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More emulated titles will receive “special save data” in the future.
Subscribers to Nintendo's paid Switch Online service got an unexpected surprise today. Alongside the expected released of three new downloadable emulated Nintendo Entertainment System titles—NES Open Tournament Golf, Solomon’s Key, and Super Dodge Ball—Nintendo also offered a version of the original Legend of Zelda that lets players start with a bevy of powerful items.
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Smartphone accessory maker Moshi has released a new device that lets you charge your phone while simultaneously listening to music with wired headphones or speakers. That’s a problem that didn’t exist until recently, but thanks to the growi…
Smartphone accessory maker Moshi has released a new device that lets you charge your phone while simultaneously listening to music with wired headphones or speakers. That’s a problem that didn’t exist until recently, but thanks to the growing trend of smartphone makers shipping phones that lack 3.5mm headphone jacks, the $40 Moshi USB-C Digital Audio […]
The post Moshi’s new $40 adapter gives you back a headphone jack (and lets you charge your phone) appeared first on Liliputing.
Google built a platform for smart displays and then didn’t use it in the Home Hub.
Ron Amadeo
On Tuesday, Google announced the Google Home Hub, the first smart display hardware made by Google. While the Home Hub is the first hardware from Google, it's something like the fourth Google smart display to be announced—third-party OEMs actually launched the Google smart display platform earlier this year. On the surface, the Home Hub seems identical to these third-party devices; under the hood, though, they couldn't be more different.
First, let's talk about what the third-party smart displays run. When Google created its smart display software, it also came up with a turnkey solution for OEMs. So far, we've seen Lenovo, LG, and Samsung's JBL all produce devices on the same basic platform. Just like with smartphones, these devices are all an extension of the Android/Qualcomm partnership—they run Android Things on Qualcomm's SD624 Home Hub Platform. Android Things is Google's stripped-down version of Android that is purpose-built for IoT products, and the third-party smart displays are the first commercial devices to run the OS.
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The Internet Archive has a new software collection that includes thousands of games and programs designed for the Commodore 64 computers. And they’re playable in a web browser. Sort of. According to Jason Scott, all of the programs uploaded have …
The Internet Archive has a new software collection that includes thousands of games and programs designed for the Commodore 64 computers. And they’re playable in a web browser. Sort of. According to Jason Scott, all of the programs uploaded have been “tested for at least booting properly,” but you may find some that don’t actually […]
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A new cryptocurrency startup that popped up recently aims to offer an indestructible alternative to torrent sites. With Quality Magnet Coin (QMC) the platform’s users all share the torrent database, with help from the blockchain. Add in some incentives for quality contributors, as well as spam control, and Hollywood may have a scary problem on its hands.
Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and more. We also have VPN reviews, discounts, offers and coupons.
There’s no shortage of blockchain related file-sharing projects. We have covered quite a few in recent years, ideally those with an actual working product.
While most offer novel solutions for marginal problems, a new project that recently crossed our path stood out.
The goal of Quality Magnet Coin, QMC for short, is to build a large torrent magnet index that’s impossible to take offline, censor, or block.
The core idea is fairly straightforward. The application uses the blockchain to create a decentralized database of torrent magnet links which doesn’t rely on a hosting service or domain name, making it virtually impossible to take down.
“While other existing services and plans are focusing on Pay-to-Seed, that is, paying for uploading the actual data of the files to people who are downloading, we are focused on the creation of a decentralized and searchable database of files to download. Think of it as a decentralized Pirate Bay,” the QMC team tells us.
In addition to keeping a record of all transactions on the blockchain, every user also stores the database of magnet files. This is constantly synced with the network to update it with new magnet links, and to remove those that are frequently voted as ‘bad.’
QMC relies on its users to build the magnet database. Everyone is welcome to submit a magnet link to the database, but it comes with a catch. Submitting a link costs the user 1 QMC but in return, if the magnet is voted as good, they can get 5 QMC back after a month.
This ‘investment’ concept acts as a double-edged sword. The costs prevent spammers from taking over the system, while the returns encourage people to share. At least, that’s the theory.
QMC only just got started but they have a working project available. There are also more than 25 masternodes at the time of writing, which help to keep everything running smoothly. At the moment, 10% of the masternode holders have to vote a torrent as ‘good’ before a payment is made.
When we tried the QMT application, which works, the program froze on a few occasions while searching. The team is aware that there may be some issues initially, but they plan to continue improving on it. The magnet search from the wallet itself seems to work smoothly.
Search results are presented in a basic list. This includes a download link to load magnets into any regular torrent client, plus a link to Instant.io, where they can be downloaded or streamed through WebTorrent.
As for the magnet database, there are just over 5,000 magnet links at the moment, which is very limited. However, the QMC team is currently exploring partnerships with torrent sites to expand it more swiftly.
That also brings up the inevitable legal issues.
A lot of the magnet links point to copyrighted content, which is illegal to download or share. This may be a concern to rightsholders, but the QMC team stresses that the software and network itself is content neutral.
“We have no intention of copyright infringement, just like TRON doesn’t for that matter – even though they want to pay users for seeding torrents,” they say, pointing to the BitTorrent/Tron partnership.
