HTC EVO 3D saves man’s life by stopping a bullet from killing Him
While we’ve been clambering all over the new Samsung Galaxy S5, HTC phones are out there saving lives. This HTC EVO 3D (wrongly reported as a HTC One in the source article) saved a Florida man’s life today after it managed to stop a bullet that might otherwise have killed him. The phone was in his front shirt pocket when he was shot at manning a gas station in Florida, and it appears that the battery managed to take the brunt of the bullet without letting it pierce through.
While the man certainly has Lady Luck on his side, HTC has also decided to chime in on the whole event, sending the main a “Glad You’re OK” care package which includes a HTC One and assorted HTC accessories. That might sound like a good deal to you, but don’t go around getting shot at in case your phone doesn’t quite have the bullet stopping abilities of the HTC EVO 3D.
If you have a HTC EVO 3D, you can probably sleep a little better tonight knowing your phone is protecting you. Do you think your phone could stop a bullet? Let us know what you think of this story in the comments.
Source: Phone Arena
BlackBerry could turn BBM into a payments platform
BlackBerry’s showing off its plans to woo back all of the customers who ditched it during the BB10 transition. In addition to two new handsets, the Canadian outfit is also considering turning BBM into a mobile payments platform in the emerging markets where it still has traction. In a chat with Re/code, enterprise chief John Sims said that BlackBerry is meeting with partners and “exploring the market.” It wouldn’t be the first time the company has waded into the mobile money lake either, considering that it teamed up with an Indonesian bank to test BBM-based peer-to-peer fund transfers back in 2012. As long as it’ll enable us to split the dinner bill without looking up from our phones, we’re up for it.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Blackberry
Source: Re/code
Netflix mocks Amazon Prime Air with hilarious ‘Drone 2 Home’ video
Netflix’s not-Qwikster DVD-by-mail business doesn’t get the same amount of attention as the company’s streaming arm, but as this video (embedded after the break) shows, it still has some imagination. Dug up by Hacking Netflix, the Drone 2 Home demo video imagines Netflix’s famous red envelopes being delivered by quadcopter — wherever you may be (camping, in the office, in the bathroom — wherever). Posted by a couple of employees, it was apparently produced for the DVD division’s annual meeting. We’re still not sure if Jeff Bezos’ holiday-timed Amazon Prime Air drone-delivery reveal was anything more than a publicity stunt, but GM Hank Breeggemann’s tongue is firmly in cheek as he announces Netflix’s “return to our creative roots.” Of course, there are some drawbacks to spending “literally days” working out the bugs — but you’ll have to watch to find out.
Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD
Source: Hacking Netflix, YouTube (1), (2)
We get touchy-feely with Fujitsu’s haptic sensory tablet (video)
Since Fujitu’s prototype Haptic Sensor Tablet revealed yesterday is all about touch, describing it will be like trying to explain how a steak tastes. But here goes: it works by emitting ultrasonic vibrations below the touchscreen, which can be pulsed with varying force on any region of the screen. Those oscillations actually push your finger off the surface of the tablet and, depending on the force, can give different tactile sensations. For instance, a high pressure layer of air can reduce friction, making the surface of the screen seem slippery. By contrast, rapidly varying the pulses can make the display seem rough or even bumpy.
At least, that’s the theory. After trying it, we found some illusions like the slippery surface to be very convincing, for instance. But the rough texture sensation feels more like the screen is just sticky, and the bumpy experience is even less convincing. When touching the crocodile skin, it just felt like I was moving my finger over slippery and then clingy patches. There’s also a strong buzzing sensation, which is mildly disconcerting. All that said, though, it was still a lot of fun, and it’s hard to see how you could get much more realistic than that with a smooth, 2D surface. There’s a video after the fold showing it in action, but we apologize for the occasionally poor sound quality — as you’ll see, each time the haptics activated, it messed up our camera’s microphone.
Filed under: Tablets
Are Social Apps Key to Smart Phone Business Promotions?
