Month: October 2021

For years critics have claimed that Amazon rips off the companies that sell their products through its online store by using data to determine which items are likely to be popular and then creating and selling their own knockoffs, undercutting the competition on price and by promoting its own products. Now a report from Reuters looks through leaked internal documents which appear to confirm that this is exactly what Amazon is doing, at least in India.

In other recent tech news from around the web, new phones from OnePlus and Black Shark, new rugged laptops from Dell, a new Bluetooth speaker from Bose, and a Nintendo Switch OLED teardown from iFixit.

Amazon copied products and rigged search results to promote its own brands, documents show [Reuters]

Leaked internal documents from Amazon confirm what was already pretty clear: Amazon has used internal data to identify popular products, then create its own knockoffs and promote them.

New Dell Latitude Rugged: Extreme Laptops for Extreme Jobs [Dell]

Dell updates its Latitude Rugged line of PCs with new models sporting Intel Tiger Lake chips, Windows 11 software, 5G support, and tough cases that can withstand impact, extreme temperatures, vibration, and more.

Nintendo Switch OLED Teardown: More Than Screen Deep [iFixit]

Nintendo Switch OLED teardown provides a closer look at the new cooling design, PCBs, and other hardware behind the new display.

OnePlus 9RT launched: Snapdragon 888 phone with a 50 MP camera and OIS starting at the equivalent of US$500 [NotebookCheck]

OnePlus has launched the OnePlus 9RT smartphone for the Chinese market, with 6.62 inch FHD+ 120 Hz AMOLED display, Snapdragon 888, 12GB RAM, up to 256GB storage, 50MP primary camera, 16MP ultra-wide, and 2MP Macro.

Black Shark 4S Pro arrives with Snapdragon 888 Plus, 4S get Gundam Edition [GSM Arena]

Black Shark 4S and 4S Pro gaming phones with Snapdragon 888+ processors, 6.67 inch AMOLED 144 Hz displays, 720 Hz touch sampling, and UFS 3.1 storage launch in China for around $420 and up. Other features include 120W fast charging and 4,500 mAh batteries.

Bose introduces Soundlink Flex portable speaker [Bose]

Bose Soundlink Flex is a $149 Bluetooth speaker that’s waterproof and even floats to the surface if it falls in water. It can auto-detect the speaker’s orientation to adjust sound accordingly. It weighs about a pound & comes in black, white, or blue.

Palm is making a pair of earbuds for that tiny Android phone you forgot about [9to5Google]

Palm is teasing a new product, and it sure looks a lot like a set of true wireless earbuds. Also, this isn’t the old Palm. It’s the company that bought the rights to the Palm name and released an Android phone with a 3.3 inch display in 2018 for some reason. 

Get ready #PalmCrew! We have something special we’ve been working on for you. pic.twitter.com/hTudi0tDsu

— Palm (@palm) October 12, 2021

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The post Lilbits: Amazon the knockoff artist, Dell’s rugged laptops, new OnePlus and Black Shark phones appeared first on Liliputing.

Enlarge / Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. (credit: Gage Skidmore / Flickr)

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) thinks he has found a way to stabilize Texas’ electric grid in case another deep freeze hits the state. He wants to use the power of bitcoin.

“Because of the ability of bitcoin mining to turn on or off instantaneously, if you have a moment where you have a power shortage or a power crisis, whether it’s a freeze or some other natural disaster where power generation capacity goes down, that creates the capacity to instantaneously shift that energy to put it back on the grid,” Cruz told the Texas Blockchain Summit last week.

There are a few reasons why what he said doesn’t add up. But let’s start with his assumptions. First, large bitcoin-mining operations use hundreds or thousands of powerful computers, which create a demand for power. If power plants can profitably mine bitcoin using the electricity they generate—and there are examples of that already—it stands to reason that bitcoin mining could create enough demand that investors would be enticed to build new power plants. Those plants could theoretically be tasked with providing power to the grid in cases of emergency.

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In response to a request from the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR), the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) has submitted a list of so-called ‘Notorious Markets’ to the US government.

Representing some of the biggest names in video gaming, from Activision, EA, Nintendo, and Ubisoft, to Capcom, Microsoft, Konami, and Square Enix, the ESA acts as a voice for companies producing billions of dollars worth of content. According to the trade group, all are under threat from a wide range of piracy-focused or piracy facilitating platforms.

“As the U.S. association that represents companies that publish interactive games for video game consoles, handheld devices, personal computers, and the Internet, the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) regards the review of notorious markets as an important opportunity to shed light on markets that facilitate mass infringement or counterfeiting of industry products and services and that remain either sheltered from, or impervious to, the deterrent effects of enforcement actions,” the ESA’s submission begins.

