Month: March 2022

Today’s best deals: Nintendo Switch Lite, Fully standing desks, and more

Dealmaster also has discounts on the iPad, Paramount Plus, and AMD Ryzen processors.

Today’s best deals: Nintendo Switch Lite, Fully standing desks, and more

Enlarge (credit: Ars Technica)

It's time for another Dealmaster. Our latest roundup of the best tech deals from around the web includes a modest but notable discount on the Nintendo Switch Lite at Amazon subsidiary Woot. It's just $10 off, and you'll have to be an Amazon Prime member to access the deal, but since the console hardly ever receives any kind of discount, the offer is worth noting for anyone who is in the market for the console in the first place. If that includes you, Woot says the deal will be available for today only, and you'll need to log in to Woot with your Amazon account to see the discount at checkout.

As a refresher, the Switch Lite is the smaller, portable-only version of Nintendo's console: its 5.5-inch LCD display isn't as big or vibrant as that of the newer Switch OLED, and it can't be docked to a TV for use on a bigger screen. But it's just as powerful, so it works with the same library of games, and it's naturally easier to take on the road. It's still well-built, too, with a genuine d-pad and slightly softer face buttons that also make less noise when pressed. Most importantly, it's less expensive, here marked down to $190 compared to the $300 Switch and $350 Switch OLED.

If you don't need any new video game hardware, the Dealmaster also has a sale on Fully's Jarvis line of electric standing desks, which we've previously recommended in our guide to good home office gear. A number of Jarvis configurations are currently 15 percent off at Amazon and Fully's own online store. The desks still aren't all that cheap, and they're generally on the heavy side, but they continue to offer high-quality builds, an appreciable range of customizations, and long warranties of five years on desktop surfaces and 15 years on desk frame components.

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How to make a sound wave spin? Hit it with a pipe

Spinning sound waves open up new possibilities for acoustic traps and tricks.

How to make a sound wave spin? Hit it with a pipe

Enlarge (credit: Wikipedia)

It's a question I'm sure was keeping you up at night: can you make an object spin with a sound wave? The answer, generally speaking, used to be no. Now, though, mechanical engineers have taken a look at what their colleagues who play with lasers can do, and having seen the light, they copied it. And with that, spinning objects with sound waves has been achieved… but only in simulations.

Is it really that hard to make things spin?

To get an idea of why making things spin with sound waves is difficult, picture a tube that holds a turbine. Normally, to make the turbine spin, a fluid would flow past the blades of the turbine. The force of the fluid on the blades imparts a torque, which sets the turbine spinning. If we replace that flow with a pressure wave (like a sound wave), the fluid moves back and forth. So the local motion will first impart a torque that is clockwise and then one that is counterclockwise. The result is a rocking motion.

More fundamentally, the wave carries linear momentum but not angular momentum (specifically, it's orbital angular momentum, but we'll drop the "orbital"). Something that spins has angular momentum. In the turbine example, the total angular momentum cannot change. If the wave has no angular momentum and the turbine has no angular momentum, nothing will change.

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Brazzers Owner Awarded $36.5m in ‘YesPornPlease’ Copyright Lawsuit

In February 2020, MG Premium, part of the Mindgeek adult empire, sued unlicensed porn ‘tube’ site YesPornPlease and affiliate VShare.io. Both platforms soon went offline but after more than two years of legal proceedings, a court has now awarded MG Premium $36.5 million in copyright damages. It claimed to have lost more than $727 million.

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

MG Premium, part of the Mindgeek adult empire, had been homing in piracy platforms YesPornPlease.com and VShare.io for some time.

In 2019 the Brazzers owner obtained a DMCA subpoena requiring Cloudflare to hand over the personal details of the sites’ owners. In January 2020, YesPornPlease had around 100 million visitors per month (SimilarWeb stats) so any information would’ve been useful to MG Premium.

Sources within unlicensed adult site circles soon indicated that Cloudflare had little to offer but according to MG, the sites infringed its copyrights on a grand scale so something needed to be done about them.

MG Premium Files Copyright Lawsuit

Late February 2020, MG Premium filed a full-blown copyright lawsuit in a Washington court against the then-unknown operators of the platforms. It alleged that the platforms operated under the guise of being user-generated content sites but were in fact directly and knowingly involved in the “trafficking of tens of thousands of pirated works.”

