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14
May

Google I/O 2016 preview: Android N, Android VR, Project Chirp, Play Store on Chromebooks and more!


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What to expect from the biggest Google conference ever.

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It’s Google I/O time! The 2016 installment of Google’s annual developer conference kicks off Wednesday, May 18 in Mountain View, California with a two-hour opening keynote. With a new venue and the promise of announcements on the future of Android N, VR, Chrome OS and much more, it’s sure to be one of the highlights of the year in mobile tech.

With just a few days to go until developers descend on Shoreline Amphitheater, we’ve rounded up details of what we’re expecting from Google I/O 2016.

A new venue

Shoreline_Amphitheatre.jpg?itok=yRLNr617Shoreline Amphitheater. Photo credit: Coolcaesar on Wikipedia.

Aside from what’s actually announced and shown at Google I/O 2016, attendees will experience this year’s conference in a new way, at the Shoreline Amphitheater in Google’s hometown of Mountain View. This outdoor arena is a major change from the Moscone West Center in San Francisco — I/O’s venue in previous years, which is more of a traditional indoor conference space.

The keynote will take place on the amphitheater’s main stage, with other presentations and developer sessions spaced out on the ten smaller stages in between demo areas. The change in venue guarantees a different atmosphere at this year’s conference, with more attendees and wide open spaces, in contrast to the warren of corridors at Moscone West.

What we’re really saying is this could be the most fun Google I/O yet.

Android N

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We know a lot more about Android N going into I/O 2016 than we did about M ahead of last year’s event. Google has rolled out a couple of developer preview builds so far, showing off major features like split-screen multitasking, a re-tooled notification panel and support for the Vulkan APIs for improved gaming performance.

So far it’s been left up to developers and tinkerers to try and figure out what’s coming next besides the stuff officially disclosed in developer docs for N. That being the case, the I/O keynote should give us a good overview of the broader thinking behind these new features. It’s unlikely the Android team has deliberately left anything huge out of the earlier builds, but there’s always potential for a few surprises.

MORE: What’s new in Android N

We’ll learn more about the broader thinking behind Android N’s features — and maybe what it’ll eventually be called.

One of those might be the “sweet treat” for which the next version of Android will be named. Google has already publicly hinted at a tie-in with Nutella, and if a branded partnership is coming then an earlier announcement of the name would make sense. (The announcement of Android 4.4 KitKat in 2013 came about a month earlier than usual.)

It’s also possible we’ll hear more about which non-Nexus devices will get N Preview builds through the new Android beta program. That process has already started with Sony; we may find out who’s next at I/O.

And finally, Google appears to be holding the third “N” developer preview build back for I/O, and that could be significant. We’re still a month or two away from having finalized Android N APIs, so there’s plenty of time for Google to surprise us with new features or services.

Speaking of which…

Virtual Reality

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We’re two years removed from the first Google Cardboard headset, and the VR world has hotted up considerably, with premium PC-based experiences like Oculus Rift and HTC Vive, and more affordable smartphone-based headsets like Samsung Gear VR dominating the space. VR has come a long way since Google Cardboard was a “20 percent” project developed by a handful of engineers.

A standalone ‘Android VR’ system could be one of I/O’s biggest reveals.

Earlier this year The Wall Street Journal reported that a more advanced version of Cardboard would arrive in 2016, along with a standalone VR system. It’s not surprising to expect Cardboard to gradually morph into something more reminiscent of Gear VR, but a standalone headset (and software platform) could be one of the conference’s most interesting reveals.

And “Android VR” might be the name to watch out for. Engadget and Gizmodo co-founder Peter Rojas tweets that a standalone (not smartphone-powered) VR experience with that name is coming to I/O, and that it’ll be less powerful than Vive or Rift. That part is no huge surprise for what’ll still be a portable VR system.

A standalone headset would allow Google to escape the limits of smartphone pixel density, while still tying it into its own ecosystem. And assuming the number crunching is offloaded to the headset as well, it’d give game developers a single hardware target to aim for. Presumably there’d be some phone-based manager app, similar to Android Wear, for loading content onto the standalone headset.

Such a headset, naturally, would be way more expensive than Cardboard or even Gear VR.

Project Chirp — Google’s answer to Amazon Echo

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This particular rumor has been swirling for some time, but it’s only just started to come into focus in recent days. According to reports from Recode, Google is working on a competitor to Amazon’s Echo voice control box, codenamed ‘Chirp’, and it’ll be announced at I/O.

