Friday, October 31, 2014

These LED bulbs are brighter despite fewer diodes and a lower price

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2014/10/31/cree-led-bulbs/

One of the toughest parts to swallow of LED lighting technology is just how costly it can be. Well, the folks at Cree have taken umbrage with that and developed a bulb that'll retail for around $5 per 40- and 60-watt-equivalent bulb -- less than some standard CFL lamps by a few bucks. How's it doing that? In part by changing the bulbs' design and eliminating the need for heat sinks. As IEEE Spectrum reports, instead of the collar that more or less does double-duty holding the LEDs in place and dissipating heat, the new models get rid of hot air via convection. Meaning, as diodes get warmer, they naturally draw cool air in from outside the bulb as the higher temperature rises upward and outward.

Cree's also cut costs (and prices) by clipping the amount of LEDs from 10 in its 60-watt-equivalent bulbs down to eight. They don't lose any light power in the process, though. As a matter of fact, the diodes run at higher power to produce more of it. Oh, and according to the outfit's Mike Watson, the collar-less design makes the dimmable bulbs look like a traditional incandescent, which he thinks will speed up adoption. Sure? Seems like a bit of a stretch, but hit the comments if bulb shape is what kept you away from the tech.

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Via: IEEE Spectrum

Source: Cree

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Thursday, October 30, 2014

Kodak's new action cam offers 360-degree views of your stunts

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2014/10/30/kodak-pixpro-sp360-action-cam/

Kodak has already thrown its hat into the action cam fray, but its new gadget offers a much wider view of the goings-on. The company's PIXPRO SP360 effort captures footage with 360-degree views in full HD (1080p), which it says is capable of creating "fully immersive images" without having to employ a fleet of cameras. With a dome-shaped fixed lens up top, the diminutive device records the aforementioned video at 30 fps with a 16-megapixel MO sensor, while offering Front (212 degrees), Split (180-degree front and rear views at the same time), Dome (214 degrees) and Sphere (360 degrees) modes for alternative vantage points.

As you might expect, the unit packs WiFi connectivity for syncing up with a mobile device of computer for remote viewing and controls from up to 65 feet away. In addition to being splashproof, freezeproof, shockproof and dustproof, the SP360 features a motion sensor that can automatically start recording when it picks up movement. And it can snap 10-megapixel stills of all the action, too. Pricing starts at $349, but if you're looking to pick up the kit that includes a waterproof case and both bar and adhesive mounts, you'll need to fork over an additional $50.

Sean Buckley contributed to this report.

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Source: Kodak

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CHART: LinkedIn's Revenue Is On The Up And Up

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day-linkedins-revenue-is-on-the-up-and-up-2014-10

LinkedIn reported earnings for its fiscal third quarter of 2014 on Thursday. Revenue and expectations surpassed Wall Street's expectations — it reported $568 million on $0.52 EPS, versus predictions of $557.49 million in revenue on $0.47 EPS.

Based on company data charted for us by BI Intelligence, LinkedIn's revenue continues to see steady growth in its three major lines of business — talent solutions, marketing solutions, and premium subscriptions — even though the company's year-over-year growth has been pretty flat. But LinkedIn has also been investing much of its own money to boost membership on the network: It recently redesigned its user profiles and even launched a new app called Connected to make networking among contacts easier.

bii sai cotd linkedin revenue

SEE ALSO: CHART OF THE DAY: All Of Facebook's Revenue Growth Is Coming From Mobile Ads

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Why Everyone Wants to Kill the Mouse and Keyboard

Source: http://gizmodo.com/why-everyone-wants-to-kill-the-mouse-and-keyboard-1652834936

Why Everyone Wants to Kill the Mouse and Keyboard

In the past few decades, everything about our computers have changed. The screens. The guts. The size, weight, and materials. The software itself, of course. But one thing has stayed exactly the same, frozen in time from the early days: The tools we use to tell them what to do. So it's odd that we're so desperate to throw them out the window.

