Amazon TV shows are hopping aboard Eurostar trains

Thanks to our need for constant amusement, whether you’re on a plane, train or automobile, these days you never have to look at a rubbish book again. The Eurostar high-speed train network has had a bring-your-own-device entertainment service of its own for a while now, but a new partnership with Amazon means Prime Video-exclusive TV shows are joining that catalog. Provided you’ve hopped onto one of Eurostar’s newer e320 trains, you can connect to the on-board WiFi, load up the Eurostar app and you’ll find shows like The Grand Tour, Transparent and Man in the High Castle ready for streaming. And whether you’re going from London to Paris or Brussels to Lille, there’ll be something on there to keep the kids quiet for an hour, too.

The addition of Prime Video shows arrives alongside Eurostar’s updated app, which includes better booking, mobile ticketing and loyalty card features. Watching Jeremy Clarkson complain about everything might not be as relaxing as the underwater VR experience Eurostar offered passengers over the summer, but you can’t argue with free.

Source: Amazon

Manchester City signs second FIFA pro as ‘dedicated PS4 player’

Sports teams the world over are adding gamers to their rosters, but it’s particularly common in football. Manchester City FC signed its first eSports pro, Kieran “Kez” Brown, last summer, and today the club’s announced Marcus “ExpectSporting” Jorgensen (aka Marcuzo) has become the second pad warrior to join the squad. Jorgensen previously competed for Danish football club Brøndby IF, with his biggest win to date being the FIFA Interactive Club World Cup held this past August.

Jorgensen’s first start for Man City will be in late January for the FUT Champions Cup in Barcelona. Interestingly, he’s joined the club as its “dedicated PS4 player,” which means by default, Kieran Brown will only be seen with an Xbox controller in hand from now on. We didn’t realise the scene has matured to the extent that FIFA players are now platform exclusives, too.

Source: Manchester City FC

Report Claims iPhone X Sales Not as Strong as Expected in the U.S.

Sources in the semiconductor packaging and testing service industry claim that pre-orders for the iPhone X are not as strong as expected in some markets, such as the U.S., Taiwan, and Singapore, although supply remains tight in other markets including Japan (via DigiTimes).

In contrast, Apple Watch sales are said to have been impressive across the board, with shipment estimates reaching 27 million units, which is higher than an earlier forecast putting the number around 23 to 25 million units.

iPhone X shipments are expected to reach 30-35 million units in the fourth quarter of 2017 and level out or dip slightly going into next year, according to the same sources from the upstream supply chain.

Today’s report casts a different light on steady improvements in iPhone X supplies which have seen shipping estimates fall to 1 to 2 weeks in several countries. According to KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who frequently shares accurate information from Apple’s supply chain, the supply increase is due to better-than-expected improvements in production since the device’s launch, rather than weakening demand.

As a result of the improved production, Kuo believes iPhone X shipments in the fourth calendar quarter could be higher than previous estimates, although he too expects the acceleration to cause shipments in the first quarter of 2018 to be flat or slightly lower compared to the fourth quarter.

Apple is rumored to be launching a trio of new iPhone models in 2018, including 5.8-inch and 6.5-inch models with OLED displays and a 6.1-inch model with an LCD display.

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Quadcopter kit from Fat Shark has wannabe drone racers in its sights

Most of the drones flying off the shelves this holiday season come packed with sensors powering clever automatic modes for snazzy video shots and to ensure sure your bird doesn’t career into the side of a building or disappear into a tree.

That’s all well and good, but what if you’ve grown tired of your Phantom 4 Pro or Mavic and now desire a more exhilarating experience than your current drone provides? In that case, a diminutive racing drone could be your best bet.

Competitive drone racing is buzzing toward the mainstream thanks to the Drone Racing League (DRL) and backers that include Sky Sports, The Grand Tour, Swatch, and Bud Light. ESPN’s coverage is playing its part, too, and the best racers are picking up some serious prize money.

The sport, if you didn’t already know, involves competitors strapping on first-person view (FPV) goggles and firing up their drone to tackle complicated neon-lit courses featuring hoops, turns, dives, and climbs.

Aware of the growing interest in drone racing, Fat Shark, which has been in the goggles game for a while now, is launching its 101 drone training system “for anyone looking to get into sports drones.”

The $250 kit has everything you need for your first foray into the world of drone racing, including a custom-designed quadcopter, race-ready Recon goggles, and a professional-grade radio controller that lets you pull every move imaginable (though it may take a considerable amount of practice to perfect them all).

As for the all-important drone, Fat Shark has forgotten to tell us its top speed (can it go as fast as this one?), so we’ve reached out to the company and will update later.

Besides the quadcopter and extras, you’ll also get free access to the DRL simulator (worth $20) and three months of free Academy of Model Aeronautics membership and insurance. In addition, the radio controller “plugs directly into a computer for direct integration with the DRL simulator and can also be used to pilot the quad in stabilized or advanced mode,” Fat Shark says on its website.