OK Google, order some pizza.

The device apparently looks like an OnHub router, incorporating voice search and personal assistant features similar to Amazon’s box.

Other details are scarce, but it’s not at all surprising to see Google bringing natural language interactions and Google Now into a standalone, home-based box. The Amazon Echo has shown huge potential thus far, and given the sheer number of services Google operates (not to mention its broad global reach), the possibilities for “Chirp” are endless.

Google Play on Chromebooks

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This one’s been a long time coming. Back at I/O 2014 we got our first glimpse of Android apps running in a window on Chrome OS. Fast forward two years and it looks like Google is finally ready to open the floodgates, with the Play Store bringing “over a million” Android apps to Chromebooks and ‘boxes. That’s according to a splash screen which accidentally popped up on at least one Chromebook, backed up by references in code.

Such a move would significantly expand the capabilities of Chromebooks, allowing Google to keep up the pressure on Microsoft, which despite declining PC sales has an enormous lead with its desktop ecosystem. Chrome OS isn’t going to catch up overnight, but in the long term the Play Store could grow into an important destination for apps that aren’t convenient to use in a browser window.

MORE: Android apps on Chrome OS could be Google’s shortcut to a full desktop OS

Project Tango

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Related to the company’s upcoming VR products, Project Tango is Google’s work-in-progress Android-based platform for augmented reality and indoor mapping, using a series of cameras to map your surroundings in 3D.

The technology at the heart of Tango is likely to power Google’s other VR products.

Lenovo will show the first Project Tango-enabled consumer smartphone at its TechWorld event in early June, however if reports from Bloomberg are to be believed, Google will also show the progress it’s made with Tango at I/O, which may include a sneak peek at the handset.

“The company plans a big expansion of the technology this year and ultimately wants to make it ubiquitous,” the outlet reports. And with four separate developer sessions on Tango itself, there should be plenty of new stuff to get to grips with.

Other odds and ends

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  • Android Pay has been due to launch in the UK for the past several months, but there’s been no sign of any concrete timeline thus far. I/O would be as good a place as any to talk about expanding the service’s reach.

  • Project Ara has been pretty quiet lately. The modular smartphone project, from Google’s Advanced Technologies and Projects (ATAP) group, was one of the highlights of I/O 2014, but details have been hard to come by since the American Pilot Market was announced. The conference also would be a good opportunity for Google to show that ATAP is very much alive and well, post-Regina Dugan.

Might Google Play be headed to China at last?

  • That’s not to be confused with Project Aura — the new name for the next-generation, apparently enterprise-focused version of Google Glass. The project reportedly falls under the purview of Google connected home boss Tony Fadell, and is being worked on by former Amazon employees who previously worked on the Fire phone.

  • Google in China. There’s one pretty big gap in Google’s reach right now, and that’s China. Multiple sources have reported that a China-specific (and likely heavily filtered) version of Google Play would be launching in the country sometime in 2016, and AC has heard the same from people who would be in a position to know. Given that developers would have to be a huge part of this, what better place to announce a Chinese Google Play?

  • Updates from Alphabet and Sundar. It’s the first I/O since Google was split out from new parent company Alphabet, and Sundar Pichai was appointed CEO of the new Google. It’s likely the keynote will start with some reflection on the past year’s changes in Mountain View.

  • New Android active user numbers. The most recent figure we have comes from September 2015, when the OS had 1.4 billion active users. At I/O 2015 that figure was 1 billion. We’d expect it to be rapidly approaching 2 billion at this year’s conference.

What we probably won’t see

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A few predictions about we’re not expecting from this year’s show:

  • New Nexus devices. Whether they’re phones or tablets. It’s too early in the year for either, with both having historically coincided with new Android versions. What’s more, the nature of Nexus means if a new phone or tablet were coming at I/O, it would have leaked well in advance.

  • The end of Chrome OS. There’s been lots of chatter about Google supposedly folding Chrome OS into Android starting next year, with most of it originating from a report in The Wall Street Journal late 2015. With Google set to introduce Android apps on Google Play to Chrome at I/O this year, it’s unlikely the firm would also showcase an entirely new desktop version of Android to replace it. But as we’ve discussed separately, whether Google’s desktop presence is called Chrome or Android could largely become a matter of semantics.

