The people who made Siri are readying another big leap in AI

It’s been a couple of years since we heard from Viv Labs, but a report from the Washington Post says it will debut the next generation of AI assistance on Monday. One reason we won’t dismiss that possibility is because of the last project developed by company co-founders Dag Kittlaus, Adam Cheyer and Chris Brigham — a little feature called Siri. According to the Post, as much of a third of the team behind Siri is now at Viv, ready to fulfill a bigger dream of what the personal assistant can do than what we’ve seen so far in its Apple iteration.

Showtime next week after 3.5 years of work. https://t.co/s0i6gfu4BX

— Dag Kittlaus (@Dagk) May 4, 2016

Viv is planned as an open system — more like the original Siri prior to being purchased by Apple in 2010 — and currently features links to apps and services like Uber, FTD, SeatGuru and GrubHub. The example in the article describes ordering a pizza from Domino’s without so much as making a phone call or opening an app. Viv can understand everything necessary like selecting toppings or picking a pizza place on its own, or as directed by natural conversation.

Google, Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, Facebook and other tech giants are already trying to integrate AI into our daily lives, but Viv’s plan is to bypass app stores, device limitations or a messenger window. According to the Post, Google and Facebook have already tried to acquire it, and if its debut during TechCrunch Disrupt next week is everything promised, there will probably be other attempts soon.

Source: Washington Post, Viv.ai

Why back-and-forth is the wrong way to vacuum – CNET

Chris Monroe/CNET

Short, quick, back-and-forth motions that most people do with their vacuums aren’t sucking up all the dirt and lint on your carpets and floors.

Way back in the day during my janitorial stint, I learned there’s a much more efficient way to use a vacuum.

To vacuum like the professionals, you need to vacuum in rows. First, vacuum a row of carpet in one direction, wall-to-wall. This pass should be against the nap of the carpet to make it fluff up, making the deep dirt come up easier. You can tell if you’re vacuuming against the nap if the yarn of the carpet sticks up or looks a little messier.

Then, you need to pull the vacuum back over that strip you just vacuumed. This will lay the carpet back down and will pick up some of the dirt you missed on the first swipe.

Once you’re back to your starting place, vacuum another strip right next to the first, overlapping slightly. Keep doing this until the whole room has been vacuumed.

After the entire room is done, vacuum the room going the opposite direction. For example, if you were vacuuming north to south the first time, vacuum east to west on the second pass. Sure, it’s extra work, but it gets every bit of dirt, which will make your carpet last longer and keep your feet happier.

You’re using your vacuum cleaner wrong (pictures)

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Turn your Amazon Echo Dot into the ultimate nightstand accessory – CNET

Amazon’s voice-activated Echo Dot arrived last month to almost universal acclaim, offering nearly all the same capabilities of the larger Echo for half the cost. Call it “Alexa for less.” (Alexa is the name you use to wake the Echo to accept commands.)

Because it can pair with a wired or Bluetooth speaker, you might think it’s best suited to a den or living room, someplace where you routinely kick back and listen to music. But I’m of the opinion that Dot deserves a home in the bedroom, right on your nightstand.

Consider: it’s an alarm clock. It’s a weather forecaster. It’s a white-noise machine and a whole lot more. Here’s a list of ways to turn your Echo Dot into the ultimate bedside companion.

Alexa, read me a story

This is the first of several tips aimed at helping you drift off to sleep. And what could be better than listening to a great bedtime story?

Good news: Amazon created the Echo Dot, and Amazon owns Audible. That means the Dot can play any books in your Audible library — complete with a sleep timer so it automatically shuts off after a specific period of time.

So, for example, let’s say you want to listen to the Pearl S. Buck classic “The Good Earth” (a personal favorite). Assuming it’s already in your Audible library, you would say, “Alexa, read The Good Earth.” (You might need to tack on “from Audible,” but only if she seems to have trouble locating your selected title.)

From there you can add, “Alexa, set a sleep timer for X minutes.”

Not into books? Alexa can also play podcasts from TuneIn. Example: “Alexa, play the program Battlestar Recaptica.”

A close look at the Amazon Echo Dot mini-speaker…

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Alexa, let’s meditate

If you’re anything like me, you need to turn off your brain at night. And for me, the best way to do that by far is with a guided meditation.

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Amazon offers a lot of Echo-friendly guided meditations as part of its Prime Music library.

