Latest News - Page 2905

The founder of the SpyEye malware, Aleksandr Andreevich Panin, recently pleaded guilty to federal conspiracy and bank fraud charges. The Russian citizen was extradited to the United States early last year, and will be sentenced on April 29, where he will almost certainly receive a prison sentence.

SpyEye was reportedly created in 2009 and remotely infected PCs so cyber criminals could access personal information, including bank accounts, usernames and passwords. Panin sold licenses to the software from $1,000 up to $8,500, with more than 150 global clients using the malware to steal information.

"As several recent and widely reported data breaches have shown, cyber attacks pose a critical threat to our nation's economic security," said Sally Yates, U.S. Attorney of the Northern District of Georgia, in a statement. "Today's plea is a great leap forward in our campaign against those attacks."

Lenovo has just announced that as of April 1, it will split itself into four business groups that will each tackle completely different parts of the market.

Yang Yuanqing, Chairman and Chief Executive of Lenovo, said "Today, Lenovo is in one of the most important and exciting phases in our history. We are the number 1 PC company in the world. We are number 3 in Smart Connected Devices (PC, tablet, smartphone). And we just announced the intent to make an acquisition that will make us a significant competitor in the enterprise space".

Lenovo will split into four completely different business groups, as follows:

Greenheart Games ran an interesting test last year, where the indie developer released its very first game, Game Dev Tycoon, into the world. What the team did, was release a cracked version of the game, minutes after upcoming up their Store.

Where it gets interesting, is that Game Dev Tycoon is about, well, you guessed it - a simulation of being a game developer. What the pirated version of the game does is let players spend hours and hours building up their studio, but messages begin to pop up, warning the player that piracy is causing their studio to lose money, and sales.

Over time, players' studios begin to bleed money, with newly created games having a high chance of being pirated. Greenheart Games had some hilarious responses that they found online, with gamers asking for help. One of them even said "why are there so many people that pirate? It ruins me!" Obviously this gamer means it ruins his game studio, within the game - all from a pirated copy of the game itself. Alanis Morisette would even be proud of this one, folks.

We finally got our first look at what HGST's 6TB, helium filled HDD will cost on the open market. If you want one, a seller on Amazon has nine listed but the price is a bit inflated from a consumer perspective, $798. The He6 model has a handful of unique features. It's filled with helium and has 6TB of capacity. Paul wrote an editorial about the drive and went over all of the details last November.

What's enterprise today will be consumer tomorrow...or maybe a year from now. It's nice to see HGST moving forward with this technology.

DICE is still trying to keep Battlefield 4 fans happy, with yet another apology: this time, in the form of special community missions, and daily giveaways that start on February 1.

During the month of February, Battlefield 4 gamers who log into the game will receive a Bronze Battlepack during the week, and a Silver Battlepack on the weekends. These Battlepacks will give gamers random XP boosts and camouflage skins. There will also be two shortcut bundles, which will unlock all grenade types and handguns.

If you're a Premium owner, you'll receive two additional shortcut bundles that will unlock all the DMRs and shotguns. DICE will also have another double XP weekend sometime during the month too.

Do you use e-mail? If so, the NSA probably has your entire digital life tracked, and saved somewhere on its servers. During the 30-minute video of Edward Snowden and German TV station NDR, Snowden admitted:

Snowden's revelations are far reaching, especially as he has admitted that every e-mail, purchase, and move you do is tracked. It seems the government just has a large net where it collects any and all information, whether it needs it or not - as it could come in handy in the future.

The Snowden revelations exploded today, with his interview on German TV station NDR. One of the more scary things he said is that the NSA - and even Snowden himself when he was still with the US spy agency - could wiretap or 'hack' virtually anyone, including President Obama or a Federal Judge.

Snowden said "When you are on the inside and you go into work everyday and you sit down at the desk and you realise the power you have - you can wire tap the President of the United States, you can wire tap a Federal Judge and if you do it carefully no one will ever know". I don't know what to be more worried with, that anyone can be wiretapped, or that "no one will ever know".

The ex-NSA employee goes into more detail, stating that most of these illegal NSA programs are useless. As they "have no value", and that "they've never stopped a terrorist attack in the United States and they have marginal utility at best for other things...The National Security agency operates under the President's executive authority alone. He can end of modify or direct a change of their policies at any time".

German TV station, NDR, sat down with NSA whisleblower Edward Snowden, in a world-first interview. The interview itself was reportedly a 6-hour stint, but the video was cut down to just 30 minutes.

Germany's broadcasting laws are different from the US, which is reportedly the reason behind this slice down of the interview. You can watch the 30 minutes above, where Snowden has some scary things to say such as "Every time you pick up the phone, dial a number, write an email, make a purchase, travel on the bus carrying a cell phone, swipe a card somewhere, you leave a trace and the government has decided that it's a good idea to collect it all, everything, even if you've never been suspected of any crime. Traditionally the government would identify a suspect, they would go to a judge, they would say we suspect he's committed this crime, they would get a warrant and then they would be able to use the totality of their powers in pursuit of the investigation. Nowadays what we see is they want to apply the totality of their powers in advance - prior to an investigation".

