321: Pizza Hut Read My Mind

Five Minute Tech News

The NSA, Deadpool the movie, North Korea pwnd Sony, Apple deletes music, Pizza Hut reads your mind, haptic 3D shapes, and more.

Links for this episode:

• The NSA listened in on trade group talks to stay ahead of phone encryption | The Verge
  If you're working on making phone conversations more secure, there's a good chance the NSA is keeping an eye on your inbox. A new report from The Intercept looks into the NSA's efforts to stay ahead of the encryption that carriers use to keep phone calls safe from eavesdropping. The NSA has consistently been able to beat that encryption, often finding ways to crack standards like 4G before they're even implemented, and this report offers the first clues as to how. For the most part, it involves active surveillance of the people involved in setting up the standards. The new documents detail a project called Operation Auroragold, which kept an eye on more than 1,200 inboxes involved in cell phone encryption, including the influential GSM Association in London. By monitoring any new encryption proposals before they were made public, the agency was able to get a head start on finding ways to break the new systems.
• Ryan Reynolds In ‘Deadpool’ Deal | Deadline
  Fox is closing a deal with Ryan Reynolds for a feature on Deadpool, the character he originated in X-Men Origins: Wolverine. The film is being directed by Tim Miller, who has done strong visual effects work through his VFX house Blur Films. Miller has been developing the film for several years, from a script by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, with Lauren Shuler Donner and Simon Kinberg producing. Reynolds and other cast have posted photos of Deadpool on Twitter, so clearly this is going. Production begins in March.
• How did North Korea take control of Sony Pictures' servers? | The Verge
  It's looking increasingly likely that last week's hack of Sony Pictures was perpetrated by North Korea. The studio is still holding off on its official announcement, but by now it seems clear that the attack came in retaliation for the upcoming film The Interview, a comedy about an attempt to kill North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. North Korean officials had denounced the film as an act of war, and North Korean leaders have yet to deny the country is responsible. It turns out that more than just movies were stolen in that hack. Personal information of employees, including Social Security numbers and medical records, were also compromised.
• Apple Deleted Rivals’ Songs from Users’ iPods - Digits - WSJ
  Apple deleted music that some iPod owners had downloaded from competing music services from 2007 to 2009 without telling users, attorneys for consumers told jurors in a class-action antitrust suit against Apple Wednesday. “You guys decided to give them the worst possible experience and blow up” a user’s music library, attorney Patrick Coughlin said in U.S. District Court in Oakland, Calif. When a user who had downloaded music from a rival service tried to sync an iPod to the user’s iTunes library, Apple would display an error message and instruct the user to restore the factory settings, Coughlin said. When the user restored the settings, the music from rival services would disappear, he said. Plaintiffs are seeking $350 million in damages in the decade-old suit, claiming Apple’s actions forced them to pay more for iPods. The damages could be tripled under antitrust laws. Apple contends the moves were legitimate security measures. Apple security director Augustin Farrugia testified that Apple did not offer a more detailed explanation because, “We don’t need to give users too much information,” and “We don’t want to confuse users.”
• Pizza Hut wants to read your mind - The Washington Post
  Pizza Hut is now testing technology that allows diners to order within seconds, using only their eyes. Calling it "the world's first subconscious menu," the pizza giant has been testing a special eye-tracking tablet with some of the diners of its 300 locations across the U.K. The digital menu shows diners a canvas of 20 toppings and builds their pizza, from one of 4,896 combinations, based on which toppings they looked at longest. To try again, a diner can glance at a "restart" button."
• How high-tech, temporary tattoos want to hack your skin
  The Center for Wearable Sensors at the University of California San Diego has been experimenting with attaching sensors to temporary tattoos in order to extract data from the body. The tattoos are worn exactly as a regular temporary tattoo would be worn. The sensors simply sit atop the skin without penetrating it and interact with Bluetooth or other wireless devices with a signal in order to send the data The center is focused on human applications and has gained attention on their work with sweat. A biofuel battery applied as a temporary tattoo converts sweat into energy, and a startup within the center has developed a strip that extracts data from sweat to explain how your body is reacting to certain types of exercise.
• Google to revamp its products with 12-and-younger focus
  Beginning next year, Google plans to create specific versions of its most popular products for those 12 and younger. The most likely candidates are those that are already popular with that age group, such as search, YouTube and Chrome. Google would not offer a timetable for the rollout. But executives noted this will be a full-time effort that comes on the heels of recent kid-centric efforts such as its virtual Maker Camp, Doodle 4 Google competition and Made with Code initiative.
• Bristol University | News | December: Haptic shapes using ultrasound
  New research, using ultrasound, has developed a virtual 3D haptic shape that can be seen and felt. The research, led by he University of Bristol’s Department of Computer Science, could change the way 3D shapes are used. he new technology could enable surgeons to explore a CT scan by enabling them to feel a disease, such as a tumor, using haptic feedback. The method uses ultrasound, which is focussed onto hands above the device and that can be felt. By focussing complex patterns of ultrasound, the air disturbances can be seen as floating 3D shapes. Visually, the researchers have demonstrated the ultrasound patterns by directing the device at a thin layer of oil so that the depressions in the surface can be seen as spots when lit by a lamp.The system generates a virtual 3D shape that can be added to 3D displays to create something that can be seen and felt. This is going to make for an awesome Daredevil video game.

Sponsored by Casper (Visit the link and use the code THENEWS to get $50 towards your purchase of a Casper mattress).