Google founders name Sundar as Google CEO, create new parent company called Alphabet
Out of the blue, Larry Page took to Google’s official blog this afternoon to announce the creation of a new company, Alphabet. So what is Alphabet? Just another of the many companies under Google? No, the exact opposite. Alphabet is a new umbrella company that is a collection of other companies, including Google.
Larry Page will act as CEO of Google’s new parent company, with Sergey Brin as President. As for Google? It is getting slimmed down a bit, with Life Sciences (a company that focuses on glucose-sensing contact lens), Calico (focused on longevity) and some of the other “way out in left field” projects moving under Alphabet’s wings. Yes, that means X Labs is also now under Alphabet and not directly associated with Google.
Google is not a conventional company. We do not intend to become one. – Larry Page
Google will remain focused on Internet products, Android, and other Google-y things with Sundar Pichai now moving into the position of CEO of Google itself. For those wondering, YouTube will remain a semi-independent part of Google as well, with Susan in charge as its CEO.
So why rebrand now? Basically, Google has grown into a giant monster. The idea is that restructuring will allow for better organization, with each company under Alphabet having its own “strong CEO who runs each business” with Sergey and Page “in service to them as needed”. In many ways, the new company will operate similar to the old one, but with more defined lines, better accountability, and more comprehensive structure. Alphabet Inc. will also replace Google Inc. as the publicly traded entity, and all shares of Google will convert into the same number of shares of Alphabet.
Obviously this a huge shake-up and totally unexpected. We’ll be sure to bring you more details as this story develops, as well as some reactions to how the creation of Alphabet changes the company’s structure and identity going forward. For those that want to do a bit more digging, Alphabet has already launched an official website, though there’s not much to see just yet.
What do you think of this massive news? Let us know in the comments below.
Birth then kill a virtual baby for fun, but mostly profit
Babies are cute, cuddly and worth a lot of money if you know how to exploit their existence. While the babies being virtually birthed by Kustodian CEO Chris Rock (no, not that Chris Rock) may not inspire the sort of bond found only between a parent and real child, they can be a financial windfall in the wrong (or right) hands. During a presentation at Def Con, Rock demonstrated how easy it was to get doctor and undertaker credentials from publicly available databases and use those credentials to register birth and death certificates. In fact, you don’t even need to create a fake baby to kill; you can kill one of your friends (or enemies) thanks to a system that doesn’t verify the identity of medical professionals.
Rock said during the presentation that this “end-of-life vulnerability” isn’t so much a vulnerability, but more of a “fuckup. A global fuckup.”
Creating virtual humans and filing death certificates for both fake and real people isn’t new. The Anarchist Cookbook details the practice and hackers have been doing it for years. What is new is how placing the entire system online has streamlined the process.
The lifehack (in the most literal of terms) involves exploiting the Electronic Death Registration System (EDRS) and Electronic Birth Registration System (EBRS) using public physician databases to gather license numbers to create accounts. Once someone has an account, they could file a birth or death certificate with a state or national government. Rock highlighted the United States and Australian systems during the talk.
For births, the hack ends there. For deaths, a second account is needed; a funeral director. Like physicians, online databases of funeral directors are available with license numbers needed to create an account. Rock took it one step further by creating a site for a fake funeral home and used that to apply to be a funeral director in Australia. Three days after filing out the required online form, he was accepted.
Depending on where you live, becoming a funeral director in the US is just as easy. While some states require a degree to become a funeral director, other states just want you to pay a fee. The entire system is set up to make keeping track of new and recently deceased citizens easier at the expense of making sure the individuals filing the death certificates are legit.
Because governments let parents file for birth certificates years after a baby is actually born, in some instances you can fast-track a virtual child to 13 years old. After a few years, that kid with its own social security card could get loans, trade on the stock market, have its own social networking presence and, of course, get signed up for life insurance for its inevitable demise and cash-out by the parent.
