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Submission + - Chinese Company Threatens to Sue Apple over iPhone 5 Patent (yahoo.com)

Submitted by AstroPhilosopher
AstroPhilosopher writes: Probably picking up on the latest in patent lawsuits, a Chinese company used leak photos of the upcoming iPhone 5 to create a knockoff. They then patented the design in China and have threatened to sue Apple for infringement should they attempt to sell the iPhone 5 in China.

Clearly a case of what goes around comes around.
Games

Submission + - EA won't green light any single player-only games (geek.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Frank Gibeau, the president of EA Labels, has shown that business truly does come before gameplay with comments he made as part of a preview document for the CloudGamingUSA event happening on September 11-12 in San Francisco.

Gibeau is very proud of the fact he has never green lit a single project that consisted solely of a single-player experience. He insists that every game EA publishes has an online component to it. His reason for doing this? Apparently EA has “evolved with consumers” suggesting he thinks this is what consumers want in every game.

As a consumer and gamer myself, I can totally disagree with his thinking. Forcing online into every game makes little sense. While it works for a Battlefield, Medal of Honor, Fifa, or Need for Speed title, there’s just as many games that don’t need it to succeed, or even work for online play. A good example of this would be the forthcoming SimCity , which has upset fans of the series because it will require an constant Internet connection to play. That isn’t a DRM measure, it’s due to the tight integration of multiplayer and how all players impact each others games.
Censorship

Submission + - Why Apple Should Stop Censoring Apps (readwriteweb.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: ReadWriteWeb makes the case that Apple should stop censoring submissions to the App Store. The company made headlines last week for banning an app showing the locations of drone strikes in Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia. The article says Apple should restrict its bans to apps that have terrible functionality or a poor UI, and 'get out of the business of censorship.' Quoting: 'Last year in Syria, antigovernment activists began using an iPhone app to disseminate news, maps, photos and videos about the conflict in a country that doesn't exactly rank highly for its press freedom. Mobile tech in the hands of Syrian dissidents proved enough of a nuisance that the government banned the iPhone in late 2011, presumably to quash content that the regime found, um, objectionable. This example raises a few questions. First, why are pins on a map more objectionable than photos and video clips from a war zone? Why does content that effectively agitates for one government to be overthrown make the cut, while content that may make another government look bad (depending on one's own perspective) doesn't? Is Apple taking sides in international conflicts? Perhaps more disturbing is the notion that, were Apple to apply these standards consistently, apps like the one used by Syrian dissidents — and perhaps some news apps — would be barred from the App Store as well.'

Comment False Pretense (Score 1) 1

by AstroPhilosopher (#41166923) Attached to: Best/Worst Drivers in the US
Cities claim that they install speed and traffic lights to 'improve safety' when in reality they install them to collect additional funds; especially during the recent recession. You want proof? If it's for safety then why don't they force violators to take driver ed courses since it's obvious they ignore laws? Paying a ticket does absolutely nothing to instill safe driving practices; it just makes the driver a little poorer and the city a littler richer.

Submission + - The Scale of Things (htwins.net)

Submitted by AstroPhilosopher
AstroPhilosopher writes: A neat site that uses a scroller to show scale comparisons from DNA molecules to humans, to dinosaurs, out to the Ant Nebula.
Digital

Submission + - Time Warner Cable patents method for disabling fast-forward function on DVRs (fiercecable.com) 1

Submitted by
antdude
antdude writes: "FierceCable reports "Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC) has won a U.S. patent for a method for disabling fast-forward and other trick mode functions on digital video recorders.

The patent, which lists Time Warner Cable principal architect Charles Hasek as the inventor, details how the nation's second largest cable MSO may be able prevent viewers from skipping TV commercials contained in programs stored on physical DVRs it deploys in subscriber homes, network-based DVRs and even recording devices subscribers purchase at retail outlets...""
Medicine

Submission + - Patch Makes Certain Skin Cancers Disappear (singularityhub.com)

Submitted by
kkleiner
kkleiner writes: "What if treating skin cancer was just a matter of wearing a patch for a few hours? At this year’s Society of Nuclear Medicine’s Annual Meeting one group of researchers presented such a patch. The patch is infused with phosphorus-32, a radioactive isotope used to treat some types of cancer. In a study of 10 patients with basal cell carcinoma located on their faces, the patch was applied for three hours, then for another three hours four and seven days later. Six months after treatment, 8 of the patients were cancer free."

Submission + - Oregon State University Fires Climate Change Skeptic (foxnews.com) 2

Submitted by
brian0918
brian0918 writes: "With finals approaching, Oregon State University chemistry professor Nicholas Drapela was fired without warning. Three weeks later, he has still been given no reason for the university’s decision to 'not renew his contract'. Drapela, an outspoken critic of man-made climate change, worked at the university for 10 years and was well-liked by students. Oregon physicist Gordon J. Fulks, another critic of anthropogenic climate change, has circulated a letter in defense of Drapela."
Google

Submission + - Copyright Holders Punish Themselves With Crazy DMCA Takedowns (torrentfreak.com)

Submitted by
TheGift73
TheGift73 writes: "Yesterday Google kindly published a database of takedown requests sent to the search giant on copyright grounds. The DMCA notices are supposed to help protect legitimate sales but entertainment companies sending them are clearly having problems. Witness some of the world’s biggest music and movie companies taking down everything from news articles promoting their latest releases, to their very own marketing content.