  • Rick Osterloh’s master plan. The former Motorola exec rejoined Google to head up hardware at the firm, in a role covering Nexus, Chromecast and Google Glass. But it’s still early days, and we wouldn’t expect this new role to bear fruit in time for any big reveals at I/O.

Join us from Mountain View!

We’ll have a full team on the ground from Tuesday May 17th. Stay tuned for details of how to follow the show with Android Central and the Mobile Nations crew.

In the meantime, be sure to hit the comments and let us know what you’d like to see from this year’s Google I/O!

14
May

The best equalizer apps for Android


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There’s a pretty good chance you use your Android to listen to music. Some folks really get into it, but most of us enjoy a tune playing when we’re on the train, or at the gym or even just chilling. There are a lot of ways to get music from your phone (or the internet) to your ears, because humans are musical animals.

A big part of enjoying your music is fiddling with settings to make it sound better. For some of us, that’s as simple as adjusting the volume. Other folks want to adjust sliders or enable settings that boost the bass or enable a pseudo-surround sound wrapper effect. Others also get a little more extreme and micromanage every setting they can find to tune their tunes. No matter which category you fall into, a good equalizer app will help you find just the right sound. Let’s take a look at what’s out there that fits the bill.

Why is this list so short?

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You noticed that, huh? Good, because I really want to talk about that for a minute.

For starters, every single equalizer app you can download and install without having a rooted phone is basically the same. They all tap into the Android AudioEffects class to use the Equalizer, BassBoost, Virtualizer, PresetReverb and EnvironmentalReverb derived classes to apply audio effects to a specific instance of an audio session, and system-wide effects to the global audio mix are depreciated and no longer work. This means two very important things — the only differences between all these apps are the user interface and features, and that an equalizer app can’t control the sound from more than one app at a time. Experience tells us that this means every app won’t work with every music player, too.

Every equalizer app uses the same Android API, so the difference is in the interface and feature list.

None of this applies to apps with system-level permission, like the ones the folks who built your phone added (think JBL audio or the HTC Beats of olde), system wide audio effects provided by the operating system, like we see in the CyanogenMod AudioFX settings, or root-specific apps like Viper4Android.

Basically, every equalizer app you install does the same thing as the rest — moving a slider does the same thing, enabling Bass Boost does the same thing, and what matters is how easy it is to do it all. But that still doesn’t explain why I only picked three apps from a list of a hundred or more in Google Play. That’s because these are the three that don’t suck suck the least.

I started by installing the 20 equalizer apps with the highest rating in Google Play. I deleted all the apps that crash and burn on Marshmallow. I then deleted all the apps that did bad things like try to trick you into installing other apps with vague wording and promises of a new version. Then I deleted all the apps with horrible ads that capture your screen and make you watch 10 seconds or so of some shitty game you never wanted to install anytime you move between screens or apply changes. That leaves us with three apps, because I’m just not going to point you at apps that I wouldn’t install myself. I can’t do it, and I won’t do it.

You might already have an equalizer

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Google Play Music equalizer

Some companies that build Android phones have their own audio enhancements built into the settings. And plenty of music apps have a built-in equalizer in their settings.

Built-in audio effects from the folks who built your phone can and will do more to the sound than any app you install from Google Play, because of the things we talked about above. They aren’t restricted to use the same API, and often have companies like JBL or Harmon Kardon help them tune the audio output. If your phone has anything like this, use those options first. The HTC 10 (for example) has a much better surround virtualizer built in than anything you can download and install, and it’s worth trying what you already have before you try anything else.

If your music player has an equalizer in the settings, use it

If your music player app has it’s own equalizer — like Google Play Music or PowerAmp — it will give you the same exact results as anything you can download. The app is already running, so you’ll not have anything adding overhead or latency to the audio stream, and you’ll not need to use up any space by installing another app. Some of the worst offenders that didn’t make my list also want to try and start at boot, and keep running forever — even when the audio effects aren’t active. That’s OK if you’re using an older version of Android that lets an app adjust the sound mix globally, but not an efficient use of resources if you’re using something running KitKat or newer.

If you already have an equalizer or audio effects settings, save yourself the hassle and use what you have. If you don’t like it, then try something else — but be sure to disable what’s there because only one app can apply effects to one audio stream at a time.

Now, on to the short list.

