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Microsoft Stops Selling Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 To Computer Makers

An anonymous reader shares a report on VentureBeat: Out with the old, and in with the new. Microsoft yesterday stopped providing Windows 7 Professional and Windows 8.1 licenses to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), including its PC partners and systems builders. This means that, as of today, the only way you can buy a computer running Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 is if you can still find one in stock. Two years ago, Microsoft stopped selling Windows 7 Home Basic, Windows 7 Home Premium, and Windows 7 Ultimate licenses to OEMs. Now Windows 7 Professional and Windows 8.1 are also out of the picture, leaving Windows 10 as the only remaining option, assuming you want a PC with a Microsoft operating system. This is Microsoft’s way of slowly phasing out old operating systems. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Microsoft Stops Selling Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 To Computer Makers

Foxconn Testing Wireless Charging For iPhone 8

One of the first big secrets regarding Apple’s upcoming smartphone has been spilled. According to a report from Nikkei Asian Review, Foxconn, the firm responsible for assembling iPhones, is testing wireless charging modules for the iPhone 8. TrustedReviews reports: Citing ‘an industry source familiar with the matter, ‘ the report states the wireless charging feature could appear on the next Apple handset, but it depends whether the company can produce enough satisfactory units. The source told Nikkei: “Whether the feature can eventually make it into Apple’s updated devices will depend on whether Foxconn can boost the yield rate to a satisfactory level later on.” The yield rate refers to the ‘number of satisfactory units in the production of a batch of components, ‘ and if it’s found to be too low, the wireless charging feature could be left out of the iPhone 8 according to the report. It’s also claimed the wireless tech could make it into some versions of the iPhone 8 and not others. Nikkei is also reporting that Apple’s next gen smartphones are expected to arrive in three different sizes — 4.7-inch, 5-inch and 5.5-inch — all of which will come with glass-backed bodies. The Next Web reports: “Nikkei further suggests out of the three new iPhones will be a premium model with a curved edge-to-edge OLED display; the other two models will likely have standard LCD displays. Here’s what Nikkei’s source said: “Apple has tentatively decided that all the 5.5-inch, 5-inch and 4.7-inch models will have glass backs, departing from metal casings adopted by current iPhones, and Biel and Lens are likely to be providing all the glass backs for the new iPhones next year. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Foxconn Testing Wireless Charging For iPhone 8

WordPress Founder Accuses Wix Of Stealing Code

An anonymous reader writes: “Wow, dude I did not even know we were fighting, ” Wix CEO Avishai Abrahami posted on the company’s blog Saturday — responding to WordPress creator Matt Mullenweg, who on Friday accused Wix of stealing their code. “The claim is that the Wix mobile apps distribute GPL code and aren’t themselves GPL, so they violate the license, ” Mullenweg wrote. Abrahami argued that “Everything we improved there or modified, we submitted back as open source, ” adding “we will release the app you saw as well… ” Mullenweg responded “It appears you and [lead engineer] Tal might share a misunderstanding of how the GPL works, ” ultimately adding “software licensing can be tricky and many people make honest mistakes.” Wix had also argued they’re giving back to the open source community by listing 224 public projects on their GitHub page. “Thank you for the offer to use them, ” Mullenweg responded. “If we do, we’ll make sure to follow the license you’ve put on the code very carefully.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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WordPress Founder Accuses Wix Of Stealing Code

Linux Marketshare is Above 2-Percent For Third Month in a Row

For the third month in a row the share of worldwide desktop computer users running Linux has been above two percent — up from one percent — according to data from web analytics company Net Market Share. From a OMGUbuntu report: We reported back in July that Linux marketshare had passed two percent for the first time, and that figure remains the highest they’ve ever reported for Linux, at 2.33 percent. But the share for September 2016 was almost as good at 2.23 percent. It’s the third consecutive month that Linux marketshare has been above 2 percent. Those of us who use Linux as our primary desktop computing platform can take a degree of pride in these figures. They do show a clear trend towards Linux, rather than away from it. But we should also remember that statistics, numbers and reporting methods vary between analytics companies and that all figures, however positive, remain open to interpretation and debate. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Linux Marketshare is Above 2-Percent For Third Month in a Row

AI-Powered Body Scanners Could Soon Speed Up Your Airport Check-in

An anonymous reader shares a report on the Guardian:A startup bankrolled by Bill Gates is about to conduct the first public trials of high-speed body scanners powered by artificial intelligence (AI), the Guardian can reveal. According to documents filed with the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Boston-based Evolv Technology is planning to test its system at Union Station in Washington DC, in Los Angeles’s Union Station metro and at Denver international airport. Evolv uses the same millimetre-wave radio frequencies as the controversial, and painfully slow, body scanners now found at many airport security checkpoints. However, the new device can complete its scan in a fraction of second, using computer vision and machine learning to spot guns and bombs. This means passengers can simply walk through a scanning gate without stopping or even slowing down — like the hi-tech scanners seen in the 1990 sci-fi film Total Recall. A nearby security guard with a tablet is then shown either an “all-clear” sign, or a photo of the person with suspicious areas highlighted. Evolv says the system can scan 800 people an hour, without anyone having to remove their keys, coins or cellphones. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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AI-Powered Body Scanners Could Soon Speed Up Your Airport Check-in