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LG slims smartphone bezels to a virtually non-existent 0.7mm

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2014/10/30/lg-slim-bezel-lcd/

You might talk about how much you hate large bezels, but LG is actually doing something about it. It just unveiled a 5.3-inch, 1080p LCD display with 0.7mm bezels, less than the width of a credit card. The Korean company said they're the world's narrowest, thanks to "Neo Edge" module processing and "advanced in-cell touch" tech. That's a fancy way of saying that the panel's circuit board and backlight are glued together instead of taped, and that the touch panel is embedded into the LCD module. LG added that the dust- and waterproof display is substantially more durable too -- though we can't help but wonder if replacement parts will be pricier. If that Sharp Aquos Crystal X bezel now seems downright bulky, too bad -- LG's new screen will initially be built for Chinese smartphones only.

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Source: LG

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Google makes Play Books more student friendly

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2014/10/30/google-play-books-android-student-features/

Google's latest Play Books update for Android makes the app a lot easier to use for reading non-fiction e-books. See, Play Books is perfect if you're just reading something from cover to cover. But if you're using it to read text or reference books for school, or maybe even cookbooks (materials you usually flip through to find the page you're looking for), then it can be infuriating to use. Now, the latest version comes with a handful of features to change that, including one called Skim Mode that makes it easy to skim pages, as you can see after the break. Another feature called Quick Bookmarks lets you jump between the parts you've bookmarked, while the last one called Notes & Highlights is especially useful for students, since it lets you highlight text (say, quotes or important info you want to remember later) and take notes while reading. If you desperately need these features to get you through the next semester, head over to Google Play to download the app's latest version.

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Samsung's 3G-ready Gear S watch reaches the US November 7th

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2014/10/30/samsung-gear-s-reaches-us-nov-7th/

Samsung Gear S

Itching to strap Samsung's 3G-equipped Gear S smartwatch on your wrist? If you're in the US, you'll only have to wait one more week. The cellular-capable timepiece is now officially slated to reach American stores on November 7th, including Best Buy, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon. Just how much you'll pay depends on your choice of network. Verizon hasn't mentioned pricing just yet, but AT&T will sell the Gear S for $200 on a two-year contract; Sprint and T-Mobile will offer the wristwear on monthly installment plans that have you shelling out respective totals of $384 and $350. That's a lot to pay in the current smartwatch market, but this is also one of the few wearables that lets you leave your phone at home.

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Source: Samsung Mobile US Press

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Article: LG Display announces world’s narrowest 0.7mm bezel LCD display

LG Display is having a good year so far, having seen profits increase last quarter, and the company has just made another important breakthrough in its smartphone display technology. LG Display has announced a 5.3 inch Full HD LCD panel which has the world's narrowest bezel – just 0.7mm. For a li...

http://www.androidauthority.com/lg-display-0-7mm-bezel-545083/

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Short: Tech company invents android data couriers to fight cyber-attacks

Source: http://sploid.gizmodo.com/short-tech-company-invents-android-data-curriers-to-fi-1652161810/+caseychan

Short: Tech company invents android data couriers to fight cyber-attacks

Hasraf Dulull is a master of digital visual effects with an uncanny vision of our near future: A tech company creates an army of badass android data couriers to fight against cyber-terrorism.

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'Microsoft Band' fitness tracker leaks out (update: goes on sale Thursday for $199)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2014/10/29/microsoft-band-leak/

It looks like the curtains have been raised early on Microsoft's attempt to join the wearable game. Windows Central points out that sync apps have appeared in the Mac and Android app stores (update: and Microsoft's), set to personalize and track data for your "Microsoft Band." Rumors had pointed to a fitness tracker more than a watch that could debut within weeks, and judging by the apps that's just what we'll get. According to the Google Play, Windows Phone Store and iTunes listings, the device itself has more in common with Nike's FuelBand than the what we've seen from Apple and Google so far. That includes tracking steps, heartbeat, calories burned and sleep quality. 9to5Mac linked a privacy agreement that goes into even deeper detail about what else it can do, namely display notifications from your mobile device or take notes and set reminders with Cortana.

Update: Microsoft confirmed that the Band will go on sale for $199 Thursday in its online and physical stores, to US customers only, in "limited quantities." Designed by Quentin Morris (who also developed the Xbox One controller), it carries ten sensors onboard to measure things from heart rate to UV exposure to stress levels, and can last as much as 48 hours on a single charge. As indicated by the apps, it's ready to work with whatever mobile platform you bring to the table, but with its built-in GPS, you can go running without a phone and still track your workout.

