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This Weeks Run Down

Apparently the FAA thinks it is 1967

This Sunday, the FAA finally released its proposal for regulations on unmanned commercial aircraft, a.k.a. drones. The proposed requirements, are surprisingly ? or unsurprisingly, depending on who you ask ? arcane and draconian.

The drones must be under 55 pounds or 25 kilograms. They can only be operated in daylight, and within the operator’s line of sight! They have to fly under 500 feet, no faster than 100 mph (Which those two aren’t unreasonable) But, they also can NEVER fly over anyone except for the people flying the drone.

This pretty much shoots down any plans that Amazon had for Prime Air since delivering packages with a drone, kinda requires the drone to be out of sight for it to be useful. And it would almost certainly have to fly over some people to get to my porch.

Some drone startups aren’t too concerned though. Drones could possibly be used for some commercial purposes, like a farmer surveying his field from the sky.

Lenovo got caught with its hand in the cookie jar

The Next Web is reporting that Lenovo has been installing adware on laptops. The adware, called Superfish, inserts third-party ads into your Google Searches and other websites, even those running with secure encryption, just like the kind of malware that doesn’t intentionally come with your new computer.

Once users started complaining about the ads Lenovo was quick to roll back the program and to post directions on its website about how to uninstall it.

Lenovo said,

Superfish was previously included on some consumer notebook products shipped in a short window between September and December to help customers potentially discover interesting products while shopping.  However, user feedback was not positive.

Unfortunately security researchers have discovered that simply uninstalling the software is not enough. Superfish also include a ?root certificate’ that allows any program that gains access to it to perform what are known as ?man in the middle’ attacks, potentially compromising the security of sensitive user information like banking passwords.

Lenovo initially denied the security vulnerability, but is now saying that it will release new software that will completely remove Superfish and any security certificates related to it.

In the meantime, laptops with Superfish installed are currently available from stores such as Best Buy. Caveat emptor.

After the story broke, a developer put together a website that lets Lenovo laptop owners find out if they are affected by the program, and Lenovo’s current instructions include how to uninstall the basic Superfish program.

LoopPay sold out to Samsung.

In an announcement Wednesday, LoopPay, the company that makes the electronic wallet/phone case for the iPhone, let everyone know that they have been bought by Samsung. They will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Samsung Electronics America, Inc.

They haven’t said anything about incorporating the LoopPay Digital wallet platform into Samsung devices. However, it seems to support the rumors that the next Galaxy phone will probably have LoopPay built into it.

Ray recently reviewed the LoopPay CardCase on a previous episode of Deemable Tech.

Apple iCar?

Wired is reporting that according to a lawsuit filed by electric-car battery manufacturer A123 Systems, Apple has been poaching engineers for its own large-scale car battery division. The lawsuit alleges that an A123 engineer has been helping Apple woo senior-level engineers over to their company. This is adding fuel to rumors that Apple is working on its own electric car.

Other things hinting at this: Apple has over 600 employees that used to work in the automotive industry, including 46 that were formerly with Tesla. Tesla CEO Elon Musk told Bloomberg earlier this month that Apple has been offering $250,000 signing bonuses to entice Tesla employees to leave.

Also, a mysterious van registered to Apple has been spotted driving around San Francisco with an array of equipment including cameras mounted on top. People are speculating that this could be for a self-driving car or a street-mapping system.

In another interview with Bloomberg, former GM CEO Dan Akerson said Apple should stay away from making cars. Akerson said “They’d better think carefully if they want to get into the hard-core manufacturing. We take steel, raw steel, and turn it into car. They have no idea what they’re getting into if they get into that.?

Sounds a lot like Steve Balmer’s advice to Apple many years ago about getting into making phones.

Cable Companies Behaving Badly

A Time Warner Cable customer reported to Ars Technica today that she received a letter from the company in which her first name had been changed to, well, a word we can’t say on this podcast. It starts with a ‘c.’

The letter read, ?Dear C*#! Martinez? and then went tried to convince the customer not to cancel her cable.

The other major US cable company, Comcast, has been in the news several times in the past few months for similar cases. Comcast customers have reported receiving notices from the company in which their names were changed to things like  “dummy,” “whore” and “super bitch.” Comcast and Time Warner Cable announced last year that they plan to merge, pending Federal approval. However, both companies are notorious for their poor customer service and stories like these will not help their case.

Time Warner Cable stated that the name change was due to the actions of a third-party vendor. It apologized to Mrs. Martinez and offered her a free year of cable.

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Photo credit: “Blog OMG!” by Mike Licht is used under CC BY 2.0.