vanity-fair – Page 23 – Tech Today w/ Ken May

Intel expands 10Gbps “Thunderbolt Ethernet” capability to Windows

Thunderbolt 2 is picking up another feature. Chris Foresman If standard gigabit Ethernet isn’t cutting it for you, Intel will soon give you another option: this week at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) show in Las Vegas, the company announced a new feature called ” Thunderbolt Networking ” that will soon be available to all PCs with Thunderbolt 2 controllers. The feature, which will be enabled by an upcoming Windows driver update, will “emulat[e] an Ethernet connection environment” and provide a 10Gbps two-way link between two computers connected with a Thunderbolt cable. Since you’ll need to connect the two computers directly to each other, this solution obviously won’t scale as well as real 10Gbps networking equipment. But for now, that hardware remains relatively uncommon and expensive—well outside the price range of individuals and smaller businesses. Thunderbolt Networking is apparently not being enabled for older computers with first-generation Thunderbolt controllers. While the feature will be new to the Windows operating system, the ability to network two Thunderbolt Macs together was introduced back in Mavericks. It doesn’t appear to require Thunderbolt 2 on that platform, though as we experienced , configuring a Thunderbolt Bridge can make for fast but occasionally choppy transfer speeds. That test connected one Thunderbolt 2 Mac to an older model with a first-generation Thunderbolt controller, though—it’s possible that connecting Thunderbolt 2 Macs to each other results in a more stable connection however. This new Windows driver update will enable any two Thunderbolt 2 PCs and Macs to be connected, though to date the Windows laptops, workstations, and motherboards with integrated Thunderbolt 2 controllers have been few and far between. Read on Ars Technica | Comments

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Intel expands 10Gbps “Thunderbolt Ethernet” capability to Windows

Experian in hot seat after exposing millions of social security numbers [Update]

Ruddington Photos/Flickr Regulators from several states are investigating a data breach from a subsidiary of the credit-tracking behemoth Experian. The investigation by attorneys general in these states concerns whether the subsidiary adequately secured some 200 million social security numbers and whether victims were properly notified. The investigation, first disclosed by Reuters , comes as the Obama administration is pressing for legislation requiring companies to better secure customer data . A Vietnamese man who operated a website, called findget.me, offering social security numbers has pleaded guilty to charges that he obtained the data from the Experian subsidiary, Court Ventures. The firm, a court document retrieval service, also jointly maintains a database of some 200 million social security numbers with another firm. Read 5 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Experian in hot seat after exposing millions of social security numbers [Update]

Cassini points to a hidden ocean on Saturn’s icy moon

I carry an ocean in my womb. NASA/JPL/SSI/J Major Finding liquid water on a body within the Solar System is exciting. The only thing that is probably more exciting is finding an ocean full of it. Today such news comes via Cassini, which has made measurements that show that Saturn’s moon Enceladus has a hidden ocean beneath its icy surface. While orbiting Saturn in 2005, Cassini found jets of salty water spewing from the south polar region of Enceladus. According to Luciano Iess of Sapienza University of Rome, lead author of the new study published in Science , “The discovery of the jets was unexpected.” Geysers require liquid water, and we wouldn’t expect Enceladus to have any. It is too far from the Sun to absorb much energy and too small (just 500km in diameter) to have trapped enough internal energy to keep its core molten. The answer to how the water got there might lie in the details of the moon’s internal structure. Read 13 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Cassini points to a hidden ocean on Saturn’s icy moon

Google Wireless: Google Fiber cities could get mobile service, but to what end?

