A software company in Tampa, Florida, has been called out for intentionally “bricking” a copy of its software, or making it non-functional, on the computer of a customer who had complained about it online. Ham Radio Deluxe, as the name suggests, produces software for ham radio enthusiasts, including support for radio control and log keeping. ...

In a rather bizarre twist to the ongoing saga that is ransomware infections, a new strain has been discovered that lectures users on the dangers of downloading unknown files from the Internet. Dubbed Koolova, the ransomware is said to act like similar strains in that it will encrypt a victim’s files and then display a screen asking for ...

Amazon.com Inc.’s push to spread its smart assistant Alexa everywhere has received a massive boost at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas that starts this week. The retail and cloud giant announced Alexa tie-ups with manufacturers making washing machines, DVRs and television sets. At the top of the list, Amazon has signed a deal with ...

Osterhout Design Group Inc. Tuesday jumped into the suddenly crowded smart glasses market, revealing its “mixed-reality” visors at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Both sets of glasses, called the R-8 and R-9, are the first wearables powered by Qualcomm Inc.’s Snapdragon 835 processor. They can deliver both augmented and virtual reality overlays. Pitched at a ...

Lenovo Group Ltd. today announced its latest Google Glass competitor, the Lenovo New Glass C200, at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Similar to the first generation Lenovo C1 augmented reality headset and Google Glass before it, the device is a monocular smart glass system that recognizes and identifies real-life objects using artificial intelligence. ...

New York state would be the first in the United States to implement its own set of cyber security regulations for financial services providers under proposed regulations presented last week. Applicable to any company registered by the New York State Department of Financial Services, the regulations will require banks, insurance companies and other financial institutions to establish a cyber ...

Qualcomm Technologies Inc. has jumped the Consumer Electronics Show gun by accidentally revealing details of the forthcoming new Google Tango augmented-reality phone from Asus. In a blog post (since deleted, cached version here) the chip maker revealed that the ZenFone AR from ASUSTeK Computer Inc., only the second Tango-enabled phone since the Lenovo Phab 2 was ...

Researchers have warned that inadequate security with legacy travel booking systems allows hackers to easily obtain personal information and steal tickets and loyalty bonuses — even from luggage tags. Security Research Labs delivered the bad news last week, explaining that the three largest “global distributed systems” — Amadeus, Sabre and Travelport, which cover 90 percent ...

A South Korean actor is suing Tesla Motors Inc. over claims that his car suddenly accelerated while being parked, causing it to crash through a garage and into the owners house and injuring a number of people along the way. Ji Chang Son filed the legal action in the U.S. District Court in the Central District of ...

In a coming of age, bitcoin is about to get some Microsoft Corp. love as the tech giant plans to support the cryptocurrency in the next version of Microsoft Office. The upcoming support, now listed on Microsoft’s Office Roadmap site, will see Excel being able to recognize, format, calculate and analyze numbers expressed in bitcoin, and ...