Dealmaster: Get a Dell laptop with a six-core Core i7 and GTX 1060 for $880

Plus deals on mechanical keyboards, SSDs, Sonos speakers, and more.

Greetings, Arsians! Courtesy of our friends at TechBargains, we have another round of deals to share. Today's list is led by a deal on Dell's 15-inch G7 gaming laptop with a Core i7-8750H, 1080p IPS display, 256GB SSD, and GTX 1060 graphics card for $880. That's $200 off its usual going rate.

Note that this is the Max-Q version of Nvidia's GTX 1060, so it trades a pinch of raw performance from the standard GTX 1060 for somewhat cooler operation. The GTX 1060 isn't Nvidia's strongest GPU to begin with, either. And since this is a budget gaming laptop, it doesn't feel premium; Dell has put a good amount of plastic on the chassis to keep costs down.

That said, the GTX 1060 Max-Q can still play most modern games in 1080p. It also supports VR. Having one of Intel's new six-core Core i7 processors alongside that GPU should bring plenty of power for a sub-$900 laptop. Beyond the raw specs, the G7 has a backlit keyboard, a Thunderbolt 3 port, three USB 3.1 Gen-1 ports, an HDMI 2.0 port, and an Ethernet jack.

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Air Force “light attack” test aircraft crashes on bomb range, killing pilot

Second pilot ejected and survived, and the crash is under investigation.

Enlarge / An Embraer A-29 Super Tucano similar to the one that crashed. (credit: Embraer / US Air Force)

On June 22, an A-29 Super Tucano participating in the US Air Force's Light Attack Experiment (OA-X) program crashed while flying over the Red Rio Bombing Range—part of the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. US Navy Lt. Christopher Carey Short, from Canandaigua, New York, died in the crash. Another pilot ejected and suffered only minor injuries.

The Super Tucano, a joint entry into the OA-X program by Brazil's Embraer and Sierra Nevada Corporation, is one of two aircraft designs being tested as part of the second phase of OA-X by pilots attached to the Air Force's 49th Wing at Holloman Air Force Base. The goal of the testing is to determine whether the aircraft matches the Air Force's needs for flying close air support and reconnaissance missions for combat and counterinsurgency in "uncontested environments" (that is, operational areas where the enemy lacks air defenses). Such a niche is currently occupied by the A-10 and other more advanced aircraft.

Test flights

The flight over the Red Rio range was one of multiple scenario test missions, including close air support, combat search and rescue, and "armed overwatch" (combat reconnaissance). Both the A-29 and the other aircraft being flown in the OA-X tests—the Textron Beechcraft AT-6 Wolverine—are turboprop aircraft based on similar versions of Pratt & Whitney's PT6A-68 engine.

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Charter’s gigabit cable with no data caps is ready for 27 million homes

Charter’s top speed starts at $105 and is coming to its whole territory in 2018.

Enlarge / Charter's Spectrum Internet Gig rolled out to these new locations in June 2018. (credit: Charter)

Charter's gigabit Internet service launched to another 4 million homes this month, and now more than 27 million homes in Charter's territory can get the ISP's fastest offering. Charter is aiming to make the "Spectrum Internet Gig" service—with actual download speeds of up to 940Mbps—available to nearly all of the homes in its cable footprint by the end of this year.

The current 27 million home deployment is "more than halfway to our goal of making gigabit connections available to virtually our entire 41-state footprint," Charter, the second largest US cable company after Comcast, said in an announcement last week. "By Labor Day, we'll be rolling out to even more cities to get closer to that year-end goal."

Charter's cable network extends to about 50 million homes and businesses across the US. Prices for the gigabit service have ranged from $105 to $125 a month; DSLReports notes that the cost for consumers "var[ies] slightly depending on local competition."

