Autonomes Fahren: Google steht angeblich vor Partnerschaft mit Fiat Chrysler

Für den Bau seiner selbstfahrenden Autos hat Google offenbar einen Partner gefunden. Weitere Berichte deuten an, dass die ambitionierten Pläne bald umgesetzt werden könnten. (Netzneutralität, Google)

Für den Bau seiner selbstfahrenden Autos hat Google offenbar einen Partner gefunden. Weitere Berichte deuten an, dass die ambitionierten Pläne bald umgesetzt werden könnten. (Netzneutralität, Google)

Hands-on: HP’s Chromebook 13 isn’t cheap, but it’s high-quality hardware

There may not be a big audience for $500+ Chromebooks, but it’ll like this one.

The low end of the Chromebook market is well-served, partly because Chromebooks do best in the cash-strapped education market and because the simplicity (and limitations) of ChromeOS are a better fit for budget hardware. For people who want something high-end, there’s always the $999 Chromebook Pixel, but that leaves a big space in between for people who want to make something that looks and feels nice but doesn’t cost a ton.

Certainly, there have been efforts. The Toshiba Chromebook 2 had a gorgeous 1080p IPS screen but a relatively weak Intel CPU. Dell’s Chromebook 13 is solidly mid-range, though the best features (including a 1080p screen, faster chips, and more RAM) are reserved for the higher-end models. And now there’s the HP Chromebook 13, which is merely a decent Chromebook at its $499 starting price but a full-on Chromebook Pixel competitor if you’re willing to pay more.

At $499, you get a 13.3-inch 1080p screen, a Skylake-based 1.5GHz Pentium 4405Y (which despite its name is a relative to the low-power Core M), 4GB of 1866MHz DDR3 RAM, and a 1080p screen, which isn’t bad for the price. A Core M-derived Pentium is still going to deliver stronger performance (particularly in the single-threaded CPU and the graphics departments) than the Atom-derived Celerons and Pentiums that ship in many low-end Chromebooks.

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Report: Former Motorola CEO Rick Osterloh to head Google’s hardware division

Report:  Former Motorola CEO Rick Osterloh to head Google’s hardware division

Google may have sold Motorola Mobility to Lenovo only a few years after acquiring the company. But the company held onto a number of key patents… and Google also apparently liked some of the leadership team.

Recode reports that Google has hired former Motorola CEO Rick Osterloh to head up a new hardware division.

Osterloh will report to Google CEO Sundar Pichai, but he’ll basically be in charge of all of the company’s hardware products.

Continue reading Report: Former Motorola CEO Rick Osterloh to head Google’s hardware division at Liliputing.

Report:  Former Motorola CEO Rick Osterloh to head Google’s hardware division

Google may have sold Motorola Mobility to Lenovo only a few years after acquiring the company. But the company held onto a number of key patents… and Google also apparently liked some of the leadership team.

Recode reports that Google has hired former Motorola CEO Rick Osterloh to head up a new hardware division.

Osterloh will report to Google CEO Sundar Pichai, but he’ll basically be in charge of all of the company’s hardware products.

Continue reading Report: Former Motorola CEO Rick Osterloh to head Google’s hardware division at Liliputing.

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare remake announced with poop-pants emoji

Much-loved first-person shooter is being remade for PlayStation 4.

A remake of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare is apparently in the works after the official Call of Duty Twitter account replied to a 16-month-old tweet with two emoji: pile of poo and jeans.

In December 2014, Angus Varderslott announced that he would "literally shit [his] pants" with excitement if he ever learned of a Call of Duty 4 remaster. Call of Duty 4 was a landmark title. It was the first Call of Duty game set in the present day, after a series of World War II-themed titles, and it set the standard for "cinematic" first-person shooters. While these days the series is derided as being rather formulaic and linear, the first Modern Warfare title held genuine surprises, with an extraordinarily tense sniper mission in the ruins of Pripyat (the Ukrainian city abandoned after the Chernobyl disaster) and the death of one of the player characters in the aftermath of a nuclear strike.

The tweet reply suggests that Varderslott had better take a trip to the laundry.

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Players can start testing Forza’s first PC release on May 5

Incredible DirectX 12 performance, Windows 10-related limits will collide in open beta.

