LG’s Stylus 2 is the first phone to support DAB+ radio

Despite the increase in streaming, smartphone makers have still seen it fit to include FM radio support in their devices, especially in emerging markets. The main reasons for this are that it saves data and it doesn’t eat into battery life nearly as much as listening to something over the internet. With more consumers embracing digital, LG has seen it fit to outfit the Stylus 2, a phone it first unveiled back in February, with something not seen before in modern mobile devices: DAB+ radio support.

DAB+ isn’t a new standard, but uptake varies across the world. In the US, broadcasters have adopted the HD Radio standard, while DAB and DAB+ has been embraced across Europe. That explains why LG won’t launch the Stylus 2 with DAB+ support in North America and is focusing on Australia, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway and the UK.

The phone features a big 5.7-inch 1280 x 720 display, quad-core 1.2 GHz processor, 1.5GB of RAM, 13-megapixel camera and a 3,000mAh battery. With its pointer, the Stylus 2 is a Galaxy Note competitor and comes with smart features like to get the most out of it. Pen Pop, for example, is a neat shortcut menu that houses Pop Memo and Pop Scanner apps, while Pen Keeper alerts you if it believes you’ve walked off with your phone but left the stylus behind.

While DAB encodes broadcasts in MPEG2 (or MP2), DAB+ uses aacPlus, which offers increased quality at small bitrates. The standards use the same transmitters, making it easy for companies to support both (and eventually phase DAB out). That means more high-quality broadcasts, but it will also allow stations to include radio playback alongside other online services inside their own apps.

Source: LG Newsroom

Alleged Leaked iPhone 7 Images Reveal New Case Design

The first purported leak of the case design for the iPhone 7 appeared yesterday on French blog Nowhereelse.fr.

The alleged images from Taiwanese phone case manufacturer Catcher Technology depict a subtle chassis redesign for the iPhone 7, which is expected to be released by Apple this coming September.

Photo allegedly depicting new iPhone 7 chassis design (Image: Nowhereelse.fr)
The renders are consistent with information obtained by MacRumors last month from a previously reliable source claiming that the handset will lack antenna bands across the rear. As expected, the images show antenna bands are limited to the sides and around the top and bottom edges of the chassis.

In addition to the cleaner all-metal look, the images of the rear of the case depict a larger hole for the camera. The orifice is described as closer to the edges of the chassis and forming a “slight bulging outgrowth”, a phrasing which doesn’t contradict our earlier source’s claim that the camera sits flush with the rear casing.

iPhone 7 mock-up by Steve Hemmerstoffer (Image: Nowhereelse.fr)
The chassis leaker adds that the design “seems slightly thinner than the iPhone 6s, confirming in passing the lack of a headphone jack port”. That would appear to support last week’s leak of the first protective case prepared for the iPhone 7 showing two openings for stereo speakers in lieu of the 3.5mm headphone jack on current iPhones. However, the purported change is difficult to confirm one way or the other based on these latest renders.

Earlier yesterday, Nowhereelse.fr also posted images allegedly showing dual-lens camera component parts for the iPhone 7 Plus, however these were later revealed to be identical to images that surfaced in early January.

Some rumors claim the dual-camera setup may be exclusive to the iPhone 7 Plus, which reportedly may be called the iPhone Pro.

Related Roundup: iPhone 7
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John Oliver Creates Apple Encryption Ad in ‘Last Week Tonight’ Segment on FBI Backdoor Request

Last Week Tonight host John Oliver tackled Apple and the FBI’s duel over encryption as the main segment on his show last night. He played out cases for both sides before siding with Apple and creating a comical ad for the Cupertino company in its signature style explaining why encryption is important.

Oliver starts the segment by explaining what encryption is, what it protects and how it can be hacked before diving into the debate between Apple and the FBI, which centers around San Bernardino shooter Syed Farook’s iPhone. The segment first lays out the case for law enforcement, touching on Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump’s proposed Apple boycott, before spending a significant amount of time explaining why creating a backdoor for the government would be a bad idea.

