Do you have a cat or dog? If so, you might have more to worry
about than your own clumsiness breaking your stuff. A new survey
conducted by the SquareTrade insurance company suggests that our
four-legged friends are responsible for the destruction of over 8
million devices, totaling more than $3 billion in repair and replacement
costs.
Ty Shay, the chief marketing officer for SquareTrade,
said that the inspiration behind the survey came from the various types
of claims SquareTrade got from its own customers. "We were getting a lot
of calls from customers with broken devices saying, 'My dog chewed my
tablet,' or 'My cat knocked my soda onto my laptop.' We found that
almost 1 in 5 pet owners have had this problem," Shay told ABC News.
Some
of the survey's observations seem obvious. Smartphones top the list of
gadgets to break, accounting for approximately 30 percent of all
reported accidents. Dogs are twice as likely to cause an accident than
cats. Two thirds of the accidents occur when the pets are left
unattended.
But there are also some subtle differences
among pets that can ultimately determine whether your electronics will
make it in the long run, such as:
Male pets were 50 percent more likely to damage the devices than female pets. Overweight pets were 72 percent more likely to be involved in damaging a device. People
that allowed their pet to sleep in the same bed or ride in their lap
while driving were two to three times more likely to have a problem with
their gadgets that could be traced back to their pet.
Pet owners
need not abandon all hope though. SquareTrade offers some suggestions
to keep your electronics working despite your chaos-causing companions.
The company's blog suggests putting the devices in areas out of their reach and avoid putting them near exposed liquids.
Source: Yahoo News
Friday, June 28, 2013
Thursday, June 27, 2013
Yahoo raising security concerns for 'recycling" old e-mail addresses.
Yahoo has announced a plan to "recycle" old e-mail addresses, a move meant to free up accounts for folks who want them but that has sparked privacy concerns.
In a blog post, senior vice president Jay Rossiter announced that Yahoo e-mail accounts that have been dormant for more than a year will be reset so that active users can have access to them.
"If you're like me, you want a Yahoo! ID that's short, sweet, and memorable like albert@yahoo.com instead of albert9330399@yahoo.com," he wrote.
The one-year period will officially begin July 15, when users can "claim" a dormant account name. They'll find out in mid-August if they got the account they wanted.
It's clearly an effort by Yahoo, which has been working to redefine and rejuvenate itself under new CEO Marissa Mayer, to re-engage older users and reward active ones. But it has security experts nervous.
Security analyst Graham Cluley doesn't mince words.
"In short: as an idea it sucks, and it shows Yahoo's lack of respect to customers who created accounts with them in years gone by," Cluley wrote Wednesday.
Cluley lists several scenarios where the plan could backfire. They include situations in which a user has another primary e-mail account, but has given their Yahoo address as a backup in case of security situations, lost passwords and the like.
He said the move appears to be "an underhanded way to get people to re-engage with the site" and that people who may not actively use their Yahoo mail, but use it to store old messages and other documents, could lose them without ever realizing it.
Mat Honan of CNN content partner Wired, himself the recent victim of a high-profile hack, called the move "a spectacularly bad idea."
In the wake of such complaints, Yahoo released a followup statement saying it's sure the transition can be made without compromising security.
"We're committed and confident in our ability to do this in a way that's safe, secure and protects our users' data," the company said.
The vast majority of inactive Yahoo IDs don't have a mailbox associated with them, the company said, and any personal data associated with the accounts will be deleted.
During a 30-day deactivation period, bounce-back e-mails will alert senders that the deactivated account no longer exists and Yahoo will unsubscribe those accounts from newsletters, commercial e-mail alerts and the like.
Businesses, financial institutions, social networks and other e-mail providers will be sent notifications about e-mail addresses that have been deactivated.
Source: CNN
Tuesday, June 25, 2013
Kickstarter pulls the plug on $120,000 Kobe beef jerky scam just minutes before campaign expires.
Kickstarter fraudsters hawking Kobe beef jerky were just minutes away from completing the biggest-ever outright scam on the crowdfunding site last week.
A campaign titled "KOBE RED - 100% JAPANESE BEER FED KOBE BEEF JERKY" first appeared on Kickstarter on May 14, and it raised $120,000 from 3,300 backers over the past month.
