Latest News - Page 2733

The FCC is attempting to expand the definition of broadband internet, but the usual suspects are lining up to oppose the move. The FCC wants broadband to be defined as 25Mbps down, and 3Mbps up, to match the reality of current generation internet connections. Unfortunately the entrenched ISP's want to leave the definition at a paltry 4Mbps download speed.

The map above illustrates just how depressingly slow the internet is at most locations in the US. The areas in blue all have access to speeds above 25Mbps, but the remainder of the map does not even have access to services that reach that speed.

The FCC has opened the floor for debate on the issue, and several cable companies have come forward to decry the new definition. The National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA) is one of the most vocal opponents to the new classification system. This isn't surprising in light of the fact that current regulations stifle competition in many markets, a system that President Obama is trying to change through executive actions that remove much of the red tape for new telecom companies.

Launching cyberattacks against targets once was a time intensive, difficult and costly effort, but it has become easier and inexpensive to launch distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks.

Groups such as Anonymous and Lizard Squad are able to launch devastating attacks against large corporations and major targets using botnets of hijacked computers and routers. However, companies are becoming better at identifying these types of cyberattacks, but prove to be hugely inconvenient when the attacks succeed.

"There's been a massive jump in the number of very large attacks going on out there," said Darren Anstee, senior analyst at Arbor, while speaking to BBC. "In 2014 we saw more volumetric attacks, with attackers trying to knock people offline by saturating their access to the Internet."

The US government is no stranger to casting a large net in hopes of catching a few fish, so news of a new vehicle tracking database isn't entirely surprising. The Justice Department has a sophisticated database to track vehicle movements, and several other agencies are already using the data.

Several US law enforcement agencies already use automated license plate scanners mounted to police vehicles, and there also stationary systems that monitor highways and also take pictures of the vehicles. Some of these systems can actually be used to identify individuals inside of the vehicles.

The Justice Department has noted that there are already 343 million records in the database. This data includes the vehicle, time, and direction of travel. The primary intention is to find trafficking offenders for the DEA, but the Justice Department plans to expand the system to search for vehicles involved in rapes and murders. There is no word if the system will be expanded to encompass even more types of crime.

Google is announcing four new cities they are adding to the ultra-fast Google Fiber network. According to the Wall Street Journal the blazing-fast one gigabit connections will soon be added in Atlanta and Nashville. Lucky North Carolinians will get two cities added to the list, with Raleigh-Durham and Charlotte joining the ranks of those blessed with fast connections for as low as $80 per month.

The rollouts will not be offered to the entire city in each area, but instead will be deployed based upon customer interest. This expansion more than doubles the number of cities benefitting from Google Fiber connections, which are currently offered in Kansas City, MO, Austin, TX, and Provo, UT.

Google Fiber is challenging the status quo of normal ISP's, which charge prices well in excess of global averages for a fraction of the speed. The US lags woefully behind other developed countries in terms of speed and price, and much of that has to do with rules and regulations governing telecommunication firms. President Obama recently took to the airwaves to announce executive actions targeting these restrictive regulations, so there are some hopeful developments along that front.

Between PC gaming and console gaming, there is a lot that gamers have to be thankful for - but it could be a rather dull year, according to an industry analyst.

"My general thesis is that nothing is going to happen in 2015, it's going to be really, really dull," said Nicholas Lovell, founder of Gamesbrief and industry analyst, in a statement to the Guardian.

Don't worry, gamers, Lovell is speaking more towards an industry shakeup, not that new game titles won't be entertaining to play. There will be plenty of new game titles for PC, console, and mobile gamers, with studios excited to push the limits of recent hardware improvements.

Companies have struggled against cyberattacks and distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, while mobile devices remain "the perfect target for attackers," said Thomas Tschersich, Deutsche Telekom's computer security chief.

Cybercriminals are able to easily compromise mobile devices, and with connection speeds via mobile topping many home broadband connections, can be exploited to launch attacks against targets. To counter this threat, Deutsche Telekom informs around 20,000 German subscribers per month about malware infection - and urges them to remove the malware.

Despite Deutsche Telekom's proactive efforts, attack bandwidth is estimated at several gigabytes per hour from these mobile devices. For just a couple hundred euros, criminals are able to launch attack and generate an impressive return on investment (ROI) for their efforts.

With the ability to fly up to 61 mph, track emergency calls using a GPS for navigation and reach a patient within 12 square km in under 60 seconds - this drone is set to greatly increase cardiac-related survival rates for members of the public.

Once the drone arrives at the scene, an operator can observe, speak with and instruct any willing helper how to operate the devices located on-board. Still not impressive enough? As according to their official Facebook page, a 125 mph model is currently being worked on, achieved through more power and decreased drag.

