PS4 HDR update arrives, download firmware 4.0 right now

Sony has pushed out its latest software for the PlayStation 4 so you should find it waiting for you, either to download or already installed if you have updates set to do so automatically.

PlayStation system software 4.0 adds a few new features, including the much-talked about customisable folders, but the biggest addition comes in the form of High Dynamic Range picture technology.

HDR was promised during the Sony PlayStation Meeting event in New York last week and will be available on every PS4, including the soon-to-be-released new, slimmer model and the PS4 Pro, which is coming on 10 November.

It increases the colour gamut available to developers to add to their games, and the ability to render deeper black levels and brighter whites on TVs that support it. Netflix will also offer HDR video playback – along with 4K – on the Pro after launch.

Other additions in system software 4.0 include a refreshed user interface, a Quick Menu that now pops up without you having to leave your current game session, and better profiles, that show more details about the games you and your friends have been playing.

Perhaps even more handy for those thinking of upgrading to a PS4 Pro or even a Slim in the near future is a new data transfer feature. You can now transfer games, user info and save data from one PS4 to another over a wired LAN connection.

There are plenty of other tweaks too, just in time for the PS4 Slim to hit this week, on Thursday 15 September in the US, Friday 16 September.

Pixel Launcher: Leak shows the fresh Android face of the Pixel and Pixel XL

There’s been no shortage of leaks surrounding Google’s forthcoming smartphones, the latest of which have named them as the Pixel and the Pixel XL, rather than Nexus.

The thinking is that the Nexus programme is going to come to a halt, with Pixel taking over, and following the lines of the Pixel C tablet that launched in 2015.

• Google Nexus vs Google Pixel: What’s the difference?

One of the strange things that’s happened in 2016 is the release of the latest version of Android – 7.0 Nougat – a long time before the launch of new devices to showcase it. In previous years, Nexus phones have be the debut of the new software.

The narrative goes that Google’s new phones will launch with Android 7.1 Nougat instead, bringing in a few points of differentiation from for the rest of the devices out there. 

One of the key elements will be a new launcher. In the past, Nexus devices have launched with the Google Now Launcher, but now we’re looking at a new Pixel Launcher, which has just been leaked online by @LlabTooFeR, a reliable Twitter source.

Google’s new Pixel Launcher. pic.twitter.com/g974gVOKzT

— LlabTooFeR (@LlabTooFeR) September 12, 2016

The Pixel Launcher originally leaked with the name “Nexus Launcher” and the change of name backs up the line of thinking that the new devices will be called Pixel, which neatly clears up that point of query. 

The new Pixel Launcher changes the layout slightly, although it’s still about dropping widgets and folders on your home page. The Google quick search bar becomes a button, opening search with a tap and the old apps tray button that sat central, is now replaced with a swipe action, which is pretty slick. It also offers rotation, so can be used in landscape as well as portrait, which not all launchers offer.

There’s a slight tweak to accessing Google Now and changing the wallpapers, although on these early leaks things don’t quite work as cleanly as we’d expect the final release version to.

For those worrying about whether they’ll be able to get this launcher officially, we would expect Google to make it available through Google Play following the launch of the new Pixel handsets, which we think is on 4 October. 

• Google Pixel and Pixel XL: Release date, rumours and everything you need to know about the next Nexus
• Android Launchers: How to install, change and customise your phone

Set up your own Stingray cell dragnet with these leaked docs

The Stingray has been a controversial tool that police departments and government agencies have used to track mobile phone locations and monitor the metadata they send to cell towers. Its maker Harris Corporation has repeatedly denied requests to explain its inner workings, citing terrorist and criminal security concerns despite their frequent use without warrants. But The Intercept has acquired over 200 pages of documentation detailing several communication-intercepting setups of the company’s hardware and software.

We’ve known the basics of how devices like the Stingray work: By impersonating cell towers, they force phones to relay information through them, tracking individual phones via their International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI). But haven’t known much about their capabilities, or really how their systems run. This information, split between manuals and documents for different Harris Corporation software and hardware, outlines how to set up a cell data dragnet using their software and IMSI-catching devices.

The takeaway is that these can be set up without a lot of technical know-how, as the documents give step-by-step instructions. Heck, The Intercept even acquired a video of the Windows-based Gemini software’s setup instruction. The software-and-hardware combinations are pretty robust: The Stingray II device, for example, can impersonate four cell towers simultaneously and monitor four cellular provider networks at once.

Further, according to its quick setup guide that The Intercept uploaded, Gemini lets operators track phones across GSM, CDMA, UMTS and LTE, meaning it can monitor most phones on the market. Users can tag multiple phones and monitor them as they move throughout an area, even nicknaming them to find later. Perhaps most insidious is the Gemini software’s capability to “listen and log over the air messages,” though it’s unclear how much metadata and communication content is saved.

“Stingray” has become a byword for the many devices, including different ones sold by Harris, that pose as cell towers to intercept phone data. In use since the mid-2000s, they came into the public eye after law enforcement used one to help catch a tax fraudster in 2008. The perpetrator fought it in court, claiming that tracking his phone calls and location via such a device violated his Fourth Amendment rights against illegal search and seizure. Since then, they’ve found their way into police departments and government agencies, from the NYPD, Department of Homeland Security and the IRS, to the UK and even a Canadian police station.

Whether police need warrants to monitor citizens with Stingrays has been legally debated. A year ago, the Department of Justice introduced new policy requiring its agents to get a warrant before tracking phones, with the DHS following suit a month later. A federal judge even dismissed evidence acquired by a Stingray without getting judicial permission. But police departments are another story, and often don’t have any policy restrictions on using such devices.

The Intercept believes that these manuals originated in the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, though it’s uncertain if they’re up-to-date, as the most recent copyrights are dated 2014. Since these 200-plus pages are part of a larger cache acquired by the news outlet, we may see them release more documentation later that peels back more of the curtain shadowing Stingray policy and procedure.

Source: The Intercept

Uber cries foul over London Mayor’s plan to support black cabs

It’s no secret that London’s black cab trade has suffered as Uber’s popularity has grown, but Mayor Sadiq Khan has further plans to level the playing field. As part of new proposals geared towards supporting the capital’s iconic Hackney carriages, Khan wants to integrate black cab info into the Transport for London (TfL) journey planner by next summer. While it’s likely you’ll still have to use services like Gett, Hailo, or the old-school wave to hail them, it would increase awareness of this option and highlight potential time savings over public transportation.

Increasing the number of taxi ranks from 500 to 600 by 2020, opening up more bus lanes to black cabs, and recognising The Knowledge as a formal qualification (possibly allowing drivers to apply for study loans) also form part of the proposals. Bearing in mind any newly registered black cab must be zero-emissions capable from January 1st 2018, Khan is suggesting several-thousand-pound grants to encourage the purchase of such vehicles, too.

None of the proposals have any direct impact on the private hire industry, but Uber has decided to have a moan anyway. The ride-hailing service has yet again sent an email out to some users, calling on them to lobby Khan to revisit new private hire regulations — and, once more, Uber will even go to the trouble of drafting an email to that effect on your behalf.

While black cabs are getting a helping hand, TfL will soon be imposing stricter rules on private hire operators. Uber is particularly unhappy with a new English language test drivers must pass, though it has also taken umbrage with the requirement for part-time drivers to have year-round commercial insurance, and the need for operators to have a London-based call centre, among other things.

It’s unclear exactly why Uber is still asking users to spam the London Mayor with pre-prepared statements, though. Uber’s thoughts on the matter have been well-publicised already, and earlier this month, the ride-hailing service was granted a judicial review of many of these new regulations by the High Court, even if the scope of said review is narrower than Uber would’ve liked.

Via: Evening Standard

Source: TfL Taxi and Private Hire Action Plan (PDF)

Human and machine become one for birth of the Cybathlon

On a bright Tuesday morning, about six miles north of Zürich, an ice-hockey team skates onto a rink for a practice round. Each player, dressed in a white jersey and matching protective gear, slides a puck in the direction of a heavily padded goaltender. The little discs swish across the floor in a black blur before smashing against the peripheral walls in loud thuds that echo throughout the Swiss Arena.

The arena is home to the Kloten Flyers, Switzerland’s leading hockey team, who regularly play to a packed house. But in less than a month, the icy floor inside the country’s largest indoor venue will transform into a race course for a different kind of sporting event. On Oct. 8th, the stadium will open its doors to the world’s first Cybathlon, a multidiscipline competition for people with disabilities who use bionic technologies to augment their bodies.

The Cybathlon will introduce “pilots” with spinal-cord injuries and amputations who will control robotic devices to navigate obstacles in six disciplines. Technologies such as powered exoskeletons, powered prostheses (arm and leg), functional electrical-stimulation bikes, powered wheelchairs and brain-computer interfaces will each get their own race track in the middle of the arena.

Instead of the usual goalposts that stand on each end of the rink, the floor will be set up with a sequence of obstacles along the center for the pilots wearing exoskeletons or prosthetic limbs. Another track will be laid out with machines for the brain-computer interface race. And a bigger racetrack will wrap around the rink for the pilots on bikes.

The Swiss Arena will host the first Cybathlon in October.

While the categories within rehabilitative robotics extend beyond the chosen disciplines, the first edition of the Cybathlon focuses on those that currently affect the largest number of people. Years of dedicated research and constant tinkering in labs have slowly brought technology to a point where it can support the most basic movements for people with disabilities. The event is designed to find the technology that touches and improves everyday life for millions who are living with the loss of a limb or are confined to wheelchairs.

The obstacles within each race are carefully built to replicate daily tasks that people with disabilities often struggle to complete and sometimes find impossible to even attempt. For instance, a pilot in an exoskeleton suit will need to walk on different surfaces to win the race. An amputee with a powered leg will be asked to carry a cup of tea and climb a flight of stairs without any support. A powered-arm pilot will have to crack open a jar of jam before spreading it on a slice of bread.

For an able-bodied person, these tasks might seem mundane; they require little to no effort and are often taken for granted. But for a paraplegic man who was told he would never walk again, the task of standing and balancing on uneven surfaces in an exoskeleton suit can be incredibly tedious and near impossible, even with today’s advanced technology.

The Cybathlon is as much a contest of those technological breakthroughs as it is of human strength. Each pilot will be backed by the technical team from the research lab or company that built the technology. “We need the symbiosis,” says Robert Riener, the Cybathlon organizer who has spent the last couple of decades finding and building rehabilitative robotics for people with severe injuries. “The pilot, on one side, needs the technology to be mobile, to perform the tasks. But on the other side, the pilots are the masters; they’re controlling the device. There has to be a careful balance; otherwise, they feel controlled like a technical slave.”

“The idea is to find the best pilots who are able to control technology for the improvement of daily life tasks.” – Robert Riener, Cybathlon organizer

For its unique emphasis on cutting-edge technologies that boost human abilities, the Cybathlon is now popularly known as the “cyborg olympics.” About four years ago, when Riener saw a man with a mind-controlled prosthetic limb scale Chicago’s Willis Tower, he decided there needed to be a competitive space for people who overcome their disabilities with the use of bionic-assistive devices.

Riener started to give that space a concrete shape back in Switzerland. As a longtime professor for sensory-motor systems at ETH Zurich, a leading European science and technology institute, he found himself in a unique position to reach out to a wide network of research labs, standalone developers and commercial giants that make up the field of rehabilitative robotics.

Despite the extensive access, though, he quickly ran into his first challenge: He needed people to take the event seriously enough to start assembling teams, technologies and funding to make it to the final competition. Through a combination of his direct conversations and steady promotions at medical fairs and conferences over a few years, he was able to drum up support and participation from teams across the world. The Cybathlon has 74 competing pilots and their accompanying technical teams from 25 countries.

