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We already know that Google’s next flagship phone could be the first device to ship with a custom processor designed by Google with help from Samsung. But now there’s evidence that the Pixel 6 will also have the same graphics processor as …
We already know that Google’s next flagship phone could be the first device to ship with a custom processor designed by Google with help from Samsung. But now there’s evidence that the Pixel 6 will also have the same graphics processor as some recent Samsung flagships, which could make it a much more powerful option […]
The post Lilbits: Pixel 6 GPU details leaked, ONEXPLAYER handheld gaming PC price hike, and postmarketOS turns 4 appeared first on Liliputing.
One-time connection required for configuration on Xbox One and Smart Delivery discs.
Oh boy, my disc-based Xbox One game is "Ready to start" on the Xbox Series X! [credit: Xbox ]
Disc-based Xbox One games and many cross-generational discs that rely on "Smart Delivery" require an online connection to play on the Xbox Series X, limiting the system's ballyhooed backward compatibility. This limitation, which has been present since the console launched last year, was recently highlighted in a video by ModernVintageGaming and was confirmed in testing by Ars Technica.
When you put an Xbox One disc in the Xbox Series X, the system copies the data off the disc and onto the internal hard drive, mirroring what happens if you put the disc into an Xbox One. But if the Series X isn't connected to the Internet, trying to load that disc-based copy from the hard drive for the first time results in an error message: "This game isn't ready yet. Go online to finish installing it."
When inserted into an Xbox One, that same disc can be copied to the hard drive and loaded, even if the system is completely offline (provided the disc remains in the drive in all cases).
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WebKit bug that was fixed upstream has yet to find its way into Apple products.
Enlarge (credit: Getty Images)
Apple has yet to patch a security bug found in iPhones and Macs despite the availability of a fix released almost three weeks ago, a researcher said.
The vulnerability resides in WebKit, the browser engine that powers Safari and all browsers that run on iOS. When the vulnerability was fixed almost three weeks ago by open source developers outside of Apple, the fix's release notes said that the bug caused Safari to crash. A researcher from security firm Theori said the flaw is exploitable, and despite the availability of a fix, the bug is still present in iOS and macOS.
“This bug yet again demonstrates that patch-gapping is a significant danger with open source development,” Theori researcher Tim Becker wrote in a post published Tuesday. “Ideally, the window of time between a public patch and a stable release is as small as possible. In this case, a newly released version of iOS remains vulnerable weeks after the patch was public.”
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Canada’s Federal Court of Appeal concluded today that the country’s first pirate site blocking order can stay in place. The Court dismissed the appeal from Internet provider TekSavvy. According to the Court, site-blocking injunctions don’t violate the Copyright Act, freedom of speech, or net neutrality. While it’s not a perfect remedy, it trumps other available options.
From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.
In 2018, Canada’s Federal Court approved the country’s first pirate site-blocking order.
Following a complaint from major media companies Rogers, Bell and TVA, the Court ordered several major ISPs to block access to the domains and IP-addresses of pirate IPTV service GoldTV.
There was little opposition from Internet providers, except for TekSavvy, which quickly announced that it would appeal the ruling. The blocking injunction threatens the open Internet to advance the interests of a few powerful media conglomerates, the company said.
Soon after, the landmark case also drew the interest of several third parties. There were copyright holder groups that argued in favor of site blocking, but also the Canadian domain registry (CIRA) and the University of Ottowa’s legal clinic CIPPIC, which both oppose the blocking order.
In March the Federal Court of Appeal heard arguments from both sides and today Justice George R. Locke issued the final judgment, which dismisses the appeal.
In a 42-page reasoning, Justice Locke considers whether the Federal Court has the power to grant a blocking order, if that order violates freedom of expression, and whether it is just and equitable. On all issues the Court sides with the copyright holders.
TekSavvy argued that site-blocking shouldn’t be used as a remedy because it isn’t specifically mentioned in the Copyright Act carefully constructed in Parliament. Copyright holders should rely on the notice-and-notice system instead. However, Justice Locke disagrees.