Complete with the on-board camera, GPS capabilities and speaker system, this drone is set to carry a defibrillator, allowing passers-by to attempt a heart restart of any cardiac victim that may need this drones life-saving service.

Featuring a real-time traffic network that is community-curated, the Waze app by Google is making some US Sheriffs uneasy - they're claiming that it will aide cop stalking and allowing would-be cop killers to complete their tasks with ease.

Sergio Kopelev, a reserve deputy sheriff from California, and Sheriff Mike Brown from Virginia are two officers that have asked Google to abandon the police-tracker feature located within.

This feature has been located within Waze for some time now, however it's been brought to light though an Instagram conversation between 'dontrunup' and another user. 'dontrunup' is the Instagram username for the a well-known person responsible for the death of two police officers in NYPD last December, Ismaaiyl Brinsley - explained as a revenge act due to Eric Garner's death.

Not only has the popular North American-based Counter-Strike league ESEA thrown the ban-hammer at some professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive players caught in a betting ring, but Valve themselves have spoken - barring these players from all future 'Valve majors'.

The betting ring saw players gather upwards of $10,000 worth of in-game items thanks to one singular match in which members created numerous betting accounts and purposefully altered the final score to suit their own benefit.

In an official release, ESEA stated that these bans were originally listed as one-year only on their platform, however "ESEA reserves the right to extend the bans indefinitely."

After forgetting to grab a lovely ladies number on the train, Crystal Palace fan Angus Mainland took to Twitter, publishing a selfie they had taken together and asking - who's that girl?

They snapped a few selfies, shared a scarf and Mainland claimed he was in love - it seems like it was meant to be. Asking Twitter and the Cross Country Trains for help, he set out on the path to track down his one true love.

With over 4,600 re-tweets and almost 2,000 favorites, Mainland's quest was bolstered into the news-feeds of tens of thousands of would-be do-gooders, seeing this question come back with the goods and finding the girl in the end. In an interview with a local newspaper, The Croydon Advertiser, he stated that "at half time it had got 30 re-tweets and after full time it was over 100," further adding "my friend who's a Southampton fan said that if I got 2000 re-tweets then he'd get a tattoo to commemorate Palace's incredible win. I never expected to have that kind of response, it's been incredible. The majority of people responding have been supportive."

Yesterday was Australia day, often known as 'the day of the drunk bogan' but also a time to celebrate and reflect on everything that is Australia. 'The Land Down Under's' Prime Minister Tony Abbott celebrated this occasion by awarding Prince Philip with an Australian Knighthood, seeing major backlash among global social media.

Mr. Abbott dismissed the haters, labeling social media as "electronic graffiti," disregarding members of the public and their opinions as slander.

When addressing the issue at a press conference, Mr. Abbott dismissed the online opinions and scolded the media for publishing them by stating "I'll leave social media to its own devices. Social media is kind of like electronic graffiti and I think that in the media, you make a big mistake to pay too much attention to social media. You wouldn't report what's sprayed up on the walls of buildings."

Disney have been on a live-action remake binge of late, with 'Cinderella' hitting screens in March, 'Into The Woods' based on the Broadway play now playing, and a sequel to 'Alice In Wonderland' on the cards. Now, we can add another to the list, with 'Harry Potter' star Emma Watson revealing via her Facebook page that she has been cast to play Belle in the live action adaptation.

Revealing that the role was "such a big part of my growing up... my six year old self is on the ceiling", Watson also says that she'll now have to take "some singing lessons" to prepare for the role. The 1992 animated feature 'Beauty and the Beast' is often heralded as one of the finest Disney films from the last few decades, with a relatively mature story and sumptous animation.

With pre-production underway, 'Beauty and the Beast' is set for a 2016 release and will be directed by Bill Condon, who has helmed musicals 'Chicago', 'Dreamgirls' and the final two entries in the 'Twilight' series, 'Breaking Dawn'.

Elite: Dangerous launched in December last year, but it'll be many more years before the entire galaxy has been mapped. The game takes place in a one-to-one recreation of our Milky Way galaxy, something that will take lifetimes to explore.

There are over 400 billion star systems to explore, but with part of the leveling mechanic in the game incentivising exploration of unknown star systems, Elite: Dangerous is being mapped quickly. At the current rate of exploration, Elite: Dangerous' playerbase is visiting 17,585 new star systems each day. This breaks down into 732 per hour, or 12 per minute.

If this rate continues and there isn't an influx of players in the short term, it would take a gigantic 150,895 years to map the entire galaxy. The developer behind the game is running a content for the first player to reach Elite status in exploration, giving away a $1500 prize. The first player to reach Elite in all three statuses will receive $15,000.

