Hasta La Gadget!

Apparently, Netflix pulled Star Trek III: The Search for Spock from its instant streaming service. The company has had much criticism over errors in the way it’s streaming movies, especially the subtitles. Specifically, they pulled The Search for Spock to correct the Vulcan and Klingon subtitles.

Apparently, the film had been streaming with English dubbing over the alien languages, but the service will reinstate the original audio and supplement it with English subtitles. But not the ones from the original DVDs – Netflix will use their own subtitles instead, ensuring the accuracy of the Klingon-to-English and Vulcan-to-English translations. I think they must be finished correcting them already, because I am able to pull up the movie on Netflix, though I don’t have the time to watch it right now.

This seems pretty stupid. The subtitles are already on the DVDs. I guess the folks at Netflix have some spare time on their hands.

[via THR via Flavorwire]

Barnaby Jack, a prolific hacker hailing from New Zealand, has unfortunately passed away in an apartment in San Francisco at the age of 35. The cause of death has not been revealed, but a spokesperson for the local police did say that foul play was not a factor. Jack was scheduled to attend the Black Hat conference next week, an hour of which will now be dedicated to his memory instead.

During the event next week, Jack was supposed to demonstrate how one can hack into implanted defibrillators and pacemakers, exposing vulnerabilities in the technology. According to Reuters, which interviewed the hacker earlier this month, he’d stated his method could “kill a man” with the implanted technology up to 30 feet away.

Although he had dabbled in many categories, Jack is perhaps best known for a hack called Jackpotting, which involves a demonstration of the hacker causing ATMs to dispense bills. He had also worked at identifying vulnerabilities in medical devices that could prove dangerous, and has received praise from individuals, companies, and even government agencies for his efforts.

Jack worked at McAfee and other places, with the last being IOActive Inc., a consulting firm that focused on cyber security. The cause of death will be reported in one month, according to the police spokesperson, following an autopsy. According to Reuters, his sister confirmed his passing, but did not provide details.

Stuart McClure, a security industry executive and colleague of Jack, said to Reuters in a statement: “He was passionate about finding security bugs before the bad guys. He was one of those people who was put on this earth to find vulnerabilities that can be exploited in a malicious way to hurt people.”

SOURCE: Reuters

Barnaby Jack, renown hacker, dies at 35 is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Nokia has announced its Q2 2013 financial results, with the company selling 7.4m Lumia Windows Phones though still making a €115m ($151m) loss in the three month period. The company improved on Q1, according to the full results [pdf link] released today, when losses reached €150m, and smartphone sales are up 21-percent quarter-on-quarter, though down 27-percent compared to the same period a year ago.

Meanwhile, average selling price of Nokia’s smartphones is down, by 18-percent versus Q1 2013, to €157 ($206). Nokia’s cheaper devices slumped 27-percent year over year, to 53.7m devices, while the introduction of the lower-cost Lumia 720 and Lumia 520 helped drive rising Windows Phone sales.

As for Microsoft, Nokia pocketed a $250m “platform support payment” from the Windows Phone developer, though Nokia still has to pay licensing fees for the OS.

Speaking of mobile phone sales, and specifically the Asha 501, CEO Stephen Elop said that the team would do more to drive differentiation in the category. “While we are very encouraged by the consumer response to our innovations in this price category,” he said, “our Mobile Phones business unit is planning to take actions to focus its product offering and improve product competitiveness.”

That “action” will include job losses, it seems. “The planned restructure is estimated to impact a maximum of 440 positions globally, while also creating a number of new positions and offering possibilities for redeployment” Nokia says.

It’s not been an easy few years for Nokia, especially with the faster-than-expected decline in demand for feature-phones in developing markets. Nokia had previously counted upon that demand to tide the company over, financially, while Windows Phone bedded in, but the rise of cheap Android devices scuppered all that.

In fact, Nokia says, Symbian demand has crashed altogether. “Our Symbian volumes decreased from 6 million units in the second quarter 2012 to approximately zero in the second quarter 2013″ the company admitted today.

Instead, there’s been a gradual rise in Windows Phone, with sales increasing quarter-on-quarter but the OS as a whole still having a minority share of the smartphone market. What success there’s been has focused on the budget-end of the segment, too, with Nokia’s low-cost Lumia 520 now the best-selling Windows Phone.

Part of Nokia’s next challenge, therefore, is to drive interest in its more expensive models, and push up its average selling price. The trio of Lumia 9xx series devices, most recently the Nokia Lumia 925, and the new Lumia 1020 PureView will be key in driving that high-end appeal.

Looking forward, Nokia expects Q3 2013 operating margin to be -2% (+/-4%) though an increase in device sales.

Nokia Q2 2013: 7.4m Lumia Windows Phone sales but $151m loss is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.

How many people do you know in your city? Hello Lamp Post won’t exactly let you meet or talk with anyone specific, but it will allow you to listen to the thoughts, comments, and other random ramblings of others who live in the city.

First things first, what is Hello Lamp Post? It’s a city-wide experiment that involves turning objects throughout the city (like the mailbox shown above, or lamp posts, for example) into interactive objects. These objects have been assigned with a unique reference code. Whenever someone wants to “wake” them up, all they have to do is text “Hello [object] #reference code” to 0117-325-9898.

The object will respond with a question for you to answer. If someone has “woken” them up before, then you’ll receive their answer instead, followed by the option to add your own message so you can join in the conversation.

The concept launches today, July 15th in Bristol, UK. It’s a fun way to get to know your city and its other inhabitants in the most unconventional way possible.

Check out what sort of street objects are having the most conversations here.

[via Dvice]

A lot of digital archival is done on DVDs manufactured specifically for archival purposes, something that could be changing in the near future. Researchers at the University of Southampton’s Optoelectronics Research Center, as well as the Eindhoven’s University of Technology, joined forces to create a glass disc that can hold 360TB of data for over 1 million years.

Not only that, but the glass disc is also able to handle temperatures up to 1,832 Fahrenheit, helping safeguard against data loss in the case of a fire, for example. Such a technology breakthrough was achieved using a specific glass-like material created from nanostructures and fused quartz. The data, then, is written to this medium using a femtosecond laser.

The laser works by “shooting” rapid pulses of light onto the glass disc, being able to apply the data in the form of “nanostructured dots” in three layer forms that are spaced a mere 5-micrometers apart from each other. Because nanostructures are involved, the laser likewise works in five dimensions when writing the data, something comprised of 3D positioning, orientation, and size.

In its test run, the researchers who developed the new technology were able to write – and subsequently read – 300KB worth of data on the disc. Its storage capacity is much higher, however, with a recorded 360TB worth of space for archiving information. Once written, the discs can then be stored for a million years or longer, withstanding temperature variations and outliving quite a few generations (or the entirely of civilization).

Said Professor Peter Kazandky of the ORC, “It is thrilling to think that we have created the first document [to] likely survive the human race. This technology can secure the last evidence of civilization: all we’ve learnt will not be forgotten.” The next step? The team is working at commercializing the technology.

SOURCE: CNET

Reseachers develop disc with 360TB capacity, 1 million year storage life is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.