Samsung’s Galaxy Tab S3 won’t be cheap

U.S. pricing starts at $600, and other countries are equally pricey.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab S3 is being pitched as a premium tablet, with iPad-like pricing to match. A Best Buy pre-order page for the device, in Wi-Fi-only flavor, lists it with a $599.99 price tag. The LTE-capable Tab S3 isn’t listed by the retailer, but typically you’d be looking at a premium of $100 or more to add cellular connectivity.

Over in Canada the Wi-Fi-only Tab S3 is up for pre-order for C$799.99, in line with the current exchange rate. And Brits can expect to pay a little more for Samsung’s latest tablet, with retailer John Lewis listing the Wi-Fi-only Tab S3 for £599.99 with availability coming in early April.

The company will be hoping to build momentum behind its new Tab before Apple’s upcoming iPad Pro upgrades land. Samsung’s big rival is expected to unveil new tablets of its own at a special event in the next couple of weeks.

See at Best Buy

More: Samsung Galaxy Tab S3 preview

Life at the ‘end of the world’ isn’t all looting and pillaging

Typically, end-of-the-world scenarios involve rioting, looting and chaos. Those depictions are from pop culture, though, and not based on any sort of real world data. For an idea of how an apocalyptic situation might actually play out, scientists pored over some 270 million action records from the South Korean massively multiplayer game (MMO) ArcheAge, according to a paper (PDF) spotted by New Scientist.

Players knew their information and stats would be wiped at the end of the beta, and as such, the researchers wanted to see how in-game behavior changed as the end of their world approached. “Apart from a few outliers who became more murderous toward the end of the test, they found that most players didn’t resort to killing sprees or antisocial behavior,” New Scientist notes.

“People don’t really go off the deep end, they just stop worrying about the future,” researcher Jeremy Blackburn says. For the most part, the players spent almost no time grinding for progression or finishing quests, and instead favored just hanging out and talking with friends in the game.

If you think about it, then, it’s a lot like the run-up to the final section of Mass Effect 3: lots of time spent in quiet moments bonding with your crew, versus a bloodbath.

The researchers fully admit that this isn’t analogous to a real-world apocalypse. They say that there was no “apparent pandemic behavior changes,” but that the limitations of it being a video game (and one that had a handful of betas prior) and the lack of any real people perishing diminishes what can be gleaned from the experiment. The test wasn’t entirely without merit, though.

“It would be naive of us to claim a one-to-one mapping with real world behavior,” the paper reads. “However, players do invest substantial time and energy into their characters, and it is quite common for virtual property to be worth real-world money these days, so there are some real consequences.”

Further studies using ArchAge will focus on criminal justice, using the game’s jail system and player-run courts. Awhile back there was a group of hardcore Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas modders who role-played out prison sentences in a hacked version of the game’s multiplayer. It’s not quite the same thing, but the players actually treated their sentences like you’d imagine people in the real world did.

Via: New Scientist

Source: Arxiv (PDF)

Laser pulse study could lead to ultrafast computers

Computers that run 100,000 times faster than current ones can change life as we know it. They could help discover distant planets more quickly or diagnose illnesses much, much earlier than usual, among other things. A team of researchers, including engineers from the University of Michigan, believe they’ve found a way to achieve that goal using extremely short laser pulses. The researchers have demoed a method to control “femtosecond” (one quadrillionth of a second) pulses of light that can move electrons quickly and efficiently. U of Michigan says it’s a step toward “lightwave electronics,” and eventually, quantum computing.

In current computers, some of the electrons moving through semiconductors bump into each other and release energy in the form of heat. That’s not very efficient computing. The researchers used crystals called gallium selenide as semiconductors and shone short laser pulses into them. These pulses move electrons into one higher energy level to the next. When the electrons move back from the higher energy levels, they emit even shorter pulses.

These extremely short pulses can be used to quickly read and write information to electrons, but to be able to do that, you need to be able to control the pulses. The team found that changing the orientation of the crystals allowed them to control where the electrons go and how they move. U of Michigan explained that “because femtosecond pulses are fast enough to intercept an electron between being put into an excited state and coming down from that state, they can potentially be used for quantum computations using electrons in excited states as qubits.”

