Project Loon came out of the same “Project X” skunkworks that gave birth to the driverless car. The grand vision is to send hundreds – or thousands – of weather-balloon style craft into the upper atmosphere. Instead of tethering a blimp, these would be allowed to move with the wind, and steered by either lifting or lowering them into air-streams moving in different directions.

At 60,000 feet (around 20,000 metres), they’re well above air traffic altitudes, so there’s no danger to passing aircraft. The Google-designed solar-powered radio kit is designed to deliver “3G-like” speeds to users with a “special antenna” within a 40 Km footprint for each balloon. The balloons will also communicate with each other, and with ground stations to get to the Internet backbone. Balloons will only have a relatively short lifetime, but they ought to send enough telemetry and GPS data back to Earth to allow recovery after landing so the radio kit can be dispatched on a new mission.

As this setup is relatively cheap, Google has no trouble imagining this as a means to bring affordable broadband to the whole world.

Thin strips of photovoltaic cells with a transparent film, overlaid with a semi-cylindrical lens to focus incoming light onto the cells. This structure would sit between the smartphone’s screen and the glass touchscreen cover.

We’ve been told that prototypes have already achieved 82 percent transparency, with a target of 90 percent.

At an additional build cost of a couple of dollars for the solar layer and power electronics, the technology would add 20 percent to battery life in normal use, and it can harvest enough solar power for a phone in daylight to idle indefinitely.

The technology company claims it’s working with three manufacturers to test the technology. Let’s wait and see

Why Should I Be Aware Of DDoS Attacks?
Hacker forums, blogs, and even YouTube share easily accessible information on how to set up a DDoS attack, making it so that practically anyone with an Internet connection can Launch their own attack. Attackers can rent botnets or purchase relatively cheap tools to Launch their attack. Due to the growing ease of launching DDoS attacks, the number of attacks is also on the rise. In 2012, there was a 53% increase in the total number of DDoS attacks over 2011 with a 1.9% increase in total DNS attacks. DDoS attacks are not only obnoxious to deal with, but they can be a great detriment to your company.

Key Takeaways
The best way to avoid any disruption from a DDoS attack is to be prepared for it. Talk to your DNS provider and ask about their mitigation techniques, and if you currently are doing everything in-house or are relying on your ISP or a evaluate your situation. Do you feel confident that what you have in place can successfully mitigate an attack? If you are having a hard time deciding whether or not you actually need to invest in a stronger mitigation technique (e.g. you believe your industry or business is at a Low risk of an attack), figure out the impact it would have on your company financially if it were to happen. Although it may not be an apparent risk, the cost associated with being attacked is usually much higher than the cost to take safeguards.

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The system, which Airbus is modestly referring to as “The reinvention of baggage”, contains sensors and an RFID chip which allow it to take care of tasks like weighing the contents of the suitcase automatically as well as communicating with the check-in system of various airlines.

Developed in partnership with mobile service provider T-Mobile and German luggage maker Rimowa, the Bag2Go system is still at the prototype stage but shows Airbus thinking beyond its traditional plane travel service provision.

According to the promotional video the app would be of use from the packing stage onwards, offering lists of restricted items and monitoring the weight of your bag’s contents. Scanning a QR code would sync your now-ready suitcase with your inventory and seal it for the journey.

Once you’ve checked your suitcase — or taken advantage of a door-to-door courier service — the app would keep you informed (well, for the parts of your journey where you’re allowed to be using electrical devices) of your bag’s progress and whether the case has been opened.

The idea is to reduce the stress associated with travel luggage, however the system does not describe any extra procedures for ensuring nothing terrible happens to your possessions beyond the fact they are being monitored. As a result, one potential scenario would have you sitting on a plane helplessly watching your bags make a round trip to a completely different country.

Speaking about the bag system, Airbus’s Chief Innovation Officer said that the bag is currently expected to cost only slightly more than its non-techy equivalent — somewhere in the region of a 20 percent price increase.

