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From the record breaking to the blame shifting, read the news roundup for the week ending 24 April 2016
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From the record breaking to the blame shifting, read the news roundup for the week ending 24 April 2016
A free Android SMS app that has been downloaded millions of times is spooking people using cracked versions. In a threatening message Textra SMS tells pirate users it has a policy of reporting repeat violators unless they install a legitimate copy in three days. Needless to say, some users are running scared.
Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.
Millions of Android apps are downloaded from the Play Store everyday which is hardly a surprise given the huge choice and massive userbase of the Google platform.
Many Android users happily go through life without spending a penny on software, mainly because there are adequate free or ad-supported versions available for many top titles.
Of course, millions of users prefer to bypass Google Play altogether by installing raw .APK files from third party sources. With this option they lose the convenience of Google Play but gain the ability to install premium software without paying for it, potentially at the risk of malware.
Strangely, not only do people pirate premium titles but they also pirate free software too. Case in point, Textra SMS from Delicious Inc. Self-described as a “seriously beautiful, feature rich SMS and MMS app”, Textra SMS is a smash hit having been downloaded between five and ten million times according to Google.
Nevertheless, plenty of people are installing Textra from third-party sources, largely to remove the ads that allow the software to be offered for free. However, those that have done so are being greeted with a surprise. Postings in dozens of locations around the web from what appear to be Textra pirates indicate that their activities haven’t gone unnoticed.
While anti-piracy notices in software are nothing new, the warning and ticking clock from Textra has a few people worried. One Reddit thread has a warning that pirating online apps is extremely dangerous.
“Pirating something that requires you to being online is a suicide mission. They will probs send a fine of $250 or something,” one commenter said, somewhat pessimistically.
This assessment is amusingly over-bleak but it doesn’t sit in isolation. In other discussions people question whether it is possible for Textra to track down pirates down through the app, whether they could be reported to their ISP, Google, and in one case even whether they could get in trouble with the police.
While finding the prospect of someone being reported to law enforcement for pirating a free app somewhat amusing, TF contacted Delicious Inc. for comment. Firstly, was the message their doing?
“Sure there are a bunch of ‘cracked’ versions of Textra available on the web. If you search on Google for cracked or pirated or ad-free you’ll find them,” Textra’s Max told TF.
“They are hacked in respect the APK has been modified and code injected to bypass the licensing checks. Periodically we check for these and send out a notification to users. Some of which may not even be aware of the fact, for example a friend downloaded it for them.”
So having established that the messages aren’t fake, we again pushed Max on the threats. The notice says that the company considers piracy a serious matter and has a policy to “report repeated violations.” It also suggests that users can avoid issues by downloading the official version of Textra from Google Play within three days.
TF asked what happens if users don’t comply with the deadline and the response we received suggests that Delicious would simply prefer that users install the official, free product.
“Legally there are a whole raft of options all the way from DMCA takedown requests to civil proceedings. It’s not a big issue for us, but on occasions we try our best to encourage users to ‘do the right thing’ that’s all,” Max said.
Of course, making absolutely sure of no action is literally just a click away (an install link is provided in the notice) and since Textra SMS is free, users have nothing to lose.
While there are probably better ways to get customers on board than threatening them, in this case it’s likely that the warning had plenty of pirates quickly installing the official version.
Textra wouldn’t be drawn on stats but it’s hard not to see pirating this excellent free app as unfair to the devs. We tested the official version and didn’t see any ads at all but apparently when they do appear they’re pretty unobtrusive.
“The app is free, so you’d wonder why a user would risk installing an APK that’s been modified (and the risks of injected code like key recorders, password sniffers etc). Why would you do that!?” Max asks.
It’s a pretty good point.
Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.
Neue Systems-on-a-Chip für Spielekonsolen: AMD arbeitet an drei SoCs, von denen einer die Playstation Neo sein dürfte und einer noch 2016 in Produktion gehen soll. Bleibt die Frage nach den anderen beiden – denn zusammen sollen sie AMD 1,5 Milliarden US-Dollar einbringen. (Spielekonsole, AMD)
Neue Systems-on-a-Chip für Spielekonsolen: AMD arbeitet an drei SoCs, von denen einer die Playstation Neo sein dürfte und einer noch 2016 in Produktion gehen soll. Bleibt die Frage nach den anderen beiden - denn zusammen sollen sie AMD 1,5 Milliarden US-Dollar einbringen. (Spielekonsole, AMD) If you like creeping, consuming terror, this serial podcast is for you.
There’s a certain mystique to American motorways. Endless expanses of asphalt with nothing but the radio and the stars for company; a anonymous landscape of diners, truck stops, and ramshackle motels; flat plains that rise into mountainous ranges or dip into valleys lush with forests; a freedom to go wherever you want, whenever you want. It’s no wonder that so much fiction pivots on the axis of the road trip.
