Apple is closing a loophole that lets police hack into iPhones

It’s a win for privacy advocates, but it’s sure to enrage law enforcement officials by making it harder than ever for them to get information out of locked phones. The news: Apple plans to send out a software update to iPhone users that will make the smartphone’s charging and data port inoperative an hour after the phone has been locked. Though you’ll still be able to charge a phone without tapping in a password, you’ll now need one to pull data off it via that port. Why it matters: Apple has a history of fighting law enforcement efforts to […] […]

China’s ambition to power the world’s electric cars took a huge leap forward this week

China’s grand designs to dominate the future of clean energy paid off spectacularly this week. In a public offering on June 11 in Shenzhen, battery giant Contemporary Amperex Technology Ltd. (CATL) raised nearly $1 billion to fund ambitious expansion plans, and its stock has been shooting up every day since. Thanks largely to the company’s new plants, China will be making 70 percent of the world’s electric-vehicle batteries by 2021, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF). The rapid rise of CATL is arguably the clearest, though certainly not the only , payoff from China’s calculated efforts to bolster […] […]

A few big players may have been behind Bitcoin’s huge surge last year

New research (PDF) suggests that a price manipulation scheme may have been behind the cryptocurrency’s extraordinary rally in 2017. The study: Researchers at the University of Texas analyzed blockchain data and found that large purchases of cryptocurrency from multiple trading platforms in exchange for Tether, a crypto-token that’s supposedly pegged to the US dollar , were “timed following market downturns” and, since cryptocurrency prices tend to move as one, resulted in “sizable increases in Bitcoin prices.” This suggests, according to the New York Times , that a few players may have been propping up the price of Bitcoin and […] […]

University of Leeds project is developing tarmac 3D printing robots to repair roads

The University of Leeds is pioneering a £4.2 million national infrastructure research project that will use tarmac 3D printing robots to repair potholes and cracks. These robots will be both aerial and ground-based in order to thoroughly inspect and identify damaged areas on roads in the UK. As part of a visionary project to create “ Self Repairing Cities ”, the University of Leeds has formed a research consortium for the project which includes engineers and faculty from University College London (UCL), the University of Southampton and the University of Birmingham . The project’s teams are currently halfway through […] […]

3D printing in construction, architecture and the built-environment

The use of 3D printing for construction and architecture is a rapidly developing area. Additive manufacturing is used not only in the design stages of construction projects, but is also bringing remarkable full-scale structures to life. This article highlights some of the possibilities that 3D printing brings to the built-environment. These include 3D printed houses, buildings, bridges and infrastructure. The 3D printed Housing 05 Project by CLS Architetti The 3D Housing 05 project from CLS Architetti , an Italian architecture firm, is a sustainable, 3D printed house. The project was showcased at Milan Design Week 2018 . Massimiliano Locatelli, […] […]

Microsoft Issues Emergency Patch For Critical Flaw In Windows Containers

Just a few days prior to its monthly patch release, Microsoft released an emergency patch for a critical vulnerability in the Windows Host Compute Service Shim (hcsshim) library that could allow remote attackers to run malicious code on Windows computers. Windows Host Compute Service Shim (hcsshim) is an open source library that helps “Docker for Windows” execute Windows Server containers using a low-level container management API in Hyper-V. Discovered by Swiss developer and security researcher Michael Hanselmann , the critical vulnerability (tracked as CVE-2018-8115) is the result of the failure of the hcsshim library to properly validate input when […] […]