Category: News

The Full story about how Sony got hacked by “North Korea” and pulled back it’s upcoming movie “The Interview”

The Story

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Before we start If you don’t already know – The Interview is movie about assassinating a North Korean dictator.

About a month ago Sony was hacked by #GOP who called themselves the Guardians of Peace after the FBI was pulled in the investigation… I am getting ahead of myself self here – let’s start from the beginning.

The hackers thretened Sony that If they don’t met the requests they made by a certain date than they will release some zip files all named SPEData.zip along with Internal data and “Top Secrets” to the world.

Sony does not met the requests that the were making and sure enough they release the data! The leaked information includes source quality images and videos form it’s upcoming move “The Interview”. That wasn’t the scary part of the story – The scary part is that they released personal information of ‘all’ employees of Sony. This information included social security numbers, full names, birth days, phone numbers and even more information. A brave Sony employee who decided to give FORTUNE a interview and according to that conversation it looks like it got pretty crazy over at Sony. People didn’t just start changing passwords to their bank accounts and online shopping services some of them also started getting new passports!

While that was going on in an employees life – Sony got FBI into this hacking and the hackers confidently “laughed at the FBI” and identified themselves as the Guardians of Peace also –

“The result of investigation by FBI is so excellent that you might have seen what we were doing with your own eyes. We congratulate you success,” GOP wrote. “FBI is the BEST in the world.”
“You will find the gift for FBI at the following address,” they said, posting a YouTube link to a Japanese prank video that repeats a phrase: “You are an idiot.”


FBI on Friday (Have no-idea what the date was at this point) said that North Korea is behind this attack – North Korea has denied this.

One the first images from the hackers.

Earlier this month the #GOP threatened that if this movie was shown at any theaters than there will a 911 like attack at those location – They also warned the people living in those area to leave during the time this film is shown. Most of the major theaters started dropping the film to avoid terrorist attracts and future possible hacking. After most of the major theaters drooped that film Sony decided to pull that film from all theaters.

Barack Obama said and I am paraphrasing here that Sony should have talked to them before taking the action of pulling back the movie itself and that they would take some action to this. Again I have paraphrased here and none of those are official quotes.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2oo2-0xvCZ8

NBC video about how Sony “made a mistake” in pulling back the movie “The Interview”

Now we come to yesterday morning – North Korea disappears from the internet and timing was perfect and now everybody thinks that the US is behind the attack.The country has limited web infrastructure in the first place and Dyn shows that the country has had major outages in the past 24 hours. Anyone at a North Korea’s IP has found it impossible to connect to the internet.

“I haven’t seen such a steady beat of routing instability and outages in KP before,” said Doug Madory, director of internet analysis at Dyn Research

The North Korea might have had their turn at turn to control the United States by censoring a movie across the ocean in the United States and It succeeded for the one and the last time. We are not afraid of a dictator somewhere else and that’s the reason that your are going to be able to watch “The Interview” this Christmas – The best day of year!

 

A billboard for the film ‘The Interview’ is displayed December 19, 2014 in Venice, California. Christopher Polk—Getty Images

For those who are really wanting to watching this film then take a look at this article form The Verge with the list of all the place showing this film.

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Sources

  1. Wikipedia – Sony Pictures Entertainment hack
  2. BGR – Sony hackers just pranked the FBI
  3. FORTUNE – I work at Sony Pictures. This is what it was like after we got hacked.
  4. TIME – Sony Announces Limited Release of The Interview
  5. The Verge – North Korea’s internet is having serious problems

Amazon Fire Stick: A Chromecast and a Roku Stick rival?

Overview

Even though Amazon was late to the steaming box game, That isn’t going to stop Amazon from innovating. First Amazon comes out the Fire TV and now it has come out with the Fire Stick. The Fire Stick is cheaper than the Roku’s Streaming Stick and it’s just a bit more expensive from Google’s own Chomecast. The Fire Stick can do ‘every’ and ‘anything’ the other two can.