Almost immediately the sites went offline but MG Premium’s claims stood and were further honed in an amended complaint filed in December 2020.

MG Premium named Thomas Zang (Belize), Howard Stroble (US), Matthew Bradley (Gibraltar or GB), Michael Goal (Columbia), Mateusz Czajka (Poland), plus Viktor Ivanov and Aleksey Samokhinas as defendants. The adult content company alleged egregious and willful violations of its copyrights by defendants who failed to comply with the requirements of the DMCA, including by failing to register a DMCA agent, failing to respond to takedown notices, and failing to implement a repeat infringer policy.

As a result, MG said they could claim no safe harbor as a service provider.

“The YesPornPlease Web Site is a pirate website, displaying copyrighted adult entertainment content without authorization or license,” MG Premium wrote in its amended complaint.

“The YesPornPlease Web Site is operated in conjunction with the VShare Web Site, wherein purported Internet users desiring to post videos on the YesPornPlease Web Site must actually upload the video to the VShare Web Site and then are directed to ‘copy and paste’ the URL assigned to the uploaded video on the VShare Web Site onto the YesPornPlease Web Site.”

MG Premium further alleged that users were encouraged to upload content in exchange for monetary rewards based on the length of the video, the amount of content downloaded and the time actually watched. The YesPornPlease site generated revenue via pop-up ads, MG added.

Stating that the defendants engaged in “intentional, knowing, negligent, or willfully blind conduct”, MG Premium alleged direct copyright infringement and inducement of copyright infringement relating to 3,078 of its copyrighted works, demanding the maximum of $150,000 in statutory damages for each.

The adult company also requested broad preliminary and permanent injunctions plus a freeze on the sites’ domains.

MG Premium Claims Losses of $727 Million

Since none of the defendants appeared in court to respond to the complaint, MG Premium served them via email, enabling it to move for a default judgment. Interestingly, the 3,078 allegedly infringed works were subsequently trimmed down to 2,433 since the remainder were displayed before MG had registered them at the US Copyright Office.

Nevertheless, 2,433 copyrighted works is still a high number considering the maximum statutory damages of $150,000 per work available – a total of almost $365 million.

To support this claim, MG Premium settled on YesPornPlease having 3.2 million users per month for the 24 months preceding the lawsuit, arguing that a subscription to Brazzers is $9.99 per month, therefore it “lost” revenues of $727,232,000 during that period.

Judge Issues Default Judgment

In a default judgment handed down Tuesday, Judge Benjamin H. Settle writes that he wasn’t happy with the losses being claimed and wasn’t convinced that maximum statutory damages were warranted either.

“[W]hile MG Premium has demonstrated that maximum statutory damage awards are often affirmed when the infringement is willful, it has not cited a case making or affirming a statutory damages award anywhere near the sum it seeks, particularly against individual defendants,” his judgment reads.

“Further, MG Premium’s claimed lost revenue is speculative; the 3.2 million users it cites admittedly did not pay Defendants the sum it claims it charges for access to its adult videos. In other words, MG Premium did not lose, and Defendants did not make, $727 million when Defendants provided free access to MG Premium’s protected works. $365 million is similarly not a fair or accurate estimation of any lost revenue, or of illicit profit.”

Describing the damages claim as “obscene”, the Judge says that a more reasonable (albeit massive) award is appropriate and will act as a deterrent, even though it’s unlikely the judgment will be paid.

Defendants to Pay $36.5 Million

“In its discretion and in the interests of justice, the Court will therefore award statutory damages of $15,000 for each of the 2,433 offending videos, for a total of $36,495,000. The award is against the five individual defendants, jointly and severally,” Judge Settle writes in his judgment.

Noting that it is unlikely that MG Premium will recover the damages, the Judge then turns to the requested injunction to restrain the defendants moving forward. All things considered, a broad permanent injunction is warranted in this case.

The judgment also orders Verisign to disable the domain ‘yespornplease.com’ and transfer it to MG Premium. At the time of writing, it appears to drive traffic to a webcam site. References to VShare.io are absent from the judgment.

