Faster, Cheaper Fiber Could Rev Up Internet

Researchers have found a way to significantly improve the performance of fiber networks, which could lead to benefits for both consumers and Internet service providers. Information in fiber optic cables degrades with distance. When you try to increase the speed at which the data is traveling by boosting the power in the network, degradation gets worse. "It's like quicksand," said Nikola Alic, a research scientist at the Qualcomm Institute, part of the University of California at San Diego. "The more you struggle, the faster you sink."

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ISS Cargo Lost in SpaceX Falcon Flameout

The SpaceX CRS-7 rocket failed minutes after Sunday's launch, blowing up in mid-air. Just after T+2 minutes, when the craft's altitude was 32 km, its speed was 1 km/second, and its downrange distance was 30 km, its flight path apparently began curving downward. Three explosions then occurred. "There was an overpressure event in the upper stage liquid oxygen tank. Data suggests counterintuitive cause," SpaceX CEO Elon Musk tweeted. "The Falcon line has been a remarkably reliable launch vehicle," said Frost & Sullivan analyst Mike Jude.

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Uncle Sam Wants a Hoverbike

The United States Army Research, Development and Engineering Command has commissioned two companies to develop hoverbike technology. Malloy Aeronautics earlier this month demoed a working hoverbike at the Paris Air Show. The U.S. Army intends to operate the hoverbike as a new class of tactical reconnaissance vehicle. "This isn't for jungles or mountains, but could be ideal for patrols over deserts, swamps, or other open areas with mixed terrain," suggested Rob Enderle, principal at the Enderle Group.

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The Automobile as We Know It Is Dead

There's a massive number of efforts going on to kill the car as we know it. Among them are efforts to make it a tiny self-driving box that we'd likely be embarrassed to be seen in, efforts to make it highly customized and amazing, and efforts to change its fuel from gasoline to CNG, electricity or something else. There is no doubt that the car as we know it soon will be dead. The question is whether we'll love or hate what replaces it, and I wonder if our children will look back at what we've done and praise us or curse us.

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Gadget Ogling: Vertical Vinyl, Kid-Friendly Video Chats, and a Smart Pool Monitor

I enjoy music as much as anyone, though I'm no real audiophile and I have not an enormous passion for one format over another. I admire the romance of vinyl but find it unwieldy and cumbersome when digital recordings work just fine for me. The Floating Record turntable is beautiful, though, and I'm almost tempted to race to my record store to stock up on vinyl to play on one of these. Instead of playing records in their usual flat position, Floating Record clamps them in place vertically, so as to display them while they're playing.

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Self-Driving Cars Avoid Collision, as They Should

Two self-driving prototype vehicles, one operated by Google and the other operated by Delphi Automotive, earlier this week avoided a collision in Palo Alto, California. Neither car touched the other, but the incident spurred a number of rattled headlines over the so-called "near miss." In actuality, both vehicles responded as they were supposed to, the companies said in response to the media brouhaha. The incident occurred on Tuesday when John Absemeier, director of Delphi Automotive's Silicon Valley lab, was a passenger in his company's Audi Q5 as it drove along San Antonio Road.

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Oculus Rift: This Is My Final Form

No more screendoor-effect issues or motion-induced sickness. On-board power, outside power requirements under control. With each prior iteration of its Rift headset, Oculus VR assured gamers that they hadn't yet seen the its final form. Finally, in the run-up to this year's E3 and at the show, came the invitation for everyone to "step into the Rift" and behold what the Kickstarted VR headset has become. Oculus VR still hasn't committed to a price or a preorder date, but the hardware and hard facts have finally started to materialize.

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Makulu 9 Aero Soars Above the Linux Distro Crowd

The special release of Makulu 9 Aero edition might seem like one flexible Linux offering too many. However, anyone hankering for a Windows-like operating system and the best of what is easy about using Linux could not make a better choice. The Linux OS is notorious for its great variety of distros. Linux is also infamous for having far too many choices. You might put Windows look-alike desktops at the top of such a list. Makulu 9 Aero edition provides the look and feel of Windows 7 without being a true Windows clone.

