News written by James Delahunty (May, 2017)

Air passengers flying to the United States from European countries will not be subjected to an electronics ban, at least for the time being.

That was made clear today by U.S. Department of Homeland Security Press Secretary Dave Lapan in a statement. It followed consultation between Secretary of Homeland Security, John F. Kelly, and European counterparts, which included EU Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship, Dimitris Avramopoulos, and the EU Commissioner for Transport, Violeta Bulc.

It was expected that an electronics ban that would keep laptops and other equipment out of the cabin on U.S. bound flights could be announced, but it didn't come to pass. However, the possibility has not been ruled out in the future depending on the circumstances.

"Secretary Kelly affirmed he will implement any and all measures necessary to secure commercial aircraft flying to the United States – including prohibiting large electronic devices from the passenger cabin – if the intelligence and threat level warrant it," the DHS statement reads.

Aside from that clarification, the three agreed on a need to raise the bar for aviation security globally, including through a range of potential seen and unseen enhancements. Additionally, the parties agreed to continue to work together to secure global aviation and to maintain clear lines of communication and cooperation.

Xbox One had gotten its own SoundCloud App, letting subscribers access their full music collection, playlists and so forth on the Microsoft platform.

SoundCloud can be controlled with voice commands via Cortana. All of the typical SoundCloud features are abailable, including your favorite tracks and newest releases.

Subscribers can find new artists and songs that you can't find anywhere else to create unique playlists--discover new remixes from well-known and up-and-coming artists.

Whether you're a SoundCloud Free, SoundCloud Go, or SoundCloud Go+ user, the app is optimized to seamlessly integrate your SoundCloud music collection on Xbox One.

The SoundCloud app for Xbox One can be gotten from the Xbox Store.

Additionally, The SoundCloud Beta app for Windows 10 PCs is also available from today from the Windows Store.

More Info: SoundCloud Blog

The parents of a deceased teenager have been denied the right to access their late daughter's Facebook account by an appeals court.

In late 2015, a regional court in Berlin had ruled in favour of the mother as she sought to look for clues of whether or not her daughter had committed suicide. The 15 year old girl was killed by a subway train in Berlin in 2012.

According to the regional court, the girl's contract with Facebook passed to her parents when she died, and that since she had been a minor, she had no absolute right to privacy online as it was up to her parents to protect her rights.

That decision has been overturned by the Berlin appeals court this week, which has clarified that the right to private telecommunications outweighed the right to inheritance. The court also found that the parents' obligation to protect her rights expired with her death.

Facebook is refusing access to the girl's account, which has since been memorialised.

Google has added VR studio Owlchemy Labs to its portfolio, promising to continue developing engaging, immersive games on multiple platforms.

Owlchemy Labs is the developer behind the popular Jobs Simulator VR title for HTC Vive, PlayStation VR and Oculus + Touch that many considered a proof of the potential for revival of virtual reality. More recently, Owlchemy released Rick & Morty: Virtual Rick-ality, compatible with the Vive and Oculus.

Now at Google, Owlchemy promises to continue making the kind of content they are famous for.

"Owlchemy Labs makes things that are absurd, highly polished, and filled to the brim with terrible puns & jokes that we love making. We both believe that VR is the most accessible computing platform and that there's a ton of work to be done, especially with regards to natural and intuitive interactions," the acquisition announcement reads.

"Together with Google, with which we share an incredible overlap in vision, we're free to pursue raw creation and sprint toward interesting problems in these early days of VR."

Read More at owlchemylabs.com

EA has announced that the popular Sims franchise is coming to the iOS and Android mobile platforms soon.

Almost two decades on since its successful debut on PC, the mega-popular social simulator is coming to mobile devices properly.

The Sims Mobile will be a port of the game for iOS and Android, whereas previous non-Desktop and non-Console releases were more limited, such as the The Sims Freeplay.

As before, you can customize and personalize your own Sims from their physical appearance to their personality traits and their goals for life.

When your Sims accomplish their career goals and retire, you'll be rewarded with Heirlooms that unlock hobbies and careers for future generations, allowing new Sims to tell deeper stories.

