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Samsung has a new crop of laptops with Intel Tiger Lake processors set to launch in January: The Samsung Galaxy Book Flex 2 is a convertible notebook with a 360 degree, pen support. It’s available with 13.3 inch or 15.6 inch display options. Sam…
Samsung has a new crop of laptops with Intel Tiger Lake processors set to launch in January: The Samsung Galaxy Book Flex 2 is a convertible notebook with a 360 degree, pen support. It’s available with 13.3 inch or 15.6 inch display options. Samsung’s Galaxy Book Ion 2 is a thin and light notebook that also supports […]
The post Samsung unveils 2nd-gen Galaxy Book Flex, Ion, and Notebook Plus laptops appeared first on Liliputing.
The Asus ROG Zephryus G14 received strong reviews when it launched earlier this year, combining the specs of a gaming laptop with a Ryzen 4000H processor and NVIDIA graphics with the portability of a thin and (fairly) light notebook at just 3.64 pound…
The Asus ROG Zephryus G14 received strong reviews when it launched earlier this year, combining the specs of a gaming laptop with a Ryzen 4000H processor and NVIDIA graphics with the portability of a thin and (fairly) light notebook at just 3.64 pounds and 0.7 inches thick. The notebook also has a funky lid with […]
The post Daily Deals (12-18-2020) appeared first on Liliputing.
A bug in Mobile Device Management is causing major headaches for some users.
Enlarge (credit: Apple)
Earlier this week, various macOS sysadmins began reporting that some Apple devices were failing to upgrade to Big Sur version 11.1. Affected users may briefly see the 11.1 upgrade, but then it disappears from the update UI and from the command line softwareupdate tool despite not having been installed.
Developer Victor Vrantchan, of the open source MicroMDM project, says he's found the problem. Some Macs are erroneously requesting 11.0.1 instead of 11.1 from Apple's update server—which update is then rejected if the machine in question is already running 11.0.1 or newer, as most such are.
Apple's update servers don't like it when you ask for a system update that's older than your currently installed version. (credit: Victor Vrantchan)
While the erroneous requests themselves are clear enough, the breaking condition is less so. According to Vrantchan, making the erroneous request "somehow corrupts the state of the software update process," resulting in a system that no longer presents the update as an option in System Preferences at all.
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Chinese smartphone firms Huawei and ZTE have been on the list for several years.
Enlarge / A DJI Inspire drone flying in Brandenburg, Germany. (credit: Patrick Pleul / Getty Images)
The US Department of Commerce has added dozens of Chinese companies to its "entity list" of companies that may not purchase technology from US companies without a license from the feds. The new list includes DJI, the world's largest drone manufacturer. It also includes SMIC, a major Chinese chipmaker that has done business with Qualcomm and other Western companies.
This is one of the legal weapons the Trump administration used against smartphone-makers Huawei and ZTE a few years ago. The export ban against those two companies had a devastating effect on the companies because it meant they couldn't get access to Google software, Qualcomm chips, and other Western technologies.
It's not clear if the export ban will be as damaging to DJI as it was to Huawei and ZTE. Not only has DJI dominated the drone business for years, but Chinese companies dominate significant parts of the drone supply chain. So DJI might not have as much trouble sourcing components from domestic supply chains. Still, the announcement will certainly make it difficult for DJI to maintain its dominance of the drone business outside of China.
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Director Ric Roman Waugh on bringing hope and humanity to a harrowing tale
Gerard Butler stars as a structural engineer in Atlanta who must get his family to safety in the face of a looming extinction event in Greenland.
The Earth is facing an extinction-level event from an interstellar comet as a man and his family race against time to find safe haven in Greenland, a new disaster thriller starring Gerard Butler (300, Angel Has Fallen) and directed by Ric Roman Waugh (Snitch, Angel Has Fallen).
(Some spoilers below, but no major reveals.)
Per the official premise:
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New law also targets hidden cable-TV fees and lets users cancel without penalty.
Enlarge / A Wi-Fi router. (credit: Getty Images | deepblue4you)
Broadband and TV providers will finally be required to stop charging "rental" fees for equipment that customers own themselves, thanks to a new US law that takes effect on Sunday.
The bogus fees were outlawed by the Television Viewer Protection Act (TVPA), which was approved by Congress and signed by President Trump in December 2019. The law was originally scheduled to take effect on June 20, but Congress gave the Federal Communications Commission leeway to delay enforcement by six months if the FCC "finds that good cause exists for such an additional extension."
The FCC in April granted the six-month delay to ISPs, claiming that providers needed more time to comply because of the coronavirus pandemic. That decision delayed implementation of the new requirements until December 20, 2020.
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Here’s last month’s summary and the outlook for the next three.
Enlarge / This was the second-warmest November on record, globally. (credit: NOAA)
NOAA released its monthly weather update Thursday, looking back at the fall and ahead through the rest of winter. As we close in on the (good riddance) end of 2020, its global temperature status is coming into focus. It’s looking like a bit of a coin flip between the year being the warmest or second warmest on record, depending on how you estimate the odds.
Globally, November was the second warmest on record, while the autumn period of September through November was the third warmest. The fact that this is true despite moderate La Niña conditions in the Pacific is notable, as those conditions bring cold, deep water up to the surface, which normally drags down the global average temperature.