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3D Printing Could Resurrect Custom Carmaking

Divergent Microfactories just introduced the world to the Blade, a 3D-printed supercar it designed as a proof of concept to spur the establishment of other microautomakers and reshape the auto industry. Divergent Microfactories envisions microautomakers emerging similar to the way microbreweries have popped up across the U.S. It wants to "democratize the auto industry" by paving the way for dematerialized vehicles. It's 3D-printing technologies could make auto manufacturing affordable enough for new players to gain traction in the industry.

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Will LastPass Breach Poison Trust in Password Managers?

A data breach is no picnic for any organization, but for a company that makes its potato salad by protecting other people's passwords, it's the mother of all nightmares. Yet, that has happened to LastPass twice. In 2011, the service found anomalies in its network traffic that forced it to reset all its users' master passwords. To make matters worse, LastPass wasn't prepared for the traffic surge from everyone trying to change their passwords at the same time, so performance headaches inconvenienced users further.

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Lexus Teases Smokin' Hoverboard

Some said it could never be done. Some said it would be at least another half century before someone could develop an actual hoverboard. However, Toyota on Wednesday announced that a division of its Lexus arm has built a prototype of a hoverboard, one that truly leverages magnetic levitation. Superconductors, cooled by liquid nitrogen, and permanent magnets give lift to what Lexus billed as one of the most advanced hoverboards ever constructed. Natural bamboo and a spindle grille give it what the company described as a "uniquely Lexus" look.

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Devialet Wants You to Experience an Emotional Sound Implosion

Capable of pushing out sound levels that approach the edge of the infrasound spectrum, Devialet's Phantom speaker system finally reached the U.S. market last week. The 740 watt, 99 db base model, the Phantom, will sell for $1,990; the 3,000 watt, 105 dB Phantom Silver will sell for $2,390. Devialet will begin fulfilling U.S. preorders for the hi-fi speakers this September. Echoing the strategy that ultimately earned Beats a spot on Apple's team, Devialet is providing a step up for audio enthusiasts who want higher sound fidelity.

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US, Brit Spooks Bedevil Security Software

The United States' National Security Agency and the UK's Government Communications Headquarters reportedly have been attacking antivirus and other security software since at least 2008. The aim is to infiltrate networks and track users. The agencies apparently have reverse-engineered security and antivirus software, sometimes under dubious legal authority, and monitored the vendors' Web and email traffic to subvert their products. One of their main targets has been Kaspersky Lab.

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Amazon Holds Coming-Out Party for Echo's Alexa

About seven months of invitation-only exclusivity for Prime customers came to a close on Tuesday as Amazon opened up sales of Echo, its digital assistant hardware, to anyone willing to spend $180 for it. Amazon will start fulfilling new Echo orders on July 14, but shoppers can prepurchase the cylindrical tower now. The device is animated by Alexa, digital assistant software that can call on Amazon Web Services to share whatever information users request. Alexa can play music, read news reports, create to-do lists and more.

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Sony Meets Microsoft in Game Console Muscle Match

Beefed up and slimmed down, the new 1TB PlayStation 4 Ultimate Player Edition is scheduled to arrive in Japan before this month concludes and then launch in the UK in the middle of July, Sony announced on Sunday. The revised console, bearing twice the storage capacity of its predecessor, will arrive in the U.S. somewhere inside of the two weeks that follow its July 15 launch in the UK. Along with doubling the storage capacity of the original PlayStation 4, the Ultimate Player Edition is 10 percent lighter and uses about 8 percent less power.

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Container Coalition Seeks Common Standard Creation

Docker and CoreOS on Monday announced the formation of a coalition of 21 industry leaders to create the Open Container Project, a nonprofit organization seeking minimal common standards for software containers for cloud storage. The two companies made the announcement on the opening day of Dockercon, a two-day conference covering all aspects of the Docker ecosystem. Docker will donate its de facto image format standard technologies in the hope that they will serve as cornerstones of the OCP.

