The PS4’s new update sneaks in 4TB drive support and more

Yes, yes, you can now play your PS4 on your PC or Mac. However, the latest update also resurrects old features, adds new ones, and does plenty more if you have no remote interest on depending on your internet connection to play PlayStation at work. First up, your newest PlayStation will now support up to 4TB of storage, if you’re in it for the long haul — or really like your own gameplay videos. The update also marks the return of USB music playback, allowing you to easily listen to your own music — just plug in a stick and select. As Reddit goes to work finding all the new things, we’ve added more notable tweaks right after the break.

• New “Play Together” button invite people in your party to the same game
• Online notifications can be turned on or off for specific friends, and you can even appear offline yourself.
• Streaming to DailyMotion Live now supported
• Teens (13-17) can now create limited access accounts to play offline games instead of using a sub-account
• Search communities by text, language, time zone
• Share other gamers’ activities to your friends
• You can tag other players when sharing video and screenshots (and it links to the right Twitter and Facebook users, if you’re using those.)
• Manage storage on PlayStation Plus
• You can disable the screenshot on-screen notification for burst screen-capture mayhem, you maniac.

Source: Reddit

EU court says linking to copyrighted material isn’t illegal

The EU Court of Justice announced in 2014 that it doesn’t see linking to a publicly available website as a form of copyright infringement. Now, its Advocate General, Melchior Wathelet, says linking to a website doesn’t break the law even if it hosts copyrighted content without the express permission of its rightful owner. The Dutch court sought Wathelet’s opinion for a case wherein a local blog called GeenStijl linked out to websites hosting a collection of leaked Playboy photos. GeenStijl originally posted a link to a file-sharing service URL where people could download the images. When Playboy successfully got that pulled, it linked to other public sources instead.

The advocate general said in a statement explaining his opinion:

“Hyperlinks which lead, even directly, to protected works are not ‘making them available’ to the public when they are already freely accessible on another website, and only serve to facilitate their discovery.”

The EU law that gives rise to these kinds of cases states that authors have “the exclusive right to authorize or prohibit any communication to the public of their works.” Back in 2014, the Court of Justice was summoned because some Swedish journalists weren’t happy that there are websites linking to their pieces without permission.

While Wathelet’s take on the matter isn’t legally binding, and the verdict won’t be out until later this year, European courts take the Advocate General’s opinion seriously. They depend on the Court of Justice to dissect and interpret the European Union’s laws, after all.

Source: Reuters

Hackers hijack radio stations to air a furry podcast

In the kind of story we should probably get used to hearing, Ars Technica digs into an incident Tuesday morning where someone redirected multiple radio stations including KIFT and KXAX to broadcast an archived episode of a NSFW podcast for the furry community. It’s not clear who was responsible, but it appears to be linked to a coordinated effort to compromise Barix boxes many radio stations use to stream content for broadcasts. As we’ve seen with security cameras, baby monitors, cars and other connected devices, if something is left exposed to the wider internet with a default or weak password, hackers can and probably will access it.

This morning, our remote encoders that send audio to our transmitter site was hacked. We want to appologize to anyone…

Posted by Texas 104.3 & 102.5 – KXAX on Tuesday, April 5, 2016

Finding these devices is as easy as using the Shodan search engine that indexes what’s connected to the internet and where. According to Radio Insight, engineers needed to do a hard reset just to regain control over their own hardware. While radio stations are now getting advice on securing their hardware, it’s really a warning relevant to any devices we connect to our networks.

Source: Ars Technica, Michigan Association of Broadcasters

Barnes and Noble farms out some Nook tech services

The slow retirement of the Barnes and Noble e-reader continues. After shedding its deal with Microsoft (and closing services outside of the UK and US), the bookseller is looking to save money by outsourcing dev support and cloud services to Bahwan CyberTek — which specializes in such things. It’s pretty incredible how much money Barnes and Noble estimates it will save with the move: $13 million. However, 80 employees will lose their jobs when the company closes its offices in California and Taiwan.

Contradictory to the announcement, the company says it’s still very much behind the Nook: “The company has done a significant amount of work to improve Nook’s overall performance,” said Fred Argir, Chief Digital Officer at Barnes and Noble. “While we have been able to reduce costs, we still have a lot more work to do to rationalize the business. We believe that by outsourcing certain technology functions of our Nook business we will further improve Nook’s performance.” And yet, at the same time, Amazon is so confident in next e-reader that its CEO is telling us all about it by his own volition.

