Back in 2013 , the FAA saw sense, and ruled that passengers can use their electronic fondleslabs during takeoff and landing. And, shortly after, the Association of Flight Attendants sued, claiming the FAA had overstepped its bounds. An appeals court just ruled against the AFA, meaning takeoff Candy Crush is here to stay. Read more…
Read the original post:
Appeals Court Rules That Your Electronics Can Stay Turned On In Flight
It’s no secret that Apple plans on revealing a new streaming music service — thanks to its Beats Music acquisition — some time this year, supposedly at its annual developer conference in June. What has so far been a secret, however, is whether or not that service will be free or paid. While it’s been widely reported that Apple plans on charging $8 a month for a subscription, it now appears that the folks in Cupertino could be planning on integrating a free option or two as well. According to ReCode ‘s industry sources, those options include a free trial period of one to three months, a SoundCloud-type service where artists could upload free tunes for non-subscribers, and a new version of iTunes Radio that would feature human-curated playlists similar to, of course, Beats Music . Yet, ReCode also reports that Apple doesn’t plan on going up against other unlimited free streaming services such as Spotify and Pandora. Apparently the company thinks that ad-supported free streaming won’t make enough money, plus it’ll prevent users from ponying up for the paid version. At the same time, Apple has been under investigation by the FTC for supposedly striking up exclusive streaming deals with artists and labels — this, the FTC posits, could be seen as an unfair advantage due to Apple’s dominance in music downloads thanks to iTunes. Tidal , on the other hand, can get away with exclusives due to its relatively small size. So it still remains to be seen what exactly Apple plans to offer with its streaming service, be it free or paid. Fortunately we only have a month or so to find out. Filed under: Apple Comments Source: Re/Code
More here:
Recode: Apple to offer free music with its upcoming streaming service
An anonymous reader writes: A team of engineers and artists has launched a Kickstarter campaign for C.H.I.P., a small computer that costs $9. The campaign met and far exceeded its $50, 000 goal on the first day. The device runs an R8 ARM CPU clocked at 1 GHz, 512 MB of RAM, and 4GB of storage. It has built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, and runs a version of Debian. The price was enabled by two things: super-cheap Chinese tablets pushing down processor costs, and support from manufacturer Allwinner to make it even cheaper. The team is also building breakout boards for VGA and HDMI connections, as well as one with a tiny LCD screen, keyboard, and battery. Importantly, “all hardware design files schematic, PCB layout and bill of materials are free for you the community to download, modify and use.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Read the original:
$9 Open Source Computer Blows Past Crowdfunding Goal
Add / Remove Congestion on Atlanta’s Interstate 85 during peak hours is so bad that the state is now offering toll credits to commuters who take public transport to work instead. The I-85 express lanes sees an average of 23,000 trips a day — a problem that Atlanta has attempted to curb in the past by rewarding users who carpool or avoid the dreaded 7-8am time-slot. Now, commuters can earn up to USD 60 every six months in toll credits by connecting their bus pass with their Peach Pass — the electronic toll collection device: they simply register for the pilot program and each time they take public transport instead of driving, they earn USD 2 in toll credits. We have seen a number of similar initiatives — such as Singapore’s Urban Engines and Gothenburg’s free bicycles where governments offer incentives to promote greener, more pleasant travel. Could the scheme work in other traffic-heavy cities too? Website: www.peachpass.com Contact: commutercredits@peachpass.com
More:
In Atlanta, rush hour commuters get paid to take the bus
Samsung already makes the most smartphones in the world, but now the South Korean company is pushing to make the most semiconductors. Samsung just started constructing its own version of Silicon Valley, starting with $14 billion semiconductor complex larger than 400 football fields. Read more…
Read More:
400 Football Fields Could Fit Inside Samsung’s New Semiconductor Complex
Windows/Mac/iOS/Android: Flickr has rolled out a ton of updates and new photo tools to make organizing and accessing your entire photo collection much easier. Flickr Uploadr sends selected folders to Flickr from your desktop, and Flickr Camera Roll lets you mass edit photos in your collection. Read more…
See original article:
Flickr’s New Tools Automatically Upload and Organize All Your Photos
On April 27th, a Russian resupply ship to the ISS started spinning out of control shortly after reaching space. For more than a week, Progress 59 has been hurtling around the Earth in an increasingly unstable orbit, but tonight, it re-entered safely (and violently) over the Pacific Ocean. Read more…
Continued here:
Russia’s Rogue Spacecraft Disintegrated Safely
The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors has halted a plan to approve the purchase of a cell-site simulator , better known as a stingray. The secretive surveillance devices can be used to determine a phone’s location, but they can also intercept calls and text messages. During the act of locating a phone, stingrays also sweep up information about nearby phones—not just the target phone. Earlier this year, Ars reported on how the FBI is actively trying to “prevent disclosure” of how these devices are used in local jurisdictions across America. The move, happening in one of the primary counties in Silicon Valley, marks an unusual occasion that a local government has turned away from federal funds that would be used to acquire such a device. The device was approved initially during a February 24, 2015 meeting, despite a testy exchange between the Santa Clara Sheriff’s Office and Supervisor Joe Simitian, a former state senator with a penchant for an interest in privacy issues. Simitian’s office didn’t immediately respond to Ars’ request for comment. Read 19 remaining paragraphs | Comments
Follow this link:
In rare move, Silicon Valley county gov’t kills stingray acquisition
jfruh writes: If you use a Mac, you probably recognize MacKeeper from the omnipresent popup ads designed to look vaguely like system warnings urging you to download the product and use it to keep your computer safe. Now the Ukranian company behind the software and the ads may have to pay millions in a class action suit that accuses them of exaggerating security problems in order to convince customers to download the software. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
See the original article here:
MacKeeper May Have To Pay Millions In Class-Action Suit
mpicpp sends word about particularly bad virus making the rounds. “A computer virus that tries to avoid detection by making the machine it infects unusable has been found. If Rombertik’s evasion techniques are triggered, it deletes key files on a computer, making it constantly restart. Analysts said Rombertik was ‘unique’ among malware samples for resisting capture so aggressively. On Windows machines where it goes unnoticed, the malware steals login data and other confidential information. Rombertik typically infected a vulnerable machine after a booby-trapped attachment on a phishing message had been opened, security researchers Ben Baker and Alex Chiu, from Cisco, said in a blogpost. Some of the messages Rombertik travels with pose as business inquiry letters from Microsoft. The malware ‘indiscriminately’ stole data entered by victims on any website, the researchers said. And it got even nastier when it spotted someone was trying to understand how it worked. ‘Rombertik is unique in that it actively attempts to destroy the computer if it detects certain attributes associated with malware analysis, ‘ the researchers said.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.
View article:
Self-Destructing Virus Kills Off PCs