reader – Page 1781

Privacy-focused Blackphone 2 is ready for pre-order

Blackphone 2, the second iteration of Silent Circle’s privacy-focused handset, is now available for pre-order — assuming you don’t mind reserving a device without knowing its price. The original Blackphone was sold at the flagship-level cost of $629, but remember, this one’s more sophisticated than its predecessor, with its front and rear covered in glass. It has a 5.5-inch 1080p display, and inside, it boasts an octa-core processor, 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage. What makes it different from other phones with similar specs, though, is that it runs an Android-based platform called PrivatOS which includes a suite of secure apps, including ones for encrypted messaging and voice calls. We saw Blackphone 2 at the Mobile World Congress earlier this year, and we have a preview you can read to know a bit more before you pre-order a unit. The device is expected to arrive sometime in September — if you’d rather get the the Blackphone+ tablet, though, you’ll have to wait a bit more, since Silent Circle hasn’t revealed when that one will be available. Filed under: Cellphones , Mobile Comments Via: TechCrunch Source: Silent Circle Tags: blackphone2, mobilepostcross, silentcircle

Original post:
Privacy-focused Blackphone 2 is ready for pre-order

Windows Memory Manager To Introduce Compression

jones_supa writes: Even though the RTM version of Windows 10 is already out of the door, Microsoft will keep releasing beta builds of the operating system to Windows Insiders. The first one will be build 10525, which introduces some color personalization options, but also interesting improvements to memory management. A new concept is called a compression store, which is an in-memory collection of compressed pages. When memory pressure gets high enough, stale pages will be compressed instead of swapping them out. The compression store will live in the System process’s working set. As usual, Microsoft will be receiving comments on the new features via the Feedback app. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Windows 10 won’t run games with SecuROM DRM, says Microsoft

While Windows 10 is largely good news for gamers , it turns out that those with a collection of older games laden with DRM copy protection software are going to have a hard time getting them up and running on the new OS. In an interview with Rocket Beans TV (as translated by Rock, Paper, Shotgun ) at this year’s Gamescom, Microsoft’s Boris Schneider-Johne explained that that Windows 10 won’t be able to run games that use SafeDisc and SecuROM technology. “Everything that ran in Windows 7 should also run in Windows 10,” said Johne, “There are just two silly exceptions: antivirus software, and stuff that’s deeply embedded into the system needs updating—but the developers are on it already—and then there are old games on CD-ROM that have DRM. This DRM stuff is also deeply embedded in your system, and that’s where Windows 10 says, ‘Sorry, we cannot allow that, because that would be a possible loophole for computer viruses.’ That’s why there are a couple of games from 2003-2008 with SecuROM, etc. that simply don’t run without a no-CD patch or some such.” This isn’t a bad thing for most people, though. While SafeDisc has hit the headlines before thanks to security issues in Windows— introducing access vulnerabilities into the OS , for example—it’s SecuROM that is the most famous, and the most hated of all DRM software. Developed by Sony DADC, SecuROM took a heavy-handed approach to DRM, limiting the number of installs and activations end-users had access to, as well as requiring users to check in online to keep the game running. SecuROM even counted certain hardware changes as a change of computer, forcing another activation. Read 2 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Originally posted here:
Windows 10 won’t run games with SecuROM DRM, says Microsoft

The software Stephen Hawking uses to talk to the world is now free

For almost 20 years, Intel has been building technology to help Stephen Hawking communicate with the world — and now the company is making the same software the world renowned physicist uses to write books, give speeches and talk available to everybody . For free. It’s called the Assistive Context-Aware Toolkit (ACAT), and it’s the very same software Intel baked Swiftkey into for Hawkings early last year. Releasing it as open source software was always the plan, giving engineers, developers and researchers a groundwork they can use to create technology that improves the lives of patients with motor neuron disease and other conditions that make using typical computer interfaces impossible. Right now ACAT uses webcam-based face recognition for user control, but Intel says developers can augment it with custom inputs. As is, it still works pretty well: I installed it on a Windows tablet for a quick test run and was able to type simple words by flexing my face muscles in the same manner as Professor Hawking — patiently waiting for the ACAT system to highlight the menu, letter or predictive text word I wanted before moving my cheek. The system can also open documents, browse the web and gives users surprisingly precise cursor control. The base software is available for free on Github , and Intel is hosting a separate site with documentation, videos on features and compatible sensors and a detailed manual to help users get started. If you’re having trouble, you can even contact the project’s lead directly (his email is published on the ACAT website) for help. All in all, the project’s public release is a great step forward to achieving Professor Hawking’s dream of making connected wheelchair and assistive computer technology to every person that needs it. Check out the project’s official Git.Hub page or Intel’s project page at the source link below. [Top image credit: Jason Bye / Alamy] Filed under: Misc , Intel Comments Source: Wired , ACAT , Github Tags: acat, AssistiveTechnology, hawking, intel, stephenhawking

