parsely-root – Page 4 – Tech Today w/ Ken May

Samsung 850 EVO SSD takes its storage into the third dimension

Things have advanced quite a bit since our last thoroughly in-depth look at how solid state disks work, and Samsung has been one of the biggest companies leading the charge toward faster, denser solid state drives. Its 840 EVO was the first consumer SSD to use TLC NAND—that’s triple-level cell NAND, which can store three bits per memory cell instead of one or two. Now, Samsung’s newest consumer SSD takes NAND density a step further, stacking the memory cells on top of each other in a complex sandwich. The 850 EVO, formally announced this morning , uses 32-layer TLC “V-NAND,” where the “V” stands for “vertical.” As we discussed previously at the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show, Samsung is the only SSD manufacturer that makes ” the whole widget “—it’s the only vertically integrated OEM that builds every part of the SSDs it sells, including the NAND that actually holds the data. This gives the company a distinct advantage over other SSD manufacturers—most of whom source their NAND from Samsung. The 850 EVO is set to be released in four capacities: 120GB, 250GB, 500GB, and 1TB. These are all decimal measurements, not binary—so that “1TB” is properly one trillion bytes, not 1024GB (there are official IEC units for binary measurements, but I’ll eat glass before I start saying ” tebibyte “). The quoted numbers on Samsung’s site look pretty good for a consumer-level drive: max sequential read speeds of 540MB/s, max sequential write speeds of 520MB/s, and relatively high IOPS across a variety of read and write regimes. Read 5 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Linux Mint 17.1 review—less change is good change

The Linux Mint team recently released Linux Mint 17.1—a somewhat minor but still welcome upgrade to the Ubuntu-based ecosystem. And while Linux Mint 17.1 arrives as it usually does (a few weeks after the release of a new version of Ubuntu), version 17.1 is not based on Ubuntu’s latest effort, 14.10. Instead, this edition of Mint remains tied to the last Long Term Support (LTS) release, Ubuntu 14.04 . This marks the first time Linux Mint has not used the newest version of Ubuntu for a release. But if you paid attention to the curious approach of Linux Mint 17.0, you’ll know that was the plan all along. These days, Mint will not be changing its Ubuntu base again until the next LTS release—Ubuntu 16.04—arrives in 2016. And at first glance, it might seem like a bad thing. After all, Mint is missing out on whatever new stuff is in Ubuntu 14.10 (in this case it’s not much, but 15.04 will have plenty of changes). However, Mint 17.1 is in fact a very good sign for fans of the distro’s own tools, like its homegrown Cinnamon desktop. By relying on a consistent LTS release, Mint developers can more or less ignore the base system. Instead of spending all their time and effort making sure whatever Ubuntu has changed works with Mint, they can focus on what makes the ecosystem great—namely, its two primary desktops, MATE and Cinnamon. Read 32 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Apple manager gets year in jail, $4.5m fine for selling industry secrets

Onetime Apple supply manager Paul Shin Devine will spend a year in prison and repay $4.5 million for selling Apple’s secrets to suppliers, the AP reports . Devine, who worked at Apple from 2005 until his arrest in August of 2010 , pleaded guilty to wire fraud, conspiracy, and money laundering—and could have been sentenced to as much as 20 years in prison. Working with Singapore resident Andrew Ang, Devine was accused of selling confidential information to companies that hoped to become Apple suppliers, and to suppliers trying to negotiate better deals with the company. Winning an Apple contract can be a make-or-break moment for a supplier, as we saw in the recent dust-up between Apple and would-be sapphire manufacturer GT Advanced Technologies ; companies hoping to get in on the action sent “millions in kickbacks” to Devine. Ang and Chua Kim Guan, who were respectively the sales director and general manager of Jin Li Mould Manufacturing, were charged in 2013 for bribing Devine. They were accused of paying Devine $387,600 between 2006 and 2009. Read on Ars Technica | Comments

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Apple manager gets year in jail, $4.5m fine for selling industry secrets

Rovio lays off 110 people as Angry Birds hype fades

Rovio has confirmed that 110 people will lose their jobs as the Angry Birds maker also shuts down its game-development studio in Tampere, Finland. The layoffs, first announced in October, amount to about 14 percent of the company’s workforce. It had been expected that Rovio would make 130 people redundant but after a round of consultations this number has now been reduced. Rovio said that as a result of the redundancies “several positions” have been opened for internal applications. The actual number of employees out of work will depend on how many new internal positions are filled. The closing of its Tampere development studio means that Rovio will move all of its Finnish operation to its Espoo headquarters. The company shot to fame in 2009 when it released Angry Birds , its 52nd game . The title went on to become the most downloaded mobile game of all time. Read 4 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Rovio lays off 110 people as Angry Birds hype fades

AT&T still throttles “unlimited data”—even when network not congested

A while back, we reported that AT&T had stopped throttling unlimited data users except in cases when the network is congested. We were wrong. AT&T did change its policy to stop the automatic throttling of many unlimited data plans, but the company’s older, more draconian throttling policy still applies to customers with unlimited LTE data. AT&T told Ars the policy will be changed for all customers sometime in 2015, but it did not say whether that will happen closer to the beginning of the year or the end of the year. Here’s how it works: Customers who have 3G or non-LTE 4G phones and “ legacy unlimited data plans ” are throttled for the remainder of the billing period after they exceed 3GB of data in a month, but only “at times and in areas that are experiencing network congestion.” 4G and LTE are practically synonymous these days, but AT&T also applies the 4G label to its HSPA network technology. Read 14 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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AT&T still throttles “unlimited data”—even when network not congested

