Latest News - Page 2716

Smartwatch manufacturer Pebble is looking forward to the future, and understands challenges loom ahead in the increasingly competitive market. However, as of Wednesday night, the Pebble Kickstarter had support from 46,645 backers, generating $10,033,525 - all with 29 days left to go.

When asked about Apple's looming launch of the Apple Watch wearable, this is what was said:

"I think you do exactly what we're doing now, which is going to the community that has supported us from the beginning," said Eric Migicovsky, co-founder and CEO of Pebble, while speaking on CNBC's "Squad Alley."

Google is receiving help from BlackBerry to make it safer and more secure to switch from personal use and work use on Android-powered smartphones.

"BlackBerry is working with Google to provide customers with solutions they can confidently deploy on all major mobile platforms within their organization," said Billy Ho, EVP of enterprise products at BlackBerry.

BlackBerry wants to increase its BES12 software client base, while Google wants to use the company's "highly secure mobility solution." BES12 will be available during Q2 2015, though an invite-only preview will be released sometime next month. Smartphones can use BES12 if they are not already using Android for Work.

Europol's European Cybercrime Center is actively dismantling the Ramnit botnet, which relies on up to 3 million malware-infected zombie PCs. Twenty-seven percent of Ramnit infections were identified in India, with Indonesia (18 percent), Vietnam, the United States, Bangladesh and the Philippines also impacted.

Europol didn't say if any arrests were made at this stage of the investigation, but offered this public statement:

"This successful operation shows the importance of international law enforcement working together with private industry in the fight against the global threat of cybercrime," said Wil van Gemert, Deputy Director of Operations at Europol. "We will continue our efforts in taking down botnets and disrupting the core infrastructures used by criminals to conduct a variety of cybercrimes."

Techland, the developer behind Dying Light, has announced a special edition of the game that costs an insane $386,000. Yes, nearly half a million dollars for a video game.

The My Apocalypse Collectors Edition costs $386,000 but includes a real-world zombie-proof shelter, a round trip package to visit the Techland studio in Poland, night vision goggles, parkour lessons, Razer Tiamat headphones, and much more. Techland will be offering up just a single version of the My Apocalypse Collectors Edition, which is available exclusively through UK retailer GAME.

At least for that $386,000 you're getting a real-world "zombie apocalypse-proofed house" that Tiger Log Cabins will build for you. The zombie-proof house will come with some bells and whistles, including live-in amenities, as well as a TV, Xbox One and a sound system.

Battlefield Hardline has a launch date of March 17, but it will release five days earlier for EA Access members, with those gamers able to play the cops-and-robbers first-person shooter from EA and Visceral Games on my birthday, March 12. EA Access is an exclusive to the Xbox One, which means no early play for PC or PlayStation gamers.

The five-day trial will allow EA Access members to play the full version of Battlefield Hardline, but for only 10 hours in total. EA Access normally offers six hours of trial before the game goes live, so this is a nice four hour addition. The entire game will be accessible: all maps and modes in Battlefield Hardline's multiplayer component will be playable. As for the single player side of the game, only the first chapter of the story and the prologue will be made available.

Any and all progress will be carried over to the full game when it launches on March 17, which is a nice touch. EA Access customers can purchase Battlefield Hardline from the Xbox Games Store with a 10% discount, dropping its $59.99 price down to $53.99.

Rocksteady Games has unveiled the official Batman: Arkham Knight trailer, dubbed "Gotham is Mine". The trailer shows off what we can expect from the epic conclusion to the Rocksteady Batman: Arkham trilogy.

The developer says: "As Scarecrow unites the Rogues Gallery, including Two-Face, The Penguin, the Riddler, the Arkham Knight, Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy, they bring all-out war as they try to take down The Dark Knight, and claim Gotham City as their own". The trailer doesn't show off much actual gameplay, but it does provide a great tease of all the characters and environments we'll get to see, and explore.

Batman: Arkham Knight will be released on June 2, 2015.

For fans of LittleBigPlanet on the PlayStation, you might be interested in taking a look at 'Hunger' from Tarsier. Tarsier was actually behind the PS Vita version of LittleBigPlanet, but their new game is shaping up to be something very special, exclusive to the PS4.

In Hunger you play a girl that is trapped in a beautiful labyrinth that is filled with monsters and all sorts of gorgeous environments with very realistic lighting, shadows and physics judging by the teaser video above. Tarsier is focusing on tactile controls, very unique camera perspectives, and characters with "soft, dark centers".

We should expect to see more of Hunger at GDC 2015, if not I'm sure we'll get more of a taste for the PS4 exclusive at E3 2015 in June.

Oculus has just announced the new Mobile VR Jam 2015 event, where the Facebook-owned VR giant wants to see the best new games, apps, and experiences for the Gear VR Innovator Edition.

