Steve Wozniak Weighs in on Apple-FBI Dispute

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has backed Apple in its fight with the FBI over the agency’s request that it unlock the iPhone at the center of the San Bernardino shooter investigation.

Wozniak appeared yesterday on late-night TBS talk show Conan to share his thoughts on the high-profile case, asserting that the FBI had “picked the lamest case they ever could: the two phones owned by the people who aren’t even convicted terrorists and have not one link to a terrorist organization.”

Verizon turned over all the phone records and SMS messages. So they want to take this other phone that the two didn’t destroy – which was a work phone – and it’s so lame and worthless to expect there’s something on it and to try and force Apple to expose it.

The FBI has asked Apple to create a version of iOS that would both disable passcode security features and allow passcodes to be entered electronically, allowing it to then brute force the passcode on the device. Wozniak explained the inherent danger of the agency’s request by recollecting his early coding days.

A couple of times in my life, I tried writing something like a virus that could spread itself between Macintosh computers. And each time I threw away every bit of code I’d written. I was so scared inside, because you do not want to let something like that out. Once you create something like that, there’s a good chance hackers will get into it.

Wozniak’s views are relatively unsurprising given his work for the San Fransisco-based Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a non-profit organization that Wozniak co-founded and which aims to protect individual rights in matters of technology. You can watch his comments on the case in full in the video below.

Apple’s opposition to the order that would require it to help the FBI break into the San Bernardino shooter’s iPhone will face off against the government in court on March 22.

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Tag: Apple-FBI
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Google Photos for iOS Adds Live Photos, iPad Pro Support

Google has released an update to its Google Photos iOS app that adds support for Live Photos, the camera feature available to iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus owners that captures sound and motion just before and after the moment a still photo is shot.

The official support means users can now store, view and organize Live Photos separately from their device’s Camera Roll inside Google’s app. Once uploaded to a Google Photos account, Live Photos are assigned a Live Photo icon and can be brought to life within the iOS app using a pressure-sensitive 3D Touch gesture.

The update also brings added support for the Split View multitasking feature native to iOS 9, allowing photos in the app to be perused alongside other apps on iPad mini 4, iPad Air 2 and iPad Pro devices.

In addition, Google Photos now supports the native 2732×2048 resolution of the iPad Pro, where previously the app would scale up on the device’s 12.9-inch screen.

Elsewhere, navigation in the app has been improved so that users spend less time flipping “hamburger” menus, while cache usage has been reduced on devices that are running low on space.

Google Photos is a free download on the App Store for iPad and iPhone. [Direct Link]

Tag: Google Photos
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Hero Smart Appliance Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET

Hero

It can be hard to remember to take your medicine, whether you’re on fluoxetine or Flintstones vitamins. A new smart device wants to use technology to help you keep up with your meds.

Ten cartridges hold medicines inside the Hero Smart Appliance.

Hero

The Hero Smart Appliance is a medication dispenser that lets you schedule when it will dole out your pills. The Wi-Fi connected device will also monitor how much medicine you have left, send alerts when it’s time for a refill and notify you when a user has taken their medicine (useful if, for example, more than one person uses the machine or if you’re monitoring another person’s usage). The Hero became available today for online pre-ordering for $399 (about £280 or AU$540); the Hero company expects the retail price to be about $999 (£700 or AU$1,345).

It’s pretty easy to operate the Hero. After you enter your name and connect the Hero to the Internet, you type in the name of your medicine, how many doses you need to take and at what time you need to take them. You put your pills into a little container that goes inside the Hero, and it will dispense them into a cup at the appropriate time. You can also access your medicine off-schedule if need be.

More health technology

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• Did Under Armour shove too much health into its $400 box?

The Hero company said the smart appliance could find a lot of use for caregivers who have to monitor another person’s medication usage because of the scheduling ability and app notifications. An automatic dispenser could make it easier for someone caring for an older parent, for example, and give them one less thing to worry about. The Hero could also be a boon for folks who take multiple pills and have a hard time keeping things straight — it’s a big step up from those plastic pill holders you can grab at the pharmacy. And even if you only take one pill, the app can help you remember to take it when you should and, in the best-case scenario, stay healthy.

