Android Central 320: CES 2017 Retrospective with Windows Central

Trade show podcasts are the best podcasts, particularly when it’s a show like CES and we get together people from across Mobile Nations. Andrew Martonik, Russell Holly and Derek Kessler lead you through this super-long episode with the help of Phil Nickinson and Michael Fisher.

We cover the news from just about every corner of CES, and have a few laughs along the way!

Podcast MP3 URL: http://traffic.libsyn.com/androidcentral/androidcentral320.mp3

Verizon takes aim at its unlimited data plan customers once more

Still using that ancient, valuable Verizon Wireless unlimited data plan? Well, you might not be for much longer — the carrier has confirmed that subscribers who use more than 200GB of data per month will be asked to switch to one of Verizon’s metered data plans by February 16 or face disconnection from the network entirely. (In that case, affected consumers would have some 50 days to change plans and reconnect.)

Here’s Verizon’s full statement on the matter:

“Because our network is a shared resource and we need to ensure all customers have a great mobile experience with Verizon, we are notifying a small group of customers who are out of contract on unlimited plans and use more than 200 GB a month that they must move to a Verizon Plan by February 16, 2017. If they don’t choose to move onto a Verizon Plan by that date, the line will be disconnected.”

A couple things to note here — while the statement says it applies to customers who use more than 200GB a month, it’s not clear whether you’d find yourself on the wrong end of a disconnect notice if you had one particularly crazy month. Rather, Verizon spokesperson Kelly Crummey indicated to Engadget that the carrier is specifically looking at users whose usage works out to “an average of more than 200GB a month” — in other words, Verizon is targeting for people with a pattern of seriously heavy data use. The company also wouldn’t confirm how many people would be affected by these changes, though Crummey did note that the customers in question “are using between 200 and 500 GB of data a month, so it is really a small fraction of [their] grandfathered unlimited plan customers.”

Still, that’s a very bad break for people who live in rural areas or otherwise use Verizon’s mobile network as their main internet connection. It doesn’t help that Verizon’s detection and communication process is nearly opaque — not to mention frustrating — to customers on the outside looking in. The end result is a lot of confusion as to what’s happening and why. Just look at Reddit, for instance — as all of this is going down, some Verizon customers with unlimited plans have reported receiving disconnect warning notices despite having kept their data usage under the 100GB threshold. Some even appear to still be under contract (if only partially). It’s not clear what’s going on there, and Verizon didn’t answer our question on the subject.

All told, don’t expect Verizon’s campaign against its own customers to end any time soon. Earlier this summer, Verizon made headlines for threatening to disconnect customers who used more than 100GB in a month. That makes this current move seem like an easing of terms, but that’s not exactly the case — as Ars Technica explains, the carrier was actually looking for people hitting closer to 500GB a month, so Verizon is clamping down on its unlimited data plan users more strictly now. If this momentum keeps up, we wouldn’t be surprised if Verizon purged its UDP subscribers entirely by the end of the year.

Via: Ars Technica

DoD shows off its first successful micro-drone swarm launch

The US military is no stranger to drone development. Over the past few years we’ve seen everything from unhackable robot helicopters to harbor-defending pontoon platoons — including the the means to combat them — come out of DoD research efforts. On Tuesday, the DoD showed off its latest advancement in drone technology when it released video of the first successful aerial deployment of the Perdix swarm drone.

The test itself occurred last October in the skies over China Lake, California when a trio of F/A-18 Super Hornets released 103 individual Perdix drones. First designed in 2013 at the MIT AeroAstro Department, these drones measure less than a foot tip-to-tip and weigh just over a half pound. They’re built primarily for low-altitude intelligence, surveillance and recon (ISR) operations and are launched from a parent aircraft’s flare dispensers.

Given the size of this swarm, centralized control by a single remote operator is currently impossible. Instead, the operator issues more generalized commands akin to a football coach calling in plays, which the drones then complete as they collectively best see fit. These drones are not preprogrammed but instead share a distributed virtual brain. Control within the swarm itself is completely decentralized with each drone communicating with the others around it, which allows the swarm to keep functioning as a cohesive unit as damaged drones drop out and fresh reinforcements arrive.

