News written by James Delahunty (September, 2018)

SpaceX has announced the world's first passenger to fly around the Moon on the upcoming BFR (Big Falcon Rocket), as well as detailing the mission and dating it.

At a conference on Monday evening, SpaceX detailed its first private passenger mission to the Moon. Yusaku Maezawa, a private Japanese citizen and entrepreneur, will be the first person to fly beyond the Moon since the early 1970s. If all goes well, he will be blasted toward the moon on board a giant BFR rocket and space vehicle.

Maezawa has an estimated net worth of $3.6 billion since 2017.

"I choose to go to the Moon," Maezawa announced to the press present to applause. He spoke at the SpaceX conference about how he will invite artists from around the world to join him on the BFR mission, as he would rather not go alone. He calls the project #dearMoon. The mission is set for 2023 and between 6-8 additional artists will be flown to the moon as long as they commit to creating something inspired by the mission when they get back.

The crew will spend a week in space in the half million mile round-trip.

Netflix has been hit with a lawsuit by a photographer over the alleged unauthorized use of a supercell photograph in Stranger Things and How It Ends.

Sean R. Heavey is a photographer from Montana. In 2010, he tracked a storm for hours as it crossed into Montana, taking four vertical panoramic photos together into one photo. The resulting storm cell image has been used in publications all over the world.

While watching an episode of Netflix' hit show Stranger Things, Heavey noticed something oddly similar about a cloud formation that is shown. Later, in an episode of Beyond Stranger Things, a concept art photo appears to be built from his photo of the storm cell from 2010.

Heavey took to Facebook to show the following comparison and ask if others thought the cloud formation used in Stranger Things is his photograph.

Apple has responded to a tweet by a customer last week lambasting the company after three movies seemingly disappeared from his iTunes library.

In a tweet, Anders Gonçalves da Silva shared a support e-mail he received from Apple after he complained that three films he had previously purchased had disappeared from his iTunes library.

The response seemed to imply that because the films were no longer available in the iTunes store that the customer could no longer download them. Instead, he seemed to have been offered some free rentals.

Here is the original tweet:

Epic Games' smash hit Fortnite is being increasingly cited as a reason for divorce, according to figures from the UK.

Fortnite has become something of a cultural phenomenon for the games business. Fortnite Battle Royale attracted more than 125 million players in a year, and the title is generating hundreds of millions of dollars per month. Players have spoken of how addictive the game can be, and it has even generated compilation videos of "Fortnite Rage" where players lose their minds and smash up their equipment. To be fair, it's not the first title to generate such compilations.

It's not hard to imagine then that Fortnite could be a cause for the breakdown of a relationship. Excessive gaming has long been a factor in the breakdown of relationships between couples. In the UK, there are some figures to show that Fortnite can test the whole "til death do us part" thing.

Divorce-Online has reported that it received 200 divorce petitions that cite addiction to Fortnite, and to other games, as a reason that a divorce is being sought.

"These numbers equate to roughly 5% of the 4,665 petitions we have handled since the beginning of the year and as one of the largest filers of divorce petitions in the UK, is a pretty good indicator," Divorce-Online said on its website.

A man who has admitted to downloading a bootleg copy of Deadpool and then sharing it online could face a prison term.

The Fresno, California resident downloaded a bootleg copy of Deadpool shortly after it debuted in theaters over two years ago and then shared it on Facebook. As a result, the copy of the film was viewed more than 6,386,456 times by Facebook users.

Following his arrested, the individual signed a plea agreement with the government in which he admitted to pirating the popular film and sharing it on the social media platform. He pleaded guilty to a Class A misdemeanor which carried a maximum prison term of a year.

However, the government is recommending a six-month stint.

"[T]he government recommends the high-end sentence of six months' imprisonment, to be followed by a one-year term of supervised release, and a mandatory special assessment of $100," the sentencing position reads.

To justify the request, the government argues that the individual broke the law in a brazen and public manner. It noted, for example, that many users in the comments on Facebook pointed out to him that he was committing a crime, but he scoffed at the warnings.

"Defendant even created a Facebook group for the purpose of illegally sharing movies with others, posting 'EVERYBODY JOIN' in relation to the Facebook group he created called 'BOOTLEG MOVIES'," the government notes.

Another Tesla facility has experienced a fire and this time it is at the firm's ambitious Gigafactory.

Tesla's enormous (and still being constructed) Gigafactory in Nevada is used to make electric motors and battery packs for the company's all-electric Model 3 vehicle. Late on Saturday night, the local fire department responded to a fire at the facility.

Employees were evacuated and production was completely halted across the facility as a precaution. Tesla has said that nobody was injured in the incident, which is good news. Early on Sunday morning, the fire department turned the scene back over to Tesla for cleanup and repairs, and production resumed at the facility.

Last month, a Tesla factory in California also experienced a fire. The fire at the Gigafactory reportedly occurred in the cooling tube coating oven, which is on the third floor of the facility. Sprinklers managed to suppress it and the fire department made the facility safe.

Tesla has been working hard to push up its Model 3 production numbers and expects to produce between 50,000 and 55,000 vehicles in the third quarter. It also expects to turn a profit in the second half of 2018.

The latest beta of Google Chrome provides access to fingerprint sensing hardware so it can be used by web services.

