Apple to hit the road with Tech Talks, following record WWDC sell-out
Apple has announced it will resurrect its Tech Talks roadshow later this year, after the annual WWDC developer conference sold out in a record time on Thursday.
The company shifted all 5,000 tickets, which cost a cool $1,599 (UK£1,035, AUD$1,556) a pop, in just two minutes, meaning most of the developers hoping to attend have been left out in the cold.
However the company says it'll be bringing the Tech Talks to 'a city near you' this autumn, in order to give developers assistance with the new products they intend to unveil at WWDC.
In a statement on the company's developer website, Apple wrote: "Enthusiasm for WWDC 2013 has been incredible, with tickets selling out in record time. For those who can't join us in San Francisco, you can still take advantage of great WWDC content, as we'll be posting videos of all our sessions during the conference. We'll also be hitting the road this fall with Tech Talks in a city near you. Hope to see you there."
Mastering iOS 7?
The Tech Talks last took place when Apple was pushing iOS 5 in 2011. The Next Web points out that those smaller events took place in Berlin, London, Rome, Beijing, Seoul, São Paolo, NYC, Seattle and Austin.At those events, developers were given presentation on iOS 5 and attended lab sessions with engineers in order to address questions and problems.
The company is yet to announce the destinations for the 2013 iteration, which will likely centre around iOS 7, expected to be announced at WWDC in June.
Last year WWDC tickets sold out in two hours, but this year's rush was prompted by Apple announcing the precise time they'd be going on sale.
     |
Read More ...
Could Verizon's bid to buy out Vodafone stake lead to a full takeover?
Vodafone investors want more than the $100 billion (UK£77, AUD$117) reportedly on offer from Verizon Communications, to buy out its stake in their joint Verizon Wireless venture, according to reports.
Speculation this week has suggested Verizon Communications wants to take full control of the US network Verizon Wireless, which British network currently Vodafone owns 45 per cent of.
Now, according to a Reuters report on Saturday morning, Vodafone investors want Verizon to either up its bid to $120 billion or, alternatively, make an offer for a full takeover of the British network.
One 'top 20' investor told the news agency: "I think ... $120 billion is the point where you think you've got a decent premium. I think that's reasonable and if they achieve that, I think the (Vodafone) shares go up."
Full merger on the cards?
It's little surprise that Vodafone stakeholders would be on the lookout for a better deal, considering it's portion of Verizon Wireless is currently the company's most profitable asset.With its European networks not doing so well, sustaining those businesses may be difficult without the profits flooding in from the United States.
This, according to one analyst, makes the prospect of a full takeover a little more likely.
"Without wishing to be too disrespectful, (Vodafone is) sitting with a rather ugly set of assets once you lose the Verizon Wireless stake," said Ralph Brook-Fox, UK equities fund manager at Ignis Asset Management, told Reuters.
"I think the merger or full takeover scenario, although not at the forefront of discussions right now, could actually end up being the more palatable deal."
| |
Read More ...
Raw Deal: LivingSocial site hacked and 50m users' details robbed
Daily deals website LivingSocial is urging all users to change their passwords after a hack compromised the data of 50m customers.
The company, which flourished by offering deals centric to your location through the web and mobile apps, was hit on Friday with hackers grabbing names, email addresses and encrypted passwords of users.
Thankfully, the company said, the database that stores payment information was not accessed by the intruders.
The company placed a banner on its website proclaiming: "Important notice for customers. If you haven't already updated your LivingSocial password, please update it now."
Token assurances
Naturally, the now-familiar token assurance that the company takes the security of its users seriously was to follow.CEO Tim O'Shaughnessy wrote: "The security of your information is our priority. We always strive to ensure the security of our customer information, and we are redoubling efforts to prevent any issues in the future."
It would be nice if one of these companies got their house in order, before they were attacked rather than compromising its customers, wouldn't it?
| |
Read More ...
Google Glass jailbreak gives hacker full access to Android OS
After getting his hands on the Google Glass Explorer Edition headset, hacker Jay Freeman took just two hours to jailbreak the device and did so while having dinner with friends!