While a lot of work needs to be done before we see the method used in actual working lightwave or quantum computers, this is a big step towards that goal. As Rupert Huber, lead researchers and physics professor at the University of Regensburg, said:

“In the past few years, we and other groups have found that the oscillating electric field of ultrashort laser pulses can actually move electrons back and forth in solids. Everybody was immediately excited because one may be able to exploit this principle to build future computers that work at unprecedented clock rates — 10 to a hundred thousand times faster than state-of-the-art electronics.”

Source: Nature Photonics, University of Michigan

Creators Update includes a few features for Windows Defender

Microsoft’s built-in security suite for Windows isn’t getting left out of the upcoming Creators Update for Windows 10. The new Windows Defender features start with memory and kernel sensors to detect nefarious activity going on in those parts of your machine. It’s something a post on the Microsoft Secure Blog says the company has been doing to defend against zero-day attacks on Windows already.

Windows Defender is using machine learning in a novel way too. “Our historical detection capability ensures new detection rules apply to up to six months of stored data to detect attacks that previously went unnoticed,” the post reads.

More than that, Windows defender has a few new tricks for security teams to see what’s going on at the time of an attack. The new tricks even allow them to ban a particular file from a network and grab forensic info off of a particular computer using what sounds like bait. An investigation package in the official parlance.

If you’re interested in your machine joining the some two million others with Defender installed, or, just want a peek at the future, you can register for beta access at the source link below.

Source: Microsoft Secure blog

Apple Rumored to Unveil 10.5-Inch iPad Pro at Early April Event

Apple is planning to unveil its rumored 10.5-inch iPad Pro at an event set to be held in early April to “mark the inauguration” of its Apple Park campus, reports Taiwanese site DigiTimes citing supply chain sources.

DigiTimes previously said the 10.5-inch iPad Pro would not be available until May or June, but now claims Apple has “moved ahead the production” of the rumored tablet.

Over the past few weeks, we’ve heard a lot of speculation about when Apple will debut the 10.5-inch iPad Pro and its sister tablet(s). Rumors originally suggested the company would hold an event in March, but that has been in question as it is nearly mid-month with no hint of an event.

Earlier today, a reliable supply chain source told MacRumors that Apple would announce products later this month, likely between Monday, March 20 and Friday, March 24. There was also a rumor circulating suggesting Apple would hold an event on April 4, but that was incorrectly based on an erroneous interpretation of Personal Pickup dates for the 12.9-inch iPad Pro.

While we haven’t yet nailed down a specific timeline for the unveiling of new iPads, the prospective launch window is narrowing and rumors suggest we’re going to see them within the next month. Just today, new iPad models were spotted in device logs gathered by Fiksu, suggesting a release is indeed on the horizon. Fiksu, like our unnamed supply chain source and DigiTimes, believes a launch is imminent.

If an event takes place in April, it could potentially be held at Apple’s new campus, Apple Park, but there’s one snag in that plan. Apple is going to open the campus in April, but the company’s press release said the auditorium where events will be held, now dubbed the Steve Jobs Theater, will open “later this year.” The wording makes it unclear if the theater will be ready for Apple Park’s grand opening, and thus ready for an event.

According to today’s report from DigiTimes, Apple plans to target the education and business sectors with both the rumored 10.5-inch iPad and a refreshed 12.9-inch model, which the site says will be Apple’s “mainstream products” for the mid-tier to high-end tablet market in 2017.

While DigiTimes believes the 10.5-inch iPad Pro will now see an April debut, the site says the production schedule for the 12.9-inch iPad Pro “still remains unclear” with volume production perhaps delayed until May or June.

Rumors suggest that the new 12.9-inch iPad will feature a modest refresh, but the 10.5-inch model is rumored to have a nearly bezel-free edge-to-edge display and a body that’s actually the same size as the existing 9.7-inch iPad Pro. There have also been rumors suggesting Apple plans to release a lower-end 9.7-inch iPad Pro and a 7.9-inch model, but whether those rumors are true remains to be seen as the focus has mainly been on Apple’s larger upcoming tablets.