The 101 Kit is available now for preorder through select retailers (Amain, GetFPV, or Ready Made RC), with the first shipments set to go out in the middle of January, 2018.

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Google gets into the holiday spirit with 12 days of deals on Google Play

It’s the season to … watch movies and use the latest apps? At least that’s what Google is helping us do, thanks to its latest round of deals on the Google Play Store — appropriately titled the 12 Days of Play.

As the name suggests, you’ll get 12 days of deals from Google Play, starting on Friday December 22 and running until January 2. The deals actually seem to be pretty nice, and they’ll span across all areas of the Google Play Store. In other words, whether you’re into movies, new apps, games, music, or even books, you’ll be able to save some cash in the next couple weeks.

So what deals can you expect? Well, for starters you’ll get some pretty big discounts on movies. All the movies. You’ll be able to rent any movie for 99 cents, which is a pretty sweet discount from the usual couple of dollars. You can also rent any three episodes of your favorite TV show for the same price — 99 cents. New subscribers to HBO Now can also get 50 percent off of their first three months of subscription through Google Play — so you’ll be able to start Game of Thrones from episode 1 at a fraction of the usual cost.

Perhaps gaming is a little more your thing. If that’s the case, then you’ll be happy to know that Google is offering up to 80 percent off of some of the premium games on Google Play, including Minecraft Story Mode Season 2, Need for Speed: Most Wanted, and more.

Want to listen to Christmas carols but don’t have a music subscription? Google Play Music is offering new subscribers a hefty four months for free. If you prefer to listen to the radio, you’ll also get a discount on TuneIn radio — which is being offered at 40 percent off for a year-ong subscription to TuneIn’s app.

Last but not least is books. Google is offering $5 of Google Play credit toward any book that costs more than $5. You’ll also find a range of discounts on some of the store’s top titles.

Discounts can be found all across the Google Play Store, so if you’re interested in checking out a full list of them, head to Google Play’s holiday hub.

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Google Play sale serves up 99 cent movie and TV show rentals

If you’ve been putting off renting a film, buying an app, or downloading an ebook, you’ll be glad to hear that it’s sale time on the Google Play Store (again). That means all movie rentals now cost a buck, and the same goes for three episodes from TV programs, giving you the perfect excuse to watch the stinkers you missed at the cinema (like bonkers sci-fi headrush Valerian), and the shows you’ve yet to binge. What’s more you can dive in to some peak drama with 50 percent off HBO Now for the first three months for new subscribers.

If you’re looking for some thumb-flexing gaming action, there’s up to 80 percent off premium titles, including Minecraft Story Mode season 2, Need for Speed Most Wanted, and FRAMED 2, among others. Meanwhile, popular games like Candy Crush, Clash of Clans, and Pokémon Go currently come with seasonal bundles on features and toys.

In case you’ve not joined the ranks of Spotify or Apple Music users, Google Play Music (which is set to merge with ad-free YouTube Red) is also free for the first four months. If podcasts and sports are more your thing, you may want to nab the TuneIn app for 40 percent off a year’s subscription.

Google knows you’re (probably) mulling a get-fit new year’s resolution, so it’s also offering the same amount off calorie counting app Lifesum. Plus, there’s hundreds of discounts on additional apps in the Play Store. For books over 5 bucks, Google is offering $5 store credit, along with discounts on titles from best-selling authors Dean Koontz, Sheryl Sandberg and EL James.

The 12 Days of Play deals kick off today and run through January 2nd. Just head over to Google Play’s Holiday Hub to find out more.

Lizard Squad’s founding member pleads guilty to cyber-crimes

A 20-year-old has pleaded guilty in a Chicago federal court to launching cyberattacks and harassment campaigns as a founding member of the hacker-for-hire groups Lizard Squad and PoodleCorp, according to the Chicago Tribune. Between them, the two outfits knocked both the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live offline in 2014, took down the UK’s National Crime Agency website the following year, and breached thousands of CCTV cameras for DOS attacks against companies.

Zachary Buchta — the latest of the ragtag bunch to get arrested — is staring down a recommended two-and-a-half-year jail stint, after agreeing to a plea agreement that will see him cooperate with the prosecutors’ investigation. If he doesn’t play nice, Buchta could be locked up for up to ten years for one count of conspiracy to commit damage to protected computers.

In addition, he must pony up $350,000 in restitution to two online gambling companies that he helped to target. Another member of the group is being indicted by authorities in the Netherlands. The charges form part of an international investigation, and are among the first in the US against alleged Lizard Squad members.

The 61-page complaint claims Buchta and the Dutch co-defendant operated websites (including one dubbed “phoneBomber.net”) where customers could pay as little as $20 to have someone harassed through spoofed phone numbers. The victims would then receive hourly calls containing the same expletive-laden message. One person, who lived in the Chicago area, was the target of these calls for 30 straight days. The crew also sold stolen payment card info and hacked Taylor Swift’s Twitter profile.

