January 2022 – Page 86 – news.buyenne.com

Android 13 leaks: More Material You options, opt-in to app notifications

Android 13 won’t be out for seven-ish months, but that hasn’t stopped the leaks.

The very first Android 13 developer previews won't be out until at least March, but that isn't stopping Android 13 leaks from popping up already. Of course, more features will be revealed in the coming months, but Android 13 is already shaping up to be a solid release.

More Material You color options

The headline feature of Android 12 was "Material You," a top-to-bottom redesign and dynamic theming system that automatically changed the UI colors depending on your wallpaper. Set a primarily yellow background and Material You will apply various yellow hues to your app backgrounds, notifications, buttons, icons, and more. I think it looks great, but it might not be for everyone.

Android 13 looks to be expanding on the color system and giving users more options. Android Police's Ryne Hager has screenshots from a prerelease build that show four different theming algorithms to pick from. There is "Tonal Spot," which just seems to be the current Android 12 color system, and then three new color systems called "Vibrant," "Expressive" and "Spritz."

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Comcast trying to “torpedo” Biden FCC pick Gigi Sohn, advocacy group says

New Comcast lobbyist listed “FCC nominations” as key issue in initial filing.

Gigi Sohn sitting and answering questions posted by US senators at a hearing.

Comcast's hiring of a new lobbyist is part of an attempt to "torpedo" President Joe Biden's nomination of Gigi Sohn to the Federal Communications Commission, advocacy group Free Press alleged yesterday.

"Comcast just hired a lobbying firm to try to torpedo Gigi Sohn's nomination to the FCC. The company clearly knows that Sohn will work for people, not corporations," Free Press wrote in an email to members. The email asked people to call Commerce Committee Chair Sen. Maria Cantwell (D–Wash.) to urge a vote on Sohn's nomination by the end of January.

Comcast's newly hired lobbyist is Kirk Adams of Consilium Consulting in Phoenix, Arizona. Adams' lobbying disclosure, which was filed with Congress on January 6, lists one specific lobbying issue that he expects to work on: "FCC nominations." An amended version of the lobbying registration filed about 11 hours later deleted "FCC Nominations" and replaced it with "telecommunications policy."

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BlackBerry’s Android apps will reach end of life this summer

BlackBerry recently announced it was shutting down the legacy services that allowed phones running BlackBerry OS to make calls, send and receive text messages, and more. But that shutdown would only affect older phones running BlackBerry’s operating systems and not newer BlackBerry-branded phones running Android. But the company has been slowly pulling the plug on […]

The post BlackBerry’s Android apps will reach end of life this summer appeared first on Liliputing.

But the company has been slowly pulling the plug on some of the Android apps that were unique to phones with the BlackBerry name. Several key apps already reached end of life in 2019, and the rest will no longer be supported after August 31, 2022.

BlackBerry Launcher and DTEK security apps for Android

As spotted by CrackBerry forum member John Albert, BlackBerry’s Software Support Lifecycle website notes that the following Android apps will reach end of life at the end of August, 2022:

Note that reaching end of life doesn’t necessarily mean the apps won’t be available anymore – you can still find some apps that have already been marked as EOL in the Google Play Store, including Productivity Tab, Battery Center, Notable, and Device Search. But since these apps are no longer supported or updated, and some can only be run on BlackBerry-branded phones, it’s unlikely that BlackBerry’s EOL apps come pre-installed on any upcoming phones.

So even if Onward Mobility or another company does bring a new BlackBerry-branded phone to market in the future, it will likely be BlackBerry in name only and not in software. That said, maybe it’s not the software that’s important these days, so much as Onward Mobility’s promise to deliver a phone with a physical keyboard, something that’s increasingly uncommon in the modern smartphone space.

The post BlackBerry’s Android apps will reach end of life this summer appeared first on Liliputing.

Major Online Services Help Identify Pirate Streaming Site Operators

DISH Network and Sling TV are homing in on the alleged operators of SportsBay.org, SportsBay.tv, Live-NBA.stream, and Freefeds.com. In an amended complaint filed this week, the companies now name two defendants who were unmasked after Google, Cloudflare, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, domain companies and others complied with subpoenas.

