The modular Nex Band makes smart alerts more customizable than ever

It does a little bit of everything, but is a world of possibilities too much to handle?

(credit: Valentina Palladino)

We're still trying to figure out what we want our wearables, particularly wristbands, to do for us. There are a number of devices including some smartwatches and fitness trackers that are truly multipurpose, but we have yet to see what features will stick in the long run. Now, a company called Mighty Cast is taking a slightly different approach to smart wristbands with its Nex Band—it's made to do pretty much anything that an existing fitness tracker or smartwatch can already do. It monitors activity and receives smartphone alerts, but you can personalize notifications and actions as much as you want by "hacking" its small, removable modules, creating numerous possibilities for new features.

The Nex Band has been floating around for the past couple years, but it has the chance to entice the most enterprising wearable users by giving them more personalization options than any other wristband. Mighty Cast bills it as a hackable smart band because you can assign functions to each of its five "mods" that are all independent from each other and can relate to different things. You might tap on of your mods to turn on your living room lights, while the mod next to it flashes when you receive an e-mail from your boss. A nearly infinite number of functions can be customized from within the Nex Band's companion app, and it's also compatible with all of IFTTT's control combinations.

When I sat down with Mighty Cast's CEO Adam Adelman to learn more about the Nex Band, I was initially confused as to how it worked. However, you don't need to be a developer or have special tech skills to "hack" the band—it's all done from the companion app. Once you choose which mod you want to customize, a basic hack has a two-step "when X happens, do Y" formula. It's really similar to how IFTTT sets up its automated actions by integrating social media, smartphone alerts, IoT products, and other devices to work more for you. For example, you could program a hack that say "when I double-tap, play My Workout Playlist." Then when you completed that action on that mod, your smartphone will start to play that particular playlist.

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To dodge crypto, undercover UK cops simply asked to see terror convict’s iPhone

No need for backdoors or weakened encryption when clever policing does the job.

(credit: CNN)

Key evidence that helped convict two British men last week for terrorist offences was reportedly obtained from a locked phone using a simple but highly effective ruse.

According to CNN, which cited a source close to the investigation, undercover police officers visited Junead Khan, 25, of Luton posing as company managers and asked to check his driver and work records.

"When they disputed where he was on a particular day, he got out his iPhone and showed them the record of his work. The undercover officers asked to see his iPhone and Khan handed it over," CNN reported. At that point they apparently arrested Khan and changed the password settings on the iPhone to prevent it from becoming locked.

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$85 million patent verdict, largest ever against Google, wiped out on appeal

Patent describes a failed company’s 1996 desktop notification system.

Google nearly had to pay $85 million over a 1996 patent said to cover Android's push notifications. (credit: Johan Larsson)

In 2014, an East Texas jury ordered Google to pay $85 million to SimpleAir, a "patent troll" company with no business beyond enforcing its patents. It was a massive victory for the company's broad claim—that Google's use of push notifications in Android phones infringed its US Patent No. 7,035,914.

SimpleAir's victory, the largest patent verdict ever won against Google, has since fallen apart. Google appealed the ruling, and on Friday a three-judge panel at the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit held (PDF) that the lower court judge didn't interpret the patent claims correctly and that Google does not infringe.

The ruling is another signpost that while low-level patent trolling is thriving, the era of large patent troll victories may be waning. The chances of well-resourced tech companies like Google, if they're willing to fight through an appeal, appear better than ever.

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Japanese X-ray observatory seen spinning out of control

Much anticipated X-ray observatory a big loss to scientific community.

Pieces of Japan's Hitomi satellite are seen tumbling through the Orion constellation Sunday night. (credit: William Keel)

The prognosis wasn't good last week when the Japanese Space Agency, JAXA, lost communication with its new Hitomi X-ray astronomy satellite. However, there was some hope a few days later when the space agency reestablished intermittent contact with the spacecraft orbiting some 580km above the Earth.

Astronomers have since been observing the satellite, originally known as Astro-H, as it has orbited around the Earth. The photos with this story, captured by University of Alabama astronomer William Keel on Sunday evening, appear to show different pieces of the spacecraft catching the Sun as they slowly rotate. The brightest moments are probably caused by solar panels spinning into view. The pattern of brighter and then fainter light suggests at least two large pieces, with different periods, are tumbling out of control.

One astronomer who has been tracking Hitomi closely, Jonathan McDowell at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, tweeted on Sunday evening, "Sadly, I now believe that the radio signals were the dying sighs of a fatally wounded Astro-H."

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Chromecast hack brings a 1978 TV into the digital age

Chromecast hack brings a 1978 TV into the digital age

Have an old-fashioned cathode-ray TV lying around and want to give it a new life? YouTuber Dr. Moddnstine has done just that, by taking an old color TV set from 1978, cramming a Chromecast inside the case, and hooking up a bit of hardware so that the TV turns on automatically when you use your phone, […]

Chromecast hack brings a 1978 TV into the digital age is a post from: Liliputing

Chromecast hack brings a 1978 TV into the digital age

Have an old-fashioned cathode-ray TV lying around and want to give it a new life? YouTuber Dr. Moddnstine has done just that, by taking an old color TV set from 1978, cramming a Chromecast inside the case, and hooking up a bit of hardware so that the TV turns on automatically when you use your phone, […]

Chromecast hack brings a 1978 TV into the digital age is a post from: Liliputing

Oculus Rift customers suffer shipments delay due to component shortage

Reality versus virtual reality means “anxious” wait for Facebook headset fans.