There’s no word yet on when the Perdix system will be certified for combat. The DoD is currently looking for companies to partner with to produce the micro-drones at scale, up to a thousand drones at a time. It’s also working to further improve the swarm’s distributed processing to include more advanced autonomic functions.

Via: Gizmodo

Source: Defense Vids Hub

What’s on TV: NFL playoffs, ‘Lemony Snicket,’ and ‘Sherlock’ finale

After (barely) surviving CES, we’re greeted home by a TV slate stocked with returned programs. While Sherlock wraps up its latest run this weekend, we’ll also be watching season premieres for Workaholics, Are You the One and Colony. Tonight, however, President Obama’s farewell address dominates the airwaves. There aren’t many game releases this week, while Blu-ray options include the second season of Mr. Robot. This week Netflix premieres its A Series of Unfortunate Events show, as well as a new comedy special from Jim Gaffigan. Look after the break to check out each day’s highlights, including trailers and let us know what you think (or what we missed).

Blu-ray & Games & Streaming

• The Accountant (4K)
• Deepwater Horizon *4K)
• Homeland (S5)
• Mr. Robot (S2)
• The Birth of a Nation (4K)
• Max Steel
• Kevin Hart: What Now?
• xXx (15th Anniversary Edition)
• Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency
• Rise & Shine (PC, Xbox One)
• Dead Effect 2 (Xbox One)
• Hatsune Miku: Project Diva FutureTone (PS4)
• Road Redemption (PS4, Xbox One)

Tuesday

• Jim Gaffigan: Cinco, Netflix, 3AM
• We’re Lalaloopsy (S1)
• President Barack Obama’s Farewell Address, ABC/CBS/Fox/NBC/CNN, 9PM
• Teen Wolf, MTV, 9PM
• Bones, Fox, 9:25PM
• Good Behavior (season finale), TNT, 9PM
• The Real O’neals, ABC, 9:30PM
• Inside the NFL, Showtime 9PM
• Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath (season finale), A&E, 10PM
• Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (winter premiere), ABC, 10PM
• This is Us (winter premiere), NBC, 10PM
• Taboo (series premiere), FX, 10PM
• Killing Fields Discovery, 10PM
• Sweet/Vicious, MTV, 10PM
• Noisey (season premiere), Viceland, 10PM

Wednesday

• The Goldbergs, ABC, 8PM
• Blindspot, NBC, 8PM
• Lethal Weapon, Fox, 8PM
• Unsung: Fat Joe, TV One, 8PM
• Lucha Underground, El Rey, 8PM
• Speechless, ABC, 8:30PM
• Are You the One? (season premiere), MTV, 9PM
• Criminal Minds, CBS, 9PM
• Law & Order: SVU, NBC, 9PM
• Modern Family, ABC, ABC, 9PM
• Frequency, CW, 9PM
• Nova, PBS, 9PM
• Star, Fox, 9PM
• NFL Turning Point, NBC Sports Network, 9PM
• Black-ish, ABC, 9:30PM
• Workaholics (season premiere), Comedy Central, 10PM
• It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, FXX, 10PM
• Match Game, ABC, 10PM
• Blood & Fury: America’s Civil War, American History Channel, 10PM
• Incorporated, Syfy, 10PM
• Code Black, CBS, 10PM
• Man Seeking Woman, FXX, 10:30PM
• Jeff & Some Aliens (series premiere), Comedy Central, 10:30PM

Thursday

• The Grand Tour, Amazon Prime, 7PM
• Superstore, NBC, 8PM
• The Great American Baking Show (season finale), 8PM
• The Good Place, NBC, 8:30PM
• The Great Indoors, CBS, 8:30PM
• Taking the Stage: African American Music and Stories that Changed America, ABC, 9PM
• Chicago Med, NBC, 9PM
• Alone, History, 9PM
• Mom, CBS, 9PM
• My Kitchen Rules, Fox, 9PM
• Life in Pieces, CBS, 9:30PM
• Lip Sync Battle, Spike TV, 9:30 & 10PM
• Colony (season premiere), USA, 10PM
• The Blacklist, NBC, 10PM
• Portlandia, IFC, 10PM
• F*ck That’s Delicious, Viceland, 10PM
• Pure Genius, CBS, 10PM
• Nightwatch, A&E, 10PM
• Desus & Mero, Viceland, 11PM

