Grab these five USB charging cables for just $8 right now!
Right now you can grab a five-pack of Aukey’s charging cables to keep you powered up for just $8 with coupon code 5AUCABLE, a savings of $6. Included in this bundle is four Micro-USB and one USB-C cable in various lengths so you can keep all your different gadgets charged up at any time. You’ll get two 3.3-foot Micro-USB cables, two 1-foot Micro-USB cables and one 3.3-foot USB-A to Type-C cables so you’ll have a few to keep at home, in the car, and in the office.
You can never have too many charging cables around, and this bundle is a great way to pick up a bunch of extra cables for a great price. Remember, you’ll need coupon code 5AUCABLE for the full savings.
See at Amazon
Ricoh’s 360-degree camera lineup adds the £250 Theta SC
There’s a new version of the Theta S coming out in November.
Ricoh has introduced a smaller, cheaper version of the Theta S 360-degree camera. It’s called the Theta SC. It has two f2.0 lenses and two 12-megapixel sensors to capture 360-degree photos and 1080p spherical videos. Reviews of the Theta line are good in that people praised its ability to take the complex process of capturing and creating spherical pics and vids down to a single button press.
However, there’s a lot processing going on, and that takes a toll on photo and video quality. The $350 Theta S is Ricoh’s third-generation 360 degree camera that launched last year with Full HD video-streaming capabilities, 8GB of internal memory, dual 12MP 1/2.3-inch image sensors paired with bright f/2 twin lenses, a sensitivity range from ISO 100-1600, and built-in Wi-Fi.
In the last year alone, several 360-degree cameras have launched that offer equal or better quality to the Theta S (you can browse some of those 360-degree cameras in Pocket-lint’s roundup here). The Ricoh Theta SC will have to improve upon last year’s Theta S if it wants to beat similarly priced rivals already available from Samsung, Nikon, Kodak, and others.
Ricoh
Ricoh’s new £249.99 ($300) camera is on sale now in the US at Ricoh’s website, but in the UK, you’ll have to wait until sometime in early November to get your hands on it. It’ll be available in four different colours.
Microsoft was working on a Band that tracked your swimming
Just because Microsoft axed its Band wearable doesn’t mean that there wasn’t another Band in the works. Windows Central forum goer FUD Hater has posted what he says are details and images of a third-generation Band. Reportedly, the activity tracker’s star attraction would have been watersport — much like the latest Apple Watch, you’d have had water resistance and a swimming workout mode. Microsoft would have one-upped its rivals through an EKG sensor with blood pressure monitoring, however, and there’s also talk of RFID support.
It’s still not certain why Microsoft appears to be pulling the plug on Band hardware, assuming it isn’t planning a surprise revival at its October 26th event. However, it may be due to a combination of demand with Microsoft’s ultimate goals. Although Band did flirt with success (there were times when it sold out), its sales didn’t hold a candle to those of either dedicated activity trackers like Fitbit or to smartwatches. And ZDNet’s Mary Jo Foley argues that Band was really meant to help Microsoft Health get a user base for its services, not to conquer the market — the company may simply be happy that you’re using its apps.
Via: Windows Central, The Verge
Source: Windows Central Forums
Facebook says it shouldn’t pay back taxes from Irish loophole
Apple and Google aren’t the only big tech companies fighting against requests to pay back taxes they allegedly racked up through loopholes. Filings obtained by Ars Technica show that Facebook is resisting the IRS’ request for taxes owed after the social network reportedly undervalued property transferred to its Irish holding company. If you ask the US agency, Facebook owes $1.7 million plus interest for at least 2010. That doesn’t sound like much for such a profitable company, but Facebook claims that it could wind up paying $3 billion to $5 billion (before interest and penalties) if the IRS really does want money from the past several years.
If you ask Facebook, the IRS hasn’t even settled the matter of how much that property transfer was worth. It’s still “in dispute,” the company says. Not that the agency is likely to show much sympathy, as it has repeatedly fought with Facebook over the auditing process. The IRS maintains that Facebook didn’t produce all the data it needed for an audit and didn’t show up to meet auditors, while Facebook insists that it bent over backwards to supply info and make staff available.
Companies won’t get to use the loopholes in question after 2019 thanks to changes in Irish law, so Facebook may not run into a tax dispute like this again. However, it’s doubtful that Zuckerberg and crew will take much solace in that fact. The whole point of the Irish presence was to minimize taxes — it’s reasonable to say that Facebook will fight tooth and nail to preserve the benefits of its creative accounting.