“The fact that Parliament has put in place a regime to notify an alleged copyright infringer that its activities have come to the attention of the copyright owner does not suggest that this represents a limit on the remedies to which the copyright owner is entitled,” the reasoning reads.
According to the Court, there is no doubt that the GoldTV Service infringes the plaintiffs’ copyrights. And after an injunction against the service itself failed to have any effect, a site-blocking injunction is warranted.
TekSavvy also argued that site-blocking would violate net neutrality. According to the Telecommunications Act, ISPs are not allowed to control or influence the content on their network without approval from the CRTC. Again, the Federal Court of Appeal sees things differently.
“In my view, the general wording of section 36 of the Telecommunications Act does not displace the Federal Court’s equitable powers of injunction, including the power to impose a site-blocking order,” Justice Locke writes.
The reasoning clarifies that TekSavvy isn’t “controlling or influencing” anything when it complies with a court order. On the contrary, it is being controlled or influenced by the order.
The freedom of expression defenses didn’t fare much better. The Court of Appeal sees no errors in the original verdict and concludes that this factor was sufficiently considered. This includes any potential over-blocking problems that may occur.
TekSavvy’s arguments that the blocking order not ‘just and equitable’ were dismissed as well. This includes the burden that a constant stream of blocking amendments and dozens of new blocking cases will cause.
Justice Locke agrees that problems may eventually arise in the future, but these will be dealt with then. They are no reason to deny the blocking order.
Finally, the Federal Court of Appeal wasn’t receptive to the suggestion that copyright holders should consider other non-blocking options first, such as seeking help from Cloudflare or payment providers. There is no basis to conclude that these options would be effective, according to the Court.
All in all, Justice Locke concludes that the appeal should be dismissed and Justices Nadon and LeBlanc concur.
“Having found no error in the Judge’s conclusion that the Federal Court has the power to grant a site-blocking order, and having likewise found no error in his analysis of the applicable legal test, I conclude that this Court should not interfere with the Judge’s decision,” Justice Locke writes.
Update: Responses
The Canadian domain registry CIRA, which intervened in this case, is disappointed with the outcome.
“Many Canadians will be disappointed by today’s ruling,” CIRA president and CEO, Byron Holland says. “While it is important to underline that the court did not open the door for ISPs to block of their own volition, we believe fundamentally that there are more proportionate responses to copyright infringement than the GoldTV precedent prescribes.”
From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.
Arm is also floating a laptop chip design with eight Cortex X2 cores.
Speeds and feeds for the three new CPU designs. [credit: Arm ]
Arm has announced its next-generation CPU designs, which will probably hit the market in early 2022. With all-new cores, a new architecture, and the death of 32 bit, the new designs are proving to be among Arm's biggest releases in some time. It looks like ARM has not published a post with this information, but you can't ask for a better source than the pages of info at Anandtech.
Arm CPU designs include cores in three sizes: "little," "big," and "performance," all of which tackle different workloads at various power-consumption levels. The follow-up to this year's "performance" X1 core is the Cortex X2, the big core is the Cortex A710, and for the first time in four years, ARM is introducing a new "little" core for high-efficiency workloads, the Cortex A510. Devices will finally be rid of the smaller Cortex A55 cores that were introduced in 2017.
Naturally, everything is faster. ARM is promising a 16 percent faster X2 core compared to current-generation X1-based chips, a 10 percent faster and 30 percent more efficient "big" core, and a 35 percent faster and 20 percent more efficient "little" core. Every core design is also seeing a 2-3x improvement in machine-learning performance, for whatever that's worth. Put all those digits together and ARM says a CPU cluster with the typical phone layout (one Cortex X2, three A710s, and four A510s) should have 30 percent better peak performance and 30 percent better-sustained efficacy.
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French officials likened the lies to campaigns run by Russia’s Internet Research Agency.
Enlarge / The Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, on Friday, Dec. 11, 2020. (credit: Getty | Bloomberg)
French authorities are investigating whether the Russian government is behind an effort to spread dangerous lies about Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine as part of a disinformation campaign peddled to French bloggers and influencers.
