If it can do this on a shoestring, imagine what it can do now with real resources.
At $96,950, the Lotus Evora GT isn't particularly cheap. And the underlying car isn't that new, first appearing in 2009. But it's still sublime to drive, and that makes me excited about Lotus' future. [credit:
Cory Burns ]
CARMEL, Calif.—It's always dangerous to meet your heroes—just interact with Chuck Yeager on Twitter if you don't believe me. So it was with trepidation that I dropped myself into the seat of the bright green $96,950 Lotus Evora GT, a model that has just been tweaked a little for US and Canadian consumption.
Until now I'd never actually been behind the wheel of a Lotus, at least not outside the confines of a British auto show back in the late '90s. What if it turned out to be crap? Lotus has had a rough time the past few years, and the Evora is getting pretty old these days. The fact that it turned out to be a wonderful car to drive wasn't just a relief, then. No, it filled me with hope for this small British automaker. If this is how good it can make a car on a shoestring, just imagine what it will be able to do now that it's properly funded.
The first pre-production Evoras rolled off Lotus' line in Hethel, England, over a decade ago. At the time, it was viewed as a significant event, the first all-new Lotus model since the Elise back in 1996. Like the Elise and its assorted variants (Exige, Europa S, 340R, 2-Eleven, etc), it is built around a tub of bonded and riveted extruded aluminum and then clad in lightweight composite body panels. The original plan was to develop a range of cars on the Evora's platform, the same way the Elise gave rise to so many other models. And the car was showered with plaudits at launch: Autocar awarded it Britain's Best Driver's Car 2009, and Evo named it as that publication's 2009 Car of the Year, saying that "[I]t's not flawless, but it's a magical thing across the ground… with exceptional poise and feel."
Das GSG 9 und mehrere Hundert Polizisten haben ein Rechenzentrum in einem ehemaligen Nato-Bunker gestürmt. Ziel der Aktion war ein sogenannter Bulletproof-Hoster. Auf den Servern sollen illegale Marktplätze wie der Wall Street Market gelaufen sein. (Po…
Das GSG 9 und mehrere Hundert Polizisten haben ein Rechenzentrum in einem ehemaligen Nato-Bunker gestürmt. Ziel der Aktion war ein sogenannter Bulletproof-Hoster. Auf den Servern sollen illegale Marktplätze wie der Wall Street Market gelaufen sein. (Polizei, Server)
Amazon charges $80 for a Fire HD 8 tablet with 16GB of storage, which isn’t a bad price at all. But you know what’s an even better price? Half price. Right now QVC is selling a Fire HD 8 tablet for $50. First-time customers can save another…
Amazon charges $80 for a Fire HD 8 tablet with 16GB of storage, which isn’t a bad price at all. But you know what’s an even better price? Half price. Right now QVC is selling a Fire HD 8 tablet for $50. First-time customers can save another $10 when you use the coupon code TAKE10 […]
Tesla cars can now drive to their owners across crowded parking lots.
Enlarge/ Tesla Model 3. (credit: Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images)
Tesla's long-awaited and long-delayed "Smart Summon" feature is finally being released to the general public, the company announced on Thursday.
"Customers who have purchased Full Self-Driving Capability or Enhanced Autopilot can enable their car to navigate a parking lot and come to them or their destination of choice, as long as their car is within their line of sight," Tesla said in the blog post announcing Version 10 of Tesla's software.
"Customers who have had early access to Smart Summon have told us that it adds both convenience to their trips and provides them with a unique moment of delight," Tesla writes.
Some of the key selling points for Chromebooks is that they’re easy to use, secure, and always getting better thanks to software updates delivered regularly. But the truth is that Google only guarantees 6.5 years of software updates from the rele…
Some of the key selling points for Chromebooks is that they’re easy to use, secure, and always getting better thanks to software updates delivered regularly. But the truth is that Google only guarantees 6.5 years of software updates from the release date of a particular Chromebook (or rather the board that a Chromebook is based […]
Marvel will now get 25% of first-dollar gross; Disney keeps merchandising rights.
