Latest OnePlus 5 update resolves KRACK vulnerability

OxygenOS 4.5.14 is rolling out to some users starting today, with a larger rollout taking place over the next few days.

Say what you will about OnePlus, it’s no secret that the company does a solid job at pushing out speedy software updates to its latest devices. Although the OnePlus 5T is right around the corner, the latest update for the OnePlus 5 is here, and its main focus in on making the phone more reliable and secure.

The biggest thing to take note of is that updating to OxygenOS 4.5.14 will get rid of the WPA2 vulnerability that was introduced with KRACK in mid-October. This is big news for all OnePlus 5 users, and it’s great to see OnePlus pushing out a fix so soon.

In addition to this, the update also includes support for Airtel VoLTE in India, Band 66 support for Freedom customers in Canada, optimized battery usage and GPS accuracy, as well as general bug fixes throughout the OS.

OnePlus says that the over-the-air update will start to hit some users’ devices starting today, with a larger rollout happening over the next few days.

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The Spinner Cube is the ultimate desk toy for fidgeters!

Fidget spinner or fidget cube? 🤔 Why not both! 🙌

It’s safe to say that fidget spinners and fidget cubes were some of the biggest trends of the past year. They’re especially popular with school-age kids who have issues with stress or a lack of focus, but they’ve struck a chord with all ages and are a popular desk toy — I got my fidget cube right next to me right now!

Given the popularity, it seemed like only a matter of time before the next evolution of fidget toy emerged and here it is: The Spinner Cube

While this might look like your standard fidget cube looks can be deceiving. Four of the sides have a unique feature for your fingers to fidget with — a joystick for your itchy gamer’s thumb, a spring-loaded trigger that also mimics a game controller, three rolling clickable balls, and five audible and silent clicker buttons for the pen clickers in the crowd. The remaining two sides features spinning pads with high-quality ball bearings that will spin up to 60 seconds unassisted, or indefinitely with a few shakes thanks to the off-balanced design.

Check out this (quite literal) breakdown of what’s inside the Spinner Cube:

The Spinner Cube has already well surpassed its goal, but there’s still time to back the project and get your own Spinner Cube at a discounted price. The team behind the Spinner Cube has spent a year designing and setting up production facilities in China, and have turned to Kickstarter to cover costs as they ramp up production overseas — and as always, that means there are deals to be had for backing this campaign.

The Spinner Cube will retail for $25, but you can save 28% and get a Spinner Cube of your own with an early bird pledge of $18. Got a couple people on your shopping list that would love a Spinner Cube? The savings and perks only increase as you pledge more — get two cubes at the $34 level, three with a pledge of $48, and so on up to a 100 Spinner Cube perk for a pledge of $900 or more — a great option if you happen to own a small business. They’re also available in four color styles.

This is the first Kickstarter campaign created by this team and the good news is they’ve already well surpassed their goal of $9,000! This is arguably the ultimate fidget toy and just might keep the wheels spinning on this fad well into 2018!

See Spinner Cube on Kickstarter

Amazon’s new Retro Zone sells video games and nostalgia

Nostalgia sells. Retro games sell, too. Amazon just wants to capitalize on that venture.

Amazon has opened a new section of its site called “Retro Zone.” This is a curated section that mostly features older video games and video game peripherals. Right now the site is divided into sections featuring retro apps, console games and gaming peripherals, retro clothing with t-shirts that say “Pong” on them, toys, and books. Dive into nostalgia with a Sonic plush toy, Pac-Man mini arcade, or artwork from Atari.

The site is mostly just a collection of stuff from around Amazon. There are a few unique additions, though. Some of the retro apps, which are accessible via Amazon’s Android Appstore, come with Amazon-exclusive in-game skins. Oddworld: Munch’s Oddysee, for example, comes with an orange skin for Abe.

Retro doesn’t always mean old, either. Some of the apps are actually modern games with a retro style, like Stranger Things: The Game. As time goes on, we’ll probably see a much wider variety of both older games and games made in an older style added to this section.

Beyond the few products you can buy, the best part about Retro Zone right now is the giveaway Amazon is doing to promote it. You can enter for your chance to win one of five SNES Classics. Given how fast the supplies run out for those, this giveaway probably gives you some of your best odds of getting one.

While this section seems to mostly be a place for Amazon to peddle the few retro-style products they already sell and push apps from the Appstore, it would be interesting if the section on games set its eyes on platforms like Steam or GOG.com. I’m not saying it will, but that sort of competition could mean big savings for gamers down the road. Now that would be interesting.

Galaxy Note 8 Enterprise Edition comes with three years of security updates

Available now for $994 per device.

