Google has been asked to take down over a million websites

After years spent attempting to clean the internet’s murky waters, Google’s latest transparency report reveals it has now received takedown requests for over a million different sites. With its individual URL removal request count now reaching the billions, these new figures suggest that pirates now have more options than ever when it comes to stealing digital cargo. The number of takedown requests are up significantly from last year, thanks in part to copyright-holder’s increasingly widespread use of algorithms that automatically inform Google of copyright-infringing content.

While the numbers are staggering, it’s hardly surprising that the world’s most popular search engine gets inundated with requests to remove illegal content from its search results. What is unexpected, however, is that the report shows sites like The White House and The U.S Department of Justice have had repeated requests to remove their content. The U.S Government isn’t alone though, with legitimate sites like NASA, Netflix, the BBC and The New York Times also regularly making the naughty list.

Some of these baffling requests can of course, be chalked down to copyright software errors, but interestingly, Google’s transparency reports also expose governments that are trying to censor certain content. With political articles and videos regularly coming under fire from governments around the world, transparency reports allow citizens to easily keep tabs on their government.

Other reports, however, are less nefarious. A site that’s no stranger to being unjustly harassed by copyright holders is the movie database site, IMDB. Where most legitimate sites get accidental reports in the dozens, In recent years the popular movie page has had requests to remove over 1000 of its URLs. Unsurprisingly, Google refused to remove the site’s URLs from search results.

Still, the vast majority of these copyright infringements can undoubtedly be linked with a rise in piracy. With US internet service providers recently abandoning their piracy warning system before the UK has even implemented the policy, it seems as though making piracy sites harder to find is currently many rights’ holders best option.

Via: Torrent Freak

Source: Google

Trump or nah? OkCupid now matches partners’ politics

OkCupid has refreshed is mobile app with a new look and revised questions and categories to help you find a potential life partner rather than a one-night stand. The app already probed your interests and leanings, but has added 50 new questions including “Is climate change real?”, “Do you feel there should be a ban on immigrants from predominantly Muslim countries entering the US?” and just “Trump?”

You can choose from a range of answers, and the data has been given more weight overall to find you a potential match. The aim, the company says, is to “help you find deeper connections,” rather than just a hookup partner for the night à la Tinder and other apps (Tinder and OkCupid are owned by the same parent, but aimed at different users, obviously).

If you are looking for a less profound connection, OkCupid has also introduced a new feature called “DoubleTake.” Unlike QuickMatch, which it replaces, it emphasizes more than just the main photo when you’re swiping through to find potential partners, as shown in the short video, above. Instead, it lets you see up to four images, along with the user’s name, age, height, religious affiliation (or lack thereof) whether they have kids (or dogs) and basic personality traits like “friendly” and “organized.”

“With DoubleTake, we show many more facets of a person — we’re showing what makes people tick so that you’ll have better dates and better relationships,” wrote OkCupid CEO Elie Seidman on the blog. The feature was tested with select users prior to the main launch and tripled matches, the company said.

On top of the new features, OkCupid has a new coat of paint, with new typography and illustrations by Berlin artist Jay Daniel Wright. “OkCupid welcomes a vibrant community of progressive, innovative individuals,” said Siedelman. “We wanted our new design to reflect that, and also represent the individuality of OkCupid.” Now, if it could just fix the fake profiles and spam …

Via: Techcrunch

Source: OK Cupid

‘Forza’ is a billion-dollar success story for Microsoft

Microsoft has revealed that its flagship racing franchise has now made over a billion dollars at retail. With last year’s well received Forza Horizon 3 shifting over 2.5 million copies in a couple of months, the nine- game racing franchise has slowly cemented itself as one of the strongest brands in gaming. Given Xbox’s smaller userbase this generation and the emergence of new rivals like Project Cars, Forza’s dominance is a fairly impressive feat.

Although in truth, Microsoft partly has Sony to thank for Forza’s success. While Gran Turismo once ruled the racing roost, the franchise has since stalled, with the series’ last entry being 2013’s Gran Turismo 6 on PS3. Microsoft executives must have been rubbing their hands in glee, as the lack of Gran Turismo has undoubtedly helped Forza to gain significant mindshare over its absentee competition.