The Microsoft Health service that does all the heavy lifting of storing data and syncing notifications to the Band's 310 x 102 res display is similar to Apple HealthKit and Google Fit, but the plan here is to open it up for use on devices and platforms built by others. As our source indicated, not only is the device cross platform-ready, Microsoft will look for other companies (think Samsung, HTC, Pebble, Fitbit) to make their devices Microsoft Health compatible. That way they can sync into the data and notifications immediately, all powered by the Microsoft backend.

Microsoft Health is also your way into its "Intelligence Engine", which automatically tells you things like which exercises burned the most energy, and how well you've been sleeping. The plan is to wrap that data up with info from your Outlook calendar and GPS data to give a broader look at what's impacting your fitness level. Other companies can license the ten sensor setup for their own devices, while UP by Jawbone, MapMyFitness, MyFitnessPal and RunKeeper are already on board with Microsoft Health. Another feature that's coming is the ability to share data (if you choose) from the HealthVault with your medical provider. Microsoft thinks it has the perfect system for folks active both at work and in the gym -- take a peek at the demo video below and see if it's worth the $200.

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Via: Windows Central, 9to5 Mac

Source: Microsoft Band

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FAA to drone pilots: fly near big sports events and face prison time

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2014/10/30/faa-warns-against-drones-near-sports/

MLB baseball players watch a drone fly overhead

If you have dreams of recording your own aerial footage of a baseball game using a drone, you'll want to put them on ice. The FAA has issued a warning to all pilots that they'll be fined or imprisoned if they fly remote-controlled aircraft too close to large sports venues (specifically, within 3 miles and under 3,000 feet) during events. The heads-up is ultimately an extension of an existing no-fly notice, but it represents the first time that the FAA has explicitly outlined criminal penalties for flying drones in restricted airspace -- it's not just promising tougher rules. You probably won't object to these particular guidelines if you like your sports distraction-free, but the notice suggests that other crackdowns might be coming soon.

[Image credit: Leon Halip/Getty Images]

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Via: Ars Technica, AP (Lake County Record-Bee)

Source: FAA

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London police raise privacy hackles with gang violence software

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2014/10/30/london-police-gang-violence-study/

4.1.1

London's Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) has completed a 20-week study in a bid to more accurately predict whether specific gang members are likely to commit violence. The software, developed by Accenture, pulls data together from systems already used by the MPS and runs it through an analytics engine. It's looking at geography, past offenses, associations with other criminal and even social media postings. An MPS spokesman told the BBC that the system would record and analyze threats or negative comments made by gang members on social media, for example.

Prior to launching the pilot, police analyzed data on London gangs in 32 boroughs for a period of four years to see who was most likely to commit mayhem. That study was then compared to actual acts of violence recorded in its crime logs. The MPS said the experiment accurately pinpointed future villains, though it wouldn't divulge which criteria it used for its predictions.

That lack of informatio has irked privacy groups, who feel the study smacks of mass surveillance and tramples on privacy rights. Big Brother Watch, a UK privacy think-tank, told the BBC that such programs "run the risk of unfairly targeting certain groups of people" and unfairly stigmatizing them. Similar arguments have been made against NSA surveillance or New York City's now-defunct "stop and frisk" program, for instance -- both of which tend to target specific minority groups. The MPS replied that the new study is focused on gang violence only, and is simply a way to fight crime efficiently given its limited resources.

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Via: BBC

Source: Accenture

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Wednesday, October 29, 2014

LG's 4K monitor has Thunderbolt support, dead-accurate colors

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2014/10/29/lg-digital-cinema-4k-monitor/

If your 4K project will be beamed onto millions of TVs or movie screens, "close enough" color accuracy won't cut it. LG wants to help with the 31MU97 Display Cinema 4K monitor, a 31-inch, 4,096 x 2,160, 19 x 10 ratio display with 10-bit color that can cover 99.5 percent of the AdobeRGB spectrum. That'll work well for photographers, but it'll also suit moviemakers thanks to the Dual Color Space mode. When switched, it'll reproduce 97 percent of the "DCI-P3" color space used by filmmakers to grade digital cinema camera footage. It will also work on a PC or Mac, thanks to Thunderbolt support. Such displays can run breathtaking sums, but the 31MU97 looks more reasonable -- it's listed on LG's Australian site at $2,499 Australian dollars ($2,195 or so). It'll hit stores this week in the US, Germany, the UK and Australia, followed by other parts of the world in November.

