Meet the bug bounty hunters making cash by finding flaws before bad guys

Many security researchers make a living with security companies, but not everyone likes the rigidity of a corporate environment. Some work on a freelance basis. Like vigilante outlaws, they dig up bugs and exploits in some of the world’s most popular platforms, hoping to gain a reward for their efforts.

Offering a bug bounty is one of the best ways for software companies to find problems with their applications and services before they can be exploited. Offering a reward means those who find a flaw may opt to cash in, instead of selling it to those who would use it for nefarious purposes.

Companies can offer tens, or even hundreds, of thousands for specific exploits, but it’s not easy money. Bug bounty hunters must be an expert in all manner of security features and exploit mechanics. They must replicate the bugs and document them, communicating that information to the relevant company. And – most important of all – they must be first.

Profile of a bug bounty hunter

Markus Fenske is a 28-year-old penetration tester and sugar wax trader. That may seem like a surprising combination of roles, but as a fan of Tim Ferris’ “4-hour Workweek” book and outlook, he operates a business that generates a nice passive income for him while he indulges his greater passion — bug bounty hunting.

“I was always interested in hacking. I remember wanting to become a hacker from a very early age,” he told Digital Trends. “I read the – somewhat outdated – How to become a hacker HOWTO of the Chaos Computer Club when I was 10 years old.”

“I found one of my first bugs around four years later. It was a sci-fi based browser game where you could build space ships and attack other players to loot their resources. I noticed a cross-site scripting issue in the internal messaging system, so I quickly crafted a Javascript worm. If you’d open the message, it would execute a script that renamed all your planets to “Vollpfosten” (roughly translates to “fuck muppet”), forward the message with the code to all neighboring planets, and delete itself. The admin was not amused.”

Netscape was among the first to encourage employees to find problems with its software and offer monetary rewards to them.

During that era of software development, bounties didn’t exist like they do today. Netscape was among the first to encourage employees to find problems with its software, and began offering monetary rewards to them, and external testers, in 1995. Although the effort was a success, it took years for the idea to catch on with other companies. Many companies were skeptical about encouraging outsiders to look for flaws.

“[Finding bugs] wasn’t always well received,” Menske told us. “Some thanked me for helping to improve the software, but others just had their legal department send me letters, which scared my parents.”

It took Fenske many years to earn his first bug bounty payout. He discovered an exploit in the Github Enterprise management console in January 2017, which netted him $18,000, and a spot on the company’s hall of fame. While Fenske’s business allowed him the chance to pursue bug bounties for income, the long road to his first big win shows how difficult the profession can be.

Everyone starts young

Uranium238 was just 17 when they received $10,000 for their discovery of a flaw in Uber’s internal email system. This early payout certainly helped pave the way for their career in bug bounties. Yet Uranium insists the interest in hunting bugs comes from the same place as their elder colleague. Curiosity.

“I wanted to test out applications. I would see a weird response and think to myself, ‘what if I change this to that?’”

They take their role as a bug bounty hunter seriously, and see it as a great responsibility. By discovering a major flaw in a system, Uranium feels they have a duty to report the problem, rather than put the security of users at risk.

“You need to make sure that if you find something severe, you report it right away, rather than exploiting it,” they told Digital Trends.

That responsibility is reinforced by Uranium’s profession. Even at such a tender age, they are employed as a security analyst. This, they believe, gives them a unique perspective on the industry, because it allows them to see how each side of the bug bounty system operates.

“The way I do bug bounty hunting is, in my opinion, is different in comparison to others because I am on the both sides. If a company does not respond in two to five days, I do not ask for updates. I usually wait for 20 days or so, and then ask if they need any help or have any questions for me.”

Easy bugs often don’t offer the same rewards as deeper, more complex flaws.

While bug bounty hunting is important to Uranium, they claim to have little interest in low-hanging fruit. Easy bugs often don’t offer the same rewards as deeper, more complex flaws. And, just as importantly, they don’t offer the same sense of pride.

“I do not go after just simple XSS (cross site scripting) or CSRFs (cross-site request forgery). My goal is to find at least one or two critical bug in a program that I am hacking. Thinking out of the box is key for me.”

Creative thinking is a crucial skill for any hunter. Those who choose this profession must learn to make leaps of thought that the original developers didn’t. A breakthrough doesn’t always rely on finding a convoluted oversight in code. Instead, it can be as simple as not assuming developers would avoid using their own personal email address during the creation of software services. Finding a loophole like that requires imagination, and demands that a hunter constantly re-evaluating the assumptions they’ve made about the software they’re trying to exploit.