Friday

• Clinical, Netflix, 3AM
• The Investigator: A British Crime Story, Netflix, 3AM
• A Series of Unfortunate Events (S1), Netflix, 3AM
• Sneaky Pete (E2 – 10), Amazon Prime, 3AM
• Just Add Magic (S2), Amazon Prime, 3AM
• The Vampire Diaries (winter premiere), CW, 8PM
• Grimm, NBC, 8PM
• Last Man Standing, ABC, 8PM
• Macgyver, CBS, 8PM
• Rosewood, Fox, 8PM
• Dr. Ken, ABC, 8:30PM
• Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, CW, 9PM
• Emerald City, NBC, 9PM
• Hawaii Five-0, CBS, 9PM
• Sleepy Hollow, Fox, 9PM
• The Wheel (series premiere), Discovery, 10PM
• Blue Bloods, CBS, 10PM

Saturday

• NFC Divisional Playoff Game, Fox, 4:30PM
• AFC Divisional Playoff Game, CBS, 8:15PM
• Open Marriage, Lifetime, 8PM
• Saturday Night Live: Felicity Jones / Sturgill Simpson, NBC, 11:30PM

Sunday

• AFC Divisional Playoff Game, NBC, 1PM
• NFC Divisional Playoff Game, Fox, 4PM
• 60 Minutes, CBS, 7PM
• Sherlock (season finale), PBS, 7:30PM
• NCIS: LA, CBS, 8PM
• The Simpsons, Fox, 8PM
• The Librarians, TNT, 8PM
• Homeland (season premiere), Showtime, 9PM
• The Young Pope (series premiere), HBO, 9PM
• The Mick, Fox, 9PM
• Victoria (series premiere), PBS, 9PM
• The Rolling Stones Special, Starz, 9PM
• To Tell the Truth, ABC, 9PM
• Family Guy, Fox, 9:30PM
• Elementary, CBS, 10PM
• Conviction, ABC, 10PM
• The Affair, Showtime, 10PM

HTC U Ultra: Release date, rumours, specs on HTC Ocean Note

From a position of knowing nothing about HTC’s plans, we skipped in a phase of having a deluge of information, with very little clarity about what fitted in where. Multiple devices, conflicting reports, a wealth of codenames.

But finally there is some clarity on one of the rumoured devices. Here’s everything we know about the HTC U Ultra, codenamed Ocean Note.

HTC U Ultra: The name

The Ocean Note name first appeared following the surfacing of a video showing off a concept UI for HTC. It adopted the codename HTC Ocean, but set off a domino effect, with well-known HTC leakers adding to the picture.

Codenames OCEAN MASTEROCEAN NOTEOCEAN SMARThttps://t.co/r4FY9I0Ske

— LlabTooFeR (@LlabTooFeR) September 21, 2016

It was @LlabTooFeR that first gave us the name Ocean Note, whereby it was assumed that this would be larger device, part of a family of HTC phones for 2017.

This was followed by another established Twitter source @OnLeaks claiming that the Ocean Note would be called the HTC U Ultra. It was declared at the time that this was unverified, but the name happens to fit with an invite that HTC issued to an event on 12 January, mentioning “For U”.

Got it from an unverified source but I put that here anyway… ????#HTC Ocean Note = HTC U Ultra = 6″ display = no 3.5mm Jack…

— OnLeaks (@OnLeaks) December 31, 2016

Still, with very little of substance appearing, this has been one of the most obscured devices to track through the rumour cycle, as there’s so much other information about potential Ocean devices appearing at the same time. 

