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iOS 9.1 release lays groundwork for upcoming Apple TV and iPad Pro

The upcoming iPad Pro will require iOS 9.1 (credit: Andrew Cunningham) Apple has just released iOS 9.1, the first major update to iOS 9 and the third update overall since the OS came out in September. It’s available as an over-the-air download or through iTunes for everything that supports iOS 9: the iPhone 4S or newer, the iPad 2 or newer, all flavors of the iPad Mini, and the fifth- and sixth-generation iPod Touches. The change you’ll notice the most if you do a bunch of texting is that Apple has implemented a bunch of new emoji, mostly from the Unicode 7.0 and 8.0 specs but with a few from earlier specifications mixed in. Tacos, burritos, and extended middle fingers are just a few of the additions you’ll find to the emoji keyboard, which needs a decent search function now more than ever. iOS 9.1 also lays the groundwork for some other iOS devices that are launching soon. One is the new Apple TV, which ships with the iOS-based “tvOS.” The other is the iPad Pro, which brings with it support for the Apple Pencil and its Smart Keyboard cover. The Apple TV ships next week , while the iPad Pro is due sometime in November. Read 2 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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iOS 9.1 release lays groundwork for upcoming Apple TV and iPad Pro

Today’s OS X El Capitan update should fix Microsoft Office crashes

An update to OS X El Capitan released by Apple today  promises to improve compatibility with Microsoft Office 2016. Office 2016 has been crashing a lot on the latest Mac operating system, which was released on September 30 . Although Microsoft released an Office update on October 13 that contained “stability improvements,” Microsoft told Ars at the time that the update “doesn’t address the issues experienced by Office customers with OS X 10.11 El Capitan.” Microsoft said it was working with Apple to fix the problems, and that work resulted in today’s release of OS X 10.11.1. Read 3 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Today’s OS X El Capitan update should fix Microsoft Office crashes

Support scams that plagued Windows users for years now target Mac customers

Enlarge (credit: Malwarebytes) For years, scammers claiming that they’re “calling from Windows” have dialed up Microsoft customers and done their best to trick them into parting with their money or installing malicious wares. Now, the swindlers are turning their sights on Mac users. Researchers at antivirus provider Malwarebytes spotted a Web-based campaign that attempts to trick OS X and iOS users into thinking there’s something wrong with their devices . The ruse starts with a pop-up window that’s designed to look like an official OS notification. “Critical Security Warning!” it says. “Your Device (iPad, iPod, iPhone) is infected with a malicious adward [sic] attack.” It goes on to provide a phone number people can call to receive tech support. The site ara-apple.com is designed to masquerade as https://ara.apple.com/ , Apple’s official remote technical support page. People who are experiencing problems with their Macs can go there to get an official Apple tech support provider to remotely access the person’s computer desktop. Ara-apple provides links to the remote programs the supposed technician will use to log in to targets’ Macs. Read 1 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Support scams that plagued Windows users for years now target Mac customers

How Neurosurgeons Can Now Look at Your Brain Through Your Eyes

For many years scientists have been trying to find a way to measure the pressure in a patient’s brain without having to drill a hole in the person’s skull. Although this remains the most reliable way to measure pressure in the brain it is invasive, expensive and comes with the risk of infection and bleeding. Read more…

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How Neurosurgeons Can Now Look at Your Brain Through Your Eyes

Scientists grow functional kidney organoid from stem cells

A drawing shows the complex structure of a kidney. (credit: Wikimedia commons ) There are many diseases that attack specific organs, landing patients on a transplant list. Unfortunately, our bodies have markers that identify an organ as “self,” which makes it difficult to find an organ match. Many individuals die waiting for an organ transplant because a match can’t be found. Research on stem cells—a type of cell that is able to transform into nearly any cell type—has raised hopes of treating organ failure. Researchers envision using these cells to grow fully functional organs. A functional organ is similar to a machine. Organs contain many interacting parts that must be positioned in a specific configuration to work properly. Getting all the right cell types in the appropriate locations is a real challenge. Recently, a team of scientists has met that challenge by using stem cells to grow a tissue, termed an organoid, that resembles a developing kidney. Read 8 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Scientists grow functional kidney organoid from stem cells

New zero-day exploit hits fully patched Adobe Flash [Updated]

Update on October 14 at 1:15pm PDT: Adobe officials have confirmed this vulnerability affects Flash version 19.0.0.207 , which was released on Tuesday. The vulnerability has been cataloged as CVE-2015-7645. The company expects to release a fix next week. Attackers are exploiting a previously unknown vulnerability in fully patched versions of Adobe’s Flash Player so they can surreptitiously install malware on end users’ computers, security researchers warned Tuesday. So far, the attacks are known to target only government agencies as part of a long-running espionage campaign carried out by a group known as Pawn Storm, researchers from antivirus provider Trend Micro said in a blog post published Tuesday . It’s not unusual for such zero-day exploits to be more widely distributed once the initial element of surprise wanes. The critical security flaw is known to reside in Flash versions 19.0.0.185 and 19.0.0.207 and may also affect earlier versions. At this early stage, no other technical details are available. The researchers wrote: Read 3 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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New zero-day exploit hits fully patched Adobe Flash [Updated]

