Tag: digest-golf

New Windows 10 build smooths tablet experience, makes Edge super fast

A new Windows 10 build is now available for Fast Ring users. Build 10122 should be available to download, but Microsoft is advising that users with AMD video cards pass on it for the time being. That’s because there’s currently a crashing issue in the Edge browser (still named “Project Spartan” in this release). Microsoft is working with AMD to update its drivers to address the issue, but until an update is available, AMD users are advised to switch to the Slow Ring. The new build makes Windows 10 look the way it looked when Microsoft demonstrated it at its Build and Ignite conferences earlier this month. This has two major parts; the Start menu has been reorganized to group Explorer, Settings, Power, and All Apps together, and the Start screen now puts more focus on new, larger tiles, putting the menu-like parts (including the aforementioned grouped icons) together in a hamburger menu. Similarly, Edge now includes the new tab screen shown off at Build. This is strongly reminiscent of iGoogle, including a search bar, popular links, news, and weather. Read 2 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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New Windows 10 build smooths tablet experience, makes Edge super fast

“Rachel” robocaller victims to get $1.7 million in refunds

The Federal Trade Commission’s fight against the infamous ” Rachel from Cardholder Services ” robocalls has produced a court order to give $1.7 million in refunds to defrauded consumers. The case dates to November 2012 , involving defendants including Universal Processing Services of Wisconsin, a payment processor, and telemarketer Hal Smith and his HES Merchant Services Company, the FTC said today . Per an order from US District Court for the Middle District of Florida, Universal Processing Services and HES will have to pay $1,734,972, which the FTC said “will be used to provide refunds to defrauded consumers.” “The court held Smith and HES liable for 11 violations of the FTC Act and the Commission’s Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR), based on their participation in a deceptive telemarketing scheme purporting to be a credit card interest rate reduction service that used robocalls to solicit consumers,” the FTC said. “The defendants failed to disclose the identity of the person(s) responsible for placing the robocalls and unlawfully calling numbers that had been registered on the FTC’s Do Not Call Registry.” Read 6 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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“Rachel” robocaller victims to get $1.7 million in refunds

Pandora, fresh off one copyright win, loses its rate case to BMI

Songwriters’ group Broadcast Music Inc. (BMI) has beaten online radio provider Pandora after a two-year legal battle, winning a substantially larger copyright royalty rate of 2.5 percent. That’s a large increase from the 1.75 percent Pandora was paying before. It’s also a stark contrast to Pandora’s win in a similar case against BMI’s rival, the American Society of Composers Authors and Publishers, or ASCAP. It was just last week that a federal appeals court upheld Pandora’s win in that case, finding that the royalty rate should rise to only 1.85 percent. The judge’s opinion in BMI v. Pandora  isn’t yet public, but both sides have put out statements about the results. Read 5 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Pandora, fresh off one copyright win, loses its rate case to BMI

House votes 338-88 to stop bulk phone surveillance

Nearly two years after the US government’s collection of telephone calls became public following the Edward Snowden leaks, the US House of Representatives has passed, by a vote of 338-88, a bill that would end the program. An exact roll call of votes is not yet available, but votes opposing the USA Freedom Act were generally split between Democrats and Republicans, many of whom argue the proposal doesn’t go far enough to protect civil liberties. Policymakers on all sides of the surveillance debate were under pressure to make some kind of move, with relevant portions of the Patriot Act set to expire at the end of this month. The USA Freedom Act ends the bulk phone database but doesn’t include many other wished-for reforms, such as a privacy advocate at the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which was in an earlier version of the bill. Read 5 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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House votes 338-88 to stop bulk phone surveillance

Why the Verizon-AOL deal just might work: Mobile video ads are worth a lot

For many onlookers, Verizon’s $4.4 billion acquisition of AOL  this week echoed another multibillion dollar deal—AOL’s own $162 billion acquisition of Time Warner  more than 15 years ago. That deal famously collapsed before the end of the decade. But Verizon’s move may differ because of one salient fact: there’s a ton of money in the video advertising being increasingly  watched  on mobile devices. “AOL was in no position to monetize Time Warner Online properties last time around,” Rebecca Lieb , of the Altimeter Group, told Ars. “Time Warner, in essence, bought what was then an ISP. The thinking was ‘this Internet thing is going to be big,’ but beyond that there was little synergy. This time around, an ISP, Verizon, is buying a former ISP. AOL is no longer an Internet service provider or a portal. It’s an advertising technology company.” From that perspective, the deal makes plenty of sense. Money is in no short supply for Verizon, and the deal costs less than  half of the company’s total profits in 2014 . Beyond that, Verizon has been trying to launch a video service for years now. It wants a slice of the mobile video advertising market, and AOL can help with its new “ONE by AOL” ad platform . AOL’s media properties may have been the topic of debate on Twitter, but over three-quarters of the company’s revenue came from advertising in 2014. Read 12 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Why the Verizon-AOL deal just might work: Mobile video ads are worth a lot