There’s already a lot to love with Samsung’s Galaxy Note 8. The S Pen’s huge feature-set is endless amounts of fun, the 6.3-inch QuadHD Super AMOLED display is a thing of beauty, and the dual-camera system allows for all the portrait shots you can capture. Samsung recently announced the Note 8 Enterprise Edition, and while it’s mostly the same as the regular Note 8, it’s most distinguishing fact is its three years of guaranteed security updates.

There are two main selling points for the Note 8 Enterprise Edition, and Samsung is referring to these as “Customization with Simplified Deployment & Management” and “Enhanced Security & Business Continuity.”

Monthly security updates are guaranteed for three years.

The three years of security updates are part of the latter of those two things, and those updates will be pushed out every single month for that entire three-year span. Samsung is also advertising to business owners that they’ll be able to purchase the same device model for up to two years to ensure that all employees are rocking the same hardware.

As for “Customization with Simplified Deployment & Management”, the Note 8 will come equipped with Samsung Knox Configure for remote IT support, as well as Samsung Enterprise Firmware Over the Air services to “reduce downtime and simplify the complexity of enterprise-wide smartphone deployments.”

The Note 8 Enterprise Edition costs $994, and it’s now available for purchase through authorized Samsung partners.

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Virtual reality could be the answer to treating phantom pain

People who become paraplegics due to a spinal injury usually have to deal with more than just losing the feeling in their legs. They also have to battle excruciating phantom pain, which doctors can’t cure with medicine. Now, scientists from the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) have found a way to alleviate the pain they feel using a pair of fake legs and the magic of immersive virtual reality.

The team had test subjects wear VR goggles showing live feed from a camera filming a set of dummy legs. Since the camera was positioned to mimic a person’s POV in relation to their legs, the VR provided the illusion that the dummy legs were truly theirs. So, when the scientists simultaneously tapped the dummy legs and the area above the subjects’ spinal lesions caused by their injury, the subjects eventually felt like it was their own legs being tapped. They told the researchers that the sensation diminished the neuropathic pain they felt.

Team leader Olaf Blanke said that “it takes about a minute of simultaneously tapping for the illusion to take place.” He explained that “the tapping on the back gets translated onto the legs because the visual stimulus dominates over the tactile one.” His researchers are now developing what they’re calling an immersive digital therapy that automates visuo-tactile stimulations for spinal injury patients and people suffering from chronic pain conditions.

EPFL didn’t say whether it could also work for amputees and people who have other types of conditions, but this is far from the first time scientists thought of using virtual reality in medicine. There’s a team of researchers from Duke University who developed a VR system that helped paralyzed patients regain some movement. Another team from Europe is exploring the use of VR to fight depression, while a group from Oxford University conducted experiments that used VR to help paranoia patients confront their fears.

Source: École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne

‘Erica’ blurs the line between game and interactive movie

Sony’s PlayStation 4 will never have the same widespread appeal as the Nintendo Wii. It’s a popular console with an extensive library, but it hasn’t captured the casual market quite like Nintendo’s machine did in 2006. Sony is trying to change that, however, with a slew of film-like experiences including Until Dawn and Hidden Agenda. The latest example is Erica, a live-action hybrid developed by London studio Flavourworks. It’s not quite a video game, but the level of control is also far beyond what classic FMV (full-motion video) titles usually offer.

The story follows Erica, a young woman haunted by a traumatic childhood. She’s contacted by an old family friend who believes her memories hold the key to catching a murderer. Everything gets more complicated, however, when the so-called killer contacts Erica directly and offers a different story. Suddenly, the game’s heroine is forced to investigate and find out the truth for herself.

Jack Attridge, creative director at Flavourworks, took me through a brief demo at Paris Games Week. He controlled everything with a PlayLink-enabled smartphone, though the final game will also support the regular DualShock 4 controller. It began with a simple Zippo lighter, which Attridge slowly opened and sparked to life with his finger. It then jumped to a scene with Erica standing in front of a fogged-up mirror. Attridge swiped to remove some condensation before wiping a tear from Erica’s cheek and brushing some of her hair away.

That last part made me uncomfortable — it’s the kind of thing a supervillain would do — but it showed the level of interactivity Flavourworks is shooting for. It’s certainly impressive, surpassing classic FMV titles like Night Trap and Dragon’s Lair, as well as recent examples like Her Story and Contradiction: Spot the Liar. There are no 3D models or big-budget CGI effects — according to Attridge, everything is “100 percent live-action.” But the game offers a degree of control that would be hard to pull off with smartly arranged video files. When Attridge opened the lighter, for instance, he could slowly drag it open, or stop and watch the lid bounce shut.

The company is staying tight-lipped about the technology behind the game. “We want people to focus more on the output,” Attridge said. “We like keeping the mystery behind it.”

