Trump still thinks Google suppresses negative Clinton searches
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has never let the truth get in the way of an angry rant. So it goes with this week’s conspiracy theory of choice. At a rally in Wisconsin last night, Trump boasted that a “Google poll” showed he won Monday night’s debate over Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton despite the fact that Google’s search engine is biased against him.
“A new post-debate poll, the Google poll, has us leading Hillary Clinton by two points nationwide,” Trump said (as reported by the Washington Post), “and that’s despite the fact that Google search engine was suppressing the bad news about Hillary Clinton. How about that.”
Of course, this isn’t the first time we’ve heard these claims — in June, a video went around claiming that Google’s autocomplete results for Donald Trump skewed negative, while searching for Hillary Clinton didn’t do the same. The crux of that argument was that searching for “Donald Trump rac” would suggest “Donald Trump racist,” but searching for “Hillary Clinton cri” didn’t suggest “Hillary Clinton criminal” or “Hillary Clinton crimes.”
Google quickly responded with details on how autocomplete works. “The autocomplete algorithm is designed to avoid completing a search for a person’s name with terms that are offensive or disparaging,” the company wrote. “We made this change a while ago following feedback that Autocomplete too often predicted offensive, hurtful or inappropriate queries about people.”
Crimes or criminal are two words that are filtered out of autocomplete — you get the same result regardless of who you search for. Searching for “Ted Kaczynski cri” doesn’t add crimes or criminal to autocomplete, same as when you search for Hillary Clinton.
However, Trump has proven to be all about claiming the scales are tipped unfairly in his favor, so it’s not surprising to see him trot out this tired old claim again. And it’s a bit of a stretch to think he’d understand how autocomplete works, even if he read Google’s blog post. Maybe his 10-year-old son, who’s so good at cyber, can help him out.
pic.twitter.com/itBcjEy4Va
— Jen Lewis (@thisjenlewis) September 27, 2016
Via: The Daily Dot
Source: The Washington Post
Google for Work has a new name: G Suite
As predicted, Google for Work has a new name. Calendar, Drive, Docs, Gmail, Maps for Work, Search for Work, Sheets and Slides all fall under “G Suite” now. A few of those items might jump out at you as being Google Apps for Work. It all falls under Google Cloud (the backend powering everything), as TechCrunch writes, and will encompass Chromebooks too. Nope, definitely not unnecessarily complicated at all.
The whole reason for the change? Proving that the search juggernaut is all about its enterprise customers. “We are the full power of Google in the Cloud,” the company’s Diane Greene said. “We are Google Cloud.” That’s one way of showing off your confidence, I guess. The company promises G Suite will continue to grow, with built-in collaboration being the name of the game.
Source: TechCrunch, Google (1), (2)
HP says it should’ve better explained blocking third-party ink
Following a recent update that blocked some third-party ink cartridges fore its printers, HP formally apologized to customers this week for how it communicated about the change. Earlier this month, the company updated its firmware making cartridges made by other companies unusable on its printers. HP cited quality and security reasons for switching up its authentication process. Those third-party options are typically cheaper and as you might expect, customers weren’t happy about not being able to use those supplies.
In a blog post this week, HP admitted that it “should have done a better job of communicating about the authentication procedure.” The company says the reason for the update was to “ensure the best customer experience” and to block any third-party cartridges that don’t contain an HP security chip and infringe on its intellectual property. In other words, the company apologized for the lack of communication, but defended the decision to push the update.
To try and remedy the dust up with its customers, HP is offering an optional software update that will remove the recently added security feature. The company says it will take about two weeks for the second update to be ready, but when the time comes, customers can find information on it here.
“We will continue to use security features to protect the quality of our customer experience, maintain the integrity of our printing systems and protect our IP including authentication methods that may prevent some third-party supplies from working,” HP COO Jon Flaxman explained in the post.
Via: BBC
Source: HP
Microsoft reorganizes to create a dedicated AI division
Microsoft has reorganized several disparate projects and programs into an entirely new Artificial Intelligence group. It will be the fourth major division after Windows, Office and cloud, reallocating over 5,000 computer scientists and engineers under its umbrella. The shift shows how much unified effort the tech giant believes the field needs, as well as internally standardized AI tech they can more easily integrate into customer products.