The Xbox One controller and other accessories are hidden in a secret compartment under the tracking camera. (credit: Kyle Orland)

An unknown number of Oculus VR customers have been forced to wait a little longer for the Rift virtual reality headset, after Facebook said it had been hit by "an unexpected component shortage"—thereby delaying some of its shipments.

Oculus—in an update—promised to, er, update customers who have been affected by the hold-up within the next week.

Facebook—which last week began delivering the virtual reality units trumpeted by boss Mark Zuckerberg as "the most social technology ever"—hasn't revealed how many orders were hit by the shipments delay. Oculus said in an e-mail to customers on Saturday:

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Unix: FreeBSD 10.3 bootet von ZFS per UEFI

Die aktuelle Version 10.3 von FreeBSD bringt einen verbesserten UEFI-Boatloader, der nun auch ZFS-Partitionen startet. Die Schicht zur Linux-Kompatibilität ist deutlich ausgebaut worden und statt eines Reboots gibt es nun Reroot. (FreeBSD, Dateisystem)

Die aktuelle Version 10.3 von FreeBSD bringt einen verbesserten UEFI-Boatloader, der nun auch ZFS-Partitionen startet. Die Schicht zur Linux-Kompatibilität ist deutlich ausgebaut worden und statt eines Reboots gibt es nun Reroot. (FreeBSD, Dateisystem)

WordPress Wants Statutory Damages for DMCA Abuse

WordPress.com is taking a strong stance against copyright takedown abuse. The company is recommending that the U.S. Copyright Office should introduce statutory damages and bonds to decrease the frequency of fraudulent and abusive DMCA takedown requests.

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.

wordpressAutomattic, the company behind the popular WordPress.com blogging platform, receives thousands of takedown requests from rightsholders every year.

A substantial percentage of these notices contain inaccuracies and several are clearly fraudulent or abusive.

The company highlights some of the worst offenders in its “Hall of Shame” and has also sued takedown abusers in the past.

In a recent submission to the U.S. Copyright Office, Automattic’s General counsel Paul Sieminski explains that “enforcement robots” and the lack of human review are in part to blame for many of the inaccurate notices.

“While we recognize that the use of automated tools may be necessary with respect to some types of infringement on some types of websites, personal blogs are not the proper targets for enforcement robots.”

“Copyright holders have an obligation to consider fair use before sending a takedown notice, and robots simply cannot tell fair use from foul in any but the most obvious circumstances,” Sieminski adds.

Automattic does its best to comply with the DMCA but the company believes that more should be done to prevent this type of behavior in the future. The current regulations are not sufficient to deter the fraudulent and abusive, the company argues.

Among other changes, the company suggests the addition of statutory damages for DMCA takedown abuse, so the worst offenders can be punished appropriately.

With statutory damages, companies who are victims of DMCA abuse would no longer have to prove actual monetary harm. Instead, the law will prescribe a fixed damages amount.

“Damages from abusive notices of claimed infringement can sometimes be difficult to quantify. Thus, in order to further the goals of compensation and deterrence, statutory damages for abusive notices of claimed infringement and abusive counter notifications could be added either to section 504 or to section 1203.”

In addition, WordPress.com’s parent company suggests the introduction of bonds, as is common in other parts of the legal system. This would mean that copyright holders have something concrete to lose when they make false statements.

“Such a bond may be the only way to ensure that those who cause damage via misrepresentations are called to account for their misdeeds,” Sieminski writes.

Automattic’s comments (pdf) were submitted as part of the Government’s public consultation to evaluate the effectiveness of the DMCA’s Safe Harbor provisions. The U.S. Copyright Office will use the feedback to evaluate whether the DMCA law should be reformed in the future.

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.

Für HD und Internet: Unitymedia bestätigt Analogabschaltung im kommenden Jahr

Unitymedia schaltet die analogen Programmen früher ab als vorgegeben. Der Verband Privater Rundfunk und Telemedien (VPRT) fürchtet durch die Reduktion im Vorfeld für kleinere TV-Sender einen “Tod auf Raten”. (Unitymedia, Set-Top-Box)

Unitymedia schaltet die analogen Programmen früher ab als vorgegeben. Der Verband Privater Rundfunk und Telemedien (VPRT) fürchtet durch die Reduktion im Vorfeld für kleinere TV-Sender einen "Tod auf Raten". (Unitymedia, Set-Top-Box)

New nonsurgical weight-loss treatment curbs hunger, melts away pounds

Early clinical data shows method safely led to sustained weight loss in obese patients.

(credit: Public Domain)

Battling bulge can often be a frustrating fight—with tedious calorie counting, rigorous exercise regimens, and invasive and expensive stomach-shrinking surgeries. But a new method to offload the flab promises to be a quick and simple treatment that cuts cravings and leads to sustainable weight loss.

The non-surgical procedure works using tiny, injectable beads that restrict blood flow to the part of the stomach that releases the hunger-sparking hormone, ghrelin. In a pilot clinical trial with seven severely obese patients, the method successfully curbed hunger and trimmed an average of 13.3 percent of excess weight after six months.

Though the clinical data is still preliminary and in a small number of patients, doctors are hopeful that the method, called bariatric arterial embolization (BAE), will be a safe and effective tool for slashing obesity numbers. "These early results demonstrate that BAE appears to be effective in helping patients lose a significant amount of weight in the short and intermediate term," lead author Clifford Weiss, associate professor of radiology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. said in a statement. Weiss and colleagues presented the clinical results so far at the Society of Interventional Radiology's 2016 Annual Scientific Meeting in Vancouver.

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