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Cruise RP-1 Kit Transforms Regular Audis Into Driverless Cars

Not quite fully autonomous, the Cruise RP-1 system kicks the concept of cruise control up a few notches. A qualified driver must be on board to steer the car on and off highways and to make any desired lane changes, but the automatic system can take over during long stretches, relieving tedium and allowing a driver to make more productive use of travel time.

Cruise aims to spark a revolution among autopilot technology with a US$10,000 accessory that consumers can use to create a self-driving car, of sorts.

At the heart of the Cruise RP-1 system is a sensor pod that gets mounted on the roof of a car. It utilizes cameras, data and radar to analyze the vehicle's surroundings. With that information, it can make changes in steering to keep a driver within lane boundaries, monitor nearby vehicles or other obstacles, and move or brake to avoid a collision.

The RP-1, which is meant to be used on the highway during daylight hours only, comes with an app that gives the driver insight into what the sensor pod is seeing and doing. So, a driver could steer a vehicle to the desired lane on a highway, then push a button to allow the RP-1 system to take control. The driver can regain control simply by tapping the gas pedal or grabbing the steering wheel, as with a standard cruise control system.

As of now, the technology is compatible only with Audi A4 and S4 models, but Cruise is working on expanding availability going forward.

Cruise opened preorders on Monday. The first 50 customers to pay the full $10k in advance will become members of the Founders Club. Others can reserve an RP-1 system for $1k.

The company is shooting for launch in the first half of 2015. That date depends on a few factors, though, including the results of third-party testing and ensuring compliance with California's restrictions on such devices.

Sweet Spot

Beyond being safer in general, driverless autos could provide more transportation freedom to non-drivers, such as the elderly or disabled, say proponents. Google is road-testing a driverless car that doesn't even have an interior steering wheel.

Cruise's technology isn't there yet -- it requires a driver at the wheel. It's designed to ease the driving experience and help people avoid mistakes that lead to collision, rather than to do all the driving automatically.

"Google is taking on some of those hard problems like people with a lack of mobility," Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt told the reporters, "but we're kind of starting from the opposite end, helping people who maybe get stuck in traffic and building on that. We see ourselves tackling those hard problems several years down the road."

New Approach

One of the company's biggest challenges will be winning consumer approval and trust, Vogt acknowledged. Giving up even a little control of a vehicle can be a scary thing, and an established brand like Google might have an easier time getting people on board.

That attitude is understandable, said Vogt, which is one of the reasons Cruise unveiled the RP-1 so early.

"We are working to earn our consumer's trust by doing plenty of demos, being transparent about what we're doing with testing, and bringing in third-party testers," he noted. "We wanted to announce this well before we launched the first prototypes, so that we could have time to win confidence."

That's a smart startup branding strategy, said Alain Kornhauser, professor of operations research and financial engineering at Princeton University, and director of its Transportation Program. It is a great way to get people talking about the potential of a quality product.

"The challenge is trust. It may take a little while, but I'm sure that they'll brand their message so people will trust them more than GM," Kornhauser told the reporters. "There is a substantial base of drivers that would love to take their hands off the wheel some of the time. This has the opportunity to go viral. If not this effort, it could lead to others sprouting out around it."

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All Things Appy: Top 5 iOS Utilities and Tools

Native file management has never been one of iOS' strong points, particularly if you're used to Windows-based file browsing. However, this app helps fill some holes with a local file browser, sharing of local files via FTP, reading Office documents and more. This is the free, well-featured come-on version. There's also a paid power edition that includes such things as PDF markup.

While Apple's mobile operating system does hold users' hands when it comes to device management more so than competitor Android, there are additional steps you can take to optimize your iOS device.

Free third-party utilities are available in app form to beef up battery management, cloud storage and camera backup, as well as to find lost phones, among other things.

Here's a look at the top five free utilities and tools for iOS.

About Apple's Apps: Apple's apps can be installed from the iTunes store. Browse to the store from your phone or iPad and then search for the app you want to download.

