Tag: management

Microsoft Kills Xbox One Phone-Home DRM

One of the biggest criticisms of Microsoft’s recently-announced Xbox One console was that it would require an internet connection once every 24 hours in order to keep playing games. Enough people complained about the DRM, and Microsoft listened. Today, they announced that they’re removing the phone-home requirement. “After a one-time system set-up with a new Xbox One, you can play any disc based game without ever connecting online again. There is no 24 hour connection requirement and you can take your Xbox One anywhere you want and play your games, just like on Xbox 360.” They’ve also scrapped the game trading and resale system they’d built, which allowed publishers to set their own rules with regard to used game sales. “There will be no limitations to using and sharing games, it will work just as it does today on Xbox 360.” Unfortunately, that also means users won’t be able to take advantage of the good parts of the original system, such as trading and gifting games without needing the disc, or sharing games with remote family members. “While we believe that the majority of people will play games online and access the cloud for both games and entertainment, we will give consumers the choice of both physical and digital content. We have listened and we have heard loud and clear from your feedback that you want the best of both worlds.” Also noteworthy: they’ve dropped region-locks as well. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Microsoft Kills Xbox One Phone-Home DRM

Verizon Accused of Intentionally Slowing Netflix Video Streaming

colinneagle writes “A recent GigaOm report discusses Verizon’s ‘peering’ practices, which involves the exchange of traffic between two bandwidth providers. When peering with bandwidth provider Cogent starts to reach capacity, Verizon reportedly isn’t adding any ports to meet the demand, Cogent CEO Dave Schaffer told GigaOm. ‘They are allowing the peer connections to degrade,’ Schaffer said. ‘Today some of the ports are at 100 percent capacity.’ Why would Verizon intentionally disrupt Netflix video streaming for its customers? One possible reason is that Verizon owns a 50% stake in Redbox, the video rental service that contributed to the demise of Blockbuster (and more recently, a direct competitor to Netflix in online streaming). If anything threatens the future of Redbox, whose business model requires customers to visit its vending machines to rent and return DVDs, it’s Netflix’s instant streaming service, which delivers the same content directly to their screens.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Verizon Accused of Intentionally Slowing Netflix Video Streaming

Scores of Vulnerable SAP Deployments Uncovered

mask.of.sanity writes “Hundreds of organizations have been detected running dangerously vulnerable versions of SAP that were more than seven years old and thousands more have placed their critical data at risk by exposing SAP applications to the public Internet. The new research found the SAP services were inadvertently made accessible thanks to a common misconception that SAP systems were not publicly-facing and remotely-accessible. The SAP services contained dangerous vulnerabilities which were since patched by the vendor but had not been applied.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Scores of Vulnerable SAP Deployments Uncovered

Ancient Roman Concrete Is About To Revolutionize Modern Architecture

schwit1 sends this news from Businesweek: “After 2,000 years, a long-lost secret behind the creation of one of the world’s most durable man-made creations ever — Roman concrete — has finally been discovered by an international team of scientists, and it may have a significant impact on how we build cities of the future. Researchers have analyzed 11 harbors in the Mediterranean basin where, in many cases, 2,000-year-old (and sometimes older) headwaters constructed out of Roman concrete stand perfectly intact despite constant pounding by the sea. The most common blend of modern concrete, known as Portland cement, a formulation in use for nearly 200 years, can’t come close to matching that track record. In seawater, it has a service life of less than 50 years. After that, it begins to erode. The secret to Roman concrete lies in its unique mineral formulation and production technique. As the researchers explain in a press release outlining their findings, ‘The Romans made concrete by mixing lime and volcanic rock. For underwater structures, lime and volcanic ash were mixed to form mortar, and this mortar and volcanic tuff were packed into wooden forms. The seawater instantly triggered a hot chemical reaction. The lime was hydrated — incorporating water molecules into its structure — and reacted with the ash to cement the whole mixture together.'” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Ancient Roman Concrete Is About To Revolutionize Modern Architecture

