The revelation through Wikileaks that the CIA has explored hacking vehicle computer control systems should concern consumers, particularly as more and more cars and trucks roll off assembly lines with autonomous features."I think it's a legitimate concern considering all of the computers being added to cars," said Kit Walsh, a staff attorney with the privacy group Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). "There's no reason the CIA or other intelligence agencies or bad actors couldn't use those vulnerabilities to hurt people.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The revelation through Wikileaks that the CIA has explored hacking vehicle computer control systems should concern consumers, particularly as more and more cars and trucks roll off assembly lines with autonomous features."I think it's a legitimate concern considering all of the computers being added to cars," said Kit Walsh, a staff attorney with the privacy group Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). "There's no reason the CIA or other intelligence agencies or bad actors couldn't use those vulnerabilities to hurt people.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
It sounds like the beginning of a bar room joke.Two self-driving cars are headed down the highway when the lead car decides to speed up to avoid being rear-ended by the second. That car, in turn, slows down to avoid hitting the first. Then a third car suddenly comes between the two, prompting the slower car to change lanes to avoid and accident.The problem: There are cars in the lanes on either side of it.What's an autonomous car to do? The answer is no joke.The scenario is called "a ripple factor" and it's one of many researchers at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) are studying to understand how embedded software could address a myriad number of unexpected situations that could cause accidents as self-driving vehicles speed toward reality.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
A non-volatile memory technology based on carbon nanotubes that's poised for commercialization in 2018 is expected to be more disruptive to enterprise storage, servers and consumer electronics than flash memory, according to a new report from BCC Research."It is rare to see a technology catch fire after so long in development, but NRAM appears poised to do just that," said BCC research editorial director Kevin Fitzgerald. "In fact, your next smartphone could be a carbon-based lifeform."The BCC report predicts the overall Nano RAM (NRAM) market will see a compound annual growth rate of 62.5% between 2018 and 2023, with the embedded systems market in which it will be used expected to grow from $4.7 million in 2018 to $217.6 million in 2023. That would represent a combined annual growth rate over those five years of 115.3%.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
IBM's Watson Health artificial intelligence unit has signed a two-year joint-development agreement with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to explore using blockchain technology to securely share patient data for medical research and other purposes.IBM Watson Health and the FDA will explore the exchange of patient-level data from several sources, including electronic medical records (EMRs), clinical trials, genomic data, and health data from mobile devices, wearables and the "Internet of Things." The initial focus will be on oncology-related information."The healthcare industry is undergoing significant changes due to the vast amounts of disparate data being generated. Blockchain technology provides a highly secure, decentralized framework for data sharing that will accelerate innovation throughout the industry," IBM Watson Health Chief Science Officer Shahram Ebadollahi said in a statement.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
IBM's Watson Health artificial intelligence unit has signed a two-year joint-development agreement with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to explore using blockchain technology to securely share patient data for medical research and other purposes.IBM Watson Health and the FDA will explore the exchange of patient-level data from several sources, including electronic medical records (EMRs), clinical trials, genomic data, and health data from mobile devices, wearables and the "Internet of Things." The initial focus will be on oncology-related information."The healthcare industry is undergoing significant changes due to the vast amounts of disparate data being generated. Blockchain technology provides a highly secure, decentralized framework for data sharing that will accelerate innovation throughout the industry," IBM Watson Health Chief Science Officer Shahram Ebadollahi said in a statement.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Intel today announced that its upcoming Optane non-volatile memory will ship in the second quarter of the year as 16GB and 32GB M.2 expansion cards.Optane memory will be available as an option for new Intel-based client platforms, including Intel 7th Gen Core (Kaby Lake), and as a standalone component. Platforms and motherboards supporting Intel Optane technology will be labeled "Optane Ready" to indicate their compatibility.Intel unveiled Intel Optane Memory along with sharing details about Intel 7th generation Core processors.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Western Digital (WD) today introduced a new series of storage devices designed specifically for use with Raspberry Pi, a single-board micro PC.The WD PiDrive Foundation Edition drives include a microSD card preloaded with the custom New Out of Box Software OS installer.Raspberry Pi's official OS, Raspbian PIXEL, can be installed directly from WD's microSD card without an Internet connection, the company stated. In addition, the drives include Project Spaces, independent partitions of the drive with Raspbian Lite, which allows up to five separate projects to be developed on a single drive.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Online user community 3D Hubs has published its third annual 3D Printer Guide for 2017, based on reviews from 8,624 verified 3D printer owners of 513 different 3D printer models.Fourteen machines separated into five categories made it into the guide's top 3D printers list for 2017. The categories include Budget, Plug-N-Play, Prosumer, Workhorse and SLS or selective laser sintering machines, which is a new commercial-grade category.3D Hubs used a wide range of parameters to measure the user experience with 3D printers, which included print quality, build quality, reliability, ease of use, print failure rate, customer service, community, running cost, software, and value.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Researchers at Washington State University have developed a portable sensor that uses a smartphone's camera to detect a biological indicator for several types of cancers with 99% accuracy, yielding laboratory quality results.The sensor, a light spectrometer, can process up to eight blood or tissue samples at the same time (or one sample in eight wells) and can detect the human protein interleukin-6 (IL-6). That protein is a known biological marker for lung, prostate, liver, breast and epithelial cancers. Washington State University
