Sony hackers issue threat in latest message: 'The world will be full of fear'

Sony hackers issue threat in latest message: 'The world will be full of fear'

LOS ANGELES — The hacking group behind the Sony cybersecurity attack has made its first physical threat.
In a message sent at around 9:30 a.m., the group — calling itself Guardians of Peace — issued a warning along with what appears to be files related to Sony Pictures CEO and Chairman Michael Lynton.

"We will clearly show it (our Christmas gift) to you at the very time and places 'The Interview' be shown, including the premiere, how bitter fate those who seek fun in terror should be doomed to," the hackers wrote.
The hackers also invoked the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, urging people to keep themselves "distant from the places at that time."

"The world will be full of fear," they wrote. "Whatever comes in the coming days is called by the greed of Sony Pictures Entertainment. All the world will denounce the SONY."
Sony did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The FBI and the Los Angeles Police Department also did not have immediate comment.

Hackers began releasing sensitive data after the studio's security breach became public on Nov. 24. The group has released data including thousands of pages of emails from studio chiefs, salaries of top executives and Social Security numbers of 47,000 current and former employees.

The releases include thousands of emails from the studio's co-chairman, Amy Pascal. Some have included exchanges with producer Scott Rudin over whether President Barack Obama prefers black-themed films such as "The Butler." Pascal and Rudin have apologized for their remarks.

Federal officials are taking seriously the possibility that North Korea could be behind the attack and that the hack was done in retaliation for the film "The Interview." The Seth Rogen- and Evan Goldberg-directed film is about an attempt to kill North Korea's dictator, Kim Jong Un. In June, North Korea called on the U.S. government to block the film's release or face a "decisive and merciless countermeasure."

In an email statement to the Los Angeles Times on Tuesday, a FBI spokeswoman said: "The FBI is aware of recent threats and continues to work collaboratively with our partners to investigate the Sony attack."
Ralph Echemendia, chief executive of cybersecurity firm Red E-Digital, said that he's unaware of any other instance in which hackers "threatened large-scale physical violence."

"This now borders on terrorist activity and would define the Guardians of Peace as a terrorist group," said Echemendia, who has previously consulted for Sony Corp. on cyber security issues.
The film held a low-key premiere at the Theatre at the Ace Hotel in downtown Los Angeles last week. A strong security presence sternly guided attendees around the event. Reporters were also told there would be no interviews on the carpet.

The New York premiere is scheduled for Thursday at a Lower East Side bar before a screening at Sunshine Cinema.

In an interview conducted with Rogen and Goldberg a week before the hacking, the co-directors said serious potential repercussions — beyond the initial protest from North Korea — seemed far-fetched.
"When they say, 'we declare war on this movie' and all that, nothing is for us," Goldberg said. "It's all for their people to see."
Rogen added, "It's all for show."

The film is expected to hit theaters on Christmas Day.
Ted Mundorff, CEO of Landmark Theatres, which owns Sunshine Cinema, said they are moving ahead as planned.

"First of all, we won't comment about security. We will be properly prepared for any incidents," he said. "If Sony changes their mind ... I haven't heard from (Homeland Security) but I don't know that anyone in the organization hasn't."

(Los Angeles Times staff writers Amy Kaufman, Daniel Miller, Ryan Faughnder and Josh Rottenberg contributed to this report.)

Saba Hamedy

Los Angeles Times

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5 Seconds of Summer's Ashton Irwin Helped Calum Hood Adjust to Fame

5 Seconds of Summer's Ashton Irwin Helped Calum Hood Adjust to Fame

5 Seconds of Summer's Ashton Irwin gave Calum Hood the best performance advice ever! While speaking to News Corp, the bassist said that his bandmate gave him great tips on having a real stage presence — especially in front of such a large audience.

"I was just sitting in the dressing room backstage in LA and Ashton came up to me an hour before the show and said 'This is your chance to have an influence on people as a performer'," he recalled

"And that really hit me. I look up to Billie Joe [of Green Day] and Dave Grohl and how they are on stage."

Because the guys are so amazing on stage, we think he took that advice to heart — and it's done him so well.

