Month: April 2018

Die Anmeldung über Fido2-Systeme wird bald nativ in Windows Hello unter Windows 10 unterstützt. Das System befindet sich noch in einer Testphase, die mit Wartelisten arbeitet. (Windows Hello, Applikationen)

US-Unternehmen dürfen in den kommenden sieben Jahren keine Waren oder Dienstleistungen mehr an den chinesischen Hersteller ZTE liefern. Das könnte auch Auswirkungen auf die Smartphone-Sparte haben, da das Verbot Chips von Qualcomm und Android betreffen könnte. (ZTE, Wirtschaft)

Mit Hilfe der bereits bekannten KI-Software Fakeapp und Adobe After Effects wurde ein Videoclip erstellt, der den ehemaligen US-Präsidenten Obama beleidigende Sätze sprechen lässt. Die Fälschung ist bereits sehr gelungen, aber nicht ohne Fehler. Das Potenzial solcher Techniken ist schon groß. (Deep Learning, KI)

Das Entwicklerstudio Treyarch wird wohl nicht rechtzeitig fertig: Erstmals dürfte mit Black Ops 4 ein Call of Duty keine Einzelspielerkampagne bieten. Stattdessen sollen mehr Koop-Modi und Battle Royale die Lücke füllen. (Call of Duty, Red Dead Redemption)

Starting yesterday, Russia went to war with free cross-platform messaging app Telegram. Authorities including the FSB wanted access to Telegram’s encryption keys, but the service refused to hand them over.

As a result, the service – which serviced 200,000,000 people in March alone – came under massive attack. Supported by a court ruling obtained last Friday, authorities ordered ISPs to block huge numbers of IP addresses in an effort to shut Telegram down.

Amazon and Google, whose services Telegram uses, were both hit with censorship measures, with around 1.8 million IP addresses belonging to the Internet giants blocked in an initial wave of action. But the government was just getting warmed up.

In an updated posted by Pavel Durov to Twitter from Switzerland late last night, the Telegram founder confirmed that Russia had massively stepped up the fight against his encrypted messaging platform.

Within the last two days, Russia blocked over 15 million IP addresses in attempts to ban Telegram on its territory. Regardless, Telegram remained available for the majority of Russia’s residents #digitalresistance https://t.co/2syVbVzXPg

— Pavel Durov (@durov) April 17, 2018

Of course, 15 million IP addresses is a huge volume, particularly since ‘just’ 14 million of Telegram’s users are located in Russia – that’s more than one IP address for each of them. As a result, there are reports of completed unrelated services being affected by the ban, which is to be expected given its widespread nature. But Russia doesn’t want to stop there.

According to Reuters, local telecoms watchdog Rozcomnadzor asked both Google and Apple [Update: and APKMirror] to remove Telegram from their app stores, to prevent local citizens from gaining access to the software itself. It is unclear whether either company intends to comply but as yet, neither has responded publicly nor taken any noticeable action.

An announcement from Durov last night thanked the companies for not complying with the Russian government’s demands, noting that the efforts so far had proven mostly futile.

“Despite the ban, we haven’t seen a significant drop in user engagement so far, since Russians tend to bypass the ban with VPNs and proxies. We also have been relying on third-party cloud services to remain partly available for our users there,” Durov wrote on Telegram.

“Thank you for your support and loyalty, Russian users of Telegram. Thank you, Apple, Google, Amazon, Microsoft – for not taking part in political censorship.”

Durov noted that Russia accounts for around 7% of Telegram’s userbase, a figure that could be compensated for with organic growth in just a couple of months, even if Telegram lost access to the entire market. However, the action only appears to have lit a fire under the serial entrepreneur, who now has declared a war of his own against censorship.

“To support internet freedoms in Russia and elsewhere I started giving out bitcoin grants to individuals and companies who run socks5 proxies and VPN,” Durov said.

“I am happy to donate millions of dollars this year to this cause, and hope that other people will follow. I called this Digital Resistance – a decentralized movement standing for digital freedoms and progress globally.”

As founder of not only Telegram but also vKontakte, Russia’s answer to Facebook, Durov is a force to be reckoned with. As such, his promises are unlikely to be hollow ones. While Russia has drawn a line in the sand on encryption, it appears to have energized Durov to take a stand, one that could have a positive effect on anti-censorship measures both in Russia and further afield.

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and more. We also have VPN reviews, discounts, offers and coupons.

Das chinesische Unternehmen Mobvoi hat komplett kabellose Bluetooth-Ohrstöpsel vorgestellt. Die Ticpods Free erinnern vom Design her an Apples Airpods. Im Rahmen einer Indiegogo-Kampagne gibt es sie vergünstigt. (Headset, Bluetooth)

Verbraucher verstehen die Texte oft nicht wirklich, in denen Unternehmen erklären, wie ihre Daten verarbeitet werden. Datenschutzexperten und -forscher suchen daher nach praktikablen Lösungen. Ein Bericht von Christiane Schulzki-Haddouti (Facebook, Studie)

Die chinesische Regierung will ausländische Autohersteller künftig nicht mehr verpflichten, inländische Partner zu beteiligen, wenn sie eine Produktionsstätte in China aufbauen. Das kommt Tesla gelegen. (Tesla, Technologie)

Die ehrgeizigen Ziele von Tesla-Chef Elon Musk sollen durch eine massive Ausweitung der Produktionszeiten noch erreicht werden. Das Model 3 soll nun an sieben Tagen der Woche rund um die Uhr gefertigt werden. Ende Juni sollen 6.000 Stück pro Woche gebaut werden. (Tesla Model 3, Technologie)

Volocopter plant den Bau von Voloports für kleine Elektrosenkrechtstarter. Diese innerstädtischen Flughäfen sollen für die Passagierlogistik, die Wartung und den schnellen Austausch sowie die Ladung der Akkus zuständig sein. Dafür wäre ein Umbau der Städte notwendig. (Flugauto, Technologie)