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On Tuesday night I made the mistake of climbing the fence that surrounds the convention center parking lot where our trailer is stationed. I don’t exactly remember what happened, but I made it to the top, remember it wobbling, and the next thing I knew I was on the ground in a lot of pain. I badly injured my right foot. Normally this wouldn't be much of an issue besides the pain, but I had a rideables shoot less than 12 hours later.

I limped back to the hotel in excruciating pain, and when I woke up the next morning my foot was red, swollen, and hot. I was still in just as much pain, if not more. I thought I was screwed. How could I possibly get on the Onewheel when I could barely walk?

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While some pirates are content with downloading and viewing so-called ‘cam’ releases of the latest movies, few will be happy with the quality. Movies recorded surreptitiously in cinemas with home-made rigs can produce reasonable results but nothing beats the sparkle of a digital copy.

Filling that gap are DVD screeners, the advance copies of recent movies sent out to critics and awards voters. Often in DVD format (but now also in Blu-ray), these high quality releases are much sought after online and as a result are subjected to intense security by the studios sending them out.

But despite all the efforts, leaks always happen. Every year copies of DVD screeners (identified by the term DVDSCR) turn up on torrent sites and are downloaded in huge numbers. December and January are the key months for leaks and yesterday downloaders hit the jackpot.

Over the past 24 hours copies of at least nine big movies leaked online in decent quality, all apparently sourced from industry DVD screeners.

The Hobbit is a smash hit – without watermarks

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies is proving exceptionally popular with BitTorrent users. Statistics gathered by TorrentFreak reveal that the movie was downloaded at least 500,000 times in the first 24 hours.

Several ‘versions’ of the movie exist on torrent sites, each labeled by rival release groups including CM8, EVO, TiTAN, Ozlem and RAV3N. But despite the apparent selection, sources inform TorrentFreak that there is only one true source. Whether that is CM8 remains unclear but in a comment the group revealed that a lot of time was spent removing security watermarks from Peter Jackson’s movie.

“Movie had watermarks visible and invisible ones, had to remove frames to get rid of them,” CM8 said.

“Nothing I haven’t done before. It was hours of work, but its finally done and here for you to get!”

Oscar hopefuls 2015

Yesterday, Indiewire published their Oscar predictions. Their ‘absolute locks’ for Best Picture include “Birdman” (Michael Keaton, Zach Galifianakis) and “The Imitation Game” (Benedict Cumberbatch, Keira Knightley). Both were leaked yesterday.

Also tipped for Best Picture is “Selma“, a chronicle of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s campaign to secure equal voting rights via an epic march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama in 1965. Paramount sent DVD screeners to Academy voters in December and the movie leaked yesterday.

Also battling it out for Oscar glory are Clint Eastwood’s American Sniper, Unbroken directed by Angelina Jolie, and crime thriller Nightcrawler. While the latter was leaked in October, the other titles were in yesterday’s batch.

Rounding off the DVD Screener bonanza are Disney’s Big Hero 6, Into the Woods, and Big Eyes.

From studio to torrent site

Finally, it’s worth highlighting how these titles appeared online. For years one of the most popular routes was via the “The Scene” but in common with more recent times, yesterday’s DVD screeners hit the Internet via P2P/BitTorrent suppliers. These upstarts continue to slice the top off the so-called ‘piracy pyramid’.

According to TorrentFreak sources who asked to remain anonymous, the nine movies came from three different sources. One accounted for the Hobbit and another Big Hero 6. The remaining seven all came from a single source. The encoding on these is described as “choppy” suggesting the leaker may not be an experienced pirate.

Update: More screeners have leaked including The Gambler, Inherent Vice, A Most Violent Year and Kill The Messenger.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and anonymous VPN services.

There are plenty of smartwatches here at CES 2015, but perhaps none as interesting as the LG/Audi prototype. The nameless LG watch isn't running Android Wear though — it's running Open webOS. We know that LG plans to bring webOS to wearables, and this device give us a great look at what could be in the pipeline down the road.

For all the juicy details and plenty eye-candy, head over to Android Central for the full scoop.

• The hottest smartwatch of CES isn't running Android Wear — it's Open webOS

It's not exactly shocking news at this point, but Google has finally and officially retired its older Google TV operating system in favor of Android TV, although some older devices that used Google TV will be updated to the new television platform.

