Mozilla: All new web features should require secure HTTP

A number of internet organizations and even the government want websites to use encryption by default in the future, and from the sound of it, Mozilla shares their view. The non-profit has announced that it plans to limit the capabilities of “the non-secure web” (aka websites that don’t use HTTPS), in order to encourage a more widespread use of encryption. Mozilla has a two-element approach in place, one of which is making all new features of the Firefox browser and its other products available only to secure websites when we reach a certain date. The org will consult its users — just like it did before it ultimately decided it wants to stop supporting unencrypted sites in the long run — not only to pinpoint that date, but also to decide what features are considered “new” by that time.

The other one is to gradually phase out “access to browser features for non-secure websites, especially features that pose risks to users’ security and privacy.” Mozilla knows that will cause many websites to break on its browser, though, so it promises to monitor the situation and attempt to strike a balance. We’ll likely hear more about the plan after the org submits its proposals to the W3C WebAppSec Working Group and when implementation begins. For now, you can read more about Mozilla’s plan on its Security Blog.

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Source: Mozilla

Daily Roundup: Apple Watch review, Windows 10 and more!

Ready to get caught up on some of today’s top stories? Find out what we thought about the Apple Watch in our review, learn about what’s changed in Windows 10 from Microsoft’s design lead and read why Secret is shutting down. Get all the details about these stories and more in the Daily Roundup.

Apple Watch review: a status symbol for iOS devotees

Mankind’s fascination with watches capable of more than simply telling the time is nothing new. But recently, our collective interest in intelligent timepieces has spiked, and we have more and more powerful wrist-worn computers to choose from than ever – whether made by startups with record-setting Kickstarter campaigns or the biggest names in consumer electronics. Of course, the biggest name of all, Apple, had yet to release one of its own. Well, the Watch has arrived, and its maker has loftier aspirations for it than the smartwatches preceding it.

Windows 10 design lead explains what’s changed (and what hasn’t)

Albert Shum, the design team lead for Microsoft’s OS team, has outlined through some of the decisions made in its new OS. He reiterates that – especially now Windows 10 is out in the open – the work here isn’t yet done, with the blog post focusing on where the team’s received the most.. “feedback”, including the new menu options found on mobile iterations.

Secret’s out: The rise and fall of the anonymous social app

Secret, the app that was practically synonymous with the anonymous-app movement, is shutting down. David Byttow, Secret’s co-founder and CEO, explained in a Medium post yesterday that the reason for the shuttering is that the app no longer represents the vision he had when he started it in January last year. And if the lackluster activity in my Secret feed of late is any indication, I’m guessing the severe decline in users is a reason too.

Jeff Bezos’ first proper test rocket has successfully launched

Elon Musk may be the most famous tech billionaire with an interest in spaceflight, but he’s certainly not the only one. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos also has a company, Blue Origin, which is doing similar research into reusable craft to get us to-and-from the heavens. The normally secretive outfit has just revealed that its first test vehicle, New Shepard, made arguably its most important, partially successful test flight yesterday.

Living with Samsung’s Galaxy Note Edge in an S6 world

I was torn this past winter. I knew the Galaxy S6 was imminent and that there’d likely be a model with a curved screen, but I was dying to see what it was like to live with its bigger precursor, the Galaxy Note Edge. Would I feel a twinge of regret when the shiny new Samsung handset arrived, even if the older phone still had some advantages? There was only one way to find out. I spent a few weeks with the Note Edge to see not just whether I would enjoy that uniquely shaped screen on its own terms, but whether it would still hold its own against the faster, curvier Galaxy S6 Edge.

Watch Tesla’s souped-up Model S beat the world’s fastest sedan

Tesla’s Model S P85D is quick. Or is it fast? Can it be both? Ever since Elon Musk unveiled the company’s speediest car ever, it’s become the fashionable thing to take the P85D to a drag strip and pit it against some old-school gas-powered muscle. Motor Trend did the same, choosing the all-American Dodge Charger Hellcat (the world’s fastest sedan) as the Model S’ opponent. Now, it’s not the first time that these cars have gone head-to-head over a quarter mile, but when they first met, the 707-horsepower Hellcat had such a dismal run that it needed an official rematch with a better driver behind the wheel.

Play classic MS-DOS games without even leaving Twitter

Although they went live at the very start of the year, it was like all of our Christmases had come at once when Archive.org added 2,400 playable MS-DOS games to its website. Retro titles like Maniac Mansion, Oregon Trail and Doom are all available, with the only downside being that you have to visit each specific game’s page to play them. However, the eagle-eyed folk at Wired noticed these have recently started working on Twitter, meaning you can get all of your social networking done while simultaneously saving Sandy Pantz from the evil Dr Fred.

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Here’s what happens when a lithium-ion battery overheats

Lithium ion batteries are practically ubiquitous; they power everything from laptops and cell phones to cameras and tablets. But before they can start providing the juice for bigger and more demanding applications, research about their failure needs to happen. That’s where the fine folks at University College London come in — they’ve used 3D-and-thermal imaging to track exactly what happens when the power cells overheat, inside and out. As you can see in the GIF above, the results aren’t pretty. After cranking the heat on a pair of the batteries to 250+ degrees Celsius (482 degrees Fahrenheit) and keeping an eye on them with the aforementioned techniques, researchers witnessed one of the batteries blow its top. Prior to that happening, during what’s known as “thermal runaway,” the core collapsed.

What’s that mean?

Well, according to the paper published in Nature, the change in temperature that lead to a destabilizing further change in temperature elevates the risk for internal short circuiting and damaging any nearby components. That only happened in a battery without internal support, though. The cell that wasn’t lacking such a feature was a bit different. After hitting about 1,000 degrees Celsius (1,832 degrees Fahrenheit) the copper internals melted, the heat spread outward and caused thermal runaway. It sounds quite a bit less violent, actually.

This isn’t the sort of thing that would happen under normal operating conditions at all, and UCL’s Dr. Paul Shearing readily admits that. However! He says that this sort of testing provides invaluable knowledge regarding how the lithium-ion cells fail and will hopefully help how safety aspects are designed and considered in the future. I’d imagine that Boeing is paying pretty close attention to these experiments. Call it a hunch.

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Via: University College London

Source: Nature