Been wondering what LG was doing with that flexible display technology it showed off at SID? Apparently it was working on the G Flex, a 6-inch smartphone with a curved screen. The typically innominate "person familiar with the company's launch plans" told CNET the device will be announced in November, providing the outlet with a low resolution sketch of a curved yet rigid smartphone design.
This meshes quite well with the prototype display we saw earlier this summer, which trumpeted the durability of its plastic construction (which it demoed by hitting the panel with a mallet) over its ability to bend. The prototype display is also said to be cheaper to manufacture and lighter than traditional screens, both of which bode well for the end user. Still, the word "curved" seems to have been chosen carefully -- it's probable that this device will mirror Samsung's rumored smartphone and will be an artistically bent handset rather than a flexible one. The official announcement isn't due until next month, but we've reached out to LG for a comment, just in case.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, LG
Source: CNET
Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/MYObOqt5axk/
ORACLE OPENWAVE SYSTEMS ON SEMICONDUCTOR NVIDIA NUANCE COMMUNICATIONS NOVELLUS SYSTEMS NOVELL
For two and a half years, Silk Road was the Deep Web’s worst keep secret. The underground site was infamous for drug trafficking, gun running and murder for hire – a veritable rogues gallery for underground dealers. Since launching in 2011, the site generated over a $1.2 billion in revenue and $79.8 million in commissions. It was one of the secret successes of the underground web. The site was taken offline today and the founder, Ross William Ulbricht, a/k/a “Dread Pirate Roberts, charged with one count each of narcotics trafficking conspiracy, soliciting murder, computer hacking conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy, according to a court filing. It is the end of a strange era in computer security when one man and a team of salesmen, programmers, and cryptographers kept the government at bay for two solid years. The court filing reveals in explicit terms the lengths Ulbricht’s site went to ensure its users anonymity and details the violent means he allegedly used to protect himself and the site. The image of Ulbricht comes from his LinkedIn profile. What follows are excerpts from the court document compiling the notes Special Agent Christopher Tarbell of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Incidentally, Silk Road users, take note: Ulbricht instituted a multi-layer system that protected your identity, but it wasn’t perfect as it seems Silk Road vendors were the weak link in the system. Read on for more details. Anon Transactions Tarbell explains in detail Silk Road’s transaction process. Silk Road uses a so–called “tumbler” to process Bitcoin transactions in a manner designed to frustrate the tracking of individual transactions through the Blockchain. According to the Silk Road wiki, Silk Road’s tumbler “sends all payments through a complex, semi–random series of dummy transactions, . . . making it nearly impossible to link your payment with any coins leaving the site.” In other words, if a buyer makes a payment on Silk Road, the tumbler obscures any link between the buyer’s Bitcoin address and the vendor’s Bitcoin address where the Bitcoins end up — making it fruitless to use the Blockchain to follow the money trail involved in the transaction, even if the buyer’s and vendor’s Bitcoin addresses are both known. Based on my training and experience, the only function served by such “tumblers” is to assist with the laundering of criminal proceeds. Special Agent Tarbell acknowledges that Bitcoins are an anonymous, decentralized form of electronic
If it’s a Google product and it’s on mobile, it’s getting a card-based user interface. The latest product to get this treatment is Google Analytics for Android. With today’s update, though, the app isn’t just getting a new look. It’s also getting a slew of new features based on feedback Google received from the 700,000 users who have already downloaded it. In addition to the card-based UI, Google added a few other design-centric features, including its standard slide-out side navigation bar. This update also introduces new visualizations for your stats that automatically resize to fit your screen size and orientation. On a small screen, Google argues, users can quickly become overwhelmed with too much information, so with this update, all the relevant metrics are now spread out over multiple cards so users can get an overview of what’s happening on their sites and then drill down deeper as needed. As for features, the app now puts a stronger emphasis on real-time data, a feature Analytics first introduced in 2011 but only really started to emphasize over the last few months. The app now also supports Analytics’ Advanced Segments for isolating and analyzing specific types of traffic (say visitors from users who also recently purchased something from your online store) and presents an overview screen for each one of your Analytics reports that allows you to drill down deeper into your most relevant stats to get a closer look at your data. The app now also allows users to access both web and app reporting views so, as Google notes, “you can keep track of all of your important data with reports that are optimized for whatever device you’re using, ensuring a beautiful and intuitive experience.” Google developed the app using the Google Tag Manager for Mobile Apps, which allows developers to make small changes to their installed apps on the fly without having users download a new version of the app. Because of this, the Google App team says, it will be able to quickly add new reports and visualizations to the app without having to update it.