Tag: events

You can now restore deleted iCloud files, contacts and calendars

If you’ve ever accidently deleted a file in a cloud service (or worse had someone delete a shared file) you know that any restore feature is a god send. Apple recently launched its own file restore feature for iCloud.com users that resurrects files, contacts, calendars and reminders. The new feature is buried in the Advanced area within Settings and deleted files seem to be available for restore for up to 30 days. While grabbing old files before they disappear forever is a no brainer, iCloud’s restoring of calendar and contacts carries with them warnings that the restored data will overwrite the calendar and contact data currently on your devices. So you want to be careful before you start going back in time with abandon. Calendar restore is especially touchy. If you restore a calendar all your shared calendars will have to be shared again and events will be cancelled and invitations will be resent. This is really only for when something goes horribly wrong with your calendar or contacts and you need to get back to a previous version. If you do decide to restore a calendar or contact and everything goes haywire, all is not lost. The feature grabs a snapshot of your current data and you can just restore that. Filed under: Storage , Internet , Apple Comments Source: 9to5 Mac Tags: apple, cloud, iCloud

See the article here:
You can now restore deleted iCloud files, contacts and calendars

OwnStar car hacker can remotely unlock BMWs, Benz and Chrysler

Last month security researcher Samy Kamar announced a vulnerability that allowed him to remotely unlock OnStar-enabled GM cars . While that issue has been fixed, it looks like the same vulnerability found in OnStar is also present in BMW Remote, Mercedes’ mbrace and Chrysler’s Uconnect. Kumar told Engadget via email, “the issue itself is the same exact SSL certificate issue that affected OnStar/GM (which they’ve resolved two weeks ago). It was barely any tweaking of the original system — a few lines of code to add support per vehicle.” Uh oh. I’ve updated OwnStar to also unlock cars from and attack BMW Remote, Mercedes-Benz mbrace, and Chrysler Uconnect. https://t.co/qRsjtLnRlM — Samy Kamkar (@samykamkar) August 13, 2015 The OwnStar device intercepts communication between a vehicle and its companion app and sends that information — including login information — to Kamar who then has control of the vehicle via the app and can unlock it. If you’re feeling smug about your vehicle because Kamar hasn’t called it out, you might want to curb that. The SSL certificate issue that allows a person to log in to a vehicle is pretty widespread. “Unfortunately it’s prevalent among half the other mobile unlocking apps I’ve tested, ” Kamar said. A Chrysler spokesperson told Engadget, “Consumer safety and security is our highest priority.” And that it “supports the responsible disclosure and remediation of cyber security vulnerabilities. Consistent with our focus on consumer safety and security FCA US opposes irresponsible disclosure of explicit ‘how to’ information that can help criminals gain unauthorized access to vehicles and vehicle systems.” Kamar won’t be releasing the updated code for OwnStar for at least 30 days so the automakers have a chance to update their systems. But if you’re an automaker that hasn’t been called out by hackers or security researchers, you might want to check your systems anyways. We have contacted BMW and Mercedes Benz for this article and will update when they reply to our queries. Filed under: Misc , Transportation Comments Source: Samy Kamar Tags: BMW, Chrysler, MercedesBenz, OwnStar, SamyKamar, Security

Continue reading here:
OwnStar car hacker can remotely unlock BMWs, Benz and Chrysler

Printing Flexible Lithium-Ion Batteries

ckwu writes: The designs of pacemakers, watches, and other wearable gadgets have to be tailored around existing battery shapes, such as cylinders, coin cells, and rectangles. But a team of researchers hopes their fully printable, flexible lithium-ion batteries will one day free designers from these constraints. Battery shapes are now limited because of the need to contain liquid electrolytes. Two years ago, the researchers designed a printable, solid-state electrolyte composed of alumina nanoparticles and lithium combined with polymer that can be cured by ultraviolet light. In this latest work, they used a stencil printing technique to print full battery cells with the electrolyte and other printable materials for the electrodes. They printed batteries on paper and the curved surface of a glass mug. These printed Li-ion batteries can power small LEDs but still need a lot of improvements because they don’t last long before needing recharging. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Link:
Printing Flexible Lithium-Ion Batteries

