NASA finds use for 3D printers: Launch them into SPAAACE
NASA has commissioned a custom 3D printer capable of working in microgravity that will be sent to the International Space Station to build parts for the facility and the scientific experiments it contains.
Testing zero G printing in space Zero G flights are good for testing, bad for hair
The printer has been designed by Made …
NSA's Project Marina stores EVERYONE'S metadata for A YEAR
New details from NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden have shown the existence of Project Marina, a metadata collection system that collects details on the activity of almost all internet users, regardless of whether they are legitimate subjects for enquiry or not.
The US government has always insisted that – as far as possible – …
Sweet murmuring Siri opens stalker vulnerability hole in iOS 7
It has not been a good week for Apple on the security front, and there's no relief in sight after an Israeli researcher found a way to access a locked iPhone's contacts and messages database using Siri.
In a YouTube video, Dany Lisiansky showed how a locked phone running iOS 7.0.2 can be opened by using Siri's voice control to …
Windows Phone market share hits double digits in UK and France
Microsoft has been gobbling up market share in Europe, with nearly one in eight phones in the UK now running Windows Phone and one in ten in France.
"Windows Phone's latest wave of growth is being driven by Nokia's expansion into the low and mid range market with the Lumia 520 and 620 handsets," said Dominic Sunnebo, strategic …
Intel delays consumer TV box yet again – report
Intel is reportedly delaying the launch of a planned set-top box with pay-per-view content after a distinct lack of interest among partners.
Bloomberg reports that the previously planned launch of the box in time for this year's holiday season has now been delayed until at least 2014. Attempts by Intel to find partners for the …
Valve aiming to take the joy(sticks) out of gaming with Steam Controller
Gaming house Valve has completed its trio of announcements for the week with news of a planned wireless game controller that replaces the traditional thumb-controlled mini joysticks with two force-feedback touchpads and a programmable screen.
Steam Controller The touchy-feely future of gaming?
The two touchpads will give …
London schoolboy cuffed for BIGGEST DDOS ATTACK IN HISTORY
A British police investigation into the massive DDoS attack against internet watchdog Spamhaus has led to the arrest of a 16-year-old London schoolboy who, it is claimed, is part of an international gang of cyber-crooks.
"The suspect was found with his computer systems open and logged on to various virtual systems and forums," …
30 years on: The day a computer glitch nearly caused World War III
Computer problems are an annoyance for us all, but thirty years ago a fault in the Soviet Union's ballistic missile early warning system very nearly caused nuclear war, if not for the actions of Lieutenant Colonel Stanislav Petrov of the Soviet Air Defense Forces.
1983 was a very dangerous time for humanity. In the US, President …
Chinese building orbital lab by 2023 to make 'space medicine'
China has told the 64th International Astronautical Congress in Beijing that it plans to have a space station in orbit within the next decade, saying it will be used to study space medicine and study the effects on humans of spending long periods away from Earth's gravity.
The Nyu Wa space station, named after the Chinese …
15% of Americans still holding off from this newfangled interweb thing
The latest data from the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project has found that there is still a sizable percentage of Americans who really don't get this internet thing, with 15 per cent never going online and another 9 per cent only doing so at work.
US internet use data from Pew 47 million people still without …
Full Steam Ahead: Valve unwraps plans for gaming hardware
We are halfway through a promised week of announcements from games publisher Valve, and so far it's looking interesting. On Monday the company announced its own flavor of Linux and on Wednesday it confirmed rumors that it is getting into the console industry with its own hardware.
"We have designed a high-performance prototype …
Firms fined $350,000 after yogurt sting uncovers review rigging
A year-long investigation by New York prosecutors has found 19 local businesses guilty of faking reviews on sites such as Google and Yelp, a practice that has now earned them over $350,000 in fines and penalties.
As part of "Operation Clean Turf," investigators from the office of the New York Attorney General posed as yogurt …
Valve shows Linux love with SteamOS for gamers
Games publishing house Valve is making three announcements this week about plans to expand its gaming business, and the first piece of news is that it's launching a royalty-free flavor of Linux that can be used by hardware vendors for console systems.
