The camera is covered in tiny domes, which are covered in 180 microlenses, which each capture their own angle of the subject being shot. Essentially, the microlenses all work together to come up with one large collective image that’s high-resolution, sharp, and has a wide field of view.

The camera is obviously in its early stages, but scientists say that this technology could be used in surveillance cameras in order to capture a better picture that’s both sharp and can see everything in a large space. It would also be useful in endoscopic cameras, which are used by doctors to see inside the human body during surgical procedures.

Whereas traditional digital cameras have a flat sensor and a single camera lens, this bug-inspired camera has hundreds of lenses, which essentially bend and curve the elements found in a normal digital camera into a half-sphere in order to achieve a very wide field of view. It’s not said when the new cameras could hit the industry, but the researchers have already been working on the technology for several years now.

[via CNN]

Whenever you send a message using one of those phrases, the last word would be omitted and be replaced with a series of spaces. However, when you copy and paste the message, the original message appears unaltered. The bug seems to be affecting mainly users who use iMessage on their iPhones or their Macs running Mac OS X Mountain Lion. Users who message via their iPads seem to be safe from the issue.

This issue has existed for a few months now, however, Apple has yet to issue a fix for it. But hey, at least it’s not as dangerous as the bug that allows others to spy on your iMessages. Last year, it was discovered that you can access someone’s entire archive of iMessages just by placing their SIM card into your iPhone. Even if you completely wiped your phone, others would still have access to your messages.

There’s also a potential exploit that hackers could use to DDoS your iPhone and your Mac via iMessage. Hackers who have access to your email address could send you an unlimited amount of iMessages at a fast pace, quick enough to stall your device. The message spam could stall your device, or crash your iMessages app and prevent you from re-opening it. The only way to prevent the attacks is by disabling the iMessage app altogether. Hopefully Apple has fixes for these bugs soon.

[via The Verge]

Unlike the latest iPhone security issue, the Xperia Z’s method doesn’t involve any fiddling with the SIM card or other physical parts of the phone. Instead, demonstrated in the video attached below by Scott Reed, who found the issue, you can see the method at work, which involves using the emergency dialer.

After pulling up the emergency dial pad, the user only needs to type in *#*#7378423#*#*, which then brings up the service menu. Via the service menu, the user then needs to use the NFC > NFC Diag Test, at which point the home button can be pressed and the home screen accessed. The bypass is easy enough for anyone to replicate.

This follows shortly after a new bug has surfaced with the iOS 6.1.3 update that fixes one security bypass issue while introducing a new one, which involves using voice command and ejecting the SIM card at a certain time. Likewise, Samsung has had issues with some of its Galaxy devices providing lock screen bypass vulnerabilities.

[via GSM Arena]

The process, when followed correctly, results in not only the user gaining access to the handset’s home screen without correctly entering the lock screen, but it also removes the needs to enter the pattern, PIN, or other lock method in place once the bypass has been successfully used. Because the bug was replicated on more than one type of Samsung handset, it is possible the issue lies with Samsung’s software rather than with the Android OS.

The folks over at ZDNet say they have confirmed the bugs on both the Galaxy S III and Note II. After what they report was tricky timing issues with getting the method just right, they were able to entirely bypass the lock screen on the Galaxy S III, which was running Android 4.1.2. With the Galaxy Note II, they got the initial bug that provides brief access to the home screen to work, but not the latter method.

If you own one of these two devices and would like to give it a try, the bug is pretty simple. Enter “Emergency Call” from the lock screen and open “Emergency Contacts.” From there, press the Home button, then immediately press the Power button. Press the Power button again, and you’ll be taken to the home screen instead of the lock screen.

[via ZD Net]

This bug is currently being worked on by Facebook, but for those of you that want a quick fix: you’ll have to leave each Group one-by-one. The other solution is to go to the little white triangle that sits in the upper right-hand side of your Facebook screen (near your name) and click it – then click Account Settings – then click Notifications. From there you can simply turn off all the Notifications you desire.

Meanwhile there’s one massive complaint thread about the situation, and a statement has been issued by Facebook representatives that reads as follows:

“A bug surfaced last night that caused some users to be re-added to groups that they previously belonged to. We are working to resolve the issue now. In the meantime, we are rolling out a short-term fix for all closed groups that will make the content of those groups inaccessible to the re-added members.” – Facebook Representative

The most concerning thing about this situation should be – for you – the idea that Facebook keeps a record of the groups you’ve been a part of in the past on their social network. This information clearly remains a part of the larger Facebook archive as it’s been proven today with re-ads galore. On the other hand, this should have all become clear as soon as the Facebook Timeline Layout was made solid – Facebook keeps everything.

