privacy-rights – Page 47 – Tech Today w/ Ken May

Refinements, additions, and un-breaking stuff: iOS 7.1 reviewed

Time to update! iOS 7.1 is here, and it fixes a lot of iOS 7.0’s biggest problems. Aurich Lawson There were about six months between the ouster of Scott Forstall from Apple in late October of 2012 and the unveiling of iOS 7.0 in June of 2013. Jony Ive and his team redesigned the software from the ground up in that interval, a short amount of time given that pretty much everything in the operating system was overhauled and that it was being done under new management. The design was tweaked between that first beta in June and the final release in mid-September, but the biggest elements were locked in place in short order. iOS 7.1’s version number implies a much smaller update, but it has spent a considerable amount of time in development. Apple has issued five betas to developers since November of 2013, and almost every one of them has tweaked the user interface in small but significant ways. It feels like Apple has been taking its time with this one, weighing different options and attempting to address the harshest criticism of the new design without the deadline pressure that comes with a major release. We’ve spent a few months with iOS 7.1 as it has progressed, and as usual we’re here to pick through the minutiae so you don’t have to. iOS 7.1 isn’t a drastic change, but it brings enough new design elements, performance improvements, and additional stability to the platform that it might just win over the remaining iOS 6 holdouts. Read 42 remaining paragraphs | Comments

More:
Refinements, additions, and un-breaking stuff: iOS 7.1 reviewed

Popcorn Time reinvents the seedy process of torrenting

We are used to illegal activities looking and feeling far more illegal than this. A new BitTorrent-powered video app has been released that beautifies the torrenting process to the point that TorrentFreak describes it as “Netflix for pirates.” The app, which is available for OS X, Windows, and Linux, shows a catalog of movies and loads them up on a computer in an interface as seamless as that of most legit streaming services, but using means that are generally less than legal. Typically, torrenting a movie (illegally, if it’s copyrighted property) involves seeking out a sketchy torrent website littered with porn ads to download a .torrent file that users hope will actually result in a movie and not, say, a virus. The process’s pitfalls and risks are many, not to mention the potential for getting called out by one’s ISP and, in rare instances, being fined or sued. Popcorn Time eliminates the seedier aspects of torrent location in a slick app that doesn’t involve dealing with files, download speeds, or seeding—at least on the front end. The app began as a Github project that now has over 50 contributors. It is free, open-source, and has no ads or other money-making schemes. The app works by using an API provided by torrent service YTS to stream the file, which is then shared from the user’s computer after the download is completed. Read 1 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Follow this link:
Popcorn Time reinvents the seedy process of torrenting

Intel’s 800Gbps cables headed to cloud data centers and supercomputers

Intel’s pitch for Silicon Photonics. Intel and several of its partners said they will make 800Gbps cables available in the second half of this year, bringing big speed increases to supercomputers and data centers. The new cables are based on Intel’s Silicon Photonics technology that pushes 25Gbps across each fiber. Last year, Intel demonstrated speeds of 100Gbps in each direction, using eight fibers. A new connector that goes by the name “MXC” holds up to 64 fibers (32 for transmitting and 32 for receiving), enabling a jump to 800Gbps in one direction and 800Gbps in the other, or an aggregate of “1.6Tbps” as Intel prefers to call it. (In case you’re wondering, MXC is not an acronym for anything.) That’s a huge increase over the 10Gbps cables commonly used to connect switches and other equipment in data centers today. The fiber technology also maintains its maximum speed over much greater distances than copper, sending 800Gbps at lengths up to 300 meters, Intel photonics technology lab director Mario Paniccia told Ars. Eventually, the industry could boost the per-line rate from 25Gbps to 50Gbps, doubling the overall throughput without adding fibers, he said. Read 13 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Continue reading here:
Intel’s 800Gbps cables headed to cloud data centers and supercomputers

iOS 7.1 released, improves iPhone 5S stability, iPhone 4 speed, and more

After months of testing, iOS 7.1 is finally here. Andrew Cunningham Apple has just released iOS 7.1, the first major update to iOS 7 . The new update provides a variety of security and stability fixes, some speed improvements, and UI tweaks that refine the new design introduced back in December. The update is available for all devices that can run iOS 7: the iPhone 4, 4S, 5, 5C, and 5S; the iPad 2, both Retina iPads, both iPad minis, and the iPad Air; and the fifth-generation iPod touch. The update brings a whole pile of fixes. It addresses a crashing bug with the iPhone 5S, improves speed on the iPhone 4, introduces the new CarPlay feature, adds new accessibility options, and makes a handful of other refinements to the UI. The first iOS 7.1 beta was released to developers back in mid-November, and four additional betas have been issued since then. Throughout the beta cycle, Apple has continuously adjusted the operating system’s user interface, polishing it and making it more consistent. We’ve been playing with the iOS 7.1 betas for a few months now, and we’ll be publishing a full review of the software after we’ve spent a little more time with the final release. We’ll also be revisiting our original article about performance on the iPhone 4 later today. Read on Ars Technica | Comments

