Light Start – Smartphone cartridges, iOS 9 bounties, the Lumia 550 and more
Brett Venter
Relive gaming’s genesis on your smartphone with the Pico Cassette
Remember those red and white Reggies video game systems? The ones with the cartridges and the overheating transformers? Those are back, or at least the carts are, in the form of the Pico Cassette. The Pico Cassette is the creation of Japanese company Beatrobo and aims to bring physical gaming media to your smartphone through a cartridge while connects to your device via the headphone port. Long story short, users will be able to unlock content (the cart contains an audio authentication key) and transfer save files to multiple devices, though an app is still needed. The concept seems popular so far but a pending crowd-funding campaign will tell that story more completely.
If you hunt down security holes in iOS 9, you could be in for some cash
If you have the skill, time and inclination to do some damage to iOS 9, a company that isn’t Apple has handed out a bounty for very specific security flaws in iOS 9. If you can locate an exploit in Apple’s new mobile OS that will “…allow a remote, privileged, and persistent installation of an arbitrary app (e.g. Cydia) on a fully updated iOS 9 device” then you (or your entire team, should you have one” will be eligible for a $1 million payout from company Zerodium (link). They really, really want that zero-day hack and are willing to pay for at least a few jailbreaks (up to $3 million, all today) before terminating the offer. If you think you have the skill then you have until 31 October to get your submission in.
The Lumia 550 peeks out at the world early, leaves specs, images behind
Microsoft’s October event edges ever closer and as it does, more spills out of Redmond’s little bag of surprises – like a Santa who has a hole in his sack. We’ve seen the Band 2 and now we’re also looking right at the Lumia 550. It’s not the flagship we’re (still) expecting but this low-cost entry doesn’t have any reason to hide its face. The Lumia 550 will arrive with a 4.7-inch 720 x 1,080 screen, 1.2GHz Snapdragon 210 processor, 8GB of storage and a whole selection of colours. The leaked renders also suggest that this budget handset will land with Windows Mobile 10 installed.
Snoop launches Merry Jane website at TechCrunch Disrupt
When Snoop Dog takes the stage, he’s probably going to spit rhymes. If he’s wearing a suit then he’s probably on stage at TechCrunch Disrupt where he just announced Merry Jane, a website that revolves around (what else) marijuana. The weed-based site isn’t what you’d expect, it’s being pitched as a media, education and entertainment site for (let’s face it) stoners, whether they’re strictly recreational or medically mandated. Users in the States will also be able to search for local dispensaries. Snoop could be on to something too. He said “Look at Colorado. Since legalizing cannabis they’re making so much money, putting it back into the community, the crime rate going down. If it does that around the whole world, what kind of world would we live in?”
Telkom’s SmartHome packages detailed (kinda)Telkom has a new set of SmartHome packages on the way to market and they’re going to be giving out some (slightly old) goodies in order to entice users to sign on the dotted line. An Apple TV and iPhone 4S are two of these goodies. Some possibilities (though unconfirmed for now) of the package are unlimited iTunes streaming – which we have to assume is unlimited data usage for Apple’s service – and zero-rating data for other unnamed entertainment services. Telkom does list details of their SmartHome Premium offering, which will cost users R999 per month (over a two-year contract) and offer 50GB of data per month at speeds of 10Mbps. There’s also a SIM card with 2GB of data, unlimited night-time data, unlimited access to certain sites (including streaming) and more. Sounds… okay, so far, yeah?