"As we've been working on bringing Steam to the living room, we’ve come to the …
Microsoft: Surface is DEAD. Long live the Surface 2!
Undeterred by its critics, Microsoft has torn the wraps off Surface 2: its upgraded Windows 8-powered tablets, now with faster processors, better graphics, a load of new accessories, and not one but two kickstand positions.
Surface Pro 2 with docking station The Surface Pro 2 with its new docking station
Redmond has already …
Microsoft reissues September patches after user complaints
Problems with Microsoft's last round of operating system and application patches have forced the company to reissue part of the update on Friday.
"Since the shipment of the September 2013 Security Bulletin Release, we have received reports of updates being offered for installation multiple times, or certain cases where updates …
Billionaire engineer Ray Dolby, 80, dies at home in San Francisco
Ray Dolby, the engineer who for most of the last half century has improved our ability to record and play high-fidelity sound and who founded Dolby Labs, has passed away at his home in San Francisco after being diagnosed with acute leukemia earlier in the year.
"Today we lost a friend, mentor and true visionary," said Kevin …
Happy Friday the 13th! It's Programmers' Day
If your code monkeys aren't answering their emails today, it may not be the curse of Friday the 13th, but instead because they've taken a day of rest to celebrate Programmers' Day.
Programmers' Day is celebrated on the 256th day of the year, representing the maximum number of values in a byte – and 256 is also the largest power …
Senator halts Google's taxpayer-subsidized executive jet fuel deal
A year-long investigation by US senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) into Google's use of NASA's Silicon Valley airport has shown that the company benefited from buying cheap aviation fuel from NASA at a discounted price arranged by the Pentagon.
"Are some executives getting a special deal on fuel that isn't available to other …
NASA: Humanity has finally reached into INTERSTELLAR SPACE
Data beamed back from the Voyager 1 spacecraft has shown that the probe has left our Solar System and entered interstellar space, becoming the first manmade object to travel beyond mankind's home system.
At a press conference on Thursday, NASA engineers said that the probe actually made the leap last year after travelling 12 …
Intel shows off wine-powered processor and biometric boffinry
Day three of the Intel Developer Forum is usually when the firm shows off its future projects and Chipzilla's in-house anthropologist Dr Genevieve Bell took to the keynote stage to demonstrate a processor powered by wine and mobile phones that use your gait or voice as a password.
Bell, who thanks to her Australian outback …
NIST denies it weakened its encryption standard to please the NSA
The US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has vehemently denied accusations that it deliberately weakened encryption standards to help the NSA's monitoring activities.
"We want to assure the IT cybersecurity community that the transparent, public process used to rigorously vet our standards is still in place …
Microsoft delivers baker's dozen of patches on Tuesday
Another month, another Patch Tuesday from Microsoft, but this month's bundle has come up one short from the 14 promised patches last week.
"We are committed to delivering high-quality security updates for our customers and extensively test each bulletin prior to release," Dustin Childs, group manager at Microsoft Trustworthy …
Declassified documents show NSA staff abused tapping, misled courts
The US Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) has declassified 1,800 pages of documents that indicate that the NSA routinely overstepped its authority and misled oversight bodies about the surveillance of US citizens.
"In June of this year, President Obama directed me to declassify and make public as much …
David Attenborough warns that humans have stopped evolving
Britain's most popular naturalist has warned in an interview that humans have become the first species to effectively halt the influence of natural selection. He also says, however, that it's not the end of the world, thanks to modern technology.
"I think that we've stopped evolving. Because if natural selection, as proposed by …
Swiss space plane to launch robotic orbital debris destroyer
Switzerland, a nation renowned for its fondness for tidiness and order, could become a key force in cleaning up the potentially deadly problem of space junk in Earth's orbit.
Last year, the Swiss Space Center at the University of Lausanne announced the planned launch of CleanSpace One, a robotic satellite designed to grab onto …
Tech titans team up to complain about US government spy requests
Facebook, Microsoft, Google, and Yahoo! have all filed petitions with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) asking for a relaxation of rules that would allow them to give customers more of an idea of what data is being collected by the US intelligence agencies.