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Ex-Google employees launch app to make you smarter about health, fitness

Ex-Google employees launch app to make you smarter about health, fitness

A group of former Google employees are betting they can boost the world's medical knowledge with a mobile IQ test.
Hi.Q, a free app for the Apple Inc iPhone and iPad launching on Monday, includes 10,000 questions across 300 topics, such as food allergies, childhood health, and portion control. After taking the test, users are given a breakdown of their expertise across certain health areas.

Founder and Chief Executive Officer Munjal Shah, who sold his prior company Like.com to Google Inc in 2010, said early data show a strong correlation between health literacy and obesity. Shah's team is also tracking whether a person's health knowledge correlates with the rate of hospitalizations.
The Hi.Q team believes that Silicon Valley jumped too quickly into developing wearable devices to track fitness and wellbeing. A recent study from research firm Endeavor Partners found that one-third of people who owned a wearable stopped using it after six months.

Shah believes the first step to get more people engaged in their health on a daily basis should be "quantified knowledge."
"Wearables are ending up in a drawer, [and] I believe that's because most people fundamentally lack the practical knowledge to stay healthy in the modern world," he added.
The company said 250,000 people have already used the app in its trial phase. According to Shah, 84 percent of those who opted to take the test were female. The most engaged users are mothers between the ages of 30 and 60.

Shah told Reuters he started kicking around ideas for a health startup after some first-hand experience with the current U.S. health system. After settling on health literacy, he recruited some fellow Google employees to join the team.

The app's founders are primarily drawn from the tech sector, rather than the medical field. To ensure accuracy, Shah said the questions have been carefully vetted by subject matter experts, such as a former orthopedic surgeon for the U.S. Olympic team.
The team is more focused on building the product rather than making money in the coming months, said Shah. He stressed that the company would not sell data on people's health knowledge to medical insurance providers.

The Mountain View, California based company has previously raised a small and undisclosed seed round of funding from Silicon Valley venture firms, including Greylock Partners, Menlo Ventures and Rock Health.

(Reporting By Christina Farr; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
Reuters

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Hackers vs James Bond: 'SPECTRE' script stolen in Sony attack

Hackers vs James Bond: 'SPECTRE' script stolen in Sony attack

Early villains have emerged in the next James Bond film "SPECTRE": hackers who stole a version of the screenplay as part of a devastating cyberattack on Sony Pictures.
Producers of the James Bond films said they learned on Saturday morning that an early version of the "SPECTRE" script was among material stolen and made public by hackers who infiltrated computers at the Sony studio.

"Eon Productions is concerned that third parties who have received the stolen screenplay may seek to publish it or its contents," Eon said in a statement, while warning that the script is protected by U.K. copyright laws.

"SPECTRE," starring Daniel Craig as 007, is set for release on Nov. 6, 2015. Filming began this month after producer Barbara Broccoli and director Sam Mendes unveiled the title, cast and new car, but little about the plot.

"I was so excited to tell this story but to explain why, I would have to tell you the plot and I can't do that," said Mendes at the presentation in England, a reminder of Sony's might in the movie world.
The Bond franchise is one of the most lucrative for Sony Pictures and the last instalment "Skyfall" brought in $1.1 billion (699.97 million pounds) worldwide, more than any other Bond film.

A Sony spokesman said news reports that the cyberattack forced the studio to stop production on films, including "SPECTRE," were wrong.

"Productions are still moving forward," Robert Lawson told Reuters.
Hackers launched an attack on the Sony Corp. entertainment arm on Nov. 24, disabling the computer network and stealing and leaking a trove of sensitive information in the most severe cyberattack on a company on U.S. soil. The identity of the hackers has yet to be determined.