The Last Week Tonight host explains that many critics of Apple’s stance on encryption don’t seem to understand how modern technology works and that Apple creating a key for this one case is a slippery slope, allowing government officials to approach Apple for other cases. Oliver notes that the encryption debate was waged two decades ago with the Clipper Chip, which allowed for encrypted communication with a backdoor for authorities. The project was abandoned after hacker Matt Blaze figured out how to shut down the authorities’ backdoor. “But decades later [authorities] seem to have convinced themselves that it can be done,” Oliver said.

Oliver then takes on Apple critics who say the company can figure it out due to its success at innovation, noting they may feel that way about “Apple’s magic powers” due to the way the Cupertino company markets it products. He points out that thinking Apple could create a backdoor and then have the ability to police that backdoor is unrealistic, mentioning that the company has had trouble with hackers in the past. Additionally, he says that Apple bending their encryption standards doesn’t matter due to the numerous third-party encryption alternatives that exist.

The host closes by saying that other countries, like Russia and China, are watching the debate play out, hoping that they, too, would be allowed a similar level of access to devices. Oliver says that the “legal tenuousness” of the FBI’s argument, the security risks, the impossibility of Apple enforcing backdoor-equipped encryption, the international fallout and the existence of third-party encryption apps is enough to “sway the most strident opinion.” Oliver then closes by showing a comical encryption ad the show made for Apple in the style of the company’s iPhone 6s ads.

Last Week Tonight’s segment comes the week after the feud between Apple and the FBI stepped up a notch, with the FBI accusing Apple of “deliberately” raising barriers to prevent law enforcement to access data on Apple devices. Apple lawyer Bruce Sewell called the claim an “unsupported, unsubstantiated effort to vilify Apple.” On Friday, President Barack Obama cautioned against taking an “absolutist” view on encryption.

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Tags: Apple-FBI, John Oliver, Last Week Tonight
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North Korea steps up hacking campaign against the South

North Korea isn’t letting up on its hacking campaign any time soon… if anything, it’s kicking into high gear. South Korean officials report that the North has been escalating its cyberattacks, including a recent breach that compromised the phones of 40 security officials. The North also unsuccessfully tried to target the South’s railway control system by attacking the email accounts of workers. These kinds of attacks were expected between North Korea’s nuclear tests, long-range missile tests and joint US/South Korea military exercises, but that’s not exactly comforting.

Naturally, the North Korean propaganda machine is in full swing. Its government’s official paper denies the hacking allegations, insisting that they’re an attempt to distract from a recently passed anti-terrorism law that critics are worried will give the South too much power to spy on residents. It’s “provocative” and “heinous,” the North says. Those claims are a bit rich given that the North designed an operating system explicitly to spy on citizens and crush dissent, but they’re par for the course from a country that lavishes rewards on its hackers while publicly pretending that they don’t exist.

Source: Reuters

The best drone racer in the world just won $250,000

What did you do with your weekend? 15-year-old Luke Bannister just won $250,000 by beating out 150 teams in the first World Drone Prix, held in Dubai. Drone racing is now a very real thing, with racers using camera-mounted navigation to steer their craft around a track — and through or around obstacles. Even if you didn’t place first, the Drone Prix offered a prize pool totaling $1 million.

The teen beat home favorites Dubai Dronetek into second place, but for those looking to make their fortune, plenty other races and chances to strike it rich are cropping up. We’ll see y’all in Hawaii this October for Drone Worlds’ championship race — and that $200,000 prize. I just need to figure out how to fix this whole motion sickness thing…

Via: The Verge

Source: World Drone Prix

Scientists can identify terrorists by their victory signs

To no one’s surprise, many terrorists aren’t willing to divulge their identities — they’d rather cover themselves head-to-toe than risk a drone strike or police bust. Researchers, however, may have made it that much harder for these extremists to hide. They’ve developed a biometric identification technique that can pinpoint people by the V-for-victory hand signs they make. By measuring finger points, the gap between them and two palm points, scientists can identify someone even when there are no other telltale cues. In some cases, it was more than 90 percent accurate.

It’s not a perfect approach. You need reference material to confirm an identity, and it might be thrown off if a suspect wears gloves or changes weight. The team also needs to scale up its testing to see if its data holds up when dealing with large groups. If everything goes smoothly, though, it’s possible that anti-terrorist agencies could use image recognition systems to confirm the presence of specific terrorists in propaganda videos and take them out later on.

