Radio telescope spots previously unknown star-forming region
Scientists at the Institut de Radioastronomie Millimetrique (IRAM) have discovered that a region in the Medusa merger serves as home to thousands of recently formed stars. That region’s called the Eye of Medusa, and it’s a gas rich location smack-dab at the center of the merger, which, as its name implies, is a collision between two galaxies 100 million light-years away. The team has detected the newly birthed stars (pictured below the fold) for the first time using a powerful millimeter radio telescope in the French Alps called Northern Extended Millimeter Array or NOEMA. This discovery is actually a huge testament to how promising the observatory is, seeing as it’s not even fully built yet: out of the 12 15-meter-diameter antennas planned for it, only seven are operational.
Millimeter radio telescopes give scientists a way to observe the cold parts of the universe, specifically gas and dust under -34 degrees Fahrenheit where stars usually form. So, how exactly did the IRAM team manage to detect the young stars when no other observatory could? According to the institute, the group led by Sabine Koenig, tried something new. Instead of programming NOEMA’s antennas to detect carbon monoxide, which is common practice for millimeter radio telescopes, they configured it to detect hydrogen cyanide (HCN) and formylium (HCO+) molecules.
IRAM says that likely means the star formation process has a more complex chemical formulation than people think. It also proves that we still know very little about the universe. It’s certainly something worth looking into, since galaxy collisions and the birth of stars are two important aspects in our quest to understand how galaxies form.
[Image Credit: André Rambaud, IRAM (NOEMA) / IRAM, NASA , ESA Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Legacy Archive (Eye of Medusa)]
Filed under: Science
Source: IRAM
Amazon’s latest Kindle Paperwhite packs text that’s twice as sharp
Don’t want to shell out $199 for the Kindle Voyage just to get an Amazon-badged e-reader with extra-crisp visuals? You won’t have to after today. Amazon has launched an updated version of the Kindle Paperwhite whose e-paper display touts the same 300 pixels-per-inch density as the Voyage, giving you text that’s twice as sharp as on the last-generation model without paying extra for the privilege. You’ll accordingly get easier-to-read layouts (including Amazon’s in-house font, Bookerly) that take advantage of that slicker screen. The new Paperwhite will ship on June 30th for the same $119 (with ads) as its ancestor, which undercuts Kobo’s Glo HD and makes it the sweet spot in the Kindle line. Unless you really want the Voyage’s advanced light and touch sensors, this new mid-tier model will likely be enough.
Filed under: Amazon
Source: Amazon
GM powers data center with used Chevy Volt batteries
General Motors believes old Chevy Volt (and eventually, Bolt) batteries have a future as backup power sources for houses and buildings that use renewable energy. In fact, the company has repurposed five old Volt batteries to help power its data center in Milford, Michigan. They store energy generated by the center’s 74-kilowatt solar array and wind turbines, and then feed the surplus back to the Milford campus grid. GM senior manager Pablo Valencia said that’s possible, because the batteries retain 80 percent of their storage capacity, even after they’re no longer ideal for cars.
Just like Tesla’s Powerwall, the repurposed Volt batteries can provide the electricity a building needs during power outage: the five-battery pack, in particular, can supply enough energy to keep the data center running for up to four hours. GM doesn’t have a big supply of old EV batteries yet, so it can’t offer them as backup power sources to consumers at this point in time — the five in its possession came from early development models of the Chevy Volt. But since it’ll likely have access to loads of used batteries someday, the company has already started testing systems with unnamed partners for both commercial and non-commercial uses. “The importance of this announcement is that we are preparing for the future,” Valencia said. “This is a preparation for that time. Typically the lifecycle of a vehicle is 10 to 12 years.”
[Image credit: Argonne National Laboratory/Flickr]
Filed under: Transportation
Source: Reuters
Square’s food delivery service can get you a $15 NYC meal in 15 minutes
You might have forgotten that Square, the company best known for its mobile credit card reader, also owns the restaurant delivery service Caviar. With so many food delivery options out there, it’s simply hard to stand out. But now Square is bringing one of it’s more unique Caviar capabilities to NYC: Fastbite, a feature that will deliver a meal from a popular restaurant for under $15 in 15 minutes or less. There are, of course, a few caveats: You’ve only got a handful of single-serving options to choose from (not full restaurant menus), and Fastbite is only available during peak lunch and dinner hours in Manhattan. But if you’ve ever had a busy day where your lunch delivery didn’t make it on time, or you just simply didn’t want to deal with the lunch rush, Fastbite could be incredibly useful.