From a well-established prosthetics company in Reykjavik, Iceland, to a federally funded research lab for spinal-cord-injury patients in Cleveland, the event has pooled the strengths of commercially available technologies and the novelty of experimental solutions. In its global and competitive ambitions, the Cybathlon is comparable to the Olympics and the Paralympics. But the premise is entirely different: Unlike the world’s biggest sporting platforms, which forbid the use of active technologies that enhance performance, the Cybathlon encourages it.

Robert Riener, a professor at ETH Zurich, is the organizer of the Cybathlon.

“We allow technology — we have to have technology,” says Riener. “At the Paralympics as well as the Olympics, the goal is to find the best-trained athlete who can perform the fastest and who [is] the strongest. At the Cybathlon, the idea is to find the best pilots who are able to control technology for the improvement of daily life tasks. They also need to be skilled and trained, but they’re training together with the technology.”

The field of robotics has made strides at large but it hasn’t reached a point where it can provide daily comfort and support to the people who need it the most. “There’s still a big need to improve the development of assistive devices for people with motor disabilities,” says Riener. “[…] It’s not visible for the general public because people are a little bit spoiled by Hollywood. The Terminators and Iron Mans. But that technology, which we see on TV, is not yet available.”

Most prosthetic devices continue to be too bulky or fragile for amputees to use freely. A large number of wheelchair options are non-motorized, which tends to get in the way of mobility for spinal-cord-injury users. And the ones that are powered are limited. “That’s why we want to push the development, which has to be done together with the pilots and medical experts,” says Riener. “That’s how we get rid of barriers between developers and people with disabilities. Often developments are being done as separate units. We’re bringing together users who get to benefit [with] the medical experts and the engineers.”

Even as the developers build better solutions, the world isn’t always equipped for these new technologies and the people who use them. From doors that are too narrow for wheelchairs to the taboos that often restrict open conversations around disability, there is a lack of awareness that gets in the way. By bringing people of all abilities together at the Cybathlon, Riener hopes to bring about a change, both in the technology and in public perception.

“We can show the general public what novel technologies are existing and working, but also show what’s not working,” Riener says. “A lot of discussions are going on about including people with disabilities in society, there’s a new conversation about funding and support for them. It’s not just about the technology, but also about acceptance.”

This is the first episode in a five-part video series called Superhumans, which follows the Cybathlon from start to finish. Watch out for the next episode on Tuesday, Sept. 20th, right here on Engadget.

Technical Certification Lists Improved iPhone 7 Battery Capacity, 3GB RAM for iPhone 7 Plus

Although Apple revealed a lot of information about the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus last week, the technical specifications of each device’s mAh battery capacity and RAM were left undisclosed, as per usual with iPhone announcements. Now, new information from a technical certification obtained by Chinese site TENAA (via WCCFtech) appears to confirm previous rumors that placed the iPhone 7 Plus with 3GB of RAM and the iPhone 7 with a 1,960 mAh battery.

Specifically, the performance specifications list the iPhone 7 with 2GB of RAM and a 1,960 mAh battery, an improvement over the 1,715 mAh battery in the iPhone 6s. The rumors of an improvement in battery life emerged over the summer from OnLeaks’ Steve Hemmerstoffer (who’s known to share details and part leaks on devices before they launch), as well as an alleged iPhone 7 battery image leak that marked the new iPhone as having a capacity of 7.04 watt-hours, larger than the 6.61 watt-hour battery in the iPhone 6s.

The iPhone 7 (left) and iPhone 7 Plus (right)
The iPhone 7 Plus appears to be facing a similar uptick in battery, with the filing depicting the 5.5-inch iPhone as having 3GB of RAM and a 2,900 mAh battery, another slight but noticeable improvement over the 2,750 mAh battery in the iPhone 6s Plus. What might be more interesting to some is the inclusion of 3GB of RAM, which has been rumored as a potential upgrade in the larger-screen iPhone 7 Plus because of the increased resource demands of the dual-camera system. A seemingly legitimate Geekbench benchmark test gave more credence to the rumor last week.

The resolution of the display for each iPhone also falls in line with what was previously known, with 1134 x 750 (326 ppi) for the iPhone 7 and 1920 x 1080 (401 ppi) for the iPhone 7 Plus.