Equalizer & Bass Booster

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Once installed on your phone, you see it listed as Bass EQ. Don’t be fooled by the name, because Bass EQ is more than just a bass booster. It leverages the API to provide a volume boost with 15 levels of adjustment, 12 settings for bass boost and 12 settings for sound virtualization as well as a five channel equalizer (60 Hz, 230 Hz, 910 Hz, 3.6 kHz and 14 kHz) is a spiffy “mini” ui that acts like a floating window. One really cool feature is a visualizer in both the compact interface as well as full-screen with pretty cool visual effects in time with the music. It’s a trippy throwback to WinAmp, minus the llamas.

A dip into the settings allows you to enable or disable a persistent notification (as well as use the notification to toggle the app on and off), vibration on a change so you know you’re adjusting things and the option to choose which screen — the volume booster or the equalizer — is shown at start up.

The free version has ads, and you will get a full screen ad from time to time — but always with a way to close it so you’re not a hostage to a shifty app developer. If you like the way Bass EQ works, the Pro version is $2.99 and kills the ads, as well as gives you the ability to use and store reverb presets.

Download Equalizer & Bass Booster (Free)

Download Equalizer & Bass Booster Pro ($2.99)

Music Volume EQ

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Another equalizer app with a nifty mini interface, Music Volume EQ would be my pick from this list.

You get the standard 5 band equalizer (60 Hz, 230 Hz, 910 Hz, 3 kHz and 14 kHz), bass boost and virtualizer settings and a master gain control with a vu meter that has green-to-red indicators — exactly what you’re used to from a hardware eq. Pretty standard stuff, but what I really like is what you’ll find in the settings.

Jump in and you’ll see a quick toggle between a standard stereo-looking skin and a material theme, a full screen mode setting, transparency options for a static widget and some settings to control the behavior of the app. You can lock the system media volume setting so that only the gain slider in the app controls audio output levels, and set the background service to stop if you set the volume to zero. These are both pretty cool options for when you’re using your phone to do nothing but play you some songs.

The app is free with an ad banner at the bottom of the main screen, and there’s no paid option to kill it off. But you are given a choice to opt-out of usage analytics, which makes me want to enable them and help the developers out. Good show, devs.

Download Music Volume EQ (Free)

Equalizer

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This is probably the most full-featured equalizer app in Google Play, and one of the first. I’ve used in on and off through several Android versions, and it works exactly (almost) as stated and does it without being silly with permissions or scammy ads.

It has the standard settings — a five band equalizer with presets, a bass booster, virtualizer and reverb presets. The user interface is simple and easy to understand while being unique and not looking like the old Blaupunkt stereo I had in my VW bus. Equalizer also can hook into certain music apps (Google Play Music and Omich Player are two examples) and automatically enable itself when you start playing a song, then go back to sleep when you’re done. That’s a nifty trick. It claims to be a global equalizer, and probably was at one time (I think it was) but that’s part of the reason it’s not my top pick — it’s in dire need of an update.

You have skins for both the app and the widget, but the service that hosts them is no longer running and you get an error when you try to find them. I don’t mind the interface the way it is, and I don’t need an equalizer widget so this isn’t that big of a deal, but if you haven’t updated your app since 2014 and have let hosting services disappear, I can’t say you’re the best.

Equalizer is free, but you can buy an unlock key for $1.99 that lets you save custom presets, delete, edit and rename presets, put a preset shortcut on your home screen and backup or restore settings from your phone storage or SD card. If you don’t mind using an app that may have been abandoned, it works well and the unlock key is worth the two bucks.

Download Equalizer (Free)

Download Equalizer unlock key ($1.99)

Tell me what I missed!

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I use PowerAmp almost exclusively when I get serious about listening to music, and use the built in EQ and tone controls, so I’m not looking for a good equalizer app. But I’m sure some of us do have a favorite here, and I want to hear about it. Shout out in the comments and tell me what I need to add to this list, and as long as it doesn’t kill me by trapping me in ads or crash on my phone, I’ll give it a shot. I’m always looking for things to make my music sound better.

14
May

HTC 10 is now available from Sprint for as little as $21 a month


If you are a Sprint customer who is intrigued by the HTC 10, your wait is over. That’s right, you can now order one for as little as $21 a month, or $624 full retail. Sprint is only offering the glacier silver option at this time. The phone features a 5.2-inch QHD Super LCD, 32GB of internal storage, 4GB of RAM and Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow out of the box.

