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Showing posts from September, 2018

GOP lawmakers have 'positive' meeting with Google CEO Sundar Pichai

GOP lawmakers have 'positive' meeting with Google CEO Sundar Pichai Google CEO Sundar Pichai met privately with GOP lawmakers on Capitol Hill Friday amid allegations of anti-conservative bias at the tech giant and concerns about the privacy issues and the firm’s re-entry into China. via https://ift.tt/2OmdRC4

Facebook says 50 million user accounts affected by security breach

Facebook says 50 million user accounts affected by security breach Facebook said Friday it discovered a security breach that affects nearly 50 million user accounts. via https://ift.tt/2OXEQB2

Meat Labs Pursue a Once-Impossible Goal: Kosher Bacon

By NATHANIEL POPPER from NYT Technology https://ift.tt/2QgfIpc

How to beat Google's personalized ads

How to beat Google's personalized ads Google has created its own universe. If you wanted to, you could use nothing but Google products, and you could live a very fruitful digital life. You could buy a Chromebook, use Gmail and G Suite, post your videos to YouTube, and save every last bit of data on Google Drive. via https://ift.tt/2NOeAfP

Former NSA 'white hat' hacker reacts to Facebook breach

Former NSA 'white hat' hacker reacts to Facebook breach Facebook faces largest data breach in the company's history; insight on 'America's News HQ.' via https://ift.tt/2QgrjVe

Two weeks with a $16,000 Hasselblad kit

For hobbyist photographers like myself, Hasselblad has always been the untouchable luxury brand reserved for high-end professionals. To fill the gap between casual and intended photography, they released the X1D — a compact, mirrorless medium format. Last summer when Stefan Etienne reviewed the newly released camera, I asked to take a picture. After importing the raw file into Lightroom and flipping through a dozen presets, I joked that I would eat Ramen packets for the next year so I could buy this camera. It was that impressive. XCD 3.5/30mm lens Last month Hasselblad sent us the XCD 4/21mm (their latest ultra wide-angle lens) for a two-week review, along with the X1D body and XCD 3,2/90mm portrait lens for comparison. I wanted to see what I could do with the kit and had planned the following: Swipe right on everyone with an unflattering Tinder profile picture and offer to retake it for them Travel somewhere with spectacular landscapes My schedule didn’t offer muc...

Browse privately, master Windows and more: Tech Q&A

Browse privately, master Windows and more: Tech Q&A Google is tracking everything. Is there a search site that doesn't record what you search? via https://ift.tt/2xMvT74

LendingClub Founder, Ousted in 2016, Settles Fraud Charges

By NATHANIEL POPPER from NYT Technology https://ift.tt/2QidiXf

GOP lawmakers have 'positive' meeting with Google CEO Sundar Pichai

GOP lawmakers have 'positive' meeting with Google CEO Sundar Pichai Google CEO Sundar Pichai met privately with GOP lawmakers on Capitol Hill Friday amid allegations of anti-conservative bias at the tech giant and concerns about the privacy issues and the firm’s re-entry into China. via https://ift.tt/2NLyvvU

Google CEO Sundar Pichai has 'positive' meeting with GOP lawmakers

Google CEO Sundar Pichai has 'positive' meeting with GOP lawmakers Google CEO Sundar Pichai met privately with GOP lawmakers on Capitol Hill Friday amid allegations of anti-conservative bias at the tech giant and concerns about the privacy issues and the firm’s re-entry into China. via https://ift.tt/2zCCbHv

Gaming industry heavyweight on the ropes

Gaming industry heavyweight on the ropes Telltale Games, best known for its choose your own adventure-style games based on high-profile entertainment properties like 'The Walking Dead,' slashes staff. via https://ift.tt/2OYPl72

Google Chief Agrees to Testify to Congress

By CECILIA KANG and DAISUKE WAKABAYASHI from NYT Technology https://ift.tt/2DFAE7I

Facebook security breach: 50 million user accounts affected

Facebook security breach: 50 million user accounts affected Facebook said it discovered a security breach that affects nearly 50 million user accounts. According to the company hackers exploited the 'View As' feature on the service and steps are being taken to fix the security problem. via https://ift.tt/2DCB0vZ

Facebook says 50 million user accounts affected by security breach

Facebook says 50 million user accounts affected by security breach Facebook said Friday it discovered a security breach that affects nearly 50 million user accounts. via https://ift.tt/2Ipmcj5

Houston orders halt to 'robot sex brothel'

Houston orders halt to 'robot sex brothel' Canadian company KinySdollS says the Houston showroom is set to be the first in the U.S. to rent or sell its real-life looking sex robots. via https://ift.tt/2xYymdJ

Block.Party raises $10M, will adapt Settlers of Catan to its blockchain game console

Blok.Party , the company the upcoming PlayTable game console, announced today raised $10 million in new funding. It’s also unveiling a big content partnership, where Blok.Party will create its own version of the popular board game Settlers of Catan . I first wrote about Blok.Party and PlayTable earlier this year , when co-founder and CEO Jimmy Chen first laid out his vision to use blockchain technology to build a console that can recognize real-world objects (like figurines and cards), creating a hybrid between tabletop and video gaming. The idea may have sounded a little abstract at the time, but it got a lot clearer when Chen dropped by the TechCrunch New York office to play a couple rounds of Catan with me. I’ll admit that I hadn’t played in a while, but it was clear from the start that PlayTable saved us some setup time — instead of putting all the pieces of the physical board together, you play on a digital representation of the board. Most of the pieces are digitized too, and ...