One of the major points of the interview, is the power that President Obama has to stop all of this, where Snowden says "But what (the review boards investigating the illegal NSA programs) found was that these programs have no value, they've never stopped a terrorist attack in the United States and they have marginal utility at best for other things... The National Security agency operates under the President's executive authority alone. He can end of modify or direct a change of their policies at any time".

Companies are testing the potential of 3D printed food in what could evolve into one of the biggest 3D market segments moving forward. During the 2014 Consumer Electronics Show earlier this month, a number of different companies showed off 3D printing technology, including several food-based products.

There are a number of different types of 3D-printed foods currently in various phases of development, and it will be an industry to watch in the future.

Chocolate maker Hershey's also teamed up with a 3D company to produce 3D printed chocolate, which will be a major draw for the company's gift shop. Cornell Creative Machines Lab has developed printers that can dough-based corn chips, while sugar candies also are available courtesy of 3D Systems' Chefjet.

PC enthusiast company Cooler Master has announced the Trigger Z mechanical gaming keyboard, a fully programmable keyboard able to support up to five custom gaming profiles. The keyboard includes 128KB onboard memory and includes a detachable wrist rest with a non-slip rubber coating to increase comfort.

The keyboard can register up to 64 button presses at a time, so users don't have to worry about the keyboard responding with any lag. The Cooler Master Trigger Z Gaming keyboard will launch globally next month. It will launch in Cherry MX Brown, but Cherry MX Red or Blue will become available later this year.

Mechanical gaming keyboards are still more expensive than a traditional gaming keyboard, but continue to prove popular among gamers.

Medical researchers and military veterans are increasingly teaming up to study traumatic brain injuries (TBI) that U.S. personnel are dealing with after returning home from the battlefield. An estimated 15 to 23 percent of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans suffer TBI, which equates to about 300,000 to 460,000 soldiers in need of various levels of medical treatment.

Researchers are developing new objective imaging testing methods that provide better insight of brain scans and cognitive testing - and while progress is accelerating - there are a large number of veterans that aren't receiving proper medical treatment. However, using a new diffusion tensor imaging helps indicate nerve track fiber damage and provides better guidance to detect mild-TBI episodes that can be more easily corrected if discovered quickly.

"Traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress is a different kind of wound," noted Arnold Fisher, Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund staff member. "It's unseen. Apparently, because it's unseen, very many people don't understand it."

Back in 2013, we saw wearable tech really take the center stage and bloom into an entire new industry, with smart watches, exercise bands, and even smart glasses launching. 2014 is poised to take wearable technology to the next level, and if a new product being developed in Japan is any indication, wearables are going to get much more personal in the very near future.

Pictured above is the "True Love Tester" bra, a piece of smart lingerie that is designed to thwart off sneaky companions who might try to unhook its clasps covertly while its wearer is distracted. Unfortunately, that task is much harder with a smart-bra than it is with traditional underwear. The True Love Tester bra features sensors that feed back information on its wearers heart rate to a smartphone which analyzes the data and will only release the clasps if the heart rate signature indicate "true love."

The accompanying app is able to discern from other strenuous, heart rate elevating activities such as running, shopping, eating spicy food, or even getting frightened while watching a scary movie. While this all sounds cool, the app does not simply release a locking mechanism on the bra, it apparently flings the cups open with much gusto, which means that technology like this could provide for some interesting scenarios when worn in public with ones significant other near by.

An Android-based smartphone was the last thing anyone thought they would ever see from Nokia, especially with its handset division recently being purchased by Microsoft, but all indications point to a Nokia Android phone being in existence. Dubbed "Project Normandy," the smartphone's release seems imminent if the increasing rate of leaks is any indication.

This morning we spotted the Nokia RM-980, Project Normandy's model number, in Rightware's online benchmark results, and while the numbers leave much to be desired, the fact stands that and Android-based Nokia smartphone is in existence. In the results, the RM-980 falls below the now dated HTC Incredible S, and just above the HTC OneX which all but confirms the low-end specs that leaked recently from @evleaks.

The infamous leakster says that Project Normandy will feature a very low-end 4-inch touchscreen with a resolution of 480x800 and will be powered by a dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor clocked in at 1GHz. Just 512MB of RAM will be packed in along side 4GB of storage and a 5-megapixel generic imaging sensor. The leak did mention a 1500mAh battery as well as Android 4.4 KitKat, so at least it has that going for it. The more info that comes in on Project Normandy, the more I begin to believe rumors that this is actually the next-generation of the Asha line of feature phones. With MWC 2014 not far away, I am sure we will have a definitive answer on Project Normandy soon.

The last time we heard about Far Cry 4 was when an ex Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer teased it - but now we're back, with the latest tease of the upcoming first-person shooter from Ubisoft.

The latest comes from Xavier Plagnal, who is Ubisoft Shanghai's Studio Design Manager, where his LinkedIn profile teases that he worked from September 2013 to present as Content Director on "the next Far Cry." This isn't 100% yet, but it is getting awfully close. I'm hoping for a reveal sooner rather than later, myself.