Related Roundup: iPad Pro
Buyer’s Guide: 12.9″ iPad Pro (Caution)
Discuss this article in our forums

NASA tests life-detecting tools for Mars in the Atacama Desert

NASA wanted to find out whether the Mars 2020 rover can truly drill for samples and look for signs of life at the same time. So, a team of scientists spent the whole February testing tools using a practice rover called the KREX-2 in one of the driest places on Earth: the Atacama Desert. It’s the perfect location to trial instruments NASA plans to use on Mars, since it’s as dry as the red planet and under constant assault from ultraviolet radiation. Microbes in the Atacama live underground or inside rocks — if there’s life on Mars, NASA expects to find it in similar locations.

This is the Atacama Rover Astrobiology Drilling Studies (ARADS) team’s second time testing Martian tools in the desert, following their first season in February 2016. This year, they took three life detection instruments with them, feeding them samples straight from the rover’s transfer arm.

One of the three is a modified Wet Chemistry Laboratory, which was also part of the 2007 Phoenix mission to Mars. They also tweaked the Signs of Life Detector they took with them last year. It was donated by Spain’s Center for Astrobiology and can search for biological compounds by conducting various biochemical tests. The third tool called Microfluidic Life Analyzer, however, is a completely new addition. NASA JPL scientists created it to isolate amino acids, the building blocks of life, from very small liquid samples.

ARADS Principal Investigator Brian Glass said “The drill, rover and robot arm combination behaved beautifully in the field.” They’re not quite done with their work, though: the team will come back for two more seasons until 2019. Next year, they plan to attach the instruments onto the rover to see if it can properly operate the drill alongside the life-detecting tools.

Source: NASA

New York City sues Verizon over its fiber rollout

When New York City said it was upset with Verizon for allegedly backtracking on a promise to bring FiOS service to every household in the city, it wasn’t joking around. The city has sued Verizon, accusing the telecom of failing to live up to a cable franchise agreement that required fiber to pass by all residences in the city by mid-2014. The company also didn’t complete some requested installations, according to officials.

Not surprisingly, Verizon takes issue with the lawsuit. A spokesperson talking to Ars Technica claims that the company met the terms of the agreement “100 percent,” and calls on Mayor Bill de Blasio to help fight landlords who won’t let it build fiber into tenants’ homes. It has also proposed investing an extra $1 billion in New York City fiber over the next 4 years in a bid to sweeten the pot. The reality appears to be more complicated, however.

Verizon’s main objections revolve around interpretations of the term “pass.” It claims that there wasn’t a firm definition of the term in the 2008 agreement, and that NYC’s current government is using a different definition than what the two sides were using 9 years ago. The telco believes that passing meant running its fiber network alongside the same routes used for old-school telephone lines, not a literal effort to reach every residence in the city. However, the lawsuit points to a 2008 Verizon statement agreeing that its fiber would have to be run “past all of the residence locations in the city” — that sounds rather clear.

The suit also notes that while there are 36,000 requests for installations at locations that can’t easily get FiOS, the actual number of people who can’t get service is higher.

Verizon does have some stronger claims against the city. It notes that landlords won’t always let it install fiber, and that the city hasn’t provided a requested “competitively-neutral” letter to give to landlords when it wants access. However, there’s evidence to suggest that the carrier isn’t telling the whole story. NYC has previously accused Verizon of insisting on either bulk service agreements or even exclusive agreements (violating FCC rules) to wire up an apartment, forcing landlords to accept unfair terms if they want FiOS at all. In short: while NYC’s case isn’t airtight, Verizon can’t exactly claim to be a victim.

Via: Ars Technica

Source: NYC.gov

‘D&D Beyond’ takes the pen and paper out of tabletop RPGs

Despite all the newfangled ways one can play Dungeons and Dragons, there’s something special about playing it the old fashioned way — in person with a bunch of friends and a geometrical mess of dice. Still, if you want to modernize your tabletop adventure just a little, you’ll have the option soon. Wizards of the Coast just announced that it’s working with Curse to create an official digital toolset designed to replace the pen and paper character sheets of yore.

D&D Beyond isn’t set to launch until sometime this summer, but the pitch is pretty appealing. Players will have access to digital character sheets (complete with capability to manage abilities, skills, level, hit points and more) and a official compendium from smartphones, tablets and PCs. Ultimately, the toolset isn’t poised to change much about how you play the game, but eliminating the need to do paperwork to play definitely sounds like an improvement. D&D Beyond is taking sign-ups for its beta trial right now. Interested? Check out the source link below.