At the moment there’s no ETA for when this problem is going to be solved, only that assurance that Facebook is making closed groups the priority here with re-stopping this flood. While we see what Facebook does to keep everything neat – let us know if you’ve experienced anything strange today!

[via Slate]

The folks over at The Next Web talked with eBay’s former Director of SEO Dennis Goedegebuure, who stated that he has regained access to eBay’s Webmaster Tools after having not worked for the company in over a year. A quick search for “Webmaster Tools” on Twitter reveals a host of tweets, many of which are angry, stating that they have either regained access or have had users added to Webmaster Tools who were previously revoked.

Just how much havoc could someone wreck with access to Webmaster Tools and Analytics? To start with, he or she could remove webmaster user access, followed by bumping pages off the index and purging sitemaps. This is on top of the massive amounts of data that will be accessible via Analytics, which include a variety of records and site reports.

Some users are reporting that old Gmail Talk contacts are also reappearing, suggesting that other services may be compromised as well. Google is no doubt frantically working to correct this issue. While we wait to see what damage is done, here’s a bit of random Twitter advice from @Skitzzo: “Never screw your SEO… you never know when Google will do something stupid like let them back into your Webmaster Tools account.”

[via TNW]

Known as Issue 8030, this relatively unknown bug is not a problem for most users. Those affected, however, have expressed immense frustration. The issue was presented on code.google.com: “When connected on WiFi to a network which specifies a domain name, hostnames in that domain do not resolve without appending the domain to the hostname.”

After years of responses, someone from Google jumped into the comment pool and left this short bit of info: “The fix for this has gone in thanks to Kevin Tang. It will be available in the next major release.” Users then, not surprisingly, jumped in with a variety of grumbles about how long it took to correct the issue, to which Google again responded.

“Guys, it was a matter of prioritization and resources. We don’t have people to put on every requested feature and we certainly were not idle during this time. I apologize it took so long. I can’t say what the next version will be (neither know it nor can discuss it) but it will be after 4.2, which has already gone out.”

[via Android Police]

UK game developing company CMA Megacorp tweeted earlier this morning that they discovered this bug while diagonally scrolling on the iPhone 5. Of course, they weren’t sure if it was just them or actually something that all iPhone 5 units were affected with. Recombu decided to test it out for themselves, and they found that both of their iPhone 5 units on hand were guilty of the glitch.

Skip to 0:54 to see the testing.

As you can see, both iPhone 4S units have no problem with quick diagonal scrolling, but both of the iPhone 5 units stutter a little bit, and they even completely drop out at one point. Obviously, this isn’t a huge deal for casual usage, but it can be a problem in some mobile games where quick swiping is crucial to the gameplay.

No one’s sure if this is a hardware or software issue. If it’s a software issue, then we would most likely see the problem easily fixed in iOS 6.1, but if it’s a hardware issue, then that’s a completely different story. Apple hasn’t yet made an official statement on the issue, but if or when they do, we’ll update this post accordingly.

[via Recombu]

The exploit is performed by using the Wizard’s Teleport and Archon abilities in quick succession. One poster on the Blizzard forums listed the steps required to make this exploit work, but Blizzard has since removed the step-by-step guide to making your Wizard invulnerable. Kotaku managed to swipe the list before Blizzard moderators were able to take it down, however, so here’s what you need to do in order to enjoy a risk-free romp through Sanctuary:

Step 1: Select Teleport – Fracture. Bind it to a key
Step 2: Select Archon, tested with Improved Archon
Step 3: Hover your mouse over or near your charcter
Step 4: Press Teleport
Step 5: QUICKLY(!) Press Archon

Many other posters in the thread have confirmed that the exploit works, and though some say that it takes a couple of tries to get the rhythm down, pulling off this exploit is apparently pretty simple once you get the hang of it. As with other game-breaking exploits and bugs in Diablo III, Blizzard will likely push a fix out the door quickly, so if you’re planning on making use of this particular exploit, do so with the knowledge that it probably won’t be long before Blizzard fixes it.

Apparently, messages are only forwarded to a third contact when the Skype client crashes during a conversation. When that happens, the “last IM entered or sent prior to the crash” will then be sent off to that unintended third contact, which could result in a pretty dire situation if that most recent IM was about them. Hearing Skype describe it, the bug sounds like it isn’t necessarily unavoidable, but it also isn’t random, so at least there’s that.