The well-known hacker, aka 'Saurik', used a jailbreak for Android 4.0, developed by B1nary, to root the wearable computing device, giving him full access to the Android 4.0.4 operating system it runs on.
Freeman, who obtained the device by pre-ordering it at Google I/O last year, announced his success on Friday via Twitter.
He wrote: "#ifihadglass I would jailbreak it and modify the software (obviously). As Google actually sold me one; I did my part."
It was simple...
In a phone interview with Forbes he explained: "It took me two hours while I was having dinner with friends at the time. The implementation from B1nary is for normal Android tablets and phones, I learned how it worked and then did the same thing on Glass…which was quite simple."He told Forbes he's not sure what can be achieved by rooting the device, but is intent on finding out. However, the lack of compatibility with his prescription specs make it difficult to view the screen for long periods.
He said the hack may be a way for users to block Google's access to the device, such as the ability to remote brick the headset if users violate Ts&Cs.
It could also be used, Freeman speculated, to store information locally on the headset or on a device linked via Bluetooth. This would prevent all of that juicy data finding its way to Google's servers.
It's difficult to know what Google's response will be to the hack, but surely it had to know this was coming.
| |
Read More ...
Week in science: Heavily stubbled men are more attractive, says science
This week science has shown that clean shaven is not always best, and that brief periods of stress are actually good for you. We've seen modified bacteria literally nuke cancer cells, and British scientists propose a good old space harpoon as the way to clear Earth's orbit of some 6,000 tonnes of space debris. All that and more in another exciting edition of Week in Science.
Stop shaving to boost your attractiveness - It turns out the rough gets more love than the smooth. A new study has shown that a man's attractiveness to both men and women peaks with "heavy" or 10-day stubble. During a test, both heterosexual men and women were asked to rate pictures of men with varying levels of beard growth. Men with full beards and clean shaven faces were rated with similar health and attractiveness, while bearded men were perceived to have higher levels of parenting skills.
However, 10-day stubble were ranked as the most desirable, possibly due to the connotations of masculinity and maturity without looking aggressive. Five-day stubble was ranked lowest, possibly due to its patchy nature, which shows that you need a certain amount of hair on your face before the stubble effect kicks in. Next time you go out on a date, maybe reach for the beard trimmer instead of the razor. [Evolution and Human Behaviour]
Radioactively-labelled bacteria literally nuke cancer cells - Bacteria are both our friends and our enemies. One particular bacterium, that can cause diseases such as meningitis, may finally become useful. Scientists using a modified strain of Listeria monocytogenes, labelled with a radioactive antibody, found that the bacteria specifically attack cancer cells, entering them and delivering the radioactive payload, killing them off.
Normal healthy cells were pretty much untouched, because our immune system took care of the bacteria easily. Tumour cells prevent your immune system from operating in their vicinity, leaving them open to attack by the bacteria. Testing in mice showed a 90 per cent reduction in metastasised cancer cells, and a tumour reduction of up to 64 per cent after treatment with the bacteria. Further research is needed to work on safety factors and various different forms of radioactive labelling agents, but this kind of targeted bacteria-led treatment shows huge potential in the war against cancer. [Cancer Research]
Circumcision changes the ecosystem of your penis - It's well known that circumcised men have a significantly reduced likelihood of contracting certain sexually transmitted diseases, such as HIV. While we don't specifically know the mechanism of this resistance, a new study shows that the bacterial load of the penis is significantly altered when a man is circumcised.
Research from Uganda monitored their microbial species on the penises of 156 uncircumcised men, then randomly circumcised half of the men before retesting them a year later. The results showed a substantial decrease in the amount of bacteria found after circumcision. How this translates into resistance against viral infection is unclear - however it could be through reduced skin irritation by anaerobic bacteria or another effect of bacterial colonisation that's caused by the warm, moist pocket of foreskin. Whatever the reason, it's clear that circumcision could actually benefit a man's sexual hygiene. [mBio]
Stress isn't all bad - Stress is one of the biggest, non-disease-related killers of our generation, with chronic stress, whether work or emotional, known to cause significant wear and tear on our bodies, ageing us prematurely and damaging our DNA. However, a new study has shown that brief periods of stress can actually be beneficial to our cells, but only if you're not chronically stressed beforehand.
