Source: Hacker News
Source: Schneier on Security
Apple’s NeuralHash algorithm — the one it’s using for client-side scanning on the iPhone — has been reverse-engineered.
Turns out it was already in iOS 14.3, and someone noticed:
Early tests show that it can tolerate image resizing and compression, but not cropping or rotations.
We also have the first collision: two images that hash to the same value.
The next step is to generate innocuous images that NeuralHash classifies as prohibited content.
This was a bad idea from the start, and Apple never seemed to consider the adversarial context of the system as a whole, and not just the cryptography.
Source: Hacker News
Source: Kentucky.com -- State
As the state hurtles toward a record number of COVID-19 hospitalizations, Gov. Andy Beshear on Tuesday announced a record rate of Kentuckians testing positive for the virus. The statewide positivity … Click to Continue »
Source: Engadget
Intel is pouring more and more of its energy into its mainstay chip business, and that now means leaving some of its less essential work by the wayside. The company told CRN in a statement that it was "winding down" RealSense and transferring the talent and computer vision tech to efforts that "better support" its core chip businesses. The semiconductor giant will honor existing commitments, but the end is clearly on the horizon.
Questions surfaced about the fate of RealSense after the team's leader, Sagi Ben Moshe, said he was leaving Intel two weeks ago.
RealSense aimed to make computer vision more flexible and accessible. A company or researcher could buy cameras to aid everything from robot navigation through to facial recognition, and there was even a developer-focused phone. It was never a truly mainstream product, though, and ASI VP Kent Tibbils told CRN that there were few customers buying RealSense cameras in any significant quantities. It wasn't really a money-making division, even if the work helped Intel's other teams.
For Intel, there's likely a simpler answer: it wants to cut ballast. CEO Pat Gelsinger wants Intel to reclaim the chipmaking crown, and that means concentrating its resources on design and manufacturing capabilities. No matter how successful RealSense is, it's a potential distraction from Intel's latest strategy.
Source: Slashdot
An anonymous reader shares an excerpt from Wired, written by Lauren Goode: Samsung's newest foldables are even more impressive than the folding models that came before them. (The company first started shipping foldable phones in 2019, after years of development.) And yet, folding phones are still the 3D TVs of the smartphone world: birthed with the intention of swiveling your head toward a product at a time when the market for that product has softened. They're technically complicated. They're expensive. And their usability depends a whole lot on the way content is displayed on them, which means manufacturers could nail all the tech specs and still must wait on software makers (or entertainment companies) to create stuff to fill these space-age screens. All this does not bode well for the future of foldable phones, though some analysts are more optimistic. Back in the early 2010's, global TV shipments started slipping, as developed markets became saturated with flat-screen TVs. And as prices for LCD TVs sank, so did profits. So TV manufacturers like Sony, LG, and Samsung began hyping the next expensive upgrade: 3D televisions. We tech journalists marched around the annual CES in 3D glasses, hoping to catch a glimpse of a 3D TV that would change our minds about this gimmicky technology. We grew mildly nauseous. We waited for more content. Five years later, 3D TV was dead. At the end of the last decade, WIRED's Brian Barrett summed up the great 3D TV pitch as "what happens when smart people run out of ideas, the last gasp before aspiration gives way to commoditization." I know: TVs and mobile phones are different beasts. Mobile phones have fundamentally altered the way we live. Billions of handsets have been sold. But about four years ago, global smartphone sales slowed. By 2019, consumers were holding on to their phones for a few extra months before splurging on an upgrade. As smartphones became more secure and reliable, running on desktop-grade chip systems and featuring cameras good enough to decimate the digital camera market, each new iteration of a phone seemed, well, iterative. Enter foldable displays, which are either a desperate gimmick or a genuine leap forward, depending on whom you ask. Or, like 3D TVs, maybe they're both. Foldables were also supposed to be the ultimate on-the-go device, for road warriors and jet-setters and productivity gurus who want to "stay in the flow" at all times. As I've written before, it's not exactly the best time to beta test this concept, while some of our movements are limited. The context for foldables has changed in the short time since they became commercially available. Of course, that context could always change again. Foldables may be the next frontier in phones, or in tablets, or laptops, or all of the above. They could become commonplace, assumed, as boring as a solid inflexible brick. Maybe we'll manage our decentralized bank accounts on a creaky screen as we shoot into sub-orbital space. Or maybe we'll stare into the screens, two parts fused into one, and hope that the future is something more than this. The biggest argument for foldables not being 3D TVs, as mentioned by research manager for IDC, Jitesh Ubrani, is the potential utility of foldables. "Most people in the industry, and even many consumers, believe that ultimately there is just going to be one device you use, you know?" Ubrani says. "And this device will have the ability to function as a phone, as a PC, as a tablet. So where foldables can really drive the technology is by replacing three devices with one."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Hacker News
Source: Hacker News
Source: ToolGuyd
Leatherman has started teasing about their new CURL multi-tool, model 832930, which they’re set to announce next week.
