News written by James Delahunty (December, 2016)

If you have an Xbox One and a Dropbox account, you can now access the content in your cloud storage using the new app for the console.

It's the first universal Windows app for cloud storage on the gaming console, letting you view and share your photos, videos, and other files from the cloud.

With the app you can easily manage your files on an interface designed for TVs, using either a gamepad or media remote. You can upload content from your Xbox One, comment on files and share them.

Media stored in your Dropbox account can also be viewed on your Xbox One, and your video content will stream from Dropbox to the Xbox One to save you storage space on your HDD.

The app can be gotten from the Xbox Store for free.

Have time for one more mysterious show in 2016? Eight episodes of The OA will debut on Netflix this Friday, December 16, and this trailer should whet your appetite.

The show casts Brit Marling (The East) in its leading role, and it being produced by Plan B and Anonymous Content (Mr Robot, The Revenant). Promotional material has kept details intentionally limited, but from the trailer, the story revolves around a young woman (Prairie Johnson) who has been missing for seven years.

She meets her parents in the trailer, and we are informed that this is the first time she has ever seen them, given that she was blind all of her life - a disability that has mysteriously vanished.

The rest of the trailer seems to be dedicated to giving us glimpses of her memories, some of which may be dream sequences going by the Instagram account for The OA.

Eight hour long episodes of The OA will be available on Netflix from Friday. Will you binge watch it?

Sony has reduced the Uncharted 4 PS4 Slim bundle price to $249, and now you can also get an additional $25 gift card on top.

The offer is from GameStop and is valid in the United States. Once you purchase the Uncharted 4 PS4 Slim bundle for $249, GameStop will e-mail you a $25 digital gift card in addition. You can see the details of the offer from the GameStop web store.

The bundle includes a new slim 500GB PlayStation 4 console with a matching DualShock 4 controller, and a physical copy of Uncharted 4: A Thief's End.

It is being sold by retailers in the United States at the cut price of $249 and will be until December 24. Of course, the free gift card only comes with an order from GameStop.

Microsoft has also cut $50 off the price of Xbox One S bundles in the United States.

(via: Gamespot)

Internet Service Providers are arguing in court against the mandated blocking of the Pirate Bay and similar websites, warning about the dangers of censorship and its implications.

The ISPs in question are Sweden's Bredbandsbolaget and Telenor. Both have made their case to an appeals court in the country as rights holders argue that ISPs should be mandated to block websites like the Pirate Bay, otherwise they are complicit in copyright infringement activities of their subscribers.

A district court already disagreed with the rights holders, which reportedly include Universal Music, Sony Music, Warner Music, Nordisk Film and the Swedish Film Industry. That decision is now being appealed and has forced the ISPs to warn the court of the chilling implications of such mandatory blocking.

"It is a dangerous path to go down, which forces Internet providers to monitor and evaluate content on the Internet and block websites with illegal content in order to avoid becoming accomplices," the companies write in a joint statement.

"The copyright holders argue that the blockades they request are similar to those in neighboring Nordic countries. But with the legislation we have in Sweden, it means rightsholders' demands require a form of censorship that has no equivalent in any other EU country."

You can get an Xbox One S bundle at the moment for $50 less thanks to a holiday season offer from Microsoft.

The offer is valid from now until Saturday, December 24, at all participating retailers in the United States. With the offer, you could pick up the Xbox One S Battlefield 1 Bundle for $249, which includes a 500GB HDD, a full download of Battlefield 1 and a month of EA Access.

Alternatively you could get the Xbox One S Minecraft Favorites Bundle for the same price, which also features a 500GB HDD, full game download of Minecraft for Xbox One and Windows 10, and 13 community-favorite content packs.

If you anticipate the need for more storage space, you can get the Xbox One S Gears of War 4 Bundle which packs a 1TB HDD and a full game download of Gears of War 4 for Xbox One and Windows 10, for $299.

Participating outlets include Amazon, Target, GameStop, Best Buy, Walmart.com and Microsoft Store.

Tesla Motors has reached a settlement deal with 126 customers who claimed the E.V. manufacturer's marketing for the Model S P85D was misleading.

All 126 customers are from Norway, a top market for fully electric vehicles due to government subsidies aimed at boosting fully electric transportation in the country. The American car maker was sued by the customers who claim that the marketing for the Model S P85D was misleading because it overestimated the horsepower.

Tesla has denied that its marketing material was misleading, but it has come to a settlement with the customers.

According to Norwegian paper, Dagens Naeringsliv (DN), Tesla has agreed to pay 65,000 Norwegian crowns ($7,700) to each of the dissatisfied customers, or alternatively they can choose from some car upgrade options.

The settlement amounts to roughly half of what they sought in their lawsuit. Proceedings were due to begin on Monday, but lawyers for the firm and its customers informed the Oslo District Court that they wished to withdraw the case.

The Model S P85D was first introduced in late 2014, but is no longer among the Model S lineup available from the company in Norway.


Source: Reuters News Agency

The first episodes of Amazon's super expensive 'The Grand Tour' are the most pirated TV show episodes ever, according to an industry analyst.

The Amazon Video exclusive, starring Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May, has an astonishing £160 million budget as Amazon looks to lure subscribers to its Prime service. So far the show has been well received and generated many millions of viewers.

However, it has broken another record for viewers that might not prompt much celebration from Amazon, as is reportedly the most pirated show ever. It dethroned HBO's 'Game of Thrones' rather quickly, according to industry analyst Muso, which tracks piracy affecting digitally distributed content.

Muso's numbers show that the pilot episode of The Grand Tour was downloaded illegally more than 7.9 million times. The second episode followed with 6.4 million illegal downloads, and the third at 4.6 million. Pirates in the United Kingdom are responsible for the largest chunk of downloads, at about 13.7 percent.

Given that Amazon was hoping to use the show to bump subscribers in the UK, where the three former Top Gear presenters are very popular. The reboot of BBC's Top Gear after the departure of Clarkson, Hammond and May has been a failure, with Chris Evans already quitting as a host and ratings tanking.

Samsung will make Note7 devices that have not been returned effectively useless with a software update later this month, though Verizon has announced it will opt out of the update.

Having already pushed out an update that limits the charge level to just 60 percent and nags the user about the recall, Samsung is going to go further later this month and disable the charging of a Note7 device entirely. The South Korean firm says that 93% of Note 7s sold in the United States have already been returned as part of its global recall.

"Consumer safety remains our highest priority and we've had overwhelming participation in the U.S. Note7 Refund and Exchange Program so far, with more than 93 percent of all recalled Galaxy Note7 devices returned," reads Samsung's recall page.

"To further increase participation, a software update will be released starting on December 19th that will prevent U.S. Galaxy Note7 devices from charging and will eliminate their ability to work as mobile devices."

"If you have not yet returned your device, you should immediately power it down and contact your carrier to obtain a refund or exchange."

After Samsung revealed the update, Verizon released a statement announcing that it will opt out of the update, pointing out that there are other safety considerations to take into account.

Sony's PlayStation 4 (PS4) consoles outsold Microsoft's Xbox One during November, ending a trend that had the Xbox One on top since July.

The report comes from Gamespot, which cites a Sony spokesperson, but does not give a number of units sold. The NPD Group figures for video game sales are not due to be released until next week.

Sony released its slim PS4 revision in September this year, then followed it up with PlayStation VR in October. In November, it released the PlayStation 4 Pro which comes with 4K output. To what degree the newer consoles made up PS4 sales in November is not clear at this point, but November is a good month to get back on top.

Globally the PS4 is far ahead of the Xbox One, having sold more than 50 million units as of this week after around three years on the market. Microsoft's Xbox One sales are estimated between 25-30 million globally.

Source: Gamespot

YouTube is to pay out millions of dollars in unclaimed songwriter royalties for tracks on the service between August 2012, and December 2015.

In an agreement with the National Music Publishers' Association (NMPA) it will attempt to pay royalties for tracks with unknown owners. While the official figure was not made public, the New York Times puts it at more than $40 million. Publishers need to opt in to claim royalties.

Those who do opt in will be provided with a list and have a window in which to claim ownership of certain tracks. This opt-in period opens next Monday, December 12, and ends on February 28, 2017.

As part of the arrangement with the NMPA, the same process will be repeated over the next three years.

"It is essential that we work with digital services like YouTube... to fix the challenge of incomplete ownership information to ensure royalties are no longer unmatched and music owners are paid accurately by the platforms that rely on their work," said NMPA founder and chief executive David Israelite in a statement.

YouTube recently celebrated paying out over $1 billion in revenue to the music industry in a twelve month period, but the IFPI responded with skepticism and calls for legislation to address the "value gap" in online music consumption.

U.S. President Barack Obama has ordered intelligence agencies to conduct a full review of cyber attacks and foreign interference in the run up to the Presidential election.

In October, the U.S. Intelligence Community (USIC) accused the Russian government of directing the compromise of e-mails belonging to U.S. persons and institutions, with the hacking of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) being the most significant breach.