Supporting court documents can be found here (1,2, pdf)

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

Daily Deals (3-02-2022)

Amazon Prime members can save $10 on a Nintendo Switch Lite today which, to be fair, isn’t a lot of money, but it’s rare that there are any sales on Switch consoles. Meanwhile if you’re looking for other ways to game, Amazon’s Luna Controller is on sale for $20 off, and Best Buy is selling two […]

The post Daily Deals (3-02-2022) appeared first on Liliputing.

Amazon Prime members can save $10 on a Nintendo Switch Lite today which, to be fair, isn’t a lot of money, but it’s rare that there are any sales on Switch consoles. Meanwhile if you’re looking for other ways to game, Amazon’s Luna Controller is on sale for $20 off, and Best Buy is selling two thin and light Asus ROG gaming laptops with AMD Ryzen 5900HS processors and NVIDIA RTX 30 series graphics for hundreds of dollars off. The Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 and ROG Flow X13 are each selling for $1250 right now.

Here are some of the day’s best deals.

Amazon devices

Laptops

Streaming

Other

The post Daily Deals (3-02-2022) appeared first on Liliputing.

Russia attacked Ukrainian hospitals, violating humanitarian law, WHO says

WHO called for a safe corridor to deliver oxygen, trauma kits, and other medical supplies.

KYIV, UKRAINE - FEBRUARY 28: A mother tends to her baby under medical treatment in the bomb shelter of the pediatric ward of Okhmatdyt Children's Hospital on February 28, 2022 in Kyiv, Ukraine.

Enlarge / KYIV, UKRAINE - FEBRUARY 28: A mother tends to her baby under medical treatment in the bomb shelter of the pediatric ward of Okhmatdyt Children's Hospital on February 28, 2022 in Kyiv, Ukraine. (credit: Getty | Chris McGrath)

The World Health Organization on Wednesday said Russia is in violation of international humanitarian law based on several reported attacks on Ukrainian hospitals and health workers.

Several of the reports are unconfirmed, but in at least one confirmed case, a hospital came under a "heavy weapons attack" that killed four and injured 10 others, including six health workers. WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the agency is working to confirm several other reports.

"The sanctity and neutrality of health care—including of health workers, patients, supplies, transport and facilities—and the right to safe access to care, must be respected and protected," Tedros said in a press briefing Wednesday. "Attacks on health care are in violation of international humanitarian law."

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Asus desktop’s embedded light bars tell you when rendering is complete

Machine also has a lot of upgrade options.

Asus PD5 on desk next to monitor

Enlarge / Asus PD5 with white light bars. (credit: Asus)

Asus' ProArt Station PD5 desktop, announced Tuesday, aims to make it easier to multitask while you're rendering, as lights on the tower's front panel notify you when the process is complete.

An embedded smart module controls a thin pair of LED light bars, which run up parallel channels on the front panel. When the computer is rendering, the lights can flash a color or LED effect of your choosing, selected via Asus' ProArt Creator Hub software. You'll know the job is done when the lights revert to their standard white (or a different color of your choosing).

You can set the color or effects of the lights.

You can set the color or effects of the lights. (credit: Asus)

You can also set up rendering notifications through Microsoft Teams.

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“Peek performance”: Apple’s next hardware event happens on March 8

New iPhone SE, iPad Air, and some Apple Silicon Macs could all be in the cards.

“Peek performance”: Apple’s next hardware event happens on March 8

Enlarge (credit: Apple)

Apple will stream its next hardware event to the masses on March 8 at 10 am Pacific (1 pm Eastern), the company announced today. Invitations have already been sent to the press—though the event will be yet another prerecorded, streaming-only presentation with no media in attendance. Apple marketing SVP Greg Joswiak tweeted the now-customary Apple-logo-centric teaser video that doesn't actually tease anything.

We never know exactly what will be announced at any given Apple event, but Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reports that the lineup will include a refresh of the budget-friendly iPhone SE and the first iPad Air update in a little over a year.

