Feds’ iPhone-cracking tool takes advantage of a security flaw

The FBI didn’t commission an Israeli firm to unlock the San Bernardino shooter’s iPhone 5c like previous reports said. According to The Washington Post, the agency cracked the iPhone’s security system with help from a group of professional hackers who actively hunt for software vulnerabilities to sell, sometimes to the US government. The piece, which sheds light on the methods the FBI used, says the group presented the bureau with a previously unknown flaw in either the iPhone 5c or iOS 9. It was then used to create the tool the feds needed.

The hardware they made allowed the agency to crack the phone’s four-digit pin without triggering the feature that erases all the device’s data after 10 failed attempts. That feature was what prevented the FBI from taking a stab at hacking the phone on their own. With the tool in the feds’ possession, they wouldn’t have to worry about triggering the feature, so long as they’re using it on an iPhone 5c running the same build of iOS 9. It might not work for other, newer devices and OS, since they might not have the same vulnerability. The hackers received a one-time flat fee for their services.

During a privacy conference last week, FBI Director James B. Comey said they’re considering whether to disclose that security to flaw to Apple or not. Cupertino will most likely patch it up if and when their engineers find out what it is, but the company announced last week that it will not sue the FBI to gain access to the solution it used.

Source: The Washington Post

DJI’s drones will stream live video over Facebook

Now that Facebook can stream live video through virtually any device, you’re going to find those live feeds coming from unusual places… including overhead. DJI is promising an update in late April that will let you stream its drones’ video through Facebook Live, making it comparatively easy to share those dramatic skyline shots with your friends. The feature will work for any model that plays nicely with the DJI Go mobile app, which largely includes recent Phantom and Inspire drones. While you could stream to YouTube before, this definitely widens the playing field — there’s a better chance that more of your social circle will witness your aerial exploits.

Source: DJI (Facebook)

Watch NASA attach the first inflatable habitat on the ISS

On April 16th, the ISS will become just a wee bit bigger after astronauts install the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module. BEAM hitched a ride aboard SpaceX’s Dragon capsule during its latest (and historic) resupply mission. Astronauts will use the robotic Canadarm2 to unload it from the capsule and move it to position, before unfolding and expanding it to add a 10-x-13-foot area to the station. If all goes well, BEAM will look like a small protrusion from outside the ISS, as you can see at the top center of the image above. The space agency will televise the installation live on NASA TV, so you can watch it go down… if you can wake up at 5:30AM (Eastern time) on a Saturday.

BEAM is slated to remain attached to the ISS for two years, with astronauts going inside and checking up on its condition several times a year. They’ll be in charge of assessing whether an inflatable habitat made of Kevlar-like material is tough enough to withstand the harsh conditions in outer space. Bigelow Aerospace’s future plans hinge upon their findings. The company has huge dreams, after all, and has recently teamed up with United Launch Alliance to send bigger inflatable habitats to Low Earth Orbit by 2020.

Source: NASA TV

How to make your laptop boot faster – CNET

If your laptop takes its sweet time starting up, then here are some things you can do to put a little pep back in its startup step.

Get an SSD

You can breathe new life and faster boot times into an old laptop by replacing its spinning hard drive with a solid-state drive.

Without needing to physically spin a disk to locate the data you’ve requested, solid-state drives are substantially faster than traditional hard disk drives. After installing an SSD, the first time you’ll notice its speed improvement is when you boot up your laptop.

Although this move requires you to open your laptop and perform a bit of surgery, it’s a basic procedure. In a nutshell, you will need to gather a few tools, clone your hard drive to the new drive, open your laptop, remove its old hard drive and then add in an SSD in its place. Here’s how to upgrade your MacBook Pro with an SSD.

Note: be sure to check with your laptop vendor or in laptop forums to make sure the SSD you choose is compatible with your laptop model. You may sacrifice some storage capacity when you move to an SSD but prices have drop precipitously in recent years so you may be able to afford a larger SSD than you may think.

Reduce startup items

Sometimes the applications you install go ahead and include themselves among the applications that your laptop loads when it starts up. And the longer the list of applications your laptop has to load during startup, the longer it takes to start up. Thankfully, both Windows and OS X both let you choose which applications make this list.

If you are unwilling to purchase or install an SSD, then you’ll like this maneuver because its free and easy. And if your laptop already has an SSD, then you can further shorten its boot time.

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Screenshot by Matt Elliott/CNET

On OS X El Capitan, open System Preferences and select Users & Groups. Click on your username in the left panel and then click the Login Items tab in the right panel. To remove a program from this list, click on it and the click the “–” button.

