Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton has been developing the EOMA68 modular PC system for the past five years… and now he’s finally ready to begin selling hardware.
The first devices include a $65 computer-on-a-card that’s designed to fit into a laptop or desktop PC case.
You can reserve some of the first devices by making a pledge at the project’s crowdfunding campaign at Crowd Supply, and Leighton is hoping to ship the first units to backers in early 2017… assuming the campaign raises $150,000.
Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton has been developing the EOMA68 modular PC system for the past five years… and now he’s finally ready to begin selling hardware.
The first devices include a $65 computer-on-a-card that’s designed to fit into a laptop or desktop PC case.
You can reserve some of the first devices by making a pledge at the project’s crowdfunding campaign at Crowd Supply, and Leighton is hoping to ship the first units to backers in early 2017… assuming the campaign raises $150,000.
NVIDIA has released a software update for the Shield TV box, bringing support for streaming HDR (high dynamic range) videos from Netflix, support for 4K video streaming from Vudu and support for 4K, 60fps streaming from YouTube.
The update was first an…
NVIDIA has released a software update for the Shield TV box, bringing support for streaming HDR (high dynamic range) videos from Netflix, support for 4K video streaming from Vudu and support for 4K, 60fps streaming from YouTube.
The update was first announced in May, but now that the Shield Experience Upgrade 3.2 is available, it turns out there are a few additional features, including a built-in PLEX media server for streaming videos, music, or movies from your Shield TV console to any PC or mobile device running PLEX.
Continue reading NVIDIA Shield TV update brings Plex media server, Netflix HDR at Liliputing.
Less water overall, but hints of liquid brines in recent past.
Some of the startlingly bright terrain on Ceres' heavily cratered surface.
NASA's Dawn mission has achieved a number of firsts, including being the first spacecraft to go into orbit around two different bodies. The second of those destinations is Ceres, a dwarf planet that is by far the largest body in the asteroid belt. That visit has now shown us that a lot of our expectations for what we would find at Ceres were wrong: it's not an icy body, but liquid water has helped shape the dwarf planet's most dramatic features.
A couple of papers that analyze Dawn data have appeared in Nature journals this week. In one case, they suggest that the dwarf planet's composition is much rockier than we expected. But the other suggests that the mysterious bright spots found in some of Ceres' craters are the result of salty brines making their way to the surface.
Our thoughts about Ceres prior to Dawn's visit were dominated by the dwarf planet's relatively low density. This suggested to many people that it must be composed largely of water, although the surface was darker than you would expect from water ice that was expected to be a thin veneer over an icy world. Craters were also expected to be relatively scarce, as water ice is semi-viscous at the temperatures (120K and up) expected to be found on Ceres.
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The problem is with side airbags made by Autoliv.
(credit: Thomas Hawk @ Flickr)
Airbags in cars have been responsible for saving many a life, but recent news might be tarnishing that reputation. More than 100 million cars worldwide are subject to the most complex automotive recall ever thanks to defective airbags from supplier Takata.
The problem rests with whether or not the airbag uses a chemical drying agent to prevent the ammonium-nitrate propellant charge from taking on moisture. Takata airbags without the drying agent may not work properly in an accident, filling the cabin with shards of metal shrapnel as well as the airbag. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (which ordered the recall here in the US) says that 10 people have been killed and more than 100 injured as a result.
If you drive one of the affected models, you may have to wait some time before getting it replaced. Takata has until 2019 to replace all the defective airbags and may well need the time; in the process of trying to have one of our cars fixed in June under the recall notice, we were told the supply chain was empty and that 2017 was more likely. But Takata isn't the only company having problems with prematurely exploding airbags.
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RAVPower offers a range of popular smartphone and PC accessories including portable batteries, USB hubs, charging cables, and charging cases. And Amazon is selling a bunch of them at deep discountes today.
For example, you can pick up a 13,400 mAh power bank for $22, or a 20,100 model with a USB-C port for and Qualcomm Quick Charge 2.0 support for $42.
Here are some of the day’s best deals.
Continue reading Deals of the Day (6-29-2016) at Liliputing.
