Bombshell im Test: Action mit Arm dran

3D Realms hat mal wieder ein Spiel veröffentlicht: In Bombshell kämpft eine Sprengstoffexpertin mit Hightech-Armprothese gegen außerirdische Invasoren. Eigentlich war diese Hauptrolle für Duke Nukem gedacht – viel verpasst hat der Muskelprotz aber nicht. (3D Realms, Spieletest)

3D Realms hat mal wieder ein Spiel veröffentlicht: In Bombshell kämpft eine Sprengstoffexpertin mit Hightech-Armprothese gegen außerirdische Invasoren. Eigentlich war diese Hauptrolle für Duke Nukem gedacht - viel verpasst hat der Muskelprotz aber nicht. (3D Realms, Spieletest)

Die Woche im Video: Mensch verliert gegen Maschine und iPhone verliert Wachstum

Facebook hat mehr Kunden, Apple verkauft weniger iPhones und der Computer hat eine menschliche Domäne mehr erobert: Das Go-Spiel. Sieben Tage und viele Meldungen im Überblick. (Golem-Wochenrückblick, CUDA)

Facebook hat mehr Kunden, Apple verkauft weniger iPhones und der Computer hat eine menschliche Domäne mehr erobert: Das Go-Spiel. Sieben Tage und viele Meldungen im Überblick. (Golem-Wochenrückblick, CUDA)

New YouTube, Spotify Mashup Launches and Then ‘Pauses’

A free music listening platform that combines the best of YouTube music and Spotify has temporarily suspended services only two weeks after launch.The platform, called Wefre, provided a Spotify like interface, but sources all music from legally up…



A free music listening platform that combines the best of YouTube music and Spotify has temporarily suspended services only two weeks after launch.

The platform, called Wefre, provided a Spotify like interface, but sources all music from legally uploaded YouTube music videos, allowing users to enjoy music streaming without having to pay for it, or to use YouTube's interface.

But two weeks after launch, and some 16,000 new user sign-ups, the people behind the start-up has called it quits, for now, blaming the platform's surging popularity, and the legal cloud hanging over the service.

The legal cloud exists because WeFre allows users to listen to YouTube music videos without the video part being shown, which may be a violation of YouTube's terms of service. In addition, the license holders that uploaded these music videos legally would most likely disagree with how it is being used on WeFre, with little or no revenue being generated and passed onto them.

The creators of the site were keen to point out that they had not received any legal threats so far in regards to the site, they have decided to take the more cautions approach and suspend all services until an unspecified time.

And while WeFre's legal status questionable, it's popularity isn't. The Spotify-like interface over YouTube music videos is a huge hit with users, but it also became a huge hit on server resources, with the operators of the site unable to keep it running smoothly, further adding to the need to close the site, for now. 

"We will ensure that we don't broke any law and we will come back with new features, stronger and without technical problems," a post on the website now reads.

While the above statement appears to be quite definitive, WeFre's future is most likely in serious doubt, as neither YouTube, nor rights-holders, or even Spotify (due to the site's uncanny resemblance to Spotify's), will be happy to see WeFre prosper. At their expense, they might say.

What’s stupid this month: Xerox patents sharing documents online

Xerox gets a new toy, and it may be visiting a courthouse near you.

Once a month, the Electronic Frontier Foundation's crack team of patent lawyers reaches deep into the US Patent Office's giant sack of freshly issued patents. Then they pull out one of the shadiest, saddest, painfully obvious, never-should've-gotten-even-close-to-issuance patents and subject it to public scrutiny.

This month, EFF attorney Vera Ranieri selected a highly questionable Xerox patent and yanked it into the bleak January sunlight. US Patent No. 9,240,000, entitled "Social Network for Enabling the Physical Sharing of Documents," boils down to a system of sharing documents online. It looks like exactly the kind of patent that shouldn't have made it through the system, considering new guidelines put in place as a result of the Supreme Court's Alice Corp. v. CLS decision.

"Ultimately this patent is one of hundreds or thousands of patents that don’t describe actual inventions, but rather just rehash old, obvious ideas 'on a computer' using confusing language," writes Ranieri. "The failure of the patent office to prevent this patent from issuing is regrettable, and shows just how dysfunctional our patent system is."

Read 8 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Azure Stack, Microsoft’s on-premises cloud service, is now available as a preview

It’s the Azure platform for your private cloud.

A block diagram that is supposed to clarify what Azure Stack does and is. (credit: Microsoft)

Microsoft today released a preview of Azure Stack, a version of the Azure services and infrastructure that you can run in your own datacenters.

Azure Stack was announced at the Ignite conference last year. It's an Azure-flavored counterpart to OpenStack, offering enterprises the ability to use the same services and management systems for both local on-premises deployments and true cloud deployments.

Currently, the Azure Stack offers only a subset of Azure services, and it runs on just a single server. Its full release is planned for the fourth quarter, but even this will not have parity with the full Azure service. Microsoft's aim for the initial release is to provide all the major parts to support deploying platform-as-a-service Web Apps and infrastructure-as-a-service virtual machines. It will also include components for storage and virtualized networking. The Azure Portal front-end for managing the service will also be included.