No easy money

The payout figures for bounties appear incredible, and sometimes, they are earned. Bounties of more than $100,000 for a single bug do occasionally happen. Major bounty projects like HackerOne, which is supported by Facebook, Microsoft, and Google, pay out millions each year.

Even so, most bounty hunters do it as a hobby, or as part time work. Finding a $100,000 bounty is a bit like winning the lottery. It could happen, but it probably won’t, and it’s nearly impossible for hunters to plan on such a discovery.

For Uranium, bug hunting supplements and supports their day job as a security analyst. Menske, meanwhile, believes it’s impossible to earn the money he’d need to make it a full-time job without more direct access to low-level code.

“Most bug bounty hunting is black box testing. You don’t get the source code,” he told us. “That’s bad for me, because instead of just reading the code and spotting the bug you have to do many educated guesses and waste your time on trying things. It’s also bad for the client, because they can’t be sure that the bugs will be found.”

He even suggested that, for a lot of companies, bug bounties aren’t even about making their software as secure as possible.

“I think it’s mainly an insurance for them, that if someone finds a bug, the finder will go the easy and legal way and claim a bug bounty instead exploiting the vulnerability.”

As for the elusive full-time bug bounty hunter, Menske has yet to hear of one himself. It’s possible, he said, that with ever increasing financial incentives for the discovery of exploits, that it might be possible to make a living off of them. However, the lack of guarantee a hunter will ever find the critical bugs that would deliver big, life changing reward money, means that most white hat hackers stick to more stable security jobs. It’s enticing to imagine a band of digital bounty hunters finding clever exploits from the back of a coffee shop, but even hackers have bills to pay.

Vizio TVs add the Google Play video app

Vizio has been adding streaming apps to its smart TVs these past few weeks, including Netflix and Amazon Video. The latest addition to its streaming apps collection? Google Play Movies & TV. The company is making the app available on its high-end VIA+ and D-series Smart TVs, giving you a way to buy or rent titles from the app without having to use a phone or tablet and a Chromecast or Roku.

The app features film and shows from Google’s 200 partner global distributors and recently began offering 4K movies to take advantage of your ultra HD display. If you have a Vizio VIA+ or D-Series, keep an eye on the home screen for the app icon, download it when it becomes available and check out the stuff not on your other streaming services.

Source: Google

New study confirms we can indeed learn in our sleep — but there’s a catch

Why it matters to you

New study sheds some light on the function of a good night’s sleep, and confirms that sleep-based learning is totally a real thing.

It’s the dream of any kid too lazy to study: put on a set of earphones when you go to bed and learn while you’re sleeping. The good news? According to a new study, this is absolutely a possibility. The bad news? It’s not quite as simple as that.

The research, published in the journal Nature, shows that new auditory memories can be formed as we sleep, although these are only laid down during particular phases of our slumber. In an experiment, sleeping subjects were exposed to white noise incorporating a recurring tonal pattern. Using electroencephalographic (EEG) and behavioral response analysis, the researchers demonstrated that subjects learned the sound patterns during cycles of REM sleep. This refers to the sleep phases characterized by rapid eye movements, which involve more dreaming, body movement, and faster breathing. Some learning also takes place during the N2 sleep phase, referring to the first unequivocal stage of sleep, during which muscle activity decreases, as does awareness of the outside world.

Interestingly, while learning is possible in these phases, in the deeper slow-wave N3 sleep, the opposite occurs. That is to say that, rather than learning, you may actually forget what you’ve learned and actively suppress memories.

“We think this suppression effect shows a core function of sleep, which is enabling the brain to forget,” Thomas Andrillon, a researcher on the project, told Digital Trends. “We are constantly forming new memories when we are awake, and there is a danger of packing the brain with memories that are costly to maintain and will clog the brain. Here we show that in the brain there are specific ways in which memories are suppressed to its advantage.”

Andrillon also points out that — even during the phases of sleep in which memories are formed — it may not be a good idea to force learning. “Stimulating the sleeping brain can have consequences on the function that sleep enables,” he said. “You may be able to learn a few words, but this may come at a cost. It could be that the cost outweighs the advantage.”

He notes that he remains skeptical of ideas like learning languages in your sleep for this reason. However, he says that there are certain types of learning which may be possible and effective: such as using REM sleep to condition smokers not to smoke.

Ultimately, there’s still much work to do in this area. Nonetheless, it’s an intriguing glimpse at the way the brain processes information — and just what is achieved through a good night’s rest.

Now we just need some smart techies to develop a sleep-tracking tool that recognizes REM sleep and gives you short, safe bursts of learning when these cycles are identified.

