Geek News

Logan Paul's video in which he filmed the body of a suicide victim continues to live on YouTube, even though the company has attempted to purge complete re-uploads from its site. A search this morning surfaced multiple re-uploads, including a few complete videos and many stitched together reaction posts that include original clips. Most of these users have blacked out, skipped over, or censored the victim's body, which seems to have allowed their uploads to avoid being taken down. YouTube does remove full copies of the video when it notices them. A couple re-uploads trended earlier today, one of which showed the body. That full re-upload was taken down, although the user — Skevarox — uploaded it again. This time, it included a censored... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "http://ift.tt/2lPSUz5"

It's a poorly-kept secret that Spotify wants to go public , but when, exactly? Apparently, the answer is "soon." Axios has learned that Spotify quietly filed initial public offering documents with the US Securities and Exchange Commission in late December. The company has declined to comment, but the insiders claim that Spotify has chosen to go with a direct listing, saving costs and preventing shareholders from losing money. The timing suggests that Spotify could launch its IPO in the first quarter of 2018, although whether or not that happens is up in the air -- the streaming service may have serious legal hurdles to clear. Spotify has already been facing lawsuits over claims it doesn't have full licenses for songs, and word came just this week that it was facing a $1.6 billion copyright lawsuit from Wixen Music Publishing. It could be difficult to attract those all-important investors if there's doubt of whether or not Spotify is on solid legal ground, or...

Einride is bringing its dream of silent, autonomous trucks to the Detroit Auto Show. via CNET News "http://ift.tt/2qeANrS"

Verizon's fixed wireless 5G service, slated to hit Sacramento and up to 4 other US cities before the end of 2018, will run on Samsung hardware. via CNET News "http://ift.tt/2CkvRn2"

Tabby's Star, also known as KIC 8462852, is quite a mystery. Located about 1,280 light-years from Earth, the star puts on an interesting light show every now and then, dimming and brightening at unpredictable times . While many theories have been put forward as to what could be causing the changes in brightness, -- which can dip by up to 22 percent -- theories that include an alien megastructure, researchers haven't been able to get any solid data to explain the phenomenon . However, Louisiana State University researcher Tabetha Boyajian, who the star is named after, launched a Kickstarter campaign in May of 2016 with the goal of raising funds for a long-term observation of the star. The funds were raised and a new paper published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters presents the work of over 200 researchers who observed the star from 2015 through last year. Last May, after beginning regular monitoring of the star in March of 2016, the researchers finally spotted the star...

The Steam Winter Sale continues today, through January 4th!* Save big on thousands of games for Windows, Mac and Linux in the final day of the sale! Thanks to all that voted in The Steam Awards! The “Choices Matter” Award: The Witcher® 3: Wild Hunt The “Mom’s Spaghetti” Award: PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS The “Labor of Love” Award: Warframe The “Suspension of Disbelief” Award: Rocket League® The “The World Is Grim Enough Let's Just All Get Along” Award: Stardew Valley The “No Apologies” Award: The Witcher: Enhanced Edition Director's Cut The “Defies Description” Award: Garry's Mod The “Cry Havoc And Let Slip The Dogs Of War” Award: Just Cause™ 3 The "Haunts My Dreams" Award: Counter-Strike: Global Offensive The "Soul Of Vitruvius" Award: Rise of the Tomb Raider™ The "Whoooaaaaaaa, Dude! 2.0" Award: The Evil Within 2 The "Best Soundtrack" Award: Cuphead The "Even Better T...

Hisense — the world’s third-largest TV manufacturer — is starting to preview its 2018 lineup of smart TVs that’ll be announcing at CES this year. The big addition this time around seems to be Amazon’s Alexa smart assistant, which is coming to some existing models, including the 100-inch 4K laser TV that the company announced late last year. In addition to the usual suite of Alexa features for music playback, smart home controls, and third-party skills, Hisense says that users will be able to directly control their TV’s hardware, using Alexa to do tasks like change inputs or control volume with voice commands. While the company hasn’t detailed yet which models of its lineup will be getting Alexa integration, expect more details on that... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "http://ift.tt/2CypsYM"

That fancy new Roomba you got over the holidays could help suss out your home's WiFi weak spots this month. A forthcoming patch will add a wireless coverage map to the Roomba's vacuum heat map. From the sounds of it, the test group for this new feature could be relatively tiny. The iRobot Beta pool is limited to folks with the pricey Roomba 900 series, and according to the company ( via CNET ), there may only be 100 - 200 initial testers. From there, future Beta pools could have between 10 and 20 percent of iRobot users. Hopefully that includes DJ Roomba at some point, too. via Engadget RSS Feed "http://ift.tt/2lOVk0U"

Last week, parts of Apple’s new flagship retail store in Chicago had to be roped off, as dangerous icicles started to form on the roof. Although many believed the design of the MacBook Air-like roof was flawed, Apple later explained that the problem was instead a software issue that caused its heating system to break. Apple spokesman Nick Leahy told The Chicago Tribune last week that the building’s architects, from the London-based Foster+Partners, had designed the store to be snow-friendly. “The roof has a warming system that’s built into it,” said Leahy. “It needed some fine-tuning and it got reprogrammed today. It’s hopefully a temporary problem.” After the ice melts through Apple’s heating system, the water was supposed to be drained... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "http://ift.tt/2CBFxhh"

It doesn't mean the car is dead in the water, though. via CNET News "http://ift.tt/2lONwME"

MyCharge, which makes excellent external battery chargers, is having a 40 percent off sale on all of its products sitewide. via CNET News "http://ift.tt/2CBxOyI"

Security researchers report that a flaw in Intel's processor design may leave the door open to exposing sensitive system data. via CNET News "http://ift.tt/2lQ7sP7"

But the company may be planning skip a traditional offering in favor of a direct listing. via CNET News "http://ift.tt/2CAclq4"

Intel is grappling with another major security flaw in its processors... and this time, the cost of fixing it may be very steep. Researchers have discovered a design vulnerability in Intel CPUs over the past decade that covers the ability of ordinary programs to determine the content or layout of protected kernel memory (i.e. areas reserved just for the operating system). While the details appear to be under embargo for now, the fix is to completely separate the kernel memory from those ordinary processes. That could carry a significant speed hit, since it requires switching between two memory address spaces every time there's a system call or a hardware interrupt request. How much of a slowdown you see depends on the processor and the task in question. The biggest blows are expected to come to virtualization systems like Amazon's EC2 or Google Compute Engine. The Register claims the performance hits could range from 5 percent to 30 percent, but there's evidence to ...

If you’re trying to fool an AI vision system in the future, then stickers like these might help. For a long time, computer scientists have been developing special types of images that bamboozle AI eyes . These pictures and patterns are known as “adversarial images,” and they exploit weaknesses in the way computers look at the world to make them see stuff that isn’t there. Think of them as optical illusions, but for AI. They can be made into glasses that fool facial recognition systems, they can be printed onto physical objects , and now, researchers from Google have turned them into stickers. A paper describing the production of these stickers was published last month , and although the work isn’t a breakthrough, it is a neat step forward.... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "http://ift.tt/2lS5ez1"