In Microsoft’s FY19 Q2 earnings release the company reported a strong end to 2018 with significant double-digit increases in both its revenue and operating income. Several aspects of Microsoft’s business contributed to these increases, but the lions share of the growth was contributed by its Azure business.
In a year-over-year look into
Source: Hot Hardware – Microsoft Posts Strong Billion In Q2 Revenue With Booming Surface And Azure Business
If the folks at Purism weren’t busy enough working on their Librem 5 Linux smartphone initiative and adjoining projects like creating a new software app store, they also are eyeing an entrance into offering “ethical” subscription services and ultimately expand into other areas…
Source: Phoronix – Purism Plans To Expand & Offer Ethical Subscription Services
This is a short video from Buriram, Thailand of a cat who’s learned to play dead right up there with the very best of dogs. That other cat behind it — I’m not sure what it’s good at, but based on the video I’m guessing licking itself and watching. Now not to toot my own horn or anything, but I’m not too bad at those things either.
Keep going for the whole video (it plays dead twice) while I write in this cat for every Oscar category including best makeup and sound design.
Source: Geekologie – Oscar Worthy: Cat Plays Dead Very Convincingly
Of all the Anker products I’ve used and purchased over the years, the PowerCore Fusion has long been my favorite. And while there are certainly things I would change about its sequel, the PowerCore Fusion 10000, I think it’s overall a worthy successor to our readers’ favorite travel charger.
Source: Gizmodo – Anker Made Its Best Product Even Better (Mostly)
When was the last time you thought of the internet as a weird and wonderful place?
I can feel my anxiety climbing as I try to find current news stories about sex. Google News shows one lonely result for “porn,” an article that is 26 days old. I log…
Source: Engadget – How sex censorship killed the internet we love
I once ran a marathon and gave birth to a baby in the same year, and found them to be, mentally, very similar events. In both cases it doesn’t hurt too much in the beginning, but you know you have to save your strength. You will hit a point where you feel your body can go no further, and yet there is still further to…
Source: LifeHacker – Try These Sports Psychology Techniques to Get Through Childbirth
The debate over the potential harms and benefits of vaping has raged on for years. But the results of a large trial in the UK have provided the pro-vaping side its biggest win yet. It found that people trying to quit smoking were almost twice as likely to succeed over a year’s time if they used electronic cigarettes…
Source: Gizmodo – E-Cigarettes Really Can Help You Quit Smoking, Large New Study Finds
Sophisticated hackers have long exploited flaws in SS7, a protocol used by telecom companies to coordinate how they route texts and calls around the world. Those who exploit SS7 can potentially track phones across the other side of the planet, and intercept text messages and phone calls without hacking the phone itself. From a report: This activity was typically only within reach of intelligence agencies or surveillance contractors, but now Motherboard has confirmed that this capability is much more widely available in the hands of financially-driven cybercriminal groups, who are using it to empty bank accounts. So-called SS7 attacks against banks are, although still relatively rare, much more prevalent than previously reported. Motherboard has identified a specific bank — the UK’s Metro Bank — that fell victim to such an attack. The news highlights the gaping holes in the world’s telecommunications infrastructure that the telco industry has known about for years despite ongoing attacks from criminals. The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), the defensive arm of the UK’s signals intelligence agency GCHQ, confirmed that SS7 is being used to intercept codes used for banking.
“We are aware of a known telecommunications vulnerability being exploited to target bank accounts by intercepting SMS text messages used as 2-Factor Authentication (2FA),” The NCSC told Motherboard in a statement. “Some of our clients in the banking industry or other financial services; they see more and more SS7- based [requests],â Karsten Nohl, a researcher from Security Research Labs who has worked on SS7 for years, told Motherboard in a phone call. “All of a sudden you have someone’s text messages.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – Criminals Are Tapping Into the Phone Network Backbone to Empty Bank Accounts
How do you make a disgusting, destructive, digital virus into a character, but still make it okay for a Disney film? It was a tough task, but eventually, the team behind Ralph Breaks the Internet created Double Dan.
Source: io9 – Watch How the Ultimate Virus Evolved While Making Ralph Breaks The Internet
The modular MoreFloor system lets you store things in your floor — clothes, shoes, even a bed.
Source: TreeHugger – Store things in the floor with this space-saving system (Video)
Video games are usually made up of visual and auditory components. Most people rely on a combination of both to make sense of a game, but blind player SightlessKombat has gotten really good at maximizing what he can do with a game’s sound, most recently in Gears of War 4.
