Misplaced gold nanoparticles could reveal if your 3D printer was hacked

Why it matters to you

Malicious 3D-printer hacks are real. Smart sensors could help fight them.

3D printing is still such a new technology that most of us are still wrapping our heads around its numerous possibilities, but we’re not worrying about all the ways that a 3D printer may be susceptible to hackers. Thankfully, researchers are thinking about those kinds of questions — and scientists from Rutgers University and the Georgia Institute of Technology may even have an answer to it.

As it turns out, hacking a 3D printer could lead to all kinds of problems. As Christian Bayens, a researcher on the project from Georgia Tech, told Digital Trends: “A hacker could sabotage a larger manufacturing process by printing parts that would fail prematurely when in use. Outside of that, he or she may want to sit in the system quietly to acquire intellectual property to sell later.”

To counter this threat, what the Rutgers and Georgia Tech researchers have developed is a smart sensor-based system that uses multiple methods to check your 3D printer is performing as you’d want it to. The system could be retrofitted into existing printers, and the relatively low cost of the sensors involved means that it would also be affordable.

It uses three separate safeguards to search for intruders. For starters, the system looks for changes in the printer’s sound, which may be an indicator that malicious software has been installed. Secondly, it searches for anomalies in the movement of the printer’s extruder and other components, meaning divergences from the consistent mechanical path they would normally follow. Finally — and most inventively — the system injects tiny gold nanoparticles into the printer’s filament to make sure that, when an object has been printed, these are distributed as would be expected. (These gold nanoparticles aren’t visible to the naked eye, and have been tested to ensure they don’t have a detrimental impact on a 3D-printed object’s integrity, either.)

If a 3D printed object passes all three tests, researchers are confident that it means your printer has not been hacked. If it fails one (or even all three!) it means you may well have a security problem on your hands.

Currently the system is in the research stage, and is not yet something that’s available for customers to buy. However, the researchers are working to expand it and turn it into something that will be available to the masses. The research was presented this week at the USENIX Security Symposium in Vancouver. A paper describing the project can be read here.

Harvard’s new self-healing rubber could mean the end of the road for flat tires

Why it matters to you

Self-healing rubber material could be used to create puncture-proof tires, and more.

If the world is free of flat tires a couple decades from now, you may have researchers from the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences to thank for it. That’s because they’ve developed a new type of rubber that, in addition to being as tough as existing rubber, has the added benefit of being able to self-heal in the event that it gets a puncture.

“We have a made a new type of rubber with an exceptional combination of toughness and self-healing ability,” Liheng Cai, a postdoctoral fellow in applied physics, told Digital Trends. “We did so by developing a new way to mix two intrinsically immiscible bonds, reversible and covalent bonds, in a dry rubber.

“Unlike conventional methods relying on co-solvents to promote mixing, we use molecules to physically tie these two types of bonds together, such that they are forced to mix at the molecular level. This enables a dry rubber that contains both reversible hydrogen bonds and permanent covalent crosslinks. The reversible bonds break and reform to enable self-healing ability, whereas the covalent bonds maintain the material integrity under large deformation. Consequently, the rubber is not only very tough as natural rubber, but also can self-heal upon damage.”

While this isn’t the first example of a self-healing material we’ve come across, the research is significant due to the challenge of engineering self-healing properties in dry materials, such as rubber.

Unpuncturable tires alone would be a good enough application to justify the new material’s creation, but Cai said that there are also other potential uses the new form of rubber could be applied to. These include damping materials, materials for stretchable electronics, and — because the material is additionally transparent — protective coatings for optical devices and electronics.

“Next we want to make this material 3D printable, such that we can harness 3D-printing technologies to transform the material into more complex architectures with more functions,” Cai continued. “Harvard’s Office of Technology Development has filed a patent application for the technology, and is actively seeking commercialization opportunities.”

A paper describing the research was recently published in the journal Advanced Materials.

The Wirecutter’s best deals: Save $50 on Apple’s 10.5-inch iPad Pro tablet

This post was done in partnership with The Wirecutter, a buyer’s guide to the best technology. When readers choose to buy The Wirecutter’s independently chosen editorial picks, they may earn affiliate commissions that support their work. Read their continuously updated list of deals here.

