Apple says game about Palestinian child isn’t a game

iPhone maker suggests title would be a better fit in “News” or “Reference”

I dunno, looks like a game to me...

The creator of a game about a Palestinian child struggling to survive with her family in the 2014 Gaza strip says the title has been rejected from the games section of the iOS App Store because, as he puts it, "it has a political statement."

Liyla and the Shadows of War is currently listed on Google Play as an Adventure game, and it includes "challenging decision, events and puzzles awaiting for you [sic]" according to its online press kit. But Palestinian creator Rasheed Abueideh tweeted a rejection message in which Apple said the game was "not appropriate in the games category" and that it would be "more appropriate to categorize your app in News or Reference for example."

The rejection didn't go into detail about where Apple draws the line between "Games" and "News," but Apple's App Store Review guidelines have laid out the company's thinking since 2010: "We view Apps different than books or songs, which we do not curate. If you want to criticize a religion, write a book. If you want to describe sex, write a book or a song, or create a medical app." Those same guidelines also lay out a vague "I'll know it when I see it" standard for when content goes "over the line" in ways not specifically prohibited by the guidelines (Apple has yet to respond to a request for comment from Ars).

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CEO Larry Page defends Google on the stand: “Declaring code is not code”

“It was established industry practice,” says Page, as Oracle v. Google nears end.

Google co-founder and CEO Larry Page. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) (credit: Getty Images)

SAN FRANCISCO—Alphabet CEO Larry Page testified in federal court this morning, saying that he never considered getting permission to use Java APIs, because they were "free and open."

The CEO of Alphabet, Google's parent company, spoke in a soft staccato and was hard to understand at times. (Page suffers from a condition that affects his vocal chords.) But Page spoke to the jury for about a half-hour, answering a lightning-fast round of accusatory questions from Oracle attorney Peter Bicks.

Page's testimony comes in the final hours of the Oracle v. Google trial. The lawsuit began when Oracle sued Google in 2010 over its use of 37 Java APIs, which Oracle acquired when it bought Sun Microsystems. In 2012, a judge ruled that APIs can't be copyrighted at all, but an appeals court disagreed. Now, unless a jury finds that Google's use of APIs was "fair use," Oracle may seek up to $9 billion in damages.

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Google’s Daydream ensures Android VR apps can run on Daydream-ready phones

Google’s Daydream ensures Android VR apps can run on Daydream-ready phones

Google’s next foray into virtual reality is a platform called Daydream that lets you use an Android phone or iPhone as a VR screen. The company is introducing a series of hardware specs for Daydream-ready phones, which means that developers can target those specs and be sure that anyone with a Daydream-ready device should be able to run their apps and games.

Phones will need to have low persistent displays, high-performance processors with support for 60 frames per second video, and low-latency sensors for tracking your head movement when the phone is strapped into a headset.

Continue reading Google’s Daydream ensures Android VR apps can run on Daydream-ready phones at Liliputing.

Google’s Daydream ensures Android VR apps can run on Daydream-ready phones

Google’s next foray into virtual reality is a platform called Daydream that lets you use an Android phone or iPhone as a VR screen. The company is introducing a series of hardware specs for Daydream-ready phones, which means that developers can target those specs and be sure that anyone with a Daydream-ready device should be able to run their apps and games.

Phones will need to have low persistent displays, high-performance processors with support for 60 frames per second video, and low-latency sensors for tracking your head movement when the phone is strapped into a headset.

Continue reading Google’s Daydream ensures Android VR apps can run on Daydream-ready phones at Liliputing.

Fujitsu Ontenna: Hören mit den Haaren

Wer nicht hören kann, hat nicht nur ein Problem mit dem Wahrnehmen der Sprache seines Gegenübers, sondern mit Annäherungen von hinten oder nicht hörbaren Telefonen. Fujitsu will das Problem mit Ontenna lösen. (Fujitsu, Mobil)

Wer nicht hören kann, hat nicht nur ein Problem mit dem Wahrnehmen der Sprache seines Gegenübers, sondern mit Annäherungen von hinten oder nicht hörbaren Telefonen. Fujitsu will das Problem mit Ontenna lösen. (Fujitsu, Mobil)