In recent days, several French influencers have publicly noted receiving partnership proposals from a dodgy agency, called Fazze, over email or social media. The proposals, written in broken English, offered enticing lumps of money if the influencers spread entirely false claims and doubts about COVID-19 vaccines. Among the proposed claims is the dangerous falsehood that people who received the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine have a death rate three times higher than those who received the vaccine by AstraZeneca.
French news outlet Numerama obtained a copy of one of the emailed offers, which directed influencers to “Tell that mainstream media ignores this theme and you decided to share it with your subscriber [sic].” The offer also said to “put a question like ‘Why some governments actively purchasing Pfizer vaccine, which is dangerous to health of the people[sic]?’” The offer directed influencers to end their messages by encouraging subscribers to “draw their own conclusions.”
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The Apple TV 4K itself is surprisingly easy to service. Its remote? Not so much.
Opening the bottom of the Apple TV 4K reveals this large fan. [credit: iFixit ]
After iFixit completed its 24-inch iMac teardown, attention turned to the new Apple TV 4K, which launched on the same day last week. A new YouTube video shows the process of opening and servicing the streaming box and its brand-new, fully redesigned remote.
None of the internal components found in the new Apple TV 4K is a surprise. The device contains Apple's A12 chip (the same found in the iPhone XS), which is a substantial upgrade for gaming performance over the A10 in the 2017 model. Apart from that, though, it looks pretty much the same as before.
The 2021 Apple TV 4K ended up being simple to disassemble and service. Like its immediate predecessor, the new Apple TV 4K can be opened with a screwdriver, its components are modular, and those components are relatively easy to remove and put back in. As with the 2017 model, iFixit gave the streaming box an 8 out of 10 repairability score.
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Hindsight is 20/20: “There’s nothing more important than knowing where you’re going.”
Enlarge / No, the Collider interview doesn't mention Jar Jar, but who doesn't love an opportunity to put JJ next to Star Wars' other big "JJ"? (credit: Sam Machkovech / Lucasfilm / Getty Images)
An upcoming interview with filmmaker JJ Abrams will span the entirety of his career, and that means it includes significant statements about his work on the latest Star Wars trilogy. From the sound of things, 17 months of distance from his last Star Wars film, Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker, have given him either the clarity or the cushion needed to speak frankly on what the film arguably flubbed.
Ahead of the full interview's publication—which takes advantage of the upcoming 10th-anniversary Blu-ray of Abrams' Super 8—Collider released an excerpt on Wednesday focusing on his directing and co-writing work on both Episodes VII and IX. The takeaway seems loud and clear: the new trilogy as a whole, which he bookended, would have benefited from more consistency.
Abrams' quotes in isolation may sound like he's speaking about the entirety of his career, but they're specifically in response to Collider's questions about the director and writer hand-off between entries in the "Rey trilogy." His first answer includes a bigger-picture estimation about best-laid plans, hinting to issues with a single actor or when "a relationship as written doesn't quite work."
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Amazon announces purchase, promises “greater access” to historic studio’s films.
Enlarge (credit: Aurich Lawson | Steve Jurvetson)
Amazon today announced a definitive agreement to buy MGM (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer) for $8.45 billion. Amazon said that MGM's filmmaking prowess "complements the work of Amazon Studios, which has primarily focused on producing TV show programming."
Buying MGM would let Amazon add plenty of movies to its Prime Video streaming service. It's not clear whether MGM's theatrical-release strategy would change. "Amazon will help preserve MGM's heritage and catalog of films and provide customers with greater access to these existing works. Through this acquisition, Amazon would empower MGM to continue to do what they do best: great storytelling," the merger announcement said.
Amazon said the purchase "is subject to regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions" but did not provide an estimated closing date. The acquisition announcement came about a week after news reports revealed the negotiations.
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In Nordrhein-Westfalen untersucht eine KI-Software künftig beschlagnahmte Daten auf kinderpornografische Inhalte. (KI, Politik/Recht)
In Nordrhein-Westfalen untersucht eine KI-Software künftig beschlagnahmte Daten auf kinderpornografische Inhalte. (KI, Politik/Recht) 
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