HTC U Ultra: Design

One of the barriers to tracking HTC’s forthcoming devices in 2017 has been the real lack of photo leaks. In previous years there have been a number of prototypes appearing, there’s been YouTube videos of devices in the hands of people, leaving nothing to the imagination, and multiple sources to draw on.

For the HTC U Ultra, there’s been very few claimed photo leaks, and only a few concept devices claiming to be an Ocean device – again, with a number of devices, lining up what is what has made things difficult to decipher.

Weibo

On the eve of the announcement of the device expected to launch as the U Ultra, however, there’s been a substantial photo leak. This appears as a series of in-hand shots. If they are genuine, they leave little to the imagination – although there is some inconsistency compared to leaked specs, as we’ll discuss. 

The HTC U Ultra appears to have a metal frame with a glass or plastic back, appearing in four different colours and carrying a glossy finish based on the photos. There’s no word on measurements, but this looks like a big device, with a 6-inch display. 

There’s a couple of design points that are interesting: the lack of a 3.5mm headphone socket confirms a number of rumours and follows the path set out by the HTC 10 Evo/Bolt using USB Type-C for audio. On the HTC 10 Evo this was said to allow the phone to have an IP57 rating, but there’s no mention of that so far for the U Ultra.

• Water and dust IP ratings: What do they actually mean?

There’s also a second display, rather like the LG V20, showing a number of app shortcuts – a detail that HTC hasn’t included before.

There’s also a front fingerprint scanner, sitting under the display in the same style as the HTC 10.

From the leaked photos, there’s more than a hint of Samsung design, especially around the camera, which is a typically Samsung shape. Sadly, with few sources for U Ultra or Ocean Note images, it’s difficult to know if these are genuine or not – although we can’t help noticing that one of the shots has a dual flip clock, displaying Las Vegas on 5 January, so could have easily been shot at CES 2017. The horrific carpet suggests so.

Weibo

HTC U Ultra: Display

From early on, the Ocean Note was assumed to be a large device and the 6-inch size was shared as we’ve already discussed. We’ve also seen a substantial specs leak shared on Weibo and picked up by HTC Source. 

The display is detailed as 6-inches again, with a WQHD resolution. That’s 2560 x 1440 pixels, or 2K, the resolution of flagship devices in 2016 and likely 2017. This makes the U Ultra one of the largest devices to launch in recent times, but still sporting a 489ppi pixel density.

As we mentioned, there’s a second “ticker” display at the top of the handset that appears in the photos showing app shortcuts when the display is on, as well as weather in one photo. When screen is on standby, it shows essential information, like time, date and battery life.

Weibo

This isn’t mentioned in the spec leak that this information comes from, which does raise some doubts, as a unique feature like a second display it likely to be something you’d share. We also don’t know what type of display it is, whether this is AMOLED or a more regular LCD display.

HTC U Ultra: Specs and hardware

We’ve mentioned that there’s USB Type-C in the base and this is likely to offer not only audio – presumably of the BoomSound Hi-Fi version – but also fast charging for the rumoured 4000mAh battery which is suitably massive. 

That’s a feature offered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835, Qualcomm’s newest chipset which is rumoured to be powering the HTC U Ultra. This chipset is so new, however, that this HTC handset could be the first device revealed to the public that’s powered by it.

Weibo

It’s said to be paired with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. There’s likely to be microSD card support, probably within the same tray as the SIM card, as per the fashion for HTC’s last few handsets.

In a separate leak, @LlabTooFeR mentions that single and dual SIM versions will be launching.

Ocean Note to be announced on the January 12th. Device will be available in single and dualsim modifications.

— LlabTooFeR (@LlabTooFeR) December 30, 2016

Currently, that’s all we have on the hardware front, but we do have some doubts about some of these specs. Firstly, the leaked images don’t match the camera specs we’re about to talk about. We’re also not sure if this is too early a launch to be carrying a chipset that was only officially announced just recently. 

Although HTC hasn’t released any huge phablets for some time, it hasn’t always been a place for such premium specs, making us think these might just be someone’s wishlist. Again, with so few sources, it’s difficult to have much confidence.