In its updated statement, Skype also shared a list of which clients are impacted by this bug: Skype 5.9 and 5.10 for Windows, 5.8 for Mac, 4.0 for Linux, 4.0 for iOS, 2.8 for Android, and 1.2 for Windows Phone. If you’re using one of those clients, you’re instructed to download the latest client once you’re notified that an update is available, as that will likely include the fix you need to prevent this from happening again.

So, we’ve made a good bit of progress with this bug today. Not only does Skype say it’s working on a fix, but it also told us which specific clients are affected and what exactly needs to happen for the bug to rear its ugly head. Like we said this morning though, it’s still probably a good idea to choose your words carefully while we wait for this update, otherwise they might end up being seen by exactly the wrong person.

[via Skype]

It’s a pretty scary privacy issue, even if it’s only affecting a small number of people right now. Thankfully, Skype is aware of the bug, saying in a statement: “We are aware that in rare circumstances IM’s between two contacts could be sent to an unintended third contact. We are rolling out a fix for this issue in the next few days and will notify our users to download an updated version of Skype.”

Until then, you’ll just have to pay extra attention to what you’re sending out over Skype. We’ll keep an eye out and let you know when Skype issues the fix, but in the meantime it might be a good idea to think twice before hitting “send” on that private message.

It became a huge issue when the game was released. There are areas within the race tracks that allow players to essentially skip more than half ot the course. The shortcuts were so extreme – and unintentional – that anyone using them has been considered a cheater. It was a big headache for Nintendo because the way the system originally worked, there was no way to patch individual 3DS games over the Internet.

However, a firmware update for the device went live earlier this year that modified the 3DS’s inner workings and made such a feat possible. This issue caused many to draw comparisons between Nintendo and Sony/Microsoft yet again, noting that Nintendo is far behind when it comes to things like online connectivity in the gaming environment.

[via Wired]

“We were put on display like a circus act because my wife wears a hijab,” the girl’s father said in an interview with local news station WPBF. JetBlue said that it apologized to the family, and most likely offered some sort of compensation, but the amount of the compensation was not disclosed. The airline did not believe that it made a mistake, however, and certainly did not sound that apologetic in its statement. The flight in question was flying from Fort Lauderdale to Newark, New Jersey.

“Upon boarding Flight 510 at Fort Lauderdale International Airport on Tuesday evening, a customer’s boarding pass was flagged in our system as being on the No Fly list. We notified and collaborated with TSA. TSA cleared the customers to travel on JetBlue,” said JetBlue in its official statement. The passengers were not removed until after they had already boarded and were seated comfortably.

[via WPBF]

United, which merged with Continental Airlines in 2010 to create the world’s largest airline, experienced huge problems when it tried to combine two independent computer systems into one integrated network. To anticipate potential problems, the company changed some aspects of its business, like underselling flights. But that was in the best of circumstances.

In early March, the computer migration process caused huge problems, resulting in delays that left many customers stranded for days – something that just shouldn’t happen because of computer problems. “We weren’t able to deliver the level of customer service that we wanted and that our customers have come to expect,” said CEO Jeff Smisek during the earnings call. In total, United lost $1.36 per share in the first quarter, about 20% more than analysts had expected.

[via BusinessWeek]

The glitch was specific to a Firefox add-on called Temper Data. It allowed hackers to siphon off outgoing HTTP requests in real-time from the browser, and then modify the data. So for example, in Hotmail as soon as hackers hit a password reset for any email account, they were able to instantly modify the request and put in a password of their choosing. The vulnerability was discovered by vulerability-lab.com.

That site described the security hole as follows: “Remote attackers can bypass the password recovery service to set up a new password and bypass in place protections (token based). The token protection only checks if a value is empty, then blocks or closes the web session. A remote attacker can, for example, bypass the token protection with values ‘+++)-’. Successful exploitation results in unauthorized MSN or Hotmail account access.” Microsoft reportedly was told about the flaw on April 20, and then fixed it on April 21.

[via The Register]

The current version of Chrome, 18.0.1025.151, creates a file called “chrome_shutdown_ms.txt” every time the browser is closed. When reopened, SSL sites are no longer accessible, instead giving a “Invalid Server Certificate” message. Here’s how to temporarily avoid the problem on Windows 7: navigate to “Users\[username]\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data”, and delete chrome_shutdown_ms.txt. Reopen Chrome, and SSL sites should work again.

That can get tedious if you’re having to close and reopen the browser on a regular basis, but there is a way to stop the file from being generated in the first place. To stop chrome_shutdown_ms.txt from being written, close your current tabs (and the browser) with Ctrl+W, or click to close them individually rather than closing everything with the big red X.

