High Court forces UK ISPs to block websites selling fake luxury goods
Her Majesty’s High Court of Justice has served as the stage for several high-profile cases in recent years that’ve resulted in UK ISPs being forced to block certain nefarious websites. Typically, these have involved entertainment giants that want to make it harder for illegal file-sharing sites like the infamous Pirate Bay to connect with their audiences. But now, ISPs have been given a new target: websites selling counterfeit goods. Said to be the first ruling of its kind in Europe, the High Court has today ordered that Sky, BT, Virgin, EE and TalkTalk — which collectively provide 95 percent of all UK broadband — must block a handful of websites that sell fake versions of products made by the likes of luxury brands Cartier and Mont Blanc.
The judgement was passed on the basis the sites are guilty of trademark infringment, in that they use real brand names and logos to appear to offer legitimate wares at heavily discounted prices. After unsatisfactory discussions with UK ISPs, Richemond — the parent company that owns the aforementioned brands — took the matter to court. The few sites ISPs are being forced to block is a mere drop in the counterfeit e-tailer ocean, and Richemond has thousands more to hand that it could go after in future litigation. More importantly, though, the ruling could set a precedent that will inspire other companies to chase similar action. Not that we believe it’ll have any long-term impact. If we’ve learnt anything from the ongoing attempts to curb digital piracy, it’s that the internet underworld is much like the Lernaean Hydra — block one domain, and two proxies spring up its place.
[Image credit: ttarasiuk/Flickr]
Filed under: Internet
Via: ISPreview, TorrentFreak
Source: UK High Court of Justice
CBS launches CBS All Access streaming subscription service
Just the other day HBO said they would be bringing their content to consumers through a streaming method of some kind in 2015. I leave that vague, because HBO was vague about it. Offering up a few possible approaches, but nothing concrete yet. The news was that it was coming. I had hoped that other major network channels would start to do the same thing as well. While many of them have web pages and apps, you don’t get the same content, or access to content, as if you watched it live on your TV. Hell, some won’t work unless you have a traditional cable subscription. The streaming side of TV is starting to pick up slightly as CBS has announced a new service that may or may not be worth your time and money, as they have announced CBS All Access.
CBS All Access is available on the web, Android and iOS. They are offering up a 1 week free trial for people to give it a whirl. Once the 1 week ends you can expect to pay $5.99 a month for access. The fee gives you a number of perks like new episodes of your favorite show on demand the day after it aired, live TV stream in select markets, access to 6500 episodes including every episode of top shows like NCIS and ad-free viewing for classics like Star Trek, I love Lucy and CSI: Miami.
I signed up for the 1 week free trial to give it a spin on my phone. The layout is pretty nice and seems fairly easily to navigate around. If memory serves, the ABC app is the one that is a total nightmare to try to navigate through.
Yes, there are still ads in the app, and only the ad-free classic shows are commercial/ad-free. It is still a pretty slick setup though. You can check out the schedule and add shows to your “My Shows” page and even get alerts when your favorite shows new episode is ready to watch. I breezed through the latest episode of NCIS and it played through just fine, even with the ads. It is missing Chromecast support though, at least native. Through the web and the Chromecast cast tab option it casts well in full screen and HD.
The CBS app is free to install and you can cruise around and take a look at it. If you want to gain the additional functions and features though, you will need an All Access subscription.
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Google releases Android 5.0 Lollipop SDK and other tools
As previously reported, Google has followed up their official release of Android 5.0 Lollipop earlier this week with the announcement that the full Android 5.0 SDK is now ready for developers to download. Along with the new SDK, the team is also making available updated developer images for the Nexus 5, Nexus 7 (2013), ADT-1, and the Android emulator. On their Android Developers Blog, Google indicates the first consumer devices to ship with Android 5.0 Lollipop will be the Nexus 6, Nexus 9 and Nexus Player starting on November 3rd with the Nexus 9. They indicate other Nexus devices, including the Nexus 4, 5, 7 (both the 2012 and 2013 versions), 10, and Google Play Edition devices, will receive an OTA update for Android 5.0 Lollipop “in the same timeframe.”
Android 5.0 Lollipop is packed full of new features and a long list of new APIs that developers can take advantage of, including the code necessary for their new Material Design, enhanced notifications, Project Volta and Battery Historian, Android Runtime (ART), OpenGL ES 3.1, and 64-bit support. With so many changes, Google is encouraging developers to grab appropriate preview images and start testing their apps now so they can be ready when consumer devices start getting Android 5.0 Lollipop.
