marketingmagazine.co.uk
Hackers crack
‘undecipherable’ Ashley Madison passwords
This has been a bad year for data breaches. Hackers
managed to steal 36m passwords, encrypted by the powerful bcrypt, from the
‘have an affair’ dating site Ashley Madison.
It was thought it would take years to crack the
encryption, but a research group called CynoSure Prime found programming errors
that sped up the process. It chose not to release 11m passwords, but that was
scant consolation to those exposed by the original hack, carried out by The Impact
Team. Affected users have complained to the US Federal Trade Commission that
they are now being blackmailed. The site’s owner, Avid Life, is offering a
$500,000 reward for information.
Stay off Facebook to stay sane
Deciphered has been tracking a growing body of
evidence that intense internet use, particularly Facebook, may have a negative
impact on mood.
The findings come from a study by the Happiness
Research Institute in Denmark, which asked one group of users to quit Facebook,
and another to continue regular use. The former reported feeling more satisfied
with better social lives. The latter tended to be less happy, and more worried.
That isn’t to
say Facebook causes depression, and more research is needed into whether the
benefits of quitting remain in the long term.
Block party:
banks sign up to Bitcoin tech
Bitcoin is the "ebola of banking",
according to Frank Schuil, the founder of trading start-up Safello.
Nonetheless, his firm is the first to sign up for a proof-of-concept study with
Barclays to examine how the bank can use the blockchain – the technology
underpinning Bitcoin.
Enthusiasm has spread across the sector, with HSBC,
Santander and Citibank all examining possible implementations of the
technology.
The blockchain is a shared database that underpins
cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, and could radically alter banks’ verification
processes.
Modern Frankenstein hacks his own brain
There’s a sci-fi theory, the singularity, that
posits that artificially intelligent machines will one day be capable of
building smarter versions of themselves, eventually surpassing humans in
capability. Few in the tech industry take the theory seriously – try dictating
punctuation to Siri – but some of the advances that might lead to the
singularity are happening now.
Phil Kennedy, founder of brain computer interface
company Neural Signals, underwent surgery to implant electrodes into his motor
cortex. The goal was to test software he has designed to translate imagined
speech into spoken words produced by a speech synthesiser.
Presenting his findings this year, Kennedy said
certain neurons fired not only when he spoke certain words aloud, but when he
imagined speaking them, marking a major step forward. Not everyone agrees with
his approach; some researchers see it as unethical.
Makers of
mobile ad-blockers face moral quandary
The release of Apple’s updated software, iOS 9, has
allowed ad-blocking apps onto iPhones for the first time, making widespread
ad-blocking a very real threat to advertisers and publishers.
Two ad-blockers, Peace and Crystal, dominated the
App Store charts in the week after iOS 9 went live. Crystal’s developer, Dean
Murphy, told Marketing that mobile ads had got "out of hand", using
up bandwidth and slowing down pages.
Murphy’s blocker works by defining which sources
not to load on a Safari web page, cutting out site-trackers, display ads and
some video ads.
But Marco Arment, who created Peace, abruptly
withdrew his app from sale, saying success didn’t "feel good" and
cost livelihoods.
Murphy’s app became the number-one ad blocker as a
result, but he, too, began allowing "acceptable ads" to support
publishers.
Talking Barbie brings artificial intelligence to kids’ toys
Mattel launched Hello Barbie this Christmas, the
first Barbie enabled withbasic artificial intelligence.
The doll can respond to complex questions such as
"Do you believe in God?" with phrases like "I think a person’s
beliefs are very personal to them." But the toy is better suited to
talking about happiness, friendship and play, and can even learn a child’s
responses.
Since the doll records its owner’s voice, privacy
campaigners have raised concerns about the ethics of storing data on children.
Mattel and the doll’s creator, ToyTalk, said they collect voice data, but will
routinely delete any personal information.
Hackers break into internet-connected Jeep
Wired conducted an alarming experiment this year,
asking two‘white hat’ (ethical) hackers to break into an internet-connected
Jeep driven by one of its writers.
They succeeded, meddling with the car’s air
temperature control, its digital display, the radio and eventually cutting the
engine.
With many internet-enabled cars on the road, the
experiment highlighted just how vulnerable these vehicles could be.
Fiat Chrysler ended up recalling 1.4m cars after
Wired’s exposé, and issued a patch to fix the flaws.
Google
releases OnHub wireless router
Google released its first wireless router this
year. Called OnHub, it aims to make internet set-up easier.
Google notes that most wireless routers are ugly
and remain hidden away, denting performance.
OnHub’s USPs are beautiful hardware, with easy
software and a painful $200 price tag. For anyone who doesn’t enjoy fiddling
about with cables every time their internet’s on the blink, though, it might be
worth it.
EE Power Bar backfires
A well-meaning marketing gesture went awry for EE
this summer, after the telecoms brand started handing out free mobile charger
bars that caught fire.
One student reported severe burns from an exploding
Power Bar, and EE admitted to a total of five incidents.
Eventually, the operator suspended the scheme,
asking customers who had bars stamped with "E1-06" to return their
chargers to it immediately.
Google unveils walking, running, kickable robot dog
Under its new corporate structure as Alphabet,
Google has hived off its robotics research into its own futuristic division,
Boston Dynamics, which earlier this year showed off an agile robot dog called
Spot. Spot can trot daintily or gallop, depending on the terrain. It can
navigate obstacles by moving on hydraulic limbs.
In its demo video, though, the company provoked
mock outrage by showing one employee kicking the robot dog to show off its
stability. YouTube commenters were quick to point out that this kind of
behaviour would only speed up the inevitable robot uprising.
Under Armour, Nike and Adidas battle it out in digital
The three biggest US sportswear firms are racing to
differentiate through innovation, trialling everything from smart zips to
3D-printed trainers.
Earlier this year Under Armour told Marketing it
was launching a sports social network that it hoped might one day rival
Facebook and Twitter. It’s also working on connected zips, though what these
would do remains a mystery.
Adidas has invested in wearable tech and apps, and
unveiled a concept shoe with a 3D-printed sole. Nike also envisages a future
where consumers can print their own trainers.
Disney creates augmented-reality children’s books
Disney’s research arm is exploring how augmented
reality could make colouring books and storybooks more interesting for kids.
Its team of scientists showed off a colouring-book
concept, which brings characters to life as they are drawn onto the page. The
app works by letting children view their drawings through a tablet, which renders
them in 3D in real time.
It extended the concept to children’s books, with
characters springing off the page and interacting with a child, when viewed
through an app.
The end of Moore’s Law?
The 50th anniversary of Moore’s Law, the
observation that the number of transistors on a chip doubles roughly every two
years, equating to a jump in processing power, fell in 2015.
For the many marketing futurologists who like to
cite it, though, the rule may no longer apply. Intel, the co-founder of which,
Gordon Moore, came up with the term, said it’s taking longer, and costs more,
to keep up.
This might not be a tragedy – one reason Moore’s
Law is slowing is that consumers’ requirements of their devices, beyond
processing power, are becoming increasingly complex. The slowing of Moore’s Law
won’t necessarily correlate to a slowdown in computation growth, it just means
we’ll be seeing innovation come from elsewhere.
STAT ATTACK:
£13,500
The price of the most expensive Apple Watch.
156,959
The number of TalkTalk customers affected by the
biggest ever cyber attack on a UK company.
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