Via: ABC News

Source: Barnes and Noble

How to keep the Oculus Rift or HTC Vive cord out of your way – CNET

VR headsets are a mind-blowing way to escape into a new world. But the cord that connects the headset to your computer and keeps you tethered is gentle reminder you’ve never really left.

At best, it’s annoying when it gets in your way and at worst, it’s actually dangerous if you trip over it when you can’t see it. The main danger of VR is that you cannot see anything else while wearing it and it’s very tempting to move, turn and spin while wearing a headset, which makes you prone to get tangled in the cord.

Use these tips to keep out of your way so you can play safely.

Use the built-in clip

Both the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive have cord management systems to keep the cords away from your face. On the Rift, make sure the cord is secured into the clip on the headset. On the Vive, slip the cords into the straps on the top and back straps.

Get it off the floor

The best way to not trip over the cord is to get it off the floor. Feed the cord into a carabiner clip and clip it to your belt loop. It works best if you clip it to the back of your pants and pull a bit of slack, so it stays out of the way of your hands and arms.

If your pants are lacking belt loops, clip the cord to your waistband with a binder clip instead. The key with either method is to keep the cord close to your body. That way, you won’t get tangled in it when you spin around, it won’t interfere with your hands or arms and it will stay off the floor so you can’t trip.

Secure it to your desk

If you’d rather not attach the cord to yourself, work from the other end. Use a cable holder or extra-large binder clip on your desk to keep the cord off the floor.

Safety always

No matter how you handle the cord, just be mindful of it. It’s easy to trip over when you’re wearing a Rift or a Vive and you don’t want to have to explain that you broke your arm tripping over a VR cord.

GoldenEar Technology Aon 2 review – CNET

The Good The GoldenEar Technology Aon 2 is a slice of audiophile performance you don’t need to mortgage your house for. The soundstage is unlike anything else under $1K with a very detailed performance. The speakers are unobtrusive yet nicely finished.

The Bad Rock music can sound forced and confused. If you like the look of exposed drivers, the “grille sock” is sadly not removable.

The Bottom Line The GoldenEar Technology Aon 2 bookshelf speaker offers soundstages that would give John Williams the chills but it’s no rock and roll brawler.

Visit manufacturer site for details.

If you have limited space in your living area, a set of bookshelf speakers makes good sense. They’re able to be mounted on top of existing furniture — such as an eponymous bookshelf or, better yet, an AV unit. That’s exactly the sort of environment where models such as the GoldenEar Technology Aon 2s are designed to shine.

Originally conceived as professional near-field monitors — the type of speakers you’d find in a recording studio — the Aon 2s preceded the larger, well-received Aon 3 and offer a more affordable price ($799 versus $999). Despite their control room origins, GoldenEar is selling the Aons as consumer speakers.

View full gallery

Golden Ear’s sleek new Aon 2 speakers are beautifully designed.

Sarah Tew/CNET

The Aon 2s are quite unobtrusive to behold, as they are bound almost entirely in acoustically transparent material — only a piano-black plastic cap and wooden base alert you that there’s a physical speaker in there. The unique truncated pyramid design is said to reduce pesky internal standing waves.

Though the grille “sock” is not removable — you can only cinch it down — underneath it lies a “folded ribbon” tweeter and a 6-inch cast frame bass/midrange driver. Instead of the traditional bass ports there are twin, 6.5-inch planar low-frequency radiators mounted on the speaker’s side panels.

View full gallery
Sarah Tew/CNET

The speakers are rated at up to 200W per channel and the passive bass drivers help them reach down to a claimed 42Hz. Meanwhile the tweeters can reach up to a dog-bothering 35kHz.

Despite the provision of the passive bass drivers, the Aon 2 isn’t as capable with bottom end as the larger Aon 3 — a model that our own Audiophiliac Steve Guttenberg prefers. If you listen to choral, orchestral, jazz or acoustic music, the Aons are for you. The speakers themselves completely disappear and offer a wide soundstage in which individual elements are tantalizingly imaged.

Kingdom Hearts: Unchained X now available on Android in North America

Kingdom Hearts fans rejoice: developer Square Enix has brought its mashup of the Final Fantasy and Disney characters to Android users in North America with Kingdom Hearts: Unchained X. The title, which was originally released for Android in Japan in late 2015, acts as a prologue to the rest of the Kingdom Hearts series. Players will get a chance to go back to the beginning of the Kingdom Hearts story and see what led up to the Keyblade War.

