Amazon has just launched its long-awaited Spotify competitor , Amazon Music Unlimited. Like Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal, Google Play, and Deezer, Amazon Music Unlimited offers on-demand access to tens of millions of songs. And like those services, it also offers “thousands” of “hand curated playlists” and personalized stations. Read more…
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Amazon Comes for Spotify With Cheaper Music Subscriptions
Geofeedia bills itself as a way for marketers to reach potential customers through geotagged “hashtag listening,” but they also sell it to police departments for “predicting, analyzing and acting on social media conversations,” like, say, peaceful protests. (more…)
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Social media surveillance software used by cops faces backlash
Google said today it will roll out Android 7.1 to a range of Nexus devices — including Nexus 6 — later this year (December). A developer preview of Android 7.1 will be available to enthusiasts later this month. From an Engadget report: They also confirmed what 7.1 will bring to the table. Aside from Daydream VR support, most of the new features focus on giving developers more options to spruce up their apps’ functionality. First, they can now make custom shortcuts, much like the ones popping up in iOS via 3D Touch. There’s also support for image keyboards so users can insert stickers or GIFs within apps. For carriers and calling apps, 7.1 has APIs for multi-endpoint calling and telephony configuration. Lastly, developers can now route users to a Settings page to free up storage space by deleting unused files. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Android 7.1 To Roll Out To Nexus Devices in December; Preview Goes Out This Month
After the Director of National Intelligence and Department of Homeland Security publicly blamed Russia for stealing and publishing archived emails from the Democratic National Committee on Friday, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said today that President Obama will consider a “proportional” response. ABC News reports: “We obviously will ensure that a U.S. response is proportional. It is unlikely that our response would be announced in advanced. It’s certainly possible that the president could choose response options that we never announce, ” Earnest told reporters aboard Air Force One. “The president has talked before about the significant capabilities that the U.S. government has to both defend our systems in the United States but also carry out offensive operations in other countries, ” he added. “There are a range of responses that are available to the president and he will consider a response that’s proportional.” The Wall Street Journal report mentions several different ways to response to Russia. The U.S. could impose economic sanctions against Moscow, punish Russia diplomatically, opt to allow the Justice Department to simply prosecute the hacks as a criminal case, and/or launch a U.S. cyberattack targeting Russia’s election process. Of course, each response has its pros and cons. “They could escalate into a more adversarial conflict between both countries, ” writes Carol E. Lee for the Wall Street Journal. “But the absence of a response could signal that such behavior will be tolerated in the future.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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White House Vows ‘Proportional’ Response For Russian DNC Hack
The FCC announced a $2.3 million fine against Comcast on Tuesday after confirming that the company had been billing customers for products and services they had never ordered. After calling the fine “the largest civil penalty assessed from a cable operator by the FCC,” the federal agency’s announcement detailed exactly how Comcast bilked customers—and new company practices that must be put into place as a result. According to the FCC’s Office of Media Relations, the agency had received “numerous complaints from consumers” about the issue of “negative option billing”—meaning, receiving charges for items that the customers had never affirmatively requested. (The FCC reminds readers that in the telecom world, this practice is known as “cramming.”) The listed complaints revolve specifically around items related to cable TV service, including “premium channels, set-top boxes, and DVRs.” “Despite specifically declining service or equipment upgrades” Though the FCC’s statement didn’t quote particular complaints or state how many the agency received, it described a range of unsavory reports from customers, including “being billed despite specifically declining service or equipment upgrades offered by Comcast,” “having no knowledge of unauthorized charges until they received unordered equipment in the mail,” and “expending significant time and energy to attempt to remove unauthorized charges from their bills and obtain refunds.” (Ars has reached out to the FCC with questions about specific complaints and the number received; we will update this report if we receive a response.) Read 7 remaining paragraphs | Comments
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Comcast fined $2.3 million by FCC for “negative option billing” practices