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Sprint is offering a few different options as far as payments. You can grab the HTC 10 for $199 on a new two-year contract or if you would rather pay for it monthly you could do so for just $21 a month for 24 months. If you purchase it on the installment plan, you actually save around $120 over buying it outright, which costs $624. Will you be grabbing an HTC 10 from Sprint? If so, let us know in the comments!

See at Sprint

HTC 10

  • HTC 10 review
  • HTC 10 specs
  • These are the HTC 10 colors
  • Our first photo and video samples
  • Meet the Ice View case
  • Join our HTC 10 forums

HTC
Verizon

14
May

Google launches official iPhone app for I/O 2016


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Google has released its official iPhone app for Google I/O 2016, its upcoming developer conference. As it does on Android, the app allows you to view the conference schedule, find sessions, and even stream the keynote and sessions live. This is the first time Google has offered an iPhone app for the I/O conference.

Here’s what you can expect from the Google I/O 2016 app:

  • Explore the conference agenda, with details on themes, tracks and speakers
  • Add events to a personalized schedule
  • Get reminders before events in your schedule start
  • Watch the keynote and sessions live stream
  • Sync your schedule between all of your devices and the I/O website
  • Guide yourself using the conference map

Google I/O 2016 will take place May 18-20 in Mountain View, California. You can grab the Google I/O app for iPhone from the App Store now. The Android app is also available on the Google Play Store.

14
May

Alien sex tapes, robot rape and the evolution of consent


A little over a week ago Engadget’s EIC and I had dinner with a couple of friends at a Chinatown Thai restaurant in L.A. As I sipped on a Singha Slurpee, our dinner companions, Claire Evans and Jona Bechtolt of the band Yacht, gave us an off-the-record rundown of a bizarre and twisted plan for the release of their next single, I Wanna Fuck You Till I’m Dead. They’d created a One Night in Paris-style sex tape spoof with a twist: Instead of peeling off their clothes, the couple would peel back their flesh to reveal hypersexualized alien bodies.

To draw attention to the project, the pair conceived a multipart publicity stunt that doubled as a critique of celebrity culture and sensational, click-bait journalism. First, they’d alert fans and the media that a personal sex tape had been stolen. Then they’d announce plans to preemptively release the recording and make it available for download. Those curious enough to purchase it for $5 would receive a time-out error. Meanwhile, celebrity friends of the couple would take to social media to say that they’d successfully downloaded and watched the video. When the time was right, they’d released the video on Pornhub, and the jig would be up.

Yacht has a thing for elaborate, conceptual record releases, and this fit the bill. They said they’d send on instructions if we were interested, and we said goodbye. It didn’t cross my mind again until I received a canned missive; the same one sent to various news outlets and the band’s celebrity friends. I skimmed it, archived it and went back to work. The next day, when reports surfaced of the stolen sex tape, I quickly RT’d the band, not bothering to look at the statement, but not fully committing to the troll either.

And then shit hit the fan. What started out as a darkly humorous stunt poking fun at the celebrity-sex-tape market was now being characterized as an insensitive, capitalistic grab for media attention at the expense of revenge-porn victims.

In a world where sex tapes are a steppingstone to stardom and revenge porn is big business, how do we define consent?


Jezebel’s Anna Merlin wrote a scathing takedown of the stunt, saying the band trolled “people’s innate sense of horror, disgust and compassion when confronted with a terribly violating crime,” pointing out that “revenge porn — the real kind, not the desperate, fake kind cooked up to attract extra attention to your mediocre art band — is that it ruins lives.”

In a Medium post titled “Here Is What It Feels Like to Be Told You’re Crying Wolf When the Wolf Is at Your Door,” Bandcamp Managing Editor Jes Skolnik claimed Yacht actively set the work of victim’s rights advocates back decades. The post’s title references the doubt that many sexual abuse victims face following an attack. According to Skolnik, the band’s false claims gave credence to the doubters:

“It is irresponsible and cruel. It is a false claim. And the band can walk away from it after their performance of victimhood, leaving real victims worse for wear.”

I have to admit I bought the @YACHT sex tape https://t.co/QPVYZ3QoOI and: Woah. More of an actual turn on than most. Probably bc: true love.

