BBC head wants all iPlayer users to pony up the licence fee
The BBC’s budget is getting squeezed, and as such, everyone who uses its service is going to be made to pay up. Lord Hall, the BBC’s Director-General, has announced that he’s pushing to close the famous iPlayer Loophole, adding around £72 million to the corporation’s budget. Currently, only Britons who watch live broadcasts on TV or online have to pay the £145.50 annual fee — but around 500,000 homes...
Wind Turbine Technicians Use iPad to Keep Blades Spinning
Most people wouldn’t choose the challenge of working 250 feet off the ground, in extreme temperatures and unpredictable weather. But the technicians at Siemens Energy-Wind Service are working to help transform an industry. “Our technicians really believe in what they’re doing,” says Jennifer Dillon, Siemens manager of business improvement. “They’re on the front line, and they’re helping to change the way energy is generated.” And iPad...
Your smartphone’s WiFi hotspot might double as a disaster rescue beacon
When disasters strike, communication services tend to go down; you can’t simply call for help or share your location online. However, engineers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Information Technology have found a way to use a smartphone as a rescue beacon when there aren’t any available networks. The researchers have written a victim app that inserts an SOS alert into the name of the phone’s WiFi hotspot....
iPad Helps Broadway Director Stay in Step
Whiting decided to develop an app called Stage Write to digitize the process of staging a production. Available exclusively on iPad, the app lets a director draw images and create icons representing the stage, scenery, and actors — and drag icons around to track movements. Because dimensions are kept in proportion, the director can get a visual sense of how things fit on stage. Arrows can be drawn to indicate movement, and a table can...
British spy agency reportedly collected millions of webcam images from Yahoo users
Britain’s surveillance agency, GCHQ, hasn’t fared much better than the NSA these past several months; the latest leak shared with the Guardian claims that Britain has been collecting millions of webcam images from Yahoo users. What’s more, it appears that these images were used to discover “targets” and match users with existing persons of interest via automated facial recognition.According to documents...
