August 2020 – Page 119 – news.buyenne.com

Samsung launches $1000 Galaxy Note 20 and $1300 Note 20 Ultra smartphones

Samsung’s latest pen-enabled premium phones are coming this month. The Samsung Galaxy Note 20 packs a 6.7 inch AMOLED display, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 865+ processor, 8GB of RAM, 128GB of storage, and a starting price of $999. If you want a bit mo…

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Samsung’s “beans” earbuds are here, and they’re called the Galaxy Buds Live

Samsung’s latest true wireless headphones have noise cancellation, cost $170.

Samsung's latest true wireless earbuds: the Galaxy Buds Live. [credit: Samsung ]

Samsung on Tuesday announced its latest pair of true wireless earbuds, the Samsung Galaxy Buds Live. The earbuds, whose bean-shaped design caused a stir in tech circles after leaking last month, will be available starting Thursday and cost $169.99. They'll be available in black, bronze, and white finishes.

The Galaxy Buds Live are designed to sit entirely in your ear; there's no outward protruding "stem," but there are small, flat tips on each earbud to keep them securely in place. Samsung says it will include two sizes of these "wingtips" in the box.

In terms of features, Samsung has equipped the Galaxy Buds Live with active noise cancellation, bringing them in competition with other true wireless pairs like Apple's AirPods Pro and Sony's WF-1000XM3. Samsung is going about this a little differently, however. Because the Galaxy Buds Live's flattened design naturally lets in more ambient noise than more tightly sealed in-ear headphones like Apple's or Sony's pairs, Samsung wants its ANC to focus on muting low-end frequencies—an airplane cabin, a loud laundry machine, and so on—while still letting higher-pitch noises through.

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Model Sues Cloudflare and Thothub in Mass Piracy Lawsuit

Texas-based model Deniece Waidhofer, known for selling access to sexy photos of herself online, is taking action against Thothub, a site that publishes leaked copies of her work. The site, its members, and services it works with, including Cloudflare, are accused of copyright infringement and being part of a RICO conspiracy, the suit alleges.

From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

The Internet has brought us many new creators and publishers, some of whom are able to make a decent living from their work.

The stories about YouTubers who make millions are well known. These web-stars earn their money through advertising, but there’s also a group of creators that have a more direct approach.

In recent years there’s been an influx of models who share their, often sexy, pictures and videos in exchange for a monthly subscription. These creators use platforms such as Patreon and Onlyfans to share and monetize their work.

This is also the case for the Texas model (De)Niece Waidhofer, who has gathered a dedicated group of paying fans over the years. The exact size of her following is not known but with nearly two million Instagram fans, her appeal is obvious.

Pirates Harm Business Model

Waidhofer offers different subscription levels for her photos, going all the way up to $1,000 per month for the sexiest footage. That sounds like a profitable business, but as with all content that’s published on the Internet, pirates are a problem too.

While there are plenty of people who are willing to pay for this type of content, pirates prefer to get it for free. These people gather on dedicated sites where they share the exclusive content with other users. On Thothub, for example, which describes itself as the world’s leading ‘free e-girl community porn site.’

Waidhofer is not happy with these sites and recently stopped sharing ‘VIP snaps’ because of this ‘leak problem.’ In an effort to stop the leaks, she also lawyered up and sued Thothub and third-party companies it works with, including CDN provider Cloudflare and advertisers Bangbros and Multi Media.

Thothub, Cloudflare, and the Racketeering Conspiracy

In the complaint, which was filed at a federal court in California, Waidhofer describes herself as a creator who sells photographs for herself in lingerie or costume. According to the legal paperwork, her earnings place her among the top 1% of all OnlyFans users.

Thothub is messing with this successful business model by publishing the photos and additional unpublished nude works for free, the lawsuit alleges.

“This is an action to stop a pirate website called Thothub, its Members, and co-conspirators from continuing to distribute digital content stolen from Waidhofer […] and to hold accountable Thothub and its co-conspirators for exploiting Waidhofer’s works and body for their own ends,” the complaint reads.

Thothub not only uses the images without permission. The site and its members also exploit her as a sexual object, or in their own words, a ‘thot’.

“Defendants display Waidhofer’s content on Thothub and describe her to millions of viewers as a dehumanized sexual object that lacks control and agency over her works and body, how her works and body are used, and by whom,” the complaint reads.

Through the lawsuit, the model hopes to hold the site, its operator – who goes by the name “Captain Thotcakes” – and its members accountable for direct copyright infringement. The same also applies to Cloudflare, the CDN provider that’s used by the site.

Allegations Against Cloudflare

Cloudflare is also charged with other claims, including violations of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act.

“Defendant Cloudflare is a co-conspirator of Thothub that aids and abets Thothub’s criminal activity. Cloudflare contracts with Thothub to provide content delivery and security services for Thothub. In this role, Cloudflare makes unauthorized copies of creators’ stolen copyrighted works,” the complaint reads.