I took a closer look, and there are enough details on the Leatherman Curl multi-tool for a quick introduction.
The Leatherman Curl has a familiar look to it, almost like a “old Wave Lite” type of tool. Marketing copy says that the Curl was “inspired by their best selling multipurpose tool,” and so the resemblance makes sense.
As with other Leatherman multi-tools, the new Curl has combination pliers, a knife blade that’s accessible when the tool is folded closed, and also inside-accessible tools.
What’s different about the Curl is that it only has outside-accessible tools on one side. This is confirmed in Leatherman’s teaser image on social media, which shows a plain back with pocket clip.
Whereas the old Wave and Charge multi-tools had four outside-accessible tools, the new Curl only has two. With the Curl, you get a knife blade and a file.
Leatherman says that the Curl multi-tool has 15 tools and functions.
The Curl is described as being made in the USA.
Price: $80
Buy Now via MSC
Compare: New Wave via Amazon
I reviewed the Leatherman Wave a long time ago, and they have since updated it with an improved wire cutter. The new Wave currently retails for $100.
Leatherman multi-tools have increased in price over the years, and the company has made attempts to offer more affordable tools without making too many compromises.
Here, the new Curl looks very similar to the Wave Plus multi-tool. If retailers’ $79.95 launch pricing for the Curl is accurate, that makes the Wave Plus a $20 upgrade at $99.95.
The Curl has similar pliers and cutters as the old Wave, and nearly identical tools and functions as the new Wave Plus. It looks like an awl is swapped in for the Wave’s eyeglass screwdriver bit driver feature. The Curl is missing the serrated blade and wood saw from the Wave, but it does look to have the same wood/metal file and plain edge knife blade.
The Curl comes with a pocket clip. You can add one to the Wave Plus for $5.
With only two outside-accessible tools on one side of the Curl, I would expect it to be more compact and possibly a little more comfortable for pocket-clip-carry. I bought a pocket clip for my Wave a long time ago, but hardly ever used it. In my experience, the Wave and Wave Plus multi-tools, and other full-size models, are more comfortably carried in a belt-mounted sheath. The Curl does come with a sheath.
The Curl weighs a little less, but there are no specs for the closed handle thickness yet.
Other images I’ve found for the Curl suggest that its tools don’t have the same active locks as Leatherman’s Wave Plus, Charge, and other like-styled full-sized tools. There’s probably still a slip joint or other passive locking mechanism.
So, it seems that the Curl is scaled down a little bit from the Wave Plus, but is it worth saving $20 for?
Or, is the Curl worth $20 more than Leatherman’s Sidekick (via Amazon) or Wingman (via Amazon) multi-tools, which are both currently priced at $60?
The Curl is advertising as having 15 tools and functions compared to 18 for the Wave Plus, but it looks like the Curl is missing the inner tool locking system, and that’s on top of the non-replaceable cutter jaws and half of the outside-opening tools. There could be other more subtle differences as well, such as with the pivots or user experiences.
The Curl looks to be a meet-in-the-middle type of tool. It lacks some of the more premium qualities of the Wave Plus, but offers upgrades over Leatherman’s more entry-priced tools.
Thoughts?
Source: Hacker News
