We were all pretty excited when Consumer Physics showed us their hand-held molecular scanner at TechCrunch Disrupt two years ago. They garnered much praise here and all over the web for creating a hand-held product that could scan and identify food, medicine, and vitamins. Now, two years later, people are pissed. The project raised $2.7 million from 130, 000 backers and it looked, at least on… Read More
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SCiO, the pocket-sized molecular analyzer, is making everyone angry
Thijs Broenink audited the AnalyticsCore.apk app that ships pre-installed on all Xiaomi phones (Xiaomi has their own Android fork with a different set of preinstalled apps) and discovered that the app, which seemingly serves no useful purpose, allows the manufacturer to silently install other code on your phone, with unlimited privileges and access. (more…)
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Xiaomi phones are pre-backdoored; your apps can be silently overwritten
Italian authorities are investigating a biotechnology heist that saw around 14, 000 DNA samples allegedly stolen from a lab in Sardinia. This may not be a simple case of grand larceny, as the samples in question were taken from Italians with exceptionally long lives. Sardinia is one of a handful of “blue zones” with a higher-than-usual proportion of men over the age of 100. The material was gathered as part of a decades-long research investigation into a genetic secret for longevity that was unrelated to diet or environmental factors. The DNA was originally harvested by a publicly-owned lab, Pardo Genetico, which was recently sold off to a Sardinian called Piergiorgio Lorrai. According to the Guardian , Lorrai is a local who wanted to ensure that the genetic information of his countrymen and women weren’t exploited for commercial gain. But it’s not that simple, because through a convoluted series of corporate shenanigans, another company believes it’s the repository’s rightful owner. Of course, that’s less relevant now since the samples have disappeared, and prosecutor Biagio Mazzeo is implying that it might have been an inside job. Analysis of the crime scene reveals that there was no forced entry, although it’s not clear when exactly the alleged theft took place. Perhaps someone’s planning to develop a theme park around clones of centenarians on a Pacific island, John Hammond-style. Or maybe the stuff was grabbed by a sinister billionaire with an interest in living forever, not that we could name any. Via: The Verge Source: Guardian
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Who stole the DNA of 14,000 long-lived Italians?
An anonymous reader writes: Over 500, 000 people have downloaded an Android app called “Guide for Pokemon Go” that roots the devices in order to deliver ads and installs apps without the user’s knowledge. Researchers that analyzed the malware said it contained multiple defenses that made reverse-engineering very difficult — some of the most advanced they’ve seen — which explains why it managed to fool Google’s security scanner and end up on the official Play Store. The exploits contained in the app’s rooting functions were able to root any Android released between 2012 and 2015. The trojan found inside the app was also found in nine other apps, affecting another 100, 000 users. The crook behind this trojan was obviously riding various popularity waves, packing his malware in clones for whatever app or game is popular at one particular point in time. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Over 500K People Have Installed a Pokemon Go-Related App That Roots and Hijacks Android Devices
Enlarge (credit: Justin Sullivan / Getty Images News) One quarter of all body-worn camera footage from the Oakland, Calif. police was accidentally deleted in October 2014, according to the head of the relevant unit. As per the San Francisco Chronicle , Sgt. Dave Burke testified on Tuesday at a murder trial that this was, in fact, a mistake. This incident marks yet another setback in the efforts to roll out body-worn cameras to police agencies nationwide. Read 7 remaining paragraphs | Comments
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Police IT staff checked wrong box, deleted 25% of body cam footage
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Business Insider: Tesla is suing an oil executive under suspicion of impersonating Elon Musk to dig up confidential financial information from the company, Forbes reported on Wednesday. The lawsuit, reportedly filed Wednesday in the Superior Court of Santa Clara County, claimed that Todd Katz, the chief financial officer for Quest Integrity Group, emailed Tesla’s chief financial officer using a similar email address as Musk’s looking to gain information that wasn’t disclosed in an earnings call with investors. Quest Integrity Group has partnerships with BP, Chevron, and ExxonMobil, the Forbes report said. According to the lawsuit, Katz used “elontesla@yahoo.com” to send an email to Tesla CFO Jason Wheeler asking about the company’s sales and financial projections. The email named in the suit reads: “why you so cautious w Q3/4 gm guidance on call? also what are your thoughts on disclosing M3 res#? Pros/cons from ir pov? what is your best guess as to where we actually come in on q3/4 deliverables. honest guess? no bs. thx 4 hard work prepping 4 today. em.” Tesla is seeking “undisclosed financial compensation, ” as well as compensation for the cost of the investigation and legal fees, according to Forbes. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Tesla Is Suing An Oil-Company Executive For Impersonating Elon Musk