Enlarge/ Spider-Man (Tom Holland) fwips around Manhattan. (credit: Sony Pictures)
Spider-Man will remain in the MCU after all, after Sony and Marvel reconciled their differences and came to a new agreement, Variety reports. The studios jointly announced a third Spider-Man film in the Homecoming series this morning.
This is excellent news. Tom Holland's incarnation of Peter Parker was clearly being groomed to replace Tony Stark's Iron Man in this summer's blockbuster, Spiderman: Far From Home. And fans reacted with anger and dismay when the news broke in August that the two companies had failed to agree on terms for future profit-sharing, effectively booting the webslinger from future Marvel films.
“I am thrilled that Spidey’s journey in the MCU will continue, and I and all of us at Marvel Studios are very excited that we get to keep working on it,” said Marvel president Kevin Feige in a statement. “Spider-Man is a powerful icon and hero whose story crosses all ages and audiences around the globe. He also happens to be the only hero with the superpower to cross cinematic universes, so as Sony continues to develop their own Spidey-verse, you never know what surprises the future might hold.”
AtGames allegedly misrepresented itself in negotiations with original developers.
Enlarge/ This AtGames prototype cabinet is at the heart of a legal battle over the rights to Ms. Pac-Man. (credit: Bandai Namco court filing)
The complicated rights situation behind Ms. Pac-Man is at the heart of a legal battle between Bandai Namco—which owns the Ms. Pac-Man trademark and copyright—and retro hardware maker AtGames—which has now purchased the separately held royalty rights to the game.
The strange situation dates back to 1982, when a group of MIT students created an unauthorized "enhancement kit" named "Crazy Otto" for Bandai Namco's arcade hit Pac-Man. The MIT group, which organized under the name General Computer Corporation, then reached out to US Pac-Man distributor Bally Midway to develop that modification into the officially licensed Ms. Pac-Man.
As part of the Crazy Otto licensing deal, GCC received the right to a perpetual royalty payment whenever a Ms. Pac-Man game was sold. Bally Midway retained the copyright and trademark rights to the game and its characters, though, which Bandai Namco eventually reacquired in the intervening years.
When IPTV management system Xtream-Codes was taken down as part of an EU anti-piracy operation last week, chaos ensured. With a large proportion of the illicit market estimated to use the software, large numbers of services went dark. According to data provided to TorrentFreak by networking equipment company Sandvine, illicit traffic nosedived by 50%.
Last week the illicit IPTV market was thrown into turmoil when Italian authorities teamed up with law enforcement groups in the EU.
Their operation, dubbed ‘Black IPTV‘, targeted individuals and equipment behind at least one Italy-based IPTV provider. More importantly, however, it also targeted Xtream Codes, a management system utilized by many providers and sellers of IPTV services.
While Xtream Codes claimed to be a content-agnostic system, its popularity in the unlicensed market is hard to understate. With an estimated 5,000 providers of varying kinds on its books servicing around 50 million end-users, its closure had an immediate and dramatic impact.
In the immediate aftermath of the raids, suppliers reported an inability to sign up new customers or renew customer subscriptions. Within several hours, it became clear that anyone reliant on the system would be more seriously affected, with IPTV services going dark and paying customers seeing red.
As soon as news of the raids appeared on our radar, we contacted several previously responsive players in the IPTV market. Precisely zero responded to our requests for comment amid the chaos, which was widespread and by some estimates affected up to 90% of the market. Data from Google Trends does seem to indicate that plenty of people hit its search engine for news.
Searches for ‘Xtream Codes’ and ‘IPTV’ just after the raids
With no obvious central source for information on the impact of the operation, the day after the raids TorrentFreak contacted Sandvine, a networking equipment company that has previously provided detailed analysis on general Internet and piracy-related traffic.
An external source that requested anonymity told us that due to technical issues the full force of the raid may not be felt until Thursday or Friday, the two days directly after the raids took place. So, we asked Sandvine if the company had noticed any significant drop in illicit streaming traffic during that period – it had.
This week a spokesperson for the company told TorrentFreak that on Friday September 20, Sandvine estimated that illicit streaming traffic had decreased 50% from the levels seen on Thursday, a massive drop by any standards.
