Tesla: Mobileye tried to stop our in-house chip development

Tesla and former pal Mobileye aren’t quite done airing controversial statements against each other. After the company behind Autopilot’s image recognition hardware said it severed its ties with the automaker because it was “pushing the envelope in terms of safety,” Tesla fired back with its own feisty response. A company spokesperson told Reuters that Mobileye wasn’t happy when it learned that Tesla decided to work on its own vision chips for Autopilot. She said Mobileye “attempted to force Tesla to discontinue this development, pay them more and use their products in future hardware.”

Mobileye and Tesla parted ways following the fatal Model S crash in Florida that put the carmaker’s Autopilot feature in hot water. The exchange of words started after that — Musk’s company once said that its ex-partner couldn’t keep up with its rate of innovation.

Besides revealing that Mobileye tried to dissuade Tesla from developing its own chips, the spokesperson also said that the other company started talking about safety concerns only after the EV manufacturer refused to give in:

“When Tesla refused to cancel its own vision development activities and plans for deployment, Mobileye discontinued hardware support for future platforms and released public statements implying that this discontinuance was motivated by safety concerns.”

Source: Reuters

How to Customize Favorite Contacts in iOS 10

Among the many new features in iOS 10 is a neat way to organize your favorite contacts and even access them quickly thanks to a new widget system introduced in the update. iOS 10 goes beyond general phone call-launching features, introducing ways to customize whether each contact icon will call, FaceTime, text, or email the person you tap on.

The addition makes favorites a far more useful and personal feature, superior to the 3D Touch Quick action it was limited to in previous versions of iOS (an enhanced 3D Touch option is still available). It should be noted that the basic communication preferences stored within each contact card on your iPhone will come into play when customizing your new favorites widget, so be sure to add in any phone numbers and email addresses before you start if you haven’t done so already.

Customizing Favorites in the Phone App

Once you have iOS 10 downloaded, follow these steps to navigate through the new way you can customize favorites in the phone app.

The above image represents Step 5 in the instructions below
Navigate to the Phone app.
The app should open on the “Favorites” tab, but if not tap to it.
Tap the “+” button in the top left corner of the screen.
Search for the contact you want to add and tap it.
Choose between Message, Call, Video, or Mail as your shortcut.
To pick a number or email other than the one shown as default, tap the small down arrow to the right of Message, Call, or Mail to pick from any number/email already stored in your phone for this contact.
Return to the Favorites tab and your new quick access contact will be at the bottom of your Favorites list.
Tap “Edit” in the top right corner to delete or reprioritize contacts.

When organizing your new favorite contacts, be sure to note that the first four contacts will receive top billing in the favorites widget, but a total of eight can fit.

Setting Up the Favorites Widget

The new favorites list is interesting because of its granular settings that allow you to jump into the contacts you only text with, while still accommodating those people you more often speak with on the phone. The personalization doesn’t stop there, however, thanks to iOS 10’s new and visually overhauled widgets system. Follow the next few steps to get your favorites widget up and running.

Navigate to the widgets screen by swiping right from the main iOS 10 home screen, notification center, or lock screen.
Scroll all the way down to the bottom of your widgets and tap “Edit.”
Find “Favorites” and tap the small green plus button to add it to your widgets.
Use the triple bar or “hamburger” icon on the right side of the screen to move favorites further up or down the list.
Hit “Done” to save your changes.
You’ll see your favorite contacts as a widget, with the top four contacts getting premium placement.
Tap “Show More” to expand the widget to a total of eight contacts.
Since the favorites widget can show up to eight contacts, you can return to the phone app to add and rearrange your most important friends, family members, and co-workers to see the changes reflected in the widget.

Your customization options include: adding multiple methods of communication for one person (all four if you contact one person multiple ways frequently), removing the default phone call options for message-focused contacts, and setting your top four most used contacts to save room on the widgets screen, without needing to use the “Show More” option.

An example of the personalized layout that the new widget offers.
iOS 10 is full of other minor but useful features that are worth checking out, which MacRumors is covering in various guides and how-tos to give you a step-by-step walkthrough of each new feature. Check back for new articles, and be sure to read our forums for discussions on iOS 10, the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus, and more.

Related Roundup: iOS 10
Discuss this article in our forums

Apple Not Accepting Returns or Exchanges in Hong Kong

Apple updated its purchase policy for Hong Kong today to reflect that all Apple and Beats products purchased at its retail stores in the region cannot be returned or exchanged.

The exact reason for Apple suddenly disallowing returns and exchanges at its five Hong Kong retail locations, and whether it is a temporary move, remains unclear at this time.

Apple previously allowed customers in Hong Kong to return or exchange undamaged products with the original receipt and packaging within 14 days of the date of purchase.

The change was made on the same day iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus launched in Hong Kong, where the smartphones have been reselling on the black market for up to 15,000 Hong Kong dollars, or up to $1,933 in U.S. dollars. CNBC and South China Morning Post both ran articles about these lucrative scalping efforts, which have become commonplace with every iPhone launch, earlier today.

