deals – Page 173

Sony’s Ultra 4K Streaming Service Launching On April 4; Titles Priced At $30

Janko Roettgers reports for Variety: Sony is launching its 4K movie streaming service called Ultra next month: Consumers will be able to buy movies from the service, and stream to supported Sony 4K TV sets, starting April 4. The new service will offer 4K HDR movies to stream, including extras that have previously been able only on physical discs. Ultra ties into UltraViolet, the cloud locker service backed by Sony. Consumers will be able to upgrade SD and HD quality movies from their UltraViolet cloud locker for $12 to $15, respectively. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Sony’s Ultra 4K Streaming Service Launching On April 4; Titles Priced At $30

Names That Break Computers

Reader Thelasko writes: The BBC has a story about people with names that break computer databases. “When Jennifer Null tries to buy a plane ticket, she gets an error message on most websites. The site will say she has left the surname field blank and ask her to try again.” Thelasko compares it to the XKCD comic about Bobby Tables, though it’s a real problem that’s also been experienced by a Hawaiian woman named Janice Keihanaikukauakahihulihe’ekahaunaele, whose last name exceeds the 36-character limit on state ID cards. And in 2010, programmer John Graham-Cumming complained about web sites (including Yahoo) which refused to accept hyphenated last names. Programmer Patrick McKenzie pointed the BBC to a 2011 W3C post highlighting the key issues with names, along with his own list of common mistaken assumptions. “They don’t necessarily test for the edge cases, ” McKenzie says, noting that even when filing his own income taxes in Japan, his last name exceeds the number of characters allowed. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Names That Break Computers

Atari Vault Hits Steam, Play 100 Classic Games On PC

An anonymous reader quotes an article on SlashGear: Classic and retro video game fans will be eager to hear that Atari Vault has just landed on PC via Steam, making it the easiest way possible to enjoy 100 of the most iconic arcade and home console titles from the early generation of gaming. This eliminates the need to use emulators and ROMs to enjoy games like Asteroids, Centipede, Pitfall, and Pong, not to mention it being cheaper than buying several included titles individually. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Atari Vault Hits Steam, Play 100 Classic Games On PC

Snapchat Reportedly Acquires Bitmoji Maker Bitstrips For $100 Million

An anonymous reader writes: According to a report from Fortune, Snapchat, the messaging platform which has recently become the number one free app on the App Store, has agreed to acquire Bitstrips, the folks behind the popular emoji-creation service Bitmoji. Fortune’s sources has said the deal is “in the ballpark” of $100 million. TechCrunch writes, “The idea behind Bitmoji is simple. Users download the app and create an Avatar that represents them. They can choose from a wide range of options like face shape, hair color and cut, eye shape and color, etc. From there, Bitmoji is added as a third-party keyboard, and the app offers hundreds of options for users to send to their friends, all featuring their avatar.” It’ll be interesting to see which features of Bitstrips will be implemented into Snapchat, given Bitstrip’s experience with keyboard integrations. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Snapchat Reportedly Acquires Bitmoji Maker Bitstrips For $100 Million

Netflix’s US Catalog Has Shrunk by More Than 2,500 Titles in Less Than 2.5 Years

According to a report on AllFlicks, a website that lists and categorizes Netflix content, the streaming service’s library for American subscribers has shrunk by a third since 2014. The report claims that in March 2014, the US Netflix library consisted of about 6, 500 movies and 1, 600 television shows. As of this month, the same library offers 4, 330 movies and 1, 200 TV shows. An article on Quartz explains the shrinkage: The reason is that securing international streaming rights to shows and movies is exceedingly difficult — laws and regulations differ by country, as does the type of content that people around the world consume. Netflix hopes that its library in other countries will eventually rival its comprehensive selection in the US. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Netflix’s US Catalog Has Shrunk by More Than 2,500 Titles in Less Than 2.5 Years

AMOLED Displays Are Now Cheaper To Produce Than LCD

An anonymous reader quotes an article on AndroidAuthority: Optics pundits have been crowing about AMOLED destroying LCD for a while now: they are thinner, brighter, more energy efficient and arguably offer better colors, higher contrast, and deeper saturation than LCD. The biggest barrier stopping AMOLED from taking over as the smartphone display technology of choice has been price. Until now that is. As predicted two years ago, it has only taken 24 months for AMOLED production costs to fall below that of LCD. Production costs in the first quarter for a 5-inch Full HD smartphone display are $14.30 for an AMOLED panel and $14.60 for an LCD display. In the fourth quarter of 2015, these figures were $17.10 and $15.70, respectively. With AMOLED production costs dropping below LCD for the first time, AMOLED panels will soon become the default display technology choice for manufacturers on their mid-range and entry-level devices as well. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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AMOLED Displays Are Now Cheaper To Produce Than LCD

Sony Is Bringing PlayStation Games To iOS and Android Devices

An anonymous reader points us to Bryan Lufkin’s report on Gizmodo: A year ago, Nintendo announced its long-overdue plans to bring its games to smartphones. Now, Sony’s doing the same thing. You’ll soon be able to play original Sony games on your iOS or Android device, the company announced today. Sony is setting up a new business division called ForwardWorks, which will focus on mobile services, bringing ‘full-fledged game titles’ and Sony’s PlayStation characters and intellectual property to handheld smart devices. And it could be happening pretty soon — the press release says ForwardWorks kicks off operations next month. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Sony Is Bringing PlayStation Games To iOS and Android Devices

Kentucky Hospital Calls State of Emergency In Hack Attack

An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNBC: A Kentucky hospital is operating in an internal state of emergency following an attack by cybercriminals on its computer network, Krebs on Security reported. Methodist Hospital, based in Henderson, Kentucky, is the victim of a ransomware attack in which hackers infiltrated its computer network, encrypted files and are now holding the data hostage, Krebs reported Tuesday. The criminals reportedly used new strain of malware known as Locky to encrypt important files. The malware spread from the initial infected machine to the entire internal network and several other systems, the hospital’s information systems director, Jamie Reid, told Krebs. The hospital is reportedly considering paying hackers the ransom money of four bitcoins, about $1, 600 at the current exchange rate, for the key to unlock the files. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Kentucky Hospital Calls State of Emergency In Hack Attack

CCTV DVR Vulnerabilities Traced To Chinese OEM Which Spurned Researchers’ Advice

An anonymous reader writes: RSA security researcher Rotem Kerner has identified a common vulnerability in the firmware of 70 different CCTV DVR vendors, which allows crooks to execute code and gain root privileges on the affected devices. The problem was actually in the firmware of just one DVR sold by Chinese firm TVT. The practice of “white-labeling” products helped propagate this issue to other “manufacturers” who did nothing more than to buy a non-branded DVR, tweaked its firmware, slapped their logo on top, and sold it a their own, vulnerability included. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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CCTV DVR Vulnerabilities Traced To Chinese OEM Which Spurned Researchers’ Advice

Angola’s Wikipedia Pirates Are Exposing Loopholes in Zero Rating

Reader Jason Koebler quotes a Motherboard article: Wikimedia and Facebook have given Angolans free access to their respective websites, but not to the rest of the internet. So, naturally, Angolans have taken to hiding pirated movies and music in Wikipedia articles and are also sharing links to these files on Facebook, creating a totally free and clandestine file sharing network in a country where mobile internet data is extremely expensive. It’s undeniably a creative use of two services that were designed to give people in the developing world some access to the internet. But now that Angolans are causing headaches for Wikipedia editors and the Wikimedia Foundation, no one is sure what to do about it. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Ken May

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