Virtualisierungssoftware: Virtualbox 5.1 nutzt Qt 5 für die Oberfläche

Die neue Version 5.1 von Virtualbox setzt für die Oberfläche auf Qt5. Das Entwicklerteam des Werkzeugs von Oracle hat außerdem die Audio-Funktionen überarbeitet und die Leistung in bestimmten Situationen deutlich verbessert. (VirtualBox, Virtualisierung)

Die neue Version 5.1 von Virtualbox setzt für die Oberfläche auf Qt5. Das Entwicklerteam des Werkzeugs von Oracle hat außerdem die Audio-Funktionen überarbeitet und die Leistung in bestimmten Situationen deutlich verbessert. (VirtualBox, Virtualisierung)

Paint it black: Revisiting the Blackphone and its cloudy future

Layoffs, legal disputes, and a major OS update shuffle the deck for privacy-focused phone.

The Blackphone and its parent, Silent Circle, have taken some knocks over the past few months, as the company prepares a new course. Will hardware be part of it? (credit: Sean Gallagher)

When we reviewed the Blackphone 2 last September, the company behind the privacy-focused smartphone was in transition. Silent Circle had moved to bring the Blackphone joint venture with the Madrid-based Geeksphone back under its umbrella, hired a telecom industry veteran as CEO, and was fine-tuning its marketing to go after an enterprise audience. The phone’s Android-based operating system, rebranded as Silent OS, became simultaneously more user-friendly and more hardened, paving the way for features that would be incorporated into Android for Work.

Less than a year later, Silent Circle has substantially changed. For starters, that new CEO is gone. Bill Conner resigned June 27 after, as he put it, Silent Circle "extended its privacy leadership into the enterprise as a secure communications SAAS [Software as a Service] company." The company’s general counsel is now serving as interim CEO as it seeks new leadership.

Over the course of the last year, many more core security team members—including co-founder and Chief Technology Officer Jon Callas, Chief Architect Mike Kershaw (AKA "dragorn," creator of the Kismet wireless network security tool), and Chief Security Officer Dan Ford—left the company. Callas remains as an investor, but he now works for Apple. There have also been layoffs.

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Smartwatch: Zweite Preview für Android Wear 2.0 veröffentlicht

Entwickler und Interessierte können sich die zweite Vorschau von Googles Smartwatch-Betriebssystem Android Wear 2.0 herunterladen. Neu ist die Unterstützung von Handgelenksgesten sowie Verbesserungen bei den neuen App-Menüs. (Android Wear, Google)

Entwickler und Interessierte können sich die zweite Vorschau von Googles Smartwatch-Betriebssystem Android Wear 2.0 herunterladen. Neu ist die Unterstützung von Handgelenksgesten sowie Verbesserungen bei den neuen App-Menüs. (Android Wear, Google)

Google’s gets land for its futuristic headquarters, thanks to LinkedIn deal

LinkedIn gets Google buildings across town, Google gets more contiguous land.

Google and LinkedIn have worked out a deal that will see the Mountain View neighbors swap a few million square feet of real estate. Silicon Valley Business Journal reported the deal, which should help alleviate both companies' space problems and give Google room to develop its futuristic "canopy" campus.

Google will receive all of LinkedIn's existing Mountain View territory, which consists of LinkedIn's 370,000 square feet headquarters and almost 8 acres of land LinkedIn had planned on turning into office space. LinkedIn will move a few miles across town into four office buildings currently owned by Google, which come out to about 750,000 square feet of office space. LinkedIn instantly gets to double its office space while avoiding a costly "five to six year" construction project, and Google gets the space and building rights it needs to build its crazy indoor/outdoor spiderweb canopy utopia.

For a very rough idea of what is going on, the above gallery shows the current territory layout at Google and LinkedIn headquarters. (Google might actually own more area than this, we just based this off of "buildings that start with 'Google'" on Google Maps, which might be incomplete). In the first picture, LinkedIn's headquarters is the blue area in the top right, while the bottom blue area is a shopping center LinkedIn wanted to turn into office space. All of that space is now going to Google. In the second picture, you can see the Google office buildings LinkedIn is moving to, just a few miles away.

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Besuch beim HAX Accelerator: Made in Shenzhen

In Shenzhen gibt es zahlreiche Elektronikhersteller, Bauteile können günstig und schnell hergestellt werden. Das nutzt der Hardware-Accelerator HAX, um Startups bei der Entwicklung ihrer Projekte zu unterstützen. Golem.de hat die Produktschmiede besucht – und dabei unerwartet Mehlwürmer gesnackt. Hinweis: Um sich diesen Text vorlesen zu lassen, klicken Sie auf den Player im Artikel. (Startup, Ergonomie)

In Shenzhen gibt es zahlreiche Elektronikhersteller, Bauteile können günstig und schnell hergestellt werden. Das nutzt der Hardware-Accelerator HAX, um Startups bei der Entwicklung ihrer Projekte zu unterstützen. Golem.de hat die Produktschmiede besucht - und dabei unerwartet Mehlwürmer gesnackt. Hinweis: Um sich diesen Text vorlesen zu lassen, klicken Sie auf den Player im Artikel. (Startup, Ergonomie)

Locking Connector Specification 1.0: USB Typ C lässt sich verschrauben

Nahezu unbemerkt hat das USB IF den USB-Typ-C-Standard erweitert. Neue Stecker lassen sich mit entsprechend vorbereiteten Buchsen mit Schrauben fixieren. Es gibt allerdings zwei Methoden, die von Firmen wie Apple, Corning und Foxconn entwickelt wurden….

