News written by James Delahunty (December, 2014)

Due to be released on December 25, The Interview has been dropped or delayed by the five largest theater chains in the United States, according to reports.

Regal Entertainment Group confirmed on Wednesday to The Hollywood Reporter that it would not be showing The Interview from December 25 as planned.

"Due to the wavering support of the film The Interview by Sony Pictures, as well as the ambiguous nature of any real or perceived security threats, Regal Entertainment Group has decided to delay the opening of the film in our theatres," the chain said in a statement.

THR also cited knowledgeable sources in reporting that AMC Entertainment, Cinemark, Carmike Cinemas and Cineplex Entertainment also have decided against screening the movie.

The Interview stars Seth Rogen and James Franco as two journalists recruited by the CIA to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. After the movie was announced, it was condemned by North Korea as an "act of war".

Following the devastating data breach at Sony Pictures, the hacking group claiming responsibility for the attack - Guardians of Peace (GoP) - allegedly demanded that Sony cancel the release of the movie.

BlackBerry is back in business! The new BlackBerry Classic smartphone retains the time-tested physical QWERTY keyboard, and packs a 3.5-inch touchscreen.

Running the latest BlackBerry 10 OS, the new BlackBerry Classic features a 720x720, 3.5-inch, 294 PPI touch screen, and an 8-megapixel rear camera that can record 1080p video at 30fps. There is also a front-facing 2-megapixel camera supporting 720p recording.

Under the hood, it packs a Qualcomm MSM 8960 1.5GHz processor and 2GB of RAM. For storage, the BlackBerry Classic comes with 16GB internal storage, and using a MicroSD card this can be expanded up to 128GB.

It promises up to 22 hours mixed battery life from its non-removable 2515 mAh Lithium-ion battery.

It retains BlackBerry's time-tested physical keyboard with a 35-key backlit QWERTY pad, one of BlackBerry's most adored features in its past smartphones when it ruled the roost in the business world.

BlackBerry refers to its new classic as a "no-nonsense" smartphone built to meet the needs of productive people who appreciate the speed and accuracy that can be found with a physical QWERTY keyboard, leaving no doubt that it's main goal with the Classic is to return its loyal business users and perhaps regain some who have moved to other platforms.

Ebola, Ukraine, Gaza, Malaysian Airlines MH370 & MH17, Terrorism, Mass Protests, Robin Williams' suicide and plenty other things were beamed into our skulls in 2014, but Bill Gates is ever the optimist.

Being exposed to the media, you can be forgiven for thinking that things are constantly getting worse and worse. Simply put, fear sells. If it bleeds, it leads. It is very easy to be cynical and have a negative outlook on the future, but Bill Gates is far more optimistic as he looks back on 2014 and toward the future... and not just because he's insanely rich.

No, instead Gates has reminded us that a lot of good things happened in 2014 too, even if it doesn't make the headlines. Just as he did at the end of 2013, Gates is drawing attention to some of the highlights from 2014, and some of it is pretty great.

In 2014, for the 42nd year in a row (at least), the child mortality rate has fallen. "More kids are living to see their fifth birthday than ever before," Gates asserts, as he highlights the drop in the number of children dying globally from preventable causes. In fact, the child mortality rate is falling faster than ever anticipated, and Gates highlights an article in The Economist showing that over 13.6 million children's lives have been saved since 2001.

An Internet Service Provider (ISP) is refusing to block access to the Pirate Bay website as several large media firms have dragged it to court.

Website blocking is becoming a common practice, particularly in Europe. Entertainment industry players have put a lot of focus on ISPs, forcing them through legal channels to block access to unlicensed sources of content and most have done as they have been told by courts in their respective states.

Swedish ISP Bredbandsbolaget has decided it won't just comply however. It was subject to legal action in November from several major entertainment companies to force it to block the Pirate Bay. The notorious BitTorrent site was operational at the time, but has since been taken down in a raid in Stockholm.

"Bredbandsbolaget's role is to provide its subscribers with access to the Internet, thereby contributing to the free flow of information and the ability for people to reach each other and communicate," the ISP said in a statement, reports TorrentFreak.

"Bredbandsbolaget does not block content or services based on individual organizations' requests. There is no legal obligation for operators to block either The Pirate Bay or Swefilmer. There are other legal means to stop infringement of rights, but there is no provision in Swedish law that forces an Internet provider to block its subscribers' access to services and content."

Google has made further improvements to the security of your GMail contents by blocking "bad" extensions from loading unsafe code.

Specifically, Google has added support for Content Security Policy (CSP) for GMail on Desktop. It aims to protect users from bad browser extensions loading code that interferes with a GMail session, or even worse malicious extensions that compromise the security of your private e-mail.

The search giant has warned however that some legitimate extensions may need to be updated to work correctly following the change, but noted that most legit extensions you will use with GMail already implemented support for CSP.

Google is very security conscious about GMail. It requires that HTTPS be used by default and even serves images through secure proxy servers.

Any improvements to security and privacy are always welcome.

We've been waiting for Netflix to finally give a verdict on the possibility of Offline Playback and the streaming firm finally has.

Speaking with TechRadar, Netflix's director of corporation communications and technology, Cliff Edwards, has ruled out the possibility of Offline Playback, or "cached playback". Other streaming service offer users the ability to download and temporarily store programming, and Netflix has been asked repeated by its customers for the same privilege.

"It's never going to happen," Edwards told TechRadar.

The reason, according to Edwards, is that Netflix views it as a short term fix for a wider problem. That problem is a lack of access to speedy wireless coverage. However, Netflix expects that in the coming years, wireless access will greatly improve in most places, making Offline Playback features obsolete.

Are you a Netflix customer? Do you think that Offline Playback should be enabled by the service?


Sources and Recommended Reading:
Netflix: offline viewing is 'never going to happen': www.techradar.com

The Sony Pictures hack saga took a nefarious turn yesterday when an apparent terrorism threat was made against move theaters that show 'The Interview'.

The note - which even referenced the 9/11 terrorist attacks - warned movie goers to stay clear of locations where the movie is being shown. Sony Pictures said it would not pull the movie from distribution, but would understand if individual theaters decided not to screen it.

One such cancellation that was surprising is a New York premiere of the comedy. It was scheduled to be screened at the Sunshine Cinema in Lower East Side, New York, on Thursday, but Landmark has confirmed its cancellation. It didn't, however, directly attribute the cancellation to any threat of violence.

Carmike Cinemas, which operates in 41 states, also will not show the film.

Sony Pictures was the target of a massive attack in which terabytes of data were stolen. That data has been leaking to the Internet slowly ever since, and has caused turmoil at the studio. A lawsuit has already been filed against Sony Pictures for failing to protect data by former employees.

All in all, the data breach could cost Sony Pictures in excess of $100 million.

A popular video streaming site has disappeared leading to some speculation that it was shut down by authorities.

Icefilms is a very popular site that streams movies and TV shows. It has been down for about 24 hours with visits to its homepage only showing up an Icefilms logo, or perhaps nothing at all. The presence of the Icefilms logo on an Amazon server surprised some users of the site.

However, there's nothing to be concerned about for users of the portal, as the site is just experiencing some hosting issues and expects to be back online and fully operational in the news few days.

That's according to TorrentFreak, citing a source familiar with Icefilms.

Icefilms doesn't even show up in Google results anymore which probably led to more panic from its regular users, and some ISPs block access to the site at the request of the entertainment industry.

After being in custody for almost a week, a man allegedly linked to the Pirate Bay website was released from custody in Sweden yesterday.

It is believed the man may have been a moderator on the Pirate Bay site but this hasn't been confirmed. In any case, prosecutor Fredrik Ingblad stated that the individual is suspected of copyright law violations.

"The suspicions relate to a violation of copyright law. Everything is being analyzed now and new hearings may possibly be held," he said.

The Pirate Bay was taken down in a raid last week in Sweden, and there was reportedly just one arrest in connection to the site so far. It has remained officially offline ever since, but there has been some efforts to keep its database alive and well until it may eventually return.

There appears to be a new investigation into the site and its operators, and TorrentFreak claims to have seen evidence that one of the original founders, Fredrik Neij, remains a suspect. Neij is currently in prison serving a ten month sentence after being arrested by Thai immigrations in November.


Sources and Recommended Reading:
Pirate Bay-misstänkt satt på fri fot: www.idg.se (SWE)
PIRATE BAY SUSPECT RELEASED AFTER RAID ARREST: torrentfreak.com

Grand Theft Auto 5 Online Heists have been known to be in the works for some time now, and today we finally have gotten a trailer to look at.

In Early 2015, players will be able to take part in four player heists online. The update will provide over 20 hours of additional gameplay and 20 total missions. The missions will require players of rank 12 or higher, and one will have to be a leader, according to GTA Online producer Imran Sarwar, who gave an interview about the update to IGN.

The leader will be required to have an apartment with enough room for a planning board, and will have to do a lot of prep work such as assembling a team and determining a plan and so on.

Alternatively, you can take on another role in the heist.

Read the IGN interview here, and view the trailer below.

The nightmare continues for Sony Pictures as it now faces a lawsuit from former employees alleging that it failed to protect their data, which was exposed in November's massive breach.

Two former employees sued the studio in a class action after a hacking group called Guardians of Peace broke into its network and stole enormous amounts of data in late November. Ever since the breach, the hackers have leaked over a terabyte of information online, including personal details of employees and movies stars.

Even unreleased films showed up on BitTorrent sites and other sources after the massive data breach at the studio.

A lawsuit was filed on Monday in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California and it alleges that Sony failed to secure its network and protect employee data from hackers, making them liable to some extent.

It seeks compensation for any damages caused as a result of the exposure of sensitive information.

It's likely that Sony will face more legal complaints as a result of the breach, which could cost it over $100 million in the long run. This saga is likely to drag on for a while yet.


Sources and Recommended Reading:
Ex-Sony employees sue, claim company failed to protect data: www.reuters.com

HBO Go has finally arrived on Amazon's Fire TV set-top-box for subscribers of HBO.

It is available right now for Amazon's Fire TV with an HBO subscription through participating affiliates, with integration of its full catalog into Fire TV's voice search. For HBO subscribers with Fire TV Stick, HBO Go will be available for streaming in Spring 2015.

"We're thrilled to add HBO GO, the most requested service, to Fire TV in time for the holidays. HBO has produced some of the most groundbreaking and award-winning TV shows and movies, and we are excited to bring this amazing content to our customers, all of which is accessible via voice search on your Fire TV remote," wrote Peter Larsen, Vice President Amazon Devices.

Larsen was eager to point out that the number of services available through Fire TV has quadrupled since it was launched. Over 700 apps and games are now available for the device, which typically sells for $99, but is reduced to $79 at the present time and will stay that way until December 28.

According to a report, Samsung may launch a competing payment service to Apple Pay during 2015.

Re/code cites sources familiar with Samsung's plan to allow owners of some smartphone devices to use them to pay for goods and services at brick and mortar stores, much in the same way as the Apple Pay service operates.