Read 1 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Huawei Honor 5X launches Jan 31st for $200

Huawei Honor 5X launches Jan 31st for $200

Huawei may be one of the biggest smartphone makers in China, but the company is a relatively small player in the US. That could change this year. The company worked with Google on the well-received Nexus 6P smartphone, and now the company is launching a budget phone with solid specs that sells for less than […]

Huawei Honor 5X launches Jan 31st for $200 is a post from: Liliputing

Huawei Honor 5X launches Jan 31st for $200

Huawei may be one of the biggest smartphone makers in China, but the company is a relatively small player in the US. That could change this year. The company worked with Google on the well-received Nexus 6P smartphone, and now the company is launching a budget phone with solid specs that sells for less than […]

Huawei Honor 5X launches Jan 31st for $200 is a post from: Liliputing

Google Fiber testing home phone service to complete triple-play bundle

Google Fiber has Internet and TV, but not voice because of regulatory headaches.

Google Fiber current cities and expansion plans. (credit: Google Fiber)

Google Fiber launched more than three years ago with gigabit Internet and TV, but not phone service.

Now, Google might finally be adding a VoIP phone component in order to duplicate the "triple-play" bundle offered by many ISPs. The Washington Post reported today that Google is sending invitations to try a new home phone service to members of its "Fiber Trusted Tester" program.

"Our latest offering is Google Fiber Phone, which gives you the chance to add home phone service to your current Fiber service plan," the invitation said. (See the full invitation here.)

Read 8 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Bombshell review: An arm, a leg, and entirely too much of your time

An isometric shooter that tries too much and accomplishes very little.

Don't get too excited by the look of this boss. You just shoot it a lot.

In Bombshell, the new isometric shooter from Interceptor Entertainment and 3D Realms, there is a shield. I know this with 100 percent certainty, because for the last third of my playthrough, every step, action, and breath I took was punctuated by a robotic voice intoning "shield activated."

That’s not because I was spamming my character's comically overpowered bubble shield (though I did plenty of that), but it resulted from what I assume was a bug. I say "assume" because I'm not entirely sure that Bombshell hadn't grown sentient and developed just a bit of malice toward me. The game seems sapient enough to at least realize what a repetitive drag it had been up to that point, so maybe it turned its newborn ability to think and feel entirely toward mocking my efforts to find the fastest path to the credits.

Bombshell isn't an aggressively terrible game. It's just aggressively mediocre for long enough that it starts to seem that way.

Read 17 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Crowdfunded Ubik Uno smartphone is ready to ship

Crowdfunded Ubik Uno smartphone is ready to ship

The Ubik Uno is a smartphone with a 5.5 inch display, slim bezels, an octa-core CPU, 3GB of RAM, a 3,100 mAh battery, and a 20 megapixel camera. The developers of the phone ran a Kickstarter campaign last summer, and now they say the Uno is ready to ship… which is probably why I spotted […]

Crowdfunded Ubik Uno smartphone is ready to ship is a post from: Liliputing

Crowdfunded Ubik Uno smartphone is ready to ship

The Ubik Uno is a smartphone with a 5.5 inch display, slim bezels, an octa-core CPU, 3GB of RAM, a 3,100 mAh battery, and a 20 megapixel camera. The developers of the phone ran a Kickstarter campaign last summer, and now they say the Uno is ready to ship… which is probably why I spotted […]

Crowdfunded Ubik Uno smartphone is ready to ship is a post from: Liliputing

Iranian drone flies straight over US carrier in Persian Gulf and takes pics

Iranian TV broadcasts the “beautiful and accurate” footage taken during “drill.”

Smile for your close-up, F/A-18s. (credit: IRNA)

Today, Iran's IRNA news agency broadcast video apparently taken from an Iranian Revolutionary Guard unmanned aircraft as it flew directly over an American aircraft carrier operating in the Persian Gulf. The US Navy has confirmed that an Iranian drone flew "directly over" the USS Harry S. Truman and near the French carrier Charles de Gaulle, which are both in the Persian Gulf launching airstrikes against Islamic State (Daesh) forces in Syria and Iraq.

RT rebroadcast of the Iranian television footage, showing the drone flyover of the USS Harry S. Truman.

Navy Commander Kevin Stephens, a spokesman for the US Navy's 5th Fleet, said that the Navy was "not in a position to verify the authenticity of the video as there are countless examples of similar footage to be found on the Internet." But he did confirm that an Iranian surveillance drone passed over the Truman on January 12. The drone did not pose a threat, he said. "It was, however, abnormal and unprofessional." Stephens added that the Navy would "respond appropriately as the situation dictates" to future incidents.

Iranian Navy Commander Admiral Habibollah Sayyari told IRNA that the drone's flight over the Truman was "a sign of bravery," and it "allowed our men to go so close to the warship and shoot such a beautiful and accurate footage of the combat units of the foreign forces." IRNA also reported that a small Iranian diesel submarine was involved in surveillance of the ships. The drone and submarine operations are part of an Iranian Navy exercise being mounted this week.

Read on Ars Technica | Comments