Viber to add encryption to its messaging app

Viber announced on Tuesday that it is rolling out end-to-end encryption to its messaging app (vers 6.0) across every one of its platforms — Android, iOS, Mac and PC — and every one of its communications channels. That means every voice and video call, text message, video and photo share, regardless of whether it’s a group chat and private message, will be encrypted. What’s more, Viber is also adding a “hidden chat” feature that hides specific conversations from the homescreen and can only be revealed by entering a four-digit PIN.

“We take our users’ security and privacy very seriously, and it’s critical to us that they feel confident and protected when using Viber,” Michael Shmilov, COO of Viber, said in a statement. “Because of this, we have spent a long time working on this latest update to ensure that our users have the most sophisticated security available and maximum control over their communications. We will continue to make this an ongoing priority as digital communication evolves.”

The FBI’s legal gambit against Apple has not turned out like the feds had hoped. Not only have they failed to strong arm the company into a security compromising precedent, the FBI’s bullying has galvanized the rest of the industry and shown consumers how valuable encryption is against attacks on the 4th Amendment. It’s not just Facebook fully encrypting Whatsapp or Apple locking down iMessages, smaller companies like Viber (obviously), Telegram and Line are all hopping onboard as well — often at the behest of their users.

Source: Business Wire

Netflix CEO Keeping an ‘Open Mind’ About Offline Viewing for Mobile Apps

A long-requested feature could be coming to the iOS and Android versions of Netflix, letting users download TV shows and movies for offline viewing instead of being stranded in areas without Wi-Fi or a cellular signal when wanting to watch the video streaming service. Netflix has been lagging behind its competitors in this regard, with companies like Amazon and YouTube allowing some form of offline viewing to its paying members.

Answering a question from Re/code yesterday, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings admitted that the company would consider the possibility for users to download its videos moving forward, without directly confirming it would implement the feature anytime soon. The wording of Hastings’ comment also suggests that if offline viewing ever came, Netflix would angle it as an assistive feature for countries with less reliable internet speeds, rather than a bullet point benefit to its broader subscriber base.

“We should keep an open mind on this. We’ve been so focused on click-and-watch and the beauty and simplicity of streaming. But as we expand around the world, where we see an uneven set of networks, it’s something we should keep an open mind about.”

Netflix’s previous stance on offline viewing was a belief that the introduction of such a feature would add too much complexity into a service that prides itself on simplicity of use. Last September, the company’s Chief Product Officer, Neil Hunt, said that Netflix believes it’s “not a very compelling proposition” moving forward. Undoubtedly content licenses would be a hurdle for the feature as well, but given the steadily growing amount of Netflix-created original content, users would have plenty of TV shows, movies, and documentaries to choose from if offline viewing ever becomes available.

Tag: Netflix
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Tesla VP Chris Porritt Recently Joined Apple’s ‘Special Projects’ Group

Apple hired former Tesla Motors Vice President of Vehicle Engineering Chris Porritt last year to join its “special projects” group, possibly to spearhead its much-rumored electric vehicle project, according to Electrek.

Chris Porritt and the Aston Martin One-77 supercar
Porritt brings decades of experience in the European automotive industry with him to Apple, having worked on vehicle dynamics as a principal engineer at Land Rover between 1987 and 1997 before serving as chief engineer at Aston Martin until 2013.

During his tenure at Aston Martin, Porritt played a significant role in designing the One-77 supercar, while he also led teams that worked on the similarly luxurious DB9 and V12 Vantage. He left the automaker to join Tesla three years ago.

At Tesla, Porritt reportedly worked on the Model S and Model X, in addition to the chassis of the recently-announced Model 3.

Porritt’s role at Apple is unsurprisingly secretive, having been assigned the vague title of “Special Projects Group PD Administrator,” but his automotive expertise suggests that he could have a senior role within the “Project Titan” team that is widely rumored to be working on the so-called “Apple Car” project.

Following the recent news that alleged “Apple Car” project lead Steve Zadesky would be leaving Apple for personal reasons, Porritt’s seniority would make him a strong candidate for a leadership role within the company’s secretive automotive team. At least a few Apple engineers are already reporting to him internally, according to the report.

We can confirm that some senior Apple engineers will be reporting directly to Porritt, including Product Development Engineering Director, Albert Golko, who until last year was working for the iPhone group and now on unspecified products. Emery Sanford is also said to report directly to Porritt now. Sanford is a prolific engineer named in dozens of Apple’s patents and who often worked directly with Zadesky, the exec believed to have been in charge of Project Titan until earlier this year.

It is publicly known that Apple and Tesla have been fighting over top employees, and recruiting talent away from each other’s respective companies. Tesla CEO Elon Musk once called Apple the “Tesla Graveyard” where fired Tesla employees go to work. Musk has also referred to the “Apple Car” as an “open secret.”

