Skyway Recommended September 3rd to 8th
This week: Snowden says NSA subverts basic web security features; Rumored “Free” Amazon Smartphone not so Free; NSA manipulates security standards; Musk hand-designs rocket part; Cheap iPhone Cheap Enough?
Each Monday we’ll pass on links to articles we thought were well worth reading from the previous week, for those who live where we do (British Columbia, Canada), work like we do (high speed business internet), and think about things we do (internet trends, internet privacy, internet censorship, cutting-edge technology, etc.). If you don’t want to wait ’til Monday, we usually tweet and link to these as we come across them…
NY Times | Snowden: US National Security Agency Bypasses Your Basic Safeguards of Internet Privacy
The National Security Agency is winning its long-running secret war on encryption, using supercomputers, technical trickery, court orders and behind-the-scenes persuasion to undermine the major tools protecting the privacy of everyday communications in the Internet age, according to newly disclosed documents. Read More…
GigaOm | NSA influences Internet Security Standards to Subvert Security
Who thought subverting not only widely-used security mechanisms, but the security standards-setting process itself, was a good idea? Read More…
ReadWrite | A Free Smartphone from Amazon? Not So Fast…
Everybody loves a free gadget. Or at least a very cheap one. E-commerce king Amazon is well aware of this fact and according to a recent report, could launch its own smartphone for free to the public. A free smartphone? There has to be a catch. And of course there will be—if it ever happens at all, that is. Read More…
GigaOm | Elon Musk shapes a 3D virtual rocket part with his hands — and Leap Motion
In his typical fashion, SpaceX and Tesla founder Elon Musk has been teasing his Twitter followers for a few weeks about an Iron Man-like system to design rocket parts with hand gestures before 3D printing them. A video documenting the process just went live, and it’s nothing too groundbreaking. SpaceX paired a Leap Motion gesture reader with its Siemens NX computer aided design software and added 3D glasses, allowing a designer to shape the part with their hands in a 3D environment. They can’t build a design from scratch, but they can take actions like modifying the shape of an object. Read More…
Atlantic Wire | Will Apple’s Cheap iPhone be Cheap Enough?
As this week’s iPhone event approaches, more rumors and leaks have suggested that Apple will indeed announce the much-talked-about cheap iPhone, and yet, the price remains a mystery. The latest “leak” comes by way of a Chinese phone company that posted images of the forthcoming S and C on a company owned webpage. The Wall Street Journal‘s China Real Time Report has a screen shot of the page, which has since been taken down, showing a 5C and a 5S for sale. The images, in Chinese, don’t have any revealing details on price, arguably the most interesting aspect of the budget device. So how much will it cost? Read More…