The cellular mechanisms that underpin the findings are, as yet, unknown, but significantly lower levels of cellular damage were discovered in a test group consisting of generally relaxed people put under brief periods of stress. The results suggest that being totally relaxed all the time isn't quite as healthy for you as brief periods of stress. [Psychoneuroendocrinology]
Breakthrough might make solar power finally viable - Solar power has always been the holy grail of limitless, pollution-free, renewable energy. It's fuelled plants for millennia, but it's never been particularly useful on a large scale for humans because the energy efficiency of man-made solar cells has always been terrible. Now an organic dye called pentacene promises to change that, generating two electrons for every photon that's absorbed, effectively doubling the power generation of solar cells using only a narrow band of visible light.
As a coating for silicon photovoltaic cells, it could boost total energy efficiency up to 30 per cent or more, a 5 per cent boost on the best solar cells currently available. This leap, combined with more efficient energy storage solutions like the gimballed flywheel could finally make solar energy a viable replacement for fossil fuel or nuclear power. [Science]
Marathon runners generate electricity with nothing but their feet - We've been hearing about electricity generation from simple human movement for a while, but now Pavegen Systems, a manufacturer of electricity generating floor tiles, has shown just how much juice can be generated from our pounding feet. It laid a 25m-wide stretch of its power generating pavement slabs across the Avenue des Champs Élysées for the Paris marathon to test how much electricity they could generate. In the space of about five hours the 176 tiles generated enough energy to light a 5W LED for 40 days, or about 4.7kilowatt-hours of juice.
The tiles use a combination of piezoelectric and induction electricity generation to feed into a battery or directly to things like lights, laptops or anything with a low-voltage plug. With that amount of power generated from such a small stretch, pavement-pounding electricity could soon be seen in places like shopping centres, train stations or anywhere people walk about, powering all sorts of things. It's practically free energy. [Scientific American]
Space harpoons are go - There's so much junk sitting in orbit around our planet that it's almost a full-time job just keeping track of it. Every space launch has to avoid some 6,000 tonnes of garbage left over from other operations that could easily ruin a mission or even kill the people on board. Now scientists from the UK have proposed a solution: Harpoon space junk and drag it back into the atmosphere to burn up.
The plan is to use a manoeuvrable satellite to knock the debris out of the sky and clear up Earth's orbit, something that's badly needed. Currently they've worked out an efficient targeting system, have modelled the debris burn-up, and are looking to launch the plan with approval in the next couple of years. [Al Jazeera]
The cinnamon challenge really could kill you - Doctors have been out in force this week warning of the dangers of the cinnamon challenge. A report from hospitals across the US has found a worrying trend of hospitalised challenge takers that have ended up with anything from chocking into unconsciousness to a collapsed lung.
The challenge, which pits the participant against a teaspoonful of cinnamon powder, without water, has been labelled as dangerous and should be avoided at all costs. Best not to try it, even if you are trying to make the world laugh with your struggling efforts on YouTube. [Sky]
Harvard can guess your age with just a few mouse clicks - Not even the internet is able to hide our age it seems. Researchers working on human-computer interaction have released a very clever test that can tell how old you are simply from a few clicks of your mouse.
Tracking your movements, the accuracy of your clicks, and the time it takes you to complete the test, combined with some simple information concerning your sex and where you live, the test can then compute your age with terrifying accuracy. It's all to do with your precision and speed, which sadly decreases as we get older. Try it for yourself and tell us how close it gets in the comments. [Harvard]
| |
Read More ...
Tutorial: The complete guide to watching movies on your iPhone, iPad and Mac
How to play video on your Mac
The Mac was the first computer that supported digital video, its QuickTime architecture helping to ensure that for many years it was the platform of choice for digital video production.Later came video CDs and DVD playback, and of course iMovie and Final Cut. A consequence of all this support for video creation on the Mac is that it's always had excellent video playback capabilities for ordinary users too.
