APPLE TV.....

Apple TV is in 'early stage of testing,' report says

It's not a formal project yet, but Apple and its suppliers are trying out designs for a large-screen, high-resolution TV, according to the Wall Street Journal

(Credit: CNET)

Apple has begun the early stages of television set testing, according to reports.

The Wall Street Journal says that manufacturers Sharp and Hon Hai -- otherwise known as Foxconn -- are collaborating with the tech giant to test designs for a large-screen, high-resolution TV, according to unnamed officials connected to Apple's suppliers.

The Cupertino, Calif.-based company, which tests ideas internally before bringing products to external suppliers, has been testing television set prototypes "for a number of years," according to the Journal's unnamed sources. The iPad and iPhone maker has already infiltrated the living room with its Apple TV box, which connects online media to traditional television sets.

"It isn't a formal project yet. It is still in the early stage of testing," one of the sources told the Journal.

The idea of Apple producing a television set was brought back to the stage this month by Apple CEO Tim Cook, who hinted in aninterview with NBC that a new product offering may be on the horizon. "When I go into my living room and turn on the TV, I feel like I have gone backwards in time by 20 to 30 years," Cook said. "It's an area of intense interest. I can't say more than that."

Although it remains to be seen how much impact Apple could have in the television and media industry, already entwined in long-standing broadcasting contracts and "smart TV" production by manufacturers, a survey from Morgan Stanley suggested that the brand name may be enough -- and consumers would be willing to pay a 20 percent premium for an Apple-branded set.

Meanwhile, famed technologist and venture capitalist Marc Andreessen speculated at the Dealbook conference this morning that an Apple TV is likely to arrive in 2014 or maybe 2015 at the latest, if it doesn't squeak out in 2013, according to Business Insider

CNET

WINDOWS VS APPLE MACBOOK

WINDOWS 8 LEADS APPLE MAC BOOK...????

THERE ARE THREE REASONS A WINDOWS 8 LAPTOP LEADS, MACBOOK LAGS

HP Revolve ultrabook is offered with a swivel touch screen, 4G/LTE as an option, and a well-appointed docking station.

This week Hewlett-Packard offered a few good reasons to consider a Windows 8 laptop over a MacBook.

Those arguments are embodied in an upcoming 3-pound HP EliteBook Revolvebusiness ultrabook "convertible" that was announced this week.

The MacBook Air is a fine design (I use one every day) and the new 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro is an even better design. But the Apple way isn't the only way. Here are three features that the MacBook ain't got.

Built-in 4G: The EliteBook Revolve offers built-in 4G LTE or HSPA+. Wi-Fi-only MacBooks are getting a bit stodgy. It's almost 2013. 4G should at least be optional on a MacBook.

Let's put it this way, if 4G is an option for the iPad, why not for a tiny 2.4-pound MacBook Air? And if HP is including it in an ultrabook like the Revolve, you can bet there's a reason: some of HP's business customers are demanding it.

And sharing plans make it feasible to share 4G data across multiple devices now.

Touch screen: I've said this before and I'll say it again. Touch is de rigueur for any mobile device now. And two years from now, a portable device without a touch screen will be an anachronism. Like a keyboard without a mouse.

Fact is, HP offered a touch-screen tablet long before the iPad. Unfortunately, it was saddled with Windows XP. And HP (and Microsoft) could never see beyond the stylus as an input medium.

Docking station: I used HP docking stations for years (which the Revolve includes). They were a godsend. When you need to pick up and run, it's just a matter of popping the lappy out. No disconnecting and reconnecting cables.And good docking stations (like those from HP) offer every port under the sun. So by plugging into the dock, you get the range of ports typically found only on desktops.

Yeah, there are plenty of third-party docking stations out there, but nothing beats a dock spec'd by the PC maker.

Why? Because the dock's design starts on the laptop: high-speed, well-placed docking connectors must be conceived first on the laptop, then the dock design follows.

