Tech Today w/ Ken May

Atlus tried to take down a PS3 emulator advertising ‘Persona 5’

Atlus has been infamously protective of Persona 5 even before it came out, and it looks like that hasn’t changed a bit. The game developer has submitted a DMCA takedown notice against the creators of the PS3 emulator RPCS3 and their Patreon crowdfunding page . Emulators typically fall within the legal gray area of copyright law — they don’t infringe on anybody’s intellectual property, but they can run illegal ROMs that do. However, as Kotaku noted, RPCS3’s Patreon included updates about how far they are on getting Persona 5 to run on the emulator. A company that tried putting streaming restrictions on a much-awaited game would definitely not be happy that an emulator maker is getting donations in part due to its property. As of this writing, the RPCS3 Patreon page has removed all references to Persona upon the crowdfunding website’s request. Patreon advised RPCS3 to get rid of the references after refusing to comply with Atlus’ demands to kill the emulator’s page entirely. According to the emulator maker’s report on Reddit , that seems to have resolved the situation. Atlus has confirmed that it issued a DMCA takedown notice in an announcement, where it explained its reasons for doing so. The company said it didn’t want people’s first experience with an Atlus game to come riddled with framerate drops, crashes and other issues. It explained that the company thinks a format it didn’t personally oversee won’t deliver the experience and quality it intended. The gamemaker admits that it’s aware of how a lot of fans would like to see Persona titles for the PC, and while it’s not making any promises, it says it’s listening to people’s wishes. Those who’d like to see PC ports of Atlus’ most beloved games might want to cross their fingers and hope for the best. Here’s Atlus’ statement in full: “You might have heard earlier today that we issued a DMCA takedown notice involving emulation developer group RPCS3 and their Patreon page. Yes, it’s true. We settled upon this action for two reasons: 1. We believe that our fans best experience our titles (like Persona 5) on the actual platforms for which they are developed. We don’t want their first experiences to be framerate drops, or crashes, or other issues that can crop up in emulation that we have not personally overseen. We understand that many Persona fans would love to see a PC version. And while we don’t have anything to announce today, we are listening! For now, the best way to experience Persona 5 is on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 3. 2. We appreciate the awareness generated by the emulation community for Persona 5 and know that it is a fantastic example of how much people are loving our game. We want to keep bringing you titles like Persona 5. Unfortunately, when our content is illegally circumvented and potentially made available for free, in a format we do not think delivers the experience and quality we intend, it undermines our ability to do so by diverting potential support from new audiences.” Via: Kotaku Source: Atlus

View article:
Atlus tried to take down a PS3 emulator advertising ‘Persona 5’

Watch this real-time creation of a glass flower encased in a sphere

John Kobuki demonstrates the remarkable patience, dexterity, and craftsmanship required to spend 40 minutes shaping a clear glass sphere with a flower inside. (more…)

See the original article here:
Watch this real-time creation of a glass flower encased in a sphere

Dyson says it will spend $2.7 billion developing an electric car

Enlarge / James Dyson at the “James Dyson Award 2007” ceremony in Berlin. (Photo by Franziska Krug/Getty Images) (credit: Franziska Krug | Getty Images) To most people, the name Dyson conjures up images of vacuum cleaners and those powerful air dryers in public restrooms. Soon, you might be able to add “electric cars” to that list. In an e-mail to his staff, James Dyson revealed that the company has started work on a battery electric vehicle. According to the message , the project is expected to cost at least $2.7 billion (£2 billion), and, if all goes to plan, the EV should be launched in 2020. James Dyson just announced to @Dyson employees that we’ve begun work on a battery electric vehicle, due to launch in 2020. pic.twitter.com/yUZNvIsYIi — Dyson (@Dyson) September 26, 2017 The EV project is already 400-strong—that number includes some veterans of Aston Martin, Tesla, and BMW —and is “recruiting aggressively.” As Autocar notes, last year Dyson received a $21.4 million (£16 million) grant from the UK government. That is part of an ongoing strategy to provide funding to many of the country’s small-volume manufacturers and suppliers. Morgan, that most traditional of car makers, is one such recipient, as is another sports car outfit, Ariel . The BBC reports that half of the $2.7 billion investment will go toward developing the batteries for the EV, with the rest spent on the vehicle itself. Nor should we expect something cheap and cheerful, as Dyson is targeting the “tech end” of the market. According to Bloomberg, the car will use solid-state batteries , not lithium-ion. Recently, VW Group also committed to developing solid-state batteries for EVs. Read 1 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Taken from:
Dyson says it will spend $2.7 billion developing an electric car