Google and Samsung have just shown how a certain fruit logo company the way it's done in the patent game, by signing a massive deal to license their patent portfolios to one another.

The new deal sees existing intellectual property covered, as well as patents filed over the next ten years.Samsung's Seungho Ahn says "Samsung and Google are showing the rest of the industry that there is more to gain from cooperating than engaging in unnecessary patent disputes". Google's Allen Lo chimed in with "By working together on agreements like this, companies can reduce the potential for litigation and focus instead on innovation".

This is how the industry should be acting, with two of the biggest players cooperating with one another. Samsung is a massive partner for Google, but could be a potential competitor with Tizen on the horizon. Google on the other hand, is simply unstoppable right now with the amount of hardware and services it provides to the world.

Uh, so this kinda came out of nowhere, but the Source 2 engine has been shown off in a post on NeoGAF by 'CBOAT'. The user posted a screen cap from what appears to be a leaked Valve slideshow.

The slideshow shows off Source 2.0, which is Valve's next-generation graphics engine. The presentation in question shows Left 4 Dead 2's plantation level, rebuilt in the new engine. If this is real, it might open up older games to be re-painted under Source 2.0, which would be incredibly awesome. We should hopefully hear and see more info on Source 2.0 as time goes on, especially with the lead up to E3, and of course SteamOS, Steam Box, Steam Machines and more.

Today Stratasys launched what it is calling the worlds first multi-material, multi-color 3D printer that can print in several different materials and colors simultaneously. The new Object 500 Connex 3 3D Printer allows for "virtually unlimited" combinations of rigid, flexible, and color rich printing to be completed all on the same machine at the same time, and will allow engineers and designers to test multi-material prototypes right in the lab almost instantly.

The printer features six palettes for the new rubber-like Tango color lone which includes opaque, transparent, and solid variations. Stratasys says that the new Object Connex 3 is designed with the automotive, consumer, sports, and fashion industries in mind, and the addition of flexible materials will only serve to make 3D printing an even more valuable process in every design and engineering workflow.

"Stratasys' goal is to help our customers revolutionize their design and manufacturing processes," says Stratasys CEO David Reis. "I believe our new Objet500 Connex3 Color Multi-material 3D Printer will transform the way our customers design, engineer and manufacture new products. In general and with the Connex technology in particular, we will continue to push the envelope of what's possible in a 3D world... Now we produce bicycle parts that look and feel like production parts. We are particularly excited about 3D printing our models directly in color. This gives our designers the ability to graphically display color contact pressure map data on rider contact parts like seats and grips. We are also working on doing the same with FEA & CFD stress data on structural bike components," adds Zeigle.

After some major slumps in revenue, Apple is back, bigger than ever for its Q1 2014. Revenue reached $57.6 billion, setting a new quarterly record for the company, with profits reaching a nice $13.1 billion.

Device sales are where it gets interesting, with iPhone sales bursting through the 50 million mark - the first time it has ever done so in a quarter. iPad sales also reached a new record, selling over 26 million units. The iPod didn't see the same success, with sales dropping to 6 million, down from 12.7 million at the same time last year.

Apple has seen its share price completely erode from 2012 when we saw it coming - from $700 down to under $400 throughout 2013. At the moment, it is half way back sitting at around $550. Today's earnings report should help Apple claw back some of that much needed increase in stock prices.

As with Battlefield 3, DICE is tweaking in-game settings to make Battlefield 4 a more well-rounded and enjoyable experience, and today DICE has listed out its latest round of tweaks coming soon in patch form. DICE says that the tweaks are based on user feedback and are designed to make the battlefield a more level and even playing field.

DICE says that all of the forth coming tweaks involve vehicles that are considered overpowered and a reduction in their power, feed rate, or blast radius will occur with the upcoming patch. Notably the amount of missiles carried by mobile Anti-Aircraft vehicles have been reduced from 6 to 4, and the velocity of the MAA's 20mm cannon has been reduced from 1200mm/s to 800mm/s which matches the vehicles 30mm cannon. This reduces the effective range of the vehicle and should prevent players from camping in the spawn area with the vehicle.

Direct damage inflicted by the attack helicopters gunner's cannon has been increased slightly and the new effect is said to feel more like how it did in Battlefield 3. Additionally the scout chopper's 25mm cannon's splash damage has been reduced as it caused too much damage to the infantry over the 7.62mm mini gun.

Google has apparently been in a spending mood lately and has been buying up companies that could turn the search giant into one of the largest defense contractors in history. Just a few months ago, we saw Google purchase Boston Dynamics, a company that is responsible for developing the four-legged robotic hell hounds that can run at highway speeds while carrying automated weapons.

Today word is spreading around the internet of yet another Google acquisition involving intelligent technology. Google has reportedly purchased Deepmind, a company specializing in Artificial Intelligence based out of London, England. The purchase is worth a reported $400 million USD, although that figure has not officially been confirmed yet. Deepmind's website says that it works on developing "general purpose" learning algorithms, something that could be used to further Google's research into automated vehicles, Android, or even some of its robots at Boston Dynamics.