New Facebook feature trusts friends to reset your password.

Have you forgotten or lost your Facebook password? Relax. You can now turn to friends for help.

Facebook on Thursday rolled out Trusted Contacts account recovery, a feature it has tested with a limited number of people as the Trusted Friends capability since 2011.

Users can select three to five trusted contacts from their security settings at any time. These contacts should be available via phone or in person.

This feature could be helpful when a user suffers a mass compromise, meaning he or she loses access both to email and other accounts as a direct result of malware infestation. However, these cases are rare, and most users lose access only to specific accounts in targeted phishing schemes.

How it works:
Once users go into their Facebook Security Settings and select three to five people as trusted contacts, Facebook notifies those people.

When users can't log into their Facebook accounts, they can turn to their trusted contacts for help. Each contact will get a security code with instructions on how to use it. Users need security codes from three trusted contacts to recover their Facebook accounts.

When there's a problem, Facebook will generate an URL dynamically and the user's trusted contacts go into their own personal security settings and find the URL. The URL will give the contact a code and instructions on what to do with it.

Source: Tech News World

Department of Justice approves Sprint & Softbank deal.

The major buyout deal between Sprint and Japanese telecommunications provider Softbank is one step closer to finalized. The U.S. Department of Justice approved the deal, handing it over for approval by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

In October 2012, Softbank offered Sprint $20 billion for a 70 percent stake in the company. Deal conversations were brought to a halt, however, when the concerns about national security were brought up. In March, regulators began to voice their concerns about Chinese spyware slipping into U.S. networks through the Softbank relationship. Later, in January, the DOJ, alongside the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security, launched an investigation into the deal, further stunting its process through FCC approvals.

That investigation didn't seem to rustle up much, as the DOJ approved the deal Friday in a letter the FCC. In the letter, the DOJ explained that it analyzed the “measures” Sprint and Softbank have taken to ensure national security as well as the supply chain. It’s now the FCC’s turn to green light the deal, and Softbank is seemingly confident. The company released a statement in April saying it believes the deal will be finalized by July, and that it’s deal is better than a second offer Sprint received from Dish Networks during the DOJ’s investigation.

The U.S. cable provider topped Softbank’s offer, saying it would pay $25.5 billion for majority control of the company. If Softbank’s timeline is correct, we assume we’ll hear more about Sprint’s interest in the Dish deal soon.

Source: Washington Post

This interactive tech toy is sure to keep you entertained for hours with its countless possibilities.

MaKey MaKey is an invention kit rolled out by two MIT graduates for the 21st century. Turn everyday objects into touchpads and combine them with the internet. It's a simple invention kit for beginners and experts doing art, engineering, and everything inbetween. What you create is completely up to you! Simply, load up a computer program or any webpage to get started.

MaKey MaKey works with any laptop or computer with a USB port and a recent operating system.

Check out this cool YouTube video of some crazy MaKey MaKey stuff:

In recent Apple vs Samsung news...Samsung has won!

Apple won the biggest battle in its endless patent war with Samsung, but now it's Samsung's turn to be victor. A trade agency ruled Tuesday that several older Apple products violate a Samsung patent and can't be sold within the United States.

The International Trade Commission's long-awaited ruling bans Apple from importing or selling the AT&T compatible models of the iPhone 4, 3GS and 3, as well as the AT&T 3G-connected versions of the iPad and iPad 2.

Those products, which are assembled overseas and must be imported, infringe on a Samsung patent for encoding mobile communications, the ITC ruled.

The ban does not affect the newest generation of Apple's products, the iPhone 5 and the fourth-generation iPad, which use different technology than the earlier devices.

The commission did not find that Apple violated any of the three other patents Samsung named in its case. But the rest of the ruling is a big blow to Apple and it comes as a surprise, given that a previous preliminary ruling from an ITC judge exonerated Apple completely.

This time, the "determination is final, and the investigation is terminated," the ITC wrote in its decision. Apple can file an appeal with the Federal Circuit, however, and spokeswoman Kristin Huguet said the company plans to do just that.

Apple can also hope for a veto from President Obama. The ITC is required by law to send its "exclusion orders" to the president for a 60-day review. Unless President Obama actively strikes down the order, it becomes final.

Because Apple plans to appeal, Tuesday's decision "has no impact on the availability of Apple products in the United States," Huguet said.

She slammed Samsung for "using a strategy which has been rejected by courts and regulators around the world" in other cases. She also accused Samsung of trying "to block the sale of Apple products by using patents they agreed to license to anyone for a reasonable fee."

A Samsung spokeswoman fired back that the ITC's ruling "has confirmed Apple's history of free-riding on Samsung's technological innovations." AT&T declined to comment.

Last year, a California jury found that several Samsung products infringed on Apple patents for software features like double-tap zooming and scrolling. The jury initially recommended that Apple be awarded more than $1 billion in damages. A final ruling in that separate case isn't expected until later this year.

How's that sweet revenge taste, Samsung?

Source: CNN

Forget .com - .lol and .google is where it's at!

Internet addresses are about to expand way past .com and .org, and Google wants in. It applied to grab not only .google, but also fun suffixes like .lol.

The company said it would like to operate "domains we think have interesting and creative potential," citing .lol as an example.

