Since the launch of Operation Creative last year, UK police have contacted a range of so-called ‘pirate’ sites while giving their operators the opportunity to shut down quietly to avoid further action. It was pretty much certain that torrent and streaming sites would be prime targets, and we’ve seen that play out in recent months.
This week, however, PIPCU delivered a surprise. Instead of going after sites that host or link to infringing material, they targeted a series of sites that have never done so, arresting their alleged operator in the process.
Reverse Proxies
So-called ‘reverse proxies’ are not file-sharing sites, they merely restore access to third-party sites that have been rendered inaccessible by ISPs, as the result of a court order for example. The sites that were closed down this week enabled users to access The Pirate Bay and KickassTorrents, even if their ISP actively blocks the site.
The police intervention raises many questions, none of which will be officially answered while an investigation is underway. So, in order to try and fill in some of the blanks, TorrentFreak spoke with expert intellectual property lawyer Darren Meale to explore a possible basis for this week’s arrest of a proxy site operator.
“Internet users have sought ways to continue to access the sites by getting round the blocking put in place by the ISPs. One of the ways to do this is to use proxy servers. This operation is a major step in tackling those providing such services.” – FACT director Kieron Sharp commenting this week on the proxy shutdowns.
Breach of a High Court order?
Darren Meale: “The individual has been accused of helping Internet users access websites which the English High Court has ordered the major UK ISPs to block. That order arose in a civil, not a criminal action, and only applies to the ISPs in question. If it applied to the individual and he ignored the Court order, he would be in contempt of court and a judge could commit him to prison. But I don’t understand that to be what is going on here.”
Assisting a criminal enterprise?
So, with the High Court blocks a potential red herring, our attention is turned to the activities of the sites being unblocked by the proxies, and how merely facilitating access to those sites might be perceived as an offense by the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit.
Darren Meale: “Sites like The Pirate Bay and KickassTorrents have been the subject of all sorts of civil and criminal actions around the world, but are tricky to target because of where they are based and the way they operate. That’s why initiatives like site blocking have become popular in the UK.
“The rights owners, police and other authorities can’t get their hands on the sites directly, at least not practically. Of course, that doesn’t mean that those sites aren’t still committing criminal offenses.
“Although we tend to think of copyright infringement as a civil wrong, it is also a criminal offense provided it is carried out ‘in the course of business’. Sites like KAT run as a commercial enterprise and make a lot of money out of advertising, so there is a pretty strong case that they are committing criminal offenses, including in the UK.”
If sites like The Pirate Bay and KickassTorrents are committing crimes, others can also commit crimes by helping them, Meale says.
Darren Meale: “The Serious Crime Act 2007 makes it a crime to intentionally encourage or assist someone else committing a crime, in the same way as it used to be a crime to ‘incite’ someone to commit a crime.
“The UK’s National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB) has previously accused operators of file-sharing websites of committing crimes of this nature. PIPCU’s statement in this matter also refers to its intention to ‘come down hard on people believed to be committing or deliberately facilitating such offenses’.
“These kinds of ‘inchoate‘ offenses are, in my view, the most likely candidate for what this individual has been arrested for.”
But other ISPs are facilitating access to illegal sites too..
Only six ISPs in the UK have been ordered to block sites like The Pirate Bay and KickassTorrents, the others are, at this very moment, knowingly facilitating access to these potentially criminal sites. How is it that a proxy service operator now finds himself in hot water while these ISPs continue with no repercussions?
Meale points out that the L’Oreal v eBay decision found that service providers (eBay in that case) had no duty to police their services for infringement. Also, service providers benefit from safe harbors under the E-commerce Directive, rendering them immune from prosecution in certain circumstances.
Darren Meale: “However, there is a difference between providing Internet access generally (which ISPs do) and providing a service or website which sets out to link to another, illegal, website. An attempt to make ISPs liable for what flows through them in the same way as someone running a file-sharing site failed in Australia in a case called iiNet. I think the same distinction would be drawn in Europe and the UK.
