Court approves settlement over Curt Schilling’s failed game studio
The longstanding battle for compensation following the death of Curt Schilling’s state-backed game studio, 38 Studios, is one step closer to winding down. A Rhode Island Superior Court judge has approved a $12.5 million partial settlement with four of the defendants in the case, helping recoup some of the $75 million poured into the failed Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning creator. This definitely isn’t the end — Schilling is still fighting the lawsuit, for one thing. Between this and an earlier $4.4 million settlement, though, the tide appears to be turning against the former baseball star.
[Image credit: Tony Avelar/Bloomberg via Getty Images]
Filed under:
Gaming
Source:
IGN, Fox Sports
Tags: 38studios, curtschilling, gaming, kingdomsofamalur, kingdomsofamalurreckoning, rhodeisland, settlement, videogames
OnePlus 2 International Giveaway
Welcome to the Sunday Giveaway, the place where we giveaway a new Android phone or tablet each and every Sunday.
A big congratulations to last week’s winner of the Xperia Z5 giveaway: Igor S. from Russia.
This week we are giving away the OnePlus 2!
Join Now!
OnePlus 2 International Giveaway!
https://js.gleam.io/e.js
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Terms & Conditions
- The giveaway is an international giveaway (Except when we can not ship to your Country.)
- If we can not ship to your country, you will be compensated with an online gift card of equal MSRP value to the prize.
- We are not responsible for lost shipments.
- You must be age of majority in your Country of residence.
- We are not responsible for any duties, import taxes that you may incur.
- Only 1 entry per person, do not enter multiple email addresses. We will verify all winners and if we detect multiple email addresses by the same person you will not be eligible to win.
- We reserve all rights to make any changes to this giveaway.
- This giveaway is operated by Android Authority.
- The prize will ship when it is available to purchase.
1byone Universal car phone mount(review)
1byone is a company based in China who makes a litany of products ranging from home security systems to TV antennas all the way to mobile accessories. They are quickly building a reputation as a company who makes high quality products as evidenced by their product reviews on Amazon.com. Sure they’re spelling on their product descriptions isn’t always up to par, but don’t let that deter you from trying out their products. They are a young company and are working out small kinks. 1byone sent me a universal magnetic mount stand to use in my truck and it certainly exceeded my expectations.
Let me explain in my review.
Design and Usage
The 1byone Universal Windshield Dashboard Car Mount is one of four mounts that they offer through Amazon.com and their website. The mount itself is made from very durable plastic with a suction cup mount on the bottom and an arm with a powerful magnet. 1byone provides two metal plates, one with a sticky gel pad that sticks to your device with a circular plate(about the size of a half dollar coin), and the other is a rectangular plate(about half the size of a standard credit card) that you can insert in between your case and phone.
Nothing is permanently stuck to your device or automobile, meaning you can adjust the positioning of the mount anytime you want or you can move it to another vehicle if need be. The gel pad is reusable if you decide to pull it off and want to put it on another phone or tablet. All you need to do is rinse it with water and it is as good as new once it dries.
Because I don’t use cases on any of my devices, the circular gel pad was the option for me to use(for the sake of this review I took pictures of the stand on my desk because getting good pictures in my truck wasn’t working out for me). I stuck the gel pad on my Amazon Fire phone which has a glass back, and the pad almost felt permanent because it was so sticky.
I attached the suction cup to the inside of my windshield and flipped the latch on the bottom of the mount to fix the mount. Once the mount was in place, and the metal plate stuck to my phone, I simply put my phone close to the magnet and it grabbed on. The magnet rotates and bends which allowed me to see my phone perfectly with a couple adjustments.
I have used other mounts which require some adjustments of arms to hold the device in place, but never used a magnetic mount. It was so much easier to use than those other mounts with adjustable arms as magnets make placement much simpler. I didn’t necessarily like the metal pad on the back on my phone as it stuck up from my phone about 2mm.
I didn’t use the metal plate inside of a phone case, but I can see that being a perfect solution to the circular disk on the back of my device. Providing both options, a metal plate and circular disk was a well thought out solution by 1byone.
After two solid weeks of daily use in the recent San Diego heat wave, and on a camping trip, the 1byone Universal car mount performed flawlessly. Mounts are nothing to get excited about, but this is going to stay in my truck and help keep my phone visible while being hands-free.
What I liked
- Price at $11.99
- Solid construction
- Compact size
- Strong suction cup and magnet
- Ability to rotate my device 360 degrees
- Reusable mounting system
- Ease-of-use
What I didn’t like
- Circular disk protruded from my device 2mm giving it an awkward feel
Summary
1byone is an upcoming company and makes high-quality products. The Universal Magnetic Mount Stand is not only cheap in price, but well thought out and well built. At $11.99 you won’t find a better mounting system and I recommend this to you if you use your phone for music, maps, and phone calls while in your automobile. Check it out on Amazon.com or at 1byone.