Forza 6 Apex's weather effects weren't shown in motion beyond a mere trailer tease, so we're curious whether rain detail will impact 4K performance. (credit: Microsoft/Turn 10)

After its late-February tease, Microsoft Studios and Turn 10 are finally ready to unleash the Forza Motorsport racing series on PCs—and as we reported at the game's reveal event, it's coming in an unusual way. Forza Motorsport 6 Apex will launch exclusively on Windows 10 PCs on Thursday, May 5, in the form of a free "open beta" downloadable from the Windows Store. Based on our early Apex impressions, PC players are essentially getting a limited trial version of last year's Xbox One racer as opposed to a particularly new experience.

Having seen Forza 6 Apex in the flesh, we know the game will be a huge conversation starter for PC gamers for many reasons. For one, if high-end PC owners can replicate the 4K-resolution, 60-frames-per-second performance that we saw on Turn 10's monstrous test rig, they'll be in for the most incredible public demo of DirectX 12 technology yet released. Forza 6 Apex's real-time demo looked incredible, as that silky-smooth refresh rate faced zero stutters while rendering giant textures and gorgeous lighting effects.

On the other hand, it remains to be seen exactly how well Apex will scale on weaker PCs; Turn 10 currently recommends at least a 3.7Ghz i3 processor and 2GB of VRAM. Also, since the game is tied to the beleaguered Universal Windows Platform (UWP), users may once more face issues like the inability to disable v-sync and a forced borderless, full-screen mode.

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Triby’s connected speaker with Amazon Alexa now available for $199 (or less)

Triby’s connected speaker with Amazon Alexa now available for $199 (or less)

Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant software lets you speak commands and questions to Amazon hardware including the Echo, Tap, and Echo Dot devices as well as Amazon Fire TV products. But Amazon offers tools that let third-party developers tap into is Alexa Voice service platform, and last year a company called Invoxia introduced the first device to do just that.

Now it’s available for purchase. You can order the Triby connected speaker from the Invoxia website for $199 or save $30 and place an order at Amazon.com during a launch sale.

Continue reading Triby’s connected speaker with Amazon Alexa now available for $199 (or less) at Liliputing.

Triby’s connected speaker with Amazon Alexa now available for $199 (or less)

Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant software lets you speak commands and questions to Amazon hardware including the Echo, Tap, and Echo Dot devices as well as Amazon Fire TV products. But Amazon offers tools that let third-party developers tap into is Alexa Voice service platform, and last year a company called Invoxia introduced the first device to do just that.

Now it’s available for purchase. You can order the Triby connected speaker from the Invoxia website for $199 or save $30 and place an order at Amazon.com during a launch sale.

Continue reading Triby’s connected speaker with Amazon Alexa now available for $199 (or less) at Liliputing.

Ted Cruz not great at buying domain names, loses CruzFiorina.com

Republican consultant beat him to the punch, re-directed it to charity donation page.

Senator Ted Cruz. (credit: Gage Skidmore)

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) clearly needs to fire whoever buys domain names for him.

The Republican presidential contender, having already lost the obvious TedCruz.com—settling for TedCruz.org—missed out Wednesday on the predictable URL to incorporate his new running mate, Carly Fiorina. The former CEO of Hewlett-Packard herself ran as a GOP presidential candidate but dropped out earlier this year after failing to gain much traction with Republican voters.

According to Politico, GOP consultant Matt Mackowiak “made the snap decision” to buy CruzFiorina.com as news of Cruz’ vice presidential pick broke. For his part, Cruz settled on CruzCarly.com. Mackowiak re-directed his domain to a donation page for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

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Goodbye, Nexus 9—you will not be missed

The worst Nexus device is no longer for sale on the Google Store.

The Nexus 9.

Yesterday we got news of two new Nexus devices, and today we're losing a Nexus device. It looks like the Nexus 9 is dead. The tablet has been unceremoniously removed from the Google Store—the product page now just redirects to the generic Nexus listing page, and the "tablets" link in the navigation bar now points to the Pixel C only. RIP, Nexus 9.

The HTC-built Nexus 9 had a rough life. The Nvidia Tegra-powered tablet launched in November 2014 to a very poor reception. The supposedly "premium" tablet had a squishy back, the backlight leaked, sometimes the buttons didn't work, and the device was generally not worth its $400 price tag. It hit the bargain bin almost immediately, with HTC selling it for half price a day after launch. As an Android tablet, its apps were neglected by developers and Google, and it was resigned to a life of running stretched-out phone apps forever. It even failed as a Nexus device, taking a whopping two months to be updated to Android 5.1.

The Nexus 9 was replaced by the better-but-still-not-good Pixel C, which improved on the N9 with a metal body and removable keyboard, but it was still a tough sell at $499 with unfinished software. Now Google's troubled tablet can be laid to rest.