Weibo

HTC U Ultra: Cameras

When it comes to cameras, this is where the biggest problem with corroboration crops up, which might cast some doubt as we’ve just said. The photos clearly show a single camera on the rear, sitting next to a flash and laser autofocus system.

However, the leaked specs suggest a dual camera system on the rear, pairing a 24-megapixel camera and a 13-megapixel camera on the rear. This sounds a little extreme: HTC doesn’t have a good track record with higher resolution sensors, which is the first point (HTC One M9 is a case in point), we don’t think HTC would be able to get them to work. 

The second point is that the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 lists in its specs that it only supports dual 16-megapixel cameras, so the information picked up by HTC Source from Weibo in this case doesn’t work.

That leaves us with little information on what cameras to expect from HTC. Again, very few leaks means we have very little to work with.

HTC U Ultra: Software

There’s been little said about software. Part of the Ocean story so far comes back to that original video, and the follow-up video that shows a button-less interface.

However, one of the more reliable leakers, @evleaks, went as far as tweeting to say that those HTC Ocean videos have nothing to do with Ocean Note (you can see how this all got confusing).

Let’s be clear, here. The Ocean imagined in this and a previous video is absolutely not related to the Ocean Note that HTC is launching.

— Evan Blass (@evleaks) January 8, 2017

Returning to those photos, however, we have a number of fairly regular HTC software features shown. There’s the classic flip clock, presenting two times in a roaming setup. There’s also HTC’s app icons arrayed across the bottom, looking exactly as we’d expect Android Nougat with HTC Sense to look.

We’re only assuming it’s Nougat, of course, and we won’t know until there’s more information released to base a software analysis on. 

Of course one of the interesting things is the ticker display, that looks like an interesting addition. It’s very much a copy of the LG V20’s feature, presumably designed to stop you always powering on that massive display.

Aside from that, we’ve had wallpapers leak, again from @LlabTooFeR.

New wallpaper from Ocean Note device (1 out of 3).Original can be found here.https://t.co/ADns2D1kMF pic.twitter.com/eaE3mEEm5R

— LlabTooFeR (@LlabTooFeR) January 10, 2017

HTC U Ultra: Release date

One thing we know for sure is that HTC is planning launching something on 12 January. The company has been hitting social media with its U message, so we can safely say the U Ultra is launching on 12 January.

For U — 01.12.2017 pic.twitter.com/RYhTOc4Rof

— HTC (@htc) December 20, 2016

As for availability, that’s a different story. HTC might be announcing the U Ultra a long way in advance of MWC 2017 so that it has a lead on its rivals, allowing it to deliver its 2017 devices before the likes of Samsung. If course, presenting a big powerful device could easily be seen as capitalising on the ill-fortune of the Samsung Galaxy Note 7.

We’re sure we’ll be learning more soon, so stay tuned. 

New Windows 10 privacy dashboard gives you more control over data

Most people are concerned about their privacy, especially when it comes to their computers and mobile devices.

So, in response to the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s accusation about Windows 10 sending an “unprecedented amount of usage data” back to Microsoft, Microsoft has attempted to alleviate customers’ worries by introducing several changes to its privacy controls, including a significant change to the way it handles telemetry data. These improvements will arrive this year via the upcoming Creators Update.

Microsoft said it’s planning to streamline diagnostic data collection levels with the update, making it easier for you to understand the telemetry data being sent to the company’s servers. The Creators Update will add the ability to toggle between basic and full data collection levels, whereas currently, there are three different data collection levels. “We’ve further reduced the data collected at the Basic level,” wrote Windows chief Terry Myerson in a blog post on Tuesday.

He added: “This includes data that is vital to the operation of Windows.” It seems like basic data collection will be limited to error reporting. To complement this adjustment, Microsoft will launch a new, clearer privacy options set-up process so that you’ll have more control over the type of data you wish to share. You’ll be able to easily disable location, speech recognition, diagnostics, relevant ads, etc.