Rock — who has three real and four virtual children — had fun with his talk indicating that virtually killing an enemy could make their lives a mess (it’s hard to travel when the system thinks you’re dead). He even spoke about virtually killing yourself in order to disappear and cash out your own life insurance. But, he noted that virtual or “designer” babies could be used by organized crime syndicates to create an army of fake humans that could get loans, trade on the stock market and rake up huge life insurance policies. It’s a practice he discusses in his book.
While this isn’t technically identity theft, using a doctor’s identity to create an account that issues death and birth certificates has to be breaking at least some laws including impersonating a physician.
To make it so regular folks can’t create birth and death certificates, Rock told Engadget that government agencies need to have verification that includes a phone call that’s linked to a physician’s license. “That will stop the whole registration process,” he added. Which should mean no more fake kids being added to the Rock family.
[Image Credit: Shutterstock]
Filed under:
Misc
Tags: Babies, DefCon, hack, Identity
Defend your desk with a 3D printed rubber band auto-gun
If you work with a bunch of sticky-fingered co-workers, your desk is going to need protecting — especially when you’re away at lunch. This 3D-printed sentry gun from Swiss engineering student Kevin Thomas is motion-activated and fires a 6-round clip of rubber bands at anybody foolhardy enough to come within range. It’s controlled with an Arduino chip running Thomas’ version of the open-source Project Sentry Gun software. And if you don’t want to let the sentry gun have all the fun, you can also switch it from autonomous mode and manually aim it using a joystick. With all the eyes you’ll put out and SBC violations you’ll incur with this menacing mechanization, you and the HR department are going to become such good friends.
Filed under:
Desktops, Misc, Peripherals
Via:
The Next Web
Source:
Thingverse
Tags: 3Dprinting, arduino, autonomous, engineering, guns, phalanx, ribber-band, rubberband, sentry, turret
Google gets an overhaul and a new CEO: Sundar Pichai
Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin have started a new “collection of companies” called Alphabet — and it includes Google. That’s right, now there’s a company bigger than Google. In a letter to investors, Page outlined Alphabet and the changes this new organization will bring, including the appointment of a new Google CEO, Sundar Pichai. Page is now CEO of Alphabet, while Brin is President. Alphabet comprises Google and other companies that have been housed under its primary-colored umbrella, including the X lab (which is building delivery drones), investment arms Ventures and Capital, and health-focused efforts Calico and Life Sciences. “This newer Google is a bit slimmed down, with the companies that are pretty far afield of our main internet products contained in Alphabet instead,” Page writes.
Alphabet puts a lot of power in Brin and Page’s hands. As Page explains it: “In general, our model is to have a strong CEO who runs each business, with Sergey and me in service to them as needed. We will rigorously handle capital allocation and work to make sure each business is executing well. We’ll also make sure we have a great CEO for each business, and we’ll determine their compensation.”
Page and Brin will provide Google’s financial information separately from Alphabet’s in its Q4 results, Page says. To be clear, Google is now a wholly owned subsidiary under Alphabet. For investors, Alphabet Inc. replaces Google Inc. in the public sector and all Google shares will automatically convert into the same number of Alphabet shares, including all current rights.
“I should add that we are not intending for this to be a big consumer brand with related products — the whole point is that Alphabet companies should have independence and develop their own brands,” Page says. YouTube, for its part, remains under Google and retains its own CEO, Susan Wojcicki.
As for the name, Page adds that language is at the core of Google search. Plus, “it means alpha‑bet (Alpha is investment return above benchmark).” Besides, Alphabet can be a great workout:
Filed under:
Misc, Internet, Google
Source:
Google
Tags: alphabet, google
Facebook oversight lets others find you by guessing phone numbers
Just because you mark some of your Facebook data as private doesn’t mean that you’re hard to track down. Software engineer Reza Moaiandin has learned that it’s possible to scoop up the public details of legions of Facebook users simply by guessing phone numbers with a random number generator. You see, the social network defaults to letting anyone search for you using your phone number, even if it’s unlisted — as there’s no search limit, all it takes is a script to harvest the user IDs for thousands of people. As you can imagine, there’s a real worry that this will not only let black market dealers and hackers collect targets en masse, but help them get numbers to use for phone-oriented attacks and spying.
