Month: January 2021

Report: This year’s iPhones may have in-screen Touch ID

Also, the charging port might be retired.

The iPhone 12 and 12 Pro. The next iPhones aren't expected to change looks very much.

Enlarge / The iPhone 12 and 12 Pro. The next iPhones aren't expected to change looks very much. (credit: Samuel Axon)

This weekend, business publication Bloomberg ran a plethora of articles sharing details about various upcoming Apple products. We previously covered what Bloomberg's sources said about the Mac lineup, but another report details upcoming iPhones.

According to "a person familiar with" Apple's work, the 2021 iPhone will be a small, iterative update and may carry the "S" label, which Apple has used to denote smaller upgrades to the iPhone in the past (for example, iPhone 6S or iPhone XS). This is in part because the iPhone 12 lineup introduced last fall was particularly loaded with new features and design changes, but it was also because COVID-19 restrictions have slowed Apple's engineers down, according to the report.

While the iPhone 13 wouldn't have a radically new design, the report does describe one potential change of note that Apple is testing internally: the addition of an in-screen fingerprint reader.

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Lilbits: Color E Ink, Huawei’s new laptops, more trouble for Huawei, and Linux phones

The upcoming Astro Glide 5G from Planet Computers is a smartphone with a 6.5 inch touchscreen display and a slide-out keyboard that lets you use it like a little laptop. First announced last year, the phone has been available for pre-order through cro…

The upcoming Astro Glide 5G from Planet Computers is a smartphone with a 6.5 inch touchscreen display and a slide-out keyboard that lets you use it like a little laptop. First announced last year, the phone has been available for pre-order through crowdfunding and we learned last week that it’s now expected to ship in June. […]

The post Lilbits: Color E Ink, Huawei’s new laptops, more trouble for Huawei, and Linux phones appeared first on Liliputing.

Scientists surprised to find that electric eels sometimes hunt in packs

Discovery raises fresh questions about how the eels communicate.

Volta's electric eels can gather in groups, working together to corral smaller fish in shallower waters, a new study finds. Then, smaller groups of about 10 eels attack in unison with high-voltage discharges.

Electric eels were long believed to be solitary predators, preferring to hunt and kill their prey alone by sneaking up on unsuspecting sleeping fish at night and shocking them into submission. But according to a recent paper published in the journal Ecology and Evolution, there are rare circumstances in which eels employ a social hunting strategy instead. Specifically, researchers have observed more than 100 electric eels in a small lake in the Brazilian Amazon River basin forming cooperative hunting parties to capture small fish called tetras.

"This is an extraordinary discovery," co-author C. David de Santana, of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, said. "Nothing like this has ever been documented in electric eels. Hunting in groups is pretty common among mammals, but it's actually quite rare in fishes. There are only nine other species of fishes known to do this, which makes this finding really special."

Electric eels are technically knife fish. The eel produces its signature electric discharges—both low and high voltages, depending on the purpose for discharging—via three pairs of abdominal organs comprised of electrocytes, located symmetrically along both sides of the eel. The brain sends a signal to the electrocytes, opening ion channels and briefly reversing the polarity. The difference in electric potential then generates a current, much like a battery with stacked plates.

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RIAA: Not Even Improper YouTube ‘Rolling Cipher’ Complaints Can Be Countered

In response to a lawsuit filed by YouTube-ripping service Yout, the RIAA is doubling down on its assertion that YouTube’s rolling cipher is indeed an “effective technological measure” under the DMCA. The music industry group also states that seeking remedy for improper takedown notices under the DMCA is not possible since the relevant law does not penalize anti-circumvention complaints.

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

RIAAAfter the RIAA caused outraged by filing a complaint that took down the open source software YouTube-DL from Github, YouTube-ripping service Yout.com sued the music industry group.