Equifax CEO Richard Smith suddenly decides to ‘retire’

Equifax has been in the news lately for all the wrong reasons, following a chain of blunders and mismanagement after it revealed that a security breach leaked the personal data of 143 million people . This morning, the CEO of Equifax and chairman of its board, Richard Smith, retired effective immediately. In a release, Equifax stated that it has appointed Paulino do Rego Barros, Jr., as interim CEO. He’s been with the company for seven years and most recently was the president of Equifax’s Asia Pacific division. Smith will stay on as an unpaid advisor to oversee a smooth transition. He cites the reason for his departure as the data breach: “At this critical juncture, I believe it is in the best interests of the company to have new leadership to move the company forward, ” he said. Smith is the latest casualty of the epic breach (their Chief Security Officer and Chief Information Officer also “retired” ), which has been catastrophically mishandled by Equifax. The company’s failure to patch a well-known security hole is the reason hackers were able to gain access to the data. The company’s executives are also under DOJ investigation for suspiciously timed stock sales that occurred after Equifax realized the breach had occurred but before it disclosed information to the public. And their credit freeze pins had security issues of their own . It’s unclear whether new management will ease Equifax’s woes, after how mishandled this entire breach has been from the start. Senators have called for credit report changes , allowing for consumers to have more power over their information. It makes sense; credit agencies should be held accountable when they make terrible errors in judgment and don’t take action to protect the sensitive personal data they handle every day. Via: CNBC Source: Equifax

The Ataribox will cost under $300 and ship next spring

Atari has so far kept pretty schtum about its forthcoming Ataribox , but in an email newsletter it’s now revealed a few nuggets of information that should tide fans over until the console’s Indiegogo launch this fall. As the newly-released pictures show, design-wise you can expect an Atari 2600 influence with a modern twist (and yes, that is real wood). Inside, the console will be powered by an AMD customized processor and run Linux, so you’ll be able to tinker with the OS and access games bought from other platforms, as well as do all the usual PC-for-TV things, such as streaming, listening to music and navigating social media. Frustratingly, there’s still no word on pre-loaded games, although the company says it’ll “start talking titles very soon”. However, it has said it plans on shipping in late spring 2018, with an expected price tag of $250-$300 (£185-£225). Fans who get involved with the Indiegogo campaign, coming this fall, will be able to get their hands on special editions and exclusive pricing. And by then they’ll be chomping at the bit.

Read the article:
The Ataribox will cost under $300 and ship next spring

Boeing offers a $2 million prize for a working jetpack

It’s 2017, and as the refrain goes, where are the flying cars? Boeing is more interested in “personal flying devices” — aka, jetpacks — and is partnering with new organization GoFly to post a $2 million bounty for working designs. Kind of like an X Prize competition, the partners are giving teams two years to develop their tech before whomever impresses the judges at a “final fly-off” takes home money from the GoFly Prize pool. Boeing and other big names in aviation (along with DARPA) will lend their mentorship and technical expertise to the teams over the course of the contest. Winning is simple: The jetpack must carry a person 20 miles without refueling or recharging with vertical (or nearly vertical) take-off and landing. Teams will get technical guidelines — the competition is seeking a solution anyone can use that is ultra-compact, quiet and “urban-compatible” — but how they design or engineer their “personal flying device” is up to them. Competition prize money will be doled out in three phases: Ten teams with interesting written concepts will be given $20, 000 prizes, then four $50, 000 will be handed out for the best prototypes and revised technical specifications, before a winner at the “final fly-off” takes home $1 million. Even if they don’t win, teams may qualify for supplementary prizes at the last event, including $100, 000 for “disruptive advancement” of state-of-the-art aviation tech, $250, 000 for quietest entry and $250, 000 for the smallest. Teams can register for the first phase of competition now on the GoFly Prize site until April 4th, 2018. After that, teams must register for Phase II by December 8th, 2018. Source: GoFly Prize