The post 1byone Universal car phone mount(review) appeared first on AndroidGuys.
Washington state fines a crowdfunding project for stiffing backers
Regulators have already started clamping down on crowdfunding fraud, but they’re now getting those project creators to pay up when they leave backers hanging. Washington state has ordered Ed Polchlopek III to pay a total of $54,841 in fines and restitution after he dropped his Kickstarter project, Asylum Playing Cards, without offering refunds. That’s a hefty payout when the entire project raised just $25,146, only a small amount of which ($668) came from Washington-based contributors. Clearly, the state is as much interested in sending a message as compensating those who were left high and dry.
The punishment didn’t garner much attention when the state dished it out in July, so it’s hard to say that this legal action will serve as a deterrent in the near term. However, it does lay the groundwork for future penalties that could alter the crowdfunding landscape. We’ve sadly seen numerous instances where projects not only failed, but left supporters in the lurch. If enough of these fraudsters are forced to pay up, you may encounter fewer sketchy funding drives in the future.
[Image credit: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg via Getty Images]
Filed under:
Internet
Via:
Polygon
Source:
Washington State Attorney General
Tags: crowdfunding, fraud, government, internet, kickstarter, washington
Self-destructing computer chip can protect top secret data
You probably wouldn’t bat an eyelash if you see a self-destructing computer chip in a Mission Impossible movie, but what if one actually exists in real life? Xerox PARC engineers have developed a chip that can explode into teensy little pieces as part of DARPA’s Vanishing Programmable Resources project. To make that possible, they used Gorilla Glass instead of plastic and metal. Yes, it’s the same tough glass used on many available smartphones, but the engineers told IDG News Service’s Martyn Williams that they “ion-exchange temper[ed] it to build in stress.” A piece of glass that’s heavily stressed will easily shatter and disintegrate when triggered.
The team demonstrated the technology at DARPA’s “Wait, What?” event, where they used a laser to trigger the self-destruction process. As you can see in the video below, the chip didn’t only blow up, the shards continued to crumble into even smaller pieces. Someday, this chip could be used to keep, say, encryption keys needed to access sensitive data. The self-destruction process can also be triggered not just by a laser, but also via radio signals or a physical switch.
[Image credit: screenshot from IDG video]
Filed under:
Misc
Via:
Gizmodo
Tags: darpa, military, security
Plex will bring its media streaming to Apple TV
Ask some media server users why they don’t use an Apple TV, and they’ll issue a common refrain: “because it doesn’t officially run Plex.” Well, that shouldn’t be an issue with the new Apple TV. Plex tells ITWorld that it plans to bring its media streaming front end to Apple’s latest set-top box through an app. The move should give you access to all of your home’s compatible music, photos and videos, not just what you can see from internet streaming services or iTunes clients. That’s a big deal when you previously had to jailbreak or otherwise rely on clever workarounds to make Plex work.
The project is still very early, and the Plex team wants to avoid setting expectations until it has a chance to dig into the tvOS developer tools and see exactly what’s possible. You probably won’t get every wish list feature — Apple is only integrating universal search on an app-by-app basis, for instance. Even so, this could do a lot to transform the Apple TV into an all-purpose box.
Filed under:
Home Entertainment, HD, Apple
Via:
9to5Mac
Source:
ITWorld
Tags: apple, appletv, hdpostcross, mediahub, plex, set-topbox, streaming
Nvidia Shield Pro recall: your unit may be plagued by hard drive issues
The Nvidia Shield Pro was the answer to many users who demand more internal storage. That 500 GB hard drive sure makes keeping all your media much less challenging. And at $300 it’s not much more expensive than the 16 GB variant. The only problem is that some of these large capacity units may have come with more than just more storage.
Nvidia has announced a recall on its Shield Pro after discovering some units are plagued by hard drive issues. The manufacturer claims the problem with this “small number of Shield Pro units” may worsen over time. The best way to remedy the situation is by replacing affected units, so that is exactly what Nvidia is doing.
Does my Nvidia Shield Pro console has a faulty hard drive?
- Is the fasboot screen showing up after the version 1.4 upgrade? You should get your unit replaced, even if the devices starts up perfectly after a system reboot.
- Affected products will show severe/persistent pixelation in all tiles on the top row of the Android TV home screen.
Those who run across said symptoms should go ahead and contact NVIDIA to get a replacement. You will get a new unit shipped out to you as soon as the RMA is accepted, so there’s no need to wait until you send your console first. Nvidia will even send these outside the USA, so long as they have the needed certifications to ship to your specific country.
Go get them, guys! Just out of curiosity, how many of you have faulty NVIDIA Shield Pros? Hit the comments and let us know!
Robust Android ransomware spreading across American devices
Malware developers have been forced to code more advanced software as security measures evolve and people become more educated. They need to be a little more tricky now, and the bad news is these attackers are not really falling behind the big corporations that try to protect us. Ransomware has become especially advanced, and one is currently spreading across America.
