Samsung’s new flagship phone can be unlocked with an in-display fingerprint sensor, and has its own neural processing unit.
Source: Wired
Filed in late 2017 and titled “Bendable device with Display in Movable Connection With Body,” the patent filing explains a new mechanism for laptops which can eliminate a hinge and allow the screen to fold shut from the inside,
The post Microsoft could be planning a laptop with foldable screen, hints patent filing appeared first on Digital Trends.
Source: Digital trends
Logitech is relaunching one of its most popular classic gaming mice, the MX518. Now called the G MX518, it sports upgraded internals that give it a 16,000 DPI optical sensor and new and improved memory.
The post Logitech’s G MX518 gaming mouse pairs classic looks with all-new tech appeared first on Digital Trends.
Source: Digital trends
A New York law professor went viral last weekend after he discovered an old Apple IIe computer sitting in his dad’s attic. In a series of tweets, he showed that the vintage machine still works perfectly fine after 30 years.
The post Decades-old Apple IIe computer found in dad’s attic, and it still works appeared first on Digital Trends.
Source: Digital trends
A strain of ATM malware called WinPot turns the act of cashing out into something like a slot machine.
Source: Wired
Today’s the day we finally see the Galaxy S10 — well, officially, at least. As is the tradition with Samsung product launches, the news has already been leaking out at a furious pace. Here’s a decent breakdown of what we expect from the new flagship — though to be fair, plenty more leaks have surfaced since then, including an ad for the S10 and Galaxy Buds.
We also just got a name for the foldable phone we expect to debut alongside numerous new S10 models. That’s the Galaxy Fold, to you.
Of course, Samsung always announces a lot — so there are bound to be some surprises. Heck, the company didn’t splinter off from Mobile World Congress this year for nothing.
All will be revealed at this link, tomorrow, starting at 11AM PT (2PM ET). Meantime, here’s the official teaser to whet your collective appetites.
Source: TechCrunch
For months, the drama has been steady in the Pentagon’s decade long, $10 billion JEDI cloud contract procurement process. This week the plot thickened when the DOD reported that it has found new evidence of a possible conflict of interest, and has reopened its internal investigation into the matter.
“DOD can confirm that new information not previously provided to DOD has emerged related to potential conflicts of interest. As a result of this new information, DOD is continuing to investigate these potential conflicts,” Elissa Smith, Department of Defense spokesperson told TechCrunch.
It’s not clear what this new information is about, but the Wall Street Journal reported this week that senior federal judge Eric Bruggink of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims ordered that the lawsuit filed by Oracle in December would be put on hold to allow the DOD to investigate further.
From the start of the DOD RFP process, there have been complaints that the process itself was designed to favor Amazon, and that were possible conflicts of interest on the part of DOD personnel. The DOD’s position throughout has been that it is an open process and that an investigation found no bearing for the conflict charges. Something forced the department to rethink that position this week.
Oracle in particular has been a vocal critic of the process. Even before the RFP was officially opened, it was claiming that the process unfairly favored Amazon. In the court case, it made the conflict part clearer, claiming that an ex-Amazon employee named Deap Ubhi had influence over the process, a charge that Amazon denied when it joined the case to defend itself. Four weeks ago something changed when a single line in a court filing suggested that Ubhi’s involvement may have been more problematic than the DOD previously believed.
At the time, I wrote:
In the document, filed with the court on Wednesday, the government’s legal representatives sought to outline its legal arguments in the case. The line that attracted so much attention stated, “Now that Amazon has submitted a proposal, the contracting officer is considering whether Amazon’s re-hiring Mr. Ubhi creates an OCI that cannot be avoided, mitigated, or neutralized.” OCI stands for Organizational Conflict of Interest in DoD lingo.
And Pentagon spokesperson Heather Babb told TechCrunch:
“During his employment with DDS, Mr. Deap Ubhi recused himself from work related to the JEDI contract. DOD has investigated this issue, and we have determined that Mr. Ubhi complied with all necessary laws and regulations,” Babb told TechCrunch.
Whether the new evidence that DOD has found is referring to Ubhi’s rehiring by Amazon or not, is not clear at the moment, but it has clearly found new evidence it wants to explore in this case, and that has been enough to put the Oracle lawsuit on hold.
Oracle’s court case is the latest in a series of actions designed to protest the entire JEDI procurement process. The Washington Post reported last spring that co-CEO Safra Catz complained directly to the president. The company later filed a formal complaint with the Government Accountability Office (GAO), which it lost in November when the department’s investigation found no evidence of conflict. It finally made a federal case out of it when it filed suit in federal court in December, accusing the government of an unfair procurement process and a conflict on the part of Ubhi.
The cloud deal itself is what is at the root of this spectacle. It’s a 10-year contract worth up to $10 billion to handle the DOD’s cloud business — and it’s a winner-take-all proposition. There are three out clauses, which means it might never reach that number of years or dollars, but it is lucrative enough, and could possibly provide inroads for other government contracts, that every cloud company wants to win this.
The RFP process closed in October and the final decision on vendor selection is supposed to happen in April. It is unclear whether this latest development will delay that decision.