The smartphones are the most prominent portable mechanisms, utilized by individuals far and wide. Individuals of all ages are pulled in to the smartphones as they profit a ton from the extensive variety of characteristics accessible with these portable gadgets. It is of no shock that nowadays, the advancement of apps for the advanced cells has turned into an essential venture in the versatile promoting fights of generally associations. Given the way that countless utilize these portable units, it is extremely useful to include shrewd mobile phone apps advancement in all limited time methods.
Here are the reasons why creating apps for these mechanisms will be helpful for your business
– It is the pattern in today’s reality, accompanying the pattern is extremely essential for the achievement of any business. Since most businesses nowadays are included in application advancement for the Pdas, it is paramount that your business additionally takes after this pattern so individuals don’t feel that your business is not progressive. Since most individuals are tech keen, they anticipate that businesses will think of innovation based showcasing fights. Those businesses which neglect to do so need to endure in the long run.
– Viral showcasing potential – through the procedure of application improvement, you will have the ability to make viral advertising battles that will focus on all the clients of advanced cells. Such crusades can make your business exceptionally prevalent inside a brief time of time. Assuming that the clients revel in the characteristics accessible with the requisitions, they won’t just download and utilization it, however they will additionally urge other individuals to do so. The crusade will have the capacity to make a great and enduring impression of your business on the personalities of the individuals.
– Cost successful when you need to select different types of advancements, for example, TV notices, ads on daily papers and so on you will be using a ton of cash all the while, without getting any true outcomes. Then again, through application improvement for the Pdas, you will have the capacity to accomplish a great deal from your limited time deliberations without needing to use a fortune on commercial. When the requisition is created, you won’t need to use any more cash on it.
– Connect through online networking all the advanced mobile phones like iPhone, Samsung Galaxy Tab and so on accompany online networking modules for Facebook, Twitter and so on. Consequently, application improvement will permit you to interface with an extensive variety of individuals through online networking. The point when the clients of these versatile gadgets will join with their companions through social networking, they will have the ability to impart the smartphone provision your organization has created. The fame of your business will expand and your site will profit from higher measure of activity.
With our present innovation driven social order, it might be trying to stay aware of the most recent devices and advancements. It’s turned into a fixation, particularly with smartphones, because of their potential for business development and connections. It doesn’t make a difference assuming that you’ve been utilizing a smartphone or tablet for quite some time, or in the event that you are simply bouncing on the temporary fad, this technology is without a doubt staying put.
To keep making an effect or achieve your crowd on a more extensive level, once in a while the main alternative is to uncover how new innovation can absolutely affect your business and grasp it using phone system direct.
Comcast’s merger with Time Warner Cable goes in front of the Senate on March 26th
The final word on Comcast’s merger with Time Warner Cable may be in the hands of the FCC and Justice Department, but that’s not stopping other governmental bodies from weighing in. On March 26th, the Senate Judiciary Committee plans to examine the deal’s effects on the average consumer — specifically focusing on its impact on market competition and TV and internet pricing. “The merger of Comcast and Time Warner Cable touches on important policy questions bout how Americans access these valuable services,” Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy wrote in a statement. “It also presents a critical moment to discuss net neutrality principals that have allowed the internet to remain an open marketplace for ideas.” Although the hearing probably won’t affect the merger directly, it’s possible the discussion could lead to legislative changes further down the road.
Filed under: Gaming, Home Entertainment
The i’m Tracer bracelet means never having to ask ‘where’s the kid?’
The kooky folks behind the (frankly awful) i’m Watch are a mainstay at Mobile World Congress. This year they’ve got something a little more useful to show off: it’s called the i’m Tracer, and it’s the evolution of another GPS tracker the company has highlighted before. The Tracer is a wearable mashup of a GPS module and a GSM radio the Italian company hopes will help you keep tabs on your kids when it launches this summer.
