Walgreens sues Theranos for a reported $140 million
Walgreens is taking Theranos to court for $140 million, according to Wall Street Journal investigative reporter John Carreyrou and a motion filed today in Delaware district court. The details of the case are secret, as the companies both signed non-disclosure agreements that could be violated if Walgreens’ actual complaint were made public.
The public motion outlines the non-disclosure and confidentiality agreements that Walgreens and Theranos entered into beginning in April 2010. “If confidential information subject to the NDA and/or the Confidentiality provision of the Agreement were publicly disseminated, Theranos might claim that Walgreens potentially could be in breach of the NDA and/or the Agreement,” the motion reads.
Walgreens just filed a $140 million lawsuit against @theranos in Delaware.
— John Carreyrou (@JohnCarreyrou) November 8, 2016
While there’s no word on the focus of the lawsuit, there’s plenty of turbulent history for Walgreens to choose from. Theranos was once a blood-testing start-up poised to reach the stars, but in 2015 the safety and accuracy of its methods came under fire. The Food and Drug Administration shut down all Theranos testing aside from Herpes in October 2015, and in July this year US regulators banned CEO Elizabeth Holmes from running a lab for two years.
Walgreens ended its relationship with Theranos after months of warnings that the start-up had to clean up its act.
In October 2016, an investor who poured $100 million into Theranos sued the company, alleging it had fed financiers a “series of lies.”
Via: The Verge
Source: @JohnCarreyrou
How to install an OS update on the Google Pixel, Pixel XL – CNET
The Google Pixel’s camera continues to wow us
The Google Home is in stores now…at Walmart! Google gives people waiting for a Pixel $50 back, and Android Nougat might be messing with the Nexus 6P.
by Brian Tong
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Google Pixel owners, I have good news: Gone are the days of installing an OS update on your Android device, causing you to spend hours looking at a funky Android robot on the screen and waiting for apps to update.
Starting with Android 7.1 Nougat (currently available only on the Pixel line), Android OS updates are installed in the background. No more waiting for the update to download, then begin installing, and waiting without having a phone you can actually use.
But wait, there’s more good news: Google just released the Pixel’s first update, so you should have one waiting for you as you go through this process below.
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Screenshot by Jason Cipriani/CNET
To start the update process, force your device to check for an update by opening the Settings app then going to About phone > System updates > Check for update.
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Screenshot by Jason Cipriani/CNET
Once your phone recognizes there’s an update, it will ask for permission to download it. After the update is downloaded, it will begin installing in the background.
The rest of the installation process is rather boring, as it’s carried out in the background without any further interaction on your part. Continue to use your phone as you normally do, checking Twitter, reading Facebook and playing games.
The installation process took nearly 1 and a half hours on my Pixel XL, without any noticeable slowdown during that time due to the update. The next step is restarting your phone, to complete the update. Since everything is already installed, the reboot takes just a few seconds and you’re back up and running.
How to set up wireless backup on GoPro Hero5 Black, Hero5 Session – CNET
GoPro debuts Hero 5 Black with touch screen
GoPro announces its latest action camera, the Hero5 Black. The new $399 camera features a touchscreen, voice control and waterproofing.
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GoPro’s latest batch of action cameras, the Hero5 Black and Hero5 Session, both have some new tricks. There’s a stabilization feature for recording video, voice commands like “GoPro, take a photo,” and automatic backup.
Update the firmware
Before you will find the option to turn on auto-backup, you’ll need to make sure the software on your GoPro camera is up to date. You can use the Quik desktop app, or the Capture app on your mobile device to update your camera. I had to go through the process twice on a Hero5 Black before I was prompted to sign up for GoPro Plus or enable wireless backup.
Once you’ve followed the instructions to connect your phone and GoPro camera, just follow the prompts to complete the update process.
