4AM is a prolific computer historian whose practice involves cracking the copy protection on neglected Apple ][+ floppy disks, producing not just games, but voluminous logs that reveal the secret history of the cat-and-mouse between crackers and publishers. (more…)
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Breaking the DRM on the 1982 Apple ][+ port of Burger Time
Ultra HD Blu-ray is finally coming in 2016, and while we’ll hear more about its 4K movies this week at CES, Warner Bros. is kicking things off by announcing some of the first movies on the way . Right out of the gate, it’s offering Mad Max: Fury Road , San Andreas, The Lego Movie and Pan . They’re promised for the “initial launch” early this year, although there’s no exact date mentioned. More movies will arrive later this year and Warner says it plans to release over 35 in 2016, although only Man of Steel and Pacific Rim have been named. Standard features are of course 4K resolution and HDR support for more colors and better contrast, while select titles will also feature “immersive audio” Dolby Atmos sound. If you’re skipping discs for streaming or downloading, Warner says it will expand the number of movies available that way as well. Fox announced its Ultra HD Blu-ray plans during IFA last year , stay tuned this week for more news on what 4K content is coming to match all the new TVs. [Image credit: Pictorial Press Ltd / Alamy] Source: Warner Bros. (PRNewswire)
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‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ is an Ultra HD Blu-ray launch title
An anonymous reader writes: Workers in New York City have begun installing the city’s first LinkNYC kiosks. The kiosks are free, public Wi-Fi access points, which are taking the spots formerly occupied by phone booths. 500 more of these hubs will be installed by mid-July, and the full network will eventually include over 7, 500 of them. “Once completed, the hubs will also include USB device charging ports, touchscreen web browsing, and two 55-inch advertising displays.” The displays are expected to bring the city $500 million in revenue over the next 12 years. When the project was announced in 2014, officials said construction would start “next year.” They sure cut it close. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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New York Begins Public Gigabit Wi-Fi Rollout
In the two years since the PlayStation 4 first went on sale, hackers have enjoyed limited success in their efforts to open up the console. In June, a Brazilian team claimed the first PS4 “jailbreak, ” which involved the cumbersome process of copying the entire hard drive of a hacked machine using a Raspberry Pi, but it took until this month for a tinkerer to fully circumvent Sony’s content protections . With a proper exploit in the wild, homebrew group fail0verflow took on the challenge of installing a full version of Linux on the system. It achieved its goal this week, giving the homebrew community hope that the PlayStation 4 will soon become a worthy tool in their arsenal. Although exact details of the exploit have yet to be disclosed, it appears that the fail0verflow team took a WebKit bug recently documented by GitHub user CTurt and then turned things up a notch. CTurt’s workaround focuses on the PlayStation 4’s Webkit browser, which is tricked into freeing processes from the core of the console’s operating system by an improvised webpage. The PS4 is powered by Sony’s Orbis OS, which is based on a Unix-like software called FreeBSD and is therefore susceptible to common exploits. With a route into the console’s system, fail0verflow then identified weaknesses in the PlayStation 4’s GPU. Engineers from semiconductor company Marvell were called out specifically and accused of “smoking some real good stuff” when they built the PlayStation 4’s southbridge chip. Before you start dreaming up your next DIY computing project, you should know that this proof-of-concept relies on PS4 firmware 1.76. Sony recently issued firmware 3.11 to consoles. While the bug has now been patched, it’s believed the jailbreak could be altered to achieve the same outcome on more recent firmwares. Incidentally, the WebKit bug identified here is the exact same one that affected Apple’s Safari browser, which put iOS 6.0 and OS X 10.7 and 10.8 at risk in 2013. It shows just how common WebKit-based software now is. While PS4 owners won’t be able to install pirated games anytime soon, fail0verflow’s achievement shouldn’t be dismissed. Sony went to a lot of trouble to ensure that unsigned code could not be run on the console. The company requires that the machine runs on the very latest software, meaning hacker groups still have a long way to go before the PlayStation 4 is made truly open to hobbyists — just like the PlayStation 3 officially was when it first hit shelves almost a decade ago. Via: VentureBeat
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Hackers get Linux running on a PlayStation 4
Enlarge / The Apple TV and the Horipad Ultimate MFI controller. (credit: Andrew Cunningham) For those of us fortunate enough to have the privilege, late December and early January bring two things: new toys and a bit of vacation time. That makes it a great time to tinker with little tech projects, things that are inessential and maybe a bit time-consuming but fun enough and useful enough to be worth doing. One of my projects was to experiment with classic console emulators on the new Apple TV . There aren’t many of them yet, and installation takes a little work (Apple doesn’t allow emulators in the App Store), but new capabilities introduced in iOS 9 and the iOS-based tvOS make it possible to install them. Emulation and the Apple TV Right now there are two notable emulation projects targeting tvOS. One is a distant relative of the MAME arcade emulator , though it doesn’t seem as though it’s being maintained. Another, Provenance , is the one we’ll be spending the most time with. It’s a multi-system emulator that supports most major 8- and 16-bit consoles, including the NES, SNES, Sega Master System, Sega Genesis, Sega CD, Game Boy, and Game Boy Advance. Read 17 remaining paragraphs | Comments