The Web Authentication API enables fingerprint sensing features for Chrome. This could be used, for example, for two-factor authentication by web services to enhance security.

In addition, the latest beta also adds "shape identification" which relies on multiples APIs to detect faces, barcodes and Latin text in images across the web.

Google has also beefed up its push for HTTPS by displaying a red "not secure" warning when a user enters an e-mail or password into a site without HTTPS enabled. It also will exit full-screen mode when dialog boxes appear. This change is designed to catch the attention of the user to ensure they get the proper context of the decision they are being asked to make.

More info: Chromium Blog

via: Engadget

SpaceX has signed up its first private passenger which it will fly around the Moon using its upcoming BFR rocket.

Previously the rocket-maker had planned to send two private tourists around the Moon this year in a human-rated Dragon capsule using its new Falcon Heavy rocket. However, SpaceX has since dropped plans for crewed missions using the Falcon Heavy as it shifts its focus to the BFR. It can ferry astronauts to the International Space Station using the Falcon 9 Block V which is currently seeking human rating.

On Monday, SpaceX will announce details of the BFR's first private passenger Moon mission and seems set to identify who is flying "and why". It will be the furthest humans have traveled from Earth since the 1970s if the mission goes ahead.

SpaceX' BFR, or Big Falcon Rocket, is am ambitious super-heavy-lift rocket/spaceship system that SpaceX hopes to replace the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy with. It can carry payloads large enough to open up Moon missions, and then Mars mission. It is also intended to be fully reusable. At the moment, only the Falcon 9 booster and the Dragon cargo capsule are routinely reused by SpaceX.

According to SpaceX CEO, Elon Musk, the spaceship part of BFR could be ready for short hopper flights by next year. Test flights of the system will be a few years off.

Some Kodi users have been infected with a crypto-mining malware due to a malicious dependancy distributed with a popular add-on.

According to ESET, the malicious dependency had been distributed by a recently shut down add-on repository in the Netherlands called XvBMC-NL. However, it is likely that XvBMC-NL was an unwitting participant in its distribution as it seemed to originally show up on a repo for Bubbles, later renamed Gaia.

Specifically, the add-on affected is script.module.simplejson, which is a legitimate add-on that other add-ons depend on to work properly. The latest version of the add-on is v3.4.0, whereas the malicious version is v3.4.1. The malicious version reportedly showed up on the Bubbles repo back in December 2017 and was later removed from the newer Gaia report in April 2018.

The XvBMC-NL repo shut down in Holland was likely still serving the malicious version unwittingly. The problem arises when a user installed the repo and automatic updates installed the seemingly newer version, which was the malicious version.

You can easily check if you have the Add-On on your Kodi if you use the media center. In the Kodi 17 interface, open Add-Ons. Then click the Settings button (cog wheel). Open "Manage Dependencies", and then scroll down to see if SimpleJSON is installed. The version will be shown beside the add-on. If you have v3.4.1, then you have the malicious add-on and should install and run an anti-virus software to find and remove the crypto-miner it installs.

North Korea has responded to charges against a hacker in the secretive country by insisting that the identified man does not exist.

The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) charged a North Korean man in connection to the hacking of Sony Pictures in late 2014, and also with the spread of WannaCry malware last year. WannaCry affected business and government systems around the world. In the UK, thousands of health appointments had to be canceled as the malware affected computer systems in the National Health Service (NHS)

North Korea is claiming that the identified man doesn't exist at all and warns that the accusations against the country could have a negative effect on relations with the United States.

The man "is a non-existent entity, and furthermore, the act of cyber crimes mentioned by the Justice Department has nothing to do with us," North Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said in a statement to North Korean news agency KCNA.

Sony Pictures was hacked in 2014 ahead of the planned release of The Interview, a comedy starring Seth Rogan that depicts a U.S. plot to assassinate Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un.

The YouTube Kids app now provides parents with more control over the content that their children can see.

The most important addition to the YouTube Kids app was initially announced in April. It is parent-approved content, and it allows parents to handpick every video and channel available to their child in the app. It is available today globally on Android and coming soon to iOS.

For parents who want to enable this feature, open settings, go to the child's profile and select "approved content only." Now they're ready to start picking videos for their kids.

If this mode is enabled, then children will be unable to search for content. Parents can still search for content and can choose any video, channel or collection of channels they like by tapping the "+" button.

Another addition is the option to set the app to filter content for Older children, aimed at those aged between 8 and 12. It includes additional new content, like popular music and gaming videos. Parents can change between "Younger," "Older" and parent-approved content at any time.

As always, YouTube encourages parents to block and flag for review any content that they deem to be inappropriate for a child.

The BBC says it has solved a common problem with live sports streaming that caused a lag between broadcast and web streaming.

During the world cup, BBC viewers reported that they often heard neighbors celebrating goals before they saw the goal on their feed. This is fairly common for live streaming of sports and other events. For example, Amazon's broadcast of the US Open recently saw delays of up to 45 seconds.

The issue is difficult to tackle because there are many factors, including the broadband speed of the viewer and the equipment being used to view the content.

According to the BBC, it has found a way to make smaller video segments that can be passed through the system more quickly, resulting in viewers seeing action "at the same time as they would see it if they were watching on TV".

