function – Page 57

PlayStation Vue, Sony’s new on-demand and broadcast TV service, launches in 2015

If you thought cramming a PlayStation into your TV with the cloud-based PS Now was crazy, Sony’s now trying to do, well, the exact opposite, bringing broadcast TV (and a bigger dose of on-demand content) to the PS4, PS3 and, at a later date, even the iPad. Another subscription service, you might think. However, Sony has already signed up some major networks and players (Fox, CBS, Viacom and ABC, for starters) and a no-contract setup: you’ll pay month by month — like how you pay for Netflix. More device support from both Sony and non-Sony hardware is set to roll out to the service in the future, although there’s no specifics just yet. Beta testers will see around 75 channels of content, including local networks, when tests start later this month, although there’s one proviso: they have to live in Chicago, Philadelphia or LA. For the rest of us, the entire service is set to go live in early 2015. While the service was originally teased back at CES 2014 in January, this is the first time it’s been given a name — and well, some tangible details. According to SCE, anyone that pays up will be able to save their favorite shows within their account without storage restrictions or scheduling conflicts: it sounds like you won’t be using any offline storage, although we imagine there would be an offline viewer of sorts. Once a show is tagged, you’ll be able to watch it for up to 28 days after. Filed under: Displays , Gaming , Internet , Sony Comments Source: PlayStation

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PlayStation Vue, Sony’s new on-demand and broadcast TV service, launches in 2015

Sam Raimi’s bringing an ‘Evil Dead’ series to TV in 2015

In a world where any show with “The” and “Dead” in the title is a runaway success comes, er, another one. That’s because Starz has teamed up with Sam Raimi to produce a new TV series that’ll follow cult movie trilogy The Evil Dead . The 10-part show will chronicle the later life of square-jawed hero Ash (Bruce Campbell) who will once again be called upon to battle the forces of Deadites. Given that the press release mentions Ash’s role as a “stock boy, ” it’s easy to presume that the character will be still working at the S-Mart where he was left at the end of Army of Darkness – rather than the post-apocalyptic future we saw in the director’s cut of the same movie. The series will begin next year, so be prepared for Twitter to be nothing more than an endless stream of people saying Groovy #Groovy. Filed under: Misc , HD Comments Source: Starz

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Sam Raimi’s bringing an ‘Evil Dead’ series to TV in 2015

Google says the best phishing scams have a 45-percent success rate

Conceptually, phishing scams sound easy to see through: a fake webpage with the wrong URL that doesn’t look quite right — who’s going to fall for that? Quite a few people, apparently. According to a new Google study, the most successful phishing websites will capture data from 45-percent of its visitors. The least successful scams only scored information from three percent of its visitors, but when crooks are sending out phishing emails by the millions , that still adds up. The study found that the majority of the hijackers operate out of China, the Ivory Coast, Malaysia, Nigeria and South Africa, and that they work quick: 20-percent of accounts were compromised within 30 minutes of having information phished. Most hijacked accounts are used to continue the cycle: sending emails to account’s contacts asking for bank transfers (under false pretenses, of course) or simply distributing links that might capture yet more accounts. The best way to protect yourself, Google says on its blog, are the old ways: enable 2-step verification on your accounts when possible and “stay vigilant” — report messages asking for personal information to and never, ever reply to them. Want to read the full study? Click right here . [Image credit: Shutterstock] Filed under: Internet , Google Comments Via: Huffington Source: Google (1) , (2)

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Google says the best phishing scams have a 45-percent success rate

AT&T plans to expand into Mexico by snapping up local carrier for $2.5 billion

AT&T has just revealed a huge expansion plan — one that involves crossing the border into Mexico. Apparently, the company’s in the process of acquiring Mexican carrier Iusacell for $2.5 billion, which includes the amount needed to pay off the latter’s debts. By snapping up this carrier, AT&T’s gaining its network infrastructure, licenses, retail stores, 8.6 million subscribers and its potential to grow further. Iusacell’s network covers 70 percent of the country’s 120 million residents, and Ma Bell hopes it can take advantage of that fact by getting more people to sign up for smartphone plans, now that more and more affordable models are hitting the market. Subscribers will have to make do with 3G connections, though… at least until AT&T decides to expand its LTE service, as well. The deal still has to be approved by Mexico’s telecom regulator (Instituto Federal de Telecomunicaciones) and National Foreign Investments Commission, before it can push through. Plus, Grupo Salinas (the company in talks with AT&T) can’t sell the carrier until it’s done buying the half of Iusacell that it doesn’t own. If all goes according to plan, though, AT&T can close the deal as early as Q1 2015 and boast roughly 400 million subscribers overall from the US and Mexico. Filed under: Cellphones , Mobile , AT&T Comments Source: AT&T

