Android Central 298: It’s dead, Jim

Three weeks of Moto Z in a row? It’s almost as if someone was dragging out the release of this phone for more coverage. But we go where the news takes us. And this week we’ve got our official review of the Moto Z and Moto Z Force (plus more on when it’s actually available), the end of PokeCivilization as we know it, and we tackle more of your emails and voicemails. 

Podcast MP3 URL: http://traffic.libsyn.com/androidcentral/androidcentral298.mp3

You can now preorder Razer’s OSVR HDK 2 virtual-reality headset

Gamers have another headset to choose from in the virtual reality space.

VR headsets are all the rage. But there’s only a handful of high-end ones available to buy right now. The first two that come to mind are the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. After that, there are a slew of lesser-known VR headsets available – and the OSVR from Razer probably leads the pack.

The first OSVR model debuted 18 months ago, however, and the second model only recently unveiled, without any word on when the headset would become available for purchase. Well, on 22 July, gaming peripheral-maker Razer finally announced it is opening up preorders for the second development kit, called the HDK 2. It’s available for $399 and will begin shipping 29 July.

The HDK 2 has a 2,160×1,200 low-persistence OLED panel, a 110-degree field of view, and a 90Hz refresh rate. It costs way less than both the Rift ($599) and Vive ($799), but the new OSVR’s display reportedly doesn’t match the quality of those sets. Still, if you order Razer’s headset before 28 July, you will receive these bundled games: Descent: Underground and Radial G Racing Revolved.

The headset doesn’t include controllers, though it does support input from other hardware manufacturers, such as Nod and Leap Motion. Keep in mind the OSVR is an open-sourced development platform and headset primarily meant for developers and hackers.

It’s a modular, customisable system, for instance, and isn’t the easiest to get running right of the box. 

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Status update: The rise of the social-media extortionist

If you’ve read recent headlines about high-profile tech CEOs getting hacked, you probably felt a stab of dark amusement at the thought of internet fat cats finally getting a taste of what the rest of us have had to drink.

A single group, called OurMine, has managed to catch Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, Google’s Sundar Pichai, Yahoo’s Marissa Mayer, AOL’s Steve Case and, most recently, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey with their password pants down. And it’s nothing more than a sleazy PR stunt.

Exactly how their accounts were compromised is a lesson in the basics of password hygiene; we think they’d know better than to reuse old, simple passwords across different services — apparently not? The why of these high-profile compromises is an ongoing story of low-level crime and extortion reminiscent of pickpockets at a traveling quack-doc medicine roadshow.

Unlike other groups, OurMine isn’t a hacktivist collective doing it to right any social wrongs, a “leet” hacker earning their reputation or a Crimean crime ring having some lulz in between running illicit botnet-for-hire operations for despotic governments. It’s just hackers who’ve decided to make a “security company” out of their attacks. A company that’s hitting PR home runs every time it brags about taking over yet another CEO’s account.

The group appears to be combing file dumps from recent high-profile breaches for tech CEO names and trying out their old passwords on different services to see what works. If the old password has been recycled and is still valid, OurMine then takes over the account. For example, some of the passwords they’re cross-matching appear to be from the 2012 LinkedIn break-in, which surfaced in May as a database for sale.

In the case of Google’s Sundar Pichai, OurMine took over his Quora account, claiming to have notified Quora of a security hole. Quora, however, told Engadget that no such report was made, which is just as well, given the intrusion was possible only because of password reuse, anyway. Once OurMine had access to Pichai’s Quora, it was then able to get into his Twitter account simply because they were linked.

When OurMine hits pay dirt like this, it starts by posting from the victim’s account, usually followed by a sensational blog post on the group’s homepage. The OurMine website proudly features screenshots of numerous hacked accounts it’s allegedly taken control of.

Each takeover is accompanied by finger-wagging on its blog about following better security practices — it’s all part of a carefully orchestrated act dressed up as a well-intended cautionary tale. Then OurMine conveniently mentions it just happens to be selling services that offer some kind of better protection. None of which addresses the fact that password reuse is an inherently human issue.