"Working with others in the industry, we’ve been …
Facebook tramples Twitter's turf with media-friendly tracking
Facebook is adding a couple of APIs that will let certain media organizations track what's trending on the social network.
Certain media partners, such as Buzzfeed, CNN, NBC's Today Show, BSkyB, and Slate (as well as social media marketing firm Mass Relevance) will be getting access to a Public Feed API that allows them to see a …
Kamikaze Moon mission on track as NASA grips its tumbling LADEE
NASA has confirmed that its LADEE (Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer) probe is back on track for lunar orbit after being temporarily left tumbling by a power surge which occurred shortly after its launch.
LADEE took off atop a US Air Force Minotaur V rocket on 11:27pm EDT on Friday from NASA's Wallops Flight …
Xiaomi plans global domination with fast smartphones and software
The established smartphone vendors should prepare for challenge from China: Xiaomi, a firm started just three years ago by a Chinese serial entrepreneur and Google's ex-head of engineering, has announced plans to move out of the Middle Kingdom and onto the world stage.
The first time many people in the Western world heard of …
US intelligence: Snowden's latest leaks 'road map' for adversaries
The US Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) has issued a response to the latest revelations from Edward Snowden with a warning that the information is "not news," but has nevertheless harmed the agency's ability to keep America and its allies safe.
On Thursday ProPublica, The New York Times, and The Guardian …
Android malware spotted hitching a ride on mobile botnet
Kaspersky Lab has reported the first sighting of mobile malware (Android, of course) that piggybacks on the back of a separate mobile botnet and uses the resources of other malware once it's installed.
"For the first time malware is being distributed using botnets that were created using completely different mobile malware," …
New! Yahoo! logo! shows! Marissa! Meyer's! personal! touch!
After 18 years the Yahoo! logo has had a redesign, courtesy of newish boss Marissa Mayer and her team, who spent a weekend hammering out the new look for the company.
New Yahoo! logo Behold Marissa's new creation!
"On a personal level, I love brands, logos, color, design, and, most of all, Adobe Illustrator," Mayer wrote on …
FTC slaps TRENDnet with 20 years' probation over webcam spying flaw
The Federal Trade Commission has reached a settlement with US wireless webcam manufacturer TRENDnet that will commit the firm to third-party security audits for the next 20 years, plus two years of free technical support for its customers.
The FTC began its investigation last year after a list of the IP addresses of over 700 …
Samsung stakes claim to smartwatch market with Galaxy Gear
Samsung has been showing off its entry into the smartwatch market, as well as a new Galaxy tablet and super-sized smartphone, ahead of the IFA 2013 consumer electronics show in Berlin.
Samsung Galaxy Gear A Rolex it ain't
"Samsung Galaxy Gear benefits consumers by integrating smart device technology even deeper into their …
DON'T PANIC says Hynix, China fab explosion is no big deal
Fears that an explosive fire at SK Hynix's Chinese fabs in Wuxi will cause a spike in chip prices are unfounded, says the company.
"Currently, there is no material damage to the fab equipment in the clean room, thus we expect to resume operations in a short time period so that overall production and supply volume would not be …
Bionym bracelet promises to replace passwords with ECG biometrics
Bionym, a startup from the University of Toronto, is looking to banish password woes with a bracelet that handles authentication by monitoring your heartbeat.
nymi Password that's closer to wristy than handy
The Nymi device uses electrocardiogram (ECG) sensors in the top and bottom of the bracelet to build up a unique …
Canadian comet impact fingered for triggering prehistoric climate shift
Scientists have discovered new evidence that an extraplanetary body came down over Canada around 12,900 years ago, possibly triggering the death of the giant animals then roaming the North American continent, and starting a cooling spell that helped drive mankind towards agriculture and civilization.
During the Younger Dryas …
Researcher bags $12,500 after showing how to hack Zuck's pics
Indian security researcher Arul Kumar has netted himself $12,500 after spotting a critical flaw in Facebook's image handling code that allowed anyone to delete pictures from the site at will.
