Utter the words—and we don’t suggest you do—“charge my phone 100 percent” to Siri, and your iPhone will try and call the emergency services, after a five-second grace period in which you can cancel it. But why? Read more…
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Why Does Asking Siri to Charge Your Phone Call the Cops?
VentureBeat, an anonymous reader notes, reports that Google has announced it will expand on an earlier move to provide free internet service to poor Austin residents. Now, rather than for 4300 residents of housing provided by the Housing Authority of Austin, the company “has promised to expand that offering to every other current and future Google Fiber market. The move is part of U.S. President Obama’s ConnectHome program, launched by the White House and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) with the goal of bringing Internet connectivity to more school-aged children and families living in HUD-assisted housing in 27 communities across the country. … Google promises the program will extend to all its Google Fiber cities.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Google To Provide Free Internet For Public Housing Residents To All Fiber Markets
Pocket is one of our favorite services for saving articles to read later , but the iOS app was missing a killer feature Android users have had for a while: Text-to-Speech. That changes today with an update for the Pocket app on iPhones and iPads. http://lifehacker.com/how-to-use-poc… Read more…
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Pocket on iOS Finally Lets You Listen to Articles with Text-to-Speech
If you’ve connected to a Wi-Fi network, your computer usually saves that password so you don’t have to enter it in every time. But sometimes you forget that password. To figure out what it is, Digital Inspiration points out that all you need to do is enter in a simple command in the command line. Read more…
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Find the Wi-Fi Password for Your Current Network with the Command Line
hypnosec writes: Yesterday we discussed news that over 65, 000 Range Rovers were being recalled over a software issue. Not to be outdone, Japanese car manufacturer Toyota on Wednesday recalled 625, 000 hybrid vehicles globally to fix a different software defect. The automaker said the defect in question might lead to shut down of the hybrid system while the car is being driven. The recall was due to software settings that could result in “higher thermal stress” in parts of a power converter, potentially causing it to become damaged. Toyota dealers will update the software for both the motor/generator control ECU and hybrid control ECU in the involved vehicles. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Toyota Recalls 625,000 Hybrid Vehicles Over Software Glitch
Finding gold in Boeslunde, Denmark, is no huge surprise—it’s known as an area where Bronze Age gold offering are often uncovered, as curators there are explaining this month . But a recent discovery has surprised and baffled archaeologists: 2, 000 tiny gold spirals. It’s a “ golden enigma .” Read more…
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Archaeologists Baffled By 2,000 Tiny Gold Spirals Discovered In Denmark
After nine years and over 3.26 billion miles, the New Horizons spacecraft made its closest approach to Pluto earlier today. Assuming it survived the encounter, the probe is now drifting away from the dwarf planet as it heads deeper into the Kuiper Belt. Read more…
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New Horizons Has Made its Closest Approach to Pluto! [updating]
Colin Castro points out an article from The Guardian, who noticed that Google’s recent transparency report contained more data than intended. When perusing the source code, they found data about who was making requests for Google to take down links under the “right to be forgotten” law. The data they found covers 75% of all requests made so far. Less than 5% of nearly 220, 000 individual requests made to Google to selectively remove links to online information concern criminals, politicians and high-profile public figures, the Guardian has learned, with more than 95% of requests coming from everyday members of the public. … Of 218, 320 requests to remove links between 29 May 2014 and 23 March 2015, 101, 461 (46%) have been successfully delisted on individual name searches. Of these, 99, 569 involve “private or personal information.” Only 1, 892 requests – less than 1% of the overall total – were successful for the four remaining issue types identified within Google’s source code: “serious crime” (728 requests), “public figure” (454), “political” (534) or “child protection” (176) – presumably because they concern victims, incidental witnesses, spent convictions, or the private lives of public persons. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Google Accidentally Reveals Data On ‘Right To Be Forgotten’ Requests
An anonymous reader writes: The Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands experienced a devastating undersea cable break on Wednesday, with phone, Internet, SMS, banking services, the National Weather Service office, and airliners all being affected. The US territory depends on a single undersea fiber optic connection with Guam for its connectivity to the outside world (except for a backup microwave link, which was itself damaged during a recent storm). While services are in the process of being restored, this may be a prime example of the need for reliable backup systems in our “always connected” mindset. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Undersea Cable Break Disrupts Life In Northern Mariana Islands
An anonymous reader writes: Comcast has announced the release of its Gigabit Pro service which offers speeds up to 2 gigabits per second. The service is $300 a month (agree to a two year contract and get the early promotional price of $159 per month) with a $500 installation and activation fee. The new service is only available in the Jacksonville, Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach Florida area. This announcement comes on the heels of the $15-per-month “Comcast Stream” launch. The live TV and streaming video service does not require a cable TV subscription, but live TV channels can only be watched on customer’s home internet connections. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Comcast Launches Streaming Service and Unveils Pricing For 2G Fiber