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Source: LG

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HP wants to be a 3D printing giant with new 'Multi Jet Fusion' tech

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2014/10/29/hp-multi-jet-fusion-3d-printer/

HP has just revealed a lot more information about the 3D printing technology it teased dramatically a few months ago. It's called "Multi Jet Fusion," and the company thinks it can "change entire industries." The original goal was to make 3D printers build objects at higher resolution and much, much faster, speeds. Based on the demos we saw today, that claim looks feasible. Essentially, the 3D printer builds parts similar to how an inkjet printer produces documents -- the "ink" is applied to a material coating, then heated and fused to build up layers (see below). That's substantially different to how mainstream 3D printers work, and HP said that it could make products like gears at least ten times faster than conventional manufacturing techniques.

It showed off one 3D printed product strong enough to pick up a car, and another for the 3D printer, that was itself printed by the 3D printer, to prove the resolution. The company also said that it'll print colors far more accurately than any 3D printer has yet, and flaunted several sample objects to prove it. HP has developed a prototype model (shown at the top), but for now, it'll be strictly aimed at manufacturing businesses. The tech giant recently announced that it will spin off its PC and printer business from its corporate hardware division, so its hard to say where the new 3D printers will fit in. It's set to arrive to manufacturers in 2016, but there's no word yet on pricing or whether you'll be able to start manufacturing widgets at home.

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HP's 3D-scanning 'Sprout' PC is unlike anything else the company has made

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2014/10/29/hp-sprout-hands-on/

SONY DSC

The best way to describe Sprout, an ambitious new desktop from HP, is that it's unlike any PC the company has ever made. The second-best way: It's an all-in-one computer with a touch mat that acts as a second screen, and an overhead projector/camera that can scan 3D images. It starts at $1,899, and ships next month. In short, it's a workspace that attempts to blend the digital and physical worlds, and it was built specifically for people doing creative things. That includes advertisers and designers and other professionals, but HP's also hoping that a certain kind of consumer will appreciate this. Photo enthusiasts, perhaps, or maybe makers. Basically, if you do things with your hands, you might have a use for Sprout.

A second screen

SONY DSC

At its core, Sprout is a Windows PC, but HP has also added custom software to make it easier to manipulate things with your fingers, or even introduce real-life elements -- a page you clipped from a magazine, for instance. There are actually a few custom apps here, but the one where you'll be spending the most time is Workspace. It's exactly what it sounds like: a repository for all your stuff, whether that be photos, documents, videos or anything else. It's always a side-swipe away on the Windows desktop, but you can also arrange it as a Live Tile, if that suits your setup better.

Naturally, you can use Workspace to play with media on the machine's 23-inch, 1080p screen. But the touch mat also works as a display, thanks to a built-in projector on top of the computer that beams images down onto the 20-inch work surface. With a soft, flexible feel, it's kind of like a blown-up mousepad; when it's unplugged from the computer, it could also double as an old-fashioned blotter. With 1,024 x 768 resolution, it's not ideal for doing fine photo edits, but it's more than enough for hitting game controls, completing jigsaw puzzles and sifting through photos with your hands.

So how do you get all that content onto the pad? You can simply flick files down from the main screen using a swipe of your finger. Wanna manipulate photos? Just flick 'em down to the touch mat from inside the Workspace app. From there, you can move objects around, resize them and zoom in using multiple fingers. (Though the mat looks like a retro touch pad, it actually supports 20 simultaneous touch points, just like a touchscreen display.) And because the mat has a slightly textured surface, it has a more tactile feel than your typical, slick LCD panel.

I've mentioned gaming already. Indeed, the second screen will come in handy for things like flight simulators or maybe racing games. Who knows? Maybe even first-person shooters. Whatever the game, though, you'll find the controls on the lower screen, with gameplay running at full-screen on the main display. HP also built in a soft keyboard, which you can bring up using a capacitive button on the base of the machine. Another possible use cases: a music app called Pianotime, which puts the keys on the lower screen and the sheet music up top. In any case, more applications are likely on the way: HP is opening its SDK to developers today, so assuming devs find Sprout as interesting as we do, you should see some more custom software sooner rather than later.