(Reporting by Mary Milliken in Los Angeles and Mike Davidson in London; Editing by David Gregorio)
Reuters

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PlayStation Plus gave you $1,349 in 'free' games this year

PlayStation Plus gave you $1,349 in 'free' games this year

It won't surprise you to hear that your PlayStation Plus subscription provides a healthy amount of gaming goodness for $50 per year, but have you ever crunched the numbers to see just how much you're getting? Push Square has. According to its calculations, Sony offered Plus subscribers a whopping $1,349 (£960 in the UK) in PS3, PS4 and PS Vita software during 2014. If you were diligent enough to add every title to your library, you got quite a bargain -- especially since many of the titles (such as Don't Starve and Dust: An Elysian Tail) would arguably be worthwhile as stand-alone purchases.
Of course, Sony didn't hand out those games purely out of generosity. It did some hard math, too. It's safe to say that few gamers claimed every single title, and you have to remain a Plus member to keep those offerings in your collection. They're not really freebies, then. Also, while Microsoft "only" gave out $585 in Xbox games throughout the year, it both has one less platform to support and lets you keep your games even if your Xbox Live Gold subscription lapses. Nonetheless, it's clear that Sony is willing to outspend Microsoft in giveaways if that means winning you over -- and until very recently, that strategy has usually paid off.Push Square

Jon Fingas

Engadget 

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Viber grows its ecosystem with a new section for games

Viber grows its ecosystem with a new section for games

If you're going to try rivaling Skype, you may as well go big or go home. For Viber, over the past few months, this has meant taking its messaging and VoIP calling services to a different level, one that feels more like a mini social network with each passing update. And, without doubt, it helps to have resources at hand from Rakuten, its parent company. Accordingly, Viber has now announced that it is adding games to its platform, in a push to continue growing its ecosystem and give users features beyond calling and messaging.
At launch, Viber Games is going to have Candy Mania, Pop and Wild Luck Casino, which Viber created in tandem with developers Storm8 and Playtika. Along with the plans to expand its initial game lineup, Viber will bring the new feature to every country where its service is available -- for now, Viber Games is limited to Belarus, Israel, Malaysia and Singapore.

Edgar Alvarez
Engadget

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Amazon UK glitch sells thousands of products for a penny

Amazon UK glitch sells thousands of products for a penny

Christmas is always an expensive time of year, but for some lucky Brits ordering gifts on Amazon, the festive celebrations may have kicked off a little early. You see, between 7pm and 8pm last Friday, listings on the website were affected by a price glitch, which discounted thousands of marketplace products to the insanely low price of 1p. However, Amazon wasn't directly to blame; the temporary price crash was actually triggered by Repricer Express, a service that third-party sellers use to automatically adjust their prices. The problem was quickly rectified though and Amazon says it cancelled the "vast majority" of purchases that did go through. Now that the dust has settled, the company is reviewing the transactions that were processed and says it'll follow up with disgruntled sellers directly, some of which have taken orders for stock worth tens of thousands of pounds. In other words, if you did manage to snap up an incredible penny bargain, it could soon be overturned, and if you were oblivious to the Friday night frenzy, you can now rest a little easier.

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Google Maps will now warn you about UK train delays

Google Maps will now warn you about UK train delays

Google Maps has incorporated train timetables for a while now, but it's never accounted for the inevitable delays and cancellations that plague UK networks. You would select what you think is the fastest route, only to stand around on the platform wishing you had called a taxi instead. Well, that could be less of a problem in the future, if you're a Google Maps user at least, because today the company has added real-time National Rail data to its travel app. So if yet another signal failure is disrupting your line, the app should reflect that automatically and give you some alternative routes. In addition, you can now swipe around the map and tap on any UK rail station to review the next departures -- helpful if you're stuck in the middle of nowhere and need to start making tracks.
Google Maps (App Store), (Google Play)

Nick Summers

Engadget

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Washington DC is making a taxi app to take on Uber

Washington DC is making a taxi app to take on Uber

It's no secret that some local governments, especially those with robust taxi systems, have been less than welcoming to Uber. The solution, usually, has been to ban the start-up from city borders. But Washington D.C.'s taxi commission might be taking a different strategy: try to compete.
"Universal D.C. TaxiApp" will hail one of 7,000 licensed taxis
The capital's taxi commission announced on Friday that it will begin beta testing the "Universal D.C. TaxiApp" in March. Riders will be able to hail one of the city's 7,000 licensed taxis if they're in the area, but private services like Uber and Lyft will still be allowed.
Other cities around the country and the world have been less understanding. The company was banned in Spain, India, and Thailand this week, after recently winning the right to operate in Berlin. Whether Uber will use the same business tactics with the commission as it has with private companies remains to be seen.

