It’s nothing short of amazing what trained dancers can do with their bodies, and a real shame that visually-impaired people can’t enjoy the experience of, say, ballet. For this year’s Hackaday Prize, [Shi Yun] is working on a way for visually-impaired people to experience dance performances via haptic feedback on a special device. This platform, Read more about The Beauty Of Dance, Seen Through The Power Of Touch[…]
Daily exposure to phthalates, a group of chemicals used in everything from plastic containers to makeup, may lead to approximately 100,000 deaths in older Americans annually, a study from New York University warned Tuesday. The chemicals, which can be found in hundreds of products such as toys, clothing and shampoo, have been known for decades Read more about Widely used chemical linked to 100,000 US deaths per year: study[…]
It’s not a jailbreak, but [basti564]’s Oculess software nevertheless allows one the option to remove telemetry and account dependencies from Facebook’s Oculus Quest VR headsets. It is not normally possible to use these devices without a valid Facebook account (or a legacy Oculus account in the case of the original Quest), so the ability to Read more about Software Removes The Facebook From Facebook’s VR Headset (Mostly)[…]
A woman allegedly hacked into the systems of a flight training school in Florida to delete and tamper with information related to the school’s airplanes. In some cases, planes that previously had maintenance issues had been “cleared” to fly, according to a police report. The hack, according to the school’s CEO, could have put pilots Read more about Woman Allegedly Hacked Flight School, Cleared Planes With Maintenance Issues to Fly[…]
A new study by a team of university researchers in the UK has unveiled a host of privacy issues that arise from using Android smartphones. The researchers have focused on Samsung, Xiaomi, Realme, and Huawei Android devices, and LineageOS and /e/OS, two forks of Android that aim to offer long-term support and a de-Googled experience Read more about Study reveals Android phones constantly snoop on their users[…]
Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney, whose high-profile antitrust lawsuit against Apple is now under appeal, is today calling out the iPhone maker for giving itself access to an advertising slot its competitors don’t have: the iPhone’s Settings screen. Some iOS 15 users noticed Apple is now advertising its own services at the top of their Read more about Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney calls out Apple for promoting its services in the iPhone Settings screen[…]
A developer who created a browser extension designed to help Facebook users reduce their time spent on the platform says that the company responded by banning him and threatening to take legal action. Louis Barclay says he created Unfollow Everything to help people enjoy Facebook more, not less. His extension, which no longer exists, allowed Read more about Facebook Banned Creator of Unfollow Everything App That Made Facebook Less Toxic[…]
England’s National Data Guardian has warned that government plans to allow data sharing between NHS bodies and the police could “erode trust and confidence” in doctors and other healthcare providers. Speaking to the Independent newspaper, Dr Nicola Byrne said she had raised concerns with the government over clauses in the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Read more about England’s Data Guardian warns of plans to grant police access to patient data[…]
Microsoft said its Azure cloud service mitigated a 2.4 terabytes per second (Tbps) distributed denial of service attack this year, at the end of August, representing the largest DDoS attack recorded to date. Amir Dahan, Senior Program Manager for Azure Networking, said the attack was carried out using a botnet of approximately 70,000 bots primarily Read more about Microsoft said it mitigated a 2.4 Tbps DDoS attack, the largest ever[…]
Another day, another massive privacy breach nobody will do much about. This time it’s Neiman Marcus, which issued a statement indicating that the personal data of roughly 4.6 million U.S. consumers was exposed thanks to a previously undisclosed data breach that occurred last year. According to the company, the data exposed included login in information, Read more about Neiman Marcus Breach Exposes Data Of 4.6 Million Users[…]
A US judge has temporarily blocked a new law in Texas that effectively bans women from having an abortion. District Judge Robert Pitman granted a request by the Biden administration to prevent any enforcement of the law while its legality is being challenged. The law, which prohibits women in Texas from obtaining an abortion after Read more about Texas abortion: Judge temporarily blocks enforcement of law[…]
The fight against malaria, one of the world’s worst diseases for decades, is likely to get much easier as the World Health Organization has endorsed the wide use of a malaria vaccine developed by GlaxoSmithKline, the first ever to win such approval. The vaccine will be recommended for children in sub-Saharan Africa and other high-risk Read more about WHO Endorses ‘Breakthrough’ Childhood Vaccine For Malaria[…]
Apple’s decision to only allow Apple Pay to access the NFC chip in iPhones could result in the Silicon Valley giant paying hefty anti-monopoly fines in Europe. The EU is set to file anti-competitive charges against Cupertino regarding its tap-to-pay system, Reuters reported, citing sources. Euro antitrust watchdogs are apparently not happy that the NFC Read more about EU to file NFC antitrust charges against Apple Pay[…]
