Mitsubishi went for local Wi-Fi instead of LTE, but it’s not secure.
Remote functions via Wi-Fi, but easily hacked. (credit: Mitsubishi)
According to research firm Forrester, 35 percent of Americans—few of them Ars readers, we think—want Internet connectivity in their next vehicle. The car and tech industries are busy trying to make that happen. New cars increasingly come with their own LTE modem (and monthly bill), enabling remote apps that can give you a vehicle diagnostic or unlock your doors from the comfort of your phone or smartwatch. This is usually done in the cloud with plenty of thought given to security we're told—except in cases where there's no security at all.
But Mitsubishi's Outlander hybrid does things a bit differently, as the people over at PenTestPartners recently discovered. Instead of fitting the Outlander with a cellular modem for connectivity, you access its remote functions by connecting to the car's own Wi-Fi network. No monthly data plan needed, at the cost of connectivity only within range of the vehicle. Oh, and apparently Mitsubishi did a really bad job securing things.
The outfit bought its own Outlander to investigate the car's security, finding the pre-shared key easily crackable and the default SSID too formulaic. Once connected to a vehicle, one can play with the lights or climate control—similar to the Nissan exploit. But the researchers also discovered they could lock or unlock the doors remotely, and, perhaps more seriously, they were also able to disable the car's alarm.
Microsoft’s vision for a unified operating system meant delivering a more Windows-like experience to the Xbox One. Soon it will become even more like a Windows 10 PC, but the Xbox is also returning the favor. Windows 10 PCs will soon be a bit more Xbox-like.
Paul Thurrott has taken a look at two upcoming preview releases that Microsoft has in the pipe. The first is the Anniversary Update, which is heading not just to Windows 10 PCs this summer but also to the Xbox One.
Microsoft’s vision for a unified operating system meant delivering a more Windows-like experience to the Xbox One. Soon it will become even more like a Windows 10 PC, but the Xbox is also returning the favor. Windows 10 PCs will soon be a bit more Xbox-like.
Paul Thurrott has taken a look at two upcoming preview releases that Microsoft has in the pipe. The first is the Anniversary Update, which is heading not just to Windows 10 PCs this summer but also to the Xbox One.
Xbox app in Windows 10 adds 60fps capture, Twitter sharing, too.
Cortana managing an Xbox party. (credit: Microsoft)
At some point today, a new wave of Xbox One preview updates will be rolled out to Xbox Ones that are registered in the preview program. This new version of the Xbox One software uses the unified OneCore Windows platform, and with that come two big new features: Cortana integration and apps for the Xbox.
Cortana-powered voice control was initially promised for last year's update, but the feature slipped. Cortana will subsume existing Xbox voice functionality, such as starting apps and navigating the interface. She'll also be used for more complex scenarios. For example, you'll be able to ask her to invite a particular friend to a party when they come online. As ever, Cortana is subject to various restrictions: she only speaks English (US and UK variants), French, Italian, German, and Spanish, so those are the only markets in which she'll work at first.
With this update, the Xbox—just like Windows 10 PCs, Windows 10 phones, and even some Android devices—will be able to respond to "Hey, Cortana." We would hope that at some point Microsoft will add some kind of smarts to the system so that if it knows that I'm using the Xbox, my PC and phone should probably ignore the "Hey, Cortana" rather than having three devices spring to life and try to respond to my commands.
A YouTube user who creates video essays has been hit with a punishing lawsuit after selecting Stanley Kubrick as a subject matter and uploading his work to YouTube. UK-based Lewis Bond from Channel Criswell is being targeted by the music publishers behind the 1971 classic ‘A Clockwork Orange’ who want huge damages for willful infringement.
Undoubtedly the lion’s share of copyright infringement lawsuits filed in the United States concern file-sharing activity, something which inevitably pits large entertainment corporations against Joe Public. David versus Goliath, it now seems, is heading to YouTube channel near you.
Late Friday, TorrentFreak received a tip linking us to a YouTube video posted on Channel Criswell. In it a visibly shaken and somewhat bewildered young man tries to keep his composure while delivering what is clearly upsetting news.
“A couple of hours ago I received a court summons in the post. The reason I’m being sued is for the Stanley Kubrick video that I uploaded in February. I don’t know what to do,” said Channel Criswell operator Lewis Bond.
“I thought all this was over and done with and we could move on and no-one would have to take any legal action. But apparently I am being sued for copyright infringement and the people that have filed this lawsuit against me are after the maximum damages, which if I’ve read it correctly can be up to $150,000. And this….this would ruin me,” he choked.
