Samsung reportedly gearing up to announce a Galaxy Note 7 recall
Samsung’s Galaxy Note 7 debuted to almost surprising critical acclaim earlier this month, but since launch we’ve seen occasional reports of devices exploding while being charged. The company said yesterday that it delayed Note 7 shipments while it looked into the situation, but a report from Korea’s Yonhap News Agency suggests Samsung knows what’s going on and is prepared to announce a widespread recall.
Yonhap spoke to an anonymous Samsung official, who claimed the cause of the explosions stemmed from the Galaxy Note 7’s battery. While the exact cause of these battery explosions has yet to be disclosed, Yonhap’s source went on to say “less than 0.1 percent” of devices sold are affected. When asked for comment, a Samsung spokesperson provided the following statement:
“In response to questions on Galaxy Note7, we are conducting a thorough inspection. We will share the findings as soon as possible. Samsung is fully committed to providing the highest quality products to our consumers.”
If the report holds true, the company doesn’t plan to announce the results of its investigation until either this weekend or early next week. That delay is said to be a result of discussions Samsung is having with its global carrier partners — Verizon is said to be one such company Samsung is discussing the matter with, which suggests that the upcoming recall could be a global one. The cynics in us also can’t help but note that if Samsung waits to announce the results of its investigation until next week, it might be able to dodge a certain degree of press scrutiny at the IFA tradeshow currently running in Berlin.
To date, the Note 7 has been launched in ten countries, and Samsung has said demand has exceeded its own expectations. The sales situation has grown so strained, in fact, that Samsung told CNBC it had to adjust the device’s launch in some markets. That people want Galaxy Note 7s isn’t a surprise; reviewers (myself included) seemed to love the device. More importantly, after the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge helped the company rebound from a rough financial start to 2016, Samsung looked to the Note 7 as one of its financial pillars for the latter half of this year. If a recall — global or otherwise — is in the works, Samsung’s near future won’t be as rosy as it hoped.
Source: Yonhap
Uber wants to be New York’s L train shutdown savior
New York commuters are bracing for the 18 month closure of the L train that will disrupt the daily commute of 225,000 people. Scheduled to shut down in 2019, the artery between Manhattan and Brooklyn will be undergoing repairs for damage done by Hurricane Sandy in 2012. Yeah, it’s going to suck.
In a Newsweek op-ed Uber’s General Manager of NYC, Josh Mohrer proposed temporarily lifting a ban on unregulated drivers to help ferry commuters across the Williamsburg Bridge to reduce some of the expected congestion brought on by the L train shutdown. The ride-sharing company would use its new Commuting Together service to help people already driving into the Manhattan find passengers going along the same route.
Mohrer says that in addition to the running Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) shuttles across the bridge, a pilot program of its Commuting Together system could potentially remove 11,000 vehicles from the road.
This would require the city of New York to temporarily lift its ban on unregistered taxi drivers. Currently Uber drivers have to get a license from the Taxi and Limousine Commission and complete training. Just like folks that drive cabs.
The Commuting Together system would circumvent all that training to make it more appealing to commuters hoping to make a few bucks while driving across the bridge. They wouldn’t be regular Uber drivers. However, it’s unlikely that New York mayor, Bill De Blasio is a fan of ride-hailing company’s “generosity.” He recently tried and failed to curb the amount of new Uber drivers in the city.
During his call to restrict new drivers, Uber added a fake “De Blasio” feature to its app in New York to show what the city would be like if the proposal passed.
If the city does temporarily lift its driver restrictions, after the L train repairs have been completed, it’s going to be a lot tougher for New York to shut down the pilot program once commuters become accustomed to it. Plus, it won’t just be commuters coming from Brooklyn that will be using the service.
Of course, in the next two years Uber could see an uptick in new, regulated drivers using Uber Pool to help commuters get from Brooklyn from Manhattan.
Via: The Verge
Source: Newsweek
Apple is hunting down unused, dysfunctional apps
Apple has vowed to remove from the App Store any programs that no longer work, don’t follow current review guidelines or are simply outdated. Starting September 7th, Apple will review and remove apps that crash on launch, and the company will contact developers whose apps don’t meet the new guidelines. Developers then have 30 days to submit an update; otherwise, their programs are gone for good.