There’s no word yet on when Google will be pushing out an update to Chrome to fix the problem, which seems to have affected a wide range of users. We recommend you keep an eye on this Google Groups thread in the meantime.

The problem seems to be isolated to those using the latest version of Chrome, 18.0.1025.151, and running the 64-bit version of Windows 7. So far the only way to gain access to Google services with Chrome again is to reinstall the browser, which will give temporary access. Once you close the browser and reopen it, the server certificate error will return.

We stumbled across the bug earlier this afternoon after updating Chrome, and had to switch to Firefox in order to access Google’s services. The bug has hit one of our desktop machines running Windows 7, but doesn’t seem to have affected a MacBook Air running Windows 7 via BootCamp.

Users of Chrome have taken to Google’s support pages with the same problem. There are two threads on Google Groups, with dozens of people all reporting the same issue. A representative from Google has replied, saying that they’re looking into the issue, as well as asking people for more details in order to troubleshoot. The exact cause of the problem is unclear right now.

UPDATE (15/04): Google has fixed the bug recently with an update to Chrome. The issue was affecting users on Windows 7 64-bit who hadn’t updated to Service Pack 1. We recommend you grab all the latest Windows updates, but if you can’t for whatever reason, you should be able to use Chrome correctly with the latest versions.

Users report that signal is lost after a few minutes when the phone enters standby. The issue so far seems to be affecting just GSM users, with Galaxy Nexus users taking to both Google Code and xda-developers to report the issue. A member from Google’s team has responded saying that they’re looking it.

In the xda-developers thread, users have reported that the issue seems to be the result of a faulty radio. Flashing a new radio rectifies the problem. Of course, this isn’t a viable solution for those who haven’t rooted their phone or don’t want to risk damaging their handset.

If you’ve been affected by the issue, you’ll either have to flash a new radio yourself, or sit tight until Google can push out a fix. Looks like we might be seeing a 4.0.5 update sooner rather than later.

[via Android Community]

The company has not responded to complaints about this latest bungled update, but it is no doubt already working behind-the-scenes to figure out what went wrong. Battlefield 3 came out last year, and publisher EA heralded it as the company’s strongest launch ever. In a matter of days it managed to move 10 million unit sales. But there has been controversy, specifically for the PS3 version, from day one.

EA faced major damage control right out of the gate after it failed to deliver on one of the biggest promises it made to PS3 customers. The promise was that anyone who purchased the game for PS3 would receive a PS3 version of the classic Battlefield 1943 game. It was supposed to be a way to encourage sales of the game on Sony’s platform. However, when the game was released last October, Battlefield 1943 was nowhere to be found. Well, it turns out that for whatever reason, EA was not able to get that extra goodie packed into the game in time.

[via Ubergizmo]

The following list includes prize money as well as numbered fixes that were made in the Pwnium contest this past Pwnium season. Google’s Chrome team has opened their pocketbook again and found that, surprise, developers and hackers alike do indeed enjoy finding exploits, especially when there’s cash involved. Check the dollar bills!

[$500] [109574] Medium CVE-2011-3058: Bad interaction possibly leading to XSS in EUC-JP. Credit to Masato Kinugawa.
[$500] [112317] Medium CVE-2011-3059: Out-of-bounds read in SVG text handling. Credit to Arthur Gerkis.
[$500] [114056] Medium CVE-2011-3060: Out-of-bounds read in text fragment handling. Credit to miaubiz.
[116398] Medium CVE-2011-3061: SPDY proxy certificate checking error. Credit to Leonidas Kontothanassis of Google.
[116524] High CVE-2011-3062: Off-by-one in OpenType Sanitizer. Credit to Mateusz Jurczyk of the Google Security Team.
[117417] Low CVE-2011-3063: Validate navigation requests from the renderer more carefully. Credit to kuzzcc, Sergey Glazunov, PinkiePie and scarybeasts (Google Chrome Security Team).
[$1000] [117471] High CVE-2011-3064: Use-after-free in SVG clipping. Credit to Atte Kettunen of OUSPG.
[$1000] [117588] High CVE-2011-3065: Memory corruption in Skia. Credit to Omair.
[$500] [117794] Medium CVE-2011-3057: Invalid read in v8. Credit to Christian Holler.

The three fixes you see there without monetary amounts belong to the entity known as AddressSantitizer – with again, help from the Google Chrome security team. No robot shall be left to stand alone! Also there were $8,000 USD more distributed amongst coders at the events leading up to this release, so high fives for you all!

