kenmay

Watch the first full-color HD videos of Earth from space

It’s no longer a challenge to get astonishingly sharp photos of the Earth from space, but video? That’s another matter. UrtheCast is about to open the floodgates, however. It just released the first batch of full-color, high-definition video of Earth recorded from the International Space Station. In many ways, the extremely sharp footage (with detail down to 3.3 feet) of Barcelona, Boston and London is like an internet mapping site come to life — all those pathways are suddenly full of moving boats and cars. The Iris imaging system that recorded these movies won’t be fully operational until the summer, but the preview suggests that its customers will get plenty of insights into traffic and other activity that’s harder to track from the ground. Filed under: Cameras Comments Source: UrtheCast

Follow this link:
Watch the first full-color HD videos of Earth from space

CloudPlayer streams your music from Dropbox and Google Drive

DoubleTwist has released a media player separate from its main product, and this one can stream music straight from various cloud services. Aptly named CloudPlayer, the app links to your Dropbox, OneDrive and Google Drive accounts all at once to access any music files you’ve uploaded. The company says it “created CloudPlayer to provide an alternative to crippled, proprietary cloud music lockers that impose painful restrictions on what you can do with the music you own.” Unlike other services (company co-founder Jon Lech Johansen specifically targets Google Play Music in his blog post), DoubleTwist claims CloudPlayer doesn’t have a download or a device restriction, and it supports lossless audio. You can also choose songs and playlists to save for offline playback on the app. Finally, the media player can stream music through Chromecast and AirPlay devices (such as Apple TV), though you’ll have to shell out $5 for the feature as an in-app purchase. Otherwise, the app is free and up right now on Google Play — DoubleTwist says it’s “launching on Android first, ” so the player might head to other platforms in the future. A quick glance at the early reviews, however, shows that it’s having issues detecting music from OneDrive. The company says it’s a “bug with Microsoft’s OneDrive API, ” and it’s already taking steps to fix the problem. Filed under: Misc , Mobile Comments Via: Jon Lech Johansen’s blog Source: doubleTwist

More:
CloudPlayer streams your music from Dropbox and Google Drive

Apple De-Certifies Monster Cables After Lawsuit Against Beats

An anonymous reader writes: Since 2005, Monster cables have been licensed under Apple’s “Made For iDevice” program, which lets cable manufacturers put a logo on their product signifying they work with Apple products. Now, Apple has revoked that certification. In January of this year, Monster sued Beats, accusing its founders of fraud. Beats was acquired by Apple in 2014, and Monster is accusing Apple of bullying them by terminating the licensing deal. Monster’s general counsel said the move would “significantly disrupt Monster’s business and that the two companies had worked well for years, with Monster paying Apple more than $12 million in licensing fees since 2008.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Taken from:
Apple De-Certifies Monster Cables After Lawsuit Against Beats

Honeywell gets YouTube videos to play over global in-flight WiFi

The days of staying offline during your international flights might be coming to an end. Honeywell and Inmarsat have successfully stress-tested their global Ka-band satellite internet access in mid-air, doing everything from streaming YouTube videos to holding conference calls. The dry run shows that space-based broadband should be viable around the world, not just in certain areas — fly to Europe and your mid-trip WiFi connection should vaguely resemble what you have back home. It’ll take a while before airlines get the Honeywell/Inmarsat hardware on their fleets (ground, but one of the biggest challenges is over. Filed under: Transportation , Internet Comments Source: Honeywell

View the original here:
Honeywell gets YouTube videos to play over global in-flight WiFi

AT&T faces $100 million fine for quietly throttling data speeds

Look, it’s no secret that if you’ve got a old-school unlimited data plan from AT&T, your data speeds get throttled from time to time . Alright, it might be a bit of a secret — that’s why the FCC has just announced that it plans to slap the massive telecom with a $100 million fine for “severely” slowing down users’ connection speeds without adequately notifying them of the pokier speeds they might face. In case you haven’t been keeping count, that’s the single largest proposed fine in FCC history. A senior FCC official stated that service would at times get so slow that “basic mobile applications would not function, ” and that people who ran afoul of AT&T’s rules would get slower data speeds than others for an average of 12 days. First, though, a little recap. AT&T started offering unlimited data plans to its wireless customers in 2007, and finally stopped doing so in 2010. Here’s what happened a year after that, according to the FCC: AT&T implemented a “Maximum Bit Rate” policy and capped the maximum data speeds for unlimited customers after they used a set amount of data within a billing cycle. The capped speeds were much slower than the normal network speeds AT&T advertised and significantly impaired the ability of AT&T customers to access the Internet or use data applications for the remainder of the billing cycle. The news comes less than a week since the FCC’s new net neutrality rules officially took effect , but this investigation has been in the works for years now. That’s why the Commission is hanging its hat on the 2010 Open Internet Order, a troubled basket of oversight that basically got torn apart by Verizon in court last year. Verizon’s near-total legal win could have almost stopped the FCC’s investigation in its tracks, but the DC circuit court that heard the case upheld the Order’s stance on customer transparency so AT&T’s. Naturally, AT&T and sympathetic commissioners like Ajit Pai contend that the telecom did disclose the slowdowns, and that the FCC just ignored them all. Thing is, senior FCC officials didn’t think the disclosures AT&T did make were sufficiently straightforward. As far as they’re concerned, AT&T could’ve talked about its throttling program left, right and center, but it would’ve been meaningless unless those disclosures made clear what unlimited customers might run into. Filed under: Mobile Comments Source: FCC.gov

