Hasta La Gadget!

The Curiosity rover sent to Mars this week by NASA has been collecting an ever-growing collection of photos from the Red Planet, the newest being the 360 degree panorama you see before you. This photo was taken with the vehicle’s highest-resolution navigation camera and is color-accurate to an unknown degree. We’re currently in the process of prodding NASA for their deep cover information on the cameras outside of what we already know – James Cameron is onboard!

In addition to the color photo you see above (and in larger “full size” format in the gallery below), you’ll be able to see some “3D” photos taken by the craft too. Head to this post from earlier this week to see photos taken with the vehicle’s dual camera setup and put on your red/green glasses for a thrill. Of course you know this means we’ll be seeing martians in three dimensions too – soon!

Thus far all we’re seeing is a bunch of rocks save for the machinery above and below the camera’s vision. The metal and plastic you see is actually part of the Curiosity rover, of course, and the cameras are able to look down further to make sure the rover is all there should a space monster come to take a swipe of it. While you’re at it, have a peek at the landing video NASA has provided of the beast heading towards the planet from earlier this week:

“The movie begins with a global image from NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor, then switches to views from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. As we zoom closer and closer into Gale Crater, the components of Curiosity’s landing system come into view: The heat shield was the first piece to hit the ground, followed by the back shell attached to the parachute, then the rover itself touched down, and finally, after cables were cut, the sky crane flew away to the northwest and crashed” – NASA

Then have a look at a collection of relatively high resolution shots coming from the machine this week. NASA will continue to provide us all with shots such as these as they explore the crater in which they’re sitting right this minute on Mars for all of the months that they’ll be there. Stay tuned as this space program continues to blast its way into the future. Stay steady!

New Mars Photos from Curiosity bring 360 color panorama is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Nikon has launched a new interchangeable lens camera, the Nikon 1 J2, promising Full HD video and crystal-clear stills from a shooter that slips into your pocket. Fresh to the Nikon 1 System, the new J2 measures a compact 106 x 61 x 21.8 mm and is constructed from sturdy metal with a choice of six colors, and pairs a 10.1-megapixel CX-format CMOS with EXPEED 3 processing and ISO 100-3200 (6400), with a 3-inch 921k dot LCD display on the back for framing.

As well as stills up to 3,872 x 2,592 there’s support for Full HD video at either 60i or 30p, each of which uses a 73-point AF array for better locking onto – and staying locked to – moving subjects. Burst photography is supported at up to 10fps with AF enabled, or up to 60fps with first-frame AF lock, and there’s a Motion Snapshot Mode option which combines a single still with a short slow-mo movie clip. Smart Photo Selector, meanwhile, takes advantage of the J2′s turn of speed and fires off a few frames, leaving the camera’s smarts to pick which it believes is the best one.

A new Creative Mode offers various presets for Panorama, Selective Color, Miniature, Soft, Night Landscape, Backlighting and Night Portrait photography, though those with a mind to tinker can also set their own exposure and other settings. A stereo microphone is joined by HDMI and USB connectivity, and the battery is good for around 220 shots on a single charge.

As for lenses, the standard model is the 10-30mm lens we’ve seen already, but Nikon has a new option launching alongside the J2. The 1 NIKKOR 11-27.5mm f/3.5-5.6 lens has a 2.5x zoom and will be offered in black or white finishes, and is obviously compatible with both the new J2 and the original J1.

Nikon also has a wet surprise up its sleeve, in the form of the WP-N1 underwater housing. Suitable for the new J2 and the original J1, paired with the 10-30mm lens, the casing is waterproof up to 40m while still allowing the cameras to shoot photos and video.

The Nikon 1 J2 will be available in white, black, silver, pink, deep red and orange (with the red and pink models having matching textured grips) when it goes on sale in September. It will be priced at $549.95 with the 10-30mm lens, while the 1 NIKKOR 11-27.5mm f/3.5-5.6 lens will drop late in that month for $189.95. The WP-N1 waterproof housing will arrive at the same time, priced at $749.95.

Nikon 1 J2 official is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

NASA’s Curiosity rover continues to send back images from Mars, including 3D shots that show the intimidating terrain, as the robotic explorer continues to ramp up to full functionality. The new photos use the multiple Hazcam cameras mounted at Curiosity’s extremities, pairing multiple fames to give a red/blue anaglyph 3D shot; meanwhile, NASA has also released a video that shows exactly where the landing site fits into the overall context of Mars.

Photo quality has been steadily improving as the dust thrown up during the rover’s landing settles back down, and as Curiosity cautiously opens its lens-caps. These protective covers, applied to shield the cameras during the landing, are transparent but were unsurprisingly coated with a layer of grime.

Now that they’re being removed, however, the monochrome Hazcams are showing their full abilities. The cameras aren’t primarily intended for photo gathering – once Curiosity’s main systems are up and running they’ll be used for navigation and safely positioning the robotic arm – but for now they’re giving previously-unseen perspectives of the Martian landscape.