Hyperlinking Websites

In line with previous submissions to the USTR, the ESA first highlights the threat posed by sites that don’t host any infringing content themselves but link to third-party storage sites (file-hosting/cyberlockers).

These link sites typically generate revenue from user donations, advertising, or both, and the ESA selects a number due to their high levels of traffic and the volume of infringing links on offer. A key factor for a platform’s inclusion is the claim that it is also non-responsive to notices sent by rightsholders to have infringing links removed.

At the top of the list is OceanofGames.com, which was found to have links leading to 5,100 pirated titles belonging to ESA members following an analysis carried out in August 2021.

According to the trade group, the site is now hosted in Ukraine having departed France last year, which perhaps explains why the site removed just 1% of the content listed in ESA member copyright infringement notices. OceanofGames is presented in a release blog format and can deliver sizeable games in just a single click, providing ease of use for visitors but irritation for the ESA’s members.

Nsw2u.xyz (previously branded Switch-xci) offers links to pirated games for most platforms including PC. However, the ESA highlights the importance of the site to the Nintendo Switch piracy market. In September 2021, the site carried 5,500 posts carrying links to game downloads for the popular console, which include its most recently launched titles.

The ESA complains that the site uses various techniques to stymie anti-piracy enforcement, including by utilizing alternative .com and .org domains. The website reportedly ignores all ESA takedown notices and uses an unnamed “U.S.-based content delivery network” to conceal the identities of its operators. A cursory search reveals that CDN provider is Cloudflare.

Finally, the ESA calls out Darkw.pl for indexing more than 65,000 links to its members’ titles to service more than 187,000 registered users. This site also uses Cloudflare and according to the ESA, blocks US IP addresses “in an effort to appear offline.” At the time of writing, the site returns a 404 message when accessed from IP addresses inside or outside the United States.

Hosting Sites / Cyberlockers

In common with many anti-piracy groups, the ESA uses the pejorative term ‘cyberlockers’ to describe file-hosting platforms that carry a large amount of infringing content. These cyberlockers usually have no search facility themselves so work in tandem with the types of linking sites listed above in order to deliver content to users.

After making an appearance in earlier reports, the main thorn in the ESA’s side remains 1fichier.com. At the time of writing, this huge platform enjoys around 35 million visits per month and in August was reportedly hosting at least 1,156 copies of ESA member video game titles. Takedown notices are sent to the platform but they are overwhelmingly ignored, with just 0.71% of notices receiving a response.

“1fichier’s extremely low compliance rate for the removal of infringing content attracts more unauthorized uploaders to the platform due to the fact that the content will remain active on the platform for longer periods of time,” the ESA’s submission reads.

“Linking websites that index and manage the links to content hosted on 1fichier also benefit from the platform’s low compliance rate as these websites derive greater advertising revenue from users clicking on the links to pirate content hosted on 1fichier.”

The ESA is clearly frustrated by the lack of cooperation and highlights that despite losing criminal and civil cases in 2021, the French-based company behind 1fichier hasn’t changed the way it operates.

In an April decision handed down by the Nancy Criminal Court, the company was convicted for not removing pirated content from its servers and ordered to pay a fine of 1.3 million euros (US$1.5 million). Its chairman was also handed a one-year suspended prison sentence. In May, a Paris court ruled against 1fichier in a civil case involving Nintendo, which also resulted in a million-dollar fine.

“Although the Court ordered provisional enforcement of its decision, which should have resulted in immediate compliance by the company, the company operating the 1fichier platform has failed to do so,” the ESA notes.

Finally, file-hosting platform Rapidu.net is also called out for hosting 10,600 ESA members’ games, while also using the services of Cloudflare.

Torrent Sites

Just two torrent sites are listed in the ESA’s submission – TorrentFunk.com and TorrentDownloads.pro. They stand accused of hosting .torrent files (3,300 and 3,200 respectively) that link to ESA member game titles, according to analysis carried out in August. The sites are reportedly not responsive to takedown notices and in common with other platforms in the list, both utilize the services of Cloudflare.

Cheating and Digital Goods Platforms

Finally, the ESA highlights the problems it has with the unauthorized sale of in-game digital items on third-party platforms and the nuisance of services designed to help users cheat in multiplayer games.

On the cheating front, the ESA calls out unknowncheats.me for offering cheats and tutorials for 100+ games, and se7ensins.com for providing access to mods, boosting services, and support for reversing bans handed down by game publishers. Other sites include mpgh.net, iwantcheats.net and engineowning.com, which are all reported for similar behavior.

In respect of unauthorized marketplaces that allow users to list and sell digital items such as in-game currency and items, game accounts, and unlicensed game keys, the ESA reports threats from g2a.com, playerauctions.com, and g2g.com.