Even if they’re removed, apps will continue to work for anyone who has already downloaded them (and that includes in-app purchases). Plus, new developers won’t be able to steal the names of deleted apps — those remain tied to the original developer’s account.
Apple also plans to fight spammy and long names in the App Store, TechCrunch reports. After September 7th, all app and update names will have a maximum length of 50 characters. This gets rid of apps that attempt to capture extra search relevance with names that read like a list of Tumblr tags.
These moves are aimed at cleaning up search results in the App Store, which hosts more than 2 million games, tools and time-wasters. September 7th also happens to be the day of Apple’s big iPhone event, where we expect to see the so-called iPhone 7 and 7 Plus.
Source: Apple, TechCrunch
Wirecutter’s best deals: Save $50 on a Verilux sunshine simulator
This post was done in partnership with The Wirecutter, a buyer’s guide to the best technology. Read their continuously updated list of deals atTheWirecutter.com.
You may have already seen Engadget posting reviews from our friends atThe Wirecutter. Now, from time to time, we’ll also be publishing their recommended deals on some of their top picks. Read on, and strike while the iron is hot — some of these sales could expire mighty soon.
Verilux HappyLight Deluxe 10,000 LUX sunshine simulator
Street price: $130; MSRP: $190; Deal price: $80
Only the second time we’ve posted a deal on this lamp, and it’s a huge drop below the last price we posted, which was $108. This blows past that, dropping all the way down to $80, though you’ve got to be a Prime member to get this discount.
The Verilux HappyLight Deluxe is our runner-up pick for the best light therapy lamp. Kit Dillon said, “It has many of the same features as the Day-Light Classic Plus, including UV-free, 10,000-lux light and a large 200-square-inch face. Unlike the Day-Light Classic Plus, the HappyLight is not adjustable by height and angle, though that makes it a less cumbersome light overall. In fact, upright designs like this one will project light further than adjustable units; the HappyLight promises a 10,000-lux intensity up to 14 inches away from its surface—that’s two inches further than our top pick provides.”
Samsung SmartThings Hub
Street price: $100; MSRP: $100; Deal price: $79
We’ve only posted this price once in the past, though it did drop this low one other time that we missed. This is part of a larger Samsung SmartThings sale that’s available until the 10th, so if you’re considering upgrading multiple devices, it’s a great time to buy.
The Samsung SmartThings Hub is our pick for the best smart hub. Jon Chase wrote, “The Samsung SmartThings Hub is a polished, powerful option for tech-savvy DIYers who have a desire for an integrated smart home but lack the budget for or interest in a professionally installed system. It’s easy to set up on your home network, and pairing it with other smart devices is largely seamless.”
He went on to say, “We did extensive research on hubs in general and the SmartThings hub in particular, and believe our experience is consistent with the reviews and findings of most other outlets: Namely, of all the hubs on the market, the Samsung SmartThings Hub is the most powerful and promising, but is best suited to devout tinkerers and those willing to spend a fair amount of time tweaking and refining their smart-home system.”
Philips Hue white and color Ambiance A19 bulbs
Street price: $60; MSRP: $60; Deal price: $50
This is a nice $10 drop from the usual $60 price on this LED bulb. It rarely drops in price at all, and if you’re planning to buy multiple bulbs for your house, the savings add up.
The Philips Hue White and Color Ambiance A19 is our pick from the LED smart bulb starter kit we recommend in the best smart LED light bulbs guide. Grant Clauser wrote, “The Philips Hue A19 color-changing smart LEDs are the all-around best smart bulbs you can buy. The Hue does everything its competitors do, but a wider product and app ecosystem allows for more flexibility and creativity than any other smart bulb. It costs a bit more than the average smart bulb, but wide compatibility with other products and systems, such as Apple’s HomeKit, Samsung’s SmartThings hub, and Amazon’s Alexa, mean you’ll be able to do more with them than other bulbs; this makes them a more practical long-term investment.”
