entertainment – Page 213 – Tech Today w/ Ken May

World’s First 5G Field Trial Delivers Speeds of 3.6Gbps Using Sub-6GHz

Mark.JUK writes: Global Chinese ICT firm Huawei and Japanese mobile giant NTT DOCOMO today claim to have conducted the world’s first large-scale field trial of future 5th generation (5G) mobile broadband technology, which was able to deliver a peak speed of 3.6Gbps (Gigabits per second). Previous trials have used significantly higher frequency bands (e.g. 20-80GHz), which struggle with coverage and penetration through physical objects. By comparison Huawei’s network operates in the sub-6GHz frequency band and made use of several new technologies, such as Multi-User MIMO (concurrent connectivity of 24 user devices in the macro-cell environment), Sparse Code Multiple Access (SCMA) and Filtered OFDM (F-OFDM). Assuming all goes well then Huawei hopes to begin a proper pilot in 2018, with interoperability testing being completed during 2019 and then a commercial launch to follow in 2020. But of course they’re not the only team trying to develop a 5G solution. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

SIgn Of the Times: Calif. Privacy Protections Signed Into Law

The EFF reports a spot of bright news from California: Governor Jerry Brown today signed into law the California Electronic Communications Privacy Act. CalECPA, says the organization, “protects Californians by requiring a warrant for digital records, including emails and texts, as well as a user’s geographical location. These protections apply not only to your devices, but to online services that store your data. Only two other states have so far offered these protections: Maine and Utah.” The ACLU provides a fact sheet (PDF) about what the bill entails, which says: SB 178 will ensure that, in most cases, the police must obtain a warrant from a judge before accessing a person’s private information, including data from personal electronic devices, email, digital documents, text messages, and location information. The bill also includes thoughtful exceptions to ensure that law enforcement can continue to effectively and efficiently protect public safety in emergency situations. Notice and enforcement provisions in the bill provide proper transparency and judicial oversight to ensure that the law is followed. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

More:
SIgn Of the Times: Calif. Privacy Protections Signed Into Law

NY Times Passes 1M Digital Subscribers

HughPickens.com writes: Many news organizations, facing competition from digital outlets, have sharply reduced the size of their newsrooms and their investment in news gathering but less than four-and-a-half years after launching its pay model the NY Times has increased coverage as it announced that the Times has passed one million digital-only subscribers, giving them far more than any other news organization in the world. The Times still employs as many reporters as it did 15 years ago — and its ranks now include graphics editors, developers, video journalists and other digital innovators. “It’s a tribute to the hard work and innovation of our marketing, product and technology teams and the continued excellence of our journalism, ” says CEO Mark Thompson. According to Ken Doctor the takeaway from the Times success is that readers reward elite global journalism. The Wall Street Journal is close behind the Times, at 900, 000, while the FT’s digital subscription number stands at 520, 000. “These solid numbers form bedrock for the future. For news companies, being national now means being global, and being global means enjoying unprecedented reach, ” says Doctor. “These audiences of a half-million and more portend more reader revenue to come.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

View article:
NY Times Passes 1M Digital Subscribers

Android 6.0 Marshmallow, thoroughly reviewed

(credit: Ron Amadeo) After a lengthy developer preview , the newest version of Google’s flagship operating system is finally ready for the masses. Android 6.0 Marshmallow is the 23rd version of Google’s “mobile” operating system, though it can accurately be described as “mobile” only if you’re referring to how much it gets around. With all the areas in which Google now tinkers, Marshmallow is destined for smartphones, tablets, watches, televisions, and cars, among others. Google says that the new release has a “back to basics” motif with a focus on “polish and quality.” Marshmallow makes many long-requested features a reality with selectable app permissions, a data backup system that actually works, and the ability to format SD cards as Ext4, allowing the system to treat cards just like internal storage. Marshmallow is also prepared for the future with support for USB Type-C’s power delivery spec, a Fingerprint authentication API, and 4K display support. And, as with any Android release, there’s also lots of new Googley stuff—a slick new search interface and a contextual search mode called “Google Now on Tap,” for example. While this is a review of the final build of “Android 6.0,” we’re going to cover many of Google’s apps along with some other bits that aren’t technically exclusive to Marshmallow. Indeed, big chunks of “Android” don’t actually live in the operating system anymore. Google offloads as much of Android as possible to Google Play Services and to the Play Store for easier updating and backporting to older versions, and this structure allows the company to retain control over its open source platform. As such, consider this a look at the shipping Google Android software package rather than just the base operating system. “Review: New Android stuff Google has released recently” would be a more accurate title, though not as catchy. Read 156 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Originally posted here:
Android 6.0 Marshmallow, thoroughly reviewed