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AT&T plans to expand into Mexico by snapping up local carrier for $2.5 billion

The most streamed single of 2013 only earned its authors $4,000 each

Avicii’s song Wake Me Up has been played more than 168 million times in the last year and a half, making it one of the most streamed songs, ever. You wouldn’t be blamed, therefore, for thinking that co-writer Aloe Blacc has made some serious bank from his labors. Unfortunately, in an editorial for Wired , the songwriter reveals that he’s only received $4, 000 in royalties from Pandora, America’s biggest streaming service. His voice is joining that of other artists like Taylor Swift , who believes that companies like Spotify and Pandora are seriously devaluing the work of songwriters. He also points an accusatory finger at outdated royalty laws that mean that he has no control over the price, or use, of his music so long as a minimum fee is paid – something that he hopes will change in order to enable musicians to make a living doing what so many people love. We’d make a joke about Blacc’s breakthrough record being I Need a Dollar , but it’d probably be in poor taste. Filed under: Misc , Portable Audio/Video Comments Source: Wired

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The most streamed single of 2013 only earned its authors $4,000 each

Silk Road 2.0 was just the first: police seize more Tor-shielded darknet sites

Yesterday’s FBI takeover of Silk Road 2.0 was just the tip of the iceberg apparently, as European law enforcement organizations have announced a “global action” against similar darknet marketplaces. “Operation Onymous” resulted in 17 arrests total, the removal of 410 hidden services that allegedly offered illegal drugs and weapons for sale, as well as the seizure of more than $1 million Bitcoins in, $250, 000 in cash and drugs. Troels Oerting of the European Cybercrime Center told Wired that his staff hadn’t had time to assemble a full list of takedowns, but it includes Cloud 9, Hydra, Pandora, Cannabis Road and more. The Telegraph reports six Britons accused of helping run Silk Road 2.0 are among those arrested, while the BBC has word of two arrested in Ireland. Like both iterations of Silk Road, the sites were using Tor to anonymize access, but were still exposed. Details of how the service was pierced have not been revealed (we have an idea ), but The Wall Street Journal quotes Eurojust spokesman Ulf Bergstrom saying “You’re not anonymous anymore when you’re using Tor.” A Reddit thread charting the darknet takedowns also points out how the FBI was able to identify Blake Benthall, the alleged operator of SR 2.0. According to the complaint ( PDF ) they located and imaged the server that hosted the site, and while that occurred a support request came in asking the hosts not to reboot the machine. Then the FBI obtained logs from Gmail that tied it to Benthall’s IP addresses, as well as a network at a hotel where he was staying. Until the takedown , running the enterprise had its benefits, allowing Benthall to cash out about $273, 626 in Bitcoins, and make a down payment on a Tesla Model S. So what’s next? This round of arrests focused on those running the marketplaces, occurring in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the USA. According to Oerting, the next step is to go after others, including those who purchased illegal goods from the marketplaces. Filed under: Internet Comments Source: Europol , Eurojust

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Silk Road 2.0 was just the first: police seize more Tor-shielded darknet sites

Taylor Swift wants no part of the music streaming ‘experiment’