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Belkin launches USB-C keyboards for Chrome OS tablets

Over the past few years we’ve seen a few convertible Chromebooks with 360-degree hinges and touchscreen displays that let you use the notebooks in tablet mode. But 2018 is the year we’re starting to see the first true Chrome OS tablets. The…

Over the past few years we’ve seen a few convertible Chromebooks with 360-degree hinges and touchscreen displays that let you use the notebooks in tablet mode. But 2018 is the year we’re starting to see the first true Chrome OS tablets. The $600 HP Chromebook x2 is a 2-in-1 tablet with a detachable keyboard. And […]

The post Belkin launches USB-C keyboards for Chrome OS tablets appeared first on Liliputing.

Roku Claims Success in ‘War’ Against Piracy

After Mexican courts put a ban on Roku sales in the country, the popular media player ramped up its anti-piracy efforts. According to new data released by Roku today, this response has paid off. Globally, approximately 99.5% of all “streaming hours” come from channels with no links to ‘pirate organizations.’

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

In recent years it has become much easier to stream movies, TV-shows and other media over the Internet.

Legal services such as Netflix and HBO are flourishing, but there’s also a darker side to this streaming epidemic.

Millions of people are streaming from unauthorized sources, often paired with perfectly legal streaming platforms and devices. This issue has become particularly problematic for Roku, which sells easy-to-use media players.

The company’s media players were banned from sale in Mexico last year, where the company has over a million users.

This ruling turned piracy into one of the company’s main priorities and it didn’t take for Roku to take action. It soon started building its in-house anti-piracy team and several pirate channels were banned from the platform, replaced by FBI warnings.

Today, roughly a year after Roku’s piracy woes hit the mainstream news, the company has released fresh details that show how effective its anti-piracy measures have been.

According to data collected directly from Roku’s platform this month, approximately 99.5% of all “streaming hours” come from channels with no links to ‘pirate organizations.’

In other words, the vast majority of the time spent streaming content on Roku is not related to piracy.

In Mexico, approximately 92% of streaming hours come from ‘legitimate’ channels, but Roku is confident that this number will align with the global average as time progresses.

While the new data show that piracy is relatively minimal, Roku doesn’t explain how this compares to a year ago. The company suggests, however, that there is a clear downward trend.

Previously, figures published by a Mexican market research firm estimated that forty percent of all Roku owners in the country use the device to access pirated content. However, that report didn’t look at the time spent viewing various channels.

The positive progress was achieved through a combination of enforcement efforts, Roku says.

The company says it tracked down more than 400 pirate organizations and removed all associated channels, for example. In addition, Roku also took action against thousands of social media pages that were used to promote allegedly infringing Roku channels.

These efforts have not been without controversy. They caused some backlash when legitimate YouTube and Netflix channels were accidentally replaced by FBI warnings, and recent bans of M3U playlist players are also called into question.

Roku, however, is not planning to ease up. Developers will now have to get certified before they can publish any channels and the company says it’s using automated technology to detect potential infringing content.

“Piracy hurts our business and the industry. We continue to devote considerable resources to fighting piracy by continuously improving our software, tools and detection methods to remove pirates from our platform,” Gary Ellison, Roku’s VP of trust engineering says.

“The data we are releasing today shows the effectiveness of our anti-piracy efforts. It is a top priority to ensure that our platform is closed for pirates and good for consumers.”

The data focuses on Mexico for a reason. Over the past several months, Roku has discussed its piracy efforts with Mexican government bodies and trade organizations and hopes its progress will eventually mean devices being welcomed back to local stores.

“Mexico can benefit greatly from legitimate TV streaming and should not let piracy stand in its way,” Matthew Anderson, Roku’s chief marketing officer says, commenting on the data.

“It’s time for all major leaders in the TV industry to work together to end piracy while giving consumers the wide choice of TV content they deserve,” he adds.