No. 1: Battery Doctor HD

Battery Doctor HD is rated 4-plus stars out of a possible 5 for all versions, based on 2,201 ratings, and four-plus stars out of 5 for the current version based on 93 ratings in the iTunes App Store.

This iPad app, from Beijing Kingsoft, is one of the most popular battery management tools available in the iTunes store, and it looks fabulous with its elegant and sophisticated graphic design.

However, where it really helps in iPad battery management is in its power-saving tips, along with steps as to how to accomplish the power savings.

For example, it suggests limiting of use of location services and shows how to achieve that through Settings changes.

Similar apps are available for iPhones too.

No. 2: Dropbox

Dropbox is rated 3-plus stars out of a possible 5 for all versions based on 42,833 ratings, and 4 stars out of five for the current version based on 97 ratings in the iTunes App Store

Still our favorite cloud-based file storage and backup option, this service commonly is found on Android devices and Microsoft PCs too, so it's significantly more functional than native Apple offerings.

The killer feature in this app is the automatic camera upload capability, which shunts a device's camera-captured images to a cloud-based Dropbox account folder that can be shared seamlessly among family and colleagues.

No. 3: Find My iPhone

Find My iPhone is rated 3 stars out of a possible 5 for all versions based on 63,694 ratings, and 4 stars out of 5 for the current version based on 2,029 ratings in the iTunes App Store.

Find My iPhone does pretty much what it says it does. Lose your device and all may not be lost, because you can log on to another iOS iPad or iPhone, and see the detected missing smartphone or tablet on a map.

Additional functionality includes the ability to remotely lock the device, play sounds, display messages or wipe it. If you want to play detective, you can see where it's been, too.

No. 4: FileApp

FileApp is rated 3 stars out of a possible 5 for all versions based on 14,589 ratings, and 3 stars out of 5 for the current version based on 7 ratings in the iTunes App Store.

Native file management has never been one of iOS' strong points, particularly if you're used to Windows-based file browsing. However, this app helps fill some holes with a local file browser, sharing of local files via FTP, reading Office documents and more.

This is the free, well-featured come-on version. There's also a paid power edition that includes such things as PDF markup.

No. 5: Flashlight

Flashlight is rated 3-plus stars out of a possible 5 for all versions based on 78,699 ratings, and 4-plus stars out of 5 for the current version based on 377 ratings in the iTunes App Store.

iHandy's Flashlight is a hugely popular add-on, and it includes a bonus compass. If you aren't running the latest version of iOS, which has a flashlight built in, this app lets you read menus in darkened restaurants, among other things.

A strobe mode with different frequencies, a mini-map and an SOS signal might save your life in an emergency too.

Ever Wondered how to make your video viral ?

Ever Wondered how to make your video viral ?

guys have you ever wondered how to make your video viral hit? do you dream of millions of likings for your video? 

if yes ,then it's sure for you.

so let me tell you some simple steps to make this dream come true.

1

Establish benchmarks for the viral video.

• Keep the video short—between 15-90 seconds is ideal.
• Allow the video to be easily remixed.
• Do not advertise in the video.
• Create shock value.

1. 2
   Make 3-5 videos.
2. 3
   Start a focus group for the videos.
3. 4
   Determine if the video meets any of the following traits.
   • Unique.
   • Funny.
   • Stupid.
   • Dangerous.
   • Strange/Weird.
   • Gross.
   • Worth talking about.
4. 5
   Upload your video to TubeMogul and syndicate to 10 networks.
5. 6
   Find videos relevant to yours in YouTube, and submit yours as an answer.
6. 7
   Promote the video on Social Networks.
7. 8
   Find discussion boards relevant to your video and submit as a post.
8. 9
   Submit your video to StumbleUpon in the YouTube section.
9. 10
   Submit your video on Fark and Big Boards.

10. Tips

    TIPZ

    • Don't copy other viral videos, it's wrong and you'll get hate mail!
    • Continuous promotion of your video will be the key to your success.
    • TubeMogul.com is free, and comes with analytics for each site that you have syndicated your video to.

11. Warnings

    P.S

    • It's not easy to create a viral video, and requires ongoing support and promotion until it hits critical mass.

