Computers

Precision is of great importance for many devices and generally it is easier to be precise when what you are measuring is not moving much. Achieving this can be rather difficult though when you are working with atoms. Technologies to cool atoms so they barely move do exist, and now researchers at the Universities of Strathclyde and Glasgow, Imperial College London and the National Physical Laboratory have miniaturized it to the point of being portable. Atoms, being as small as they are, are not exactly easy to cool, since you cannot just put some ice on them, and even if you could, you want them cooled to nearly absolute zero for the best measurements. The way this is accomplished is by shining lasers on the particles that will hold the atom in place, forcing it to cool down. Typically these setups are large, making them difficult to incorporate into some devices, but the researchers have managed to shrink the technology using special diffraction gratings. When a single laser beam strikes the gratings, which have been etched into a semiconductor, the beam splits into many, and each subsequent beam has the ability to trap and cool atoms. This smaller, simpler design could impact numerous technologies, including atomic clocks, magnetometers and accelerometers. These technologies have applications including navigation, telecommunication, medical imaging and more. Source: University of Strathclyde

A new piece of Android malware has been discovered that can intercept your incoming text messages and forward them on to criminals. Once installed, the trojan can be used to steal sensitive messages for blackmailing purposes or more directly, codes which are used to confirm online banking transactions. The malware in question, detected as “Android.Pincer.2.origin” by Russian security firm Doctor Web, is the second iteration of the Android.Pincer family according to the company. Both threats spread as security certificates, meaning they must be deliberately installed onto an Android device by a careless user. Upon launching Android.Pincer.2.origin, the user will see a fake notification about the certificate’s successful installation but after that, the trojan will not perform any noticeable activities for a while. The malware is loaded at startup via CheckCommandServices, a service that runs silently in the background (right-most screenshot above). It will then connect to a remote server and send over information about the mobile device to those behind the attack: Handset model, device’s serial number, IMEI, carrier, cell phone number, default system language, operating system, and availability of the root account. The threat then awaits instructions that contain commands in the following format: “command:[command]“. Doctor Web has found criminals can send the following instructions to the trojan: start_sms_forwarding [telephone number]— begin intercepting communications from a specified number stop_sms_forwarding — stop intercepting messages send_sms [phone number and text] — send a short message using the specified parameters simple_execute_ussd — send a USSD message stop_program—stop working show_message—display a message on the screen of the mobile device set_urls – change the address of the control server ping – send an SMS containing the text ‘pong’ to a previously specified number set_sms_number—change the number to which messages containing the text string ‘pong’ are sent. The first one allows attackers to indicate the number from which the trojan should intercept messages, meaning this can be used for targeted attacks to steal specific messages. The third one from the bottom shows the criminals have planned for changing servers in case they believe the current one will be shut down. Although Doctor Web doesn’t say so, the good news here is that Pincer2 is not likely to be very prevalent. It has not been found on Google Play, where most Android users should be getting their apps, and appears to be meant for precise attacks, as opposed to being aimed at as many users as possible. In short, this malware threat isn’t one that you will likely be hit with, but it is very interesting to see how Android malware is evolving. Our advice is the same as always: only install apps that you know are safe. Top Image Credit: Flavio Takemoto

We have several articles that should pique your interests today. First up are two different articles on the recently revealed Xbox One: one discusses everything you need to know about the console and the other looks at how Microsoft seems to be turning the Xbox from a game console into a home entertainment hub. We have a look at what the ASUS Transformer Prime is capable of even after a year of being available. There's also a look at not one but three different AMD parts: the Temash, Kabini, and Richland mobile platforms; the Jaguar and GCN compute architecture for Temash and Kabini; and finally a performance preview of a laptop outfitted with the A4-5000 Kabini. CPUs AMD 2013 Mobile Platforms - Temash, Kabini, and Richland @ PC Perspective Jaguar + GCN - The Compute Architecture for Temash and Kabini @ PC Perspective Performance Preview - AMD A4-5000 Kabini Reference Notebook Tested @ PC Perspective Gaming Xbox One: Entertainment Hub First, Gaming Console Second - But Could It Disrupt TV? @ TechSpot What You Need To Know about the Xbox One @ ThinkComputers Laptops/Tablets A year later: Transformer Prime @ LanOC Reviews