RAVPower offers a range of popular smartphone and PC accessories including portable batteries, USB hubs, charging cables, and charging cases. And Amazon is selling a bunch of them at deep discountes today.
For example, you can pick up a 13,400 mAh power bank for $22, or a 20,100 model with a USB-C port for and Qualcomm Quick Charge 2.0 support for $42.
Here are some of the day’s best deals.
Continue reading Deals of the Day (6-29-2016) at Liliputing.
Wi-Fi Alliance starts certifying routers for faster speeds and denser networks.
(credit: Aurich Lawson)
The Wi-Fi Alliance industry group is now certifying products that can deliver multi-gigabit speeds and improve coverage in dense networks by delivering data to multiple devices simultaneously.
The new certification program, announced today, focuses on the so-called "Wave 2" features of the 802.11ac specification. 802.11ac is a few years old, but it includes several important features that were not available at launch. One such feature is MU-MIMO (multi-user, multiple-input, and multiple-output), which we wrote a feature on in May 2014. MU-MIMO is powered by multi-user beamforming technology that lets wireless access points send data streams to at least three users simultaneously. Without MU-MIMO, routers stream to just one device at a time but switch between them very fast so that users don't notice a slowdown except when lots of devices are on the network.
With the 80MHz channels supported in 802.11ac Wave 1, each data stream could provide up to 433Mbps and, when coupled with MU-MIMO routers, can send up to 433Mbps to at least three users simultaneously for a total of 1.3Gbps. But in addition to supporting MU-MIMO, Wave 2 also doubles the maximum channel bandwidth from 80MHz to 160MHz, boosting the potential throughput of each stream to 866Mbps. Wave 2 also supports four spatial streams instead of three, further boosting the theoretical maximum capacity. Technically, 802.11ac supports up to eight streams, but the certification program is still at four. Delivering eight streams with these data rates would use a lot of electricity.
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Beim Layer-2-Bitstromzugang soll die Telekom ihren Konkurrenten einen 100-MBit/s-Zugang für 19 Euro anbieten, schlägt die Bundesnetzagentur vor. Die Anbindung eines Kabelverzweigers mit unbeschalteter Glasfaser kostet künftig 46,76 Euro. (Bundesnetzagentur, DSL)
Beim Layer-2-Bitstromzugang soll die Telekom ihren Konkurrenten einen 100-MBit/s-Zugang für 19 Euro anbieten, schlägt die Bundesnetzagentur vor. Die Anbindung eines Kabelverzweigers mit unbeschalteter Glasfaser kostet künftig 46,76 Euro. (Bundesnetzagentur, DSL) U.S. Internet provider Windstream is asking a New York federal court to shield the company from broad piracy accusations. The ISP filed a complaint against BMG and Rightscorp after it was accused of direct and contributory copyright infringement. The lawsuit follows on the heels of a similar complaint by fellow Internet provider RCN, which also seeks legal clarity.
Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.
Can an Internet provider be held liable for subscribers who share pirated files? Yes, a Virginia federal jury ruled late last year.
This verdict caused shockwaves in the ISP industry when several companies suddenly realized that they could become the next target.
With 1.1 million subscribers in the United States, Windstream is one of the ‘candidates.’ The company is well aware of this risk but instead of waiting around the ISP is taking the initiative.
This week Windstream filed a complaint for declaratory judgment at a New York District Court, directed against music rights group BMG and its anti-piracy partner Rightscorp.
For several years BMG has accused Windstream and its subscribers of various copyright infringements. The notices they send are issued by the monitoring outfit Rightscorp and often come with a settlement demand for the account holders.
Windstream, however, says that it’s not in any way obligated to forward these notices to the subscribers in question. Instead, the ISP points out that it’s a mere conduit for Internet services.
“Similar to other ISPs, Windstream only provides Internet connectivity, making it a mere conduit for the transmission of Internet services,” Windstream writes in its complaint.
“As a pipeline to the Internet, Windstream does not monitor or otherwise control the manner in which its subscribers utilize their Windstream Internet connection and does not initiate, control, select or modify the material or content transmitted by Windstream subscribers over Windstream’s network.”
According to the ISP, the notices sent by Rightscorp also lack sufficient information to prove that actual copyright infringements have taken place by their customers.