That many illicit IPTV providers had been seriously affected by Xtream Codes’ removal from the market didn’t really come as a shock. Equally, it wasn’t really a surprise when providers began to adapt to the loss either.
Slowly but surely, some providers and sellers began migrating to alternative management systems, as detailed in emails to subscribers seen by TF. By Saturday, better news for them began to filter through, with services not only returning but also with subscriber payment and subscription information intact.
Sandvine gave TF a brief list of five providers, all of which went down completely between the 19th and 21st of September. By 21st/22nd all were recovering to a greater or lesser extent, with only one failing to return at all.
That being said, the overall market is huge, so it’s almost impossible to say how many have now returned, in whole or in part. It isn’t difficult to find complaints that services are still down even today but there are also several reports of providers that weren’t affected at all by the Xtream Codes situation.
Typically, there are individuals and groups out there trying to make hay even before the storm clouds have cleared. TF has heard of a handful of hopeful end-users who believed they were paying to access a service that was still up, only to have their ‘supplier’ cut and run.
Equally, we were pointed to a service that claims to be an Xtream Codes replacement but is probably nothing more than an elaborate scam. Since the prices were so high, we didn’t feel tempted to test that theory out.
On the other hand, real Xtream Codes alternatives are out there but how vulnerable they are to similar action will remain to be seen. In particular, one service seems happy to take orders and is reportedly in use by a number of previously stranded providers and resellers.
If nothing else, most of those in the chain should now be more prepared if there’s similar action in the future. Or less surprised at least.
Apple’s iPhones and iPads popularized the idea of app stores, which make it easy to find and install apps and manage updates all from one place. But while competitors like Google, Amazon, and Microsoft have all launched their own app stores, they…
Apple’s iPhones and iPads popularized the idea of app stores, which make it easy to find and install apps and manage updates all from one place. But while competitors like Google, Amazon, and Microsoft have all launched their own app stores, they also make it fairly easy for users to install apps from other sources. […]
“Checkm8” exploit works on devices from iPhone 4s to iPhone X, developer claims.
Enlarge/ Devices as recent as the iPhone X, based on Apple's A11 chip, are claimed to be vulnerable to a new boot ROM attack revealed today. (credit: SOPA Images / Getty Images)
Today, an iOS security researcher who earlier developed software to "jailbreak" older Apple iOS devices posted a new software tool that he claims uses a "permanent unpatchable bootrom exploit" that could bypass boot security for millions of Apple devices, from the iPhone 4S to the iPhone X. The developer, who goes by axi0mX on Twitter and GitHub, posted via Twitter, "This is possibly the biggest news in iOS jailbreak community in years. I am releasing my exploit for free for the benefit of iOS jailbreak and security research community."
The exploit has not yet been turned into a kit for jailbreaking the phone, something that requires specialized hardware and software. But it does provide a gateway for other attacks against the security of the device, allowing boot-level access to the phone's internal software.
EPIC JAILBREAK: Introducing checkm8 (read "checkmate"), a permanent unpatchable bootrom exploit for hundreds of millions of iOS devices.
Most generations of iPhones and iPads are vulnerable: from iPhone 4S (A5 chip) to iPhone 8 and iPhone X (A11 chip). https://t.co/dQJtXb78sG
"What I am releasing today is not a full jailbreak with Cydia [an alternative package manager for jailbroken iOS devices], just an exploit," axi0mX wrote. "Researchers and developers can use it to dump SecureROM [the boot ROM code], decrypt keybags [the escrow memory with the keys for all encrypted data on the device] with AES engine, and demote the device to enable JTAG. You still need additional hardware and software to use JTAG." (JTAG is "Joint Test Action Group," an interface used for verifying printed circuit boards sometimes leveraged in forensic examination of smartphones.)
Das GSG 9 und mehrere Hundert Polizisten haben ein Rechenzentrum in einem ehemaligen Nato-Bunker gestürmt. Ziel der Aktion war ein sogenannter Bulletproof-Hoster. Auf den Servern sollen illegale Marktplätze wie der Wall Street Market gelaufen sein. (
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