AI can be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on what the AI is designed to do. Many AIs are meant to do things like help doctors diagnose disease, though other AI technologies can be turned towards more nefarious deeds. For example, a team of IEEE researchers has devised a method of harnessing an AI to generate fake fingerprints that work like a master key, to bypass the biometric locks that are employed on smartphones. The team notes that the attack using their AI-driven…
Tag: smartphone
CAR MAKERS TEAM ON PLATFORM FOR SMARTPHONE-VEHICLE INTERACTION
Car makers Ford and Toyota have announced the SmartDeviceLink Consortium, a nonprofit to manage open source software for the interface of Android and iOS smartphone apps with their vehicle infotainment systems. Mazda Motor, PSA Group, Fuji Heavy Industries and Suzuki Motor are the first automaker members of the consortium. Elektrobit, Luxoft, and Xevo have joined as the first supplier members, while Harman, Panasonic, Pioneer and QNX have signed letters of intent to join, according to an announcement Wednesday by Ford…
How to Quickly Reclaim Your Smartphone Storage Space
Are you constantly plagued by warnings that your phone is running out of storage? We're here to help. Storage woes are common for smartphone owners, perhaps particularly during the summer when we're snapping more pictures, playing more games and feeling generally more unwilling to take on big organization projects. So we went in search of (relatively) quick ways to free up space on your phones. I tried a lot of strange tricks in the course of putting together this piece,…
Is Smartphone Innovation All Tapped Out?
A panel session probing the perennial heads or tails of mobile device commoditization vs mobile device innovation here at MWC 2016 earlier today heard an interesting range of views. Speakers ran the gamut of mobile makers big and small (Samsung, Motorola/Lenovo and Wileyfox), through to chipset maker Qualcomm, alternative open Android flavor Cyanogen, and mobile operator Telefonica. Each had their own spin on what ‘innovation’ means in the smartphone space now, in the context of mature Western markets — and inevitably aligning…
In praise of the $50 smartphone
It’s time to stop what may be the most offensive, yet generally accepted, bias from smartphone analysts: “don’t get caught in a race to the bottom.” It’s a sneering dismissal of the people and companies that are building advanced, feature-packed mini-mobile computers with little to no margin — and of those who might benefit from their use. Newsflash: The vast majority of the world is “the bottom.” Like me, like you, they also deserve a smartphone. Mocking the companies that are making this happen is misguided, to say the…
HANDS ON: VERTU NEW SIGNATURE TOUCH
With gull wing doors and a host of small improvements, the new Signature Touch may be the best luxury Vertu phone yet. The New Signature Touch may be the most perfect Vertu phone yet, because it encompasses everything that makes the company interesting and exciting, in the most progressive and thoughtful way yet. This was perfectly illustrated during my time with the phone. During our visit to check out the new phone, CEO Max Pogliani spoke at length about “new…
Pico Cassette brings the simple joys of game cartridges to smartphones
If you're the kind of smartphone user who yearns for the days when games came on clunky cartridges, Beatrobo has just the accessory for you. The Pico Cassette is a storage device shaped like a miniature Nintendo cartridge that plugs into your handset's headphone jack. The Japanese company is planning to load the device up with retro games and sell them online, with customers able to download the games with the help of an app. Beatrobo is also aiming to…
Apple, Xiaomi win big as Samsung’s smartphone struggles continue
A successful iPhone 6 launch in the U.S. helped Apple increase its share of the smartphone market in the third quarter, but nemesis Samsung Electronics struggled, with upstart Chinese manufacturers nipping at its heels and growing ever stronger. Thanks to record sales in emerging markets and the popularity of Apple’s new iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, overall smartphones sales to end users grew 20.3 percent to reach 301 million units during the third quarter, market research company Gartner said in…