Eric Schmidt tapped to head up Defense Department ‘Innovation Advisory Board’

Alphabet chairman and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt has been tapped by the U.S. Department of Defense to head up a new “Innovation Advisory Board.” According to the Defense Department, the board’s purpose will be to help the Department adapt and adjust its culture and processes in innovative ways.

From the Department of Defense:

The board’s mandate is to provide department leaders independent advice on innovative and adaptive means to address future organizational and cultural challenges, including the use of technology alternatives, streamlined project management processes and approaches – all with the goal of identifying quick solutions to DoD problems.

While Schmidt has been picked to chair the board, other members have yet to be named. When all is said and done, the Defense Department says that the board will be made up of up to 12 individuals “who have successfully led large private and public organizations, and excelled at identifying and adopting new technology concepts.” Members will be selected by Schmidt and Secretary of Defense Ash Carter.

The creation of the board comes amid increasing tensions between the government and the tech sector over Apple’s current dispute with the FBI over assisting in unlocking an iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino shooters. Google CEO Sundar Pichai, and a number of other tech industry executives, have come out in support of Apple’s stance in that ongoing case.

Source: Department of Defense; Via: Re/Code

HTC talks obsession with One M10 in new teaser video

HTC has released its first teaser video for the HTC One M10, but don’t get your hopes up for an early look at the upcoming smartphone. The video, which comes out of HTC’s Turkish YouTube channel, eschews a peek at the One M10 in favor of driving home just how hard HTC is working on it.

According to the video, HTC employees are skipping sleep and working long hours “in the lab” in an obsessive pursuit to create a better phone with the One M10. In keeping with its previous teaser on Twitter, HTC caps things off with the #powerof10 hashtag so fans have a way to keep the hype going over social channels.

Be sure to give the teaser a gander in the video above and let us know what you think in the comments below.

GMC, Cadillac, Chevrolet and Buick roll out Android Auto updates for several 2016 models

A number of General Motors brands, including GMC, Cadillac, Chevrolet, and Buick, are expanding the availability of Android Auto in many of their 2016 models. GMC and Buick are keeping the update to only a few models, while Cadillac and Chevrolet are engaging in a wider rollout.

GMC is bringing Android Auto to the 2016 Canyon, Sierra and Yukon models equipped with an Intellilink system with an 8-inch display. Buick is offering the update to 2016 Regal and Lacrosse owners with the same Intellilink system.

If you own a 2016 Cadillac with Cadillac CUE dash system, you are eligible for the upgrade as well, except for those with the 2016 SRX. Android Auto will come standard on the 2016 Cadillac CT6 and 2017 XT5 this spring.

Owners of 2016 Chevrolet vehicles equipped with 8-inch MyLink screens have an update waiting for them as well. Customers can expect a notice from Chevy about how to update their cars.

These updates will be available exclusively through dealers for each of these brands, and you need to make an appointment in order to upgrade.

All About Android Auto

• Getting started with Android Auto
• List of compatible phones and cars
• Android Auto news
• Apps that work with Android Auto
• Join the Android Auto discussion!

HTC through the ages: A brief history of HTC’s Android handsets

HTC, above and beyond any other manufacturer, has done more than its fair share of popularising Android. 

HTC was there at the beginning, producing some of the first Android handsets, the first Nexus handset, and launching the first handset that really added refinement to Google’s new mobile operating system.

It’s a company that’s known for two things: design and its Sense user interface that is layered over the top of Android. The company hit it big, moving from OEM (i.e., making phones to order for other people) into a global mobile brand. 

That meteoric rise was followed by fall, bringing us to today’s position where HTC stands as a warning to ambitious rising stars: the tide can turn quickly and when it does, the fall will be a hard one.

But along the way, HTC has delivered some outstanding handsets. Not all fully appreciated in the face of rising competition and wider exposure by other brands like Samsung, this is a brief history of some of HTC’s most significant Android handsets, from the HTC Magic though to the anticipated HTC One M10.

Click through the gallery and take a look, and be sure to let us know what your favourite HTC handset was and where you want HTC go next in the comments below.

Google Hands Free payments app: What is it and how does it work?

Google has a new payment app that’s separate from Android Pay.

Android Pay debuted in May 2015 and began rolling out in the US roughly four months later. It is now averaging 1.5 million new registrations each month. Despite the success of that initiative, Google is keen to explore alternative mobile payment solutions. Enter Hands Free.

