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Internet

Intel Takes 15 Percent Stake in German Digital Mapping Firm Here

by Rajdeep
written by Rajdeep

Intel Takes 15 Percent Stake in German Digital Mapping Firm Here

US chip maker Intel will take a 15 percent stake in German digital mapping firm Here, it said on Tuesday, as it seeks to build its presence in automated driving technology.

A filing to the German cartel office on Tuesday showed Intel has sought approval to buy a stake in the company, which is controlled by German carmakers Daimler, BMW and Volkswagen .

Intel and Here said in a statement that they had also signed an agreement to collaborate on the research and development of real-time updates of high definition (HD) maps for highly- and fully-automated driving.

Intel did not disclose how much it would pay for the stake but said the transaction is expected to close in the first quarter.

The deal highlights a shift in the dynamics of research and development in the car industry, which until recently saw automakers largely dictating terms for suppliers to manufacture their proprietary technologies at specified volumes and prices.

Now carmakers are increasingly striking partnerships with technology firms using open technology standards, seeking to harness their expertise in areas including machine learning and mapping as they race against Silicon Valley companies such as Google, Tesla and Apple to develop driverless vehicles.

Last month two Chinese companies and Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC agreed to buy a 10 percent stake in Here and in July, BMW teamed up with Intel and Mobileye to develop self-driving cars by 2021.

BMW, Daimler and Volkswagen bought Here for EUR 2.8 billion ($2.9 billion) in 2015 from mobile equipment maker Nokia of Finland.

Last September, Here said it would introduce a new set of traffic services allowing drivers to see for themselves what live road conditions are like miles ahead using data from competing automakers, an industry first.

[Source:- gadgets.ndtv]

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Internet

China’s Baidu Takes on Amazon Echo With ‘Little Fish’ of Its Own

by Rajdeep
written by Rajdeep

China's Baidu Takes on Amazon Echo With 'Little Fish' of Its Own

Chinese Internet colossus Baidu is out to make a splash with ‘Little Fish,’ a family robot that is a voice-controlled virtual valet akin to Amazon Echo or Google Home.

Baidu showed off “Little Fish,” a translation of its Chinese name “Xiaoyu Zaijia,” on Thursday at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas ahead of its release in China later this year.

“I think 2017 will be the year of conversational computing,” Baidu chief scientist Andrew Ng said while demonstrating Little Fish for AFP behind closed doors at the show.

“We see a clear path of conversational computers changing everything.”

Using voice to interact with computers that are able to essentially learn from experience was among the hot trends at CES. Arrays of device makers added digital aide capabilities with the help of Amazon’s Alexa or Google Assistant technology.

Unlike “faceless” Amazon Alexa or Google Home devices that rely on people asking for information or controlling devices by speaking, Little Fish also features a touch-screen on top of its orb-shaped base.

A camera on top tracks faces, and the screen swivels to keep facing a speaker.

“Speech is the fastest way for you to communicate with a computer, but a screen is a very fast way for a machine to communicate back to you,” Ng said.

For example, it would be quicker to glance at a requested list of top restaurants from Yelp than it would be to listen to the computer read all the names and descriptions, he said.

Transformative
Little Fish uses Baidu’s operating system DuerOS, which is already employed by other devices in China, such as set-top TV boxes that can switch channels by voice command or figure out names of actors on screen when asked.

The bigger vision is to build DuerOS into a broad range of gadgets that tap into Baidu’s Internet capabilities for search, food delivery, online commerce and more.

“If this takes off, I am not worried about how we will make money,” Ng said when asked about revenue plans.

“It will transform how you use devices in your home. There are plenty of business models.”

Little Fish, a second-generation device, will be released in China at a price yet to be disclosed, according to Baidu.

Baidu partnered with hardware firm Ainemo to build it.

“We believe family robots will be the next big category that will be a member of everybody’s home,” Ainemo chief executive and founder Chenfeng Song said in a release.

AI taking hold
Artificial intelligence, or AI, is getting a foothold in homes, with developers feverishly adding “skills” to Amazon Echo speakers infused with Alexa.

Google, meanwhile, is using its AI prowess in Android smartphones, messaging software, and a vase-sized Home digital assistant.

The home hubs, sometimes referred to as smart speakers, fetch content or answers from the internet, and can act as remote controls for other devices in houses.

“We are moving technologies beyond the smartphone,” said Shawn DuBravac, chief economist at the Consumer Technology Association (CTA) that organizes CES.