Google is just one of the hundreds of companies that have applied for new generic top-level domains (gTLDs) -- the ".com" part of website addresses -- in an upcoming massive expansion of the Internet's infrastructure. The full list of applicants, and their proposed new domains, will be announced on June 13.

Google revealed some of the gTLDs it's applied for -- .google, .youtube., .docs and .lol -- in a blog post published on Thursday. The company said last month that it had applied for some new domains, but it didn't go into specifics at that time.

In an interview earlier this month with CNNMoney, a Google representative said that the company expected to be one of the biggest applicants in the domain expansion process.

Other organizations that have gone public with their interest include groups proposing .nyc, .paris, Unicef, Hitachi and Canon.

Google's top brass has a close relationship with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the non-profit, global coordinator of the Internet's naming system. Vint Cerf, Google's "chief internet evangelist" and the author of Google's Thursday blog post, is the former chairman of ICANN's board of directors.

Expanding domains is no simple task...ICANN had for years been kicking around the idea of suffixes for brand names, cities and general keywords. Last June, the organization approved a plan to open for submissions and review thousands of applications for new gTLDs.

Supporters of the move say dot-brand sites will help companies market themselves and ensure security. HSBC, for example, could tell customers that a purported HSBC site isn't legitimate unless it ends in .hsbc. And a company like Verizon could market products at cellphones.verizon and store locations at losangeles.verizon.

Critics counter that expanding domain suffixes will be confusing for consumers -- cnn.cnn, anyone? -- and not worth the effort.

But ICANN's plan is surging forward -- even though the application process has been fraught with technical issues and delays.

ICANN began accepting applications for new domains on January 12 through a web-based system, and planned to unveil the applicant list on April 30. But on April 12 -- the original deadline for submitting an application -- ICANN took the system offline after a "glitch" allowed some users to see others' data.

The organization planned to have the system back within a few days, but the issues persisted for weeks. ICANN finally re-opened the application system on May 21 and accepted entries until May 30. The application list will be announced next month.

As of May 30, ICANN said it had received about 1,900 applications.

ICANN has gradually rolled out a handful of new domains over the past decade, including the controversial .xxx domain that got the green light in March 2011. The new proposed expansion will be far bigger than anything done previously.

But for interested companies, the new domains don't come cheap.

ICANN charges $185,000 per domain application, a extensive paperwork bundle that requires scores of policy documents. The technical setup and upkeep on a single domain will cost additional thousands -- or even millions -- per year.

It's a slow and painstaking process. With domains like .law and .sport, many suitors are expected to battle for the same coveted keyword. So if multiple applicants want a single domain, and ICANN deems them equally worthy, the name goes to auction -- which could end up costing millions for the winning bidder.

Even if two keywords aren't exactly the same, "confusingly similar" domain suffixes are forbidden. For example, if an apple farmers' union grabs .apples, then iGizmo maker Apple would be blocked permanently from registering .apple.

Source: CNN

New charger hacks a user's iPhone with ease.

Three researchers with the Georgia Institute of Technology say they have come up with a proof-of-concept malicious iPhone charger that lets them hack into the mobile device running the latest version of Apple's iOS in less than one minute. No jailbreaking required.

"Apple iOS devices are considered by many to be more secure than other mobile offerings. In evaluating this belief, we investigated the extent to which security threats were considered when performing everyday activities such as charging a device," the researchers wrote in a presentation summary. "The results were alarming: despite the plethora of defense mechanisms in iOS, we successfully injected arbitrary software into current-generation Apple devices running the latest operating system (OS) software."

Dubbing their charger "Mactrans," the researchers say they can get around Apple's security mechanisms by hiding the charger software in the same way Apple hides its own built-in apps. Apparently, the hardware for the Mactrans is small enough to fit in power adaptors, docking stations, and external batteries.

The researchers plan to present the Mactrans at the upcoming Black Hat security conference in July.

Source: Forbes, CNET

Every wanted to go to space? Here's your chance...and for as little as $25.

Planetary Resources, an asteroid mining company, ultimately wants to build a fleet of Arkyd telescopes that can find asteroids -- then launch robotic spacecraft that can mine those asteroids for raw materials like precious metals and water.

To garner interest in its mission, the first Arkyd is focused on education and public access. In order to get that first telescope into space in 2015, the company wants to raise $1 million on Kickstarter by June 30.

A donation of $25 scores a backer a "space selfie," in which a user sends in a picture to be uploaded to a screen on the side of the telescope. The company then snaps a photo of the picture with the telescope and Earth in the background.

Other rewards: Giving $200 allows the donor to point the Arkyd at any celestial object. For $1,000, backers will get a tour of the company's Bellevue, Wash., facilities. Support for various education initiatives is available for a few thousand dollars, depending on the project.

As of this moment, the company has already raised more than $609,000.

Planetary Resources' mission has attracted high-profile backers including Google's Larry Page and Eric Schmidt, and Ross Perot, Jr., the son of the former presidential candidate. Company advisers include filmmaker James Cameron and former U.S. Air Force chief of staff Michael Moseley.

According to the company, members of its technical staff have worked on every recent U.S. Mars robotic rover including Spirit, Opportunity and Curiosity.

Source: Kickstarter, CNN