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3 Things That Will Change Electronic Entertainment Forever

E3 -- perhaps the biggest and most important gaming conference in the world -- took place last week. Sony and Microsoft came ready to do battle, Nintendo showed up, and we were up to our armpits in little companies doing amazing things with virtual reality. However, companies that weren't at the event, like Amazon and Netflix, likely have more to say about the future of gaming than those that had a big presence there. There are three technologies that could change gaming forever.

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Gadget Ogling: Wrist-Saving Keyboards, Resource-Saving Smartphones and New Angles on Reality

Here to save all our wrists -- or at least those of people with a spare $299 to spend on a computer accessory -- is a lovely, wood-finished keyboard called "Keyboardio Model 01." Taking its cue from a long history of ergonomic keyboards, the device splits an atypical keyboard in two, dedicating half the keys to each of your hands, and it's set in a gorgeous maple wood construction. The LEDs lighting up the keys are customizable and programmable, which I suppose is great if you'd like to host a mini rave while working in the middle of the night.

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DxO One Bridges iPhone-DSLR Camera Divide

DxO, known for its top-notch digital imaging software, on Thursday announced a new compact camera designed to allow iPhones and iPads to capture higher-quality digital images. The DxO One is the first digital camera that plugs into the Lightning connector found on Apple devices and that uses their Retina display as a viewfinder. The iPhone is "great for capturing life's everyday moments," said DxO SVP Kirk Paulsen, and the DxO One will not replace digital DSLRs. It's something "in between the two."

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Hyperloop Dreams May Become Concrete

SpaceX this week announced plans to construct a mile-long Hyperloop test track next to its headquarters in Hawthorne, California, scheduled for completion by June 2016. The company concurrently announced an open competition for university students and independent engineering teams to design and build the best Hyperloop pod. Entrants will be able to test their pods on the track. "These tests will provide proof points at a reasonable cost, and will help build support for the project," said Jim McGregor, principal analyst at Tirias Research.

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Antergos Linux Lowers the Arch Barrier

Antergos is an Arch-based Linux distribution that offers six desktop choices. This is a distro that Linux tinkerers might well embrace, but it comes with a few more stumbling blocks than other Linux options, which could make it a less welcome alternative. Its developers created a cute logo that espouses the notion that Antergos is a distro "for everyone." In some ways, that is true. The developers smoothed over some of the tripping points that bog down typical Arch distro entry.

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Google Takes It to the Streets

Google last week announced the formation of a new company that will develop technology to improve city life for residents, businesses and governments. Google has teamed up with Dan Doctoroff -- former Bloomberg CEO and ex-deputy mayor of economic development and rebuilding for the City of New York -- to advance the effort. Doctoroff will be CEO of Sidewalk Labs, which will be based in New York. Doctoroff will contribute his experience in building and managing cities, and Google will provide funding and support.

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Routers Becoming Juicy Targets for Hackers

Most consumers pay as much attention to routers as they do to doorknobs. That's not the case with Net marauders. They're finding the devices ripe targets for mischief. "We've seen a big increase in malware designed for home routers," said Incapsula researcher Ofer Gayer. "Every week, we see a new vulnerability in a vendor's routers," he said. "They're low-hanging fruit if you're a hacker. They're a very soft target." Home routers are the soft underbelly of the Internet, observed Andrew Conway, a threat researcher at Cloudmark.

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Swiftkey Security Slipup Exposes Samsung Smartphones

At least 600 million Samsung smartphones are vulnerable to remote attacks because of the way the company implemented the SwiftKey keyboard, NowSecure researcher Ryan Welton warned Tuesday. A phone can be attacked if it's connected to a compromised or malicious WiFi network and the SwiftKey app is updating existing languages or adding a new language pack. The preinstalled keyboard cannot be disabled or uninstalled, and it can be exploited even when it's not used as the default keyboard, said NowSecure CEO Andrew Hoog.

