Hyundai President Jeong Jin Haeng said this week his company is talking to Alphabet's Google unit about helping it develop a self-driving car.The world's fifth largest automaker hopes to enter into a symbiotic relationship, where it will bring its manufacturing prowess to Google and the Silicon Valley giant will help the automaker's autonomous technology development."Hyundai is lagging behind the competition to develop autonomous vehicles," Ko Tae Bong, senior auto analyst at Hi Investment & Securities Co, told Bloomberg News. "It's not a choice but a critical prerequisite for Hyundai to cooperate with IT companies, such as Google, to survive in the near future."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Vietnam’s technical talent, retention rates and modern tech infrastructure has attracted the likes of IBM, Microsoft and Intel to set up operations there. While it will never be able to offer the scale of IT services hubs in India and China, Vietnam is increasingly an attractive alternative for IT organizations that are frustrated with high turnover and rising costs in the usual offshore locations.[ Related: Is Vietnam a viable offshore outsourcing alternative? ]To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Did you install the recently-released iOS 10 beta (version 6 for developers, Public Beta 5 for anyone in the Apple Public Beta Program? Well, it’s time again to update it. Apple on Friday released iOS 10 beta 7 for developers, and iOS 10 Public Beta 6 for beta testers in the general public.The update is available by running Software Update in the Settings app. Since it’s only a 60MB download, this update is probably filled with bug fixes and optimizations. If you are running dev beta 6/Public Beta 5, you should install it.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The FBI today said it released a new application easier for the public—as well as financial institutions, law enforcement agencies, and others—to view photos and information about bank robberies in different geographic areas of the country.+More on Network World: The weirdest, wackiest and coolest sci/tech stories of 2016 (so far!)+The Bank Robbers application runs on iPhones and iPads (Apple iTunes) as well as Android smartphones (Google Play) and lets users sort bank robberies by the date they occurred, the category they fall under (i.e., armed serial bank robber), the FBI field office working the case, or the state where the robbery occurred.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Maybe you, like me, did not even know that universities are selling patents secured by their employee researchers to patent trolls. Maybe you did.In either case, the Electronic Frontier Foundation is looking to curb this unproductive practice by harnessing the persuasive powers alumni. The EFF explains:
When universities invent, those inventions should benefit everyone. Unfortunately, they sometimes end up in the hands of patent trolls, companies that serve no purpose but to amass patents and demand money from other innovators and inventors.Why are universities selling patents to trolls in the first place? Shouldn’t they sell their inventions to companies that will actually do something with them?To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
A startup called SolidEnergy says that it has developed a new design for a safe, rechargeable lithium metal battery, potentially revolutionizing energy storage for small devices like smartphones and wearables.Breakthroughs in materials science mean that former MIT post-doctoral student Qichao Hu’s company can produce batteries with double the energy density of current-generation lithium ion batteries. This means that they can either be twice as powerful as a lithium ion battery of equivalent size, or pack the same capability into a unit half as large, according to MIT News.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Smart sockets that let you control an electrical plug over the internet may sound cutting edge, but they can also be rife with security flaws.One such plug was found vulnerable to hacks. Security firm Bitdefender said that it could steal user email logins from the device, control it over the Internet, and potentially use the socket to launch other malware attacks. “This is a serious vulnerability, we could see botnets made up of these power outlets,” Alexandru Balan, chief security researcher at Bitdefender, said in a Thursday blog post.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Tags on a fragile packages may someday be able to say whether the goods are riding safely in the back of a truck or bouncing around in a hazardous way.If Intel follows through on an IoT research project it demonstrated at Intel Developer Forum this week, those tags could report on shipping conditions in real time without needing a battery to stay powered. After the package is delivered, the label might even be disposable. Stephen Lawson
Intel demonstrated a prototype "smart tag" for packages at Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco on Aug. 16, 2016. The tag could detect motion and show it on a chart in real time.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The disclosure this week of a cache of files supposedly stolen from the National Security Agency has put a spotlight on secret cyber weapons the NSA has been holding -- and whether they should be disclosed.Security researchers have been poring over a sample set of hacking tools that may have been stolen from the NSA.An anonymous group called the Shadow Brokers has posted the samples online and is auctioning off the rest, claiming they contain cyber weapons that rival the Stuxnet computer worm.Experts say the whole matter points to the danger of the NSA hoarding cyber weapons: they could fall into the wrong hands.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
This full-featured camera broadcasts over wifi, allowing you to view live from multiple mobile devices at once. Its footage records to micro SD where it is stored and accessible remotely as well. Remote pan/tilt/zoom, 2-way voice, motion-detection alert, and night vision capabilities are all onboard. This model averages 4 out of 5 stars on Amazon from over 4,100 people (read reviews). Amazon indicates that its typical list price of $200 has been reduced 50% to $100.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Hardware experts believed the last DRAM would be the current DDR4, but that's not the case, with DDR5 memory now under development.Specifications for DDR5 memory will be released this year, and deployment of the DRAM will begin in 2020, according to a slide deck presented at the Intel Developer Forum this week.DDR5 DRAM will have many benefits: Users will be able to cram more memory into PCs, and applications will run faster. DDR5 memory will be denser than earlier DRAM, and also consume less power, which could extend battery life in laptops.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
