Tag: script

The end is reportedly near for RadioShack

Reports of RadioShack’s demise are nothing new, but now it seems like the electronics retailer may be done for good. Bloomberg reports that company is in talks with Sprint to hand over around half of its remaining stores to the wireless company. The rest of RadioShack’s locations will close, and those that are included in the deal will be painted yellow and black. This means the shops where most of us purchased parts for a project will cease to exist. Nothing’s final, and until the ink is dry, another suitor could swipe up the company and allow it to keep on chuggin’ along. RadioShack is facing bankruptcy after years of declining sales, so even if Sprint doesn’t agree to buy those stores, a move of some kind is imminent for the company that’s been selling tech since 1921. [Photo credit: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images] Filed under: Misc , Sprint Comments Source: Bloomberg

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The end is reportedly near for RadioShack

Freedom Clip rids you of Keurig’s coffee pod tyranny

Keurig’s K-Cup 2.0 DRM protection didn’t keep rogue pods out of its coffee machines for long , and another company created an add-on to bypass the system. The Rogers Family Company, a purveyor of some of those unapproved coffee products, made the appropriately-named Freedom Clip: a small insert that’ll allow you to use those “non-approved” coffee and tea servings. Keurig’s newer machines recognize special ink on the tops of its officially licensed pods, and those lacking the identifier won’t work. The clip tricks machines into thinking the security measure is present, and the folks at Rogers are giving it away for free. Of course, it’s probably hoping you’ll nab a box of pods as a display of gratitude. [Lead photo credit: Richard Levine/Alamy] Filed under: Household Comments Via: TechCrunch Source: Rogers Family Company

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Freedom Clip rids you of Keurig’s coffee pod tyranny

Raspberry Pi 2 appears two years early with substantial hardware upgrades

While Raspberry Pi fans were told to expect a brand new board somewhere around 2017 , it turns out that wasn’t quite true. This is the Raspberry Pi 2 Model B: a substantial upgrade from the Model B+ that will reportedly go on sale later today from the Raspberry Pi foundation for $35. The new board has some fundamental upgrades that could well warrant the upgrade for existing Raspberry Pi dabblers — that is, if smaller wasn’t better . Raspberry Pi Foundation lead Eben Upton told The Register that the new Model B “is a usable PC now.” “You could use a Raspberry Pi 1 as a PC but you had to say ‘this is a great PC in so far as it cost me 35 bucks’. We’ve removed the caveat that you had to be a bit forgiving with it. Now it’s just good.” How much better? Well, the team’s upgraded the processor on-board to a 900MHz quad-core chip and have loaded in 1GB of RAM, which the foundation reckons will offer at least six times the performance of the old Model B+ . It may look the same, but the board (with that processor which has apparently been in development for years), also has a special a tweak connecting to the quad-core brains to ensure it handles the gig of RAM on board. Naturally, it’ll be up to the Raspberry Pi community and makers to show what is possible with this sequel PC — but we’re assuming the specification bump will mean “a whole lot more”. Once Raspberry Pi goes official with the news, we’ll be adding more of the important details right here, but it will be available for the same price as last year’s B+; $35. Filed under: Peripherals , Science , Internet Comments Source: The Register

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Raspberry Pi 2 appears two years early with substantial hardware upgrades

Entangled photons on a chip could lead to super-fast computers

Photon entanglement is one of the odder properties of quantum physics, but it promises a lot for computing — if one photon can instantly affect another no matter how far away it is, you could make super-speedy computers and communications that aren’t easily limited by physical distances. It hasn’t been easy to get entanglement tech down to a manageable size, however, and that’s where Italy’s Università degli Studi di Pavia might just come to the rescue. Its researchers have developed a tiny emitter that could pump out entangled photons as part of an otherwise ordinary silicon chip. The device, which uses a ring shape to both rope in and emit light, measures just 20 microns across. That’s hundreds of times smaller than existing devices, which are comparatively gigantic at a few millimeters wide. You probably won’t see whole processors built around this technique, at least not for a while. Chip makers usually work on the nanometer scale — Intel’s new 14nm processors are far more intricate than this ring. Moreover, there’s some refinement left to make sure this part produces a reliable stream of tangled photons. If everything falls into place, however, you could see entanglement rings boosting performance in certain tasks. You might also see an entanglement-based component that handles jobs which aren’t otherwise possible, like spy-proof quantum cryptography . This breakthrough isn’t going to change semiconductors overnight, but it could make quantum computing more of a practical reality. Filed under: Science Comments Via: EurekAlert , SpaceDaily Source: OpticsInfoBase