‘Dota 2’ will add two new heroes in the Dueling Fates update

Some of the world’s best Dota 2 players are doing battle at Valve’s The International esports tournament, but they may need some more practice when they get home. That’s because the company just announced it will add two more characters soon in its “The Dueling Fates” update. Neither hero has a name yet, but in the preview trailer the first attacked enemies both by rolling over them Sonic the Hedgehog-style and with a sword, while the other one flew in on fairy wings before releasing a minion to attack.

Source: Dota 2 (Twitter)

Yes, Big Baller Brand shoes will be in NBA 2K18

As the fall sports seasons draw closer, we’re also getting more information about the fall sports games. NBA 2K18 has highlighted its position as the dominant hoops game — and squelched the release of NBA Live 18’s demo — by drip feeding tidbits like player ratings and screenshots. This means that not only are players excitedly tweeting out their ratings to start this year’s game, but we’re also getting a look at what they’ll wear on their feet.

We’re excited to announce the @bigballerbrand shoes will debut in #NBA2K18 & be laced up on @ZO2_ at NBA Season Tip-Off! pic.twitter.com/X4NcMS1aNH

— NBA 2K 2K18 (@NBA2K) August 11, 2017

For the Lakers’ attention-grabbing rookie Lonzo Ball, gamers wanted to know if he will wear his family’s Big Baller Brand sneakers, or the Kobe A.D.s shown in screenshots so far. Today the NBA 2K Twitter account cleared things up, confirming that his signature shoe will be included when 2K18 hits shelves on September 19th (customers who pre-order can get access starting on the 15th).

Last year 2K took its shoe realism to the next level with 3D-scanned shoes, while this year’s game relies on new photo and laser scanning techniques to make sure the player’s faces get the same treatment. Before the full game is released, there will be another NBA 2K Prelude demo/MyPlayer teaser released, which is due on September 8th.

NBA 2K18 Player Ratings

Via: Sole Collector

Source: NBA 2K18 (Twitter)

Weekly Rewind: Trippy tech, mind zappers, and password regrets

A lot can happen in a week when it comes to tech. The constant onslaught of news makes it nigh impossible for mere mortals with real lives to keep track of everything. That’s why we’ve compiled a quick and dirty list of this week’s top tech stories, from a fat-burning headband to Facebook’s take on Netflix — it’s all here.

Modius is a neurostimulation wearable that tricks your body into burning fat

Wear this headset for 45 minutes a day, and you could hack your body into burning more fat, resulting in a leaner, meaner look. No, it’s not a “miracle” cure ad for the terminally podgy, but the pitch for the Neurovalens Modius, a neurostimulation device that sounds almost too good to be true. For less time that one would normally spend in the gym, this piece of tech fools your body into thinking it’s exercising, and decreases appetite, all to help you achieve those hard-to-reach weight-loss goals without much effort.

Suspend your disbelief for a second. Here’s how it works. The Modius is a headset worn like a pair of headphones, just without the cups over your ears. Instead, two pads sit just beneath your ears and zap low-power electrical impulses to your vestibular nerve, activating the hypothalamus. Neurovalens says this fools the body into thinking you’re a physically active person, even though you’re on the couch binging on some Netflix.

Read: Modius is a neurostimulation wearable that tricks your body into burning fat

Man responsible for strong password requirements regrets his 2003 guidelines

The man responsible for your requirement to use a combination of lower-case letters, upper-case letters, numbers, and symbols in passwords at least eight characters long is now regretting his advice. Former National Institute of Standards and Technology manager Bill Burr recently admitted in an interview with The Wall Street Journal that his 2003 document about crafting strong passwords and changing them every 90 days was somewhat off the mark.

At the time, he said that users will choose an easily remembered, easily guessed password, and likely one stemming from a batch of “a few thousand commonly chosen passwords.” In turn, hackers trying to gain access to user accounts, computers, and so on would try the most likely chosen passwords first. But even though services would reject specific passwords given their common use, Burr suggested a more secure alternative.

Read: Man responsible for strong password requirements regrets his 2003 guidelines

Trying trippy tech beneath the experimental domes of The Lab

Last year, Goldenvoice, organizers of the popular Coachella festival, installed a huge dome full of tech experiences at the inaugural Panorama Music Festival in New York City. The Lab, as it was known, blew people away. This year it’s back, and three times larger than before.

It’s also more immersive, as artists were required to increase interconnectivity, according to Justin Bolognino, founder and CEO of META — the company that curated the artists featured in The Lab. “Eight people, minimum, had to be able to interact with an installation at the same time,” he told Digital Trends.

We stepped inside The Lab, explored its exhibits, and spoke with the lucky fans who experienced it alongside us. Here’s what we saw, heard, and yes, smelled.