Price is going to be a huge obstacle, however, in getting the Hero to the people who could most benefit from it. There are also limitations on how much medicine can be stored in the device (a maximum of 10) and the type of medicine (pills only, no liquids). The Hero company is exploring options, including Medicare reimbursement in the US, that could help keep costs of the unit down. And the product has a huge responsibility to make sure it keeps all those pill cartridges organized and dispensing the right medicine at the right time.

Features

• App is available on Android and iPhone
• Alerts delivered via text message or email
• Can be used with vitamins

Think 4K is good? Wait until you see the 2016 Olympics in 8K with 22.2 sound and VR

The 2016 Rio Olympics will not only be a showcase for human physical achievement but for tech too. The Olympic Broadcasting Services has confirmed it will record and air 8K video coverage with 22.2 channel surround sound as well as VR.

Over 130 hours of the total 7,000 hours of footage shot will be in 8K Super Hi-Vision meaning 7680 x 4320 resolution pictures. These will be broadcast across the globe to Japan where it can be enjoyed by anyone who has shelled out the £100,000 for the only commercially available 8K TV, made by Sharp. The 22.2 channel immersive audio will only be broadcast with the 8K signal to Japan.

The idea here is for Japan to get in test runs of 8K broadcasting ahead of its hosting of the Olympics in 2020. That event is also expected to feature holographic displays on events as markers, unlike anything used before.

The broadcast company OBS will also be downscaling to 4K as well as testing High Dynamic Range and Wider Colour Gamut recordings. It’s not expected to air any of this footage though. The entire event will be shot in Full HD with 5.1 surround sound for general broadcasting.

However, there will be virtual reality footage captured. The opening and closing ceremonies plus one event per day will be available to watch in VR. This will be available to watch via a download of the content.

The Rio Olympics Games 2016 will run 5-21 August.

READ: BMW Vision Next 100: The ultimate driving machine of the future

All Amazon Fire TV devices now have the major UK catch-up apps

If you prefer to catch-up on TV shows instead of watching them as they air, Amazon’s latest announcement might be of interest. After bringing all major UK broadcasters to the Fire TV, the company has turned its attention to the streamer’s smaller sibling, the Fire TV Stick, confirming today that the HDMI dongle now supports BBC iPlayer, ITV Hub, All 4 and My5. It doesn’t matter which Fire TV or Fire TV Stick model you own, they now all feature catch-up apps provided by the UK’s biggest broadcasters. Add to that support Amazon’s own Video service, Netflix and other major streaming services and you’ve got yourself a few reasons to skip your traditional TV box entirely.

Source: Amazon UK

Prosecutors Ask Judge to Review Pro-Apple Ruling in New York Case

The U.S. Justice Department yesterday appealed a New York federal judge’s refusal to force Apple to help investigators unlock the iPhone of a suspected Brooklyn drug dealer.

Last week, magistrate Judge James Orenstein ruled that the FBI lacked the legal authority to force Apple to bypass the iPhone’s passcode, and that the prosecution’s use of the 1789 All Writs Act was an unconstitutional overreach.

On Monday, Reuters reported that prosecutors are now hoping to overturn the ruling and yesterday’s filing to the court of U.S. District Judge Margo Brodie is the official first step in such an appeal.

“In light of the debate that has recently come to surround this issue, it is worth briefly noting what this case is not about,” the Justice Department’s court filing said. “Apple is not being asked to do anything it does not currently have the capability to do.”

All of Apple’s pre-iOS 8 operating systems allowed for extracting data from a passcode-locked device. Apple has used that capability dozens of times, in response to lawful court orders like the one sought here, with no claim that doing so put customer data or privacy in harm’s way.

Apple may perform the passcode-bypass in its own lab, using its own technicians, just as it always has, without revealing to the government how it did so. Therefore, granting the application will not affect the technological security of any Apple iPhone nor hand the government a ‘master key’.