The sources tell Re/code that Samsung is in talks with LoopPay, a payments firm based in Burlington, Massachusetts, but that talks are at such an early stage and could still collapse before an agreement is possible.

Using a smartphone to pay for goods offline is not a new idea but it has been rejuvenated by Apple sticking its toes into the water with Apple Pay. Users of Apple Pay can use the fingerprint scanner on its iPhones to authenticate payments at point of sale.

Samsung's system would also likely rely on fingerprint authorization.

Read more at Re/code.

Apple can breathe a sigh of relief after a jury sided with it in a decade-old case relating to the copy protection system it had in place on older iPods and iTunes.

The Cupertino giant could have been on the hook for as much as $1 billion in damages if the eight person jury found it had violated antitrust laws by using enhanced security mechanisms on its iTunes software and iPod hardware. The case specifically focused on iPods sold between late 2006 and early 2009.

Apple stood accused of using its digital rights management (DRM) technology to effectively block out content purchased from competing music services. In fact, it had even been accused of deleting songs purchased from sources other than iTunes from its customers' iPods.

Apple disagreed and maintained that its security measures were a response to attempts to hack its DRM system, and that such a breach would put it in violation of contracts signed with major record companies to sell music on iTunes.

Today the case, which stems back to 2005, finally came to a decision when a jury decided Apple hadn't violated any antitrust laws.

LG Electronics has announced that it will showcase Quantum Dot Ultra HD 4K TVs at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas next month.

The South Korean consumer electronics firm already provides Ultra HD 4K displays using conventional LCD technology and the more coveted organic light-emitting diode (OLED) technology, providing a stunning colorful display and complimenting 4K resolution very well.

However, while the cost of OLED displays is dropping, it is still a bit away from becoming affordable to most buyers and so LG wants to bring forth Quantum Dot to significantly improve its LCD.

The technology works by harnessing nano crystals that range in size from 2 to 10 nanometers, with each "dot" emitting a different color based on its size. A film of these quantum dots is combined with LG's current In-Plane Switching (IPS) LCD displays to provide a wider color palette and improved color saturation.

"The color reproduction rate in LG's IPS panels, which offers high color accuracy and extra wide viewing angles, is increased with the addition of the quantum dot film by more than 30 percent compared with conventional LCD/LED TVs," claims LG.

Sony already uses Quantum Dot technology in several of its high-end TVs and Samsung are reportedly about to unveil their own QD products.

Microsoft executive responds to November's sales triumph over the PlayStation 4 in the United States and the United Kingdom.

November was the first month that Microsoft managed to sell more Xbox One consoles to customers than Sony managed with its PlayStation 4 (PS4) console in the United States. According to NPD data, the Redmond giant sold about 1.2 million Xbox One units in the U.S. during the month.

Additionally, Microsoft's console outsold the PS4 in the UK, although it isn't clear how the Xbox One fared globally against the PS4.

Nevertheless, Microsoft immediately touted the NPD data. The sales victory was helped by price cuts and also by a decent software line-up approaching the holiday season.

Microsoft's Aaron Greenberg, who is boss of Xbox games marketing, said that the Xbox One is just getting started. The firm is extremely confident about its game line-up as the New Year approaches that it says it may even need to delay some titles to make room.

During November, Xbox Live also saw a new record of players signing on to the service, and game sales for the Xbox One also surpassed those of PS4 and Wii U.

via: GameSpot

Google has been given until February to change its management of data from users or else face a fine of up to $18 million.

The threat comes from the Dutch data protection agency which admits it is running out of patience with Google at this point. It has threatened to fine Google up to a max of €15 million - $18.6 million - if it does not stop violating Dutch users' privacy.

This all stems from a 2012 change in Google's privacy policies across services, intended to unify them into a single policy. The pooling of data across services ruffled a lot of feathers, particularly in the European Union where regulators at the state and European levels have raised questions about the change's compatibility with data protection and privacy laws.

"This has been ongoing since 2012 and we hope our patience will no longer be tested," said Jacob Kohnstamm, chairman of the Dutch data protection authority.

The problem the regulator has with Google seems to boil down to the fact that users weren't properly informed in advance of the changes, and Google sought no consent to pool data from search, its email service, and other sites together.

Microsoft is pushing an out-of-cycle update to fix a problem caused by a previous Windows update distributed on Patch Tuesday in November.

The broken update in question - KB3004394 - was distributed last week and has caused numerous problems with Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 installations. Problems range from preventing further Windows updates to preventing updates to drivers for graphics cards and more.

Microsoft quickly encouraged users to remove the stricken update and worked on a fix instead. In actual fact, the fix just removes the previous update.

The new update - KB3024777 - will remove the previous update from your installation and should fix any problems you have after a reboot or two. Depending on your Windows Updates settings you might already have gotten the update (and will have been prompted to reboot), or you may have been alerted to its availability instead.

You can manually download the update for your Windows operating system from support.microsoft.com too.

Connecting people across continents is old news, but breaking down language barriers between them is the new goal of services like Skype.

Cooperating with Microsoft's R&D, Skype has kicked off its Translator Preview with support for translating conservations between Spanish and English, and even offers us a video demo of two classrooms communicating using the technology to show off where they currently are.

The preview program is available to Skype customers who have signed-up via the Skype Translator sign-up page and are using Windows 8.1 on the desktop or device. For now it supports Spanish and English as spoken, and also 40+ instant messaging languages.

In the demonstration video below, two classrooms in North America use the new Skype Translator. Students in Peterson School in Mexico City, and Stafford Elementary School in Tacoma, USA play a game of "Mystery Skype", in which the children ask questions to determine the location of the other school.

As they speak, Skype automatically translates between English and Spanish for them.

Following further leaks of data stolen from Sony Pictures, hackers have promised the studio that a Christmas gift is coming soon.

"We are preparing for you a Christmas gift," the Guardians of Peace (GoP) said in a post on Pastebin.

"The gift will be larger quantities of data. And it will be more interesting.The gift will surely give you much more pleasure and put Sony Pictures into the worst state. Please send an email titled by 'Merry Christmas' at the addresses below to tell us what you want in our Christmas gift."

The hackers are reportedly making a bunch of demands of Sony Pictures. As we previously reported, the group apparently demanded that Sony Pictures cancel the release of "The Interview", starring Seth Rogan and James Franco as journalists who are recruited by the CIA to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong un.

Sony is also attempting to stop large media corporations from reporting on data from the leaked e-mails, as some of the information disclosed has been of a particularly sensitive nature.

A Northern Ireland firm has apologized after a software glitch resulting in products being listed and sold on Amazon for just 1p.

The glitch happened on Friday between 19:00 and 20:00 and it affected firms using Repricer Express, which automatically adjusts the prices of items on sale on Amazon to keep them competitive.

Repricer Express chief executive Brendan Doherty said he was deeply sorry for the disruption. Most orders were cancelled after the error was spotted.

Repricer Express is investigating the cause of the issue and will attempt to prevent it reoccurring in the future.

"We managed to get the problem resolved so that any new prices going to Amazon were correct within about an hour of the problem being reported," Doherty said.

"It took a further few hours to get incorrect prices reverted to their original prices where possible. Amazon have assured us that seller accounts will not be penalised for this issue."

The BanHammer has been 'a-swingin', according to the Bungie website as it fights against players with modified consoles.

Banning players that use modified consoles is a fairly common practice usually justified with concerns about piracy and also modding that can lead to unfair advantages in online gaming. Destiny players that have logged in using modified consoles recently may not be able to do so again.

"We routinely review Banhammer actions to ensure that they are applied accurately and fairly," the official Bungie site reads.

"A review of the bans applied over the last week shows that all of the affected accounts had logged into Destiny on a modified console at some point."

For a limited time, you can pick up a Wii U (32GB) console with Super Mario 3D World and Nintendoland for a total cost of $250.

The promotion is being run by Target and it is not timed. However, it is only available while stocks last so if you want to take advantage of it then get up off your ass.

In fact, when we say get up off your ass we mean it literally because you cannot get the deal online, you need to visit a brick and mortar Target store and pick up the goods there.

You can use Target's website to find the nearest store and pre-pay for it however, and then go to pick it up.

via: GameSpot

Uber is offering free rides in Sydney as it seeks to make good after the cost of some car rides in Sydney spiked during the hostage siege at a cafe.

As you are likely aware, there is a terrible hostage situation currently underway in Sydney and it is dominating more or less all major media outlets at the moment.

It turns out that after this crisis started, the cost of using Uber drivers to get away from the central business district (CBD) in the city spiked, prompting criticism of the firm which promises typically to cost less than traditional taxi services.

The company found itself accused of exploiting the situation in Sydney for profit. For example, some drivers were quoted prices often more than twice the usual rate to get from the CBD to the airport.

It would appear that the increase in cost was simply down to the increase in demand in the area of the city. The algorithm used to set pricing for the service responded to the gulf between demand and available cars by pushing up the cost. The intention of this cost increase is to draw more Uber drivers into the area.

Uber has responded by refunding customers who were overcharged and by offering free rides out of the CBD to help people to get home safely.

Several major news media organizations have been threatened by a Sony Pictures lawyer and ordered to stop reporting details from e-mails stolen in November.

According to reports, a letter was received by the New York Times, The Hollywood Reporter and Variety from Sony attorney David Boies on the matter. The asserts that the stricken studio "does not consent to your possession, review, copying, dissemination, publication, uploading, downloading or making any use" of data leaked from November's massive breach of the entertainment firm.

The group responsible for the attack - Guardians of Peace (GoP) - has released more than a terabyte of stolen data since late-November, including personal information of employees and Hollywood stars. The data also includes hoards of e-mails that clearly were never supposed to be seen by the public.

"Any decisions about whether or how to use any of the information will take into account both the significance of the news and the questions of how the information emerged and who has access to it," said Eileen Murphy, spokeswoman for the New York Times, reports the Reuters news agency.

Canadians who download and share musically illegally may end up getting notices from their Internet Service Providers due to a new law.

Up until now, Canadian ISPs had a choice of whether to notify a customer that had been identified by IP address for copyright infringement, but in January the system will change and become mandatory as the Copyright Modernization Act will take effect.

The ISP will not hand over personal details of the customer however, just act as an intermediary.

"So essentially a copyright holder will provide Sasktel with notification that an IP address has illegally downloaded some material...and then Sasktel is required to notify the customer with that IP address," said Michelle Englot, director of external communications at SaskTel.

Such communications are intended to deter users from continuing to infringe copyright and lead them to legal, licensed outlets instead.

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare may be the best selling game of 2014, but its sales are down compared to last year's retail sales of Call of Duty: Ghosts.

This represents a third straight year that Call of Duty sales have declined year-over-year in the United States. The data comes from Piper Jaffray analyst Michael Olson, citing research from the NPD Group.

"This is disappointing data following first week Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare sales showing a year-over-year increase," Olson said, reports GI.biz.

"NPD data does not include digital copies or international sales, which, if included, would lessen the year-over-year decline, but we believe this data suggests potential for Q4 revenue upside is now very low."