Read this article:
Boeing offers a $2 million prize for a working jetpack

Microsoft plans Office 2019 release for next year

The next version of Microsoft Office is coming to a computer near you soon. The company announced today that Office 2019 will be released sometime in the second half next year. Previews will ship in mid-2018. It will include the applications we’re used to, such as Word, Excel and Powerpoint, as well as servers such as Skype for Business and Exchange. Microsoft is making the cloud a centerpiece of its Ignite conference this week, but the company also realizes that not all of its users are ready to fully commit. As such, Microsoft is making this version of Office software work for both customers that are already fully working in the cloud as well as those who are still on their way to that point. Some of the new features in Office 2019 that it highlights are new formulas and charts for Excel, inking features that are both new and improved and visual animation for presentations. Additionally, Office 2019 will focus on IT manageability, usability, voice and security for server updates. Microsoft will release more information about Office 2019 over the next few months. Via: The Verge Source: Microsoft

See the original post:
Microsoft plans Office 2019 release for next year

Password-theft 0day imperils users of High Sierra and earlier macOS versions

(credit: Koichi Taniguchi ) There’s a vulnerability in High Sierra and earlier versions of macOS that allows rogue applications to steal plaintext passwords stored in the Mac keychain, a security researcher said Monday. That’s the same day the widely anticipated update was released. The Mac keychain is a digital vault of sorts that stores passwords and cryptographic keys. Apple engineers have designed it so that installed applications can’t access its contents without the user entering a master password. A weakness in the keychain, however, allows rogue apps to steal every plaintext password it stores with no password required. Patrick Wardle, a former National Security Agency hacker who now works for security firm Synack, posted a video demonstration here . The video shows a Mac virtual machine running High Sierra as it installs an app. Once the app is installed, the video shows an attacker on a remote server running the Netcat networking utility . When the attacker clicks “exfil keychain” button, the app surreptitiously exfiltrates all the passwords stored in the keychain and uploads them to the server. The theft requires no user interaction beyond the initial installation of the rogue app, and neither the app nor macOS provides any warning or seeks permission. Read 4 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Link:
Password-theft 0day imperils users of High Sierra and earlier macOS versions