Source: Ars Technica
Valve’s next VR hardware could be a wrist-mounted controller
If last week’s Oculus Connect left you hungry for more news about virtual reality, maybe news of a new hardware out of Valve’s Steam Dev Days will do the trick. Perhaps the biggest tidbit is that the PC gaming juggernaut is working on a new controller for the Vive headset. What’s different from the current wand, according to TechCrunch, is the device will allow users to pick items up and put them down, all without letting go of the controller.
All of which suggests that the device may be palm or wrist-mounted. Since the event is developer-only, until our on-the-ground source can see the prototype for themselves further details (aside from those found on Twitter) are going to be hard to come by.
There’s some other news, too. Valve apparently wants its Lighthouse tracking system for the controllers to be as commonplace as WiFi, where anyone and everyone can develop for and use it. Currently there over over 300 different companies using the tech for motion tracking. New Lighthouse base stations may arrive next year as well. We’ll update this post with more info as it arrives.
Update: Pictures of the gizmo are surfacing on Twitter and as you might expect it looks very prototype-y.
First look at #valve’s prototype finger sensing controllers. I tried them. Awesome. #SteamDevDays pic.twitter.com/0B3SK48ld7
— Leigh_Christie (@Leigh_Christie) October 12, 2016
Source: TechCrunch
Apple Employees at Carindale Store in Australia Fired in Photo Scandal
Several employees at the Carindale Apple Store in Brisbane, Australia were today fired for stealing personal photos from customers and taking pictures of customers and female staff as part of a lewd rating game, according to Australian news site The Courier Mail.
The behavior was discovered by at the Carindale Apple Store after an employee caught a technician looking through a customer’s iPhone in the repair room.
In the biggest scandal to hit the technology giant in Australia, The Courier-Mail can reveal that more than 100 close-up and explicit photos were taken of female staff and customers without their knowledge and photographs were also lifted from some Apple customers’ phones.
The victims’ pictures were then shared with employees at other Queensland stores to receive a ranking out of 10.
Apple has reportedly brought in an HR executive from “overseas” to “manage the fallout,” but has not yet let employees and customers know who was involved in the breach. Apple confirmed in a statement that the Carindale store is under investigation.
“Apple believes in treating everyone equally and with respect, and we do not tolerate behaviour that goes against our values,” the statement read.
“We are investigating a violation of Apple’s business conduct policy at our store in Carindale, where several employees have already been terminated as a result of our findings.”
According to The Courier Mail, four male employees have been let go from the Carindale store as Apple continues to investigate the incident.
Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.
Tags: Australia, Apple retail
Discuss this article in our forums
Walt Mossberg Calls Siri ‘Too Limited and Unreliable’ to Compete in ‘Coming AI Wars’
The Verge’s Walt Mossberg today wrote a critical article on Apple’s Siri personal assistant, exploring the service’s shortcomings, mistakes, and inability to answer some simple questions that competing products have no problem with.
Entitled, “Why does Siri seem so dumb?”, Mossberg’s article, covers several questions Siri couldn’t answer, ranging from queries about political candidates to the date of the World Series to the weather in Crete. In each instance, Siri failed to provide the desired information, while Google Now, Google’s Siri competitor, was able to answer every single question correctly.
In recent weeks, on multiple Apple devices, Siri has been unable to tell me the names of the major party candidates for president and vice president of the United States. Or when they were debating. Or when the Emmy awards show was due to be on. Or the date of the World Series. When I asked it “What is the weather on Crete?” it gave me the weather for Crete, Illinois, a small village which — while I’m sure it’s great — isn’t what most people mean when they ask for the weather on Crete, the famous Greek island.
According to Mossberg, Apple has fixed many of the above Siri shortcomings thanks to his feedback, and has “stressed” to him that the company is “constantly improving Siri.” Apple says it focuses more on tasks like placing phone calls, sending texts, and finding places rather than “long tail” questions, which aren’t as popular with iPhone and iPad users. Mossberg speculates that such questions aren’t popular anymore because people “just give up” on asking Siri these types of things due to failed responses.
Mossberg also outlines several failures with Siri’s cloud-based services, from searching through iMessages to locating photos to finding calendar appointments, drawing the conclusion that Apple has “wasted its lead” with Siri, which is now forced to compete with services from Google, Amazon, and Microsoft. Mossberg believes that Siri “seems stagnant” and is “too limited and unreliable” compared to other services.