When it comes to retail sales though, Forza still has some way to go in terms of surpassing Sony’s racer. As of 2013, Gran Turismo’s 10 entries had netted Sony over $4 billion in retail sales. With Sony’s Driveclub failing to find the audience it hoped for, the Japanese giant will be hoping that the long-awaited release of Gran Turismo Sport helps it take back the wheel later this year.

Source: Xbox

Nest App Gains Automatic Door Detection and Better Notifications With Animated Previews

An update to the Nest app is rolling out today, bringing with it a new feature that lets Nest Cam Indoor and Nest Cam Outdoor automatically detect doors within their field of view, further allowing users to set these thresholds as “Activity Zones” with warning-based notifications attached to them. The feature will be available only to those who have the company’s $10/month subscription service Nest Aware.
Specified Activity Zones have been part of Nest for years, but required users to manually draw the areas that they wanted a Nest Camera to detect. With the door detection, Nest will intelligently find and mark a new door-based Activity Zone and then notify the owner, who can then choose to keep or get rid of the zone. Nest said that the new door detection abilities have been made possible thanks to the company’s deep learning algorithms that have recognized patterns over time.

Nest Protect owners will also receive improved alerts — with a connected Nest Cam, owners will get live video notifications when smoke or dangerous levels of carbon monoxide are detected. The company said the update is “another way Nest products work better together.”

An example of Nest’s new automatic door detection feature
Another part of the update, also exclusive to Nest Aware subscribers, is the introduction of rich notifications on iOS 10, letting Nest Cam owners glimpse an animated preview of the camera’s video clip whenever action happens in the Activity Zone of a door. Android owners are also getting preview notifications, as well as a way to add shortcuts to favorite Nest products on the Android desktop.

Nest said that it hopes these feature tweaks and updates will “cut down on unwanted alerts and make the ones you do get more helpful.” Nest is available on the App Store for free. [Direct Link]

Tag: Nest
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‘Zelda: Breath of the Wild’ has a $20 DLC season pass

If you thought Nintendo’s next Zelda game didn’t look expansive enough, then you might be intrigued / already sold on a $20 season pass that will go on sale March 3rd. Producer Eiji Aonuma took to YouTube to explain how Hyrule will benefit from the first main series expansion content pack. (Games like Triforce Heroes have seen extra content after launch.) Penned for two release dates, one in the summer and one in Winter 2017, you can expect extra chests and clothing for Breath of the Wild right from the start. Pack One will add a new Cave of Trials and hard difficulty setting, as well as an intriguing “additional map feature.” Pack Two will add not only a new original story, but also a new dungeon and “additional challenges” — whatever they’ll be. The extra DLC sounds far meatier than just some new skins and level packs.

Link will be able to wear a Switch logo-emblazoned shirt if players decide to pick up the expansion pass, which will come to both the Switch and the Wii U. “The world of Hyrule, which we created for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is so large and vibrant that we wanted to offer more for players to experience within it,” added Aonuma, the long-time producer of the series. “With this new Expansion Pass, we hope that fans will play, explore and enjoy the game even more.”

Nintendo is gradually getting to grips with the notion of after-sale content and add-ons: first we had more characters and features to multiplayer games like Smash Bros. and Splatoon, now it’s Zelda – the first time the flagship series has ever seen DLC. What’s next? Mario?

Driver murders prompt Uber to tighten security in Brazil

Uber India launched cash payments in 2015 and the company has since expanded to South America, but there has been a dark side: crime. At least six drivers in Brazil have been murdered and robberies are up tenfold since the cash service launched there in July of 2016. Following protests and a Reuters inquiry, the company has instituted a new policy requiring Brazil’s cash users to register with a social security number.

Passengers have been able to open fake accounts, request rides to bad neighborhoods and rob drivers with relative impunity. In one incident, a teenage couple stabbed 52-year-old driver Modolo Filho and stole his SUV, leaving him to die on the road. They’ve since been charged with murder.

The company did an internal study shortly after cash was introduced and found it didn’t endanger drivers. Chauffeurs and police disagreed, saying the company overlooked Brazil’s violent crime (which is ten times that of India) because cash payments increased business by 15 times in San Paolo. “With the numbers that cash was bringing in, no one wanted to see that there might be a problem,” an unnamed source told Reuters.