As he describes in a blog post, the crack requires two legitimate Facebook accounts to work, and is exploited by the way the Facebook …
China confirms plans for first Moon visit later this year
China has confirmed it is on track to land a rover on the Moon later this year to scoot across the surface analyzing dust and rock samples.
"Chang'e-3 has officially entered its launch stage, following its research and manufacture period," reports the official Chinese news agency Xinhua.
The Chang'e-3 probe, first revealed last …
Microsoft and Google unite to sue US gov't for more transparency
Microsoft is teaming up with rival Google in legal action against the US government after talks to allow the companies to tell their users if they are being spied upon broke down.
"There are many days when Microsoft and Google stand apart. But today our two companies stand together," said Redmond's general counsel Brad Smith on …
Mother/daughter team jailed for million-dollar internet dating scam
A mother and daughter have been jailed for over a decade apiece after pleading guilty to money laundering for an internet dating scam that persuaded the gullible that they were helping US troops in search of love.
Vasseurs The mother and daughter team muled over a million to Nigerian scammers
Karen Vasseur, 63, and daughter …
Facebook scammers raking in $200 MEEELLION in illicit profits
A pair of Italian security researchers investigating the practice of Facebook scamming estimates that the trade brings in around $200m a year.
Andrea Stroppa and Carlo De Micheli analyzed the pricing of Facebook spam on 20 black-market websites offering access to Facebook users for a price. The spammers set up fan sites and …
Apple tops target list for litigious patent trolls
Apple has gained the dubious honor of being the top target for patent trolls, or to give them their polite title, Non-Practicing Entities (NPE).
Patent Freedom, a collection of companies that monitor the booming NPE industry, reports that in 2012 Cupertino topped the list for patent litigation with 44 cases brought and another …
Boffin snatches control of colleague's BODY with remote control BRAIN HAT
In an announcement that's going to be a boon to the tin-foil haberdashery business, scientists at the University of Washington (UW) have successfully built a non-invasive system to remotely control the actions of humans.
Brain to Brain communications at the University of Washington Mind control from the Ministry of Silly Hats …
Moto X teardown shows US manufacturing adds mere $4 to handset costs
It's taken as gospel by businesses – particularly in the technology industry – that when it comes to manufacturing, offshoring production to Asia is the only way to go. But a Moto X teardown by analyst house IHS shows this to be faulty logic.
Moto X teardown by IHS Pieces of X (source: IHS)
Motorola has been heavily marketing …
Nissan promises to sell self-driving cars by 2020
Nissan has said it is two car generations away from building mass-market self-driving vehicles, and has promised to have the first hands-free automobiles available for sale within the next seven years.
Nissan self-driving car Nissan want this on the road by 2020
"Nissan Motor Company's willingness to question conventional …
Dell juices Latitude line with Haswell Ultrabook, skinny lappies
Dell is slimming down and powering up its business laptop line with three new Latitude families running Intel's latest-generation chippery, including a carbon-fiber Series 7000 Ultrabook that the company claims is the most secure in the world.
All of the new Latitude systems ship with Windows 8 or Ubuntu 12.04, and have the …
Samsung sets Sept 4 for Galaxy Gear smartwatch showoff
Samsung has set the date for its attempt to inspire a smartwatch market and will show off its Galaxy Gear watch and a super-sized smartphone just ahead of the IFA 2013 consumer electronics show in Berlin.
"We will be introducing a new wearable concept device called Galaxy Gear at our own event in Berlin on September 4," Lee …
NASA: Full details on our manned ASTEROID SNATCH mission
NASA is pressing ahead with plans to capture an asteroid, pack it in an orbit around the Moon, and then send up a two-person crew to investigate and take samples, and it has released a video showing how it plans to achieve all this.
Orion asteroid capture mission The two craft involved in capturing a shard of the Solar System …
Yahoo! starts $1.99 'watch list' to recycle old usernames
Yahoo! has begun to recycle old usernames from inactive accounts and is starting a three-year paid service so that users can put dibs on the ones that they want.
In July, Yahoo! said it planned to allow people to change their usernames for something a little more personal and asked for volunteers to sign up for the program. It …
