MasHD Blog

In order to curb the smog menace around the city of Paris , French authorities are now enforcing a partial ban on motor vehicles entering the city .The new policy will be forced from 5.30am (0430GMT) and it will extend until Tuesday .The City of Paris and 22 surrounding areas are to be patrolled by 700 police officers in 60 checkpoints , Electric , hybrid and cars carrying more than 3 people are exempt while gasoline powered cars and motorbikes with licence plates ending in odd digits are also free from the ban .The ban however has mixed reactions and the French Automobile Association (ACA) said the move was "hasty.ineffective" and "Bound to lead to chaos" because the measure had "no effect in any country where it was introduced ". Source - Phys.org

The idea of having the ability to remotely stop a vehicle isn’t new. GM has been able to do that for a number of years via OnStar. If some OnStar equipped cars are stolen, the car can be remotely turned off allowing police to catch the suspects. Authorities in Europe have a plan that could one day require remote kill switches on all cars. The plan would require every car entering Europe to have a system fitted that would allow the car to be tracked and disabled remotely by police. The program is reportedly being developed by the European Network of Law Enforcement Technologies with the goal of building a standard for all automobiles. The plan was revealed by a civil rights group from Europe called Statewatch. Authorities want to make it so police could disable any vehicle remotely at the touch of a button. The police say such a system would end high-speed chases. Statewatch fears that the system would be abused. The GM OnStar system requires the owner of the vehicle to give p...

Back in the dark days of March 2012, we told you about Nokia's patent application for a removable ferromagnetic ink tattoo that would send you haptic feedback whenever your phone receives a call. Different callers could be tied to different vibration patterns so that you could tell who is calling without having to look at your phone. Now, Motorola has received a patent for a similar, but functionally different idea. Motorola's idea is to place a skin tattoo sticker on your neck to be used as a microphone, sending signals to your Motorola Moto X or the latest version of the Motorola DROID. The microphone would be able to send a clearer sound to your handset as it would eliminate background noise. The tattoo would come with its own transceiver, antenna, microphone and signal processor. For some reason not explained, the tattoo would also come with a screen even though the placement of the sticker would preclude you from looking at it. The Moto sticker tattoo will also have a po...

Facebook has been actively researching the feasibility, effectiveness, and profitability of tracking users’ cursors and screen positions, reports the Wall Street Journal. The data would give the social media giant the ability to analyze the ways in which users interact with Facebook content and advertising. This would in turn let it change the site and its advertising methods according to where users hover their mice and scroll their device displays. The new data collection method would be added to its other methods, such as gathering information users enter into their profiles or tracking friendships and likes. It is part of an ongoing investigation by Facebook analytics chief Ken Rudin, who joined the company in April 2012. Before that, he was the vice president of analytics and platform technologies at Zynga, Inc. That company made billions of dollars in revenue on such Facebook-reliant games as Farmville. (Maybe you’ve heard of it.) The screen behavior technology being studied ...

The National Security Agency, in conjunction with England’s NSA counterpart Government Communications Headquarters, has been secretly intercepting Google and Yahoo data transmissions around the world, according to a new analysis of the Snowden documents. The documents show how the two spy agencies can cooperate to send copies of customer records en masse to the NSA’s data centers at Fort Meade. Intercepted records include email addresses, personal identities, and even the contents of private messages flowing between and among Americans and all other nationalities. The interceptions are within the bounds of current US law because they occur at points outside US soil. The analysis was conducted by the Washington Post in consultation with Google and Yahoo employees. It lays out four plausible scenarios by which the agencies capture the private data of millions of customers. In the case of Google, the most likely scenario is that the agencies have tapped into fibers and cables connecti...

After much of the world was shocked by allegations that the NSA was actively spying on citizens through the PRISM program , Anonymous, a group of internet activists, released a series of documents that they claim can prove the existence of the intelligence sharing network. Despite the U.S government confirming the existence of the seven-year initiative, some of the companies that were allegedly on board quickly denied their involvement. Major tech corporations that include Microsoft, Apple, AOL, Yahoo, Facebook and Skype were supposedly providing exclusive government access to their servers and all of the customer information contained within. Although many would argue that it is the NSA’s moral obligation to thwart potential attacks using any means necessary, the big concern is what could happen if this information were to fall into the wrong hands. After all,  if Anonymous retrieved documents from an intelligence agency that should have unbeatable network security, what’s sto...

By now , most of us are very much awake to the fact that we are losing personal liberties and privacy to some form of global governance that wants to control each and every part of our lives in the guise of national security . Although we usually avoid politics and bilderberg  related articles , we cant help but post this because it has some relevance to technology which we use in the form of cell phones and most importantly - the internet . As you already know , the internet is not as safe as you might think it is . with bot-ware and different tracking systems , you are constantly being monitored by companies and different groups to know what you are into these days , although this seems to be  harmless at first , the purpose behind this might be much sinister  than what you think ,anyway , we are really not going to dig further into that because you all came here to read about the so called PRISM  program , so what is PRISM ?  , The name  PRISM,comes ...

