Life & Technology – 2GB 31st May, 2015

Google’s put out some new research this week that shone on a light on “secret questions” – the system that helps to verify your identity when you’ve forgotten your password. The research found two key problems: The first is that if you can remember the answer to your question, hackers are more likely to be able to guess it. If you secret question is “what is your favourite food”, an intruder has a 20% chance of guessing it first try. Conversely, if the answer to your question is hard to guess, there’s a pretty good chance that you won’t be able to remember it either.

 

So what’s the answer? Google is suggesting that when possible, users opt to have their identify verified using a back-up email or via a text message to their mobile phone.

 

As part of Vivid, Canon is running walking tours where you’ll get some of the best photo opportunities offered by the festival, as well plenty of great photography tips. While this weekend is sold out, there’s a number of these on next weekend – Friday, Saturday and Sunday – between 6pm at 10:30. You’re looking at AUD$40 for a 1 hour session, which includes the hire of a Canon EOS70D with a pretty great lens, an 8GB SD card that you get to keep and an A3 print of your favourite image. And if you don’t have the time to get along to a Photo Walk, Canon has a great range of camera for hire at Vivid, starting at AUD$19 per night to AUD$49 per night if you want to try out something new. You can find these at Canon HQ at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Circular Quay.

 

Panasonic is the latest contender to take a shot at the Aussie action camera market with its brand new HX-A1. The A1 is a waterproof, shockproof, freezeproof and dustproof action camera that weighs just 45g.

 

The A1 has a pretty cool feature that I haven’t seen on any other action camera – Night Vision mode. It includes a separate infrared lens that you can screw on, and if you have an infrared light source – which you can buy for as little as $10 – you’ll be able to film in total darkness. The A1 is coming to Australia toward the end of June, and will be available for AUD$299.

 

There's a lot of amazing guests speaking at this year's Vivid festival in Sydney, and I had a chance to chat to another one this week – Dr. Angus Hervey, the co-founder of Future Crunch. According to Dr. Angus, self-driving cars could be as little here in as little as ten years, and could drastically change our lives, and how we comute. Dr. Angus Hervey will be participating in a discussion entitled "Reconnecting Sydney" as part of the Vivid Festival on June 4. Click here for more of Dr. Angus' thoughts on self-driving cars.

 

Have you ever wanted to design your own phone? Motorola will be helping Australians do that very soon, as its bringing its Moto Maker service to our shores over the next few months. If you want to buy a Moto X, you’ll be pick your storage size, your colour of back, as well as optional accents, such as coloured button. If you’re a bit adventurous, you’ll even have choices of leather and bamboo.

 

Toshiba this week announced a couple of new laptops, and the Radius L40W a five-in-one notebook is one of the coolest. All of Toshiba's Radius notebooks feature five-modes of operation: a standard laptop mode, a tent mode, a kickstand mode, a tablet mode and a mode where the device is laid flat for two person collaboration. The Radius L40W will be available around the middle of June, click here for more information.