U.K. network operator EE plans to deliver 4G internet access from a kite-like balloon first developed as an observation and communications platform for the military. The Helikite was invented in the 1990s and has also found favor with Antarctic explorers, disaster relief workers and emergency services. EE revealed its plans to deliver wide-area network coverage from…
Sick of manually organizing your messages? Microsoft was on the case, apparently testing its Focused Inbox feature in Windows 10’s Mail app. As of Feb. 22, though, it’s live for both Office 365 subscribers and Outlook.com accounts. A number of users recently told MSPowerUser they were seeing the feature on their PCs. The testing isn’t restricted to…
Disney Research has invented a new method of wirelessly charging mobile devices that could someday allow amusement park patrons to walk about freely while also getting their mobile devices charged. The technology, which Disney has dubbed “quasistatic cavity resonance” (QSCR), enables purpose-built structures such as cabinets, rooms and warehouses to generate quasistatic magnetic fields that…
Apple this week took administrative control of the icloud.net domain, the last notable web address it did not govern that users could have linked with its online sync and storage service. According to WHOIS searches today, Apple acquired control of icloud.net on Tuesday. Apple already ruled the primary top-level domains for iCloud, the cross-device, cross-OS…
The Federal Communications Commission announced Wednesday that it had approved two cellular base stations – one each from Ericsson and Nokia – to use LTE-U, marking the first official government thumbs-up for the controversial technology. FCC chairman Ajit Pai said in a statement that the unlicensed spectrum – historically, the territory of Wi-Fi – can…
Looking to blur the line between technology and art, the Sandpit library for creative coding uses JavaScript and the canvas 2D element. Accessible on GitHub or via NPM, and built in ECMAScript 6, Sandpit is still in development with an API likely to change before the 1.0 release. “The goal of Sandpit is to normalize…
Look for U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration to push for increased cybersecurity spending in government, but also for increased digital surveillance and encryption workarounds. That’s the view of some cybersecurity policy experts, who said they expect Trump to focus on improving U.S. agencies’ cybersecurity while shying away from new cybersecurity regulations for businesses. Trump is…
A new file-encrypting ransomware program for macOS is being distributed through bittorrent websites and users who fall victim to it won’t be able to recover their files, even if they pay. Crypto ransomware programs for macOS are rare. This is the second such threat found in the wild so far, and it’s a poorly designed…
A software glitch caused a SpaceX cargo spacecraft to abort its rendezvous with the International Space Station early this morning. NASA now plans a second attempt to dock with the space station tomorrow. The unmanned SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft, which lifted off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Sunday, approached the orbiting station…
Cisco is coming out with four next-generation firewall boxes aimed at giving smaller organizations protection that is better sized to their needs and engineered to minimize performance hits as additional security services are turned on. The devices make up a family called the Cisco Firepower 2100 series and are built around dual, multi-core processors. That…