‘Free Basics by Facebook’ replaces Internet.org website and app
A few months ago, Facebook opened up the Internet.org platform to developers after being accused of violating net neutrality rules, mostly by users in India. Now, Zuckerberg’s project has added 60 new services created by third-party developers, including BabyCenter for pregnancy and parenting info and SmartBusiness for novice entrepreneurs. Since it has undergone quite an overhaul, it has also been renamed to “Free Basics by Facebook” to distinguish it from the larger Internet.org initiative. The revamped website comes with a menu where its users in Asia, Africa and Latin America can choose which services to activate and access. In addition, the new mobile website — now FreeBasics.com instead of Internet.org — supports HTTPS just like the Android app does. Note that the platform is still open to developers, and those interested in helping out can get all the details from the Internet.org platform page on Facebook.
Source: Internet.org
Google voice search can now hear what you’ve got to say
Need a better reason to say “OK Google” in public? Well, the search engine just announced a refinement to voice search on its research blog. Now, it can more accurately pick out your voice even in noisy surroundings, and perform the necessary analysis in real-time. This is all made possible by software that can make faster phoneme predictions by listening further ahead in a user’s speech.
In addition to this, acoustic models utilize feedback loops to tell the difference between similar sounding letters. For example, the word “museum” is broken up into / m j u z i @ m/ in phonetic notation and normally the sounds made by “j” and “u” would be difficult to separate. But with feedback loops, the software takes in all letters and sounds at once, just as the word itself is said in one breath. This is achieved with the help of newly developed memory cells that work with a sophisticated gating system. You can test Google’s upgraded digital ears on both Android and iOS now.
Source: Google
Photoshop and Premiere Elements 14 add editing tools and 4K support
You can pretty much mark your calendars for it. Every year in mid to late September, Adobe reveals its annual update for Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements. This year is no different as version 14 of the consumer-focused photo and video-editing apps was just announced. While Adobe was careful to fine-tune existing features for the software duo, it also tacked on a handful of new features. In Photoshop Premiere Elements 14, there are tools that removes the blur caused by camera shake with a click and easily rid landscape shots of unwanted haze (see above image). With Premiere Elements 14, you can now view and edit 4K footage to keep those vacation videos looking top notch. If you’re looking to give the pair a go, both apps will be available for $150 total when they’re ready for action in Q4 of this year. For beginners, that cost is significantly lower than Adobe’s more robust Creative Cloud subscription. Slideshow-322782
Google says Voice Search is now faster and more accurate
If you feel like Google’s voice recognition is working a little better than it used to, that’s because it is! Today Google reported that their widely-used voice search capability is now being handled by a new engine that recognizes and anticipates words with a much higher degree of accuracy.
Google says that these advancements are thanks to the development of more effective neural network acoustic models through the use of “Connectionist Temporal Classification (CTC) and sequence discriminative training techniques.”
On the Google Research Blog, members of the Google Speech Team including Haşim Sak, Andrew Senior, Kanishka Rao, Françoise Beaufays and Johan Schalkwyk wrote that “These models are a special extension of recurrent neural networks (RNNs) that are more accurate, especially in noisy environments, and they are blazingly fast!”
In short, Google is now even better at correctly recognizing your speech, especially in situations with a lot of background noise, and the delay between speech and interpretation has been made even shorter.
This is the second time in 2015 that Google has announced improvements in their voice search capabilities. The recurrent neural networks that Google is using for their voice models are widely used in the approach to artificial intelligence called “deep learning.”
Andrew Ng, who worked on the Google Brain, predicted in 2014 that “50% of queries will be on speech or images” within five years. With speech recognition becoming an increasingly popular choice of human-computer interaction, it’s no surprise that Google is pulling out all the stops when it comes to developing better voice search functionality.
This new update is already in effect for all Android and iOS devices, so if you haven’t said “OK Google” in a while, now’s a good time experience how effective the company’s voice recognition technology has become.
T-Mobile gets voted best mobile carrier overall in the US
Tom’s Guide have reviewed all the US mobile carriers and come to the conclusion that T-Mobile is the best of the bunch. Their testing goes beyond just general service in your area, but also customer service, phone selection, plans, and any extra special features.
