Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
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Category: mobile phones – Page 4

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has released a free, open-source tool named Rayhunter that is designed to detect cell-site simulators (CSS), also known as IMSI catchers or Stingrays.

Stingray devices mimic legitimate cell towers to trick phones into connecting, allowing them to capture sensitive data, accurately geolocate users, and potentially intercept communications.

With the release of the Rayhunter, EFF seeks to give users the power to detect these instances, allowing them to protect themselves and also help draw a clearer picture of the exact deployment scale of Stingrays.

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Optical atomic clocks have the potential to improve timekeeping and GPS

GPS, or Global Positioning System, is a satellite-based navigation system that provides location and time information anywhere on or near the Earth’s surface. It consists of a network of satellites, ground control stations, and GPS receivers, which are found in a variety of devices such as smartphones, cars, and aircraft. GPS is used for a wide range of applications including navigation, mapping, tracking, and timing, and has an accuracy of about 3 meters (10 feet) in most conditions.

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A smartphone’s glow is often the first and last thing we see as we wake up in the morning and go to sleep at the end of the day. It is increasingly becoming an extension of our body that we struggle to part with. In a recent study in Computers in Human Behavior, scientists observed that staying away from smartphones can even change one’s brain chemistry.

The researchers recruited for a 72-hour smartphone restriction diet where they were asked to limit to essential tasks such as work, , and communication with their family or significant others.

During these three days, the researchers conducted psychological tests and did brain scans using imaging (fMRI) to examine the effects of restricting phone usage. Brain scans showed significant activity shifts in reward and craving regions of the brain, resembling patterns seen in substance or alcohol addiction.

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Researchers developed a theoretical model that predicts a substantial increase in the brightness of organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) by leveraging novel quantum states called polaritons. Integrating polaritons into OLEDs effectively requires the discovery of new materials, making practical implementation an exciting challenge.

OLED technology has become a common light source in a variety of high-end display devices, such as smartphones, laptops, TVs or smart watches.

While OLEDs are rapidly reshaping lighting applications with their flexibility and eco-friendliness, they can be quite slow at converting electric current into light, with only a 25% probability in emitting photons efficiently and rapidly. The latter is an important condition for boosting the brightness of OLEDs, which tend to be dimmer than other light technologies.

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Major Chinese tech companies have been ramping up efforts to spur AI business growth.

Alibaba Group plans to invest more than $52 billion on AI and cloud infrastructure over the next three years, in a bid to seize more opportunities in the artificial-intelligence era.

The spending of at least 380 billion yuan, equivalent to $52.41 billion, will surpass the company’s AI and cloud computing investment over the past decade, Alibaba said in a post Monday on its news site. Alibaba first mentioned the plan last week when the company reported its results but didn’t provide a specific figure.

The technology giant co-founded by Jack Ma delivered better-than-expected results for three months ended December, with revenue growth accelerating to its fastest pace since late 2023, supported by improvements in its e-commerce and cloud businesses.

Major Chinese tech companies, from Alibaba to Baidu, have been ramping up efforts to spur AI business growth as advancements by homegrown upstart DeepSeek have gained global attention. Alibaba co-founder Joe Tsai earlier this month said its AI technology would be integrated into Apple’s iPhones for the Chinese market, a move that analysts expect to burnish the Hangzhou-based company’s brand image and benefit its long-term growth.

Last month, Alibaba introduced the Qwen2.5 Max, the latest version of its AI model, which it said was competitive with global leaders, including DeepSeek-V3.

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Optical atomic clocks can increase the precision of time and geographic position a thousandfold in our mobile phones, computers, and GPS systems. However, they are currently too large and complex to be widely used in society.

Now, a research team from Purdue University, U.S., and Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, has developed a technology that, with the help of on-chip microcombs, could make ultra-precise optical atomic clock systems significantly smaller and more accessible—with significant benefits for navigation, autonomous vehicles, and geo-data monitoring.

The research is published in the journal Nature Photonics.

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An Android malware app called SpyLend has been downloaded over 100,000 times from Google Play, where it masqueraded as a financial tool but became a predatory loan app for those in India.

The app falls under a group of malicious Android applications called “SpyLoan,” which pretend to be legitimate financial tools or loan services but instead steal data from devices for use in predatory lending.

These apps lure users with promises of quick and easy loans, often requiring little documentation and offering attractive terms. However, upon installation, they request excessive permissions, allowing the apps to steal personal data such as contacts, call logs, SMS messages, photos, and device location.

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