A year after the FDA loosened limitations on what genetic analytics company 23andMe could offer consumers, the company is embarking on a groundbreaking study of 5, 000 people across Nevada. In partnership with the not-for-profit healthcare provider Renown Health and the Desert Research Institute (DRI), the survey will combine health, population, genetic and environmental data for a comprehensive look at the various influences nature and nurture have on people’s wellness. For their participation, folks will get a 23andMe report of their own genetic information on traits and ancestry for free. With that DNA data, plus Renown’s de-identified health and population info, DRI will model public health risks of disease and illness along with the health impact of conditions like air quality on a community. They’re seeking 5, 000 volunteers to follow Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval, who has already signed up to be part of the study. Hopefully, such a comprehensive data set can help researchers build predictive models to look for health factors across the state’s 2.8 million residents. But if anything proves how seriously they’re taking this collaborative project, it’s the dedicated YouTube video they made to promote it: Source: DRI newsroom
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23andMe health study needs 5,000 Nevada volunteers
An anonymous reader writes from a report via The Next Web: Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has really embraced open source over the past couple of years. GitHub, a site that is home to a number of the web’s biggest collaborative code projects, has counted more than 5.8 million active users on its platform over the past 12 months, and says that Microsoft has the most open source contributors. Microsoft has 16, 419 contributors, beating out Facebook’s 15, 682 contributors, Docker’s 14, 059 contributors, and Google’s 12, 140 contributors. The Next Web reports: “Of course, this didn’t happen overnight. In October 2014, it open sourced its .NET framework, which is the company’s programming infrastructure for building and running apps and services — a major move towards introducing more developers to its server-side stack. Since then, it’s open sourced its Chakra JavaScript engine, Visual Studio’s MSBuild compiling engine, the Computational Networks Toolkit for deep learning applications, its Xamarin tool for building cross-platform apps and most recently, PowerShell. It’s also worth noting that the company’s Visual Studio Code text editor made GitHub’s list of repositories with the most contributors. You can check out these lists, as well as other data from GitHub’s platform on this page.” GitHub CEO Chris Wanstrath said in an interview with Fortune, “The big .Net project has more people outside of Microsoft contributing to it than people who work at Microsoft.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Microsoft Has More Open Source Contributors On GitHub Than Facebook and Google
After nabbing the remnants of Rdio out of bankruptcy last year, rumors have swirled for months about Pandora Radio’s upcoming streaming subscription services. Last month, it seemed that all standing in the way was getting the appropriate licensing — which they got on Tuesday from over 30 major and independent labels . Today, they’re relaunching their mid-level $5-per-month subscription radio service as Pandora Plus with a few new features. Unfortunately, this won’t be their much-anticipated $10 monthly on-demand music streaming service, which will supposedly come later this year. Instead, Pandora Plus aims to ride a middleground, streaming automated radio playlists at a discount but offering a few new features than its previous version to make that less of a compromise. First, a predictive offline mode will automatically switch over to a user’s top station when their device loses signal, keeping the music flowing. The second lets users to replenish their limited supply of replays and skips by voluntarily watching video ads. Pandora Plus goes live today on desktop and will roll out to iOS and Android in the coming months, while it won’t expand to Australia and New Zealand until 2017. It’s still unclear when they’ll launch their full on-demand streaming option to compete with Spotify and the other music services. Updated 4:25 PM ET : Turns out that it didn’t actually go live this morning, as Pandora still needed a final licensing deal with Warner Music Group. Even after securing it earlier today, only one percent of its user base would have been able to see and access Plus today anyway, according to Recode. So the new service is supposedly live for folks lucky enough to fit within Pandora’s slow roll-out plan. Source: Pandora
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Pandora relaunches its mid-level $5 monthly subscription tier [Updated]
Paleontologists working on an island off the coast of California’s Ventura County have discovered a strange mammoth skull that exhibits features never seen before in the extinct elephantine creatures. Not too big and not too small, this skull could represent a transitional species. Read more…
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Strange Mammoth Skull Found in California Puzzles Paleontologists