Like I said, I like my MacBook -- a lot. But its limitations can feel claustrophobic on days. Especially when compared with some of the emerging Windows 8 competition.

But that's what competition is about. Apple is only one company. The Windows 8 crowd comprises scores of companies with plenty of good ideas of their own.

HP VS APPLE

HP to Apple: Hey, we already make PCs in the U.S. 

 

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HP TO APPLE: HEY, WE ALREADY MAKE PCS IN THE U.S.

HP said 100 percent of the workstations that it sells in the U.S. are assembled in the U.S.

(Credit: HP)

If Made In USA is a feature, Hewlett-Packard's got Apple beat.

In effect, that's what HP said today. "Lots of noise...about Apple moving Mac production back to the U.S.... [We] wanted to offer HP's story," said an HP representative via e-mail Friday.

Part of that story was provided by way of a blog post.

"HP PCs have been assembled in the U.S. since the beginning," the post begins. "HP workstations and commercial desktop PCs are manufactured in Indianapolis, and HP servers are manufactured in Houston. These manufacturing facilities employ hundreds of people and produce billions of dollars' worth of products," the post said.

"There's a significant amount of customization...it's a higher value product than we might do in Asia. A higher level of customers that need build-to-order and close proximity," Tony Prophet, senior vice president of operations at HP, told CNET in an interview, speaking about the Indianapolis operations.Of PCs sold in the U.S., more than a third of business desktop PCs and all workstation PCs are assembled in the U.S., HP said, adding that it will assemble 2.9 million PCs in the U.S. this year.

Prophet continued. "We find that we are better able to serve our customers when we're closer, versus building them in China and shipping them by sea. The labor arbitrage is not really a driving factor," he said, referring to both North American and European desktop production.

Even a limited amount of laptop assembly is done outside China. Some business-classEliteBook laptops are assembled in North America, Prophet said.

And though the bulk of U.S.-based production is business PCs, small-scale consumer PC production is also being brought back to North America. "We're marginally moving even some consumer PC [assembly] back to North America. Doing less of that in China," according to Prophet.

Apple, on the other hand, is just starting to bring Mac production back to the U.S., after a long hiatus. CEO Tim Cook said yesterday that factories in the U.S. will handle "some" of the Mac production currently being handled internationally. Production will ramp up in 2013.

For HP, U.S.-based production is not just PCs. Printing components are made in Corvallis, Ore., and San Diego, Calif., HP said.

SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN

3-D PRINTING BY OBAMA

Why 3-D Printing Matters for "Made in U.S.A."

A rise in 3D printing technology won't mean a "Star Trek" replicator in every home to make whatever Americans desire. But the White House has bet big on the idea that 3D printing can revolutionize U.S. manufacturing from within the heart of the Midwest's "Rust Belt" once known for its shuttered steel mills.

President Barack Obama's proposed $1 billion bet on a manufacturing innovation network hinges upon places such as Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, where the whirring sounds of 3D printers and laser cutters filled the engineering department's invention center on a late Friday afternoon. The university is one of many partners in the federally funded National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute (NAMII) — a $30 million pilot institute aimed at boosting 3D printing's use in U.S. manufacturing.

"The real value of 3D printing is to do something that's either not possible or not cost-effective to do with existing technology," said James McGuffin-Cawley, chairman of materials science & engineering at Case Western Reserve University and a member of the NAMII executive board.

3D printing represents the latest version of what industry experts call "additive manufacturing" — a way to turn practically any computer designs into real objects by building them up layer-by-layer using plastics, metals or other materials. The technology could end up affecting every major industry — aerospace, defense, medicine, transportation, food, fashion — and have an even bigger impact on U.S. manufacturing than the robot revolution.

"Even though the technology has been around for more than 20 years, Washington finally gets it," said Terry Wohlers, an independent analyst and leading expert on 3D printing who sits on NAMII's governance board.

