MPs tell BT to get its ‘house in order’ or face Openreach split
In the latest development in the BT/Openreach saga, a panel of cross-party MPs has called for the provider to be split from its broadband division if it doesn’t invest significantly more in UK infrastructure. In a report, the Culture, Media and Sport Committee argues that Openreach could be spending “hundreds of millions of pounds a year,” but BT’s current approach is “sacrificing shareholder value and public benefits.”
If you feel like you’ve heard these words before, well, you have. In February, UK communications watchdog Ofcom told BT that it would be spared from an Openreach split, but only if it opened telegraph poles and underground ducts, gives its broadband arm more say over investments, speeds up line repairs and improves the wait time for the installation of new connections. In a preemptive release, BT said yesterday that it’s making “strong progress” on improving customer service, which includes fixing 84 percent of faults within two working days — up from 67 percent in 2014 — and cutting the average appointment time down from 11 to seven days.
Lawmakers say that Ofcom must now determine “the financial effect of BT’s failure to invest in Openreach at its true cost of capital.” Ofcom, which will soon deliver its plan for BT and Openreach in its every-ten-year “Strategic Review of Digital Communications,” hasn’t escaped criticism either. The Committee says that the regulator didn’t “place enough emphasis in the past on improving Openreach’s quality of service” and should enforce tougher penalties on the company in order to “encourage” voluntary investment. That, of course, includes forcing BT and Openreach to separate.
In response to today’s report, BT said: “We are disappointed to be criticised for having invested more than £1 billion a year in infrastructure when the UK was emerging from recession and rival companies invested little.”
“We are in discussions with Ofcom about increasing the autonomy of Openreach and are hopeful that a settlement is possible that will meet the concerns of the committee. Separating Openreach from BT would lead to less investment, not more, and would fatally undermine the aims of the committee. “
However, BT’s rivals are already piling in. TalkTalk says that “after years of suffering, customers deserve nothing less” than an independent Openreach: “This report puts beyond doubt the need for radical reform of Openreach. MPs have concluded that Openreach is not fit for purpose and is letting Britain down. As Ofcom considers how to improve Britain’s broadband, it should feel emboldened to know it has cross-party political support to be radical.”
“BT’s broken promises risk creating a two-tier digital Britain, with millions of homes and businesses denied fast, reliable broadband. Britain needs an independent Openreach, freed from the shackles of BT and able to invest in world-class technology for the whole country, not just parts of it.”
Source: Culture, Media and Sport Committee (PDF)
Quantum computers show potential to revolutionize chemistry
If you have trouble wrapping your mind around quantum physics, don’t worry — it’s even hard for supercomputers. The solution, according to researchers from Google, Harvard, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories and others? Why, use a quantum computer, of course. The team accurately predicted chemical reaction rates using a supercooled quantum circuit, a result that could lead to improved solar cells, batteries, flexible electronics and much more.
Chemical reactions are inherently quantum themselves — the team actually used a quote from Richard Feynman saying “nature isn’t classical, dammit.” The problem is that “molecular systems form highly entangled quantum superposition states, which require many classical computing resources in order to represent sufficiently high precision,” according to the Google Research blog. Computing the lowest energy state for propane, a relatively simple molecule, takes around ten days, for instance. That figure is required in order to get the reaction rate.
That’s where the “Xmon” supercooled qubit quantum computing circuit (shown above) comes in. The device, known as a “variational quantum eigensolver (VQE)” is the quantum equivalent of a classic neural network. The difference is that you train a classical neural circuit (like Google’s DeepMind AI) to model classical data, and train the VQE to model quantum data. “The quantum advantage of VQE is that quantum bits can efficiently represent the molecular wave function, whereas exponentially many classical bits would be required.”
To prove it worked, the team calculated the energy of hydrogen H2 molecules using the qubit computer and compared it to another, classic algorithm and the actual energy. The results (above) line up nearly perfectly, showing the potential power of the method. One big advantage, according to the team, is that the system is robust despite systematic errors, just like a classic neural learning circuit.
