Today Technology

Facebook Stops Using Its Facial Recognition Tool In Europe

marlen — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 19:51:52 GMT

Facebook has been under investigation by the EU for the use of its facial recognition tool, the investigation is still ongoing, but now it would appear that the worlds largest social network has stopped using the tool in the EU.

Facebook has stopped using the tool in Europe after it received recommendations from Ireland’s Data protection Commissioner (DPC), although the DPC did not ask for the feature to be removed completely.

The feature has now been turned off for all new users in the EU signing up to Facebook and it will be removed from all existing users by the 15th of October.

It isn’t clear as yet on whether Facebook intends to modify their face recognition tool to use within the EU in the future, but the regulators have recommended that users in the EU should have the option to turn the feature off.

Source ITproportal

New Mac Trojan Discovered, Spreading Through Microsoft Office Documents

marlen — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 21:53:34 GMT

After Apple successfully released a new update to remove and stop the Flashback malware on Mac systems last week, it now appears another one is affecting systems via Microsoft Office documents.

The new Mac malware which has been dubbed "SabPub” by Kaspersky and "Sabpab” by Sophos and Intego, and takes the form of a basic backdoor Trojan horse, which has been designed to steal information from infected Mac computers.

The new malware is capable of creating files and sending encrypted logs back to a command-and-control (C&C) server controlled by the malware creators. Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos explains:

"Just like Flashback, the new Trojan doesn’t require any user interaction to infect your Apple Mac,”-"The Sabpab Trojan horse exploits the same drive-by Java vulnerability used to create the Flashback botnet. The criminals behind the attack can grab screenshots from infected Macs, upload and download files, and execute commands remotely.

The Sabpab Trojan is not believed to be anything like as widespread as Flashback, but still underlines the importance of protecting Macs against malware with an up-to-date antivirus program and security updates,” "It’s time for Mac users to wake up and smell the coffee. Mac malware is becoming a genuine issue, and cannot be ignored any longer.”

Source: eWeek

Samsung To Show Off Flagship OLED HDTV At IFA In August

marlen — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 21:49:38 GMT

It looks like Samsung’s 55-inch OLED HDTV will be shown at Berlin’s IFA trade show this August. That’s when we will learn about the TV’s official launch details as well as a new, premium range of HDTVs that Samsung is teasing us with, calling them "more premium” than their OLED models.

We aren’t sure if that means in terms of functionality rather than design or display technology. Hopefully we will get more details soon. Samsung first unveiled the OLED TV at CES back in January and we still don’t have many details. It looks like both sets will support the newest version of Samsung AllShare, which will add a 5GB cloud account to its local DLNA-based service.

There is also a remote login system. This feature will allow users to remotely access any of their Samsung devices located anywhere in the world, with a single account login. That alone is sure to be a hit with consumers.

Source BGR

Is The iPad Mini Coming In Q3 For $249-$299?

marlen — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 21:40:12 GMT

if you have been following all of the iPad mini rumors, here is another to tease you with a device that may or may not be coming our way. According to a Chinese website, an iPad mini will ship in the third quarter of the year in order to lay the smack down on upcoming Windows tablets.

NetEase also reports that the smaller iPads will cost between $249 and $299. They will reportedlt have 6 million units ready at launch. Production will be handled by two Asian manufacturers: Hon Hai (Foxconn) and Pegatron.

Take this with the usual grain of salt. We have no way of knowing if there is any truth to this at all, but this info is consistent with other reports that Apple is working on a 7.85-inch iPad. If it is true, we can probably look forward to the same 1024×768 resolution as the iPad 2, but it will be sharper thanks to a smaller size. This price point would make it directly compete against the $199 Amazon Kindle Fire.

When we hear more we will let you know.

Source Electronista

BT Infinity Broadband Speeds Doubling From Tomorrow

marlen — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 12:01:55 GMT

Anyone lucky enough to be able to get their hands on BT’s Infinity fibre optic broadband package, will be pleased to know that from tomorrow BT is doubling the speed of their service from 40Mbps down and 10Mbps to 80Mbps down and 20Mbps up. The move by BT follows Virgin ho have already started upgrading their broadband service and increasing its speeds for customers.

BT’s Infinity broadband package is currently available to more than 7 million households and businesses across the UK, and is set to increase to 10 million in 2012 and then to around two thirds of all UK premises by the end of 2014.

"BT Retail has turned up the speed dial in the broadband battle by announcing a range of speed increases for its customers for no extra cost. Customers signing up to BT Infinity 2 from tomorrow (April 12) will benefit from downstream speeds that are roughly double those on offer today – up to 76Mbps rather than up to 38Mbps. The newly revamped service will also offer the UK’s fastest upstream speeds of up to 19Mbps.”

From April 12th customers new to BT and existing BT customers switching to BT Infinity from other packages will automatically benefit from these higher speed packages. Current BT Infinity customers will be able to switch to the faster products by starting a new contract, at no extra cost.

