Google gets a lot of grief from copyright holders claiming that the company isn't doing enough to stop piracy, despite the company's many efforts. However, this week, Google defended the amount of effort it puts in to suppressing stolen content in an updated anti-piracy report that goes over exactly what …
Read More »Megaupload will make its return in January
Kim Dotcom has not only confirmed his plans to bring back Megaupload after several years offline, but the new version of the site will launch in January 2017 on the fifth anniversary of the raid that took down the site originally. Megaupload will be returning in a “bigger, better way” …
Read More »Sharing your Netflix password probably won’t land you in jail
Sharing a Netflix account with friends or family is a very common practise these days but according to several judges in the US, this could actually be considered a criminal act and could be punishable by jail time under the US Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. Obviously, that is a ridiculous …
Read More »FTC settles with WB over shady Shadow of Mordor marketing
Back in 2014, during the build up to Shadow of Mordor's launch, Warner Bros own marketing campaign almost completely backfired when it was discovered that prominent YouTubers were being paid large sums of money for positive coverage surrounding the game. While paying YouTubers for sponsored content isn't uncommon, the rules …
Read More »Dell and OnePlus increasing UK prices following Brexit
Those in the UK who were planning on picking up the OnePlus 3 at its previously announced price will now have to pay out a little bit more due to the devaluation of the pound following on from the EU referendum. Dell has also taken steps by increasing its prices …
Read More »Mobile networks promise EU 5G by 2020 if net neutrality is weakened
A group of 20 major mobile network companies operating throughout Europe, including BT, Vodafone and Deuthsche Telekom have put forward a ‘5G manifesto', outlining the group's ability to bring faster 5G mobile networks to all countries within the European Union by 2020. However, there is a significant catch- net neutrality …
Read More »Microsoft insider survey focuses on PC gaming, hints at VR plans
Companies do tend to seek the opinions of their customers from time to time, often in the form of a survey. This week, Microsoft began sending out its latest Windows Insider Program survey, which focuses on PC gaming and also makes plenty of mention of VR, hinting at the companies …
Read More »More than 500,000 ‘hoverboards’ recalled over safety concerns
Remember the ‘hoverboard' craze of last year? It being 2015, the idea of riding something – even if it didn't hover – was pretty exciting, but due to a lack of regulation, the crazy ended before it could really start, due to faulty batteries. They were quite prolific too, as …
Read More »Germany tastes victory in robot world cup
Although the fate of Germany in this year's European Championship is still set to be decided, the German robot football team's is far more certain: they are the champions. The American team opposite them in the finals put up a good fight, but when it came down to penalties, the …
Read More »Alibaba’s internet connected car paves way for autonomy
Chinese online retail giant, Alibaba, has announced a new vehicle created as part of a joint partnership between itself and SAIC Motor Corp, china's largest car manufacturer. Made using the YunOS operating system, the new Roewe RX5 can connect to the internet through your smartphone, with the firms behind it claiming it's …
Read More »Tesla may be responsible for first autonomous car death
Authorities in the U.S. have begun investigating the death of a man after he collided with a lorry in his Tesla Model S while it was using the autopilot mode. Although the legal liability may not lie with Tesla, this marks the first time that a person has died while …
Read More »BMW may be striking a new autonomous car deal with Intel
Tech firms and automakers have been teaming up for years to co-develop autonomous cars, with Google and Ford doing so in 2015 and Baidu and BMW announcing a partnership before that. But the German car company may be set to make another, as rumours abound that it is set to …
Read More »Intel helped make an exoskeleton for the disabled
Who needs working legs when you can combine all of the horrifying names from sci-fi movies where robots went awry and create a set of robo-legs that walk for you? That's exactly what the Cyberdeyne HAL system is and it utilised Intel hardware to become a reality. As nefarious as …
Read More »Survey finds that 74% of Netflix subscribers would cancel over ads
While Netflix might be the largest paid-for streaming service around these days, they can only get away with so much and according to a survey released this week, for most Netflix subscribers, the line is drawn at showing ads. Apparently, around 74 percent of subscribers would rather cancel than be …
Read More »China takes top supercomputing spot with 93 petaflop beast
China continues to be the owner of the world's most powerful supercomputer, easily surpassing the U.S. in what feels like a 21st century version of the Cold War space race. The newly ranked #1 Sunway TaihuLight was built and designed in China, using Chinese micro-processors and is capable of a whopping …
Read More »Sky and Virgin to broadcast 24 hour eSports channel