Police officer fired for refusing to turn on body cam

The idea of putting body-worn cameras on police officers has spread since protests and unrest following the shooting of an unarmed teenager in Ferguson, Missouri. Earlier this week, the Obama administration proposed federal funding to get 50,000 more officers equipped with the cameras. The increased use of cameras makes a few policy questions around them more pressing. One such question: what happens when a police officer fails—or straight-up refuses—to turn on the body camera? The issue was highlighted in today’s Wall Street Journal , which features a story about a New Mexico police officer who “was fired for allegedly not following an order to record and upload all contacts with citizens,” according to the Albuquerque Police Department and the officer’s lawyer. Read 5 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Police officer fired for refusing to turn on body cam

FBI seizes 20 boxes of documents on LAUSD iPad program

On Monday morning, the FBI seized 20 boxes of documents pertaining to a $1.3 billion iPad program from the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), according to the Los Angeles Times . The program, which was intended to give iPads to every student, teacher, and campus administrator of the nation’s second-largest school district, has met with many catastrophic difficulties, and this latest federal investigation led the new superintendent of the school system to shelve the project indefinitely on Tuesday. The program first hit a bump in the road back in 2013 when a number of students “hacked” the iPads —which is to say they deleted profile information that designated the user as a student, thus letting the student browse the Internet unencumbered by the filter restrictions enforced by the school district. At the same time, many teachers reported that they felt ill-equipped to use and teach with the iPads. In October, the LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy resigned amid allegations of malfeasance , although he claimed no wrongdoing. Deasy drew attention after the disclosure of his ties to Apple and curriculum-provider Pearson. On Tuesday, Deasy told the Los Angeles Times that he had had no contact with the FBI, nor did he know what the investigation was about. Ars contacted the FBI for more details about the investigation, but a spokesperson said she could not comment. Read 2 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Google Glass isn’t dead; Intel-powered hardware reportedly due in 2015

It’s been easy to believe Google Glass is dead given all the problems that have popped up lately. The device was introduced to the world more than two years ago, but it never came close to the original concept . The project’s founder left Google to work at Amazon, and monthly updates from Google have slowed from important feature releases to sometimes single-sentence changelogs . App developers are giving up on the platform, and Twitter recently pulled support for its Glass app. The official forums , once a bustling hive of optimism, now mostly discuss declining usage or low morale among remaining Glass users. And unless something happens in the next 30 days, Google will miss its original plans for a consumer release. Glass is not dead, though. A report from The Wall Street Journal claims that a new version of Google Glass is on the way, and unlike the minor revision that Google released last year, it has totally overhauled internals. According to the report, Glass will switch from its dead Texas Instruments SoC to a processor built by Intel and will get a full hardware refresh. Google Glass has had a rough life thanks to its choice of SoC. The original unit (and the revision) used a Texas Instruments chip, but shortly after the launch of Glass, TI quit the smartphone business and ended support for many of its products. That was a big problem for Glass since, as early as this year, the device was still based on Android 4.0—an OS originally released in 2011. Glass was missing out on some big wearable-specific enhancements in later versions of Android like notification APIs, Bluetooth LE, and lower memory usage. Read 4 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Google Glass isn’t dead; Intel-powered hardware reportedly due in 2015

Here’s how to run homebrew on your 3DS

A video showing off Smealum’s Ninjhax homebrew exploit in action. Earlier this week, hacker Jordan “Smealum” Rabet announced that obscure 2011 3DS platformer Cubic Ninja held the key to unlocking the 3DS hardware to run homebrew code, causing an immediate run on the hard-to-find game . Now, Smealum has published the details of his hack , along with the instructions and tools needed to unlock the system. What Smealum is calling “Ninjhax” exploits an error in Cubic Ninja ‘s level creation and sharing function, which passes created level data via generated QR codes. Scanning a specifically manufactured QR code, generated by a tool on Smealum’s site to match any current 3DS hardware/firmware combination, causes the game to run a boot file loaded on the SD card. At that point, the bootloader downloads additional code over Wi-Fi and installs and runs a front-end channel that can run other homebrew software stored on the SD card. After that initial QR code scan, the homebrew menu can be loaded simply by accessing the save game file through Cubic Ninja . Read 3 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Here’s how to run homebrew on your 3DS

Gorilla Glass 4 promises to save your phone from street drops

This video screencap comes after a Gorilla Glass 4 device fell for a full meter and landed directly onto a sandpaper-coated surface. Look: no breakage, no shattering. Corning On Thursday, Corning Incorporated, the creators of Gorilla Glass, unveiled the fourth generation of its thin, durable glass technology for use in smartphones, tablets, and other mobile electronics. Gorilla Glass 4 is already being advertised as “up to two times stronger” than any “competitive” mobile screen, with a specific focus on surviving everyday drops in the real world. Corning confirmed to Ars Technica that the upgraded glass will reach consumer devices “this quarter.” Global marketing director David Velasquez was unwilling to reveal “what we did to the glass to make it better,” but he talked at length about one major change to the company’s lab testing: a single sheet of sandpaper. After analyzing “thousands upon thousands” of screens broken in the real world, Corning confirmed that a major contributor to common breakage was dropping a phone on “rough surfaces like asphalt and concrete.” That might seem like a head-smackingly obvious issue, but Velasquez insists that the smartphone glass-making industry, which hasn’t even existed for a full decade, has “no standard” for such testing. Most drop tests employ surfaces like stainless steel or granite, which replicate surfaces in a home. “The best way to approximate what asphalt does [to a phone screen] is 180-grit sandpaper,” Velasquez said. That can more consistently reproduce the microscopic breakage of a rough surface than even a giant sheet of asphalt (which, Corning learned after a few tests, actually smooths out at a point of contact after a few drops). Read 2 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Gorilla Glass 4 promises to save your phone from street drops