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

An interesting lawsuit filed in a Texas court during the summer last year saw DISH Network and Sling TV partner up to sue the people behind SportsBay.org, SportsBay.tv, Live-NBA.stream, and Freefeds.com.

Unlike lawsuits against regular pirate IPTV providers, the platforms were alleged to have circumvented the DRM technologies deployed by Sling TV’s streaming system (Widevine, Fairplay, and PlayReady) in order to provide their users with Sling programming, directly from Sling’s servers, for free.

DISH provided considerable detail on how the operation worked while alleging willful violations of the DMCA’s anti-circumvention provisions and claiming considerable sums in damages.

Sometime in September 2021, all of the sites went offline and still haven’t resurfaced, leaving millions of users high and dry. The reasons for the disappearances haven’t been confirmed but DISH had been granted permission to subpoena a number of major service providers to further its case.

Subpoenas Target Major Online Service Providers

The targets of the subpoenas included domain registrar Namecheap (plus domain protection service WhoisGuard), Tucows, Cloudflare, Digital Ocean, Google, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Namecheap was asked to hand over information related to Namecheap or WhoisGuard accounts associated with sportsbay.org, live-nba.stream, freefeds.com, and the IP address 198.54.117.210, from May 2018 through August 3, 2020.

This included documents sufficient to identify the full name and contact information (including street addresses, web addresses, email addresses and telephone numbers) for the person that registered each account, plus documents submitted in order to create or make changes to each account. The subpoena also requested the handover of detailed payment information.

A similar subpoena requesting almost the same information was filed with domain company Tucows and another with Cloudflare, the latter also containing a demand to identify the names of the hosting companies connected with the four domains.

Highlighting a specific server IP address (159.65.35.50), a subpoena sent to Digital Ocean requested the handover of contact, payment and user IP address information, plus all communications sent or received to the accounts.

Google was sent a demand to hand over information related to a specific Google Analytics account including names, addresses and contact records, plus all IP address logs and communications sent to or received from related accounts. Facebook, Instagram and Twitter were ordered to hand over all identifying information they hold on the sites’ social media accounts and it appears other providers were required to hand over information too.

Subpoenas Enable Plaintiffs to Name Defendants

With DISH and Sling apparently leaving no stone unturned, it seemed almost inevitable that one or more of the subpoenas would lead to the identities of one or more of the previously unnamed defendants. That now appears to be the case.

In a first amended complaint filed this week, the plaintiffs identify two men – Juan Barcan and Juan Nahuel Pereyra, both residents of Argentina.

“Defendant Juan Barcan is an individual residing in Buenos Aires, Argentina that owned and operated the Live-nba.stream, Freefeds.com, Sportsbay.org, and Sportsbay.tv domains and websites,” the complaint reads

“Barcan used his PayPal account to make payments to domain registrar Namecheap and GitHub for the Sportsbay Websites. Barcan operated the Sportsbay Websites with CloudFlare, GitHub, and Google accounts.”

“Defendant Juan Nahuel Pereyra is an individual residing in Buenos Aires, Argentina that owned and operated the Live-nba.stream, Freefeds.com, Sportsbay.org, and Sportsbay.tv domains and websites,” it continues.

“Pereyra used his PayPal account to make payments to domain registrar Namecheap for the Sportsbay Websites. Pereyra operated the Sportsbay Websites with CloudFlare and Google accounts.”

The amended complaint further notes that all of the ‘SportsBay websites’ had similarities among their domain registrars and service providers, and each deployed Cloudflare as a reverse proxy, pass-through security service. According to the plaintiffs, all four domains used the same Google Analytics ID (UA-187547947) which is also referenced on a number of other defunct streaming portals not mentioned in the complaint.

Finally, after repeating their calls for damages, DISH and Sling also call for a permanent injunction to prevent the defendants from infringing their rights moving forward, including by circumventing DRM or any other technological protection measures that control access to Sling programming.

The amended complaint can be found here (pdf)

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

New Chrome security measure aims to curtail an entire class of Web attack

Hackers have long used browsers as a beachhead. Google aims for PNA to change that.