No details were given by EA on the cost or release date of The Sims Mobile, but here is a trailer:

Tesla has begun accepting pre-orders for its Solar Roof products ahead of installations that will begin in the United States in the summer.

Solar Roof aims to keep the typical appearance of a roof from street level. It combines both solar and non-solar tiles, based on your electricity consumptions estimates. A home that also charges an electric car frequently will require more solar tiles, for example.

It will generate electricity from sunlight during the day and with an integrated Powerwall, can make the energy available at night time too.

According to Tesla, the typical homeowner can expect to pay $21.85 per square foot for Solar Roof, which is lower than an estimate of $24.50 cited by Consumer Reports to be cost competitive.

The cost of a Solar Roof can be offset when taking the prolonged reduction of electricity bills into account.

However, since there are a wide variety of circumstances to take into account, Tesla has created a Solar Roof calculator that lets homeowners estimate the upfront price of Solar Roof, as well as the value of the energy it can generate for their home.

The calculator takes roof size, the average local price of electricity, and how much sunlight a neighborhood receives annually into account.

Following announcements from its major competitors, wireless carrier Sprint has announced it will launch its own 5G services in 2019.

On Wednesday, Qualcomm Technologies, SoftBank and Sprint announced a joint agreement to develop technologies for 5G, including the 3GPP New Radio (NR) standard in Band 41 (2.5GHz) for accelerated wide-scale 5G deployments.

"The companies plan to provide commercial services and devices in late 2019," the trio said in a press statement.

Unfortunately that's as far as the details go. Given that Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile have already spoken on their plans for their next generation mobile networks, Sprint wants its customers to know it's not asleep at the wheel.

Verizon is already trialling 5G technology in Ann Arbor, Michigan, while AT&T will rollout a 5G network starting in 2018. T-Mobile has a similar timeframe set.

Research based on exclusive YouTube data and a survey of thousands of users in multiple countries shows that YouTube reduces music piracy.

The study itself was commissioned from RBB Economics by Google itself, as it tries to answer the question of whether YouTube is a net positive or negative for the music industry. The video sharing giant has repeatedly come under scrutiny from music companies alleging low returns to the industry from music on its service.

RBB Economics published its first paper as part of the study today, which tests the cannibalization effect of YouTube: whether or not the availability of music on YouTube cuts down use of other, potentially more lucrative, streaming services.

The researchers found that the absence of music on YouTube would instead push users to lower value music channels, including piracy websites.

Google has made some improvements to the offline viewing of webpages in the Android version of its Chrome web browser.

Users of the browser already download more than 45 million webpages per week since the feature was added to the browser last year.

Now, Chrome developers are just adding some improvements to make it even easier to accomplish.

You can now long-press on any link to get the option to download it, and you can do the same for an article suggestion on the new tab page.

Once you attempt to visit a webpage and are greeted with the "You are Offline" page, there is now an option to download the page automatically as soon as it becomes reachable.

Last but not least, the New Tab page will also display previously downloaded pages tagged with a new offline badge.

Improvements like this can be helpful for users with intermittent data coverage, or when dealing with an unstable remote server.

Host of HBO show had called on the public to flood the FCC with comments opposed to repealing net neutrality regulations.

Last Week Tonight host John Oliver made the plea in a segment on his weekly show on Sunday, mirroring a similar plea he had made a few years previously that led to the FCC's servers being overwhelmed with traffic.

This time, however, it doesn't appear to be concerned citizens that have caused an issue for the FCC's services. Instead, the regulator claims it was deliberately attacked on May 8.

"These actors were not attempting to file comments themselves; rather they made it difficult for legitimate commenters to access and file with the FCC," chief information officer Dr David Bray said.

"While the comment system remained up and running the entire time, these distributed denial of service (DDoS) events tied up the servers and prevented them from responding to people attempting to submit comments."

FCC chairman Ajit Pai said earlier this year that Net Neutrality rules would be reviewed by the regulator, adding that the rules had impacted investment, innovation and job creation.

Microsoft has hit a milestone with the announcement that its Windows 10 consumer OS is now running on 500 million active devices.

