Tech

Although music streaming has been an integral part of daily life for what seems like ages, both the music industry and tech companies have consistently and frustratingly been behind the curve. So in many ways, 2018 felt like the first year that both sectors embraced innovation in the world of music streaming in ways that will meaningfully affect its future. There were substantial developments on the consumer side, but this year was more impactful for artists, many of whom rely on streaming platforms as their bread and butter. Some shifts can be attributed to the platforms themselves, as services like SoundCloud and Spotify waded into new territories like self-monetization. But the biggest change came from advocacy within the music industry, which resulted in the Music Modernization Act — landmark legislation designed to help artists get paid more from streaming services by streamlining the payment process. Streaming music consumption continues to increase every year. During the … [Read more...] about The Verge 2018 tech report card: Streaming music

Leaks of a potential Nokia-branded phone with five cameras on the rear have been appearing for months, but a new video suggests that the device could be officially unveiled soon. Evan Blass first posted a photo of the rumored Nokia 9 PureView on Twitter earlier today, and now mysmartprice has published what looks like a promotional video for the unannounced device. The Nokia 9 PureView looks very similar to the existing Nokia 8 Sirocco, except for the rear. The video shows off a wild penta-lens setup capable of five simultaneous shots and claims of improved efficiency in low-light situations and the ability to re-focus images after they’re taken. HMD also appears to be including a 5.99-inch “PureDisplay” with support for HDR10 and an in-display fingerprint reader. Mysmartprice reports that the Nokia 9 PureView will also be powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor, 6GB of RAM, and 128GB of storage. HMD acquired the PureView brand from Microsoft earlier this … [Read more...] about Leaked video reveals new Nokia 9 PureView with five cameras

Headphones did not have the most auspicious start to 2018. Back in January, it seemed like a diversity of competing voice assistants, wireless audio protocols, and idiosyncratic control schemes would lead to a fragmented mess of a market. Everyone wanted wireless headphones, and the providers of those devices were keen to establish some sort of a walled-garden effect around their particular product. The demand for more technologically advanced headphones has only increased over the course of the year, however the threat of user-hostile competition among headphone makers has not materialized. In large part thanks to integrated wireless chips that bundle Bluetooth radios with the necessary voice assistant compatibility for both iOS and Android, practically every manufacturer was able to issue a new pair of wireless headphones in 2018 that played nice with both Siri and Google Assistant. So the fragmentation crisis has been mostly averted, though the rapid pace of improvement is also … [Read more...] about The Verge 2018 tech report card: Headphones

In 2018, tech needed government more than ever. We were surrounded by problems that the industry couldn’t solve on its own, whether it was Russian trolls, growing monopoly fears, or the ever-escalating pace of cybersecurity failures. Unfortunately, in the second year of undivided Republican control, the US government was too busy punching itself in the face. This year saw unprecedented dysfunction in even the most basic mechanisms of government, a point driven painfully home by the ongoing government shutdown (the third of the year) which has left thousands of government employees without a paycheck over the holidays. This year, tech policy largely took a backseat to immigration, taxes and the ongoing Mueller investigation, but whenever there was a problem that needed to be solved or an issue that needed federal guidance, we ran head-first into that same basic brokenness. The big story was what didn’t happen. The year began with a cataclysmic election interference … [Read more...] about The Verge 2018 tech report card: The US government

Vein authentication, a biometric security method that scans the veins in your hand, has been cracked, reports Motherboard. Using a fake hand made out of wax, Jan Krissler and Julian Albrecht demonstrated how they were able to bypass scanners made by both Hitachi and Fujitsu, which they claim covers around 95 percent of the vein authentication market. The method was demonstrated at Germany’s annual Chaos Communication Congress. While imprints of fingerprints can often be left behind on surfaces just by touching them, vein patterns cannot, and are considered to be much more secure as a result. However, this wasn’t a problem for the researchers, who were able to copy their target’s vein layout from a photograph taken with an SLR camera modified to remove its infrared filter. Although constructing the wax hand eventually only required a single photograph and a construction time of 15 minutes, getting to that point took 30 days and over 2,500 test photos. Even the … [Read more...] about Hackers use a fake wax hand to fool vein authentication security