Activision's total sales have decreased by 22 percent year-over-year.

Comparing Advanced Warfare's first month to Modern Warfare 3, released in 2011, U.S. sales have declined by 49 percent during the first month of availability on the market.

The IsoHunt team has put the old Pirate Bay search and data back online in a working site for users while the original site remains down.

The Pirate Bay went down on Tuesday as a result of police action in Stockholm, and since then many proxies and mirrors have been mistaken for the official site. OldPirateBay.org is not a resurrection of the official site, but it will be something Pirate Bay users will be happy with.

It is the old Pirate Bay search and the archived data from the notorious BitTorrent site, and on top of that new torrents are appearing in "Recent Torrents" too. It is not intended as a replacement for the Pirate Bay however.

"As you probably know, the beloved Pirate Bay website is gone for now. It'll be missed. It'll be remembered as the pilgrim of freedom and possibilities on the web. It's a symbol of liberty for a generation of Internet users." a note reads on the site.

"It its honor we're making the oldpiratebay.org search. We, the IsoHunt team, copied the database of Pirate Bay in order to save it for generations of users. Nothing will be forgotten. Keep on believing, keep on sharing."

Seagate will start selling a hard disk drive (HDD) in January with a massive 8TB capacity and it is expected to cost $260 or below.

Designed for reliability rather than performance, the 3.5-inch Seagate 8TB Archive HDD has a reduced spindle speed of 5,900 RPM and the average read/write is only 150MB/s. That is significantly slower than modern HDDs and way slower than a decent solid state disk (SSD).

This drive is build simply for storage though so that doesn't matter all that much, and at $260 it would be a nice purchase for an NAS.

The hard drive will start selling mid-January.

The extra capacity and low cost are achieved with Seagate's SMR (Shingled Magnetic Recording) Technology. Here is a video explaining it.

The information spilling onto the Internet as a result of the Sony Pictures hack keeps making headlines, and this time it has exposed a rift between Google and the MPAA.

The Motion Pictures Association of America (MPAA) is a trade group that represents movie studios in the United States. It speaks on behalf of those studios in copyright lobbying and in legal cases, and is essentially their face in the anti-piracy efforts targeted at the Internet.

In recent years it has been pressing more and more on Google to step up and fight piracy by removing links from its search index. Google responded by removing millions of links from its search index when it received DMCA requests, and lately went further to punish sites that are the target of a lot of DMCA complaints.

It had a significant impact too, with many torrent sites seeing a dip in traffic from Google, and the search giant was more than justified in feeling like it had done enough.

The MPAA disagreed however, and made a statement about Google that would turn their relationship sour very quickly.

"Everyone shares a responsibility to help curb unlawful conduct online, and we are glad to see Google acknowledging its role in facilitating access to stolen content via search," an MPAA press release opened with.

An original Apple-1 Personal Computer sold by Steve Jobs from his home to Charles Ricketts has sold at auction for $365,000 in New York.

The "Ricketts Apple-1 Personal Computer" is the only known surviving Apple-1 documented to have been sold by Apple co-founder Steve Jobs from his parent's home to a customer. Of the few hundreds Apple-1s that were made, only 50 are thought to survive and less in working condition.

The Apple-1 was put up for auction by Christie's as part of the auction house's inaugural Exceptional Sale in New York yesterday, held at the Rockefeller Center. It was estimated at between $400,000 and $600,000 so it actually sold for lower than expected.

Steve Jobs sold the Apple-1 to Steve Ricketts (whom it is now named after) from his parents' garage in July 1976.

"The Ricketts Apple-1 is fully operational, having been serviced and started by Apple-1 expert Corey Cohen in October 2014. Mr. Cohen ran the standard original software program, Microsoft BASIC, and also an original Apple-1 Star Trek game in order to test the machine," a press release from before the auction reads.

Max Sound Corp has sued Google and its YouTube subsidiary for patent infringement relating to streaming H.264/AVC video content.

It filed a lawsuit in the District Court of Mannheim, Germany against Google Inc in the United States, Google Commerce Ltd, in Dublin, Ireland, Google Germany in Hamburg and YouTube LLC in San Bruno, USA. At the center of the lawsuit is the EU 2 026 277 patent, held by Max Sound Corp.

"Max Sound Corp. claims that all products on the market that use the format H.264 for video compression infringe the asserted patent," a press release reads.

"This allegation comprises, in particular, current versions of the Google operating system Android, which is installed on many mobile phones and tablet devices. The complaint addresses the current Google Products: Nexus 5, Nexus 6, Nexus 9 Chromebook and Chromecast."

Max Souhnd Corp also alleges that Google's YouTube video service infringes its patent. Max Sound requests information about profits and damages for each video streamed to Germany in one of the relevant formats.

It expects the case to come to a ruling in less than 12 months.

For just a few more days, it is possible to get all three Batman Arkham games and DLC for just $10 in the United States, or €9.79 in Europe.

The offer applies to PC gamers using the Steam platform. It is being offered by Bundle Stars for just $9.99 in the United States, or €9.79 in Europe (not sure in UK) and it includes the Batman: Arkham collection as it stands. For this ridiculously low cost you get:

• Batman: Arkham Asylum Game of the Year Edition
• Batman: Arkham City Game of the Year Edition
• Batman: Arkham Origins
• Batman: Arkham Origins: Season Pass - DLC
• Batman: Arkham Origins: Black Mask Challenge Pack - DLC
• Batman: Arkham Origins: Online Supply Drop DLC

According to data from research firm NPD, Microsoft's Xbox One console finally outsold Sony's PlayStation 4 (PS4) after more than a year on the market.

The small victory in the month of November was made public by Microsoft very quickly. It said that in November, more than 1.2 million Xbox One consoles were sold in the United States, which apparently beat sales of its rival but we haven't seen any sales figures for the PS4 yet.

According to Microsoft, the Xbox One also outsold the PlayStation 4 in the United Kingdom during the same period.

Whether the Xbox One sold more globally in November is not clear, but Microsoft will take the win in the U.S. gladly in any case. The console was helped greatly by a price cut and by a decent software line-up heading into the busy holiday period.

Microsoft's console has been trailing PS4 in the year that both have been available on the market, and in the meantime went through some major rethinks affecting its hardware and services. The biggest change was the unbundling of the Kinect motion sensor system from the Xbox One, immediately cutting $100 off the price.

In addition to topping the sales charts in the UK and U.S. at least, Microsoft also said that more users logged on to Xbox Live than any other month in the history of the Xbox brand.

The Pirate Bay has been down since Tuesday following a police raid in Stockholm, but since then there have been many reports of it resurrecting elsewhere.

On Wednesday, we reported that claims of the Pirate Bay moving to Costa Rica and taking up a .CR domain were false. At the time, only the frontpage would load and the search didn't work at all, which you would expect given that the .CR domain was being used as a Pirate Bay proxy/mirror that relied on the .SE website for its results.

However, since then the search does bring up results that are light on detail and mostly old. This led to further speculation that the Pirate Bay had resurfaced in Costa Rica after all.

Initially, it seemed to be redirecting to a .EE domain, but that stopped later, and now is reportedly using some combination of old cached results and pulling torrents from other sites like Kickass. The constant changes are arousing quite a bit of suspicion, and clearly the .CR site is not the official Pirate Bay resurrected.

As for the .EE domains, one of them went offline in the past day or so (piratebay.ee) and another one (thepiratebay.ee) reportedly is using old cached data too, and some users reported that it was trying to get money from users.

YouTube has quietly added a neat little animated GIF creator to some of its YouTube videos.

Spotted by Andy Baio, YouTube added an option to create a GIF to the share options of a select few channels. For example, the PBS Idea Channel seems to be covered by YouTube's experimental GIF creator.

It allows you to create an animated GIF of up to five seconds in length from any consecutive five second portion of the video. It also allows you to add text to the top and bottom of the resulting GIF, which will be hosted on YouTube's own servers and which you can embed elsewhere just as you can with videos.

YouTube hasn't revealed what its larger plan is for the GIF creator; will it come to all videos that can be shared? Will it have to be opt in on behalf of the content creator.

If it does end up being available for the majority of all YouTube videos, then you'd better be prepared to see a lot more GIFs around than you already do!

Microsoft has set a date to show off the consumer experience of Windows 10, ahead of its scheduled launch in Autumn 2015.

The Redmond giant has alerted media and Windows enthusiasts that it will hold an event at its campus on Wednesday, January 21 to show off the consumer side of its upcoming Windows 10 operating system.

Among those in attendance that we will hear from will be senior leaders from the Operating Systems Group including Terry Myerson, Joe Belfiore and Phil Spencer. Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella will also show up to say some words.

The event will be broadcast live from the Redmond campus and details of a webcast will be provided in due time.

Windows 10 represents something of a reboot for Microsoft as it fights to recover from a disastrous Windows 8 era, and from declining interest in Windows Phone. It will also take another stab at gaining ground in smartphones and tablets, an area in which its competitors Apple and Google have dominated for years.

So set your reminders for January 21, and let's see what Microsoft has in store for us all next.

Have you ever posted embarrassing photos of yourself and friends on Facebook after you've had just one drink too many?

Facebook's AI labs is working to make sure that doesn't happen to you so often. It is working on a system that can tell the difference between pictures taken of you when sober, and pictures taken of you when drunk.

If it determines that you are drunk, it will try to make you think twice before uploading.

Are you sure you want your boss and your mother to see this?" it reportedly will prompt a user.

Yann LeCun, head of Facebook's AI research, detailed the plans to Wired magazine and said that the labs are working on a digital assistant that will be able to carry out many similar tasks with photos and content uploaded to Facebook.

The social network already uses facial recognition software to correctly tag images and also to better target content to users based on their behavior.

This has led to some backlash from digital rights activists, who want customers to have the option to opt out of such AI systems.

Source: BBC News

According to e-mails, Seth Rogen was asked by Sony Pictures Entertainment to tone down a particularly gruesome scene in "The Interview", but the comedy actor refused to remove objectionable content.

The movie is at the center of the Sony Pictures hack in November. Rogen and James Franco star as two journalists who score an interview with North Korean leader Kim Jong un and are recruited by the CIA to assassinate him. Almost immediately after details of the movie became public, it was condemned by North Korea as an act of war, and of sponsoring terrorism.

While the FBI does not have hard evidence to link the mysterious state to the attack, security experts have found links and coincidences that suggest it. The group responsible for the attack also reportedly demanded the movie be cancelled.

Before this all happened however, Sony Pictures Entertainment boss Amy Pascal reportedly wrote to Seth Rogen by e-mail and asked him to tone down one particularly gruesome scene. The e-mails were first revealed by Bloomberg.

Rogen was resistant, even stating that "this is now a story of Americans changing their movie to make North Koreans happy, that is a very damning story."

Sony will release its PlayStation 4 (PS4) console in China in January next year, as the rapidly growing market is allowing console sales for the first time in 14 years.