Here’s a look at what you can expect from Kingdom Hearts: Unchained X:

• Battle against the Heartless using your legendary Keyblades. Tap to attack, swipe to hit multiple enemies, and flick medals to unleash their special abilities.
• Strategize to defeat enemies in fewer turns for greater rewards by using your special attacks and finding the right balance of power, magic, and speed medals.
• Customize your hero by changing your avatar’s outfits to match your style of fashion. Be on the lookout for outfits based upon popular Disney, FINAL FANTASY and KINGDOM HEARTS characters, as well as seasonal clothing!
• Collect and evolve hundreds of character medals, which contain the harnessed power of popular Disney and FINAL FANTASY heroes and villains.
• Team up with friends to challenge and take down monstrous Heartless raid bosses for even greater rewards!
• Survive the challenges in the Olympus Coliseum, where the strongest heroes can brave additional bosses and unlock the rare medals.

If you’re a big fan of the Kingdom Hearts series, you can grab the game for free on Google Play now.

Samsung now sending approvals for free Gear VR with Galaxy S7 promo

Samsung has now started sending out approval emails to customers who took advantage of the manufacturer’s promotion offering a free Gear VR (or Gear S2 for Verizon customers) with the purchase of a Samsung Galaxy S7 or S7 edge. And while it’s been a bit of a wait for some already, the email indicates shipping times may be pushed back as far as this summer due to demand. From the email:

Congratulations! Your submission has been approved. We will ship your Samsung Gear S2 to the mailing address you provided when registering for this Offer. Please note that due to the high level of interest in the Verizon Offer promotion, delivery times for Gear S2 are now extending into May and potentially Summer 2016.

While the shipping date may be up in the air, Samsung says that it will send out another email with tracking information once your Gear VR or S2 has indeed shipped.

HTC Vive demos headed to select GameStop and Microsoft stores in U.S. and Canada

If you’re eager to try out the HTC Vive before plopping down a hefty sum to purchase it, HTC has announced that customers can demo the VR headset at select GameStop and Microsoft Store locations across North America. To kick things off, HTC says the first demos are available now in the following Microsoft Store locations:

• Microsoft Flagship store in New York
• Microsoft at Bellevue Square in Washington
• Microsoft at City Creek Center in Utah

While that initial list is small, HTC says that demos will continue to roll out to a total of 30 stores across North America, starting with Microsoft’s Meadows Mall location in Colorado later this week. As for GameStop, while HTC didn’t provide a list of locations, it did say demos will be available at 10 GameStop stores by mid-April.

So what will the demo entail? According to HTC, you’ll have a chance to try out a variety of SteamVR content running on an Alienware Area-51 PC. And if you decide you’d like to buy a Vive for yourself, both Microsoft and GameStop will be taking reservations for June orders, HTC says.

For more, including updates to the list of retail locations where Vive is on display, you can keep an eye on the HTC Vive website.

Uber settles background check lawsuit in California

Uber promises never to describe its service as the “safest ride on the road” or call its background check process “the gold standard” again. That’s one of the terms it agreed to when it hashed out a settlement agreement with the San Francisco and Los Angeles District Attorney’s offices. They filed a lawsuit against Uber back in 2014 over “false and misleading statements to consumers,” specifically its claims that it conducts very thorough background checks. Unlike taxi operators, the company doesn’t vet its drivers’ fingerprints. If the ridesharing provider is caught breaking the DAs terms within the next two years, it will be legally obligated to pay $15 million on top of the $10 it has to hand over in 60 days.

Besides making sure the language it uses doesn’t get it in trouble, Uber also swears only to operate at California airports where it’s allowed to pick up and drop off passengers. The startup used to operate at airports where it didn’t have explicit permission to do so, and even charged a $4 airport toll fee. Further, it says it will continue working with the Division of Measurement Standards (DMS) to ensure the its app’s fare calculation based on GPS data remains fair.

These DA’s offices also sued Uber competitor Lyft for the same reason — making misleading statements about its background check process — a few years ago. Lyft agreed to pay $500,000 to settle the case. That’s much, much smaller than $10 million, but don’t forget that Uber is valued at over $60 billion. We’ll bet it’ll be just fine.

Via: SFGate, Uber

Source: Uber