Cloud: Amazons AWS sucht 130 Beschäftigte in Deutschland

Amazon Web Services sucht in Deutschland Mitarbeiter. Die Region Frankfurt sei die am schnellsten wachsende internationale Region in der Firmengeschichte, sagte ein Manager. (AWS, Web Service)

Amazon Web Services sucht in Deutschland Mitarbeiter. Die Region Frankfurt sei die am schnellsten wachsende internationale Region in der Firmengeschichte, sagte ein Manager. (AWS, Web Service)

Seized Popcorn Time “News” Domain Sparks Free Speech Appeal

The battle over the legality of a seized Popcorn Time “news” domain is heating up. Last week a complaint by two digital rights groups was denied by a local court due to a lack of standing, but today they filed an appeal, joined by the legal owner of the disputed domain name.

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

popcorntMovie companies worldwide see Popcorn Time as one of the largest piracy threats against their businesses.

They are doing their best to put a halt to its popularity and are taking broad steps to contain it, sometimes with help from the authorities.

Earlier this year Norwegian rightsholders reported a local Popcorn Time site to the local economic crime police. Responding to this referral, the authorities seized the Popcorn-Time.no domain name.

While it uses Popcorn Time in the domain name the site didn’t host the application itself but instead posted news articles, as well as links to sites that offered the application.

This broad takedown of a news-focused site raised concerns with digital rights activists and legal experts. Not only is the legality of the site debated, but also the use of a far-reaching measure without a proper judicial review.

Hoping to hold the authorities accountable, Electronic Frontier Norway (EFN) and the Norwegian Unix User Group (NUUG) took the case to court. The main question they want answered is whether the domain seizure was appropriate in this case.

However, late last week the court refused to take on the case, arguing that both parties lacked standing, as they were not sufficiently affected by the domain seizure.

While it was a disappointing decision for the groups, it didn’t mark the end of the case. Today, EFN and NUUG filed an appeal and this time were joined by the legal owner of the domain name, the Norwegian company IMCASREG8.

IMCASREG8 didn’t run the site but acted as an intermediary between the operator of the domain and the registrar. On paper, they are the legal owner of the domain name.

Popcorn-time.no when it was still active

popcor-no

With the new party the groups hope to have sufficient standing to have the case heard. In their appeal there’s a strong focus on the free speech element, and they hope the court will clarify when domain seizures are appropriate.

“We feel that this is an important case that addresses the limits of free speech,” EFN’s managing director Tom Fredrik Blenning tells TorrentFreak.

NUUG leader Hans-Petter Fjeld adds that the authorities shouldn’t be allowed to seize the domain name of a news site, which writes about open source software that by itself is not infringing.

“Part of what makes us upset is that the domain name of a news site about a piece of free software that has both legal and illegal uses, has been seized without judicial scrutiny,” Fjeld says.

It is now up to the court to decide whether the appeal will be heard. For now, the Popcorn-Time.no site remains offline, flashing a police notice.

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

Deals of the Day (5-19-2016)

The Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga 11E features an 11.6 inch touchscreen display and a 360 degree hinge that lets you use this small notebook like a big tablet.
It has a relatively low-power processor, but the ThinkPad Yoga 11E is available with more memory and …

Deals of the Day (5-19-2016)

The Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga 11E features an 11.6 inch touchscreen display and a 360 degree hinge that lets you use this small notebook like a big tablet.

It has a relatively low-power processor, but the ThinkPad Yoga 11E is available with more memory and storage than most other convertibles in this size range. And right now Woot is offering a pretty great price: for $270 you can pick up a model with 4GB of RAM, 128GB of solid state storage, and an Intel Celeron N2940 processor.

Continue reading Deals of the Day (5-19-2016) at Liliputing.

Star Otto: Arduino-Board mit Display-Anschluss, Audio und WLAN

Ein neues Arduino.org-Board verfügt über einen kraftvollen ARM-Cortex-M4-Mikrocontroller, viel Speicher und ist vergleichsweise anschlussfreudig. Der Mikrocontroller kommt nicht wie üblich von Atmel, sondern von ST Microelectronics. (Arduino, Embedded Systems)

Ein neues Arduino.org-Board verfügt über einen kraftvollen ARM-Cortex-M4-Mikrocontroller, viel Speicher und ist vergleichsweise anschlussfreudig. Der Mikrocontroller kommt nicht wie üblich von Atmel, sondern von ST Microelectronics. (Arduino, Embedded Systems)