Articles by Katherine Noyes

The Tor Project is working to remedy a vulnerability in its anonymity software following the sudden cancellation of a talk at next month's Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas that would have revealed it The planned talk, entitled "You Don't Have to be the NSA to Break Tor: Deanonymizing Users on a Budget," would have demonstrated a way to un...

While the ever-expanding class of wearable fitness devices out there can tell users how many calories they've burned while undertaking any particular activity, realistic estimates of calories taken in have been few and far between. Enter a new microwave oven currently in the works at GE Global Research that will tell users just how much energy is ...

Texas attorney Jason L. Van Dyke recently filed a lawsuit against nude-photo-sharing site Pink Meth and included the Tor Project among its defendants Pink Meth is an "involuntary pornography" site, the suit charges, enabling users to post nude photos for the purposes of getting revenge on those pictured. It's accessible only to users who have downl...

For all those who have wondered about the ingredients in their lunchtime burrito, Consumer Physics is gearing up to release a handheld device designed to provide the answer. Dubbed "SCiO," the device is a tiny spectrometer that can scan food, medicines and plants to determine their molecular composition ...

Roughly three months after the launch of its flagship Galaxy S5 smartphone, Samsung on Tuesday debuted the device's smaller sibling: the widely anticipated Galaxy S5 mini ...

After a hornet's nest was stirred up earlier this week over the premature termination of some Chromebook Pixel users' free data plans, Verizon apparently has begun trying to make amends "A very small number of Chromebook Pixel customers may have had a promo end prematurely," Verizon spokesperson Debra Lewis told the E-Commerce Times. "We apologize ...

Two humanoid robots on Wednesday made their debut as part of a new exhibit at Japan's National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation, or Miraikan The newly unveiled Kodomoroid -- a child android -- and Otonaroid, an adult female android, are designed to fill human roles as the world's first android announcer and as the Miraikan's android scienc...

Best known for its computer chips, Intel has ventured into new territory. The company on Thursday unveiled Pocket Avatars, a mobile messaging app that uses animated icons to mimic users' facial expressions Now available for both Android and iOS, the free app can be used to create, send and receive personalized 3D video animated messages designed to...

Spire on Tuesday kicked off preorders for its namesake new wearable device dedicated to promoting health by monitoring the wearer's breathing Billed as "the first wearable that tracks both physical movement and state of mind," Spire is the first activity tracker to measure breathing patterns, the company said, thereby offering new insights into per...

Google on Wednesday revealed statistics about the makeup of its workforce and admitted that it's pretty homogenous "We're not where we want to be when it comes to diversity," Laszlo Bock, senior vice president for people operations, told the E-Commerce Times.

Facebook cofounder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been summoned by an Iranian court over privacy-violation concerns, according to news reports on Tuesday The court in question, located in Iran's southern province of Fars, reportedly also opened a case against Facebook-owned social networking services WhatsApp and Instagram and ordered that they be blo...

Mojang on Thursday announced that its popular game Minecraft soon will be available to users of the Xbox One, Playstation 4 and Playstation Vita consoles "Apologies for the delay, but putting Minecraft on new consoles is a serious business," explained Owen Hill, Mojang's chief word officer.

As if it weren't easy and tempting enough already, Facebook recently made it even simpler to pry into your friends' private affairs on the social network Specifically, the Ask button -- which already has been available to those seeking more information about many other aspects of a given user's life -- now is an option when it comes to a user's rel...

Flappy Bird creator Dong Nguyen this week said that the wildly popular mobile game will return in August and also that he is working on a brand-new offering After dropping a tantalizing hint back in March, Nguyen on Wednesday told CNBC that the new Flappy Bird will deliver multiplayer capabilities and be "less addictive."

Aiming in part to counteract losses sustained on its Wii U gaming device launched in late 2012, Nintendo now is setting its sights on emerging markets and planning a brand-new console and games with those markets in mind, Reuters reported last week Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata cited higher entertainment budgets among many emerging nations' middle-clas...

After launching its Atom text editor into beta back in February, GitHub on Tuesday announced that the software is now fully open source under the MIT License "Much of Atom's functionality is provided by packages, and every Atom package has been open source since the day we launched the beta," explained GitHub developer Nathan Sobo. "Today, we're op...

Nod Labs on Tuesday jumped into the wearable tech market with a ring device that's designed to serve as a universal controller Featuring Broadcom Bluetooth Smart and Nexus-Trellis software, Nod's namesake wearable input device is designed to offer touchless interaction with set-top boxes and other connected home devices without the need for remotes...

Space fans the world over long have dreamed of exploring the universe for themselves, but a new, 12-module kit from NASA andlittleBits aims to give enthusiasts a way to bring the thrill of space exploration closer to home The new littleBits Space Kit, launched on Thursday, includes an assortment of electronic modules and NASA-designed projects and ...

GitHub cofounder Tom Preston-Werner has resigned following an investigation into harassment charges made by developer Julie Ann Horvath, who departed the company last month. "The investigation found no evidence to support the claims against Tom and his wife of sexual or gender-based harassment or retaliation, or of a sexist or hostile work enviro...

A total lunar eclipse in the early hours of Tuesday gave viewers in parts of the world a rare glimpse of what's sometimes called a "blood moon," due to the reddish hue it takes on as a result of dust in the atmosphere. Beginning at about 1:55 AM EDT on April 15, the eclipse lasted roughly three and a half hours -- peaking at 3:45 a.m. EDT -- and w...