The consoles will sell for 2,899 yuan - about $468 - each as Sony looks to profit from the appetite for gaming in the emerging economy. Microsoft is also offering its Xbox One console in China after the communist regime loosened the rules on video games systems.

However, that same regime may prove to be an obstacle on the software side since every single game will need to be approved before it can go on sale.

"Cooperating with the government, we'll provide a broad range of content for our users in China," Hiroyuki Oda, head of Asia business at Sony Computer Entertainment, said according to the Reuters news agency.

Several games have already been approved for sale after more than 30 have been submitted for licenses.

Microsoft's Xbox One is selling in China for 3,699 yuan - about $598 - and has ten titles currently on sale.

Chromecast has gotten a new Guest Mode that will allow Android device owners to cast to a TV with Chromecast without connecting to the WiFi network.

Either you don't want your friends connecting to your WiFi network or you don't want the hassle of finding the WiFi key, either way you can now make it very easy for others with Android devices to cast to your television.

You simply have to open the Chromecast app on your Android phone or tablet and select "Devices" from the navigation drawer. Choose your Chromecast device, tap the "Guest mode" setting and then turn the slider to "on."

Now your Android-wielding friends can fight over who casts the funniest YouTube video the TV.

The update has started rolling out, so make sure to keep your Chromecast app up to date. More information is available from chromecast.com/guestmode.

Here's a promotional video from Google showing off Guest Mode.

Uber has decided to halt all operations in the Indian Capital New Delhi after a driver allegedly raped a female passenger.

Head of communications in South Asia for Uber, Karun Arya, said that the San Francisco-based firm is conducting an assessment of its driver screening process. The alleged rapist in this case had been out on bail after being imprisoned for sexually assaulting a woman in his cab.

"We are evaluating additional screening options to include background checks on all our driver partners in India above and beyond what is currently required," wrote Arya.

He also promised that Uber will work closely with organisations that are championing women's safety in New Delhi and around the country.

"Safety is our top priority. We are fully committed to partnering with and are in discussions with the government, other transportation organisations and safety experts in India to implement robust solutions to ensure a safe ride."

It has been a difficult week for Uber as multiple cities in several countries either banned or sued the car service.

Microsoft has come along with another insane promotion through its Music Deals app, this time literally giving away popular albums for free.

User with the Xbox Music app or Xbox Deals app in the United States can take advantage of the freebies for a limited time only. In the Music Deals app, browse "Holiday Freebies" and you will find the albums in there.

Among the albums on offer are Eminem's 2013 chart topper The Marshall Mathers LP 2, Dr Dre's 2001, Kanye West's Graduation, Rihanna's unapologetic, U2's All That You Can't Leave Behind, Swedish House Mafia's Until Now and many others.

The deal is in place until December 15 so remember to go grab what you want legally for free before then.

The Music Deals app launched back in October and since then it has offered some really surprising deals. It offered Taylor Swift's 1989 for 99c for a short time and an additional 101 albums were priced at $1.99.

You can't beat free though, so check it out.

via: Neowin

While the Pirate Bay remains offline, other torrent services that went down as an indirect result of the Pirate Bay raid have started to come back online.

The most popular service that was hit in the crossfire was EZTV, and its main domain isn't working at the moment but proxy links, such as eztv-proxy.net, are connecting to the site's backend IPs. EZTV torrents are also being uploaded once again in other places, including Kickass Torrents.

TorrentFreak confirmed with operators of EZTV that servers are coming back online again and that the site is expected to recover fully.

Another BitTorrent site that has since fully recovered is Zoink. It is currently back operating a torrent storage service. Meanwhile, the Superbay forum is still offline, as is Torrage and the Istole tracker is still down.

There were some reports that the Pirate Bay is back up and running, but in reality the links are to proxy sites that are only offering up some cached older search results. Some of them may also be scams and thus better off avoided.

Whether the Pirate Bay can make a full and prompt recovery as it did back in 2006 remains to be seen, but co-founder Peter Sunde thinks it is time for the service to die.

In an ironic twist, Sony Pictures is apparently trying to halt the spread of hoards of data stolen by hackers in November using a tactic commonly used by cyber criminals.

According to a re/code report, Sony Pictures is essentially carrying out denial of service attacks aimed at torrents being used to share the leaked data. BitTorrent users trying to get their hands on the stolen information are being linked with fake seeds that disrupt the sharing of data by slowing it to a crawl.

Re/code cites sources in reporting that the entertainment company is utilizing Amazon Web Services to carry out this counterattack, with the servers being located throughout Asia.

The group behind the Sony Pictures attack, self identified as the Guardians of Peace (GOP), are estimated to have stolen up to 100 terabytes of data and have made at least six dumps of stolen data already, including copies of unreleased films like Fury.

The leaks went from being financially damaging to downright embarrassing for Sony Pictures and associated Hollywood personnel, and who knows what the hackers still have in their possession.

Microsoft is planning to release the Windows 10 operating system a bit later than it had previously predicted, but in line to coincide with the third anniversary of the Windows 8 launch.

Windows 10 is Microsoft's bid to adapt to changes in modern computing as consumers have rapidly adopted smartphones and tablets for work and play. The previous Windows iteration - Windows 8 - largely failed to impress consumers and Microsoft is keen to bury the previous three years below the dirt and start fresh.

Previous comments from within Microsoft indicated that Windows 10 could launch during the summer next year, but Microsoft COO Kevin Turner says it is more likely to be during the Autumn, perhaps an early fall release. He made the updated prediction to the Nikkei news service in Japan.

There is a notable milestone around that timeframe for Microsoft; August 2015 will be the 20th anniversary of the launch of Windows 95.

Windows is still used by an estimated 1.5 billion users on Desktops, but in mobile computing Microsoft really dropped the ball years ago and watched Apple and Google gobble up the market.


Sources and Recommended Reading:
Microsoft exec sees autumn release for Windows 10: www.reuters.com

Microsoft is endorsing the Bitcoin cryptocurrency, letting customers use it to pay for apps, games, music and videos across its digital services.

In a welcome boost to Bitcoin, Microsoft is endorsing the cryptocurrency by accepting it as payment for content across its services. You can use it now to add money to your Microsoft account so that you can buy apps, games and content from Windows, Windows Phone, Xbox Games, Xbox Music and Xbox Video.

To use bitcoin for Microsoft's digital services, sign into your Microsoft account and go to billing -> payment options -> Microsoft account -> redeem bitcoin. Select the amount you want to add and click Next, then review the amount of Bitcoin you will need and use your bitcoin digital wallet to complete the transaction within 15 minutes.

If you are using a smartphone, you can simply scan the QR code displayed on the page to pay from your mobile wallet app. On a Desktop, select Pay with Bitcoin and then pay from your Bitcoin wallet on the same device. If your wallet is on another device you can copy the receiving address and BTC amount to the wallet on your device or the Web and then make your purchase.

Some things to consider first

Large media outlets, local media sources and bloggers will be furious as a law about to come into force in Spain has pushed Google News out of the country.

Google News will remove Spanish publications from its service and will shut its Spanish site on Tuesday, December 16, and it's all the result of a misguided law that will come into force in Spain in the New Year.

After that point, Spanish media outlets will be forced to charge services like Google News for using even just snippets of information from their sources. Believe it or not, Spanish media outlets don't even have a choice not to charge these services, they are mandated to under the law.

Google can find no wiggle room to keep Google News operating in Spain and so it will shut the service there next week.

Google News - The best of intentions punished

Google News was actually born shortly after the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the United States. Krishna Bharat, a Google engineer, searched the term "World Trade Center" following the attacks and was shocked to find that the results didn't include any information on how the iconic skyscrapers were destroyed

That's how Google News came to be. It is a source of news information that now ranges from the world's largest media outlets, to local media and even to bloggers. It displays a headline, a small description (or the opening lines of an aritcle) and a thumbnail of the image associated with the article.

Project Maelstrom envisions a web that works the way BitTorrent works, rather than the standard model of centralized services you connect directly to.

BitTorrent Inc. has launched an invite-only alpha as it seeks to bring its vision of a distributed / decentralized web to life. There's no question that P2P technologies like BitTorrent can be very efficient at spreading large files around the web or on a local network (Sync), but can it be relied upon to drive a decentralized web where content can be published and accessed as easily as the world wide web?

That's what BitTorrent is hoping to find out, and you can apply for an invite to the Alpha as a tester, academic/researcher, agency, artists, developer or publisher here.

So why is it necessary to build a web browser to power a decentralized web? BitTorrent CEO Eric Klinker provides a variety of good reasons for trying. To start, he argues that such a decentralized web can keep the Internet open, and keep access to the Internet neutral.

One of the original founders of the Pirate Bay hopes that yesterday's raid on the service will bring about its permanent end, saying the site lost its soul.

Peter Sunde was one of the original founders of the BitTorrent site and spent some time in prison recently for his part in bringing about the Internet phenomenon. You would think that given his personal sacrifice (his freedom) he would be devastated to see the site down, but on the contrary he is relieved to think it might be gone forever.

Sunde (aka brokep) explains that he did not like what the Pirate Bay had become in recent years. It "become an institution that people just expected to be there. Noone willing to take the technology further," he wrote.

"The site was ugly, full of bugs, old code and old design. It never changed except for one thing – the ads. More and more ads was filling the site, and somehow when it felt unimaginable to make these ads more distasteful they somehow ended up even worse."

According to Sunde, the original plan for the Pirate Bay was to shut it down on its tenth birthday, but instead the birthday had what he clearly found to be a tacky party in its honour in Stockholm. He references the 2006 raid that brought down the popular BitTorrent site and how people took to the streets to protest, but that now there is no public outcry because the site has no soul anymore, and no cause. According to Sunde, the site has long served its original purpose to push BitTorrent.

You can get a $50 discount off the red, black and blue Nintendo 3DS XL handhelds, but the offer expires this weekend.

Best Buy is selling the red, black and blue 3DS XL models for $150, but the offer will expire on Saturday, December 13 so you may want to snap one up now if you're interested.

The offer is available in Best Buy stores, or alternatively you can take advantage of free shipping if you order one online.

GameSpot also notes that Best Buy is currently running a Buy 2 Get 1 deal on games that will also expire on December 13. The offer applies to any Xbox, PlayStation or PC titles, but it does not apply to Wii U, 3DS or PSVita, nor does it involve pre-orders.

Like the 3DS offer, you can take advantage of it in store or online.


via: GameSpot

You can get a OnePlus One smartphone without an invite for a limited time, and the OnePlus website says they will be delivered before December 25.

It's not clear how long it will be before the offer ends, there is no time limit visible. However, to be on the safe side if you really want one of these you should order it as soon as possible. Previous promotions that allowed consumers to buy one without an invite only lasted for an hour.

The 16GB Silk White model sells for $299 and the 64GB Sandstone Black model sells for $349.