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Nintendo's E3 Direct Gives It to Fans Straight

Nintendo allayed the fears of some gamers in Tuesday's E3 Direct presentation, assuring them that long-term projects have not been scrapped. Many fans and analysts had been expecting the company to close the pipeline of games designed for its current hardware as it gears up for a new console. However, the main focus of E3 Direct was the near term -- that is, the second half of this year. Nintendo America CEO Reggie Fils-Aime kicked off the live-streamed event by touting the company's ability to transform both itself and its games.

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Senators Aim to Ground FBI's Warrantless Spy Planes

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., on Wednesday introduced the Protecting Individuals From Mass Aerial Surveillance Act, which would require federal government agents to get a warrant before snooping from the sky. "Americans' privacy rights shouldn't stop at the treetops," Wyden said. The issue came to a head following the revelation earlier this month that the Federal Bureau of Investigation was using spy planes to engage in undercover surveillance activities across the United States.

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Linbit Launches New Synchronous Server Storage Software

Linbit on Tuesday announced the release of DRBD9, its new distributed replicated block device product. DRBD9 provides enterprise Linux users with synchronous server storage replication including support for native remote direct memory access, or RDMA, and OpenStack integration. Linbit developed the software to give end-users, OEMs and independent software developers a tool for building redundant, highly scalable and flexible storage architectures. Linbit's DRBD9 solution expands the core functionality of DRBD.

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San Jose to Dabble With Smart City Tech

The city of San Jose, California, recently decided to undertake an Internet of Things pilot project. Under a deal finalized last month, anyCOMM, will deploy WiFi sensors on 166 streetlights in the city center and around Mineta San Jose International Airport. The sensors will collect data on traffic, sense movement on the streets, turn off streetlights when sidewalks and roads are empty, detect ground shifts and send earthquake warnings, and act as WiFi hotspots.

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Bethesda Dazzles in E3 Debut

With a sackful of news about additions to its library and an expansion of its lore, Bethesda Softworks held its first-ever showcase on Sunday, as the Electronic Entertainment Expo gathered heat for its official kickoff on Tuesday. Jolly staffers dished news and trailers for the next entries in some Bethesda's most successful franchises, as well as a pair of spinoffs, and a new intellectual property that will compete for a slice of the multiplayer shooter pie.

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antiX Linux Doesn't Fool Around

The antiX distro is both something old and something new. It is a handy and innovative approach to keeping aging computers fast and active. It is also an energy infuser for new computers. I started playing around with antiX when looking for something different to keep some older computers out of the trash heap. antiX is a fast, lightweight distro that is easy to install. It is based on Debian Testing for Intel-AMD x86 compatible systems. It uses Flushbox and IceWN for the desktop environment.

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Battleborn Ventures Beyond the Borderlands

Gearbox Software on Friday demoed Battleborn at a pre-E3 event, stirring interest in the title, along with many comparisons to its Borderlands predecessor and other games. Gearbox previously had released details about the game and shared a new trailer. Borrowing from a formula that has spawned successful Multiplayer Online Battle Area, or Moba, games, Battleborn lets players take on the roles of legends who control armies of minions. Online, the game pits players in five-on-five fights in three game modes.

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Anatomy of a CEO Failure

Much to Apple's dismay, I cover Apple events. One of the questions that frequently came up during its recent developer conference centered on Tim Cook. Was he becoming Steve Ballmer? The implication was that Steve was a failure at Microsoft, so the comparison didn't reflect well on Cook. I think this idea is wrongheaded. Yes, Tim Cook's situation bears some similarity to Steve Ballmer's. However, while Ballmer did fail, Cook is succeeding, and I think a lot of this failure talk is simply the result of overset expectations.

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Gadget Ogling: Equalized Eardrums, Holographic Pyramids and Live-Streaming Ovens

Aumeo is an attachment that's all about fine-tuning your earphones to better hear anything you listen to on your smartphone, tablet or other audio-emitting gadget. Using a smartphone app, it tests how well you can hear a number of different frequencies and provides you with a personal equalizer attuned to each of your ears. The sound fidelity supposedly is far better, and the clarity means you'll have little need to raise the volume to ear-splitting levels, helping preserve your delicate eardrums for longer.