Read: Trying trippy tech beneath the experimental domes of The Lab

Police photo shows maniac driver using a phone in each hand at 60mph

Driving while holding and using a mobile phone is dangerous, stupid, and in the vast majority of places, illegal. However, people still do it, and in the U.K. a particularly keen phone user was caught on camera using not one, but two phones while driving. He wasn’t juggling one phone with the other, but was holding a device in each hand, leaving no hands available for steering the car. He was also traveling at 60 mph.

It’s hard to believe someone would do something so dangerous, but the news comes from a very reliable source — the local police force that caught the maniac driver. Surrey Police posted a photo on its Twitter account, taken with a police camera through the driver’s side window of the vehicle.

Read: Police photo shows maniac driver using a phone in each hand at 60mph

Put down the controllers! Players navigate this VR game using only their minds

From allowing people to pilot drones using only their mind to medical applications involving the control of smart prostheses, the ability to use brain activity to directly control technology is a field that’s advanced significantly in recent years. At the recent 2017 SIGGRAPH conference, tech company Neurable and VR graphics company Estudiofuture teamed up to show off something new: brain-controlled virtual reality.

In a tech demo, the companies demonstrated how a VR game created by Estudiofuture could be intuitively controlled by swapping out the regular hand controls from an HTC Vive headset for technology developed by Neurable; tech that monitors a user’s brain activity to determine their intent.

Read: Put down the controllers! Players navigate this VR game using only their minds

Meet TIKAD: the gun-toting drone that can aim, fire, and compensate for recoil

Have you ever looked at a drone and thought, “Yeah, that’s kind of neat, but I sure wish it came with some mounted firearms?” If so, you may be interested to hear about the TIKAD: a new drone that’s described by its Florida-based creators Duke Robotics as the “Future Soldier.”

Intended for military deployment, TIKAD is an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) designed to replace boots on the ground in some of the toughest warzones on the planet. It weighs 110 pounds (50kg), can fly at an altitude of anywhere from 30 to 1,500 feet and — oh yes — did we mention that it can sport a plethora of semi-automatic weapons, and a 40mm grenade launcher for good measure?

Read: Meet TIKAD: the gun-toting drone that can aim, fire, and compensate for recoil

Thync Relax Pro review

There’s something pleasingly sci-fi about the Thync Relax Pro, just like there was about the original Thync. It’s a wearable in the true sense, in that it fixes directly to your body and doesn’t do anything at all when it’s not. It’s designed to help the stressed relax, the anxious become calm, and the sleepless get more rest, which it does by stimulating nerves in the back of your neck using subtle-but-tingly electrical stimulation. It’s the wearable the crew of the Enterprise might choose, and the stuff of cyberpunk dreams.

 Before we go any further — yes, it’s safe. The original version, which uses the same low electrical output signal, has logged 2,500,000 minutes of use, backing up studies and surveys all indicating the safety of nerve stimulation. There’s no reason to worry it’ll burn you, cause your head to explode, or otherwise disfigure you during your quest for a bit of relaxation.

Read: Thync Relax Pro review

If you are thinking about buying a Fitbit, these deals make it the perfect time

Amazon is offering discounts on select Fitbit fitness tracker models, and to help you find the best Fitbit for your lifestyle, we created a rundown of the ones on sale. If you’ve been on the hunt for a wearable to accompany you on your workouts, now is a great time to score a deal on a brand-name activity tracker.

Read: If you are thinking about buying a Fitbit, these deals make it the perfect time

Facebook mounts assault on Netflix and Amazon with new ‘Watch’ platform

Facebook is revamping the way its users view video on its social network, beginning with the launch of a new platform called Watch. The move, which will bring with it a growing amount of original content, is part of a grand plan by the social networking giant to better compete with video-streaming rivals such as Netflix, Amazon, and YouTube.

The new platform for Facebook’s mobile, desktop, and television apps will start to show up this week for select users in the U.S. before hitting more locations “soon.”

Watch promises to be a more structured version of the video tab that the company launched last year, and will offer suggestions for new shows based on what your friends and communities are enjoying.

Read: Facebook mounts assault on Netflix and Amazon with new ‘Watch’ platform

T-Mobile Revvl, Revvl T2, and Revvl T3 Pro news and rumors

T-Mobile may be readying an entire self-branded lineup of affordable smartphones, and the first has been revealed. In early May, details of the T-Mobile Revvl, Revvl T2, and Revvl T3 Pro began to surface. The company announced it is officially releasing the first of the lineup — the Revvl — but we have yet to hear about the other models.

TCL-owned Alcatel is designing and producing the Revvl phones, and they are all expected to be cheaper than Apple’s entry-level iPhone (less than $650). They will also launch alongside a commitment-free T-Mobile service that comes with a lifetime warranty and insurance included.