A 3D camera

SONY DSC

This is where things get weird. In addition to a projector that beams content down onto the touch mat, Sprout has a depth-sensing, 14-megapixel camera. As one of the first devices to ship with Intel's RealSense technology, it uses a trio of cameras to shoot the same image. If you happen to find RealSense in a tablet, that means you'll be able to adjust a photo's focus after the fact, because it's actually a composite. But for a product like Sprout, which is meant to live on your desk, the use case is entirely different. Here, having a camera like this means that you can photograph an object in your hand -- say, a 3D model -- and you have all the information you need for a 3D rendering onscreen. In fact, HP is bundling an app called 3D Snapshot, which was designed specifically for use cases like this. It's a little experimental, but it's something HP intends to flesh out over time. Right now, for instance, you can turn real-life objects into 3D renderings onscreen. Those images are then saved as a standard .OBJ file, allowing you to export it to CAD programs and 3D printers. All that's currently possible -- HP just says it can make the whole thing easier, more user-friendly. So stay tuned for that.

In any case, I led with CAD work because that happens to be the flashiest example, but there are other things you can do with the 3D camera, even if you're not a maker or engineer. I'd really encourage you to step back and think of the Sprout as a PC with a built-in scanner. You don't need a dedicated scanner when you have this; you can place anything under the camera -- paper, physical objects -- and Sprout will automatically do a very precise job of cropping out the background. And remember, too: HP has a deep background in multifunction printers. The company definitely knows a thing or two about scanning.

Now, that kind of speed and accuracy could be very interesting to a certain kind of person. Perhaps an ad man, like Don Draper. Imagine Don is sitting in front of his Sprout, working on an ad campaign for Florida oranges. He's got nothing but text on the page. Now, imagine he has an orange in his hand. He wants to somehow get that orange into his ad. He can hold it under the scanner, which will remove the background. Then he can flick his finger and very quickly get the image back onto the lower screen, where he can make it smaller, tilt it a bit, and make it fit in with the rest of the ad. Pretty neat stuff.

Humans in a digital world

SONY DSC

I saved the best party trick for last. Because the Sprout has both a projector and a camera, it can "see" what it's projecting onto your touch mat. I'm sure there will eventually be more use cases, but for now, you can do some pretty wacky things with collaboration. Assuming everyone involved is using HP's MyRoom app, you can not only share your screen, but you can do things like put your hands in the shot and move them around. Maybe flip through a magazine on camera, but with your desktop and all your other digital stuff in the background. When I watched HP demo this for me, I felt the way I did when I first saw Mary Poppins, with live humans hanging out in an animated world. A live video feed of a human and a screen sharing session of someone's desktop don't seem like things that could ever belong together. But they do here, and it's exciting to watch.

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North Korea Is Using Infected Mobile Games To Hack The Phones Of South Koreans

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/north-korea-used-mobile-games-to-hack-20000-south-koreans-2014-10

Kim Jong Un with a logitech mouse

South Korea's spy agency claimed on Wednesday that North Korea used infected mobile games to hack the phones of over 20,000 South Koreans. 

The Korea times reports that the National Intelligence Service has accused the North Korean government of using its hacker army to disguise spying software as mobile apps. The games were linked to on websites popular in South Korea, and people then downloaded the apps.

The South Korean government hasn't released details on the hacked apps, which it now claims to have removed.

However, nknews.org recently reported on a mobile game which does originate from North Korea. Nice Pigs is alleged to have been created by a North Korean citizen living abroad to gain IT training that will help the country. There's no suggestion that Nice Pigs contained malware, but it does show that there are app developers working for the North Korea government.

Nice Pigs North Korea mobile app

North Korea has consistently denied launching cyber attacks on South Korea. Instead, it claims, that any reports of the country's hacker army are fabrications intended to increase tension on the border between the two countries.

