Goodbye, Philae: Rosetta's comet lander lost forever

Everything about the Rosetta comet mission has been epic. It took 10 years for the spacecraft to reach Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, which it did in 2014. Rosetta then sent its plucky little lander Philae down to the comet's surface, but a faulty thruster landed it in shadows. Unable to charge itself properly, Philae floated in and out of contact. The Rosetta team last heard from Philae way back in July 2015. It's been silent ever since.

The ESA announced that the Electrical Support System Processor Unit (ESS) on Rosetta will be switched off on Wednesday. The ESS enables communications between Rosetta and Philae. This severs the final thread of hope for contact from the lander. The move is aimed at conserving power on board Rosetta as it nears the final days of its comet-studying mission.

Rosetta is scheduled to wrap up its mission by descending to the comet's surface on September 30. The comet is currently heading away from the sun, which saps the spacecraft of the solar power it needs to continue operations. There is a sense of poetry to Rosetta rejoining its lander on the comet. It may mark the end of Rosetta's activities, but scientists involved in the mission will stay busy for years studying the data sent back by both the craft and the lander.

Xbox One S 500GB, 1TB bundles to launch on August 23

Microsoft will officially launch the 500 gigabyte and 1 terabyte editions of its new Xbox One S console on Tuesday, August 23.

Xbox One S buyers will have a few choices over which bundle to buy, according to a blog posted Tuesday by Matt Lapsen, general manager of Xbox Devices Marketing.

The Xbox One S Halo Collection bundle comes with either a 500GB drive or a 1TB drive, a matching Xbox Wireless Controller and the Halo 5: Guardians and Halo: The Master Chief Collection games. The 500GB edition runs $299, while the 1TB version goes for $349

The $349 Xbox One S Madden NFL 17 bundle is available only with a 1TB drive and includes a full-game download of Madden NFL 17, seven Madden Ultimate Team Pro Packs and one month of EA Access. For a limited time, customers who buy the Madden NFL 17 bundle will get a promo code good for 20 percent off their next order at NFLShop.com.

Microsoft has tried a variety of schemes to lift Xbox One sales, including cutting the price, bundling free games and selling a cheaper Kinect-free version of the console. The Xbox One S embodies a new approach. By throwing in support for 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray discs and 4K streaming services, the new console aims to to challenge both gaming consoles and Blu-ray players for consumer dollars.

By supporting 4K (3,820x2,160-pixel) resolution, the Xbox One S will display more vibrant colors and darker blacks. The higher resolution works with movies and TV shows natively but will handle games as well by upscaling them to 4K. The new console also supports High Dynamic Range (HDR) for video and gaming, which means certain content will look better due to a higher contrast ratio.

The Xbox One S also comes in a 2TB edition that will launch on August 2. This edition is available in two varieties -- a $399 Limited Launch version with no free games and a$449 Gears of War 4 bundle. The different Xbox One S flavors are currently up for preorder through Microsoft, Best Buy, Target, Amazon and GameStop.

The 1TB bundle for both Madden NFL 17 and Halo will be "available in very limited quantities at select Microsoft Stores and microsoftstore.com," Lapsen said. Consumers looking for that storage option may want to preorder at this point. The 500GB and 1TB bundles will initially be available in the U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand from Microsoft and select retailers, according to Lapsen.

Microsoft did not immediately respond to CNET's request for comment.

T-Mobile bulks up as new customers gobble pizza freebies and more

Never underestimate the power of free pizza.

When T-Mobile in early June launched its freebie program, which gave away pizza, streaming movies and, for some, shares of the company, it likely didn't have a sense of how quickly its customers would embrace the idea. Its T-Mobile Tuesday app crashed on launch day. The free pizza giveaway overwhelmed partner Domino's, and the pizza chain backed out of the program.

Not that any of this halted T-Mobile's momentum. The carrier replaced Domino's with a $15 voucher for a Lyft ride and earlier this month said that blockbuster hit game Pokemon Go wouldn't count against its customers' data for a year.

The perks offered through T-Mobile's Un-carrier campaign continue to lure in new customers and foster loyalty among existing ones through the brand. The latest evidence: the company's second-quarter results, which saw a gain of 646,000 net new postpaid phone customers, or folks who pay at the end of the month. The turnover rate for postpaid customers, meanwhile, fell to a record low 1.27 percent.

The Un-carrier campaign has helped T-Mobile lead the industry in growth, at times outstripping all of its competitors in the critical metric of new phone customers. Its success underscores how little gestures, including free pizza, can have a big impact on a company like T-Mobile, which remains a much smaller rival to telecom giants Verizon Wireless and AT&T.

3/ OMG @TMobile customers slammed @dominos stores!! They saw 3x & 4x in a typical day and can't handle the volume. pic.twitter.com/jVvDGAqduS

-- John Legere (@JohnLegere) June 15, 2016

In comparison, Verizon said Tuesday that it had added just 86,000 phone customers. AT&T lost 180,000 postpaid customers in the period.

While T-Mobile wouldn't say specifically how its T-Mobile Tuesday app benefited the company, Chief Operating Officer Mike Sievert noted that "Un-carrier 11" was the most talked about move, garnering 6.6 billion social impressions.

In total, T-Mobile logged 1.9 million total net additions, helped by its prepaid and wholesale business. Its total postpaid customer growth of 890,000, which includes connected devices like tablets, actually fell from a year ago and the first quarter. The company blamed the result on "the absence of iconic device launches in the period."

It's likely Sprint also had an impact. The company, in the middle of its own turnaround effort, on Monday said it signed up 173,000 customers, reversing losses from a year earlier. It has been aggressive in promoting service plans that promise to halve your phone bill.

In a sign of continued momentum, Legere said T-Mobile had already added 25 percent more customers in July than Sprint did in the second quarter. Executives said the hype over Pokemon Go (Legere is on level 8 of the hit game and a member of Team Instinct) and its related promotion likely drove interest in its T-Mobile Tuesday app, which has been downloaded 5 million times.

T-Mobile expects continued momentum throughout the year, and raised its 2016 forecast for postpaid net new customers to between 3.4 million and 3.8 million, up from a prior range of 3.2 million to 3.6 million.

The nation's third-largest carrier posted a profit of $225 million, or 25 cents a share, on revenue of $9.22 billion.

Hackers could sniff out your passwords if you're typing nearby

At first glance, a new hacking technique looks pretty scary. Using an attack that researchers at cybersecurity firm Bastille are calling "keysniffer," hackers can detect every key you press on your wireless keyboard.

That means they can pick up your passwords and maybe the answers to your security questions, like your mother's maiden name. The flaw affects keyboards manufactured by big names such as HP, Toshiba and General Electric. So far, bad news.

The good news? To use "keysniffer" on you, hackers would have to be pretty close. The attack works within 250 feet, which is about three-fourths the length of a football field. So international hackers aren't going to get you, and neither is anyone else who isn't in your physical neighborhood.

Like many vulnerable internet-connected devices, these keyboards are most at risk when someone with bad motives happens to be nearby -- or, more likely, has specifically targeted you. The same was true of flaws found in Hello Barbie, a doll that connects to Wi-Fi and learns to interact with its human friends.

Still, the reason your keyboard might be a touch vulnerable is disconcerting. The vulnerable keyboards are sending out each character you type over an unencrypted connection, according to Bastille researchers. That means the data flowing from your keyboard to your computer isn't scrambled, and it's no sweat for hackers to intercept and read.

Researchers from Bastille, led by Marc Newlin, said they tested low-cost keyboards from 12 manufacturers. In addition to keyboards from HP, Toshiba and General Electric (which licenses its name to manufacturer Jasco for keyboards), wireless keyboards from Kensington, Radio Shack, Anker, EagleTec and Best Buy's Insignia brand were vulnerable.

