As reported on Engadget. BY SEAN BUCKLEY How much will a modular smartphone set you back? If Google gets its way, about $50 — assuming you forgo all of the bells and whistles. The team behind Project Arawants to launch what it calls a “grayphone,” a barebones customizable exoskeleton that comes with little more than a screen, a frame and a WiFi radio. That wouldn’t be much of a phone, of course, but its only the bait. Google’s Paul…
As reported on Engadget. BY JON FINGAS If you’ve ever wanted to know how the iPhone 5s’ Touch ID fingerprint security works beyond a basic overview, you’ll be glad to hear Apple has just delivered a motherlode of new details. An updated version of its iOS Security white paper (PDF) explains much of what happens to your finger data after you touch the sensor. In short, your information may be more hack-resistant than it seems at…
As reported on Wired. BY CAITLIN ROPER Mathew Scott; Hair and makeup by Raina Antle Phlebotomy. Even the word sounds archaic—and that’s nothing compared to the slow, expensive, and inefficient reality of drawing blood and having it tested. As a college sophomore, Elizabeth Holmes envisioned a way to reinvent old-fashioned phlebotomy and, in the process, usher in an era of comprehensive superfast diagnosis and preventive medicine. That was a decade ago. Holmes, now 30, dropped out of…
As reported on TechCrunch. By Jacob Kastrenakes Apple has released an update to OS X that patches the large security vulnerabilityidentified last week. The flaw stemmed from an erroneous line of code and meant that certain apps on Macs, iPhones, and iPads were susceptible to man-in-the-middle attacks, potentially allowing a hacker to pose as a trusted website or service. Johns Hopkins cryptographer Matthew Green called the flaw “seriously exploitable” after it was identified last week by Apple…
As reported on TechCrunch. by John Biggs American Giant | TechCrunch Makers When someone tells you they make the greatest hoodie ever, what do you do? You visit their factory outside of San Francisco and see just what all the fuss is about. Welcome to another edition of TechCrunch Makers where we meet Bayard Winthrop founder of American Giant, an SF-based clothing brand that manufacturers all of its clothing in the US. Their factory south of the city was surprisingly…
As reported on Engadget. BY DANIEL COOPER Goophone’s a bit like a covers band that just happens to make knock-off smartphones. Not content with just plundering better artists’ catalogs, the company has apparently managed to copy the Galaxy S5 in under two days. The Goophone S5,yep, has a 5-inch, 1,920 x 1,080 display, paired with a 2GHz octa-core MediaTek chip and 2GB RAM. Keep looking, and you’ll find 802.11 b/g/n WiFi, dual-SIM slots, 32GB storage and a 2,800mAh battery, in addition…
As reported on Engadget. BY SHARIF SAKR One camera. Two separate lenses. That’s the conundrum raised by leaked images of HTC’s forthcoming M8 smartphone, which is rumored to bring some interesting new imaging features that go far beyond mere 3D. But what could those features be? For an answer, we turned to a startup called Corephotonics, which is currently pitching precisely such a dual-lens concept to smartphone makers. The company’s representatives told us that they’re not behind the specific module in the M8 —…
As reported on The Verge. By Josh Lowensohn Supercars are designed to push the limits, be it in performance or design sensibilities. But in a flat out race, speed is everything. That’s what makes a new record set by the Hennessey Venom GT so impressive. The supercar — which runs between $600,000 to $1 million — was clocked at 270.49 mph earlier this month, reports Top Gear. That narrowly beats out a previous record set in a…
As reported on TechCrunch. by Jordan Crook When you’re mad, or happy, or looking into the eyes of your sweetie, do you know what your face looks like? Probably not, according to Dr. James Kilner, neuroscientist at the University College London. Kilner holds that you know very little about what your face looks like most of the time, though you probably believe you look much more attractive and much younger than you actually are. Bummer, right? But,…
As reported on TechCrunch. by Darrell Etherington The Samsung Galaxy S5 is here, and now we know everything about the 2014 flagship from the Korean smartphone maker. It’s pushing into phablet territory with a 5.1-inch, 1920×1080 display, and it comes with a fingerprint reader on the home button, as well as a heart rate monitor around back near the camera flash. The Galaxy S5 is also dust and water resistant, which may be the most useful…