AT&T accused of injecting ads through its free Wi-Fi hotspots
What price is free? In the case of Windows 10, many argue that it means giving up a little of your privacy, and it seems that AT&T's free Wi-Fi hotspots also come with a hidden payload. Whilst visiting Dulles Airport, computer scientist Jonathan Mayer noticed that "the web had sprouted ads. Lots of them, in places they didn’t belong".
With time to kill waiting for a flight, Mayer set about investigating where these extra ads were coming from. It didn’t take long for him to discover that the AT&T hotspot he was connected to was the problem. He found that the hotspot was injecting a stylesheet which in turn pulled in advertising. But it didn’t end there...
24 years of Linux: From 'just a hobby' to hugely successful
Twenty-four years ago, Linus Torvalds wrote a post on Usenet announcing he was "doing a (free) operating system". He was asking for feedback and suggestions for features, making it clear that the project was "just a hobby".
Jump to 2015 and Linux is driving real innovation in some of the world’s largest and most successful enterprises, including Google, Amazon and Facebook. It is one of only two operating systems (OS) still growing and, with Windows set to grow by just 1.9 percent, Linux is in a league of its own at 13.4 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR).
Millennials lose trust in the digital economy
Although millennials are the first fully connected generation, having lived their whole lives in the Internet era, new research suggests that they're beginning to recognize that their identity and personal data may not be properly protected.
Digital identity specialist Intercede surveyed around 2,000 16-35 year-olds in the US and UK to get their views on current security measures. The results suggest what the company calls a 'millennial malaise' towards existing safeguards, in particular the use of easily-hackable but widely used password-based authentication methods.
TuneIn Radio rolls out a Premium version of service
In the world of streaming entertainment, TuneIn Radio is a bit unique. It isn't just music, you get the news, sports and even podcasts. The Amazon Echo even utilizes it to play content, as well. So what more can you want from the service? Well, how about a Premium option.
This ups the offering, bringing all sorts of new content, including sports and commercial-free music. Enjoy Major League Baseball games, as well as Barclays Premier League and Bundesliga matches.
Samsung is giving away paid apps and magazine subscriptions with Note 5 and S6 Edge+
The retail price of the Galaxy Note 5 starts at around $740 (off-contract) and $250 (2-year contract). Similarly, the Samsung Galaxy Edge+ will set you back by at least $820 (sans contract) and $300 (2-year contract). If that seems like a lot of money to you for the said devices, Samsung is offering an interesting set of goodies -- called Galaxy Gifts -- to offset the otherwise a bit pricey label.
The company is giving away a package of premium apps and subscriptions consisting of paid games including Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft, Driver Speedboat Paradise, PES Club Manager, and Empire: Four Kingdoms. You also get paid apps like Art Rage, Komoot, and Sketch Book for no extra charge. Worth pointing out that some of these are already free via the Play Store, and the company is taking care of in-app purchases, in such cases.
YouTube Gaming is ready to give Twitch some competition
Anything computer-related can be made social and shareable, and gaming is no different. Amazon's game live streaming service Twitch has proved immensely popular and now Google is ready to put up some competition with YouTube Gaming.
Starting tomorrow (26 August), head over to YouTube Gaming and you can start a stream of your own or watch other gamers play. Of course there will also be an app, and Google is aiming to create "the biggest community of gamers on the web".
This app lets you see the invisible Wi-Fi signals all around you
People worry about everything these days, and new technology is often a big cause for concern. Wireless charging, which is starting to appear in appliances, cars, and furniture, has some people fretting that it will microwave their internal organs while they sleep, and it wasn’t that long ago that people were stressing over the possible side effects of Wi-Fi too.
