Tag: advertising

2016 MacBook Pro Fails To Receive a Recommendation From Consumer Reports

Consumer Reports has released its evaluation of the new MacBook Pro laptops, and it’s not good. The 2016 MacBook Pro is the first MacBook to fail to receive a recommendation from the nonprofit organization dedicated to unbiased product testing. 9to5Mac reports: In a post breaking down the decision not to recommend the new MacBook Pros, Consumer Reports explains that while the new models held up well in terms of display quality and performance, the battery life issues were too big of an issue to overlook. The organization tested three MacBook Pro variants: a 13-inch Touch Bar model, a 15-inch Touch Bar model, and a 13-inch model without the Touch Bar. The general consensus was that “MacBook Pro battery life results were highly inconsistent from one trial to the next.” Consumer Reports explains that the 13-inch Touch Bar model saw battery life of 16 hours in one test and 3.75 hours in another, while the non-Touch Bar model maxed out at 19.5 hours, but also lasted just 4.5 hours in another test. The 15-inch model ranged from 18.5 hours to 8 hours. Generally, according to the report, it’s expected for battery life to vary from one trial to another by less than 5 percent, meaning that the battery life variances with the new MacBook Pro are very abnormal. Once that was completed, Consumer Reports experimented by conducting the same test using Chrome and “found battery life to be consistently high on all six runs.” While the organization can’t let that affect its final decision due to its protocol to only use the first-party browser, it’s something users may want to try. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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2016 MacBook Pro Fails To Receive a Recommendation From Consumer Reports

Huge Fire Torches 140 Buildings in Japanese City

A large fire has engulfed scores of houses, shops, and other buildings in the Japanese coastal city of Itoigawa. The blaze, which started mid-morning local time, shows no sign of slowing, and fire crews are frantically working to put out the flames. Read more…

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Huge Fire Torches 140 Buildings in Japanese City

China Claims Tests of ‘Reactionless’ EM Drive Were Successful

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Popular Science: The “reactionless” Electromagnetic Drive, or EmDrive for short, is an engine propelled solely by electromagnetic radiation confined in a microwave cavity. Such an engine would violate the law of conservation of momentum by generating mechanical action without exchanging matter. But since 2010, both the United States and China have been pouring serious resources into these seemingly impossible engines. And now China claims its made a key breakthrough. Dr. Chen Yue, Director of Commercial Satellite Technology for the China Academy of Space Technology (CAST) announced on December 10, 2016 that not only has China successfully tested EmDrives technology in its laboratories, but that a proof-of-concept is currently undergoing zero-g testing in orbit (according to the International Business Times, this test is taking place on the Tiangong 2 space station). If China is able to install EmDrives on its satellites for orbital maneuvering and altitude control, they would become cheaper and longer lasting. Li Feng, lead CAST designer for commercial satellites, states that the current EmDrive has only a thrust of single digit millinewtons, for orbital adjustment; a medium sized satellite needs 0.1-1 Newtons. A functional EmDrive would also open up new possibilities for long range Chinese interplanetary probes beyond the Asteroid belt, as well freeing up the mass taken up by fuel in manned spacecraft for other supplies and equipment to build lunar and Martian bases. On the military side of things, EmDrives could also be used to create stealthier, longer lasting Chinese surveillance satellites. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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China Claims Tests of ‘Reactionless’ EM Drive Were Successful

France Becomes First Federal Postal Service To Use Drones To Deliver Mail

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Motherboard: The French postal service is beginning an experimental drone delivery program to deliver parcels on a nine mile route once a week. After the program gets approval from the French aviation regulatory authority, the federal postal service will be the first to ever use drone delivery on a regular route. The drones used in the French postal service experiment have the capacity to fly up to 12 miles carrying about two pounds maximum, going around 19 miles per hour. They are also equipped with parachutes for safe emergency landing in case something disrupts the flight. The eventual goal is to reach rural or mountainous regions that are otherwise difficult and expensive to get to using cars. The drone mail delivery program has been a project of the DPDgroup, Europe’s second largest international parcel delivery network, operating as a subsidiary under the French national postal service. The DPDgroup had been working on this program with Atechsys, a French drone company, since 2014 in the south of France. “The first commercial line represents a new step in the program, ” DPDgroup said in a press release. With the testing phase now over, the experimentation phase is all set to begin. Currently, those participating in the experiment to receive parcels are non-residential, including over ten tech companies. The done routes stretch over the southeastern region of Provence, going between Saint-Maximin-La-Sainte-Beaume and Pourrieres. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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France Becomes First Federal Postal Service To Use Drones To Deliver Mail