That is, until Kickstarter pulled the plug just before the campaign was scheduled to end and the money was set to go into the fraudsters' bank accounts. Kickstarter relies on its community to self-police, and the Kobe Red shutdown came after sharp Kickstarter users and a documentary team raised concerns.
The supposed company in charge, Los Angeles-based Magnus Fun, promised the jerky was the first kind made from the tender and expensive Japanese Kobe beef.
Magnus Fun posted a decent amount of information on the Kobe Red page, including rave reviews from people who had supposedly tried the jerky -- "omg im licking my fingers in public," one alleged text message screenshot reads. The fraudsters also included information about imported meat inspection, and they posted a story about one of its founders eating Kobe beef on his uncle's ranch.
But Magnus Fun also raised a few eyebrows. They didn't post much personal information, nor did they include photos and videos identifying themselves (which Kickstarter recommends as best practices). And when a Kickstarter user raised concerns in the campaign's comments section, Magnus Fun didn't really try to defend itself.
The scam concerns took off when the team from "Kickstarted," a documentary about Kickstarter, looked more deeply into the campaign.
The "Kickstarted" team highlighted problems with the Kobe Red page, including discrepancies between the high cost of production and the low pledges requested from backers. The documentarians also pointed out the comments from people swearing that they'd tried and loved the jerky all came from relatively new accounts that had backed only failed projects.
In a long post on their own site about their role in exposing the Kobe Red scam, the "Kickstarted" team says they reached out to Magnus Fun with an interview request for the film, and Magnus Fun went back and forth for a bit before promising instead to send footage from a recent taste test in California.
"Kickstarted" said it uncovered "dozens of other smaller inconsistencies and fishy elements" that were enough for Kickstarter to shut the campaign down.
Magnus Fun has since deleted its Kickstarter account, and Kickstarter itself declined to comment on this story.
"It's a credit to Kickstarter and the collective power of the crowd to identify fraud," the "Kickstarted" team, which also posted on Reddit about its concerns, wrote in its blog post.
Kickstarter projects have raised $571 million to date, and as with any major platform for raising money, scammers will try to bilk well-meaning backers out of serious cash. In the case of Kobe Red, they very nearly got away with it.
A campaign titled "KOBE RED - 100% JAPANESE BEER FED KOBE BEEF JERKY" first appeared on Kickstarter on May 14, and it raised $120,000 from 3,300 backers over the past month.
That is, until Kickstarter pulled the plug just before the campaign was scheduled to end and the money was set to go into the fraudsters' bank accounts. Kickstarter relies on its community to self-police, and the Kobe Red shutdown came after sharp Kickstarter users and a documentary team raised concerns.
The supposed company in charge, Los Angeles-based Magnus Fun, promised the jerky was the first kind made from the tender and expensive Japanese Kobe beef.
Magnus Fun posted a decent amount of information on the Kobe Red page, including rave reviews from people who had supposedly tried the jerky -- "omg im licking my fingers in public," one alleged text message screenshot reads. The fraudsters also included information about imported meat inspection, and they posted a story about one of its founders eating Kobe beef on his uncle's ranch.
But Magnus Fun also raised a few eyebrows. They didn't post much personal information, nor did they include photos and videos identifying themselves (which Kickstarter recommends as best practices). And when a Kickstarter user raised concerns in the campaign's comments section, Magnus Fun didn't really try to defend itself.
The scam concerns took off when the team from "Kickstarted," a documentary about Kickstarter, looked more deeply into the campaign.
The "Kickstarted" team highlighted problems with the Kobe Red page, including discrepancies between the high cost of production and the low pledges requested from backers. The documentarians also pointed out the comments from people swearing that they'd tried and loved the jerky all came from relatively new accounts that had backed only failed projects.
In a long post on their own site about their role in exposing the Kobe Red scam, the "Kickstarted" team says they reached out to Magnus Fun with an interview request for the film, and Magnus Fun went back and forth for a bit before promising instead to send footage from a recent taste test in California.
"Kickstarted" said it uncovered "dozens of other smaller inconsistencies and fishy elements" that were enough for Kickstarter to shut the campaign down.
