Month: December 2016

US flight regulators consider whether to allow or bar in-flight Wi-Fi calls

At a minimum, feds may demand carriers give prior notice if Wi-Fi calling is allowed.

(credit: Travis Olbrich)

The Internet-connected world could get even more connected as federal aviation officials are considering rules on whether fliers should, or shouldn't, make Wi-Fi-based calls.

The US Department of Transportation announced Thursday it was seeking public comment on the topic. It is asking the public to ponder whether a rule should demand that airlines, if they offer potential phone service, should provide advance notice to fliers (perhaps at the time of ticket purchase). Regulators also want public input on whether in-flight Wi-Fi calling should be banned outright.

"Consumers deserve to have clear and accurate information about whether an airline permits voice calls before they purchase a ticket and board the aircraft," US Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx said in a statement. "Today's proposal will ensure that air travelers are not unwillingly exposed to voice calls, as many of them are troubled over the idea of passengers talking on cellphones in flight."

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DNS NET: Erste Kunden in Sachsen-Anhalt erhalten 500 MBit/s

Das neue Netz ist fertig und wird geschaltet. Auch die Preise von DNS:NET und Zweckverband Breitband Altmark sind jetzt bekannt. Die Telekom warnt vor solchen Modellen und will Angst verbreiten. (Glasfaser, HDTV)

Das neue Netz ist fertig und wird geschaltet. Auch die Preise von DNS:NET und Zweckverband Breitband Altmark sind jetzt bekannt. Die Telekom warnt vor solchen Modellen und will Angst verbreiten. (Glasfaser, HDTV)

Deals of the Day (12-09-2016)

Deals of the Day (12-09-2016)

Microsoft is offering some seriously cheap tablets today, but those aren’t the only savings you’ll find in the Microsoft Store and Windows Store at the moment.

The company is also running a “free music Friday” promotion, where you can pick up 5 albums for free. Add the items to your account and you can stream them in Microsoft’s Groove Music app… but you can also download the music as DRM-free MP3 files that you can transfer to any device for listening on the go.

Continue reading Deals of the Day (12-09-2016) at Liliputing.

Deals of the Day (12-09-2016)

Microsoft is offering some seriously cheap tablets today, but those aren’t the only savings you’ll find in the Microsoft Store and Windows Store at the moment.

The company is also running a “free music Friday” promotion, where you can pick up 5 albums for free. Add the items to your account and you can stream them in Microsoft’s Groove Music app… but you can also download the music as DRM-free MP3 files that you can transfer to any device for listening on the go.

Continue reading Deals of the Day (12-09-2016) at Liliputing.

Fancy Bear ramping up infowar against Germany—and rest of West

Russian hackers part of broader campaign against West, German intel chief warns.

Enlarge / The bear is back. It never went away.

US intelligence agencies have been forthright in their insistence that the Russian government was behind not only the hacking of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and other political organizations in the US, but a concerted effort to undermine confidence in the results of the US presidential election, including attacks on state election officials' systems. But the US is not the only country that the Russian government has apparently targeted for these sorts of operations—and the methods used in the DNC hack are being applied increasingly in attempts to influence German politics, Germany's chief of domestic intelligence warned yesterday.

In a press release issued on December 8, Germany's Bundesamt für Verfassungsshutz (BfV)—the country's domestic intelligence agency—warned of an ever-mounting wave of disinformation and hacking campaigns by Russia focused on increasing the strength of "extremist groups and parties" in Germany and destabilizing the German government. In addition to propaganda and disinformation campaigns launched through social media, the BfV noted an increased number of "spear phishing attacks against German political parties and parliamentary groups" using the same sort of malware used against the Democratic National Committee in the US.

The statement from the BfV came on the same day that Alex Younger, the chief of the United Kingdom's Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) made more veiled references to disinformation and hacking campaigns. In remarks Younger delivered at Vauxhall Cross, MI6 headquarters, he warned of the mounting risks posed by "hybrid warfare."

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FCC’s Tom Wheeler willing to “step down immediately” to make deal with GOP

Wheeler seeks deal as GOP refuses to reconfirm Democrat Jessica Rosenworcel.