Kaspersky Labs researchers discovered the Trojan, and have named it Backdoor.AndroidOS.Obad.a. That’s not a great name for what may be the most sophisticated piece of Android malware to date, as well as the prototype for a new generation of aggressive security-evading mobile Trojans. From the instant Obad.a arrives on a system, it is geared towards avoiding detection until it’s too late.

The first big Android vulnerability Obad.a uses relates to the processing of the AndroidManifest.xml file. Every Android app has a manifest file, which tells the OS about its structure and components. Obad.a’s manifest is malformed in a way that hides its intentions and ensures installation.

Even when Obad.a gets a foothold on a system, it keeps most of its code encrypted to make identification that much more difficult. Components are only decrypted when needed. For example, the addresses of the command and control servers are not decrypted until an Internet connection is verified.

Once the Trojan is in place, it goes after the next previously unknown Android vulnerability by exploiting Android’s Administrator function. Certain regular apps request Administrator rights on Android, which allows functions like locking the screen, reading notifications, and remote wiping the device. Obad.a has a different goal in mind – an application that has been granted access to Administrator functions cannot be uninstalled.

Standard apps that are intentionally added to the Administrator list by a user can be de-authorised at any time and uninstalled. The exploit utilised by Obad.a prevents it from showing up on the list of Administrator apps. Thus, even a user aware of its presence cannot remove Obad.a from the device once it’s entrenched. To further confuse efforts to remove it, the Trojan has no interface at all – it runs only as a background service.

After evading detection and barricading itself inside, the Trojan goes to work doing the kind of things all malware does – it exports your personal information, downloads and installs additional malicious apps, spams your contacts, and tries to send premium-rate SMS messages. Yes, even this masterful example of evil coding exists simply to make money.

A bit more unconventionally, Obad.a will start seeking out nearby Bluetooth devices and attempts to send copies of itself to them. Should an infected device have root access, the command and control server can execute remote terminal commands and essentially do anything.

The Obad.a Trojan illustrates a number of serious vulnerabilities in the structure of Android. It’s troubling that this one piece of malware exploits two previously unknown, high risk flaws in Google’s security. The real threat isn’t Obad.a – the exploits will be patched and virus definitions will be updated. The problem is bigger than that: Android may have finally become a large enough target that it makes sense for Internet villains to create complex, stubborn malware of the sort previously reserved for  Windows. It could be a big headache for Google in the coming years.

At the company’s Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco on Monday, the company unveiled the next version of Safari, which Apple says will have significantly faster page rendering, better security, and will make it easier to read multiple articles on the same site.

The Safari 7 update introduces to the browser stronger connections to OS X’s password-management tool called Keychain. Leveraging the iCloud browser syncing that debuted in last year’s Safari, iCloud Keychain is an encrypted password creation tool that suggests new passwords automatically. In addition to Web site log-ins, iCloud Keychain stores credit card numbers, account info, and Wi-Fi passwords, said Apple’s head of Mac software engineering, Craig Federighi.

Safari 7 will change the Top Sites home page, so that it includes bookmarks, Reading List, and “shared links.” The update to Reading List lets you keep scrolling when you reach the end of one article, seamlessly loading the next one. Shared links makes it easy to post to social networks like Twitter and LinkedIn. Notably, Facebook was not one of the partners shown, which could indicate a cooling of the relationship between the two companies.

The new Safari’s Nitro JavaScript engine will get Just-In-Time rendering, making it faster; and Apple has split browser tab processes so that when one tab crashes, the rest of the browser doesn’t. Other optimization improvements include shared memory rescue cache, background tab optimization, and better per-tab power management. You’ll be able to have more tabs open simultaneously, “and do more on your system,” Federighi said.

Apple claimed that Firefox and Chrome run 30 percent slower than Safari 7, using benchmarks provided.

Further improvements to the browser include more CSS3 and HTML5 support, ICC profiles which will give the browser better color management, Acid3 test compliance, inline PDF management, and blocking of third-party cookies. Those changes, however, bring it in line with the competition.