We don’t know much about the entire T-Mobile’s Revvl lineup, but we’re learning more every day. Here is what we have so far.

Read: T-Mobile Revvl, Revvl T2, and Revvl T3 Pro news and rumors

Weekly Rewind: Trippy tech, mind zappers, and password regrets

A lot can happen in a week when it comes to tech. The constant onslaught of news makes it nigh impossible for mere mortals with real lives to keep track of everything. That’s why we’ve compiled a quick and dirty list of this week’s top tech stories, from a fat-burning headband to Facebook’s take on Netflix — it’s all here.

Modius is a neurostimulation wearable that tricks your body into burning fat

Wear this headset for 45 minutes a day, and you could hack your body into burning more fat, resulting in a leaner, meaner look. No, it’s not a “miracle” cure ad for the terminally podgy, but the pitch for the Neurovalens Modius, a neurostimulation device that sounds almost too good to be true. For less time that one would normally spend in the gym, this piece of tech fools your body into thinking it’s exercising, and decreases appetite, all to help you achieve those hard-to-reach weight-loss goals without much effort.

Suspend your disbelief for a second. Here’s how it works. The Modius is a headset worn like a pair of headphones, just without the cups over your ears. Instead, two pads sit just beneath your ears and zap low-power electrical impulses to your vestibular nerve, activating the hypothalamus. Neurovalens says this fools the body into thinking you’re a physically active person, even though you’re on the couch binging on some Netflix.

Read: Modius is a neurostimulation wearable that tricks your body into burning fat

Man responsible for strong password requirements regrets his 2003 guidelines

The man responsible for your requirement to use a combination of lower-case letters, upper-case letters, numbers, and symbols in passwords at least eight characters long is now regretting his advice. Former National Institute of Standards and Technology manager Bill Burr recently admitted in an interview with The Wall Street Journal that his 2003 document about crafting strong passwords and changing them every 90 days was somewhat off the mark.

At the time, he said that users will choose an easily remembered, easily guessed password, and likely one stemming from a batch of “a few thousand commonly chosen passwords.” In turn, hackers trying to gain access to user accounts, computers, and so on would try the most likely chosen passwords first. But even though services would reject specific passwords given their common use, Burr suggested a more secure alternative.

Read: Man responsible for strong password requirements regrets his 2003 guidelines

Trying trippy tech beneath the experimental domes of The Lab

Last year, Goldenvoice, organizers of the popular Coachella festival, installed a huge dome full of tech experiences at the inaugural Panorama Music Festival in New York City. The Lab, as it was known, blew people away. This year it’s back, and three times larger than before.

It’s also more immersive, as artists were required to increase interconnectivity, according to Justin Bolognino, founder and CEO of META — the company that curated the artists featured in The Lab. “Eight people, minimum, had to be able to interact with an installation at the same time,” he told Digital Trends.

We stepped inside The Lab, explored its exhibits, and spoke with the lucky fans who experienced it alongside us. Here’s what we saw, heard, and yes, smelled.

Read: Trying trippy tech beneath the experimental domes of The Lab

Police photo shows maniac driver using a phone in each hand at 60mph

Driving while holding and using a mobile phone is dangerous, stupid, and in the vast majority of places, illegal. However, people still do it, and in the U.K. a particularly keen phone user was caught on camera using not one, but two phones while driving. He wasn’t juggling one phone with the other, but was holding a device in each hand, leaving no hands available for steering the car. He was also traveling at 60 mph.

It’s hard to believe someone would do something so dangerous, but the news comes from a very reliable source — the local police force that caught the maniac driver. Surrey Police posted a photo on its Twitter account, taken with a police camera through the driver’s side window of the vehicle.

Read: Police photo shows maniac driver using a phone in each hand at 60mph

Put down the controllers! Players navigate this VR game using only their minds

From allowing people to pilot drones using only their mind to medical applications involving the control of smart prostheses, the ability to use brain activity to directly control technology is a field that’s advanced significantly in recent years. At the recent 2017 SIGGRAPH conference, tech company Neurable and VR graphics company Estudiofuture teamed up to show off something new: brain-controlled virtual reality.

In a tech demo, the companies demonstrated how a VR game created by Estudiofuture could be intuitively controlled by swapping out the regular hand controls from an HTC Vive headset for technology developed by Neurable; tech that monitors a user’s brain activity to determine their intent.

Read: Put down the controllers! Players navigate this VR game using only their minds

Meet TIKAD: the gun-toting drone that can aim, fire, and compensate for recoil

Have you ever looked at a drone and thought, “Yeah, that’s kind of neat, but I sure wish it came with some mounted firearms?” If so, you may be interested to hear about the TIKAD: a new drone that’s described by its Florida-based creators Duke Robotics as the “Future Soldier.”

