Pandora has launched a new format called “Stories,” which marries music tracks with podcasts in a single playlist. Musicians can take full advantage of the new feature by making a playlist of their songs and injecting voice tracks telling the history…
Source: Engadget – Pandora Stories merge music playlists with podcasts
Monthly Archives: February 2019
Tinder adds a ‘Spring Break’ mode for college spring flings
Looking for a fling over your spring break? Tinder has college students covered. The dating app is introducing a new feature called Spring Break mode that will allow prospective matches to display where they will be traveling over break. The mode wil…
Source: Engadget – Tinder adds a ‘Spring Break’ mode for college spring flings
Schedule an Extra Student Loan Payment on the Day the Interest Is Lowest
Understanding your loan’s interest cycle is one of the keys to ridding yourself of student loan debt. And an extra payment or two every now could help you lower your balance significantly—assuming your timing is right.
Source: LifeHacker – Schedule an Extra Student Loan Payment on the Day the Interest Is Lowest
AMDVLK 2019.Q1.6 Vulkan Driver Released
It’s been three weeks since the last open-source code push for AMD’s “AMDVLK” official open-source Vulkan driver while today they’ve finally updated their public code-bases and tagged AMDVLK 2019.Q1.6…
Source: Phoronix – AMDVLK 2019.Q1.6 Vulkan Driver Released
HTC Did the Unthinkable and Made a Hotspot That’s Cool
It’s much more than a simple hotspot, but too bulky to be a smartphone and too small to be a tablet. But none of that really matters because with its new 5G Hub, HTC did the impossible and made hotspot that’s worth caring about.
Source: Kotaku – HTC Did the Unthinkable and Made a Hotspot That’s Cool
Apple Watch might finally add sleep tracking next year
A future version of the Apple Watch will reportedly pack a sleep monitoring feature. The tech giant has been quietly testing the functionality at its Cupertino base, according to insiders who spoke to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, with plans to launch it…
Source: Engadget – Apple Watch might finally add sleep tracking next year
Duke University faces community pressure to embrace light rail
And it’s dredging up past resentment.
Source: TreeHugger – Duke University faces community pressure to embrace light rail
Scientists just found a humpback whale in the Amazon rainforest
Scientists are still trying to work out this mystery.
Source: TreeHugger – Scientists just found a humpback whale in the Amazon rainforest
Comparing the Galaxy Fold, the Huawei Mate X and the Royole FlexPai
Over the past few years, new handsets haven’t had a lot to distinguish themselves from the competition. We’ve seen more powerful cameras and larger screens, but the basic design has been a bit stuck. However, in the past week both Samsung and Huawei…
Source: Engadget – Comparing the Galaxy Fold, the Huawei Mate X and the Royole FlexPai
Amazon's Taking Up to $200 Off the Newly Revived MacBook Air
Apple’s new MacBook Air may be boring, but it’s a thin little workhorse with a bigger, better screen and a faster processor than the 12" MacBook, which might just hit your laptop Goldilocks zone. And unlike the MacBook Pro, it comes with TouchID (yay!) without the obnoxious Touch Bar (yay!).
Source: Gizmodo – Amazon’s Taking Up to 0 Off the Newly Revived MacBook Air
Anker Does Noise Canceling Headphones Now, and They're $20 Off
Anker makes a lot of gadgets, but noise canceling headphones were a notable gap in the company’s lineup until very recently. So if you want to block out the world with the new Soundcore Space wireless over-ears, you can save $20 right now with promo code TOMSA3021.
Source: Kotaku – Anker Does Noise Canceling Headphones Now, and They’re Off
An LA hospital will put Alexa in over 100 patients' rooms
Over 100 patients staying at Cedars-Sinai can now ask Alexa to control their TVs and call their nurses for them. The hospital has launched a pilot program to test an Alexa-powered healthcare platform called “Aiva,” putting Echo speakers in over a hun…
Source: Engadget – An LA hospital will put Alexa in over 100 patients’ rooms
Supermicro hardware weaknesses let researchers backdoor an IBM cloud server
Enlarge (credit: Jeremy Brooks / Flickr)
More than five years have passed since researchers warned of the serious security risks that a widely used administrative tool poses to servers used for some of the most sensitive and mission-critical computing. Now, new research shows how baseboard management controllers, as the embedded hardware is called, threaten premium cloud services from IBM and possibly other providers.
