Haven is a super-strong smart lock that bolts onto the floor
While there’s certainly no shortage of connected door locks that allow keyless entry into your home, many products don’t actually make the traditional deadbolt in your door any more secure. Luckily, there are some solutions that ignore existing locks altogether and focus instead on better reinforcing the points of entry to your home. Created by a former Army aviator in Iraq, Haven is a new type of smart door lock that is fixed to the floor and the doorframe, allowing you to gain entry using either your smartphone or a specialised key fob. Intruders can’t pick locks or force their way in by targeting the deadlock (in fact you won’t even need a set of keys) because Haven acts a powerful smart wedge that reinforces the strongest part of your door. It’s so strong, it can take on a battering ram and come away victorious.
Crafted from steel, glass reinforced nylon and aluminum, the lock itself packs in a lot of tech. WiFi, Bluetooth and an accelerometer are the smart elements, which trigger alerts when someone tries to force their way in. It also has the ability to connect to other home automation products and frameworks you’ve already installed in your home, including Google’s Nest and Apple’s HomeKit, letting you decide whether you want Haven to turn on the lights when it detects suspicious activity. Its makers reckon you’ll get at least half a year on a single battery charge, but they’ve also included numerous failsafes should it be short on juice at the worst time. If you’re already dreaming of a life without house keys, Haven aims to begin shipments in August 2015 if it meets its Kickstarter goal. It’ll set you back $269 if you’re quick, or $299 if come a little later to the party.
Filed under: Household, Internet
Via: Slashgear
Source: Haven, Kickstarter
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Apple Reportedly Aware of iCloud Flaw Six Months Before Hacking of Celebrity Accounts
Apple knew about an iCloud security flaw six months before it was utilized to hack celebrity accounts on the service, reports The Daily Dot. The company was notified of the exploit by independent security researcher Ibrahim Balic, who shared emails between himself and members of Apple’s product security team.
In an email from March 2014, Balic told Apple that he was able to bypass the security of any iCloud account by using a “brute-force” hacking method that was able to try over 20,000 password combinations. Balic recommended to Apple that it should implement a feature in iCloud that prevents log-ins after a set number of failed attempts, and even reported the exploit through Apple’s Bug Reporter. Balic was also the developer said to be behind the extended outage of Apple’s Dev Center last year.
In May 2014, Apple emailed Balic and questioned the validity of the exploit, stating that it “would take an extraordinarily long time” to find a valid authentication token to get into an iCloud account using the flaw. Balic states that Apple continued to ask him about the exploit and how it would be utilized.
On September 1, 2014, hackers breached the iCloud accounts of many well-known actresses, downloading and leaking private photos and videos. While it was not initially known what caused the breach, The Next Web linked to a Python script on Github that may have been used for the hacking. The script utilized a brute-force like method which allowed hackers to keep guessing passwords without being locked out.
Apple acknowledged later in the day that it was investigating the breach, ultimately leading to comments from CEO Tim Cook along with new security implementations. Those implementations included automatic emails when iCloud accounts are accessed via web browsers, automatic two-factor authentication for iCloud.com, and mandatory app-specific passwords for third-party apps accessing iCloud.
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Garmin wants third-party apps to come to its fitness watches
Garmin’s GPS watches and bands have been around wayyy longer than Android Wear and many other wearables, but the company’s opening its gates to developers just now. The fitness/navigation equipment maker has launched an SDK called Connect IQ, which Garmin hopes devs will use to create watchfaces, widgets that show info at a glance and, of course, apps specially designed for wearable devices. Sadly, you won’t be able to load apps on your old Garmin bands and watches — you’d have to wait for compatible devices to come out in 2015. According to DC Rainmaker, if you do get one of those supported devices, you’ll need to install the Garmin Connected Mobile app on your phone before you can load applications to the watch via Bluetooth, similar to Pebble. Question is: is there room on your “wearables to consider” list in a world where a bunch of Android Wear devices are already available and Apple watches are on their way?
Filed under: Wearables
Source: Garmin
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Nissan’s built an electric pickup that it’ll never sell
There are probably lots of justifiable reasons why car makers haven’t got around to making an electric pickup that anyone can buy (range and demand would be just two), but that doesn’t mean such vehicles doesn’t exist. Engineers at Nissan, with a little too much time on their hands, wanted to create a neat way of ferrying people and parts around their Test Center in Stanfield, Arizona. Using the project as a team building exercise, designers Roland Schellenberg and Arnold Moulinet took a Leaf EV, cut off its roof, replaced it with the top of a Titan pickup and added a shortened rear bed from a Frontier. The end result is “Sparky,” a stylish little electric pickup that won’t ever leave Nissan’s 3,050-acre test facility, but gives us hope that we’ll one day see a little more EV variation on our roads.
