Windows 10 upgrade will soon be easier to reject

Pressing the X will close the window, as it should.

The updated Get Windows 10 app, with its decline option.

Microsoft is finally ending the malware-like trickery of the "Get Windows 10" upgrade offer that's shown to Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 users.

Mary Jo Foley reports that a clearer upgrade promotion will roll out this week. It will have three options—"Upgrade now," "Choose time," and "Decline free offer"—with the last of these options dismissing the update altogether. Critically, pressing the X in the corner of the window will have the same effect as the decline option.

This change addresses one of the most unpleasant features of the promotion: some weeks ago, Microsoft changed the behavior of the X button to make it simply defer the upgrade rather than decline it altogether. This behavior was contrary to any reasonable expectations Windows users might have, and contrary to the way the promotion behaved at its introduction.

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Experimental Zika vaccines work in mice, protect with one shot

First published animal studies show two common vaccine strategies could do the trick.

(credit: CDC)

As Zika virus outbreaks continue to rage in South and Central America, lapping at US borders, scientists are making significant strides toward an effective vaccine.

Two types of experimental Zika vaccines, a DNA vaccine and an inactivated virus vaccine, were each able to completely protect mice with one dose, researchers report Tuesday in Nature. The animal data—the first to be published for Zika vaccines—follows news last week that the Food and Drug Administration gave two companies the green light to test another Zika DNA vaccine in humans. The companies, not associated with the researchers behind today’s study, reported that they have done similar animal studies with their vaccine, but they didn’t publish the results.

With today’s animal data, researchers are hopeful about the fate of the vaccines. “The protection was striking,” Dan Barouch, a study coauthor and vaccine researcher at Harvard Medical School, said in a press briefing. “Of course we need to be cautious about extrapolating results from mice into humans,” he noted, but the strength of the findings “certainly raise optimism” that we’re on our way to a safe and effective vaccine.

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Here’s how Volkswagen’s $15 billion proposed settlement would be divided up

The settlement will be largest ever between an automaker and regulators.

And lo, that which was rumored last night has come to fruition this morning. On Tuesday morning, Volkswagen Group proposed a number of companion settlements with the Department of Justice representing the Environmental Protection Agency and the California Air Resources Board (CARB), the Federal Trade Commission, more than 40 state attorneys general, and a class-action complaint from people who bought 2.0L diesel cars from Volkswagen and Audi.

The amount of the settlements will tally more than $15 billion, with $10.033 billion going toward compensating consumers. In a conference call on Tuesday morning, Elizabeth Cabraser, the court-appointed lead counsel for Volkswagen consumer plaintiffs, detailed exactly how the German automaker would compensate its customers after the company was discovered last September to have included illegal software on many of its recent diesel models. The software helped the diesel vehicles pass federally required emissions tests in a lab but turned off the cars’ emissions control systems while under normal driving conditions, causing significantly increased levels of nitrogen oxide to spew on open roads.

Cabraser noted that owners of certain diesel VW Golfs, Passats, Jettas, Beetles, and Audi A3s would be eligible for a buyback equal to the amount the car was worth in September 2015—a range from a low of around $12,000 to a high of about $44,000. The buybacks would be accepted “regardless of condition,” Cabraser said, “as long as it’s drivable.”

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Deals of the Day (6-28-2016)

Deals of the Day (6-28-2016)

The HP Envy 13  is a compact Windows laptop that’s available with an Intel Skylake processor, up to 8GB of RAM, and up to a 3200 x 1800 pixel display.

HP normally charges $850 and up for the laptop, but right now you can spend $750 on a model with a 1080p screen, a Core i5 CPU, 8GB of RAM, and 128GB of storage.

Or you could spend $50 more for a model with a 3200 x 1800 pixel display, twice the storage, and a Core i7 CPU.

Continue reading Deals of the Day (6-28-2016) at Liliputing.