After testing, each section would be scored differently depending on how important it is to consumers. For example “Performance”, which is basically speeds and coverage, is weighted higher at 50 points compared to something not as important like “Special Feature” which is only worth 5 points.
You can see the points scored by all carriers in the picture above. T-Mobile did not win every category hands down, but it did come out the overall winner. Barely beating out the largest US carrier, Verizon Wireless. The key to the win was slightly better plans and special features.
If you would like to see a full break down of the scoring or exactly what each category details, head to Tom’s Guide. They also go over the pros and cons of each carrier. T-Mobile’s cons are things like “performance outside of cities still lags Verizon, AT&T; Finished behind other major carriers in customer support testing”.
Source: Tom’s Guide
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CNN is letting Gear VR owners attend the Oct 13 Democratic presidential debate
If you have always wanted to go to a Democratic presidential debate, but live too far, all you need now is a Samsung Gear VR. CNN will be broadcasting the Democratic presidential debate to all Gear VR owners on October 13.
Viewing the debate on the Gear VR is probably going to be a lot cooler than being there. Basically, they are placing a 360 degree camera in the audience and live streaming to Gear VR customers. This means you can look all around at what’s happening from the comfort of your own home. It is sure to be hilarious watching the reactions from the crowd, but the downside is it probably won’t be the best of quality and there won’t be any zooming in on the candidates who are speaking.
I have actually done something like this before, and I will tell you, being in the audience and looking around is awesome. It’s just weird watching people talk as if you are not there, even though you are looking all around at everyone. If you own a Gear VR and would like to attend, tune in on October 13.
Press Release:
CNN WILL LIVE STREAM DEMOCRATIC DEBATE IN VIRTUAL REALITY
CNN and NextVR will make history on October 13th by hosting the first-ever live stream of a news event in virtual reality, giving viewers a front-row seat to CNN’s 2016 election debates.
The network is partnering with virtual reality technology platform NextVR to stream the CNN Democratic Presidential Debate live, in full 3D immersive virtual reality, from Las Vegas, NV.
The live stream follows CNN and NextVR’s first virtual reality experience at the CNN Ronald Reagan Debate, where it quietly filmed the highest rated event in CNN history in virtual reality to make it available to users on demand. This experience is now available to users who have a Samsung GearVR virtual reality headset by visiting the NextVR portal in the Oculus Store. Once downloaded, the debate can be seen from the perspective of an audience member at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.
From radio broadcasting to televising to today, virtual reality allows viewers the opportunity to experience these historic political events through their own lens. Users are able to hold a gaze on a particular candidate, catch off-screen interactions and more. Each and every viewer has a seat in the room and a new perspective on presidential debates.
Come comment on this article: CNN is letting Gear VR owners attend the Oct 13 Democratic presidential debate
iPhone 6s Plus Subjected to Bend Test in New Video
Last year, iPhone 6 Plus users began noticing that their phones were bent after carrying the devices in their pockets for a few days. The issue, known as “BendGate”, became widespread after a video test revealed that it didn’t take much pressure for the 6 Plus to bend near the volume buttons. Apple strengthened the weaker points of the 6s Plus and added a new, stronger 7000 series aluminum to the device. Today, YouTube channel FoneFox subjected the iPhone 6s Plus to a bend test to see if Apple’s improvements help.
In the video, the phone is given the same bend test it was given a year ago. FoneFox’s Christian simply wraps his hands around the device and attempts to bend it in the middle. While the phone starts to bend under more and more pressure it snaps back to its normal shape once the test is over. Christian notes that he can feel his thumb sink into the back of the device, but that the phone doesn’t stay bent.
FoneFox then adds a second person to the test, getting each person to pull one side of the phone. In this situation, the iPhone 6s Plus does bend. However, FoneFox notes that the pressure exerted with two people is unlikely to occur in situations where the phone is in a user’s pocket.
For comparison, the iPhone 6 Plus bent in just a couple seconds in the original bend test video, available to watch below.