It would have been ideal for us to have gotten the [social security number] verification out sooner, and we absolutely own that.

Taxi drivers in Brazil generally decline rides to bad neighborhoods, but Uber drivers worldwide can’t see where they’re going before they accept a ride. While that increases the app’s inclusiveness, it can put drivers in harm’s way in particularly unsafe areas.

Uber drivers staged protests against the crime wave following Filho’s murder said they’d quit if the company didn’t do something about it. In a Bloomberg interview last October, Uber Latin America GM Andrew Macdonald downplayed the risk, saying driver concern over crime is “a bit emotional.” However, he now says the statement was a “mistake” and that violence “weighs pretty heavily” on management.

On top of requiring official ID to sign up for the app, the company now allows drivers to opt out of cash payments, and will block new users if they cancel multiple rides or show other erratic behavior. However, it took a full five months after the protests and murder for that to happen. “It would have been ideal for us to have gotten the … verification out sooner, and we absolutely own that,” Macdonald said.

Source: Reuters

YouTube cancels Pewdiepie’s original series after anti-Semitic jokes

Just hours after Disney-owned Maker Studios severed ties with Felix “Pewdiepie” Kjellberg for broadcasting anti-semitic messages, the Swedish-born vlogger has now lost support from another key supporter: YouTube. A company spokesperson confirmed today that the second season of Kjellberg’s original series Scare PewDiePie has been cancelled, meaning it will not appear on the YouTube Red subscription service.

Pewdiepie, who operates YouTube’s most popular channel with more than 53 million followers, recently posted a video that showed two Indian men he had hired using task service app Fiverr holding up a banner that said “Death to all Jews.” The videos have since been removed, although it is not clear whether YouTube or Kjellberg facilitated their withdrawal.

On top of the cancellation, his channel has also been removed from Google Preferred, an advertising platform that aggregates content from YouTube’s top creators and makes it easier for brands to sponsor them. Kjellberg will still be able to run ads against his videos, but will likely see a drop in revenue as brands pay extra to reach targeted audiences of a Preferred creator.

In a now-deleted video, the YouTuber defended his actions: “What I just think — and I believe strongly in — is that it is 2017 now. We’re going to have to start separating what is a joke, and what is actually problematic. Is a joke actually pure racism? Is something that would be considered a joke purely homophobic, or anti-semitic and all these things? Context fucking matters.”

YouTube guidelines state that while it encourages free speech and defends uploaders’ rights to express unpopular points of view, it doesn’t permit hate speech. “There is a fine line between what is and what is not considered to be hate speech,” it says on its website. “For instance, it is generally acceptable to criticise a nation state, but not acceptable to post malicious, hateful comments about a group of people solely based on their race.”

Pewdiepie is no stranger to controversy, having previously had his Twitter account temporarily suspended for claiming he had joined ISIS (“as a joke”) and later vowed to delete his entire channel (he didn’t). While the events of the past 24 hours will likely do nothing to stop the growth of his fanbase, his actions may limit his ability to profit from them in the future.

Via: The Verge

Nest Cams can automatically detect your doors

Nest is improving both its apps and its camera smarts. An update to both iOS and Android apps (if your phones and tablets are on the latest versions) focuses on notifications, with Nest Aware subscribers getting the bulk of the benefits. Over the next few weeks, Aware customers will see automatic door detection appear on both their indoor and outdoor Nest Cam feeds. The cameras will attempt to recognize motion patterns over time, feeding the data into deep learning algorithms to make it all automated, automatically creating “activity zones” around doors it picks up. The cameras can then send you notifications when there’s movement in that area. You’ll also be able to redraw activity zones if your camera detects something different — or if there’s multiple doors.

Subscribers on iOS 10 or Android 7 will also get animated previews from their Nest Cams without having to open the app, while Nest Protect alerts (for carbon monoxide levels and smoke) will pull together live video from all of your Nest Cams.

The company has also updated the app for the most recent features added Android 7, with new app shortcuts to specific Nest cameras. Your Nest Aware video history will also be easier to navigate, with the ability to jump to specific dates — as long as you know which day you’re searching for to begin with.

iPhone 7s Said to Keep Aluminum Design as iPhone 8 Gets Glass With Stainless Steel Frame

Apple’s next-generation smartphone lineup this year will include a 4.7-inch iPhone with aluminum casing, 5.5-inch iPhone of an unspecified material, and all-new 5.8-inch iPhone with glass casing reinforced by a stainless steel frame, according to Taiwanese website DigiTimes, which keeps tabs on Apple’s supply chain.