Deals of the Day (6-28-2016)

The HP Envy 13  is a compact Windows laptop that’s available with an Intel Skylake processor, up to 8GB of RAM, and up to a 3200 x 1800 pixel display.

HP normally charges $850 and up for the laptop, but right now you can spend $750 on a model with a 1080p screen, a Core i5 CPU, 8GB of RAM, and 128GB of storage.

Or you could spend $50 more for a model with a 3200 x 1800 pixel display, twice the storage, and a Core i7 CPU.

Continue reading Deals of the Day (6-28-2016) at Liliputing.

NASA’s supersized rocket passes a key test in northern Utah

The second qualification test of the SLS boosters was a noisy, fiery success.

Say what you will about the Space Launch System. It's expensive, costing so much that NASA can't really afford to build payloads to fly on it. The Senate specified the rocket to fly with components derived from the Space Shuttle expressly to preserve jobs that otherwise would have been lost following the shuttle's retirement. And the entirely expendable launcher uses 1970s technology while private companies are focusing on smaller, modern, and reusable rockets.

All of that, more or less, is true. But it is also undeniable that the Space Launch System, whenever it does fly, will be one hell of a firecracker. On Tuesday, the space agency offered a taste of that when it demonstrated the firing of one of the solid rocket boosters that will help blast the SLS rocket off of the launch pad.

These boosters will provide about 75 percent of the thrust needed to lift the rocket and its payload into low-Earth orbit. As implied by their name, the boosters burn a solid composite made largely of aluminum. During Tuesday's test, a single booster produced about 3.2 million pounds of thrust. By way of comparison, a Falcon 9 rocket with its nine engines produces about 1.7 million pounds of thrust.

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Axon 7: ZTEs Topsmartphone kommt für 450 Euro nach Deutschland

Das Axon 7 kommt nach Deutschland: ZTEs Topsmartphone mit Snapdragon-820-SoC, 20-Megapixel-Kamera, 1440p-Display und zwei dezidierten Soundprozessoren kostet 450 Euro. Damit ist das Gerät günstiger als die Top-Smartphones der meisten Konkurrenten. (ZTE, Smartphone)

Das Axon 7 kommt nach Deutschland: ZTEs Topsmartphone mit Snapdragon-820-SoC, 20-Megapixel-Kamera, 1440p-Display und zwei dezidierten Soundprozessoren kostet 450 Euro. Damit ist das Gerät günstiger als die Top-Smartphones der meisten Konkurrenten. (ZTE, Smartphone)

Medienanstalten: Analoge TV-Verbreitung bindet hohe Netzkapazitäten

Die analoge Verbreitung des Fernsehens über das Koaxialkabel behindert HDTV und breitbandiges Internet, mahnt die Direktorenkonferenz der Landesmedienanstalten. Noch dieses Jahr könnte eine digitale Empfangsquote von 80 Prozent im TV-Kabel erreicht werden. (HDTV, Internet)

Die analoge Verbreitung des Fernsehens über das Koaxialkabel behindert HDTV und breitbandiges Internet, mahnt die Direktorenkonferenz der Landesmedienanstalten. Noch dieses Jahr könnte eine digitale Empfangsquote von 80 Prozent im TV-Kabel erreicht werden. (HDTV, Internet)

Asus ZenPad 3s 10 Android tablet coming in July

Asus ZenPad 3s 10 Android tablet coming in July

Asus unveiled a few new Zenpad tablets with entry-level specs in June. But now it looks like the company is getting ready to update its ZenPad S line of Android tablets with premium specs.

The company is holding an event in Taiwan on July 12th to introduce the new Asus ZenPad 3s 10.

We’ll have to wait a few weeks to get the full spec sheet or price, but several Chinese-language websites are reporting that Asus has shared a few details in the invitation to the press event.

Continue reading Asus ZenPad 3s 10 Android tablet coming in July at Liliputing.