Sign up for GoPro Plus
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Screenshot by Jason Cipriani/CNET
In order to use the backup feature, you’ll first need to sign up for a GoPro Plus account. If you’re an Android user, sign up through the GoPro Capture app to start a 60-day free trial. For iOS users, you should sign up through the GoPro website and not on your iOS device as Apple limits free trials to 30-days.
You can read more about what GoPro Plus is and does for you here.
Back it up
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Screenshot by Jason Cipriani/CNET
With the camera updated, and a GoPro Plus account active, you’re ready to enable auto-upload. With your camera and phone still connected, tap the auto-upload icon (it’s the cloud with an arrow pointing up) to start setup.
Follow the prompts, granting your camera access to your home Wi-Fi network and waiting for the app to communicate all of that important info to your camera.
Henceforth, your GoPro Hero5 camera will auto-upload any and all photos and videos to your GoPro Plus account as long as it’s plugged in, fully charged and the microSD card in the camera has 3GB of free space. Presumably, this is to allow for videos to be converted on the camera from 4K to 1080p (the max resolution you can store in a GoPro Plus account).
The camera itself will show you its current progress, as well as give you the option to stop an upload if you should so desire.
The importance of selecting a secure phone for business
There are plenty of great Android phones with the consumer in mind, but Android can make a great choice for a corporate environment or small business, too.
We assume that phones are secure. That might be the case when they are first released, but not all manufacturers provide users with the latest security patches. When deploying phones for a large scale organization, selecting a secure phone is paramount. We’ll highlight phones that provide the highest levels of security and discuss how and why they are doing it.
More: The most secure Android phones
Buying a phone for corporate use is different that it is for a consumer. While many of us are looking for phones with the best cameras or waterproof cases, the IT department in any corporate environment is concerned about two things: can they effectively administer the device and is it secured against remote data theft. All smartphones can get your email and they all make calls or send texts. But not very many are built for business use.
Whether you’re buying a phone for your own small business or in the process of buying hundreds for a company-wide deployment it’s important to make the right choice when you buy an Android phone. There are several that fit the bill, and none of them is a chore to use.
Google Pixel
Android is an open source application platform that makes it easy to build a complete operating system around. Google is the maintainer of the code and they do the majority of the work writing it. It’s only natural that their Pixel and Pixel XL phones would be at the top of the list.
Google has control of Android and the new Pixel brand will carry every security-focused feature for two full years.
Android, as shipped, is very secure, but it’s easy to change settings and break the security. Google knows this — and does everything to encourage it for Android developers and enthusiasts — so they make sure an account manager in a business can administer the phone and set up stringent device policies. While they work best with Google Apps offices, they also play very nicely with exchange admins. The Android for Work features also do a great job separating your business applications, accounts and data from the personal side if you or your employees want to bring their own device. All Android for Work features are available for both the Google Pixel and the Google Pixel XL.
The Pixel phones are also kept up to date for their entire lifetime. New operating system features — including security enhancements — are promised for a two-year period, and the shipped software is guaranteed to receive security updates for three years. It’s important to build software with strict security and tools to manage it in place, and it’s just as important to make sure it gets distributed to your products. Because of Google’s open-source nature, the Pixel phones are they only models under Google’s direct control, and the only phones they can make any guarantees when it comes to security patch updates.
See at Google
See at Verizon
Of course, the same security features on the software front apply to the Nexus 6P and Nexus 5X, too. While no longer available through consumer sources, direct channels with Huawei or LG may be able to purchase last year’s phones from Google. We are hesitant to recommend them for one reason — half of their supported lifespan is over.
BlackBerry DTEK60 and DTEK50
The name BlackBerry is synonymous with mobile security. The BlackBerry DTEK60 and DTEK50 carry on this tradition while using Google’s Android to power their software.
BlackBerry has a reputation to uphold when it comes to mobile security, and their DTEK line keeps this focus.
