Month: December 2015

(credit: Isriya Paireepairit)

After losing in the appellate phase, Samsung has finally agreed that it will pay Apple a $548 million partial judgement as part of the two companies’ longstanding patent battle.

According to a Thursday court filing, Samsung will pay the amount once Apple has submitted an invoice, which is due Friday. The payment is expected to be completed by December 14, at which point Apple will withdraw its motion to enforce the court’s judgment.

That $548 million amount was cut from an initial 2012 verdict that awarded $930 million to Apple.

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Google’s Chromebooks now make up more half of all devices in US kindergarten through 12th grade classrooms, according to a report from CNBC, citing an analyst from Forrester research. Just three years ago, Chromebooks had less than a one percent share. Why the big jump? Forrester figures it’s due to a combination of security tools, […]

Chromebooks in half of all K-12 classroom computers, for better or worse is a post from: Liliputing

Gilberto Valle.

Fantasizing online about kidnapping, sexually abusing, and eating women does not amount to unlawful conduct or thoughtcrime, a federal appeals court ruled. A person's "inclinations and fantasies are his own and beyond the reach of the government," 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Barrington Parker wrote Thursday in the criminal case of Gilberto Valle, dubbed the New York City "cannibal cop."

"We are loath to give the government power to punish us for our thoughts and not our actions," Barrington ruled. "That includes the power to criminalize an individual’s expression of sexual fantasies, no matter how perverse or disturbing."

The 2-1 decision by the New York-based federal appeals court sides with a trial judge who dismissed a jury's verdict that the former police officer was guilty of conspiracy to kidnap because of his online discussions with members of the Dark Fetish Network (DFN). The government, on the other hand, argued that the online communications "taken at face value, were fully sufficient to establish his intent to join a kidnapping conspiracy."

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(credit: Consumer Cellular)

T-Mobile USA earned the highest score among the four major nationwide carriers in the latest Consumer Reports ranking of cellular service providers. But the gaps between T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless, AT&T, and Sprint weren't very large, as the big four all lagged far behind the smallest carriers in customer satisfaction.

Consumer Cellular came in first place out of 10 postpaid carriers with an overall score of 89 out of 100, followed by Ting, which scored 88. The next four carriers were GreatCall/Jitterbug, Credo Mobile, Virgin Mobile, and US Cellular, which all scored in the 70s.

The big four occupied the bottom four slots. T-Mobile scored 73, followed by Verizon at 70, AT&T at 68, and Sprint at 67.

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The dreaded Hello Barbie. (credit: Mattel)

A recent review of the Internet-connected Hello Barbie doll from toymaker Mattel uncovered several red flags. Not only did the toy use a weak authentication mechanism that made it possible for attackers to monitor communications the doll sent to servers, but those servers were also vulnerable to POODLE, an attack disclosed 14 months ago that breaks HTTPS encryption.

The vulnerabilities, laid out in a report published Friday by security firm Bluebox Labs, are the latest black eye for so-called "Internet of Things" devices. The term is applied to appliances and other everyday devices that are connected to the Internet, supposedly to give them a wider range of capabilities. The Hello Barbie doll is able to hold real-time conversations by uploading the words a child says to a server. Instant processing on the server then allows the doll to provide an appropriate response.

Bluebox researchers uncovered a variety of weaknesses in the iOS and Android app developed by Mattel partner ToyTalk. The apps are used to connect the doll to a nearby Wi-Fi networks. The researchers also reported vulnerabilities in the remote server used to communicate with the doll.

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(credit: Dan Boyle)

A federal judge in Minnesota has ordered one of the men behind the notorious Prenda Law group to liquidate his assets. Paul Hansmeier must now sell his condominium, among other assets, in order to pay back $2.5 million of debts more quickly rather than having the case drag out for years.

"Here, the debtor has a pattern and practice of dishonesty with the courts," US Bankruptcy Judge Kathleen Sanberg said during the Thursday hearing. She ordered Hansmeier to convert his Chapter 13 (wage earner's plan) bankruptcy filing to a Chapter 7 (liquidation). Under Chapter 13, Hansmeier could have paid his creditors much more slowly.

"This case was designed for one purpose only, to thwart the collection efforts of debtors," the judge added. "It was not because the debtor now wants to pay creditors in full."