The report, citing “sources from the upstream supply chain,” claims the 5.8-inch model is expected to adopt an OLED display, and for that reason the smartphone is estimated to cost upwards of $1,000.

DisplayMate Technologies outlined the several advantages of OLED display technology when it tested Samsung’s Galaxy S7 last year. Namely, the displays are typically brighter and more power efficient than LCDs with better color accuracy, faster response times, wider viewing angles, and improved image sharpness.

The trio of unreleased smartphones have commonly been referred to as the iPhone 7s, iPhone 7s Plus, and iPhone 8, with the high-end model sometimes called the “iPhone X” instead in line with the smartphone’s tenth anniversary this year. The smartphones are expected to launch in September per usual.

While it is widely believed that Apple will release three new iPhone models this year, rumors surrounding the lineup have so far lacked consensus. Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo of KGI Securities and Japanese website Nikkei, for example, have both said that all three models will feature glass casing.

Japanese website Mac Otakara, however, said the 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch models will retain an aluminum design like the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, with only internal changes, including the addition of a faster A11 chip. Today’s report echoes that at least the 4.7-inch model would indeed have an aluminum design.

The rumors suggest two possible scenarios:

Scenario A: Apple releases a completely overhauled glass-backed iPhone with an edge-to-edge OLED display and wireless charging at the high end of its 2017 smartphone lineup, while making only incremental upgrades to its traditional 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch iPhones with aluminum designs and LCD displays.

Scenario B: Apple adds glass casing and wireless charging to all three iPhones, which could make an edge-to-edge OLED display and longer battery life the unique selling points of the high-end model. This would mark the end of the iPhone’s aluminum design that has remained largely the same since the iPhone 6 in 2014.

Other rumored features for this year’s iPhone lineup, some of which may be exclusive to the high-end model, include the removal of the Home button, iris or facial recognition, 3D camera features, improved IP68-rated water resistance, increased storage space, and new Taptic Engine and 3D Touch modules.

Apple is expected to begin production of the new iPhones next quarter, at which point rumors should start to become clearer.

Related Roundup: iPhone 8 (2017)
Tag: digitimes.com
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Cringe your way through this Valentine’s Day ad for the OnePlus 3T

Why it matters to you

Make it through the smartphone licking, and OnePlus has a good Valentine’s Day offer for any new OnePlus 3T buyers

The OnePlus 3T is an awesome phone. But would you lick it? That’s right. We said lick. In a new Valentine’s Day themed promotional video for the 3T, OnePlus shows quite a few people doing exactly that, and it’s as weird as it sounds.

It opens with men and women, filmed in black and white, each describing their feelings for a significant other. Or at least, that’s what we’re supposed to assume. “You’re an absolute beast,” says one woman, “Encased in a beautiful body.” “Only I can turn you on,” a guy says, suggestively, and we cut to a woman giggling, who soon adds, “You just don’t quit! All night, and the next day.”

More: Read our review of the OnePlus 3T here

Who, or more accurately, what could they all be talking about? It’s the OnePlus 3T, of course, and each lascivious statement is really describing the strengths of the device. Plenty of power, a great looking metal body, and a fast charging system. The ad isn’t over though, and now it’s time for something really weird, because the rest of the ad shows everyone licking their phones, mostly in not-so-glorious close-up. Add the sultry music and intimate detail, and you’ve got a phone ad that could have been produced by Brazzers.

In return for all the cringing, OnePlus does have a solid offer available for Valentine’s Day. If you buy a OnePlus 3T between now and February 16, you get 40 percent off a “True Love Bundle” consisting of a case and a pair of OnePlus V2 Bullets in-ear headphones. This reduces the $40 price tag down to $23.94. Additionally, you can enter a competition to win a pair of personalized OnePlus 3T phones through the main OnePlus site here.

A quick word of warning for any impressionable phone owners watching OnePlus’s video. It’s probably not the best idea to lick your own smartphone this Valentine’s Day, unless you give it a really good wash beforehand.