Uncategorized

Tag Heuer unveils high-end rival to Apple Watch

Published on: by admin

Tag Heuer unveils high-end rival to Apple Watch

TAG Heuer titanium Carrera Connected watches are pictured during its launch in New York on November 9, 2015TAG Heuer, the Swiss watchmaker that is part of the French luxury goods group LVMH, showed off its first Internet-connected wristwatch Monday designed with Google and Intel.

The $1,500 Android-powered Tag Heuer Connected on sale in the US starting Monday is seen as a rival to the Apple Watch, which launched earlier this year starting at $349, with some versions at more than $10,000.

The TAG Heuer Connected — based on the Carrera watch design from the group popularized by Brad Pitt — is built with titanium, sapphire and the “best in class touchscreen technology,” according to the company’s website.

Like other smartwatches, the new wearable tech device allows users to receive notifications, text messages, and to identify callers on a connected handset. It also can monitor the user’s heartbeat.

Tag Heuer unveils high-end rival to Apple Watch

Tag Heuer and the US tech firms announced a partnership in March to produce the watch. In the meantime, Apple teamed up with French luxury market Hermes to produce a version of the iOS watch starting at $1,250.

Tag Heuer chief executive Jean-Claude Biver said he believes there will be demand for the new watch.

“It’s not too late. The market is not considered to be consolidated yet,” he said at the New York unveiling.

The companies call the new device “an elegant connected watch that merges expertise of Swiss watchmakers with Silicon Valley engineers to set a new standard for high-tech performance, timeless aesthetics and supreme quality.”

The Carrera Connected watch can be paired with Google Android devices as well as those running Apple’s iOS, and can connect via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi.

In an interview with Switzerland’s Le Matin Dimanche, Biver said that he does not consider Apple a direct competitor.

“We are not Apple. We are a watch brand. I forbid my colleagues to say Apple is our competitor,” he told the paper.

The original article can be found here.

Latest Xcode update fixes critical Interface Builder, debugging, UI testing issues

Published on: by admin

Apple pushed out a batch of bug fixes with the latest version of its Xcode development software on Monday, addressing critical issues discovered in Interface Builder, debugging and user interface testing.

Xcode 7.1.1 comes less than a month after Apple released version 7.1, which brought support for the new tvOS platform and a grab bag of features like hardware-specific support for 3D Touch on iPhone 6s.

Apple fails to specify what critical issues were patched in the latest Xcode iteration, saying only that they applied to Interface Builder, debugging and UI testing, all essential development tools. The latest Xcode version also comes with fixes for smaller unnamed bugs, as well as the usual performance and stability improvements.

Released just before the fourth-generation Apple TV went on sale in October, Xcode 7.1 delivered a variety of tvOS tools to developers, including storyboards, unit and UI testing and playgrounds. The update also introduced Swift 2.1 and SDKs for iOS 9.1, watchOS 2 and OS X 10.11 El Capitan.

Xcode 7.1.1 is a free 4.3GB download from the Mac App Store.

The Original article can be found here.

Hacking Team breached allowing Critical Flash exploit to emerge

Published on: by admin

hackedteamjt

Feel safe with your fully-patched computer? If you use Flash and land on the wrong website, you may get a virus or even a cryptolocker that renders your machine unusable. That’s because a sophisticated “zero-day” exploit stolen from Hacking Team has now been released into the wild. As a reminder, Hacking Team is the infamous outfit that supplies US law enforcement and various governments around the world with digital spying tools. However, the company suffered an embarrassing attack on its own servers, and among the 400GB of data stolen were some nasty tools originally intended for use by agencies like the US Drug Enforcement Agency.

Security experts say attackers have now unleashed those tools on the internet, leaving all computers vulnerable until Adobe patches Flash, which it’s expected to do tomorrow. Malwarebytes called it “one of the fastest documented cases of an immediate weaponization in the wild, possibly thanks to the detailed instructions left by the Hacking Team.” So what can you do about it? Obviously, be careful about which sites you visit, but you may also want to either enable “click-to-play” for the Flash plug-in or disable it completely, as detailed by How-To Geek.

Meanwhile, there are questions about how this shitstorm happened in the first place. As Forbes pointed out, leaked emails show that the FBI and DEA were keen on Hacking Team’s software, which can run $500,000 for a full cross-platform setup. Other emails revealed that Hacking Team sold its wares to oppressive regimes in countries like Sudan.

Critics argue that increased cyber-spying by governments begets ultra-sophisticated hacking tools that can fall into the wrong hands. That in turn makes everyone more vulnerable, as today’s attack proves (again). Ironically, FBI director James Comey is also trying to convince lawmakers today that it should be trusted with backdoor access to encrypted cellphones. However, given the competence and questionable ethics of the companies it works with, it’s hard to see how that’s a good idea.

Original Article can be found here.

