Arduino on Arduino battle ends in reconciliation, merger

Schism in leading open source hardware project heals with new Arduino Foundation.

A three-year-old schism in the open source hardware project Arduino has been healed.

On Saturday, the two rival groups—Arduino LLC (Arduino.cc) and Arduino Srl (Arduino.org)—announced that they had "settled their differences," and agreed to merge. At present, the similarly-designed sites both carry the official Arduino logo, and both sell official Arduino products.

The electronics platform Arduino describes itself as "the world’s leading open-source ecosystem for educators, Makers and IoT developers of all ages." Its board plans are published under Creative Commons (CC) licences, while its software is released as open source. Ars interviewed one of Arduino's co-founders, Massimo Banzi, back in 2013.

Read 5 remaining paragraphs | Comments

BeatBlock Premium Bluetooth Wireless Speaker – It’s Rugged, Loud, and Portable!

Fancy for a new bluetooth wireless speaker for your office or home? Check out this new BeatBlock speaker! It’s not the coolest kid in town, but BeatBlock pretty loud for the size of it. It’s just about as wide as an iPhone and 1.5x longer. You can easily carry it around and each full charge […]

Fancy for a new bluetooth wireless speaker for your office or home? Check out this new BeatBlock speaker! It’s not the coolest kid in town, but BeatBlock pretty loud for the size of it. It’s just about as wide as an iPhone and 1.5x longer. You can easily carry it around and each full charge […]

Samsung is selling Galaxy Note 7 phones again

Samsung is selling Galaxy Note 7 phones again

Samsung has begun selling the Galaxy Note 7 smartphone again, following a recall affecting 2.5 million units, some of which may have had a flaw that could cause them to overheat and catch fire.

The company has already identified the probable source of the problem and had begun replacing phones sent in by customers for exchange. Now Samsung is starting to sell new Galaxy Note 7 phones in stores again.

Samsung says sales resumed in South Korea on October 1st, and the Galaxy Note 7 will be available again in other countries around the world “in the coming weeks.”

Prior to the reports that some phones were catching fire, the Galaxy Note 7 was getting pretty good reviews.

Continue reading Samsung is selling Galaxy Note 7 phones again at Liliputing.

Samsung is selling Galaxy Note 7 phones again

Samsung has begun selling the Galaxy Note 7 smartphone again, following a recall affecting 2.5 million units, some of which may have had a flaw that could cause them to overheat and catch fire.

The company has already identified the probable source of the problem and had begun replacing phones sent in by customers for exchange. Now Samsung is starting to sell new Galaxy Note 7 phones in stores again.

Samsung says sales resumed in South Korea on October 1st, and the Galaxy Note 7 will be available again in other countries around the world “in the coming weeks.”

Prior to the reports that some phones were catching fire, the Galaxy Note 7 was getting pretty good reviews.

Continue reading Samsung is selling Galaxy Note 7 phones again at Liliputing.

NES Classic Mini: Nintendo zeigt Darstellungsoptionen und 60-Hz-Modus

Das Nintendo Classic Mini ist noch rund einen Monat vom Verkaufsstart entfernt. In einem neuen Video zeigt das japanische Unternehmen die Funktionen der Mini-Konsole. Vor allem der Pixel-Perfect-Modus dürfte alte Fans des Nintendo Entertainment Systems (NES) interessieren. (Nintendo, Games)

Das Nintendo Classic Mini ist noch rund einen Monat vom Verkaufsstart entfernt. In einem neuen Video zeigt das japanische Unternehmen die Funktionen der Mini-Konsole. Vor allem der Pixel-Perfect-Modus dürfte alte Fans des Nintendo Entertainment Systems (NES) interessieren. (Nintendo, Games)

XS708Ev2 and XS716E: Netgears neue 10-Gigabit-Ethernet-Switches ab 700 Euro

Netgear hat mit dem XS708Ev2 einen weiteren 8-Port-10GbE-Switch auf den Markt gebracht. Dem Unternehmen gelang es, die Leistungsaufnahme und den Preis zu reduzieren. Doch dafür ist das neue 10GbE-Modell lauter geworden. (Netgear, Netzwerk)

Netgear hat mit dem XS708Ev2 einen weiteren 8-Port-10GbE-Switch auf den Markt gebracht. Dem Unternehmen gelang es, die Leistungsaufnahme und den Preis zu reduzieren. Doch dafür ist das neue 10GbE-Modell lauter geworden. (Netgear, Netzwerk)

Microsoft Bing Debuts New DMCA Notice Dashboard

Microsoft’s Bing has just debuted a new system which allows any copyright holder to submit and monitor the status of their DMCA complaints to the search engine. At the center of the tool is a brand new dashboard, available to anyone with a Microsoft account.