To remind you of some specs, the OnePlus One packs a Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 Quad-Core 2.5GHz CPU with integrated Adreno 330 GPU, 3GB LP-DDR3 RAM at 1866MHz, a 13 Megapizel Sony Exmor IMX214 and a 5 Megapixel front facing camera. The 3100 mAh battery will power the device all day long even with plenty of apps in constant use.

The OnePlus One features a 5.5-inch 1080p full HD JDI screen with LTPS technology for a higher pixel density and sharper picture, with Gorilla Glass 3 to protect the screen against scratches.

Order one at: https://oneplus.net/

Lenovo has announced a recall of more than 500,000 power cords sold with IdeaPad products that have been deemed a safety risk.

The defective power cords were sold with IdeaPad computers between February 2011 and June 2012. The recall comes after consume complaints about the power cords overheating, and in cases melting, burning and throwing sparks.

The IdeaPads these defective cords were sold with include products in the B, G, S, U, V an d Z series, and some other Lenovo notebooks potentially were sold with the defective cord.

One quick way to tell if you might have a defective cord is to disconnect the cord from the AC adapter (power brick) and check to see if it has LS-15 stamped into the molding, as shown in the picture.

If so, then go to the Lenovo recall page and verify that you have a defective cord, then apply for a free replacement from Lenovo.

More here: 2014 POWER CORD RECALL (support.lenovo.com)

Sony is running a limited offer for PlayStation Store customers with PayPal that can get you $10 store credit to use later this month.

To qualify, you will need to use PayPal to add $60 to your SEN wallet before Tuesday, December 16. The offer applies to the United States and Canada. You will be sent a code by December 23 to redeem $10 credit to spend in the PlayStation Store. The code will be delivered to users who qualify via XMB message on PS3, system messaging on PS4 or the e-mail account associated with your Sony Entertainment Network account.

There's some things to remember about the promotion. Firstly, it is limited to $10 credit per account, so using PayPal to add $120 to your PS Store wallet will not result $20 credit. Secondly, you will need to add the $60 or more to your SEN wallet or using PayPal through their PS4 or through the web store at store.sonyentertainmentnetwork.com.

SEN wallets can only hold a maximum of $150 USD at a time so a balance at or below $90 USD is required to participate.

And last thing to remember, you must redeem the code by January 22, 2015.

Contrary to reports, the Pirate Bay is not back online and operating out of Costa Rica just one day after a Stockholm raid took the torrent giant down.

The notorious BitTorrent site has been offline since Tuesday afternoon after police action took it offline. Also reportedly down are a number of other sites including EZTV. However, despite the Pirate Bay's history of prompt returns after legal action, it has not come back online just yet.

Reports suggested that the Pirate Bay is not operating out of Costa Rica, specifically using the domain ThePirateBay.cr. These reports are inaccurate however. Sure, when you load the page it looks like the Pirate Bay (although at time of writing it was providing an internal server error), but it is actually a Pirate Bay proxy and relies on the original Pirate Bay site for access to content. In other words, it does nothing.

There are several other proxy and mirror sites of the Pirate Bay that will load a homepage, but these aren't operational, you can't really use them for anything.

Whether or not the Pirate Bay will return remains to be seen. It did recover from a very similar police action in 2006 relatively quickly, so we'll just have to sit back and see if history does repeat itself from time to time.

The decision by two Australian retailers to pull copies of GTA V from shelves has been blasted by Take-Two president Karl Slatoff as an affront to the values of a free society.

GTA V publisher Take-Two had previously expressed disappointed with the decision by Target Australia and KMart Australia to drop the controversial game from their stores across the country in response to a petition that decried the depictions of violence against female characters in the game.

However, at the BMO Capital Markets 2014 Technology & Digital Media Conference, Slatoff was a bit more blunt with his reaction to it, finding it to be incompatible with a free society.

"It's one thing for someone to not want to buy a piece of content, which is completely understandable, and that's really the solution. If you don't like it and it's offensive to you, then you don't buy it," Slatoff reportedly said, reports GI.biz.

"But for a person or a group of people to try to make that decision for millions of people... We have 34 million people who bought Grand Theft Auto, and if these folks had their way, none of those people would be able to buy Grand Theft Auto."

Comcast has been sued by a mother and daughter for the practice of using home WiFi routers as part of its plan for a nationwide hotspot network.

Under Comcast's plan to create an Xfinity WiFi Hotspot network, newer home WiFi routers of customers will activate a second WiFi signal intended to be used by house guests or by Comcast subscribers who have a mobile device in proximity to the router.

In a lawsuit filed by Toyer Grear and daughter Joycelyn Harris in a U.S. District Court in San Francisco, Comcast is accused of exploiting their customers for profit, reducing the performance of connection / WiFi network and costing customers more money on their electricity bills.

To be fair, the service can be disabled by customers, but the lawsuit alleges that the provider turns it on without their permission and so forces customers to pay the cost of powering its national hotspot network. It cites research from Speedify that finds that Comcast's secondary Internet channel will cost its national users tens of millions of dollars on their electricity bills.

Tests showed that under heavy use, the secondary channel adds between 30 percent and 40 percent more to a customer's electricity bill than the typical cost of powering the router for home use.

Google has begun sending out e-mails to customers informing them that they may be entitled to a refund for in-app purchases made previously, as part of a settlement with the FTC.

Google reached the settlement with the FTC over the issue of in-app purchases, and how many parents may have been charged for in-app purchases made by their children when they didn't have permission to make them. Any user who made an in-app purchase between March 1, 2011 and November 18. 2014 could be eligible for a refund.

"We understand some parents might have been charged for in-app purchases made by young children who did not have permission to make those purchases," Google writes.

"As a result, we've added tools to help parents avoid unauthorized in-app purchases by their young children. We are also offering refunds in certain cases in line with our agreement with the FTC."

Customers can request a refund request until December 2, 2015.

via: Phandroid

Microsoft unusually instructed users running the Windows 10 Technical Preview to uninstall Microsoft Office products before attempting to install a required patch.

According to Gabriel Aul, users had to uninstall Office before applying a needed patch or else the installer would fail. He made the revelation by Twitter, but then later on encouraged users to try to install the patch without removing the firm's Office software.

"We have a security update going out today, and the installer fails on 9879 if Office is installed. Rather than rolling a new fix (losing several days in the process) we're going to publish it as is." Aul wrote.

"The workaround is painful: uninstall Office, install the hotfix, reinstall Office. Sorry. We're working hard to fix."

Later on he changed his advice and instructed users to try to install the update - identified as KB3022827 - before removing office. "It will work for many, no harm if not."

Many users responding to his tweets said they didn't have a problem installing the patch with Office on the system.

It is usual for Microsoft to recommend that software be uninstalled before a patch is applied, but that's the risk you take if running on a pre-release version of an options system. It may be nice to on the edge of emerging software, but it comes with its own drawbacks and risks.

The Pirate Bay has been down since Tuesday evening after a reported raid in Stockholm aimed at the notorious BitTorrent website, but it may not be the only casualty.

It is notable that two other popular BitTorrent-related sites including EZTV and Zoink also went down at the same time and remain down. Torrage was also reportedly down following the raid but seems reachable now, but the Istole tracker is apparently still having issues.

UPDATE: The services seem to be coming back online gradually, read more here.

The EZTV twitter feed hasn't updated since yesterday at time of writing either. Superbay.org, Bayimg.com and Pastebay.org are also down since the raid.

Some news sites have linked the action taken by Swedish authorities to a wider investigation resulting from the Sony Pictures hack in the United States. Following an unprecedented breach at the entertainment company, several unreleased films appeared online and were available on the Pirate Bay, including Fury starring Brad Pitt, and Annie.

However, whether that is based on any substance or is just mere speculation due to the proximity of the two events is unclear, and this certainly isn't the first time that the Pirate Bay has been the subject of a police raid in Sweden.

The Twitch app for Xbox One has gotten a major update greatly improving search, and also adding video-on-demand and a Home screen revamp.

The search now allowed you to use Xbox Live's new ability to associate real-time gameplay stats with broadcasts, which enables a massive array of search options. The filters could include player stats, game modes, maps, player skill level, in-game activity, progress, and so on.

"Want to search for the Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare broadcaster with the highest kill/death ratio? How about instantly queuing up a Halo match from whoever has the highest rank in Slayer mode, or finding Forza Horizon 2 players who are driving a specific class of car?" writes Larry Hryb.

The update means that up and coming broadcasters can find an audience because if they are very good at games they could quickly attract an audience.

Additionally, Xbox One is the first platform which brings a full-featured Twitch app including video on demand. You'll begin to see highlights and past broadcasts available to watch at any time, even when the broadcaster is offline.

The Home screen has also been updated to provide a more personalized experience while broadcasters can take advantage of new profile pages.

Several media organizations are trying to get Steve Jobs' deposition video from the antitrust trial currently under way released for the public to view.

The two hour video was recorded six months prior to Jobs' death in 2011, and thirty minutes of it was shown in court last week during an antitrust case. The video caught the attention of the media very quickly, as it's one of the last videos recorded of the Apple founder before his death.

"Given the substantial public interest in the rare posthumous appearance of Steve Jobs in this trial, there simply is no interest that justifies restricting the public's access to his video deposition," attorney Thomas Burke, representing the Associated Press, Bloomberg and CNN, wrote in a filing.

The video is not technically sealed evidence, but it could be sealed retroactively if the judge chose to do so. Apple does not want the Jobs' video released.

The case is almost a decade old. Apple stands accused of harming competition by using its FairPlay digital rights management system to tie iTunes-purchased music to its iPods, which generally sold for a higher price than rival's hardware.

The video player that Microsoft bundles with Windows 8.1 has finally gotten support for MKV files, meaning users will no longer have to rely on third party applications for every video.

The MKV support was added in the latest version of the app (Xbox Video v2.6.0432.0) and it means that users will not longer have to use third party apps like VLC in some cases to play MKV files. However, when it comes to MKV files, simply supporting the container doesn't provide guarantees of success.

MKV is popular because of the flexibility of the container, it can contain a wide variety of video streams, audio streams, subtitle streams and so on. Therefore, you could run into problems playing MKV files correctly if the content streams in the container format aren't supported by the player - in other words if it doesn't have the appropriate codecs for them.

So perhaps it is better to stick to VLC for now, rather than the bundled Metro Xbox Video app.

Other than the MKV support, the update only provides a few minor bug fixes and nothing really major. It is available at the Windows Store.

The group claiming responsibility for the massive Sony Pictures breach in November have demanded that the release film starring Seth Rogen and James France be cancelled

The Interview stars the pair as journalists who have been recruited by the CIA into a plot to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. North Korea has condemned the movie as an act of war and of sponsoring terrorism, though North Korea has denied any involvement in the Sony hack.

Despite denying involvement, North Korea did describe the hacking and later leaking of massive amounts of data from the entertainment company as a "righteous deed."

A message from the group calling itself the Guardians of Peace has demanded that the film be dropped. "Stop immediately showing the movie of terrorism which can break the regional peace and cause the War," the demand reads. The group also denied that it sent e-mails to Sony Pictures employees last week threatening them and their families.