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Screenshot by Matt Elliott/CNET

On Windows 10, search for Task Manager and open it. Click the Startup tab and you’ll see a list of programs that start automatically when Windows 10 boots. Look for programs you don’t need at startup, particularly if they are listed as having a High Startup impact in the right column. To stop a program from automatically running when you start Windows 10, right-click it and click Disable.

Windows: Fast startup

For Windows 10 laptop, there’s a setting called Fast Startup designed to get you up and running more quickly. Fast Startup cuts down on startup time by creating a state between shutdown and hibernation where your system state is saved as a hibernation file, which is then loaded when you start up your laptop again. It saves Windows the step of reloading the kernel, drivers, and your settings. Unlike hibernation mode, your open folders and applications are not saved with Fast startup.

Fast startup is enabled by default on Windows 10, but it’s worth checking to make sure that’s the case.

• Go to Control Panel > Hardware & Sound > Power Options.
• Click Choose what the power buttons do from the left panel.
• Click Change settings that are currently unavailable at the top of the window and scroll down to the bottom and make sure the box is checked for Turn on fast startup (recommended).

For more, read what is Window 10’s fast startup?

OS X: Automatic login

This last tip is for Mac owners who have more than one user account set up. With Automatic login, you bypass the login screen and log right into one of your accounts to speed the startup process along. Because this setting lets you log into OS X without needing to enter your password, Automatic login is not advisable if you carry your laptop with you everywhere you go and are prone to leaving it unattended in public places. If your laptop spends most of the time safely at home, here’s how to enable it.

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Screenshot by Matt Elliott/CNET

• Open System Preferences and click Users & Groups.
• Click the lock button in the lower-left corner and enter your account password.
• Click Login Options in the left panel.
• Choose an account from from the Automatic login pull-down menu and enter the password for that account.

For more, here are 5 tips to speed up your Mac and 6 easy ways to speed up Windows 10.

Logitech acquires wireless earbud maker Jaybird for $50 million

Logitech has announced that it has agreed to acquire wireless audio accessory company Jaybird. Logitech says the deal for Jaybird comes in at $50 million in cash with the potential for $45 million more if the company meets growth targets going forward.

For its part, Logitech is positioning this acquisition as a way to give a boost to its audio offerings, specifically in the wireless audio market. In a blog post, Logitech specifically praised Jaybird’s work on wireless earbuds for those with active lifestyles, like the X2 Bluetooth headphones:

We see it all around us everyday – people love to listen to music everywhere and sometimes in places where listening out loud would just not work. Jaybird hit on a great idea of making products for people actively engaged in sports and who wanted music to power their passion for their sport. With the right product (and Jaybird makes them), you can now pursue your sport with your music. It’s a potent combination.

As for Jaybird, Logitech says it will continue to “feed the Jaybird brand,” so it sounds like future products will continue to carry the Jaybird name.

The deal is expected to close in the coming weeks, Logitech says.

Verizon policy: switch from copper to fiber, or no fix for you

It won’t shock you to hear that Verizon is not so fond of copper phone lines (just ask those left out in the cold after Hurricane Sandy), but it’s now clear exactly how the carrier plans to make you ditch those old wires. The Philadelphia Inquirer has obtained documents detailing a longstanding “Fiber is the Only Fix” policy that effectively forces you to move to a fiber optic connection if you want assistance. If you ask for repairs on copper phone service in an area where fiber is available, technicians are supposed to tell you that the only remedy is to move to the newer technology. Decline, and you won’t get any help — Verizon’s official stance is to refuse repairs on copper.

Verizon is quick to tell Ars Technica that the copper-to-fiber effort has been in place for four years, and maintains that fiber is “better technology, more reliable, and has fewer service issues.” To a degree, it’s right: you’re definitely going to get faster internet access, and fiber is less prone to interruptions in bad weather. American carriers will also need to offer at least a 24-hour backup for phone service starting in 2018, so the notion that fiber is useless in a significant power outage won’t be relevant for much longer.

The problem, as you might guess, is that customers don’t have any real say in the matter. If you’re worried about multi-day outages, don’t like the existing 8-hour minimum backup or otherwise have zero incentive to switch, too bad — you have to move to fiber if you want help. Also, there’s the simple matter of being completely forthright. Verizon could fix the copper if it really wanted to, but it’s choosing to use these breakdowns as an opportunity to upgrade its network. As much as the company stresses that it’s “transparent” with customers when discussing fiber upgrades, it’s not revealing its motivations.