Continued here:
iOS 7.1 released, improves iPhone 5S stability, iPhone 4 speed, and more

Review: Mophie’s Space Pack doubles your iPhone’s battery, storage, and size

The Mophie Space Pack is an iPhone case with an integrated battery and 16 or 32GB of internal storage. Andrew Cunningham Specs at a glance: Mophie Space Pack Storage 16 or 32GB integrated NAND Ports MicroUSB 2.0 for charging Size 5.66″ 2.57″ x 0.63″ (143.76 x 65.28 x 16mm) Weight 2.80 oz (79.38g) Battery 1700mAh Warranty 1 year Starting Price $149.95 for 16GB, $179.95 for 32GB Compatibility iPhone 5 and 5S only. Not compatible with fifth-gen iPod touch or iPhone 5C. I bought one of Mophie’s external battery packs not long after we reviewed one in mid-2012 , and since then it’s become one of my favorite travel companions. My phone is in near-constant use while I’m traveling for work, whether I’m transmitting communications to the Ars Orbiting HQ , tethering my computer to my phone, or shooting some quick on-the-fly video or pictures without digging out my DSLR. The upside to an external battery pack is that I can plug pretty much anything into it, from an iPhone to an Android tablet to a Chromebook 11 . The bad thing is that you have to remember to have it on you, and you also need to carry around the necessary cables at all times. That’s where Mophie’s Space Pack comes in—it’s a revised version of the company’s Juice Pack battery cases with a twist. In addition to a 1,700mAh battery, it includes either 16GB or 32GB of storage that you can use to augment your iPhone’s internal storage. It’s not for everyone, but for some iPhone 5 and 5S users among you, it just might be able to kill three birds with one stone. The case The case slides on to your iPhone 5 or 5S. Pull the two parts back apart to get the phone out of the case. Andrew Cunningham The case itself is very similar to Mophie’s existing Juice Pack Plus or Juice Pack Air, the largest and second-largest battery cases the company sells. Its 1,700mAh battery is identical to the Air, and they share roughly equal physical dimensions and weight (the Space Pack is very slightly larger and heavier, but it’s hard to tell the difference). It comes apart in two pieces that slide onto the phone and interlock. The bottom of the case has a male Lightning connector that goes into the phone, but you charge the case itself with the same micro USB port that you might find in an Android or Windows phone or tablet. Read 15 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Read the article:
Review: Mophie’s Space Pack doubles your iPhone’s battery, storage, and size

Critical crypto bug leaves Linux, hundreds of apps open to eavesdropping

A. Strakey Hundreds of open source packages, including the Red Hat, Ubuntu, and Debian distributions of Linux, are susceptible to attacks that circumvent the most widely used technology to prevent eavesdropping on the Internet, thanks to an extremely critical vulnerability in a widely used cryptographic code library. The bug in the GnuTLS library makes it trivial for attackers to bypass secure sockets layer (SSL) and Transport Layer Security (TLS) protections available on websites that depend on the open source package. Initial estimates included in Internet discussions such as this one indicate that more than 200 different operating systems or applications rely on GnuTLS to implement crucial SSL and TLS operations, but it wouldn’t be surprising if the actual number is much higher. Web applications, e-mail programs, and other code that use the library are vulnerable to exploits that allow attackers monitoring connections to silently decode encrypted traffic passing between end users and servers. The bug is the result of commands in a section of the GnuTLS code that verify the authenticity of TLS certificates, which are often known simply as X509 certificates . The coding error, which may have been present in the code since 2005 , causes critical verification checks to be terminated, drawing ironic parallels to the extremely critical “goto fail” flaw that for months put users of Apple’s iOS and OS X operating systems at risk of surreptitious eavesdropping attacks. Apple developers have since patched the bug . Read 7 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Link:
Critical crypto bug leaves Linux, hundreds of apps open to eavesdropping