“Providing general Internet access: OK subject to exceptions such as if the ISP is hosting. But setting up a service designed to help people access illegal websites: that’s much more dubious. That’s not to say that the legal issues that surround all this are straightforward – they’re not.”
Conclusion
What shines through following the events of this week is how untested the waters are in cases such as these. Whether PIPCU intends to follow this matter through to the bitter end (risking a potentially unfavorable outcome) remains to be seen, but it’s possible that won’t be needed.
At this point they have already achieved the total closure of all targeted sites along with the seizure of their domains. That, along with a clear message to others mulling the same course of action might, in the overall scheme of things, be considered “mission accomplished.”
iOS/Android/Spotify Apps: Turntable.fm may have passed on from this world, but its successors live on. While plug.dj aims to fill its desktop shoes, Soundrop brings shared, synced playlists to Spotify on the desktop as well as mobile.
The service requires Spotify for all the users involved which is free on the desktop, but requires a subscription on mobile (Deezer is also an option outside the US), which is somewhat limiting. However, you can join a shared DJ room even on mobile, which makes it considerably more freeing than plug.dj currently is.
As if getting diagnosed with a medical condition isn’t difficult enough, tracking and organizing medical records can add frustration and confusion for patients. Read More
In addition to the Galaxy Note 4, Samsung is reportedly getting ready to launch the Gear Solo at this year's IFA. While not much is known about the Gear Solo, reports from earlier this year indicated that the Gear Solo will feature a SIM card slot, allowing it to be used without the need to pair with a smartphone.
If you're looking to pick up some media on the cheap, Google Play is the place to be right now. A sale has just kicked off with dozens of movies, books and music albums seeing big discounts, with plenty of content coming in under $4.99. Google's providing a promo link that seems to just be showing the movie listings right now, so be on the lookout for an update with discounted books and music albums as well.
Most veteran users of Android have probably run Handcent SMS at least once over the years. It's still a very popular third-party SMS app, but the design hasn't exactly kept up with the times. Today's update doesn't solve all its ills, but v6.0 does look worlds better than the old version.
Here's the full list of changes for v6.0.
Handcent SMS 6.0:
Beautifully flat UI design with colorful contacts photos for the default skin.
While Twitter is one of the largest social networks on the internet, it is also one of the most confusing available. The confusion only increases when users attempt to use the corresponding application on their phone or tablet. The confusion stems from Twitter giving users the ability to communicate and interact with each other in numerous ways without explaining the proper functionality of each available feature. While there are third-party Twitter applications on the Google Play Store (which usually makes the Twitter experience easier and a lot more fun to use) we're going to talk specifically about the stock application experience that Twitter built for their mobile users.
For you folks new to Twitter, here, now, are some basics.
You might feel like you do your job well, but there is always room for improvement. One way you can improve is to see how your job interacts with other jobs by shadowing coworkers.
Everyone has a specific job within a company, but every job works in tandem with each other in order to be productive. Lisa Evans at Fast Company took a look at social recruiting company Work4's "Life My Life" program. The program aims to give employees a look at a day in the work life of coworkers to see how everyone's work correlates with each other:
The idea is that job shadowers will become familiar with the processes, demands, and challenges of coworkers' jobs, which will help make working relationships more efficient and provide a more holistic understanding among employees about the operations of the company.
If you can see how things work from the other side of the office, you might be able to see where you can be more efficient in your own work. If your area is going through a slow time, float the idea by your manager and coworker and see where you might be able to make some changes. A company is a machine and understanding is a lubricant. The more everyone understands about the other roles involved, the more efficient the parts can move.
Burnout is a real problem when you're in a demanding job or are a superachiever. The biggest cause of burnout, however, might not be your inability to take a break from work, but being kept from doing what you love or is important to you.
That's the epiphany web and mobile developer Kent Nguyen had after struggling with burnout for some time. It was inspired by Marissa Mayer's resentment check recommendation, but Kent looks at it another way:
The solution [to burnout] is actually quite simple: do what you love and is important to you regularly.
Another way to look at it is to ask yourself: what is it that you absolutely cannot miss out?
