Artifacts

Welcome back, my fledgling hackers! In this series, I am trying to develop your knowledge of digital forensics, which is valuable whether you're choosing a career in it or just want to know how your hacker activity can be traced. Few professional digital forensic investigator ...more

According to Indiana Jones, certain things belong in museums, but, thanks to augmented reality, you can now see some of the ancient treasures of the world in your own home via the Civilisations AR app from the BBC. The app, built by Nexus Studios, is available now on the App ...more

Streaming movies and TV shows on phones is more popular today than ever, but what about when you're on a plane, have a limited data plan, or will be in a no-service area? You'll want to download your movies and TV shows instead. While Netflix is excellent, you can't rent or do ...more

Welcome back, my greenhorn hackers! Lately, much of the discussion here on Null Byte has revolved around evading detection and not getting caught hacking. Several of you have written me asking for a series on evading detection and forensics, and while I began a series 5 month ...more

Welcome back, my aspiring hackers and those who want to catch my aspiring hackers! As most of you know, this series on digital forensics is inspired by the motivation to keep all of you all out of custody. The more you know about the techniques used by law enforcement and for ...more

Welcome back, my tenderfoot hackers! So many readers in the Null Byte community have been asking me questions about evading detection and hacking undetected that I decided to start a new series on digital forensics. I applaud each of you for your concern, as the last thing I ...more

Contrary to popular belief, augmented reality apps have been available for a while now. I remember using the Layar app (still available for iOS and Android) to explore nearby businesses and landmarks with varying success via an early-generation Android handset. It would be ha ...more

Welcome back, my tenderfoot hackers! In continuing my series on digital forensics using Kali, I want to introduce you to two complementary tools, both built right into Kali Linux. These are Brian Carrier's tools Autopsy and Sleuth Kit. Carrier is one of the leading authoriti ...more

Many people find Steampunk problematic for a whole host of reasons, not least of which is the glorification of an era of Western history that featured institutionalized slavery, racism, sexism, elitism, and many more -isms. Today, Steampunks frequently get accused of subtly o ...more

Kevin Van Aelst creates witty visual "one-liners" by recontextualizing everyday, ordinary objects. With a few simple tweaks, the viewer recognizes a roll of tape as the ocean or reads gummi worms as chromosomes or understands mitosis through the use of sweet, sugary donuts. F ...more

Illustrator's gradient mesh tool is a powerful one for vector artists... if you know how to use it. This tool can help create beautiful and vivid mesh-based vector portraits, as long as your skills are up to par. If not, try out some of the beginner tutorials on WonderHowTo fo ...more

Want the convenience of a throwaway email address without all the hassle? How about anonymous text messaging so you can get to know someone before giving them your real information? Gliph has you covered. Gliph is a service that lets you create an identity around a set of thre ...more

Apple dropped the sixth public beta for iOS 13 today, Aug. 15. This public update comes just hours after the release of developer beta 7, an interesting move for Apple. The company has recently stuck to a schedule of seeding the public beta at least one day after the developer ...more

Smartphone videos get better and better each year. Seven or eight years ago, who would have thought iPhone and Android phones could support 4K video recording. Some phones can even shoot slow-motion at 960 fps. But no matter the resolution or frame rate, a phone's rolling shut ...more

Will the predicted apocalyptic date — December 21st, 2012 — really be the end of the world? In this ongoing five-part series, we examine what would happen if zombies, nuclear weapons, cyberwars, earthquakes, or aliens actually destroyed our planet — and how you might survive. ...more

Welcome back, my budding hackers! People often ask me, "Why are you training hackers? Isn't that illegal?" Although I usually give them a short version of this post, there are MANY reasons why YOU should be studying hacking. Before I begin, I want to re-emphasize to all of y ...more

Life's pretty good for iOS public testers — we get to check out new iPhone features months before the general public even knows they exist. That said, we aren't first to the party. Developers get priority during beta testing, as evidenced by yesterday's iOS 13 dev beta 6 relea ...more

For almost a decade, projector phones have tried to entice consumers with their convenience as media machines. While these devices are alluring, they've never really taken off with mainstream success. The latest effort, Moviphone, sounds tempting if you watch a lot of films an ...more

