Geekly Update - 12 February 2014

The AskBobRankin Geekly Update

Can we say goodbye to passwords, pin codes and fingerprint scanners? It turns out your body odor can act as pretty reliable biometric identifier. Researchers envision using the "sniff test" at security checkpoints, but why not for laptops and smartphones, too?

Perhaps you saw or read about NBC news reporter Richard Engel claiming that smartphone would be "instantly hacked" upon arrival in Russia for the Sochi Olympics. SURPRISE... it's a big fraud. Turns out he deliberately turned off an Android security feature and downloaded malware himself.

It’s weird to learn of eight-foot tall robots directing traffic in the Congo. But it’s alarming to learn just how willing humans are to obey commands from robots, even after “arguing” with the machines and strongly stating they’d rather not comply.

Even though tech support for Windows XP ends this April, the antiquated operating system’s market share increased in December 2013. XP is still in use on 29.23 per cent of PCs, according to the latest report from Net Market Share.

AT&T announced a new Best Ever Family Prices plan: 10GB of data, unlimited talk & text, starting at $130 per month for two lines and you can add more lines for $15/month each. The “catch” is that you must sign up for AT&T’s Next plan, which lets you out of a contract.

On February 5, Adobe issued an emergency security patch for Flash Player. It fixes a bug that would allow hackers to take remote control of a device running Flash Player v. 12.0.0.43 and earlier versions for Windows and Mac and Adobe Flash Player 11.2.202.335 and earlier versions for Linux. Check your version of Flash Player and download the patch if necessary.

“Flappy Bird” game developer, Dong Nguyen, ignited a firestorm of dismay, outrage, puzzlement, and speculation by tweeting that he “just can’t take” the runaway success of his creation and had decided to remove it from the Apple and Google app stores. This, despite the fact that he lives with his parents in Vietnam, and was making about $50K per day from the game. Pundits posited all sorts of possible motives for this startling move, but nobody is sure of the truth.

It’s Zuckerberg, squared. “It’s not about invading anyone’s privacy,” insists the CEO of FacialNetwork.com, whose new app for Google Glass uses facial recognition to fetch public data about anyone you look at – in direct violation of Google rules for Glass developers that ban such apps. “NameTag can make the big, anonymous world we live in as friendly as a small town,” claims Kevin Alan Tussy, who’s obviously never lived in a small town or anywhere in proximity to people who think normally.

What else can Apple do to keep the price of smartphones too high? How about display screens made of lab-grown sapphire, the second-hardest mineral behind diamond? While even more durable than Gorilla Glass, sapphire displays cost ten times more.

Apple incurred the ire of the Bitcoin community by deleting the last Bitcoin wallet app from its online app store. A Reddit user offered to buy a Nexus 5 phone for the first five people who would send a video of their iPhone 5 or 5s phones being smashed. And then it got strange.

I’m not saying it’s OK to do this, but here are the five greatest pranks to play on an iPhone user.

A vulnerability in Facebook that allows apps to prevent users from denying access to apps was discovered by Israeli security startup MyPermissions, which spent 60 hours developing a script that diagnoses the problem. Facebook says, “Give us the script.” MyPermissions says, “Come to Tel-Aviv and get it.” Or, just wait for email to be invented.