September 2017 – Page 25 – news.buyenne.com

You can now ask Alexa to control tunes in Amazon Music’s mobile app

Providing hands-free controls for Amazon’s music service on a bunch of devices.

Amazon announced today that its virtual assistant Alexa has a new home in the Amazon Music app. Now, users of the Android and iOS Amazon Music apps in the US, UK, Germany, and Austria can ask Alexa to play songs using voice commands. There's no word yet on when the feature will roll out to users in other locations.

Previously, you could only search for songs by using the search field in the Amazon Music app. Much like other devices and apps with Alexa integration, Amazon Music now supports voice commands that Alexa recognizes. You can ask the virtual assistant to play a specific song from an artist you love, but you can also be more vague with your requests. According to Amazon's press release, you can ask Alexa to play music based on genre, decade, mood, tempo, activity, and lyrics. For example, before a long drive, you can ask Alexa to "play music for a road trip;" or, before a workout, you can ask Alexa to "play pop music for lifting weights."

Amazon has pushed Alexa into many of its devices and services. The voice assistant started life in the company's Echo speakers and quickly expanded with third-party companies developing Skills for Alexa and integrating it into their own products. Recently, Amazon brought Alexa to its iOS shopping app, giving iDevice users the option to ask Alexa for things rather than Siri.

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After huge Equifax breach, CEO “retires”

Board is “deeply concerned about and totally focused on the cybersecurity incident.”

In the wake of a stunning security breach that has sent shock waves throughout the financial world, Equifax’s CEO, Richard Smith, has stepped down from his post.

According to a Tuesday press release, Smith’s “retirement” is effective today. The company’s board of directors have already appointed Mark Feidler, a board member, to serve as non-executive chairman. Equifax officials also named Paulino do Rego Barros, Jr., who has been president of the Asia Pacific division of the company, to step in as interim CEO.

"The Board remains deeply concerned about and totally focused on the cybersecurity incident,” Feidler said in the statement. “We are working intensely to support consumers and make the necessary changes to minimize the risk that something like this happens again. Speaking for everyone on the Board, I sincerely apologize.”

The move comes weeks after two top Equifax executives also removed themselves from their posts.

Equifax’ notorious breach was accomplished by exploiting a Web application vulnerability that was discovered by researchers in March, but it was not patched by Equifax until May.

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Cryptocurrency Miner Targeted by Anti-Virus and Adblock Tools

This month, The Pirate Bay successfully propelled the idea of a Javascript-based cryptocurrency miner to a mainstream public. While many sites are now experimenting with the new revenue model, possible abuse has also drawn the attention of ad-blockers and anti-virus tools. Coinhive, the company behind the miner, hopes that it can reverse this trend.

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

Earlier this month The Pirate Bay caused some uproar by adding a Javascript-based cryptocurrency miner to its website.

The miner utilizes CPU power from visitors to generate Monero coins for the site, providing an extra revenue source.

While Pirate Bay only tested the option briefly, it inspired many others to follow suit. Streaming related sites such as Alluc, Vidoza, and Rapidvideo jumped on board, and torrent site Demonoid also ran some tests.

During the weekend, Coinhive’s miner code even appeared on the official website of Showtime. The code was quickly removed and it’s still unclear how it got there, as the company refuses to comment. It’s clear, though, that miners are a hot topic thanks to The Pirate Bay.

The revenue potential is also real. TorrentFreak spoke to Vidoza who say that with 30,000 online users throughout the day (2M unique visitors), they can make between $500 and $600. That’s when the miner is throttled at 50%. Although ads can bring in more, it’s not insignificant.

That said, all the uproar about cryptocurrency miners and their possible abuse has also attracted the attention of ad-blockers. Some people have coded new browser add-ons to block miners specifically and the popular uBlock Origin added Coinhive to its default blocklist as well. And that’s just after a few days.

Needless to say, this limits the number of miners, and thus the money that comes in. And there’s another problem with a similar effect.

In addition to ad-blockers, anti-virus tools are also flagging Coinhive. Malwarebytes is one of the companies that lists it as a malicious activity, warning users about the threat.

The anti-virus angle is one of the issues that worries Demonoid’s operator. The site is used to ad-blockers, but getting flagged by anti-virus companies is of a different order.

“The problem I see there and the reason we will likely discontinue [use of the miner] is that some anti-virus programs block it, and that might get the site on their blacklists,” Deimos informs TorrentFreak.

Demonoid’s miner announcement

Vidoza operator Eugene sees all the blocking as an unwelcome development and hopes that Coinhive will tackle it. Coinhive may want to come out in public and start to discuss the issue with ad-blockers and anti-virus companies, he says.