Outside of iPhone releases, software updates are arguably the most exciting aspects of iOS life. It's like Christmas morning when your iPhone installs an update, as you dive through your device to find all the new features and changes Apple thought to include. With iOS 14.4, t ...more

Find Hipstamatic too nostalgic? Instead of trying to emulate film from fuzzy bygone days, iPhone app Decim8 goes in a different direction—futuristic digital destruction. The $0.99 app creates digital artifacts, putting your photos through a glitchy blender and spewing out surp ...more

Welcome back, my novice hackers! In this series, we have been exploring how a forensic investigator can find evidence of illegal or illicit activity. Among other things, we have examined the registry and prefetch files for artifacts and have done some rudimentary forensic ana ...more

The term glitch always seemed best suited for computer programs, video games and electronic equipment, where a slight irregularity in the device or system would create a temporary malfunction with annoying, sometimes even amazing unexpected results. Only the effect was never r ...more

In the Harry Potter world, there was a character by the name of Beedle the Bard, who told a story about witnessing the three Peverell brothers building a bridge out of magic and successfully crossing a very dangerous river that had claimed many lives. Death was upset that the ...more

The third developer beta for iOS 13 has been out since July 3, and while devs have had fun exploring all the new features, those of us on the public beta have sat on the sidelines running the public version of dev beta 2. But we don't need to wait any longer, as Apple just rel ...more

There's no doubt iOS 13 has dominated the talk around the Apple community this month. Since the announcement and release of the first developer beta, we iPhone users have had a treasure trove of new features and changes to explore and discuss. Now the fun continues with iOS 13 ...more

Enter the warped geography of Clement Valla, a recent R.I.S.D. MFA graduate who fancies himself a sort of Google Earth preservationist. The artist's "Postcards from Google Earth, Bridges" series manipulates the software's alogrithmic mappings as an exploration of human/compute ...more

As many of you know, I have been running a couple of series here on Null Byte about digital forensics called Digital Forensics for the Aspiring Hacker and Digital Forensics Using Kali. Although many readers have seemed to enjoy these series, just as many seem to be pondering, ...more

There are plenty of cutting edge apps out there, and endless innovations in the field of 3D printing. But to combine the two—and make it available to the common consumer—is unprecedented. Earlier this year, Georgia Tech researcher Grant Schindler created the world's first 3D ...more

Night mode, which helps you snap great photographs in low-light environments, is a feature available only on the iPhone 11 and iPhone 12 lineups. It's a useful tool to have in your arsenal, especially if you're fond of nightlife photography. Still, you don't have to purchase a ...more

On July 3, Apple pushed out iOS 13 developer beta 3 for iPhone, and there's a lot found hidden within. A new FaceTime setting, more Arcade details, full-page scrolling screenshots everywhere, a noise cancellation option in the Control Center, and a new markup tool — and that's ...more

Creative Commons is awesome—really. If an image, video, or audio file is tagged with a CC license, that means you can use it as long as you give appropriate credit to the owner. For bloggers with no money for pricey stock media, it's a godsend. When you license your own media ...more

While augmented reality headset makers are faced with tackling numerous challenges before the category is truly ready for prime time, a start-up comprised of former Microsoft engineers may have nailed fast and precise tracking of hand gestures and full-body locomotion. Operat ...more

The vast majority of people involved in Steampunk are interested in history but, like with science, there's something about history that we don't talk about very often: The holes. That is, the gaps in our knowledge, not physical holes like that pictured above. That's a real h ...more

When you're talking about collectibles, in 2021 it's heresy not to include the world of sneakerheads. Nowadays, a single, limited batch of newly designed sneakers from Nike can quickly sell out and then go on to be resold for many thousands more than they were purchased for at ...more

Beta testing for Apple's big upcoming iPhone update, iOS 13, is well underway. So far, each of the four beta versions we've seen brought new features and changes to the table, many of which were never even mentioned by Apple during WWDC in June. Now, it's time to do it all ove ...more

The first developer beta for iOS 13 is available to install on iPhone models, but the process for doing so may be a bumpy ride. Apple has not included configuration profiles for the developer beta yet, and many developers are having issues installing iOS 13 even with macOS 10. ...more

