Russia debuts the largest ever nuclear icebreaker
Russian cargo ships understandably have to wade through a lot of ice, and the country plans to deal with that frozen water in style. It recently floated out the Arktika, which it bills as the “largest and most powerful” nuclear-powered icebreaker in the world. At nearly 569 feet long and 112 feet wide, the twin-reactor boat can carve a gigantic path through some of the sea’s toughest obstacles — it can cut through ice roughly 10 feet thick. It can haul about 36,000 short tons, and there’s a helicopter to scout for any upcoming floes.
Arktika won’t go into service until near the end of 2017, when it’ll escort oil and gas ships through northern waters to their destinations in Asia-Pacific. However, there’s already a lot of pressure on it to succeed. The project behind the ship is estimated to cost the equivalent of $1.9 billion, so the vessel will have to work hard to justify its investment.
Via: Telegraph
Source: TASS
Acer admits hackers stole up to 34,000 customer credit cards
If you bought an Acer device from the company’s store in the last year, there’s a chance that your credit card info was hijacked. The Taiwan-based company informed California’s attorney general that attackers made off with the “name, address, card number, expiration date and three-digit security codes” of users between May 12, 2015 and April 28, 2016. It sent form letters to the 34,500 affected customers, all of whom are in the US, Canada and Puerto Rico.
The theft isn’t particularly large and no social security numbers were taken. However, it’s one of the few we’ve seen involving a major PC company’s online store. Acer hasn’t yet revealed how it happened, but such breaches are usually a result of employees opening infected email, not any fancy hacking. While the breach was still ongoing, Acer recently held an event to reveal its latest laptops and desktop computers. If you bought something from its stores soon after, you may want to ensure that your credentials weren’t stolen.
Via: ZDNet
Source: US Attorney General
Nike FuelBand designers bought by a consulting giant
Synapse, a key creator of the Nike+ FuelBand (among other gadgets), is moving on to greener pastures. Product development giant Cambridge Consultants has bought Synapse for an unspecified amount. As Cambridge’s parent company Altran says, this is all about giving Cambridge a product development foothold in the American West — it can design gear for partners ranging from the UK to Silicon Valley. It’s part of a plan to double the size of Cambridge by 2020.
This doesn’t mean that Synapse’s design chops (which has also shaped products from Microsoft and Samsung) will fade away. The team is staying put, after all. However, you might see it take on device designs from new clients, or getting more business from previous partners. If anything, its influence is more likely to grow — the Synapse crew could make a broad impact on the tech industry.
Source: Altran
New York criminalizes the use of ticket-buying bots
If you failed to get tickets for your favorite band, even though your finger was poised on the “buy” link the instant they went on sale, don’t worry — you never stood a chance. They were probably snapped up by bots that, in one case, bought 1,012 Madison Square Garden U2 tickets in less than a minute. The state of New York has declared that scalpers who use them could get fines and even jail time. “New Yorkers have been dealing with this frustrating ticket buying experience for too long,” says state assembly member Marcos Crespie.
Using such bots was illegal before, but only brought civil, not criminal sanctions. However, a three-year investigation by NY attorney general Eric. T. Schneiderman found that the practice was so widespread that the state had to take harsher measures. Ticketing outlets and credit card companies revealed that bots scoop up the best seats in seconds, which scalpers then resell at prices many times over face value. Scalpers who exploit such software could now face criminal, class A misdemeanor charges.
It may not be the end of new laws targeting scalpers. Schneiderman also singled out “event insiders,” including the artists, who in some cases reserve over half of the tickets for themselves. He also targeted the ticketing agencies that often tack on fees of over 20 percent, turning a reasonable $50 ticket into $60 –a dealbreaker for many folks.
Source: NY State Assembly
Zungle sunglasses double as bone-conduction headphones
Sometimes the worst names come attached to the best ideas. Take Zungle, for example. It had the bright thought to pair bone-conduction headphone tech with sunglasses, and then decided to call that product “Zungle Panther.” It’s currently on Kickstarter, and has already reached well over double its funding goal.
The Panther has everything you’d expect from a pair of wireless headphones. There’s Bluetooth audio playback, hands-free calling with a built-in mic and audio controls by way of a jog dial. Because the headphones use bone-conduction to transmit audio, they also free up your ears to hear everything your environment has to offer.
For all its benefits, bone-conduction has its drawbacks. Like similar headsets, battery life for the Panther isn’t fantastic compared to regular ‘phones. You’ll get around four hours of music playback from the sunglasses before you need to plug them in for an hour to get back to full charge.
We’re not going to tell you if these look good — beauty’s in the eye of the beholder and all that. But we can say that Zungle made sure its lenses are the same size as Oakley Frogskins, so if you’re into that look, you can easily pop any vivid shade you please into the frames. The Zungle Panthers are priced at $109 until the Kickstarter campaign ends on July 16th, but at the time of writing there are still a few earlybird packs available for $99. The estimated delivery is November this year.