Microsoft Research chief Harry Shum will head the new AI division, according to GeekWire. In addition to his old department, the new group will include products like Cortana and Bing with the Ambient Computing and Robotics teams, as well as the company’s Information Platform Group. Collecting them all under one banner suggests how standardized they want their AI tech to be between disparate programs. It’s similar to how Microsoft internally pivoted to collectively harness the Internet in the mid-90s, GeekWire points out.
In a blog post, Shum said that the collaboration will build “an AI stack spanning infrastructure, services, apps and agents.” That will permit Microsoft’s mission shift to “democratize AI” by integrating it into more consumer, enterprise and developer projects. Hopefully, byproducts from the AI division’s R&D will produce fewer missteps like last March’s foul-mouthed Twitterbot and more advancements like their pilot project using AI to discover cancer treatments.
Source: Microsoft blog
Snapchat’s Spectacles are a low-risk move into wearables
There’s no question that Snapchat (now known as Snap Inc) is an experimental company. Some of those experiments fail wildly and insult its users at the same time, but the company has been extremely successful at introducing new ways of thinking about mobile messaging. Despite a tradition of pushing the envelope, it was still surprising to see Snapchat introduce Spectacles, its first hardware product. The $130 dollar glasses are designed to let you record 10 seconds of video at a time and sync it to your phone to post on Snapchat.
Despite a limited initial launch, Spectacles actually represents the beginning of a pretty audacious goal for Snapchat: find the formula for a face wearable that people won’t hate. The slow rollout suggests the company knows it needs to start small and slow. But Snapchat is in a unique position to find some traction here — the company’s young users are already comfortable recording and sharing everything around them. Even more importantly, they’re used to being recorded and shared by their friends. In groups where people are initially using Spectacles, there likely won’t be a big backlash to being filmed.
That wasn’t the case with Google Glass, perhaps the most well-known comparison to Spectacles despite the wildly different price structure and feature sets. We all remember the negative backlash that irrevocably stuck to Glass when people realized the product could be worn to surreptitiously record video. “Glassholes” became a common refrain, and Google put the project out to pasture.
The same backlash could easily face Snapchat’s Spectacles, but the product has a few things going in its favor. For starters, it’s not being positioned as the future of computing. While Google never publicly released Glass as a final, finished product, the company hyped it up like few things we’ve ever seen before (who can forget the infamous skydiving demo from Google I/O 2012?). A lot of the backlash surrounding Glass didn’t just from people concerned about privacy. Google lacked a clear strategy to really make Glass useful for the masses, and that quickly drained the enthusiasm surrounding it. The expectations for Spectacles are much lower; CEO Evan Spiegel has been referring to them as “a toy.”
The other big difference is that Spectacles don’t look all that different than a regular pair of sunglasses. Yes, they’re a pretty loud accessory, but there are plenty of goofy sunglasses out there. Seeing someone wearing Google Glass in public was a bit like seeing an alien; Spectacles are quite a bit more friendly and inviting, at least from the few photos we’ve seen thus far.
But even if Spectacles look more socially acceptable, there’s still the fear of users secretly recording video — one of the biggest problems the public at large had with Glass. However, it’s easy to forget that the meteoric rise of the selfie and apps like Snapchat, Periscope and Facebook Live have made people a bit less sensitive to sharing video, something that wasn’t the case back in 2013. Indeed, a quick look at Google Trends shows that “selfie” was a barely bubbling search terms when Glass was introduced. Obviously that’s not the case now.
Snapchat releases first hardware product, Spectacles https://t.co/LuY74KCorX 🔓
— Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) September 24, 2016
And it’s worth noting that sunglasses with a camera has been already been done by companies that aren’t Google, without the massive backlash that followed Glass around. As a low-stakes, under the radar hardware product, I don’t expect to hear a huge backlash against Spectacles.
Innocent bystanders may not want to be in your Spectacles videos — but at this point, pretty much everyone who lives in a city of any size has probably been an unwitting background figure in someone’s Snapchat story. It’s not at all uncommon to see people walking around, phones out and on record. Using something like Spectacles doesn’t change that, it just makes it hands-free.
That’s not to say it’s unreasonable to not want someone filming you with their sunglasses. But in a lot of ways, the cat is out of the bag — Spectacles is just an extension of your smartphone. And they can only record 10 seconds of video at a time, a restriction that both fits Snapchat’s platform but also makes it harder to follow and extensively record someone without them knowing.