Intended for military deployment, TIKAD is an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) designed to replace boots on the ground in some of the toughest warzones on the planet. It weighs 110 pounds (50kg), can fly at an altitude of anywhere from 30 to 1,500 feet and — oh yes — did we mention that it can sport a plethora of semi-automatic weapons, and a 40mm grenade launcher for good measure?

Read: Meet TIKAD: the gun-toting drone that can aim, fire, and compensate for recoil

Thync Relax Pro review

There’s something pleasingly sci-fi about the Thync Relax Pro, just like there was about the original Thync. It’s a wearable in the true sense, in that it fixes directly to your body and doesn’t do anything at all when it’s not. It’s designed to help the stressed relax, the anxious become calm, and the sleepless get more rest, which it does by stimulating nerves in the back of your neck using subtle-but-tingly electrical stimulation. It’s the wearable the crew of the Enterprise might choose, and the stuff of cyberpunk dreams.

 Before we go any further — yes, it’s safe. The original version, which uses the same low electrical output signal, has logged 2,500,000 minutes of use, backing up studies and surveys all indicating the safety of nerve stimulation. There’s no reason to worry it’ll burn you, cause your head to explode, or otherwise disfigure you during your quest for a bit of relaxation.

Read: Thync Relax Pro review

If you are thinking about buying a Fitbit, these deals make it the perfect time

Amazon is offering discounts on select Fitbit fitness tracker models, and to help you find the best Fitbit for your lifestyle, we created a rundown of the ones on sale. If you’ve been on the hunt for a wearable to accompany you on your workouts, now is a great time to score a deal on a brand-name activity tracker.

Read: If you are thinking about buying a Fitbit, these deals make it the perfect time

Facebook mounts assault on Netflix and Amazon with new ‘Watch’ platform

Facebook is revamping the way its users view video on its social network, beginning with the launch of a new platform called Watch. The move, which will bring with it a growing amount of original content, is part of a grand plan by the social networking giant to better compete with video-streaming rivals such as Netflix, Amazon, and YouTube.

The new platform for Facebook’s mobile, desktop, and television apps will start to show up this week for select users in the U.S. before hitting more locations “soon.”

Watch promises to be a more structured version of the video tab that the company launched last year, and will offer suggestions for new shows based on what your friends and communities are enjoying.

Read: Facebook mounts assault on Netflix and Amazon with new ‘Watch’ platform

T-Mobile Revvl, Revvl T2, and Revvl T3 Pro news and rumors

T-Mobile may be readying an entire self-branded lineup of affordable smartphones, and the first has been revealed. In early May, details of the T-Mobile Revvl, Revvl T2, and Revvl T3 Pro began to surface. The company announced it is officially releasing the first of the lineup — the Revvl — but we have yet to hear about the other models.

TCL-owned Alcatel is designing and producing the Revvl phones, and they are all expected to be cheaper than Apple’s entry-level iPhone (less than $650). They will also launch alongside a commitment-free T-Mobile service that comes with a lifetime warranty and insurance included.

We don’t know much about the entire T-Mobile’s Revvl lineup, but we’re learning more every day. Here is what we have so far.

Read: T-Mobile Revvl, Revvl T2, and Revvl T3 Pro news and rumors

Weekly Rewind: Trippy tech, mind zappers, and password regrets

A lot can happen in a week when it comes to tech. The constant onslaught of news makes it nigh impossible for mere mortals with real lives to keep track of everything. That’s why we’ve compiled a quick and dirty list of this week’s top tech stories, from a fat-burning headband to Facebook’s take on Netflix — it’s all here.

Modius is a neurostimulation wearable that tricks your body into burning fat

Wear this headset for 45 minutes a day, and you could hack your body into burning more fat, resulting in a leaner, meaner look. No, it’s not a “miracle” cure ad for the terminally podgy, but the pitch for the Neurovalens Modius, a neurostimulation device that sounds almost too good to be true. For less time that one would normally spend in the gym, this piece of tech fools your body into thinking it’s exercising, and decreases appetite, all to help you achieve those hard-to-reach weight-loss goals without much effort.

Suspend your disbelief for a second. Here’s how it works. The Modius is a headset worn like a pair of headphones, just without the cups over your ears. Instead, two pads sit just beneath your ears and zap low-power electrical impulses to your vestibular nerve, activating the hypothalamus. Neurovalens says this fools the body into thinking you’re a physically active person, even though you’re on the couch binging on some Netflix.

