BlackBerry announces virtual assistant to take on Siri and Cortana
Apple has Siri, Microsoft has Cortana, Google’s got Now voice search and BlackBerry… doesn’t have a virtual assistant of any kind. This morning, however, the Canadian smartphone maker confirmed that it has one in the works and will be showing up on the company’s next major release. Known aptly as BlackBerry Assistant, the new program is a part of OS 10.3 and will be available on the upcoming Passport phone. Assistant is voice-activated and comes with quite a few of the standard features we’ve come to expect on the other mobile platforms, such as the ability to open apps, send messages and tweets, set reminders and change settings. It also is smart enough to learn and adapt to your needs, so it theoretically should become more useful over time as it gets to know you. BlackBerry isn’t revealing all that Assistant can do yet, and it hasn’t offered a firm timeframe for availability aside from the fact that it’ll be part of the Passport, but so far we haven’t seen much to set it apart from the competition. It’s at least a good sign that the company is trying remain competitive, however.
Filed under: Cellphones, Software, Mobile, Blackberry
Source: BlackBerry
iOS 8 Beta 4 Reportedly Coming Monday, July 21
As iOS 8 proceeds through development and testing, the fourth beta version will be seeded to developers on Monday, July 21, according to BGR. A release on that date would mark a two-week interval since the release of the third beta on July 7, down from a roughly three-week interval between the second and third betas.
BGR regularly publishes reports predicting future release dates for iOS betas, and while the predictions are sometimes off by a day or two as was the case with beta 3, they are usually close to the actual date barring any last-minute schedule changes by Apple. As a result, it is reasonable to believe the fourth beta should arrive early next week rather than the following week.
Paul McCartney Re-Releases Five Popular Albums as iPad Apps [iOS Blog]
Paul McCartney today announced the addition of five of his classic albums to the iOS App store as iPad apps, reports The Guardian. McCartney is following in the footsteps of other musicians such as Lady Gaga and Björk, who also used the tablet device to further the reach of their music.
McCartney’s iPad apps feature some of the musician’s most popular albums — Band on the Run, McCartney, McCartney II, RAM and Wings over America. Each iPad app contains premium content such as remastered audio tracks, archival video footage, interviews, photos and more. They are priced at $7.99, which makes them attractive to music fans who may prefer the discounted iPad apps over the more expensive music-only album versions.
McCartney may be the most long-standing successful musicians to adopt the iPad, but Björk holds the title as one of the first musicians to effectively promote an album using Apple’s iOS ecosystem. Björk made headlines in 2011 for her groundbreaking Biophilia iPad app that merged music from the album with mini-games and interactive art tools. The title was recently inducted as the first app in New York’s Museum of Modern Art permanent collection. The app also has been used to develop the Biophilia Educational Programme, which is being used as curriculum in several European schools.
NASA’s new telescopes could spot alien life within 20 years
Convinced that there’s got to be life on other planets? You’re not alone in the universe — in fact, many NASA scientists agree with you. And a panel convened recently by the space agency (see the video below) believes that finding it could happen soon, too — perhaps “in twenty years” — thanks to incoming telescope technology. Recent projects, like the Kepler Telescope, Dark Energy Survey and the Very Large Telescope have detected the presence of planets and even their atmospheres. But astronomers are even more excited about future projects like the Transiting Exoplanet Surveying Satellite (TESS) and James Webb Space Telescope, set to launch in 2017 and 2018, respectively.
Those devices are purpose-built to find planets, and future projects will search for water and gases like carbon dioxide. Astronaut Charles Bolden spoke for the group when he said “it’s highly improbable in the limitless vastness of the universe that we humans stand alone.” Of course, there are dissenting opinions, not to throw cold water on your alien abduction fantasies. Many think that the evolution of intelligent life on Earth defied dramatically long odds, and may have occurred rarely (if at all) elsewhere.
Source: NASA
Google Street View cars have mapped methane gas leaks in big US cities
Google’s Street View cars aren’t just useful for scouting out a locale in advance — they might be saving the planet, too. The vehicles have just helped the Environmental Defense Fund publish methane gas leak maps for Boston, Indianapolis and New York City’s Staten Island. The Google cars roamed around cities using sensors that could detect both the location and scale of one of the dangerous leaks, driving by at least twice to make sure the results weren’t a fluke. Depending on where you live, the data is either reassuring or scary; the older pipes in Boston and Staten Island have an abundance of leaks, while Indianapolis’ more recent infrastructure is keeping the problems to a minimum.
The maps should help paint a more accurate picture of methane pollution in the US. Researchers are worried that existing estimates are too low, and the Street View cars may have spotted leaks that would otherwise have gone unnoticed. Having such a complete, publicly accessible data set could also pressure gas companies into fixing pipes that would otherwise go neglected. The Environmental Defense Fund is most concerned about curbing pollution, but there are also some short-term benefits — if utilities take action, they could both prevent explosions and minimize waste.
[Image credit: Adam Gerard, Flickr]
Filed under: Transportation, Science, Google
Via: New Scientist
Source: Environmental Defense Fund
Carphone Warehouse could launch its own mobile network with Three’s help
Carphone Warehouse, like Phones 4u, is a retailer and reseller in one — it’s just as interested in flogging phones and tablets as it is setting you up with a mobile contract from any of the major UK carriers. According to The Financial Times, however, it might soon be getting into the carrier business itself, by launching an MVNO on Three’s network. Sources claim various operators have been approached as the now-merged Carphone Warehouse and Dixons look for new opportunities, but discussions with Three are at a more advanced stage.