Denise Nelson, a spokeswoman for Kensington, said the company is working with Bastille on security issues. "They have taken all measures that they possibly can to close any security gaps," she said.

Nelson said new Kensington keyboards will feature an encrypted connection going forward. However, she did not know whether wireless keyboards already in use were still unencrypted. She added that the Kensington support team is ready to help customers resolve any issues.

Jasco is aware of the report from Bastille and "will work directly with its customers of this product to address any issues or concerns," the company said in a statement. Jasco is "committed to delivering secure products to its customers and would like to express its appreciation to Bastille Threat Research Group for reporting these issues."

The rest of the manufacturers named by Bastille did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Bastille's website offers a list of the exact models affected.

"When we purchase a wireless keyboard we reasonably expect that the manufacturer has designed and built security into the core of the product," Bastille's Newlin said in a statement.

Qualcomm agrees to pay $19.5 million in gender discrimination settlement

Qualcomm has agreed to pay $19.5 million as part of a settlement in a gender discrimination suit affecting about 3,300 women, both current and former employees of the chipmaker.

The plaintiffs in the class action suit said women at Qualcomm make less than men and were promoted less frequently than "the men who work beside them," as a result of employment policies, practices and procedures, according to a preliminary approval brief. Also at issue was the treatment of working mothers. The women said various policies including 24-hour responsiveness and a culture that rewarded working late basically penalized them for having caregiving responsibilities

As part of the settlement, Qualcomm will also implement new policies to ensure that women in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) roles have equal job opportunities, according to a statement Tuesday. The company has not admitted to any of the allegations, according to the final settlement agreement.

"While we have strong defenses to the claims, we elected to focus on continuing to make meaningful enhancements to our internal programs and processes that drive equity and a diverse and inclusive workforce which are values that we share and embrace," said Christine Trimble, Qualcomm's vice president of public affairs, in a statement.

Discrimination cases involving women in tech haven't always yielded these types of results. Former Reddit CEO Ellen Pao lost her sexual discrimination case against venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins in March 2015. Meanwhile, major tech companies regularly disclose low diversity numbers that get even lower as positions become more senior.

A notable element to this settlement is that it was reached before the plaintiffs actually filed the suit in federal court this week. This stemmed from pre-suit analysis of Qualcomm's employment and payroll data, according to a statement, as well as several months of negotiations.

"It is common knowledge that women in STEM and other related fields face persistent discrimination in pay and promotions," said David Sanford, chairman of Sanford Heisler and lead counsel for the plaintiff class in a statement. "This settlement represents a giant leap forward toward leveling the playing field and can serve as a model of best practices for other technology companies."

In a court filing, attorneys for the women called the settlement "remarkable," saying it's "one of the largest employment discrimination settlements in recent years."

For Qualcomm, some of the next steps are bringing in independent consultants agreed upon by all parties who specialize in industrial organizational psychology. Those consultants will make an assessment of Qualcomm's practices and policies and make recommendations. Other changes will includes educating employees on non-discrimination policy and investing in leadership development initiatives, the statement said.

The settlement is subject to the court's approval.

Live video has made Facebook the place to be

What a difference two years make.

Back then, when apps like Periscope and Meerkat arrived on mobile phones, live video seemed like a lark for tech nerds and poor college students looking to watch cable TV for free. But within months, protesters in Ferguson, Missouri tapped into the shaky and visceral feel of live video because they understand they can share the emotion of breaking news events with observers who might otherwise just get the news through photos and news cameras.

Fast forward to March, when Facebook began giving anyone with a phone and internet connection an easy way to broadcast live video, straight to the 1.13 billion people who use its service every day. Since then, Facebook Live has been tapped into for major events, from the Democrat's gun vote sit-in in June to the shooting deaths of Philando Castileand five Dallas police officers this month.