Need your hands free, but still want to use your cell phone? Tormented Artifacts has the solution for you, with their Communication Bracer. It's a custom-made leather bracer which fits standard smart phones and covers them with an easy-to-open leather flap so that you don't ha ...more

Sometimes I forget that I'm also a fiction writer, so I thought it might be a nice change of pace to share one of my stories with you. I wrote this piece awhile ago for an anthology that never came together and I'm tired of just sitting on it. It's one of the more odd stories ...more

Apple has pulled quite the headscratcher in anticipation of its big iPhone unveiling next week. Its latest iPhone update, iOS 13.0, is just on the horizon, going through eight beta versions so far. And yet, before that software's official release, the company has started beta ...more

If tradition holds, we're roughly one month away from Apple's big iPhone announcement. While we're excited to see what will mainly be a significant camera upgrade, it's not all about the hardware. Apple will also release the official version of iOS 13 to coincide with the iPho ...more

September is nearly here, which means new iPhones are, too. We're looking forward to iPhone 11 Pro and 11 Pro Max, as well as the more affordable iPhone 11R. All three iPhones will run iOS 13, so Apple's entrusting beta testers to ensure its new OS is ready. The latest update, ...more

Apple's iOS 13 is nearly here. After four months of beta testing, the latest iPhone software update promises over 200 brand new features, like system-wide dark mode and an overhauled Reminders app. That said, it'll be shortlived, as Apple plans to release iOS 13.1 as a supplem ...more

Although next week will mark the late David Bowie's 72nd birthday, his fans and admirers are the ones receiving a gift in the form of an augmented reality app that explores the artist's career Available for $7.99 on the App Store and Google Play on January 8, "David Bowie Is" ...more

Having pushed more than two million downloads of its Bait! game for the Gear VR and Daydream platforms, VR developer Resolution Games is bringing the virtual fishing fun to augmented reality. Scheduled for release in 2018, Bait! Under the Surface opens up fishing holes in a u ...more

Developers can now publish augmented reality experiences that are viewable through the experimental version of Chrome and ARCore. Google announced the release of the WebXR Device API last month for VR experiences in Chrome version 67. Now, Google has made the WebXR Hit Test A ...more

"Chef" Marilyn isn't the first thing that comes to mind when thinking of the infamous blond bombshell. Yet a recipe featured in Fragments, a compendium of handwritten Marilyn artifacts, has led Marilyn-o-philes to believe the icon was in fact more domesticated than one may thi ...more

Apple just seeded the fourth public beta for iOS 13 to software testers today, Tuesday, July 30. AppleSeed participants saw this beta one day early, alongside the release of developer beta 5. Now, developer and public testers alike are up-to-speed with the latest in iOS 13. B ...more

A rose by any other name may smell as sweet, but one annoying invasive weed may hold the answer to treating the superbug MRSA. Researchers from Emory University have found that the red berries of the Brazilian peppertree contain a compound that turns off a gene vital to the dr ...more

Buckle up, iPhone users, because it's update time! Apple just released its latest iPhone OS to the public, iOS 14.4. This new edition isn't the company's most ground-breaking, but it doesn't come up short, either — you'll find support for smaller QR codes in Camera, a new "Dev ...more

Apple has finally seeded the release candidate for iOS 14.4 to iPhone developers and public beta users, build 18D52. The update adds scanning support for smaller QR codes in Camera, the ability to classify Bluetooth devices to improve audio notifications, and alerts on the iPh ...more

We're pumped for iOS 13 and all of the fresh features and changes that come with it. Developer beta 3 came with new features in the double digits, including AR eye contact in FaceTime and mouse cursor size customization. Developer beta 4, released today, has a few more additio ...more

Just after a month of testing, iOS 12.1.3 has been released for iPhones. Like the previous iOS 12.1.2 update, there's not much to get excited about. There are no new features discovered yet, but there are a few fixes for issues with photos in Messages, imperfect pics when usin ...more

A recent update to Facebook's News Feed could significantly broaden its reach when it comes to delivering augmented reality content. In a post on its developer's blog on Tuesday, the company announced that it has adopted the industry-standard gITF 2.0 format for 3D posts on i ...more