“Ultimately, vocal computing is replacing the (screen).”

Chinese tech giant Huawei said at CES that it is adding Amazon’s Alexa to its flagship smartphone for its US launch.

China-based Lenovo announced it was launching a smart home assistant powered by Alexa, joining the growing roster of contenders in the market for voice-activated devices.

“In the smart home, voice is clearly important,” DuBravac said.

“We are seeing that play out at CES.”

He expected voice technology to quickly improve, within years perhaps even being able to recognize speakers so accurately it could be used for biometric security, or simple parental override of Internet use by offspring.

“I know that in my home with my boys, I would like Alexa to recognize my voice as the ruler of the coop,” DuBravac quipped.

While digital assistant technology is being built into televisions, appliances and more, hub devices such as Alexa will be key to voice-controlled computing, according to the economist.

NPD analyst Ben Arnold said at CES that he is “bullish on everything voice and AI,” with the technologies eventually “pollenating” devices so thoroughly they essentially become home operating systems.

[Source:- gadgets.ndtv]

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Internet

Twitch IRL Launched, Takes on YouTube and Facebook With New Way to ‘Life Stream’

by Rajdeep
written by Rajdeep

Twitch IRL Launched, Takes on YouTube and Facebook With New Way to 'Life Stream'

On Amazon’s streaming game platform Twitch, the world of gaming is being intermingled with real life.

A feature unveiled Thursday by Amazon called IRL – the acronym for “in real life” – lets people broadcast moments from their lives as part of game play.

Amazon called this feature “a new content category designed to both enable and encourage Twitch’s creators to step outside of their traditional gameplay content, and share content captured from their everyday lives.”

The new feature ramps up the capabilities of Twitch, a recent Amazon acquisition known for so-called social gaming and e-sports, or competitive video game play.

Twitch chief executive Emmett Shear said the introduction comes because users “are interested in sharing their everyday lives, thoughts, and opinions with their communities.”

Meanwhile, Amazon Game Studios launched an alpha version of “Breakaway,” its first new title in the hot e-sport arena of video game play as spectator sport.

The game envisioned as heroic characters from myth and legend teaming up to compete in a sort of “game of the gods” inspired by ancient Olympics and Aztec ball courts, studio head Patrick Gilmore said after providing AFP an early look at the game.

Two teams of four players face off online, each represented by a champion ranging from a gunslinger, mage or a knight to a “nuker” named Victor.

Being able to build traps or defenses, and having time between rounds for players to huddle, enhanced the strategic element of the otherwise fast-paced game, a hands-on demonstration showed.

“We look at it as way more of a sport than anything out there,” Gilmore said, referring to the competitive array of e-sports that draw viewers with play streamed in real time.

Breakaway was available for play free through the weekend here.

US online retail giant Amazon snatched up Twitch and its huge audience for live-streamed gaming in 2014.

The purchase was one of the largest in Amazon’s history – $970 million (roughly Rs. 6,576 crores) in cash for the three-year-old Internet company.

Twitch claims the crown as the world’s leading social video platform for gamers, with more than 100 million people using the service to watch and discuss play being streamed live or on-demand.

Twitch.tv lets anyone broadcast game related content and allows them to connect with publishers or advertisers.

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Education

Muslim school takes legal action against Ofsted for ‘unfair’ report that criticised gender segregation

by Rajdeep
written by Rajdeep

school-extremism.jpg

Pupils at an Islamic faith school have spoken out about gender segregation in classes complaining it leaves them unprepared for life, a court has heard.

A schools inspector made the claims in a legal battle at the High Court regarding a controversial report into an unknown school by school inspection body Ofsted. The school, known only as School X, is trying to suppress publication of a highly critical report into its alleged practices.

The Islamic voluntary-aided school which teaches pupils aged 4-16, is disputing claims made by Ofsted inspectors and is seeking a judicial review to see the report quashed.

The inspector told the court that from Year 5, girls and boys were segregated for all lessons, break and lunchtimes, as well as for school clubs and trips. They said a number of pupils had said gender segregation was “having a negative effect on being prepared for life in modern Britain… having a negative impact in terms of preparing them for life”. The inspector told the court: “One young woman referred to it as ‘dumb’.”