Nahezu unbemerkt hat das USB IF den USB-Typ-C-Standard erweitert. Neue Stecker lassen sich mit entsprechend vorbereiteten Buchsen mit Schrauben fixieren. Es gibt allerdings zwei Methoden, die von Firmen wie Apple, Corning und Foxconn entwickelt wurden. Wir haben in die Spezifikationen geschaut. (USB Typ C, Technologie)

UK Forbids Gambling Services From Advertising on Pirate Sites

The regulatory body responsible for keeping gambling clean in the UK has announced a new licensing condition for operators. Following a consultation with stakeholders, licensees will be required to prevent their advertisements appearing on sites that provide unauthorized access to copyrighted content.

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

diceThe vast majority of publicly available ‘pirate’ sites rely on some kind of advertising to generate revenue. With millions of visitors per month, some are reported to make significant sums.

As a result, copyright holders have been investing considerable resources into initiatives that try to persuade advertisers to stop supporting them. If advertising is removed from these sites, they will cease to exist, entertainment companies argue.

But despite immense pressure on mainstream advertisers, it is still fairly common to be presented with gambling adverts when visiting unauthorized torrent and streaming portals. Just months ago, Bet365, Coral and Sky Bet in the UK were called out over the practice.

However, it’s now clear that if UK gambling operators want to keep their valuable licenses clean, they will have to ensure there is no repeat of these mistakes.

The Gambling Commission is a government-sponsored body with a mandate to keep the gambling business clean in the UK. Its responsibilities include protecting children and other vulnerable people while ensuring that gambling is fair and open. It is also charged with keeping all aspects of crime out of gambling.

In September 2016, the Commission consulted on amendments (pdf) to licensing conditions that would compel licensees to ensure that advertisements “placed by themselves and others” do not appear on websites providing unauthorized access to copyright content.

That consultation was published in May (pdf) followed by a supplementary consultation this month. All respondents agreed in principle that gambling operators should not advertise on pirate sites but there was less consensus on how that could be achieved.

While not advertising directly is less of a problem, some respondents indicated that they use affiliates to place adverts on their behalf, so monitoring them all could prove difficult. Others noted that special software designed for the task might prove expensive.

Overall, however, the Gambling Commission says that something still needs to be done since ads for gambling companies continue to appear on pirate sites.

“Although adverts placed on such websites are not criminal in themselves, they contribute to funding the websites, and are therefore associating gambling with crime. They also frequently appear next to other adverts and links containing malware or viruses,” the Commission says.

As a result, the Commission is now taking action. Due to the perceived seriousness of the situation, the implementation of a ‘social code’ often employed by the industry was rejected. Instead, a new licensing condition is being introduced which will require licensees to ensure that their marketing does not appear on pirate sites.

Licensees will be free to choose which preventative measures they take but they are being advised to make use of the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit’s ‘Infringing Website List‘. Operators are also advised to tighten their agreements with affiliates, making it clear that “robust action” can be taken for any breaches. The use of proactive monitoring software is also advised.

There were some objections from operators, mostly concerning the difficulty of the task ahead, but help will be at hand. Licensees will able to draw on the experiences not only of PIPCU, but also the Federation Against Copyright Theft and the BPI.

“We have decided to implement the new licence condition requiring operators to take responsibility for preventing digital adverts advertising their brand from appearing on websites providing access to unauthorised content,” the Gambling Commission said in response to the consultation.

“We have taken account of respondents’ views and have amended the wording of the licence condition to make clear that in the case of third party advertising operators should implement all reasonable steps to prevent marketing appearing on such websites, and to react quickly and effectively if they do appear.”

The new licence condition (shown below) will be implemented in the autumn/fall.

gambling-commission

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

Zeeq: Smartes Kissen stupst Schnarcher an

Warum mit einem Wearable den Schlaf überwachen, wenn es auch ein Kissen dafür gibt? Das Zeeq-Kissen soll nicht nur bequem sein, sondern auch die Schlafqualität messen und den Nutzer mit acht eingebauten Lautsprechern musikalisch in den Schlaf begleiten. Wer schnarcht, wird automatisch angestupst. (Crowdfunding, Kickstarter)

Warum mit einem Wearable den Schlaf überwachen, wenn es auch ein Kissen dafür gibt? Das Zeeq-Kissen soll nicht nur bequem sein, sondern auch die Schlafqualität messen und den Nutzer mit acht eingebauten Lautsprechern musikalisch in den Schlaf begleiten. Wer schnarcht, wird automatisch angestupst. (Crowdfunding, Kickstarter)