However, the BBC's solution would require the co-operation of the whole broadcasting industry. It is on show at the International Broadcasting Convention in the Netherlands today, and the BBC says it could be ready for prime time for the World Cup in 2022.

Source: BBC News

A Windows 10 Insiders preview is apparently prompting users when they try to install Chrome or Firefox, pushing Microsoft Edge instead.

Those who are testing the Windows 10 builds noted that when they downloaded Google's Chrome browser or Mozilla's Firefox browser, they were prompted with a message when they tried to run the installers.

"You already have Microsoft Edge - the safer, faster browser for Windows 10," the prompt reads. It then provides the options to Open Microsoft Edge (in blue) or to Install anyway (in gray).

Microsoft has irked some Windows users in the past by pushing Edge over competitors in a variety of ways. For example, at one point Microsoft tried to force Windows Mail to open links in Edge.

Google is set to discontinue its Inbox app just four years after it launched to test new features for e-mail.

Inbox brought about new features like snoozing emails to later and AI-powered experiences like Smart Reply, Nudges and high-priority notifications. In the intervening years, Google has taken what has worked from Inbox and it has added it to its Gmail service to "help more than a billion people get more done with their emails every day."

"As we look to the future, we want to take a more focused approach that will help us bring the best email experience to everyone. As a result, we're planning to focus solely on Gmail and say goodbye to Inbox by Gmail at the end of March 2019." writes Matthew Izatt, product managGmailr GMail.

Popular Inbox features like Smart Compose were introduced to Gmail in April of this year.

Google has provided a transition guide for anyone who needs help to switch from Inbox to the newer GMail service.

Remedy Entertainment's 2010 hit Alan Wake may soon become its own television series.

Alan Wake is an Xbox 360 exclusive that was released in 2010, developed by Remedy Entertainment and published by Microsoft Games. It follows protagonist Alan Wake, a best-selling author, as he investigates his wife's disappearance in the small fictional town of Bright Falls in Washington state.

While looking for his wife, Wake begins to experience supernatural occurrences and event plots from the novel he is working on. He has no prior memory of writing the material.

The title took five years to develop and was created by Sam Lake. Now, Lake has signed on as executive producer for a television adaption of the story. Additionally, Remedy Entertainment announced on Twitter that Peter Calloway (Legion, Cloak and Dagger) will also work on the project.

Spotify has significantly increased the number of songs you can download to your mobile or other devices for offline listening.

The music streaming giant allows users to download songs and albums to be locally stored on devices for Offline playback. This is very useful for people who cannot stream Spotify music in certain locations, so they can still enjoy their playlist whilst paying their premium fee.

Previously, Spotify set a limit of 3,333 song downloads on each of three devices, which is quite a high limit. However, that didn't stop some users from eventually pushing up against their limit.

Spotify then quietly raised the song download limit to 10,000 songs per device and raised the device limit to 5. It isn't unlimited of course, but that should solve the problem for most users who ran up against a download limit.

"At Spotify, we're always working on improving the experience for our users. We can now confirm that we have increased the number of offline tracks per device -- from 3,333 on three devices to 10,000 tracks per device for up to five devices," a Spotify spokesperson confirmed to Rolling Stone.

Twitch streamer Dr Disrespect has to abruptly end his streaming after somebody fired a shot at his house.

Guy Beahm was in the middle of streaming his gaming on the Twitch service when he abruptly walked off. He returned visibly shaken and told his viewers that he had to end the streaming for the day because somebody just shot through a window in his house.

"Somebody shot at our house, broke the f*****g upstairs window. This is the second shot. Someone shot yesterday. Someone shot yesterday at our f*****g house, and someone shot again right now," he said.

"It connected with the house upstairs, right? You're driving by, right? You pussy! I gotta stop the stream."

A message on his Twitch page days, "Doc and Family Are Safe. Proper Measures are be taken while stream is down" Meanwhile, authorities confirmed to media that they are investing the incident at his home.

This video shows his reaction (profanity warning!):

TickBox TV has reportedly agreed to pay a $25 million settlement in a lawsuit that alleged it promoted copyright infringement.

TickBox TV sells Android boxes, which are low-cost set-top boxes for televisions that run an Android operating system. Owners can install whatever they want on the boxes just like they could with a PC, including software that can allow you to stream unlicensed TV Shows and Movies.

Typically such boxes come with pre-installed software, including the Kodi media center software. Kodi itself is not developed for piracy but through third-party add-on support can be used for that purpose. Sometimes these devices are even advertised as "Kodi boxes", which forced the developers of Kodi to take some legal actions.

TickBox's website initially encouraged users to buy the devices so they could stop "wasting money with online streaming services like Netflix, Hulu or Amazon Prime." After the lawsuit was filed, the language was changed on the website.

As part of an agreement, TickBox has agreed to pay $25 million and to an injunction prohibiting it from present users with options to download add-ons that enable piracy. This does not include Android browser apps including Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Safari or Firefox.

A popular Android application for pirate TV streams will shut down completely at the end of the month, its developer has confirmed.

In a notification pushed to the users of the app, Terrarium TV developer NitroXenon explained that the service will be shutting down completely at the end of the month. It was a very popular app that used file locker services to stream TV shows to viewers.