The ESA hopes that the USTR will designate all of the above as ‘notorious markets’ in its final report so that they can be held to account overseas.

“The resulting Notorious Markets List provides important insights that allow national and local policymakers, as well as law enforcement officials, in other countries to evaluate and fairly demand accountability from these markets and the services that support them, including through appropriate enforcement actions,” the ESA concludes.

The ESA submission to the USTR can be found here (pdf)

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

The folks at reMarkable sell tablets with E Ink displays and digital pens that are designed for taking notes, drawing pictures, and reading documents. Basically they’re digital replacements for pen and paper. But you know, more expensive than a legal pad thanks to a $399 price tag.

Now you can also add a subscription fee to the equation: reMarkable has announced that it’s launching an optional subscription service called reMarkable Connect.

The good news is that if you bought a reMarkable tablet before October 12, 2021 then you’re grandfathered in and have access to all of the reMarkable Connect features free of charge.

More good news? The service is entirely optional. Want to just buy a tablet and use it as you see fit? You can still do that by purchasing a tablet outright.

But new customers who want to make use of some of the tablet’s best features will have to pony up some cash moving forward.

A full reMarkable Connect subscription will set you back $8 per month and it gives you access to features including:

• Handwriting conversion to printed text
• Unlimited cloud storage
• Integration with Google Drive and Dropbox
• Screen Share collaboration features

There’s also a $5/month Connect Lite option that offers unlimited cloud storage without the other features like handwriting conversion.

The company is sweetening the deal a little by offering a $100 discount on the purchase of a remarkable 2 tablet for customers who sign up for a Connect subscription plan. And Connect customers also get a 36-month extended warranty on the purchase of a reMarkable 2 tablet or accessories.

While the idea that you need a subscription to take advantage of key features like handwriting recognition and conversion is a bit of a bummer, it also makes sense for a company that’s only released two hardware products over the past few years, but which continues to release software update after software update. An ongoing revenue source gives reMarkable incentive to continue supporting its existing hardware rather than trying to convince users to replace last year’s model with next year’s.

via reMarkable Blog

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A handful of single-board computers with RISC-V processors have hit the market over the past year or so, making it easier for developers to begin working with hardware powered by RISC-V chips. But most have been low-power, low-performance systems that ship without any sort of 3D graphics processor.

The new Alibaba T-Head RVB-ICE dev board bucks at least part of that trend. This $399 development board features a 1.2 GHz dual-core RISC-V processor with an integrated GPU and neural processing unit. It also comes with a 7 inch display.

RISC-V is an open standard ISA (instruction set architecture) that’s starting to gain steam as an alternative to ARM and x86 architecture… although it’s a much younger technology and even the most powerful RISC-V chips available at the moment tend to lag behind the competition in terms of raw performance.

But these boards are largely aimed at developers looking to work with the emerging RISC-V platform, and since this new dev board has a GPU and NPU, it allows some processing to be offloaded to those units, which could speed things up considerably in some use cases.

At the heart of the T-Head RVB-ICE is a 1.2 GHz Xuantie C910 RISC-V 64GC dual-core processor with Vivante GC800L graphics and un unspecified NPU. The system also has 4GB of LPDDR4 RAM, 16GB of eMMC flash storage, and a microSD card reader for removable storage.

While the board has an LCD display interface with support for up to a 1080p display, the dev kit comes with a 7 inch, 1024 x 600 pixel capacitive touchscreen display.

Other features include a Gigabit Ethernet port, WiFi and Bluetooth support, USB-C and micro USB 3.0 ports, and a power jack for a 5W power supply.

The board should be able to run Android 11 or Debian 11 software.

If $399 seems like to much spend on a RISC-V dev board, there are lower-cost options. Earlier this year the Nezha single-board computer with a 1 GHz XuanTie C906 single-core RISC-V processor went on sale. It’s currently available for $115 plus shipping, but for that price you get a less powerful processor and no support for hardware-accelerated 3D graphics.

The new RVB-ICE dev board with a dual-core processor, GPU, NPU, and display, meanwhile, is available for pre-order from AliExpress for $399.

via CNX Software and LinuxGizmos

The post This $399 RISC-V dev board features 3D graphics and comes with a 7 inch display appeared first on Liliputing.

Apple’s M1 processor delivers some of the best single-core performance of any chip currently available for laptop or desktop computers, and while there are high-end chips that score higher in multi-core benchmarks, they also tend to consume a lot more power than Apple’s energy-efficient processors.

