George Hotz, aka geohot, has joined Google’s dream team of hackers.
No name in the world of iPhone hacking looms larger thank George Hotz. At only 17 years old, Hotz, aka geohot, became the first person in the world to jailbreak the iPhone back in 2007. He also released a few jailbreaks and ended up in a legal battle with Sony after hacking the PS3, but now Hotz is taking his talents to the other side, by joining an elite team of security hackers at Google.
To help plug security holes in every major piece of software that touches the internet, Google has recruited an elite team of talented hackers called Project Zero. Their mission? Find as many zero day vulnerabilities as possible, and get paid a lot of cash in process.
Unlimited music streaming services are still struggling to make a profit, but Amazon is turning to its bread and butter for its next subscription service: Books.
Amazon is testing a new ebook and audiobook service that will give subscribers unlimited access to over 600,000 titles, according to spotting by Kindle Book forum users, but it won’t come with your Amazon Prime subscription.
The Rickrolling meme will never die, and if Dan Petro has his way, you may soon be able to drive down your neighborhood and rickroll every TV on the block in seconds.
After finding a vulnerability in Google’s Chromecast Wifi implementation, Dan Petro built a device for less than $100 out of a Raspberry Pi, a touchscreen, wireless cards and 3D-printed pastic case. It’s name: The Rickmote Controller. It’s superpower: Takes over any Chomecast-equipped TV within Wifi range and plays Rick Astley’s legendary “Never Gonna Give You up.”
Check out this video of the Rickmote in action:
You can also use Rickmote to play any video on Netflix, YouTube or HBO. The gadget uses a simple Wifi security vulnerability on the Chromecast that boots it from the local network and then falls back in configuration mode, where it waits for a nearby computer to connect and sent it configurations.
Petro said he notified Google of the flaw, according to Wired’s report. Surprisingly, Google acknowledged the bug, but says it’s too fundamental to Chromecast’s easy user setup for the company to fix it.
In a strange coincidence, Ashtley’s original “Never Gonna Give You Up” Youtube video has just been taken down, but you can still view it on his Vemo channel.
We’ve reached out to Google on the whether they took down the video to stop the rickrolling onslaught, as well as whether they really aren’t ever going to fix this bad bug, but still haven’t received comment.
The entire country is busy watching America’s rebels take on the Belgium Red Devils at World Cup, but while everyone else is focused on the football pitch, Google is busy readying its plans to take on Beats Music with a music service acquisition of its own.
Songza, a music streaming service that specializes in finding the right music to fit your mood – kind of like Beats’ Sentence feature – announced that is has been scooped up by the folks at Google.
Samsung wants to be one of the world’s top 10 places to work by 2020, but according to the latest third-party labor conditions report, working for the South Korean smartphone maker is still a horrible experience, especially if you’re one of its Chinese suppliers.
An audit of 100 of Samsung’s suppliers in China found issues like overtime, proper saftey gear and training are still prominent issues. You can read the full 69-page report on Samsung’s site, but here’s a quick rundown of the egregious conditions:
