Researchers at the German institution Technische Universitat Darmstadt have published a paper demonstrating a technology that could eventually bring complex, physical object-based control to pico projectors. Were the technology, dubbed LightBeam, to be integrated with smartphones, it could engender a much wider array of interactions and methods of navigating data.
It is a terrible cliché when a writer begins a story by claiming that a series of real-life events "reads like a Hollywood movie script," but occasionally dramatic stories occur that are hard to distinguish from the intricate plottings of screenwriters or novelists. An unusual operation involving the US-based Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) hiring investigators to spy on a UK couple that ran a "links to streaming video" site has resulted in prosecution with the help of a US defendant.
Hacktivist group Anonymous has reportedly leaked data belonging to the United States Bureau of Justice Statistics. A torrent posted on The Pirate Bay contains an “entire database dump” of the website and internal e-mails, writes ZDNet. A video from Anonymous claiming the hack also contains footage of a man on a mock news program speaking to a camera and wearing a Guy Fawkes mask.
For a brief time on Thursday Apple was censoring appearances of the word "jailbreak" on the iTunes Store, reports note. One example included the Thin Lizzy album and song of the same name, which were suddenly renamed "J*******k." Other instances of the word, though, are said to have remained unaffected. By Thursday afternoon Eastern time, the extra censorship is observed to have disappeared.
A company called Open Mobile has been demoing a method that allows devices running Tizen, Samsung and Intel's in-house mobile OS, to run apps intended for use on Android devices. As a video from The Handheld Blog shows, the technology could allow for future Tizen devices to circumvent the dearth of apps that typically plagues devices based on alternate operating systems.
Voyager Mobile, the new prepaid carrier that was due to launch on Tuesday, has announced it needs to delay the debut due to a malicious network attack on its website. Instead, the service and site will launch in the "very near future," though exactly when this will be remains to be seen. The carrier promises to bring contract-free, all-in plans that start at just $19 per month when users bring their own hardware.
In a case that many thought long-settled, the US Supreme Court today closed the final chapter in the winding saga of would-be legal "hackintosh" seller Psystar. The court refused a request to review the lower court decision, which granted a permanent injunction preventing the company from selling any previous or future versions of Mac OS X along with its "Rebel EFI" hack to allow installation on non-Apple PCs.
The group of developers that had begun and maintained the Perian video-codec project over the last six years is calling it quits, and will release one more version of the popular video translator before shutting down support and posting the code on a public repository for others to (perhaps) take over. The final version "may or may not" work under Mountain Lion, and the code will eventually be posted on Google Code or Github.
The unofficial iPhone Dev Team has released a new version of redsn0w, its jailbreaking utility for iOS devices. The v0.9.11b4 update lets users restore old IPSW files to A5-based Apple devices, including the iPhone 4S, third-generation iPad, and iPad 2; previously, only devices prior to the iPad 2 could be downgraded, thanks to the limera1n exploit. The update means that A5 devices can now be downgraded from iOS 5.1.1 or 5.1 to 5.0.1.
[Updated: video added] Chronic Dev Team hacker Pod2G, who reported last week of being able to get an untethered jailbreak running on an iPhone 4, has updated his progress with further news. He has gotten the jailbreak exploit to work on most other iOS devices capable of running iOS 5.1, regardless of processor type. The breakthrough, which may not apply to the latest iOS 5.1.1 update, could mean a public tool for untethered jailbreaks will arrive soon.
The developers over at the XDA Developer's Forum, and kennethpen in particular, have now released a one-click root for the HTC One X. This time around, however, the AT&T, Rogers and other carrier-locked versions got the attention, and users still need to plug it into their computers to copy the needed files, be they Linux-, Windows-, or OS X-powered. The bootloader on the handset remains locked, however.
Officials from Twitter are looking into what appears to be 50,000 email and password combinations posted to Pastebin earlier this week. After a brief analysis, the list consists of 20,000 duplicates, many suspended spam accounts, and unlinked user name and password combinations. No person or group has claimed responsibility for the leak.
