|GadgetsDreams|

Samsung last week unveiled its Gear Fit2 fitness band and Gear IconX earbud set. The Gear Fit2 will be available for US$180 this Friday at major retailers. The IconX will hit shelves in the third quarter of this year. The Gear Fit2 has a built-in GPS and a heart rate monitor. The Gear IconX is a pair of Bluetooth earbuds that can track fitness information and provide users with feedback on their exercise performance. Both offer access to music -- the Gear Fit2 has a standalone music player while the IconX earbuds have internal storage for up to 1,000 MP3s. Both use Bluetooth. "With the Gear Fit2 and IconX, Samsung's eliminating the need to have a separate fitness tracker and iPod," noted Ramon Llamas, a research manager at IDC . "It's on to something here. Sure, music isn't health and fitness per se, but people listen to music when they exercise, so it makes sense," he told TechNewsWorld. Up Close With the Gear Fit2 In additi...

                            Data stolen from more than 32 million Twitter users has been offered for sale on the dark web for 10 bitcoin, or around US$5,800, LeakedSource reported Wednesday. LeakedSource has added the account and email information to its searchable repository of compromised credentials. The data set came from someone called "Tessa88@exploit.im," who has been connected to other large collections of compromised data, including the credentials for 425 million MySpace accounts. The Twitter information consists of 32,888,300 records, LeakedSource said, with each record containing such information as email addresses, usernames and passwords. The information likely came from compromised user systems rather than from a breach of Twitter's systems, according to LeakedSource. The hackers were able to in...

What happens when you're 220 miles above Earth on the International Space Station and you need a tool you don't have? You can print one yourself. In 2014, American astronauts for the first time printed a tool -- a ratchet wrench -- using a design file sent from NASA on the ground to the 3D printer spinning about in space. The feat was straight of visions of Star Trek's replicator -- and it was only the first step to much larger miracles in space. Here's what's happening now and how 3D printing is changing everything about the future of space travel. 3D Printing Overcomes Zero Gravity You may have heard that 3D printers can print food, but did you know that printing food in space overcomes a plating and serving problem too? "Unlike packaged food that floats in zero-gravity conditions, 3D printed food can be neatly formed and ordered," said Anjan Contractor, CEO of BeeHex , who won a NASA grant for 3D printing pizza ...

A new study shows that knowledge of government surveillance causes people to self-censor their dissenting opinions online. The research offers a sobering look at the  oft-touted "democratizing" effect of social media and Internet access that bolsters minority opinion. The study , published in Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, studied the effects of subtle reminders of mass surveillance on its subjects. The majority of participants reacted by suppressing opinions that they perceived to be in the minority. This research illustrates the silencing effect of participants’ dissenting opinions in the wake of widespread knowledge of government surveillance, as revealed by whistleblower Edward Snowden in 2013. The “ spiral of silence ” is a well-researched phenomenon in which people suppress unpopular opinions to fit in and avoid social isolation. It has been looked at in the context of social media and the echo-chamber effect, in whi...

The District of Columbia is infamous for some of the political issues that make it distinct from other areas of the country. Its residents only have a non-voting delegate in Congress, for example. And its crippled subway system is uniquely hobbled by the fact that it relies on money from Maryland and Virginia , not just funding from riders and D.C.'s government. So it's no surprise to learn that not long from now, D.C. residents may be able to add   drone delivery to their "left out on" list. Many online shoppers are waiting eagerly for the day that they'll be able to order something on Amazon.com and have it dropped off, via drone, on their front stoop. But because of a set of no-fly zones protecting the nation's capital from terrorist attacks, D.C. residents — and some in neighboring suburbs, too — could easily find themselves among the last to get drone delivery service. (Amazon chief executive...

Google-owned Boston Dynamics on Tuesday gave the world a look at the latest version of Atlas, a bipedal robot that someday could threaten manual laborers' livelihoods. Boston Dynamics certainly didn't say or imply that the fast-progressing Atlas robot would force humans out of their jobs. The clandestine group merely demonstrated the latest build of the bot, and gave it a cringeworthy battering to show how it responded to abuse. Giant Holding the World The latest generation of Atlas is more compact than its predecessor even though it also is unleashed from the power tether that pumped life into its grandfather's hydraulic limbs. This current version is 5 foot 9 inches tall and weighs in at 180 pounds, compared to the previous Atlas' 6 foot 330-pound build. Atlas is featured in a demo video walking away from his stable mates and heading outside to showcase its ability to trek across uneven, snowy terrain. Later, the bot shows off its industrious side, and...