Source: BT

YouTube Partner Program Opens To All

marlen — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 10:43:30 GMT

YouTube have today opened up their Partner Program to the masses allowing anyone within 20 countries where the YouTube Partner Program already exists to join up for free. Previously the YouTube Partner Program was exclusively available to content producers of popular content, but from today YouTube has now opened up the service to everyone.

The YouTube Partner Program has been created to provide content creators with resources and opportunities to improve their skills, build larger audiences, and earn more money.

Even though the YouTube Partner Program is now open to everyone, there are still a few features that are not rolling out on day one to all new comers. But YouTube explains: "We are working on making these and other features available to more newly-made partners over time,”.

YouTube Partner program is currently available to everyone in these countries: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom and the United States.

Source: YouTube : YouTube Partner Program

Spotify Launches 12 New Apps

marlen — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 20:33:58 GMT

Spotify has added 12 new applications to its library today, that have been created and developed by record labels and distributors including Universal, Sony, Warner, EMI, Def Jam, Domino, Matador, [PIAS] and X5.

The new record label applications offer addition features to fans, with Def Jam, Domino, Matador, [PIAS], and Warner Music Group offering apps designed to provide artist playlists, lyrics, and extra information about their artists.

Another useful application in the new applications is called TweetVine which allows premium users to take all songs posted on Twitter with a hashtag #NowPlaying an create a playlist for your enjoyment.

While the new Digister application provides a full screen music player, and the Filtr application enables you to link to Facebook and lets you build playlists based on your friends’ preferences and favourite songs. For more information and to download the 12 new Spotify applications if you are a Premium member power up your Spotify app.

Source: Spotify : Chip Chick

Awesome Drag Race between 60s and 89 Batmobile

amitguruji — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 21:27:31 GMT

Awesome Drag Race between 60s and 89 Batmobile

I was never a fan of the original 60s Batman series. It seemed like it was constantly on in the summers when I was a kid. I did watch the 89 Tim Burton movie and found it to cartoonish and over-the-top for my taste. I’m a much bigger fan of the gritty Christian Bale version of Batman.

The first episode of a web series called Super Power Beat Down is now online and the episode pits that 60s Batmobile against the 89 version from the Burton flick. The host is a cute little redhead along with a couple of geeks to talk about the make-believe specs of the cars. The car builder then comes out and talks real numbers about horsepower and performance.

I think his quarter-mile performance claims are off, but it’s still cool to see these two cars lined up for a drag race. The female hostess agreed to a bet that would have her washing the 60s Batmobile in a bikini if it won the race. The 60s car did when the race, but I think it might’ve been thrown just to get her in a bikini. That was a good call.

via Neatorama

NASA Releases an All-Sky Atlas

amitguruji — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 19:35:38 GMT

NASA Releases an All-Sky Atlas

If you think a map of the entire sky is impossible, consider it done: NASA has just released an all-sky atlas and catalog of objects.

For ten months, NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer or WISE took a photo of the sky once every 11 seconds, which resulted in 2.7 million images. The images were then joined together in 18,000 mosaic images in which there are about 560 million stars and 15 trillion bytes of information about the universe.

A number of discoveries have already turned up from the WISE data, like the existence of trojan asteroid (asteroid with the same orbital path as that of Earth’s) and Y-dwarfs (darkest and coldest stars in the universe).

"It will be exciting and rewarding to see the innovative ways the science and educational communities will use WISE in their studies now that they have the data at their fingertips,” says Roc Cutri, head of data processing for WISE.

via Geekosystem

Origami Paper Sensor Can Detect Malaria and HIV

amitguruji — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 18:20:06 GMT

A pair of chemists at the University of Texas developed an origami-style sensor that can detect diseases such as malaria and HIV. What’s even greater news? These sensors cost only 10 cents a piece.

Developed by chemists Hong Liu and Richard Crooks, the Origami Paper Analytical Device (or the oPAD) will prove to be very useful in developing countries wherein lab based tests are anywhere from extremely expensive to unavailable.

"This is about medicine for everybody,” says Richard Crooks, the Robert A. Welch Professor of Chemistry.

This three dimensional paper sensors work like the traditional pregnancy tests but improved on it since it can test a lot more substances in a smaller surface area.

The hydrophobic materia such as wax or photoresist is laid down into tiny canyons of chromatography paper. It channels the fluid sample to be tested into spots where reagents have been embedded.

It’s fairly easy to use. When the color changes to a specific color, get scared.

Liu got the idea for the project when he worked on a similar idea by Harvard University chemist George Whitesides. Whitesides’ "microfluidic paper sensor”, however was expensive, time consuming to construct and is fairly limited. Lui improved on Whitesides idea and made the oPad using a sheet of photolithography, an office printer, and his fingers.

Crooks and Liu also designed a scheme so that they can run tests that require power. A prototype uses aluminum foil to look for glucose in urine. You basically pee on it and it works.

Source: UTexas