Do not try too hard to find the answer. You might not know the answer now, and might only discover it when you are actually doing the activities you love. It's important to keep the question in mind all the time.
Makes sense. The things that you're passionate about, that you need to do regularly, fuel you and keep you sane. Put them in your schedule as a way of taking care of yourself.
Welcome back to Android Gaming Weekly, our weekly recap of new game releases. We still plan to cover upcoming releases and games we’re playing, but this column is dedicated to new games that you can start playing right now. Check out our top picks and let us know in the comments section if you have any suggestions for next week’s post.
King’s Empire
Description: Lead your people and build a glorious empire to begin your world DOMINATION. Be the KING of your own realm! One of the hottest online strategy games featured in 78 countries and enjoyed by over 4 million players worldwide. Play for free!
Description: TRAPS N’ GEMSTONES is an adventurous platform game, typically known among gamers as the “Metroidvania” genre, from Donut Games, the developer behind chart-toppers Traffic Rush, Sunday Lawn, the “Rat On A” series and many others.
Description: Talisman: Digital Edition, the classic fantasy adventure board game for 1-4 players. This officially licensed version of the Games Workshop game uses the 4th Revised Edition rules. In Talisman, you embark on a perilous quest for the ultimate treasure, the Crown of Command.
Description: Match the gummies, save the Moshlings! Match your way through unique, colorful levels of puzzle action to rescue and collect super cute Moshlings!
Description: The new and improved version of the intriguing racing game! Many fun stages! Thrilling racing missions! The Grand Prix race for players around the world! We invite you to RE-VOLT 2, the best RC car racing game ever!
Description: Snap Attack™ is a brand-new, fast-paced word-building tournament that challenges your brain in 2 1/2-minute rounds. Players from around the world compete on the same board, using the same clock, making as many Snaps as possible. At the end of each round, a real-time leaderboard shows how all participants ranked by score.
Description: Drive crazy in SEGA’s all-new Crazy Taxi. Race through the city to deliver your passengers on-time — the crazier you drive, the higher your rewards!
Description: You can recruit, train and use all the heroes of the Roman Empire in battle against opponents that actually existed. (More than 90 real-life heroes including Caesar, Pompey, Octavian, Scipio, Hannibal, Brutus and Spartacus)
Description: Crush your enemies and eat their skulls! Skulls of the Shogun is a fast-paced turn-based strategy game, supercharged with fighting-game flair and double-stuffed with a serious sense of humor! Enter the Samurai Afterlife and join forces with undead warriors, magical monks and mighty mustachioed samurai generals!
Well, that's one way to bend the Internet to your will. Google on Thursday applied its not-inconsiderable leverage as Search King of the Universe to "encourage" websites to encrypt their traffic, thus protecting themselves and their users from hackers and other spies (hello, NSA!)
What Google is doing here is an unquestionably good thing. The decentralized Web has been remarkably lax in adopting simple security measures that safeguard your email, conversations, reading habits, and all other manner of personal details you'd rather not share with strangers.
Still, given the flexing involved, you could be forgiven for having a qualm or two about Google's power.
An Offer You Can Refuse, If You're Not Fond Of Breathing
What Google announced, specifically, is that it will begin favoring sites that encrypt their traffic in its search results. As offers go, this seems eminently reasonable and optional. Adopting Web encryption—technically, the HTTPS standard, also known as HTTP over TLS—is pretty straightforward; lots of sites (banks, many email services, Facebook, etc.) use it already. (ReadWrite, alas, does not.)
And no site really needs to be ranked highly in Google search results, right?
OK, scratch that. Google's offer here is perhaps more akin to telling the folks running websites that they can continue breathing oxygen so long as they adopt the encryption standards that Google favors. Because, of course, sites that don't adopt HTTPS will, over time, lose traffic to those that do.
And Yet, It's An Offer You Really Shouldn't Refuse
I'll stress again that this is a fine and proper thing for Google to do in this case. Web traffic is really only protected when all intended parties to a communication are encrypting it, so there's a collective benefit to expanding the use of encryption. Yet there's a collective-action problem in getting everyone to act together—which is why Google is applying the arm here.
