Ask Ooloo puts the ‘person’ back in personal assistant

Before Google dominated search, Ask Jeeves depended on a team of humans — yes, humans — to answer your internet queries. Ultimately, search algorithms killed the internet’s favorite butler, but the idea that humans are worthy competition for the software we create didn’t follow him to the grave. Case in point: Ask Ooloo, a digital assistant powered by living, breathing human beings. According to Ooloo’s makers, the PPDA (people-powered digital assistant) is staffed with “real people 24/7″ ready to offer you quick, localized search results with a personal touch. All you have to do is speak your question, as you would with Google Now, Siri or Cortana, and wait for an answer. We put the iOS app to the test, asking it ‘Who invented the Internet?” What it revealed, probably won’t shock you.

And seven minutes later someone named Shefali replied: “Al Gore! Just kidding, check this out!” We were then directed HowStuffWorks for a detailed account of its creation. So no, it’s not nearly as fast as the automated competition, but it does give you a bit of human-generated sass to accompany its answer. When asked the same question, Siri delivered a very dry, though prompt response via Wolfram Alpha. Considering the fate of Jeeves, we can’t say we’re confident in Ooloo’s staying power. But for now, it’s free to download and use via Google Play and Apple’s App Store.

Filed under: Cellphones, Software, Mobile

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Source: App Store, Google Play

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New malware can live inside any USB device undetected

It turns out that the stalwart USB thumbstick, or any universal serial bus device, isn’t as trustworthy as once thought. A pair of security researchers has found we need to worry about more than just malware-infected files that are stored portable drives, and now need to guard against hacks built into our geek-stick’s firmware according to Wired. The proof-of-concept malware Karsten Nohl and Jakob Lell have created is invisible and installable on a USB device and can do everything from taking over a user’s PC to hijacking the DNS settings for your browser. Or, if it’s installed on a mobile device it can spy on your communications and send them to a remote location, similar to the NSA’s Cottonmouth gadgets. If those don’t worry you, perhaps that the “BadUSB” malware can infect any USB device — including keyboards — and wreak havoc, will. What’s more, a simple reformat isn’t enough to disinfect either, and the solution that Lell and Nohl suggest goes against the core of what many of us are used to doing.

The duo says that the only way around BadUSB is to more or less treat devices like hypodermic needles; trusting only those that have been used within our personal ecosystem and throwing away any that’ve come in contact with other computers. Hopefully you don’t have a ton of untrustworthy Porsche sticks laying around.

[Image credit: Getty Images]

Filed under: Internet, Software

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Via: Gizmodo Australia

Source: Wired

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