During the last 24 hours Google published an extremely enlightening database listing DMCA takedown notices the company receives from rightsholders. Google calls it their ‘Transparency Report’ and its very publication shows why transparency is absolutely needed in these areas.

Quite simply, rightsholders are having problems getting it right. Check out these ridiculous takedowns from some of the world’s leading entertainment companies against sites that have done nothing wrong.

Warner Brothers: Wrath of the Titans
When a movie’s either just about to come out or already doing the rounds, people want to find out about it. Amazingly, Warner and their anti-piracy partners managed to undermine their own marketing campaign for Wrath of the Titans with DMCAs sent to Google.

Through this DMCA takedown Warner requested the removal of the IMDb listing for their own movie.

But it didn’t stop there. Warner also asked Google to delist the official trailer on Apple along with the ones on Hulu, The Guardian and FilmoFilia. In addition, the studio asked for an article on BBC America to be removed along with a listing on a site that helps people find theaters to watch the movie.

IMDb
As can be seen here, Warner issued a takedown for the IMDb listing for its own movie Happy Feet Two. They were in good company since Paramount Pictures, NBC Universal and other rights holders did the same for IMDb information pages covering their content.

Hulu, Crackle
Hulu has also become an unlikely target. In addition to the Warner takedown mentioned above, UFC owner Zuffa also asked Google to delist its own content on the authorized video site.

Sony-owned Crackle was picked on too, when Warner Bros. asked Google to delist an information page about its movie Hall Pass.

Other news and information sites
Bizarrely, news sites are being hit with takedowns too. In addition to the Warner instance mentioned above, the RIAA asked Google to delist a review of the album Own The Night published on The Guardian. The artist behind the album is Lady Antebellum, signed to RIAA-member Capitol Records.

Even more worrying, the RIAA asked Google to delist Last.fm’s entire Electro Pop section because they thought it carried a pirate copy of All About Tonight by Pixie Lott.

Warner also reappeared later on, asking Google to delist a page on news site NME which lists information on the latest movies, which at the time included information on the movie Hall Pass. The same page on NME was targeted on several other occasions, including by anti-piracy company DtecNet on behalf of Lionsgate, who had info on The Hunger Games delisted.

Hollywood Reporter didn’t fare much better either. Sony Pictures asked Google to swing the banhammer against the popular news site after it published an article called “Trent Reznor Releases Six Free Tracks From ‘Girl With the Dragon Tattoo’ Soundtrack” and Sony mistook it for a DVDRIP.

But as soon as Sony’s piracy fears on the first ‘Dragon Tattoo’ movie had subsided they were back as strong as ever with the sequel. This time the sinner was Wikipedia who dared to put up an information page on the movie The Girl Who Played With Fire. Luckily Sony were on hand to ask Google to delist the page.

Although just a tiny percentage of the thousands of correct takedowns issued, the above shows that overbroad filters and poorly considered notices can impact businesses who shouldn’t be affected by them, studios and people who merely report on their content alike.

Fortunately, Google says it does not comply with all takedown requests, rejecting a few percent and reinstating others at later dates, including some of the above."
Science

Submission + - Everything you know about electrostatics is wrong (nature.com)

Submitted by scibri
scibri writes: Bring two positively charged spheres together and what happens? They repel, right? Wrong.

Physicist John Lekner, has proven mathematically that they will attract when they get close enough together (paper's not live yet, but the link where it will eventually live is here). A region of positive charge on one sphere can cause the positive charge on the other to retreat, piling up further away and leaving a patch of negative charge behind.

English scientist William Snow Harris, who invented lightning conductors for ships, saw something like this in 1836 with charged disks. So now all that remains is for someone to prove Lekner's math experimentally today.
DRM

Submission + - The Gaming Industry (Ubisoft, Steam, Blizzard, EA Games, ETC): Stop Producing Ga (change.org) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: It's been happening for years with the first launch titles that required an internet connection to always be active in order to play the game. First you could play, but couldn't save the game. Now it has finally migrated to games that require an internet connection to always be active or the game will stop playing.

This is a petition to try and convince the game industry to stop integrating Always-On DRM tactics.

Submission + - US Airforce Can 'Accidently' Spy on American Citizens for 90 Days (wired.com)

Submitted by AstroPhilosopher
AstroPhilosopher writes: Researchers at the Federation of American Scientists have discovered documentation that allows the military to keep footage from drones for up to 90 days to determine rather further investigation is warranted. Besides using footage from natural disasters and monitoring of domestic military bases, all that's truly required is for an operator to 'accidently' have the camera running while flying.
Space

Submission + - ESA juices up for mission to Jupiter's icy moons (gizmag.com)

Submitted by cylonlover
cylonlover writes: The European Space Agency (ESA) has announced that Jupiter’s icy moons will be the focus of its next Large science mission. Getting the nod over the New Gravitational Wave Observatory (NGO), that would have hunted for gravitational waves, and ATHENA, the Advanced Telescope for High-Energy Astrophysics, the Jupiter Icy moons Explorer (JUICE) is scheduled to arrive at Jupiter in 2030 with the goal of studying its Galilean moons as potential habitats for life.

Submission + - Man Turns Work Portfolio Into an App (tecca.com)

Submitted by AstroPhilosopher
AstroPhilosopher writes: After being laid off, game developer Christopher Albeluhn began creating a portfolio including a detailed earth. However, that quickly grew to an impressive 3D simulation of our solar system including planets, their moons, and asteroid belt.

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