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

bing-logo1There appears to be no end in sight to the apparently monumental job of removing infringing content from the Internet. If both pirates and copyright holders are to be believed, the task is pointless, since removed content quickly reappears after takedown.

Still, that doesn’t stop people trying. As reported over the weekend, Google is currently processing a record-breaking 24 million links to “pirate” pages per week, more than double the amount it received around the same time last year.

A large proportion of these links are submitted in bulk by major entertainment industry groups who have access to special tools provided by Google. Smaller operations still get access to takedowns, but some have a more laborious process to follow.

But for those wanting to have content removed from the Bing search engine, Microsoft is now providing a new system that can be utilized by copyright holders both big and small.

“Lack of communication is a leading cause of divorce. Communication is vital, and sharing the status of a copyright infringement notice is no exception. Which is why Bing just made this easier,” the company announced.

“A new online dashboard provides insight into the status of a copyright removal request, as well as providing overall historical submission statistics. This dashboard is now available for users who submit DMCA notices via our online form or API.”

bing1

In a sign that even the most humble of Internet users may today find their work being infringed online, Bing’s DMCA monitoring dashboard is not restricted to large entertainment industry groups. Anyone with access to a basic Microsoft email account can gain access, after filing a complaint with the company.

That can be done in several ways – email, an online form, or via an API (trusted bulk submitters only).

“Email is the least efficient and prone to error such as missing or incomplete information. When submitters leverage the online form or the API, they decrease the chance of rejection due to incomplete or incorrect information,” Bing Program Manager Chad Foster explains.

bing2

Once submitted, complaints are given a unique reference number which then appears in the dashboard alongside other submissions and historical statistics.

“The dashboard’s top table shows submission statistics for all notices received by a Copyright Owner or their authorized agent. A submission is accepted if it contains all of the information required by the DMCA,” Bing says.

While correctly formatted notices are accepted, Bing says that it doesn’t necessarily follow that all URLs are automatically removed. The search provider offers no further detail but it’s likely the company assesses takedown requests in a similar manner to Google.

bing3

“Bing wants to ensure that copyright owners send valid DMCA notices and that those notices are acted upon promptly. The online form and API help accomplish this. Having insight into the status of these notices helps copyright owners stay better informed and, in turn, promotes the use of such tools to help Bing respond in an expeditious manner,” Bing concludes.

While Bing is making it easier for anyone to submit and monitor DMCA complaints to its search feature, the company is still way behind when it comes to offering the kind of transparency Google provides.

Bing’s Transparency Report is a pretty basic affair that simply details the number of requests and URLs processed, those accepted, those rejected, and a final percentage.

bing-stats

Overall, Bing rejects less than 0.6% of takedown requests, which is less than the 2.2% currently rejected by Google. That being said, Google processes significantly more requests from a much broader range of copyright holders.

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

Top 10 Most Pirated Movies of The Week – 10/02/16

The top 10 most downloaded movies on BitTorrent are in again. ‘Mechanic: ResurrectionGhostbusters’ tops the chart this week, followed by ‘Captain America: Civil War’. ‘I.T.’ completes the top three.

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

mechanicThis week we have five newcomers in our chart.

Mechanic: Resurrection is the most downloaded movie.

The data for our weekly download chart is estimated by TorrentFreak, and is for informational and educational reference only. All the movies in the list are Web-DL/Webrip/HDRip/BDrip/DVDrip unless stated otherwise.

RSS feed for the weekly movie download chart.

Ranking (last week) Movie IMDb Rating / Trailer
torrentfreak.com
1 (…) Mechanic: Resurrection 5.8 / trailer
2 (…) Star Trek Beyond 7.4 / trailer
3 (1) Ghostbusters 5.5 / trailer
4 (2) Captain America: Civil War 8.1 / trailer
5 (…) The Infiltrator 7.2 / trailer
6 (3) I.T. 5.4 / trailer
7 (…) Ice Age: Collision Course 5.7 / trailer
8 (4) X-Men: Apocalypse 7.8 / trailer
9 (…) The Magnificent Seven (HD-TS) 7.2 / trailer
10 (6) The Legend of Tarzan 6.4 / trailer

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

More Google Pixel and Pixel XL details leak (photos too)

More Google Pixel and Pixel XL details leak (photos too)

Google is expected to unveil two new smartphones (and a bunch of other things) at an event on October 4th. But thanks to a series of leaks in recent months, there’s not much mystery left.