View article:
AT&T faces $100 million fine for quietly throttling data speeds

Amazon’s delivery drones could be in the air within a year

Commercial drone operations like Amazon’s highly-touted delivery service could commence in about a year, according to a senior official from the Federal Aviation Administration. FAA Deputy Administrator Michael Whitaker told a congressional committee on Wednesday the necessary regulations for commercial UAVs to operate in public airspace will “be in place within a year.” That’s way shorter than the 2017 start date that the FAA originally figured on. And when the rules are finally settled on, Amazon will be ready. “We’d like to begin delivering to our customers as soon as it’s approved, ” Paul Misener, Amazon’s VP of global public policy, testified at the hearing. “We will have it (the technology) in place by the time any regulations are ready. We are working very quickly.” Amazon debuted the delivery drone idea way back in 2013 and began lobbying for FAA acceptance. This February, the FAA proposed that drones be allowed to operate only during daylight hours at a maximum height of 500 feet while staying within the pilot’s line of sight. However, since the regulations hadn’t been set in place at that point, Amazon had to take its initial flight tests to Canada . However, the FAA’s position has changed rapidly since March making it easier for companies to acquire operational permission and giving Amazon the ok to conduct drone tests ( in the continental US no less ). At this pace, the company may not need to move forward with its proposed crowdsourced delivery scheme . [Image Credit: Associated Press] Filed under: Amazon Comments Source: Reuters

See the article here:
Amazon’s delivery drones could be in the air within a year

California labor commission rules Uber drivers are employees

The California labor commission has ruled that an Uber driver qualifies as an employee, not a contractor, of the company. As a result Uber will have to reimburse a driver for expenses accumulated in the line of duty. That includes $256 in tolls and the IRS rate of $0.56 per mile for use of a personal vehicle for business purposes. But the total award of $4, 152.20 is not what scares the company, that’s pocket change seeing as how it was recently valued at roughly $50 billion . No, the king of cars-for-hire is afraid of the broader implications. If their current network of over one million drivers suddenly became employees, running the business could get a lot more expensive. For one, companies need to pay social security, payroll and medicare taxes for their employees. And it could have implications for the expectation of health or retirement benefits and even leave Uber vulnerable to renewed pressure from taxi unions . Of course, Uber is appealing the ruling and could keep this issue tied up in court for sometime. Plus, this ruling only applies in California for the time being, but it could be an omen of more trouble waiting on the horizon. [image credit: AP Photo/Eric Risberg] Filed under: Transportation Comments Via: Dan Levine (Twitter) Source: Uber vs. Berwick (scribd)

Taken from:
California labor commission rules Uber drivers are employees

Amazon’s latest Kindle Paperwhite packs text that’s twice as sharp

Don’t want to shell out $199 for the Kindle Voyage just to get an Amazon-badged e-reader with extra-crisp visuals? You won’t have to after today. Amazon has launched an updated version of the Kindle Paperwhite whose e-paper display touts the same 300 pixels-per-inch density as the Voyage, giving you text that’s twice as sharp as on the last-generation model without paying extra for the privilege. You’ll accordingly get easier-to-read layouts (including Amazon’s in-house font, Bookerly) that take advantage of that slicker screen. The new Paperwhite will ship on June 30th for the same $119 (with ads) as its ancestor, which undercuts Kobo’s Glo HD and makes it the sweet spot in the Kindle line. Unless you really want the Voyage’s advanced light and touch sensors, this new mid-tier model will likely be enough. Filed under: Amazon Comments Source: Amazon

More:
Amazon’s latest Kindle Paperwhite packs text that’s twice as sharp

GM powers data center with used Chevy Volt batteries

General Motors believes old Chevy Volt (and eventually, Bolt ) batteries have a future as backup power sources for houses and buildings that use renewable energy. In fact, the company has repurposed five old Volt batteries to help power its data center in Milford, Michigan. They store energy generated by the center’s 74-kilowatt solar array and wind turbines, and then feed the surplus back to the Milford campus grid. GM senior manager Pablo Valencia said that’s possible, because the batteries retain 80 percent of their storage capacity, even after they’re no longer ideal for cars. Just like Tesla’s Powerwall , the repurposed Volt batteries can provide the electricity a building needs during power outage: the five-battery pack, in particular, can supply enough energy to keep the data center running for up to four hours. GM doesn’t have a big supply of old EV batteries yet, so it can’t offer them as backup power sources to consumers at this point in time — the five in its possession came from early development models of the Chevy Volt. But since it’ll likely have access to loads of used batteries someday, the company has already started testing systems with unnamed partners for both commercial and non-commercial uses. “The importance of this announcement is that we are preparing for the future, ” Valencia said. “This is a preparation for that time. Typically the lifecycle of a vehicle is 10 to 12 years.” [Image credit: Argonne National Laboratory/Flickr ] Filed under: Transportation Comments Source: Reuters

Researchers Find Major Keychain Vulnerability in iOS and OS X

An anonymous reader notes a report from El Reg on a major cross-app resource vulnerability in iOS and Mac OS X. Researchers say it’s possible to break app sandboxes, bypass App Store security checks, and crack the Apple keychain. The researchers wrote, “specifically, we found that the inter-app interaction services, including the keychain and WebSocket on OS X and URL Scheme on OS X and iOS, can all be exploited by [malware] to steal such confidential information as the passwords for iCloud, email and bank, and the secret token of Evernote. Further, the design of the App sandbox on OS X was found to be vulnerable, exposing an app’s private directory to the sandboxed malware that hijacks its Apple Bundle ID. As a result, sensitive user data, like the notes and user contacts under Evernote and photos under WeChat, have all been disclosed. Fundamentally, these problems are caused by the lack of app-to-app and app-to-OS authentications.” Their full academic paper (PDF) is available online, as are a series of video demos. They withheld publication for six months at Apple’s request, but haven’t heard anything further about a fix. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

View article:
Researchers Find Major Keychain Vulnerability in iOS and OS X

Ken May

Author: kenmay