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Entangled photons on a chip could lead to super-fast computers

Your BMW just downloaded a security patch

Have a BMW, Mini or Rolls Royce with the ConnectedDrive feature parked in your driveway? Maybe all three? Well, it turns out there was a bug that allowed ne’er-do-wells to manipulate it — entirely wirelessly. According to Reuters , by simulating a fake phone network researchers at German outfit ADAC (essentially Deutschland’s AAA) were able to gain access to systems governed by the platform’s SIM card by spoofing a cell tower. They’ve even put together a video describing the gap in security which you can check out after the break — if you speak German. While the vulnerabilities didn’t include anything related to steering, acceleration or braking, the ConnectedDrive does have access to traffic information, air conditioning and… door locks. For its part, BMW says it hasn’t seen any reports of compromises to vehicle security, and now it’s using HTTPS to encrypt all data transmissions. Perhaps best of all? Owners of the 2.2 million affected vehicles didn’t need to hit the dealership for this patch — it was already delivered over the air. The update pushed automatically once the system connected to BMW’s servers recently, but those who keep a car stored may want to hop in and hit the “Update Services” button. Good thing, because taking all three of your rides in for service (like they did in 2012 to fix a problem with the ODB port that thieves actually used to steal cars , and as of 2014 were still using on unpatched vehicles) would probably be kind of inconvenient. Affected models: BMW 1 Series Convertible, Coupé and Touring (E81, E82, E87, E88, F20, F21) 2er Active Tourer, Coupé and Convertible (F22, F23, F45) 3 with Convertible, Coupe, GT, Touring and M3 (E90, E91, E92, E93, F30, F31, F34, F80) 4p Coupe, Convertible, Gran Coupe and M4 (F32, F33, F36, F82, F83) 5 Series GT and Touring (F07, F10, F11, F18) 6 Series Gran Coupe Convertible (F06, F12, F13) 7 Series (F01, F02, F03, F04) I3 (I01), I8 (I12) X1 (E84), X3 (F25), X4 (F26) X 5 (E70, F15, F85), X6 (E71, E72, F16, F86), Z 4 (E89) Mini Three-door and five-door hatchback (F55, F56) Rolls Royce Phantom Coupe and Drophead Coupe (RR1, RR2, RR3) Ghost (RR4) Wrait (RR5) [Image credit: BMW – AFP/Getty Images, control unit – ADAC / Uwe Rattay] Filed under: Transportation Comments Source: Reuters , BMW , ADAC (German)

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Your BMW just downloaded a security patch

Tesla’s long-delayed Model X SUV is testing in California

It may look like a Prius that’s been vomited on by Mad Max, but the vehicle you see in the clip below is probably Tesla’s long-delayed Model X SUV . You see, when companies begin stress-testing vehicles, they dress them down with a dodgy paint job and go riding out a deserted airfield, like the one at the old naval base in Alameda. No amount of weird paint, however, could disguise the latest all-electric vehicle to roll off the production line, especially one as long-awaited as the X. It’s been a long road, getting from there to here. The Model X was originally announced back in 2012 , but by the start of 2014, issues with the battery meant the date was pushed back to early 2015. Then, back in November , Elon Musk revealed that the company was having difficulty mass producing components for the falcon-winged vehicle, pushing the launch date back to the tail-end of 2015. If the company is feeling bullish enough to let its high-riding whip out in public, then perhaps he’ll make that deadline. It looks like, despite the heftier build, that the Model X will still be mightily fast, let’s just hope that the company puts Insane Mode as a button right on the steering wheel. Filed under: Transportation Comments Via: TechCrunch

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Tesla’s long-delayed Model X SUV is testing in California