Last year’s update to Safari 6 brought interface and feature changes, but the improvements tended to follow the leadership of other browser vendors. Safari 6 followed the competition to abandon its single-purpose search bar in favor of a unified search-and-URL location bar. As with Chrome, and optional in Firefox, the combination bar cleared up a significant chunk of the ever-dwindling browser screen real estate and made desktop Safari look more like its mobile sibling. Safari 6 also debuted tab syncing via iCloud, another feature also available from competitors with their own proprietary syncing systems.

Safari 7 is expected when OS X Mavericks debuts later this year.

The $200 barrel lock, codenamed “August”, was on Wednesday unveiled by self-described serial entrepreneur Jason Johnson. He attempted to justify the device by highlighting its ability to issue temporary digital keys to invited visitors – a mere decade after the same thing was demonstrated by Japan’s DoCoMo, a technology called Felica.

Felica – which can be viewed as a predecessor to radiowave-powered communications technology NFC (found in pay-by-wave bank cards and such stuff) – is ubiquitous in Japanese handsets and has been able to manage digital door keys for years. But Felica is not used much – some rented apartments and hotels adopted the tech – as the cost of fitting and maintaining the locks is prohibitive.

Electronic keyholes aren’t limited to the Land of the Rising Sun: the Wi-Fi-connected Lockitron is $20 cheaper than Johnson’s August and can be remotely controlled (and unlocked) over the internet: either you operate it via Lockitron’s website or wave an authorised Bluetooth compatible iPhone near it.

But the Lockitron’s reliance on Wi-Fi to reach the internet will certainly lead to a shorter battery life – we can’t judge that properly as both the Lockitron and the August are little more than slideware right now. The Lockitron’s designers said their gadget’s batteries will last “up to” one year.

Wi-Fi is probably excessive for a lock, which is why the August is using Bluetooth Low Energy, a tech that does exactly what it says on the tin. That also enables the August to work when its internet connectivity goes down; as mentioned above, the Lockitron can also fall back to Bluetooth 4.0 to accept digital keys.

Protecting the lock’s cryptographic keys stored on an insecure handset is a security headache, however. Felica, with its built-in secured storage electronics, doesn’t have that problem, and neither does NFC which is why the mainstream manufacturers such as Yale and HID Global are sticking with NFC for their e-lock products.

Solutions from existing lock manufacturers won’t turn on the lights nor stick the kettle on as one enters the house. Neither will the August, not yet at least, but Johnson’s presentation at the AllThingsD conference this week promised the August will have an open programming interface, so someone could create such a kettle if they wished.

The August isn’t a door lock, it’s a 21st Century lifestyle choice. That’s what we’re told, anyway.

It would be nice to say that the obvious shortfall in desirable functionality, and existing competitors, would damn the August to market failure, but that would be ignoring the power of slick design and celebrity backing. A thousand people apparently ordered an August in the first hour of its unveiling, again proving (as though proof were needed) that looking good is much more important than being utilitarian.

Cupertino has signed a deal with Universal Music Group granting Apple the rights to UMG’s recorded music but not to any music publishing rights, which covers songs written by Universal artists.

Apple has also signed a deal with Warner Music Group for both recorded music and music publishing rights. It is thought to still be in talks with Sony Music Entertainment and its subsidiary Sony/ATV, which is co-owned by Michael Jackson’s estate and holds the rights to the Beatles’ songs as well as modern ditties penned by Taylor Swift and Lady Gaga.

Apple will want to have all the loose ends tied up before its annual WWDC conference on 10 June. Tim Cook is expected to wheel out new Macbook models to replace the current range.

The new music service, dubbed iRadio by the tech press, is expected to be free and paid for by advertising, although there may be the option to take a subscription which will get rid of the corporate messages.

Despite the enormous popularity of streaming music, it is not particularly lucrative for performers and songwriters. Lady Gaga was reported to have received just over £100 from Spotify in 2009 after her song Poker Face was played more than a million times. Just last year, publishers were fighting off Pandora’s attempt to lessen the percentage of revenues it pays them, which according to the New York Times is about 4 per cent. The same article claims the major labels want Apple to hand over something in the region of 10 per cent.