In rare move, Silicon Valley county gov’t kills stingray acquisition

The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors has halted a plan to approve the purchase of a cell-site simulator , better known as a stingray. The secretive surveillance devices can be used to determine a phone’s location, but they can also intercept calls and text messages. During the act of locating a phone, stingrays also sweep up information about nearby phones—not just the target phone. Earlier this year, Ars reported on how the FBI is actively trying to “prevent disclosure” of how these devices are used in local jurisdictions across America. The move, happening in one of the primary counties in Silicon Valley, marks an unusual occasion that a local government has turned away from federal funds that would be used to acquire such a device. The device was approved initially during a February 24, 2015 meeting, despite a testy exchange between the Santa Clara Sheriff’s Office and Supervisor Joe Simitian, a former state senator with a penchant for an interest in privacy issues. Simitian’s office didn’t immediately respond to Ars’ request for comment. Read 19 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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In rare move, Silicon Valley county gov’t kills stingray acquisition

AT&T finally ramps down throttling of unlimited LTE customers

AT&T’s long-standing policy of throttling LTE service for unlimited data customers has finally been changed so that customers are throttled only when they connect to congested cell towers. Until now, AT&T customers who used 5GB of data in a single monthly billing period were throttled for the rest of the month at all times, receiving barely usable service, despite paying for “unlimited” data. AT&T is facing a lawsuit from the Federal Trade Commission over the practice and has denied wrongdoing , but it promised that it would change the policy to make it more lenient before the end of 2015. AT&T did not make any official announcement of the change, but it is now apparent in the policy detailed on its website : Read 5 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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AT&T finally ramps down throttling of unlimited LTE customers

How Selerity reported Twitter’s earnings—before Twitter did

Selerity reported Twitter’s Q1 2015 quarterly earnings results On April 28, 2015. #BREAKING : Twitter $TWTR Q1 Revenue misses estimates, $436M vs. $456.52M expected — Selerity (@Selerity) April 28, 2015 Besides the news itself (Twitter’s revenues were disappointing to some investors) the event was noteworthy because it occurred at 3:07 pm New York time—almost an hour before the close of trading . While it’s rare for companies to release during market-hours there is no official policy prohibiting it and early announcements do happen occasionally. In the case of Twitter’s earnings, it was apparently the result of an accident by NASDAQ’s investor relations subsidiary , Shareholder.com. Most of the media coverage to date has focused on the process by which Selerity obtained the earnings press release so quickly. Some of that coverage has been speculative or inaccurate. In particular it’s important to understand that this was not a “hack.” That term implies a circumvention of laws or privacy, something Selerity would never do. Nor was it a “leak” by Selerity—it had already been published in the expected manner in the expected location. It was just early. We did not “guess” the URL that contained Twitter’s quarterly earnings results. Anyone with a web-browser and an Internet connection could have followed the links from the main investor relations page to the same PDF file that Selerity found. Read 27 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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How Selerity reported Twitter’s earnings—before Twitter did

Boeing 787 Dreamliners contain a potentially catastrophic software bug

A software vulnerability in Boeing’s new 787 Dreamliner jet has the potential to cause pilots to lose control of the aircraft, possibly in mid-flight, Federal Aviation Administration officials warned airlines recently. The bug—which is either a classic integer overflow or one very much resembling it—resides in one of the electrical systems responsible for generating power, according to memo the FAA issued last week . The vulnerability, which Boeing reported to the FAA, is triggered when a generator has been running continuously for a little more than eight months. As a result, FAA officials have adopted a new airworthiness directive (AD) that airlines will be required to follow, at least until the underlying flaw is fixed. “This AD was prompted by the determination that a Model 787 airplane that has been powered continuously for 248 days can lose all alternating current (AC) electrical power due to the generator control units (GCUs) simultaneously going into failsafe mode,” the memo stated. “This condition is caused by a software counter internal to the GCUs that will overflow after 248 days of continuous power. We are issuing this AD to prevent loss of all AC electrical power, which could result in loss of control of the airplane.” Read 2 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Boeing 787 Dreamliners contain a potentially catastrophic software bug

Raspberry Pi gets a remote Windows desktop client from Parallels

Parallels today is unveiling an RDP (remote desktop protocol) client for the Raspberry Pi, allowing the tiny computer to remotely access Windows desktops and applications. Although the Pi has appealed to hobbyists and developers, this product is for businesses, turning the Pi into a thin client for virtual desktop deployments. The pricing isn’t aimed at individuals. The Pi client works with the Parallels 2X Remote Application Server , which costs $75 per concurrent user, requiring a minimum of 15 users, making the minimum price $1,125. But there does seem to be an exception that allows free use for small groups and individuals. There’s a 30-day free trial that supports 50 concurrent users, and “After 30 days, you can continue using 2X Remote Application Server for three concurrent users with the FREE license key that you will receive via email after registration,” the 2X download page says . Read 6 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Raspberry Pi gets a remote Windows desktop client from Parallels