Share New Apple voice phishing scam looks just like a real support call – Rare Norm a few months ago A new voice phishing scam is going after iPhone users in a clever new way: by making calls seem like they are coming directly from Apple Support. Brian Krebs reported today that a user, Jody Westby, got a call from Apple Support asking for her to call back. The contact information that came along with […]
Share Swarms of tiny satellites could act like one giant space telescope – Rare Norm a few months ago It won’t be long before the James Webb Space Telescope is launched, an enormous and complex feat of engineering — but all one piece. That’s a good thing for now, but new research suggests that in the near future giant telescopes like the Webb might be replaced (or at least augmented) by swarms of tiny […]
Share Samsung’s Space Monitor is practical and minimal – Rare Norm a few months ago Samsung always has a huge presence at CES, but it isn’t the giant TVs and flashy next-generation gadgets that have my attention this year; it’s this simple, flexible monitor that looks like it would be right at home in any workspace. It’s called the Space Monitor, presumably because it gives you space, not because it’s […]
Share 3D-printed gun activist Cody Wilson indicted for sexual assault – Rare Norm a few months ago The State of Texas has indicted Cody Wilson, a 3D-printed gun rights activist who fought to allow makers to post and print guns, of sexual assault after he had sex with a 17-year-old girl. The affidavit noted that he met the girl on a website for finding “sugar daddies.” The indictment, posted on Ars, notes […]
Share Hackers hijack thousands of Chromecasts to warn of latest security bug – Rare Norm a few months ago Hackers have hijacked thousands of exposed Chromecast streaming devices to warn users of the latest security flaw to affect the device. But other security researchers say that the bug — if left unfixed — could be used for more disruptive attacks. The culprits, known as Hacker Giraffe and J3ws3r, have become the latest person to figure […]
Share FCC greenlights Soli, Google’s radar-based gesture tech – Rare Norm a few months ago Google has won U.S. regulatory approval to go ahead with a radar-based motion sensor that could make touchscreens look obsolete in the coming years. Known as the Soli Project, the initiative began in 2015 inside Google’s Advanced Technology and Projects unit, a group responsible for turning the giant’s cutting-edge ideas into products. We’ve seen a […]
Share The New Horizons probe buzzes the most distant object ever encountered first thing tomorrow – Rare Norm a few months ago Four billion miles from Earth, the New Horizons probe that recently sent such lovely pictures of Pluto is drawing near to the most distant object mankind has ever come close to: Ultima Thule, a mysterious rock deep in the Kuiper belt. The historic rendezvous takes place early tomorrow morning. This is an encounter nearly 30 […]
Share MIT researchers are now 3D printing glass – Rare Norm a few months ago While the thought of a machine that can squirt out endless ropes of molten glass is a bit frightening, the folks at MIT have just about perfected the process. In a paper published in 3D Printing and Additive Manufacturing, researchers Chikara Inamura, Michael Stern, Daniel Lizardo, Peter Houk, and Neri Oxman describe a system for […]
Share Put down your phone if you want to innovate – Rare Norm a few months ago We are living in an interstitial period. In the early 1980s we entered an era of desktop computing that culminated in the dot-com crash – a financial bubble that we bolstered with Y2K consulting fees and hardware expenditures alongside irrational exuberance over Pets.com . That last interstitial era, an era during which computers got smaller, […]
Share Iota Biosciences raises $15M to produce in-body sensors smaller than a grain of rice – Rare Norm a few months ago Fitness trackers and heart-rate monitors are all well and good, but if you want to track activity inside the body, the solutions aren’t nearly as convenient. Iota Biosciences wants to change that with millimeter-wide sensors that can live more or less permanently in your body and transmit wirelessly what they detect, and a $15 million […]
