src – Page 25 – Tech Today w/ Ken May

Bangladesh blocks mobile messaging apps to thwart protests

Countries are occasionally tempted to block mobile messaging apps when protests or riots flare up, and Bangladesh just gave in to that urge. The nation has blocked two popular services, Tango and Viber , on the grounds that anti-government protesters (some of whom have turned violent) are using these chat clients to coordinate their activities. Officials say the bans will last “for the time being, ” which suggests that locals shouldn’t get their hopes up for a reprieve — it might not let up unless the demonstrations come to an end. Whether or not this is effective is another matter. It shouldn’t be hard for these political opponents to find alternatives to Tango or Viber (WhatsApp comes to mind). Also, censorship of social apps has a tendency to galvanize resistance rather than break it down — whether or not the protesters are backing a good cause, they may see messaging blackouts as proof that they’re fighting injustices. [Image credit: AP Photo/A.M. Ahad] Filed under: Cellphones , Internet , Mobile Comments Source: AFP (Phys.org)

Deep-fried graphene may be the key to long-lasting batteries

The deep frying process isn’t just useful for livening up your food — it might also be the ticket to better batteries in your mobile devices. South Korean researchers have created highly conductive, stable electrode materials by spraying graphene oxide droplets into a very hot blend of acid and organic solvent, much like you’d dip chicken into oil. The resulting “pom-poms” (what you see above) aren’t at all tasty, but their open 3D structure makes them far better for transferring electrical charges than plain graphene. Other scientists have developed 3D graphene before, with similar energy capacitance. However, this deep-fry method is a lot easier to translate to mass production — it’s simple and scales easily to larger batches. This is just one piece of the puzzle (albeit an important one), so it’ll be a while before you see batteries based on this trick. Should everything pan out, though, your future smartphone or electric car may last much longer thanks to some carbon-based cuisine. [Image credit: Chemical Materials ] Filed under: Science Comments Via: Daily Dot Source: Chemical & Engineering News

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Deep-fried graphene may be the key to long-lasting batteries

New York governor wants statewide 100Mbps internet by 2019

With a $1 billion plan, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo hopes to have every New Yorker hooked up to high-speed internet by 2019. The administration is billing it as the largest state investment in universal broadband in the country. Just how fast are we talking, here? In most cases, the program calls for providers to offer at least 100 Mbps, or as Chief Digital Officer Rachel Haot described it at a press conference, “more than 10 times the federal definition of ‘broadband.'” The plan, known as the New New York Broadband Program (yes, that is two “News”) would include $500 million in capital funds (taken from recent bank settlements). The state wants those funds to serve as an incentive for private companies by offering 1:1 financial matching for broadband providers willing to invest their own money — hence the $1 billion total size. The program is part of Cuomo’s 2015 State of Opportunity Agenda and although those matching funds call for providers to offer at 100 Mbps speeds in most cases, it does allow for as low as 25Mbps in extremely remote areas of the state. According to Ookla’s Net Index Explorer, New York ranks third in the US with an average broadband speed of around 39 Mbps. However, stats from the state’s Broadband Program Office show that large swaths of the population lacked broadband access as recently as July 2014. In Greene County, for instance, the office estimates 91 percent of the county’s 50, 000 residents lack access to 100Mbps broadband — and 79 percent can’t even muster 6Mbps. While it’s obviously very early days for the program, Cuomo’s office seems mighty bullish about its potential, even with the not-so-far-off January 1st, 2019 deadline. “At the end of the next four years, ” New York Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul said, “you’ll see that every business in this community, in this state, is connected and will have the fastest-speed broadband of any state in the nation.” [Image credits: Bloomberg via Getty Images, New York State] Filed under: Networking , Internet Comments Source: New York State

AT&T took a $10 billion hit, but it’s hoping you won’t notice

In an extra-special Friday-night-before-a-holiday-weekend news dump, AT&T just announced that its Q4 results will include about $10 billion in charges. That includes a $7.9 billion “related to actuarial gains and losses on pension and postemployment benefit plans”, plus a $2.1 billion charge for abandoning some copper lines it says it doesn’t need anymore. Of course, you’re probably already well into whatever your weekend plans are, so you’ll barely even notice this happened once you get back to work on Tuesday — which is just how AT&T hoped it would go. [Image credit: shutterstock] Filed under: HD , Mobile , AT&T Comments Via: Reuters Source: AT&T

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AT&T took a $10 billion hit, but it’s hoping you won’t notice

HMV overtakes Amazon to become the UK’s biggest seller of physical music

Two years ago, British high-street retailer HMV was staring bankruptcy in the face . It was subsequently picked up by administration specialist Hilco , which immediately set about reversing the company’s fortunes. As a result of cost-cutting measures, HMV was forced to sell its iconic Oxford Street store and place a renewed focus on what made it popular: selling music. It certainly seems like it’s paid off, because the company has just reclaimed the number one spot as the UK’s biggest seller of physical music, overtaking Amazon in the process. CityAM reports that the company’s vinyl sales reached their highest level in over 20 years, jumping 170 percent over the past year. And in the two weeks leading up to Christmas, it was responsible for selling one in every three CDs and DVDs in the UK. It’s certainly been a good year for HMV, especially after it announced that all of its stores are now profitable. It now faces the challenge of sustaining that growth while competition continues to heat up, something that GAME has admitted is taking its toll on profits as it slashes its margins. However, the company is confident — 2015 looks set to be a bumper year for movie releases and it believes DVD, BluRay and physical music sales will continue to grow over the next 12 months. It might have the hipsters to thank for that. [Image credit: Mark Hooper, Flickr ] Filed under: HD , Amazon Comments Source: CityAM