Plenty of startups promise the impossible these days, so I tested out the new Caviar feature (a “mouth-on”, if you will) to verify the company’s claims. Opening up the Caviar app at the AOL office revealed two food options: A pulled pork sandwich from Mighty Quinn’s Barbecue, and a falafel salad from another nearby restaurant. I went for the pulled pork sandwich, which ended up costing around $14 with delivery fees (Caviar covered the cost for the test). Once I placed the order, a marker appeared on a small map, allowing me to track the location of the delivery person (similar to how Uber and other taxi apps let you track cars). Around 13 minutes later, my sandwich arrived at the AOL lobby.
“One of the things that’s unique about our relationship with the restaurants is we have a full partnership,” said Avlok Kohli, who founded FastBite last year before being acquired by Square in February. “We help them ramp up demand and figure out how to manage deliveries.”
That’s a good thing, after all, since many local restaurants aren’t ready to handle a mad delivery rush on their own. Square’s close relationship with restaurants might also help it compete with a slew of other delivery options, including Sprig, which promises inexpensive meals in under 20 minutes, and GrubHub Seamless, which might take longer but offers entire menus. And while it seems like Square might not be able to scale fast deliveries in other cities, Kohli said that could be solved based on the type of couriers they use. For dense urban cities, bike messengers and people on foot may be enough. For a sprawling area like LA, they’ll have to use cars.
As for the sandwich? It was still warm and tasty by the time I got my hands on it. The barbecue sauce didn’t even soak through the bread. Really, what more could you ask for from a food delivery?
Vodafone’s letting some customers escape contracts, but it doesn’t have to
Vodafone’s introducing changes to out-of-plan charges this August, and it’s giving customers who could be particularly affected by new pricing an opportunity to ditch their contract without penalty. The carrier’s revised pricing model is pretty simple: come August 10th, every multimedia text you send and every minute you’re on the phone beyond your monthly allowance will add 45p to your bill. In some use cases, like video calling a friend on a rival network, the new flat rate will be cheaper; but, in several more instances, 45p is higher than the charge currently in place. For most customers, the changes are likely to go unnoticed, but in a strangely altruistic move, Vodafone is reaching out to those at risk of being negatively affected and giving them the option to exit their contract, no questions asked.
We say altruistic because Vodafone is under no obligation to offer customers this out, since the changes to out-of-plan charges aren’t the concern of telecoms regulator Ofcom. As you may be aware, Ofcom introduced rules last year that meant customers on any mobile network could bail on their contract scot-free if the monthly cost of that agreement was increased during its term. Vodafone has to obey those regulations, of course, but it’s also the only major carrier in the UK that doesn’t include an inflation clause in its contracts. An acceptable caveat under Ofcom’s rules, the inflation clause allows pricing to rise mid-contract, but only once a year in line with the Retail Price Index (currently 0.9%).
As part of its “fixed-price promise,” Vodafone has decided to take the spirit of Ofcom’s regulations and extend it those who’ll be most impacted by the impending changes to out-of-tariff charges. The provider is looking at the last three months of activity on every customer’s account, and essentially recalculating their bills as if the new pricing for over-allowance charges was already in effect. All customers with revised bills that would see them out of pocket by more than the Retail Price Index are being contacted by SMS and informed that since their usage history puts them at risk of higher bills, Vodafone’s giving them until July 28th to walk away from their contract.
All credit to Vodafone here, because while the move might inspire brand loyalty, it doesn’t make much business sense. Not only is Vodafone passing up free money by letting customers who regularly exceed their allowances leave, but the option is also open to abuse. For example, let’s say you’re four months into a new, £50-plus per month iPhone 6 contract and Vodafone profiles you as an at-risk customer. Well, you can jump ship, handset and all, with no repercussions. Vodafone hopes the people it’s reaching out to won’t dump their contracts, of course, because a smaller subscriber base is the last thing you need when you’ve just launched a new broadband offering for existing customers.
Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile
Via: The Register
Source: Vodafone
Hackers used Google Drive to attack Tibetans
Tibetans and pro-democracy activists in China are often the victims of cyberattacks, but a public campaign to educate people against blindly opening email attachments has been a big success. Unfortunately, as Motherboard reports, this has had the knock-on effect of forcing hackers into being a lot smarter with their subterfuge. Since would-be victims are now wary of opening attachments, nefarious types are now using Google Drive as a trojan horse with which to breach targeted systems.
The research was carried out by CitizenLab, the University of Toronto’s research group that studies the intersection of human rights and digital communications. As it lays out in this blog post, the scam works like this: a hacker sets up an email address that’s similar to a legitimate advocacy group, like the International Tibet Network. They even go so far as to include the mundanities of the ITN’s postal address in the signature to ensure it looks legitimate.
Then, they’ll send the victim a message containing a PowerPoint deck that, on the surface, pretends to be displaying useful information that’s been stored on Google Drive. In fact, the Lab believes that the documents are “repurposing material from legitimate presentations” to better dupe users. Since .PPS files aren’t displayed properly on Google Drive, users would then be tempted to download the file that otherwise appears genuine.