You may have already seen Engadget posting reviews from our friends at The Wirecutter. Now, from time to time, we’ll also be publishing their recommended deals on some of their top picks. Read on, and strike while the iron is hot — some of these sales could expire mighty soon.

BenQ GW2765HT 27-Inch Monitor

Street price: $330; MSRP: $330; Deal price: $300

Here’s a good discount and the lowest price we’ve seen in some time on the BenQ GW2765HT 27-Inch Monitor, our budget monitor pick in that size. While we saw this monitor dip lower late last year, at $300 it’s around $30 off the typical street price. Shipping is free.

The BenQ GW2765HT is our budget pick in our guide to the best 27-Inch monitor. David Murphy and John Higgins write, “If you want to save some money, BenQ’s GW2765HT is a decent budget choice. This 27-inch IPS display isn’t as color-accurate as our pick or runner-up, and it’s a bit too bright at its lowest setting, but most people will have a hard time noticing the difference. BenQ’s monitor is about $120 cheaper than the HP or Dell, but it doesn’t have a USB hub or DisplayPort output. The buttons for navigating its onscreen display are on the back of the monitor, which makes them harder to use. But like our pick, the GW2765HT’s stand has excellent adjustability and VESA support. While our pick and runner-up are better monitors, the GW2765HT is a decent alternative, especially if price is a big factor. (Side note: Don’t be confused when Amazon says that the BenQ BL2711U is a newer version of this monitor. It isn’t. The BL2711U is a 4K professional display that’s overkill for normal people. Stick with the GW2765HT.)”

Anker PowerDrive 4 USB Car Charger

Street price: $17; MSRP: $30; Deal price: $14

If you’ve been looking for a USB car charger with more than just one or two ports, you’re in luck. This Anker PowerDrive 4-Port USB Car Charger has twice the ports you usually see and comes at a very reasonable price right now at $14. This charger has been hovering around $17 for the past few months, so this is a nice opportunity to pick one up at a discount. Shipping is free with Prime.

The Anker PowerDrive 4 USB Car Charger is our more ports pick in our guide to the best USB car charger. Nick Guy writes, “It might seem crazy to some people, but if you really need to charge more than two devices at once in the car, the Anker 4-Port USB Car Charger is a great pick. It puts four USB-charging ports that can handle a total of 9.6 amps in a package that’s of course much larger than the PowerDrive 2 and ReVolt, but still impressively compact.”

Guy continues, “With a glossy plastic body that’s 3.3 inches long (ports to tip), 1.9 inches tall, and 1.1 inches wide when oriented vertically, the charger is reasonably sized. Its ports are aligned (on a metal cap) in a single row, so you can rotate the charger 90 degrees if a horizontal row better fits your car’s setup.”

iPad Pro 10.5-Inch 256GB

Street price: $750; MSRP: $750; Deal price: $700

This is another nice deal on the new 10.5-inch iPad Pro, knocking the price of the 256GB down to $700. This $50 discount applies to all available colors and storage capacities, so the 64GB is also available for $50 off at $600 and the 512GB is down to $900. As these deals are from B&H Photo, the prices are without sales tax in 48 states. Shipping is free.

The 10.5-Inch iPad Pro is our upgrade pick in our Best Tablet guide. Dan Frakes and Nick Guy write, “…if you need more power, a noticeably larger screen, better cameras, better color accuracy, more storage, or support for Apple’s Pencil stylus, the 10.5-inch iPad Pro gives you all of that in a package that’s only slightly taller (11 mm) and wider (5 mm) and a tiny bit thinner (1.4 mm). The Pro (along with the 12.9-inch iPad Pro, below) is a better option if your iPad is replacing a laptop, if you spend a lot of time creating content—drawing, editing photos and video, and the like—or if you’ll use your iPad as a serious gaming device.”

