Amazon's new tablet line-up includes a dirt cheap $50 model

Amazon has today unveiled four new Fire tablets as part of a refreshed line-up, all of which are designed to be budget yet solid options for quick, easy media consumption.
The Fire HD8 and Fire HD10 are the two larger, more premium models, featuring 8- and 10.1-inch 1280 x 800 displays respectively. Amazon hasn't provided the full spec sheets for either of these tablets just yet, but we do know both feature partly-metal bodies that are 7.7mm thick, and Gorilla Glass-protected displays capable of 400nits of brightness.
The HD8 and HD10 are powered by unspecified 1.5 GHz quad-core SoCs, and both support 802.1ac Wi-Fi and feature microSD card slots. The HD8 will go on sale for $150 with 8 GB of internal storage, while the HD10 will be $230 and come with 16 GB of storage.

Perhaps the most compelling tablet Amazon has announced today is simply called the 'Fire': a 7-inch 1024 x 600 tablet that will retail for just $50. The Fire isn't going to be a performance powerhouse, featuring just a 1.3 GHz quad-core SoC, 8 GB of internal storage and 1 GB of RAM, but it will be a very cheap way to browse the web and watch movies on the go. The wallet-friendly tablet also comes with a microSD slot so you can add up to 128 GB of additional storage.

The Fire is so cheap that Amazon has decided to sell the tablet in a six-pack (as well as individually), where you essentially buy five tablets and get a sixth one for free. Amazon claim you might want a tablet that lives exclusively in each room of your house, hence the ability to buy the Fire in packs of six, but it could end up being a great gift option instead.
The fourth and final tablet Amazon has announced is the $100 Fire Kids Edition, which is essentially the very same Fire tablet with a kid-friendly case, a two-year warranty that includes accidental damage, and a year's subscription to Amazon's FreeTime Unlimited service that gives you access to a wide variety of children's books.
If you're interested in any of these tablets, they're available for pre-order now, and will begin shipping on September 30th.

Apple wins patent case that could affect future Samsung devices

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled on Thursday that Apple should have been awarded an injunction barring Samsung from selling products that infringe on the iPhone maker’s patents.

In May 2014, a lower court denied Apple an injunction against Samsung after a jury ordered the South Korean company to pay $120 million for violating patents for the iPhone’s slide-to-unlock, autocorrect and data detection features. The Washington-based appeals court reversed this decision in a 2-1 ruling. It said that Apple’s proposed injunction is narrow because it does not want to ban the devices from the marketplace and that the patented features can be removed without a product recall.
"Apple does not seek to enjoin the sale of lifesaving drugs, but to prevent Samsung from profiting from the unauthorized use of infringing features in its cellphones and tablets," the court said. The case was sent back to a federal district court in San Jose, California, to reconsider the injunction.
It does seem that Apple’s win may be largely symbolic; Samsung told the court it had ceased selling nearly all of the products that were originally at issue in the case such as the Galaxy S2 and Note 2.
It also said it could design around the features, meaning the ruling is unlikely to have much of an impact on Samsung’s business.
         “We will pursue our rights to have the full Court of Appeals review today’s decision. We want to reassure our millions of loyal customers that all of our flagship smartphones, which are wanted and loved by American consumers, will remain for sale and available for customer service support in the US,” Samsung said in a statement.
Samsung had received the backing of some of Silicon Valley’s biggest players, including Facebook, Google, Dell and HP, in its patent infringements battle with Apple. The companies worry that the final outcome of the case could have far-reaching implications when it comes to patent violations in complex devices such as smartphones. It’s also thought that Apple could use an injunction on newer Samsung devices if they believe them to infringe on the patents at issue.

Check out this awe-inspiring scale model of our solar system

 

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NASA’s New Horizons mission has sparked a renewed interest in all things space. It also likely inspired a couple of filmmakers to dispel a common myth and build a scale model of our solar system… one that’s seven miles wide.

Virtually every model to date fails to relay just how expansive our solar system truly is and that’s something Wylie Overstreet and Alex Goros set about to change. Using a dry lake bed in the Black Rock Desert north of Reno, the duo built their solar system model complete with planetary orbits.
The project really puts into perspective just how tiny our home planet is compared to what’s around us

Malware discovered that lets hackers see online poker players' cards

Poker players using the Full Tilt Poker and Poker Stars online games are being targeted by a type of malware that lets hackers spy on their cards. The trojan, named Odlanor, was found within several pieces of software designed to help poker players improve their game, said the security firm that discovered it.
Once it has infected a computer, Odlanor monitors for when a user logs into one of the two aforementioned poker sites. When a player joins a session it will start taking screenshots and sending them back to the trojan’s creators. This allows them to identify the player’s ID, which room they are in, and what cards they’re holding – giving the hackers a massive advantage without the victim realizing.
As of September 16, several hundred users were infected with Odlanor, although it does seem to mostly target those living in Eastern Europe. "We have seen this trojan masquerading as a number of benign installers for various general purpose programs, such as Daemon Tools or uTorrent. In other cases, the spyware is installed through various poker-related programs," said Robert Lipovsky, senior malware researcher at ESET.
Some of the poker-related programs where the malicious software has been found include Tournament Shark, Poker Calculator Pro, Smart Buddy and Poker Office. Odlanor also targets other personal information on a victim's computer such as login names and passwords.
The news comes in the wake of PayPal quietly announcing yesterday that it was returning as an accepted method of payment for a limited number of gambling sites after a 12-year absence from the sector. Online gambling is still illegal in the majority of US states, but an increasing number are introducing bills that would legalize it.