on the 10th of September, as at the very least, a next-gen iPhone will hit the stage. We’ll also holding out hope for a lower-end iPhone for emerging markets — markets where Android and even Windows Phone are the platforms of choice for communities making the move into the smartphone era. We wouldn’t put it past Apple to also revise its iPad line while it’s at it, and naturally, iOS 7 should be just about primed for release to the masses. As you’d expect, we’ll be on hand in Cupertino in order to liveblog every second of the action, and we’d invite you to cast your best guesses on what’s to come in comments below. Filed under: Cellphones , Tablets , Mobile , Apple Comments

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Apple confirms September 10th iPhone event, and we’ll be there live!

Google teases Android 4.4 as ‘KitKat,’ passes one billion Android activations

Google’s SVP Sundar Pichai has just confirmed — by way of the above photo — that the next version of Android is named KitKat (rather than the rumored ” Key Lime Pie “) aka version 4.4. The exec shared this geeky nugget on both Google+ and Twitter, while his company has updated the Android developer site with a page chronicling Android’s milestones so far. While details are light at the moment, Google teases its upcoming release with the following line: “It’s our goal with Android KitKat to make an amazing Android experience available for everybody.” And just to recap, here are all the previous dessert-based names: Cupcake, Donut, Eclair, Froyo, Gingerbread, Honeycomb, Ice Cream Sandwich, and Jelly Bean. Yep, it’s “K” after “J” now. Pichai also announced that there are now over one billion Android device activations, surpassing the 900 million mark back in May this year. Developing… Filed under: Cellphones , Mobile , Google Comments Source: Google+ , @SundarPichai (Twitter) , Google

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Google teases Android 4.4 as ‘KitKat,’ passes one billion Android activations

China’s Secret Scientific Megaprojects

An anonymous reader writes “The Diplomat reports on the 2006 National Medium to Long-term Plan (MLP) for the Development of Science and Technology, China’s most ambitious national science and technology plan to date. The MLP consists of sixteen megaprojects — both civilian and military — that serve as ‘S&T vanguard programs designed to transform China’s science & technology capabilities in areas such as electronics, semiconductors, [and] telecommunications.’ Thirteen of the megaprojects are listed in the MLP, while three are classified for national security reasons. The three classified megaprojects are likely the military components of the Shenguang Laser Project (used for thermonuclear weapons), the Beidou 2 Satellite Navigation System, and the Hypersonic Vehicle Technology Project.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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China’s Secret Scientific Megaprojects

This Kiosk Prints Magazines and Newspapers As They’re Purchased

Many people are claiming that these new Meganews Magazines autonomous newstands could save the print industry. That’s maybe a bit optimistic, but at the least they’ll help reduce the mountains of wasted paper from unsold magazines since the over-sized vending machine only prints publications when they’re ordered, in just two minutes. Read more…        

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This Kiosk Prints Magazines and Newspapers As They’re Purchased

Amazon’s new Kindle Paperwhite officially announced, ships September 30th

In case you needed official confirmation, Amazon’s new Kindle Paperwhite is indeed real and on the way. While we still don’t have much in the way of specifics, according to the public listing, we do know that the refreshed Paperwhite should arrive with a 25-percent faster processor, improved display with higher contrast and longer lasting battery. Amazon’s also bundled in some new features: social integration by way of Goodreads so users can get reading recommendations from other like-minded readers, Kindle Page Flip which lets users skip ahead without losing their place and Vocabulary Builder which creates flashcards based on past word searches. Pricing remains the same as we reported earlier with the WiFi-only models set to ship out on the 30th of this month and retailing for $119 (with ads) and $139. Users keen on the $189 3G version will have a bit longer to wait as that device is slated for a November 5th release. Pre-orders are available now, so quit reading and get to one-clicking. Filed under: Amazon Comments Source: Amazon.com

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Amazon’s new Kindle Paperwhite officially announced, ships September 30th