EE begins offering six free months of BT Sport
The new football season is almost upon us, what with Wimbledon, the Euros and the Tour de France out of the way. (Of course, there’s still the small matter of the Olympics and Paralympics.) As promised, EE is giving its subscribers better access to the action through a six-month trial of BT Sport. To sign up, text “Sport” to 150 from an EE smartphone, or call customer services. The only caveat is that you have to be a pay monthly (phone, tablet or SIM-only) subscriber — sorry, pay-as-you-go customers.
Through the mobile app, you’ll get access to BT Sport 1, BT Sport 2, BT Sport Europe and ESPN. Those channels cover a range of sporting competition including the Premier League (42 matches), the UEFA Champions League and Europa League, UFC fighting, NBA basketball and Aviva Premiership rugby. Just be aware that if you sign up now, the promotion will run out by January — EE and BT are banking on you getting hooked and shelling out the £5 per month add-on charge thereafter.
Gionee’s M6 smartphones tackle security in a different way
Chinese phone manufacturer Gionee has unveiled a new flagship phone in the form of the M6 and M6 Plus, and it might bring other smartphones to mind. Both models of the new phone will feature various features meant to make it stand out from the crowd, namely in the form of a special encryption chip.
But while it’s meant to offer additional encryption and safety for users, it also succeeds in keeping quite close to both Huawei and Apple designs in terms of hardware. Even a quick glance at the phone brings Huawei’s product to mind, but then the phone also looks quite sleek. It’s not about how it looks, however — it’s about functionality, with Gionee noting the pitfalls of some privacy and security efforts of its competitors. It hopes to circumvent security issues that exist with the iPhone’s lock screen, for example, noting that after someone gets past that, the rest of the information on the phone is then freely accessible.
The phone will feature on-chip data encryption, a massive battery that offers up to 55 hours of call time and 794 hours of standby time. Interestingly, you can use the phone to charge other electronic devices as well. The massive battery and the alternative approach to security make Gionee’s product a unique one, but if you’re interested in checking it out you’ll have to pony up about $404 for the Gionee M6 and $449 for the M6 Plus. Even the marketing on the phone’s official page looks familiar — Apple, anyone?
Sky Sports will share Premier League goals on Twitter as they happen
After spending a record £4.2 billion on securing the rights to 126 live games over the next next three Premier League seasons, Sky wants more people tuning into coverage regardless of where they are (as long as it’s not on Vine). It’s already announced that it will show highlights on-demand from this season — including extended replays on TV, the web and mobile through Sky Go — but the broadcaster confirmed today that it will soon push real-time video clips direct to Twitter for anyone to view.
In partnership with Twitter, Sky Sports will show a “selection of the key goals and moments from every Premier League game broadcast during the season” and detailed post-match analysis. Clips will be pushed to Sky Sports’ @SkyFootball account, which looks set to build on its already-impressive three million followers.
Sky Sports customers will also get access to more clips from every match shown. They’ll be available through the Sky Sports Football Score app, which will also show full highlights of all Premier League and Football League games from every match, including those shown live on BT Sport, right after the final whistle. From this season, lucky viewers in Ireland can watch 3pm kick-offs too, which really rubs it in the noses of their UK counterparts.
Qualcomm settles gender discrimination suit for $19.5 million
Qualcomm will pay $19.5 million to settle a lawsuit filed by female employees who claim they were paid less and denied promotion opportunities that were given to men. The deal stipulates that the company must implement policies ensuring that women get more promotion opportunities in science and engineering positions. Lawyers for the group told the Associated Press the settlement was a “giant leap forward toward leveling the playing field and can serve as a model of best practices for other technology companies.”
According to the lawsuit, women who work in research and engineering at Qualcomm are paid less than men in the same positions. Females also make up just 15 percent of senior leadership, and since managers are mostly male, are promoted less often. The complaint also alleges that workers who stay late are rewarded over those who arrive early and leave at the regular quitting time, making promotions more difficult for working mothers.
This settlement represents a giant leap forward toward leveling the playing field and can serve as a model of best practices for other technology companies.
Qualcomm will hire consultants to set new diversity policies and a compliance officer to ensure they’re enforced. “While we have strong defenses to the claims, we elected to focus on continuing to make meaningful enhancements to our internal programs and processes that drive equity and a diverse and inclusive workforce which are values we share and embrace,” the company told AP. Qualcomm was a bit late to the game, but now publicly releases its diversity data.
The settlement may make Silicon Valley uncomfortable. While firms like Intel and eBay have set firm goals for gender and ethnic diversity, others like Facebook and Apple have been criticized for doing too little. The Qualcomm deal may embolden female and ethnic employees at other firms to use more drastic measures to be heard.
Source: Associated Press
EU will watch Privacy Shield for a year before challenging
Earlier this month, the European Commission adopted Privacy Shield, an EU-US data privacy agreement. It allows companies like Facebook and Twitter to move EU data to US servers, all the while assuring Europeans their data is still as protected as it was back home. Critics have complained the new arrangement has many of the same flaws as the “Safe Harbour” framework it replaces, and EU data protection authorities had yet to comment on the final deal.
