Transfer Power Wirelessly Within 5m Radius

Transfer Power Wirelessly Within 5m RadiusWireless charging might be the future, as that would mean there is no longer any more need to grapple with unsightly cables and wires. After all, it would also translate to having one less thing to carry in your suitcase on your travels, but how about expounding on wireless charging by taking things to the next level – that is, wireless power? Apparently, Chun T. Rim, a professor of Nuclear & Quantum Engineering at KAIST, alongside his team, have already demonstrated an improvement in allowing electric power to travel sans wires, calling it the Dipole Coil Resonant System (DCRS) that offers an extended range of inductive power transfer within a 5 meter radius.

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    Walmart Launches A Money Transfer Service

    Walmart Launches A Money Transfer Service

    Soon you will be able to walk into a Walmart and send money. The company today launched its new “Walmart-2-Walmart” service for which it has partnered with Euronet Worldwide Inc subsidiary Ria Money Transfer. This new service puts Western Union directly in the crosshairs as customers will be able to transfer money to and from over 4,000 U.S. Walmart stores. The company says that fees will be much lower than competing services, giving users an incentive to use Walmart-2-Walmart instead.

    According to Reuters Western Union shares dipped 7.1 percent in premarket trading. Even MoneyGram International saw shares dip 14.6 percent following the announcement, while Euronet’s rose 4.2 percent. So the assumption that Walmart-2-Walmart might dent competing services seems to hold weight.

    The only caveat is that Walmart’s service is only good for domestic money transfers. Folks who want to send money overseas will have to turn towards Western Union or MoneyGram. The latter already provides money transfer services for Walmart.

    By launching this new service Walmart aims to boost its core business as well. The low fees on domestic transfers under $1,000 is basically an effort to bring in more shoppers into Walmart stores which would ultimately prove beneficial for its financial revenues. Walmart-2-Walmart will go in service on April 24th.

    Walmart Launches A Money Transfer Service , original content from Ubergizmo, Filed in General, ,

    Missing Boy Found In Coin Operated Claw Machine

    Missing Boy Found In Coin Operated Claw MachineA missing child is always a scary thought to have for any parent, and the long arm of the law, too, would pull all the stops just to make sure that both child and parent(s) are reunited at the end of a long search. In Nebraska, a mother called the police after she could not locate her son from her Lincoln home. According to the 24-year old mother, she figured out that her 3-year old son must have gone out of the unlocked apartment unnoticed, while she was in the bathroom. Guess where was the little toddler found in the end? In a coin operated claw machine, that’s where!

    Yup, you read that right – the plucky 3-year old, who probably did not know any better, ended up in a coin operated claw machine which was located at Madsen’s Bowling & Billiards. Apparently, employees there called the police after they were alerted by a customer that a young child was stuck inside the machine itself.

    The police naturally followed up on that lead, no matter how improbable and zany it might have sounded over the phone, only to find the little one within, where he was oblivious to the world around as he was too happy to play with the stuffed animals within the claw machine. Madsen’s made a call to the company behind this claw machine to free him before he could get hurt. The police would not charge the mother in any way, because she acted as quickly as possible the moment she realized her little one went missing. It does make you wonder, how did he end up in the claw machine in the first place?

    Missing Boy Found In Coin Operated Claw Machine , original content from Ubergizmo, Filed in General,

    MIT Looks At Floating Nuclear Plants

    MIT Looks At Floating Nuclear Plants I am quite sure that the 2011 earthquake and tsunami double whammy that struck Japan still remains fresh in the minds of many, especially when the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant was at the heart of the disaster, resulting in contamination that has yet to fully run its course. The after effects of the disasters, including the lack of cooling for the reactor cores in particular, is a major contributor to the environment’s groaning all around. Is there a safer way to house a nuclear plant? MIT professors Jacopo Buongiorno, Michael Golay, and Neil Todreas, working alongside others from MIT, the University of Wisconsin, and Chicago Bridge and Iron, a major nuclear plant and offshore platform construction company, are exploring the possibility of designing a nuclear plant that is built on floating platforms.

    Such an industrial design is modeled after the ones used for offshore oil drilling, and in all probability, it could very well help prevent such catastrophic consequences down the road should a similar scenario strike. These floating plants would be able to be cooled automatically thanks to the surrounding seawater in a worst-case scenario, which would help stop any of the fuel rods from melting, and in turn prevent the escape of radioactive material.

    Of course, as with any best laid plans, there is always the possibility of something going wrong. This could lead to a major worldwide disaster as radioactive material leaks out right smack in the middle of the sea, affecting marine life worldwide. I suppose it will need to be located far enough offshore so that it can ride out a tsunami, but then it would mean that working there is going to be a bore in the long run. [Press Release]

    MIT Looks At Floating Nuclear Plants , original content from Ubergizmo, Filed in General, ,

    Google Fiber New York Roll Out Plans Denied

    Google Fiber New York Roll Out Plans Denied

    Recently a new job listing at Google was spotted which led to speculation that perhaps Google Fiber New York roll out might be around the corner. The position, for a Google Fiber Regional Sales Manager, was located in New York and its responsibilities included leading and motivating “multiple sales teams across multiple locations.” The company has now denied any plans of expanding its gigabit internet service into New York. A spokesperson advises not to “read into the job listing.”

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    Samsung Exec Felt Jobs’ Death Was ‘Best Opportunity’ To Attack iPhone

    Samsung Exec Felt Jobs Death Was Best Opportunity To Attack iPhone

    During the second patent infringement trial between Apple and Samsung a lot of secret documents have been brought to the limelight. These documents provide insight about how the companies worked to dent each other in the ever competitive global market. A new document has been revealed this week, also as part of the trial, which shows that a senior executive in the company thought Steve Jobs’ death was the “best opportunity” to run an attack campaign against the iPhone.