Heartbleed Flaw Goes Unpatched on 300K Servers: Report

Perhaps the most difficult obstacle to overcome in the Heartbleed security mess is getting people to apply the patches necessary to correct the flaw. Although most of the servers identified as still vulnerable to Heartbleed belong to unknown firms, a few are located in well-known ones. "No computer should be exposed to the Internet that isn't regularly patched," warned Errata CEO Robert Graham

Two months after the Heartbleed vulnerability sent frissons of fear down the spines of IT managers everywhere, 300,000 servers still remain vulnerable, Errata Security said this weekend.

That figure has remained unchanged since May.

When the flaw was announced in April, Errata found 600,000 servers vulnerable.

"The norm is to do no patches at all for some systems, no matter how easy it is to patch," Errata CEO Robert Graham told us.

"If they're retirement management systems, [being left unpatched] won't be a problem," Graham said, "but if they're on a power grid, there is a problem."

What Heartbleed Is and Does

Heartbleed, which has been around since 2011, lets hackers steal information protected by the SSL/TLS encryption used to secure the Internet.

OpenSSL stores a server's private key material in the memory space used by the code handling the heartbeat messages.

The flaw can be used to reveal up to 64 KB of memory to a connected client or server per heartbeat.

Users have to implement a patch issued by OpenSSL and go through all their certificates.

A Drop in the Ocean?

While 300,000 servers seems like a lot, "it isn't that big a number considering how big the Internet is," Steve Marquess, president of the OpenSSL Foundation, told us.

Exactly how many servers are out there may never be known, because there is no uniform way of counting off the servers. For example, Errata's Graham estimates about 30 million servers supportSSL, while Netcraft, which tracks domain names, set the figure at about 2.8 million.

"There's always going to be a certain number of systems that are going to be neglected," Marquess said. "You're never going to get that number down to zero. Look, there are still Windows 95 computers out there."

It is possible that some of the 300,000 unpatched servers Errata discovered last month already have been patched and new ones with the flaw have taken their place to keep the figure constant.

Most of the servers belong to unknown firms, but a few are located in well-known ones, Errata's Graham said, adding, "No computer should be exposed to the Internet that isn't regularly patched."

The Advent of BoringSSL

Meanwhile, staffer Adam Langley has announced that Google is changing the way it workswith OpenSSL code.

Google has used patches on top of OpenSSL for years, he said.

Some have been accepted into the main OpenSSL repository, but many don't mesh with OpenSSL's guarantee of application programming interface (API) and application binary interface (ABI) stability, noted Langley, and many are "a little too experimental."

Things have grown "very complex," with more than 70 patches existing across multiple code bases for Android, Chrome and other products, he said, which are beginning to need subsets of these patches.

Going forward, Google will import changes from OpenSSL rather than write code on top of those patches, said Langley. The result, called "BoringSSL" for now, soon will begin appearing in the Chromium repository, and later in Android, as well as in Google's internal systems.

Again, there are no guarantees of API or ABI stability with this code.

No Threat to OpenSSL

Google is "not aiming to replace OpenSSL as an open source project. We will still be sending them bug fixes when we find them," Langley said.

"Google has extremely extensive worldwide operations and has had some very smart people doing extensive customization for some time," OpenSSL's Marquess said. "We work closely with those people, and I don't see any changes at all."

Further, the company will continue to fund the Linux Foundation's Core Infrastructure Initiative, a multimillion-dollar project set up by several vendors to fund open source products critical to core computing functions.

Tide Turns in Favor of Crime-Fighting Smartphone Kill Switches

Despite strong industry resistance, it appears the campaign for kill switches in smartphones has won. Apple added a kill switch last year, and iPhone thefts dramatically declined. In the meantime, thefts of smartphones without kill switch technology continued to soar. Some victims of those thefts were harmed -- even killed. Now Google and Microsoft have agreed to add kill switches to their OSes.

In the wake of overwhelming evidence that the kill switch Apple introduced in iOS 7 last year has reduced iPhone thefts, Google and Microsoft have agreed to follow suit.

