Boeing and Hacking Team want drones to deliver spyware
Forget safeguarding drones against hacks — if Boeing and Hacking Team have their way, robotic aircraft would dish out a few internet attacks of their own. Email conversations posted on WikiLeaks reveal that the two companies want drones to carry devices that inject spyware into target computers through WiFi networks. If a suspect makes the mistake of using a computer at a coffee shop, the drone could slip in surveillance code from a safe distance.
The conversation was still in the early stages as of the leak, so you don’t have to worry about drones planting bugs any time soon. It’s also unclear as to who the customers would be. While the NSA is fond of spyware, there’s no certainty that it or other US agencies would line up as customers. Still, don’t be surprised if military recon drones are eventually doing a lot more than snapping pictures.
[Image credit: AP Photo/Matt York]
Filed under: Robots, Networking, Internet
Via: The Intercept
Source: WikiLeaks (1), (2)
Slugterra: Dark Waters game launches on the Google Play Store
Have you ever watched Slugterra? This Canadian animated series has managed to get very popular since its 2012 launch. It’s been airing for a few years now and a new season is coming, but few of us knew the franchise’s next step was going to be mobile gaming.
Developer Apps Ministry put together a pretty fun game based on the show. Slugterra: Dark Waters is an action-packed shooting game with 13 levels, 10 unique enemies and many, many slugs.
For those who need a reminder or may not be familiar with the series, Slugterra follows a story line based on an underground world deep under our feet. This subterranean location has people, villages, amazing technology and slugs.
What are slugs? These creatures are cute little pets, but they are much more than they seem. They are also living ammo, as you can shoot them out of your blaster and use their unique abilities to protect the underground world.
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Pretty interesting, right? The game is looking to be just as fun as the cartoon, too. You would take control of the main character, Eli Shane, in order to protect the 99 caverns from Dr. Blakk. This evil character wants to gain control of the subterranean lands by giving slugs “dark water” a substance that turns them into evil weapons.
Want in on the action? You can download Slugterra: Dark Waters straight from the Google Play Store today. The game is free to play, but does offer in-app purchases to speed up your progress and upgrade your slugs. Have a blast and hit the comments to tell us how you are enjoying the new game!
The Samsung Galaxy Note 5 S-Pen gets its own leak air-time, new feature at top of stylus
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Yesterday, we took a look at leaked images from case maker Ringke which suggested that the Samsung Galaxy Note 5 S-Pen sits flush with the bottom edge – that is, there is likely an electrically activated feature that makes the S-Pen eject, like an auto-eject feature for instance. Well, the S-Pen has today gotten its own leak, getting spotted in the flesh and it looks… well, it looks like an S-Pen. Predictably, there isn’t a whole lot different appearance-wise compared to previous Samsung styluses – the capacitive tip and side button make their return. However, despite all the familiarities, there is one notable thing to note about the S-Pen which is obvious in the images below:
If you take a look at the top of the S-Pen, you will see that there appears to be some kind of movable button feature, similar to a ballpoint pen, although it’s probably not for this purpose as the tip is already out. We’ve got a few theories about this new part: it’s either an extra button (the less likely of the two), or its some kind of eject feature i.e. when you request your S-Pen, this new part flicks out, giving you the finger space you need to pull out the S-Pen. Unfortunately, this makes the auto-eject feature we mentioned yesterday less likely, but this is still quite a cool innovation.
What do you think about the new Samsung Galaxy Note 5 S-Pen? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
Source: TalkAndroid
The post The Samsung Galaxy Note 5 S-Pen gets its own leak air-time, new feature at top of stylus appeared first on AndroidSPIN.
Jeb Bush is a big Apple fan apparently
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Living in Australia, I have absolutely no say in who becomes the next President of the United States of America, but if I did, I would probably harbour some interesting emotions towards Republican candidate John Ellis “Jeb” Bush after his latest campaign video. In it, its revealed Jeb Bush is a big Apple fan as he’s asked some binary questions about his “Silicon Valley favorites” and emphatically mentions that he has an iPhone, a MacBook Pro and an Apple Watch. Check out the campaign video below:
The only concession Google gets in the whole video is that Bush is more excited about driverless cars than segways, and frankly who wouldn’t. We realize the point of the video is probably to try and make Bush seem more like one of us, but with 64.9% of Americans owning Android smartphones, 30.9% owning iPhones and just 0.7% owning a Blackberry (Kantar), you start to get the feeling that Bush and his marketing team are still a little bit out of touch with the current times. Or, at the very least, Apple-biased, but we’re willing to give them the benefit of the doubt for now.
What do you think about Jeb Bush’s latest campaign video? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
Source: JebBush via Phone Arena
The post Jeb Bush is a big Apple fan apparently appeared first on AndroidSPIN.
T-Mobile paying $17.5 million in fees for 911 outages
Having access to 911 calls is of utmost importance to Americans. Being able to make these calls in time can be the difference between life and death, so the FCC takes it very seriously when a carrier has an outage in which calls can’t be routed to the nation’s emergency line.
