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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.

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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…

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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.

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"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

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Smoother movements help robots save a lot of energy

CenturyLink Takes $3B In Subsidies For Building Out Rural Broadband

New submitter club77er writes with a link to a DSL Reports article outlining some hefty subsidies (about $3 billion, all told) that CenturyLink has signed up to receive, in exchange for expanding its coverage to areas considered underserved: According to the CenturyLink announcement, the telco will take $500 million a year for six years from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)’s Connect America Fund (CAF). In exchange, it will expand broadband to approximately 1.2 million rural households and businesses in 33 states. While the FCC now defines broadband as 25 Mbps down, these subsidies require that the deployed services be able to provide speeds of at least 10 Mbps down. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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CenturyLink Takes $3B In Subsidies For Building Out Rural Broadband

Ferrofluid ‘font’ produces trippy, one-of-a-kind art

You may have seen ferrofluid (aka magnetic ink) used for clever science demonstrations in school, but it might just get a much cooler application before long. Linden Gledhill and Craig Ward have developed Fe2O3 Glyphs , wild-looking characters created by putting a ferrofluid between glass plates and subjecting it to spinning magnetic fields. The result is a sort of anti-font — while the “letters” look like they could be part of an alien language, they’re so unique that you’d likely never produce the same effect twice. The creators are producing a digital typeface that you can use for your own projects, and they also hope to create a limited run of letterpress art prints to show your friends. You’ll need to pitch in to make both of these a reality, though. The duo has launched a crowdfunding campaign that gives you both the digital font and at least one print (either unique or copied). You’ll need to pledge at least $30 to get something in return, but it might be worth the cash if you’ve ever wanted science-influenced artwork in your home. Filed under: Science Comments Via: The Creators Project Source: Kickstarter , Words Are Pictures Tags: art, crowdfunding, ferrofluid, font, glyph, ink, kickstarter, magentic, magnet, magnetism, science, video

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Ferrofluid ‘font’ produces trippy, one-of-a-kind art

Guild Wars 2 Is Free To Play Starting Today

Since its release in August of 2012 playing the subscription-free PC MMORPG Guild Wars 2 has been a simple matter of purchasing the initial game. Starting today you don’t even have to do that. Read more…

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Guild Wars 2 Is Free To Play Starting Today

LAPD’s body cameras roll out Monday, but footage won’t be public

Come Monday the Los Angeles Police Department begins its deployment of body cameras for officers. The initial rollout is limited — only 860 of the proposed 7, 000 cameras will hit the streets at first — and the SWAT team won’t get them until sometime after mid-September, according to The Los Angeles Times . The LAPD “doesn’t plan on” making the recordings public unless a criminal or civil court case attached to them, though. The American Civil Liberties Union says that this blanket refusal to make all captured video public means that police departments can cherrypick what footage they do choose to distribute and essentially use it as PR for good deeds while keeping less-than-applause-worthy footage out of the limelight. Of course, one way around that would be setting up a YouTube channel like Seattle did , but that brings about its own set of critics. [Image credit: Associated Press] Filed under: Cameras Comments Source: The Los Angeles Times , American Civil Liberties Union Tags: aclu, bodycameras, cameras, cops, lapd, latimes, LawEnforcement, losangeles, police, rollout

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LAPD’s body cameras roll out Monday, but footage won’t be public