With that said, this loophole doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re at immediate risk. Facebook tells The Guardian that it has “network monitoring tools” running to watch for suspicious data activity, and its developer kit rules limit just how (and how often) apps can scrape information. The company could theoretically cut off access to an app if it grabs too many profiles too quickly. The concern is that Facebook isn’t explicitly tackling this problem by instituting firm caps on data collection. Even if it’s not possible to circumvent the developer rules, nosy intruders might get lots of information before Facebook cuts them off.
[Image credit: Shutterstock]
Filed under:
Internet, Facebook
Via:
The Guardian
Source:
Salt .Agency
Tags: facebook, internet, privacy, security, socialnetwork, socialnetworking
Motorola details plans for Stagefright issue
Motorola has decided to not update any of its devices with the Stagefright issue. JUST KIDDING. I’m sure you have heard or read about the Android vulnerability that has existed for many years, but was recently exposed just a month ago. If not you can read about the Stagefright issue covered in this article.
Motorola announced its plans for how it will handle this patch. All of the latest Moto devices, launched this year, the Moto X Style, Moto X Play, and 3rd gen. moto G will have the patch integrated into the software. As for other devices:
- Moto X Style (patched from launch)
- Moto X Play (patched from launch)
- Moto X (1st Gen, 2nd Gen)
- Moto X Pro
- Moto Maxx/Turbo
- Moto G (1st Gen, 2nd Gen, 3rd Gen)
- Moto G with 4G LTE (1st Gen, 2nd Gen)
- Moto E (1st Gen, 2nd Gen)
- Moto E with 4G LTE (2nd Gen)
- DROID Turbo
- DROID Ultra/Mini/Maxx
These devices will be receiving the security patch as soon as the carriers test and approve the changes. Motorola started sending out the new software today to carriers, so look for updates from carriers if your device is locked to them like the Droid Turbo, a Verizon only device.
If you have valuable information on your device, Moto offers this as a temporary solution.
What can I do to protect myself if my phone does not have the patch?
First, only download multimedia content (such as attachments or anything that needs to be decoded to view it) from people you know and trust. You can disable your phone’s capability to download MMS automatically. That way you can only choose to download from trusted sources.
- Messaging: go to Settings. Uncheck “Auto-retrieve MMS.”
- Hangouts (if enabled for SMS; if greyed-out, no need to take action): go to Settings > SMS. Uncheck auto retrieve MMS.
- Verizon Message+: go to Settings > Advanced settings. Uncheck Auto-retrieve. Uncheck “Enable weblink preview.”
- Whatsapp Messenger: go to Settings > Chat settings > Media auto-download. Disable all video auto downloads under “When using mobile data,” “When connected on Wi-Fi” and “When roaming.”
- Handcent Next SMS: go to settings>Receive message settings. Disable auto retrieve.
Source – Motorola
The post Motorola details plans for Stagefright issue appeared first on AndroidGuys.
Force Touch on iPhone 6s to Make iPhone Interactions Faster With Focus on ‘Shortcuts’
Rumors have all but confirmed the upcoming iPhone 6s and the iPhone 6s Plus will include Force Touch, allowing the device to distinguish between a light tap and a deeper press to enable a wide range of new gestures.
Force Touch has been built into the Apple Watch and the trackpads of the Retina MacBook and the newest Retina MacBook Pros, adding a whole new dimension to the way the devices are controlled. On the Apple Watch, Force Touch is used within apps to access different settings, and on the Mac, it can do things like previewing links in Safari, and accelerating rewind/fast forward speed in iMovie.
Force Touch on the iPhone will work similarly to the way that it works on the existing devices that offer Force Touch, but there are some differences, according to information an inside source shared with 9to5Mac. Force Touch on the iPhone is said to be used primarily for “shortcut actions,” letting users perform tasks within apps more quickly.
