The appeal of a contactless payment card is obvious: you just wave your credit or debit card over a terminal and you’ve paid. But it also removes the PIN from the equation, meaning it’s easy for someone to steal and use your card. To combat this, but to also keep contactless payments a breeze, MasterCard has just announced the first credit card with a built-in fingerprint sensor for biometric security. Read more…
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MasterCard Will Offer a Credit Card With a Fingerprint Sensor
Chances are you’ve heard Roland’s iconic TR-808 drum machine at some point during your music streaming. While the name may not ring a bell, artists and producers have been using its trademark sounds since 1980. We’re talking the likes of Afrika Bambaataa, Beastie Boys and Kanye West. In fact, the piece of kit has amassed such a massive reputation that the company trotted out a new version last year. Now, the machine is getting a documentary that will chronicle its rise. Set to hit theaters in 2015, 808 details the music that got its sonic chops from Roland’s device, including interviews from Rick Rubin, Phil Collins, Fatboy Slim, Questlove, Diplo and many more. Fans of the TR-808 recall that it was discontinued at the height of its popularity, and the film chats with Roland founder Ikutaro “Mr. K” Kakehashi to find out how that came to pass. The documentary is an effort from Atlantic Records’ film arm, and is being directed by Alexander Dunn. Can’t wait for it to hit the big screen? Catch the trailer just after the break. Filed under: Misc , HD Comments Via: Rolling Stone Source: YouTube
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‘808’ documentary details the rise of the legendary drum machine
Apple unveiled new gadgets on stage today, but they didn’t discuss one of its most interesting new innovations – the Apple SIM. As detailed earlier by TechCrunch, the new SIM card lets you switch between participating carriers, which include AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint in the U.S., and EE in the U.K. So far, those are the only carriers who have signed on, but Apple is likely… Read More
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The Current State Of The Apple SIM, And Its Possible Future
The 4.0 version of the secure, anonymized, private browser disables SSL3 (in deference to the POODLE attack) and uses new transports that are intended to defeat the Great Firewall of China and other extremely restrictive firewalls. Read the rest
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Tor Browser goes 4.0
In an appearance-obsessed city like Los Angeles , image, dahling , is everything. That’s why you can’t simply take a taxi between auditions, the juice bar and hanging out at your agent’s office. Your ride should be stylish , but thrifty, since an UberBlack would empty your bank account in the better part of a week. That’s why Uber is launching UberPlus, a service that slots in between Uber X and UberBlack and offers “balling on a budget.” Rather than rolling up in a Prius, you’ll have a pick of lower-level executive rides like a BMW 3 Series, C-Class Benz or an Audi A4. Even better, is that UberPlus’ minimum fee is just $5, $3 less than UberBlack, which is good, since the only thing standing between you and moving back home is the residuals from that vitamin infomercial. Filed under: Cellphones , Transportation Comments Via: Uber LA (Twitter) , Gizmodo Source: Uber
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Uber launches UberPlus in LA for ‘balling on a budget’
The company expanded the “ex parte temporary restraining order” so it could stage one-sided, sealed proceedings to take away rival businesses’ domains, sometimes knocking thousands of legit servers offline. Read the rest
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How Microsoft hacked trademark law to let it secretly seize whole businesses
Apple Pay is the most important thing to launch with iOS 8.1. Apple Apple has just released iOS 8.1, the first major update to iOS 8. The majority of the update’s new features have already been announced, but for one reason or another weren’t ready to be included in iOS 8 when it shipped last month . In the update, Apple plans to add back the “Camera Roll” album in iOS 8 with 8.1, to help users find their recently taken shots. The new version will also include a beta of iCloud Photo Library. iCloud Photo Library offers users the options of either backing up their photos to iCloud, or using it as primary storage to clear up space on their devices, only downloading photos when necessary. 8.1 will also mark the formal release Apple Pay, the contactless payment system Apple teased when it unveiled the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus in September. The new iPhones can store credit card data locally in what Apple calls the “Secure Element,” which also contains a Device Account Number unique to each phone. Stored cards can then be used to make purchases by using TouchID to authenticate and NFC to transmit the data. The Device Account Number and randomly generated per-transaction codes are used to obfuscate your credit card data, which isn’t exposed directly to retailers or to Apple. App developers can also integrate Apple Pay buttons into their apps to be used in lieu of credit card numbers. Apple stated that it plans to roll out Apple Pay in November. Read 1 remaining paragraphs | Comments