In short, BMCs are motherboard-attached microcontrollers that give extraordinary control over servers inside datacenters. Using the Intelligent Platform Management Interface, admins can reinstall operating systems, install or modify apps, and make configuration changes to large numbers of servers, without physically being on premises and, in many cases, without the servers being turned on. In 2013, researchers warned that BMCs that came preinstalled in servers from Dell, HP, and other name-brand manufacturers were so poorly secured that they gave attackers a stealthy and convenient way to take over entire fleets of servers inside datacenters.
Researchers at security firm Eclypsium on Tuesday plan to publish a paper about how BMC vulnerabilities threaten a premium cloud service provided by IBM and possibly other providers. The premium service is known as bare-metal cloud computing, an option offered to customers who want to store especially sensitive data but don’t want it to intermingle on the same servers other customers are using. The premium lets customers buy exclusive access to dedicated physical servers for as long as needed and, when the servers are no longer needed, return them to the cloud provider. The provider, in theory, wipes the servers clean so they can be safely used by another bare-metal customer.
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Source: Ars Technica – Supermicro hardware weaknesses let researchers backdoor an IBM cloud server
Feel the RAVPower with Today's Deals on Power Banks and Chargers
Ravpower makes a lot of awesome charging gadgets, and now, you can save on a bunch of it in today’s Amazon Gold Box. Choose from power banks and wall chargers to keep all your devices up and running.
Source: Kotaku – Feel the RAVPower with Today’s Deals on Power Banks and Chargers
Microsoft CEO Nadella Defends HoloLens Military Contract After Employee Backlash
Microsoft is participating in MWC 2019, and at the show, it unveiled its new HoloLens 2 headset. On the heels of unveiling the new product, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is defending the contract that the software giant has landed with the U.S. military that will see it supplying augment reality hardware; a contract worth $479 million.
Some
Source: Hot Hardware – Microsoft CEO Nadella Defends HoloLens Military Contract After Employee Backlash
Lenovo introduces the ThinkVision M14—a 14-inch, portable, USB-C monitor
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A front view of the Lenovo M14 monitor connected to a laptop with USB-C. [credit:
Lenovo
]
MWC is mostly about phones and other mobile tech, but Lenovo also used the show to introduce a handful of new products outside that narrow-but-vast category. The most interesting of them is a portable monitor that lets you bring the dual-monitor user experience with you and your laptop when you travel.
Labeled the ThinkVision M14, it’s a 14-inch monitor with an IPS panel. The resolution is 1920×1080 pixels, which is plenty for 14 inches. It’s built with modern laptop trends in mind, so it connects to your computer with USB-C. In fact, it has two USB-C ports, and both can be used for passthrough, provided you connect the monitor to an AC adapter. You can power the monitor from your laptop, but that doesn’t seem like enough for passthrough, and Lenovo hasn’t specified just how much power it needs from said laptop.
The ThinkVision M14 weighs 1.3 pounds and is 4.6mm thick. The only adjustment available is in the foot, which you can see in action in one of the render images above. The monitor will be available starting in May of this year for $249.
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Source: Ars Technica – Lenovo introduces the ThinkVision M14—a 14-inch, portable, USB-C monitor
Energizer's big battery smartphone is almost three iPhones thick
Energizer has teased a huge array of smartphones for a while. The company that makes the devices, Avenir Telecom, has used that branding to showcase dummy phone models at MWC with stupidly-high capacity batteries several times but I never got to see…
Source: Engadget – Energizer’s big battery smartphone is almost three iPhones thick
Raptor Engineering Helping To Improve POWER Support In Wine, Eyes Hangover
In hoping to improve the situation for running Windows programs on POWER9 hardware under Linux, Raptor Engineering has contributed a set of patches so far for bringing PowerPC 64-bit little endian support to Wine’s library. This is great news if you are a current Talos II customer or hoping to get one of the lower-priced POWER9 Blackbird systems from the company this year…
Source: Phoronix – Raptor Engineering Helping To Improve POWER Support In Wine, Eyes Hangover
Big Pharma Gives Big Money to the Senators Who Will Question Drug Company CEOs Today
The CEOs of America’s largest drug companies will testify on Capitol Hill today. But will U.S. senators really hold their feet to the fire after taking so much money from those same drug companies?
Source: Gizmodo – Big Pharma Gives Big Money to the Senators Who Will Question Drug Company CEOs Today
New webinars engage the marketplace on responsible forest sourcing
GreenBlue is challenging companies throughout the United States and Canada to change their thinking about sustainable sourcing.
Source: TreeHugger – New webinars engage the marketplace on responsible forest sourcing