See the original post:
The software Stephen Hawking uses to talk to the world is now free

Chrome add-on helps you watch Netflix with friends

If you’ve ever wanted to watch Netflix with someone not in the same room as you, here’s your chance. Thanks to a new Chrome extension called Showgoers , people can now share a viewing experience from afar by linking their Netflix accounts. It works fairly simple: once the users’ info is entered, you click the Showgoers button and it sends an invite to whoever you want to watch a movie or TV show with in real-time. The person on the other end then receives a URL, clicks and, in a matter of seconds, the synced programming will begin automatically — you can play, pause or start something else anytime. Keep in mind that Showgoers is a public beta, so you may encounter some hiccups along the way. Still, the developer says “it generally works great.” According to Showgoers, you must follow these steps for the extension to work smoothly: Be signed into their Netflix account before opening the invite URL. Have installed the Showgoers Chrome extension. Open the invite URL in Chrome. [image credits: AFP/Getty Images] Filed under: Home Entertainment , Internet , HD Comments Via: BGR Source: Showgoers Tags: hdpostcross, movies, Netflix, streaming, streamingvideo, TVshows, videostreaming

Read this article:
Chrome add-on helps you watch Netflix with friends

NASA’s LADEE confirms the moon’s atmosphere has neon

NASA’s LADEE ran out of fuel and crashed into the lunar surface in 2014, but not before it collected the data needed to answer some decades-old questions about the moon. One of those is confirming that our natural satellite’s atmosphere contains neon — the same gas used to light up signs in Vegas. Astronomers have been speculating about its presence since the Apollo missions, and now LADEE’s Neutral Mass Spectrometer (NMS) instrument has proven that it exists. It’s even relatively abundant, though the moon’s atmosphere is too thin (it’s actually called “exosphere” due to that reason) to turn it into a glowing orb in the sky. NMS has thus proven that the lunar exosphere is composed mostly of helium, argon and neon. Their main source is solar winds, and they fluctuate over time, as well as exhibit peak times throughout the day. LADEE’s data shows, however, that some of the gases in the exosphere come from the moon itself: The decay of radioactive potassium-40 found in lunar rocks gives rise to argon, while thorium and uranium produce helium. As NASA’s Goddard’s Mehdi Benna said: The data collected by the NMS addresses the long-standing questions related to the sources and sinks of exospheric helium and argon that have remained unanswered for four decades. These discoveries highlight the limitations of current exospheric models, and the need for more sophisticated ones in the future. [Image credit: NASA Ames/Dana Berry] Filed under: Science Comments Source: NASA Tags: ladee, moon, nasa

Read the article:
NASA’s LADEE confirms the moon’s atmosphere has neon

Hack Amazon’s Dash buttons to do things other than buying stuff

Amazon’s Dash buttons are tiny adhesive physical triggers that can order for you, through the magic of WiFi, anything you need to stock up on. But that’s not the limits of their power, if you’re willing to tinker with them. Ted Benson, (who works at a company that likes to regularly perform such shenanigans with the aid of its web tools), reckons it”ll you take under 10 minutes to repurpose Amazon’s physical iteration of Buy It Now. (I think he’s underestimating the degree of incompetence this editor possesses, but anyhow.) Benson managed to hack a diaper-ordering Dash button to act as an Internet Of Things -style tracker for how often his (adorable) baby poops. Or how many times he wakes up in a night. The trick lies in the fact that Amazon’s buttons aren’t constantly connected to WiFi. For the sake of battery life, the buttons only come to life when pushed, meaning the workaround picks up when your button is trying to access the internet, and registers that as a trigger for anything but buying stuff from Amazon. With a little bit of python code, a simple program can track when the button tries to connect to the WiFi, and once it gets a hit, record a datapoint. (In this case, inside a Google Doc spreadsheet.) Of course, you need to ensure you’ve setup the button not to order something every time you press it –easily done when you first start using the button. If you’re looking to make the idea of smart diapers seem suddenly very stupid, you can find all the code and instruction needed in the Medium post right here Filed under: Wearables , Internet , Amazon Comments Source: Medium Tags: amazon, amazondash, dashbutton, diapers, internetofthings, poop, video