In common with its claim against youtube-dl, the RIAA had previously asked Google to delist Yout.com’s homepage on the basis that it too circumvented YouTube’s ‘rolling cipher’ technology. With both Github and the EFF arguing that youtube-dl’s features amount to little more than those already available in web browsers, an emboldened Yout.com hoped to take the fight to the RIAA and have itself declared legal.

RIAA Fights Back: YouTube’s Rolling Cipher is a TPM

In a motion to dismiss filed in a Connecticut district court, the RIAA is now attempting to remove the basics underpinning the entire Yout.com action. Apparently undeterred by the controversy surrounding YouTube’s ‘rolling cipher’ and its characterization as being somewhat ineffective, the RIAA says that according to copyright law, the threshold for a Technological Protection Measure (TPM) is already low.

“[T]he allegation that Plaintiff or others with technical expertise have figured out how to defeat the rolling cipher does not establish that the rolling cipher is ineffective for purposes of section 1201. If Plaintiff’s position were correct, it would amount to a free pass because the statute would only apply to those TPMs that could not be defeated,” the motion reads.

“For this reason, numerous courts have rejected the same argument upon which Plaintiff bases its claim about the alleged ineffectiveness of the YouTube rolling cipher.”

In short, just because YouTube’s measures are easily bypassed, it doesn’t mean they can’t be considered effective. According to the RIAA, this is due to section 1201 of the DMCA considering the abilities of an “ordinary” or “average” consumer, not those of “an online security engineer with a background in computer science” – a reference to Mitch Stoltz of the EFF, who authored a third-party letter in the youtube-dl matter.

“[T]he letter acknowledges that a German court has concluded, among other things, that circumventing the YouTube rolling cipher is ‘beyond the capabilities of the average user,’ and that it ‘was on this basis that the court declared the code to be an effective technical measure under Germany’s analogue of Section 1201. Plaintiff’s allegations therefore allow for only one plausible inference: the YouTube rolling cipher is an effective TPM,” the RIAA adds.

RIAA: Yout’s Non Circumvention Claims Fail

Yout.com’s lawsuit seeks a declaration from the court that the service does not circumvent YouTube’s ‘rolling cipher’ but according to the RIAA, that effort should fail. Circumvention means “to avoid, bypass, remove, deactivate, or impair a technological measure, without the authority of the copyright owner,” the RIAA writes, noting that Yout’s claim that it does none of these things isn’t plausible.

Referencing Yout’s complaint, the RIAA notes that the company admits that its entire purpose is to give users the ability to copy audio from YouTube in MP3 format locally, allowing that content to be consumed offline. The RIAA says that YouTube aims to prevent users from “turning certain streams into downloads” and the method used to enforce that is its ‘rolling cipher’.

“Plaintiff concedes that it ‘encounters’ the rolling cipher and then ‘reads and interprets the JavaScript program’ and ‘derives a signature value’ to access the file,” the RIAA writes.

“The only reasonable inference to draw from those vague allegations is that the Yout service enables users to avoid or bypass that technological measure—that is the very definition of circumventing a TPM under section 1201. For this straightforward reason, Plaintiff cannot plausibly allege a claim for declaratory judgment under section 1201.”

RIAA: Even Improper Anti-Circumvention Notices Can’t Be Countered

As mentioned earlier, the RIAA previously sent DMCA takedown notices to Google, demanding that Yout URLs should be delisted from search results on the basis that the Yout service itself is a circumvention technology.

Yout’s lawsuit states that since it does not circumvent technical measures, the RIAA either sent the complaints without carrying out appropriate testing or already knew that the site was non-infringing. As a result, Yout is entitled to compensation due to the RIAA interfering with the relationships between Yout and its customers, partners, and potential users.

Not so, says the RIAA, as no claim is available under 17 U.S.C. § 512(f).

“Plaintiff’s claim fails as a matter of law because the statutory text makes clear that
section 512(f) penalizes only misrepresentations regarding alleged copyright infringement, but not misrepresentations regarding alleged circumvention,” its motion reads.