Fissler Vitaquick 8.5-Quart Pressure Cooker

Street price: $275; MSRP: $300; Deal price: $220

This is a great price and a new low for the Fissler Vitaquick Pressure Cooker. This stovetop pressure cooker has largely hovered between $270 and $280, so at $220 you’re getting a significant discount on an item for those serious about pressure cooking. Shipping is free.

The Fissler Vitaquick 8.5-Quart Pressure Cooker is our upgrade stovetop pick in our guide to the best pressure cooker. Lesley Stockton writes, “If you’re looking for an exceptional stovetop pressure cooker with a smoother locking lid and superior browning capabilities, the Fissler Vitaquick 8.5-Quart Pressure Cooker is the best we tested. The tri-ply base is thicker and wider than the Fagor Duo’s, and offers the best browning and searing of any pot we tried, leaving us with no scorch spots in the edges of the pot. The Fissler is on the heavy side, but it offers an easy-to-grasp helper handle for added support when transporting. Yes, the Vitaquick is pricey, but if you’re serious about pressure cooking, it’s money well spent.”

Because great deals don’t just happen on Thursdays, sign up for our daily deals email and we’ll send you the best deals we find every weekday. Also, deals change all the time, and some of these may have expired. To see an updated list of current deals, please go to The Wirecutter.com.

YouTube music head says company pays higher royalties than Spotify

Making a living from streaming royalties is tough for music artists, and YouTube has had one of the worst reputations in the music industry for a while. Even Lyor Cohen, the current head of YouTube Music, knows that many are skeptical about the service’s ability to pay out a legitimate rate. Cohen wrote a blog post on Thursday to explain why he thinks that YouTube deserves another chance, and that his company is the highest paying music streaming service out there.

The former road manager for Run DMC has been at YouTube for eight months now. He was instrumental in getting Google’s Doodle for the 44th anniversary of the birth of hip-hop up on the search engine’s main page, too; Cohen says that he is a music lover and artist supporter. He believes that YouTube music got to the subscription party late, which allowed companies like Spotify, Pandora and Apple Music to take an early lead. He also says that ads in music videos aren’t the “death of the music industry,” but rather a second supplement to bring in the money. Cohen claims that YouTube’s ads brought in more than a billion dollars in the past 12 months. That should help soothe the music industry itself, but what about artists?

Cohen rebuts the common belief that YouTube pays less than Spotify or Pandora, saying that his service pays more than $3 per thousand streams in the US, “more than other ad supported services.” Cohen, who has been trying to patch things up between YouTube and the music industry, believes that songwriters and artists need to know what they’re making. “It’s not enough for YouTube to say that it’s paid over $1 billion to the industry from ads,” he writes. “We (the labels, publishers and YouTube) must shine a light on artist royalties, show them how much they make from ads compared to subscriptions by geography and see how high their revenue is in the U.S. and compared to other services.”

Cohen’s push into making things better at YouTube music for artists and industry veterans alike has been a while coming. Last December, the service struck a deal with the National Music Publishers Association over unpaid royalties that some speculate could have paid out at $30 million. Just this past June, YouTube and ASCAP, another national music royalties organization, created a deal for more transparency between the two companies so that YouTube could better pay its artists. “YouTube is dedicated to ensuring artists, publishers and songwriters are fairly compensated,” Cohen told Billboard at the time.

Via: Music Business Worldwide

Source: Lyor Cohen

Lean back and watch the eclipse…from your Volvo

On Monday, lots of people are going to head outside and check out the first total solar eclipse to be viewable in the contiguous US since 1979 and the first coast-to-coast one in nearly a century. But Volvo is giving its drivers another option. For those that want to experience the event alone and maybe with a little air conditioning, the car manufacturer is providing moonroof eclipse viewers for its 2018 XC60 cars.

The viewer is magnetized for easy attachment to the auto’s moonroof and is ISO-certified, so it should actually protect your eyes. Only limited quantities will be available though, which will be shipped to Volvo dealerships along the eclipse’s path of totality in Oregon, Idaho, Nebraska, Missouri and South Carolina.