Via: Ars Technica

Source: Philadelphia Inquirer

Facebook’s Messenger bots are a compelling alternative to apps

After several months of speculation, Facebook finally announced today that it would be officially integrating chatbots into Messenger. It’s already started doing so with a few partners like Uber, Lyft and KLM, but today’s announcement means that a lot more businesses are joining the party. And it’s not just for customer support or tracking online orders — though it can certainly be used for that too — these chatbots also offer services that range from delivering top news stories to the local weather. In fact, two of its launch partners are a CNN news bot and Poncho, a weather bot that masquerades as a friendly cat.

But before I get into talking about those particular bots, let’s go over how you find them in first place. First, you have to download the latest version of Messenger — it should be available on both Android and iOS. Once you launch the app, you’ll find that there’s now a persistent search bar at the top. Tap it and you can start searching for your bot of choice.

Peter Martinazzi, a product manager for Messenger, told me that eventually they’ll start populating the search area with bot suggestions based on previously used bots. Right now there are a few dozen or so bots available at launch, with more to be added in the coming months. (We’ll have a long list of available bots shortly). Once you select a bot, you’ll see a splash page along with a description of what the bot does. Underneath is a “Get started” button. Hit that and the bot will start talking to you.

At the time of writing, I only managed to try out the CNN bot as well as the aforementioned Poncho. CNN sent me a greeting, along with instructions on how to use it — I can either type in a few keywords to look up certain stories or I can choose between a “Top Stories” and a “Stories for you” button. The latter defaults to just popular stories for now; though the idea is that the app might soon learn your preferences over time.

After selecting “Top Stories,” the CNN bot returned a list of five articles to me laid out horizontally; you can just swipe left or right to navigate through the stories. This layout makes a lot more sense than the beta Bing News bot I tried on Skype, which returned vertical search results — a horizontal layout doesn’t hog up the whole screen, thus letting you see more of the previous conversation.

Each CNN story had its own “chat bubble” complete with image, headline and three options: “Read story,” “Get a summary” or “Ask CNN.” “Read story” simply kicks you over to the CNN mobile page to read the whole story, while “Get a summary” prompts a quick one to two paragraph summary of the article. “Ask CNN” simply asks you for the aforementioned keywords to get more specific results. On the whole, I thought the bot worked out pretty well considering it’s brand new. I especially liked the news summary response that gives me a brief overview of the news without having to read the whole story. Still, you can’t really get too sassy with it — typing “Hello” and “Goodbye” will just return results that have those words in the headline.

Poncho, on the other hand, is a little glimpse into how chatbots can be funny and sassy. Once I hit “Get Started,” on it, it pretended as if it was waking up from a long slumber. It purred. Then it identified itself as a “weathercat,” at which point I could either respond with “Weathercat?” or “Um, okay.” It felt like I was in some sort of choose-your-own-adventure game.

It then asked me my location, at which point I replied “San Francisco.” It took a few tries — Poncho just launched a few hours ago and is still fairly new — but it eventually gave me the current temperature and weather condition (59 degrees Fahrenheit and mostly cloudy, if you must know). You can even ask it to convert to Celsius and it’ll do so. I asked it to tell me a joke, to which it responded, “Excuse me, I’m not just here for your entertainment.” “Haha,” I replied. Then it said “Hehehe.” I was charmed despite myself.

I also played around briefly with the WSJ bot (get the latest updates on stocks) plus the 1-800-Flowers bot (order flowers for your sweetie right on Messenger) and both worked well enough. I tried to get the Healthtap bot working to see if it could diagnose a phantom cramp, but it wasn’t quite ready at the time. Also, if you’d rather not get any more messages from a bot, you can always block them. Another concern are sponsored messages — Facebook has to make money on this whole bot thing somehow — but you’re free to block those too.

As for response time, well, it varies. I actually got responses pretty quickly — just a few seconds after I sent the initial text. But I’ve read on Twitter and elsewhere that people have experienced minutes-long wait times, which isn’t ideal at all if you’re waiting for an update on something like breaking news or the weather. My guess is this is all just teething problems right now, but who’s to say what the lag time will be once more people start using these bots.

On the whole though, I found bots on Messenger to be surprisingly fun. I liked that the CNN bot and the Poncho bot felt so different — one is clearly utilitarian, while the other was funny yet useful. I’m looking forward to see how the whole bot experience would feel with other businesses, like restaurants, banks and actual choose-your-own-adventure games. Imagine if someone created Zork for Messenger. I’d play the heck out of that. As long as I don’t get eaten by a grue.

Smart purifier tells you what’s in the air

With certain exceptions, air purifiers aren’t especially smart or powerful. They’ll remove some of the nastiness, but it’s anyone’s guess as to how much there actually is. Sprimo thinks it can change that: it’s crowdfunding a purifier that’s not only more effective than conventional rivals (reportedly up to 50 times more efficient), but designed from the ground up with intelligence in mind. It’ll tell you the basic contents of the air and give you a quality rating to give you a sense how clean that air really is. The device will also give you a sense of what filters to use (say, one geared towards pollen) and tell you when you’re likely to need a replacement.