To understand the nature of this case it’s first necessary to examine Lewis’ work. Watching just a couple of minutes of the video embedded below should leave readers in no doubt that his work is documentary in nature, with masses of commentary and criticism throughout. Lewis Bond is a talented man.
Throughout the five minute video in which Bond reports his plight, the young filmmaker never refers to the people behind the lawsuit by name. However, we have ascertained that the claimants are US-based Serendip LLC and their claim has nothing to do with Kubrick himself.
In a complaint filed in a New York District Court back in March, Serendip LLC explain that they own the copyrights to music created by composer Wendy Carlos. Among other works, Carlos wrote the soundtracks for both A Clockwork Orange (1971) and The Shining (1980). The complaint involves the former.
“The three pieces of music at issue in this action were used in the soundtrack of the motion picture ‘A Clockwork Orange’, entitled ‘Title Music From A Clockwork Orange’, ‘March From A Clockwork Orange’ and ‘William Tell Overture’,” the company explains.
“Unbeknownst to, and without permission or license from, Serendip, Defendant Lewis Bond made derivative works of music and sound recording works by Wendy Carlos in the soundtrack of a video, entitled ‘Stanley Kubrick – The Cinematic Experience.’
“On or about February 20, 2016, with the purpose, inter alia, of monetizing the video for his own benefit, Defendant uploaded the video with user name Channel Criswell to YouTube.com and linked to the YouTube video on Twitter.com and Patreon.com.”
Serendip describe the video (embedded above) as a “mélange of brief snippets taken from Stanley Kubrick’s motion pictures” alongside an “aggregate of about 3 minutes of music taken from the three tracks listed in the complaint.
The publisher says that the music used by Bond represents “substantial portions” of the tracks “ranging from 18% of a piece of 7 minutes duration to 45% of a piece of 2 minutes 20 seconds duration.”
Lewis in happier times
There is absolutely no mention of a fair use exception in the lawsuit filed by Serendip however there is a subtle hint that the company might believe that Bond’s commentary on Kubrick’s work not only stopped short of musical analysis, but also presented Carlos’ work out of context.
“With the exception of about 5 seconds of the ‘William Tell Overture’, the music is not synced to picture as in the soundtrack of ‘A Clockwork Orange’, but instead is used behind many unrelated snippets from various Kubrick movies and the video shorts. At no time, does the video commentary discuss the music or its context as displayed in the video,” the lawsuit reads.
According to the publisher it sent a takedown notice to YouTube back in February and the platform responded by disabling the video. In response, Bond reportedly filed a counter-notice, which YouTube passed on with a note that “Serendip must file a federal court action within 10 business days or YouTube may reinstate the video to YouTube.com.”
From this point it’s clear that Bond felt that Serendip had overstepped the mark and according to the publisher he expressed those concerns several times in public. In summary, however, Serendip feel they are absolutely entitled to sue the YouTuber, describing his actions as “willful, intentional, and purposeful, in disregard of and indifferent to Serendip’s rights.”
In addition to an injunction the publisher is also pressing for statutory damages of up to $150,000 per infringement plus attorneys fees.
Only time will tell how this case will play out, but by picking on the easiest of soft targets Serendip is unlikely to endear itself with the Internet masses. The Ludovico technique sickened Alex whenever he heard his beloved Beethoven. This lawsuit might sadly do the same for fans of the brilliant Clockwork Orange.
Open-world design distracts from some solid first-person parkour.
She's got legs... she knows how to use them (to land on a nearby rooftop after swinging down a zipline)
The first Mirror's Edge solved a seemingly unsolvable problem in gaming: effortless first-person running and jumping. Usually, in 2D or 3D, a good third-person camera is needed to let the player see around corners, above and below ledges, past gaps, and even behind and to the side of the character in a way that allows for smooth planning of jumps and moves two or three steps ahead of time. In first person, by contrast, you often can’t see where you need to be until you’re already up in the air, getting ready to hopefully land somewhere safe.
Mirror’s Edge figured out this problem with a clever system of environmental cues that gave back some of the preternatural knowledge taken away by the perspective. Objects highlighted in bright red against the game’s stark white backgrounds showed you precisely where you should plan to jump, grab, or slide safely without having to worry about what you can’t see beyond the horizon. Combined with a set of fast, smooth parkour moves, protagonist Faith felt like an unstoppable super-powered force, cutting swiftly and precisely through dangerous environments mere mortals couldn’t tread.