Personally, I’m excited to experience this eclipse with other people and will be sitting outside with my goofy eclipse glasses for the whole thing. However, while this moonroof viewer seems a little silly, the demand for eclipse glasses is so high right now and so many outlets are sold out of them, I’m wondering if it might actually be easier to just get a Volvo.

Image: Volvo

Via: Autoblog

Source: Volvo

‘Quake Champions’ isn’t finished, but you can play it August 22nd

Been green with envy over your pals playing the Quake Champions closed beta? Time to stop being jealous and start working on your rocket jumping because the classic shooter’s revival is moving to Steam’s Early Access on August 22nd, where everyone can play. Now, there was an open beta during E3, but that was a limited-time deal. To celebrate, publisher Bethesda is knocking 25 percent off the Champions Pack, bringing the price down to $29.99.

Technically the game is free to play, but if you want to play via Early Access (and to have all the champions) you’ll have to pay. Assuming you didn’t already have access to the closed beta, that is. If so, you can keep playing, but will only be able to do so via the Bethesda.net launcher. Yes, it’s a little confusing. The game’s free to play version will launch “at a later date.”

In addition to the commemorative price cut, the arena combat game has two new maps, upgrade bounties, new character skins and a tutorial. Oh, and I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that Doom Guy from developer id’s other highly-influential shooter is a playable character now, too. “Fans of Doom can run amok using Doom Slayer’s active ability, Berzerk — smashing enemies into bloody piles of gibs with his bare hands,” Bethesda writes.

Less exciting, but perhaps more useful, Doom Guy retains his double jump from last year’s reboot. Handy! See you on the battlefield.

Source: Bethesda

Apple Leasing More Office Space Near Cupertino Campuses

Apple has leased additional office buildings in Santa Clara, California, and has started “a significant reconstruction” of the interior space, reports the San Jose Mercury News.

The two buildings under construction are located near the southeast corner of Kifer Road and Uranium Drive in Santa Clara, approximately six miles away from 1 Infinite Loop and five miles away from its new Apple Park campus.

One of the new buildings Apple has leased. Image via San Jose Mercury News

The technology titan wouldn’t disclose the purpose of the work, but some industry watchers believe the company needs the space because it continues in hiring mode, which in turn requires more space.

“Apple is bursting at the seams,” said Tim Bajarin, principal analyst with Campbell-based Creative Strategies, a market researcher.

The leases and construction were discovered in documents filed in early August with the Santa Clara County Recorder’s Office, and an Apple spokesperson confirmed that Apple has leased the buildings.

One building measures in at 43,000 square feet, while the other comes in at 30,000 square feet, for a total of 73,000 square feet of office space.

Along with its two main campuses in Cupertino, Apple occupies many other office buildings in the surrounding areas in Santa Clara, San Jose, and Sunnyvale and has been expanding rapidly in recent years to accommodate its growing workforce.

Apple has leased several additional buildings in Santa Clara, encompassing more than a million square feet of office space, and it has purchased land for a massive office complex in North San Jose.

Tag: Apple real estate
Discuss this article in our forums

Voting machine supplier exposes 1.8 million voter records

Cybersecurity firm UpGuard has discovered that personal information from over 1.8 million Chicago residents was unintentionally exposed by voting machine supplier Election Systems & Software (ES&S). The backup files of voter data were found on an Amazon Web Services device and weren’t protected with a password.

After the firm found the data, the copy was secured and last Saturday, state and local authorities were notified. Once ES&S was alerted to the situation, the files were secured and the server they were found on was shut down. The company says that an investigation is ongoing and that the files, which contained names, addresses, dates of birth, partial Social Security numbers and some driver’s license and state ID numbers, did not include ballot information or vote totals. ES&S also said that the files had no impact on registration records or election results and weren’t connected to Chicago’s voting systems.

Other data leaks discovered by UpGuard include one from political strategy company Deep Root Analytics that exposed data from almost 200 million people, one from Nice systems that released data from 14 million Verizon customers and a leak from defense contractor Booz Allen Hamilton that exposed classified intelligence data.

In a statement, ES&S said, “The company is in the process of reviewing all procedures and protocols, including those of its vendors, to ensure all data and systems are secure and prevent similar situations from occurring.” UpGuard is assisting with the investigation.

