Month: January 2017

Ein Computerchaos wegen der Schaltsekunde in der vergangenen Silvesternacht blieb zwar aus, der CDN-Anbieter Cloudflare berichtet trotzdem von einem kuriosen Fehler: Eines seiner DNS-Systeme zählte für einen Augenblick rückwärts. (Cloudflare, Server-Applikationen)

Less than two years after adding digital comic books to its library of content, Netflix-for-eBooks service Scribd has removed them.

The Digital Reader reports that comics were pulled from the service with little fanfare, and that Scribd confirmed the news in a statement that claims “few actively took advantage of them” anyway.

Scribd continues to offer subscribers access to a variety of eBooks, digital magazines, eBooks and other content.

Continue reading Subscription eBook service Scribd doesn’t include comics anymore at Liliputing.

Sie mussten warten und testen: Die Käufer der neuen Generation der Elektroautos von Tesla bekommen jetzt die ersten Assistenzsysteme. Noch ist der Autopilot nicht vollständig. Dafür soll diese Version später autonomes Fahren ermöglichen. (Tesla Motors, Elektroauto)

Geräte mit der Stimme zu bedienen, ist schon längst keine Vision aus Science-Fiction-Filmen mehr. Vor allem mit smarten Lautsprechern ist die Sprachsteuerung 2016 auch in deutsche Haushalte eingezogen. Aber bis diese Technik das Niveau der Computer aus Weltraumfilmen erreicht, wird es noch dauern. (Echo, Amazon)

Durch E-Mails und Chat-Programme bleiben Beschäftigte der Arbeit mit einer elektronischen Leine verbunden wie ein Hund. Dagegen gibt es nun in Frankreich ein Gesetz. (Studie, E-Mail)

Ein Extra invertiert die Steuerung beim Gegner, mit einem anderen Power-up verwandelt man sich selbst in einen Rhino-Panzer: Ein neuer Modus namens Vehicle Vendetta für GTA 5 Online erinnert mehr als nur dezent an Mario Kart. (GTA 5, Rennspiel)

Kobo statt Telekom: Die Deutsche Telekom will keine digitalen Bücher mehr vertreiben. Der Konzern verkauft seinen Part an der E-Book-Plattform Tolino nach Japan. (Tolino, E-Book)

Christmas 2015 was a somewhat epic time for pirates with a cascade of high-quality screener copies of movies leaking onto the Internet. But while that period went with a bang, 2016 went with a whimper.

Over the recent festive period, not one English language screener copy of a movie appeared online. Considering the banquet in the same period the previous year, that was quite a turnaround. While reasons are almost always tough to pinpoint, it’s likely that Hollywood has toughened up its security.

Nevertheless, it remains impossible to cover every angle, something that became evident during the past few hours when the first screener leak of 2017 hit the Internet. It’s Denzel Washington’s Fences, a film set in the 1950s about a former baseball player turned garbageman.

Fences enjoyed a Christmas Day release in the United States and currently has no ‘street date’ for DVD or Blu-ray. Last night, however, a copy ripped from a screener leaked online and rapidly spread. It was a P2P release, meaning that it was released onto peer-to-peer networks first, rather than a more structured ‘scene’ offering.

Fences screenshot

The quality of the release isn’t pristine like many of the screeners released last year, but downloaders are commenting that while HD would’ve been nice, the copy is perfectly watchable with decent audio. It weighs in at just over 2GB.

Another issue worthy of comment is the presence every now and again of a watermark with identifies this leak as coming from Paramount Studios. The mark states clearly that this is an awards screener so therefore should’ve never been leaked to the public.

The group to gain the most traction early on with the release are known as UnKnOwN. In search of more information, TorrentFreak caught up with Bob UnKnOwN and separately a group spokesman.

However, they both told us that at this time they prefer to remain tight-lipped, stating that they don’t want to brag about the group’s releases or make any additional comment, right now at least. There is some information in the group’s NFO file that leaves some room for excitement, however.

Noting that the source for this release was a person or group known only as “Mr. Miyagi”, UnKnOwN sign off with a tease of “More to come,” indicating that this screener leak probably won’t be the last.

The leak of Fences comes on the heels of an announcement late December by 2015’s most successful screener release group, Hive-CM8. Noting that it didn’t want to release content before it appeared in cinemas, the group hinted that January might be the month to watch.

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

Seit Jahren fordern Spieler, dass Valve bei Counter-Strike grundsätzlich eine Tickrate von 128 Hz verwendet. Nun besteht dank des chinesischen Marktes offenbar Hoffnung, dass alle Nutzer künftig flüssiger kämpfen können. (CS:Go, Server)

Sie hat das Bild des Universums gehörig verändert. Doch der Nobelpreis, den sie für ihre Arbeit verdient hätte, blieb Vera Rubin versagt. Am vorvergangenen Wochenende starb die Forscherin. (Nachruf, Wissenschaft)