US is ready to hack Russia if it interferes with the election
American officials are nervous that Russia’s alleged attempt to influence the election could extend to the vote itself, and they aren’t willing to take any chances. A senior intelligence source tells NBC News that US cyberwarfare agents are in a position to hack Russian critical infrastructure (including command systems, the electrical grid and telecoms) if there’s evidence of an attack that disrupts the election in a “significant way.” The US isn’t expecting such a large breach, but the message is clear: we can hurt you if you meddle with the democratic process.
It’s not certain just how much attack capability the US has at the moment. However, the nation may not be leaning solely on a well-timed media leak (provided this is accurate) to dissuade Russian hackers. The American government reportedly sent a “back channel” warning to the Russians, for one thing. Also, this wouldn’t be the US’ first rodeo — it’s launching online attacks against ISIS, and its intelligence agencies are no stranger to having access to whole countries’ telecom networks. You underestimate the potential for retaliation at your own peril, in other words.
The more immediate fear is that Russia will try as much as it can without crossing the line. Guccifer 2.0 (who’s allegedly a cover for Russian spies) and others could disseminate false leaks and bogus voting information in a bid to sway the election at the last minute. That may be difficult to stop. It’s easy for anyone to whip up a temporary social network account that broadcasts misinformation for a few days, and it would be extremely aggressive to launch a hacking campaign as revenge for a fake scandal. Most likely, American leadership will be sitting on pins and needles until the final vote is cast… and possibly beyond that.
Source: NBC News
Uber settles big sexual assault cases in the US
Uber has settled with two Jane Does in the US who were allegedly sexually assaulted by the service’s drivers in 2015, according to Bloomberg. The plaintiffs filed a lawsuit against the company in California because they wanted to hold the ride-hailing service responsible for the suspects’ actions. Uber tried to argue that it can’t be held liable for its drivers since they’re contractors and not employees, but a federal judge denied its request to toss the case in May this year. Now, six months later, both parties have reached an agreement, though the details weren’t released to the public.
According to the first Jane Doe, an Uber driver assaulted her in February 2015 in Boston after dropping off her friends first. The second Jane Doe from South Carolina had a similar story, except she didn’t get away and was viciously raped in August 2015 after the driver dropped off her friends. These two cases put the focus on Uber’s oft-criticized background check process yet again: the company doesn’t fingerprint its drivers and merely checks their names against court documents. In this case, Uber missed one of the drivers’ assault conviction from 2003.
While the ride-sharing service has settled with the two Jane Does, it likely still has to deal with quite a few similar lawsuits. A document that leaked earlier this year showed that the company is dealing with numerous sexual assault allegations in many countries besides the US. India’s capital even banned the service in 2014 following a rape complaint, while a driver in France was suspended after he was arrested for sexual assault. A simple Google search will also bring up tons of stories about sexual assault happening to ride-sharing passengers all over the world.
Source: Bloomberg
Google snaps up the creators of a game-focused Android emulator
You can already run Android apps on a Chromebook, but would you run games and other intensive mobile apps on it? Probably not. However, Google might be taking steps to make that practical. The creators of LeapDroid, an Android emulator that specializes in games, have revealed that they’re joining Google just months after releasing it to the public. The team isn’t discussing “specific plans,” but they’re halting both development and support for LeapDroid. You can continue running the latest version, but you won’t get anything more than that.
It’s not clear just how the deal went down, although the team suggests that this isn’t a straight-up acquisition: LeapDroid is “not affiliated” with Google despite the move. We’ve asked Google for more details and will let you know if it can shed light on what’s happening.
However it happened, the move raises a few possibilities. On a basic level, it could help with Android’s performance in non-native environments — something as fast as LeapDroid could help developers testing Android apps, or give Chrome OS devices an extra boost running mobile titles. In the long term, though, it could be important for that oft-rumored Android/Chrome union. If you’re going to merge two largely disparate platforms, you want to eliminate as many potential hiccups as possible. While there’s no certainty that you’ll see conspicuous uses of LeapDroid’s tech, it won’t be surprising if the extra talent makes Google’s vision of computing that much more realistic.