BlackBerry hardens and patches Android at all levels. The Linux kernel that controls everything is hardened by BlackBerry and third party specialists to prevent and mitigate direct exploits that could gain admin access. The boot procedure is independently hardened, with full verification of the system software partition at every restart. Special procedures prevent the running operating system from installing an app that tries to elevate permissions that sit atop of Google’s security measures to do the same. And we can’t forget BlackBerry’s reputation for MDM software. With Android as their way forward, we expect strong focus on software for the account administrator.
When it comes to security patches and fixes, BlackBerry’s Android phones are always among the first (if not the first) to announce their availability and send them to users. While BlackBerry may not control the platform and have the opportunity to decide how security is handled the way Google does, they back their phones with their reputation as a leader in both device management and remote security.
The DTEK50 also has a very tempting price tag if you plan on a wider deployment.
While the BlackBerry Priv also provides the same level of security and support as the DTEK line, it’s over a year old and won’t have the lifespan.
See DTEK50 at Amazon
See DTEK60 at ShopBlackBerry
The rest of the landscape gets a little muddy
Unfortunately, the majority of Android-powered phones aren’t such a great choice when it comes to security.
Some models, like the Nextbit Robin — have a great track record when it comes to keeping up to date with Google’s monthly security bulletins but the software isn’t conducive for a corporate setting. Others, like the Motorola brand, can boast that they use the standard security measures put in place by Google, but fall behind when it comes to getting patched. And Samsung phones are a hit or miss when it comes to updates, with a reasonable schedule for the high-end models and little to no support for the more inexpensive ones, so you’re likely going to end up waiting for critical patches when a newer model is released.
There are plenty of good choices right now, but what happens next month or the month after? We’re waiting for another company to step forward and follow Google’s example the way BlackBerry has. There are plenty of reasons for a consumer to buy any of the great Android phones from these companies.That’s because they were tailored for the consumer and don’t have a security-first focus.
Our conclusion
Android phones are a mixed landscape when it comes to corporate security. Most aren’t designed to put IT needs ahead of consumer features and make a great phone for the weekends where they excel. The good news is that your available choices will meet both IT needs and allow your users full access to the business tools they need, and it’s up to your IT department to decide whether they can do frivolous things like install Pokémon Go — or not.
This is your Samsung Gear VR Ultimate Guide!
Whatever you want to do with your Gear VR, we’ve got the details for you here!
Samsung’s Gear VR is easily one of the most accessible VR systems that is available today. Running off of a Samsung phone, this headset has benefited from lots of small but important improvements. The end result is a portable entertainment center, offering up games and movies and a huge selection of new ways to completely immerse yourself in new worlds.
Here’s everything you need to get the most out of your Samsung Gear VR!
Read more on VR Heads!
Google’s most successful social network is going away
So long, Map Maker.
No, Google isn’t shutting down Google+ (unfortunately). Instead, the company has announced that Map Maker, its standalone tool for editing, updating, and peer-reviewing maps around the world, will be fully integrated into Google Maps by March, 2017.
The impetus for the change is fairly straightforward: the company wants to reduce the overhead necessary for keeping a separate product alive as it becomes more integrated into Maps proper. From Google:
This update will enable us to focus on providing the best editing and moderation experience within Google Maps on both desktop and on mobile. We’ll continue to roll out new features to make sure you’re able to do most of the things you’ve grown accustomed to doing in Map Maker – like edit roads – leading up to March 2017 and after.
Starting today, edits made on Google Maps will no longer be available for moderation on Map Maker. This will allow us to streamline our efforts, speeding up the time for an edit to get published. We will continue posting updates here on the Map Maker Help Forum and on LocalGuidesConnect.com as we bring more features into Google Maps.
Many people don’t know much about Google Map Maker, especially that it is one of the company’s most popular social networks of a sort, with thousands of people actively updating and editing cartographical information on a daily basis. But you may remember this particular story, of a location near Rawalpindi, Pakistan vandalized with an Android urinating on an Apple logo, forcing Google to shut down Map Maker for a short time while it revamped its permissions.