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Synaptics Gives Spacebar Some New Touches

Touchpad pioneer Synaptics has touched up an unlikely area on a keyboard: the spacebar. The company last week announced the availability of its SmartBar technology, which adds gesture features to the bar. For example, text can be selected by swiping it. A double-thumb gesture can be used to zoom in and out on a document or image. What's more, the bar can be configured into five virtual buttons for executing macros that can be managed with software provided by Synaptics.

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Duqu 2.0 Makes Other Malware Look Clunky

Duqu 2.0 may have just snatched the title of "most sophisticated malware ever," according to Kaspersky Lab, which published a report on the new threat this week. Kaspersky discovered Duqu 2.0 after the malware penetrated its own internal networks. "The philosophy and way of thinking of the Duqu 2.0 group is a generation ahead of anything seen in the APT world," said Kurt Baumgartner, principal security researcher at Kaspersky. "Its level of sophistication surpasses even the Equation Group -- supposedly the 'crème de la crème' in this sphere.

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Beware the Killer Robots

Russia's advanced military combat robot -- which has drawn alarmed comparisons to Hollywood's Terminator -- will be able to run and clear an obstacle course by late this year, according to reports that surfaced this week. That's just the latest news fueling the already-fiery debate over what to do about killer robots. Artificial intelligence and robotics experts must decide whether to support or oppose the development of lethal autonomous weapons systems, urged Stuart Russell, a UC Berkeley professor, in a recent paper.

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Patch Tuesday Sunset Will Be a Mixed Bag for Windows Security

Microsoft will phase out Patch Tuesday -- its monthly potpourri of software product fixes -- when it rolls out Windows 10, which could be a mixed bag for the operating system's security. Patches will be applied automatically as they're ready. That means users no longer will have to wait until the second Tuesday in the month to secure their systems from potentially troublesome vulnerabilities. However, there are a number of caveats to that scenario. First, the scheme applies only to Windows 10.

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Microsoft's Surface Hub Aims to Unify the Enterprise

Microsoft on Wednesday unveiled the Surface Hub, a large-screen device meant to dramatically improve business collaboration. The 55-inch and 84-inch interactive displays marry white boards with presentations, voice with video, speakers with addressees, Android with iOS, and Windows 10 with conference rooms. The Surface Hubs will go on sale July 1, and on Sept. 1, they'll start shipping out of a Microsoft facility about 200 miles south of the company's Redmond, Washington, headquarters.

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US CIO Orders Federal Websites to Get More Secure

U.S. federal CIO Tony Scott on Monday sent a memo to the heads of executive departments and agencies requiring that all publicly accessible federal websites and Web services use HTTPS -- "the strongest privacy and integrity protection currently available for public Web connections." Some federal websites currently use HTTPS, but there has not been a consistent policy across the federal government to do so, Scott pointed out. Websites and services available over HTTPS must enable HTTP Strict Transport Security.

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Apple Gives Open Source a Swift 2 Kick

Apple this week announced Swift 2 and said it would open-source it later this year. Swift 2 is a programming language for iOS, OS X and watchOS. It has a new error handling model that works with Apple SDKs and NSError. Two new features in Objective-C -- nullability annotations and generics -- make Swift 2 work better with Apple SDKs. "Generating higher-quality code is the central problem in software engineering, and anything that helps developers do that will help," said Al Hilwa, a program director at IDC.

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Turning 'Shadow IT' into 'Better IT'

Sometimes things happen that seem undesirable, but they actually can turn out to be advantageous when viewed in a certain light, when approached in a certain way, or depending on circumstances. For example, this can be true when it comes to "Shadow IT" -- specifically, the adoption of technology without the involvement or knowledge of the IT organization. Most IT professionals for the past few years have struggled with the "shadow" adoption of technologies.