It is the company’s new pilot app, and it currently the early stages of testing. The idea behind Hands Free is that you can use it to pay in stores – completely hands-free. Google is inviting people in South Bay to test Hands Free, a new app now available for Android and iOS devices.

At the moment it only works with a small number of local eateries, including McDonald’s and Papa John’s. If you’d like to know more, we’ve detailed everything you need to know, including how it lets you to ditch your phone while still being able to identify you to process payments.

Google Hands Free: What is Hands Free?

Hands Free is a new Google app that allows you to check-out in stores without needing to grab your phone or wallet.

You can download the free app from Google Play or the App Store. Keep in mind Google only recently kicked off a limited public pilot. Also, at launch, Google is offering up to $5 off your first purchase at participating stores.

Google Hands Free: How does Hands Free work?

• Download the Hands Free app to your Android device or iPhone
• Enable Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and location services on your device

According to Google, Hands Free uses Bluetooth low energy, Wi-Fi, location services, and other sensors in your phone to detect whether you are near a participating store. When you are ready to checkout, all you must do is tell the cashier “I’ll pay with Google”. The cashier will then confirm your identity using your initials and the photo you’ve added to your Hands Free profile.

The cashier will only charge you when Hands Free detects your phone is near the store – and only after verifying your identity to ensure they are charging the right person. You’ll also get notifications after every purchase and be alerted of any unusual activity. You can therefore pay hands-free, without having to grab your phone or even launch the Hands Free app.

Google Hands Free: What about visual identification?

Google is also using visual identification in select stores, but these are early experiments. With this setup, an in-store camera automatically confirms your identity based on your Hands Free profile picture. All images and data from the Hands Free in-store camera will be deleted immediately after, can’t be accessed by the store, and is not sent to or saved to Google servers.

Google Hands Free: Is Hands Free secure?

Theoretically, yes.

Google outlined the following ways Hands Free keeps your data safe:

• Hands Free doesn’t share your full credit card number with the store
• Hands Free only shares your payment details with the payment processor
• All your payment details are stored securely
• Suspicious transactions won’t go through without your approval

Google Hands Free: How is this different from Android Pay?

Android Pay is a mobile wallet that stores your credit cards, debit cards, loyalty cards, etc. If that sounds like Google Wallet, it’s because Android Pay is the new Google Wallet (only it’s supposed to be better, more convenient, and secure).

Hands Free is a system that lets you check-out at physical stores without needing to grab your phone or open an app, like Android Pay. Google said the products are separate and hasn’t specified whether they’ll be combined.

READ: Android Pay explained: How does it work and where is it available?

Google Hands Free: Which phones support Hands Free?

Android devices (Jelly Bean v4.2+) and iPhones (4S+) support Hands Free.

Google Hands Free: Where can you use Hands Free?

Hands Free – as of March 2016 – works with select stores in San Francisco’s South Bay (including McDonald’s, Papa John’s, and local businesses).

You can find the full list of stores in the Hands Free app.

Google Hands Free: Want to know more?

Read Google’s blog post or Hands Free website for more details.

Alphabet’s Eric Schmidt to lead military innovation board

Alphabet executive chairman Eric Schmidt will soon head up an advisory board for the US military. Defense Secretary Ash Carter revealed today that Schmidt had agreed to lead the Pentagon’s new Defense Innovation Advisory Board. The group is tasked with leveraging the innovation of Silicon Valley to the US military by bridging the divide between the government and the tech industry. Secretary Carter announced the board during the RSA cybersecurity conference that’s taking place in San Francisco this week, where he also plans to meet with the Schmidt.

According to the Pentagon, Carter and Schmidt will choose up to 12 members for the panel, which will be composed of people who’ve led both private and public companies and have a knack for picking out new tech. What’s more, the group’s experience with prototyping, product development, analysis, mobile apps and the cloud will be used to help develop new solutions for the military. Further details are scarce for now, but once the selection process begins, we’ll be interested to see if big names from other tech outfits make the cut. This isn’t the first time the government has reached out to Silicon Valley recently either. Last spring, the Department of Defense announced a new cyberunit would set up shop there to foster collaboration when it comes to matters of cybersecurity.