Read: Modius is a neurostimulation wearable that tricks your body into burning fat

Man responsible for strong password requirements regrets his 2003 guidelines

The man responsible for your requirement to use a combination of lower-case letters, upper-case letters, numbers, and symbols in passwords at least eight characters long is now regretting his advice. Former National Institute of Standards and Technology manager Bill Burr recently admitted in an interview with The Wall Street Journal that his 2003 document about crafting strong passwords and changing them every 90 days was somewhat off the mark.

At the time, he said that users will choose an easily remembered, easily guessed password, and likely one stemming from a batch of “a few thousand commonly chosen passwords.” In turn, hackers trying to gain access to user accounts, computers, and so on would try the most likely chosen passwords first. But even though services would reject specific passwords given their common use, Burr suggested a more secure alternative.

Read: Man responsible for strong password requirements regrets his 2003 guidelines

Trying trippy tech beneath the experimental domes of The Lab

Last year, Goldenvoice, organizers of the popular Coachella festival, installed a huge dome full of tech experiences at the inaugural Panorama Music Festival in New York City. The Lab, as it was known, blew people away. This year it’s back, and three times larger than before.

It’s also more immersive, as artists were required to increase interconnectivity, according to Justin Bolognino, founder and CEO of META — the company that curated the artists featured in The Lab. “Eight people, minimum, had to be able to interact with an installation at the same time,” he told Digital Trends.

We stepped inside The Lab, explored its exhibits, and spoke with the lucky fans who experienced it alongside us. Here’s what we saw, heard, and yes, smelled.

Read: Trying trippy tech beneath the experimental domes of The Lab

Police photo shows maniac driver using a phone in each hand at 60mph

Driving while holding and using a mobile phone is dangerous, stupid, and in the vast majority of places, illegal. However, people still do it, and in the U.K. a particularly keen phone user was caught on camera using not one, but two phones while driving. He wasn’t juggling one phone with the other, but was holding a device in each hand, leaving no hands available for steering the car. He was also traveling at 60 mph.

It’s hard to believe someone would do something so dangerous, but the news comes from a very reliable source — the local police force that caught the maniac driver. Surrey Police posted a photo on its Twitter account, taken with a police camera through the driver’s side window of the vehicle.

Read: Police photo shows maniac driver using a phone in each hand at 60mph

Put down the controllers! Players navigate this VR game using only their minds

From allowing people to pilot drones using only their mind to medical applications involving the control of smart prostheses, the ability to use brain activity to directly control technology is a field that’s advanced significantly in recent years. At the recent 2017 SIGGRAPH conference, tech company Neurable and VR graphics company Estudiofuture teamed up to show off something new: brain-controlled virtual reality.

In a tech demo, the companies demonstrated how a VR game created by Estudiofuture could be intuitively controlled by swapping out the regular hand controls from an HTC Vive headset for technology developed by Neurable; tech that monitors a user’s brain activity to determine their intent.

Read: Put down the controllers! Players navigate this VR game using only their minds

Meet TIKAD: the gun-toting drone that can aim, fire, and compensate for recoil

Have you ever looked at a drone and thought, “Yeah, that’s kind of neat, but I sure wish it came with some mounted firearms?” If so, you may be interested to hear about the TIKAD: a new drone that’s described by its Florida-based creators Duke Robotics as the “Future Soldier.”

Intended for military deployment, TIKAD is an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) designed to replace boots on the ground in some of the toughest warzones on the planet. It weighs 110 pounds (50kg), can fly at an altitude of anywhere from 30 to 1,500 feet and — oh yes — did we mention that it can sport a plethora of semi-automatic weapons, and a 40mm grenade launcher for good measure?

Read: Meet TIKAD: the gun-toting drone that can aim, fire, and compensate for recoil

Thync Relax Pro review

There’s something pleasingly sci-fi about the Thync Relax Pro, just like there was about the original Thync. It’s a wearable in the true sense, in that it fixes directly to your body and doesn’t do anything at all when it’s not. It’s designed to help the stressed relax, the anxious become calm, and the sleepless get more rest, which it does by stimulating nerves in the back of your neck using subtle-but-tingly electrical stimulation. It’s the wearable the crew of the Enterprise might choose, and the stuff of cyberpunk dreams.

 Before we go any further — yes, it’s safe. The original version, which uses the same low electrical output signal, has logged 2,500,000 minutes of use, backing up studies and surveys all indicating the safety of nerve stimulation. There’s no reason to worry it’ll burn you, cause your head to explode, or otherwise disfigure you during your quest for a bit of relaxation.