Screenshot by Rick Broida/CNET

Assuming you’re already an Amazon Prime subscriber, you’ll find tons of meditations you can add right to your library — including at least one designed to help you fall asleep. (Not a Prime subscriber? Here’s a 45-minute sleep meditation priced at just 99 cents.)

Once you’ve added that or another meditation to your library, now it’s a simple of matter of saying, “Alexa, play Guided Meditation for Restful Sleep,” or whatever is the title of the audio.

Other cool Echo tricks

• Alexa could help you track down lost items
• 7 essential IFTTT recipes for the Amazon Echo
• How to pair your Echo Dot with a Bluetooth speaker

Alexa, give me some white noise

Some folks find white noise (or some variant of it) the best fall-asleep aid of all. As with meditations, you can find “sleeping sounds” that are free to add to your library as part of your Prime subscription.

However, it might take some experimentation to get Alexa to play an individual track. For example, I added the first track from “Thunderstorms & Rain” to my library, but Alexa didn’t seem able to play it by name. At least, when I said, “Play ‘Soothing Rain Effects,’” she played only a sample from a different album. Instead, I had to say more of the lengthy title: “Play ‘Soothing Rain Effects and Distant Thunder Showers.’”

Alexa, set an alarm

Here’s a no-brainer: Use the Echo Dot as your alarm clock. Just say, “Alexa, set an alarm for 6 a.m.,” and you’re done. (You can also insert the word “repeating” if you want to wake up the same time every day.)

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Screenshot by Rick Broida/CNET

The default alarm is a pleasant enough sound, but Amazon gives you a wide range of choices — including some celebrities! (Alec Baldwin, anyone?) To peruse and choose a new sound, open the Alexa app, tap Menu, then Timers & Alarms. Tap Alarms, then Manage alarm volume and default sound. Finally, tap Alarm Default Sound to see the list of available options. (The aptly named Nightstand will give you an old-school alarm-clock ring.)

Alexa, wake me up with the news

Alarms are all well and good, but would you prefer your Echo Dot to wake you up to, say, NPR or your favorite morning radio station?

I haven’t found a built-in way to accomplish that, but there’s a rather amusing hack: Record yourself saying “Alexa, play NPR” (or “Alexa, play WDVD radio,” or whatever station you want to hear), then use that recording as the alarm sound for an alarm app on your smartphone.

In other words, your phone wakes up at the designated time and tells Alexa what to do. (Yes, you could leave her out of the mix altogether and just rely on your phone, but what fun is that?)

Android users should check out Alarm Clock 3, which supports custom audio files. If you’re an iPhone owner, just use the built-in Clock app and choose your custom sound from the Add Alarm menu. (You’ll need to record it first using a voice recorder, of course.)

Here’s everything the Amazon Echo can do…

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Alexa, wake me up with the lights

Studies have shown that it’s much better to wake up to gradual light than to a blaring alarm. And as you may know, the Echo works with a variety of smart-home lighting systems and switches, including the Belkin Insight Switch and Philips Hue.

Light bulb! No, seriously — if you pair something like a Lifx bulb with your Echo Dot, you can use an IFTTT recipe to make that bulb gradually illuminate when it’s time to wake up.

There are other recipes that work similarly with other products, and you could always cook up one of your own as well.

Have you found any other cool ways to make your Echo Dot a practical bedside companion? Share them in the comments!

9 settings to change on the HTC 10 – CNET

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The HTC 10 knows a few tricks, and maybe offers some treats along the way; you just have to know where to look. To get the most out of HTC’s latest and greatest, here’s nine settings to check out.

Disable HTC Sense Ads

HTC Sense will display ads on your device in apps such as BlinkFeed, unless you disable the feature. Open Settings > Personalize > Manage ads and check the box to disable the feature. Note, it won’t block ads in Chrome or other apps, but it will stop HTC from sending ads to your device.

Screenshot by Jason Cipriani/CNET

Add more fingerprints

The HTC 10 will let you register up to five different fingerprints for unlocking the phone, apps or making purchases. Open Settings then Fingerprint Scanner. Enter your password, then tap on Add fingerprint and follow the prompts.

Here you can also enable or disable waking the device when placing a finger on the home button while the screen is off.