“Defendants have no direct evidence that any Windstream subscriber is engaged in direct copyright infringement and Windstream, as a mere conduit for the transmission of Internet services, cannot be held liable for direct copyright infringement,” the complaint reads.
Windstream previously made its position clear to both BMG and Rightscorp and tried to come to a resolution, but that didn’t stop more notices being sent to the ISP.
Instead, the companies maintain that Windstream is liable for contributory and vicarious copyright infringement, and accuse it of failing to disconnect repeat infringers.
“Defendants claim that Windstream’s knowledge and allowance of unchecked infringement on its network makes Windstream liable for secondary copyright infringement and actual or statutory damages as high as $150,000 per infringed work.”
These allegations go way too far, Windstream believes. As a result, the company is seeking a judgment declaring that it’s not liable for the infringing actions of its subscribers under the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions, among other things.
“Defendants have no direct evidence that any Windstream subscriber engaged in direct copyright infringement and Windstream, as a mere conduit for the transmission of Internet services, cannot be held liable for direct copyright infringement,” they write.
In addition, the ISP says that it doesn’t authorize, direct or encourage its subscribers to pirate anything. Nor does it profit from the alleged copyright infringements that may take place on their network.
With this lawsuit Windstream hopes to obtain legal clarity on several key issues. Aside from the broader liability question, the ISP also asks the court to declare that it’s not required to comply with or respond to Rightscorp’s notices at all, under the DMCA.
Windstream’s lawsuit is similar to the one filed by RCN earlier this month, although the latter doesn’t include Rightscorp as a defendant. These are likely to be followed closely by the larger ISPs, as the outcomes will have a major impact on the industry.
The full complaint is available here (pdf).
Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.
Solid 1080p, VR performance overshadowed by subpar efficiency improvements.
| Specs at a glance: AMD RX 480 | |
|---|---|
| COMPUTE UNITS | 36 |
| TEXTURE UNITS | 144 |
| ROPS | 32 |
| CORE CLOCK | 1120MHz |
| BOOST CLOCK | 1266MHz |
| MEMORY BUS WIDTH | 256-bit |
| MEMORY SPEED | 8GHz or 7GHz |
| MEMORY BANDWIDTH | 320GB/s or 224GB/s |
| MEMORY SIZE | 8GB GDDR5 or 4GB GDDR5 |
| Outputs | 3x DisplayPort 1.3, 1x HDMI 2.0b with support for 4K60 HDR |
| Release date | June 29 |
| PRICE | 8GB (as reviewed): £215, $230. 4GB: £180, $200 |
Brave? Foolhardy? Desperate? Whatever you might think about AMD's decision to cede the top end of the graphics card market (at least for now) to Nvidia and launch the mainstream-focused RX 480 instead, the fact remains that for £180/$200 it's the best graphics card you can buy. It's faster than Nvidia's GTX 970, and (mostly) faster than an R9 390, making it more than powerful enough to meet the minimum spec for virtual reality—and it'll blitz through demanding 1080p games at a smooth 60FPS too. It even does a decent job at 1440p, so long as you're fine with dialling down a few settings.
As a consumer product, then, the RX 480 is a success, even if one of AMD's core pitches—that it'll help drive VR adoption—is a little suspect. VR headsets still cost well over £500, after all.
But—and sadly, there always seems to be but with AMD—the RX 480 is not a great debut for Polaris 10, its first GPU based on an all-new, theoretically-more-efficient 14nm FinFET manufacturing process. At 150W, the RX 480 sits in the same power envelope as the GTX 1070, yet offers less performance. It runs hotter too, hitting 80 degrees Celsius, even struggling to hit its advertised boost clock at times—and that's in a big, well ventilated case. Compared to AMD's previous cards, it's an improvement, but those were always power-hungry beasts, and the bar has since been raised.
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Eine umstrittene Datenbank mit Informationen über die Geldgeschäfte terrorverdächtiger Personen ist offenbar im Netz zugänglich. Der Betreiber, eine Nachrichtenagentur, hat das mittlerweile bestätigt. Auf der Liste sollen zahlreiche unschuldige Personen stehen. (