The All Writs Act is the same act that the agency has revived to order Apple to unlock the iPhone at the center of the San Bernardino shooter case, which Apple has requested to be vacated. However, the device in the California investigation is an iPhone 5c running iOS 8, which Apple cannot unlock without creating special software. In contrast, the New York case involves an iPhone 5s running iOS 7.

As noted in the filing, Apple has complied with cases involving iPhones running iOS 7 and earlier versions of the software, partly because the company is able to retrieve data from such devices without having to unlock them. But in a statement Monday evening, Apple made clear its specific issue with the FBI’s invocation of the All Writs Act, and reiterated its belief that misuse of the Act, passed in its current form more than 100 years ago, threatens public privacy.

Judge Orenstein ruled the FBI’s request would ‘thoroughly undermine fundamental principles of the Constitution’ and we agree. We share the Judge’s concern that misuse of the All Writs Act would start us down a slippery slope that threatens everyone’s safety and privacy.

Apple CEO Tim Cook believes that use of the All Writs Act signals a disregard for established legal procedures and that any ruling should come from Congress, while Apple has repeatedly warned that forcing it to create software that could unlock devices running iOS 8 and later would set a dangerous precedent.

Apple’s opposition to the order that would require it to help the FBI break into the San Bernardino shooter’s iPhone will face off against the government in court on March 22.

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Tag: Apple-FBI
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Opera Mini’s new Video Boost will help you cut down on buffering times

Opera Mini for Android has been updated with a slate of new features intended to help users cut back on their data consumption — particularly where mobile video is concerned. The headlining feature of Opera Mini 15 is Video Boost, which Opera says will reduce the size of video data to cut down on your loading time and buffering while viewing over mobile data. Of course, the latest update to Opera Mini also includes some other notable feature additions and tweaks:

• In high-savings mode, Opera Mini will automatically turn off data compression when it detects Wi-Fi,to take full advantage of the high-quality internet connection. Crowded Wi-Fi? Simply turn data savings back on under the savings summary.
• Opera Mini now lets you re-size images in the browser before you upload them to the web. Re-scaling an image – say, from 2240×1680 to 800×600 pixels – reduces the file size, so that you can save data and increase the success rate for uploads on poor networks.
• With the new thumbscroller feature, scroll down to bring up a side scroll bar on the screen, for easier navigation on long articles and webpages.

If you’re interested in checking out Video Boost, you can enable the feature by tapping the savings summary in the app’s settings menu. From there, check the box next to Video Boost to enable smoother viewing. Users can also check out a running count of how many videos have been optimized.

Best Samsung Galaxy S7 deals

Samsung’s Galaxy S7 will arrive on 11 March starting at £569 for the 32GB model, making it just £70 cheaper than its larger sibling – the Galaxy S7 edge.

If the standard model is the one you want, buying it outright and opting for a SIM-only plan will more than likely be your best option.

For those without a spare £500 though, here are the best deals from the UK’s networks for the 32GB Galaxy S7.

EE

The cheapest plan on EE is an upfront cost of £109.99 followed by monthly payments of £39.99. Over the two-year contract, you’ll pay a total of £1069.75 and you’ll get 1GB of data, 500 minutes and unlimited texts a month.

Reducing the upfront cost to £69.99 but upping monthly payments to £44.99 for a total payment of £1149.75 across the two years will give you 10GB of data and unlimited minutes and texts a month.

You could also pay £29.99 upfront but increase monthly payments to £49.99 for 20GB data and unlimited minutes and texts. This works out to be a total of £1229.75 across the two years. There are other deals surrounding these three, but none come with any freebies.

Click here to see the other pay monthly Samsung Galaxy S7 tariffs on EE

Vodafone

The cheapest plan on Vodafone has an upfront cost of £199 with monthly payments of £26. Over the 24-month contract, you’ll pay a total of £823 but you’ll only get 500MB of data with 500 minutes and unlimited texts for that.

Paying an upfront cost of £99 with monthly payments of £39 will give you 6GB of data with unlimited minutes and texts. This costs a total of £1035 across the two-year period and if you pre-order before 10 March, you get a free Gear VR with £79.99 with this plan too.