Toyota 2050 plans to cut CO2 from its new cars by 90 percent

Earlier today, Toyota unveiled a bold new plan for the company’s sustainability efforts. By the year 2050, it plans to have cut CO 2 emissions from its new cars by 90 percent (compared to 2010). Toyota also wants to completely eliminate CO 2 pollution from new car manufacturing, as well as over the entire lifecycle of a car including its recycling. These are bold goals. The company says it will build off the success of its Prius hybrids to cut vehicle emissions. Advanced hybrid powertrains will be a big research focus, and the company even gave a shout-out to silicon carbide supercapacitors. In addition, big things are planned for hydrogen. The Japanese government has been incentivizing its car industry to work with fuel cells, and road cars are starting to appear. The Toyota Mirai is already in production and coming to America, even if the fueling stations it will depend upon are few and far between. Completely eradicating CO 2 from the production and recycling of new cars is an equally big challenge. The company wants all its production factories to have zero emissions, in part through renewable energy and fuel cells. And it has goals to promote recycling and conservation around the world. More specifics are included in Toyota’s new environmental action plan —its sixth so far—which runs from 2016-2020. That means it will be a few years before we can judge if Toyota’s commitment to the environment is succeeding. Read on Ars Technica | Comments

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Toyota 2050 plans to cut CO2 from its new cars by 90 percent

Cemu, the first working Nintendo Wii U emulator, publicly released

After months of fakes, a proper Wii U emulator is finally available for download—even if it is still rather janky. According to the developer, Cemu contains “basically no optimizations whatsoever,” no proper controller support, and no audio. For the time being, it’s only for Windows x64, although other platforms might eventually be supported. Ignoring all these caveats, it’s actually quite impressive if these videos are any indication of how far it’s come already. NES Remix Gameplay Windwaker HD booting up to menu (video link) Cemu, which is currently in what has been termed as its “proof-of-concept release” stage, requires OpenGL 3.3 to operate. It has an internal resolution of 1920×1080, and can run encrypted Wii U images (WUD) and RPX/RPL files. If you want to launch a game, it will need to be in raw dump format (WUS or ISO). There are plans to release updates on a fortnightly basis, although nothing has been set in stone as of yet. Interestingly, Cemu defies current emulator trends by not being an open-source project. Read 4 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Cemu, the first working Nintendo Wii U emulator, publicly released

University of Cambridge study finds 87% of Android devices are insecure

The study’s estimate of the proportion of known “insecure,” “maybe secure” and “secure” devices over time. (credit: androidvulnerabilities.org ) It’s easy to see that the Android ecosystem currently has a rather lax policy toward security, but a recent study from the University of Cambridge put some hard numbers to Android’s security failings. The conclusion finds that “on average 87.7% of Android devices are exposed to at least one of 11 known critical vulnerabilities.” Data for the study was collected through the group’s ” Device Analyzer ” app, which has been available for free on the Play Store since May 2011. After the participants opted into the survey, the University says it collected daily Android version and build number information from over 20,400 devices. The study then compared this version information against 13 critical vulnerabilities (including the Stagefright vulnerabilities ) dating back to 2010. Each individual device was then labeled “secure” or “insecure” based on whether or not its OS version was patched against these vulnerabilities, or placed in a special “maybe secure” category if it could have gotten a specialized, backported fix. As for why so many Android devices are insecure, the study found that most of the blame sits with OEMs. The group states that “the bottleneck for the delivery of updates in the Android ecosystem rests with the manufacturers, who fail to provide updates to fix critical vulnerabilities.” Along with the study, the University of Cambridge is launching ” AndroidVulnerabilities.org ,” a site that houses this data and grades OEMs based on their security record. The group came up with a 1-10 security rating for OEMs that it calls the “FUM” score. This algorithm takes into account the number of days a proportion of running devices has no known vulnerabilities ( F ree), the proportion of devices that run the latest version of Android ( U pdate), and the mean number of vulnerabilities not fixed on any device the company sells ( M ean). The study found that Google’s Nexus devices were the most secure out there, with a FUM score of 5.2 out of 10. Surprisingly, LG was next with 4.0, followed by Motorola, Samsung, Sony, and HTC, respectively. Read 3 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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University of Cambridge study finds 87% of Android devices are insecure

Army’s first shoulder-fired “smart weapon” close to final test

Orbital ATK The XM25 is the Army’s first “smart” shoulder-fired weapon. “It launches 25mm dual-warhead, low velocity, flat trajectory ammunition designed to explode over a target,” as the Army describes it-allowing it to blow things and people up hidden behind cover. 4 more images in gallery Early next year, the US Army will begin acceptance testing of a weapon that seems like it’s straight out of Call of Duty Advanced Warfare:  the XM25 Counter Defilade Engagement System , a “smart” grenade launcher from Orbital Sciences subsidiary Orbital ATK. The XM25 is designed to be an “anti-defilade” weapon-its purpose is to allow soldiers to hit targets shielded by cover. The XM25 has a built-in “target acquisition and fire control system” that allows any soldier with basic rifleman skills to operate it effectively–the soldier points the weapon’s target selector down range, and a laser rangefinder determines how far away it is. The soldier can add additional distance to clear obstacles, and the fire control computer gives the soldier a new aiming point to put the round on target, as well as setting the fusing of the grenade in the chamber. The grenade doesn’t have to strike anything to explode, so it can detonate in the air over whatever or whoever might be hiding behind a vehicle, wall, or entrenchment. The XM25 has been in development since the middle of the last decade. Originally developed by Alliant TechSystems, which was acquired by Orbital Sciences. In 2010, the Army’s PEO Soldier program office sent prototypes of the XM25 to Afghanistan for “forward operational assessment”–use in actual combat to see how it performed. PEO Soldier’s Lt. Colonel Chris Lehner said in a post about the field tests that the “introduction of the XM25 is akin to other revolutionary systems such as the machine gun, the airplane and the tank, all of which changed battlefield tactics. No longer will our Soldiers have to expose themselves by firing and maneuvering to eliminate an enemy behind cover. Our Soldiers can remain covered/protected and use their XM25 to neutralize an enemy in his covered position. This will significantly reduce the risk of U.S. casualties and change the way we fight.” Read 2 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Army’s first shoulder-fired “smart weapon” close to final test