Comcast offers another way to 'cut the cord'

The country's largest cable operator announced that it is beta testing a new streaming service called Stream. With this new service, Xfinity Internet customers will be able to watch live TV from about a dozen networks -- including HBO -- on their computers, mobile devices, and tablets. Company shares were up more than 1% during Monday morning trading.

Let's take a look at the tech stocks to watch Monday:

Comcast (CMCSA): In a bid to attract the younger generation of viewers, Stream will be offered to Xfinity Internet subscribers for an additional $15 a month, the company said in a blog post. Stream will launch in Boston by the end of the summer, and the company said it plans to make the service available everywhere by early 2016.

Apple (AAPL): The Federal Trade Commission is looking into whether Apple is violating antitrust regulations, according to Reuters. The company currently takes a 30% cut of all in-app purchases for digital goods sold on its platform -- such as music streaming subscriptions -- and some rival services have complained that this cut has affected it profit margins. The FTC has not begun a formal investigation, however is looking into the possibility of antitrust violations.

United Technologies (UTX): Lockheed Martin is in advanced talks to complete a deal to buy United Technologies helicopter unit, according to The Wall Street Journal. This deal, which may be completed in the next few days, could be valued at more than $8 billion. As of morning trading, company shares were up more than 1%.

Microsoft (MSFT): The software company recentlyannounced that the new version of its Power BI software -- an analytics service that enables companies easily visualize and share data -- will become available to the general public July 24. The company is currently holding its Worldwide Partner Conference in Orlando. Company shares were up nearly 2% during morning trading.

Nintendo (NTDOY): Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwatadied at 55, the company announced Sunday. Iwata ran the Japanese video game publisher during one of its most successful periods, which included the launches of two significant products: the DS handheld in 2004 and the Wii home console in 2006, which respectively sold more than 200 million and 101 million units to date. 

By Trisha Thadani for US Today Tech 

10 things you probably didn't know about President Obama's Cadillac Limo.

 

Although president Obamas car bears the Cadillac symbol, it really isn’t one of those ordinary Cadillac you can go out and buy. Everything about the car is unique and tailored to certain specifics. Not much is known about the car since it falls under the Secret Service’s classified motor pool but over the years some credible information has leaked out. Here are 10 known facts about the car. 

1. IT HAS ITS OWN AIRPLANE

Believe it or not The Beast, a second limo and a heavily armoured Chevrolet Suburban communications vehicle are transported in their own plan every time the president travels to a foreign land.

2. IT IS THE BEST ARMOURED VEHICLE ON THE PLANET

The armour plating on the car is believed to be 8 inches thick and each of the doors on the car is said to weigh just as much as a Boeing 757 aircraft. The windows are 5 inches thick and the inside is sealed off from the outside world to reduce risks of a bio-chemical attack. The fuel tank on the other hand is surrounded by a special foam to prevent it from exploding in case of a heavy impact.

3. MATERIAL THAT MAKES UP THE CAR

The car is made of titanium, dual hardness steel, ceramic and aluminium

4. THE TYRES

The tyres on the beast are puncture and chard resistant. The car can keep moving even if the wheel is blasted away due to the steel rims underneath the tires.

5. IT IS WELL EQUIPPED

If you were to open up the car’s trunk it is said that you will find just about anything you need in case of an emergency. Some of the items included in the trunk are fire fighting equipment, oxygen tanks and even a cache of the president’s blood type. Teargas canisters, shotguns and grenade launchers are also said to be integrated into the car.

6. IT CAN HOLD UP TO SEVEN PASSENGERS

At the very least the car can have three people in it, this is the president, the driver and the lead Secret Service protective agent in the front passenger seat. However the car has four more additional seats.

7. THE BEAST IS NOT ALONE

There are a few beast like vehicles which accompany the main car on some occasions.

8. SPEED OF THE CAR

Contrary to what many may think, the car is not a rocket ship. It has a top speed of 60 mp/h which is around 97 km/h. The cars, immense weight makes it a guzzler taking around 8 mpg.

9. FUEL

The car does not run on rocket fuel, it runs on everyday diesel. Aside from durability of diesel engines, diesel has a low volatility which reduces the risk of it exploding in case of an impact.

10. DRIVER

The driver has to be highly qualified. He should be able to execute tight J-turns and other police-style evasion techniques in the case of an emergency.

The Pirate Bay Co-founders Cleared of Copyright Infringement Rights.

.

The four co-founders of The Pirate Bay, the world’s most popular torrent website, have been cleared of charges alleging criminal copyright infringement and abuse of electronic communications in a Belgian court.