The hacked information made its way to several organizations, including Wikileaks, and then was published for public consumption.

Lisa Monaco, Obama's homeland security adviser, said the President has made it clear he wants the report to be completed and presented before he leaves office on January 20, 2017.

"The president has directed the intelligence community to conduct a full review of what happened during the 2016 election process ... and to capture lessons learned from that and to report to a range of stakeholders, to include the Congress," Monaco said, reports the Reuters News Agency.

This is not the first time that a Presidential election has been subject to such attacks. In 2008, the campaigns of both then-Senator Barack Obama, and Senator John McCain, were subject to cyber attacks believed to have originated in China.

Sony is once again taking $50 off the price of a PS4 bundle for two weeks this month.

If you missed out on Black Friday deals for a PlayStation 4, then this offer might interest you. Just as it did last December, Sony is offering a $50 discount on a bundle - the Uncharted 4 PS4 Bundle - between December 11 and December 24.

During that period, U.S. customers can get the Bundle for $249.99. In Canada, you can pick up the Uncharted 4 PlayStation 4 Bundle for $329.99 CAD until December 29th.

The Uncharted 4 PS4 bundle includes the slimmer PS4 model with a 500 GB hard drive, a DualShock 4, and the critically acclaimed Uncharted 4: A Thief's End. The new cooperative and solo mode, Uncharted 4: Survival, launches this month.

Sony announced this week that it has sold more than 50 million PS4 consoles since its initial release in 2013. This Black Friday weekend was the best weekend for the "PlayStation brand" in its history, and is the reason why this special offer has been extended to a further two week period this month.

Google's operations around the globe will be powered by renewable sources of energy by next year.

It will reach 100% renewable energy usage for its global operations, including its energy-gobbling data centers and its offices. Google is the world;s largest corporate buyer of renewable power, with commitments reaching 2.6 gigawatts (2,600 megawatts) of wind and solar energy.

The cost of wind and solar energy has decreased 60 percent and 80 percent, respectively, in just six years, according to Google. Its renewable energy purchase commitments to date result in infrastructure investments of more than $3.5 billion globally.

"Operating our business in an environmentally sustainable way has been a core value from the beginning, and we're always working on new ideas to make sustainability a reality," wrote Urs Hölzle, Senior Vice President or Technical Infrastructure, Google.

The BBC has started running a test delivery of Planet Earth II content in 4K Ultra HD in HDR.

For now, it is limited to a number of recent Smart TV models that can than run the iPlayer app, and it will become available on more TVs and devices over time.

The test includes footage from the superb Planet Earth II documentary series. The content sports four times as many pixels as full HD 1080p, and also a superior colorful image due to high dynamic range (HDR), which is supported in a lot of newer smart TVs and monitors.

"One of the clips is a frog on a leaf with lots of rain, and the reason this is so interesting is that the redness of the frog is a really deep Ferrari red that you would never get in broadcast television at the moment," explained Phil Layton, head of broadcast and connected systems at BBC Research & Development.

"We want to show that this is how the BBC could make ultra-high definition HDR material available to iPlayer and we want to use this as a trigger to work with manufacturers to get their products updated so there's a pathway there for future on-demand BBC content."

It will be quite some time before 4K and HDR broadcasts will become common at the BBC however, due to higher production costs and a low rate of support for either advancement in televisions in British households.

Russian MPs are seeking a probe of EA Sports' FIFA 17, claiming it is in violation of a 2013 law banning homosexual propaganda.

The bizarre complaint from the MPs stems from a campaign in England last month by Stonewall, an LGBT rights advocacy group. The rainbow laces campaign saw Premier League footballers wearing rainbow colored laces on their boots during matches.

In response, EA Sports backed the campaign and allowed FIFA 17 players to obtain a free rainbow-colored kit (pictures) in-play.

This is what prompted Russian parliamentarians to raise questions about the legality of the game since the passing of legislation in 2013 that outlaws "gay propaganda".

They have asked consumer protection and communications oversight agencies to launch a probe into the game, with some suggestions that it may even be illegal in the country. Irina Rodnina, MP for the United Russia party, said that authorities need to "verify the possibility of distributing this game on the territory of the Russian Federation."

Others have suggested that an age-rating change may be required.

Read more at The Guardian.

Samsung was handed a major win in its global patent fight with Apple over its Galaxy smartphones and tablets.

Earlier this week, the U.S. Supreme Court sided with Samsung, dismissing a $399 million ruling against the South Korean firm in a case over alleged patent infringement in the design of several of Samsung's Galaxy-branded smartphones and devices.