Barnes & Noble’s Latest Tablet Is Running Spyware From Shanghai

Long-time Slashdot reader emil writes about how ADUPS, an Android “firmware provisioning” company specializing in both big data collection of Android usage and hostile app installation and/or firmware control, has been found pre-loaded on Barnes and Noble’s new $50 tablet: ADUPS was recently responsible for data theft on BLU phones and an unsafe version of the ADUPS agent is pre-loaded on the Barnes and Noble BNTV450. ADUPS’ press releases claim that Version 5.5 of their agent is safe, but the BNTV450 is running 5.2. The agent is capable of extracting contacts, listing installed apps, and installing new apps with elevated privilege. Azzedine Benameur, director of research at Kryptowire, claims that “owners can expect zero privacy or control while using it.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Barnes & Noble’s Latest Tablet Is Running Spyware From Shanghai

Uber Lost $800 Million In Third Quarter

According to a report from The Information (Warning: paywalled), Uber has lost more than $800 million in the third quarter. CNBC reports: The results, The Information reported, put Uber on pace to record an 25 percent steeper operating loss than last year, of at least $2.8 billion in 2016, before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization. Despite steep results from one of the world’s most valuable start-ups, these results would have been worse if not for a one-time windfall thanks to the sale of Uber’s China business to Didi Chuxing, The Information reported. On the bright side, Uber’s revenue is skyrocketing, and its rate of losses slowed from the prior quarter, The Information said. Still, the report comes as Uber’s multi-billion dollar valuation has come under scrutiny from those who say its business model depends on subsidies and faces looming battles over regulation. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Uber Lost $800 Million In Third Quarter

Nigerian Man Charged in Hacking of Los Angeles County Emails

A ‘mere’ 10.8% phishing success rate has forced Los Angeles County to notify approximately 756, 000 individuals that their personal information may have been compromised. The attack occurred on May 13, 2016 when 1, 000 County employees received phishing emails. 108 employees were successfully phished. A Nigerian national has been charged in connection with the hack. From a report on The Guardian: Many large organizations would welcome a 10% success rate in their internal anti-phishing training sessions, with 30% and above being common. The 2016 Verizon DBIR suggests that 30% of all phishing emails are opened. The high number of individuals affected from a relatively low number of successes in LA County demonstrates how dangerous phishing attacks can be. The nature of the potentially compromised information is also concerning. “That information may have included first and last names, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, driver’s license or state identification numbers, payment card information, bank account information, home addresses, phone numbers, and/or medical information, such as Medi-Cal or insurance carrier identification numbers, diagnosis, treatment history, or medical record numbers, ” said the County of Los Angeles Chief Executive Office in a statement. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Nigerian Man Charged in Hacking of Los Angeles County Emails

China Chokes On Smog So Bad That Planes Can’t Land

Major cities across northern China choked Monday under a blanket of smog so thick that industries were ordered shut down and air and ground traffic was disrupted. From a report: At least 23 cities issued red alerts for a swath of pollution that has hovered over much of the nation since Friday, China’s Xinhua news agency reported. Alerts are expected to remain in effect through Wednesday. Hospitals set emergency procedures in motion to deal with an influx of breathing-related illnesses. Large hospitals in the port city of Tianjin, less than 100 miles southeast of Beijing, saw a surge in asthma and other respiratory issues, China’s People’s Daily reported. The pollution forced the city to close the highways and caused delays and cancellations for dozens of flights, Xinhua said. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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China Chokes On Smog So Bad That Planes Can’t Land

Yahoo’s Billion-User Database Reportedly Sold On the Dark Web for Just $300,000 – NYT

An anonymous reader writes: As if 2016 wasn’t shitty enough for Yahoo — which admitted to two separate breaches that saw 500 million users’ and then 1 billion users’ details stolen by hackers — the New York Times reports that a billion-user database was sold on the Dark Web last August for $300, 000. That’s according to Andrew Komarov, chief intelligence office at security firm InfoArmor. He told NYT that three buyers, including two prominent spammers and another who might be involved in espionage tactics purchased the entire database at the aforementioned price from a hacker group believed to based in Eastern Europe. It’s lovely to know that it only costs $300, 000 to be able to threaten a billion people’s online existence — which means each account is only worth $0.0003 to hackers who can ruin your life online in a matter of minutes. Yahoo also doesn’t yet know who made off with all the data from the attack in 2013, which is said to be the largest breach of any company ever. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Yahoo’s Billion-User Database Reportedly Sold On the Dark Web for Just $300,000 – NYT