One of the cheapest ways to get your hands on a computer with an Apple M1 processor is to pick up a 2020 Mac Mini. And now it’s even cheaper than usual to do that – Amazon is selling the little desktop computer for up to $150 off.

Here are some of the day’ best deals.

• Apple Mac Mini w/M1 chip/8GB RAM/512GB SSD for $750 – Amazon (price in cart)
• Apple Mac Mini w/M1/8GB/256GB for $600 – Amazon (price in cart)
• Beelink SEI7 mini PC w/Core i5-8279U/8GB/256GB for $382 – Amazon
• Beelink SEI7 mini PC w/Core i5-8279U/16GB/512GB for $458 – Amazon
• Samsung Chromebook 4 11.6″ w/Celeron N4000/4GB/32GB for $129 – Walmart
• WD Elements SE 2TB portable USB SSD for $220 – Amazon
• Anker Soundcore Liberty Neo true wireless earbuds for $35 – Newegg (coupon: 93XSA55)
• Name your price for a bundle of fantasy eBooks – StoryBundle

The post Daily Deals (10-13-2021) appeared first on Liliputing.

The VAIO SX12 is a compact notebook with a 12.5 inch full HD display and a body that measures 0.7 inches thick and which weighs about 2 pounds.

Japanese PC maker VIAO introduced the first version of the laptop in 2019 and released a newer version with updated processor options a year later. Now it’s time for another refresh, and this year VAIO is bringing support for up to an Intel Core i7-1195G7 Tiger Lake processor.

The new VAIO SX12 has a 12.5 inch, 1920 x 1080 pixel IPS LCD display, a 2MP webcam with support for face recognition, a fingerprint sensor, and support for WiFi 6, Bluetooth 5.1, and more ports than you’d typically find in a compact laptop, including:

• 2 x Thunderbolt 4
• 2 x USB 3.0 Type-A
• 1 x HDMI
• 1 x Gigabit Ethernet
• 1 x 3.5mm headphone/mic jack

One port that the company seems to finally be giving up on is VGA, which had been included with previous-gen VAIO SX12 models.

Under the hood, the computer features LPDDR4x RAM and PCIe 4.0 NVMe solid state storage, and the notebook will be available in at least three different configurations:

• Core i5-1155G7/8GB/256GB
• Core i5-1155G7/16GB/512GB
• Core i7-1195G7/16GB/512GB

The new VAIO SX12 will be available in Japan starting October 22nd, but it’ll most likely roll out to other markets in the future – the previous-gen model with a 10th-gen Intel Comet Lake processor currently sells for $1199 and up in the United States.

VAIO is also refreshing its 14 inch VAIO SX14 notebooks with new models featuring similar specs (up to a Core i7-1195G7 processor, 16GB of RAM, and 512GB of storage). These laptops are a little heavier, but at just about 1 kilogram (2.2 pounds), they’re still awfully lightweight for 14 inch notebooks.

via PC Watch (1)(2)

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Enlarge / An American Airlines Boeing 787 lands at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport. (credit: Getty Images | Joshua Olson)

American Airlines and Southwest Airlines said they will not comply with the Texas governor's ban on vaccine mandates, saying that the US vaccine mandate for federal contractors takes precedence. Both airlines are headquartered in Texas.

"We are reviewing the executive order issued by Gov. Abbott, but we believe the federal vaccine mandate supersedes any conflicting state laws, and this does not change anything for American," an American Airlines spokesperson told The Washington Post and other news organizations. Southwest said that "according to the president's executive order, federal action supersedes any state mandate or law, and we would be expected to comply with the president's order to remain compliant as a federal contractor," according to CNBC.

IBM, which is based in New York but has several large offices in Texas, will also follow the federal order instead of the one in Texas. "IBM is a federal contractor and must comply with federal requirements, which direct employees of federal contractors to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by December 8th or obtain a medical or religious accommodation," IBM told Bloomberg. "We will continue to protect the health and safety of IBM employees and clients, and we will continue to follow federal requirements."

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Enlarge (credit: Epic Games)

Epic Games keeps piling up lawsuits with app store owners. This time, Google is countersuing Epic for breach of contract.

Epic signed contracts with both Google and Apple, pledging to use the default payment systems for in-app purchases. As part of its push for more open payment systems, though (and to dodge each platform's 30 percent fee), Epic boldly pushed out updates to the Android and iOS apps that switched the payment processing from the platforms' in-app purchases to Epic's in-house system. Google and Apple both allege this action was a breach of their app store contracts with Epic.

Apple sued and got its ruling last month. Epic was ordered to pay $3.65 million in damages, covering Apple's lost revenue from Epic's three months of self-powered payments. Following that ruling, Google wants its missing money, too, and now it's countersuing Epic, hoping for a similar ruling.

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