Voice-control features designed to make PCs and smartphones easier to use, especially for people with disabilities, may also provide ways for hackers to bypass security protections and access the data stored on those devices. Accessibility features are there for a good reason—they make it possible to control what’s happening on the graphical user interface without typing. But if they aren’t designed carefully, these features can be abused.
Facebook is making it easier for users of the Tor anonymising service to access the social network, by launching a .onion address. The company is describing it as “a way to access Facebook through Tor without losing the cryptographic protections provided by the Tor cloud”, in an effort to convince Tor users that their anonymity will be maintained.
From there they will bind to any suspicious proteins, sugars or other molecules, and then report to a magnetically-active wristband where further interrogations can take place. Pending favorable FDA review, Google hopes the initial incarnations of the platform could be ready in about five years.
News Corp (NWS) acquired the burgeoning social media site when it was "growing like crazy" in 2005 for $580 million -- and sold it to Specific Media in 2011 for a mere $35 million. It was a costly bet that ultimately turned into a "series of expensive lost opportunities," he said Wednesday, on stage with Carlos Slim and the Wall Street Journal's Gerard Baker. Related: We live in an anti-tech world, says PayPal co-founder
Last year, Osama Bedier—then the head of Google Wallet—decided he was on the wrong side of the payments business. Bedier’s new company, Poynt, has a new kind of credit-card terminal. The sleek-looking, $299 touch-screen gadget accepts cards with embedded chips—which will soon be widespread—as well as digital payments, and can run apps for things like customer loyalty programs and sales analytics. Poynt unveiled the device on Wednesday and plans to ship it to merchants in early 2015.