Asus ZenPad 3s 10 Android tablet coming in July

Asus unveiled a few new Zenpad tablets with entry-level specs in June. But now it looks like the company is getting ready to update its ZenPad S line of Android tablets with premium specs.

The company is holding an event in Taiwan on July 12th to introduce the new Asus ZenPad 3s 10.

We’ll have to wait a few weeks to get the full spec sheet or price, but several Chinese-language websites are reporting that Asus has shared a few details in the invitation to the press event.

Continue reading Asus ZenPad 3s 10 Android tablet coming in July at Liliputing.

‘Denuvo Crack Video’ & Rumors Excite Pirates

The DRM protection software currently stopping pirates from playing many of the PC’s top gaming titles is again causing excitement. Partially confirmed rumors coming out of Russia suggest that following a team effort, the infamous Denuvo may have been cracked for Rise of the Tomb Raider.

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

denuvoFor several decades owners of home computers have been aware of a simple fact. If legitimate software is available, it can be copied for use by someone who hasn’t paid for it.

For years this was as simple as audio-recording a cassette tape or cloning disks of various kinds, but more recently things have become decidedly more challenging. Digital Rights Management, or DRM as it’s more often known, is now a serious thorn in the side of software pirates.

The situation is being felt most acutely in the gaming world, where various protection methods are beginning to take their toll on those who prefer not to pay for the biggest games around.

In particular, the infamous Denuvo DRM anti-tamper system is responsible for keeping games such as Just Cause 3, Doom, Rise of the Tomb Raider, and a raft of other titles out of the hands of pirates. However, partially confirmed rumors emanating from Russia suggest that the cracks (excuse the pun) might be appearing in Denuvo.

Just to be clear, until such time that a working crack appears in the wild, most rumors (and there have been plenty of them recently) should be taken with a generous pinch of salt. However, during the past 24 hours, there have been unusual levels of excitement to suggest a crack might actually be close to surfacing.

The game at the forefront of discussion is the critically-acclaimed Rise of the Tomb Raider (ROTTR) from Square Enix. Like many Denuvo protected titles, ROTTR has thus far proven uncrackable but according to sources on Russian sites MKDev and Exelab, serious progress is being made.

What is causing the most excitement is a video which claims to show a crack of ROTTR in action. With most notation in Russian it’s difficult to follow in precise detail, but from the images alone it seems very likely that the game has been compromised, at least up to a point. (Watch here (low frame rate))

rottr1

So who is taking credit for this amazing feat? Well officially, no one yet, but various clues suggest that the crack is the product of a collaboration between a Russian hacker known online as Bronco and Scene group RELOADED (RLD).

While RLD is predictably saying nothing, yesterday Bronco gave a shout out to RLD on Exelab’s forums in a posting which included the words “special thanks RLD and v00doo.”

Furthermore, MKDEV (who is also working on Denuvo and was responsible for cracking Football Manager 2016) is indicating on his site (in broken English) that RLD might soon be delivering a crack for Rise of the Tomb Raider.

“SOON THEY ARE COMING … 1 BY 1 NOT BY OUR HAND BUT…RLD…ROTTR…,” his message reads.

Additionally, a hi-res image from the ‘crack’ video appears to show ‘RLD!’ in the near right-hand corner, perhaps more evidence that RLD played a major role in what is currently happening.

rottr2

In the absence of any ‘official’ announcement some analysis has been provided by an individual known online as RengarSenpai. He has also been working on Denuvo and appears to have gained access to some of MKDEV’s research in the past.

“The truth is that Denuvo is fully cracked for that specific game [Rise of the Tomb Raider], not emulated or worked around,” he writes.

But of course, the proof of the pudding is always in the eating and short of the all-important crack appearing in public, many will doubt it even exists.

Still, that hasn’t stopped the breathless celebrations starting early, especially from those prepared to download mysterious .exe files labeled up as Rise of the Tomb Raider cracks.

Rest assured, they’re all fakes….at least for now.

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