Buchta and his Dutch counterpart aren’t the first Lizard Squad members to be arrested. In 2015, a 17-year-old affiliate of the group was convicted for a slew of computer crimes in Finland and sentenced to two years in prison.

Source: Chicago Tribune

A growing email scam has cost a major airline millions of dollars

As individuals, we all know we have to keep our wits about us when we’re online. If you’re really unlucky, a couple of ill-considered clicks or downloads could quickly ensnare you in a scam that ends up costing you hundreds of dollars, possibly more.

But if you’re working for a company and your job is to make big payments to clients, the stakes are much higher. And yes, even global players can get caught out.

Take Japan Airlines (JAL). This week the international carrier admitted it’d fallen victim to an email scam that cost it a not-insignificant 384 million yen (about $3.39 million).

Known as “invoice redirect” or “business email compromise,” it seems that at least one JAL employee was tricked into making several payments to bogus bank accounts. One account purported to belong to a U.S. financial services company which had been leasing a plane to the airline, but it had in fact been set up by fraudsters, the Japan Times reported.

In such cases, cybercriminals first hack the client’s email system to gain information about its business procedures before using the gathered data to approach the company’s customers for due payments. Posing as the company, the scammers contact the customer by email, with the correspondence including invoice and bank details. If the two companies have a history of doing business, there might even be a bogus explanation as to why the bank information has changed.

Employees sometimes fail to spot the red flag presented by the change in bank details as they’re already expecting to make the payment to the company, so in their eyes nothing seems out of the ordinary.

In JAL’s case, an employee first transferred around 360 million yen ($3.17 million) to the criminal’s Hong Kong account for the lease of a plane when they believed they were paying into the account of the financial services company. This was soon followed by another payment of around 24 million yen ($212,000) into a different Hong Kong account that JAL thought belonged to an American logistics firm it’d had dealings with. In the case of the first transaction, JAL only realized it’d been scammed a month later when the company got in touch to inquire about its payment.

The incidents took place in September but came to light this week when the airline revealed it was working with law enforcement in a bid to find the perpetrators and track down the money.

In a similar incident reported on Thursday, scammers tricked officials at Dublin Zoo in Ireland into paying 500,000 euros ($590,000) into a fake account. Fortunately for the company, 370,000 euros ($440,000) has been frozen and will be returned to the zoo, though the remainder may be lost.

The sting, which has become more prevalent in the last couple of years, targets companies big and small around the world. Experts suggest that an employee making a payment to an outside company first call it to confirm the validity of the emailed invoice and also the bank details contained within it, and to call again once the funds have been sent to ensure they’ve been received.

Cases like this surged in the U.S. last year, with fraudsters attempting to steal a total of more than $5.3 billion, the FBI said.

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Sony recruits Khalid for its next VR music event

Google and Samsung have been adding tons of virtual music experiences, both live and pre-recorded, to their respective line-ups this year. So where does that leave Sony? You’d think a corporation that straddles both industries would be the most likely to gain a monopoly on the burgeoning VR music space. Well, it’s not for want of trying. The company kicked off its ‘Lost in Music’ VR campaign at the onset of the year, courtesy of an immersive music video collaboration with The Chainsmokers. Now, as 2017 draws to a close, it’s leveraging its label roster once more for an upcoming partnership with pop hitmaker Khalid.

The second lap of Lost in Music kicks off with a two-day live event at LA Hangar Studios on January 19, followed by VR experiences at the annual SXSW conference in Austin, TX on March 15 and 16, where Khalid will take the wraps off his VR music vid. Naturally, the clip will be made available on PlayStation VR in spring. Like Google before it, Sony is also readying a Lost in Music VR series to debut in February.

Source: Sony

Google AI can rate photos based on aesthetic appeal

Photo apps can help you find objects in your pictures, but they don’t tell you whether or not those images are worth sharing. For now, that’s still up to you. If Google has its way, though, AI may serve as an art critic. It just detailed work on a Neural Image Assessment (NIMA) system that uses a deep convolutional neural network to rate photos based on what it believes you’d like, both technically and aesthetically. It trains on a set of images based on a histogram of ratings (such as from photo contests) that give a sense of the overall quality of a picture in different areas, not just a mean score or a simple high/low rating.

The approach can use reference photos if they’re available, but it can turn to statistical models if there’s no ideal target photo.

The result is a neural network system that “closely” replicates the mean scores of humans when judging photos. That, in turn, has all kinds of implications for photography apps. To begin with, it could help you quickly find your best photos while avoiding blurry or poorly composed shots. Google adds that it’d be helpful for editing, too, as you could use it to tune automatic editing tools. Your favorite editing app could tweak exposure, brightness and other details based on artistic appeal rather than arbitrary values. While there’s a lot of work to be done, this hints at a day when your phone could have as discerning a taste in photos as you do.

Via: The Verge

Source: Google Research Blog