According to a Fraunhofer Institute for Secure Information press release, the eagerly expected iPhone 2.2 operating system update will arrive tomorrow, November 21. The release is expected to bring new features, but the Institute's note highlights a major security problem that can make your iPhone to place a call when visiting a malicious web site. This date is in line with the previous rumors. Update: here's the video of the security exploit that the iPhone 2.2 release will fix, according to the Fraunhoferians. The Fraunhofer Institute SIT alerted the producers of the iPhone about this issue a month ago. To...
According to a Fraunhofer Institute for Secure Information press release, the eagerly expected iPhone 2.2 operating system update will arrive tomorrow, November 21. The release is expected to bring new features, but the Institute's note highlights a major security problem that can make your iPhone to place a call when visiting a malicious web site. This date is in line with the previous rumors. Update: here's the video of the security exploit that the iPhone 2.2 release will fix, according to the Fraunhoferians. The Fraunhofer Institute SIT alerted the producers of the iPhone about this issue a month ago. To...
Tomorrow, we’ll know for sure if the rumored November 21 launch date for the iPhone 2.2 software update is legitimate. But another report surfacing today also points to that date as likely for the launch of the new software, according to AppleInsider. Specifically, the Fraunhofer Institute for Secure Information has issued a release about an exploit it has uncovered on the iPhone. The exploit allows the device to be forced to dial any number, including potentially bad ones like 900 numbers and the like. But in the report, the Institute notes that a patch for the exploit will be available...
New music discovery search engine Mufin finds music you'll like by analyzing songs for similarities. We've seen several tools offering similar results from these sort of "audio fingerprints," but according to tech blog TechCrunch, Mufin's analysis actually works really well. Apart from the basic search engine available on their homepage, Mufin also offers different software and widgets to integrate the app with other music tools—including Facebook and MySpace apps, a Windows-only iTunes add-on (that sort of challenges the sometimes off-the-mark Genius tool), and a Windows-only Music Finder. Mufin is created by the Fraunhofer Institute—the people who brought us the venerated...
Mufin, an automated music recommendation service, has publicly launched today. The Berlin-based company has been getting some positive reviews because of its technology, built by the Fraunhofer Institute, the German research organization that created the MP3 music file format. It uses an algorithm to parse more than 40 different aspects of music, like the rhythm structure of a song, or its tempo. To use the service, you search for a song on Mufin’s home site, or on its MySpace or Facebook applications. Then you can listen to a short clip of the song and to clips of other songs it...
Filed under: Audio, Web services, Mobile Last month I wrote about mufin.com's music discovery engine. Unlike traditional music discovery services like last.fm or the Genius Mode in iTunes 8, mufin analyzes the actual musical structure of a song. This is great for music lovers because it can really open up more opportunities to discover new bands. Co-developed at the Fraunhofer Institute (the creators of the MP3 format), mufin uses audio recognition technology to analyze the actual musical characteristics of a song. Mufin creates a unique "fingerprint" for each song, using 40 characteristics like tempo, instruments, rhythm structure and sound density....
Created by LAVA architects—the people who designed the Beijing Water Cube and the spectacular Michael Schumacher tower—and the work organization branch of the Fraunhofer Institute—who brought you the MP3 standard—this Future Hotel Room belongs to a set of a Kubrick movie full of monoliths and monkeys. It's not just looks, however: The room has been designed to "investigate the interfaces between architecture, technology and the human body.” One of these interactions is the use of lighting. Using LED lighting, the designers argue that the would be able to reduce jet-lag on guests. The room also includes an active comfort bed...
Karlheinz Brandenburg of the Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Media Technology helped develop the MP3 format more than a decade ago, setting the stage for a new era of music consumption. Lately, he's been adding a new dimension to his audio achievements -- technology to deliver sound in true 3D. Tuesday at noon, Brandenburg unveiled the first U.S. deployment of this technology at Mann's Chinese 6 theater in Hollywood. Distributed by a Fraunhofer spin-off called Iosono, the 3D sound system consists of dozens of wall-mounted speakers controlled by software that dictates what each one of them plays at any given...
Whenever we get introduced to a site that features some kind of “digital fingerprinting technology” to power a music recommendation engine, it’s hard not to be skeptical. Fingerprinting works well for identifying the same song in multiple places - for example, duplicate songs in a music library. But when it comes to music recommendations, automated systems rarely work well, which is why Pandora relies on a team of 50+ analysts to drive its recommendation engine, and most other sites rely on social suggestions and meta data. Today sees the private beta launch of Mufin, an automated music recommendation engine...
Filed under: Audio, Internet, Features, Web services, web 2.0 As a music lover, one of my favorite innovations of the last five years or so has come in the form of music discovery services. Services like Last.fm, Pandora, Rhapsody and iTunes 8 have made it easy to find artists or songs that are similar to your musical tastes and preferences. The only problem with these services, is that they are based on limited databases (like the iTunes Music Store, for iTunes's Genius Mode), reviews or ratings by other users and overall popularity. That means that the music discovered might indeed...
The Fraunhofer Institute—the guys who invented MP3 and screwed the music labels as a result, which is why we like them so much—have a booth at IFA with their latest inventions. The best one is this stunning magic mirror, an augmented reality display that gets any piece of clothing and transforms its fabric in real time. Live, the effect was absolutely amazing, indistinguishable from a real mirror. I just couldn't tell the difference. I think she's a witch. [More IFA 2008 Coverage]...
The Fraunhofer Institute—the guys who invented MP3 and screwed the music labels as a result, which is why we like them so much—have a booth at IFA with their latest inventions. The best one is this stunning magic mirror, an augmented reality display that gets any piece of clothing and transforms its fabric in real time. Live, the effect was absolutely amazing, indistinguishable from a real mirror. I just couldn't tell the difference. I think she's a witch. [More IFA 2008 Coverage]...
Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Machine Tools and Forming Technology IWU in Dresden have figured out a way to quiet down the whiney whirring of wind turbines by neutralizing vibrations coming from the central tower of the turbine. They’ve come up with a device that can be mounted to an existing turbine, which senses the vibrations and produces an “anti-sound” vibration, effectively pressing against the sound vibration to cancel it out. The device could help out with getting more wind turbines into neighborhoods where the chief complaint of noise keeps turbines away. It would be inexpensive compared to...
A research team at the Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Graphics Research in Germany developed a sensor glove that is supposed to help companies evaluate the quality of software applications. Bodo Urban, the head of the 25 researchers involved in the project, says his basic goal is to improve the relation between man and machine with the so-called EmoGlove. The technology helps to track all movements of the mouse and all keystrokes on the keyboard of a PC. It’s also possible to track eye movements and a person’s facial expressions. The EmoGlove is also able to measure one’s heart rate,...