Let’s start by telling you what Ransomeware is. This specific kind of malware aims to take money from users by fooling them into willingly paying certain amounts of cash. In this case it would be $500, which is a significant amount of money. It’s also an Android LockScreen Trojan, which means it can lock users out of their devices.
This ESET-discovered malware goes by the name of Android/Lockerpin.A, and it is quite a nasty bug. After successful infection, the software will try to fool you into granting it Device Administrator rights. The trick here is that it does it in very sneaky ways.
In this case, the administrator privilege page is overlaid with a fake window that claims to be a patch update. Of course, inexperienced users may fall for this and press continue, which would be very bad news. The device is now infected and this software has Administrator rights over your phone. It can even change your PIN number and lock you out of your smartphone.
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After some time, affected users will be presented with a window containing a fake “FBI” message that claims the user has been viewing prohibited pornographic material. It also mentions he/she should pay a $500 fine for being involved in these “criminal activities”.
#gallery-2
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width: 50%;
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/* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */
Try to leave this message and the screen will be locked. At this point, the user can uninstall Android/Lockerpin.A, but only by doing so through Safe Mode or ADB. But you are out of luck once ransom activity has commenced, as a randomly-generated PIN number will be put in place and successfully take away your access over the phone.
Not even the attacker can unlock the phone at this point. The only way to recover access is to perform a factory data reset. Sure, it may be annoying to have to go through that process, but it’s honestly what I would recommend you do if you are infected, anyways.
The crazy part is that the ransomware even has some defense mechanisms built in. For example, upon trying to disable Administration rights for Android/Lockerpin.A, the software will simply reactivate it. In addition, this Trojan also tries to kill anti-virus processes from ESET, Avast and Dr. Web.
You don’t want to run across this thing, but most people need not worry. The dangerous ransomware is nowhere to be found on the Google Play Store (at least yet). The only way to get infected is by grabbing infected apps from other sources. Those who stick to Google’s official app store will be safe.
If you do have a tendency to download apps from other places, make sure the source is reliable. As I have always said – the best virus protection is smart tech habits.
Have any of you encountered anything like this? It seems like 77% of infected users are in the USA, so we best watch out. Stay alert and don’t trust everything that’s online!
Google expanding production of driverless cars
According to a new report, Google X Head of Policy Sarah Hunter recently appeared before the California Public Utilities Commission where she reported the company is increasing production of their electric self-driving cars from 100 to “a few hundred” in 2015. This expanded production may indicate testing is going much better than anticipated.
Hunter also informed the commission that the company has started working a little more earnestly on how to market and sell the vehicles. Google appears to be trying to decide whether their target market should be individual buyers or perhaps operating them as a service for people who just need a temporary ride similar to Uber.
Thus far Google has partnered with engineering firm Roush for production of the vehicles, but Hunter says Google is exploring other avenues for production, including moving it in-house. Google is also considering a gasoline engine version of a driverless car although all of their test and development units so far have been all electric.
According to Hunter and as reported to the commission, the driverless vehicles only have three buttons and a microphone. However, some vehicles like a line of Lexus RX450h cars have been retrofitted with the driverless technology. The vehicles that have been retrofitted require someone to sit in the driver’s seat to take control in an emergency situation. Hunter also shared with the commission news that some of the vehicles have been deployed in Texas for testing there in addition to the units operating in Mountain View.
source: Android Headlines
Come comment on this article: Google expanding production of driverless cars
No, the iPhone 6s’ camera and mic aren’t spying on you
Whenever a device ships with a feature that involves always-on listening or watching, privacy concerns invariably come up — and the iPhone 6s is no exception. In an attempt to address controversies before the 6s even ships, Apple has told TechCrunch that neither the always-on Siri voice commands nor Live Photos (which records a brief burst of video before and after your photo) are eavesdropping on you. Ultimately, Siri works like the technology you’ve seen on the Moto X — it’s merely waiting for a keyword, not recording whatever you say. What little memory buffer exists (for audio patterns, not sound clips) is automatically erased after a few seconds, and the feature is strictly opt-in.
It’s a similar situation with Live Photos. The iPhone records a total of 3 seconds of video before and after the photo, and it doesn’t save anything until you press the shutter button. Any content is encrypted both on-device and when it’s headed to iCloud, too, Live Photos are turned on by default, but it’s also possible to turn them off when you launch the official camera app.
These answers aren’t surprising if you know how the underlying technology works, but they could be important given growing concerns over surveillance. As you might guess, a pro-privacy company like Apple doesn’t want to give the impression that the NSA or the police are spying on every single conversation or photo session. It’s not exactly an altruistic gesture, then, but it could prevent some manufactured drama in the future.
Filed under:
Cellphones, Mobile, Apple
Source:
TechCrunch
Tags: apple, heysiri, iphone, iphone6s, iphone6splus, livephotos, mobilepostcross, privacy, siri
AIVAnet 