Category: iT news

The man in charge of Amazon’s smart speakers and their AI assistant discusses their future.

Banks in South Korea and elsewhere are being targeted for foreign currency, a report says.

They are the last two music players in the company’s line-up that cannot play songs from its streaming service Apple Music and neither had been upgraded in years.

Various celebrities over the years have “broken the Internet” when risqué photos or shocking revelations surfaced, with or without their knowledge or approval. Photo hosting service Photobucket may have surpassed Kim Kardashian’s most notorious stunts, though. The company recently changed its user agreement for the hosting of images on third-party sites, and as a consequence truly may have broken the Internet. Photobucket users in recent weeks have been receiving emails with this message: “Some features on your account will be disabled.”

CoreOS and the Open Container Initiative on Wednesday introduced image and runtime specifications largely based on Docker’s image format technology. However, OCI’s decision to model the standard on Docker’s de facto platform has raised questions. Some critics have argued for other options. Version 1.0 provides a stable standard for application containers, according to CoreOS CTO Brandon Philips. Having a standard created by industry leaders should spur OCI partners to develop further standards and innovation, he said.

Millions of IoT devices are vulnerable to cybersecurity attacks due to a vulnerability initially discovered in remote security cameras, Senrio reported this week. The firm found the flaw in a security camera developed by Axis Communications, one of the world’s biggest manufacturers of the devices. The Model 3004 security camera is used for security at the Los Angeles International Airport and other places, according to Senrio. The problem turned out to be a stack buffer overflow vulnerability, which the firm dubbed “Devil’s Ivy.”

Microsoft and Johnson Controls have unveiled Glas, a smart thermostat that runs on Microsoft’s Windows 10 IoT Core, a special OS designed specifically for smaller devices. Glas also utilizes Microsoft’s smart voice assistant Cortana and its Azure Cloud to help users save energy while monitoring air quality in the home. Heating and cooling of a residential home accounts for around 48 percent of energy use, making it the largest energy expense for most families, noted Johnson Controls, a provider of HVAC, fire and security systems.

Two of Silicon Valley’s most influential visionaries, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, this week engaged in a public spat over the future of artificial intelligence and whether the government should take the wheel to counter the threat this emerging technology might pose to mankind. Musk, a longtime advocate of AI, has expressed serious concerns over the years about the potential for the technology to accelerate faster than society can learn to manage its growth. He has raised fears that intelligent machines could pose a risk to civilization if not properly regulated.

The clock is ticking for petrol and diesel-powered cars, but electric vans, trucks and buses could reduce pollution quicker.

BBC’s Dave Lee meets a hacker who has circumvented protections on a “smart” handgun.