Email is a classic example. You may think it's great that Gmail uses HTTPS to protect your connection when you log in to read your email. But if you send a message to your friend whose account is on the unencrypted service BrandXmail, your message won't be encrypted in transit. And thus it's fair game for anyone who happens to be spying—or even who's just scooping up large amounts of passing data for later analysis.
(A technical aside: HTTPS only protects the security of messages as they transit the Internet. It has nothing to do with whether data stored on cloud servers is locked up against snoops. That's an entirely different use of encryption, and how that's enabled is solely up to whoever is storing your data—unless, of course, you've encrypted it yourself before storing it.)
Here's how Google explains what it's up to:
For these reasons, over the past few months we’ve been running tests taking into account whether sites use secure, encrypted connections as a signal in our search ranking algorithms. We’ve seen positive results, so we’re starting to use HTTPS as a ranking signal. For now it's only a very lightweight signal—affecting fewer than 1% of global queries, and carrying less weight than other signals such as high-quality content—while we give webmasters time to switch to HTTPS. But over time, we may decide to strengthen it, because we’d like to encourage all website owners to switch from HTTP to HTTPS to keep everyone safe on the web.
You can read this as Google starting off with a few light taps on the kneecap before breaking out the lead pipes. Just remember: It's for our own good.
Microsoft is planning to force Windows users onto the latest supported versions of Internet Explorer. The change will take effect on January 12th, 2016, meaning Windows 7 and Windows 8 users will need to be running Internet Explorer 11 to continue receiving updates. If Internet Explorer 12 or even version 13 debuts before January 12th, 2016 and it supports Windows 7 and Windows 8, then those users will need to upgrade to the very latest. Microsoft’s change means Internet Explorer 8 and 10 will no longer be supported on consumer versions of Windows after January 12th, 2016.
"This is the story of one reality in an infinite gamut of alternate possibilities." It's also the story of floating phones, slow-motion croissants, the girl next door, selfies in bed, GQ biker dude stealing, Field of Dreams, lasers, the morning after ... and a phone.
This is that full LG G3 Beat video from the other day in which the unannounced "LG G3 Stylus" was unceremoniously leaked. (Now without the super-leaky goodness at the end.) And we'll forgive you if you didn't actually watch the whole thing at the time.
HTC has updated its Sense 6 Gallery app through Google Play, introducing the ability to share live Duo Camera photos from the HTC One M8 on the web. Whereas previously you'd have to apply your effects and save a still photo before sharing, now you can share Duo Camera effect shots directly through a Google-hosted web page. Through this new Duo Effects Gallery, viewers can play around with refocusing shots and applying other 3D and artistic effects, just like they would on an M8.
Applying screen protectors is an art. It’s difficult to do decently and nearly impossible to do perfectly. I’m actually very good at applying screen protectors (not to brag) but it’s such a hassle that I hate to do it. Tylt attempts to solve this issue with the Alin screen protector, and I gave it a shot on a Samsung Galaxy S5.
The actual screen protectors are regular old clear plastic coverings, just like any other. Better than the cheap stuff, but nothing too special. Included are three gloss and one anti-glare matte screen protectors, which shocked me. A pack of four is awesome! What is special is the included applicator tool. It’s so simple, I wish I would have thought of it.
The applicator tool clips around your device, firmly staying in place but using only gentle pressure.
One side has a raised lip and raised corner for the screen protector to stay on. You push the screen protector against it, and it’s perfectly aligned. Remove the backing, push the screen protector up to the applicator tool at a 45 degree angle, and gently press down.
BAM, perfectly applied screen protector. As long as you cleaned the display well and worked in an environment without much dust, wiping away the bubbles will leave you with a flawless screen protector. It was dead simple and really quick. I actually did it twice (first time in a dust filled environment, which didn’t turn out well) and both times the actual application was flawless.
A drawback is that a pack of these screen protectors will cost you $19.99. I usually buy the more expensive screen protectors, but this was very pricey. That is, until I learned that there were four of them in the pack. That makes them cheaper than the pricey ones I used to buy, but it’s still a significant purchase up front.