Curiosity 3D Mars gallery:

As for the landing video, NASA used incremental photos from the two orbiters to piece together where the  lander – and other elements of the payload, including the Skycrane and the heat shield – actually came down on Mars. The space agency had narrowed its target window so as to better position Curiosity for immediate exploration.

“The movie begins with a global image from NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor, then switches to views from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. As we zoom closer and closer into Gale Crater, the components of Curiosity’s landing system come into view: The heat shield was the first piece to hit the ground, followed by the back shell attached to the parachute, then the rover itself touched down, and finally, after cables were cut, the sky crane flew away to the northwest and crashed” NASA

Full system functionality isn’t expected for a further week or so, with the main head of the rover not yet unpacked; at that point, the higher resolution, color cameras will be deployed, also capable of capturing 720p HD video. On Tuesday, NASA engineers instructed the raising of the mast and continued testing the high-gain antenna

NASA’s Curiosity beams back 3D photos of Mars is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

If you use the internet – and we know you do – you need to read about the massive “hacker” meltdown experienced by an online journalist this week due to security holes between cloud systems in two major networks. The “hack” as some are calling it – rather a clever realization, when it comes down to it – had one user’s account opened up with a simple phone call to Amazon. Once Amazon allowed the fake user to access one simple element in the victim’s account, the rest came tumbling down like a house of cards.

The key piece to this puzzle was the Amazon call-in policy that allowed anyone to change an email address of a user account just so long as they could identify the user’s name, email, and physical mailing address. This ability is no longer allowed as of this morning, with Amazon commenting to Wired that they changed the policy for “your security”, refusing to comment further.

The exploit – again this isn’t really a hack when it comes down to it, only needed the “hacker” to have the victim’s email – easy to guess – their full name – again, obvious – and their physical mailing address. This last bit was available, in this case, in a “whois” of a site that the victim owned. A “whois” is a listing of the ownership of a website, aka “Domain Registration Information” that many web hosts make available without question.

Once the hacker was able to change the email of his victim’s Amazon account, they were also able to see the last four digits of the victim’s credit card – these last four digits available to any person who is logged in to their own account, of course. Once the hackers had this, they were able to call in to Apple’s iCloud support with said information to “confirm” their way into his iCloud account as well. One company’s freely available account information used to easily bust in to another’s.

Now this “hole” is fixed, but you need to still be on your guard. Keep your eyes open for exploits such as these, have a peek at our post this morning about double-locking your Google account, for example, and simply stay smart.

Massive Amazon security hole “fixed” without comment is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

A high-profile case of cloud hijacking and data vandalism has thrown new attention on iCloud, Amazon, Google and other big online names, as gaps in the ways security is handled potentially allow for hacking. Flaws in how Apple and Amazon handle account recovery have been blamed for the “digital destruction” of journalist Mat Honan’s online life, following hackers’ successful attempts to crack security on his iCloud account, gain access to his Gmail and Twitter, and then remotely lock and delete his MacBook, iPhone and iPad.

[Image credit: Louis Argerich]

At fault – at least in part – was the inexact overlap between recovery policies for Apple and Amazon accounts, Honan writes. Although he himself shoulders the blame for the ensuing permanent loss of data – which comes down to not doing enough backups – a difference in opinion on how important the final four digits of a credit card number can be between Apple and Amazon proved the key with which the hack was achieved.

“Apple tech support gave the hackers access to my iCloud account. Amazon tech support gave them the ability to see a piece of information — a partial credit card number — that Apple used to release information. In short, the very four digits that Amazon considers unimportant enough to display in the clear on the web are precisely the same ones that Apple considers secure enough to perform identity verification” Mat Honan

Apple gave Honan’s hackers a temporary password to iCloud after they supplied his billing address and the last four digits of his credit card; the former was accessed from a WHOIS search, as Honan had used the address to register his personal site, and the latter through a manipulation of the Amazon account recovery system which reveals those digits of each saved card. The iCloud email account in question was identified via Gmail which, as Honan did not have two-factor authentication turned on, showed the partial recovery email address – m****n@me – which proved easy to guess in its entirety.

Those details allowed for unofficial iCloud access, and then everything in Honan’s OS X and iOS connected life was up for grabs. The hackers locked him out of his devices and then wiped his data using the very tools provided in Find My Mac intended to help legitimate owners protect their information.

“If you have an AppleID, every time you call Pizza Hut, you’ve giving the 16-year-old on the other end of the line all he needs to take over your entire digital life” Mat Honan

Although each company with a cloud service worth mentioning has its own data protection policies, few users stick solely to one provider. Apple claims that some aspects of its security polices “were not followed completely” but would not say if it was reconsidering how Find My Mac or other aspects of its iCloud security works; Amazon is yet to comment.

The takeaway for most users is to backup – preferably using local and/or separate cloud storage from other cloud data services relied upon – and to turn on two-step verification on Google accounts. Don’t link important accounts together, and consider having a completely separate account for recovery purposes.

When iCloud becomes the Perfect Storm is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.