Third-party jailbreaking utility redsn0w has been updated for iOS 5.1.1, which was released by Apple just earlier today. Currently the hack works only in tethered mode, meaning that a device has to be connected to computer anytime it's restarted. It's also restricted to devices based on A4 processors, excluding the third-generation iPad, the iPad 2, and the iPhone 4S.
An interesting hack for jailbroken iPads and iPhones has surfaced that may show off a future improvement in iPad text editing. YouTube user Daniel Hooper published his text editing concept video on Thursday. Rather than selection on the text itself, gestures move the cursor and allow for text selection without removing hands from the virtual keyboard. Developer Kyle Howells took Hooper's concept and released SwipeSelection on the unofficial app store Cydia Saturday.
Researchers at the Human Media Lab at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario have developed a hologram-like teleconferencing model that uses Microsoft's Kinect system to enable live, 3D teleconferencing. In a manner reminiscent of Star Wars' hologram messages, users are able to get a three-dimensional view of their conferencing partner.
Users who have jailbroken their iPads can now buy an unofficial app that offers Windows-like multi-window app management for the iPad, allowing application windows to be resized, re-arranged, and re-oriented on the screen. The program, called Quasar, allows users to view multiple apps at the same time, though the background apps appear to still be in a "suspended" state. Users can also use the program to move in and out of fullscreen mode.
Eccentric pop icon Bjork once expressed little doubt, and even encouragement, that pirates would adapt her iOS app Biophilia for distribution on Android. That has happened, but likely not in the way she anticipated. Symantec has identified a malware scam based on a fake port of Biophilia, one that opens up unsuspecting users to premium SMS scamming.
Inventor Matt Richardson has developed a camera that, in conjunction with the workers on Amazon's Mechanical Turk service, textually describes the subject and composition of a picture sent to the project and returns the description to the user. The results generally take between three and six minutes, are printed on thermal paper, and cost about $1.25 per image for the labor involved in the descriptions.
Microsoft in an update instituted two major changes in how Windows Phone owners would get apps. It was now planning to pull the Windows Phone Marketplace option from the Zune desktop app on Windows PCs. Customers now had to either browse the web store, and push apps to their device, or else shop directly from the phone.
An Italian security researcher has discovered two vulnerabilities in all current versions of Samsung's TVs and Blu-ray players that potentially open up those systems to attackers. The security flaws hinge on a vulnerability in the protocol the systems use to handle remote controllers.
Sony has removed Super Collapse 3 from the Playstation Store after the title was found to be vulnerable to a PS Vita exploit. The company removed the game from the store 24 hours after the exploit was noted on the Wololo.net blog, weeks after the same vulnerability was discovered in Motorstorm and Everybody's Tennis.
Sony has returned MotorStorm Arctic Edge and Everybody's Tennis to the PlayStation Store, following the firmware update for the PS Vita. The games allowed hackers to exploit vulnerabilities in the PSP emulator, enabling them to run their own software on Sony's handheld game console.
The popular hack to the second-generation (black) AppleTV by Firecore known as aTV Flash (Black) has been updated to version 1.5. While the update is still tethered -- meaning every time power to the AppleTV is cycled, the device will need to be plugged back into a computer via USB -- many new features have been added.
Windows Phone marketplace application Touchpad Free and its paid counterpart by Nullar Game Studio have been upgraded. The prior version turned a Windows Phone into a wireless but simple two-button trackpad; the new v2.8.0 adds two-finger scroll and Windows 8 gesture support.
Matrox has refined its DualHead2Go product that lets Mac notebook users add a second external monitor to now incorporate MiniDisplayPort or Thunderbolt in the DualHead2Go Digital Mac Edition (ME). The breakout box enables a single port to now run two external DVI-based displays at up to 1920x1200 resolution. The unit comes bundled with PowerDesk software to help users manage and arrage multi-display setups and supports Lion's full-screen application mode.