Helen Mountfield, QC for Ofsted, said: “Both girls and boys suffer the loss of opportunity to learn how to socialise and in due course work with those of the opposite sex [which carries] a necessary implication that girls are inferior to boys”.

She added the school was failing to protect the rights of pupils: “to equal opportunities to learn and develop and take their place in society.”

However, the school’s legal counsel has argued it has been “singled out” despite other schools having similar policies and added that “Ofsted cannot march in and say there is a detriment to everyone. It simply cannot be asserted that lack of ability to consort with the opposite sex is a detriment.”

[Source:- BBC]

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Tech Update

A USB device is all it takes to steal credentials from locked PCs

by Rajdeep
written by Rajdeep

Most users lock their computer screens when they temporarily step away from them. While this seems like a good security measure, it isn’t good enough, a researcher demonstrated this week.

Rob Fuller, principal security engineer at R5 Industries, found out that all it takes to copy an OS account password hash from a locked Windows computer is to plug in a special USB device for a few seconds. The hash can later be cracked or used directly in some network attacks.

For his attack, Fuller used a flash-drive-size computer called USB Armory that costs $155, but the same attack can be pulled off with cheaper devices, like the Hak5 LAN Turtle, which costs $50.

The device needs to masquerade as an USB-to-Ethernet LAN adapter in such a way that it becomes the primary network interface on the target computer. This shouldn’t be difficult because: 1) operating systems automatically start installing newly connected USB devices, including Ethernet cards, even when they are in a locked state and 2) they automatically configure wired or fast Ethernet cards as the default gateways.

For example, if an attacker plugs in a rogue USB-to-Gigabit-Ethernet adapter into a locked Windows laptop that normally uses a wireless connection, the adapter will get installed and will become the preferred network interface.

Furthermore, when a new network card gets installed, the OS configures it to automatically detect the network settings through the DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol). This means that an attacker can have a rogue computer at the other end of the Ethernet cable that acts as a DHCP server. USB Armory is a computer on a stick that’s powered via USB and can run Linux, so no separate machine is required.

Image result for A USB device is all it takes to steal credentials from locked PCs images

Once an attacker controls a target computer’s network settings via DHCP, he also controls DNS (Domain Name System) responses, can configure a rogue internet proxy through the WPAD (Web Proxy Autodiscovery) protocol and more. He essentially gains a privileged man-in-the-middle position that can be used to intercept and tamper with the computer’s network traffic.

According to Fuller, computers in a locked state still generate network traffic, allowing for the account name and hashed password to be extracted. The time it takes for a rogue USB device to capture credentials from a system using this attack is around 13 seconds, he said.

He tested the attack successfully on Windows and OS X. However, he’s still working on confirming if OS X is vulnerable by default or if it was his Mac’s particular configuration that was vulnerable.

“First off, this is dead simple and shouldn’t work, but it does,” the researcher said in a blog post. “Also, there is no possible way that I’m the first one who has identified this, but here it is.”

Depending on the Windows version installed on the computer and its configuration, the password hashes will be in NT LAN Manager (NTLM) version 2 or NTLMv1 format. NTLMv2 hashes are harder to crack, but not impossible, especially if the password is not very complex and the attacker has access to a powerful password cracking rig.

There are also some relay attacks against network services where NTLM hashes can be used directly without having to know the user’s plaintext password.

[Source:- infoworld]

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Internet

Airbnb Takes New Steps to Fight Discrimination

by Rajdeep
written by Rajdeep

Airbnb Takes New Steps to Fight Discrimination

Global home-sharing giant Airbnb announced Thursday it is implementing new policies aimed at curbing racial discrimination by hosts and creating a permanent team aimed at fighting bias.

The new policies come from a review launched earlier this year in the face of concerns over discrimination on the platform, which allows users to rent out a room, a bed or an entire lodging.

“Discrimination is the opposite of belonging, and its existence on our platform jeopardizes this core mission,” Airbnb chief Brian Chesky said in an email to hosts and guests.

“Bias and discrimination have no place on Airbnb, and we have zero tolerance for them. Unfortunately, we have been slow to address these problems, and for this I am sorry… We will not only make this right; we will work to set an example that other companies can follow.”

Chesky said that a new “Open Doors” policy starting October 1 will allow a guest anywhere in the world who feels subject to discrimination to be booked in a similar place on Airbnb, or an alternative accommodation elsewhere.

Airbnb will also seek to increase its “instant book” lodgings which do not require approval of a specific guest.