Curious Tilt of the Sun Traced To Undiscovered Planet

An anonymous reader writes: Planet Nine – the undiscovered planet at the edge of the solar system that was predicted by the work of Caltech’s Konstantin Batygin and Mike Brown in January 2016 — appears to be responsible for the unusual tilt of the Sun, according to a new study. The large and distant planet may be adding a wobble to the solar system, giving the appearance that the Sun is tilted slightly. “Because Planet Nine is so massive and has an orbit tilted compared to the other planets, the solar system has no choice but to slowly twist out of alignment, ” says Elizabeth Bailey, a graduate student at Caltech and lead author of a study announcing the discovery. All of the planets orbit in a flat plane with respect to the Sun, roughly within a couple degrees of each other. That plane, however, rotates at a six-degree tilt with respect to the Sun — giving the appearance that the Sun itself is cocked off at an angle. Until now, no one had found a compelling explanation to produce such an effect. “It’s such a deep-rooted mystery and so difficult to explain that people just don’t talk about it, ” says Brown, the Richard and Barbara Rosenberg Professor of Planetary Astronomy. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Curious Tilt of the Sun Traced To Undiscovered Planet

Warner Bros Claims Agency Ran Its Own Pirate Movie Site

Warner Bros Entertainment has sued talent agency Innovative Artists, claiming that the agency ran its own pirate site when it ripped DVD screeners and streamed them to associates via Google servers. TorrentFreak adds: In a lawsuit filed in a California federal court, Warner accuses the agency of effectively setting up its own pirate site, stocked with rips of DVD screeners that should have been kept secure. “Beginning in late 2015, Innovative Artists set up and operated an illegal digital distribution platform that copied movies and then distributed copies and streamed public performances of those movies to numerous people inside and outside of the agency, ” the complaint reads. “Innovative Artists stocked its platform with copies of Plaintiff’s works, including copies that Innovative Artists made by ripping awards consideration ‘screener’ DVDs that Plaintiff sent to the agency to deliver to one of its clients.” Given its position in the industry, Innovative Artists should have known better than to upload content, Warner’s lawyers write. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Warner Bros Claims Agency Ran Its Own Pirate Movie Site

Who Should We Blame For Friday’s DDOS Attack?

“Wondering which IoT device types are part of the Mirai botnet causing trouble today? Brian Krebs has the list, tweeted Trend Micro’s Eric Skinner Friday, sharing an early October link which identifies Panasonic, Samsung and Xerox printers, and lesser known makers of routers and cameras. An anonymous reader quotes Fortune: Part of the responsibility should also lie with lawmakers and regulators, who have failed to create a safety system to account for the Internet-of-Things era we are now living in. Finally, it’s time for consumers to acknowledge they have a role in the attack too. By failing to secure the internet-connected devices, they are endangering not just themselves but the rest of the Internet as well. If you’re worried, Motherboard is pointing people to an online scanning tool from BullGuard (a U.K. anti-virus firm) which checks whether devices on your home network are listed in the Shodan search engine for unsecured IoT devices. But earlier this month, Brian Krebs pointed out the situation is exacerbated by the failure of many ISPs to implement the BCP38 security standard to filter spoofed traffic, “allowing systems on their networks to be leveraged in large-scale DDoS attacks…” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Who Should We Blame For Friday’s DDOS Attack?

Amazon May Handle 30% Of All US Retail Sales

An anonymous reader quotes USA Today: Amazon’s yearly sales account for about 15% of total U.S. consumer online sales, according to the company’s statements and the Department of Commerce. But the Seattle e-commerce company may actually be handling double that amount — 20% to 30% of all U.S. retail goods sold online — thanks to the volume of sales it transacts for third parties on its website and app. Only a portion of those sales add to its revenue. “The punchline is that Amazon’s twice as big as people give them credit for, because there’s this iceberg under the surface, but you only see the tip, ” said Scot Wingo, executive chairman of Channel Advisor, an e-commerce software company that works with thousands of online sellers. When third-party sales are taken into account, Amazon’s share of what U.S. shoppers spend online could be as high as $125 billion yearly… Amazon’s share will grow even larger when they can offer two-hour deliveries, warns one analyst, while another puts it more succinctly. “Amazon’s just going to slowly grab more and more of your wallet.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Amazon May Handle 30% Of All US Retail Sales

Feds Walk Into a Building, Demand Everyone’s Fingerprints To Open Phones

An anonymous Slashdot reader quotes the Daily Herald: Investigators in Lancaster, California, were granted a search warrant last May with a scope that allowed them to force anyone inside the premises at the time of search to open up their phones via fingerprint recognition, Forbes reported Sunday. The government argued that this did not violate the citizens’ Fifth Amendment protection against self incrimination because no actual passcode was handed over to authorities… “I was frankly a bit shocked, ” said Andrew Crocker, a staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, when he learned about the scope of search warrant. “As far as I know, this warrant application was unprecedented”… He also described requiring phones to be unlocked via fingerprint, which does not technically count as handing over a self-incriminating password, as a “clever end-run” around constitutional rights. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Feds Walk Into a Building, Demand Everyone’s Fingerprints To Open Phones