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Showing posts from 2016

Drops and Spills Don't Faze Samsung Galaxy S7 Active

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The water- and shatter-resistant Samsung Galaxy S7 Active on Friday became available exclusively from AT&T through its website or at its brick-and-mortar stores. Consumers who have eligible service can get the Galaxy S7 Active for US$26.50 monthly for 30 months on AT&T Next, or $33.13 monthly for 24 months on AT&T Next Every Year. With a new two-year wireless agreement, customers who opt for AT&T Next also can get a free Samsung Gear S2 smartwatch, with qualified wireless service provided for both devices. As an alternative to the smartwatch, consumers can opt to pay 99 cents for the Samsung Galaxy Tab E, with wireless service included for both devices. Buying two Galaxy S7 Active devices on the AT&T Next plan also will get purchasers up to $695 in bill credits over 30 months. "Getting the S7 Active is a pretty good get for AT&T, as the device is, essentially, Samsung's flagship Galaxy S7 in an integrated ruggedized cas...

New Samsung Fitness Trackers Have Music Built-In

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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...

Twitter Users Snared in Dark Web's Brisk Password Trade

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                            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...

The Brand New Made-in-Space Frontier

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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 ...

Mass surveillance silences minority opinions, according to study

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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 incredibly Washington reason drone delivery isn’t coming to D.C. anytime soon

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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...

Atlas Robot Turns the Other Cheek

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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...

Apple Motion Seeks to Block Feds From Acquiring 'Dangerous Power'

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Apple last week filed a motion to vacate a federal order requiring the company to create a tool or code to unlock the iPhone of one of the San Bernardino, California, shooters. The order would set a dangerous precedent and release a powerful means to breach security on potentially millions of phones around the world, Apple argued. It transcends one phone and would empower government to make private companies compromise the security of all their users whenever it sees fit, the company said. "This is not a case about one isolated iPhone. Rather, this case is about the Department of Justice and the FBI seeking through the courts a dangerous power that Congress and the American people have withheld: the ability to force companies like Apple to undermine the basic security and privacy interests of hundreds of millions of individuals around the globe," the motion says. Signature Required Apple already has tools that could compromise the security of millions of people...

Neverware Brings Windows Into Its Anti-Aging Fold

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Neverware on Thursday announced the addition of dual-boot support, allowing its CloudReady operating system and Microsoft Windows to run on the same computer. The dual-boot feature preserves existing data on computers. Adding it to CloudReady -- which lets PCs and Apple computers function like Google Chromebooks -- will let users keep their existing computer configuration or boot into Neverware's cloud-based OS to access Google's Web app environment. The company has gained traction in the last 18 months among schools and some larger organizations strapped with aging computers and lagging budgets. In some school and business settings, Chromebook adoption has stalled because of reliance on legacy Windows applications, Neverware said. It hopes the dual-boot feature will ease the transition to Google's ecosystem. CloudReady began as a product specifically for schools already adopting Google Apps and Chromebooks. Some of those customers wanted to con...

Apple FBI Standoff Stretches Into Week Two

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  Apple on Monday called for the creation of a government panel to help resolve a standoff between the company and the Federal Bureau of Investigation over the issue of national security vs. data privacy. The proposal for a commission followed FBI Director James Comey's Sunday post on Lawfare -- an apparent effort to quell the controversy. Comey emphasized that the bureau was not seeking a master key that would allow it to snoop into American citizens' devices at will. The American public expects the bureau to do its utmost to investigate the killings carried out in last year's terrorist attack in San Bernardino, and that includes examining the data contained in a locked iPhone 5c used by shooter Syed Rizwan Farook, he argued. The FBI's goal is to obtain any information that will aid its investigation within the limits of the law, and it would seek search warrants when appropriate, Comey reaffirmed. The bureau wants Apple to disable some o...