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler testifying before the House Communications and Technology Subcommittee in March 2016. (credit: House Energy and Commerce Committee)

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler is willing to leave his post right away if it helps fellow Democrat Jessica Rosenworcel get reconfirmed by the US Senate.

Senate Republicans have been saying for months that they won't give Rosenworcel another five-year term on the commission unless Wheeler commits to leaving the commission. Since Donald Trump won the presidential election, the commission's 3-2 Democratic majority will inevitably shift to a Republican majority. But just who will be on the FCC when it's controlled by the GOP is not certain.

If Wheeler resigns, the Senate could reconfirm Rosenworcel and still get a 3-2 Republican majority after Trump nominates a new Republican commissioner. Alternatively, Republicans could try to get a majority even sooner by pushing Rosenworcel out and hoping Wheeler leaves anyway.

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After cracks, developers remove Denuvo DRM from their games

Is Denuvo issuing refunds when its protection stops working?

How valuable is a digital rights management (DRM) piracy protection scheme after it has been cracked? The obvious answer is "not at all," an answer that seems to have been confirmed by the removal of Denuvo protection from two popular games, both of which saw that DRM scheme fail earlier this year.

DDOSGaming reports that the 2016 reboot of Doom no longer has Denuvo protection built-in as of an update that went live earlier this week. The move follows a similar pattern to that of Playdead's Inside, which removed Denuvo protection last month. Inside's DRM protection was cracked in August.

Playdead, Bethesda, and Denuvo have yet to respond to a request for comment from Ars Technica on the matter, but there is significant speculation and discussion (including from one purported Denuvo-associated developer on Reddit) that Denuvo's contracts include a refund clause if the protection is cracked within a certain time period. Doom was cracked roughly four months after its release, while Inside was available for only six weeks before its protection was broken.

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Rahmenvertrag: VG Wort will mit Unis neue Zwischenlösung für 2017 finden

Die Proteste und Weigerung der Hochschulen, dem Unirahmenvertrag der VG Wort zuzustimmen, zeigen Wirkung. Die VG Wort will noch in diesem Jahr eine Übergangslösung für 2017 erarbeiten. An der heftig kritisierten Einzelmeldung von Seminartexten will die VG Wort offenbar festhalten. (Studium, Urheberrecht)

Die Proteste und Weigerung der Hochschulen, dem Unirahmenvertrag der VG Wort zuzustimmen, zeigen Wirkung. Die VG Wort will noch in diesem Jahr eine Übergangslösung für 2017 erarbeiten. An der heftig kritisierten Einzelmeldung von Seminartexten will die VG Wort offenbar festhalten. (Studium, Urheberrecht)

PewDiePie claims he will delete his YouTube channel today [Update]

Problems with YouTube’s suggested and recommended lists affect high-traffic channels.

Enlarge (credit: YouTube, PewDiePie)

News rocking the YouTube world this week comes from the most subscribed creator on the platform. PewDiePie, whose real name is Felix Kjellberg, released a video lamenting some of the issues he has had with YouTube recently, saying he would delete his YouTube channel once he reaches 50 million subscribers. Kjellberg passed that milestone this week and tweeted out yesterday that he will delete his channel today at 5pm GMT, or 12pm EST.

Kjellberg's main problem with YouTube, which other top creators including Jacksepticeye and Philip DeFranco have complained about as well, is the apparent change in users' recommended and suggested videos (or how YouTube prioritizes what videos get promoted). He explains in an update video that most YouTubers get half of their views from these two sections. As a viewer, your recommended and suggested videos typically populate with videos from creators you watch regularly, showing you their videos that you may not have watched yet, as well as videos from similar creators. In his video, Kjellberg opens his YouTube analytics to reveal that in October 2016, some of his videos received 60 percent of views by being on suggested lists. However, one month later in November, some of his videos only received 0.07 percent of their views from the same list.

Kjellberg speculates that this is because YouTube is now favoring videos with high click-through rates or videos that grab a viewer's attention and make them click immediately. He also claims this would negatively affect those with strict daily or nearly daily upload schedules, which describes many of the top creators on YouTube, and favor videos with bombastic titles or shocking thumbnails.

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