With great power comes great responsibility.
Apple now directly sells refurbished unlocked iPhones for first time
Apple has an online refurbished store for Macs and iPads – but it’s just been updated to include the iPhone.
At a time when smartphone sales are flatlining and Apple is expected to move fewer and fewer units than ever before, the company has begun offering customers a way to buy certified, official iPhones. This is a way for you to get a relatively new iPhone at a lower cost, and you’re buying it directly from Apple. Currently, the online store only offers the iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus in different colours and capacities.
Prices for an entry-level 16GB iPhone 6S start at $449, while a 16GB iPhone 6S Plus costs $529. Keep in mind a new iPhone 6S or iPhone 6 Plus costs $549 and $649, respectively, for 32GB of storage space. All refurbished models are unlocked and SIM-free. You can therefore buy one online today and begin using it with any carrier as soon as it arrives on your door step. It even comes with a one-year limited warranty.
Pocket-lint
Apple has never before sold refurbished iPhones directly. All refurbished products purchased from Apple, including the iPhone, are tested, certified, and guaranteed. They also come with a new battery and outer casing, so the refurbished models should have no cosmetic flaws.
Update: The refurbished iPhone store doesn’t appear to be live in the UK. We’re contacting Apple to see if the store is US-only at launch.
An hour with ‘Meadow,’ the most-peaceful MMO ever
Meadow, the latest game from indie developers Might and Delight, has flown under the radar. Like the Shelter games the studio is famous for, Meadow has you controlling a animal, exploring a lo-fi wilderness. Unlike Shelter, Meadow is an MMO.
Starting life in Meadow is confusing. Having read nothing about the game, I dived into the European server. I was suddenly a small badger, in a field, alone. I quickly worked out the controls available to me: walk, run, jump, smell, speak, and emote — actually many, many emotes.
After five minutes or so of bounding around and chittering to myself, I heard an almost gutteral bleating coming from… somewhere. I called out again with the whiny chitter that only a badger could make. The deep bleat drew closer. I gently made my way down a cliff face toward a pair of antlers in the distance.
I wandered, cautiously, toward the figure, unsure if it was friend or foe (or even if the game has the concept of friends and foes). A circular emote appeared above its head — a smiling deer face. I returned a similarly happy symbol, and jumped up and down with excitement. The deer then began displaying a complex series of arrows, circles and dotted lines. I retorted with a steady supply of question marks.
Perhaps growing tired of my inexperience, the deer darted off, and I set chase, bouncing around her feet every time I caught up. After a while, I realized that I wasn’t chasing her — she was taking me somewhere. The deer led me up a hillside, toward a couple of small bundles of color, which when I passed over them made a noise that suggested they were collectable items. What exactly I was collecting, I was unsure.
After a hill climb and a brief stop while I got lost, my deer companion and I met with a huge group of animals. Bunnies, badgers, frogs, deer, lynx and even a bear cub, all sporting different coats and communicating through emotes. Was this my new tribe? Without warning, the pack set off, running at pace across rolling countryside, occasionally crossing a river. The deer and lynx were leading the procession: a pair at the front and a pair at the back, shepherding the smaller animals to various landmarks.
We climbed a mountain. We traversed rivers. We met what I can only assume was another tribe, and travelled as one, giant herd, maybe 30 animals in all, across the world. Every once in a while we’d stop, and the larger animals would break a strange obelisk into colorful pieces, the younglings gratefully lapping up these apparently collectable shards.
After a while, I was informed a skin had unlocked, and I put on my new fur coat, wearing it with pride. These colorful shards, an unlabeled menu had now informed me, were indeed collectable. You break apart the obelisks by having the right animals in your tribe, and amass the pieces within to unlock skins, emotes and animals.