The home-sharing group will also create “a permanent team of engineers, data scientists, researchers, and designers whose sole purpose is to advance belonging and inclusion and to root out bias,” according to a document produced by its review committee.

Airbnb earlier this year asked former American Civil Liberties Union executive Laura Murphy to head up a review, which included input from former US attorney general Eric Holder.

The report said Airbnb should also de-emphasize the use of photos, which may lead to discrimination.

“Airbnb’s new product team dedicated to fighting discrimination will experiment with reducing the prominence of guest photos in the booking process and enhancing other parts of host and guests profiles with objective information,” the report said.

The high-profile campaign to ferret out discrimination came after an Airbnb host in the US state of North Carolina fired off hateful, race-based messages to a black woman while canceling a stay she had booked at his home.

Airbnb operates in more than 190 countries and has been valued at an estimated $30 billion.

[Source:- gadgets.ndtv]

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Internet

FBI Says Takes Threat of US Election Hack ‘Seriously’

by Rajdeep
written by Rajdeep

FBI Says Takes Threat of US Election Hack 'Seriously'

The FBI is taking “very seriously” the possibility a foreign country is trying to meddle with America’s electoral process and even influence voting outcomes, the agency’s director James Comey said Thursday.

US agencies, companies and individuals are frequently targeted by overseas hackers, and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s campaign has accused Moscow of hacking into Democratic National Committee (DNC) emails.

The recent breach of DNC data, along with other electronic intrusions, has raised concerns about cyber incidents that could affect the outcome of the US presidential race, or other contests.

FBI agents “take very seriously the notion that a state actor is messing someway in our electoral process — whether that is to disrupt, to influence, to sow discord, or to create doubt,” Comey said at a Washington security summit, without specifically mentioning Russia.

The FBI is “working very hard” to understand the size and scope of any hacking attempts, he said, but tried to reassure the public that the old-fashioned way of tallying ballots in many states protects them from hackers.

“The actual vote counting in this country tends to be kind of clunky, in a way that’s a blessing because it makes it more resilient,” he said.

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper on Wednesday said Russia hacks US computer networks “all the time.”

[Source:- gadgets.ndtv]

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Tech Update

Huawei takes on Apple with P9 Leica dual lens smartphone

by Rajdeep
written by Rajdeep

Huawei has beaten Apple at its game again as it launched the P9 and P9 Plus smartphones which will feature two-rear facing camera lenses.

The dual-camera technology, which Apple is expected to release along with its iPhone 7, allows the user to effectively refocus the photograph after it has been taken. Both the lenses work in synchronisation with each other to create sharper contrast and better depth of field than ordinary or single lens camera setups, Huawei said.

The Chinese smartphone giant has partnered with German camera company Leica to develop the cameras, one of which shoots in full colour, while the other is monochrome. Also, the lenses are infused completely with the body of the phones giving Huawei a design edge over the protruding lenses of both Samsung’s Galaxy S7 and the iPhone 6s Plus.

The phablets run on a 64-bit processor, feature a biometric fingerprint scanner on their backs and are manufactured from aluminium

While the P9 sports a 5.2-inch 1080p display, the P9 Plus measures in at 5.5-inches. The P9 comes in six shades; dark grey, silver, gold and rose gold (much like Apple’s current colour scheme), what Huawei calls ‘haze gold’ and white.

The phablets run on a 64-bit processor, feature a biometric fingerprint scanner on their backs and are manufactured from aluminium.The P9 will retail from Rs 42,000 approximately for 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage, with pricing for the P9 Plus starting from Rs 52,500 approximately for 4GB of RAM and 74GB.

Earlier, Huawei had beaten Apple to the force touch or 3D touch technology with its Mate S smartphone launched in September, 2015. It is currently the world’s third largest smartphone manufacturer behind Samsung and Apple, and is bested in its home nation only by Apple.

[Source:- Hindustantimes]

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Education

National offer day: surge in school applications as population boom takes hold

by Rajdeep
written by Rajdeep

3,287,000 secondary school places will be needed by 2024

The full scale of the ratcheting pressure on local public services from years of high birth rates and mass immigration has been revealed amid a surge in applications to secondary schools this year.

Councils have been asked to find places for up 13 per cent more pupils in some areas, while in London alone there are almost 2,800 more children to accommodate than just a year earlier.

Around half a million families with 11-year-olds across England have been finding out which school they have been allocated on what is nicknamed “national offer day”.