It didn't require any significant knowhow from users to watch content on the app, as is not always the case with some other forms of streaming options.

Dear all,

It has always been a great pleasure to work on this project. However, it is time to say goodbye. I am going to shut down Terrarium TV, forever.

I know this day will come eventually. I know it would be hard to let go. But it is really time for me to move on to other projects.

Thank you for all your support through the years. Thanks to all Terrarium TV supporters and communities. Thank you, Nic, and all the people around the world who care about this project.

Please note that you will not be able to open the Terrarium TV app after the end of September as the app will close itself automatically. Please NO NOT try to click the Update button because it will not download any new version of the app. Read more...

Rockstar has explained why its upcoming Red Dead Redemption 2 does not allow you to switch between multiple protagonists like Grand Theft Auto V.

The latest in the Grand Theft Auto series, GTA V, was released in late 2013. It allows users to switch on-the-fly between three separate protagonists whose stories criss-cross throughout the campaign. GTA fans were wondering if Rockstar's hotly anticipated Western, Red Dead Redemption 2, would feature the same multi-character setup.

Josh Bass, art director at Rockstar San Diego, has poured cold water on any multiple protagonist hopes.

"Sticking with a single character felt more appropriate for the structure and narrative of a western," Bass told the Hollywood Reporter.

"Arthur lives with and fights alongside the other members of the Van der Linde gang, and they are a group of fully realized characters with relationships to each other and to Arthur, but this is Arthur's story and we are placing players firmly in Arthur's boots as he and the gang deal with a rapidly changing world,' he added. 'We think people will really love the feeling of being in the gang. It isn't like anything we've done before."

The upcoming Nintendo Switch Online service won't support cloud saves for all games due to concerns about cheating.

The official page for the Splatoon 2 starter pack was found to have a message at the end saying, "this game does not support Save Data Cloud backup." Later on, more pages were found to have the same information, including FIFA 19, Dead Cells, Pokemon Let's Go! Pikachu, Pokemon Let's Go! Eevee and Dark Souls: Remastered.

Nintendo explained the lack of cloud save for some titles as follows.

"In certain games, this feature would make it possible to, for example, regain items that had been traded to other players, or revert to a higher online multiplayer ranking that had been lost," the statement reads.

As for Splatoon 2, the lack of cloud saves was "to ensure that Save Data Cloud backups cannot be used to unfairly affect online multiplayer rankings."

Nintendo Switch Online is launching this month for a monthly fee of $20. It will be the only way to backup saves for Nintendo Switch titles.

Source: GamesIndustry.biz

A Kodi Addon developer in the UK may be facing a judgment of almost $2 million in a lawsuit brought against him by U.S. satellite provider Dish Network.

The developer, Shani, had been sued by Dish because his ZemTV addon offered unauthorized streams of television channels. While Dish claimed that the addon was responsible for the unauthorized broadcast of thousands of infringing works, it focused on just thirteen for the lawsuit.

It is not seeking a default judgment of $150,000 per work, amounting to $1,950,000. The request comes as the Kodi Addon developer has given up defending himself, citing high costs.

Last week, Dish Network dismissed its lawsuit against the founder of TVAddons.

"Defendant infringed DISH's copyrights on a massive scale by retransmitting the Protected Channels without authorization on ZemTV. Defendant transmitted the Protected Channels on ZemTV for at least 16 months from February 2016 through June 2017," Dish informs the Texas federal court.

"Defendant's clear willfulness and the strong need for deterrence, as shown by ongoing infringement in the face of numerous notices of infringement and intent to operate his service on the basis of stealing others' intellectual property, justifies an award of $150,000 per work. The Court should grant this motion and hold Defendant liable for damages in the amount of $1,950,000 and enter a permanent injunction, which is necessary to protect DISH's copyrights from further infringement."

Reports had suggested that the U.S. Air Force was looking into Elon Musk's marijuana use on a podcast with Joe Rogan on Thursday.

Musk is the CEO of SpaceX, which is a U.S. government contractor and has launched classified payloads for the United States government. As such, Mr. Musk has a security clearance. On Friday, news reports suggested that the U.S. Air Force was looking into Musk's marijuana smoking on Joe Rogan's podcast as its use is prohibited by those with government security clearances.

Responding to the reports of the review by Fox Business Network and CNBC, U.S. Air Force spokesperson Captain Hope Cronin denied that Musk's security clearance is being reviewed over his appearance on the podcast.

Musk joined Joe Rogan for an episode of the wildly popular Joe Rogan Experience. During the podcast, Musk drank whiskey with the host and accepted an offer to take a hit from a blunt passed to him by Rogan. "I mean, it's legal isn't it?" Musk said before smoking. In California, it is legal but the federal level is a different story.

In a quite interesting podcast, Musk and Rogan talked about the dangers of artificial intelligence, the threat of digging ancient CO2 from the Earth and putting it in the atmosphere and oceans, the violent nature of chimpanzees, boring tunnels, the unsuitability of flying cars and so much more.

A fully redesigned Twitch Beta app is being rolled out to all Xbox Insides on Xbox One.