Kaspersky Labs has revealed a new strain of malware — named ‘StrongPity’ which targets users looking for two popular applications – WinRaR and TrueCrypt. The malware contains components that not only has the ability to give attackers complete control on the victim’s computer, but also steal disk contents and download other software that the cybercriminals need. From a Neowin report: To be able to gather victims, the attackers have built special fake websites that supposedly host the two programs. One instance that was discovered by the researchers is that the criminals transposed two letters in a domain name, in order to fool the potential victim into thinking that the program was a legitimate WinRAR installer website. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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‘StrongPity’ Malware Infects Users Through Legitimate WinRAR and TrueCrypt Installers
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: Wireless carrier Sprint Corp on Tuesday pledged to provide 1 million U.S. high school students with free mobile devices and internet access as part of a White House initiative to expand opportunities for lower income kids. Marcelo Claure, chief executive of Sprint, said the plan builds on the company’s prior commitment through the White House’s ConnectED program to get 50, 000 students high speed internet. He said Sprint realized that while providing students with internet at school was helpful, students would still need to be able to use the internet at home. “We are going to equip 1 million kids with the tools they need to reach their full potential and achieve their dreams, ” Claure told reporters on a White House call. Sprint aims to give cell phones, tablets, laptops or mobile hot spots to students who do not have internet at home. Students would be able to choose the type of device that might meet their needs and it would be coupled with four years of free data plans. The company hopes to reach its goal of a million students in five years. Manufacturers have agreed to provide the mobile devices at no cost, Claure said. He also said the company would encourage customers to donate their old devices to the program and that it would not cost Sprint much to allow the free use of its network. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Sprint To Provide 1 Million Students With Free Internet, Mobile Devices
Western Digital has enjoyed a long run supplying data drives for all markets, but had stubbornly resisted releasing solid-state ones for consumers. This was an odd position back in 2008 when the technology began entering the mainstream and it’s only become a more glaring omission in the interim. But today, WD is finally offering its first SATA SSDs for personal computers. While their new products for the consumer market have focused on cloud-based networked hard disks and traditional HDDs, they haven’t completely ignored solid state tech. Back in May, WD bought SanDisk for $19 billion, likely to get their considerable share of the SSD market. Their new storage drives, however, will come out under the Western Digital banner. Their WD Blue solid-state drives come in 250 GB, 500 GB and 1 TB sizes as a higher-performance line available globally to “select customers, ” according to their press release . The lower-powered WD Green SSDs, coming in 120 GB and 240 GB, will have a more limited release later this quarter in certain regions. Source: Western Digital
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Western Digital finally offers a consumer SSD
You may have felt immersed in a comic book before, but never quite so literally as this. Madefire has released a free Gear VR preview app that lets you read its Motion Books in virtual reality. As you might guess, it’s all about depth. Pages now fill your view, and creators can add 3D layers to individual panels. While it’s not real 3D (your childhood dreams of exploring comic universes will have to wait), it beats staring at completely flat pictures on a PC or tablet. You’ll initially get just a smattering of sample comics to read (such as Injustice: Year One and Madefire’s own Mono: The Old Curiosity Shop ), but Madefire hopes to add some level of VR support to its entire 10, 000-plus comic catalog by the holidays. Are you going to regularly read comics with a headset from now on? Probably not, especially since Madefire’s library only represents a slice of the comic book world. However, it’s a good example of how VR can boost an ordinary reading experience. Via: TechCrunch , Android Community Source: Oculus , Marketwired
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Comic books come to VR through an app
It’s bad enough that one hacker group has been wreaking havoc on banking systems worldwide, but it’s apparently getting worse. Security firm Symantec reports that a second group, Odinaff, has infected 10 to 20 of its customers with malware that can cover up bogus money transfer requests sent through the ubiquitous SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication) messaging system. Most of the attacks targeted Australia, Hong Kong, the UK, the Ukraine and the US. And unlike the initial attackers, Odinaff appears to be a criminal organization (possibly linked to the infamous Carbanak team) rather than a state-sponsored outfit. Symantec says it’s sharing info about Odinaff with banks, governments and rival security companies. SWIFT itself says that it had warned about the group in the early summer, so there’s a possibility that your bank is relatively prepared to deal with the threat. With that said, the news isn’t exactly comforting. It suggests that hackers still see SWIFT as a prime target, and that your bank’s security is that less certain as a result. Source: Reuters
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A second hacking group is targeting bank systems