A BBC investigation a few years back found that RF radiation levels in some Wi-Fi-enabled schools were up to three times higher than the levels emitted by a typical mobile phone mast, leading to suggestions that Wi-Fi should be banned in places of education in the UK until its possible dangers had been fully investigated. Of course Wi-Fi hasn’t been banned in schools, or anywhere else for that matter, and it’s become far more ubiquitous. A new iPad app by Dutch designer Richard Vijgen uses augmented reality to visualize the network of radio waves that surround us, and it provides a truly fascinating glimpse into the invisible world that we now rely so much on.
'Glitch' to blame for Uber customers getting overcharged
Uber has said that a system glitch was to blame for a number of customers who were massively overcharged for their rides over this past weekend.
Users of the service in the UK and also the US were apparently affected, according to a report in the Telegraph, with complaints popping up on Twitter. A number of folks complained of being charged around £70-£80 for very short trips that shouldn’t have been much more than a tenner.
VMware Workstation 12 Pro, Player 12, Fusion 8 ship with Windows 10 support
VMware has announced the release of VMware Workstation 12 Pro, VMware Workstation 12 Player and VMware Fusion 8.
VMware Workstation features full Windows 10 compatibility: you can run it as a host or a VM, it’s supported for both Auto Detect and Easy Install, and you’re able to migrate any Windows 10 PC to a virtual machine.
Samsung smart fridge might leak your Gmail credentials
Your smart fridge might be good for storing cold beer, but it definitely isn’t good for storing your Gmail credentials, as those can be easily stolen. During the recent DEF CON hacking conference, the vulnerability was unveiled at the IoT hacking challenge run by Samsung.
The fridge that got owned was the RF28HMELBSR smart fridge. It downloads Gmail Calendar information and displays it on an on-screen display. The device does implement SSL, but it fails to validate SSL certificates, thereby enabling man-in-the-middle attacks against most connections.
Free versions of enterprise streaming analytics platform launches
Businesses are under pressure to get applications out quickly and that means they benefit from having real-time streaming analytics as a way of cutting preventable losses, gaining operational insight and uncovering new business opportunities.
Big data specialist Impetus Technologies is helping developers do this by launching free versions of StreamAnalytix, its enterprise-class, streaming analytics platform, based on open source technology components.
Google Classroom gets additional features
It's back to school time, at least here in the US. The big yellow busses have begun rolling, and kids are standing curbside, hopefully under the watchful eye of an adult. There are many things to consider this time of year -- what computer to buy, a phone they can use to call in an emergency. In fact, my colleague Brian Fagioli did an overview of his choices in technology for the student.
But software also plays a major role in this equation, with things like Windows, Office and Google Docs all being possible players in your child's life. One you may not have known about is Google Classroom, but it does exist and it's getting a back-to-school update.
Samsung Galaxy Note 5 vulnerable to massive S Pen snafu
If you've managed to get your hands on a new Samsung Galaxy Note 5 -- and this might sound like a case of stating the bleeding obvious -- make sure you put the S Pen into its slot the right way round. Inserting the pen the wrong way round could result in you breaking not just the stylus itself, but also kill some functionality of the Note 5.
While, ordinarily, slipping the S Pen home point first should not be too taxing, if attempted by someone who is a little tired, drunk, young, or stupid, it could go horribly wrong. You could end up with a Note 5 with an S Pen that just can’t be removed, or -- if you exert sufficient force -- you may remove the S Pen and break either the pen or the innards of the phone.
Using social collaboration to deliver better IT visibility
For enterprises to stay on top of their IT and in particular to deal with incidents they need to be able to navigate through high volumes of information and work out what’s important.
In order that operations teams can minimize time lost from searching mixed information sources and spend more time on resolving incidents, ops performance specialist PagerDuty is announcing integration with VMware's Socialcast enterprise social collaboration tool.
How to create a system restore point -- even if your PC is turned off
If your PC isn’t behaving as it should then System Restore could help, quickly restoring your system files and settings to a more trouble-free time. Unless, that is, you don’t have a suitable restore point available (oops).
Restore Point Creator is a handy tool which can automatically create restore points when you log on, or on some daily, weekly or interval-based schedule.
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