Over a year ago, the solar-powered airplane Solar Impulse 2 started its audacious round-the-world trip —but it became so damaged that it had to pull up short in Hawaii . Now, it’s ready to fly again. Read more…
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Solar-Powered Airplane Solar Impulse 2 to Continue Round-the-World Flight
Justin Ling and Jordan Pearson, reporting for Vice News: A high-level surveillance probe of Montreal’s criminal underworld shows that Canada’s federal policing agency has had a global encryption key for BlackBerry devices since 2010. The revelations are contained in a stack of court documents that were made public after members of a Montreal crime syndicate pleaded guilty to their role in a 2011 gangland murder. The documents shed light on the extent to which the smartphone manufacturer, as well as telecommunications giant Rogers, cooperated with investigators. According to technical reports by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police that were filed in court, law enforcement intercepted and decrypted roughly one million PIN-to-PIN BlackBerry messages in connection with the probe. The report doesn’t disclose exactly where the key — effectively a piece of code that could break the encryption on virtually any BlackBerry message sent from one device to another — came from. But, as one police officer put it, it was a key that could unlock millions of doors. Government lawyers spent almost two years fighting in a Montreal courtroom to keep this information out of the public record. Motherboard has published another article in which it details how Canadian police intercept and read encrypted BlackBerry messages. “BlackBerry to Canadian court: Please don’t reveal the fact that we backdoored our encryption, ” privacy and security activist Christopher Soghoian wittily summarizes the report. “Canadian gov: If you use Blackberry consumer encryption, you’re a “dead chicken”. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Canadian Police Have Had BlackBerry’s Global Decryption Key Since 2010
There are still ten days to go until Game of Thrones season six debuts, but HBO is doing its best to keep fans’ appetites for new footage satiated until then. After dropping a dingy new trailer on Monday, and some behind-the-scenes footage yesterday, it’s now released a 360-degree video of the show’s opening credits on Facebook. The extended sequence lets you explore the famous clockwork map of Westeros and Essos. The map is arranged inside a sphere, which means looking in the right direction will give you a little peek across the water at Sothoryos and the Basilisk Isles. Many of the show’s iconic locations are there, from King’s Landing and Winterfell to Dorne. There are more than a few easter eggs to discover just by looking around as well, including a glimpse of an unnamed direwolf by the wall — make of that what you will — and a PG-13 view of the Titan of Braavos. Via: Deadline Source: Game of Thrones (Facebook)
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The ‘Game of Thrones’ credits are more fun in 360-degrees
Jeff Bezos probably wasn’t pleased to see his surprise spoiled this week, but e-book fans still have reason to get pumped. Amazon just pulled back the curtain on its new premium reader, the Kindle Oasis, and it’s the slimmest and sleekest model the company has ever cooked up. Of course, with a price tag starting at $289.99 (£269.99), it’s also one of the most expensive. To hear Amazon tell the tale, all the decisions were made with one goal in mind: to let the hardware itself almost disappear from view and readers lose themselves in their stories. “We’re not going to be happy until we’ve got this magic sheet of paper that contains all the books in the world, ” quipped Chris Green, VP of industrial design at Amazon’s Lab126. “Edge-to-edge, all content, no device. And when we get there, I might be out of a job.” Realizing that ideal is going to take a while, but the Oasis is a fascinating step in that direction. To get the Oasis as light and sturdy as it is, Amazon took a plastic chassis and electroplated with a special metal alloy. I’m told it’s a pricey process, which no doubt reflects in the Oasis’s steep asking price, but the end result weighs in at a paltry 4.6 ounces. The company also used a startlingly thin Paperwhite display and fitted even more LEDs along one side for brighter, more consistent lighting. Amazon let me toss a few books onto their demo Oasis, and Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World looked fantastically crisp on it. That said, don’t expect the Oasis to be any sharper than current models: it runs at the same 300PPI resolution as the Kindle Voyage and new Paperwhite . So, the screen is still pretty great. The Oasis’s design, on the other hand, is… pretty divisive. Most of it is incredibly thin — think 3.4mm — with a flared edge meant to nestle into your palm. The asymmetric look takes a little getting used to, certainly, but let’s not forget that Amazon is no stranger to asymmetry. Remember how kooky the original Kindle looked ? Anyway, after using it for about a half hour, I’m down with Amazon’s deign decision. I’ve always gripped (or tried to grip) my e-readers with one hand, and the Oasis’s odd look is perfect for it. Its hump has a nice angle to it that’s easy to hang onto, and the larger bezel — where two physical page-turn buttons also live — is spacious enough to accommodate by fat thumb without letting meat spill over onto the screen. The Oasis is also the first Kindle with an accelerometer, so lefties can turn the thing over and use it just fine. Alas, it’s still not waterproof. Amazon wouldn’t comment on future plans when I asked, but one of the Kindle’s designers seemed very well versed on what it takes to waterproof a gadget — make of that what you will. That slimness comes with a price — the Oasis by itself has a battery that’ll last about two weeks on a single charge, down from the nearly six weeks the Voyage gets. To help, Amazon crafted a leather-backed case that houses an additional battery that adds about seven weeks to the Oasis’s modest battery life. Don’t worry: it’s free and comes in the Oasis’s box. Slap the cover onto the Oasis and it automatically starts charging, and if you charge the Kindle while the case is connected, both charge at the same time. Throw a new hibernation mode into the mix and the combined Kindle-and-case can sit untouched for even longer without needing a charge — perfect for when the pull of paper books is too hard to resist. You’ll be able to pre-order an Oasis of your very own starting today, with your choice of black, merlot or walnut leather cover. What remains to be seen is whether anyone but full-tilt e-reading fanatics should invest in an Oasis — stay tuned for a full verdict in the weeks to come.