Screenshot by Jason Cipriani/CNET

BlinkFeed be gone

HTC’s BlinkFeed is a customized newsfeed that lives to the left of your home screen, but it’s not for everyone. Turn off BlinkFeed by long-pressing on an empty spot of your home screen and selecting Manage home screen pages. Swipe right until BlinkFeed is selected, then tap Remove.

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Screenshot by Jason Cipriani/CNET

Customize button backlight

For the first time, the HTC 10 has capacitive buttons instead of onscreen buttons. The backlight for each button defaults to turning off until touched, but you can set the backlight to turn on as whenever the screen is on.

Go to Settings > Display, gestures & buttons > Navigation button backlight and select your preferred setting.

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Screenshot by Jason Cipriani/CNET

More Information

Read the full CNET Review

HTC 10

The Bottom Line:
Get the HTC 10 if you want a phone that delivers great audio. For all your other needs, look elsewhere.
Read full review

CNET Editors’ Rating

4 stars

Excellent

Priced at
$795.00

Reviewed: Apr 14, 2016

Get to know gestures

With gestures you can launch the HTC 10’s camera, wake the screen, or unlock the device directly to its home screen.

To view how each gesture works, or disable gestures you don’t want, open Settings > Display, gestures & buttons > Motion Launch gestures. Tap on a number near just under the preview section to view an animation detailing how to use the gesture. Alternatively, tap on a gesture to enable or disable it.

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Screenshot by Jason Cipriani/CNET

Flex storage

MicroSD support in the HTC 10 lets you add up to two terabytes of additional storage. And starting with Android Marshmallow, you can combine a device’s internal storage with a microSD card, taking away the need to manage where apps and media is installed. Instead, Android will automatically move content between the two storage devices and you’ll never know it’s even happening.

After inserting a microSD card, go to Settings > Storage and tap on the gear icon next to the card’s name. Next, select Format internal. During this step anything on the card will be deleted, so make sure nothing important is on it. Follow the prompts to complete the process.

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Screenshot by Jason Cipriani/CNET

Custom headphone settings

The first time you plug headphones into the HTC 10, you’re asked to set up a custom audio profile. Each profile is specific to you and the pair of headphones you use. Follow the prompts, then name the profile (preferably with a name that references the specific headphones).

With headphones connected to the phone, open Settings > HTC BoomSound with Dolby Audio and select an old profile. Finally, tap on the “+” sign.

Screenshot by Jason Cipriani/CNET

Freestyle themes

HTC’s new Freestyle themes do away with traditional app icon grids. Instead your wallpaper acts as a background, and stickers act as shortcuts to an app of your choosing. Open the Themes app located in the app drawer to find new Freestyle themes under the From HTC category.

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Screenshot by Jason Cipriani/CNET

Check out Boost+

A new app from HTC, Boost+, helps you keep tabs on memory usage and storage information. But it also lets you password protect an app or apps of your choosing. Once an app is locked, the only way to open it is to enter a pattern you set.

Other notable features include battery optimization when playing games on the HTC 10.

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Screenshot by Jason Cipriani/CNET

This is why your laptop battery dies fast – CNET

Quick, what is the biggest drain on your laptop’s battery?

If you answered “the display,” you’re right — for the most part.

The single biggest occupier of battery resources, day in and day out, is your laptop’s display. More specifically, it’s the that energy goes into powering the backlight that illuminates the pixels on your laptop’s display.

The obvious move to extend battery life is then to lower your display’s brightness. On either a Windows 10 laptop or an Apple MacBook, you can usually do this on the keyboard, but there are a couple other settings to change that will help automate the process.

Change your display settings

Managing display brightness on Mac OS X

Open System Preferences and click Display. On the Display tab, you’ll see a slider for Brightness. Lower it to a point between super bright and depressingly dull. Not only will a display set at a lower brightness aid your battery life, but it will also be easier on your eyes unless you are sitting in direct sunlight and need brightness at its max in order to see text and images.

More laptop tips

• How to make your laptop boot faster
• 5 tips to speed up your Mac
• Put these apps in your Mac’s menu bar
• 6 easy ways to speed up Windows 10

Below the slider is a check box for Automatically adjust brightness, which may or may not help extend the life of your battery. If you use your laptop primarily in a brightly lit office or sunny breakfast nook, then keep this setting off so OS X isn’t bumping up screen brightness to compensate for your bright environment. You’re better off lowering the display brightness manually. Of course, the opposite is also true. If you often work into the wee hours at night in a darkened room or keep your office light low, check the box and let OS X lower the brightness in such settings.