Samsung Raises Curtain on Galaxy S7 Models

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Samsung on Sunday introduced two new models of its flagship Galaxy smartphone line at the annual gala for the mobile world, the Mobile World Conference in Barcelona, Spain. Both phones have similar features, but one, the Galaxy S7 Edge, has a 5.5-inch display, the same size as the iPhone 6s Plus. The units have curved screens that support quad HD resolution, as well as a slight curve on the back, making them easier to hold. To soothe complaints about the battery life of the previous Galaxy generation, the units have received power boosts. The S7 Edge has a 3,600-mAh battery, a jump from the S6 Edge's 2,600, and the S7 has a 3,000-mAh power supply, while the S6's battery was only 2,550. In addition, the units are water and dust resistant, support microSD storage, and run on Android 6.0 Marshmallow. Fewer Megapixels Samsung also has made some changes in the Galaxy's camera. It has reduced the number of megapixels on the shooter's sensor t...

Dell's Embedded PCs Take the IoT to the Mainstream Print Email

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Dell on Tuesday announced the release of its first purpose-built industrial PC products for the mainstream market: the Embedded Box PC 3000 Series and 5000 Series. The products are a response to the growing embedded computing market and the lack of reliable devices, Dell said. The embedded systems market was valued at more than US$11 billion in 2014 and is expected to reach $23.1 billion in 2019, growing at a compound annual rate of almost 15 percent, according to a Technavio study that Dell cited. Falling component costs, improved power efficiencies, increasing return-on-investment needs, and demand from the Internet of Things are fueling that growth. Known Quantity "Customers have consistently told us that current embedded solutions do not meet the level of cost-effective sophistication, scale and support they need for these to be a critical, reliable component of their operations," said Andy Rhodes, Dell's executive director of commercial Io...

Feds Put AI in the Driver's Seat

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The artificial intelligence component of Google's Level 4 autonomous cars can be considered the driver, whether or not the cars are occupied by humans, the U.S.   National Highway Transportation Safety Administration   said in a letter released Tuesday. Level 4 full self-driving automation vehicles perform all safety-critical driving functions and monitor roadway conditions for an entire trip. Google's L4 vehicle design will do away with the steering wheel and the brake and gas pedals. Current U.S. Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards, or FMVSS, don't apply because they were drafted when driver controls and interfaces were the norm and it was assumed the driver would be a human, the NHTSA wrote to Chris Urmson, who heads Google's Self-Driving Car Project. Those assumptions won't hold as autonomous car technology advances, and the NHTSA may not be able to use its current test procedures to determine compliance with the safety standards. Google is "t...

Canonical Launches 2-in-1 Ubuntu Tablet

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ManageEngine OpManager , a powerful NMS for monitoring your network, physical & virtual (VMware/ HyperV) servers & other IT devices. Deploy and start monitoring in less than an hour. Trusted by over a million admins world-wide.  Try it for free . Canonical  on Thursday launched the Aquaris M10 Ubuntu Edition tablet, in partnership with  BQ . The tablet is the first fully converged Ubuntu device, the company said. It will ship with the latest Ubuntu software and is the first tablet with the Ubuntu operating system,  Canonical  said. The tablet has a 10.1-inch multitactile FHD screen made from Asahi's Dragontrail  glass, which is similar to Gorilla Glass. The Aquaris M10 is 8.2 mm thick, weighs about a pound, and has a 1.5-GHz 64-bit quad-core MediaTek MT8163A SOC and a 7,280-mAh LiPo. The device has 2 GB of RAM, 16 GB of internal memory, a MicroSD card slot and a full HD video camera. The tablet is expected to go on sale in Europe in the...

Deepin Takes Linux to New Depths

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The latest release of the Linux distro now called "Depth OS"  deserves serious consideration. It is fast, reliable and innovative, with an impressive homegrown desktop design dubbed "Deepin Desktop Environment," or DDE. Depth OS has a bit of an identity problem. It's not well known outside Asia and Europe, but that's not the major cause of confusion. The problem is that the open source community that developed the distro seems to have a difficult time deciding what to call it. It has had several names, including "Hiweed GNU/Linux," "Linux Deepin," "Deepin" and now "Depth OS." It seems that many of the community support staff never got the memo. Most of the website and the OS itself still are labeled as "Deepin." When the community released the latest version last month, it was called "Deepin version 15." As of this writing, it still was. A half-hearted name-change process is ongoing. Th...