If you don’t mind wiping your system, the developers have also made final preview images of Lollipop available for the Nexus 5 (“hammerhead”) and the Nexus 7 (2013) (“razor”) devices. If you decide to go down this path though, note that you will not receive the OTA update when released in November until you install a factory image on your device.
Google is also encouraging developers to go ahead and publish their updated apps with support for Android 5.0 Lollipop to Google Play. Depending on how fast developers move on this, we should probably expect to see a ton of updated apps hitting Google Play in the coming weeks.
source: Android Developers Blog
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Moto X now $50 on-contract with Verizon
If you’re looking to upgrade soon and you’re on Verizon, we have just the deal for you. The Moto X 2014 is now only $50 on-contract through Moto Maker. You can design your phone on the website, personalize it with engravings and metallic trim, and have it shipped to your doorstep for the low price.
Add ons like expanded storage and wood or leather finish on the back of the device cost $50 and $25 extra, respectively, so if you’re in the mood to splurge more, you could add both of these premium upgrades and still be below the normal on-contract price for flagships of $200.
To make your Moto X, follow the link below to the Moto Maker website.
Source: Moto Maker
Come comment on this article: Moto X now $50 on-contract with Verizon
Facebook now actively seeks password leaks to protect its users
Facebook knows that password leaks endanger its users, even if it’s another website that’s been hacked, because people tend to reuse their log-in credentials (remember that recent Dropbox issue?). That’s why it has developed a process that actively monitors news of huge security breaches and scans “paste” sites like pastebin, which hackers typically use to distribute username and password dumps. Upon finding a collection of email addresses and passwords, the system uses an automated process to check them against the social network’s user database. Facebook says that doesn’t mean it has copies of people’s passwords in plain text, though: it encrypts or hashes stolen passwords first before comparing them to similarly encrypted log-in details. In the event that the system does spot an exact log-in combination that’s also used on Facebook, it walks the user through changing his password the next time he logs in.
While Facebook has just made this system a permanent layer of protection for its users, it’s already been tried and tested: the company used the same procedure in the past following a large-scale Adobe hack. Still, the social network advises its users to activate two-step authentication, or to at least use a password manager so they don’t have to reuse their mother’s maiden name (or worse, 123456) over and over again.
[Image credit: Shutterstock]
Love Comic Sans? Then this is the typewriter for you
Hey, sometimes actions speak louder than words fonts. And if you really, really like Comic Sans, then you’re going to love this. In the name of art, a gentleman named Jesse England has designed the “Sincerity Machine,” a Comic Sans typewriter. England says he altered the machine to write in in the internet’s favorite typeface because, well, there was nothing stopping him from doing so. But he does want everyone to know that, while creating it, he realized the font doesn’t deserve all the negative flack it gets. At any rate, England was kind enough to detail how he built the Sincerity Machine, in case anyone else is interested in making one for themselves. Don’t worry, we won’t judge you.
Filed under: Misc, Internet, Alt
Source: Jesse England
Here’s why Apple doesn’t have a MacBook Air with a Retina display
Another Apple event has come and gone, and there’s still no MacBook Air with a Retina display. I won’t blame you if you’re frustrated — now that there’s a 5K iMac, the Air is Cupertino’s last screen-packing computer to ship without an extreme-resolution screen. For that matter, competitors haven’t had qualms about releasing their own ultraportable laptops with extra-crisp visuals. So, what gives? Is Apple holding back? The company may not be offering answers, but it’s most likely that the technology needed to make a Retina-equipped Air simply isn’t ready for prime time. As much as Apple would like the Air to hop on the high-res bandwagon, it may have to wait until a whole bunch of pieces fall into place. Read on to see what I mean.
You can summarize the biggest problem with two words: battery life. Stuffing more pixels into an LCD typically requires not just stronger backlights (since there’s less light reaching each pixel), but also graphics processing powerful enough to draw all that extra content. You only need to look to one of Apple’s own products, the third-generation iPad, for an example of the challenges involved. Apple had no choice but to give the tablet a bulky battery and a graphics boost (the A5X chip) if it wanted a Retina display using 2012-era backlighting and computing power; it wasn’t until the iPad Air that you saw a no-compromise design. Yes, the MacBook Pro line has had Retina tech since 2012, but it had a thicker chassis to accommodate both a bigger battery and a faster, costlier processor. The MacBook Air doesn’t have that luxury. It has to cram both a low-power display and a quick-yet-efficient processor into a very slim, affordable machine.