The combo of friendlier hardware, a cautious launch strategy and a society that’s more video-friendly than ever before means that Snapchat might have the right kind of face wearable on its hands. Spectacles are a “toy,” and if users and the public at large view them as such, they might not have much to fear. And if the public revolts and the project ends up a failure, the soft launch means this won’t be a big deal to Snapchat — it can just pull the plug and just figure out what’s next.
Google makes Docs, Drive and Calendar more productive
If you spend your work days toiling in Google’s productivity apps, the first thing you might notice today is that Google for Work is now called “G Suite”. Once you get past the new label, you might also notice a slew of smart updates across the board that ought to save you time and keep your workflow moving.
First up: Docs, Sheets and Slides got a new “Explore” feature that uses natural language search to help you research reports, organize data or design better looking presentations. In each of the main apps, an Explore button brings up a new sidebar with contextual options based on the app you’re using. In Docs, this means Explore will search and suggest images, web links or other Drive documents that appear relevant to the content you’re writing. In Sheets, Explore allows you to use words instead of formulas to analyze your spreadsheet data. So natural queries like, “What are the tops three items by sale price?” will automatically generate the formula and bring up the insights you need. Finally, in Slides the Explore sidebar will help you polish your deck by generating design and layout suggestions that can be applied in one click. The Explore feature is live today in the web, Android and iOS version of all three apps.
Google Drive also got a time-saving update called Quick Access, which the big G claims will halve the time it takes to find the file you’re looking for. Like the Natural Language search introduced in Drive last week, the new feature uses machine learning to make anticipate the file you need based on your daily work habits, recurring team meetings or interactions with colleagues. For now, Quick Access is only live for G Suite customers on Android.
Finally, Google Calendar’s handy “Find a time” feature is expanding beyond Android. Like the other updates, Find a time uses machine learning to not only find a meeting time that works for everyone invited, but also remembers which conference room you like, searches for backup meeting times and will smartly look at your other conflicting meetings to see which are easiest to resolve. The feature goes live today on iOS and will be coming to the web version by the end of the year.
Source: Google Docs Blog, Google Drive Blog, Google Calendar Blog
The Wirecutter’s best deals: Save $50 on a Nespresso coffee maker
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.
Blue Microphones Yeti USB Microphone
Street price: $115; MSRP: $130; Deal price: $$110 + $40 gift card
While we featured a few deals around $80 during Black Friday on this mic, deals have been slim since. We saw a couple around $100, but this $110 deal is a much better option. It’s sold by Adorama through Newegg, and includes a $40 Newegg giftcard. Depending on what you value a Newegg giftcard at, this might even be a better deal than those Black Friday ones.
The Blue Yeti is our pick for the best USB microphone. Kevin Purdy and Lauren Dragan said, “It provided the most reliably well-rounded and natural sound out of all the mics we tested, in all rounds of testing. It offers live headphone monitoring and gain control, two key features for any recording setup (other mics lacked these or made using them too complicated). The Yeti is quick to set up for different room and voice situations, while most USB mics are focused only on single close-up speakers. It is more stable on its stand than most microphones we tested, and easy to adjust on the fly.”
Vantrue R2 Dashboard Camera
Street price: $130; MSRP: $200; Deal price: $95 with code 76W4U5S4
This is the lowest price we’ve seen on the Vantrue R2, beating the previous lowest sale price by $5. If the previous deals are any indication, it’ll only last a few days before shooting back up to the normal price for the next couple of months. In order to take advantage of this deal, use the code: 76W4U5S4.
The Vantrue R2 is our runner-up pick for the best dash cam. Eric Adams said, “Its packaging, instructions, and general usability are on a par with the Z3, and its image quality is also top notch. While just as crisp as the Z3, the R2’s images have slightly more contrast. This makes them more attractive, but not quite as useful as they could be in different scenarios, as some areas tend to be too dark, and the night vision is also a hair darker.”
Nespresso Inissia Espresso Maker + Aeroccino Milk Frother
Street price: $150; MSRP: $200; Deal price: $100
We’ve featured the Inissia before at $70, but this combo from Best Buy includes the Aeroccino milk frother. The Aeroccino normally sells for $60-$80, and this combo is usually $150 on Amazon, so it’s a solid deal if you’re interested in the milk frother for cappuccinos or lattes. Amazon is currently price matching the deal, so if the Best Buy sale ends or goes out of stock, check here.