Before long, the shot was replaced by a dark street with a telephone box in the distance. Using his smartphone, Attridge dragged a cursor and changed the point of focus between Erica and the receiver in the distance. There were no load times, pauses or stutters; everything was seamless. To demonstrate this immediacy, Attridge tapped on the telephone and instantly triggered a conversation between Erica and a mysterious woman. “I knew you couldn’t stay away,” the voice hissed. “Such a curious thing.” Words and phrases (literally) hang in the air, allowing Attridge to pick Erica’s response.

After a few cryptic exchanges, the strange caller warned Erica not to “break the seal.” Before I could contemplate what that meant, the scene changed again, this time to a small office. Attridge dragged his finger slowly to creak open the door and peer inside. It seemed to be empty, so he finished the action and guided Erica toward a nearby desk. “Everything kind of listens to us,” he explained. “So if I had opened that door really fast, it would have made a lot of noise. People might have heard me, and you would have seen Erica react to that.”

There were no load times, pauses or stutters; everything was seamless.

Most interactive movies have, ironically, few points of interaction. You might watch a scene that’s five- or 10-minutes long before making a crucial decision that sparks the next sequence. With Erica, however, Flavourworks is aiming for an experience that requires you to tap or swipe every 15 seconds. Inside the room, there were countless objects with a white circle above them, indicating that they could be touched or investigated. For the next five minutes, Attridge flipped through books, rummaged through drawers and searched for a safe combination. It was just like a point-and-click adventure game.

Later in the demo, Erica found a knife. Suddenly, a man in a suit strolled in and triggered a difficult choice: attack, or wait and hear what he has to say. At this point, Attridge turned to see what I (and a small group of journalists) wanted to see happen next. Of course, we chose the former. Attridge chuckled, tapped the corresponding prompt and sat back as we all let out a loud groan: Erica bumbled forward, allowing the man to easily grab her arm and deflect the attack. “We were a bit too late,” Attridge explained.

Erica is a single-player game, so unlike fellow PlayLink title Hidden Agenda, you can’t have a group of people voting with their individual smartphones. You can, however, take a quick poll the old-fashioned way and have the person holding the controller — or in this case, the handset — follow through with whatever everyone has agreed upon.

Erica and the strange man conversed for a while. Eventually, she was handed an envelope with a crimson seal, alluding to the mysterious telephone call from before. Again, Attridge asked for a vote, and we all agreed to see what was inside anyway. Without spoiling anything, the subsequent events caused the demo to end rather abruptly. As the screen went black, I was left feeling equally confused and intrigued.

According to Attridge, the demo was actually a year old. The team has been working on the underlying technology for years and didn’t want to reveal the project until it was further along into development. The story has now been finalized, but the studio is still filming scenes with Erica actress Sophia Del Pizzo (The Amityville Asylum, Philip K. Dick’s Electric Dreams) in London. For now, there’s no release date — just a short, cryptic trailer on YouTube and the promise of more information “in the coming months.”

Attridge confirmed the game will have a branching storyline of sorts. The choices you make will subtly affect the characters you encounter and the information that’s relayed to you. That, in turn, will inform your decision near the end of the game and the final outcome. “Every decision you make gives you a different sort of view on the truth,” Attridge said. “It’s not about, ‘Do I go left, or do I go right.’ It’s literally that you will be fed different information and different biases.” Ultimately, however, it will be for you to decide who is telling the truth.

Erica is a curious game and movie blend. Flavourworks says it’s aiming for a “movie-night appeal” with a runtime of roughly two to three hours. That’s perfect for parties and people who might not be comfortably pouring hundreds of hours into a RPG. It does, however, put greater emphasis on the pricing. Erica will effectively compete with movie rentals, rather than the latest Bethesda shooter or Uncharted adventure. The game will have some replayability, Attridge stressed, but for many, I suspect, it will be one-and-done. Anything more than $20, therefore, could make it a hard sell.

Follow all the latest news from Sony’s PlayStation event here!

DOJ may sue to block AT&T’s purchase of Time Warner

Today, The Wall Street Journal reported that the US Department of Justice may bring an antitrust case against AT&T’s acquisition of Time Warner. The DOJ may currently be in talks with both companies that could lead to a settlement with conditions for approval of the merger. However, the newspaper reports that the justice department isn’t close to an agreement with the two companies, and that the organization is preparing for litigation in case this is decided in the courts. It’s unclear how this situation will progress, and what the timing of any decisions might be.

Last year, AT&T announced that it would purchase Time Warner for $85.4 billion in cash and stock. If it goes through, it will give the telecommunication company control over a huge swath of movies and TV properties, such as HBO and Warner Brothers. AT&T hoped to close the deal by the end of 2017, but that might be difficult now.

AT&T has managed to avoid FCC scrutiny over the merger by dumping Time Warner’s FCC licenses, either by selling them to another broadcaster or dropping them altogether. Without the need to transfer over these licenses, the FCC does not have to approve the acquisition. The DOJ is a different story, however, and considering the competitive advantages this could give AT&T in the marketplace, it’s not surprising that the justice department has taken an interest. Many industry insiders believed that the deal would go through without a hitch, but it’s clear that there might be regulatory hurdles in front of the merger.

