Tag: feeds

This is cool: Qualcomm shows off its Mirasol display

Engadget There have been rumors of Qualcomm’s MEMS-based Mirasol display for years now. Once advertised as the “future” of e-reader displays, the company is now showcasing its proofs-of-concept. Engadget snagged a  preview of both a 5.2-inch panel display with a 2,560 x 1,440 resolution and 577 ppi embedded into the chassis of a common smartphone body, as well as 1.5-inch panel on what looks like a smartwatch. A representative at SID Display Week, where the prototype was being shown, told the site that the displays were merely mock-ups, but that the screen will likely show up in other third-party devices. The Mirasol display is touted for its energy-efficiency. It offers a six-times-over power advantage compared to both LCD and OLED displays, which means it would be the kind of display that a smartphone would make great use of. It’s made with a micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) based on Interferometric Modulation (IMOD) technology, which Qualcomm says  “offer[s] users a convergent display experience with paper-like readability in almost any ambient condition, while consuming significantly less power than any other display available today.” Ars Technica alumni Jon Stokes explained  why the Mirasol display is so energy efficient in 2009: Read 1 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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This is cool: Qualcomm shows off its Mirasol display

Printable A3-sized solar cells hit a new milestone in green energy

Victorian Organic Solar Cell Consortium Imagine a future where solar panels speed off the presses, like newspaper. Australian scientists have brought us one step closer to that reality. Researchers from the Victorian Organic Solar Cell Consortium (VICOSC) have developed a printer that can print 10 meters of flexible solar cells a minute. Unlike traditional silicon solar cells, printed solar cells are made using organic semi-conducting polymers, which can be dissolved in a solvent and used like an ink, allowing solar cells to be printed. Not only can the VICOSC machine print flexible A3 solar cells, the machine can print directly on to steel, opening up the possibility for solar cells to be embedded directly into building materials. Read 7 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Printable A3-sized solar cells hit a new milestone in green energy

Mac malware signed with Apple ID infects activist’s laptop

F-Secure Stealthy Mac OS X spyware that was digitally signed with a valid Apple Developer ID has been detected on the laptop of an Angolan activist attending a human rights conference, researchers said. The backdoor, which is programmed to take screenshots and send them to remote servers under the control of the attackers, was spread using a spear phishing e-mail , according to privacy activist Jacob Appelbaum. Spear phishing is a term for highly targeted e-mails that address the receiver by name and usually appear to come from someone the receiver knows. The e-mails typically discuss topics the two people have talked about before. According to AV provider F-Secure, the malware was discovered during a workshop showing freedom of speech activists how to secure their devices against government monitoring. The malware was signed with a valid Apple Developer ID  allowing it to more easily bypass the Gatekeeper feature Apple introduced in the Mountain Lion version of OS X. If it’s not the first time Mac malware has carried such a digital assurance, it’s certainly among the first. Both F-Secure and Appelbaum said the backdoor, identified as OSX/KitM.A, is new and previously unknown. For its part, AV provider Intego said the malware is a variant of a previously seen trojan known as OSX/FileSteal. Intego continued: Read 3 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Mac malware signed with Apple ID infects activist’s laptop

Critical Linux vulnerability imperils users, even after “silent” fix

Wikipedia For more than two years, the Linux operating system has contained a high-severity vulnerability that gives untrusted users with restricted accounts nearly unfettered “root” access over machines, including servers running in shared Web hosting facilities and other sensitive environments. Surprisingly, most users remain wide open even now, more than a month after maintainers of the open-source OS quietly released an update that patched the gaping hole. The severity of the bug, which resides in the Linux kernel’s “perf,” or performance counters subsystem, didn’t become clear until Tuesday, when attack code exploiting the vulnerability became publicly available (note: some content on this site is not considered appropriate in many work environments). The new script can be used to take control of servers operated by many shared Web hosting providers, where dozens or hundreds of people have unprivileged accounts on the same machine. Hackers who already have limited control over a Linux machine—for instance, by exploiting a vulnerability in a desktop browser or a Web application—can also use the bug to escalate their privileges to root. The flaw affects versions of the Linux kernel from 2.6.37 to 3.8.8 that have been compiled with the CONFIG_PERF_EVENTS kernel configuration option. “Because there’s a public exploit already available, an attacker would simply need to download and run this exploit on a target machine,” Dan Rosenberg, a senior security researcher at Azimuth Security , told Ars in an e-mail. “The exploit may not work out-of-the-box on every affected machine, in which case it would require some fairly straightforward tweaks (for someone with exploit development experience) to work properly.” Read 4 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Critical Linux vulnerability imperils users, even after “silent” fix

VMware’s dual-persona smartphones phones finally available to purchase

The first two phones to run VMware’s dual-persona software. VMware At long last, VMware’s dual-persona software for smartphones is available on actual devices. Today, VMware and Verizon Wireless announced that the Android-based LG Intuition and Motorola Razr M can now be purchased with VMware’s Horizon Mobile software, which separates the device into isolated partitions that keep a user’s work applications and data separate from personal stuff. VMware began promising virtualized smartphones in 2010 , claiming they would be available for sale in 2011. Samsung promised to support VMware’s virtualized phone vision in September 2011, and VMware started promising virtualization for iPhones and iPads in August 2012. We called it ” vaporware .” Samsung and Apple devices still aren’t running the dual-persona software, but it’s nice to see VMware phones finally materialize. VMware and Verizon said the Intuition and Razr M are immediately available for sale with Horizon Mobile software. Perpetual licenses to Horizon Mobile start at $125 per user and “can be purchased through local resellers of VMware and Verizon Wireless,” the companies said. Read 5 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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VMware’s dual-persona smartphones phones finally available to purchase

