Davemichels

The US Transportation Security Administration has been left in an awkward position today after a security researcher released plans to its master keys for luggage — allowing anyone to 3D print their own copies.

The plans were put together using photos of a set of master keys accidentally published by The Washington Post in November 2014, and left live on its site for months before anyone noticed.

They were subsequently posted to GitHub by user Xyl2k on Wednesday.

Xyl2k wrote on the GitHub page that he hadn't actually tested the designs he created — but security researcher Bernard Bolduc subsequently printed them out, and found they worked perfectly.

The existence of master keys — and master key-compatible locks — are intended to make it possible for travelers to secure their luggage while still allowing the TSA easy access when required at airports and borders. But because of the leak, it now means that anyone who owns a master key-compatible lock is vulnerable: Absolutely anyone could print out their own set of keys and access their belongings.

People are already drawing parallels with the ongoing debate over strong encryption software and keys for government access. In recent years, there has been a proliferation of encryption products (for messaging, storage, etc.) that scramble data in such a way that it can't be accessed and understood apart from its owner or recipient — even governments with a court order.

On the one hand, this is fantastic for users — it keeps their data safe! But authorities worry it means the internet is "going dark," and they'll lose access to information they once had. One mooted solution is a back door, or "golden key" that only law enforcement has access to, and can be used to decrypt data when required.

But as the TSA master key debacle demonstrates, if it's accidentally leaked (or lost, or cracked, or stolen), then it makes everyone less safe.

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T-Mobile announced it will offer the iPhone 6S at just $20 per month on its Jump On Demand upgrade plan, significantly undercutting Apple's price point for its new plan.

At Apple's big iPhone reveal event Wednesday, Apple unveiled a new upgrade plan, which will let people pay a base rate of $32 a month for an unlocked iPhone 6S with Applecare Plus. On this plan, you'll own your iPhone after 24 months, but you also have the option to trade it in for a new model every year. This restarts the timer, but lets you always have the latest model. If you choose to upgrade every year, the plan works more or less like a lease.

But not to be outdone, T-Mobile, the feisty smaller player in the American wireless service market, has released a much better iPhone deal (price wise) on its Jump On Demand plan. You'll be able to pay $20 per month for 18 months on the plan for an iPhone 6S, and be able to upgrade whenever you want to a brand new phone (up to 3 times a year). And at the close of the 18 months, you can either give the phone back and wash your hands, or you can pay an extra $164 (for the iPhone 6S) to walk away with it.

As Gizmodo points out, all the different periods and trade-in options can be quite confusing, so here is the total price breakdown for each plan:

• A 16 GB iPhone 6S is $524 total from T-Mobile
• A 16 GB iPhone 6S is $777 total from Apple

Of course, if you go the T-Mobile route you are stuck with its network, and don't get Applecare Plus.

And bear in mind that with both plans you will have to pay extra if you want more than 16 GB of memory, which my colleague Steve Kovach assures us you are definitely going to need.

SEE ALSO: I just dumped T-Mobile for AT&T

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NOW WATCH: These new iPhone features will change the way you use your phone

In 2013, after months of planning, a group of Stanford University students launched a GoPro camera attached to a weather balloon to the edge of space.

It would float up nearly 19 miles over Earth and then parachute back down. The balloon also carried a phone programmed to broadcast a signal once the camera landed back on Earth. The plan was to use this signal to find the camera and the amazing images it had captured.

After falling to Earth the package never phoned home, so they assumed they'd programmed the phone wrong or miscalculated the balloon's trajectory.

Two years later, a hiker found the phone and tracked down the owners using the memory card. And all the incredible footage was still intact. Instead of being destroyed, it just so happened the phone just never got any signal, because it landed in a remote part of the wilderness where there wasn't coverage, according to one of the students' reddit post.

It was eventually found by a hiker, who just happened to be an AT&T employee, who brought it into the store and reunited the camera (and phone) with its long-lost launchers.

Below are the amazing shots from the GoPro.

The students launched their GoPro-carrying weather balloon near the Grand Canyon:

Weather balloons are specially designed to hold up under high-altitude conditions, so it floated high above the Earth. Here's the view from about 7.2 miles:

It took about an hour and a half to reach its highest point at just over 18 miles — that's when the weather balloon popped. You can see the pieces of the balloon in the footage:

It fell for 30 minutes before finally reaching the ground:

Check out the whole video of the ascent and descent, uploaded to YouTube by Bryan Chan, one of the students who participated in the project:

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NOW WATCH: What happens to your body when you get a tattoo

The table — yes, the humble table — is the future of the home.