SEE ALSO: How North Korea Became A Hacking Superpower

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Chinese artists create counterfeit stock images of artists

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2014/10/29/chinese-artists-create-counterfeit-stock-images-of-artists/

Stock Photos are glorious things. Yes, they're an important tool for sites such as our own, but they're also, perhaps more often than not, unintentionally hilarious. Services like Thinkstock, Shutterstock and Getty Images have birthed fantastic Tumblrs and Twitter accounts like StockFinds, Completely Unusable Stock Photos, and the somewhat-NSFW Porncomnents. They're solidly embedded in internet culture, and they're now also the inspiration behind A Contemporary Portrait of the Internet Artist, a collection of hand-painted copies of stock images of artists created by "underpaid Chinese painters."

The artworks are essentially counterfeits of Getty Images, and in an accompanying press release the team behind the project -- the IOCOSE collective -- explains the methodology by which they were created will be naturally replicated. "The digital images of the portraits will circulate online, be copied, posted and tweeted by journalists and bloggers. The portraits might be bought and become private property, but also continue being exhibited and photographed." IOCOSE's copyright-skirting sourcing of these images, and their intent for them to be replicated, is conceived as a subversive commentary on exploitation, outsourcing, and copyright issues surrounding modern creative industries. You can see the collection below, and if you're intrigued as to what the originals look like, you can follow the link in each image.

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Source: IOCOSE

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Vimeo plans to offer video subscriptions

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2014/10/29/vimeo-plans-subscriptions/

Brian Crano's

You'd think that YouTube would launch a subscription video service ahead of its rivals given its love of original content, but someone might just beat it to the punch. Vimeo's Kerry Trainor tells Recode that his company already has a subscription option in development. He's not providing details of how it will work, but it would be a logical extension of Vimeo's successful On Demand option. Viewers want to pay for a "whole world of content" that wouldn't reach them any other way, he says. However it pans out, Vimeo might want to hurry -- YouTube is openly toying with the idea of its own subscription service, and it could easily steal the thunder from competitors if it's first out of the gate.

[Image credit: Brian Crano, Vimeo]

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Source: Recode (1), (2)

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At just 4.85mm, Oppo R5 is the world's slimmest smartphone

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2014/10/29/oppo-r5/

Step aside, Gionee, as your record for the world's slimmest smartphone has just been beaten by a fellow Chinese manufacturer. Oppo's R5, the successor to the Asia-only R3, comes in at just 4.85mm thick, thus beating the 5.15mm-thick Elife S5.1 from Gionee. Despite the crazy thin metallic body, the R5 still packs a handful of goodies: a 5.2-inch full HD AMOLED screen, an octa-core (quad 2.1GHz and quad 1.5GHz), 64-bit Snapdragon 615 SoC, 2GB of RAM, 5MP/13MP cameras (both with f/2.0 aperture), LTE radio and a 2,000 mAh battery. All of this comes in at just 155g heavy. Of course, there's bound to be a trade-off: You only get 16GB of internal storage, no microSD expansion and, unlike the Elife S5.1, no 3.5mm headphone connector here -- you'll need to use the bundled micro-USB adapter or Bluetooth (there's an optional O-Music Bluetooth clip for your headphones and for triggering the camera).

Build quality and body strength aren't an issue on the pre-production unit we played with in Shenzhen. The metallic frame is nicely chamfered and manually polished to give a comfortable grip. What's more, while most slim phones are known to expose more heat to the surface, the R5 uses a phase-shifting material -- as featured on modern PC motherboards -- to help cool the internal components; but we'll need to probably test the phone to see if this works as well as it claims. If we must pick a fault at this stage, it'd be the main camera module that sticks out a little on the back, which can be forgiven for the sake of maintaining image quality.

Much like the N3 announced alongside it, the R5 comes with Color OS 2.0 (based on Android 4.4) which packs some handy features plus a few new ones. For one, the old gesture panel can now be toggled by dragging up from the Home button, thus letting you draw customized gestures to launch apps or open contacts. By default, you can draw a "V" to turn on the flashlight, draw a circle to launch the camera, or draw a "W" to launch WeChat.

As for the new camera app, you get a greater freedom of customization by installing your desired features as plug-ins: "HD Picture" (to make super detailed 64-megapixel images), "Slow Shutter," "Beautify," "Professional," "Super Macro," "GIF mode" and more. These are also featured on the N3, naturally.

