IntellectBeat

A newly discovered vulnerability makes it incredibly easy to break into a large pool of Linux-based computers. A security hole found in Grub2, a widely-used bootloader in many Linux distributions including Ubuntu and Red Hat, allows a user to login to a computer by pressing the backspace key 28 times. VariousLinux distributions have released a patch for the vulnerability. Hector Marco and Ismael Ripoll, two security researchers from the Cyber-security Group at the Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV), have found that it is possible to bypass any kind of authentication on a Linux system by hitting the backspace key 28 times. Once users log in, they can take complete control of the computer. The researchers said Grub2 is the "bootloader used by most Linux systems including some embedded systems. This results in an incalculable number of affected devices," the researchers wrote in a blog post. As per the researchers, the vulnerability can be exploited to obtain s...

Help Google Translate and You Could Win 1 of 50 Android One Phones Google has announced Translatathon 2015, a campaign aimed at improving translations for nine Indian languages. This is the second consecutive year when Google has kept a Translatathon for translations and validation for words and sentences in the  Google Translate  Community. This year, Google has  included nine Indian languages, namely - Hindi, Bengali, Telugu, Marathi, Tamil, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, and Punjabi. Contributors can participate on their phones or computers. They are required to just type, swipe, or tap translations in the languages they speak. Contributors will have the option to either translate phrases directly, or  validate existing translations . The Translatathon 2015 will end on December 30. The search engine giant has announced that in return, the 50 participants with highest score will each receive an Android One smartphone. The company's initiative is to reach to the...

Black holes at the heart of galaxies could swell to 50 billion times the mass of the Sun before losing the discs of gas they rely on to sustain themselves, according to a new study. Professor Andrew King from the University of Leicester in the UK explored supermassive black holes at the centre of galaxies, around which are regions of space where gas settles into an orbiting disc. This gas can lose energy and fall inwards, feeding the black hole. But these discs are known to be unstable and prone to crumbling into stars. King calculated how big a black hole would have to be for its outer edge to keep a disc from forming, coming up with the figure of 50 billion solar masses. The study suggests that without a disc, the black hole would stop growing, meaning 50 billion Suns would roughly be the upper limit. The only way it could get larger is if a star happened to fall straight in or another black hole merged with it. "The significance of this discovery is that astronomers h...

While the industry struggles to make any major advancements to the ubiquitous lithium-ion batteries, Sony may have found a different combination to substantially increase energy density. According to a media report, the Japanese conglomerate is working on two battery combinations to replace lithium-ion batteries.  Sony is working on lithium-sulphur and magnesium-sulphur batteries that offer a 40 percent gain in density by volume, reportsJapanese newspaper Nikkei. The company is currently aiming to make these batteries commercially available in 2020. The report added that smartphones will be the first to benefit from the new advancement.  The lithium-ion batteries, which have been commercially produced for more than two decades now, has almost reached the threshold limit for energy density. This has left smartphone manufacturers and others with no other choice than to accommodate a larger battery to stuff more energy into a device.  The challenge is ...

As it had last year, Yahoo's Flickr has once again revealed the top camera brands used to capture photos uploaded on the website in 2014-2015. Talking about the top camera brands, we saw Apple displacing Nikon for the second position after Canon last year. This year, the Cupertino-based tech giant has taken the top spot from Canon, and is followed by Nikon, Samsung, Sony, and Fujifilm, in that order. In terms of the top cameras used to take photos uploaded during 2014-2015, the iPhone and Canon models captured all of the top 10 positions. Apple iPhone 6 was on top rank with 5 percent share, followed by iPhone 5s (4.9 percent), iPhone 5 (4.2 percent), iPhone 4S (3.5 percent), iPhone 4 (2.5 percent), iPhone 6 Plus (2.2 percent), Canon EOS 5D Mark II (1.9 percent), iPhone 5c (1.8 percent), Canon EOS Rebel T3i (1.6 percent), and Canon EOS 5D Mark III (1.5 percent). The first Android device (the Samsung Galaxy S4) is at 11th place. It was also found out that top 18 camera pairings ar...

A new report from Taiwan claims that Asus may pack fingerprint scanners in its ZenFone 3 series of smartphones that are expected to launch next year. Digitimes, citing Taiwan-based supply chain firms, adds that the third-generation of ZenFone smartphones will be the company's first set of devices featuring fingerprint recognition technology and are slated for May-June 2016 release. Considering that Asus in past launched the ZenFone and ZenFone 2 series in early 2014 and the first-half of 2015 respectively, we can expect the Zenfone 3 devices to launch in H1 2016. The report claims that Asus may adopt fingerprint recognition solutions developed by Taiwan-based Elan Microelectronics and China-based Goodix for its ZenFone 3 series. "As Goodix, Elan, and other Taiwan-based IC design house, such as Egis Technology and FocalTech Systems, have stepped up development of fingerprint recognition sensors, prices for such ICs have been dropping, and may fall to US$5 per IC in 2016,...