New ‘Rogue One’ trailer has some familiar ‘Star Wars’ touches

Disney and Lucasfilm just premiered a new trailer for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, and you don’t even have to wade through NBC’s Rio 2016 Olympics coverage to see it. As we’d heard, this prequel to Star Wars: A New Hope will focus on heroes trying to steal the plans for a still-under-construction Death Star, and the new trailer gives us a good idea of what we’ll see. Beyond a look at stars like Felicity Jones and Diego Luna, you’ll also get a peek at a new droid character, familiar AT-ATs, and, yup, Darth Vader. The latest addition to the Star Wars universe premieres December 16th.

Source: Star Wars (YouTube)

Experts believe DNC hackers are behind a larger plot

Although it’s not the hack Donald Trump called for, security experts believe the same Russian hacking group allegedly responsible for leaking 20,000 Democratic party emails to WikiLeaks is also behind another attack that hints at an even larger Russian plot to influence American politics. In the weeks before WikiLeaks posted those materials, another cache of emails was posted on a site called DCLeaks.com targeting a top NATO general, former high-ranking intelligence officials and billionaire George Soros’ progressive philanthropy called the Open Society Foundation.

The DCLeaks site touted itself as the work of American hackers and the The Intercept covered the leak at the time, specifically highlighting emails that showed former US NATO General Philip Breedlove working against the Obama administration on its Russia policy. According to a new report from Bloomberg, however, the DCLeaks hack can be linked to “a larger Russian information operation.”

Per Bloomberg’s cyberintelligence sources, the group behind the DNC hack has ties to Russia’s GRU military intelligence service and a Russian civilian intelligence agency called the FSB. Although Moscow has denied any involvement in the DNC hack, US officials have reason to believe the Russian government may have set the whole thing up. Perhaps most tellingly, the materials posted on DCLeaks seem to have a suspicious focus on matters involving America’s policies towards Russia. They were also disseminated on social media in an apparent attempt to appeal to the American media’s love of leaks.

Finally, as Bloomberg points out, the DCLeaks hack also provides some insight into how the hacking group gained access in the first place — by targeting personal emails and mining them for sensitive information.

Source: Bloomberg, The Intercept

Arcano Systems’ chiptune synth offers 80s video game nostalgia

Here at Engadget, we have quite an affinity for all things that remind us of what it was like to play video games in the 80s. That includes musical instruments and gear that are capable of reproducing those iconic chiptune sounds we all know and love. Arcano Systems is no stranger to those tones and the company has taken to Kickstarter to fund yet another of its creations. The company has a knack for creating the 8-bit chiptune synths, including last year’s NES Chiptune Synthesizer. This time around, it created the Obscura 8-bit Chiptune Synth 2: a MIDI synthesizer that emulates the sounds of games from Nintendo NES, Famicom and Commodore 64.

For this new version, Arcano Systems gave the monophonic synthesizer more waveforms, more patches, an improved volume envelope system, increased vibrato depth and faster arpeggio frequency. There are two versions of the gadget with one being surface-mounted (SMD) like the original while the other has a through-hole construction. The latter option is smaller, more like the NES chiptune synth that was released last year. You’ll need a MIDI controller to get these up and running, but once you have that, these devices don’t require any other programming or additional software to start the 8-bit sounds.

Still unsure about committing funds? Take a look at some demo footage below. The company already has a handful of devices ready for early backers and plans to ship to its other supporters in October.

Via: Fact Magazine

Source: Kickstarter

Deep Space Industries plans to land on an asteroid by 2020

This week, asteroid mining company Deep Space Industries announced detailed plans to launch the first private mission to an asteroid by 2020. The California-based company plans to build a successor to its Prospector-X test craft called Prospector–1, which will land directly on an asteroid as it passes near Earth. Although Prospector–1 won’t be bringing back any gold or platinum, the historic mission will map the surface of the asteroid and analyze the rock for resources that could be useful in DSI’s long-term plans.