And they won’t — at least for a year. European regulators have announced that Privacy Shield will not be challenged until its first annual review, which is due next summer. This effectively gives the agreement a year-long stay of execution, at least as far as the 28 data protection authorities that cover Europe are concerned. After the year is up, the relevant bodies will either approve the deal wholesale, suggest changes, or file a legal objection. The first option, for what it’s worth, is very unlikely given collectively they were generally very displeased about the draft agreement.
The announcement doesn’t rule out the possibility of Privacy Shield being attacked in the interim. There are plenty of independent organizations that might choose to challenge its legality — the Safe Harbour deal it replaced was essentially taken down by an individual who proved it was not sufficient to protect EU citizen’s data.
Source: Reuters, BBC News
Australian Banks Challenge Apple Over Mobile Payment App Restrictions
Three of Australia’s biggest banks have lodged a joint application with anti-trust regulators to negotiate with Apple over gaining access to the NFC-based mobile payment hardware in its smartphones (via Reuters).
Commonwealth Bank, National Australia Bank (NAB), and Westpac have so far resisted signing deals to use the company’s Apple Pay mobile payment system, because they want their customers to be able to use digital wallets they have already financed and developed.
However, they don’t want to be accused of violating anti-competition law by jointly negotiating a deal, which is where the application comes in.
If the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) lets the banks collectively negotiate with Apple under the terms of the application, it would enable them to undertake “a limited form of boycott” in which they would all agree not to negotiate with Apple individually while the talks take place.
Apple currently only allows its own mobile payment system to access the NFC-hardware in its iPhone devices, which banks argue is an anti-competitive restriction that hampers consumer choice.
“This is about providing Australians with real choice and better outcomes,” said Lance Blockley, a senior advisor at Novantas who spoke to The Sydney Morning Herald on behalf of the banks.
“If successful, the application would have tremendous benefits for the entire Australian mobile payments landscape including for public transport fares, airlines, ticketing, store loyalty and rewards programs and many more applications yet to be developed.”
Apple Pay launched in Australia in November, but has since been slow to roll out in the country. The delay was thought to be down to issues Apple was experiencing negotiating fees with the nation’s largest banking institutes.
Three months ago it added Apple Pay support for credit and debit cards from the Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (aka ANZ), the only bank in Australia’s “Big Four” that played no part in the latest application.
Related Roundup: Apple Pay
Tag: Australia
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Redesigned Firefox for iOS Claims Faster Load Times, Less Battery Drain
Firefox has released an update for its iOS browser that offers interface improvements and a faster browsing experience.
Firefox v5.0 promises faster web page loading times combined with significant battery savings, according to the browser’s development team. Mozilla claims up to a 40 percent reduction in CPU usage and up to a 30 percent reduction in memory usage, although it notes results may vary between users.
Aside from speed improvements and power savings, the main interface has seen a number of new additions. Top of the list is a new menu on the toolbar that allows for easier navigation and quick access to frequently used features – from adding a bookmark to finding text in page.
Mozilla has also tried to make tab management a less frustrating experience on smaller screens, with the introduction of a ‘Close All Tabs’ option and an ‘Undo’ option to easily recover them, as well as a simpler method of navigating open tabs.
Users can also now set their favorite site as their homepage, which can be accessed at any time via the Home button in the new main menu.
In addition, users can now search sites with a search box (Amazon, for example) using a new magnifying glass button above the keyboard.
To add a website to the list of search engines accessed from the new tool, users simply need to go to the site in question and tap on the magnifying glass.
Firefox web browser is a free download for iPhone and iPad available on the App Store. [Direct Link]
Tag: Firefox for iOS
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Xiaomi Redmi Pro Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET
Aloysius Low/CNET
Xiaomi is saying “yes” to dual cameras. The Chinese phonemaker’s Redmi Pro uses two camera lenses on its back to take shots with Bokeh effect, that artful look that leaves some of the image in focus and beautifully blurs the rest. It’s a feature seen in Huawei’s P9, and also in 2014’s HTC One M8.
What’s interesting here is that the lenses aren’t the same. You have a 13-megapixel Sony sensor and a 5-megapixel Samsung sensor. The Redmi Pro combines image data from both cameras to let users adjust the depth of field they get, so they have a chance to play around with the amount of blur. The effect works best when shooting portraits and closeups, setups where you want the focus on what’s in front of you.
Xiaomi did not say if the dual-camera setup had other features, such as telephoto zoom or better lowlight shots, which we’ve seen on camera modules from Israeli startup Corephotonics.
True to its name, the Pro steps up the hardware specs compared with the other Redmi phones. It has a metal body, 4GB of RAM, 128GB of onboard storage and MediaTek’s Helio X25 ten-core processor. There’s 4G LTE support for two SIM cards, but you could also use one SIM card and insert a micro-SIM card. There’s a fingerprint sensor too, located below the 5.5-inch full-HD OLED display.