Amazon has announced that some content is now available to Amazon Prime members in Ultra HD, but the selected is limited for now.

Customers will not have to pay any additional fee for the resolution upgrade, which is always nice. The selection for now is very limited, including Amazon Original Series including the sophomore season of fan-favorite Alpha House, the critically-acclaimed Writers Guild of America nominated series Transparent, and children's series Gortimer Gibbon's Life on Normal Street, and more content from Amazon Studios.

BBC America's Orphan Black is also available, and several films from Sony Pictures Entertainment including Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Funny Girl, Hitch and Philadelphia are available in 4K.

The video will be streamed at a resolution of 3840 x 2160, or 8.3 million pixels, and are available through the Prime Instant Video app or on supported Smart TVs from LG, Samsung and Sony.

"We want to deliver the best entertainment experience, and offering Ultra HD movies and TV shows raises the bar on quality and innovation that customers have come to expect from Amazon," said Michael Paull, Vice President, Amazon Digital Video.

"We're also excited that Ultra HD is the latest benefit of the Amazon Prime membership, giving members instant access to great movies and TV shows in a premium picture resolution at no additional cost."

Sony has confirmed that its systems are back online and operating as normal after the PlayStation Network and PlayStation Store were inhibited by a DDoS attack.

The Japanese firm has insisted that there are no indications of a wider hack that would involve any sensitive user data. A group called Lizard Squad took credit for downing the services and promised there would be more disruption for gaming services during the holiday period.

The same group took credit for an Xbox Live outage recently.

There is no link between this cyber attack on Sony's gaming services, and the massive breach of Sony Pictures in November.

The pressure is piling on Uber overseas, and now it is facing more domestic opposition as the City of Portland, Oregon has filed a lawsuit against the app-driven car service.

The lawsuit alleges that Uber has started operating private-for hire transportation services in the city, and it wants the court to declare that the San Franciso firm is subject to and in violation of the Private for Hire Transportation Regulations and Administrative Rules of the city.

It seeks an injunction to force Uber to stop operating the service in the city until it complies with the safety, health and consumer protection rules that apply to it.

"I am hereby directing that Uber Technologies Inc.... or any other Uber affiliate entity immediately cease and desist operating within the City of Portland until such time as appropriate permits are obtained and Uber is in full compliance with the requirements of Portland City Code Chapter 16.40," Transportation Director Leah Treat wrote in a cease and desist letter sent to Uber.

"Please alert all Uber-affiliated drivers that they are to cease and desist."

Source: Portland Bureau of Transportation

After two years, VLC for Android is out of beta and it comes with bug fixes but not with Chromecast support just yet.

VLC for Android 1.0 is now available and officially puts the project out of beta. Specifically, it fixes known bugs with devices with ARMv8 processors and also some bugs when running under Android 5.0.

Unfortunately, it would appear that Chromecast support that was announced earlier this year still evades this release, but hopefully it will be coming along soon.

VLC is one of the most popular multimedia players for Desktops because it supports a very wide range of multimedia content natively, and doesn't rely on external codecs for playback. When it was announced for Android in 2012 it excited a lot of Android tablet and smartphone owners, but its journey out of beta has been longer then anticipated.

Other apps, such as MXPlayer, have gained a lot of support on Android. VLC for Android is available for free of course to download from Google Play and supported by Android 2.1 and newer.

NOTE: It has just been updated so the latest update might not be visible for everyone yet.

Download VLC for Android from Google Play

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Amazon will trial one-hour delivery of goods via bike messengers starting in New York City.

"Amazon Prime Now" aims to cut delivery time of products to customers in order to cut more into the benefits of shopping at physical stores, according to sources cited by the WSJ.

They also revealed that Amazon has been experimenting with three separate courier services to determine the fastest and most careful option for the trial.

Amazon will use its West 34th Street location as a base for bike messengers, who will earn around $15 an hour and work eight hour shifts.


Sources and Recommended Reading:
Amazon Tests Bike Messengers for One-Hour Delivery in New York City: www.wsj.com

You can now get your hands on an 'innovator edition' of Samsung's Galaxy VR headset for $199.99 in the United States.

However, you should remember that you need a Galaxy Note 4 in order to use the device, and no other smartphone or devices will work with it. In fact, at this current time, even the Verizon version of the Note 4 will not work, but Samsung has promised support is coming soon.

Some high-quality gaming apps may require the use of an Android game controller to offer control capabilities in addition to the Gear VR's integrated touchpad and tracking sensors.

"The Galaxy Note 4's amazing screen and processor makes it all possible. Samsung's industry leading Super AMOLED display technology and cutting-edge Oculus-driven software fuse to create an experience that you have to see to believe," Samsung's Gear V4 product page reads.

"With the Gear VR Innovator Edition, users can explore new worlds, be on-stage at a performance with full 360 degree video, and can enjoy gaming in a way that's never been done before – all with just your Galaxy Note 4 and Gear VR Innovator's Edition."

This device is targeted at developers and early adopters who typically just want to be ahead of the rest when it comes to newer technology, so most people will want to wait a while to see where this goes.

Under copyright law reform proposals in Australia, access to piracy websites could be blocked by Internet users, but downloaders would escape further punishment.

The proposals are the latest part in an ongoing debate in Australia over how to tackle Internet piracy in the region. Internet providers and content owners already attempted to come to terms face to face, but issues such as who pays the cost of enforcement led to talks largely going nowhere.

Now Attorney-General George Brandis and Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull have come up with a minimalist set of reforms for debate, and it means that downloaders will avoid harsh penalties, such as the throttling of speeds by the ISP.

The copyright lobby is likely to be unhappy with the proposals, despite opening the door to blocking access to websites overseas that provide access to illegal downloads.

"We have a very high rate of internet piracy in Australia, particular in film and TV product. At the same time – and Malcolm Turnbull himself has commented on this – I think we need to see more being done to make content more readily and more cheaply available," said Shadow attorney-general Mark Dreyfus, reports The Age.

Apple has a new commercial for the iPad Air 2 that shows multiple owners using an iPad Air to assist with all kinds of projects.

The ad is titled "Change" presumably because of how it shows the iPad Air as a tool that can be used to change the way you do things. For example, one user is using it to help build a new surfboard, another is sketching a fish mask and another actually builds an iPad into his motorcycle.

Sales of iPads were down 13 percent last quarter when compared to the same period of 2013, and the Cupertino giant will be hoping for a strong holiday performance from the product to make up for it.

Watch the ad:

YouTube is reportedly offering some of its best and most famous video makers bonuses to commit to the platform as rivals have been attempting to lure them away with tempting incentives.

The Wall Street Journal reports that YouTube is offering some of its biggest names bonuses if they sign multiyear deals that gives YouTube timed exclusivity on content before it can be uploaded to rival's websites. YouTube's move comes as other web firms have reportedly been trying to lure YouTube videomakers away. Facebook and Vessel are among those trying to bleed YouTube of good and popular video makers.

YouTube has already been offering to fund some of its video makers content for months now, according to the WSJ's sources.

They say that YouTube is particularly concerned with Vessel, a video start-up that has raised $75 million in venture capital and was founded by Jason Kilar, the former chief executive of Hulu. Vessel has reportedly already offered to pay some users an advance based on how well their content is doling on YouTube and has been pushing the benefits from a subscription model from the content creator's point of view.


Source: WSJ

The teaser trailer for the upcoming Star Wars Episode VII - The Force Awakens has been out for a week, but the creator of the enormous franchise still hasn't watched it.

George Lucas was asked for his reaction on the teaser trailer during an interview with Page Six, when he admitted he still hasn't sat down to watch it yet. "I don't know anything about it, I haven't seen it yet," he reportedly said.

Lucas went on to explain that he avoids early footage because he enjoys going to the theater and seeing the entire movie without seeing parts of it beforehand. Lucas is credited as a creative consultant on the film, so it is unlikely he will be able to keep in the dark that much.

I wonder if Lucas will be pleased with JJ Abrams new direction for the Star Wars franchise when he does go to see it in December 2015.

Here's the teaser trailer if, like Lucas, you haven't taken the time to watch it yet.

Having not even shipped yet, Sony's limited 20th anniversary grey PS4 consoles are being resold for thousands of dollars on eBay.

Sony sold 12,300 of the limited edition units for $499. Needless to say, they were sold out very quickly when they became available. Now the only way to get one in the United States is to attempt to buy it online, but you'll be shocked at just how much you are expected to pay.

There are many active listings for the limited consoles on eBay and they are finishing for quite a markup of ~300%. One particular listing from a seller in Bellflower closed at $21,100. Another from a New Jersey seller finished at $15,000, and the seller has since confirmed that the buyer paid in full.

The other listings are going for significantly less on eBay but there does appear to be quite a lot of sellers looking to make a very quick and juicy profit from the limited console.

Those who managed to pre-order the consoles from Sony can expect them to be shipped out on December 21 in the United States. Sony will also be selling the limited units in Europe and in Japan.

Indian's Capital City has reacted to news of an alleged sexual assault on a woman by an Uber driver by banning the service from operating in the city.

Uber India has been operating illegally in New Delhi, according to Special Commissioner of Delhi Transport Department, Satish Mathur. He told the Economic Times that the victim in this case was provided an All India Permit Taxi which is not allowed to ferry customers from point to point in the city.

"We will also be issuing a public notice saying Uber is not authorised to provide any taxi services in the capital so that customers are aware which are the authorised radio Cab services," he said.

"Uber is not a authorised radio cab service and has been operating illegally."

The service is now active in more than 250 cities in 50 countries, and has aggressive expansion plans for the coming year. It recently raised $1.2 billion in a financing round, valuing the firm at a whopping $41 billion. The extra resources will be used partially toward investing in the Asia Pacific region.

Uber CEO Travis Kalanick is so confident in Uber's ability to grow that he predicts it will generate more than 1 million jobs in cities all over the world in 2015.

Sony's PlayStation Network and Store are having problems on Monday as a group called Lizard Squad takes credit for their downtime.

The same group took credit for an Xbox Live outage last week. While there are reports that PSN is up and working for some users again, at this time visiting the PlayStation Store still returns an error reading: "Page Not Found! It's not you. It's the internet's fault."

UPDATE 1: Sony is continuing to work on getting its services back to normal this morning, and has urged anybody who has experienced difficulties with PSN to try it again. We will update with any further information. Original article continues below.

The group Lizard Squad, which has a website based in Russia, tweeted this following in reference to the outages:

PSN Login #offline #LizardSquad

-- Lizard Squad (@LizardPatrol) December 8, 2014

PSN update: we are aware of the issues some users are experiencing, and are working to address them. We'll keep you updated.

-- PlayStation (@PlayStation) December 8, 2014

An Egyptian security researcher has scooped the top payout for security bugs from PayPal for discovering a massive security flaw that exposed the accounts of over 150 million users.

Yasser Ali was able to get around PayPal's CSRF Prevention System and capture an authentication token that could be used to effect a customer's PayPal account. You could add, remove or confirm e-mail addresses, add fully privileged users to a business account, change security questions, billing info, shipping info, payment methods and so on.

