Anonymous hit US security think-tank
Hacktivist group Anonymous claim they have stolen thousands of emails, passwords and credit car details from Stratfor: a US-based data security firm.
Information at the Austin-based company was unecrypted, meaning obtaining the information was a simple operation. Rather troubling since Stratfor's clients include the likes of the US defence department, Apple inc., various law enforcement agencies and media organisations. The firm has since suspended all operations on their servers.
MotoACTV wristwatch rooted, made into a tablet for The Borrowers
The sport of routing closed Android devices has been somewhat routine and uninteresting to behold. But when you see Honeycomb on the 1.6" display of a wristwatch, you can't help but reclaim the curiosity that fuelled this obsession in the first place.
Motorola's MotoACTV sports watch normally operates on a highly customised version of Android 2.3, with an iPod Nano-esque user interface; but it's gone under the knife and been opened up via Revolutionary's zergRush exploit.
Hajime Research is building a 4 metre tall robot
The people at Hajime Research have started on their path of creating increasingly taller robots than we humans, starting with a 13-foot humanoid.
This new iterative front for the company comes from the strategic goal of building a robot very much in the style of those from 'Gundam' Japanese anime: a 59-foot robot that will be the ultimate challenge, reached through gradual increases.
Stream TV Set To Return To CES With 'Next Generation' Glasses-Free 3DTV
If there was one technology triumphed over anything else at last year's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, it was glasses-free 3DTV; with companies like Toshiba, LG and Sony each showcasing what is possible to achieve without the need for active/passive 3D glasses.
Stream TV, makers of the Elocity tablets, was another electronics company on the show floor, demonstrating its own wares to a sceptical public. Despite little else seen in 2011 from the company in terms of units on shelves (despite promising a 52-inch version in May and 56-inch and 60-inch models in September), the company has now announced its intentions to unveil its new Ultra-D technology at CES 2012.
Siri turns 'Sirial Killer' in Holiday Horror Movie
Though Siri is at best a middling distraction on the iPhone 4S for most of us, it's nevertheless an incredible piece of technology. Advanced voice recognition, sophisticated artificial intelligence, a smattering of humorous responses... But what we didn't know is that Siri actually has a mind of its own and is on a mission to “kill the humans." Something that we find out in this hilarious spoof movie trailer, 'Siri: The Holiday Horror Movie'.
Artificial retinal implant restores vision
Tests on a new kind of prosthetic eye have proven successful, meaning that the technology could someday allow around 25 million people who are blind due to retinal diseases to see in crystal clarity, by having much stronger intercommunication when portraying the image to the brain.
Shiela Nirenberg and Chetan Pandarinath, of Weill Medical College of Cornell University in New York city have tested this retinal prosthetic in blind mice, discovering it gave them the power to see individual dimples on a baby's face. With this success comes the potential of human use.
MyRobots.com: The Facebook for your cyborg companion
So you've got your Facebook and Twitter; but as we step closer to Skynet intelligent robot beings, what about their outcries to be part of the social graph? Well, dear reader, your prayers have been answered with Myrobots.com.
Study shows people are more likely to lie while text messaging
The University of British Columbia conducted a study recently, suggesting people are more likely to lie in text messages than they are in all other forms of communication.
This was done with a pretty ingenious role-playing game of 'stock market.' 170 students were analysed via face-to-face, audio, video and text message communications as they play the rolls of brokers selling stock or consumers out to buy the aforementioned stock. Just before the brokers were to make their sales pitch to consumers, they were informed that the stock had lost half its value, which set the stage for the buyers to report back to researchers, determining how often they'd been lied to.
Astronomers conclude Earth has a second moon
A study conducted by Cornell University astronomers has concluded that Earth must have a second moon, calculated via counting the population of "irregular natural satellites that are temporarily captured by Earth." This has also been backed up by a sighting of one of these 'orbiters' by the Catalina Sky Survey in Arizona.