Through Google Fiber, Google is already an Internet service provider, piping Gigabit Internet to homes and businesses in a handful of cities across the US. According to a report from The Information (paywall) Google has been considering supplementing Google Fiber’s home Internet access with a wireless cellular service. Google’s plan wasn’t to build towers, but to become a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO)—basically a middle man who buys service from one of the “big four” carriers at wholesale prices and resells that to consumers under its own brand. According to the report, Google spoke to Sprint and then Verizon about reselling their networks to customers, with the Verizon talks happening earlier this year. The service would be available to users in Google Fiber cities, and it would be supplemented with free Wi-Fi hotspots. What would Google hope to accomplish with a move like this? Google built Google Fiber from the ground up by putting fiber on poles, running connections to each house, and providing self-built hardware. Complete control over every part of the network allows Google to differentiate Google Fiber in several ways, like service location, speed, and pricing. Google’s plan for its wireless service appears to be much less ambitious, though. A s an MVNO, Google would be using someone else’s network, so the only thing Google would really have control over is the resale price. The whole point of Google Fiber is to “shame” other ISPs into increasing their speeds and lowering their prices. Google doesn’t plan on covering the entire country in fiber, but one look at Google’s 1,000Mbps service for $70 and the traditional ISP plan of 5 to 15Mbps for about the same price looks like a huge ripoff. This ” halo effect ” puts pressure on ISPs to speed up their service, and that makes Google products like search and YouTube run faster. The strategy seems to be working, with companies like AT&T rolling out fiber in response . As an MVNO, Google can’t do anything like the Google Fiber strategy, since it isn’t running the network. It won’t have control over speed or reception, meaning the best it can do to stand out is resell the service very cheaply. Unfairly competing with wireless carriers by pricing to only break even doesn’t seem like it would put much pressure on other carriers, because they would realize Google isn’t trying to turn a profit. Read 5 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Google Wireless: Google Fiber cities could get mobile service, but to what end?

Reuters: Next iPhone will come with 4.7” or 5.5” screen

Satire – The iPhone 5S (Parody) Ad Reuters reports that Apple’s next iPhone will be available in both 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch screen versions —considerable increases over the current iPhone 5S and 5C models’ 4-inch displays. Reuters cites “supply chain sources” for the information, which could mean anything from a Foxconn vice president down to a factory janitor. According to Reuters, three separate suppliers have been tapped to produce the larger LCD panels: Japan Display, Sharp, and LG Display. The existence of the displays themselves isn’t necessarily the point of the Reuters report, though—according to Reuters, not only are the two unannounced display sizes planned, but the 5.5-inch version might already be facing production problems. The report speculates that the displays will contain the same in-cell touch sensor technology that Apple has been using since the iPhone 5’s debut . This kind of display incorporates touch sensors directly into the screen’s glass, making it considerably more complex to manufacture than displays with separate glass, panel, and sensor elements. Making in-cell displays in quantity at the larger 5.5-inch size is apparently difficult, which is why the screen manufacturers are said to be leading with 4.7-inch screens. Read 2 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Reuters: Next iPhone will come with 4.7” or 5.5” screen

Faster, cheaper, smaller: The state of the system-on-a-chip in 2014

Aurich Lawson/Ars Technica If you’re reading this, the odds are pretty good that you have a smartphone. There’s also a better-than-average chance that you know a little something about the stuff inside that phone—who makes the chips inside and how those chips stack up to the ones in other phones. About a year ago, we wrote a guide covering most of the major players making these chips, and now that this year’s Mobile World Congress is over and done with, we thought it was time to revisit the subject. What’s changed? What’s stayed the same? And what’s going to happen in the next year that you need to know about? We’ll begin by looking at emerging trends before moving on to a bird’s-eye view of where all the major chipmakers stand. This won’t give you an in-depth technical description of every detail, but it should help you understand where this tech is headed in 2014. Read 55 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Faster, cheaper, smaller: The state of the system-on-a-chip in 2014