For even more data, you can opt for the £29 upfront cost, followed by £49 monthly payments meaning a total of £1205 for 15GB of data and unlimited minutes and texts. This plan also comes with a free Gear VR when you pre-order before 10 March.

Click here to see the other Samsung Galaxy S7 tariffs on Vodafone

O2

The cheapest plan on O2 will cost you £139.99 upfront, followed by monthly payments of £33.50. This will equate to a total of £943.99 across the two-year contract for which you will get 500MB data, 500 minutes and unlimited texts.

An upfront cost of £99.99 with £41 monthly payments will take you to a total of £1083.99 over the 24 months but you’ll get 3GB of data with unlimited minutes and texts. This plan also comes with a free Jabra headset worth £149.99.

If you want more data, there is a 20GB plan with unlimited minutes and texts, as well as the free Jabra headset. This will cost you £49.99 upfront, followed by monthly payments of £49 for a total of £1225.99 across the 24 months.

Click here to see the other Samsung Galaxy S7 tariffs on O2

Three

The cheapest plan from Three involves a £99 upfront cost with monthly payments of £35. It will cost a total of £939 over the 24-month period and it offers 1GB of data with unlimited minutes and texts.

For 4GB of data, you’ll pay an upfront cost of £29 with monthly payments of £44, meaning a total of £1085.

Three also offers all-you-can-eat data for an upfront cost of £29, followed by monthly payments of £56. This plan would cost you a total of £1373 over two years. There are no freebies offered with the Three plans.

Click here to see the other Samsung Galaxy S7 tariffs on Three

Carphone Warehouse

Carphone Warehouse offers plenty of plans for the Galaxy S7 but one of the cheapest involves an upfront cost of £300 with monthly payments of £22, costing you a total of £828. This plan is with Vodafone and it provides 500MB of data with unlimited minutes and texts.

A slightly lower upfront cost of £79.99, but higher monthly payments of £36 with O2 will provide you with 3GB of data and unlimited minutes and texts. This plan works out to be a total of £943.99 over the two-year contract.

One of the best deals with more data comes from Vodafone however, with an upfront cost of £99.99, followed by monthly payments of £37.50. You’ll get 11GB of data with unlimited minutes and texts for a total of £999.99 across the 24 months. Carphone Warehouse is offering a free Gear VR with Galaxy S7 edge pre-orders but it appears this isn’t the case for the standard Galaxy S7.

Click here to see the other Samsung Galaxy S7 tariffs on Carphone Warehouse

Tesco

Tesco doesn’t charge an upfront cost on any of its Samsung Galaxy S7 plans. The cheapest monthly payment plan is £37.50, meaning a total of £900 across the 24 months. You get 2GB of data, 2000 minutes and 5000 texts for that.

Step the monthly payment up to £46.50 a month, meaning a total of £1116 and you’ll get 6GB of data with 5000 texts and 5000 minutes.

You pay quite a bit more for more data, with monthly payments creeping up to £57 for 20GB, 5000 messages and 5000 minutes. Across the two-year contract, this plan would cost you a total of £1368. There are no freebies with any of the Tesco plans.

Click here to see the other Samsung Galaxy S7 tariffs on Tesco

Virgin Media

Virgin Media offers the same tariffs whether you have TV or broadband with the company or not. The only difference is Virgin customers will get free unlimited calls to other Virgin Mobiles.

Like Tesco, there is no upfront costs. The cheapest monthly plan is £34 for 250MB of data, 250 minutes and unlimited texts. This costs a total of £816 across the two-year contract.

For £44 a month, a total of £1056, you will get 4GB of data with unlimited minutes and texts. Jump the monthly payments up to £52 and you’ll get double the data at 8GB. This is the most amount of data available on a plan and it will cost you a total of £1248 across the two-years.

Click here to see the other Samsung Galaxy S7 tariffs on Virgin Media

Giff Gaff

Giff Gaff hasn’t revealed its pay monthly plans yet, but we have worked out how much you would pay across two years with its SIM-only deals if you bought the smartphone outright.

The Samsung Galaxy S7 starts at £569. For 1GB of data, 500 minutes and unlimited texts, it will cost you £10 a month with Giff Gaff, for a combined total of £809.