The Pirate Bay co-founders Gottfrid Svartholm,Fredrik Neij, Peter Sunde and Carl Lundströmwere acquitted by a Belgian court located in Mechelse after it was found that they could not be held responsible for the file-sharing website after selling it in 2006.

The Pirate Bay’s founders Gottfrid Svartholm and Fredrik Neij, the website representative Peter Sunde and the website investor Carl Lundström were facing criminal charges related to their involvement with the torrenting site that has proven to be an elusive hub for illegal copyrighted content.

The Pirate Bay was Sold to other Investors in 2006

However, the case fell apart when the Pirate Bay’s co-founders said that they were not involved in any activity related to the website after they sold it to Reservella, a Seychelles-based company, in 2006, as reported on Friday.

Providing more details about the case Torrent Freak report, "All four defendants deny having had anything to do with the site since it reported the sale to a Seychelles-based company called Reservella in 2006. That has proven problematic since the period in which the four allegedly committed the crimes details in the Belgian case spans September 2011 and November 2013."

Though the foursome is likely to face criminal charges in other courts of law, the Belgian court victory represented a little of good news for the cyber crew.

Prosecution Agreed to Court Decision

After the verdict was dropped, the complainants, which is the Belgian Entertainment Association, agreed with the court decision. "Technically speaking, we agree with the court," said Olivier Maeterlinck, the Belgian Entertainment Association (BEA) director.

This isn’t the first good news came from The Pirate Bay case. Last month, the third founder Fredrik Neij was released from a Swedish prison after he was detained on the Laos-Thailand border in November 2014 and spending ten months in jail.

The Pirate Bay, founded in 2003, is one of the most popular file-sharing websites in the world predominantly used to share copyrighted material free of charge. Despite the criminal convictions, thesite remains functioning today, although it has moved to different Web domains several times.

It's still unclear how the website managed to reappear every time after shutdown, but The Pirate Bay claimed last year that it ran the notorious website on 21 "raid-proof" virtual machines, which means if the police raid one location, the site would hardly take few hours to get back in action.

'For the love of the game', Gamer drugs girlfriend for some few more hours in the game.

Sunday, July 12, 2015 Wang Wei for thehackernews. 

Yes, you heard it right. A gamer drugged his girlfriend to avoid interruption while playing on hisMicrosoft's Xbox Live.

The 23-year-old German man, who has not been named, was fined EUR€500 (approx USD$555) by a judge in a Castrop-Rauxel district court, German website The Local reports.

The man admitted in front of judge that he put between four and five drops of a sedative in his girlfriend's tea to make her fall asleep, so he could keep playing the video game on his console.

His girlfriend fell asleep for more than 12 hours and wake up midday on the next day, but even after waking up she felt constantly drowsy. 

"Then I got up and drove to work although I was nodding off again and again," the victim told.

Girlfriends Broke-Up with her Boyfriend

The offender's girlfriend, 24, broke up with her now-ex-boyfriend after he did this to her.

Sentencing the man, the court judge said:

"Your girlfriend slept long and deeply, which didn't harm her, but this is certainly a premeditated bodily harm."

The man admitted that what he did is "stupid" but also said he was "on a straight path" now after staying off drugs for ten months, and was planning to start an apprenticeship.

Madonna's Hacker Jailed.

.By Swati Khandelwal

An Israeli Singer and former contestant on a reality talent show has been jailed for hacking Madonna's online accounts and stealing songs from her unreleased music tracks.

Adi Lederman, 39, who participated in Israel's version of American Idol called A Star Is Born, is set to spend his 14 months in prison and pay $4000 in fine after confessing to computer trespassing, infringement of privacy and property rights.

Citing Madonna as Lederman's victim, Tel Aviv Magistrate's Court did not specify whether Lederman was actually behind the song leak from her "Rebel Heart" album, the Jerusalem Postreported this week.

"The ease with which crimes such as this can be committed by those who have skills in the field," the court said, "such as the accused, require an appropriate punitive response that has a deterrent and uncompromising message."

Deeply Devastating and Hurtful

Madonna planned to launch her new album "Rebel Heart" during Spring 2015 but was forced to rush-release six songs early on iTunes after they were leaked on the Internet in December last year.

Lederman was arrested a month later in January after an investigation assisted by the FBI.

According to Tel Aviv Magistrates' Court, Lederman hacked into email servers belongs to Kevin Antunes, Madonna’s musical director and Guy Oseary, Madonna's talent manager.