Comcast subscriber spinoff could create a new cable company

Comcast’s plan to divest itself of 3 million subscribers, which it hopes will help it win approval of a merger with Time Warner Cable, could result in the creation of a new cable company. Rather than selling off territories to existing cable companies, Comcast is considering an option to “[spin] them off in a new publicly traded company,” Bloomberg reported , citing anonymous sources.”Regulators may push for the spin-out because it would create a new competitor,” Bloomberg wrote. “A new company formed in such a way would be the fourth-largest US cable company by subscribers, trailing the merged Comcast-Time Warner Cable, Cox Communications Inc,. and Charter Communications Inc.” Creating a new company with those customers wouldn’t result in more choices for consumers in individual markets. Despite being the two largest cable companies in the US, Comcast and Time Warner Cable don’t compete against each other in any regional territory. Read 2 remaining paragraphs | Comments

More:
Comcast subscriber spinoff could create a new cable company

MtGox code posted by hackers as company files for bankruptcy protection

Cross Office Shibuya Medio, the office building in Tokyo that is home to MtGox and Mark Karpeles’ other companies. Tokyo Apartments As MtGox CEO Mark Karpeles and his lawyers officially filed for court-supervised restructuring of the Bitcoin exchange, someone posted a chunk of code to Pastebin that would appear to lend credence to Karpeles’ contention that his company was hacked. The block of PHP code appears to be part of the backend for MtGox’s Bitcoin exchange site, and it includes references to IP addresses registered to Karpeles’ Web hosting and consulting company, Tibanne . In an update to the MtGox website late Monday, the company reasserted its claim that it had been hacked through an exploit of a weakness in its exchange website code. “Although the complete extent is not yet known, we found that approximately 750,000 bitcoins deposited by users and approximately 100,000 bitcoins belonging to us had disappeared,” the company’s spokesperson said in the latest update at the MtGox website. “We believe that there is a high probability that these bitcoins were stolen as a result of an abuse of this bug and we have asked an expert to look at the possibility of a criminal complaint and undertake proper procedures.” That loss was discovered on February 24. On the same day, the company found “large discrepancies between the amount of cash held in financial institutions and the amount deposited from our users. The amounts are still under investigation and may vary, but they approximate JPY 2.8 billion [$27 million US].” Read 2 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Originally posted here:
MtGox code posted by hackers as company files for bankruptcy protection

Snow Leopard updates are probably done—here are your OS X upgrade options

End of the line, Snowy. Apple Apple offers no end-of-life roadmaps for its operating systems, and it doesn’t officially comment on whether support has dried up for this or that version of OS X. The best you can do is look at historical data. Since switching to a yearly release cadence with Lion back in 2011, Apple seems to be willing to support whatever the latest version is plus the two preceding versions. When OS X 10.9.2 was released earlier this week, it was accompanied by security updates for OS X 10.8 and 10.7 but not for 2009’s OS X 10.6. It’s the first major security update that Snow Leopard has missed—the OS is still getting iTunes updates, but its last major security patch happened back in September. This has prompted a flurry of posts from various outlets. All point out the same Net Applications data that says 10.6 still powers around 19 percent of Macs. Most compare the OS X support cycle to the much-longer Windows cycle. Some make a bigger deal about it than others. None really tell anyone in that 19 percent what to do next. You’ll need to know the exact kind of Mac you’re using before proceeding—typing your serial number into this Service and Support page should give you the information you need if you’re not sure. Launching the System Profiler application from the Utilities folder will show you your serial number and your Mac’s specific model identifier (something like MacBook4,1 or iMac11,2), the latter of which can be used with this EveryMac lookup page to find what you’re looking for. Read 17 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Read the article:
Snow Leopard updates are probably done—here are your OS X upgrade options

The day the Mario Kart died: Nintendo’s kill switch and the future of online consoles

flickr user: Andrew Huff Nintendo fans, mark your calendars for May 20, 2014. As Nintendo announced yesterday , that’s the last day you’ll be able to use the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection to play hundreds of online games on the Wii and Nintendo DS. Single-player modes for those games will still work, of course, but any parts of the games that require an Internet connection will be completely non-functional in a matter of months. The shutdown will affect some of both systems’ most popular games, some of the best-selling games of all time. Suddenly, over 34 million copies of Mario Kart Wii and 23 million copies of Mario Kart DS will be severely diminished. The tens of millions of people who own the DS Pokemon games will no longer be able to trade their beasts or battle online. Animal Crossing: Wild World and Super Smash Bros. Brawl will be less functional for over 11 million players each. Sure, as a practical matter, relatively few of these tens of millions of players are still making regular use of online servers for games that are sometimes pushing nine years old. If they were, Nintendo would probably have more interest in continuing to maintain those servers on the theory that it would lead to some more very-long-tail sales for its online-enabled games. On the other hand, Nintendo could be more interested in trying to force more players off its “legacy systems” and on to the Wii U and 3DS, which of course still have active online support. Read 11 remaining paragraphs | Comments