Month: March 2025

Another Silicon Valley investor is getting into the rocket business.

Former Google chief executive Eric Schmidt has taken a controlling interest in the Long Beach, California-based Relativity Space. The New York Times first reported the change becoming official, after Schmidt told employees in an all-hands meeting on Monday.

Schmidt's involvement with Relativity has been quietly discussed among space industry insiders for a few months. Multiple sources told Ars that he has largely been bankrolling the company since the end of October, when the company's previous fundraising dried up.

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Millionen werden über die Cayman Islands in die USA an SpaceX-Anleger geleitet. Die Renditen sind extrem hoch. (SpaceX, Wirtschaft)

Google has a new mission in the AI era: to add Gemini to as many of the company's products as possible. We've already seen Gemini appear in search results, text messages, and more. In Google's latest update to Workspace, Gemini will be able to add calendar appointments from Gmail with a single click. Well, assuming Gemini gets it right the first time, which is far from certain.

The new calendar button will appear at the top of emails, right next to the summarize button that arrived last year. The calendar option will show up in Gmail threads with actionable meeting chit-chat, allowing you to mash that button to create an appointment in one step. The Gemini sidebar will open to confirm the appointment was made, which is a good opportunity to double-check the robot. There will be a handy edit button in the Gemini window in the event it makes a mistake. However, the robot can't invite people to these events yet.

The effect of using the button is the same as opening the Gemini panel and asking it to create an appointment. The new functionality is simply detecting events and offering the button as a shortcut of sorts. You should not expect to see this button appear on messages that already have calendar integration, like dining reservations and flights. Those already pop up in Google Calendar without AI.

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Elon Musk is now claiming that bad actors in Ukraine are behind an alleged cyberattack that caused outages on his social media platform X on Monday.

In an interview, Musk told Fox Business that he believes the attack came from "IP addresses originating in the Ukraine area."

Musk admitted that "we don't know exactly what happened"—nodding as his comments were characterized as a suspicion and discussing no evidence—but alleged that the attackers were trying to take down the entire X platform.

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Taiwanese electronics manufacturer Wistron has designed a gaming laptop that’s also a handheld game console. While some companies have achieved something similar by shrinking their laptops until they’re small enough to hold between two hands, the Wistron Dual Fusion takes a different approach. It’s a gaming laptop with a full-sized keyboard and display. But the area below the […]

The post Wistron Dual Fusion laptop concept includes a detachable handheld game streaming console appeared first on Liliputing.

Over the past few years we’ve seen a lot of tiny cube-like computers small enough to fit in the palm of your hand. But most have been powered by low-cost, low-power Intel processors. Now Topton has introduced a new model sporting an AMD Ryzen processor. The new Topton M1 is a 78 x 78 x […]

The post This palm-sized mini PC has an AMD Ryzen 3 5425U processor appeared first on Liliputing.

Nicht nur Rezessionsängste in den USA belasten den Aktienkurs von Tesla. Elon Musk soll zum "Tesla-Killer" geworden sein. (Tesla, Elektroauto)

SpaceX von Elon Musk will eine Frequenzzuteilung für Globalstar/Apple verhindern und den Bereich für alle öffnen lassen. (Starlink, Apple)

HP, along with other printer brands, is infamous for issuing firmware updates that brick already-purchased printers that have tried to use third-party ink. In a new form of frustration, HP is now being accused of issuing a firmware update that broke customers’ laser printers—even though the devices are loaded with HP-brand toner.

The firmware update in question is version 20250209, which HP issued on March 4 for its LaserJet MFP M232-M237 models. Per HP, the update includes “security updates,” a “regulatory requirement update,” “general improvements and bug fixes,” and fixes for IPP Everywhere. Looking back to older updates’ fixes and changes, which the new update includes, doesn’t reveal anything out of the ordinary. The older updates mention things like “fixed print quality to ensure borders are not cropped for certain document types,” and “improved firmware update and cartridge rejection experiences.” But there’s no mention of changes to how the printers use or read toner.

However, users have been reporting sudden problems using HP-brand toner in their M232–M237 series printers since their devices updated to 20250209. Users on HP’s support forum say they see Error Code 11 and the hardware’s toner light flashing when trying to print. Some said they’ve cleaned the contacts and reinstalled their toner but still can't print.

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Almost two decades ago, The Pirate Bay supported the “OscarTorrents” project, which aimed to be a pirates’ counterweight to Hollywood’s annual awards show.

At the time, mass movie piracy was still a relative fringe activity, with no instant streaming options available. Nonetheless, more than 100,000 people voted for their own movie favorites.

While the OscarTorrents project was a clear display of defiance, the outcome of the voting was rather mainstream. The Departed was crowned ‘Best Picture’ in the official Oscars ceremony, as well as in the pirate equivalent, and many of the other winners were also identical.

2025 Oscars

Fast-forward to the present day, and pirates continue to be aligned with the mainstream public, perhaps more than ever. Whenever a movie or TV show is in the news, interest typically surges through both legal and illegal channels.

Winning an Oscar is arguably the best thing that can happen to a movie from a PR-perspective. This undoubtedly results in more legal sales and streams, a trend that’s mimicked on pirate sites.

This phenomenon was confirmed once again following the 97th Academy Awards eight days ago. With five Oscars, including the main ‘Best Picture’ award, Sean Baker’s comedy drama Anora was the undisputed winner.

Anora Piracy Surge

High-quality pirated copies of the film had already been available online since mid-December, and while there was some interest in Anora, that paled in comparison to the download surge that took place after the awards.

Based on a sample of torrent activity tracked by IKnow, we can report that pirated downloads of Anora more than quadrupled this week. The chart below shows the daily estimated downloads for three Oscar nominees that were widely available on pirate sites. Anora’s numbers clearly stand out here.

The fact that Anora is one of the lowest grossing best picture winners in recent history, likely plays a part in this surge in demand. Many people, including pirates, hadn’t seen the film yet.

Limited Oscars Impact

The Substance, which won an Oscar for ‘Best Makeup and Hairstyling’ also saw a small bump in downloads, but that paled in comparison to Anora.

Wicked, which won Oscars for ‘Best Production Design’ and ‘Best Costume’, saw no significant increase in interest. This confirms yet again that most attention goes out to the best picture winner.

All in all, it’s safe to say that after 97 years, the Academy Awards ceremony is as relevant today as it has ever been. While people now have the freedom to watch what they want, whenever they want, their free choice continues to be directed by external forces.

As with all trends today, the initial piracy boosts didn’t last long. Downloads already started to drop off after a day. However, interest in Anora may remain elevated for a while.

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^{Note: The data used in this article comes from Iknow, which tracks torrent downloads through DHT and PEX. While it may not be able to track all downloads, it’s a substantial sample. This sample only looks at torrent downloads. Views on streaming platforms, direct downloads, and other piracy sources can’t be measured directly. That said, we assume that the trend will be similar there.}

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