Samsung Unveils V-NAND High Performance SSDs, Fast NVMe Card At 5.5GB Per Second

MojoKid writes: Sometimes it’s the enterprise sector that gets dibs on the coolest technology, and so it goes with a trio of TCO-optimized, high-performance solid state drives from Samsung that were just announced, all three of which are based on three-dimensional (3D) Vertical NAND (V-NAND) flash memory technology. The fastest of bunch can read data at up to 5, 500 megabytes per second. That’s the rated sequential read speed of Samsung’s PM1725, a half-height, half-length (HHHL) PCIe card-type NVMe SSD. Other rated specs include a random read speed of up to 1, 000, 000 IOPS, random write performance of up to 120, 000 IOPS, and sequential writes topping out at 1, 800MB/s. The PM1725 comes in just two beastly storage capacities, 3.2TB and 6.4TB, the latter of which is rated to handle five drive writes per day (32TB) for five years. Samsung also introduced two other 3D V-NAND products, the PM1633 and PM953. The PM1633 is a 2.5-inch 12Gb/s SAS SSD that will be offered in 480GB, 960GB, 1.92TB, and 3.84TB capacities. As for the PM953, it’s an update to the SM951 and is available in M.2 and 2.5-inch form factors at capacities up to 1.92TB. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Continue reading here:
Samsung Unveils V-NAND High Performance SSDs, Fast NVMe Card At 5.5GB Per Second

Periscope’s live streaming video reaches nearly 2 million users daily

Now that Facebook is getting into streaming (soon for non-celebs too ) and even Google/YouTube is taking notice , the folks at Twitter-owned Periscope are publishing some stats to let us know where the bar is for live video apps. In a blog post on Medium , the team says it has grown past 10 million registered accounts just four months after its launch. An accompanying graph shows its number of Daily Active Users has risen to nearly two million people, with a spike showing where it just about doubled in May with the launch of an app for Android . Rival app Meerkat beat it to the punch on Android , but we don’t have similar stats on its growth yet. By their measure however, the important stat is Time Watched, which Periscope reports has risen to over 40 years of video being watched every day. This includes “huge viewership” on the web, outside of its iOS/Android apps, which the daily users stat does not. in a video Q&A , Periscope CEO Kayvon Beykpour says that features coming soon include landscape video support and better tools for handling spam/abuse. Filed under: Internet , Mobile Comments Source: Periscope (Medium) Tags: accounts, mobilepostcross, statistics, twitter, users, videostreaming

Continued here:
Periscope’s live streaming video reaches nearly 2 million users daily

Firefox 40 Arrives With Windows 10 Support, Expanded Malware Protection

An anonymous reader writes: Mozilla today launched Firefox 40 for Windows, Mac, Linux, and Android. Notable additions to the browser include official Windows 10 support, added protection against unwanted software downloads, and new navigational gestures on Android. Firefox 40 for the desktop is available for download now on Firefox.com, and all existing users should be able to upgrade to it automatically. As always, the Android version is trickling out slowly on Google Play. Changelogs are here: desktop and Android. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

More:
Firefox 40 Arrives With Windows 10 Support, Expanded Malware Protection

Hackers control connected cars using text messages

It’s not only Chrysler drivers that have to worry about hackers taking control of their cars from afar. UC San Diego researchers have found that you can control features on cars of many makes by exploiting vulnerabilities in cellular-capable dongles that are sometimes plugged into the vehicles’ OBD-II ports, such as insurance trackers and driving efficiency tools . In the example you see above, the security team compromised a Corvette touting a Mobile Devices dongle (one of the most common varieties) through everyday text messages — they could turn on the wipers or even cut the brakes. That same device is also set to allow remote tunneling using a universal ‘private’ key, making it easy for an intruder to get complete control over the adapter and its unfortunate host car. You’ll be glad to hear that Mobile Devices has already patched its hardware in response to the findings, and that the phone numbers for these dongles aren’t normally public. You’d have to use brute force guesses to find a viable target. However, the concern is that other brands’ dongles still have holes, and that many of these gadgets aren’t getting updates in a timely fashion. It’s feasible that an intruder could cause chaos by either forcing vulnerable cars off the road or making life miserable for their occupants. Filed under: Transportation Comments Via: Wired Source: Mrlanrat (YouTube) Tags: car, chevrolet, chevy, corvette, metromile, mobiledevices, obd-II, obd2, security, sms, transportation, ucsandiego, video