Among the new features and improvements for the designed app are:

• Live video previews – check out live streams while you browse
• Better support for past broadcasts – see chat on offline videos
• Improved stability – the Twitch app has been rebuilt from the ground up to improve your viewing experience

Netflix users are complaining about problems with streaming media from the service today.

Some users have taken to social media to ask if others are having issues with the service when trying to stream certain films. For example, one Twitter user posted a screenshot of their Netflix app informing them that The Purge: Election Year is currently not available to stream.

Netflix' own 'Is Netflix Down?' site doesn't appear to be showing any problems. Oddly, the Downdetector service is showing the United Kingdom mainland, and parts of Europe, as experience outage issues.

Elon Musk's Boring Company has shown how it controls a massive boring machine with an Xbox One controller.

The Boring Company is digging tunnels underneath Los Angeles as Mr. Musk looks for ways to ease traffic congestion in LA. What started off as a kind of joke became an actual company that made headlines by selling a 'not a flamethrower' product to thousands of consumers some months ago.

Boring's latest giant machine can apparently be controlled by a standard Xbox One controller, which is kind of interesting. It also makes sense as the Xbox One controller can easily map controls to the gamepad, so there's no need to design a new gamepad.

Here's a video posted by The Boring Company showing how it looks.

Apple has confirmed that it has also removed Alex Jones' InfoWars app from its app store, citing community guidelines.

Last month, several outlets including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Facebook, and YouTube, removed Alex Jones' podcast content and associated accounts. The actions were clearly coordinated and the firms cited community guidelines and violations of rules as reasons for the actions.

At the time, InfoWars fans could still access the content by downloading the Infowars app from the App Store. Apple has now confirmed that it also removed the Infowars app permanently, citing community guidelines violations related to the content accessible in the app.

The Infowars Official app is still available to download from the Play Store for Android for the time being.

Last week, Twitter had also banned Infowars and Alex Jones from its platform. Initially, Twitter had not taken part in the coordinated actions, with CEO Jack Dorsey explaining that the accounts had not violated Twitter's rules. Some more recent tweets were seen to fall foul of the rules and Twitter reacted.

Source: Buzzfeed News

Elon Musk sits down for a two and a half hour discussion with Joe Rogan, and it doesn't disappoint in the slightest.

It has been a strange few weeks for Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk. He has come under scrutiny for disparaging remarks about a British cave diver, has been the subject of an SEC investigation over a tweet and is targeted in multiple lawsuits from short sellers who blame him for the loss of millions of dollars.

That made it all the more surprising when Elon announced earlier that he would join Joe Rogan on his podcast this week. The Joe Rogan Experience is a long-form podcast that routinely hits the three-hour mark with guests from all backgrounds and disciplines. Marijuana has certainly helped the cause for the host over the years.

It was no surprise when Joe Rogan sparked up a fat blunt during the podcast, but it was a surprise when he passed it to Elon.

"You probably can't because of stockholders, right?" Joe asked, to which Elon responded, "I mean, it's legal right?" and then proceeded to take a hit. It is legal of course, in California. Later on, Musk starts receiving messages from friends on his phone asking him why he is smoking weed on Joe Rogan's show live on the Internet.

The latest official YouTube app for Android has gotten a new Dark Theme and you can easily switch to it.

Google previously revealed that it will release versions of its popular mobile apps with a dark theme. This follows a trend of mobile apps turning "dark", but of course it won't happen by default when the app updates are pushed out. Instead, you may be prompted to try out the dark side when you get an update.

If you were prompted to try out Dark Mode but declined for some reason, you can very easily enable Dark Theme in the latest official YouTube app in just a few steps.

How to manually enable Dark Theme in YouTube for Android:

1. Step 1: Open the YouTube app and tap your account/profile icon in the top right-hand corner as shown.
   
2. Step 2: From your account/profile options, tap the Settings option as shown.
   
3. Step 3: Tap on General Settings.
   
4. STEP 4: Toggle On "Enable Dark Theme" as shown and the app will instantly turn Dark.
   

Twitter announced today that it too has permanently banned Alex Jones from its platform, along with his Infowars media outlet.

Last month, Twitter came under fire for not joining a coordinated take-down of content and accounts related to Alex Jones and Infowars. Facebook, Spotify, and Apple all removed podcasts and accounts alleging terms of use violations and other things. At the time, Twitter was questioned for its decision to leave accounts belonging to Jones and Infowars on its platform.

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey explained simply that the accounts had not violated Twitter's guidelines and terms and service and so there were no grounds for their removal.

Citing recent tweets and content that violate Twitter's abusive behavior policy, both Alex Jones and his Infowars media outlet have been booted from the service permanently. The platform announced the action in a tweet from its Twitter Safety account.

Today, we permanently suspended @realalexjones and @infowars from Twitter and Periscope. We took this action based on new reports of Tweets and videos posted yesterday that violate our abusive behavior policy, in addition to the accounts' past violations. https://t.co/gckzUAV8GL

-- Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) September 6, 2018

Amazon has announced the new Amazon Fire HD 8 low-cost tablet with an 8-inch display and quad-core processor for $79.99.

The new Amazon Fire HD 8 packs an 8-inch widescreen 1280 x 800 high definition display and a quad-core 1.3 GHz processor under the hood. It also packs 1.5 GB of RAM and either 16GB or 32GB of internal storage. Through the use of microSD, storage can be expanded to up to 400GB.

