Microsoft pays $100k bounty to British researcher who found Windows 8.1 bug

James Forshaw, who works for Context Information Security, discovered the bug in a preview version of the Windows 8.1 system. Photograph: Context Information Security/PA

 

James Forshaw gets £63,000 reward for discovering fault in software defences that could have been exploited by hackers

Microsoft has paid $100,000 (£62,600) to the British researcher James Forshaw for finding a critical security flaw in the software firm's upcoming Windows 8.1 operating system.

A Handheld "Power Plant"

If you're frustrated with the poor battery life of your devices, and you're always hauling cords around to charge everything, Nectar could be your solution. Developed by the team at Lilliputian, Nectar will charge any of your USB 2.0 compatible devices on the go — giving you two weeks to a month of power in one portable, recyclable power pod. In other words, you no longer have to search for wall plug-ins at cafes, or disable apps on your phone to save battery life. With Nectar, you are completely self-reliant.

Infrared Car System Spots Wildlife On The Road

Since their debut 13 years ago, in-car night-vision systems, which identify pedestrians approaching a roadway, have arguably made driving safer. But they come with a pretty big blind spot: animals. Each year, drivers in the U.S. strike about a million deer, causing 27,000 human injuries and $3.5 billion in damage. This fall, Swedish safety-system company Auto­liv and Mercedes-Benz will roll out Night View Assist Plus on the 2014 S-Class. The system identifies people but also picks out cows, moose, horses, deer, camels, and even wild boar.

One reason the upgrade took five years is that recognizing animals is much more difficult than recognizing people. Species vary widely in size and shape, have profiles that change drastically when they turn, and move differently. (Humans, by comparison, have more or less the same shape and move in the same way.) To train the system, Autoliv cataloged thousands of animals across five continents.

Night View Assist Plus merges data from two cameras to create an illuminated view of what’s ahead. When an animal or pedestrian nears a roadway, the system highlights it on an in-dash display, and, if danger is imminent, sounds an alarm and pre-charges the car’s brakes. There’s one feature U.S. regulators have yet to approve, though: In the European version, a spotlight shines a tracking beam onto live obstacles in the road, making them almost impossible to miss.



By Lawrence Ulrich
http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2013-08/infrared-car-system-spots-wildlife

Spy With Remote Controlled RoboRoach

Spying with little insect in movies is not a fiction anymore! Now a cyborg called RoboRoach seems to be the one spying all around in reality. Cyborg is a term used for an organism that has enhanced abilities due to technology. Basically cyborg means human computer interaction or the ability of a computer to interact with the living organism (smaller in size) which is commonly heard as cybernetics.

http://realitypod.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/roboRoachGoRight.jpg

This RoboRoach is a remote controlled thingy and can be controlled by a single touch on your smartphone screen. The electronics system mounted on its back receives Bluetooth signals and

A FlashLight That Runs on Warmth of Body!

Ann Makosinski, is  a 15-year-old student from Canada’s St. Michaels University School and she invented a flashlight that is powered by warmth of human body.

 According to her, the human body can provide enough heat to power her created flashlight and  it can come in handy when you don’t have batteries or cells with you.

Futuristic One-Man Electric Helicopter

Japanese remote control helicopter maker Hirobo has unveiled a battery-powered helicopter that is designed for one person.

Compact, silent and futuristic, Hirobo’s one-man electric helicopter looks like the ultimate James Bond gadget! The helicopter prototype can travel up to 100km/h (62 mph).

The HX-1 employs contra-rotating rotors and is equipped with a fly-by-wire control system, says a company spokesman.

It can be flown by the occupant or with a remote control. One application for remote-controlled

It's a pen that can draw in the air!

3Doodler is the 3D printing pen you can hold in your hand. Lift your imagination off the page!

Have you ever just wished you could lift your pen off the paper and see your drawing become a real three dimensional object? Well now you can!

Firefox OS Tablets Coming Soon, Says Mozilla CTO

Mozilla says Firefox OS tablets will arrive ASAP.

Foxconn's prototype Firefox OS tablet

On Monday during a news conference in San Francisco, Brendan Eich, chief technology officer for Mozilla, said that with a new Firefox OS smartphone hitting shelves in Spain this week, Mozilla is now focusing on tablets. He didn't provide a specific timeframe, but instead told the press that a Firefox OS tablet will arrive as soon as possible.

Smartphones of the Future: 6 Predictions

Think your smartphone is powerful now? Wait until the year 2050, when Apple will have faded into oblivion (most major tech companies can last barely 30 years).

China Supercomputer Declared the World's Fastest

BEIJING - A Chinese supercomputer is the fastest in the world, according to survey results announced Monday, comfortably overtaking a U.S. machine which now ranks second.

Robot learns to recognize objects on its own

HERB, a robot butler under development at Carnegie Mellon University, can discover objects by itself.

When all the humans went home for the day, a personal-assistant robot under development in a university lab recently built digital images of a pineapple and a bag of bagels that were inadvertently left on a table – and figured out how it could lift them.