The Fire Stick comes around at just $39 sharp and if you are a Amazon Prime subscriber than this is a must buy, If you are not already into another Streaming Box ecosystem.

The First stick comes with Amazon’s menu – including all of the Prime streaming content, if you are a subscriber. Just the Roku Streaming Stick it can using most (but not all) of the third-party streaming services natively – None of that casting stuff from your phone like the Chromecast.

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Interface

Amazon says that the interface will be the “same” as it’s bigger sibling the Fire TV. This interface will be very important because, You will need to get used to this interface if you are going use most the major video streaming services – As of now Netflix, Hulu Plus, YouTube, Crackle, Twitch, and Pandora are all available but, HBO GO isn’t expected to come til 2015. All services are able to be played upto 1080p, Depending on your internet speed and bandwidth. Full list of Apps and Games are here!

image of the Fire TV Interface | Image Credit: Amazon

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Conclusion

Most media company’s have already released their reivews and the link to those are below:

 

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Instagram is allowing you to edit your post captation after the fact.

Latest Instagram upldate now allows you to edit your Instagram Photo or Video caption.

To edit the information on your Instagram photo or video just follow the following five (5) steps!

 

  1. Tap the three dotted button (as shown)
  2. Tap “Edit”
  3. Change or Add information such as: Caption, Location, Tags etc.
  4. Tap done (As shown)
  5. Now You’re done!

Now the only request the we have right now if twitter typo correction.

If only twitter allowed tweet changes after the fact

 

Apple “accidentally” leaks the iPad mini 3 and the iPad Air 2

Just after Google reviles it’s new tablet the Nexus 9 along with it’s new flagship high-end phone and a media streamer / player an “iPad user guide for iOS 8“. One of the screenshots of that app included this:

This leak has basically confirmed what’s going to be announced tomorrow at Apple Event.

Click for full resolution photo
Image Source: mzstatic.com

This mess-up was first seen by 9to5Mac. This leak has basically confirmed what’s going to be announced tomorrow at Apple Event. The question is “Is this a accident for on purpose”. Nobody knows. The screenshot was soon removed form the iTunes store but, The Verge reports that the screen still exists on Apple’s servers!

Not all is lost!

The only information that has been confirmed form the screen shot is that the next iPad “will have Touch ID”. From the images nothing else is reviled such as the screen size or the processor. Also, according to the images the design looks similar, if not the same to it’s predecessor.

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We suggest that you stick around until tomorrow and hear officially from Apple about the new iPads.

Nexus 9 – Google’s latest android tablet

Earlier today Google released their new Nexus branded devices. They released their Nexus 9 along with the Nexus 6 phone and the first device with Android TV, the Nexus Player! The next update to the Android operating system, Android “L” has been confirmed to be “Lollipop”.

Just like the Nexus 6, The Nexus 9 is nothing like it’s predecessor. Has rumored the Nexus 9 will be manufactured by HTC!  The tablet has a  almost 9″ (8.9″) display with a 2048 by 1536 QXGA  display with a 4:3 aspect ratio and Corning® Gorilla® Glass 3. The Nexus 9 is rocking an NVIDIA Tegra K1 Dual Denver at 2.3GHz, the Tegra K1 is a 64-bit ready processor and along with Android “L” or “Lollipop” which now also supports 64-bit makes the Nexus 9 the first Android device to come with both hardware and software supporting 64-bit. Nexus 9 is still not a “true” 64-bit device because, It needs a least 3GBs of R.A.M. to be considered 64-bit device.  The GPU on the Nexus 9 is also impressive with a 192-core Kepler GPU! Even though you should never take pictures on your tablet the Nexus 9 has a 8 Megapixel rear camera with auto-focus and LED flash. The front facing camera is only 1.6 Megapixels. The Nexus 9 supports 802.11ac 2×2 (MIMO) Wi-Fi along with NFC and Bluetooth 4.1. The LTE version of the Nexus 9 supports the following bands:

Quad-band GSM, CDMA, Penta-band HSPA, LTE

UPDATE Oct 16th, 2014:

The Nexus 9 is available in Indigo Black (Black), Lunar White (White), Sand (Gold). You can pre-order the tablet now in the following versions:

16 GB – WiFi $399.00
32 GB – WiFi $479.00
32 GB – LTE $599.00

 

The LTE and the Sand (Gold) version are available later.