Google TV first launched in October 2010 but it turned out to be a bug-filled platform that never caught on with either the public or hardware OEMs. In a post on its official Google+ page this week, the Google TV Developers team confirmed that the company is shifting towards supporting Android TV and that the Google TV libraries will no longer be available for developers. It added:

What does this mean for Google TV? Existing Google TV devices and all of the features of these devices will continue to work, and so will the apps you've developed for the Google TV platform. A small subset of Google TV devices will be updated to Android TV, but most Google TV devices won't support the new platform. We expect to see an exciting lineup of Android TV devices in the coming year, including TVs from Sony, Sharp, and Philips, as well as other set-top and over-the-top boxes."

The post did not state which older Google TV devices would be updated to Android TV.

Source: Google TV Developers

Marvel has finally revealed the release date for its upcoming Daredevil series: it's coming on April 10th. All 13 of the hour-long episodes from the first season of the Netflix-exclusive show will be available on that date, in every territory that the streaming service is available. The series will star Boardwalk Empire's Charlie Cox in the titular role, and is inspired by the "Man Without Fear" run of the comic book created by Frank Miller and John Romita, Jr. And as is becoming a Marvel tradition, the company hinted that you can expect to see a lot more in the way of teases between now and April.

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On June 30th at precisely 23:59:59, the world’s atomic clocks will pause for a single second. Or, to be more precise, they’ll change to the uncharted time of 23:59:60 — before ticking over to the more worldly hour of 00:00:00 on the morning of July 1st, 2015. This addition of a leap second, announced by the Paris Observatory this week, is being added to keep terrestrial clocks in step with the vagaries of astronomical time — in this case, the slowing of the Earth’s rotation. And it's a bit of a headache for computer engineers.

What causes leap seconds? Earthquakes, tidal drag, the weather

Leap seconds are like the Y2K bug in that they threaten to throw out of sync time as measured by computers and time as measured by atomic clocks. But...

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 Another step ahead in BitTorrent’s bid to expand its Bundle business model to all kinds of content, and all kinds of payment options. The company today said it would soon post a full-length feature film directed by David Cross, HITS, and people can get it by paying whatever they want. The film is set to go up on BitTorrent on February 13. HITS first debuted at Sundance in 2014 and… Read More

Life is “a party: one arrives long after it’s started, and one’s going to leave long before it’s over,” said the late English actor Robert Morley. It's one in a list of 14 metaphors for life that Futility Closet compiled. Read the rest

Every year, Tor.com anthologizes some of the best short fiction from its website in a free ebook, and it's always one of the best sf anthologies of the year -- this is no exception! Read the rest

Hits and misses from a year packed with big-screen science fiction and fantasy Read the rest

A new report from CES 2015 claims that LG plans to launch a new smartwatch using the webOS operating system sometime in 2016. Rumors about such a product were first reported a few months ago when a webOS smartwatch SDK was briefly teased on an LG-owned developer website.

The Wall Street Journal used an unnamed source "familiar with the plans" at CES 2015 as the basis for their report. The source is quoted as saying, "We're going to slowly try to build an (software) ecosystem around areas we can have more control over." LG already uses webOS as the operating system for its smart TVs and today's report says LG might also use it in future home appliances. It acquired webOS from HP in 2013.

LG already has launched smartwatches that use Android Wear.

Source: Wall Street Journal

It's not necessarily to say something is "great on paper." Saygus has created what it's called a "super smartphone," and in many ways it feels like they looked at a spec sheet and said, "we can make this look really good."

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Google TV, we hardly knew you. No, seriously, basically nobody bought you and those who did suffered through a slow, confusing interface that married the worst of cable with the worst of IR blasters, all on devices that were slow and buggy. And now you've died, and the only obituary you have from your not-so-grieving parent company is this missive to developers on Google+ letting them know the libraries they use to make apps for Google TV are no longer available.

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Ever have a calf cramp wake you up in the middle of the night, or knock you down in the middle of a workout? There's a way to send that cramping, spasming muscle a signal to relax: contract the opposite muscle.

For your calf muscle, the opposite is the tibialis anterior, on the front of your shin. Activate this muscle by using it to pull your toes upward, off the floor. You can even have a friend push down on your instep while you push upward against their hand. Sometimes the cramp will release instantly; sometimes I find it takes a good 30 seconds.

Whatever you do, though, don't stretch! In our calf cramp example, you'll sometimes see people grab their toes and pull. But that doesn't help, and can even cause damage to the cramping muscle. The point is to use the shin muscle to do that movement.