In Maps, for example, using Force Touch on a point of interest will cause turn-by-turn directions to start up immediately, while force pressing on a song in the Music app will bring up a menu to save it to a playlist. Force pressing on certain apps on the Home Screen could open directly to specific sections of the app.
Another feature in testing, according to one source, are shortcuts that appear after Force Touching an app icon on the Home screen. For example, if a user deep presses on the Phone app icon, he could choose to shortcut directly to the Voicemail tab. This could also apply to deep pressing the News app icon and being taken directly to either the Favorites or For You tabs.
Aside from Force Touch, the iPhone 6s and the iPhone 6s Plus will feature an A9 processor with 2GB of RAM, a revamped camera system with a 12-megapixel camera, improved Touch ID, and a chassis made of a new material with reinforcements at the weak points that previously caused some iPhones to bend. Rumors suggest the addition of Force Touch and the new reinforcements will cause the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus to be 0.2mm thicker, a change that will be hardly noticeable to most users.
Sense 7 for the HTC One (M8) will be paired with Android M
Wondering when your HTC One (M8) will get the latest version of the company’s Sense 7 software? The wait will be at least a few more months.
On Twitter, HTC’s Mo Versi commented on the status of Sense 7 for the 2014 flagship.
Versi, HTC’s Vice President of Product Management, noted that owners of the One (M8) will not see Sense 7 until the major Android M software update. The company has decided that it would be best for the handset’s software to receive a major change at once rather than focusing resources now on Sense 7 and later on Android M. The latter is expected to arrive in October or November; therefore, it probably won’t be until December at the latest for the One (M8) to receive this software update.
Source: Mo Versi (Twitter)
Come comment on this article: Sense 7 for the HTC One (M8) will be paired with Android M
HTC One M8 won’t see Sense 7 until Android M
Back in July HTC confirmed that the HTC One M8 would, in fact, be upgraded to Android M. What we didn’t know, however, is that HTC would be skipping the Android 5.1 and Sense 7 update in favor of M. In a tweet this weekend, HTC’s Mo Versi revealed that the Sense 7 upgrade for the One M8 will be tied to the upcoming Android M update. While he didn’t say for sure that the phone won’t receive an update to 5.1 (just without Sense 7), it certainly sounds that way.
With the One M7, HTC vowed to improve its mixed reputation with device updates delivering new updates as close to 90 days from general release as possible, and for a while it succeeded at delivering this promise. Unfortunately, the One M8 received quite a few update delays over the course of its life, and it is hard to say what kind of fate the One M9 will find when it comes to update transparency and speed.
@harshitsharma04 Will be tied to the M release. Thanks.
— Mo Versi (@moversi) August 6, 2015
Of course, things could be worse. HTC could have released Sense 7 and Android 5.1, only to abandon the phone after that. Though Android 5.1 introduces several bug fixes to Lollipop, it’s still far from perfect and so it is great news that HTC is planning to bring Android M to the device. The big question is just how long that will take. If HTC can deliver an Android M update to the One M8 within a few months of its final release with the new Nexus family, good on them. But if we are waiting until early 2016? We imagine there will be a number of One M8 users strongly considering jumping ship.
What do you think, are you surprised to hear that Sense 7 to the One M8 won’t be coming until Android M? Or do you feel it isn’t that big of a deal? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
Microsoft built a robotic air hockey table to show off Windows 10
Microsoft is more than a little proud that a version of Windows 10 runs on tiny, embedded PCs — proud enough that it’s willing to make clever devices to show this off. The folks in Redmond have built a robotic air hockey table whose virtual player is powered by a diminutive MinnowBoard Max running Windows 10 IoT Core. It’s simple (it largely depends on an overhead camera to track the puck), but it’s good enough to keep up with at least some shots, as you’ll see in the video below. You aren’t about to buy this table in a store — it’d need to keep up with a ruthless human rival, for starters — but it’s proof that modern Windows can find its way into some very unusual places.
Filed under:
Internet, Software, Microsoft
Via:
Business Insider
Source:
Microsoft
Tags: airhockey, hockey, internetofthings, microsoft, video, windows, windows10
AIVAnet 