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Sony Pictures Hackers Release Seventh Stolen Data Dump

Sony Pictures Hackers Release Seventh Stolen Data Dump

The hacking group behind the massive Sony Pictures Entertainment attack has posted a new message containing links to what it claims is the seventh archive of data stolen from the studio.
They also promised more disclosures to come. “We are preparing for you a Christmas gift,” reads the message, which was posted to file-sharing site Pastebin. “The gift will be larger quantities of data. And it will be more interesting. The gift will surely give you much more pleasure and put Sony Pictures into the worst state.”

The message also solicited suggestions of what should be included in forthcoming dumps.
The latest collection of documents contained an internal PowerPoint presentation on Grouper, a video site that Sony acquired in 2006 and subsequently renamed Crackle. It appeared in a file directory labeled “junderwood,” which appears to be a reference to Jim Underwood, a former Sony Pictures executive who now works at Facebook.
A spokesperson for Sony had no immediate comment, and the files have not been independently confirmed by Re/code.

Sony Pictures suffered one of the worst hack attacks in recent memory on Nov. 24, when a hacking group calling itself Guardians of Peace crippled the company’s networks and brought its business to a standstill. Since then, Sony has endured waves of steadily escalating disclosures of sensitive corporate data, including embarrassing correspondence between senior executives, and financial and salary details.

Two weeks ago, Re/code first reported that investigators working for Sony believe that the group may be linked to North Korea. The FBI is now also actively investigating a possible link. North Korea has denied involvement, but called the hack a “righteous deed.”
North Korea has condemned a forthcoming Sony-produced film called “The Interview,” about two American tabloid-TV reporters who are granted an interview with North Korea leader Kim Jong-un and are recruited by the CIA to assassinate him. North Korea has called the film “an act of war,” and lobbied the United Nations and President Barack Obama to stop its release. The film is on schedule to be released on Dec. 25.

Earlier this week, Re/code reported that Seth Rogen, the co-director and co-star of the film, revised a climatic scene depicting the death of Kim Jong-un in “The Interview” at the request of senior Sony Corp. executives in Japan.

Arik Hesseldahl and Dawn Chmielewski
Re/code 

Reuters / Kacper Pempel

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The Lumia 535: Microsoft’s first phone reviewed

The Lumia 535: Microsoft’s first phone reviewed

The brand on the back is now Microsoft, not Nokia.

It's no secret that Windows Phone and the Lumia smartphone range have had the most success at the low end. The Lumia 520 sold like hot cakes thanks to aggressive pricing, and it's still on the market today, with the Microsoft Store currently running a special offer where an AT&T-locked, off-contract phone can be picked up for less than $30.

The successor to the 520 was the Lumia 530, and it had big, if cheap, shoes to fill. Unfortunately, we don't think it really pulled this off , with less storage, no auto-brightness sensor, and a markedly worse screen. The Lumia 630 and 635 were more compelling , with decent screens and more capable cameras. However, they still had only 512MB RAM and lacked the ambient light sensor, which felt a little substandard for their price point.

The Lumia 535 gives the low-end Lumias a much-needed kick in the pants. This is the first Lumia phone to ship with Microsoft—not Nokia—branding , and it's a big step up from the 520 and 530.
The major upgrades are alluded to in Microsoft's "5x5x5" branding for the handset: 5-inch screen, 5 megapixel rear camera, 5 megapixel front camera.

Compared to the 530, the screen is an inch bigger and slightly higher resolution (at 960×540 vs. 854×480), though this gives it a lower dot resolution of 220 PPI instead of 244 PPI. The rear camera resolution is the same, but this time it's an autofocus camera with an LED flash instead of fixed focus and no flash. And perhaps recognizing the cultural importance of selfies, the Lumia 535 includes a front-facing camera with a 5MP resolution—presumably the same unit as the front-facing camera found in the Lumia 735 .

