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Microsoft has finally approved the app, and Windows Phone owners can download it now.

The massively popular desktop media player VLC is now available in an early beta form on Windows Phone devices, with an official launch likely due before the end of the year.

VLC has been around in different stages of completion for Android and iOS for some time now, and the apps are popular due to their ability to play MKV, AVI, MP4 and other popular media file types that the native media apps cannot. Apple removed VLC for iOS with the launch of iOS 8 and it has still not returned, giving Windows Phone users a big leg up on the operating system.

Windows Phone has been sorely lacking such an app, but with VLC, that time appears to be coming to an end.

Source:
Windows Phone Store

The teaser trailer for the latest Star Wars took the world by storm last week and now we have what appears to be a firm date for the next one.

New reports claim that the next Star Wars trailer, expected to be more than just a teaser, will play ahead of "Avengers: Age of Ultron," which is expected to be the biggest Disney movie of the year (at least until Star Wars comes out).

Age of Ultron is slated for release on May 1st, 2015, and as geeks know, "Star Wars Day" is May 4th, so the timing seems right.

Many expected the next trailer to be on Super Bowl day in early February, given the audience of over 100 million that will be tuned in, and that likely remains a possibility. However, fans will definitely be getting a trailer in May.

See the original teaser here:

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

Site de redirection (Redirects):

• 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

Sites miroirs (Mirrors):

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

Proxies:

• 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

Via: TorrentFreak

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.

Source: cnmo.com (via: BGR)

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's new API is called "No CAPTCHA reCAPTCHA" because for the majority of users will be able to prove they are not robots with a single click. The magic that can tell the difference between a human interaction with the captcha, and a robot interaction, happens in Google's new Advanced Risk Analysis backend.

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.

HTC One owners will have a nice start to their Friday, as HTC will be rolling out Android Lollipop OTA update to One (M8) and One (M7).

This brings the latest and best of Android to HTC's flagship owners, whether the flagship was bought in 2013 or 2014. There's one catch: the OTA update will be available only to Google Play Edition phone owners. Others, especially those with operator-locked phones, will receive the update later (or in worst case scenario, never).

M8 GPE Owners! We just received TA from Google!! I am very grateful for all your patience. OTA to start at noon on 12/5 (working to pull in)

— Mo (@moversi) December 5, 2014