Mirror’s Edge Catalyst doubles down on this “Runner’s Vision” conceit, adding a paint-like red line that darts in front of your vision to show you exactly where to wall run, ledge grab, or spring jump. Sometimes, the game goes so far as to show an outline of a person doing the precise parkour move you need to move on. It’s subtle enough to not be annoying but clear enough to stand out among the game’s gleaming, techno-utopian environments.
At its best, Catalyst’s version of Runner’s Vision gives you that same feeling of being a superpowered badass that can’t be stopped by walls, fences, or even towering changes of elevation. Following that red line quickly becomes second nature, giving a sense of effortless flow and seeming mastery that’s rare when traversing first-person environments.
In Bayern sollen 14.700 Kilometer Glasfaser verlegt werden, um alle Gemeinden mit schnellen Internetzugängen zu versorgen. Die Ziele für den Ausbau sollen schon im Jahr 2017, nicht erst 2018 erreicht werden. Gefördert wird eine Datenrate von mindestens 50 MBit/s. (Netzpolitik, Glasfaser)
In Bayern sollen 14.700 Kilometer Glasfaser verlegt werden, um alle Gemeinden mit schnellen Internetzugängen zu versorgen. Die Ziele für den Ausbau sollen schon im Jahr 2017, nicht erst 2018 erreicht werden. Gefördert wird eine Datenrate von mindestens 50 MBit/s. (Netzpolitik, Glasfaser)
One of the less satisfying aspects of modern physics is the increasing separation between the phenomena that we measure and the experimenter. We measure almost everything today indirectly. If we operate our lab safely, we never directly detect an electron—instead, that charge creates a tiny potential difference on an amplifier. The amplifier generates a larger current that might drive a coil that is attached to a needle on a dial.
This level of indirection is the reality of modern physics. And the alternative—passing large currents through your body—is discouraged. Yet, the desire to really see what is going on is hard to resist. This has led to an interesting publication that proposes a way to detect quantum mechanical behavior directly with the human eye.
Seeing single photons
The behavior in question is entanglement. But before getting to that, let's talk about the eye. The human visual system is a pretty poor instrument as far as optics go. The eye is actually pretty good; experiments have revealed that the rods in your eye are sensitive to single photons. The brain, however, is smart; rather than try to sort out all the noise associated with every single photon detection, it tells the rods and cones not to bother it until the light reaches a certain intensity.
Und noch eine Neuauflage mit hochaufgelöster Grafik: Square Enix kündigt Final Fantasy 12 für die Playstation 4 an. Neben schönerer Optik sind auch kleine spielerische Zusätze geplant. (Final Fantasy, Rollenspiel)
Und noch eine Neuauflage mit hochaufgelöster Grafik: Square Enix kündigt Final Fantasy 12 für die Playstation 4 an. Neben schönerer Optik sind auch kleine spielerische Zusätze geplant. (Final Fantasy, Rollenspiel)
Think it’s not a big deal if you re-use a password on a few websites? Two high-profile hacks in a week offer yet more proof that it’s most definitely a bad idea.
The first incident seems to have started around the 23 of March. Isolated reports started coming in from Teamviewer users that their machines had been accessed by unknown third parties — and they weren’t using it to provide tech support or run a presentation.
Think it’s not a big deal if you re-use a password on a few websites? Two high-profile hacks in a week offer yet more proof that it’s most definitely a bad idea.
The first incident seems to have started around the 23 of March. Isolated reports started coming in from Teamviewer users that their machines had been accessed by unknown third parties — and they weren’t using it to provide tech support or run a presentation.
Rovi, the company that's buying TiVo, isn't very interested in staying in the hardware business.
The combined company will be looking to partner with set-top box makers instead of continuing to sell set-top boxes directly to consumers, Rovi Chief Financial Officer Peter Halt said at an investors conference last week. (See transcript and this Light Reading article.)
Halt noted that TiVo's direct relationship with consumers has "been a source of great innovation for them and stuff like that." But he then said that "being in the hardware business isn’t something that necessarily excites us." It sounds like TV watchers could still get boxes powered by TiVo software and services, but the hardware would be made by another company.
In Bayern sollen 14.700 Kilometer Glasfaser verlegt werden, um alle Gemeinden mit schnellen Internetzugängen zu versorgen. Die Ziele für den Ausbau sollen schon im Jahr 2017, nicht erst 2018 erreicht werden. Gefördert wird eine Datenrate von mindestens 50 MBit/s. (
Und noch eine Neuauflage mit hochaufgelöster Grafik: Square Enix kündigt Final Fantasy 12 für die Playstation 4 an. Neben schönerer Optik sind auch kleine spielerische Zusätze geplant. (
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