Strangely, you might have noticed this isn't for its own VR headset, the Rift. This is a mobile event, so the Oculus-powered Gear VR headset is at the center of this event. Oculus is putting up a huge $1 million prize pool that will be split in two: one for VR games, and the other for VR experiences and apps. Oculus says: "The Mobile VR Jam is an opportunity to build groundbreaking new experiences in collaboration with other passionate VR pioneers, and win cash prizes for innovative uses of VR-specific interactions and pushing the medium forward".

The Mobile VR Jam 2015 takes place between April 13 and May 11 with the winners announced on June 4. Interesting timing, as it is just ahead of E3 2015, where I expect we can see some very big things for the world of VR, that is, after GDC 2015 comes and goes which is going to be big for VR as it is.

HGST is preparing to launch its new 10TB helium-filled HDDs based on shingled magnetic recording (SMR) technology, which will see 1.43TB per platter inside of the massive HDD.

The 10TB HDD will arrive in the 3.5-inch form factor on the SATA 6Gbps bus, 128MB of cache, a five-year warranty, two million hour meantime between failure (MTBF) rating, and Instant Secure Erase features. Vice President of Product Marketing for HGST, Brendan Collins, said: "With ever-increasing pressures on corporate and cloud data centers to improve storage efficiencies and reduce costs, HGST is at the forefront delivering a revolutionary new solution that significantly improves data center TCO on virtually every level - capacity, power, cooling and storage density - all in the same 3.5-inch form factor".

Collins continued: "Not only is our new Ultrastar helium hard drive helping customers solve data center challenges today, our mainstream helium platform will serve as the future building block for new products and technologies moving forward. This is a huge feat, and we are gratified by the support of our customers in the development of this platform".

We knew a new Pebble smartwatch was coming, but what we didn't know is that it would appear on Kickstarter and create black hole for consumers money to be sucked into.

Pebble had a $500,000 funding goal for its new smartwatch, reaching this goal in 17 minutes. Yes, seventeen minutes. Would be customers of the new smartwatch pledged over $5 million in less than 24 hours, making the new Pebble Time smartwatch one of the most funded projects on Kickstarter, ever.

The new Pebble Time smartwatch features a new "timeline interface" and a new color e-paper display with a built-in microphone that you can use to response to notifications. There's up to 7 days of battery life, and its water resistant, too. The new Pebble Time is backwards compatible with the 6500+ existing Pebble apps and watch faces, with three colors to choose from exclusively on Kickstarter.

Apple has just been ordered to pay $532.9 million by the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas due to their iTunes service infringing on three different patents owned by Smartflash.

This Texas-based company holds patents "relating to digital rights management, data storage and managing access through payment systems," as reported by Gizmodo. Claiming that they were used without permission, Smartflash first took Apple to court in May 2013 claiming that the tech giant was infringing on their patents related to Apple's song, video and game download services.

Apple claimed that these patents are too basic and general to be legally enforced, however US District Judge Rodney Gilstrap and the jury disagree. Smartflash started the claim by asking for $582 million in damages, however the final figure has molded to a slightly-smaller $532.9 million total.

I certainly didn't see this coming - popular online auction service eBay has partnered with the Australian supermarket Woolworths for the power of good, allowing users to pick up their online purchases from a store closest to them.

Announced yesterday, Australian residents in the states of New South Wales and Tasmania can have their precious goods sent to a collection of 90 Woolworths and Big W shopfronts where they can drop in and pick up their orders. eBay isn't looking to stop here, with plans set in place to expand to 250 merchants within the next two months alongside Woolworths claiming to be researching up to 12,000 web retailers for future possible partnerships.

Australia Post is reportedly not worried about this partnership, although it is already "facing its first full-year loss in its 30 year history as a statutory business" as reported by iTnews. A spokeswoman has informed media that this company will play "an integral part of the new eBay/Woolworths partnership," adding that "we will still pick up the parcels from the different eBay merchants and deliver the articles as addressed to Woolworths collection sites."

Anthem confirmed millions of non-Anthem customers are at risk, and 8.8 million up to 18.8 million customers could be at risk. Following discovery of the breach on Jan. 29, Anthem began contacting customers, but found millions of incomplete data records in its database.

The estimate counts 14 million incomplete records:

"While Anthem is not able to match incomplete records to a specific member, it does have valid mailing addresses for some of these records," an Anthem spokesperson told ABC News. "Anthem will distribute member notifications to the valid address on file as part of its effort to notify every potentially impacted member."

The FBI says it is "close" to identifying the cybercriminal group responsible for breaching Anthem, but didn't confirm if a public announcement would be made. The targeted attack against Anthem, the No. 2 health insurance company in the United States, left up to 80 million members compromised.

China is suspected in the breach, with Beijing reportedly improving its cyberespionage capabilities.