This tablet introduces always-ready, hands-free access with Alexa. When connected to Wi-Fi, ask Alexa to play a song, read aloud an Audible book, launch an app, or control video playback.

Amazon markets the new tablet as providing up to 10 hours of reading, listening to music, watching TV shows or movies, browsing the web, and more. You can ask Alexa to video call a friend or family member, adjust the room temperature on your compatible smart home thermostat, or show your compatible smart home camera.

   

HTC has opened up its Viveport store to its biggest competitor in the VR field, the Oculus Rift.

Users of the Facebook-owned VR headset can now go to HTC's Viveport store and purchase apps and games that are compatible with their hardware. For now, that is not too many with only two hundred or so of the available apps and games in the Viveport digital store being compatible with the Oculus Rift.

Having another venue to purchase from is good for comparison shopping and for device compatibility with online digital retailers going forward.

It also means that Oculus Rift owners should be able to take part in the Viveport subscription model which allows access to unlimited games and apps in exchange for a monthly fee, with a 12-month plan setting you back $80.

Via: The Verge

Microsoft is making it possible to control your Xbox One console using Cortana and Alexa voice commands.

For Kinect users and those with compatible headsets, controlling an Xbox console with voice commands is nothing all that new. However, for those who never had Kinect and work with Alexa or Cortana-enabled devices, the new Xbox Skill will be welcomed.

It allows users to interact with Xbox One using voice commands through your Cortana and Alexa-enabled devices. Compatible devices include a Windows 10 PC, Amazon Echo, Harman Kardon Invoke, Sonos One, or Cortana and Alexa apps on iOS and Android.

For the time being, the Xbox Skill feature is only available to those who are part of the Insider preview. Once working, you could just say "Alexa, start Rocket League." and this command will automatically turn on your console, sign you in, and launch your game.

If the Digital Assistant setting is visible on your console in Settings -> Devices, then you are currently eligible to test the Xbox Skill.

To take part with Cortana, use this link from your Windows PC. For Alexa, use this link instead.

The U.S. Department of Justice is to charge a North Korean hacker with involvement in the 2014 Sony breach, and the WannaCry malware that spread last year.

The Justice Department also claims that the hacker is responsible for a 2016 breach of the central bank of Bangladesh.

In late 2014, a massive data breach at Sony Pictures resulted in the leaking of sensitive information and the destruction of some data. The U.S. alleged that the hack was in retaliation for the pending release of The Interview, which was about a U.S. plot to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

Last year, a separate malware attack affected business and government systems around the world. The WannaCry attack has long been linked to North Korea. In the UK, thousands of appointments under the British National Health Service were canceled because WannaCry made computers nonfunctional.

Source: Reuters News Agency

More voices mount against proposed copyright law changes at the European Union level, with activist Cory Doctorow describing it as an 'extinction-level event'.

The European Parliament will vote on two controversial articles that it previously voted against fast-tracking amid concerns from activists. The articles - Article 11 and Article 13 - are part of a wider reform of the European Union's Copyright Directive which affects all 28 members of the bloc, soon to reduce to 27 with the departure of the United Kingdom.

Both articles mount enormous challenges to the web the way it is now. Article 11 would create a "link tax" which would ban online services from linking to news services on their platforms unless they get a license to make links to the news. Neither "news service", or "link" is defined by the Article, meaning different states will have to interpret the meaning.

Article 13 is more of a shock to the modern Internet, however. It directly affects services that allow user-generated content to be uploaded and hosted. Such uploads would have to be run through a copyright enforcement algorithm to be compared to copyrighted works and censor the material if a match is found.

According to Pew Research, American Facebook users are responding to privacy concerns on Facebook in a variety of ways right up uninstalling the app altogether.

A survey of U.S. users between May 29 and June 11 has provided a look at how American Facebook users have responded to revelations like the Cambridge Analytica affair. More than half (54 percent) of Facebook users aged 18 and older have changed their privacy settings in the past twelve months.

The share of users who have decided to take long breaks away from the service (several weeks or more) is reported at around 42 percent. Just over a quarter of the users, 26 percent, say they have deleted the Facebook app from their mobiles devices.

Almost three-quarters of surveyed users (76 percent) say they have taken at least one of the above actions in the past year.

Facebook made it easier to download the data that they have collected on users, but only around 9 percent of respondents say they have downloaded their data.

More information on the survery, including methodology, can be seen at www.pewresearch.org (PDF)

Twitter chief Jack Dorsey has admitted to U.S. lawmakers that Twitter's algorithms have not always been impartial and that the social media firm has made mistakes.

Dorsey was answering questions from U.S. Senators amid allegations that Twitter has censored or reduced the visibility of conservative users and organizations on its platform. Similar sentiments have been expressed by U.S. President Donald Trump.

While Dorsey admitted that the platform had unfairly reduced the visibility of 600,000 accounts, including members of the United States Congress, it was not the result of a political ideology. Instead, Dorsey explained that a Twitter algorithm had punished some Twitter accounts because of the behavior of their followers, and that Twitter fixed the issue when it was discovered.

He could not say whether a majority of affected users were Democrat, Republican or otherwise. "Twitter does not use political ideology to make any decisions, whether related to ranking content on our service or how we enforce our rules," said Mr. Dorsey.