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Amazon’s high-end Kindle Oasis is sleek, sharp and pricey
The World Health Organization estimates 1 billion people across the world live with disabilities, and Google’s philanthropy division, Google.org, just pledged $20 million to help improve their situations. The money is spread across 29 programs working on disability technologies — the average amount they’ll each receive is $750, 000, with six of the grant winners getting more than $1 million, Wired reports. The programs fall into five categories of disabilities — hearing, mobility, cognitive, vision and communication — and the winning programs tackle a variety of issues. Here are a few examples: My Human Kit connects people who need prosthetics with low-cost 3D-printed solutions. The Center for Discovery is building an open-source add-on that turns any manual wheelchair into a power chair. Perkins School for the Blind wants to roll out more detailed GPS instructions to ensure the visually impaired don’t get left behind when independently navigating the real world. The Dan Marino Foundation is developing a digital, interactive system to help young people on the autism spectrum train for job interviews. The Leprosy Mission Trust India is making low-cost custom footwear that enables people with leprosy to maintain their ability to walk. In related accessibility news, Google recently rolled out the beta for its Voice Access system , which allows users to navigate their phones via voice commands. Via: Wired Source: Google.org
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Google.org pledges $20 million to support disability technologies
Welcome to the future. A future where the Windows Blue Screen of Death now features a QR code as well as a sad face. Read more…
An anonymous reader shares a report on ZDNet: Security researcher Mike Olsen has warned that some products sold through the Amazon marketplace are harboring a dark secret — malware. Olsen said in a blog post that while scouring Amazon for a decent set of outdoor surveillance cameras for a friend, he came across a deal for 6 PoE cameras and recording equipment. The seller, Urban Security Group, had generally good reviews and was offering a particular Sony setup on sale. After purchasing the kit, Olsen started setting up the surveillance system, logging into the administrator panel to configure it. Upon investigation, Olsen found that the device was talking to a server with hostname Brenz.pl, which is linked to malware distribution. If the device’s firmware links to this domain, malware can be downloaded and installed, potentially leading to unlawful surveillance and data theft.Perhaps the company which made the device didn’t realize its source code was compromised. While the aforementioned incident should serve as a reminder to people on why they need to be wary of the product they are purchasing, this isolated occurrence doesn’t prove in any way that “plenty” of cameras on Amazon are also infected, as the article and the original blog post are subtly trying to imply. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Surveillance Cameras Sold On Amazon Found Infected With Malware
You can already buy things on Facebook, and later this month, you’ll be able to snag concert tickets without leaving the site, too. Ticketmaster VP Dan Armstrong told BuzzFeed in an interview that the ticket retailer would begin selling admission to live music and other events through the social network’s site and mobile app before April’s end. While Ticketmaster isn’t the first to coordinate purchases from Facebook, making tickets to events available on the social channel seems like a good move for both companies. Facebook users already RSVP to events on the regular, so there’s certainly a convenience in having the tickets easily accessible there. You know, so you can catch up when one of your pals RSVPs to a show you either didn’t know about or forgot was coming to town. It also keeps you on Facebook longer rather than having to head elsewhere to complete the transaction. As you might expect, Ticketmaster is hoping the integration will lead to more ticket sales. Details are scarce on exactly how the process will work, but BuzzFeed does mention that Facebook stands to collect “a standard affiliate fee” from each purchase. We’ll have to wait and see if that will affect those pesky service charges, but you will still have to claim any tickets you buy from the Ticketmaster site after the initial transaction. To start, the option will be limited to a select few general admission events, so it could be a while before you can use the feature to grab all of your concert tickets. And when it’s time to head home afterwards, just fire up Facebook Messenger to hail a ride . Source: BuzzFeed
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Ticketmaster will start selling tickets on Facebook this month
E-readers get a bad rap—probably because there are a lot of illiterate assholes out there who hate reading. For the rest of us totally wicked people e-readers are amazing and Amazon’s rumored announcement of a new e-reader is a cause to celebrate. Read more…
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Leak of New Amazon E-Reader Suggests It’s Flipping Cool
After an inexplicable shift into Emergency Mode, NASA managed to partially recover its planet-hunting Kepler spacecraft. But we still don’t know what caused it to freak out in the first place. Read more…
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NASA Just Recovered Its Drifting Kepler Spacecraft