Placed alongside its peers, it's fairly clear that the 535 is in most regards better than both the Lumia 530 and the Lumia 630/635. The Lumia 630/635's Snapdragon 400 processor is on paper a little faster, and it provides access to the SensorCore motion-tracking coprocessor. The 635 does have LTE, but the 535's screen size and resolution, cameras, and RAM are all better than those of the 630.
The styling of the 535 is extremely similar to that of the 635: a wraparound gloss plastic cover that can be peeled off to reveal a battery, twin SIM slots in the dual SIM review unit we had, and the microSD slot. The high-gloss finish and round sides feel good in the hand, and for my tastes, this 5-inch form factor is the upper limit of reasonable in a smartphone, as it's a size that still offers some degree of single-handed usage.

As is now universal on low-end Windows Phones, the 535 depends on on-screen buttons and lacks a dedicated camera button. I still regard this as unfortunate. With the emphasis that Nokia and now Microsoft places on the cameras, the instant access and convenient focusing that the camera button affords is a perfect fit.

A screen you can look at

The most obvious issue with the Lumia 530 was its screen. It had very poor viewing angles, with pronounced color shift when viewed at anything other than head on. It also had a peculiar, almost grainy quality when viewed closely.

The 535's screen is a substantial improvement. It's an IPS LCD, so as expected, the viewing angles are much better. It doesn't have the 530's graininess, either. Outdoor visibility on the 535 is also superior to that of the 530, attributable to the 535's much greater brightness.

Unlike the 630 and better, this isn't a "ClearBlack" screen. The ClearBlack screens are notable for their dark blacks and contrast. Side-by-side, the 535's screen certainly isn't as pretty; black parts have that slightly gray glow that is typical of LCDs. Animation and video still look good. It's plainly not a high-end screen, but it's not a bad screen.

The one sticking point I had was not with the image, but rather with touch. While it was generally fine, on a few occasions the screen was slow and imprecise when responding to touch inputs, requiring multiple stabs at the screen to make something happen. This wasn't a consistent issue by any means, but I've seen similar reports from others testing the phone, so I don't think it's an issue unique to my test handset.

Competent cameras

Lumia 535.

The cameras perform much as we've come to expect from the Lumia 535's siblings. The images from the front-facing camera seem essentially identical to those from the 735. I'm still not convinced of the value of such a high resolution on the front-facing camera, but I suppose it can't really hurt.
The performance of the rear cameras on the 530, 535, and 630/635 seems very similar. The big difference is in the color; photos taken in the same conditions and with the same settings seem to have a different opinion on how saturated colors should be and where the white point is. I'm a little surprised at the variation, given the apparent similarity between the devices. In the close-up outdoor photo, it is the 530 that fared the best and the 630/635 the worst. For the more distant subject of the tree, however, the 535 and 635 both bested the 530.

Lumia 535, indoors, no flash.

Indoor performance is creditable (the pictures make the window look very bright; really, it's just pretty overexposed, to bring out the detail in the subject). While on-phone flashes are always limited in their ability to actually brighten scenes, the 535's flash was certainly helpful in my test scene.
Overall, for the price class, I think the 535's cameras are strong performers.
If there is any weakness, it's battery life. On the one hand, the performance was about the same as the Lumia 530 in spite of having a bigger, better, brighter screen. Due to lack of configurability on these handsets, we tested at the medium brightness setting, and that setting appears brighter on the 535 than the 530. So the battery life wasn't atrocious.

On the other hand, the battery capacity is much larger than that of the 530, and it's a little larger than that of the 630/635. Getting just under six and a half hours, compared to just under 12, is disappointing.

On the processor front, the Snapdragon 200 puts in a surprisingly respectable performance. This is presumably due to the extra RAM compared to the 530 and 630; it lets the phone finish the Octane test (it fails on the 512MB units) and more or less match the Snapdragon 400s

in SunSpider and Kraken. It's not blistering fast, by any means, but navigating the operating system is generally snappy.

The big mystery

As a low-end phone, I think the Lumia 535 is a fantastic package. It eclipses the 530 and 520, and in some very important ways, it beats the 630/635, too. The 535 is the successor to the 520 that people were hoping for, and it comes highly recommended...
... if the price is right.