Rumors have also circulated about updated designs and new Apple Silicon chips for the MacBook Air and the 13-inch MacBook Pro, and the high-end Intel Mac Mini, the 27-inch iMac, and the Mac Pro are all still running Intel chips. The characteristically cryptic "peek performance" tagline does at least hint at new chips for one or more Macs, whether that's a truly next-gen Apple M2 for thin-and-light laptops or an M1 Pro/Max-focused refresh for the more powerful desktops.

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Mac mini(er): transplanting Apple Silicon into a smaller chassis

When Apple started its move from Intel to Apple Silicon a few years ago, the company promised to deliver higher performance and reduced power consumption and so far Apple has largely delivered on that promise. But the company’s first desktop computer with an M1 chip? It didn’t really take full advantage of the processor’s low […]

The post Mac mini(er): transplanting Apple Silicon into a smaller chassis appeared first on Liliputing.

When Apple started its move from Intel to Apple Silicon a few years ago, the company promised to deliver higher performance and reduced power consumption and so far Apple has largely delivered on that promise.

But the company’s first desktop computer with an M1 chip? It didn’t really take full advantage of the processor’s low power consumption. The 2020 Mac Mini is exactly the same size and shape as previous-gen models with Intel chips despite having a much smaller motherboard. So YouTuber Snazzy Labs decided to make a Mac Mini that’s… more mini. There are also instructions for making your own.

The result of this build is a Mac Mini that’s just 28% the size of Apple’s version in terms of volume, but which delivers similar performance.

In order to do that, Snazzy Labs basically ripped apart the Mac Mini, removed its large fan and 150W power supply, carefully removed the antennas and power button from the front panel, and transplanted everything into a 3D printed chassis.

The end product is passively cooled: even without a fan, the heat sink apparently does a good job of keeping the computer from running too hot and causing CPU speeds to throttle.

It sounds like the trickiest part of the build was coming up with a more compact power supply. To do that, developers basically fused together a 65-watt Microsoft Surface power adapter, a MacBook Pro MagSafe 2 DC-IN power board, and a MagSafe 2 cable.

Since the Mac Mini with an M1 processor consumes far less power than its Intel predecessors, the original 150W power supply was overkill for day-to-day use. Odds are that the only reasons Apple used it was because the company didn’t want to go through the trouble of redesigning very part of the computer… and that by keeping the Mac Mini size and shape consistent, it made it easier for schools, businesses, or other institutions that had already invested in accessories to ensure that they’d be compatible with the latest model.

That said, not only does the Snazzy Labs DIY Mac Mini(er) show that it’s possible for home users to shrink the size of Apple’s already-small desktop considerably, but it also provides clues to what Apple could do in the future: either offer smaller Mac Minis with M1 chips or keep the form factor the same while stuffing even more powerful chips into the existing chassis.

via FanlessTech

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Google recalls the Fitbit Ionic for causing burn injuries, offers full refund

Returning the watch gets you a full $300 refund and 40 percent off a new Fitbit.

Arc watch face on the Ionic.

Enlarge / Arc watch face on the Ionic. (credit: Valentina Palladino)

Google's Fitbit brand is recalling 1.7 million smartwatches after dozens of reports of burns from the wearable fitness device. Apparently, the battery in the watch can overheat and burn the user's wrist. The US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) reports that Fitbit has received 174 reports of the battery overheating worldwide, with "78 reports of burn injuries in the United States, including two reports of third-degree burns and four reports of second-degree burns."

The CPSC says consumers should stop using the watch and contact Fitbit to receive pre-paid packaging to return the device. Just fill out the Fitbit recall form here to get the return kit. There's also an official FAQ that describes the process. Upon receipt of your Ionic, Fitbit says you'll get a full refund for the $299 MSRP and a coupon for 40 percent off "select Fitbit devices." Before sending in your device, it's a good idea to erase your data; go to "Settings -> About -> Factory reset" in the watch software.

Fitbit was a pioneer in fitness devices, but the rise of smartwatches like the Apple Watch has threatened single-use fitness devices. Fitbit's answer was to buy the smartwatch company Pebble in 2016. A year later, the first Fitbit smartwatch, the Iconic, arrived. The device was sold from September 2017 through December 2021, though production stopped in 2020. With Google's acquisition of Fitbit in 2021, the lineage of the "Fitbit OS" devices like the Ionic, Versa, and Versa 2 is most likely dead.

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