At this point, 2020’s only competition for the warmest year on record is 2016, which was boosted by a strong El Niño. (That means more of the equatorial Pacific was covered by warm surface water.) The two years are so close that some datasets may even rank them in different order than others. NASA’s Gavin Schmidt, for example, estimates over 90 percent odds of setting a new record, but NOAA’s latest estimate is about 55 percent.
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A “large-scale’ provider of proxies and mirrors that allow users to access The Pirate Bay despite ISP blocking measures has shut down following action by BREIN. With the platform’s domain now under the control of the anti-piracy group, its operator has agreed to pay BREIN $343,000 to settle the case.
From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.
After numerous lawsuits around the world, The Pirate Bay is perhaps the most-blocked pirate site on the planet.
In many regions the site is blocked by local ISPs and, as a result, millions of users have sought to visit the site via alternative means. While these can include VPNs and Tor, for example, the rise of proxy and mirror sites has been notable, since these provide seamless access to the torrent index at zero cost.
The fight to block The Pirate Bay and its mirrors and proxies in the Netherlands has been particularly notable. Legal action was initiated by BREIN in 2010 and after a tortuous path, that even involved the EU Court of Justice, local courts eventually sided with the anti-piracy group.
However, the battle to have Pirate Bay proxies and mirrors took longer and was only settled this October. However, BREIN still sees these platforms as a risk and as a result, embarked on a project to target a large provider of both.
With several million visitors per month, Piratebay-proxylist.net developed an audience not only with residents of the Netherlands but also those in other regions (such as the UK) where ISPs are required to block The Pirate Bay.
Offering a list of domains from where the notorious index can be accessed (and also rating them, ostensibly by speed), the platform was of course a popular haunt for pirates. However, the show is now over following legal action by BREIN.
In an announcement Friday, BREIN said that while it does what it can to close down proxy and mirror sites, including by filing requests with hosting providers, the existence of ISP blocking doesn’t preclude direct legal action against those who persistently offer proxy and mirror sites.
As a result it targeted the people behind Piratebay-proxylist.net, an action that has now resulted in the closure of the platform and an agreement to pay BREIN a sizeable amount in damages and compensation.
“[Piratebay-proxylist.net], a large-scale provider of proxies and mirrors to bypass the blocking of The Pirate Bay, has arranged with copyright protection foundation BREIN to pay 250,000 euros as compensation for the damage suffered and more than 30,000 euros in full compensation of costs,” BREIN says.
BREIN says that as part of the settlement it has taken control of the Piratebay-proxylist.net domain. Indeed, at the time of writing the domain presents a detailed anti-piracy warning, explaining why the domain is no longer functional while issuing a warning to others.
“The content of this site has been blocked by order of the court, at the request of Stichting BREIN. This site provided access to the website The Pirate Bay, which offers illegally protected works of the rights holders represented by Stichting BREIN. This is unlawful and causes great damage to the entitled parties to (in particular) films, TV series, music, games and books,” the cautionary message reads, adding:
“WARNING : Any site that provides direct or indirect access to The Pirate Bay runs the significant risk of being blocked. The operators of that site risk criminal and / or civil penalties, such as large fines and damages.”
In common with many similar platforms, Piratebay-proxylist.net generated revenue from advertising and affiliate schemes. According to BREIN, the scale of its business is reflected in the size of the settlement the service is now required to pay the anti-piracy group.
“Where we can identify the data subjects [site operators] and hold them accountable, we will do so. That a lot of money is involved in this kind of illegal business is proven by this settlement of more than a quarter of a million euros,” says BREIN director Tim Kuik.
While BREIN expends much effort in dealing with larger infringing platforms, it doesn’t shy away from targeting smaller entities too.
The anti-piracy group says that since the beginning of 2019, it has been writing to the administrators of several email groups that were being used to share pirated copies of eBooks, audiobooks, and music. Several administrators agreed to shut down and declare their operations over. It appears, however, that at least one was more stubborn, even after settling with BREIN.
“She raised money from members to pay the fine and started a new group on the same day that the statement was signed. In that group, this time with the help of social media, the administrator and the members insisted on anonymity and illegal ebooks were again exchanged,” BREIN explains.
When BREIN approached the individual again, she took her group offline. However, she wasn’t interested in paying a fine and ignored BREIN’s letters. That resulted in BREIN going to court where the judge ruled in the anti-piracy group’s favor, ordering the woman to pay 7,500 euros in fines and 19,644 euros in legal costs.
From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.
Intel has introduced a new AI chip that the company says will bring low-power capabilities to laptop computers. The Intel Visual Sensing Controller, code-named “Clover Falls” is what Intel calls a “companion chip” designed to w…
Intel has introduced a new AI chip that the company says will bring low-power capabilities to laptop computers. The Intel Visual Sensing Controller, code-named “Clover Falls” is what Intel calls a “companion chip” designed to work with the Intel Core processor in a notebook rather than replace it. Among other things, it could allow laptops […]
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Der Ampere Altra leistet Beeindruckendes und holt AMDs aktuelles Epyc-Topmodell für Server ein, kostet aber signifikant weniger. (ARM-Server, Prozessor)
Der Ampere Altra leistet Beeindruckendes und holt AMDs aktuelles Epyc-Topmodell für Server ein, kostet aber signifikant weniger. (ARM-Server, Prozessor) 
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