Via: MIT Technology Review

Source: ArXiv.org

The After Math: Fun and games

Google’s DeepMind AI bested a Go Grand Master, but it’s not over yet — and it doesn’t mean you can’t still enjoy a game or two. If black and white counters don’t thrill you, Nintendo had a surprisingly bountiful Direct broadcast this week, announcing the return of several hits from those golden SNES days, while Gears of War has claimed voice actors for its next iteration. At the same time, Intel just bought a company on the strength of its 360-degree video chops. And if the robots get ideas above their station, just poke ’em with a stick.

Hackers target firm protecting against denial of service attacks

When you dedicate your company to protecting against hacks, you make yourself a bigger target for those hacks… and one firm is learning this the hard way. Staminus, an online hosting service that focuses on protecting against distributed denial of service attacks, was the victim of an apparently giant hack last week. In addition to going offline until Thursday night, the company has confirmed that the intruders took customer data that includes payment card info, user names and (thankfully hashed) passwords. The perpetrators claim to have hijacked and reset the majority of Staminus’ routers.

As for who did it and why? It’s not entirely clear, but it may be the result of political activism or an attempt to call Staminus out on the carpet for lax security. The outfit counts the KKK as one of its anti-DDoS customers, and it apparently made rookie mistakes like storing card info in plain text and using the same password for all its routers. Whatever the causes, users can at least take consolation that Staminus is toughening up its security — hopefully, it (and other anti-hacking specialists) won’t fall victim to this kind of attack again.

Via: Krebs on Security

Source: Staminus

Get money off a Lumsing battery pack that can charge your iPhone up to 7 times on a single charge

We’ve all been there. Gone to make that important phone call only to find out your phone’s battery has died. Not me you cry, you’ve got a battery charger, but wait you’ve forgot to charge that too. Doh.  

But what if that portable battery had enough power to charge an iPhone 6 around seven times, an iPhone 6 Plus four times, a Samsung Galaxy S6 five times, and an iPad Air with its huge battery once?

Enter the Lumsing Harmonica Series Dual-USB Portable Battery Charger 16000mAh External Power Bank and the good news is, Lumsing is offering Pocket-lint readers in the UK and the US up to 26 per cent off the recommended retail price until the end of March 2016. In the UK that’s a saving of £6 and in the US, $8.   

Enclosed in an aluminum case, the compact battery charger (it measures 5.4 x 2.3 x 0.8 inches) easily fits into your bag for business trips and means that you never have to worry about finding a plug socket when it comes to charging your phone or tablet on the go again.

The Lumsing Harmonica battery comes with a short length USB to micro USB charging lead and has 4 charge power indicator lights (roughly 25 per cent, 50 per cent, 75 per cent, and 100 per cent).

It has two USB output charging ports. One of them allows you to charge more power power hungry devices like an iPad quickly. The battery pack also feature Fast Charge Technology to deliver the fastest possible charge based on the device you are connecting.

To get your discount, go to Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com and enter the discount codes below. 

The deal starts from today and will end at 23:59 local time on the 31 March 2016. 

UK DISCOUNT DETAILS

UK URL: http://amzn.to/1L6SLkN

UK discount code: A6CSUGNJ

US DISCOUNT DETAILS

US URL: http://amzn.to/1TtJ6aX

US discount Code: LZOALDDO

Microsoft no longer takes Bitcoins in its Windows app store

Microsoft’s grand experiment in accepting Bitcoins as payment hasn’t panned out, it seems. The company has quietly updated an FAQ to reveal that it no longer accepts the digital currency in the Microsoft Store on Windows 10 devices. You can use an existing balance to buy your apps, but you can’t supply more Bitcoins or get a refund. Like it or not, you’ll have to use conventional money from now on.

The company hasn’t explained the surprise cutoff, and we’ve reached out to get more details — does this affect Xbox users, for example? However, it may simply be a matter of getting a solid return on investment. Bitcoin is still something of a niche payment method despite its increasing legitimacy, and some of its long-term supporters are losing faith. Microsoft may have decided that there weren’t enough people buying with virtual cash to justify maintaining the necessary code.

Via: Softpedia

Source: Microsoft