Hidden inside the file is a vulnerability codenamed CVE-2014-4114 which has been found in all versions of Windows since Vista. Unfortunately, the Lab has found that the weakness has a very low detection rate, so your antivirus system isn’t going to catch it should you mistakenly click the link.
CitizenLab can’t speak with any authority as to who could possibly want to disrupt and attack Tibetan and pro-Democracy activists in China, but we can probably all guess. The report does, however, point to an AlienVault study that suggests that the creator of the strain of malware used in the attacks works for a Chinese security firm. The piece concludes that this shift in tactics is concerning since the methods are getting more sophisticated in the face of public education campaigns, but hey – at least it shows that the project is working.
[Image Credit: Getty]
Filed under: Internet
Via: Motherboard
Source: CitizenLab
Stephen Elop out at Microsoft as it merges OS and device teams
Stephen Elop, the former Nokia CEO who helped engineer Microsoft’s acquisition of that company’s mobile arm, will soon be leaving Microsoft. The software giant announced a management restructuring this morning which lists Elop as one of three executives who will be out the door after a “designated transition period.” At Microsoft Elop served as the executive vice president of the Devices and Services group, but now operating system head Terry Myerson will be leading that division as part of a new Windows and Devices Group. The company says it’ll be “focused on enabling more personal computing experiences powered by the Windows ecosystem.” It makes sense for Microsoft to unite its OS and devices teams, especially since the company is banking on Windows 10 being a platform for just about every device. While Elop talked big once he rejoined Microsoft, Windows Phone is still a struggling platform that’s mainly thriving in the low-end arena. Perhaps with new management, Microsoft can figure out a way to make more people pay attention to its mobile offerings.
[Photo credit: Pau Barrena/Bloomberg via Getty Images]
Filed under: Microsoft
Source: Microsoft
The new ‘Metroid Prime’ is made for the New 3DS
It’s been eight years coming, but Nintendo has a new Metroid Prime game. However, it’s a little bit unusual — at least that’s what a lot of people (including us) took away from the teaser trailer revealed during E3. The controls look pretty “Metroid”, but where’s Samus? Why are there multiple (albeit color-coded) stocky protagonists? And what the exactly is Metroid Prime: Blast Ball? Armed with questions, 20 minutes playtime on the aforementioned sporting spin on Metroid, we talked (with some translation help) to Nintendo’s Kensuke Tanabe, who heads up development on the Prime series.
What is Metroid Prime: Federation Force?
Kensuke Tanabe: The last game in the Prime series was in 2007. It’s been a while. When I heard about the New 3DS, with the C-stick, it would be ideal for a shooter. I thought: “It’d be great to have a Prime title to launch alongside the new hardware.” In Metroid Prime 2, we included multiplayer, but here we wanted to focus on the co-op aspect. But then, if we have four “Samuses”, that would be odd. And that’s where the Galactic Federation came in. Controlling the game, and in terms of how it feels, it feels like a Metroid Prime game.
“We tried to create a balance with these load-outs that would decide your role in a squad, similar to a role-playing game, with wizards, warriors and healer”
However this time there’s a “load-out” system: players start with a basic mech [the controllable robot suit in Federation Force] But before a mission starts, you can choose what weapons to load into it. There are certain powerful weapons you can bring, like a “super missile” which comes with a heavy weight penalty. We tried to create a balance with these load-outs that would decide your role in a squad, similar to a role-playing game, with wizards, warriors and healers. [As you play, you can collect] mods for these mechs. Even if you fail in a mission, you’ll receive some of these upgrades.
That makes the game sound easier, or at least pretty forgiving. Is aimed towards younger players?
KT: It’s not that we’re directly aiming at a younger audience. In Japan, first-person shooters lack the popularity of other regions. That’s where Blast Ball comes into it… reducing the skill barrier to get into the game for beginners or gamers not typically interested in first-person shooters. That said, the main story will certainly not feel easy!
So it’s not two games?
KT: Federation Force is the focus of the game, while Blast Ball forms a part of the Federation’s the training. Instead of complicated tutorials, it’s an enjoyable way to teach the controls, how to play the main game and to generally improve the skills of beginners.
“If I’m honest, we did look into a Wii U version”
A lot of fans may have been hoping for a Wii U version. Why did it come to the 3DS?
KT: The idea to develop a new Metroid Prime title came along with the New 3DS, with controls suited to the title. Ideally, the plan was for the game to arrive alongside the hardware but, well, it’s a little late! If I’m honest, we did look into a Wii U version. However, we had to consider the resources it would take, what teams to devote for a Wii U game. [It’s worth noting that Nintendo tasked developers Next Level to make the game. The team’s previously worked on both Mario Strikers and Punch-Out!!]