So from the moment you turn on your Mac, it's able to play back digital videos and with a few tweaks and additions, play or convert any video format. There's no reason your Mac can't deal with even the most obscure video file.
Since the release of the iPod Video many years ago, Apple's portable devices have allowed you to watch videos on the move as well, and in the latest versions of iOS there are a wealth of options for watching, recording and even editing videos on the move. iPhones, iPads and even the iPod touch are so powerful now that they can shoot and export in HD and you can rent, buy and stream HD movies directly on your device.
The Apple TV is an affordable and amazingly versatile device, even more so if you use it to its fullest potential. And this being Apple, everything syncs together beautifully. So whether your movies are still on DVD and you need to get them into iTunes, you want to transfer a TV series to your iPad or you need to connect your iPad to your HDTV, our guide contains everything you need to know.
Watching video on your Mac
Your Mac can play back almost any video format with a few tweaks…
Mac OS X has a whole layer of the operating system dedicated to playing video, not that you will ever actually see it. Core Video powers the QuickTime framework, which handles practically all aspects of video playback. In OS X 10.7 and 10.8 you get both QuickTime 7 and QuickTime X, though you may have to choose to install version 7 manually from your OS X installer. This is well worth doing since as a better established system it is often able to open files that X cannot.
Both can perform audio and video recording using your Mac's camera and mics, and QuickTime X can even do screen recording. You can extend QuickTime's ability to play different movie formats by installing Perian, a handy little add-on from perian.org. Development has officially ended, but it still works well on OS X 10.8. The nice thing about Perian is that it's not a separate app, it just extends QuickTime.
Spinning discs
If your Mac has an optical drive then it will be able to play DVDs and will come with the DVD Player app. In the System Preferences > CDs and DVDs section you can tell your Mac whether or not to open this automatically when you load a DVD disc.
DVD Player is quite fully featured and supports HD, though not Blu-ray discs. If your Mac doesn't have an optical drive you can always add an external one connected over USB, and Apple's own is £65, with third-party models somewhat cheaper.
You have another option, which is to share a remote disc drive. If there's a Mac on your network that does have a drive, open its Sharing preferences and turn on DVD sharing. Using the Remote Disc feature on your MacBook Air, new iMac or new Mac Mini, you will be able to connect to a disc in that drive.
There's an important limitation however which is that commercial DVDs can't be played in this way; only data discs and home-burned DVDs without copy protection can be played.
Of course you could rip a movie on the Mac with the drive and then access it via regular file sharing, a cloud-service such as Dropbox, or by way of AirDrop - you just have to think creatively.
Buy or rent?
Your Mac is able to access all kinds of movies online through purchase or streaming services, the biggest of which is the iTunes Store. This is really straightforward and simply involves signing in to iTunes with your Apple ID, locating the film or TV show you want and then choosing to buy or rent it.When you do, a copy of the movie will be downloaded to your Mac and you can start watching it inside iTunes before it has finished downloading. The movie's page in the Store will tell you the file size for SD and HD versions, and SD is generally cheaper than HD, though the resolution is of course lower.
On smaller hard drives such as SSDs in the MacBook Air, downloading a few HD movies will start to use up space but the good news is that when you buy a movie and watch it, even after you have deleted the local copy it can be re-downloaded again at any time. So you do own the copy, it's just stored on Apple's servers until you want to watch it again. A purchased movie can also be downloaded to any iOS device signed in with your Apple ID.
Renting is a little different, and although a copy of the film is downloaded, you get 30 days to start watching it and 48 hours from starting watching it to finish watching it. After this, it will be automatically deleted from your iTunes library.
You can move a rented movie from your Mac to an iOS device though it can only exist on one device at once. If you rent a movie on an iOS device it can't be transferred to another device. You can also get your own movies into iTunes, of course: see the tutorial on the next page for how to do this.