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Screenshot by Matt Elliott/CNET

There is another display-related setting on the Energy Saver area of System Preferences. Check the box for Slightly dim the display while on battery power.

Keeping your display running while your laptop sits unattended is a needless waste of battery resources. On the Energy Saver page, you can set times for Computer Sleep and Display Sleep, both of which spring into action if your MacBook sits idle for a period of time. Set as short a time as you’re comfortable with for the Battery tab; it’s less important for the Power Adapter tab.

Windows 10

First off, if you are concerned about your Windows 10 laptop’s battery life, head to Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Power Options and make sure you choose a Balanced or Power Saver plan. Use the High performance plan only when you need a boost for gaming or high-end graphics apps.

With Windows 10, there are additional power and display settings from the Settings button on the Windows 10 start screen. Tap the Home button, tap the Settings button on the left edge, and then tap System. From the left menu, tap Display and you’ll find a slider for Adjust brightness level.

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Screenshot by Matt Elliott/CNET

Next, tap Battery Saver from the left menu. Tap the toggle switch to turn on Battery saver. If the toggle switch is grayed out, unplug your laptop so it’s running on battery power and the toggle switch will become active. Battery saver is a new feature with Windows 10 that limits background activity and push notifications to extend battery life.

By default, Battery saver turns on when your battery falls below 20 percent. Tap Battery saver settings to adjust this percentage. Also on the Battery saver settings page, you can check a box for Lower screen brightness while in battery saver to further extend battery life.

Lastly, tap Power & sleep from the left menu and select times for Windows 10 to turn the screen off and put your PC in sleep mode to avoid needlessly draining your battery while your laptop sits idle.

For more, read about Window 10’s built-in battery-saving mode.

Don’t forget keyboard backlighting

Similar to powering the display backlight, powering keyboard backlights can also be a big drain on your battery. First, make sure you turn off your keyboard backlights when you don’t need them. Secondly, both OS X and Windows 10 have settings that will kill keyboard backlights after the laptop sits idle for a time of your choosing. This setting varies by manufacturer with Windows 10, but on OS X, you’ll find it in System Preferences > Keyboard.

Turn off wireless and unplug peripherals

While the display is the primary culprit for draining your laptop’s battery, I still want to leave you with two pieces of tried-and-true battery life advice.

1. Turn off Wi-Fi and Bluetooth when they aren’t needed. Both wireless adapters use battery power to scan for networks and devices and keep you connected.

2. Unplug any peripherals when they aren’t in use. An unpowered peripheral draws power from your laptop, which means it’ll drain the battery when the laptop isn’t plugged in.

Over one million people swiped right for premium Tinder

According to Match Group, more than one million people have ponied up the $9.99 per month (or more, if you’re over 30) for Tinder’s premium service level in the first quarter of 2016. That figure is a relatively small portion of Tinder’s 50 million global users, but there are still more than a million people out there whose app-based dating experience includes unlimited swipes, extra Super Likes and the ability to change their location to swipe from afar. If you want a robotic meat-swiper, however, you’ll have to build one yourself.

Like the ups and downs of dating life, Tinder has been on a bit of a rollercoaster ride in the past six months. Earlier this year, police in the UK said reports of crime related to dating apps like Tinder and Grindr rose 700 percent since 2014. In November, Tinder CEO Sean Rad also gave an ill-advised interview in which he drastically misunderstood the word “sodomy” and simultaneously ran afoul of SEC rules right before parent company Match Group filed for IPO.

And yet, Rad’s comments don’t seem to have hurt the business at all. In total, Match Group now claims around 5.1 million monthly paid members across all its dating sites, which include Tinder, Match.com, OkCupid and the recently acquired PlentyOfFish.

Get ready for the new ‘Battlefield’ game with free DLC

In anticipation of Electronic Arts’ next Battlefield title, the publisher is celebrating by serving up free downloads of some of the previous expansions. You can jump on the platform of your choice and pick up the Battlefield 4 add-on Dragon’s Teeth and the Battlefield Hardline expansion Robbery for free, now through May 10th.
Both expansions are available on PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PC, Xbox 360 and Xbox One, so even if you bought different games for different platforms you can still get in on the fun. It’s all part of EA’s ‘Road to Battlefield’ initiative culminating in the unveiling of the next series installment on May 6th.