You can download the new version of Google Chrome now via this link: [GOOGLE CHROME 18 DOWNLOAD HERE] and know this as well: it contains the new Adobe Flash release as well. Upgrades for everyone!

Dates are the most aggravating data type in any computer development environment, but nevertheless Microsoft should be the one company that’s able to overcome this issue. The refund will be 33% of every customer’s service charge for February, a more than generous offer. According to new details that were revealed, the most that anyone was without Azure services was 12 hours.

Microsoft Azure team member Bill Laing had the unenviable task of writing a blog post to explain everything. “uses midnight UST of the current day as the valid-from date and one year from that date as the valid-to date. The leap day bug is that the [system] calculated the valid-to date by simply taking the current date and adding one to its year. That meant that any GA that tried to create a transfer certificate on leap day set a valid-to date of February 29, 2013, an invalid date that caused the certificate creation to fail,” he wrote.

[via Wired]

“This is a temporary situation, and we expect to resolve the matter in a few days,” the IRS wrote in a statement on its website. “The IRS is taking steps to update information so that Where’s My Refund has current information. The IRS apologizes for any inconvenience and will provide updated information as soon as possible.” Under normal circumstances, the tool shows users when their tax return was accepted, when their refund is expected to be tendered, and when the direct deposit or check was distributed.

The agency also admitted that while the “vast majority” of users are unaffected, there are some whose returns may be delayed because of the glitch. The IRS did not elaborate further on what caused the problem, though there has not been any indication that it was any sort of attack on the agency. Rather, something internal probably went haywire and now everyone is scrambling to fix it. In the mean time, you can always just sit back and daydream about what you’ll use that refund for.

[via CS Monitor]

The crippling file size bug seemed to really only affect PS3 users, and had absolutely no impact on PC gamers. Bethesda released a patch to the PC version last month, but because consoles require an entire certification and scheduling process before any game-related file can be pushed out to users, PS3 owners were forced to just wait and wait. And now, the wait is over. According to gamer reactions, the new patch does the job just fine.

Bethesda recommends that after downloading the patch, players should go into the game and manually save their progress to overwrite the glitchy save file. Players should immediately notice the new save file has a smaller file size. Then, if you quit the game and go back in to your new save file, which will still contain all the progress from your old save file, the game should run much more smoothly. For PS3 Skyrims fans, the only words that fit in this situation are “it’s about time.”

[via CVG]

Okay, so here’s the deal. When you register your iMessages app, it look at the phone number on your SIM card and then apparently never looks at your SIM card again. It never ties this information to your Apple ID or anything else that registers the app to your actual phone. As such, some iPhone users have found out that if you use iMessages from one iPhone, and then put the SIM card in another iPhone, the same iMessages account appears in both phones.

That’s right. Even the original phone, without a SIM card, still has an active iMessages app. And even if the SIM card finds its way back to the original iPhone, any other iPhone it had contact with will have access to the same iMessages conversations. So if you let your friend borrow your iPhone, or you happen to lose it, or you take it in for repairs at a shady store, anyone who had access to your SIM card can infiltrate your iMessages account.

Even if you perform a remote wipe, it won’t change the fact that the third-party iPhones have registered your SIM card. The only way to cut off access to those “spying” iPhones is to call your carrier and completely deactivate your SIM card. The third-party phones see everything, including message you send and messages you receive. And they can even pretend to be you and send out messages of their own. Now of course, this requires someone else to physically have access to your SIM card and have an extra iPhone lying around without its own SIM card. Chances are that won’t happen to the average iPhone owners. But it is a glitch, and something as private as text messaging conversations will always be a hot button issue. For now, there doesn’t seem to be any sort of software fix on the way.

[via The Verge]

Case Western Reserve University has recently published some research papers outlining how these electronic sensor packing bugs might soon become a reality. One major issue has always been the power source for something of this caliber being so small. New research has been lightly detailed outlining a new process where researchers can harness power from insects movement, and even from the chemical reaction as they eat.

Chemistry professor Daniel Scherson and his team has found a way to create power from the bugs food intake. Converting food into electrons and then using this for electricity and power the little sensors and everything else. Creepy crawly gross indeed, but cool nevertheless. Previous advances in this unique research has needed movement to create power but being able to use those techniques along with what we are seeing with this report would give our Cyborg bugs and beetles plenty of power.

Obviously these are still from a reality but are definitely a work in progress. All we need now is to figure this technique out, get a few cockroaches and a trail of crumbs and they are good to go.

[via Huffington Post, via Engadget]