Though it may not seem like it, Apple has been putting a lot of effort into improving Siri. Back in August, Apple executives Eddy Cue, Craig Federighi, and Phil Schiller explained that machine learning techniques have cut Siri’s error rate by a factor of two, improving understanding. Since 2014, Siri and other on-device features, like the QuickType keyboard, Spotlight, autocorrect, Maps, and more, have been powered by a neural net-based system that is able to provide users with more personalized responses and actions.
Recent rumors suggest Apple aiming to improve Siri’s functionality even further in an effort to build the personal assistant into an Echo-like Smart home device that would do things like control smart home accessories. Apple is also said to be working on an “Invisible Hand” initiative that would allow users to fully control their devices through a Siri command, something that could debut within three years.
Mossberg’s full article on Siri, which is well worth reading, can be accessed over at The Verge.
Tags: Siri, theverge.com
Discuss this article in our forums
ZTE ZMax Pro review – CNET
What if I told you there was a smartphone you could buy for under $100? You may be a little skeptical. Surely such a low cost device would come with some sacrifices, right? Wrong.
The ZTE ZMax Pro is a midrange Android smartphone with an impressive feature set. The $99 smartphone may come with a small price tag, but there’s nothing small about it. The phone features a 6-inch display with a pixel resolution of 1,920×1,080. It’s a massive device that can be quite difficult to operate with one hand.
ZTE’s big, blue and budget ZMax Pro
See full gallery
1 – 4 of 11
Next
Prev
The phone is equipped by an octa-core Snapdragon 617 processor, which felt speedy during my brief hands on, and is paired with 2GB of RAM. On the back you will find a 13-megapixel camera, while a 5-megapixel shooter sits on the front. The phone comes with 32GB of internal storage, but there’s also a microSD slot to add even more. To power this behemoth there’s a 3,400mAh nonremoveable battery to keep you going all day long.
The ZMax Pro has a 13-megapixel camera and a fingerprint reader on the back (but no NFC, sorry).
Sarah Tew/CNET
Aside from the price, what shocked me the most was the USB-C port for charging and a fingerprint scanner on the back, two features that are more commonly found on devices triple the price. ZTE had to make some sacrifices, though. The phone doesn’t include NFC and can’t be used with Android Pay.
The ZMax Pro will be available exclusively from MetroPCS for $99 on August 1. Preorders begin today.
Specs
- 6-inch display with a 1,920×1,080-pixel resolution
- Octa-core Snapdragon 617 processor
- 13-megapixel rear camera
- 5-megapixel front camera
- 2GB of RAM
- 32GB of storage
- MicroSD card slot
- 3,400 mAh battery
- Rear fingerprint sensor
- Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow software
- USB Type-C
Watch as Murs livestreams a world record 24-hour rap session
In what could be one of this week’s most entertaining livestreamed events: LA-based rapper Murs is currently in the middle of a marathon, possibly record-setting YouTube-broadcasted rap session. As part of a promotional stunt with Boost Mobile, Murs is attempting to rap for a solid 24 hours straight (with a merciful five-minute break every hour) to set the record for world’s longest recorded rap session.
According to Pitchfork, there is currently no Guinness World Record for the feat, but in order to qualify Murs has to keep recording for the whole 24 hours. At the time of publication, Murs is on hour three of 24, but if you tune in to the livestream below he doesn’t seem to be too phased just yet. He’s also working off of a tracklist of hip-hop classics and deep cuts, so the result won’t be one unbroken day-long freestyle so much as a physical act of endurance. Still, there are a lot more hours to go before he crosses the finish line.
Via: Pitchfork
Source: YouTube
Facebook is still trending fake news stories
It’s been six weeks after Facebook’s “trending topics” section was publicly called out for promoting a blatantly false story about Megyn Kelly and very little — if anything — has changed. According to a new audit from the Washington Post, that Megyn Kelly incident was far from an isolated case.
In fact, after logging every trending story spotted from four different Facebook accounts during peak workday hours in September, the Post discovered at lease five trending stories that “were indisputably fake” and three others that were “profoundly inaccurate.” One such blatant example popped up the day after Apple’s big iPhone event and claimed that the Tim Cook said the iPhone 8 would have “Siri physically coming out of the phone and doing all the household chores. (The site in question was literally called “Faking News.”)
What’s more: the Post audit found even more times when the trending topics section surfaced straightforward press releases, Medium posts and links to iTunes or other online stores — in other words: things that aren’t news. While the newspaper notes that their results shouldn’t be taken as conclusive because the trending section is personalized to each user, it is clear evidence that Facebook’s switch from human editors to a completely algorithm-driven system still needs some work.
Source: Washington Post
AIVAnet 