To make the transition to low-carbon energy sources and address climate change we need open data on the global energy system. High-quality data already exists; it is published by the International Energy Agency. But despite being an international institution that is largely publicly funded, most IEA data is locked behind paywalls. This makes it unusable Read more about The International Energy Agency publishes the detailed, global energy data we all need, but its funders force it behind paywalls. Let’s ask them to change it.[…]
Blizzard’s work on cleaning up World of Warcraft in the wake of historical allegations of harassment at the company continues, with the latest round targeting a series of suggestive jokes and flirts that are being removed as part of update 9.1.5. As detailed by Wowhead, there are a lot of changes, some of them leaving Read more about World Of Warcraft Update Removes Suggestive Flirts & Jokes – cancel culture wins against humor[…]
After Take-Two Interactive sent a legal letter to Github referencing a copyright infringement lawsuit against the people behind the popular re3 and reVC Grand Theft Auto fan projects, Github has now removed the repositories for a second time. Take-Two has also demanded the removal of many project forks and wants Github to take action under Read more about GitHub Removes GTA Fan Projects re3 and reVC Following New Take-Two DMCA Notice[…]
Police should be banned from using blanket facial-recognition surveillance to identify people not suspected of crimes. Certain private databases of people’s faces for identification systems ought to be outlawed, too. That’s the feeling of the majority of members in the European Parliament this week. In a vote on Wednesday, 377 MEPs backed a resolution restricting Read more about MEPs support curbing police use of facial recognition, border biometric data trawling drastically[…]
In late September, Carbios, a French startup, opened a demonstration plant in central France to test this idea. The facility will use enzymes to recycle PET, one of the most common single-use plastics and the material used to make most beverage bottles. […] Carbios’s new reactor measures 20 cubic meters—around the size of a cargo Read more about A French company is using enzymes to recycle one of the most common single-use plastics – PET[…]
If you have an iPhone, and your friends mostly have iPhones, you probably use Apple’s Messages app to communicate with them. That’s the nature of things. And aside from the platform’s convenience and ubiquity, one of the iMessage platform’s selling points is that its end-to-end encryption should theoretically ensure that only you and those you Read more about How Apple Can Read Your Encrypted iMessages[…]
Four search providers – DuckDuckGo, Ecosia, Qwant, and Lilo – have penned an open letter to the European Commission claiming that Google is suppressing search engine competition. The EU has made a number of efforts to counter Google’s search monopoly, including a July 2018 fine and ruling that the company engaged in “illegal tying of Read more about Search providers compaining that EU Google antitrust measures didn’t achieve anything[…]
An anonymous hacker claims to have leaked the entirety of Twitch, including its source code and user payout information. The user posted a 125GB torrent link to 4chan on Wednesday, stating that the leak was intended to “foster more disruption and competition in the online video streaming space” because “their community is a disgusting toxic Read more about The entirety of Twitch has reportedly been leaked – change your password![…]
[…] BMW is taking the next step with customization with a newly developed robot that can quickly paint vehicles with complex designs like a giant inkjet printer. […] BMW worked with another German company, Duerr, to create a new factory robot that can paint two-tone finishes, or create elaborate designs on a vehicle, without any Read more about BMW’s New Factory Robots Can Paint Complex Designs on Cars[…]
The Telegraph newspaper managed to leak 10TB of subscriber data and server logs after leaving an Elasticsearch cluster unsecured for most of September, according to the researcher who found it online. The blunder was uncovered by well-known security researcher Bob Diachenko, who said that the cluster had been freely accessible “without a password or any Read more about Telegraph newspaper exposes 10TB of server, user data online[…]
When Facebook went down yesterday for nearly six hours, so did Oculus’ services. Since Facebook owns VR headset maker Oculus, and controversially requires Oculus Quest users to log in with a Facebook account, many Quest owners reported not being able to load their Oculus libraries. “[A]nd those who just took a Quest 2 out of Read more about Oculus Quest VR Goggles Becomes a Paperweight When Facebook Goes Down[…]
[…] researchers at Northwestern University have devised a new method for recording information to DNA that takes minutes rather than hours or days. The researchers utilized a novel enzymatic system to synthesize DNA that records rapidly changing environmental signals straight into its sequences, and this method could revolutionize how scientists examine and record neurons inside Read more about Scientists Have Successfully Recorded Data to DNA in Minutes not hours[…]