That's according to Marcus Engman, Ikea's head of design.

"Personally, I do believe that the table is going to be extremely important for the future," Engman says. "That's going to be the masterpiece of the home. It used to be, hundreds of years ago, that was the big piece."

Ikea's plans for the table are, to say the least, ambitious. For EXPO Milano 2015, the company previewed a concept table called the Table For Living, which tells you what you can make with various ingredients and heats your food, no stove required.

Ikea created the prototype with the help of the global design consultancy Ideo, which recently gave us a behind-the-scenes look at how the table was brought into the world. 

Here's how it happened.

Standing in Ikea's booth at the EXPO Milano 2015 design festival, the table looks unassuming.

"Ikea came to Ideo to help explore behaviors around food and how that would impact designing the kitchen of 2025," says Ideo design director Juho Parviainen. "At the outset, the team thought about the kitchen from the perspective of designing for behaviors, not just things." Below is a clip from the concept video.

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The design team — along with members from Ikea, Ideo, Lund University, and Eindhoven University of Technology — wanted to create a table that would help people become more confident cooks and lead more sustainable lives.

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The app is monetizing its replay feature: You can now watch three replays for 99 cents.

Apparently Snapchat is just a little too much of a good thing—and the company is now using that fact to develop a new revenue stream.

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Mark Zuckerberg announced today that Facebook is finally working on a "Dislike" button.

"I think people have asked about the dislike button for many years. Today is a special day because today is the day I can say we’re working on it and shipping it," Zuckerberg said during a Q&A at Facebook's headquarters.

Zuckerberg said that the social network didn't immediately design way because it didn't want it to become a Reddit-style system of upvoting and downvoting. 

"That isn’t what we’re here to build in the world," Zuckerberg said.

But, Facebook and Zuckerberg have realized that people aren't looking to downvote each other, but to have an option to express feelings other than "liking." Zuckerberg cited moments like the news about the recent refugee crisis or even posts about family members who have died. Users don't want to "like" those items, but right now, have no other option.

"What they really want is the ability to express empathy. Not every moment is a good moment," Zuckerberg said.

Facebook has been working on it for awhile, and it hopes to launch it soon, he said.

"It’s surprisingly complicated to make an interaction that will be simple," Zuckerberg said.

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NOW WATCH: This is what happens to your brain and body when you check your phone before bed

I wrote months ago about the confusion among some users stemming from Microsoft’s morphing Lync into Skype for Business, and it doesn’t seem to have died down a whole lot.

A company that sprang to life in 2007 helping businesses install Google Apps just got bought by one of the 100-pound gorillas in the consulting world, Accenture.

The terms of the deal were not disclosed but we expect this was a good exit for Cloud Sherpas, which had more than 1,100 employees and had raised more than $63 million in venture investment.

Cloud Sherpas helps companies move from traditional software to cloud-only alternatives, and it made its name helping companies move from Microsoft Office to Google Apps (now called Google for Work), earning an award from Google as the best Google for Work Partner four times. 

It then started helping companies implement Salesforce and ServiceNow products, earning high status as partners from both of those companies. 

You might not know Accenture if you're not familiar with enterprise tech, but it's a huge and influential companies — other big companies and government agencies often hire Accenture to help set up and run their computer systems, and the company has more than 300,000 employees and earned about $3 billion on $31 billion in sales last year.

Accenture will be using Cloud Sherpas to launch a new cloud business practice called the Accenture Cloud First Applications team.

This team will help companies roll out cloud-only services including Google for Work, NetSuite, Salesforce, ServiceNow, Workday, and so on. Companies are stampeding into the cloud these days, and these newer apps are taking the place of software from old enterprise giants like Microsoft, Oracle, and SAP — particularly at young companies.

Google sees this exit as a big validation for Google's ability to build a big ecosystem of partners to sell and support its enterprise products. That's a relatively new phenom for the search giant. 

Google for Work president Amit Singh emailed us this statement about the deal:

We’ve always believed the cloud can be transformative for any business, and Accenture’s move to combine Cloud Sherpas with its substantial cloud business validates this, and shows further proof of Google’s incredible momentum in this market.