The Nespresso Inissia Espresso Maker is our fully automatic pick for the best espresso maker. Cale Guthrie Weissman said, “f you want a decent espresso drink at home, but don’t have the time or patience to practice and learn the ins and outs of making espresso, try Nespresso. Machines start at just over $100 and you can pay more for features like faster preheating, and built-in milk frothing—but they all share the same brewing mechanism and produce the same decent-tasting coffee.”
Hamilton Beach 12-Cup Coffee Maker
Street price: $40; MSRP: $50; Deal price: $27
This is a pretty big drop on an already very affordable coffee maker, and the lowest price we’ve seen. We’ve seen the price steadily dropping on this coffee maker over the past week, and it’s unlikely to get much lower than this. This Hamilton Beach tends to either have very brief sales or go out of stock – so either way, this deal probably won’t last long.
The Hamilton Beach 12-Cup Coffee Maker is our pick in our guide for the best cheap coffee maker. Thais Wilson-Soler wrote, “The Hamilton Beach 12-Cup Coffee Maker (46201) made a good cup despite being the cheapest coffee maker we tested, although it bears mentioning that coffee from a budget coffee maker just won’t equal the taste of a cup from a higher-end machine or a single-cup brewing method. The Hamilton Beach also has a removable water reservoir for easy filling (and a rotating base to make it easy to access), a compact footprint, and a simple interface. Testers were initially torn between the Hamilton Beach and the Mr. Coffee Optimal Brew 10-Cup Thermal Coffee Maker (BVMC-PSTX95), but everyone said they’d buy the Hamilton Beach after we revealed that it costs half as much as the Mr. Coffee.”
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.
Verizon iPhone 7 Users Afflicted With LTE Connectivity Problems
A growing number of Verizon subscribers are complaining about a serious issue that causes them to regularly lose LTE connectivity on their iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus devices, suggesting a major bug that needs to be resolved by either Apple or Verizon.
There are dozens of complaints from Verizon customers who have purchased either an iPhone 7 or an iPhone 7 Plus on the MacRumors forums, Reddit, and the Apple Support Communities.
Phones from other carriers may also be experiencing the same problem, as there are also complaints from some AT&T subscribers. The problem appears to be limited to Apple’s newest devices, with those who have earlier iPhones not reporting connectivity issues. As described by Reddit user Kangalex:
wow same exact issue. i have noticed that when my phone is out of wifi range, it will never automatically connect to LTE but rather get stuck at 3G until I put into airplane mode to reset the network connection. its really annoying and verizon swapped out the sim for me but mentioned that if this issue keeps happening they will replace the device for me. was starting to think that it was my phone that was defective but looks like a software issue =
Affected customers are seeing their LTE connectivity cut out at regular intervals, leaving them stuck with 3G/1X speeds or no signal at all. This can cause calls to disconnect when VoLTE is in use in addition to interrupting data usage. Turning off VoLTE can avoid dropped calls, but it does not address the underlying problem.
There appears to be no clear fix for the issue, and customers have been complaining of being routed between Apple and Verizon with neither company offering a solution. Restarts, sim swapping, turning off HD voice, and putting the iPhone in Airplane Mode appear to resolve the issue temporarily, but it returns. Apple and Verizon have swapped out devices for some affected customers, but their new devices have the same problem.
Customers who are experiencing the issue say that the problem is exacerbated by switching between towers, as one might do when traveling in a moving car, and that it is not fixed in iOS 10.0.2 or in the iOS 10.1 beta.
One customer was told it was an Apple software issue, and according to several others, Verizon is aware of the problem and is working with Apple on a fix.
Related Roundup: iPhone 7
Tag: Verizon
Discuss this article in our forums
Alto’s Adventure Among the First iOS Games to Support Haptic Feedback
Snowman has announced that Alto’s Adventure has been updated with in-game haptic feedback on iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, making it one of the first-ever iOS games to support the new Taptic Engine.
Now, when playing the game, users will experience subtle vibrations when completing in-game tasks, such as collecting a wayward llama, sliding over an ice boost, or snapping a shot in Photo Mode. Even small interactions such as reaching minimum or maximum zoom are now accompanied by haptic feedback.