Nokia has inadvertently let some owners of the Lumia 710 and Lumia 800 get full control over their phones. A discovery by XDA-Developers member biktor_gj has found that some phones ship with Qualcomm's stock bootloader, not the Nokia-customized version, and can load any custom firmware. Accordingly, he had already posted an interop unlock that lets owners load virtually any app, not just those cleared through the Windows Phone Marketplace.
The ChevronWP7 Windows Phone jailbreak team confirmed plans to ramp down on Friday. Following their exhausting the tokens they used to give jailbreaks with Microsoft's blessing, the group decided that not enough jailbreak app writers were transitioning towards official, published apps. The community itself was 'supercharged,' ChevronWP7 said, but few wrote apps with a mind to sharing them with others.
A new tool for jailbroken iOS devices allows users to set up and draw a gesture to unlock the device, replacing the "slide to unlock" bar or passcode method currently used by the devices. Called Stride, it uses a pre-defined gesture drawn by the user to override the default lock controls, though the program has a bit of "fuzziness" built-in so users don't have to replicate the gesture exactly. It sells for $3 on the unofficial Cydia store.
Thanks to the recent launch of the HTC One V and the work of one resourceful developer over at the XDA Developers forum, owners of the Desire S and Desire HD can port over the ROM from the new phone. The project is a work in progress, but most of the ROM was successfully ported over to the older handsets. The data and voice radios with the new ROM are fully functional for either phone, so users can use it daily.
One of the more extensive custom Android ROMs has been given a unique new customization in an update. The Android Open Kang Project's 30th build links up with a new NovaLauncher beta to let those whose phones get Android 4.0's on-screen navigation bar, mostly the Galaxy Nexus, customize the bottom space with apps. It still packs in the existing controls, including the app launcher, but expands the control points to five to allow either for shortcuts or just to change the layout.
MyWi, an unofficial app that allows jailbroken iPhones to create hotspots without carrier approval, has been updated to version 5.5, which now supports iOS 5 users. Despite the lack of an untethered jailbreak for the latest devices, the program allows users of A4, A5 and A5X based 3G or LTE iOS devices to create and manage personal hotspots, now including Bluetooth tethering for activation of the Wi-Fi hotspot. The app has been rewritten from scratch.
The original LulzSec team was dealt a hit Thursday after member Cody Kretsinger pleaded guilty to his role in the Sony Pictures hack from last year. He agreed to accept convictions over charges of both conspiracy and "unauthorized impairment of a protected computer" in return for a deal. The admission was a reversal of an earlier not guilty plea.
Later this month, Dropbox plans on launching a promotion giving HTC phone owners with devices that include the HTC Sense 4.0 app 23GB of online storage free for two years. Some industrious individuals found a work around that would let anybody, whether or not they owned such a phone, to leverage the deal. Dropbox has now issued an advisory that it is on to the scheme, and anybody who signed up for the storage in this manner will soon find themselves without it.
Grooveshark, a rogue streaming music service that has now been sued at least once by all the major labels over copyright issues, has lost its only partner. EMI, which had sued the company and then agreed to sign onto the service under the condition that Grooveshark license the EMI catalog, has terminated its agreement and sued the company anew, alleging non-payment on its license fees. Grooveshark claims that it has paid EMI over $2.6 million.
Owners of the now-previous (the "720p black" or "ATV2") AppleTV box now have an option of jailbreaking the device in a limited way, even if it has been upgraded to the newest 5.0 (iOS 5.1) software. FireCore has updated it's Seas0nPass jailbreak tool and aTV Flash (black) software to work with the new jailbreak, which allows users to retain the advantages of the Apple TV 5.0 software while adding various unofficial plug-ins such as Last.fm and NitoTV for additional content.
Broadcaster NBC has put up a temporary "casting" and promotional web page for a forthcoming show called Home Transformers that is modelled on the current home-construction and remodeling trend in reality TV shows. In putting together the site, however, the web developer the network is using appears to have "borrowed" a graphic straight from the most valuable corporation on the planet -- Apple. The page is using the icon for Xcode as part of its layout.