Another common feature shared between the R5 and the N3 is the VOOC rapid charging. Using the bundled charger, the 2,000 mAh cell can go from zero to well above 75 percent in just half an hour, though the exact charging time is yet to be determined. We should know soon, anyway, as the R5 is slated for the global market this December, and it'll come in silver, gold and grey with an off-contract price of $499.

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âSecurity researcher uses radio frequencies to smuggle data out of isolated network

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2014/10/29/fm-data-leaking/

Computer in dark office, security alert on screen

Think your completely isolated, internet-disconnected "air gap" computer network is secure from wireless infiltration? Think again -- security researchers at Ben-Gurion University in Israel have found a way to lift data from closed networks using little more than a standard computer monitor and FM radio waves. It's a pretty clever trick: researchers have created a keylogging app called AirHopper that can transmit radio frequencies by exploiting the PC's display. A companion app on an FM-equipped smartphone can decode those transmissions and record the host machine's keystrokes in real-time.

It's not the first time FM radio waves have been used to smuggle data out of an air gap network, but this method can be done without PC connected speakers and without either device being connected to an outside network. Like previous methods, it doesn't it has a fairly short range (about 7 meters) and can't transmit more than a few bytes a second, but that's more than enough to nab passwords or other sensitive text data. The group has already released a short video of the exploit in action, and intends to publish a more detailed paper on the subject at Malcon 2014 later this week.

[Image credit: Dimitri Otis]

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Source: Ben Gurion University

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LG Electronics reports Q3 profit jumps 87%

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/afp-lg-electronics-reports-q3-profit-jumps-87-2014-10

LG Electronics' flagship smartphone, the G3, is displayed at a press conference in San Francisco on May 27, 2014

Seoul (AFP) - LG Electronics reported Wednesday an 87 percent jump in third-quarter net profit from a year ago after profits from its mobile unit surged to a five-year high.

Net profit for the South Korean electronics giant in the July-September period amounted to 202.6 billion won ($193 million), up 87 percent from a year ago, the company said in a statement.

Operating profit also jumped 112 percent to reach 461.3 billion, while sales rose seven percent to 14.9 trillion won. 

The firm's handset unit led the growth with a 39-percent rise in sales and an operating profit of 167.4 billion won -- the highest for five years and a turnaround from a 79.7 billion won loss a year ago. 

The handset unit sold 16.8 million smartphones in the third quarter, breaking the quarterly sales record set in the second quarter.

The world's sixth-largest smartphone maker struggled for years with sluggish sales after making a late entry into the market following competitors like Samsung and Apple.

But LG recently showed signs of revival with its flagship G3 smartphones, while its bigger South Korean rival Samsung saw profits sag. 

Samsung -- the world's top maker of smartphones and TVs -- is set to post a nearly 60 percent plunge in its third quarter operating profit to be announced on Thursday, although the figure of 4.1 trillion won is still nearly 10 times bigger than LG's. 

LG's TV unit saw operating profit inch up five percent to 130.5 billion won on growing sales of high-end sets.

LG shares rose 4.31 percent to close at 67,800 won on the Seoul stock market.

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Hackers breach White House computer system, Russia suspected

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/afp-hackers-breach-white-house-computer-system-russia-suspected-2014-10

Barack Obama answers questions during an Internet town hall meeting on the economy in the East Room of the White House

Washington (AFP) - The White House's unclassified computer network was recently breached by intruders, a US official said Tuesday, with The Washington Post newspaper reporting that the Russian government was thought to be behind the act.

"In the course of assessing recent threats, we identified activity of concern on the unclassified EOP network," said the White House official, speaking on condition of not being named. 

"Any such activity is something we take very seriously. In this case, we took immediate measures to evaluate and mitigate the activity."

The Washington Post quoted sources as saying hackers believed to be working for the Russian government were believed to be responsible.

The hackers entered the US presidential mansion's unclassified computer network in recent weeks, the Post quotes the sources as saying.

In a statement, the White House official said the Executive Office of the President receives daily alerts concerning numerous possible cyber threats.

In the course of addressing the breach, some White House users were temporarily disconnected from the network. 

"Our computers and systems have not been damaged, though some elements of the unclassified network have been affected. The temporary outages and loss of connectivity for our users is solely the result of measures we have taken to defend our networks," the official said. 

No additional information was immediately available.

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