Via: Gizmodo

Source: ES&S

Google Maps rolls out Q&A section for Android and mobile search

Why it matters to you

Google Maps will now include a Q&A section on the Android version of the app along with mobile search. You’ll be able to ask questions and receive answers from other users — including the business itself.

Google’s latest update to Google Maps encourages users to post helpful information about businesses, and it also eliminates the dreaded task of having to call for information. The company announced it’s launching a new feature to Google Maps for Android and mobile Search. Soon, you’ll be able to ask questions and read answers about particular places you’re headed to or interested in.

When normally searching for a restaurant or store on Google Maps or Search, you’re provided with a ton of user-generated content ranging from the star ratings to reviews. Now, when you open a local business listing, it will have a “Questions & Answers” section to scroll down to as well. This is where you can post your own questions, answer someone else’s, or read through the already existing posts.

Since anyone on Google can post inquiries and answers under a listing, it can result in a sea of questions with conflicting answers. To address this, the new feature includes the option to upvote informative content by tapping on the thumbs-up icon, which will push user-favored content up toward the top of the section. That way, you won’t have to search through an endless thread of confusing input from different users.

Businesses can also add their own frequently asked questions along with other facts that could be useful to the customer. The owners and any knowledgeable users are notified whenever someone asks a question and you’ll receive a notification once they answer. For users, this feature allows them easy access to information with one quick search but it can also strengthen the relationship businesses have with customers.

This isn’t the first update Google Maps users have seen recently. In July, the app added a travel-related feature that shows you estimated travel times based on when you leave for your planned trip. By typing in your destination, the app gives you a bar graph listing the busiest hours along with the fastest routes and parking tips.

Prior to that, Google Maps also added transit services for anyone living in big cities. Rather than using third-party apps — or an old-school paper map — the update gives you outlines for platforms, entrances, and other helpful information about subways.

Even though the latest updates to Google Maps and the search tool are ones we can find on other apps, it’s clear Google is aiming to be the only resource we could ever possibly need. With the new Q&A update, the company makes it known it wants to help you make quick and easy decisions while discovering what’s available around you. The feature will be rolling out to Android and mobile search users worldwide.

When disaster strikes, this secret Verizon bunker keeps your phone working

It takes a lot to protect a cell network. Hurricanes, earthquakes, and tornadoes snap towers like toothpicks. Hackers probe the backend for vulnerabilities; and smartphone-touting concertgoers, fair attendees, and sports fans push cell sites to their limits.

Verizon Wireless, the largest wireless network in the U.S. by number of subscribers, spends a lot of time thinking about how to keep its grid from going down. During a tour of the carrier’s network switching center in Yonkers, New York, we got an inside look at the equipment designed to withstand everything from gale-force winds to Mariah Carey concerts.

“Our switches have to survive everything,” Michelle White, executive director at Verizon, told Digital Trends. “You go back to when [the terrorist attacks on] 9/11 happened and a lot of people became really attached to their devices because they used them to stay in touch with family and friends. The value we bring to our customer is highlighted through those crises.”

Entering through the (padlocked) front door

From the outside, Verizon’s Yonkers, New York office looks conspicuously normal. The gray low-rise building, which is located about an hour north of Midtown Manhattan by train, is nestled in an overgrown forest hillside dotted with hotels. But it’s not your average office building. A metal barricade and padlocked double doors keep out onlookers without the proper security clearance. You won’t find its exact address on the map — type it into Google, and you’ll find a nearby perimeter highway.

“One of the easiest ways for someone to hurt us is our communications,” Christine Williams, a Verizon network supervisor and our tour guide, said. “That’s why we do everything in our power to shield the network. We have firewalls [and] and entire team devoted to security.”

That might sound a little hyperbolic, but the Yonkers building is an attractive target. This switching center handles call, text message, and data routing for one of Verizon’s largest markets: New York City. It’s one of two that service the greater New York area, Williams explained, as we entered the bowels of the building’s equipment floor.

The building’s switching room routes more than 300 million data connections.

