Amazon launched another benefit for Prime members today: Prime Reading, which lets users read from a section of over a thousand Kindle books, digital magazines, short stories, comics and more for free as part of their subscription. It’s essentially a version of Kindle Unlimited with a pared down catalog (Unlimited boasts over one million books, magazines and audiobooks) but without… Read More
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Amazon’s new Prime Reading gives Prime members all they can read
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Daily Dot: Signal, widely considered the gold standard of encrypted messaging apps, was put to the test earlier this year when a FBI subpoena and gag order that demanded a wide range of information on two users resulted in a federal grand jury investigation in Virginia. The makers of Signal, Open Whisper Systems, profoundly disappointed law enforcement. The app collects as little data as possible and therefore was unable to hand anything useful over to agents. “That’s not because Signal chose not to provide logs of information, ” ACLU lawyer Brett Kaufman told the Associated Press. “It’s just that it couldn’t.” “The Signal service was designed to minimize the data we retain, ” Moxie Marlinspike, the founder of Open Whisper Systems, told the New York Times. The subpoena came with a yearlong gag order that was successfully challenged by the American Civil Liberties Union. Signal’s creators challenged the gag order as unconstitutional, “because it is not narrowly tailored to a compelling government interest.” The challenge was successful. In addition to being popularly considered the best consumer encrypted messaging app available, Signal’s technology is used by Facebook for Secret Conversations, WhatsApp for encrypted messages, and Google’s Allo. Confronted with the subpoena, Marlinspike went to the ACLU for legal counsel. The ACLU responded with a letter saying that even though Signal did not have data the FBI sought, it still strenuously objected (PDF) to the fact the FBI wanted so much information. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Encryption App Signal Wins Fight Against FBI Subpoena and Gag Order
Every major phone carrier experience outages on United States’ east coast this morning at around 11am local time. The outage lasted for about 45 minutes. DownDetector, which monitors outages of services, confirmed AT&T, Verizon, Charter Spectrum, Comcast, Sprint, Time Warner Cable, US Cellular, and Vonage among others were affected. From a DailyDot report: T-Mobile CEO John Legare tweeted about the incident, pointing to issues with Level 3, a major internet backbone. Other tech firms quickly pointed to a Level 3 outage as well. No specific information has been released on potential causes of the outage or consequences that may result from it. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Outage Knocks Out All Major Phone Providers On the East Coast
Google has two new smartphones, the Pixel and Pixel XL, and these are the first that Google says it has designed on its own in terms of both hardware and software: It shows. These are great looking devices that also feel excellent when held, with industrial design that clearly inherits some of its sensibilities from Google’s work with the Pixel Chromebook, and recalls last year’s… Read More
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Hands-on with the Google Pixel and Pixel XL
Google’s Rick Osterloh announces the Pixel phones at Google’s hardware event. Ron Amadeo SAN FRANCISCO—We’re live from Google’s 10/4 event where the company has finally taken the wraps off its flagship phones for 2016. Just as the rumors predicted , the Nexus line is taking a backseat to the new “Pixel” phones and will no longer be the company’s flagship phone brand. Google has announced two high-end devices: the 5-inch Pixel and the 5.5-inch Pixel XL. Pre-orders for the Pixel phones start today, and pricing starts at $649 for the Pixel and $769 for the Pixel XL—much higher than the Nexus phones and more in line with what Apple and Samsung charge for their premium devices. Jumping from 32GB to 128GB of storage adds $100 to the cost of each device, and Google’s device protection plans cost an additional $99. If you don’t want to pay the full unlocked price up front, Google’s financing will give you the phones starting at $27.04 a month for the Pixel and $32.04 a month for the Pixel XL. The two devices are basically big and small versions of the same design. They have aluminum bodies with a large glass panel on the rear. The panel covers about a third of the back and surrounds the camera and fingerprint reader. The phones will be available in three colors: “quite black,” “very silver,” and a limited-edition “really blue.” Read 9 remaining paragraphs | Comments
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Google’s Pixel and Pixel XL phones start at $649 and $769, pre-orders begin today
Google has sold more than 30 million Chromecasts for the simple reason that it’s a super easy, super cheap way to get the stuff you’re watching on your computer on to your TV. Now it’s getting an upgrade for the TVs of tomorrow. Read more…
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Google’s New 4K Chromecast Ultra Is Way Fast
Yahoo built software to secretly scan its users emails at the behest of U.S intelligence officials, according to a report by Reuters. Read more…
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Yahoo Secretly Scanned Users’ Emails For The NSA and FBI: Report
We tend to think of coral reefs as luminous, undersea jungles that pepper the shallow, scuba-friendly tropics. But deeper down, in a region about as bright as Pluto on a sunny day , there lie vast reef ecosystems unknown to science. Read more…
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Exotic ‘Twilight Zone’ Reef Is Brimming With Unique Forms of Life
Bright Sun Films’ Abandoned series looks at Circuit City’s steady rise and dizzying fall in the world of retail consumer electronics. (more…)
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Why Circuit City abandoned its 700 stores
A study from Cambridge University documents an immense drop in complaints against police officers when their departments began using body cameras. But even more surprising is that the data suggests everyone is on their best behavior whether the cameras are present or not. Read More
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Police complaints drop 93 percent after deploying body cameras