Other options
There are other streaming services that don't need iTunes, such as LoveFilm and Netflix, and these work in a regular browser window on your Mac, offering streaming but not downloads. The deal here is that you can watch anything as often as you like for a regular subscription, and both have iOS apps too.
Netflix works on the Apple TV. You can preview any OS X-compatible movie file on your Mac simply by using the Quick Look command: select the file in Finder and click the 'eye' button in the Finder window or hit the Space Bar. This actually contains full playback controls and can be made fullscreen, as well as containing a link to open the movie in QuickTime Player or share it.
Movies that you shoot on your iPhone or iPad can also be easily transferred back to your Mac and will of course work without the need for any format conversion. The quickest way to transfer movies is to connect your iOS device with its USB cable and open the Image Capture app that is part of OS X. This gives you direct access to the photos and movies and you can drag and drop them across.
Of course you can import them using iMovie or iPhoto too, if you want them to be catalogued. iMovie is particularly useful as it can resize your movies on import as well as adding effects, image stabilisation and all sorts of other enhancements, though this does add more steps and some processing time to the transfer process.
Alternative apps
If you're looking for third-party apps to help with video playback on your Mac, you can't go far wrong with the big two, currently VLC and Mplayer OS X, both of which are free and surprisingly fully featured and stable thanks to their avid developer base.These apps tend to be able to open most kinds of video file and also support things like subtitles a little more readily than QuickTime Player. They don't tie in with iTunes particularly, but if you're after an alternative player for weird and wonderful formats and codecs, they're well worth a download.
How to rip DVDs and stream your movies
Rip a DVD for iTunes
Rip your DVDs and convert them into an iTunes and iOS compatible formatAs Apple is phasing out optical drives on many new models of Mac, the DVD looks set to eventually go the way of the floppy disc. But in the meantime, many people have lots of DVDs that they want to view on their Macs and also on their iPads and iPhones. This can be done with a DVD ripper like Handbrake.
But before you start, a word of warning. As it stands, you're not allowed to take a movie, even if you bought it in a shop, and rip it, even for your own use. The reason for this is that doing so involves breaking the copy protection, which is prohibited by a law called the EUCD in Europe and the DMCA in America. 'Fair use' ('fair dealing' in the UK) offers no exemptions for this.
This is why every DVD ripper makes a point that you're only allowed to use it for unprotected, non-commercial DVDs. In some cases, they've enforced that rule. All that said, nobody has ever been dragged before a judge because they wanted to watch their own DVD on their own iPad, in much the same way that the recording industry has never prosecuted anyone solely for ripping their own CDs - also technically an illegal act in the UK.
Downloading movies illegally, on the other hand, is a big no-no. Torrent sites especially are a potentially dangerous way to pirate because you're uploading bits of the movie at the same time as downloading others. Legally speaking, that means you're distributing illegal, copyrighted files as well as acquiring them.
How to rip your DVDs using Handbrake
1. Download Handbrake
Head to handbrake.fr and grab the latest build of the Handbrake ripping app. It runs on OS X 10.6 or later. Open the downloaded disk image and copy the app either to your Applications folder if you intend to keep it, or to the Desktop for single-use. Double-click to open it.
2. Open the disc
Pop your home-burned DVD into the drive. You can also choose to open a disk image or a movie file from the Open browser. Once opened, Handbrake will analyse the disc and identify its contents. It should pick up chapters and display each section in the Title menu.
3. Choose a preset
The menu on the right contains a list of presets for all kinds of devices. If you click on the Devices tab you will see various ones listed; choose the one you need. Here we've gone for an iPhone 4 preset. You can make your own and save them using this menu too.
4. Tweak the settings
Handbrake analyses the source video and automatically set things like frame rate, though you can change this if you like. You can also enter a Constant Quality setting or an average bitrate if you are comfortable playing with this. If you're unsure, stick with the default settings.
5. Picture settings
The other options windows are pretty advanced and needn't trouble most users. Click the Picture Settings button at the top however and you can choose to crop the picture during conversion to make it a custom size. You can also add filters in this window to deal with blocking problems.