Extreme close-up photograph of finger above Chrome icon on smartphone.

For more than a decade, the Internet has remained vulnerable to a class of attacks that uses browsers as a beachhead for accessing routers and other sensitive devices on a targeted network. Now, Google is finally doing something about it.

Starting in Chrome version 98, the browser will begin relaying requests when public websites want to access endpoints inside the private network of the person visiting the site. For the time being, requests that fail won't prevent the connections from happening. Instead, they'll only be logged. Somewhere around Chrome 101—assuming the results of this trial run don't indicate major parts of the Internet will be broken—it will be mandatory for public sites to have explicit permission before they can access endpoints behind the browser.

The planned deprecation of this access comes as Google enables a new specification known as private network access, which permits public websites to access internal network resources only after the sites have explicitly requested it and the browser grants the request. PNA communications are sent using the CORS, or Cross-Origin Resource Sharing, protocol. Under the scheme, the public site sends a preflight request in the form of the new header Access-Control-Request-Private-Network: true. For the request to be granted, the browser must respond with the corresponding header Access-Control-Allow-Private-Network: true.

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Sony Xperia 5 III is now available in the US for $1000 (Flagship phone specs and an adjustable telephoto camera)

The Sony Xperia 5 III is a flagship-class smartphone with a high quality display, a speedy processor, and three rear cameras featuring Sony Exmor image sensors. The telephoto camera also has an adjustable focal length, making the Sony Xperia 5 III one of the first smartphones with that feature. Sony introduced the phone last April, […]

The post Sony Xperia 5 III is now available in the US for $1000 (Flagship phone specs and an adjustable telephoto camera) appeared first on Liliputing.

The Sony Xperia 5 III is a flagship-class smartphone with a high quality display, a speedy processor, and three rear cameras featuring Sony Exmor image sensors. The telephoto camera also has an adjustable focal length, making the Sony Xperia 5 III one of the first smartphones with that feature.

Sony introduced the phone last April, along with its bigger sibling, the Sony Xperia 1 III. Now the Xperia 5 III is finally available in the United States.

The Sony Xperia 5 III is available for about $1000 from Sony, B&H, and Amazon and comes in black or green color options.

That price tag puts the phone squarely in flagship territory. But it’s debatable whether it has the specs to match.

The smartphone has a 6.1 inch, 2520 x 1080 pixel OLED display with a 120 Hz refresh rate, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 processor, 8GB of RAM, and 128GB of storage. There’s a 4,500 mAh battery, and the phone is rated IP65/68 for water resistance and has a fingerprint sensor on the side.

With newer phones packing newer processors and more memory and storage, the Sony Xperia 5 III might seem a bit late to the market with that high-end price tag.

But it does have some features that help it stand out, including its rear camera system featuring:

12MP primary Sony Exmor RS camera with 1/1.7″ image sensor
12MP adjustable telephoto camera with 70mm or 105mm equivalent focal length and Exmor RS 1/2.9″ sensor
12MP ultra wide-angle 16mm camera with Exmor RS 1/2.5″ sensor

Sony says the phone has Zeiss lenses calibrated for Sony’s smartphones, a dedicated shutter button for snapping photos, dual photo diode auto-focus sensors, and support for snapping up to 20 pictures per second with auto-focus.

You can also shoot 4K HDR video at up to 120 frames per second. And there’s also an 8MP front-facing camera.

The phone also has a headphone jack and microSD card reader.

One thing that could make the phone’s $1000 price tag a little easier to swallow? Customers who buy the Xperia 5 III before February 27, 2022 will be able to get a set of Sony WF-1000XM3 true wireless noise cancelling earbuds for free. While these are Sony’s previous-gen flagship earbuds, they still sell for close to $200 if bought separately from the phone.

press release

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Microwave hack replaces flat keypad with mechanical keyboard switches

Keyboard switches give this microwave a more tactile feel.

A Kailh Box Black mechanical keyboard switch. (credit: Scharon Harding)

Ever have a microwave with buttons that won't work properly? If you hit the keys at the right angle, maybe the microwave will respond. Or perhaps, no matter how you push them, the microwave stays silent. What if you could fix the issue without calling a repair company—and simultaneously make pressing the microwave's keypad more enjoyable?