Reddit posts its first transparency report

Reddit may not be subject to as much legal scrutiny as tech giants like Google or Microsoft , but there’s enough of it that the internet community has published its first transparency report . The site says that received 55 demands for user info through subpoenas, search warrants and emergency requests in 2014. That’s a tiny amount compared to the 174 million total redditors , but that makes it a bigger target than Dropbox and other services that you’d think would be more conducive to secret activity. The site had a bigger problem on its hands with 218 copyright and trademark takedown requests, although it’s not clear if that includes any calls to pull celebrity photos stolen in last year’s iCloud breach . Not that cops or lawyers got as much as they’d like. Reddit notes that it denied just under half of all data requests, and over two thirds of takedowns — in many cases, the copyright notices were overbroad attempts to censor entire subreddits or less-than-flattering (but still legal) material. The site’s main challenge is simply getting permission to tell people what’s going on. Gag orders prevented it from giving a heads-up for 13 data requests, so the company can’t always be as forthcoming as it would hope. [Image credit: Eva Blue, Flickr ] Filed under: Internet Comments Via: TechCrunch Source: Reddit Blog

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Reddit posts its first transparency report

Tesla Model S is getting even quicker through a software update

If you didn’t think that Tesla’s Model S P85D was bonkers enough , you’re in for a treat. Elon Musk has revealed that the already speedy electric sedan is getting a software update that will improve its 0-60MPH acceleration time by a tenth of a second, to 3.1 seconds. That may not sound like much, but that makes the Model S as quick off the mark as McLaren’s MP4-12C supercar. The ‘regular’ P85 will also get a boost, Musk says , although it won’t be “quite as much.” No, this won’t be news to aftermarket tuners used to wringing out more performance through code, but it’s fun to think that a factory firmware upgrade could be the key to winning a drag race. [Image credit: Free Photos, Flickr ] Tesla P85D 0 to 60mph acceleration will improve by ~0.1 sec soon via over-the-air software update to inverter algorithm – Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 29, 2015 Filed under: Transportation Comments Source: Elon Musk (Twitter 1) , (2)

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Tesla Model S is getting even quicker through a software update

Amazon put $1.3 billion into Prime Instant Video last year

Amazon may have surprised Wall Street by how much sales went up in the fourth quarter of last year ($29.3 billion, with a profit of $214 million), but for customers its Prime service is the big deal. Founder and CEO Jeff Bezos said Prime membership in the US grew by 50 percent last year, despite a price hike . That growth probably explains (and helps justify) the expanding number of services it’s tacked on to what was originally just an offer of free / cheap shipping. According to Bezos, Amazon plowed $1.3 billion into Prime Instant Video alone in 2014, snapping up exclusives, content from HBO and creating award winning programming like Transparent . [Image credit: Shutterstock] Of course, since this is Amazon there’s no exact number of Prime subscribers revealed, but the company apparently spent “billions” on shipping for the program. The company’s Fire phone didn’t seem to merit much discussion, but for now Wall Street is happy and customers keep clicking that Buy button, so why rain on the parade? Filed under: Internet , Amazon Comments Source: Amazon

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Amazon put $1.3 billion into Prime Instant Video last year

Google X Labs made synthetic skin to test a cancer-detecting bracelet

If someone asks you to name a Google X Labs moonshot, you’d probably say Glass , self-driving car or maybe even Project Loon . But as you might remember from the WSJD Live conference last year, it also has a flourishing Life Sciences division that employs 100 doctors and scientists, and one of their main projects is a Fitbit-like bracelet that can detect cancer cells . Now, The Atlantic has taken a peek into the division’s headquarters in Mountain View. The publication’s video (below the fold) also explains why the team has to create synthetic human skin mixed with the real thing to cover disembodied arms. See, those arms serve as testers for the Labs’ cancer-detecting bracelet project. For that to make sense, though, you need to understand how the system works: first you’ll need to take pills packed with nanoparticles that circulate throughout the body looking for cancer cells. If they find any, they’ll bind to those cells, which then literally light up. After that, the cell-particle combos make their way underneath the bracelet, since it has a magnet that attracts the nanoparticles. Since the team wants to make sure that an illuminated clump of cancer cells is visible through human skin, they created those practice arms. They’re covered in skin exhibiting different properties (thickness, etc.), as well as skin mimicking those of different ethnicities and skin tones. The bracelet probably won’t be sniffing out cancer in the real world anytime soon, though, so watch the interview for now to see what it’s like inside Google X Labs’ Life Sciences department. Filed under: Science , Google Comments Source: The Atlantic

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Google X Labs made synthetic skin to test a cancer-detecting bracelet