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

5G: Bundesländer fordern die Schließung aller Funklöcher

Mehrere Bundesländer haben genug von Funklöchern und fordern beim Mobilfunkgipfel im Juli beim Bundesverkehrsministerium mehr als bloße Ankündigungen. Gerade 5G ist für sie ein Hoffnungsträger. (5G, Bundesnetzagentur)

Mehrere Bundesländer haben genug von Funklöchern und fordern beim Mobilfunkgipfel im Juli beim Bundesverkehrsministerium mehr als bloße Ankündigungen. Gerade 5G ist für sie ein Hoffnungsträger. (5G, Bundesnetzagentur)

Gemini PDA now officially supports Sailfish OS

The Gemini PDA handheld computer ships with Google Android software, but the folks at Planet Computer have been describing it as a system capable of running Debian and other GNU/Linux distributions since day one. Earlier this year the team announced it…

The Gemini PDA handheld computer ships with Google Android software, but the folks at Planet Computer have been describing it as a system capable of running Debian and other GNU/Linux distributions since day one. Earlier this year the team announced it was working with Finnish company Jolla to port the Sailfish operating system to run […]

The post Gemini PDA now officially supports Sailfish OS appeared first on Liliputing.

Lumines Remastered turns the Nintendo Switch into a full-body vibration party

Review: Rhythm-puzzle classic is largely familiar, save for one tangible update.

Enlarge (credit: Enhance Games)

When the rhythm-puzzle game Lumines launched alongside the PSP in 2004, it maxed out that portable system's two coolest features: a big, bold screen and room for tons of high-fidelity techno songs on a UMD. Lumines' striking aesthetic was largely thanks to the PSP difference, it seemed to declare, and it heartily one-upped anything on the similarly new Nintendo DS.

The EDM-loaded series has since appeared on pretty much every system imaginable, but this week's Lumines Remastered is the first since the PSP original to cash in on new, unique hardware in dramatic fashion. The series' return on current-gen consoles and PCs may seem unremarkable to some players, but a certain kind of Nintendo Switch owner is poised to get the most out of it.

More specifically, we're talking about a weird kind of Switch owner—with spare Joy-Cons lying around and an outfit with tight-fitting pockets. Behold: gaming's trippiest "rave" experience yet.

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Kingdom Come Deliverance: Hardcoremodus und Herrscher-Erweiterung

Ab sofort ist der Hardcoremodus für Kingdom Come Deliverance erhältlich, mit dem das Mittelalter-Rollenspiel noch etwas realitätsnäher und vor allem schwieriger wird. Außerdem zeigt ein Trailer Szenen aus der ersten Erweiterung From the Ashes. (Kingdom…

Ab sofort ist der Hardcoremodus für Kingdom Come Deliverance erhältlich, mit dem das Mittelalter-Rollenspiel noch etwas realitätsnäher und vor allem schwieriger wird. Außerdem zeigt ein Trailer Szenen aus der ersten Erweiterung From the Ashes. (Kingdom Come Deliverance, Rollenspiel)

Judge deals blow to women suing Microsoft over gender discrimination

Women suing Microsoft will have less bargaining power without class status.

Enlarge / Brad Smith, Microsoft's top lawyer (left), seen here speaking with CEO Satya Nadella on November 30, 2016. (credit: Jason Redmond / Getty Images News)

A federal judge has dealt a blow to women who have accused Microsoft of systematic discrimination against female employees, refusing to certify their class-action lawsuit against the company. The three named plaintiffs in the lawsuit will be able to proceed with their case. But they won't be proceeding as representatives of the broader group of women who—according to the lawsuit—have suffered from unequal pay and degrading treatment in the workplace.

In a class certification motion unsealed in March, three Microsoft employees—Katherine Moussouris, Holly Muenchow, and Dana Piermarini—laid out their evidence that Microsoft's corporate culture is systematically hostile to female employees.

An expert for the women found that after controlling for factors like employees' age, tenure with the company, and scores on performance reviews, women were paid less than men by a statistically significant amount. In total, the plaintiffs estimated that Microsoft had been underpaying women in the proposed class by between $100 million and $238 million.

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