Kailh, which makes mechanical keyboard switches, shared a tweet on Tuesday, highlighting a use for its switches that the company had never seen before. A Reddit user employed some Kailh Box Blacks to make his microwave usable again.

A few switches, wire, cardboard, and adhesive go a long way. (credit: gregschlom/Reddit)

The Reddit user, who goes by gregschlom, wrote that his 9-year-old microwave started malfunctioning, and instead of settling for cold leftovers and unpopped popcorn kernels until repairs could be done, he hardwired the device to Box Black switches. Based on the shared image, the new switches can be used to add 30 seconds, add a minute, cancel the operation, and access the settings menu.

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A very common virus may be the trigger for multiple sclerosis

Scientists have long linked virus that causes mono to MS.

This photomicrograph depicts leukemia cells that contain Epstein Barr virus using an FA staining technique, 1972. Epstein-Barr virus, EBV, is a member of the Herpesvirus family and is one of the most common human viruses.

Evidence is mounting that a garden-variety virus that sometimes causes mono in teens is the underlying cause of multiple sclerosis, a rare neurological disease in which the immune system attacks the brain and spinal cord, stripping away protective insulation around nerve cells, called myelin.

It's still unclear how exactly the virus—the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)—may trigger MS and why MS develops in a tiny fraction of people. About 95 percent of adults have been infected with EBV, which often strikes in childhood. MS, meanwhile, often develops between the ages of 20 and 40 and is estimated to affect around one million people in the US. Yet, years of evidence have consistently pointed to links between the childhood virus and the chronic demyelinating disease later in life.

With a study published today in Science, the link is stronger than ever, and outside experts say the new findings offer further "compelling" evidence that EBV isn't just connected to MS; it's an essential trigger for the disease. The study found, among other things, that people had a 32-fold increase in risk of developing MS following an EBV infection in early adulthood.

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Supreme Court on vaccine mandates: Hospitals OK, general employment a “no”

Split decisions from a deeply divided court.

Statuary and facade outside neoclassical federal building.

The Biden administration has made vaccine mandates central to its attempts to limit the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Or at least it has tried to; various states and other organizations have used the courts to challenge the federal government's authority to impose these mandates. Last week, the Supreme Court heard arguments regarding two of the most significant mandates: one for all hospital workers issued by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and a second for all employees of large companies issued by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).

By the time the cases were argued before the Supreme Court, the HHS rule was already blocked by a stay issued by a lower court. By contrast, the OSHA rules had seen a lower court lift earlier stays, leaving it on the verge of enforcement.

On Thursday, the Supreme Court issued expedited rules that reflected the tone of the questioning the week before. The OSHA rule is now subject to a stay that blocks its implementation, a decision that saw the court's three liberal justices issue a dissent. The stay against the HHS rules was lifted, but only by a close 5-4 ruling.

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2021 obeyed physics, was one of the warmest years on record

La Niña in the Pacific meant no new record, but warming continues apace.

We are still in the midst of running a dangerous experiment on Earth’s climate system, and we get to periodically check in on the results—like laboratory rats peering at the graphs on a whiteboard across the room. And it’s that time again.

Every year, global temperature can be compared to the predictions born of the physics of greenhouse gases. A number of groups around the world maintain global surface temperature datasets. Because of their slightly differing methods for calculating the global average and slightly differing sets of temperature measurements fed into that calculation, these datasets don’t always arrive at exactly the same answer. Lean in close enough and you’ll see differences in the data points, which can translate into differences in their respective rankings of the warmest years. The big picture, on the other hand, looks exactly the same across them.

NASA, NOAA, and the Berkeley Earth group each released their end-of-year data for 2021 today, while the Japanese Meteorological Agency (JMA) and European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) numbers were already out. They all came up with similar rankings this year. All but ECMWF placed it as the sixth warmest year on record, while ECMWF ranked it in fifth place. It was very close to 2015 and 2018, so fifth through seventh are roughly tied. What is true for all of the datasets is that the last seven years are the warmest seven years on record.

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