Category: Uncategorised

Windows may be the dominant operating system for notebook and desktop computers but it’s in a distant third place when it comes to smartphones, so it’s not surprising that many mobile app developers prioritize iOS and Android over Windows.   So Microsoft decided to do something about the app gap and earlier this year the […]

Maybe Android apps aren’t coming to Windows 10 after all? is a post from: Liliputing

Moderne Webseiten erstellen häufig dynamischen Javascript-Code. Wenn darin private Daten enthalten sind, können fremde Webseiten diese auslesen. Bei einer Untersuchung von Sicherheitsforschern war ein Drittel der untersuchten Webseiten von diesem Problem betroffen. (Javascript, Technologie)

Ein Jetpack soll es Feuerwehrleuten in Dubai erleichtern, von außen an Brände in Hochhäusern heranzukommen. Die futuristische Technik soll ab 2016 eingesetzt werden und wurde jetzt erstmals öffentlich präsentiert. (Jetpack, BBC)

Das iPad Pro besitzt keinen gewöhnlichen Lightning-Anschluss, der wie bei den anderen iPads nur eine Übertragungsgeschwindigkeit von USB 2.0 bietet. Die Schnittstelle soll auch USB-3.0-Geschwindigkeiten bieten, doch mit herkömmlichen Kabeln ist sie nicht erreichbar. (iPad Pro, USB 3.0)

Die Bundesregierung plant nach einem Medienbericht, Käufern von Elektroautos bis zu 5.000 Euro zu zahlen. Das Ziel, bis 2020 eine Million Elektroautos auf deutsche Straßen zu bringen, dürfte anders kaum noch zu erreichen sein. Zudem sollen herkömmliche Antriebe stärker belastet werden. (Elektroauto, GreenIT)

Almost exactly one year ago, Universal Music, Sony Music, Warner Music, Nordisk Film and the Swedish Film Industry teamed up against Swedish ISP Bredbandsbolaget (Broadband Company).

In a lawsuit filed at the Stockholm District Court, the entertainment industry plaintiffs argued that Bredbandsbolaget should be held liable for Internet piracy carried out by its own subscribers. The companies argued that if the ISP wants avoid liability it should block its customers from accessing The Pirate Bay and streaming portal Swefilmer.

Telenor subsidiary Bredbandsbolaget (Broadband Company) has fought the action every step of the way and will find out at the end of November whether those efforts have paid off.

Should it prevail the decision will be a historic one – no other ISP in Europe (complex Netherlands’ case aside) has managed to avoid blocking The Pirate Bay following a legal battle. If the ISP loses (and the odds suggest that it will) the provider will be required to censor the site, something it is desperate to avoid.

In a joint statement this week Patrik Hofbauer, CEO of Telenor and Bredbandsbolaget, and Anna Bystrom, company legal counsel, warned that an adverse ruling could put the model of a free and open Internet at risk.

“When a judgment becomes precedent a trial is about so much more than an Internet service provider and two controversial websites,” the executives begin.

“If the media companies are given the right it will lead to absurd consequences and Internet subscribers will ultimately end up using a severely censored Internet.”

Hofbauer and Bystrom highlight the fact that should the case go the plaintiffs’ way, Bredbandsbolaget and other Internet providers will be regarded as accomplices to infringement committed on sites such as Swefilmer and The Pirate Bay. However, the implications stretch far beyond those two domains.

“A conviction that makes us criminals because we do not block these sites is very dangerous and opens a door must remain closed,” they explain.

“Moving forward, will ISPs then be forced to block social media if we are deemed to contribute to copyright infringement, threats and defamation that may occur there?”

Indeed, copyright is the tip of the iceberg. Could ISPs’ liability stretch further still, to controversial sites such as Wikileaks for example?

“Will sites where whistle-blowers can reach out with secret classified material also need to be blocked? If so, Sweden would then be subjected to a harsh level of censorship unique in the EU,” Hofbauer and Bystrom warn.