Update: Lizard Squad are taking responsibility for the hack, taking down various social networks including Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, MySpace, Tinder and more. They reportedly didn't take Twitter down as its their only form of communication.

You've probably just realized, but some of you might not have: Facebook is down. Right now, it's not loading for me here in Australia, some friends in California and San Francisco, and it's not loading on my smartphone either.

A bit of personal reflection: as a professional, I require Facebook for my everyday life. Professionally, I'm on it virtually every waking minute posting stories up from our main site to our Facebook page, engaging with readers, posting up random images and the like along the way. Personally, I'm addicted to it like most. Constantly checking my News Feed, hanging out on Messenger as long as my eyes are open, posting up images of my day or my travel if I'm away at an event.

Let's start the week off with some big news for Electronic Arts, which is charging real money for in-game gas in Need for Speed: No Limits. Yes, you will need to buy gas through in-app purchases, or you could wait for your tank to fill back up. This isn't something you want to wait for when you feel the need, the need for speed.

Need for Speed: No Limits is currently an iPhone exclusive, but will be reaching Android in the near future. In the game, each race requires a certain amount of gas, so some gamers will choose to front up real money to pay for gas, so that they can play at their own pace. There are varying levels of currency in the game, with the real-world currency applying to 'gold'.

What do you think of EA charging for gas in a game? What will we be paying for next? Oxygen?

According analyst Ming Chi Kuo from KGI Securities, Apple's long-awaited smartwatch will go on sale in just over one month, citing possible component shortages as a likely issue alongside commenting that 5 million devices should be sold within the first quarter of 2015.

Although no official launch date has been announced, the Watch was officially shown to the world in September, with Apple telling us to expect a full release in early 2015. Kuo has also made note that other analyst reports have also claimed a March release - so it's nothing completely ground-breaking or new.

Apple still has to release some information on the watch, including the battery and pre-order details, claims Kuo. Apple have stated that this new device will require charging daily, however no other information has been leaked.

TAFE SA have teamed up with a technology company from Adelaide, South Australia, to develop and revolutionize the way 'tradies' are trained down under.

ETRAIN interactive has developed a 3D training simulation software, matching the courses offered through your general education platforms - spanning popular trades such as construction, carpentry, plumbing and minerals drilling.

ETRAIN's founder and managing director, Mathew Balic, has explained that these simulations are ideal for visual learning for students of which struggle with open-book style projects and learning activities - allowing them to easily visualize the task at hand and simulate 'on-the-job training'. He went on the explain that "it's a multi-platform delivery looking to replace textbooks, particularly in trades areas where you get a lot of students with low level literacy and numeracy. Those kids don't engage with traditional book learning, but they do engage with this," furthering "the motivation is there because it's a fun thing to do."

It's obvious that Montymole's Modding Emporium doesn't mess around when it comes to PC modifications - they've just released a further 3D design for the 'Silver Ghost' project.

Looking similar to a coffee machine, you can see that it's going to be a fully-custom chassis design, integrated with a full watercooling loop connected to 2x 180mm radiators - however it's very hard to tell the full scale of the project through just a rendered image.

On the official Facebook, it's explained that they don't want to spoil "the fun on the layout of the tubing and other stuff," so this is all we get for now - along with a full list of specifications.

Scientists from UC Irvine have figured out a method to 'unboil' egg whites, turning them from a solid back into liquid form. There is a real application to this however, as it is claimed that the process behind this can "help lower the production cost of cancer drugs and other expensive medications" as explained by Gizmodo.

Cancer drugs don't directly correlate to egg whites, however the process between the two is similar and helps show off how powerful and complex the process really is. The process shows that these scientists can now "use and recycle molecular proteins that have a tendency to "misfold" into tiny shapes and structures when produced that actually make them unusable." This basically means that the proteins produced by these scientists generally end up as a spongey-solid, similar to that of a hard-boiled egg, whereas scientists need it to be a liquid - with no easy solution previously available to make this happen, they put in the effort and produced a new method.

The scientists have laid out the process, explaining that "To re-create a clear protein known as lysozyme once an egg has been boiled, he and his colleagues add a urea substance that chews away at the whites, liquefying the solid material."

Described by some as "the company that started it all," Antec has just announced that their P380 chassis is now officially launched - set as an update and refresh of their P180 case.

Featuring dual-layer noise-dampening side panels, Antec claim that this chassis will ensure you can create "a system that is almost inaudible even when the fans are spinning at a high speed."

Compatible with standard ATX motherboards, this new addition to the Antec line includes nine expansion slots and supports video cards up to 18.3" long.