He disclosed the bug to PayPal and received the firms top award incentive for bug hunters, pocketing $10,000 for his work.

He also detailed how he beat PayPal's security systems on his blog, and provided this proof of concept video.

A security firm has taken a look at offers of free codes for PlayStation Network and Steam spreading online to see what's really going on.

Nothing in the world is really free, and that applies as much to codes for PSN, Steam and other services as it does to any physical product. How many times did you see those "Get a free iPAD today!" or similar claims just browsing the web, or social media, or in your e-mail in recent years? It sounds so wonderful doesn't it? Just fill out some surveys and then recruit your friends to do the same and you get a free iPad, or some other seemingly incredible promotion.

(Image Credit: AVAST Blog)

As anybody over a certain age can testify from life experience, if something seems too good to be true it usually is. People are still going to be attracted to promotions and offers though, and sometimes we allow our critical thinking faculties to be numbed by emotion - we are human after all.

Avast decided to take a look at websites that claim to offer free codes for PSN and Steam to find out what really happens to those caught in the trap. The value of the codes being promised ranges from $20 to $50, and all you have to do is follow some steps to qualify.

An increase in the share of web traffic from Apple's iOS devices is likely down to the successful launch of the iPhone 6, while at the same time Android web traffic decreases.

Apple now claims a slightly larger piece of the mobile web traffic pie, increasing to a 61.4 percent share compared to 60.6 percent. The increase has been observed over the nine weeks since the launch of the iPhone 6 smartphone, and is at the expense of the share enjoyed by the Android mobile OS which decreased to 37.5 percent from 38.4 percent in the same time period.

The statistics were reported by Gene Munster, analyst at Piper Jaffray.

Munster identifies the popularity of the iPad as the likely reason why Android's dominance in hardware is not reflected in its share of web traffic. Additionally, the iPhone 6 threw Apple into the competition for larger screen smartphones, a space which had been dominated by Android devices previously.


Sources and Recommended Reading:
Apple's iOS outshines Android in US mobile Web traffic: www.cnet.com/news

As the investigation into the massive breach at Sony Pictures proceeds, North Korea is sticking to a claim of innocence but that hasn't stopped it from applauding the attack against the entertainment company.

Over 11TB of data was allegedly stolen by the hackers who crippled Sony Pictures' systems, and later on hoards of personal information of employees was spread online. High quality copies of several movies, including Fury, leaked onto the Internet too and were downloaded hundreds of thousands of times in a matter of days.

On Friday, it emerged that the FBI was looking into threats that had been made against Sony Pictures employees and their families too.

Amid the public humiliation of Sony Pictures, some experts started to point the finger at the mysterious state of North Korea - or the People's Democratic Republic of Korea - as a major suspect. Potential evidence that has been disclosed is really based on similarities between the Sony Pictures attack, and attacks against South Korean entities in 2013. Additionally, some clues were found in an analysis of malware used in the attack. You can read more details about it here.

Cox Communications was sued last week by two music publishers for not terminating customer accounts when they are declared repeat offenders by Rightscorp.

At the core of the lawsuit filed by BMG and Round Hill is the assertion that Cox has no protection under the safe harbor provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) of 1998. The DMCA's safe harbor provisions protect intermediaries from some copyright litigation as long as procedures are followed to qualify for them.

From BMG and Round Hill's perspective, Cox is not following the procedures and therefore is not entitled to use the safe harbor provisions as protection.

What is Cox Communication's failure according to the lawsuit? It alleges that Cox has failed to terminate customers' accounts when Rightscorp accuses them of being repeat infringers of copyright. That, it alleges, makes Cox liable for copyright penalties and it wants a federal court to declare as much.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has analysed the lawsuit and finds it lacking merit, to say the least. DMCA safe harbor provisions do not require that ISPs terminate users based on a mere accusation of infringement, or indeed even many accusations, according to the EFF. Rightscorp, it said, does not provide any evidence of the customer being a repeat infringer of copyright, and it doesn't disclose the means by which it identified the user.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is looking into threats received by employees of Sony Pictures claiming to be from the hackers that targeted the entertainment company.

The threats were e-mailed to Sony employees, allegedly sent by the "Guardian of Peace" - or GOP - which previously claimed responsibility for a devastating cyber attack on the entertainment firm starting in late November. It included the theft of 11TB of data and leaking of movies and personal information of employees.

The FBI said it is aware of the threatening e-mails that have been received by some employees. While the e-mail hasn't been released publicly, Bloomberg reports that it threatens the families of recipients if they don't "sign their names" to some e-mail address.

"We continue to investigate this matter in order to identify the person or group responsible," FBI spokesman Joshua Campbell said in an e-mailed statement to the press.

It is very likely that the e-mails didn't come from the attackers at all, and were sent by other parties that obtained the e-mail addresses from the data released online.

Street Fighter V has accidentally been outed as a console exclusive to PS4, and will also be released for PC.

It appears that a trailer was released prematurely ahead of the PlayStation Experience event tomorrow, and has since been switched to private. The news is already out though (intentionally?) and it's good news for PlayStation owners, and not so good news for those who invested in Xbox One.

The trailer reportedly confirmed that the game will not be released for other platforms initially at least, it will only be available on PS4 and on PC. Whether that refers to lifetime of the title, or if it is just a timed exclusive, is unclear.

More details on Street Fighter V will probably surface at the PlayStation Experience event tomorrow.

Are you exciting for Street Fighter V?

Target Australia banned the sale of Grand Theft Auto V at its ~300 stores across Australia this week following a petition that decried the imagery of violence against women.

The initial petition had reached over 40,000 signatures when Target Australia agreed to stop selling GTA V at its stores. It claimed that GTA V encourages acts of sexual violence against women, and called out Target for claiming to be a family company, while also selling copies of the controversial blockbuster.

As you can imagine, some people expressed disappointment that Target would remove a product from its shelves that was only ever supposed to be sold to adults in the first place. Others note that Target sells other games, films, books and even music that depict violence of one sort or another; 50 Shades of Grey in particular was thrown around as an example as it had been criticized even by some feminists for portraying "abusive relationships."

We're dealing with gamers here though, so there was always likely to be some ironic push back against Target Australia's decision to drop the game from stores, and now it has come in the form of a petition for Target to stop selling The Holy Bible at its stores.

The ongoing international effort to block Internet users from reaching sites like the Pirate Bay is continuing, and now proxy and mirror sites are being dragged in.

A court in Paris has ordered French Internet Service Providers to begin blocking their customers' access to the notorious Pirate Bay website. Notably, the court also insisted that the ISPs block proxy and mirror sites designed to get around ISP blocks of the BitTorrent site.

The injunction was served by the court at the behest of anti piracy group La Société Civile des Producteurs Phonographiques (SCPP), which represents most than 2000 music labels including the big boys.

A full list of the domains ordered blocked by the court was published by nextinpact.com, and here it is:

Site d'origine (Main):

• ThePirateBay.se

• piratebay.net
• piratebay.org
• piratebay.se
• piratebay.vg
• thehydrabay.net
• thehydrabay.org
• themusicbay.com
• themusicbay.net
• themusicbay.org
• thepiratebay.cc
• thepiratebay.com
• thepiratebay.net
• thepiratebay.org
• thepiratebay.qa
• thepiratebay.se
• thepiratebay.sh
• thepiratebay.tw
• thepiratebay.vg

• proxybay.eu
• Proxybay. De
• ThePIrateBay.se.byud.net

• 51tsj.com
• bayproxy.me
• bayproxy.org
• bich.in
• dieroschtibay.org
• filehound.co.uk
• kuiken.co
• lanunbay.org
• malaysiabay.org
• piratebaybyproxy.com
• piratebayproxy.se
• piratebayunion.com
• pirateblay.com
• pirateby.info
• pirateproxy.net
• pirateproxy.nl
• pirateproxy.se
• piratereverse.info
• pirateshit.com
• pirateshore.org
• proxybay.fr
• proxybay.net
• quluxingba.info
• theproxybay.biz
• tpb.5gg.biz
• tpb.arnaudcornu.com
• tpb.cryptocloud.ca
• tpb.derp.pw
• tpb.fattylewis.com
• tpb.genyaa.org
• tpb.kleisauke.nl
• tpb.madfedora.site40.net
• tpb.me
• tpb.ninja.so
• tpb.occupyuk.co.uk
• tpb.par
• anoia.net
• tpb.partipirate.org
• tpb.piraten.lu
• tpb.pirates.ie
• tpb.pirati.cz
• tpb.qwertyoruiop.com
• tpb.roylenferink.nl
• tpb.skit.kiev.ua
• tpb.skit.org.ua
• tpb.unblocked.co
• tpbproxy.cremoznik.si
• tpbproxy.net
• tpbunion.com
• battleit.ee/tpb
• bayproxy.com

Microsoft is targeting a late summer, early fall release of the Windows 10 operating system, according to note from Kevin Turner at the Credit Suisse Technology Conference.

The Redmond giant previously said it would be releasing the updated operating system during the summer next year. According to the note from Turner, the RTM is likely to show up sometime in early Fall.

"The thing I want to tell you about on Windows 10 is in the Windows 10 timeframe, which we plan to talk about the end-user consumer experiences in the early spring, we'll have a developer preview and be able to talk to that in depth in the early summer timeframe. And then by next late summer and early fall we'll be able to bring out this particular OS. That's the current plan of record."

According to a Neowin source, Microsoft is targeting release for around August to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the release of the Windows 95 operating system on August 24, 1995.

Source: Neowin

A Chinese website has posted shots of the AnTuTu benchmark app allegedly showing the specs of the Samsung Galaxy S6 flagship.

Samsung hasn't even confirmed that the Galaxy S6 is coming, but there are widespread media reports of the South Korean consumer electronics giant working hard to get this iteration of its flagship smartphone right. It is fair to say that the Galaxy S5 was underwhelming, and reports suggest that Samsung is designing the S6 from scratch to breathe new life into the S series.

If the information published by cnmo.com is correct, the Galaxy S6 has the model number SM-G925F.

It will sport a 5.5-inch QHD (2560x1440) display with a 20-megapixel rear camera and a 5 megapixel front camera. Under the hood, it is driven by a Samsung Exynos 7420 (Octa-core 64-bit) and an ARM Mali-T760 GPU. It packs 3GB of RAM and 32GB internal storage.

Of course, it runs Android 5.0 Lollipop.

The Galaxy S6 had previously been rumoured to pack a Qualcomm Snapdragon 810, but recent reports of an overheating and speed problem with the AP led to speculation that Samsung would use its own Exynos option instead. Other reports predict a Snapdragon 810 model will come later.

Do you get annoyed with recaptcha prompts that require you to identify jumbled up text and type it into a field to prove you are not a robot? Google feels your pain and is trying to help.

The idea behind the recaptca system is simple; you are presented with distorted text and you type the text into a box. This task is possible for humans to solve (though some kind it more difficult than others) but it has been historically difficult for "robots" to perform the same pattern recognition and produce the correct text.

