Month: October 2017

Dass Infotainment-Systeme nicht unbedingt zur Verkehrssicherheit beitragen, wurde schon häufiger kritisiert. Verkehrsforscher in den USA haben untersucht, wie viel Aufmerksamkeit 30 aktuelle Systeme auf sich ziehen. Die überwiegende Mehrzahl lenkt den Fahrer sehr stark vom Verkehr ab. (Auto, Verkehr)

Pÿur (Tele Columbus) macht seine Internetzugänge unabhängig vom Fernsehanschluss. Zudem sind die Pakete nach drei Monaten monatlich kündbar. (Tele Columbus, Studie)

Clamshell-Notebook und Convertible: HPs Spectre-Notebooks sollen mit Vierkernprozessor für jeden Kunden etwas bieten. Allerdings scheint das Spectre x360 dem Spectre 13 in fast allen Belangen überlegen zu sein. Trotzdem sollen sie gleich viel kosten. (HP, Intel)

Die perfekten Schnappschüsse der eigenen Familie verspricht Google mit Clips. Die mobile Kamera soll das Geschehen zu Hause überwachen und automatisch Fotos aufnehmen, sobald gute Schnappschüsse zu erwarten sind. Dabei setzt Google auf künstliche Intelligenz. (Google, Digitalkamera)

Einen Science-Fiction-Kassenflop von 1982 Jahrzehnte später im Kino fortsetzen - das hat etwa bei Tron nur bedingt funktioniert. Blade Runner 2049 gelingt dies in jeder Hinsicht besser, da er sich im Geiste seines Vorgängers den Konventionen üblicher Hollywood-Blockbuster verweigert. Eine Rezension von Daniel Pook (Filmkritik, Science-Fiction)

While many EU countries have millions of Internet pirates, few have given citizens the freedom to plunder like the Netherlands. For many years, Dutch Internet users actually went about their illegal downloading with government blessing.

Just over three years ago, downloading and copying movies and music for personal use was not punishable by law. Instead, the Dutch compensated rightsholders through a “piracy levy” on writable media, hard drives and electronic devices with storage capacity, including smartphones.

Following a ruling from the European Court of Justice in 2014, however, all that came to an end. Along with uploading (think BitTorrent sharing), downloading was also outlawed.

Around the same time, The Court of The Hague handed down a decision in a long-running case which had previously forced two Dutch ISPs, Ziggo and XS4ALL, to block The Pirate Bay.

Ruling against local anti-piracy outfit BREIN, it was decided that the ISPs wouldn’t have to block The Pirate Bay after all. After a long and tortuous battle, however, the ISPs learned last month that they would have to block the site, pending a decision from the Supreme Court.

On September 22, both ISPs were given 10 business days to prevent subscriber access to the notorious torrent site, or face fines of 2,000 euros per day, up to a maximum of one million euros.

With that time nearly up, yesterday Ziggo broke cover to become the first of the pair to block the site. On a dedicated diversion page, somewhat humorously titled ziggo.nl/yarrr, the ISP explained the situation to now-blocked users.

“You are trying to visit a page of The Pirate Bay. On September 22, the Hague Court obliged us to block access to this site. The pirate flag is thus handled by us. The case is currently at the Supreme Court which judges the basic questions in this case,” the notice reads.

Ziggo Pirate Bay message (translated)

Customers of XS4ALL currently have no problem visiting The Pirate Bay but according to a statement handed to Tweakers by a spokesperson, the blockade will be implemented today.

In addition to the site’s main domains, the injunction will force the ISPs to block 155 URLs and IP addresses in total, a list that has been drawn up by BREIN to include various mirrors, proxies, and alternate access points. XS4All says it will publish a list of all the blocked items on its notification page.

While the re-introduction of a Pirate Bay blockade in the Netherlands is an achievement for BREIN, it’s potentially bad timing for the copyright trolls waiting in the wings to snare Dutch file-sharers.

As recently reported, movie outfit Dutch Filmworks (DFW) is preparing a wave of cash-settlement copyright-trolling letters to mimic those sent by companies elsewhere.

There’s little doubt that users of The Pirate Bay would’ve been DFW’s targets but it seems likely that given the introduction of blockades, many Dutch users will start to educate themselves on the use of VPNs to protect their privacy, or at least become more aware of the risks.

Of course, there will be no real shortage of people who’ll continue to download without protection, but DFW are getting into this game just as it’s likely to get more difficult for them. As more and more sites get blocked (and that is definitely BREIN’s overall plan) the low hanging fruit will sit higher and higher up the tree – and the cash with it.

Like all methods of censorship, site-blocking eventually drives communication underground. While anti-piracy outfits all say blocking is necessary, obfuscation and encryption isn’t welcomed by any of them.

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

Wenn das iPhone 8 vibriert, kann die Induktionsladung per Qi-Ladeschale abbrechen. Auch warme Umgebungen können dazu führen, dass der iPhone-Nutzer am Morgen mit leerem Akku aufwacht. (Induktion, Smartphone)

Those that wish to play pirated games on their PS4 will finally have a way, but chances are, they won't be able to do so.

Release group KOTF (Knights of the Fallen) has just cracked and released several PS4 games with instructions on how to play them. The released games, Grand Theft Auto V, Far Cry 4, and Assassins Creed IV, are all fairly outdated and this is no coincidence.

The main requirement for playing these pirated games, aside from the need to download up to 45,000 MB of game data, will be for a PS4 that still runs the v1.76 firmware. The most current firmware version already runs to v5.00.

The reason for the outdated firmware requirement is simple - only this version of the PS4 firmware has been jailbroken so far. This is also why the cracked games are also so outdated - newer games require newer firmware to work.

The chance that someone is still running firmware version 1.76 is remote, as the PS4 auto-updates the firmware whenever it goes online, and there's no way to downgrade firmware. Only someone that has deliberately jailbroken their PS4 before and kept it jailbroken by not allowing it to connect online, will be able to take advantage of these pirated games.

And even then, users will need to be able to use a suite of tools such as FTP Payload, an ELF loader, Netcat, etc... and follow the complicated instructions to get the game loaded.

For those that can't do any of this, there may be "hope" on the horizon. Rumours suggest that a more recent PS4 firmware, v4.55, may have just been exploited.

[via TorrentFreak]

In den letzten Tagen der großen Koalition düpiert SPD-Justizminister Heiko Maas seine eigene Fraktion und den Koalitionspartner. Die Grünen sind empört über die unterbliebene Auswertung des Leistungsschutzrechts. (Leistungsschutzrecht, Google)

Wenn ein Notebook nicht einmal mehr so weit bootet, dass das Display angeht, dann bleiben nur noch Pieptöne. Unter Android gibt es schon eine Weile die Diagnose-App, welche die Töne einfach dekodieren kann. In absehbarer Zukunft kommt auch eine App für iOS. (Thinkpad, Lenovo)