Pocket-lint

And finally, Microsoft developed a new web-based privacy dashboard so that Microsoft Account users can see their activity data — including location, search, browsing, and Cortana data — in one place. You’ll also be able to clear data, whether that be browsing history or location data.

The new privacy dashboard is available now, but it will add “more functionality and categories of data” over time, Microsoft said.

Tesla hires the creator of Apple’s Swift programming language

The fight between Apple and Tesla over engineering talent appears to be ongoing, with today’s announcement that Chris Lattner is leaving Apple to join Tesla. Lattner was the Senior Director and Architect at Apple, where he created the open-source Swift programming language. Beyond his work on Swift, which Apple introduced during its WWDC 2014 event, Lattner is also the author of LLVM. At Tesla, he will be leading the Autopilot team that continues to develop its driver assistance and self-driving technology.

The move is particularly notable not only because of Elon Musk’s 2015 line that”If you don’t make it at Tesla, you go work at Apple,” but also those rumors about the direction of an autonomous car project within Apple.

News of Lattner’s departure first surfaced via an email to the Swift Evolution mailing list, where he promised to “remain an active member of the Swift Core Team.”

Source: Tesla Blog, Swift.org

Trump taps anti-vaxxer to lead vaccine safety committee

It’s become a common occurrence in the Trump transition team. The incoming administration has nominated a candidate so uniquely unqualified for their intended position that the nod can only be interpreted as a troll against the American people. We’ve already seen it in Ben Carson’s selection as head of Housing and Urban Development, Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education, Rex Tillerson’s role as Secretary of State and Rick Perry’s heading of the Energy Department. Now, Trump wants vaccine denier Robert Kennedy Jr. to chair a presidential commission on vaccine safety.

Kennedy has long been a proponent of the thoroughly-debunked theory that vaccines cause Autism yet Trump selected him to lead a commission whose goal is making sure that “we have scientific integrity in the vaccine process for efficacy and safety effects,” Kennedy told reporters Tuesday. He also stated that the PEOTUS “has some doubts about the current vaccine policies and he has questions about it. His opinion doesn’t matter, but the science does matter and we ought to be reading the science and we ought to be debating the science.”

Here’s a kid suffering from German Measles, in case you’ve forgotten.

Kennedy has repeatedly and publicly professed that a preservative used in vaccines causes autism. He has produced no evidence that this claim is valid. His rejection of overwhelming scientific evidence regarding vaccine efficiency will put your children’s lives at risk. As we’ve seen multiple times before, whenever people stop vaccinating, we get disease outbreaks. It’s why mumps cases in the US quadrupled last year, why Measles made their way back to NYC in 2014 and why Whooping Cough reemerged in California in 2013.

Here’s a kid suffering from smallpox, which cannot be treated, only prevented through vaccination, in case you’ve forgotten.

That’s very frightening, it’s difficult to imagine anyone less qualified to serve on a commission for vaccine science,” Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, told the Washington Post. “The science is clear: massive evidence showing no link between vaccines and autism, and as both a scientist who develops vaccines for poverty related neglected diseases and the father of an adult daughter with autism, there’s not even any plausibility for a link. Autism is a genetic condition.”

Here’s a kid suffering from Mumps, in case you’ve forgotten.

This appointment is just one more example of the incoming administration’s utter disregard and complete rejection of mainstream science. They’ve already threatened to shut down NASA’s Earth Observation programs, defund regulatory agencies and openly support the House Science Committee’s laughable anti-science stance. So, sure, why not put a guy who thinks vaccines cause Autism because reasons in charge of a commission investigating the safety of vaccines. What could possibly go wrong?

Source: Ars Technica

Intelligence report: Russia hacked the RNC, may have dirt on Trump

In a pair of political bombshells, the US intelligence community announced that not only did Russian spies likely hack the Republican party alongside the DNC, but that the President-elect’s campaign team maintained routine contact with Russian operatives throughout the election cycle. Not only that, US intelligence has alleged that Russia may have compromising personal or financial information about Donald Trump, which could be used to blackmail the next President and directly influence his actions in office.

