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You'll soon be able to start a Tesla Model S just with an iPhone
Aug 21 2014, 15:51
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It appears that Tesla Model S owners get as excited by firmware updates as gadget nuts get when a new phone operating system gets released. Someone on the Tesla Motors Club forum has posted some plausible-looking screenshots from what purports to be...Couchsurfing Hacked, Sends Airbnb Prank Spam
Aug 21 2014, 15:50
from Slashdot by
Slashdot regular (and Couchsurfing.org volunteer) Bennett Haselton writes with a report that an anonymous prankster hacked the Couchsurfing.org website and sent spam to about 1 million members, snarkily advertising their commercial arch-rival Airbnb as "the new Couchsurfing." (Read on below for more on the breach.) As of now, the spam's been caught, but not the spammer.Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Déjà vu: Virgin Media jacks up broadband prices
Aug 21 2014, 15:33
from The Register by
Screw copper phone lines, we're UNIQUE, bleats telco
Virgin Media is once again hiking up the price of its broadband service, while at the same time championing its cable network.â¦
Google Chrome now freely available in Cuba
Aug 21 2014, 15:23
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If Chrome were human, he'd/she'd be puffing on authentic Cuban cigars right about now. The browser's finally made its way to the Caribbean country, where it was blocked, along with other Google services, for the longest time. While Mountain View...The 2014 Hugo Awards
Aug 21 2014, 15:09
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Dave Knott writes: WorldCon 2014 wrapped up in London this last weekend and this year's Hugo Award winners were announced. Notable award winners include: Best Novel: Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie Best Novelette: "The Lady Astronaut of Mars" by Mary Robinette Kowal Best Novella: "Equoid" by Charles Stross Best Short Story: "The Water That Falls on You from Nowhere" by John Chu Best Graphic Story: "Time" by Randall Munroe Best Dramatic Presentation (Long Form): Gravity written by Alfonso Cuarón & Jonás Cuarón, directed by Alfonso Cuarón Best Dramatic Presentation (Short Form): Game of Thrones: "The Rains of Castamere" written by David Benioff & D.B. Weiss, directed by David Nutter The results of this year's awards were awaited with some some trepidation in the SF community, due to well-documented attempts by some controversial authors to game the voting system. These tactics appear to have been largely unsuccessful, as this is the fourth major award for the Leckie novel, which had already won the 2013 BSFA, 2013 Nebula and 2014 Clarke awards.Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Linux duo land $54m VC Xamarin cash bag
Aug 21 2014, 15:01
from The Register by
A 'pretty strong signal,' says CEO
Two leading lights in open source and mobile have landed $54m in funding for their company.â¦
N3twork wants to be the Pandora of internet video
Aug 21 2014, 15:00
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The music industry is extremely well-blanketed on the web, what with services like Pandora, iHeartRadio, Spotify, Rhapsody, iTunes Music and many, many more. But one can easily argue that the same can't be said about online videos -- namely, those...Nokia Lumia 930 review: like the Icon, but better
Aug 21 2014, 14:30
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Microsoft's acquisition of Nokia is now bearing fruit, but as often happens when big companies merge, there aren't enough jobs to go around. More than 10,000 former Nokia employees are due to be laid off by the end of the year, but their legacy will...Microsoft: We plan to CLEAN UP this here Windows Store town
Aug 21 2014, 14:28
from The Register by
Paid-for apps that provide free downloads? Really
Microsoft has promised to crack down on rogue apps in its Windows Store following criticisms that the marketplace is littered with "scam" software.â¦
Study: Ad-Free Internet Would Cost Everyone $230-a-Year
Aug 21 2014, 14:27
from Slashdot by
Several readers sent word of research into the cost of internet content without ads. They looked at the amount of money spent on internet advertising last year in the U.K., and compared it to the number of U.K. internet users. On average, each user would have to pay about £140 ($230) to make up for the lost revenue of an ad-free internet. In a survey, 98% of consumers said they wouldn't be willing to pay that much for the ability to browse without advertisements. However, while most consumers regard ads as a necessary trade-off to keep the internet free, they will go to great lengths to avoid advertising they do not wish to see. Of those surveyed, 63 per cent said they skip online video ads 'as quickly as possible' â a figure that rises to 75 per cent for 16-24 year olds. Over a quarter of all respondents said they mute their sound and one in five scroll away from the video. 16 per cent use ad blocking software and 16 per cent open a new browser window or tab.Read more of this story at Slashdot.
The other strange tale of Facebookâs disputed origins
Aug 21 2014, 14:00
from Ars Technica by
Prosecutors say it took decades for Bernard Madoff to pull off one of the largest financial scams in US history to the tune of $65 billion, an elaborate Ponzi scheme perpetrated against the upper crust of society.
But perhaps there's an even bigger scam afoot, and it involves the ownership of Facebook. The social networking site is valued at $190 billion and used by billions of people daily across the globe.
Unlike Madoff's intricate accounting scheme that netted him a life sentence in 2009, the criminal proceedings surrounding the ownership of Facebook, at its core, rely on a two-page documentâa contract that is either forged or worth billions of dollars. Either Facebook Chief Mark Zuckerberg, as an 18-year-old Harvard University student, promised half of his company to a rural New York man named Paul Ceglia, or he didn't.
