Education

How tablets are changing the classroom

As reported on The Verge. By Russell Brandom As part of their education issue, The New York Times Magazine takes a long look at the rise of tablet tech in education, including News Corp’s Amplify project. The programs look to improve education by producing more lessons that adapt to an individual student’s pace and style of learning, also taking advantage of children’s general enthusiasm for gadgetry. It’s a thriving market, given the $17 billion that K-12 schools spend on…

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Hacking

Meet Hacking Team, the company that helps the police hack you

As reported on The Verge. By Adrianne Jeffries Hacking Team may not have any clients in the US yet, but it’s not for lack of trying    In 2001, a pair of Italian programmers wrote a program called Ettercap, a “comprehensive suite for man-in-the-middle attacks” — in other words, a set of tools for eavesdropping, sniffing passwords, and remotely manipulating someone’s computer. Ettercap was free, open source, and quickly became the weapon of choice for analysts…

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Government Security

NSA Allegedly Spies On International Credit Card Transactions

As reported on TechCrunch. by MIKE BUTCHER Germany’s Der Spiegel newspaper – increasingly joining the NSA revelations train –reports today that the intelligence agency is interested in international credit card transactions and may have found a way to monitor payments processed by companies including Visa. Spiegel alleges it has even set up its own financial database to track money flows. The paper says that in 2011, the NSA possessed 180 million records via its “Follow the Money”…

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Google

Google Glass no longer requires tethering plan for smartphone data sharing

As reported on Engadget. By Alexis Santos An Explorer Edition of Glass is already a pricey piece of tech, and smartphone tethering plans required to give it a mobile Internet connection have only made ownership that much more expensive. However, there’s good news for Google’s guinea pigs: the latest update to the headgear quietly implemented a way around the additional monthly fees. With XE9 loaded onto headsets, the companion Android apppipes data to and from the hardware, bypassing both the smartphone’s Bluetooth…

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Science Space

Alt-week 09.15.13: Record-breaking glass, nature’s gears, and Hubble’s huge find

As reported on Engadget. By Joe Pollicino Alt-week takes a look at the best science and alternative tech stories from the last seven days. This week’s alternative roundup focuses on exploration, experimentation and discovery — both on land and in space. Here on Earth, Cornell’s stumbled upon a new glass that breaks records and researchers in Europe have discovered an insect with cob wheel-styled gear joints for movement. Meanwhile, above our atmosphere, NASA’s Hubble telescope made…

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