The building’s switching room — rows of servers, AC units, and circuit breakers — routes more than 300 million data connections through multicolored fiber-optic wires. If you send an email to a coworker, Snapchat message a friend, or post a picture to Instagram from Midtown Manhattan, the Bronx, or Queens, chances are it’ll hit the Yonkers building’s wires first. It’s also responsible for routing voice calls.

“When you’re on the local cell tower or wherever you may be, the switch is running that call,” Williams said. “If you’re making a landline call to somebody, it connects you to every [other switch] out there. And if you’re calling a mobile center, it would hit this switch, travel long distance across the country, and connect to another local switch to find your corresponding person.”

Protecting the brain

It’s like a big computer, White said. The switch is “the brains” that have the information on how your calls should be handled.

Just like brains, they’re temperamental. The switches need to be kept within a certain temperature range to prevent overheating, and they draw power from a custom circuit that converts incoming AC (alternating current) power to DC (direct current).

Why DC instead of AC? The voltage in AC current — the kind that powers your hairdryer and coffee pot — periodically reverses, which can affect the switches’ stability. DC current, on the other hand, supplies electricity at a constant voltage.

Kyle Wiggers/Digital Trends

“With the regular power outside, there are spikes — it goes up and down, and the computers don’t like that,” White said. “So we work off DC batteries.”

They switches are also insulated to protect against flooding. Four long hallways buffer the switching room against any rainwater that might make it past the past the facility’s surrounding hillside, and data is piped in through two separate fiber feeds on either end of the building.

“We put all the important equipment interior to the building, surrounded by hallways so that if there’s a flood or hurricane or any kind of natural disaster,” Williams said. “It’d have to go through a lot to get to our most critical processing.”

The same is true of the building’s backup power. Two diesel-powered generators, each the size of an entire room, supply enough electricity to power a 400-home subdivision. If the building’s two connections to the power grid were cut or if severe weather knocks out local power, for example — they can supply enough energy to run the building’s switches for eight hours.

“It’s sort of like the portable generators you use to power your house when there’s a flood or outage, but on a much bigger scale.” Williams said. “They run simultaneously, and each one of them by themselves could handle all the AC and DC power the facility needs. Even when there’s a little bit of a loss, they start powering the air conditioners, lights, and everything that doesn’t run off of DC power.”

Ready for game day

The Yonkers building handles more than just switching. A cement parking lot houses what White called the “farmyard” equipment: portable towers and generators with colorful acronyms like COWS (Cell on Wheels), COLTS (Cells on Light Trucks), and GOATS (Generators on Trailers).

“We’re usually heavily involved behind the scenes. We pull out all the stops.”

They’re smaller, modular versions of the cell towers that dot the side of the road, and they’re used to bolster local network capacity. Ahead of events like festivals, fairs, and football games, Verizon engineers decide which (and how much) equipment to deploy based on data like historical attendance, time of day, and traffic.

They aren’t cheap. Verizon charges municipalities more than $50,000 to set up a COW, and the event organizers are on their own when it comes to the generator required to power it.

Natural disasters are a different story. During the recent Rim Fire near Yosemite National Park, Verizon volunteered phones, mobile hot spots, and solar-powered network equipment to emergency personnel. In 2015, when two convicts escaped a New York’s upstate Clinton Correctional Facility, the carrier established a satellite uplink so that investigators could stay in touch.

“We’re usually heavily involved behind the scenes,” White said. “We pull out all the stops.”

Next-gen readiness

White doesn’t expect the Yonkers switch to change all that much in the coming years. The most dramatic upgrades will be on the inside, where network techs will swap out and consolidate switches as Verizon transitions to Gigabit 4G LTE and 5G.

Right now, roughly half of the building’s server room houses 3G switches and call-only computers. Its 4G equipment takes up a single metal rack.

“Everything’s shrinking,” Williams said. “We don’t need as much space as we used to.”

The old equipment is less power-efficient and slower, too, which is one of the reasons Verizon plans to sunset its 3G network in the next three to four years. It’ll transition customers to 4G LTE, which can handle talk, text, and data simultaneously.