Source: TechCrunch
Google said there’s absolutely, positively, nothing to worry about the secret microphone in your Nest Secure smart home hub that it didn’t tell you about. Nope, not at all. Just an oversight, said Google. No need to be alarmed. Everything is just fine.
When Google announced earlier this month that its Nest Secure would double-up as a Google Assistant, it sparked anger. Google hadn’t told anyone that the security hub had a microphone inside to begin with. There was no mention of the microphone on the initial list of tech specifications, nor was it mentioned after the company announced Google Assistant integration. (It’s there now.)
After Google, which owns Nest, realized its customers didn’t like being deceived or having their privacy violated, the company swallowed its pride and admitted fault
“The on-device microphone was never intended to be a secret and should have been listed in the tech specs,” said Google spokesperson Nicol Addison in an email to TechCrunch. “That was an error on our part. The microphone has never been on and is only activated when users specifically enable the option.”
Business Insider first reported the news.
Google said that security systems “often use microphones to provide features that rely on sound sensing and included the microphone so it could “potentially offer additional features to our users in the future, such as the ability to detect broken glass.”
No doubt it’s a smart, if not terribly executed idea.
You can forgive a company for not wanting to drop the ball on its own future product line-up announcements, but not disclosing the inclusion of a microphone in a device that sits in your home just looks bad. And it couldn’t come at a worst time for tech giants, as they try to clamber back any ounce of respect they have from privacy-conscious consumers.
It makes you wonder how many other devices you have in your home — and out in the world — that could be used to spy on you.
Just this week, Singapore Airlines landed itself in hot water after passengers discovered cameras embedded in the in-flight entertainment systems. The airline said in a tweet that the cameras were included as standard by the original manufacturer and that it has “no plans to enable or develop any features using the cameras.”
No plans doesn’t mean “never.” And, just like the Nest device, the customer would have no way of knowing if it was in use anyway.
Source: TechCrunch
Sports streaming service fuboTV and Viacom this morning announced a new carriage deal that will see fuboTV carry Viacom’s entertainment networks as a part of its TV packages. The deal includes channels like MTV, Nickelodeon, Nick Jr., BET, CMT, Comedy Central, VH1, Paramount Network, TeenNick and many others. A selection of these will be added to fuboTV’s base package, while an expanded group of channels will be made available to fuboTV’s premier package, “fubo Extra.”
FuboTV originally began as a soccer-focused streaming service, but the company has been steadily expanding its lineup beyond sports channels in recent months. Today, it’s carrying networks like CBS, AMC, NBC and FX, for example, and now describes itself as a “sports-first streaming service.”
That is to say, fuboTV is positioning itself to cord cutters as the service to choose if you’re ditching traditional pay TV, but mostly care about access to sports — with a little entertainment mixed in for variety.
As of last fall, fuboTV had grown to nearly 250,000 subscribers.
The new deal with Viacom will make fuboTV even more of a competitor to rival live TV streaming services like Sling TV, DirecTV Now and Philo — all of which also carry Viacom’s channels.
Viacom says it’s making its nine core media networks — BET, CMT, Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon, Nick Jr., Paramount Network, TV Land and VH1 — available to fuboTV’s base package, “fubo.” Those included in the “fubo Extra” package will include BET Her, BET Jams, BET Soul, Logo, MTV2, MTV Classic, MTV Live, mtvU, Nick Music, Nicktoons and TeenNick.
Meanwhile, fuboTV’s Spanish-language package, “fubo Latino,” will receive Viacom’s Telefe and MTV Tr3s networks.
The deal will bring some of Viacom’s top shows to the sports streaming service, like Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show,” MTV’s “Jersey Shore: Family Vacation,” Nickelodeon’s “Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” and others.
“FuboTV is quickly evolving as a major force in the streaming television space, and the addition of Viacom’s media networks as a cornerstone of fuboTV’s entertainment offering demonstrates the power and popularity of our global brands and programming,” said Tom Gorke, EVP, head of Distribution and Business Development, for Viacom, in a statement. “This is a great opportunity to continue to grow our reach and audiences across the OTT landscape and connect with our fans wherever they consume content,” he added.
The move to offer further entertainment comes at a time when fuboTV’s rivals — like Dish’s Sling TV and AT&T’s DirecTV Now — are seeing declining growth, as the streaming TV space becomes more competitive. Customers now have several choices in this market — and with the rising prices of over-the-top live TV, they expect to get a well-designed, stable and expansive selection of channels on whichever service to which they choose to subscribe.
FuboTV has been able to capitalize on this demand by targeting cord cutters with a service that has had to work well from day one in order to keep up with the demands of streaming live sports, while also rolling out more advanced features like recommendations and support for 4K HDR, for example.
With this significant expansion into entertainment programming through the Viacom deal, fuboTV may be able to pick up more subscribers who are frustrated with the more basic streaming services offered by Dish and AT&T. These customers may not have previously considered fuboTV because it didn’t have as many entertainment options as others.
The Viacom channels have not yet gone live on fuboTV, but will be available “soon,” the companies said, without providing an exact launch date.
Source: TechCrunch
A group linked to Russian government agencies targeted more than 100 people researching electoral integrity and public policy.
Source: CNET