Month: May 2020

The best wireless mice you can buy

We spent months researching and testing wireless mice for work and play.

a selection of wireless mice

Enlarge / A few of the best wireless mice we've tested. (credit: Jeff Dunn)

It wasn't long ago when buying a wireless mouse was an iffy proposition. You could avoid relying on a touchpad and get another cable off your desk, but to do so, you usually had to deal with less stable performance and anemic batteries.

Today, the outlook is much rosier. Advances in design, sensor technology, and battery efficiency have brought the best wireless mice to the edge of parity with their wired counterparts. These days you can genuinely further de-clutter your workspace without sacrificing an essential piece of your desktop.

So if you're interested in cutting another cord, you're in luck. We've researched the wireless mouse market and tested about a dozen models over the past few months to find the ones most worth buying in 2020. Whether you're trying to get through office work, rounds of CS:GO, or (eventual) road trips, let our research and recommendations guide you toward a wireless mouse that will make your computer time more comfortable.

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Music, Publishing and Sports Industries Back Canada’s Pirate Site Blockades

Canada’s Federal Court of Appeal has to decide whether the country’s first pirate site blocking order can stay in place. It’s a far-reaching decision that has gained the interest of a wide range of copyright holder groups. A few days ago, representatives from the music, publishing, and sports industries requested to be heard as well.

From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, torrent sites and more. We also help you to find the best anonymous VPN.

canada flagTwo years ago, Canadian broadcasting giants Groupe TVA, Bell, and Rogers took the relatively small pirate IPTV service GoldTV to court.

What started as a straightforward copyright lawsuit soon became much more than that. With the pirate site not responding, the rightsholders requested an injunction requiring local ISPs to block the service.

Fast forward a few months and Canada became the first North American country to implement a court-ordered Internet provider blockade of a pirate site.

This was a big win for the three companies whose plan for a Government-sanctioned pirate site blocking scheme was previously denied. And, given the interest in site-blocking orders around the world, it was likely just the start.

While most ISPs accepted the order without protest, TekSavvy appealed. This appeal is ongoing and has gained the interest of many copyright groups, which would all like to have their say in court.

Last week, several companies and groups representing the music industry, publishers, and sports organizations, asked the Federal Court of Appeal to have their say in the matter. As so-called intervenors, they plan to stress the importance of pirate site-blocking.

The first filing comes from the International Confederation of Music Publishers (ICMP), Music Canada, and IFPI. They inform the court that their opinion should be heard as they have vast experience with anti-piracy measures, which they believe are vital to the survival of the music industry.

The music organizations inform the court that they have “significant international experience” when it comes to “effective enforcement” against Internet piracy. This includes site-blocking efforts in other countries.

In addition, they argue that they have a good understanding of the broader implications of these anti-piracy measures, which can guide the Federal Court of Appeal to make the right decision.

“[A]s representatives of the music industry, which has long been at the forefront of the battle against online copyright piracy, the Music Industry Associations seek to assist the Court in understanding the broader impacts of its decision across the cultural industries,” their submission reads.

The second motion to intervene comes from a broader group of rightsholders. This includes several publisher groups, such as the International Publishers Association, and sports companies, including the Premier League and streaming service DAZN.

screenshot from the publishing and sports organizations' motion to intervene in the site blocking appeal

Similar to the music industry, the groups offer to bring their own unique perspective to the table. They argue that their respective industries are harmed by piracy and see site-blocking as a prime tool to limit the effects.

The groups don’t agree with Teksavvy’s argument that blockades violate freedom of speech values or rights and would like to present their own argument in court.

In addition, they also counter similar arguments from United Nations Special Rapporteur David Kaye, who previously warned that website blocking is an extreme measure that could restrict people’s freedom of expression.

“The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression analysis is flawed, is inconsistent with the international jurisprudence, and should not be relied on by this Court,” the publishing and sports groups write.

In their motion, the groups acknowledge that any site-blocking decision should balance the interests of copyright holders, ISPs and internet users. However, they believe that the scale clearly tips in their favor.

The Federal Court of Appeal will now review the motions to see if the music industry, publishing and sports organizations can have their say in court. If anything, this broad interest shows that if Teksavvy loses the appeal, many more site-blocking applications are expected to come in.

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A copy of the motion from the music groups is available here (pdf) and a copy of the publishers and sports groups submissions can be found here (pdf).

From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, torrent sites and more. We also help you to find the best anonymous VPN.

You can now buy Amazon’s Eero Wi-Fi directly from Apple

Apple loyalists have new Wi-Fi options available in their favorite store.

Apple is selling all three Eero variants—clockwise from the top, you're looking at Amazon, Pro, and Beacon. We recommend the Amazon version as the best value by far.

Enlarge / Apple is selling all three Eero variants—clockwise from the top, you're looking at Amazon, Pro, and Beacon. We recommend the Amazon version as the best value by far. (credit: Eero)

Apple is now selling Amazon's three-piece Eero kit directly from Apple.com to customers in the US, Canada, UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain.

As we've reported previously, the three-piece Eero kit—specifically, the redesigned version released after the Amazon acquisition—should be on anybody's short list when considering new Wi-Fi gear. Eero can't quite hang with Plume on the absolute busiest, toughest multi-system performance test—but it comes far closer than any other consumer kit we've tested, and it does so without Plume's unpopular ongoing subscription fees.

On paper, the base Eero kit doesn't look very impressive—it only offers dual-band radios and no Wi-Fi 6. The secret lies in its TrueMesh firmware, which dynamically adapts Eero's backhaul topology to the changing needs of the network on a moment-to-moment basis. In practice, Eero's dynamic management allows it to outperform some systems with much beefier hardware—particularly when its lower cost means putting in three access points to a higher-cost competitor's two.

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Researchers say those recovered from SARS-CoV-2 can be a societal shield

The idea is to find those who have developed immunity and put them in essential jobs.

Image of medical samples.

Enlarge / View of blood collection tubes in a rack awaiting SARS-CoV-2 antibody testing. (credit: Getty Images / Barcroft Media)

While many societies remain locked down in various forms of isolation and social distancing, there's a growing population for whom these measures may be irrelevant: those who have had a SARS-CoV-2 infection and cleared it. While we haven't yet ascertained these people's susceptibility to repeated infections, many clearly have antibodies to the virus, and we're finding that some antibodies seem to neutralize the virus. So, there's a reasonable chance that it's safe for these individuals to circulate more widely within the population.

A group of researchers largely based at Georgia Tech have looked at whether this population might be helpful for limiting further infections. The researchers used an epidemiological model to test what would happen if we started placing the formerly infected individuals in the key jobs that we've deemed essential for society to function during social isolation. The results suggest that this "shield immunity" is somewhat effective on its own and significantly enhances the impact of social isolation.

Lots of caveats

As of right now, there are a number of things we don't know about the progression of a viral infection that will be essential for this to work. One is how long it takes for the person to stop being infectious and how that relates to our ability to detect viral RNA in samples from these individuals.

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