Source: Dungeons and Dragons, D&D Beyond

What’s on TV: ‘Iron Fist,’ ‘Workaholics’ finale and March Madness

Despite some disappointing reviews, the fourth entry in Marvel’s run of Netflix series is here with this week’s debut of Iron Fist. It’s also time for the start of March Madness, so get those brackets filled out and watch all the games across four networks + streaming. Comedy Central also has a big week planned, with the series finale of Workaholics, and the long-awaited third season premiere of one of my favorite shows, Review. Look after the break to check out each day’s highlights, including trailers and let us know what you think (or what we missed).

Blu-ray & Games & Streaming

• Passengers (4K, 3D)
• Fences
• Elle
• Collateral Beauty
• Red Dawn
• Solace
• Battlefield 1 – They shall Not Pass (DLC) (Xbox One, PS4)
• Trove (Xbox One, PS4)
• Styx: Shards of Darkness (PC, PS4)
• Dead Rising 4 (PC)
• ATV Renegades (Xbox One, PS4)
• ACA NeoGeo Sengoku (PS4)
• NieR: Automata (PC – 3/17)
• Kona (3/17 – PS4, Xbox One)

Monday

• The Voice, NBC, 8PM
• 24: Legacy, Fox, 8PM
• The Bachelor, ABC, 8PM
• Cries from Syria, HBO, 10PM
• The Breaks, VH1, 10PM
• Scorpion, CBS, 10PM
• Bates Motel, A&E, 10PM
• Taken, NBC, 10PM
• Humans, AMC, 10PM
• Desus & Mero, Viceland, 11PM

Tuesday

• Jim Norton: Mouthful of Shame, Netflix, 3AM
• The Mindy Project, Hulu, 3AM
• The Voice, NBC, 8PM
• The Flash, CW, 8PM
• The Middle, ABC, 8PM
• The Game of Dating, TV One, 8PM
• WWE Smackdown, USA, 8PM
• The Fosters, Freeform, 8PM
• The American Housewife, ABC, 8:30PM
• The Challenge, MTV, 9PM
• Switched at Birth, Freeform, 9PM
• Face Off, Syfy, 9PM
• Outsiders, WGN, 9PM
• This is Us (season finale), NBC, 9PM
• The Real O’Neals (season finale), ABC, 9:30PM
• Trial & Error (series premiere), NBC, 10PM
• The Americans, FX, 10PM
• The Partner, CNBC, 10PM
• People Icons, ABC, 10PM
• The Detour, TBS, 10PM
• Stranded with a Million Dollars, MTV, 10PM
• Tosh.0, Comedy Central, 10PM
• Imposters, Bravo, 10PM
• Teachers, TV Land, 10PM
• Detroiters, Comedy Central, 10:30PM
• Throwing Shade, TV Land, 10:30PM
• Desus & Mero, Viceland, 11PM

Wednesday

• The Path, Hulu, 3AM
• Catfish, MTV, 8PM
• The Goldbergs, ABC, 8PM
• Arrow, CW,8PM
• Lethal Weapon (season finale), Fox, 8PM
• Survivor, CBS, 8PM
• Speechless, ABC, 8:30PM
• Chicago PD, NBC, 9PM
• The 100, CW, 9PM
• Are You the One? (season finale), MTV, 9PM
• The Magicians, Syfy, 9PM
• Star (season finale), Fox, 9PM
• Major Crimes, TNT, 9PM
• Designated Survivor, ABC, 10PM
• Chicago Justice, NBC, 10PM
• Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders, CBS, 10PM
• The Expanse, Syfy, 10PM
• Legion, FX, 10PM
• The Quad, BET, 10PM
• Suits, USA, 10PM
• Time: The Kalief Browder Story, Spike TV, 10PM
• Workaholics (series finale), Comedy Central, 10PM
• Jeff & Some Aliens (season finale), Comedy Central, 10:30PM
• Ripper Street, BBC America, 11PM
• Desus & Mero, Viceland, 11PM

