Mysterious, Phony Cell Towers Found Throughout US

Trachman writes: Popular Science magazine recently published an article about a network of cell towers owned not by telecommunication companies but by unknown third parties. Many of them are built around U.S. military bases. “Interceptors vary widely in expense and sophistication – but in a nutshell, they are radio-equipped computers with software that can use arcane cellular network protocols and defeat the onboard encryption. … Some interceptors are limited, only able to passively listen to either outgoing or incoming calls. But full-featured devices like the VME Dominator, available only to government agencies, can not only capture calls and texts, but even actively control the phone, sending out spoof texts, for example.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Mysterious, Phony Cell Towers Found Throughout US

Tesla Model S Software Update Brings iPhone Unlocking And Ignition Start

 Tesla owners have been looking forward to OS 6.0, a software update for their vehicles, for a while now, but it’s finally rolling out to vehicle owners, reports Electrek. The system adds a bunch of new features for Model S vehicles, including a new Calendar app for in-car use, and big improvements to the Maps/Navigation software. What’s amazing (and surprising) for iPhone users is… Read More

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Tesla Model S Software Update Brings iPhone Unlocking And Ignition Start

Color-Changing Stained Glass Makes It Easy For Cathedrals To Redecorate

A group of Japanese researchers from the University of Tokyo, the Segawa Laboratory at RCAST, and Sony have created a prototype glass panel with intricate designs that’s able to change color based on the how much energy is supplied from an attached rechargeable battery. In other words, it’s stained glass for a generation who swaps their smartphone’s wallpaper five times a day. Read more…

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Color-Changing Stained Glass Makes It Easy For Cathedrals To Redecorate

This Heads-Up Display Puts the App Info You Need On Your Windshield

Using your smartphone or tablet while driving is not only illegal in most sane states, it’s also just a dangerously stupid thing to do behind the wheel. But since access to your device can make your travels easier, the dashboard-mounted Navdy provides a heads-up display that shares info from your devices, and lets you interact with them through voice and gesture commands. Read more…

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This Heads-Up Display Puts the App Info You Need On Your Windshield

Programming Languages You’ll Need Next Year (and Beyond)

Nerval’s Lobster writes: Over at Dice, there’s a breakdown of the programming languages that could prove most popular over the next year or two, including Apple’s Swift, JavaScript, CSS3, and PHP. But perhaps the most interesting entry on the list is Erlang, an older language invented in 1986 by engineers at Ericsson. It was originally intended to be used specifically for telecommunications needs, but has since evolved into a general-purpose language, and found a home in cloud-based, high-performance computing when concurrency is needed. “There aren’t a lot of Erlang jobs out there, ” writes developer Jeff Cogswell. “However, if you do master it (and I mean master it, not just learn a bit about it), then you’ll probably land a really good job. That’s the trade-off: You’ll have to devote a lot of energy into it. But if you do, the payoffs could be high.” And while the rest of the featured languages are no-brainers with regard to popularity, it’s an open question how long it might take Swift to become popular, given how hard Apple will push it as the language for developing on iOS. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Programming Languages You’ll Need Next Year (and Beyond)

Do Apple and Google Sabotage Older Phones? What the Graphs Don’t Show

Harvard economics professor Sendhil Mullainathan takes a look in the New York Times at interesting correlations between the release dates of new phones and OSes and search queries that indicate frustration with the speed of the phones that people already have. Mullainathan illustrates with graphs (and gives plausible explanations for the difference) just how different the curves are over time for the search terms “iPhone slow” and “Samsung Galaxy slow.” It’s easy to see with the iPhone graph especially how it could seem to users that Apple has intentionally slowed down older phones to nudge them toward upgrading. While he’s careful not to rule out intentional slowing of older phone models (that’s possible, after all), Mullainathan cites several factors that mean there’s no need to believe in a phone-slowing conspiracy, and at least two big reasons (reputation, liability) for companies — Apple, Google, and cellphone manufacturers like Samsung — not to take part in one. He points out various wrinkles in what the data could really indicate, including genuine but innocent slowdowns caused by optimizing for newer hardware. It’s an interesting look at the difference between having mere statistics, no matter how rigorously gathered, and knowing quite what they mean. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Do Apple and Google Sabotage Older Phones? What the Graphs Don’t Show

QBlinks Is A Multi-Use Remote Control And Notification Center For Your iPhone

 Qblinks wants to be the Swiss Army knife of iPhone remote controllers. The Bluetooth LE device, which is currently seeking $35, 000 on Kickstarter, can be used to alert you to notifications from different apps on your smartphone; as a camera remote shutter; to activate Siri; play music; and help you find missing phones by prompting it to ring even when it is in silent mode. Qblinks even has… Read More

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QBlinks Is A Multi-Use Remote Control And Notification Center For Your iPhone

One Man and His Bot Have Written Almost 10% of Wikipedia

You’ve probably never heard of Sverker Johansson, but you probably should have. He is, afterall, the most prolific WIkipedia author on the internet—having written 2.7 million articles for the online encyclopaedia. Read more…

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One Man and His Bot Have Written Almost 10% of Wikipedia