Just days ago, Taylor Swift shook off Spotify . The star opted not to leave her new album off of the service and pulled the rest of her catalog. Lucky for us, Yahoo caught up with the globe-trotting star during a promotional tour in Japan for more insight on the matter. As you might expect, she echoed the sentiment shared by some of her fellow musician s: streaming services don’t adequately compensate artists and the rest of the folks who have a hand in making albums. What’s more, Swift goes on to call Spotify and similar offerings “experiments, ” and she isn’t “willing to contribute my life’s work” to those outfits that don’t properly pay up. Spotify, for example, has been around since 2008, so we’re a bit beyond the honeymoon phase. Subscription-based and ad-supported music streaming has taken root in our lives, and it’s not leaving anytime soon unless there’s some kind of drastic change. She’s also well aware of the example she’s setting. And being the popular role model that she is, Swift doesn’t want folks thinking it’s okay to give their hard work away for free. In the end though, it apparently just didn’t feel right. “But I think it’s really still up for debate whether this is actual progress, or whether this is taking the word “music” out of the music industry, ” Swift explainss. Of course, Swift’s previous releases are available elsewhere, and Rdio reaffirmed its commitment to artist choice today, while boasting that the star’s back catalog can still be streamed there. If you’re after the full quote from the interview, it’s just below. Oh yeah, Swift’s new album 1989 sold well over a million albums in its first week. If I had streamed the new album, it’s impossible to try to speculate what would have happened. But all I can say is that music is changing so quickly, and the landscape of the music industry itself is changing so quickly, that everything new, like Spotify, all feels to me a bit like a grand experiment. And I’m not willing to contribute my life’s work to an experiment that I don’t feel fairly compensates the writers, producers, artists, and creators of this music. And I just don’t agree with perpetuating the perception that music has no value and should be free. I wrote an op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal this summer that basically portrayed my views on this. I try to stay really open-minded about things, because I do think it’s important to be a part of progress. But I think it’s really still up for debate whether this is actual progress, or whether this is taking the word “music” out of the music industry. Also, a lot of people were suggesting to me that I try putting new music on Spotify with “Shake It Off, ” and so I was open-minded about it. I thought, “I will try this; I’ll see how it feels.” It didn’t feel right to me. I felt like I was saying to my fans, “If you create music someday, if you create a painting someday, someone can just walk into a museum, take it off the wall, rip off a corner off it, and it’s theirs now and they don’t have to pay for it.” I didn’t like the perception that it was putting forth. And so I decided to change the way I was doing things. [Photo credit: Fred Lee/ABC via Getty Images] Filed under: Internet , Software Comments Via: TechCrunch Source: Yahoo

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Taylor Swift wants no part of the music streaming ‘experiment’

Facebook makes it easier to hide your annoying friends’ posts

If you’ve just about had enough of those annoying online quizzes you keep seeing on Facebook , well the social network has just introduced a new way for you to stop seeing them. Now when you select to hide a story (which you can do by hitting the arrow on the top right), you can also request to see less from that person or Page. Or, if you so choose, you can unfollow them entirely. Additionally, there’s also a new News Feed setting that’ll show you the top people, Pages and Groups that have popped up in your feed in the past week. You can then unfollow them if you want, or re-follow the folks that you’ve unfollowed in the past. Both features are available on desktop today. As for mobile, the latter News Feed setting is ready today, while the former “see less” feature will be available in coming weeks. Thankfully, even after you’ve unfollowed your buddy’s posts, your Facebook friendship will still remain intact. Filed under: Internet Comments

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Facebook makes it easier to hide your annoying friends’ posts

Lenovo is the new king of the PC and tablet hill

Did you know that Lenovo had planned to become the world’s biggest PC and tablet maker by the end of 2016? It turns out that the company’s achievement was even greater than its ambition, since the milestone has been reached six financial quarters early. In Lenovo’s latest earnings release, the company trumps its new status as king of the PC (and tablet) world, having made a healthy $262 million net profit for the three months between July and September. Some of the highlights include a big upswing in tablet and smartphone sales, as well as a big boost from the enterprise businesses its keeps buying from IBM . At the same time, Lenovo has decided to add Yahoo co-founder (and current Alibaba board member) Jerry Yang to its board, because that’s the sort of thing a company does when it’s making serious bank. Filed under: Lenovo Comments Via: Reuters Source: Lenovo , (2)

New Apple malware can infect your iPhone or Macbook via USB

China and Apple devices still aren’t getting along super well, it turns out. WireLurker’s a malware that’s been attacking Cupertino’s ecosystems in the region for the past six months, and according to c yber-security firm Palo Alto Networks (which discovered it), it’s the biggest that’s delivered via trojan-horse OS X apps. What’s more, it’s the first that can infect iOS applications like a traditional virus, and even auto-generates infected software. Some 467 apps have been infected and downloaded over 350, 000 times, and could have affected “hundreds of thousands” of users. And here’s where the regional issue comes into play: the malware is hosted on Maiyadi, a Chinese, third-party app store. That isn’t the only way for WIreLurker to attack, though — it can gain access to iOS devices via USB as well, and even through a charger it seems. Oh, and you can infect an OS X device by connecting your iPhone or iPad via USB, too. Sounds fun, right? That isn’t the half of it as once your device is compromised, WireLurker will snag your phonebook and read through any iMessages . The malware’s ultimate goal, however, isn’t clear just yet. Palo Alto Networks says to avoid it, don’t connect to any unfamiliar devices (desktop or otherwise) to one another and avoid any strange chargers too. We can’t imagine that Justin Long is super happy about any of this. Filed under: Cellphones , Desktops , Laptops , Mobile , Apple Comments Via: New York Times Source: Palo Alto Network

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New Apple malware can infect your iPhone or Macbook via USB

Ken May

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