Allegations of censorship have been made against Twitter for a variety of reasons. Users have claimed that shadowbanning is common, as well as tweets disappearing from search results.

Netflix has released a teaser for the new House of Cards season that will not feature Kevin Spacey in the role of Frank Underwood.

In the 19 seconds-long teaser we see the fate of the character of Frank Underwood, who rose to the office of President of the United States through sinister means. Frank's wife, Claire, is seen addressing the grave of the now-former President. His grave is located alongside that of his Frank's father - the same grave he urinated on in the second season of the show.

Allegations of misconduct against Kevin Spacey resulted in the production of House of Cards being halted, but its final season is returning without him and with his wife assuming the office of President after his death.

Here is the teaser:

You should have known. pic.twitter.com/UFGplyDSY1

-- House of Cards (@HouseofCards) September 5, 2018

Skype has added call recording to most of its latest versions enabling you to record audio and video calls.

Call recording is completely cloud-based and is now available on the latest version of Skype and on most platforms, except Windows 10. Call recording is coming to Windows 10 with the latest version of Skype releasing in the coming weeks.

As soon as you begin recording a call in Skype, all participants will be notified that the call is being recorded with a bar that appears on the app. The app also suggests that verbally notify users that they are being recorded to avoid legal hassles later.

Recorded calls are stored in the cloud for thirty days but you can download them for posterity if you wish.

On Desktop apps, the option to start recording is available when you click the + icon on the bottom right of the screen. Likewise, on mobile, tap the + icon and you get an option to Start Recording.

After the call, the recording is finalized and then posted to your chat where it is available for 30 days. You and everyone on the call can save the recording locally or share the recording to your contacts any time during the 30 days.

To save a call on Desktop, go to More Options and then select Save to Downloads. You can also select Save As if you want to choose the destination folder. It will save as an MP4 file. On mobile, just tap and hold the recorded call in the chat. When the menu is displayed, tap Save. The recording will automatically download and save to your device's camera roll as an MP4 file.

Instagram is working on a standalone shopping application according to a report by The Verge.

The Verge cites sources in reporting that the new app would let users browser collections of goods from merchants that they follow on the social network and purchase them directly within the app. According to the sources, it could be called "IG Shopping".

Instagram already started testing a shopping feature in November 2016 where merchants could tag posts with individual products and enable users to shop directly from photos.

According to Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, more than 25 million businesses have Instagram accounts already with 2 million of them being advertisers.

The report did not suggest when such an application may launch as the development is still very much underway, and there is the possibility that it could be canceled outright before it is released.

Such a move would launch Instagram into the e-commerce market in direct competition with Shopify and others.

Source: The Verge

Once again, policymakers in the European Union will be voting on very controversial Copyright Directive that could drastically change the web.

During the summer, critics of the copyright reforms and advocates for free speech and expression scored a victory when Members of the European Parliament rejected plans to fast-track the new copyright directive. However, a new pivotal vote approaches on September 12 and rights' groups, tech firms, and others are sounding the alarm.

Article 13 in particular raised concerns because of its focus on content platforms that allow user-generated content to be hosted and accessed. It refers to such platforms as "information society service providers", or ISSPs.

In essence, it would turn those platforms into a kind of copyright police. Some critics go further than that in their analysis of its effects. For example, the Open Rights Group's Mike Morel says it would make those firms copyright enforcers and have them effectively policing speech.

This would happen because those platforms could become liable for user content, meaning they would have to introduce general monitoring for all user content and use automated filters. It would, undoubtedly, result in the over-blocking of user content.

Google's Chrome browser turned ten years old this past weekend, and Google is celebrating by revamping the browsers appearance and beefing it up.

New appearances for Chrome will be present across Desktop, Android and iOS. On all three, immediately evident is more rounded shapes, new icons and a new color palette. The shape of tabs has been changed so that website icons are more prominent for easier identification and switching.

On iOS, the toolbar has been relocated to the bottom of the screen. Prompts, menus and more have also been changed a bit on all platforms.

On the productivity and security side, Google Chrome now has stronger password manager functionality. Chrome can now more accurately pre-load your passwords, addresses, credit card information and so forth. This sensitive info is synced to your Google account. Chrome also will now generate a super-strong password for you when you sign up to a new website and keep the strong password in your account. This is to enhanced your security by discouraging the use of the same password for multiple services.

Another big change is to the Chrome search / url bar, which is called Omnibox. From now on, the Omnibox will display answwers to queries right in the suggestions. Searching for a website in the Omnibox that is already open in a tab will produce a "jump to tab" feature, which is wonderful news for tab hoarders.

Esports cannot be part of the Olympic Games because they are too violent, according to the President of the International Olympic Committee.

"If you have egames where it's about killing somebody, this cannot be brought into line with our Olympic values," Thomas Bach, said. He made the comments at the Asian Games, where Esports is being included as a demonstration event for the first time.

Esports has an estimated audience of 320 million and growing globally. It is projected to hit $1 billion in global revenue by 2020.

"It has to fit the spirit and the value of the Olympics. The content should not be violent," Bach said, reports the BBC News website. "Blood in video games is the problem. The line to violence can be blurry but when it comes to blood it's easy to define."