MacOS High Sierra is well worth the upgrade

MacOS High Sierra was never meant to be truly transformative. As we covered in our preview of Apple’s new desktop OS , it’s mostly focused on refining its predecessor, last year’s Sierra . At the same time, it also lays the groundwork for bigger changes down the line. Since there’s not much you’ll actually notice, and barely anything has changed since we published our extensive preview, we won’t be doing a full review of the new OS. But with High Sierra officially launching today , it’s worth highlighting the handful of notable features. A better Safari Apple claims that Safari 11 in High Sierra is the world’s fastest web browser. My testing with the JetStream benchmark confirmed that it was faster than both Chrome and Firefox on my MacBook Air. Safari clocked in with a score of 176.8, while the other two browsers came in around 129 (and yes, higher is better). Even so, I still found myself relying on the other browsers most of the time. Some of Google’s services, like Hangouts, only work on Chrome. And Firefox is typically the browser I use for dealing with anything related to work (it’s helpful having two browsers open at once for managing multiple Google accounts). While Safari tended to load some sites faster, that wasn’t enough to make me switch over. As for other tweaks, Safari 11 mutes auto-playing web videos by default, which should help bring some peace as more sites push unwanted video on their readers. You can also enable the cleaner “Reader” mode automatically for specific sites, or have it automatically turn on for every website that supports the feature. That’s something you can only do with Chrome through settings hacks, or by installing third-party extensions. Apple also claims Safari will let you browse the web for two hours longer than the other two browsers, as well as watch Netflix for four hours longer. Photos upgrades As we covered in our preview piece, the Photos app got a slew of tweaks. But after testing the OS for the past few months, I ended up appreciating the new Live Photos capabilities the most. Just like in iOS 11, you can now turn Live Photos into short animated clips that resemble GIFs. You can choose from Loop, which just repeats the clip; Bounce, which moves it back and forth in time; and Long Exposure, a unique effect that mimics the dreamy photos you can get by manipulating exposure settings on bigger cameras. They’re not groundbreaking effects, but they finally make Live Photos seem useful, rather than a waste of space. All of other Photos upgrades from iOS 11 also show up in High Sierra. That includes smarter people recognition (which can sync across all of your iCloud-connected devices), more automatic Memories options, and a wider assortment of photo filters. Another helpful upgrade: Third-party companies can now create extensions for Photos, which allows you to do things like prepare photo books without leaving the app. VR support Thanks to Metal 2, Apple’s updated graphics API, MacOS can finally handle virtual reality. Right now, it’s limited to the HTC Vive using SteamVR — sorry, Oculus Rift fans. And, just like with typical games, not every title supports Macs yet. Sure, it’s very much early days for VR on Macs, but at least it’s possible now with High Sierra. We didn’t have any beefy Macs to test out the OS’s VR capabilities, unfortunately. As we’ve noted before, figuring out which Macs can actually support VR is surprisingly confusing. But at least High Sierra also brings support for external GPU docks, which means you can conceivably upgrade any Thunderbolt-equipped Mac with faster graphics capabilities. Metal 2 should also make High Sierra more efficient at rendering windows and typical UI elements, especially if you have a decent dedicated GPU. I didn’t notice much of a difference on my 2014 MacBook Air as I tested the new OS over the past few months. Wrapping up A few other points worth noting: Apple made a big deal about its upgraded Apple File System when it first announced High Sierra, but I didn’t notice much of a difference as I was testing the OS. Surprisingly, the company also dropped support for APFS on hybrid Fusion drives — at this point it only works on SSDs. Siri brings over its improved voice and DJ abilities that we first saw in iOS 11. You can now check on your airline flight status right from the Spotlight search bar. We always knew High Sierra was going to be an iterative update for Apple, but I’m surprised by how few visible changes there are. It’s tough to tell you’ve even upgraded from Sierra unless you peek at your system’s settings. Together with a similarly humdrum iOS 11 update (unless you’re on an iPad), it seems like Apple was more focused on its new hardware this year than its software.

In-flight Netflix will be available on more airlines in 2018

Netflix’s in-flight streaming is available through a few carriers around the world, but it’s far from a staple of air travel. More often than not, technological limitations will force you to download that new show before you leave home. It could be far more common going forward, though. Netflix is launching an initiative that will use its mobile device encoding technology to make Netflix accessible on aircraft that don’t always have the luxury of fast satellite internet access . As you might have already surmised, mobile encoding uses far less bandwidth than what you get on the desktop. A “DVD quality” stream uses just 250Kbps, for instance. You won’t confuse that with a 4K HDR stream at home, but it’s good enough for a seat-back display or a tablet. And importantly, it won’t clog an aircraft’s WiFi network. You’d still need a reasonably fast connection to serve a large volume of passengers, but it beats having to limit access to just a few people or none at all. Partnerships with airlines should kick off sometime in early 2018. Netflix isn’t naming specific allies, but it’s safe to say that this opens the door to carriers that couldn’t even consider the idea before. The big question is whether or not it’ll work as well in practice as it does in theory. This could be great for avoiding the mediocre movie and TV selections you frequently find on airlines, but it won’t help much if it renders airborne WiFi unusable the moment there’s a new Stranger Things season .

Visit site:
In-flight Netflix will be available on more airlines in 2018