I seriously love the Tylt Alin screen protector applicator. It makes the job incredibly easy. The screen protectors themselves are nice and clear, with no major distortion or problems. They’re not amazing by any means, and get oils on them just as bad as other screen protectors. They’re pretty good, but nothing to really rave about. But the entire package is a fantastic buy.
If you’re interested in picking up a pack for yourself, head to Tylt’s website to learn more and to buy them. It’s available for the Galaxy S5, Galaxy S4, Moto X, iPhone 5/5S, iPhone 5C, and the iPad Mini and Air (though the Mini and Air packs will set you back $25 and $30 respectively). I highly recommend them if you like using screen protectors!
One of the top photography apps for Android, VSCO Cam, makes the jump to version 3.0 today with some great new features. Tops on the list is the ability to find and follow your VSCO friends, as well access to the VSCO Grid. Mixed in the bag are other UI enhancements, improved sharing and updated location settings.
While Amazon expands the cities where its same-day delivery service operates, Google is adding a new partnership for its own Google Shopping Express program. The New York Times reports that an agreement with Barnes & Noble will let people from Manhattan, West Lost Angeles, and the San Francisco Bay Area.order books through Google and have them delivered later that day from one of the bookseller's local branches.
Barnes & Noble already offers its own same-day delivery service in Manhattan, which is free for customers who pay $25 a year for its membership program. As with products from Target, Costco, Staples, and other partners, Shopping Express books will be sold through Google's own site, something Barnes & Noble hopes can help it...
Productivity techniques like the Pomodoro method have long said that bursts of work and relaxation are the best way to do your job. But what's the ideal time of those bursts? The Daily Muse reckons it's 52 minutes of work followed by a 17 minute break.
Analyzing the time-tracking app DeskTime showed that the most productive 10% of users take these strategic breaks after working intently for a while. However, the blog hasn't released data on the size and sample of their study. Here's what they found:
The reason the most productive 10% of our users are able to get the most done during the comparatively short periods of working time is that their working times are treated as sprints. They make the most of those 52 minutes by working with intense purpose, but then rest up to be ready for the next burst.
During the 52 minutes of work, you're dedicated to accomplishing tasks, getting things done, and making progress. Whereas, during the 17 minutes of break, you're completely removed from the work you're doing—you're entirely resting, not peeking at your email every five minutes or just "quickly checking Facebook."
The Daily Muse emphasizes on getting out of your computer chair and doing something else during your break. The Pomodoro technique works on a similar idea of 25 minutes of work and 5 minutes of break, but you might want to consider upping those numbers to these new findings. If you need an app to keep track of this, use Marinara Timer to set alternating intervals of 52 and 17 minutes.
Photographer and time-lapse video genius Gavin Heffernan has done it again with this amazing video of the night sky over Sequoia and King's Canyon national parks in California, near the Sierra Nevada mountain range.
Managing your Dropbox space on Windows or Mac isn't a terribly difficult affair - the platforms have tons of 3rd party disk usage analysis utilities and management tools that will happily do all sorts of things to keep your usage in check. Managing Dropbox on the go, though, is a bit harder. Because Dropbox doesn't sync directly to your device, you need an app that can hook directly into your Dropbox account and analyze the contents remotely.
Directr, an app that we’ve covered a few times since its launch back in 2012, has just been snatched up by Google.
In an age of ultra-brief videos, Directr existed to help users and businesses shoot videos that were a bit longer than your average Vine — think ads, or promo clips, or family holiday videos. Read More
Vogogo isn’t a new company. The payments processor has been around for about 13 years and is currently processing $75 million in payments in the last 10 months from their Calgary headquarters. Now they’ve raised $8.5 million to help bring their expertise in payments and cryptocurrency to the U.S.
Cormark Securities Inc. led the round which included Salman Partners Inc., Clarus… Read More
Recently,
a mother in Florida was arrested for allowing her 7-year old son to walk alone to a park about half a mile from home. Putting aside the possibility of being arrested, do you or would you let your school-age kids walk to school and elsewhere alone?