Magnus Fun has since deleted its Kickstarter account, and Kickstarter itself declined to comment on this story.
"It's a credit to Kickstarter and the collective power of the crowd to identify fraud," the "Kickstarted" team, which also posted on Reddit about its concerns, wrote in its blog post.
Kickstarter projects have raised $571 million to date, and as with any major platform for raising money, scammers will try to bilk well-meaning backers out of serious cash. In the case of Kobe Red, they very nearly got away with it.
Source: CNN
Monday, June 24, 2013
New glove phone takes the saying "talk to the hand" to a whole new level.
For Sean Miles of Designworks in the U.K. decided that the true joy
of wearable tech was a driving glove that you can talk into.
He listens to his thumb. He talks into his little finger.
I can just imagine millions of nerds and teenagers desperate to meld their inner Michael Jackson. They would surely pay fortunes to get their hands onto and into one of these gloves.
Sadly, this is not a commercial project. The Brits have often found commerce a touch beneath them.
Instead, Miles was approached by phone company 02 Recycling to create experiments.
His last was the highly hygienic shoe-phone.
Here, he said his biggest obstacle was making the technology work with the fabric of the glove.
He used a Bluetooth device, and the principles are as simple as the glove itself: the earpiece is in the thumb, the speaker is in the little finger.
Miles was simply trying to take an everyday object and convert it to technological use, rather than force even those who don't wear glasses to resemble people from a blissful future.
Soon, perhaps every item that we currently believe is merely clothing will suddenly have a simultaneous technological use.
Source: CNET
He listens to his thumb. He talks into his little finger.
I can just imagine millions of nerds and teenagers desperate to meld their inner Michael Jackson. They would surely pay fortunes to get their hands onto and into one of these gloves.
Sadly, this is not a commercial project. The Brits have often found commerce a touch beneath them.
Instead, Miles was approached by phone company 02 Recycling to create experiments.
His last was the highly hygienic shoe-phone.
Here, he said his biggest obstacle was making the technology work with the fabric of the glove.
He used a Bluetooth device, and the principles are as simple as the glove itself: the earpiece is in the thumb, the speaker is in the little finger.
Miles was simply trying to take an everyday object and convert it to technological use, rather than force even those who don't wear glasses to resemble people from a blissful future.
Soon, perhaps every item that we currently believe is merely clothing will suddenly have a simultaneous technological use.
Source: CNET
Saturday, June 22, 2013
New Facebook bug exposes some contact information.
A newly discovered Facebook bug may have inadvertently compromised the contact information of 6 million users, the company says.
The bug, which has since been repaired, was part of the Download Your Information tool, which lets Facebook users export all the data from profiles, such as posts to their timeline and conversations with friends. People using the tool may have downloaded inadvertently the contact information for people they were somehow connected to.
Some people upload their contact lists or address books to Facebook, which the company then uses to suggest new friends they can connect with who are already using the service.
Though the number of people impacted is sizable, the actual spread of their contact information appears to be limited. The phone numbers and e-mail addresses were not exposed to developers or posted publicly. It is only shown to people they had at least a tentative connection with, and who may have already had their contact information. Even in that pool, it was only exposed to people who had used the data-exporting tool.
"For almost all of the email addresses or telephone numbers impacted, each individual email address or telephone number was only included in a download once or twice. This means, in almost all cases, an email address or telephone number was only exposed to one person," Facebook's security team said in a post.
The company says it has no evidence that the bug was "exploited maliciously" and that there have been no complaints so far.
The social media company announced the bug on Friday afternoon. The issue was discovered by a third-party security researcher who submitted it through Facebook's White Hat program.
Facebook's White Hat program is set up so that people such as security researchers can report any vulnerabilities they find on the social network and get a reward for $500 and up in return. These types of programs are common at Internet companies.
"Your trust is the most important asset we have, and we are committed to improving our safety procedures and keeping your information safe and secure," read the post.
People who were affected by the bug will receive an e-mail from Facebook.
Source: CNN
Thursday, June 20, 2013
John McAfee, founder of McAfee Antivirus, explains how to uninstall the overly intrusive program with a comical YouTube video.
John McAfee has had no problems making headlines this year. After the founder of the McAfee software security company was believed to be a murder suspect in Belize, he hid out in the jungle, escaped to Guatemala, faked a heart attack and returned to the United States.
