Someone has recoded Siri, the voice-activated personal assistant applications for iOS, to control a TV.
In a blog post on the Union Bridge Labs, hacker Todd Treece posted a video showing Siri change channels and turn off the TV using voice commands only.
To achieve the feat, Treece had to use auxiliary hardware to create a functional system.
In the video, Siri replies to queries like “Siri, can you change the channel to the History channel?” with information on the current channel …

Android handsets from several OEMs allow hackers to sniff user location data and record phone calls, says a group of researchers from NCSU.
Xuxian Jiang, Assistant Professor at North Carolina State University, and his team has published a paper entitled Systematic Detection of Capability Leaks in Stock Android Smartphones (PDF), elaborating how Android smartphones from HTC, Motorola, Samsung and even Google contain code that exhibits powerful capabilities to untrusted applications.
The study …

Intel has collaborated with Total Immersion to work on adding augmented reality to its semiconductor chips.
Total Immersion, the pioneer and global leader in Augmented Reality (AR), is now taking part of Intel’s initiative to include the technology into chipsets.
In a speech given at Reuters Global Media Summit, Total Immersion Marketing head Antoine Brachet announced the partnership with the chipmaker but declined modestly to give a specific date for commercial products to appear.
In March, …

Google’s Android Open-Source Project (AOSP) team has just released the factory image for Samsung Galaxy Nexus GSM/HSPA+, giving experienced modders and regular users an easier way to fix the handset in case something goes wrong.
AOSP software engineer Jean-Baptiste M. “JBQ” Queru said that this would be helpful to those who flash custom AOSP-based ROMs, as it allows a “clean supported way” to revert to the original factory state.
To use the image, users must switch the Galaxy …

Samsung has revealed the Exynos 5250, an ARM Cortex A15 based chip that supports 1080p Full HD video and 3D graphics.
Designed on a 32-nm process, the Korean tech giant said that the 2GHz dual-core Cortex A15 processor is twice faster than a 1.5GHz Cortex A9 design, without the need to use a quad-core processor.
The Exynos 5250 will have a 12.8 GBps memory bandwidth to help reach a maximum resolution of 2506 x 1600.
Further specifications of Samsung’s latest SoC are scarce but the company …

ARM has rolled out a free Android app code optimization tool and developer kit for its processors.
Most mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets carry an ARM processor, and like its rival chip makers and designers, the company also offers development tools for code optimization on its architecture.
The ARM Development Studio 5 Community Edition (DS-5 CE) is free software dedicated to Android app development.
While DS-5 CE is a downsized version of its full Developer Studio 5, ARM asserts …

IGNIS Innovation has developed methods to improve standard AMOLED display manufacturing techniques to produce screens with more than 300ppi (pixels per inch) pixel density and a real RGB matrix.
The newly announced Active-Matrix Organic Light-Emitting Diode (AMOLED) display technique also has a dedicated pixel circuit and driving scheme to make up for the inconsistency and raise the power efficiency of the high-ppi display.
IGNIS said that these techniques would pave the way of creating AMOLED …

No other than Apple’s Steve Jobs made an offer to buy cloud storage firm Dropbox but the company’s founders rejected the pitch made in 2009, a report from Fortune reveals.

Dropbox has reportedly shot down a nine-figure buyout offer made by no other than Apple’s Steve Jobs in 2009. Image: babyben / Flickr (CC)

In the well-written and insightful report, Fortune says that Dropbox founders Drew Houston and Arash Ferdowski were invited by Jobs in December 2009 to Apple’s Cupertino, …

Eric Schmidt, chief executive of search engine giant Google, has partnered with Gaga to back Backplane, a startup being launched by Lady Gaga’s business manager Troy Carter.  Backplane was born as Carter and Gaga were researching the best social media service that lets entertainers manager their fans across all platforms. Finding none, Carter’s technology investor contact Matthew Mickelson suggested they build one.

And so they have started the process with this angel round of funding. …

Many amateur photographers who don’t have resources to buy a good camera are happy taking pictures using mobile phones. The results of such attempts are quite often not that impressive though modern built-in cameras in high end phones allow you to get great shots. Now with new innovations on their way every, there is a way out for amateurs to obtain high-quality photos on their simple mobile phones, as  a concept device called Slow Photography has been developed by a young Britisher.
This …