Adobe issues emergency patch for actively exploited code-execution bug

Critical bug was used to take control of vulnerable computers.

Adobe has issued an emergency update for its Flash media player that patches almost two dozen critical vulnerabilities, including one that's being maliciously exploited in the wild.

"These updates address critical vulnerabilities that could potentially allow an attacker to take control of the affected system," Adobe officials wrote in an advisory published Thursday. "Adobe is aware of a report that an exploit for CVE-2016-1010 is being used in limited, targeted attacks." The notice advises Flash users to install the update as soon as possible.

CVE-2016-1010 is the common vulnerabilities and exposures designation for an integer overflow vulnerability that allows attackers to remotely execute malicious code on vulnerable computers. Adobe credited Anton Ivanov of Kaspersky Lab with discovering the zero-day vulnerability but provided no additional details. In an e-mail, a Kaspersky representative wrote:

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Fossil’s Q Motion tracks sleep and activity, learns from Misfit devices

The $95 activity and sleep tracker will be shown off at SXSW this year.

(credit: Fossil)

Fossil has been quiet since the start of 2016, but now we are getting a glimpse of the company's first new wearable of the year. The company just announced the Q Motion, a slim, cylindrical tracker that is the company's first to track sleep in addition to activity.

None of Fossil's current wearables—the Q Founder smartwatch, the non-display Q Grant watch, and the Q Reveler tracker—monitor how much sleep you get, so this is a good addition for the Q Motion but also an expected one. The Q Motion is also the first device to come from Fossil since the company purchased Misfit, which makes both connected fitness wearables and home devices. Most of Misfit's wearables track sleep, and while the Q Motion is clearly positioned as part of Fossil's line, it's likely that Misfit taught the fashion company a thing or two as it developed features for this device.

The Q Motion also looks very much like Misfit's newest device, the Misfit Ray. Both are stylish yet minimalist bracelets, with a cylinder module in the middle. Both track activity (although with the Ray, you can designate specific activities within Misfit's app) and sleep, and both have vibration motors and small LEDs on the module that go off when you receive smartphone notifications. While the Ray only receives text, call, and alarm alerts, Fossil's Q Motion will be able to filter the notifications you receive on the device via its Android and iOS app just like the other Q wearables.

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ISPs won’t be allowed to serve targeted ads without customers’ permission

FCC chair proposes new privacy rules for fixed and mobile broadband.

Internet service providers and wireless carriers would have to seek permission from customers before using their private information for certain marketing purposes, if new rules proposed by Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler are approved.

For example, ISPs could only share a subscriber's Internet usage habits with advertising companies or other third parties if the subscriber opts in to such usage. An ISP also wouldn't be able to serve targeted ads to you based on your Web browsing habits without first obtaining opt-in consent.

"Your ISP handles all of your network traffic," Wheeler wrote in a blog post today. "That means it has a broad view of all of your unencrypted online activity—when you are online, the websites you visit, and the apps you use. If you have a mobile device, your provider can track your physical location throughout the day in real time. Even when data is encrypted, your broadband provider can piece together significant amounts of information about you—including private information such as a chronic medical condition or financial problems—based on your online activity."

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Microsoft Edge browser extensions coming soon

Microsoft Edge browser extensions coming soon

The Microsoft Edge web browser was launched along with Windows 10, and it’s a fast, fairly capable alternative to Internet Explorer, which is also still bundled with Windows. Edge has a lot of nifty features, but it’s also missing some things that most other modern web browsers have, and one of the most prominent missing […]

Microsoft Edge browser extensions coming soon is a post from: Liliputing

Microsoft Edge browser extensions coming soon

The Microsoft Edge web browser was launched along with Windows 10, and it’s a fast, fairly capable alternative to Internet Explorer, which is also still bundled with Windows. Edge has a lot of nifty features, but it’s also missing some things that most other modern web browsers have, and one of the most prominent missing […]

Microsoft Edge browser extensions coming soon is a post from: Liliputing

Hands-on with Android N: Increased customization, better notifications, and more

We cover everything new we could find in Android’s latest update.

The Android N Developer Preview is out, bringing split screen and a redesigned notification panel among many new Android tweaks. How much more new stuff is what we're here to find out. We already covered the biggest addition—split screen mode—but with the dev preview flashed on a device, we set out to see what else Android N had in store.

Keep in mind this is just a developer preview, and everything is subject to change. The last developer preview, Android M, had all sorts of wacky additions that didn't make it to a consumer version of Android, like an app drawer with huge letter headings and a user-selectable theme setting. Tons of stuff could change between now and release.

One of the coolest new settings that is immediately available is the "Display Size," which lets you adjust the size the entire interface is rendered at. Changing it to a lower setting allows you to see more content on-screen at once, making big-screened devices much more useful. When the massive Nexus 6 was released, we complained that the large screen wasn't very useful, but this potential feature along with multi-window capabilities suddenly changes that. This setting (internally called the software "DPI") was a common thing for modders to change, and now it's freely accessible in the settings under Display > Screen Size.