The character design and atmosphere of the trailer seems a little bit different to prior Prime games. What happened?
As far as character design goes, the 3DS screens are relatively small. This means there’s limitations to where cameras can be placed. A tall character or enemy could be difficult to be display, while a stockier character, like the mech, fits the hardware and fits the game better. It makes it better to play. I’ll admit, I thought at the start that it might lose the seriousness of the Metroid Prime series and become a little comical, but once I played it, I believe it delivers on the feel of the other game.
Why hasn’t there been a co-op mode until now?
KT: We tried to fit a multiplayer Metroid game into the DSi, but the power of system was lacking – it didn’t quite work as expected. But with the 3DS we had the power to make that capable.
Is there a specific part of Metroid Prime: Federation Force that you love?
KT: I love all of it! But compared to prior games where you played alone, now you’re fighting alongside others. That offers a different kind of sensation. I’m looking forward to people enjoying Metroid this way. (Oh and of course, you can still play it alone.)
Is there any co-op modes in any other games you’ve particularly enjoyed?
KT: To be honest, while I’m a game maker, I don’t play games that much. I don’t know that many games. Who knows, maybe there are some concepts that overlap. [There’s a pause in conversation] Ah! But there is one thing: I love Splatoon. Now that’s interesting. Even mid-development, it was already fun. The artwork, music, it doesn’t even feel that much like a Nintendo game. My three daughters all take turns playing it all the time.
This interview has been translated, condensed and edited.
The NHS wants to give wearables to hospital patients
To cut costs and improve patient care, the NHS is looking to technology more than ever before. Under its latest proposals, Britain’s healthcare service wants to introduce free wi-fi across all of its hospitals, giving doctors and nurses the ability to use tablets on the wards. The hope is that this will reduce paper waste and speed up administrative tasks, giving staff some extra time to visit their patients. It also opens up the possibility for patients to wear wearables, such as skin sensors. Patients with diabetes, for instance, could then be monitored around the clock to help doctors spot early signs of deterioration.
Last November, the NHS promised to give Brits online access to their GP records by 2015. The roll-out is now underway and today, the NHS is committing to an expansion that will add records held by hospitals, community, mental health and social care services by 2018. NHS England’s National Director for Patients and Information, Tim Kelsey, promises that “soon” every citizen will also be able to register for a GP, book appointments and order prescriptions through nhs.uk. In addition, the NHS wants doctors and nurses to have digital access to critical medical information anywhere in England by 2018. The scheme would then be expanded to include information from all NHS funded services by 2020.
If nothing else, these proposals represent a shift in how the NHS wants to operate. It’s not known for its speedy adoption of new technologies, but upper management seems to have realised that to keep services running smoothly, the NHS needs to change its tune.
[Image Credit: JOEL SAGET/AFP/Getty Images]
Filed under: Wearables
Via: Wareable
Source: NHS
iOS and OS X Security Flaws Enable Malicious Apps to Steal Passwords and Other Data
A team of six researchers from Indiana University, Georgia Tech and Peking University have published an in-depth report exposing a series of security vulnerabilities that enable sandboxed malicious apps, approved on the App Store, to gain unauthorized access to sensitive data stored in other apps, including iCloud passwords and authentication tokens, Google Chrome saved web passwords and more.
The thirteen-page research paper “Unauthorized Cross-App Resource Access on Mac OS X and iOS” details that inter-app interaction services, ranging from the Keychain and WebSocket on OS X to the URL Scheme on OS X and iOS, can be exploited to steal confidential information and passwords, including those stored in popular password vaults such as 1Password by AgileBits.
“We completely cracked the keychain service – used to store passwords and other credentials for different Apple apps – and sandbox containers on OS X, and also identified new weaknesses within the inter-app communication mechanisms on OS X and iOS which can be used to steal confidential data from Evernote, Facebook and other high-profile apps.”
The different cross-app and communication mechanism vulnerabilities discovered on iOS and OS X, identified as XARA weaknesses, include Keychain password stealing, IPC interception, scheme hijacking and container cracking. The affected apps and services include iCloud, Gmail, Google Drive, Facebook, Twitter, Chrome, 1Password, Evernote, Pushbullet, Dropbox, Instagram, WhatsApp, Pinterest, Dashlane, AnyDo, Pocket and several others.
Lead researcher Luyi Xing told The Register that he reported the security flaws to Apple in October 2014 and complied with the iPhone maker’s request to withhold publishing the information for six months, but has not heard back from the company since and is now exposing the zero-day vulnerabilities to the public. The flaws affect thousands of OS X apps and hundreds of iOS apps and can now be weaponized by attackers.
AIVAnet 