But McAfee isn't done with being in the limelight. The 67-year-old software millionaire has published a YouTube video entitled "How To Uninstall McAfee Antivirus," in which he instructs users on how to get rid of the software he invented over 25 years ago.
"I'm the founder of the McAfee anti-virus software company," he says in the video. "Although I've had nothing to do with this company for over 15 years, I still get volumes of mail asking how to uninstall this software. I have no idea."
After reading some McAfee software hate mail to the camera, he calls on his lab tech, Bartholomew, to help teach people to uninstall the program. But before finishing the instructions, which involves installing the McAfee Consumer Product Removal Tool, the tech is distracted by half-naked women and drugs. McAfee himself is shown drinking, smoking a cigarette, and snorting Bath Salts.
Ultimately, McAfee blames the current owners of the company, which he hasn't worked at since 1994. "Fifteen years ago I had some beautiful software and they took it over. I don't know what they did," he says frantically before taking out a gun and shooting the computer.
McAfee, the company which is owned by Intel now, describes the video as "ludicrous." "While we take any attack on our products seriously, these ludicrous statements have no basis in reality," a McAfee spokesperson told ABC News. "We continue to focus on what matters - our customers."
Source: Yahoo News
YouTube video link (rated R): http://youtu.be/bKgf5PaBzyg
But McAfee isn't done with being in the limelight. The 67-year-old software millionaire has published a YouTube video entitled "How To Uninstall McAfee Antivirus," in which he instructs users on how to get rid of the software he invented over 25 years ago.
"I'm the founder of the McAfee anti-virus software company," he says in the video. "Although I've had nothing to do with this company for over 15 years, I still get volumes of mail asking how to uninstall this software. I have no idea."
After reading some McAfee software hate mail to the camera, he calls on his lab tech, Bartholomew, to help teach people to uninstall the program. But before finishing the instructions, which involves installing the McAfee Consumer Product Removal Tool, the tech is distracted by half-naked women and drugs. McAfee himself is shown drinking, smoking a cigarette, and snorting Bath Salts.
Ultimately, McAfee blames the current owners of the company, which he hasn't worked at since 1994. "Fifteen years ago I had some beautiful software and they took it over. I don't know what they did," he says frantically before taking out a gun and shooting the computer.
McAfee, the company which is owned by Intel now, describes the video as "ludicrous." "While we take any attack on our products seriously, these ludicrous statements have no basis in reality," a McAfee spokesperson told ABC News. "We continue to focus on what matters - our customers."
Source: Yahoo News
YouTube video link (rated R): http://youtu.be/bKgf5PaBzyg
Tuesday, June 18, 2013
Has your cell phone battery died? Are you in New York? You may be in luck!
AT&T is deploying solar-powered charging stations to help keep smartphones and other mobile gadgets juiced up in parks throughout New York.
The 25 stations, which each feature a microUSB, iPhone 4, and iPhone 5 plugs, as well as USB ports for other devices, are being set up in various parks this summer and offer a free recharge. They can be found this week in Riverside Park on the west side of Manhattan, in Union Square, and in Brooklyn Bridge Park, with more locations to come this summer.
The Street Charge project, which is still in its trial phase, comes out of AT&T's work during the recovery from Superstorm Sandy. The company had set up mobile charging stations in the blacked-out areas of New York, which inspired the idea of creating charging stations for everyday uses.
"We realized charging was the missing ingredient during the day," said Neil Giacobbi, who helps with gifts, sponsorships, and programs in the New York region for AT&T.
AT&T worked with Brooklyn-based Pensa to design the 1-foot-tall steel structure, a tower that branches out into three arms at the top, which hold the solar panels. The solar power technology was supplied by Goal Zero.
The charging stations are powered by the solar panels, and are standalone structures without an external power source or wires. In working with New York City, Giacobbi said it was important that the company didn't have to install any new wires or infrastructure to power the unit.
Packed to the gills with batteries, one station is designed to provide three to four days of continuous charging if holding a full charge. While the station can still absorb ultraviolet rays during cloudy or even rainy days, it can get fully charged up after four hours in direct sunlight.