Why 3D printing makes sense

Wohlers referred to the fact that manufacturers have used such technology to build models and prototypes to test new product designs for 20 years. The difference with the new NAMII effort is that the U.S. government wants 3D printing to help produce more products stamped "Made in USA."

The strength of 3D printing comes from its ability to make individual, specifically tailored parts on demand, rather than churning out thousands of standard products with a factory's worth of assembly-line equipment. That could prove especially cost-effective for making the complex parts of specialty devices or equipment in small batches or on a one-off basis, such as replacement parts for a fighter jet or thejawbone implant customized for an individual patient's surgery.

"If you're making 10,000,000 trash cans for sale at Wal-Mart, then no — you might prototype those things with 3D printing but you won't be manufacturing them that way," Wohlers told TechNewsDaily. "If you're making parts for 50 to 100 military aircraft, then it is a perfect fit."

Aerospace giant Boeing has already proved a pioneer by using 3D printing to make more than 22,000 parts used on civilian and military aircraft flying today. The rest of the U.S. aerospace industry is trying to catch up fast — GE Aviation announced its purchase of two companies in Ohio, Morris Technologies and Rapid Quality Manufacturing, last month. GE Aviation's idea is to use its newly acquired 3D printing capabilities to make jet engine parts. [Video: A 3D Printer Of Your Own: When Will You Have One At Home?]

Similarly, 3D printing is poised to shake up the medical industry, said David Dean, director of the neurological surgery imaging laboratory at Case Western Reserve University. He pointed to the possibilities of 3D-printed hip and knee implants fitted precisely to each patient that can avoid the medical problems related to today's less well-fitted implants.

SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN

ROBOTS ARE BETTER THAN SATELLITE IN OCEAN

Robot Glider Detects Rogue Waves and Other Ocean Anomalies Missed by Satellites

When the robotic Papa Mau completed its 16,668-kilometer scientific expedition across the Pacific Ocean last month, the surfboard-sized submarine did more than set a new world record for the longest distance traveled by an autonomous vehicle. The wave-powered sub reached Australia’s Hervey Bay with a load of data that will keep marine biologists, oceanographers and other scientists busy for quite some time, including observations of rogue waves that satellites failed to detect during the Papa Mau’s year-long voyage.

On what appeared to be a calm, sunny day last February, Papa Mau transmitted data indicating rough weather—six- to 7.6-meter rolling seas and winds blowing at 50 knots. The sub had been at sea since November 17, 2011, the first of a fleet of four robot subs (called Wave Gliders) launched from San Francisco Bay by Liquid Robotics, Inc.

“There was not a cloud in the sky, nothing was on the satellites,” says Bill Vass, CEO of Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Liquid Robotics, a provider of ocean data services for shipping, energy and environmental companies. “And we said, ‘Oh, there must be something wrong with [the submarine’s] sensors.’ But when all four robots saw [the waves], we turned on the cameras. It was pretty astounding.” Nearby, an unfortunate sailboat lost its mast and was rescued by a Dutch freighter. “Besides that sailboat, the freighter, and us, no one would have seen those waves,” Vass adds.

Maritime history is filled with fantastical stories of rogue waves that appear suddenly, like walls of water, to swamp unsuspecting sailors and their vessels. As recently as 2010, several such monstrous waves hit the cruise ship Louis Majesty in the Mediterranean off the coast of Spain, an incident that killed two people and injured six.

Satellites in the worldwide communications system used for transmitting data from offshore locations “make their best guess” from 400 kilometers up about weather conditions at sea, including wind speeds and wave heights, according to Vass. They not only miss giant waves but are “tremendously inaccurate” in estimating the speeds of current and wave direction, he says

After comparing satellite data with his robots’ findings, Vass believes satellites detect surface shear, which comes from winds and broad currents. There are two dimensions to surface shear. One is the difference in currents at the ocean’s surface compared with those flowing at lower levels of the water column. The second occurs when two currents collide and generate smaller localized eddies and turbulence. Both are important to know when determining circulation and its effect on shipping energy usage and fuel consumption.