Source: Zungle (Kickstarter)
Paris fears Amazon Prime Now will ‘destabilize’ its economy
Amazon has brought its one-hour grocery delivery service Paris, and the city is not happy about it. Prime Now is available to Premium subscribers who pay €49 per year (Prime is called “Premium” in France) with free two-hour deliveries and €6 for one-hour shipping. Besides groceries, the company will shop “thousands” of other products. However, it’s the food deliveries that have most unbalanced Paris and its mayor, Anne Hidalgo. “This service could seriously destabilize the retail balance in Paris,” she says.
PrimeNow launched in the US and parts of Europe without much fanfare, but France is known to be protective of local businesses, and has laws to back it up. Hidalgo says the biggest problem is that Amazon only informed city hall of the service several days before it launched, according to Le Figaro. France has clashed with the retailer in the past, and passed a law banning free book shipping to protect local shops. As a result, Amazon famously charges a single “centime” (penny) to ship books.
From a consumer standpoint, however, there’s a lot to like about it. As a Paris resident, I can get fresh, high-quality produce from the famous Rungis wholesale market (above), which normally sells only to restaurants and markets. I can also get croissants and other baked goods or even a laptop without having to leave my apartment. Best of all, the service operates until 10 pm every day, including Sunday, when most stores and supermarkets are closed.
That said, the city of Paris is also concerned about extra pollution and traffic in the city. It recently banned vehicles built prior to 1997, and by 2020, will ban pre-2010 vehicles from daytime driving. The city will ask the French legislature to “establish safeguards that ensure [Amazon’s] services don’t constitute unfair competition against retailers and craftsmen.” If that sounds like an idle threat, remember what happened to Uber.
Source: Le Figaro
watchOS 3: Bringing Attention Back to Apple’s New ‘Breathe’ App
During the watchOS 3 segment of Apple’s keynote presentation at the Worldwide Developer’s Conference last week, Apple introduced a new mindfulness-based app called Breathe.
The idea behind Breathe is to help Apple Watch owners better manage everyday stress, and works by prompting users to take a short time out to focus their attention on the simple act of breathing.
By default, Breathe serves up a one-minute session which guides the user through seven breaths. The duration can be extended to up to five minutes by rotating the Digital Crown, while breathing can be slowed to four breaths per minute, or increased to ten per minute.
As the session begins, the app asks the user to “Be still, and bring your attention to your breath”. A mandala-like series of concentric circles then begin to expand and contract on the watch screen as a visual guide for the user to adjust the rate of their breath.
What’s not obvious from demos is that the app also makes use of the Apple Watch’s haptic feedback, by initiating a delicate tapping rhythm on the wrist that begins fast and gradually fades at the top of each breath, as a subtle cue to exhale.
The use of haptic feedback also means the user can close their eyes as the session takes place, while the intensity of the feedback can be adjusted in the app settings.
When the session comes to an end, the user’s recorded heart-rate during the session is shown, as is the total number of minutes that have been spent using the app that day. An option to retake the session and “Breathe again” also appears on screen.
The default setting for the app is to prompt a session every four hours, but prompts can be snoozed and their frequency can also be changed in the app’s settings.
Additionally, a Breathe complication can be added to watch faces, allowing users to start a session with a simple tap whenever they choose.
During the Keynote, Apple did not cite any scientific evidence to back up its claims that bringing attention to the breath can help decrease stress and alleviate anxiety. However, research does exist to support the claim.
Breath-based meditation has been shown to reduce activity in the brain’s “default mode network” (DMN), an area implicated in mind-wandering and the sense of self. Increased activity in this “resting state” network is known to be associated with conditions such as depression and anxiety.
Recent neuroimaging studies have also shown that daily meditation alters the functional and structural plasticity of the brain, and can increase cortical thickness in specific brain regions associated with attention-based tasks.
The Breathe app is part of watchOS 3, which will be released as a free upgrade this fall.
Related Roundups: Apple Watch, watchOS 2, watchOS 3
Tag: Breathe
Buyer’s Guide: Apple Watch (Caution)
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Bank of America Starts Offering ATM Withdrawals Using Apple Pay
Bank of America has begun rolling out support for withdrawing cash from its ATMs using Apple Pay.
Approximately 650 card-less ATMs were deployed in the San Francisco area in May, and the technology expanded to 2,400 ATMs, including eleven in the Raleigh-Durham region, in early June.
The new ability was also spotted by a Reddit user located in Redondo Beach, California, who took a picture of an ATM apparently featuring an NFC reader positioned to the left of the card reader (via 9to5Mac).
When a smartphone is placed on the NFC logo, the user is prompted to enter their PIN number, after which they are taken to a typical withdrawal screen, although the option to deposit money is disabled.
Bank of America is said to be highlighting the new feature on supported ATMs, but customers should note that the Apple Pay option currently only works with bank cards issued by Bank of America, and not all NFC-equipped ATMs support Apple Pay at present.
