IntellectBeat

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has assured law enforcement across the United States that it will help unlock mobile devices such as iPhones involved in investigations when it is allowed by law and policy. The FBI said in a letter to local authorities that it understands the challenges they face and that they lack necessary tools to monitor and investigate the communications of suspects who use encrypted mobile devices, according to the correspondence obtained by Reuters on Friday. "As has been our longstanding policy, the FBI will of course consider any tool that might be helpful to our partners," the FBI said. "Please know that we will continue to do everything we can to help you consistent with our legal and policy constraints." The letter came five days after the US Justice Department announced that it had dropped its legal case against Apple Inc and that it had successfully unlocked an iPhone used by Syed Farook, who went on a shooting rampage in San Be...

Opting to go solo in its ambitious Chandrayaan II project, India has decided not to take Russia on board and keep the mission completely indigenous with "minor" help from the US. ISRO chairman A S Kiran Kumar said Chandrayaan II, having an indigenously built Lander and Rover, will be launched by December 2017 or first half of 2018. The spacecraft will also have instruments that will collect samples and send the data back to earth. Chandrayaan, the country's Lunar Exploration Programme, is an ongoing series of outer space missions by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). In its Chandrayaan Mission I, ISRO was able to make the important discovery of water on the earth's sole satellite. India has now jettisoned Russia in the Chandrayaan II project and would be embarking upon an indigenous venture but with a bit of help from the United States. During 2010, it was agreed that Russian Space Agency ROSCOSMOS would be responsible for lunar Lander and ISRO for Orb...

All Earth imagery - consisting of more than 2.95 million individual scenes -- from a prolific Japanese remote sensing instrument operating aboard NASA's Terra spacecraft since late 1999 has now been made available to users everywhere at no cost , NASA announced on Friday. "The public will have unlimited access to the complete 16-plus-year database for Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) instrument, which images Earth to map and monitor the changing surface of our planet,” the US space agency said in a statement. ASTER's database currently consists of more than 2.95 million individual scenes. The content ranges from the devastating aftermath of flooding in Pakistan to volcanic eruptions in Iceland and wildfires in California. Previously, users could access ASTER's global digital topographic maps of Earth online at no cost, but paid METI a nominal fee to order other ASTER dat...

NASA astronaut Scott Kelly , who recently completed a year-long mission on the International Space Station (ISS) during his 20-year-long association with the US space agency, retired on Friday. The veteran astronaut said goodbye to his illustrious career with the US record for most cumulative time in space - 520 days. He will continue to participate in the ongoing research related to his one-year mission, providing periodic medical samples and supporting other testing in the same way his twin brother and former astronaut Mark Kelly, made himself available for NASA's twins study. “The year-in-space mission was a profound challenge for all involved, and it gave me a unique perspective and a lot of time to reflect on what my next step should be," Kelly said in a statement. According to him, the view of rainbow-hued Himalayan lakes and steady work helped him stay sane during the ISS stay. Kelly said he was "humbled and excited by new opportunities" for him that sup...

2016 as a watershed year for virtual reality? The HTC Vive follows hot on the heels of Oculus's Rift with an April 5 release, while PC and console gamers anticipate launches for "Dirt Rally," "Dark Souls III" and "Quantum Break." HTC Vive For: Windows PC Available: April 5 At $799 and representing the high end of the spectrum in home VR, following the $599 Oculus Rift launching in March and $399 PlayStation VR set for October, HTC's partnership with PC gaming giant Valve has yielded the tricked-out  Vive , which uses discrete Lighthouse cubes to track movement around a room -- hence its reputation as the most mobility-friendly of the three VR headsets -- embeds an outward-facing camera in its visor so users can see what's going on in virtual reality as well as in the space around them, and packs in the custom SteamVR controllers as well. Needs a hefty PC to power it. Dirt Rally For: PlayStation 4, Xbox One Available: April 5 Having la...

South Korean smartphone maker Samsung may unveil a game-changer device next year which can be a 5-inch smartphone when folded and turn into a 7-inch tablet when opened, a media report said. A prototype of foldable display is finished with development and the company is hoping to mass-produce the device starting from second half of this year, Korean news site ETNews reported. Samsung reportedly invested into several technologies that are needed to build foldable smartphone. The device can bend a screen in half by using OLED Display. One can carry it like a wallet and use it by opening it. "Development of foldable OLED is taking place according to our plan. We are planning on mass-production and release of this product by discussing with our partners," Lee Chang-hoon, director of Samsung Display, said in January this year. "Although mass-production cannot be concluded hastily since Samsung Electronics still has few other major tasks to complete, I have heard that S...