However, such places can also be terrifying. It’s easy to get lost here, easy to vanish into that topography of intersections and one-pub towns, easy to meet the wrong person and be reduced to a missing person’s report. And this is where the new serial fiction podcast Alice Isn’t Dead finds us. Not in the potential of travel, but its worst outcome.
The basic premise of the show is simple: a truck driver is travelling the United States looking for the wife she’d assumed was dead. Because it shares a creator with the darkly comedic Welcome To Night Vale (which we absolutely love), you’d be forgiven if you expected something relatively humorous. I certainly did. But where the former is a mix of the macabre and the morbidly funny, the latter … isn’t.
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Op-Ed: No laws limit the speech of AI or autonomous programs, but that could change.
Bots have been using computers for a long time (see The Invisible Boy), but the Constitution is even older. (credit: Getty Images)
John Frank Weaver is Boston-based attorney focusing on artificial-intelligence law.
Last month, the Internet was briefly ablaze with the news that Tay, a Microsoft-built Twitterbot designed to interact with 18-24 year-olds in the persona of a teenaged girl, had interacted with the Twitterverse and become a racist conspiracy theorist in less than 24 hours. Microsoft understandably pulled the plug on the experimental AI, but that doesn’t end the creation of autonomous tweets of questionable value. There are numerous other Twitterbots that, with little to no human input, create original ideas, only some of which are truly worthwhile. These bots include:
• An AI-powered Donald Trump emulator (@DeepDrumpf) that analyzes the real Donald’s Twitter production and attempts to create new tweets that he could have said.
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Microsoft hat eine neue Insider-Preview für Windows 10 veröffentlicht, die umfassende Neuerungen und Verbesserungen beinhaltet. Neu sind Erweiterungen bei der Stift-Unterstützung Windows Ink sowie beim Startmenü und Cortana. (Windows 10, Microsoft)
Microsoft hat eine neue Insider-Preview für Windows 10 veröffentlicht, die umfassende Neuerungen und Verbesserungen beinhaltet. Neu sind Erweiterungen bei der Stift-Unterstützung Windows Ink sowie beim Startmenü und Cortana. (Windows 10, Microsoft) Sam Schmidt was paralyzed in a testing accident in 2000. Now he can drive again.
Sam Schmidt smiles from the driver's seat of Project SAM, the Corvette Stingray that's been modified to let him drive it, despite being paralyzed from the neck down. (credit: Arrow)
In the late 90s, Sam Schmidt had a promising career as an IndyCar driver, finishing fifth in the championship in 1999 after taking his first win in Las Vegas. In off-season, however, his ascension in the sport was derailed. During testing that following January, an accident at Walt Disney World Speedway in Florida left Schmidt a quadriplegic.
In the years since, Schmidt has continued to go racing but as a team owner. He's watched from the pit as drivers like Simon Pagenaud and James Hinchcliffe brought home glory for Schmidt Peterson Motorsport. But recently a collaboration with his team's title sponsor, Arrow Electronics, has placed Schmidt back where he belongs—behind the wheel of a car on track.
The car is a 2014 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray, and the initiative is called Project SAM for "Semi-Autonomous Motorcar." However, don't be fooled into thinking this is a self-driving vehicle. Instead, the core of Project SAM is about mapping the dynamic range of the car's inputs—steering, throttle, brake—and translating them to a different control format, in this case one suitable for a quadriplegic driver. "We needed to be able to control any feature of the car by using electronic signals and software," said Chakib Loucif, Arrow's VP of engineering.
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Group claimed new science education violated separation of church and state.
(credit: NJCU.edu)
A federal appeals court has affirmed a lower court’s decision to dismiss a case brought in Kansas by a religiously-minded group of parents and students. The plaintiffs were concerned about their home state’s adoption of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS).
As Ars reported back in 2013 when the case was first filed, the NGSS standards are a nationwide attempt to improve science education in the US. They have been backed by organizations such as the National Research Council, National Science Teachers Association, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
This case, COPE v. Kansas Board of Education, is a notable victory for science—and a blow to the creationist crowd and its progeny.
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Auch in einem weiteren Verfahren um die Freischaltung des iPhones eines Angeklagten hat Apple nicht nachgegeben – die Ermittler konnten dem mutmaßlichen Täter letztlich den Code entlocken. Apple begründet seinen Widerstand unter anderem mit den Gefahren durch einen möglichen Präzedenzfall. (Apple vs. FBI, Apple)
Auch in einem weiteren Verfahren um die Freischaltung des iPhones eines Angeklagten hat Apple nicht nachgegeben - die Ermittler konnten dem mutmaßlichen Täter letztlich den Code entlocken. Apple begründet seinen Widerstand unter anderem mit den Gefahren durch einen möglichen Präzedenzfall. (Apple vs. FBI, Apple) 
Forscher in den USA haben durch Zufall eine Methode entdeckt, durch die Akkus weitaus haltbarer werden könnten. Ein Polymergel und mit Mangan(IV)-oxid überzogene Nanodrähte sind dabei die Schlüsselkomponenten. (
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