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Using the new Apple TV to emulate classic game consoles
Ever get an update to an iOS app that just completely destroyed the app and made it terrible? There’s a way to roll back to older versions if you’re willing to jump through some hoops. Read more…
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Download Old Versions of iOS Apps with a Clever Workaround
Did you vote in a US election sometime this century? If so, your personal info may be out in the open. Researcher Chris Vickery has discovered that a badly configured database exposed the voter registration info for 191 million Americans, including addresses, party affiliations and state voter IDs. It’s not clear who originally managed the data, but Vickery and Databreaches.net are reaching out to everyone from online services to Congressional political action committees. The two are also contacting law enforcement in hopes of shutting down the leak, although it’s not certain that officials are taking action. The consequences of this database falling into the wrong hands could be severe, as you might have guessed. Less-than-scrupulous marketers and political campaigns could exploit the data, and criminals could combine it with other info to commit fraud or theft. It’s a particularly big problem for people who need to keep their details secret, such as stalking victims and police. Beyond this, the leak illustrates the need for stricter, consistent security standards around voter data — while states like California and South Dakota have sharp limits on where records go and what they’re used for, other states (including Alaska, Arkansas and Colorado) have no real restrictions. There’s a real possibility that this kind of incident could happen again. [Image credit: Getty Images] Via: CSO , Forbes Source: Databreaches.net
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Botched database leaks records for 191 million voters
Apple’s notoriously picky about what apps are allowed in their store, which means a lot of great apps get locked out. Jailbreaking has always been the go-to method for getting unapproved apps , but jailbreaking can be a hassle. If you’re just looking to get one or two non-Apple-approved apps—like Kodi , video game emulators, or even the f.lux -like Gamma Thingy , side loading is the way to do it. The process is free, it’s easy, and it only take a couple minutes. Read more…
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How to Install Unapproved Apps on an iPhone Without Jailbreaking
Starting next year, Microsoft will be a lot stricter when it comes to adware. In a post on the Technet blog , Redmond has announced that it will block advertising programs “that take choice and control away from users.” The company’s talking about adware that use “man-in-the-middle” (MiTM) techniques, in particular. Those include injecting ads and promotions by proxy, as well as changing DNS settings, without your express consent . They aren’t safe, because they could be used to introduce malware into your system, or even to spy on encrypted data and communication. In order to keep those types of adware off your computer, Microsoft has made it a policy that programs that show ads on the browser can only install, disable or execute programs through the browser itself. That means any ad software that doesn’t notify you via your browser that it wants to download or install something will be blocked off and marked as malware. The company says it will enforce the new rule on May 31st, 2016 and asks developers to comply with the new policy. If all these sound vaguely familiar, it’s because Lenovo’s controversial Superfish adware worked the same way. The PC-maker shipped out laptops with the pre-installed software , which not only injected sponsored links into users’ search results, but also installed man-in-the-middle certificates that would allow third parties to see users’ sensitive data, such as their bank details. After getting a lot of flak, Lenovo eventually agreed to stop preloading its computers with Superfish and provided a tool that can remove it completely from the units that already shipped out. This change by Microsoft effectively bans the root method that Superfish used to hijack Lenovo customer traffic. — SecuriTay (@SwiftOnSecurity) December 21, 2015 Breaking: Microsoft bans all adware use of proxies/Winsock/MitM to inject ads. Violators will be marked malware. https://t.co/kVYfKYJP15 — SecuriTay (@SwiftOnSecurity) December 21, 2015 This is a problem. #superfish pic.twitter.com/jKDfSo99ZR — Kenn White (@kennwhite) February 19, 2015 [Image credit: Nils Geylen/Flickr ] Source: Microsoft Technet
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Microsoft bans adware that use man-in-the-middle techniques
If it’s not Mario or Shepherd and the Mass Effect crew , it’s… plants and zombies. Cedar Fair Entertainment , which runs 14 park attractions across the US, is working with EA on two attractions for Great America in California, and Carowinds in North Carolina. Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare will be adapted into what the theme park is terming a “digital attraction”. This means that it’ll be able to substitute in and reprogram the ride later for sequel content — which sounds a whole lot like its namesake. Carowinds will get the PvZ attraction, which will open next year. Source: Journal Now
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‘Plants Vs. Zombies’ is becoming a theme park attraction