If accurate, today’s filing also pinpoints an interesting return to the battery life of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, which Apple lessened in the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus with lower-capacity batteries to potentially make room for 3D Touch’s Taptic Engine. The iPhone 6 had a 1,810 mAh battery, while the iPhone 6 Plus has a battery capacity of 2,915 mAh.

As we near September 16 and the launch of the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, more information and opinions regarding the new smartphones will continue to come to light. This morning, embargoes lifted on reviews for Apple’s new smartphones, with the consensus stating the models are “terrific,” foundational blocks for future iterations, but if you skip this generation you won’t be missing out on much.

Related Roundup: iPhone 7
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Apple Maps Expands Transit Data to Columbus and Pittsburgh

Apple Maps has been updated with comprehensive transit data for the U.S. cities of Columbus, Ohio and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, enabling iPhone users in the areas to navigate using public transportation, including buses or light rail.

Transit routing options in the Pittsburgh metropolitan area include Port Authority of Allegheny County buses and light rail, while directions for Central Ohio Transit Authority buses are provided in the Columbus metropolitan area.

Apple introduced Transit in Maps as part of iOS 9 in select cities around the world, including Baltimore, Berlin, Boston, Chicago, London, Los Angeles, Mexico City, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Sydney, Toronto, and over 300 cities in China. The feature has its own tab in Apple Maps on iOS 10 when entering directions.

The feature has since expanded to a number of regions around the world, including Atlanta, Dallas-Fort Worth, Denver, Honolulu, Kansas City, Miami, Montréal, Portland, Prague, Rio de Janeiro, Sacramento, San Antonio, San Diego, Seattle, parts of New South Wales in Australia, and parts of British Columbia in Canada.

(Thanks, Ram!)

Tags: Apple Maps, transit
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2017 iPhone Will Include Edge-to-Edge Display With ‘Virtual Button’ Built Into Screen

In the midst of the publication of multiple iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus reviews, one tidbit within The New York Times’ mostly positive review of the 2016 iPhone briefly looked forward to the much-anticipated “mega cycle,” ten-year anniversary model of next year’s iPhone. According to the publication, who spoke with two anonymous Apple employees, “next year’s iPhone will have a full-screen face with the virtual button built directly into the screen.”

While not new information, the comment does continue a rumor of a drastically redesigned iPhone in 2017 that will introduce an edge-to-edge OLED display and eliminate the top and bottom bezels, where the front-facing FaceTime camera and Touch ID Home Button are currently housed. The redesigned Home Button of the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus (which isn’t an actual button, but packs in Apple’s Taptic Engine to mimic a button press) will be completely gone in 2017, and fused with the OLED display, along with Touch ID functionality.

But taking the leap to the 7 may be a wise bet, even for late technology adopters. Apple is likely to continue making iPhones without headphone jacks, and next year’s iPhone will have a full-screen face with the virtual button built directly into the screen, according to two people at the company who spoke on condition of anonymity because the product details are private. Apple declined to comment on next year’s iPhones.

With an all-glass, edge-to-edge display, Apple design chief Jony Ive’s vision of an iPhone that looks like a single sheet of glass could finally come true in 2017. Regarding the display, it’s said to be flexible OLED rather than an LCD, allowing Apple to introduce a thinner device that consumes less power and offers a better display with higher contrast ratio and more true to life colors.

It may also feature edges that are curved on both sides, similar to the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge. That curved model could potentially be placed as a 5.8-inch premium addition to the line, with the other 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch, lower-priced iPhone 8 tiers including flat LCD displays.

Coming up sooner, the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus will be launching this Friday, September 16, to the first round of pre-order customers. While an iterative design, Apple has made a few notable changes to the iPhone line this year, including the removal of the 3.5mm headphone jack, a flush Home Button, improved water resistance, and major overhauls to the camera, especially with the dual-lens system on the iPhone 7 Plus.