Source: Reuters

The first ‘computer-generated’ musical isn’t very good

I spent a reasonable portion of last year digging into neural networks and machine learning, wondering if and when computers were going to take my job. So when news broke of the “computer-generated musical” Beyond the Fence hitting London’s West End, I was intrigued. After waiting for a couple of months, I headed to a performance of the show’s limited run, but I left the theater unmoved. Computers can help write a musical, it seems, but they can’t yet write a good one.

“What if there was a wounded soldier who had to learn how to understand a child in order to find true love?”

That’s the core, machine-derived premise for Beyond the Fence. But before you can understand why it doesn’t work and how the musical falls short, you need to understand how and why it was made. Luckily, the story of how it came to be is more interesting than the show itself. Local TV channel Sky Arts commissioned the production, and it has also produced a two-part “making-of” documentary, which is currently airing in the UK. The elevator pitch was to produce a musical “conceived by computer and substantially crafted by computer.” Technically, though, it used several computers and more than a few human beings.

Programs from multiple educational institutions were put to work. It started at Cambridge University, which analyzed thousands of musicals to ascertain what makes a hit or a flop. Its conclusions, if you’ve seen a few musicals, are unlikely to surprise you. The University’s analysis asked for a love story set in ’80s Europe with a female lead, a death, the overcoming of loss and a happy ending. For music, multiple styles are apparently key, as is the pacing of tunes: It’s best to end the first and second acts with vitality. Note to aspiring composers: Cambridge’s software says not to set your musical in present-day America and give it a male lead.

The next step was story. This is where Goldsmiths, the University of London’s “What-If Machine” (WHIM), stepped in. While Cambridge analyzed musicals based on raw data, WHIM is a much more random endeavor. Its purpose is to spark creativity by combining topics in surprising, subversive ways. WHIM fired out hundreds of concepts, which the people helming the project sifted through. After discarding many ideas based on Cambridge’s hit/flop research, they landed on the premise of a single, wounded soldier.

With the core idea in the bag, the creative process moved to the University of Madrid. There, software named PropperWryter, which works in a similar data-driven way as Cambridge’s hit/miss analysis, was tasked with refining the plot. The first step was to feed it thousands of musicals. From that, the software analyzed lyrics to chart the emotional course of each musical’s acts. It then averaged this out to show when a story should hit beats of love, danger, hate, happiness and so on. This provided a definitive structure for the plot and set the tone for the music.

And here’s where the computer-generated claim starts to unravel. There’s no software that can put all of these elements together and turn them into a musical. That requires a human. Or a pair of humans, in this case. Writer/composer duo Benjamin Till and Nathan Taylor — best known in the UK for broadcasting their wedding as a musical — took all the programs’ output and planned a musical around it.

They fell upon the location of Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp, home for over a decade to hundreds of women protesting NATO’s nuclear missile program. This was, despite the duo’s claims (made in the accompanying documentary), an entirely human decision. Cambridge’s analysis may have helped narrow the search by restricting the time period to the ’80s, but the only word from a computer that led to Greenham Common was “soldier.” And even that was picked by human hand from a list of WHIM’s suggestions.

Music and lyrics are perhaps the best place for computers to truly get involved in the creative process. Computers have been composing interesting music for some time now, and machine learning has led to a number of viable writing projects. Till and Taylor tapped Durham University’s Dr. Nick Collins, a composer and musician who uses machine learning to create songs, and adapted some tunes for the musical.

For lyrics, Beyond the Fence looked to a “cloud lyricist,” which, upon closer inspection, turns out is just Andrej Karpathy’s Char-RNN (a character-based recurrent neural network) trained to write songs. I’m well versed in Char-RNN — I trained it to write like Engadget last year — and also intimately familiar with its weaknesses. There’s no rhyme or reason behind its words: It guesses what the next letter should be based on what came before. Because of this, Char-RNN was just used for inspiration. The musical has expressions and visuals from the network, but the bulk of lyrics were written and/or arranged by Taylor.

Everything about Beyond the Fence, it turns out, was meticulously managed by Till and Taylor. And that’s why it doesn’t work. By coming up with the perfect formula for a musical, you invariably create something that’s formulaic. When watching, every song felt calculated, each plot point carefully measured. Neither act shocked; there’s a chance meeting here, a romantic entanglement there, a death and redemption thrown in for good measure. Nothing moved the needle. Nothing felt fresh.