The spectrometer attached to an iPhone 5.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The International Trade Commission (ITC) has opened a patent infringement investigation on SK hynix, the world's second largest memory chip manufacturer, based on claims that it infringed on six U.S. patents.Second only to Samsung in global market share for DRAM shipments, Hynix is also the world's fifth-largest semiconductor company. SK hynix memory is used by Apple in some MacBook and MacBook Pro computers and in its iPhones. The memory is also in Asus' Nexus 7 tablet.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
ADATA recently launched two new solid-state drives (SSDs): one it claims is the fastest and smallest external SSD, and the other is a new 2.5-in laptop SSD based on 3D NAND.Here, I review ADATA's diminutive external SSD as 2.5-in.At just 2.8-in x 1.7-in x 0.4-in, the ADATA SE730 SSD is not just shirt-pocket friendly, it can practically disappear in your pants pocket among your smartphone and keys. It also comes in a stylish, gold- or red-colored metal case. ADATA
ADATA's SE730 external SSD in its packaging.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Wi-Fi communications in vehicles, whether from the factory or in aftermarket devices, will increase from 6.9 million per year in 2015 to 61 million per year in 2020 -- and this will usher in a new era of consumer services and applications, according to a new report from Gartner.Over the next four years, the total number of connected cars and trucks will reach 220 million, a number that will drive a huge uptick in the delivery of digital content, such as streaming music and video, navigation and location-based services.Connected vehicles increasingly will be able to direct drivers to, and pay for, parking spaces, fuel and other services, and the technology will eventually enable increased levels of automated driving, Gartner's report stated.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Three out of four U.S. physicians believe that electronic healthcare records (EHRs) increase practice costs -- outweighing any efficiency savings -- and seven out of 10 think they reduce productivity, according to a new survey.Deloitte's "2016 Survey of US Physicians" released this week found little had changed since its last report two years ago, when doctors surveyed at the time generally held negative opinions of EHRs.The latest survey found nearly all physicians would like to see improvements in EHRs, with 62% calling for them to be more interoperable and 57% looking for improved workflow and increased productivity.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Three out of four U.S. physicians believe that electronic healthcare records (EHRs) increase practice costs -- outweighing any efficiency savings -- and seven out of 10 think they reduce productivity, according to a new survey.Deloitte's "2016 Survey of US Physicians" released this week found little had changed since its last report two years ago, when doctors surveyed at the time generally held negative opinions of EHRs.The latest survey found nearly all physicians would like to see improvements in EHRs, with 62% calling for them to be more interoperable and 57% looking for improved workflow and increased productivity.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Microsoft announced it plans to power its data centers around the world using 50% renewable energy by 2018.The company also plans to boost its use of renewable power for its data centers to 60% by the early 2020s.Rob Bernard, Microsoft's chief environmental & cities strategist, made the announcement at the VERGE16 conference last week.Bernard's comments during a conference keynote were a reiteration of a commitment earlier this year by the company to increase its use of clean energy.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Microsoft announced it plans to power its data centers around the world using 50% renewable energy by 2018.The company also plans to boost its use of renewable power for its data centers to 60% by the early 2020s.Rob Bernard, Microsoft's chief environmental & cities strategist, made the announcement at the VERGE16 conference last week.Bernard's comments during a conference keynote were a reiteration of a commitment earlier this year by the company to increase its use of clean energy.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
A start-up has completed a crowdfunding campaign for a stamp-sized Linux server development kit that has integrated Wi-Fi and on-board flash storage for DIYers to build hardware or IoT applications.Boston-based Onion Corp. began its Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign in July and by Aug. 23 had already received more than $773,400 in pledged funding -- 4,400 times its funding goal.The Onion Corp. said its new Omega2 computer is compatible with a power-sipping Arduino motherboard but it also has the flexibility of a Raspberry Pi computer.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Apple announced that it has committed to running all of its data centers and corporate offices on renewable energy, joining a group of other corporations committed to the same clean energy goal.Apple said it has joined RE100, a global initiative by influential businesses committed to using 100% renewable electricity. To date, RE100 has amassed membership from 77 corporations.Other RE100 members include Hewlett Packard Enterprise, VMware, Rackspace and Wells Fargo.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Apple announced that it has committed to running all of its data centers and corporate offices on renewable energy, joining a group of other corporations committed to the same clean energy goal.Apple said it has joined RE100, a global initiative by influential businesses committed to using 100% renewable electricity. To date, RE100 has amassed membership from 77 corporations.Other RE100 members include Hewlett Packard Enterprise, VMware, Rackspace and Wells Fargo.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Lucas Mearian