Refurbished Motorola SB6183 SURFboard cable modem
Street price: $84 (new); MSRP: $100 (new); Deal price: $55
We haven’t posted too many deals on the SB6183 since the SB6141 is usually a much better value, but at $55 for a refurbished model, we think this is worth it That puts it only $15 above the best price we’ve ever seen on refurbished models of the SB6141, and for those of you with faster internet plans, that’s likely worth the upgrade. This comes with a 90 day warranty.
The Motorola SB6183 SURFboard is the upgrade pick in our guide on the best cable modem. David Murphy said, “It supports double the download speeds of the SB6141, but few Internet plans offer that much speed. You’ll need it only if you subscribe to a plan like Time Warner’s 300Mbps Ultimate tier, found in locations like Los Angeles, New York City, and Austin.”
He added, “If you’re not paying a ton of money for these super-fast plans, our upgrade pick is overkill. Our primary pick, an 8×4 cable modem, gives you plenty of overhead for your service.”
Deals change all the time, and some of these may have expired. To see an updated list of current deals, please go to The Wirecutter.com.
Recently patched iOS security flaw also affects OS X
Last week Apple rolled out a patch for iOS that closed a security flaw that could give attackers control over a device by having a user click a single link. Now, Apple is patching the same hole in the Safari web browser on the desktop, with new updates for the browser as well as OS X Yosemite and El Capitan. Lookout Security and Citizenlab identified the flaw based on a link sent to a human rights activist, and believe the “cyber war” organization NSO Group was selling the exploit to governments like the UAE.
You may or may not be a target of government surveillance, but now that the vulnerability is widely known others could try to use it. That means it’s probably a good idea to make sure you have the latest updates installed right now before you click another shady web link.
Kurdos #Apple for quickly patching Safari & OS X for Webkit and Kernel vulns identified by @citizenlab and @lookout https://t.co/G3SwH72xln
— citizen lab (@citizenlab) September 1, 2016
Via: Motherboard
Source: Apple – OS X Update info, Apple Safari update info
Tech’s biggest names are working to regulate AI research
Artificial intelligence is hitting its stride, already giving us machines that can drive themselves, talk to us, fight in our wars, perform our surgeries and beat humanity’s best in a game of Go or Jeopardy. Five companies at the forefront of the technology industry have been meeting to discuss these advancements in AI and figure out how to regulate even more powerful systems in the future, The New York Times reports.
Researchers from Facebook, Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft and IBM are looking at the practical consequences of AI, such as how it will impact transportation, jobs and welfare. The group doesn’t have a name or an official credo, but its general goal is to ensure AI research focuses on benefiting people, not harming them, the NYT says.
This isn’t a new battle cry for many AI scientists. In 2015, Elon Musk, Stephen Hawking, the founders of Google DeepMind and dozens of other researchers signed an open letter calling for robust investigations into the impact of AI and ways to ensure it remains a benign tool at humanity’s disposal. The industry partnership is notable because it represents a renewed, active effort among disparate tech companies to address these same issues.
The companies are expected to announce the group in mid-September, though it could grow in the meantime: Google DeepMind has asked to participate separately from Alphabet, its parent company, the NYT reports.
One of the people involved in the industry partnership, Microsoft researcher Eric Horvitz, funded a paper issued by Stanford University on Thursday called the One Hundred Year Study, which discusses the realities of AI and the importance of investigating its impact now. It also calls for increased AI education at all levels of government and outlines how to publish a report on the state of the industry every five years for the next 100 years.
The NYT notes that people in the technology field are worried about regulators jumping in to police their work on AI.
“We’re not saying that there should be no regulation,” University of Texas at Austin computer scientist Peter Stone tells the NYT. “We’re saying that there is a right way and a wrong way.”
This summer, Engadget dove into the ways AI is poised to change jobs, war, criminal justice, history and our everyday lives. AI is the focus of much deserved attention in the technology industry because it is infinitely promising — even if we won’t be uploading our consciousness to the cloud any time soon.