In some areas, almost half are facing disappointment after failing to secure a place in their first choice and in at least one area the number missing out on any of their preferences has leapt by 70 per cent.

It comes as new analysis revealed that one in six secondary schools are now at or over capacity, with forecasts estimating that 300,000 additional school places will be needed by 2020.

Remarkably, despite the extra pressure, the number of children celebrating after receiving offers for their chosen school has actually increased in most areas of the country.

It follows a massive drive to create new school places to keep pace with the swelling population – with 3,000 more places a month being created, according to Government estimates.

But demographers warned the growing demands on schools and other local services would only be sustainable by “draining” resources from elsewhere.

It comes at a time when councils, which have borne the brunt of public spending cuts, have warned of having to dim street lights or cut library budgets to cope with the growing demand for care for older people – amid a double demographic squeeze.

Across London the number of pupils applying for secondary school places for September jumped by 3.3 per cent to 86,954, according to councils.

Figures collated by the Telegraph show a similar pattern across the country.

Numbers are up more than seven per cent in Manchester and almost five per cent in Leeds and Portsmouth.

The biggest local increases were in parts of London such as Barking and Dagenham where the 355 extra pupils amount to a 13 per cent rise.

Birmingham, the UK’s biggest local authority, sums up the battle education chiefs face to keep pace with demographics.

Despite the increase in applications, more than 200 more children got into their first choice school than last year in the city.

But nearly a third – 4,555 children – did not and almost a thousand did not get any of their choices.

In neighbouring Sandwell – where applications have swollen by almost seven per cent in two years – the number getting into their first preference was also up but the numbers missing out on any of their main choices and being allocated an alternative jumped from 181 to 311 – or 70 per cent.

Prof David Coleman, the leading Oxford University demographer, said: “If the forces blind increasing numbers of children continue it is likely that the pressure will continue.

“They will only be sustainable at the cost of considerable economic drain as more money has to be diverted to more school places and maternity wards earlier on and employment opportunities later.”

He added: “It is certainly going to take a lot of things to ‘give’ at least a little – especially when at the same time there is, for completely different reasons, pressure to impose austerity on the public finances.”

Helen Jenner, chair of the Pan London Admissions Board, said: “Demand for secondary school places in the capital is on the rise as the primary pressure works its way through the system.

“Local authorities have worked hard to put in place plans to meet this increased demand so that more pupils are offered a school place of their choice in London.

“Today’s figures show that despite the rise in the number of applications, preference rates have not dropped. In fact the percentage of pupils that received their first preference place increased slightly.

Cllr Victoria Mills, cabinet member for children and schools in Southwark, south London, where numbers are up more than eight per cent, said: “This year we were looking at record numbers of applications and this trend is set to continue.”

[Source:- Telegraph]

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Education

Loans scheme takes toll on reputable college

by Rajdeep
written by Rajdeep

The VET FEE-HELP debacle continues to cause havoc with the first reputable college saying it will no longer enrol students.

The Open Training Institute, an online vocational education provider, yesterday said it would teach out its current 3500 students, but enrol not new ones blaming consumer backlash from widespread rorting of VET FEE-HELP by a number of private colleges for softening demand.

“There has been a dampening in demand; there is a hesitancy on the part of students to enrol in programs, particularly the online programs,” said Paul Wappett, CEO of OTI, an offshoot of Open Universities Australia.

“We are seeing the whole sector suffer in how the public is viewing vocational education because of the practices that went on.”

OTI offered full-fee courses that did not come under the auspices of VET FEE-HELP. A diploma of business through OTI cost around $5000. By comparison, a similar qualification from one of the colleges associated with Acquire Learning was around $19,000. That provider is one of several that has been targeted by an Australian Competition and Consumer Commission inquiry for alleged false and misleading conduct in “pressuring’’ students to sign up to courses funded through the VET FEE-HELP loan scheme.

Mr Wappett said he understood many vocational providers were witnessing a similar drop in demand as a result of the current loans crisis.

OTI was established in 2013 as OUA sought to diversify its risk base as the demand-driven system and competitor universities ate into the organisation’s traditional student base.

“There has been increasing competition in higher education and we wanted to make sure we had diversification of risk. At the time we thought vocational education was a naturally ally but we’ve made the decision now we will concentrate on higher education,” Mr Wappett said.

[Source:- Theaustralian]

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