Geek News

If you've used a wired VR headset, you probably know the connector situation is inconsistent and messy: you frequently have to plug multiple cables into your PC, which is space consuming at best and potentially impractical if you have a laptop. That might not be quite such a thorn in your side if a handful of tech industry leaders have their way. AMD, Microsoft, NVIDIA, Oculus and Valve have unveiled VirtualLink, an open stand ard that would whittle VR headset connections down to a single USB-C cable. It would take advantage of the newer port format to deliver four lanes of DisplayPort video, USB data (for cameras and sensors) and 27W of power. It's optimized for VR, too, promising low lag and a highly optimized path that would enable the "next generation" of headsets. The technology is very young. The VirtualLink alliance has only published an...

Spotify isn't as much of a haven from harassment as many might like. Since the service shares your plays with followers by default, it's possible for harassers to keep up with your listening habits and exploit that to their advantage (say, by finding out when you're in a sad mood). The company has remained quiet on the prospect of a blocking feature in response to this, but it now appears to be more receptive to the idea. BuzzFeed News has discovered that Spotify recently labeled a years-old request for a user blocking feature as a "good idea." It's not on the company's "current" roadmap, according to the notice, but that's a distinct improvement from the approach so far. Don't count on it coming in the near future. In a statement, Spotify said it "does not have any timeline on plans for a block feature....

An update to Team Fortress 2 has been released. The update will be applied automatically when you restart Team Fortress 2. The major changes include: Added NHBL Heavyweight Champion Season 7 tournament medal Added TF2Maps 72hr Summer Jam 2018 community medal Added Chapelaria Ultiduo Gladiator Season 2 tournament medals Added Newbie Highlander Season 2 tournament medals Added Newbie Prolander Season 3 tournament medals Added Rally Call 2018 community medals Fixed tooltips for Fabricator items being truncated on OS X and Linux clients via Steam RSS News Feed "https://ift.tt/2NXzW6K"

YouTube has terminated the FamilyOFive account that belonged to Maryland parents Mike and Heather Martin. Both parents were charged with child neglect last fall , sentence to five years probation, and lost custody of two of their five children after using the kids to make viral prank videos that featured depictions of child abuse. Pressure has been mounting on YouTube to take action against the account after it was discovered the Martins were still active on the platform. The account's most recent video was posted four days ago . The Martins claimed their children, the youngest of whom was 10 years old as of last year, were largely acting in the videos. However, verbal shouting matches and depictions of physical violence, alongside... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts https://ift.tt/2Jz6DUP ...

Hours after CEO Mark Zuckerberg spurred history by defending the rights of Holocaust deniers to post on Facebook , the company said it had begun removing misinformation that contributes to violence. "There are certain forms of misinformation that have contributed to physical harm, and we are making a policy change which will enable us to take that type of content down," the company said in a statement. "We will be begin implementing the policy during the coming months." Under the new policy, Facebook will begin reviewing posts that are inaccurate or misleading, and are created or shared with the intent of causing violence or physical harm. The posts will be reviewed in partnership with local organizations including threat intelligence... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts https://ift.tt/2uN9Eve ...

Researchers will be rewarded for vulnerabilities found in identity solutions and implementations of certain OpenID standards. via Dark Reading: https://ift.tt/2NpsSPi If New feed item from http://www.darkreading.com/rss/all.xml , then send

While it's possible you know Bang & Olufsen for its expensive top-tier TVs, you're likely more familiar with its range of artfully-designed headphones and speakers, especially under its budget-friendly B&O Play sub-brand . But in an annual earnings report released last week, the company revealed that it's doing away with the latter and folding all products under the Bang & Olufsen banner to make it less confusing for everyone. The company polled consumers and found many didn't perceive a difference between the flagship Bang & Olufsen and B&O Play lines. But more to the point, the sub-brand has grown to represent nearly half (47 percent) of the company's annual revenue. It will fold the B&O Play products under the main company name in a gradual process lasting into next year. While some of the former are already appearing...

Health How healthy is that ‘healthy glow’? Gyms across the country include tanning beds among their offerings. A new paper is the first to look specifically at gym users who tan, finding that they’re part of a… via Popular Science "https://ift.tt/2LsbSqZ"

Toughened glass has long protected your phone against a singular drop , but one-and-done isn't how it works in real life -- we've all seen butterfingers users whose device falls to the floor on a seemingly weekly basis. Those not-so-coordinated people might have a little less to worry about going forward. Corning has unveiled Gorilla Glass 6, whose composition has been altered to better survive multiple drops without breaking. In tests, it could handle an average of 15 drops on to a rough surface from 3.3 feet. That's up to twice as good as Gorilla Glass 5 , and supposedly much better than rivals whose glass might not even make it through the first fall. Version 6 is also supposed to withstand drops from "higher heights." Corning hasn't talked about improvements to scratch resistance, though, so you shouldn't expect your phone to look...

Technology Even the mighty Amazon isn't immune from system failures. This is why even big companies like Amazon still sometimes have issues with their websites. via Popular Science "https://ift.tt/2LwKcBk"

Hundreds of thousands of voter records were left exposed on an Amazon S3 bucket, ZDNet reports, this time by Virginia-based robocalling firm Robocent. Among the information that was left accessible were names, home addresses, gender, phone numbers, age, birth years, ethnicity, education and language spoken as well as state-provided or inferred political leanings such as "weak Democrat," "hard Republican" and "swing" voter. The cache contained nearly 2,600 files, including audio recordings of political messages. The records were spotted by Bob Diachenko , Kromtech Security's head of communications, who notified Robocent of the leak. The data were secured shortly thereafter and the company's co-founder, Travis Trawick, told ZDNet that the records contained in the cache were from "an old bucket from 2013-2016 that hasn't bee...

Earlier today, Recode 's Kara Swisher released an extensive interview with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg covering the platform's struggles during a long, scandal-ridden year. Nestled inside was an exchange where Swisher pressed the executive on why it allows some conspiracy theorists to be allowed to post on the platform, regardless of the truth of their statements -- and he explicitly explained that these users, including Holocaust deniers, deserve a voice. This predictably kicked up a ruckus online, and Zuckerberg emailed a clarification to Recode reaffirming that he finds Holocaust deniers "deeply offensive" and didn't intend to defend them. But he did state Facebook's goal: Not to stop fake news, but prevent it from spreading. Here's the full email, per Recode : I enjoyed our conversation yesterday, but there's one thing I w...

HMD Global, which produces Nokia phones now, has officially announced the midrange Nokia X5. The X5, like its sibling the X6 , has a notch and a glass body, signaling that HMD is now fully committed to the design trend first started by Apple's iPhone X . The Nokia X5 is a more affordable and lower specced version of the X6. It's got a 5.9-inch HD+ display and a 19:9 aspect ratio. The quality is slightly lower than the X6, meaning video streaming and gaming won't be quite as good. The X5 is powered by a MediaTek Helio P60 processor and it contains a 3,060mAh battery. It has options for 3GB or 4GB of RAM, and 32 or 64GB of storage. As for cameras, it has an 8-megapixel selfie cam and dual 13-megapixel and 5-megapixel cameras on the back,... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts https://ift.tt/2uLGtbR ...