Japan Display Squeezes 8K Resolution Into 17-inch LCD, Cracks 510 PPI At 120Hz

MojoKid writes: By any metric, 8K is an incredibly high resolution. In fact, given that most HD content is still published in 1080p, the same could be said about 4K. 4K packs in four times the pixels of 1080p, while 8K takes that and multiplies it by four once again; we’re talking 33, 177, 600 pixels. We’ve become accustomed to our smartphones having super-high ppi (pixels-per-inch); 5.5-inch 1080p phones are 401 ppi, which is well past the point that humans are able to differentiate individual pixels. Understanding that highlights just how impressive Japan Display’s (JDI) monitor is, as it clocks in at 510 ppi in a 17-inch panel. Other specs include a 2000:1 contrast ratio, a brightness of 500cd/m2, and a 176 degree viewing angle. While the fact that the company achieved 8K resolution in such a small form-factor is impressive in itself, also impressive is the fact that it has a refresh rate of 120Hz. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

See the original article here:
Japan Display Squeezes 8K Resolution Into 17-inch LCD, Cracks 510 PPI At 120Hz

Stagefright 2.0 Vulnerabilities Affect 1 Billion Android Devices

msm1267 writes: Security researcher Joshua Drake today disclosed two more flaws in Stagefright, one that dates back to the first version of Android, and a second dependent vulnerability that was introduced in Android 5.0. The bugs affect more than one billion Android devices, essentially all of them in circulation. One of the vulnerabilities was found in a core Android library called libutils; it has been in the Android OS since it was first released and before there were even Android mobile devices. The second vulnerability was introduced into libstagefright in Android 5.0; it calls into libutils in a vulnerable way. An attacker would use a specially crafted MP3 or MP4 file in this case to exploit the vulnerabilities. Google has released patches into the Android Open Source Project tree, but public patches are not yet available. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Originally posted here:
Stagefright 2.0 Vulnerabilities Affect 1 Billion Android Devices

Patreon Hacked, Personal Data Accessed

AmiMoJo writes: In a blog post Jake Conte, CEO and co-founder of Patreon, writes: “There was unauthorized access to registered names, email addresses, posts, and some shipping addresses. Additionally, some billing addresses that were added prior to 2014 were also accessed. We do not store full credit card numbers on our servers and no credit card numbers were compromised. Although accessed, all passwords, social security numbers and tax form information remain safely encrypted with a 2048-bit RSA key.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

ALS Patients Use a Brain Implant To Type 6 Words Per Minute

the_newsbeagle writes: With electrodes implanted in their neural tissue and a new brain-computer interface, two paralyzed people with ALS used their thoughts to control a computer cursor with unprecedented accuracy and speed. They showed off their skills by using a predictive text-entering program to type sentences, achieving a rate of 6 words per minute. While paralyzed people can type faster using other assistive technologies that are already on the market, like eye-gaze trackers and air-puff controllers, a brain implant could be the only option for paralyzed people who can’t reliably control their eyes or mouth muscles. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Visit site:
ALS Patients Use a Brain Implant To Type 6 Words Per Minute

Building the ultimate X99 gaming and benchmarking PC

Armed with an Intel Haswell-E CPU, 32GB of DDR4 RAM, and an M.2 SSD, Ars UK puts together the ultimate gaming and benchmarking rig for the office. (video link) There are all sorts of reasons why you might want to get into PC gaming over, or in addition to a console: the huge library of comparatively cheap games on Steam, niche indie games that just wouldn’t find a home anywhere else, or maybe even the flexibility to run games on anything from lowly laptops all the way through to watercooled 4K behemoths. Then there are the other guys: the ones who obsess over clock speeds, how much wattage their power supply puts out, and if you really can cram an 8-core processor and a Titan X into a PC the size of shoebox . Consider me one of those people. For me, picking out the right components and building it all into a sleek, cable-managed rig is as much a part of PC gaming as it is actually playing games. Read 23 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Dr Who Detective Philip Morris Hints At More Rediscovered Episodes

BigBadBus writes: In late 2013, Philip Morris announced that he had found 9 missing episodes of 1960s Dr.Who, which completed the 1968 story “Enemy of the World” and most of “The Web of Fear.” He has now gone on record to talk about the only episode of these stories that he didn’t find — namely part 3 of “Web of Fear” and teases of more episode finds to come. Episodes keep trickling out of the past, it seems; we’ve mentioned a few small finds in 2004 and 2011, too. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Excerpt from:
Dr Who Detective Philip Morris Hints At More Rediscovered Episodes