A basic version of the Pro will sport 3GB RAM and 32GB of onboard storage and will use the Helio X20 processor instead.
The phone is set to launch in August 6 and will retail from a ridiculously low price of 1,499 yuan (this converts to around $225, £170 and AU$300), while the highest end version goes for 1,999 yuan (about $300, £230 or AU$400). Interestingly, it will also be sold offline at retail stores as well as Xiaomi’s normal online model. While it’s only China for now, expect to see the company launch the phone in markets like India, Hong Kong and Singapore shortly after. Check back soon for our full hands-on with the Redmi Pro.
Key specs
- 5.5-inch full-HD display
- 10-core Helio X25 processor
- 8GB RAM, 128GB onboard storage
- 4,050 mAh battery
- Silver or gold colors
Xiaomi Mi Notebook Air Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET
Xiaomi
While China’s Xiaomi is best known for its budget-friendly phones, the company has recently branched out into all sorts of other tech products. From action cameras to smart weighing scales to water purifiers, the $60 billion startup has been building a diverse ecosystem around its core business.
Xiaomi’s latest product, the Mi Notebook Air, isn’t quite as novel as a hoverboard or the company’s latest drone, but it does have one thing most other ultraportable laptops lack — a discrete graphics card (discrete graphics cards are typically faster than their embedded brethren). A Nvidia GeForce 940MX, to be exact.
Other specs include a 256GB solid state drive and 8GB of RAM, and if you need more space there’s an additional SATA slot available to boost storage by up to 256GB.
Unveiled at a press event here in Beijing alongside the dual-camera wielding Redmi Pro phone, the 13.3-inch Mi Notebook Air was designed to fill a niche, Xiaomi’s CEO Lei Jun said. Similar ultraportables, such as the Razer Blade Stealth, lack discrete graphics and rely on Intel’s integrated graphics to do the legwork, which means their gaming capabilities are limited. Xiaomi says you can play games like Dota 2 at 85 frames-per-second at full-HD resolution on its Notebook Air.
Clad in aluminium, the device lacks any exterior logos. It’s a very clean look. Only when you open up the laptop do you find a Mi logo. While Xiaomi is selling the Mi Notebook Air under its own branding, the laptop is actually made by a partner called Tian Mi.
Xiaomi’s making an interesting bet in the laptop segment, though. IDC Research analyst Bryan Ma isn’t too optimistic about the Chinese notebook market, saying that IDC “expects China’s consumer notebook market to contract by 10.4 percent this year versus the -7.7 percent in the US and -9.3 percent worldwide.”
Key specs
- Intel Core i5-6200U, up to 2.7GHz
- 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD
- 13.3-inch, full-HD (1,920×1,080-pixels)
- 309 by 210.9 by 14.8 mm; 1.28 kg (2.82 pounds)
- Type-C USB for charging, 2x USB 3.0, 1x HDMI, 3.5mm audio port
- 40Wh battery, 9.5 hours
Xiaomi also announced a 12.5-inch version of the Mi Notebook Air that is slightly thinner and lighter at 12.9 mm and 1.07 kg (2.36 pounds). The 12.5-inch will lack discrete graphics, have only a 128GB SSD, 4GB RAM and use an Intel Core-M processor. That downgrading of specs comes with an upside, however — a battery life of 11.5 hours, 2 hours longer than the 13.3-inch model.
If you’re lusting for either one of these laptops, the bad news is that Xiaomi will only officially sell the Mi Notebook Air in China. They go on sale on August 2 and will retail for 4,999 yuan (this converts to about $750, £570 and AU$1,000) and 3,499 yuan (or about $525, £400 and AU$725) respectively. Check back later for our hands-on impressions after the press event ends.
Apple patents stylus that doubles as a joystick, air mouse
A simple, high-quality pressure-sensitive stylus is all well and good for tablets, but can such a device really meet the needs of a desktop user? That seems to be the question Apple’s asking with its latest patent. The company’s latest technology patent dreams up a do-everything stylus capable of being a drawing device, air mouse and even a joystick.
Over 17 patent claims, Apple outlines a stylus packed with pressure sensitivity and six and nine-axis inertial sensors — and describes a peripheral that can stand in for any number of devices. Used on a touch surface, for instance, the stylus might function as a normal pen. Lifted off a surface, it could be used to perform gestures or mouse movements. Standing on its tip, one could use it as a joystick, or rotate it left and right to turn a dial or move an object on a nearby computer screen.
It definitely sounds like a more advanced stylus than we see with most tablets, or even with Apple’s own Pencil — but not all patents make it to market. Still, the attached art shows the prospective device being used with what looks like a Mac, so at the very least we know that Apple’s /thinking/ about new input devices for its desktop line. Check out the patent for yourself at the source link below.
Source: USPTO
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