It sounds far from a done deal, but makes sense that Carphone Warehouse might want their own tariffs to sell phones against. But, what happens to its current business model as a result? We’re not sure how the likes Vodafone and O2 might react to Carphone Warehouse being both a third-party sales channel and a competitor (rumor has it EE’s thinking about cutting ties with resellers anyway). We’d guess it all depends on whether the company will aggressively push its own tariffs, or simply offer a low-cost option — which is typically how other MVNOs like Tesco Mobile and Virgin Mobile operate — to complement the pricey, premium packages provided by the major carriers.
Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile
Source: The Financial Times
Generating power from heat will soon be dirt cheap
Thermoelectrics — which use wasted heat to generate electricity — could get a lot more interesting thanks to a company called Alphabet Energy. It’s set to commercialize tetrahedrite, a metal that more than doubles the efficiency of current tech for as little as a fiftieth the cost. Thermoelectric materials work thanks to a rare trick: transferring heat poorly while conducting electricity well. However, current materials are pricy and polluting, and only convert about 2.5 percent of heat energy to electricity. Tetrahedrite, meanwhile, could reach 5 to 10 percent efficiency while running a mere $4 per kilogram. Alphabet Energy says it could tap waste heat from industrial plants or even a vehicle’s exhaust system to produce electricity, making it virtually free. That’d mean you could power your car’s cooling AC using wasted heat, ironically — without a solar panel in sight.
Source: MIT
[Discussion] Is your Nexus 4 having soft key issues on Android 4.4.4?
There are currently only a handful of devices that can be updated to Android 4.4.4, including Nexus, Motorola and Sony devices. Of those devices, it’s the ones that are most closely related to Google that have apparently suffered severe teething issues. One particular issue that has been brought to our attention is the fact some Nexus 4 owners have been reporting that their soft keys have stopped functioning after updating to Android 4.4.4. With all of these issues with Android KitKat, Nexus owners have had varied experiences, even with seemingly identical devices, so we’d thought we’d ask: is your Nexus 4 having soft key issues on Android 4.4.4?
Perhaps the most unusual thing about this particular issue is that it appears to manifest as a hardware issue where the bottom of the panel stops operating, and there are pages and pages of users making note of the issue, though it seems entirely up for debate whether the real cause is the Android 4.4.4 update or a deeper hardware issue. There has been no official word on what the root cause of the issue is, and users are reporting very mixed experiences with lodging RMA’s with Google or requesting digitizer replacement from LG. By now, most Nexus 4′s will already be out of warranty, which has created a rather harrowing situation for some users whose device has essentially been rendered useless.
Have you been experiencing any issues on your Nexus 4 on Android 4.4.4? Anything to the degree that is described above? Let us know your story in the comments.
Thanks @Dibang69 for the tip!
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UK police begin trialling the world’s fastest face recognition tech
With more than six million CCTV cameras in operation, Britain is the most watched country in the world. London’s police officers are trialling body-worn cameras to help bring about “speedier justice,” but only now are other forces beginning to find efficient ways to process that surveillance. Leicestershire Police today confirmed it has become the first force in the UK to test NEC’s NeoFace face recognition software, which it hopes will “transform the way criminals are tracked down.” NeoFace’s strengths lie in analysing “dozens” of facial features from digital images captured by CCTV or police body cameras and matching them with the 90,000 photos stored on Leicestershire Police’s database.
Because processing only takes a matter of seconds (NeoFace ranks number one in independent face matching speed and accuracy tests), it stands to eliminate the need for officers to manually search for possible matches, which can take hours. Although the face recognition tech is only now making its UK debut, it has already proved invaluable in the US. Just last month, the Chicago Police Department used the system to sort through 4.5 million booking photos to help convict a suspected armed robber. Unfortunately, Leicestershire Police can’t submit NeoFace’s findings as evidence in court — instead it’ll serve as a useful tool to detect possible suspects (and also their family members) and develop new lines of enquiry.
Filed under: Software
Via: The Next Web
Source: Leicestershire Police
21st Century Fox tried to buy Time Warner for $80 billion — but the main target could be HBO
Could Fox News and CNN have the same owner? No, but close. 21 Century Fox has confirmed reports (first published by the New York Times) that it made an $80 billion bid for fellow media conglomerate Time Warner — and was turned down, for now. Curiously, this comes just as Comcast is trying to swallow Time Warner Cable, but those two similarly-named companies are no longer directly connected. Time Warner (also no longer related to AOL, which owns this website) recently ditched its Time Inc. magazine properties, and now consists of three parts: HBO, Turner and Warner Bros. According to the reports, Fox would sell CNN as part of the buyout to avoid regulatory hurdles caused by owning both large news networks, but as analyst Porter Bibb pointed out on Bloomberg TV, this would give it access to HBO, which he called “the only Netflix fighter left.”
[Image credit: Helen Sloan/courtesy of HBO]
Of course, there’s more to Time Warner than just Game of Thrones and HBO Go. Turner Broadcasting Systems without CNN still has a network of channels like TNT, TBS, Cartoon Network and Turner Sports which has deals for games from the NBA, NCAA Tournament, NASCAR and MLB. The Warner Bros. movie studio is no small fish either, but reports indicate that any combination would keep its operations separate from Twentieth Century Fox. Of course, Fox already has many of those things, except for a premium cable network.
Filed under: Home Entertainment, Internet, HD
Source: New York Times
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