And a Google spokesperson told us, "It's amazing credibility for cloud services in enterprise. We believe it also shows our Google for Work Partner Program business model can create a self-sustaining industry for startups creating businesses around it."

Accenture, for its part, seems just as excited about Cloud Sherpas' standing as a top-tier partner with Salesforce. Accenture is also a major Salesforce partner — so in that space, it just bought one of its biggest competitors.

SEE ALSO: 'I felt like we were being extorted': Customer says Oracle tried to strong-arm him into a cloud sale

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NOW WATCH: The most expensive and extravagant vacations in the world

Although Google has some pretty cushy perks, it's vacation policy is more-or-less standard among big tech companies.

First through third-year employees get 15 days off, fourth year employees get 20 days off, and people who've worked there for six years or longer get 25 days. 

But there is one side-note to the policy that we haven't heard of anywhere else: Googlers are allowed to donate their vacation time.

It all started a few years ago, when one Googler had a parent who had fallen sick. That employee took time off to return home to care for their relative, but matters hadn't improved by the time their allotted chunk of paid vacation had run out. They either had to take an unpaid leave, or stop caring for that ill family member. 

But one of their teammates, who knew about the tough situation, made a proposition. They wanted to let that other Googler have a few of their vacation days.

So began Google's vacation donation system.

Laszlo Bock, Google's head of HR, told this story on stage at the company's third Take Your Parents to Work Day, a celebration hosted at its Mountain View campus where parents flew in from all over the country and the world to attend speeches by execs, go to employee-led classes and demos, and explore the Googleplex. 

"So, after that, we created a policy where, if there's another Googler in need, you can actually take your vacation and give it to them," Bock said to a crowded ampitheatre filled with thousands of parents. "What's cool about that is it came not from people in the operations department, but from one of your families saying 'This is important.' And so we built it into the system, so that everyone can benefit from that idea, not just one person." 

One of Google's management mantras is to create an environment where smart, creative employees are free (and encouraged) to push company-wide changes, and this anecdote shows how that idea can actually play out.

SEE ALSO: This story made a bunch of Google families cry during its 3rd annual Take Your Parents to Work Day

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Here comes another Apple product announcement. Stop salivating.

Steve Jobs fueled the mania for Apple's product releases in two important ways. First, he brought showmanship to the events, a combination of prestidigitation and circus blarney that Apple's new leadership can't match. Second, and more importantly, on more than one occasion Jobs delivered products that truly changed our world. As a result, Apple product announcements are preceded by dozens of frothy articles explaining why this or that predicted feature will alter—sorry, revolutionize—our lives.

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Cisco and VMware, two huge tech rivals, had a showdown of sorts this week.

In one corner, VMware had its huge customer conference, VMworld, where over 23,000 people descended on San Francisco. One thing they heard: how VMware plans to unseat Cisco as king of the network industry.

In the other corner, Cisco had its huge Global Sales Experience expo in Las Vegas where it pumped up its 20,000-strong salesforce to go out and sell (and beat VMware).

In a pre-show interview with Business Insider, VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger said that among VMware's several up-and-coming new billion-dollar-potential businesses, he's most excited about the NSX product, the one that competes with Cisco.

"This is an industry that has been operating essentially under the same architecture for 25 years," Gelsinger told us. He described NSX as "radical." 

NSX came from VMware's $1.25 billion acquisition of a startup called Nicira a few years ago in which VMware outbid Cisco for the startup, and in the process destroyed Cisco's relationship with its once-close partner, EMC. (EMC is VMware's parent company.) Cisco's John Chambers has been trash talking VMware and the Nicira deal ever since.  

This week, Gelsinger basically told Network World that Chambers held a grudge against EMC CEO Joe Tucci, because of that acquisition.

"In the relationship between Joe [Tucci, EMC CEO] and John, this was a very emotional point between them. I am personally anxious for and looking for a much more collaborative relationship with Chuck [Robbins, new Cisco CEO] because this was a deeply personal issue between John and Joe that emerged."

And there's a good reason that Gelsinger wants to make friends with Robbins. While the two companies duke it out in the marketplace, Cisco has been quietly buying a huge stake in VMware.

A bigger stake than VMware knew about.

A month after VMware released its annual proxy statement earlier this year, VMware had to update it, because it "became aware" that Cisco now owns over 5% of VMware, 6.5 million shares, VMware said.