The latest major 911 outage came from T-Mobile, in August 8, 2014. There were a couple nationwide blackouts this day, accounting for about 3 hours of down time. That is a long time of having no 911 access, especially considering T-Mobile serves about 55 million subscribers. The number was a bit lower when the event took place, at about 50 million, but we are sure more than a few of them needed help during this outage.
T-Mobile is making amends by paying $17.5 million USD in fees. In addition, they are taking responsibility and incorporating a compliance program to strengthen their 911 network communications.
- In particular, T-Mobile will develop and implement processes to:
- Identify risks that could result in disruptions to 911 service;
- Protect against such risks;
- Detect future 911 outages;
- Respond with remedial actions, including prompt notification to affected 911 call centers; and
- Recover from such outages on a timely basis.
T-Mobile’s prevention methods (or lack thereof) were not the single issue in this investigation. Matters worsened upon realizing the carrier hadn’t notified affected 911 call centers in a timely fashion, which is a requisite from the FCC.
The Commission has adopted a number of rules intended to ensure seamless, ubiquitous, and reliable 911 service nationwide. These rules include the obligation for wireless carriers to implement 911 routing and delivery systems to ensure that 911 calls are transmitted to the appropriate 911 emergency call centers and to notify those call centers of 911 service outages lasting longer than 30 minutes.
That’s a hefty chunk of cash t-Mobile has to fork out, though we don’t know how significant of a fee that would be for a large carrier. Regardless, seeing them improving their systems and keeping 911 accessible is golden. T-Mobile has been doing great improving their services with Uncarrier, offering deals no other carrier ever brought to the table. I am not sure I would give up 911 for all that, though.
Did any of you happen to notice these outages last year? It would be interesting to hear your take on this.
This is how ‘Shenmue 3’ raked in over $6 million on Kickstarter
Records, like rules, were made to be broken. Shenmue 3‘s Kickstarter campaign recently wrapped and upon doing so it set the bar for video-game projects on the crowdfunding platform by pulling in some $6.3 million in pledges. It’s pretty impressive when you consider that just last month the previous record-holder, the Castlevania spiritual successor Bloodstained, raised over $5.5 million in a similar span of time. Both games come from legendary game developers striking out on their own (thanks to risk-averse publishers) and both are more or less the sequels fans have been asking for for years.
There’s a big difference though: the side-scrolling action/role-playing game Bloodstained didn’t make its debut at E3, much less onstage at PlayStation’s media briefing ahead of the show. That gave Shenmue 3‘s open-world RPG a pretty significant head start, helping it reach its original $2 million funding goal in nine hours. And of course, it didn’t stop there. Along the way, an explanatory documentary about the series popped up and the development team took to Twitch to answer any questions you might’ve had.
The developers at Ys Net also revealed physical copies of the game for PlayStation 4, replicas of protagonist Ryo’s leather jacket and plenty of in-game content like additional quests and features as stretch goals. Of course, we got a brief glimpse of what the game looks like at the moment as well.
But how will Shenmue turn out, though? And further to that point, what about Bloodstained? The former isn’t anticipated to ship until December 2017 and the latter’s slated for March of the same year. If they follow the path of another Japan-developed, Kickstarter-funded game, Mighty No. 9, perhaps it won’t take nearly as long to find out — the latter was playable at E3 this year. For now we have to play the waiting game, though.
Filed under: Gaming, Home Entertainment, HD
Source: Kickstarter
‘Street Fighter V’ will give you free extras if you earn them
For most of the Street Fighter series’ history, you’ve had to pay for significant new content. Want to get those sweet new characters? Buy the Super Ultra EX Plus Alpha Turbo Championship edition. You won’t have to go through that rigamarole with Street Fighter V, though. Capcom is promising that any post-launch SFV material will be earnable for free, in-game — accrue enough “Fight Money” and that brawler will be yours. You can still use real cash if you want more content without putting in additional play time, but you’re no longer forced to splurge.
This economic aspect won’t show up until later in SFV‘s beta testing, and it’s not clear just how much effort you’ll have to put in to unlock content at no charge. Here’s hoping that it isn’t a grind, like you often see in free-to-play games. Either way, this could be a refreshing change from the fighting game world’s recent tendency to charge for extras. You won’t have to purchase whole ‘new’ titles just to compete at tournaments, and you only have to get the content that interests you. Ideally, this will keep the SFV community intact for as long as the core game remains current — and that’s good for both Capcom (which doesn’t split its fan base) as well as casual and cost-conscious players.
Filed under: Gaming
Source: PlayStation Blog
Znaps adds a magnetic charging port to any smartphone
Apple may not be our favorite company here at Android Authority, but we gotta give it to them for coming up with the MagSafe charger; it’s about the most convenient and safe charging technology we have seen. In fact, we wonder why they haven’t applied a similar concept to their mobile devices. Regardless, someone has already beat them to the punch.