The Miami Herald opinion piece that mentions the arrest above notes several other similar stories, including one where a South Carolina mother was charged with felony child neglect after letting her 9-year old play in a park (with other unattended children); she even temporarily lost custody, spent 3 weeks in jail, and could spend 10 years in prison if convicted.
These are very strange times for those of us who remember walking miles to school alone, but for every parent arrest story, there are more stories in the media of kids gone missing and child abductions. More of them, it seems, than "back in our day."
Slate readers in a recent poll were more on the "shortened leash" side of this issue. How do you feel? (If you don't have kids, you can just answer your opinion.)
Earlier today news broke that the proxy service Immunicity had been taken offline by the UK Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU). Several reverse proxies offering access to blocked sites such as The Pirate Bay and KickassTorrents suffered the same fate.
Initially it appeared that the domain seizures were the result of a request PIPCU sent to the domain registrar, as happened previously with other ‘pirate’ domains. However, as more information came in this case turned out to be different.
City of London Police inform TorrentFreak that they actually arrested the alleged owner of the domain names. The 20-year-old man from Nottingham was interviewed at a local police station and later released on bail.
Pending further investigation he agreed to voluntarily transfer the domains to the police.
This is the second arrest since the start of “Operation Creative” last year – the first involved the alleged admin of sports streaming site BoxingGuru. As is often the case, the police were assisted by Hollywood-backed anti-piracy group FACT.
According to Chief Inspector Andy Fyfe, the arrest is a prime example of a successful partnership between the copyright industry and local law enforcement.
“This week’s operation highlights how PIPCU, working in partnership with the creative and advertising industries is targeting every aspect of how copyrighting material is illegally being made available to internet users,” Fyfe says.
“We will come down hard on people believed to be committing or deliberately facilitating such offences,” he adds.
While the arrest is being framed as a major success, none of the domains operated by the man were offering a file-sharing or illegal streaming service. They were merely proxies that allowed Internet users to access The Pirate Bay and other sites that were blocked per court order by some (not all) UK Internet providers. Many UK ISPs still routinely offer access to the very same sites on a daily basis.
Commenting on the arrest, FACT Director Kieron Sharp argues that these proxy sites and services are just as illegal as the blocked sites themselves.
“Internet users have sought ways to continue to access the sites by getting round the blocking put in place by the ISPs. One of the ways to do this is to use proxy servers. This operation is a major step in tackling those providing such services,” Sharp notes.
Whether this argument will hold up in court has yet to be seen. That is, if the case ever goes to court. Unlike the blocked pirate sites the proxies didn’t appear to be operating for profit, but as a hobby project instead.
Google has acquired Emu, a new mobile messaging application that just exited beta earlier this year. Emu was at heart an IM client, but it differentiated itself from the crowded market with smart features that incorporated a virtual assistant not unlike Siri to automate tasks based on your conversations – meaning you could do things like schedule appointments to your calendar, set… Read More
It’s pretty obvious that Lexi Alexander isn’t scared of rocking the boat. In an unprecedented move last month, the movie director was pictured holding up a sign calling for the release of Peter Sunde, an individual not exactly the movie industry’s most-loved man.
But Alexander is no ordinary person or director. Instead of towing the usual line by decrying piracy as a scourge, the 39-year-old recently noted that several studies have found that piracy has actually benefited movie profits. For a movie worker this is a controversial stance to take, but rather than back off, Alexander only seems motivated to continue her abrasive approach.
In new comments Alexander takes aim at Hollywood, this time referencing the recent leak of The Expendables 3. She doesn’t condone the leak, but instead looks at possible reasons why it ended up online.
“The piracy issue makes me want to tear my hair out at times. I do not understand how so many of my filmmaker colleagues have bought into this MPAA propaganda. Recently these think tanks and organizations have popped up which are not officially associated with the MPAA, but definitely on their payroll,” Alexander begins.
“But okay, you want to be mad at the kid in Sweden or Australia for uploading your movie? Go for it. Oh wait, in cases like Expendables 3 it’s actually someone here in Hollywood leaking it,” she notes.