This works because opposing pairs of muscles are able to inhibit each other from firing, an effect called reciprocal inhibition. It's essentially a signal for that opposite muscle to relax. The trick works on any muscle in your body:

• If the cramp is in your hamstring, activate your quadriceps by straightening your leg.
• If the cramp is in your quad, activate your hamstrings (bend your knee).
• If the bottom of your foot is cramping, lift your foot and spread out your toes.

Check out the full post over at Tribook for more information on how to effectively get rid of those cramps.

Reciprocal inhibition to relieve muscle cramps | Tribook.org

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Blocking of file-sharing related sites is becoming widespread in Europe, particularly so in the UK. In fact, it’s now almost impossible to access a top torrent site from any of the country’s leading ISPs, with the notable exception of OldPirateBay since the site is so new.

Users in the United States can’t rest easy either. As reported here in December, the MPAA is working hard to introduce site-blocking by utilizing creative interpretations of existing law. It seems unlikely that Hollywood will stop until it gets its way.

It’s becoming clear that Internet users everywhere will need to prepare if they want unfettered access to the Internet. While that can be achieved using premium services such as VPNs, there will always be those looking for a free solution. Today we have news of one such product.

In appearance PirateSnoop looks a lot like the popular Chrome browser. In fact the only immediate giveaway that things are a little different is the existence of a small pirate-themed button on the right hand side of its toolbar.

Underneath, however, PirateSnoop is based on the freeware web browser SRWare Iron which aims to eliminate some of the privacy-compromising features present in Google Chrome. PirateSnoop is then augmented with special extensions to enable its site unblocking features.

PirateSnoop (PS) was created by the team at public torrent site RARBG. While certainly less referenced by the mainstream media than The Pirate Bay for example, RARBG is now the 7th most popular torrent site in the world and a force to be reckoned with. It was also blocked by major UK ISPs recently.

Anti-censorship agenda

“Nazi Germany had less censorship than we have today on the Internet,” the PS team informs TorrentFreak.

“However you are not paying for the Internet itself to your ISPs, but for the carrying of the Internet connectivity. ISPs are legally enforced by their countries to block content and what we are worried about is that little to none of the ISPs decided to fight any blocking court order.”

PirateSnoop vs PirateBrowser

The web-blocking features of PirateSnoop are similar to those of The Pirate Bay’s PirateBrowser, but there are some important differences. Although users are not rendered anonymous, PirateBrowser uses the TOR network. PirateSnoop sees this as problematic as torrent sites are increasingly blocking TOR IPs.

“The TOR network is abused by a lot of people – uploading fakes for example. It’s also used by DMCA agencies to scan sites. TOR is no longer an option to access sites. Its blocked on almost every site I know,” a dev explains.

Instead, PirateSnoop uses its own custom proxy network which utilizes full HTTPS instead of the HTTP used by basic proxies. Just like a regular browser to website connection, PS allows websites to see their users’ IP addresses (unless they’re using a VPN) in order to cut down on abuse.

Overall, PirateSnoop should be a faster browsing solution than PirateBrowser, its creators say.

Limitations and future upgrades

Currently several major blocked sites are supported by PirateSnoop but there are a couple of omissions. However, the team is prepared to expand the browser’s reach based on user demand.

“Any site that is requested to be added will be added immediately with no questions asked,” the team note.

The PirateSnoop team say they are committed to upgrades of their software to include proxy updates (added automatically upon browser restart) and full browser updates following any Iron browser core updates.

PirateSnoop can be downloaded here (using BitTorrent, of course).

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and anonymous VPN services.

Android started with a simple thought: when everybody participates, good things happen. In 2014, Android evolved and opened up to new screens for your wrist, car and living room. We also introduced Android TV with Nexus Player last Fall and at this week’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, our partners are showcasing what’s in store for television in 2015.
This spring, Sony, Sharp and TP Vision, with its range of Philips TVs, will start shipping televisions powered by Android TV. These have all the goodness of Android TV built in so you won’t need to plug anything extra into your television. You can use a single remote to watch live TV channels and play games, movies or shows from Google Play and your apps. These televisions feature voice search, to help you quickly find what you want, and they’re Google Cast Ready so you can cast your favorite entertainment from your phone or tablet to the big screen. Android TV will come to life on screens big and small, including brilliant 4K displays, thanks to the work of our partners.