— Miranda July (@Miranda_July) May 9, 2016


Further coverage of the hoax revealed just how many people were in on the joke. Merlin was clued in by a coworker who was pitched the concept months prior; according to an article on The Verge, an editor there also knew what was coming. Celebrity friends like Miranda July willingly participated. It didn’t appear to raise many eyebrows in the days leading up to the first Facebook post, and yet the popular reaction was vehement.

That disconnect highlights how important moments like these can be. Whether you see it as an attack on victims, a critique of celebrity culture or just an ill-conceived PR stunt, Yacht’s actions drew attention to the moral ambiguity that defines an age of rapid innovation. We can all agree that violating another person’s right to privacy is reprehensible, but in a world where sex tapes are a steppingstone to stardom and revenge porn is big business, how do we define consent?

It’s a multifaceted argument playing out in courtrooms and academic institutions across the globe. And it’s not just about revenge porn.

The Pacific Standard recently resurfaced an argument that has played out in the media and on TV (hello, SVU) and has a nation divided. The question at the heart of that debate is whether the consensual exchange of nude selfies between minors should be considered a crime. In many states, the digital equivalent of “I’ll show you mine if you’ll show me yours” carries with it the lifelong consequences of more serious sex crimes. Advocates of such laws argue that they protect teenagers from harming themselves and providing fodder for pedophiles. Opponents rightfully point out that adolescent sexual exploration is part of growing up and shouldn’t be considered a crime.

If we can’t figure out who owns a dead man’s sperm or how to handle teenagers playing digital doctor, what of the future?


A recent New Republic article shed light on an equally murky debate. In what sounds like the plot of a particularly twisted Lifetime-SyFy TV crossover, bereaved families and wives are harvesting dead men’s sperm for postmortem in vitro fertilization. Despite the first such procedure happening nearly half a century ago, Jenny Morber reports that the legal system is split on whether or not prior written consent from the deceased is necessary for retrieval of his sperm. Should a mourning lover be allowed to have a child with a dead man who may not have wanted children in the first place?

If we can’t figure out who owns a dead man’s sperm or how to handle teenagers playing digital doctor, what of the future? As we develop ever more human-like artificial intelligence, some argue that we should develop a robot bill of rights. It’s one thing to kick your Roomba. Forcing yourself on an autonomous being, man-made or otherwise, is something entirely different. How should we treat the machines we’re teaching to think like us? What does it mean to rape a robot? And what happens if someone hacks and takes control of your sex robot or internet-connected vibrator?

When it relayed its plans for an alien-sex-tape PR stunt, Yacht was likely not thinking about robot rape and teenage sext crimes. In fact, in an apology posted to Facebook, the band admitted it hadn’t considered the negative consequences of “positioning ourselves as the victims of a leaked sex tape.” Judging from the delayed reaction of many who knew of the stunt before it went live, they weren’t alone.

Jona and Claire admit the stunt was an “egregious mistake.” Yes, it was a mistake, but Yacht’s “sex tape” was also a catalyst for a much-needed conversation.

14
May

Kia Announces 2017 Sorento and Sportage With CarPlay Support


Kia has announced that its all-new 2017 Sorento is now on sale at U.S. dealerships as its first vehicle with CarPlay support available for purchase. The 2017 Sportage and 2016 Optima, when equipped with a compatible navigation or UVO3 system, will also now feature CarPlay when enabled models reach dealerships in the second quarter.

Kia’s all-new 2017 Sportage SUV
Customers who already purchased the 2017 Sportage or 2016 Optima equipped with a compatible system will be able to download a free software update that enables CarPlay through the UVO Home website beginning in the third quarter. Other models in the Kia lineup eligible for the CarPlay update will be announced at a later date.

“The arrival of CarPlay compatibility follows on a promise we made when Optima launched last year. These running changes and available downloads will seamlessly bring iPhone’s easy-to-use interface and functionality to our newest and best-selling models,” said Henry Bzeih, Managing Director Connected & Mobility Services, KMA.

Kia’s lineup of CarPlay vehicles in the U.S. now includes the 2017 Cadenza, 2017 Forte5, 2016 Optima, 2016 Sorento, and 2016 Sportage. Its parent brand Hyundai offers CarPlay in the 2016 Sonata, 2017 Elantra, and 2017 IONIQ. Select models are also available in Canada and other regions where Kia vehicles are sold.

Apple periodically updates a list of available CarPlay models on its website.

Related Roundup: CarPlay
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