The idea that The Expendables 3 leaked directly from Hollywood is not new. Pristine copies like these simply aren’t available on the streets unless an insider has had a hand in it somehow, whether that interaction was intentional or otherwise.
In some instances the motivation to leak, Alexander suggests, could be borne out of a desire to get even. Assistants to the higher-ups are often treated badly, so more consideration should be given to what they might do in return, the director notes.
“It’s kind of like going to a restaurant and thinking twice about insulting the waiter or busboy because you’re afraid of what they’ll put in the food before they bring it back,” Alexander explains.
“Imagine those famously abusive directors, producers or stars (#notall….) having to tone down the abuse, otherwise LOUD EVENT MOVIE # 5 will show up on The Pirate Bay with a little note that says: ‘Don’t bother seeing this in the theater. Everybody above the line was a monster to us’.”
The thought that leaks might happen as a type of personal revenge is in itself the stuff of a Hollywood plot. However, just as it’s unlikely that a story about a movie leak would ever make the silver screen, Hollywood insiders involved in them also tend to escape criticism.
In fact, history shows us that the *actual* leakers, whether that’s an assistant with a grudge or otherwise, are rarely – if ever – paraded around in public as criminals. That honor is usually reserved for the first uploaders and/or their ‘pirate’ allies. Still, Alexander feels it would be wise to keep those close to home in a good frame of mind.
“Maybe the MPAA should drop some of their $$ on PSAs about the danger of abusing assistants: ‘If you kick me everyday, your film will land on Pirate Bay’,” she warns.
Finally, in a move likely to further annoy the Hollywood brass, Alexander presents a “hypothetical” mechanism through which abused assistants could beat the bullies.
“I’m not suggesting anything, but hypothetically, if there were an anonymous address people could send not-yet-released movie DVDs to, so someone else could upload them without a chance of it being backtracked to the source, then a whole bunch of abused and mistreated assistants wouldn’t be defenseless anymore,” she concludes.
Due to the hugely controversial nature of her comments its difficult to judge how serious Alexander is with her suggestions. But, whatever the case, it’s safe to say that she’s one of a kind and likely to continue rocking the boat in future.
Foursquare’s massive multi-month unbundling is finally completed. The new Foursquare app is available to download today, the check-in fully removed and placed in Swarm, Foursquare’s location-based social app.
The new flagship Foursquare application wants to help you figure out the best places to go with a Yelp-like location search engine. The new app will also use your previous Foursquare check in history, your Swarm data, and ambient location tracking to send you push notifications to suggest things to do, like what to order at a specific restaurant.
Foursquare’s push to split up its services have left many disgruntled users wondering why the check-in had to go. The apps’ reviews on the App Store are sitting between 1.5 and two stars each, and users are taking to social media to complain about the break up.
But for Foursquare, it was an obvious choice to remove the feature users had become accustomed to.
“The reason we split was that we realized local search is a much larger opportunity than check-ins alone,” Dennis Crowley, cofounder and CEO of Foursquare said in an interview with ReadWrite. “Check-ins are polarizing. It was preventing Foursquare from getting as big as it could get.”
For years, the word “Foursquare” has been synonymous with sharing your location, a social feature that makes people understandably uncomfortable. In order for the company to shed its creepy image, it needed to pull off a massive effort to get people to not only use Foursquare differently, but think about it differently, too.
Of course, the new Foursquare will still be monitoring your location, just not sharing it with your friends, unless you decide to do so in Swarm. In order for Foursquare to learn your favorite locations and send you suggestions, it needs to track where you go without you checking in first. Privacy advocates still might not be keen on giving Foursquare that much insight into their activities, though this setting can be turned off.
But for people comfortable with Foursquare knowing where they go, these suggestions could help them rediscover their city, or help kick off a spontaneous adventure when traveling abroad.
“We’ve always wanted the Foursquare brand to stand for introducing you to cool things in the world,” Crowley said.
According to Crowley, 90% of Foursquare’s check in users have started using Swarm. Those people complaining in the App Store and on Twitter? A vocal minority, he says.