6. Add to queue
If you want to rip more than one video or chapter from the same disc you can set up your first encode then hit Add To Queue, then configure more encodes by selecting a new title from the Title menu. Use different settings for subsequent encodes if you like.
7. Start the encode
Press the Start button and Handbrake will create a movie based on your settings. Depending on the length of the video and the quality settings, this can take a while, though on modern Macs you shouldn't wait more than 10 minutes (for example) to encode a 10-minute video.
8. Drop into iTunes
When your encode is done, drag and drop your converted movie into iTunes. From there you can watch it or sync it to any iOS device that supports the frame size. This is why it's important to choose an appropriate preset before encoding - some devices only support up to a certain size.
Streaming your media
Get video to almost any device in your home with these streaming solutions
The Apple TV started life as a rather clunky box with a built-in hard drive, and to get content onto it you had to sync movies from iTunes. Despite still officially being described by Apple as a 'hobby' project, the Apple TV is now a remarkable little box, and tremendous value for the price of just £99.
The Apple TV acts as a conduit between your Mac, your HDTV and the internet. Inside your house it can stream movies, pictures and music from iTunes to the TV and as well as having a physical remote, the Remote app for iOS provides excellent tactile control. There's even support for Bluetooth keyboards expected in an imminent update.
If you use iTunes Match, your entire music library is available to stream on the Apple TV and you can buy and rent video content from the iTunes Store on it too, as well as using Netflix.
Then there's the other apps, like Radio, Apple Events, YouTube, Vimeo and Podcasts amongst others, that let you stream stuff from the internet straight to your TV without using a Mac.
The third incredibly useful thing the Apple TV enables is AirPlay. With an Apple TV on your network, all your iOS devices gain the ability to send video and audio directly to it and hence to your TV, wirelessly. This applies to video and music files but also to photos, and apps like BBC iPlayer that don't have a native Apple TV version. Fire up iPlayer on your iPad or iPhone, activate AirPlay and you can view content on your TV, complete with automatic sizing to make sure everything fits properly.
Some games even use AirPlay so your iOS device becomes a controller. Another nice thing about AirPlay is that as long as you're on a network you can stream stuff, so you could show photos or play music at a friend's house wirelessly without having to copy any files manually.
Mirroring screens
It's also possible to mirror your iPad or iPhone's display to your TV via the Apple TV by turning on mirroring on the portable device. This is also possible with very recent Macs so you can use your TV as a monitor.Nonetheless you can still mirror your display thanks to third party apps like AirParrot (airparrot.com). If your Mac supports mirroring natively, you'll see an AirPlay icon at the top right of the menu bar. The most recent update to AirPlay is called AirPlay Direct, which enables you to stream audio to a compatible device without the need for a Wi-Fi network. AQ Audio's SmartSpeaker supports this.
| |
Read More ...
Review: PowerStick+
Our smartphones are capable of all sorts of tasks, but unfortunately most of them drain our phone's batteries pretty fast. There's not much more annoying than running out of battery life far from your charger, which is why the PowerStick+ USB charger is such a welcome device.
Plug it into your computer via USB and it will charge its internal battery. You can then unplug it and carry it around with you, since it holds its charge.
It comes with a standard USB port for connecting and charging your devices from it, as well as Micro USB, Mini USB and an Apple 32-pin connector for iPhones and iPads.
It also doubles as a USB memory stick, coming in storage capacities from 4GB (the version we tested) to 16GB.
It's a lot bulkier than previous generations of PowerSticks, but it's still perfectly portable. It didn't take too long to charge up, but you'll still need to set aside a while as it charges.
Once done, you can sling it in your bag and forget about it until you need a charge, which can be easily initiated by plugging in your device and pressing the on switch of the PowerStick +.
Verdict
The PowerStick+ stored enough energy for one complete charge of the iPhone 4S. That should be more than enough to keep you going when you're running low on batteries, making this a useful back-up for when you're far from a socket.
| |
Read More ...