Samsung is rumored to be negotiating a $20m music-centric deal with rapper Jay-Z, in what’s tipped to be a new streaming promotion for the Korean company’s phones and tablets. The “eight-figure deal” as the New York Post‘s source describes it hasn’t been fully detailed, but the link with mobile music seems a given. “You can speculate that he’ll want to develop some kind of new music-streaming service” the tipster suggests, “to promote his acts and music.” Although a tie-up between the two might seem unlikely, it would at least fit in with music industry shuffling already seen over the first half of this year. Back in March, Samsung inked a deal with Universal Music Group to launch “the Kleek”, a mobile music streaming service available in Africa. Available free to Samsung device users in Africa, the two year exclusive sees artist, genre, and chart information packaged up with playlists and album previews. In early April, meanwhile, Jay-Z signed a deal with Universal to move his...

Motorola‘s big vision for mobile isn’t just the Moto X smartphone: the company also has wearable, tattoo-embedded, and even swallowable gadgets in the pipeline. Motorola’s Advanced Technology and Projects Group chief Regina Dugan – former DARPA chief – showed up at D11 sporting an electronic tattoo that could be worn on the skin for a week at a time, and used to cut through the numerous authentication processes we go through every day. The tattoos rely on a new, stretchable electronics system that can keep working even as it flexes on the wearer’s arm. As Dugan says, while criticisms of wearables like smartwatches include suggestions that young people won’t want to wear them – something Tim Cook commented on – it’s much more likely that the demographic would want to use a digital tattoo. It’s not the only high-tech security system Motorola’s group is looking at. “I take a vitamin every morning: what if I could take an authentication vitamin?” Dugan asked, before whipping out a...

It was the summer of 2012 when the first news of a 3D-printed gun surfaced, an assault rifle-style .22 that appeared on a message board devoted to the love of firearms. That weapon was believed to be the first 3D-printed gun successfully fired, but its fame was short lived, with The Liberator having caught popular attention soon after for being the first fully 3D-printed firearm. After being successfully fired, the company behind it – Defense Distributed – released the blueprints for anyone to download, something the Department of Defense has already stymied. The Liberator was created by 25-year-old law student Cody Wilson of Defense Distributed. The gun was designed in such a way that it can be easily recreated by others who have access to a 3D printer, making the firearm a weapon that can be theoretically mass produced on a very accessible consumer level. The gun, which resembles a toy with its square plastic body, is made from easily obtainable ABS plastic and has a total of 16...

Some cities in the US and Europe have problems with brownouts and blackouts caused by increasing power demands at certain times of the year. In some cities in the US, power companies have resorted to rolling blackouts to ensure that everyone has access to power during times of peak demand, such as hot summer days. In the UK, the National Grid is considering implementing a requirement that would have sensor chips placed inside certain white goods. These white goods would be things such as freezers, refrigerators, washing machines, air conditioners, and electric ovens. What officials in the UK want to be able to do is remotely turn off these sensor equipped smart appliances during times of peak demand to reduce the load on the electrical grid. Shutting down the appliances equipped with smart sensors would not require the owner’s approval. Rather than simply turning off and leaving off devices such as freezers and refrigerators, the sensors inside will reportedly be smart enough to...

Google may be one of the world's largest collectors of information, but Eric Schmidt thinks people would be uncomfortable with drone surveillance by their neighbors — and that this discomfort will spur tighter regulation. In an interview with The Guardian (available for subscribers only), Schmidt predicts that private drone operation will become a bigger issue in the coming years, for both weaponized and non-weaponized models. "If you look at the miniaturisation of drones, there will be restrictions on them," he says. "I'm not going to pass judgment on whether armies should exist, but I would prefer to not spread and democratise the ability to fight war to every single human being." Schmidt gave a potential future scenario. "You're having a dispute with your neighbour. How would you feel if your neighbour went over and bought a commercial observation drone that they can launch from their back yard. It just flies over your house all day. How wou...

People throughout the world could soon be in-voluntarily outfitting their homes with indefinitely active cameras, infrared sensors and microphones if they purchase the upcoming gaming console from Microsoft. According to leaked screen captures , the new console, codenamed “Durango,” will be “Always On, Always Connected,” meaning it will require a perpetual Internet connection, in addition to a new high-fidelity Kinect Sensor, “which will be required for the system to operate,” . Being touted as a measure to ensure “software and games are always current,” the new Xbox will not allow users to play games unless a permanent Internet connection is established, according to leaked screenshots obtained by the website “Durango will implement different power states so that it can always be powered on, but will draw minimal electricity when not in use,” the grainy, leaked screenshot states, adding, “The console will be ready instantly when users want to play, and will always maintain a networ...

MC10 might be best known for its wearable electronics aimed at athletes, but the company also makes a medical diagnostic sticker called a biostamp. Its creator (and MC10 co-founder), John Rogers has refined that design so that it's no longer an elastomer sticker -- now he can apply the biostamp's thin, stretchy electronics directly on human skin, and bond it with commercially available spray-on bandage material. By losing the elastomer backing of the original biostamp and applying the circuits directly to the skin, Rogers and his team at the University of Illinois were able to shave the device's thickness to 1/30th of the (already quite thin) biostamp. That super thin profile means it conforms even better to the contours of human hide and makes it shower- and swim-proof during the two weeks it lasts before being naturally exfoliated with your skin. For those unfamiliar with what the biostamp does, it's a mesh of circuits and sensors that can record electrophysiolog...