Tag: engadget

Pirates hacked a shipping firm to find boats to raid

Seaborne pirates just borrowed a page from their land-based counterparts . A Verizon security report has revealed that raiders hacked a shipping company’s content management system to determine which ships were worth boarding, and where the valuable cargo was located. They not only knew when to launch a raid, but the exact crates they had to pry open — they could get in, steal the cargo they want and leave without the risk of a days-long, Captain Philips -style hostage situation. In this case, the pirates still had a lot to learn about hacking. They didn’t encrypt their commands or use proxies, making it easy to trace their activities. They also weren’t skilled enough to compromise systems as much as they wanted. However, those tidbits aren’t about to comfort other shipping companies. If there’s a pirate outfit that’s both well-armed and technically savvy, it could create havoc by plundering ships with relatively little fear of getting caught. Via: Business Insider Source: Verizon

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Pirates hacked a shipping firm to find boats to raid

Scientists built a book-sized, protein-powered biocomputer

Supercomputers are absurdly impressive in terms of raw power , but it comes at a price: size and energy consumption. A multi-university team of researchers might’ve sidestepped that, though, with protein-powered biocomputers . Lund University notes that where this should really be helpful is with cryptography and “mathematical optimization” because with each task it’s necessary to test multiple solution sets. Unlike a traditional computer, biocomputers don’t work in sequence, they operate in parallel — leading to much faster problem solving. The biocomputer in action, with proteins finding their way to the solution set at the bottom. Oh and about that energy efficiency? Lund’s Heiner Linke says that they require less than one percent of the power a traditional transistor does to do one calculation step. The CBC reports that the model biocomputer used in the experiment is only about the size of a book, rather than, say, IBM’s Watson (pictured above) that’s comprised of some 90 server modules. The ATP-powered biocomputer is admittedly limited for now (it’s only solved 2, 5, 9), but the scientists involved say that scalability is possible and we might not be far off from seeing the tech perform more complex tasks. “Our approach has the potential to be general and to be developed further to enable the efficient encoding and solving of a wide range of large-scale problems, ” the research paper says. Via: The CBC Source: PNAS , Lund University

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Scientists built a book-sized, protein-powered biocomputer

Doctors reveal they can 3D print body parts and tissue

3D printing isn’t just for toys and models — doctors at the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine announced yesterday that they’ve managed to 3D print “living” tissue and organs that functioned properly when implanted in animals. The team, led by Anthony Atala, is already renowned for printing the building blocks for human bladders. But now they’ve reached another level entirely: They say it’s possible to print structures large and strong enough for humans. They’ve printed muscle structures, bone and ear tissue so far, according to Nature . With a little more work, the technology could revolutionize the way we approach surgical replacements (and finally make plenty of sci-fi biotechnology scenarios a reality). At the heart of the discovery is the Integrated Organ and Printing System (ITOP), which is unlike any 3D printer we’ve seen so far. It uses “biodegradable, plastic-like material” to form the shape of tissues, as well as water-based ink to hold cells and a series of microchannels to allow oxygen and nutrients to flow through. The idea is to make strong tissue that effectively integrates into animals and humans. Sure, we’ve been hearing about 3D printed organs for years, but this announcement is notable for several reasons. Atala’s team used the ITOP to print human-sized ears that were implanted under the skin of mice and, over the course of two months, managed to form cartilage and blood vessels. They’ve also seen similar progress when implanting muscle tissue and skull bone in rats. At this rate, it might not be too long before we start seeing human trials. Source: Nature

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Doctors reveal they can 3D print body parts and tissue