That stake doesn't give Cisco enough voting rights to say, overthrow VMware's board and make VMware kill the NSX product. But an activist investor is trying to get a troubled EMC to sell off VMware. And if that investor wins, Cisco is sitting pretty.

SEE ALSO: We asked VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger if he was going to be the next CEO of EMC ... and he didn't say no

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For Alex Gibney it all started with the death of Apple cofounder Steve Jobs on October 5, 2011.

"The motivation to make the film was why so many people who didn't know Steve Jobs were weeping when he left," Gibney told an audience last week who had recently seen his film "Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine."

Gibney opens the film with footage of people all over the world crying at makeshift memorials for Jobs, lifting their iPads and iPhones picturing a single burning candle in remembrance. Gibney also included people giving emotional video testimonials online reacting to Jobs' death, including a young boy who shouts in amazement, "He made the iPhone!"

Gibney acknowledges that, like many of us, he loves his Mac and his iPhone. But it was more than that to him.

"I grew up on IBM and PCs, and when I switched over to Mac it felt like I'd been liberated," Gibney told Business Insider. "I really did buy into that — I had entered a new zone and these were my people."

That "sticking it to the man" quality Apple had, as Gibney perceived it, came to a crashing halt for the filmmaker when he started making the Steve Jobs documentary 2 1/2 years ago (financed by CNN Films).

"I do react differently now," Gibney told Business Insider about using his iPhone since making the film. "I get a lot more pissed off."

In the film he shows Jobs as a marketing genius who revolutionized the personal computer and then made us addicted to mobile devices. But behind the scenes Gibney paints him as a maniacal taskmaster who ruled by intimidation and mind games. In one instance, while giving the exit interview to a top employee who was leaving Apple, Jobs gave him a "Godfather"-like speech promising him he'd be hunted down if he took any other Apple employees (or in Jobs' words, "his family") with him.

And Jobs wasn't any better in his personal life. The film highlights that in Apple's early days Jobs repeatedly denied being the father of his daughter Lisa. Then, when a DNA test proved he was the father, he paid only $500 a month in child support.

"I didn't want to do the official bio pic of Steve Jobs," Gibney said. "In fact, just the opposite. I never really made a film like this before where you sort of go in and wonder."

That wonder led him to many closed doors when he started out.

The Oscar winner is known for making unapologetic films that have exposed everything from Enron and Jack Abramoff to legends James Brown and Frank Sinatra to most recently the controversial Church of Scientology.

So needless to say when he reached out to Apple for assistance in getting people within the company to talk to him for the film he was given a swift "no." Gibney also tried to speak to Jobs' widow, Laurene, but was turned down.

"I had to go down different pathways to find interesting information, and that's why you can't call it a complete biography," Gibney said. "It's not that. It's about an idea, like, 'Why is he so important to us?' That means you have to reckon with him, but we also have to reckon with ourselves."

To do that, Gibney retraces the rise of Jobs from 26-year-old Apple CEO to an icon behind one of the top companies in the world.

But he also exposes some things that could make you think less about the company.

The film suggests that workers in China who were on the assembly line making the iPhone 4s, along with earning considerably low wages, suffered nerve damage while putting the phones together. Its top supplier, Foxconn, over a two-year span, had 18 workers kill themselves. The suicides allegedly got so serious that Foxconn installed nets around the building the workers lived in to dissuade jumpers.

Gibney also spotlights the company's alleged elaborate tax avoidance. By enacting a loophole called a "Double Irish," Apple uses holding companies in Ireland (a lower-tax country) to pocket around $137 billion in profits, according to the film.

These revelations have made Gibney rethink what his iPhone means to him, and he hopes those who see the film will do the same. But he knows it will be hard, as Apple products, particularly the iPhone, are now constantly attached to our hands. And with that comes a blind faith.

Gibney recalls the backlash by Apple workers and fans of its products after the premiere of the film at the South by Southwest Film Festival earlier this year.

Here's how Eddy Cue, Apple's senior vice president of internet software and services, reacted to it:

Gibney believes what Jobs was incredible at was making Apple products a reflection of you. His goal with the film was to show that a company that makes so many people happy is still just a corporation at the end of the day — a corporation Gibney believes was trained by Jobs to be ruthless and unforgiving to succeed and make the most money possible.

"We are to believe that what you have in your hand is all good," Gibney said. "I love my iPhone, but I have to look myself in the eye and say, 'Is it turning me into someone that I like?'"