While modeling larger chemical systems is nearly impossible on a regular computer, quantum circuits are up to the job. “For instance, with only about a hundred reliable quantum bits, one could model the process by which bacteria produce fertilizer at room temperature,” the researchers say. Since fertilizer production uses up to two percent of the world’s energy, and chemists don’t know exactly how it works, solving it could save billions of dollars. The work could also help with breakthroughs in high temperature superconductivity, among many other scientific conundrums.
Source: Google
Seagate unveils a 10TB hard drive for your home PC
It’s no longer far-fetched to buy a 10TB hard drive if you’re running a server, but what if you need gobs of space for your games and 4K videos at home? Seagate has your back after today, as it’s releasing a trio of 10TB drives (mainly focused at networked and surveillance storage) that include one designed for your desktop. The new Barracuda Pro doesn’t do anything remarkable beyond its capacity (it’s a standard 3.5-inch, 7,200RPM disk), but that still means getting a massive amount of room in a drive that’s meant for a run-of-the-mill PC. Just brace yourself for the cost. Seagate pegs the 10TB Barracuda Pro’s price at $535 — it’ll be tempting to settle for ‘just’ an 8TB disk unless you know you need as much storage as possible in a single drive bay.
Source: Seagate
Iran iPhone Ban Looms Unless Apple Registers With Anti-Smuggling Scheme
Apple has been warned by the Iranian government that it faces having its products banned in the country unless it officially registers with Iran’s anti-smuggling office.
“If Apple will not register an official representative in Iran within the next few days, all iPhones will be collected from the market,” said the director of Iran’s anti-smuggling project on Sunday.
The ultimatum was reported by Tasnim News Agency and translated today by The Japan Times. According to the report, more than 40 million Iranians use smartphones, including millions of iPhone users whose devices are often imported into the country by smugglers.
To stop the flow of smuggled phones, Iran’s presidential office will initiate a scheme later this week that requires all mobile phones to be registered with Iran’s telecommunications user database. Phones not registered will not be able to be used in the country. According to the office, former users of iPhones and other smuggled phones are excluded from the scheme.
Despite the cooperation of mobile operators, customs, and the union of mobile phone sellers, IT activists in the country have criticized the state’s decision to potentially ban iPhones.
“Collecting this huge number of iPhones will not be easy,” the head of the Tehran IT union told Tasnim News, and expressed concerns that the telecommunications database could be susceptible to hacking attempts.
Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.
Tag: Iran
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Microsoft Overhauls ‘Groove’ Music Streaming App for iOS
Microsoft announced an overhaul of its Groove Music app for iOS yesterday, featuring a redesigned interface and a handful of new features for the subscription-based service, home to over 38 million tracks.
The 3.5.6 update promises a much faster sign-in for mobile users of the music streaming platform and introduces a new Explore view to the UI where users can discover popular songs and new releases from top artists.
The update also offers significant improvements to playback reliability, as well as faster download of songs and albums for offline playing. Lossless OneDrive support and new sorting options when viewing music collections have also been implemented.
In addition, the update includes fixes to the sync process that requires users’ music collections to be rebuilt from scratch, which Microsoft promises is a one-time procedure, as well as optimizations to screen resolution to support larger mobile displays.
The app still needs to be in the foreground to download music, although Microsoft promises a background download feature coming in a future update.
Microsoft Groove is a free download for iPhone and iPad available from the App Store. [Direct Link]
Tag: Microsoft Groove
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Massive iPhone 7 photo leak teases design, as codenames leak
Apple is preparing to launch two new iPhone models this year and has been referring to them internally as Sonora and Dos Palos, according to well-known leaker Evan Blass. In his tweet, he doesn’t say which models those are, and even to us it’s unclear what Apple has planned for its 2016 smartphone lineup.
The 2 (two!) 2016 iPhone models are codenamed Sonora and Dos Palos.
— Evan Blass (@evleaks) July 19, 2016
While Blass, who is normally very reliable, believes only two iPhone 7 models are being released, a recent leak has shown three different iPhone 7 bodies side-by-side in a couple of photographs. These models are the regular and Plus versions, as well as the oft-rumoured “Pro”.
Like current iPhones, the Plus model looks to be just a larger version of the regular iPhone, while the Pro has some added features. Those include the frequently mentioned dual camera system as well as a smart connector near the base, which would enable it to attach to a number of bespoke accessories, just like the iPad Pro range. As you can see from the images, the iPhone 7 Pro is the same size as the Plus.