For 6GB of data, 2000 minutes and unlimited texts, it will cost you £18 a month meaning a total of £1001. Giff Gaff also offers an “always on” data plan with unlimited minutes and texts for £20 a month, which with the phone cost would be a total of £1049 over the 24-months.

Click here to see the other Samsung Galaxy S7 edge tariffs on Giff Gaff

Best Samsung Galaxy S7 deals summary

If you want to pay nothing upfront, your options fall to Carphone Warehouse, Tesco and Virgin Media.

If you’re happy to pay a bulk upfront, the cheapest monthly plan across the board that isn’t SIM-only is offered by Carphone Warehouse at £22 a month for 24 months.

The cheapest way to get a Samsung Galaxy S7 overall with the combination of the upfront costs and monthly payments is offered by Virgin Media, although the data is minimal. If you can afford to buy the device outright, a SIM-only contract should be cheaper overall.

If you want a free Gear VR when you pre-order, you’ll need to head to Vodafone. It is only offering the headset with its Red and Red Value plans so make sure you check before you order and you’ll need to do this before 10 March.

It is also worth noting that some networks offer special features, like EE and its Wi-Fi Calling, so be sure to check you will still get these if you don’t buy directly through the network for example.

Bionic finger makes amputee feel texture on his phantom hand

Someday, amputees might be able to get prosthetics that can discern shapes and feel texture, thanks to the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL). Its scientists have succeeded in designing a bionic fingertip (PDF) that can make amputees feel textures and even differentiate between rough and smooth surfaces. The team asked Dennis Aabo Sørensen, who lost his left hand in an accident, to test it out. He said the sensations it gave him were almost like what you’d feel with your own hand.

Sørensen has been helping the EPFL with its prosthetics research for quite some time, so he already has electrodes implanted above the stump on his left forearm. Last year, the team used them to connect a bionic hand that can recognize both shape and softness to his limb. This time, they wired the electrodes to the fingertip, which was rubbed against several pieces of plastic engraved with different patterns. Sørensen reported that he felt the textures “at the tip of the index finger of [his] phantom hand” and was able to correctly differentiate between rough and smooth plastics 96 percent of the time.

The researchers (including a group from the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna in Italy) also had non-amputees take the test while wearing EEG caps. They tested the subjects’ brain activity while touching surfaces with their actual finger against the activity detected while they were touching the pieces of plastic with the bionic fingertip. By doing so, the scientists were able to prove that their creation can activate the same parts of the brain that real digits do. Besides leading to prosthetics that can feel, the team believes their technology could also give surgical, rescue and industrial robots the power of artificial touch.

Source: Ecole polytechnique f??©d??©rale de Lausanne

Skype’s live translator feature now supports Arabic

Skype is probably best-known as a video chat client, but Microsoft wants it to be all things chat to all people — even if they aren’t speaking the same language. Back in 2014, the app gained the ability to take your speech and translate it into selected other languages so people who didn’t speak the same language could still communicate. Today, Skype is officially rolling out support for its eighth spoken language: Arabic.

Specifically, Microsoft says it is supporting Modern Standard Arabic, a language used in the Middle East and Northern Africa; while there are many localized dialects of the language, Microsoft notes that MSA is what’s taught in schools and used by journalists. Arabic joins seven other languages that are currently supported by Skype’s live translation feature: English, Spanish, French, German, Chinese (Mandarin), Italian and Portuguese (Brazilian).

Technically, you can translate your speech between any of those languages, but Microsoft says that it works best by far between English and another language. Over time, as Skype’s machine learning techniques are exposed to more and more usage, other languages will get better, but for now your best bet is English to Arabic (or one of the other seven languages Skype supports).

To use it, you can just turn on Skype translate in the Skype for Windows desktop application by clicking the globe” icon in a conversation and turning it on. For now, the feature is only available in the Windows application; Mac users and mobile users are sadly left out. But if your language of choice isn’t currently supported by Skype’s live voice translation, it’s worth nothing that there are a total of 50 languages supported in the app’s text chat translation feature. But again, you’ll need to use the Windows desktop app.

Source: Microsoft