Twitter is teaming up with everyone from Bloomberg News to Major League Baseball as the social media site expands its range of “multi-screen” partnerships. Other new partners, announced Thursday morning at an advertising event in New York City, include Conde Nast, New York magazine and Discovery. Twitter is framing the partnerships as a way for marketers to reinforce brand messages by reaching consumers on television and small screens at the same time. For consumers, this is likely to mean seeing more video content within their Twitter feeds and more hashtags on the shows they watch. In its news release, Twitter framed it this way: We think these types of two-screen sponsorships are a win-win-win. Users receive spectacular, timely content that rounds out their TV experience or reminds them to tune in. Powered by Promoted Tweets, broadcasters reach new audiences and open up new business lines. Brand advertisers get, for the first time, an integrated cross-platform tool for reaching the social conversation wherever it happens. The company is branding the deals as “Twitter Amplify” or, as one executive said on stage, simply “Twitter Amp.” Other partners, which join earlier participants like ESPN and the NFL, include A&E, Time Inc and Warner Music. The announcement is part of Twitter’s effort to strut its stuff before Madison Avenue and to show that it is now part of “the New York City community.” The company is engaged in a major push to raise revenue as it prepares for an IPO widely expected to take place later this year. Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.Social media in Q1: commerce and discovery dominatedPlayers and Strategies for Real-Time In-Stream AdvertisingExamining the rise of crowd labor platforms in 2012

Google on Thursday announced plans to beef up the encryption of the connections made to its services. The company is aiming to upgrade all of its SSL certificates to 2048-bit keys by the end of 2013. Google will also be changing the root certificate that signs all of its SSL certificates, since it also still uses a less-secure 1024-bit key. The company says it will begin switching to the new 2048-bit certificates on August 1, giving itself a solid five months to “ensure adequate time for a careful rollout before the end of the year.” That’s still over three months away, but Google is announcing its plan now because it knows some configurations will require extra steps to avoid complications. The company specifically mentions client software embedded in devices such as some phones, printers, set-top boxes, gaming consoles, and cameras. As a result, client software that makes SSL connections to Google (usually in the form of HTTPS) must adhere to the following requirements: Perform normal validation of the certificate chain. Include a properly extensive set of root certificates contained. Support Subject Alternative Names (SANs). For the second point, Google offers an example set in its FAQ which should be sufficient. That being said, the firm warns the contents of the list may change over time, so clients should make sure they have a way to update it themselves as changes occur. Last but not least, Google notes clients should, but are not required to, support the Server Name Indication (SNI) extension as they may need to make an extra API call to set the hostname on an SSL connection. If you’re not sure your client is using SNI, test it against https://googlemail.com — this URL will only validate if you are sending SNI. Again, most will not be affected by this change. If you think you will be, however, you’ll want to read over the more technical details in this document: How to Use X.509 Certificates and SSL For Secure Communications. Top Image Credit: Miguel Saavedra

Twitter chief revenue officer Adam Bain and MIT Media Lab Cognitive Machines director Deb Roy launched a new TV ad targeting platform for Twitter advertisers today. The concept is simple: Advertisers run TV ad campaigns and Twitter promoted tweets simultaneously, and then — via Twitter TV Ad Targeting — consumers on Twitter are targeted with promoted tweets. The intent is to take advantage of the way that advertisers seem to get improved results if they can talk to consumers on Twitter while they're watching TV. GE, McDonald's and Microsoft have tested the product in beta. When GE ran one of its "Brilliant Machines" spots featuring agent Smith from The Matrix, "When a consumer went to Twitter they were smartly targeted," Bain told about 200 ad agency and marketing types at the New York launch. Here's a look at the analytics dashboard that goes along with it: Please follow Advertising on Twitter and Facebook.Join the conversation about this story »

The formation of a new units is part of Intel's re-organization.

Three months after launching in beta, TechStars grad Bondsy is releasing its self-titled iPhone app to the public with the goal of helping friends “trade things you can’t put a price on.” Bondsy first made its debut on stage last year during TechStars NY’s demo day. At the time, the startup was pitched as “the social network of things” — a highly vague, but also quite accurate description. You’ll see why shortly. Like submitting an item to Craigslist, Bondsy lets you sell, trade or give away just about anything. The key difference, of course, is that with Bondsy, you’re dealing solely with friends. Aside from making the entire process significantly less uncomfortable, trading with friends opens up an entire world of opportunities. Founder Diego Zambrano says he’s seen everything from apartment rentals for cash to playdates with fernando the dog in exchange for ice cream. Everything from services to like-new, used and found items are fair game. And without restrictions, Bondsy becomes an entertaining way to foster deeper connections with the people you know. As Zambrano puts it, “when you aren’t forced to pay with money, things get a lot more interesting.” If your interest is piqued, try out the app for yourself, and let us know what you think in the comments below. ? Bondsy