The British ‘Atlantis’ is mapped in detail

Dunwich Beach Sutterstock A professor of physical geography has put together the most detailed map yet of the sunken medieval town of Dunwich using underwater acoustic imagining. The port town, often referred to as “the British Atlantis,” was a hub of activity up until its collapse in the 1400s. This was brought about after a series of epic storms battered the coastline in the 1200s and 1300s, causing repeated flooding, submerging parts of the town, and flooding the harbor and river with silt. Today it stands as a small village, but up until its demise it was around the same size as medieval London. Despite still existing at depths of just three to 10 meters (or, 9.8 ft to 32.8 ft) below sea level, the murky conditions have made investigating what lies beneath particularly tricky. Since 2010, however, Southampton’s David Sear—along with the GeoData Institute, the National Oceanography Center, Wessex Archaeology, and local divers from North Sea Recovery and Learn Scuba—has been exploring the muddy depths using dual-frequency identification sonar (DIDSON) acoustic imaging. Read 8 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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The British ‘Atlantis’ is mapped in detail

Network Solutions seizes over 700 domains registered to Syrians

While Syria’s Internet connection is back up, many of the sites hosted in Damascus have lost their domain names. As Brian Krebs of Krebs on Security reports , the domain registrar Network Solutions LLC has taken control of 708 domain names in the .com, .org, and .net top-level domains registered to Syrian organizations. The organizations affected by the seizure include the state-supported hacker group Syrian Electronic Army. Usually when there’s a domain name seizure, it’s the work of government agencies like Immigrations and Customs Enforcement or the FBI, or domains are shut down with the help of US Marshals as part of a court-sanctioned seizure related to malware. But in this case, Network Solutions appears to have seized the domains in question without coordinating with federal authorities, though its action was guided by federal regulations—domain name registration is one of the services explicitly banned in US trade sanctions enacted against Syria last year. Network Solutions has marked the seized domains with the notation “OFAC Holding,” indicating they were taken over in accordance with regulations propagated by the Department of the Treasury’s  Office of Foreign Assets Control , a unit of Treasury’s Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence. The vast majority of the seized domains were pointed at IP addresses assigned to the Syrian Computer Society. As we’ve reported previously, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who was an Army doctor and ophthalmologist before being groomed to take over for his father, was head of the Syrian Computer Society in the 1990s. He became president in 2000. The Syrian Computer Society acts as Syria’s domain registration authority and regulates the Internet within Syria, and is also believed to be connected to Syria’s state security apparatus. The Syrian Computer Society registered .sy domain names for the Syrian Electronic Army’s servers, giving the hacker group a national-level domain name (sea.sy) rather than a .com or other non-government address, signifying its status as at least a state-supervised operation. Read 1 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Network Solutions seizes over 700 domains registered to Syrians

Senate passes Internet sales tax in final vote, 69-27

Flickr user: 401(K) 2012 The US Senate passed an online sales tax in a vote this afternoon after a heated final round of debate. A small group of anti-tax Republicans, as well as Democratic Senators from states without sales tax like Montana and Oregon, argued vociferously against the bill—but to no avail. The final vote was 69-27, not much different than the 74-20 procedural vote that took place two weeks ago. The proposal has hardly changed at all in two weeks. The Marketplace Fairness Act, S.743, would allow states and localities to make Internet retailers collect sales tax from their customers if they do more than $1 million per year in out-of-state online sales. “Today the senate is voting to take a few more inches off the little guy,” said Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR), who has fought the bill hard. “You saw ads taken out by some of the biggest businesses in the country. It’s easy to see why Mr. President. With this vote, what you have is big businesses being given the ability to force new regulations onto the start-ups, onto the small businesses.” Read 9 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Senate passes Internet sales tax in final vote, 69-27

Feed Wrangler: A Great iOS Reader Replacement for a Price

While yes, the grieving process takes time, if you’re still too busy bemoaning the imminent death of your beloved Google Reader , you’re going to find yourself in a bind when it finally gets put out of its misery later this summer. Replacements abound , and there’s no question that $19 price tag is going to be a turn-off for some. But for those willing to buy their peace of RSS mind, you may have found a winner. Read more…        

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Feed Wrangler: A Great iOS Reader Replacement for a Price

OS X 10.9 said to focus on the “power user”

OS X 10.9 will reportedly focus on the “power user,” according to sources speaking to 9to5Mac . The release, code-named “Cabernet,” isn’t expected to significantly overhaul how the operating system functions, but will reportedly bring over more iOS features that could benefit OS X. What might those features be? According to 9to5Mac’s sources, Apple has been “testing a new multi-tasking system” that’s similar to the app-switcher within iOS. “The multitasking feature will be functional for applications in the background, according to this person. Additionally, Apple could use app-pausing technologies from iOS to pause background application processes in OS X,” the site wrote, though apparently it’s unclear whether this feature will make the official 10.9 release. The other “power user” features reportedly include modifications to the Finder that would bring a tabbed browsing mode, an updated version of Safari with “a redesigned backend for improved page loading, speed, and efficiency,” and the ability to keep different Spaces open on separate monitors. Read 1 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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OS X 10.9 said to focus on the “power user”