With Apple being an incredibly secretive company, it’s not unusual to get conflicting stories right up until the launch of new devices. The truth is that often Apple has been known to change its mind on features right at the last minute. This is all entirely speculative, but, there’s a possibility that Apple is toying with the idea of releasing three phones and that the third “Pro” model is still an uncertainty.
- Apple iPhone 7 in pictures: Renders and leaked photos gallery
- Apple iPhone 7: Release date, rumours and everything you need to know
- iPhone 7 could get super fast modem letting you download a HD movie in seconds
Because sales growth basically flatlined over the past year, it may well be time for the Cupertino-based company to experiment by launching an even higher-end product with major feature differences to the other two phones. And while we’re calling it the iPhone 7 range for convenience, it seems likely Apple won’t use that name.
If the casing/body leak is genuine, the “S” underneath the iPhone brand name strongly suggests Apple will be launching another S-series this year, just as many rumours have indicated. Looking at the design, and how similar it is to the current generation and last year’s models, that makes sense.
It wouldn’t be massively logical to have another 6S range name-wise, so we could be looking at iPhone S and iPhone S Plus to go along with the iPhone SE. This would tie all the brand names together quite nicely.
A launch isn’t expected until September/October, so there’s still a little time for the manufacturer decide what it wants before it has to start ramping up production to prepare for the inevitable influx of shoppers who want the latest Apple-stamped mobile devices.
29 weird and wonderful cars from Nissan’s Zama Heritage collection
There are some things in life that manage to put a little spring in your step. Whether that be the spectacular view from the top of a mountain, a new smartphone, or a collection of 280 heritage cars all under one roof.
If that last one has just made your eyes light up, then we might well be about to make your day. Nissan’s Zama Heritage Collection in Japan is the stuff of car lover’s fantasies.
The collection is worth over 8 million US Dollars and it features everything from the first electric car, released in 1947 with the ability to travel 65km on a fully charged battery, to the all the generations of the Skyline GT-R, which began as the Skyline GT-A.
We’ve whittled the 280 cars down to the 29 that caught our eye. Some have a story to tell, like the Sunny, which was the first car for regular people, costing 1.2-times their annual salary when it launched. The Gloria and Cedric, which are the same car and the first to feature turbo charge, and the Skyline, which pretty much speaks for itself, with every model just as exciting as the first. Japan’s first racing car, the Prince R380-I, is packed in there as well.
Others are just beautiful to look at, although they no doubt have some stories of their own too.
Click here to see some of our favourites from the Nissan Zama Heritage Collection and feel free to let us know in the comments which ones you love.
Deliveroo now offers booze-only drop-offs
Deliveroo has a made a name for itself delivering meals from restaurants that you wouldn’t normally find on Just Eat and Hungry House. The company isn’t content, however, so it’s launching a different but not entirely unrelated service today: booze deliveries. It’s teamed up wth Majestic Wines, BrewDog and other “top independent merchants” to offer the new option across the UK. Technically, it was possible to order alcohol before — you simply choose from the selection available at one of Deliveroo’s partnered restaurants. The options are usually limited, however, and offered on the basis that you’re also buying some grub. Now, you can forget the food and just order a crate of beer, wine or similar.
Once you’ve made an order, it’ll be sent to the nearest merchant with stock — Majestic Wines has eight London shops participating in the scheme, while BrewDog has 20 across the UK — before being picked up and delivered by a Deliveroo courier. The whole process should take “around 20 minutes,” the company boasts. To make good on that claim, it’s also working with some smaller business including Lea and Sandeman, Honest Brew, Mother Kellys and Vagabond Wines. They’re also helping Deliveroo to offer more specialised tipples, including craft beers and cocktails.
Such a scheme could easily be abused by underage drinkers. But Deliveroo has stressed that its couriers are trained to ID anyone that looks under 25. In addition, it’s adding new signage to all of its menu pages that contain alcohol, reinforcing the UK’s national drinking age of 18. It’s not a bulletproof defence, but should snuff out at least a few illegal orders.