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HMV overtakes Amazon to become the UK’s biggest seller of physical music

Soylent aims to make its nutritious sludge much cheaper than $3 a meal

Love it or hate it, the food replacement drink Soylent isn’t going away anytime soon. The company is now planning to drive down the cost of its meals to “a fraction” of their current $3 price after banking an additional $20 million, according to investor Chris Dixon . Soylent was originally developed as an inexpensive and convenient way to consume vaguely healthy meals (it’s made up of carbohydrates, proteins, and amino acids), and it quickly gained a loyal fan base . The only problem? It tastes like chalky pancake mix (with a dash of impending dystopia). It’s also tough to get your hands on right now: You can snag around 21 meals for $70 a month (or an $85 one-time fee), but you’ll have to wait four to five months for your order. Driving the price down to under $2 a meal (and hopefully increasing availability) is exactly what Soylent needs to do for normal folks to give it a shot. While Soylent was initially hyped as an entire meal replacement, Dixon points out it’s more an alternative to terrible fast food options. He also stresses that the real value of the company is the community that’s developed around it. “If you look at Soylent as just a food company, you misjudge the core of the company, the same way you would if you looked at GoPro as just a camera company, ” Dixon said. [Photo credit: Josh Edelson/AFP/Getty Images] Filed under: Misc Comments Via: TechCrunch Source: Chris Dixon

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Soylent aims to make its nutritious sludge much cheaper than $3 a meal

Google won’t fix a security bug that’s in almost a billion Android phones

A day after Google publicized a flaw in Windows 8.1 before Microsoft could do anything about it, news broke about a security vulnerability in Android that the Mountain View company, well, won’t fix at all. Tod Beardsley, an analyst from Rapid7, a security data and analytics firm, found a serious bug in the WebView component of Android 4.3 and below (it’s an older bit of software that lets apps view webpages without launching a separate app) that potentially opens up affected phones to malicious hackers. Android 4.4 and 5.0 are unaffected by the bug, but as 60 percent of Android users — that’s close to a billion people — still use Android 4.3 or lower, it still affects a lot of people. Unfortunately, as Beardsley found out, Google won’t fix it, leaving it up to the various OEMs and manufacturers to issue a patch instead. The quote from Google to Beardsley is as follows: If the affected version [of WebView] is before 4.4, we generally do not develop the patches ourselves, but welcome patches with the report for consideration. Other than notifying OEMs, we will not be able to take action on any report that is affecting versions before 4.4 that are not accompanied with a patch. According to Beardsley, it seems that Jelly Bean devices are simply too old to support — supporting old software versions is fairly unusual, after all. But in this case, he asks Google to reconsider, due to the wider consequences this security flaw could potentially unravel. Until then, however, it might be a good idea to upgrade to Android 4.4, or perhaps get a new phone altogether. [Image credit: Phillip Bond / Alamy] Filed under: Cellphones , Google Comments Via: ArsTechnica Source: Rapid7

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Google won’t fix a security bug that’s in almost a billion Android phones

Facebook will alert you when kids go missing in your area

Facebook will now show amber alerts in its news feeds to inform users about missing or abducted children. The social network launched the venture with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children to deliver the information in specific, targeted search areas following an abduction. The alerts will appear on mobile devices and desktops with photos and other pertinent details, allowing you to share them with friends or link to the latest info. Facebook said it was inspired to add the alerts after missing children were recovered due to information posted independently by users. For instance, earlier this year a motel owner recognized an 11-year-old girl from such a post and helped police recover her unharmed. Once it receives and amber alert from police, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children distributes them to Facebook, along with photos of the child, license plate numbers, the name and description of the child and abductor and any other relevant info. State and local law enforcement then determine the search area and send the alerts to your news feed if you live there. The item won’t trigger notifications, and you’ll only see them a few times a year at most, depending on where you live. Facebook now joins Google in highlighting amber alerts, meaning there’s now an extra 1.35 billion extra pairs of eyes helping spot abducted kids. Filed under: Internet , Facebook Comments Source: Facebook

Apple raises the minimum price of apps in Europe and Canada

If you live in Europe, Canada or Norway, you might find that some apps are now a little more expensive on your iPhone or iPad. Yesterday, Apple informed developers that it would be raising prices before the weekend to reflect changes in VAT and foreign exchange rates. Those increases are now starting to take effect, with a 10 pence rise for the cheapest premium apps in the UK, up from £0.69 to £0.79, and a new €0.99 starting price in EU countries. The minimum spend in Canada (beyond free apps, anyway) has risen from $0.99 to $1.19 , and Norway, which uses its Norwegian krone, should see a similar rise in price. Apple is tinkering with app fees in Iceland and Russia too, so if you live in any of these countries it’s probably worth opening up the App Store to assess the damage. Filed under: Cellphones , Apple Comments Source: AppleInsider

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Apple raises the minimum price of apps in Europe and Canada

Here’s a closer look at Dell’s super thin tablet and nearly bezel-less XPS 13

When I invited Sam Burd, the general manager of Dell’s personal computer group, to do an interview with me at CES about the state of the PC industry, I did so mostly because, well, Dell knows a lot about computers. I had no idea at the time that Dell would be showing off some amazing stuff at the show, with not one, but two products making the finalists’ list for our Best of CES Awards . So, before Mr. Burd and I got to talking about wireless charging and Intel’s RealSense technology, he gave me a closer look at both the skinny Venue 8 7000 tablet and the nearly bezel-less XPS 13 Ultrabook . Check out our interview in full below. Filed under: Laptops , Tablets , Dell Comments

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Here’s a closer look at Dell’s super thin tablet and nearly bezel-less XPS 13