This is a game that advertisers and brands play every day, and there’s nothing creative about it.

The musical’s venue, Arts Theatre West End, has a history of showing experimental and “edgy” productions, and this should have followed in that rich tradition. But the Beyond the Fence approach has more in common with marketing than with experimenting. Averaging out trends, using numbers to decipher what does and doesn’t sell — this is a game that advertisers and brands play every day, and there’s nothing creative about it.

In the areas where computers can create things no human ever would — music with bizarre structure and cadences, nonsensical rhymes, and random themes — the computers were largely ignored. Rather than believing in their tools, Till and Taylor injected their own ideas into Beyond the Fence, only trusting computers to guide them toward a guaranteed hit. In the process, they removed any personality or vitality it could have had.

So maybe I was wrong. Computers might be able to write a good musical. It’s just that no one has trusted them to do it yet.

Apple leads the (tiny) mobile payment world

It’s no secret that the mobile payment space is becoming increasingly crowded, but who’s out in front? If you ask Crone Consulting, it’s Apple… although Cupertino might not have much to crow about. The analyst group estimates that Apple Pay is the market leader, with 12 million iPhone owners making tap-to-pay purchases at least once a month. Android Pay and Samsung Pay are distant seconds with 5 million active users apiece. However, Crone is quick to note that both of these rivals are roughly half a year old — they’re catching up quickly to an incumbent that’s been around for a year and a half.

Also, the overall market is comparatively tiny. The estimates suggest that just 6 percent of iPhone owners are using Apple Pay, and that ratio only gets smaller when you look at the larger device shares of its rivals. About 4 percent of Samsung users are trying Android Pay, and a single percent of Android users are trying Google’s offering. At the moment, leading this arena is like declaring yourself ruler of the local park — it’s just too small to matter to most people.

How does it get bigger, then? Expanding support to a wider range of devices is poised to help, since it’ll increase the odds that your next device is payment-friendly. More places to pay will be important, too. However, Crone notes that the biggest obstacle may simply be the lack of distinct advantages of paying with your phone. If your banking card is within quick reach, why turn to your phone? Tech giants may have to provide added incentives to bust out your handset if they want you to forget about plastic cards.

Via: Fast Company

Source: Bloomberg

Don’t even think about vaping on a plane

There are a number of public places where smoking is banned but the use of e-cigarettes is not. Well, you can take commercial flights off of that list. The US Department of Transportation banned the use of the smoking devices on planes that are leaving from or coming to the States. In other words, the no smoking rule that was already in place for tobacco products was expanded to include electronic cigarettes as well.

The DoT says that it made the change to protect passengers from the potentially harmful aerosol fumes, particularly young children, the elderly and folks with respiratory issues. While the agency admits that the full extent of the risks have yet to be determined, it decided “a precautionary approach” was the best course of action.

“This final rule is important because it protects airline passengers from unwanted exposure to aerosol fumes that occur when electronic cigarettes are used onboard airplanes,” said US Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx. “The Department took a practical approach to eliminate any confusion between tobacco cigarettes and e-cigarettes by applying the same restrictions to both.”

Back in October, the Department of Transportation’s hazardous materials arm prohibited battery-powered smoking devices in checked bags and charging those gadgets while on board. In addition to commercial travel, today’s ban also extends to any charter aircraft where a flight attendant is a member of the crew.

Via: STAT

Source: US Department of Transportation

Zero’s electric motorcycles replace range anxiety with fun

It’s quiet. In fact, it’s completely silent. The motorcycle is on and ready to whisk me away. But before I twist the throttle, I sit and listen to the birds, traffic and a neighbor yelling at a barking dog. Everything but the Zero DSR electric bike is filling my ears. I finally roll on the accelerator, and I’m off. The weird but distinct whine of an electric engine coupled with a surprising explosion of power is equal parts perplexing and invigorating. This is the future of bikes, and it’s spectacular.

The 2016 Zero Motorcycles DSR and FXS are the new bikes from the small Northern California-based company. While its competitors (Mission Motors and Brammo) have disappeared, it has flourished. It’s done so by focusing on consumer bikes (instead of super bikes like Mission Motors) and keeps churning out two-wheeled — and quiet — transportation that gets better every year.