Apps with millions of Google Play downloads covertly mine cryptocurrency

Michael Mandiberg Researchers said they have uncovered two apps that were downloaded from the official Google Play market more than one million times that use Android devices to mine the Litecoin and Dogecoin cryptocurrencies without explicitly informing end users. According to a blog post published Tuesday by a researcher from antivirus provider Trend Micro, the apps are Songs , installed from one million to five million times, and Prized , which was installed from 10,000 to 50,000 times. Neither the app descriptions nor their terms of service make clear that the apps subject Android devices to the compute-intensive process of mining, Trend Micro Mobile Threats Analyst Veo Zhang wrote. As of Wednesday afternoon, the apps were still available. Mining apps typically consume larger-than-average amounts of electricity and can generate extremely hot temperatures as CPUs, GPUs, or other types of processors strain to perform cryptographic hashing functions required for users to mint new digital coins. The strain can be especially onerous on smartphones, because they’re equipped with hardware that’s much less powerful than that found in traditional computers. The apps discovered by Trend Micro were programmed to mine coins only when devices were recharging. That setting would help prevent batteries from draining quickly, but it would do nothing to prevent devices from overheating or consuming large amounts of bandwidth. Read 3 remaining paragraphs | Comments

New dwarf planet found sneaking through the inner Oort Cloud

An artist’s depiction of Sedna, the first of the objects from this class of bodies to have been discovered. NASA A new dwarf planet-like body has been found on the outer edges of the Solar System. This object, called 2012VP 113 , is about 450km wide and is the second body of its class found since the identification of the dwarf planet Sedna in 2003, and it joins an exclusive club composed of some of the strangest objects in the Solar System. The observable Solar System can be divided into three regions: the rocky terrestrial planets and asteroids of the inner Solar System, the gas giant planets, and the icy Kuiper Belt objects, which include Pluto. The Kuiper Belt stretches from beyond Neptune, which is at 30 astronomical units (where 1AU is the typical distance between the Earth and the Sun), to about 50AU. Sedna and 2012VP 113 are strange objects because they reside in a region where there should be nothing, according to our theories of the Solar System formation. Their orbit is well beyond that of Neptune, the last recognized planet of the Solar System, and even beyond that of Pluto, which differs from planets because of its size, unusual orbit, and composition. (Pluto, once considered a planet, is now considered the lead object of a group of bodies called plutinos.) Read 11 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Microsoft releases source code for MS-DOS and Word

In recognition of their historical importance and commercial irrelevance, Microsoft has given the source code to MS-DOS 1.1 and 2.0 and Word for Windows 1.1a to the Computer History Museum (CHM) in Mountain View, California. The source is now freely downloadable by anyone, though making practical use of it is an exercise for the reader. This source code joins other important early programs, including Adobe Photoshop 1.0 and Apple II DOS, among the CHM’s collection. Len Shustek, CHM chairman said, “We think preserving historic source code like [MS-DOS and Word] is key to understanding how software has evolved from primitive roots to become a crucial part of our civilization.” The scale of change between then and now is formidable. MS-DOS had just 300kB of source code and occupied as little as 12kB of memory. In 1981, MS-DOS was a key part of IBM’s PC, and the success of the PC—and its clones—made Microsoft the industry giant it is today. Word for Windows is the product that turned WordPerfect from market leader into all-but-irrelevant also-ran. Read 1 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Microsoft releases source code for MS-DOS and Word

US gov’t secures first-ever win against Android app pirates

The hacked Android Market apps of SnappzMarket and AppBucket. Archive.org On Monday, American prosecutors announced that two of the four men involved with two Android piracy sites, snappzmarket.com and appbucket.net, have pleaded guilty to copyright infringement. The case marks the first time that US authorities have successfully prosecuted a case involving pirate app stores. The FBI shut down the sites listed above in August 2012 and filed charges against the quartet of men in January 2014. The two men, Nicholas Anthony Narbone, 26, of Orlando, Florida, and Thomas Allen Dye, 21, of Jacksonville, Florida, pleaded guilty to one count each of conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement. They are set to be sentenced in the coming months. Read 3 remaining paragraphs | Comments