Archive for January 14, 2022

Friday, January 14, 2022

Canon Forced to Ship “Knockoff” Ink Cartridges

Jon Fingas:

Printer makers have long used chips to thwart third-party ink cartridge sales and drive you toward their own products, but they’re now feeling the sting of those restrictions. The Register and USA Today note Canon has had to ship toner cartridges without copy protection chips due to ongoing shortages. That, in turn, has led to some ImageRunner multifunction printers incorrectly flagging official cartridges as knockoffs — Canon has even told printer owners how to bypass the warnings and deal with broken toner level detection.

[…]

The printer trouble illustrates one of the common complaints about digital rights management (DRM) and other copy protection systems: they create trouble the moment their designers can’t offer full support.

Previously:

iOS Music Player Showcase, 2022

Marc Barrowclift (via Dave Mark):

There’s new and exciting developments every year in the realm of iOS third-party music players, and 2021 was no exception. While 2019 enjoyed an explosion of new players like Power Player and Albums that through time came to lead the space, 2020 in contrast received only a modest handful of new players and is instead remembered for the impressive growth the established player base received that year. This past year, 2021, managed to do both with a dizzying array of five new players and impressive growth across nearly all existing players.

I miss Ecoute, and of course the old Apple app.

Previously:

Faking an iPhone Reboot

Bruce Schneier:

Researchers have figured how how to intercept and fake an iPhone reboot[…]

[…]

I see this as another manifestation of the security problems that stem from all controls becoming software controls. Back when the physical buttons actually did things — like turn the power, the Wi-Fi, or the camera on and off — you could actually know that something was on or off.

PUBG Developer Sues Apple Over Alleged Rip-offs in the App Store

José Adorno (PDF):

In the US, PUBG’s developer sued the maker of another popular battle royale game, Free Fire. Not only that but Krafton has also named Apple and Google in the lawsuit, alleging that Apple and Google have refused to stop selling rip-off versions of its games.

Juli Clover:

Apple and Google are accused of distributing hundreds of millions of copies of the Free Fire apps, earning Garena “hundreds of millions of dollars” and netting Apple and Google a “substantial amount of revenue.”

[…]

Apple on December 21, 2021 was told that Free Fire infringes on Krafton’s PUBG copyrights, but Apple has not taken action to remove the game from the App Store.

I don’t understand why they waited until the end of 2021 to notify Apple if the alleged offending apps have been on sale (and using a variation on the “Battlegrounds” name) since 2019.

Previously: