Tag: privacy-rights

Lyft: Uber scheduled, canceled 5,000 rides to hassle us

The Uber smartphone app. Uber CNN reports that people associated with car-on-demand service Uber have been attempting to sabotage an Uber competitor, Lyft, by ordering and canceling as many as 5,000 rides since October 2013. Lyft drivers have also complained that Uber employees will call them to take “short, low-profit rides largely devoted to luring them to work for Uber.” Uber reportedly used the ride request-and-cancellation tactic earlier this year on another competitor, Gett, to the tune of around 100 rides. Those ride calls were placed by employees as high in the company as Uber’s New York general manager, Josh Mohrer. The calls serve a number of purposes: frustrating drivers, wasting their time and gas approaching a fare that won’t come through, and occupying them to artificially limit driver availability, if only temporarily. Lyft claims to have sussed out the fake requests using phone numbers used by “known Uber recruiters.” Lyft claims that one Uber recruiter requested and canceled 300 rides from May 26 to June 10, and it said that recruiter’s phone number was associated with 21 more accounts with 1,524 canceled rides between them. However, in this instance, there’s no evidence that the cancellations were suggested by Uber corporate, according to CNN. Read 2 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Lyft: Uber scheduled, canceled 5,000 rides to hassle us

Researchers design flat sheet that can fold itself into a robot, walk away

Seth Kroll, Wyss Institute As if a brain-like processing chip weren’t bad enough news for us humans, this week’s edition of Science also describes a robot that, after being laid out as a flat sheet, can fold itself into the appropriate shape to take its on-board electronics for a walk. Why would we possibly want self-assembling, flat-packed electronics of this kind? The authors of the Science paper, who are part of a Harvard/MIT collaboration, offer two reasons. First, it’s much easier to assemble something as a planar surface. With the right layers in place, it’s simple to cut them into the appropriate shapes and then embed the electronics where they’re needed, since there’s no awkward internal spaces to deal with. The second reason is that it’s easy to transport things when they’re shaped like a sheet. Since the devices can assemble themselves, they can be shipped to any destination and used without any hassle or high-level technical knowledge. Of course, having a good idea and actually knowing how to create a self-assembling device are two different things. Fortunately, the ability to construct elaborate three-dimensional items from a flat sheet is a solved problem, thanks to origami. Software like  Origamizer  can even determine how to cut and fold a sheet in order to produce a specified three-dimensional structure. Read 8 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Researchers design flat sheet that can fold itself into a robot, walk away

Netflix surpasses HBO in subscriber revenue

Reed Hastings’ Facebook update boasting about Netflix’s (possibly temporary) victory over its unwilling adversary. Netflix has surpassed HBO in subscriber revenue, according to a status update from Netflix CEO Reed Hastings on Wednesday. The company is now pulling in $1.146 billion compared to HBO’s $1.141 billion, and it boasts  50.05 million subscribers , according to its second-quarter earnings reported in July. Netflix has long seen HBO as a competitor in terms of audience and, more recently, in produced content. While HBO has slowly started to come down from the ivory cable tower and be more flexible about how it offers its subscriptions, Netflix has been making gains. Hastings acknowledged that HBO still surpasses Netflix “in profits and Emmy’s [sic], but we are making progress.” Hastings has said many times before that he considers HBO to be a media company that is well-positioned in the changing distribution landscape, where power is shifting away from cable providers and toward Internet streaming. Read 2 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Netflix surpasses HBO in subscriber revenue

Whitehats recover, release keys to CryptoLocker ransomware

It must be one of these… Joseph No Whitehat hackers have struck back at the operators of the pernicious CryptoLocker ransom trojan that has held hundreds of thousands of hard drives hostage. Through a partnership that included researchers from FOX-IT and FireEye, researchers managed to recover the private encryption keys that CryptoLocker uses to lock victims’ personal computer files until they pay a $300 ransom. They also reverse engineered the binary code at the heart of the malicious program. The result: a website that allows victims to recover the key for their individual content. To use the free service, victims must upload one of the files encrypted by CryptoLocker along with the e-mail address where they want the secret key delivered. Both FOX-IT and FireEye are reputable security companies, but readers are nonetheless advised to upload only non-sensitive files that contain no personal information. Read 3 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Whitehats recover, release keys to CryptoLocker ransomware

Groupon lost over $60 million in first half of 2014, stock tanks 15 percent

Groupon There was a reason that we wondered in early 2013 if Groupon would make it to 2014—the company is hemorrhaging cash, and the situation has just gotten a lot worse. According to the company’s latest earnings report published on Tuesday, the online deals site sustained a net loss of $22.8 million in the second quarter of 2014—approximately triple the level of losses the company had during the same period a year ago. During the first half of 2014, Groupon lost over $60.6 million, or over five times what it lost during the first half of 2013. From 2009 through 2013, Groupon has incurred total net losses of over $820 million . Unsurprisingly, the stock price took a hit today —as of this writing, Groupon has plummeted over 15 percent in after-hours trading, hovering just under $6 per share. By comparison, Groupon closed  at just over $26 per share after its first day as a publicly traded company back in November 2011. Read 2 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Groupon lost over $60 million in first half of 2014, stock tanks 15 percent

Re/code: Apple’s next iPhone event happens on September 9

This iPhone 5S is likely to be superseded in September. Andrew Cunningham After a summer full of rumors and part leaks, Re/code reports that Apple is planning to hold its next iPhone event on Tuesday, September 9. Re/code co-founder Walt Mossberg has a long history with Apple and his prior publication AllThingsD correctly predicted the dates Apple’s iPhone and iPad events last year, so there’s a good chance this is the real thing. This year Apple is widely expected to release a redesigned “iPhone 6” with a larger screen. Reports have varied, but anonymous sources have told multiple publications that the company is planning a 4.7-inch phone to rival “normal” handsets from competitors, as well as a 5.5-inch version intended to compete with so-called “phablet” phones like Samsung’s Galaxy Note series. Last year’s top-end iPhone 5S and midrange iPhone 5C were both refinements of the iPhone 5 design introduced in 2012 . Apple also uses its iPhone events to announce final release dates for new iOS versions, which have for the past two years have come out on the second Wednesday after the iPhone unveiling. This means a final release of iOS 8 is likely on or near September 17, assuming Apple doesn’t change its plans. iOS 8 will refine the new design introduced in iOS 7 , allow iOS devices to work more closely with Macs running OS X Yosemite, and introduce a number of under-the-hood improvements including Extensions. Third-generation Apple TVs will receive an updated UI, as well. Read 1 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Re/code: Apple’s next iPhone event happens on September 9

Bio-high-tech treatment for Ebola may have saved two US citizens

The Ebola virus consists of small but lethal filament of RNA containing only seven genes. CDC Today, CNN is reporting that the two US citizens who were flown back to the states after contracting Ebola virus were given an extremely experimental treatment, one that’s still undergoing animal testing. While the treatment involves antibodies, it’s not a vaccine and can work effectively even after an infection has started. The process that produced it is a testament to the impressive capabilities developed in the field of biotechnology. The Ebola virus, known for its horrific symptoms and high fatality rate, currently has no established treatment. Which means that health care workers who are fighting the disease, and thus at high risk for becoming infected themselves, can do little more than put themselves in isolation and try to compensate for the damage the virus causes. That was apparently the case for two Americans who contracted the virus while working in Liberia. In this case, however, both were apparently given an experimental treatment developed in part by a company called Mapp Biopharmaceutical. Complicating matters, Mapp licenses its developments to a company called LeafBio for production and distribution. But LeafBio has also licensed an Ebola treatment from a second company, called Defyrus, and plans on combining the two. It’s unclear whether the Americans received the original or combined therapy. In either case, both therapies were based on the same developmental process outlined below. Read 9 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Bio-high-tech treatment for Ebola may have saved two US citizens

Updated Qi 1.2 standard makes wireless charging more wireless

The Qi-compatible Nexus 5 on the Nexus Wireless Charger. New chargers will be able to increase the space between the device and the pad. Andrew Cunningham The Wireless Power Consortium’s Qi wireless charging standard is wireless in that the phone is not physically plugged into anything, but it still requires your device and the wireless charging pad to be touching each other to work. Today, the WPC announced ( PDF ) that version 1.2 of the Qi standard will add support for resonant charging, making it possible for your phone to be charged when near a Qi pad rather than directly on top of it. A small image showing Qi 1.2 in action. WPC It’s a minor enough change that current Qi 1.1 receivers will be able to take advantage of it with no extra hardware, but it opens up a few different possibilities for companies that want to build Qi support into their products. The WPC says that Qi chargers can now be embedded within tables and desks rather than placed on the surface, making them less obtrusive. “New low power transmitter designs” will make it easier to build Qi chargers into cars, and a single Qi 1.2 transmitter will be able to charge multiple Qi devices simultaneously.  Qi can also now supply up to 2,000 watts of power to household appliances (the release specifically mentions “kitchen applications”). Current Qi devices will be able to draw power from these new transmitters at distances of up to 30 mm (around 1.2 inches), while devices with purpose-build Qi 1.2 receivers increase the distance to 45 mm (about 1.8 inches). Engadget reports that the resonant version of Qi is roughly 70 to 80 percent efficient, while the old inductive version is around 85 percent efficient, and Qi 1.1 and 1.2 transmitters and receivers will be able to interoperate, so inductive charging pads like the Nexus Wireless Charger will still be able to charge Qi 1.2 phones. Just know that resonant charging will require a Qi 1.2 transmitter. Read 1 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Updated Qi 1.2 standard makes wireless charging more wireless

Modbook’s next project is the convertible MacBook Apple won’t make

The Modbook Pro X would be an expensive entry in a crowded niche. Modbook Inc. Before the iPad, people who wanted an Apple tablet could buy something called the ” Modbook ” from a company named Axiotron. For $2,279, the company would take a regular white plastic MacBook, take it apart, and reassemble it inside a purpose-built tablet case with a Wacom digitizer and stylus installed. After some financial trouble and the launch of an actual Apple tablet , Axiotron became Modbook Inc. , and the company launched the Modbook Pro , which did for the 13-inch MacBook Pro what the Modbook did for the standard Macbook. Today the company is ready to announce the third iteration of the Modbook, kind of. The Modbook Pro X takes the 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro (including the refreshed models introduced yesterday ), makes some modifications to its specs, and puts it into a tablet case. Like past Modbooks, the Modbook Pro X is designed to appeal to artists and other creative professionals who would like to draw directly on their tablet screens without having to use a separate drawing tablet. The catch? This project currently exists  only as a Kickstarter project , with no guarantee the product will see the light of day if it doesn’t hit its $150,000 funding goal. The Modbook as a tablet. Modbook Inc. The Modbook Pro X will preserve all of the original ports and the CPU, GPU, and screen specs of the 2013 Retina MacBook Pro, crammed into a black tablet of indeterminate thickness and weight. The screen will be covered by a digitizer that supports 2,048 different pressure levels, and the Modbook will come with software installed to take advantage of the digitizer hardware. Optional “keybars,” small rows of keys mounted to the back of the tablet, will provide keyboard hotkey shortcuts that users can press without interrupting whatever they’re sketching onscreen. Read 6 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Modbook’s next project is the convertible MacBook Apple won’t make

Podcasting patent troll: We tried to drop lawsuit against Adam Carolla

wasim muklashy Personal Audio LLC is an East Texas shell company that gleaned national attention when it claimed it had the right to demand cash from every podcaster. The company was wielding a patent on “episodic content,” which it said included anyone doing a podcast, as well as many types of online video. Now the company is trying to walk away from its highest-profile lawsuit against comedian Adam Carolla—but Carolla won’t let the case drop. In a statement  released today, Personal Audio says that Carolla, who has raised more than $450,000 from fans to fight the case, is wasting their money on an unnecessary lawsuit. The company, which is a “patent troll” with no business other than lawsuits, has said Carolla just doesn’t care since his fans are paying his lawyers’ bills. Read 12 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Podcasting patent troll: We tried to drop lawsuit against Adam Carolla