“We simply would like information to be free and available to everyone. Information is always silenced based on political views or other means of pressure and we want to change that. What our users choose to post is up to them.”
On the anonymity side, the wallet has built-in support for access over the Tor network, which users can enable in the configuration file.
The QMC team itself hasn’t revealed any of its members to the public either, but notes that this may change in the future. A full whitepaper speccing out the project objectives and details is in the works as well.
The QMC wallet and the QMT search tool are available on Windows, Mac, and Linux, with iOS and Android versions being planned for next year. The roadmap also includes other plans, such as an API to link torrent sites to the QMC database, and the option for private torrent trackers to accept payments in QMC.
It’s hard to tell where a project like this will go, and whether it can deliver on its promises. That said, if it manages to get widespread adoption, copyright holders are not going to be pleased.
The QMC team, meanwhile, is moving full steam ahead. More information and background on the project is available in the Bitcoin Talk forums, or through the website that was put up this week.
Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and more. We also have VPN reviews, discounts, offers and coupons.
Die Telekom hat Aussagen über ihr künftiges 5G-Netz gemacht. Dass hier schon fast alles vorbereitet ist, lässt Rückschlüsse darauf zu, wie das Netz einmal aussehen soll. (5G, Telekom)
Software giant joins a patent cross-licensing community that protects open source software.
Microsoft has made billions from its extensive library of software patents. A number of Android vendors, including Samsung, pay the company a royalty on each phone they ship to license patents such as the ones covering the exFAT file system. But that situation may be coming to an end with the announcement today that Microsoft is joining the Open Invention Network (OIN).
The Open Invention Network is a group of about 2,400 companies around the world that have agreed to cross-license their patents on a royalty-free basis for use by the "Linux System," a collection of projects including the Linux kernel, many tools and utilities built on top of Linux, and large parts of Android. Member companies also promise not to assert their patents against the Linux Community.
This move should put an end to the lingering threat of patent lawsuits from Microsoft that many Linux and Android companies have faced. With that threat gone, it should also put an end to the royalties that the company was collecting from Android vendors.
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Critics find duplicated figures, curiously similar data points, and dilution confusion.
Enlarge / Seriously, it's enough to make researchers cry. (credit: Getty | Peter M Fisher)
Editors at a respected scientific journal are reconsidering their decision to publish a study, which claims that a homeopathic dilution of poison oak can reduce pain in rats, after online critics pointed out that the study is rife with bogus, sloppy, and low-quality data.
The study—titled “Ultra-diluted Toxicodendron pubescens attenuates pro-inflammatory cytokines and ROS-mediated neuropathic pain in rats”—was published September 10 in Scientific Reports, an open-access journal run by the Nature Publishing Group. Now, the online manuscript runs with an editor’s note at the bottom, stating:
Readers are alerted that the conclusions of this paper are subject to criticisms that are being considered by the editors. Appropriate editorial action will be taken once this matter is resolved.
The criticisms began mounting last month as independent scientists—rightly skeptical of homeopathy’s pseudoscientific principles—took a closer look at the paper.
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Google’s new Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL smartphones support wireless charging, and Google has a $79 Pixel Stand to sell you if you want an official wireless charger. But like practically every other phone on the market that uses wireless charging, Go…
Google’s new Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL smartphones support wireless charging, and Google has a $79 Pixel Stand to sell you if you want an official wireless charger. But like practically every other phone on the market that uses wireless charging, Google’s phones are compatible with pretty much any Qi-certified wireless charger. That means […]
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Text from the wall-sized panels may help linguists study the evolution of Aramaic.
Enlarge / Dionysus lends a hand to clear the future site of Capitolias. (credit: © CNRS HiSoMA)
A recently discovered Roman tomb in northern Jordan may look pretty familiar to comic readers. The 2,000-year-old paintings that adorn the walls of the tomb's main chamber tell a story in five panels, each inscribed with dialog from some of the characters. While there are no superheroes or crime-fighting, several Roman gods feature in the action, and a few people plummet to their deaths from ramparts. Archaeologists say the five panels depict the founding of the city of Capitolias in the 1st century CE.
The tomb is one of several archaeological sites from ancient Capitolias unearthed by a November 2016 road construction project in what is now the city of Bayt Ras. The roadwork also revealed several other tombs nearby, as well as an ancient theater and a row of columns. When the tomb was dug into the hillside, Capitolias was part of the Roman Empire but in a region still more heavily influenced by Greek culture.
The version of events painted on three walls of the 52-square-meter funerary chambers probably takes some poetic license with Capitolias' history. It seems unlikely that the city's founders literally attended a banquet of the Roman gods, serving refreshments while asking their advice on a good spot to build a city. In the first panel, on a wall to the left of the tomb's entrance, larger-than-life Roman gods recline on couches while humans offer them food and drink. More likely, the city's founders would have made offerings at a temple before construction began.
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Die Telekom hat Aussagen über ihr künftiges 5G-Netz gemacht. Dass hier schon fast alles vorbereitet ist, lässt Rückschlüsse darauf zu, wie das Netz einmal aussehen soll. (
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