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So you thought it was impressive when folks started porting Android 6.0 Marshmallow to run on the 2011 HP TouchPad tablet? That’s nothing. Recently we saw Marshmallow ported to the original Samsung Galaxy S smartphone from 2010. But why stop there? Now you can also run Android 6.0 on the HTC HD2… a 2009 smartphone […]

HTC HD2 still isn’t dead yet… gets Android 6.0 port is a post from: Liliputing

This week the FBI announced that it had helped take down 37,479 websites, most of which sold counterfeit goods.

The enforcement action was a continuation of operation “In Our Sites” which began in 2010. At the time, several piracy related websites were among the prime targets including torrent search engine Torrent-Finder.com.

The torrent site, which didn’t host or link to any infringing content, had its domain name seized for allegedly infringing copyrights and the authorities announced that an investigation was ongoing.

Torrent-Finder’s owner Waleed Gadelkareem was genuinely surprised by the actions of the US authorities and became determined to fight the seizure. He had never run into copyright issues before and maintained that his Egypt-based business was perfectly legal.

With help from U.S. lawyer David Snead, TorrentFinder decided to appeal the seizure. The Department of Justice (DoJ) opted to do this outside of court, through an administrative enforcement process.

This process lasted nearly half a decade and a few days ago the authorities informed TorrentFinder that they would no longer pursue the case. The DoJ accepted the torrent site’s “offer in compromise,” which among other things states that it will comply with takedown requests.

The Torrent-Finder.com domain was officially released late November and is now in the hands of the original owner again, who is redirecting it to the torrent section of his new search engine AIO.

While the authorities don’t officially endorse the site, it’s clear that their case against it wasn’t strong enough to follow-up with a prosecution.

Despite the positive outcome, Torrent-Finder’s former lawyer David Snead says that it’s disappointing that it took the authorities half a decade to reach their final decision. Avoiding a court battle actually slowed down the process.

“The procedure we used was presented to us as an alternative to litigation, and possibly speedier,” Snead told TF this week.

“The length of time that it took for this matter to be resolved is very troubling. It indicates that the domain name seizure process does not have built into it respect for due process that is the hallmark of the U.S. legal system.”

Due process is important as Torrent-Finder’s traffic was hit hard by the seizure, a drop many other websites may not have survived. The torrent search engine didn’t give up though, and it’s successor is still around today.

We spoke to Torrent-Finder’s operator who told us that he’s happy to have his domain back. Still, he’s not pleased with how the U.S. Government handled the case.

According to Gadelkareem the entire case was based on inaccuracies and mistakes. A lot of the evidence was factually incorrect, something he could only highlight after his domain was taken away.

“A child would have made a stronger case. I think they did not expect any response from my side. That is how they came up with the most hilarious evidence you could imagine,” Gadelkareem says.

The evidence summed up in the affidavit (pdf) was indeed weak. For example, Homeland Security’s Special Agent Reynolds cited several articles from Torrent-Finder’s news section as proof of criminal copyright infringement.

“I was able to view posts by the user ‘Torrent Finder,’ including ‘Top 10 Most Pirated Movies on BitTorrent,’ ‘Piracy in The Music Industry,’ ‘The First Episode of ‘The Walking Dead’ Leaks to BitTorrent,’ and ‘Piracy domain seizure bill gains support,’ he wrote.

The cited articles were actually copies of TorrentFreak news. These were automatically pulled from our RSS feed and of course did not link to any copyright infringing material.

While Torrent-Finder.com is now in the hands of its original owner once again, it was almost scooped up strangers. The DoJ remained sloppy until the end and simply let the domain expire instead of transferring it as promised.

“I kind of expected this to happen, so I created a backup account to catch the domain if it expired, and that is where the domain ended up,” Gadelkareem says.

“If I didn’t create that backorder then I would not have the domain name back right now.”

TorrentFinder’s operator is still frustrated about the trouble he’s had to go to but is glad that he can now put the matter behind him. Defeating copyright infringement claims from the U.S. Government is quite an achievement and seeing the feds run into problems of their own helped to ease the pain.

“Seeing scandals such as the NSA spying program brought me some peace in the end,” he concludes.

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

Google’s next Android tablet may be coming soon, but it won’t come cheap: prices for the Google Pixel C are expected to start at $499. Want something a bit more affordable? The 2013 Nexus 7 is still a pretty great tablet, and right now you can pick one up from Groupon for as little as $110. […]

Deals of the Day (12-04-2015) is a post from: Liliputing