Watch the trailer:

Apple did not respond to Business Insider's request for comment on this story.

SEE ALSO: The director of 'Going Clear' says Scientologists have been coming after him pretty hard

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Guest author Liraz Margalit, PhD, is a web psychologist at ClickTale, a company that provides website optimization software and consulting.

Smartphones and tablets both get us online, store our photos and keep track of our calendars. But they are not the same. In fact, user behavior varies quite a bit between the two.

While they're both portable and sleek, and used to get online access when users are away from desktop computers, people have different mindsets around them. 

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In the course of my job as a web psychologist, I’m deeply steeped in research, much of which reveals distinct and separate usage patterns. The smaller devices, which tend to be carried on our person, tends to inspire active engagement, while the larger tablets are often used more passively.

For tech companies and developers for each device category, it’s crucial to understand these differences. If people come to their devices with different goals, then approaches catering to them and appealing to them need to be distinct and carefully crafted as well.

A Tablet Is Not A Mobile

There’s a penchant in the tech community to consider tablet devices as nothing more than jumbo-sized smartphones. Sure, tablets could qualify as mobile devices, with their apps, email access and 3G connections. But lumping them together is a mistake, because they each occupy different purposes in the lives of end users. 

See also: You’re Managing Your Customer Journeys All Wrong

When you own a smartphone and add a tablet to the mix, you don’t end up using your smartphone any less. If both of the devices filled the same purpose, usage time with one would cut into that of the other. But they don’t compete, because users come to their tablets and smartphones for entirely different purposes.

A 2014 Mobile Behavior Report showed that only 14 percent of consumers associate the word “mobile” with their tablets and e-readers, despite their portability and wireless Internet access. So while our smartphones are in our pockets and  bags, always at the ready, our tablets tend to be in-home devices.

The larger screen may seem ripe for productivity—and in some cases, if that’s the purpose driving the purchase, they may be—but don’t expect all (or even most) tablet users to actively engage them. Mobile phones travel with us, and we use them with a “goal-oriented” state of mind. Tablets, on the other hand, are considered more stationary and at-home and we use them with “browsing” state of mind. Usage of the larger device tends to be more passive, because people associate them with watching videos, movies and reading.

So, for instance, demanding active behavior such as registration or entry of personal details may cause your potential tablet customers to ditch your page or app all together.

Tablets And Buying Behavior: More Like Computers Than Phones

ClickTale’s extensive analysis of customer behavior on the websites of leading enterprises including Wal-Mart and North Face has shown that purchase behavior also varies widely between mobile, tablet and desktop.

Customers love to use their portable devices for browsing, “window-shopping” and pre-purchase activities such as price comparison. When it comes to actually whipping out their credit cards and closing the sale, however, desktops or laptops are still overwhelming the machines of choice, with tablets coming in second.

There's a psychological explanation for this. Our smartphones are the most intimate of our devices—they sit on our body; they are stroked with our fingers; they know the most intimate details of our lives and schedules. Desktops sit away from us, however. They feel much more separate and distinct. They don’t travel with us, and to access the screen we use a mouse, not our fingertips.

Here, too, tablets differ from phones by virtue of their in-home usage. People often think of them as a sister of the desktop computer, rather than the smartphone, which situates them somewhere in between the two.

Purchases on desktops, our analysts have found, tend to fall in the functional category—clothing necessities, for example, and essential non-luxury items. On mobiles, however, purchases are significantly more emotional: a last-minute re-booked flight from an airport departures lounge, for example, or a novelty item that restaurant companions discovered on their phones and decided, on a whim, to splurge on.

Tablets, like their function, fall in the middle ground. Tablet customers are motivated by both emotion and sensation. These purchases are not the necessities bought on desktops, and they aren’t impulse buys like those on smartphones. Tablet shoppers tend to take their time and let items sit in their cart before pulling the trigger and eventually buying.

Whether they realize it or not, people have developed specific mental schemes around these gadgets. It takes more than one-size-fits-all features and strategies to succeed in this multi-device (and multi-platform) age. In development and marketing, you need to consider the unique place that each occupy in people’s lives. Tailor your efforts for the device at hand, and you will find that users will be significantly easier to reach. 