Filed under: Transportation
Via: Wired
Source: Nissan
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NASA uses three space telescopes detect water vapor on Neptune-sized exoplanet
NASA has been discovering one exoplanet after another these days, but its scientists have to look a lot closer if they want to see more details, such as the planets’ color or whether they have water. That’s exactly what the agency did while observing HAT-P-11b — by combining the power of three space telescopes, scientists have found clear skies and water vapor on the atmosphere of the Neptune-sized exoplanet. NASA observed the distant world while it was crossing its solar system’s sun using one of Hubble’s wide field cameras. Water vapor typically absorbs starlight during that process, and it’s that light that reaches our telescopes. In order to confirm whether it’s actually water vapor (mixed with hydrogen gas and other molecules), the scientists compared Hubble’s data to visible-light data collected by Kepler and Spitzer light data taken at infrared wavelengths.
To note, this isn’t the first time scientists found water vapor on exoplanets. But, they were all more akin to the size of Jupiter, since it’s tough observing smaller ones like this from afar, especially since most of them seem to have cloudy atmospheres. This particular discovery gives NASA hope that it can work its way down to even smaller planets, until it can effectively observe Earth-sized rocky worlds in other solar systems.
Filed under: Science
Source: NASA
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Steam Music Player does exactly what it sounds like
Valve’s game distribution service has been going through a lot of small changes recently: not only has Steam been given a fresh coat of paint and a completely redesigned storefront, but now it plays music, too. This isn’t a total surprise, of course — Valve has been testing music playback for months, and even rolled the feature out to beta users over the summer — but now Steam Music Player is available to anyone running the latest version of the client. It’s a pretty simple addition, too: Steam scrubs your PC’s common (or manually defined) music folders for MP3s and, well, plays them.
It does get a little more complex — the music player is accessible in the client’s game overlay, which means you can control and play music without alt-tabbing back to the desktop. It also offers an easy way to listen to soundtracks of supported games, but this part of the experience is a little clunky: since Steam offers soundtracks as game DLC, it appears that most of the service’s music can’t be downloaded separately from the game itself. If Portal 2 isn’t installed, neither is the game’s music. Need some music to test it out with? Valve at least has you covered here: Half-Life, Half-Life 2 and both Portal games are 75% off in celebration of the new feature, and all of those games come with free soundtrack DLC. Neat.
Filed under: Gaming
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ANIMALS VS. MUTANTS looks like an absolutely adorable Tower Offence romp
I’m a sucker for adorable looking things, so it’s no surprise that ANIMALS VS. MUTANTS has caught my eye. This new game comes to us courtesy of Netmarble US, the US branch of South Korean publisher Netmarble Games Corp, and sees you attempting to rescuing forest animals from Dr. Wicked. Being an aptly named villain, Dr. Wicked is kidnapping forest animals to raise an army of mutants, something that you must stop with nothing but a bow and arrow.
The gameplay of ANIMALS VS. MUTANTS will take the form of 2D tower offence and include RPG aspects that will help you upgrade your equipment and attacks. ANIMALS VS. MUTANTS features 3 main game types including Adventure, with over 60 missions in 5 different locations, Survival, which sees your trying to survive an endless wave of mutants, and Battle, which lets you compete against your Facebook friends for the best score.
ANIMALS VS. MUTANTS is available now via the Google Play Store and is available for absolutely free, so if this is something you want to try out, hit the Play Store link below.
Press Release
TAKE BACK THE FOREST WITH ANIMALS VS. MUTANTS ON IOS AND ANDROID DEVICES
Netmarble Games Debuts to Global Audience a New Blended RPG Tower Offense Title
September 25, 2014 – SAN FRANCISCO – Netmarble US, Inc., the newly formed North American gaming branch of Netmarble Games Corp. (“Netmarble”), the number one mobile game publisher in South Korea, is pleased to announce the global launch of ANIMALS VS. MUTANTS for iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and Android devices. Developed exclusively for mobile devices, ANIMALS VS. MUTANTS combines deep RPG and strategy elements with an intuitive combat system, featuring fluid touch and tap controls.
In ANIMALS VS. MUTANTS, the nefarious Dr. Wicked is wreaking havoc on the world, kidnapping friendly forest creatures and exposing them to cruel experiments to raise a mutant army. Armed with a trusty bow and arrow players will embark on a grand adventure where they will rescue, collect, and choose from a variety of animal companions to build an army to take back the forest. With a unique twist on to the traditional tower defense genre, ANIMALS VS. MUTANTS finds players making strategic choices in terms of creating their animal army, player skills, equipment, and mounts to turn the tide of battle in their favor as they press forward towards the enemy base of mutants with what developer Bluepepper calls ‘RPG Tower Offense’ gameplay.
“Our mission is to develop and publish high quality mobile games that anyone can enjoy,” said Seungwon Lee, Executive Vice President of Global at Netmarble Games Corp. “With bright, lush graphics, a deep RPG progression system and inviting battle gameplay designed exclusively for mobile devices, ANIMALS VS. MUTANTS is an excellent example of the kind of titles we look forward to introducing to new players in the global- market.”