Battlefield 4’s Dragon’s Teeth DLC (2014) offers four additional multiplayer maps, the Chain Link game mode, and additional gadgets like the R.A.W.R. ground vehicle. Battlefield Hardline’s Robbery expansion features a game mode that allows players to team up as criminals and pull off heists or stop the bad guys in their tracks before it can happen.

Additionally, there are some new community missions available right now that players can unlock some interesting rewards through. Meeting the current objective of 2.5 million melee kills will net participating players a Gold Backpack. EA will also continue handing out other expansion packs for both games as the months wear on.

If you’re a Battlefield fan, also be sure to tune into the special livestream that’s scheduled for Friday, May 6th at 4pm ET for details on what you can expect from the next game.

Via: Polygon

Source: Electronic Arts

Hackers are trading millions of Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo logins

Email services including Gmail, Yahoo Mail and Hotmail have fallen victim to a hack, exposing usernames and passwords for millions of users. According to Reuters, a huge data breach consisting of some 273.3 million online accounts has been reported by security expert Alex Holden of Hold Security. All told, the data breach contains 57 million accounts for the Russian email provider Mail.ru, along with 40 million Yahoo Mail credentials, 33 million Hotmail accounts and 24 million Gmail accounts.

In addition, the breach reportedly contains hundreds of thousands of German and Chinese email addresses as well as thousands of username / password combos that appear to belong to employees from US banking, manufacturing and retail companies.

Hold Security apparently came upon this data directly from the hacker, who was selling the data set for the curiously low sum of less than $1. Holden instead told the hacker that he would post “favorable comments” about him in various hacker forums; that was enough to get the hacker to turn the data over. About ten days ago, Hold Security started informing the companies affected of the data breach; the company’s policy is to return stolen data to the companies affected.

It’s worth noting that while tens of millions of Gmail, Yahoo and Hotmail accounts were affected, the total percentage of accounts compromised compared to the total in circulation is relatively small. Google recently announced that more than one billion people are using Gmail, for example. But given people’s propensity to reuse passwords, this breach could have wider-reaching effects. Either way, better safe than sorry — if you haven’t changed your password recently, now is as good a time as any. Also, turn on two-factor authentication!

Via: The Inquirer

Source: Reuters

FormBox brings a vacuum-forming factory to your home

While 3D printing is all well and good, it can be frustrating if you need to make a lot of things, or make them quickly. Do you really want to wait minutes (or hours) for a bowl to finish? Mayku sure doesn’t. It’s crowdfunding the FormBox, a machine that brings vacuum forming to your tabletop. It takes advantage of your vacuum cleaner to form molds and create objects in seconds, and not just from plastic — you can use chocolate or concrete if you want. The speed and flexibility turns it into more of a factory than a printer, and opens the door to projects that just aren’t practical otherwise. You can make pots for all your plants, for instance, or sell your own 3D artwork.

Getting in on the FormBox action isn’t cheap, although it’s roughly on par with lower-end 3D printers. It’ll take a $349 (£250) pledge to get the device, and more if you want tons of supplies from the start. Most units won’t start shipping until May 2017, either, so you’ll have to be patient. Look at it this way, though: if you’re the sort who’d prefer to make things at home whenever possible, this help your creativity (and possibly save you money) in the long run.

Via: It’s Nice That

Source: Kickstarter, Mayku

DARPA wants your help tracking malicious hackers

If you’re battling hackers, it’s helpful to know who they actually are. Unfortunately, tracking down the culprits of an attack has always been difficult thanks to VPNs, TOR, and other methods used to disguise the source of a digital assault. Now DARPA wants your help learning who these individuals or organizations are by extracting “behavioral and physical biometrics from a range of devices.”

While companies and nations do their best to protect themselves against hackers, it’s a never-ending race to plug security holes before someone figures out how to exploit a vulnerability. DARPA (known more for its slightly frightening robots) hopes that with your help, it can quickly track down those responsible for attacks by monitoring their behavior over time.

The program will last 18 months and be split into three tracks: Behavior and Activity Tracking and Summarization, Fusion and Predictive Analysis, and Validation and Enrichment. Each deal with varying levels of behavior data collection and analysis.

So if you got a crazy idea that’ll helping track down malicious hackers, the Enhanced Attribution program is accepting research proposals until June 7, 2016.

Source: DARPA