That’s right: All these CEOs have been hacked by a group that claims to be doing it to make people more secure, but are actually selling a security product. It’s like someone taking your wallet out of your open bag in a cafe, and then offering to sell you a wallet chain, but only after telling the whole cafe how they took your wallet. What’s worse, many media outlets keep falling for it, while failing to point out the group’s business agenda.

We already mentioned OurMine hijacking the social accounts of high-profile CEOs, but the company doesn’t stop there. It has also pulled its cyber-snake-oil routine on many other names with wealth and status, including VCs Mark Suster and Vinod Khosla, Spotify founder Daniel Ek, Randi Zuckerberg, Amazon Chief Technology Officer Werner Vogels, Matthew Inman (“The Oatmeal”) and even “Magic Mike” actor Channing Tatum.

I’ll be honest. For me, most of those names fall into the category of privileged upper-class douchebags whose contributions to our struggling, open internet are, in terms of social issues and censorship, more negative than positive. But when they got to Channing Tatum, the altruistic bringer of sexypants hotness and happiness to all who love a fine male form, all bets were off. And they hacked and ridiculed The Oatmeal!? OurMine, you done us wrong.

So what are OurMine’s products anyway? What’s the “miracle cure” these hacker docs are selling?

If you believe the company materials, OurMine offers “top-notch vulnerability assessment.” Its “About” page states that it is “an elite hacker group known for many hacks” that identifies as white hat hackers. “We are experienced in many fields of hacking and can crack anything from a network to a social media account.” They explain, “Not only will we give you access to all your accounts again, we will give you future security tips and assist you with securing your account to it’s[sic] maximum potential.”

Indeed. The OurMine team also uses its Twitter account to showcase retweets of people. Just normal, not-famous people, grateful that OurMine gave them back access to their accounts after takeover. Customer satisfaction right there?

Victims/customers can choose from four services. Each of them talks of “scans,” with very little explanation or technical details of what’s actually involved. When we asked what exactly a “scan” entails, OurMine told Engadget, “We will scan all of his accounts and try to hack it for him, if we wasn’t[sic] able to hack it we will refund him, but of course it’s[sic] should be his own account.”

The services offered all have vague names. “Social Media” will “scan” Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram and costs $30. “Websites” in which they “scan website for any vulnerability” is $1,000. There’s also an ongoing service called “Accounts: All Websites” where OurMine does something beyond understanding called “Scan your accounts for all websites” — whatever that is, it costs $150 a month.

Naturally, OurMine doesn’t just cater to individuals. For a mere $5,000 you can buy what looks to be the OurMine enterprise package, where you’ll get “Scan all staff members in the company; Scan websites of the company,” and something left to interpretation called “Scan application.”

It’s all prepaid, of course, via PayPal for your convenience.

Sadly, as long as humans remain fallible, this racket might be one that’s likely here to stay. Unless someone decides to take legal action, that is. What OurMine is doing very likely violates the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA). The CFAA is a broad anti-hacking statute that criminalizes unauthorized access; it is the same statute at issue in a recent ruling that puts acts like sharing passwords on your Netflix account into federal crime territory. Not to mention that the bit where OurMine offers their paid services to “secure” people’s accounts may also count as extortion as per California Penal Code Section 518-527.

If there’s one takeaway for you and me, though, it’s that we need no further proof that all those hacked databases are actively being picked over and used to hijack accounts. So much so it’s become a business. So, unless you want to be the next person having their “gratitude” retweeted by OurMine, go do a password inventory, set up two-factor, and disconnect old services that have access to your accounts already.

Images: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images (Sundar Pichai, Google); OurMine (About page screenshot)

Scientists find a way to make cells respond to stimuli

Through the use of synthetic biology researchers have been able to program cells to perform unique functions, like produce drugs in response to disease markers. In order to create more complex cellular circuits, several MIT engineers have now found a way to program cells to respond to a series of events.