Lead photo by Clemens Löcker

On September 4, Microsoft's Nick Parker, VP of the OEM Division, will take the stage at IFA in Berlin to show off a myriad of new products, from Lumia handsets, to a new Surface Pro, to an updated Microsoft Band, to more details about HoloLens. 

Up until now, the company has been focused on having a successful launch of Windows 10 — and it appears to have worked, with over 75 million users in a little under a month — but the focus is shifting to the devices that run the new operating system. 

As part of Microsoft's new strategy under Satya Nadella, all devices run a version of Windows 10, from the new Lumia smartphones, to HoloLens, to the Microsoft Band, and the Surface series. The implementation of these devices is very important because without them, there is nothing to make Windows 10 shine. 

Here's a run-down of what to expect on Friday: 

New Lumia smartphones

The big news at IFA is most likely going to be the new Lumia devices that Microsoft has been working on. Windows 10 Mobile is sorely lacking a flagship device to show off exactly how good the new operating system can be, and the last high-end Windows phone was the Lumia 930, released in July 2014. 

The new phones, dubbed 950 and 950XL, have been the subject of multiple leaks over the past months, giving us a clear picture of exactly what Microsoft is planning. 

As the name suggests, the 950XL is the larger of the two phones, with a 5.7-inch display, placing it slightly above the iPhone 6 Plus but below many high-end Android phones. The 950 isn't small, however, with a 5.2-inch display that is half-an-inch bigger than the iPhone 6. 

In keeping with the Lumia heritage, both devices feature big cameras — so big, in fact, that they require a slight bulge on the back of the device to accommodate them. While no test shots have been shown, it's safe to assume that Microsoft has spent time considering how to make the best camera phone on the market and this will be a major selling point of the 950 series. 

Both devices may, if the rumours are true, also feature innovative new technology such as USB Type-C and a "Quick Charge" feature that can fill the battery from 10% to 95% in as little as 25 minutes. 

HoloLens 

As the most prominent device in the Windows Holographic initiative, HoloLens is a trail-blazer for the kind of projects Microsoft wishes to explore under the leadership of Satya Nadella. By combining what the company knows — in this case Windows 10 — with experimental technologies like holograms, Redmond has the potential to create a device that is unmatched by its rivals at Apple, Google, Amazon, or Samsung.

In a recent interview, Nadella described HoloLens as a "five year journey" for Microsoft that would start out as a commercial project and, gradually, expand to become something that consumers can use. The demos have, thus far, focused predominantly on enterprise uses, such as building firms that can "create" buildings with Windows Holographic. 

The IFA keynote could see some new details of HoloLens shown, as the company is keen to keep people interested in the more "moonshot" aspects of the business. It's highly unlikely we will see a price, release date or anything pertaining to real-world information from Microsoft, however. 

Xbox

Microsoft's Xbox One Insiders received an advanced copy of the Windows 10 update in early September that introduced Cortana, the virtual assistant, and TV DVR functionality to the console. 

Nadella's strategy of putting Windows 10 on every device extends to Xbox, meaning that the console may get some time on stage at IFA. Coincidentally, Apple is also holding an event on September 9 that, if the rumours prove correct, could see an updated Apple TV with a focus on gaming. 

The war for the living room — a place that millions of people spend hours of their day — is hotting up among tech giants, with a myriad of different efforts to win the most attention from users, whether that is via TV, a "second screen," or gaming. 

Pushing Xbox as an all-inclusive option for the living room could bolster Microsoft's efforts to regain some name recognition with consumers and would get the company's new services, such as Cortana, into the hands of millions more people. 

Microsoft Band

One of the more seemingly insignificant hardware introductions during Nadella's tenure as CEO is the Microsoft Band, a device that measured various fitness-related vitals. The Band runs Windows 10, however, which makes it strategically interesting. 

The first Band was universally shunned by critics for being too bulky and lacking in features. The Band 2 will almost certainly improve upon these key areas while also furthering Microsoft's mission to spread Windows 10 to as many devices as possible. 

The Band is currently priced at £170 ($199) while the equivalent Fitbit costs just £80 ($120), so expect to see a price drop, added features, and a less bulky design. 

Surface Pro 4

The Surface Pro 4 has been in the works for a while now and IFA may be the first time we get to see the new device. However, rumours are also pointing to a dedicated October event so it may not make it onto the list of things to show off. 

If the device is shown off, it's unlikely that any specific details — release date and price — will be announced, as the hardware may not be in production yet due to the potential inclusion of Intel's new Skylake processor. 