Related Roundup: iPhone 8 (2017)
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Honor 8: Challenges and opportunities ahead as sales pass 1.5 million

Honor’s relationship with Huawei will soon bring huge software benefits — but it’s unclear how a more fleshed-out Honor lineup might coexist with the parent brand.

At a recent event in China, Honor Vice President George Zhao announced that the Honor 8 had passed 1.5 million units sold in just two months. The phone went on sale first in China in July, before arriving in the West less than a month ago. Underscoring the rapid growth of Huawei’s online-centric brand, Zhao also revealed that 100 million Honor phones had been sold in total throughout the brand’s 999-day history.

Those are two big milestones, but the early success of the Honor 8 in particular stands out — surely helped along by Honor’s more established presence in Europe these days, and the overall quality of the product.

Honor owes a lot of that to Huawei. Beneath its ridiculously reflective exterior, the Honor 8 is basically a Huawei P9. And this year’s Honor phones have benefitted from the vast improvements in the company’s EMUI software, which is more usable than ever.

And on the software side, things are about to get a lot better. EMUI 4.1 still has some nagging issues, mainly to do with the way background apps, notifications and app-switching are handled. What little we’ve seen of the upcoming EMUI 5, based on Android Nougat, gives us hope that these last vestiges of Huawei weirdness are going away, replaced by an altogether more Western-friendly UI. The leaked EMUI 5 build we’ve seen running on the Huawei P9 has stock Android-style notifications and task-switching UI — finally — alongside other visual tweaks.

These are big, important change that’ll make all Huawei — and by extension, Honor — phones more appealing to phone buyers in the West. As things stand, software is still Huawei’s biggest weakness. When EMUI 5 lands, and that’s no longer the case, expect adoring praise from the tech press to bolster sales of Huawei phones among enthusiasts.

As we discussed a few months back, it’s partly thanks to Huawei’s new focus on software design, led by a big new hire:

[EMUI 5] will be the first chance we get to see the work of former Apple creative director Abigail Brody, who Huawei hired in September 2015 to oversee user experience, building a team out of its newly established San Francisco design center. That in itself should tell you how serious Huawei is about software design […]

A more streamlined, Googley Huawei UX layer should also help the company push out Android updates faster — like many phone makers, Huawei has struggled to push out new versions in a timely manner. In a recent interview, Huawei smartphone chief Changzhu Li revealed that the company has set a two-month target for updating its phones in future. Sure, it’s one thing to set such a target and another to achieve it, especially with carrier certification and other hoops to jump through.

Next-gen Honor phones should get all the EMUI 5 goodies as standard.

The next generation of Honor phones should get all this stuff as standard. (And the current ones, when they’re updated, will get much better too.) Honor’s phones have always been about higher-end hardware than you’d expect at a lower price point than you’d anticipate — with the caveat that the software’s a bit weird. When the one major catch next to any Honor phone purchase goes away, expect sales to rise accordingly.

However the Huawei angle also presents some challenges. The parent brand has a more fleshed-out phone lineup than ever before, particularly in Europe. There’s the Mate and “P” lines at the high end, and the new Nova in the middle. There’s already a bit of crossover between Nova and Honor, with similar price points getting you either superior build and battery life (in the Nova and Nova Plus) or flashier specs and design (in the Honor 8).

But the real conundrum is between the Huawei P9 and the Honor 8. On the inside they’re basically the same phone. Sure, distribution channels are different — the Huawei phone lives within the traditional carrier system, the Honor phone is sold mainly online. (That’s to say nothing of the visual differences that speak to each brand’s image.) But Huawei is increasingly competing with itself in this space, and it’s hard to avoid the conclusion that the Honor 8 may erode European P9 sales in the longterm. If the same happens with next year’s P10 and Honor 9, it may be time to further differentiate the two lines’ hardware.

However things pan out, 2017 is sure to be an interesting year for both Huawei brands, with plenty of momentum and important new software changes.

Honor 8

• Honor 8 review
• Honor 8 specs
• Pre-order the Honor 8
• 5 things to know about the Honor 8 in Europe
• All the Honor 8 news
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