Read: Thync Relax Pro review

If you are thinking about buying a Fitbit, these deals make it the perfect time

Amazon is offering discounts on select Fitbit fitness tracker models, and to help you find the best Fitbit for your lifestyle, we created a rundown of the ones on sale. If you’ve been on the hunt for a wearable to accompany you on your workouts, now is a great time to score a deal on a brand-name activity tracker.

Read: If you are thinking about buying a Fitbit, these deals make it the perfect time

Facebook mounts assault on Netflix and Amazon with new ‘Watch’ platform

Facebook is revamping the way its users view video on its social network, beginning with the launch of a new platform called Watch. The move, which will bring with it a growing amount of original content, is part of a grand plan by the social networking giant to better compete with video-streaming rivals such as Netflix, Amazon, and YouTube.

The new platform for Facebook’s mobile, desktop, and television apps will start to show up this week for select users in the U.S. before hitting more locations “soon.”

Watch promises to be a more structured version of the video tab that the company launched last year, and will offer suggestions for new shows based on what your friends and communities are enjoying.

Read: Facebook mounts assault on Netflix and Amazon with new ‘Watch’ platform

T-Mobile Revvl, Revvl T2, and Revvl T3 Pro news and rumors

T-Mobile may be readying an entire self-branded lineup of affordable smartphones, and the first has been revealed. In early May, details of the T-Mobile Revvl, Revvl T2, and Revvl T3 Pro began to surface. The company announced it is officially releasing the first of the lineup — the Revvl — but we have yet to hear about the other models.

TCL-owned Alcatel is designing and producing the Revvl phones, and they are all expected to be cheaper than Apple’s entry-level iPhone (less than $650). They will also launch alongside a commitment-free T-Mobile service that comes with a lifetime warranty and insurance included.

We don’t know much about the entire T-Mobile’s Revvl lineup, but we’re learning more every day. Here is what we have so far.

Read: T-Mobile Revvl, Revvl T2, and Revvl T3 Pro news and rumors

Researchers create flexible battery that can run on salt water

When it comes to making batteries for wearables or implantable medical devices, there are a few features that have to be incorporated. The batteries need to be flexible and remain functional while being bent or twisted, and ideally, they’ll be absent of harmful chemicals. So far, batteries developed for these uses don’t meet that latter requirement and instead pack on extra material to keep the chemicals from leaking and coming in contact with human tissue. But that often makes them bulky and rigid. However, a research team in China has developed a new type of flexible battery that doesn’t require dangerous chemicals.

Instead of packing electrolytes that are corrosive or toxic, the team used sodium-based chemicals like sodium sulfate, which was once used as a laxative, as well as saline and a solution used for cell culture. While it’s still preferable that those solutions don’t leak out of the batteries and onto or inside of a human, if they do, it wouldn’t pose the same risks that other batteries’ chemicals do. Because excessive leakage-prevention measures — and therefore, added materials — aren’t required, the battery can easily maintain flexibility.

The research team created two versions — a belt-shaped model and a nanotube. The sodium sulfate electrolyte worked best of the three solutions tested and its function held up against similarly-sized lithium-ion batteries currently used in wearables. And the performance of the belt-shaped version wasn’t impacted even after it was bent 100 times at different angles.

That these batteries can function off of sodium-based liquids means that in the future these devices might be able to run off of body fluids like sweat. And the researchers discovered that the nanotube batteries might have an additional unforeseen use. After observing that the nanotubes were accelerating the conversion of dissolved oxygen into hydroxide ions, which isn’t great for battery power, they realized that this could be a feature if the devices were used in a slightly different way. “We can implant these fiber-shaped electrodes into the human body to consume essential oxygen, especially for areas that are difficult for injectable drugs to reach,” researcher Yonggang Wang said in a statement. “Deoxygenation might even wipe out cancerous cells or pathogenic bacteria since they are very sensitive to changes in living environment pH. Of course, this is hypothetical right now, but we hope to investigate further with biologists and medical scientists.”

The work was published this week in the journal Chem.

Via: The Verge

Source: Chem

Facebook acquires a German computer vision startup

Facebook’s latest startup acquisition is German computer vision company Fayteq, a company that develops plugins for editing applications like Adobe After Effects that let you add or remove objects from existing video. After the purchase, Fayteq added a note on its website notifying customers that its products and services were no longer available for purchase.

Other recent Facebook acquisitions include Source3, the expertise of which Facebook plans to direct towards hunting down video piracy, and AI startup Ozlo. Fayteq’s technology could be put to use in various video features like Facebook Live or Stories or it could be worked into the company’s Camera Effects Platform, which includes a developer tool for generating AR effects.

Details about the acquisition are slim, but Facebook did confirm the deal to numerous sources after German publication Deutsche Startups first reported the news.

Source: Variety