Pac-Man satellite will clean up space junk

Published on: by admin

The Swiss aren’t big on littering, and that philosophy apparently applies to space, too. After the nation’s EPFL Center for Space Engineering launched its first satellites (the tiny SwissCubes) into orbit, the very next mission planned was “CleanSpace One” to get them out of orbit. For one, the researchers didn’t want to add to the reams of existing space garbage threatening other satellites and astronauts at speeds of up to 15,000mph. But mainly, they want to test a practical system for cleaning space junk with relatively small targets. After considering various systems, the EPFL has settled on a “Pac-Man” solution that will trap the satellites with a conical net.

The operation will be tricky, because just finding the 4×4-inch satellites is going to be difficult. As such, the researchers are developing a high dynamic-range camera and image processing system that can spot bright reflections coming off the SwissCubes as they spin in space. Meanwhile, if the net doesn’t deploy just so, the cubes could bounce off the cleanup satellite and end up in a worse spot than before.

The team rejected several capture options, including articulated arms with claws and a “tentacle” scheme. It settled on a cone-shaped net that unfolds and closes back down, saying “this system is more reliable and offers a larger margin for maneuvering than a claw or an articulated hand.” After the Clean Space One satellite gobbles up all the cubes, it will de-orbit and burn everything up on the way back down to earth. The team has now passed the prototype phase and hopes to develop the first engineering models, with the aim of launching the space junk collection satellite by 2018.

Watch the Pac-Man satellite video below!

Floating Robots To unlock Mysteries

Published on: by admin

bioargo

Believe it or not, scientists don’t know a lot about how the Indian Ocean works. Without many samples, researchers are frequently left in the dark about the ways that fish, plankton and other aquatic life flourishes in the area. That won’t be a challenge for much longer, though. Australia’s national science agency is launching a fleet of BioArgo robots that will measure both the biological and physical traits of the ocean to learn what makes it healthy. Much like the Argo machines studying Arctic waters, they’ll float deep underwater (nearly 6,600 feet) and drift with the current. They’ll usually need to surface only when they’re transmitting their findings. Combined with satellite imagery, the BioArgo drones should give researchers a true “3-dimensional picture” of the Indian Ocean — important when a sixth of the human population depends on this sea for basics like food and transportation.

Original Article floating robots is here

Google eavesdropping tool installed on computers without permission

Published on: by admin

gl

Privacy campaigners and open source developers are up in arms over the secret installing of Google software which is capable of listening in on conversations held in front of a computer.

First spotted by open source developers, the Chromium browser – the open source basis for Google’s Chrome – began remotely installing audio-snooping code that was capable of listening to users.

It was designed to support Chrome’s new “OK, Google” hotword detection – which makes the computer respond when you talk to it – but was installed, and, some users have claimed, it is activated on computers without their permission.

“Without consent, Google’s code had downloaded a black box of code that – according to itself – had turned on the microphone and was actively listening to your room,” said Rick Falkvinge, the Pirate party founder, in a blog post. “Which means that your computer had been stealth configured to send what was being said in your room to somebody else, to a private company in another country, without your consent or knowledge, an audio transmission triggered by … an unknown and unverifiable set of conditions.”

 

The feature is installed by default as part of Google’s Chrome browser. But open source advocates are up in arms about it also being installed with the open source variant Chromium, because the listening code is considered to be “black box”, not part of the open source audit process.

“We don’t know and can’t know what this black box does,” said Falkvinge.

Opt-in or opt-out

Google responded to complaints via its developer boards. It said: “While we do download the hotword module on startup, we do not activate it unless you opt in to hotwording.”

However, reports from developers indicate otherwise.

After having identified Chromium as the culprit, developer Ofer Zelig said in a blog post: “While I was working I thought ‘I’m noticing that an LED goes on and off, on the corner of my eyesight [webcam]’. And after a few times when it just seemed weird, I sat to watch for it and saw it happening. Every few seconds or so.”

Google also blamed the Linux distribution Debian for downloading the non-open source component with Chromium automatically, rather than Google Chrome.

“The key here is that Chromium is not a Google product. We do not directly distribute it, or make any guarantees with respect to compliance with various open source policies,” Google developer mgiuca said.

Falkvinge countered Google’s explanations saying: “The default install will still wiretap your room without your consent, unless you opt out, and more importantly, know that you need to opt out, which is nowhere a reasonable requirement.” He says a hardware switch to disable the microphone and camera built into most computers is needed.

Voice search functions have become an accepted feature of modern smartphones, but their movement into the home through the smart TV, and now browser, have caused concerns over the possibility of being listened to within the home.

While most services require a user to opt in, privacy advocates have questioned whether their use, which requires sending voice recordings over the internet to company servers for processing, risks unintentionally exposing private conversations held within the home

Original story about the Google eavesdropping tool can be found here.