In each case, live video was key to telling the story. And it's what more traditional cable broadcast networks replayed in a near-endless loop as they recapped those unfolding stories.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg described these live video feeds, captured and broadcast from phones, as "graphic and heartbreaking."

That was the backdrop of Facebook's second-quarter earnings results on Wednesday, when Zuckerberg underscored how important live video has become to the company. "We see a world that's video-first," he said in a conference call with analysts. "We've seen in Minnesota and Dallas how live (video) can shine a light on important moments as they happen."

In the three months ended June 30, Facebook tallied 97 cents per share in profit, after adjustments for costs like stock-based compensation. Revenue, which comes primarily from showing ads to Facebook users, jumped nearly 60 percent to $6.4 billion. Analysts were looking for profit of 82 cents a share on sales of more than $6 billion, according to surveys from Thomson Reuters.

Facebook's shares rose more than 5 percent in after-hours trading, after closing at $123.34. The company's stock has risen more than 17 percent so far this year.

More than a billion on mobile each day

The growing importance of live video follows another trend at Facebook: the usage of smartphones. Facebook said more than 1 billion people access its service from a mobile phone each day, a new record. That represented more than 91 percent of the people who access the service each day.Most of those mobile phones have a camera on them, and since all of them are connected to the internet, they're each a Facebook Live stream waiting to happen.

Mobile users are also making a significant amount of money for the company. Facebook counted $5.2 billion in advertising dollars from mobile devices, representing 84 percent of the company's total.

Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook's COO, said companies are increasingly switching to mobile devices as well. Over 85 percent of businesses who manage a profile-like "page" on Facebook use a mobile device, she said, and 40 percent of active advertisers have created an ad on their mobile device.

"People have shifted to mobile and marketers know they need to catch up," she said. "Mobile is no longer a nice to do, it's a must to do."

Mobile devices have also become a key part of Oculus, one of the company's long-term bets. Facebook said more than 1 million people a month are using the Gear VR, a device created in partnership with Samsung.

So how will Facebook change over time?

Zuckerberg said it's harder to type a long post on a phone, compared to a laptop computer. He's also noticed people are uploading fewer organized photo albums, despite Facebook being the most-used photo site on the web. Instead, he said, people are uploading photos after they're taken, and they're sharing with friends and groups instead of publicly to the entire community.

"The overall level of sharing is up on Facebook and what we're seeing is that how people share is evolving," he said. And it's not just about the News Feed anymore

Pokemon Go: The latest fad diet?

Forget fitness apps, Pokemon Go might be just what you need to get moving.

Pokemon Go players are taking the hit mobile game very seriously and as a result are spending more time walking around outside,according to a survey released Thursday by Qualtrics.

Pokemon Go players are spending about two more hours outside per day than they were before they started the game, according to the survey, and 43 percent of respondents reported losing weight -- about three pounds on average.

The game uses augmented reality to place digital "pocket monsters" in the real world. Players arepushed to move to find new Pokemons and collect items at PokeStops, which are shown on a map using GPS.

Qualtrics conducted its survey of 750 Pokemon Go players across the US on July 13 and 14 to find out more information about typical players.

In addition to the activitive finding the survey, found that 44 percent of players visited a historical landmark for the first time  hanks to the game, which places PokeStops at landmarks in the real world. This, however, has led officials at more somber landmarks,like the Holocaust Museum and Arlington National Cemetery, to request that people refrain from playing the game while visiting.

The survey also shows that while getting more activity, players are also taking somehealth risks. Some 4 percent of players surveyed were pulled over for playing Pokemon Go while driving and 85 percent played the game while driving a car. Thefirst known car crash related to Pokemon Go happened in Auburn, New York.

Qualtrics also confirmed something we already knew...that Pokemon Go is addicting. Some 16 percent of respondents reported playing more than four hours a day, while 21 percent said they would rather play than have sex. Now that's some dedication!