Author: kenmay

Google Facing Fine of Up To $1.4 Billion In India Over Rigged Search Results

An anonymous reader writes: The Competition Commission of India has opened an investigation into Google to decide whether the company unfairly prioritized search results to its own services. Google could face a fine of up to $1.4 billion — 10% of its net income in 2014. A number of other internet companies, including Facebook and FlipKart, responded to queries from the CCI by confirming that Google does this. “The CCI’s report accuses Google of displaying its own content and services more prominently in search results than other sources that have higher hit rates. It also states that sponsored links shown in search results are dependent on the amount of advertising funds Google receives from its clients. Ecommerce portal Flipkart noted that it found search results to have a direct correlation with the amount of money it spent on advertising with Google.” The company has faced similar antitrust concerns in the EU and the U.S Read more of this story at Slashdot.

More here:
Google Facing Fine of Up To $1.4 Billion In India Over Rigged Search Results

Plunging Battery Prices Expected To Spur Renewable Energy Adoption

Lucas123 writes: Lithium-ion (Li-on) and flow battery prices are expected to drop by as much as 60% by 2020, making them far more affordable for storing power from distributed renewable energy systems, such as wind and solar, according to a recent report by Australia’s Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA). The 130-page report (PDF) shows that Li-on batteries will drop from $550 per kilowatt hour (kWh) in 2014 to $200 per kWh by 2020; and flow battery prices will drop from $680 per kWh to $350 per kWh during the same time. Flow batteries and Li-ion batteries work well with intermittent energy sources such as solar panels and wind turbines because of their ability to be idle for long periods without losing a charge. Both battery technologies offer unique advantages in that they can easily be scaled to suit many applications and have high cycle efficiency, the ARENA report noted. Li-ion batteries more easily suit consumer market. Flow batteries, which are less adaptable for consumer use because they’re typically too large, scale more easily because all that’s needed to grow storage capacity is more electrolyte liquid; the hardware remains the same. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

See original article:
Plunging Battery Prices Expected To Spur Renewable Energy Adoption

Newer Android Wear Watches Now Work On iOS

 More than a year after the launch of the first Android Wear watches, Google is now finally bringing iOS support to its smartwatch platform with the launch of its Android Wear mobile app in Apple’s App Store today. This probably doesn’t come as a huge surprise, given that Huawei spoiled this launch by announcing iOS support for its upcoming Android Wear watch last week, … Read More

View original post here:
Newer Android Wear Watches Now Work On iOS

Over 225,000 Apple Accounts Compromised Via iOS Malware

An anonymous reader writes: Researchers from Palo Alto Networks and WeipTech have unearthed a scheme that resulted in the largest known Apple account theft caused by malware. All in all, some 225, 000 valid Apple accounts have been compromised. The theft is executed via variants of the KeyRaider iOS malware, which targets jailbroken iOS devices. Most of the victims are Chinese — the malware is distributed through third-party Cydia repositories in China — but users in other countries have also been affected (European countries, the U.S., Australia, South Korea, and so on). “The malware hooks system processes through MobileSubstrate, and steals Apple account usernames, passwords and device GUID by intercepting iTunes traffic on the device, ” Palo Alto researcher Claud Xiao explained. “KeyRaider steals Apple push notification service certificates and private keys, steals and shares App Store purchasing information, and disables local and remote unlocking functionalities on iPhones and iPads.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

See more here:
Over 225,000 Apple Accounts Compromised Via iOS Malware

T-Mobile Will Stop Customers Abusing Unlimited Data

T-Mobile’s ‘unlimited means unlimited’ policy is good for consumers, but it’s also a boon for less scrupulous users who use cell data to replace broadband, with the help of a few dubious workarounds. Starting today, the endless data gravy train is going to stop . Read more…

Read More:
T-Mobile Will Stop Customers Abusing Unlimited Data

"McKinley" Since 1917, Alaska’s Highest Peak Is Redesignated "Denali"

NPR reports that the Alaskan mountain which has for nearly a century been known officially as Mt. McKinley will revert to the name under which it’s been known for a much longer time: Denali. President Obama is to “make a public announcement of the name change in Anchorage Monday, during a three-day visit to Alaska.” Interior Secretary Sally Jewell’s secretarial order of August 28th declares the name change to be immediately effective, and directs the United States Board on Geographic Names “to immediately implement this name change, including changing the mountain’s name in the Board’s Geographic Names Information System and notifying all interested parties of the name change.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

See the article here:
"McKinley" Since 1917, Alaska’s Highest Peak Is Redesignated "Denali"

Smoother movements help robots save a lot of energy

Eliminating the herky-jerky movements of robots isn’t just good for comforting nervous humans… it helps the robots, too. Researchers have developed smooth movement algorithms that slow the acceleration and deceleration of robots, saving as much as 40 percent of the energy they’d normally use. The trick is to order tasks in a way that lets robots move at their own pace without colliding into each other. Factory robots typically rush through tasks in a rigid order, only to wait for their fellow automatons to catch up. Here, they’re more flexible as to when and how quickly they get things done. You may see these more graceful robotics sooner than you think. General Motors is one of the partners in the project, and it has a vested interest in saving as much energy as it can. Robots use roughly half of the electricity at a vehicle assembly plant — if GM can save a lot of money using nothing more than code, you know it’s going to leap on that opportunity. While it’ll likely take a long time before robots ship with smoother movements from the get-go, it won’t be surprising if the underlying algorithms eventually become ubiquitous. [Image credit: Oscar Mattson, Chalmers University] Filed under: Robots , Science Comments Via: Geek Source: Chalmers Tags: algorithm, chalmers, ChalmersUniversity, factory, generalmotors, gm, robot, robotics, science, video

Continued here:
Smoother movements help robots save a lot of energy