“We’re finding the satellites are way off for microcurrents,” Vass says. “In many cases, the satellite models were showing currents 180 degrees off from the currents we actually experienced, and off by a factor of two to three in speed. Our robots feel the first eight meters of ocean.” A drifter—a buoy that may submerge to a depth, then rise to the surface while tracking the path of a current—might detect a surface current, and a satellite might “see” the first few inches of the ocean, but Vass says his robot gliders “feel the full breadth of the current.” As such, the gliders ran through a series of eddies that were invisible to the satellites. They also crossed the equator where, according to satellite models, a huge shear current was thought to run east to west. Yet the flotilla experienced none of that. Upwellings, rising masses of water that can be small or enormous and that often carry deep ocean nutrients to the surface, were also in the wrong places compared to what the satellites indicated, he adds.

“The speed and directions of currents have major effects on the shipping industry, oil and gas and marine operations, as well as global weather,” Vass says. “The robot gliders’ ability to show measurements will change the way many of these industries work in the future.”

Others are more skeptical of the significance of the gliders’ findings and point out that the limitations of satellite observations are already well known. Oscar Schofield, a Rutgers University professor of bio-optical oceanography thinks that Liquid Robotics is overstating the importance of its findings. “I wouldn’t take such a negative tone,” he says. “We’ve been well aware for a long time––since we put the satellites up––that they are limited. They are the only way to provide a global view of the ocean, albeit weighted to the surface, but they are still the most effective tool.”

The question is how to fill in the subsurface, 3-D structure, Schofield says. Robotic gliders—including those made by Liquid Robotics and Falmouth, Mass.-basedTeledyne Webb Research—as well as scientific buoys like the Argos drifter are filling the data gap, he adds.

In June, Liquid Robotics’ gliders also documented a more than 1,900-kilometer-long chlorophyll and plankton bloom—the largest ever and not usually seen that time of year—initially undetected by satellites. “At this resolution, the chlorophyll bloom provides a groundbreaking link between scientific modeling and in-situ measurement and real-time data transmission,” says Liquid Robotics oceanographer Luke Beatman. The finding is significant because algae and phytoplankton are the base of the oceanic food chain and also regulate climate by absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

Commenting on algal bloom, Scott Glenn, a Rutgers University professor who specializes in physical oceanography, says he finds that “the near-surface spatial maps of temperature and phytoplankton distributions obtained by satellite combined with the vertical profiles obtained from underwater profiling robots and gliders are very powerful observational tools, illuminating a chronically undersampled ocean that varies rapidly in space and time.”

Satellites provide maps of instants in time whereas surface wave gliders and underwater profiling gliders provide time series that move around underneath these maps, and can be redirected by these maps to the areas of greatest interest, Glenn says, adding that he prefers to use all three means simultaneously for “sustained sampling trajectories through this unseen world.” Both Glenn and Schofield are part ofRutgers’ Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences Coastal Ocean Observation Lab.

Papa Mau’s journey came to a close when it arrived in Bundaberg, Australia, on November 20, having weathered gale-force storms, fended off sharks, skirted around the Great Barrier Reef, and finally battled and surfed the East Australian Current to reach its destination Down Under. The robot gliders could change the economics of sea exploration and monitoring. The average research vessel costs $37,500 per day due to fuel, crew and maintenance, so an expedition like Papa Mau’s by ship could cost tens of millions of dollars. Instead, each robot glider costs up to $3,000 per day.

Next up, Liquid Robotics has chosen five teams of scientists to study the new data. Researchers from University of California Merced, University of California Santa Cruz, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of Texas and Boston-based software firm Wise Eddy will use the information to analyze the ocean’s health and respiration, its biomass and other information about organisms critical to ocean life.

The second robot glider, Benjamin, is expected to arrive in Australia in early 2013. The two others are being repaired in Hawaii and will eventually swim to Japan. Liquid Robotics is next contemplating a robot sub mission circumnavigating Antarctica.

SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN

POWER FROM CLOTHES TO PHONE

Japanese Researchers Invent Clothes That Can Power Cell Phones

Clothes that could literally light up your life were unveiled Tuesday by Japanese researchers who said their solar-cell fabric would eventually let wearers harvest energy on the go.

The new fabric is made of wafer-thin solar cells woven together that could see people powering up their mobile phones and other electronics with their sweater or trousers.

But its creators conceded there was work to do before taking the fabric to market.

"We still have things to solve before commercialisation, such as coating for the conductive wires and improving the fabric's durability," said an official at the Industrial Technology Center in central Japan's Fukui Prefecture.

"But we've already been contacted by electronics makers, blind makers and others who showed interested in our invention."

The centre developed the fabric with a Kyoto-based solar cell maker and other private firms, the official said.

Solar power generation is attracting renewed attention in Japan as the country looks to alternative energy sources in the aftermath of last year's tsunami-sparked atomic crisis, the worst nuclear accident in a generation.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/japan-researchers-invent-solar-cell-fabric-2012-12#ixzz2Er3bN67n

AN APP FOR POLICE

There's an app for that: Tech helping police find stolen iPhones and more

Thefts handheld devices like the iPhone are increasing. 

CRANFORD — Software like the Find My iPhone app may be finding a place in the arsenal of technology law enforcement is using to solve cases.
When an iPhone 4S was stolen from Cranford's Centennial Avenue pool complex in June, the phone's owner used the app to identify the phone's location, said Detective Sgt. Gerard Quinn of the Cranford Police Department.
“When officers responded to that house, they did recover the phone and made an arrest,” Quinn said.
Apple's Find My iPhone app allows remote location-tracking of many of the devices the company manufactures. Called by other names depending on the device, like Find My iPad for the iPad, the app uses global positioning system (GPS) technology to display the location of a missing or stolen gadget on a street map.
“Any tool that lands in our lap we can use to track criminals and recover stolen property, we’re happy about it,” Quinn said.
Thefts of smartphones, tablets and other handheld devices are increasing.
NJ Transit recently reported a rise in the number of electronic devices stolenon its trains and buses, and the New York Police Department reports that one out of every seven crimes in the city involves theft of an Apple product.
Along with Cranford's department, police in other Union County towns are also dealing with the crime increase, and in some cases the software app has helped them locate the pilfered goods.
“We’ve had a little experience with that application, specifically for the iPhones,” said Detective Sgt. Theodore Dima of the Roselle Park Police Department. “I think maybe we’ve had one or two cases over the last year.”
The most recent case, involving an apparent carjacking, resulted in the recovery of an allegedly stolen iPhone because the phone’s owner used the app.
After the phone was found in the possession of an Elizabeth man and taken to Roselle Park Police headquarters on Nov. 30, an icon appeared on the iPhone screen that said the phone was stolen, Dima said.
“Pretty soon we got a call," Dima said about the telephone call received from the owner of the iPhone — a law student at Rutgers University in Newark who was allegedly carjacked in the city.
The victim, Dim said, had been using the app and tracked the iPhone to a location right next to the police station.
“So he called us and said, ‘I think you have my phone. I was carjacked today,’" Dima said. "And then that just started the ball rolling.”
Though the app is proving helpful, recovering stolen property through an app still pales when compared to the “tried-and-true method” of visiting pawn shops and speaking to witnesses, Dima said.

CLICK HERE--

APPLE MAPS FAILED!!!

Apple Maps 'is life-threatening' to motorists lost in Australia heat

In this picture posted by Mildura police, the purple pin shows the actual location of the town

Continue reading the main story

Inaccuracies in Apple Maps could be "life-threatening" to motorists in Australia's searing heat, police have warned.

Officers in Mildura, Victoria, say they have had to assist drivers stranded after following the software's directions.

Some of the drivers had been without food or water for 24 hours.

Apple's software was heavily criticised by users when it was released in September.