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[highlight] Video from Google: [/highlight]

http://youtu.be/yYHY3MFiq1o

Nexus 6 – Google’s flagship high-end phone!

Earlier today Google released their new Nexus branded devices. They released their Nexus 6 along with the Nexus 9 tablet and the first device with Android TV, the Nexus Player! The next update to the Android operating system, Android “L” has been confirmed to be “Lollipop”.

The Nexus 6 is nothing like it’s predecessors. Nexus devices have been known to have not the greatest specs but, Be really in-expensive.

This years’ Nexus phone is not cheap nor it’s low end. As rumored, The next Nexus is going to be made by Motorola with a design like the new Moto X. It’s rocking an 16:9, 9:16; 5.96″  2560×1440 QHD AMOLED display with a pixel density of 493 ppi with a Corning® Gorilla® Glass 3 display! The display is of-course not the only items that has been upgraded; To cut back on the cost the Nexus 5 was not the best device for taking pictures but, This one is. With a 13 Megapixel rear facing camera with optical image stabilization and a Dual LED rind flash. The camera can capture of-course 13 megapixel photos but, It can also record 4K video at 30fps. The Front camera is not that impressive as most phones with a 2 megapixel senser and the ability to do HD video conferencing. The biggest change is the processor, Which is now rocks aQualcomm Snapdragon 805 with a Adreno 420 GPU! It also has what should be a standard in all phones is Dual front-facing speakers. Now since more and more U.S. carriers are moving towards non-unlimited data plans so, Something that is really useful is the 802.11ac 2×2 (MIMO), Bluetooth 4.1 and, NFC chips. Taking about U.S. carriers, It supports most of them. The North America version supports the following bands:

GSM: 850/900/1800/1900MH
CDMA Band Class: 0/1/10
WCDMA Bands: 1/2/4/5/8
LTE Bands: 2/3/4/5/7/12/13/17/25/26/29/41
CA DL Bands: B2-B13, B2-B17, B2-29, B4-B5, B4-B13, B4-B29

The international or the phone that is sold in the rest of the world supports the following bands:

GSM: 850/900/1800/1900MHz
CDMA: not supported
WCDMA Bands: 1/2/4/5/6/8/9/19
LTE Bands: 1/3/5/7/8/9/19/20/28/41
CA DL: B3-B5, B3-B8

This will be available  in 32GB and 64GB capacity. Choose the one that’s suitable for your needs because, There is still no Micro-SD card slot. All models have a 3220mAh with Qi wireless charging! The phones start at $649 (off-contract) for 32GB and $699 for 64GB (off-contract).

Pre-orders for the Nexus 6 Start late October.

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[highlight] Video from Google: [/highlight]

http://youtu.be/wk-PY2dBKaA

#Microstopped – Microsoft taking down YouTube videos that have anything to do with Windows!

Starting earlier today most videos on YouTube that have anything to do with Windows, from “How to use Windows 8.1” to Downloading Windows 7 beta are getting taken down due to copyright strikes.

Chris Pirillo was one of the victims of whats now known as #Microstopped about “Windows 7 Upgrade or Anytime Upgrade?” Here is what the notice looks like:

YouTube copyright strike notice
Image Source: Chris Pirillo (Twitter)

If you were planing on uploading a video about anything that has to do something with Windows than, you might want to wait until this is fixed. Microsoft has said nothing about this right now…

UPDATE Oct. 14 2014, 11:50 P.M. : Microsoft has said that the videos that were removed included infringement of copyright in the comment section by users posting Product Keys. It doesn’t matter if the infringement was in the video itself or not. This problem is currently being fixed.

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