Onavo, a startup that offers five apps across iOS and Android to help users track and compress the amount of data they use on the Internet, as well as protect their information online, has published new data today revealing the most popular video games being sold on the App Store. To help users catch the biggest data-hogging culprits on their mobile devices (and for the entire service to work really) Onavo requires users to send them information about their data consumption habits. That gives the company some pretty accurate and valuable metrics on mobile app usage, which has resulted in Onavo Insights. The company’s latest study, released today, examines a plethora of video games downloaded and played by iPhone owners during April 2013, with a sample size that was “well into the millions,” according to the company. The results found that arcade games garnered the highest market share in the App Store, with 66 percent of gamers downloading and playing titles such as Subway Surfers and Sonic Dash. The action category, which featured mammoth hits Temple Run and Clash of Clans, followed at 57 percent. Rounding out the top four were puzzle games and word-related games with a 49 percent and 42 percent market share respectively. These figures represent not only what gamers are interested in playing, but also the types of games being created by both independent and large-scale developers alike for iOS. After all, if there’s only a smattering of racing games available in the App Store, it should come as no surprise that gamers are spending less of their spare time playing them. The flip side to this argument is, of course, that developers arguably create video games based on what players are interested in. The eruption of Temple Run, for example, triggered a wave of other ‘endless runner’ titles trying to capitalize on Imangi Studios’ success. Data related to user engagement, or the amount of time gamers spent playing each game over the four-week period, shows a rather different story, however. So-called ‘dice’ games, which represent various casino activities such as slot machines, came out on top with more than 10 days played on average. It’s a little worrying, but plays into the belief that any form of gambling can be highly addictive for some players. Simulation cranks in at second place with 9.3 days per month, on average, which again makes sense given the time-sink nature of something like The Sims 3 or hyper-realistic flight simulators. Casino is also in the top five genres here, but of note is ‘arcade’ all the way at the bottom. This ‘hero to zero’ trend can be attributed, at least in part, to the short gameplay sessions and ‘pick up and play attitude’ which titles such as Ridiculous Fishing thrive on. It’s not to say that players don’t enjoy them – not by a long shot – but it does highlight the varying play styles pioneered by these different genres. Retention, last but not least, points to the lasting appeal of games in the App Store. It’s an important metric which often highlights the underlying quality of a game such as Angry Birds or Plants vs. Zombies. Here dice games continue to come out on top, while kids titles and role-playing games (RPG) follow in second and third. The high placing of RPGs is perhaps expected, given the longer campaign length of something like Final Fantasy IV or The World Ends With You: Solo Remix. Genre popularity will no doubt fluctuate from month-to-month, but it’s always valuable to take a snap-shot of current consumer trends. Gaming is one of the most popular and successful sections of the App Store,and shouldn’t be underestimated as a contributing factor to the continued success of the iOS platform. Image Credit: SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images Disclosure: This article contains an affiliate link. While we only ever write about products we think deserve to be on the pages of our site, The Next Web may earn a small commission if you click through and buy the pro

TaskRabbit might have popularized the idea of hiring people looking to make money for menial tasks like dogwalking or grocery shopping, but in an effort to capture a more profitable market, the company is going to begin challenging temp agencies by providing businesses with short-term labor. The company began targeting businesses as customers for its thousands of employees — or rabbits — across the nation during SXSW in March, when it launched TaskRabbit for business. That announcement allowed companies to hire employees on an hourly basis through the service and hire more than one rabbit at once. But Thursday’s announcement takes this much further, particularly by handling the paperwork for businesses who want to hire temps, and by providing information like resumes to potential employers, who can pick which ones to hire. This is TaskRabbit’s new goal: to shake up the decades-old temp industry. However, the classic TaskRabbit service for consumers will remain unchanged. The move makes sense, as charging a business a percentage of a month-long salary will likely be a more profitable and stable form of revenue than taking a percentage of fees paid for a few hours of dog-walking, for instance. Plus, TaskRabbit employees said they’d already discovered businesses were trying to use the service for hiring for temporary administrative positions, so making the option official was a no-brainer. “The temp industry hasn’t had a lot innovation in a long time, said Victor Echevarria, who heads business development at TaskRabbit. “So we’re moving away from the notion of tasks and moving toward the value of jobs.” The company has taken in a little less than $40 million in funding, and reported that revenue is five times greater than it was a year ago. TaskRabbit already has 15,000 companies signed up for TaskRabbit for business, and expects more to be joining after this new addition. This new component will allow TaskRabbits to use a LinkedIn connect feature to pull in their resumes to the site, and they’ll be able to write a cover letter when applying for jobs. Potential employers can input information about the job they’re posting and select the corresponding paperwork (1099 contract employees versus those with W2 forms.) TaskRabbit will then show them the candidates for different positions, corresponding resume information, and then provide the required paperwork. “The biggest challenge was compliance. Businesses who want to hire temps or even want to hire people full-time, there’s a lot of paperwork and headaches involved in having a compliant workforce,” he said. “A large percentage of the work we put into this was creating a legally complaint solution.” Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.Social 2013: The enterprise strikes backOpportunities and risks in the share economyThe quantified self: hacking the body for better health