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Forza Motorsport 6 Apex: Beta des Direct3D-12-Rennspiels startet im Mai

Ein weiterer Direct3D-12-Titel für Windows-PCs: Das kostenlose Forza Motorsport 6 Apex geht demnächst in die offene Beta. Für die 1080p-Auflösung bei 60 Bildern pro Sekunde braucht es flotte Hardware. (Forza, Microsoft)

Ein weiterer Direct3D-12-Titel für Windows-PCs: Das kostenlose Forza Motorsport 6 Apex geht demnächst in die offene Beta. Für die 1080p-Auflösung bei 60 Bildern pro Sekunde braucht es flotte Hardware. (Forza, Microsoft)

Language Creation Society Backs Star Trek Spin-off in Klingon Copyright Battle

The lawsuit between Paramount Pictures and the crowdfunded Star Trek spin-off “Prelude to Axanar” is turning into a copyright battle over the Klingon language. This week the Language Creation Society submitted an amicus brief in support of the filmmakers, arguing that the use of the Klingon language shouldn’t be restricted in any way.

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.

klingonEarlier this year Paramount Pictures and CBS Studios filed a lawsuit against the makers of a Star Trek inspired fan film, accusing them of copyright infringement.

The dispute centers around the well-received short film Star Trek: Prelude to Axanar and the planned follow-up feature film Anaxar.

Among other things, the Star Trek rightsholders claim ownership over various Star Trek related settings, characters, species, clothing, colors, shapes, words, short phrases and even the Klingon language.

The makers of the fan-spinoff responded to several of the allegations last month. Among other things, they argued that the Klingon language is not copyrightable because it’s not more than an idea or a system. They therefore asked the court to dismiss or strike the copyright claims in question.

Paramount and CBS disagreed. In their reply the rightsholders called the argument absurd and among other things, they pointed out that the language system is not very useful if there are no real Klingons to communicate with.

Considering the stakes, the lawsuit has drawn the attention of the Language Creation Society (LCS), a non-profit that aims to promote the art and craft of language creation. The group submitted their opinion to the court yesterday, siding with the makers of the fan-film.

In their amicus brief, which actually uses Klingon language, the LCS points out that it’s understandable that Paramount Pictures feels that they own the language. After all, they commissioned Linguistics professor Marc Okrand to create some of the language thirty years ago.

However, this doesn’t mean that the copyright claims hold ground.

“Feeling ownership and having ownership are not the same thing. The language has taken on a life of its own. Thousands of people began studying it, building upon it, and using it to communicate among themselves,” the LCS notes.

“As the Klingon proverb says, we succeed together in a greater whole,” the brief adds, with pro-bono attorney Marc Randazza writing in Klingon.

The brief, partially in Klingon

klingamic

The Language Creation Society lists many examples of how Klingon has evolved, and it specifically disputes Paramount’s earlier claims that there are no human beings who communicate using the Klingon language.

“In fact, there are groups of people for whom Klingon is their only common language. There are friends who only speak Klingon to each other. In fact, at least one child was initially raised as a native speaker of Klingon,” LCS writes.

“Now that Klingon has become an actual living language, Paramount seeks to reach out and stake its ownership by using copyright law. But, as ‘Klingons do not surrender’, neither do those who speak Klingon,” they add.

As such, Paramount should not be allowed to claim copyright over the entire Klingon language, both in written and spoken form. The language is a tool for people to communicate and express ideas, something people should be allowed to do freely under U.S. law, LCS argues.

Klingon alphabet (image: wiki)

klingonalpha

If Paramount is allowed to claim copyright over the language, they would be able to silence the free expression of thousands of people, many of which helped it to evolve in recent years.

“Klingon gave Star Trek characters convincing dialogue. But, it broke its chains and took on a life of its own – a life that the Copyright Act has no power to control. Klingon, like any other spoken language, provides tools and a system for expressing ideas,” LCS writes.

“No one has a monopoly over these things, effectively prohibiting anyone from communicating in a language without the creator’s permission. This is not permitted by the law, and it is not why the Constitution allows Congress to provide copyright protection,” they add.

Summing up, the Language Creation Society sides with the makers of the Star Trek spin-off, asking the court to dismiss the copyright claims over the Klingon language, so it can be used freely and continue to evolve.

It is not up to the California federal court to decide whether the ‘Klingons’ can prevail or not.

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.