As is so often the case, the big question about the Lumia 535 is its price. As yet no official US pricing or carrier availability has been announced. Expansys is selling the unlocked dual SIM version of the phone for $169. Given the lack of an official US launch, we expect this to represent the very upper end of pricing. Should a true US version or versions hit the market, they will surely be cheaper.

The dual SIM feature is of negligible value in the US, but it's important in many emerging markets, typically due either to regular border crossings or the desire to use a different provider for voice and data. Dual SIM handsets such as the LG L Bello Dual D335, the Sony Xperia M2 Dual D2302, and the HTC Desire 616 Dual SIM (which do not have identical specs to the Lumia 535 but are in the same kind of bracket) all come out at about $20-50 more expensive (based on Expansys' pricing).
As such, I think we can expect the Lumia 535 to be priced pretty competitively. Unsubsidized carrier-locked prices seem to be low— $137 in Thailand , for example.
Should this kind of pricing come to the US, the Lumia 535 will be truly the king of the entry-level smartphones: a well-built handset with all the features you need, a nice big screen, and for the price, some great cameras.

The Good

1GB RAM
The cameras
Solid build
With luck, the price

The Bad

The camera button will be forever mourned
Occasional issues with registering taps on the screen

The Ugly

We still don't know if it will come to the US or how much it will cost when it does.

By Peter Bright

Ars Technicia 

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Happy Birthday To Taylor Swift 13 Things to Love About Her

Happy Birthday To Taylor Swift 13 Things to Love About Her

Taylor Swift loves the No. 13, and not just because it’s lucky—she also was born on Dec. 13 in 1989, the year that inspired the name of her new album. Because the “Blank Space” singer turns an iconic age Saturday  Her newest album 1989 sold 1.3 million copies in its first week and, all around the world, Swifties rejoiced. She's been everywhere lately: on talk shows, magazine covers and even on the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show. I've put together a list of 13 things to love about her in honor of her 25th birthday on December 13.

• She doesn't make other people feel small. In fact, she's kind, as evidenced by the random notes of encouragement she leaves her fans on their Instagram accounts, that thirteen-hour meet and greet where she gave as much attention to the last person as she did to the first, and her unwavering and outspoken support of women in her industry.

• She genuinely loves her fans and interacts with them on a daily basis. It's not uncommon for Taylor to send random gift packages and handwritten notes to die-hard Swifties.

• She adores her family And her cats.

•  She's a loyal friend who welcomes diversity in her closest relationships. Her besties include  model Karlie Kloss, Selena Gomez, singer Ed Sheeran and Lorde.

• She knows that life is filled with ups and downs, and she is vocal about taking her challenges and using them to grow.

• She dances like no one is watching

• She rocks any outfit she wears,Taylor Swift has never looked bad. In fact, we don’t think we’ve ever seen the singer look bad…ever. She has a keen eye, keeping her day-to-day outfits refined with a preppy edge. Likewise at red-carpet events, Taylor keeps things understated and classic.

• Tay-Tay is unique. she is the best song writer and her music is just awesome.

• She looks really pretty when she makes the OMG face.

• Her lyrics are just awesome Taylor’s ability to weave stories, emotions and hidden codes through her lyrics was quite something. The rich tapestry she manages to paint, whether it’s the desperation in ‘Back To December’ (“I’m so glad you made time to see me. How’s life, tell me, how’s your family?”) or the humorous recounting of unrequited love in ‘You Belong With Me’ (“If you could see that I’m the one who understands you. Been here all along so, why can’t you see— you belong with me, you belong with me?”), Taylor manages to make her lyrics personal yet accessible.

• She can make anything look interesting even math.

• She makes everyone smile.

• Her parties are as dorky as yours While some stars are always sharing photos of their exclusive vacations in exotic faraway locales, Swift's get-togethers look like they could've been photographed in your neighbor's backyard. Fourth of July? She's baking a holiday-themed cake and hitting the Slip N' Slide. Christmas season? She's constructing homemade holiday cards with actress Hailee Steinfeld.

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