New Marshmallow features part of Google Play Services 8.1
Google finished rolling out a Play Services 8.1 update and Android Developers are now being urged to start prepping their apps to take advantage of some new features available in Android 6.0 Marshmallow. The SDK is now available and developers can go ahead and start their work to incorporate the new features and APIs.
One of the big changes coming to Android 6.0 is a new permissions model that will let users select permissions at runtime. According to Google, developers will need to update to the new 8.1 SDK to incorporate this permissions model if they want their app to be fully compatible with Marshmallow.
To help developers generate potential sales leads for their apps, the new framework includes an App Invite feature. Using this, a user can invite people in their Google contacts to check out an app. The service enables this via email or SMS. Developers will be able to customize the invitation text, add a custom image and even include a call-to-action button.
For developers who are trying to support Android Wear and incorporate the Google Maps API into their app, they will find they can take advantage of the ambient mode. This mode provides a low-color version of a map by reducing power consumption through limitations on the number of pixels lit up. This provides a visual cue for users who can see the map, but can recognize it is not active for input.
A final batch of changes brings a new Google Nearby feature that developers can tap into. Apps can receive callbacks when a Nearby publish or subscribe expires. Google says this will enable apps to more accurately reflect the status of a Nearby. Google also added a new Player Stats API to Play Games so provides better information about the progress players are making through games and developers can better connect with their more valuable players.
Google also notes that they have made changes to the GoogleApiClient and PendingResult which could break changes in a developers code.
Check out the video Google produced explaining these changes to Google Play Services in the 8.1 update.
Click here to view the embedded video.
source: Android Developers
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The BlackBerry Venice slider phone will be officially know as the BlackBerry Priv
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We’v been hearing a lot about the BlackBerry Venice over the last few weeks – how it’s an Android-powered BlackBerry smartphone; how it has a physical sliding keyboard; how it’s actually quite an intriguing smartphone in general – but we’ve always taken its catchy name for granted. As it turns out, “Venice” won’t be the official name of the device in question, which is allegedly going to be called the BlackBerry Priv – presumably short for “privacy” and BlackBerry’s general focus on privacy. The name of the device was leaked by none other than @evleaks, who also recently released a new render of the device in case you’d forgotten what it looked like:
.@CrackBerry That render is getting a bit tired, dontcha think? pic.twitter.com/UZsanau6df
— Evan Blass (@evleaks) September 24, 2015
http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
The jury’s still out as to when exactly the device will be announced, but sometime in November appears to be the general consensus – naturally it will be a few weeks yet before invites are sent out and anything is confirmed, but from the recent leaks that we’ve seen, including an in-depth video of an evaluation unit, it sounds like the BlackBerry Priv is pretty much ready for release.
What do you think about the name “BlackBerry Priv”? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
Source: Twitter (1), (2) via engadget
The post The BlackBerry Venice slider phone will be officially know as the BlackBerry Priv appeared first on AndroidSPIN.
White House group considered four ways to unlock encrypted info
A group of law enforcement officials, intelligence agents and diplomats conjured up ways to access encrypted data over the summer, according to The Washington Post. The publication got its hands on a draft paper that details four techniques to bypass encryption that tech companies could use under court order. Among the four, the most alarming one is perhaps the proposal that suggests the use of software upgrades to introduce spyware into the target’s device, because that sounds like it could be easily abused. Another idea is to add physical keys to phones that law enforcement can use to unlock them. The group also listed splitting encryption keys that can only be combined with the court’s permission and having companies back up data to an unsecured location for access by authorities as other possible approaches.
While it’s no secret that feds would love to have access to private information, senior officials insist that these four are nothing but proofs-of-concept. One of them told the Post that they’re “just saying these are things that could be done,” while National Security Council spokesman Mark Stroh assured the publication that these proposed actions aren’t being actively pursued. In fact, the team detailed the drawbacks of using these techniques in the draft memo and even came up with a set of principles to guide the government when dealing with the private sector. Those principles include not doing bulk collection and not giving the government “golden keys” to access private info.
[Image credit: merznatalia/Getty]
Via: The Verge
Source: The Washington Post
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