Citing the Arista Records, Inc. v. Mp3Board, Inc. case, the RIAA states that Section 512 “only penalizes copyright holders for knowingly materially misrepresenting ‘that material or activity is infringing.’ It does not provide a cause of action for knowingly materially misrepresenting [other claims].”

In other words, the RIAA believes it doesn’t matter whether the anti-circumvention notices were improper or otherwise since claims under Section 512 are limited to when there are misrepresentations of copyright infringement, not allegations of breaching technological measures.

Furthermore, even if Yout could state a claim for alleged misrepresentations, the RIAA says that the company has failed to plausibly allege that the music group knew that the Yout service did not circumvent YouTube’s ‘rolling cipher’.

“Plaintiff alleges that ‘Defendants failed to determine whether Yout’s software platform would, in fact, circumvent [YouTube’s rolling cipher] by testing the platform” with protected works. But purportedly failing to perform an adequate investigation is insufficient to establish a section 512(f) claim,” the RIAA adds.

As a result of the above and other issues that rest upon them, the RIAA believes that Yout’s first amended complaint should be dismissed by the court.

The RIAA’s motion to dismiss can be found here and here (pdf)

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

GitHub regrets firing Jewish employee who called Trump-incited mob “Nazis”

Worker was fired after writing in Slack, “stay safe homies, Nazis are about.”

A mob of Trump supporters tries to break into the Capitol building on January 6, 2021.

Enlarge / Trump-incited mob tries to breach the US Capitol building in Washington, DC, on Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021. (credit: Getty Images | Bloomberg)

GitHub Inc. yesterday apologized for firing a Jewish employee who had urged colleagues to "stay safe" and avoid "Nazis" on the day a mob incited by President Trump stormed the US Capitol. GitHub said it "reversed the decision" and indicated it is trying to hire the employee back.

"Stay safe homies, Nazis are about," the employee, whose identity hasn't been revealed publicly, wrote in an internal Slack chat room on January 6. He was fired two days later, after one "coworker was quick to criticize the employee for using divisive rhetoric," Business Insider reported last week.

"I did not know that, as a Jew, it would be so polarizing to say this word," the former employee wrote in a Slack group for Jewish employees shortly "before his corporate accounts got deactivated," Business Insider wrote. The former employee "is Jewish and had family who died in the Holocaust," the article said.

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Daily Deals (1-18-2021)

Amazon is running a sale on Fire tablets, which means you can save $10 to $55, depending on the model. You can also save some money on USB wall chargers and power banks today, pick up an unlocked Google Pixel 4a 5G smartphone for $40 off the list pric…

Amazon is running a sale on Fire tablets, which means you can save $10 to $55, depending on the model. You can also save some money on USB wall chargers and power banks today, pick up an unlocked Google Pixel 4a 5G smartphone for $40 off the list price, or pay half price for a […]

The post Daily Deals (1-18-2021) appeared first on Liliputing.

Virgin Orbit just earned the orbit part of its name

“This magnificent flight is the culmination of many years of hard work.”

LauncherOne heads to orbit after dropping from its carrier aircraft on Sunday.

Enlarge / LauncherOne heads to orbit after dropping from its carrier aircraft on Sunday. (credit: Virgin Orbit)

On Sunday afternoon, Virgin Orbit joined the rare club of companies that have privately developed a rocket and successfully launched it into orbit. Moreover, with its LauncherOne rocket dropped from a 747 aircraft, the California-based company has become the first to reach orbit with an air-launched, liquid-fueled rocket.

"This magnificent flight is the culmination of many years of hard work and will also unleash a whole new generation of innovators on the path to orbit," said Sir Richard Branson, the founder of the company. "Virgin Orbit has achieved something many thought impossible."

Sunday's flight, which included multiple firings of LauncherOne's upper stage engine and successful deployment of several small satellites for NASA, caps a development program that has spanned about eight years and myriad technical challenges.

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