The display side of it isn’t that tough any more. There are already super-thin laptops that still wield high-grade LCDs, such as ASUS’ latest Zenbook, and the 5K iMac is loaded with energy improvements (such as brand-new LED backlighting) that could help a portable. It’s the visual horsepower that’s harder to manage. Chips based on Intel’s new Broadwell architecture should deliver that ideal blend of miserly power consumption and faster graphics, but they’re not truly ready yet. The Broadwell-based chips that make the most sense for a Retina MacBook Air, the low-voltage U models, aren’t likely to show until early 2015; the Core M you see in newer systems like Lenovo’s Yoga 3 Pro is efficient, but it isn’t exactly speedy. Apple has to either sit tight or make do with CPUs that might not be swift enough to meet its needs… and will definitely be obsolete in a matter of months.
We’ve already seen the troubles that emerge when PC builders put Retina-level screens in their Ultrabooks before the technology is truly mature. Remember the mediocre 5-hour battery life of Toshiba’s original Kirabook, or the so-so 6.5-hour lifespan of the Yoga 2 Pro? Samsung’s ATIV Book 9 Plus manages a very respectable runtime of nearly nine hours, but that still doesn’t compare well to the 12-plus hours of the current 13-inch MacBook Air. Apple likely doesn’t want to take a big step backward in longevity just for the sake of a Retina display, and it may only complicate things if there’s a new form factor (such as a rumored 12-inch screen) or additional performance demands.
There’s no question that the MacBook Air remains late to the Retina party, and that you’ve been missing out if you couldn’t justify buying either a MacBook Pro or a suitably equipped Windows PC. Who wouldn’t want a better laptop display that makes pixels all but disappear? Having seen the hurdles to making this system, though, it’s no wonder that you can’t buy one just yet. Quite simply, Apple has put itself into a corner — it can’t give the Air a Retina display right now without making noticeable compromises in battery life, portability and speed. There are signs that it’ll overcome those obstacles soon, but for now, you’ll have to be patient.
Samsung’s Intel-based Chromebook 2 availability and pricing announced
Earlier in the year, Samsung released the Exynos powered Chromebook 2 in both a 11.6-inch and 13-inch variety. The Exynos powered device however met with much criticism regarding its ability (or lack thereof) to multitask well compared to Intel based Chromebook options. Today, Samsung is adding a new Chromebook 2 option that’s powered by an Intel processor. The chip under the hood, the fanless Celeron N2840 chipset running at 2.58GHz.
The Intel Chromebook 2 sports 2GB of RAM, and according to Samsung the laptop has an improved design. The USB ports, as well as the four corners are now metal-reinforced, as is the display. it still has the faux leather stitching like the original Chromebook 2 and Note 3, and features a 1,366 by 768 screen.
A new Google Help app that Samsung collaborated with Google on, allows users unfamiliar with ChromeOS to click a button and be connected to a support representative from Samsung’s operation center in North Carolina, a la Amazon Mayday. They’ll be able to take control of your screen, show you how to accomplish tasks such as changing settings, or even help fix problems. However unlike Mayday, you’ll only have access to support from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. eastern time, Monday through Friday.
You’ll be able to pre-order the new Chromebook starting today for $250. Otherwise you’ll only have to wait a week until it’s available through retail channels. If you do make this you’ll be happy to know that you’ll get 9-hours of juice before you have to throw the Chromebook on the charger.
source: The Verge
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According to a new FCC filing, Sprint will carry the Galaxy Note Edge
For a device that is going to be very limited at launch, the Samsung Galaxy Note Edge is going to be available in a lot of places. We already know it will be available through T-Mobile, and we’re pretty sure AT&T and US Cellular will be getting it as well, but according to a new FCC filing, it seems that Sprint will be getting Edge-y as well.
The new filing is for an Edge with the model number “SM-N915P” and offers support for Sprint’s network (LTE band 26, LTE band 41 and LTE band 25). It will be interesting to see how the device is received by consumers, and if Samsung decides to produce more of the unique handset. No word on stateside pricing, but judging by what we’ve seen overseas, it is safe to assume it won’t be cheap. Any readers out there going to try and get an Edge at launch?
Source: FCC
Via: G For Games
Come comment on this article: According to a new FCC filing, Sprint will carry the Galaxy Note Edge
Swiftkey updates for Halloween with spooky new themes
Popular 3rd-party keyboard Swiftkey has released a couple of spooky new themes to their store just in time for Halloween. The themes (Graveyard and Jack O’Lantern) are perfect for the impending festivities and are worth the $0.99 they each cost. Any users out there planning on grabbing these? Let us know in the comments and once you are done dressing up your keyboard, let us know what your costume is this year!
Source: Swiftkey
Come comment on this article: Swiftkey updates for Halloween with spooky new themes
AIVAnet 