New Foursquare logo
“There’s a certain group of people, early Foursquare adopters ... who are going to be like, ‘I don’t understand why it won’t be one app,’” Crowley said. “Those folks will continue to use both [Foursquare and Swarm.]”
On the Internet, no one likes change. Any time Facebook releases an app update, or Twitter experiments with direct messages, users are frustrated. The same is happening with Foursquare. But the number of applications users are expected to download is becoming overwhelming—do companies really expect us to use all of them?
Foursquare doesn’t expect everyone to use both apps. In fact, Foursquare ditching the location will likely attract more users who were uncomfortable with the check-in in the first place.
In the future, location recommendation engines like Foursquare could become the standard way people discover places to go—but it might not be the app everyone uses. Google recently added an Explore feature in Google Maps with striking similarities to the new Foursquare; it makes finding places around you based on your preferences simple, by searching in Maps.
With the new Foursquare, while search is simple, it’s the automatic push notifications that are key to decision-making. The app will send you push notifications as alerts based on what it thinks you’ll like. For Crowley, this is an opportunity that extends beyond the mobile device.
“I’m bullish on what were doing with these push notifications; one of the keys to social discovery in the future,” he said. “[They will] push up on your phone, in your Glass, in your phone, or your car.”
Foursquare’s future goals may include becoming the best social discovery app, even better than Yelp and Google. But right now, it needs to focus on getting people to see beyond the check-in that’s disappeared, otherwise Foursquare won’t have anyone to tell where to go.
Lead image courtesy of Silicon Prairie News via Flickr. Other photos courtesy of Foursquare.
Since the launch of Operation Creative last year, UK police have contacted a range of so-called ‘pirate’ sites while giving their operators the opportunity to shut down quietly to avoid further action. It was pretty much certain that torrent and streaming sites would be prime targets, and we’ve seen that play out in recent months. 
As if getting diagnosed with a medical condition isn’t difficult enough, tracking and organizing medical records can add frustration and confusion for patients. Read More
Most veteran users of Android have probably run Handcent SMS at least once over the years. It's still a very popular third-party SMS app, but the design hasn't exactly kept up with the times. Today's update doesn't solve all its ills, but v6.0 does look worlds better than the old version.
While Twitter is one of the largest social networks on the internet, it is also one of the most confusing available. The confusion only increases when users attempt to use the corresponding application on their phone or tablet. The confusion stems from Twitter giving users the ability to communicate and interact with each other in numerous ways without explaining the proper functionality of each available feature. While there are third-party Twitter applications on the Google Play Store (which usually makes the Twitter experience easier and a lot more fun to use) we're going to talk specifically about the stock application experience that Twitter built for their mobile users.
Directr, an app that we’ve covered a few times since its launch back in 2012, has just been snatched up by Google.
In an age of ultra-brief videos, Directr existed to help users and businesses shoot videos that were a bit longer than your average Vine — think ads, or promo clips, or family holiday videos. Read More
Vogogo isn’t a new company. The payments processor has been around for about 13 years and is currently processing $75 million in payments in the last 10 months from their Calgary headquarters. Now they’ve raised $8.5 million to help bring their expertise in payments and cryptocurrency to the U.S.
Cormark Securities Inc. led the round which included Salman Partners Inc., Clarus… Read More
Earlier today news broke that the proxy service Immunicity had been taken offline by the UK Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU). Several reverse proxies offering access to blocked sites such as The Pirate Bay and KickassTorrents suffered the same fate.
Google has acquired Emu, a new mobile messaging application that just exited beta earlier this year. Emu was at heart an IM client, but it differentiated itself from the crowded market with smart features that incorporated a virtual assistant not unlike Siri to automate tasks based on your conversations – meaning you could do things like schedule appointments to your calendar, set… Read More
It’s pretty obvious that Lexi Alexander isn’t scared of rocking the boat. In an unprecedented move last month, the movie director was pictured holding up a sign calling for the release of Peter Sunde, an individual not exactly the movie industry’s most-loved man.
