Uncategorized

Adapters, unplugged

More than you ever wanted to know about power adapters.

BlackBerry will stop development of phones

“The company plans to end all internal hardware development and will outsource that function to partners,” CEO John Chen said in a statement. “This allows us to reduce capital requirements and enhance return on invested capital.”

It’s been a rough decade for BlackBerry.

Public skeptical of self-driving cars

That’s according to the results of a new study published today that aimed to assess public opinion on the subject. The survey commissioned by Kelley Blue Book showed that out of 2,264 U.S. residents polled, 64 percent said they need to be in control of their own vehicle and 62 percent said they enjoy driving.

Count me in the group that loves to drive. I’ve always loved to get out on the highway, play some music and feel the freedom. Not everyone is like me. In fact, the roads would be a lot safer if some drivers were never allowed to touch the wheel of a car. It’s going to take a while before the public comes around to fully autonomous vehicles.

Here’s why you should study abroad now more than ever

I’ve always been a fan of travel, especially for students. If you are a student in college, see if your school has programs that can help you pay for study abroad. I promise, you won’t regret it.

Record labels sue YouTube-MP3

A huge coalition of recording labels has sued the world’s leading YouTube ripping site. The IFPI, RIAA, and BPI in the UK say they are taking legal action against YouTube-MP3 to protect the rights of artists and labels. The site has a reported 60 million monthly visitors and is said to be “raking in millions” in advertising revenues.

Plex Cloud

So what is Plex Cloud? For the first time, you get a full-featured1 Plex Media Server in the… er… cloud.

Oh my, this looks really good.

iPhone hackers say Apple weakened backup security with iOS 10

Apple says they are “aware of an issue that affects the encryption strength for backups of devices on iOS 10 when backing up to iTunes on the Mac or PC. We are addressing this issue in an upcoming security update.” It’s not going to happen but I’d like to hear an explanation from Apple about how and why this backward step was implemented.

Apple, Ziegler, and The Verge

This is the most bizarre situation I’ve come across in a long time. A reporter at The Verge working for Apple at the same time and neither seemed to know. I agree with Gruber–something doesn’t add up here.

The benefits of going bald

I’m BBC – “Bald By Choice” – and while I’d be the first to admit I’d love to have a Fabio-like mane, being bald is certainly less hassle.

Samsung Galaxy Note emits smoke, sparks during flight

Passengers on board an IndiGo flight smelled smoke coming from the baggage bin and alerted cabin crew who saw sparks and smoke coming from a Samsung Galaxy Note 2 phone, the airline, owned by InterGlobe Aviation, said in an emailed statement.

This one is supposedly a Note 2, but the exact model wasn’t confirmed. The airlines should make all Samsung users fly on the same, unmanned plane for the safety of the rest of us.

Customers complain about Galaxy Note 7 replacement batteries

Customer complaints that replacement batteries for Samsung Electronics Co.’s Galaxy Note 7 have been overheating and quickly losing battery power threaten to complicate the South Korean technology giant’s unprecedented recall of its premium smartphone.

From the frying pan to the fire. Or maybe that’s the other way around in this case.

iPhone 7 Plus Depth Effect

One of the cool visual effects of the iPhone 7 Plus’ new camera is called Depth Effect—it was released as part of the new iOS 10.1 beta yesterday, so I downloaded it and gave it a try. […]

Yahoo confirms 500 million accounts compromised

Yahoo (YHOO, Tech30) confirmed on Thursday data “associated with at least 500 million user accounts” have been stolen in what may be one of the largest cybersecurity breaches ever.

The company said it believes a “state-sponsored actor” was behind the data breach, meaning an individual acting on behalf of a government. The breach is said to have occurred in late 2014.

Ugh.