Cloudflare isn’t only accused of copyright infringement. It’s also described as an anonymity shield that hides the true hosting location of Thothub.

In addition, a lack of copyright enforcement makes the CDN provider popular among pirate sites, the complaint notes, pointing to a European Commission report which found that more than half of the top pirate sites used Cloudflare.

“Cloudflare also acts as a lookout man for Thothub, masking Thothub’s true identity and server locations. This prevents creators from effectively enforcing their rights against Thothub. This is a major selling point for Cloudflare.

“Cloudflare’s permissive approach to repeat infringement, and its willingness to pretend it can do nothing to stop the repeat infringement, is highly attractive for pirates like Thothub.”

RICO Conspiracy Includes Advertisers

According to Waidhofer, Cloudflare is part of a RICO conspiracy, together with Thothub, the site’s users, and the advertisers Bangbros and Multi Media.

The complaint shows a screenshot of Thothub where the advertisers are prominently listed alongside a photo from Waidhofer. The complaint suggests that these companies, who also produce adult content, are immune from having pirated copies of their works published on Thothub in exchange for their financial support.

“In exchange for their financial support, the Advertiser Defendants also receive a form of immunity or protection from Thothub against having their own digital content stolen and illegally distributed by Thothub and its associates,” the complaint reads.

Through this lawsuit, Waidhofer hopes to shut down Thothub and hold it liable for the damage it’s done. The same also applies to the other defendants, including Cloudflare and the advertisers, which are claimed to be part of a racketeering conspiracy.

Thus far none of the defendants has responded officially to the complaint. However, when we checked this morning, Thothub had removed all of Waidhofer’s images from the site.

Instant update: Thothub is now down for maintenance with an ‘unknown’ ETA.

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A copy of the complaint filed at the US District Court at the Central District of California on behalf of Deniece Waidhofer is available here (pdf)

From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

Samsung makes the $1,300 Galaxy Note 20 Ultra official

They have big screens, S-Pens, and… one is plastic?!

The Galaxy Note 20 Ultra (bronze) and Note 20 (green).

Today is Samsung's big hardware event, Unpacked 2020, and the company's late-2020 flagships have been announced: meet the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra and the Galaxy Note 20. Typically, Samsung has built two nearly identical phones with different size screens and bodies, but this year there are major differences between the two devices. The big news today is the prices: the Note 20 Ultra starts (starts!) at $1,299, and the Note 20 starts at $999.

The Galaxy Note 20 Ultra has a 6.9-inch, 3088×1440 120Hz display; 8GB or 12 GB of RAM; 128GB, 256, or 512GB of storage; and a 4500mAh battery. You get three cameras on the back, a 108MP main camera, a 12MP wide-angle, and a 12MP, 5x optical zoom. Earlier this year with the Galaxy S20 Ultra, Samsung promoted the 5x optical zoom as a "100x Space Zoom" through the use of cropping and AI upscaling. As you can imagine from that huge gulf between optics and output, the resulting images were a blurry, smeared mess. For the second half of the year, on the Note 20, the feature has been cut down to a "50x Super Resolution Zoom."

As always, Samsung is offering two different SoCs. For both Note 20s, you get either the new Snapdragon 865+ or the Samsung Exynos 990 SoC, depending on the country. We expect the US will get the Snapdragon chip; Europe will get the Exynos. The Exynos models have an option for an LTE-only device, while 5G is mandatory on the Snapdragon chip, and at least some models have mmWave.

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Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 3 is a stylish redesign without much new to say

The refresh brings a new color, but little in the way of new features.

(credit: Samsung)

It has been two full years since the release of Samsung’s Galaxy Watch, and today we're finally getting a proper followup with the announcement of the Galaxy Watch 3. If you’ve been paying attention to leaks and rumors, you’ve known for at least a few months that this refresh was coming, and with leaks of the entire hands-on experience and instructional videos in recent days, little was left to our imaginations.

Still, looking at the new Galaxy Watch is quite a treat. Samsung has refined the style of an already good-looking watch to be more stylish, modern, and versatile. It's thinner, it's lighter, and it packs in a slightly larger screen than its predecessor. Thankfully, the rotating bezel, one of the watch’s biggest selling points, is still present in this latest model; it's even less chunky and is more uniform with the watch facade than before.

There’s also a new Mystic Bronze colorway that strikes an excellent balance between classy and casual, bringing the total number of color options to three, with Mystic Silver and Mystic Black rounding out the trio of stainless steel watch cases. A titanium version comes only in Mystic Black at the larger of the two watch sizes. With 41mm and 45mm sizes packing 1.2- and 1.4-inch AMOLED displays, respectively, the Galaxy Watch 3 still meets 5ATM and IP68 water and dust resistance specifications. As for internals, you'll have 1GB of RAM with 8GB on-board storage for music and apps all run by the same dual-core Exynos 9110 processor, clocked at 1.15GHz, found in its predecessor and the more recent Galaxy Watch Active 2. LTE versions will be available through carriers at a later date.

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