According to a statement from DSI, Prospector–1 will be a small craft just 110 pounds (50 kg) and will inherit radiation-tolerant payloads and avionics from its little sibling Prospector-X after its launch in 2017. Although DSI plans to one day scrape asteroids for metals and other resources, its first asteroid mining product will simply be water. Both Prospector crafts use the company’s proprietary water propulsion system, which uses superheated water vapor for thrust, rather than rocket fuel. So, the ability to mine asteroids for water means DSI will eventually be able to restock crucial resources like fuel and drinking water without the need for a return trip to Earth

The company plans to pick its first destination asteroid from “a group of top candidates” selected by the company’s in-house asteroid experts. When Prospector–1 arrives at its target, it will map the surface and subsurface with both visual and infrared cameras and determine the overall water content before touching down on asteroid using those same water vapor-powered thrusters. Once it has landed, the humble Prospector-1 will be the first commercial base ever established on a space object, paving the way for DSI’s next generation of asteroid harvesting missions.

“Prospector–1 is not only the first commercial interplanetary mission, it is also an important milestone in our quest to open the frontier,” DSI co-founder Rick Tumlinson said. “By learning to ‘live off the land’ in space, Deep Space Industries is ushering in a new era of unlimited economic expansion.”

Via: The Verge

Source: Deep Space Industries

Simplenote for Android is now open source

Simplenote releases the Android, iOS, and Mac client source code under the GPL. That gives us the warm fuzzies.

Simplenote is a lightweight yet full-featured note taking app that’s cross-platform on Android, iOS, Windows and Mac. It’s a great alternative to Evernote and their new pricing, and offers syncing and sharing as well as the ability to work while offline. And as of today, it’s now open source on all platforms.

As announced on their blog, the client side code for the Android, iOS, and Mac versions have been posted to Automattic’s Github where they join the Windows version that was previously open-sourced. This means that anyone can freely download the source code and build it themselves, or change it into something different and release it as another app. Though, as Phil points out Simplenote is really good at what it’s intended to do — be simple, and take notes.

The server-side portions are not open, so there’s a small hurdle for whoever wants to use the code as a base for the next great thing. Automattic may very well open-source the server bits, but even if they don’t a development team could plug their own server details into the code as it exists. In other words, good news all around.

We love it when any app goes open and especially love it when a great app does it.

Nice work, Automattic. And thanks.

This wireless flaw leaves millions of Volkswagens cars vulnerable

A team of researchers has revealed a vulnerability of Volkswagen vehicles that leaves almost all its cars manufactured since 1995 vulnerable to theft.

Later this week at the Usenix security conference in Austin, Texas the same group from the University of Birmingham and German engineering firm Kasper & Oswald plan to unveil some pretty disconcerting problems with the Volkswagen brand.

One such vulnerability gives potential attackers the ability to wirelessly unlock nearly every vehicle from Volkswagen over the last two decades. That includes Audi as well. The other attack affects Alfa Romeo, Citroen, Fiat, Ford, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Opel and Peugeot.

Using a $40 Arduino device potential thieves can intercept signals transmitted wirelessly through the air via key fob and then clone said key. It’s then smooth sailing from there and the vehicle is able to be unlocked. It’s not exactly simple by any means, equiring some reverse engineering on the thieves’ part.

There’s one special crytographic key value that millions of Volkswagen vehicles share, and using special radio hardware, this data can be intercepted, combining when a key fob is pressed to clone said key fob and then gain entry to the car.

The other attack, which will be revealed at Usenix as well, is a special cryptographic scheme called HiTag 2, where a hacker would need to use a radio setup like the Arduino kind used in the regular Volkswagen hack, intercepting special codes from drivers’ key fobs and collecting codes that would eventually result in an unlock.

These are some chilling developments for Volkswagen and other vehicle owners to be sure, especially since these are the flaws that were identified and explained away — what of those that are still out there? You can read the researchers’ full paper here for more details on the study and what will be announced.

Via: Wired

US government wants you to grow weed for science

Citizens hoping the US government would smile upon recent requests for deregulation, today is not your day: it will remain an illegal, schedule 1 controlled substance. But all is not lost, as the DEA announced it’s allowing more organizations to grow and distribute marijuana — just so long as it’s for research purposes.

Previously, the only legal supplier of weed for scientific study was the University of Mississippi. Over 350 researchers are registered to legally examine marijuana effects, but only eight get shipments from the academic institution each year. Now, organizations can apply to the DEA to become a registered grower, which the government agency hopes will lead to more FDA-approved research on the drug’s treatment potential. Coupled with the agency’s rejection of two petitions to legalize weed, it’s clear they want to heavily monitor every step from growth to lab.

Via: New Scientist

Source: DEA