Linux 4.1 Kernel Released With EXT4 Encryption, Performance Improvements

An anonymous reader writes: The Linux 4.1 kernel has been announced and its release brings expanded features for the Linux kernel including EXT4 file-system encryption, open-source GeForce GTX 750 support, performance improvements for Intel Atom / Bay Trail hardware, RAID 5/6 improvements, and other additions. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Linux 4.1 Kernel Released With EXT4 Encryption, Performance Improvements

‘Brain-to-Text’ Interface Types Thoughts of Epileptic Patients

Jason Koebler writes with a link to Motherboard’s article about research from the Schalk Lab of Albany, New York, where researchers “have just demonstrated for the first time that it’s possible to turn a person’s thoughts into a legible phrase using what they’re calling a “brain-to-text” interface, ” writing “It’s still still the early days of this technology—electrodes had to be placed directly on the brain and the ‘dictionary’ of phrases was limited. Still, brainwaves of thought patterns were turned into text at a rate much better than chance.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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‘Brain-to-Text’ Interface Types Thoughts of Epileptic Patients

Unicode Consortium Releases Unicode 8.0.0

An anonymous reader writes: The newest version of the Unicode standard adds 7, 716 new characters to the existing 21, 499 – that’s more than 35% growth! Most of them are Chinese, Japan and Korean ideographs, but among those changes Unicode adds support for new languages like Ik, used in Uganda. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Unicode Consortium Releases Unicode 8.0.0

Apple De-Certifies Monster Cables After Lawsuit Against Beats

An anonymous reader writes: Since 2005, Monster cables have been licensed under Apple’s “Made For iDevice” program, which lets cable manufacturers put a logo on their product signifying they work with Apple products. Now, Apple has revoked that certification. In January of this year, Monster sued Beats, accusing its founders of fraud. Beats was acquired by Apple in 2014, and Monster is accusing Apple of bullying them by terminating the licensing deal. Monster’s general counsel said the move would “significantly disrupt Monster’s business and that the two companies had worked well for years, with Monster paying Apple more than $12 million in licensing fees since 2008.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Apple De-Certifies Monster Cables After Lawsuit Against Beats

Malware Attacks Give Criminals 1,425% Return On Investment

An anonymous reader writes: Trustwave released a new report which reveals the top cybercrime, data breach and security threat trends. According to their findings, attackers receive an estimated 1, 425 percent return on investment for exploit kit and ransomware schemes ($84, 100 net revenue for each $5, 900 investment). Retail was the most compromised industry making up 43 percent of investigations followed by food and beverage (13 percent) and hospitality (12 percent). Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Malware Attacks Give Criminals 1,425% Return On Investment

Amazon Pulls Kodi Media Player From App Store Over Piracy Claims

An anonymous reader writes with news that the Kodi media player (formerly XBMC) has had its app pulled from the Amazon app store after Amazon decided that it facilitates piracy. Amazon said, “Any facilitation of piracy or illegal downloads is not allowed in our program, ” and directed the development team not to resubmit the app. The team was surprised to hear this, since Kodi itself does not download or link to any infringing content. It does support addons, and some users have created addons to support pirated content, but the Kodi developers are fighting that behavior. XBMC Foundation board member Nathan Betzen said it’s absurd that “Amazon won’t let us into their appstore, but they have no problem selling the boxes that are pushing the reason they won’t let us into their app store.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Amazon Pulls Kodi Media Player From App Store Over Piracy Claims

210 Degree VR Headset With 5K Display Revealed By ‘Payday’ Developer Starbreeze

An anonymous reader writes: Starbreeze Studios has taken wraps off of StarVR, a new VR headset with dual displays comprising a 210 degree horizontal field of view with a total resolution of 5120×1440. The headset’s origins come from InfinitEye, a company working on a super-wide dual-display headset back in 2013 (http://bit.ly/1JNjqRy), which went into stealth mode for quite some time before being reborn as StarVR in partnership with Starbreeze Studios (http://bit.ly/1QwB0Nx). The studio is the developer behind the Payday franchise, Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, and now ‘Overkill’s The Walking Dead’, which will have a VR component utilizing the new headset. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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210 Degree VR Headset With 5K Display Revealed By ‘Payday’ Developer Starbreeze

Ask Toolbar Now Considered Malware By Microsoft

AmiMoJo writes: Last month Microsoft changed its policy on protecting search settings to include any software that attempts to hijack searches as malware. As a result, this month the Ask Toolbar, which most people will probably recognize as being unwanted crapware bundled with Java, was marked as malware and will now be removed by Microsoft’s security software built in to Windows 7 and above. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Ask Toolbar Now Considered Malware By Microsoft

Why So Many Robots Struggled With the DARPA Challenge

stowie writes: The DARPA Robots Challenge concluded recently, and three teams were given prizes for completing all the tasks. The other robots in the competition struggled — not only were they unable to complete the required tasks, many of them were unable to even stay standing the entire time. So why did these robots have such a hard time? “DARPA deliberately degraded communications (low bandwidth, high latency, intermittent connection) during the challenge to truly see how a human-robot team could collaborate in a Fukushima-type disaster. And there was no standard set for how a human-robot interface would work. So, some worked better than others. The winning DRC-Hubo robot used custom software designed by Team KAIST that was engineered to perform in an environment with low bandwidth. It also used the Xenomai real-time operating system for Linux and a customized motion control framework. The second-place finisher, Team IHMC, used a sliding scale of autonomy that allowed a human operator to take control when the robot seemed stumped or if the robot knew it would run into problems.” If nothing else, the competition’s true legacy may lie in educating the public on the realistic capabilities of high-tech robots. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Why So Many Robots Struggled With the DARPA Challenge

G7 Vows To Phase Out Fossil Fuels By 2100

Taco Cowboy writes: The G7 group of countries has issued a pledge that they will phase out fossil fuels by the end of this century. The announcement was warmly welcomed by environmental groups. “Angela Merkel took the G7 by the scruff of the neck, ” said Ruth Davis a political advisor to Greenpeace and a senior associate at E3G. “Politically, the most important shift is that chancellor Merkel is back on climate change. This was not an easy negotiation. She did not have to put climate change on the agenda here. But she did, ” Davis said. The G7 plege includes a goal proposed by the EU to cut emissions 60% on 2010 levels by 2050, with full decarbonisation by 2100. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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G7 Vows To Phase Out Fossil Fuels By 2100