Month: May 2013

Military

Drones Aren’t For Delivering Tacos: UVS Avia Builds Quadcopters For Nuclear Sites, Search-And-Rescue

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As reported on TechCrunch. by KIM-MAI CUTLER A wellspring of interest in quadcopters for commercial applications is advancing globally. FromAirware’s recent $10.7 million round from Andreessen Horowitz to the launch of AngelPad’s DroneDeploy, quadcopters are one of the hot, hardware trends that founders and VCs are latching onto. This experimentation is also happening on the other side of the world. Russia’s UVS Avia is building higher-end microdrones to examine nuclear reactors and waste sites, along with doing search-and-rescue in remote…

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Hacking Military

Pentagon report: Chinese hackers accessed F-35B and other advanced US weapons systems

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As reported on Engadget. By Steve Dent Many of the Pentagon’s most advanced weapon systems — including the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and PAC-3 Patriot missile system — were compromised by Chinese hackers, according to a classified document obtained by the Washington Post. The list of weapons was part of an earlier DoD report condemning Chinese cyber-espionage activities, but had been confidential until now. Other systems hacked are said to include the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD), the Navy’s…

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Android Business Mobile

Samsung official reportedly confirms Note III in the works, muses on potential camera upgrades

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As reported on Engadget. By Jamie Rigg Given the success of the original Galaxy Note and its sequel, there’s little doubt a third installment of the super-sized handset line is on Samsung’s to-launch list. Korean site ETNews claims to have heard the first legitimate confirmation of the Note III’s existence, however, citing a Samsung official as its source. The insider apparently had much to say on plans for the camera, too. It’s expected to be a 13-megapixel affair and could see other upgrades…

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Business Internet

Bell Labs doubles beams in fiber optic lines to reach 400Gbps on a global scale

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As reported on Engadget. By Jon Fingas It’s comparatively easy to run fiber optic lines at high speeds; it’s another matter to sustain that pace between continents. Alcatel-Lucent’s Bell Labs has found a way to go that extreme distance by relying on the basic concept behind noise-cancelling headphones. When the researchers send data across two light beams in opposing phases, they can superimpose the signals and neutralize the distortion that would normally occur at long ranges. Such clean output lets…

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Military Politics

Turncoats: How the Taliban Undermines and Infiltrates the Afghan Local Police

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As reported on Wired. BY DAVID AXE ALP commander Toorjan in April 2013. Photo: David Axe   ZARI DISTRICT, Afghanistan — The sound of gunfire was the first sign that the Afghan cop’s loyalty was suspect. It was February in Hadji Musa, a village in the poppy-growing Zari district of northern Kandahar province, traditionally one of the most violent regions in a violent country. 3rd Platoon, Bravo Company, 3-41 Infantry — part of the high-tech 1st Brigade of the 1st…

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Hardware Dev

HP redesigns Envy and Pavilion laptops for 2013, including one with a 3200 x 1800 screen

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As reported on The Verge. By Sean Hollister Last year, Hewlett-Packard decided to unify the design of every thin and light laptop it sold, applying the same basic curves across every keyboard, touchpad, hinge, lid, and frame. This year, it’s not just thin-and-light laptops getting the treatment: according to company representatives, CEO Meg Whitman has now mandated a unified design language across HP’s entire portfolio of consumer machines. “She took a look at our portfolio and said, ”I…

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Android Google

Chrome For Android Gets Fullscreen Mode For Phones, Simplified Searching From Omnibox, Voice Search Coming To iOS Soon

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As reported on TechCrunch. by FREDERIC LARDINOIS Chrome 27 for the desktop arrived yesterday and today, Google updated Chrome for Android to version 27 as well. While the desktop update mostly focused on improved speed, the Android version actually includes a number of new features. The most important of these is probably the new fullscreen mode for phones. Just like in the iPhone app (or in the old stock Android browser), the toolbar will now disappear as you scroll down. Also…

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Legal

Snow Fail: The New York Times And Its Misunderstanding Of Copyright

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As reported on TechCrunch. by RYAN LAWLER You remember Snow Fall, don’t you? It was that awesome interactive reporting piece by The New York Times that everyone talked about for a week. It was called “the future of online journalism.” It was praised as a way for The New York Times to courageously battle back against online upstarts like Buzzfeed and their non-serious cat spreads. Or to not change the company’s fortunes at all. It even won a Webby! (Oh yeah, and a…

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Google

Wearable-technology pioneer Thad Starner on how Google Glass could augment our realities and memories

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As reported on Engadget. By Tim Stevens Countless wearers of Google Glass stalked the halls of this year’s Google I/O developer conference, but only a lucky few were sporting the prescription model, which makes room for lenses in a more conventional glasses frame. Among those lucky early adopters with imperfect vision was Thad Starner, a Georgia Tech professor who, in 2010, was recruited to join a top-secret project at Google’s fabled X Lab. That project, as it turned out,…

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Hardware Dev

AMD outlines Elite Performance laptop APUs with game-ready Wireless Display

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As reported on Engadget. By Jon Fingas AMD isn’t focusing all its attention on its entry-level mobile APUs today: it’s also providing details for the faster Richland-based models. The new A6, A8, and A10 mobile variants fall under the Elite Performance badge, and theoretically beat Intel to the punch with up to 71 percent faster 3D graphics than the current Core i5 family. They also muster about 7.5 hours of battery life with web use, or about an hour…

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