The first announcement involves classified briefings presented to both President Obama and Donald Trump that allege Russians have compromising information on the PEOTUS. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, FBI Director James Comey, CIA Director John Brennan, and NSA Director Admiral Mike Rogers all signed off on the two-page synopsis.

These allegations were extracted from memos compiled by a former British intelligence operative. CNN has confirmed that US Intelligence consider the British operative’s past work to be credible. In fact, some of these memos are from as early as last summer, but US Intel has spent the last few months vetting the veracity of the British operative’s European network. It should be noted, however, that said operative now works for a private intelligence firm, which by definition, does not have the same resource pool as a national intelligence service. What’s more, the full document, which Buzzfeed has obtained, contains a number of inconsistencies.

As Buzzfeed points out:

It is not just unconfirmed: It includes some clear errors. The report misspells the name of one company, “Alpha Group,” throughout. It is Alfa Group. The report says the settlement of Barvikha, outside Moscow, is “reserved for the residences of the top leadership and their close associates.” It is not reserved for anyone, and is also populated by the very wealthy.

The FBI has not confirmed whether it is currently investigating the charges.

The synopsis also alleges that Russian intermediaries and members of the Trump campaign colluded to share information throughout the election. According to the report, the disclosure of this classified information to congressional members prompted Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid to write FBI Director Comey in October and insist that, “It has become clear that you possess explosive information about close ties and coordination between Donald Trump, his top advisors, and the Russian government — a foreign interest openly hostile to the United States.”

TASOS KATOPODIS via Getty Images

The intelligence agencies released this synopsis as an addendum to the existing report detailing Russia’s involvement with the 2016 election not only to call out the foreign power and note that its information leaks asymmetrically harmed the Democratic nominee, but also to alert Trump that such information is spreading through the US intelligence community.

Additionally, FBI Director James Comey announced on Tuesday that there was a “penetration on the Republican side of the aisle and old Republican National Committee domains.” The RNC has already denied that the hack occurred. This announcement came during a Senate committee hearing regarding Russia’s 2016 electoral involvement.

“There was evidence of hacking directed at state-level organizations, state-level campaigns, and the RNC, but old domains of the RNC, meaning old emails they weren’t using. None of that was released,” Comey said. He also noted that the Trump campaign itself was not attacked. Comey additionally testified that while both cyber-assaults used similar attack vectors, the intruders dug far deeper into the DNC than they did the Republicans.

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper also testified at that hearing and stated that the US intelligence community concluded with “high confidence” that Russia’s involvement was done specifically to hurt Hillary Clinton’s campaign. “The Russians just believed, or came to the conclusion, that because the President-elect is a businessman, that he would be easier to make deals with than the Democrats,” Clapper said.

Source: CNN, CNN

Gaming TV show ‘Starcade’ is making a comeback

Veteran gamers will have more than a few fond memories of Starcade, the first video game-oriented TV show. Well, it’s about to come roaring back: Shout Factory has bought the rights to create a reboot of the series. It’s too early to say how they’ll modernize the format, but the early ’80s original had a mix of game-specific trivia questions and competitive play — we’d expect something in that vein. The new team is working with the original production company and creators, too, so it’s not just a token nod to a familiar name.

The show earned its reputation not just by showcasing a relatively new medium, but by taking it seriously. There wasn’t any attempt to stereotype games as for kids (older adults were welcome), and it really was all about skill rather than making for good TV. The show’s second host, Geoff Edwards, also showed a sincere interest in gaming even though he wasn’t a devoted gamer himself. While Starcade only lasted for two proper seasons, syndication and reruns on G4TV helped spread its influence.

The timing might be right for a revival. Competitive gaming is gaining in popularity, with movies and TV shows in the works on top of ever-larger tournaments and the rise of livestreaming — there’s a much larger audience for watching games than there was in 1982. We’re just wondering about the kinds of games they’ll play. Arcades aren’t nearly as big as they were 35 years ago, which suggests that you’re more likely to see console or PC titles than anything that comes in a cabinet.

Via: Kotaku

Source: Shout Factory (Twitter), Deadline