The Znaps was just introduced via Kickstarter this week, and it seems like a brilliant idea that should have come years ago. In essence, Znaps is an adapter that turns any microUSB or Lightning port into a magnetic charger. You simply plug it into your port and a small protrusion will show, but it’s so small it shouldn’t really affect you. Znaps claims you can even continue to use your cases without an issue.
The set-up can’t really be any easier. And you have no idea how convenient something like this would be. Just think about it. These are gadgets we carry every single day… and we charge them very often, too. Smartphones are prone to much more accidents than computers are, yet this MagSafe concept hasn’t been adopted by the mobile industry yet.
Interesting fact: the guys from Znaps managed to avoid a lawsuit from Apple by making an adapter for your current chargers. Making a cable would have violated Apple’s patent, and we know they are not fans of people copying them! By the way, it seems this system can do as much as the cable you are using. It supports Quick Charge 2.0, data transfers and all.
I suppose something that also has me excited is that this will probably get rid of the hassle that comes with owning devices from multiple platforms. You could probably use a microUSB charger with an adapter to power up an iPhone with with a connector, for example. The same should apply the other way around.
As the Znaps team mentions on Kickstarter, your phone would be safe from sudden pulls. Charging will be super easy (you can even plug it in without looking). Oh, and there’s the added bonus of Znaps making your phone a bit more resistant to water dunks, as it stops water from going in through the microUSB port.
The best part is that Znaps is super affordable. You can get yourself an adapter and connector for only $9 USD, and they offer a calculator which you can use to make a custom order.
There’s no plans to support USB-C just yet, but the team does claim they will work on it if this Kickstarter campaign does well… which it has. They have more than doubled their $120,000 funding goal in just a few days and still have 26 days to go.
I am in love with this thing and am pledging today. I seriously hate cables dangling around my living space. They are annoying and get damaged very easily. Not to mention the damage they can create if someone accidentally pulls them while in use! A recent Zagg study states about 48% of smartphone users live with damaged smartphones. Something like Znaps would probably help reduce that number.
Wireless charging is also great, but doesn’t offer the same charging speeds and data transfers are impossible with it. Sadly, we do still need them cables, so we should at least have better ones. Are you signing up? Hit the comments and let us know how you feel about this little accessory!
Tapatalk updated to version 5 with some classic touches
Popular forum browsing interface Tapatalk has rolled out an update to version 5. The new version brings back some previous features to the interface, probably based on user feedback. To help spin this, the Tapatalk team frames these as “classic” changes to the app.
One of the changes in the new version is an improved forum nav slide bar accessed using the overflow menu button in the top right when visiting a forum. This provides some new options to perform forum actions or navigation like marking all messages as read, checking notifications, or accessing messages.
Subforum navigation has been added back to the app so that users can navigate straight to particular subforums from the forum home view. Tapatalk says they have overhauled the font size on all screens to improve readability. There is the usual assortment of bugs fixes and performance enhancements which the Tapatalk team says improves load times and responsiveness.
Tapatalk users will also find that they can customize the fonts used and they can follow other forum users with a simple tap on their avatar.
Finally, Tapatalk says they have included a Night Reading Mode that is fully customizable. You can check to see whether the update is available for your account by visiting the Google Play Store using one of the links below.
Come comment on this article: Tapatalk updated to version 5 with some classic touches
Google Play continues to dominate in downloads as video streaming apps surge
As we move into the second half of 2015, App Annie has released their report on the performance of the Google Play and Apple App Store for the 2nd quarter of 2015. No surprises emerged regarding the competition between the two as Google continues to dominate in terms of downloads while the App Store maintains a lead in revenues.
Google actually expanded their lead in downloads pushing to an 85% advantage compared to 70% for the first quarter of 2015. This growth is attributed to Google’s success in emerging markets on the back of inexpensive Android devices. Even with growth in these markets, penetration is still only 30%, so there is still a lot of potential.
For revenue, much of Apple’s growth can be attributed to China which has eclipsed the U.S. in terms of iOS downloads. This helped Apple maintain a 70% edge over Google.
App Annie also noted a couple other changes of interest that occurred during the second quarter. First, they highlight how Taiwan has surged past Germany in terms of Google Play revenue and it is also one of the markets where Google Play revenues exceed the App Store. Much of this explosive growth in Taiwan is due to the Games category.
The other change is impacting both Google Play and the App Store as the Entertainment category continues to surge on the strength of video streaming platforms. Both China and the U.S. are seeing apps like Hulu, HBO Now, Youku and iQIYI Video grow in popularity and capture the interest of smartphone and tablet users. App Annie hints that this may be an early indication that the cord cutting movement is finally gaining some decent traction with viewers.
source: App Annie
via: Android Authority
Come comment on this article: Google Play continues to dominate in downloads as video streaming apps surge
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