Thursday

• Beau Sejour (S1), Netflix, 3AM
• Snatch (S1), Crackle, 3AM
• Supermansion, Crackle, 3AM
• Supernatural, CW, 8PM
• Grey’s Anatomy, ABC, 8PM
• The Voice, NBC, 8PM
• Superstore, NBC, 8:30PM
• Chicago Med, NBC, 9PM
• Kicking & Screaming, Fox, 9PM
• Scandal, ABC, 9PM
• Review with Forrest Macneil (season premiere), Comedy Central, 10PM
• The Catch, ABC, 10PM
• The Blacklist: Redemption, NBC, 10PM
• Lip Sync Battle, Spike TV, 10PM
• Baskets, FX, 10PM
• Colony, USA, 10PM
• The Blacklist, NBC, 10PM
• Nirvanna the Band the Show, Viceland, 10PM
• Training Day, CBS, 10PM
• Nightwatch, A&E, 10PM
• 2017 MTV Woodies, MTV, 11PM
• Desus & Mero, Viceland, 11PM

Friday

• Marvel’s Iron Fist (S1), Netflix, 3AM
• Pandora, Netflix, 3AM
• Julie’s Greenroom, Netflix, 3AM
• You Are Wanted, Amazon Prime, 3AM
• Samurai Gourmet (S1), Netflix, 3AM
• The Originals (season premiere), CW, 8PM
• Grimm, NBC, 8PM
• Last Man Standing, ABC, 8PM
• Tattoo Age, Viceland, 9PM
• Sleepy Hollow, Fox, 9PM
• SXSW comedy with Natasha Legerro, Showtime, 10PM
• Vice, HBO, 11PM
• Animals. (season premiere), HBO, 11:30PM

Saturday

• Mommy’s Little Boy, Lifetime, 8PM
• Planet Earth II: Grasslands, BBC America, 9PM
• Samurai Jack, Cartoon Network, 11PM

Sunday

• The Good Fight, CBS All Access, 3AM
• The Circus: Inside the Greatest Political Show on Earth (season premiere), Showtime, 8PM
• Top Gear, BBC America, 8PM
• Once Upon a Time, ABC, 8PM
• The Missing, Starz, 8PM
• NCIS: LA, CBS, 8PM
• Making History, Fox, 8:30PM
• Time After Time, ABC 9PM
• Big Little Lies, HBO, 9PM
• Madam Secretary, CBS, 9PM
• The Walking Dead, AMC, 9PM
• Black Sails, Starz, 9PM
• Homeland, Showtime, 9PM
• Into the Badlands (season premiere), AMC, 10PM
• American Crime, ABC, 10PM
• Feud: Bette and Joan , FX, 10PM
• Shades of Blue, NBC, 10PM
• Billions, Showtime, 10PM
• Trapped, Viceland, 10PM
• Girls, HBO, 10PM
• Talking Dead, AMC, 11PM
• Crashing, HBO, 10:30PM
• Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, HBO, 11PM

Hack targets a Canadian government website

The Canadian government just suffered an embarrassing online security breach… although it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. Officials temporarily took down key parts of two government websites, the tax-oriented Canada Revenue Agency and Statistics Canada, for days after discovering that an unknown entity hacked the statistics bureau’s website. The intruders took advantage of a recent vulnerability in Apache web server software to get in. While the CRA site wasn’t attacked, it shared the same vulnerabilities — the government took down its pages (including online filing and payment systems) as a precaution while applying patches.

The government stresses that the culprit didn’t take any personal or secret information, which would have been extremely damaging for the CRA given its tax role. However, the downtime resulting from the attack couldn’t have come at a worse time for the government and residents alike. The Canadian government’s fiscal year wraps up at the end of March, and most people have to file taxes a month later. If you needed to file taxes early or were hunting for stats to finish a report, you were stuck until officials gave the all clear.

And crucially, the Canadian hack may be a sign of things to come. Officials noted that it’s relatively easy to exploit the Apache security hole, and that there are other countries having a worse time of things. Canada dodged a bullet, to put it another way. While this was troublesome, there’s the potential for future hacks to be far more damaging.

Via: Motherboard, Reuters

Source: CRA, Statistics Canada