The previous milestone was reached in September last year, when Windows 10 crossed the 400 million installed threshold. While adding 100 million additional devices in the mean-time is good news for Microsoft, it does suggest the company won't hit 1 billion devices for its flagship OS as early as intended.

Predictably, Windows 10 share growth has slowed quite a bit since the Redmond-based giant stopped offering free upgrades from older operating systems. Microsoft had hoped to reach 1 billion devices by the end of 2018, but now is targeting that milestone for some time in 2019.

Still, Microsoft did note a strong picking among businesses for the Windows 10 OS.

via: Engadget

Microsoft has quickly patched an unmasked security vulnerability in its software that potentially allowed attackers to hijack a PC.

The remarkable thing about this particular flaw is its association with Microsoft's anti-malware tool, Windows Defender. An attacker could target a victim with a malicious e-mail, an instant message or a crafted link.

According to reports, the victim wouldn't even have had to open an e-mail as the exploit would be triggered once the anti-malware tool scanned it.

The bug in question affected Windows 8, 8.1 and Windows 10, and was patched by an out-of-cycle update released by Microsoft in advance of the so-called "Patch Tuesday" round-up.

Researchers at Google's ProjectZero discovered the flaw at the weekend and expressed delight at Microsoft's speedy response.

Microsoft's HoloLens mixed reality system has been integrated into a new spine surgery solution from Scopis.

The Holographic Navigation Platform has been developed to offer greater precision and speed to surgeons, and better outcomes to patients undergoing open and minimally-invasive spinal procedures. By integrating HoloLens, surgeons can benefit from mixed reality in a number of useful ways. For example, surgeons can plan the positioning and alignment of pedicle screws during multiple vertebrae fixation surgeries.

While wearing the HoloLens glasses, the surgeon can see the planned positioning of the pedicle screws projected into view, overlaid exactly onto the patient.

"This allows the surgeon to find the screws' planned positions faster and to align surgical instruments interactively with the holographic visualization," Scopis claims in press material.

Watch Scopis' video on the Holographic Navigation Platform below:

Uber's controversial use of 'Greyball' to evade regulators and law enforcement is now the subject of a criminal investigation, according to a report.

Greyball would tag certain users and show them a different version of the standard app. Tagged users would see false data about the location of nearby Uber vehicles. Using Greyball, Uber protected itself and its drivers from fraudulent activity and also to prevent drivers from potential physical harm.

However, the same system was reportedly used to thwart regulators. The system identified local officials and would make it impossible for them to hail a real Uber ride. This was allegedly done to protect drivers from fines or from having their cars impounded.

In December 2014, Uber allegedly used Greyball to evade 16 Portland Bureau of Transportation officials, denying them dozens of rides, according to the Reuters news agency.

It has now cited sources in reporting that the U.S. Department of Justice has launched a criminal investigation into Uber's use of Greyball.

SpaceX video shows the landing of the rocket booster right from stage separation to the landing zone, both from the ground and from the rocket itself.

Videos showing SpaceX landing the booster stage of its Falcon 9 rockets are not new, but this webcast is clearly their best yet. It was broadcast today, covering the NROL-76 launch. Due the classified nature of the mission, SpaceX did not broadcast video of the second stage.

This presented the rocket firm with an opportunity however, to broadcast the landing of the first stage of the rocket from stage separation back to the surface of Earth. In a split-screen broadcast, SpaceX tracked the booster as it fell at high speed toward the Earth, oriented itself and slowed itself down to land safely. It also had an onboard camera as before.

The landing was a success and the video footage, as well as the detailed narration, gives the rest of us an idea of how tricky this manoeuvre is.

Watch the NROL-76 Launch Webcast below (the launch happens around 17:50 into the video).

Mr Musk's 'Boring Company' has shown a concept video for a subterranean network of tunnels that zips cars from place to place.

If you have spent time listening to Elon Musk opine, then you probably have heard him passionately complaining about traffic. The SpaceX & Tesla Motors CEO had tweeted last year that he was going to avoid traffic by getting a tunnel boring machine.