Bank of America has launched a website detailing the process of withdrawing cash using Apple Pay. The site notes that “Consumer Debit Cards, US Trust Debit Cards, Small Business Debit Cards (owner card only)” are currently supported.
News that Bank of America and Wells Fargo were working on implementing Apple Pay into their ATMs first appeared back in January. Rollout to Bank of America’s more than 16,000 ATMs was said to begin mid-2016, but no timeline was given for Wells Fargo.
Related Roundup: Apple Pay
Tag: Bank of America
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Ruling in India Clears Way for Apple’s Long-Awaited Retail Expansion
The Indian government today announced a few changes to its rules on foreign direct investments (FDI) within the country, which previously required 30 percent of goods sold by a foreign company to be manufactured or produced within India (via The Times of India). The rule stagnated Apple’s retail store growth within the country due to most of its products being created in China.
Now, Apple is going to be the recipient of a 3 year “relaxation” that India is introducing on its local sourcing rules, which was predicted earlier in the month, in addition to an extension of another 5 years on top of that if it can prove that the products it sells are “state of the art.” India has previously exempted companies who proved such quality over the last few years, which prompted Apple to file a new application with the Indian government in May.
Apple’s plans to open stores in the country had suffered a setback as the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB), under the finance ministry, red-flagged a panel’s recommendation to relax the mandatory local sourcing norm for the Cupertino-based company to sell its products through the single-brand retail window.
The panel comprising representatives from departments of industrial policy and promotion (DIPP) and information technology had recommended a waiver from the 30% sourcing norm on the ground that Apple’s products were “cutting-edge”, which allows for doing away with the domestic procurement rule.
If it gets the 5 year extension, Apple could open and run retail stores in India for 8 years without needing to source products locally. Last month, Apple CEO Tim Cook met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to discuss these issues and reiterate India’s importance to Apple’s global iPhone market.
Currently, Apple’s largest presence in India comes in the form of its Authorized Mobility Resellers program, which saw the Cupertino company partnering with third-party resellers to introduce an Apple presence in the country without directly installing full-blown Apple Stores.
Tag: India
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New Photos App Detects 432 Total Searchable Objects and 7 Facial Expressions
One of Apple’s first party apps that’s getting a makeover in iOS 10 and macOS Sierra is Photos, bringing intensive new facial recognition and “Siri intelligence” features to the picture accumulating app. Over the weekend, a Reddit user discovered a few lines of code within the framework of Apple’s beta of the macOS Sierra Photos app, possibly detailing both the specific facial expressions that the app recognizes and every single searchable object users can find in both Sierra and iOS 10.
In a more detailed Medium post, Redditor vista980622 explained that Photos will be able to “recognize and distinguish” 7 total facial expressions after the app scans a user’s library and forms a “faceprint” for each individual in a picture. The expressions include greedy, disgust, neutral, scream, smiling, surprise, and suspicious.
One of the biggest new additions to Photos in iOS 10 and Sierra is “Memories,” a new tab that aggregates a user’s pictures into logical, organized folders based on the app’s new facial and object recognition abilities. vista980622 discovered every category of Memories as well, whose names are said to be “automatically generated using metadata from the photos and tags from analysis of photos.”
The category names are as follows:
Memories from areas of interest, Best of past memories, Memories that break out of routine, Celebration in history, Contextual memories, Crowd, Day in history, Holiday in history, Location of interest, Nearby, New contextual memories, New memories, Person’s Birthdays, Person’s memories, Recent events (calendar, crowd, holiday, people, person, social, trip, weekend), Region of interest, Social group memories, Sometime memories, Special memories, Favourited, Trips, Week in history, Weekend, Year summary, Last week, Last Weekend
Users who have been testing the first beta of iOS 10 last week mentioned the impressive search parameters of Photos, which intelligently detects and tags every picture for the scenes, objects, and landmarks captured within. In totality, there are 432 of these items that can be searched for by the user, including everyday phrases like “Apartment” and “Birthday Cake,” and somewhat obscure inquiries like “Diadem” and “Gastropod.”
Additionally, you can search for various landmarks. For example, Photos can respond for search query of “Maho” (beach in Saint Martin), despite Photos is not programmed or trained to understand specific landmarks. Behind the scenes, Photos app first generates a generic categorization for the scene, “beach”, then searches through a built-in dictionary for all landmarks that has the name “beach” in its definition. Therefore, cleverly, despite Photos app knows nothing about “Maho” in particular, it is still able to return the right results. The same applies to nature scenes, water scenes and urban scenes.
The full list of 432 searchable objects and scenes can be found in the Medium post shared on Reddit. As discovered within the first beta of iOS 10 and macOS Sierra, the comprehensive list is far from confirmed as accurate. All the same, many of its terms do match up with another Redditor’s successfully executed searches, as well as the words they claimed failed to generate any concrete results.
Previous Coverage: See iOS 10’s New Photos App in Action
Related Roundups: iOS 10, macOS Sierra
Tag: Photos
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