Now there’s even less.

A series of listings on telecom and retail websites paint a pretty clear picture of what to expect from the new Google Pixel and Pixel XL smartphones.

First, Bell Canada published some of the clearest pictures to date of the 5 inch Pixel and 5.5 inch Pixel CL smartphones.

Continue reading More Google Pixel and Pixel XL details leak (photos too) at Liliputing.

More Google Pixel and Pixel XL details leak (photos too)

Google is expected to unveil two new smartphones (and a bunch of other things) at an event on October 4th. But thanks to a series of leaks in recent months, there’s not much mystery left.

Now there’s even less.

A series of listings on telecom and retail websites paint a pretty clear picture of what to expect from the new Google Pixel and Pixel XL smartphones.

First, Bell Canada published some of the clearest pictures to date of the 5 inch Pixel and 5.5 inch Pixel CL smartphones.

Continue reading More Google Pixel and Pixel XL details leak (photos too) at Liliputing.

Brace yourselves—source code powering potent IoT DDoSes just went public

Release could allow smaller and more disciplined Mirai botnet to go mainstream.

Enlarge (credit: Michael Theis)

A hacker has released computer source code that allows relatively unsophisticated people to wage the kinds of extraordinarily large assaults that recently knocked security news site KrebsOnSecurity offline and set new records for so-called distributed denial-of-service attacks.

KrebsOnSecurity's Brian Krebs reported on Saturday that the source code for "Mirai," a network of Internet-connected cameras and other "Internet of things" devices, was published on Friday. Dale Drew, the chief security officer at Internet backbone provider Level 3 Communications, told Ars that Mirai is one of two competing IoT botnet families that have recently menaced the Internet with record-breaking distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks—including the one that targeted Krebs with 620 gigabits per second of network traffic, and another that hit French webhost OVH and reportedly peaked at more than 1 terabit per second

Until now, the botnets created with the newer and technically more sophisticated Mirai have been greatly outnumbered by those based on its rival Bashlight, with about 233,000 infected devices versus 963,000 respectively. Friday's release could allow the smaller and more disciplined Mirai, which Russian antivirus provider Dr. Web briefly profiled last week, to go mainstream—and, in the process, infect hundreds of millions more devices, escalatong the compromise of cameras and other Internet-connected devices into a full-blown epidemic that could push record DDoSes to ever-higher volumes. In an e-mail to Ars, Drew wrote:

Read 7 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Westworld is the most promising new science fiction series of the season

Existential threats to humanity intermingle with gamer action and a creepy mystery

Enlarge / Ed Harris is the Man in Black, a gamer who has discovered a hidden game within the immersive game of the wild west theme park Westworld.

Westworld is unlike anything you’ve seen before on television, and I don’t mean that in the sense of visual effects. The series takes two familiar sci-fi tropes—out-of-control robots and immersive gameworlds gone wrong—and builds a complex, plausible futuristic scenario around them. As a result, we get a rich, disturbing, intense story about how the evolution of storytelling is bound up with the birth of artificial life.

The new HBO series, debuting Oct. 2, is about an enormous wild west amusement park populated by robots indistinguishable from real people. Human "guests" can do whatever they want with the robot "hosts." Though it's not clear how far in the future the series is set, we do know that the park has been in operation for at least 30 years, during which time the robots have evolved from simple machines with small repertoires of phrases, into fully-interactive creatures who can learn, adapt, and even dream. Westworld, which looks like Monument Valley, is so big that even experienced players have never found its edges. The park's creator, Ford (Anthony Hopkins), is a roboticist with a serious Messiah complex who has secret plans for the park. Ford works closely with lead programmer Bernard (Jeffrey Wright), who also seems to have some off-the-books plans for the robots--he's been secretly analyzing the code running beautiful, kindly robot Dolores (Evan Rachel Wood) during creepy late-night hacking sessions.

As the series opens, Ford has just released a software update that nobody realized was coming. The update is called "reverie," and it gives the robots new set of gestures that make them appear to be staring off into space and dreaming. Thought it adds to the robots' realism, it also has some unexplained side-effects that cause the robots to crash. So Bernard and his team, along with an ops crew led by Theresa (Sidse Babett Knudsen) and security chief Ashley (Luke Hemsworth), have to come in and clean up the mess. Of course it's not going to be easy, because Ford's update was a lot more than it seems. And it appears to be spreading like an intellectual virus from robot to robot.

Read 6 remaining paragraphs | Comments