Month: January 2014

Government Internet Security

If You Used This Secure Webmail Site, the FBI Has Your Inbox

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As reported on Wired. BY KEVIN POULSEN Photo: Peter Earl McCollough/WIRED   While investigating a hosting company known for sheltering child porn last year the FBI incidentally seized the entire e-mail database of a popular anonymous webmail service called TorMail. Now the FBI is tapping that vast trove of e-mail in unrelated investigations. The bureau’s data windfall, seized from a company called Freedom Hosting, surfaced in court papers last week when prosecutors indicted a Florida man…

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Android Business

Samsung ‘Galaxy Glass’ wearable reportedly set for September reveal

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As reported on The Verge. By Vlad Savov As the purveyor of smart phones, TVs, fridges, ovens, and even kitchen sinks, Samsung couldn’t possibly let the opportunity to create smart glasses pass it by. A new report from the Korea Times cites unnamed Samsung officials who claim the company is presently developing a competitor to Google’s Glass — tentatively named Galaxy Glass — which could make its debut at the IFA trade show in Berlin this September. One of the…

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Business Mobile

Enterprise Mobility: Devices, Security, Design, And Distribution

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As reported on TechCrunch. by Semil Shah Editor’s Note: Semil Shah works on product for Swell, is a TechCrunch columnist, and an investor. He blogs at Haywire, and you can follow him on Twitter at @semil. Every Sunday for this column, I write on something related to mobile. To date, it’s mostly been about consumer-facing apps,device sensors, user interfaces, tactics likepush notifications, and a range of other topics. However, I have yet to dig into mobile for more business-facing, enterprise-oriented users and considerations. That’s partly because I…

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Culture Internet

Switched On: The next steps for digital wellness, part one

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As reported on Engadget. BY ROSS RUBIN  Some of today’s leading wearable devices are, at their core, little more than souped-up pedometers. Their once-dim monochrome LCD screens have migrated from atoms to bits that connect to the internet, allowing them to display information in a more engaging way and track it over time. They have been a big win for output, but with essentially the same input. Indiegogo in particular has been a fertile launchpad for…

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Business Legal

Samsung throws money at Ericsson to end smartphone patent war

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As reported on Engadget. BY DANIEL COOPER We prefer it when companies make devices, not courtroom drama, so it’s delightful to see that Samsung has silenced another one of its litigation-frenemies this morning. The company has signed a cross-licensing agreement with former Sony beau Ericsson, with a figure of around $650 million being paid up-front, and an undisclosed regular payment to follow. Now that Samsung has appeased both Google and Ericsson, let’s hope we can get back to reporting on gadgets, or else…

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Business Culture Environmental

Monsanto Is Going Organic in a Quest for the Perfect Veggie

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As reported on Wired. BY BEN PAYNTER Monsanto’s new veggies are sweeter, crunchier, and more nutritious—with none of the “Frankenfoods” ick factor.   Nicholas Cope In a windowless basement room decorated with photographs of farmers clutching freshly harvested vegetables, three polo-shirt-and-slacks-clad Monsanto execu­tives, all men, wait for a special lunch. A server arrives and sets in front of each a caprese-like salad—tomatoes, mozzarella, basil, lettuce—and one of the execs, David Stark, rolls his desk chair forward, raises…

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Art

Astronomers say Monet’s ‘Sunset’ masterpiece was painted at 4:53 pm on February 5th, 1883

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As reported in The Verge. By Amar Toor Forensic astronomy sheds new light on impressionist work Researchers from Texas State University have used forensic astronomy to uncover new details about Claude Monet’s Étretat: Sunset — a stunning seascape that the impressionist master painted during a trip to the Normandy coast in 1883. Their findings, published in the February 2014 issue of the magazine Sky & Telescope, reveal the exact spot and time at which Monet painted the work, based on extensive fieldwork and…

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Film

‘The Raid 2’ review: bigger and bloodier

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As reported on The Verge. By Bryan Bishop Gareth Evans mixes gangster drama and epic action Let’s just get this out of the way: I wasn’t a huge fan of The Raid: Redemption. Gareth Evans’ Indonesian action flick was a video game riff on John Carpenter’s classic Assault on Precinct 13, and while its intense devotion to martial arts wizardry was certainly impressive, I found myself wanting more when it came to story and drama. So when it…

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Android Application Security

Android app learns from your phone to fend off malicious attacks

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As reported on Engadget. BY CHRIS VELAZCO  The last time we heard from Itzhak ‘zuk’ Avraham, he was at Defcon 2011 showing offan Android app that let even inexperienced users poke around networks for weak links and vulnerable computers. Now his company, Zimperium, is rolling out a new mobile intrusion protection app (or zIPS, for short) to help users figure out when their phones are subject to sneak attacks. There’s no shortage of mobile antivirus apps out…

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Apple

Apple gushes on 30 years of making Macs (video)

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As reported on Engadget. BY JAMIE RIGG This year signifies the 30th anniversary of the Macintosh computer, and who better to reflect on this achievement than the almighty creator Apple? Cupertino has dedicateda corner of its website to such a retrospective, the focal point of which is an inspirational video starring several fans who talk about what Macs have meant to them (embedded below). After learning that Moby is still a thing and that Macs represent a “truly…

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