A suspect in a recent data breach at Sage, a U.K. provider of business software, has been arrested. On Wednesday, police in London detained a company employee.The 32-year-old woman was held for alleged fraud against the company, London City Police said. She has since been released on bail.It’s still unclear what information, if any, may have been leaked. However, Sage, a supplier of accounting and payroll software, began notifying customers about the breach last week.Between 200 and 300 business clients in the U.K. may have been affected. At the time, Sage said the breach had come from unauthorized access to internal login data.Security firm the Antisocial Engineer has been in contact with Sage and said a company insider was the prime suspect.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
This device from Anker is compact enough to fit in your glovebox, and powerful enough to jump start any 3L gas or 2.5L diesel engine many many times over on a single charge (Anker claims around 15 times). Surge protection and an incorrect setup alarm included for peace of mind. Almost 1,000 reviewers on Amazon rate it 4.5 out of 5 stars, reporting many successful jumps of cars, motorcycles, and giant trucks -- many with completely dead batteries (read reviews). Also includes 2 USB charging ports for your portable USB devices, and a built-in flashlight. It's typical list price of $160 has been reduced 50% to $80, making it a good consideration for yourself, or a gift for someone else's glove box/emergency kit. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Uber's rushing to replace its million-plus drivers with robots, and the company's early forays towards that effort start in Pennsylvania later in August. The ride-sharing service plans to roll out self-driving cars in Pittsburgh that will accept real world passengers right from the get-go, according to Bloomberg.The cars, while fully autonomous, won’t be unleashed onto Pittsburgh streets without human supervision. The cars will have a specially-trained engineer ready to take the wheel should something go wrong. There will also be a co-pilot taking notes on how each ride goes.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
With AT&T’s Mobile Share Advantage, the telecom giant follows a new trend: Customers who switch to this new shared mobile plan (available August 21) will be spared bandwidth overage fees. Instead, the firm said, after available bandwidth is used up, its Mobile Share Advantage customers will be throttled to 128Kbps for the rest of the current billing cycle.
The Mobile Share plans pool bandwith among devices that can include smartphones, feature phones, tablets, gaming devices, wearables, laptops, hotspots, and other hardware. A monthly charge per device is paired with a charge for a tier of bandwidth.
Why this matters: AT&T joins T-Mobile and Sprint among the big four U.S. carriers in shifting to throttling instead of causing customers to rack up fees at $10 per gigabyte above plan totals. That’s good news for consumers, though it’ll be interesting to see whether they’ll tolerate throttling or break down and buy more bandwidth, sending more money to the carriers after all.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
T-Mobile is hoping to make a another splash by ditching traditional smartphone plans in favor of one, unlimited offer.Called T-Mobile One, the new plan charges $70 per month for the first line, $50 per month for a second, and then $20 for additional lines (stopping with eight). The plan includes unlimited talk, text, and 4G LTE data.
Of course, there are caveats buried in the fine print. T-Mobile says video playback is limited to 480p, the same speed as you’d get with Binge On. Tethering is capped at 2G speeds, which makes it essentially worthless for all but emergency connectivity. To get around the video limitation you’ll need to pay $25 per month extra per line. It’ll cost you $15 for any month in which you want to add on 5GB of tethering.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Sales of Windows smartphones plunged 76% in the second quarter, plummeting from 8.2 million in 2015 to less than 2 million this year, researcher Gartner said today.
The dramatic decline was more fallout from Microsoft's botched acquisition of Nokia's handset business, the writing off of more than $10 billion and the subsequent decision to back out of the consumer smartphone market.
According to Gartner, global sales of Windows-powered smartphones in the June quarter came to just under 2 million units. In a filing with the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) last month, Microsoft put its smartphone sales at around 1.2 million. The difference between Gartner's and Microsoft's numbers -- about 750,000 smartphones -- represented what the former believed other device makers sold during the quarter.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The MIT Media Lab is backing a hackathon on the MIT campus to promote new applications for augmented reality (AR) and virtual Reality (VR). Students from MIT and other universities, developers, designers, and video and audio engineers are invited to apply to participate in the event being held Oct. 7-10, 2016.
The Reality, Virtually, Hackathon will stretch the amazing VR and AR advancements made and expertise gained from building popular gaming and entertainment apps into new fields such as VR/AR “for good,” health/medicine, education, industry, productivity, advertising, social networking and other vertical applications about which participants feel passionate.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Microsoft’s key, .NET-based scripting and management framework is now open source and available for Linux (initially Ubuntu, RedHat and CentOS) and Mac OS, and both cloud and traditional infrastructure companies are stepping up to support it.Open source, Linux and Mac OS announcements from Microsoft are becoming routine under CEO Satya Nadella, but making PowerShell fully open source and making it cross-platform is particularly significant — and not just because PowerShell for Linux is something that customers have been requesting for a long time.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The government has another public balancing act on its hands with the disclosure this week of exploits against commercial security products that were purportedly cooked up by the NSA.These attack tools revealed by a group called Shadow Brokers date from sometime before June 2013 and some of them were still effective this week, which means the NSA never told the vendors about them.That helps flesh out what the Obama administration meant two years ago when it said that under most circumstances the NSA would tell vendors if it exploits vulnerabilities in their security products. The exception: the disclosure policy wouldn’t apply if there were a clear national security or law enforcement need.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here