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Apple announces iOS 8.1 with Apple Pay, iCloud Photo Library
Apple has just kicked off the iPad extravaganza with a big piece of news about its Apple Pay initiative. It’ll launch this Monday, and now has the support of 500 US banks along with major retailers like Starbucks, Macy’s, McDonald’s, Disney, Walgreens and Target. To remind you, Pay will make it possible to use your iPhone 6 and 6 Plus at the till (or online) instead of pulling out a credit card, since they’re the first Apple handsets with contactless NFC. It’ll work in conjunction with the Touch ID fingerprint scanner, and let you use any credit cards you’ve stored in Passbook . Meanwhile, the new iPhones’ Secure Element chip encryption is fenced off from iOS and iCloud, so that even Apple itself can’t see confidential purchase information. If you’re good with all that, you can give it a crack starting October 20th — a partial list of retailers is available here . Filed under: Cellphones , Tablets , Wireless , Apple Comments
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Apple Pay launches Monday with support from Starbucks, Macy’s and others
MojoKid writes: For the past few years, Intel has promised that its various low-power Atom-based processors would usher in a wave of low-cost Android and Windows mobile products that could compete with ARM-based solutions. And for years, we’ve seen no more than a trickle of hardware, often with limited availability. Now, that’s finally beginning to change. Intel’s Bay Trail and Merrifield SoCs are starting to show up more in full-featured, sub-$200 devices from major brands. One of the most interesting questions for would-be x86 buyers in the Android tablet space is whether to go with a Merrifield or Bay Trail Atom-based device. Merrifield is a dual-core chip without Hyper-Threading. Bay Trail is a quad-core variant and a graphics engine derived from Intel’s Ivy Bridge Core series CPUs. That GPU is the other significant difference between the two SoCs. With Bay Trail, Intel is still employing their own graphics solution, while Merrifield pairs a dual-core CPU with a PowerVR G6400 graphics core. So, what’s the experience of using a tablet running Android on x86 like these days? Pretty much like using an ARM-based Android tablet currently, and surprisingly good for any tablet in the $199 or less bracket. In fact, some of the low cost Intel/Android solutions out there currently from the likes of Acer, Dell, Asus, and Lenovo, all compete performance-wise pretty well versus the current generation of mainstream ARM-based Android tablets. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Android On Intel x86 Tablet Performance Explored: Things Are Improving
A stable of new iPads wasn’t all Apple had up its sleeve today . The folks in Cupertino have also been hard at work on a desktop update, and the iMac is the beneficiary. If you’ll recall, Apple quietly trotted out a more affordable version of the machine back in June, but this fall’s release packs a much bigger punch. With the latest model, the company’s all-in-one option gets a boost in the screen department with the addition of a Retina panel. That 27-inch oxide TFT display is what Apple’s calling “Retina 5K, ” touting a 5, 120 x 2, 880 resolution with 67 percent more pixels than 4K. The added real estate means that you’ll be able to do things like edit 4K video in Final Cut Pro X while still having plenty of room for all the tools you’ll need. Even with all of that new screen power, the new iMac is said to be 30 percent more energy efficient. The outer edge is also 5mm thick, keeping the trim frame all the way around. As far as the internals go, there’s an quad-core 3.5GHz Intel Core i5 processor that can be upgraded to a 4GHz i7. There’s AMD Radeon R9 M290X graphics by default, 8GB RAM, 1TB Fusion Drive and Thunderbolt 2 ports that offer 20 Gbps transfers. For those who need more power, the new desktops can be equipped with your choice of up to 32GB of RAM, AMD Radeon R9 M295X graphics, a 3TB Fusion Drive and 1TB of PCIe flash storage. And of course, it’ll come with OS X Yosemite. The best part? You can hand over your funds for the iMac with Retina display starting today, and the base model is priced at $2, 499. If you’re not convinced that you need to splurge for that newfangled display tech, the existing 27-inch option is now $1, 799 and the 21.5-inch is $1, 099. Filed under: Desktops , Apple Comments Source: http://www.apple.com/imac-with-retina/
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Apple reveals the 27-inch iMac with Retina Display starting at $2,499