Review Roundup: This week's hottest reviews on TechRadar
This week we've got our full and final review of the Samsung Galaxy S4 as well as the bow of another smartphone at a slightly cheaper price point - the Nokia Lumia 720.
We've also taken a look at the rejigged and now final Jawbone Up fitness band as well as the excellent Samsung NX300 compact system camera.
Enjoy our reviews and, as ever, tell us below if you think we should be reviewing something we haven't.
Samsung Galaxy S4 review
The Samsung Galaxy S4 is the most hotly anticipated smartphone ever from the Korean brand, and with a glut of top end features, it's the most powerful and desirable device Samsung has created yet.
One of the most impressive things about the phone is the fact the size hasn't changed from its predecessor - the Galaxy S4 comes in at 136.6 x 69.8 x 7.9 mm, meaning there's no extra heft to try and work with in your palm.
However, despite this fact, the screen on the S4 has been increased once more, to a whopping 5-inch display with Full HD resolution. This means the same amount of pixels you'd have seen on a TV that cost well over £1000 four years ago is now riding around in your pocket.
Samsung NX300 review
There's lots of action right now in the compact system camera (CSC)segment, which pairs compact camera bodies with interchangeable lenses for a DSLR-like experience without the internal mirror or associated bulk. It's an area where Samsung has been making steady headway with an expanding range of lenses that now includes a new 45mm prime lens for shooting 3D stills and movies. It works exclusively with the latest arrival - the faux leather-clad Samsung NX300.
Jawbone Up review
At its core, the Jawbone Up is a pedometer, but with pretensions of being much more. Within its "medical grade" rubber casing, the Up houses a number of motion sensors and shares the information it collects with a smartphone app for iPhones and Android. Beyond counting your steps, Jawbone believes the Up is capable of monitoring your sleep as well. Using proprietary algorythms, the wristband and its software tell you how well you slept based on how you moved, sensing a difference between light and deep sleep and acknowledging when you wake up.
This week's other reviews
LaptopsHP Envy TouchSmart 4T-1102 review
Gadgets
Transcend Wi-Fi SD Card review
Media streaming devices
Bayan Audio StreamPort Universal review
Mobile phones
Nokia Lumia 720 review
Storage
LaCie XtremKey 32GB review
Panasonic TX-L55ET60 review
Edimax EW-7822UAC Wireless AC Adaptor review
Fitbug Air review
It's Mine Bluetooth bracelet review
Controllers
Razer Hydra review
Logitech Harmony Touch review
| |
Read More ...
Coppers nab Dutchman on suspicion of largest web attack ever
The owner of a Dutch web hosting firm is allegedly the mastermind behind one of the biggest slowdowns in internet history last Month.
BBC News reported Friday that a 35-year-old Dutch citizen has been arrested in Barcelona, Spain following one of the largest Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks to date.
The Dutch public prosecutor who requested the arrest identified the suspect as only "SK" - believed to be Sven Olaf Kamphuis, owner and manager of Netherlands-based web hosting firm Cyberbunker.
The arrest follows what prosecutors described as "unprecedented heavy attacks" against anti-spam firm Spamhaus, an assault which also slowed data speeds on neighboring networks.
Revenge by DDoS?
Non-profit anti-spam firm Spamhaus maintains a blacklist which companies use to identify unwanted junk mail and keep it from flooding their customers' email inboxes - including those hosted on Cyberbunker servers.The blockade reportedly didn't sit well with owner Kamphuis, who argued in the press that Spamhaus had no right to decide "what goes and does not go on the internet."
Suspect "SK" is accused of launching a massive DDoS attack which flooded Spamhaus web servers with upwards of 300 gigabits per second of data over several days in late March - substantially more than traditional attacks that push only 50Gbps by comparison.
The arrest in Barcelona was a cooperative effort with other EU authorities, and Spanish police are expected to soon transfer the suspect to the Netherlands for prosecution.
| |
Read More ...
Available Tags:Apple , Google , Android , iPad , Mac , TechRadar ,
No comments:
Post a Comment