eSports is constantly growing and while some matches have been broadcast on US TV, the same experiments haven't quite made their way to the UK yet- well until now. Sky and Virgin are set to host a 24-hour eSports TV channel this year, known as ‘Ginx eSports', which will broadcast …
Read More »Netflix pays people to watch its shows and now it’s getting sued
Netflix makes quite a lot of original content these days and somebody needs to watch it all to help decide on promotional materials. However, as it turns out, the gig isn't as great as it sounds (allegedly) and now, some of those hired for Netflix's secretive ‘Project Beetlejuice' program are …
Read More »Apple will start deactivating Flash by default in Safari
At this point, most large tech companies have been making efforts to move away from Adobe Flash entirely, largely due to its inefficiency and security issues. So it shouldn't come as much of a surprise to hear that soon Apple will start blocking Flash by default on its Safari browser, …
Read More »Space X is still trying to give the world cheap satellite broadband
Along with its continual efforts to reduce the cost of rocket launches in a meaningful way, Space X has also previously discussed the possibility of making high-speed, wireless internet available to all. However it's now having to defend its reserved part of the spectrum from those who would use it …
Read More »Larry Page has invested over $100 million in flying car firms
Although we're more likely to be driven around by our cars than drive them ourselves in the years to come, perhaps we will occasionally take over when they take to the air. That's the future Google founder Larry Page is banking on and banking on big. In the last few …
Read More »This toothbrush will tell your dentist how thoroughly you brush
Much like when being asked how much they smoke, many people are guilty of overselling just how well they take care of their teeth, especially when talking to the dentist. That won't be possible with the new Philips smart toothbrush though, which tracks just how good you are at cleaning …
Read More »Fourth Space X rocket makes it back home, re-launch in September
Space X has now brought four of its Falcon 9 first-stage booster rockets home to its facility in the launch Complex 39 at Cape Canaveral. This is four in a row now for Space X and it plans to perform its first re-launch with one of these rockets in September …
Read More »Google DeepMind wants a kill switch for AI
Google's Artificial Intelligence researchers at DeepMind have proposed that a ‘kill switch' be built for AI to prevent machines from outsmarting us and taking over. The idea is to create a way to “repeatedly safely interrupt” an algorithm, according to a new paper created in association with the University of Oxford …
Read More »Student arrested for live streaming a movie to Facebook
A student in Chicago managed to get himself arrested after going into a cinema and live streaming the film to Facebook. As you might expect, a smartphone was used to handle the streaming but the guy only got caught because an anti-piracy outfit in India saw the stream and reported …
Read More »Amazon is suing sellers for buying fake reviews
Amazon has begun taking legal action against sellers that pay for positive reviews on their products. In part of its effort to stop sellers from using these shady tactics on the Amazon marketplace, the company has launched lawsuits at three separate companies, using fake Amazon accounts for positive reviews. In …
Read More »ASUS is getting into the robot game with Zenbo
While the world worries about robots potentially taking our jobs in the near future, we may well welcome them into our home before they start collecting our paycheques. ASUS has announced its new Zenbo robotic assistant at Computex 2016, showing off how we may need more than Siri and Cortana …
Read More »Watch the Falcon 9 re-enter Earth’s atmosphere and touch down again
Last Friday saw Space X once again successfully touch down its Falcon 9 first-stage rocket on its automated-drone barge, after delivering its payload into orbit. The newly released video of the event shows off the entire descent, from re-entry burn, to suicide burn just above the landing pad. The video …
Read More »4K copyright protection stripper to pay $5 million in damages
When it comes to 4K content, heavy copyright protection is used to combat piracy and while it is difficult to bypass HDCP encryption, it isn't impossible. One company known as Ace Deal began selling devices that could strip content of HDCP protection, causing Warner Bros and Intel to launch a lawsuit …
Read More »Foxconn to replace 60,000 workers with robots
This week, news broke that Foxconn would be shedding 60,000 jobs and replacing those factory workers with robots. Foxconn is known for having a hand in the making of devices like the iPhone or Samsung Galaxy and this week, it confirmed that its employee count would shrink from 110,000 down to …
Read More »Microsoft cuts 1,850 more jobs, former Nokia employees affected
It looks like Microsoft's Nokia acquisition didn't entirely go to plan. Windows Phone's market share is still in decline and since absorbing Nokia's former employees, Microsoft has had a fair few rounds of job cuts. Following on from last year's cut of 7,800 jobs to refocus the Microsoft Mobile division, the …
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