Spotify's resident media artist program unlocks the power and beauty of data
Aug 21 2014, 14:00
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It's always a gamble for a company to attach itself to an artist. But Spotify sees it as a natural extension of its corporate culture. For a company that holds regular hackathons and hack weeks, in which employees are encouraged to experiment and...Death by 1,000 cuts: Mainstream storage array suppliers are bleeding
Aug 21 2014, 13:57
from The Register by
Cloud, all-flash kit, object storage slicing away at titans of storage
Comment Great beasts can be killed by a 1,000 cuts, bleeding to death from the myriad slashes in their bodies â none of which, on their own, is a killer. And this, it seems, is the way things are going for big-brand storage arrays, as upstarts slice away at the market with converged systems, virtual SANs, all-flash kit, hybrid devices, object storage, software-defined storage and the cloud.â¦
Calif. Court Rules Businesses Must Reimburse Cell Phone Bills
Aug 21 2014, 13:45
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New submitter dszd0g writes The Court of Appeal of the State of California has ruled in Cochran v. Schwan's Home Service that California businesses must reimburse employees who BYOD for work. "We hold that when employees must use their personal cell phones for work-related calls, Labor Code section 2802 requires the employer to reimburse them. Whether the employees have cell phone plans with unlimited minutes or limited minutes, the reimbursement owed is a reasonable percentage of their cell phone bills." Forbes recommends businesses that require cell phone use for employees either provide cell phones to employees or establish forms for reimbursement, and that businesses that do not require cell phones establish a formal policy.Read more of this story at Slashdot.
EE expands 4G roaming to 14 more countries, but the USA's still MIA
Aug 21 2014, 13:40
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EE has today announced a fresh batch of countries its customers can take advantage of 4G roaming in, after starting out in France and Spain earlier this year. It's a diverse list, with 4G now available in several other European destinations (Germany,...Your smartphone can now tell you if you have a heart condition
Aug 21 2014, 13:30
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How's the ticker? Some dangerous heart problems can exist without any symptoms whatsoever, like "atrial fibrillation" (A-fib) a type of abnormal cardiac rhythm that affects one in four people. A visit to your physician is normally required to detect...LG's L-series phones keep the flair but drop the specs
Aug 21 2014, 13:11
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With its latest L-series devices, LG is sticking to its script of building low-spec devices that retain some of the design cues, features and software of its higher-end handsets. Like earlier models, both the new L Fino and L Bello phones are aimed...Professor Steve Ballmer Will Teach At Two Universities This Year
Aug 21 2014, 13:04
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redletterdave (2493036) writes "When Steve Ballmer announced he was stepping down from Microsoft's board of directors, he cited a fall schedule that would "be hectic between teaching a new class and the start of the NBA season." It turns out Ballmer will teach an MBA class at Stanford's Graduate School of Business in the fall, and a class at USC's Marshall School of Business in the spring. Helen Chang, assistant director of communications at Stanford's Business School, told Business Insider that Ballmer will be working with faculty member Susan Athey for a strategic management course called "TRAMGT588: Leading organizations." As for the spring semester, Ballmer will head to Los Angeles â closer to where his Clippers will be playing â and teach a course at University of Southern California's Marshall School of Business. We reached out to the Marshall School, which declined to offer more details about Ballmer's class.Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Go on, inhale our G-Cloud via 'Digital Marketplace' â UK.gov
Aug 21 2014, 13:01
from The Register by
ANOTHER pricy project to prop up barely used G-Cloud?
Public sector organisations in the UK will be able to buy cloud-based IT products and services from suppliers from a new online platform from the end of the month.â¦
Seals carried tuberculosis across the Atlantic, gave it to humans
Aug 21 2014, 13:00
from Ars Technica by
Tuberculosis, an often fatal bacterial infection of the lungs, was a scourge in the days before antibiotics. It's caused by a species of Mycobacteria, most of which live harmlessly in watery environments. Understanding how some of these have managed to make the leap to human lungs has turned out to be rather complicated. Further evidence of this comes from a study published Wednesday that suggests that infectious strains of the bacteria managed to cross the Atlantic before the first European strains didâcarried in the lungs of seals.
Getting things wrong about the history of tuberculosis seems to be a regular pastime of the people who study infectious diseases. Originally, due to some genetic similarities, people had proposed that we had picked it up from farm animals. But a careful study of evolutionary trees recently showed that it's likely that cows actually picked up tuberculosis from us, rather than the other way around.
Similarly, the study of the strains found in the Americas had suggested that all of the bacteria present here had been derived from the European version. Which suggested that, along with other lovely gifts like smallpox, the disease was brought to the New World by the first European settlers.
Xbox One gamers could soon try before they buy with a 'Free Play Day'
Aug 21 2014, 12:43
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At $60 per year, an Xbox Live Gold subscription isn't cheap, but Microsoft's working to make the all-access package a bit more attractive to gamers. The 'Games with Gold' offering that we first saw with Xbox 360 made its way to One as well, and now...TELEPORTABLE storage? Atlantis Computing's PR bods jump the shark
Aug 21 2014, 12:38
from The Register by
USX to be VMware storage abstraction layer
Altantis Computing has come up with a rather neat marketing hook for its new USX device. Fancy getting your hands on teleport-enabled storage?â¦
Microsoft ropes in Opera Mini as default Nokia dumbphone browser
Aug 21 2014, 12:25
from The Register by
Ancient browser to power ancient Redmond mobes
Opera will provide the browser for Microsoft's last dumbphones, under a new agreement between the two companies.â¦
Google Glass' new features let you switch chat methods on a whim
Aug 21 2014, 12:08
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Some of Google's rapid-fire Glass updates have been more useful than others, but its latest is something you're likely to appreciate -- especially if you're a socialite. The wearable's 20.1 upgrade gives you a much better contact system (shown below)...Just in case? Unverified 'supersize me' iPhone 6 pics in sneak leak peek
Aug 21 2014, 12:06
from The Register by
Is bigger necessarily better for the fruity firm's flagship phone?
New pictures have surfaced that purport to show the casing for a new super-sized iPhone 6.â¦