Access to the email accounts was used to get into online cloud storage systems, allowing Lederman to pilfer photographs and music tracks copyrighted byMadonna Esther Louise Ciccone.

At the time, Madonna said the incident was an"invasion into [her] life - creatively, professionally and personally [which] remains a deeply devastating and hurtful experience."

Lederman subsequently sold the music tracks to two different buyers for $300 each, however Madonna appeal her fans to not to listen to the leaked files.

From,  thehackernews. 

Android Gaming App Infects More Than 1 Million Devices With Malware.

.

By thehackernews' Swati Khandelwal

It's not at all surprising that the Google Play Store is surrounded by a number of malicious applications that may gain users' attention to fall victim for one, but this time it might be even worse than you thought.

Threat researchers from security firm ESET havediscovered a malicious Facebook-Credentials-Stealing Trojan masquerading as an Android game that has been downloaded bymore than a Million Android users.

Malicious Android Apps downloaded 50,000-1,000,000 times

The Android game, dubbed "Cowboy Adventure," and another malicious game, dubbed "Jump Chess" – downloaded up to 50,000 times, have since been removed from Google Play Store.

However, before taking them off from the app store, the creepy game apps may have compromised an unknown number of victims' Facebook credentials.

Both the games were created by the same software developer, Tinker Studio and both were used to gather social media credentials from unsuspecting users.

How Cowboy Adventure victimizes Android users?

Once installed, Cowboy Adventure produced a fake Facebook login window that prompted users to enter their Facebook usernames along with their passwords. A practice known as OAuth in which a 3rd party asks your Facebook login.

However, if users provide their credentials to Cowboy Adventure app, the malicious code within the game app allegedly sent their credentials to the attacker's server.

Therefore, If you have downloaded Cowboy Adventure or Jump Chess, you should immediately change not alone your Facebook password, but any service that uses the same combination of username and password as your Facebook account.

ESET senior security researcher Robert Lipovskybelieves that the app malicious behavior is not just a careless mistake of the game developer, but the developer is actually a criminal minded.

Take Away

A few basic tips that you should always keep in your mind are:

• Always download apps from official sources, such as Google Play Store or Apple's App Store.
• Read reviews from other users before downloading an app (Many users complained about "Cowboy Adventure" that the game locked them out of Facebook accounts).
• Always use two-factor authentication on services that makes it harder for hackers to access your accounts with just your password.
• Always keep a malware scanning software from trusted vendors like Avast, AVG, ESET, Kaspersky and Bitdefender, on your smartphone.

BBC unveils Micro:bit design, a 5×4cm programmable computer.

Micro:bit — A Pocket-sized Programmable Computer

Wednesday, July 08, 2015 Mohit Kumar

The Micro:bit is essentially a codeable computer that lets kids get creative with technology. It measures 5cm by 4cm and will be available in different colors.

The idea behind the Micro:bit is to encourage young children to learn how computers work, and to get kids into programming and engineering at the young age.

What does this tiny little computer contain?

The Micro:bit, made in collaboration with ARM, Barclays, element14, Freescale, Lancaster University, Microsoft, Nordic Semiconductor, Samsung and the Wellcome Trust, contains:

• A 32-bit ARM Cortex M0 CPU
• Programmable Array of 25 red LEDs
• Micro USB port through which it can be powered
• Three input-output (I/O) Ring Connectorsto hook it up to other kits and sensors
• Bluetooth for connectivity
• A 3V output connector to power external devices
• A 20-pin edge connector
• Two on-board buttons that can act as a game controller
• A battery connector which connects to a separate AAA battery holder
• An accelerometer to make a hi-tech spirit level
• In-built Compass

The series of 25 programmable red LEDs lights is designed to help children get instant results, and its input/output (I/O) rings help connect other computing kit, including the Raspberry Pi, Galileo, Arduino, Kano and littleBits, to carry out more complex tasks.

The Micro:bit is programmed through a modified version of Microsoft's TouchDevelop Web-based coding environment. Microsoft also provided two coding languages – The text-based Microsoft TouchDevelop and a graphical coding languageMicrosoft Blocks.

The BBC Micro:bit is almost 18 times faster and about 600 times lighter than the original BBC Micro, which celebrated its 33rd birthday recently.

When would you get Micro:bit?

BBC is planning to distribute over 1 Million Micro:bit devices for Free to every Year 7 (11 or 12 year-old) child or equivalent at the school across the UK in October this year. 

By the end of this year, the general public will also be able to purchase Micro:bit. Although the cost has not been announced yet, Micro:bit will be cheap.