Source: Kotaku – Blind Player Uses Sound Cues To Play Gears Of War 4’s Horde Mode
Arm Holdings has been developing their next-generation “Komeda” Direct Rendering Manager driver and they believe it’s ready for mainline integration with the upcoming Linux 5.1 cycle…
Source: Phoronix – Arm Komeda DRM Driver Aiming For Linux 5.1 Mainline
Fig. 1: The Switch isn’t quite matching the Wii’s record-setting sales pace, but it is outpacing most other consoles at this point in their cycles.
With two full holiday seasons of public sales data now under its belt, the Nintendo Switch continues to help right a company balance sheet that was nearly decimated by the Wii U. Last night, Nintendo reported 9.41 million Switch shipments in the holiday 2018 quarter, contributing to 32.27 million console shipped worldwide since the system’s March 2017 launch.
Those numbers sure sound big, but they can be hard to judge in the abstract. So, as we have done in the past, we decided to provide some quick comparisons that put the Switch’s continued success into the proper context. Use these numbers to calibrate your impression of how well Nintendo’s new system is really doing and to adjust your projections of how it may do going forward (as Nintendo has).
(Lifetime sales measure slightly different calendar periods due to staggered release dates through the year, but all include two holiday seasons. Monthly periods rounded up for partial launch months).
Read 10 remaining paragraphs | Comments
Source: Ars Technica – Putting Switch’s 32 million shipments in context
Facebook recently faced another wave of negative publicity following a TechCrunch report, which claimed that Facebook sideloaded apps onto users’ devices that tracked almost everything, and did so with a relatively lax parental consent process. On iOS devices, installing 3rd party apps from outside the Apple App Store is only possible with Apple’s explicit permission, and apparently, Facebook was using their enterprise certification to do just that. But following the report, Apple revoked Facebook’s license for blatantly violating their data collection policies, and TechCrunch claims that the program “is only for internal employee-only apps” anyway. As it turns out, Facebook might not have been alone, as Google pulled their “Screenwise Meter” research program from iOS devices yesterday. The data collection app is part of the Google Opinion Rewards program, and the company acknowledge that their Screenwise app violated Apple’s enterprise program policies. As of this post, Apple hasn’t yanked Google’s enterprise development license yet. If you aren’t familiar with the Google Rewards program, TechCrunch posted a promotional YouTube video that sums it up nicely, which you can see below:
The company said in a statement to TechCrunch: “The Screenwise Meter iOS app should not have operated under Apple’s developer enterprise program – this was a mistake, and we apologize. We have disabled this app on iOS devices. This app is completely voluntary and always has been. We’ve been upfront with users about the way we use their data in this app, we have no access to encrypted data in apps and on devices, and users can opt out of the program at any time.”
Discussion
Source: [H]ardOCP – Google Disables “”Screenwise Meter” Tracking App on iOS
The “@IntelGraphics” Twitter account just posted another video, and this time, it features Intel graphics lead Raja Koduri and Intel’s now-permanent CEO Bob Swan. The video is an advertisement for graphics engineers more than anything, as Intel appears to be aggressively looking for talent to add to their Core and Visual Computing Group, but in that vein, it does give a glimpse into the progress Intel is making on their discrete GPU. Raja Koduri calls Intel’s Graphics Portfolio “incredible” at the transistor, firmware, and software levels, and he says these “lego blocks” are essential for building an end product that performs a particular function well. He also claims he wants to make photorealistic long distance communication and game universes “the size of our universe” a reality.
Bob Swan is similarly optimistic, as he intends for Intel’s discrete graphics to be “the leading computer architecture for the future.” Given the state of Intel’s current IGPs, they’re a long way from achieving that goal, but Intel’s high-level executives seem very committed to pushing their discrete graphics effort forward. Thanks to Hexus for spotting the tweet.
Discussion
Source: [H]ardOCP – Intel Teases Discrete Graphics Plans on Twitter
Microsoft has placed more focus on accessibility as of late, an effort that has extended into gaming, particularly with last year’s release of the Xbox Adaptive Controller for Xbox One and PC. Now, the controller is taking center stage in a Super Bow…
Source: Engadget – Gaming accessibility is the star of Microsoft’s Super Bowl ad
Kanye West has settled a lawsuit with fan Justin Baker-Rhett, who sued the artist over claims that West’s album The Life of Pablo would be available exclusively through Tidal. The terms of the settlement were not disclosed but all charges filed in th…
Source: Engadget – Kanye West settles lawsuit over ‘The Life of Pablo’ Tidal exclusivity
Last week, we learned how to order from a Starbucks barista so they wouldn’t judge us. This week, well, things got a little more complicated.
Source: LifeHacker – Don’t Ask Your Starbucks Barista About Howard Schultz
As the saying goes, “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.”
Source: TreeHugger – 5 financial lessons we should all learn from the government shutdown