This desire to cash in on a notoriously unprofitable sector may have been a sticking point in Apple’s negotiations with the music giants. The rumoured iRadio has been on the cards for some time, but making it happen has proven difficult for Cupertino.

However, despite teething problems, any Apple-endorsed streaming music service has the potential to be extremely profitable, as it would allow customers to preview music and then buy it directly from iTunes.

The numbers say it all with the world’s leading information technology research and advisory company, Gartner estimating that the purchase of tablets by businesses will more than triple in four years, going from 13 million units in 2012 to 53 million units by 2016.

1. Portable point of sales

Businesses that buy iPads for staff in-store can see the benefits straight away. Point of sales apps for tablets are slowly changing the way shops sell products. Sales assistant can nowadays simply walk up to a customer, show them the product range on an iPad screen, take an order and print out the receipt right on the spot via a portable printer. This new style of processing orders has the potential for replacing a traditional till. There’s even a facility for mobile card reading with services such as Square and the newly launched PayPal iPad app for small businesses.

2. Modernising traditional processes

Tablet computers have helped cut down on paperwork by moving data onto a digital platform. This was the case with specialist insurance provider Lloyd’s of London. It started using iPads to modernise their underwriting services. By 2011, Lloyd’s brokers had replaced hefty paper documents with iPads. With tablet computers offering important business data at any location, employees also get more face-to-face time with colleagues and customers. Senior management at another insurance broker BMS Group – who also introduced iPads – believe that along with streamlining the business process, the tablets encourage face-to-face contact in the London market.

3. On-site project management

Tablets have also been staking their claim on factory floors, construction sites and warehouses. Factory workers can look up inventory and equipment related information while on the move. As important project drawings are now available onsite, construction supervisors can check the quality of on-going work on the spot. Although the iPad was the initial first choice on factory floors, recent trends suggest that cheaper Android devices such as the new Samsung Galaxy Tab are also proving popular in industrial environments, with some manufacturers even coming up with waterproof and shockproof models.

4. Business presentations

Tablets are the nec plus ultra as far as modern business presentations go. Portability and flat screen ensure they can be used on most surfaces (and even held up). There are plenty of apps for Apple’s iPad and Android tablets that can help employees deliver killer presentations in a boardroom or in a more informal setting. Apple’s Keynote for the iPad combines some nifty features such as diverse themes, artistic transition effects and can be remotely controlled by an iPhone. Google’s CloudOn app for Android allows users to access Microsoft Office including PowerPoint. Microsoft has made the latest version of its Office suite more tablet-friendly with easy swipe and tab functions. What’s more, the Presenter View can now be customised to any projection set up and it can also be used on a single monitor.

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Security experts have warned that years after it was first identified, the Preferred Networks List (PNL) Wi-Fi bug remains unaddressed on many an iPhone, Android phone, and Windows or BlackBerry handset.

The problem itself is simple enough. When searching for networks, a poor Wi-Fi implementation can result in a device exposing its PNL list to eavesdroppers. This could allow an attacker to spoof one of the network that appears on the user’s list, becoming the vector for a man-in-the-middle attack.

PNL disclosure remains a problem in Android 2, 3 and 4, may occur when users add networks manually in iOS 1-6, and in BlackBerry 7. It has also been fixed in some versions of Windows Mobile.

Some mobile operating systems (BlackBerry, for example) give users enough control that the problem can be fixed manually – but only, if the user knows there’s a problem and knows how to fix it.

Given the growing popularity of BYOD in the business environment, there’s the added danger of a fake preferred network being used to capture corporate logins. System administrators need to ensure that devices hide Wi-Fi network data (where this is possible), Android needs to be upgraded to allow users to hide new networks.

We need to stress that these types of client attacks are commonly left unchecked and without consideration, the modern smartphone could become the ultimate digital “Trojan Horse”, allowing attacks to breach ultra-secure locations.

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