Source: New York Times
YouTubers call out ad guidelines as a form of censorship
According to YouTube, the platform’s Advertiser-Friendly Content Guidelines are intended to protect brands and their advertisements from appearing alongside content those advertisers might find questionable. And for many of the platform’s creators, monetizing videos with advertisements can be a lucrative business. In the past 24 hours or so, however, an update to the way YouTube notifies creators that their videos have been stripped of ads has caused an uproar on social media, with some of the most popular names on the site claiming the removal of advertising is a form of censorship.
Leading the charge is 10-year veteran YouTuber Phillip DeFranco, whose channel has over 4.5 million subscribers alone. On Wednesday, DeFranco posted a video titled “YouTube Is Shutting Down My Channel and I’m Not Sure What To Do” claiming he’d received notifications that his most recent video was “Not advertiser-friendly.” According to DeFranco, about a dozen of his videos had their ads stripped away, followed by a few dozen more less than a day later. What alarmed DeFranco the most, however, was how the most recently stripped video didn’t appear to contain objectionable content at all — only a discussion of a potentially sensitive topic. DeFranco covered Chris Brown’s standoff with the police, among other topics, but he also believes his long-running tagline “‘sup you beautiful bastards?” may have gotten him flagged.
Other creators have chimed in on the #YouTubeIsOverParty hashtag, as well. Beauty vlogger Melanie Murphy noted one of her biggest-earning videos was stripped of its advertisements despite not having any offensive language or content. “I’m left with the assumption that the fact that acne is visible in the thumbnails…is off-putting to potential advertisers,” she explained to CNET. “If that’s the case, it’s very upsetting.”
Other YouTubers like MrRepzion and Luke Cutforth claim their videos have been stripped of advertisements because of their frank discussion of difficult mental health topics like suicide and depression, and that the “de-monetization” therefore stigmatizes such issues.
YouTube disabled ads on my DEPRESSION video cus advisers dont like it. Sorry depression isn’t fucking pretty enough… pic.twitter.com/YXs0YFGVAb
— luke cutforth✨ (@LukeIsNotSexy) August 31, 2016
While it is YouTube’s prerogative to run their platform however they wish (and for advertisers to have a say in where they do and do not want their ads to appear), DeFranco argues that preventing creators from monetizing their work is a form of censorship. By removing a creator’s revenue stream, his argument goes, YouTube has rendered that person’s business unsustainable and is essentially silencing their voice.
For its part, YouTube has issued a statement saying the policy is not new at all, only the notification system has changed. Whereas in the past a user would have to go into the individual video analytics to see whether a video had been de-monetized, users are now receiving notifications via email. Still, it is unclear if the de-monetization process happens via algorithm, like the platform’s copyright flagging system does, or whether there are humans reviewing the videos and removing the ads. There is, however, an appeals process by which users can have their videos reviewed and possibly get their revenue stream reinstated.
Via: CNET, Gizmodo
Source: CNET, Gizmodo
HTC One A9S Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET
HTC
I know, I know. In the age of phones as metal rectangles, it’s not easy to make your product’s design profoundly unique. But HTC is doing its best to wow us, at least in how it describes its newest phone, the One A9S.
With phrases like “perfectly glistens” and “nature-inspired” in the A9S’s press release, HTC almost trips into hyperbole. It also promises “diamond-like cut buttons”, which is a bit odd given that many phones these days ditch buttons almost completely. We’ll give you a report on how the A9S looks and feels when we actually hold one. But if HTC’s design history is any guide, it should be something of a looker.
An update to 2015’s One A9, the A9S has a slate of popular features without delivering any huge upgrades over its predecessor. Highlights include a 5-inch 720p display, a fingerprint sensor, an octa-core processor and a 13-megapixel camera. The A9S also promises a durable design that will withstand “hundreds of drop and scratch tests in addition to hundreds of hours of extreme weather.”
HTC didn’t have a final price except that the A9S would cost less than the A9 ($499 or £430). It will be available globally at a yet-to-be-announced date.