Hong Kong is a hotbed for black market electronics due to the lack of import taxes and duties added to foreign goods purchased, as is the case in neighboring mainland China. Scalpers often attempt to illegally smuggle new iPhones across the border to mainland China to make significant profits, including one smuggler caught with 94 iPhones strapped to his body in 2015.

A tipster informed MacRumors that the return policy change also applies in Macau, another special administrative region of China.

Tags: return policy, Hong Kong, Apple retail
Discuss this article in our forums

Apple Pays $118 Million Tax Bill in Japan After Underreporting Profits

Apple has paid some 12 million yen ($118 million) to Japan after underreporting income in the country, according to broadcaster NHK (via Reuters). The company has yet to comment on the matter.

Japanese tax authorities determined that Apple failed to pay withholding taxes on profits it earned from subscribers in Japan and shifted to its Irish subsidiary to pay for software licensing.

The Tokyo Regional Taxation Bureau determined that the unit, which sends part of its profits earned from fees paid by Japan subscribers to another Apple unit in Ireland to pay for software licensing, had not been paying a withholding tax on those earnings in Japan, according to broadcaster NHK.

The news comes just over two weeks after the European Commission ordered Ireland to collect 13 billion euros ($14.5 billion) from Apple in unpaid taxes. The executive body said Apple received illegal state aid from Ireland, allowing it to pay a less than 2 percent tax rate between 2003 and 2014. Apple said it is confident the decision “will be reversed,” and Ireland has also vowed to appeal.

Tags: corporate tax, Japan
Discuss this article in our forums

Google Safe Browsing makes accessing The Pirate Bay harder

Guess what? There’s another speedbump to browsing The Pirate Bay. Rather than internet providers blocking access to the URL (currently thepiratebay.org), certain web browsers are flagging torrent download pages with variations on the following message:

“The site ahead contains harmful programs

Attackers on thepiratebay.org might attempt to trick you into installing programs that harm your browsing experience (for example, by changing your homepage or showing extra ads on sites you visit.)”

That’s what showed up when I did a search for “New Girl” on Google Chrome. But similar messages appear in Microsoft Edge and, as VentureBeat reports, Mozilla Firefox too. Surprisingly, Apple’s Safari browser wasn’t all that worried about me downloading any nefarious programs and let me see the torrent download page without a hitch.

Clicking the “details” link on the warning page in Chrome offers a clue about why the browser is warning users:

“Google Safe Browsing recently found harmful programs on thepiratebay.org. If you understand the risks to your security, you may visit this site before the harmful programs have been removed.”

It sounds like there may be a bad ad network on the torrent site and that Google isn’t blocking the media repository itself. So, if the bright red screen has you worried, this problem should resolve itself fairly soon. Or if you’re impatient, you can deal with false warnings from The Pirate Bay that your Flash player is out of date.

For what it’s worth, Chrome isn’t blocking the KickAss Torrents alternative (now defunct) Torrentz, despite multiple pop-ups urging me to download a new version of “Flash” for the same reasons as The Pirate Bay. When, in all actuality, I’ve disabled it wholesale. Nice try, jerks.

Via: VentureBeat

Source: Google

DARPA wants an ‘Aerial Dragnet’ to monitor urban drone traffic

Conventional air traffic might be tightly controlled and monitored, but even with the new FAA regulations, drones and other unmanned aerial systems are mostly operating without any government oversight. And that doesn’t sit well with the folks at the Pentagon, who fear that easy access to affordable drones could make them easily adaptable for terrorist or military purposes. To combat this potential threat, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, announced this week an “Aerial Dragnet” program that aims to map all small drone activity in urban settings.

“Commercial websites currently exist that display in real time the tracks of relatively high and fast aircraft—from small general aviation planes to large airliners—all overlaid on geographical maps as they fly around the country and the world,” DARPA’s program manager Jeff Krolik said. “We want a similar capability for identifying and tracking slower, low-flying unmanned aerial systems, particularly in urban environments.”

While the FAA is using much more consumer-friendly burrito delivery tests to build out a method of low-altitude air traffic control, DARPA envisions a system that can be used by the military in urban settings overseas or for homeland security applications in the US. DARPA’s plan would include a network of surveillance nodes that can track slow, low-flying drones without the need for a direct line of sight. Those nodes could be anything from a fixed instrument to a tethered or “long endurance” drone and the whole thing is meant to be cost-effective and highly scalable for larger coverage areas.

While the agency doesn’t have a plan for implementing this dragnet just yet, the program is seeking proposals from teams with “expertise in sensors, signal processing, and networked autonomy.” Full details about the project goals have been posted to FedBizOps and there is a Proposers Day scheduled for September 26th, 2016 in Arlington, Virginia.

Via: Popular Science

Source: DARPA