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Gadget Ogling: A Speaker-Stuffed Tablet Case, a Soothing Wearable, and Earbuds for the Real World

ASUS is on a crusade to end the scourge of tablets with terrible sound. Its new ZenPad 8.0 has an interchangeable cover design that allows users several functional options. One is the Audio Cover, which bumps up sound quality by tucking a 5.1 surround-sound system inside. With six speakers, including a subwoofer, the Audio Cover promises to significantly improve the tablet experience of watching video and listening to music. However, unless your tablet constitutes your home entertainment system, I can't quite understand the point.

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Apple Music Steals WWDC's Scattershot Show

To cap off Monday's wide-ranging keynote at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco, Apple CEO Tim Cook introduced a three-pronged music initiative. "Music is such an important part of our lives and our culture," Cook said, showing off Apple's famous "one more thing" slide. Apple executives Eddy Cue and Jimmy Iovine shared the demonstrations that followed, while musician Drake talked up how the new service will enable artists to connect with fans.

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Robots Meet DARPA Challenge Despite Pratfalls

Robots from Korea and the United States staggered off with the top three prizes at the DARPA Robotics Challenge, held in Pomona, California, over the weekend. In all, robots from 23 teams participated in the challenge, which consisted of an obstacle course simulating conditions similar to those following the Fukushima nuclear plant disaster. DRC-Hubo, the entry from South Korea's Team Kaist, took home the first prize of $2 million; second prize went to Running Man, from Florida-based Team IHMC Robotics.

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The Best Unsung Features of Windows 10

There are things about working with large companies that can be really frustrating. For instance, when both Windows Vista and Windows 8 were coming to market, a number of us pointed out that things needed to be fixed before the product was released, but we were ignored, with catastrophic results. This time, however, Windows 10 is looking better than any OS I've ever reviewed, and it is largely because Microsoft did two things I've been requesting since Windows 95.

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ConnochaetOS Makes Slackware Truly Free and a Bit Easier

ConnochaetOS is a nice entry into a pure, free Linux experience. Most people mistakenly equate open source with "free," as in pay nothing. Experienced Linux users know, however, that the open source concept separates the price of the software from the cost of obtaining enterprise-level modifications and support. The notion of "free" does not mean there's no cost to get it. Open source licenses prevent anyone from selling or owning the code. They allow the software to be used, modified and shared under defined terms and conditions.

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It's Hard to See WWDC Through My Apple TV Tears

By the time you read this, I'll have finished swearing in the privacy of my office, and likely will have entered the acceptance stage of grief. Already, realization is dawning that I was right to withhold hope that Apple would reveal a new Apple TV at its WorldWide Developers Conference on Monday. I hate it when pessimism wins. So what gives? If WWDC isn't set to kick off until next week, how can I know that Apple isn't going to introduce a new Apple TV? Isn't Apple the most secretive consumer tech company ever devised?

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BitTorrent's Bleep Hides Messages From Prying Eyes

BitTorrent's Bleep, a secure peer-to-peer messaging service, last month reached the end of its third trimester in alpha testing, and an official version became available for iOS, Android, OS X and PC. The official release is the first to reach iOS. Bleep's Whisper feature enables ephemeral messaging, along with the service's cloudless, end-to-end encrypted calling function. Although BitTorrent appeared to forego a beta testing period for Bleep, the company has been creating separate alpha and beta tracks, according to developer Farid Fadaie.

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Google's Android Permissions Get Granular

Google appears to be heeding warnings of security experts who say Android users need better control over what apps do with information from their phones. At I/O, its worldwide shindig for developers held last week, the company announced that the next version of its mobile operating system, Android M, would take a more granular approach to permissions for data requested by apps. Recent versions of Android allows applications to make a block of permission requests as they're installed.

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Fallout 4 Trailer Lets Waiting Fans Exhale

The last second has since ticked off the countdown timer on the teaser site, and Fallout 4's official website has gone live. Fallout 4's confirmation on Wednesday may have invoked more feelings of relief than surprise. Even before the teaser site went up, gamers looking for another loot-and-shoot role-playing game have been demanding a followup to 2010's Fallout: New Vegas. Publisher Bethesda Softworks warmed Fallout 4's new home page with a shiny new teaser trailer, just over three minutes long.

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