Facebook Network Breach Impacts Up to 50 Million Users

By MIKE ISAAC and SHEERA FRENKEL from NYT Technology https://ift.tt/2DDbHtB

Spotify ends test that required family plan subscribers to share their GPS location

Spotify has ended a test that required its family plan subscribers to verify their location, or risk losing accessing to its music streaming service. According to recent reports, the company had sent out emails to its “Premium for Family” customers which asked them to confirm their locations using GPS. The idea here is that some customers may have been sharing Family Plans, even though they’re not related, as a means of paying less for Spotify by splitting the plan’s support for multiple users. And Spotify wanted to bust them. Spiegel Online  and Quartz  first reported this news on Thursday. Of course, as these reports pointed out, asking users to confirm a GPS location is a poor means of verification. Families often have members who live or work outside the home – they may live abroad, have divorced or separated parents, have kids in college, they may travel for work, or any other number of reasons. But technically, these sorts of situations are prohibited by Spotify’s fa...

Darth Vader gets a video game

Darth Vader gets a video game Top Talkers: Darth Vader leads the 2019 three-part virtual reality game 'Vader Immortal: A Star Wars VR Series.' via https://ift.tt/2N8oun7

San Diego port targeted in ransomware attack

San Diego port targeted in ransomware attack Hackers have targeted the Port of San Diego in a ransomware attack that disrupted the agency’s IT systems. via https://ift.tt/2xJMRTs

The Week in Tech: The Robots Aren’t as Human as They Seem

By CADE METZ from NYT Technology https://ift.tt/2DEvY22

Google CEO to meet GOP lawmakers regarding alleged bias against conservatives

Google CEO to meet GOP lawmakers regarding alleged bias against conservatives Google Chief Executive Sundar Pichai will finally meet with Republican lawmakers on Friday to discuss allegations of bias against conservatives, privacy and controversial business practices in China. via https://ift.tt/2xZ2iX6

Bytedance of China Eyes $75 Billion Valuation, Joining Start-Up Giants

By RAYMOND ZHONG from NYT Technology https://ift.tt/2NcH8KY

California cops bust crime ring that nabbed $1M worth of devices from Apple Stores

Fear not, citizens — the law enforcement apparatus of California has apprehended or is hot on the trail of more than a dozen hardened criminals who boldly stole from the state’s favorite local business: Apple . Their unconscionable larceny amounted to more than a million dollars worth of devices stolen from Apple Stores — the equivalent of hundreds of iPhones. The alleged thieves would wear hoodies into Apple stores — already suspicious, I know — and there they would snatch products on display and hide them in the ample pockets of those garments. Truly cunning. These crimes took place in 19 different counties in California, the police forces of which all collaborated to bring the perpetrators to justice, though the San Luis Obispo and Oakland departments led the charge. So far seven of the thieves have been arrested, and nine more have warrants out. In a press release, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra harangued his state regarding the dangers of the criminal element. O...

How aerial lidar illuminated a Mayan megalopolis

Archaeology may not be the most likely place to find the latest in technology — AI and robots are of dubious utility in the painstaking fieldwork involved — but lidar has proven transformative. The latest accomplishment using laser-based imaging maps thousands of square kilometers of an ancient Mayan city once millions strong, but the researchers make it clear that there’s no technological substitute for experience and a good eye. The Pacunam Lidar Initiative began two years ago, bringing together a group of scholars and local authorities to undertake the largest-yet survey of a protected and long-studied region in Guatemala. Some 2,144 square kilometers of the Maya Biosphere Reserve in Petén were scanned, inclusive of and around areas known to be settled, developed or otherwise of importance. Preliminary imagery and data illustrating the success of the project were announced earlier this year, but the researchers have now performed their actual analyses on the data, and the resulti...

Off-road motorized wheelchairs make their way to US

Off-road motorized wheelchairs make their way to US Terrain Hopper electric-powered vehcile technology allows those with mobility issues to go off-roading via https://ift.tt/2N6HPFf

Fox on Tech: Predators using online games, FBI warns

Fox on Tech: Predators using online games, FBI warns Online multiplayer video games like “Fortnite” and “Minecraft” are exploding in popularity, and each contains a social media component where players are encouraged to interact with each other. But now the FBI is warning of a new threat: dangerous sexual predators using those games to target underage boys and girls playing online. via https://ift.tt/2NLvTOz

DARPA launches massive new '3rd wave' next-gen artificial intelligence

DARPA launches massive new '3rd wave' next-gen artificial intelligence The Pentagon’s science and technology research arm is launching a vigorous push into a new level of advanced artificial intelligence, intended to integrate advanced levels of “machine learning,” introduce more “adaptive reasoning” and even help computers determine more subjective phenomena. via https://ift.tt/2Ogw5F6

New Air Force helicopters that can 'defy Armageddon'

New Air Force helicopters that can 'defy Armageddon' Defense Specialist Allison Barrie has the inside scoop on the U.S. Air Force's new MH-139 helicopters that will be replacing the UH-1N 'Huey,' and taking on two highly dangerous, but incredibly important, missions. via https://ift.tt/2DB1ZrI

Feds warn predators are targeting popular online games

Feds warn predators are targeting popular online games Authorities in New Jersey, arrest two dozen men after they allegedly used 'Fortnite,' the world's most popular video game, to solicit sex from undercover officers posing as minors. via https://ift.tt/2R2QxYm

Meet the new Air Force helicopters that can 'defy Armageddon'

Meet the new Air Force helicopters that can 'defy Armageddon' Ever wonder what would happen to the U.S. leadership and the nuclear missile arsenal if the nation was under attack? New helicopters will take on these two highly dangerous – and incredibly important – missions. via https://ift.tt/2QdkzHF