Via: LeapDroid (Twitter)
Source: LeapDroid
Nintendo is reviving the NES’ hint line for one weekend
When Nintendo releases the NES Classic Edition on November 11th, it won’t limit the nostalgia to the hardware you take home. The company is marking the launch by resurrecting its classic Power Line for that weekend. Call 425-885-7529 between 9AM and 10PM Eastern each day (until the night of the 13th) and you can get both hints for “several” games as well as stories from people who manned the phones on the original line back in the 1980s. The tips are pre-recorded, alas, but this could easily rekindle memories of a pre-web era when your best bets at help usually involved calling the Power Line or asking a friend. Our main question: will the phone line stick to the same tips you got as a kid, or offer a few juicy secrets?
Via: Kotaku
Source: Nintendo
Uber gets slapped with lawsuit over missing food delivery tips
A courier in New York who used to deliver food for Uber has filed a lawsuit against the company over unpaid tips, according to Buzzfeed News. In the lawsuit, he said that tips from customers never made it to him and other delivery personnel for UberRush and UberEats. Both services deliver food to your doorstep from nearby restaurants, but they still have their differences. Rush mainly operates through GrubHub’s delivery service whose rates typically include online gratuity, none of which (the plaintiff said) made it to couriers’ pockets.
Eats, on the other hand, doesn’t allow in-app tips at all as one of its purposes is to eliminate delivery tipping. It charges a $3 “booking fee,” but the plaintiff argues that according to the law, a company must “adequately notify the customer” that this fee they’re charging is not a gratuity in easily understood language written in “no smaller than 12-point font.” Its checkout page does have a disclaimer that says “Tips are not included in the cost of your order. Tips are neither expected nor required.” The plaintiff believes that’s not enough, so the booking fees should go to the couriers.
As for where the missing online gratuities and booking fees go, well, they typically seem to get lost somewhere along the way. Uber told BuzzFeed that it’s the restaurants’ responsibility to make sure tips reach delivery personnel and that it even redesigned the Uber-GrubHub dashboard to make the task easier. However, couriers say they get ignored when they take it up with the restaurants.
Online delivery services typically go through so many channels that losing tips somewhere down the chain isn’t that uncommon. When four Prime Now drivers in LA sued Amazon, their complaint included not getting the tips customers would pay via credit card. This also isn’t Uber’s first rodeo with tip-related lawsuits: in September this year, it agreed to pay riders $384,000 for pocketing around half of the 20 percent tip its app automatically charges passengers.
Source: BuzzFeed News
New Zealand carriers will block the Galaxy Note 7
If you think that Samsung’s constant software reminders to return the Galaxy Note 7 aren’t enough to make stubborn owners change their minds, you should book a trip to New Zealand. All of the country’s wireless carriers will block the discontinued smartphone on their networks as of November 18th. Essentially, they’re turning the Note 7 into a paperweight. You can use it on WiFi, but it won’t be very useful as, well, a phone. New Zealand is expected to rely on the same IMEI (hardware identifier) blocking that telecoms use to render stolen phones useless, so you’d have to jump through hoops to have any hope of restoring cellular functionality.
There aren’t many Note 7s left in the country. Its Telecommunications Forum reckons that the number of holdouts has dwindled to the “low hundreds.” Clearly, though, local providers don’t want to take chances. They’d rather not be held responsible if an owner decides to keep the device and watches it go up in flames. You won’t necessarily see other countries follow suit, but it won’t be shocking if that happens. Eventually, the only users left are likely to be those who refuse to give it back — network bans could convince them that it’s not worth the risk just to say that they have a collector’s item.