Thanks to the expanded Taptic Engine, we’ve been able to pinpoint exciting moments in a run and tie them to more precise vibrational feedback. Now, you’ll feel a nice jolt of satisfaction upon collecting a wayward llama or sliding over an ice boost. The golden burst of a super coin or powdery landing of a huge combo will hopefully be a little more thrilling.
We’ve even tried to give some consideration to calmer moments: reaching minimum & maximum zoom or snapping the perfect shot in Photo Mode will vibrate like a real camera, immersing you in the joys of being your own mountain photographer. The list goes on, but rather than spoil it all, we’re excited for players to stumble onto each new interaction and find their favourite ones.
The functionality is made possible by an expanded Taptic Engine in Apple’s latest iPhones. Whereas the Taptic Engine on iPhone 6s was limited to 3D Touch and very few other system interactions, haptic feedback now has much wider iOS support, and developers are able to put the Taptic Engine to work in third-party apps.
Alto’s Adventure is a beautiful endless runner in which you control a snowboarder through procedurally generated mountains and valleys, amid thunderstorms, blizzards, fog, rainbows, and shooting stars. The game features physics-based gameplay, along with fully dynamic lighting and weather effects.
Alto’s Adventure is $3.99 on the App Store [Direct Link] for iPhone and iPad. Version 1.4.1 is available now as a free update for existing users.
Tag: Taptic Engine
Discuss this article in our forums
BlueStacks App Player for Mac/PC (review)
BlueStacks App Player from BlueStacks Inc. is designed to allow you to use your Android apps on a PC or Mac. Their slogan for the application is “Play Bigger,” and that’s exactly what BlueStacks App Player offers. Not necessarily better, but often times bigger–BlueStacks is essentially a software emulation program that can run windowed or full-screen on a Windows or Mac computer.
Upon booting up BlueStacks for the first time, you’re asked to enter your Google account credentials. After a successful login, you will be presented with a homepage of sorts that lets you launch any compatible app. It’s different from what you find on a smartphone or tablet with Google’s mobile operating system, but still functional and easy to navigate.
Typical ‘Home Page’ upon starting up BlueStacks App Player
From here you have full access to all compatible applications that you’ve purchased or previously accessed with your Google account. Applications will need to be downloaded for your new emulated device, and some compatibility issues may arise–just as if you were running a different version of Android on your smartphone or tablet.
It’s not just games either. You can download music or office-based apps, e-reader applications, or creativity programs. Microsoft Word (mobile version) installs and performs perfectly fine and even allows you to connect to your Microsoft One Drive for access to online documents. If you download Instagram or Twitter, you can even use the webcam built into your computer as the camera. Pretty neat!
Twitter Application when used through BlueStacks
The general interface is simple to use and differs very little from what you would see on a tablet in landscape mode. Some settings show different options being that they’re in an emulated mode but are self-explanatory in nature. I found that applications behaved similarly to their native devices; however, a handful of applications that I tried either did not load at all or had minor graphical glitches.
The biggest difference I found while using BlueStacks compared to an Android device was using the mouse to click and scroll instead of the traditional swiping that would be used on your smartphone or tablet. This took some getting used to and was especially cumbersome in games that required swiping. After some time it became less of a burden, but it’s definitely not ideal.
BlueStacks Settings menu differs from what you might see on your smartphone
Searching from the program is very useful. If the application you are searching for is not found on the “device”, BlueStacks automatically lists a clickable option to search the Google Play Store instead. This is incredibly handy.
Searching in BlueStacks is quick and effective
So, why does BlueStacks even exist? What’s the real purpose of having Android emulated on a Mac or PC? Well, in general, I can’t think of too many reasons why you’d want to use BlueStacks App Player over Android on a dedicated device. However, this could be very handy for someone developing an Android application on a PC or Mac for testing purposes. Or maybe you left your tablet at home, and you’re traveling with your MacBook and want to get in a couple games of Clash of Clans. The possibilities are there, and BlueStacks App Player is definitely filling the void.
I would definitely recommend BlueStacks for someone that needs to access Android in a pinch or for an instance where you want to try out an application in Android before purchasing a new device. It’s far from perfect, but when it works, it works like a charm.
Download BlueStacks App Player for PC or Mac at BlueStacks’ Website.
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