We can’t blame you if that formula sounds a little familiar. The (non-final) hardware is a little clunky, thanks mostly to the battery tucked away in there. Representatives say the i’m Tracer should last for about three days of regular location updates, which means you can squeeze more prolonged use out of it than with an OG Galaxy Gear. It doesn’t help that the Tracer lacks a display too — it’s purely a bracelet for the errant human(s) in your life. At least i’m saw fit to throw an accelerometer into the mix so your kid’s tumbles are recorded for posterity, and tykes in distress can press a button to call a preset emergency contact.
It’s the iOS and Android companion app that really impresses here. The basics are well accounted for: you can view the Tracer’s location on a map, trace geofenced safe zones on a map with your finger, and thumb through a detailed history of your kid’s travels. If you’re in desperate need to find your children though, you can also fire up an augmented reality mode to display their location as a glowing blue beacon over a live image from your phone’s camera. The team is kicking around a potential price tag between €140 and €160. That’s a quite bit to spend on some plastic for your wrist, but it should stick with a kid better than a budget smartphone will. And hey, you can’t put a price on your child’s safety, right? (Don’t answer that.)
Filed under: Peripherals, Wearables
China’s Allwinner also has an octa-core chip, touts powerful graphics
Samsung, MediaTek, Huawei and even Qualcomm are now in the octa-core SoC game, but there’s always space for more. The latest member is China’s Allwinner Technology, who’s best known for making the chipsets inside many low-end devices. Much like most of its competitors, Allwinner’s UltraOcta A80 silicon — pictured above on a development board — uses ARM’s big.LITTLE heterogeneous multi-processing design, meaning it can simultaneously run on all eight cores — four low-power Cortex-A7 and four high-end Cortex-A15. The chip also features Imagination Technologies’ 64-core PowerVR G6230 GPU, which promises to deliver “a twofold increase in graphics” performance when compared to the PowerVR SGX544MP2 (as used by Allwinner’s previous flagship SoC, the A31 series).
We’ll spare you from all the nitty-gritty, but you can learn more in the source links below. Expect to see the UltraOcta A80 in affordable markets “in the next few months.”
Source: Allwinner, Imagination Technologies
Alleged iOS Security Flaw Enables Malicious Apps to Secretly Log User Touch Inputs
Researchers from security firm FireEye have revealed a new bug in iOS that enables a malicious app to monitor and log a user’s touch inputs and button uses while running in the background, reports Ars Technica. The exploit reportedly targets a flaw in iOS’ multitasking capabilities to capture user inputs, and allows for them to be sent to a remote server.
To demonstrate the flaw, the researchers created a proof-of-concept monitoring app and developed approaches to “bypass” Apple’s App Store Review process effectively. Once the app was installed on an iOS device, actions including keyboard inputs, use of the volume, home, and power buttons, screen touches, and Touch ID events were all captured. The researchers also noted that disabling iOS 7′s “Background App Refresh” setting would not disable a malicious app from logging data, as the only present solution to the problem is to manually remove apps from the task switcher.
FireEye also spoke about the flaw being identified in current versions of iOS:
Note that the demo exploits the latest 7.0.4 version of iOS system on a non-jailbroken iPhone 5s device successfully. We have verified that the same vulnerability also exists in iOS versions 7.0.5, 7.0.6 and 6.1.x. Based on the findings, potential attackers can either use phishing to mislead the victim to install a malicious/vulnerable app or exploit another remote vulnerability of some app, and then conduct background monitoring.
The group added that they are actively working with Apple to fix the issue, as the company has yet to respond. The news comes less than a week after Apple issued iOS 7.0.6 in response to a SSL vulnerability that allowed a hacker to capture or modify data from Safari in supposedly secure sessions.
The SSL security bug was also found to be present in OS X, as new research over the weekend revealed that additional apps such as FaceTime and iMessage could be compromised. Apple confirmed to Reuters that it will issue an OS X software update “very soon” to patch the bug.
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