The company itself will even help out on occasion. You can send in your old filters for recycling, and there’s an option to have Sprimo analyze filters to determine exactly what they’ve caught. If there’s an infestation, you might find out before you see a bug scurrying across the floor.

This isn’t a trivial expense. You’re looking at a minimum $319 pledge (normally $369) to get a purifier, and it’ll cost you another $59 for a spare filter. The finished product also won’t arrive until February 2017 at the earliest, assuming the project meets its goal. Nonetheless, it could be a small price to pay if you’re either sensitive to air conditions (say, due to allergies) or live in a polluted area where clean skies are a relative rarity.

Via: VentureBeat

Source: Crowd Supply

Logitech to Acquire Earbud Maker Jaybird for $50M

Logitech today announced plans to acquire popular earbud company Jaybird, in a deal that will cost Logitech $50 million in cash. Jaybird will join Logitech as its second audio-focused company after Logitech brought Ultimate Ears under its umbrella back in 2008.

According to Logitech, it purchased Jaybird to bolster its foothold in the mobile device and earbud markets. Jaybird makes Bluetooth-enabled wireless earbuds like the X2, its most recent product, and the company also has a fitness tracker called Reign. Wireless earbuds may be set to explode in popularity with the launch of the iPhone 7, as rumors suggest Apple will be doing away with the headphone jack on the device.

We bet big on a shift to wireless and this shift has happened big time. As we pursued this bet, we retreated to home base with our existing wearable business – the custom business for professional touring musicians – but all the while we nurtured desires to grow beyond our thriving but niche UE PRO business.

What’s Jaybird got to do with all this? Well, not all music gets to be shared out loud! We see it all around us everyday – people love to listen to music everywhere and sometimes in places where listening out loud would just not work. Jaybird hit on a great idea of making products for people actively engaged in sports and who wanted music to power their passion for their sport. With the right product (and Jaybird makes them), you can now pursue your sport with your music. It’s a potent combination.

Like with Ultimate Ears, Jaybird will operate under the Logitech brand, continuing to sell Jaybird-branded products like the X2. In a statement, Jaybird CEO Judd Armstrong said Jaybird plans to continue to innovate and introduce new products, but will “benefit from Logitech’s global distribution network and deep engineering progress.” The acquisition is expected to close “in the coming weeks.”

Tags: Logitech, Jaybird
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FBI Used Security Flaw Found by ‘Professional Hackers’ to Crack San Bernardino Shooter’s iPhone

Rumors have suggested the FBI employed Israeli mobile forensics firm Cellebrite to hack into the iPhone 5c used by San Bernardino shooter Syed Farook, but new information from The Washington Post suggests it was instead done with the help of “professional hackers” at least one of which is a “gray hat” researcher that sells flaws to governments, black market groups, or companies that create surveillance tools.

According to sources who spoke to The Washington Post, the hackers told the FBI about a previously unknown software flaw, which was used to “create a piece of hardware” the FBI used to access the phone via its passcode. The hardware in question allowed the FBI to guess the passcode through multiple attempts without erasing the iPhone.

The new information was then used to create a piece of hardware that helped the FBI to crack the iPhone’s four-digit personal identification number without triggering a security feature that would have erased all the data, the individuals said.

The researchers, who typically keep a low profile, specialize in hunting for vulnerabilities in software and then in some cases selling them to the U.S. government. They were paid a one-time flat fee for the solution.

The method the FBI allegedly used to break into the iPhone is similar in description to the tool that it had requested from Apple. Before finding an alternate way into the iPhone, the FBI had demanded Apple create a new version of iOS that would disable the passcode security features built into the operating system.

Apple was ordered to give the FBI software to disable the erase feature that would have wiped the iPhone after 10 incorrect guesses, eliminate the time added between entry attempts after the wrong passcode was entered, and create a way for the FBI to enter passcodes into the device electronically instead of manually.

The FBI did not need the services of Cellebrite “in this case,” according to The Washington Post’s sources, despite evidence the FBI signed a $15,000 contract with Cellebrite on March 21, the same day the Justice Department asked the court to postpone its imminent hearing with Apple. The tool acquired from the hackers did end up letting the FBI access the phone, leading the case against Apple to be dropped.

The U.S. government has not decided whether the method used to break into the iPhone will be shared with Apple, but FBI director James Comey has said the tool used to access the iPhone only works on a “narrow slice of phones” that does not include the iPhone 5s and later. Apple does not plan to sue to obtain the information.

Tag: Apple-FBI
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