Partially-Undersea Water Discus Hotel To Be Built In the Maldives

Zothecula writes “Polish architectural and deep-sea engineering company Deep Ocean Technology has inked a deal with Ridgewood Hotels and Suites Pvt. Ltd. to build its futuristic part-underwater Water Discus Hotel just off the shore of Kuredhivaru Island in the Maldives. ‘The luminous hotel features two large disc-shaped lounges seven-meters above the water, housing a luxury restaurant and spa. The lounges are connected to a glass tunnel plunging 30-meters below the water, leading to 21 opulent bedrooms. Not only does the hotel look like a spaceship — it actually moves like one, with the largest underwater saucer-shaped room able to slide to the surface in emergencies. ‘If you need to replace a window for example, it’s very difficult underwater,’ explained Podwojewski. ‘So we wanted to build a building that can surface any time for maintenance or safety.'” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Partially-Undersea Water Discus Hotel To Be Built In the Maldives

Google To Buy Waze For $1.3 Billion

An anonymous reader writes “Google and Israeli start-up Waze have agreed in principle on a deal in which the search engine giant will buy the road traffic information sharing application for $1.3 billion. Waze, which claims more than 40 million users, describes itself as an app bringing together ‘the world’s largest community of drivers who work together to fight traffic, and save time and gas money on their daily commute.’ There have been previous reports that first Apple and then Facebook wanted to acquire the Israeli start-up.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Google To Buy Waze For $1.3 Billion

Texas Instruments brings fast charging, extended life to Li-ion batteries

Yesterday Texas Instruments introduced a couple of new chipsets (fuel gauge an charger ICs) designed to improve the charging speed and life expectancy of single-cell Li-ion batteries. The technology, called MaxLife, is expected to provide an improvement of up to 30 percent in battery service life and faster charging times . Cell impedance is carefully monitored by the fuel gauge chip while the charger IC uses a model of battery degradation to charge the cell in the most optimal way. Both chips are connected via an I2C bus to form an autonomous battery management system which, according to the company, is safer and more thermally efficient than existing solutions. The two chipsets (2.5A and 4.5A) are now available along with a development kit, so it’s only a matter of time until this technology lands into handsets and other devices that use single-cell Li-ion batteries. Check out the details after the break. Filed under: Cellphones , Misc , Mobile Comments

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Texas Instruments brings fast charging, extended life to Li-ion batteries

Sony Touts 25 Hour Battery Life For Haswell-Equipped Vaio Pro

An anonymous reader writes “Sony claims that both the new 11.6-inch and 13.3-inch models of its Haswell-equipped Vaio Pro ultrabooks are the world’s lightest. The 11.6-inch model weighs in at 1.9lb (0.87k , where as the 13.3-incher is a little heavier at just 2.33lb (1.06kg). But it’s the battery life on offer here that really makes the new Pros stand out. The 11.6-inch Vaio Pro offers 11 hours of battery life as standard, while the 13.3-inch achieves 8 hours. However, Sony is also offering a sheet battery you can connect to the base of the ultrabooks. On the 13.3-inch Pro that increases battery life to 18 hours, but on the 11.6-inch you get a true day-long amount of juice with 25 hours of battery life claimed.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Sony Touts 25 Hour Battery Life For Haswell-Equipped Vaio Pro

European HbbTV Smart TV Holes Make Sets Hackable

mask.of.sanity writes “Vulnerabilities in Hybrid Broadcast Broadband TV television sets have been found that allow viewers’ home networks to be hacked, the programs they watched spied on, and even for TV sets to be turned into Bitcoin miners. The laboratory attacks took take advantage of the rich web features enabled in smart TVs running on the HbbTV network, a system loaded with online streaming content and apps which is used by more than 20 million viewers in Europe.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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European HbbTV Smart TV Holes Make Sets Hackable

iPhone 4, iPad 2 Get US Import Ban

Bent Spoke writes “The U.S. trade agency has banned the import of older Apple iPhone and iPad models due to the violation of a patent held by Samsung (PDF). ‘The president can overturn the import ban on public-policy grounds, though that rarely happens. Apple can keep selling the devices during the 60-day review period. … Apple pledged to appeal the ITC decision. The underlying findings will be reviewed by a U.S. appeals court specializing in patent cases. … The decision could mean fewer choices for AT&T and T-Mobile customers who want to get an iPhone without paying the higher cost of the iPhone 5. Samsung told the commission that Cupertino, California-based Apple could drop the price of the iPhone 5 if it was worried about losing potential customers. All of the iPhones are made in Asia.’ It’s getting so complicated we need a scorecard to keep track of who’s winning these offensive patent battles in the smartphone coliseum.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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iPhone 4, iPad 2 Get US Import Ban