IFA 2016: All of the gadgets from Europe’s…
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Features and key specs
- 5-inch, HD 720p Super LCD display with Corning Gorilla Glass
- HTC Sense
- Fingerprnt sensor
- Octa-core, 64-bit processor
- 13-megapixel main camera with LED flash
- 5-megapixel front camera
- 16GB or 32GB internal memory (depends on region)
- microSD slot takes cards up to 2TB
- HTC BoomSound
- 2,300 mAh battery
- Comes in multiple colors
Panasonic DMP-UB700 Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET
Panasonic
Panasonic has introduced a new 4K Blu-ray player at IFA in Berlin, designed to be a more affordable version of its high-end DMP-UB900.
The new DMP-UB700 player can play back 4K Blu-ray discs with HDR, as well as regular HD Blu-rays, DVDs and CDs.
Like the $699/£599 DMP-UB900, the UB700 also offers high-end video processing, including upscaling 4K color information to 4:4:4, which offers potentially better picture quality.
The UB700 has internet connectivity, which brings with it Netflix and YouTube 4K playback, though it’s yet to be determined if the player is capable of delivering Netflix’s HDR video.
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The player will also play music from your network including FLAC, WAV, MP3 and DSD files, though it lacks the high-end digital-to-analog converters of the UB900.
The UB700 is destined for Europe only at this stage for £400 and Panasonic said the company is yet to decide if it will get a release in the US or Australia. This price converts to $530 or AU$700.
With the release of the $300 Xbox One S, the market for 4K Blu-ray players is getting cutthroat. Even with its cheaper price the UB700 costs substantially more than Xbox, the Samsung UBD-K8500 and the Philips BDP7501, so it might be a tough sell for Panasonic.
Google Android Nougat review – CNET
The Good We welcome Android 7.0 Nougat’s faster speeds and more efficient notification displays. It’s handy to reply right from an alert, and new and updated emoji are always 🙂 .
The Bad Thanks to manufacturer and carrier restrictions, Nougat is only available for a handful of Android Nexus devices at first. Google’s more enticing hardware and software endeavors — the Daydream VR platform and rumored new phones — won’t hit until later.
The Bottom Line Android Nougat offers welcome improvements in what is a functional, if not very exciting, update.
Visit manufacturer site for details.
When Google announced Android 7.0 Nougat as the latest version of its mobile software, we envisioned something feature-loaded we could sink our teeth into. Something with real chew, like this:
View full gallery James Martin/CNET
Instead, we got something airier, like this:
View full gallery James Martin/CNET
There’s a good reason why Nougat doesn’t seem as dense as past Android updates, and that’s because a lot of the upgrades happen behind the scenes. It’s undoubtedly faster and smoother, and your battery should last longer between charges. These are less-visible — but still important — performance gains. But the interface doesn’t look or function all that differently, and that’s disappointing for a major OS update.
While you should jump on the Android 7.0 update as soon as your phone gets it, you’ll be happier thinking of Nougat as the cherry on top of Android 6.0 Marshmallow, not a brand-new dessert. We hope Google follows up with more interesting updates in the months to come — possibly when rumored new phones hit later this year.
That said, here are Nougat’s most notable and likable improvements.
Bundled notifications
You know the endless list of notifications that stack up in the pull-down window? Nougat takes care of that. It groups related alerts into a tidy package you can expand and collapse with a tap on a button. It works terrifically well and is one of our favorite new features. From here, you can share, reply and open to view more.
Get to know Android Nougat in 19 photos
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Direct replies
This goes hand-in-hand with bundled notifications. You can either reply to messages straight from the alert when it pops up at the top of the screen, or from the bundled notification, without leaving this part of the screen. We love that, and it lets Android catch up to Apple here. Direct replies work for most texts and chat apps, but replying to a Gmail message opened the Gmail app, so we know there are still some limitations here.
Battery savings with Doze on the Go
The idea is to get big battery savings from a sleeping device in your pocket or bag. It’s a hard thing to determine if you’re getting more battery life if you aren’t paying close attention over the course of days, and that’s kind of the point. This is one of those invisible Android benefits. We’ll be doing some intense testing of Doze on the Go, as soon as we finish intensely testing Nougat. Stay tuned!
AIVAnet 