“It’s here! Purism announces shipment of the Librem 5,” writes long-time Slashdot reader Ocean Consulting: Librem 5 is a landmark mobile device with a dedicated platform, runs PureOS Linux, and is the first mobile phone to seek hardware certification from the Free Software Foundation. Initially a crowd sourced funding campaign, the phone embraces principles of free software and user privacy. IP…
Tag: Bluetooth
Hong Kong Protesters Using Mesh Messaging App China Can’t Block: Usage Up 3685%
An anonymous reader quotes Forbes: How do you communicate when the government censors the internet? With a peer-to-peer mesh broadcasting network that doesn’t use the internet. That’s exactly what Hong Kong pro-democracy protesters are doing now, thanks to San Francisco startup Bridgefy’s Bluetooth-based messaging app. The protesters can communicate with each other — and the public — using no persistent managed…
Samsung Unveils Galaxy Note10, Note10+, and Note10+ 5G
At an event today, Samsung announced not one, but two versions of its flagship Galaxy Note 10 smartphone: the regular Note 10 and the jumbo Note 10+. The Note10’s and Note10+’s frames are made from scratch-resistant aluminum that’s IP68 rated to withstand 1.5 meters of water for 30 minutes, and their protective glass shielding — Corning’s Gorilla Glass 6, an upgrade…
Samsung Won’t Let Android Tablets Die, Announces the Galaxy Tab S6
Samsung is one of the only companies still producing tablets to rival Apple’s iPad. Today the company announced the Samsung Galaxy Tab S6, its latest high-end tablet, for $649. Pre-orders start August 23, and the device ships September 6. Samsung says there will be an LTE version available later. Ars Technica reports: The Samsung Tab S6 features a 10.5-inch 2560×1600 OLED…
Google Brings the Titan Security Key To More Countries
Google on Wednesday announced it’s making its Titan Security Key available via the Google Store in multiple new countries: Canada, France, Japan and the United Kingdom. Google launched the second-factor security key last year, starting with availability in the US. From a report: Google touts the Titan Security Key as one of the best ways to protect Google Accounts from hacking…
iPhone Bluetooth Traffic Leaks Phone Numbers — in Certain Scenarios
Security researchers say they can extract a user’s phone number from the Bluetooth traffic coming from an iPhone smartphone during certain operations. From a report: The attack works because, when Bluetooth is enabled on an Apple device, the device sends BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) packets in all directions, broadcasting the device’s position and various details. This behavior is part of the…
From Fitbits To Rokus, Hedge Funds Mine Data For Consumer Habits
In an effort to gain an elusive trading edge, some of the world’s biggest hedge funds have been snapping up large swaths of alternative data from Fitbits, Rokus, Teslas and employment websites like Glassdoor. Bloomberg reports: Spotting trends and patterns in consumer habits is big business, part of a global market for big data, that a JPMorgan Chase report said could…
Hong Kong’s Protesters Use AirDrop To Spread Information To Mainland Chinese Visitors
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Quartz: Hong Kong’s protesters are using AirDrop, a file-sharing feature that allows Apple devices to send photos and videos over Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, to breach China’s Great Firewall in order to spread information to mainland Chinese visitors in the city. Leaving AirDrop settings open allows anyone in the vicinity to send files to your…
Smartphones and Fitness Trackers Are Being Used To Gauge Employee Performance
A new system to assess the performance of employees is claimed to be more objective and thus more accurate by utilizing smartphones and fitness trackers. New Atlas reports: The passive system incorporates an app known as PhoneAgent, which was developed by Prof. Andrew Campbell at New Hampshire’s Dartmouth College. Using the smartphone’s own sensors, that app continuously monitors factors such as…
Apple Releases First Public Betas of macOS Catalina, iOS 13 and iPadOS
Apple today seeded the first beta versions of upcoming macOS Catalina update, iOS 13 update, and iPadOS update to its public beta testing group, giving non-developers a chance to try out the software ahead of their fall public release. Beta testers who have signed up for Apple’s beta testing program will be able to download the macOS Catalina beta through the…