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Submission + - Apple converting trial and pirated iWork, iLife and Aperture to full versions (mactrast.com)

Submitted by tlhIngan
tlhIngan writes: One aspect about the new OS X Mavericks release was that all Apple produced software was to be downloadable and updatable through the Mac App Store. However, this has the obvious implication of what happens to users who bought the software before Mac App Store? Initial reports showed that the Mac App Store scanned your hard drive for the apps and offered to associate it with your Apple ID, and that the scanning even found trial and pirated versions and upgraded those to fully licensed versions. Even more interestingly, this is not a bug, and it appears Apple is turning a blind eye to the practice and giving away copies of iLife, iWork and Aperture to users who own trial or even pirated versions of the apps. Apple has also recently stopped providing downloadable trial versions of iLife, iWork and Aperture from their web site.

Submission + - NYC's 250,000 Street Lights To Be Replaced with LEDs by 2017 (mikebloomberg.com) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Today New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced that the city's 250,000 street light fixtures, which currently use incandescent bulbs, will be replaced with LEDs by 2017. It's part of a plan to reduce the city government's emissions by 30%. The LEDs have a lifespan of 20 years, more than three times that of the current incandescent bulbs, and Bloomberg says it will save $6 million in energy and $8 million in maintenance every year. It will be the largest LED retrofit in the country. 'The first of three phases to replace the standard "cobra-head" high-pressure sodium street lights, which will upgrade 80,000 at a time across the five boroughs, is expected to be completed in December 2015 with the final phase expected to be completed by 2017. Following the replacement of roadway lighting, decorative fixtures in the city’s business and commercial districts will be addressed.'

Submission + - Can You Trust The Apps You Use?

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: With the advent of smartphones, the word "app" has almost become a synonym for pleasure. Whatever you need, whatever you want is right there at your fingertips, located in a few huge online marketplaces, ready to be downloaded and used in minutes, often for free. The problem with this is that many users enjoy the instant gratification, but don't think about the loss of security and / or privacy that goes with using apps (on whatever platform) from well- and lesser-known developers.

Security Researcher Alex Balan asks the question: "How much control we have over our security once we've allowed apps access to our private information?", and explains the unwelcome answer.

Submission + - XBMC forked

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: After working almost 10 years on the XBMC project (http://xbmc.org),
I am very sad to announce my fork, named FYMC. While the abbreviation obviously
lends itself to alternative interpretations, the intended meaning is
'Forever yours Media Center'.

Key technical differences compared to the original project:
1) GPL3 licensed.
2) A CMake based build system.
3) An agile approach in mainline.

Project hosting is still being arranged, and as such the only resource available at this point is

http://github.com/cptspiff/fymc

As several backend authors have not responded to request for API keys yet, certain basic features have been disabled for now.

Currently it is only buildable for freebsd and linux, support for building
on other free platforms will follow, with free being interpretable as platforms
where users maintain their freedom to run and modify software after their own
likings. It is still mostly compatible with XBMC add-ons, with
binary (compiled) add-ons being the exception.

While I would like to give my reasons for forking the project in public to reduce the amount of FUD, I do not in honor of requests from the forked project. Though, I want to explicitly mention that this is not a case of an insulted developer, but an action taken out of honest concerns and loyalty to the original vision of the project.

Developers interested in joining the project can join #fymc on irc.freenode.net.
In particular, people skilled in graphics are most needed.

Arne Morten Kvarving

Submission + - iPhone 5S users complain of experiencing blue screen of death on their phone. (latesttoptechnews.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Some owners of the new iPhone 5S say their phones came with an unwanted new feature more commonly found on Windows PCs in the 90s: "The Blue Screen of Death."

According to several discussion forums and videos posted online, the iPhone 5S unexpectedly reboots when you try to switch apps.

The problem appears to center on Apple's iWork suite. When someone has their 5S open to Numbers, Pages or Keynote and tries to go to a different app, a blue screen appears and the iPhone suddenly restarts.

Submission + - Patriot Act Author Introduces Bill to Limit Use of Patriot Act (dailydot.com)

Submitted by wjcofkc
wjcofkc writes: In an ironic but welcome twist, author of the Patriot Act, Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.), is introducing the USA FREEDOM Act, a bill specifically aimed at countering the portions of the Patriot Act that were interpreted to let the NSA collect telephone metadata in bulk. The congressman has been a vocal opponent of the NSA's interpretation and misuse of the Patriot Act since Edward Snowden first leaked evidence of the program in June. On Wednesday, he wrote to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder that the “collection of a wide array of data on innocent Americans has led to serious questions about how government will use—or misuse—such information.”

Submission + - New High Tech $100 Bills Start to Circulate Today 1

Submitted by Hugh Pickens DOT Com
Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes: Fox News reports that new $100 bills made their debut today that include high tech features designed to make it easier for the public to authenticate but more difficult for counterfeiters to replicate. Those measures include a blue, 3-D security ribbon, as well as color-shifting ink that changes from copper to green when the note is tilted (PDF). That ink can be found on a large "100" on the back of the bill, on one of the "100's" on the front, and on a new image of an ink well that's also on the front. "The $100 is the highest value denomination that we issue, and it circulates broadly around the world," says Michael Lambert, assistant director for cash at the Federal Reserve Board. "Therefore, we took the necessary time to develop advanced security features that are easy for the public to use in everyday transactions, but difficult for counterfeiters to replicate." The bill was originally due to reach banks in 2011 but three years ago the Federal Reserve announced that a problem with the currency's new security measures was causing the bills to crease during printing, which left blank spaces on the bills leading the Feds to shred more than 30 million of the bills in 2012. The image of Benjamin Franklin will be the same as on the current bill, but like all the other newly designed currencies, it will no longer be surrounded by an dark oval. Except for the $1 and $2 bill, all US paper currency has been redesigned in the last 10 years to combat counterfeiting. "The advanced security features we've included in the new $100 note will hinder potential counterfeiters from producing high-quality fakes that can deceive consumers and merchants," says Larry R. Felix. "Protect yourself — it only takes a few seconds to check the new $100 note and know it's real."