While the copyright holders in the legal action are clear on their goals, it’s clear that Bredbandsbolaget is concerned that this case represents the thin end of a wedge, one that starts with copyright but has the potential to expand into unforeseen areas. Once the genie is out of the bottle, the company argues, the threat to the open Internet could be great.

Bredbandsbolaget says the legal and ethical choices it is confronted with are not always easy ones and it sometimes finds itself in the middle of contradictory demands from legislators on one side and stakeholders on the other. But on this issue, initially involving The Pirate Bay but with the potential to spread much further, the ISP’s position has been easy.

“Our role in society should be about making information available and we can not risk engaging in censorship,” the ISP explains.

“When we faced pressure from individual players in this case, we put our values ​​to the test. We are against piracy, but the idea that under threat of punishment ISPs must make assessments of the sites that Swedish people visit is absurd.”

In conclusion and while welcoming a positive outcome to the case, the executives say that if they’re forced to bend to the whims of outside influences, people may have to kiss goodbye to a free and open Internet.

“The day when we and other operators must be guided by private interests, that may represent the beginning of the end for what we in Sweden know as the open Internet. With that said, we welcome a decision that will hopefully strengthen our conviction,” Hofbauer and Bystrom conclude.

Whichever way it goes, there’s only two weeks left to find out.

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

Wir haben diese Woche viel Fallout 4 gespielt, waren zweimal im Kino - und nebenbei haben wir auch noch ein bisschen richtig gearbeitet und Blackberrys erstes Smartphone mit Android sowie das iPad Pro getestet. Sieben Tage und viele Meldungen im Überblick. (Golem-Wochenrückblick, Spieletest)

The release of a new Halo game (and exclusive) for the Xbox One helped Microsoft's console beat the PS4 to become the October's best selling console for the U.S. market.

'Halo 5: Guardians' was the month's best selling game, despite being an Xbox One exclusive, and this helped push the Xbox One to the top spot for the first time this year, the NPD group reports. While no specific hardware numbers were given by NPD or by the game console companies themselves, Microsoft was quick to point out they're just had a rare victory against the PS4, thanks largely to what the company calls their best gaming line-up ever.

"The strength of the greatest games lineup in Xbox history drove record Xbox Live usage for October and made Xbox One the best-selling console in the U.S. with 81 percent growth compared to October 2014," said Xbox marketing boss Mike Nichols in a statement. "We saw amazing fan excitement, commercial success, and critical acclaim in October for Halo 5: Guardians, which was the best-selling game in the U.S., and other Xbox One titles launching earlier this fall, including Forza Motorsport 6, Gears of War: Ultimate Edition, Harmonix’s Rock Band 4, and Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed Syndicate."

Despite the Xbox One's victory in October, the full list of top 10 game sales reveal just how much work Microsoft still must do in order to catch up to Sony's wildly successful console. 6 of the 7 multi-platform games in the top 10 saw sales of the game on the PS4 lead sales of the same games on the Xbox One.

Overall console sales were down from $271.1 million last October to $270.3 million, largely due to falling sales of portable game consoles (home based console sales rose by 3 percent). Game sales were down by 3 percent for the same comparison period.

There’s a limit to how big a battery you can stuff in a smartphone, so companies have been focusing on two ways to let you spend less time charging your phone: making their devices more efficient and making the charging process faster. Huawei has announced a major breakthrough on the latter front: the company says […]

Huawei unveils new batteries that charge in minutes is a post from: Liliputing

Steam Machines are gaming computers that ship with Valve’s Linux-based Steam OS software. It’s designed to run on a big-screen display and put your gaming experience front and center. The idea is to make gaming PCs a bit more like game consoles… and for the most part Steam Machines seem to do that. But now […]

Lilbits 312: Steam Machines would be faster as Windows Machines is a post from: Liliputing