AT&T matches Verizon’s $650 offer to swap carriers

AT&T has announced that it’ll hand you up to $650 in credit should you choose to switch from another mobile carrier. If you’re prepared to jump through the various hurdles, you’ll be entitled to a pre-paid gift card equal to the value of your ETF or device balance. In addition, the network is letting you pair the deal with its buy one, get one free offer, enabling you to grab two shiny new devices at the same time. The offering is the latest in a long series of credit offers, with Verizon pushing its own offer to $650 last December . America’s mobile market is now so saturated that customers that are willing to switch provider are worth their weight in gold. At first, it was just ETF-based skirmishes between T-Mobil e and AT&T , but things really warmed up when device subsidies went out the window. Then, every network was using its spare cash to get you out from under the yoke of their rivals . It wasn’t long before everyone was escalating the amount of money they’d promise you, and now $650 seems to be the new normal . Of course, the question we feel we have to ask is: how sustainable is all of this? Source: AT&T

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AT&T matches Verizon’s $650 offer to swap carriers

AT&T gets ready to test 5G technologies this 2016

AT&T has been working on possible 5G technologies, such as millimeter waves, for years. Now that it’s time to get serious, it’s teaming up with Ericsson and Intel to ramp up its development in the lab in the second quarter of the year. After that, it’s moving its 5G endeavors out of the lab and into the field, starting with outdoor tests over the summer. The carrier says 60 percent of its mobile traffic in 2015 came from video. It’s moving forward with its 5G plans, because emerging technologies like virtual reality, 4K video, robots, Internet of Things and self-driving cars will be even more demanding. As AT&T’s Chief Strategy Officer John Donovan notes, those technologies “will be immersive, pervasive and responsive to customers. 5G will help make them a reality.” 5G internet could be anywhere from 10 to 100 times faster than LTE, with users observing downloads going gigabits (yes, giga bits) per second. Imagine being able to finish downloading a TV show for less than three seconds. That’s nowhere near enough time to get up and microwave some popcorn. AT&T believes its 5G network will even be able to start streaming videos much, much faster — just 1 to 5 milliseconds from the moment you press play — than an LTE connection. If everything goes well, some parts of Austin, Texas will be able to test out Ma Bell’s 5G tech by the end of this year. The company says it’s conducting tests in a way that enables it to deploy the network commercially as soon as 5G standards are set. You’d have to wait a while for that to happen, though. 3GPP, the international consortium in charge of hashing out network standards, is working on it right now. However, phase one (of two) won’t be completed until the first half of 2018. By the way, AT&T isn’t the only US carrier gearing up to test its next-gen mobile network: Verizon will soon begin its 5G wireless service trials, as well. [Image credit: Mike Mozart/Flickr ] Source: AT&T

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AT&T gets ready to test 5G technologies this 2016

You can run over 1,000 Windows 3.1 programs in your browser

The Internet Archive has spent many years gathering and storing digital content from the past. It now hosts millions of web pages, texts, videos and audio snippets, but recently the site expanded its collection to include software, or more specifically, games . After making more than 2, 400 DOS titles available to play in the browser , the Internet Archive has embraced the GUI and done the same for Windows 3.1. It’s kicked things off by adding more than 1, 000 programs to its Windows 3.1 Software Library. The vast majority of them are games, including Taipei and Ski Free , but there’s plenty of browser-based shareware to get stuck into. There’s also a curated collection called the “Windows Showcase, ” which lists some of the best known programs and games from 20 years ago. It’s been made possible by Boris Gjenero’s EM-DOSbox emulator, which converts Windows runtimes into JavaScript code that can be interpreted by your browser. It’s what underpins the Archive’s DOS collection and testers have already used it to boot Windows 95 . That suggests we may only have to wait a short while to see more Windows programs added to the collection. Via: Internet Archive Blog Source: Windows 3.1 Software Library

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You can run over 1,000 Windows 3.1 programs in your browser