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Lenovo Tab3 10 Business tablet hits gets the FCC teardown treatment

Lenovo Tab3 10 Business tablet hits gets the FCC teardown treatment

Lenovo recently unveiled a line of small, low-cost Android tablets under the Tab3 name, along with a 10 inch model with a higher price tag and better specs. Now it looks like Lenovo may be targeting the Tab3 10 at business customers, because a device called the Lenovo Tab3 10 Business just showed up at […]

Lenovo Tab3 10 Business tablet hits gets the FCC teardown treatment is a post from: Liliputing

Lenovo Tab3 10 Business tablet hits gets the FCC teardown treatment

Lenovo recently unveiled a line of small, low-cost Android tablets under the Tab3 name, along with a 10 inch model with a higher price tag and better specs. Now it looks like Lenovo may be targeting the Tab3 10 at business customers, because a device called the Lenovo Tab3 10 Business just showed up at […]

Lenovo Tab3 10 Business tablet hits gets the FCC teardown treatment is a post from: Liliputing

Analysis of sediment core ties Antarctic ice cover to CO2 concentration

Key transitions occur at levels of carbon dioxide we could reach this century.

McMurdo Station, near the site where the sediment core was obtained. (credit: US Antarctic Program)

Antarctica wasn't always the barren ice world that we now know. In the distant past, plate tectonics placed it at warmer latitudes. But more recently, even after it adopted its southern location, high global temperatures severely limited the ice on Antarctica. That started to change as the period known as the Eocene came to a close and global temperatures dropped. But the precise details of how the continent went white are a challenge to determine.

Now, a large international team of researchers has obtained a sediment core from just offshore of the East Antarctic ice sheet that captures key events in the glaciation of the continent. And because it provides relatively precise indications of when things happened, it's possible to line it up with other global records. Combined, the records indicate that there were two key transitions: one where an ice cap began to form and a second when it expanded to meet the ocean.

Both of these events appear to have been tied to the level of atmospheric carbon dioxide. And in each case, we've been on a path toward reversing them before the century is out.

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Deals of the Day (3-10-2016)

Deals of the Day (3-10-2016)

Google’s $35 Chromecast media streamer may be one of the most inexpensive devices you can plug into a TV to watch content from YouTube, Netflix, Hulu, and other sources… but it’s an even better deal when you take into account all the promotional offers Google throws in. Open up the Chromecast app on your phone […]

Deals of the Day (3-10-2016) is a post from: Liliputing

Deals of the Day (3-10-2016)

Google’s $35 Chromecast media streamer may be one of the most inexpensive devices you can plug into a TV to watch content from YouTube, Netflix, Hulu, and other sources… but it’s an even better deal when you take into account all the promotional offers Google throws in. Open up the Chromecast app on your phone […]

Deals of the Day (3-10-2016) is a post from: Liliputing

Confirmed: Elite: Dangerous will have official, native Oculus Rift support

Space sim will be featured in Oculus store when it opens on March 28.

Enlarge / Landing on a planet in Elite: Dangerous.

In a Skype interview with Ars Technica, Frontier Developments founder and CEO David Braben was finally able to make the formal announcement he’s been waiting to make. "We’re going to be on the Oculus store," he confirmed. "We’re supporting [the Oculus Rift runtime] one point naught and the consumer release at launch, which is March 28."

There has been quite a lot of discontent brewing in the Elite: Dangerous fan community when it comes to VR support. Though Elite was one of the first big titles to fully support the developer kit versions of the Oculus Rift, that support has gotten muddy in the last year—Frontier Developments hasn’t kept Elite directly compatible with the fast-evolving prerelease Oculus Rift SDK, forcing Rift DK1 and DK2 owners to go through some contortions to play the game in VR.

The company has added SteamVR support, and it’s currently possible to play Elite via SteamVR with Rift DK2 and Vive/Vive Pre headsets. Until today, however, Frontier hasn’t issued any formal, clear statements on exactly what is and is not going to work as of the March 28 launch day for the Oculus Rift.

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Man accused of jamming passengers’ cell phones on Chicago subway

Windy City commuters were complaining for months about dropped phone service.

Undercover officers have arrested a 63-year-old Chicago man on accusations that he used a handheld jamming device to disrupt mobile phone service on the subway.

The lawyer for the financial analyst at the University of Illinois Hospital & Health Sciences System said his client just wanted peace and quiet on his commute. "He's disturbed by people talking around him," Chicago attorney Charles Lauer said of defendant Dennis Nicholl. "He might have been selfish in thinking about himself, but he didn't have any malicious intent."

The Chicago Tribune also said that a local judge, when setting $10,000 bail after the Tuesday arrest, dubbed the defendant "the cellphone police." Lauer did not immediately respond to Ars' request for comment.

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