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    LaCie Confirms Customer Data Breach On Their Website

    LaCie Confirms Customer Data Breach On Their WebsiteSo we know that LaCie is known for creating storage solutions like external hard drives and Thunderbolt external hard drives used for Mac computers, but it seems that recently the company has experienced a security breach by unknown assailants. This attack is not on their products but rather their website in which they conduct business on.

    According to a statement released by LaCie, it seems that everyone who has bought a LaCie product from the company’s website in the past year is at risk as the malware that infected their systems managed to gain access to sensitive customer information. LaCie states that they were informed of this breach on their website by the FBI on the 19th of March 2014.

    “On March 19, 2014, the FBI informed LaCie that it found indications that an unauthorized person used malware to gain access to information from customer transactions that were made through LaCie’s website. We have hired a leading forensic investigation firm, who is conducting a thorough investigation, and assisting us in implementing additional security measures.”

    The data at risk includes customer names, addresses, email addresses, payment card information, expiration dates, usernames, and passwords. In a statement by LaCie, “As a precaution, we have temporarily disabled the e-commerce portion of the LaCie website while we transition to a provider that specializes in secure payment processing services. We will resume accepting online orders once we have completed the transition.”

    If you have bought any of LaCie’s products in the past year or so, the company is advising customers to reset their passwords. As it stands there have not been any reports of misuse of the stolen credit card numbers and customer information, but for those who are a little paranoid, perhaps changing credit cards and resetting your password might be the way to go.

    LaCie Confirms Customer Data Breach On Their Website , original content from Ubergizmo, Filed in General, , ,

    Steve Jobs Movie Will Not Be Directed By David Fincher

    Steve Jobs Movie Will Not Be Directed By David Fincher

    If you were not satisfied by the Ashton Kutcher starring “Jobs” movie, fret not, there’s another Steve Jobs movie in the pipeline. Being written by Aaron Sorkin, of The Social Network fame, the film will play out in three scenes which will chart three crucial events in the co-founder’s life. No word as yet on who will be cast to play the former Apple CEO, Christian Bale is rumored to be in the running. Previously it was reported that David Fincher could be tapped to direct the film, but now a new report claims that Fincher has left the project.

    According to the Hollywood Reporter, David Fincher had “aggressive” demands that Sony Pictures didn’t want to meet. Apparently he asked for $10 million in wages apart from control of the movie’s marketing. Sorkin and Fincher have both previously worked together on The Social Network, a film focusing on the dramatic rise of Facebook.

    It is unclear who will be tapped next to direct the movie. Apparently it was Fincher who was pushing the studio to consider Christian Bale for the lead role. That might change when a new director comes onboard. Filming isn’t expected to begin until next year, so Steve Jobs fans might have to wait a while before they get to see another movie about him on the big screen.

    Steve Jobs Movie Will Not Be Directed By David Fincher , original content from Ubergizmo, Filed in General, ,

    FBI Adds Facial Recognition To Its Arsenal

    FBI Adds Facial Recognition To Its ArsenalThe FBI certainly has their fair share of methods to track down people whom they deem to be worth tracking, either for security reasons or reasons that are known to them alone. In fact, the FBI has plans to amass up to 52 million photos in its NGI Face Recognition Database by 2015 – which is a scary thought, since that would make up one sixths of the U.S. population already. Give them another five years, and perhaps the entire nation will be part of their Face Recognition database.

    While the FBI’s massive biometric database might contain records on as many as one third of the U.S. population, it is the facial recognition aspect of this database which raises questions of privacy at the ilk. FBI’s legacy fingerprint database is certainly augmented with other kinds of biometric data, ranging from palm prints and iris scans. All of these data will be linked to personal and biographic data like one’ name, home address, ID number, immigration status, age, and race, among others.

    The database has the ability to process 55,000 direct photo enrollments each day, in addition to conducting tens of thousands of searches every single day. Do bear in mind that non-criminal face images too, will be mixed alongside criminal face images in this database. Basically, as long as you apply for a job that requires fingerprinting or a background check, you can be sure that your prints will be sent to and stored by the FBI in its civil print database, in addition your face print and fingerprints, too, will now be “harvested”.

    FBI Adds Facial Recognition To Its Arsenal , original content from Ubergizmo, Filed in General, ,

    Google Picks Up Titan Aerospace Before Facebook Can

    Google Picks Up Titan Aerospace Before Facebook Can

    We often hear rumors about offers and counteroffers whenever a major company makes a big acquisition. For example, when Snapchat was reportedly being courted, it received multiple bids from Facebook and Google. The same was rumored for WhatsApp, which Facebook ultimately bought for $19 billion, and Google claimed it hadn’t even placed a bid. Recently several reports claimed Facebook was interested in drone maker Titan Aerospace, offering as much as $60 million. Google today announced that it has acquired Titan Aerospace.

    According to the Wall Street Journal, Google hasn’t disclosed the financial terms behind this acquisition. However, the company did confirm that following the acquisition, about 20 or so employees of Titan will continue to work in their New Mexico office. Titan’s CEO Vern Raburn will continue running the day to day operations.

    Titan Aerospace develops high-altitude solar powered drones. It claims that these drones can provide speeds of up to 1GB per second and hopes to begin commercial operations by next year. Speeds of 1GB per second are faster than most broadband connections in the U.S. as well as other developed countries.

    In a statement, a Google spokesman said that atmospheric satellites could help bring internet access to millions of people around the world, particularly those in remote locations. “It’s still early days,” the spokesman said. Even DARPA has been thinking around the same lines. It is working on a project that utilizes unused drones from Iraq and kits them with a pod that can provide internet where needed.

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