The Surface Pro has long been the hallmark of Windows-based computer design — so much so that Lenovo has produced an identical clone — and, with the release of Windows 10, Microsoft may be wanting to inspire manufacturers to compete with the likes of Apple on design, and unveiling a new Surface could be the perfect way to do that. 

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NOW WATCH: Here's Microsoft's amazing vision for what the HoloLens can do

Last month, HP told select employees that they were going to be cut from HP's payroll in an unusual way. 

They would be offered a job at a different company that HP had contracted with to supply labor, so they would continue to work on HP projects, with HP customers.

The new company would be making new job offers. Employees who turned down the offers would be cut from HP, and not eligible for layoff severance, which has typically been one week of pay for every year of service, employees have told us. 

Maybe these workers should be happy that they are getting a job offer instead of being unemployed.

But many of them aren't. That's because the new job offers often involve pay cuts, worse benefits, and loss of vacation days, and are for contract positions.

One employee is trying to get the US government involved and sent the letter below to various government officials.

We were asked not to reveal the employee's identity, so here is the letter slightly edited to remove identifying facts:

As a law abiding US citizen, I am bringing my tales of woes with my current company HPE [HP Enterprise] (in process of separating from HP) who has decided to sever away my employee status, [through] no fault of mine, claiming business reasons.

While I totally understand the business reasons that might be the cause for this sudden decision, I am asked to consider work via a contracting company Ciber as a contractor, so HPE’s business can continue.

The employee is left to fend for themselves, and even contacting the judicial system is an expense to the employee. Where does an employee go?

While I can consider this authoritative decision from HPE again due to business reasons, I have been forced to take my vacation within the next few weeks and I am denied any severance (barring the two-week pay).

As an HP/HPE employee for [over 15 years], and while I understand that any company can make changes to its worker severance compensation at any time, I disagree that this agreement is fair to me. 

I have no one to stand for me, no one to represent me through NO fault of mine. I have made personal sacrifices, worked a lot of overtime and flexible hours over the years. The employee is left to fend for themselves, and even contacting the judicial system is an expense to the employee. Where does an employee go?

While I talk for and about myself here, I ask fairness for all the employees who are left out in the cold world.

I am not asking for anything that is not mine, but only what should belong to me, my severance, as [per] HPE’s current policies, because I have never been compensated for overtime hours and flexible work hours (off hours and weekend hours).

We're not sure how successful this effort will be. IBM is another huge tech company undergoing layoffs to fend off its shrinking revenue. Senator Grassley wrote a letter to IBM last April demanding to know details about its layoffs and its usage of foreign Visas, and then held Senate hearings in support of a bill over the issue. That bill has been stuck in committee since January.

But the letter shows why some employees feel angry, and why morale is low at HP ES, even among workers not being cut, according to one person who still works there. 

SEE ALSO: 'The pay is about half of what I make,' says HP employee told to take a new job or be fired

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Every time you visit a web page or send an email, data is being sent and received through an intricate cable system that stretches around the globe. Since the 1850s, we've been laying cables across oceans to become better connected. Today, there are hundreds of thousands of miles of fiber optic cables constantly transmitting data between nations. 

Produced by Alex Kuzoian

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Modern automobiles are increasingly reliant on technology, which leaves them more and more susceptible to hackers. According to forensic engineering consulting firm PT&C|LWG, cars today use between 20 and 70 computers, each with is own specialized use, that make up the overall functionality of the vehicle. 

“Cars are vulnerable because they were never built with defenses in mind. If you take something that was designed to work in one set environment and you connect to it a much more hostile environment, you don’t have the right defenses in place. So of course it’s vulnerable. It’s like Bambi walking out of the forest into the field,” Jeff Williams, chief technology officer of the security firm Contrast Security, told Business Insider. 

To find out which cars on the road today are the most vulnerable to hackers, PT&C|LWG put together a handy infographic. The most vulnerable cars are the 2014 Jeep Cherokee, the 2014 Infiniti Q35, 2015 Cadillac Escalade, the 2014 and 2010 Toyota Prius, and the 2014 Ford Fusion.

The infographic also includes information on the least vulnerable cars, as well as what you can do to defend your vehicle from being hacked.

Check out the infographic below:

SEE ALSO: Consumer Reports: The Tesla Model S P85D is so good it 'defies the laws of physics'

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