I spent maybe another thirty minutes with the herd, unlocking another emote (a suspicious-looking side-eye), and a new animal — a frog. Approaching another mountain, the smaller animals spotted a cave. Buzzing with nervous excitement, we tentatively wandered over, occasionally looking back to the lynx and deer for approval.
As we entered the shallow grotto, one of the lynx joined us, and lit a fire. I searched my response list for “wide-eyed with wonder,” but couldn’t find an appropriate emote to express how surprised I was by the advent of fire to this world. I instead resorted to bounding up and down, exuding that same, shrill chitter that first charmed my deer mentor.
Rather than responding, the lynx simply sprawled out next to the fire. After some consternation — I kept on wandering over the fire while trying to work out how to lay down, which didn’t hurt but was rather embarrassing — my badger followed suit. Soon, a large part of the tribe was gathered in this tiny cave. And there were several fires. And it was peaceful. And then I logged off the server, and went back to work.
‘Meadow’ is available now on Steam for PC, Mac and Linux, priced at $2.99.
Facebook wants a piece of LinkedIn’s job recruiting features
After seeing businesses and employers post ad hoc job openings on their Facebook pages, the massive social network is finally experimenting with job recruitment tools in earnest. As TechCrunch reports today, Facebook is testing out a new “Jobs” tab for business pages alongside an “Apply Now” button for applicants that will start filling out a job application with information from the user’s Facebook profile.
That Jobs tab acts as a landing page where businesses can send potential new hires and interested folks rather than directing them to a jobs page on their own website or a third-party job board. Users looking to get their foot in the door at a specific company could also subscribed to that company’s Facebook page to get notified about future openings. Businesses will also be able to pay to post their openings in the News Feed for additional reach or laser-focused targeting to reach people with the right credentials.
From the job applicant’s side, the “Apply Now” button will save users the trouble of entering resumé details and job history information, similar to how other job board sites already use Facebook Connect. On the other hand, that feature might be less appealing to users who like to keep their professional and personal lives separate on social media. When a user does apply, the application is sent in to the business in the same way as a normal Facebook message, which could get a little messy for companies that handle a large volume of customer support requests through Facebook. With nearly four times as many users as LinkedIn, Facebook offers a much larger pool of potential applicants — many of whom might not even know their next job was out there looking for them.
Source: TechCrunch
Scientists think this is where your consciousness lives
You’re reading this right now. Yes, sure, your eyes are converting incoming photons into electrical impulses which travel up the optic nerve into your visual cortex, which in turn processes that information into coherent thought. But you — the active consciousness that constitutes your personality– are reading this. And now a team of Harvard scientists think they’ve figured out how that works.
Consciousness has traditionally been defined by two criteria: arousal and awareness. Arousal has already been traced to the brainstem, the primitive part of our brains which handles our most basic functions like breathing and regulating the sleep/wake cycle. Awareness on the other hand has been a bit trickier to pin down. Turns out, however, awareness resides there too.
The Harvard study examined 36 patients with similar brainstem lesions, 12 of which were comatose. The study sought to determine why that dozen of people lost consciousness while the other 24 retained theirs. The researchers quickly zeroed in on one region: the rostral dorsolateral pontine tegmentum. Ten of the twelve comatose patients suffered damage to this area, while only one of the conscious patients did.
So yeah, this is potentially the seat of human consciousness. But it isn’t solely responsible. The Harvard researchers then examined the connectome — basically, a map of the brain’s various regional connections — of a healthy patient. The team discovered a pair of regions in the frontal cortex that connect directly to the rostral dorsolateral pontine tegmentum: one in the left, ventral, anterior insula (AI), the other in the pregenual anterior cingulate cortex (pACC). A separate fMRI survey of 45 healthy patients confirmed that this neural pathway was not an aberration.
That said, don’t go trying to extract human souls a la Marsellus Wallace just yet. The study results will need to be peer reviewed and tested against a larger population sample before being accepted. Still, this is an exciting development and could lead to meaningful new treatments for people in comas.
Via: Science Alert
Source: Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
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