Month: November 2015

Circular Devices is on track to launch one of the first modular smartphones. The team has been showing off concepts for the upcoming phone for much of 2015, and now the Puzzlephone crowdfunding campaign is now live on Indiegogo. The PuzzlePhone allows the user to replace the “Spine” (the screen), the “Brain” (the storage), and the “Heart” […]

PuzzlePhone crowdfunding campaign is off to a good start is a post from: Liliputing

Software is getting pretty good and guessing what you want to do based on context. That’s why keyboard software for smartphones can suggest words as you type and it’s how Gmail can show a message asking if you meant to include an attachment if you forget to add one to an email message you just […]

Smart Reply lets Google answer emails for you (kind of) is a post from: Liliputing

Zotac’s first Steam Machine gaming PC will feature an Intel Core i5-6400T quad-core Skylake processor and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 graphics. The Zotac NEN SN970 Steam Machine also features 8GB of RAM, a 1TB hard drive, and four HDMI 2.0 ports. The computer runs Valve’s SteamOS software and the whole thing measures about 8.3″ x 8″ […]

Zotac NEN Steam Machine has Skylake CPU, NVIDIA graphics is a post from: Liliputing

Following an investigation carried out by the BPI and IFPI, with assistance from the US Department of Homeland Security, in 2011 file-sharing links forum Dancing Jesus was taken offline.

Two men, one the owner of the site and the other one of the forum’s top uploaders, were arrested by City of London Police. Homeland Security seized a Dancing Jesus server hosted in the United States.

After years of quiet, last October it became evident that the BPI was pursuing a private prosecution against the pair. In January 2014, site owner Kane Robinson of South Shields pleaded guilty to illegally distributing music. Key uploader Richard Graham of Leicestershire entered a guilty plea at a later date.

On November 10, 2014, Robinson and Graham were sentenced and received the harshest punishments ever handed down to UK-based file-sharers. For his part in offering a reported 22,500 links to 250,000 titles, Robinson was sentenced to 32 months. Graham received 21 months.

At the time the sentences were criticized as being both harsh and disproportionate but within months positive signs began to emerge.

In August a posting to a Facebook campaign page titled ‘Justice for Kane Robinson’ carried an optimistic message.

“We saw Kane at the weekend he is doing well and it is hopeful he could be out soon..thanks for all your continued support guys!” it read.

Then last Thursday, after receiving the toughest sentence of its kind and serving time in three separate prisons, Robinson was freed ‘just’ 11 months into his sentence.

His Facebook campaign carried two simple hashtags: #‎Justice4Kane‬ ‪and #‎Missioncomplete‬

It’s unclear why Robinson has been released so early. Chronicle Live said it had approached the Ministry of Justice but the office declined to comment on individual cases. Robinson himself has also remained silent.

TorrentFreak caught up with David Cook, a specialist cyber crime solicitor who was previously instructed to provide expert opinion to the defense in the case. He told TF that he no longer represents Robinson or Graham but confirmed both had previously filed appeals.

“However, this probably has a more simple explanation,” Cook explained.

“A 34 month sentence would equate to 17 months in custody and 17 months ‘on license’ in the community. If a person behaves and is deemed suitable then they may be released earlier.”

Both men will now be looking to rebuild their lives, probably far away from the file-sharing arena.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.

Cloud storage doesn’t grow on trees (or clouds)… although you’d be mistaken for thinking it was free. In recent years companies including Microsoft, Google, Dropbox, and Box have offered some amount of free online storage as a way to get people hooked on the service so that users of the free service will consider becoming paying […]

Microsoft is dropping OneDrive free storage to 5GB, killing Office 365 unlimited storage is a post from: Liliputing