San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon and New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, who have spearheaded the battle to implement smartphone kill switches, last week announced that the next versions of Android and Windows Phone will include a kill switch.

Crimes related to iPhones -- robberies, muggings and theft, often involving violence against the victims -- were reaching epidemic proportions both in the United States and abroad, leading Gascon, Schneiderman and the mayor of London to set up the Secure Our Smartphones (S.O.S.) Initiative with the participation of law enforcement agencies.

Robberies and grand larcenies involving Apple products fell 19 percent and 29 percent respectively year over year in New York City from January to May, while the same crimes involving Samsung smartphones, which did not have a kill switch until April, increased by more than 40 percent, according to a report the Initiative released last week.

Don't expect to see the kill switch on every new smartphone out there yet, though.

"We'll probably see kill switch-enabled devices by 2016 at the earliest," Ramon Llamas, a senior analyst at IDC, told us.

"Carriers have already solidified what their 2015 lineup will look like. Then there's the question of how quickly you can implement the kill switch in the OS."

Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word

Wireless carriers and manufacturers fought the idea of a kill switch tooth and nail until giving in to unrelenting pressure from Gascon and Schneiderman.

CTIA, the Wireless Association, which represents carriers, wrote the U.S. Federal Communications Commission in June, arguing that kill switches would brick mobile devices, making them impossible to reactivate or reuse.

CTIA also argued that hackers could spoof a kill command, disabling entire groups of mobile devices owned by an organization such as the U.S. Department of Defense or a law enforcement agency.

Samsung proposed in November that it preload Lojack for Androidonto all its phones sold in the United States, but wireless carriers rejected the idea, Gascon told TechNewsWorld at the time.

In response to the pressure for a kill switch, CTIA set up a database designed to prevent stolen phones from being activated, although it worked only for 4G/LTE devices. Gascon dismissed it as a smoke screen, noting that a similar database in the UK was not effective.

CTIA also offered consumers apps for download, which could remotely erase, track and lock stolen devices.

In April, however, carriers dropped their opposition to kill switches, with the CTIA announcing a Smartphone Anti-Theft Voluntary Commitment, under which members pledged to implement kill switches on an opt-in basis.

Why the Industry Hates Kill Switches

Implementing the kill switch "was never a technology problem," said Carl Howe, a vice president of research at the Yankee Group, pointing out that Apple, BlackBerry and others have been able to wipe devices remotely for years.

"Carriers saw a nice revenue stream from phone insurance and replacement phones, and they didn't want to incur the coordination efforts and costs in implementing industry-wide kill switches without some revenue to go with," Howe continued.

"Microsoft and Google were simply waiting to see which way the wind blew before they got on board," Howe said.

It's not likely that implementing kill switches will hurt the industry through a loss of income from device insurance, however.

"My guess is that [carriers will] now introduce support for [anti-theft measures] under new insurance plans," Howe predicted.

Turning to the Law

Meanwhile, S.O.S., Schneiderman and Gascon have been working with lawmakers to push legislation to deter smartphone-related crimes.

S.O.S. is working with Rep. Jose Serrano, D-N.Y., and Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn.

Serrano earlier this year introduced the Smartphone Theft Prevention Act, H.R. 4065, in the House of Representatives. Klobuchar teamed up with other senators to introduce legislation requiring a smartphone kill switch.

Also in February, Democratic Sen. Mark Leno introduced bill SB 962 in the California legislature. That bill, which seeks to prohibit sales of smartphones not pre-equipped with theft-deterring technology from July 2015, is due for a second committee hearing.

Is Legislation Overkill?

In light of the latest news, is it necessary to pursue legislative measures?

"The Secure Our Smartphones report elevates the need for [Leno's] bill," Alex Bastian, a spokesperson for the San Francisco district attorney's office, told us. "It's important to ensure that a universal system is implemented."

Currently, there is debate over whether to offer an opt-in or an opt-out solution, Bastian said.

"The proposed solutions by Microsoft and Google are opt-in," Bastian pointed out. "Opt-out is a better option, because it guarantees a universal system where all phones have a technological solution activated."