AT&T is paying for the 25 stations, and the city bears no cost, Giacobbi said, adding that the city is fully supporting this program.
Because there are no external wires and construction, the towers can be disassembled and then reassembled in another location. Giacobbi said that the stations will stay in their current spots for the next month before being moved around. The company has staff monitoring the usage and will track where the optimal locations will be for each station.
So what's in it for AT&T? Giacobbi said the stations are here to keep phones on and running (even if they are for another carrier).
"If I don't have a charge, I can't use the network," he said.
The trials will run through the end of the year, after which AT&T will consider a longer-term plan. The company is considering expanding the number of stations, as well as potentially bring them to other cities.
"There are a lot of eyes on this project to see how it works," Giacobbi said.
Here are the planned locations...
Manhattan:
Riverside Park, Pier I (launches 6/18)
Union Square Park, North Plaza (launches 6/19)
Rumsey Playfield, Central Park Summerstage
Hudson River Park Pier 59
Brooklyn:
Brooklyn Bridge Park, Pier 1; (launches 6/18)
Fort Greene Park (launches 6/18)
Coney Island
Metrotech Plaza
The Dumbo Arts Festival
The Brooklyn Book Festival
Queens:
Rockaway Beach
Clearview Golf Course
Socrates Sculpture Park
Bronx:
Orchard Beach
Staten Island:
Governor's Island (launches 6/18)
La Tourette Golf Course; Staten Island Zoo
Randall's Island
Source: CNET
The 25 stations, which each feature a microUSB, iPhone 4, and iPhone 5 plugs, as well as USB ports for other devices, are being set up in various parks this summer and offer a free recharge. They can be found this week in Riverside Park on the west side of Manhattan, in Union Square, and in Brooklyn Bridge Park, with more locations to come this summer.
The Street Charge project, which is still in its trial phase, comes out of AT&T's work during the recovery from Superstorm Sandy. The company had set up mobile charging stations in the blacked-out areas of New York, which inspired the idea of creating charging stations for everyday uses.
"We realized charging was the missing ingredient during the day," said Neil Giacobbi, who helps with gifts, sponsorships, and programs in the New York region for AT&T.
AT&T worked with Brooklyn-based Pensa to design the 1-foot-tall steel structure, a tower that branches out into three arms at the top, which hold the solar panels. The solar power technology was supplied by Goal Zero.
The charging stations are powered by the solar panels, and are standalone structures without an external power source or wires. In working with New York City, Giacobbi said it was important that the company didn't have to install any new wires or infrastructure to power the unit.
Packed to the gills with batteries, one station is designed to provide three to four days of continuous charging if holding a full charge. While the station can still absorb ultraviolet rays during cloudy or even rainy days, it can get fully charged up after four hours in direct sunlight.
AT&T is paying for the 25 stations, and the city bears no cost, Giacobbi said, adding that the city is fully supporting this program.
Because there are no external wires and construction, the towers can be disassembled and then reassembled in another location. Giacobbi said that the stations will stay in their current spots for the next month before being moved around. The company has staff monitoring the usage and will track where the optimal locations will be for each station.
So what's in it for AT&T? Giacobbi said the stations are here to keep phones on and running (even if they are for another carrier).
"If I don't have a charge, I can't use the network," he said.
The trials will run through the end of the year, after which AT&T will consider a longer-term plan. The company is considering expanding the number of stations, as well as potentially bring them to other cities.
"There are a lot of eyes on this project to see how it works," Giacobbi said.
Here are the planned locations...
Manhattan:
Riverside Park, Pier I (launches 6/18)
Union Square Park, North Plaza (launches 6/19)
Rumsey Playfield, Central Park Summerstage
Hudson River Park Pier 59
Brooklyn:
Brooklyn Bridge Park, Pier 1; (launches 6/18)
Fort Greene Park (launches 6/18)
Coney Island
Metrotech Plaza
The Dumbo Arts Festival
The Brooklyn Book Festival
Queens:
Rockaway Beach
Clearview Golf Course
Socrates Sculpture Park
Bronx:
Orchard Beach
Staten Island:
Governor's Island (launches 6/18)
La Tourette Golf Course; Staten Island Zoo
Randall's Island
Source: CNET
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