“They should find out under what conditions all these guys will stop blocking the script,” he notes.

The other option would be to circumvent the blocking through proxies and circumvention tools, but that might not be the best choice in the long run.

Coinhive, meanwhile, has chimed in as well. The company says that it wasn’t properly prepared for the massive attention and understands why some ad-blockers have put them on the blacklist.

“Providing a real alternative to ads and users who block them turned out to be a much harder problem. Coinhive, too, is now blocked by many ad-block browser extensions, which – we have to admit – is reasonable at this point.”

Most complaints have been targeted at sites that implemented the miner without the user’s consent. Coinhive doesn’t like this either and will take steps to prevent it in future.

“We’re a bit saddened to see that some of our customers integrate Coinhive into their pages without disclosing to their users what’s going on, let alone asking for their permission,” the Coinhive team notes.

The crypto miner provider is working on a new implementation that requires explicit consent from website visitors in order to run. This should deal with most of the negative responses.

If users start mining voluntarily, then ad-blockers and anti-virus companies should no longer have a reason to block the script. Nor will it be easy for malware peddlers to abuse it.

To be continued.

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

Gemeinde Egelsbach: Telekom-Glasfaser in Gewerbegebiet findet schnell Kunden

Die Telekom hat keine Probleme, ihre neuen FTTH-Zugänge für Unternehmen zu verkaufen. In kürzester Zeit haben in Egelsbach 30 Prozent unterschrieben. (Glasfaser, Telekom)

TENAA reveals iPhone X battery, RAM specs

Apple likes to talk about some of the specs in its phones and tablets: the iPhone 8, 8 Plus, and X all have a brand new A11 Bionic processor which is widely regarded as the most powerful smartphone chip on the market to date. But when it comes to other specs, Apple usually skips them […]

TENAA reveals iPhone X battery, RAM specs is a post from: Liliputing

Microsoft: Programme für Quantencomputer in Visual Studio entwickeln

Eins, null oder beides gleichzeitig? Microsoft entwickelt eine Quantenprogrammiersprache samt Testsimulator für Visual Studio. Außerdem zeigt das Unternehmen einen eigenen Quantencomputer. (Ignite 2017, Microsoft)

Arbeitsspeicher: DDR5 nutzt Spannungsversorgung auf dem Modul

Beim kommenden DDR5-Standard für Arbeitsspeicher soll durch einen integrierten PMIC die Effizienz steigen und die Spannung sinken. Das ist wichtig für Server, da dort die Leistungsaufnahme der DIMMs einen großen Kostenfaktor darstellt. (DDR5, Server)

Amazon Music apps for Android and iOS gain Alexa voice assistant

Amazon really wants you to use its Alexa voice assistant. The service, which first debuted on the Amazon Echo speaker in 2014 is now available on Amazon tablets, TV boxes, and third-party hardware and the company also offers Alexa apps for Android and iOS. Now Amazon has also added Alexa to its Amazon Music app […]

Amazon Music apps for Android and iOS gain Alexa voice assistant is a post from: Liliputing

Video-Pass: Auch Vodafone führt Zero-Rating-Angebot ein

Auf Stream On der Telekom folgt nun der Vodafone-Pass. Die Auswahl beim Zero-Rating ist hier nach Video-Pass, Music-Pass, Social-Pass und Chat-Pass geordnet. (Vodafone, Rechtsstreitigkeiten)

Everything you need to know about the Super NES Classic Edition

22 lesser-known facts and observations from a weekend wallowing in nostalgia.

Doing a full review of a piece of hardware like the Super NES Classic Edition is kind of an odd concept. The $80 system itself is really just a vessel to transmit a handful of well-remembered classic games from Nintendo's glorious 16-bit console past. To do that job adequately, all the system has to do is produce a more-or-less accurate emulation of the decades-old Super NES hardware (it does) with graphics that look properly scaled on an HDTV (they are) and two included controllers that have a responsive and authentic feel (they do).

Beyond that, any review of the Super NES Classic is just re-evaluating a bunch of decades-old games to see if they stand the test of time (and the newly released Star Fox 2, which we'll review in more detail later in the week). And while we'd love to see a few more obscure cult classics on the list of included titles (Zombies Ate My Neighbors, Legend of the Mystical Ninja, Tetris Attack, Ogre Battle, etc. etc.), it's hard to find fault with the selection of 20 varied and well-remembered games Nintendo has put together here.

Rather than belabor those basic and unremarkable points, we've put together the following selection of lesser-known facts and observations about the system gleaned from a weekend of nostalgic play. Consider this our attempt to provide you with everything you need to know (and some things you probably don't) about the Super NES Classic Edition before you go out hunting for the hardware that goes on sale this weekend.

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