Comment Re:PR Spin (Score 4, Informative) 201

Show me where Apple have crossed the ethical lines ? You may disagree with their case, but I don't recall anyone claiming their lawyers were unethical in prosecuting that case ...

As for Samsung, they're just scumbags who don't respect the law of any land...

(Taken from Fortune ...)

  • July 7, 2004: Jury advised of adverse interference when Samsung allowed emails to be automatically deleted even after it was told to retain relevant emails. After Samsung's appeal, Judge William Martini found "Samsung's actions go far beyond mere negligence, demonstrating knowing and intentional conduct."
  • October 17, 2005: The U.S. Department of Justice fined Samsung nearly $300M for memory price fixing within the U.S.
  • Feb. 7, 2007: U.S. government fined Samsung for $90M for memory chip price fixing for violations in 2006.
  • Jan.15, 2008: Samsung's offices in Korea were raided after evidence showed that a slush fund was used to bribe government officials and other business leaders.
  • July 16 2008, Samsung chairman, Lee Kun-He was found guilty in Seoul of financial wrongdoing and tax evasion. Despite prosecutor request of seven years in prison, sentence was reduced to three years followed by a pardon by the South Korean Government in 2009 to allow him to help with its successful bid to host the 2018 Winter Olympics. He is now a member of the International Olympic Committee and this 'pardoned criminal' returned as Samsung's Chairman in March 2010.
  • May 19, 2010: The EU Commission fined Samsung for being part of a cartel that shared confidential information and fixed memory chip prices (along with eight other firms).
  • Nov. 1, 2011: The Korean Fair Trade Commission fined Samsung for being part of a cartel that fixed prices and reduced output for TFT-LCD screens between 2001 and 2006.
  • March 15, 2012: The Korean Fair Trade Commission fined Samsung for a mobile phone price fixing scheme and consumer fraud whereby consumers would be paying more than what the discounted prices advertised.
  • July 25, 2012: Magistrate Grewal informs the jury that they could take into account that "spoliation" of evidence occurred when Samsung destroyed evidence that could have been used in the Apple lawsuit; Samsung had a policy of automatically deleting emails that were two weeks old and should have suspended that policy between August 2010 (when Apple informed Samsung of patent infringement) and April 2011 (when Apple initiated the lawsuit).
  • August 24, 2012 a jury returned a verdict finding Samsung had willfully infringed on Apple's design and utility patents and had also diluted Apple's trade dresses related to the iPhone. But Samsung continues to fight the ruling, and continues in their copying behavior.
  • Dec 2012: EU issued a Statement of Objections (SO) against Samsung for abusing its Standard-Essential Patents in not providing FRAND rates. Samsung withdrew all SEP-based injunction requests against Apple in Europe days before the SO was issued, but to no avail.
  • April. 2013, Samsung is accused of and admits hiring people in several countries to falsify reports of HTC phones "constantly crashing" and posting fake benchmark reviews.
  • October 2013 Samsung in confirmed reports from independent and objective testing, found to be intentionally falsifying performance benchmarks of its flagship products: the Galaxy S4 and Note 3.

If Apple tried to pull that shit, all hell would break loose. And rightfully so. For me personally, it's enough that I don't buy anything with a Samsung brand on the outside any more. They're the only company for which that's the case.

Simon.

Comment Re:Does not computer (Score 3, Informative) 258

by Space cowboy (#45005005) Attached to: Samsung Fudging Benchmarks Again On Galaxy Note 3

There is a file containing a list of all the common benchmarking apps, and everything in the list is a benchmarking app - nothing else. When one of those packages is run, the phone locks the frequency of all cores to fMax and also seems to fiddle with the GPU.

The result is a battery-nightmare, but a boost of 20% to *only* benchmark apps. This is despicable - plain and simple.

See http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/10/galaxy-note-3s-benchmarking-adjustments-inflate-scores-by-up-to-20/

Simon.

Comment Re:Humans will be Humans (Score 3, Insightful) 258

by Space cowboy (#45004955) Attached to: Samsung Fudging Benchmarks Again On Galaxy Note 3

That's fair comment on the original post, but let's narrow it down a bit...

"If someone is surprised that a manufacturer with a track-record of fudging benchmarks is willing to cheat, rip off, etc to get ahead... well you haven't really been paying attention"

Not all humans are morally and ethically bankrupt. Samsung (as a corporate entity) is though.

Simon

Comment Could things get better? (Score 1) 625

by Vegan Pagan (#44851119) Attached to: 45% of U.S. Jobs Vulnerable To Automation
Isn't a big motivator for automation the fact that businesses need to cut costs right now, so if the economy was better employers would be in less of a hurry to automate even if the technology was available? Isn't a big cause of the US economy being bad the fact that it's much cheaper and easier to do business in China, a situation that's gradually changing? As Japan became rich, it invested much and hired many in the US. Will China do the same? Aren't there only so many US jobs that can be cut until companies no longer have customers?

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