Apple’s purported automotive team is believed to include hundreds of employees that previously worked at A123 Systems, Autoliv, Concept Systems, Ford, General Motors, General Dynamics, Land Rover, Tesla Motors, Texas Instruments, and elsewhere. Apple Car R&D could be finalized in time for a 2019 or 2020 launch.

Related Roundup: Apple Car
Tag: Tesla
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Google checks more than 6 billion installed apps daily for malware

Google is continuing to take Android security very seriously, and that shows in the Android Security 2015 Annual Report. Last year, Google announced a reduction of Potentially Harmful Apps (PHA) by nearly half and has kept that momentum up this year. The company now scans around 400 million devices and 6 billion installed apps each day, a huge jump from where it was in 2014.

Some of the other key takeaways from the report include:

• We protected hundreds of millions of Chrome users on Android from unsafe websites with Safe Browsing.
• Data Collection: decreased over 40% to 0.08% of installs
• Spyware: decreased 60% to 0.02% of installs
• Hostile Downloader: decreased 50% to 0.01% of installs

According to Google, fewer than 0.15% of devices that only install apps from Google Play had contact with a PHA, while 0.5% of devices that use both Google Play and outside sources to install apps had installed a harmful app. Marshmallow brings new security protection, including full disk encryption, updated permission controls and verified boot.

Last August, Google introduced the monthly public security update program, which it provides monthly code updates patching vulnerabilities that have been discovered in the OS. Google is committed to keeping Android devices safe and looks forward to engaging with the ecosystem to keep it going through 2016 and beyond.

Samsung Galaxy Note 6 camera could let in 17 per cent more light, at least

Samsung is reportedly working on a new camera for its smartphones that will blow away the competition. The camera, which could appear in the Galaxy Note 6, will be more like a stand-alone camera than a smartphone snapper.

Samsung has quietly been moving staff and resources from its NX camera division to its smartphone team for some time now. The result, according to Photo Rumours’ sources, is a new smartphone camera that will pack in a 1/1.7-inch sensor.

At the moment the team is working on a new 1/2.3-inch sensor that will work with an f/1.4 aperture. That aperture alone should mean a hefty 17 per cent more light allowed into the sensor. Then on top of that there is the fact the sensor will be bigger, meaning even more light detected.

Baring in mind how good the Galaxy S7 camera already is, that’s a big jump. This should make for excellent low light and fast moving scene photography.

So the plans to aim for a 1/1.7-inch sensor, with between 18 and 24-megapixels, are very exciting indeed. Don’t expect to see this later version until next year at the earliest. But in the short term we may see the 1/2.3-inch sensor with f/1.4 aperture in the Galaxy Note 6 soon.

READ: Samsung Galaxy Note 6 release date, rumours and everything you need to know

Mammalian embryos can grow in space

An experiment aboard China’s Shijian 10 (SJ-10) satellite has proven that mammalian embryos can develop in space, according to the country’s state-ran media. SJ-10, the country’s recoverable spacecraft, left Earth on April 6th carrying 19 experiments, including 6,000 embryos inside a sealed, microwave-sized container. China’s scientists wanted to know if they’d grow as they would here on Earth. After all, if we want our descendants to colonize space, we must first be sure that our species can reproduce outside our planet.

China Daily, an English-language newspaper in the Asian country, says the spacecraft sent back data and images taken from within the chamber housing the specimens every four hours. One of the photos it posted was captured four hours before SJ-10 blasted off, while the other showing the embryos in their more advanced blastocyst stage was captured 80 hours after it left Earth.

Since it’s a short experiment, we still don’t know if the embryos would have grown properly to produce live mice. SJ-10’s lead researcher Duan Enkui says, however, that while we have a ways to go before becoming a spacefaring species, we at least know now that “the most crucial step in our reproduction” is possible outside the planet.

Shijian 10’s re-entry capsule has just landed in Mongola carrying 11 of the 19 experiments. The other eight are still in orbit aboard the other half of the spacecraft. Despite spending 12 days in orbit, the embryos are frozen in the blastocyst stage you see below, as the scientists used chemicals to prevent them from developing any further. Authorities will ship the blastocysts to Beijing, where they will be studied and compared to embryos that developed here at home.

Images of China’s Shijian-10 space science re-entry capsule landing at 08:30 UTC today pic.twitter.com/Bk5JdDCUi8

— Andrew Jones (@AJ_FI) April 18, 2016

[Image credit: ChinaDaily (in-line embryo pictures)]

Source: ChinaDaily, Spaceflight Now, CC-TV, ChinaDaily (2)

Drone flights will be banned during Obama’s visit to London

Drones have been banned in parts of London while Barack Obama visits the UK this week. An advisory published by the National Air Traffic Service (NATS) and regulator the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), has put restrictions on unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and other aircraft from Thursday evening on April 21st until the morning of Sunday April 24th. It’s part of Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin’s “overarching security plan” to keep the US president and First Lady safe while on British soil.