Both bikes carry on the company’s desire to keep its designs simple. Instead of adding a transmission, the motorcycles are driven directly by a more efficient Z-Force 75. There’s no clutch; just twist and go. It took a few rides to stop reaching for the lever with my left hand as I left a stoplight. But once I realized that I had the power to zip out of any situation with a twist of the handlebar without having to downshift, that muscle memory became a thing of the past.

Powering the motor are the company’s lithium-ion “Z-Force Power Pack” batteries. Zero says it’s able to compress more energy into a smaller space than other battery makers. Also the packs are expected to last an incredible 200,000 miles. Even at 100,000, found on the lower-range FXS, that’s more road than most bikes ever see.

Zero has always had the technology, but some of its earlier bikes didn’t have the quality parts they have now. For example, a few years ago I rode the 2012 Zero DS, and it felt like the company had strapped some dope EV tech onto a crappy two-wheeled vehicle. It was disappointing. It felt like the company was making electric motorcycles with the emphasis on “electric” instead of on “motorcycle.” Fortunately, since its launch in 2006, the company has evolved.

Over the past few years it has started making proper bikes. It’s now making motorcycles that just happen to be electric. That’s what you want when you’re looking at a battery-powered vehicle. It needs to feel like a proper mode of transportation instead of a weird compromise wrapped in good feelings about the environment. With these two bikes, you can feel good about being greener while still enjoying getting from point A to point B.

Both bikes were fun to ride, but there’s definitely a Jekyll-and-Hyde dynamic here.

On one hand, you have the DSR, a solid dual-sport bike with a range of up to 147 miles that can handle both on-road and off-road adventures. It ships with knobby tires that help it navigate fire roads and wider trails. But at 463 pounds, it won’t be whipping it around corners or jumping off rocks. It’s also at home on city streets, and its extended range means you’ll be comfortable riding to and from work and running errands without fear of draining the battery mid-trip.

If you’re a commuter who also wants to venture out of the city on weekend jaunts, it’s a worthy competitor to the Kawasaki KLR and BMW 650 GS.

On the other hand, the FXS is OH MY GAWD all the fun! The motocross-inspired bike weighs less than 300 pounds but has 44 horsepower and 70 pounds of torque. It’s a wheelie machine whether you want it to be or not. Its light weight, nimbleness and almost unlimited supply of power made my commute to work far more exciting than it normally is. Best-case scenario: The FXS has a range of 90 miles in the city, but hit the highway and you’ll only get 37 miles. Because I abhor showboating on public streets, I feel like I only tapped about 40 percent of the bike’s capability for ripping around corners full speed and blasting off from a dead stop. I’m currently on the lookout for an abandoned parking lot or skate park.

But it’s not all weekend trips to the mountains and wheelies on the streets of San Francisco. While Zero has done an excellent job creating motorcycles that riders want, it still has to deal with the economics of EV batteries. The DSR with a 13kWh cell will set you back $14,395. The FXS with a 6.5kWh battery will cost you $9,890. Both of these prices include the federal tax credit for electric vehicles (additional credits are available in California, Massachusetts, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Utah).

There’s also the issue of charging. Both take just under nine hours to generate a full charge via the outlet in your garage. If you purchase the optional $600 quick charger, that time is cut approximately in half. For a quicker way to fill those lithium-ion cells, the DSR has an optional $2,000 charge tank that adds a level 2 port (the port found on the Tesla, Nissan Leaf and other EVs) that brings the full charge time down to less than three and a half hours. It also increases on-the-go charging capabilities, since it’s the protocol most stations use. While both charging additions are eligible for an additional federal tax credit, the entire package can be a huge investment.

But none of this should be a surprise. EVs are going to come at a premium price because batteries are still expensive. At least for a few more years. Zero notes that in addition to saving on gas, the bikes don’t need the usual maintenance of gas-powered motorcycles. No more spark plugs, oil changes, cooling-system upkeep, exhaust issues or transmission woes. All of that goes away.

If you’re the kind of rider who eats up hundreds of miles on a normal basis or you’re looking for your first bike, the DSR and FXS probably aren’t for you. But if you’re a daily commuter who likes to get out of town on the weekend or is looking for something new and fun, a Zero might well be your next bike. Either way, if you have a chance to test-drive one of these, do it. You might not buy now, but you’ll get a taste of what the future holds for two-wheeled transportation.