Featuring a grand single-player campaign with over 60 missions to complete in five unique worlds, ANIMALS VS. MUTANTS offers players something new to discover every day. A wave based survival mode pitting players against increasingly challenging hordes of mutants and battle mode to face off against friends will provide challenging fun as players rack up achievements and climb up leaderboards. ANIMALS VS. MUTANTS also offers deep loot and character progression systems that will allow players to level-up, learn powerful magic, and optimize their hero with unique armor, enchanted gear, and rare mounts with special abilities to collect and discover.
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‘Bash’ Security Flaw in OS X Allows for Malicious Attacks on Devices and Services
Security researchers from Red Hat have uncovered a new exploit in the common “Bash” command shell found in OS X and Linux which can be used to deploy malicious code with minimal effort. Due to the ubiquity of the Bash shell, the exploit can affect a wide variety of different web-connected devices and properties, including unsecured websites, smart home appliances, servers, and more.
Security researcher Robert Graham noted on his blog that the Bash exploit is “as big as Heartbleed,” referring to the flaw discovered earlier this year in the popular OpenSSL software which secures connections between clients and servers:
Internet-of-things devices like video cameras are especially vulnerable because a lot of their software is built from web-enabled bash scripts. Thus, not only are they less likely to be patched, they are more likely to expose the vulnerability to the outside world.
Unlike Heartbleed, which only affected a specific version of OpenSSL, this bash bug has been around for a long, long time. That means there are lots of old devices on the network vulnerable to this bug. The number of systems needing to be patched, but which won’t be, is much larger than Heartbleed.
Heartbleed was said to have affected 66% of the Internet, although Apple announced in April that the exploit did not affect software or “key services.” Apple also released updates for the AirPort Extreme and Time Capsule to better secure both web devices against Heartbleed.
A topic discussing the Bash exploit on StackExchange also notes that Apple did not include a fix for the bug in its latest round of security updates that came alongside the release of OS X Mavericks 10.9.5 last week. It is possible however that Apple will release a fix for OS X in the near future to address the exploit, similar to what it has done for other security issues in the past.
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Game Shout Out: Fire Jumpers by RedBlox
Every gamer has experienced this scenario at least once – you play this great game but no one else knows about it. Even in this day and age, many great games go unplayed by the masses. With this series of articles I hope to shine at least the faintest of light on those games.
Fire Jumpers by Redblox is a game about fighting wildfires. Each level is set in a different place with a unique scenario. You command a fire rescue team to try your best to contain each fire. Each unit has their purpose, it is up to you to use them to your their best ability:
- Cut Team- They are used to create barriers
- Hose Team- Attach them to a water source to spray down an area.
- Helicopter- Used as transportation and water dropsWater
- Bombers- After a certain time limit they can be used to carpet an area with water
If you are looking for a Real Time Strategy game for your Android device look no further. This game can played on most devices but I recommend playing on the plus size screens. Each mission does not take long to complete so its perfect for those in between moments of casual gaming.
If that is not enough to convince you to buy this game, which costs $0.99 USD, 5% of all sales goes to the Fire Fighters 1st organization. Although this is a fun game, it also helps spread awareness of what goes on in those situations. So remember, kids: only you can percent forest fire.
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Apple Says iOS 8.0.2 Update is in the Works, Directs Users to Reinstall iOS 8
Earlier today, Apple released iOS 8.0.1, which ended up disabling cellular service and Touch ID on many iPhone 6 and 6 Plus devices. Apple said that it was investigating the issue this afternoon, and it has now released a support document confirming that an iOS 8.0.2 update is in the works with a fix.
In addition to announcing the upcoming update, the document also points users towards an interim fix involving reinstalling iOS 8 via iTunes.
The document offers the same advice Apple support representatives have been giving to customers since the issue first surfaced, directing users to download iOS 8 and reinstall it on their devices using iTunes. Apple’s specific steps are as follows:
Follow these steps to reinstall iOS 8.0.
1. Make sure that you’re using the latest version of iTunes.
2. Connect your iPhone to iTunes.
3. Back up your iPhone in iTunes on your Mac or PC. iCloud backups won’t restore to earlier versions, including iOS 8.0.
4. Download the file below that corresponds to your device:
– iPhone 6
– iPhone 6 Plus5. Select the file you just downloaded by doing one of these in iTunes:
– Mac: Press the Option key and click Check for Update.
– Windows: Press the Shift key and click Check for Update.6. Press Update to install iOS 8 on your iPhone.
The Health app won’t work in iOS 8 after these steps. It will be fixed in our upcoming iOS 8.0.2 software update.
Apple has pulled the iOS 8.0.1 over-the-air update, but the software was available to customers for approximately an hour and fifteen minutes, leaving many users with broken devices. According to the Apple, iOS 8.0.2 is already in the works with a fix and will be ready “in the next few days.”
iOS 8.0.1 originally fixed a significant HealthKit bug that popped up just ahead of the public release of iOS 8. Apple pulled all HealthKit enabled apps from the App Store due to the issue, and iOS 8.0.1 fixed the original bug, allowing the apps to be redistributed. The update also included fixes for third-party keyboards, Reachability, Photo Library, SMS/MMS messages, and more.
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AIVAnet 