"We're close already," said Robert Anderson, head of the FBI's cybercrime branch, during a recent media briefing. "But we're not going to say it until we're absolutely sure. I don't know if it's China or not, by the way."

Economists are unsure what to make of robots invading the workforce, with legitimate arguments offered by both sides regarding potential long-term consequences.

The US National Bureau of Economic Research published a report that found as robots are able to continue efficient performance in the workplace, developers are going to eventually cannibalize their own jobs. However, robots still cannot match the precision of humans in many workplace aspects, so it will likely take future hardware and software developments before most jobs are at risk.

"When smart machines replace people, they eventually bite the hands of those that finance them," according to the report. "The long run in such cases is no techno-utopia."

China has turned its back on Cisco, Apple, McAfee, and other major US technology companies, dropping the companies from its approved purchase lists. Instead, Beijing has approved thousands of Chinese-made hardware and software vendors, in an effort to boost the Chinese technology industry.

One-third of foreign tech brands were cut from China's approved list, as domestic brands increased to almost 5,000.

"The Snowden incident, it's become a real concern, especially for top leaders," said Tu Xinquan, associate director for the China Institute of WTO Studies at the University of International Business and Economics, in a statement to Reuters. "In some sense the American government has some responsibility for that; (China's) concerns have some legitimacy."

If you've ever driven the streets of "Grand Theft Auto: V" and the highways of Los Santos, you know what a difference the right customizations can make when it comes to the performance of your in-game car. "Grand Theft Auto V" has had plenty of drivers since it launched - Wired UK estimates that about two million players logged into "GTA:V Online" within the first 24 hours of launch. If you've ever wanted your real-life car to perform like your in-game ride, here's a few tips to make your car handle like the cars from GTA.

There's a lot of cars cruising Los Santos with many accessories, but you shouldn't worry about armor plates or tinted windows for your car, but a good exhaust instead. Exhaust isn't about shooting flames or making a lot of noise, but about instead about improving airflow to give extra power to your engine. Companies like MagnaFlow offer inexpensive catback exhaust kits that will improve your car's response. Whether you have a street, off-road or diesel vehicle, its systems are simple bolt-on affairs and can even be done at home with the right tools. The less mechanically inclined might need to visit their local auto shop. They can help you to choose the model that will help you get the most bang for your buck as well. If you plan to do it yourself, keep in mind that it is harder than just pressing a button on a controller; only do this sort of work on your car if you know what you are doing. If you don't, seek the help of a trusted mechanic.

Good tires make a tremendous difference in terms of performance - good grip makes your car faster, and creates traction that keeps you on the road. Cornering performance when using tires like Continental is astounding when compared to those old tires you haven't changed in years. Better tires should be your first purchase when looking to improve the quality of your ride.

Millions of smartphones and mobile devices are vulnerable due to mobile app developers being lackadaisical issuing patches and security updates, according to a report from McAfee Labs.

Last year, it was discovered that at least 20,000 mobile apps have an easily exploitable SSL vulnerability, according to the Carnegie Mellon University computer emergency response team. McAfee tested the 25 most popular apps listed by Carnegie Mellon, and found that "poor programming practices" were prevalent - putting app users at risk.

"A lot of the discussion right now is about the value of data on your device, in this case your cellphone," said Gary Davis, McAfee spokesman, in a statement published by CBC. "Addresses, dates of birth, these are all data elements you'd need to in essence steal somebody's identity, or perhaps conduct insurance fraud, and it's all being made available through different applications."

The use of drones and robotics will be more prevalent in future warfare, providing a great technological edge to a few leading nations. The US and UK might be most recognized as drone leaders, but there are almost 90 different countries using military robotics.

When the US began military operations in Iraq more than 10 years ago, there were only a small number of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) available. However, there are now more than 7,000 drones, including aircraft, helicopters, and unmanned ships and other sea-based craft - and the US military wants to purchase even more options.

The use of drones also allows for military strikes against targets too dangerous or remote for fighter pilots and ground troops. Faster development of artificial intelligence has some experts worried if robotics and drones may become too smart for mankind's good.

The International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) has just kicked off in San Francisco, where Samsung has just unveiled the world's first 10nm FinFET technology. Samsung Electronics Semiconductor Business chief, Kim Ki-nam teased the future for Samsung when he took the stage.

Ki-nam teased the company's 10nm DRAM technology, as well as a sneak peak at its 3D V NAND technology. Samsung expects that its technology will be used in countless devices going into the future, where Kim said Samsung is "expected to come in the future advent of IoT (Internet of Things) spread into a wide range of IT equipment, including the age of the data center (Data Driven World) 'and the silicon semiconductor technology it is possible to ensure the performance and low-power solution for the semiconductor chip that can process these data through the innovation".

We should hear more about Samsung's 10nm FinFET process as we move deeper into the year, as well as what devices and products will be powered by the 10nm technology. Exciting times!