Show Notes, August 25, 2014

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Tiny accelerometer adds motion detection to clothes and cheap phones Imagine a shirt or pants that can detect movement and tell you if that golf swing was weak or that jump shot was a bit lacking. That’s the biggest goal of a company called mCube: to have its new and really tiny accelerometer embedded in clothing,…
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California requires manual controls before Google’s car hits public roads One of the unique features inside Google’s self-driving car is that it doesn’t sport a steering wheel or a set of pedals. That won’t fly on public roads in California though, so the folks in Mountain View are faced with adding them or sticking to…
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Comcast launches internet-delivered cable TV at MIT and several other schools For several years now, Comcast has been testing cable TV that streams over the internet at several college campuses but this fall it’s officially launching. Available at Bridgewater College, Drexel University, Emerson College, Lasell College and the…
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‘Beep’ is a documentary about the history of sound in video games Every successive generation of video games is hailed for its massive improvements in graphics performance, but what about sound? That too has come a long way — and soon there may be a documentary chronicling the history video game audio. It’s more…
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US House of Representatives faces Wikipedia ban thanks to trollish edits We already know that the United States Congress (or the countless people it employs) can’t seem to stop editing Wikipedia articles, but do they need to be such jerks about it? Case in point: Wiki tinkerers using an IP address connected to the US…
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Man lands in jail for using phone to pirate movie at the theater The concept of someone recording films at movie theaters for pirating purposes seems so outdated. Yet, that’s still happening in some parts of the world, apparently. Most recently, there’s the case of Philip Danks, a 25-year-old UK man who just got…
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New York Attorney General asks Airbnb to hand over 124 hosts’ personal data New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is not done scrutinizing Airbnb’s and its hosts’ business practices just yet. He’s now asked the company to hand over full, unredacted personal information on 124 hosts in the state, months after receiving…
   
This manicure is also a roofie detector An experimental nail polish line called Undercover Colors can do more than color your nails to match those shoes: it can tell if your drink’s been spiked by a dubious date. Just pretend to stir the drink with your finger, and the polish will change…
   
Apple Offering to Replace Faulty iPhone 5 Batteries Apple has launched an iPhone 5 battery replacement program. According to Apple, a limited number of iPhone 5s sold between September 2012 and January 2013 may experience a sudden decrease in battery life, requiring frequent recharges. Customers who believe their device may be affected can verify their device’s eligibility through the serial number. Apple will replace the battery for free, or reimb
   
Boy gets the first 3D-printed vertebra implant 3D-printed implants just got one of their biggest real-world tests to date. Peking University Third Hospital has successfully implanted the first 3D-printed vertebra in a 12-year-old boy with cancer in his spinal cord. The bone substitute is made…
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Scientists grow whole organs inside animals for the first time Researchers have had success growing organs in controlled lab environments, but repeating that feat inside a complex, messy animal body? That’s more than a little tricky. However, researchers at the University of Edinburgh have managed that daunting…
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Royal Caribbean’s latest ship sports a robot bar, super-fast connectivity Assuming you weren’t traveling on the Carnival Ecstasy or Crown Princess, your last cruise ship probably had flushing toilets and 24/7 electricity, but not much else in the way of tech amenities. Royal Caribbean’s latest vessel, the Quantum of the…
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Governments are buying tools that track your phone nearly anywhere Don’t think that widespread cellphone surveillance is the sole province of big nations like the US and UK; apparently, it’s within reach of just about any country with enough cash and willing carriers. The Washington Post understands that “dozens” of…
   
Leave your phone at home without feeling uneasy about it Finally, there’s a device with a spec sheet that’ll let you feel good about leaving your other phone elsewhere. Enter the noPhone: a solid brick of plastic that stands in at the size and weight comparable to any of those popular handsets. What’s…
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Volkswagen’s e-Golf to hit US highways this fall with a $35,445 price tag We first got word that Volkswagen’s e-Golf would finally make its debut in the States last year, and now there’s a more precise arrival date. The VW EV is set to hit the road in the US this November with a pre-tax credit ($7,500) sticker price of…
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Amazon buying Twitch, expanding video empire to live streaming It’s official: after plenty of rumors about both Google and Amazon buying massively popular video streaming service Twitch, Amazon announced it as official this afternoon. Amazon is buying Twitch for $970 million in cash, though it’s yet to go…
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What Is The Cloud? The Cloud. It’s a term that gets thrown around a lot these days – so much so that its definition seems to have been diluted over the years. What is the cloud, exactly? Why does it matter if we know about it? And what does it mean for us? Don’t be intimidated by the jargon. At first glance, phrases like hybrid cloud and acronyms like SaaS might seem like alien talk, but I promise you that they’re a
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TorrentLocker Is A New Ransomware Down Under. And It’s Evil. Cryptolocker might be dead and buried, but there’s a new piece of malware looking to take the Ransomware crown. It’s called TorrentLocker, and it’s positively evil. TorrentLocker is said to borrow features from both the infamous CryptoLocker ransomware, as well as CryptoWall. Despite being a derivative of these malware programs, the security researchers who discovered and analyzed it – iSIGHT Part
   
Download the New Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition Core Rule Set for Free Whether you’re an avid player who’s been in the game for years, or curious to see what Dungeons & Dragons is all about, Wizards of the Coast is offering everything you need to start playing for free.At the Wizards of the Coast blog you can download the Player’s Basic Rules and the Dungeon Master’s Basic Rules in PDF and printer friendly format. In the Player’s Basic Rule Book, you get everythi
   
Smartphone Kill Switch, Consumer Boon Or Way For Government To Brick Your Phone? MojoKid writes We’re often told that having a kill switch in our mobile devices — mostly our smartphones — is a good thing. At a basic level, that’s hard to disagree with. If every mobile device had a built-in kill switch, theft would go down — who would waste their time over a device that probably won’t work for very long? Here’s where the problem lays: It’s law enforcement that’s pushing so hard
   
The 8 Biggest Security Breaches In History In this digital age, almost all of your personal information stored electronically — credit cards, usernames, passwords, bank details, even photos and videos. Compare that with the past, when we used to only trust certain organisations — banks, for example. Are we now so carefree with our trust to allow almost anyone to store our private details for us? Here’s a look at the worst security breaches
   
Nuclear Regulator Hacked 3 Times In 3 Years mdsolar (1045926) writes with this disconcerting story from CNet about security breaches at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, revealed in a new report to have been compromised three times in the last three years: The body that governs America’s nuclear power providers said in an internal investigation that two of the hacks are suspected to have come from unnamed foreign countries, the news s

Why Chinese Hackers Would Want US Hospital Patient Data itwbennett (1594911) writes In a follow-up to yesterday’s story about the Chinese hackers who stole hospital data of 4.5 million patients, IDG News Service’s Martyn Williams set out to learn why the data, which didn’t include credit card information, was so valuable. The answer is depressingly simple: people without health insurance can potentially get treatment by using medical data of one of the
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Broadband is more important to Americans than cable In the same way that WhatsApp has caused the number of text messages to fall, it looks as if cable is now less important than broadband in American homes. For the first time, the number of households that pay for a high speed internet connection has…
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Hospital network hackers nab personal info of 4.5 million US patients In April and June, one of the largest hospital

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