Last week, chief executive Tim Cook admitted Apple had "screwed up" and was working to improve the program.

'No water supply'

In a press release, Victoria police's acting senior sergeant Sharon Darcy made her force's concerns clear.

"Tests on the mapping system by police confirm the mapping systems lists Mildura in the middle of the Murray Sunset National Park, approximately 70km [45 miles] away from the actual location of Mildura," she said.

"Police are extremely concerned as there is no water supply within the park and temperatures can reach as high as 46[C], making this a potentially life-threatening issue."

The force advised travellers to use an alternative mapping service until the issues had been fixed.

In September, Apple dropped Google Maps from its iOS software in favour of its own mapping program. However, users were quick to complain it contained many inaccuracies, poor imagery and unreliable directions.

Users have complained about the quality of satellite images in Apple's software

The company defended the software at first, telling users it was "confident about our map quality".

However, Apple soon backtracked, posting an apology notice on its website.

"We are extremely sorry for the frustration this has caused our customers and we are doing everything we can to make Maps better," said Mr Cook.

A specially created section on the App Store highlighted alternative mapping software. However, an app for Google Maps has yet to be made available - although some reports suggest one is in its testing phase.

The fall-out from Apple Maps saw high-profile senior executives leave the company.

GPS vulnerability

Apple's mapping woes come as researchers at Carnegie Mellon University warned about newly discovered vulnerabilities in the world's Global Positioning System (GPS).

The research paper suggested that just $2,500 (£1,500) of equipment could be used to knock out 30% of systems supporting "safety and life-critical applications".

The researchers proposed "defences such as hardening GPS software against RF [radio frequency] and network attacks, as well as an attack detection system".

They added: "Until GPS is secured, life and safety-critical applications that depend upon it are likely vulnerable to attack."

FULL STORY--BBC

How To Hack HTTP Passwords With Wireshark

Most of the websites on the Internet use HTTP protocol for comunication which runs on Port 80, The data send to the server is Un-encrpypted and goes in plain text. If you are usingHTTPS (Port 443), The data will be send to the server encrypted. When ever you enter the data in a Form, Your browser either sends a POST Or Get Request to the webserver, In most cases you will see POST method used in forms. Now most of the websites on the internet use Http protocol for the authentication, which enables an attacker on the local area network to sniff every thing that goes through that form, That's the reason why you see websites like Paypal, Ebay, Gmail with https.


In this tutorial, I will show you how a hacker can hack passwords sent via http to the server with wireshark. Wireshark is a network analysis tool used to capture and analyze all the packets being send from your computer to the server.

Attack Scenario

Let's suppose that you went to starbucks to have a coffee with your friend, You have connected to the wifi hotspot, An attacker comes in and starts wireshark and captures your HTTP Post passwords and therefore compromising your security.

How To Hack HTTP Passwords With Wireshark

Before, you i show you how to hack http passwords, i would like to let you know that for a successful capture, your network card should be in Promiscuous mode, which will enable to capture all the traffic going through your network.

Step 1 - First of all download wireshark from the official website and install it on your computer.

Step 2 - Next open up wireshark click on analyze and click on interfaces at the top.


Step 3 - Next choose the appropriate interface and click on start. Wireshark would start sniffing the network.

Step 4 - Continue sniffing for around 10 minutes. Step 5 - After 10minutes stop the packetsniffing by going to the capture menu and clicking on Stop.

In the mean time, Log into any website (For Testing Purposes), having http Authentication.

Step 6 - Next set the filter to http.request.method == "POST", This will enable it to capture all the HTTP Post request going through your computer. Start analyzing the packets and locate the website in which you logged in having http authentication.

Step 7 - Next click on Follow TCP stream. You will see the username and password that you entered. In this particular senario i logged in my wordpress account, where i entered theusername:admin and password:rafayhackingarticles, Since wordpress uses http for authentication, The data that was entered was successfully captured.

Countermeasures

The best countermeasure would be to use a VPN, so that all the traffic would be encrpyted.


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