Virgin media programme guide hits an 'unnecessary censorship' glitch
Virgin Media's electronic programme guide's profanity checker hit a glitch recently, overzealously censoring different words within the titles of TV and radio programmes.
Taking a little too much inspiration from the Unnecessary censorship videos on Youtube, subscribers experienced the glitch over the past 3-4 days, as tipped off by some of our readers, watching such fantastic programming as "Jarvis C**ker's Sunday Service" and The Bleak of the Old Shop Of Stuff, a spoof of the writing of "Charles D**kens."
Eric Schmidt says Google Tablet could be here within six months
Google's executive chairman Eric Schmidt has revealed the search-giant's intentions to begin marketing “a tablet of the highest quality” within the next six months, a move that sees the “brutal competition between Apple and Google Android” rage as fiercely as it has for quite some time.
Santa still uses Siri
So in the battle between Android and iOS, we've got one particularly strong opinion in the form of Chris Cringle checking the weather, messages from Mrs Claus and just how busy his schedule is, in a trailer you can't help but smile a little at.
Scientists discover the secrets to a successful pop song
Talentless singers rejoice. University of Bristol scientists have created software that has the ability to analyse and determine the hit potential of a song.
Called 'Score a Hit,' data has been collected about tunes in the UK top 40 since 1961 for the purpose of using the equation, to see if it's estimations were correct and precise. The program has been able to predict chart positions with roughly 60% accuracy through it's algorithm of evaluating 23 characteristics of the song such as danceability, harmonic simplicity and volume.
London Police transmitting alcohol safety messages over Wi-Fi
London's Metropolitan Police have started requesting people turn on their smartphone's Wi-Fi in the city centre on nights out, as they will begin to broadcast 'rape prevention and personal safety messages' around the danger of alcohol-related crimes.
USB Biofeedback Game Controller. Play games with your gun show
So you flex those fore-arms to impress the women, who always end up walking away (it's okay to admit, we've all been there). Well what if we could provide you some kind of use for them except for their power of ticket dispensary?
Well Advancer Technologies has your back, with the Biofeedback Game Controller, a plug-and-play option that used EMG (electromyography) sensors to monitor electrical currents that flow through your muscles with every impulse, and turn them into on-screen control (in this case, navigating Mario in Super Mario 3).
Samsung schools Apple with ad in Australia: "the tablet Apple tried to stop"
So as you probably may well know, Samsung and Apple have been in legal competition for a while in Australia, primarily over similar comparisons between the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and the iPad 2. Since the sales ban was lifted last week on Samsung, they've celebrated their victory in the local press.
Siri steps into the rap game, laying down lyrics to Notorious B.I.G
We've seen many Siri protocol hacks that have innovated and pushed the concept of voice control further beyond what Apple currently allows the software to do. But not even we could envision that robotic voice making for a pretty sweet rapper.
HP rebranding proposition explained in pictures and video
Three years have passed since Moving Brands were hired by HP to redesign the brand imagery through a radical overhaul, and rediscover the identity of the company through improved visual output.
This is the first time we've been able to see the complete proposition in public, and it's quite a transformation. The company have departed from the circlular design and opted instead for a pretty minimalist four-line motif; but they haven't rid themselves of the slant in the lettering.
New Apple Intern shows ideas for Notification Centre tweaks
University of Georgia student Jan-Michael Cart has posted a video demonstrating his ideas for tweaking the UI, particularly around Notification Centre in iOS5, adding some rather worthwhile implementations that have managed to get him hired as a UI/UX Design Intern at Apple.
MIT builds a Camera that shoots at the speed of light
The MIT media lab researchers have created a camera which captures at a shutter speed of one trillion frames per second, meaning it can actually record the travelling of photons of light between points.
The team hit the breakthrough taking a picture of a laser beam as it passed through a fizzy drink bottle, using a sophisticated system with a modified Streak Tube to intensify the photons and a pretty beasty-sized camera. The footage that was captured required multiple hundreds of takes of the same experiment, creating quite a beautiful stop motion film of multiple beams of light reflecting through the bottle, collecting in the cap and dispersing.