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!
Withings Steel HR Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET
Andrew Hoyle/CNET
There are fitness trackers galore that track heart rate, but none I can think of that do it with an analog watch. Withings says the new Steel HR is the first of its kind. I believe it.
The Withings Steel HR arrives at the beginning of October for $180 (38mm), equivalent to £137/AU$239, or $200 (42mm), equivalent to £152/AU$266.
The Withings Activite was an analog-type watch with a digital inside, tracking steps and sleep automatically and syncing via Bluetooth, too. A stainless-steel version, much like what you see here, was released last year. Steel HR takes another step forward by adding an optical heart-rate monitor to the back of the newly redesigned watch, as well as a digital display within the watch face to show heart rate, activity and notification data.
Heart rate on display.
Andrew Hoyle/CNET
So, it’s analog, but digital. Its design is certainly sharp as hell.
Withings, now a part of Nokia, hasn’t incorporated heart rate into any of its current fitness trackers. A newly updated Withings Health app will fold in the data, much like other fitness apps have already done.
Not too thick.
Andrew Hoyle/CNET
Withings Steel HR comes in two versions: 38mm in black or white, and 42mm in black. Unlike the older Activite watches, which used a replaceable battery that lasted for over six months, the Steel HR is rechargeable via an included and lasts up to 25 days when tracking heart rate — and another 20 days after that in a “low power mode” that still shows time and tracks steps and sleep. Heart rate tracking continues at night to get resting heart rate while sleeping. The Steel HR is 5ATM water resistant for swimming, too.
Hands-on impressions are coming shortly, but this already looks promising. Of course, how well it tracks heart rate is also important, and we don’t know that yet.
Canon EOS C700 Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET
Canon
Canon’s cinema-focused camera line gets a lot more flexible and professional — and way more expensive — with the introduction of its EOS C700 models. Redesigned for the needs of professionals, the new versions offer service-center interchangeable EF- and PL-mounts, plus a model of the camera with a global shutter.
These top-of-the-line models shoot 4K video in both DCI and UHD resolutions, and Canon claims a 15-stop dynamic range for the Super 35mm-sized, 4.5K-resolution sensors. Mac-based producers will welcome native support for the ProRes codec. Canon also introduces the ability to shoot anamorphic 2:39:1 aspect-ratio video with algorithmic corrections to facilitate accurate monitoring.
In conjunction with the cameras, there will be a new external Codex recorder model (CDX-36150) that will enable features like 4.5K raw at 100fps, 4K raw at 120fps, 4K ProRes at 60fps, HD ProRes at 240FPS and XF-AVC at 60fps.
Canon expects to ship the C700 and C700 PL in December 2016 for $35,000 (£28,840); the EOS C700 GS PL should follow in January 2017 for $38,000 (£30,790). I don’t think it’s been announced in Australia, but those prices directly convert to about AU$46,375 and AU$50,350. Support for the Codex recorder comes later via a firmware update in March 2017.
Canon XC15 Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET
Canon
After about a year an a half since the introduction of the XC10, Canon’s compact UHD 4K prosumer camcorder receives a minor update. The XC15 has an XLR input for external microphones and the “look” modes that have been in the higher-end models so that you can better match the video from the XC15 with them.
Canon expects to ship the XC15 in September 2016 for $3,000 (£2,410). I don’t think it’s been announced yet for Australia, but the price converts to roughly AU$4,000.
Fitbit Adventures lets you run the New York City marathon virtually
Fitbit’s app rolled out with several new updates today, squarely focused on offering ways to experience virtual outings in the form of Fitbit Adventures.
Utilizing a series of non-competitive micro challenges, Fitbit Adventures will task you with running the New York City Marathon or hiking the trails of Yosemite from the comfort of the gym or your own home. Instead of trudging away on the treadmill, you can pretend you’re experiencing something much more majestic.
Each program will allow you to splice it up into multiple day plans or tackle them in one day, offering photographs and other interactive experiences that correlate with where you’re currently at in the trail. Moving your phone around will alter what you’re currently looking at, as if you were actually hiking each trail, much like apps do in VR space.
If you’re looking for a way to spice up your fitness routine, you could do way worse than this. The update’s available now if you want to give it a go.
Via: Fast Company
AIVAnet 