More:
Hack Amazon’s Dash buttons to do things other than buying stuff

Breathing Beijing’s Air Is the Equivalent of Smoking Almost 40 Cigarettes a Day

iONiUM writes: The Economist has a story about how bad the air quality is in Beijing. Due to public outcry the Chinese government has created almost 1, 000 air quality monitoring stations, and the findings aren’t good. They report: “Pollution is sky-high everywhere in China. Some 83% of Chinese are exposed to air that, in America, would be deemed by the Environmental Protection Agency either to be unhealthy or unhealthy for sensitive groups. Almost half the population of China experiences levels of PM2.5 that are above America’s highest threshold. That is even worse than the satellite data had suggested. Berkeley Earth’s scientific director, Richard Muller, says breathing Beijing’s air is the equivalent of smoking almost 40 cigarettes a day and calculates that air pollution causes 1.6m deaths a year in China, or 17% of the total. A previous estimate, based on a study of pollution in the Huai river basin (which lies between the Yellow and Yangzi rivers), put the toll at 1.2m deaths a year—still high.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Link:
Breathing Beijing’s Air Is the Equivalent of Smoking Almost 40 Cigarettes a Day

DirectX 12 Performance Tested In Ashes of the Singularity

Vigile writes: The future of graphics APIs lies in DirectX 12 and Vulkan, both built to target GPU hardware at a lower level than previously available. The advantages are better performance, better efficiency on all hardware and more control for the developer that is willing to put in the time and effort to understand the hardware in question. Until today we have only heard or seen theoretical “peak” performance claims of DX12 compared to DX11. PC Perspective just posted an article that uses a pre-beta version of Ashes of the Singularity, an upcoming RTS utilizing the Oxide Games Nitrous engine, to evaluate and compare DX12’s performance claims and gains against DX11. In the story we find five different processor platforms tested with two different GPUs and two different resolutions. Results are interesting and show that DX12 levels the playing field for AMD, with its R9 390X gaining enough ground in DX12 to overcome a significant performance deficit that exists using DX11 to the GTX 980. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

IBM wires up ‘neuromorphic’ chips like a rodent’s brain

IBM has been working with DARPA’s Systems of Neuromorphic Adaptive Plastic Scalable Electronics ( SyNAPSE ) program since 2008 to develop computing systems that work less like conventional computers and more like the neurons inside your brain. After years of development, IBM has finally unveiled the system to the public as part of a three-week “boot camp” training session for academic and government researchers. The TrueNorth system, as it’s been dubbed, employs modular chips that act like neurons. By stringing multiple chips together researchers can essentially build an artificial neural network. The version that IBM just debuted contains about 48 million connections — roughly the same computing capacity as a rat’s brain — over an array of 48 chips. These systems are designed to run “deep learning” algorithms — similar to Facebook’s new facial recognition feature or Skype’s insta-translate function — but at a fraction of the cost, electrical draw and space needed by conventional data centers. For example, a TrueNorth chip contains 5.4 billion transistors but only uses 70 mw of power. An Intel processor, conversely contains just 1.4 billion transistors and draws between 35 and 140 watts. In fact, future iterations of the TrueNorth system could (theoretically at least) be shrunk small enough to fit inside cell phones or smart watches. These chips also hold an advantage over the GPUs (graphics chips) and FPGAs (function-specific programmable chips) that the industry currently uses because TrueNorth chips operate much the same way that the deep learning algorithms running on them do. With it, IBM hopes to eventually shift some of the computing power requirements away from traditional data centers and onto end user devices. This should speed up the computing process since data isn’t being sent back and forth over the network. Instead, companies could simply develop a deep learning model (say, to count the number of cars in a photo), upload it to a central data server and then have the model run on the user’s TrueNorth-enabled device. The system would be able to spot every car in the user’s image gallery without having to upload each photo to the remote server for processing. Unfortunately, the system is still in its infancy and years away from your phone. [Image Credit: IBM] Filed under: Google , Facebook Comments Via: Wired Source: IBM Tags: computing, deeplearning, facebook, FPGA, google, GPU, IBM, neuralnetwork, neuromorphic, Skype, SyNAPSE

See the original post:
IBM wires up ‘neuromorphic’ chips like a rodent’s brain

Ken May

Category: reader