Via: CNBC

Source: The Wall Street Journal

Cosmic rays unlock new secrets in Egypt’s Great Pyramid

It turns out that the 4,500 year old Great Pyramid of Giza still has some secrets to share. Using cosmic-ray imaging, an international team detected a large chamber within the structure that was previously unidentified, according to Nature. It’s the first discovery within the Great Pyramid since the 19th century.

When galactic cosmic rays hit the Earth’s upper atmosphere, they produce particles called muons. Muons are partially absorbed by stone and other materials, so scientists can use the particles to detect the spaces within structures. Researchers have previously used muon detection to determine makeup of volcanoes and to map the inside of the Fukushima nuclear reactor.

In December 2016, Kunihori Morishima, a physicist at Nagoya University in Japan, led a team that placed muon detectors within the Queen’s chamber of the Great Pyramid. The devices would record the muons passing through the chamber from above. Because stone can absorb muons, a higher-than-expected number of muons hitting the detectors would mean that there was an unidentified chamber somewhere in the pyramid. After a few months, they saw some success, and asked two other physicist teams to check their results by placing their own muon detectors.

All three groups found a previously unidentified chamber within the pyramid’s structure, above the Grand Gallery. It’s about 30 meters (almost 100 feet) long. “It was a big surprise,” said Tayoubi to Nature. “We’re really excited.” It’s unclear what the purpose of the structure is, but Tayoubi suggests it could be a second Grand Gallery, based on its size and cross section. It also could be the location of the Earth’s Stargate.

Next, Tayoubi’s team wants to place muon detectors within the second-largest pyramid at Giza, Khafre’s Pyramid. While cosmic rays detectors were used in the pyramid in the 1960s, they were much more primitive, recording the data on magnetic tape. Tayoubi hopes that his experiments will find more hidden chambers in Egypt’s pyramids.

Via: Associated Press

Source: Nature

CIA releases Bin Laden’s personal files with malware warning

Yesterday, the Central Intelligence Agency posted almost 470,000 files (around 321 GB) that were recovered during the raid on Osama bin Laden’s Abbottabad compound in May 2011. This is by far the largest release of material found during the operation that resulted in the al-Qaeda leader’s death.

Documents include bin Laden’s personal journal, home videos of both bin Laden and al-Qaeda, propaganda, speeches, audio correspondence and more. The CIA has withheld certain materials, including pornography, copyrighted items (Final Fantasy VII and Resident Evil are on the list) and malware. The documents shed interesting light on disagreements within al-Qaeda’s ranks and the organization’s problems with ISIS.

The CIA warns interested users trying to download the files to keep in mind that “this material was seized from a terrorist organization.” While the agency has done a preliminary review of the files and withheld any contents with malicious software attached, that doesn’t mean that it’s all gone. In other words, download judiciously and at your own risk — and it appears people are doing just that. At the time of this writing, the files aren’t currently available due to a “technical issue.” The organization is working to make the files available again as soon as possible — or possibly, just adding more bandwith to its servers.

Via: Ars Technica

Source: CIA (2), CIA (1)

Grammarly Debuts iOS Keyboard App to Help Improve Your Grammar in Messages, Twitter, and More

Grammarly this week announced the launch of the Grammarly Keyboard app for iOS devices, which is available on the iOS App Store right now. Once added as a new keyboard in Settings, the app will then use Grammarly’s grammar-checking software to proofread text you send in essentially any app that uses a keyboard.

Grammarly Keyboard will catch context-specific mistakes related to grammar, spelling, and punctuation, and Grammarly Premium users will be able to choose from various style improvements as well as gain more advanced word choice options. Above each correction is a short and clear explanation as to why Grammarly chose to fix the error, which the company says will help you “understand your mistakes and avoid them in the future.”

In the company’s blog post, examples are given of using Grammarly Keyboard in apps like Facebook, Twitter, Messages, Mail, Tinder, and more. The app can even warn you of when an auto-correct message has been typed and fix it before you send the message.

The keyboard integrates seamlessly with all your mobile apps and your mobile browser, so you’ll always look polished and professional, even on your phone.

Developed by some of the world’s leading authorities on linguistic technology, Grammarly’s algorithms not only catch context-specific grammar and spelling mistakes, but also the kind of confusing sentences that leave your colleagues (or worse, your boss) wondering what you’re talking about. For Grammarly Premium users, the keyboard will also improve word choice and suggest style improvements so the need for “Sent from my iPhone” can become a relic of the past.

After downloading Grammarly Keyboard for free [Direct Link], you’ll have to allow the app to have full access to your keyboard in the iOS Settings app. Then, just tap the globe icon to cycle through your keyboards until you see Grammarly.

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