According to the bulletin, drone flights will not be permitted between 9pm on Thursday and 10:30am on Sunday over three separate areas. The first stretches from Haringey in the north of London down to Purley in the south, while the second aims to cover the skies when the Obamas join the Queen for launch at Windsor Castle as part of her 90th birthday celebrations. The final restriction in place between London and Stansted Airport. During those four days, drones or any other form of small aircraft will not be allowed to fly below 762 metres (2,500 feet).

While similar rules have been put in force for other important occasions and high-profile events, the presidential visit comes just days after a drone struck a British Airways plane preparing to land at Heathrow Airport. London police believe a UAV was flying flying at approximately 1,700 feet when it struck BA727 shortly after midday on Sunday. It’s currently appealing for any witnesses who may have seen a pilot operating the drone in or around Richmond Park.

A crude illustration of the areas covered by the ban.

Via: The Telegraph

Source: NATS (PDF)

VR porn to be offered as room service in Las Vegas

For decades, people have been renting naughty movies to watch in the privacy of their hotel rooms. Now, with virtual reality becoming more prevalent, one company is experimenting with a combination of the two — VR porn room service. To realise this X-rated dream, porn studio VR Bangers has teamed up with AuraVisor, a British company that crowdfunded its first headset on Indiegogo and Kickstarter last year. The complete package will soon be trialled in Las Vegas hotels, cost $19.99 a pop, and offer a few different scenarios for people to choose from.

VR Bangers already supports a variety of platforms, including the Oculus Rift and Samsung’s Gear VR. The AuraVisor is potentially a good fit because it’s cheap and doesn’t require a tethered smartphone. The headset is, essentially, a self-contained Android device running a modified version of Google’s mobile OS. It has a 5-inch 1080p display and a 100-degree field of view, with access to a custom VR store that’s linked to the Google Play marketplace. Such a setup should appeal to customers, especially business folk, who want to leave no trace of their VR escapades on their phone.

In each film, VR Bangers says you’ll be able to “see your hotel room replicated in the VR headset.” We’re guessing that means each scene was shot in a generic hotel room that gives off a Las Vegas vibe. Such an approach is meant to make the experience feel more realistic, as if a lady or gentleman of the night has actually knocked on your door. Saucy. We’re not sure exactly when, or where, it’ll be available for rental on the Strip — in the meantime, hoteliers will just have to leave you to your own devices.

Nokia’s Ozo camera now broadcasts live VR

Now that live virtual reality is hitting the mainstream, you need a camera to make it happen, don’t you? Nokia is happy to help. It’s creating a live VR broadcasting option for its Ozo camera that will show 360-degree video as it happens, complete with spatial audio. You aren’t likely to use this yourself when it costs about $60,000 to get an Ozo, but it’ll be a big deal for streaming providers and other broadcasters that want to experiment with VR. It’ll reach a handful of partners in the spring, and should be widely available this summer.

Nokia is making it easier to produce VR of all kinds, too. Its Ozo Creator tool is arriving for free this month with VR stitching, taking the headaches out of creating seamless videos. There’s also a VR player developer kit (coming later in the spring) that will help bring VR playback to your apps. Companies will need to take up the Ozo before you notice a difference, but don’t be surprised if immersive videos are that much more widespread in the near future.

Source: Nokia

Apple reportedly hires former Tesla engineering VP

Apple and Tesla have been known to swap employees on the regular, especially with development for Project Titan ramping up in Cupertino. It seems Tim Cook & Co. are it again, this time reportedly nabbing former Tesla VP of Vehicle Engineering Chris Porritt to work on “special projects.” It’s pretty easy to connect the dots between hiring an auto engineer an Apple’s own car aspirations. Electrek reports that Porritt is the latest former Tesla employee to make the leap to Apple, filling a senior position with someone who has experience with EVs and served as Aston Martin’s chief engineer.

Reports surfaced a few months ago that Project Titan lead Steve Zadesky left Apple. If that was true, it appear Porritt could be the new department chief. He’s got the experience to fill the role too, having worked on Aston Martin’s One-77 supercar,DB9 and V12 Zagato. At Tesla, he reportedly worked both the Model S, Model X and Model 3 chassis. Porritt joins a number of folks with automotive experience who Apple hired in recent months, including engineers from Mercedes.

Last year, Tesla CEO Elon Musk jokingly called Apple the “Tesla graveyard” based on the company’s habit for hiring the automaker’s former engineers. Musk hasn’t been above returning the favor, as Tesla has also haired folks who worked in Cupertino at some point. And now that Apple is working on a vehicle of its own, chances are the employee swapping isn’t going to stop anytime soon.

Source: Electrek