In an 8-0 decision, the Supreme Court threw out an appeals court ruling that ordered Samsung to pay $399 million to Apple. The ruling, written by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, found that a patent violator does not have to pay out the entire profit from the sales of products that used infringing design elements, if the infighting designs only covered certain components.

Samsung and Apple will return to court once again, as the case has been sent back to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington.

In response, Samsung lauded the ruling as a victory for those who promote creativity, innovation and competition, while Apple said it remains confident that the lower courts will send a powerful signal that "stealing isn't right."

Source: Reuters

YouTube has paid over $1 billion to the music industry from advertising revenue, and that is apparently not enough!

Earlier this week, Robert Kyncl, Chief Business Officer at YouTube, wrote a blog post titled, "A billion reasons to celebrate music on YouTube," in which he revealed that the video service had paid over $1 billion to the music industry in the past 12 months, sourced from advertising revenue alone.

Kyncl went on to observe that this demonstrates that multiple platforms and models for monetizing music are coexisting and generating significant revenues for music companies.

He also hit an optimistic note about the growth in online advertising, at the expense of other forms of media, and what it means for generating revenue for music going forward.

$1 billion is a lot of money, but not enough according to the IFPI, which in response seemed to question even the validity of the claim.

"Google has today issued more unexplained numbers on what it claims YouTube pays the music industry," a spokesperson for the IFPI wrote.

Even if the figure is accurate, it still provides little reason to celebrate for the IFPI.

"With 800 million music users worldwide, YouTube is generating revenues of just over US$1 per user for the entire year. This pales in comparison to the revenue generated by other services, ranging from Apple to Deezer to Spotify," the IFPI responds.

Apple's music subscription service has already hit an impression 20 million paying subscribers.

Apple Music launched on June 30, 2015, and has already managed to tally up 20 million paying subscribers, which grew by more than 3 million since September. More than half of these paying subscribers are not U.S.-based, and according to Apple's Eddie Cue, more than 60 percent of customers that use Apple Music have not purchased content from the iTunes Store in the past year.

The vast majority are "new customers", rather than dormant users, Cue told Billboard.

Apple Music is available to paying subscribers in over 100 countries around the world already. By managing to bag high profile exclusives to its service initially, Apple managed to link its service to some of the past 18 months' biggest music releases from artists including Drake, Frank Ocean, DJ Khaled and Travis Scott.

Cue expects to see more growth for Apple Music, and more growth for music streaming services overall as the total number is still comparatively low to the number of music consumers online. Apple Music rival Spotify claims more than 40 million paying subscribers, and more than 100 million users in total.

Microsoft and Qualcomm have revealed that full featured Windows 10 will run on the next generation of Qualcomm's Snapdragon processors.

Microsoft will try bringing its flagship Desktop OS, Windows 10, to ARM-based chips once again, following the disappointing attempt at running a version of Windows 8 on ARM architecture, Windows RT.

This development is very different to the limited Windows RT, this will be the full version of Windows 10 with legacy support for Win32 software and support for universal Windows applications, so running Photoshop, or Microsoft Office suites or Windows 10 games shouldn't be a problem.

"We are excited to bring Windows 10 to the ARM ecosystem with Qualcomm Technologies," said Terry Myerson, executive vice president of the Windows and Devices Group at Microsoft.

"We continue to look for ways to empower our customers to create wherever they are. Bringing Windows 10 to life with a range of thin, light, power-efficient and always-connected devices, powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon platform, is the next step in delivering the innovations our customers love - touch, pen, Windows Hello, and more - anytime, anywhere."

We are told to expect the first Snapdragon-based devices running Windows 10 as early as next year.

Having been available for three years, Sony's PlayStation 4 games console has just passed a key sales milestone this month.

The Japanese CE firm announced that as of December 6, it has sold more than 50 million PS4 units around the world. That is the number sold to customers and also includes the PS4 Pro variant. For comparison, the PS4 reached 50 million unit sales 17 months faster than its predecessor, the PS3, released in 2006.

By May this year, Sony had sold 40 million PS4s around the world, so sales of the console continue to be strong. In fact, Sony said that the PlayStation brand had its best performing week in its history after this year's Black Friday, though some figures have shown the console was outsold by Xbox Ones.

On the software side, 369.6 million games across retail and digital downloads have been sold, according to Sony.

Sony did not specify how many PS4 Pro units have been sold, nor did it provide official figures for PlayStation VR. Nevertheless, with an estimated 25-30 million Xbox One units sold, Sony is holding on to its lead in the current generation even though the Microsoft console has been outselling the PS4 in recent months.