More:
Hackers control connected cars using text messages

Verizon tests new fiber system that hits 10Gbps speeds

Verizon has announced that it has successfully completed field tests of its new super-fast fiber optic technology, dubbed the next-generation passive optical network (NG-PON2). It could offer users connectivity speeds anywhere from 10Gbps to 80Gbps some point “in the future”, according to a Verizon press release. The new system utilizes an optical line terminal (OLT) capable of generating four wavelengths of light, each of which is able to transmit at an eye-watering 10Gbps down and 2.5Gbps up. Interestingly, the network can actually transmit both the current GPON (Gigabit-capable Passive Optical Network) signal as well as this new NG-PON2 simultaneously. What’s more, should one of the wavelengths fail (due to, say, equipment failure), the system can reportedly switch over to one of the other three wavelengths to quickly restore the 10Gbps connection, a redundancy that should help improve the FIOS network’s reliability. The company sees its implementation as a necessary step for the upcoming shift to 4K video streaming. As such, Verizon will begin issuing “requests for proposals” for the hardware and software needed to upgrade its FIOS service later this year. There’s no word yet on when the service will actually come online but it will likely only be available to businesses at first. And even then, potentially only on the East Coast . By comparison, Comcast offers 2Gbps for $300 a month , and Google offers 1Gbps service for $70, both of which are already deployed throughout the country and available to personal and commercial users alike. [Image Credit: Associated Press] Filed under: Internet Comments Source: Verizon Tags: 10gb, fios, NG-PON2, opticallineterminal, verizon

Taken from:
Verizon tests new fiber system that hits 10Gbps speeds

Google Is Restructuring Under a New Company Called Alphabet

Mark Wilson writes: Sundar Pichai is the new CEO of Google as the company undergoes a huge restructuring. Co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin are moving to a new company called Google Alphabet which will serve as an umbrella company for Google and its various projects. Google itself is being, in Page’s words, “slimmed down” and the change is quite an extraordinary one. Page quotes the original founders’ letter that was written 11 years go. It states that “Google is not a conventional company”, and today’s announcement makes that perfectly clear. There’s a lot to take in…Google Alphabet is, essentially, the new face of Google. Page chose to make the announcement in a blog post that went live after the stock markets closed. This is more than just a rebranding, it is a complete shakeup, the scale of which is almost unprecedented. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Read More:
Google Is Restructuring Under a New Company Called Alphabet

Your Android games are getting a software speed boost

iPhone users have low-level Metal code to speed up games and other visually intensive apps, but what if you’re an Android fan? Don’t worry, you’ll get your boost soon. Google has announced that Android will soon support Vulkan , an open graphics standard that cuts a lot of the computing overhead and gives apps more direct control over video hardware. It’s not as easy to work with as OpenGL, but it should let developers wring more performance out of your phone’s processor. That could prove very important when you’d otherwise struggle to run a game on a lower-end phone, or want to get pretty, high-detail graphics on a shiny new flagship . It’ll be a while before Vulkan for Android is ready — the standard itself isn’t available, let alone Google’s implementation of it — but it should be worth the wait if your Android devices double as game consoles . Filed under: Cellphones , Gaming , Tablets , Mobile , Google Comments Source: Android Developers Blog , Imagination Technologies Tags: android, gaming, google, graphics, khronosgroup, mobilepostcross, opengl, smartphone, video, vulkan

View article:
Your Android games are getting a software speed boost