Tinder bans users for sending pro-Bernie Sanders messages

Campaigning for Bernie Sanders, and presumably any other politician, can get you banned from Tinder. According to a report from Reuters , two users of the dating app learned that the hard way recently, after their accounts were locked for sending private messages about the 2016 presidential candidate . One woman, for example, told the publication she sent 60 messages per day to other people on Tinder, as she hoped to convince them to support Senator Sanders. Those read as “Do you feel the Bern?” and “Please text WORK to 82623 for me. Thanks, ” which would then prompt the recipients to get updates from the Sanders campaign . It also sent a link with a sign-up page for volunteering. Tinder has yet to issue an official statement, but we reached out to the service and will update the story if we hear back. It’s worth noting that Tinder’s Terms of Use are pretty clear. The document’s Section 9, which you can read in full here , states users “may not post, upload, display or otherwise make available Content that … involves the transmission of ‘junk mail, ‘ ‘chain letters, ‘ or unsolicited mass mailing or ‘spamming’ (or ‘spimming, ‘ ‘phishing, ‘ ‘trolling’ or similar activities).” If a user doesn’t follow the rules, Tinder says it has the right to “investigate, suspend and/or terminate” an account. Via: The Hill Source: Reuters

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Tinder bans users for sending pro-Bernie Sanders messages

The first Ultra HD Blu-ray players are already on sale

I wasn’t expecting to see Samsung’s UBD-K8500 Ultra HD Blu-ray player on sale until the end of the month , but it’s already available at a few stores. USA Today points out that Video and Audio Center in Santa Monica is kicking off sales today, and the store’s Facebook page indicates that there are already movies available as well. If that’s not close and you feel the need for 4K discs, AVS Forum posters have also found the players in stock at San Diego-area Fry’s Electronics stores. Sure, not everyone is feeling the Ultra HD Blu-ray hype , but if you want to be among the first to see that extra resolution and HDR, then it’s time to get moving. SAMSUNG’S STREAMING UBD-K8500 4K BLU-RAY PLAYER & 4K ULTRA HD BLU-RAY DISKS DEBUTS TODAY AT VIDEO & AUDIO CENTER!You… Posted by Video & Audio Center on Friday, February 5, 2016 Source: USA Today , Video and Audio Center (Facebook) , AVS Forum

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The first Ultra HD Blu-ray players are already on sale

US Customs seize 16,000 counterfeit ‘hoverboards’

The US Customs and Border Protection has prevented 16, 000 counterfeit “hoverboards” from making it to people’s homes. Authorities have seized a warehouse full of the controversial two-wheeled scooters stamped with fake trademark logos and equipped with unauthorized batteries in Chicago. They believe the goods they collected amount to $6 million overall, at least for now. That figure will grow even bigger, since the warehouse is expecting a “massive amount of shipments” to arrive in the next few weeks. These self-balancing scooters became a huge hit last year, so numerous questionable manufacturers took advantage of the craze and released subpar, non-quality controlled versions to stores. They’ve been all over the news in the past few months for spontaneously catching fire and burning people’s houses down. At least one incident took place in Illinois. Due to the hazard inferior-quality hoverboards pose, the scooters had been banned from many airplanes , universities and even from NYC’s trains and buses . Last year, UK authorities also seized 15, 000 units after inspecting shipments at seaports and airports. [Image credit: US Customs/Flickr ] Via: Mashable Source: US Customs and Border Protection

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US Customs seize 16,000 counterfeit ‘hoverboards’

Facebook eyes ride-sharing feature for events pages

Facebook has been ramping up its Events pages as of late, and a recent patent application shows another use for those listings. In the paperwork, the social network explains how Events pages can also serve as a hub for ride sharing. Instead of the usual Going, Not Going, and Interested RSVPs on an event’s page, you would have the option to say whether or not you plan to drive. If you do, you can input details as to how many passengers you can take, if you just want to offer a ride to friends and what time you’ll be leaving. As you might expect, Facebook can pair passengers and drivers based on personal details like common interests, where you went to school and more to decrease the chances of awkward silence. After your pals (or soon-to-be pals) are all locked in, you’ll receive navigation info to guide you to the pickup spots. While a patent app doesn’t mean the company will actually implement the feature, this makes a lot of sense for Facebook. Using the Events pages as a primary interface could allow the folks in Melo Park to include ride sharing and carpooling relatively easily. For now, though, you’ll have to rely on hailing an Uber through Messenger . Via: Tech Insider Source: USPTO

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Facebook eyes ride-sharing feature for events pages