Apparently, it wasn't just a passing thought that Elon decided to tweet to the world, but a statement of intent. A SpaceX employee recently leaked a picture of a tunnel boring machine with a company logo for "The Boring Company" painted on. The photo was taken down but not before Business Insider grabbed and re-posted it.

Last week, 'The Boring Company' released a concept video. In the mock up, cars are seen parking on a street-level platform before being lowered into a tunnel and whisked off at high speed to a location and being elevated to the street.

Here is that video:

An analyst is predicting that Sony will speed up its console refresh cycle and release the PlayStation 5 in the second half of 2018.

The gap between the original PlayStation console and the PlayStation 2 console was six years (1994, 2000). Sony then released the PlayStation 3 console six years later, in 2006. Back in late 2013, Sony dropped the PlayStation 4 onto the market, this time the gap between the debut was seven years.

However, Macquarie Capital Securities analyst Damian Thong is predicting that the next major console release from Sony will be in the second half of 2018, just five years since the original PS4. Thong had accurately predicted the release of the PS4 Slim and PS4 Pro.

There are many reasons why Thong could be proven right again. With the release of the PS4, Sony switched to x86 architecture with AMD chips, as did rivals Microsoft with the Xbox One. It is very unlikely that Sony would opt to switch to custom processors with a PS5, and so maintaining backward compatibility with the PS4 titles shouldn't be a problem.

Market forces also may speed up the refresh cycle for the iconic console. More than ever, games consoles are competing with mobile platforms, low cost devices and increasingly affordable and convenient high-quality PC gaming. In this changing market, a seven year gap between PlayStation releases is probably unlikely.

The Turkish authorities have blocked access to Wikipedia, citing a 'smear campaign' against the country.

The block was announced by the BTK telecommunications watchdog, citing a law that allows it to block access to content on the Internet if it is deemed a threat to national security, or if it is obscene. Wikipedia.org has been blocked by the authorities on the grounds that it is engaged in a smear campaign against Turkey by linking the country to militant groups.

"Instead of coordinating against terrorism, it has become part of an information source which is running a smear campaign against Turkey in the international arena," Anadolu, a state-controlled news organization, reported.

The ban will only be lifted if the online encyclopaedia complies with demands from the Turkish government, according to the Reuters news agency.

Censorship of this kind is likely to concern rights' campaigners who have blown the whistle on infringements on freedom of speech and other rights in Turkey in the past year.

In an unfortunate display of how piracy-related censorship activity can identify innocent targets, a recent takedown request listed www.facebook.com as an infringing URL.

The takedown notice, spotted by TorrentFreak, was sent to Google by NetResult on behalf of the Premier League. Such notices request that Google remove results from its Search service that offer unlicensed video streams of football matches for free.

In the past, large scale efforts to block access to (or lower the visibility of) websites that engage in copyright infringement have been criticized for catching innocent targets in the web. This little snafu - in which NetResult identified https://www.facebook.com as a link that should be removed from Google's search results - is a rather dramatic example of an innocent party being identified and targeted.

Fortunately for Facebook, Google decided not to comply with the takedown request and Facebook's homepage can still be found by the world's most popular search engine.

Read More: TorrentFreak

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) finds that the sale of media set top boxes pre-loaded with piracy-enabling add-ons can be considered illegal.

The court handed down its decision last week in a case related to the sale of such media boxes in the Netherlands. Pre-loaded media boxes (sometimes incorrectly labelled as 'Kodi Boxes') come with apps and add-ons that provide access to streams of movies, TV shows, music and even live television. The sources for the content typically don't have the express permission of the copyright holder for distribution.

In this case, Dutch anti-piracy outfit BREIN took action against a business selling such pre-loaded boxes. Eventually, the case found its way to the ECJ for interpretation, and the court came to the conclusion that the sale of such devices can be considered illegal under EU copyright directives.

"It is common ground that the sale of the 'filmerspeler' multimedia player was made in full knowledge of the fact that the add-ons containing hyperlinks pre-installed on that player gave access to works published illegally on the internet," the ECJ decision reads.