Deliveroo is a popular choice in the English capital — it’s managed to differentiate by partnering with popular restaurant chains such as Gourmet Burger Kitchen, Wagamama and Nando’s. But the company is under enormous pressure. On one side, it’s competing with traditional food delivery companies such as Just Eat and Hungry House. On the other, it’s fending off broader and arguably more tech-savvy companies such as Uber and, soon, Postmates. Branching out into quick, on-demand booze deliveries — a largely untapped market in the UK — could give the company a new line of revenue and an image that’s even more distinct.
Via: Wired
BBC Announces New Personalized Content Portal With ‘BBC+’ App
The BBC released a new app today called BBC+ which aims to let users customize the content offered by the British broadcaster for a more relevant, personalized experience.
The idea behind the app is to work as a customized one-stop portal for all things BBC that corrals content from across the service, from TV and radio to exclusively online bitesize and longform content.
Users are prompted to sign in to the app on launch and begin choosing their content preferences. The app’s homepage for example offers a fully customizable content carousel that users populate by choosing from a list of editorial themes, including regional and national news, sports, gaming, science, music, business, politics, health, food, and more.
Pooled data collected by the app is then used by algorithms and human curators to work out what content formats are most popular and help identify trending themes to better serve up more relevant content.
“BBC+ is a key part of the journey towards achieving a much more personal BBC, and truly brings topical information from across the whole organization to your pocket, ready for you to access at your convenience,” said the head of BBC+ Paul Owen in a press release. “This is just the start for us, and over time the app will evolve and add new features based on user feedback.”
The app is a key aspect of the broadcaster’s vision for the BBC in the digital era – the “myBBC revolution”, as director general Tony Hall called it – which seeks to reinvent public service broadcasting by using viewers’ data and interests to put them in the driver’s seat.
According to the BBC, 7.2 million people have signed in to the BBC’s existing digital services to date, and consumed 44 percent more content than those not signed in.
In terms of the broadcaster’s data privacy policy, Hall made the following statement:
We believe your data is yours. Wherever we collect and use your data, we will only use it to bring you the things that matter to you, surface hidden gems that you might not otherwise have found, and improve the BBC’s services.
We’ll put you in control over how we use your data, and be open and transparent about what we’re using your data for. You will always be able to change or delete it.
We will not do anything with your data that isn’t clearly explained, or that you don’t agree to. We will never sell your data, let other organizations track what you do with the BBC for their own purposes, or spam you.
And we’ll guard and protect your data. The BBC is set up to serve the public, and to help everyone in the UK get the best out of digital technologies and the BBC. We have no reason to collect your data other than to serve you better.
BBC+ is a free download for iPad and iPhone available on the U.K. App Store. [Direct Link]
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LG X Screen with dual display launched in India for ₹12,990
LG has announced the LG X Screen in India, which packs in a dual display – a 4.93-inch primary display with another 1.76-inch always-on Second Screen. The LG X Screen also features a panic button feature aligned with Government of India’s initiative.
The LG X Screen sports crystal-clear glass fiber material that covers the back along with curved edges on its sides for an elegant design with durable toughness. The X Screen boasts of Two Screens, a unique feature that allows the Always-on Display to show basic information such as time, date, and notifications to users without having to wake up the phone as well as keeps the recent used user applications for easy access. It also offers the facility to receive calls without interruptions on the main screen.
LG X Screen (LG K500) Specifications
| Operating System | Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow |
| Display | 4.93-inch HD (1280 x 720) TFT LCD + 1.76-inch (520 x 80) LCD |
| Processor | Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 1.2GHz Quad Core |
| RAM | 2GB |
| Internal Storage | 16GB; expandable up to 2TB via microSD card |
| Rear Camera | 13 MP autofocus with LED flash | f/2.2 |
| Front Camera | 8MP |
| Dimensions | 142.6 x 71.8 x 7.1 mm |
| Weight | 120 grams |
| Battery | 2300 mAh |
Adopting the growing trend in the country, the LG X Screen will be sold exclusively online, a first for the brand. Available in black and white colors, the LG X Screen will be available exclusively on Snapdeal for ₹12,990 ($194) starting from July 20, 2016.
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