Via: 9to5Google
Source: Stuff
Fisker’s EMotion sports car, and more in the week that was
Tesla swept headlines this week by launching a groundbreaking solar roof tile that’s better looking and longer lasting than standard shingles. The technology could trickle down to the company’s cars too — Elon Musk hinted that the upcoming Tesla Model 3 could feature a solar roof that melts ice and snow while generating energy from the sun. Meanwhile, legendary automotive designer Henrik Fisker finally unveiled his EMotion sports car, which will be able to drive 400 miles on a single charge when it launches next year. Nissan debuted the first all-electric mobile office, which is housed in a beautifully renovated e-nv200 van. And a Chinese company is getting ready to launch the world’s fastest maglev train, which will be able to hit 373 miles per hour.
How many Gigafactories would it take to power the entire world with renewable energy? To find the answer, Leonardo DiCaprio interviewed Elon Musk in his new documentary Before the Flood, and it turns out it would take about 100. In other energy news, the largest thermal solar plant on the planet could be coming to Nevada, while the Netherlands is spending 150 million euros to turn cow poop into biogas. Voltaic pioneered the solar backpack nearly a decade ago, and now they’ve launched a powerful new line of completely redesigned bags that can charge phones, laptops and even drones. SolarAid launched the world’s most affordable solar light, which costs just $5, and designer Teresa van Dongen created an electricity-free lamp that is powered by bacteria.
Election Day is coming up next week, and designers are having a field day over Trump’s proposed border wall — one pokes fun at the plan’s “gorgeous perversity” with a massive pink wall, while another features a purple bridge that actually makes the border easier to cross. In other design news, scientists are using 3D printing technology to create more effective magnets with zero waste. MIT used plant nanobionics to create spinach leaves that detect dangerous explosives. And a new bionic eye chip brings us even closer to a device that can give sight to the blind.
After Math: Politics as usual
It’s been a crazy week for US politics, what with the end of the contentious 2016 election just around the corner. The New York Times announced that it would lower its paywall for the 72 hours surrounding election day while human dumpster fire Peter Thiel tried to explain away his support for Donald Trump. Security experts are also investigating why one of Trump’s servers keeps pinging a Russian bank as the FBI investigates one of its own Twitter accounts for violations of the Hatch Act. And no, you still can’t vote by phone, dummy. Numbers, because how else are you going to rig an election?
Ben Heck’s Atari junk keyboard, part 1
Time for Ben and Atari to make beautiful music together — almost. The team creates an instrument inspired by the sounds you’d hear on an Atari console, using a technique called circuit bending. This means Ben gets his digital flip-flops on and creates the digital circuits from scratch, combining it with an almost full-size piano keyboard and a lot of analysis using an oscilloscope. If you’re interested in how this might sound, Felix connects variable resistors (potentiometers) with the circuit and gives it a test run. Be sure to check out the next part to find out how the build comes along, and join the element14 Community to tell us about your music hacks.
Samsung’s Galaxy S8 will include an AI assistant
Samsung isn’t wasting any time before it makes use of Viv’s artificial intelligence know-how. In a an indirect confirmation of rumors, the tech giant has revealed that the upcoming Galaxy S8 will include an AI assistant as one of its star attractions. It’s not offering clues as to what this virtual helper will do, but it will let developers “attach and upload services” to extend the AI’s functionality beyond what you get out of the box. That’s not much different than what Apple and Google are offering for their own assistants, but it may be what Samsung isn’t talking about that’s special — Viv can create its own programs and understand complex intent in a way many AIs can’t.
As for other features, or a release date? Samsung isn’t talking. However, a recent Wall Street Journal report claims that Samsung delayed development of the S8 by weeks to help identify the Galaxy Note 7’s battery fire problem, potentially pushing back the unveiling beyond the usual February/March window.
It’s unusual for Samsung to explicitly discuss future smartphones months in advance. At best, it makes component announcements that are not-so-subtle hints as to the direction of its hardware. However, it’s not hard to see why Samsung would want to build buzz so early. The Note 7’s premature exit didn’t help Samsung’s reputation or its balance sheet — the company both wants to move past the fiasco and reassure phone buyers that it’s worth sticking around. A strong S8 launch could make the Note 7 seem like a distant (if painful) memory and convince many that it’s back to business as usual.
Source: Reuters
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