Things have changed however, and Google's own research into modern artificial intelligence showed that the technology can solve even the most difficult variant of distorted text at 99.8% accuracy. Clearly, it is time for a change, and Google had come up with something far more simple.

Here it is.

Google has removed several popular apps from its Play Store that allowed Android users to access the Pirate Bay website, even if their ISP was trying to block access.

It removed four apps from the Android store today, including The Pirate Bay Proxy, Pirate Bay Premium, The Pirate Bay Mirror and PirateApp. Google cited violations of intellectual property provisions of its store as justification for removing the apps.

The apps only seem to provide a means by which to actually reach the Pirate Bay. They effectively act as browsers but use proxies to get to the Pirate Bay, avoiding ISP-imposed blocks.

Users with the apps installed can of course continue to use them, but new users will have to find them elsewhere and install manually. The Pirate Bay Proxy, for example, can be downloaded directly from the developer's website.

The developer, Gavin, told the TorrentFreak site that he is disappointed with Google's decision, and that Google's own Chrome browser can do the same thing as his app.

The app is no different from Firefox or Chrome in that it's a tool which provides access to TPB or any other web address," he said. He is appealing the decision and hopes to get the app back into the Play Store. It had clocked up over 900,000 downloads and was used by 45,000 people every day.

North Korea has denied any involvement in a devastating hack of Sony Pictures, the theft of 11TB of data and leaking of movies and personal information of many, many people.

Allegations of the involvement from the shady and mysterious state was met with denials from a North Korean diplomat, speaking with the understanding of anonymity to the Voice of America broadcast network earlier this week. The diplomat described the allegations as just another fabrication targeting the country.

U.S. authorities are still treating North Korea as a primary suspect however, with one national security source confirming as much to the Reuters news agency on Thursday.

The evidence that is publicly known suggests a tie to North Korea but of course it is circumstantial in nature. Sony Pictures had been blasted by North Korea for the planned release of a comedy starring Seth Rogen and James Franco called "The Interview." They play journalists recruited by the CIA to assassinate North Korean "Dear Leader" Kim Jong-un during an interview.

As you would expect, the details of the movie didn't go down well in North Korea. The state even sent a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon describing the film as an "act of war," and claimed it was "sponsoring terrorism."

Pirate streaming services that offer unauthorized access to movies and TV shows are being increasingly targeted by law enforcement.

In the latest round of action in this international cat and mouse duality, Spanish police targeted two very popular unauthorized streaming websites, peliculaspepito.com and seriespepito.com. Two men were also arrested as part of the investigation, and police officers allege they have made more than a million euros in illicit revenue from operating the services.

On Wednesday, the country's top Internet providers were ordered to block access to the two services by a court injunction. This action followed earlier complaints from the usual suspects in the entertainment industry: Universal, Paramount, Sony, 20th Century Fox, Disney and Warner Bros, via an anti-pracy group "FAP".

Both services were allegedly owned by the same company; Zeniox Media SL, which generated approximately €1,085,000 in the previous three years while operating the sites.


Sources and Recommended Reading:
POLICE SHUT DOWN SPAIN'S TOP 'PIRATE' STREAMING SITES: www.torrentfreak.com (+Picture Source)

Having raised over $1.2 billion in funding, Uber is now valued at around $41 billion as the company seeks to continue its aggressive expansion while cleaning up its image.

The growth of Uber in just 12 months is very impressive. In December 2014, Uber was operating its car service in 60 cities and 21 countries. Fast forward a year, and Uber is now active in more than 250 cities in 50 countries. The San Francisco firm is six times larger than it was just a year ago.

It has no plans to slow down either. In fact, the $1.2 billion in financing will aid its investments in the Asia Pacific region. The firm's chief executive, Travis Kalanick, is so confident in Uber's ability to grow that he predicts it will generate more than 1 million jobs in cities all over the world in 2015.

He also has championed Uber as providing relief in congested cities, as the cheaper-than-a-taxi service may prompt millions more urban inhabitants to leave cars at home (or just don't buy one) and get around using Uber instead. If so, this will also ease parking issues in cities.

Despite its aggressive expansion in 2014, Uber has not had a perfectly pleasant year. In several countries it has been blasted by taxi drivers, unions and even by governments, but Uber maintains that services like it are necessary to provide some badly needed competition to the taxi industry in Urban areas.

A Member of the UK Parliament and former IP advisor to Prime Minister David Cameron believes that Internet Service Providers and web hosting companies have to shoulder some of the responsibility for leaked Sony movies, following a massive hack.

Speaking to TorrentFreak, Mike Weatherley gave his opinion on spreading blame and responsibility for the leaking of movies including Fury, and Annie, following a devastating attack on Sony Pictures last week. Over 11TB of data was allegedly stolen. Since then, a massive ~26GB dump of data including the personal details of Sony staff, including their names, addresses, social security numbers and more, has appeared online.

The hack coincided with the leak of several Sony Pictures movies, which have been downloaded hundreds of thousands of times through torrent websites and other sources of pirated content.

An FBI investigation is currently under way into the extraordinary breach, and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea - aka North Korea - is near the top of the list of suspects, and you can read the reasons why that is the case right here.

The German High Court has decided not to permit the extradition of a man once described as the world's "number two" hacker to the United States to face prosecution.

Turkish national Ercan Findikoğlu, 32 years old, has alleged links to global cybercrime activity that generated millions of dollars in illicit revenue. He has been linked to the 2012/2013 attacks on EnStage and ElectraCard in India, two payment processing companies, and on partner banks including the the Bank of Muscat, Oman, and the National Bank of Ras Al-Khaima (RAKBANK), UAE.

All told, over $45 million was stolen by using cloned payment cards with stolen PIN codes to withdraw cash from ATM machines all over the world, including from some 140 machines in New York. In February 2013, over 36,000 illicit ATM withdrawals were made within a ten hour time frame.

Findikoğlu is also allegedly linked to a failed heist targeting over a million credit card numbers back in 2008, around the time he was described as the world's "number two hacker."

In August, a regional court approved his extradition to the United States, but now the Bundesverfassungsgerich (Federal Constitutional Court of Germany) has overturned the lower court's decision, citing the "extreme length" of the sentence being threatened by U.S. authorities, and the inclusion of a "conspiracy" charge which is incompatible with German laws.

A Los Angeles man has become the first person convicted under California's 'revenge porn' law for posting topless images of an ex-girlfriend to Facebook.

Noe Iniguez tried to hide behind a fake identity when he posted topless pictures of an ex-girlfriend to her employer's Facebook page, and also described her as a "drunk" and a "slut" while he urged the employer to let her go.

He had been the subject of a restraining order issued in November 2011 following their break up. They had been together for four years, and Iniguez had been sending her harassing text messages in the wake of their relationship.

Under the 'revenge porn' law in California, it is illegal to upload unauthorized nude or sexual images of a person with the sole purpose of causing them distress. It was enacted in October 2013.

Noe Iniguez will now go down in history as the first person convicted under the law. The 36 year old was sentenced to a year in prison and three months of probation. Additionally, he must keep away from his ex-girlfriend and attend counselling.

Hawking warns again that Artificial Intelligence could one day destroy humanity, while acknowledging that the early primitive forms of A.I. we currently utilize have been very helpful.

He reiterated his fear of the potential of A.I. to bring about the end of human civilization as we know it in an interview with the BBC. "The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race," he warned, as a machine spoke for him.

That kind of A.I. - the primitive technology we use today to overcome obstacles - has been very useful to humanity, Hawking will submit, but he fears for the long term as A.I. becomes increasingly more powerful. Could humans lose their grip on intelligent machines one day?

The pessimistic commentators in this debate cite the potential for artificial intelligence to quickly surpass that of a human being, and could eventually lead to intelligence re-making itself in order to become more and more powerful, or that it may experience a form of "technological evolution" at a pace vastly more rapid than the biological evolution that developed human intelligence.

Such super-smart intelligences may find human affairs totally unimportant, and may even see humanity as a hindrance.

Arnold Schwarzenegger returns for the fifth Terminator movie, coming to movie theaters in July, 2015.

The movie also stars Emilia Clarke as Sarah Connor, Jason Clarke as John Connor and Jai Courtney as Kyle Reese. The film is initially set in 2029 with John Connor retaining his position as leader of the resistance, forced to send Kyle Reese back to foil a SkyNet plot against him, and to save his mother's life.

As you'd expect, when Reese travels through time, things aren't quite what he expected to find.

Check out the trailer.

According to attorneys representing consumers in a class action antitrust suit against Apple, the Cupertino giant was deleting songs from iPods that were bought from iTunes' rivals.

Consumers would purchase music from sources other than iTunes - Amazon for example - and then store it on an iPod. Later, when attempting to sync the iPod with iTunes, an error would reportedly occur instructing the user that factory settings must be restored.

If the user went ahead and restored the settings, songs purchased from rival sources would be lost, according to attorney Patrick Coughlin, who made the claim to jurors in the U.S. District Court in Oakland, California.

Furthermore, Coughlin asserted that Apple directed the system not to inform users of the problem, which occurred frequently between 2007 and 2009.

Attempting to explain the actions to the court, Apple security director Augustin Farrugia cited fears of hacking, and said it was a legitimate security measure. He said Apple didn't provide a more detailed explanation because they didn't want to confuse users.

Apple paranoid about iTunes / iPod hacking?

Farrugia even name-dropped "DVD Jon", referring to Jon Lech Johansen who was responsible for the DeCSS decryption tool that made it possible to rip the contents of retail DVDs back in the late '90s. Later, in 2004, Johansen got under Apple's skin with a tool called PlayFair, intended to be a solution for the "FairPlay" digital rights management Apple initially used to protect iTunes songs from piracy.

Complaints about depictions of violence against women has prompted Target Australia to remove copies of Grand Theft Auto V from shelves.

In a press release, Target General Manager of Corporate Affairs Jim Cooper said the decision to pull the critically-acclaimed title from its ~300 stores across Australia stemmed from extensive community and customer concerns over its content.

Ironically, just one day before releasing this statement, Cooper had told Australian press that Target was a "retailer for everyone," and cited feedback from customers wishing for the game to remain in Target stores.

The entire affair is linked to a Change.org petition which claimed that GTA V is a "game that encourages players to murder women for entertainment," and that "games like this are grooming yet another generation of boys to tolerate violence against women."

The petition received over 46,000 signatures. Take-Two has since responded to the decision from Target in a statement from chief executive Strauss Zelnick:

"We are disappointed that an Australian retailer has chosen no longer to sell Grand Theft Auto V--a title that has won extraordinary critical acclaim and has been enjoyed by tens of millions of consumers around the world. Grand Theft Auto V explores mature themes and content similar to those found in many other popular and groundbreaking entertainment properties. Interactive entertainment is today's most compelling art form and shares the same creative freedom as books, television, and movies. I stand behind our products, the people who create them, and the consumers who play them."