Hasta La Gadget!

HMD, the Finnish company making Nokia-branded devices, is now being investigated by the country’s data protection watchdog amid reports that some of its phones sent data to servers in China. The investigation comes after NRK, a Norwegian public broadcaster, claimed having proof which showed that Nokia phones were sending sensitive data to China based on a tip from a device owner.

Henrik Austad, the man who gave the tip, said he was monitoring the traffic from his Nokia 7 Plus and found that it was sending unencrypted information to a Chinese server. The data included the SIM card number, the phone’s serial number, and his location. The broadcaster’s findings revealed that the server was under the domain “vnet.cn” which is said to be managed by China Telecom, a state-owned company.

Finland’s data protection ombudsman Reijo Aarnio said that the investigation will now look at whether there was a breach and personal information and involved as well as if a legal justification can be provided for this. A deeper dive showed that this was probably intended for the Chinese version of the Nokia 7 Plus and not the global version.

This was echoed in HMD Global’s statement to Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat. The company said that the data collection was due to a coding mistake with an “activation package” being included accidentally in some phones’ firmware. It added that only a single batch of Nokia 7 Plus devices had this package. It also said that the issue was addressed in a firmware update sent out in January and that most customers had installed it.

Nokia Phones Being Investigated For Sending Data To China , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

T-Mobile today announced that it’s starting a limited wireless home internet pilot program which will lay the foundation for a home broadband “disruption.” This is an invitation-only pilot for in-home internet service on LTE. T-Mobile aims to connect up to 50,000 homes this year in rural and underserved areas of the United States. It’s part of T-Mobile’s plan to disrupt the home broadband market.

The company adds that the T-Mobile Home Internet pilot will be offered exclusively in areas where it can expect to deliver speeds of around 50 Mbps through fixed unlimited wireless service over LTE. Users will get unlimited data for $50 per month with AutoPay.

There will be no annual service contracts or equipment costs. It will be very simple to set up the in-home router. Pilot customers will also get a dedicated support team. T-Mobile says that the pilot is being opened up by invitation-only to existing customers in specific areas due to “LTE network and spectrum capacity constraints.”

The company adds that while it aims to reach 50,000 households or less than 0.04 percent of U.S. households by the end of this year, if its merger with Sprint is approved, the added scale and capacity will enable it to cover more than half of U.S. households with 5G broadband service by 2024. That service would deliver speeds in excess of 100 Mbps.

T-Mobile Begins Testing Wireless Home Internet Service , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

The investigation continues into what caused Lion Air Flight 610 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 to crash five months apart from each other, killing everyone on board. There are a couple of similarities between both incidents. The flights were operated on a Boeing 737 Max 8, a new iteration of Boeing’s iconic 737, and both crashed shortly after take off. A new report mentions that both jets were missing two safety features that Boeing only sold as options to airlines.

While the formal investigation report has not been issued for either crash, the general theory links the new MCAS system to the crashes. It’s a new safety system that Boeing developed for the plane which is to prevent a stall by automatically pushing the nose down. A detailed report has already shed light on how Boeing’s safety analysis for this feature was likely flawed.

The MCAS system takes its readings from angle of attack sensors. If it detects that the plane is pointing up at a precarious angle, it can push the plane’s nose down automatically to prevent a stall. The New York Times reports that two safety features which could have prevented the faulty reading were not present on both the Ethiopian Airlines and Lion Air jets.

The first is an angle of attack indicator which shows the readings from both sensors. The other is called a disagree light and it activates when the sensors are at odds with one another. Boeing did not offer these safety features as standard. They were sold to customers as optional extras, airlines could choose whether or not they wanted to spend money on them.

It’s also pertinent to mention here that neither safety feature was mandated by the Federal Aviation Administration. With the airline industry operating on razor thin margins as it is, many have begun to question why this was left up to the airlines which are already under pressure to maximize profitability.

“They’re critical, and cost almost nothing for the airlines to install,” said aviation analyst Bjorn Fehrm, “Boeing charges for them because it can. But they’re vital for safety.” The report mentions that Boeing is now going to make the disagree light standard on all new 737 Max planes. It continues to manufacture them even though the delivered jets have been grounded across the globe.

Both Crashed 737s Lacked Safety Features Boeing Sold Only As Options , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

A short film that premiered at GDC highlights the photorealism potential of Unreal Engine, and it would be easy to assume Rebirth is a live-action short given how life-like it looks. The video depicts an atmospheric environment full of craggy rocks,…

Israel seized the Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 Six-Day War.