These cells can remember up to three different inputs and by using this system, scientists can program cellular trajectories and create environmental sensors that store complex histories. As a result, complex computing systems can be built by integrating the element of memory together with computation. This will allow scientists to create biological “state machines” that exist in different conditions, which all depends on their identities and the order of inputs they receive.

Timothy Lu, and others working at MIT’s Research Laboratory of Electronics created circuits that could record events, then incorporated genes into recombinase binding sites. When recombinases rearrange the DNA the circuits are able to control which genes get turned on or off.

This technique can be used to follow the progression of diseases such as cancer. By knowing the order where cancer-causing mutations are acquired, scientists might determine how cancer cells develop into tumors and respond to drugs.

Source: MIT News

NASA astronauts head underwater to simulate Mars missions

Once a year, NASA’s astronauts make a big change — trading their vocation of conducting scientific experiments in space for one of underwater research. For the next two and a half weeks, an international team of ‘Aquanauts’ will be living on the ocean floor at NASA’s Aquarius habitat off of the coast of Florida. As always, the NEEMO (NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations) expedition will serve as a testing ground for new equipment. This year, it’s also giving the team a taste of what it would be like to live on Mars.

It’s not so much the underwater aspect of the mission that will simulate a trip to Mars as it is how NASA is handling it. While aquanauts are busy running marine biology studios, testing software and working on a coral restoration project, they’ll be talking to NASA on a simulated radio delay, replicating the kind of communication difficulties that one might experience on a Martian or deep space mission. In fact, NEEMO project lead Bill Todd says much of the mission will be carefully choreographed to mimic a Mars-like experience. “Equipment can fail, communication can be challenging and tasks can take longer than expected,” he says. “All cases are equally beneficial. It’s how we learn and how we are able to assemble all of this together so that someday we’re prepared for the unexpected when we are living on and traversing the Martian surface.”

While underwater, the crew will also be testing a mini DNA sequencer for use in the International Space Station, as well as a telemedicine device for future missions. You can follow the crew’s exploits on Twitter right here.

Source: Twitter, NASA

MacRumors Giveaway: Win ‘The ONE Light Keyboard’ for Learning to Play Music

For this week’s giveaway, we’ve teamed up with The ONE Music Group to give MacRumors readers a chance to win a 61-key portable Light Keyboard that’s designed to integrate with an iPhone or iPad to help you learn how to play music.

Each key is backlit and touch responsive, lighting up in time with sheet music and video lessons to make it easy to pick up the basics and move on to more complex songs. It features 64 note polyphony, more than 128 GM tones and 20 preset notes, built-in speakers, an optional pedal socket, auxiliary in and out, microphone plug-in, USB midi output, and a collapsible built-in music stand.

Available in either onyx black or white gold, The One is ideal for beginners, but also well-suited to experienced players. Because many features are controlled via the app, there are no unnecessary buttons allowing it to be more portable than the average keyboard. It weighs 11 pounds and can be powered through an included power supply or six AA batteries for use on the go.

The app that accompanies the keyboard has more than 100 video lessons that users can complete at their own pace, and there are thousands of sheet music to learn. There are also some built-in games designed to make practicing melodies more fun.

The One Music Group also sells a full size Smart Piano that’s able to connect to an iOS device, priced at $1,500, but the Light Keyboard is a smaller, more affordable alternative that can be purchased for $300. One MacRumors reader will get a keyboard for free through our giveaway.To enter to win, use the Rafflecopter widget below and enter an email address. Email addresses will be used solely for contact purposes to reach the winner and send the prize.

You can earn additional entries by subscribing to our weekly newsletter, subscribing to our YouTube channel, following us on Twitter, or visiting the MacRumors Facebook page. Due to the complexities of international laws regarding giveaways, only U.S. residents who are 18 years of age or older are eligible to enter.

a Rafflecopter giveawayThe contest will run from today (July 22) at 11:00 a.m. Pacific Time through 11:00 a.m. Pacific Time on July 29. The winner will be chosen randomly on July 29 and will be contacted by email. The winner has 48 hours to respond and provide a shipping address before a new winner is chosen.

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