Owners of the Android-powered Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 got a unique take on the interface this week with a new modification from BroBot175 for a look inspired by Windows 8's Metro UI. The Android tablet needs to be rooted using the ClockworkMod recovery, and the project is in a beta stage. It will also work on the ASUS Eee Pad Transformer.
An official Android 4.0 update for AT&T's original Samsung Galaxy S II has been leaked over at RootzWiki. The leak indicates that the official update is coming from AT&T, though these dates aren't known. The 3G phone can be upgraded now by owners willing to take the risk to flash the leaked software.
Former ITV executives have blames the company's demise on corporate hacking that was allegedly commissioned by News Corp subsidiary NDS Group. ITV was reportedly plagued by hacking attempts, which successfully gained access to the company's smartcard codes and leaked the information online.
Another Android phone will soon be getting its Android 4.0 (ICS) update. RootzWiki has posted what appears to be a leak of an official Samsung release of the software for the Galaxy S II Skyrocket. The phone, which first was available from AT&T last November, currently ships with Android 2.3 (Gingerbread).
The XBMC team has posted a finished version of its comprehensive 11.0 Eden update. The version is the first fully updated version to simultaneously reach both desktop platforms as well as jailbreak-based implementations on the second-generation Apple TV and iOS. Every platform now lets an XBMC device serve as an AirPlay target for video and more.
NITDroid Development forum member e-yes has just shared a custom ROM of Android 4.0.3 for Nokia's N9. Dubbed Project Mayhem, the hack lets users choose which OS they want to boot into after powering the phone up. The handset usually runs on MeeGo, and many of the key functions are retained when running Anroid.
The CyanogenMod team has just announced a major change to its CyanogenMod 9 custom ROM builds. The first alpha builds on CM9 will no longer allow for default root access over USB. Three patches were released to address this issue, allowing users to disable root altogether, enable it for Android Debug Bridge mode (ADB) only, enable it for apps only or enable it for both.
The third-generation iPad -- launched earlier today -- has already been jailbroken, according to iOS hacker MuscleNerd. Screenshots posted on Twitter are said to depict the new iPad running unofficial code such as Cydia. Cydia is the predominant method of distributing apps to jailbroken devices.
A Windows Phone Tango build has reportedly surfaced ahead of the formal update, which will be relabeled 7.5 Refresh when it arrives. Unofficial developers quickly jumped on the leak, crafting unofficial ROMs for HTC's HD2 and Samsung's Omnia 7 handsets.
The AT&T version of the 5.3-inch screen "phablet" hybrid 4G smartphone known as the Galaxy Note has been hacked to work on T-Mobile's GSM network, according to a post on the XDA-developers forum. The technique, which requires that the phone already be rooted and unlocked, will give users locked to AT&T more flexibility in choosing a network once their contract expires. The hack is not without some caveats, however.
Sony's Tablet P went on sale earlier this week and now has a unique bundle as well as full access. An AT&T deal gives both the dual-screened Android 3.2 tablet and an Xperia Play for $300. While a discount on getting them separately, it does require two-year contracts for both devices.
The HTC One X is back in the news again, this time because the handset has been rooted before it is even available for sale. The root came courtesy of ROM developer Paul O'Brien. His so-called 'superboot' root works over a USB connection, and is a desktop script file.
The iPhone Dev Team has detailed a very early jailbreak method for the now official iOS 5.1 update. Beta 6 of redsn0w 0.9.10 will crack all devices based on the A4 and earlier. With the exception of iPhone 3GS units with older firmware, however, the jailbreak is tethered and will need to be reused every time the device is given a hard reboot.
A new malware threat dubbed Flashback.N, is actually a variant of an older one, claims anti-virus software maker Intego in a new blog post. Users who visit hacked or maliciously-crafted websites may see a delay, followed by a false password-request dialog box claiming to be from "Software Update." If accidentally installed, the malware inserts code into Safari's resources and will attempt to search network traffic for user names and passwords.