Mr Bach won a team gold medal for West Germany at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, Quebec.

Amazon has become the second firm to reach a $1 trillion market valuation after Apple reached the milestone a month ago.

The online retail giant's shares briefly reached a high of $2050.2677 as its total market value soared over $1 trillion. At the current rate, Amazon is set to overtake Apple which reached the trillion dollar valuation milestone on August 3 this year.

In the past 15 months, Amazon's stock price has doubled as investors have been impressed by the company's diverse business success. Amazon has pushed into almost every area of retail as well as digital streaming, financial services and cloud computing. Amazon's cloud services accounted for 20 percent of total revenue (55 percent of operating income) in Q2, 2018.

It took Amazon 21 years as a public company to reach a $1 trillion valuation, having gone public in 1997 at $1.50 on a split-adjusted basis. Jeff Bezos originally founded Amazon as an online book retailer in 1994 and ran it out of his garage.

Apple was a public company for 38 years before reaching last month's historic valuation. Amazon's revenue is expected to grow by 32 percent this year, ahead of a 14.9 percent prediction for Apple.

Skype is working to simplify the user experience again by removing new social media-like features that didn't catch on with users.

Over time, Skype expanded from being a voice call service to adding support for video chats, group chats and more. It also incorporated features similar to social media giants like Snapchat and Instagram. For example, "Highlights" resembled Snapchat's Stories.

However, these features didn't really resonate with many Skype users. Those who would be interested in such features were probably already using them on other platforms and saw Skype as a messaging, voice and video chat service exclusively.

Skype has cut the features in its latest update, though users have until September 30 to download their Highlights if they want to. On Mobile, the new update focused on the fundamentals of why most people use Skype--to make a call (often with video) and/or send a message.

"Our new navigation model removes redundant and underused features that create clutter--making it much easier to find the people you want to talk to and contact them in an instant. On mobile we are moving to three buttons at the bottom of the app--Chats, Calls, and Contacts. Removing Highlights and Capture provides a cleaner and more efficient user interface (UI) that is easy to navigate while still providing all the functionality Skype customers want."

Microsoft has confirmed that the next major update for the Windows 10 operating system will arrive in October this year.

This is a month later than had been predicted, which isn't so bad. The update will be Windows 10 OS version 1809, with the official name being "Windows 10 October 2018 update", unsurprisingly.

Among the known feature changes or additions in the forthcoming Windows 10 update are a cloud-powered clipboard which will synchronize content copied to the clipboard across multiple devices.

It also introduces a dark-theme for File Explorer and improvements to the Windows Game Bar and Microsoft Edge web browser.

There will of course be fixes for common issues, such as the green screen error reported on logout or shutdown reported with some versions of the OS.

Development of the update is scheduled to finish in September.

It may be the biggest selling games console in history, but Sony Japan has finally said goodbye to the PlayStation 2.

The PlayStation 2 (PS2) console was released in Japan in March 2000. Production of the classic console ceased fully in 2012, but in Japan Sony was still servicing the aging console for its customer base at the PlayStation Clinic center in Iwate Prefecture.

Recently, Sony reached out to PS2 owners in Japan to fill out online forms by August 31 to have their console fixed one last time. Customer support for the PS2 officially ended the same date.

PS2 consoles that do not arrived by September 7 will not be serviced.

Given the PS2 is now 18 years old, it is admirable that Sony centers in Japan kept up repair and servicing operations until now.

Source: Kotaku

The music industry has its sights set on the high number of websites and mobile apps that enable users to download the music from YouTube videos.

Such sites and apps can take a YouTube URL and provide a download link directly for an MP3 file. These tools can be used to make unauthorized copies of music from music videos on the world's largest video portal. Some sites include support for others including SoundCloud, DailyMotion and Vimeo.

Last week, MP3Fiber was one such service that shut down due to legal threats, but many options are still available. Services an apps tend to carry advertising, which some in the industry say allows them to earn money by enabling copyright infringement.

"Although coordinated action by the record industry is delivering results, with major platforms like YouTube-mp3 closed down, we must continue to act against illegal sites that build huge fortunes by ripping off artists and labels," Geoff Taylor, head of the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), told The Independent.

"We hope that responsible advertisers, search engines and hosting providers will also reflect on the ethics of supporting sites that enrich themselves by defrauding creators."

Redbox has been blocked from selling digital download codes for some of Disney's movie releases.

Last week, a federal judge sided with Disney in a dispute with Redbox. The firm has clashed with Disney in court in the past over sales of Disney's download codes for digital copies of films. Initially, Disney argued that Redbox was engaged in copyright infringement by encouraging customers to make unauthorized copies of its films.

Redbox acquired the download codes in coupons after it mass purchased Disney DVD combo packs. It would sell the digital download code separately. Disney protested that the DVD boxes come with a clear message that the codes are not for re-sale or for transfer.

In February, Judge Dean Pregerson found that the wording on the packs was not explicit enough to prohibit Redbox from re-selling the codes after it purchased the DVDs.

With the release of Black Panther, Disney has updated the wording to assert that Disney owns the digital copy and licenses it to the buyer of the DVD only. On Thursday, Judge Pregerson granted an injunction against the resale of the codes.