If you want to get in on the action using your current television, Razer just announced a gaming console powered by Android TV. Razer’s Forge TV has high-performance specs, a wireless game controller and allows you to stream PC games to your TV. It will start shipping to consumers in February. Huawei is also working on an Android TV streaming media player that will be ready later this year.
When we launched Android with a single phone in 2008, we never imagined that we could connect over a billion people. And now, we're working closely with an entire ecosystem of TV partners -- hardware manufacturers, service providers, and chip makers -- to reimagine the living room. All major television and TV device chip makers are participating: ARM, Broadcom, Imagination Technologies, Intel, Marvell, MediaTek, MStar, Nvidia, Qualcomm, and STMicroelectronics.

As we start off 2015 at CES, I’m excited for what’s in store this year for Android TV.

Posted by Hiroshi Lockheimer, VP Engineering and Weekend Couch Potato

In the early 1970s, actress and animal rights activist Tippi Hedren cared for Neil, a lion that sometimes shared a bed with Hedren's then-teenage daughter Melanie Griffith. LIFE photographer Michael Rougier spent a day photographing the family at home. Read the rest

For cord cutters out there uninterested in buying a TV and the set-top box to go with it (or even those who just want a TV screen they can take on their travels), ZTE has the projector for you. ZTE just announced the Spro 2 at CES today, a mini projector that runs on Android 4.4.2 Kit Kat and can project 1080p video onto any nearby wall you need. And while projecting movies, it can be used as an LTE hotspot for nearby devices or to queue up new content.

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Sony pulled out a small, clever surprise at its CES 2015 keynote. It's called a "Symphonic Light speaker," and it does pretty much what you'd expect it to. It's a tower-shaped lamp with a speaker at the base, and it actually looks really well-designed (or, as Nilay Patel said in our liveblog, "Dope"). CEO Kaz Hirai wouldn't let you think that it's just that simple, though, the lamp has a "proprietary vertical drive technology" which actually uses the material of the lamp itself to help create sound. The lamp itself is the tweeter, so there's no exposed speaker elements.

There's also an LED bulb that also has a speaker built-in, if you don't like putting dope-looking things on your end table.

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While Google seems to have boxed Glass up in a dark, musty corner of Larry Page's attic, at least for now, Sony is pressing forward with a pair smart glasses (henceforth "SmartEyeglass") on display at CES. The SmartEyeglass Developer Edition, due out in March, feels like a more robust pair of 3D glasses. The display — available only as a slightly-transparent green hue — is projected in front of both eyes. There was no weird overlap and I could close either eye without any jarring effects. Navigating the menu and controlling the device happens via a small handheld remote, which looked like a small hockey puck with a couple of buttons and a "bite" missing for your thumb to rest.

But while the Developer Edition is consumer-facing, Sony's...

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Odds are that unless you bring your computer back and forth between home and your office, you're still using the power adapter that came with it. But if you plan to buy a second one, or just want to upgrade to something more versatile, there's a new alternative called the Zolt. It's a $79.99, 70-watt notebook charger that also charges two USB devices at the same time. It's designed mainly to charge PCs, but will also work with Apple's MagSafe plug using a $30 adapter the company says it's still developing.

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Look, we're not in the audiophile business. We don't cover music products that don't feature Android in some way, shape, or form. And running bleeding-edge software is not a prerequisite for quality sound. But seriously, Sony, if you're going to charge twelve hundred dollars for a device that runs Android, could you not load it with an OS build that's over two years old? Alas, such is the case with the Walkman NW-ZX2 announced at CES.

Sony Introduces The Brand New Walkman NW-ZX2 128GB Music Player For $1200, Powered By Android... 4.2 was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

While Sony's initial Android Wear offering, the SmartWatch 3, is perfectly fine from a technical point of view, one of the words we heard from commenters over and over again was "ugly." Even Ryan Whitwam could only call it "acceptable" in his review. Sony's hoping to fix the lackluster looks of the SmartWatch 3 with a new version clad in a stainless steel body and watch strap. And boy, it's amazing what a little metal can do.

The Sony SmartWatch 3 Will Be Available In A Swanky Stainless Steel Option In February was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

Facebook is beefing up its voice recognition team. Re/code is reporting that the company has acquired Wit.ai, an open platform for natural language processing. The Wit.ai team says the platform will remain open and available in the wake of the acquisition, although it's unclear how the platform will develop in the long term. Facebook has long held an interest in artificial intelligence software, including language processing, in part because such programs offer an easy way to leverage the massive amount of data flowing through the platform. "Facebook’s mission is to connect everyone and build amazing experiences for the over 1.3 billion people on the platform," Wit.ai said in a blog post. "Technology that understands natural language is...

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